URIEN OF RHEGED AS UTHER PENDRAGON: WAS THE GREAT ARTHUR TEMPORALLY DISPLACED ?

Lochmaben Stone

"From then on victory went now to our countrymen, now to their enemies... this lasted right up to the siege of Badon Hill..."  - Gildas

"The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and nights on his shoulders and the Britons were the victors." - Welsh Annals

"During that time, sometimes the enemy, sometimes the Cymry were victorious, and Urien blockaded them for three days and three nights in the island of Lindisfarne." - Nennius

***

Years ago, I flirted around with the idea that Arthur should be linked to the great Urien of the North.  I dispensed with the idea for one and only one reason - and it was a very good one: Arthur could not be a son of Urien because of chronology.  The lord of Rheged was simply too late for us to allow him to be Arthur's father or for Arthur to be his contemporary.

But as I recently promised to take yet another look at a possible Arthur of the North (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-question-from-fan-why-did-i-abandon.html), my reevaluation quickly turned towards Urien.  Why?

Well, it began, yet again, with consideration of the gorlassar epithet as it is applied to Uther in his elegy poem, MARWNAT VTHYR PEN.  Marged Haycock, in her notes to the poem, has the following:

gorlassar Cf. PT V.28 Gorgoryawc gorlassawc gorlassar, rhyming with escar,

as here; again PT VIII.17 goryawc gorlassawc gorlassar. Both passages are

corrupt. PT 98 suggests ‘clad in blue-grey armour’ or ‘armed with blue-grey

weapons’, following G and GPC who derive it from glassar ‘sward, turf, sod’

rather than llassar ‘azure’, etc. (see GPC s.v. llasar), presumably because one

would expect *gorllasar. That may indeed have been present, with l representing

developed [ɬ]. Llassar is rhymed with casnar, Casnar (cf. line 10 casnur) in CBT

III 16.55, VII 52.14-5. On the personal names Llasar Llaes Gygnwyd, OIr

Lasa(i)r, calch llassar ‘lime of azure’, etc., see Patrick Sims-Williams, The Iron

House in Ireland, H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture 16 (Cambridge 2005), 11-

16; IIMWL 250-7.

I had noted early on that gorlassar is found in only one other context: it is attached to Urien of Rheged in the Taliesin poetry.

Doing a search on my own blog site, I picked out several articles I had written on possible connections between Uther and Urien.  One of the most important can be found here:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/12/mabon-son-of-modron-gwas-of-uther.html

That piece explored in depth Urien and his son Owain's special relationship with the god Mabon.  Rheged, of course, had its heartland in exactly the region where Maponus had his chief shrine (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-nucleus-of-uriens-kingdom-of-rheged.html).  Mabon, in the PA GUR, is said to be the servant of Uther Pendragon. 

Dragon titles belonging to Urien and Owain (and.or Mabon) are extant in the poetry:  Udd Dragonawl or 'Lord of Dragon(s), Dragon-like Lord' for the father, and Rwyf Dragon or 'Leader or Dragon(s) for the son.  The Oruchel Wledig title for Urien was uncannily like Uther Pendragon.  

I even dared to think about the possibility that Uther Pen may, in part, have been derived from the decapitated head of Urien, which plays a major role in the Llywarch Hen poetry (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-text-of-pen-urien-from-canu.html; https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/11/urien-pen-and-dragon-repost-of-udd.html).

Finally, time and time again I have striven to account for why both Urien and Arthur were said to have fought at Bremenium/High Rochester (Breguoin or Agned, the latter from Egnatius, the Roman governor who rebuilt the fort). I offered that either the Brewyn battle was stolen from the Urien poetry by the author of the Arthurian battle list in Nennius, or that both men had fought at the site at different times.  That both men may have fought there at the same time was not a notion I was willing to entertain.

So here is the dilemma I currently find myself in: as I am quite content with my various proofs that demonstrate quite well that the famous Ambrosius Aurelianus did not belong to the 5th century, but instead to the 4th, why am I sticking so stubbornly to the generally accepted Arthurian dates?  In the Welsh sources, we are told Arthur fought Badon c. 516 and died at Camlann c. 537.  The narrative in Nennius brackets the Arthurian battles precisely during the floruit of Cerdic of Wessex, as that chieftain's career is detailed in the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE.  With dating that seems so precise, how can we justify putting our hero during the reign of Urien (b. c. 510, d. c. 585/586; P.C. Bartrum)?

Let's begin trying to answer this question by looking at the subsequent Arthurs of the Dark Ages.

1) According to Bannerman (STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF DALRIADA), Artur son of Aedan died c.590.  The Irish Annals say 596.

2) Bartrum gives for an approximate birthdate for Arthur son of Pedr of Dyfed 560 A.D.  I made the case for this man being the Arthur son of Bicoir the Britain of the Irish Annals, which have him kill the Irish King Mongan in 625.  [Bicoir is merely a slight corruption of Petuir, one of the forms for Pedr in the Irish souces.]  Thus it is likely Bartrum is somewhat off and Arthur son of Pedr's birthdate should be moved up to the latter part of the 6th century or the very beginning of the 7th.  

3) In a corrupt Welsh TRIAD, which I also have discussed at length in various blog posts, an Arthur Penuchel 'Overlord' is given as the son of Eliffer of York by a daughter of Cynfarch, father of Urien of Rheged.  We know that Eliffer's sons fought at Arderydd (modern Arthuret) in 573 and perished at Caer Greu (modern Carrawburgh on Hadrian's Wall) in 580.

Do any of these dates prevent us from having a more famous Arthur active during the reign of Urien, which terminated c. 585/6?  

No, they do not.

But if the famous Arthur of the North, who belonged to the Kingdom of Rheged, belonged to this time period, how can we account for the traditional Welsh dates for him?

Well, it may be that the Welsh, at some point, decided they needed a hero to fill the "gap" between their Ambrosius and Urien himself. If Arthur did not outlive his father Urien, and thus did not inherit the kingdom of Rheged to rule, we would not find the former listed in the royal genealogy.  Putting him at the time of Cerdic of Wessex made sense, as he could thus appear to be a sort of counter to Cerdic.  Of course, I have uncovered sufficient evidence to suggest that Cerdic was, in fact, Ceredig son of Cunedda, and either he was allied with the Saxons against the Jutes in Hampshire and on Wight, or the conquering English later co-opted an actual champion of the Britons by transforming him into their own founder.  My readers know that I have recently proposed Cerdic/Ceredig as Arthur, and even have en entire book out detailing this argument.

If Arthur is to be seen as a prince of Rheged, then the Northern battles as I first identified them may be allowed to stand:

Arthurian Battles in the North (exclude from the above the depicted Roman forts of

Aballava, Banna and Magnis)

An Arthur buried at Aballava/Avalana (= "Avalon") makes sense in this context as well, for this fort would surely have lain in the home territory of Rheged.  I would add that it may also be significant that in Welsh tradition - not the Galfridian - Modred/Moderatus is a son of Lleu son Cynfarch  (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/arthur-penuchel-and-medraut-son-of-lleu.html), the same Cynfarch who was the father of Urien.

In conclusion, then, should we choose to identify Uther Pendragon/gorlassar with the only other notable figure bearing that epithet, viz. the historical Urien of Rheged?