In Welsh tradition, Derfel
is a spearman who enters the church after witnessing the horror of Camlan. He was
purported to be a Prince of
Brittany, son of King Hoel II Fychan. The monastery at Llanderfel in
Gwynedd claimed him as the founder and patron. A wooden statue of him on
horseback holding a staff (mitre or a spear) supposedly existed until the
Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries, when the statue was
burned at Smithfield along with Katherine of Aragon's confessor, Friar
John Forest, because of a prophecy that claimed that the image would one
day set a forest on fire. Derfel is remembered on the 5th of April.
There is a short biography
of Derfel Gardarn on the Early British Kingdoms Website at:
