GIVEN THE TRUE NATURE OF THE DINAS EMRYS DRAGON, WHO IS THE FATHER OF ARTHUR?

Roman cinerary urn with snake handles (photo courtesy Melissa Corsini).

In the last few blog posts, I presented my argument in some detail for the dragon of Uther Pendragon being properly derived from the Dinas Emrys story and not, as is claimed by Geoffrey of Monmouth, from a comet and/or Roman standard.  I've also demonstrated that we appear to have only two real choices for who Uther may actually have been:  he was either a) a doublet for Ambrosius or b) he was Cunedda.

I would here like to try and establish once and for all which of these options should be deemed preferable.  To accomplish this, we need to be willing to separate out cherished legend from historical probability.

The Lands of Cunedda and His Sons

What we do know happened in northwest Wales is that Cunedda and his Sons migrated there from Ireland sometime in the 5th century (Koch et al).This was the floruit of Vortigern, who according to the folktale in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM gave all of western Wales to Ambrosius.  Ambrosius is an imported 4th century figure based on St. Ambrose and his Gaulish governor father.  He was associated with Amesbury by Stonehenge, but also with Dinas Emrys in the Gwynedd of Cunedda.  An interesting coincidence: although Cunedda and his sons did come to hold northwestern Wales, as they were the Gewissei that also were credited with founding Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons. Cunedda himself, whose other Irish name was Maqui-coline, is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Ceawlin.  The chronologies of the English and Welsh sources are askew because, for some reason, the Gewissei genealogy in the former runs backwards.  I have discussed this problem elsewhere.

In my book THE BEAR KING: ARTHUR AND THE IRISH IN WALES AND SOUTHERN ENGLAND, I made a case for Cerdic of the Gewissei being Ceredig/Ceretic son of Cunedda.  And, having made that hypothetical identification, I then proceeded to show that Ceredig was, in fact, Arthur. 

What I can say with complete certainty is that Arthur was not the son of Ambrosius.  If Uther Pendragon, the only candidate put forward for Arthur's father, was a poetic title for Ambrosius, then this attribution of paternity is based on false tradition.

On the other hand, if Uther Pendragon = Cunedda, then a theory that offers Ceredig son of Cunedda as Arthur works extremely well.

I really can't think of anything else to say on the matter, at least at this juncture.  The context of the Dinas Emrys story does not permit the inclusion of another candidate for Uther.