Editing Bladud

{{short description|Legendary king of the Britons, for whose existence there is no historical evidence}}{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Bladud
| image        = Bladud (MS Roll 1066).jpg
| caption      = Bladud from the Genealogical Chronicle of the Kings of England to Edward IV (c. 1461)
| succession   = [[Legendary Kings of Britain|King of Britain]]
| predecessor  = [[Rud Hud Hudibras]]
| successor    = [[Leir of Britain|Leir]]
| issue        = [[Leir of Britain|Leir]]
| father       = [[Rud Hud Hudibras]]
}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
[[Image:Bladud.jpg|right|framed|An image of Bladud attempting to fly with his artificial wings (from the Lyte Pedigree of 1605. British Library Catalog entry Add. Ms. 48343).]]

'''Bladud''' or '''Blaiddyd'''{{Ref label|a|a|none}} is a legendary king of the [[Britons (historical)|Britons]], although there is no historical evidence for his existence. He is first mentioned in [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' ({{circa}} 1136), which describes him as the son of King [[Rud Hud Hudibras]], and the tenth ruler in line from the first king, [[Brutus of Britain|Brutus]], saying Bladud was contemporaneous with the [[biblical prophet]] [[Elijah]] (9th century BC).

A '''Bleydiud''' son of Caratauc is mentioned in the [[Wales|Welsh]] Harley MS 3859 genealogies (in the British Library), suggesting to some that Geoffrey misinterpreted a scrap of Welsh genealogy (such as the [[Harleian genealogies]] itself or a related text).<ref>Hutson, Eugene, ''British personal names in the Historia regum Britanniae'', part of series ''University of California Publications in English'', Volume 5, no. 1, University of California Press, 1940, p. 12.</ref> The Welsh form of the name is given as ''Blaiddyd'' in manuscripts of the ''[[Brut y Brenhinedd|Brut Tysilio]]'' (Welsh translations of Geoffrey's ''Historia'').<ref>Jones, Mary. [http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/tysillo.html "Brut Tysilio"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120409092042/http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/tysillo.html |date=9 April 2012 }}, maryjones.us. Retrieved 21 July 2009.</ref> The meaning of the name is "Wolf-lord" ([[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''blaidd'' "wolf" + ''iudd'' "lord").<ref>[[Ifor Williams|Williams, Ifor]] (1980) [1972], ''The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry: studies''. Cardiff University of Wales Press, {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OCuAAAAIAAJ&q=blaidd |2=p. 160}} Ifor Willimas here comments on a different personage, i.e., Bleiddud, Lord of Tenby in the poem ''[[Etmic Dinbych]]'' or 'Praise of Tenby'. The later shift in spelling to Bleiddydd is also discussed.</ref><ref>Bladud signified "wolf-fighter" accord. to [[Archibald Henry Sayce|Sayce, A. H.]]<!--Professor of Philology--> (1890) " The Legend of King Bladud" '' Y Cymmrodor'' '''10''': 214<!-- 207–221--> </ref> In the text he is said to have founded the city of [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]. He was succeeded by his son [[Leir of Britain|Leir]] (the [[Shakespearean]] [[King Lear]]).

The tale of Bladud was later embellished by other authors, such as [[John Hardyng]] and [[A Mirror for Magistrates#John Higgins (poet)|John Higgins]], writing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.<ref name="Borsay2000">{{cite book|last=Borsay|first=Peter|title=The image of Georgian Bath, 1700-2000: towns, heritage, and history|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|isbn=0-19-820265-2|page=50}}</ref>

==Legend==
{{See|List of legendary kings of Britain}}
According to the final form of the legend, which appeared in John Hardyng's ''Chronicles'' of 1457, Bladud's father sent his son to be educated in the [[liberal arts]] in [[Athens]]. After his father's death he returned with four philosophers, and founded a [[University of Stamford#Legendary precursor|university]] at [[Stamford, Lincolnshire]],<ref name=TS>{{cite book |last1=Stern |first1=Tiffany |author1-link=Tiffany Stern |editor1-last=Chiari |editor1-first=Sophie |editor2-last=Cuisinier-Delorme |editor2-first=Samuel |title=Spa culture and literature in England, 1500-1800 |date=2021 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |location=Cham, Switzerland |isbn=9783030665685 |pages=91–92}}</ref> which flourished until Saint [[Augustine of Canterbury]] suppressed it on account of [[heresies]] which were taught there.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Whyte |first1=William |title=The Medieval University Monopoly |url=https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/medieval-university-monopoly |work=[[History Today]] |date=7 March 2018}}</ref>

Supposedly he ruled for twenty years from 863 BC or perhaps 500 BC, in which time he built Kaerbadum or Caervaddon ([[Bath, Somerset |Bath]]), creating the [[Roman Baths (Bath) |hot springs]] there by the use of magic. He dedicated the city to the goddess [[Athena]] and in honour of her, lit undying fires, whose flames turned to balls of stone as they grew low, with new ones springing up in their stead: an embellishment of an account from the third-century writer [[Gaius Julius Solinus|Solinus]] of the use of local coal on the altars of her temple.<ref name=TS/><ref>{{cite book
  | last = Cunliffe
  | first = Barry W.
  | author-link = Barry Cunliffe
  | title = Roman Bath Discovered
  | publisher = Routledge
  | date = 1984
  | location = London
  | pages =3–4
  | isbn = 0-7102-0196-6}}</ref>

===Leprosy===
[[File:Bladud Statue at Roman Baths, Bath.jpg|thumb|The statue of King Bladud overlooking the King's Bath at Bath]]
Bladud supposedly founded the city of Bath because, while he was in Athens, he contracted
[[leprosy]]; when he returned home he was imprisoned as a result, but escaped and went far off to go into hiding. He found employment as a [[swineherd]] at [[Swainswick]] ("Swineswick"),<ref name=Stern106>Stern (2021) p.106</ref> about two miles from the later site of [[Bath, Somerset |Bath]], and noticed that his pigs would go into an [[Alder carr|alder-moor]] in cold weather and return covered in black mud.

He found that this mud was warm, and that the pigs wallowed to enjoy the heat.  He also noticed that the pigs which did this did not suffer from skin diseases as others did, and on trying the mud-bath himself found that he was cured of his leprosy.<ref>Stern (2021) p.95</ref> He was then restored to his position as [[heir-apparent]] to his father, and founded Bath so that others might also benefit as he had done.

The story of Bladud's cure-by-immersion was much exploited when Bath became a fashionable [[Spa|spa resort]]. The statue of King Bladud overlooking the [[Roman Baths (Bath)|King's Bath]] at Bath carries the date of 1699, but it is much older than this.<ref>{{cite web
  | last = Tindall
  | first = Laurence
  | title = Roman Baths King Bladud 1982
  | url = http://www.laurencetindall.co.uk/page98.html
  | access-date = 2008-10-25
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191401/http://www.laurencetindall.co.uk/page98.html
  | archive-date = 3 March 2016
  | url-status = dead
  }}
</ref> It was assembled from parts of two statues (respectively depicting [[Edward III of England|Edward III]] and Bladud himself) previously mounted on the city's north and south gates; its pitted appearance from weathering enhanced the association with disease.<ref name=Stern106/>

In the eighteenth century Bladud's legendary cure was celebrated by [[John Wood, the Elder|John Wood]], the architect responsible for the fashionable development of Bath, who incorporated many references to the king in his buildings.<ref name=Stern106/>

===Divination, wings and death===

The tale claims that Bladud also encouraged the practice of [[necromancy]], or divination through the spirits of the dead.  Through this practice, he is said to have constructed wings for himself and to have tried to fly to (or from) the temple of [[Apollo]] in [[Trinovantum]] (London) or Troja Nova (New Troy), but to have been killed when he hit a wall, or to have fallen and been dashed to pieces or to have broken his neck. He was supposedly buried at New Troy and succeeded by his son, [[Leir of Britain |Leir]].<ref>Stern (2021) p.102</ref>

==Conflation with Abaris the Hyperborean==
Eighteenth century Bath architect John Wood wrote about Bladud, and put forth the fanciful suggestion that he should be identified with [[Abaris the Hyperborean]], the healer known from [[Classical Greek]] sources.<ref>MacKillop, ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology'', p. 43.</ref>

==In fiction==
[[Vera Chapman]]'s ''Blaedud the Birdman'' is a fantasy novel about the character.<ref>[[Baird Searles]], [[Beth Meacham]] and [[Michael Franklin (writer)|Michael Franklin]]. ''A Reader's Guide To Fantasy''. New York, N.Y. : Avon, 1982. 
{{ISBN|038080333X}} (p.29).</ref>

[[Moyra Caldecott]]'s ''The Winged Man'' is a fictional account of the life of Bladud.

Bladud, styled Blaiddyd, is a legendary hero in ''[[Fire Emblem: Three Houses]]''.

The narrator of [[Stephen Lawhead]]'s second [[Song of Albion]] book (''[[The Silver Hand]]'', 1992 {{ISBN|9781782640493}}), Tegid Tathal, Chief Bard of [[Albion]], is asked by the god [[Gofannon]] to tell the story of ''Bladudd the Blemished'' which he does in the way of myth, presenting it as an classic teaching story about sovereignty and mental/ physical purity.

The legend is reproduced with some artistic interpretation as a short story in [[Charles Dickens]] novel “[[The Pickwick Papers]]”, as the main character is visiting Bath.

== House of Brutus ==
{{House of Brutus family tree|navbox=yes}}

==See also==
* [[List of legendary rulers of Cornwall]]
* [[Pseudohistorical]]
* [[Nennius]] 
* [[King of the Britons]]

==Notes==
{{refbegin}}
'''a.''' {{Note label|a|a|none}}Pronunciation: As a mythological figure, there is no definitive pronunciation, but in [[modern English]] it is {{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|l|æ|d|ə|d}}.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7340000/newsid_7347000/7347020.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&news=1&nol_storyid=7347020&bbcws=1|title=Pig Sculptures arrive in Bath|last=Parr|first=Amanda|author-link=Amanda Parr|date=14 April 2008|work=BBC News}}</ref> In the [[Brythonic languages|Brythonic language]] of the time the ''dd'' of "Blaiddyd" would have been pronounced {{IPA|[[Voiced dental fricative|[ð]]]}}, which has allowed some authors to call him "Bathulf, the founder of Bath".<ref>{{cite book|last=Skeat|first=Walter W. |author-link= Walter William Skeat|title=English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day|url=https://archive.org/details/englishdialects00skea|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|date=1912|page=[https://archive.org/details/englishdialects00skea/page/50 50]}}</ref>
{{refend}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
* John Clark, Bladud of Bath: The archaeology of a legend, ''Folklore'' vol. 105 (1994), 39–50.
* Howard C Levis FSA, ''Bladud of Bath: the British King who tried to fly'', West Country Editions: Bath (1973).
* MacKillop, James (1998). ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology''. Oxford. {{ISBN|0-19-860967-1}}.
* Jean Manco, [http://www.buildinghistory.org/bath/medieval/bladud.shtml The mystery of Bladud], part of Bath Past.

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg | leg }}
{{s-bef | before = [[Rud Hud Hudibras]] }}
{{s-ttl | title  = [[List of legendary kings of Britain|King of Britain]] }}
{{s-aft | after  = [[Leir of Britain|Leir]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{Geoffrey of Monmouth}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Legendary British kings]]
[[Category:Flight folklore]]
[[Category:Artificial wings]]
[[Category:Mythological city founders]]