THE SHADOW OF L. ARTORIUS CASTUS AND THE NORTHERN ARTHUR

UPDATE: I've once again reviewed my work over the decades on the Arthurian battles of the HB and AC. And the conclusion I've reached is the same one I'd arrived several times in the past: Arthur belongs in the North. Subsequent treatments of his legend in Welsh poetry, story and hagiography do not appear to contain any good, historical clues regarding his presence in the South.

Having also accepted the Armenia reading for the L. Artorius Castus stone, I am now concentrating my attention on Hadrian's Wall for any future Arthurian research. 

Artaxata, Ancient Capital of Armenia

The problem with Sawyl of Ribchester as Uther Pendragon?  

The theory looks great, given the Northern battles of Arthur.  And it works much better than simply allowing Uther Pendragon to be St. Illtud.  But all of it depends on profoundly legendary material like the PA GUR, which - as I have remarked before - is replete with monsters, Gaelic and English place-names, etc.  CULHWCH AND OLWEN'S association of Uther with Caer Dathal in Arfon is likewise undependable.  All these instances are merely episodes in stories. 

When it comes to the PA GUR narrative, it is quite possible - even likely - that I've been duped.  How?  Well, it just takes a good storyteller to fancifully connect Uther Pendragon with the Latin titles/descriptors found for Illtud in that saint's Vita.  And voila!, Uther = Illtud.  Truth is, Uther Pendragon has the very usual name + epithet format found in a great many examples in Welsh tradition (just look through the hundreds of listings in Bartrum's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY).  And while Uther is also an adjective, we have other examples of personal names that are derived from adjectival forms.  So, point in fact, there is nothing wrong with Uther Pendragon left as is (something I have always acknowledged, even when searching for some other more historical figure I could link him with).  

The biggest negative for Sawyl of Ribchester is the need for us to have the Arthur name preserved there because of L. Artorius Castus' presumed use of Sarmatian troops.  Unfortunately, while it is certainly possible he went to Armorica under Commodus, all of my work has pointed instead, and very strongly, to his having gone to Armenia.  And if the latter is correct, then Castus was never in Britain when the Sarmatians were there.

I have dozens of blog pieces that either directly or indirectly deal with Armenia as the preferred reading for the fragmentary ARM[...]S of the L. Artorius Castus memorial stone.  I keep thinking back on the last one in the series -

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/03/my-final-conversation-with-professor.html

Professor Roger Tomlin, who had preferred Armenia from the outset, was impressed with the supportive evidence and arguments I had compiled in support of Castus's Armenia venture.  

And, truth be told, whenever I default to Armorica for the sake of Sawyl as Uther I experience an unpleasant doubt.  My inner voice literally begins screaming "BUT CASTUS DIDN'T GO TO ARMORICA - HE WENT TO ARMENIA!"

Why do I cling to Illtud or Sawyl so desperately?  Well, precisely because if I don't, I am stuck with just plain old Uther Pendragon, a personage who appears to have been inserted into a partly fabricated royal Dumnonian pedigree.  And that ancestral line does not work for the Northern Arthurian battles.  

If I do divorce myself from this unhealthy fixation with Illtud/Sawyl, I end up in a very different place.  I recently set out my argument for once again favoring an Uther based on Hadrian's Wall: 

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

This is actually a very good argument.  We can even say that Pendragon, while it may well have meant "Chief warrior' or 'Chief of warriors' in the later Welsh poetic tradition, may be an oblique reference to the Dacians at Banna, who had their own wolf-headed draco in the early Roman period and who would thus have probably attached special veneration to the later Roman draco.

We have everything we need to make a convincing case for Arthur originating at Banna (with his mother, perhaps, coming from neighboring Magnis, whose garrison was Dalmatian).  We have river and tribal names that refer to bears, we have Camboglanna in the same valley as Banna, we have "Avalon" at Avalana/Aballava - we even have a Lake Goddess in the same region.  

That the Welsh placed Camlan in NW Wales should not discourage us, for this is simply one more example of the relocation of sites and events to the 'Celtic Fringe.'  

So, once again, at the end of a very long road of Arthurian exploration, I find myself back to where I started: on Hadrian's Wall.  

HOWEVER (and, yes, this is a huge 'however'), I have a lot of readers who are justifiably alarmed at my forsaking Illtud in such a easy fashion.  They are okay with me dropping the Sawyl bit, but think it unwise to dismiss the saint so quickly for no other reason that I've become inflexible when it comes to the battle locations.  

I mean, I really don't have any doubt that Illtud is the Uther Pendragon mentioned in the PA GUR.  After all, I had just confirmed the presence of Mabon between the Ely River and the Church of Illtud

 (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/06/mabon-servant-of-uther-pendragonilltud.html). It all works, and quite nicely.  There is no real problem with the legendary "split" of Uther from Illtud, i.e. that in folklore and hagiography and literary creation the one man was divided into two separate personages.  I've described before how this could have happened, and why.  We know, for instance, that the gorlassar epithet belonging to Uther himself was used by Geoffrey of Monmouth or his source to conjure a separate chieftain, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall.  

So how can I so glibly proclaim that Uther was not, originally, Illtud?

It is difficult, especially as I've also determined why Uther is said to have kin at Caer Dathal (Caer Engan) in Arfon.  Dathal would appear to be from the Irish Tuathal, a name whose cognate form in Welsh is Tudwal.  As it happens, the Breton saint Tudual was educated under St. Illtud.  The following entry is from Bartrum's A WELSH CLASSICAL DICTIONARY:

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).

As for Uther, the Dumonian pedigree he traditionally belongs, which makes Constantine/Custennin his father, contains a Tudwal:

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).

The following information is from http://christophergwinn.com/arthuriana/arthurs-pedigree/:

LATE PEDIGREE (BARTRUM, PP 58) :

King March of Cornwall ap Meirchion ap Custennin ap Cynfarch (sic) ap Tudwal

LATE PEDIGREE – PENIARTH MS 181 – MID-16TH C.

Aldwr brenin Llydaw (“king of Brittany”) ap Kynfor ap Tudwal…

Does this all mean that the jury is still out on Illtud as Uther?

Maybe.  I have to do some more thinking on the problem and look carefully yet again at those pesky Arthurian battles. 

My Final Take on Two Critical Lines of the Uther Pendragon Elegy

First Several Lines of 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen'

Over the past few weeks, I've produced several blog posts on Uther Pendragon as St. Illtud.  An old idea of mine, buttressed by new findings.  Here are a couple of the most recent articles:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/06/mabon-servant-of-uther-pendragonilltud.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-simple-argument-for-reconciling-my.html

The problem was that the stronger the case becomes for Illtud = Uther, the more my argument for a Northern Arthur seems to weaken.  The solution to this problem would appear to be a confusion that occurred at some stage in the development of the legend between Illtud and Sawyl Benisel of the North.  I have outlined in some detail how the two chieftains could have been conflated.  

But the claim that Uther Pendragon, originally a Cymracization of Latin military titles/descriptors belonging to St. Illtud, is an error for Sawyl derives from one instance in which Uther appears to be likened metaphorically to the Biblical Samuel.  I am talking, of course, about a couple of emended lines in the elegy to Uther Pendragon ('Marwnat Vthyr Pen').

I am here quoting the lines in question, with the two key unemended words highlighted:

ny pheidwn rwg deu lu heb wyar.

I’d not give up between two forces without bloodshed.

Neu vi a elwir gorlassar:

It’s I who’s styled ‘Armed in Blue’:

vy gwrys bu enuys y’m hescar.

my ferocity snared my enemy.

5 Neu vi tywyssawc yn tywyll:

It is I who’s a leader in darkness:

a’m rithwy am dwy pen kawell.

May our God, Chief of the _____, transform me.

Neu vi eil kawyl yn ardu:

It’s I who’s a second _____ [or 'It's I who's like a _____ ] in the gloom:

ny pheidwn heb wyar rwg deu lu.

I’d not give up without bloodshed [the fight] between two forces.

Now, if the translation regarding God as the transformer of Uther (a role assumed by Merlin in Geoffrey of Monmouth, and in connection with gorlassar/Gorlois) is correct, as seems probable, the Pen Kawell epithet must refer to Him, and not to Uther.  God could be Pen cafell, 'Chief of the Sanctuary', but if so we would have the only example of proest end-rhyme (a sort of non-rhyming end-rhyme) in the entire poem.  On this matter I have the authoritative statement by Professor Peter Schrijver (personal correspondence): 

"l. 23 gyhyr shows “Irish” rhyme (dd and r belong to the same class of consonants: voiced continuants)

l. 28 geinc shows Irish rhyme with -eint (t and k belong to the same class of consonant: voiceless plosives)

l. 34 goruawr gyghallen: last word does not rhyme, but it looks like this is compensated by preceding goruawr (rhyme in -awr); note that the commentary wrestles with the shortness of the lines and wonders whether the text is corrupt.

l. 40 gwrthglodyat – byt: same situation as in l. 34: byt does not rhyme (but does rhyme with the first word in l. 41) but gwrthglodyat does (in at)

So yes, there are other lines with rhyme problems. But they fall into different categories than kawell – tywyll would if taken at face value (proest/consonantal rhyme, if that is what it is). So there is no certainty that kawell/tywyll cannot be taken at face value, but just the likelihood that they cannot."

To match tywyll of a previous line, the best emendation for kawell is kannwyll, which carries a primary meaning of candle or lamp, but in a transf. sense could mean a bright heavenly body or a luminary or leader. 

kawyl could easily represent Sawyl through the principle known as eye-skip, an error of copying in which a beginning letter from a word in a previous line is put down by mistake as the first letter of a similar word in a following line.  

The result of such a reading would be:

a’m rithwy am dwy pen kannwyll.

May our God, Chief of the Lamp, transform me.

Neu vi eil kawyl yn ardu:

It’s I who’s a second Sawyl [Samuel] in the gloom:

Even if we adopt Haycock's other idea for the first line, viz. ‘May the guiding/chief light (i.e. God) transform me in the breach’, we are still using cannwyll in the first line and so cannot have it in the second.  The force of Sawyl would be diminished in the sense that the allusion to the Biblical Samuel in the Holy of Holies, keeping the Lamp of God lit, would be lost.  

I once proposed that cannwyll could be the original form of the second line's kawyl, making for a

"It's I who's like a candle (or star? or leader?) in the gloom:"

Such a reading could explain Geoffrey of Monmouth's dragon-star, said to represent Uther himself.  Although, in all honesty, the Galfridian transformation story involves gorlassar/Gorlois, not the star itself.  But, it makes no sense to employ cannwyll in the middle of a line when it could have been employed at the end of a line to match tywyll.  We would be stuck with cafell again for the first line, which would represent the only instance of proest end-rhyme in the entire poem.  Yes, Uther as a cannwyll in the gloom does seem to match his claiming himself as tywyssawc yn tywyll 'a leader in darkness' in a previous line.  But this hardly seems to relate to God as Chief of the Sanctuary.  And such a transformation into a leader in the gloom when he was already, a few lines above, a leader in darkness seems redundant.  

All in all, given that St. Illtud/Uther is replaced by Sawyl Benuchel in the Life of St. Cadog in the monastery raiding incident, Eldadus (Geoffrey of Monmouth's form of Illtud) is likened to the Biblical Samuel, the fort of Uther's servant Mabon (called Mabon the Giant) is in the parish of Llansawel and Maponus was worshipped at the Ribchester of Sawyl Benisel, I cannot help but conclude that the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen' does, indeed, contain a poetic reference to Uther as a second Sawyl.  And that it was for this reason that Sawyl Benisel, Arthur's real father, came to be wrongly identified with Uther/Illtud.  

MABON, SERVANT OF UTHER PENDRAGON/ILLTUD, AND THE FORT OF ELAI

Gileston or Llanfabon-y-Fro in the Vale of Glamorgan

Gileston Between the Church of Illtud and Both the Dinas Powis and Caerau Hillforts

I've spent a few years now trying to figure out why Mabon son of Modron, servant of Uther Pendragon, was placed on the River Ely in Glamorgan. Unable to do so, I eventually despaired of providing a good reason and resorted in some desperation to seeking 'Elai' sites elsewhere in Britain.  None of my efforts were successful.  It was a weak link in my chain of argument that identified Uther Pendragon with St. Illtud, the terribilis miles, miles magnificus, magistum militum and princeps militum who had served under Pawl Penychen at either the Dinas Powis hillfort or the oppidum of the Silures at Caerau.

The other day I decided to make one more effort to find Mabon at or near these religious and military/civil sites. And I'm glad I did.  For I found an obscure reference to Gileston in Bro Morgannwg (Vale of Glamorgan) having originally been called LLANFABON-Y-FRO, the Church of Mabon of the Vale [of Glamorgan]. Having found this reference, I then confirmed it from several other respectavbe sources. For example:

https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/415537/

https://www.llanilltud.org.uk/Groups/374675/Gileston_St_Giles.aspx

https://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/Documents/Living/Planning/Conservation/Appraisals/Gileston_CA_AMP_Sep_2009.pdf

Is the Church of Mabon in the Vale [of Glamorgan]. 

Dinas Powis is in the Vale of Glamorgan.

So is the Caerau fort.

As this is so, I now have no qualms whatsoever in declaring that - at least according to the PA GUR poem - Uther Pendragon = St. Illtud.  This is clearly what the poem says when it lists Mabon, the servant of Uther, as being one of the vytheint ("furious ones?" "birds of prey?") of Elai.  

So, now that I may finally set aside my doubt in regard to the Uther = Illtud equation, the only remaining question is whether Illtud was actually Arthur's father.

I don't think so.  Again, the Arthurian battles are in the North.  They all fit very well with a war-leader heralding from the Ribchester Roman fort.  Illtud is compared to the Biblical Samuel in Geoffrey of Monmouth, replaced by Sawyl Penuchel in the Life of St. Cadog in the monastery raid episode and, Uther is transformed by God into a 'second Sawyl' in the MARWNAT VTHYR PEN elegy (if we strictly follow poetic rules, and not allow one exception for the occurence of proest in the relevant line).  To this apparent "confusion" for Sawyl, we can add what I summarized recently here:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-simple-argument-for-reconciling-my.html

It, therefore, seems entirely reasonable to me that Uther Pendragon, referred to metaphorically as Sawyl (Samuel), was wrongly taken as Arthur's father when, in reality, it was Sawyl Benisel of Ribchester who was the sire of the famous hero.  

The Mabon-Illtud Connection Confirmed By New Information

   Gileston Church, Vale of Glamorgan

I now have solid evidence to support my contention that the PA GUR'S Uther Pendragon of the River Ely in the Vale of Glamorgan, master of Mabon, is indeed St. Illtud.

Blog post to follow shortly.

THE "SIMPLE" ARGUMENT FOR RECONCILING MY SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN ARTHUR CANDIDATES

Roman Roads in Lancashire, Showing Ribchester

If, as seems certain (at least accroding to the PA GUR), Uther Pendragon represents a Welsh rendering of the military titles and descriptors of St. Illtud (terribilis miles, magister militum), yet the Arthurian battles of the HISTORIA BRITTONUM and the ANNALES CAMBRIAE can really only be satisfactorily placed in the North, how do we reconcile this discrepancy?

Well, I believe I've already done that.  And while I moved away from it, a simple logical argument forces me to re-adopt it.  I can lay this argument out as follows:

1) Uther Pendragon appears to be St. Illtud.

2) The Arthurian battles are in the North.

3) Illtud himself is substituted for or associated with the Biblical Samuel or a Welsh/Cumbric Sawyl in hagiography and in Geoffrey of Monmouth.  Furthermore, the 'Marwnat Vthyr Pen' poem may well have Uther calling himself  'a second Sawyl' in one of its most important lines.  This would be a sort of "rule of three" that negates the possibility of coincidence and points the way towards Sawyl, and not Illtud, being Arthur's true father.

4) Sawyl Benisel was of the North (Ribchester based).

5) Uther's son Madog and grandson Eliwlad may well be Sawyl Benisel's son Madog, whose epithet was Ailithir.  Ailithir and Eliwlad may be semantically identical, or Eliwlad may have been constructed to resemble Ailithir.

6) All Arthurs subsequent to the most famous one belonged to Irish-descended dynasties in Britain. Sawyl Benisel married a Irish princess.

7) Uther is said to be master of Mabon.  The castle of Mabon the Giant was located in the parish of Llansawel, "Church of Sawyl", in Wales.  While this saint is probably a different person than Sawyl of Ribchester, it is noteworthy that Maponus was worshipped at Ribchester. 

8) The Arthur name can most easily be accounted for by the preservation in the North of the name Artorius, probably deriving from the L. Artorius Castus who served had served at York.  Had Castus been in Britain when the Sarmatians were there, and he employed them in battles within Britain, as well as during an expedition to Armorica and perhaps even while on an escort mission to Rome, his name may well have gained renown among the troops at Ribchester.  

Conclusion:

Illtud or Uther Pendragon came to be compared with the Biblical Samuel.  As Sawyl (Welsh for Samuel) was Arthur's real father, Illtud as a metaphorical Samuel came to be mistaken for Arthur's father.  Thus Arthur's father came to be called Uther Pendragon. 

Given the vagaries of the evolution of Arthurian legend, a process involving both the usual folkloristic tendencies and literary invention, I do not find this possiblity at all inconceivable.  In fact, when viewed from a distance, it seems rather inevitable. 

A quick note, though.  I once bought into the Sawyl theory that the origin of the Pendragon epithet should be sought in the so-called Sarmatian draco.  My own research, however, soon dispelled the notion.  Not only was it now accepted by the best scholars that Pendragon meant 'chief warrior' or 'chief of warriors', and that Geoffrey of Monmouth's interpretation of 'Dragon's Head' was ridiculous, I could not find any evidence of the strictly Sarmatian draco ever having existed (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/02/there-is-absolutely-no-evidence-for.html). And, indeed, the identification of Uther Pendragon with Illtud depends upon the proper reading of Pendragon.

Lastly, for the Artorius name to have preserved at the fort of the Sarmatian veterans at Ribchester, it makes the most sence for L. Artorius Castus to have made himself "famous" to the Sarmatian troops in Britain during the Roman period.  It is difficult, if not impossible, to see this happening if Castus had gone to Armenia under Statius Priscus, as that would mean he was not even in Britain before the arrival there of the Sarmatian troops.  Instead, the fragmentary "ARM[...]S" of his memorial stone can only read ARMORICOS, suggesting action in the Deserters' War under Commodus.  I am not particularly happy about this last option, but I do think that if a famous Dark Age Arthur were born at Ribchester, then we must allow Armoricos to be the most probable reading.  

After several different theories have appeared in several different books (of sometimes, in different versions of the same book!), the apparent confluence of Northern and Southern Arthurs come back together in this volume.  As intensive recent work on St. Illtud (terribilis miles, magister militum) has confirmed my belief that he was Uther Pendragon, and as Illtud himself seems to have become conflated/confused with Sawyl of the North - the true father of Arthur - THE BATTLE-LEADER OF RIBCHESTER must now be considered my best "grand unified" theory.  

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Leader-Ribchester-Definitive-Identification-Legendary-ebook/dp/B085VQQ43L/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SAEUPU61V1IS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6CIJH6mD3Ssqlzo4DWw7NA.MzvR_DaIsQdfhgCE-m2r9DPKokFaI23Fnk-dw2eGCl8&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+battle-leader+of+ribchester+august+hunt&qid=1718558032&sprefix=the+battle-leader+of+ribchester+august+hunt%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-1

A NEW SUPPORTIVE ARGUMENT FOR UTHER AS ST. ILLTUD

River Ely, Wales

Just the other day, at the request of a reader, I wrote this blog post:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/06/a-request-to-review-st-illtuds-military.html

But it wasn't until this morning that I realized I had been onto something regarding the river-associations of the three heroes of Ely in the PA GUR.

To backtrack a bit first...

In this piece -

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

I had shown that all three champions do, indeed, have a very close affinity with water.  

The emendation from vythneint, 'eight streams', to vytheint, 'birds of prey', comes from a supposed Irish cognate echtach and the guess as to the meaning of wythaint from the context of one line of poetry.  But Irish has two echtach words.  Here are both from the eDIL:

2 échtach

Cite this: eDIL s.v. 2 échtach or dil.ie/19549

See 2013 Version

adj (écht) prowessful, death-dealing, destructive: a llaith ghaile...┐ a n-onchoin échtacha, TTr.² 1079 . ML 136 z . beithir échtach (of a chief), O'Gr. Cat. 510.14 . gríbh é.¤ , TD 23.13 . onchú é.¤ , TSh. 1160 . fan nGréig n-éachtaigh n-iorghalaigh, TD 13.25 . an cú...marbtur le mac Deictine...da laimh iolbuadhaigh echtaigh, ZCP ii 344 . 12 . ní béas leis bheith éachtach i ndálaibh ban | is da éis bheith na gheibirne lá na mac, Ó Bruad. ii 156 . As subst.: cech echtach, cach angbaid i slabraid rosnass `every murderer' LL 147a45 = PRIA iii 550 . Cf. éachtaigh bhus éilmheach uim Ṡ. gléighilleadha éidighthe ...warriors (?) Ó Bruad. i 84 . In npr.: in Échtach Oscair (a steed), Acall. 270 . ind Echtach Amairgin (a shield), Ériu iv 28.7 (the latter may belong to 1 échtach , in ref. to the shrieking of shields).

? 1 échtach

Cite this: eDIL s.v. ? 1 échtach or dil.ie/19548

Last Revised: 2013

See 2013 Version

n f. some kind of night bird, an owl (?): eichtghe .i. échtach .i. én áiridhe, O'Cl. grechach na n-echtach , CCath. 4171 = strix nocturna Luc. Phars. vi 689 . na hethaidi aidhchidi .i. in écthach (v.l. ectach) ┐ inn iatlu ┐ in bubo, 881 . Meyer ( Wortk. 224 ) would connect this with iachtaid howls ( -échta, Wb. 4a22 ) and éigem. Cf. osnad echtge, Corm. Y 662 = Corm. Tr. p. 81 , and echtach quasi nechtach aidchi...Echtach didiu ar is i n-aidchi foluatar, unde echtlann dicitur. Echtcha hominum abiectione [leg. ab eiectione?] .i. o innarba feda. adarbetar a cain ┐ a rechtgi echtca sin, unde echtbran, echtgal, O'Mulc. 368 .

Vytheint, then, should be something like 'the death-dealing or destructive ones', not 'birds of prey.'

What this means, then, and I am quite certain of this, is that Uther does indeed belong on the Ely - at least according to the PA GUR poem, which probably predates CULHWCH AND OLWEN.  A footnote to Nerys Ann Jones' version of the PA GUR reads as follows:

"[John T. Koch] concludes that the opening of Pa gur reflects an earlier stage in the development of the Arthurian material found in Culhwch... Rachel Bromwich sees the episode at the gate in Culhwch as 'a burlesque of the poem's situation.'"

If Uther Pendragon is properly put on the Ely, then we must accept the very real possibility that he was St. Illtud, the terribilis magister militum. [In his Vita, Illtud is magister militum, princeps militum, terribilis miles, miles magnificus.] And, indeed, the only Welsh counter to the Pa Gur claim would be Uther's supposed connection to Caer Dathal in Arfon in Culhwch and Olwen.  I have explained before why that reference may be nothing more than spurious tradition.  

The only question facing us, then, really, is whether Illtud's origin lay at Bicknor/Lydbrook in Ercing (with the nearby Ganarew/Little Doward hillfort) or at Bican Bike/Lydbrook in Wiltshire (with Liddington Castle/Badbury).  Both places lay in what was in the Roman period the territory of the Dobunni tribe.  See https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2023/01/illtuds-father-bicanus-and-his-llydaw.html.

However, archaeology argues rather forcibly for Illtud in Ercing, rather than in Wiltshire. See the range maps at

http://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/illtud-as-arthurs-father-no-go.html

Still, we must square that with the placement of Badon at the Liddington Badbury by the Welsh Annals.

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-second-battle-of-badon.html

Probably Dinas Powis for Paul Penychen is not correct, despite the possibility of the current Cadoxton Burn being the ancient Nant Pawl.  Dinas Powys is not on the Ely.  But the great Caerau fort nearby is on the Ely, and was the oppidum of the Silures.  Archaeology has shown it to have been refortified in the early medieval period.  It may well be that it was at this large hillfort that Uther was master of the soldiers.

The Caerau hillfort was within Penychen.

CONCLUDING STATEMENT

Is Uther as Illtud a historically plausible identification? Or is it, like the rest if the Pa Gur, merely a fanciful association of the name and epithet of Arthur's real father with the ranks ascribed in hagiography to Illtud?

Good as the Pa Gur identification seems, I remain convinced that the Arthurian battles belong in the North. If so, then either Uther belongs in the North as well, or Uther was never really Arthur's father.

I will continue working on this most vexing dichotomy.

Ironically, there is a way I can have my cake and eat it, too: by adhering to my Sawyl Benisel theory. That idea recognized that Illtud was confused with or associated with Sawyl, and accepted Uther's son Madog and grandson Eliwlad as reflections of Sawyl's son Madog Ailithir.  Sawyl can be allowed in the Uther elegy poem as well. I rejected that idea when I decided against any connection between L. Artorius Castus and the Sarmatians (as Sawyl's Ribchester Roman fort was home to the Sarmatian veterans).

But it may be I was premature in my judgment and that I should revisit the Sawyl theory one more time.

A REQUEST TO REVIEW ST. ILLTUD'S MILITARY TITLES AND DESCRIPTORS

Liddington Castle/Badbury

I've been asked to summarize my thoughts on Illtud as Arthur's father.  Please find those (arranged as best I could on short notice) below.

ILLTUD THE TERRIBLE CHIEF OF WARRIORS

I still cannot do a better job of explaining Uther Pendragon than to suggest that the 'terribilis' applies to Illtud's vengeful spirit and the 'magister militum' and 'militum princeps' ranks attached to him in the saints' lives were easily combined.  Bromwich herself explained in a note to her Triads that the dragon of the Pendragon epithet could refer to either to the word warrior in either the singular or plural.  

The following selection is taken from the linked study:

https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/dnb/download/6837

"In meridiana autem hora, dum rex quiesceret in tentorio campestri in planicie affixo, diuidereturque

maxima predatio, uisum est regi quod quidam terribilis miles suum pectus lancea perforasset, atque

post perforationem nemini uisum. [...] Timoratus imperauit sacrilego exercitui reddere Deo et

sanctissimo Iltuto totam predationem, promittens deinceps emendationem, atque in honore eiusdem

sancti edificauit templum, et seruentibus in templo concessit in quo stetit territorium. Hec emendatio

tamen profuit suo spiritui, recessit enim ab hoc seculo .ix.no die propter nequitie uindictam.

At the hour of noon, while the king rested in a field-tent put up on a plain, and the immense booty was

being divided, it seemed to the king that some terrible soldier had pierced his breast with a spear,

and after the piercing he was seen of none. […] Full of dread he bade his sacrilegious army to restore to

God and to the most holy Illtud all the plunder, promising thereafter amendment, and in honour of the

same saint he built a church, and to those serving in the church he granted territory in which it stood.

This amendment, however, profited his spirit, for he departed from this life on the ninth day as

punishment for his wickedness (VI, §25) [my emphasis].

As a child, Illtud is instructed in the seven arts, but after the completion of his studies, he

dedicates himself to military training. Canon Doble suggested that the association of Illtud

with military terms might have arisen due to the presence of the Normans in Glamorgan (cf.

Doble 1971: 103). This suggestion was also followed byJohn Tatlock who argued that the use

of the terms “magister militum” and “militum princeps” to describe Illtud in the VI reflected

contemporary Norman military terms (cf. Tatlock 1939: 355). However, military prowess is

one of the most important traits of Welsh kings and heroes in texts which could date to before

the Norman Conquest of England and Wales.11"

terribilis (miles)

               magister militum

Uther      Pen         dragon

WHERE ILLTUD SERVED AS A SOLDIER

Illtud served as captain of the soldiers under Paul of Penychen.  The evidence, as such, strongly suggests that Paul resided in the Dark Age hillfort of Dinas Powis.  The 'Nant Paul' of the fort, given Cadog's relationship with the same prince in the hagiography, is probably the modern Cadoxton Burn, which runs right by the fort.  We can relate this hillfort to the River Ely - the Elai/Elei of the PA GUR poem - although it is still several miles away from the river.  

One of the 'vytheint' of Elei (a difficult word; it probably means something like 'those furious in battle' and not 'birds of prey') of Mabon, servant of Uther.  The implication is that Uther himself must be at Elei.  Shifting Uther to Caer Dathal in Arfon (as suggested by the account in Culhwch and Olwen) is attractive, but as Dathal is almost certainly for Irish Tuathal, cognate of Welsh Tudwal, the link may have been established in folk belief or literary tale because there was a Tudwal in the Dumnonian pedigree for Uther. Math of Caer Dathal is probably from Irish math, 'bear'.  If the Welsh knew that, then they might have associated Arthur with the place through his father simply because they saw in the name Arthur their own word for bear, 'arth.'

However, archaeologists have in the last few years succeeded in proving early medieval reuse of the great Silures oppidum of Caerau, which is most certainly on the Ely.  I am posting below responses to my question on Dark Age use of Caerau from the two men responsible for the digs at the site.

"Our 2015 excavations revealed that there was some rebuilding of the ramparts in the early medieval period. This reported in our 2015 excavation report. 

caerau-interim-36-web.pdf (cardiff.ac.uk)

We also discovered a small crafting axe in 2013, which following conservation may be post Roman or possibly late Roman. This has previously been on display at the CAER Heritage Centre.

My colleague Olly Davis the excavation director may be able to provide more details."

Dr David Wyatt

Reader in Civic Mission and Community Action

School of History, Archaeology and Religion

Cardiff University

"Dr Wyatt has provided you with a link to the interim report that details the stratigraphic sequence through the ramparts. The 'secondary' bank is built over a deposit containing Roman material and sealed by a deposit c14 dated to AD775-970 and so must therefore date to some point between the 5th and 10th centuries. Unfortunately that is all the precision available at the moment. The only certain Early Med occupation feature within the hillfort was a grain dryer c14 dated to AD430-640."

Dr Oliver Davis

Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Civic Mission

Co-director, CAER Heritage Project

School of History, Archaeology and Religion

Cardiff University

Thus it is possible that Paul Penychen of Dinas Powis or a member of his family had something to do with the refortification of Caurau.

ILLTUD'S PLACE OF ORIGIN

The hagiography tells us that Illtud came from Llydaw/Brittany and that his father was one Bicanus.  Llydaw, in this context (see P.C. Bartrum and others) is not actually Brittany, but a place in Britain with a similar name.  

I suggested Welsh Bicknor and Lydbrook, places in the ancient kingdom of Ercing that could be associated with a Custennin/Constantine. These sites are next to the Little Doward/Ganarew hillfort, which has Arthurian associations.  Several family connections of Arthur are placed in Ercing, including sons (although these are personified place-names) and even Eigr, his mother, who is made a daughter of Anblaud Wledig. 

While it is true that Latin Bicanus could represent a W. Bychan name (although we only find bychan/fychan used as an epithat), the English Bican- preserved at Bicknor is also found right next to another Lydbrook in Wiltshire.  I am talking here about the Bican Dike at Liddington Castle, one of the candidates for Arthur's Badbury.   Liddington Badbury is an interesting fort, as it is near Durocornovia and Barbury, the 'Bear's Fort'.  A great many years ago I suggested that Arthur, whose name was linked by the Welsh with their own word for bear, might have been remembered by the English at Barbury.  -cornovia speaks of the Cornovii tribe, and the geographical term Cernyw in the Welsh is derived from this tribal name.  Arthur is often said to be Cornish (or Dumnonian). 

Now, all of that is rather nebulous, I admit. A more plausible 'Llydaw' for Illtud is the Leadon Vale.  This river-name derives from a word that is related to that of Llydaw (see Watts).  But, regardless, both the Leadon Vale and Ercing once belonged to the Roman period Dobunni kingdom.  Badbury and Barbury, according to British tribal expert Barry Cunliffe, were on the southern fringes of that territory.

THE PROBLEM WITH ILLTUD AS UTHER PENDRAGON/ARTHUR'S FATHER

Illtud put away his wife to become a religious.  He is not recorded as having had any children.

While we don't know much about his military career, if he were master of Paul's soldiers he must have been involved in martial actions somewhere, and against someone.  Unfortunately, we lack those details of his life before he turned to Christ.  

Now, it is possible, I suppose, that a few different things may have happened. 

1) Once Illtud was given his nickname of Uther Pendragon, it was eventually forgotten that the two men were the same.  We have seen how Geoffrey of Monmouth or his source converted gorlassar, an epithet for Uther in the elegy, into a separate personage, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall.  These things could happen in the course of legend-building. 

2) Illtud as Uther Pendragon was never really Arthur's father.  This was a fiction.  Entirely possible.  It may be that the father of Arthur was unknown and Uther was at hand.  Some have suggested Uther simply rhymed nicely with Arthur, and others have pointed to the 'mab uter' gloss in a HISTORIA BRITTONUM MS. as the origin of Uther Pendragon. 

3) There may have been a desire to separate out Illtud from Uther in order to transition the former more easily to sainthood.  We might view this as a sort of cleansing operation.  While it might be argued that to deprive Illtud of a famous son like Arthur makes no sense at all, we must remember that in clerical sources Arthur is presented in a very negative light.  It might well have been seen as objectionable to link Arthur with his father and so the tie was intentionally severed. 

Hagiography is NOT history!

I also shied away from Uther as Illtud, to be honest, because I was then faced with a Southern theater for Arthur's battles.  But my doing so is really only personal bias.  The battles are more neatly placed in the North, and seem to have more support in the Welsh tradition when placed there.  If the battles are in the South, we must resort to using the Gewessei battles of the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE.

There is also always the temptation to try and make the case that the name Arthur in the North is a relic of L. Artorius Castus, who was based at York.  In other words, the Artorius name was made popular in the North among this group or that, and passed down through the generations to the famous war-leader of the 5th-5th centuries.  But as Professor Roger Tomlin has pointed out to me more than once, Artorius was a common Roman name and there is no reason to restrict the source of the name Arthur to this one man.  It is just as likely - if not more so - that Artorius was chosen as a decknamen for what was originally at thoroughly Celtic 'bear' name.  And, of course, there may well have been other Artorii in Britain during the Roman period for whom we simply have no extant records.  

WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT ILLTUD AS ARTHUR'S FATHER

The idea that Arthur may have been defending the southern and eastern parts of what had been Dobunni territory is not impossible - and, indeed, has some appeal.  Long ago I wrote the following about what seemed evidence for the holding of Wiltshire during the expansion of a nascent Wessex.  Remember, though, that the Gewessei dates are highly suspect and have been subject to considerable revision from time to time.  My research shows that at least the first few generations of the Gewissei were reversed, they do not match what we find in the Welsh records.

"Let us look at the early battles in Wiltshire as these are found recorded in THE ANGLE-SAXON CHRONICLE.  We begin with the defeat of the British by Cynric at Old Sarum in 552. Four years later a battle is fought at Barbury Castle further north. 

Rather significantly, the Barbury battle of 556 is not said to be a victory.  We are merely told there was a battle there.  In 560, Ceawlin succeeds Cynric. After Barbury Castle there are no more battles against the Britons until 571 - 15 years later. And the theater of action has changed: the Gewissei are now coming up the Thames Valley.  In 577, the war theater changes again, this time to the west and north of Wiltshire (including the capturing of Bath).  In 584, there is a battle in Oxfordshire, well to the NE of Wiltshire. We do not return to Wiltshire until 592, when a great slaughter occurs at Adam's Grave near Alton Priors resulting in the expulsion of Ceawlin.  In the next year, Ceawlin perishes. 

From the Battle of Beranburh to that of Adam's Grave, 36 years had passed." 

My interpretation of this major time-gap after Barbury, allowing for Arthur being present at the 'Bear's Fort', is to postulate a near immediate follow-up battle at the Liddington Badbury.  There really is no other logical time frame for such a decisive battle, i.e. one that would have been a significant setback for the invading English."  

The Liddington Badbury has long been a prime candidate for Badon, and the Welsh Annals themselves seem to make a case for the site as the location of Arthur's most famous victory.  See

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-second-battle-of-badon.html

So, we could argue that Arthur was fighting against the Gewissei.  The problem with that, of course, is that the Gewissei won the majority of their battles - including several we must ascribe to Arthur.  It is true that the victors write the history, but this is still something we must grapple with when trying to determine what was going on during the Arthurian period in the South.  The most that we could say is that someone seems to have held Wiltshire successfully for decades against the Saxon onslaught.  

Could this have been Arthur?

Absolutely.

Assuming Uther Pendragon = Illtud.  

  

  

THE EAGLE ELIWLAD IS THE ANSWER TO IT ALL: A FINAL IDENTIFICATION OF UTHER'S CAER DATHAL

Caer Engan

My readers know by now that like many another Arthurian researcher I've been trying to pinpoint the Arfon location of Uther's Caer Dathal (the original fort which came to be relocated by Geoffrey of Monmouth to Tintagel (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/06/notes-on-cornish-place-name-tintagel.html).  I eventually settled on either Dinas Dinorwig or Camp Hill/Pier Camp at Hirael for the site (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/caer-dathal-is-actually-identified-in.html).

However, just because Siawn, son of Iaen of Caer Dathal is said in the "Stanzas of the Graves" to be buried at Hirael doesn't mean he was necessarily from there.  Nor that he was from Dinas Dinorwig.  There are plenty of examples of heroes in the "Stanzas" who belong at one place, but are buried at another. Usually it is implied they were buried where they died fighting.  

This being so, I began looking again at all my past work on Caer Dathal.  My most convincing case for the fort's location was contained in this blog post:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/12/a-new-identification-for-uthers-caer.html

Caer Engan made the most sense because of the various characters (like Goewin, Math's virgin foot-holder) we knew from the Caer Dathal tradition being found in its immediate proximity.  The name Engan itself connected it to the family of Cunedda (see below). Unfortunately, when I wrote that piece I had not done sufficient thinking on Eliwlad, grandson of Uther.  Sure, I had figured out that he and his father Madog had been relocated from Nantlle to Cornwall (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-shocking-discovery-real-location-of.html).  Caer Engan is in Dyffryn ('valley') Nantlle.  

But only the other day I was still working on the 'Elei Problem", i.e. trying to figure out where the three raptors of Elei actually belonged.  As listed in the "Pa Gur' poem, these heroes are Yscawen (and a variant) son of Banon, Gwyn Godybrion and Mabon son of Modron, servant of Uther Pendragon. While it is customary to assume Elei is here for the River Ely in Glamorgan, doubt was cast on this when I discovered that Yscawen belonged in Preseli (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-vythneint-elei-of-pa-gur-poem-new.html).

Professor Peter Schrijver had analyzed the Elei river-name as follows, and Dr. Simon Rodway agreed with his assessment of the hydronym:

EMANIA 20, JUNE 2006

Early Irish Ailenn

An Etymology

Peter Schrijver

University of Utrecht

"If we reconstruct forward from an early Celtic Alesia or

Alisia towards Old Irish, the result is aile, which does

indeed exist: the Old Irish ia-stem aile means ‘fence,

palisade (to prevent cattle from trespassing)’; cf. also the

compound bú-aile ‘cow pen’. Old Welsh has a probable

cognate in the Book of Llandaf ’s Eiliau, Eliau, names of a

village and a villa, respectively, hence originally ‘Pens,

Fences’. These are British Celtic plurals in *-ou > – au,

which have an exact counterpart in Modern Welsh eiliau

‘cattle pens’. They regularly reflect an earlier British plural

*alesj-owes/*alisj-owes. The singular *alesj_ probably

survives as the Old Welsh river name Elei in the Book of

Llandaf (perhaps modern Lai or Ely, Glamorganshire).

The Middle Welsh singular belonging to the plural eiliau,

however, is not *elei but eil ‘cattle-pen, shed’ (e.g., in the

Red Book of Hergest 1035.23 alaf yn eil meil am ved ‘cattle

in a pen, a cup around mead’), which cannot be derived

regularly from *alesja/ *alisja. Middle Welsh eil is probably

a back-formation: on the model of such common plural /

singular pairs as teithieu / teith ‘journey(s)’, drysieu / drws

‘door(s)’ a new singular eil was created beside inherited

eilieu (= Old and Modern Welsh eiliau)."

This led me to approach Schrijver only recently with the following query:

"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."

Only yesterday I happened to remembered an idea I had played around with with it came to deriving Elei from the Eli- or Eliwlad.  My thinking was that if we could do that, it would solve pretty much every problem with the personal name and its context.  See below for the Ely hydronym in 1314, and especially the spellings Eli and Ele.  These are from the Melville Richards Archive, but I'm not sure it is an exhaustive list.

ELAI                

ELAI     Elay flu.   BLAEU WILLEM JANSZ(OON) - MAP 1645    

ELAI    Eley 1536 CAD CATALOGUE OF ANCIENT DEEDS, I-VI, LONDON 1899-1915 vi. C 7589  

ELAI     Eley 1666 CFL DEEDS AT CARDIFF FREE LIBRARY, ARRANGED BY COUNTIES Glam  

ELAI     r. Eli 1638 CFL DEEDS AT CARDIFF FREE LIBRARY, ARRANGED BY COUNTIES Glam  

ELAI     r. Ely 1314 CIPM CALENDAR OF INQUISITIONS POST MORTEM, LONDON 1898FF v.332  

ELAI     Elye 1607 HENSOL HENSOL MSS    

ELAI     Ley River 1536/9 LELAND JOHN LELAND/THE ITINERARY IN WALES 18  

ELAI     Ele 1536/7 LELAND JOHN LELAND/THE ITINERARY IN WALES 18  

ELAI     Elei   LL THE TEXT OF THE BOOK OF LLANDAV 204  

ELAI   Eley 1578 RM/BGA RICE MERRICK - A BOOK OF GLAMORGANSHIRE ANTIQUITIES 101, 112  

ELAI     Eley 1348 CIPM CALENDAR OF INQUISITIONS POST MORTEM, LONDON 1898FF ix.333  

ELAI     Eley 1229-61 CMG CARTAE ET ALIA MUNIMENTA QUAE AD DOMINIUM DE GLAMORGAN PERTINENT ii.462  

ELAI     Morva Lei 1514 CMG CARTAE ET ALIA MUNIMENTA QUAE AD DOMINIUM DE GLAMORGAN PERTINENT v.1782  

ELAI     ht. Eley 1719 CR RECORDS OF THE COUNTY BOROUGH OF CARDIFF I-IV iii.159  

ELAI     Elay 1760 EB/MSW EMANUAL BOWEN/MAP OF SOUTH WALES 1760    

ELAI     r. Eley 1586 HENSOL HENSOL MSS

Arguing against any use of gwlad as "prince" in Welsh is the mere fact that this word is regularly used only to mean 'land' and the like.  For 'prince' we find the very well-attested gwledig. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule (see Thomas Charles-Edwards in ‘The Date of Culhwch ac Olwen’ in Bile ós Chrannaib: A Festschrift for William Gillies, edited by Wilson McLeod, Abigail Burnyeat, Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart, Thomas Owen Clancy and Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh, Ceann Drochaid, 2010, pp. 45-56.).

Professor Peter Schrijver, when asked "Could not the eagle Eliwlad - perhaps seen at some point as Eli- + gwlad, 'land, kingdom' - have been related to Elei (which itself has several early Ele-/Eli-spellings)?", responded:

"Related: yes. If, say, Elei derives from something like *Alesjo- or *Alesja:- and Eli- from a more basic noun *Aleso- or *Alesa:- (in these particular reconstructions, the latter two would mean ‘ash(tree/wood)’ and the former two ‘anything made from ash or related to ash’)." [1]

Now, if the -eli of Presseli could be the same word as Elei, and Eliwlad on Dyffryn Nantlle contains the same word, and we already know that Gwyn Godybrion was made a son of Iaen of Caer Dathal, we need only determine whether Mabon was also in Nantlle.  And, as it happens, he was.  His grave is situated there in the "Stanzas of the Graves".  I've remarked that this may indicate an identification of Mabon with Lleu who is found at Caer Dathal and in Nantlle as a death-eagle.  It is, in fact, Lleu who serves as the model for Eliwlad the eagle-specter sitting in an oak tree.

I have posted the relevant information on Mabon in Nantlle below. [2]

What this all means, I believe, is that the three raptors of Elei are all to be associated with Eliwlad the eagle of Nantlle, and if I'm right, then Caer Engan is Caer Dathal.  The clincher in the argument is Llanengan's association with St. Tudwal, and that the Irish cognate Tuathal is one of two candidates for the Dathal place-name.

For emphasis, I will repeat the connection here:

EINION FRENIN ab OWAIN DANWYN. (470)

The saint of Llanengan in Llŷn (PW 86). He was the son of Owain Danwyn according to Bonedd y Saint (§9 in EWGT p.56). His commemoration is on February 9 (LBS I.70). See further LBS

II.422-4.

TUDWAL, ST. There is a group of two islands off the south coast of the Llŷn peninsula called St.Tudwal's Isles. On the eastern island, the larger of the two, there was formerly a small chapel, under Llanengan, dedicated to St.Tudwal (PW 86). It is mentioned in the Taxatio of 1291, p.291, as “Eccl'ia Prions de Enys Tudwal”. Ffynnon Dudwal formerly existed on Penrhyn, in the parish of Llanengan (LBS IV.274). Tudwal may have given his name to Tudweiliog, a parish in Llŷn on the opposite side of the peninsula, although the dedication is to St.Cwyfen. Compare Rice Rees, Welsh Saints, p.134.  

Einion was a direct descendent of Cunedda, my candidate for Uther Pendragon in this scenario.  

All of the above will be inserted in my book THE BEAR KING, being reissued in all formats on Amazon.  

https://www.amazon.com/Bear-King-Arthur-Southern-England-ebook/dp/B073XQS844/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38CJGUU230ZC2&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.GuyLUI5CfvfV8_2DdSTE8e2Gh4nmHQW9CSalXhBYc9LGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.UdRspqg0cW2d5uGQwYwPTG8Uw2GIOenA76SlnYaYbak&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+bear+king+august+hunt&qid=1717688878&sprefix=the+bear+king+august+hunt%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-1

[1]

Incidentally, I happened to ask Alan James, noted Brittonic place-name expert, the following question.  This was after providing him with Schrijver's proposed etymology for the Ely river.

"Do you think, as is often the case with river-names in Britain, the Ely as a river-name could be a back-formation from a fort on that river that had been called Elei?"

He answered:

"As to your suggestion, yes, the river might well have been named from an adjacent place called Elei, implying some - presumably exceptionally prominent - wattle palisade. I'd envisage the kind of pretty large enclosure, primarily for livestock, with fencing (perhaps on an embankment) substantial enough to deter opportunist raiders, typical of the late Iron Age through much of the 1st millennium in the west and north of Britain, though perhaps not a 'fort' as we'd usually understand that term. Ely/ Tre'lái is, of course, a district-name in Cardiff, and *Elei could have been so a lot earlier, so river named from place, then place named from river."

[2]

THE MEDIEVAL WELSH

ENGLYNION Y BEDDAU

THE ‘STANZAS OF THE GRAVES’, OR ‘GRAVES

OF THE WARRIORS OF THE ISLAND OF BRITAIN’,

ATTRIBUTED TO TALIESIN

Edited and Translated from

the Black Book of Carmarthen and Other Manuscripts,

with an Archaeological, Historical, Linguistic, and Literary Commentary

PATRICK SIMS-WILLIAMS

First published 2023

D. S. Brewer, Cambridge

III.16 Mabon son of Madron in Nantlle, Crn.

W Y Bedd y gorthir Nanllaû*

ni wyr neb i gyneddvau

Mabon vab Madron glau.

*an crudely formed, resembling cm, em, im; û altered from n.

N Y bedd ygorthir Nanllaû

Ni wyr neb i gyneddvaû

Mabon vap Madron glaû

T Y Bedh yngorthir nanllaû ny wyr nep y gynnedhfeû

Mabon vap madron glaû.*

*a altered to e in different ink.

ELEI AND BANGOR: UTHER ONCE AGAIN AT CAER DATHAL IN ARFON

NOTE: While the following idea seemed promising, another, better solution to the problem of Elei has occurred to me. I will be sharing this final piece of the puzzle in a day or so.

Camp Hill Earthwork; Pier Camp Hillfort, Hirael, Bangor, Gwynedd

Not long ago I wrote the following piece on the possibility that the Hirael hillfort, and not Dinas Dirnowig, was Uther's Caer Dathal:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/caer-dathal-is-actually-identified-in.html

I now have reason to believe that Hirael is, indeed, the right place.  And, if so, this would push my argument for an Uther in Arfon to the forefront and, effectively, negate my own rival theories.

Before I get to that, some more earlier pieces that are germane to the present topic:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-elei-of-north-and-uther-pendragon.html

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

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/04/one-important-change-to-bear-king.html

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/04/and-winner-of-arthur-sweepstakes-is.html

Now, I'm going to begin with what Professor Schrijver has to say ont the Elei river-name (and it should be noted that Dr. Simon Rodway agreed with him on this):

EMANIA 20, JUNE 2006

Early Irish Ailenn

An Etymology

Peter Schrijver

University of Utrecht

If we reconstruct forward from an early Celtic Alesia or

Alisia towards Old Irish, the result is aile, which does

indeed exist: the Old Irish ia-stem aile means ‘fence,

palisade (to prevent cattle from trespassing)’; cf. also the

compound bú-aile ‘cow pen’. Old Welsh has a probable

cognate in the Book of Llandaf ’s Eiliau, Eliau, names of a

village and a villa, respectively, hence originally ‘Pens,

Fences’. These are British Celtic plurals in *-ou > – au,

which have an exact counterpart in Modern Welsh eiliau

‘cattle pens’. They regularly reflect an earlier British plural

*alesj-owes/*alisj-owes. The singular *alesj_ probably

survives as the Old Welsh river name Elei in the Book of

Llandaf (perhaps modern Lai or Ely, Glamorganshire).

The Middle Welsh singular belonging to the plural eiliau,

however, is not *elei but eil ‘cattle-pen, shed’ (e.g., in the

Red Book of Hergest 1035.23 alaf yn eil meil am ved ‘cattle

in a pen, a cup around mead’), which cannot be derived

regularly from *alesja/ *alisja. Middle Welsh eil is probably

a back-formation: on the model of such common plural /

singular pairs as teithieu / teith ‘journey(s)’, drysieu / drws

‘door(s)’ a new singular eil was created beside inherited

eilieu (= Old and Modern Welsh eiliau).

Why is this important?  Because the PA GUR poem places three heroes at Elei, and one of them is Mabon son of Modron, the servant of Uther Pendragon.

In one of the links supplied above (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-vythneint-elei-of-pa-gur-poem-new.html), I showed conclusively that an Elei champions may actually belong at Preseli, and Prof. Schrijver was kind enough to allow my proposed etymology for that place as one containing a second element identical to the word he had analyzed in Elei.

I had drawn a blank in localizing Gwyn Godybrion or Mabon, although I spent a lot of time looking for an Elei in the North.

Then I realized something.  Gwyn (in the corrupt form of Goluthon) was made one of the sons of Iaen of Caer Dathal.  I had tried to downplay that in a number of ways, none of them very successful.  

Only just today I happened to remember that the meaning of W. eil and that of W. bangor were exactly the same!  The Hirael fort, a candidate for Caer Dathal, is at Bangor.

From the GPC:

ban|gor 

[ban1+côr3; cf. yr e. lle Llyd. Bangor, ?a’r e. lle H. Wydd. Benchuir (gen. i Benchor)] 

eb.g. (bach. b. bangoren) ll. bangorau, (prin) bengyr.

a Defnydd ffensio, &c., sef ffyn a pholion wedi eu cydblethu â brigau neu ganghennau, plethwrysg, ffens bleth, wal bleth, plethwaith neu far croes mewn gwrych neu ffens blethedig:

• wattle, wattle fence, wattle wall, plaited rods or crossbar in a wattle hedge or fence. 

While the GPC doesn't go into this kind of depth with eil -

ail2, eil2 

[?cf. Gwydd. C. aile ‘ffens’; am enghrau. eraill posibl, gw. P Tal 85, GCBM ii. 12] 

eb.g. ll. eiliau, eilion.

Plethiad, gwead; cwt, sièd, penty, pentis, adeilad (?neu ffald) o wiail plethedig; hefyd yn ffig.:

an interweaving, weaving; shed, lean-to, wattle building (?or enclosure or pen); also fig.

- I see the note of Sir Ifor WIlliams Taliesin poems that it could denote a defensive construction.  And Alan James in his work on Brittonic place-names has it meaning

*eil (m)

eCelt *al-jo- > Br *aljo- > M-MnW ail, eil; OIr aile > (in compounds) Ir, G –aile, Mx –ayl.

The Celtic root *al- is associated with weaving, and with the construction of fences, buildings,

etc using woven wattles. So Welsh eil is ‘a shelter, a shed’, Old Irish aile ‘a fence, a palisade’,

Irish/Gaelic buaile, Manx boayl, ‘a cattle-fold’.

So, if Elei, even if used wrongly in the PA GUR for the River Ely, actually means fence or palisade, especially a wattle one, then it may well be merely another descriptive name for Bangor.  Siaun son of Iaen was buried at Hirael, and Gwyn Godybrion, another son of Iaen, is placed at Elei.  It seems to me, therefore, that a good case can be made for the Caer Dathal of Uther at Bangor = Elei.

It is true that Yscawen son of Banon belongs in Pres-eli, but the use of a place-name whose second element may be identical with Elei is significant. And it may well be that Mabon did belong to an 'Elei' elesewhere (although we may recall that his grave was placed in the Height of Nantlle, a distance of only 20 odd kilometers as the crow flies from Hirael), maybe even in the North, as I have hypothesized before.  But, it also remains quite conceivable that these champions who originally belonged at other Eleis were gathered together at the one ruled over by Uther at Hirael/Bangor.

Should this idea prove to be correct, it would mean that the two locations linked to Uther in ancient Welsh tradition - Elei and Caer Dathal - are one and the same place.  And if that is so, then it seems to me we must pay attention to the tradition, as any other localizations are totally lacking.