Coming Soon: WHAT'S IN A NAME: THE PROBLEM WITH ARTHUR

South Shields Bear Cameo

My readers over the years have either been interested in or bemused by(or even amused by) my attempts to account for the name Arthur as it appears in Chapter 56 of the HISTORIA BRITTONUM.  Over the last few years I have proposed a connection to 1) the Arthwys and River Irthing of the North 2) Ceredig son of Cunedda of the Afon Arth and his Arto- descendants and 3) the curious occurrence of incidents and names/titles seemingly involving a questionable Irish word art, 'stone'. 

But here is the problem with ALL of that: nowhere in the extant sources can we find a single instance of the name Arthur (even if a decknamen of a preexisting Irish or British name/title meaning 'Bear-king') being applied or related to another known historical personage.  And this is a HUGE, perhaps insurmountable problem for Arthurian researchers.  For without this early, attested identification of the name Arthur with a confirmed figure, any attempt to find the original Arthur is fraught with uncertainty.  And there is not a single (non-fringe, professional) scholar out there who will accept an Arthurian candidate without such an ironclad, substantiable identification.

So, what do we do?  Where do we go from here?

Those are questions I wish to explore - and hopefully provide answers for - in my next post.