Rhydderch and the Missing Urien: A New Look at the Battle of Arderydd

Arderydd and the Combatants

The map posted above shows the forces who either came against Gwenddolau at the Battle of Arderydd or who had answered his call as allies.  Bear in mind that Gwenddolau is probably a personified place-name meaning 'White dales'.  So what we are really talking about is someone ruling from Carwinley, the Fort of the White Dales.  

Cynfelyn was of the Cynwyd tribe, and so belongs at Kendal.  Dunawd has been plausibly placed at Dent.  Gwrgi and Peredur were the sons of Eliffer of York.  After fighting at Arderydd in 573, they died in a battle at Carrawburgh on the Wall in 580.  Dreon son of Nudd Hael was of the Selgovae, while Rhydderch was of Strathclyde.  Caer Llywarch, modern Caerlaverock, was probably the home of Llywarch Hen, a chieftain who fought under Urien of Rheged.  According to Welsh tradition. Caer Llywarch was the cause of the Battle of Arderydd.

My problem with the Battle of Arderydd has always been this:  where was Urien of Rheged?  I've previously made what I believe to be a very good case for Urien being of Annandale (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-nucleus-of-uriens-kingdom-of-rheged.html). According to Bartram, Urien was active between 572 and 579, with the earliest death-date for him being 585 or 586.  Given that the fort of Llywarch Hen was the cause of the Arderydd battle, and Arderydd itself was fought just a little to the east of Annandale and was, apparently, an important enough engagement to draw combatants literally from all quarters of North Britain, why is Urien conspicuously absent?

The answer, oddly enough, may lie with Rhydderch. 

On a tributary on the River Annan there is a place called Carruthers.  The etymology of Carruthers has been disputed.  The most useful conversation regarding the name comes from Brythonic place-name expert Alan James.  Note the idea regarding this being from a British 'red water' was initiated by the present author.

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From Johnson-Ferguson:

Carrotheris 1372, Carutheris 1495

From Black:

John de Carutherys c1320, William of Carruderys 1460

From Hanks & Hodges:

Carrothres 1334, Caer Ruther c1350

local pronunciation /'krɪdɛrz/

-rr- forms predominate, though as you see, -r- occurs in a couple of the earliest. But there can be no doubt that the medial consonant is voiced /ð/ as in Rhydderch or rhudd, not /θ/ as in Uther or rhuthr. 

For the specific, J-F favours Rhydderch, 

H & H 'a personal name probably composed of elements meaning "red and "king"'

AJ in BLITON: ?rūδ- (rhudd) + -ar or -duβr (dŵr), i.e. a stream-name of the 'Rother' type: note Red Cleuch, ‘A deep rugged glen through which a stream runs, this stream rises on Carruthers Fell and falls into Kirk Burn’ (OS Name-Book OS1/10/37/44).

Carrutherstown is a modern name, I'm not sure it's even on the 1st edn OS map, you can check that at the nls site. 

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So what we have in Carruthers is a place that either means "Caer Rhydderch" or which could have easily been mistaken for such a fort name.

Between Carruthers and Caer Llywarch is Hoddom, site of a 7th century monastery traditionally established by St. Kentigern.  In the past (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/so-just-who-or-what-was-myrddinmerlin.html) I've shown that the Gwasawg, supporter of Rhydderch, was a nickname for St. Kentigern.  

What it looks like to me, then, is that someone from Annandale/Rheged, perhaps inhabiting the Birrens [1] Hill settlement at Carruthers (itself a mistake for the nearby Birrenswark/Burnswark hillfort?), went against the lord of Caer Gwewnddolau.  In other words, a chieftain of Urien's Rheged was the aggressor in the Battle of Arderydd.  If Caer Llywarch were ultimately the cause of Arderydd, then I would guess that Gwenddolau's king had made a move against a Rheged stronghold.  The attack on Arderydd would be the natural and, disastrous consequence.

The notion that Rhydderch of Strathclyde held sway in the extreme SE portion of what had been the Novantae tribal territory is, in my opinion, absurd.  He did not possess Caer Llywarch and so he could not have been involved in an attempt by Gwenddolau to take the fort of a man who faithfully served Urien of Rheged.

The Burnswark 

When such a war-leader from Carruthers became confused with Rhydderch of Strathclyde, the engagement took on a much grander character.  And as is true of any number of famous ancient battles in heroic epic (from Troy of the Greeks to Bravellir of the Norse), soon any warrior or king within the broader region is drawn to the conflict.  And so a battle of restricted significance becomes a truly important affair, to be celebrated with creative flair in later legend.

The only other battle reported in the extant sources for the same general region is that of Camlann in 537 A.D.  This year marked the death of Arthur.  I've remarked before that Rheged only gained ascendancy after the passing of Arthur. Could it be that the overwhelming victory at Arderydd in 573 opened the way for Urien and son Owain's successes in Cumbria, northern England and southeastern Lowland Scotland? If I'm right about the nucleus of Rheged being Annandale, then this makes a great deal of sense. 

[1]

From Alan James on the place-name birren:

"There's Birrens in Middlebie, Birrens Knowe in Eskdalemuir, Birrenswark in Hoddom and Birronlees in Kirkpatrick Fleming. OE byrȝen is literally 'a burial', so the names may refer to barrows, but the word seems to have been used for features (mounds, cairns etc.) that may not really have been burials. The word itself isn't connected with burh, byriȝ, nor any other word related to fortifications, though there may coincidentally have been forts at all these places. Nor is it a hill word, or only if you count mounds as hills."