THE 'ELEI' OF THE NORTH AND UTHER PENDRAGON

The Eildon Hills

Once upon a time I tried to make a case for the Elei of the Arthurian PA GUR poem being not for the Ely River in Glamorgan, Wales, but for a site in the Scottish Lowlands.  My focus was on the Catrail dyke, which ran close to Mabonlaw, or better yet, the Eildon Hills.  This thinking focused on what I perceived to be a "northern bias" in the poem.  I had already done my best to identify the various sites mentioned in the PA GUR:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-pa-gur-battle-sites-revision.html

In brief, if I was right about the site identifications, then none of them fell farther south thatn Derbyshire or south Wales (assuming, in this last case, Elei was the Ely River).

More telling, I felt, was a repeated context in which Mabon of Elei was mentioned.  I'm quoting here the first three stanzas of the poem so the reader can see what I'm referring to:

Note that Mabon son of Mellt (Mellt, 'Lightning', is proposed as the god's father here, in distinction to his mother, Modron) is mentioned as being active between mention of Tryfrwyd (the trajectus at North Queensferry just west of Edinburgh. This is close to Dalmeny, which Brittonic place-name expert Alan James thinks might be another Manau name.  If it is, then Tryfrwyd is at the border between Gododdin proper and Manau Gododdin.

The "Lightning" father of Mabon is probably a reference to Apollo's father, Jupiter Fulgor or Jupiter of the Lightning, as Maponus was commonly identified with Apollo.  Evidence for Apollo ain Roman Britain is fairly ample.  There is an inscription to the god at Trimontium. 

Llwch Llaw-wynnog is, of course, the god of that name, and while there is some recent scholarly opinion that disagrees, it is fairly certain that Llwch (Lugh/Lleu) has left his name in Lothian, British *Lugudūniānā (Lleuddiniawn in Modern Welsh spelling), meaning "country of the fort of Lugus".

Manawydan has been associated with Manau.

The implication seems to be, therefore, that Mabon is in the North (unless we are to assume there are TWO Mabons, one here and one south on the Ely).  Alan James (in his https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2019_Edition.pdf) notes a Drumaben in West Calder.

Some of my past blog posts that deal with a hypothetical Elei in the North are these:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/08/eil-mehyn-of-urien-rheged-and-eildon.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-vythneint-elei-of-pa-gur-poem-new.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/07/note-on-third-rapter-of-elei-gwyn.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/07/was-i-on-right-track-with-uther-pen-son.html

I went ahead and included there my idea for the Uther Pen[dragon] who fought with Gwythur in the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen' being the Penn son of Nethawc who fought with Gwythyr in 'Culhwch ac Olwen.'  There are some Nectans attested in the region of the Eildons in the right time period. One of them can be associated with a Nudd, the same name as the father of Gwyn, opponent of Gwythyr.  While the action of the 'Culhwch ac Olwen' story of Gwythyr and Gwyn takes place in Pictland, it would have been an easy matter for a Nectan in the Lowlands to have been identified with a Nectan in the Highlands through the usual folkloristic processes.

Now that I have finally committed myself to an Arthur in the North

 (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/illtud-as-arthurs-father-no-go.html), it seems necessary to explore the possibility of a origin point in the Scottish Lowlands one last time.  While putting Uther and Arthur at the Banna Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall has a lot going for it, we cannot utilize any known genealogical trace or personal-names embedded in the landscape at Banna to prove their presence there.  Lacking such a strand of tradition will always leave the site tantalizing, but doubtful.

I've pasted below a map of the Catrail, showing the locations of the Eildon Hills and the Yarrow Stone in relation to the course of the dyke.

Mabonlaw is (as the crow flies) about 20 kilometers/12.5 miles from the Eildons, just to help provide scale of distance.  But it is only a handful of miles from the Catrail.

Alan James has told me the following about W. mehyn:

"GPC compares mehyn with OIr magen 'lle'; that's a clue to its etymology, *mag-īno-, so related to maes. DIL s.v. maigen gives the meaning 'a piece of open land; a spot, place in the widest sense', very similar to maes. I suppose *Y Mehyn might have been used as a name for a region or district of open country."

Lle is:

"locality, area, region, neighbourhood (sometimes transf. of its inhabitants); a specific place, a general designation (e.g. for a city, town, village, farm); residence, dwelling; building or open space used for a specific purpose (e.g. worship, business, swimming)"

Given the location of Mabonlaw in relation to the Catrail, I think a sense of Palisaded Region for Eil Mehyn is quite reasonable.  Despite its fairy population, we cannot attest Maponus at the Eildons.  Apollo at Newstead in the Roman period, sure. But Mabonlaw can only be associated with the Catrail, not the Eildons.

Alan James, in continuing his discussion of mehyn, said -

"If you're looking for a region of open country, as mehyn might imply, in the Borders, I'd think the lower Tweed basin, downstream from Melrose to the Merse, would be likeliest. But the Catrail might possibly mark the western boundary."

Strength for the idea that Elei of Mabon may be in the North is found in my recent identification of one of the three raptors of Elei actually belonging to Preseli in Dyfed.  I had wondered if the unknown -eli Preseli, given a pyrs(g) first element, 'scrub, brush', might be the same word that Professor Peter Schrijver has traced to the Ely River - viz. a word that means fence or palisade, exactly as we find in the Catrail place-name and perhaps at the Eildons.  While writing this article, I heard back from Schrijver and will attach the full discussion here. His responses are in bold-face type. 

"Peter, could the -eli of Preseli be akin to W. ail, Irish aile, fence, palisade? For something like brush-palisade mountain?"

"Not bad. If ‘palisade’ is indeed from *alese/a-, as I suggested, then -eli is what we would expect." 

"I was thinking about your River Ely theory...

What gave me the idea is this:

In the PA GUR, one of the raptors (?) of Elei is Yscawen (or Kysceint, maybe Kysteint) son of Panon/Banon.  In CULHWCH AND OLWEN, this character dies fighting the great boar at Cwmcerwyn in Preseli.  Just before that some other of Arthur's men had died at the Nyfer.  As it  happens, the Afon Banon (later spelled Bannon) empties into the Nyfer.  It seemed to me this was fairly typical use of a river-goddess place-name.  That Elei was used (thought to be the Ely River in Glamorgan in this context) suggests there may have been a confusion and the son of Banon actually belongs at Preseli precisely because the second element of the mountain name is present in the river-name.

Make sense?"

"Makes sense."

I once wrote about Annan Street, so-called:

"According to https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/108609.pdf:

"The name 'Annan Street' in the Yarrow valley, which is also accompanied by a road-side cemetery, may indicate the presence of another lateral route, paralleling those in the valleys of Tweed and Lyne, and to the south over Craik Moor to Raeburnfoot, connecting Trimontium to the head of the Annan."

The Annan was the cult center of the god Maponus. Mabonlaw lies between the Annan and the Eildons.

A hero like the son of Banon who dies in Preseli could easily have been brought into the orbit of other heroes precisely because -eli of that place-name was the same as an ail- name in the North.  On the other hand, Preseli was in the kingdom of the Irish-founded dynasty of the Deissi, among whom was one Arthur son of Pedr.  There is no reason, though, to place Mabon in Dyfed.  

Over the next few days or weeks, I will be reconsidering the possibility that Uther belongs near the Eildons - specifically, in the area of Selkirk down the Yarrow Valley from the Yarrow Stone.  

NOTE: The name Artorius may be attested at Roman Trimontium:

https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/2489.67.i

 

Illtud as Arthur's Father: a No-Go

                   Liddington Castle

The concluding statements from my last two blog pieces:

"So where to go from here?  

Not back to the drawing board entirely. But the apparent PA GUR identification of Illtud with Uther continues to beckon, mainly because that strand of tradition leads straight to the Liddington Badbury. 

First off, then, will be a reevaluation of the three raptors of Elei, one of whom - Mabon son of Modron - was the servant of Uther Pendragon."

***

"My conclusion, therefore, is that 'Pa Gur' does, in fact, point strongly towards the presence of Uther Pendragon at Dinas Powys, and it is the unavoidable conclusion that at least as far as the author of the poem was concerned, Uther Pendragon was the Welsh rendering of the Latin military descriptors used for St. Illtud."

I once again find myself hearing my late father's words of wisdom: don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

If

1) the Pa Gur identifies Uther with Illtud and 

2) Illtud is once confused with a Sawyl and another time likened to Samuel

3) the Uther elegy, if we abide by a strict absence of poest end-rhyme, can have Uther say God transformed him into a second Sawyl 

and

4) Illtud was really born at Badbury/Liddington Castle hard by Durocornovium (cf. W. Cernyw) and Barbury Castle (the 'Bear's fort')

5) The AC have Badbury at Liddington as the site of the Second Battle of Badon

then perhaps this is what we should run with. We need not go so far as to bring Sawyl Benisel of the North into the picture. Really, our only justification for doing so would be my dubious identification of Madog Ailithir, son of Sawyl, with Madog and Eliwlad, son and grandson of Uther (see below).  

So let's try this on and see how it fits - while bearing in mind the Pa Gur's apparent identification of Uther as Illtud could be more spurious tradition.

First, to get another serious matter out of the way. What to do about CULHWCH AND OLWEN'S claim that Arthur's father had kin at Caer Dathal in Arfon? This hardly squares with an Uther hailing from the territory of the Roman period Dobunni!

Well, I already accounted for that in a previous article. Caer Dathal likely betrays an Irish Tuathal. The W. Cognate is Tudwal. Illtud taught a Tudwal who became a Breton saint. And a Tudwal was inserted into Uther's ancestry. Therefore, any supposed link with Caer Dathal could easily be bogus. Math of Caer Dathal is probably from Irish math, 'bear', and if the Welsh knew this then they may have chosen to put Arthur there, as arth meant 'bear' in their language. It seems unlikely that Caer Dathal is a relocation of Tintagel; rather it is probably the other way around.

Moving on...

None of the above seems to preclude the possibility that Illtud = Uther.  This is true even if we choose not to interpret the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen' lines as containing a metaphor comparing Uther to Sawyl/Samuel.  Going further and trying to make the Sawyl allusion into an identification with Sawyl Benisel is not viable, although I once very much liked the idea.  Even if Madoc Ailithir and Madog and his son Eliwlad are to be related to each other, it is probable that this merely represents an intrusion of nonhistorical material.  The final determining factor is refusing Sawyl Benisel is my certainty that L. Artorius Castus went to Armenia, which means any connection with the Ribchester fort of the Sarmatian veterans is severed.

The main argument against Eliwlad as a substitute for Ailithir is obvious: why not just use Ailithir or the direct Welsh rendering of the Irish name?  Eliwlad, given his clear modeling upon the death-eagle Lleu of the MABINOGION, makes much more sense as 'Grief-lord' (*Eiliw-gwlad).  

However, there is one HUGE reason for not choosing Illtud as Uther, or for selecting an origin point for Uther at the Liddington Badbury: ARCHEOLOGY.

I have remarked several times in the past the the Gewissei battles in the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE, when laid out on a map, clearly suggest that they were "designed" to provide a portrait of the boundaries of a nascent Wessex.  The lack of internal battles (or of any successful ones; we need only note that battles in Wiltshire, the core of the region, are few and far between, and are all unsuccessful).  The chronology of these battles is believed to be deeply flawed, and it is consensus opinion among Anglo-Saxon scholars that the enemy probably moved up the Thames Valley before making progress in the South.  Add to this the fact that we are no longer sure who the Gewissei were fighting for.  There are some scholars who think they were actually, originally, the British defenders of the area, and were co-opted by the victors when the latter wrote their own history.  Or the Gewissei could have been fighting for Britons in alliance with the Saxons against other Britons.  Thus trying to make a case for an Uther and Arthur militarily active in the Swindon area becomes difficult to maintain.  

The Gewissei Battles

But more telling are the Saxon settlement maps that have been made available to us by the archeologists.  These quite definitively show that at Arthur's dates (516 and 537), battles in the region we are talking about are an impossibility.  I am posting some of these maps below, all drawn from N. J. Higham's KING ARTHUR: MYTH-MAKING AND HISTORY:

Most amazing is the last map, showing the boundary area of the Saxons and Britons in the North from south of the Humber up into the Scottish Lowlands.  That line matches to an uncanny degree the distribution of Northern Arthurian battles I long ago established in my book THE BATTLE-LEADER OF THE NORTH.  But just as importantly is our acknowledgment of the extent of the Saxon settlements in the time of Arthur.  In brief, if we're talking about Arthur being in the heartland of the Dobunni kingdom, well, sorry, that was already English.  And if we want our hero to be the defender of any part of Britain at all, for even a relatively short period of time, we must look to the North.  For it is only there that archaeology proves the British were able to hold out much longer against the Saxon encroachment.  

One could place Arthur in the West country and in Cornwall, more of the Celtic Fringe, which is where some of the tradition places him. He would then be fighting on the eastern frontier against an expanding Wessex. But neither I nor anyone else has been able to find his battles in that region.  On the other hand, several of the HB battles can be conclusively shown to belong to the North.  There is no extant Camlann place-name in the South, either, and for Avalon we must default to the highly suspect Glastonbury.  Or we can look toward the Camboglanna Roman fort on the Wall, in the same river-valley near Banna with its Dark Age royal hall, and to Aballava/Avalana/"Avalon" just a few kilometers to the west.  

It is for these reasons that I have decided, once and for all, to abjure the Southern Arthur.  Any Welsh sources that put him in the South must be regarded as good stories only.  And as I can no longer resort to Sawyl at Ribchester, I will resign myself to accepting my earlier theory on an Arthur based at the center of Hadrian's Wall.  I do so realizing that I lose any traditional genealogical trace for Uther Pendragon.  But I can live with that.  When it comes to treating of things Arthurian, I have learned that we must lean on more reliable disciplines than early Welsh literary works.  I do utilize some Welsh records for my Northern Arthur, but these are used only when I can dovetail them convincingly with place-name studies and the like.  And I make use of them sparingly, tentatively and always with appropriate caveats.  

I will be offering once more for sale my book THE BATTLE-LEADER OF ARTHUR, and do not have plans to pursue other research avenues at this time.

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Leader-North-Definitive-Identification-Legendary-ebook/dp/B0B5CG54RT/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.fNN5AbiF0WC4ZPcsa3RUGLdY2FT5kb9H59h1jG5BUEs.vz_HGP0Rx5qsj52b0-yNrmfMj1CHhtEZIPX7RMl8iy0&qid=1716496940&sr=8-1

THE VYTHNEINT ELEI OF THE 'PA GUR' POEM: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THREE OF ARTHUR'S CHAMPIONS

The Afon Bannon (earlier Banon) near Cwymcerwyn

In the Arthurian 'Pa Gur' poem, we find the following lines:

vythneint Elei,

a ssivyon ell tri;

Mabon son of Modron,

guas Uthir Pendragon;

Kyscient mab Banon,

a Guin Godybrion.

'vythneint Elei' has always been emended to read wytheint 'birds of prey' or as gwytheint, 'anger, wrath, fury of war.'  So, instead of the three named warriors being 'the eight streams' of the River Ely in Glamorgan, we usually find translated the 'raptors of Elai' or similar.

The river-stream symbolism of vythneint/'eight streams', according to Patrick Sims-Williams (Arthurian Poems), may have caused Gwyn Godofrion to be included in the list, as he name means, literally, Gwyn Under-the-waters.  

However, after a recent discovery, I find myself wondering whether the emendation of 'eight streams' to 'raptors' is correct.

In CULHWCH AND OLWEN, we are told the great boar Twrch Trwyth is encountered at the River Nyfer (see map above).  There the beast kills several of Arthur's men.  Next the board goes to nearby Cwmcerwyn, and one of the men who die fighting him there is Yscawin son of Panon. The name has been shown to be a form (probably a corruption) of Kyscient mab Banon of the 'Pa Gur', itself probably a corrupt spelling of Kysteint or Constantius.  Banon is a Welsh word meaning 'queen.'

Well, a tributary of the Nyfer is the Afon Banon (later spelled Bannon).  This is a divine river-name, in all likelihood, and demonstrates that Kyscient's mother is a river.  Furthermore, the Banon has its source on the great Preseli hillfort, Foel Drygarn.

Yscawin may be closer to the original form of this character's name.  For Yscawin (see the note to the name Kysceint mab Banon in Nerys Ann Jones' ARTHUR IN EARLY WELSH POETRY), two etymologies have been proposed: ysgafn, 'light' (as in weight) or an eponym for Porth Ysgewin (modern Portskewett in Gwent). Ysgafn is fine, as its secondary meaning is "quick, swift, speedy, brisk, fleet, nimble, light-footed (GPC)", a fitting description for a water-course.  

[NOTE: the places associated with Yscawin are in Preseli, which I find recorded in 1303 as Presely.  The etymology is not known, although the first element is believed to be W. prys, a copse or a grove.  This leads one to wonder if the -eli portion of the mountain region name may have been confused for the Ely River.*] 

It has been suggested that Gwyn Godyfrion derives from a lost place-name.  This may be true, but is not necessary for our purposes.  It has been surmised that this is none other than Gwyn son of Nudd, King of the Fairies in Welsh tradition.  I am here quoting from P.C. Bartrum's A WELSH CLASSICAL DICTIONARY from his entry on Gwyn son of Nudd:

"According to the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym the owl was regarded as the bird of Gwyn ap Nudd.

The poet, having ridden one night into a turf bog on a mountain, calls it the ‘Fishpond of Gwyn ap

Nudd, a palace for goblins and their tribe.’"

This famous poet was of Ceredigion in Wales, so presimably the bog in question was located in that county.

I think we may then, credibly, describe Gwyn as a deity residing a a fairly typical Celtic underworld that was accessible through various bodies of water.  Anyone who has read about bog deposition of human sacrifice victims, weapons and the like will have no problem accepting this idea.

We also know that the Lydney Park temple in Gloucestershire, dedicated to Nodens ( = Nudd, father of Gwyn), had healing baths attached to it.

Interestingly, this particular aspect of Gwyn seems to be placed at Uther's Caer Dathal in Arfon. I recently identified Caer Dathal with either Dinas Dinorwig or Pier Camp at Hirael next to Bangor (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/caer-dathal-is-actually-identified-in.html).  From Note 288, Page 96 of Rachel Bromwich and Daniel Simon Evan's CULHWCH AND OLWEN: AN EDITION AND STUDY OF THE OLDEST ARTHURIAN TALE, The University of Wales, 1992:

"Gwynn Gotyuron: Gwin Godybrion is found in Pa Gur.  In a currupt form if appears as Gwyn Goluthon among the sons of Iaen."

I can think of no reason for Gwyn to be at Caer Dathal unless he were simply associated with Mabon servant of Uther, a fellow 'raptor' of Elei.  It is possible, I suppose, that the proximity of Moel Eilio (confused with Elei?) to Caer Dathal may have had something to do with this localization of Gwyn Below the Waters (see https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10669/moel_eilio.html for Moel Eilio as a favorite fairy haunt). 

Gwyn son of Nudd has holy water thrown on him in the vita of St. Collen, something that happens on the Tor at Glastonbury.  And the same Gwyn is said in Black Book of Carmarthen poem 97 to have his home at Mynydd y Drum on the Tawe between Ystradgynlais and Capel Coelbren.

So, we have two of the three Elei warriors with strong water connections.  What about Mabon son of Modron?

We do know that in CULHWCH AND OLWEN, Mabon goes into the Severn with the great boar.  However, I believe it is his mother we should be focusing on.  Modron is the Welsh form of the Gallic Matrona, goddess of the River Marne.   Maponus was identified with the sun god Apollo, who was frequently associated with healing springs.  An inscription featuring the god's name was found at Chamalieres at a thermal spring

(https://www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_1984_num_21_1_1761).

While it is uncertain whether the source of the 'Pa Gur' poem knew Mabon had strong associations with water, it seems as if all three of the Elei warriors were, indeed, water deities or, at least, aquatic-oriented demi-gods.  But why are these 'raptors' placed at the Ely? Especially as the three heroes with their water associations can easily be placed elsewhere?  Certainly Yscawin son of Banon belongs to Pembrokeshire with his mother the Afon Ban[n]on and the Gwyn of the medieval poet belongs in Ceredigion.  Mabon/Maponos was a northern deity in the Roman period (with a locus Maponi at either the Clochmabenstane or at Lochmaben, where there is an actual lake), but Welsh tradition also located him in Wales (his grave was in Nantlle, Gwynedd, and he takes part in the far-roaming boar hunt of CULHWCH AND OLWEN) and in Caer Gloyw/Gloucester, England.  The eponym of Gloucester/Glevum for the Welsh was Glywys, the traditional founder of the Glywysing in which is found Dinas Powys and the lower course of the Ely. The St. Mabyn in Cornwall may also be a relic of Maponos, and there is a Llanfabon and a couple of other Mabon names in southern Wales.  

And why point out in this context that Mabon is the servant of Uther Pendragon?  I have always thought this last was particularly important, as it might well tell us something important about Uther.  In the past I had tried to associate Mabon of the Ely with St. Illtud at Dinas Powys in his capacity as magister militum/princeps militum/terribilis miles.  And that had me going to Illtud as a possible candidate for Uther Pendragon, the Terrible Chief of Warriors.  

But is there something else going on here?  First and foremost, are we even right in seeing in Elei the Elai/Ely River in Glamorgan?  The water connection would prompt us to answer that question in the affirmative. [My earlier attempt to link Elei with the Eildons in the Scottish Lowlands does not have much to recommend itself.] And might vythneint or eight streams be correct?  I mean, perhaps originally these heroes belonged to the eight streams (tributaries) that were thought to have comprised the Ely.

The question that remains unanswered still is this: if all three water-based heroes have come to the Ely, why have they done so?  The only reason I can think of is to be at the place where Mabon could be the servant of Uther Pendragon - and that continues to be the Dark Age fortress of Dinas Powys.  We cannot say that they came from the Ely, as I've just shown that Gwyn and Yscawin belong elsewhere.  Saying that Mabon came from the Ely is possible, given that the lower course of the Ely was in Glwysing, and the church of Llanfabon was NE near the Taff, a river that shared an estuary with the Ely, but no where in the Welsh sources other than the 'Pa Gur' are we told Mabon belongs on the Ely.

My conclusion, therefore, is that 'Pa Gur' does, in fact, point strongly towards the presence of Uther Pendragon at Dinas Powys, and it is the unavoidable conclusion that at least as far as the author of the poem was concerned, Uther Pendragon was the Welsh rendering of the Latin military descriptors used for St. Illtud.  

*

While writing this article, I heard back from Schrijver and will attach the full discussion here. His responses are in bold-face type. 

"Peter, could the -eli of Preseli be akin to W. ail, Irish aile, fence, palisade? For something like brush-palisade mountain?"

"Not bad. If ‘palisade’ is indeed from *alese/a-, as I suggested, then -eli is what we would expect." 

"I was thinking about your River Ely theory...

What gave me the idea is this:

In the PA GUR, one of the raptors (?) of Elei is Yscawen (or Kysceint, maybe Kysteint) son of Panon/Banon.  In CULHWCH AND OLWEN, this character dies fighting the great boar at Cwmcerwyn in Preseli.  Just before that some other of Arthur's men had died at the Nyfer.  As it  happens, the Afon Banon (later spelled Bannon) empties into the Nyfer.  It seemed to me this was fairly typical use of a river-goddess place-name.  That Elei was used (thought to be the Ely River in Glamorgan in this context) suggests there may have been a confusion and the son of Banon actually belongs at Presseli precisely because the second element of the mountain name is present in the river-name.

Make sense?"

"Makes sense."

DECONSTRUCTING MY RIVAL THEORIES ON THE IDENTITY OF UTHER PENDRAGON: IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO MINE FROM THE 'MARWNAT VTHYR PEN'?

A Two-Tailed Comet

A few weeks ago, I went over the choice I was facing in terms of how to interpret a couple of key lines from the Uther elegy...

"Everything comes down to how I choose to read those critical lines of the MARWNAT VTHYR PEN:

May our God, the chief luminary, transform me

It's I whose a second Sawyl in the gloom

or as

May our God transform me, the Chief Basket 

It's I whose like a star [cannwyll in its trans. sense] in the gloom"

For the reasons expressed in the piece in question (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/04/and-winner-of-arthur-sweepstakes-is.html), I opted for the second choice.  

After reviewing everything I've done in terms of research on Uther these past many years - including, most recently, re-exploring the Gwythyr-Gwythur references in the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen' and 'Culhwch ac Olwen' - I feel compelled to reexamine everything from a more objective standpoint. 

Let us begin with Uther's dragon-star, something I have discussed many times (see, for instance, my statement on this celestial phenomenon in the link supplied above).  

The story of the dragon-star in Geoffrey of Monmouth is a famous one.  Here is the translation of the episode from THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN by Lewis Thorpe:

"On his way to the battle, Uther saw a most remarkable spectacle in the skies. There appeared a star of such magnitude and brilliance that it was seen both day and night. The star emitted a single ray of light that created a fiery mass resembling the body and head of a dragon. Shining from the mouth of the dragon came two rays of light [actually the typical two tails of a comet]. One extended out across the skies of Britain and over Gaul. The other extended out over the Irish Sea culminating in seven lesser beams of light. Such was its magnitude, it could be seen all across Britain and beyond, and filled the people with fear and dread not knowing what it might portend."

Merlin tells the king this about the star:

"For the star, and the fiery dragon under it, signifies yourself, and the ray extending towards the Gallic coast, portends that you shall have a most potent son [Arthur], to whose power all those kingdoms shall be subject over which the ray reaches. But the other ray signifies a daughter, whose sons and grandsons shall successively enjoy the kingdom of Britain.”

When one reads the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen', one notices first that Uther calls himself gorlassar, an epithet meaning 'the very blue', a reference (perhaps) to blue-enamelled armor and/or weapons, woad tattooing (my suggestion) or even the blue glow of a comet (!).  We do know that Geoffrey of Monmouth took this epithet and converted it into Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall.  But, in a nod to the original source, he has Uther transform into Gorlois, thus becoming gorlassar.  

If we do not accept cannwyll in its trans. sense of star for the line in question, we are left scratching our heads as to where Geoffrey came up with his comet motif.  Obviously, a poetic metaphor that has God transform Uther into a star in the gloom easily accounts for the motif.  Otherwise, we can credit Geoffrey with pure creativity in this context.  He might have had the comet appear because there was a tradition of a comet appearing at the death of Ambrosius  or merely because it was medieval tradition that comets heralded the deaths of great kings.  My idea that the comet was a real one, dateable to the ascension of Uther to the kingship, is not impossible, but the problem we face is that Ambrosius was a 4th century figure, not a 5th century one.  Certainly, Geoffrey's interpretation of Pendragon as 'the dragon's head' permitted him to associate this epithet with the comet, complete with head and twin-tails.

But I rather tend to think of Geoffrey as a genius of synthesis, and it makes more sense to imagine him

concocting the story of the star by drawing the image of Uther as a star directly from the poem.

Accepting cannwyll in this line leaves us with 'pen kawell' in the preceding line.  According to Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales, because of the grammatical structure of the line (where a preposition such as ym/yn, 'in, at', fronting pen kawell is missing), the phrase cannot be a place-name.  Thus the phrase must be a reference to to either God or Uther in the line as 'chief something' or 'chief of something.'  Kawell if left unamended means 'basket.'  If we allow a slight change to kafell (a word originating from the same Latin source as kawell), we have 'sanctuary, temple, holy of holies.'  

Now, we must ask an honest question: does it make more sense to allow kafell for God - the Chief of the Sanctuary/Holy of Holies - or kawell for Ceawlin?  If the latter, why not use the full name from the Anglo-Saxon source?  Or why not use Cunedda, if the Welsh knew that's who Ceawlin was?  While my idea for kawell as Ceawlin is quite clever, if we go simply by logic in this context (since we lack any true evidence), I must say that Pen Kafell for God must be preferred.

This would mean the relevant lines of the Uther elegy should read as follows:

May our God, the chief of the temple, transform me

It's I whose like a star in the gloom

Note that cannwyl also had a trans. sense of 'leader', and so matches the meanng of the tywyssawc, 'leader' in the darkness two lines up.  

This eminently practical rendering is fatal to both of my previous theories on the identiy of Uther Pendragon.  We lose Ceawlin, and we lose Sawyl (whether this last is for St. Illtud or for Sawyl Benisel).  

What, if anything, are we left with, then?

THE ONLY REMAINING APPARENT CLUE REGARDING UTHER'S IDENTITY RELATES TO THE GWYTHYR/GWYTHUR CHARACTER FOUND IN BOTH THE 'MARWNAT VTHYR PEN' AND 'CULHWCH AC OLWEN.'

Otherwise, in terms of what the Welsh sources have to offer us, we have only Uther's relationship to the men of Caer Dathal in Arfon.  

As a possibly valuable exercise (if for no other reason than to be able to exclude yet more relics of traditional story from history), I had once looked at the other personages mentioned in the Uther elegy.  All of them could be placed in the North.  See

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-four-chieftains-of-uther-pendragon.html

There is only one possible place-name in the Uther elegy.  Marged Haycock does a good job of discussing it in her notes to the poem:

hayarndor edeithor pen mynyd.

an iron door, a fire break on the mountain top.

hayarndor edeithor pen mynyd Hayarndor, cf. durdor CBT II 2.41 and many

compounds in dor (listed by G) ‘entrance, door; defence’ including §18.24

pybyrdor; §23.16 tewdor; Echrys Ynys line 7 Seon tewdor; and several CBT

instances, especially by Cynddelw who also uses haearn as first element

(haearndawn; haearnllu). Hayarndor is not paralleled in poetry, however.

Edeithor is not attested elsewhere: G suggests et (bet) ‘until’ (cf. educher

‘until evening’) + a word meaning ‘gap, haven’, etc., or alternatively, a

compound of root of godeith ‘fire, conflagration’ + or ‘boundary, limit, edge’.

Godeith with mynyd, EWSP 460.19 ruthur godeith ar diffeith vynyd. More radical

emendations might involve diachor ‘invincible’; durdor (cf. CBT II 2.41 Escor

dor, durdor diachoraf); eissor ‘nature’; eurddor; rheithor, pedeiror, etc. Echdor

is collocated with dor and compounds in CBT I 25.16 Kyueissor Echdor, aerdor

eurdyrn; IV 6.122 Echel dor, Echdor gor goeluein (and 6 other instances in CBT

corpus). But these can be no more than speculation. The translation follows G’s

second suggestion. The line, following suggested cerenhyd, thus has two images

of defence — the door of iron, and a boundary or limit (or) to the blazing heather,

gorse, etc. (godeith, or some other formation from *deith) on the mountain top.

Pen mynydd simply ‘on the mountain top’; although a reference to

Penmynydd, Anglesey, a house of the Tudur family in the 14c (see GGM I, 14-

15) cannot be ruled out. Cynddelw refers to Penmynydd in his praise-poem to St

Tysilio who had connections with Anglesey as well as with Meifod in Powys

(CBT III 3.196).

Pen Mynydd on Anglesey actually has white and red dragon place-names associated with it, and a dragon story that resembles what we find associated with Dinas Emrys.  I wrote about this in detail in the following post:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/10/uther-and-dragons-of-gwynedd.html

Alas, there is nothing at that Penmynydd that would evoke an iron door or some sort of fiery barrier.  Indeed, there is no sign of any kind of fortification. Of all the Pen Mynydds I have been able to find, including some in the North (see https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2019_Edition.pdf under the listing for mönïδ (m), mïnïδ), only one has atop it a significant fortification: the Penmynydd at The Bulwark hillfort at Llanmadoc (https://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?x=243500&y=192500&z=120&sv=llanmadoc&st=3&tl=Map+of+Llanmadoc+Hill,+Swansea+/+Abertawe+[Hill/Mountain]&searchp=ids&mapp=map, https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/301327/).  It will be recalled that Uther's son was named Madog.

There is a cromlech called Coetan Arthur at Cae pen Mynydd near Penllech on Anglesey:

https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/placenames/recordedname/d6c301ec-f745-4f75-bc86-b7f5abc75169

https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/93509

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=10610

Any Uther site found in Wales, it goes without saying,  must be suspect.  Why?  Because it was the habit of the Welsh storytellers (who were so often crafting propagandist pseudo-history) to bring heroes from all over Britain to Wales.  This was a natural development of the shrinking borders of the Cymry, the formation of the so-called Celtic Fringe.  When your hero belonged in a place that had long been English, you "imported" him to a location that was still perceived as being British. We have plenty of examples of this being done in the Welsh literary record.  Caer Dathal may be nothing more than a Welsh substitution for Tintagel (I wrote on that possibility in some detail) or if the Welsh knew Math of Caer Dathal meant 'bear" in Irish, they may have put Arthur at the fort for no other reason than his name was construed as containing W. arth, 'bear.'

If we look outside of Wales, the last somewhat intriguing bit of tradition remains Gwythyr.  But positing Uther as Penn son of Nethawc utilizes a story that comprises a horribly garbled legend, throwing together Picts and Dalriadans, a god (Gwyn), a mock goddess (Creiddylad) and a Welsh form of Victor which itself may be a Latinized version of an Irish name (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/04/creiddylad-not-goddess-welsh.html)!  That's a pretty flimsy basis for a historical theory.

Right about now my readers are saying to themselves, "Uh, you've just systematically destroyed all your theories."  I suppose that is true, in a way.  I look at it differently, though.  Had I not delved very deeply into every nook and cranny of Welsh heroic tradition for information that might help produce a valid candidate for Uther, I would not know that such tradition, while immensely valuable from a literary standpoint, is of really no value at all in discovering any history.  I now have such serious doubts about all of it that I can understand why academia simply refuses to deal with the notion of a historical Arthur.

Fortunately, I do still possess something of worth.  It is, of all things, a simple map.

This map was fashioned after years of research into the Arthurian battle names as found in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM and the ANNALES CAMBRIAE. I brought everything I had to bear on the problems involved with finding and substantiating these battle names.  

The conclusion I had reached in my first book, THE BATTLE-LEADER OF THE NORTH, was that place-names, history, archaeology and associated disciplines combined to suggest a man on Hadrian's Wall who had fought up and down the ancient Roman Dere Street. I will not here seek to repeat the many arguments that led me to this conclusion.  Suffice it to say that, in the main, I was able to avoid the pitfalls I later encountered when I decided to look for more specific information in the Welsh heroic poetry and stories.  The "hypothetical" Arthur on the Wall seemed to fit the bill.  

I now realize that much time, energy and anguish could have been saved had I not plunged down the rabbit holes of folklore, myth and legend and romantic fiction.  Had I not done so, however, I would never have known what I know now: that there does not seem to be any reliable historical information preserved in the Welsh traditional material outside of the bare battle lists of the HB and AC.  And, as has been discussed endlessly by highly qualified scholars, even those are not entirely above suspicion.

So where to go from here?  

Not back to the drawing board entirely. But the apparent PA GUR identification of Illtud with Uther continues to beckon, mainly because that strand of tradition leads straight to the Liddington Badbury. 

First off, then, will be a reevaluation of the three raptors of Elei, one of whom - Mabon son of Modron - was the servant of Uther Pendragon.

SHOULD AN OLD THEORY BE RESURRECTED? [ON RECONSIDERING UTHER PEN SON OF NETHAWC]

An old theory of mine I'd completely forgotten...

Not even quite sure why I abandoned it.  Happened to stumble across it as I was double-checking for anything I may have missed when it comes to the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen'.

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/07/was-i-on-right-track-with-uther-pen-son.html

I wrote a great many articles on the subject, only a few of which are listed in this particular post.

Seems I will have to search through my own material to try and find why I discarded the idea.  In brief, I had attempted to show that the Uther Pen who fights with Gwythur ( = Gwythyr) in the elegy was the same as the Penn son of Nethawc who fought with Gwythyr in CULHWCH AND OLWEN.  It was rather elegant idea, and even provided an alternative interpretation for the 'pen kawell' of the elegy, viz. Kincavil in West Lothian.  

Thus before I commit to what I have in my current books, I need to refresh my memory on why this theory proved unworkable.  Probably I jettisoned it when I realized the whole Gwythyr episode takes place in Pictland (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/04/creiddylad-not-goddess-welsh.html).  But this is not sufficient justification, as a Nethawc of the Scottish Lowlands could easily have become confused with a similarly named figure in the Highlands.  

Stay tuned!

NOTE:

Ah ha!  I found why I decided against this notion...

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-argument-against-penn-son-of.html

ILLTUD: THE SAINT WHO WON'T GO AWAY

In the early Welsh poem 'Kadeir Teyrnon', a chieftain (either Arthur or Uther), is said to be of the lineage of Aladur and the ruler of Rheon.  While at least one scholar has proposed that Aladur is the Romano-British period god Alator, I have shown that this is not the case, and we have in Aladur merely another spelling for Welsh Aldwr, their version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Aldroenus of Brittany.  For links on all this, please see

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d64323b9-f85b-48d0-b162-fa96d050554a/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=A%2BNote%2Bon%2BAladur%2C%2BAlator%2Band%2BArthur.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/arthur-and-god-alator-of-south-shields.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/10/antor-foster-father-of-kay-and.html

As for Rheon, it is typically believed to be a reference to Pen Rhionydd of the North, as this place is said to be ruled over by Arthur in one of the Triads.

Professor Patrick Sims-Williams discusses the Rheon place-name in a footnote to his THE MEDIEVAL WELSH ENGLYNION Y BEDDAU:

"Probably Rhyd Reon in actual speech, as observed in BBCSG 111 (cf. ‘Rheon Rhyd or Rhyd

Rheon’ in Lewis Morris’s index to Englynion y Beddau in BL Add. 14941, fols 27–46). It is

interesting that the inversion also occurs in Gwilym Ddu o Arfon (quoted below). The following

place-names in poetry are of doubtful relevance since no ford is mentioned: (1) Luch Reon in the

Book of Taliesin, questionably equated with Loch Ryan, Wigtownshire (LPBT no. 8.35, cf. 9.6

and nn., also Jones, Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry, p. 130); (2) an unidentified (northern?) Kaer

Reon in the Oianau (LlDC no. 17.171), not obviously identical either with an equally obscure

Kaer Rian in Daronwy (PBT no. 1.49, see n.) or with Pen(ryn) Rioned (-yd) yn y gogled in Trioedd

Ynys Prydain and Enwau Ynys Prydain (TYP4 4); (3) a plana Reontis in John of Cornwall’s

Propheta Merlini, lines 80 and 148, discussed by Curley, ‘A New Edition of John of Cornwall’s

Prophetia Merlini’, p. 224 (see below, p. 154); (4) a Rhiw Rheon in a cywydd attributed to

Dafydd ap Gwilym, possibly on the stream which rises at Blaenrheon (SO 9827) and runs into

the Usk at Aberheon, west of Brecon (see notes in GDG 66.3 = Dafydd ap Gwilym.net no. 64.3;

also R. F. Peter Powell, ‘The Place-Names of Devynock Hundred I: Pen–Pont’, Brycheiniog,

21 (1984–85), 73–89 (pp. 82 and 85–87). This could be based on a personal name, like many

Welsh river-names. (5) Another occurrence of (4), which has not been noticed in this connection,

in Coronog Faban, a prophecy in Y Cwta Cyfarwydd (Peniarth 50, s. xv med.) which speaks of

fighting the English around the caer of tir teon (i.e. Powys or part of it) and at riỽ reon (quoted in

EVW 145); the poet is obviously influenced by his rhyme scheme, but it is clear from the context

that some place in Wales is meant. On some of the above names see Sims-Williams, ‘Middle

Welsh Reon’."

The most interesting of these sites is that of Blaenrheon, which is on a stream called Nant Rheon.  This stream comes down from MYNYDD ILLTUD, the Mountain of Illtud, the location of a church dedicated to the saint and an ancient burial monument claimed as his tomb.  Atop part of the mountain, and very near the Rheon, is a hillfort:

https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/305069/

"About 1.8 km E. of Pen-pont church a small, oval, univallate enclosure occupies the upper slopes of a rounded hilltop whose summit is 367 m above O.D. The hill is at the N.E. end of the ridge of Mynydd Illtyd. To the N. the ground falls away steeply to the River Usk 1.25 km away and W. to Nant Rheon, a  tributary of the Usk, 0.5 km away at its nearest. The slopes on the E. are less formidable but still relatively steep while to the S. there is a saddle leading to rising, though less elevated, land."

Years ago now I had sought to account for Illtud's presence here by a local place-name - Defynnog.  This name seemed to contain a personal name DOBUNNOS, cf. the Dobunni tribal name.  

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/10/how-welsh-tradition-confirms-that.html?m=0

My research had shown me that Illtud's birthplace of "Llydaw" or "Brittany" was actually a site found within the ancient kingdom of the Dobunni:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2023/01/illtuds-father-bicanus-and-his-llydaw.html

So, are we to view the Rheon at Illtud's Mountain and its hillfort as a coincidence?  Or might the presence of this place-name at an Illtud site have influenced the tradition underlying the Triad that has Arthur ruling at Pen Rhionydd in the North?

Well, the argument for Illtud as Uther is a good one, although I'm still trying to decide how valid it might actually be.  We can say the following about a proposed identification of the two men:

1) Uther Pendragon could easily represent a Welsh version of the Latin military terms and titles applied to the warrior-saint.  The latter is not only a magister militum and princeps militum, but a terribilis miles.  

2) Mabon son of Modron as Uther's servant is said to be from the Elai, i.e. the Ely River in Glamorgan.  It is here that we find Dinas Powys, a known Dark Age center where it is almost certain Illtud served as master of the soldiers.

3) An acceptable (and some would say preferred) translation of the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen' poem would have Uther transformed into a second Sawyl (= Biblical Samuel).  Illtud is confused with and associated with Samuel/Sawyl in both a saint's life (that of Cadoc) and in Geoffrey of Monmouth.

The leap from Illtud to another Sawyl, i.e. Sawyl Benisel of the North, is strained at best.  The only real reason for looking toward Sawyl B. is a possible correspondence between his son Madoc Ailithir and Uther's son Madog and grandson Eliwlad (as this last name may be semantically identical to the Ailithir epithet of Madoc).  Of course, the northern battles are more convincing than southern ones (which can only be located by resorting to a comparison with the Gewissei battles of the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE).  The problem with the two Madogs is that it would appear Uther's son and grandson are to be situated in the Nantlle Valley.  See

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-shocking-discovery-real-location-of.html

Obviously, that could be a relocation.  But as the original location (according to "The Dialogue of Arthur and the Eagle") is Cornwall, we would have to assume the son and grandson of Uther were moved from Samlesbury near Ribchester first and this is more than a bit of a stretch.  

Yes, once again, Illtud is not recorded as having any children.  And he put away his wife to become a religious.  But there is always the possibility that when Uther the soldier was "converted" into a saint, the one man became divided into two separate men, as it were.  Or it may be that simply by designating Illtud as Uther Pendragon a situation was created in which the latter could be looked upon as another man. After all, Uther's gorlassar epithet was made into Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall, so it is not difficult to see how at one time Illtud and Uther may themselves have come to be seen as unrelated individuals.  

The only thing preventing me from making too much of the Rheon at Illtud's Mountain is the CULHWCH AND OLWEN claim that Uther was related to the men of Caer Dathal in Arfon. That is the only statement we have in the Welsh tradition that definitively localizes Uther's point of origin.  Can we trust the reference?  Who knows!  But it is all that we have to go on.

Even Caer Dathal may point elsewhere.  If the name Dathal is for Irish Tuathal, we have several Welsh Tudwal cognates, two of whom we can link to both Illtud and Arthur:

TUDUAL. Breton Saint. (480) Three Lives were edited by Arthur le Moyne de la Borderie in Mémoires de la Soc. Archéol. des Côtes-du-Nord, Second Series, II.77-122. ‘His mother was called Pompaia, the sister of count Rigual [Riwal] who was the first of the Britons to come from beyond the sea’. Pompaia is thought to be the same as Alma Pompa, the mother of Leonorius (LBS I.299). In the Life of St.Brioc he is said to be nephew of Brioc. He is also mentioned in the Life of St. Briac. He was born in Wales and educated under St.Illtud. He crossed over to Brittany and founded the monastery of Tréguier on the Jaudy on land granted to him by Deroch son of Rigual. St.Paul was then at Léon. See LBS I.263, 296-7, IV.271-4; G.H.Doble, The Saints of Cornwall, IV.92-93 and n.30. November 30 is the commonest date given for his commemoration (LBS IV.273). John of Glastonbury (Chronica, ed. Thomas Hearne, p.450) says that at Glastonbury was preserved ‘a bone of St.Rumon, brother of St.Tidwal’ (G.H.Doble, The Saints of Cornwall, II.125).

TUDWAL ap GWRFAWR or MORFAWR. (370)

Genealogical link in the ancestry of Custennin Gorneu; father of Cynfor (MG 5, JC 11, ByS 76,

ByA 30 in EWGT pp.39, 45, 65, 93).

Uther, of course, is placed in the direct descent line of this Custennin.  And I have shown that the relationship may instead point to a Custennin of Ercing, which in the Roman period was part of the Dobunni kingdom.  The Custennin place-name in Ercing is (see the link above) is where Illtud supposedly came from (although this may itself be a relocation from a site in Wiltshire). From P.C. Bartrum's A WELSH CLASSICAL 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)."

We could thus say - and would be fully justified in doing so - that Uther's association with Caer Dathal was due solely to Illtud's/Uther's traditional descent from a Tudwal!  

If nothing else, this blog post shows how complicated heroic tradition can be.  Its various strands - real or merely imagined - can be followed down many different paths.  Whether one of those avenues through the labyrinth might be correct seems likely, unless the entire story of Arthur is contrived.  And today it is the consensus opinion of the professional academic community that what we have in the Arthurian corpus is nothing more than folklore and literary invention. 

CONCLUDING STATEMENT

A few weeks ago, I went over the choice I was facing in terms of how to interpret a couple of key lines from the Uther elegy...

"Everything comes down to how I choose to read those critical lines of the MARWNAT VTHYR PEN:

May our God, the chief luminary, transform me

It's I whose a second Sawyl in the gloom

or as

May our God transform me, the Chief Basket 

It's I whose like a star in the gloom"

For the reasons expressed in the piece in question (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/04/and-winner-of-arthur-sweepstakes-is.html), I opted for the second choice.  This was with full knowledge that, while allowed by the experts, it did represent what would be the only instance of proest rhyme in the entire poem.  Both Dr. Simon Rodway and Professor Peter Schrijver preferred the first reading.

To be honest, I went away from it solely because the kawell/basket of the second rendering so perfectly matched what appeared to be present in the Ceawlin name of the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE.  Making this identification made it possible to claim that Arthur's father was Cunedda 'Maquicoline.'  I had come to dislike the Sawyl idea not only because I personally doubted Illtud was Uther, but also because the use of the Sawyl name introduced the complication posed by Sawyl Benisel and his son Madog Ailithir.  And let me emphasize this last: while Eliwlad (grandson of Uther) can be etymologized as *Eiliw-gwlad or 'Grief-lord' (my own secondary proposed form), the resemblance of this name to Ailithir ('other land', i.e. a pilgrim) remains uncanny - especially when taken in the context of the name Madoc.  In addition, Eliwlad occurs in a Christian didactic poem that is remarkably similar to another such which contains a character called merely creiriwr, 'pilgrim.' I still feel that ignoring what appears to be some kind of tie to Sawyl Benisel through the names Madog/Madoc and Eliwlad-Ailithir is a mistake.  

How strange, and how unfair, that after decades of Arthurian research my quest for Arthur should come down to having to select one reading over the other in a rather opaque heroic song!

The only way forward at this point is to leave BOTH books published - the one of Sawyl Benisel as Uther and the one on Cunedda as Uther.  My readers can compare them and decide which one they like best - or they may reject each theory in turn.  Should I come up with something in the future that leads me to finally side with one theory over the other I will, of course, announce that here and make the appropriate decision regarding the ultimate disposition of the two conflicting books.  

THE ORIGINAL SUB-ROMAN OWNER OF DINAS EMRYS REVEALED

Many Arthurian researchers have delved into the possible historical nature of whoever may have been the actual lord of Dinas Emrys.  It is well known that as it stands, the folktale of Vortigern and Ambrosius/Emrys (for whom Geoffrey of Monmouth later substituted his Merlin/Myrddin) is just that - an interesting traditional episode without historical value. The folktale itself is complex, and I have dealt with it in great detail elsewhere.  A sort of addendum to the story is the supposed original name of the fort - Dinas Ffaraon Ddande, which can easily be shown to include an epithet for Vortigern derived from Gildas.

Clearly, though, Dinas Emrys was an important site.  It has produced evidence for Iron Age, Roman and early Medieval occupation (https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/95284/). But to whom did it belong in the age of Uther and Arthur?

I think I may now know the answer to that question.  There are a couple of clues embedded in the Vortigern-Emrys story.

Firstly, Emrys is brought to the fort to act as a foundation sacrifice.  The druids of Vortigern are in charge of this enterprise, and we must presume that the said sacrifice, designated as particularly sacred because he had no human father, was being dedicated to a deity.  Archaeology has found such foundation sacrifices, and they can, indeed, be children.  The druids felt it was necessary to give Emrys to a specific deity, so that the fortress would remain firm and stop sinking into the ground.

Secondly, after Emrys reveals to Vortigern and the druids why the fortress is sinking, and then explains the symbolic nature of the dragons in the pool, the high king gives (L. dedit) Dinas Emrys and all of western Wales, i.e. Gwynedd, to the boy.

The folktale is thus bracketed with a sort of double gifting - the boy to the deity as a sacrifice, and the fort and western Wales to the boy to rule over.

We next need to consult with the The List of Historic Place-Names of Wales

(https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/) on the early cantref in which Dinas Emrys was situated.  This was the response from Dr James January-McCann of that organization to my query on this subject:

"Dinas Emrys was very much in Dunoding."

Ah ha! Now we were getting somewhere.  

Dunod was a son of the great Cunedda, and Dunoding was his kingdom in Gwynedd.  The name is a Welsh form of the Latin Donatus. Yes, you have read that correctly.  This name is directly related to L. donum and its derivatives.  Surprisingly,  L. dedit shares the same root (do).  I will list all the relevant words and their definitions from various respectable sources below.

Dinas Emrys in Dunoding Cantref (courtesy https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/)

Dinas Emrys in Eifionydd Commote*

What I am suggesting, of course, is that the fort originally belonged to Dunod, son of Cunedda.  But that the name, linked wrongly or fancifully with Latin words for gift and dedication, was co-opted for use in the concocting of the Emrys story.  A donum could be a sacrifice given to a deity, and buildings and such could be dedicated to deities. In my opinion, this double-gift motif found in the Dinas Emrys folktale could derive from the fact that Dunod once held the fort and all of the territory around it.

For the giving of gifts in the Roman world, see this excellent article:

https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-8239?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199381135.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199381135-e-8239&p=emailA%2FyqlFGBP%2FDAI

And on the Latin words we are interested in:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Ddo1

do , dĕdi, dătum, dăre (also in a longer form, dănunt = dant, Pac., Naev., and Caecil. ap. Non. 97, 14 sq.; Plaut. Most. 1, 2, 48; id. Ps. 3, 1, 1 et saep.; cf. Paul. ex Fest. p. 68, 12 Müll.—

I.Subj.: “duim = dem,” Plaut. Aul. 4, 6, 6; Ter. Heaut. 1, 1, 38: “duis,” Plaut. Capt. 2, 2, 81; id. Men. 2, 1, 42: “duas = des,” id. Merc. 2, 3, 67; id. Rud. 5, 3, 12; an old formula in Liv. 10, 19: “duit,” Plaut. As. 2, 4, 54; id. Aul. 1, 1, 23; an old formula in Liv. 22, 10 init.: “duint,” Plaut. Most. 3, 1, 126; id. Ps. 4, 1, 25; id. Trin. 2, 4, 35; Ter. And. 4, 1, 43; id. Phorm. 3, 2, 34 al.—Imper.: DVITOR, XII. Tab. ap. Plin. 21, 3, 5 ex conject.—Inf.: DASI = dari, acc. to Paul. ex Fest. p. 68, 13 Müll.: “dane = dasne,” Plaut. Truc. 2, 4, 22.—The pres. pass., first pers., dor, does not occur), v. a. Sanscr. dā, da-dā-mi, give; Gr. δί-δω-μι, δωτήρ, δόσις; cf.: dos, donum, damnum, to give; and hence, with the greatest variety of application, passing over into the senses of its compounds, derivatives, and synonyms (edere, tradere, dedere; reddere, donare, largiri, concedere, exhibere, porrigere, praestare, impertire, suppeditare, ministrare, subministrare, praebere, tribuere, offerre, etc.), as, to give away, grant, concede, allow, permit; give up, yield, resign; bestow, present, confer, furnish, afford; offer, etc. (very freq.).

dōnum , i, n. do,

I.a gift, present.

I. In gen., Plaut. Am. prol. 138 sq.; id. Most. 1, 3, 27 sq.; id. Mil. 4, 2, 26; Cic. Clu. 9 fin.; id. Tusc. 5, 7, 20; id. Lael. 15, 55 et saep.: “dona mittunt et munera,” Plaut. Mil. 3, 1, 121; so with munus (usu. dona muneraque, = bribery), id. Cist. 1, 1, 95; Cic. Clu. 24, 66; id. Arch. 8, 18; id. de Or. 2, 71; id. de Sen. 12, 40; Dig. 38, 1, 7 al.—

II. In partic.

A. A present brought to a deity, a votive offering, sacrifice, Plaut. Rud. prol. 23; Lucr. 4, 1237; 6, 752; Cic. Rep. 2, 24 fin.; Liv. 2, 23; 5, 25; Verg. A. 3, 439 et saep.; cf. “turea,” offerings of incense, Verg. A. 6, 225.—

B. Ultima or suprema dona, the last honors, funeral rites, obsequies, Ov. H. 7, 192; Val. Fl. 2, 471; Sen. Hippol. 1273.

dōnātĭo , ōnis, f. id.,

I.a presenting, a donation; in abstr. and concr. (for syn. cf.: “donum, largitio, munus, donativum),” Cic. Phil. 4, 4, 9; Cic. Verr. 2, 3, 80; id. Opt. Gen. 7, 19; id. Rosc. Am. 9; Just. Inst. 2, 7, de donationibus; the same title appears in Dig. 39, 5, and 6; Cod. Just. 5, 3; Vulg. Rom. 5, 17 al.; cf. Rein's Privatr. p. 202 sq., and 340.

dē-dĭco

A. Relig. t. t., to dedicate, consecrate, set apart a thing to a deity or deified person (for syn. cf.: “1. dico, consecro, inauguro, initio.—Class.): nonne ab A. Postumio aedem Castori ac Polluci in foro dedicatam vides?” Cic. N. D. 3, 5, 13: “aedem Saturno,” Liv. 2, 21: “aedem Mercurii,” id. 2, 27 et saep.: “delubrum Homeri,” Cic. Arch. 8 fin.: “simulacrum Jovis,” Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 28: “loca sacris faciendis,” Liv. 1, 21: “aram Augusto,” Suet. Claud. 2: “domum Dei,” Vulg. 2 Par. 7, 5; id. 3 Reg. 8, 63.

b. With the deity as object instead of the temple: “ut Fides, ut Mens, quas in Capitolio dedicatas videmus (i. e. quarum aedes),” Cic. N. D. 2, 23, 61; 2, 31, 79 (cf. however, id. Leg. 2, 11, 28): “Junonem,” Liv. 5, 52, 10: “Apollinem,” Hor. Od. 1, 31, 1; “and even te quoque magnificā, Concordia, dedicat aede, Livia,” Ov. F. 6, 637.—

dēdĭcātĭo , ōnis, f. dedico,

I.dedication, consecration: “aedis,” Liv. 2, 27: “theatri,” Plin. 7, 48, 49, § 158; Suet. Claud. 21: “pontis,” id. Calig. 32: “domus Dei,” Vulg. 1 Esdr. 6, 16: “statuae,” id. Dan. 3, 2 al.

dēdĭtĭo , ōnis, f. dedo, no. I. B.,

I.a (military) giving up, a surrender, capitulation (freq. in the historians).—With subj. gen.: “deditio sui,” Curt. 5, 1, 18.— Plur.: “deditiones cohortium,” Tac. H. 3, 70. —With gen. obj.: “ipsius corporis,” Dig. 9, 4, 1; Liv. 31, 18, 6; but usually absol.: “Helvetii legatos de deditione ad eum miserunt,” Caes. B. G. 1, 27; cf.: “de deditione agere,” id. B. C. 3, 28; 3, 97: “aliquem in deditionem petere,” Aur. Vict. Vir. Ill. 23, 7: “aliquem in deditionem accipere,” id. B. G. 1, 28; 2, 13; Sall. J. 29, 5; Liv. 23, 30 et saep.: “seque in deditionem ut recipiat,” Caes. B. G. 3, 21 fin.: “in deditionem redigere,” Flor. 3, 10, 25: “deditionis condicio,” Caes. B. G. 2, 32: “deditione facta,” id. ib. 2, 33: “subire deditionem,” id. B. C. 1, 81, 5: “in deditionem venire,” to surrender, id. ib. 3, 99, 3; Liv. 9, 20; 40, 33: “omissa deditione,” Sall. J. 66, 1; cf. id. ib. 70, 1 Kritz.: “deditio ad tam infestos,” Liv. 28, 22; cf.: “ad Romanos,” id. 8, 25: “cum locum tibi reliquum non modo ad pacem, sed ne ad deditionem quidem feceris,” Cic. Phil. 13, 21, 48 et saep. An unusual combination is deditionem suam ad aliquem absentem mittere, Flor. 3, 7, 5; v. Graev. ad loc.

*

Eifionydd was named for Ebiaun, the son of Cunedda.  However, the name Ebiaun is not Irish.  It seems to be cognate (confirmation via Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales) with Gaulish Abianus, a water-god found at Glanum.  

"Some inscriptions were probably positioned outside the buildings, in the street,

similar to the Hercules altars at the spring. For example, a votive altar to Abianus was

discovered opposite House VII/VIII to the right of the entrance to the baths. Abianus

– a Celtic theonym meaning ‘Sacred Water’ – seems quite appropriate for the bath

complex and might indicate that the baths might have retained some religious functions

in the Roman period; after all, this is close to the 2nd-century BC temple with dromos

well...

The theonym derives from the root *ab-ya ‘l’eau’, thus probably ‘sacred water’: cf. De Bernardo Stempel 2007; Delamarre 2003, 29-30, s.v. abona, abu-, ‘rivière’."

https://www.academia.edu/41403446/The_importance_of_location_religious_inscriptions_from_archaeological_contexts

If Ebiaun is for a theonym representing a male water god in Eifionydd, I would call attention to the commote's Afon Dwyfor and Afon Dwyfach rivers.  These rivers run through the center of the commote from north to south. What is special about them is the meaning of their names.  The Dwy- element means "Goddess."  From Dr. Simon Rodway:

"They are tributaries of the river Dwy, which means ‘god(dess)’, cf. Dyfrdwy, 'water goddess' (Dee) < Deva."

Long ago, in discussing the dragons of Dinas Emrys, I remarked that

"In the Gorchan of Tudfwlch, the hero – from Eifionydd in Gwynedd  – is called the serpent with a terrible sting, and his place of origin is alluded to as the snakes’ lair."

As serpent symbolism is often found hand in hand with rivers and lakes, does the Dinas Emrys dragon story betray some relic of belief involving Ebiaun/Abianus and/or the two god(dess) rivers of Eifionydd?  It will be recalled that the two vases containing the "tented", i.e. wrapped dragons (which I have always thought to be cremation urns containing the remains of warrior-chieftains, called dragons in Welsh heroic poetry) were found in a pool.  For the custom of wrapping cremated remains before placement in an urn, see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329806802_Wrapped_Up_for_Safe_Keeping_'Wrapping'_Customs_in_Early_Iron_Age_Europe_Archaeological_and_Anthropological_Perspectives.

I once flirted with the idea that the pool of the fort was a confusion for the Llyn Dinas place-name, and pointed to Afon Goch, the Red Water, emptying into the Glaslyn at Dinas Emrys in the Vale of Gwynant. I abandoned the idea when the etymology of Gwynant as 'white stream' turned out to be incorrect. See

https://books.google.com/books?id=8vGxEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA339&lpg=PA339&dq=%22gwynant%22%2B%22white+stream%22&source=bl&ots=dV8Nwcvv0c&sig=ACfU3U2IMw5_hEoI-2JoaPvWy0VGgbQxWQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjdrZjo-IOGAxXIGTQIHZXfCIE4ChDoAXoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=%22gwynant%22%2B%22white%20stream%22&f=false

Over the next few days or weeks, I will be looking at all this a bit more closely to see if I can come up with anything that will add a dimension to the Dinas Emrys dragon story.  

When it comes to vases and water imagery, one need only think of the British goddess Coventina on Hadrian's Wall.  To quote from Miranda Green's SYMBOL & IMAGE IN CELTIC RELIGIOUS ART:

"In the triple image, Coventina's water symbolism is indicated by her beaker and her overturned pitcher with water pouring from it. On the single image, the goddess waves a water-lily leaf and reclines on waves; her left arm rests on an upturned jug of water."