UTHER PENDRAGON AS LORD OF DINAS EMRYS: ARTHUR'S ORIGIN IN PRE-GALFRIDIAN TRADITION

Dinas Emrys Hillfort, Gwynedd, Wales

Arthurian scholars have, in my opinion, ignored the importance of Dinas Emrys for far too long.  I was thinking about the hillfort only just this morning.  Why?  Because I have encountered more resistence to the notion that Arthur was anything other than what tradition insists he was: a war-leader (or king) with an origin in Cornwall, specifically at Tintagel.  Any theory which claims to have "discovered" a historical candidate for Arthur elsewhere will never be accepted.  This is because no rival tradition appears to exist.

Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-history proved to be extremely influential and cast a long shadow.  To this day students of Welsh Arthurian literature are not sure what is actual pre-Galfridian tradition and what has been adapted to Geoffrey's treatment of the subject.  But is there still extant, no matter how buried beneath the layers of medieval romance, some remnant of a rival account to that which is offered in THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN?

Many of us have been both intrigued and puzzled by the folktale that became attached to Dinas Emrys. I myself have written many articles on the subject.  The tendency, I think, is to make the whole question of Dinas Emrys too complex.  It may be a great deal simpler than we have assumed to be the case.

To begin, the presence of Ambrosius there is important for only one reason: his exhuming of the dragons - dragons which were, originally, great chieftains or warriors whose cremated remains were placed in urns.  While such urns may well have been exposed when excavating a pool, the introduction of Ambrosius into the story was facilitated because St. Ambrose (whose father is the Ambrosius Aurelianus of Gildas and subsequent sources) exhumed two saints.  The name of one of these saints was Celsus, a Latin name whose meaning exactly matches that of Uther (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/01/st-ambrose-and-exhumation-of-saints.html).  We find the name Celsus paired with that of the god Alator from a Roman inscription (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/arthur-and-god-alator-of-south-shields.html).  Alator has been associated with the Aladur of an Arthurian poem.  There Arthur is said to descend from Aladur.

Uther was said to have been buried at Amesbury, a confusion for Dinas Emrys. 

All of this may seem mere coicidence, I suppose.  Except for two things.  First, Uther is said to be related to the men of Caer Dathal, which I have identified with Craig-y-Dinas in Gwynedd (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/ive-been-asked-difficult-question-why.html).  There is a good chance that Geoffrey's Tintagel is a relocation of Caer Dathal. Dathal is probably of Irish foundation, and that would help account for why all Arthurs that follow the more famous one belong to Irish-descended dynasties in Britain.

Second, Eliwlad son of Madog son of Uther appears to belong not in Cornwall, but at Nantlle just a little east of Craig-y-Dinas (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-shocking-discovery-real-location-of.html).  

Other factors come into play, of course, such as the Galfridian claim that Uther came from Llydaw (Brittany).  Llyn Llydaw is the source of the river that runs by Dinas Emrys.  Mabon is said to be the servant of Uther, and Mabon, like the god Lleu, is placed in Nantlle (see "The Stanzas of the Graves"). 

The simplest explanation, therefore, is to see Dinas Emrys as belonging to Uther Pendragon.  Ambrosius may be dispensed with entirely.  I've suggested that it may have been thought the 4th century father of the saint accompanid Constans to Britain (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/why-ambrosius-aurelianus-was-put-in.html). That would have been the nucleus of the legend.  There is no reason to think that he was ever at Dinas Emrys.  Geoffrey of Monmouth clouded the whole thing by identifying Dinas Emrys with Amesbury and its Stonehenge monument.

If this is all there is to it, then what do we make of an Arthur, part Irish, born in Gwynedd?  How would such a man have become the hero of the Dark Age British?  And where, exactly, were his battles fought?

Well, I think it's important to remember that the Welsh tradition may be as faulty in terms of recording actual historical truth as the Galfridian. So while Geoffrey of Monmouthmay have "stolen" Arthur from NW Wales, what little we can actually know about Arthur (derived from the list of battles found in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM and the Welsh Annals) strongly suggests he belongs to the North.  Not to Cornwall and not to Gwynedd.  The name Arthur itself is demonstrably from Latin Artorius, and it is almost certain the name survived in the North either in the vicinity of York or near the center of Hadrian's Wall.  That is the argument I put forward in my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY, and at this point in my research I see no reason to change it.  

The Welsh, like everyone else, wanted to claim Arthur as their own.  As the lands once controlled by Arthur came under English domination and remained that way, his place of origin, residence and sphere of activity was removed to places that were still thoroughly Celtic: Wales, Cornwall and even Brittany.