ARTHUR AND MYRDDIN: A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF RELATIONSHIP

                                                The Taking of Excalibur by John Duncan

In my books THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY and THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON, I described in detail my candidates for both Arthur and Myrddin (the later Merlin of romance). While I did draw attention to the fact that the equally famous St. Patrick appears to have originated in the very same place where Arthur had his ruling center (the sub-Roman/Dark Age hall at the Banna Roman fort, Birdoswald), it did not occur to me at the time to more clearly point out the geographical proximity of Arthur and Myrddin, as well as the close family relationship that existed between Myrddin's lord Gwenddolau and Arthur.  In this blog entry, I wish to call attention to these things in a bit more obvious a fashion.

To begin, I'm going to post some maps that display the sites I will be discussing:

In this first map, we can see Arthur's Aballava/Avalana/"Avalon" Roman fort at Burgh-By-Sands towards the west end of Hadrian's Wall, Camboglanna/"Camlann" at Castlesteads in the Irthing Valley and Banna at Birdoswald, also in the Irthing Valley.  The Arthwys who is the father of Ceidio (= Arthur as the 'leader of battles') is also the grandfather of Gwenddolau.  I should emphasize again that both Arthwys and Gwenddolau ("White dales") may be personified regional names.  For a etymological explanation of how Arthwys may designate the region of the Irthing, please see THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY.

The second map shows Carwinley or the 'Fort of Gwenddolau' with Birdoswald not far to the ESE.

The top map here gives us the site of the battle in which Myrddin took part (Liddel Strength) and Willow Pool, for which the Powsail ("Pool of the Willow") Burn on the Tweed is a relocation. The bottom map isolates Tweeden Burn, a tributary of the Liddel and the original "Tweed" river location of the Merlin story.

Clearly, something very important was happening in this region during the Dark Ages.  We not only have Arthur ruling at Birdoswald, dying at Castlesteads and (possibly) being buried at Burgh-By-Sands, but we have a Lleu-avatar named Myrddin serving Arthur's/Ceidio's son Gwenddolau in the area of Arthuret and Carwinley not far from Birdoswald.