[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:
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.
.jpg)
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.