Old King Cole

A legendary King of Celtic Britain. We have all heard about Old King Cole from the nursery rhyme:

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,

And a merry old soul was he.

He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,

And he called for his fiddlers three.

Now every fiddler had a fine fiddle,

And a very fine fiddle had he.

Tweedle dum, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers three,

Tweedledum-dee, dum-de-dee, dum-de-dee.

 

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,

And a merry old soul was he.

He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,

And he called for his harpers three.

Every harper had a fine harp,

And a very fine harp had he.

Twang-a-twang, twang-a-twang, went the harpers three,

Twang-a-twang, twang, twang-a-twang-a-twee.

 

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,

And a merry old soul was he.

He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl,

And he called for his drummers three.

Every drummer had a fine drum,

And a very fine drum had he.

Rub-a-dub, rub-a-dub, went the drummers three,

                        Rub-a-dub, dub, rub-a-dub-a-dee.



There is also the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem from 1921
 

Old King Cole
 
IN Tilbury Town did Old King Cole   
A wise old age anticipate,   
Desiring, with his pipe and bowl,   
No Khan’s extravagant estate.   
No crown annoyed his honest head,            5
No fiddlers three were called or needed;   
For two disastrous heirs instead   
Made music more than ever three did.   
 
Bereft of her with whom his life   
Was harmony without a flaw,           10
He took no other for a wife,   
Nor sighed for any that he saw;   
And if he doubted his two sons,   
And heirs, Alexis and Evander,   
He might have been as doubtful once           15
Of Robert Burns and Alexander.   
 
Alexis, in his early youth,   
Began to steal—from old and young.   
Likewise Evander, and the truth   
Was like a bad taste on his tongue.           20
Born thieves and liars, their affair   
Seemed only to be tarred with evil—   
The most insufferable pair   
Of scamps that ever cheered the devil.   
 
The world went on, their fame went on,           25
And they went on—from bad to worse;   
Till, goaded hot with nothing done,   
And each accoutred with a curse,   
The friends of Old King Cole, by twos,   
And fours, and sevens, and elevens,           30
Pronounced unalterable views   
Of doings that were not of heaven’s.   
 
And having learned again whereby   
Their baleful zeal had come about,   
King Cole met many a wrathful eye           35
So kindly that its wrath went out—   
Or partly out. Say what they would,   
He seemed the more to court their candor;   
But never told what kind of good   
Was in Alexis and Evander.           40
 
And Old King Cole, with many a puff   
That haloed his urbanity,   
Would smoke till he had smoked enough,   
And listen most attentively.   
He beamed as with an inward light           45
That had the Lord’s assurance in it;   
And once a man was there all night,   
Expecting something every minute.   
 
But whether from too little thought,   
Or too much fealty to the bowl,           50
A dim reward was all he got   
For sitting up with Old King Cole.   
“Though mine,” the father mused aloud,   
“Are not the sons I would have chosen,   
Shall I, less evilly endowed,           55
By their infirmity be frozen?   
 
“They’ll have a bad end, I’ll agree,   
But I was never born to groan;   
For I can see what I can see,   
And I’m accordingly alone.           60
With open heart and open door,   
I love my friends, I like my neighbors;   
But if I try to tell you more,   
Your doubts will overmatch my labors.   
 
“This pipe would never make me calm,           65
This bowl my grief would never drown.   
For grief like mine there is no balm   
In Gilead, or in Tilbury Town.   
And if I see what I can see,   
I know not any way to blind it;           70
Nor more if any way may be   
For you to grope or fly to find it.   
 
“There may be room for ruin yet,   
And ashes for a wasted love;   
Or, like One whom you may forget,           75
I may have meat you know not of.   
And if I’d rather live than weep   
Meanwhile, do you find that surprising?   
Why, bless my soul, the man’s asleep!   
That’s good. The sun will soon be rising.”           80





King Cole, who lived in the third century, and who was the founder of the city of Colchester in Essex England. "Colchester" means "Cole's castle."  There may have been two rulers of that name in Colchester, a "Cole Godhebog", or "Cole the Magnificent"; and "Cole Hen", "Cole the Old" ( if a person lived to be 50-60 years of age, the word Hen was added to the name). Little is known of either monarch, or whether there were indeed two Coles, or only one. There is also Shakespear's Cymbeline, in which King Cole is said to be in Cunobelinus.

It is also believed that King Cole is the Celtic Gaulish God Camulus (alternatively Camulos), God of War. The old name of Colchester was Camulodunum, and the derivation sequence /kamul/ (+ lenition) > /kawul/ > /kaul/ > /ko:l/ is not impossible, especially among the Celtic languages. If Camulus is Cole, then Colchester (from the Latin for "Cole's fortress") and Camulodunum (from Brythonic Celtic for "the fortress of Camulus") are synonyms; it is likely that the Latin form is taken from the Celtic language.The Romans associated Camulos with Mars (Ares), the Roman God of War. Camulos was the tribal god of the Remi, a Gallic tribe living in Belgium and the Sabines. Camulos was said to have wield an invincible Sword, which was one of the four chief treasures of the Tuatha De Danann, over whom, he was twice King. Mars may have been worshipped under the name Camulus, both an old stone at Rome in the house of Collotians, and altars discovered with this inscription say, "CAMVLO DEO SANCTO ET FORTISSIMO",  "TO CAMULUS THE HOLY AND MOST MIGHTY GOD". It is said that Camulus delighted in Battle and the slaughter. The latin poet Lucan tells us, "with human sacafices, shared in by his female consorts, who we may imagine, were not more merciful than himself". Also identified as a storm god, and was parallelled by Taranis.“Taranis” means “Thunderer” suggesting a Celtic verson of Thor. His perfered method of sacrifice was by fire. There is at Glasgow an inscription to Camulus, 'the warlike heaven-god,' who "appears in Gaelic myth as Cumhal, the father of Finn, and in British mythical history as Cole, a duke of Caer Coelvin (known earlier as Camulodunum, and now as Colchester), who seized the crown of Britain, and spent his short reign in a series of Battles.

Colchester contains an old Roman quarry that is called "King Cole's Kitchen".Geoffrey of Monmouth ( a clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history)  claims that Old King Cole was the father of Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantin (Who is traditionally the discoverer of the true cross, while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem).

The word ceol means music in Gaelic, and this may be the origin of the rhyme about Cole and his fiddlers.It is believed that the pipe in the nursery rhyme is a musical instrument.

The Cole family is often referred to as the "Cole race". They ruled the biggest area of Britain (which at that time consisted of a combined England, Scotland and Wales) which encompassed present day Southern Scotland, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cumbria.

Cole Hen himself (Old King Cole) reigned from about 350 to 420 and prior to Arthur, 'fighting duke' of the Cole's, who later became a King.

Not much is known of the Cole race earlier than Cole Hen and his brothers. The brothers were Hen (the oldest) died about 420, Dyfynwal of Dumbarton and Clyde died about 440, Amlauit Wledic (or Lluch) died about 440, ruling East Cumbria, North Lancashire and most of Yorkshire, whose wife was Gwen, daughter of Cunedda and Arthur's maternal Great grandfather. The ruler of Setantii and lower Lancashire was Seithenin.

Two of Cole's sons were Ceneu and Gorbanian of whom nothing else is known. Another son was thought to be Meirchawn whose uncle Mor and cousin Morydd were thought to be father and brother of Merlin. Meirchawn had two sons, March 500 - 530 and Llyr Merini, with two sisters Eliffer and Gwenddoleu. Rhodric Mawr was an ancestor of Cole Hen, as was Mathew Hen, son of Brochfael Ysgythrog King of Powys.

Other notes about the Cole family are as follows. Padarn Peisrudd was the grandfather of Cunedda of Gododin, who with Urien of Rheged and Gwallauc of Elmet were the warrior leaders of the Cole dynasty. Owein the son of Urien was a Cole family member so must have married into the family. Talhearn, who lived at the time of Arthur, was a family member and his son Aneirin died about 600.

In a new system or analysis of ancient mythology by Jacob Bryant of Cypersham, is an elaborate dissertaion thereon, consisting of more than three quarto-pages, wherein he shows it to be the same as Cou-el or Co-el. Heavenly, or the House or Region of Deity, for the place of worship was, in many instances, taken for the person to who the worship was directed. He says that Colins from Coel, the old Latin forum of Coleus, meant "a Sacred or Heavenly person, in other worlds a priest of Coelus."