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| From Glein to Camlann:
The Life and Death of King Arthur (2)August Hunt |
From Glein to Camlann is Copyright © 2006, August Hunt. All rights reserved. Used with permission. The first battle: at the mouth of the river Glein
It has long been recognized that there are only two extant Glen rivers which conform philologically to "Glein" and which could have been subject to Saxon attack from the Continent in the 5th-6th centuries AD, the Age of Arthur. These are the Glen of Lincolnshire and the Glen tributary of the Till in Northumberland.
The Glen of Lincolnshire has no distinctive features or strategic fortifications which would make it of any value to an invading force. On the other hand, the Northumberland Glen is hard by the Yeavering Bell hill-fort, which prior to becoming a Saxon stronghold was the British Gefrin. Gefrin, according to Eilert Ekwall (in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names), is from the Welsh word gafr ‘goat’ or a compound containing gafr plus Welsh bryn (mutated fryn), for “Goat-hill”. I would remind the reader, however, of a Gaulish god conflated with Mercury called Gebrinius. It is possible that Gefrin represents a British counterpart of this divine name. Other hill-forts abound in the region: Wooler, Kyloe Hills, Dod Law forts at Doddington, the Old Bewick hill fort and the Ros Castle fort and settlement between Chillingham and Hepburn. And, of course, the Roman road known as the Devil’s Causeway, a branch off of Dere Street, passes only a couple of miles to the east of the mouth of the Glen. Scholars who argue in favor of the Lincolnshire or "Lindsey" Glen do so primarily because the following battle, that of the Dubglas, is put in a Linnuis region by the Historia Brittonum. Linnuis, as we will see, is wrongly thought to represent the later regional name Lindsey. An actual battle at the mouth of the Lindsey or Lincolnshire Glen is scarcely possible, unless it were a battle of reconquest by Arthur and not a successful defensive engagement. This is because we have archaeological evidence for Saxon cemetaries well north, west and south of the Lindsey Glen as early as c. 475 (see the distribution maps starting on p. 52 of N.J.Higham’s King Arthur: Myth-Making and History, London and New York, 2002). The next four battles: at the river Dubglas in the Linnuis region Kenneth Jackson and others (see “Once Again Arthur’s Battles”) recognized that Old Welsh Linnuis “would come from Br.-Lat. *Lindensis, *Lindenses, or *Lindensia; and the identification with Lindsey is very reasonable.” Lindsey, of course, was the early English name for what we know think of as Lincolnshire. The root of Lindensis, etc., is British *lindo-, “pool, lake”, now represented by Welsh llyn, “pond, lake” (A.L.F. Rivet and Colin Smith, in their The Place-Names of Roman Britain, under the entry for ‘Linda’). The Roman name for the town of Lincoln – Lindum – is from the same root. The “pool” or “lake” in question is believed to have been on the Witham River near the town. The problem is that there is no Dubglas or "Black Stream" (variants Douglas, Dawlish, Dowlish, Divelish, Devil’s Brook, Dalch, Dulais, Dulas, etc.) in Lindsey. This has caused other place-name experts to situate the Dubglas battle either near Ptolemy’s Lindum of Loch Lomond in Scotland or near Ilchester in Somerset, the Roman period Lindinis, as there are Dubglas rivers in both places. Unfortunately, neither of these candidates is satisfactory, because Arthur would not have been fighting Saxons at either location in the time period we are considering. A site which has been overlooked, and which is an excellent candidate for Arthur’s Dubglas, is the Devil’s Water hard by the Hadrian Wall fort of Corbridge, which has upon it a place called Linnels. Allen Mawer, in his The Place-Names of Northumberland and Durham (1920), proposed that Linnels was from an unrecorded personal name. Professor Richard Coates of Sussex University (personal correspondence), upon looking at Linnels on the Ordnance Survey map, observed the "remarkable double elbow in the Devil’s Water, with a lake nearby" and concluded that Linnels was from a British *lindo-ol:in, "lake-elbow". Geoffrey Watson in Goodwife Hat and Other Places: Northumberland’s Past and its Place Names (1970), guessed that the Devil’s Water stemmed from a Dilston Norman family, the D’Eivilles. But Coates, going by the earliest spelling of the Devil’s Water (Divelis c. 1230), has no reservations in saying that Watson’s etymology is incorrect and that Devil’s Water is certainly of the Dubglas river-name type. Ekwall agrees, saying that the Northumberland Devil’s Water is "Identical with DALCH." Dalch is "A compound of Brit dubo- ‘black’ (welsh du) and OW gleis, Welsh glais, ‘stream’." The Devil’s Water at Linnels is thus the only extant Dubglas river-name associated with a demonstrably Welsh lake-name that is geographically plausible as a battle site against Britons and Saxons during the period of Arthur. Worth noting is the fact that the Roman Dere Street road at Corbridge splits immediately north of the Wall, the eastern branch or "Devil’s Causeway" continuing NNE, straight to the Northumberland Glen. The Battle of Hexham was fought at Linnels on May 14, 1464. The sixth battle: at the river Bassas The Bassas river is the most problematic of the Arthurian battle sites, as no such stream name survives and we have no record other than this single instance in the Historia Brittonum of there ever having been a river so named. Conventional theory seeks to derive the first component of Bassas from W. bas, "shallow". The suffix of this supposed bas river-name has so far eluded analysis, bringing up the possibility that Bassas itself is a corrupt form. Bas or "shallow" is not found as a place-name component on the Continent or in Britain, nor even in Wales. We can only say that the location of the Bassas may be somewhere in the same general region as the Glen and Devil's Water battles. We will see below that the locations of the battles after that of the Bassas will support this notion. Professor Hywel Wyn Owen of the University of Wales, Bangor, has this to say on the place-name Bassas: The fact that it is not recorded elsewhere suggests that "shallow" is not a particularly dramatic feature for a river of any significance and therefore it is not surprising that it was superseded by another more meaningful name. On the other hand, perhaps the battle occurred at a place where some (un-named) river was relatively shallow, a fairly wide, gravelly, slow-moving stretch of some river or other. Bassas would then mean "the shallow place". That kind of one-off description need not have survived. Some scholars have opted for a different origin for Bassas. They have pointed to Bass place names such as Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, The Bass at Inverurie in Aberdeenshire and Bass Hill at Dryburgh. Alas, the etymology for bass is fairly recent. According to Dr. Peter Drummond of the Scottish Place-Name Society: "In the Scottish national dictionary there is an entry under 'bass' as follows: A workman's tool basket; also a basket for carrying fish – known in Banff and Fife: on Lothian coast "bass" is a square straw basket about 2' by 2' used for carrying fish. I would suspect therefore that it was named by fisher folk due to its resemblance to that." The Bass Burn or Bass "stream", a tributary of the Scar or Scaur Water approximately 15 miles NW of Dumfries and just south of Auchenhessnane, was originally called the Back Burn. To quote from Neil Moffat, Reference and Local Studies Department, Dumfries and Galloway Libraries, Information and Archives, Dumfries and
Galloway Council: "Both the 1st edition (1861) and 2nd edition (1899) Ordnance Survey maps name it as Back Burn. The 1955 edition names it as Bass Burn. It is possible that either the original surveyors simply misheard what the local people called it, or that later surveyors did." Unfortunately, there are other Back Burns in Lowland Scotland, so the chances that this stream’s original name was Bass is slim. A less desirable, but no less possible explanation for the name Bassas is that it records an OE personal name found in place-names, i.e. Bassa. We find Bassingas or "the people of Bassa" in several placenames in England, but there are only two such places in Lowland Scotland/Northumberland: Bassington at Cramlington and Bassington at Alnwick. Bassington in Cramlington parish was a farmstead approximately 1 1/2 miles North West of the village. It appears on a map of 1769 and is probably a much older site. In the present day town of Cramlington the site of Bassington Farm is on the Bassington Industrial Estate (information courtesy Helen McBurnie, Parish Secretary). However, other than this Bassington's proximity to the Devil's Water at Linnels (approximately 20 miles as the crow flies), there is little to recommend it as the site of Arthur's Bassas River battle. The "tun of Bassa’s people" on the Aln is not far east of a Roman road that connects Dere Street and the Devil’s Causeway. This Bassington is also near the Roman fort of Alauna on the Aln at Low Learchild and is roughly equidistant between the Northumberland Glen and the Devil’s Water on Hadrian’s Wall. If the battle of Bassas had been fought in the vicinity of Bassington, one of the streams in the vicinity of this tun may well have been referred to as "Bassa’s" river. On the OE personal name Bassa, Dr. Graham R. Isaac of The University of Wales, Aberystwyth has the following to say (private correspondence): "The ending -as in Bassas has no explanation in either Latin or Welsh grammar. But it does have an explanation in Old English grammar. The name is probably Old English. Just as Baschurch (Shropshire) is from Old English 'Basses cirice', i.e. 'Basse's church' (Eglwyseu Bassa in the Old Welsh poems), and Basford (Nottinghamshire) is Old English 'Basses ford', and Baslow Derbyshire) is Old English 'Basses hlaw', i.e. 'Basse's burial-mound'; so 'flumen quod uocatur Bassas' is easily understood as 'the river which is called Basse's', i.e. 'Basse's river'. (Basse is an Old English personal name). There is no river with exactly this name known; names do come and go. But there is a Basingbourne in Cambridgeshire, Old English Basingeburna, which is 'the stream of Basse's people', 'Basse's kin's stream'. I am not suggesting that that is the river meant in the Historia Brittonum, but you see that the interpretation of the name is perfectly plausible." To argue that it makes no sense to have a Germanic name in the Arthurian battle list, I would only say this: for all we know, Arthur’s opponent at the Bassas River may have been a chieftain named Bassa. If this were so, it is quite possible the British themselves would have referred to the river as Bassa’s. Alternately, by the 9th century date of the Historia Brittonum, the old British name of the stream may have been forgotten, and it was only known that Arthur had fought at a river, which was now called Bassas. One must only imagine the Saxons coming up the Aln or its valley, with a mind towards reaching first the Alauna fort and then continuing west on the connecting Roman road that branched off of the Devils' Causeway to meet up with Dere Street. The Devil's Causeway runs north from the Alauna fort, eventually passing just a little east of the mouth of the Glen, the location of Arthur's first battle.
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| From Glein to Camlann:
The Life and Death of King Arthur (3) August Hunt |
The seventh battle: The Celidon Wood The Celidon Wood could be reached via the Roman road system. Although its exact location and extent are unknown, as mentioned above this great forest has traditionally been placed in the area surrounding the Clyde and Tweed headwaters. Caledonia was originally the region of the Great Glen in Highland Scotland inhabited by the Caledonii. As such, in Classical usage Caledonia came to mean Scotland north of the Forth-Clyde isthmus. But in Welsh tradition (as is evidenced by the presence of Merlin at 1) Arthuret just north of Carlisle, 2) Drumelzier on the Tweed and 3) the region near Glasgow), the Coed Celyddon would appear to be, in Kenneth Jackson’s words, "perhaps the moorlands round the upper Clyde and Tweed Valleys". The eighth battle: The Castle of Guinnion The Castle ("Castellum") Guinnion has been identified with the Roman fort of Vinovium at Binchester, although Professor Kenneth Jackson (_Once Again Arthur’s Battles_, MODERN PHILOLOGY, August, 1945) thought this unlikely. A.L.F. Rivet and Colin Smith (in The Place-Names of Roman Britain), however, note that: "…Ptolemy’s alternative Vinnovium (British *Uinnouion) brings us very close to the later name set down by Nennius. There is still a problem, however, in that Vinnovium should have given in Old Welsh at this stage a form in –wy, or similar; but it could be that –ion has been maintained as a learned form. Crawford, even without this support, thought that the identification should not be entirely rejected, and he was surely right." Binchester is not far south of Hadrian’s Wall on the Roman Dere Street. The ninth battle: The City of the Legion The City of the Legion (Urbs Legionis) is, in this context, the Roman legionary fortress at York, the Romano-British Eburacum. Dere Street began at the fort and ran north to Hadrian’s Wall and beyond. The argument against York is that, according to Welsh sources, the only Roman forts called Cities of the Legion were Chester or Deva and Caerleon or Isca. But that the Welsh did not know York was a legionary fortress seems very doubtful. To begin, we have chieftains such as Peredur son of Efrauc (Efrauc = Eburacum/"York") and Peredur son of Eliffer Gosgordfawr. Rachel Bromwich and others have suggested that Peredur is a Welsh rendering of the Roman rank of Praetor. The governor or legate of Britannia Inferior, that is Northern Britain, was in the later period of praetorian rank. From www.roman-britain.org: "Britannia Superior / Inferior c.AD212 - AD396 Caracalla reviewed the administration of Britannia and split the province into two: Britannia Superior in the south had a consular governor based at London with two legions, the Twentieth at Chester and the Second at Caerleon. Britannia Inferior in the north had a praetorian governor with only one legion, the Sixth at York, where the governor also resided." Peredur son of Eliffer is placed in two Northern battles. He is said to have been present at Arfderydd (Arthuret just north of Carlisle) and an unidentified Caer Greu. Of this last battle site, Bromwich has tentatively related the name to W. creu, "blood". I would propose that Caer Greu/Creu is Carrawburgh, i.e. the Roman fort of Brocolitia, on Hadrian’s Wall. To quote from Dr. G.R. Isaac of The University of Wales: "English 'Carrawburgh' could easily reflect something like very early Old Welsh *'Cair Carrou'. The extant form of 'Caer Greu' could be the regular Middle Welsh reflex of that." Eliffer the father of Peredur, by virtue of his son’s name, would seem to have ruled from York. If so, then his epithet Gosgordfawr may be significant. It means "[of the] Great Retinue". Could not this "great retinue" of a ruler of York - a ruler whose son’s name probably means "praetor" – be a memory of the York legion?
The tenth battle: The Shore of the river Tribruit The location of the shore (W. traeth) of the river Tribruit has remained unresolved. The clue to its actual whereabouts may lie in the two possible meanings assigned to this place-name. According to Kenneth Jackson (_Once Again Arthur's Battles_, MODERN PHILOLOGY, August, 1945), Tribruit, W. tryfrwyd, was used as an adjective, meaning "pierced through", and sometimes as a noun meaning "battle". His rendering of traeth tryfrwyd was "the Strand of the Pierced or Broken (Place)". Basing his statement on the Welsh Traeth Tryfrwyd, Jackson said that "we should not look for a river called Tryfwyd but for a beach." However, Jackson later admitted (in The Arthur of History, ARTHURIAN LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES: A COLLABORATIVE HISTORY, ed. by Roger Sherman Loomis) that "the name (Traith) Tribruit may mean rather 'The Many-Coloured Strand' (cf. I. Williams in BBCS, xi [1943], 95). Most recently Patrick Sims-Williams (in The Arthur of the Welsh, THE EARLY WELSH ARTHURIAN POEMS, 1991) has defined traeth tryfrwyd as the "very speckled shore" (try- here being the intensive prefix *tri-, cognate with L. trans). Professor Sims-Williams mentions that 'trywruid' could also mean "bespattered [with blood]." I would only add that Latin litus does usually mean "seashore, beach, coast", but that it can also mean "river bank". Latin ripa, more often used of a river bank, can also have the meaning of "shore".
The complete listing of tryfrwyd from The Dictionary of Wales (information courtesy Andrew Hawke) is as follows:
tryfrwyd
2 [?_try-^2^+brwyd^2^_; dichon fod yma fwy nag un gair [= "poss. more than one word here"]]
3 _a_. a hefyd fel _e?b_.
6 skilful, fine, adorned; ?bloodstained; battle, conflict.
7 12g. GCBM i. 328, G\\6aew yg coryf, yn toryf, yn _tryfrwyd_ - wryaf.
7 id. ii. 121, _Tryfrwyd_ wa\\6d y'm pria\\6d prydir, / Trefred ua\\6r, treul ga\\6r y gelwir.
7 id. 122, Keinuyged am drefred _dryfrwyd_.
7 13g. A 19. 8, ymplymnwyt yn _tryvrwyt_ peleidyr....
7 Digwydd hefyd fel e. afon [="also occurs as river name"] (cf.
8 Hist Brit c. 56, in litore fluminis, quod vocatur _Tribruit_; 14 x CBT
8 C 95. 9-10, Ar traethev _trywruid_).
Tryfrwyd itself, minus the intensive prefix, comes from:
brwyd
[H. Grn. _bruit_, gl. _varius_, gl. Gwydd. _bre@'t_ `darn']
3 _a_.
6 variegated, pied, chequered, decorated, fine; bloodstained; broken, shattered, frail, fragile.
7 c. 1240 RWM i. 360, lladaud duyw arnam ny am dwyn lleydwyt - _urwyt_ / llauurwyt escwyt ar eescwyd.
7 c. 1400 R 1387. 15-16, Gnawt vot ystwyt _vrwyt_ vriwdoll arnaw.
7 id. 1394. 5-6, rwyt _vrwyt_ vrwydyrglwyf rwyf rwyd get.
7 15g. H 54a. 12.
The editors of GCBM (Gwaith Cynddelw Brydydd) take _tryfrwyd_ to be a fem. noun = 'brwydr'. They refer to Ifor Williams, Canu Aneirin 294, and A.O.H. Jarman, Aneinin: Y Gododdin (in English) p. 194 who translates 'clash', also Jarman, Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin, pp. 36-7. Ifor Williams, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies xi (1941-4) pp. 94-6 suggests _try+brwyd_ `variegated, decorated'.
On brwydr, the National Dictionary of Wales has this:
1 brwydr^1^
2 [dichon ei fod o'r un tarddiad a@^ _brwyd^1^_, ond cf. H. Wydd. _bri@'athar_ `gair']
3 _eb_. ll. -_au_.
6 pitched battle, conflict, attack, campaign, struggle; bother, dispute, controversy; host, army.
7 13g. HGC 116, y lle a elwir . . . y tir gwaetlyt, o achaus y _vrwyder_ a vu ena.
7 14g. T 39. 24.
7 14g. WML 126, yn dyd kat a _brwydyr_.
7 14g. WM 166. 32, _brwydreu_ ac ymladeu.
7 14g. YCM 33, llunyaethu _brwydyr_ a oruc Chyarlymaen, yn eu herbyn.
7 15g. IGE 272, Yr ail gofal, dial dwys, / _Brwydr_ Addaf o Baradwys.
7 id. 295.
7 1567 LlGG (Sall) 14a, a' chyd codei _brwydyr_ im erbyn, yn hyn yr ymddiriedaf.
7 1621 E. Prys: Ps 32a, Yno drylliodd y bwa a'r saeth, / a'r _frwydr_ a wnaeth yn ddarnau.
7 1716 T. Evans: DPO 35, Cans _brwydr_ y Rhufeiniaid a aethai i Si@^r Fo@^n.
7 1740 id. 336, _Brwydrau_ lawer o Filwyr arfog.
Dr. G. R. Isaac of The University of Wales, Aberystywyth, in discussing brwyd, adds that:
"The correct Latin comparison is frio 'break up', both < Indo-European *bhreiH- 'cut, graze'. These words have many cognates, e.g. Latin friuolus 'friable, worthless', Sanskrit bhrinanti 'they damage', Old Church Slavonic britva 'razor', and others. The Old British form of brwyd would have been *breitos. It is sometimes claimed that there is a possible Gaulish root cognate in brisare 'press out', but there are difficulties with that identification.
"It may be worth stressing that the 'tryfrwyd' which means 'very speckled' and the 'tryfrwyd' which means 'piercing, pierced' are the same word, and that the latter is the historically primary meaning. The meaning 'very speckled' comes through 'bloodstained' from 'pierced' ('bloodstained' because 'pierced' in battle). But I do not think this has any bearing on the arguments. Actually, Tryfrwyd MAY mean 'very speckled', but that is conjecture, not certain knowledge. Plausible conjecture, yes, but no more certain for that." That "pierced" or "broken" is to be preferred as the meaning of Tribruit is plainly demonstrated by lines 21-22 of the _Pa Gur_ poem: Neus tuc manauid - "Manawyd(an) brought Eis tull o trywruid - pierced ribs (or, metaphorically, "timbers") from Tryfrwyd" Tull, "pierced", here obviously refers to Tribruit as "through-pierced". Professor Hywel Wyn Owen, Director of the Place-Name Research Centre, University of Wales Bangor, has the following to say on traeth + river names (personal correspondence): "There are only two examples of traeth + river name that I know of, both in
Anglesey (Traeth Dulas, Traeth Llugwy) but there may well be others. The
issue is still the same however. Where a river flows into the sea would
normally be aber. The traeth would only be combined with the river name if
the river name was also used of a wider geographical context, and became,
say, the name of the bay. Hence traeth + bay name rather than traeth +
river name directly." In the poem Pa Gur, the shore of Tryfrwyd battle is listed one just prior to Din Eidyn and once just after the same fort (I will have more on the Pa Gur battle sites below). Furthermore, we are told in the same poem that Manawyd(an) was present at the Tryfrwyd battle. The Gwrgi Garwllwyd or "Man-dog Rough-grey" who is also placed at Tryfrwyd has been associated with the Cynbyn or "Dog-heads" Arthur fought at Din Eidyn.
Manawyd's role at Tryfrwyd may suggest that this river or its shore is to be found in or on the borders of Manau Gododdin, which according to Watson is "the district round the head of the Firth of Forth, whose name remains in Slamannan and Clackmannan." The Fords of Frew west of Stirling were proposed by Crawford as the site of Traeth Tryfrwyd, but Jackson claims W. frut or ffrwd, "stream", cannot have yielded frwyd. Jackson also countered Skene's theory that this was the Forth, on the grounds that the Welsh name for the Forth, Gweryd, which would be *Guerit in OW, "cannot have anything to do . with OW. -bruit."
The Cynbyn or "Dog-heads" may (although see below) owe their existence to the Coincenn daughter of Aedan, father of the Dalriadan Arthur, and to the Coinchend in the Irish story "The Adventure of Art son of Conn." In this Irish tale, Art battles a monstrous woman named Coincenn or "Dog-head" who is a membere of a tribe bearing the same name. The Coincenn of the Irish are probably, in turn, a reflection of the Classical Cynacephali. [I would add that the name of Art son of Conn's mother may be significant in this context. She was called Eithne, which was also the name of the mother of the god Lugh. The place-name Eidyn is of unknown etymology. Because Din Eidyn was the capital of Lothian, and Lothian is derived from Middle Welsh Lleudinyawn, Brittonic *Lugudunia:non, land of "Lugh's (Welsh Lleu's) Fortress", it would be reasonable to suggest that Eidyn as Lugh's fortress represents a British form of Irish Eithne. Din Eidyn would then be the Fort of (the goddess) Eithne.] The problem with going with Tribruit as the name of a river or even a shore meaning "speckled" is this: why would not more common Welsh words for "speckled" have been used? Words like brech (f. brych) or brith? Indeed, there are plenty of examples of such "speckled" words in Gaelic place-names, including a Breich Water, i.e. "Speckled Water", in West Lothian, and a town called Braco, "Speckled", on the River Knaik hard by the Ardoch Roman fort. In addition, there is no way to explain a "broken/pierced-through" river on the basis of a geological feature. A shore could be said from a metaphorical sense to be "pierced" by a river or even a rock formation such as a headland, but the same cannot be said for a river. It is for this reason that we must give the Welsh Traeth Tryfrwyd precedence. The place-name means, literally, "[the] Pierced/Broken-Through Shore". We have discussed above that such a shore would seem to be in the vicinity of Edinburgh/Dun Eidyn or a bit further west in Manau Gododdin proper. The poem may be even more specific, in that Traeth Tryfrwyd is said to be 'ar eidin cyminauc' (_Pa Gur_, Line 28), "at Eidyn on the border". Now, the "border" here could be the Firth of Forth, or it could be the border between the lands immediately around Din Eidyn and Manau Gododdin. Eidyn could also designate Gododdin proper, with the border being, once again, the division between Gododdin proper and Manau Gododdin. As for the Cynbyn or "Dog-heads", I would call attention to Hound Point just west of Edinburgh and the presence of Kentigern (*Cunotigernos, "Hound-lord") at Culros just across the Forth from Bo-Ness (see Jocelyn of Furness's _Life of St. Jentigern_). Jennifer Parkerson, Map Library Assistant for the National Library of Scotland, passed along the following on Hound Point:
"THE HOUND (Dalmeny) is mentioned as lie Hund in RMS 1539, in a charter anent fishing rights; it is named on Blaeu 1654, and Barnbougle & Dalmeny c.1800 shows it as the large off-shore rock which has obviously given its name to HOUND POINT. From Anglian hund or Old Norse hundr, a dog, it is one of those animal names that seamen give to rocks, not always for any fancied resemblance but as labels for navigational purposes. As the rock on the corner where tides race in and out of the strait, the Hound was a danger to small coasting vessels, and the legend of a black hound bringing a Mowbray of Barnbougle to an untimely end may have been a folk memory of some fatal wreck on it." [Stuart Harris, _The Place Names of Edinburgh_] We will see under the discussion of the _Pa Gur_ poem that both English and Gaelic place-names are present, a fact that proves the poem preserves much older material than has previously been thought. I would suggest that the author of the _Pa Gur_ may have inserted the Cynbyn or "Hound/Dog-heads" into the account of the Tribruit battle because of either Hound Point or Kentigern at Culros. As for the "Pierced/Broken-Through Shore" itself, I would mention Broken Hook, which according to John Reid of the Scottish Place-Name Society ("Going Round the Bend", November 200) lay by the river Avon. Hook is either from OE hoc, 'bend in a river', or from a possible *huc, 'river-bend'. Broken Hook is found as brokenheugh in 1551 and describes a place where a natural breakthrough has occurred in a river bend. Reid mentions that the history of the River Carron demonstrates that breakthroughs in the meanders did occur. Via personal correspondence, he added: "Broken Hook was one of the pendicles of the barony of Abbotskerse and I have found it iin five charters relating to that entity plus one further one in a post-Reformation retour. There are no overt references to its location but on two occasions it appears thus: 1587 Brokinheuk et Reddoch; 1635 Brokinhouk et Ridheuch. It is this association with Reddoch (the NGR for which is NS943804) that makes me locate it on the Avon rather than the Carron. For the last few years I have been scouring the leaves of the registers of sasines (beginning in 1617 for this local) and have worked through these to the second half of the eighteenth century. No instance of the name has appeared and we must assume that it had been absorbed into some greater land holding by then, thereby making it more or less obsolete in charter terms at least. Nevertheless, from a sasine of 1749 I have noted "--- all and haill these nine oxengates of Redheugh with houses [etc] with also the fishings upon the Water of Avon --- and also these parts [glosses particatas (anglice) lie falls] ultra Gramma Salsa (anglice lie Salt Grass) called Henry Hooks Saltgrass and lie Hooks Saltgrass --- said lands of Redheugh omnium per prius mixtarum (anglice Runrig)". It is possible that the last of these two, Hooks Saltgrass, might relate to the lost Broken Hook and might be for *Broken Hook's Saltgrass. These names relate to saltings on the tidal parts of the rivers. There must be an even stronger suspicion that the place named Hook on an estate plan of 1806 and located at NS945801 may be the lost Broken Hook in view of its location. The last should not be confused with Heuk which lay on the east bank of the River Carron at its confluence with the Forth." Broken Hook at Reddoch was just a little north of Inveravon, the "Mouth of the Avon", at the Antonine Wall, with its temporary Roman camps. Only a few miles to the east is the Roman fort at Carriden. Carriden is interesting in that the author of the _Pa Gur_ poem could easily have confused it for Din Eidyn/Edinburgh. We have seen that the Tribruit battle is twice brought into conjunction with Eidyn. To quote from Craig Cessford's _Post-Severan Cramond_ (THE HEROIC AGE, Issue 4, Winter 2001): "The fort of Carriden at the eastern terminus of the Antonine Wall, which also falls within Votadinian territory, might appear to be derived from Caer Eidyn, but this is problematical. Kenneth Jackson argued that the early forms of the name such as Karreden and Karedene can not be derived from this source but David Dumville has challenged this (Dumville 1994). Even if Dumville is correct his argument suggests that the name Carriden may be relatively late as he suggests that this fort was originally named 'End of the Wall' [Penguaul, Cenail, Peneltun] a topographical descriptive term later applied to Kinneil and not necessarily indicating any occupation." The headwaters of the Avon are at Slamannan or Sliabh Manau, the "Hill of Manau", and this river empties into the Firth of Forth at the eastern terminus of the Antonine Wall in Manau Gododdin. The Carron is itself in Manau Gododdin. I would identify the Traeth Tribruit, the "Broken Shore", with Broken Heugh, the "Broken River-Bend" at the mouth of the Avon.
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| From Glein to Camlann:
The Life and Death of King Arthur (4) August Hunt |
The eleventh battle: Mount Agned Mount Breguoin has been associated with the "cellawr Brewyn" or cells of Brewyn where Urien of Rheged later fought, a site generally agreed to be the Roman fort of Bremenium at High Rochester on Dere Street. Kenneth Jackson came to this conclusion in Antiquity, XXII (1949), 48-49. Most scholars now think that the Breguoin battle was taken from the Urien poem and incorporated into the Arthurian battle-list in the _Historia Brittonum_.
Mount Agned has hitherto escaped philological analysis. From Kenneth Jackson's time on, one original form proposed has been Angned. But this is an unknown word and has failed to produce a viable site. Most authorities agree that Agned is a corruption.
The simplest explanation for Agned as a corrupt form has been supplied by Dr. Andrew Breeze of the University of Navarre (A.C. Breeze, Pennango near Hawick and Welsh Angau 'Death' [Notes and Documents], in: Northern History 39, 2002, p. 126). Dr. Breeze proposes as a textual emendation for Agned, MW agued. The n > u copying error is a common one. Dr. Breeze, drawing from Ifor Williams in Canu Aneirin, and quoting the three instances in which it is found in the Black Book of Chirk, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin, lists as possible meanings of agued "death, strait, massacre, affliction, adversity." The note from Canu Aneirin (which I have translated from the Welsh): “… G.M.L. [Timothy Lewis’s Glossary of Medieval Law] 9 offers ‘death’ as a meaning for acgued: the same ang- as in angeu [or angau, ‘death’]… be it agwedd from ang- ‘angau’ or from ang ‘cyfang’ [narrow], the opposite being ‘eh-ang’ [un-narrow], cf. Latin ang-ustus.”
Dr. Breeze tentatively associates Mount Agned or Agued with a place-name discussed by W.J. Watson in The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1926). Watson mentions a site near Hawick in Lowland Scotland called Penango(hope) or Pennango(hope), which has not be located. Dr. Breeze renders Pennango as "Death Hill" (Pen, "Hill", + angau, "death"). He then supplies several examples of British hill-names which have death, murder, skull and the like as components.
Pennango is supposed to be approximately 4 miles SW of Hawick, near the confluence of the Allan Water and the Teviot. As it happens, near the junction of the Teviot and the Allan Water is a fort called Newbigging. To provide the complete listing from CANMORE of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland:
"Fort, Newbigging. The remains of this fort overlook the Allan Water, at Allanwater Reservoir, from a rocky knoll (750 ft. OD) at the head of a short, steep valley. This is flanked on the W by Hill Head, and on the E by a shoulder of the hill on which stands the house marked Newbigging on the OS map.
The ground above the head of the valley is rolling and has been heavily cultivated, with the result that no remains of structure survive except on the S and SE faces of the knoll which have proved too rocky for the plough. The surviving stretch of the defences is so slightly curved as to suggest at first a linear and not an enclosed work, but triple ramparts are enough in themselves to indicate that this appearance is deceptive, and there can be little doubt that this monument was, in fact, a native fort.
When complete, it must have been at least as large as is suggested by the dotted line on the OS map; this would give an internal length of some 450 ft from NE to SW with a transverse breadth of perhaps 300 ft.
The surviving defences consist of three banks of piled rubble, evidently obtained from the rock-cut ditches between them, but cultivation has flattened the bottoms of the ditches and has tapered off the ends of the banks. The outer bank is 500 ft long, and where best preserved is 27 ft thick and stands 8 ft. above the level of the ground outside and 5 ft. 8 in. above the bottom of the ditch within. The middle bank is 467 ft. long, is 23 ft. thick where measured, and stands 8 ft. 8 in. and 3 ft. 10 in. respectively above the bottoms of the ditches on its outer and inner sides. Of the inner bank only 170 ft. is left, and it stands 7 ft. 5 in. above the ditch outside it and 4 ft. 5 in. above the surface of the ground within. In every case the external height of the bank is, of course, increased by the natural slope of the ground. The knoll, which stands some 15 ft. higher than the cultivable ground to the N, has been heavily quarried and shows traces of what may have been two scooped hut floors, one about 28 ft. and the other from 30 ft. to 35 ft. in diameter.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 1949" Dr. Breeze himself admits, however, that there is a serious problem in equating agued with angau, in that the two words are not etymologically related. He suggests, as a way out of this problem, that one word could have been substituted for the other at a certain point in the evolution of the place-name Pennango. This may have happened as the obscure word agued dropped out of use. Breeze points out that "If our Agued were in the Cheviots, it would have been replaced by a better-known site some twenty-five miles east of it [i.e. High Rochester]… Arthur is in any case far more likely to have fought there [Pennango]than at High Rochester, known as a battlefield of Urien in the late sixth century..." Dr. Graham Isaac of The Univeristy of Wales, Aberystywyth, disagrees with the notion that agued could have been used as a component of a place-name. To quote Dr. Isaac in full on this matter: “There are two places in the Hengerdd poetry, and one in the Laws, where there seems to be a word that would be written 'angwedd' today (see Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru p. 69). The difficulty is that the contexts show clearly that it does not mean 'narrows, straits' in any geographical sense, but means rather something like 'dire straits, difficulty, anxiety' perhaps 'death'. As such it is, of course, completely unsuitable as a geographical name. (The word 'anxiety' from Latin ANXIETAS, contains the same ANG-; this is good Indo-European, nothing new there).
The poetic usages of ANGWEDD you find in Canu Aneirin line 1259 'twryf en agwed' (with an extensive note on the word p. 349), and Blodeugerdd Barddas o Ganu Crefyddol Cynnar (ed. Marged Haycock), p. 166, line 18 (= BT p. 4,
line 9). They leave absolutely no room for us to think that there may have been a place called 'Angwedd'.
However, the poetic lines do open up another possibility. It has long been thought that the Arthur passage in HB represents a Latin retelling of an OW heroic poem, and with good reason (you know the arguments). Such a poem
could have had a line in it like 'galon in agued', 'the enemy in dire straits, great difficulty' (like the Canu Aneirin line 'twryf en agwed' 'a host in dire straits'). It is conceivable that an author responsible for the Harleian Recension of the HB (who may not have been entirely versed in the diction of OW heroic poetry) may have mistaken this 'agued' for a
place-name, and mistakenly placed the battle there: instead of 'the enemy in dire straits', he understood 'the enemy at Agued', easily miscopied at some point as 'Agned' as Breeze suggests. Under this interpretation, the
only location for the battle that was ever correct was Breguoin. This analysis at least solves the problem of 'Where was Agned?' with the answer, 'There never was such a place', and so no need to look for it.” The present author would have to agree with Dr. Isaac. Firstly, the revised etymology and definition for agued no longer allows for “death” as a meaning for this word. The listings for angwedd in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru 1 and 2, respectively, are as follows (information courtesy Manon Roberts) :
1 angwedd
2 [?yr un ang- ag yn ang `cul' neu angau+gwedd]
3 eb.
5 Angau:
6 death.
7 13g. A 25. 2-3, twryf en agwed. e rac meuwed.
7 13g. LlDW 31. 18-19, ay kadarnau ohonau yr acgued edath dyun ydau. ac
emae enteu en menet.
7 14g. T 4. 8-9, yn yg yn ehag yn ygwed. yg corff yn eneit yn hagwed. 1 angwedd, hangwedd
2 [?ang2, hang+gwedd1; ansicr yw prth. agued,
8 LlI 33]
3 e.
5 ?Cyfyngder, caledi:
6 ?straits, distress.
7 13g. A 25. 2-3, twryf en agwed. e rac meuwed.
7 14g. T 4. 8-9, yn yg yn ehag yn ygwed. yg corff yn eneit yn hagwed. Secondly, while one could make a good case for Pennango being Mount Agued from a strictly geographical sense, to assume that an earlier agued component – which is unlikely to have existed at all in a place-name context and whose meaning is close to that of L. angustia and not to a word for “death” – was later replaced by Welsh angau, seems highly improbable. To see Pennango as Mount Agued, therefore, we would need evidence for a Pen-agued at Newbigging. And this we do not have. What we appear to have in “Mount Agued” is a confused reference to a battle at Mount Breguoin/Bremenium where the enemy found itself “in dire straits”. If so, we would have four, and possibly five battles having been fought by Arthur on Dere Street: York, Binchester, Devil’s Brook, High Rochester and the Caledonian Wood. The argument against Bremenium/High Rochester as an Arthurian battle, which relies upon the presence of gellawr brewyn, the “cells of Bremenium”, in the Urien battle poem list, ignores the very real possibility that more than one battle could have been fought at Bremenium at different times. Bremenium is situated in a very strategic position, essentially guarding the pass over which Dere Street crosses the Cheviots. It is also true that Urien’s Brewyn could just as easily have been borrowed from the Arthurian battle-list as the other way around. The following on the Bremenium Roman fort is from http://www.roman-britain.org/places/bremenium.htm: The Roman fort at High Rochester is approached from the A68 through the grounds of the Brigantium Archaeological Reconstruction Centre. Almost the entire defensive circuit of the fort is preserved, with the remains of the western gateway being particularly fine also evidence of several periods of rebuilding in the western interval-tower of the south side. The ditches are well preserved to the north and east, outside which the line of Dere Street marches north-west, passing the temporary camps at Redesdale, visible across the Sills Burn from the fort’s western ramparts. Between the ramparts the fort measures around 440 ft north-south by about 420 ft east-west, giving an occupation area of about 4¼ acres (c.134 x 128 m; c.1.7 ha). "High Rochester. A squarish oblong fort of 4 acres; very thick stone rampart with clay core, stone inner buildings; on the north, remains of as many as thirteen ditches; on east and south, four; on west, uncertain, but six ditches curve round N.W. angle (personal observation)." (Collingwood, p. 44) The host in AGWED: Mount Agned as Catterick? While it may well be that Agued/Agned is merely an error for Bregouin or a poetic name for the latter, there is a third and better identification for this Arthurian battle site. Dr. Isaac mentions above the ‘Twrf yn angwedd’ of the _Gwarchan Tudfwlch_, a poem appended to the _Gododdin_. This use of angweddor agued is one of only three extant instances of the word in early Welsh literature and the sole example of agued being used in the context of a battle description. What is surprising about the _Gwarchan Tudfwlch_ example is that the phrase is preceded by two lines that copy part of a line found in Strophe 25 of the _Gododdin_ proper: Arf anghynnull, Anghyman ddull, Twrf yn angwedd [text: twryf en agwed]… Arf anghynnull, anghyman ddull… Now, in the case of the _Gododdin_ line, the poet Aneirin is referring to Graid son of Hoywgi’sprowess at the disastrous battle of Catraeth, Roman Cataractonium, modern Catterick on Dere Street in Yorkshire. The Battle of Catraethis, of course, the subject of the _Gododdin_ poem. The hero Tudfwlch hailed from the region of Eifionydd in Gwynedd, but he fought and died at Catraeth. While he engaged in military actions in his homeland (the _Gwarchan’s_ ‘Dal Henban’ is almost certainly modern Talhenbont at Llanystumdwy in Eifionydd), it is probable that the lines borrowed from the _Gododdin_ are meant to indicate that the following ‘Twrf yn angwedd’, “a host in distress”, is a reference to the British army at Catraeth. Dr. Isaac (via personal correspondence) agrees with this assessment: “Phrases like twrf yn angwedd are characteristically used in early Welsh poetry to set up a general atmosphere of warrior violence, but, to judge from the final lines of the poem, it would ssem to be primarily concerned with the 'Battle of Catraeth'.” Part of the Roman fort at Catterick was built on the rising ground above the River Swale known as Thornbrough Hill. From English Heritage’s Record of Scheduled Monuments: The late first century Roman fort and later rebuildings were sited on the high ground on the south bank of the River Swale, on the western side of the A1. All three forts occupied the same general area, but varied slightly in orientation and dimensions, although all appear to have been approximately 2ha in area, with the earliest possibly up to 2.6ha. The buildings and yards of Thornbrough farm overlie the north eastern quadrants of the forts. Although probably mainly occupied by auxiliary troops, artefacts show that Catterick also accommodated both legionaries and cavalry at various times. Earthworks to the south of Thornbrough include those of the southern defences of the last fort. A modern field boundary may also preserve the line of a Roman wall, stones of which can be seen on the surface, these also being included in the monument. Between the forts and Catterick Road to the south, geophysical survey has indicated the buried remains of a field system together with a scatter of possible buildings and small industrial areas which are also all included in the monument. The main civilian settlement lay to the east of the forts, laid out either side of Dere Street. Aerial photographs and geophysical survey suggest that the settlement had a planned layout with a grid pattern of roads and building plots. In 1958-59 a strip about 60m wide through the western half of this area was subjected to rescue excavation in advance of the building of the A1 Catterick Bypass. This uncovered substantial well-preserved remains of buildings and associated features. In places some stone buildings survived to over 2m in height. This high level of survival will remain on either side of the A1, for example Roman remains can be identified within the upper 4m of the sides of the road cutting. The sides of this road cutting are thus also included in the monument. The defensive stone wall that surrounded the civilian settlement on the south bank of the Swale by the early fourth century enclosed an area nearly 250m by 230m. Part of this wall, on the eastern side of the town and marked on the 1:10,000 map, was restored by Sir William Lawson in the 19th century and, along with the exposed Roman stonework, is included in the scheduling. Another exposed section of walling can be seen running roughly parallel and 30m south of the river between the A1 and the dismantled railway line. The Roman settlement was not confined to within this walled area and extended beyond, mainly as a ribbon development along Dere Street. Excavation evidence suggests that this more extensive area of settlement was first established in the second century but possibly abandoned in the third century. Part of this area at least was then used as a cemetery in the fourth century. Excavation evidence also indicates that a scatter of small industrial areas and native British style farmsteads lay outside the main area of settlement.
Drawing by Jessica Mothersole (Agricola's Road into Scotland: The Great Roman Road from York to the Tweed.
London: John Lane Bodley Head, 1927) showing Thornbrough Hill in relation to the Roman fort at Catterick.Arthur is mentioned in Line 972 of the _Gododdin_ , and whether this is an interpolation or not, it is generally thought to be one of the earliest occurrences of the name in the written records: He fed black ravens on the rampart of a fortress Though he was no Arthur. Among the powerful ones in battle, In the front rank, Gwawrddur was a palisade. Are we to see as a coincidence Arthur’s being mentioned in the context of the Battle of Catraethwhen it is in this same battle, alone among all battles of the period, that a host finds itself in “agwed”? I think not. There are two possible ways to read this passage on Arthur in the _Gododdin_. First, the hero Gwawrddur, while a great warrior, was not nearly as great as Arthur. This is the standard interpretation. But let us suppose that what is really meant is that Arthur had fought at Catterickas well, a generation earlier, only he proved more powerful than Gwawrddurand won a victory over the Saxons on Thornbrough Hill. In this context, the Arthurian Mount Agned of the _Historia Brittonum_ isan anachronistic reference to the hill at Cataractonium, where the British army of Gwawrddur’stime found itself in “distress” or “dire straits” just prior to its annihilation by the Saxon foe.
The twelfth battle: Mount BadonMount Badon is a difficult place-name for an unexpected reason: it is first encountered in a 6th century source by the monk Gildas, where it is written "Badonici montis". There the British leader at the battle, fought c. 500 AD, is not named. Several etymologies have been attempted, the two currently favored being the Baddan- of one of the several Baddanbyrig sites in southern Britain, now modern Badburys, or Bath in Avon, from an earlier OE Badanceaster or Badan. Kenneth Jackson said of Gildas’s Badon, "No such British name is known, nor any such stem." Gildas alludes to Badon having been fought in this year of his birth, i.e. 44 years prior to the date he wrote De Excidio. The date given in the Annales Cambriae, c. 516, is believed to be a bit late. The date for Badon is usually placed c. 500 AD. When we go to the Badon account in the Historia Brittonum, it is mentioned just prior to Ida’s building of Bamburgh, the founding of Bernicia. This same reference to Ida is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 547. There is one possible clue to identifying Badon. It lies in a comparison of the Welsh Annals entry for the Second Battle of Badon and the narrative of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The actual year entry for this Second Battle of Badon reads as follows:
665 The first celebration of Easter among the Saxons. The second battle of Badon. Morgan dies.
The "first celebration of Easter among the Saxons" is a reference to the Synod of Whitby of c. 664. While not directly mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, nor the Anglo-Saxon version of Bede, there is an indirect reference to this event:
664 … Colman with his companions went to his native land…
This is, of course, a reference to Colman 's resigning of his see and leaving Lindisfarne with his monks for Iona. He did so because the Roman date for Easter had been accepted at the synod over the Celtic date.
While there is nothing in the ASC year entry 664 that helps with identifying Badon, if we go to the year entry 661, which is the entry found immediate prior to 664, an interesting passage occurs:
661 In this year, at Easter, Cenwalh fought at Posentesburh [Posbury?], and Wulfhere, son of Penda, ravaged as far as [or "in", or "from"] Ashdown…
Ashdown is here the place of that name in Berkshire. It is only a half dozen miles to the east of Badbury and Liddington Castle. A vague reference to ravaging in the neighborhood of Ashdown may well have been taken by someone who knew Badon was in the vicinity of Ashdown as a second battle at Badon. Alas, an identification of the Second Battle of Badon with the Badbury by the Chronicle’s Ashdown does not resolve the “Badon problem” so easily. A Welsh chronicler or his source may have identified the Badon of Gildas with the Badbury at Liddington simply because of the two place-names resembled each other. Furthermore, even if he was right in identifying Badon with a Badbury fort, we have no way of knowing whether the Liddington Badbury was the right Badbury. It may have been the only one the chronicler or his source knew about and became, by default, Badon. If he were correct in identifying Badon with a Badbury, then the real site of the Second Battle of Badon could just have easily have been Badbury Rings in Dorset, etc. Even worse is our inability solely on the basis of an apparent identification of the Second Badon with Liddington’s Badbury to extrapolate from this that the First Badon should also be placed at Liddington – or even that the First Badon was, in fact, a Badbury. Needless to say, a Badon location in south England does not bode well for Arthur having fought there. Instead, his presence at a southern Badon would seem to be a later legendary accretion. This assessment is based, of course, on my placement of all the prior Arthurian battles north of the Humber. Is there any way we can satisfy the requirements for a Northern Badon, something that would accord better with our Northern Arthur?
The only way we can do so is to rely upon the Welsh insistence on identifying Badon with a “Bath” place-name.
Welsh tradition weighs in heavily for Bath in Somerset as Badon. This seems a highly unlikely location for a decisive battle against the Saxons fought c. 500 A.D. and, again, is in the south, where a Northern Arthur would not have fought. Some scholars believe the Welsh insistence on Bath as Badon stems from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s identification of the two sites. There is no evidence independent of Geoffrey which explicitly identifies Badon with the Somerset Bath.
The name Bath is indisputably English, so the notion that Gildas, a Welsh writer of the 6th century, would be using an English hill-fort name to designate the greatest of British victories of the period, is not one worth considering. However, to this observation we must add that our earliest extant copy of Gildas is centuries older than the writer of the original work. It is conceivable that at some stage in the copying of the text an English name for the place, which had become part of customary usage, was substituted.
Dr. G. I. Isaac of The University of Wales, Aberystwyth, has the following to say on the nature of the word Badon, which I take to be authoritative. His explanation of why Gildas's Badon cannot be derived from one of the Badburys is critical in an eventual identification of a Badon site:
"Remember in all that follows that both the -d- in Badon and the -th- in OE Bathum are pronounced like th in 'bathe' and Modern Welsh -dd-. Remember also that in Old English spelling, the letters thorn and the crossed d are interchangeable in many positions: that is variation in spelling, not in sound, and has no significance for linguistic arguments.
It is curious that a number of commentators have been happy to posit a 'British' or 'Celtic' form Badon. The reason seems to be summed up succinctly by Tolstoy in the 1961 article (p. 145): 'It is obviously impossible that Gildas should have given a Saxon name for a British locality'. Why? I see no reason at all in the world why he should not do so (begging the question as to what, exactly, is the meaning of 'British locality' here; Gildas is just talking about a hill). This then becomes the chief crutch of the argument, as shown on p. 147 of Tolstoy's article: 'But that there was a Celtic name "Badon" we know from the very passage in Gildas under discussion'.
But that is just circular: ' "Badon" must be "Celtic" because Gildas only uses "Celtic" names'. This is no argument. What would have to be shown is that 'Badon' is a regular reflex of a securely attested 'Celtic' word. This is a matter of empirical detail and is easily tested; we have vast resources to tell us what was and was not a 'Celtic' word. And there is nothing like 'Badon'. So what do we do? Do we just say that 'Badon' must be Celtic because Gildas uses it? That gets us nowhere.
(This is all on the linguistics; on the history, of course, Tolstoy also agrees that Badon was Bath not Badbury. I just want to emphasise that the linguistic arguments Tolstoy attempts have the typical vagaries and technical defects of the linguistically untrained.)
So what of the relationships between aet Bathum - Badon - Baddanbyrig? The crucial point is just that OE Bathum and the Late British / very early Welsh Badon we are talking about both have the soft -th- sound of 'bathe' and Mod.Welsh 'Baddon'. But, as I said before, Baddanbyrig has a long
d-sound like -d d- in 'bad day'. Both languages, early OE and Late British, had both the d-sound and the soft th-sound. So:
1) If the English had taken over British (hypothetical and actually non-existent) *Badon (*Din Badon or something), they would have made it *Bathanbyrig or the like, and the modern names of these places would be something like *Bathbury.
2) If the British had taken over OE Baddanbyrig, they would have kept the d-sound, and Gildas would have written 'Batonicus mons', and Annales Cambriae would have 'bellum Batonis', etc. (where the -t- is the regular early SPELLING of the sound -d-; always keep your conceptions of spellings and your conceptions of sounds separate; one of the classic errors of the untrained is to fail to distinguish these). I imagine if that were the case we would have no hesitation is identifying 'Baton' with a Badbury place.
But the d-sound and the soft th-sound are not interchangeable. It is either the one or the other, and in fact it is the soft th-sound that is in 'Badon', and that makes it equivalent to Bathum, not Baddanbyrig.
(That applies to the sounds. On the other hand there is nothing strange about the British making Bad-ON out of OE Bath-UM. There was nothing in the Late British/early Welsh language which corresponded to the dative plural ending -UM of OE, so it was natural for the Britons to substitute the common British suffix -ON for the very un-British OE suffix -UM: this is not a substitution of SOUNDS, but of ENDINGS, which is quite a different matter. That Gildas then makes an unproblematic Latin adjective with -icus out of this does not require comment.)
To conclude:
1) There is no reason in the world why a 6th-century British author should not refer to a place in southern Britain by its OE name.
2) There was no 'British' or 'Celtic' *Badon.
3) 'Badon' does not correspond linguistically with OE Baddanbyrig.
4) 'Badon' is the predictably regular Late British / early Welsh borrowing of OE Bathum.
(Final note: the fact that later OE sources occasionally call Bath 'Badon' is just a symptom of the book-learning of the authors using the form. Gildas was a widely read and highly respected author, and Badon(-is) (from Gildas's adjective Badon-icus) will quickly and unproblematically have become the standard book-form (i.e. primarily Latin form) for the name of Bath. Again, all attempts to gain some sort of linguistic mileage from the apparent, but illusory, OE variation between Bathum and Badon are vacuous.)"
It is thus safe to say that 'Badon' must derive from a Bath name. However, we must not restrict ourselves to the Southern Bath. For as it happens, there are a couple of Northern "Bath" sites that have previously gone unnoticed in an Arthurian context.
The first Northern candidate for Badon is on the eastern side of the Pennines, on a slight shelf of the hillside with good views down towards the Greta River to the south and up onto the moors beyond. This is the Roman fort of Lavatris at Bowes. This place-name has as its base the British word *lauatro-, "water-trough, tub, bath" (plural *lauatri,), “possibly referring to a Roman bath-house.” Gaulish had lautro, which is glossed ‘balneo’ (bath) in the Vienna Glossary. The word is cognate with Latin luo, lavo, lavatorium, lavacrum, etc.
While the original form of the place-name, prior to its being Latinized, may have meant "’river-bed’ with plural implications" (Rivet and Smith), there is no doubt that later generations would have interpreted Lavatris as the Romans did:
lavatio , onis, f. [id.] , a washing, bathing, bath.
I. In abstr.: quid ea messis attinet ad meam lavationem? Plaut. Most. 1, 3, 4 ; Cic. ap. Col. 12, 3, 2: lavatio calida et pueris et senibus apta est, Cels. 1, 3, § 71 ; 79; cf.: boves lavatione calidae aquae traduntur pinguescere, Plin. 8, 45, 70, § 178 .--
II. Transf.
A. Bathing apparatus: ut lavatio parata sit, Cic. Fam. 9, 5, 3 : argentea, Phaedr. 4, 5, 22 ; Dig. 34, 2, 25, § 10. --
B. A bathing-place, bathing-room, bath: in versura porticus frigida lavatio, quam Graeci loutron vocitant, Vitr. 5, 11; Dig. 19, 2, 30, § 1; Inscr. Grut. 444, 8; 473, 1 al. (Lewis and Short Dictionary, Perseus Project)
Lavatris was of tremendous strategic importance, as it guarded the Stainmore Gap or Pass, the way through the Pennines into Cumbria. The Roman road that passed through the hills via the Stainmore Pass connected York with Carlisle. A major Saxon offensive may have been launched against the Stainmore Gap. If the Saxons had taken Lavatris, they would have effectively cut the British territories corresponding to the later Northumbria in half. Communications between York and Carlisle would have been at an end, as would any other commercial or military traffic along this segment of the Roman road system.
On the other hand, a major defeat of such an offensive may have bought the Northern Britons considerable respite from their Germanic enemy. This is just such a victory as Badon is claimed to be in our early sources.
However, there is no extant OE Bathum name at Bowes which could have yielded the Badon of Gildas. Nor is there any local tradition which records that the place was ever called "the Baths". Indeed, while there was a typical Roman bathhouse or balneum attached to the fort, there is no indication whatsoever that Lavatris was different from other forts in regards to its baths. To this may be added a Levy or Layer pool, some two miles distant from the fort, which supplied Lavatris with water. The name Lavatris may actually be preserved in Levy/Layer. Had the English retained the name Lavatris, they surely would have made use of a form of their own cognate words, lye (OE leah or leag) and lather (OE leathor), from the Indo-European root.
leu()
DEFINITION:
-To wash. Oldest form *leu(3)-. 1. Suffixed form *lou-k-. lye, from Old English lag, lye, from Germanic *laug. 2. Suffixed form *lou-tro-. a. lather, from Old English lthran, lthran, to lather; b. lutefisk, from Old Norse laudhr, soap, foam. 3. Variant form *law-. a. loment, lotion; ablution, alluvion, colluvium, deluge, dilute, eluent, elute, eluvium, from Latin lavere, to wash (in compounds, -luere); b. form *law--. launder, lavabo, lavage, lavatory, lave, lavish, from Latin lavre, to wash; c. latrine, from Latin lavtrna, ltrna, a bath, privy. 4. O-grade form *lou-. pyrolusite, from Greek louein, to wash. (Pokorny lou- 692.)
The above are fatal flaws in any attempted identification of Lavatris with Badon. A second Northern “Bath” site is the High Peak District town of Buxton, Derbyshire, in what had once been the southermost part of Brigantian tribal territory. In the Roman period, Buxton was the site of Aquae Arnemetiae, “the waters in front of (the goddess) Nemetia”. To the best of our knowledge, Bath in Somerset and Buxton in Derbyshire were the only two "Aquae" towns in Britain.
But even better, there is a Bathum name extant at Buxton. The Roman road which leads to Buxton from the northeast, through the Peak hills, is called Bathamgate. Batham is "baths", the exact dative plural we need to match the name Bathum/Badon. -gate is "road, street", which comes from ME gate, itself a derivative of OScand gata. Bathamgate is thus "Baths Road". Neil Bettridge, Archivist, Derbyshire County Council's Record Office, cites (via personal correspondence ) Kenneth Cameron's "The Place-Names of Derbyshire", volume I, Cambridge University Press, 1959, regarding Bathamgate:
"On page 21, in the Roads and Ways section, Cameron records that Bathamgate is very probably 'the Bathum road', the first element Bathum being the dative plural baðum of bæd, 'bath or bathing place' in Old English. He cites his sources, with dates, as follows:
Bathinegate (for Bathmegate), 1400, from W. Dugdale's Monasticon Anghcanum, 6 vols, London 1817-1830.
Bathom gate, 1538, from Ancient Deeds in the Public Record Office
Batham Gate, 1599, from records of the Duchy of Lancaster Special Commissions in the Public Record Office."
Buxton is also actually atop a hill, something that cannot be said for the Somerset Bath. Indeed, Buxton is the highest town in all of England, being at an elevation of over 1,000 ft. above sea level. Those who opt for the southern Bath are forced to resort to a neighboring hill, such as Bathampton Down or Little Solsbury.
If the grove of the goddess Nemetia continued as an important shrine well into Arthur’s time (and the presence of St. Anne’s Well at the site of the town’s ancient baths shows that the efficacy of the sacred waters was appreciated well into Christian times), there is the possibility the Saxons targeted Buxton for exactly this reason. Taking the Britons’ shrine would have struck them a demoralizing blow. If the goddess or saint or goddess-become-saint is herself not safe from the depredations of the barbarians, who is?
A threat to such a shrine may well have galvanized British resistence. Arthur himself may have been called upon to lead the British in the defense of Nemetia's waters and her temple-grove.
The three days and three nights Arthur bore the cross (or shield bearing an image of a cross; see Leslie Alcock, etc.) at Badon in the Welsh Annals are markedly similar to the three days and three nights Urien is said to have blockaded the Saxons in the island of Lindsfarne (British Metcaud) in Chapter 63 of Nennius. In Gildas, immediately before mention of Badon, we have the following phrase: "From then on victory went now to our countrymen, now to their enemies…" Similarly, just prior to mention of Urien at Lindisfarne, we have this: "During that time, sometimes the enemy, sometimes the Cymry were victorious…" It would seem, therefore, that either the motif of the three days and three nights was taken from the Urien story and inserted into that of Arthur or vice-versa. What is fascinating about this parallel is that Lindisfarne or "Holy Island", as it came to be known, was an important spiritual center of Northern Britain. The inclusion of the three days and three nights (an echo of the period Christ spent in the tomb) in the Badon story suggests that we can no longer accept the view that Arthur's portage of Christian symbols at Badon was borrowed solely from the Castle Guinnion battle account in the HB. Aquae Arnemetiae, like Lindisfarne, was a holy place. Arthur's fighting there was a holy act. The 960 Saxons slain by Arthur at Badon: in the past, most authorities have seen in the number 960 no more than a fanciful embellishment on the Annals' entry, i.e. more evidence of Arthur as a "legend in the making". But 960 could be a very significant number, militarily speaking. The first cohort of a Roman legion was composed of six doubled centuries or 960 men. As the most important unit, the first cohort guarded the Roman Imperial eagle standard. Now, while the Roman army in the late period no longer possessed a first cohort composed of this number of soldiers, it is possible Nennius's 960 betrays an antiquarian knowledge of earlier Roman military structure. However, why the Saxons are said to have lost such a number cannot be explained in terms of such an anachronistic description of a Roman unit.
The simplest explanation for Nennius's 960 is that it represents 8 Saxon long hundreds, each long hundred being composed of 120 warriors. To quote from Tacitus on the Germanic long hundred:
"On general survey, their [the German's] strength is seen to lie rather in their infantry, and that is why they combine the two arms in battle. The men who they select from the whole force and station in the van are fleet of foot and fit admirably into cavalry action. The number of these chosen men is exactly fixed. A hundred are drawn from each district, and 'the hundred' is the name they bear at home. What began as a mere number ends as a title of distinction" [_Germania_ 6]
Curiously, in the Norse poem "Grimnismal", 8 hundreds of warriors (probably 960) pass through each of the doors of Valhall, the Hall of the Slain, at the time of Ragnarok or the Doom of the Powers. [For a fuller discussion of the Badon place-name and other place-names which have been erroneously identified as sites for the Badon battle, I refer the reader to my book Shadows in the Mist, The Life and Death of King Arthur, Note 105, pp. 155-157. And to that note, which discusses Dumbadam in Lothian as a possilbe Fort of St. Baithine, I would add a new observation that the -badam of this palce-name could, in fact, be instead from the Gaelic badan, 'little clump, tuft, thicket', a diminutive of bad. According to Watson's "Celtic Place-Names of Scotland", badis found only in Scottish-Gaelic. He believes bad comes from British bod, 'residence', specialized to 'spot, palce', and then generalized to the clump/tuft/thicket senses (although cf. Breton bot, bod, 'nuch of grapes, thicket', and English bud, earlier budde). Also to be briefly mentioned in the context of Badon is the Middle Welsh word bad, 'plague, pestilence, death' (GPC; first attested in the 14th century), from Proto-Celtic *bato-, cf. Old Irish bath. Some have asked me whether this word could be the root of Badon - to which Dr. G. I. Isaac, now of the National University of Ireland, Galway, responds emphatically, "No, absolutely no. A (modern) W form _bad_ etc. would have been spelt in the W of the ancient period as _bat_ and there can be no connection since _Bad(on)_ is what we find." Lastly, I've received queries about Gaelic badhun (from Irish bo + dun), 'cow fort'; this word is not found in British or Welsh, and as it is pronounced 'bawn', it cannot underlie Badon. Middle Welsh has bu, buw, 'cow', plus din(as), 'fort', for dun.] The thirteenth battle: Camlann
After these many victories, Arthur is said to have perished with Medraut at a place called Camlann. Camlann has long been linked with Camboglanna, the "Crooked Bank", a fort towards the western end of Hadrian’s Wall. The only other candidates for Camlann are in NW Wales (the Afon Gamlan and two other Camlanns near Dolgellau), and these do not have anything to do with the Northern Arthur. Those who point to Camelon on the Antonine Wall are ignorant of the fact that this place was originally called Carmuirs. It was renamed Camelodunum in 1526 by the antiquarian Hector Boece (information courtesy Henry Gough-Cooper of The Scottish Place-Name Society). However, an inscription found at the Camelon fort (RIB 2210) reads:
CAMELON VEX LEG XX V V F
The problem with interpreting the Camelon in this inscription as the name of the Camelon fort is the presence in the same inscription of Legio XX Valeria Victrix. The Twentieth Legion is well known to have had its first British base at Colchester, whose Roman name was Camulodunum. Doubtless, this inscription merely calls attention to this fact. Rivet and Smith identify the Camelon fort with the Colania of Ptolemy and the Ravenna Cosmography. I have elsewhere shown (and authorities such as Richard Coates and Professor Oliver Padel of Cambridge have concurred) that Medraut or Modred preserves the earlier Roman name of 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 in the 5th-6th centuries AD.
It is only later tradition, which makes Arthur and Medraut enemies at Camlann. In the Welsh Annal entry, we are only told that both chieftains fell at this site. Given the location of Camboglanna, it can hardly be a coincidence that a little farther west, on an extension of Hadrian’s Wall near the coast (in an area once covered by the extensive Burgh Marsh, much of which has since been drained), we find a Roman fort called Aballava (or in a variant Avallana), the "Apple-place". An Arthur who fell at Camboglanna could have been brought down the river system in this region or carted along the Roman road to this "Avalon".
The inscriptions found at Avallana may be significant in this regard, as two, perhaps three Urs- or "bear" names are present (Urseius, Matusius, from Celtic *matu-, "bear", and possibly Ursinianus). The Welsh associated Arthur’s name with their own word arth, "bear". In one remarkable inscription a man by the name of Lucius Urseius or Lucius "the Bear" makes a dedication to Dea Latis, the "Goddess of the Lake". This sounds suspiciously like the Lady of the Lake of Arthurian romance, who is in some versions of the story a denizen of Avalon. King Arthur’s sword was supposed to have been forged in Avalon and was returned to the Lady of the Lake upon his death.
What we appear to have with Arthur at Avalon with the Lady of the Lake is Arthur at Avallana with Dea Latis. The very late misidentification of Glastonbury as Avalon was only made with, in Rivet and Smith’s words, "the discovery of the pretended tomb of Arthur at the abbey in 1191." I would add that it may be possible to identify the Niviane/Viviane given as the name of the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian romances. In Welsh tradition, Nyfain (variants Nyuein, Nyven, Nevyn) daughter of Brychan is the name given to the mother of Urien. As is well known, the Welsh kingdom of Brycheiniog was of Irish foundation. Nyfain cannot, as some might thing, be an eponym for the ancient Novantae tribe, whose territory (roughly Dumfries and Galloway) was ruled over by Urien. The identification is etymologically impossible. But the name could very early easily represent the Irish goddess Nemhain. Nemhain was one of the premiere battle-goddesses of Ireland, and was often paired with Macha, Morrigan and Badb. According to a tract called "Mothers of Irish Saints", Brychan had a wife Dina. This wife's name adequetely explains the intrusion of the goddess Diana and Dyonas into the story of Niviane (see the Vulgate "Merlin" 28). Urien himself was married to Modron, i.e. Matrona, the Mother Goddess, daughter of Aballach, a personification of the Irish Ablach, from Emhain Ablach, the apple tree otherworld. In this case, Aballach is to be visualized as the king of Avalon, i.e. of the Aballava fort at the west end of Hadrian's Wall, just across the Solway from the homeland of Urien. I would mention the Locus Maponi (which in Rivet and Smith's _The Place-Names of Roman Britain_ is rendered the Loch or LAKE of Mabon), identifiable with Lochmaben in Dumfries. As is well known, Mabon was the son of Modron. This is the same Modron who is presented as the wife of Urien, son of Nyfain/Nemhain. While it is tempting to give Modron the 'Divine Mother' the name Nemhain, we are not justified in making this assumption. And, indeed, given the proximity of Lochmaben to the Annan River, and the presence of a St. Ann's on a tributary of the Annan which has its confluence with the latter river at Lochmaben, it makes more sense to associate Modron/Matrona "the Divine Mother" with a British version of the Irish goddess Anu. According to Rivet and Smith, Annan is "the genitive of anau, cognate with Welsh anaw 'riches' and Gaelic anu... Anu was an Irish goddess of prosperity." It is interesting that Anu's Christian counterpart, St. Ann, present near the Annan and Lochmaben, also replaced the goddess Arnemetia at Buxton, the site of Arthur's Mount Badon battle. I would add that the only name we have for the mother of Medrawt is "Anna", supposedly the sister of Arthur. This Anna's husband is said to be Llew (Geoffrey of Monmouth's Loth of Lodonesia), i.e. the god Lleu. In Welsh tradition, the youthful god Lleu and Mabon the divine son were both placed in death at the same place (Nantle in Gwynedd). Nikolai Tolstoy (in his _The Quest for Merlin_) thought this implied an identification of the two gods. Of course, we have the god Lleu's name at Carlisle/Luguvalium, the fort and town of someone called Luguvalos, "Lugus-strong". There is no reason, therefore, to look for Llew in Lothian, nor at Loudoun in Strathclyde (which according to Watson is from a Lugudunum, "Lugus's fort"), nor at Dinlleu ("Fort of Lleu") in Gwynedd. Probably it is not necessary to search for the unlocated Lugudunum somewhere near Wearmouth and Chester-le-Street (see Rivet and Smith's _The Place-Names of Roman Britain_). Medrawt may have been from the Annandale of Anu/Anna and Lleu in the person of Mabon. Nyfain would then be Niviane, Lady of the Lake, i.e. she of the Lake of Mabon, the youthful Sun God. However, clearly the marshes around Aballava were also sacred to Nyfain and it is to this lake goddess of the Novantae that the dedication was made at the Burgh-By-Sands fort. One further piece of evidence should be presented in support of the notion that Nyfain is the Arthurian Niviane. In the Vulgate _Merlin_, the forest name of the Lady of the Lake is first given as the Forest of Briosque and only later as Broceliande, the name used by Chretien de Troyes. While Broceliande has been sought in various places (including Brittany), I would derive the Old French 'Briosque' from the -fries component of Dumfries, the town situated just WSW of Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire. While once thought to be the "Fort of the Frisians", authorities beginning with Chalmers (see Watson) correctly identified -fries with Gaelic preas, Angl. pres(s), gen. phris, Angl. -fries, gen. pl. preas, (b)p(h)reasach, "bush, copse, thicket". To quote from _History of the Burgh of Dumfries_, Chapter 1: "In the earliest charter to the town, still extant – that of Robert III., dated 28th April, 1395 – the appellation given is “Burgi de Dumfreiss,” a form of spelling which, with one “s” omitted, continued in vogue till about 1780. During the reign of Alexander III. and the long interregnum which followed, the form nearly resembled that of the present day – the prefix being generally Dun or Dum, rather than Drum: thus, in a contemporary representation made to the English Government respecting the slaughter of John Comyn in 1305, the locality is described as “en l’eglise de Freres meneours de la ville de Dunfres;” [Sir Francis Palgrave’s Documents and Records Illustrative of the History of Scotland, p. 335.] and, thirty years afterwards, we read of the appointment of an official as “Vice Comitatus de Dumfres.” [Rotuli Scotiæ, vol. i., p. 271.] Such uncouth spellings of the name of Dunfreisch, Droonfreisch, and Drumfriesche, occasionally occur in old documents; but the variations are never so great as to leave any doubt as to the town that is meant; and nearly all more or less embody the idea of a “castle in the shrubbery,” [The only exception we have net with occurs in a Papal Bull issued against Bruce in 1320 for the homicide of Comyn, which is stated to have been perpetrated in the Minorite Church of “Dynifes.”] according to the etymology of Chalmers, which we accept as preferable to any other that has been suggested. [Chalmers’s words are: “This celebrated prefix Dun must necessarily have been appropriated to some fortlet, or strength, according to the secondary signification of that ancient work. The phrys of the British speech, and the kindred phreas of the Scoto, signify shrubs: and the Dun-fres must consequently mean the castle among the shrubberies, or copsewood.” – Caledonia, vol. iii., p. 45." It makes a great deal of sense to envisage Merlin and Viviane in the Dumfries region, as this was the home stomping grounds of Myrddin, the prototype for Geoffrey of Monmouth's Merlin. In all likelihood, Broceliande is simply Briosque + land. On cannot help wonder if we should associate the Lochmaben Stone of Nyfain's lake with the Arthurian sword-in-the-stone motif. The following is the CANMORE report on the Lochmabenstane from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland: Lochmaben or Clochmaben Stone is an erratic, 7' high and 18' in girth, which Feachem says may have been incorporated into a megalithic monument, though there is no clear evidence of this. It was published on the OS 1st edition 6" as Druidical Circle (Remains of), which the Ordnance Name Book [ONB] states formerly consisted of nine upright stones placed in an oval, two of which remain, one being locally called Lochmaben Stone.
R W Feachem 1963; Name Book 1858
Richmond and Ross identify it with Locus (or meeting place) Maponi of the Ravenna Cosmography, Ross adding that possibly a shrine to the Celtic god Maponus existed here.
I A Richmond 1958; A Ross 1967; K A Steer 1958
In the 16th century, it was frequently used as the meeting place between the Scots and English wardens for the administration of justice, and in comparatively recent times local gatherings took place at this stone.
T I Rae 1966.
As stated by the Ordnance Name Book (ONB) two stones survive which may represent the remains of a stone circle. The larger of the two is still known as the Lochmaben Stone and is as described. The other stone at NY 3123 6600 stands c 1.0m high by 1.2m in diameter in a less conspicuous position in a fence.
Revised at 25".
Visited by OS (RD) 18 June 1970
No change to previous field report.
Visited by OS (JP) 20 February 1973.
Lochmaben Stone
Stone Circle [NR]
(remains of) [NAT]
OS 1:10,000 map, 1980.
This standing stone, also known as the Clochmaben Stone, is situated 490m S of Old Graitney farmhouse, and measures 2.3m in height. About 23m to the NNE there is a second, smaller, stone now incorporated in a modern fence-line, and it may be all that remains of an enclosure of 'about half an acre' noted in the 18th century.
It has been suggested that the name Lochmaben is derived from the Celtic god Maponus, and that this was a cult centre.
RCAHMS 1981, visited October 1980.
Statistical Account (OSA) 1793; W Macfarlane 1906-8; RCAHMS 1920; A Ross 1967; A L F Rivet and C Smith 1979.
In 1982 the stone fell over. Excavation prior to re-erection revealed that it had been set into a shallow pit. The stratigraphy was complex and the relationship between the fill of the pit and the original position of the stone itself could not be unequivocally determined. No artifacts were recovered but a sample of mixed quercus, salix and corylus charcoal from the lower fill of the stone-pit yielded a radiocarbon determination of 2525 +/- 85 bc (GU-1591).
A Crone 1983.
Listed as 'Clochmaben Stone, standing stone, stone circle (possible)'.
RCAHMS 1997. I would add that Mabon in Welsh tradition is sometimes called Mabon son of Mellt, mellt being a Welsh word for "lightning". Arthur's sword Caledfwlch was patterned after the Irish sword Caladbolg, "Hard-lightning". There may, then, have been a tradition in which a new chieftain or king symbolically received his sword from Mabon or his mother at the Lochmaben Stone. |
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