Announcement of Publication: THE BEAR KING Revision is Now Available

Aberarth Promontory Fort, Ceredigion, Wales

https://www.amazon.com/Bear-King-Arthur-Southern-England/dp/1548982954

Here is the revised edition of my book THE BEAR KING: ARTHUR AND THE IRISH IN WALES AND SOUTHERN ENGLAND.  The title is available in both ebook and paperback formats via Amazon.

The decision to go with a Hiberno-British Arthur was not an easy one to make.  While I had long known that Ceredig son of Cunedda and Cerdic of Wessex were one and the same historical figure, and that Ceredig himself seemed to be Arthur, I had consistently failed to firmly identify Uther Pendragon, the 'Terrible Chief-warrior (or Chief of warriors) with Cunedda Maqui-coline/Ceawlin. The crux of the problem was always Line 6 of the Uther elegy MARWNAT VTHYR PEN, which contained the troublesome phrase 'pen kawell.'  Taken literally, this was to be translated as 'Chief Basket' (or, perhaps, Chief of the Basket or, even, Chief One of the Basket) - which made no sense at all.  So I spent an undue amount of time trying to emend the phrase.  

It was only when I bothered - on a whim - to wonder what the Ceawl- portion of the name Ceawlin might have been thought to mean by the Welsh that something marvelous occurred.  When I entered ceawl and variants into the Bosworth and Toller Anglo-Saxon dictionary, I discovered that it meant exactly the same thing as Welsh cawell, i.e. 'basket.' It was at that point I realized I finally had a "fix" on Uther Pendragon.  He was, indeed, Cunedda, a chieftain who was based at Dinas Emrys/Caer Dathal in Gwynedd.

It was easy to discount the MARWNAT CUNEDDA, a fictitious piece created to support the false tradition that Cunedda came from Manau Gododdin in the far north of Britain.  He actually had come, as was easily demonstrable, from Drumanagh in Ireland.  

By finally establishing the pedigree for Arthur/Ceredig, I was able to satisfy two further conditions I had insisted be present in my argument.  First, as an Irishman or part-Irishman, we could now account for the fact that the subsequent Arthurs all belonged to Irish-descended dynasties in Britain.  And, second, I could show that Arthur from Roman/Latin Artorius was a decknamen assumed by a man who originally bore a 'Bear-king' title or name in either the Welsh or the Irish.  Evidence in support of this contention exists in the name of the Afon Arth ('Bear Water') in Ceredig's kingdom of Ceredigion, as well as in the three Arto- names found in the list of his immediate descendants.  There was no longer any need to attempt to derive the name Arthur from Lucius Artorius Castus, a 2nd century Roman officer stationed at York.  We have good examples of decknamen use.  For our purposes, the best parallel would be the inscription from Trier (CIL XIII/1.1, no. 3909): HIC QUIESCIT IN PACE URSULA . . . ARTULA MATER TIT(ULUM) POSUIT. Mother and daughter bear the same name, the mother still in Celtic, the daughter already in an equivalent name in the Roman tongue.  

Years ago my Ceredig = Arthur theory included a reasonable comparative treatment of the battles of both men.  This approach allowed me to identify the battles of Arthur, as found in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM, as partly those of Ceredig and partly those of other Gewessei.  I have checked those over and was able to confirm my earlier findings.

This particular Arthurian candidate will not, I fear, be a popular one - except, perhaps, among the Welsh!  For what we have (given the Cunorix son of Maquicoline memorial stone at Wroxeter) is a mercenary or, rather, "federate" (in the old Roman sense) fighting for the high king at Viroconium in alliance with Saxons against that king's British enemies in the south.  It is a confusing picture and not an attractive one.  But it is a realistic depiction of what happened to Britain once the Romans were gone.  

THE BEAR KING represents my last work on King Arthur.  Hopefully, the theory it contains will resonate with some, even as it disappoints or infuriates others.  Once again, I appreciate very much the interest of my regular readers.