REMOVING THE FLY FROM THE OINTMENT: UTHER AS EITHER ILLTUD OR SAWYL

 

A few days ago I wrote this piece in response to a query from a reader:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-fly-in-ointment-of-my-arthurian.html

That query was elicited by yet an earlier blog post:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/03/banna-or-bust-on-getting-stuck-in-web.html

In this last, I disparaged Welsh tradition as a means of helping us zero in on a historical Arthur.

Well, that reader "got me to thinkin'", as they say.  Yes, I can come up with all kinds of clever and even convincing arguments to put Arthur at Birdoswald Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall.  But I can only do that by eschewing the only known identification of Uther I have been able to find in the ancient Welsh sources.  And that strikes me as the wrong position to take on the subject.  Which means I need to treat of this problem one more time, and with ruthless honesty - with myself.  We are all subject to biases and I am no exception.  Lately, my all-too-often publicly displayed antipathy towards the popular "Sarmatian Theory" for Arthur has perhaps clouded my judgment and made me go in a direction I would ordinarily never have taken.

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For Illtud to be identified through his Latin military titles with Sawyl Benisel, the latter would have to be the original bearer of the Uther Pendragon name/epithet.  Or, Sawyl in the Uther elegy poem is merely a metaphor, used of Illtud because he was actually Uther Pendragon from the very beginning. 

How do we decide which is which?

1) The chieftain substituted for Illtud in the Life of St. Cadog is called Sawyl Benuchel.  Benuchel is a known later substitution for the Benisel of Sawyl of Ribchester. There was a St. Sawyl in southern Wales, in whose parish was found a legendary castle of Mabon the Giant.  In the PA GUR poem, Mabon is the servant of Uther Pendragon.

2) Uther and Sawyl both have sons named Madog. It is likely that the Eliwlad son of Madog son of Uther is a Welsh rendering of the Irish Ailithir epithet attributed to Sawyl's son Madog.

3) Sawyl Benisel ruled from Ribchester. This was the Roman period fort of the Sarmatian veterans, a fort with very close ties to the York of the 2nd century Prefect of the Sixth Legion, L. Artorius Castus. Maponus (Mabon) was worshipped at Ribchester.  Although ARMENIOS works well for the inscription of Castus (a reading which would put him in Britain before the arrival there of the Sarmatians), ARMORICOS also works if we allow for Castus' participation in the Deserters' War.  In this last case, Castus would have been in Britain when the Sarmatians were there. Thus the name Artorius could have been transmitted in the vicinity of the Ribchester fort. 

4) All subsequent Arthurs belonged to Irish-descended dynasties in Britain. Sawyl Benisel's wife was an Irish princess.

5) The Arthur battles are still most easily placed in the North, and are easily provided with cogent arguments (several of which rely on early tradition) to support their placement. Badon, linguistically 'Bathum' in English, could be Buxton, called Batham in English.  Badon seems to be identified with Buxton in the admittedly late literary Welsh tale "The Dream of Rhonabwy."

6) There is no evidence that the Sarmatians had their own native version of the Roman draco standard.  However, in the late Roman period the draco was a sacred emblem for the Roman army in general, and although "dragon" in Welsh poetic usage meant warrior, it is probable that the fierce nature of the mythological monster was initially derived from the image of the draco. So, we cannot say that the draco wasn't venerated at sub-Roman Ribchester.  The pendragon epithet could still refer to Uther as the 'chief dragon' or it may even be a relic of the late Roman rank of magister militum.

And the points in favor of Illtud?  Really, only one - maybe.

There is a possible connection between Illtud and Liddington/Badbury.  His Vita has him coming from 'Llydaw' as a son of Bicanus (Llydaw here is an error for Lydbrook in Ercing at Bicknor, both potential transferred sites from the Ludbrook and Bican dike at Badbury in Liddington).  It is true that the Second Battle of Badon in the Welsh Annals appears to be the Liddington Badbury.

Other than that, Illtud is said to be Arthur's cousin and serves as master of the soldiers at Penychen in southern Wales.  He puts away his wife to become a religious.  No children are known. After founding his church/monastery and performing the usual miracles, he dies and is buried in 'Llydaw.'

If we go with Illtud, the Arthurian battles are difficult to place in the south.  In fact, they can only be made to do so through either linguistic contortion (such as suggesting Cymracized forms of the English place-names, or opting for other places immediately adjacent to the English place-names) and/or resorting to a borrowing of the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE'S Gewissei battles.  Finally, there is no way to account for the transmission of the Artorius name if we opt for Illtud.

I believe this is a fair assessment of whether Illtud or Sawyl Benisel should be selected as the most likely traditional candidate for Arthur's father.

Where does that leave me?

With a choice, as always.  Respect the tradition and what I've been able to tease out of it, or put Uther and Arthur at Birdoswald because that is where I want them to be.  

That's an easy decision to make: I cast my vote for Sawyl of Ribchester.  Which means, of course, that I am committed to declaring ARMORICOS for the Castus stone (despite my personal preference for ARMENIOS).  

NOTE:

If, despite all of the above, Illtud really IS Uther, then we must allow for a not impossible, but rather unlikely development - but one for which we possess a precedent.

Let us say we have an incredibly martial man, i.e. Uther, who either really did give up warfare as a career and became a religious or (as happened in too many instances to count) was made into a saint posthumously - and perhaps long after he was dead, even centuries later. At some point in the evolution of the saint it was considered desirable to separate him out from the earlier captain of soldiers. And so a name and epithet, viz. Uther Pendragon, was made up and what was once one man became two.

Again, we have precedence for this kind of thing happening - and in an Arthurian context.

Geoffrey of Monmouth plucked the gorlassar ('very blue') epithet from the 'MARWNAT VTHYR PEN' and transformed it into Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. Yet the connection between the two now separate figures is emphasized when he alters the elegy's transformation of Uther into Samuel (W. Sawyl) to Uther's transformation into Gorlois.  There is no really good reason for him to have done this other than to make his story more interesting.  Sure, it is possible he misinterpreted the poem, but that wouldn't change the result.  We still have what was simply an epithet for Uther being made into a totally new character.

If Illtud IS Uther Pendragon, and IS Arthur's father (not cousin, as the saint's VITA would have it), and the possible connection of Uther with Liddington/Badbury actually records a valid tradition, and the 'Cornwall' of Arthur (and, incidentally, 'Gorlois') is Durocornovium hard by Badbury and not far from Barbury, the "Bear's Fort", then clearly everything changes.  We have a hero who belongs to a region inhabited in the Roman period by the Dobunni, and we must adjust the placement of the Arthurian battles accordingly.  IF such a thing is possible in a way that will satisfy us. Such a model may well involve the 36 year gap for Saxon penetration in Wiltshire I have noted in previous research (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-gewissei-and-badon-at-liddington.html).

In the future, when I have more time and am so disposed, I may take another look at Illtud as Uther - despite the many points in favor of Sawyl Benisel of Ribchester as Arthur's father. 

Other than these two chieftains, I have no other Uther candidates left to consider.   It is true that if we go with a L. Artorius Castus who served in Armenia rather than in Armorica, and see in the whole Illtud-Sawyl tradition a spurious one invented by Welsh storytellers who took a poetic metaphor (Uther being compared with the Biblical Samuel) and then made a false identification (Uther for Illtud through the latter's Latin military titles), then my alternate theory of an Arthur at Birdoswald rather than Ribchester remains quite valid.