THE BATTLES OF A DOBUNNIC ARTHUR

The Arthurian Battles?

At this point I see no reason to alter the battle-site identifications I gave for Cerdic of Wessex/Ceredig son of Cunedda in my book THE BEAR KING.  True, because I've been able to show that Uther Pendragon was Illtud, himself of descent from the Dobunni, my candidate for Arthur has changed radically.  But the battle sites themselves have, interestingly enough, not required alteration.  Why?

Well, it is fairly obvious that Arthur was being promoted in the 9th century (the presumed date of the Nennius battle list) as the successful opponent of Cerdic. Predictably, both sides proclaimed victory in the battles under consideration. Cerdic was, rightly or wrongly, being heralded by the English as the founder of Wessex.  Arthur, on the contrary, was being hailed as the hero of the Welsh.  Who was right and who was lying out of propagandist pride?

If the archaeologists have assessed their data properly, Wessex was not won from the south.  And I have before hinted at Cerdic's failure (evinced by an apparent retreat to the Isle of Wight, and a second failed attempt at The Cams/Camlann to penetrate the interior or Hampshire) to establish a Kingdom of Wessex.  As I see it, through a lens of imperfect and perhaps distorted knowledge, Arthur quelled the threat from the south.  He also prevented penetration from the east - for an astonishing length of time.  But with his death the strength of his kingdom waned, and the Dobunni and their allies were unable to resist the onslaught of the Germanic barbarians.  The Fort of the Bear was isolated and, ultimately, either taken by the English or abandoned by the British.  

Granted, this is by and large an imaginary - though highly rational - construct I've never denied that everything I write about is, for the most part, speculative in nature.  I can't dignify it by calling it "theoretical" or even "hypothetical", primarily because really none of it can be tested. We simply lack the evidence we require to prove anything scientifically.

I can conclude only with this:  as no alternate father for the great Arthur other than Uther Pendragon/Illtud was offered over the course of several centuries, in all intellectual honesty I must accept this strand of tradition.  And if I do, I'm literally forced to PROVISIONALLY ACCEPT an Arthur who was probably based in the ancient Dobunni lands. And this automatically implies an Arthur who could well have fought as a 'battle-leader' (much as his father had done) both to the south and to the east against the encroaching Germanic enemy.