Bard Of Ely Steve Andrews Accompanies The Once And Future King On A Quest Into The Mountains
First published in the big issue Cymru.
It was back in the Autumn of '94 the afternoon of Halloween, or Samhain as it is called in the Pagan calendar; That time of year when the division of world of spirits and our own is at its weakest, when the denizens of alien dimensions and mysterious entities from other planets make their presents known. The weather was extremely stormy and |I had no particular plans for the evening ahead when there was a knock at the door. It was King Arthur Pendragon paying an unexpected call.
" Good day, Sir knight," he said " fancy going on a quest to Carningli to meet Laurence Maine?" he enquired.
Now Laurence is a remarkable man in his own right, almost the traditional Holy man of the mountain, and an author, poet and guide to ancient pathways too. He'd been living up on the mountain of Carningli for many months, supervising dreamers for the Dragon project, in which many people slept at he mystical site and recorded their dreams on a tape recorder he was using. The results were later analysed to see if their were any common themes.
Carningli, situated at the edge of the Prescelli mountains in West Wales, once used to be the home of the Welsh Saint Brynach, and the story goes that the saint received visits from angels upon the lonely peak. More recently it has been the focus of UFO activity and compasses go haywire at the place Saint Brynach used to dwell. Laurence has almost taken on the role of the former Saint and regards himself as a guardian of the mountain. He is a committed vegan and teetotaller with a big bushy beard and the sort of man you'd associate with the Far East or the Himalayas perhaps.
Arthur and I had been in correspondence with him and apparently he wanted to join the Loyal Arthurian Warband, as a Brother Knight.
King Arthur is the titular head of this Druid Order and members are sworn to uphold the ancient virtues of Truth, Honour and Justice. Men swear by Excalibur and the ladies swear on it's scabbard.
Now Arthur had just been injured in a road accident that day and his motor bike (or "iron steed", as he called it) was now a write-off. His legs were badly bruised, grazed and bandaged up, but undaunted the King was valiantly determined to carry on with his mission of Knighting Laurence at his chosen site. So he hired a car to achieve his goal.
Inspired by what Arthur told me I agreed and off we set, intending to reach Carningli before night fall. The rain was absolutely bucketing down as we dove into the West.
Fortunately by the time we reached Fishguard the downpour had ceased and we stopped off to get a few necessary items for the night ahead of us. We bought bread, cheese and "Druid Fluid" as Arthur calls cider and then we went to find the sacred mountain and the pathway upward.
We parked the car and began our climb, although King Arthur had a few problems negotiating the steep and rocky incline, dressed as he was as in long flowing robes and wounded from his recent accident. I went on ahead to see if I could find Laurence.
He spotted us coming up the mountain and came on down to show us the way to his camp. I'll never forget the sight of this rugged mountain man with full beard, wearing shorts in the cold inclement weather. He was obviously hardened up to the elements.
After a short while we were joined by two more people, a girl called Emma who lived in a farm down the valley and her companion, Megan a young lady from Nova Scotia (of all remote places), who was trying to hitch hike to Ireland.
Now here she was on a Welsh mountain peak with a legendary Celtic Chieftain, a Bard (myself) a "holy man" soon to be Knighted. And her new friend Emma decided to return home but Megan wanted to stay, as there we all were with the starry sky above high on a mystic mountain top and overlooking Cardigan Bay below.
After we had shared a simple meal, Arthur raised Laurence as a Knight of the Round Table, there at the once home of a Welsh saint. We celebrated with songs and stories and drank a toast, welcoming Laurence to our fellowship, but it was getting increasingly colder and the shelter of our two tents beckoned.
As the "dreamer", I entered my tent with Laurence and Arthur to the main one with Megan. Unfortunately, although it may have been ideal for saints the place was too small for a camp site and my tent had to go on an uneven rocky patch of ground.
his factor prevented me from sleeping and I almost got used to Laurence asking me if I had been dreaming. "It would help if I could actually sleep," I told him!
Never the less, I had a vision come into my head of three black cloaked figures, like Ring Wraiths from the classic Tolkien books, and I recorded this information into Lawrence's cassette.
Finally the light of dawn arrived and we got up, but imagine my surprise, when on greeting Arthur that morning, I was to learn that he had had a sleepless night in which he had been engaged in a psychic Battle defending Megan from three Black Ring Wraiths!
Incidentally we had seen the same forces of darkness at the same time and place; a place which Laurence believes is a gateway to Annwn, the Celtic underworld.
Later, we bid goodbye to Laurence and Megan, and started our journey back to Cardiff. We stopped at a shop in the Valleys nearby and Arthur asked me, "Steve, if I tell the shop keeper here who we are and what we've just been doing do you think she'll believe me?".