Hafren

Historia Regum Britanniae

Geoffrey dedicates his work, Historia Regum Britanniae to Walter of Oxford, who he claims gave him a "certain very ancient book written in the British language" from which he copied his tales, (possibly the Brut Tysilio).^[6] Despite writing in Latin, Geoffrey does indeed use the Old Welsh form, Habren^[7] and describes her as the beautiful daughter of an elicit affair.

Geoffrey's version of the story takes place during the turmoil that followed the death of Brutus of Troy the first King of the Britons. Humber the Hun invades Lloegyr from Germania but meets resistance led by Brutus' eldest son, Locrin. During the struggle, Locrinus uncovers the captive Germanic princess Estrildis in one of Humber's ships and falls in love, despite being betrothed to the daughter of King Corineus of Cornwall, Gwendolen in a forced diplomatic marriage. Eventually Locrin defeats the invading forces and is declared the new king of Lloegyr. He honours his commitment to Corineus, but continues a secret love affair with Estrildis, for whom he has builds palatial apartments secreted in a cave underground. It is from this affair, that Estrildis gives birth to a most beautiful daughter; Hafren.^[8]

Sometime after the death of Corineus, Locrin divorces Gwendolen and marries Estrildis, making her his queen and legitimising Hafren. In response, Gwendolen returns to Cornwall and raises a huge army of all the forces available to her in Civil War. Eventually, the armies of Gwendolen and Locrin meet in battle near the River Stour where Locrin is killed by a single arrow and Gwendolen is declared Queen in her own right. Finally, the furious Queen orders that both Estrildis and her innocent daughter Habren are to be drowned in the river:

(Gwendolen) ordered Estrildis and her daughter Habren to be thrown into the river now called the Severn, and issued instructions throughout Britain that the river should be named after the girl; she wanted Habren to enjoy immortality since her own husband had been the girl's father. Hence the river is called Habren in British even today, although in the other tongue this has been corrupted to Severn.^[8]

The Caersws legend

Enigmatic legends associated with Hafren have been a popular subject for Welsh writers throughout the centuries. (l-r) Geoffrey of Monmouth, Edward Lhuyd, Thomas Pennant and John Rhŷs all claimed that their Hafren stories were based on older manuscripts or oral traditions that are otherwise unrecorded.

Variations on this story have been recorded by Welsh authors for centuries. In 1616, Oliver Mathews' writes that the Britons name Hafren's mother as Queen Sŵs-wên ("The Blessed/Pure Kiss") and that Locrinus did not keep her in a cave, but built a new city for her at Caersws in Cambria (c. 1086 BC). Following Locrinus' divorce of Gwendolen, the two live in the city as King and Queen with their daughter, for whom Mathews records two names "Haverwen or Havfren".^[9]

However, the tale still ends in vengeance and death. Gwendolen raises an army to defeat Locrinus who is killed in the battle. She then moves on to Caersws where she kills both Sŵs-wên and her daughter. Gwendolen then orders that the new city be razed to the ground and that the bodies of the two women be cast into the river that passes by the city, which the Britons name "Haverne" in honour of the innocent Princess.^[9][10][11]

A similar version of this tale is recorded by Edward Lhuyd in book three of his Parochialia. Lhuyd claims that he had viewed an ancient manuscript that named Locrinus' mistress as Sŵs-wên, and that she had actually been the wife of Humber the Hun rather than a hostage. In this version, Locrinus again builds the city of Caersŵs and Hafren is again killed by Gwendolen.^[12][11] The Queen Sŵs-wên version is again repeated by the naturalist and antiquarian Thomas Pennant in the early 18th century. However, Pennant notes that in local Welsh folklore Hafren was drowned near Dolforwyn Castle; and that the castle's name Dôl-forwyn literally translate as the "maiden's meadow". As such he postulated that Hafren was the titular "maiden" and that the place of here drowning was in the stretch of the river that the castle overlooks.^[12][13]

The British Kymry

Some Welsh legends associate Princess Hafren with an ancient city destroyed by Queen Gwendolen at Caersws (left). Thomas Pennant also recorded that local folklore recalled that Hafren was drowned near Dolforwyn Castle (right), a name which translates as the "maiden's meadow". This version of the Hafren legend would influence later writers, such as Richard Williams Morgan

Richard Williams Morgan drew on the previous two stories, and expanded them in The British Kymry (1857).^[14] In it, Locrinus builds a palace for Estrildis (who Morgan says was also known as Susa) at Caersws, where he concealed her for seven years with the help of his brother Camber. Hafren (called Sabra) is born, and is even more beautiful than Estrildis, rivalling her ancestor Venus (Locrinus was a descendant of Venus' son Aeneas). When Corineus dies, Gwendolen's army fights Locrinus' forces at the River Stour, and after killing him she hurries to Caersws and seizes Estrildis and Sabra. She orders Estrildis to be killed immediately, but was "so moved by the supernatural loveliness of Sabra, that many days elapsed before she could be persuaded to condemn her to death". Sabra was then taken to a meadow (Dôl-forwyn, 'the maiden's meadow') by Gwendolen's guards, and cast into the River Severn.^[15]

Three Daughters of Plynlimon

The Folklorist John Rhŷs recorded an unconnected legend involving a mythological Hafren as a personification of the river. Rhys states that the legend was told to him in his youth in 1840s Ceredigion, but gives no information on the age or provenance of the story. In the legend, Hafren and her two sisters, Rheidolyn and Gwy each rise from "Father Plynlimon" (the mountain upon which the three rivers have their sources), with each sister choosing a different direction to make their way to the sea.^[16]

The legend was retold throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, with Arthur Granville Bradley giving a detailed version and analysis in 1920. Bradley states that the god of the mountain was indeed, father to three daughters named Hafren, Gwy and Rheidolyn. However in this version, each daughter is given a single day to reach the sea, with their father promising all the territory they can cover before dark as a dowery. In this version, Hafren is the keenest of the sisters, rising first and heading east, taking what is the longer but easiest route to the sea. As such, she is given the most fertile country.^[17]

Milton's Comus

Hafren is also a central character in John Milton's 1634 masque Comus, which was written and performed for the appointment of the new Lord President of Wales, John Egerton. Milton casts her as the ultimate saviour of the virtuous captive "The Lady" whose desperate brothers recall the tale of Sabrina and her transformation into a Goddess before imploring her to emerge from the Severn. Even with the help from "The Attendant Spirit" (representing heaven itself), the rescuers are unable to free The Lady and the drama is only resolved once the river deity rises from the waters "with printless feet" and singing her words. She recognises The Lady's virtue and frees her by applying a magic elixir, "Drops that from my fountain pure, I have kept of precious cure." finally freeing her from her bounds.^[20]

Milton's work would go on to inspire many later English artists, such as William Blake's 1821 engraving "Sabrina's Silvery Flood" commissioned by Robert John Thornton for his edition of The Pastorals of Virgil.

Another notable artwork inspired by Milton is Samuel Palmer's 1856 watercolour "Sabrina". Palmer's work took Milton's subject and setting near Mount Plynlimon, in mid-Wales near the source of the river. The painting is now part of the Collection at the New York Met Gallery.^[21]

Gallery