FINAL EVIDENCE FOR CAER ENGAN IN NANTLLE AS CAER DATHAL

Caer Engan Relative to Penarth in Arfon

When I was trying to find Caer Dathal, known to contain relatives of Uther Pendragon and home to a wife of Arthur, I had tended to favor Caer Engan in Nantlle.  However, there were some indication that the site might be farther north in Gwynedd.  I talked about Dinas Dinorwig, Hirael (where one of the Sons of Iaen appears to have been buried) and Caernarvon.  

Alas, although I had mentioned MATH SON OF MATHONWY'S Pennardd in passing, I had not bothered to look for it.  Instead, I had merely considered it close to Caer Dathal.  In fact, the story tells us that when the troops mustered for the fight against Pryderi the war trumpet summoning them together could be heard from Caer Dathal.

Now, war trumpets could be heard for miles.  As it turns out, Pennardd is modern Penarth, whose position relative to Caer Engan can be seen at the top of the article.  A couple other fortresses are in the same area.  Y Foel (treated of separately below) is a little over 2 kilometers from Penarth (known for its cromlech). Craig-Y-Dinas on Llyfni is 2 kilometers away.  And Caer Engan is only 5 kilometers distant (i.e. only some 3 miles).  

What this means is that Caer Engan is still our best candidate for Caer Dathal.  Sites in northern Gwynedd - like Caernarvon and Dinas Dinorwig - are too far from Penarth.

All the material below was made available previously in a study on the location of Caer Dathal.  

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Math has as his virgin footholder Goewin, daughter of Pebin.  The name Pebin is found at Dol Bebin in Nantlle, very close to the Caer Engan hillfort.

Dol Bebin with Caer Engan hillfort to the west

(and some of the Coed Madoc sites)

(https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/302412/)

This is more than just a coincidence.  For if we allow Dathal to be from Irish Tuathal, but then accept Tuathal itself as an Irish substitution for Welsh Tudwal, Caer Dathal magically appears from the mists of time. [Conversely, a W. Tudwal could have later been substituted for an original Irish Tuathal, which the Welsh had pronounced Dathal/Tathal.]

As it happens, there was a local St. Tudwall whose name is preserved in Gwynedd:

"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." [P.C. Bartrum A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY]

The Engan (W. Einion) of Llanengan is exactly the same name as we find in Caer Engan.  But could he be the same man?  The Llanengan Einion is none other than -

EINION FRENIN ab OWAIN DANWYN. (b. circa 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. [Bartrum]

What I am suggesting is simple: the Tudwall/Tuathal/Dathal of Llanengan at some point also gave his name to the hillfort on the Llyfni.  Thus Caer Dathal is Caer Engan next to Dol Bebin.

Uther, then, would have relatives at Caer Engan.  In my book THE BEAR KING, I argue for Uther being the great Cunedda - not a Briton from Manau Gododdin in the far north, but Cuinedha Mac Cuilinn, an attested Dark Age Irish chieftain from Drumanagh just across the Irish Sea from Gwynedd. Einion and Owain were, in fact, descendents of Cunedda.

Cunedda of the Ciannachta belonged to Brega in Mide. Mide was traditionally founded by Tuathal Techtmar, a king who had spent time in Britain and who had married the daughter of an British king. It is not beyond the realm of the possible that the Irish at Caer Dathal has named the fortress after this legendary leader.

I had long ago demonstrated the Madog son of Uther was the Madog whose place-names are found in Nantlle, and the Eliwlad belonged there as well (the Coed Madoc in Nantlle was relocated to Cutmadoc in Cornwall, and Eliwlad the death-eagle in an oak was copied from the story of the dead Lleu in the oak tree at Nantlle). According to the Stanzas of the Graves, the god Mabon, servant of Uther Pendragon in the PA GUR, was buried in Nantlle. Finding Uther's Caer Dathal so close to Nantlle is a happy result of my research. 

And, yes, there is good reason to believe (as I have written about extensively before; see, for example, https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/06/notes-on-cornish-place-name-tintagel.html) that Geoffrey of Monmouth's Tintagel is a relocation of Caer Dathal.    

BRYNGWYDION

Now, while we are not told about such a place in "Math Son of Mathonwy", Welsh tradition does know of a Caer Wydion, named for Gwydion, nephew of Math.  

"Caer Wydion is attested as a Welsh name for the Milky

Way, and there are traditions of a son of Gwydion named

Huan ‘sun’ (on which, see Blodeuwedd); compare with

this the similarity of Lleu and Welsh lleuad ‘moon’."

- John Koch CELTIC CULTURE, p. 867

Could it be that in terms of mythical landscape, Caer Wydion is to be identified with Bryngwydion just a little north of the Afon Llyfni and the Craig-Y-Dinas promontory fort?

Probably, as Bryngwydion has its own ancient enclosure (see http://www.heneb.co.uk/hlc/caernarfon-nantllethemes.html), designated a smaller 'ring-fort.'  This placed would have been thought of as where Gwydion lived.  

A NOTE ON CAER ARIANRHOD

Caer Arianrhod is another important locator in 'Math Son of Mathonwy.' It is within both walking and boating distance of Caer Dathal (Caer Engan) and Dinas Dinlle, the 'Town of the Fort of Lleu.'

Traditionally, Caer Arianrhod has been identified with a coastal rock between Dinas Dinlle and Maen Dylan, the 'Stone of Dylan.'  Dylan was the god Lleu's twin brother, another son of Arianrhod.

I think, however, the real Caer Arianrhod was an entirely different place.  

The Bryn Arien mentioned as lying on the way to Caer Arianrhod along the sea from Dinas Dinlle has been identified with a hill near Brynaerau (see Sir Ifor Williams, Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi , Cardiff, Second Edition, 1951, pp. 278-9).  Cefn Cludno or Cefn Clun Tyno was thought by Sir Ifor Williams to be in Capel Uchaf and others have since agreed (see 150 Jahre "Mabinogion" - deutsch-walisische Kulturbeziehungen by Bernhard Maier and Stefan Zimmer, Walter de Gruyter, 2015).  There is a Coed Tyno just a little north of Capel Uchaf. 

Foel Hillfort near Tyno

Foel Hillfort

(https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/95338/images)

If Gwydion and Lleu really did take horses from Coed Tyno, then the most obvious fort close by is that of Foel.  

However, there is a Bryngwydion, 'Hill of Gwydion', just a little north of the Craig-Y-Dinas promontory fort.  And as Dylan's Stone is near the mouth of the Afon Llyfni, the 'port' of Arianrhod must be at the mouth of the river.  Note also the Lleuer (= W. lleuar, 'light, brightness'?; see https://www.academia.edu/35985785/Some_Cornish_place_names_with_lyw, citing Enwau lleoedd sir Gaernarfon by John Lloyd-Jones, Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1928, for lleu-erw: lleu 'goleu') place-names at Craig-Y-Dinas, which may well hearken back to the god Lleu. The Llyfni flows through Lleu's Nantlle, and Dolbebin in Nantlle was named for the father of Math's virgin footholder, Goewin.

Craig-Y-Dinas

(https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/93534/)

Either of these forts could be Caer Arianrhod.  The deciding factor might be that when Gwydion and Lleu take horses from Coed Tyno, they are not said to have crossed or forded the Llyfni.  To have gone to Brynaerau, thence to Coed Tyno and on to Craig-Y-Dinas would mean they were doubling back on their course needlessly. The mouth of the Llyfni could serve just as well as the 'port' of the Foel hillfort.  Finally, the two Lleuer places are south of the Llyfni, so more accessible from Foel.  Craig-Y-Dinas is on the north side of the river.  The hill of Foel is over 220 meters high, making it much more imposing in the landscape than Craig-Y-Dinas.

There is another reason for rejecting Craig-Y-Dinas as Caer Arianrhod - and it is a big one.  When Gwydion goes to the stronghold of Pennardd to follow the sow that will lead him to Lleu in Nantlle, we are told that this place lies downstream from Dyffyrn Nantlle or the Valley of Nantlle.  This can only be Craig-Y-Dinas on the Afon Llyfni which is, in fact, downstream from Nantlle.  

In another episode we are told that Math musters an army and takes it to Pennardd. During the night, Gwydion and his nephew Gilfaethwy return to Caer Dathal. At dawn the following day they return to Pennardd.  The context plainly suggests that Caer Dathal and Pennardd are close to each other, and this fits Craig-Y-Dinas and Caer Engan.  

For these reasons, I think we must favor Foel as Caer Arianrhod.  

Rachel Browich and others have favored Aran- for the first component of Arianrhod's name.  If such scholars are correct, it might be that Aranrot was originally a name for the hill of Foel.

The following discussion of the meaning of her name is from the TRIADS (p. 284):

The standard line of reasoning for the etymology of Aran is set forth by Dr. Richard Coates in https://www.snsbi.org.uk/Nomina_articles/Nomina_35_Coates.pdf.  

However, John Koch (in CELTIC CULTURE: A HISTORICAL ENCYCOLPEDIA) is surely right in settling for Arianrhod as the correct spelling of the name: