What to Do Now With My Northern Arthur Candidate?

River Irthing, Cumbria

Now that I have freed myself of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Uther Pendragon, and have only Arthur's presumed connection to the Irish to worry about, I thought I would revisit some of the concepts I outlined in my first book on a historical Arthur candidate, THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY.  

In that work, Arthur was a distinctly Northern figure.  I had identified him with Ceidio son of Arthwys.  Arthwys, the "man of the Arth/Bear" was assigned to the Irthing Valley, where we find the Dark Age hall at Banna as well as Camboglanna/Camlann.  Avalon was the Avalana or Aballava Roman fort just to the west of the Irthing Valley. Irthing may be from a a Cumbric word meaning 'little bear'.  

A curious observation regarding Ceidio's son Gwenddolau, lord of Myrddin/Merlin, as well as Myrddin's sister Gwenddydd: at Netherby close to Carwinley ('Caer Gwenddolau'), we have a Roman period inscription to Mogons Vitiris, dedicated by an Aelius Secundus.  Gwenddolau is a place-name, not a personal name.  It means 'White Dales.' Vitiris (found in several inscriptions fronted by a Germanic H-) is the 'white' god, and I have wondered about this name being preserved in the white names of both Gwenddolau and Gwenddydd.  Furthermore, Mogons may mean 'great' or the like, as has been proposed by several notable Celticists.  Or, as thought more recently by other language experts (including Dr. Simon Rodway, whom I communicate with on a regular basis), it may be related to Irish mog or mug, meaning 'slave, servant.'  We will recall that Mabon (the sun god Maponos) was the gwas or servant of Uther Pendragon, and that Mabon appears in Welsh tradition to have been identified with the god Lleu. The center of Maponos worship was exactly in the region of Netherby (between the Clochmabenstane at Gretna Green and Lochmaben). Finally, the 'Secundus' name of the dedicator to Mogons Vitiris means the same as the root of Welsh Llallog/Llallogan, an epithet applied to Myrddin/Merlin. Could these early Welsh stories be derived from as far back as the Romano-British period?  And at least in part from something as simple as the reading of an altar stone?

RIB 971. Altar dedicated to Mogons Vitiris

Deo 

Mogont(i) 

Vitire san(cto) 

Ael(ius) [Secund(us)] 

v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)

Translation

To the holy god Mogons Vitiris, Aelius Secundus willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow.

I am now daring to wonder about the seemingly impossible:  could I have been right from the very beginning?  Is it possible that Arthur was relocated in legend from the North to the South?  As the English took over his former ruling center and kingdom, did the Welsh and/or the Cornish transplant him to lands still in control of the British?  Have I been chasing a chimera in the person of Ceredig son of Cunedda?  Or a similicrum in the person of  a supposed son of Geoffrey's Illtud/Uther Pendragon?

As I've said all along, the battles of Arthur are best found in the North.  They can be found in the South, but only by allowing some pretty inventive linguistic trickery.  Not to say this "trickery" is in any sense implausible.  Rather, one might quote the law of Occam's Razor:  the explanation that requires the least speculation is usually better. Or, the more assumptions you have to make the more unlikely an explanation.  There are some battles, like that of the Tribruit/Tryfrwyd, which are decidedly put in the North in sources such as the early Welsh 'Pa Gur' poem.  The problem with the 'Pa Gur' is that it is also replete with folkloristic elements.  

What I keep coming back to is the Arthur name.  It is, beyond a doubt, from Latin Artorius.  From what we know, this name was only notable at York.  So to suggest it was used as a decknamen for a 'bear-king' title or name for Ceredig son of Cunedda or for anyone else in the South is a hazardous undertaking.  Instead, we would expect it to have been used for a war-leader of the North, specifically someone at least tangentially associated with the York where the Roman period Artorius was camp prefect.  While Ceredig son of Cunedda did have bear-names in the list of his descendants, and the Arth River is in his kingdom, how do we account for the rare Roman name Artorius being given to him?

Perhaps I did not make enough of the intrusion of the Dalriadan founder Fergus Mor/Mar into the Northern British genealogies.  We know that the Irish had interest in the area of Liddesdale, as Aedan fought at Dawston (Degsastan) there.  Fergus is present as either Gwrgwst Ledlwm or Mar at the head of the genealogy containing Ceidio, my candidate for a Northern Arthur.  What if instead of discounting this Irish element as something that was improperly foisted onto the Men of the North's line of descent, we accept some Irish blood in Arthur's family?  Then we take care of the requirement that the first and more famous Arthur was at least partly Irish, allowing for us to explain why all subsequent Arthurs belonged to Irish-descended kingdoms in Britain.  

As Irish infiltration of Britain happened on a large scale in Cornwall, Wales and Scotland, why might there not have been some incursion, no matter how minor, in the region of Cumbria?  We actually have some evidence that this happened: St. Patrick, who was born at the Banna/Birdoswald fort on Hadrian's Wall, was abducted as a boy by Irish raiders.  This raiding went both ways, however; St. Patrick felt compelled to write a letter to Ceredig Wledig of Strathclyde, complaining that the king was engaging in slave-raiding on the Irish.  

For my readers who have similar doubts about whether Arthur should be sought in the North or the South, I urge them to read my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY.  I did have an earlier version of that title posted here once upon a time and I may make available the most recent text in its entirety [1].  One thing I have pretty much always been certain of: Arthur, as he is found in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM, is being represented as either a direct counter to the English Cerdic of Wessex or he is Cerdic of Wessex.  If we could accept Uther Pendragon/Illtud as his father, we might be able to see him as Cerdic's adversary in southern England.  But as we can't accept Uther as Arthur's father (see my several past posts on this subject), we are left with two alternatives:  1) Arthur is Cerdic or 2) Arthur belongs elsewhere, most likely in the North.  If this last holds true, the idea may have been to glorify a ruler who managed to hold onto much of the North at exactly the same time the South was being lost to the English and their Irish allies the Gewissei.   

All of this shows just how SLIPPERY Arthur can be.  It is precisely this quality that has led so many scholars of the period to discount his historicity.  For me, the problem is pretty simple: either Arthur belongs in the South or he belongs in the North.  A possible complication exists, of course: as I mentioned above, an Arthur of the North may have been relocated to the South during the normal course of myth-making. In addition, subsequent Arthurs may have taken on some of his feats or even contributed to them. So while the problem itself does not seem insurmountable, any solution one arrives at essentially requires a leap of faith.  Once the evidence is presented, we are forced, it seems to me, to make a choice.  Was Arthur of the North or the South?  Was he Cerdic of Wessex/Ceredig son of Cunedda or was he Ceidio son of Arthwys?

I can only speak from a personal standpoint on this issue.  And for me, the jury is still out.  

[1] I will be posting my entire THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY book here in the next few days.  Interested parties are invited to compare its findings with those of THE BEAR KING.