COMING SOON: My Case for Identifying the Lydney Park Temple of Nodens with 'Avalon'

Lydney Park Temple of Nodens

My Last and Best Guess for the Name of the Uley Shrine God

I've remarked in an earlier blog post that I'm not privy to the British cult title or epithet given to Mercury/Mars/Silvanus at the Uley Shrine next to Uley Bury (quite possibly *Cambolanda/Camlan).  As a result, I've had to resort to a very careful study of the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY place-names as those relate to the environs of Gloucester and the Severn estuary.  I've also gleaned whatever scant clues I could from the few curse tablet translations that have been published.

In Curse Tablet 75, the god (dei) is referred to as 'potentissimus' (powerful, strong, mighty and the like). If (and this is a HUGE 'if') this is a Latin attempt at the god's cult title, then the only place worth looking at, really, is *Magalonium.

Rivet and Smith have *Magalonium for the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY'S Macatonion.  Here are the sections in R&S dealing with both *Magalonium and *Maglona:

***

* Rivet & Smith, p 405 :

SOURCE

-  Ravenna, 10629 : MACATONION ?

DERIVATION. R&C propose to emend this to *Magalonion, reasonably enough (with c for g by scribal confusion, as often; although Mac- may accurately represent the same root, as in Hispanic personal names Macilo / Magilo, ELH I. 359, and Macalu, a divine name in a graffito of Seraucourt (Bourges, France : DAG 354). This *Magalonium they then derive from a river-name *Magalona, which with British *-io- derivational suffix gives for the whole name a sense 'place on the noble river'. Their base is an Indo-European root *mak- 'to grow' (Holder II. 362), from which Welsh magu and Breton maga 'to feed' ultimately come, as do Latin magnus and Greek megalos. Among place-names closely related are then British Maglona and its précise equivalent Magalona > Maguelonne (Hérault, France), Magalonnum > Moulons (Charente-Maritime, France). The origin of many personal names related to these lies in *maglo-s, perhaps 'great one', from which derive Old Irish mal, Welsh and Breton mael 'prince', present in such ancient names as Magalos, Magilos, Magilius; in Britain, Brigomaglos on a subRoman tombstone at Chesterholm (RIB 1722). Based on the mag- root are the divine name Magusanus, associated with Hercules in a dedication at Mumrills, Stirlingshire (RIB 2140); also DAG 943 (many) ; and the Gaulish place-name Magdunum > Méhun-sur-Yèvre (Cher, France) and Meung-sur-Loire (Loiret, France), together with British Magantia, Magiovinium and perhaps Maia.

Whether R&C's speculation about *Magalona river is warranted can be judged from the Continental analogues, for which no such supposition has to be made; and from the fact that no modem river-namc derives from this. It seems simplest to see the name as built on *magal- with suffixes *-on- io-, as in CANONIUM; and as meaning 'high, outstanding place' or the like, possibly 'noble place'.

It might turn out that Ravenna's Macat- is right after all. A name Macato (reading of the first a being doubtful) is recorded in CIL XIII 5806 (Langres), and other names, mostly personal, are known with Mac(c)-; see GPN 364-65.

IDENTIFICATION. Unknown, but apparently not far from Gloucester.

* Rivet & Smith : Old Carlisle, Cumberland.

SOURCES.

- Inscription : RIB899, which may belong here : see MAGIS

- ND XL13 (pictura) : MAGLOUE
- ND XL28 (text) : Praefectus numeri Solensium, MAGLONE (var. MAGLOUE)

ND's forms with u have a common copying fault of u for n. Final -e may simply be -a miscopied, or a first-declension locative.

DERIVATION. Maglona belongs with the names listed under *Magalonium, based on the root *mag-. Gaulish Magalona > Maguelonne (Hérault, France) is an exact equivalent of the British name, which has lost the unstressed vowel by elision. A similar sense, 'high, out-standing place', perhaps 'noble place', is appropriate.

IDENTIFICATION. Probably the Roman fort at Old Carlisle, Cumberland (NY 2646).

***

There is a Gaulish god (and also a chieftain) named Magalos on the Continent.  A place named for such a god in Britain could have taken a form such as *Magalonium.   For the etymology of Magalos we may compare maglos, from the PIE root *meg'h2- meaning 'great' or 'mighty.' (1)

Magalonium is thought to have been somewhere in the vicinity of Gloucester, and this would fit the location of the Uley shrine.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that this idea is based in ignorance of the actual cult name found in the Uley shrine curse tablets.  For now, the only person in the world who has possession of that information is Professor Roger Tomlin of Oxford - and he is not in a sharing mood at present.  We shall have to wait for his future publication of a definitive edition of translations with the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

(1)

*maglo- 'noble, chief [Noun]
GOlD: Olr. mal [0 m], Ogam CUNA-MAGLI
W: MW mael [m] 'chieftain, lord'; MW -mael, -fael (in PN) (e.g. Brochfael
< *Brocco-maglos);
BRET: MBret. -mael (in PN, e.g. Tiernmael)
GAUL: Magalos, -maglus [PN]
PIE: *megh2- 'great' (IEW: 709)
COGN: Gr. megas, Go. mikils
ETYM: If the etymology is correc~ the a-vocalism in Celtic should be
explained by Schrijver's rule (*mCvolced- > *maCvOIced-), but this rule is not
beyond doubt. Gaul. Magalos, if related, might represent PIE *mgh2-lo- with
the expected vocalization of the laryngeal (which was, for some reason, lost
in Insular Celtic and in Gaul. -mag/us).
REF: LEIA M-13, GPC III: 2305, Delamarre 213, Ziegler 1994: 112

[from http://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Etymological%20Dictionary%20of%20Proto-Celtic-1.pdf]

A New Identification for Argistillum in the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY

While re-examining sites in the Severn Valley region for anything that may pertain to Arthur, I happened to have a thought regarding the Argistillum of the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY.

Here is the entry for the site from Rivet and Smith's THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN:

- Ravenna, 10630 : ARGISTILLUM.

DERIVATION. Williams finds the origin of this name in a British word which has given Welsh gwystl (Irish giall) 'hostage', drawing attention to Holder I, 1993 (*geislos, *geistlos), and the modern Welsh place-name Arwystli; there is prefixed *are- *ar- ' in front of ' (as in Arnemetia - see AQUAE ARNEMETIAE - and Ariconium). The meaning is thus perhaps 'at the hostage', 'with a folklore reference now lost'. This seems possible, and we have nothing better to offer, even though this makes difficult sense. It should not be forgotten that in a gravely miscopied text like Ravenna there are no certainties when this text alone gives us a name. The present entry could be a garbled version of Ariconium, on the ground that this stands next to Gloucester in Iter XIII of AI, just as in Ravenna Argistillum stands next to Gloucester at 106,29. It is also possible that a root in Celtic *arganto- 'silver', which is common in place-names, is involved.

IDENTIFICATION. Unknown, probably near Gloucester.

Arwystli, while it looks attractive, is scarcely possible, as this Welsh cantref is quite a ways from Gloucester (see map below).

The other suggestions are not very good, either.

If we can allow in this one instance for a sort of hybrid Latin-British name, could this not be for *Ar-castellum?  If in full Latin, it would read 'juxta castellum', i.e. 'near, close to, near by, hard by, by the side of' the castle.  Castellum here would, of course, designate a Roman fort or fortified settlement. Castellum is attested earliest in Welsh with spellings such as cestill, kestyll, gestyll.

My guess for such an Ar-castellum in the vicinity of Gloucester would be the Kingsholm vexillation fortress:

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=115281&sort=2&type=&rational=a&class1=1&period=43%7C410%7CROMAN%7C38%7C0&county=None&district=None&parish=None&place=&yearfrom=43&yearto=410&recordsperpage=60&source=text&rtype=&rnumber=&p=19&move=p&nor=2642&recfc=1000

Kingsholm North of Gloucester, the Site of a Later Saxon Palace

Another Proposed Etymology for Metambala: Nodens as Anvalos?

Dedication to the God Anvallos

It has occurred to me that Metambala - if we assume this place-name is properly *[Ne]metambala - could be etymologized in a new and different way.

First, we must recall that the Lydney Park Nodens temple, often cited as a candidate for *Nemetambala, was in Ercing, a kingdom bordering on the Hwicce tribe (supplanters of the Dobunni). According to Professor Della Hooke (personal correspondence),

"The whole of that area [Lydney Park] lay outside the kingdom of the Hwicce (as suggested by the diocesan boundary) and must originally have been within Welsh district of Ergyng, a district around the Roman centre of Ariconium (?Cantref Coch. This is discussed by Bruce Coplestone-Crow in his BAR book (British Archaeological Reports, British series 214, 1989) Herefordshire Place-Names."

Readers of my blog will recall my discussion of the Anblaud made an ancestor of Arthur and other notable figures in Wales.  This personage is associated with Ercing.  The name means something like 'the very terrible [one]', from an intensifying prefix plus Clt. *blad-.   What I'm wondering is if this Anblaud could be a relic of or substitution for an earlier Celtic god name known from Autun on the Continent.

-ambala, if we allow for some of the usual form and copying errors encountered in the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY (see Rivet and Smith's The Place-Names of Roman Britain), could ultimately derive from Anval(l)os:

http://journals.openedition.org/rhr/7680?lang=en

We would then be looking at a Nemeto Anvalo or similar.  Granted, this doesn't make much sense in the context of the Lydney temple, as we know the god worshiped there was named Nodens.  But it could be that Anvalos was being used as a cult title or epithet for Nodens. Alternately, Metambala may be another site and not a designation for Lydney Park.

I emphasize that this notion is highly speculative and just as likely to be wrong as the other proposed etymologies for Metambala.  I mention it only because, to date, it's really all I can come up with for this place-name.

Metambala According to Sir Ifor Williams (Via Richmond and Crawford)

As I've not been able to come up with anything better for this place-name myself, I think it wise to fall back on the meaning of "sacred apple-grove."  We still don't know for certain exactly where this nemeton was situated.  I've suggested Ashbury and the Spital Meend fort, but others have made the case for Lydney Park's Temple of Nodens.

If I'm right about Uley Bury being Arthur's Camlan (*Cambolanda), then the proximity of an 'Avalon' to that fort is possibly significant.  Still, archaeology does not favor the survival of Lydney as a center of worship during Arthur's floruit.  On the other hand, the West Hill/Uley nemeton literally next to Uley Bury was a major religious shrine from the Neolithic up into the 8th century, with a Christian church being built on the site at the right time.  It is likely, then, that Arthur was taken to West Hill, and that the nemeton or 'sacred grove' name here lent itself to an association with the *Nemetabala just across the Severn from the mouth of the River Cam.

I regret to inform readers that my fairly extensive efforts to obtain the Celtic cult title of the god of Uley have been unsuccessful.  The relevant information is in the possession of Professor Roger Tomlin of Oxford and he refuses to be forthcoming with it until it  is published at some unknown future date.  The texts of the defixiones from Uley have been released with agonizing slowness.  The Romano-British name of the place must remain a mystery until and if the cult title is made available through the auspices of an academic journal.  While I understand and appreciate the need for such scholarly caution, the proprietary nature of the material can be incredibly frustrating to other researchers who happen to have a keen interest in the West Hill shrine.  

As I've mentioned in a previous blog, the existence of a nemeton place-name at Nympsfield (certainly for the shrine at West Hill) still has me wondering whether the *Nemetabala should be placed here rather than at Lydney Park.  The ordering of sites in the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY suggests only that *Nemetabala is on one side or the other of the Severn Valley. 

METAMBALA 50. In South Wales, near CAERWENT.
The word is probably corrupted from NEMETAMBALA,
and refers to a famous holy grove.
Derivation: [cf. NEMETOBRIGA, NEMETOCENNA.
[nejmet-, see NEMETOTATIO.
-ambala, cf. Gk. omphalos, 'navel', 'boss of shield',
'centre of the earth', Ir. imblim, 'navel', Lat. umbo,
umbilicus. I.W.]
It is, however, possible that this element is corrupt.
Nennius records (Hist. Brit. 70), among the marvels of
Britain, 'juxta fiumen, quod vocatur Guoy, poma
inveniuntur super fraxinum in proclivo saltus qui est
prope ostio fluminis'. That is, a freak apple-tree
existed at the mouth of the Wye. If the final element
here was abala, instead of ambala, the reference would
remarkably suit the situation. For the sanctity of
apples, cf. MANNA.
Meaning: 'The sacred grove of the navel', or more
probably 'The sacred apple-grove'.

The British Section of the Ravenna Cosmography1
By I. A. RICHMOND, ESQ., LL.D., F.B.A. Vice President, AND
O. G. S. CRAWFORD, ESQ., F.B.A.

"The explanations here furnished are for the most part due to Professor Ifor Williams, whose qualifications require no introduction."

REPOST - The Identity of Uther Pendragon Revealed

http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/12/uther-pendragon-discovered-at-last.html

THE APPLE-BEARING ASH TREE OF THE 'MIRABILIA' AND ARTHUR'S AVALON

An Artist's Conception of the Lydney Park Temple

I've been struck by something odd about the story of the apple-bearing ash tree in the 'Mirabilia' appended to the 9th century HISTORIA BRITTONUM.  

Although the 'Mirabilia' are thought to have been composed somewhat later than the HB proper, we would still have had an important differentiation between two words in Welsh at this time:  the ash would be onn, while the rowan would be cerd(d)in.  As far as I can tell, the rowan was not referred to as the 'wild ash' in Welsh ('onn wyllt') until the 17th century.  So the idea that this apple-bearing ash is a mountain ash with berries is not tenable (poma being a word originally used in Latin for any tree fruit, including berries).

Where, then, did this idea of the magical ash tree originate?

Well, I've had a crazy idea.  Suppose whoever wrote this story had before him Afal(l)on/Abal(l)on.  He then chose to interpret it, either through ignorance or perversity, as Afal-onn, i.e. 'Apple-ash.'  This may seem silly, until we ask ourselves whether Avallonis could have existed before Geoffrey of Monmouth's time.  To quote on this notion from p. 274 of Rachel Bromwich's TRIADS:

On this Burgundian 'Avalon', the DICTIONARY OF CONTINENTAL CELTIC PLACE-NAMES has the following to say:

Aballo LN LN: Avallon (FRA). Aballo TP 1,5; Aballone (var. abollone) IA 360, 4;
ABALLONE, AVALLONE Meroving. coins. Celtic, to aballo- on-.

The Proto-Celtic to English word list at

http://www.wales.ac.uk/.../ProtoCelticEnglishWordlist.pdf

gives

*aballon- apple-orchard

From noted Brythonic place-name expert Alan James:

"Early Celtic -on- is common as a nominative or locative suffix, i.e. in place names it just means 'N-place'. *Aball-onā- would just be 'appletree-place'."

Let us now take another look at the "Mirabilia" entry:

Iuxta flumen, quod vocatur Guoy, poma inveniuntur super fraxinum in proclivo saltus, qui est prope ostio fluminis.

"By the river called Wye, apples are found on an ash-tree, on the hillside by the river estuary."

If this magical ash = Avallonis, where is it to be found, exactly?  In a previous blog piece, I suggested the ash could be a reference to Ashberry (Ashbury) right next to the Spital Meend promontory fort and Offa's Dyke.  Yet there is no evidence of an apple place-name here, nor of any kind of Romano-British temple.

Richmond and Crawford suggested the Lydney Park Nodens temple, despite it being a dozen of so kilometers from the mouth of the Wye.  Still, it was "upstream" from the Wye in the Severn estuary, and the Wye empties into that very broad body of water.  They guessed that the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY'S Metambala should be *Nemetabala, the 'Nemeton of the Apple Trees.'    If they are right, the temple of Nodens would make for an ideal Avalon.

NOTE: So far as we know, unlike the nemeton at West Hill/Uley/Nympsfield, the Lydney Park temple did not continue in use during Arthur's floruit.

The Lydney temple was with the territory of the ancient Dobunni tribe. For more on the site, see the following source:

Excavations at the Roman Temple in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire in 1980 and 1981, P J Casey, B Hoffmann and J Dore, 1 April 2011

Abstract

Re-examination of the published evidence from the excavation of the Temple of Nodens at Lydney, Gloucestershire, by R E M Wheeler, FSA suggested a more complicated structural sequence than that postulated by the excavator, whilst detailed study of the numismatic evidence threw doubt on the traditional chronology. In the light of new phasing hypothesized from the theoretical work based on re-examination of the published data, selective re-excavation of coin dated features was undertaken. The results, confirming the theoretical work, suggest that the religious buildings had their inception in the second half of the third rather than in the middle of the fourth century, that there was a refurbishment in the fourth century but that there was serious deterioration of the structures after the middle of the century. Features attributed to the post-Roman period are seen to fall within a Roman chronology.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal/article/excavations-at-the-roman-temple-in-lydney-park-gloucestershire-in-1980-and-1981/AD47F50766067B6802382AC775CA9955

Is Arthur's Avalon a Nemeton Near Uley Bury?

Temple of Nodens, Lydney Park, Gloucestershire

Uley Shrine, Artist's Conception

In an earlier blog post, I made my case for Arthur's Camlan being the Uley Bury hillfort on the River Cam in Gloucester shire (http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/12/uley-bury-and-arthurs-camlan-process-of.html).  Here I wish to discuss a more likely Avalon than the one at Glastonbury, which appears to derive from very late tradition.  

Prior to the altering the River Cam's course to funnel it into the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, it debouched at Frampton Pill (near Frampton on Severn; see map at the bottom of this post).  From here someone could easily take a boat down the Severn to Lydney, where a Roman period temple to Nodens was situated.  This temple was within both the Dobunni and Hwicce tribal areas.  Furthermore, there is the possibility that its Roman period name was *Nemetabala, the 'Sacred Grove of Apple Trees.'  If this is the place's name, a connection with Geoffrey of Monmouth's Avallonis is obvious.

The idea for *Nemetabala comes from Richmond and Crawford, for noticed the following from Chapter 70 of Nennius's HISTORIA BRITTONUM:

Iuxta flumen, quod vocatur Guoy, poma inveniuntur super fraxinum in proclivo saltus, qui est prope ostio fluminis.

"By the river called Wye, apples are found on an ash-tree, on the hillside by the river estuary."

Now, to begin, Lydney Park is some 15 kilometers from the mouth of the Wye.  So to identify this magical ash/apple tree with the site of the Nodens temple is more problematic than Richard and Crawford seem to imply.  The viability of the form *Nemetabala has also been called into question.  I've culled from various respectable sources for everything I could find on the linguistic analysis of the original Metambala name, as found in the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY:

From Rivet and Smith's The Place-Names of Roman Britain:

e -am-) because the analogues show this in other names which have *nemeto- as first element.

DERIVATION. For *nemeto- 'sacred grove', see AQUAE ARNEMETIAE. R&C think that the second element could be *ambala 'navel', but this is hardly likely in place-names. They speculate also that -abala 'apple' might be involved, and cite Nennius on a freak apple-bearing ash-tree which grew at the mouth of the Wye; but on scribal grounds this emendation is hazardous, and the use of such an *abala as a second element in compounds is nowhere attested. It seems that we should first associate the present name with its only possible British analogue, Vindobala. Several roots bal- bail- are assembled by Ellis Evans in GPN 147-48, mostly in personal names which have bal (l)- with suffix or as first element in a compound. Of the various senses of these diverse roots, that in the name Balista in Liguria, perhaps 'white-peaked', is the most promising; possibly Celtic *balma 'pointed rock, peak', which must have existed in British in view of Welsh bal 'peak, summit', Breton bal 'steep beach, steep slope'. In the present name 'grove-hill' or 'hill-sanctuary ' would make good sense; but there can be no certainty of it.

IDENTIFICATION. The position of the name in the list indicates a location in Monmouthshire or Gloucestershire west of the Severn; a possibility is therefore the sacred site, with a Roman temple in an Iron Age hill-fort, at Lydney, Gloucestershire (SO 6102).

From Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews
(http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/Ravenna_Cosmography/group7.html)

Metambala is possibly for *Nemetobala (Rivet & Smith 1979, 424, who wrongly credit it to Richmond & Crawford 1949, 41, who preferred *Nemetaballa) and it may perhaps be identified with the religious complex at Lydney, important until the beginning of the fifth century as the major cult-centre of Nodens, given the religious associations of the word *nemeton (‘sacred grove’). Dillemann’s (1979, 67) suggestion that it represents Μεταβολη (meaning something like ‘crossing’, a translation of the Traiectus of the Antonine Itinerary Iter XIV), while ingenious, cannot be right: there are no traces of a Greek source for the British section (Rivet & Smith 1979, 201 contra Richmond & Crawford 1949, 3 and Dillemann 1979, 64).

From Trees in Anglo-Saxon England: Literature, Lore and Landscape
By Della Hooke

*Nemetobala 'walls of the sacred grove, sanctuary walls' (*nemeto- with gwawl from Irish fala, 'rampart'), a site perhaps to be identified as Lydney Park hillfort, a sanctuary subsequently to be rededicated to the Roman god Nodens-Mercury when a temple complex was built within the ramparts. [Nodens was identified with Mars, not Mercury, and British *ual- would have been the correct derivation, not Irish fál]

In passing, I note on earlier maps an Ashbury, 'fort of the Ash-trees' (now Ashberry), near the mouth of the Wye, hard by the Spital Meend promontory fort and Offa's Dyke.

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=198723&sort=2&type=promontory%20fort&typeselect=c&rational=a&class1=None&period=None&county=None&district=None&parish=None&place=&recordsperpage=10&source=text&rtype=monument&rnumber=198723

On the Spital Meend place-name, see

https://www.academia.edu/9072562/The_distribution_and_origin_of_meends_in_the_Forest_of_Dean

It is possible the name of this place - originally in Welsh, of course - was transferred from the fort itself.  If so, the ash of the HISTORIA BRITTONUM near the mouth of the Wye may have been a reference to Spital Meend.

MY CLOSING THOUGHTS ON THE PLACE-NAME METAMBALA

As with many of the names in the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY, Metambala looks to be terribly corrupt.  Any emendation of it is, therefore, fraught with peril.  However, I do think the first element of the name does stand for *Nemeto-.

(passage from Della Hooke)

Some of these places mentioned by Hooke are the Nympsfield Long Barrow and the Uley Long Barrow, otherwise known as Hetty Peglar's Tump.  

From Ekwall:  

"Nymdesfeld 872...Nimdesfelle DB. Nimedesfeld 1236... 'FELD by a holy grove or place.  No doubt the Brit name of the place was Nemeto- 'holy place.'"

The Nemeton name applied to Nympsfield just to the NE of Uley Bury hillfort (my candidate for Arthur's Camlan) must, in my opinion, be seen in a transferred sense.  The nemeton itself was not at Nympsfield.  Instead, it is a short distance away at West Hill, very near Uley Bury.  The site in question is nicely described in the following Websites:

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=205240&sort=4&search=all&criteria=Uley%20Shrines&rational=q&recordsperpage=10

https://archaeologyathull.wordpress.com/archaeology-of-britain/u/uley-shrine/

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Uley_Shrines.html?id=cp5nAAAAMAAJ

https://www.academia.edu/1888448/The_Uley_Shrines_Excavation_of_a_Ritual_Complex_on_West_Hill_Uley_Gloucestershire_1977-9._By_A._Woodward_and_P._Leach._English_Heritage_Archaeological_Report_

http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803121907784

http://curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/sites/uley-history.shtml

The actual monograph on the site can be found in entirety here:

http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1416-1/dissemination/pdf/9781848022157_ALL_72.pdf

This monograph contains the following passage under its 'Synthesis' section:

The continuity of worship at this site is astonishing.  More importantly, at exactly Arthur's time the pagan nemeton was converted into a Christian church.  Yet the nemeton or 'sacred grove' name persisted.

Had Arthur been buried at this place after falling at Uley Bury, the legend that this particular nemeton was Avalon, the Otherworld apple orchard, could easily have developed.

I would argue for the West Hill nemeton, not Lydney Park, as the RAVENNA COSMOGRAPHY'S Metambala. However, there is a title/epithet attached to both Mars and Mercury at Uley on the lead curse tablets.  This title has not been published, as it is apparently yet to be analyzed.  It may contain a clue as to the name of the Celtic deity worshipped at the Uley shrine, and hence to the name of the place itself.  I'm trying to obtain this title from Professor Roger Tomlin at Oxford, so that I can try my hand at it.  Any new information forthcoming will be offered as a new blog post here.

"More interesting than this, however, is a title which is applied to Mars in both those tablets, and to Mercury in four other tablets (28, 40, 62 and 78). Its use confirms that the same god is meant. It occurs in two cognate forms, of Celtic etymology like other cult titles of Mercury in Britain and Gaul, and was certainly of local significance, since another tablet (Tablet 75) refers to 'the temple of Mercury' at a place name which incorporates the same word. Unfortunately the reading and its etymology require further study, and it would be premature to publish it here. In due course it will be possible to make a minor addition to the toponymy of Roman Britain, and even to make a guess at the Celtic name of the god of Uley." - R.S.O. Tomlin

Map of the Hwicce Kingdom (Courtesy Della Hooke)

COMING SOON: THE REAL 'AVALON' OF KING ARTHUR

*Nemetaballa (diagrams courtesy http://curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/sites/lydney-history.shtml)

Arthur sites on the map

Arthur on the map.  Green push pin is Barbury Castle. The yellow pins are for battles (with Bath and Badbury/Liddington Castle both marked, as well as two possible 'Gleins' ).  Blue is Camlan (Uley Bury hillfort), and red is for the (probably) mythological burial spot at Glastonbury.

ULEY BURY AND ARTHUR'S CAMLAN: A PROCESS OF ELIMINATION

[NOTE: Since writing this piece, I have had good reason to reconsider the Cam Brook in Somerset as the most likely candidate for Arthur's Camlan.    Archaeology has demonstrated that Camerton on Cam Brook and the Fosse Way Roman road was an important Dobunnic settlement that may have continued well into the sub-Roman period (see ).  The Wansdyke, which is now believed to predate Saxon occupation of the area, overlooked the valley of the Cam Brook.  Despite the difficulty involved in the Cam Brook's original name (Camelar, Cameler), given Arthur's father's origin in the Vale of Leadon, which had been part of the Dobunnic tribal territory, Camerton or vicinity makes for the best possible 'Camlan'.  This is especially true if we are talking about a internecine conflict between two British kingdoms, with Medraut/Modred/Moderatus belonging south of the Avon.  Experts on the Dobunni tribe establish either the Avon or the Brue as the boundary between the Dobunni and the Durotriges. The Mendip Hills lay between these two rivers and may have been a sort of No-Man's Land.  ]  

Uley Bury and the upper River Cam (Ewelme)

Uley Bury Hillfort, Aerial View

When searching for a Camlan (either Camboglanna/'Crooked Bank' or Cambolanda/'Crooked Enclosure') in southern England, we must keep some ground rules in mind.

Firstly - and most obviously - we can safely discount the Camboglanna Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall - long a favorite candidate (including for the present author).  We may also remove from our consideration the Camlans in NW Wales (including the traditional site I discuss in detail at https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2016/08/arthurs-thirteenth-battle-camlann.html, and a possible Camlan centered at the Modret names (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/10/etymology-of-name-medrawt-from-my-book.html) in extreme southern Cornwall (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-new-candidate-for-arthur-and-medrauts.html).  These sites (like Geoffrey of Monmouth's other Cornish Camlan, briefly mentioned below, but see also https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-avalon-of-geoffrey-of-monmouth.html) are marginalizations, i.e. they have been relocated in folk tradition to the Celtic Fringe.  The reason for this transference is simple: the real Camlan lay within territory long held by the enemy, i.e. the English and/or the Normans. Valued heroic legend becomes embedded in the local environment of the people who created it, one that best preserves its specific, native Celticity. 

Second, it is very easy to fall victim to a reliance on modern forms of the various Cam names.  The earliest forms (spellings) must be found, if they exist.  Indulging in this exercise helps us avoid choosing the Cam in Somerset (a back formation from Camel, found as Cantmael in 995), Geoffrey's Camel River in Cornwall (Cambula in 1147; although see Victor Watts in The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names for an incredibly complex discussion of the Camel and Allen rivers in this location [1]) or the Cam Brook in Somerset (Cameler or Camelar in 1073; perhaps Crooked Eleri. Thomas, in Enwau afonydd a nentydd Cymru, notes a stream Eleri, in Ceredigion, which has been associated with alar ‘excess, too much’ (p. 142).  Eleri is a girl's name in Welsh. Dr. Simon Rodway has suggested to me that Eleri might have originally been a goddess name.).  

Third, we must avoid opting for an English place-name with a similar or identical meaning, as we have no we of knowing if an earlier British Camlan underlies it.  

And, fourth, we must seek for a site that lies within what appears to be Arthur's sphere of military action. If he was what we could loosely refer to as 'Dobunnic', and he fought against the Gewissei, we might assume Camlan lay somewhere within either his home territory (if the battle was an internecine one between Arthur and Medraut, as late tradition claims) or within the range of battles found in the foundation history of Wessex.

Obviously, it may well be that Camlan is a "lost" name in the sense that this place now bears an English, Norman or even, perhaps, a Norse or Gaelic name.  If this is the case, then the site will never be found.

Fortunately for us, there remain just three candidates that hold significant potential: The Cams in Hampshire, The Cam in Dorset and the River Cam in Gloucestershire.  

I treated of The Cams in several articles.  I am providing three here that somewhat complement each other:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/how-i-missed-camlan-all-these-years-and.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-more-precise-geographical-fix-for.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/07/why-arthurs-camlann-is-probably-cams-on_15.html

While this site cannot be discounted, as Camlan occurred after Arthur had fought all his other battles, it seems to me that this is way too southern to be a serious contender.  Provisionally, then, I am putting it on the "NO" list. 

The Cam in Dorset is a tiny tributary of the Caudle Brook whose location seems unimportant.  It is also very far south.  According to Dr. Richard Coates, "No early forms exist (PN Do V: 6-7 – it is in this PN book), but it’s very windy so possibly Britt. *camm- ‘winding, bent’."

Our other choise is the River Cam, demonstrably from British *cambo- (Camma in 1086).  The upper course of this stream is now called the Ewelme.  The following selection is from Water and the Environment in the Anglo-Saxon World by Maren Clegg Hyer:

In other words, a word at first used to describe the source of the Cam later became the name for this stretch of the River Cam.  The Ewelme is simply the river-spring or source of the River Cam.

One of the springs that feeds the headwaters of the Cam actually lies on the slope of the great hillfort of Uley Bury.  Uley is 'Yew Wood', from the OE, named for what was anciently considered the tree of death.  This fort has a peculiar curved or bent shape (see map and aerial photo above).  It lies opposite Cam Peak and Cam Long Down.  The Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru lists the meanings of cam as: crooked, bent, hunch-backed, distorted, wry, bowed, curved, looped, winding.

I would tentatively identify Uley Bury as the "Cam Enclosure" or "Crooked Enclosure", viz. Cambolanda/Camlan.  One possibility is that the River Cam name derives from that of the fort.   If the fort were originally named after the river, then we must assume a meaning "Enclosure of the [River] Cam."  It is not impossible that Cam Long Down betrays a later English substitution for Camlan Down (although, to be honest, the hill is long).

Uley Bury lies well within Dobunnic tribal terrotory (indeed, a Dobunnic coin has been found there) and also lay within what became the Saxon kingdom of the Hwicce. Thus, Arthur could easily have fought here.

I have spoken with Professor Roger Tomlin, who is deciphering the lead curse tablets found at the Uley shrine.  He is soon to publish the name of the shrine.  For now, he can only tell me that

"One of the tablets refers to a 'hill', which I take to be Uley Bury."

[1]

According to Watts, Camel was the name of the upper part of the river only, the name of the main river being Alan.  The Allen, on the other hand, came to be called such due to an Ordnance Survey mapping error in the 19th century, which transferred the Alan name.  The original name of the Allen was Layne or Laine, of unknown meaning.  To muddy the waters even more, the Layne or Laine may also have been called the Dewi or Dewy - again, of unknown meaning.  

COMING SOON: A NEW CANDIDATE FOR ARTHUR'S CAMLAN BATTLE

Uley Bury Hillfort

THE TRUTH ABOUT ARTHUR AND GLASTONBURY

Maelduin's Boat

The secret to unlocking the truth about the Glastonbury Mystery resides in identifying the Melwas of the Life of St. Gildas. I had tried unsuccessfully to do this several times in the past.  As with the Hwicce etymology, I realized only recently that I've been trying TOO hard.  We need to ignore the usual derivation from W. mael, 'prince', and gwas, 'boy, servant.'  He is not found in any of the royal genealogies attached to Glastonbury, nor is he to be related to any Cornish or Breton personages.  Some have sought to identify him with Gwynn son of Nudd, who is also placed at Glastonbury, but there is no real justification for doing so. The idea that the name represents Maelwys son of Baeddan ('Prince Pig son of Little Boar') of CULHWCH AND OLWEN is slightly more attractive, given the foundation story of Glastonbury involving a sow (see The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey: Essays in Honour of the Ninetieth Birthday of C.A. Ralegh Radford, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1991).  However,

"This theory has been more recently rejected most notably by Proinsias Mac Canna, Rachel Bromwich, and D. Simon Evans in favor of John Rhys's 1891 assertion that the name derives from the Irish Mael Umai mac Baitan—an early seventh century king who fought with the Scottish king of Dal Riata Aedan mac Gabrain (d. 608) against the English invader Aethelfrith at the battle of Degsastan (SAL, pp. 51, 344, CaO, p.69, DAB, p. xxxiv)."

[http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/collins-arthurian-court-list-in-culhwch-and-olwen]

Melwas could be (given the ease with which w/v and m could be substituted in many medieval MSS.), the Malmes- of Malmesbury.  In fact, we have examples of spellings for this place-name such as 'Malves-' and 'Malues-'.  The spelling as Malmesbury is found in the Domesday Book, with coins (1016-66) showing forms Mealmas, Melmes.  Many variants of the place-name are known (see The Place Names of Wiltshire by J.E.B Gover, Allen Mawer and F.M. Stenton Volume XVI published in 1939).  The actual personal name preserved in the first component of Malmesbury is Maeldu(i)b, later wrongly conflated with Maelduin.  Both are Irish names, and we are reminded that in the SANAS CORMAIC Glastonbury is referred to as 'Glasimpere na nGaedel' or "Glastonbury of the Irish."   

The 7th century St. Maeldub was considered the founder of the monastic settlement at Malmesbury.  

If this identification is correct, then why did Caradog of Llancarfan, the author of the Vita of St. Gildas, place this saint at Glastonbury?

The answer is straight-forward and simple: as Maelduin, Maeldub was associated with the Irish hero of that name from the Immram Maele Dúin or the Voyage of Máel Dúin, who had visited 1) an island with the branch of an apple tree, where they are fed with apples for 40 nights and 2) an island of apples, pigs, and birds. Hence, this saint of Malmesbury was linked in story with the Isle of Apple Trees, viz, Avalon, and placed at Glastonbury.  Guinevere, Arthur's queen (= the Irish Sovereignty Goddess Findabair), is abducted by Melwas. 

Now, while the Roman period Dobunni kingdom seems to have extended to the Brue, with Glastonbury on the border between the former tribal territory and that of the Durotriges, the Hwicce kingdom, a sort of successor state, only went as far south as the Bristol Avon, so far as we know.  Interestingly, Malmesbury itself was well within the Hwicce kingdom. There was an Iron Age hillfort at Malmesbury:

http://www.cotswoldarchaeology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Malmesbury_town_wall_200dpi.pdf

The excavator of Malmesbury, Mr. Mark Collard of Rubicon Heritage, has kindly provided me with additional information on the age of the town:

We have found nothing in the town itself of the sub-Roman period as yet but there is a very important Anglo-Saxon site nearby in a field at a place called Cowage Farm, Foxley – it was subject to very limited excavation and dating evidence was scarce but the form of the buried archaeological remains is very similar to royal sites of the earlier to Middle Saxon period found elsewhere in the UK, though the date of its origins are as yet unknown.

A summary is here:

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1018389

The investigations were published in the Archaeological Journal:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00665983.1986.11021134

The question naturally becomes, if Melwas = the founder of the monastery at Malmesbury, who was relocated in legend to Glastonbury, might the former site be the actual burial place of Arthur?

There was a medieval tradition concerning a Caer Bladon at Malmesbury.  The following selections are from Charters of Malmesbury Abbey, S. E. Kelly, OUP/British Academy, 2005:

Sad to say, while Malmes- would appear to be a good candidate for Melwas, there is a better possibility.  This is found in The Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey: An Edition, Translation and Study of John of Glastonbury's "Cronica Sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie by James P. Carley, Boydell & Brewer, Apr 20, 2009.  In that source we are told that St. Patrick discovered among the monks at Glastonbury two named Weslicas (an eponym for the nearby town of Wells?) and Swelwes.  An elaborate story is told about Weslicas or Wellias:

The Charter of St Patrick the Bishop.

'In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Patrick, the humble servant of God, in the year of His Incarnation 430, was sent into Ireland by the most holy Pope Celestine, and by God's grace converted the Irish to the way of truth; and, when I had established them in the Catholic faith, at length I returned to Britain, and, as I believe, by the guidance of God, who is the life and the way, I chanced upon the isle of Ynsgytrin, wherein I found a place holy and ancient, chosen and sanctified by God in honour of Mary the pure Virgin, the Mother of God: and there I found certain brethren imbued with the rudiments of the Catholic faith, and of pious conversation, who were successors of the disciples of St Phagan and St Deruvian, whose names for the merit of their lives I verily believe are written in heaven: and because the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance, since tenderly I loved those brethren, I have thought good to record their names in this my writing. And they are these: Brumban, Hyregaan, Brenwal, Wencreth, Bamtonmeweng, Adelwalred, Lothor, Wellias, Breden, Swelwes, Hin Loernius, and another Hin. These men, being of noble birth and wishing to crown their nobleness with deeds of faith, had chosen to lead a hermit's life; and when I found them meek and gentle, I chose to be in low estate with them, rather than to dwell in kings' palaces. And, since we were all of one heart and one mind, we chose to dwell together, and eat and drink in common, and sleep in the same house. And so they set me, though unwilling, at their head: for indeed I was not worthy to unloose the latchet of their shoes. And, when we were thus leading the monastic life according to the pattern of the approved fathers, the brothers showed me writings of St Phagan and St Deruvian, wherein it was contained that twelve disciples of St Philip and St James had built that Old Church in honour of our Patroness aforesaid, instructed thereto by the blessed archangel Gabriel. And further, that the Lord from heaven had dedicated that same church in honour of His Mother; and that to those twelve three pagan kings had granted for their sustenance twelve portions of land. Moreover in more recent writings I found that St Phagan and St Deruvian had obtained from Pope Eleutherius, who had sent them, ten years[21] of indulgence. And I brother Patrick in my time obtained twelve years from Pope Celestine of pious memory.

'Now after some time had passed I took with me my brother Wellias, and with great difficulty we climbed up through the dense wood to the summit of the mount, which stands forth in that island. And when we were come there we saw an ancient oratory, wellnigh ruined, yet fitting for Christian devotion and, as it appeared to me, chosen by God. And when we entered therein we were filled with so sweet an odour that we believed ourselves to be set in the beauty of Paradise. So then we went out and went in again, and searched the whole place diligently; and we found a volume in which were written Acts of Apostles, along with Acts and Deeds of St Phagan and St Deruvian. It was in great part destroyed, but at the end thereof we found a writing which said that St Phagan and St Deruvian, by revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, had built that oratory in honour of St Michael the archangel, that he should have honour there from men, who at God's bidding was to introduce men to everlasting honour. And since that writing pleased us much, we sought to read it to the end. For that same writing said that the venerable Phagan and Deruvian abode there for nine years, and that they had also obtained indulgence of thirty years for all Christian folk who visit that place with pious intent for the honour of the blessed Michael. Having found therefore this great treasure of divine goodness, I and brother Wellias fasted three months, engaged in prayer and watching, and controlling the demons and beasts that in divers forms appeared. And on a certain night, when I had given myself to sleep, the Lord Jesus appeared to me in a vision, saying: Patrick my servant, know that I have chosen this place to the honour of My name, and that here men should honorably invoke the aid of My archangel Michael. And this shall be a sign to thee, and to thy brethren, that they also may believe: thy left arm shall wither, till thou has told what thou hast seen to thy brethren which are in the cell below, and art come hither again. And so it came to pass. From that day we appointed that two brethren should be there continually, unless the pastors in the future should for just cause determine otherwise.

'Now to Arnulf and Ogmar, Irish brethren who had come with me from Ireland, because at my request they were the first to make their humble dwelling at that oratory, I have entrusted this present writing, keeping another like unto it in the ark of St Mary as a memorial for those who shall come after. And I Patrick, by counsel of my brethren, concede a hundred days of pardon to all who shall with pious intent cut down with axe and hatchet the wood on every side of the mount aforesaid, that there may be an easier approach for Christian men who shall make pious visit to the church of the Blessed Ever- Virgin.'

Wellias or Swelwes could easily have been corrupted by Caradog of Llancarfan into Melwas.  Or someone could have misread the name, had a portion of it, over time, eroded from the pyramid. For example, /S/welwas > Melwas, with the same common change from w/u/v to m that I've already mentioned above.  As these monks were contemporary with St. Patrick, who was not far removed from Arthur's time, there is little difficulty in fitting them into the flexible chronology of hagiographical legend. 

Wellias and Swelwes are also brought into connection with the two great pyramids at Glastonbury:

These pyramids are interesting, for two such are mentioned in the context of the grave of Arthur and Guinevere.

Glastonbury, therefore, remains the only holy site to have claimed Arthur's grave - although, we must remember that as far as the Welsh were concerned, his final resting place was unknown.  

COMING SOON: Arthur at Glastonbury - not nonsense, after all?

Arthur's Battles in the Context of a "Dobunnic" Theater

NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS DEDICATED TO SIMON KEAGAN, A FELLOW ARTHURIAN ENTHUSIAST, WHO URGED ME TO CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE ARTHURIAN BATTLES IN THE HISTORIA BRITTONUM MAY HAVE BEEN A WAR WAGED BETWEEN CERDIC OF WESSEX (= CEREDIG SON OF CUNEDDA) AND ARTHUR.  I HAD PREVIOUSLY ATTEMPTED TO IDENTIFY ARTHUR WITH CERDIC/CEREDIG, BUT HAD FAILED TO PROPERLY IDENTIFY UTHER [PEN]DRAGON WITH ILLTUD OF THE VALE OF LEADON (THE WELSH 'LLYWDAW'/'LETAVIA'/'BRITTANY').  ONCE I REALIZED UTHER WAS ILLTUD, I WAS FREE TO CONSIDER KEAGAN'S SUGGESTION.

Dobunni Tribal Territory

The first thing new readers will notice when reading the following blog post is that there seems to be major chronological problems with my treatment of the Gewissei battles.  However, I've discussed this in my books and in previous posts.  In brief, the order of the leaders of the Gewissei in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are consistently presented to us IN REVERSE ORDER.  I opted to accept the veracity of the Welsh sources in this regard.  So reigns and martial activities of Gewissei chieftains, as well as supposedly precise dates cited in the ASC, must be held to be extremely suspect.  We need to adopt a sort of  "backwards viewing" of the dates of the battles as these are to be found in the ASC.

The Gewissei, to summarize, were Irish or Hiberno-British 'federates' (or mercenaries) who had de facto possession of NW Wales.  They were recognized by the so-called High King of Wales (himself of partial Irish descent) and offered retention of their lands in return for service against enemies of that High King.  To aid in their efforts, the Gewissei allied themselves with the English against a powerful British kingdom that was considered a threat to the High King of Wales.  If I'm right, this kingdom was the successor state to the Dobunni, called the Hwicce by the English of a later period.  The chief champion of this successor state in the fight against the Gewissei and the English was none other than Arthur. His father was Illtud, styled the "terribilis miles" or Uther [Pen] Dragon, born in the Vale of Leadon to a king or prince of that successor state. Wherever his actual power base may have lain, Arthur was remembered as the "bear" of Barbury Castle, the "Bear's fort", near to Liddington Castle, one of the Badbury forts long proposed as Arthur's Badon.  

It now seems to me not only possible, but probable, that Arthur was the war-leader responsible for temporarily stemming the conquest of southern England by the English.  Obviously, when we compare the victories of Cerdic of Wessex/Ceredig son of Cunedda with those of Arthur, we are faced with a serious conundrum: who won these victories?  Was it the English, who claimed Cerdic as the victor, or was it Arthur?

Either side may have concocted a national hero out of their respective 'battle-leaders.' One side may have conjured a hero as a direct reaction to the glory assigned to the dux erat bellorum of the other.  Alas, we will probably never know what the truth is here. Certaintly, the Gewissei had notable successes and were considered by the English to be the founders of Wessex.  Yet the British, too, had their champion, and it seems almost inconceivable that the indigenous population would not have had its fair share of victories against the enemies who threatened it after the Roman withdrawal.  

As a historian, all I can do if offer this conflicting portrait of what may have happened in sub-Roman/early medieval/Dark Age Britain.  As they say, history is written by the victors, and there is no doubt that the ultimate victors in the battle for Britain were the English.  How long their conquest of the island was delayed, by whom and for how long, well, I do not feel qualified to say.  The only factual answer to the question lies in the hands of the archaeologists.  And while great strides have been made in that field in the last few decades, its knowledge base is still far from complete.

Years ago I played around with trying to equate some or all of the battles of Arthur and those of the Gewissei.  Alas, my knowledge of place-name development and of the languages involved was insufficient to the task.  It was time to take another stab at the problem, bringing new tools to bear.  

 

First, the battles of Arthur from the HISTORIA BRITTONUM:

Mouth of the river Glein

4 battles on the Dubglas River in the Linnuis region

River Bassas

Celyddon Wood

Castle Guinnion

City of the Legion

Tribruit river-bank

Mt. Agned/Mt. Breguoin (and other variants)

Mt. Badon c. 516

Camlann c. 537

And, secondly, those of Cerdic of the Gewessei (interposed battles by other Saxon chieftains are in brackets):

495 - Certicesora (Cerdic and Cynric arrive in Britain)

[Bieda of Bedenham, Maegla, Port of Portsmouth]

Certicesford - Natanleod or Nazanleog killed

[Stuf, Wihtgar - Certicesora]

Cerdicesford - Cerdic and Cynric take the kingdom of the West Saxons

Cerdicesford or Cerdicesleag

Wihtgarasburh

537 - Cerdic dies, Cynric takes the kingship, Isle of Wight given to Stuf (of Stubbington near Port and opposite Wight) and Wihtgar

As Celtic linguist Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson pointed out long ago, 'Glein' means 'pure, clean.'  It is Welsh glân.  However, there is also a Welsh glan, river-bank, brink, edge; shore; slope, bank.  This word would nicely match in meaning the -ora of Certicesora, which is from AS. óra, a border, edge, margin, bank.  If we allow for Glein/glân being an error or substitution for glan, then the mouth of the Glein and Certicesora may be one and the same place.

Ceredicesora or "Cerdic's shore" has been thought to be the Ower near Calshot.  This is a very good possibility for a landing place.  However, the Ower further north by Southampton must be considered a leading contender, as it is quite close to some of the other battles.

Natanleod or Nazanleog is Netley Marsh in Hampshire.  The parish is bounded by Bartley Water to the south and the River Blackwater to the north.  Dubglas is, of course, 'Black-stream/rivulet.'  Kenneth Jackson in his ‘Once Again Arthur’s Battles’ (Modern Philology, Vol. 43, No. 1, Aug., 1945, pp. 44-57) says of the Dubglas:

"Br. *duboglasso-, 'blue-black' which seems confused in place-names with Br. *duboglassio-, OW. *dubgleis, later OW. Dugleis, 'black stream'..."

Linnuis contains the British root for lake or pool, preserved in modern Welsh llyn.  Netley is believed now to mean 'wet wood or clearing', and this meaning combined with the 'marsh' that was present probably accounts for the Linnuis region descriptor of the Historia Brittonum.

W. bas, believed to underlie the supposed river-name Bassas, meant a shallow, fordable place in a river.  We can associate this easily with Certicesford/Cerdicesford, modern Charford on the Avon. Just a little south of North and South Charford is a stretch of the river called “The Shallows” at Shallow Farm. These are also called the Breamore Shallows and can be as little as a foot deep. An Anglo-Saxon cemetery was recently uncovered at Shallow Farm:

“A Byzantine pail, datable to the sixth century AD, was discovered in 1999, in a field near the River Avon in Breamore, Hampshire. Subsequent fieldwork confirmed the presence there of an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. In 2001, limited excavation located graves that were unusual, both for their accompanying goods and for the number of double and triple burials. This evidence suggests that Breamore was the location of a well-supplied ‘frontier’ community which may have had a relatively brief existence during the sixth century. It seems likely to have had strong connections with the Isle of Wight and Kent to the south and south-east, rather than with communities up-river to the north and north-east.” [An Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery and Archaeological Survey at Breamore, Hampshire, 1999–2006, The Archaeological Journal

Volume 174, 2017 - Issue 1, David A. Hinton and Sally Worrell]

Cerdicesleag contains -leag, a word which originally designated a wood or a woodland, and only later came to mean a place that had been cleared of trees and converted into a clearing or meadow. I once thought the Celidon Wood could have been substituted for this site, but that really made no sense.  Hardley, Hampshire, being the 'hard' wood (Watts, etc.), looked promising, if we could assume the Welsh knew Celidon (from Calidon-) derived from a British root similar to Welsh caled, 'hard.'  But we couldn't assume that.  

Instead, Celidon, being a great forest in Pictland, is a mistaken reference to Netley.  While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s insistence on this being named for a British king Natanloed is untrue (Natan- here being wrongly converted into a personal name; it is actually from a root meaning “wet”; see Watts, Mills, Ekwall, etc.), given that the Welsh knew of the famous Pictish Nechtans, in Welsh Neithon or similar (cf. Bede’s Naiton, Naitan), it is probable that the name was identified with a Pictish king and the wood thus relocated to the far North. And, in fact, it is possible that Natanleod/Natanleag in the Linnuis or ‘Lake’ region may have reminded the chronicler of the Dark Age battle of Nechtansmere

(https://canmore.org.uk/site/34664/nechtansmere), which took place at the loch or mire which existed at modern Dunnichen, Scotland, until it was drained in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Castle Guinnion is composed of the Welsh word for 'white', plus a typical locative suffix (cf. Latin -ium).  Wihtgar as a personage is an eponym for the Isle of Wight.  Wihtgarasburh is, then, the Fort of Wihtgar.  But it is quite possible Wiht- was mistaken for OE hwit, 'white', and so Castellum Guinnion would merely be a clumsy attempt at substituting the Welsh for the English.  /-gar/-garas/ may well have been linked to Welsh caer, 'fort, fortified city', although the presence of -burh, 'fort, fortified town' in the name may have been enough to generate Castellum.  Wihtgara is properly Wihtwara, 'people of Wight', the name of the tribal hidage.  Wihtgarasburh is traditionally situated at Carisbrooke.

Arthur's City of the Legion battle may well be an attempt at the ASC's Limbury of 571, whose early forms are Lygean-, Liggean- and the like.  The Waulud’s Bank earthwork is at Limbury.  Incidentally, Ceawlin’s Wibbandun of 568 is most likely a hill (dun) in the vicinity of Whipsnade, ‘Wibba’s ‘piece of land/clearing, piece of woodland’ (see Ekwall).  Whipsnade is under 10 kilometers southwest of Limbury and is on the ancient Icknield Way next to Dunstable Downs.

According to Kenneth Jackson (_Once Again A thur's Battles_, MODERN PHILOLOGY, August,

1945), Tribruit, W. tryfrwyd, was used as an a jective, meaning "pierced through", and some-times as a noun meaning "battle". His rendering of traeth tryfrwyd was "the Strand of the Pierced or Broken (Place)". Basing his statement on the Welsh Traeth Tryfrwyd, Jackson said that "we should not look for a river called Tryfwyd but for a beach." However, Jackson later admitted (in The Arthur of History, ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES: A COLLABORATIVE HISTORY, ed. by Roger Sher-man Loomis) that "the name (Traith) Tribruit may mean rather 'The Many-Coloured Strand' (cf. I. Williams in BBCS, xi [1943], 95).

Most recently Patrick Sims-Williams (in The Ar-thur of the Welsh, THE EARLY WELSH ARTHURIAN POEMS, 1991) has defined traeth tryfrwyd as the "very speckled shore" (try- here being the intensive prefix *tri-, cognate with L.  trans). Professor Sims-Williams mentions that 'trywruid' could also mean "bespattered [with blood]." I would only add that Latin litus does usually mean "seashore, beach, coast", but that it can also mean "river bank". Latin ripa, more often used of a river bank, can also have the meaning of "shore".

The complete listing of tryfrwyd from The Dictionary of Wales (information courtesy Andrew Hawke) is as follows:

tryfrwyd

2 [?_try-^2^+brwyd^2^_; dichon fod yma fwy

nag un gair [= "poss. more than one word here"]]

3 _a_. a hefyd fel _e?b_.

6 skilful, fine, adorned; ?bloodstained; battle,

conflict.

7 12g. GCBM i. 328, G\\6aew yg coryf, yn toryf,

yn _tryfrwyd_ - wryaf.

7 id. ii. 121, _Tryfrwyd_ wa\\6d y'm pria\\6d

prydir, / Trefred ua\\6r, treul ga\\6r y gelwir.

7 id. 122, Keinuyged am drefred _dryfrwyd_.

7 13g. A 19. 8, ymplymnwyt yn _tryvrwyt_

peleidyr....

7 Digwydd hefyd fel e. afon [="also occurs as

river name"] (cf.

8 Hist Brit c. 56, in litore fluminis, quod vocatur

_Tribruit_; 14 x CBT

8 C 95. 9-10, Ar traethev _trywruid_).

Tryfrwyd itself, minus the intensive prefix,

comes from:

brwyd

[H. Grn. _bruit_, gl. _varius_, gl. Gwydd. _bre@'t_

`darn']

3 _a_.

6 variegated, pied, chequered, decorated, fine;

bloodstained; broken, shattered, frail, fragile.

7 c. 1240 RWM i. 360, lladaud duyw arnam ny

am dwyn lleydwyt - _urwyt_ / llauurwyt escwyt

ar eescwyd.

7 c. 1400 R 1387. 15-16, Gnawt vot ystwyt

_vrwyt_ vriwdoll arnaw.

7 id. 1394. 5-6, rwyt _vrwyt_ vrwydyrglwyf rwyf

rwyd get.

7 15g. H 54a. 12.

The editors of GCBM (Gwaith Cynddelw

Brydydd) take _tryfrwyd_ to be a fem. noun =

'brwydr'. They refer to Ifor Williams, Canu Anei-rin

294, and A.O.H. Jarman, Aneinin: Y

Gododdin (in English) p. 194 who translates

'clash', also Jarman, Ymddiddan Myrddin a Tha-liesin,

pp. 36-7. Ifor Williams, Bulletin of the

Board of Celtic Studies xi (1941-4) pp. 94-6 sug-gests

_try+brwyd_ `variegated, decorated'.

On brwydr, the National Dictionary of Wales has

this:

1 brwydr^1^

2 [dichon ei fod o'r un tarddiad a@^

_brwyd^1^_, ond cf. H. Wydd. _bri@'athar_ `gair']

3 _eb_. ll. -_au_.

6 pitched battle, conflict, attack, campaign,

struggle; bother, dispute, controversy; host, ar-my.

7 13g. HGC 116, y lle a elwir . . . y tir gwaetlyt,

o achaus y _vrwyder_ a vu ena.

7 14g. T 39. 24.

7 14g. WML 126, yn dyd kat a _brwydyr_.

7 14g. WM 166. 32, _brwydreu_ ac ymladeu.

7 14g. YCM 33, llunyaethu _brwydyr_ a oruc

Chyarlymaen, yn eu herbyn.

7 15g. IGE 272, Yr ail gofal, dial dwys, /

_Brwydr_ Addaf o Baradwys.

7 id. 295.

7 1567 LlGG (Sall) 14a, a' chyd codei _brwydyr_

im erbyn, yn hyn yr ymddiriedaf.

7 1621 E. Prys: Ps 32a, Yno drylliodd y bwa a'r

saeth, / a'r _frwydr_ a wnaeth yn ddarnau.

7 1716 T. Evans: DPO 35, Cans _brwydr_ y

Rhufeiniaid a aethai i Si@^r Fo@^n.

7 1740 id. 336, _Brwydrau_ lawer o Filwyr arfog.

 

Dr. G. R. Isaac of The University of Wales, Abe ystywyth, in discussing brwyd, adds that:

"The correct Latin comparison is frio 'break up', both < Indo-European *bhreiH- 'cut, graze'. These words have many cognates, e.g. Latin fr uolus 'friable, worthless', Sanskrit bhrinanti 'they damage', Old Church Slavonic britva 'ra-zor', and others. The Old British form of brwyd would have been *breitos. It is sometimes claimed that there is a possible Gaulish root cognate in brisare 'press out', but there are diffi-culties with that identification.

It may be worth stressing that the 'tryfrwyd' which means 'very speckled' and the 'tryfrwyd' which means 'piercing, pierced' are the same word, and that the latter is the historically pri mary meaning. The meaning 'very speckled' comes through 'bloodstained' from 'pierced' ('bloodstained' because 'pierced' in battle). But I do not think this has any bearing on the argu-ments.

Actually, Tryfrwyd MAY mean 'very speckled', but that is conjecture, not certain knowledge. Plausible conjecture, yes, but no more certain for that."

That "pierced" or "broken" is to be preferred as the meaning of Tribruit is plainly demonstrated by lines 21-22 of the _Pa Gur_ poem:

Neus tuc manauid - "Manawyd(an) brought

Eis tull o trywruid - pierced ribs (or, metaphori-cally, "timbers", and hence arms of any kind,

probably spears or shields; ) from Tryfrwyd"

Tull, "pierced", here obviously refers to Tribruit as "through-pierced".

Tribruit is a Welsh substitute for the Latin word trajectus.  Rivet and Smith (The Place-Names of Roman Britain, p. 178) discuss the term, saying that in some cases "it seems to indicate a ferry or ford..." The Welsh rendered 'litore' of the Tribruit description in Nennius as 'traeth', demanding a river estuary emptying into the sea. However, in Latin litore could also mean simply a river-bank.

As it happens, the location of the Tribruit/Trajectus in question may well be determined by the locations of Mounts Agned and Breguoin.  These last two battle-sites fall between those of the City of the Legion and Badon, and after that of the Tribruit.

I decided to take a fresh look at Agned, which has continud to vex Arthurian scholars.  I noticed that in the ASC 571 entry there was an Egonesham, modern Eynsham.  Early forms of this place-name include Egenes-, Egnes-, Eghenes-, Einegs-.  According to both Ekwall and Mills, this comes from an Old English personal name *Aegen.  Welsh commonly adds -edd to make regular nominative i:-stem plurals of nouns (information courtesy Dr. Simon Rodway, who cites several examples).  Personal names could also be made into place-names by adding the -ydd suffix.  –ed1 (see the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru) is the suffix in the kingdom name Rheged. The genitive of Agnes in Latin is Agnetus, which could have become Agned in Welsh - as long as <d> stands for /d/, which would be exceptional in Old Welsh (normally it stands for what is, in Modern Welsh, spelled as <dd>). I'd long ago shown that it was possible for Welsh to substitute initial /A-/ for /E-/.  What this all tells me is that Agned could conceivably be an attempt at the hill-fort named for Aegen.

But what of Mount Breguoin?  Well, I had remembered that prior to his later piece on Breguoin ('Arthur's Battle of Breguoin', Antiquity 23 (1949) 48—9), Jackson had argued (in 'Once Again Arthur's Battles') that the place-name might come from a tribal name based on the Welsh word breuan, 'quern.'  The idea dropped out of favor when Jackson ended up preferring Brewyn/Bremenium in Northumberland for Breguoin.

So how does seeing breuan in Breguoin help us?

In the 571 ASC entry we find Aylesbury as another town that fell to the Gewessei.  This is Aegelesburg in Old English.  I would point to Quarrendon, a civil parish and a deserted medieval village on the outskirts of Aylesbury.  The name means "hill where mill-tones [querns] were got". Thus if we allow for Breguoin as deriving from the Welsh word for quern, we can identify this hill with Quarrendon at Aylesbury.

All of which brings us back, rather circuitously, to Tribruit.  This can only be the Romano-British Trajectus on the Avon of the city of Bath/Badon.  Rivet and Smith locate this provisionally at Bitton at the mouth of the Boyd tributary.  The Boyd runs past Dyrham, scene of the ASC battle featuring Ceawlin which led to the capture of Bath. 

The Welsh and “Bath” of the North

It has often been said that the Welsh Caer Faddon is always a designation for Bath in Avon. However, the only medieval Welsh tale to localize Arthur's Badon places it at Buxton in Derbyshire.

I am speaking, of course, of the early Arthurian romance ‘The Dream of Rhonabwy’, sometimes considered to be a part of the Mabinogion collection of tales. Rhonabwy is transported back in time via the vehicle of a dream to the eve of the battle of Caer Faddon. Arthur has apparently come from Cornwall (as he is said to return thither after a truce is made; this is almost certainly in this context a folk memory for the Cornovii kingdom, the later Powys) to mid-Wales and thence to Caer Faddon to meet with Osla or Ossa, a true historical contemporary of Arthur who lies at the head of the royal Bernician pedigree.

Here is the entry on Osla from P.C. Bartram's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:

"OSLA GYLLELLFAWR. (Legendary). ‘O. of the Long Knife’. According to the tale of ‘Rhonabwy's Dream’ it was against Osla Gyllellfawr that Arthur fought the battle of Badon (RM 150). He is represented as sending forty-eight horsemen to Arthur to ask for a truce till the end of a fortnight and a month (RM 159, 160). In RM 159 the name is spelt Ossa. The ‘Long Knife’ identifies him as Saxon, and as such he is foisted into the pedigree of Oswald, king of Northumbria, in a late version of Bonedd y Saint (§70+71 in EWGT p.64), where he roughly occupies the place of Ossa, grandfather of Ida king of Bernicia. In this context he is called ‘Offa (or Ossa) Cyllellfawr, king of Lloegr, the man who fought against Arthur at the battle of Badon’, and father of Mwng Mawr Drefydd. It is curious therefore to find Osla Gyllellfawr mentioned as one of the warriors of Arthur's Court in the tale of ‘Culhwch and Olwen’. Here it is said that he carried Bronllafn Uerllydan, (‘Shortbroad’). When Arthur and his hosts came to a torrent's edge, a narrow place on the water would be sought, and his knife in its sheath laid across the torrent. That would be a bridge sufficient for the hosts of the Island of Britain and its three adjacent islands and its spoil (WM 465, RM 109-10). Later in the story Osla took part in the hunting of the boar Trwyth. He and others caught him and plunged him into the Severn. But as Osla Big-knife was pursuing the boar, his knife fell out of its sheath and he lost it; and his sheath thereafter became full of water, so that as he was being pulled out of the river, it dragged him back into the depths (RM 140-1). A WELSH CLASSICAL DICTIONARY 587 It may be inferred that after the battle of Badon, Osla Gyllellfawr, being defeated, was supposed to have become subject to Arthur and to have served him until he was drowned in the Severn (PCB)."

Arthur is said to progress from Rhyd-y-Groes to Long Mountain and Cefn Digoll (Beacon Ring hillfort).  As far as the text is concerned, Faddon is hard by this location.  Yet we find nothing whatsoever in the region that could possibly be identified with Faddon. 

However, if Rhyd-y-Groes were to be rendered directly into the English, it would be Crossford.  And we find Crossford at a Roman road crossing of the Mersey.  If one continues north from Crossford to Manchester, a Roman road then led straight to the SSE to Buxton.  To me, therefore, it seems obvious that Rhyd-y-Groes is a standard relocation of the original site.

"Stretford proper lies in the south, taking its name from an ancient ford over the Mersey, also called Crosford. Leland about 1535 crossed the Mersey 'by a great bridge of timber called Crossford Bridge.'" (from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp329-335)

While the romance is entirely fanciful, the chronological accuracy in the context of choosing Osla/Ossa is rather uncanny.  Ossa is known in English sources for being the first of the Bernicians to come to England from the Continent. Under his descendants, Bernicia became a great kingdom, stretching eventually from the Forth to the Tees. In the 7th century, Deira – which controlled roughly the area between the Tees and the Humber - was joined with Bernicia to form the Kingdom of Northumbria.

In its heyday, Northumbria shared a border with its neighbor to the south – Mercia – at the River Mersey of ‘Boundary River’. The Mersey flows east to Stockport, where it essentially starts at the confluence of the River Tame and Goyt. The Goyt has its headwaters on Axe Edge, only a half a dozen kilometers from Buxton in the High Peak.

If we allow for the story’s author to have properly chosen Ossa as Arthur’s true contemporary, but to have viewed Northumbria in an anachronistic fashion – i.e. as extending to the River Mersey during Arthur's time – then Ossa coming from Bernicia in the extreme north of England, and Arthur coming from Powys of the Cornovii to the southwest, coming together for a battle at Buxton makes a great deal of sense.

Ossa would have been viewed as engaging in a battle just across the established boundary.

If I am right about this, the Welsh knew of the ‘Bathum’ or Badon that was Buxton and placed Arthur here as the victor in the great battle.  This is an error, of course.

According to the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE, Ceawlin (= Maqui-Coline/Cunedda) and Cynric (Cunorix son Maqui-Coline) fought at Barbury Castle in Wiltshire in 556 A.D.  This was part of a push from the south, as 4 years prior to this they had put the Britons to flight  at Old Sarum.

Yet, oddly, Ceawlin is not mentioned again until 568, when he drives Aethelberht into Kent. He then fights on several different fronts, but does not return to Wiltshire until 592.  He fights there at Adam's Grave (near Alton Priors), but is expelled after a great slaughter.  Adam's Grave (= Woden's Barrow) is under 15 kilometers south of Barbury Castle, and less than 20 from the Liddington Badbury. Ceawlin dies a year after this expulsion.

Thus from the attack on Barbury Castle in 556 to his unsuccessful second attempt to take the region in 592, 36 years elapsed.

The question that naturally needs to be asked is this: what happened after Barbury Castle that caused the Gewissei to cease military action in Wiltshire and seek better targets elsewhere? 

This is where the Liddington Badbury comes in.  Being only a short distance from Barbury along the ancient Ridgeway, it is the logical place for a significant victory that might well have gone unrecorded in the ASC.  Do we have any evidence that Liddington may have been the famous Badon?  As it happens, I believe we do...

THE LOCATION OF THE SECOND BATTLE OF BADON

There is one possible clue to identifying Badon. It lies in a comparison of the Welsh Annals entry for the Second Battle of Badon and the narrative of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.  The actual year entry for this Second Battle of Badon reads as follows:

665 The first celebration of Easter among the Saxons.  The second battle of Badon. Morgan dies.

The "first celebration of Easter among the Saxons" is a reference to the Synod of Whitby of c. 664.  While not directly mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, nor the Anglo-Saxon version of Bede, there is an indirect reference to this event:

664 … Colman with his companions went to his native land…

This is, of course, a reference to Colman's resigning of his see and leaving Lindisfarne with his monks for Iona.  He did so because the Roman date for Easter had been accepted at the synod over the Celtic date.  

While there is nothing in the ASC year entry 664 that helps with identifying Badon, if we go to the year entry 661, which is the entry found immediate prior to 664, an interesting passage occurs:

661 In this year, at Easter, Cenwalh [King of Wessex] fought at Posentesburh, and Wulfhere, son of Penda [King of Mercia], ravaged as far as [or "in", or "from"] Ashdown…

Ashdown is here the place of that name in Berkshire. It is only a half dozen kilometers to the east of Badbury and Liddington Castle.  A vague reference to ravaging in the neighborhood of Ashdown may well have been taken by someone who knew Badon was in the vicinity of Ashdown as a second battle at Badon. As the Mercian king was raiding into Wessex, it is entirely conceivable that his path took him through Liddington/Badbury or at least along the Roman road that ran immediately to the east of the area.

THE PROBLEM FROM THE STANDPOINT OF LINGUISTICS

Obviously, we still have the problem of the philology and phonology of the name Badon to contend with.  I've not yet encountered an expert in the languages involved who did not prefer Badon as a British form of English bathum, and such an analysis of the place-name point to Bath in Somerset (or, perhaps, as I once thought, Buxton in Berbyshire).  

Yet, while modern place-name scholars and linguists abide by hard and fast rules when parsing Badon, it is, frankly, absurd to suggest that the compilers of things early medieval works like the HB, AC or ASC would have had such knowledge or scruples. Sound-alike etymologies may well have abounded and places that were similar sounding or spelled similarly may well have been inappropriately identified with each other.  Errors in translation and copying only add to the possible confusion. 

We find Bath in the ASC as a place capured by Ceawlin/Cunedda in 577 A.D. [1]  There the place-name is spelled Baþanceaster.  It was Ceawlin who was present at Barbury in 556, remember.  

Now, Barbury is either 'the Bear's fort' or the fort of someone named 'bear.'  The Welsh regularly associated Arthur's name with their word (arth) for bear. 

In the midst of the Cerdic of Wessex battles (Ceredig son of Cunedda), there is an action featuring a man called Bieda (with variants Baeda, Beda).  The battle featuring Bieda occurs c. 501, a time that is nearly perfect for the Badon which supposedly happened at the time of Gildas's birth and which the AC has down for c. 516. 

Alheydis Plassmann of Bonn (https://www.fnzrlg.uni-bonn.de/mitarbeiter/wissenschaftliche-mitarbeiterinnen/pd-dr.-alheydis-plassmann) summarizes the dating of Gildas's ON THE RUIN OF BRITAIN and the most likely date for Badon according to that source (see CELTIC CULTURE: A HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA).  The prevailing view (much disputed, of course, in various circles!) is that Gildas finished writing his work in 547 at the latest.  Taking his 44 years, then, back from that date to the time of Badon, we arrive at 503. This is as close as one can get to the 501 date for the ASC battle featuring Bieda. 

According to Dr. Richard Coates, perhaps the preeminent English place-name expert, the best guess as to the origin of the name Bieda is

"Redin (p. 60) linked it with OE be:odan ‘to command’, though the structure isn’t fully clear. I’ve seen no better or worse suggestion since." [personal communication]

Granted, the Badda/Baddan- element of the Badbury names appears to have a different origin than the Bieda name.  However, my work on the Badbury place-names suggest a similar or identical origin (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/cadburys-and-personal-name-badda.html).

I've made a very good case for Bieda's name being preserved in Bedenham, Hampshire. 

Thus we have a number of correspondences which suggest why Arthur may have been placed at Badon.  They may be listed as follows: 

1) Cerdic of the Gewissei fights battles to either side of one featuring Bieda of Bedenham.  This battle's date fits the date of the "Badon" mentioned by Gildas.

2) Ceawlin/Cunedda of the Gewissei fights at Baddanbyrig/Badbury/Liddington Castle shortly after the Barbury or 'Bear's fort' battle of 556.  This is a major loss to the Gewissei and their Saxon allies, leading to their total adsence in Wiltshire for over 3 decades.  

3) Ceawlin captures Bath in 577.  Badon can be construed as deriving from English bathum.

CONCLUSION

So what exactly happened?

We might imagine this sequence of events playing out in the tradition over the centuries: Gildas is born at the time of the Bieda/Bedenham battle c. 500 A.D.  This was, in reality, not a special battle.  It merely happened to mark the birth day of a man who became a very famous Christian scholar and saint.  At some point it was wrongly identified with the famous battle fought at the Liddington Castle Badbury by Arthur. At some point the very similar Bath name was substituted for that of Badbury. 

This explanation may seem unnecessarily complicated or even convoluted. But it does seem to rather nicely account for what may have happened when the usual forces were brought to bear on literary materials created in the British Dark Age.

[1]

Note that the order of the generations of the Gewissei in the English sources are reversed compared to what we find in the Welsh.  This may have come about because of a simple confusion over the proper sequence of a genealogy.  The relative dates of the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE battles have also been called into question by a number of authorities, and revised chronologies created.  It is beyond the purview of the article to treat of this tendency.  I would instead urge my readers to research this on their own.  For my purpose, there are only three things that are important: 

1) That the Bedenham battle was fought in the year of Gildas's birth, c. 500.

2) That a major battle at Liddington Castle was fought by Arthur that effectively stemmed the Saxon tide in Wiltshire for several decades.  Precisely dating this action is impossible.  The Welsh give us a date of c. 516.  But it may have been closer to the middle of the 6th century. If so, the corresponding date of Arthur's Camlan at c. 539 was probably moved back to accord better with the 516 date, itself an error brought about by the need to ascribe the battle to the date of Gildas's birth.

and

3) A later Bath battle fought by the Gewissei was wrongly substituted for both the Bedenham and Badbury events.