WHY IT'S A "NO" FOR A GORLOIS ON THE CLYDE

              The Roaches, Cheshire

Just the other day I got rather excited about a possible solution to the Arthur problem:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2026/01/having-our-grail-and-drinking-from-it.html?m=1

But, I'd neglected three important points in reaching the very tentative conclusion for the piece. When I went back to read this blog entry -

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

- which contained my previous identification for Mt. Damen, I remembered that A) Uther had reached the hill as darkness fell on the same day as the retreat from York B) the hill was not described as a fort or royal center, but as a wild place and C) The Roaches at the headwaters of the River Dane/Dauen were within what had been the eastern reaches of the Roman period Cornovii kingdom.

As Gorlois of Cornwall (w. CERNYW, the same word found in the Cornovii tribal name) first appears at Mt. Damen, the reason for his doing so would be because his being duke of Cornwall had caused him to be placed in the land of the Cornovii.

Now before anyone gets too excited about that, let me quickly say that we must not lose sight of the northern Arthurian battles and the dissemination of the Roman name from a northern British source to the Dalriadans.

In other words, Geoffrey's placing of Gorlois in the Cornovii border region is just another example of the author's creative genius. It is not an instance of the preservation of a genuine historical tradition.

Readers who go over my earlier pieces on the subject of Uther's battles in the North will also note Geoffrey places a saint of the Vale of Clwyd at Alclud. Dr. Andrew Breeze has pointed out to me the Arclid town in Cheshire, whose name he compares to Arecluta in the North. As it happens, Arclid's little stream empties into the Wheelock, and the Wheelock is a major tributary of the River Dane of my original Mount Damen.

Once again, despite my best efforts, I cannot glean anything of value from the pages of THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN.

I find myself with the same two choices for Arthur I started out with some months ago - the only two historical candidates remaining to me:

1) L. Artorius Castus

or

2) A war-leader hailing from Petrianis on the Wall.

Over the remainder of this week I will closely at both with an eye to discovering something - anything! - that will help me decide between them.