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