Banna or Bust: On Getting Stuck in the Web of Folklore

Birdoswald Roman Fort

In my last blog post, after many months of vacillation, and with the generous guidance of the Welsh scholars who know the Uther elegy the best, I decided that relevant portion of the poem should read:

May our God, the Chief Luminary, transform me

It's I who's a second Sawyl in the gloom

Having come to this conclusion, I naturally lept to another: as the PA GUR poem "proved" that Uther Pendragon was merely a Welsh rendering of St. Illtud's various military titles,  and as the saint appeared to have become confused or conflated with Sawyl Benisel of the North, I could settle on Sawyl as Arthur's father.  After all, it did seem like there was some evidence to suggest that Sawyl was the right man.  Both Uther and Sawyl had a son named Madog, for example, and the Ailithir title of Sawyl's son Madog might be reflected in the Eliwlad made a son of Uther's Madog.   

None of this, however, sat particularly well with me. Why?

Because a placement of Uther at the Ribchester Roman fort of the Sarmation forced some things upon me I was not comfortable with. Frankly, these things made me squirm more than a bit.

1) I had to accept Armoricos for the Castus stone so that Castus could be in Britain when the Sarmatians were there.  And this despite all the historical evidence which strongly supported the Armenios reading for the stone. This all has to do with the preservation and transmission of the Artorius name, something I have gone over before in considerable detail.

2) The argument for the existence of a Sarmation draco and its presence at Ribchester collapsed. 

3) The Arthurian PA GUR is hardly a trustworthy source. It is replete with Gaelic and English place-names and mythical creatures and divine figures. Relying upon this heroic poem to identify Uther with Illtud's titles is an incredibly risky proposition.

So let's take a break from all that and ask some serious questions.

1) Might Sawyl in the Uther poem be nothing more than a poetic metaphor? Of course, it could be. Uther is being compared with the Biblical judge and prophet who chose Israel's first king. The name is may not originally have had anything to do with Sawyl Benisel. 

2) Isn't it possible to account for the name Arthur in the North AND to hold on to all of the splendid dragon imagery associated with his father by situating the name and the dragon, respectively, at the neighboring forts of Dalmatian-garrisoned Carvoran and Dacian-garrisoned Birdoswald?  Yes, on both counts. Castus had strong Dalmatian connections, and the Dacians (unlike the Sarmatians) had their own draco, and doubtless would have venerated the subsequent Roman army draco. If I am right about the inscription on the Ilam Cup, the garrison of Banna was actually referred to as the Aelian Dragon. We can have Castus go against Armenia and don't need for him to be in Britain when the Sarmatians were there. The Artorii are attested at Salona in Dalmatia, and a woman of that city was buried at Carvoran. 

3) Doesn't Birdoswald have a unique Arthurian period royal hall complex? And have I not shown that the famous St. Patrick was probably born there? Yes, again, to both questions.

4) Did Arthwys/*Artenses or the Bear People likely live in the Irthing Valley, a river-name possibly meaning 'Little Bear'? And did not the Welsh associate the name Arthur with their bear word, arth? Yes, on both counts. 

5) Are not both Birdoswald and Arthur's Camlann are in the Irthing Valley? Is not Aballava/Avalana/"Avalon" Roman fort with its Lake Goddess just a little farther west on the Wall? Yes, they are.

6) The Ceidio son of Arthwys bears a nickname that would originally have been a two-part "battle" name - one which may have accorded well with a full-length name meaning "Battle-leader." 

7) Are all the Arthurian battles up and down to either side of Dere Street in Lowland Scotland and northern England, where a central control node on Hadrian's Wall makes the most sense? Yes, they are - and, yes, it does.

8) Isn't it true that Dr. Ken Dark and others see in the Banna sub-Roman royal hall the seat of a chieftain who, to the best of his ability, was trying to replicate the Roman office of Dux Britanniarum? Yes, it is so.

There may be more - but I would have to search through past research findings. For now I hope this suffices when it comes to showing what I think is a more valid theory than the one focusing on Sawyl Benisel.

A final question...

Is there really any reason, given all of the above, for NOT placing Uther at the Banna/Birdiswald Roman fort?

None that I can think of.  The only thing standing in our way is the PA GUR's apparent identification of Uther Pendragon with the Latin military titles of St. Illtud.  Uther Pendragon conforms to the very common Welsh formula of name plus epithet.  We have several other examples of the name being an adjective.  If Uther was Sawyl, then why not simply say so?

I feel that I must move away from "my Precious", i.e. the Sawyl Benisel theory, and once again embrace the speculative construct I had presented at the Artorius symposium in Croatia way back in 2019: that Arthur belonged on the Wall, and more specifically, at Banna.