Illtud's Father, Bicanus, and His Llydaw: The Correspondence with Bican Dic and Liddington Castle

Bicknor Place-Names Next to Lydbrook

Proximity of Ariconium to Bicknor and Lydbrook

My British friend Chris Gidlow was right to question my identification of Illtud's/Uther Pendragon's 'Llydaw' with the Vale of Leadon.  While I was quite sure whatever this Llydaw was it should be properly associated with the old Welsh kingdom of Ergyng (centered about the Romano-British town of Ariconium), I did have one problem that continued to bother me: why in Welsh tradition were so many of the relatives of Arthur (whethe real or personified springs/streams, etc.) actually in Ergyng?  

I thought for a bit about Illtud's father, Bicanus.  While on the surface this could simply be a British/Welsh name denoting the 'small one' (perhaps a pun on 'Little' Britain/Brittany), I remembered that there was an English name Bica, found in several place-names.  Most interesting in the context of Illtud is Welsh and English Bicknor, on opposite sides of the River Wye in what had been Ergyng.  Welsh Bicknor's original name was Llangustennin Garth Benni.  This place was named, it would appear, for a Constantinus, a king of Ergyng.  Here is the relevant entry from P.C. Bartrum's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:

CUSTENNIN, king in Ergyng(?). (500)

The king of an un-named locality mentioned in a charter in the Book of Llandaf as Constantinus,

father-in-law of Peibio ab Erb, king of Ergyng. The deed records the grant of Llangustennin Garth Benni (now Welsh Bicknor on the Wye in Ergyng, Herefordshire) by Peibio to Dubricius. Custenhin appears as a witness (BLD 72). According to the Life of St.Dubricius, the saint was grandson of Peibio, and therefore great-grandson of Custennin. The charter is at least partly faked. See s.n. Dyfrig. A.W.Wade-Evans proposed to identify this Custennin with Custennin ap Macsen Wledig (WCO 57-58), while LBS had earlier identified him with Custennin Gorneu (II.177, 375). Both identifications are doubtful (PCB).

Recall Arthur and Uther's connection with a Constantine. 

Now, the etymology of Bicknor is interesting. It is from the genitive singular of OE Bica, or Bican, plus ora.  It would have been very easy to derive 'Bicanus' from this form of Bica.  Note also that English and Welsh Bicknor are hard by Lydbrook.  While the name of this stream is from OE hlyde, 'the loud one', we can well understand how this English name may have been confused with Welsh Llydaw.

The 'Benni' of Garth Benni is the pl. of the word for wagon, although the place-name has been rendered as 'wagon enclosure' (see https://saint2.llgc.org.uk/texts/prose/VDub_LL-V/edited-text.eng.html, Note 17).

What is most exciting about all of this is that if I'm right and Arthur's origin lay at Welsh Bicknor, then that puts him very close to the Little Doward hillfort - the Ganarew of Geoffrey of Monmouth!  Granted, Geoffrey had relocated Vortigern's fiery death from the St. Germanus site on the Teifi in Dyfed.  There is legend that Arthur and his knights are "sleeping" in a cave near Little Doward, a site still marked on maps.  

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001766?section=official-list-entry

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1010289?section=official-list-entry

https://clasmerdin.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-fire-of-sons-of-constantine.html

What do we make of an Arthur of Ergyng?  

Well, it is possible that the Bicknor-Bicanus/Lydbrook=Llydaw connection is itself a relocation.  The Vale of Leadon may still be the right place, and that would allow us to have Arthur belong to a region that was once held by the Dobunni tribe.  

However, I would add that the first element of Lydbrook shares an identical etymology with the first element of Liddington, where we find a Badbury hillfort: Lidentune, Ledentune, Lidetona, Lidinton, Ludinton, genitive singular Hlydan + tun.  The stream itself here at Liddington is Lid Brook, Lydbroke (see Victor Watts, THE CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES).  To which we may compare Lydbrook at English Bicknor.  

And associated with Liddington is an earthwork called 'Bican Dic', the Dyke of Bica.  To quote from 

https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=225241&resourceID=19191 on the Bican Dic:

"A linear ditch is visible on aerial photographs as an earthwork. It is mentioned in a Saxon charter of 940AD as 'Bican Dic'... but is likely to have earlier, possible Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age origins, and could be associated with Liddington hillfort (SU 27 NW 4) or a Prehistoric or Roman field system (SU 27 NW 52) which runs parallel to the ditch on the east side of its southern length. The ditch extends for over 5km from the western base of Liddington Castle, in the north, to Church Hill in the south, but is no longer visible for the entire distance. The northernmost section of the ditch extends for a distance of 555m, after which it is not visible due to military workings during WW1 and WW2. After a gap of 200m the ditch is then visible for a further uneven length of earthworks measuring 690m. After another gap of 450m the ditch extends due south for 670m. For the next 910m after a sharp turn to the west the ditch slowly comes back to a south and then southeasterly direction. For the last 1700m the ditch extends in a southwesterly and then southerly direction before terminating on Church Hill. 710m of the northernmost part of this last stretch of the ditch, is embanked on the west side. The southernmost 200m of the ditch is only visible as a cropmark underneath a modern golf course."

For more information on Bican Dic, see 

https://langscape.org.uk/descriptions/editorial/L_459_000.html, https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1337942&resourceID=19191 and https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/7320/LiddingtonCastle_archaeologicalearthworksurvey.

So, not only are the various names similar, they are, in fact, identical.  This makes for a very easy folkloristic transference from one place to another.  

Given that there was always the tendency to withdraw legendary heroes into the Celtic Fringe (which includes "marginalized" Wales) when their real territory had been conquered and had been "converted" into an English and/or Norman domain, I would say we can now make a very good case for Arthur's actual point of origin being Liddington Castle/Badbury.  Furthermore, if this is actually where he belonged, then we can once again put forward the notion that Barbury was the 'Bear's Fort', named by the English for Arthur himself (with W. arth, 'bear', being linked to the British form of Roman Artorius).  AND we can look towards neighboring Durocornovium as Arthur's original Cernyw/"Cornwall".