COROTICUS THE CRUEL TYRANT AND LITTLE FOX: FATHER OF ARTHUR?

[NOTE:  Since writing this piece I have produced the following blog posts of a related nature -
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/04/chapter-2-arthurs-ancestry-restoring.html and 

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-birthplace-and-father-of-arthur.html.]

A British Fox

Sometimes, when I'm at an impasse in my Arthurian researches, I sit back and ask myself the question: "What have I overlooked?"

Having been forced to let go of my Eliwlad = Eilwlad theory, which allowed me to postulate that Arthur's father was Sawyl Benisel of the North, I found myself floundering a bit.  Upon some reflection I realized I had a choice.  Accept the theory I had worked so hard to formulate in my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY (shortly to be reissued) or revisit all the prior connections I had explored for Uther Pendragon. The last was a daunting prospect, yet I felt, in the end, that I had to go in that direction.

So that is what I did... fighting resistance the whole way.

As it turned out, I had, in fact, missed something.  Perhaps something crucial, although for now I'm merely treating it as an intellectual exercise.  [I have been warned by a dear friend and colleague to avoid "absolutes."]

My readers are kindly referred to this old post: https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/09/crudelisque-tyranni-and-uther-pendragon.html.  There I had noticed that Ceredig of Strathclyde was called in Latin 'crudelisque tyrannus,' a phrase which could easily have been rendered Uther Pendragon in the Welsh.  Ceredig's time was right for him to be Arthur's father.  In addition, as Strathclyde had been the tribal territory of the ancient Dumnonii of the North, I could finally account for why Uther and Arthur were placed in Cornwall: the latter was part of the kingdom of the Southern Dumnonii.  

The post actually got a lot of attention, although I dispensed with it shortly after it was composed. I did not feel I had enough to go on to propose Ceredig of Strathclyde as Arthur's father.

Now, having read the Coroticus story again - with a much more critical eye - something jumped right out at me. Ceredig (Coroticus) was turned into a vulpiculi or 'little fox.'  For details on this event, see https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39131222.pdf.

Vulpiculi is from (see Lewis and Short) -

vulpēcŭla , ae, f. dim. vulpes,

I.a little fox, Cic. N. D. 1, 31, 88; id. Off. 1, 13, 41; “Auct. Carm. Phil. 59: tum vulpecula evasit puteo,” Phaedr. 4, 9, 10.

Why might this be significant?  Because Uther Pendragon is given a son named Madog.  And Madog in Welsh means "fox."  For a good discussion of the name Madog, see https://www.academia.edu/10711279/Lynx_in_Continental_Celtic.  In brief, it breaks down thusly:

OW. madawg,W. madog m. 'a fox'(< Celt. Britt. *matakos)

I think the vulpiculi may show up in tradition because Ceredig's son and successor was named Cynuit/Cynwyd.  Superficially, this name could have been interpreted as containing the British components for dog/hound (*cuno-) and wood (*widu-) or wild (*weido-), respectfully.  In other words, Cynwyd may have been viewed metaphorically as a dog of the wood or a wild dog.  In Britain, there were only two such: the wolf and the fox. We might compare W. gwyddgi (GPC):

gwyddgi

[gŵydd3+ci]

eg. ll. gwyddgwn.

Ci gwyllt, blaidd; llwynog, cenau llwynog; siacal; yn ffig. milwr dewr:

•  wild dog, wolf; fox, fox-cub; jackal; fig. brave warrior. 

13g. A 821-2, ef llithyei wydgwn oe anghat.

Dchr. 14g. H 37b3, Gwytgwn coed colled ae porthei (Cynddelw).

id. 101a3, y wytgwn eu bod or wytgruc (Llywarch ap Llywelyn).

id. 110a1, samswn gwytgwn gogoned achaws.

1632 D, gwyddgwn, vulpeculæ, lupi.

1688 TJ, gwŷddgŵn, cenawon llwynog neu flaidd.

1722 Llst 189, gwyddgi, a dog-fox; a wolf; the nackal or lion’s hunter, p. gwyddgwn.

1773 W d.g. fox, wolf.

1800 P.

That a medieval author could mistranslate a name is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated that in the work of Gildas, where Cuneglasus is rendered 'tawny butcher.'  In reality, the name means 'Blue hound.'   And while some might object that W. cwn, 'hound', had only a positive connotation for the Celtic aristocratic and warrior elite, as the entire purpose of using wolves and such to denote Coroticus and his men (see below) doubtless sought to convey a pejorative description (after all, this was hagiography, not heroic poetry!), I don't find the use of Cynwyd in this sense at all unusual.

Cynwyd's etymology is actually entirely different, being derived from the following (Rivet and Smith):

"This remains uncertain. The long expositions of Williams and of Jackson in Britannia, I (1970), 71, should be studied. It is unfortunate that the name seems to have no analogues here or abroad; the Cunetes tribe of Spain provide a similarity of form, but they were probably Iberian (non-Celtic). The British name was *Cunetiu, and from this the name of the Wiltshire river, Kennet, is derived; the same may be assumed for several other rivers called Kennet and similar, including the Kent of Cumbria (older Kenet), and for the Cynwyd of Merioneth (Wales). Ravenna's Cunia and Cunis rivers are probably not relevant, being referable to Cenio. Whether the first element in Countisbury, the name of a Devon hill-fort, belongs here is doubtful; it was in an Old Welsh form (Asser) Arx Cynuit, and Jackson thinks this name related to *Cunetiu, but we seem not to have hill-fort names made from original water-names in other instances. Jackson dismisses the older notion of a Celtic *cuno- 'high' as non-existent, and a root in well-known *cuno- ' dog ' as most unlikely in a river-name; for the same reason he does not welcome Williarn's proposed root in the *ku-no- ' point, edge' of Pokorny, and rightly dismisses the consequential argument that in the present case the river might have taken its name from that of the settlement, for we have no eévidence that this occurred in Celtic times (though such back-formation is common later). The most recent discussion of the abundant Cuno- names, mostly personal names involving Cuno-'dog', is that of H. Birkhan in Germanen und Kelten.. . (Vienna, 1970), 345-79; he mentions British Cunetio (p. 348, note), a unique toponym, but without associating it with other Cuno- names. The name must be left unresolved."

Dr. Simon Rodway agrees with this assessment, saying "Cynwyd is from *Cun-e:t-, cf. the Romano-British place-name Cunetio, probably a cognate. The significance of the suffix is unclear."

A "little fox" might be presumed to be a 'dog of the wood'.  We then only need allow for a rather simple error of transmission, oral or otherwise, in which vulpiculi - originally an error for Cynwyd, Ceredig's son and successor - is replaced in the Welsh with Madog.

If this happened, in Madog son of Uther Pendragon we would have vulpecula/Cynwyd son of crudelisque tyrannus.  And that would mean, in turn, that Ceredig/Coroticus of Strathclyde was Arthur's father.

I can only say one thing for certain at this juncture: there does not appear to be another figure of Dark Age Britain whose name and/or epithet can be interpreted as Uther Pendragon and who also may have been given a son named Madog.  Coroticus lived at exactly the right time to be Arthur's father. And he is mentioned at the end of the Life of St. Patrick, which may account for why Arthur's story in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM comes right after that of the saint.

NOTE ON THE FOX TRANSFORMATION

The account of Coroticus' becoming a fox is worth investigating in more detail.

Muirchu's Life of St. Patrick I.29

I shall not pass over in silence a miraculous deed of Patrick's. News had been brought to him of a wicked act by a certain British king named Corictic, an ill-natured and cruel ruler. He had no equal as a persecutor and murderer of Christians. Patrick tried to call him back to the way of truth by a letter, but he scorned his salutary exhortations. When this was reported to Patrick, he prayed to the Lord and said: 'My God, if it is possible, expel this godless man from this world and from the next.' Not much time had elapsed after this when (Corictic) heard somebody recite a poem saying that he should abandon his royal seat, and all the men who were dearest to him chimed in. Suddenly before their eyes, in the middle of a public place, he was ignomiously changed into a fox, went off, and since that day and hour, like water that flows away, was never seen again.

In https://books.google.com/books?id=8Y2CO10-vsgC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=%22coroticus%22%2B%22lupi+rapaces%22&source=bl&ots=6hUjXPuVsf&sig=ACfU3U0Y8gCwGArj7XXgHRUAf1_ET1aQjg&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiH4I_0psjoAhVQj54KHdl5CWUQ6AEwAXoECAsQLw#v=onepage&q=%22coroticus%22%2B%22lupi%20rapaces%22&f=false, Maire Johnson provides some excellent footnotes regarding this episode:

In other words, the 'fox' interpretation of a perceived 'hound of the wood' or 'wild hound' name was chosen over that of a wolf to further denigrate Coroticus.  The author's intent was to show Coroticus in an evil light.  He had a name (Cynwyd) which seemed to allow for an interpretation as a wolf or fox and he exploited it to vilify the saint's antagonist to the maximum extent.  

What Coroticus' own men are doing with the recitation of the "poem" sounds suspiciously like the casting of a druidic spell or curse.  The Latin reads:

"Non grande post ea tempus effluxerat et musicam artem audiuit a quodam cantare quod de solio regali transiret, omnesque karissimi eius uiri in hanc proruperunt uocem."

The word 'cantare' here implies not only a song, but also an 'incantation, charm, spell, magic song.'

But the important thing to notice is that the transformation into a fox comes when the king has been called upon to abdicate.  Had he done so, it is only natural to assume that his son Cynwyd would have succeeded him.  Thus the sequence of Coroticus followed by a fox may well be a folk memory of the perceived fox-son succeeding his father in the kingship. 

The sequence of events, matched up with the hagiographical account, would look something like this:

1) Coroticus abdicates or otherwise vacates the kingship.  

2) His son Cynwyd succeeds him.

3) Cynwyd is wrongly taken to mean a wild dog or dog of the wood, in this case a fox, not a wolf.

4) Coroticus is said to become the fox, as the fox, i.e. Cynwyd, rules after his father.

5) At some point in the transmission of the legend, the Latin vulpecula is rendered into W. Madog.

6) Thus Coroticus the crudelisque tyrannus or uther pendragon, is given a son named Madog. 

MERLIN AND THE STAG: A CLOSER LOOK AT MYRDDIN AS MARS BELATUCADROS

Merlin transformed as a stag at the court of Julius Cesar, Paris, BNF fr. 749, f. 260 (c. 1300)

A few days ago I wrote this post:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/03/myrddin-of-stags-and-carvetii-god.html

At the time, I was really only interested in a possible relationship between Myrddin and the chief god of the Carvetii or 'Stag-people', Belatucadros.  I had not bothered to treat of Merlin's appearance in later Arthurian romance as the stag.  The motif itself has been dealt with in great detail by Lucy Patton in her "The Story of Grisandole: A Study in the Legend of Merlin (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/456828.pdf)." For a study of the story in the context of the Wild Man of Medieval European tradition, see "The Wild Man: Medieval Myth and Symbolism
by Timothy Husband and Gloria Gilmore-House  (https://books.google.com/books?id=LFDD4nuC1HoC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=%22the+wild+man%22%2B%22stags%22&source=bl&ots=PLuO-n4pTS&sig=ACfU3U2tefs-6XuIikXsXWmyJT3RsYI6AA&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiG4vLomcXoAhXdGTQIHa1LBFIQ6AEwEHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22the%20wild%20man%22%2B%22stags%22&f=false)."

What is significant about the 'Story of Grisandole' is that Merlin actually takes the form of a stag.  This is only implied in the episode featuring Guendoloena in Geoffrey of Monmouth's VITA MERLINI. There the madman rides on the back of a stag, leading an army of stags, hinds and goats.  He slays Guendoloena's husband by pulling an antler off his mount and hurling it at his rival.

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a learned man and there is no denying his creative genius, especially when it came to mining disparate sources to produce a unique synthesis.  But I still am wondering if we are to lay all of this at Geoffrey's feet. The Carwinley of Myrddin's lord Gwenddolau was, according to the best judgment of scholars of Roman Britain, probably within the northernmost part of the Carvetii kingdom.  Arthuret, site of the Arderydd battle, was quite a bit further south and almost certainly was within Carvetii lands.  If, then, the Geoffrey's account is not a total fiction, and it is not merely a coincidence that Merlin leads an army of deer in a place where the warriors would have belonged to the Stag-people, then I think we must seriously consider the possibility that by slaying his rival with horn the transformed mad man was at least acting in the role of Belatucadros.

Of course, it is not necessary to turn Myrddin into a deity.  He may well have been simply a Carvetii warrior-poet or chieftain who perished (or was sacrificed) at or near Arderydd and who then went on to exist in spectral form in the Scottish Lowland wood.  Such a form could take that of birds or animals and, in his case, doubtless that of a stag.

Belatucadros altar

(https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/918)

A HUMBLE RETRACTION OF THE ELIWLAD = EILWLAD PROPOSED ETYMOLOGY

Eagle in an Oak Tree

Having just put out there a radical revision of my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY entitled THE BATTLE-LEADER OF RIBCHESTER, I find myself now having to recant the proposed personal name etymology I used as the linchpin of my argument in that title.  This is in one sense embarrassing, but in another quite freeing.  For I had enough doubt about that etymology to continue working on the name behind the scenes.  The goal was to make sure I could accept the hypothetical derivation and that such acceptance was based on a consensus opinion of leading Welsh and Celtic linguists.  As Eilwlad allowed me to identify Arthur's father Uther with a historical figure who could be fixed geographically, a lot was riding on the meaning of this single name.

I faced four problems with the idea that Eliwlad was originally Eilwlad.  The first was not insurmountable, although it did cast some doubt on my theory.  Dr. Simon Rodway, one of the foremost experts in the world on Old and Middle Welsh, preferred a late spelling for the name which terminated in -lod instead of -lad/-lat.  According to Rodway, even though -lod only occurs in late MSS. and was used by a couple of late poets, for the form to exist demanded that Eliwlad must be an instance of the application of the principle of lectio difficilior.  In other words, at some point scribes had opted for Eliwlad because it looked more familiar to them than Eliwlod.  This was, perhaps, because they could make nothing of Eliwlod, and opted for (g)wlad as the second element of the name instead.  -lod itself had to come from something like llawd or blawd.  Alas, no workable etymology could be arrived at for such an exemplar.  Other scholars backed me in supporting the Eliwlad/t spelling.  

Late spellings in -lod also dropped the initial E-, but that is considered to be a "perfectly predictable" (Rodway) development and is not related to the -lad vs. -lod problem.  

The second and more serious problem involves my preferred metathesis of Eil- for Eli-. While I was able to demonstrate this happening in MSS., even good ones, to sustain my argument meant that I had to find an example of Eilwlad extant somewhere.  That I could not do.  For while in the MSS. with eil for eli (or vice-versa) there was never any doubt which form was actually correct.  For an Eilwlad name to have become Eliwlad would imply that the original form was miscopied at some point, the original form completely lost from all sources and the new, incorrect spelling was taken as the exemplar.  Assuming the existence of such a lost form is a dangerous proposition.  Because of all the contextual supportive "evidence" I seemed to possess, I was willing to take the risk.  But only if I was absolutely certain no other, better etymology was available.

Third, I could not account for why an otherwise unknown eliwlad, 'other land' (for 'pilgrim') would have been substituted for the Irish ailithir, 'other land' (aile + tir) when Welsh itself from very early on had tir.  As Professor Peter Schrijver pointed out, Irish aili- would have become Eli- in Welsh, but why would gwlad be used instead of tir?

And four, even if there had been an Irish compound aile + flaith, it would not have been spelled aili-, and the second component would have been altered in such a way as to prohibit it from becoming gwlad in Welsh.  I have this from Professor Jurgen Uhlich:

"Such a compound could of course have existed. Its shape (and thus its reflection in spelling), however, would not feature aili-, as e.g. in ailithir, since while the schwa /ə/ of the second syllable in alilithir is followed by a palatal consonant and needs to be spelled <i> between two palatals, what follows in your example is neutral, hence *aile(f)laith or indeed, if with regular unstressed processing, *ailelaid."

So I went back to drawing board.  All further attempts to etymologize the name failed - until I went back to an old idea.  One that I had considered very early on and then dispensed with.

There is some evidence that gwlad in Welsh once not only meant 'land, kingdom' and the like, but that it also had the same meaning one finds in Irish, i.e. 'prince, lord, ruler.'  Dr. Simon Rodway was kind enough to send me the information on this possibility and I include that here in full:

"‘The Date of Culhwch ac Olwen’, pp. 50–1:

Another possible old word that was not understood is gwlad in the sense of ‘lord, ruler’. In

one of the poems ascribed to Taliesin, his patron, Urien In one of the poems ascribed to

Taliesin, his patron, Urien of Rheged, is praised by comparison:

gwacsa gwlat da wrth Urföen.

In the context, this ought to mean, ‘Useless is a good lord compared with Urien’. Although in

Middle and Modern Welsh gwlad means ‘country’ or ‘kingdom’, its Irish cognate, flaith, has

a triple meaning, ‘lordship; kingdom; lord’. This example makes it likely that in early Welsh,

gwlad could have at least a double meaning, ‘lord’ and ‘country’. A further likely example is

in Culhwch. The phrase mab brenhin gvlat teithiawc in lines 90–1 has a parallel in line 95,

mabyon gwladoed ereill, where ereill shows that the text is referring back to the earlier

phrase. This makes it likely that brenhin here is an embedded gloss, so that the contrast was

between map gvlat teithiawc and mabyon gwladoed ereill. The mabyon gwladoed ereill were

to be housed in the yspyty, whereas the mab (brenhin) gvlat teithiawc would be allowed

through the gate so as to enter the hall: hence the gwladoed ereill would appear to be rulers of

lesser rank than a brenhin or gwlat teithiauc. This in turn makes it likely that gvlat in lines

90–1 and 95 should not be taken in the later sense of ‘major kingdom’, such as Gwynedd or

Powys. The adjective teithiawc was regularly applied to a person or an animal but not to a

country."

Taking this for a -wlad or 'princ, lord, ruler' as the second element of Eliwlad, I began searching for an initial element that would satisfy all the requirements of a close compound name.  El- did not work for reasons I had explored before.  Neither did Eli-. In the end, there were only two words that conceivably could have fronted -(g)wlad.  One of them (eiliw/eilyw, 'appearance, aspect,' etc.) had to be discounted because it broke the language rule in which the first element in a close compound modifies the second, not the other way round. This is a rule of composition and never varies (Rodway).

But, fortunately, we have eiliw/eilyw, 'grief, pain, sadness.'  Eiliw in Old Welsh can be spelled eliw and this ei to e can even happen in Middle Welsh in certain circumstances.  There is no problem with the two /w/s becoming one.  The /g/ of gwlad is, naturally, lost. I have now checked this with several linguists and it has been deemed quite allowable.  The most succinct response came from Professor Peter Schrijver, who said merely: "Yes, that works well linguistically."  From other notable Celticists I have:

"Grief-lord is certainly possible." Erich Poppe

"No problem with Eil- > El-, pretonic reduction, there would have been secondary stress on the 2nd syllable.  So, yes, Eiliw + gwlad is fine for the name." Alan James

"I have no objection to that etymology if we are to restrict ourselves to -lad. It's a good fit." Simon Rodway

I have queries out to others and will add to these comments as responses come in.  

If the meaning of the name had been known at some point, it may have contributed to the motif of Arthur's dead nephew as a ghost-eagle in a oak tree.  Certainly, in the parallel story of Lleu as death-eagle in an oak the prevailing sense is sadness or grief.  Worms and rotten flesh fall from Lleu. In the englyn of "Math Son of Mathonwy" we are told that the flowers of Lleu (feathers) make the sky gorddufrych.  This last is an interesting word.  GPC has gloomy, sombre, very dark, dusky; swarthy.  The first part gorddu is very black, very dark, sombre, pitch-black; somewhat black, darkish; dire, very sad. 

Thus the idea that Eliwlad is 'grief-prince' fits the context of "The Dialogue of Arthur and the Eagle."  And we have similar personal names in early Welsh, like Efrddyl (afrddwl), 'sad, joyless, woeful', and Eiliwed, 'lamentation, sadness, grief.'

And so, if I abandon Eliwlad = Eilwlad, where to now?

Well, the only other apparent identification of Uther with Sawyl Benisel comes from the emendation of kawyl to sawyl in the "Marwnat Vthyr Pen."  But while Rodway thinks kawyl is best altered to sawyl solely through the probability of eye-skip versus a greater number of changes to allow for kanwyll, the context of the poem itself clearly shows a marked preference for kanwyll.  We would have a reference to the star in the poem, something used by Geoffrey of Monmouth as the dragon-head star of Uther (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/08/httpsmistshadows.html, https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/02/uthers-star-and-comet-of-442-ad.html). 

And this leaves me back where I started: no good pedigree for Arthur stemming from Uther Pendragon.

Unless, of course, I resort to what I'd long held to be true: that Arthur hailed from the Banna/Birdoswald Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall.  This theory, detailed in my THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY, had shown that the majority of important Arthurian sites were on the Wall or up and down Dere Street.  The problem with an Arthur hailing from the Sarmatian Ribchester of Sawyl Benisel is that I had to somehow account for why Arthur's theater of operations was centered much further north.  I could only guess that he had gone to serve militarily on the Wall, perhaps as a mercenary captain, and had then risen to power and eventually put himself in charge of the entire region.  But this was not an entirely satisfactory explanation.  Especially when we consider that both Banna and Camboglanna/Camlan were within the Irthing Valley of the Artenses, the 'People of the Bear.'  The name Arthur was from early on associated with the Welsh word for bear, 'arth.'

Uther Pendragon as the 'Terrible Pendragon', if belonging to Banna, would be a reference to the Dacian presence there, with their draco standard.  And I may even have been able to prove that Ceidio belonged there.  He was my earlier candidate for Arthur (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/01/ceidio-son-of-arthwys-and-powcady.html).  Ceidio is a hypocoristic form of a name which would have meant 'Battle-leader' and this could well represent a designation for Arthur that became the dux bellorum of Nennius.

While I would prefer a real name for Arthur's father and something more than the placement of him at Banna due to that fort's traditional use of the draco standard, I do have to take into account the fact that Arthur's death site (Castlesteads), burial site (Burgh By Sands) and even a possible Grail Castle prototype (Drumburgh) are all to be found on the western end of the Wall. Archaeology also supports the idea that someone powerful was ruling from there at the right time.  

My plan right now is to unpublish THE BATTLE-LEADER OF RIBCHESTER and to reinstate the earlier edition of THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY.  This last will stand as my final say on the historical Arthur question.  

I do apologize to my readers.  It is never my intention to mislead and, certainly, I do not want to be seen as 'wishy-washy.'  The problem with true research is that one is always finding out new things.  In addition, if one is properly applying the scientific method, that means experimentation.  And experimentation requires repetition.  I've never flinched from changing my mind when evidence and/or strong deductive argument demand that I do so.  And I have no plans to depart from such an approach.  Sometimes maintaining a high degree of intellectual honesty is a hard row to hoe.  Yet there is only one garden worth working that will help us harvest the truth.  

MYRDDIN, MARS CONDATIS AND ST. MARTIN: A CONFLUENCE OF GOD AND SAINT?

The Rivers Liddel and Esk at Willow Pool 

(https://www.trout-salmon-fishing.com/river-liddle-photos.htm)

We all know the story of how Myrddin was buried where the Powsail ('Willow Pool') meets the Tweed.  I have shown that this is a relocation for the Willow Pool at the confluence of the Esk and the Liddel, near the site of the Battle of Arderydd and the Caer Gwenddolau of Carwinley.  A tributary of the Liddel is called the Tweeden, with extant early forms that match that of the Tweed in Scottish Borders.

Given that Myrddin appears to have been replaced by St. Martin in the Liddesdale region, I happened to recall that St. Martin had died at Candes in Gaul, that is Condate, 'the confluence'.  In this case, the confluence of the Vienne and Loire.  

In Britain, we find a god named Mars Condatis or Mars 'of the confluence'.  Attestations are from Chester-le-Street, Bowes and Piercebridge, as well as Cramond.  

The Cramond inscription has puzzled scholars, as it does not occur at a river confluence:

"Condatis probably means ‘god of the confluence of waters’, and was perhaps entreated so that his power of healing might affect the waters in a certain region. Mars was suitable as a combinatory god, since he sometimes possessed a healing function. The majority of dedications are in County Durham, therefore Condatis is likely to have originally referred to the confluence of specific rivers. 23 But a dedication to the same god in Cramond, near Edinburgh, has shed new light on Mars Condatis. 24 There is no confluence of rivers in the region, at least not according to the modern geography, therefore it seems as though a soldier has once again taken his god with him when he was dispatched to the fort at Cramond. We might reasonably assume that he travelled from County Durham."

[https://www.academia.edu/6202611/An_assessment_of_the_evidence_for_the_cult_of_Mars_in_Roman_Britain]

But Cramond itself is from "Caer Almond", the fort on the river Almond (from *amb-ona-), and it lies where the river empties in the Firth of Forth.  So in all likelihood the 'watersmeet' in this case is meant to be the Almond and the Forth estuary? 

Mars Condatis sites with Esk-Liddel Confluence

Of course, as with most of the Romano-British gods, we know nothing about the cult of Mars Condatis. Rivers were often deities and it is possible Mars Condatis was a god whose function embraced the joining and mingling of twin divine rivers.  Confluences were often good fishing spots, but they could also be full of dangerous eddies and currents.  Although Mars often had non-martial aspects among the Celts, two rivers coming together can be envisioned as battling streams.  

Tradition does connect Myrddin with the pole of a fish weir.  This extract is from the entry on Myrddin in P.C. Bartram's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:

"Myrddin on a Pole 

There are some obscure references in Welsh poetry and prose to Myrddin ar Pawl, ‘Myrddin on a Pole’. There was a proverb: To talk as much as the son of seven locks [of hair], To talk as much as Myrddin on a Pole. (See Thomas Parry, Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym, p.538). The ‘pole’ seems to have been the pole of a weir although this may have been forgotten in some of the allusions. There are references in poetry to Myrddin's talking ‘on a pole’ and to his dying on the pole of a weir: More he says without ceasing ... than Myrddin ... son of seven locks. (Gwaith Dafydd ap Gwilym, p.347), and in Gwaith Lewys Môn, p.17: I am Myrddin ... dignified, who was in torment on the top of a pole. And again in Cwrtmawr MS.14 p.18: Myrddin when he went to his end on the Pole of the Weir, there was his destiny. The whole prophecy went with Scolan. In the dialogue between Myrddin(?) and Ysgolan in the Black Book of Carmarthen (BBC p.81) are the words: For a whole year I was placed in wattle on the pole of a weir. Eurys Rowlands considers that the references can only be reconciled by supposing that Myrddin lived in agony, transfixed on a pole for a period and died on it in the end. There is a clear connection here with the death of Lailoken, transfixed on a pole in a fishpond (see Llallogan). Also perhaps with the birth of Taliesin. See also s.n. Ysgolan. ‘Son of seven locks’ was presumably a surname of Myrddin referring to his wild appearance and dishevelled hair. See articles by Eurys Rowlands in Llên Cymru, IV.117-9, V.87-88, and by Thomas Jones in Llên Cymru, IV.179-180."

Could it be that Myrddin was offered as a sacrifice for a successful fish run?  "Atlantic salmon season in the UK usually lasts three or four weeks, from mid-October to mid-November, contingent upon autumn's first heavy rains (https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/salmon-run-an-upstream-battle-that-ends-in-life-and-death-9806329.html)." St. Martin died on November 8 at Candes.  His Western feast day is November 11 and his Eastern feast day November 12. 

November 8 is important here, as this was also one of the days on which the Romans held a solemn festival for the manes or spirits of the dead.  November 1, the old Samhain, was replaced by All-Hallow's Eve, our modern Halloween.  Taliesin's hide-covered basket (coracle?) came into the weir with the salmon on Samhain.  

From http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php?regexp=MANES&method=standard:

They [the manes] dwell below the earth, and only come forth at certain seasons of the year. On the Mons Palatinus at Rome, there was, as in other Italian towns, a deep pit with the shape of an inverted sky, known as mundus, the lowest part of which was consecrated to the infernal gods and also to the Manes, and was closed with a stone, lapis manalis, thought to be the gate of the nether world. This stone was lifted up three times a year (August 24th, October 5th, November 8th), and the Manes were then believed to rise to the upper world: on this account those days were religiosi, i.e. no serious matter might be undertaken on them. Sacrifices were offered to them as to the dead; water, wine, warin inilk, honey, oil, and the blood of black sheep, pigs, and oxen, were poured on the grave; ointments and incense were offered; and the grave was decked with flowers, roses and violets by preference. Oblations, which chiefly consisted of beans, eggs, lentils, bread and wine, were placed on the grave, and the mourners partook of a meal in its neighbourhood. Besides the private celebrations there was also a public and universal festival, the Parentalia, which lasted from the 13th to the 21st of February, the last month of the older Roman year; the last day had the special name Feralia. During these days all the temples were closed, marriages were prohibited, and the magistrates had to appear in public without the tokens of their office. The festival of the dead was followed by that of the relations on February 22nd, called Caristia. This was celebrated throughout the town by each individual family, the members of which exchanged presents and met at festal banquets.

If Myrddin had originally been Mars Condatis at the confluence of the Liddel and Esk and his sacrifice performed yearly was meant to ensure the salmon run, and that salmon run happened to correspond in date with the death of St. Martin at Condate on the day the door to the underworld was opened and the manes were released, then we might be able to account for both strands of the Welsh tradition.

NOTE: The name Martinus is a diminutive of Martius, 'of Mars', 'warlike, martial.' 

MYRDDIN LLALLAWG/LLALLOGAN, GWYLLON, ELLYLLON AND THE CHWYFLEIAN: THE LAND OF THE DEAD BEYOND HADRIAN'S WALL

A funeral inscription from Netherby, Cumbria, showing D.M. for 'Dis Manibus'

The "madness" of Myrddin is, in reality, a spectral state.  I've written at length about this elsewhere, so will not repeat what I've said before.  But I would like to briefly address the significance of divine spirits of the dead in the context of our exploration of Myrddin's nature and character.  

One of the most important early sources to mention the prevalence of the dead north of Hadrian's Wall is that of Procopius, HISTORY OF THE WARS 8.20.42-8:

"Now in this island of Britain the men of ancient times built a long wall, cutting off a large part of it; and the climate and the soil and everything else is not alike on the two sides of it.  For to the south of the wall there is a salubrious air, changing with the seasons, being moderately warm in summer and cool in winter. But on the north side everything is the reverse of this, so that it is actually impossible for a man to survive there even a half-hour, but countless snakes and serpents and every other kind of wild creature occupy this area as their own.  And, strangest of all, the inhabitants say that if a man crosses this wall and goes to the other side, he dies straightway. They say, then, that the souls of men who die are always conveyed to this place."

In isolation, this statement seems bizarre, even silly.  But if we look at the early Myrddin poetry (and the Suibhne Geilt material on the Irish side of things), it becomes evident that wild areas in Celtic belief were the home of ghostly 'wild men.' And the extensive forest of the Scottish Lowlands, the haunt of Myrddin, was just such a place.

We cannot know how much this belief was influenced by the Romans, who deified their own dead.  The common formula "D.M" on Roman tombstones is, perhaps, the best example of such a practice.  I asked Professor Roger Tomlin his thoughts on this and he was kind enough to provide me with the following response:

"I hope I am not over-simplifying it ... but DIS is an adjective, dative plural, contracted from DIVIS ('divine'), which of course is also the substantive DIVUS (a 'god', especially a deified emperoir). MANES (plural) are the spirits of the Dead, regarded as minor deities. So a tombstone is a dedication to 'the divine Dead' collectively, 'the Shades of the Dead'. If SACRVM is added, it refers to the tombstone, or at least to the act of dedication 'to' the Manes.

The god of the Underworld is DIS PATER, which I take to be 'Father' DIVUS contracted (or at least a cognate word). He is equated with Pluto, Hades, etc., but tombstones are not dedicated to him, but to the Divine Shades, the DI MANES.

Like us, the Romans found this difficult, since they are often unsure whether to follow D M with the deceased name's in the genitive, as if it were 'his' Manes, or in the dative, as if it were a dedication to him too."

Perhaps the most important part of Procopius' story is where he says the dead were conveyed to the region north of the Wall.  Conveyance implies a conveyor, and in Greek and Roman religions such a divinity was known as a psychopomp.  The Roman psychopomp was Mercury and it is Mercury who was identified with the god Lugus, the Welsh Lleu.  I and others have drawn strong parallels between Myrddin and the god Lleu.  At one time I was convinced Myrddin either was Lleu or a Lleu-avatar.

Below I have drawn the more important words connected with ghosts and wild men from the GPC.  My readers may wish to check the definitions for these words and draw their own conclusions as to how such words may have come to be applied to the spirits of the dead. 

I would also hasten to add that there may have been a god named Alletios at Corbridge on Hadrian's Wall.  His name derives from the same root as the Welsh words ellyll, llall and that of Myrddin's nickname Llallawg/Llallogan.  Here is what I have on Alletios, drawn from a couple of previous essays:

Dr. Graham Isaac, now with the National University of Ireland, Galway, commented as follows on this place-name:

"The form of the name Elleti is corroborated by the instance of 'palude [Latin for “marsh” or “swamp”] Elleti' in Book of Llan Dav (148). But since both that and HB’s campum Elleti are in Latin contexts, we cannot see whether the name is OW Elleti (= Elledi) or OW Ellet (= Elled) with a Latin genitive ending. Both are possible. My guess would be that OW Elleti is right. As the W suffix -i would motivate affection, so allowing the base to be posited as all-, the same as in W ar-all 'other', all-tud 'exile', Gaulish allo-, etc. Elleti would be 'other-place, place of the other side (of something)'."

If Isaac is right, we are fortunate in that Elleti may be found in the form of a personal name at the Corbridge Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall. A fragment of a large grey urn was found there bearing the name ‘ALLIITIO’ (Fascicule 8, RIB 2502.9; information courtesy Georgina Plowright, Curator, English Heritage Hadrian’s Wall Museums). This could be the potter’s name, perhaps a form of the nomen Alletius, or the name of the god portrayed on the fragment. J. Leach (in “The Smith God in Roman Britain”, Archaeologia Aeliana, 40, 1962, pp. 171-184) made a case for the god in question being a divine smith, primarily due to the presence on the urn fragment of what appears to be an anvil in relief, although there were also metal workings in the neighborhood of Corbridge. Anne Ross (in her Pagan Celtic Britain, p. 253) associates the name Allitio with the same all-, “other”, root Dr. Isaac linked to Elleti. She thinks Allitio may have been a warrior/smith-god and very tentatively offers “God of the Otherworld” for this theonym.

On the name ‘ALLIITIO’, Dr. Isaac agrees with Ross:

“Taking the double -ll- at face value, as I would be inclined to do as a working hypothesis,that would be connected the W all- that I have mentioned before.”

It may be worth noting that the ( ? ) divine name Allitio, again according to Dr. Isaac, can be associated with Myrddin's/Merlin's Welsh nickname, Llallogan or Llallawc.  This last derives from Proto-Celtic *alal( I )yo- 'another, other', cf. Old Irish arail, Middle Welsh arall (OW and MW), Middle Breton al( l )all, arall, Cornish arall.  This is a reduplicated, intensive variant of Proto-Celtic *al( I )yo- 'other', cf. Old Irish aile [io], Middle Welsh eil, all-, Middle Breton eil, Cornish yl, Gaulish Allo-broges, allos, Proto-Indo-European *h2elyo- 'other', Latin alius, Go. aljis.  Celtic-Iberian ailam, which has been interpreted as the Acc. of this pronoun, has also been taken to mean something like 'place, abode'.

Treating more fully of ‘ALLIITIO’ in a private communication, Georgina Plowright, Curator, English Heritage Hadrian’s Wall Museums, says that the name

“…occurs twice on one piece of pottery showing feet and a base. This is always assumed to be the base of an anvil, with the feet being those of a smith god. There are a number of sherds of grey pottery from Corbridge with very distinctive applied decoration, with two recognisable themes, the smith god shown with hammer and anvil, and a wheel god who is shown with wheel and club. The fact that the wheel god is depicted by a mould suggests that this type of pottery was being made at Corbridge, though it appears on a number of other sites. The reading occurs twice on this piece of pottery, once in the frame created by the anvil base, and then on the pot below the feet of the standing figure.  Another sherd showing the smith god does not have any inscription.  John Dore and Stephen Johnson, who did the captions for the Corbridge gallery, have assumed that the name might be that of a potter, though RIB seems to go for either god or potter.  I haven’t got a copy of the Leach reference easily to hand, but my memory tells me the item should be illustrated there.”

For an online article that mentions the 'Allitio' found at Corbridge, please see:

http://romanpotterystudy.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/JRPS-2-Webster-2-28.pdf

***

Relevant terms drawn from the GPC:

gwyllt, gwyll3 

[H. Grn. asen guill, gl. onager, Crn. gwyls, gwylls, H. Lyd. gueld-enes, gl. insula indomita et inhabitabilis, H. Wydd. geilt (bnth. efallai o’r Frth.; cf. yr epithed yn e.’r ddau gymeriad Myrddin Wyllt a Suibhne geilt): < *u̯eltī, sef ff. yn cynnwys estyniad -t- ar y gwr. IE. *əl- ‘troi, cordeddu’ neu *u̯el- ‘tynnu, plicio’, cf. Alm. wild, S. wild; am y ff. gwyll, cf. gwell am gwellt (er mai mater o org. ydyw weithiau)]

frantic, raving, demented, distracted, mad (as in the name Myrddin Wyllt)
 b  (yn y ff. l. gwyll(i)on) Rhai sy’n wyllt, cyflym, &c. (e.e. meirch ysbrydol neu nwyfus, milwyr sy’n ymladd fel pe baent wallgof), gwallgofiaid; pobl ddidoriad, rhai heb eu gwastrodi; ysbrydion, bwganod:

wild ones (e.g. spirited horses, warriors fighting as if mad), madmen; turbulent or unruly people; sprites. 

gwyllon, gwyllion 

[camystyr a roes John Davies i enghrau. o ff. l. gwyllt, gwyll3 drwy eu cysylltu â gwyll1]

e.ll.

Ysbrydion y meirw, cysgodion, drychiolaethau, bwbachod; rhodienwyr neu ladron nos, gwylliaid:

manes, the spirits of the dead, shades, ghosts, sprites, hobgoblins; night-prowlers, night-thieves, vagabonds. 

1632 D, *gwyllon, tenebriones, manes.

1688 TJ, gwŷll, gwâg ysprŷd: a Hag, Goblin or Ghost.

id., gwŷllon, gwâg ysprydion: walking Spirits, Goblins.

1753 TR, †gwyllon, spirits, ghosts, hobgoblins; night-walkers, night-thieves.

c. 1753 Gron 97, Ewch … / At wyllon y tywyllwg, / I oddef fyth ei ddu fwg.

1773 W d.g. ghosts of the dead, manes.

1793 Dafydd Ionawr: CD 196, Y Ddaear sydd yn ddiau / Ym mron gan y Gwyllon gau.

1800 P, gwyllion, shades, ghosts; hobgoblins; night-walkers.

id., gwyllon, shades, phantoms; ghosts.

Gw. hefyd gwyllt, ŵyll.

ellyll 

[?all (yr elf. a welir yn arall)+-yll neu hyll, ond cf. yr e.p. Gwydd. Ailill < Aillill]

• eg. (un. bach. ellyllyn) ll. ellyllon, ellyllion, ellyllod, ellyllau.

a  Coblyn, un o’r tylwyth teg, drychiolaeth, lledrith, ysbryd, aneilun, bwbach, bwci; ysbryd drwg, anysbryd, Beibl. math o ddiafol yn trigo mewn adfeilion, ysbryd dewiniaeth; un dieflig o greulon:

goblin, elf, fairy, sprite, genius (of a place, &c.), apparition, phantom, spectre, wraith, ghost, shade, bogey; evil spirit, fiend, devil, demon, bibl. a kind of demon that haunts ruins, satyr, familiar spirit

llall [from which Llallawg and Llallogan are derived]

[tebyg fod y llall yn ff. ddbl. ar all-, cf. arall, H. Lyd. al(l)all, a’r H. Wydd. alaill, ff. ddiryw ar alaile ‘y llall’]

rh. ll. lleill, a’i ragflaenu gan y fan.

a  (Yr) un arall (rhai eraill, gweddill, rhelyw); (y) nesaf, (yr) ail, (yr) un cyfatebol:

(the) other (others, rest); (the) next, (the) second

*chwyfleian, chwimleian, chwimbleian, chwibleian

[chwŷf+lleian ‘un llwyd ei wedd’ (llai ‘gwelw, llwyd’); hen org. am chwyfleian yw chwimleian, chwibleian oherwydd sgrifennu m a b am f. Oherwydd camddeall yr elf. olaf, aeth y gair i olygu ‘daroganwraig’, &c.]

eg.b. ll. -od.

a  Gŵr gwyllt gwelw ei wedd, crwydryn:

wild man of pallid countenance, wanderer. 

13g. C 519-10, disgogan hwimleian hwetil adiwit.

id. 557-8, Rimdyuueid huimleian chuetyl enryuet.

c. 1400 R 5809-10, Wi awendyd wenn mawr adrasdil gogan chwipleian chwedleu.

MYRDDIN OF THE STAGS AND THE CARVETII GOD BELATUCADRUS

Horned head found near the shrine of Belatucadros at Netherby, Cumbria 

(Tullie House museum, Carlisle)

Mayburgh Henge

Mayburgh Henge and Related Henges

Up to the present date, my emphasis when doing Myrddin (Merlin) research has been to approach the problem of his identity from two directions.  First, the early Welsh sources strongly suggest that his "madness" is actually a strange, spectral state following death at the Battle of Arderydd.  But second, there appears to have been an effort in the extant tradition to also relate him to a deity.  This deity is most commonly thought to be Lleu.

In this brief piece I would like to consider another possibility for Myrddin.  

Geoffrey of Monmouth's VITA MERLINI, which tells the story of the Northern figure prior to the same author's ridiculous though ingenious identification of Myrddin with Ambrosius, has the following interesting episode:

"Merlin had entered the forest and was living an animal life, existing on frozen moss in the snow, in the rain, in the angry blast. Yet that satisfied him more than administering the law in cities and ruling over a warrior people. Meanwhile, as the years were slipping past and her husband was still leading this sort of life among his woodland flock, Guendoloena became legally promised in marriage. It was night, and the horned moon was shining brightly; all the lights of the vault of heaven were glittering. The air had an extra clarity, for a bitterly cold north wind had blown away the clouds, absorbed the mists on its drying breath and left the sky serene again. The prophet was watching the stars in their courses from a high hill.

He was out in the open, talking to himself and saying: "What means this ray from Mars? Does its new ruddy glow mean a king dead and another king to be? I see it so. Constantine has died and by an evil chance his nephew Conan has seized the crown through the murder of an uncle and is king. Highest Venus, you sail along within your prescribed bounds in company with the sun in his path beneath the zodiac: what now of your twin ray cutting through the ether? Does its division foretell the parting of my love? Such is the ray that speaks of love divided. Perhaps Guendoloena has abandoned me, now that I am away. Perhaps she is happy in the close embrace of another man. So I lose, another wins her. My rights are taken from me while I linger here. Indeed, a laggard lover loses to the lover who is not a laggard nor absent but near and urgent. Yet I bear no grudge. She may marry now the time is right, and with my permission enjoy a new husband. When tomorrow dawns, I will go and take with me the present I promised her when I left."

So saying, he set off round all the woods and clearings, and organized a herd of stags into a single line; so, too, with does and with she-goats. He seated himself on a stag, and at the coming of the day he set off, driving his lines before him. So he came with speed to the place of Guendoloena's wedding. Arriving there, he made the stags stand quietly outside the gates, then shouted, "Guendoloena, Guendoloena, come out! What presents are looking for you!" Guendoloena came quickly, all smiles, and was astonished to see a man riding a stag and it obeying him, astonished that so many animals of the wild could be brought together and that he alone was driving them before him like a shepherd accustomed to taking his sheep to pasture.

The bridegroom was standing at a high window, looking in amazement at the rider on his seat; and he broke into a laugh. When the prophet saw him and realised who he was, he promptly wrenched off the horns of the stag he rode. He whirled the horns round and threw them at the bridegroom. He crushed the bridegroom's head right in, knocking him lifeless, and drove his spirit to the winds. In a moment the prophet dug his heels into his stag and set it flying and was on his way back to the woods. The incident brought out retainers from every corner, and they followed the bard in hot pursuit across country. But he went at such a pace that he would have reached the forest unscathed had it not been for a river in his path. While his beast was bounding across the torrent, Merlin slipped and fell into the fast current."

[Basil Clarke translation; https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/merlini.html]

Guendoloena is merely a feminine form of Gwenddolau, Myrddin's lord in the Welsh texts, who perished at Arderydd.  We may assume, therefore, that she belongs at or in the vicinity of Carwinley, Cumbria. 

To the best of our knowledge (see THE CARVETII by Nicholas Higham and Barri Jones, p. 12-13) the northern boundary of the Roman period Carvetii kingdom extended to the Solway Mosses:

"... most commentators suggest that the extent of the Brigantes, and therefore the Carvetii probably spread beyond the eventual line of Hadrian's Wall.  This is probably correct; the extent of the northern mosses around the Rivers Esk and Lyne is impressive enough even today after extensive agricultural reclamation, but further to the northwest, despite the presence of Lochars Moss, good quality, well-drained land comes close to the Solway at the southern end of Annandale. Settlement has now been located in this area on an extensive scale, and it is at least arguable that, with the Solway fordable at certain points as far west as Bowness and beyond, these sites were part of the northern fringe of the Carvetii."

Carvetii Kingdom (Map from Sheppard Frere's BRITANNIA: A HISTORY OF ROMAN BRITAIN)

I would only add that Carvetii land could not have extended beyond Annandale, as we know the Anavionenses lived there.  I have demonstrated (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-nucleus-of-uriens-kingdom-of-rheged.html) that Annandale was the nucleus of the later kingdom of Rheged.  The Selgovae most likely lived north of Liddesdale. But Arthuret (= Arderydd) and Carwinley (= Caer Gwenddolau) are within the northern part of the suspected Carvetti range.  

The Carvetii were the 'people of the Stag' (cf. W. carw, 'stag').  Their chief deity was Belatucadrus, whose cult center was at Brougham in Cumbria with its nearby triple henges (two of which are named King Arthur Round Tables).  I discussed this horned god in detail in my book THE SECRETS OF AVALON (https://secretsavalon.blogspot.com/2016/08/gods-and-goddesses-mentioned-in.html).  An altar to Belatucadros was found at the Netherby Roman fort (https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/970). 

For now, I need only repeat what I had to say about the stag-god's name:

"The name Belatucadros itself has been rendered incorrectly in several recent texts on Celtic gods.  One of the most common etymologies offered would have the name mean ‘Fair Shining One’, the components Belatu- and cadros both being derived from words that mean bright, shining and the like.  This is scarcely creditable.

A more likely derivation would connect Belatu- with early Welsh bel-.  According to Dr. Graham Isaac of The National University of Ireland, Galway, bel-

“… is not ‘death’ in a passive sense (the death which happens), but ‘death’ in an active sense (the death which someone brings, i.e. killing).  The verb means ‘smites, strikes, kills’ and reflects the Proto-Indo-European root *gwelh1 –‘stab, smite; throw’, which also turns up in Old Irish at-baill ‘dies’, from an earlier meaning ‘he throws it’ referring to the casting off of life, or ‘he struck it’.  From Proto-Indo-European *gwelh1- we get the nominal formation *gwelh1-tu > Gaul. Belatu-,‘smiting, killing’.”

On –cadros, Dr. Isaac is also equally clear:

“… cadro- is the cognate of Old Breton cadr, Middle Breton kazr, Modern Breton kaer, “fair, beautiful”, and is derived from *cadro- < Proto-Indo-European k^d-ro- < *k^ed-, *k^d- ‘to shine, to excel’ (Pokorny 516-7).  The Welsh word cadr ‘mighty, fair’ with which it is sometimes compared is properly distinct, and reflects *kat-ro-, with the same root as cad, ‘battle’, etc.  There may have been some mixing of meanings between *kadro- and *katro- in Welsh, but that there were two originally distinct words should be beyond question (see Jackson LHEB 430-1)… In Old Welsh, the name Belatucadros would have been *Belatcair, and in Middle Welsh *Belatcaer or Belatkaer.”

I had also found a reference in Georges Dottin’s “La langue gauloise’, Paris, 1920, to cadros defined as ‘god, vakker’, “good, beautiful/handsome”.  When I asked Dr. Isaac about this, he replied:

“The meaning ‘good’ is quite within the possible range of *kadro-.”

All this being so, the full meaning of Belatucadros is ‘striker/smiter/killer - [who is] fair/beautiful/handsome/shining/good."

Let us examine this etymology for Belatucadros in the context of the story of Merlin and the stags.  I long ago theorized that the stag army led by Merlin was symbolic of the Carvetii.  In other words, he didn't lead deer against Guendoloena's husband, but deer-warriors.  

And then there is the method employed to kill his rival.  In THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON I have this on the significance of a stag's horns:

"... a stag’s weapon is his antlers, which he uses to strike other stags during the rut, or which the animal can use defensively against predators.  When rutting stags come together, it was seen as a metaphor for battle between two armed warriors.  The resounding crash of opposing antlers coming into violent contact with each other may have been likened to the heavenly thunder that issued from the lightning strike."

On rare occasions, red stags have been known to kill each other with their antlers.  Antlers may also become locked and if the animals cannot disengage from one other, death may eventually follow.

Merlin's act of striking his rival with antlers may be a literary representation of the 'Fair Striker' Belatucadros.

It is true that the Roman period capital of the Carvetii was Carlisle, ancient Luguvalium, the fort that was 'Lleu-strong.' So it is undeniable that the god Lleu was present there.  Mabon seems to have been identified in Welsh tradition with Lleu and the former's cult center was just a little northwest of Carlisle.  Yet we have no evidence that Lleu or Mabon were associated with stags.  

Myrddin's mountain of Aber Craf or Abercarf in Scotland may also have been named for stags.  From one of my earlier essays on the subject:

"I would identify the mountain in Aber Caraf with Tinto Hill (2320 feet / 707 meters), which looms over ancient Abercarf, now called Wiston.  Abercarf, according to the Scottish Place-Name Society’s “Brittonic Language in the North”, is from aber, ‘confluence’, plus garw, ‘rough’, derived from the name of the Garf Water, a tributary of the upper Clyde.

However, when I asked Alan James, the author of BLITON, as to the possibility that Abercarf could instead contain carw, 'stag', he responded:

"Quite right. As to the merits of the two interpretations, I'm agnostic. The phonology of either wouldn't be difficult to explain. Garw and Gaelic garbh are of course pretty common in river-names, and I'm rather less eager than some place-name scholars to see animals, e.g. carw, in such names, but there certainly are parallels."

Just a few kilometers upstream on the Clyde from the Garf Water is Hartside and Hartside Burn.  Red Deer were once plentiful here."

Tinto from Dungavel Hill

Sunlight falls on the southern slopes of Tinto, on the other side of the Garf Water valley.

(Courtesy Geograph.org.uk)

One of the main arguments for Myrddin as Lleu or a Lleu avatar is his triple (sacrificial) death.  This is usually likened to that meted out to the god Lleu in "Math son of Mathonwy" of the MABINOGION.  But note in the VITA MERLINI selection I quoted above the reference to Merlin falling into the stream from the back of a stag.  Geoffrey tells the story of the triple death of another person in his account.  We only find that death connected to Merlin in the St. Kentigern fragment.  In the VITA MERLINI a boy is pursuing a stag on horseback when his mount carries him over a cliff and into the river.

A couple of these statements do need to be qualified. In "Math son of Mathonwy", Lleu's rival for Blodeuwedd - Goronwy - hunts and kills a stag just before he takes up with Lleu's wife.  And Lleu is killed while standing with one foot on the back of a goat.  In Geoffrey's VITA MERLINI, wild goats are among the stags and hinds of Merlin's army. This is presumably because goats, like deer, are hooved animals.  

So what do we make of all this? It is reasonable, based primarily on the very shaky testimony of Geoffrey of Monmouth, to propose that Myrddin might be a manifestation or incarnation of the Carvetii god Belatucadros and not someone we should associate with Lleu?

I would bring up one additional, possibly relevant matter. TRIAD 64 on 'the three bull-specters' of the Island of Britain, has a variant, tri charv ellyll, 'three stag-specters.' Bromwich and others have discussed what ellyll might mean in this context.  According to the GPC, ellyll (a word related to the Llallawg/Llallogan used for Myrddin) means - 

goblin, elf, fairy, sprite, genius (of a place, &c.), apparition, phantom, spectre, wraith, ghost, shade, bogey; evil spirit, fiend, devil, demon, bibl. a kind of demon that haunts ruins, satyr, familiar spirit

The Errith and Gurrith of the Myrddin poetry mean, respectfully, 'specter, ghost, apparition (cognate with Irish arracht) and 'man-specter/ghost/apparition'. This last matches the meaning of the name Myrddin according to Dr. Graham Isaac of The National University of Ireland, Galway - *Moro-donyos or "Specter-man".

What little we can tell from these references is that to be a 'stag-specter' might indicate a state of being one assumes when in battle.  We might compare the Norse sacred warrior castes of berserkers and ulfhednars.  One became "wild" in battle (Bromwich discusses W. gwyllt in this context) and evinced a 'stag-like' spirit. If so, then we could assume that upon death the stag-specter continued to exist, haunting the forest like a real, living deer.

My thinking, then, runs as follows: if Myrddin were a Carvetii warrior-chieftain, a man who in battle displayed his 'stag-spirit' in honor of his stag god, Belatucadros, then in death he would naturally take the form of a ghostly deer in the forest.  I've written before about Myrddin being pursued by the hunting hounds of Rhydderch of Strathclyde.  These hounds appear to be symbolic of St. Kentigern, whose name means 'hound-lord.'  Gwasawg, the supporter of Rhydderch, a diminutive of W. gwas, 'servant', is also for Kentigern, whom Jocelyn calls servuli. Myrddin has a magical apple tree where he may hide from Rhydderch. The idea seems to be that the Christian saint is literally pursuing a pagan entity, his goal being the extirpation of all remnants of the old religion.  One of the Kentigern fragments actually has the saint administer holy communion to Myrddin (as Lailocen).

To summarize: Myrddin appears to be the spirit of a man who was a devotee of a pagan god.  His spirit partook of the nature of that god and may have been a sort of extension of that god.  When one brings forth his stag-spirit, he is materializing the divine.  After death of the body, the stag-spirit either becomes one with the stag-god or remains in a sort of middle world (the forest) between the worlds of the living and the divine sphere.  Probably such spirits were thought to cross back and forth through the threshold of this world and the Otherworld.  

The triple sacrifice must be seen in this light.  The Norse Odin is a good example.  He boasts of having won supernatural wisdom through his own self-sacrifice through hanging and stabbing.  Thus when men when sacrificed in this way, they symbolically became Odin.  This is a difficult concept for us to comprehend.  

I have shown that the bathtub and goat Lleu stands upon when he is killed represent Aquarius the Water-bearer and Capricorn.  This provides us with a precise date for his sacrificial killing (dependent, of course, on how far back the motif can be traced). Can we tell when Myrddin was sacrificed?  And why and where?

The where is easy.  The Tweed and Powsail Burn are relocations for the Tweed/Tweeden tributary of the Liddel and the Willow Pool at the confluence of the Liddel and Esk.  Thus whether he perished in the Battle of Arderydd or a sacrificial ritual, it happened near the Carwinley of Gwenddolau.  I've hypothesized that any sacrifice carried out might have been an offering meant to ensure victory in battle.  That elaborate triple sacrifice was engaged in for this reason is proposed by Ross and Robins in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A DRUID PRINCE.  We could hazard a guess that he was ritually killed on the eve of Arderydd, dedicated to Belatucadros in this fashion so that the Christian enemy might be defeated.

NOTES:  Belatucadros was identified by the Romans with their god Mars.  I have written before about St. Martin replacing Myrddin in the Liddesdale region.  While this substitution could in part be due to the Myrddin name's superficial resemblance to that of Martinus, it is also possible that Mars Belatucadros may have contributed to the development from a pagan entity to a Christian saint. I will discuss yet another reason why Myrddin was associated with St. Martin in a future blog post. 

The name Belatucadros may have been known elsewhere in the Celtic world.  The following selection is from John Koch's CELTIC CULTURE: A HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA:

"In Altino, on the north-eastern side of the Venetian

lagoon, some warrior graves have been uncovered

containing material similar to that of Celtic-speaking

areas. This linguistic identification was confirmed by

the discovery of two inscriptions. One of these uses

Venetic script, though it is linguistically Lepontic, i.e.

Cisalpine Celtic, and dates from the end of the 5th or

the first half of the 4th century bc. The other contains

the name Kadriako (probably as the second element of

a compound Belatukadriako), immediately comparable

with the Gaulish and British divine name Belatu-cadros,

cf. perhaps Welsh cadr ‘fine, lovely’. Gallo-Brittonic

Belatucadros was sometimes equated with the Celtic

Mars (see interpretatio romana)."