"A second Sawyl in the gloom"

Roman Ribchester

From the 'Death Song of Uther Pendragon:'

Neu vi luossawc yn trydar:
It is I who commands hosts in battle:

ny pheidwn rwg deu lu heb wyar.
I’d not give up between two forces without bloodshed.

Neu vi a elwir gorlassar:
It’s I who's called the Radiant One

vy gwrys bu enuys y’m hescar.
my ferocity snared my enemy.

5 Neu vi tywyssawc yn tywyll:
It is I who’s a leader in darkness:

a’m rithwy am dwy pen kawell.
My God, chief of the sanctuary, transforms me.

Neu vi eil Sawyl yn ardu:
It’s I who’s a second Sawyl in the gloom:

ny pheidwn heb wyar rwg deu lu.
I’d not give up without bloodshed between two forces.

DOES UTHER'S GORLASSAR TITLE COME FROM ROMAN LITERATURE?

Cadmus and the Blue Dragon

Often when we study early Welsh literature, we forget that the clerics who were preserving the native stories for us were also experts in Classical and Biblical learning.  

I was sitting here today musing over the gorlassar title Uther uses for himself in the "Marwnat Vthyr Pen" elegy poem.  I and others have come up with many origins for the word/name, and there are at least two good etymologies and meanings for it.  If we strictly adhere to language rules, gorlassar is something like 'the very blue' (or very 'azure, sky-blue, greenish blue, sea-green'; see the GPC).  Generally, Welsh scholars interpret this to mean that Uther had blue-enameled weapons or armor.  I have guessed at anything from blue woad dyed clothing or tattoos (see Caeser's "omnes se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem, atque hoc horridiores sunt in pugnā aspectu") to the greenish-blue color often observed in comets. Yet another idea I briefly flirted with is that gorlassar meant that Uther was Manannan Mac Lir, who possessed a magic cloak the color of the sea!

However, I happened to recall that in Classical sources there are references to blue serpents and dragons.  The word used for blue in the Latin contexts is usually -

caerule.us           N      2 1 NOM S M                 

caeruleus, caerulei  N  M   [XEXEO]    uncommon

epithet for river/sea deities;

caerule.us           ADJ    1 1 NOM S M POS             

caeruleus, caerulea, caeruleum  ADJ   [XXXAO]  

blue, cerulean, dark; greenish-blue, azure; of river/sea deities; of sky/sea;

[William Whitaker's Words]

Here are the two references from Ovid, along with longer English text giving their contexts:

longo caput extulit antro
caeruleus serpens horrendaque sibila misit. 

Ovid. Met. 3:38

http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/ovid/ovid3html.html

When that race of men from Tyre directed
their ill-fated footsteps into this grove
and a jar they set down in the water
made a noise, from deep within the cavern
the dark green [OR BLUE] serpent stuck its head outside
with a fearful hissing noise. The jars fall                                             
out of the men’s hands, blood leaves their bodies,
and their astonished limbs immediately                                                           
into rolling circles and with one leap
bending itself up in an enormous arc,
it raises more than half its body length
up in the air and looks at the whole grove.
Its body, viewed as a totality,
is as huge as that Serpent in the sky
which separates the Great and Little Bears.

Note that the "Serpent" that passes between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor is Draco.  Arthur's name is often linked in the early Welsh sources to the word arth, 'bear.'  

serpere caeruleum Danai videre draconem

in platanum

Ovid Met. 12:13

http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/ovid/ovid3html.html

After they had prepared,                                                 
in accordance with their native customs,
a sacrifice to Jove and burning fires
had made the ancient altar glow, the Greeks
observed a dark-blue serpent [draconem] slithering                                         
into a plane tree standing right beside
where they had just begun the ritual.

These are only two such examples of blue serpents/dragons in the Latin texts.  There are others.  For example, we find blue 'angues' in Virgil's Georgics (4:482) and the blue-spotted serpent of Anchises in the AENEID (2:381).  Claudian (Rufinus 118) says Megaera's dress is bound with a dark-blue snake (caeruleo angue).

In the Greek, we find that the two serpents sent to kill infant Herakles were blue (Theocritus IDYLL 24).  Hesiod's 'The Shield of Herakles' speaks of azure-colored serpents/dragons.

There may be even more examples; I have not done an exhaustive search.  But what I have found indicates that dangerous or otherworldly serpents or dragons were often depicted the Greek and Roman literature as being either wholly or partly blue.

Were Uther's dragon-nature to have been taken seriously by the Welsh poets, they may well have chosen gorlassar, the 'very blue', precisely because they imagined him as being of the same color as all the serpents and dragons in Classical myths.  

WHY I AM ACCEPTING THE UTHER-SAWYL IDENTIFICATION

By now, my readers may know that for months I have struggled with the desire to place Uther Pendragon at the Ribchester fort as Sawyl Benisel.  This is because I happened to like the idea that Uther could be linked to the Sarmatian veterans at that site.

I have been given hope that this theory might work and that I can retain my proposed etymology for Eliwlad son of Madog son of Uther (Eliwlad demonstrating a metathesis in the first element, the original form being Eilwlad).  I've received this through none other than Dr. Simon Rodway, one of the foremost experts in early Welsh.

I had told him my idea for the word kawyl in one of the lines of the elegy poem on Uther.  I thought the context demanded cannwyll.  But he objected, saying

"This is perhaps possible, but three things make me uneasy.

1)      this requires positing an n-suspension.  These do occur occasionally in medieval Welsh MSS, but they are very rare.

2)      The single l would mean suggesting an Old Welsh exemplar, for which there is no other clear evidence in the poem.  Elsewhere the scribe has ll where needed, so if he was copying from an examplar with l for ll, then this would be the only occasion on which he didn’t correctly modernize.

3)      Supposing an n-suspension would only allow us to restore one n.  In an OW form, one would expect nt, nh or perhaps nn, but not n.

Overall, emendation to Sawyl, while totally speculative, involves less issues (eye-skip to kawell), and eil Sawyl, ‘a second Samuel’ gives plausible sense."

So what to make of this?  The elegy poem, interpreted with the word cannwyll, adequately explained Geoffrey of Monmouth's use of the comet motif and Uther's transformation into Gorlais.

Here are the lines of the "Marwnat Vthyr Pen" as I rendered them after considerable analysis and consultation:

It is I who commands hosts in battle:
I’d not give up between two forces without bloodshed.
It’s I who’s called gorlassar [the very blue or, perhaps, 'the great blaze, conflagration'; cf. Irish forlassar, from the intensive prefix plus lasar, 'fire, flame']:
my ferocity snared my enemy.
It is I who’s a leader in darkness:
Our God, Chief of the Sanctuary, transforms me.
It’s I who’s like (eil) a candle/luminary [transf. star, sun, moon; fig. leader, hero] or who's a second (eil) candle/luminary in the gloom:
I’d not give up fighting without bloodshed between two forces.

The problem as I see it has to do with the word 'eil'.  It can mean both like/similar to or second.  But given that the previous line has to do with a transformation of Uther by God, 'like' or 'similar to' is not a good meaning.  When you are transformed into something, you become that something.  Thus eil must mean 'second' in the line.  A second what?  If a second candle/luminary, then God could be the first such.  Yet we are not told God is the first luminary.  We would have to assume that was implied.

A 'second Sawyl', however, does fit much better. I've discussed before the Biblical story of Samuel (Sawyl is the Welsh form of Samuel).  He tends to the lamp that is kept lit at night in the sanctuary of Shiloh.  In the elegy, God is the 'Chief of the Sanctuary.'  A Dark Age chieftain with the name Sawyl could easily have been named after the Biblical hero and thus become, in the mind of the poet, a 'second Samuel.'  If his military exploits matched those of Samuel against the Philistines, then the comparison would be even more apt.

Of course, it goes without saying that if we adopt this reading, we lose the cannwyll which may have been used by Geoffrey of Monmouth to conjure his dragon-star story.  The word dragon in Welsh poetry is used metaphorically for a champion, hero, warrior, chieftain and the like.  Geoffrey's interpretation of Pendragon as 'dragon's head' would, therefore, appear to be another error.  However, as Sawyl does belong at or near Ribchester of the Sarmatian veterans, he certainly would have been well acquainted with their draco standard.  And I have provided detailed information elsewhere about the comet of 442 A.D. recorded in Irish and Continental sources.  We could, therefore, arrive at an appreciation for Geoffrrey's dragon-star and dragon-standard that is independent of his creative genius.

All of which leads me back to Eliwlad son of Madog son of Uther.  Eliwlad has remained resistant to etymologizing.  I recently proposed it might be from W. eiliw + gwlad for 'grief-prince.'  This was approved linguistically by Professor Peter Schrijver and others.  But it is rather unsatisfactory as a name and relies upon a use of gwlad that may only be present in Welsh in a couple of instances.  Dr. Simon Rodway still insists the exemplar of the name, found in later forms spelled Eliwlod and Liwlod, must have as its second element something terminating in -awd, not -ad.  But again, no decent etymology can be derived from such a spelling (whether we resort to -llawd or even -blawd).

I'd already pointed out that "The Dialogue of Arthur and the Eagle", in which the name Eliwlad/Eliwlat occurs, resembles another dialogue poem between a saint and a pilgrim.  My proposed etymology of Eilwlad would match in meaning the Irish Ailithir epithet belonging to Madog son of Sawyl.  Ailither designated a pilgrim.

The resistance to Eliwlad showing a metathesis of Eil- to Eli- is not universal.  Some top Celtic linguists had no problem with this - especially when I was able to show the metathesis happening in medieval Welsh MSS.  There are, however, some hold outs.  Dr. Rodway, for example, who has no problem with such a copying error providing the original form was extant somewhere.  Which it is not.

So what this all comes down to, essentially, is 1) accepting the emendation of kawyl to sawyl in the elegy poem and 2) allowing for Eliwlad to be from Eilwlad.   This wouldn't seem to be much to go on - until we factor in the Sarmatian angle.  I've recently worked hard confirming the new reading of the Lucius Artorius Castus memorial stone done by Dr. Linda Malcor and colleagues.  The significance of 'LAC' is that he was involved in the transfer to Britain of 5,500 Sarmatian elite troops and their use there when he was prefect of the Sixth Legion and, eventually, de facto governor of the province.  What this tells me is that if the Arthur name had been made famous in the North, as seems probable, then we should seek its continued use in the same region.  The most logical places to look for it would be York, where LAC was headquartered in the late 2nd century, or Ribchester, where Sawyl ruled in the 5th century.  An identification of Uther, Arthur's father, with Sawyl of Ribchester would satisfy these conditions remarkably well.

I have elsewhere offered yet more arguments for this identification.  While many are circumstantial in nature (e.g. Uther and Sawyl's connection to the god Mabon), the cumulative effect is such as to reinforce the Uther = Sawyl equation.  My book THE BATTLE-LEADER OF RIBCHESTER will shortly be reissued with some slight revisions.  Interested readers can find in that volume a longer treatment of my theory.

A NEW IDENTIFICATION OF ARTHUR'S MOTHER, YGERNA (AND ARTHUR'S REAL BIRTHPLACE)

Carne and Carne Hill with St. Denys Church

Geoffrey of Monmouth claims that Arthur's mother's name was Igerna.  Welsh scholars insist that Eigr is the earlier form of the name, yet Eigr is not found in any Welsh source prior to the HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN.[1]  Her being made the daughter of Anblaud/Amlawdd of Erging doesn't help vouch for her veracity, as Brynley Roberts demonstrated Anblaud was a created character used to hang famous women on who otherwise lacked known pedigrees. 

 

I've recently decided to favor Geoffrey's form because of the presence at Gorlois' fort of Dimilioc or Domellick of Carne.  This is simply the Cornish word for a rock or a rock outcrop.  Front it with a Welsh 'Y-", the definite article, and you have Igraine, Igerna, Ygerne, Ygraine.   In Welsh, carn often appears as garn.  There are many Y Garns in Wales. We also find carn or carne appearing in Cornish as cerne or kerne.

St. Denys Parish Church stands at the top of Carne Hill on the site of the Iron Age hill fort. There was another St. Denys chapel at Tintagel, where Gorlois moved Igerna for safekeeping when he fought Uther Pendragon. 

We actually know that the place was called Carn Hill from early on.  The following is excerpted from 

"The Hill-Fort at St. Dennis" by Charles Thomas M.A., F.S.A. (https://cornisharchaeology.org.uk/journals/No.4_1965.pdf):

 "The Site 

The isolated hill crowned by the parish church was formerly called 'Carn Hill' (so MacLauchlan, 1849). The tenement which included this appears in the Exeter Domesday as Dimelihoc (f.254b), a small manor with a single plough team, '1 acre'(perhaps a little over a hundred modern acres) of potential arable, pasture half-a-league by half-a-league, and no animals recorded. This probably refers to the northern slopes of the hill, and the rough ground on the moor below, since the ground south of the hill appears as Karsalan, the modern Carsella.

'Dimelihoc', found in 1145 as Dimilioc, 1284,1334 Dynmyliek, and thence to Domelioc, Domeliock (pronounced 'damel'ak'), clearly comprises OCo. din (-as), 'fortress', and a personal name *Milioc that may ultimately come from Lat. Aemiliacus rather than, as the name Mailoc seems to do, from Brit. *Maglacos. If this name, originally that of the hill-summit, had been extended to a wider tenement by Domesday times, it must be presumed that the hill-top itself was then locally called \an) dinas'; for the ascription to the un-Celtic and non-local saint Denis or Dionysius (of Paris) almost certainly resulted from verbal confusion. Whether this took place under a Norman master, or conceivably under some such English landlord as the Ailmer who held Dimelihoc in the time of Edward the Confessor, rather depends upon the date assigned to the churchyard cross standing south of the present church; but it is most unlikely that it occurred before the 11th century.  

The dinas in question surrounds the church and churchyard. Apart from the strong evidence afforded by the place-names, its fortified nature was apparently recognised in some lost medieval tradition encountered by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 1130's. The Galfridian version of the Arthur story refers (Historia Regum Britanniae, viii. 19) to 'Dimilioc' as the castle of Gorlois, duke of Cornwall. (This is implied to be hard by 'Tintagel', where Gorlois' wife Igerna is immured: Jenner and Henderson have variously demonstrated that Geoffrey's 'Tintagel', the actual medieval castle of which was not commenced until a few years after Geoffrey wrote, is far more likely to represent Castlean-Dinas, the massive Iron Age hill-fort a few miles north of St. Dennis.) 31 The evidence therefore permits the assumption that the St. Dennis hill-top was recognised as an ancient fortification, in some tale contemporary with Geoffrey of Monmouth's writing (early 12th century), at the time of the ascription to 'St. Denis' (11th century), and at the time when the name *Din Milioc was applied to it (unknown, but one would suppose well pre-Domesday)."

In THE SUFFIX -ÄKO IN CONTINENTAL CELTIC by Paul RUSSELL   

(https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/ecelt_0373-1928_1988_num_25_1_1877.pdf), the author shows how the Roman name Aemilius could be made into a place-name designator by using the -ako suffix:

"It seems, then, that LN function of -äcus can be explained as a semantic specialisation of its general adjectival function in Gaulish and early Gallo-Latin. The shift from adjective to substantive seems in most cases to be a feature of Gallo-Latin.94 We still, however, have to face the question of why -äcus was more productive than the native Latin suffix -änus. The answer, I would suggest, lies within the complex sociolinguistic patterns of Roman Gaul and, as such, can only be framed in the most general and tentative terms. The practice of naming a fundus after the owner seems to have been widespread in Gaul but who did the naming? For a number of reasons it appears that it was not be owner himself but the people who lived in the area. By far the majority of these LNN are based on Roman gentilicia ; now, while it does not necessarily imply that they were Roman, it certainly implies a degree of Romanisation to the extent that, if the owners were naming their fundi, they might have used Latin -änus. Support for this view comes from the high proportion of -änus to -äcus LNN in Gallia Narbonensis, the area with the highest degree of Romanisation.95 On      the other hand, the native inhabitants of a particular area would have tended towards the Gaulish/Latinised Gaulish end of the continuum for whom the natural pattern of forming an adjective from a PN would have been with -äko-. If, then, the native inhabitants provided the name, we would expect precisely the type we find, namely owner’s name + äko thus, for example, the land owned by Aemilius would have been termed * (fundus) Aemiliacus = modern Amalhac, Amilly, Amillis, etc.96 This suggestion seems to be the only way to explain the conjunction of a Roman PN with a native Celtic suffix within the complex linguistic system which probably operated in Roman Gaul."

Now, the real question is this:  if I'm right and Geoffrey of Monmouth is claiming a personified place-name as Arthur's mother, does it follow that we should interpret this story as Arthur being born at The Carn?

Significantly, there is no carn place-name at Tintagel or Tintagel Head.  Many reasons have been given for why Geoffrey chose Tintagel.  He could have done so for political reasons, or to please a patron, for example.  Some have even pointed to the Artognou inscription found there, not as a serious claim for identifying Artognou with Arthur, but to suggest that Geoffrey had knowledge of someone having lived there or worked there who had an Arto- name.  I have already suggested above that may have used the presence at both places of shrines to St. Denys to justify the transferrence.  According to Nicholas Orme in his THE SAINTS OF CORNWALL, besides the chapel at Trevena/Tintagel at the church at Domellick, St. Dennis may have had establishments at Otterham and North Tamerton.  In Devon, there were St. Dennis churches at Bradninch and Walkhampton. 

But if Arthur's "mother" The Carn was never at Tintagel, does it follow that there was a tradition at one time promoting Domellick's hillfort as the hero's birthplace?  Carn names are exceedingly common in Cornwall,. And, indeed, there are many forts or other ancient monuments in Cornwall (and Wales, for that matter) that bear carn names. Yet we are hardly justified in assuming that The Carn at St. Dennis was itself a relocation of a prior site.  [In passing, though, I cannot resist mentionng Carne Beacon near Veryan Castle hillfort, which folk belief claims to be the burial mound of one of the Dark Age Gereint kings (or saints or both). The Carne place-names here are across Gerrans Bay, i.e. Gereint's Bay, from Dingerein Castle fort.]  

In other words, if Arthur was born at The Carn, and that carn is Carn Hill at St. Dennis/Domellick, then Arthur was born at St. Dennis/Domellick.  And NOT at Tintagel. 

It might be worth our while to take a look at the etymology of Aemilius.  According to the best authorities, the name is to be linked to L. aemulus.  Here is the listing for that word from Chartlon T. Lewis' and Charles Short's A LATIN DICTIONARY:

aemŭlus , a, um, adj. cf. ἁμιλλάομαι and ἅμα, imitor, imago, Germ. ahmen (Eng. aim) in nachahmen = to imitate,

I.striving after another earnestly, emulating, rivalling, emulous (cf. aemulatio and aemulor), in a good and bad sense; constr. with dat. or as subst. with gen.

I. In a good sense, Att. ap. Auct. Her, 2, 26, 42: “laudum,” Cic. Phil. 2, 12: “laudis,” id. Cael. 14: “aemulus atque imitator studiorum ac laborum,” id. Marc. 1: “Timagenis aemula lingua,” Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 15: “itinerum Herculis,” Liv. 21, 41.—With ne and subj.: milites aemuli, ne dissimiles viderentur, Aur. Vict Caes. 8, 3.—

II. In a bad sense, both of one who, with a hostile feeling, strives after the possessions of another, and of one who, on account of his strong desire for a thing, envies him who possesses it; envious, jealous, grudging.— With gen.: Karthago aemula imperii Romani, Sall C. 10; Vell. 2, 1: “Triton,” Verg. A. 6, 173: “quem remoto aemulo aequiorem sibi sperabat,” Tac. A. 3, 8: “Britannici,” Suet. Ner. 6.—

III. Subst., a rival = rivalis: mihi es aemula, you are my rival (i. e. you have the same desire as I), Plaut. Rud. 1, 4, 20; Ter. Eun. 4, 1, 9; cf. id. ib. 2, 1, 8; “si non tamquam virum, at tamquam aemulum removisset,” Cic. Verr 2, 5, 31: et si nulla subest aemula, languet amor, Ov A. A. 2, 436.—By meton. (eccl.), an enemy: “videbis aemulum tuum in templo,” Vulg. 1 Reg. 2, 32; “affligebat eam aemula,” ib. 1, 6.— In gen., mostly of things without life, vying with, rivalling a thing, i. e. comparable to, similar to, with dat., v. Rudd. II. p. 70 (poet., and in prose after the Aug. per.): “tibia tubae Aemula,” Hor. A. P. 203: “labra rosis,” Mart. 4, 42: “Tuscis vina cadis,” id. 13, 118; Plin. 9, 17, 29, § 63; id. 15, 18, 19, § 68 al.: “Dictator Caesar summis oratoribus aemulus, i. e. aequiparandus,” Tac. A. 13, 3.!*? Facta dictaque ejus aemulus for aemulans, Sall. Fragm. Hist. 3 (cf. celatum indagator for indagans in Plaut. Trin. 2, 1, 15, unless celatum be here a gen.).

From this word we get our word emulate. The dictionary authors cite imitor, to imitate, act like, copy after, seek to resemble, counterfeit, mimic; resembles; assume the form of, and imago, an imitation, copy, image, representation, likeness, etc., as deriving from the same root.

On the surface, the story of Uther assuming the form of Gorlois would seem to be tied up in the meaning of Aemilius.  But we would have to believe that Goeffrey somehow knew not only the personal name underlying his Dimilioc, but that the personal name was the be related to L. aemulus.  And that seems more than a little too far for us to go.  

Now, I've already shown that Gorlois is from the poetic term gorlassar Uther attaches to himself in the MARWNAT VTHYR PEN elegy.  The context of the poem suggests the word means something like the Irish forlas(s)ar, 'great fire, great radiance', rather than 'the very blue'.  His tranformation at Pen Kawell, likely Pen Ridge over the River Cale (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/06/is-uthers-kawell-cale-river-in-somerset.html), refers to him becoming 'like a star in the gloom.'  Geoffrey himself tells us Uther was symbolized by the great dragon-star that appeared in the sky upon Ambrosius' death. Geoffrey seems to have been responsible for instead taking gorlassar as another chieftain and having Uther magically transform into that man's shape.  

This does not necessarily detract from the possibility that Arthur may have been born at Carne Hill.  But it does show us just how badly history can get mixed up with aetiologically concocted tales.

Still, I think there is a much better place to situate Ygerna, 'The Carn.' In the Life of St. Carantoc (or Carannog), we are told that Arthur and Cadwy were ruling jointly at Dindraethou near Carrum (see https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/carannog1.html, http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/carannog2.html). I have shown that Dindraethou was never actually an Arthurian fort (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/12/dindraithou-darts-castle-at-watchet.html).  But that Arthur is with Cadwy tells us that the original site was one of the Cadbury hillforts.  Carrum is Carhampton, and the word comes from OE carrum, dat. plur. of carr, 'rock', so 'rocks.'  As it happens, carn in the Celtic languages meant a heap of stones.

What I think happened was this: Arthur and Cadwy, who belong properly at Cadbury Castle, are placed in the saint's life at Carrum where, incidentally, we also find a 'terrible dragon' (cf. Uther Pendragon).  This carrum was at some point related to the carne at St. Dennis/Domellick and "personified" by Geoffrey of Monmouth into Ygerna.  The truth is that Arthur's mother belongs neither at Domellick nor Carhampton: she belongs at Arthur and Cadwy's Cadbury Castle in Somerset.  

[1] For years now, I've held to my theory that Eigr was a personification of the headland at Tintagel.  I had arrived at this notion after extensive correspondence with Dr. Graham Isaac.  See

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-repost-of-my-summarized-treatment-of.html.  But given the presence of Carne at Domellick, I now think this earlier proposed etymology is quite unwieldy - and completely unnecessary. 

St. Dennis Church and Fort at Carne Hill

ARTHUR, ALCLUD AND AN *ARTO-/"STONE" NAME

The Rock of Clyde

I never thought I would again question the derivation of Arthur from Roman/Latin Artorius, but here goes... Perhaps Arthur, if itself from Artorius, is a decknamen for something else?

Years ago, when I first took a look at Coroticus "regis Aloo/regem Aloo", "King of the Rock [of Clyde]", viz. Alclud, Petra Cluith, as a possible ancestor of Arthur, I discovered something strange about the name Arthur itself as found in the early sources.

First, I noticed that the Arthur of Dyfed had as his father one Petr/Pedr, from the Latin word for stone or rock.

I then found it curious that Arthur son of Bicoir the Britain (Bicoir may well be an attempt at Petuir, one of the variants of Pedr, and not the Beccurus found on a stone in NW Wales) is said to have killed the Irish king Mongan with a stone.

Now, on the one hand, this could be nothing more than a pun on Pedr's name.  Perhaps it had nothing whatsoever to do with Arthur.  Or it could represent a fanciful interpretation of the first part of his name.

Yet if Coroticus as the credulisque tyrannus is Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur, we might wonder about the reference.

There is a rare word in Celtic, whose origin is not well understood.  It is not found in Welsh or Cumbric, but is in Irish.  Here are the various listings for the word from respectable Celtic word lists and dictionaries:

2 art
Cite this: eDIL s.v. 2 art or dil.ie/4322
Forms: a.

n expld. in glossaries as stone: a.¤ .i. cloch nō leac ligi cuius diminutiu[um] artēne .i. cloichēne, Corm. Y 26 . a.¤ .i. aill, Ält. Ir. Dicht. ii 27 § 1 (reading of BB). fúigfe an lása é 'na Art / acht grása Dé 's a dhaonnacht (pun on the name Art), L. Cl. A. B. 243.11 . a.¤ solid, strong, stout, a stone . Also dim. airtine pebble , P. O'C. Note also compds. artchaireal or artchailéar a quarry or stone pit . artghaineam stony sand, coarse gravel , P. O'C. Note also (perh. merely an inference from anart): crúaid `a.¤' a ṡenainm go fír is `anart' ainm do mhaoithmhín, Metr. Gl. 15 § 34 . a.¤ ┐ anart cruaid ┐ maoth, O'Mulc. 56 .

stone *arto-, SEMANTIC CLASS: nature, Gaulish Arto-briga ‘stone-fort (?; or ‘bear-’)’, Early Irish art ‘stone’

*arto- stone

*arto- 'stone' [Noun]
GOlD: Mlr. art
GAUL: artuass 'stones' (Todi)
ETYM: This is a rather weak etymology, since the Mlr. word is known only
from glossaries (its gender and stem formation are unknown), and the
meaning of the Gaulish noun is not ascertained (cf. Lambert 1994: 74).
REF: LEIA A-91.

Noted place-name expert Alan James has written to me about art, ‘stone’, in Irish:

"Looking at the DIL entry, it does seem to occur in compounds that have to do with stones, and I don't see why the glossary entries should be mistakes. It has been proposed by De Bernado Stempel in the Hispanic ethnonym Artabri, and Art- does of course occur in personal names other than Artur, ones where there's no particular reason to see bears. So I wouldn't rule it out. However, there doesn't seem to be any evidence for it remaining current in Brittonic, if anyone saw a stony connection, they'd more probably have been Irish.”

Professor Peter Schrijver had told me this concerning *arto-:

"The problem with art is that it seems to be attested only in glossaries and that it may be a spelling for ard 'high', also 'high place', in which case it could be a specialized meaning of the latter ('rock' >  'stone'). Not very reliable, therefore."

Still, as I’ve pointed out before, the only royal houses to name sons after the earlier British Arthur were those of Dyfed and Dalriada – both of Irish foundation.  So the Irish may well have interpreted Arthur as containing their own word for stone, especially if he was from Alclud.

For this reason I don’t think we need ask whether an original *Arto-rix or *Arto-rigos, ‘Stone-king’, came to be replaced by Latin Artorius.  In other words, that Arthur from Artorius was a decknamen for the Stone-king name.

I would raise one last point in favor of Arthur being seen by the Irish as Stone-king.  Geoffrey of Monmouth (who utilizied many Irish-derived traditions in his pseudo-history) claims that Arthur's mother's name was Igerna.  Welsh scholars insist that Eigr is the earlier form of the name, yet Eigr is not found in any Welsh source prior to the HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN.  I've recently decided to favor Geoffrey's form because of the presence at Gorlois' fort of Dimilioc or Domellick of Carne.  This is simply the Cornish word for a rock or a rock outcrop.  Front it with a Welsh 'Y-", the definite article, and you have Igraine, Igerna, Ygerne, Ygraine.   In Welsh, carn often appears as garn.  There are many Y Garns in Wales. We also find carn or carne appearing in Cornish as cerne or kerne.

St. Denys Parish Church stands at the top of Carne Hill on the site of the Iron Age hill fort. There was another St. Denys chapel at Tintagel, where Gorlois moved Igerna for safekeeping when he fought Uther Pendragon.

If Arthur actually belongs in birth not in southern Dumnonia at Tintagel, but at the Rock of Clyde in northern Dumnonia, then it would be remarkable indeed if his mother's name was thought to mean 'rock' or 'rock heap.'

On the river-name Clyde, Rivet and Smith (THE PLACE-NAMES OF ROMAN BRITAIN) have this:

"Original British *Clouta, according to Watson CPNS 44 and 71; the root is *clou- 'to wash', cognate with Latin cluo, cluere 'wash, purify' and cloaca 'sewer'. Related names include an Italian river Cluentus and Gaulish river Clutoida, and Hispano-Latin personal names Clouta, Cloutius, etc. According to the Life of Gildas (quoted by Holder I. 189) the saint was a native of the Arecluta region, that 'before the Clyde'. Original British ou passed to o in the late first century A.D., when the name was first set down in the Latin tradition, then to u by the end of the third century; the Welsh name for the river is clut, the older Gaelic (from British) Cluad and the modem Cluaidh. Watson thinks that 'Like many other river-names, clota is really the name of the river-goddess, "the washer, the strongly-flowing one", or such'; this seems a necessary proposition particularly in view of the personal names, doubtless derived from the divine name rather than based directly on any root meaning 'to wash'."

We do have to bear in mind, however, that the story of Uther and Ygerna at Tintagel may have a different origin.  Geoffrey of Monmouth may have employed the Life of St. Carannog, extracting Uther from that vita’s terrible dragon, Ygerna from Carrum/Carrov and Tintagel from Guellit.  For my discussion of this possibility, see
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/04/tintagel-and-ygerna-guellit-and-carrum.html.

CONCLUSION

My research indicates that Arthur's father Uther Pendragon is the crudelisque tyrannus Ceredig of Alclud.  The descriptor was used so that the morally objectionable character of Ceredig could be avoided and he could be recast in a more favorable mould. The magical qualities of Uther can be found in Geoffrey's interpretation of the elegy and in Ceredig's transformation into a fox. The fox is present in the name Madog, used for a son of Uther.  As far as Arthur is concerned, a hero from ancient Dumnonia in the North meets all the necessary criteria.  We can account for his later presence in southern Dumnonia and even in Domnonee, Brittany.  We can explain why Aedan of Dalriada named a son after him. Etc.

COROTICUS THE LITTLE FOX AND THE LOUERNOC PLACE-NAMES NEAR ALCLUD

Lowernog Place-names Proximity to Coroticus' Alclud

After getting all excited about the connection of Coroticus of Strathclyde with a fox, which seemed to point to him as Uther father of Madog the Fox, I decided to make sure nothing had been missed in the surrounding place-names.

Good thing I did so!

Not far to the ESE of Coroticus' Alclud in Glasgow, there is an ancient site known as Balornock.  Not far NW of Alclud there is a Balernock. The place-names are discussed here:

https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2019_Edition.pdf

 lowern,*lewïrn, (both m) IE *wlop- > eCelt *lop- + -erno- > Br, Gaul lowerno- > OW(LL) laguern, leuyrn, louern (in place-names, LL pp. 207, 142, 175) > M-eMnW llywern, llewyrn (see below), OCorn louuern > Corn lowarn, OBret Louuern-, Loern (in place- and personal names) > Bret louarn, Vannetais dialect luhern; OIr loarn (in personal and ethnic names); cf. Lat vulpēs, Gk alōpós, Skt lopāṣa ‘a jackal, a fox’. 190 See LHEB §6(3), pp. 279-81, §48(2), p. 384, and §208(B5), pp. 677-8, and CIB ǂ19 at p. 72, ǂ27 at pp. 98-9, ǂ80 at p. 226 n1418, and ǂ84 at p. 231. On forms with lewï- see Schrijver (1995), pp. 61-2, and idem (1998). For discussion of a Continental example, see Louerion in DCCPN p. 151. ‘A fox’, though note that Schrijver in the works cited above argues that forms with lewï- are not plurals < *lowerni-, but derived from *lowernjo- and mean ‘a fox-like thing, a will o’the wisp’. In West Brittonic, as in Goidelic, this seems to have survived mainly or exclusively in place- and personal names. See Breeze in CVEP pp. 67-9 on this element in river-names, and Padel (1978) at p. 24 n10 for personal names. In CA LXXXVIII, Pais Dinogad, the phrase llewyn a llwyvein is apparently a formula referring to a pair of hunters’ quarries, either or both being, perhaps, garbled forms of words related to lowern: see Williams’s note to CA line 324, Jackson’s to YGod (KJ) p. 151, and Jarman’s to YGod (AJ), line 1012. a2) Balernock Dnb (Garelochhead) Ross (2001) p. 23 + bod- + -ǭg: possibly -*lewïrn-, see above, in a lost stream-name, or a personal (saint’s?) name, *Lewïrnǭg. Balornock Lnk CPNS p. 202 + bod- + -ǭg: again, a lost stream-name, or a personal (saint’s?) name, here *Lowernǭg. Carlowrie WLo (Dalmeny) PNWLo p. 5 + cajr-: possibly translated as Foxhall (PNWLo P. 41), see Wilkinson in WLoPN p. 22. Or else + -laβar- or –lǭr-, + -īn. 

The name is discussed elsewhere as "Louernoc's hut", from Brythonic, and not a Gaelic baile name (https://www.parliament.scot/Gaelic/placenamesA-B.pdf).  

Buthlornoc in 1186 (https://www.theglasgowstory.com/story/?id=TGSAG).

Louernoc, Angl -lornock (saint's name, 'little fox') (http://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Index_of_Celtic_and_Other_Elements.pdf).

As can be seen, the name is a diminutive and means 'Little Fox' - the exact equivalent of the 'vulpiculi' used of Coroticus by Muirchu.

We can now understand the fox transformation story in the Life of St. Patrick differently.  The king of Strathclyde is asked to step down and he does so, becoming a hermit.  Whether he was given the name Louernoc or merely lived at the hut of a religious bearing that name is debatable.  But Muirchu, intent on showing the king's evil nature, instead concocted the tale that Coroticus' own men had used a spell to turn their leader into a little fox.

Madog as fox could easily have been substituted for the vulpiculi of Muirchu's account, as knowledge of the underlying Celtic Louernoc need not be assumed by the Welsh. The little fox in a sense seemed to “succeed” the king, and such a misperception could have led to the mistaken notion that the fox in question was the king's son.

From Alan James on my idea on Coroticus and Louernog:

"*Lowern was apparently a Brittonic given name. Coroticus might have somehow been nicknamed *Lowernog, ‘little fox’, even as insult initially (which Muirchu somehow got to know of), but taken up by his subjects, even by Coroticus himself, as an amusing handle. And if he subse-quently repented and became a hermit in his *bod, that would have been Bod-lowernog, Balornock."

THE TRANSFORMATION OF UTHER PENDRAGON

In Muirchu, while it is Patrick who prays for the removal of Coroticus, it is the king's own men who work his transformation.  And what they do with the recitation of the "poem" sounds suspiciously like the casting of a druidic spell or curse.  The Latin reads:

"Non grande post ea tempus effluxerat et musi-cam artem audiuit a quodam cantare quod de solio regali transiret, omnesque karissimi eius uiri in hanc proruperunt uocem."

The word 'cantare' here implies not only a song, but also an 'incantation, charm, spell, magic song.'

According to Welsh Triad 28, Uther was a great enchanter.

TRIAD 28

Three Great Enchantments of the Island of Britain:

The Enchantment of Math son of Mathonwy (which he taught to Gwydion son of Don), and the Enchantment of Uthyr Pendragon (which he taught to Menw son of Teirgwaedd), and the Enchantment of Gwythelyn/Rudlwm the Dwarf (which he taught to Coll son of Collfrewy his nephew).

In "Math Son of Mathonwy", the title character transforms Gwydion and Gilfaethwy into deer, pigs and wolves.  Gwydion transforms the eagle Lleu back into human form.  In TRIAD 27, Coll son of Collfrewy is named as a great enchanter.  In 26, he is one of the great swineherds.  He owned a magical sow who gave birth to wheat, bees, barley, a wolf-cub, an eagle and the dreaded Palug's cat.

The Menw mentioned above tranforms himself into a bird in "Culhwch and Olwen":

"And Menw transformed into the form of a bird, and landed over his lair, and tried to snatch on of the treasures from him. And he got nothing, however, apart from one of his bristles."

Bromwich's note (b) to TRIAD 28 points out that "Menw m. Teirgwaedd is distinguished as a shapeshifter."  She makes the case for Uther's transformation being that into Gorlois, recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-history.

However, given that all the transformations alluded to involve animals, we cannot help but wonder whether Uther's was of the same kind.  Did he, perhaps, turn into a fox?

We need to take another look at the relevant lines of "Marwnat Vthyr Pen", where the hero calls himself gorlassar:

It is I who commands hosts in battle:
I’d not give up between two forces without bloodshed.
It’s I who’s called the very blue [or, given the context, 'the great blaze, conflagration'; cf. Irish forlassar, from the intensive prefix plus lasar, 'fire, flame']:
my ferocity snared my enemy.
It is I who’s a leader in darkness:
Our God, Chief of the Sanctuary, transforms me.
It’s I who’s like ['eil' here means like/similar to, not 'second' - unless God is to be considered the 'first'] a candle/luminary [transf. star, sun, moon; fig. leader, hero] in the gloom:
I’d not give up fighting without bloodshed between two forces.

I'd suggested before that this was almost certainly where Geoffrey of Monmouth got his notion of Uther's comet (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/02/uthers-star-and-comet-of-442-ad.html).  In fact, Geoffrey has Merlin pronounce to the king: "the star, and the fiery dragon under it, signifies yourself."  Of course, he also took gorlassar and converted the epithet for Uther himself into Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. In reality, Uther was referring to himself as the 'cannwyll' when he used gorlassar, so in this sense gorlassar is the cannwyll. 

At first glance there would seem to be no possible connection between a transformation into a fox and one into a comet.  Except when we remember that Uther's comet is a tailed comet.

The red fox of Britain can have a coat whose colors mimic those of fire.  He is also known for his remarkably long and bushy tail.  In fact, the Welsh word for fox is llwynog, 'bushy', a reference to the tail.  The English word fox comes from a root meaning 'tail.'  While not attested until late, W. llostog, 'tailed', is also a name for the fox.  And, finally, ser llostog is a tailed star or comet, and ser llosgyrnog is a star (comet) with a long or prominent tail.

Could it be that Uther's comet was not a dragon, but instead was visualized as a fox?  It was gorlassar - radiant, shining, blazing - like a fox's coat, and it had the fox's long, bushy tail.

An intriguing idea.  Alas, we have no evidence that a comet could be perceived, symbolically speaking, as vulpes vulpes by Dark Age Britons.