THE DARK AVALON BOOKS

Okay... I've been threatening to return to fiction writing FOR YEARS. Partly, life just got in the way, as it often does. But I also held off for another, rather strange reason: I was not satisfied that I had concluded my theoretical work on Arthur. Now that I am, I feel confident in my ability to move in a new and exciting direction.

Of course, because who I believe Arthur to have been has changed dramatically since I first conceived of the Dark Avalon Books, there will be changes to my general approach to the series and the contents will also be quite different from my original vision.

Still, I have republished the somewhat obsolete Dark Avalon Books page for information purposes. As soon as I have completed and published THE KING OF STONEHENGE: MODRED AND THE DEFENSE OF DARK AGE BRITAIN, I will begin work on my first Arthurian novella.

FOR REAL, THIS TIME!

https://www.facebook.com/darkavalonbooks/

LLOEG(Y)R: FROM LATIN LAICORUM?

A couple different theories have been proposed for the etymology of the Welsh name for England, viz. Lloeg(y)r.

From the Wikipedia article on the place-name:

"The exact origin of the word is still a matter of speculation. 12th century AD author Geoffrey of Monmouth offered a fanciful etymology in his Historia Regum Britanniae, deriving the names of Cambria, Loegria, and Albany from the sons of the fictional Brutus of Troy: Camber, Locrinus, and Albanactus, respectively, and makes them the eponymous kings of Wales/Cambria (Camber), England/Loegria (Locrinus), and Scotland/Albany (Albanactus). In 1982, noted linguist Eric Hamp suggested that Lloeg(y)r could be derived from a Proto-Celtic compound *(p)les-okri-s, meaning 'having a nearby border, being from near the border'. Ranko Matasović prefers to see Lloegr as coming from a Brittonic collective noun *Lāikor meaning "Warriors", the root of which he proposes gave Old Irish láech "warrior" (though some scholars regard the Old Irish word as a loan from Latin laicus, "laity", "of the people"), from a Proto-Indo-European root *leh2- "war". The suffix -wys found in numerous Welsh folk names, including Lloegrwys, is derived from the Latin suffix -ēnsēs.

It seems to me we can simplify this considerably. Why not see Lloeg(y)r as merely a straight-across borrowing from the Latin genitive plural laicorum (m.)/laicarum (f.)/laicorum (n.), from laicus, “of or belonging to the people or laity, not priestly, not consecrated”?  As is typical of Latin words that go over into Welsh, the -um suffix would be dropped, leaving "laicor."

If this name were used for England, it is probably a tacit acknowledgment that at least until the Saxons took over the country was still predominantly Romanized.  A lay person was a Christian who had not been trained or ordained as a priest.  But he could be clearly distinguished from a pagan.

Number	Singular				Plural
Case / Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
nominative	lāicus	lāica	lāicum		lāicī	lāicae	lāica
genitive	lāicī	lāicae	lāicī		lāicōrum	lāicārum	lāicōrum
dative	lāicō		lāicō		lāicīs
accusative	lāicum	lāicam	lāicum		lāicōs	lāicās	lāica
ablative	lāicō	lāicā	lāicō		lāicīs
vocative	lāice	lāica	lāicum		lāicī	lāicae	lāica

UISNEACH, THE 'MIDDLE PLACE THAT IS ABOVE OR OVER'

Stone of Divisions/Catstone Atop Uisneach Hill

While researching the traditions surrounding Stonehenge for my new book THE KING OF STONEHENGE: MODRED AND THE DEFENSE OF DARK AGE BRITAIN, I happened to discuss with Professor Jurgen Uhlich of Trinity College, Dublin, the possible etymology of the place-name Uisneach, the hill "of Killare" (Killarus) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's story.  Killare is a place that lies at the foot of the Hill of Uisneach, the true omphalos of Ireland.

There were some proposed forms by highly respected Celtic linguists like Hamp and O'Rahilly.  For these derivations, see

https://books.google.com/books?id=6TGSQpTgXOwC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=%22*us-tin-ako-%22&source=bl&ots=KFkuyjbQbJ&sig=aSHqBPEHlFcYYxLEpFV3uQXBINM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDg6ev6efbAhWoxFQKHe_nD-MQ6AEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22*us-tin-ako-%22&f=false

Prof. Uhlich himself suggested  "uss- ‘up’ + enech ‘face, front’ to denote a high plateau, i.e. < *ups- eneku̯o-?"

I did not find these etymologies convincing.  Why?  Because the Welsh medieval writer Gerald of Wales has this to say about the place:

In other words, the Catstone was called the umbilicus (= navel, center, middle) of Ireland. I would propose, therefore, that the place-name Uisneach be derived from uss (in the sense of 'above, over') plus an early form of inne, 'center, middle', with the suffix *-ako.  Professor Peter Schrijver commented thusly on my idea:

"Your reconstruction would work phonologically."

Dr. Simon Rodway had a bit more to say about it:

"As Matasovic [in his ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF PROTO-CELTIC] makes clear, inne 'middle' etc. is from *en-n-ya: (at least according to Lindeman's reconstruction), not from en(i), in(i) (which means 'in'). Thus we would expect nn. Nonetheless, Thurneysen (Grammar of Old Irish, 90) mentions that double consonants 'are mostly simplified before and after other consonants', so I think this could give Uisneach."

Uisneach would then be 'the middle place that is over or above [the surrounding land, i.e. on a hill].'

Now, there is one potential problem with this etymology.  Irish inne, while having the concrete sense of 'center, middle', seems to have been used only for the center or middle of something three-dimensional.  I have the following on this from Dr. Sharon Arbuthnot of Queen's University, Belfast:

"Having looked at the examples contained in the eDIL dictionary it seems fairly clear that this is used of three-dimensional objects. The word seems to refer, not to the centre-point of a solid or uniform entity, but to a distinct element which is contained within something else. So, it can be the heart or the intestines and, when used figuratively, the meaning or nature. Many of the examples in section II (a) of the dictionary entry are in etymological glosses, in which the word inchinn 'the brain', for example, is claimed to be derived from inne in chinn 'what is in the head'. This is not the true derivation of the word, of course, but it gives a good insight into how inne was understood."

However, we also have a tradition of a sacred ash tree being planted at Uisneach as a classic axis mundi. The nature of an axis mundi in tree form is that the entire universe is bound together at a center point from the branches in heaven to the roots in the underworld.  In other words, the tree passes through the earth.  Irish tradition links the goddess Eriu, a personification of Ireland, to Uisneach.  Technically, the Catstone/Stone of Divisions is her navel. But if that navel were envisioned as continuing through to the underworld in one direction and to heaven in the other, then inne might be an acceptable term to use to designate the locality.

In addition, I have had this helpful comment from Irish expert Prof. Uhlich:

The best I can do for the meaning is that inne is once quoted as the equivalent of medón (middle, centre), and for the latter in turn cf. e.g. for medon maige [medón means ‘(the) middle’ and mag, genitive maige, means ‘of a/the plain’], quoted s.v.

"'*en-n-ya', at least at first sight, seems a pseudo-etymology of the kind I have been warning about, consisting merely of sounds stringed together to match the formal outcome, without explaining what this additional -n- is supposed to be. But once the double -nn- of inne were to be explained properly, Uisneach would not be a problem, because as GOI rightly explains, such geminates are not normally spelled out after another consonant - especially not homorganic ones like s in this cases, after which the dental nasal would be automatically be unlenited anyway, whatever its origin. So best not worry too much about the precise connection between the word for 'in' and inne, Uisneach could formally contain it whatever the etymology."

Geoffrey of Monmouth must have known that Uisneach was the center of Ireland, for he has the stones of Stonehenge transported from there by Merlin. In other words, Stonehenge was perceived as the umbilicus of Britain (or at least of southern England!).

Merlin or Myrddin was either the god Lleu ( = Irish Lugh) or an avatar of that god.  The grave of Lugh is to be found at Uisneach (see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Seamus_Mcginley/publication/332259012_Lough_Lugh_Uisneach_from_natural_lake_to_archaeological_monument/links/5caa3dbba6fdcca26d064d23/Lough-Lugh-Uisneach-from-natural-lake-to-archaeological-monument.pdf).  In the story of Ambrosius and Vortigern at Dinas Emrys in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM, Merlin is initially intended as a foundation sacrifice for the fort. 

*Ambirix as the Name Preserved in the Place-Name Amesbury

In the following recent blog post, I set forth Nikolai Tolstoy's new theory on a British origin for the 'Ambr' name found in Amesbury (Ambresbyrig):

http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/ambiorixamborix-and-ambrosius-of.html

There were, however, linguistic problems stemming primarily from the /io/  in the personal name Ambiorix.  The other day I counter-proposed a spelling *Ambirix, based upon the presence in Gaulish of *ambi- names (as opposed to those showing *ambio-).  Dr. Simon Rodway's response was favorable:

"It is true that we have Ambigatus, Ambisagrus etc. in Gaulish, and these perhaps represent the original forms < ambi-, with Ambiorix representing a secondary development under the influence of compounds with io-stem nouns, e.g. Al (cf. names in ario-, cantio- in Gaulish and Brittonic) or containing another preverb like *wo-. Pierre-Yves Lambert (Etudes celtiques, 31 (1995), 115-21) favours the first explanation. If Lambert's argument about ambio- is right, then I think *Ambirix is theoretically possible."

Another Ambi- name is that of the coastal Belgic Ambiani tribe.  Coins was this tribe are found in southern Britain.  Dr. Simon Rodway was kind enough to pass along what Lambert has to same on this tribal name:

"He considers (pp. 116-17) the possibility that *ambio- might be a noun 'surrounding space'. If so Ambiorix would be 'king of the area' or perhaps 'king of the world' and Ambiani would be 'pertaining to the world', i.e. 'citizens of the world'? All this is offered very tentatively."

If Ambirix lies behind the English Ambr, then we did have here next at Amesbury the 'King of the [Round] Enclosure,' a very suitable name (or title?) for the ruler who presided over the hillfort of Vespasian's Camp near Stonehenge.

My Suggestion to Professor Oliver J. Padel that Medrawd/Modred Comes from Latin Moderatus (1996)

IF THE GEWISSEI WERE NAMED FOR CERDIC, WHAT EXACTLY CAN WE SAY ABOUT THEM?

Cerdic and Cynric (from a really bad movie)

I just recently made a case for the Gewissei being named for Cerdic:

http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-startling-though-astonishingly-simple.html

If I'm right about this (and I feel pretty sure I am), then we must dispense with the notion that the Gewissei were so named because they were the 'sure/certain/reliable ones' in the sense of being the allies of the Saxons.  But if we do this, we must ask what role it was they were playing, and how it is that they became recognized a the founders of Wessex in English tradition.

I once thought that the whole founding of Wessex by Irish or Hiberno-British mercenaries was based on an error.  Simply put, Cerdic/Ceredig and his descendants did not conquer the territory of the West Saxons in England, but had instead taken western Wales in Britain.  This did not seem like a ridiculous idea - until I asked myself an obvious question: if the Gewissei did not conquer Wessex for someone - where are the names of the English conquerors of Wessex?  Quite simply, we have none.  The English themselves had no record of any group other than the Gewissei establishing primitive Wessex.

This has always struck me an incredibly odd.  I mean, if Cerdic and his descendants were fighting with or even for the English, where are the names of the English they were fighting with or for?  Why are these English names absent from the sources and otherwise nonexistent?  Why are the names at the head of the Anglo-Saxon genealogies for Wessex purely Celtic?

Well, we have evidence from the Cunorix Stone at Wroxeter that at least one son of Cunedda (= the Maquicoline on the said stone) was somehow associated with the High King of Wales.  We can only assume that either he was serving that High King as a mercenary or federate or the Cunedda family itself was in control of central Wales.  I've suggested elsewhere that the Catel who appears as an intrusion into the Powys genealogy from the North may be for Latin Catellus, "Little Dog/Puppy", possibly a nickname for Cunorix/Cynric "the Hound King."  If Cynric did usurp the High Kingship of Wales from the family of Vortigern (himself half Irish and half British; see Fortchern son of Fedelmid), then Cerdic's and Cynric's presence in southern England could only be explained as Irish aggression in that region.  If the Gewissei really did go into the conquest of Wessex as a joint venture with the English, what they expect to gain from the enterprise?  Were they only warriors for hire, with no vested interest in the new kingdom they founded?  That seems highly unlikely.

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE may supply at least part of the explanation we are seeking.  Cerdic and Cynric are said to have as nefan both Stuff and Wihtgar.  This last, as many have discussed before, is a rendering of a word used originally to designate the men of Wight.  It is here an eponym, in other words.  But Stuff appears to be a real personal name, and is found in Stubbington just across The Solent from Wight.  Nefan is the plural of nefa.  Here is the relevant listing from Bosworth and Toller:

nefa
an; m.
I. a nephew; nepos
Bróder sune vel suster sune ðæt is nefa, Wrt. Voc. i. 51, 71.
Neva nepos, 72, 35.
Hlóþhere Ægelbrhytes nefa (cf. hé him onsende Leutherium his nefan (nepotem ), Bd. 3,7; S. 530. 29), Chr. 670; Erl. 34, 29: 789; Erl. 57, 34: Ælfc. Gr. 9, 31 : Som. 11, 69.
Eám and nefa, Exon. Th. 431. 35; Rä. 47, 6.
Heó wæs Édwines nefan (nepotis ) dohtor, Bd. 4. 23 ; S. 593, 2.
Hé swylces hwæt secgan wolde eám his nefan, Beo. Th. 1766; B. 881.
II. a grandson
Nefena bearnum pronepotibus, filiis nepotum, Hpt. Gl. 426, 50.
Ealdra nefena pronepotum, 445, 56.
III. a step-son
Nefa prifignus, Wülck. Gl. 41, 28.
[Icel. nefi a cognate kinsman, a nephew : O. Frs. neva : O. H. Ger. nefo nepos, sobrinus : Ger. neffe.]
v. for-, ge-nefa.

The use of such a term implies a familiar relationship.  If the Gewissei had actually intermarried with the Saxons, then they were much more than just mercenaries.

Another complicated factor concerns Vortigern and Ambrosius.  I'm currently writing a book that argues for Ambrosius being a mistaken name or title for a Belgic-descended king at Amesbury.  One of the rulers at this place was named Moderatus, i.e. the Welsh Medrawd, Cornish Modred.  In THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN by Nennius, we are told that Vortigern was in dread of Ambrosius, but also that he gave to the latter the western part of Britain.  Underneath the folktale of Dinas Emrys lies some real history concerning Amesbury and its king.  The "Ambrosius" who lived in the time of Vortigern's father (or grandfather) was not the same one with whom Vortigern contended.  Nor was the Moderatus who fell at Camlann with Arthur/Cerdic the same "Ambrosius."  The Ambrosius contemporary with Vortigern is said to become the High King after Vortigern's demise; he permits Pascent, son of Vortigern, to retain control of central Wales.

When we read between the lines here, there is sufficient reason for believing that the House of Vortigern in central Wales and that of "Ambrosius" in Wiltshire were locked in deadly combat for several generations.  To aid them in their struggle, the Welsh enlisted the Irish-descended Cunedda and his sons.  It is not unrealistic to assume that these Irish or Hiberno-Britons formed an alliance with the Saxons and solidified that military union with diplomatic marriages.  The story of Vortigern giving western Wales to Ambrosius is wrong, as 1) Dinas Emrys is a relocation of Amesbury and 2) it was Cunedda and his sons who were "given" western Wales, although this was probably a de facto granting of land in exchange for military service along the lines of invading barbarians being settled and made into federates by the Romans.

We still find ourselves stuck with the strange gap in early English names during the foundation of the Kingdom of Wessex. The simplest way of accounting for this deficiency is to suggest, not implausibly, that those who created the ASC and similar early English source materials were ignorant of the ethnic origin of the Gewissei chieftains.  At the same time, these writers did know that Cerdic and Cynric, at least, were not initially kings, but ealdormen (the title when applied to Cerdic/Arthur is rendered in Chapter 56 of Nennius as dux erat bellorum).  Ceawlin/Cunedda was later considered one of the famous bretwaldas or "Britain-rulers".

However, to have mistaken the Gewissei for English war-chiefs/princes and kings, those who recorded the history of the conquest of Wessex would still have to have suffered from a dearth of English names holding the same kinds of ranks and having accomplished the same kinds of deeds within the context of that specific kingdom.  A similar problem is encountered with the Cuth(a) names found among the Gewissei when they are pursuing the acquisition of the Cotwolds region.  Cuth(a) may well be from Cuda, a British goddess who gave her name to the Cotswolds.  Some of the Cuth(a) names appear to be British-English hybrid forms, like Cuthwulf. "Cuda's wolf", and Cuthwine, "Cuda's friend."  The Coinmail mentioned as a king defeated by the Gewissei at or near Dyrham bears the name of the god Apollo Cunomaglos, 'Hound-lord', whose shrine was nearby.

Thus the entire English account of the Gewissei is rife with references to British names or names containing British elements.

A STARTLING, THOUGH ASTONISHINGLY SIMPLE THEORY ON THE NATURE OF THE GEWISSEI

For some time (see Richard Coates' "On Some Controversy Surrounding Gewissae / Gewissei, Cerdic and Ceawlin", Nomina 13 (1989–90), 1–11) it has been known that the tribal name Gewissei was from Old English ge-wis and meant 'the sure, certain or reliable ones.' It has been assumed they were given this name because they were Celtic allies the English could depend on, as opposed to the Welsh, the 'foreigners' or 'strangers' and, hence, enemies.

However, while reading through different MSS. of THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE and related early sources, I happened to notice that the name Cerdic, which belongs to the founder of the Gewissei, is often spelled CERT-. A /t/ for /d/ substitution is common for the period, so such a change need not seem at all surprising.  But what was surprising is that I happened to think of Latin

certus, certa, certi, etc.  

For certi, we have the following in William Whitaker's WORDS:

cert.i               N      2 2 GEN S N                 

cert.i               N      2 2 LOC S N                 

certum, certi  N  N   [XXXBO]  

that which is fixed/regular/definite/specified/certain/fact/reliable/settled;

cert.i               ADJ    1 1 GEN S M POS             

cert.i               ADJ    1 1 GEN S N POS             

cert.i               ADJ    1 1 NOM P M POS             

cert.i               ADJ    1 1 VOC P M POS             

certus, certa -um, certior -or -us, certissimus -a -um  ADJ   [XXXAO]  

fixed, settled, firm; certain; trusty/reliable; sure; resolved, determined;

What I'm going to propose, here and now, is that Gewissei was a term conjured by the English, who instead of interpreting Cerdic's name properly, as deriving from

caredig, ceredig [GPC] 

[bôn y f. caraf: caru+-edig: < Clt. *karatīcos] 

kind, loving, friendly; beloved, dear; diligent. 

beloved one, kinsman; lover, friend, benefactor. 

itself from

câr [GPC]

[Crn. car, ll. kerens, Llyd. kar, ll. kerent, H. Wydd. car(a)e ‘cyfaill’: < Clt. *karants o’r gwr. *kā- ‘annwyl, trachwantus’]

 *kar-o- 'love' [Vb] [Matasovic's ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF PROTO-CELTIC]
GOlD: OIr. caraid, -eara; cechraid [Fut]; carais [Pret.]
W:MWcaru
BRET: MBret. caret, MoBret. kared
CO: Co. care
GAUL: Caro- [PN]
CELTIB: Kara [PN]
PIE: *keh2-ro- 'love' (IEW: 515)
COGN: Lat. ciirus, OHG huor 'prostitute', Latv. kiirs 'lustful'
SEE: *karant- 'friend'
ETYM: This is a deadjectival verb formed from unattested *karo- 'dear,
beloved' < PIE *kh2-ro-. The root is PIE *keh2- (Skt. kdma- 'love', etc.).
REF: LEIA C-36, GPC I: 422, LIV 306, Ellis Evans 1967: 162, Delamarre
107,Deshayes 2003: 370, MLH V.l: l60f.

they related it to Latin certus.

If this is so - and I'm pretty sure (pun strictly intended) it can't be merely a coincidence - then we can no longer view the Gewissei as "allies" based on nothing more than an applied meaning of their name.  Instead, the Gewissei are the descendants of Cerdic/Certic, and can no no longer be defined as allies of the English.  At this point I'm not certain (sorry!) what they were, exactly.

Via private communication, Dr. Richard Coates responded to this idea by saying:

"I hadn’t thought of that but it’s intriguing."  

I will do some more thinking on my new theory on the Gewissei when I have a moment.

THE KING OF STONEHENGE: MODRED AND THE DEFENSE OF DARK AGE BRITAIN

Stonehenge by Photographer David Goddard (Copyright)

New title here for the next book - my fourth on Arthuriana.  

The cover image is an aerial of Stonehenge courtesy davidgoddard.org.

NOTE:  While the research is done, I've only just started writing this work. I will announce its completion and publication here on my blog site (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/)
and at https://www.facebook.com/groups/shadowsinthemist/.  Some free selections may be posted from time to time. 

Thank you for your interest!

Proof that I am the first person to suggest that Modred/Medrawd = Moderatus

Arthur Rackham's How Mordred was slain by Arthur, and how by him Arthur was hurt to the death

For years now, I've been hearing from people who dispute my claim to being the first to demonstrate that the name Modred/Medrawd is from Roman/Latin name Moderatus.

In addition, I keep reading this same thing on Websites - even on the infamous Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordred

The note on Modred = Moderatus from this page reads as follows:

Cane, Meredith. Personal Names of Men in Wales, Cornwall and Brittany 400-1400 AD, University of Wales Ph.D. thesis, 2003, pp. 273-4.

I once tried to contact Dr. Cane, pointing out - very politely - that I had preceded her in the identification by several years.  She did not respond.

So, instead, I'm having my letter on Cambridge letterhead, signed personally by Dr. Oliver Padel and dated to 1996, scanned so that I may post it here in its entirety.

The letter shows indisputably that I originated the idea that Modred was Moderatus.

Usually, I don't bother making this kind of public "correction." But as Modred is, in a sense, the primary subject of my next book, I thought I had better stick up for myself for once.

UPDATE:  Link to the letter from Prof. Padel - https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/my-suggestion-to-professor-oliver-j_20.html.

AMBIORIX/AMBORIX AND AMBROSIUS OF STONEHENGE

The Drury and Andrews Map of the Vespasian’s Camp and Stonehenge area (1773). The north, north-easterly and southern sections of the Camp show no evidence of landscaping. Blick Mead can be located under the ‘U’ of ‘Countess Farm’. [Courtesy https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/research/hri/fellows/jacques/18thcentury]

Nikolai Tolstoy, in his The Mysteries of Stonehenge: Myth and Ritual at the Sacred Centre (Amberley Publishing Limited, Sep 15, 2016), has proposed that the original name preserved in the place-name Amesbury (Ambresbyrig, 'Ambr's burg') was either Ambiorix or Amborix. I only now found out about this because the idea had occurred to me just the other day.  Belatedly, as it turns out! I must give precedence to Tolstoy for this notion.

Interested readers can see what he has to say here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=O-MaDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT1081&lpg=PT1081&dq=%22Ambiorix%22%2B%22Emyr%22&source=bl&ots=INHqSQdfBN&sig=OFNZ3fAhvGCpaL1vsyqcr6prPQo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqndGX69DbAhWOJ3wKHYZQBIgQ6AEIKzAB#v=snippet&q=Ambiorix&f=false

In the past, I had treated of the Amesbury name in some detail.  I recently posted that information in the following blog article:

http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-riddle-of-medrawt-solved-or-real.html

Although I did not publish it, I also made an attempt to connect the Amesbury name with the Celtic *ambri-, a word used for rivers (e.g. the Amber in Derbyshire).  I did so given the spring complex discovered at Vespasian's Camp at Amesbury and Geoffrey of Monmouth's story about the water poured over the stones of nearby Stonehenge having miraculous healing properties. Alas, it made no sense to suggest such a derivation, as Amesbury is on the Avon, a very ancient Celtic river-name from *abona-.  Hence there was no reason to foist another river-name on the location.

The best recent treatment of the personal name Ambiorix is to be found in https://www.academia.edu/33460316/Toorians-Aduatuca.pdf. In this source Ambiorix is given an etymology that differs from the standard view.

The name Ambiorix is generally interpreted as

‘king of the enclosure’ (Gaulish ambio-rix), or

sometimes – with the same formal analysis –

as ‘king of the surrounding (area)’.37 The

Norwegian Indo-Europeanist Frederik Otto

30 Schrijver 1991, 29-31: ‘One might assume that aper resulted from *h1pr-o-, with vocalization of *h1-.’ Another possibility

for this vocalization is offered by analogy with caper ‘buck’ (ibidem, 30).

31 Proto-Indo-European (PIE) had three consonants called laryngeals of which the exact (phonetic) nature is still debated.

In reconstructions these are often written as *h1, *h2 en *h3, or *H when it is not clear which of the three should

be reconstructed. A probable interpretation of these reconstructed phonemes is that they were a glottal stop and an

unrounded and a rounded laryngeal (or pharyngeal) consonant respectively, similar to the ‘throat sounds’ which

occur is Arabic. *i and *u in this reconstruction represent the consonants y (as in English you) and w (as in water)

respectively. For more details, see for example Beekes 1995, 142-148 (and passim).

32 Delamarre 2003, 193-194. For the PIE reconstruction and further cognates, see Philippa, Debrabandere & Quak 2003-

2009, II, 498 (s.v. ‘ijf ’). As an aside, it is interesting to note that in Lithuanian this word (ievà) is used to denote the

alder buckthorn (Frangula alnus).

33 Sterckx 1994. For the personal names, see Delamarre 2003, 193.

34 See for example Schönfeld 1965, 62, who refutes a suggested Germanic influence in the name Catuvolcus.

35 Delamarre 2003, 111, 327. The literal meaning of Welsh cadwalch is also ‘war-falcon’. It is a compound of Welsh cad

‘war’ and gwalch ‘falcon’.

36 Schrijver 1995, 116-130.

37 Delamarre 2003, 41-42, 260-261. Toorians 2000, 72. Lambert 1995, 114-117.

– 114 –

Fig. 8: Side of a Neolithic

menhir of Macquenoise

(Hainaut). Inscription of

supposed Late La Tène age,

with mention of IVIIRICCI,

which is understood to be

the name of Iverix, ‘king of

the yew tree’. (Copyright

and information Herman

Clerinx – see Cerinx 2009,

32).

Atuatuca 4 binnenwerk_J_Roman Glass A4-2 5/10/12 10:55 Pagina 114

Lindeman suggested a different etymology for

Ambiorix which has the attraction of good

Indo-European parallels and which is more

convincing from a semantic point of view. In

Lindeman’s interpretation, *ambio- in the

name Ambiorix is not itself a representative of

the Gaulish preposition ambi- ‘autour, alentour,

des deux côtés’ but rather the reflex of an

ancient compound containing this preposition.

In Lindeman’s analysis, it is the reflex of

‘an old Indo-European compound of the root

*peH3- ‘to protect’ with the preposition

*H2mbhí-’. In what we might loosely call

‘Western Indo-European’ this would develop

into something like *ambhipo-, which in Celtic

(with loss of Proto-Indo-European *p) results

in *ambio-. Like its cognate forms in Vedic

Sanskrit (abhi-pá), the meaning of this compound

in Celtic may be assumed to be ‘protector,

ruler, master, king’.38 Since this word

became virtually homophonous in Celtic with

the preposition ambi- and may no longer have

been recognised as a compound noun itself,

‘the word *-ríg ‘king’ was added to create a new

compound *ambio-ríg-’.39 This process is quite

normal in the development of languages where

words tend to lose their semantic transparency

through homophony or other developments

within the language. To my mind this new

interpretation by Lindeman gives us a better

and more likely etymology for Ambiorix than

the previous one presented in most handbooks

and by Delamarre in his Gaulish dictionary.40

At first sight, the translation yielded by this

new analysis of Ambiorix would be a rather too

literal and fairly tautological ‘ruler-king’. A

translation like ‘protector, ruler’ would be

more correct.

Thus, of the four ‘Eburonian’ names known

from the time of Julius Caesar, the fourth – the

enigmatic Aduatuca – can now also be accepted

as Celtic. Its meaning is ‘place of the prophet’

or, to avoid Biblical associations, ‘place of the

soothsayer’. For the interpretation of eburos as

‘yew’ in the name Eburones, we should include

in our analysis the extralinguistic argument of

suicide by means of the yew. Following

Lindeman, the personal name Ambiorix can

now be analysed slightly differently to give a

more precise interpretation. For the name

Catuvolcus, Peter Schrijver has removed the

last remaining formal objection to equating it

with later Welsh cadwalch. With this result, it

is of course tempting to suggest that the

Eburonians were a people speaking a Celtic

language in around 55 BC, and there is no suggestion

whatsoever of a Germanic language

being involved (fig. 9).

However, it is definitely 'King of the Enclosure' that should interest us most in the context of Amesbury with Stonehenge hard by. The enclosure in question would be a round one, as *ambi- has the following meaning:

preposition (around) *ambi-, SEMANTIC CLASS: grammar, Galatian ; CIb. Ambi-; ambi-, SEMANTIC CLASS: 6 ‘around’, Gaulish Ambi- ‘around’, Early Irish imb-, imm- ‘around’, Scottish Gaelic im-, SEMANTIC CLASS: 12 ‘about’, Welsh am-, em-, ym- ‘around’, Cornish am-, em-, ym-, om-, SEMANTIC CLASS: 16 ‘around’, Breton am-, em- ‘around’ 

Now, whether Ambr could have come from an Ambiorix or Amborix is debatable.  Mostly, it comes down to chronology.  According to Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales,

"If Ambiorix > Emyr, then it must have undergone the following changes: Ambiorix > *Embiorix > *Embr > *Emr > Emyr. If we follow Jackson’s dating, then Ambiorix would have become *Embr in the second half of the fifth century. Of course it’s possible that the name could have been borrowed into English earlier than that. As for the Amborix of Elis Evans, he’s working backwards from Emyr. He’s right that the /io/ makes things difficult, but he doesn’t say what he thinks *ambo is."

Rodway added, almost as an after-thought:

"As for a form *Ambr < Ambiorix, this shouldn't be entirely ruled out, I suppose, due to (a) uncertainty about whether or not io would block double affection, and (b) the fact that there are scattered instances of words which have resisted affection for unclear reasons (listed by Jackson in Language and History)."

The most interesting thing to me about this possibility is that Stonehenge and Amesbury were squarely in Belgic territory.  The Gaulish Ambiorix was of a Belgic tribe.  While I'm not trying to say that there is any kind of relationship between the British and Gaulish personages, it is certainly conceivable that the name may have had significant currency among the Belgae.  Still, the Gaulish Ambiorix was never caught by the Romans (see https://books.google.com/books?id=fuNnCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT103&lpg=PT103&dq=%22Ambiorix%22%2B%22Belgae%22&source=bl&ots=9LamYwxNXD&sig=cSgunlAOfb1tEKb0nURNLFBpCw8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr-5_ijNLbAhWKJXwKHQZIDWsQ6AEIlAEwDw#v=onepage&q=Ambiorix%20in%20flight&f=false and http://www.livius.org/articles/person/ambiorix/). One might imaginatively construct a scenario in which this great chieftain escaped from the Continent to join his Belgic brothers in Britain.

Ambiorix

Conceivably, Ambiorix in the context of Stonehenge may have been an eponymous founder of Amesbury.  It is not impossible that the name came to be used as a title for whoever was the reigning monarch at the site.  Finally, we know of Celtic divine names ending in rix or rigos, 'king', so we could tentatively postulate that the deity of Stonehenge was referred to honorifically as 'King of the [Round] Enclosure.'  These ideas are not mutually exclusive.  A sacred king might well have been seen as a personification of the deity. True, we might expect for a sub-Roman British population in southern England to be thoroughly Christian.  Yet local traditions die hard and are often melded almost seamlessly with new doctrine.

I have no problem accepting Tolstoy's idea that this Ambiorix of Amesbury came to be confused by the Welsh with the name Ambrosius (Embreis, Emrys).  As I've pointed out before, the Gaulish governor Ambrosius Aurelianus was never in Britain.  Nor was his son, St. Ambrose.  But we can expect the occurrence a King of the [Round] Enclosure at Stonehenge.

Thus when we are told an ancestor of Vortigern fought an Ambrosius at Wallop Brook/Danebury Ring in Hampshire, we need merely substitute the ruling title of the king at Amesbury for Ambrosius.

And if I'm right about the 'vir modestus' Amesbury king being a reference to Moderatus/Medraut/Medrawd (= the romance Mordred), who died fighting Arthur/Cerdic of Wessex/Ceredig son of Cunedda either at Cymenesora (Keynor?) or Portsmouth Harbour (British
Cammas), then it was the rulers of Stonehenge who had protected their kingdom from the English and the Gewissei for almost 40 years.

THE RIDDLE OF MEDRAWT SOLVED OR THE REAL HERO OF BRITAIN REVEALED

I may have solved the mystery of Medrawd...

If I'm right about my recent identification of Camlan 

(see http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/how-i-missed-camlan-all-these-years-and.html), then I think I can now flesh out exactly whose Arthur's/Cerdic's chief opponent was in southern England.

Many - myself included - have discussed the interesting substitution in Welsh tradition of Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd for Amesbury on Wiltshire Plain.  Although many have held stubbornly to the notion at the personal name component in Amesbury represents the Roman/Latin name Ambrosius, the evidence is rather in support of this being a later English name for the place.  And, indeed, I've supplied a great many reasons why Ambrosius Aurelianus was never even in Britain  (see, for example, http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-ghost-ambrosius-or-why-arthurs.html).  Instead, he seems to be a transplant from Gaul who through the usual folkloristic processes achieved a fair degree of fame.

Still, there may be something to Ambrosius.  I've elsewhere pointed out the interesting coincidence that in Gildas's DE EXCIDIO, Ambrosius is referred to as 'vir modestus', a modest man
(see http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-new-but-very-tentative-identification.html).  This description of Ambrosius happens to match the meaning of the name Moderatus - the Roman name that underlies the Welsh Medrawt and the Cornish Modred.  

Vespasian's Camp at Amesbury doubles nicely for the Welsh Dinas Emrys.  It even has a notable (and probably sacred) spring associated with it.  It's proximity to Stonehenge was exploited by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN.  The Camp is only 20 kilometers from Danebury Ring near the Wallop Brook, the likely site of the battle between Ambrosius* and one Vitalinus (who may be a Latinized form of the Irish name Fedelmid, father or grandather of Fortchern/Vortigern, the half Irish-half British high king in Wales).  

What I believed happened is this:

The ruler who held the Wiltshire area for 36-7 years

(see http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/05/arthur-and-beranburhbarbury-critical.html) was one Moderatus.  Or perhaps he was simply one of the princes of this region.  In any case, his center of power was Amesbury.  Because this English place-name was fairly early on wrongly identified with the Gaulish Ambrosius, Moderatus was taken as merely a descriptor - the 'vir modestus' of Gildas - and he was referred to, incorrectly, as A.A.

Years ago I wrote the following about the etymology of Amesbury on Robert Vermaat's Vortigern Studies site:

Ambresbyrig c AD 880 charter then various spellings to Amblesberie in Domesday. Almost certainly a personal name Ambre or Aembre cognate with the Old German Ambri, hence Ambre's burgh. [Chris Chandler of the RCAHME.]

The Place-Names of Wiltshire (EPNS, 1939) says this of Amesbury (on p. 359):

"It is impossible to go beyond the suggestion . . . that we have to do with a personal name Ambre, Æmbre [the Æ is OE aesc] cognate with the recorded OGer [Old German] Ambri. Hence possibly 'Ambre's burh' . . . "

This etymology is accepted by A.D. Mills in his Dictionary of English Place-Names (Oxford, 1991).

Andrew Deathe, Salisbury Museum, adds the following:

“From what I can find it would appear that the earliest manuscript mention is a document from around 1000 AD that is actually a copy of a manuscript from around 880 AD. This gives the name Ambresbyrig. This would point to a person known as Æmbre or similar as you know. Ekblom suggests Eammer or Eanbeorht as other possibilities to Ambri. All are Saxon names. The idea that Amesbury derives from Ambrosius first occurs in the late Medieval period and, to my mind, is bound up with the Geoffrey of Monmouth story that Stonehenge is a memorial to the Britons who fought the Saxons nearby. Personally I think that it is very unlikely to have any foundation in truth. Medieval writers tended to look for a story to fit the facts when writing history, rather than facts to fit the story!”

Paul Cavill, The English Place-Name Society, concludes:

“All the early forms for Amesbury have the medial -b-, but no form has any extension that would justify derivation from Ambrosius. The person., if it is one, would seem to be Ambre, cf. Ombersley."

I also pointed out that there is an Old English amber, the genitive singular of which is ambres. This word means ‘a vessel with one handle, a tankard, pitcher, pail, cask’, and is thought to be a descendent of a borrowing into Germanic as *ambr-ia or *aimbr-ia of a Latinization of the Greek word amphoreus, ‘an amphora, jar, urn’. According to place-name expert Professor Richard Coates of The University of West England, “a solution [for the etymology of Ambresbyrig] involving ambres/’vessel’ is not formally impossible.” Needless to say, this would be significant, as the vessels of Dinas Emrys play an important part in that place's story.

Because the chronology of the Welsh Annals and the ASC clash in terms of the ordering of the princely generations of the Gewissei 

(see http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-gewissei-and-cuneddas-sons-why-are.html), it is difficult if not impossible to determine with any degree of certainty what battle dates are right and who fought at the various battles.  Yet if we do not get too caught up in this problem, we can propose that Moderatus and possibly other princes of his line managed to keep the Saxons and their Gewissei allies at bay for almost 40 years.

The irony here is not lost on the writer.  As Nennius was writing with a Gwynedd bias, and Gwynedd wasa founded by the Irishman Cunedda and his sons, when he searched for a British hero he naturally settled on Ceredig son of Cunedda/Arthur.  And this is true despite the fact that this Arthur was a mercenary fighting for the High King of Wales in alliance with English against other Britons.  

The real hero, as is so often the case in history, is the villain - 'Mordred' himself.  He died fighting the continuing southern incursions of Cerdic/Ceredig/Arthur.  Yet the villain became hidden, in an even more ironic way, within the purely fictional character of A.A.  Ambrosius himself, thanks to Geoffrey of Monmouth's misidentification of him with Myrddin/Merlin, became even more famous.  The connection with Amesbury and nearby Stonehenge was not forgotten.  As Myrddin is intimately bound up with the gods Lleu and Mabon, the sun god - perhaps once a presiding deity over Stonehenge - was returned, albeit by a very strange route, to his rightful place of worship.**

* The Ambrosius who fought at the Wallop Brook or at Danebury Ring was a sort of imaginary title for whoever was ruling from Amesbury at the time.  Ambrosius means the 'Divine or Immortal One.'  He may have been an ancestor of Moderatus. 

** I wrote the following in my book THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON about a god associated with the Stonehenge area:

"In the 12th century, Johannes Cornubiensis identified Caer Beli or the Fort of Beli with Ashbury Camp near Week St. Mary in Cornwall. This fort he also termed the ‘Fatale Castrum’ or Deadly Castle. However, this is an error, as Ashbury Camp is an unremarkable hill-fort. Instead, Ashbury, Oxfordshire is the actual site of the original Cair Beli. This is where we find the famous Neolithic chambered tomb now known as Wayland’s Smithy. Wayland was the smith-god of the invading Saxons. The Smithy is near the Uffington White Horse and one of the primary symbols of Belenos in Gaul is the horse.

Beli as Apollo is associated with Stonehenge, as Geoffrey of Monmouth has the Britons slain by the Saxons at this great ritual centre on May 1st or Beltane, the day of ‘Beli’s Fire’. Stonehenge, of course, is just a little south of the Wayland’s Smithy chambered tomb and the Uffington White Horse."

Some of these statements are made with a bit too much authority.  It is not certain, for example, that Beltine (Beltaine, etc.) contains a divine name element.  It may mean simply "bright fire."

bright *belo-, beleno- (?), SEMANTIC CLASS: sensation, British -belino-, SEMANTIC CLASS: 6 ‘bright’, Gaulish Belenos ‘bright’, Early Irish Bel(-tene) ‘bright (fire)’, Scottish Gaelic bealtuinn ‘May-day’, Welsh Ri-uel-gar, Beli [not in GPC] ‘bright’

Recently, John Koch proposed a different etymology for Beli.  From CELTIC CULTURE: A HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA:

"The Celtic personal name Bolgios, also Belgios, is
recorded as that of a commander who invaded
Macedonia in 280 bc (see Brennos of the Prausi).
It is likely that the hero bearing this name had been
thought of as the legendary founder of the Belgae.
This name is probably also the source of the early
Welsh male personal name Beli, which occurs in the
Old Welsh genealogies as that of an important
legendary ancestor of great antiquity, Beli Mawr
(Koch, CMCS 20.1–20)."

This is interesting, as Amesbury and Stonehenge were within the tribal territory of the British Belgae.