MUIREDACH MUINDERG, KING OF ULSTER - AND MATERNAL GRANDFATHER OF ARTHUR?

If I'm right, and Arthur's father Sawyl Benisel of Ribchester had as his wife a daughter of the Irish Dal Fiatach king Muiredach Muinderg, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at where the latter had his chief court.  We cannot, of course, know whether this Irish princess was Arthur's mother. But it is a distinct possibility.  

Fortunately, the Irish place-name and national monument folks have done their homework.  The case has been made for two rulings centers for Muiredach, both in Co. Down: Drumnabreeze and Dromorebrague.  I have posted below links and excerpts from the relevant Websites.

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http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=11215

Drumnabreeze, County Down

Show the Map

Origin

perhaps Ir. Dromainn Brís ‘ridge of (the) high ground’

Background

7km E of Lurgan

par: Magheralin bar: Iveagh Lower, Upper Half

Drumnabreeze was part of the O’Lavery district of Moira in 1609 (CPR Jas I 395a), and although it was let to Stephen Haven of Dromore by 1631 (Inq. Ult. (Down) §16 Car. I), Laughlin Roe O’Lawry was still resident in 1663 (Sub. Roll Down 273).  It is on rising ground east of the Lagan valley, with a hill in the centre 297 feet high, from which the view ‘ranges considerably over the flat ground adjoining the Lagan’ (OSNB).  The first element seems to be one of the words for ‘ridge’, droim or its derivatives dromainn or droimne. John O’Donovan suggested that the final element was brí ‘upland’ (gen. plural breg later brígh).  As noted by the editor Margaret Dobbs, a name like Droim na mBrígh invites comparison with Druimne Breg ‘ridge of the high ground’, the location of Uachtar, the earliest chief site of Dál Fiatach in east Ulster (Descendants Ir xiii 324, 336, 338).  However, there is no archaeological evidence for an important historical settlement in this area, and Dromorebrague in the parish of Aghaderg is a more likely location.

If the element brí is accepted, it is possible that the final [z] of the modern pronunciation is due to the addition of English plural -s, which is usually pronounced as [z] after a vowel.  There are forms without -s in the Census of 1659 and the Down Subsidy Roll (1663).  A plural -s has been added to this element in English spelling in other place-names, for example Mac

Muiris na mBrígh,‘MacMorris of Brees’ Co. Mayo (Misc. Ir. Annals 1406).  Dean Mooney mentioned Brees Castle from Caisleán na mBrí, Brees in Clanmorris, Mayo, referred to as (is) na Brighibh hi ccloinn Muiris in 1595 AD (AFM vii 1988).  Another possibility is that [z] represents the genitive ending of bríoghas, an unattested collective form of brí (cf. Ó Máille 1989-90). This would be bríos in modern spelling.

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NOTE:  There once existed a fort at Drumnabreeze.  I found this information here:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20566485?seq=1

The argument in favor of Dromorebrague is unsupportable, in my opinion, as one must opt for a place-name with an intrusive element (mor, 'big, great'). Drumnabreeze is, on the other hand, quite perfect for our needs.

Still, for the sake of full disclosure, the reader will find below the relevant entries on Dromorebrague and its hillfort.

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http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=11800

Dromorebrague, County Down

Show the Map

Origin

Ir. Droim Mór Breá ‘big ridge of the high ground’

Background

Dromorebrague must be the townland of Shankill district called in the early 17th century Ballydromore, although it is now known locally just as Brague. There is a hill-fort at 489 feet near the north-east boundary of the parish (ASCD 148).  The townland is high ground and Droim Mór ‘big ridge’ would need no explanation as the basic name of the place. The two place-names in this parish including the element brague have been understood as containing bréige, the genitive of bréag ‘a lie’, and thus having the sense of an adjective ‘false’ (Glancy 1956, 78).  The term buachaill bréige ‘false lad’ was often used for a standing stone which might look like a person when seen from far off (Joyce ii 435; Ó Ceallaigh 1952-3(b) 36-7).  The -brague element has also been studied by Dean Mooney.  He thought that Dromorebrague derived from Droim Mór Bréagtha ‘big ridge for playing games’, where -brague represented the genitive of bréagadh, ‘deceiving’ and thence ‘beguiling’, used in this case of a hill where people once assembled to play games (Mooney 1956(a), 26-7)  (Mooney MS 11).  However, this would strain the meaning of bréagadh, and bréagtha would be unlikely to be anglicized brague. It is possible that -brague could represent the genitive singular or plural breagh (standard breá) of brí ‘height, plateau’, with final -gh  delenited to [g] in the modern form.  Dromorebrague might then be part of the district Droim Breá or Dromanna Breá ‘ridge (or ridges) of the height (or heights)’, which was the earliest settlement of Dál Fiatach in east Ulster. 

https://apps.communities-ni.gov.uk/nismr-public/Details.aspx?MonID=7762

On top of a hill with excellent views. The site is impressive, although some 52m of the N extent have been removed, where the bank & ditch would have been situated. The site, 71m E-W diam., stands proud of the field surface & is surrounded by an arc of waterlogged ditch running round the outside of the bank, which varies in height. At WSW, the bank is 1.25m above the interior, 5.4m wide & 2.35m above the ditch, which is 1.4m wide & 1m deep. The interior gradually slopes to N. See SM7 for further details. An archaeological evaluation was carried out on a proposed development site NE of the hillfort. Two test trenches were excavated across the development area. No artefacts or features of archaeological significance were uncovered [SOC 20/09/04].

SMR Number DOW 034:032 view on map

 

Edited Type: HILLFORT

Specific Type Specific Period

Townland: DROMOREBRAGUE

 

Council: ARMAGH CITY BANBRIDGE AND CRAIGAVON

County: DOW

Grid Ref: J1344041630

Protection: Scheduled

Parish: AGHADERG

Barony: IVEAGH UPR;UPR HALF

Town:

General Type: HILLFORT

Condition: SUBSTANTIAL REMAINS (Vast majority definable)

General Periods:

Submit

IRON AGE

PREHISTORIC

https://apps.communities-ni.gov.uk/nismr-public/docs/DOW/DOW_034/DOW_034_032/Public/SM7-DOW-034-032.pdf

https://apps.communities-ni.gov.uk/nismr-public/docs/DOW/DOW_034/DOW_034_032/Public/SM7-DOW-034-032A.pdf

https://apps.communities-ni.gov.uk/nismr-public/docs/DOW/DOW_034/DOW_034_032/Public/SM7-DOW-034-032B.pdf

MIGHT ARTHUR REALLY HAVE BEEN BURIED AT BURGH BY SANDS/'AVALON'?

St. Michael's Church, Burgh By Sands

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ABALLAVA (entry from THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN by Rivet and Smith):

Rudge Cup and Amiens patera: ABALLAVA

Inscription, RIB 883, IN C(U)NEUM FRISIONUM ABALLAVENSIUM

Ravenna, 10729 : AVALANA; variant AVALAVA.

Notitia Dignitatum, XL47 :  Prafectus numeri Maurorum Aurelianorum, ABALLABA. 

DERIVATION. The name is from Celtic *aballa-; there is Gaulish avallo = 'poma' in the Vienna Glossary. The modem languages show Welsh afall 'apple-tree', Welsh afal 'apple' and Breton aval, Irish ubhall, abhall. Cognate Germanic words include English apple and others which go back to a common North European base *abl-. Latin nux avellana 'hazel-nut' may involve a borrowing from Celtic, though there was possibly a native Italic representative of the group (see below). Romano-British Aballava can hardly refer to a fruit or to a single distinguished tree, although it might (as with other tree-references in place-names) allude to a sacred tree. A more mundane explanation is that the name is a collective 'orchard ' ; Irish abhall is used in this sense in some parts. The name is paralleled in Gaul : Aballo TP = Aballone AI  l604 > Avallon (Yonne, France), and there are other places called Avalon in France. In Italic lands there was Abella  (Campania), described as malifera 'rich in apples' in the Aeneid VII.740.

The name has the derivational suffix -ava (British *-auà), as in Galava, Manavia, and abroad Genava, etc. ; see Holder I.305. It is now represented by Welsh -au, Breton -aou -ou.

IDENTIFICATION.  The Roman fort at Burgh-by-Sands, Cumberland (NY 3259).

Note. Presumably the Avalon of Arthurian legend has a like origin. The name appears first in Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the equation with Glastonbury was made with the discovery of the pretended tomb of Arthur at the abbey in 1191 : 

Hic iacet sepultus inditus rex Arturius in insula Avalonia. 

This was adopted in Welsh as Ynys Afallon 'Isle of Apples', perhaps a Celtic version of the Greek Hesperides".

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CAMBOGLANNA (entry from THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN by Rivet and Smith)

Rudge Cup : CAMBOGLANS

Amiens patera : CAMBOG[LANI]S

Ravenna 10711 (= R&C 131) : GABAGLANDA 

Ravenna 10736 (=R&C 167)  CAMBROIANNA

ND : In Seeck's edition the entry at XI,44 reads : Tribunus cohortis primae Aeliae Dacorum, AMBOGLANNA

M. W. C. Hassall in Aspects of the ND (Oxford, 1976), 113, supposes a lacuna in an early MS of ND, and restores it as follows : 

XL43a : Tribunus cohortis primae Aeliae Dacorum, [BANNA

XL44 : Tribunus cohortis secundae Tungrorum], CAMBOGLANNA

See further BANNA. The presence of cohors II Tungrorum at Castlesteads is attested on RIB 1981-83 and 1999.

The sources need some elucidation. On the restored form of the Amiens patera, see p. 230. The Rudge Cup and the patera tell us that a locative plural in -is- is being recorded (compare Mais, locative plural of Maia, on the same vessels); in the other texts Camboglanna is therefore a nominative or accusative neuter plural, not a feminine singular. Ravenna's first form has initial G for C, a common scribal error, and has at some stage lost -m-, which was often abbreviated, like -n-, in medieval MSS. Ravenna's second form has not previously been equated with Camboglanna. R&C indeed specifically deny the possibility; they emend the Cambroianna of the text to *Cambolanna, by no means unreasonably, and fmd an etymology for its second element in British *landa, *lanna (see VINDOLANDA), placing this *Cambolanna in S.W. Scotland. However, it should be noted that R&C's emendation leaves the original one letter short, whereas equation with Camboglanna does not; also, duplications in Ravenna are much more common than R&C allowed (see Chapter V). The wide separation of the two names in Ravenna's list is no bar to uniting them; compare the duplication of the name of another Wall-fort, Maio-Maia, again widely separated in the text. The Cosmographer was working here from two maps, whose differing scripts led him to duplicate in differing ways. See also Crawford's earlier study in Antiquity, IX (!935) > where he had other arguments for maintaining the separateness of the two places and for locating *Cambolanna well to the north of the Wall. Finally, ND's omission of the initial C- may be merely a scribal accident or an assimilation to Latin ambo- 'both'.

DERIVATION. For *cambo-, see the previous entry. British *glanno- is now Welsh glann 'bank, shore', found also in British Glanum (if for *Glannum) and Glannoventa. The preésent name is thus 'curved bank' or 'bank at the bend'.

IDENTIFICATION. The Roman fort at Castlesteads, Cumberland (NY 5163), beside the Cam Beck.

Note. Survival of the name for a time may be indicated if the Camelon of Harleian MS 3859, where Arthur fought two of his battles (one placed at A.D. 537), is really for Camlann or Cambglan. See discussion in Antiquity, IX (1935), 289-90, and Modern Philology, XLIII (1945), 56; also LHEB 437. Hassall notes, in support of thé identification with Castlesteads, that the Cambeck, the river at the site, may preserve the first element of the old name.

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Proximity of Camlan and Avalon on Hadrian's Wall

Over the years I written a great deal on Arthur's Avalon.  Is it a pleasant fiction, a nebulous Otherworld paradise?  Or might it have been a real place?

Well, there definitely was an Avalon, and it lies not too many miles to the west of the Camlan where Arthur died.  We are talking, of course, about the Roman fort of Aballava (or Avalana) at Burgh By Sands.  There was a great marsh here (Burgh Marsh), and a Roman period goddess Dea Latis (almost certainly 'Goddess of the Lake').  

Apples in Celtic tradition are emblems of the Otherworld, and a place named Aballava or "Apple Orchard' may have designated an ancient British sacred center.  We need not posit that Arthur was conveyed to an island of goddesses, for it was customary to build early Christian centers atop pagan shrines.  In my mind, therefore, it is not at all difficult to imagine Arthur being conveyed from Camboglanna/Castlesteads to Burgh By Sands.

The only problem for me in this scenario is what his burial at Aballava would mean for the geopolitical state of affairs then prevailing. I've only recently written this piece on what Badon and Camlan might mean for an Arthur who had been born at Ribchester:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-ribchester-arthur-and-battles-of.html

In my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY, I vacillated between the Irthing Valley or Stanwix (the Roman period Uxellodunum, which housed the largest cavalry unit in all of Britain) as Arthur's power center.  If he had ruled from Banna/Birdoswald or Camboglanna/Castlesteads, it would be hard to explain an interment at Burgh By Sands.  In addition, if Moderatus/Modred/Medraut belonged to an emerging Rheged centered in Annandale, accepting Aballava as the final resting place of Arthur becomes increasingly difficult. 

However, regardless of where Arthur's chief court lay, we must remember that although he perished in the conflict at Camlan, so, too, did his opponent.  There may have been a sort of pyrrhic victory. And that may mean that Arthur's territory remained intact and relatively safe from any immediate renewed attack.  If Aballava were within the region his successor controlled, he might still have been buried there.

A NOTE ON ABALLAC SON OF BELI AND ANNA

At the head of some of the Welsh genealogies we find Aballac (or Afallach) son of Beli and Anna.  It is well known that Aballac represents a Welsh attempt at Irish Ablach, a word meaning "abounding in apples" or "having apple trees", and found in the Irish Otherworld island place-name Emhain Ablach.

Given that this is so, I have no problem subscribing to the view that Beli here is a substitute for Irish bile, 'a sacred tree.'

But if this is so, who is Anna?  And why are these three personages set at the head of genealogies for the ancestry of Coel Hen of the North and of Cunedda, who was wrongly said to come from Manau Gododdin at the head of the Firth of Forth?  Manannan mac Lir was associated with Emhain Ablach,  sometimes misidentified with the Isle of Man, and the Welsh Manawydan is placed at North Queensferry/Tribruit in the PA GUR poem.  Queensferry was either in or on the eastern border of Manau Gododdin, where the two extant place-names Slamannan and Clackmannan delineate part of that region's extent.  

Well, I believe the clue to Anna's identity lies in the Welsh tradition which makes Afallach the father of Modron, wife of Urien of Rheged.  As I've demonstrated before, the nucleus of Rheged was Annandale, and it was in Annadale that we find Lochmaben.  Not far to the southeast is the Clochmaben Stone.  Both are named for the god Maponus/Mabon, son of Modron.  

As I read it, Anna is merely a Christian substitute for a goddess akin to the Irish Anu.  As Rivet and Smith make clear in their THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN, the River Annan, found in Classical period sources as Anava, has as its root the same word we find in Anu.  There is a St. Ann's hamlet on the Kinnel Water tributary of the Annan, and a St. Ann's Well at Beaumont in the parish of Burgh By Sands ( = Aballava/Avalana/'Avalon').  The River Annan is across the Solway from the Bowness-on-Solway Roman fort, which is just two forts to the west of Burgh By Sands along Hadrian's Wall.

One of the 'waths' or fords over the Solway led from Burgh By Sands to the Clochmaben Stone:

Courtesy https://solwayshorewalker.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/waths-ford-and-border/

Could it be, therefore, that Aballac/Afallach was actually localized at Burgh By Sands?  Was this the earlier Welsh tradition, before it was supplanted by the false identification of Glastonbury with Avalon?

PRECEDENCE IS ALL: EIL FOUND SPELLED ELI or ELIWLAD = EILWLAD

When exploring whether Eliwlad could have come from an original Eilwlad, it was necessary to do more than merely consult top Welsh specialists.  While they could give their weighty opinions on the possibility of such a metathesis as eli from eil having occurred, I still needed to show that this actually happened in early MSS.

I have just succeeded in doing so.

The line pasted at the top comes from A Glossary of Mediaeval Welsh Law Based Upon the Black Book of Chirk by Timothy Lewis, Manchester University Press, 1913.

https://books.google.com/books?id=GbTnAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=%22Eil%22%2B%22eli%22%2B%22welsh%22&source=bl&ots=763uQuJyNn&sig=ACfU3U2VTj_oF6TzuSGbivzqozp8KBc3qg&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRibvSm5XnAhVNoZ4KHUAlDTQQ6AEwCnoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Eil%22%2B%22eli%22%2B%22welsh%22&f=false

In that source, eli is plainly given as an alternate spelling for eil.

The Black Book of Chirk is a very early MS.  From https://www.maryjones.us/jce/chirk.html:

"The Black Book of Chirk Y Llyvyr Du or Weun

ca. 1350

Sometimes called "The Chirk Codex" the Black Book is the earliest collection of the Welsh laws codified by Hwyel Dda, the tenth century king of Gwynedd, though it was composed in the thirteenth century, presumably copying from an earlier, lost manuscript. There is a contemporaneous Latin version of the Laws, Peniarth MS 28, which is best known for being one of the few fully-illustrated manuscripts of Wales.

It currently resides at the National Library of Wales."

One caveat from Dr. Simon Rodway:

"I doubt this is an example of miscopying, but rather of scribal carelessness.  This MS, Peniarth 29 (The Black Book of Chirk), is notorious for the sloppiness and eccentricity of its scribes.  See the detailed discussion by Paul Russell, ‘Scribal (In)competence in Thirteenth-Century North Wales: The Orthography of the Black Book of Chirk (Peniarth MS 29)’, National Library of Wales Journal, 29 (1995‑96), 129‑76."

But, still, we have eli for eil, and this example shows that the right misspelling of the latter could occur.

I have asked the head of MSS. at the National Library of Wales, Dr. Maredudd ap Huw, if he can think of any other examples of eli for eil.  Should he be able to produce such results, I will post those here.

I am now putting my research to rest with the following declaration: I'm confident I have finally, after some two and a half decades of searching, "discovered" the historical Arthur of the 6th century.

EXAMPLE TWO FOUND!

In "The Red Book of Hergest" version of CULHWCH AND OLWEN, we find the personal name Eli rendered as Eil.  This instance occurs in a listing of Arthur's champions.  What should read "Eli and Trachmyr" is instead written "Eil and Trachmyr."

The two images below were taken from -

The Text of the Mabinogion: And Other Welsh Tales from the Red Book of Hergest, John Gwenogvryn Evans, Sir John Rhys, 1887, p. 140 (MS. 842)


https://books.google.com/books?ppis=_e&id=XlEGAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Red+book+of+hergest%22%2B%22eil%22%2B%22eli%22&q=Eil+%28cf.+Eli%29#v=snippet&q=Eil%20(cf.%20Eli)&f=false

and

https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/Discover/Search/#/?p=c+1,t+ac%20eil%2C%20a,rsrs+0,rsps+10,fa+,so+ox%3Asort%5Easc,scids+,pid+9bf187bf-f862-4453-bc4f-851f6d3948af,vi+49792518-1334-4f3e-b894-2dcf72eb6c36

For comparison, here is MS. 818 (110, 7 in Evans and Rhys), where Eli is written properly:

CADGUALLAUN LIU GRANDSON OF SAWYL BENISEL = CAEDUALLA REX BRETTONUM?

Aerial View of Site of the Ribchester Roman Fort

In 2004, Alex Woolfe published an article in NORTHERN HISTORY that may have considerable bearing on my theory that the legendary Arthur came from a royal family based at Ribchester:

https://www.academia.edu/313147/Caedualla_rex_Brettonum_and_the_passing_of_the_old_north

In this piece, Dr. Woolfe very plausibly suggests that a great chieftain of the 7th century named Cadwallon Lyw (the chieftain, lord, leader, ruler, governor; see GPC), usually assigned to the Gwynedd dynasty, should instead be attached to the family of Sawyl Benisel: 

"It remains now to identify an alternative and better placed candidate for Bede's Caedualla rex Brettonum. What is sought is a northcountryman, a neighbour to both Deira and Bernicia, who was appropriately placed to be over-king of both and who had afloruit in the early to mid seventh century. Happily a candidate readily presents himself. Harley pedigree 19 reads:

Catguallaun liu [1] map Guitcun map Samuil penissel map Pappa post Priten map Ceneu map Gyl hen"

I've read his entire paper - more than once now.  And it seems to me that if he is right, this would reinforce my own idea that Arthur was a son of Sawyl.  How?  Well, only because it would be proof that Sawyl's family (and, presumably, kingdom) was extremely powerful in the North during the Dark Ages.  And, that by being so, it would have been fertile ground for the production of a significant hero prior to Sawyl's grandson. 

The case could even be made that Arthur's earlier victories against the Saxons in the North, including that of Badon, had set the stage for the later military successes of Cadwallon.  

[1]

Dr. Woolfe argues, for instance, that the Ynys Glannauc (Enislannach in Gerald of Wales) battle of Cadwallon was a relocated event. I agree.  In my opinion the proper location is the Llan Lleennawc, "Lleenog's enclosure", probably here a fort or fortified settlement and not, as later, a church.  This place is found mentioned in the Book of Taliesin and incorporates the name of the father of Gwallog of Elmet.  

The Kingdom of Elmet lay to the south of Birdoswald on Hadrian's Wall.  Birdoswald/Banna was ruled over by Sawyl, and Ekwall etymologizes the place-name as containing W. buarth, "fold", plus the OE personal name Oswald.  I would suggest that the Roman period Banna was also Cadwallon's fort, and that it was renamed after Oswald killed the former at Heavenfield.  

XI.

GWALLAWC

[BT 29]

"Ef differth aduwyn llan lleennawc"

On the identification of Heavenfield, where Cadwallon met his death, see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/where-exactly-was-hefenfeldheavenfield.html.

CEIDIO SON OF ARTHWYS AND POWCADY, CUMBRIA?

King Water Valley (photo courtesy Andrew Smith)

According to the early Welsh genealogies, Gwenddolau ('white dales'), who belonged at Carwinley in Cumbria, was the son of Ceidio.  Ceidio as a name is a hypocoristic form of a longer two-part name that begins with *cad-, 'battle.'

Recently, I thought to look for a relic of Ceidio in place-names.  As he was a son of the Arthwys who stands for the *Artenses or People of the Bear of the Irthing Valley, my attention was caught at first by Powcady between the King Water and the Cambeck not far from the Camboglanna Roman fort at Castlesteads.  Early forms for Powcady were late: Pocadie, Pokeadam.  But Alan James proposed that this contained a typical pol- element 'pool in a stream, stream' plus cad-, 'battle', plus perhaps a -ou plural suffix.  I wondered if it could instead contain the name Ceidio/Keidyaw/Ceidiaw.

Powcady is at a footbridge over Peglands Beck, which was earlier known as Polterkened. See

https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2019_Edition.pdf

As Polterkened (or at least Kened, as polter may have been added later) was this stream's ancient name, a *pol- of a different name on the same watercourse would designate a pool in this location.  I asked Alan James whether this could be 'Ceidio's Pool.'  He responded:

"Poll Ceidio isn't impossible, though it should be lenited *Geidio (but lenition is a bit iffy in Cumbric pns). So, no, not impossible."

I would very tentatively propose, therefore, that the name Ceidio son of Arthwys/Artenses is preserved at Powcady.

A RIBCHESTER ARTHUR AND THE BATTLES OF BADON AND CAMLAN

Badon and Camlan in Relation to Bremetennacum Veteranorum 

Having decided to situate Arthur at Ribchester (birthplace and, perhaps, military base), I thought it might be prudent to take a new look at the two important battles of Badon and Camlan.  

In my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY, I identified Badon with Buxton.  Without repeating the linguistic argument for Buxton, we can show that a Roman road ran from the Bremetennacum Roman fort to the former site.  In addition, it is undeniable that a thrust in the direction of Buxton by invading Saxons would have been seen as a serious threat to those Britons who controlled the old Setantii territory. Saxons who successfully penetrated the Pennines at this point could have marched straight to Ribchester.  

On the other hand, a decisive victory over the Saxons in the High Peak may well have guaranteed the relative safety of the Britons living west of the Penninues for a considerable period of time.

But what of Camlan, where Arthur and Medraut/Modred/Moderatus perished?  What exactly was going on here?  Traditionally, it was a battle of Briton vs. Briton and not an engagement fought against the Saxons.  And, in truth, given the location of Camboglanna towards the western end of Hadrian's Wall, and with all of Arthur's other battles strung out along the Roman Dere Street, it's difficult to interpret Camlan as anything other than an instance of internecine strife.

In this context I have mentioned the fatal battle of Eliffer of York's sons Gwrci and Peredur at Carrawburgh on the Wall.  The same chieftains supposedly fought at the legendary battle of Arderydd at Arthuret, Cumbria.  If we discount Arderydd, who might the forces of York been fighting at Carrawburgh?  The date of Gwrci and Peredur's deaths is given as 580 A.D.  Arthur died at Camlan in 537, so 43 years later men from the south were still fighting on the Wall.  This is even more interesting than we might suppose, as a special relationship seems to have existed between York and Ribchester (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/10/bremetennacum-and-eboracum-special.html).  Ribchester itself, rather oddly, is grouped with the Wall forts in the NOTITIA DIGNITATUM (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/03/ribchester-along-line-of-wall-and.html).

Who were these men fighting on the Wall?  Were they fighting against chieftains whose bases were the old Wall forts or were they fighting in support of defenders of the Wall?  Did the enemy lie to the North of the Wall?

We have very little to go on, unfortunately.  What we do have are two interesting facts: 1) Rheged as a expanding presence and champion against the Saxons does not appear on the scene until after Arthur's passing and 2) when the Welsh encountered Geoffrey of Monmouth's Loth of Lothian (Lleu of Lleudiniawn/Place of the Fort of Lleu), they did not place him in Lothian, but instead made him a son of Cynfarch.  Loth/Lleu was the father of Moderatus.

Cynfarch was also the father of Urien and probably belonged to the Mote of Mark in Dumfries.  I have shown elsewhere that the nucleus of Rheged probably lay in Annandale (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-nucleus-of-uriens-kingdom-of-rheged.html). The presence of Rheged in Annandale may explain the curious absence of Urien at the Battle of Arderydd (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/07/rhydderch-and-missing-urien-new-look-at.html). The name Lleu is preserved in Luguvalium/Carlisle, the fort that is 'Lleu-strong' (a better rendering than a proposed personal name *Luguvalos).

Although the chronology here is wrong (Urien belonged to the generation after Arthur and, so, presumably, must his brother Lleu), the implication is that the battle at Camlan may have involved a nascent Rheged pushing southeast-wards through the Wall and a force led by Arthur which was defending the fort.

We don't know whether Arthur had come from Ribchester to Camlan for the battle or if he were actually serving at the time as military commander on the Wall.  In THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY I discussed at length the possibility that the River Irthing of both the Camboglanna and Banna/Birdoswald forts may be a 'Bear' stream.  The residents of the Irthing were likely represented in the Welsh genealogies by the eponym Arthwys, meaning *Artenses or the 'People of the Bear.'  I sought in that book to identify Arthur with Ceidio son of Arthwys, a man who bore a hypocoristic name that originally would have had a British form corresponding to the dux bellorum title given to Arthur.  Uther Pendragon I linked to the draco-bearing Dacians who occupied Banna for centuries - the same Banna where archaeologists have discovered a sub-Roman and early medieval hall and associated buildings, all belonging to someone of high status.

My own feeling is that while Arthur was born to Sawyl, king of the old Setantii realm and inheritor of mixed Sarmato-British customs, he eventually became the supreme military commander on the Wall.  He may have worked his way up through the ranks as a common soldier.  His base may have been Banna.  If he did come from Ribchester and his origin did not lie in the Irthing Valley, it is not impossible that the association of the name Arthur with the Cumbric word for bear, 'arth', led to the people of the region being called after him, and that the river-name is a back-formation.

In other words, rather than Arthur being born at Banna and given a Roman name that had been locally associated with that of a sacred bear stream, both the region and the river came to called after 'The Bear' who was Arthur.

http://www.romanroads.org/gazetteer/lancspages.html

http://www.romanroads.org/gazetteer/M71b.htm

http://www.romanroads.org/gazetteer/cumbria/cumbriapages.html

CONDENSED ARGUMENT FOR 'ELIWLAD SON OF MADOG = MATOC AILITHIR'

It has occurred to me that the articles and various proofs for my argument on Eliwlad son of Madog = Matoc Ailithir (which indicates that Arthur's father Uther Pendragon = Sawyl Benisel of Ribchester) are so long and involved few if any may have bothered to read them!

For that reason, I'm posting below a short excerpt and a brief commentary on its significance.  I hope those who do not have the time, energy or patience to go over the more lengthy, involved material will find this condensed version helpful.

***

From Dr. Richard Coates:

“It looks perfectly possible to me that Eliwlad represents British *Aljowlatos 'other land'.  Eliwlad/t is a plausible rendering of Eilwlad. One certainly finds occasional <e> for <ei> in MW, and metathesis is always possible. If it’s not from *aljo-, I have no idea.”

A correction from Dr. Simon Rodway: "<e> for /ei/ is quite common in Old Welsh, but not in Middle Welsh.  Where it does occur in MW it is probably either due to scribal error or evidence for an OW exemplar which has not been correctly modernized." 

When I asked Dr. Rodway whether such a metathesis could have occurred, he responded:

"Well, i and l are reasonably similar, especially if a hair-stroke dot on an eye is not read by a copyist.  Off the top of my head, I can’t think of an example, but it might have happened."

So what does this all mean?

It would mean that Eliwlad as Eilwlad originally denoted 'other land', a perfect British equivalent to the Irish Ailithir (from aile, 'other', and tir, 'land').  Thus Eilwlad son of Madog is a dim folk memory or reflection of Matoc ( = Madog) Ailithir, son of Sawyl Benisel of Ribchester.  And, in turn, Sawyl = Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur.

For supportive articles, please see:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-fairly-radical-revision-of-my-earlier.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/eliwlad-flies-again-or-is-there-still.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/gorlassar-kawell-and-kawyl-was-uthers.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-strongest-linguistic-argument-for.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/january-2020-position-statement-on.html

THE STRONGEST LINGUISTIC ARGUMENT FOR ELIWLAD SON OF MADOG = MATOC AILITHIR

Eliwlat in Bodleian Library MS Jesus College 20

Eliwlad in Cardiff MS. 2.83

I've been promising this piece for some time, and felt compelled to finally "get it out there."

The linguistic support from top Celtic linguists for Eliwlad as some form of a word denoting 'pilgrim', from elements meaning 'other land', has been quite favorable.  See, for example, the relevant portion of https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-fairly-radical-revision-of-my-earlier.html.

However, one major stumbling block keeps cropping up - and this is one I actually thought of myself.  It bothered other scholars as well and was, perhaps, best stated by Professor Barry Lewis of Dublin:

"The name Eliwlad, used for a son of Uther's son Madog, has never been explained, so far as I know. An adaptation of Irish ailithir is possible, but one issue that gives me pause is that, if the borrower understood Irish tír as `land', why did he not use the identical Welsh word tir rather than gwlad? I am not sure how to get round this problem.

It is an interesting coincidence, though, that there is a Matóc [i.e. Madog] Ailithir attested in Ireland."

I do not wish to downplay this "problem."  It is significant.  And it is so despite the fact that Eli- itself has been shown to be a perfectly normal Welsh rendering of an Irish aile by none other than Professor Peter Schrijver and colleagues.

So is there any good way around the problem?

Well, we could opt for proposing a purely theoretical Irish word (not now extant, but possible, according to Professor Jurgen Uhlich) *aile(f)laith or, with regular unstressed processing, *ailelaid.  But this is a very weak case for Eliwlad.

Although we have a fairly late W. allwlad, 'other land', which according to Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales could be from an earlier, unrecorded compound, we cannot derive Eliwlad from this word.

And this brings us back to what Dr. Richard Coates at the University of the West of England at Bristol shared with me:

“It looks perfectly possible to me that Eliwlad represents British *Aljowlatos 'other land'.  Eliwlad/t is a plausible rendering of Eilwlad. One certainly finds occasional <e> for <ei> in MW, and metathesis is always possible. If it’s not from *aljo-, I have no idea.”

A correction from Dr. Rodway: "<e> for /ei/ is quite common in Old Welsh, but not in Middle Welsh.  Where it does occur in MW it is probably either due to scribal error or evidence for an OW exemplar which has not been correctly modernized." [1]

When I asked Dr. Rodway whether such a metathesis could have occurred, he responded:

"Well, i and l are reasonably similar, especially if a hair-stroke dot on an eye is not read by a copyist.  Off the top of my head, I can’t think of an example, but it might have happened."

This idea from Coates is really rather brilliant.  We begin with a name that would have been spelled Eilwlad quite early on in Welsh.  Ail (or eil) originally shared a meaning identical with Welsh all and Early Irish aile:

other, second *aljo-, SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, Celtiberian ailam ‘f (As)’, Gaulish alios ‘other’, Early Irish aile ‘other’, Scottish Gaelic eile ‘other, another’, Welsh ail ‘second; like, similar, comparable with; son, grandson, heir; race’, Cornish eyl ‘one of two’, Breton eil, il (Old Breton), eyl (Middle Breton), eil ‘other’

other *allo-, SEMANTIC CLASS: measure, Gaulish alla; allos; Allo- ‘other; second’, Early Irish all- ‘other’, Welsh all- ‘other’, Breton all ‘other, next (time)’

We need only assume one simple error occurred in the transmission of the hypothetical name Eilwlad.  It became Eliwlad through metathesis.  

Dr. Rodway is willing to accept this only if Eliwlad was a 'one off' for Eilwlad.  Yet there are many 'one off' Celtic names that cannot be properly etymologized. And the poem is admittedly late and contains mistakes.  To quote from Nerys Ann Jones' ARTHUR IN EARLY WELSH POETRY on "The Dialogue of Arthur and the Eagle", p. 168:

"Its first editor, Ifor Williams, has shown that although its exemplar was no older than the thirteenth century, some of its linguistic forms... suggest a manuscript tradition going back at least another hundred years.  The poem was written using medieval Welsh spelling but some errors indicate that the scribe was struggling with an orthography and also possibly a script that was alien to him."

Given that this is so, I asked Dr. Rodway if this might make an Eliwlad from Eilwald more attractive.  He replied "Perhaps, if you can show that all extant references stem from this one exemplar."  Well, we can't do that with any certainty.  However, if the error occurred early enough and in just the once source, the incorrect spelling Eliwlad for Eilwlad could easily have become the standardized form.  The authorities agree that Eliwlad/Eliwlat is the early spelling.  We also find Liwlad, Liwlod, but they are later.

I would submit, therefore, the Eliwlad was originally Eilwlad and that this was a Welsh name or word equivalent to Irish ailithir, and that the son of Uther Pendragon is the son of Sawyl Benisel.

The degree to which we must allow a name alternation here is extremely minor - especially compared to the major and often unjustifiable emendations offered by top Welsh scholars for many words found in early literary sources, e.g. the poems attributed to Taliesin.  

If we can allow this one metathesis, and then factor in the nice contextual fit as I've described in detail in previous research, I think we cannot ignore the real possibility - or plausibility? - that the Terrible Chief-dragon, father of Arthur, is Sawyl Benisel of the Sarmatian Roman fort at Ribchester.

[1]

If /ei/ and become /e/, we must consider one other possibility for Eliwlad.  Dr. Simon Rodway actually prefers the later spelling Eliwlod or Eliwlad.  This would necessitate a -llawd terminal.  Lladd (strike, slay) won't work because it ends in /dd/.

llawd, from Proto-Celtic *lāto-, Early Irish láth ‘heat, rut’, Welsh llawd ‘heat (of sow), sow’s desire for boar, sow’s mating season’,

llawd [in the GPC]

[Gwydd. C. láth ‘awydd rhywiol anifail’: < Clt. *lāto-, Islandeg Diw. lóða, cf. Wcraineg lit; ceir yr un elf. yn aelawd, llodig, trallod (tra-llawd); daw’r geiriau aeled, anllad, lled4, llid o bosibl o’r un gwr.]

eg. a hefyd fel a.

Awydd hwch am faedd, y tymor pan fo hwch yn ei gwres:

heat (of sow), sow’s desire for boar, sow’s mating season. 

And from Matasovic's ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF PROTO-CELTIC:

*lato- 'furor, ardor [Noun]
GOlD: OIr.lath [o m]
W: W llawd [m] 'heat (of sow), sow's desire for boar'
SEE: *layko- 'warrior'
ETYM: The first element in the Gaulish Ethnonym Lato-bici might be
derivable from this Celtic etymon (Delamarre 198, Meid 2005: 54). W llawd
is attested very late (l7th century) and shows somewhat unusual semantic
development.
REF: GPC II: 2106, Delamarre 198, Meid 2005: 54, Zimmer 2000: 288.

Lawdd, according to Rodway, "obviously could denote passions other than lust, as can be seen by the semantic range of compounds like trallod, etc." But in opting for -lawdd in Eliwlod, we are restricted to two possible first elements:

eilyw1, eiliw2,

eg. a hefyd fel bf. 3 un. pres. myn.

Tristwch, galar, gofid, poen; pair ofid, poena:

sadness, grief, pain; he (she, it) grieves, pains. 

eiliw1 [found spelled

[< Brth. *ad-līu̯o-; fel y ceir rhif ac eirif, felly lliw ac eiliw]

eg. ll. eiliwiau, eiliwoedd, a hefyd fel a.

Golwg, gwedd, ymddangosiad, cyflwr, ffurf, llun, delw; lliw, arlliw, paent; llewyrch, ôl, argoel, rhithyn; tebyg, hafal, cyffelyb, cyfliw (â), unlliw (â):

appearance, aspect, guise, state, form, shape, figure, image; colour, hue, paint; glimmer, trace, vestige, sign; like, similar, of the same colour or hue (as). 

I cannot make anything intelligible in terms of a personal name out of the various combinations of these elements.  Unless we go with something like '[He of] lustful aspect.' Dr. Rodway thinks this eiliw "is reasonably close, but not a match.  "

It is just the semantics.  To my mind ‘passion pertaining to sadness/grief, i.e. grieving/sad passion’ seems more likely than ‘passion pertaining to form’ or some such.  In close compounds, it is the first element which modifies the second, not the other way round. "

The same is true for my last idea for Eliwlod, which connects this personage with Lleu in his oak tree.  In the englyns of MATH SON OF MATHONWY, we are told of the 'ulodeu lleu' of 'flowers of Lleu.'  This have been thought to be figurative of feathers, although they have also been related to Lleu's wife Blodeuedd, 'flowers'/Blodeuwedd, 'flower aspect.'  I proposed to Dr. Rodway eiliw, 'form, appearance, aspect', etc., plus blawd, 'flower'.  His opinion?

"I think formally this is possible (lenited b disappearing in a consonant cluster, cf. lledrith < lledfrith).  However the semantics are challenging.  It couldn’t mean ‘flower aspect’, because in compounds, as I’ve already said, it is the first element that qualifies the second, thus ‘aspect flower’."

For this reason he instead prefers the other eiliw, writing to me the following:

"This is my current thinking on Eliwlod/lad.

Perhaps a compound of eiliw ‘sadness, grief’ + llawd ‘passion, lust etc.’ which has undergone some analogical remodelling at various stages. (1) eil- > el-, perhaps due to failure to correctly modernize an Old Welsh form with e for /ei/ and under the influence of the many names in El- (Elidir, Elfed, Elgan etc.). (2) –wlod reinterpreted as (g)wlad ‘country etc.; prince’ in the poem about Arthur and Eliwlod (but not necessarily in the original as the name does not appear to rhyme), and thence to Bleddyn Fardd (where it does rhyme).  The original form of the second element (with llawd regularly reduced to –lod in a polysyllabic name) survived to surface in the late poetry.

This is rather speculative, but seems possible."

I would point out that the Irish cognate of Welsh llawd, lath, had the meaning of warrior (see the eDIL listing for the relevant word).  If the Welsh llawd ever conveyed such a meaning, we could propose something like Eiliw-llawd, 'with a warrior's aspect', for Eliwlod.  However, there is no evidence whatsoever that this meaning for lath was anything other than a peculiarly Irish development.  Dr. Rodway agrees with me on this point.

And, once again, I believe all of this to be a moot point, as I take Eliwlad to be the earlier spelling of the name.

Eilwlad as a dim folk memory or reflection of Ailithir is still the most promising etymology, even if the required metathesis is deemed philologically improbable.

I also don't think we can ignore the fact that Eliwlad is a spirit in the form of an eagle in an oak tree. Whether the motif was copied from that of Lleu in the Mabinogion is uncertain, but the strong possibility is there. In other words, the apparition belonged to the Otherworld, and as Professor Stefan Zimmer has remarked to me, use of a name which like Ailithir meant 'other land' may well have suggested to the composer of the tale that Eliwlad belonged to or came from such a spiritual place.

ADDENDUM:

See the new post on this subject at https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/precedence-is-all-eil-found-spelled-eli.html.

A NEW ETYMOLOGY FOR THE SARMATIANS

There are several proposed etymologies for the ethnic name Sarmatae (or Sauromatae, etc.).  I did not find any of them really satisfying.  For those who are curious about the established (or maligned) alternatives, I urge you to research the question on your own.

For me, the defining characteristic of the Sarmatians has always been their full-body armor.  They are referred to as cataphracts in the early sources, in fact (see https://www.academia.edu/28156928/Sarmatian_Armour_According_to_Narrative_and_Archaeological_Data). They covered themselves and their horses with scale armor made of various materials.

Let us, then, look at the word cataphract.

History and Etymology for cataphract (from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cataphract):

Latin cataphractes, from Greek kataphraktēs, from kataphraktos covered, armored, from kataphrassein to protect, fortify, from kata- cata- + phrassein to enclose

NOTE:  kata- cata- is an intensifying prefix meaning "fully, completely" plus φρακτός "covered, protected", respectively from φράσσω "to cover, to protect"

Now we can go the sar1, found in Prof. Dr. Johnny Cheung's https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Cheng_Iran_d.pdf:

*sar1 ‘to conceal, hide’ •AVESTAN: ? OAv. sar- ‘shelter’ (Y 41.6) •MIDDLE PERSIAN: MMP s’rw’r ‘helmet’ (< *sra-bra-) DMMPP: 306a •PARTHIAN: s’rw’r ‘helmet’ DMMPP: 306a •KHOTANESE: ◊ Khot. śaraima ‘covering’ (KT2 47,5), cited by Bailey (DKS: 395b), does not exist: śaraima is to be interpreted as śarai ma. •SOGDIAN: SSogd. sr’kh ‘head covering’ (Livšic 1962: 183) •NWIR: (+ prev. *?) ? Kurd. (Sor.) šrdinawa, Awrom. šr/y/šr- ‘to hide [tr.]’ || (+ *ham-) ? Kurd. (Sor.) hašr ‘ambush, refuge’ (MacKenzie 1979: 526) •NEIR: Sh. sUr-/sUrd, Rosh. sōr-/sērt, sōrt, Sariq. sur-/sord, Yzgh. sar-/sard ‘to creep, steal, sneak up to, lie in ambush, spy upon’, Ishk. sur-/surd ‘to creep, slink, sneak’ || (+ *ni-) Wa. nisr(ы)v-/nisrovd ‘to look closely, spy upon’ •SANSKRIT: śárman- (n.) ‘cover, protection, shelter, refuge’ (RV+) EWAia II: 620 •PIE *Qel- ‘to conceal, hide, cover’ LIV: 322 f. | Pok.: 553 336 *sar2 •IE COGNATES: Lat. cēlre ‘to conceal from view, by disguise’, OIrish celim ‘I conceal’, Goth. huljan ‘to cover, conceal’, OHG helan ‘to hide’, OHG helm, Engl. helmet •REFERENCES: MacKenzie 1966: 109; EVS: 75a; Asatrian – Livshits: 92; Werba 1997: 241 f.

And from
https://www.academia.edu/13033050/Cheung2015-Review_Hintze_A_Zoroastrian_Liturgy_-_BiOr_LXXII_1-2:

The most important of the words cited by Cheung is Khotanese śaraima or, rather, sarai ma.  He is alluding to H. W. Bailey's DICTIONARY OF KHOTAN SAGA:

Bailey's own theory on the root at the heart of the ethnonym Sarmatae was different, of course. I here quote from that author's Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts, Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 65, where Avestan sairima:

However, in Bailey's Khotan Saka dictionary (https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Dictionary_Khotan_saka.pdf), we see several references to zar- (the s- with a diacritical mark over it of Khotan Saka is dialectal for s- in Western Iranian sar-, 'to cover').  This base is found in words that actually have the meaning of  'protective armour':

I would propose, therefore, that we see in the Sarmatae 'the covered or protected ones', a clear and certain reference to their military apparel. 

Sarmatian cataphract from Trajan's Column 

(Scene 37)

Armored Sarmatian horse with ocular shield

Sarmatian cavalry, displaying total armor coverage

Less likely, and quite a bit less romantic, is the possibility that they were 'sheltered' in the sense that they lived in tents.  Yet we are told that they did so in the early Classic sources.  For example, in Strabo's GEOGRAPHY 7.3.17:

"As for the Nomads, their tents, made of felt, are fastened on the wagons in which they spend their lives."

And according to Hippocrates (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/airwatpl.18.18.html):

"There live those Scythians which are called Nomads, because they have no houses, but live in wagons. The smallest of these wagons have four wheels, but some have six; they are covered in with felt, and they are constructed in the manner of houses, some having but a single apartment, and some three; they are proof against rain, snow, and winds."

Ammianus (2:18) says of the closely related Alans:

"They use wagons covered with a curved bark... what one might call their mobile towns upon their vehicles... In these wagons the males couple with the women and their children are born and reared; in fact, these wagons are their permanent dwellings and, wherever they go, they look upon them as their ancestral home."

Wagon based on clay models found in kurgans

(this and following image coutesy Scythia-Artorius Exhibit)

Wagon found disassembled in a kurgan

The irony does not escape me that in viewing the fully armored Sarmatae as the 'covered ones' we are somewhat duplicating the now discredited notion that the Greek-influenced form Sauromatae pointed to a meaning to be derived from Greek σαύρα, 'saura', "lizard."  This idea harkened back to a reference in Pausanias' DESCRIPTION OF GREECE [1.21.6]:

"Their breastplates [thōrakes] they make in the following way. Each man keeps many mares, since the land is not divided [merizein] into allotments [klēroi], nor does it bear anything except wild trees, as the people are nomads. These mares they not only use for war, but they also sacrifice [thuein] them to the local [epikhōroioi] gods [theoi] and eat them for food. Their hooves they collect, clean, split, and make from them as it were scales of serpents [drakontes]. Whoever has never seen a serpent [drakōn] must at least have seen a pine-cone still green. He will not be mistaken if he likens the product from the hoof to the segments that are seen on the pine-cone. These pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen, and then use them as breastplates [thōrakes] that are as beautiful and strong as those of the Greeks [Hellēnes]. For they can withstand blows of missiles or when struck in close combat."

- https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6768

Everyone should realize that my proposed reading of Sarmatae as 'the enclosed/protected ones' is merely one theory among many.  In the words of Professor John Colarussa, "The speculation about the sources of the ethnonyms of the old Central Asian hordes is a small industry."

NOTE:  I'm in basic agreement with Prof. Colarussa about the most probable etymology for the Iazyges, the tribal name of those Sarmatians most scholars agree were the ones relocated to Britain.  He has:

Iazyges ≤ Iranian root yaz- ‘to worship’, in Gathic yazata ‘worshipped’, Sassanian

Yazd(e)gerd “made by God”, Farsi Yazd, Yezidi; so “pious ones”

But I did ask him if instead we could have something like the sacred ones instead of pious ones, as in 'holy warriors.'  He responded that either interpretation might work.