Bicoir, Beccurus and Petuir/Petr: A Last Look at My Earlier Mistaken Identification of Two Arthurian Fathers

Gesail Cyfarch (under a dozen kilometers from Caer Dathal)

For quite a few years now, I have floated the idea that the Bicoir of the Irish Annals, father of an Arthur, may be the same as Petuir, a spelling for Petr, father of Arthur of Dyfed.

Alas, I have been freed of that delusion!

Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales was kind enough to treat of my idea, and as it turns out, there is nothing to it:

"'P and B' do not 'often substitute for each other' and neither do c and t. /p/ mutates to /b/ in neo-Brittonic languages under very specific grammatical circumstances, e.g. Middle Welsh penn 'head', y benn 'his head'. t is sometimes misread by scribes as c and vice versa. The two phenomena are completely different. The second could be relevant here, but the first certainly not - I know of no examples of a Brittonic / Latin word being adapted into Irish with B- instead of P-, neither do you find variation of P- ~ B- in Brittonic contexts. The mutation is irrelevant here.

At any rate, you do not account for the change e > i.

Therefore no."

Dr. Rodway is in agreement with the possibility that Bicoir could be the same name (although not necessarily the same person!) as the Beccurus found on the Gesail Cyfarch stone in NW Wales:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/cisp/database/stone/pmrfa_1.html

"Yes it could (with Irish raising of /e/ > /i/)."

In an article written years ago, I had the following for the etymology of Beccurus:

Patrick Sims-Williams in his “The Celtic Inscriptions of Britain: Phonology and Chronology, c. 400-1200″, provides a couple of etymologies for the name Beccurus.  His first is that the name comes from British *Bikkorix or “Little King”.  His alternate derivation would be a name from *bekko-, “beak”.  He does not, however, make the connection to an attested Irish noun, Becuir, found as a variant of Bechaire or “bee-keeper” in the church name Lann Becuir/Bechaire.  The “bee-keeper” references either St. Modomnoc or St. Molaga of this religious establishment.  The former brought his bees with him from Wales, where he had been educated under St. David (born c. 485?) at Mynyw/Menevia/St. David’s in Dyfed.  The latter had been to both Scotland and Wales (St. David’s again) and had obtained some bees from Modomnoc.

When I asked Professor Sims-Williams about the possiibility that Bicoir could be related to the Irish Becuir, he responded:

“I’m not sure that Becuir can be a variant of Bechaire. The place name Lann Bechaire could be a distortion/rationalisation of Lann Becuir, and the latter name may have nothing to do with bee-keeping, though it could be related to Bicoir.”

But whatever the etymology of the name, given that I've reestablished the connection in Welsh tradition of Uther and Arthur with Caer Dathal/Dinas Emrys, it is worth noting (see the map above) that the Beccurus stone and Dinas Emrys are under a dozen kilometers from each other.

Thus, there may be one of two things going on here.  In the first instance, a later Arthur son of Beccurus, whose origin lay at or near Gesail Cyfarch, may have been confused with the earlier, more famous Arthur, son of Uther.  Or... Beccurus = Uther Pendragon, despite the major problem of chronology when we take into account the chronology for Arthur son of Bicoir as found in the Irish Annals.  Arthur son of Bicoir is said to have killed Mongan (Annals of Tigernach) in 627.  Estimated birthdate for Arthur son of Petr is c. 560 (Bartrum), while that of Arthur son of Aedan (or Conaing) died c. 590.  The established dates for Arthur son of Uther are c. 516 and c. 537.

In the Gorchan of Tudfwlch, the hero – from Eifionydd in Gwynedd, an area in north-west Wales covering the south-eastern part of the Llŷn Peninsula from Porthmadog to just east of Pwllheli  – is called the serpent with a terrible sting, and his place of origin is alluded to as the snakes’ lair.  Eifionydd, named for Ebiaun son of Dunod son of Cunedda, is the northern half of the kingdom of Dunoding and is hard by Dinas Emrys in Arfon. In fact. Beddgelert the town was in Eifionydd, with Dinas Emrys is just on the other side of the border in Arfon.

As it happens, Gesail Cyfarch is in Eifionydd.

Arthur son of Bicoir is important, as he is claimed as the slayer of Mongan son of Fiachna. Mongan was begat on Caintigern (whose name in truncated form probably became Geoffrey of Monmouth's Igerna) by Manannan mac Lir, the sea god, in a transformation story that is exactly paralleled by that of the birth of Arthur son of Uther.

In my mind, none of this harms my theory that the earlier Arthur belonged in northern England, either at York or on the Wall.  These other Arthurs all post-date him.  However, if we allow for an Arthur son of Beccurus near Caer Dathal, then we may use that to explain the Welsh traditional association of Uther and Arthur with Caer Dathal. Or even if we merely allow for this Gwynedd Beccurus to have been misidentified with Bicoir father of Arthur we can still account for the Arthurian presence at Caer Dathal. The real Bicoir might well belong elsewhere.  After all, his son is said to be with warriors in Kintyre (Dalriada).

The Arthur who was in Gwynedd was not THE Arthur, but a subsequent one named, doubtless, like Arthur of Dyfed and Arthur of Dalriada, after the more famous one.