THE STRATHCLYDE NECHTON (NWYTHON) AND PENN SON OF NETHAWC

NOTE: Auchter of Auchter Water is not from uachdar...  The following is from place-name expert Peter Drummond (The Scottish Place-Name Society):

"You will be familiar with W J Watson’s few observations on Nechtan in place-names (CPNS p.239). I do not believe Cambusnethan contains that personal name - the old forms lack the letter c in the medial position.

The first record of Auchter Water is:     ethkar 1193 x 1210 Arbroath Liber i no. 99 ; which may reflect Gaelic àth carr, 'ford or causeway at the bog’, or it may be a Brittonic name of puzzling meaning.

The first record of Auchterhead Moor is Athkarmour 1478, and of Auchterhead 1590s Pont."

The 'Nechtan' Place-Names in Strathclyde

My readers have asked me to deal with the Nechtan personages or place-names of the Dark Age kingdom of Strathclyde, the Roman period tribal territory of the Dumnonii.  Another Dumnonii tribe controlled the Cornwall in which Arthur was often situated.

To begin, the Nwython who is made a king of Strathclyde in the Welsh sources is merely an intrusion of the Pictish king Nechton II into the genealogies of the Men of the North (as was first shown by Molly Miller).  He was brought into the royal pedigree of Strathclyde in the same way as were Fergus Mor and Domangart. This was made possible merely by proximity (as both the Dalriadan and Pictish kingdoms bordered on Strathclyde) and the fame of the non-British chieftains.  The date for Nwython of Strathclyde corresponds quite nicely with a 7th century date for a Pictish Nechton whose obit is found in Irish sources.

There is also a semi-legendary 5th century Pictish king of this name There is good reason for believing that the Nwython of C&O is this 5th century chieftain, whose epithet was Morbet.  His son Cyledyr is, rather transparently, a made-up name derived from the Latinized Irish name for Kildare, 'Cilledara', and is not from a proposed British *Culidorix < *Con-slii-o-riks 'seizing king' (Dr. Simon Rodway) or *Culo-dor- 'postern-gate' (figuratively 'defender' vel sim: Sims-Williams, Celtic Inscriptions of Britain, pp. 46-47, with further references).

From https://anthonyadolph.co.uk/the-pictish-king-list/:

"Necton morbet filius Erip xxiiij. regnavit Tertio anno regni ejus Darlugdach abbatissa Cilledara de Hibernia exulat pro Christo ad Britanniam. Secundo anno adventus sui immolavit Nectonius Aburnethige Deo et Sancte Brigide presente Dairlugdach que cantavit alleluia super istam hostiam. [Necton gave land for the building of a church at Abernethy dedicated to St. Brigid of Kildare.]

Optulit igitur Nectonius magnus filius Wirp, rex omnium provinciarum Pictorum, Apurnethige Sancte Brigide, usque ad diem judicii, cum suis finibus, que posite sunt a lapide in Apurfeirt usque ad lapidem juxta Ceirfuill, id est, Lethfoss, et inde in altum usque ad Athan. Causa autem oblationia hec est Nectonius in vita julie manens fratre suo Drusto expulsante se usque ad Hiberniam Brigidam sanctam petivit ut postulasset Deum pro se. Orans autem pro illo dixit: Si pervenies ad patriam tuam Bominus miserebitur tui: reg-num Pictorum in pace possidebis."

This episode is also alluded to in the Irish version of Nennius's HISTORIA BRITTONUM:

https://celt.ucc.ie//published/G100028/index.html

"Nectan-mor-breac, son of Eirip, xxxiiii. annis regnavit. Tertio anno regni ejus Darlugdach, abbatissa Cille-Dara de Hibernia exulat pro Christo ad Britiniam; secundo? anno adventus sui immolavit Nectonius anno uno Apurnighe Déo et sanctæ Brigidæ, præsente Darlugdach, quæ cantavit alleluia super istam hostiam."

However, all that being said, I would bring up one interesting point.  While the Nechtan of Cambusnethan is said to have been a saint (like the St. Nechtan of Hartland near Arthur's Tintagel), I think this is almost certainly wrong.  Unless, of course, a pagan river deity was "converted" into a Christian holy man.  For not too far south we have the Nethan Water, and this is beyond any doubt a river named for the same water deity associated with rivers in Ireland, i.e. Nechtan.  

So given that the Nethan Water was a major tributary of the River Clyde of Strathclyde, the incorporation of a Pictish king of the same name into the Strathclyde royal line would have been more easily facilitated.  

And, the truth is, even the St. Nechtan of Hartland in Cornwall has often been seen as merely a reflection of an earlier Celtic water god.  In the Life of St. Nechtan, we have the following episode:

"Nectan had two cows which were stolen by robbers. He found them at Neweton [New Stoke], but the robbers beheaded him on June 17. He picked up his head and carried it to the spring near his hut."  - P.C. Bartram's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY

The head of Nechtan not only reminds us of Uther Pen/Pen son of Nethawc, but in the context of the saint's death such a head represents the 'head' of the stream that issues from a holy well.  I have wondered whether the 'head' son of Nethawc is actually an error for the head of Nethawc/Nechtan.

A final point on the Nechtan names.  According to Celticist John Koch, Uther derives from a British cognate of Irish uachtar, meaning originally 'lofty, high.'

higher *ouxtero-, SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, Early Irish óchtar, úachtar ‘higher part’, Welsh uthr ‘fearful, dreadful, awful, terrible, tremendous, mighty, overbearing, cruel; wonderful, wondrous, astonishing, excellent’, Cornish euth (??) (Pok.: not cogn.) ‘dread, horror, terror’, Breton euz (Middle Breton), euzh ‘abomination, atrocity, horror’

Between the Nethan Water and Cambusnethan there is a major tributary called the Auchter Water.  In fact, Cambusnethan is on a bend of the Auchter, and Gaelic Cambus- means '[river] bend'. This Auchter is the Gaelic place-name equivalent of Irish uachtar.  Furthermore, the source of the Auchter is called Auchterhead, and exact Gaelic-English hybrid equivalent of Welsh Uther Pen.  English -head may be presumed to have replaced an earlier Gaelic ceann, the cognate of Welsh pen. I happen to see this as a coincidence, but some others may not.  We have already seen above that the head of St. Nechtan of Hartland was the source of a stream issuing from his holy well.

An Irish epithet for the god Nechtain is Scéne, almost certainly to be derived from scén, 'terror, fright, panic.'  This is reminiscent of the Welsh meaning for Uther, 'fearful, dreadful, terrible.'

In closing, I would mention some interesting Nechtans included in the SENCHUS FER nALBAN (see "Studies in the History of Dalriada" by John Bannerman).  First, Conall some of Comgell son of Domangart son of Fergus Mor of Dalriada has a son named Nechtan.  And Conaing son of Aedan (who is also credited with a son named Artur) is said to have a son named Nechtan.