PINNING DOWN ARTHUR: HIS MOST LIKELY POINT OF ORIGIN IN THE NORTH

Aerial Photo of Castlesteads/Camboglanna (Photo Courtesy www.u3ahadrianswall.co.uk)

Where does the Northern Arthur belong?  This is a question I've been asking myself for some time.  What I wish to do here is try to pin down a location.  To do so, I will avail myself only of the traditional material I have at hand, together with some conclusions drawn from toponomastic studies and archaeological findings.

THE YORK CONNECTION

1) The Roman dux (and de facto governor) Lucius Artorius Castus was stationed at York.  This is indisputable historical fact.  

2) According to the HISTORIA BRITTONUM, Arthur fought a battle at a City of the Legion, i.e. York.

3) In Galfridian tradition, Caeleon, the City of the Legion, in south Wales is Arthur's chief court.

4) In a corrupt TRIAD, Arthur Penuchel is made the son of Eliffer of York.  While this association of an Arthur with sub-Roman/Dark Age York is intriguing, and probably more than coincidental, the chronology for such a chieftain is not satisfactory.  

 HADRIAN'S WALL IN THE IRTHING VALLEY

1) Camboglanna is Arthur's Camlann.  

2) Banna Roman fort was the home of St. Patrick.  There are the remains of a Dark Age hall here, constructed and maintained by a warlord who was the inheritor of at least some of the traditions of the fort's Roman period garrison. 

3) Dr. Andrew Breeze, a place-name scholar, has proposed that the Irthing river-name represents a diminutive of Cumbric arth, 'bear', using an equivalent of the Old Welsh suffix -inn.  The river would thus be the Erthin(n) or Little Bear. 

3) Arthwys, the preform of which would be *Artensis, 'man of the Arth [Bear]', is the father of Eliffer.  He is also the father of a Ceidio, whose name is a hypocoristic form of a name that would have meant either Battle-ruler or Battle-leader.  If the last, this would perfectly match in meaning the dux bellorum title applied to him in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM.  Ceidio's son if Gwenddolau, whose name (quite possibly a place-name) is preserved at Carwinley in Cumbria, just a little north of the west end of the Wall.  Arthwy's father Mar (or Mor) is another territorial designation in the form of an eponym: he stands for the founder of the Moringas of Westmorland.  

BURGH-BY-SANDS

Not far west of the Irthing Valley, on the Wall at Burgh-By-Sands, stood the Aballava/Avalana/'Apple Orchard' Roman fort.  This is, rather transparently, the prototype for Arthur's "Avalon."  A Dea Latis (probably 'Lake Goddess' given the extensive Burgh Marsh that once surrounded the fort, and not, as some have proposed, a goddess of beer) was worshiped at Aballava.

STANWIX

I've written extensively about the Uxellodunum fort at Stanwix, the command center of the Wall (or at least of its western half).  This fort lies equidistantly between the Irthing Valley, Burgh-By-Sands and Carwinley. During the Roman period, Uxellodunum had very close relationship with the York of Lucius Artorius Castus.  It houses the largest cavalry unit in all of Britain.  Late tradition calls Etterby (which abuts upon Stanwix) 'Arthur's Burg.'  I've also very tentatively suggested that Pedr/Petrus of Dyfed may have named his son Arthur after an Arthur who had become associated with the Dark Age remnants/descendants of the Ala Petriana at Uxellodunum.  The NOTITIA DIGNITATUM refers to Uxellodunum as Petrianis.  This is generally thought to be an error, but it could also represent a sort of nickname for the fort.  

CONCLUSION

While it is tempting to place Ceidio (Arthur?) at Stanwix, I've been leaning away from this idea in recent months. I mean, if Arthur was born in the Irthing Valley, and his being given the Roman/Latin name Artorius was at least in part due to this name being linked by the British with their name for bear, and he ends up dying in the Irthing Valley, then the most logical conclusion would be to place him at either Banna or Camboglanna.  

I've been warned that Etterby at Arthur's Burg may have come about because the French personal name underlying Etterby (Etard) was interpreted at some point as a corruption of the name Arthur.  This looks unlikely to me.  Others have reminded me that during the medieval period, as a result of French romance, Carlisle (Roman Luguvalium), which is just across the Eden from Stanwix, came to be seen as an Arthurian center.  But I long ago showed that Carduel is not Carlisle, but merely another name for Geoffrey of Monmouth's Caerleon. [1]

Sure, Stanwix is attractive.  I love to imagine that Arthur may have been at the head of a Dark Age cavalry force that originated with the Roman period Ala Petriana.  But is this a realistic scenario?   

Well, it is not too unreasonable to allow for the possibility that a powerful warlord, born on the Wall in the Irthing Valley, may have set up shop, so to speak, at neighboring Stanwix.  However, it is interesting that after Arthur's death, we suddenly find Urien fighting battles between central Cumbria down to Catterick.  The Welsh sources take Geoffrey of Monmouth's Loth, father of Mordred (Medraut), and convert him into Llew (= Lleu), son of Cynfarch, father of Urien.  I've shown in past research that Rheged is a name for Annandale, center of Mabon worship.  Carlisle or Luguvalium is either the fort that is "Lleu-strong" or is based on a personal name Luguvalos.  Can we, then, situate the father of Medraut at Carlisle?  Was it the disastrous strife at Camboglanna/Birdoswald that opened the way for Urien to penetrate into Cumbria?  And, if so, it makes little sense to think of Arthur as being at Stanwix.  Rather, we would have an expanding Rheged attacking its enemy in the Irthing Valley - and overthrowing Arthur in the process.  Alternately, as the Cumbrian region including the Irthing Valley was part of the ancient territory of the Carvetii, the fall of Medraut from Carlisle and Arthur from Banna or Camboglanna may have been an internal squabble.  When both of these great men fell, Urien was free to make his move against the crippled kingdom to his south. 

If any of this bears a resemblance to what actually happened historically c. 537 at Camlann, then I must opt for the Irthing Valley as Ceidio's/Arthur's birthplace and ruling center.  

[1]

Carduel is said to be in Wales (Gales). However, it has long been customary to identify this site with Carlisle, the Roman Luguvalium, in Cumbria. The "d" of Carduel is said to be due to dissimilation of the first "l" of Carlisle (Welsh Caerliwelydd). I have always thought this linguistic argument to be highly questionable.

Carduel is also hard by the Red Knight's Forest of Quinqueroy and not far from the castle of Gornemont of Goort. Goort is here definitely Gower. Quinqueroy is Welsh gwyn plus caer, a slight error for Caerwent.

While Kerduel in Brittany is derived from Caer + Tudwall (information courtesy Jean-Yves le Moing, personal correspondence; cf. Caer Dathyl in Arfon, from Irish Tuathal = Welsh Tudwall, possibly Caer-fawr or Caernarfon, information courtesy Brian Lile of The National Library of Wales, citing Ifor Williams' Pedair Keinc Ymabinogi, 1951), I think Carduel (Car-dyou-EL) probably derives from Caer +d'iwl, Iwl (pronounced similar to English 'yule', according to Dr. David Thorne of the Welsh Department at Lampeter) being the Welsh form of Julius, the name Geoffrey used for Aaron's partner, St. Julian.

When Perceval first comes to Arthur's court, it is at Carduel; but when Arthur sets off after Perceval when the latter sends the Haughty Knight of the Moor to the court, the king leaves Caerleon. In between the king's placement at Carduel and Caerleon, Anguingueron and Clamadeu find Arthur at Dinas d'Aaron, the Fort of Aaron/Caerleon. In other words, Caerleon and Carduel are the same. Indeed, Anguingueron and the Haughty Knight are sent to Arthur's court by Perceval, who knows only that Arthur is at Carduel. This means that Dinas d'Aaron and Carduel have to be Caerleon.

And Arthur's Quarrois? When Erec of Erec and Enide says he will not loiter anywhere until he has "come to the court of King Arthur, whom I wish to see either at Quarrois or Carduel", he seems to be implying that Carduel and Quarrois are near each other. Because Quarrois is mentioned only in conjunction with Carduel, it is more than likely the -queroy of Quinqueroy, i.e. Quarrois = the Caer that is Caerwent.