Uther, Emrys, Mabon and Camelot (with a Note on Vortigern's Red Dragon)

Caerau Camp Plain, From COFLEIN

Caerau Camp Aerial Photo, From COFLEIN

In past books and blog posts, I identified Arthur's 'Camelot' with the Campus Elleti of Nennius' HISTORIA BRITTONUM.  I've not changed my mind about this identification.

But what has changed is my view of it.  In this blog post, I would like to float a new idea - that this may have been Uther's ruling center.  At least in Welsh tradition!

Campus Elleti of Camelot is the Caerau fort on the River Ely in SE Wales.  In the same general area we find a Coedkernyw (in the ancient kingdom of Gwynllwg) and a Gelli-Wig (near Grosmont Castle in what is now Gwent). Geoffrey of Monmouth's Caerleon is also nearby.

Nennius is the first to place Ambrosius or 'Emrys' at Campus Elleti.  Ambrosius is, as I've discussed elsewhere (see http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-ghost-ambrosius-or-why-arthurs.html), a folkloristic "transplant" to Wales.  BUT... in the Pa Gur poem, Mabon son of Modron is not only called one of the birds of prey of Elei (which is Ely), but the servant of Uther Pendragon.  

Now, if Mabon was of Elei, and he was a servant of Uther, then it may naturally follow that Uther ruled from Elei.  As Ambrosius was from Campus Elleti/Caerau Camp on the Ely, I would tentatively point to this hillfort as a traditional center for Uther himself.

Some years ago I proposed that Uther Pendragon was merely a poetic reference to Ambrosius himself.  After all, it is Ambrosius who is associated with the red dragon, and who is "given" the fort of the red dragon (Dinas Emrys).  It is Ambrosius who is called the 'rex magnus' in Nennius, and who is the dread (timore) of Vortigern.  Were this to be a correct identification, Ambrosius at Campus Elleti would = Uther in this location, as both personages were the same.  

I did, eventually, abandon the notion that Uther was Ambrosius.  For my latest identification of the former with Cunedda, see my new book THE BEAR KING.

Yet the presence of Arthur's uncle (and father?) at Campus Elleti, once established in Welsh tradition, stuck.  The evidence is obvious: Camelot first appears and is made famous by Chretien de Troyes. The rest, as they say, is literary history.

A NOTE ON VORTIGERN'S RED DRAGON

In the early Welsh poem "Gwarchan Maeldderw" (see G.R. Isaac's translation and commentary in CAMBRIAN MEDIEVAL CELTIC STUDIES 44, Winter 2002), we are told of the 'Pharaoh's red dragon.' The context of the poem makes it difficult if not impossible to tell exactly what the red dragon in this instance represents.  Is it a draco standard?  Or is it merely a poetic reference to Britons in their capacity as members of a field army?

The important thing about the passage is that the dragon is said to be the Pharaoh's.  The Pharaoh is what Vortigern was called in Gildas.  The name appears in later Welsh tradition as Ffaraon Dandde, the 'Fiery Pharaoh', owner of the Dinas Emrys fort prior to the advent there of Emrys/Ambrosius. The epithet for Ffaraon/Pharaoh was concocted through a misunderstanding of Gildas's Latin "Taneos dantes Pharaoni consilium insipens", 'giving foolish advice to Pharaoh.'

Thus in this poem we have the dragon standard or British warriors being referred to as belonging to Vortigern - not to Ambrosius.