Monday, October 2, 2017
A Nice Article on Roman Cavalry in Britain from the Fell Pony Museum Website
Special mention is made of the Ala Petriana at Stanwix. This Roman fort is my best guess for Arthur's headquarters.
Sunday, October 1, 2017
KELLWOOD AND KELLIWIC: COULD CAMBOGLANNA ON HADRIAN'S WALL HAVE BEEN ARTHUR'S COURT?
Aerial View of the Site of Castlesteads/Camboglanna Roman Fort
Kellwood by Camboglanna
I've never really had cause to search a map for the Castlesteads fort. Why? Because there is no fort at the site anymore. It was completely destroyed during the modern period. The other day, however, I was curious about the situation of the fort in relation to both the River Irthing and the Cambeck. So, I went to www.streetmap.co.uk/ to take a look.
What I found was both exciting and disturbing. Assuming, of course, I had actually found anything at all!
I'm talking here about the presence very near the fort of a place called Kellwood. Why should this place matter to anyone?
Well, it occurred to me immediately that as there were other Cumbric names in the area, Kell- might preserve a word like celli (GPC: grove, corpse, woodland). This brought to mind Arthur's court at Kelliwic, supposedly in Cornwall. -wood could easily have spawned the (g)wig (GPC: wood, forest, grove) of Kelliwic. Or, although it is a stretch, -wood could be an English substitute for an earlier (g)wig. According to O. J. Padel (CMCS 8, p. 19), Kelli Wic is 'the forest grove'.
To investigate this possibility, I had to first gather the early forms of the Kellwood place-name. The following information comes courtesy Stephen White of the Carlisle Library:
KELWOOD
The Placenames of Cumberland, Volume 1, CUP, 1950, simply says
KELLWOOD is Kelwood, Parish Registers Lanercost, 1731. It is also noted as Kilewood in 1794
The placename elements in volume three of this work contains the Old Norse Kelda for spring
Thomas Denton’s Perambulation of Cumberland 1687-88 notes under Walton
Henry [Dacre] is now lord thereof. He hath a demesn within this mannor called the Kellwood, worth 50 li a year, the countrey being hereabouts covered with wood on each side of irthing
I next had to go to Brythonic place-name expert Alan James. He was kind enough to pass along his ideas for this place-name:
"A Cumbric origin is quite likely here, but the very late documentation leaves it uncertain: Kelwood 1731, Kilewood 1794. It could be celli, or MIr/Gaelic coille, or indeed Cumbric *cīl (Mn Welsh cil) 'a nook'.
However, Kelwood is a place near - now a suburb in - Dumfries, with better, earlier documentation: Kelwode 1323, Kellwod 1342, Keldewod 1370, Keldwod 1433, so probably ON kelda 'a spring', and of course the Cumbrian Kellwood could have had the same origin.
Still I think celli might be behind Kellwood..."
Tautologies are fairly common in British place-names. What this means is that two elements are present in a place-name, both from different languages, but both indicating the same kind of feature. You end up with a formula that reads something like 'Hill-hill.' The Welsh kelliwic or gelliwig is an unusual form in and of itself, a sort of reduplication, and as Alan James reminded me in a separate communication, a -wic ending would probably precipitate an English ending such as wick (cf. Latin vicus). Unless the meaning of Cumbric -wic/-wig were known to the non-Cumbric speakers of the area.
Tautologies are fairly common in British place-names. What this means is that two elements are present in a place-name, both from different languages, but both indicating the same kind of feature. You end up with a formula that reads something like 'Hill-hill.' The Welsh kelliwic or gelliwig is an unusual form in and of itself, a sort of reduplication, and as Alan James reminded me in a separate communication, a -wic ending would probably precipitate an English ending such as wick (cf. Latin vicus). Unless the meaning of Cumbric -wic/-wig were known to the non-Cumbric speakers of the area.
The notion that Kellwood could be the original Kelliwic is intriguing, even if unprovable. But the Arthur name (from Artorius) was definitely associated with the Celtic word for 'bear', and the Irthing Valley of Ceidio's/Arthur's father Arthwys ('man of the Arth', perhaps an eponym) was a 'Little Bear' River. I've in the past tried to make a case for Uxellodunum/Petriana at Stanwix being his headquarters, but that argument is really based only on the fairly late tradition that Etterby hard by Stanwix was known as "Arthur's burg" and by the proximity of other Arthurian sites. We might surmise that Birdoswald/Banna with its Dark Age timber hall was Arthwys's fort, while Camboglanna belonged to Arthur.
I will say in closing that I feel Kellwood's proximity to Castlesteads seems too coincidental. Yet a coincidence is all it may be.
POSTSCRIPT: This would appear to be a false alarm. I accessed earlier maps, like the following from http://maps.nls.uk/view/91628964. They clearly show a small stream originating from Kellwood. And this means that a derivation from Old Norse kelda is preferable. Alternately, as the farm sits in a bend of the river, Cumbric cil is also possible here, as this last word has the sense of corner as well as nook. I would say, geographically speaking, that celli is last on the list of possibilities for the place-name Kellwood.
Early maps also shows a woodland called 'Kellwood Alders' on both sides of the Irthing River. See http://maps.nls.uk/view/102340722. According to Alan James, Kellwood Alders "looks like a plantation, probably no earlier than 18th ct and not necessarily a guide to where the eponymous wood was."
POSTSCRIPT: This would appear to be a false alarm. I accessed earlier maps, like the following from http://maps.nls.uk/view/91628964. They clearly show a small stream originating from Kellwood. And this means that a derivation from Old Norse kelda is preferable. Alternately, as the farm sits in a bend of the river, Cumbric cil is also possible here, as this last word has the sense of corner as well as nook. I would say, geographically speaking, that celli is last on the list of possibilities for the place-name Kellwood.
Early maps also shows a woodland called 'Kellwood Alders' on both sides of the Irthing River. See http://maps.nls.uk/view/102340722. According to Alan James, Kellwood Alders "looks like a plantation, probably no earlier than 18th ct and not necessarily a guide to where the eponymous wood was."
ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME MEDRAWT
On
February 26, 1996, I received a letter from Professor Oliver Padel of
Cambridge. This was in response to a query I had sent him some time earlier in
which I proposed that the name Medrawt – born by the personage who died with
Arthur at Camlann – may represent the Roman name Moderatus. What Padel had to say
on this possibility is important enough for Arthurian studies to be reprinted
in full below:
“Not
much has been done on the name of Medrawt or Mordred… In an article on various words
in Welsh with the root med, Medr-, Ifor Williams suggested that the name might
be connected with the Welsh verb medru ‘to be able, to hit’; but he did not
develop the idea, only mentioned it in passing.
Middle
Welsh Medrawt cannot formally be identical with Old Cornish Modred, Old Breton Modrot
(both of which are recorded, indicating an original Old Co.Br. *Modrod), since
the Welsh e in the first syllable should not be equivalent to a Co.Br. o there.
What
people do not seem to have asked is what this discrepancy means: we can hardly
say that Welsh Medrawt is a different name, since it clearly belongs to the
same character as Geoffrey’s
[Geoffrey of Monmouth] Modredus < Co.Br. Modrod.
Which
is ‘right’? I would suggest that the Co.Br. form is the ancient one, and that
the Welsh form has been altered, perhaps indeed by association with the verb
medru.
That
was already my conclusion, but I did not have a derivation for Modrod. However,
Modrod would be the exact derivative of Latin Moderatus, as you suggest. Your
suggestion is most attractive, and neither I nor (so far as I know) anyone else
has previously thought of it.
Like
you, I should be relucatant to say that Modrod couldn’t have a Celtic
derivation; but it fits so well with Moderatus that I personally don’t feel the
need to look further.”
If
Medrawt or, rather, Modrod, is Moderatus, this may be significant for a Medraut
at Cambloglanna on Hadrian’s Wall, for we know of a Trajanic period prefect
named C. Rufius Moderatus [1], whose unit left inscriptions at Great Chesters on the Wall
and Brough-under-Stainmore in Cumbria (CIL iii. 5202, RIB 1737, 166-9, 2411,
147-51). The name of this prefect could have become popular in the region and
might even have still been in use among Northern British noble families in the 5th-6th centuries CE.
The Welsh tradition makes Medrawt a son of Llew son of Cynfarch. Cynfarch, of course, was father of the famous Urien of Rheged, a kingdom whose origin lay in Annandale (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-nucleus-of-uriens-kingdom-of-rheged.html). I have suggested before that Arthur's fall at Camlan may have been due to the expansion of Rheged.
Here is the listing for Llew as drawn from P.C. Bartrum's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:
Here is the listing for Llew as drawn from P.C. Bartrum's A CLASSICAL WELSH DICTIONARY:
LLEW ap CYNFARCH. (Fictitious).
The name is used in Brut y Brenhinedd where Geoffrey of Monmouth has Loth (HRB VIII.21,
etc.). As Loth was made the father of Walganus and Modred (HRB IX.9), so Llew became the father of
Gwalchmai and Medrod. Loth was the brother of Urianus and Auguselus (HRB IX.9) and these brothers
become Llew, Urien and Arawn in ByB. It is not easy to explain the change; one explanation is
suggested under Arawn (q.v.). Loth, as eponym of Lothian, corresponds to Lleuddun Luyddog (q.v.), but
this was evidently not realised by the compilers of ByB.
Llew is listed as a son of Cynfarch with Urien and Arawn in the triad of the ‘Three Fair WombBurdens’ of Ynys Prydain (TYP no.70 - Pen,47), and in the ‘Hanesyn Hen’ tract (ByA §6). Some late
versions, based on HRB, give Medrod and Gwalchmai as sons of Llew ap Cynfarch (ByA §8 in EWGT
p.87).
[1]
From The People of Roman Britain by Anthony Richard Birley, University of California Press, 1980, p. 69:
Saturday, September 30, 2017
ARTHUR PENUCHEL AND MEDRAUT SON OF LLEU (WITH AN ETYMOLOGY FOR MEDRAUT)
A Hypothetical Family Tree
Cynfarch Arthwys
Urien Lleu Efrddyl Eliffer Gosgorddfawr
Medraut Arthur Penuchel
In my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY, I suggested that the name of Medraut's father (the Loth of Geoffrey of Monmouth, properly rendered as Lleu in the Welsh sources; Lothian is derived from Middle Welsh Lleudinyawn, Brittonic *Lugudunianon, land of ‘Lugh's/Lleu's Fortress’) should perhaps be attached to Carlisle, the Romano-British Luguvalium, This was principally because the latter, whether interpreted as a place-name or a description of the fort, meant 'Lleu-strong.'
However, in going back over the Triads I realized that I'd missed something: Triad 70 lists as a son of Cynfarch, and thus brother of Urien and Efrddyl, a certain Lleu. As it happens, the Welsh version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's tale makes this Lleu son of Cynfarch the father of Medraut. For the fun of it, I drew up the family tree presented above, as the various family relationships placed Medraut and Arthur Penuchel in the same generation. Furthermore, in this scheme Arthur and Medraut are first cousins.
Lleu son of Cynfarch's mother was Nefyn - a name universally held to be cognate with the Irish goddess name Nemhain. Nemhain, in turn, often appears as the trio of battle goddesses which includes the Morrigan. In my THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON I made my case for the Welsh Morgan being a substitute for the Morrigan in Arthurian story. If I'm right, then Nemhain wife of Cynfarch could also be seen as the Morrigan/Morgan, grandmother of Medraut.
In Geoffrey's story, Medraut's mother is Anna, Arthur's sister. This points once again to the Annan River (from a British form of the Irish goddess name Anu, or at least from the same root). According to the "Gorhoffedd" of Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, Caerliwelydd, i.e. Carlisle in Cumbria, was in Rheged (see John Koch's CELTIC CULTURE: A CULTURAL ENCYCLOPEDIA). I've recently shown that the heartland of Rheged was, in fact, Annandale, just across the Solway Firth from Carlisle. But it is not impossible that at some point Rheged did hold Carlisle, and that it was Cynfarch's son Lleu whose name may serve as a sort of partial eponym for that city. Medraut, then, would be from Luguvalium.
The Welsh name Gwyar as Medraut's mother, as she was the mother of Medraut's supposed brother Gawain. But I've shown in my THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY that Gwyar's people belonged at the pre-Saxon Bamburgh.
In Geoffrey's story, Medraut's mother is Anna, Arthur's sister. This points once again to the Annan River (from a British form of the Irish goddess name Anu, or at least from the same root). According to the "Gorhoffedd" of Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, Caerliwelydd, i.e. Carlisle in Cumbria, was in Rheged (see John Koch's CELTIC CULTURE: A CULTURAL ENCYCLOPEDIA). I've recently shown that the heartland of Rheged was, in fact, Annandale, just across the Solway Firth from Carlisle. But it is not impossible that at some point Rheged did hold Carlisle, and that it was Cynfarch's son Lleu whose name may serve as a sort of partial eponym for that city. Medraut, then, would be from Luguvalium.
The Welsh name Gwyar as Medraut's mother, as she was the mother of Medraut's supposed brother Gawain. But I've shown in my THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY that Gwyar's people belonged at the pre-Saxon Bamburgh.
Now, once again, accepting Arthur Penuchel as the son of Eliffer poses a rather grave problem chronologically - even though the connection with York (which is where the Artorius name came from to begin with!) is most attractive. It also relies upon a corruption of Triad 70 - although in the past I have been willing to entertain the notion that perhaps, at least as far as Arthur Penuchel is concerned, the corruption in question may represent a correction.
From the standpoint of chronology, there is some "wriggle room", as any reigns for these various Men of the North are conventional approximations. While it is true that Medraut son of Lleu son of Cynfarch and Nemhain-Morrigan/Morgan looks very promising, we are still stuck with the c. 537 date for his passing with Arthur at Camboglanna. According to Bartram, 585 or 586 are the most likely years to have seen the death of Urien, Medraut's uncle.
Urien is thought to have been born about 510 (again, see Bartram). Arthur fought at Badon c. 516. While such a date for Badon fits Ceidio son of Arthwys (who was born around 490), my candidate for Arthur 'dux erat bellorum' (as Ceidio is a hypocorism for something like Cadwaladr, Cadwal, etc.), it cannot be reconciled with an Arthur Penuchel son of Eliffer. Eliffer's sons Gwrgi and Peredur fought at Arderydd in 573 and perished at Carrawburgh on the Wall in 580 (see my book THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY).
But let's consider for a moment that Ceidio the Battle-leader, son of Arthwys, and Arthur are, indeed, the same man. If we do, something marvelous happens. We can retain the Morrigan/Morgan as Medraut's grandmother, but as Ceidio (because Efrddyl was Eliffer's wife) was Lleu's brother-in-law, Medraut would be Arthur's nephew by marriage. The kernel of the Arthur and Medraut story as found in both Geoffrey of Monmouth and the later romances would be present in this very early genealogical relationship.
Yet Medraut as son of Lleu son of Cynfarch suffers from the same chronological problem as Arthur Penuchel son of Eliffer. It would be impossible to place this Medraut at a Camlann in 537.
A NOTE ON THE NAME MEDRAWT (FROM MY BOOK "THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY"):
On February 26, 1996, I received a letter from Professor Oliver Padel of Cambridge. This was in response to a query I had sent him some time earlier in which I proposed that the name Medrawt – born by the personage who died with Arthur at Camlann – may represent the Roman name Moderatus. What Padel had to say on this possibility is important enough for Arthurian studies to be reprinted in full below:
“Not much has been done on the name of Medrawt or Mordred… In an article on various words in Welsh with the root med, Medr-, Ifor Williams suggested that the name might be connected with the Welsh verb medru ‘to be able, to hit’; but he did not develop the idea, only mentioned it in passing.
Middle Welsh Medrawt cannot formally be identical with Old Cornish Modred, Old Breton Mo-drot (both of which are recorded, indicating an original Old Co.Br. *Modrod), since the Welsh e in the first syllable should not be equivalent to a Co.Br. o there.
What people do not seem to have asked is what this discrepancy means: we can hardly say that Welsh Medrawt is a different name, since it clearly belongs to the same character as Geoffrey’s [Geoffrey of Monmouth] Modredus < Co.Br. Modrod.
Which is ‘right’? I would suggest that the Co.Br. form is the ancient one, and that the Welsh form has been altered, perhaps indeed by association with the verb medru.
That was already my conclusion, but I did not have a derivation for Modrod. However, Modrod would be the exact derivative of Latin Moderatus, as you suggest. Your suggestion is most attractive, and neither I nor (so far as I know) anyone else has previously thought of it.
Like you, I should be relucatant to say that Modrod couldn’t have a Celtic derivation; but it fits so well with Moderatus that I personally don’t feel the need to look further.”
If Medrawt or, rather, Modrod, is Moderatus, this may be significant for a Medraut at Cambloglanna on Hadrian’s Wall, for we know of a Trajanic period prefect named C. Rufius Moderatus, who left inscriptions at Greatchesters on the Wall and Brough-under-Stainmore in Cumbria (CIL iii. 5202, RIB 1737, 166-9, 2411, 147-51). The name of this prefect could have become popular in the region and might even have still been in use among Northern British noble families in the 6th century CE.
Yet Medraut as son of Lleu son of Cynfarch suffers from the same chronological problem as Arthur Penuchel son of Eliffer. It would be impossible to place this Medraut at a Camlann in 537.
A NOTE ON THE NAME MEDRAWT (FROM MY BOOK "THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY"):
On February 26, 1996, I received a letter from Professor Oliver Padel of Cambridge. This was in response to a query I had sent him some time earlier in which I proposed that the name Medrawt – born by the personage who died with Arthur at Camlann – may represent the Roman name Moderatus. What Padel had to say on this possibility is important enough for Arthurian studies to be reprinted in full below:
“Not much has been done on the name of Medrawt or Mordred… In an article on various words in Welsh with the root med, Medr-, Ifor Williams suggested that the name might be connected with the Welsh verb medru ‘to be able, to hit’; but he did not develop the idea, only mentioned it in passing.
Middle Welsh Medrawt cannot formally be identical with Old Cornish Modred, Old Breton Mo-drot (both of which are recorded, indicating an original Old Co.Br. *Modrod), since the Welsh e in the first syllable should not be equivalent to a Co.Br. o there.
What people do not seem to have asked is what this discrepancy means: we can hardly say that Welsh Medrawt is a different name, since it clearly belongs to the same character as Geoffrey’s [Geoffrey of Monmouth] Modredus < Co.Br. Modrod.
Which is ‘right’? I would suggest that the Co.Br. form is the ancient one, and that the Welsh form has been altered, perhaps indeed by association with the verb medru.
That was already my conclusion, but I did not have a derivation for Modrod. However, Modrod would be the exact derivative of Latin Moderatus, as you suggest. Your suggestion is most attractive, and neither I nor (so far as I know) anyone else has previously thought of it.
Like you, I should be relucatant to say that Modrod couldn’t have a Celtic derivation; but it fits so well with Moderatus that I personally don’t feel the need to look further.”
If Medrawt or, rather, Modrod, is Moderatus, this may be significant for a Medraut at Cambloglanna on Hadrian’s Wall, for we know of a Trajanic period prefect named C. Rufius Moderatus, who left inscriptions at Greatchesters on the Wall and Brough-under-Stainmore in Cumbria (CIL iii. 5202, RIB 1737, 166-9, 2411, 147-51). The name of this prefect could have become popular in the region and might even have still been in use among Northern British noble families in the 6th century CE.
COMING SOON: A RECONSIDERATION OF ARTHUR PENUCHEL
Aerial View of Modern Carlisle, Showing Position of the Roman Fort of Luguvalium
Friday, September 29, 2017
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