The Distribution of Ogam Inscriptions in the British Isles
Over the years I have hammered away at what I call the 'Irish Arthur' problem. In brief, no one has been able to satisfactorily account for why all the Arthurs of the Dark Ages who are in the generation immediately following the famous Arthur of the Historia Brittonum and the Annales Cambriae belong to Irish-descended dynasties in Britain.
I've written many pieces on the subject. One of the better ones, which is a sort of summary of the problem, can be read here:
The main focal point of "The Problem" does not lie in Dessi-founded Dyfed in SW Wales. We might be able to allow for the name Arthur being brought there not only because, like the Dalriadans in the North, the Dessi were Irish, but because one of the members of the Dyfed pedigree (in the Irish version; the Welsh version substituted Roman names) was named Artchorp, 'Bear-body' (name etymologized by Professor Jurgen Uhlich). The Dyfed Arthur, son of Pedr, is also dated after Arthur of Dalriada, although before Arthur son of Bicoir 'the Briton' (who probably does not belong in Kintyre, but in NW Wales; see the Beccurus Stone at Gesail Cyfarch).
To tackle The Problem head-on, we have to look at Dalriada, where the earliest historically attested Arthur occurs, viz. Arthur son of Aedan (or of Conaing, Aedan's son, a man bearing a name derived from English cyning, 'king, ruler, emperor').
We have fairly decent records for a British wife being taken by Aedan son of Gabran. As all efforts to parse the name Arthur as Celtic (including my own) rather than as being derived from the Latin/Roman Artorius have failed, we must presume that the name Arthur came into the Dalriadan royal family via a British wife.
Maithgemma or 'Gemma' (a hypocoristic form of the name) was a daughter of Aedan and a niece of a British king. However, her name, meaning "Bear", is Irish, not British. But it is interesting, nonthesless, given the propensity among Cumbric speakers to view Arthur as containing arth, their word for bear.
The only British kingdom worth considering when it comes to intermarriage for the Dalriadans is, of course, Strathclyde, with its center at Alclud.
I've made a case before for seeing Uther Pendragon, the Cruel (see GPC for the maenings of uthr, and the reference to Arthur son of Uter being cruel in a gloss to a Historia Brittonum MS.) Leader of Warriors as Ceredig Wledig of Alclud, who is called the 'cruel tyrant' in a St. Patrick source. A letter by Patrick is addressed to his rapacious soldiers. Ceredig's floruit is perfect in terms of chronology. Patrick's life is treated of in the section just before that of Arthur in the HB. This Strathclyde ruler was vilified to the extreme, so it would not be unexpected for a poetic term for him to have been substituted, as otherwise Arthur's reputation would be tarnished.
As the Strathclyde kingdom was the earlier territory of the Dumnonii tribe, and a tribe of the identical name inhabited Cornwall in the Roman period, would could easily account for the tradition which tended to situate Arthur in Cornwall.
But if we take this easy way out of The Problem, we are faced with the following two questions:
1) How/why did the name Arthur find its way into the elite of the Strathclyde kingdom?
and
2) If Arthur was son of Ceredig of Alclud, is it plausible to have the former fight the English in the east as Rhydderch Hael, King of Strathclyde. (b. c. 540), (d. 614?) would later on?
We can tackle the second question first, as it is rather easy to answer.
The HB account literally says that Arthur was a leader in war and that he fought with the British kings against the Saxons. This sounds either like a sort of overlord or, just as plausibly, a mercenary captain.
As Strathclyde was a powerful kingdom early on, there is no reason why one of its royal sons could not have taken on either role.
The first question is quite a bit harder.
We pretty much have to evoke the ghost of good, old L. Artorius Castus, and accept that he did participate in campaigns in the North. And that whatever he did there made his name famous enough among the Northern British that it was preserved, handed down and, ultimately resurfaced as the name of a son of Ceredig of Alclud. And this is true despite the bulk of the evidence supporting the view that Castus went to Armenia and was not involved in any of the later major Roman campaigns in northern Britain. We would have to adopt one of my proposed readings for the ARM[...]S lacuna on his memorial stone: "arm(atas) gentes".
PETRA CLOITHE AND PETRIANA/'ARTHURIBURGUM'
Bartrum says of Ceredig Wledig: "He appears in the unique pedigree of the kings of Strathclyde in the ‘Harleian Genealogies’..."
To quote the relevant section for the Harleian:
Ystrad Clud
[R]un map Arthgal map Dumnagual map Riderch map Eugein map Dumnagual map Teudebur map Beli map Elfin map Eugein map Beli map Neithon map Guipno map Dumngual hen map Cinuit map Ceritic guletic map Cynloyp map Cinhil map Cluim map Cursalem map Fer map Confer, ipse est uero olitauc dimor meton uenditus est.
Gwyr y Gogledd
[R]iderch hen map Tutagual map Clinoch map Dumgual hen.
We notice immediately that there is a huge discrepancy between these two pedigrees for Rhydderch. And all kinds of related chronological issues (when reckoning by the generations).
And this is where a rather unusual confluence of "coincidences" may come into play.
1) In Adomnan, Alclud - the 'Aloo' of the Patrick source - is called Petra Cloithe.
2) Arthur of Dyfed is the son of Pedr, viz. Petrus.
3) Arthur son of Bicoir is said to kill Mongan with a stone (lapide).
4) The largest Roman cavalry fort in all Britain and the command center of Hadrian's Wall at Stanwix, properly Uxellodunum, is called Petriana in the Notitia Dignitatum. The Ala Petriana was named for Titus Pomponius Petra. Thought by some to be a mere ghost name, based on the cavalry unit that was there throughout the late period, there are some scholars who accept it as a genuine nickname for the place. Stanwix is close to the Aballava (Avalana; Avalon?, with its Dea Latis/Lake Goddess) Roman fort, the Concavata ( = Grail?) Roman fort, and the Roman fort of Camboglanna (Camlan?).
There is an antiquarian record of the Stanwix fort being called ARTHURIBURGUM, 'Arthur's fort.'
It is possible, I wonder, that Ceredig Wledig does not belong at Alclud, but that the Aloo of the Patrick source is an error for Petriana/Uxellodunum?
Obviously, all the stone references may point instead to Alclud itself, and that is, perhaps, the more reasonable assumption.
But... look at the map:
If we want an alternate explanation as to why the god Mabon is the servant of Uther Pendragon in the PA GUR, we can look to the Lochmaben Stone just a dozen kilometers NW of Petriana. A Maponus inscription (https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2063) is thought to come from Castlesteads/Camboglanna or its environs.
Past research focused on Banna and the River Irthing as the possible Arthurian center. Thr People of the Bear ( = Arthwys) probably lived here, as Irthing itself has been etymologized as the Little Bear. But it does not seem possible to place Uther at Banna unless one resorts to linking the Galfridian draco of Uther with the Dacian draco (the Dacians being the late garrison at Birdoswald). Welsh scholars are against this, pointing out that Geoffrey of Monmouth misinterpreted the Pendragon epithet and that "dragon" in that context was a well-known Welsh poetic term for warrior or warriors.
My recent work on the Welsh Badon as being twice fixed at Badbury/Liddington, which seems to fit with Illtud as Uther Pendragon, still ignores the linguistics of the Badon name, found in the later Welsh sources in a spelling that plainly indicated a Bath site. And I've always known that Uther may have been fancifully identified with Illtud due to the latter's military titles. There is a perfectly good Bathum at Buxton in the High Peak, the ancient Aquae Arnemetia, where there was a Roman road called by the early Saxons Bathamgate.
A possible link to Sawyl Benisel of Ribchester through the Illtud identification remains a valid theory as well. The reason I like that oneis because we have a clearly established link between Sawyl and northeastern Ireland, a link that could even have involved Dalriada. See
Sawyl remains a prime candidate for Arthur's father through the possible Sawyl reading in the Welsh elegy MARWNAT VTHYR PEN, and Uther's son Madog and grandson Eliwlad. Both these last individuals resemble to an uncanny degree the Madog Ailithir known to be a son of Sawyl Benisel. Ailithir is 'other land', a word for a pilgrim (as Madog went to Ireland to become a saint). Welsh (g)wlad also meant 'land', and Eli- is exactly how Irish Aile would be rendered in Welsh (according to several leading Celticists). Thus the identification of Madog and Eliwlad with Madog Ailithir remains highly attractive.
In summary, the Dalriadan Arthur, the first "historical" personage of that name we know of, has to have been named for a famous British Arthur in the previous generation.
As I see it, there are three possibilities as to who that earlier British Arthur may have been:
1) son of Ceredig Wledig of Alclud
1) son of Ceredig Wledig of Alclud
2) son of Ceredig Wledig of Petriana/Uxellodunum
3) son of Sawyl Benisel of Ribchester (remembering that Mabon was also worshipped at the Ribchester Roman fort)
The only thing keeping me from committing wholly to Sawyl is the Dyfed Arthur, son of Pedr. If Pedr did not choose his son's name because of a famous Arthur belonging to a Petra or Petriana site, we have to assume he did so only because of his Dessi Artchorp progenitor and/or because the famous Arthur was himself part-Irish (something distinctly possible with Sawyl's offspring, as he took an Irish princess as his wife).
And the stone of the Bicoir story is no big deal, either, as that can be shown to be drawn from a folktale involving the menhir at Dun Beachaire in Kintyre.
In conclusion, then, Sawyl Benisel looks the most attractive to me as a potential Uther Pendragon.
