WHAT HAPPENS IF WE PUSH THE ILLTUD = UTHER THEORY TO ITS LIMIT

Barbury Castle, Wiltshire

My readers will know that I just recently reposted the following piece:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2023/01/illtuds-father-bicanus-and-his-llydaw.html

The concern is that the PA GUR's apparent identification of Uther Pendragon with Illtud the warrior-monk, something that I've managed to more or less escape from by postulating a confusion or conflation of Uther with Sawyl Benisel, might instead point to Illtud being the real father of Arthur.

This is not a possibility that can be summarily dismissed.

As I've discussed before, given the way folkloristic developments occur it is quite conceivable that Uther Pendragon as a metaphorical name/title for Illtud the terribilis miles and magister militum/princeps militum may simply have taken on a separate personality. After all, Geoffrey of Monmouth successfully created Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, out of the gorlassar epithet Uther uses for himself in his elegy poem. 

In addition, Arthur in the hagiographical literature is uniformly represented as a secular ruler who is ignorant of Christianity's teaching and thus in need of didactic correction.  It may be that Illtud, a leader of soldiers during the first part of his life, was "separated" out from his former objectionable self by relegating his martial career to the Terrible Chief of Warriors.

If we allow this to have happened, and trace the relevant place-names regarding Illtud's parentage to the Badbury Liddington, near to the 'Bear's Fort' of Barbury and the Roman city of Durocornovium, we have to acknowledge that Arthur himself must have belonged to a kingdom that had descended from the Roman-period Dobunni.  Such a geographical fix for the great British champion would mean he was on the very border of an expanding Saxon kingdom of Wessex.  And it would mean that the Arthurian battles should be found in the South, not the North.  Or, if some of them are found in the North, there had been an attempt already by the 9th century (the date of the HISTORIA BRITTONUM) to place Arthur everywhere in Britain.  In other words, the historical figure had already been transformed into a superhero of sorts, whose 12 Herculean battles found in defeating foes all over the Island.

Because the only really good source we have that seems to identify Uther is the PA GUR, and in the PA GUR Uther seems to be Illtud, it would seem a wise course of action to yet again investigate potential Southern Arthurian battle sites.

However, I've already done that - many times over. And the result?

THE BATTLES, AS FOUND LISTED IN THE HB, ARE IN THE NORTH. 

Still, the Bicknor/Lydbrook-Bican Dike/Lydbrook matchup and the link with a Badbury that may well be the Badon does not allow me to summarily dismiss the tradition.

So, with a deep sigh of resignation, I will look for the battles in the South one last time. I have a feeling that much of the work I've done on the Gewissei battles will come into play, with some variation.