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
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:
"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.
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:
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
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.
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