UTHER PENDRAGON AND MAGISTER UTRIUSQUE MILITIAE: CONFIRMATION OF CONNECTION

Uther and Merlin from John Boorman's EXCALIBUR

There is another reason why I may be right about Uther Pendragon being a Welsh attempt to render the Latin military rank of magister utriusque militiae: the -dragon in the Pendragon epithet may well be a plural!  [Despite having known about this before, I do not find it stated in any my articles or books.  Or, at least, if I did state it, I neglected to cite my source (which is atypical of me).]   

From Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain, edited and translated by Rachel Bromwich pp. 512-513:

As this is so, Uther Pendragon as the Terrible (a mistake for L. uter, the root of utriusque; cf. uter for Welsh uther in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM) 'Chief of Warriors' works even better as a substitution for MVM, 'master of both military services (i.e. cavalry and infantry).'

MAGISTER UTRIUSQUE MILITIAE

      PEN             UTHER     DRAGON

The only candidate for a British MVM at the right time period is, of course, Gerontius.  Thus if this identification is correct, and a Geraint really was Arthur's father, he had to be a namesake of  the early 5th century general - perhaps even a descendent.  Tradition records a Geraint whose floruit matches what we would expect to find in an Arthurian context.  And such a Dumnonian king also works for the traditional placement of Arthur in southwestern England.  

All in all, I don't feel that I can improve on this theory.  It seems to fulfill all the necessary requirements for establishing an Arthurian genealogical trace, and helps account for the Welsh insistence that Arthur was somehow related to the Dumnonian royal house.  

Once again, we must remember that names in Brittany (like Domnonee and Cornouaille) are reflections of names found in SW England.  It is not difficult, therefore, to account for Uther's Breton origin in the story of Geoffrey of Monmouth.