Lud's Church

This week Claire Balding on BBC's Radio4 is presenting a programme describing a ramble through Lud's Church.  The name instantly caught my eye.  Although I once lived in that neck of the woods I confess I had never heard of it before.  It's a narrow fissure in the rocks of the Peak District where the cliffs reach at one point a height of 150 feet.  Hardly the Grand Canyon but an unusual natural feature in the British landscape and apparently quite impressive when you are inside.

But what about the name?  To correct two errors I found on the internet although it is in the Peak District Lud's Church is not in Derbyshire but in North Staffordshire and the name has nothing to do with Luddites.  The Luddites were 19th century machine-breakers.  There is no historical evidence to suggest they were engaged in secret worship.  The official tourist website suggests that the name derives from its use by 15th century Lollards but I think the name is much older than that. 

There is also a tradition that it is the original of the 'Green Chapel' described in the fourteenth century story 'Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight' which, if true, suggests that the religious history of the site pre-dates both the Luddites and the Lollards.  As the translator of 'The Wonderful History of the Sword in the Stone' (to see details view earlier blogs) the 5th century book that lies at the heart of Malory's Morte Darthur I was immediately attracted by this link with Arthurian romance. 

Sir Gawaine is a character in the 5th century book.  He is one of the sons of Lud. Who was Lud?  He was the Celtic God of the Sun whose cult seems to have dominated Druidism in Roman and post-Roman Britain.  According to the writer of The Sword in the Stone his cult came to Britain at around the same time as Christianity circa 40 AD just before the Roman invasion.  His cult seems to have originated around the city of Arras in Northern France then spread as far south as Lyons and northwards and weswards to Normandy, Brittany and the British Isles.  His name is recorded in many British place names in its various forms Lud, Lludd, Lydd (which is how you pronounce Lludd, Nudd, Nidd and Nodens (Brythonic Celtic incorporates the same mutation as modern Welsh whereby you change the initial letter of certain words if preceeded by 'the'.  In England at any rate this seems to have involved switching L for N).  In The Sword in the Stone King Evelake (Welsh - Afallach or Mistletoe) comes to Britain with Joseph of Arimathea bringing their respective gospels.  These theologies had so much in common that by the mid-5th century the two churches were able to merge which is what 'The Quest for the Holy Grail' is all about.  In that story King Mistletoe literally passes away and hands over to the Celtic Church.  Lud's Church is an important site in helping us to piece together this vital period of intellectual development in Britain's post-Roman history.  I must visit it soon.