The Rock of Clyde
I never thought I would again question the derivation of Arthur from Roman/Latin Artorius, but here goes... Perhaps Arthur, if itself from Artorius, is a decknamen for something else?
Years ago, when I first took a look at Coroticus "regis Aloo/regem Aloo", "King of the Rock [of Clyde]", viz. Alclud, Petra Cluith, as a possible ancestor of Arthur, I discovered something strange about the name Arthur itself as found in the early sources.
First, I noticed that the Arthur of Dyfed had as his father one Petr/Pedr, from the Latin word for stone or rock.
I then found it curious that Arthur son of Bicoir the Britain (Bicoir may well be an attempt at Petuir, one of the variants of Pedr, and not the Beccurus found on a stone in NW Wales) is said to have killed the Irish king Mongan with a stone.
Now, on the one hand, this could be nothing more than a pun on Pedr's name. Perhaps it had nothing whatsoever to do with Arthur. Or it could represent a fanciful interpretation of the first part of his name.
Yet if Coroticus as the credulisque tyrannus is Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur, we might wonder about the reference.
There is a rare word in Celtic, whose origin is not well understood. It is not found in Welsh or Cumbric, but is in Irish. Here are the various listings for the word from respectable Celtic word lists and dictionaries:
2 art
Cite this: eDIL s.v. 2 art or dil.ie/4322
Forms: a.
n expld. in glossaries as stone: a.¤ .i. cloch nō leac ligi cuius diminutiu[um] artēne .i. cloichēne, Corm. Y 26 . a.¤ .i. aill, Ält. Ir. Dicht. ii 27 § 1 (reading of BB). fúigfe an lása é 'na Art / acht grása Dé 's a dhaonnacht (pun on the name Art), L. Cl. A. B. 243.11 . a.¤ solid, strong, stout, a stone . Also dim. airtine pebble , P. O'C. Note also compds. artchaireal or artchailéar a quarry or stone pit . artghaineam stony sand, coarse gravel , P. O'C. Note also (perh. merely an inference from anart): crúaid `a.¤' a ṡenainm go fír is `anart' ainm do mhaoithmhín, Metr. Gl. 15 § 34 . a.¤ ┐ anart cruaid ┐ maoth, O'Mulc. 56 .
stone *arto-, SEMANTIC CLASS: nature, Gaulish Arto-briga ‘stone-fort (?; or ‘bear-’)’, Early Irish art ‘stone’
*arto- stone
*arto- 'stone' [Noun]
GOlD: Mlr. art
GAUL: artuass 'stones' (Todi)
ETYM: This is a rather weak etymology, since the Mlr. word is known only
from glossaries (its gender and stem formation are unknown), and the
meaning of the Gaulish noun is not ascertained (cf. Lambert 1994: 74).
REF: LEIA A-91.
Noted place-name expert Alan James has written to me about art, ‘stone’, in Irish:
"Looking at the DIL entry, it does seem to occur in compounds that have to do with stones, and I don't see why the glossary entries should be mistakes. It has been proposed by De Bernado Stempel in the Hispanic ethnonym Artabri, and Art- does of course occur in personal names other than Artur, ones where there's no particular reason to see bears. So I wouldn't rule it out. However, there doesn't seem to be any evidence for it remaining current in Brittonic, if anyone saw a stony connection, they'd more probably have been Irish.”
Professor Peter Schrijver had told me this concerning *arto-:
"The problem with art is that it seems to be attested only in glossaries and that it may be a spelling for ard 'high', also 'high place', in which case it could be a specialized meaning of the latter ('rock' > 'stone'). Not very reliable, therefore."
Still, as I’ve pointed out before, the only royal houses to name sons after the earlier British Arthur were those of Dyfed and Dalriada – both of Irish foundation. So the Irish may well have interpreted Arthur as containing their own word for stone, especially if he was from Alclud.
For this reason I don’t think we need ask whether an original *Arto-rix or *Arto-rigos, ‘Stone-king’, came to be replaced by Latin Artorius. In other words, that Arthur from Artorius was a decknamen for the Stone-king name.
I would raise one last point in favor of Arthur being seen by the Irish as Stone-king. Geoffrey of Monmouth (who utilizied many Irish-derived traditions in his pseudo-history) claims that Arthur's mother's name was Igerna. Welsh scholars insist that Eigr is the earlier form of the name, yet Eigr is not found in any Welsh source prior to the HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN. I've recently decided to favor Geoffrey's form because of the presence at Gorlois' fort of Dimilioc or Domellick of Carne. This is simply the Cornish word for a rock or a rock outcrop. Front it with a Welsh 'Y-", the definite article, and you have Igraine, Igerna, Ygerne, Ygraine. In Welsh, carn often appears as garn. There are many Y Garns in Wales. We also find carn or carne appearing in Cornish as cerne or kerne.
St. Denys Parish Church stands at the top of Carne Hill on the site of the Iron Age hill fort. There was another St. Denys chapel at Tintagel, where Gorlois moved Igerna for safekeeping when he fought Uther Pendragon.
If Arthur actually belongs in birth not in southern Dumnonia at Tintagel, but at the Rock of Clyde in northern Dumnonia, then it would be remarkable indeed if his mother's name was thought to mean 'rock' or 'rock heap.'
On the river-name Clyde, Rivet and Smith (THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN) have this:
"Original British *Clouta, according to Watson CPNS 44 and 71; the root is *clou- 'to wash', cognate with Latin cluo, cluere 'wash, purify' and cloaca 'sewer'. Related names include an Italian river Cluentus and Gaulish river Clutoida, and Hispano-Latin personal names Clouta, Cloutius, etc. According to the Life of Gildas (quoted by Holder I. 189) the saint was a native of the Arecluta region, that 'before the Clyde'. Original British ou passed to o in the late first century A.D., when the name was first set down in the Latin tradition, then to u by the end of the third century; the Welsh name for the river is clut, the older Gaelic (from British) Cluad and the modem Cluaidh. Watson thinks that 'Like many other river-names, clota is really the name of the river-goddess, "the washer, the strongly-flowing one", or such'; this seems a necessary proposition particularly in view of the personal names, doubtless derived from the divine name rather than based directly on any root meaning 'to wash'."
We do have to bear in mind, however, that the story of Uther and Ygerna at Tintagel may have a different origin. Geoffrey of Monmouth may have employed the Life of St. Carannog, extracting Uther from that vita’s terrible dragon, Ygerna from Carrum/Carrov and Tintagel from Guellit. For my discussion of this possibility, see
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/04/tintagel-and-ygerna-guellit-and-carrum.html.
CONCLUSION
My research indicates that Arthur's father Uther Pendragon is the crudelisque tyrannus Ceredig of Alclud. The descriptor was used so that the morally objectionable character of Ceredig could be avoided and he could be recast in a more favorable mould. The magical qualities of Uther can be found in Geoffrey's interpretation of the elegy and in Ceredig's transformation into a fox. The fox is present in the name Madog, used for a son of Uther. As far as Arthur is concerned, a hero from ancient Dumnonia in the North meets all the necessary criteria. We can account for his later presence in southern Dumnonia and even in Domnonee, Brittany. We can explain why Aedan of Dalriada named a son after him. Etc.
Years ago, when I first took a look at Coroticus "regis Aloo/regem Aloo", "King of the Rock [of Clyde]", viz. Alclud, Petra Cluith, as a possible ancestor of Arthur, I discovered something strange about the name Arthur itself as found in the early sources.
First, I noticed that the Arthur of Dyfed had as his father one Petr/Pedr, from the Latin word for stone or rock.
I then found it curious that Arthur son of Bicoir the Britain (Bicoir may well be an attempt at Petuir, one of the variants of Pedr, and not the Beccurus found on a stone in NW Wales) is said to have killed the Irish king Mongan with a stone.
Now, on the one hand, this could be nothing more than a pun on Pedr's name. Perhaps it had nothing whatsoever to do with Arthur. Or it could represent a fanciful interpretation of the first part of his name.
Yet if Coroticus as the credulisque tyrannus is Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur, we might wonder about the reference.
There is a rare word in Celtic, whose origin is not well understood. It is not found in Welsh or Cumbric, but is in Irish. Here are the various listings for the word from respectable Celtic word lists and dictionaries:
2 art
Cite this: eDIL s.v. 2 art or dil.ie/4322
Forms: a.
n expld. in glossaries as stone: a.¤ .i. cloch nō leac ligi cuius diminutiu[um] artēne .i. cloichēne, Corm. Y 26 . a.¤ .i. aill, Ält. Ir. Dicht. ii 27 § 1 (reading of BB). fúigfe an lása é 'na Art / acht grása Dé 's a dhaonnacht (pun on the name Art), L. Cl. A. B. 243.11 . a.¤ solid, strong, stout, a stone . Also dim. airtine pebble , P. O'C. Note also compds. artchaireal or artchailéar a quarry or stone pit . artghaineam stony sand, coarse gravel , P. O'C. Note also (perh. merely an inference from anart): crúaid `a.¤' a ṡenainm go fír is `anart' ainm do mhaoithmhín, Metr. Gl. 15 § 34 . a.¤ ┐ anart cruaid ┐ maoth, O'Mulc. 56 .
stone *arto-, SEMANTIC CLASS: nature, Gaulish Arto-briga ‘stone-fort (?; or ‘bear-’)’, Early Irish art ‘stone’
*arto- stone
*arto- 'stone' [Noun]
GOlD: Mlr. art
GAUL: artuass 'stones' (Todi)
ETYM: This is a rather weak etymology, since the Mlr. word is known only
from glossaries (its gender and stem formation are unknown), and the
meaning of the Gaulish noun is not ascertained (cf. Lambert 1994: 74).
REF: LEIA A-91.
Noted place-name expert Alan James has written to me about art, ‘stone’, in Irish:
"Looking at the DIL entry, it does seem to occur in compounds that have to do with stones, and I don't see why the glossary entries should be mistakes. It has been proposed by De Bernado Stempel in the Hispanic ethnonym Artabri, and Art- does of course occur in personal names other than Artur, ones where there's no particular reason to see bears. So I wouldn't rule it out. However, there doesn't seem to be any evidence for it remaining current in Brittonic, if anyone saw a stony connection, they'd more probably have been Irish.”
Professor Peter Schrijver had told me this concerning *arto-:
"The problem with art is that it seems to be attested only in glossaries and that it may be a spelling for ard 'high', also 'high place', in which case it could be a specialized meaning of the latter ('rock' > 'stone'). Not very reliable, therefore."
Still, as I’ve pointed out before, the only royal houses to name sons after the earlier British Arthur were those of Dyfed and Dalriada – both of Irish foundation. So the Irish may well have interpreted Arthur as containing their own word for stone, especially if he was from Alclud.
For this reason I don’t think we need ask whether an original *Arto-rix or *Arto-rigos, ‘Stone-king’, came to be replaced by Latin Artorius. In other words, that Arthur from Artorius was a decknamen for the Stone-king name.
I would raise one last point in favor of Arthur being seen by the Irish as Stone-king. Geoffrey of Monmouth (who utilizied many Irish-derived traditions in his pseudo-history) claims that Arthur's mother's name was Igerna. Welsh scholars insist that Eigr is the earlier form of the name, yet Eigr is not found in any Welsh source prior to the HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN. I've recently decided to favor Geoffrey's form because of the presence at Gorlois' fort of Dimilioc or Domellick of Carne. This is simply the Cornish word for a rock or a rock outcrop. Front it with a Welsh 'Y-", the definite article, and you have Igraine, Igerna, Ygerne, Ygraine. In Welsh, carn often appears as garn. There are many Y Garns in Wales. We also find carn or carne appearing in Cornish as cerne or kerne.
St. Denys Parish Church stands at the top of Carne Hill on the site of the Iron Age hill fort. There was another St. Denys chapel at Tintagel, where Gorlois moved Igerna for safekeeping when he fought Uther Pendragon.
If Arthur actually belongs in birth not in southern Dumnonia at Tintagel, but at the Rock of Clyde in northern Dumnonia, then it would be remarkable indeed if his mother's name was thought to mean 'rock' or 'rock heap.'
On the river-name Clyde, Rivet and Smith (THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN) have this:
"Original British *Clouta, according to Watson CPNS 44 and 71; the root is *clou- 'to wash', cognate with Latin cluo, cluere 'wash, purify' and cloaca 'sewer'. Related names include an Italian river Cluentus and Gaulish river Clutoida, and Hispano-Latin personal names Clouta, Cloutius, etc. According to the Life of Gildas (quoted by Holder I. 189) the saint was a native of the Arecluta region, that 'before the Clyde'. Original British ou passed to o in the late first century A.D., when the name was first set down in the Latin tradition, then to u by the end of the third century; the Welsh name for the river is clut, the older Gaelic (from British) Cluad and the modem Cluaidh. Watson thinks that 'Like many other river-names, clota is really the name of the river-goddess, "the washer, the strongly-flowing one", or such'; this seems a necessary proposition particularly in view of the personal names, doubtless derived from the divine name rather than based directly on any root meaning 'to wash'."
We do have to bear in mind, however, that the story of Uther and Ygerna at Tintagel may have a different origin. Geoffrey of Monmouth may have employed the Life of St. Carannog, extracting Uther from that vita’s terrible dragon, Ygerna from Carrum/Carrov and Tintagel from Guellit. For my discussion of this possibility, see
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/04/tintagel-and-ygerna-guellit-and-carrum.html.
CONCLUSION
My research indicates that Arthur's father Uther Pendragon is the crudelisque tyrannus Ceredig of Alclud. The descriptor was used so that the morally objectionable character of Ceredig could be avoided and he could be recast in a more favorable mould. The magical qualities of Uther can be found in Geoffrey's interpretation of the elegy and in Ceredig's transformation into a fox. The fox is present in the name Madog, used for a son of Uther. As far as Arthur is concerned, a hero from ancient Dumnonia in the North meets all the necessary criteria. We can account for his later presence in southern Dumnonia and even in Domnonee, Brittany. We can explain why Aedan of Dalriada named a son after him. Etc.
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