Now that I am certain Uther Pendragon is Illtud, I have a decision to make: do we accept him as Arthur's father? And, if not, how do we possibly ever clearly identify Arthur? It is all well and fine to seek to make him the son of someone else (something I am guilty of), but no such identification will ever satisfy anyone. And for good reason. If we have genealogical trace, then all is merely guesswork. As far as Uther is concerned, we must bear in mind that he was never contested as Arthur's father. He was accepted as such from the very beginning. The tradition, at least, demands that we retain the only offered paternal line of descent.
What would a Dobunnic father mean in the context of the famous Arthur of sub-Roman Britain? Illtud, the son of a chieftain of the Vale of Leadon (or "Llydaw"), served as captain of the soldiers of Pawl Penychen at Dinas Powys in Glamorgan. In the Life of Illtud, which concentrates on his conversion and subsequent activities as a religious, Arthur is presented as his cousin. But this is due to Uther Pendragon - originally a title for Illtud - becoming seen over time as a distinctly different personage. The warrior was separated out from the saint.
Where might an Arthur son of Illtud have ruled from? Or, if he wasn't a ruler, where might he have been based as a sort of mercenary leader like his father?
In the first place, we must "disenthrall" ourselves of Cornwall and other points west. An Arthur who was in the forefront of fighting the Saxons well to the east does not belong at Kelliwic (Castle Canyke) in Cornwall. Instead, Cornwall or Kernyw is probably a designation for another place. A location in Cornwall is a late reflection of geopolitical and ethnic reality at the time the Arthurian tradition developed. In other words, he was put in Celtic lands precisely because those lands that had been Celtic - and where he actually belonged - had long since become English. In short, Arthur was moved.
There are some Kernyws elsewhere. The one in southern Wales can be discounted; the name there originates in the Welsh word for a heap of stones (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/12/no-cornwall-at-coedcernyw-gwynllwg.html). Powys was anciently called after the ancient tribe of the Cornovii, but we have no reason to put Arthur there, either. Even less cause to involve the Cornovii of Caithness.
A single site stands out as possibly significant: Durocornovium at Nythe Farm near Wanborough in Wiltshire [1]. I discussed this site before. Not only does it contain the same tribal or descriptive name as Kernyw, it lies only a few miles from Liddington Castle, one of the Badburys. Furthermore, it is not too much further along the Old Ridgeway to Barbury Castle, i.e. Beranbyrig, either the "Bear's Fort" or "Bera's Fort (Bera being a hypothetical English name)." Years ago I wondered whether the "bear" in question might be a reference to Arthur, whose name was thought to contain the Welsh word arth, 'bear.' I discarded the idea when I could not show that Arthur belonged to the Dobunni or may have been a descendant of a sub-Roman remnant of that tribe.
But if we make him Illtud's son, and I'm right about Illtud coming from Leadon Vale in what had been Dobunni land (and I believe I have very good arguments in support of this contention), and the Defynnog in Brycheiniog where Illtud is wrongly said to be buried actually contains a personal name Dyfwn/*Dobunnos, then there is nothing stopping us from proposing that 'Cornwall'/Kernyw is for Durocornovium, Badon (though the spelling IS for Bath, an apparent confusion[2]) is Liddington Castle and his chief center is Barbury Castle. The Badbury Hill fort near Faringdon, Oxfordshire, is also a candidate for Badon, as the English were definitely working their way up the Thames Valley.
The really nice thing about putting Arthur at Barbury Castle is that he would there have been perfectly positioned to take on both the Gewissei battles to the south in Hampshire and those to the east in the Thames Valley. In this scenario, Cerdic of Wessex/Ceredig son of Cunedda is not Arthur, but rather Arthur's opponent in some of the battles listed in Nennius. The other battles Arthur fights in are associated with Cynric (Cunorix son of Cunedda) and Ceawlin (Cunedda Maquicoline).
A NOTE ON THE PENYCHEN OF ILLTUD/UTHER PENDRAGON
The Welsh put Illtud/Uther as captain of the soldiers at Penychen, a minor kingdom in southern Wales. I have pointed out the presence there of the known Dark Age citadel of Dinas Powys.
However, we must ask if Uther himself might have been "moved". In other words, had he once served in an area that had over time become so completely English that his legend was relocated to Wales? Penychen contains the Welsh word 'pen', which may designate a chief or the head of some geological feature. Ychen is the plural of the Welsh word for ox. Is it, then, a coincidence that Dobunni territory embraced part of Oxfordshire? Rhydychen is the Welsh name for Oxford. From Iron Age Communities in Britain: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC until the Roman Conquest by Marry Cunliffe, 2006:
[2] Here are some of my previous pieces on Badon. Note that I no longer hold to some of the ideas contained in these blog posts. However, it does seem likely that there was confusion over the similar sounding sites of Bedenham, Bath and Badbury. If Arthur resided at or based his operations from Barbury, it is difficult to not see nearby Liddington Castle as his Badon. This matches my identification of the Second Battle of Badon with Liddington. I would also hold to my comparison of the various Badburys with the Cadbury forts. The dating of Badon remains uncertain; I really can't improve on the time range already established by most scholars based on the Welsh Annals entry for the battle.
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-second-battle-of-badon.html
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/01/cadburys-and-personal-name-badda.html
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/four-different-ways-to-look-at-badon-in.html
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/05/gildas-and-date-of-mount-badon-battle.html
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/07/maegla-of-portsmouth-battle-in-501-ad.html
Where might an Arthur son of Illtud have ruled from? Or, if he wasn't a ruler, where might he have been based as a sort of mercenary leader like his father?
In the first place, we must "disenthrall" ourselves of Cornwall and other points west. An Arthur who was in the forefront of fighting the Saxons well to the east does not belong at Kelliwic (Castle Canyke) in Cornwall. Instead, Cornwall or Kernyw is probably a designation for another place. A location in Cornwall is a late reflection of geopolitical and ethnic reality at the time the Arthurian tradition developed. In other words, he was put in Celtic lands precisely because those lands that had been Celtic - and where he actually belonged - had long since become English. In short, Arthur was moved.
There are some Kernyws elsewhere. The one in southern Wales can be discounted; the name there originates in the Welsh word for a heap of stones (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/12/no-cornwall-at-coedcernyw-gwynllwg.html). Powys was anciently called after the ancient tribe of the Cornovii, but we have no reason to put Arthur there, either. Even less cause to involve the Cornovii of Caithness.
A single site stands out as possibly significant: Durocornovium at Nythe Farm near Wanborough in Wiltshire [1]. I discussed this site before. Not only does it contain the same tribal or descriptive name as Kernyw, it lies only a few miles from Liddington Castle, one of the Badburys. Furthermore, it is not too much further along the Old Ridgeway to Barbury Castle, i.e. Beranbyrig, either the "Bear's Fort" or "Bera's Fort (Bera being a hypothetical English name)." Years ago I wondered whether the "bear" in question might be a reference to Arthur, whose name was thought to contain the Welsh word arth, 'bear.' I discarded the idea when I could not show that Arthur belonged to the Dobunni or may have been a descendant of a sub-Roman remnant of that tribe.
But if we make him Illtud's son, and I'm right about Illtud coming from Leadon Vale in what had been Dobunni land (and I believe I have very good arguments in support of this contention), and the Defynnog in Brycheiniog where Illtud is wrongly said to be buried actually contains a personal name Dyfwn/*Dobunnos, then there is nothing stopping us from proposing that 'Cornwall'/Kernyw is for Durocornovium, Badon (though the spelling IS for Bath, an apparent confusion[2]) is Liddington Castle and his chief center is Barbury Castle. The Badbury Hill fort near Faringdon, Oxfordshire, is also a candidate for Badon, as the English were definitely working their way up the Thames Valley.
The really nice thing about putting Arthur at Barbury Castle is that he would there have been perfectly positioned to take on both the Gewissei battles to the south in Hampshire and those to the east in the Thames Valley. In this scenario, Cerdic of Wessex/Ceredig son of Cunedda is not Arthur, but rather Arthur's opponent in some of the battles listed in Nennius. The other battles Arthur fights in are associated with Cynric (Cunorix son of Cunedda) and Ceawlin (Cunedda Maquicoline).
A NOTE ON THE PENYCHEN OF ILLTUD/UTHER PENDRAGON
The Welsh put Illtud/Uther as captain of the soldiers at Penychen, a minor kingdom in southern Wales. I have pointed out the presence there of the known Dark Age citadel of Dinas Powys.
However, we must ask if Uther himself might have been "moved". In other words, had he once served in an area that had over time become so completely English that his legend was relocated to Wales? Penychen contains the Welsh word 'pen', which may designate a chief or the head of some geological feature. Ychen is the plural of the Welsh word for ox. Is it, then, a coincidence that Dobunni territory embraced part of Oxfordshire? Rhydychen is the Welsh name for Oxford. From Iron Age Communities in Britain: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC until the Roman Conquest by Marry Cunliffe, 2006:
While there is nothing wrong with the notion that Illtud left the Vale of Leadon to perform a high-ranking military function at Dinas Powys, as he was descended from the ancient Dobunni does it not make more sense to imagine him fighting the English who were coming up the Thames Valley into what had been Dobunni lands in the Roman period?
Some may find this a bit far-fetched and I admit that I cannot offer any additional support to my argument. But I find intriguing the idea that Uther in his generation may have been a war-leader in Oxfordshire in the east, while Arthur in the following generation was holding his ground in Wiltshire just to the west.
[1] There was a second Durocornovium in Cornwall. The site has not been identified. See Rivet and Smith's THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN, p. 350.
[1] There was a second Durocornovium in Cornwall. The site has not been identified. See Rivet and Smith's THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN, p. 350.
[2] Here are some of my previous pieces on Badon. Note that I no longer hold to some of the ideas contained in these blog posts. However, it does seem likely that there was confusion over the similar sounding sites of Bedenham, Bath and Badbury. If Arthur resided at or based his operations from Barbury, it is difficult to not see nearby Liddington Castle as his Badon. This matches my identification of the Second Battle of Badon with Liddington. I would also hold to my comparison of the various Badburys with the Cadbury forts. The dating of Badon remains uncertain; I really can't improve on the time range already established by most scholars based on the Welsh Annals entry for the battle.
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-second-battle-of-badon.html
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/01/cadburys-and-personal-name-badda.html
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/four-different-ways-to-look-at-badon-in.html
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/05/gildas-and-date-of-mount-badon-battle.html
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/07/maegla-of-portsmouth-battle-in-501-ad.html
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