ARTHUR SON OF ANBLAUD THE RULER? A RECONSIDERATION

Artist's Rendering of Little Doward Hillfort in Ercing

Some time ago I discussed the only extant name/title combination in the ancient Welsh sources that appeared to perfectly match in meaning that of Uther Pendragon.  The article in question was entitled "A CURIOUS COINCIDENCE OF MEANING: AMLAWDD WLEDIG = UTHER PENDRAGON?":

http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-curious-coincidence-of-meaning.html

There I definitively demonstrated that Amlawdd or, rather, Anblaud, was best defined as 'the very terrible/frightening' or the like.  Wledig (gwledig), in turn, stood in very well for 'Pendragon.'  The Arthurian connections with Anblaud and his kingdom were many - right down to the presence in that region of sons of Arthur whose names appear to be personified in place-names.  A 'Cornwall' and a 'Kelliwic' are close by in SE Wales, and even Eigr, Arthur's wife, was made a daughter of the Ercing chieftain (although she, in fact, hails from Tintagel and originally had nothing whatsoever to do with Anblaud; see my book THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON).

I had missed one other key element, however, that linked Arthur in Welsh tradition with Ercing.  For while it was well and fine to suggest that Pendragon may be merely a poetic substitution for Wledig, I remained unsatisfied that no dragon could be linked to the kingdom.  Well, that was silly of me, of course, because long before I posted my work on Anblaud I had included the following passage in my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY (Chapter Two):

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, presumably, 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).

What does this information contribute towards my notion that Pendragon could stand for Wledig in the context of Anblaud of Ercing?  

Simply that the presence of Ohtor's dragon in Ercing may have provided the impetus to convert Anblaud Wledig into the more legendary Uther Pendragon.  Whether this came about through creativity or confusion or a combination of both is, of course, impossible to say.  What is important is that in this process we can easily account for the origin of 'Uther Pendragon' by deriving it from Anblaud Wledig.

Ariconium Roman Town in Ercing

Bury Hill, Site of Ariconium

For those who insist on a firm identification of Uther Pendragon with another well-attested personage who is assigned to a specific kingdom, it doesn't get any better than this.

We must be cautious here, though - and for the exact reason I expressed in my first article on Anblaud.  There I stated that "It may also be that the names Anblaud [Wledig] and Uther [Pendragon] just happened to closely resemble each other in meaning..."  Such a lucky correspondence would have been sufficient to allow an identification to have been made and for Arthur and everything Arthurian to have become attached to Ercing.  We must also ask ourselves this vitally important question:  if Uther = Anblaud, when was it forgotten that the latter was Arthur's father?  Why, for example, was he made the father of Eigr instead?

Still, one cannot deny the attractiveness of a place like Ercing, rich as it is in Arthurian associations.   

NOTE ON GWEN, WIFE OF ANBLAUD

According to Welsh sources, Anblaud's wife was Gwen daughter of Cunedda.  Cunedda was an Irishman, and so if Arthur did descend at least partly through a daughter of Cunedda we could adequately account for the name Arthur being given later to royal sons of Irish-descended British dynasties.  However, a marriage alliance between Cunedda, based in Gwynedd, and a rather petty king based in extreme SE Wales, seems highly unlikely.  This smacks of more genealogical manipulation.

The problem with Arthur as son of Anblaud has to do with the very simple fact that such a lineage does not work.  We lose everything about Arthur that we are able to retain when we accept him as Ceredig son of Cunedda - most particularly his battles, including the last fatal one at Camlan, as well as the origin of his name. Because of this I feel rather strongly that Anblaud should be seen as a sort of "magnet" for Arthurian folkloristic elements, due solely to the meaning of his name/title. The real Arthur, in my opinion, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Kingdom of Ercing.