THE DRAGON OF EMRAIS AND THE DRAGON OF FFARAON: MORE ON THE RULER OF GWYNEDD/ARFON

The Dragons of Dinas Emrys

I was reading through Nerys Ann Jones' notes on the Arthurian 'Pa Gur' poem (ARTHUR IN EARLY WELSH POETRY, 2019) when I came across the following on the dragon of Gwynedd/Arfon:

While this may seem a minor reference, taken with all the other examples I've cited before concerning serpents/snakes/dragons in Gwynedd, we really can't in good conscience continue to support the Galfridian tradition, which ignores the dragons of Dinas Emrys in favor of a cometary dragon and a Roman draco standard.  Even in Geoffrey of Monmouth's tale, it is Uther Pendragon who is sent to Ireland to obtain the stones that will go into the building of Stonehenge at Amesbury.  This is the very same Stonehenge where he and Ambrosius (and Constantine) are said to have been buried.  Which moves full-circle back to the discovery of the cremated remains of dragons, i.e chieftains, at Dinas Emrys.  There is thus no justifiable reason for following Geoffrey's account, which effectively divorces Uther from any association with the Dinas Emrys/Amesbury dragons.  The draco and comet are a literary creation, and serve only to remove Uther from the orbit of Arfon/Gwynedd and its dragons.

Certainly, it is still possible that (as I've suggested several times in the past) Uther Pendragon, the Terrible Chief-warrior or Chief of Warriors, or 'Chief-Chieftain'/Chief of Chieftains', may be a mere doublet for Ambrosius himself.  However, as Ambrosius is an imported folk hero from Gaul (a fusion of St. Ambrose and his father, a Praetorian Prefect of Gaul and Britain), if Uther is Ambrosius, then he could not have been Arthur's father.  

A rather puzzling reference to the Red Dragon appears in the poem 'Gwarchan Maeldderw'.  I've mentioned this before, as the line in question seems to assign the creature to Vortigern under his title "Fiery Pharaoh" (a Welsh misrendering of a Latin passage in Gildas).  

When G.R. Isaac translates the G.M., he takes Line 21 -

ar rud dhreic fud pharaon

and re-orders it thusly:

ar fudd draig rudd Ffaraon

He then translates it as "in the presence of the spoils of the Pharaoh's red dragon."  He does this because he is  "interpreting the syntax  as a poetic transformation of what would normally be expressed in the word order (see note to his Gwarchan Maeldderw: A "Lost" Medieval Welsh Classic?, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 44, Winter 2002).  

But if we retain the original word order, another interpretation of the line is possible (something I have confirmed with Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales):

"the spoils/booty of Pharaoh before/in front of/in the presence of the Red Dragon"

Williams in CANU ANEIRIN (.p. 379) says that mention of  'the red dragon of Pharaoh' is suggestive of a reference to the story of the dragons of Dinas Emrys in Nant Gwynant, Snowdonia, as told in HISTORIA BRITTONUM and CYFRANC LLUDD AND LLEFELYS.

By assigning the ddraig goch to Vortigern, the poet seems to be alluding to the fact that before Dinas Emrys belonged to Ambrosius, it had been the possession of the former.  Although Vortigern had failed in his efforts to build a castle atop the hill - a failure due to the presence of the pool of the dragons below the foundations - we are told in Nennius that he gave the place and all of western Britain (i.e. western Wales) to Ambrosius after the discovery of the dragons.  So, in this limited sense, I suppose, he can be said to be the owner of the dragons prior to Ambrosius.

Nennius is quite explicit in assigning the red dragon to Vortigern:

"I will now unfold to you the meaning of this mystery. The pool is the emblem of this world, and the tent that of your kingdom: the two serpents are two dragons; the red serpent is your dragon,"

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1972/1972-h/1972-h.htm  

The important thing to take from this poetic reference to the red dragon in G.M. is that the monster was seen as emblematic of Gwynedd.  It's transference from one ruler to another was symbolic of the transference of the land itself from Vortigern to Ambrosius.  

I've mentioned before that while the urns with their cremated remains of dragons or chieftains may have provided some of the impetus for the Dinas Emrys story that the Segontium shield device with its two crossed serpents may also be extremely relevant in this context.  We now know that Segontium (see https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/segontium-roman-fort) was held by the Romans longer than any other fort in Wales. Until, in fact, the very end of the 4th century.  What this tells me is that the fort would have been seen as the control center of Gwynedd.  It's two "dragons" would have been recognized throughout the region as a symbol of military might and administrative authority.