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.