Was I Wrong About Uther's Mount Damen (or Does a Strathclyde Arthur Work After All)?

                 Dumbarton Rock

I once identified Geoffrey of Monmouth's Uther battle of Mount Damen with The Roaches:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-galfridian-uther-in-northern-britain.html?m=1

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-discovery-of-uther-pendragons-mount.html?m=1

While exploring the whereabouts of this battle, I noticed the context was purely northern, i.e. all of Uther's battles were confined to northern England and Scotland.

Mt. Damen was particularly important as it was at this site that Gorlois made his first appearance. Gorlois is a character Geoffrey conjured from Uther's gorlassar epithet.

One of the primary reasons for choosing The Roaches for Mt. Damen was Geoffrey's description of the place as being very steep, with jagged rocks well suited to be the lairs of wild animals.

But in looking over the Galfridian account of Mt. Damen again, I think I might have missed something very important: it is followed immediately by military action at Alclud.

Alclud is, of course, the Rock of Clyde or Dumbarton Rock. We find Alclud in the Irish account of Ceredig Wledig called 'Aloo' or, simply, 'the Rock.'

Could it possibly be that Damen is a distant echo of the Damnonii of Strathclyde? Ancient forms for the tribal names of both the northern and southern Dumnonii tribes can be found here:

http://marikavel.org/personnes/damnonii/accueil.htm

http://marikavel.org/personnes/dumnonii/accueil.htm

If so, the "rock" of Alclud would nicely correspond to Geoffrey's rocks at Mt. Damen. 

Gorlois as Duke of Cornwall at Mt. Damen would then make eminent sense, as Cornwall was part of southern Dumnonia, which could be a mistake for northern Dumnonia.

The whole story of Igerna and Arthur's birth is copied from that of the begetting of Mongan (an Irish chieftain ultimately killed by Arthur son of Bicoir the Briton). Mongan's mother was Caintigerna, a name mistakenly or intentionally truncated as Igerna. The begetting of Mongan happens in the context of Aedan of Dalriada's Degsastan battle. Yes, the same Aedan who had a son or grandson named Artur.

All of this highly suggests that Gorlois/Uther belongs in Strathclyde and, if so, I could be right about Uther Pendragon = the crudelisque tyranni/cruel tyrant Ceredig Wledig of Alclud.

I rather like this idea because without a Dark Age Arthur in the North I'm unable to account for that war-leader's death at Camlann, a site that I would like to identify with Castlesteads/Camboglanna on Hadrian's Wall. If we must resort to the Afon Gamlan in Gwynedd for Camlan, then for that we are probably looking at an anachronistic reference to the death of Arthur son of Pedr of Dyfed. Or even an equally anachronistic death of Artur son of Aedan.

However, we are talking about the unreliable fiction of Geoffrey of Monmouth here. Basing anything on his narrative is hazardous in the extreme. And allowing for the survival of a corruption of Damnonii (or shortened variants) in the Galfridian tradition does not seem all that likely.

Still, it may bear some consideration.

NOTE:

I haven't completely given up yet on Uxellodunum/Petrianis (Stanwix) on the west end of Hadrian's Wall near the "Avalon" fort as Arthur's origin point. This was called Arthur's fort in the 1700s and during the Roman period was the site of the largest cavalry group in Britain and the command center of the Wall. Given Pedr/Petrus of Dyfed, the Petra Cloithe that was Alclud and the stine (lapide) Arthur son of Bicoir used to kill Mongan, it may be that Petrianis is the right place after all. 

At least I've managed to limit Arthur to the North. It remains to be seen whether I settle on him being the ghost of L. Artorius Castus, a war-leader based at Alclud or one from modern Stanwix. 

I've discounted Banna/Birdoswald or neighboring Carvoran, if only because I cannot establish a relationship of any kind between them and Scottish Dalriada and Dyfed, Wales.