Repost of THE TRUE IDENTITY OF UTHER PENDRAGON

Dinas Powys Hillfort

In my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY, I had treated briefly of the Arthurian battles of the Welsh poem ‘Pa Gur.’  But what I neglected was the fairly obvious point made by the poem's placement of the 'vythneint' ("predatory birds", a metaphor for warriors) at Elei (valley of the River Ely in Glamorgan).  Why might this placement be so important?

Because one of them, viz. Mabon son of Modron, is called the servant (guas/gwas) of Uther Pendragon.

There is an implied sense in this passage that I failed to pick up on in the past.  Simply put, if Mabon is of Elei and he is the servant of Uther, then might we not infer that Elei belonged to Uther?  In other words, Mabon was the servant of Uther at Elei.  If this is not what is meant, then it if difficult to explain why it was felt necessary to tell us that Mabon was Uther's servant in this particular context.

So what, exactly, is in Elei?  Well, there is the impressive Caerau hillfort (http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/94517/details/caerau-hillfortcaerau-campcaerau-ely), an oppidum of the Silures tribe.  Unfortunately, there is no evidence that this site continued to be inhabited after the Roman invasion and consolidation of the region.

However, just south of Caerau and only a couple of kilometers from the Ely River is the Dinas Powys hillfort.  The story here is completely different.  We have ample evidence for early medieval use (http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/301314/details/dinas-powys-fort-previously-cwm-george-or-cwrt-yr-ala-camp).  It "may have been established as late as the Roman period."

Now, of course, we have to be careful here.  Mabon is a god - not a human servant.  And the 'Pa Gur' is replete with battles against monsters and supernatural entities.  These contests range all over Britain, and so are quite fabulous in nature.  What weight, therefore, can we place on an oblique reference pertaining to Uther's residing at Dinas Powys in Ely?

There is nothing in and of itself that is marvelous about Dinas Powys - other than the fact that it was occupied during the Arthurian period.  The real question becomes "Why would the poet have placed Uther there?"

One possible reason might be that the Cadoxton River runs at the eastern foot of the hillfort.  This stream bears the name of St. Cadog, whose late 11th century (?) VITA includes a story about Arthur.  Still, Arthur is nowhere in the Life said to be related to Cadog. 

It would appear the only thing that can be said about Uther at Dinas Powys is that at the time of the composing of the 'Pa Gur' a tradition may have existed which knew of this hillfort as the fortress of Arthur's father.  If this tradition is historically sound, then the 'Pa Gur' preserves the only extant notice of Uther's geographical whereabouts.

For a nice summary of the excavations at and theories regarding Dinas Powys, see

http://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/378/1/Helen%20Anderson.pdf

In the VITA of St. Illtud (cousin of Arthur), once the saint has visited the king's court he travels to King Pawl Penychen.  Penychen was that part of Glamorgan between the Thaw and the Taff, wherein is situated Dinas Powys.

Illtud the soldier, b. c. 470 A.D. - eventually to become the famous St. Illtud - ended up becoming Pawl’s military commander.  There is the strong possibility that Pawl's fort was Dinas Powys in Penychen.

A surprise awaited me when I looked into St. Illtud in more detail.  He was referred to as 'farchog', "knight", and filwr, 'soldier/warrior', as well as  'princeps militie' (militum princeps) and magister militum (https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/dnb/download/6837). 

Chapter 2 of the VITA SANCTI ILTUTI calls the living Illtud "miles magnificus."  We may compare this with Uther [Pen]dragon (where dragon has the usual metaphorical meaning of “warrior”):

W. uthr

fearful, dreadful, awful, terrible, tremendous, mighty, overbearing, cruel; wonderful, wondrous, astonishing, excellent. 

L. magnific.us                 

splendid/excellent/sumptuous/magnificent/stately; noble/eminent; proud/boastful

But, even better, at the end of his VITA we are told of a 'terrible soldier/warrior', who though of a heavenly nature and left unnamed, is plainly the returning spirit of the old soldier Illtud, out to retrieve his stolen bell:

From the Life of St. Illtud:

In meridiana autem hora, dum rex quiesceret in tentorio campestri in planicie affixo, diuidereturque maxima predatio, uisum est regi quod quidam terribilis miles suum pectus lancea perforasset, atque post perforationem nemini uisum. [...] Timoratus imperauit sacrilego exercitui reddere Deo et sanctissimo Iltuto totam predationem, promittens deinceps emendationem, atque in honore eiusdem sancti edificauit templum, et seruentibus in templo concessit in quo stetit territorium. Hec emendation tamen profuit suo spiritui, recessit enim ab hoc seculo .ix.no die propter nequitie uindictam.

At the hour of noon, while the king rested in a field-tent put up on a plain, and the immense booty was being divided, it seemed to the king that some terrible soldier had pierced his breast with a spear, and after the piercing he was seen of none. […] Full of dread he bade his sacrilegious army to restore to God and to the most holy Illtud all the plunder, promising thereafter amendment, and in honour of the same saint he built a church, and to those serving in the church he granted territory in which it stood. This amendment, however, profited his spirit, for he departed from this life on the ninth day as punishment for his wickedness (VI, §25).

We may thus place Illtud as the terrible warrior at Dinas Powys - the same place Uther [Pen]dragon, the Terrible [Chief-]warrior, is placed in the 'Pa Gur.'

[NOTE: Uther Pendragon appears to originally have been called simply Uther Dragon. We know this is so by looking more closely at the guide-title of the ‘Uther Pen’ poem.  After receiving false or conflicting or just plain confusing information on this from several sources, I finally asked Dr. Maredudd ap Huw, Manuscripts Librarian, Department of Collection Services at the National Library of Wales.

Dr. Huw’s response, in full:

“Firstly, I confirm that there is no ellipsis indicated in the manuscript, and that the gloss (or more correctly guide-title) reads 'mar. vthyr dragon.'

Secondly, on looking at the manuscript, it appears that the guide-title is written by the main scribe to inform the rubricator, who subsequently added the abbreviated title. The red ink of ‘n’ in ‘pen’ appears to cover the letter ‘d’ of ‘dragon’.

I regret that I am not in a position to speculate as to why the rubricator did not follow the exact wording offered by the scribe in the guide-title.”

This last is an important observation. The rubricator (called such because he used red ink) wrote ‘marvnat vthyr pen.’ for the main scribe’s ‘mar. vthyr dragon.’]

But how can Illtud be Arthur's father?  The Welsh sources insist he was Arthur's cousin.  Their mother's were said to be sisters, both daughters of Anblaud (later Amlawdd) Wledig of Ercing, a character whom Brinley F. Roberts regarded as fictitious:

“Anlawdd Wledig seems to be a function rather than a person. He is an ‘empty’ character ... who exists merely so that his daughters may be the mothers of heroes who are all, therefore, cousins of Arthur.”  (see P.C. Bartram’s A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY)

Illtud's father was Bicanus of Letavia/Llydaw, not here Brittany, but instead probably a designation for the Vale of Leadon between the Wye and the Severn, bordering on Anblaud’s Ercing. The River Leadon (early forms Ledene, Leden, from OBrit *litano-; cf. Welsh llydan) contains the same Celtic root as Llydaw.

Bicanus is merely a clever hagiographical pun.  Brittany was called 'Little Britain', Latin Britannia Minori or, in Welsh, Brydain Fechan.  Thus 'Bicanus' or Bychan is not the name of Illtud's father, but merely the 'little' descriptor borrowed from the territorial designation Brydain Fechan. 

According to the ever-unreliable Geoffrey of Monmouth, Uther came to Ercing from Brittany. Illtud's wife Trynihid is also said to have been from Brittany.

Illtud is not said to have had any children.

A NOTE ON GWYNLLYW, BROTHER OF PAWL PENYCHEN

Pawl Penychen's brother Gwynllyw, who features largely in the Life of St. Cadog in connection with Arthur, was also described as terrible in a military sense.  From the Life of St. Gwynllyw:

Deinde regressi sunt onerati ad naues [...] Dum hinc inciperent uela erigere [...] uidebant unum terribilem equitante die et nocte, et persequentem illos ex omni parte. Eques iste terribilis sanctus erat Gunlyu, qui celitus missus fuerat, ut obsisteret sacrilegis.

Then they returned to their ships burdened […] When from this place they began to hoist sails […] they saw a single being, one terrible, riding day and night, and pursuing them on every side. That terrible rider was holy Gwynllyw, who had been sent from heaven to withstand the sacrilegious ones

(VGu §12).

However, Gwynllyw's territory lay east of the Taff, while that of Pawl extended west of that river.  Gwynllyw, therefore, did not rule from Dinas Powys.

THE SAWYL CONNECTION

Another argument in favor of seeing Uther Pendragon as Illtud is found in a comparison of an early elegy poem and a passage from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN.

The poem in question, the MARWNAT VTHYR PEN or 'Death-Song of Uther Pen[dragon]', is best treated of through Marged Haycock's recent translation. This is what Professor Haycock has in her notes to Line 7 of this elegy:

 7 eil kawyl yn ardu G emends kawyl > Sawyl, the personal name (from Samuelis

via *Safwyl). Sawyl Ben Uchel is named with Pasgen and Rhun as one of the

Three Arrogant Men, Triad 23, as a combative tyrant in Vita Cadoci (VSB 58);

and in CO 344-5. Samuil Pennissel in genealogies, EWGT 12 (later Benuchel),

Irish sources, and in Geoffrey of Monmouth. Other Sawyls include a son of

Llywarch, and the saint commemorated in Llansawel: see further TYP3 496,

WCD 581 and CO 104. Ardu ‘darkness, gloom; dark, dreadful (GPC), sometimes

collocated with afyrdwl ‘sad; sadness’ (see G, GPC).

Initially, I refused to get too excited about Uther calling himself a 'second Samuel' (the first, presumably, being the Biblical prophet of that name).  I mean, this was, after all, an emendation.  However, I asked Welsh language expert Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales about the authority who made this emendation - one that was accepted by Haycock herself.  Our discussion on this matter ran as follows:

"Geirfa Barddoniaeth Gynnar Gymraeg, by John Lloyd-Jones

Cited several times by Marged Haycock in her edition of the Uther poem, and  she adopts many of his emendations.

A trustworthy, well-respected source, in your opinion?  Or is his work somewhat outdated or even obsolete?"

"It’s a very good piece of work, which I often use. It’s much more comprehensive than GPC [Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, 'Dictionary of the Welsh Language']."

Such an unqualified, professional academic opinion of Lloyd-Jones changed everything!

As for how the error could have occurred, Dr. Rodway suggested the following scenario:

"It can’t be a case of miscopying a letter, but it could be eye-skip - when a copyist’s eye skips inadvertently to another nearby word resulting in an error.  In this case, he would have eye-skipped to the preceding line's 'kawell' to get the /k-/ fronting what should have been 'sawyl'.  Was not an uncommon error, so quite plausible.  Also, kawell and kawyl are unlikely to be the same word.  The poets avoided repeating words in consecutive lines. In cases where this does occur (v rare) it could be scribal error."

I had tried to use this information to connect Uther Pendragon with Sawyl Benisel (later Ben Uchel) of the North.  Such an attempt ultimately proved nonviable.

But just recently I reread the ever-unreliable Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose work cast a long shadow - even upon what had been preexisting Welsh tradition concerning Arthur.  And I was astonished to encounter this episode:

CHAP. VII.—Hengist is beheaded by Eldol.

AURELIUS, after this victory, took the city of Conan above-mentioned, and stayed there three days. During this time he gave orders for the burial of the slain, for curing the wounded, and for the ease and refreshment of his forces that were fatigued. Then he called a council of his principal officers, to deliberate what was to be done with Hengist. There was present at the assembly Eldad, bishop of Gloucester, and brother of Eldol, a prelate of very great wisdom and piety. As soon as he beheld Hengist standing in the king's presence, he demanded silence, and said, "Though all should be unanimous for setting him at liberty, yet would I cut him to pieces. The prophet Samuel is my warrant, who when he had Agag, king of Amalek, in his power, hewed him in pieces, saying, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. Do the same to Hengist, who is a second Agag." Accordingly Eldol took his sword, and drew him out of the city, and then cut off his head. But Aurelius, who showed moderation in all his conduct, commanded him to be buried and a heap of earth to be raised over his body, according to the custom of the pagans.

This Eldad(us) of Gloucester is Illtud of Glywysing (Glywys being the eponym of Caer Gloyw or Gloucester).  He is here likening himself to the Biblical Samuel, Sawyl in Welsh.

Combined with everything else I've come up with that seems to show Uther = Illtud, this apparent correspondence of the Elegy's 'eil Sawyl' or "second Samuel" with Illtud appearing symbolically as a 'second Samuel' is truly remarkable.