THE SITE OF CAMLAN IN LIGHT OF MY IDENTIFICATION OF ARTHUR WITH CEREDIG SON OF CUNEDDA

[NOTE: Before coming to the conclusion presented in the following piece, I did have one other reasonable candidate for Arthur's Camlan - this one in the far south of England in the region where Cerdic of Wessex was fighting.  For those who are interested in this site, please see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-more-precise-geographical-fix-for.html.  For yet another site which fits the traditional location of a Medraut/Modred place-name, see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-new-candidate-for-arthur-and-medrauts.html.  This last potential Camlan, however, does not fit into the geographical context of the military activities of Cerdic of Wessex.]

Afon Gamlan

The purpose of this chapter is to prove, once and for all, where Arthur’s Camlan battle site was located. 

The three Camlans in Wales are all in Merionethshire, once a kingdom called Meirionnydd that bordered on Ceredig’s kingdom of Ceredigion.  As Welsh tradition insisted that Camlan was an internecine conflict, it makes sense to find the place on the border between two Welsh kingdoms.  And, indeed, Merionethshire was said to have been founded by another of Cunedda’s sons.

It is fairly well known that the Welsh record seven survivors of Camlan. Yet, to my knowledge, no one has sought to plot these personages out on a map. To do so may help us pinpoint a geographical region in which Camlan was believed to be situated.

One of the seven – Geneid Hir – it a difficult and otherwise unknown name. P.C. Bartram (in “A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000) suggests the name may be corrupt and offers an unlikely identification with a personage named Eueyd or Euehyd Hir (often rendered Hefeydd). However, I would see in Geneid ‘Cannaid’, “white, bright, shining, pure, clean, radiant,” an epithet substituted for the original title Ceimiad, ‘Pilgrim’, of St. Elian. Elian had churches on Mon/Anglesey and in Rhos, Gwynedd.

Sandde Bryd Angel looks to be a pun for the Afon Angell, Aberangell, etc., places immediately to the south of the Camlan on the Afon Dyfi in Merionethshire.

Morfran son of Tegid is from Llyn Tegid, now Bala Lake in Gwynedd.

St. Cynfelyn is of Llancynfelyn in Ceredigion just below the Afon Dyfi.

St. Cedwyn of Llangedwyn in Powys, while somewhat further removed than the rest, is still in NW Wales.

St. Pedrog of Llanbedrog is on the Lleyn Peninsula in Gwynedd, just opposite the three Camlans in Merionethshire.

St. Derfel Gadarn is at Llandderfel near Bala Lake in Gwynedd.

Needless to say, if we “triangulate” with all these names/places, we find at the center the three

Merionethshire Camlans.

So, which one is the right one?

Only one way to know for sure: we must find the Camlann that is claimed as the gravesite of Osfran’s son. This reference comes from the ‘Stanzas of the Graves:’

Bet mab Ossvran yg Camlan,

Gvydi llauer kywlavan…

The grave of Osfran’s son is at Camlan,

After many a slaughter…

[“The Black Books of Carmarthen ‘Stanzas of the

Graves’, Thomas Jones, Sir John Rhys Memorial

Lecture, 1967, Critical Text and Translation.]

While –fran of Osfran looks like Bran or ‘Raven’, the Os- does not look at all right for a Welsh name. I suspected Ys- and after a first search failed, I defaulted to bryn or ‘hill’ as the original of –bran. Thus I was looking for an Ysbryn.

And I actually found him – or, rather, it - in “An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire: VI – County of Merioneth”, p. 98, RCAHMW, 1921.

On the Mawddach River in Merionethshire there is a Foel Ispri. It used to be Moel Ysbryn and was the legendary residence of Ysbryn Gawr or Ysbryn the Giant. If we go north on the Mawddach we run into its tributary the Afon Gamlan, i.e. the Water of the Crooked Bank.

According to David Hopewell, Senior Archaeologist with the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, 

"As far as we know the Roman road runs to the east of the Mawddach.  It is well-preserved and easy to trace from Tomen-y-Mur to Penystryd (just E of Bronaber) after that it presumably runs to Brithdir but its line is somewhat debatable.  On current evidence I don’t know of anything crossing the Gamlan."