IMPROVING A NEW-OLD THEORY ON WHY THE IRISH OF DALRIADA AND DYFED NAMED SONS ARTHUR

Stanwix Roman Fort, Cumbria, England

I've been thinking about Arthur on the western part of Hadrian's Wall.  I've always had two places where he might have been situated: somewhere in the Irthing Valley or at the Uxellodunum/Stanwix Roman fort.  The latter was the most powerful fort on the Wall, and answered directly to York.  There are several blog posts here on the fort and its garrison, the Ala Petriana - the only 1,000 strong cavalry force in all of Britain.  

How to decide between the two sites, without direct evidence?  Is it even possible to do so?

Certainly, it makes sense for us to see the two sons of Arthwys (*Artenses, People of the Bear, in the Irthing Valley), Eliffer and Ceidio, as representing the two power centers of the North.  We have a very good sense for Eliffer as the leader at York.  That would leave Ceidio for Stanwix.  The proximity of Stanwix to Ceidio's "son" Gwenddolau at Carwinley (Gwenddolau means 'white dales') also seems to argue for Ceidio's fort being Uxellodunum.

I once, almost jokingly, suggested that Pedr (Petrus) of Dyfed had named his son Arthur because the latter had come to be associated with the descendants of the Ala Petriana at Stanwix.  This group was named for a man called Petra.  This did not, however, help me account for why Aedan of Dalriada (or Conaing, depending on which genealogy you go by) also named a son Arthur.  Well, I now think I may have an answer to this last question.  

Dumbarton was called not only the 'fort of the Britons', but more properly Alclud, the Rock of Clyde.  We have Latin forms of the place-name like Petra Cloithe (Adamnan). A ruler like Coroticus was called 'king of the rock' (regis Aloo, regem Aloo).

In addition, the Dalriadans and the Britons of Dumbarton intermarried.  For more on this, see the following excellent article on Aedan son of Gabran.  I have cited Note 14 from Part 2 of the piece.

https://www.heroicage.org/issues/1/haaad.htm 

https://www.heroicage.org/issues/1/haaad2.htm 

"Aedan's daughter Maithgemma of Monad married Cairell of the Dal Fiatch. According to the late Acta Sancti Laisriani, a Gemma, probably Maithgemma, was the saint's mother, a daughter of Aedan and a niece of a British king. This would indicate that Aedan had married a kinswoman of a British king (Bannerman 1974:89; Chadwick 1953:169). Laisrin, also known as Molaisse, is also remembered in the Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee on April 18. Stokes (1983:117) gives a further poetic reference: "Molaisse, a flame of fire, with the quires of partnership, abbot of Raithchell, king of the synod, son of Maithgemm of Monad"; Stokes also notes that Molaisse's mother is called a daughter of Aedan mac Gabran, king of Scotland, in the Book of Leinster. Considering Aedan's addition to the Strathclyde dynasty, I would suggest his wife was a kinswoman of Rhydderch Hael, the only king of Strathclyde contemporary with Aedan."

Maithgemma is an Irish word for 'bear' (see the following entry from the eDIL).  The name Arthur was commonly associated with the Welsh/Cumbric arth, 'bear.'

mathgamain
Cite this: eDIL s.v. mathgamain or dil.ie/31684
Last Revised: 2013
Forms: mathgaman, matho, mathgamna

n m. (cf. math + gamuin Ériu xix 114 ) a bear : gl. ursus, Ir. Gl. 418. tír i fail m.¤ mall, LL 136a34 . g s. bruth mathgaman , FB 52 Eg. = matho LU. pl. amal bíti mathgamna etir banbraid, RC xiii 456 § 52. gala mathgamna ┐ brotha léoman, BDD 92. mar leoman ic techta fo mathgamnaib, TBC-LL¹ 2163 , cf. 5585 and TBC-I¹ 1949. i n-earball an mhathghamna, TSh. 7431. mathghamhuin, 1 Sam. xvii 34. nuallamuid amhuil mathghamhna, Isaiah lix 11. Often used of a warrior: inmain m.¤ mórglonnach, TBC-LL¹ 5354. an dā mathgamain morghlonnacha, CF 874. as mé an mathgamhain ar menmain, BNnÉ 285 § 273. is mathghamhna meardha . . . a míleadha, Todd Lect. iv 82.21 .

Common as n.pr. m.: Mathgamain mac Cennetigh, AU 966. m.¤ mac Cendetig, Cog. 58.25 . dall Mathgamhna M.'s blind (bard), 96.1 .

There is also a Welsh tradition of animosity between Aedan and Rhydderch of Strathclyde. Rachel Bromwich (note to Triad 54, p. 155), in commenting on Aedan's devastating raid on Alclud, says

"There is indeed some independent evidence for the tradition about hostility between Aeddan and Rhydderch to which it [Triad 54) refers.  The poem Peiryan Maban alludes obscurely to cyfrang(c) ryderch ac aedan clotleu ["the encounter of Rhydderch and renowned Aeddan"]. As Professor Jarman suggested in a anote accompanying his edition of the poem, the allusion here must be to a contention between the two famous contemporary rulers of Dal Riada and Strathclyde in the late sixth century."

Notwithstanding Aedan's attack, the fortress of Alclud was not lost to the Britons until Viking times.

What I would propose, therefore, is that the British name Arthur, from Roman-Latin Artorius, was taken as a princely name among the Dalriadans because a British wife of Aedan knew of the famous Arthur of the Petriana and associated the name with her own Rock of Clyde.

Pedr (var. Petuir) of Dyfed appears in an Irish annal as Bicoir the father of an Arthur (B and P frequently substitute for each other, and c and t are often confused by copyists in MSS.).  This particular Arthur is said to have killed the Irish king Mongan with a stone.