ARTHUR, THE DOBUNNI AND THE HWICCE

Liddington Castle near Badbury, Wiltshire

Readers of my blog will know by now that I've made what I feel to be a truly valid identification of Uther [Pen]Dragon with Illtud, the terribilis miles and magister militum.  Illtud was the son of Bicanus of  'Brittany', in this case the Vale of Leadon. Illtud's wife came from this 'Llydaw'.  The military man served the king of Penychen in Glamorgan at the hillfort of Dinas Powys.

I've also made a case for the later English designation of Hwicce being for the kingdom of the Dobunni, both of which included the Vale of Leadon (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-new-etymology-for-hwicce.html).  Illtud/Uther's father married a princess of Ercing, bordering on Leadon Vale, and other Arthurian connections are placed in Ercing.

Hwicce covered much of the region controlled by the Dobunni in the Roman period.  The following map on the Dobunni tribal territory is from Iron Age Communities in Britain: An Account of England, Scotland, and Wales from the Seventh Century BC Until the Roman Conquest by Barry W. Cunliffe (Psychology Press, 1991):

When I asked Professor Cunliffe if the Vale of Leadon were within Dobunni territory, and whether the Wiltshire hillforts of Liddington Castle and Barbury Castle were also (more on these forts below),  he responded:

"The Vale and forts in question were in the territory of the Dobunnni as it was defined in the early first century AD. The forts are not known to have been occupied after the Middle Iron Age at which date there is no evidence that the Dobunni actually existed as a tribe. If they did the extent of their territory at that date is unknown."

Over the years, I've gone back and forth on whether Arthur's Badon battle was Bath or the Badbury at Liddington.  Some may be familiar with my various arguments for both.  Essentially, I have believed for some time that Badon linguistically speaking can only be Bath.  However, other factors point to Badbury and there is no reason why Bath/Badon couldn't represent a later (accidental or intentional) substitution for Baddanbyrig/Badbury.  Gildas's Badon is probably Bedenham in Hampshire. For an explication of all this, please see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-gewissei-and-badon-at-liddington.html.

I've also written about the Barbury fort near Liddington.  From Ekwall's time on, this has either been interpreted as the 'Bear's fort' or the fort of a man named Bera (unrecorded in OE).  As the name Arthur would have, from fairly early on, been associated with the Welsh word arth, 'bear', it seemed reasonabl to at least ask whether the bear toponym here could be a memory of Arthur's presence at the fort.

When I asked Tom Sunley, Historic Environment Record Data Manager, Archaeology Service, Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, about later reuse of Barbury Castle, he responded thusly:

"While we obviously have data and records relating to the site itself – which was a hillfort of Iron Age date (800 BC – 42 AD) there is some evidence both within the area of the hillfort and its immediate surroundings for activity in the latter periods of interest (encompassing 450-550 AD). Amongst other things, there is a Roman villa nearby, a few Saxon burials and a medieval trackway/droveway."

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a battle at the hillfort in 556.

In this same context, I had pointed to Durocornovium at Nythe Farm, Wanborough, a mere 3.5 miles from Liddington Castle.  Arthur is pretty much always associated with Cornwall/Kernyw in Welsh tradition, and this is generally believed to be because he was foisted onto the Dumnonian royal pedigree.  But Durocornovium is the 'Fort of the Cornovii', the same tribal name that yields Kernyw. We don't know if these were actually Cornovii people from somewhere else or a Roman military unit.  It is even possible some local horn-like landscape feature contributed to the name.  As Wanborough lies at the foot of the scarp slope of the Marlborough Downs, with its coombes, my guess is that a horn-shaped, projecting hill gave the place its name.  Upper and Lower Wanborough are themselves separated by a steep hill.

It was once thought the Durocoronovium name was an error for that of the Corinium Dobunnarum that is Cirencester, but so far as I know this notion has been abandoned.

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For those of you who would enjoy a nice drone flyover video of Barbury Castle, go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJQzmGv7vKQ