DECIDING ON A FINAL ARTHUR CANDIDATE

Chapter 56 of the HISTORIA BRITTONUM

I'm now fairly confident that Uther Pendragon = St. Illtud.  But do I hold with the Galfridian tradition that Illtud was really Arthur's father?

Alas, no.  Why not?  Principally two reasons. 1) Prior to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Uther is nowhere called Arthur's father.  In fact, the Welsh sources are suspiciously silent about the hero's paternity.  In addition, the VITA of St. Illtud contradicts the identification. 2) The famous Chapter 56 of the Historia Brittonum was written in Gwynedd.  That kingdom traced its descent from Cunedda and his supposed sons.  If the work was compiled with the usual nationalistic tendencies in mind, and political propaganda was an important consideration, then it is likely Arthur was a descendant of Cunedda.  In my recent book THE BEAR KING, I offered a great deal of evidence supporting the notion that Arthur was Ceredig son of Cunedda/Cerdic of the Gewissei.  I still believe this claim to be compelling and perhaps even convincing.  

Of course, before we can accept Ceredig we must account for two things.  Firstly, why would a Gwynedd-centric author or authors  call the hero Arthur instead of Ceredig/Cerdic?  And, secondly, why did Geoffrey of Monmouth coopt St. Illtud as Arthur's father?

I feel both questions are rather easy to answer.  Ceredig (as is made clear by the presence of three Arto-/"Bear" names in his pedigree, all probably owing their existence to the presence of the Afon Arth in Ceredigion) was likely referred to as the "bear king" in Irish or British.  Artorius/Arthur was a decknamen substituted for this title. It may also be that because Ceredig was part Irish, and allied himself with the English against Britons in southern England, the change in designation made his less undesirable to Britons in general.  Cerdic of the Gewissei became Arthur of the Britons.

Arthgen map Seissil map Clitauc map Artgloys map Artbodgu map Bodgu map Serguil map Iusay map Ceretic map Cuneda.

Site of the Promontory Fort at Llandewi Aberarth

Geoffrey's motivation is equally as transparent. He wanted a local Arthur.  And folklore in his region of Southeastern Wales made just such a figure possible.  When casting about for a father of his hero, he noticed the pairing of Uther and Arthur in the former's elegy. Arthur is mentioned in this poem for comparative purposes (cf. Lines 971-2  of the GODODDIN).  He also appropriated Uther's epithet gorlassar from the same poem, converting it to his Gorlois.  This freed him up from any constraints regarding his creative process.  Of course, it may also be true that he really did not know who was Arthur's real father.  In that case, he had to make one up - and he settled on Uther for the purpose.

All of this will doubtless make the modern critically-minded reader very nervous.  But we must remember that Welshman in Gwynedd of the 9th century were not writing objective history when they set their quills to the Arthur story.  In fact, it's doubtful they even understood, never mind appreciated, what such a concept entailed.  They were interested in writing down a dynastic saga that glorified one of their founding sons.

Arthur - or Ceredig son of Cunedda/Ceawlin, the Bretwalda of the Gewissei - was such a man.

NOTE:  I cannot totally discount a Northern Arthur of the Dark Age/Sub-Roman period.  See articles such as https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/dacians-thracians-and-dragons-oh-my.html.  In other words, Uther Pendragon could originally have been a title of chieftain, himself of at least partial Dacians descent, who ruled at Banna/Birdoswald. Banna is in the Irthing Valley, a place named for a bear.  The designation is preserved in the Northern eponym Arthwys.  His son Ceidio bears a hypocoristic name that would have, in full form, almost certainly have meant 'battle-leader', a good match to Arthur's dux bellorum title.  All of this works marvelously well - except that we have to allow for Uther Pendragon (or simply Pendragon?) having become attached to other figures (such as St. Illtud).  I myself do not have a problem with this, although others might.  While it is true that the Arthurian battles can be made to CONFORM to those of Cerdic of Wessex and the Gewissei, they can be found IN UNALTERED FORM ONLY IN THE NORTH.  We can only surmise that the Gwynedd writers of the HISTORIA BRITTONUM were genuinely celebrating the great defense of the North from the Germanic barbarians - the same barbarians who were having unprecedented successes in the South.  In other words, Arthur of the North was put forward as a heroic counterbalance to British failure in the South.  I've pointed out before that the HISTORIA BRITTONUM has Octha (a very confusing character in both the Welsh and English sources, who may or may not be the same as Aesc/Oesc) militarily active in the North to begin with.  He only descends to Kent upon the death of his father Hengest and it is at exactly this point that we are introduced to Arthur and his battles.  The question has always been, therefore, "Who was Arthur fighting?"  He could well have been fighting in the North, and Octha left for Kent not because of the need to succeed Hengist, but because Arthur had made things untenable for him there. 

I would also urge my readers to check out this piece one more time: https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-arth-and-irthing-two-bear-rivers.html.  Therein I discuss Ceredig son of Cunedda and Ceidio as the only two plausible Arthurian candidates I've been able to come up with during many years of research.