Friday, February 28, 2020

A DISSENTING OPINION ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF SAMLESBURY, LANCASHIRE

Via personal communication with Professor John Insley of Heidelberg, who is responsible for the Lancashire portion of the EPNS, I have the following on a proposed etymology for Samlesbury:
This derivation from Soemil (as it is written in the Latin text) is, in my view, unsupportable.  First, the Soemil of the HB is said to have been an early ruler of Deira.  The name as it stands is a one-off and there is no justification for placing it at Samlesbury as well - especially if we have to propose a variant form with a diminutive suffix and a different ablaut grade for the stem! This strikes me as being forced or even a bit perverse. Or, in Alan James' words (personal communication), "suspiciously ingenious."  So, invent a name - or use one we know exists.

Second, I have produced a fairly large body of evidence from the Welsh sources which plainly indicate that Sawyl (from Samuel)  Benisel belongs to the area around Ribchester's Roman fort. Samlesbury is close to that fort in the Ribble Valley.

And, third, several other leading toponymists (like Dr. Richard Coates and Dr. Andrew Breeze) have subscribed to my notion that Samlesbury contains a form of Sawyl's name.

Furthermore, it is not impossible that Soemil is not Germanic at all, but instead represents an intrusion of Sawyl into the Anglo-Saxon pedigrees.  For Soemil is said to have flourished in the 5th century, which was the time of Sawyl.  And Deira (from Dere/Dera) as a kingdom name originates in the first element for "oak" of the Derventio Roman fort at Malton in North Yorkshire.  This fort was named for its river, the Derwent.  Another Derwent river (now the Darwen, earlier Derewent) is found at Samlesbury. Samlesbury Bottoms is, literally, on the Darwen.  I'd previously shown that Pabo of Papcastle, traditionally Sawyl's father, belonged to another Derventio Roman fort on yet another Derwent River, this one in Cumbria. 

The River Darwen at Samlesbury

No. 1 is the Derwent of Deira, while No. 4 is the Darwen of Samlesbury

In other words, the two Derwent streams could easily have been confused in tradition.  Could Sawyl/Samuel have been corrupted into Soemil?  If so, is Soemil merely an intrusion into the Anglo-Saxon genealogies?

Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales has provided the development of Sawyl from Samuel for our edification:

1.       Samuelis
2.       Long e > wy, thus *Samwwyl-
3.       > *Samwyl-
4.       Lenition, thus *Safwyl-
5.       Apocope, thus *Safwyl
6.       f assimilated to w, thus Sawyl.

Professor Insley insists Soemil can't be related to Sawyl: "The vowel of my proposed etymology for the first element of Samlesbury should be short, i.e. OE *Samul.   Soemil cannot be a reflex of Welsh Samwl, since it contains etymological /o:/."

Dr. Rodway also says that the names Soemil and Sawyl are "completely different".

Thus if a confusion occurred, it can only be because two separate names were, due to superficial similarity, wrongly identified with each other.

Regardless as to whether this happened or not, I will stick with my own theory that Samlesbury is "Sawyl's fort." 




Sunday, February 23, 2020

SOEMIL AS THE 'SEPARATOR' OF DEIRA FROM BERNICIA: CONFIRMATION OF THE DERVENTIO THEORY


I've researched the possible origin of the Dere (genitive Dera) kingdom name rather extensively.  And have made some false steps along the way.  My errors have consistently been due to an attempt to reconcile the Welsh forms of Dewr or Deifr with the Anglo-Saxon name for the place.  As it turns out, in this particular case we are much better off going with the English name.  

Dewr, as I once pointed out, is homophonous with W. dewr, 'brave, bold' (see Koch, CELTIC CULTURE: A HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, under the entry for Deifr).  Deifr, on the other hand, has been linked with the W. word for 'waters' (also Koch).  

But Dere/Dera has very plausibly been linked to W. dar.  From the GPC:

dâr

[H. Grn. dar, Gwydd. Diw. dair: < IE. *der- neu *dər- o’r gwr. *deru- ‘pren bychan’]

eb. ll. deri, deiri.

Derwen, coeden o rywogaeth y Quercus a nodweddir gan braffter ei chyff, gan ei rhisgl trwchus rhychiog, ei dail llyfn danheddog o wyrdd tywyll, ac a adwaenir yn enw. wrth ei ffrwyth, sef y mes; yn ffig. blaenor mewn brwydr, &c., arweinydd galluog, arglwydd cadarn:

oak-tree; fig. foremost warrior, leader, mighty lord. 

And given the location of the Derventio [1] Roman fort at Malton, and the course of the River Derwent through what was Deira (a region spanning the area from the Humber to the Tees), it would seem very reasonable to conclude that Dere/Dera is for "oak/oaks" - or, more specifically, the River Derwent, which is defined by Rivet and Smith as 'oak-river' or 'river in an oakwood.'

Site of Derventio/Malton Roman Fort

We might be tempted to see in the Dewr/Deifr of the Welsh the term 'waters', here referring to the very same River Derwent.  How the Welsh term came about is hard to determine.  I suppose a metathesis of *deru- or *daru- to dewr is not impossible.  That the area in question was dominated by a river named for the oaks on its banks may have been a contributing factor.

But how do we know for certain that Derventio was the origin of the English kingdom name?

Well, I think the "proof", as it were, exists in the cryptic statement recorded in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM that the 5th century Deiran king Soemil "separated" Deira from Bernicia.  

The Roman fort of Derventio was garrisoned (NOTITIA DIGNITATUM) by a unit from Petuaria, i.e. Brough on Humber.  According to Rivet and Smith and others, Petuaria means "fourth" and tells us that the Parisi tribe had perhaps been divided into four pagi.  As separo in Latin has among its meanings "divide", I would make a case for the statement regarding Soemil as a garbled memory of the Petuarian unit's presence at Derventio/Malton. 

Alan James rather likes the idea.  He said:

"Divisions of land into notional 'quarters' seems to have been a strongly-rooted custom among the Celtic speaking peoples (even when there were more or less than 4 divisions, they still tended to call them by words meaning 'quarter'!) And the source of HB seems to have hadd a notion that Northumbria began as one big unit and Deira was carved out of it, which is pretty certainly confused."

[1] Derventio, according to Rivet and Smith, derives from *daru- *deru- 'oak', with *ent- and *-io-(n) suffixes. 






Wednesday, February 19, 2020

WHY SAWYL BENISEL IS LISTED BETWEEN WELSH KINGDOMS IN THE HARLEIAN GENEALOGIES

Wales from Koch (Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia)

Something odd happens in the earliest Welsh genealogies.  Here, for example, is a section from the Harleian:

Dunoding
[C]uhelm map Bleydiud map Caratauc map Iouanaul map Eiciaun map Brochmail map Ebiau[n] map Popdelgu map Popgen map Isaac map Ebiau[n] map Mouric map Dinacat map Ebiau[n] map Dunaut map Cuneda.

Meirionydd
[C]inan map Brochmail map Iutnimet map Egeniud map Brocmail map Sualda map Iudris map Gueinoth map Glitnoth map Guurgint barmbtruch map Gatgulart map Meriaun [map Typiaun] map Cuneda.
[C]atguallaun liu map Guitcun map Samuil pennissel map Pappo post Priten map Ceneu map Gyl [Coyl] hen.

Rhufoniog?
[?I]mor map Moriud map Ædan map Mor map Brechiaul.

Here's the odd thing: Samuil pennissel and his 'branch' aren't assigned anywhere.  Yet he is sandwiched between the Welsh kingdoms of Meirionydd and Rhufoniog.  Prior to those two kingdoms come Dunoding ("people of Dunawd") in Wales.  When you look on the map of early Wales, you see that Dunoding falls between Meirionydd and Rhufoniog.

Now, Samuil is made the brother of a Dunod!  And we know there was this regio Dunutinga somewhere in northwestern England.   So what seems to have happened here in the Harleian MS. is that the two Dunodings were confused.  This possibility adequately explains why Samuil/Sawyl and his pedigree were situated between Rhufoniog and Meirionydd.

The nothern Regio Dunutinga has routinely been identified with Dentdale, but the linguistics don't seem to work.  As explained by Brythonic place-name expert Alan James (personal communication):

"With regard to Dent, it's depressing how the same old rubbish keeps being trotted out. In BLITON I deal with it thus: Discussion of this place-name has ... been persistently muddled by the identification of this place with the lands in regione Dunutinga granted to Ripon according to VW17, and associated in turn with the semi-legendary chieftain Dunawd (< *Dönǭd < Donātus, see Morris (1973) p. 214n4). Early forms give no support for this identification; whatever the correct etymology for Dent, it certainly has nothing to do with Dunawd. If the *regio Dunutinga was around Dent, the name in VW is very garbled. If, on the other hand, the *Dunutingas were named after any Dunawd, their regio was not Dent.

Indeed, evidently highly intelligent, expert historians who are not historical linguists seem to have a problem with the simple point, that the Dunutingas may well be the descendants of Dunod, or they could be garbled *Dinetingas, people of Dinet, Dent, but they cannot be both! Dinet can't be equated with or derived from Dunod.

Myself I think they were descendants of some Dunod, but we can't know whether he was the 'famous' one, nor can we know where their regio was."

I'm convinced James is right here: Dentdale is not regio Dunutinga.  But if not, then where is the latter place?

James concludes "somewhere in the general area of Craven, Bowland, the Howgills, Mallerstang Common is a plausible guess, but again no more than that."

If we go to the land grants given to Ripon -

https://books.google.com/books?id=k9cGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=%22ripon%22%2B%22donatus%22&source=bl&ots=s78lGSBmqc&sig=ACfU3U3Afx4XWddYsYaWVfDRxA_739C4pA&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjX593Svd7nAhXPJTQIHYdxC8gQ6AEwAHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=rippel&f=false

- we find the following useful information:


Gaedyne is Yeadon, and Caetlaevum is Catlow.  

Note that Amounderness is intruded into later lists of these places, as is the Mersey district (Marchesiae).  Alan James assures me that

"Amounderness was north of the Ribble: the Amounderness Hundred comprised the lands north of the Ribble up to the Cocker, beyond Lancaster, i.e. the Fylde (OE gefilde 'plain'), and east to the fells and the border with YWR. Samlesbury, south of the Ribble, was in the Hundred, and former Northumbrian 'shire', of Blackburn. Small portions north of the Ribble (notably Ribchester) were later annexed to Blackburn Hundred, but Amounderness never extended south of the Ribble."

But must we abandon Dentdale entirely?  I don't think so.

From Melville Richards' Early Welsh Territorial Suffixes:

"DUNODING [Dunawd] a cantref which was later divided into Eifionydd and Ardudwy. Dunawd was a son of Cunedda (dunaut Cy ix 183). Cf. 1283 'Cantredo de Dinnedin qui habet duas commotas videlicet Euyonith et Hardidew' LW 155. See G s.n. Dinoding, HW i 238."

So, the *Dinetingas, people of Dinet, Dent, could well derive from an earlier Dunutinga/Dunoding, it seems to me. If we can have forms like Dinnedin for Dunoding, I don't see any reason why we can't allow Dentdale to be a Dunoding of the North.

Such an identification for the land of Dunawd, reputed brother of Sawyl, lends credence to the idea that Sawyl himself ruled from the Ribble.

Still, we have a problem, best explained by Alan James:

"... even if Dinet was a form of the personal name, it can't also be a place name. Either they were the people of a place called Dinet, or of a guy called Dinet. If a place were named after a guy named Dinet, it wouldn't just be Dinet."

However, we could propose that something like this happened: we begin with a Cumbric name like afon (if the river) or dol (if the dale) or whatever, followed by Dunawd. This would be standard place-naming formula.  You can find Caer Dunod, etc., in Wales, for example.

We then have the English adding to Dunawd their own -inga as a designation for the people who live in this Dunawd place or who descend from the said Dunawd.

This would not change the name of the place.  It would merely designate the inhabitants of the place in the terms of the land grant.

I asked Alan James if this would this satisfy the requirements of Dent being from Dunawd.  He responded:

"I suppose if the place were something like *Cair Dunod, and the English speakers picked up the idea that Dunod was the eponymous ancestor or hero figure of the local Britons, they might have called those people Dunodingas. But then the generic was forgotten, and the place-name became Dinet."


Map Showing the Sources of the Dent and Ribble
  











Monday, February 17, 2020

THE "FOUR-PART ARGUMENT" FOR ARTHUR AS SON OF SAWYL OF RIBCHESTER

A quick summary piece here...

I've decided on Arthur as son of Sawyl Benisel as my final candidate for the historical hero.

My case is built on four points:

1) A new (and confirmed) reading of the Lucius Artorius Castus memorial stone in Podstrana, Croatia, by Linda Malcor, Antonio Trinchese and Alessandro Faggiani.  This reading establishes 'LAC' as a Roman military man who was involved in both the relocation of 5,500 Sarmatians to Britain and in their use while he acted as prefect of the Sixth Legion and de facto governor. It is not at all unreasonable to assume that the name Artorius would have been preserved in the North among the descendants of these Sarmatians.

2) A pre-Galfridian Arthurian pedigree that runs 'Eliwlad son of Madog son of Uther' should be read 'Eilwlad', etc.  The name thus produced with an allowable metathesis (which has precedent in medieval Welsh MSS.) means 'other land' and exactly corresponds semantically with Irish Ailithir, from aile, 'other', and tir, 'land.' A Matoc (= Madog) Ailithir is known as son of Sawyl Benisel of Northern England.  Eilwlad son of Madog son of Uther is, therefore, a dim folk memory or reflection of Matoc Ailithir son of Sawyl.

3) The word kawyl in "Marwnat Vthyr Pen" is best emended as Sawyl.  Only recently I confirmed this with Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales, whose comment should be considered authoritative (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/02/sawyl-or-kanwyll-reaching-decision-on.html):

"I think this [cannwyll for kawyl, which I had proposed] is possible, but three things make me uneasy.

 A)      This requires positing an n-suspension.  These do occur occasionally in medieval Welsh MSS, but they are very rare.

B)      The single l would mean suggesting an Old Welsh exemplar, for which there is no other clear evidence in the poem.  Elsewhere the scribe has ll where needed, so if he was copying from an examplar with l for ll, then this would be the only occasion on which he didn’t correctly modernize.

C)      Supposing an n-suspension would only allow us to restore one n.  In an OW form, one would expect nt, nh or perhaps nn, but not n.

Overall, emendation to Sawyl, while totally speculative, involves less issues (eye-skip to kawell), and eil Sawyl, ‘a second Samuel’ gives plausible sense."

Thus Uther in the elegy poem is calling himself a 'second Sawyl', i.e. he resembled the first Biblical Sawyl.  In Line 6 God is called 'Chief of the Sanctuary', and this would seem to be a reference to the sanctuary at Shiloh.

4) I have successfully placed Sawyl Benisel at Samlesbury near Ribchester, the fort of the Sarmatian veterans.  

I'm confident that these four points, taken in combination, very strongly indicate that the historical Arthur of the 6th century was sired by the 'terrible chief-dragon' of Ribchester, Sawyl Benisel.

UTHER'S STAR AND THE COMET OF 442 A.D.


The story of the dragon-star in Geoffrey of Monmouth is a famous one.  Here is the translation of the episode from THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN by Lewis Thorpe:


"On his way to the battle, Uther saw a most remarkable spectacle in the skies. There appeared a star of such magnitude and brilliance that it was seen both day and night. The star emitted a single ray of light that created a fiery mass resembling the body and head of a dragon. Shining from the mouth of the dragon came two rays of light [actually the typical two tails of a comet]. One extended out across the skies of Britain and over Gaul. The other extended out over the Irish Sea culminating in seven lesser beams of light. Such was its magnitude, it could be seen all across Britain and beyond, and filled the people with fear and dread not knowing what it might portend."

Merlin tells the king this about the star:

"For the star, and the fiery dragon under it, signifies yourself, and the ray extending towards the Gallic coast, portends that you shall have a most potent son [Arthur], to whose power all those kingdoms shall be subject over which the ray reaches. But the other ray signifies a daughter, whose sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain.”


If there is any truth to the comet story, we may be talking about the comet of 442 A.D.  As the name Arthur was associated with the Welsh word for 'bear', it is significant that the 442 comet appeared in Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The constellation Draco passes between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

In the elegy of Uther, he calls himself gorlassar - a word that Geoffrey of Monmouth made into a separate personage called Gorlois.  In the past it has been fashionable to interpret gorlassar, which means literally 'the very blue' or 'the very blue-green', with blue-enameled armor or weapons.  But, given that the line of the poem containing gorlassar is soon followed by two lines that place Uther 'in the darkness' as a leader, and 'in the gloom' as a second Samuel, I would maintain that gorlassar is the name or descriptor of the comet with which Uther identifies himself.  For as we've seen, Geoffrey did say that "the star, and the fiery dragon under it, signifies yourself."

As I've mentioned before, comets often appear to the naked eye observer as being blueish or greenish or both.

However, there appears to be considerable confusion over the word gorlassar.  The GPC consistently relates it to Old Irish lasa(i)r, Irish lasar, 'flame, fire', and to forlas(s)ar, 'a great blaze, great radiance.' When I discussed this with Dafydd Price Jones and Andrew Hawke, they mentioned Old Irish forlas(s)ar, "fire, conflagration" or, as an adjective, "shining, fiery". The problem is that in Welsh glasar means 'greensward, earth.' Even Patrick Sims-Williams links gorlassar to  OIr Lasa(i)r (The Iron House in Ireland, H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture 16 (Cambridge 2005), 11-16; IIMWL 250-7). The calch llassar made by Llassar Llaes Gyfnewid in the MABINOGION is usually rendered 'azure lime', but for llassar to be a 'blue' word in Welsh we need (g)lassar, i.e one initial /l/, not two.  

On the other hand, Irish does have forglass - 'very green.'  And gorlassar, if like Irish forlassar, should take the form gorllassar, as ll does not mutate after r.  However, as Dr. Simon Rodway has informed me:

"One could invoke Old Welsh orthography here in which ll is represented by l.  Alternatively, glasar could have developed as a hypercorrect variant of llasar due to a folk etymology connection with glas ‘blue’. 

Llasar could be a borrowing of Irish lasair, as GPC says.  I suspect that we have a number of different items which have become mixed together here – Latin lazur, Irish lasar + perhaps Med. Latin lazarus ‘beggar, leper’ < the Biblical Lazarus.

Patrick Sims-Williams discusses this in chapter 9 of his Irish Influence on Medieval Welsh Literature (Oxford, 2011)."

This last reference cited by Rodway has an excellent discussion on the confusion that reigns over these similar-appearing words.

When it comes to gorlassar in the Uther elegy, we must again look to the following two lines which represents Uther as being prominent in darkness or gloom.  We must also look to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who does not describe the comet as blue or green or blue-green, but merely emphasizes its bright, fiery nature.  With gorlassar as 'great fire' or the like, we would have a description of the comet that matches that provided for us in THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN. 


 

From Cometography: 1800-1899, by Gary W. Kronk:




"442 

A star which is called a comet shone for a long time - Marcellinus 442 + AI 442. Ho Peng-Yoke (1962, p.163) cites as follows: ‘10th November 442 “... a comet appeared at Thien Lao [Ursa Major] ... More than a hundred days later it disappeared in the W.”’, making identification quite certain, but AI has clearly borrowed it from the chronicle of Marcellinus of Constantinople, see Mommsen (1894, p.37-108)."

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

BRYTHONIC PLACE-NAME EXPERT ALAN JAMES AGREES WITH MY PROPOSED ETYMOLOGY FOR SAMLESBURY

Samlesbury Hall, Lancashire

What follows is Alan James' statement regarding my proposed etymology for the place-name Samlesbury near Ribchester in Lancashire.  Mr. James is the third leading toponymist to subscribe to my theory.  I'm currently working with Professor John Insley, the English Place-Name Society editor for Lancashire, on getting the traditional etymology for Samlesbury officially changed to 'Samel's fort.'

I remain convinced that Samlesbury is named for Sawyl Benisel, aka Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur.  

***

"Checking LHEB p415 confirms that the medial consonant in Proto/Old Welsh *Saμuil would have remained audibly nasal through the 6th – 9th centuries, and could have been adopted into OE as *Samɪl or *Samel, and that name could very well be the specific in Samlesbury.

However, we need to be clear that *(æt) Samelesbyrig is an English p-n formation, not a Celtic one, formed with anglicised *Samel, not *Saμuil, and certainly not Middle-Modern Welsh Sawyl. The fact that the specific is an anglicised version of a Brittonic-influenced latinate form of a Hebrew name is no more evidence of Celtic survival than it is of Hebrew survival. The eponymous *Samel need not have known a single word of Welsh. It only tells us that there had been some transmission of personal names from Brittonic to OE, presumably by bilinguals (probably mothers?) at some point during the period of anglicisation, and there’s plenty of evidence to support the judgement that, in what became Lancashire, that was quite a long and gradual process.

You're probably right in your suggestions that Samel could have originated as an anglicised, Old English, form of proto-Welsh *Saμuilbut as *(æt) Samelesbyrig is an English p-n formation, not a Celtic one, we can't assume that Samel of Samlesbury was, or spoke, Welsh (Brittonic, Cumbric). By the time the place was named, Samel could have become current as a personal name among monolingual Old English speakers. So Samel of Samlesbury can't be identified with any certainty with anyone named Sawyl.

As for Samlesbury being an anglicized version of a place originally named for a 5th century Sawyl, I wouldn't rule that out, but it would mean Sawyl had been adopted into OE not only a personal name but as a figure of local legend. I'm always doubtful about place-names being 'translated', it does happen, but it's not normal. But if Sawyl > Samel featured in folklore among English speakers, they might have associated the site with him and given it that name.

When it comes to the family of Sawyl being placed as you have suggested, I would agree that some kind of 'legendary mapping' went on in the central middle ages, maybe starting during the time of the Cumbrian kingdom in the 10th century and continuing through the 11th and into the 12th, where figures in local folklore and poetry were associated with particular places, though whether any of those identifications relate to what really happened half a millennium earlier is, at best, unproveable."

Monday, February 10, 2020

SAWYL OR KA(N)WYL(L): REACHING A DECISION ON A CRITICAL PORTION OF THE UTHER PENDRAGON ELEGY


The Two Pages of the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen' from The Book of Taliesin

Having settled on identifying Arthur's father Uther Pendragon with Sawyl Benisel of Ribchester, I thought it best to reexamine some ambiguous, but very important lines from the Elegy of Uther Pen.  I had treated of them in some detail in the past, but my interpretation had differed according to what stage I happened to be in my researches.  For the relevant lines and Haycock's notes on them, please see below.

Given that lines 3-7 are neatly bracketed in a repeated phrase that informs us Uther is fighting between two forces, the emendation 'yn adwy', "in the breach" for line 6, which also fulfills the syllable count requirement, makes the most sense.  The breach or gap in question would be, of course, the space between the two forces in which Uther's finds himself during the battle.  It is unnecessary to put 'our God' here, as pen kawell (for pen kauell/kafell) means 'Chief of the Sanctuary', a nice poetic title for God.  Cawell and cafell are both from Latin cauella.

But then comes line 7 - the most troublesome of all. Line 6 has just told us that Uther is transformed in some way.  According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the hero is transformed into Gorlois - a name taken from the gorlassar descriptor in line 3. But Geoffrey also tells us that the star/comet Uther seems in the sky represents himself, and kawyl of line 7 could be for ka[n]wyl[l], a word meaning candle or lamp or luminary, but also star.  Cannwyll is from OW. cannuill, MW. can(n)wyll, cannwyll (see http://elibrary.bsu.az/books_400/N_229.pdf).

The fact that cannwyll can also mean 'leader' may point back to line 5's leader in the darkness.  The luminary or star would, figuratively speaking, be a leader in the gloom.  

This would appear to be a good reading for this section of the elegy.  However, in the words of Dr. Simon Rodway (personal communication):

"I think this [cannwyll for kawyl] is possible, but three things make me uneasy.

 1)      This requires positing an n-suspension.  These do occur occasionally in medieval Welsh MSS, but they are very rare.

2)      The single l would mean suggesting an Old Welsh exemplar, for which there is no other clear evidence in the poem.  Elsewhere the scribe has ll where needed, so if he was copying from an examplar with l for ll, then this would be the only occasion on which he didn’t correctly modernize.

3)      Supposing an n-suspension would only allow us to restore one n.  In an OW form, one would expect nt, nh or perhaps nn, but not n.

Overall, emendation to Sawyl, while totally speculative, involves less issues (eye-skip to kawell), and eil Sawyl, ‘a second Samuel’ gives plausible sense."

Earlier, Dr. Rodway had explained how an eye-skip could have occurred in this instance:

"It can’t be a case of miscopying a letter, but it could be eye-skip - when a copyist’s eye skips inadvertently to another nearby word resulting in an error.  In this case, he would have eye-skipped to the preceding line's 'kawell' to get the /k-/ fronting what should have been 'sawyl'.  Was not an uncommon error, so quite plausible.  Also, kawell and kawyl are unlikely to be the same word.  The poets avoided repeating words in consecutive lines. In cases where this does occur (v rare) it could be scribal error."

eil in line 7 can mean either 'second' or 'like'.  But as Uther in Line 6 is said to be transformed, 'second' would make more sense in this context. For if you are in transformed, you become something or someone.  You don't become like something or someone.

An argument in favor of Sawyl would involve seeing line 6's pen kawell or 'chief of the sanctuary' as a Biblical reference.  Welsh cafell was not only used in a general sense for temple or sanctuary, but more specifically for God's inner sanctuary or holy of holies. It is well known that Samuel ( = Welsh Sawyl) received his calling while sleeping at night inside the Shiloh sanctuary, where the lamp was still burning (1 Samuel 3). He went on to become a great military leader who freed Israel from the Philistines (1 Samuel 7).

The emendation of Sawyl for kawyl was made in Geirfa Barddoniaeth Gynnar Gymraeg by John Lloyd-Jones. Cited several times by Marged Haycock in her edition of the Uther poem, his emendations are at least provisionally adopted by that scholar.  When I asked Dr. Simon Rodway about Lloyd-Jones' work, he responded:

"It’s a very good piece of work, which I often use. It’s much more comprehensive than GPC [Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, 'Dictionary of the Welsh Language']."

It is not unreasonable, then, to suggest that Uther was a second Samuel/Sawyl, this being a play, of course, on his real name, Sawyl. Yet if we opt for this reading for kawyl in line 7, we lose the reference to the star.  And then we are left wondering where Geoffrey of Monmouth might have found his comet motif.  Although a comet of 442 A.D. is mentioned in an Irish annal, Geoffrey's ascribing its significance to Uther without inspiration from Welsh tradition seems unlikely. On the other hand, Geoffrey consistently shows himself to be a creative genius.  He may well have associated a draco standard with a record of a comet all on his own. 


***

Marwnat Vthyr Pen (tr. and ed. by Marged Haycock)

1 Neu vi luossawc yn trydar:
It is I who commands hosts in battle:

2 ny pheidwn rwg deu lu heb wyar.
I’d not give up between two forces without bloodshed.

3 Neu vi a elwir gorlassar:
It’s I who’s styled ‘Armed in Blue’:

4 vy gwrys bu enuys y’m hescar.
my ferocity snared my enemy.

5 Neu vi tywyssawc yn tywyll:
It is I who’s a leader in darkness:

6 a’m rithwy am dwy pen kawell.
. . . . .

7 Neu vi eil Sawyl yn ardu:
It’s I who’s a second Sawyl in the gloom:

8 ny pheidwn heb wyar rwg deu lu.
I’d not give up without bloodshed [the fight] between two forces.

6 a’m rithwy am dwy pen kawell G emends am dwy > an Dwy(w) ‘our Lord’, understood as the subject of 3sg. subjunct. rithwy ‘transform’ etc., but yn adwy ‘in the breach’ or yn ardwy ‘as a defence’ would give a more regular three syllables in the central section. Kawell ‘basket, pannier; cradle; fish-trap; creel, cage; quiver; belly, breast’ (GPC) seems unlikely, as do cowyll ‘maidenhood-fee; clothing, covering’ (with G s.v. coŵyll), sawell ‘chimney, kiln’ (see on §4.246), or nawell ‘nine times better’. Cannwyll is sometimes a rhyme partner for tywyll (e.g. AP line 88 cannwyll yn tywyll; CC 18.13; R1056.15), and would yield full rhyme. ‘May our Lord, the guiding/chief light, transform me’ is a possibility; or (with yn adwy) ‘May the guiding/chief light (i.e. God) transform me in the
breach’. Or is pen kawell a basket to collect up the heads he cuts off (line 18)? If Uthr is the speaker, is vb rithaw to be connected with his transformation through disguise (see introduction)? Obscure.

7 eil kawyl yn ardu G emends kawyl > Sawyl, the personal name (from Samuelis via *Safwyl). Sawyl Ben Uchel is named with Pasgen and Rhun as one of the Three Arrogant Men, Triad 23, as a combative tyrant in Vita Cadoci (VSB 58); and in CO 344-5. Samuil Pennissel in genealogies, EWGT 12 (later Benuchel), Irish sources, and in Geoffrey of Monmouth. Other Sawyls include a son of Llywarch, and the saint commemorated in Llansawel: see further TYP3 496, WCD 581 and CO 104. Ardu ‘darkness, gloom; dark, dreadful (GPC), sometimes collocated with afyrdwl ‘sad; sadness’ (see G, GPC).

Sunday, February 9, 2020

THE "GODDESS" CREIDDYLAD FINALLY DISCOVERED

Trinity Well, Hill of Carbury, Co. Kildare, Ireland

In the last year or so, I wrote several pieces trying to get at the underlying meaning of the Creiddylad story in the Welsh Arthurian tale, CULHWCH AND OLWEN. I did make some progress, clearly identifying Cyledyr son of Nwython ( = Nechtain) as a Welsh personification of the Irish spelling for Kildare.  I also hinted at the possibility that Gwythyr, the Welsh form of Roman Victor, was originally from an Irish Buadach, 'the victorious one', a known early epithet for St. Brigid of Kildare (and for other figures in Irish tradition, including males).  For some of the details for these arguments, please see the following link:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-new-identification-for-victor-of.html

However, I was not at the time able to adequately account for either Creiddylad or the reason why Gwyn son of Nudd played such a significant part in the story.

I now believe I can put these last two questions to rest in a satisfactory fashion.


The problem with the story of the Pictish Necton and his founding of a Brigid church in Scotland has to do with both his supposed exile to Kildare in Ireland and the presence in Ireland of the Well of Nechtain at the Hill of Carbury in Co. Kildare.  Carbury Hill was once known as Sidh Nechtain, the Fairy Hill of Nechtain.

The Well of Nechtain (or Well of Segais) is now called Trinity Well.  But in ancient days, it was considered the divine source of the Boyne River, itself a goddess named Boand (and variants).  As the story has it, Boand comes to the well, which is forbidden to her (!) and it bursts forth, creating the river.  The irony is, of course, that the water that bursts forth from the well due to her trespass is Boand herself.[1]

It has been proposed that the second element of Creiddylad is W. dylad, 'flood, tide, deluge; river-bed' (GPC, from the 13th century on).  This is actually quite good, for no other acceptable terminal can be found.  Old Irish has diliu, dile, 'flood', with forms dílend, dílinde, dílind (see eDIL).

 The eDIL has under its entry for diliu, dile, 'flood':

"Of the names of the Boyne at different stages of her course: Banna ó Loch Echach cen ail, | Drumchla Dílenn co hAlbain, 28 . ardanfud dond dílinne . . . décsiu Cerbaill, RC xxix 211 . dar lebarthonnaib na dileann, Snedg. u. Mac R 33 . da druim ndilinne (: firinne), Rawl. 86b42 . co ti in diliu tar in domun, Aen. 2966 . tar dromchla ndíleann, TD 20 § 33 . fa tholchuibh dílionn, 20 § 35 . siar tar dromchladh na díleann, Keat. Poems 31 ."

Creid(d) can only be for W. craidd, not only 'heart', but center, middle.  The same meanings apply to Irish cride, the cognate word.  I have found Ir. cride used as a poetic description for Mide or Meath, whose chief river is the Boyne:

cride na Banba bricce = Mide

(see the eDIL under the entry for cride and https://books.google.com/books?id=E-dFAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA174&lpg=RA1-PA174&dq=cride+of+banba+%3D+meath&source=bl&ots=6rnowOc83t&sig=ACfU3U3UOOyltxleKxdS1baB23YFsNf55Q&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXooyjssfnAhXAHjQIHcimCh4Q6AEwFHoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=cride%20of%20banba%20%3D%20meath&f=false)

'[the] heart/center/middle of freckled Banba' (Banba being a goddess manifestation of Ireland itself)

I would, therefore, propose that Creiddylad is 'middle flood' or, more precisely, 'the flood of Meath', a reference to the Boyne River.

Given the craidd/'heart' word in the name Creiddylad, the storyteller conjured the bit about Cyledyr/'Kildare' being forced to eat the heart of his father, Nwython.[2]  We must remember that Nechtain of Carbury is the god of that name, and Celtic Nechtain is cognate with Latin Neptune.  So whatever the original myth was, it dealt with Brigid ( = Buadach/Gwythyr) the Sun Goddess, Boand the River Goddess and Nechtain, who is himself a River God (see the River Nethan, for example, in North Lanarkshire, and Cambusnethan in the same region). The St. Necton of Hartland in Devon follows suit, as his decapitated head is a symbol for the source of a spring.  In the case of the Irish Nechtain, he may have been a God of the Underground Waters from which the River Boyne arose.

Gwyn son of Nudd features prominently in the story because the seat of Fionn Mac Cumhaill at the Hill of Allen was in Co. Kildare directly between Carbury and Kildare (see map below).  Fionn is cognate with Gwyn, and Fionn descended from Nuadu on his mother's side.  Nudd, Gwyn's father, is the Welsh form of Irish Nuadu. Creiddylad's father Lludd is a variant spelling for Nudd.  Nechtain may be the same as the god Nuadu or the two at some point became identified (see https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100241126).  Thus we have one Nuadu Necht, founder of the Hill of Allen.

Gwyn and Fionn may be Welsh and Irish versions of the Gaulish Apollo Vindonnus ('white god').  If so, Gwyn the Sun God competes with Brigid Buadach the Sun Goddess over Creiddylad/Boand the River Goddess on every Beltine.  My guess is that this has to do the a sun deity of the winter half year vs. a sun deity of the summer half year each having control of the river during their respective reigns.  This seasonal contest would result in varying levels of water in the Boyne during the course of the year.


Thus a story which reputedly took place in Abernethy in Scotland is actually a transferred, garbled legend from Ireland.  

NOTE ON UTHER PENDRAGON AND GWYTHUR

Given my identification of Gwythyr in CULHWCH AND OLWEN as Brigid Buadach, I'm fairly confident that I can now account for the reference in the Uther Pendragon elegy to the hero fighting alongside Gwythur.

The Irish Brigid as saint derives from the pagan goddess Brigantia, known in Britain as the eponym of the Brigantes tribe, whose territory spanned the Pennines.  We have two Roman period inscriptions from Britain in which the goddess is identified with Victoria:


To the goddess Victoria Brigantia Aurelius Senopianus dedicated this altar.


To the goddess Victoria Brigantia and to the Divinities of the two Emperors, Titus Aurelius Aurelianus gave and dedicated (this altar) for himself and his family, while he himself was master of sacred rites, in the third consulship of Antoninus and the [second] of Geta.

Thus when we are told Uther was fighting alongside Gwythur/'Victor', we are being told he was fighting alongside the goddess of the Brigantes, i.e. alongside the Brigantes themselves.  

[1]


Boand I
Sid Nechtain is the name that is on the mountain here,
the grave of the full-keen son of Labraid,
from which flows the stainless river
whose name is Boand ever-full.
5] Fifteen names, certainty of disputes,
given to this stream we enumerate,
from Sid Nechtain away
till it reaches the paradise of Adam.
Segais was her name in the Sid
10] to be sung by thee in every land:
River of Segais is her name from that point
to the pool of Mochua the cleric.
From the well of righteous Mochua
to the bounds of Meath's wide plain,
15] the Arm of Nuadu's Wife and her Leg are
the two noble and exalted names.
From the bounds of goodly Meath
till she reaches the sea's green floor
she is called the Great Silver Yoke
20] and the White Marrow of Fedlimid.
Stormy Wave from thence onward
unto branchy Cualnge;
River of the White Hazel from stern Cualnge
to the lough of Eochu Red-Brows.
p.29

25] Banna is her name from faultless Lough Neagh:
Roof of the Ocean as far as Scotland:
Lunnand she is in blameless Scotland —
or its name is Torrand according to its meaning.
Severn is she called through the land of the sound Saxons,
30] Tiber in the Romans' keep:
River Jordan thereafter in the east
and vast River Euphrates.
River Tigris in enduring paradise,
long is she in the east, a time of wandering
35] from paradise back again hither
to the streams of this Sid.
Boand is her general pleasant name
from the Sid to the sea-wall;
I remember the cause whence is named
40] the water of the wife of Labraid's son.
Nechtain son of bold Labraid
whose wife was Boand, I aver;
a secret well there was in his stead,
from which gushed forth every kind of mysterious evil.
45] There was none that would look to its bottom
but his two bright eyes would burst:
if he should move to left or right,
he would not come from it without blemish.
p.31

Therefore none of them dared approach it
50] save Nechtain and his cup-bearers:
— these are their names, famed for brilliant deed,
Flesc and Lam and Luam.
Hither came on a day white Boand
(her noble pride uplifted her),
55] to the well, without being thirsty
to make trial of its power.
As thrice she walked round
about the well heedlessly,
three waves burst from it,
60] whence came the death of Boand.
They came each wave of them against a limb,
they disfigured the soft-blooming woman;
a wave against her foot, a wave against her perfect eye,
the third wave shatters one hand.
65] She rushed to the sea (it was better for her)
to escape her blemish,
so that none might see her mutilation;
on herself fell her reproach.
Every way the woman went
70] the cold white water followed
from the Sid to the sea (not weak it was),
so that thence it is called Boand.
Boand from the bosom of our mighty river-bank,
was mother of great and goodly Oengus,
75] the son she bore to the Dagda — bright honour!
in spite of the man of this Sid.
p.33

Or, Boand is Bo and Find
from the meeting of the two royal streams,
the water from bright Sliab Guaire
80] and the river of the Sids here.
Dabilla, the name of the faithful dog
who belonged to the wife of Nechtain, great and noble,
the lap-dog of Boand the famous,
which went after her when she perished.
85] The sea-current swept it away,
as far as the stony crags;
and they made two portions of it,
so that they were named therefrom.
They stand to the east of broad Breg,
90] the two stones in the blue waters of the lough:
Cnoc Dabilla is so called from that day to this
from the little dog of the Sid.

Boand I
Síd Nechtain sund forsin t-shléib,
lecht mic Labrada lán-géir,
assa silenn in sruth slán
dianid ainm Bóand bith-lán.
5] Cóic anmand déc, demne drend,
forsin t-shruth-sin adrímem,
otá Síd Nechtain asmaig
co roshaig pardus Adaim.
Segais a hainm issin t-shíd
10] ria cantain duit in cach thír:
Sruth Segsa a hainm otá-sin
co Lind Mochúi in chlérig.2
Otá Topur Mochúi chóir
co cocrích Midi mag-móir
15] Rig mná Nuadat 's a Colptha
a dá ainm ána imarda.3
Otá cocrích Midi maiss
corrici in fairgi fondglaiss
Mór-Chuing Argait gairther di,
20] ocus Smir Find Fedlimthi.
Trethnach-Tond ósin immach
connici Cúalnge cráibach.
Sruth Findchuill ó Chúalnge chrúaid
co Loch n-Echach Abrat-rúaid.
p.28

25] Banna ó Loch Echach cen ail,
Drumchla Dílenn co h-Albain;
Lunnand hí i n-Albain cen ail
nó is Turrann iarna tucsain.
Sabrann dar tír Saxan slán,
30] Tibir i ráith na Román,
Sruth n-Iordanen iarsain sair,
ocus Sruth n-Eufrait adbail.
Sruth Tigir i pardus búan,
35] fota sair síst fri himlúad:
ó phardus darís ille
co srothaib na síde-se.
Bóand a h-ainm coitchend cain
otá in síd co fairge fraig:
mebur lim aní diatá
40] usce mná mic Labrada.
Nechtain mac Labrada laind,
diarbo ben Bóand, bágaimm,
topur diamair bói 'na dún,
assa maided cech mí-rún.
45] Ní fhail nodécced dia lár
nach maided a dá rosc rán:
dia ngluased do chlí nó deis,
ní thargad úad cen athis.
p.30

Aire níslaimed nech de
50] acht Nechtain 's a deogbaire:
it é a n-anmand, fri gním nglan,
Flesc is Lam ocus Luäm.
Fecht and dolluid Bóand bán —
dosfuargaib a dímus n-án —
55] cosin topur cen tarta
d' airigud a chumachta.
Immar rothimchill fo thrí
in topur co n-étuachli,
maidit teora tonna de
60] dia tánic aided Bóinne.
Rosiacht cach tond díb ria chuit,
romillset in mnái mbláth-buic:
tond ria cois, tond ria súil sláin,
tres tond brisid a leth-láim.
65] Rethis co fairgi, ferr de,
d' imgabáil a hathise,
ar nách acced nech a cned:
furri féin a himathber.
Cach conair dolluid in ben
70] moslúi in t-usce úar imgel:
ón t-shíd co fairgi nách fand,
conid di gairthir Bóand.
Bóand do bruinni ar mbrúich braiss
máthair Oengussa oll-maiss,
75] mac ruc don Dagda, miad nglé,
dar cend fir na síde-se. S.
p.32

Nó Bóand bó ocus find
do chomrac in dá ríg-lind,
in t-usce a sléib Guaire glé
80] ocus sruth na síde-se. S.
Dabilla ainm in chon chóir
robói oc mnái Nechtain nár-móir,
messán Bóinne co mblaid
luid ina diaid dia torchair.
85] Rosróen sruth in mara immach
corrici na cairge clach,
co ndernsat dá gabait de,
conid úad rohainmnigthe.
Atát i n-airthiur Breg mbrass
90] in dí chloich 'sin loch lind-glass;
Cnoc Dabilla ósin ille
di choin bic na síde-se. S.

[2]

The heart extraction from Nwython/Nechtain by Gwyn does remind us of the story of the Salmon of Wisdom in the Well of Segais at Sidh Nechtain.  It is this fish which imparts wisdom to Fionn Mac Cumhaill.  

The Meath section of the Boyne was known as Smior Fionn Feidhlimthe, the 'white marrow of Feidlimid.'  See










Friday, February 7, 2020

ARTHUR AND SARMATIAN RIBCHESTER (paper presented at the Second International Symposium on Lucius Artorius Castus, Podstrana, Croatia, October, 2019)

The Ribchester Helmet. A ceremonial bronze Roman cavalry 
parade helmet with face mask, circa 1st-2nd century AD. 

[Note: The text of my paper has been altered for print purposes here in one important way: I have settled on what I believe to be the original line of descent for Arthur.  While I possessed this information before the symposium, I didn't feel justified in using it without independent corroboration. But once the new reading of the Lucius Artorius Castus memorial stone was made public at the symposium by Dr. Linda Malcor and her colleagues this last October, and I had confirmed their findings with several top Latin epigraphers (such as Professor Roger Tomlin), I felt I finally had what I needed to put forward my analysis of an extant, pre-Galfridian pedigree for Arthur. None of the original material has been excluded, although some of it may, by necessity, have been reduced to salient points only. The paper represents my final Arthurian theory and is the product of roughly a quarter of a century of research.

Blogger has automatically converted footnotes in footers to endnotes. My apologies if the formatting change is distracting, inconvenient or does not appear to satisfy professional publishing standards.] 



ARTHUR AND SARMATIAN RIBCHESTER: 

PLACING THE 6TH CENTURY HERO INTO A GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT

By

August Hunt

ABSTRACT: In Chapter 56 of the ninth century HISTORIA BRITTONUM, a series of 12 battles are said to have been fought by the famous Arthur against the Saxons.  The present paper will briefly plot out the locations of these battles (as well as that of Camlann from the ANNALES CAMBRIAE) with an eye to establishing a sphere of military activity confined to Northern England and Lowland Scotland, primarily along the line of the old Roman Dere Street.  As the 2nd century acting governor of Britain, Lucius Artorius Castus, operated in the same region, the reasonable assumption will be made that the name Artorius continued to be used in the North for some centuries after that time, manifesting itself in the British form Arthur of the HISTORIA BRITTONUM.  An analysis of evidence gathered from several disciplines will allow us to precisely pinpoint the ancient tribal territory to which the Dark Age Arthur belonged, as well as his probable ruling center.

The Roman Lucius Artorius Castus is an attested historical personage.  We have his memorial stone here in Croatia as undeniable proof of this fact.[1]  But what of the sixth century Arthur who was first made famous in Chapter 56 of the 9th century HISTORIA BRITTONUM and in the 10th century Welsh Annals? In this paper, I will for the first time describe the geographical context in which this later Arthur belonged, with an eye towards both firmly establishing his historicity and identifying his tribal origin. 

When we set out to explore the Dark Age British Artorius we out of necessity enter the perilous realms of surmise, speculation and supposition.  For there is no direct archaeological proof of his existence.  If we wish to discover anything definitive regarding this Dark Age figure, we must start with the only thing we really have in the early sources: a list of thirteen battles.
Over the years I’ve worked tirelessly with both highly respected place-name experts and Celtic linguists to plot out Arthur’s military activities on the map.  The product of my efforts can be seen here in Figure 1.[2] 

Figure 1

You will notice immediately that there seems to be a pattern to the Arthurian battles.  Most of the sites are on or just to either side of the ancient Roman road called Dere Street.  The engagements run from the south at York to the extreme north on the Firth of Forth.  One outlier – that of the mouth of the Glen River in Northumberland – is on the Devil’s Causeway, which branches off of Dere Street.  The famous battle of Badon was fought at the bathum or ‘baths’ of Buxton in the High Peak, in what was the southernmost border region of the Roman period Brigantian territory.  It is apparent that Dere Street formed some kind of frontier zone for the period, with the British to the west and the encroaching English to the east.  

At least four battles may not have belonged to the 6th century Arthur.[3]  The Bassas at Dunipace in Scotland falls right between the hillforts Dumyat and Myot Hill, sites named for the Pictish Miathi or Maeatae.  In Adomnan’s Life of St. Columba we learn that the 7th century Arthur of Dalriada perished fighting the Miathi.[4]  Thus Bassas may mark the place where this later Arthur died.  The Tribruit, a Welsh rendering of Latin trajectus, was a crossing on the Firth of Forth.  The Dog-heads Arthur is said to have defeated there may be a reflection of the Ardchinnechenan promontory or Height of the Dog’s Head at North Queensferry.[5] But the Dogheads may also be a folk memory of the ancient Venicones tribe of Tayside, whose name contains the British word for ‘hounds.’[6] As Tribruit involves battling a foe north of the Firth of Forth, we are forced to consider the possibility that the Tribruit battle should also be assigned to the Dalriadan Arthur.  This is especially true as there is a conflicting tradition that places this Arthur in Circenn, the region anciently occupied by the Venicones.[7]

Arthur’s Breguoin battle - or High Rochester in Northumberland – is also said to be a location where Urien of Rheged fought.  Obviously, both men could have been present at the same site at different times.  But some scholars have claimed the Arthurian battle was “borrowed” from the victories of Urien.  The opposite could also be true, of course; Arthur’s Breguoin could have been assigned later to Urien.

There is, however, perhaps a better reason why Arthur was associated with the High Rochester Roman fort: a bear-god named Matunus was worshipped here.[8]

Matunus may be compared with the bear-god of Caer Dathal in Gwynedd, Wales, Math son of Mathonwy.  According to Welsh tradition, Arthur’s father was somehow related to the men of Caer Dathal and a wife of Arthur is said to have come from the same place.  A little later in my talk this supposed connection with a bear-god will be shown to be very significant in the context of a Northern Arthur, as Arthur’s name was thought by the Welsh to contain their word for bear, ‘arth.’

Finally, York or the City of the Legion as an Arthurian battle site is a bit suspicious merely because that city was the base of Lucius Artorius Castus.

The 6th century Arthur is said to have fallen c. 537 A.D. at Camboglanna[9], a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall in the Irthing Valley of Cumbria.[10]  This seems an odd location, given where we find all the prior battles.  That is, until we consider several factors.  First, the man who traditionally died fighting Arthur was named Medrawt or Modred, Celtic versions of the Roman name Moderatus.[11]  The name Moderatus is attested during the Trajanic period in the person of the prefect C. Rufius Moderatus, whose unit left inscriptions at Greatchesters on the Wall and Brough-under-Stainmore in Cumbria. The Welsh made Medrawt a nephew of Urien of Rheged.  The heartland of Rheged was the valley of the Annan River not far to the northwest of Camboglanna.[12]

Camboglanna, modern Castlesteads, was in the Irthing Valley.  In the same valley, a little to the ENE, is the fort of Banna at Birdoswald. 

Archaeology has demonstrated sub-Roman and Dark Age use of this latter fort. In the words of English Heritage,

“It is clear that this occupation continued without a break from the late Roman period, marking a radical change in the life of the fort after the collapse of the Roman administration and economy. The Roman military unit, already subject to late Roman local recruitment and hereditary service, perhaps became more akin to a war band, possibly even a small local chiefdom, whose members would have continued to regard themselves as ‘Roman’.”[13] 

I have elsewhere shown that St. Patrick of the Irish was born at Banna, called Banna venta bernia or the market town of Banna in the Tyne Gap.[14]  Patrick’s story is told just before that of Arthur’s in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM. I’ve also provided a new translation of an Arthurian period stone found at Camboglanna which bears a Christian inscription.[15]  There is good reason to believe, therefore, that the Irthing Valley was the site of an important power center during the 6th century. 
Dr. Ken Dark has written extensively on the region during this time period and has declared that someone here was attempting, in no matter how crude a fashion, to replicate the office of the Roman Dux Britanniarum.[16]  We are reminded once again of the dux and de facto governor Lucius Artorius Castus.

Camboglanna, where Arthur died, is only several miles to the east of the Aballava Roman fort at Burgh-By-Sands towards the western end of Hadrian’s Wall.[17]  Aballava is the ‘Apple Orchard’, and a variant Avalana is recorded.[18]  It is tempting to equate this place with the Otherworld Avalon of Arthurian tradition.  Even more exciting is the presence at both Banna and Aballava of a goddess named Dea Latis.[19] 

While different etymologies have been proposed for her name, as Aballava was surrounded by the extensive Burgh Marsh, it is likely she should be referred to as the ‘Goddess of the Lake.’  This would be in accord with another Birdoswald goddess named Dea Ratis, the ‘Goddess of the Fort.’[20] Arthurian enthusiasts will immediately recognize in Dea Latis the ‘Lady of the Lake’. Note that one of the stones has as a dedicant named Lucius Urseius.  Urseius is from Latin ursa, a word for ‘bear.’

A half dozen kilometers west of the Avalon fort is Congabata at Drumburgh.  Congabata is said to mean ‘dish-like’[21], perhaps a reference to the bold knoll on which the fort sits, which might have been seen as an upturned dish.  A gabata was a kind of dish or platter.[22] According to Du Cange’s medieval dictionary[23], the kind of plate called a grasal or greil – the word preserved in the Holy Grail of Arthurian tradition – was the same as the gabata.

Con- as a Latin prefix means 'with, together.'  For example, concavus means, literally, 'with a hollow.'  Thus we could interpret Congabata as the fort 'with a hollow platter.'

I would suggest that Drumburgh or Congabata may be the prototype for the later Grail Castles - no matter where these happened to be geographically situated in story.  A 'Fort with a Dish' would have immediately drawn to itself mythological motifs concerning ancient Celtic sacred vessels, themselves to be eventually supplanted by similar cultic items in the Christian religion. 

In passing, I would add that Drumburgh was garrisoned in the late Roman period by the Lingones, a Celtic tribe from Gaul.  Their capital city was called Andematunnum, a place-name that means either ‘Great Divine Bear’ or ‘Great Bear Place’.[24] While Alexander Falileyev prefers a different etymology for Andematunnum[25], the presence of the First Cohort of the Lingones at the Bremenium Roman fort where Matunus was worshipped gives us sufficient cause  for linking this Gaulish tribe with a bear-god.[26]

Another Wall fort may have played an important role in history of our 6th century Arthur.  This is Corbridge. 

I have argued that the Welsh Campus Elleti, which became in the French romances the famous Camelot, was originally Corbridge and that it had been relocated in later tradition to Llanilid in southern Wales.[27] Elleti is to be related to the divine name Alletios, attested at Corbridge.
Arthur fought several battles very near the Roman fort at the Devil's Water.  This fort was on the Roman Dere Street and was the supply depot for campaigns launched north into Scotland.[28]

A further point concerning the Irthing Valley of Banna and Camboglanna requires mentioning.  This has to do with the Welsh word arth, ‘bear’, which as we have seen was connected to Arthur’s name early on. 

Dr. Andrew Breeze has provided a new etymology for the river-name Irthing.[29]  According to Breeze, Irthing is from the Welsh word for bear plus a diminutive suffix, yielding a meaning of ‘Little Bear.’ However, the Irthing is not a little river, and Brythonic place-name expert Alan James[30] has informed me that another similar suffix would merely designate the arth or bear as a place.  Similarly, the River Irt, some distance away from the Irthing Valley in west-central Cumbria, may also be a Bear River.

The Bear Rivers here in northwestern England may suggest that at one time there was an active bear cult in the region. 

The early Welsh genealogies have a Man of the North named Arthwys.[31]  This is not so much a name as an eponym.  The Welsh suffix -wys denotes Latin -enses, so literally Arthwys is a tribal designation best rendered ‘people of the Arth’, i.e. the people of the Bear.[32] It is highly probable that the people of the Bear resided in the Irthing Valley.

How, though, do we actually prove that this great 6th century military hero, named after the 2nd century Lucius Artorius Castus, actually controlled territory along and to either side of Hadrian’s Wall?  Well, we can’t do that until we can establish a plausible genealogical trace for him.  To date, this has proven to be an impossible task. Researchers are forced to either reluctantly adopt the false ancestry supplied for Uther by the 12th century Geoffrey of Monmouth or to imaginatively concoct an alternative that is designed to “fit” this or that theory.  I realized a long time ago that any theory that failed to account for Arthur’s line of descent was doomed to failure – precisely because without knowing his pedigree we are not justified in placing him anywhere.

Fortunately, we do, in fact, have a record of Arthur in the early Welsh genealogies for the Men of the North.  The context in which this record is found is indirect and obscure, yet nevertheless very real.

In the Welsh poem “The Dialogue and Arthur and the Eagle”[33], we are told that Uther Pendragon’s son Madog had a son named Eliwlad.  These two names in the Arthurian pedigree are considered pre-Galfridian.  Eliwlad has proven impossible to etymologize. I proposed to leading Welsh onomasticists that Eliwlad should instead read Eilwlad.  Such a form was made possible by the presence in early Welsh MSS. of a metathesis of eil for eli and vice-versa.  Precedent of this sort is key to any good linguistic argument.

I had approached Dr. Richard Coates with my idea and here provide his response in full:

“It looks perfectly possible to me that Eliwlad represents British *Aljo-wlatos 'other land'.  Eliwlad/t is a plausible rendering of Eilwlad.”[34]

This new etymology for Eliwlad allowed me to connect the title Uther Pendragon to a known chieftain of the North found in the earliest genealogies.  How is this so, one might ask?

Well, there is a king named Sawyl Benisel whose name is preserved in Samlesbury[35] near Ribchester (see Figure 2[36]). 

Figure 2

We know from Irish sources that he had a son named Matoc Ailithir.  Matoc is merely an Irish spelling for Welsh Madog, while Ailithir, from Ir. aile, ‘other’, and tir, ‘land’, matches in meaning perfectly the Eilwlad son of Madog in the Dialogue poem. According to Professor Thomas Charles-Edwards, ailithir "is well attested in Old Irish.”[37]

What this means is that Eilwlad son of Madog is a dim folk memory or reflection of Matoc Ailithir.  And that Madog son of Uther = Matoc son of Sawyl.

This identification of Uther with Sawyl Benisel seems to be confimed in the Marwnat Vthyr Pen poem from THE BOOK OF TALIESIN.  There we are told Uther is transformed by the “Chief of the Sanctuary”, i.e. God, into a “second Sawyl.” This is a reference to Uther being like the Biblical Samuel, who was called/chosen while inside the sanctuary at Shiloh.[38]

This finding is significant in several ways.  First, the Sarmatian veterans were settled at Ribchester.[39]  We know that the Sarmatians were among those steppe peoples who introduced the draco standard into the Roman army.  Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us that Uther took his epithet Pendragon from a draco standard, itself supposedly fashioned from a comet he saw in the sky.[40] 

In Welsh poetry, the word dragon is used metaphorically to designate a warrior or chieftain.[41]  But it is possible the epithet pendragon had a more literal meaning.  We know of a late Roman rank magister draconum[42], the ‘master of the draco standard’, and this would be perfectly rendered by pendragon.  Or the Chief Dragon may simply have been an honorific title for the ruler at Ribchester during the Dark Ages.  

Another important aspect of our placing Arthur at Ribchester concerns the 2nd century Lucius Artorius Castus (affectionately referred to as ‘LAC’).  During this very symposium, Dr. Linda Malcor and colleagues are presenting a paper[45] that offers a new and exciting reading of the LAC memorial stone that was found in Podstrana, Croatia. The new reading allows us to confirm that LAC not only fought the Sarmatians, but was involved in the transfer of 5,500 of them to Britain.  Once there, he assumed the rank of prefect of the Sixth Legion and ended up de facto governor of the province.  We can only assume that he was instrumental in partitioning the Sarmatian cataphracts and would certainly have made use of them to deal with problems in the North. While we don’t know for sure when the veteran settlement for the Sarmatians was established at Ribchester, their close association with LAC might well have caused the name Artorius to have been remembered by and passed down among that fort’s sub-Roman/early Medieval elite.

I’ve been able to show why Uther Pendragon was said to have as his servant the god Mabon son of Modron[46] - and by doing so have successfully linked this deity to Sawyl.  Mabon is present in a Tremabyn very near to where Eliwlad is placed in the ‘Dialogue’.  He is also present in Llansawel parish in Carmarthenshire at a Castell Mabon.[47]  This Welsh Sawyl was confused in legend with the northern Sawyl Benisel.[48]  And, finally, we have evidence for the worship of Maponus (= Mabon) at Sawyl’s Ribchester.[49]  The 'Pa Gur' poem's claim that Mabon as one of the predatory birds of Elei was the servant (W. gwas) of Uther is due to an alternate spelling of the River Elei being confused with the Eli- of Eliwlad the eagle. 

Mabon was identified with the god Lleu in Welsh tradition (as both were placed in death at the same location, i.e. Nantlle in Arfon, Gwynedd) and Lleu is known to have taken the form of an eagle.  The epithet 'other land' seems to have been interpreted as referring to the Otherworld, and so Eliwlad took on a supernatural character. This idea was suggested to me by Professor Stefan Zimmer (private correspondence).

An Arthur born to Sawyl also lets us explain for the first time why all subsequent Arthurs belonged to Irish-descended dynasties in Britain, for Sawyl’s wife was a princess of an Irish king.[50]

If the 6th century Arthur were born at Ribchester, fought battles up and down the Dere Street corridor and then died at Castlesteads, what can we say about his role in relation to the other princes of the North?

According to the HISTORIA BRITTONUM, he was ‘dux erat bellorum.’[51] Much has been made of this title.  Dr. Malcor prefers to see in it one of the titles born by LAC on the Podstrana memorial stone.  But it can be applied to a Dark Age chieftain without too much difficulty.  An example of the kind of thing I’m talking about can be seen in the life of St. Illtud.[52]  This man was the son of a king of Llydaw (here a designation not for Brittany, but for the valley of the River Leadon[53]) who went to serve with the household troops of a prince based at Dinas Powys. He worked his way up to become leader of those troops.  We find him called knight, soldier, master of soldiers, and prince of soldiers.

Arthur may have done the same kind of thing, although perhaps on a much larger scale.  As one of several sons of Sawyl[54], he might well have sought his fortune elsewhere.  The most logical place to put him is in the Irthing Valley, where we find Banna/Birdoswald with its Dark Age hall complex[55] and Camboglanna/Castlesteads.  I’ve suggested that the Irthing was probably a bear river, and that the people of the Irthing Valley were called the *Artenses or People of the Bear – the Arthwys of the Welsh sources. 

Is it possible, I wonder, given that the name Arthur was associated with the Welsh word for bear, that the People of the Bear were called after Arthur himself, and the river-name was merely a back-formation? While this may seem a stretch, we have examples of English place-names that derive from personal or group names that subsequently gave their names to neighboring watercourses.[56]

In passing, I would remind my audience that Banna was garrisoned by Dacians for centuries.[57]  The Dacians, neighbors the Sarmatians, were also noted for their draco standard.[58] In another study I have demonstrated how the Aelius Draco on the Ilam or Staffordshire Moorlands Pan was undoubtedly a Dacian attached to Banna who was named for the standard itself.[59] The Dacians may also have possessed their own bear god.[60]

The Battle of Badon makes eminent sense for a man who hailed from Ribchester.[61]  Badon, once again, is Buxton in the High Peak.  Had the Saxons managed to take the place, they would have been in a position to cut through the Pennines and attack Ribchester itself from the south.  On the other hand, a resounding victory here by the British would have decidedly closed off this flanking maneuver on the part of the barbarian enemy. 

The death of Arthur and Medraut at Camlann[62] may have been a conflict between the powerful lord controlling the Wall from Banna and a nascent Rheged, a kingdom based originally in Annandale. Rheged does not come to the fore until after Arthur’s floruit.  And, indeed, the heroic poetry seems to suggest that Urien and his son Owain were the successors to Arthur in the North.  Certainly, before Arthur we hear nothing of Rheged. 

In summary, then, I would make the case for the name Artorius having been made famous in the north of England by the 2nd century Roman dux and governor Lucius Artorius Castus. This name was used for a son by a 5th century chieftain of Ribchester named Sawyl who had established himself as the magister draconum or Chief Dragon at the Roman fort of the Sarmatian veterans. The 6th century Arthur went on to fight several notable battles against the invading Saxons along or not far to either side of Dere Street. His last victory was a crushing defeat of the enemy at Badon in the High Peak. 
He later perished at the Camboglanna fort on the Bear River, and was – if we choose to subscribe to the legendary account – ferried down the Irthing and the Eden to Aballava for burial.[63]  Or he may have been conveyed along the Wall via the Roman road to the same place. 

While the Apple Orchard name, with its strong Otherworld connotations, may have drawn Arthur to it, I personally revel in the possibility that Avalon is really the final resting place of the great king, and that he is there in the embrace of the Goddess of the Lake, with his sword deposited, in proper Celtic fashion, in her watery domain.




[1] Malcor, L.A., Trinchese, A., Faggiani, A., Missing Pieces: A New Reading of the Main Lucius Artorius Castus Inscription, Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 47, no 3 & 4 Fall/Winter, 2019, pp. 415-437.
[2] Hunt, A., The Arthur of History: Revised Edition, 2019, p. 12.
[3] Ibid, 75-83, 90-112.
[4] https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/columba-e.asp
[5] Wells, Emma J., Pilgrim Routes of the British Isles, Crowood Press, 2016.
[6] Koch, J.T., The Stone of the Wenicones, in: Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 29, 1982, p. 87ff.
[7] Bannerman, John, Studies in the History of Dalriada, Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh and London, 1974.
[8] https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1265
[9] Annales Cambriae; see Nennius: British History and The Welsh Annals, ed. and trans. John Morris, Rowman & Littlefield, 1980, pp. 45 and 85.
[10] Ibid, 127-130.
[11] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/my-suggestion-to-professor-oliver-j_20.html
[12] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-nucleus-of-uriens-kingdom-of-rheged.html
[13] https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/birdoswald-roman-fort-hadrians-wall/history-and-stories/history/
[14] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/banna-as-home-of-st-patrick-repost.html
[15] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-sub-roman-christian-inscribed-stone.html
[16] Hunt, A., The Arthur of History: Revised Edition, 2019, pp. 192-197.
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/12/dr-ken-dark-on-fifth-sixth-century.html
[17] Ibid, 202-206.
[18] Rivet, A.L.F., and Smith, C., The Place-Names of Roman Britain, London, 1982, p. 238.
[19] https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/search?qv=latis&submit=
[20]  https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/search?qv=ratis&submit=
[21] Breeze, David J., J. Collingwood Bruce’s Handbook to the Roman Wall, 14th Edition, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2006; http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/35459/1/4128635.pdf
[22] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dgabata
[23] http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/GRASALA; https://arbredor.com/ebooks/Arthur2.pdf
[24] Melrose, R., The Druids and King Arthur: A New View of Early Britain, McFarland, 2014, p. 81; Ross, A., Pagan Celtic Britain, London, 1967, p. 375; Isaac, Graham, Place-Names in Ptolemy’s Geography, 2004; Alan James, private correspondence.
[25] Falileyev, A., Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-Names, 2010.
[26] https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1276
[27] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/camelot-at-corbridge-god-allitio-and.html
[28] http://www.castlesfortsbattles.co.uk/north_east/corbridge_roman_town.html 
[29] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-bear-river-of-birdoswald-banna-and.html
[30] Personal correspondence. https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_I_Introduction_Bibliography_etc._2019_edition.pdf
https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2019_Edition.pdf
[31] https://www.library.wales/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/02_A-B.pdf
[32] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-bear-cult-of-romansub-roman-cumbria.html
[33] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-strongest-linguistic-argument-for.html; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/precedence-is-all-eil-found-spelled-eli.html; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/condensed-argument-for-eliwlad-son-of.html
[34] Personal communication.
[35] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-fairly-radical-revision-of-my-earlier.html
[36] Adapted from http://www.romanroads.org/gazetteer/lancspages.html
[37] Personal communication.
[38] Haycock, Marged, Legendary Poems From the Book of Taliesin, CMCS Publications, 2007, https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/02/sawyl-or-kanwyll-reaching-decision-on.html and
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-fairly-radical-revision-of-my-earlier.html
[39] Richmond, I.A.,The Sarmatae, Bremetennacvm Veteranorvm and the Regio Bremetennacensis, The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 35, Parts 1 and 2 (1945), pp. 15-29.
[40] Thorpe, Lewis, tr., Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain, Penguin Books, 1966, p.200-201.
[41] http://welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html
[42] http://www.fectio.org.uk/articles/draco.htm
[43] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/uther-pendragongorlassar-and-dragon-star.html
[44] Ibid.
[45] Linda A. Malcor, Antonio Trinchese, Alessandro Faggiani. 2019. "Missing Pieces: A New Reading of the Main Lucius Artorius Castus Inscription" Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 47, no 3 & 4 Fall/Winter. pp. 415-437.
[46] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/eliwlad-flies-again-or-is-there-still.html
[47] http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/giants_wales.html
[48] See the entries for the various Sawyls at https://www.library.wales/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/10_S-T.pdf
[49] https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/583
[50] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/muiredach-muinderg-king-of-ulster-and.html
[51] Morris, J., ed. and tr., Nennius: British History and the Welsh Annals, Rowman and Littlefield, 1980, pp. 35, 76.
[52] https://books.google.com/books?id=PUGGAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=Vita+Sancti+Iltuti&source=bl&ots=5tbNjgyS0w&sig=ACfU3U2Wpr7NTx_FNArQLlJji4ZwqYM4uQ&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7-e7ywLrmAhWPrZ4KHVMdDYIQ6AEwBnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Vita%20Sancti%20Iltuti&f=false
[53] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/10/uther-pendragon-was-born-in-vale-of.html; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/10/how-welsh-tradition-confirms-that.htm; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/11/repost-of-true-identity-of-uther.html, etc.; although note that I no
longer consider the Vale of Leadon to be the origin point of Uther Pendragon.
[54] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/eliwlad-grandson-of-uther-and-madog.html
[55] Wilmott, T., Birdoswald: Excavations of a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall and its successor settlements, 1987-92, English Heritage, Archaeological Report 14, 1997.
[56] Ekwall, E., English River-Names, Clarendon Press, 1968.
[57] https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/birdoswald-roman-fort-hadrians-wall/history-and-stories/the-people-of-birdsowald/
[58] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-draco-standard-by-jc-n-coulston.html
[59] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/07/aelius-draco-dacian-and-bannabirdoswald.html
[60] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-bear-cult-of-romansub-roman-cumbria.html 
[61] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-ribchester-arthur-and-battles-of.html
[62] Ibid.
[63] https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/might-arthur-really-have-been-buried-at.html