A STRANGE DEVELOPMENT: GWYN GODYBRION AND MABON BOTH AT UTHER'S NANTLLE?

Caer Engan/Caer Dathal

All of my attention has been on Uther Pendragon at Elei, presumably the River Ely in Glamorgan.  This has led me to identify Uther with St. Illtud, who served as master of soldiers at Penychen, an area that contained the Dinas Powys fort and that of Caerau (oppidum of the Silures).

However, something has just occurred to me that I seem to have missed...

The vythneint elei, altered to vytheint elei.  The usual rendering is something like 'the destructive ones [a type of raptor; a cognate Irish word has thought to be a species of owl] of Elei.  We are then told that all three of these vytheint are champions, and they include:

Kysceint (= Kysteint/Constantius) son of Banon 

Mabon son of Modron the servant of Uther Pendragon

Gwyn Godybrion

But here's something interesting: both Mabon and Gwyn are situated by Welsh tradition in the vale of Nantlle in Gwynedd.  Mabon's grave is placed there in the Stanzas of the Graves, and the Hanesyn Hen pedigree has this on Gwyn:

Plant Iaen: 1. Dirmig Corneu 2. Gwyn goluthon 3. Siaun 4. Kyradawg 5. Ievannwy 6. Llychlyn 7. Eleirch verch Iaen mam Kyduan ap Arthur

“The children of Iaen: 1. Dirmig of Cornouia 2. Gwyn goluthon (*godybrion/*gotyfron) 3. Sion 4. Kyradog 5. Ievannwy 6. Llychlyn 7. Eleirch daughter of Iaen was the mother of Kyduan son of Arthur.”

I had previously demonstrated with a fair degree of certainty that Caer Dathal was Caer Engan in Nantlle.

This seemed a remarkable coincidence.  So I decided to look at vythneint elei in a different way, and to newly interpret it.

Suppose the phrase originally read

Gwyth nantlle, 'the Battle-Fury of Nantlle'

If this is correct, then we are right back to allowing the simplest emendation of the MARWNAT VTHYR PEN passages to stand, viz. leaving Pen Cawell as is for a reference to Ceawlin (W. cawell = basket, AS ceawl = basket) and eil kawyl as eil kanwyl [/n/ being indicated by a mark that is easily omited by a copyist], 'like a star', giving Geoffrey of Monmouth the excuse to identify Uther with a dragon-comet.  Of course, this radically shifts theory back to Cunedda, who was the MaquiColine of Wroxeter and the Ceawlin of the ASC.

I will do some checking with the experts to see if this could actually be a viable idea.  It may turn out to be quite a dumb one, but my readers should know by now I am willing to try anything if it means helping us get a little closer to the truth about a historical Arthur. 

NOTE:

I had long ago showed that Eliwlad, son of Madog son of Uther would appear to have been relocated from the Nantlle Valley to Cornwall.  If I am right about this, we have yet another reason for placing Uther at Caer Dathal/Caer Engan.

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