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Vortigern
is associated with an Ambrosius Aurelianus. This
personage, said to be a Roman, is the most famous figure
in Dark Age British history prior to Arthur. Why?
Because he is credited with having united the Britons in
a successful defense of the country against the Saxons,
who from Vortigern’s time had, according to the
traditional account, pillaged and conquered at will. There
are three major problems with accepting this Ambrosius as
a contemporary of Vortigern. First, he cannot
have been a Roman and been in Britain during or after
Vortigern’s rule. The withdrawal of the Romans
is firmly dated at c. 409 A.D. Vortigern’s
ruling dates, depending on the sources consulted, are
anywhere from twenty to forty years after the Roman
withdrawal. Secondly,
the Historia Brittonnum tells us that Ambrosius fought
a battle against a certain Vitalinus at a Guoloph or
Wallop, thought to be the Hampshire Wallop. This
Vitalinus is listed in the Historia Brittonum as
the grandfather of Vortigern. This means that
Ambrosius has wrongly been placed in the time of
Vortigern. He actually belongs to the time of Vitalinus,
who was probably of the 4th century. The
father of the famous 4th century St. Ambrose
bore the name Aurelius Ambrosius. This man was,
furthermore, the prefect or governor of Gaul (Gallia).
Britain, Spain and Gaul were in the Gallic prefecture. So,
we have here a historical figure named Aurelius Ambrosius
who not only was a “Roman”, but who could have
had something to do with military operations carried out
in Britain in the 4th century. There is
good reason to believe that St. Ambrose himself bore the
name Aurelius. To quote from Kevin Coyle, University of
Ottawa, via the ELENCHUS mailing list: "Jones'
Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire gives no second
name for the bishop of Milan. Nor, so far as I know, does
Paulinus of Milan's Vita. Ambrose may have belonged to
the gens Aurelia, as we know that he was related to
Symmachus [Quintus Aurelius Symmachus]; an inscription in
Diehl, Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres (no.
1800) refers to him as *Aurelius Ambrosius*. It's true
that there is a debate over the Ambrose referred to in
the inscription. Those who think it's Ambrose junior [St.
Ambrose] point out that a dedication to St. Nazarius is
involved. The point may be moot: if Ambrose senior
belonged to the gens Aurelia, so did the son, and vice
versa." One
other factor strongly indicates that there is no good
historical reason for accepting a 5th century
Aurelius Ambrosius in Britain. Vortigern’s
only interaction with Ambrosius, or Emrys Guletic (“Prince
Ambrosius”) as he is called in Welsh tradition, is
in a folktale localized at Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd. Other
than Dinas Emrys, there appears to be no site in Britain
which can be shown to contain the personal name Ambrosius.
The association of Ambrosius with Amesbury is incorrect (see
below). Of Croft Ambrey, a large hill-fort in Hereford
and Worcestershire, place-name experts draw a blank.
Ambrey is not recorded in the early sources and no
etymology has been offered (information courtesy Paul
Cavill of The English Place-Name Society and John Freeman
of The Herefordshire Place-Name Society). In any case,
excavations at Croft Ambrey show that the fort was not
inhabited after c. AD 48 (THE PENGUIN GUIDE TO
PREHISTORIC ENGLAND AND WALES). Ambresbury Banks in the
Epping Forest of Essex was not called Ambresbury Banks
until AD 1670; before this (AD 1299) the fort was "castrum
de Eppynghatthe" (information courtesy Chris
Chandler, National Monument Record of England). Ambrosius
may even have been placed at Guoloph/Wallop because of
the proximity of this stream to Amesbury. As Geoffrey of
Monmouth did much later, Ambrosius's name was fancifully
associated with Amesbury. The town name does not, in fact,
seem to contain the personal name Ambrosius. Its
etymology is instead as follows: Ambresbyrig
c AD 880 charter then various spellings to Amblesberie in
Domesday. Almost certainly a personal name Ambre or
Aembre cognate with the Old German Ambri, hence Ambre's
burgh. [Chris Chandler of the RCAHME.] The
Place-Names of Wiltshire (EPNS, 1939) says this of
Amesbury (on p. 359): "It
is impossible to go beyond the suggestion . . . that we
have to do with a personal name Ambre, Æmbre [the Æ is
OE aesc] cognate with the recorded OGer [Old German]
Ambri. Hence possibly 'Ambre's burh' . . . " This
etymology is accepted by A.D. Mills in his Dictionary of
English Place-Names (Oxford, 1991). Andrew
Deathe, Salisbury Museum, adds the following: “From
what I can find it would appear that the earliest
manuscript mention is a document from around 1000 AD that
is actually a copy of a manuscript from around 880 AD.
This gives the name Ambresbyrig. This would point to a
person known as Æmbre or similar as you know. Ekblom
suggests Eammer or Eanbeorht as other possibilities to
Ambri. All are Saxon names. The idea that Amesbury
derives from Ambrosius first occurs in the late Medieval
period and, to my mind, is bound up with the Geoffrey of
Monmouth story that Stonehenge is a memorial to the
Britons who fought the Saxons nearby. Personally I think
that it is very unlikely to have any foundation in truth.
Medieval writers tended to look for a story to fit the
facts when writing history, rather than facts to fit the
story!” Paul
Cavill, The English Place-Name Society, concludes: “All
the early forms for Amesbury have the medial -b-, but no
form has any extension that would justify derivation from
Ambrosius. The person., if it is one, would seem to be
Ambre, cf. Ombersley. “ More
harm is done to the case for a 5th century
Ambrosius/Emrys in Wales when we take a closer look at
the Dinas Emrys story. The Historia
Brittonum relates that Emrys is found as a boy at
Campus Elleti or, in Welsh, Maes Elleti, in Glywysing, i.e.
Glamorgan. This “Field of Elleti” is
believed by Welsh scholars to be in the Ely valley.
According to Professor Hywel Wyn Owen of The
University of Wales, Bangor, “Ifor
Williams (in _Enawau Lleoedd_, 40, Liverpool 1945)
suggests that the root of Elei is leg-, meaning "dripping,
slow-moving", from which comes Welsh llaith, "damp". Llaith
is cognate with English "to leak", and the word
"lake".” The
initial E- of Elei could be explained by an el- prefix,
"much", which would give us a meaning the
"very slow-moving" river. Elleti would
appear, therefore, to be a form of Elei which displays
the terminal of llaith The
ancient Welsh poem _Pa Gur_ tells us of three wizards,
one of whom is Mabon, who are styled the "vultures
of Elei". This Elei is likely the Ely Valley,
the probable location of the Campus Elleti of Ambrosius. Ambrosius
as a Latin adjective means “the Divine or Immortal
One”. As such, it could easily have been
confused with Mabon, the Divine Son, known in the Roman
period as Apollo Maponus. We have just seen how the
Ambrosius found at Campus Elleti in the Ely Valley of
Mabon was a boy, like Mabon himself. Mabon
was equated with the ever-youthful god Lleu in Welsh
tradition. That this is so is demonstrated by the
placement of the two gods in death at the same place.
According to the Mabinogion tale Math Son of Mathonwy,
Lleu is found as the death-eagle in the oak tree at
Nantlle (Nant Lleu) in Snowdonia not far from Dinas Emrys.
And one of the Stanzas of the Graves reads: The
grave on Nantlle’s height, No one
knows its attributes – Mabon
son of Modron the Swift. When
Vortigern has Emrys the ‘Divine or Immortal
One’ taken from a valley in which Mabon is found and
places him in the Gwynedd of Mabon/Lleu, it seems quite
certain that we are not dealing with the historical
Gallic governor of the 4th century, but with a
god. I would
add that Campus Elleti of Mabon/Emrys is reminiscent of
the Irish Bri Leith, the Grey Hill or Hill of Leith son
of Celtchar. This is the old Ardagh Hill, now
Slieve Golry (Sliabh gCallraighe) near Ardagh, Co.
Longford. Until recent times, Ardagh Hill was an
important local Lughnasadh (Irish Lugh = Welsh Lleu)
station. In the
Irish Etain story, Midir takes Oengus Mac Og, i.e. Oengus
the “Young Son”, the Irish equivalent of Mabon
the Divine Son, from Bri Leith as a result of a ball-playing
incident, to Uisnech, the center of all Ireland.
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Stonehenge hard by
Amesbury, a place associated with Ambrosius, was erected
with stones taken from Mt. Killarus in Ireland , i.e.
Killare at Uisnech. And who
is the person who dwells at Uisnech? Echu Ollathir,
who is none other than the Dagda, the god who is the real
father of Oengus mac Og. So, the
Dinas Emrys or Fort of Ambrosius in NW Wales would appear
to be a relocation for Amesbury, supposedly the Fort of
Ambrosius on Salisbury Plain, right next to Stonehenge.
By saying that Stonehenge was made of the stones of the
Irish omphalos at Uisnech, Geoffrey of Monmouth was
saying, in effect, that Stonehenge was the sacred center
of England. The 13th
century English poem 'Of Arthour and of Merlin', tells us
that Vortigern's fruitless attempt to construct his
castle takes place not at Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd, but on
the plain of Salisbury, i.e. at Stonehenge/Amesbury. Geoffrey
of Monmouth proceeded to further confuse the story of
Ambrosius, a Roman governor of Gaul mistakenly identified
with a Welsh god, by identifying both with the Northern
Myrddin or Merlin. Hence we find Merlin or
“Merlin Ambrosius” in the Dinas Emrys story of
Emrys/Lleu/Mabon, this time returned to its location at
Amesbury near Stonehenge. In addition, Merlin is
placed at the springs of Galabes, Geoffrey’s attempt
at the Guoloph of the commander Ambrosius. In conclusion, we can only say that there is no good reason for supposing that Vortigern and Ambrosius were contemporaries. Instead, the Ambrosius mentioned by Gildas as having military success in Britian must have been the 4th century Gallic governor of that name. Ambrosius is Copyright © 2005, August Hunt. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Comments to: August Hunt |
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