Over the weekend I watched the extremely compulsive story-viewing that is Netflix’s version of the Unabomber case. As I sat enthralled, I began to experience & identify a great collection of cop-confusing chispers, & also the birth of ‘Forensic Linguistics’ which Chispology makes use of. The greatest of the chispers was the way a woman changed her description of the Unabomber over a period of six years. The first version was accurate, but the second description was actually of the original police sketch artist. The show also explained how the expression ‘have you cake & eat it too’ was actually a modern flippage; the Third Earl of Shaftesbury in 1711 writes, ‘as ridiculous as the way of children, who eat their cake, and afterwards cry for it. They shou’d be told, as children, that they can’t eat their cake, and have it.’ What has all this got to do with the Picts? Very little, but just as the Unabomber was caught by the guy who invented & named Forensic Linguistics, & utilised the brand-new concept of ‘idiolect,’ so hope I to solve certain historical mysteries that have proven as elusive as did the identity of the Unabomber.

Chispology traces the changing phases of fact and phrase from origin to reception, a proper study of which may assume into existence knowledge thought lost forever. One must ask why is the information different, where are the points of diversion, and what happened to the separated strands in the meantime. For this week’s mission we shall move back to my preferred territory, the legends of Dark Age Britain. For over seven years now I have continuously unearthed, analyzed & assembled a number of new clues & thought-strands that shine a series of illuminative candles upon the Matter of Britain. These tales sprung from a period in history when a fermenting Britain would slowly crystallize into the three kingdoms of England, Scotland & Wales. The story is a bloody one, soaking the soil a deep crimson from Cornwall to the Orkneys, as these kingdoms were fought for, & died for, on a series of battlefields thought lost forever. Researching the Matter of Britain has been something of a jigsaw puzzle – all the pieces were there, it was just a case of finding them in the depths of unread manuscripts, analyzing their value, & then assembling them to paint a cohesive picture. Many historians have given these pieces colour, from scanty historical hints found in Dark Age hagiographies, to the vague, uncertain chronicles of the Middle Ages; from medieval Icelandic sagas, to the epic efforts of the 19^th century mega-scholar, William Skene. At another most erudite time, up in the National Library of Scotland, I was helped by a charming Classics expert, Dr Ulrike Hogg, who helped me to translate a thorny piece of medieval Latin.

The documentation of the British Dark ages begins with the arrival on the islands of the Picts. Despite being a most mysterious entity, they left at least some trails in the historical record. Most are in the form of monumental stones scatter’d across ‘Pictavia,’ splash’d with a pantheon of mysterious symbols. A little more information on the Picts can be discovered here & there. Nennius recorded c.830 AD that the Picts, ‘occupied the Orkney Islands; whence they laid waste many regions, and seized those on the left hand side of Britain, where they still remain, keeping possession of a third part of Britain to this day.’ In the 7th century English historian, venerable Bede, gives us more detail of their first coming to the island;

When the Britons, beginning at the south, had got possession of the greatest part of the island, it happened that the nation of the Picts from Scythia, as is reported, putting to sea in a few long ships, were driven about by the blowing of the winds, and arrived in Ireland, beyond all the confines of Britain, and put in on the northern coasts thereof, where, finding the nation of the Scots, they asked, for themselves, also, a settlement in those parts, but could not obtain it… The Scots answered that the island could not contain them both. “But we can,” said they, “Give you wholesome advice, what you may do. We know there is another island, not far from ours, to the eastward, which we often see at a distance, on clear days. If you will go thither, you can settle there, or, if any should oppose you, you shall have our assistance.”

Several antique histories point to the Pictish homeland originally being Scythia, such as the Pictish Chronicles; ‘the Scythian people are born with white hair due to the continuous snow; and the colour of that same hair gives a name to the people, and hence they are called Albani: from them the Scots and Picts trace their origin. In their eyes, there is a bright, that is coloured, pupil, to such an extent that they can see better at night than by day. Moreover the Albani were neighbours to the Amazons.’ The territories of ancient Scythia correspond roughly to the vast area of south central Russia; from the Ukraine to Kazakhstan & creeping into the steppes of northern Iran. Despite the distance between ancient Scythia & the mountain fastnesses of northern Britain, both cultures are bound by vivid, animal-based art. Some of these symbolic depictions were imprinted in the form of tattoos, a practice given to the Picts by several classical authors, including;

Most of the regions of  {northern} Britain are marshy, since they are flooded continually by the tides of the ocean; the barbarians are accustomed to swimming or wading through these waist-deep marsh pools; since they go about naked, they are unconcerned about muddying their bodies. Strangers to clothing, they wear ornaments of iron at their waists and throats; considering iron a symbol of wealth, they value this metal as other barbarians value gold. They tattoo their bodies with colored designs and drawings of all kinds of animals; for this reason they do not wear clothes, which would conceal the decorations on their bodies. Extremely savage and warlike, they are armed only with a spear and a narrow shield, plus a sword that hangs suspended by a belt from their otherwise naked bodies. They do not use breastplates or helmets, considering them encumbrances in crossing the marshes. Herodian of Antioch

Barbarians, who from childhood have different pictures of animals skillfully implanted on their bodies, so that as the man grows, so grow the marks painted on him; there is nothing more that they consider as a test of patience than to have their limbs soak up the maximum amount of dye through these permanent scars Solinus

Pictishesque body-tattoos were found on the frozen bodies of a Scythian chieftan & a twenty-five year old warrior-priestess, both discover’d in the same region of Siberia. It seems no coincidence that the chieftan still retained a bright red mop of hair, a Pictish trait retained in 13 percent of Scotland’s population, as compar’d to only two percent of the world’s population. Other links include the Pictish Beast symbol’s perfect match to the Scythian Ibex,  a sea-goddess image at Meigle in Perthshire which matches Scythian goldwork found in the Ukraine; & a stone figure discovered on Boa, an island in Northern Ireland, which is nigh-identical to a Scythian Kurgan Stele from Kyrgyzstan.

Also surviving the rigors of time enough to illuminate our field notes are several versions of what is known as ‘The Pictish King List,’ in which may be found the origin story of the Picts in Britain. Of these, version D relates that they, ‘came from the land of Thracia; that is, they are the children of Gleoin, son of Ercol. Agathirsi was their name. Six brothers of them came at first, viz, Solen, Ulfa, Nechtan, Drostan, Aengus, Leithenn.’ Further gloss can be found in the erudite opus of the nineteenth century Scottish scholar,William Skene, who relates how the earliest Picts establish’d themselves first on the Orkney Isles, before moving into the northern portions of the mainland.

The children of Gleoin, son of Ercol, took possession of the islands of Orcc, that is, Historend, son of Historrim, son of Agam, son of Agathirsi, and were dispersed again from the islands of Orcc; that is, Cruthne, son of Cinge, son of Luctai, son of Parthai, son of Historech, went and took possession of the north of the island of Britain, and his seven sons divided the land into seven divisions; and Onbecan, son of Caith, son of Cruthne, too the sovereignty of the seven divisions.

There is one name of great import regarding our investigation, Agathirsi, or the ‘painted Agathyrsians,’ as described by Virgil. This ancient tribespeople were given more detail in the 380s by Ammianus-Marcellinus, who describ’d the, ‘Agathyrsi, who dye both their bodies and their hair of a blue colour, the lower classes using spots few in number and small – the nobles broad spots, close and thick, and of a deeper hue.’ The same tattooing practice is mirror’d by the Picts, whose non-native name was, according to Isidore of Seville, ‘taken from their bodies, because an artisan, with the tiny point of a pin and the juice squeezed from a native plant, tricks them out with scars to serve as identifying marks, and their nobility are distinguished by their tattooed limbs.’ The Agathyrsi also appear in the writings of Scotland’s 16th century writer, Hektor Boece’s ‘History & Chronickles of Scotland;’

Sum authouris sayis {the Picts} come first in Orknay; and, sone  efter, in Cathues, Ros, Murray, Mernis, Angus, Fiffe, and Louthiane: and expellit all the pepill, that inhabit that region afore thair cuming. Thir pepill war callit Pichtis.. fra the Pichtis namit Agathirsanis, thair anciant faderis. In probation heirof, Orknay wes calht the auld realme of  Pichtis. Siclike, thee seeis betwix Cathnes and Orknay war namit Pentland Firth ; and all the landis, quhilkis ar now callit Louthiane, war callit than Pentland.

To summarise the medieval Scots, Boece’s research states that the Picts named their ‘anciant faderis’ as ‘Agathirsanis,’ & they settled all along Eastern Scotland, from Orkney to as far south as Lothian. It is in the King Lists’ Agathirsi & Boece’s Agathirsanis that we see a name anciently recorded as Agathyrsi by Herodotus. A tribe of mix’d Dacian-Scythian origin, whom he places in Romanian Transylvania; ‘from the country of the Agathyrsoi comes down another river, the Maris, which empties itself into the same.’ Herodotus then describes the Agathyrsi as being quite a sexually liberated bunch;

The most luxurious of men and wear gold ornaments for the most part: also they have promiscuous intercourse with their women, in order that they may be brethren to one another and being all nearly related may not feel envy or malice one against another. In their other customs they have come to resemble the Thracians

As we have already seen, the Picto-Thracian element was presented in the King List, which stated the Picts, ‘came from the land of Thracia… Agathirsi was their name.’

Herodotus regurgiates a Pontic Greek myth – i.e. Greeks who had settl’d the Black Sea area – which states that a certain Agathyrsus was the eldest son of Herakles, & brother to a certain Skythes. That this man was the same individual as Agathirsi father of Agam as reported in the Pictish King List is supported via his brother’s name,  Skythes, which strongly resembles Sketis, an island in Ptolemy’s 2nd centry AD ‘Geography.’ This Sketis appears roughly where the Shetland islands, or Sketland islands, should be. This is properly calculable by analyzing Ptolemy’s clearly erroneous map of Scotland. Apart from the lands above the firths being tilted 90 degreees, what is also noticeable is that there are four island blocks off the north-east corner of Britain; Dumna, Sketis, the Orcades archipelago & Thule.

If we tip a map of Scotland 90 degrees on its axis to the east, then we can see how the position of the Orkneys & Shetlands correlate to Ptolemy’s Dumna & Sketis. This suggests that Ptolemy – who never really left the Meditterranean – used two separate traveller’s accounts for this part of the world, which later became superimposed upon each other, creating the four island blocks. In reality the four islands are actually two, that Dumna & the Orcades are the Orkneys, & that Sketis & Thule are the Shetlands. That latter correlation is supported by the fourth century BC Greek geographer, Pytheas, who recorded that Thule was a six-day voyage north of Britain, which in terms of antiquitial voyaging this seems about right – in 54 BC, for example, it took Ceasar eighteen hours to sail from Boulogne to Dover. More evidence is quite decisively summaris’d by the Sixteenth Century historian, William Camden;

But if that of the learned Gaspar Peucerus, in his Book De Terræ Dimensione, be true, that Schetland is by the Seamen call’d Thilensell (and I know no reason to except against his testimony) Thule is undoubtedly discover’d, and the Controversie at an end… Schetland is the same with Thule, we may believe… it lies between Scotland and Norway; where Saxo Grammaticus places Thule… And Tacitus says, that the Romans spy’d it afar off, as they sail’d by the Orcades in their voyage round Britain. Lastly, it faces the coast of Bergæ in Norway; and so lay Thule, according to Pomponius Mela

Moving to the settlement of the Picts on the mainland, William Camden provides more information, recording that at, ‘the time of Reuther King of Scots,’ a battle was fought in which the death of a certain, ‘Gethus King of the Picts… constrain’d the Picts (who perceived themselves unable to resist) to fly, some by land and others by sea, to Orkney, where they abode for a time, and made Gothus, brother of the foresaid Gethus, their King. And after a few years, having left some of their number to people and plant the Countrey, they return’d to Louthian; and having expelled the Britons, settled themselves again in their ancient possessions.’ Here we see that the two main bases of the earliest Picts were the Orkneys & the Lothians, the latter name linking to Leithenn, one of the six Pictish brothers who first came to settle in Britain. What is also fascinating is that in History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a certain King Loth was recognised as a king of both Lothian & the Orkneys.

According to Scottish historiography, the Scottish king Reuther married the daughter of Gethus. His nephew, Cianus, was taken prisoner in the Orkneys during the Roman invasion of Britain, 43 AD, meaning that Gethus lived about a generation earlier, around 10 AD. This date is slap-bang in the middle of a two-century period of broch building in the Pictish north. Like stars in a darkling sky, these Pictish roundhouses began springing up across Caithness, the Orkneys & the Shetlands, in the very heartlands of Gethus & co. Among them, on the Shetlands, an island  called Mousa is home to the greatest all the Scottish brochs, which has been dated to about 100 BC. Combining literature & archeology, we can see that the earliest Pictish waves hit northern Britain in the century or two before Issa-Jesus. Long before the name ‘Picti’ was attributed to this woad-painted peoples by later Roman writers, they were recorded as being ‘Caledonians,’ as in Ptolemy’s list of Scottish tribes;

Next to the Damnoni, but more toward the east near the Epidium promontory are the Epidi and next to these the Cerones; then the Carnonacae, and the Caereni but more toward the east; and in the extreme east dwell the Cornavi; from the Lemannonis bay as far as the Varar estuary are the Caledoni, and above these is the Caledonian forest, from which toward the east are the Decantae, and next to these the Lugi extending to the Cornavi boundary, and above the Lugi are the Smertae

A century on from Ptolemy, Cassius Dio notes that the Caledonians had become the chief tribe in northern Scotland; ‘there are two principal races of the Britons, the Caledonians and the Maeatae, and the names of the others have been merged in these two. The Maeatae live next to the cross-wall which cuts the island in half, and the Caledonians are beyond them.’ Confirmation that the Caledonians at least were considered Picts is first found in the anonymous Panegyric Latine, written c.314, which refers to, ‘the forests and marshes of the Caledonians and other Picts.’ Thus, in his Agricola, when Tacitus describes the, ‘red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia,’ we are given a good match for the red-headed Scythians such as the ‘Gelonusian Scythians,’ who Herodotus depicted as possessing deep blue eyes and bright red hair. They were named after Gelonus, the very brother of Agathyrsus & Skythes, & it this in very ancient name that we may find the Cale of Caledonia. If they were Picts, then, there should be a record of the practice of tattooing – which of course there is. Assuming that only a branch of the Gelonusians migrated to Scotland, & therefore some remained in Scythia, we are led to the 4^th century AD reference made by the Roman poet Claudian in his Against Rufinus, which mentions, ‘the Geloni who tattoo their limbs.’

The Gelonusian homelands were in the very heart of the Scythian steppes, in today’s Ukraine, whose capital was burnt to the ground by the assault on Scythia by Darius I of the Persian Achaemenid empire in 513 BC. That the Persians were driving Scythian tribes out of their home, some of whom would reach the outermost British fringes of Europa, leads us to an invasion by Cyrus the Great of a territory known in antiquity as ‘Albania,’ c.550 B.C. Known to modern historians as Caucasian Albania, its lands correspond to present-day Azerbaijan, on the western shores of the Caspian Sea. After the Persian conquest, King Cyrus began to impose the new religion of Zoroatrianism upon the natives. This combination of foreign rulers & alien faith may have been the driving force behind certain Scythians abandoning their homes & setting off west in search of new territories where physical & spiritual liberty would not be compromised. Both Walter Bower & Geoffrey of Monmouth place the Picts in Aquitaine/Basque country just before they came to Britain, a region linguistically connected to Caucasian Albania by John D Bengston, who states; ‘apart from certain extinct languages, notably Aquitanian, Basque is most closely related to the (North) Caucasic family,’ & gives us several tallies between words;

Basque                                    Dargi

Sasi (thorn)                            Zanzi (prickly)

Be-llar-I (ear)                         Lihi-lahi (ear)

Ondi-iin (misfortune)        Avar-unti (sickness/defect)

Behi (cow)                              Boc’I (cattle)

Remembering how the legends describe the Picts as reaching Ireland before Britain, it is a tantalising ‘coincidence’ that the name of the legendary founder of the Caucasian Albanians, said to be Prince Arran by the 10th century Armenian historian Moses Kaghankatvatsi, can be found in the Aran islands off the western coast of Ireland. We then come naturally in the narrative to the wonderful Isle of Arran, where many Pictish symbols have been found.

To conclude, it seems that the Pictish people germinated from several Scythian seeds, whose migration odyssey had begun as a direct result of the Persian conquests of their territories in the middle of the first millennium BC. Imagine a massive cultural bomb landing in the Black sea, blowing the Scythians hither & thither across the planet. Some of them would eventually reach the islands off northern Britain – perhaps the only truly unpopulated, or barely populated, part of Eurasia available. Crossing over to the mainland itself c.100 B/C, they would plant a nourishing root in the soil for a thousand years before their eventual displacement & absorbtion by the Irish Scots. Their language has remained a mystery; no written records remain, & it is only the scattering of placenames throughout Scotland that we may still hear the phonetics of the Pictish tongue. However, in the light of this investigation, let us remember Herodotus, who records the Geloni as speaking alanguage ‘half Greek & half Scythian.’

THE PICTISH KING ARTHUR

This is the assimilation of all my research on the Pictish King Arthur & presentation in a singular place, basically to stymie any deflection of what is emerging as a very real truth. Each piece of research I am constructing as a metaphysical pillar on which my theory shall stand. There’s plenty of them, & I believe that any antiarthurians out there must demolish at least half of them to ensure my theory’s demise. This, however, is never gonna happen because, & without further ado, of the following…

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1: The Name Garthnach

A historical figure called Garthnach son of Gygurn certainly sounds like Arthur son of Igerne, with the latter being the traditional famous mother of King Arthur. Evidence for the Arthur-Garthnach  philochisp comes in the form of  Artúr mac Aedan, King of Dalriada – ie the Irish Scots of Kintyre. Where Artúr is named as Aedan’s son in Adomnan’s Life of Columba, elsewhere The History of the Men of Scotland records: ‘Aedan had seven sons – two Eochaids, Eocho Bude, and Eochaid Find, Tuthal, Bran, Baithíne, Conaing, and Gartnait.‘ There’s no Arthur in the latter list, but there is a Gartnait, & we may presume they are the one & same person.

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2:  The Dates Fit

The following wee chronicle contains an extract from the Pictish King List – names & reign lengths – found in the 14^th century Poppleton Manuscript, anchored on & intertwined with historical notices in very old chronicles. In the Poppleton, Gygyrnus appears as Girom, which would have thrown many scholars off the scent, but it is clear from other recensions of the PKL that Girom & Gygurnus are the same. My concluding interpretation of the data is that Arthur/Garthnach became king of the Picts in 529 & gave it up in 536, a year before dying in battle Camlann.

 449: Drust McErb, King of Pictland, died (Annals of Clonmacnoise)

(449) Talore son of Aniel – 4
(453) Necton Morbet son of Erip – 24
(477) Drest Gurthinmoch – 30
(507) Galalan Erilich – 12

516: The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were the victors. (Annales Cambraie)

(519) Two Drests – son of Girom
son of Uudrost
5 together / 5 Drest son of Girom on own
(529) Garthnach son of Girom – 7
(536) Cailtram son of Girom – 1

537: The battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut fell. (Annales Cambraie)

(537) Talorg son of Muircholaich – 11
(548) Drest son of Muniat – 1
(549) Galam Cennaleph – 1
(550) Galam Cennaleph and Briduo together – 1
(551) Bridei son of Mailcon – 30

581: The death of Bruide son of Maelchú, king of the Picts. (Annals of Tigernach)

(581)  Gartnart son of Bomelch

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3: Pictish Matrinlineal Succession

The last king in the above list, Gartnart, was the same man as Arthur son of Aedan, showing that Bomelch was his mother. The Pictish succession of kings was matrilineally focussed, with the Venerable Bede recording in the early 8th century;

Now the Picts had no wives, and asked them of the Scots; who would not consent to grant them upon any other terms, than that when any difficulty should arise, they should choose a king from the female royal race rather than from the male: which custom, as is well known, has been observed among the Picts to this day.

Such a matrilineal regal-flow begins with Cunedda, who appears in the PKL as Canutulahina. Nennius places Cunedda in Scotland, in Manau Gododdin, whose successor, Ceretic, transchispers into the PKL’s Wradech.  Between them & Arthur/Garthnach, the list is as follows;

Canutulahina
Wradech uecla
Gartnaich-diuberr
Talorc son of Achivir
Drust son of Erp
Talorc son of Aniel
Necton morbet son of Erip
Drest Gurthinmoch
Galanan erilich
Drest son of Gygurnus
Drest son of Uudrost
Garthnach son of Gygurnus

According to Jesus College genealogy number seven, Cunedda Wledig had two daughters, Tegid and Gwen. The latter then marries a certain Amlawdd Wledig, so the matrinlineal Pictish royal line should flow through their children. Another genealogy in Peniarth MS 177 shows their daughter to be a certain Eigr, otherwise known as Eigyr, Igraine or Ygerne. This woman is, of course, the mother of King Arthur, & the only conclusion we can make now is that Cunedda was King Arthur’s great grandfather.

Cunedda Wledig / Canutalahina
Gwen = Amlawdd Wledig
Eigr / Gygurnus
Arthur / Garthnach

The PKL gives even more confirmation. The St Andrews version of the Gurthinmoch is Gormot. This name philochisps into a certain, ‘Gormant,’ who the medieval Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen describes as ‘Gormant son of Rica (brother to Arthur on his mother’s side, his father the chief elder of Cornwall),’ where again we see another Igerne-linked figure connected matrilineally to the Pictish throne.

• There is some intriguing evidence in the Book of Taleisn that seems to suggest the Arthur-Garthnach philochisp. We can place together the common English spelling of Arthur in the company of the Pictish Gygurnus, with them both being found in the poem, Kadeir Teyrnon – ‘The Chair of Teyrnon’. The key extracts include;

  Did not (he) lead from Cawrnur
  Horses pale supporting burdens?
  The sovereign elder.
  The generous feeder.
  The third deep wise one,
  To bless Arthur,
  Arthur the blessed,
  In a compact song.

  High (is) the virtue of the course,
  High will be the gaiety of the old,
  High (is) the horn of travelling,
  High the kine in the evening.
  High (is) truth when it shines,
  Higher when it speaks.
  High when came from the cauldron
  The three awens of Gogyrwen.

  H-ayarn-dor
  H-aearn-wedd
  Ig-erne
  G-yg-urn-us
  G-og-yrwen

  The term ‘Awen’ is a Welsh word indicating poetic inspiration, life force, the spark and the spirit. So who or what is Gogyrwen? The name appears elsewhere in the Book of Taleisin, with the ‘Song Before the Sons of Llyr’ giving us;

  May my tongue be free in the sanctuary of the praise of Gogyrwen.
  The praise of Gogyrwen is an oblation, which has satisfied
  Them, with milk, and dew, and acorns.

  Taleisin is here treating Gogyrwen as something divine, a goddess, or perhaps or even a mortal sorceress. Having shown that Hayarndor is Igerne, the idea of a mortal Gogyrwen resonates with the Death Song of Uther Pendragon’s;

  Is it not I that performed the rites of purification,
  When Hayarndor went to the top of the mountain?

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4: The Dux Pictorum

If Arthur was a Pictish king, then surely somebody would have  mentioned it somewhere. Luckily someone did, even before Big Geoff. His name was Lambert of Saint-Omer, who in his early 12th century Liber Floridus  states not only that Arthur was a Dux Pictorum, but that he also has a palace in Pictavia. It was this clue that me logically look for Arthur in the Pictish King List in the first place, using the old open a phone book method which shines with effervescent simplicity!

Arthur, Dux Pictorum, ruling realms of the interior of Britain, resolute in his strength, a very fierce warrior, seeing that England was being assaulted from all sides, and that property was being stolen away, and many people taken hostage and redeemed, and expelled from their inherited lands, attacks the Saxons in a ferocious onslaught along with the kings of Britain, and rushing upon them, fought valiantly, coming forward as leader in twelve battles. 

There is a palace, in Britain in the Picts’ land, of Arthur the soldier, built with wondrous art and variety, in which may be seen sculpted all his acts both of construction and in battle.

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5: Rhynie

The Royal Pictish centre being excavated in recent years at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, is given as Penrhionyd in one the Welsh Triads.

Three Tribal Thrones of the Island of Prydain: Arthur the Chief Lord at Menevia, and David the chief bishop, and Maelgwyn Gwyned the chief elder. Arthur the chief lord at Kelliwic in Cornwall, and Bishop Betwini the chief bishop, and Caradawg Vreichvras the chief elder. Arthur the chief lord in Penrhionyd in the north, and Cyndeyrn Garthwys the chief bishop, and Gurthmwl Guledic the chief elder

In the Welsh language, ‘Pen’ means ‘summit or peak,’ which renders Penrhionyd as meaning ‘Peak of Rhionyd.’ Above Rhynie towers the far-seen Tap o’ Noth, Scotland’s second highest hillfort, complete with impressive triple-ringed defense-works. A definitive Arthurian connection to Rhynie comes through Tintagelware, which had fanned out throughout Britain to a series of high-status sites such as South Cadbury in Somerset & also Longbury Bank in the Dyfed parish of Penally, situated within another of Arthur’s ‘Tribal Thrones.’ Just as Cadbury was home to a grand timber feasting hall; & just as at the ‘high-status’ Longbury Bank in Dyfed Ewan Campbell & Alan Lane suggest ‘there is tenuous evidence for at least one large timber building;’ so have archeaologists uncovered the post-holes & plank slots of a timber feasting hall at Rhynie.

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6: Uther Pendragon

That a Pictish name, Drust or Dustan, was found on a 6th century memorial stone is Cornwall has always puzzled scholars. Yet, by placing a Pictish Arthur in the same locality clears things up a touch. We do so by the following famous passage…

Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, was there, with his wife Igerne, that in beauty did surpass all the other dames of the whole of Britain. And when the King espied her amidst the others, he did suddenly wax so fain of her love that, paying no heed unto none of the others, he turned all his attention only upon her… At last, committing the siege into charge of his familiars, he did entrust himself unto the arts and medicaments of Merlin, and was transformed into the semblance of Gorlois… They then went their way toward Tintagel, and at dusk hour arrived at the castle. The porter, weening that the Duke had arrived, swiftly unmade the doors, and the three were admitted. For what other than Gorlois could it be, seeing that in all things it seemed as if Gorlois himself were there? So the King lay that night with Igerne.

This story, as told by Big Geoff, is the nearest thing we have to Arthur’s birth certificate. Big Geoff’s history is essentially a collection of facts, or almost facts with a chisper or two, about which are composed tales of aventure & exciting battles to please a twelfth century audience. In this case he knew that Arthur was born in Tintagel of Igerne & Uther, but Arthur’s father was also known as Gorlois. To reconcile the two truths he created a magical phantasy which no doubt went down well in the early medieval feasting halls, that Merlin turn’d Uther into Duke Gorlois. The evidence comes in a poem by Taleisin called the Death Song of Uther Pendragon, in which Uther declares himself to be called Gorlasser, a philochisp of Gorlois. The poem is set in North Britain and begins;

7: Scottish Battles

There are plenty of traces of Arthur in the topography of Scotland, & we can also link several sites to the ‘Battle-List’ of the Historia Brittonum, with the clearest one being, ‘The seventh battle was in the forest of Celidon, which the Britons call Cat Coit Celidon.’ This ‘cat,’ or wood, was situated all across the Scottish borders, between Hadrian’s Wall & the Firth of Forth. Arthur’s eighth battle, ‘near the fortress of Guinnion,’  is given a precise site by the Vatican rescension of the Historia, Stow-on Wedale in the Scottish Borders.

For Arthur proceeded to Jerusalem, and there made a cross to the size of the Saviour’s cross, and there it was consecrated, and for three successive days he fasted, watched, and prayed, before the Lord’s cross, that the Lord would give him the victory, by this sign, over the heathen; which also took place, and he took with him the image of St. Mary, the fragments of which are still preserved in great veneration at Wedale, in English Wodale, in Latin Vallis-doloris. Wodale is a village in the province of Lodonesia, but now of the jurisdiction of the bishop of St. Andrew’s, of Scotland, six miles on the west of that heretofore noble and eminent monastery of Meilros.

Arthur’s eleventh & twelfth battles were fought in the Lothians. ‘The eleventh battle was fought on the mountain which is called Agnet,‘refers to Edinburgh. The locality of Mount Agned is given by Big Geoff, who chips in with, ‘Ebrauc also built the town of Alclud & the settlement of Mount Agned which is now called the castle of the Virgins & the Hill of Sorrows (Montem Dolosorum), facing Albany.‘ That Edinburgh was known as the Castle of Maidens back in Geoff’s day is proven in a papal bull of 1237, which names Holyrood as the ‘Monastery of the Holy Rood of the Castle of the Maidens.’ This battle is also mentioned by the Pa Gur poem which describes

On the heights of Eidyn
He fought with cynocephali
By the hundreds they fell
To Bedwyr’s four-pronged spear

The mention of the ‘heights of Eidyn’ in Pa Gur suggest a battle was fought all across Edinburgh’s seven hills. Arthur’s fighting in the Edinburgh area is remembered in quite a distinctive way. On approaching the city, the happy traveller will first notice from afar the wild & gigantic ruin of an ancient volcano. This compact & heathy wilderness is known as Holyrood Park, whose chief height is a soaring 800-foot high, lion-like edifice called Arthur’s Seat. As we have already seen, an Arthur’s Seat in an area could well be attributed to a siege conducted by Arthur himself. In the half-French, half-German, Latin-loving dialect known as Middle-English the word ‘sege’ possessed two very different meanings, the latter of which opens the case wide open; A chair or throne / A  siege. Thus Arthur’s Seat could well be a memorial of King Arthur beseiging Edinburgh rock!

The final battle, Badon, is sited in the county of East Lothian, to the East of Edinburgh. Its modern day name is Lammer Law, after which the Lammermuir Hills are named. It lies only a few miles from Traprain Law, which has been firmly connected to King Loth, one of Arthur’s kindred in the older traditions. On the lower slopes of Lammer Law there are three hillforts; The Witches Knowe, Kidlaw & The Castles. Flowing around the latter goes the Dambadam Burn, which transchispers into Dun Badon, & also the ‘the siege of Mount Badamor’ variant of the battle’s name as given by the medieval Scottish chronicler, John of Fordun. This system of defences guarding Lammer Law does come alive in the mind when reading the phrase, ‘Arthur penetrated to the hill of Badon.’

From Badon we come to Bothan, the ancient name of the parish of Yester, which the Lammer Law forms a part. In the Transactions of the Antiquarian & Field Naturalists’ Society (1963/v.IX), James Bulloch writes of Yester church’s chispering dedication to Saint Bathan;

8: Sir Kay

In 536, Arthur was replaced on the Pictish throne by his brother, Cailtram son of Girom.,  who would rule only for a single year, succeeded by Talorg son of Muircholaich . The name Cailtram immediately resonates with ‘Keidyaw,’ who succeeded Arthwys in one of the lineages in the Descent of the Men of the North, which reads;

Gwendoleu & Nud & Cof, sons of Keidyaw, son of Arthwys

With Talorg’s entry into the Pictish pantheon, we gain confirmation to Arthwys of the Descent of the Men of the North as being King Arthur. To do so, we must compare the names of three of the Descent’s consecutive kings to three consecutive kings given by the Pictish lists;

It would seem that Cailtram/Keidyaw was the man behind the later Sir Kay of medieval Sir Kay of Arthurian romance.  Nah then, is it only a fabulous coincidence that Big Geoff describes Arthur leaving Britain in the year before Camlann, ie 536 AD? is it only a coincidence that Hector Boece  describes a certain noble leader called Caimus as dying at Camlann?

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9: The Battle of Camlann

A positive connection to the Dunnichen area being the site of the fatal Battle of Camlann is  given in the Second Statistical Account of Scotland’s account, which records a ‘confused tradition prevails of a great battle having been fought on the East Mains of Dunnichen, between Lothus, King of the Picts, or his son Modred, and Arthur King of the Britons, in which that hero of romance was slain.’ This correlates with the Annales Cambraie’s ‘537: The Strife of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut fell.‘

There is the definite Cam like’ ‘Carmyllie,’ which Dunnichen parish neighbours. The name has a clear resonance with the ‘Carmellie’ battle given in the Old Welsh tale, The Dream of Rhonabwy, in which a certain Iddawg places the battle near the Pictavian ‘Prydyn.’

I was one of the missionaries in the Camellian battle between Arthur and Medrawd his nephew… I was named in Iddawg Cordd Britain. And because of this the ranks of the troops were distributed at Machman. But, however, three nights before the end of the Camell battle I drove them out and I came to Lech Las in Prydyn to eat.

In late antiquity, the Welsh word Llan and its variants (Breton: lan; Cornish: lann; Pictish: lhan) was applied to the sanctified land occupied by communities of Christian converts. The typical llan was defended by a circular or oval embankment with a protective stockade. An Iron age llan can be found in the parish of Dunnichen, Angus, on a hillfort called Dumbarrow, confirmed by the Statistical Account of Forfarshire’s, ‘this Fort seems to have been built of dry stone in a circular form.’ Dumbarrow has clear Arthurian connections, with the Old Statistical Account of Scotland (1791) describing ‘a rock on its north side is still called Arthur’s Seat,’ while Alexander Warden in the third volume of Angus or Forfarshire, tells us, ‘The Hill of Dumbarrow (anciently Dunberach), in the parish, disputes with the Hill of Barry, near Alyth, the honour of having been the prison of Arthur’s frail Queen, Guanora.’

Archaeology has proven that a substantial conflict had been fought in the locality. A Pictish stone was dug up on East Mains, of which instance Headrick observes in 1833’s Statistical Account that, ‘a good many years ago, there was turned up with the plough a large flat stone, on which is cut a rude outline of an armed warrior’s head and shoulders; and not many years ago, the plough also uncovered some graves in another part of the same farm. These graves consisted of flat stones on all sides. They were filled with human bones, and urns of red clay with rude ornaments upon them ; the urns being filled with whitish ashes. By exposure to the air, the bones and urns mouldered to dust.’ To this information, Andrew Jervise adds (PSAS II, 1854–7), ‘on the lands of Lownie also, (the original property of the Auchterlonies) & in the King’s muir adjoining, a variety of ancient graves have been now and then discovered.’

At Dunnichen was found one of the most remarkable symbol-stones in the Pictish pantheon. It had been dug up in 1811 in a field named ‘Chasel’ (Castle) park at East Mains, & moved to the church yard at Aberlemno. Its now in Dundee, actually, its a replica that stands at Aberlemno – but its still pretty cool. One side of this wonderfully carved stone shows a battle in full swing, presumably between the long-haired Picts & what appears to be helmet-wearing Saxons. Camlann was fought on an international scale, a great civil war in which Mordred obtained military assistance from the Saxons, with the Triads telling us;

The three disgraceful traitors who enabled the Saxons to take the crown of the Isle of Britain from the Cambrians… The second was Medrod, who with his men united with the Saxons, that he might secure the kingdom to himself, against Arthur; and in consequence of that treachery many of the Lloegrians became as Saxons.

The parish saint of Dunnichen is Constantine, & alongside the church dedicated to him, there was also a ‘St Causnan’s Well,’ whose pure fine spring was renamed as the Camperdown Well to commemorate the battle of Camperdown. According to Big Geoff, Constantine succeeded to the high kingship of Britain after the Battle of Camlann, & on its very field, Arthur; ‘gave up the crown of Britain unto his kinsman Constantine.’

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10: Avalon

The Welsh Triads tell us, ‘there took place the Battle of Camlan between Arthur and Medrawd, and was himself wounded to death. And from that wound he died, and was buried in a hall on the Island of Afallach.‘ The name Afallach translates as ‘apples’, & with Camlann being fought at Dunnichen, common sense tells us we are looking for an island with orchards somewhere in the vicinity. For as long as anyone can remember a rich & fertile tract of land in Perthshire called the Carse of Gowrie has flourished with that Fruit of Eve, the apple. The Carse still retains the pleasant moniker of ‘the Garden of Scotland,’ whose once sprawling historic orchards have dwindled to only five wee woods in the modern age; Bogmiln, Inchyra Farm, Muirhouses, Newbigging & Templehall.

Fifteen centuries ago, the alluvial flood plain on which the Carse is situated was a patchwork of many islands, including Inchyra, whose phonetic ‘inch’ stems from the Gaelic name for ‘small island.’ Inchyra House is a place of great significance to our investigation. A Pictish grave, disturbed by ploughing in 1945, was discovered 100 meters south of the house. The remains were covered by a large decorated flat slab lying flat over a cairn of forty-nine water-rolled stones. This seems to be Arthur’s, for the Triads say he was buried in, ‘a hall on the Island of Afallach.’ The skeletal remains, which included the upper part of a skull, an arm bone and shoulder socket, were later respectfully re-buried without a closer examination.

On analysing a 1959 paper on the Inchyra Stone, by Robert Stevenson, the Ogham inscriptions leapt out at my mind like striking panthers. Transliterated by FT Wainwright, of their academic accuracy, Stevenson wrote; ‘Professor K.H.Jackson, who examined the stone along with us, is in general agreements.’ The first inscription reads, ‘INEHHETESTIE.’ We can here see the word Anoeth, as in the babel-chain, ‘Anoeth-Inohhet-Inehhet.’ The true meaning of the name Anoeth is not yet understood to satisfaction, but it is given by the poem’ The Stanzas of the Graves’ as the actual burial site of Arthur.

Another inscription on one of the stone’s edges gives us the winning ticket;

UHTU-O-AGED

In the Welsh tradition, Igerne is given the name Eigr, & thus in the Ogham inscription above we can quite positively see the names of Arthur’s legendary parents;

UHTU —- AGE

Uther — Eigr

That the philochisps of Arthur’s burial site at Anoeth & the names of both of his parents appear on a single stone help us to paint Inchyra as the original Avalon. This means simply that King Arthur was – & still is – buried in the grounds.

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11: Gleissiar of the North

 We have previously connected Uther Pendragon with a certain Gorlasser, another reference to whom is found in the Welsh Triads

 Three Brave Men of the Island of Britain: Gruddnei, and Henben, and Edenawg. They would not return from battle except on their biers. And those were three sons of Gleissiar of the North, by Haearnwedd the Wily their mother.

Here Igerne or Ig-Haearn, appears as ‘Haearnwedd the Wily.’ It comes as no surprise to see how the Triads’, ‘Gruddnei’  philochisps into Gartnait, a common alternate name for Garthnach as given in the lists. Conjecturally, this suggests that Gleissiar’s other sons, Henben & Edenawg, are the two Pictish Drests who ruled before Garthnach/Arthur.

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12: Camelot

It makes sense that the fortress of Camelot was situated near the immortal battlefield of Camlann. The ‘elot’ afifx is found only a few miles to the south of Dunbarrow, where the River Elot – Elliot these days – rises in a moss called Diltymoss, and, after a course of about eight miles, falls into the North Sea at Arbirlot. Hard by its headwaters stands Dunhead, a fortification covered by dense deciduous woodland, situated on a steepsided promontory at a confluence of the Elliot Water, between two ravines, one of which contains the Black Den & the other the Den of Guynd. In 1754, Melville made a rough sketch-plan of the site, describing it as ‘the entrenchment on Down Head Hill near Arbilot.’

The First Statistical Account refers to the recent demolition of a “druidical temple” in the parish, & the finding of a “Pictish crown” at Black Den, a forested ravine linked to the Guynd Den.

A few years ago the remains of a religious house in the parish, whose ruins had been revered for ages, were taken down. And though we cannot say at what time, or by what person, it was built, yet from the accounts given of it, we have reason to believe that it had been a druidical temple. It is reported, with much confidence, that a crown of one of the kings of the Picts, was found in the Black-den of this Parish, by a quarryman, about the beginning of the present century

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CONCLUSION

I’ve left a lot of cool stuff out with this write up, but I wanted to be as clear & concise as possible. As I’ve studied the Pictish Arthur over the years, its been amazing to see & erect each solid proof on which to support the theory. To me, on Boxing Day 2019, its a no brainer, a series of coincidences so uncanny that they just have to be the truth. I mean, there’s a guy in the Pictish King Lists whose name sounds like Arthur & whose mother’s name sounds like Arthur’s mother. Not only that, he gives up his throne a year before Camlann – 536 – just like Arthur, & the guy who succeeds him – Cailtram – rules for a single year suggesting he was the Caimus who died at Camlann. Another incredible coincidence is that Arthur ruled in the north at a place called Pen Rhionyd, & there is a dark age Pictish fortress at Rhynie… it just goes on & on…