UTHER PEN, SON OF NETHAWC/NWYTHON? - PART TWO

The Yarrow Stone, Whitefield, Scotland

In my last blog post (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/05/uther-pen-son-of-nethawcnwython.html), I argued that Uther Pen, Arthur's father, may be the Pen mentioned in the MABINOGION story "Culhwch and Olwen."  The latter was the son of Nethoc, a pet-form of the Irish and Pictish Neithon.  The context of C&O plainly shows (see Cyledyr son of Nwython as Irish Cilledara/"Kildare") that the Neithon intended was the 5th century Pictish king of that name. Unfortunately, there is no reason to assume that the famous Arthur's grandfather was a Pict of the Highlands.

There is another Neithon we should take a look at, however. This is Neithon son of Senyllt of the North.  He may well have been the brother of Nudd Hael, that is Nudd the Generous or Liberal, who appears on the Yarrow Stone near Whitefield in Scottish Borders.  Many good pages describing this stone can be found online. Here are three:

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/selkirk/yarrowstone/index.html

https://canmore.org.uk/site/53078/whitefield-yarrow-stone

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/cisp/database/stone/yarrw_1.html

Readers will note that Nudd is not called 'the Liberal', but rather his father is called Liberalis.  The probability that the father of Nudd Hael was called Senyllt Hael is discussed in Bartrum's note  to Jesus College Ms 20, 19 in "Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts," pp 140 (information courtesy http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id21.html).

We learn more of this Neithon son of Senyllt from the following Website:

http://www.old-north.co.uk/Holding/source_jesus.html

"Rhodri Mawr was a 9th century king of Gwynedd who claimed descent, not from the royal line of Cunedda, but from other northern characters. Here is given as a descendant of the probably legendary poet Llywarch Hen who is described here and in the Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd as one of the Coeling.

Rodri Maỽr mab Mervyn mab Guriath mab Elidyr mab Celenion merch Tutwal Tuclith mab Anaraỽd Gỽalchcrỽn mab Mervyn Maỽr mab Kyuyn mab Anllech mab Tutwaỽl mab Run mab Neidaon mab Senilth Hael tryd hael o'r gogled. Senilth mab Dingat mab Tutwaỽl mab Edneuet mab Dunaỽt mab Maxen Wledic val y mae vchot.

In this pedigree Rhodri Mawr claims descent from Maxen Wledig (Emperor Maximus) via Neidaon (i.e. Neithon) son of Senyllt Hael, described here as one of the Tri Hael or 'Three Generous Ones' of the north. Elsewhere - in poetry, the Triads and Bonedd y Saint - it is Senyllt's son Nudd who has the epithet Hael and it may be that Neidaon is a mistake for Nudd or that two brothers have been confused. [See https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/cisp/database/ for Macalister's reading of Nudogenos on the Yarrow Stone, rather than Nudus.] The name Nud Hael occurs in the manuscript, as an ancestor Morgan ab Owain, founder of Morgannwg (Glamorgan), but this is a mistake for Iudhael (W. Ithael)."

So if this Neithon son of Senyllt is an actual historical entity, and his son was Uther PEN[N], then we would for the first time know exactly where Arthur came from.  For Yarrow and Selkirkshire are firmly in the ancient tribal territory of the Selgovae, 'the Hunters.'

Interestingly enough, my plotting out of the battles of Arthur run precisely north, east and south of the Selgovae kingdom.

A caution to any who may jump to the conclusion that I've finally found Arthur's real heritage and that it places him in the North.  While I think the case is fairly strong for identifying Uther Pen of the MARWNAT VTHYR PEN who fought with Gwythyr in the North with the Pen son of Nethawc/Nwython/Neithon who served Gwythyr in C&O, we cannot be certain there even was a Neithon son of Senyllt.  Furthermore, there are some significant chronological issues that must be dealt with.  The Yarrow Stone (see https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/cisp/database/) is dated c. 500-599.  If we are to allow for Neithon being Nudd's brother (or even a mistake for Nudd), then it is hard to insert Uther Pen son of Neithon and Arthur into this genealogy without ignoring the fact that the two dated Arthurian battles (Badon and Camlann, respectively) belong to the years c. 516 and c. 537.

In passing, I recently wrote a piece on Arthur and the god Alator (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/arthur-and-god-alator-of-south-shields.html).  If Holder is correct and Alator was a hunter-god, then Arthur's special relationship with the latter may have something to do with his descent from the Selgovae.

The Yarrow Stone stands only 20 odd kilometers WSW of the Selgovae oppidum at the Eildon Hills, and the Roman city of Trimontium at Newstead which replaced it. See https://canmore.org.uk/site/55668/eildon-hill-north and https://canmore.org.uk/site/55620/newstead.

A NOTE ON GWYTHYR OF THE NORTH

Celtic linguists insist that Gwythyr must come from Latin Victor.  Certainly, this is philologically and phonologically correct.  However, I long ago suggested that Gwythyr was a substitute for the very popular Northern Roman-British god Veteres (and numerous variant spellings).  Over the years I have proposed different etymological theories to account for this divine name.  Gwyn son of Nudd, Gwythyr's opponent in C&O, is beyond doubt a divinity or, at the very least, a divine hero.  He has been compared with the Irish Fionn mac Cumhail.  The theonym Nudd comes from British Nodens.

If Veteres is represented in C&O and the MARWNAT VTHYR PEN by Gwythyr, and Penn son of Nethawc is of the Selgovae, the best possible derivation for Veteres was suggested to me by Dr. Simon Rodway of The Unversity of Wales:

“Welsh gwid derives from a participle *wi-to- 'hunted, desired' or *wi-ti- 'the hunt, enjoyment (of food)' according to GPC. The second form looks compatible with the forms in Viti-, but does not explain those in *Vete- (unless these are examples of Vulgar Latin <e> for <i>). As for the ending -ris, it could be from -ri:x 'king'. Kenneth Jackson (LHEB 535, 625) states that -x (i.e. /xs/) had become -s in Brittonic 'by the fifth century'. This is rather late, and at any rate it has been challenged by Patrick Sims-Williams. However, one might compare a 3rd century inscription from Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall: CVNARIS < *Cunori:x 'hound-like king'. Here the change of composition vowel /o/ > /a/ suggests this is probably an Irish name. So, Irish influence could account for -x > -s in your name too. Alternatively, there are Vulgar Latin examples of -s for -x, e.g. felis for felix.”

If this is so, we might suppose Veteres to be something like “Hunter-king”.

Veteres was worshiped almost entirely along Hadrian's Wall, and especially at forts along the western half of the Wall.  The southern border of the Selgovae was Hadrian's Wall.

The Roman fort of Vindolanda, modern Chesterholm, has the second largest number of dedications to this god.  Given that Vindo- means ‘white’ and is the British word that yielded the personal name Gwyn, I would hazard a guess that it was here that Gwythyr and Gwyn fought each other over Creiddylad.  Creiddylad contains Welsh craidd, ‘heart’, and she may have been manufactured from the Selgovae city name Corda , this last being fancifully related to the Latin word for heart, viz. cor, cordis.

It might be going too far to suggest that the 'Hunters of Banna' (see https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1905)  is a Latinized title for a group of Selgovae at the Birdoswald Roman fort.

RACHEL BROMWICH ON SENYLLT, NUDD HAEL AND NEITHON:

From her "Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain":

I would only add that in Irish tradition, Nechtan appears to be a byname of the god Nuadu, the latter being the equivalent of the Welsh Nudd.