ARTHUR AND SARMATIAN RIBCHESTER (paper presented at the Second International Symposium on Lucius Artorius Castus, Podstrana, Croatia, October, 2019)

The Ribchester Helmet. A ceremonial bronze Roman cavalry 

parade helmet with face mask, circa 1st-2nd century AD. 

[Note: The text of my paper has been altered for print purposes here in one important way: I have settled on what I believe to be the original line of descent for Arthur.  While I possessed this information before the symposium, I didn't feel justified in using it without independent corroboration. But once the new reading of the Lucius Artorius Castus memorial stone was made public at the symposium by Dr. Linda Malcor and her colleagues this last October, and I had confirmed their findings with several top Latin epigraphers (such as Professor Roger Tomlin), I felt I finally had what I needed to put forward my analysis of an extant, pre-Galfridian pedigree for Arthur. None of the original material has been excluded, although some of it may, by necessity, have been reduced to salient points only. The paper represents my final Arthurian theory and is the product of roughly a quarter of a century of research.

Blogger has automatically converted footnotes in footers to endnotes. My apologies if the formatting change is distracting, inconvenient or does not appear to satisfy professional publishing standards.] 

ARTHUR AND SARMATIAN RIBCHESTER: 

PLACING THE 6TH CENTURY HERO INTO A GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT

By

August Hunt

ABSTRACT: In Chapter 56 of the ninth century HISTORIA BRITTONUM, a series of 12 battles are said to have been fought by the famous Arthur against the Saxons.  The present paper will briefly plot out the locations of these battles (as well as that of Camlann from the ANNALES CAMBRIAE) with an eye to establishing a sphere of military activity confined to Northern England and Lowland Scotland, primarily along the line of the old Roman Dere Street.  As the 2nd century acting governor of Britain, Lucius Artorius Castus, operated in the same region, the reasonable assumption will be made that the name Artorius continued to be used in the North for some centuries after that time, manifesting itself in the British form Arthur of the HISTORIA BRITTONUM.  An analysis of evidence gathered from several disciplines will allow us to precisely pinpoint the ancient tribal territory to which the Dark Age Arthur belonged, as well as his probable ruling center.

The Roman Lucius Artorius Castus is an attested historical personage.  We have his memorial stone here in Croatia as undeniable proof of this fact.[1]  But what of the sixth century Arthur who was first made famous in Chapter 56 of the 9^th century HISTORIA BRITTONUM and in the 10^th century Welsh Annals? In this paper, I will for the first time describe the geographical context in which this later Arthur belonged, with an eye towards both firmly establishing his historicity and identifying his tribal origin. 

When we set out to explore the Dark Age British Artorius we out of necessity enter the perilous realms of surmise, speculation and supposition.  For there is no direct archaeological proof of his existence.  If we wish to discover anything definitive regarding this Dark Age figure, we must start with the only thing we really have in the early sources: a list of thirteen battles.

Over the years I’ve worked tirelessly with both highly respected place-name experts and Celtic linguists to plot out Arthur’s military activities on the map.  The product of my efforts can be seen here in Figure 1.[2] 

Figure 1

You will notice immediately that there seems to be a pattern to the Arthurian battles.  Most of the sites are on or just to either side of the ancient Roman road called Dere Street.  The engagements run from the south at York to the extreme north on the Firth of Forth.  One outlier – that of the mouth of the Glen River in Northumberland – is on the Devil’s Causeway, which branches off of Dere Street.  The famous battle of Badon was fought at the bathum or ‘baths’ of Buxton in the High Peak, in what was the southernmost border region of the Roman period Brigantian territory.  It is apparent that Dere Street formed some kind of frontier zone for the period, with the British to the west and the encroaching English to the east.  

At least four battles may not have belonged to the 6^th century Arthur.[3]  The Bassas at Dunipace in Scotland falls right between the hillforts Dumyat and Myot Hill, sites named for the Pictish Miathi or Maeatae.  In Adomnan’s Life of St. Columba we learn that the 7^th century Arthur of Dalriada perished fighting the Miathi.[4]  Thus Bassas may mark the place where this later Arthur died.  The Tribruit, a Welsh rendering of Latin trajectus, was a crossing on the Firth of Forth.  The Dog-heads Arthur is said to have defeated there may be a reflection of the Ardchinnechenan promontory or Height of the Dog’s Head at North Queensferry.[5] But the Dogheads may also be a folk memory of the ancient Venicones tribe of Tayside, whose name contains the British word for ‘hounds.’[6] As Tribruit involves battling a foe north of the Firth of Forth, we are forced to consider the possibility that the Tribruit battle should also be assigned to the Dalriadan Arthur.  This is especially true as there is a conflicting tradition that places this Arthur in Circenn, the region anciently occupied by the Venicones.[7]

Arthur’s Breguoin battle - or High Rochester in Northumberland – is also said to be a location where Urien of Rheged fought.  Obviously, both men could have been present at the same site at different times.  But some scholars have claimed the Arthurian battle was “borrowed” from the victories of Urien.  The opposite could also be true, of course; Arthur’s Breguoin could have been assigned later to Urien.

There is, however, perhaps a better reason why Arthur was associated with the High Rochester Roman fort: a bear-god named Matunus was worshipped here.[8]

Matunus may be compared with the bear-god of Caer Dathal in Gwynedd, Wales, Math son of Mathonwy.  According to Welsh tradition, Arthur’s father was somehow related to the men of Caer Dathal and a wife of Arthur is said to have come from the same place.  A little later in my talk this supposed connection with a bear-god will be shown to be very significant in the context of a Northern Arthur, as Arthur’s name was thought by the Welsh to contain their word for bear, ‘arth.’

Finally, York or the City of the Legion as an Arthurian battle site is a bit suspicious merely because that city was the base of Lucius Artorius Castus.

The 6^th century Arthur is said to have fallen c. 537 A.D. at Camboglanna[9], a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall in the Irthing Valley of Cumbria.[10]  This seems an odd location, given where we find all the prior battles.  That is, until we consider several factors.  First, the man who traditionally died fighting Arthur was named Medrawt or Modred, Celtic versions of the Roman name Moderatus.[11]  The name Moderatus is attested during the Trajanic period in the person of the prefect C. Rufius Moderatus, whose unit left inscriptions at Greatchesters on the Wall and Brough-under-Stainmore in Cumbria. The Welsh made Medrawt a nephew of Urien of Rheged.  The heartland of Rheged was the valley of the Annan River not far to the northwest of Camboglanna.[12]

Camboglanna, modern Castlesteads, was in the Irthing Valley.  In the same valley, a little to the ENE, is the fort of Banna at Birdoswald. 

Archaeology has demonstrated sub-Roman and Dark Age use of this latter fort. In the words of English Heritage,

“It is clear that this occupation continued without a break from the late Roman period, marking a radical change in the life of the fort after the collapse of the Roman administration and economy. The Roman military unit, already subject to late Roman local recruitment and hereditary service, perhaps became more akin to a war band, possibly even a small local chiefdom, whose members would have continued to regard themselves as ‘Roman’.”[13] 

I have elsewhere shown that St. Patrick of the Irish was born at Banna, called Banna venta bernia or the market town of Banna in the Tyne Gap.[14]  Patrick’s story is told just before that of Arthur’s in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM. I’ve also provided a new translation of an Arthurian period stone found at Camboglanna which bears a Christian inscription.[15]  There is good reason to believe, therefore, that the Irthing Valley was the site of an important power center during the 6^th century. 

Dr. Ken Dark has written extensively on the region during this time period and has declared that someone here was attempting, in no matter how crude a fashion, to replicate the office of the Roman Dux Britanniarum.[16]  We are reminded once again of the dux and de facto governor Lucius Artorius Castus.

Camboglanna, where Arthur died, is only several miles to the east of the Aballava Roman fort at Burgh-By-Sands towards the western end of Hadrian’s Wall.[17]  Aballava is the ‘Apple Orchard’, and a variant Avalana is recorded.[18]  It is tempting to equate this place with the Otherworld Avalon of Arthurian tradition.  Even more exciting is the presence at both Banna and Aballava of a goddess named Dea Latis.[19] 

While different etymologies have been proposed for her name, as Aballava was surrounded by the extensive Burgh Marsh, it is likely she should be referred to as the ‘Goddess of the Lake.’  This would be in accord with another Birdoswald goddess named Dea Ratis, the ‘Goddess of the Fort.’[20] Arthurian enthusiasts will immediately recognize in Dea Latis the ‘Lady of the Lake’. Note that one of the stones has as a dedicant named Lucius Urseius.  Urseius is from Latin ursa, a word for ‘bear.’

A half dozen kilometers west of the Avalon fort is Congabata at Drumburgh.  Congabata is said to mean ‘dish-like’[21], perhaps a reference to the bold knoll on which the fort sits, which might have been seen as an upturned dish.  A gabata was a kind of dish or platter.[22] According to Du Cange’s medieval dictionary[23], the kind of plate called a grasal or greil – the word preserved in the Holy Grail of Arthurian tradition – was the same as the gabata.

Con- as a Latin prefix means 'with, together.'  For example, concavus means, literally, 'with a hollow.'  Thus we could interpret Congabata as the fort 'with a hollow platter.'

I would suggest that Drumburgh or Congabata may be the prototype for the later Grail Castles - no matter where these happened to be geographically situated in story.  A 'Fort with a Dish' would have immediately drawn to itself mythological motifs concerning ancient Celtic sacred vessels, themselves to be eventually supplanted by similar cultic items in the Christian religion. 

In passing, I would add that Drumburgh was garrisoned in the late Roman period by the Lingones, a Celtic tribe from Gaul.  Their capital city was called Andematunnum, a place-name that means either ‘Great Divine Bear’ or ‘Great Bear Place’.[24] While Alexander Falileyev prefers a different etymology for Andematunnum[25], the presence of the First Cohort of the Lingones at the Bremenium Roman fort where Matunus was worshipped gives us sufficient cause  for linking this Gaulish tribe with a bear-god.[26]

Another Wall fort may have played an important role in history of our 6th century Arthur.  This is Corbridge. 

I have argued that the Welsh Campus Elleti, which became in the French romances the famous Camelot, was originally Corbridge and that it had been relocated in later tradition to Llanilid in southern Wales.[27] Elleti is to be related to the divine name Alletios, attested at Corbridge.

Arthur fought several battles very near the Roman fort at the Devil's Water.  This fort was on the Roman Dere Street and was the supply depot for campaigns launched north into Scotland.[28]

A further point concerning the Irthing Valley of Banna and Camboglanna requires mentioning.  This has to do with the Welsh word arth, ‘bear’, which as we have seen was connected to Arthur’s name early on. 

Dr. Andrew Breeze has provided a new etymology for the river-name Irthing.[29]  According to Breeze, Irthing is from the Welsh word for bear plus a diminutive suffix, yielding a meaning of ‘Little Bear.’ However, the Irthing is not a little river, and Brythonic place-name expert Alan James[30] has informed me that another similar suffix would merely designate the arth or bear as a place.  Similarly, the River Irt, some distance away from the Irthing Valley in west-central Cumbria, may also be a Bear River.

The Bear Rivers here in northwestern England may suggest that at one time there was an active bear cult in the region. 

The early Welsh genealogies have a Man of the North named Arthwys.[31]  This is not so much a name as an eponym.  The Welsh suffix -wys denotes Latin -enses, so literally Arthwys is a tribal designation best rendered ‘people of the Arth’, i.e. the people of the Bear.[32] It is highly probable that the people of the Bear resided in the Irthing Valley.

How, though, do we actually prove that this great 6^th century military hero, named after the 2^nd century Lucius Artorius Castus, actually controlled territory along and to either side of Hadrian’s Wall?  Well, we can’t do that until we can establish a plausible genealogical trace for him.  To date, this has proven to be an impossible task. Researchers are forced to either reluctantly adopt the false ancestry supplied for Uther by the 12^th century Geoffrey of Monmouth or to imaginatively concoct an alternative that is designed to “fit” this or that theory.  I realized a long time ago that any theory that failed to account for Arthur’s line of descent was doomed to failure – precisely because without knowing his pedigree we are not justified in placing him anywhere.

Fortunately, we do, in fact, have a record of Arthur in the early Welsh genealogies for the Men of the North.  The context in which this record is found is indirect and obscure, yet nevertheless very real.

In the Welsh poem “The Dialogue and Arthur and the Eagle”[33], we are told that Uther Pendragon’s son Madog had a son named Eliwlad.  These two names in the Arthurian pedigree are considered pre-Galfridian.  Eliwlad has proven impossible to etymologize. I proposed to leading Welsh onomasticists that Eliwlad should instead read Eilwlad.  Such a form was made possible by the presence in early Welsh MSS. of a metathesis of eil for eli and vice-versa.  Precedent of this sort is key to any good linguistic argument.

I had approached Dr. Richard Coates with my idea and here provide his response in full:

“It looks perfectly possible to me that Eliwlad represents British *Aljo-wlatos 'other land'.  Eliwlad/t is a plausible rendering of Eilwlad.”[34]

This new etymology for Eliwlad allowed me to connect the title Uther Pendragon to a known chieftain of the North found in the earliest genealogies.  How is this so, one might ask?

Well, there is a king named Sawyl Benisel whose name is preserved in Samlesbury[35] near Ribchester (see Figure 2[36]). 

Figure 2

We know from Irish sources that he had a son named Matoc Ailithir.  Matoc is merely an Irish spelling for Welsh Madog, while Ailithir, from Ir. aile, ‘other’, and tir, ‘land’, matches in meaning perfectly the Eilwlad son of Madog in the Dialogue poem. According to Professor Thomas Charles-Edwards, ailithir "is well attested in Old Irish.”[37]

What this means is that Eilwlad son of Madog is a dim folk memory or reflection of Matoc Ailithir.  And that Madog son of Uther = Matoc son of Sawyl.

This identification of Uther with Sawyl Benisel seems to be confimed in the Marwnat Vthyr Pen poem from THE BOOK OF TALIESIN.  There we are told Uther is transformed by the “Chief of the Sanctuary”, i.e. God, into a “second Sawyl.” This is a reference to Uther being like the Biblical Samuel, who was called/chosen while inside the sanctuary at Shiloh.[38]

This finding is significant in several ways.  First, the Sarmatian veterans were settled at Ribchester.[39]  We know that the Sarmatians were among those steppe peoples who introduced the draco standard into the Roman army.  Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us that Uther took his epithet Pendragon from a draco standard, itself supposedly fashioned from a comet he saw in the sky.[40] 

In Welsh poetry, the word dragon is used metaphorically to designate a warrior or chieftain.[41]  But it is possible the epithet pendragon had a more literal meaning.  We know of a late Roman rank magister draconum[42], the ‘master of the draco standard’, and this would be perfectly rendered by pendragon.  Or the Chief Dragon may simply have been an honorific title for the ruler at Ribchester during the Dark Ages.  

Another important aspect of our placing Arthur at Ribchester concerns the 2^nd century Lucius Artorius Castus (affectionately referred to as ‘LAC’).  During this very symposium, Dr. Linda Malcor and colleagues are presenting a paper[45] that offers a new and exciting reading of the LAC memorial stone that was found in Podstrana, Croatia. The new reading allows us to confirm that LAC not only fought the Sarmatians, but was involved in the transfer of 5,500 of them to Britain.  Once there, he assumed the rank of prefect of the Sixth Legion and ended up de facto governor of the province.  We can only assume that he was instrumental in partitioning the Sarmatian cataphracts and would certainly have made use of them to deal with problems in the North. While we don’t know for sure when the veteran settlement for the Sarmatians was established at Ribchester, their close association with LAC might well have caused the name Artorius to have been remembered by and passed down among that fort’s sub-Roman/early Medieval elite.

I’ve been able to show why Uther Pendragon was said to have as his servant the god Mabon son of Modron[46] - and by doing so have successfully linked this deity to Sawyl.  Mabon is present in a Tremabyn very near to where Eliwlad is placed in the ‘Dialogue’.  He is also present in Llansawel parish in Carmarthenshire at a Castell Mabon.[47]  This Welsh Sawyl was confused in legend with the northern Sawyl Benisel.[48]  And, finally, we have evidence for the worship of Maponus (= Mabon) at Sawyl’s Ribchester.[49]  The 'Pa Gur' poem's claim that Mabon as one of the predatory birds of Elei was the servant (W. gwas) of Uther is due to an alternate spelling of the River Elei being confused with the Eli- of Eliwlad the eagle. 

Mabon was identified with the god Lleu in Welsh tradition (as both were placed in death at the same location, i.e. Nantlle in Arfon, Gwynedd) and Lleu is known to have taken the form of an eagle.  The epithet 'other land' seems to have been interpreted as referring to the Otherworld, and so Eliwlad took on a supernatural character. This idea was suggested to me by Professor Stefan Zimmer (private correspondence).

An Arthur born to Sawyl also lets us explain for the first time why all subsequent Arthurs belonged to Irish-descended dynasties in Britain, for Sawyl’s wife was a princess of an Irish king.[50]

If the 6^th century Arthur were born at Ribchester, fought battles up and down the Dere Street corridor and then died at Castlesteads, what can we say about his role in relation to the other princes of the North?

According to the HISTORIA BRITTONUM, he was ‘dux erat bellorum.’[51] Much has been made of this title.  Dr. Malcor prefers to see in it one of the titles born by LAC on the Podstrana memorial stone.  But it can be applied to a Dark Age chieftain without too much difficulty.  An example of the kind of thing I’m talking about can be seen in the life of St. Illtud.[52]  This man was the son of a king of Llydaw (here a designation not for Brittany, but for the valley of the River Leadon[53]) who went to serve with the household troops of a prince based at Dinas Powys. He worked his way up to become leader of those troops.  We find him called knight, soldier, master of soldiers, and prince of soldiers.

Arthur may have done the same kind of thing, although perhaps on a much larger scale.  As one of several sons of Sawyl[54], he might well have sought his fortune elsewhere.  The most logical place to put him is in the Irthing Valley, where we find Banna/Birdoswald with its Dark Age hall complex[55] and Camboglanna/Castlesteads.  I’ve suggested that the Irthing was probably a bear river, and that the people of the Irthing Valley were called the *Artenses or People of the Bear – the Arthwys of the Welsh sources. 

Is it possible, I wonder, given that the name Arthur was associated with the Welsh word for bear, that the People of the Bear were called after Arthur himself, and the river-name was merely a back-formation? While this may seem a stretch, we have examples of English place-names that derive from personal or group names that subsequently gave their names to neighboring watercourses.[56]

In passing, I would remind my audience that Banna was garrisoned by Dacians for centuries.[57]  The Dacians, neighbors the Sarmatians, were also noted for their draco standard.[58] In another study I have demonstrated how the Aelius Draco on the Ilam or Staffordshire Moorlands Pan was undoubtedly a Dacian attached to Banna who was named for the standard itself.[59] The Dacians may also have possessed their own bear god.[60]

The Battle of Badon makes eminent sense for a man who hailed from Ribchester.[61]  Badon, once again, is Buxton in the High Peak.  Had the Saxons managed to take the place, they would have been in a position to cut through the Pennines and attack Ribchester itself from the south.  On the other hand, a resounding victory here by the British would have decidedly closed off this flanking maneuver on the part of the barbarian enemy. 

The death of Arthur and Medraut at Camlann[62] may have been a conflict between the powerful lord controlling the Wall from Banna and a nascent Rheged, a kingdom based originally in Annandale. Rheged does not come to the fore until after Arthur’s floruit.  And, indeed, the heroic poetry seems to suggest that Urien and his son Owain were the successors to Arthur in the North.  Certainly, before Arthur we hear nothing of Rheged. 

In summary, then, I would make the case for the name Artorius having been made famous in the north of England by the 2^nd century Roman dux and governor Lucius Artorius Castus. This name was used for a son by a 5^th century chieftain of Ribchester named Sawyl who had established himself as the magister draconum or Chief Dragon at the Roman fort of the Sarmatian veterans. The 6^th century Arthur went on to fight several notable battles against the invading Saxons along or not far to either side of Dere Street. His last victory was a crushing defeat of the enemy at Badon in the High Peak. 

He later perished at the Camboglanna fort on the Bear River, and was – if we choose to subscribe to the legendary account – ferried down the Irthing and the Eden to Aballava for burial.[63]  Or he may have been conveyed along the Wall via the Roman road to the same place. 

While the Apple Orchard name, with its strong Otherworld connotations, may have drawn Arthur to it, I personally revel in the possibility that Avalon is really the final resting place of the great king, and that he is there in the embrace of the Goddess of the Lake, with his sword deposited, in proper Celtic fashion, in her watery domain.

---

[1] Malcor, L.A., Trinchese, A., Faggiani, A., Missing Pieces: A New Reading of the Main Lucius Artorius Castus Inscription, Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 47, no 3 & 4 Fall/Winter, 2019, pp. 415-437.

[2] Hunt, A., The Arthur of History: Revised Edition, 2019, p. 12.

[3] Ibid, 75-83, 90-112.

[4] https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/columba-e.asp

[5] Wells, Emma J., Pilgrim Routes of the British Isles, Crowood Press, 2016.

[6] Koch, J.T., The Stone of the Wenicones, in: Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 29, 1982, p. 87ff.

[7] Bannerman, John, Studies in the History of Dalriada, Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh and London, 1974.

[8] https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1265

[9] Annales Cambriae; see Nennius: British History and The Welsh Annals, ed. and trans. John Morris, Rowman & Littlefield, 1980, pp. 45 and 85.

[10] Ibid, 127-130.

[11] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/my-suggestion-to-professor-oliver-j_20.html

[12] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-nucleus-of-uriens-kingdom-of-rheged.html

[13] https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/birdoswald-roman-fort-hadrians-wall/history-and-stories/history/

[14] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/banna-as-home-of-st-patrick-repost.html

[15] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-sub-roman-christian-inscribed-stone.html

[16] Hunt, A., The Arthur of History: Revised Edition, 2019, pp. 192-197.

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/12/dr-ken-dark-on-fifth-sixth-century.html

[17] Ibid, 202-206.

[18] Rivet, A.L.F., and Smith, C., The Place-Names of Roman Britain, London, 1982, p. 238.

[19] https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/search?qv=latis&submit=

[20]  https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/search?qv=ratis&submit=

[21] Breeze, David J., J. Collingwood Bruce’s Handbook to the Roman Wall, 14^th Edition, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2006; http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/35459/1/4128635.pdf

[22] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dgabata

[23] http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/GRASALA; https://arbredor.com/ebooks/Arthur2.pdf

[24] Melrose, R., The Druids and King Arthur: A New View of Early Britain, McFarland, 2014, p. 81; Ross, A., Pagan Celtic Britain, London, 1967, p. 375; Isaac, Graham, Place-Names in Ptolemy’s Geography, 2004; Alan James, private correspondence.

[25] Falileyev, A., Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-Names, 2010.

[26] https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1276

[27] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/camelot-at-corbridge-god-allitio-and.html

[28] http://www.castlesfortsbattles.co.uk/north_east/corbridge_roman_town.html 

[29] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-bear-river-of-birdoswald-banna-and.html

[30] Personal correspondence. https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_I_Introduction_Bibliography_etc._2019_edition.pdf

https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2019_Edition.pdf

[31] https://www.library.wales/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/02_A-B.pdf

[32] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-bear-cult-of-romansub-roman-cumbria.html

[33] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-strongest-linguistic-argument-for.html; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/precedence-is-all-eil-found-spelled-eli.html; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/condensed-argument-for-eliwlad-son-of.html

[34] Personal communication.

[35] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-fairly-radical-revision-of-my-earlier.html

[36] Adapted from http://www.romanroads.org/gazetteer/lancspages.html

[37] Personal communication.

[38] Haycock, Marged, Legendary Poems From the Book of Taliesin, CMCS Publications, 2007, https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/02/sawyl-or-kanwyll-reaching-decision-on.html and

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-fairly-radical-revision-of-my-earlier.html

[39] Richmond, I.A.,The Sarmatae, Bremetennacvm Veteranorvm and the Regio Bremetennacensis, The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 35, Parts 1 and 2 (1945), pp. 15-29.

[40] Thorpe, Lewis, tr., Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain, Penguin Books, 1966, p.200-201.

[41] http://welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html

[42] http://www.fectio.org.uk/articles/draco.htm

[43] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/uther-pendragongorlassar-and-dragon-star.html

[44] Ibid.

[45] Linda A. Malcor, Antonio Trinchese, Alessandro Faggiani. 2019. "Missing Pieces: A New Reading of the Main Lucius Artorius Castus Inscription" Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 47, no 3 & 4 Fall/Winter. pp. 415-437.

[46] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/eliwlad-flies-again-or-is-there-still.html

[47] http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/giants_wales.html

[48] See the entries for the various Sawyls at https://www.library.wales/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/10_S-T.pdf

[49] https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/583

[50] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/muiredach-muinderg-king-of-ulster-and.html

[51] Morris, J., ed. and tr., Nennius: British History and the Welsh Annals, Rowman and Littlefield, 1980, pp. 35, 76.

[52] https://books.google.com/books?id=PUGGAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=Vita+Sancti+Iltuti&source=bl&ots=5tbNjgyS0w&sig=ACfU3U2Wpr7NTx_FNArQLlJji4ZwqYM4uQ&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7-e7ywLrmAhWPrZ4KHVMdDYIQ6AEwBnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Vita%20Sancti%20Iltuti&f=false

[53] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/10/uther-pendragon-was-born-in-vale-of.html; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/10/how-welsh-tradition-confirms-that.htm; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/11/repost-of-true-identity-of-uther.html, etc.; although note that I no

longer consider the Vale of Leadon to be the origin point of Uther Pendragon.

[54] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/eliwlad-grandson-of-uther-and-madog.html

[55] Wilmott, T., Birdoswald: Excavations of a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall and its successor settlements, 1987-92, English Heritage, Archaeological Report 14, 1997.

[56] Ekwall, E., English River-Names, Clarendon Press, 1968.

[57] https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/birdoswald-roman-fort-hadrians-wall/history-and-stories/the-people-of-birdsowald/

[58] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-draco-standard-by-jc-n-coulston.html

[59] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/07/aelius-draco-dacian-and-bannabirdoswald.html

[60] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-bear-cult-of-romansub-roman-cumbria.html 

[61] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-ribchester-arthur-and-battles-of.html

[62] Ibid.

[63] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/might-arthur-really-have-been-buried-at.html