Rome

In the Dream of Maxen Wledig, Rome is both the seat of an empire and the point of departure for a journey that carries its emperor toward the Island of Britain. Its fortunes mirror Maxen’s: while his longing for a woman draws him away from governing, Roman authority is lost; after his return, the city is taken back and he resumes the throne. The story then sends the British forces who restored him onward to conquests of their own.

Rome as Imperial Center

Maxen Wledig is introduced as emperor of Rome, and the city’s political order is visible in the council of kings he convenes and in the two-and-thirty crowned kings who accompany him on a hunt. They are his vassals, but the narrative says he hunts with them not for pleasure: he means to place himself on equal terms with them. Rome is thus the center of a hierarchy that its ruler must continually perform as well as command.

That authority is unsettled when Maxen’s dream absorbs him. For a week, he withdraws from the household’s wine, mead, songs, and tales, sleeping instead and seeing the unknown maiden only in dreams. The page of the chamber tells him that people are reviling him because he gives them neither messages nor answers as their lord should. When Maxen explains his sorrow to Rome’s wise men, they advise him to send messengers throughout the world. The city is not merely his home: its people and counselors depend on an emperor able to attend to the duties of rule.

The Dream’s Distance from Rome

The dream begins during a hunt in a valley of the river that flows toward Rome. After the heat brings on sleep, Maxen dreams that he travels toward the river’s source, away from the city. He crosses a mountain that seems to reach the sky and passes into a vast, beautiful region, following great rivers down toward the sea. The dream’s scale makes the distance from Rome feel both geographical and extraordinary; it leads Maxen toward a city and a woman he cannot locate while awake.

The first year of the search produces no news. Maxen’s sorrow deepens, and he eventually follows the river westward along the route he remembers from his dream. The messengers at last find the maiden at the castle of Aber Sain. When she refuses to go to Rome merely on the strength of their offer, insisting that Maxen should come to seek her if he loves her, the city becomes the destination of the messengers’ return and the starting point of the emperor’s expedition.

Rome Lost and Recovered

Maxen crosses the sea with his army, conquers the Island of Britain, and advances to Arvon. There he recognizes the castle of Aber Sain from his dream, finds the maiden, and marries her. Rome’s emperor has traveled far to reach the place that had seemed to him an impossible vision, but the change in his personal fortunes does not end the political struggle over the empire.

While Maxen is away, Kynan and Adeon lead the British forces against the city of Rome. They measure its wall at night and have a ladder made for every four men. During the midday meal, when the emperors and their forces stop fighting, the Britons set their ladders against the wall and enter the city. They kill the new emperor and take the city and castle after three days and nights of fighting. The narrative presents Rome’s fall as a consequence of Maxen’s absence, while giving the British brothers a decisive role in restoring his position.

When Maxen and Helen Luyddawc ask the brothers for the city, Kynan and Adeon say that Rome can be given to him only by the men of the Island of Britain. The gates are opened; Maxen takes his place on the throne, and the men of Rome submit to him. He then gives Kynan and Adeon the army to conquer whatever lands they choose. Their campaign lasts so long that the young men who began it grow grey-haired: Kynan remains abroad, while Adeon eventually chooses to return home with many of his followers. Rome’s recovery therefore restores Maxen’s rule, but it also releases the British army into a prolonged campaign beyond the city.