MY DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE MILITARY CAREER OF UTHER PENDRAGON, AS DRAWN FROM GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH

I've cobbled together my various pieces on Uther's career as it is preserved in the Galfridian tradition.  It is important that we understand how the life of Arthur's father was crafted.  Why?  So we can dispense with it as purely fiction, and thus free ourselves from the strictures imposed by its glamour.  

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Life of Uther

Geoffrey of Monmouth fleshed out the life of Uther, primarily by making use of episodes in the life of a 10th century Viking.

While this claim may seem outlandish, we need only go to the year entry 915 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There we are told of the Jarls Ohtor and Hroald or Hraold, who come from Brittany to raid the Welsh coast along the Severn Estuary. They concentrate their initial attacks on Archenfield, the Ercing where Aurelius and Uther are first placed when they come to England from Brittany. Hroald is slain by the men of Hereford and Gloucester, but Ohtor goes on to land ‘east of Watchet’. The Willet or ‘Guellit’ River, adjacent to Carhampton, the ancient Carrum, is east of Watchet. Both the Willet and Carhampton feature in the tale of Arthur and the terrible dragon (‘serpentem ualidissimum, ingentem, terribilem’) in the 11th century Life of St. Carannog or Carantog. I would propose that this terrible dragon owes its existence to the dragon-ship of Ohtor, i.e. a typical Viking ship with a dragon’s head at its prow and a dragon’s tail at its stern, and that Geoffrey of Monmouth made use of the terrible dragon’s presence at Carrum to associate Uther with Ohtor. After an unpleasant stay on an island (Steepholme or Flatholme), Ohtor and what remains of his host go to Dyfed, where Uther is said to fight Pascent and the Irish king Gillomanius. Ohtor then proceeds to Ireland, where Uther had previously fought Gillomanius over the stones of Uisneach/Mount Killaraus.

We have, then, the following startling correspondences:

Uther in Brittany                    Ohtor in Brittany

Ercing                                     Archenfield

Carrum (terrible dragon)        East of Watchet

Menevia in Dyfed                   Dyfed

Ireland                                    Ireland

This Viking jarl is found in the Welsh Annals under the year 913, where the concise entry reads ‘Otter came’. This reference to Ottar is also found in the Welsh Brut t tywysogion (Chronicle of the Princes).

Geoffrey tells us that Uther appointed as bishop of Alclud one Eledenius.  As P.C. Bartrum noted, this is the St. Elidan that is known from churches in the Vale of Clwyd.  Therefore, Geoffrey’s Alclud is an error or substitution for Clwyd.  Mount Damen should therefore be sought somewhere roughly between York and Clwyd.  I found it exactly where it should, in fact, lie:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-discovery-of-uther-pendragons-mount.html

Tintagel and Dimilioc/Domellick at St. Dennis are well-known sites and do not require additional discussion here.

After engaging the Saxons in Lodonesia (Lothian), we are told that Uther goes to St. Albans, where he dies.  Albans is here a clear mistake or substitution for Albany, an ancient name for Scotland, wherein Lothian is situated.  And, in fact, Geoffrey uses Albany for Scotland in the Loth episode, which he alludes to when he tells us that Uther is going to St. Albans.