Coel Hen

Coel, even Coel Hen ( " Coel the Old " ), English King Cole, is the name of legendary figures from Britannic legends and British literature since the Middle Ages. It is believed that the legendary figure of the Old King Cole is based on the memory of a late antique Roman commander named Coelius.

Mythology

Early Welsh traditions (such as the Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd, " The descendants of the men of the North" ) designate an Coel Hen to 400 AD "king" in Roman Britain when the alleged ancestors of some royal dynasties in the Hen Ogledd ( " the old north "). This is the britonisch speaking area of northern England and southern Scotland. Coelius or Celestine is not Celtic, but a familiar Roman name so it is assumed that the historical memory hides behind the myth of a Roman military leader or warlord who could have established their own rule after the end of imperial rule over Britain. Because of his success, his name lived on in myth.

The Coel Hen of the medieval Welsh legends named as the progenitor Uriens of Rheged and the Knights of the Round Table Peredur fab Efrawg, and by rulers in Gwynedd, Elmet and Edinburgh. With a nickname or title Godebog ( "protector ", " Patron " ), he is mentioned as a forefather of the " sons Godebogs " in Y Gododdin. The Mount Coylton in Argyll should be named after him, according to legend, as located there be grave.

The prestige that connected for a long time with the name of Coelius or Coel is also confirmed by other legends. A later mentioned Coel Hen, King of Colchester, said to have been the Great as the father of St Helena and thus the grandfather of Constantine. He is mentioned as such in Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae in connection with its competitor king Asclepiodotus (Welsh Alyssglapitwlws ). After his death, to Constantius I, have married as a senator, Coels daughter Helena. A mix-up with Helen Elen Luyddawg often occurred.

In the breeding y Brenhinedd ( " History of the Kings ") of Geoffrey of Monmouth, this Coel mentioned as brother of Trahern, the opponents of the king Eudaf Hen in the battle for the crown of Britain.

" Old King Cole "

The traditional English nursery rhyme " Old King Cole " has probably King Coel as historical background. For the first time the song 1708/ 09 by William King was recorded in Useful Transactions in Philosophy.

" Good King Cole, And he call'd for his bowl, And he call'd for Fidler 's three; And there what fiddle, fiddle, And twice fiddle, fiddle, For ' twas my Lady's Birth -day, THEREFORE we keep Holy- day And come to be merry. "

There are some modern textual variants, including Genesis and Queen. The jazz pianist and singer Nat King 'Cole derived its nickname of " Old King Cole " from. A march version of the song is used since 1980 by the U.S. Army.

In James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake, there is a reference to the song:

• " With pipe on bowl. Terce for a fiddler, sixt for makmerriers, none for a Cole. "(P. 619.27f. )