A New Look at Tintagel in Light of Arthur's Possible Ui Liathain Connection

Over the years I've written extensively against the veracity of the Galfridian tradition placing Arthur's birth at Tintagel in Cornwall. With different Arthurian candidates in mind, the location simply didn't make any sense - and often on several levels.  But my reasoning was always flawed.  Why?  Because I had not yet come up with a definitive identification for Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father.  And this meant that Arthur himself was hopelessly cast adrift in a geographical sense.  If I could not place his father in a historical context, then Arthur himself might well end anywhere.  Which, of course, he did!

In my book THE BEAR KING: ARTHUR AND THE IRISH IN WALES AND SOUTHERN ENGLAND, I made my case for Arthur being Cerdic of Wessex, i.e. Ceredig son of Cunedda.  Cunedda and his family were of the Irish Ciannachta.  While this theory is attractive, especially as regards the equation of the Arthurian battles with those of Cerdic and the Gewissei, I was forced to ignore the problem posed by Uther. Or rather find reasons that would justify my being able to discount him. For by this time I had identified Arthur's father with St. Illtud.  And I had good reason for thinking Illtud descended at least in part from the Irish Ui Liathain.

Now that I am willing to seriously consider Illtud as the real father of Arthur, and (see the previous post) have tentatively established a link between Arthur's Kelliwic (Castle Canyke) in Cornwall and the Dun Tradui fort of the Irish ard-righ Crimthann mac Fidach, I think it is only proper to take another look at Tintagel.

Illtud the terribilis miles served as master of soldiers at Dinas Powys in southernmost Glamorgan, Wales.  This fort is across the Bristol Channel from Cornwall.  We know that the Ui Liathain were in southern Wales and in Cornwall.  Cunedda and his sons supposedly chased them out of southern Wales and it has been hypothesized that they fled to Cornwall.  In a recent blog post I suggested that Arthur of the Ui Liathain and Cerdic/Ceredig of the Ciannachta may have been enemies and that Arthur's battles are Cerdic's battles not because Arthur is Cerdic, but because Arthur was put forward as Cerdic's antagonist in southern England.

Tintagel lies between Dinas Powys and Castle Canyke/Kelliwic.  It is preeminently coastal and so a likely target for raiding Irish.  There is no truth to a Gorlois being there, as this name was conjured by Geoffrey of Monmouth from the gorlassar epithet applied to Uther in an early Welsh poem.  But Uther/Illtud could well have taken it from a British chieftain or even have established his own beachhead settlement there.  Eigr or Igerna, said by the Welsh to be a daughter of Anblaud/Amlawdd of Ercing, is almost certainly a designation for the headland itself [1]. Illtud's/Uther's wife, whom he supposedly put away when he became a religious, was named Trynihid.

The now infamous ARTOGNOU stone found at Tintagel may or may not be significant.  The personal name means 'bear-knowledge' and is not related to the Artorius from which Arthur developed.  I did once mention that one the reasons Geoffrey of Monmouth put Arthur on the headland was because the name Artognou was wrongly related to Arthur merely due to superficial resemblance.  It is equally as possible, however, that an Arto- name (or names?) present at Tintagel might have influenced Illtud/Uther to give his son a name the British could not help but connect with their own word for bear, viz. Arthur.

All in all, there is nothing really wrong with Tintagel as Arthur's birthplace - if we accept his descent from the Ui Liathain.

I should hastily add that the Lidan of Beroul's Tristan romance is almost certainly Trevalga hard by Tintagel.  Charles Thomas in his AND SHALL THESE MUTE STONES SPEAK? tried to make a case for Lidan being a Cornish relic of the Irish tribal name Liathain and looked for a significant fort on the Hayle Estuary.  Alas, a close reading of the romance plainly indicates that the Perinis leaves Tintagel and then returns to the same place, only to find Yseut in Lidan for the night.  Thus we know that Lidan is hard by Tintagel. 

The following is from https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/21529301/signage-papers-20130315.pdf:

Trevalga (Trevalga)
- Trevalga 1238, 1263, 1284, 1296.
- Menaliden c.1150 does not refer to the parish
- Settlement: Trevalga
- Parish: Pluw Drevalga
- Hill: Menydh Ledan
- Farm: Menydhledan 

Menydh Ledan is simply the 'broad or wide hill' and it is this Lidan which shows up in Beroul's story.

A less likely candidate for Lidan is Kenidjack Castle on Porth Ledden, quite a bit SW of Tintagel (see http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=421757).

[1]

ON IGERNA

Eigr’s name is a perfectly regular reflex of *akri (with a Long i), feminine derivative of the familiar *akro- ‘sharp, pointed; point, promontory’.

Just a little North-Northeast of Igerna’s Tintagel is Hartland Point, which is one of the candidates for the Herakleous akron or ‘Promontory of Hercules’ of Ptolemy’s Geography. According to Ptolemy, writing c. 150 CE in his Geography 2.3.3, the cape of Hercules lies between Bridgewater Bay and Land’s End on the north coast of the Cornwall Peninsula. An identification with Tintagel Head, which meets the same conditions, would be, according to Ptolemy, quite possible. The coordinates given by him are to be understood as only highly approximate.

The possibility that Tintagel could be the Promontory of Hercules is astonishing, given the story of the conception of Hercules – a story which bears a striking resemblance to that of Arthur’s own birth! I quote the account presented in Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths:

“Meanwhile, Zeus, taking advantage of Amphitryon’s absence [in battle], impersonated him and, assuring Alcmene [Amphitryon’s wife] that her brothers were now avenged – since Amphitryon had indeed gained the required victory that very morning – lay with her all one night, to which he gave the length of three… Alcmene, wholly deceived, listened delightedly to Zeus’s account of the crushing defeat inflicted on Pteralaus at Oechalia, and sported innocently with her supposed husband for the whole thirty-six hours. On the next day, when Amphitryon returned, eloquent of victory and of his passion for her, Alcmene did not welcome him to the marriage couch so rapturously as he had hoped. Amphitryon… consulted the seer Teiresias, who told him that he had been cuckolded by Zeus…”

Greek akron is 'highest or farthest point, mountain top, peak, headland, cape, end, extremity', akra, 'headland, foreland', akraios, 'dwelling on heights or promontories'. None of the meanings suggest or demand 'sharpness', even though the word would seem ultimately to come from a root meaning pointed or sharp. Thus the round shape of the Tintagel headland could still have been referred to as akron or akra. Akraios was also an epithet of Hera, mother of Herakles. Hence Hera Akraea or Acraia was Hera ‘of the Height or Promontory’.

I would propose, therefore, that Tintagel’s promontory is the ancient Herakleous akron and that beneath the Dark Age buildings lurks a shrine to Herakles or to his Celtic equivalent. The folk memory of Hera Akraea is preserved in the name Akri or Eigr, who may later have come to be seen merely as a personification of the headland, rather than as the goddess of the place.

Needless to say, Hera Akraea was not the real mother of Arthur!