In one of my most recent blog articles (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2026/09/as-i-transition-away-from-arthur-to.html?m=1) I said the following:
"The probable death-knell for Uther as Sawyl concerns my attempt to etymologize Uther's grandson Eliwlad as an Irish compound composed of aile + flaith. No such compound exists, and a search of Irish records failed to produce a single example of aile flaith. An ala flaith in the eDIL means 'another lord', and flaith aile is found in the Brehon laws.
It's also not impossible that the whole Uther = Illtud identification may be due to the PA GUR poet's TOTALLY FANCIFUL association of Uther with Illtud. In other words, originally Uther was not Illtud at all, but someone else."
The second paragraph there deserves a more thorough treatment.
What made me rethink the identification of Uther with Illtud - something that seems to be implied in the PA GUR - is the very nature of the PA GUR itself. My work on places mentioned in the poem showed that it could not possibly be as early a composition as is sometimes claimed.
Why is this so?
Because there were Cymracized forms of both Gaelic and English place-names present.
As this was the case, and given that purely folkloristic or mythological motifs are also manifest, it seemed more reasonable to suggest that the author of the poem had chosen to identify Uther Pendragon with the Latin military titles belonging to St. Illtud than it did to assume that Uther Pendragon - a perfectly acceptable Welsh name + epithet formula - was a native rendering of those titles that indicated actual identification of the two figures. And that once he had made his false association of Uther with Illtud he put the former's servant Mabon in the Ely Valley, a river region that dominates the center of Penychen where Illtud served as Master of the Soldiers under Pawl.
The same kind of unreliable localization of Uther occurs in CULHWCH AC OLWEN, where we are told the kin of Arthur's father are at Caer Dathal. As I've shown that Caer Dathal = Dinas Emrys, the Fort of Ambrosius, it is obvious that Ambrosius' brother Uther should be linked to the place. While CULHWCH AC OLWEN is considered pre-Galfridian, it is possible that elements of Galfridian tradition crept into the text during later copying. Or, as I've theorized before, the Terrible Chief- warrior of Dinas Emrys/Caer Dathal has his origin in Emrys himself, who was made lord of Dinas Emrys of the Red Dragon and in whom (as we are told in the HISTORIA BRITTONUM) Vortigern lived in dread.
None of these Welsh sources, it seems to me, are valuable as historical documents. While I've often tried to find encoded history within them, I must confess to having been occasionally clever and to have concocted some compelling theory - but to have never succeeded in convincing myself or others of the validity of such ideas.
A NOTE ON THE LAST POSSIBLE BASTION OF A NORTHERN DARK AGE ARTHUR
Have I abandoned all belief in a Northern Dark Age Arthur?
No.
While I cannot confirm a true genealogical trace (as I was trying to do with Uther = Sawyl Benisel), the location of the HB and AC battles and associated locations (like the 'Avalon' that is Burgh-By-Sands), coupled with an admittedly late tradition placing Arthur at the Stanwix Roman cavalry fort (Uxellodunum/Petriana), as well as that placement's possible significance to the horse cultures of Dalriada and Dyfed, lead me to accept the possibility our hero could have been based on the west end of Hadrian's Wall.
And that really is the best that I can offer. I still feel it is safer, perhaps wiser, to go with the historically attested L. Artorius Castus as the prototypical Arthur. But if a Dark Age battle-leader existed, he could have been a descendant of members of the Ala Petriana, the largest cavalry group in all of Britain whose fort was the command center of the Wall.
I will be revising (if necessary) my book on the "Petrian" Arthur and republishing it on Amazon.
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