CERETIC, VORTIGERN'S INTERPRETER, AND CEREDIG SON OF CUNEDDA/CERDIC OF WESSEX/ARTHUR

Map Showing Location of Gwrtheyrnion, a Region Named After Vortigern

In my book THE BEAR KING (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-bear-king-arthur-and-irish-in-wales.html), I show support for the view of some modern Anglo-Saxon scholars that Cerdic of Wessex was not one of the founders of Wessex, but rather an earlier, thoroughly Celtic champion co-opted by the victorious English into their historical accounts.  This champion had, in fact, fought for the Britons, not against them. Cerdic of Wessex, furthermore, is to be identified with Ceredig son of the great Cunedda, who himself went by another more famous name or title: Arthur.

It has often been remarked how strange it is that while Arthur is brought into prominence in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM, Cerdic of Wessex is conspicuously absent.  

Well, I don't think that is true.  I would propose that Vortigern's interpreter Ceretic (et interpreti suo, qui uocatur ceretic; HB 37) is, in fact, Ceredig son of Cunedda.  

To begin, the Welsh traditional identification of Vortigern's interpreter with Ceredig of Elfed is chronologically impossible. Here are the relevant biographies of the two men from P.C. Bartrum's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:

"CEREDIG (1). Vortigern's interpreter in his dealings with Hengist according to the Historia Brittonum (§37), where he is called Ceretic. In the ‘Cambridge’ group of manuscripts (Mommsen‘S C, L, D) he is called Cerdicelmet, of whom it is said that ‘no Briton before him knew the Saxon language. He strives to understand the Saxon speech, picking up what comes to him by chance’. (Mommsen, p.178). See Ceredig of Elfed."  

"CEREDIG (CERDIC) of ELFED. (d.c.620) A king of the small British kingdom of Elfed, the district around Leeds. He is mentioned by Bede in his account of St.Hilda. Hilda was the daughter of Hereric, nephew of Edwin, king of Northumbria. At the time of Hilda's birth, Hereric was living in exile sub rege Brettonum Cerdice and was later poisoned there (Hist.Eccles., IV.23). Hereric, being of the family of Edwin, had taken refuge in this British kingdom from the persecutions of Aethelfrith. Hereric was poisoned, it was said, at the instigation of Cerdic, and this is supposed to be the reason why Edwin expelled Cerdic from his kingdom. Hilda was born in 614. (DCB s.nn. Cerdice, Hereric, Hilda; DNB s.n. Hilda; Florence of Worcester). The expulsion of Ceredig from Elfed by Edwin is mentioned in the Historia Brittonum (§63) where the name is spelt Certic. Charles Plummer in his edition of Bede (Oxford, 1896, II.247) suggested that he was probably the Ceretic whose death is given in the Annales Cambriae, A.D.616. The date is A WELSH CLASSICAL DICTIONARY 140 too early by a few years (HW 183 n.91; H.M.Chadwick, Early Scotland, p.144 n.3). As Edwin came to the throne in 617, one may suggest about the year 620 for the death of Ceredig. In the 'Cambridge’ group of manuscripts of the Historia Brittonum we find in §37 Cerdicelmet instead of Ceretic for the name of Vortigern's interpreter. See Ceredig (1). This is evidently the result of misidentification with the Certic of Elmet in §63. But it suggests that Cerdic of Elmet was known as Cerdic Elmet, or, in modern form, Ceredig Elfed. Compare Madog Elfed. Ceredig of Elfed may be the same as Ceredig ap Gwallog."

The question we must ask ourselves, and it is a very simple one, is which of the early remaining Ceredigs would be most likely to have been closely associated in Welsh folk belief with the English - so closely, in fact, that he actually could speak their language?  

The obvious answer is Cerdic of Wessex, i.e. Cerdic of the Gewissae.  While he had a Celtic name, according to the English sources he founded the kingdom of the West Saxons.  Scholars for a very long time now have been hung up on the idea that the Gewissae were Britons who had allied themselves with the English against other Britons.  Thus there is no one who would more likely be thought capable of translating from one language to another.

The relative dates of Ceredig son of Cunedda and Vortigern might be seen by some as problem, but as I've demonstrated in THE BEAR KING, the dates for the Gewissae as presented to us in the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE are hugely flawed.  Even the order of the first few Gewissae generations is reversed from the Welsh sources to those of the English.  

I have long held that Ceredig son of Cunedda/Cerdic of the Gewissae was fighting for the high king situated in Wales against invading English to the south.  The presence of the Cunorix stone at Viroconium is proof of this contention (as Cunorix = Cynric of the ASC, with Macqui-Coline = Ceawlin). Vortigern's Dinas Emrys in Arfon is also properly Caer Dathal, a site brought into connection with Arthur and his father Uther (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/01/dinas-emrys-as-caer-dathal-late.html). This high king may have, at least for a time, been Vortigern himself.  Vortigern was subject to blanket vilification fairly early on, essentially becoming the scapegoat or fall guy deemed responsible for inviting in the Saxons and bringing about the ruination of Britain. But we are also told that his sons fought against the Saxons, and with considerable success.  Thus, it is distinctly possible that he utilized Cunedda and his sons (or teulu) as federates or mercenaries against the English to the south.  The lands Cunedda held in NW Wales may have been held by him in return for military service along the old Roman model, at least formally.  The arrangement was probably a post facto one, as the Irish came into Wales once the Romans withdrew from the country and Vortigern probably found himself unable to prevent their incursions.  Of course, we must remember that Vortigern himself may well have been half-Irish (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/07/appendix-ii-vortigern.html).