Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages is a 1951 historical romance by John Cowper Powys. Set in the Dark Ages during a week of autumn 499 AD, this novel is, in part, a bildungsroman, with the adventures of the eponymous protagonist Porius, heir to the throne of Edeyrnion, in North Wales, at its centre. The novel draws from both Arthurian legend and Welsh history and mythology, with Myrddin (Merlin) as another major character. The invasion of Wales by the Saxons and the rise of the new religion of Christianity are central themes. Due to the demands of publishers and a paper shortage in Britain, Powys was forced to excise more than 500 pages from the 1951 version. It wasn't until 2007 that the full novel, as Powys intended his magnum opus to be, was published both in Britain and America.

Background John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) initially established his literary reputation on the basis of four long novels, his Wessex novels.Powys was an admirer of Thomas Hardy and these novels are set in Somerset and Dorset part of Hardy's mythical Wessex. Richard Maxwell describes these four novels "as remarkably successful with the reading public of his time". "Two Canons: On the Meaning of Powys's Relation to Scott and his Turn to Historical Fiction", Western Humanities Review, vol. LVII, no. 1, Spring 2003, p. 103. The last of these Maiden Castle was begun in Dorchester, Dorset, near where Hardy had lived, after Powys had returned from the USA, with his lover, Phyllis Playter, in 1934. However, in July, 1935 they moved to the village of Corwen, Denbighshire, North Wales, historically part of Edeirnion or Edeyrnion, an ancient commote of medieval Wales, where he completed Maiden Castle (1936).Morine Krissdóttir, A Descents of Memory. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007, p. 323. Edeirnion was nominally once a part of the Kingdom of Powys. This move to the land of his ancestors led Powys to writing the first of two historical novels set in this region of Wales, Owen Glendower, which was completed in 1939, published in the USA in 1941 and Britain in 1942.Issued 24 January 1941 in the USA and 6 February 1942 in the UK (not published in 1940 and 1941 as shown in the texts). Dante Thomas, A Bibliography of the Principal Writings of John Cowper Powys, unpublished Ph.D thesis (State University of New York at Albany, 1971), pp. 54–6.

Then in 1940 he began a new novel set in contemporary CorwenDescents of Memory, p. 350. but soon gave it up, to start his "Romance of Corwen", Porius, subtitled "a Romance of the Dark Ages" in January 1942.Descents of Memory, p. 351 This, initially, was to have been about the Roman, stoic philosopher Boethius.Descents of Memory, p. 351. However, Boethius never even appears and it was not completed until seven years later, in February, 1949.Judith Bond and Morine Krissdóttir, "Editorial Notes" to Porius. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007, p. 11. Between 1942 and 1951 Powys, however, published five non-fiction works: Mortal Strife (1942), The Art of Growing Old (1944), Dostoievsky (1946), Obstinate Cymric: Essays 1935–1947 (1947), and Rabelais (1948). Powys initially submitted Porius to Simon & Schuster his American publishers, publisher of all his previous major novels, from Wolf Solent (1929) to Owen Glendower (1941). But they rejected it as "indecypherable and overwritten".Michael Ballin, "A Certain Combination of Realism and Magic: Notes on the Publishing History of Porius". Powys Notes 7:2, Fall and Winter 1992, p.13. He had also sent a typescript to his English publisher, The Bodley Head. They, however, "refused to consider it, unless it was reduced by one third"."Editorial Notes" to Porius (2007), p. 11, and Morine Krissdóttir, Descents of Memory, pp. 388–92. This he did, reducing a typescript of 1589 pages to 999; however, Bodley Head made such "an insultingly small offer" that Powys rejected it. Finally Eric Harvey of Macdonald and Co. came to his rescue, but it was the abridged version that was published in 1951."Editorial Notes to Porius (2007), p. 12. More recently two new editions of Porius have been published in the attempt to reach Powys's original intention, with the use of the original manuscripts. The first, edited by Wilbur T. Albrecht, was published in 1994 by the Colgate University Press.See Powys Notes vol. 10, no.1, Fall and Winter 1995 This edition was, however, heavily criticized, and in 2007 Judith Bond and Morine Krissdóttir edited another version, published by Overlook Duckworth.See for example, essays by Charles Lock and Richard Maxwell, in Powys Notes vol. 10, no.1, Fall and Winter 1995.

Plot The setting is the Kingdom of Edeyrnion in North Wales, where the indigenous Forest people have been ruled by the Brythonic Celts on behalf of Rome. Prince Einion, ruler of Edeyrnion, owes allegiance to the Emperor Arthur, who rules Britain for Rome. While historians tells us that Rome withdrew its army from Britain around 410 AD,Sam Moorhead and David Stuttard, The Romans who Shaped Britain. London: Thames & Hudson, 2012, p. 238. . Roman influence is still strong in Powys's late 5th century. But in the autumn of 499 AD the Saxons, under their leader Colgrim, are advancing on Edeyrnion and the Forest people have joined with them against their Brythonic rulers.

The main plot follows the various experiences of Porius, the heir to the throne of Edeyrnion, the novel's eponymous protagonist, and his struggle to gain freedom from the influence of his parents. This in particular involves resolving his divided loyalties between Rome and the indigenous peoples of Wales. Porius himself not only has Roman, Brythonic, ancestors but an ancestor who was an aboriginal giant as well as relatives amongst the Forest people.John Cowper Powys, " 'Preface' or anything you like to Porius ", The Powys Newsletter4, 1974–5. Colgate University Press, Hamilton, NY, pp. 10–11. Porius gains maturity, and with it personal freedom, through a number of significant experiences, including especially this encounter with the aboriginal giants of Wales, as well as the profound influence of the magician, prophet, and possibly the god Chronos/Saturn, Myrddin, who reinforces the values, and develops on, the teachings of Porius's earlier teacher, the Christian heretic Pelagius. A major climax in the novel comes when Porius mates with the young giantess, he names Creiddylad, one of two surviving Cewri, or giants, the true aboriginals of Britain. This is immediately followed by the violent deaths of Creiddyladd and her father.

However, this novel goes beyond Porius's experience, at times focusing on other characters. This includes the highly significant scene involving Myrddin's magical transformation of the owl Blodeuwedd into a young girl. Another important episode occurs when Morfydd, and Euronwy, Porius's mother, unite "to aid the endangered House of Cunedda". This involves Morfydd "sacrificing her love for Rhun"Michael Ballin, "Porius and the Comedy of the Grotesque". Powys Notes, vol.10, no.1, Fall and Winter 1995, p. 14. by agreeing to a political marriage with Porius, "in order to create harmony between the Roman and aboriginal peoples".Michael Ballin, "Porius and the Feminine", Powys Notes, vol.6, no.2, Fall, 1990, pp.6–7. Then there is the scene which involves Brochvael, Morfydd's scholarly father, who represents classical Roman culture, confronting the aboriginal worlds of Sibylla and the Druids,Michael Ballin, "Porius and the Comedy of the Grotesque", p. 14. which dramatizes the novel's central political conflict in yet another way.

The novel's final climax comes with Porius's "rescue" of Myrddin from his entombment by the enchantress Nineue on the summit of Snowdon, Wales' highest mountain. A scene where, according to Powys scholar C. A. Coates, Porius saves "the good magician" by resisting "the temptation of the bad fairy".C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1982, p. 154. However, the ending is ambiguous, and "Merlin's stature at the end of the novel is such to preclude any sense that his is not in fact the ultimate power".Cavaliero, John Cowper Powys: Novelist. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973, p. 127. See also Descents of Memory, pp. 386–7. Powys provides invaluable commentary on Nineue in his "The Characters of the Book".The Powys Newsletter 4, p. 21. However, by freeing Myrddin Porius makes possible Myrddin's return in two thousand years to re-establish the Saturnian Age of Gold.

At the end of the novel Ederynion remains free from Saxon domination, a freedom that it will retain and which will shape the subsequent history of the Welsh: "The new nation, the Cymry, is to be born as a result of the Saxon invasion".Michael Ballin, "The Cauldron of Rebirth", p. 225. And Porius himself has also gained the necessary personal freedom and maturity he that will need as the future ruler of Edeyrnion.

Characters

Porius is the thirty-year-old son of Prince Einion and Princess Euronwy and the hero of this historical romance. Poet and literary critic Jeremy Hooker draws attention to the similarity between the names Porius and Powys.John Cowper Powys. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1973, p. 84. Powys has taken Porius's name from a Latin inscription on a stone found near Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd, Wales, which he describes in a letter to his sister Philippa of 24 December , as "the only authentic Historical Document of the Date", i.e. 499 AD.Powys's capitals. Powys to Sea Eagle: The Letters of John Cowper Powys to Philippa Powys. London: Cecil Woolf, 1996, p. 211. The Porius Stone reads: Porius hic in tumuli iacet Homo Christianus fuit, “Porius here lies buried. He was a Christian man”.Porius (2007), p. 576. See W. J. Keith's John Cowper Powys: 'Porius', A Reader's Companion, in the external links below, p. 39, for details of the controversy surrounding this tombstone. Porius has the blood of the ancient aboriginal giants, the Cewri in his veins from his great-grandmother Creiddylad, and he is frequently compared, in the novel, to the Greek hero Hercules, the Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles. His physical strength and giant ancestry is demonstrated when "our Brythonic Hercules" picks up a "dead man by the heels" and uses the body as a weapon to drive off twenty Saxons.Porius (2007), p. 516. Myrddin Wyllt or Merlin the Wild, is the Emperor Arthur's counsellor. A legendary figure associated, in some sources, with events in the 6th century, Myrddin is a figure in medieval Welsh legend, known as a prophet and a madman. He is the most important prototype for the modern composite image of Merlin, the magician of Arthurian legend. Powys identifies him with Cronos or Saturn the father of Zeus."The Characters of the Book", p. 17. Nineue ferch Avalach (Nineue daughter of Afallach) is Tennyson's Vivien.See Tennyson's poem "Merlin and Vivien Tennyson used the name "Vivien" for the Lady of the Lake in his Idylls of the King (1859). In Welsh mythology, Modron ("divine mother") was a daughter of Avallach, derived from the Gaulish goddess Matrona. She may have been the prototype of Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legend. She was the mother of Mabon, who bears her name as "Mabon ap Modron" ("Mabon, Son of Modron"), and who was stolen away from her when he was three days-old and later rescued by King Arthur. Powys has an invaluable discussion of Nineue in his "The Characters of the Book". Prince Einion, father of Porius and reigning Prince of the Edeyrnion and great-great grandson of the legendary Cunedda. Euronwy is Porius's mother, cousin of the Emperor Arthur, and daughter of Porius Manlius, a Roman.