The eleventh century Old Welsh text Y Mabinogi gives us some clues about a mythological figure called Lleu, from whom the placename Lothian appears to derive. However, Y Mabinogi is also one of the earliest of texts which makes extensive reference to the court of the legendary King Arthur, at the forefront of the wide range of Arthurian writing which swept across medieval Europe, but particularly Britain and France. This corpus of literature appears in various languages, whether Old Welsh, Norman-French, Middle-English or Old Scots, and it presents a complicated series of versions of the original Brythonic mythology. Within this range of literature, however, we also find numerous references to an Arthurian knight called Loth or Lot, and this figure seems to derive in some fashion from the Old Welsh myth of Lleu, the mythical progenitor of Lothian.
Perhaps one of the best known indigenous Arthurian texts is the Historia Regnum Brittaniae ("History of the Kings of Britain"), written in Latin by the Welsh scholar, Gruffydd ap Arthur, better known as Geoffrey of Monmouth, around 1136-38. Here, we not only have extensive Arthur references, but also several mentions of an apparently historical king, one of Arthur's knights, who has specific Lothian associations, as well as a family relationship to Arthur himself:
Lot, who in time of Aurelius Ambrosius had married his [Arthur's] sister, by whom he had two sons, Walgan [Gawain] and Modred, he re-established in the consulship of Lodonesia, and the other provinces belonging to him.
- Historia Regnum Brittaniae, Chapter IX.
In this, we have a figure called Lot, brother-in-law of Arthur and father of none other than Gawain (Welsh Gwalchmei, Latin Walganus) and Modred (also known as Mordred). This Lot is also in political control of a region called Lodonesia, the Latinate form of the Norman French Loenes/Loeneis, signifying Lothian. Geoffrey also gives the following information in describing Arthur's alleged campaign to invade the Continent:
Then having prepared his fleet, he [Arthur] first attempted Norway, that he might procure the crown of it for Lot, his sister's husband. This Lot was the nephew of Sichelin, king of the Norwegians, who being then dead, had appointed him his successor in the kingdom. But the Norwegians, disdaining to receive him, had advanced one Riculf to the sovereignty, and having fortified their cities, thought they were able to oppose Arthur. Walgan [Gawain], the son of Lot, was then a youth twelve years old, and was recommended by his uncle to the service of pope Supplicius, from whom he received arms. But to return to the history: as soon as Arthur arrived on the coast of Norway, king Riculf, attended with the whole power of that kingdom, met him, and gave him battle, in which, after a great loss of blood on both sides, the Britons at length had the advantage, and making a vigorous charge, killed Riculf and many others with him. Having thus defeated them, they set the cities on fire, dispersed the country people, and pursued the victory till they had reduced all Norway, as also Dacia, under the dominion of Arthur. After the conquest of these countries, and establishment of Lot upon the throne of Norway, Arthur made a voyage to Gaul and dividing his army into several bodies, began to lay waste to that country on all sides.
- Historia Regnum Brittaniae, Chapter XI.
So, according to Geoffrey, we have an Arthurian knight called Lot with family connections to both the Arthurian and Norwegian elites, who is Consul of Lothian, and later, King of Norway.
However, the Arthurian myths were also very popular on the Continent in the medieval period, not least in Norman France, and an approximate contemporary of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, is particularly famous for his Arthurian sagas. Significantly, he confirms Geoffrey's genealogy of Loth's Arthurian connections in his epic Perceval. In this scene, Gawain is being tested on his knowledge of Arthur's court by a noblewoman:
"Tell me now, though, about King Lot: how many sons did he have by his wife?" - "Four, my lady." - "Name them for me." - "My lady, Gawain was the eldest, and then came Agravain, the arrogant one with strong hands. The names of the last two are Gaheriet and Guerrehet."
- Chrétien, Perceval.
Although Modred is not mentioned in this list, it confirms Geoffrey's association of Loth with Gawain. Yet we find one other significant piece of Lothian marginalia in Chrétien's work, in his Yvain (the Norman French version of the story of Owein ap Urien, a genuinely historical king of Rheged who also appears in Y Mabinogi). Here, Yvain is courting a noblewoman who appears to be from Lothian (Laudunet):
In the sight of all her nobles the lady gives herself to my lord Yvain. From the hand of one of her chaplains he has taken Laudine of Landuc, the lady who was the daughter of Duke Laudunet, of whom a lay is sung.
- Chrétien, Yvain.
In this is perhaps a remnant of an indigenous story of a royal intermarriage between the Brythonic kingdoms of Rheged and Lothian, but the specific epithet of Landuc is not explained. Nonetheless, a later series of references to an apparently historical figure with Lothian connections also occur in Welsh manuscripts which may help to interpret Chrétien's comments. According to WJ Watson:
A Welsh MS. of about A.D. 1300 describes him as 'Lleidun llydaw o dinas etwin yn y Gogledd,' 'Lleidun of Llydaw from Edinburgh in the north'. Llydaw is the Welsh form of Litavia, Armorica or Brittany. Another Welsh MS. of about 1400 has 'Lleudun luydauc o dinas Eidin yn y Gogledd.' Here, luydauc is possibly to be compared with W. llwydd, success, in which case, it would mean 'successful'; it may, however, be a corruption of the older form. Another variant of the epithet is lueddog, leuddauc, 'having a host'...
Luydauc also suggests comparison with the note on Confer, the ancestor of the royal house of Strathclyde: 'Confer ipse est vero o litauc dimor medon venditus est,' which seems to mean 'Confer however is from Litauc; he was sold (?he came?) from the Mid-Sea,' ie. the Mediterranean Sea (Y Cymmrodor, ix.).
- WJ Watson, The Celtic Placenames of Scotland (Edinburgh: 1926), pp.101-102.
In these sources, we appear to have a figure called Lleidun or Lleudun with definite links to Edinburgh (dinas etwin and dinas Eidin respectively), but also further possible Continental connections, this time with Brittany, another Brythonic Celtic region in ancient times, and also one which figures in Arthurian lore. And given the common scribal error of mistaking a u for an n, it is possible that Chrétien's character Laudine of Landuc is in fact the same as the Welsh Lleidun Luydauc.
One way or another, the medieval Arthurian romances nearly all point to a legendary King Loth with at the very least a political base in Lothian and surprisingly close family ties to Arthur himself, and other major figures within the Arthurian circle. In some measure, this King Loth may be a romantic rewriting of the mythological Lleu of Y Mabinogi, but he may also have an equally nebulous relation to the historical or pseudo-historical King Loth mentioned in other medieval sources.