THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON: CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE

The Horned God

At the very heart of the kingdom of the Carvetii or ‘Deer-people’ are the three henges at Eamont: the great Mayburgh or ‘Maiden’s Fort’ Henge, King Arthur’s Round Table and the Little Round Table. Eamont is from Anglo-Saxon ea-gemot or ‘water-meet’, signifying the river confluence at this location. Eamont replaced the earlier Cumbrian place-name Echwydd or ‘Out-water’ which is mentioned in the Taliesin poems as a site the Rheged kings ruled over. Echwydd itself is a reference to the Eamont River, which flows out of the large, natural lake of Ullswater, the second largest body of water in the Lake District.

Because a large concentration of dedications to the British god Belatucadros were found at the Roman fort of Brovacum, modern Brougham, next to Eamont, it has been assumed that the three henges belonged anciently to him. Next to one of the Belatucadros dedications was found a carving of a horned god. As the ‘Deer-people’ would certainly have worshipped a deer god, this carving is usually considered to be a depiction of Belatucadros himself. Belatucadros inscriptions are found at other sites in northwest England, chiefly along the western half of Hadrian’s Wall, including at the Avalon fort of Burgh-By-Sands.

During the rut of September and October, red stags engage in regular combats in competition for harems of hinds. The combats are composed of a period during which the two contestants walk in parallel with each other, roar and finally strike at each other, locking antlers and pushing until one animal is pushed backwards or gives way and retreats. Serious injury and even death can result.

The ancient Britons, observing such combats, could not have helped but to have compared them to the fighting of human warriors, who locked weapons and similarly strove to injure or kill their opponents or force them into retreat. The red stag thus became not only a manifestation of the deity, but the totem animal of the Carvetii tribe.

The corpus of Belatucadros inscriptions are found in the following places (information obtained via the Roman Inscriptions of Britain courtesy Kevan White and Guy de la Bedoyere).  The reader will note that the majority of these inscriptions cluster about Brougham, site of the Roman fort of Brocavum.  This fort was very near the cultic center of the Carvetii, the triple henges at Eamont.  I will be discussing the fort and henges in more detail below.

Bowness-on-Solway: altar to Belatocairo by Peisius, m(iles). RIB 2056

Brougham: altar to B[a]latu(cadrus). RIB 772

Brougham: altar to Balatucairus by Baculo. RIB 773

Brougham: altar to Blatucairus by Audagus. RIB 774

Brougham: altar to Belatu[ca]drus by Julianus. RIB 775

Brougham: altar to Belatucadrus. RIB 776

Brougham: statue to Belatucadrus. RIB 77

Brougham: altar to Belatucabrous. JRS lix (1969), 237, no. 7

Burgh-by-Sands: altar to Belatucadrus. RIB 2038

Burgh-by-Sands: altar to Belatocadrus by Antr(onius) Auf(idianus?). RIB 2039

Burgh-by-Sands: altar to Belatucadrus. RIB 2044

Carlisle: altar to Belatucadrus. RIB 948

Carrawburgh: altar to Belleticaurus by Lunaris. RIB 1521

Carvoran: altar to Baliticaurus. RIB 1775

Carvoran: altar to Blatucadrus. RIB 1776

Castlesteads: altar to Belatugagrus by Minervalis. RIB 1976

Castlesteads: altar to Be[l]atuca[dr]us by Ullinus. RIB 1977 (and Brit. v (1974), 463, no. 10)

Kirkby Thore: altar to Belatucadrus by [...]iolus. RIB 759

Maryport: altar to Belatucadrus by Julius Civilis, optio. RIB 809

Old Carlisle: altar to Belatucadrus by Aurelius Tasulus, vet(eranus). RIB 887

Old Carlisle: altar to Belatucadrus by Aurelius Diatova. RIB 888

Old Carlisle: altar to Belatucaurus. RIB 889

Old Penrith: altar to Bel[a]tuca[drus]. RIB 914

Old Penrith: altar to Balatocadrus. Brit. ix (1977), 474, no. 7

Old Penrith: altar to Belatucairus. Brit. ix (1977), 474, no. 8

The actual inscriptions themselves I will list here, should anyone be interested in the readings of the stones:

BOWNESS-ON-SOLWAY

2056 (altar)

DEO BELATO

CAIRO PEISI

US M SOLU

IT VOTU

M L M

BROUGHAM

772 (altar)

DEO

BALATU

CA SA

SUIT ...

TINUS

EX CUN

......

......

......

RUM

773 (altar)

DEO BALATUCAI

RO BACULO PR

O SE ET SUIS V

L S

774 (altar)

DEO

BLATUCAIRO

AUDAGUS

V S P S S

775 (altar)

DEO BELATU

CADRO IU

LIANUS AR

AM V S L M

776 (altar)

DEO BELAT

UCADRO

...INAM

ARAM V

S L M

777 (statue)

D

SANCTO DEO BELATU

CADRO

VOTUM

BURGH-BY-SANDS (Aballava/Avalana/Avalon Roman fort)

2038 (altar)

DEO

BELA

TUCA

2039 (altar)

DEO BELATO

CADRO ANTR

AUF POSUIT AR

AM PRO SE ET S

UIS

2044 (altar)

MARTI

BELATU

CAD SACT

MATSUI

2045 (altar)

BALATUCADRO

S CENSORINUS

POR SALUTE

ET SUORUM POS

CARLISLE (hard by the Stanwix fort, power center of Arthur)

948 (altar)

DEO MARTI BELATUCADRO

CARRAWBURGH

1521 (altar)

DEO

BELLETI

CAURO

LUNARIS

CARVORAN

1775 (altar)

DEO

BALIT

ICAU

RO V

OUT

1776 (altar)

DO BLATU

CADRO

VOTU S

CASTLESTEADS (Camboglanna/Camlann Roman fort)

1976 (altar)

DEO

BELAT

UGAG

RO AR

MINERV

1977 (altar)

DEO S BE

LATUCAD

RO AV DON

IULLINUS V S

KIRKBY THORE

759 (altar)

DEO BELATUCAD

RO LIB VOTU

M FECIT

.. IOLUS

MARYPORT

809 (altar)

BELATU

CADRO

IUL CI

VILIS

OPT

V S L M

OLD CARLISLE

887 (altar)

DEO

BELATUCA

DRO SANCTO

AUR TASULUS

VET V S L M

888 (altar)

DEO

SANCTO BELA

TUCADRO

AURELIUS

DIATUS ARA E

X VOTO POSUIT

L L M M

889 (altar)

DEO

BELATU

CAURO

.CIPA..

OLD PENRITH

914 (altar)

DEO SAN

CTO BEL

ATUCA

ARAM

918 (altar)

DEO

MARTI

BELATUCAD

RO ET NUMI

NIB AUGG

IULIUS AU

GUSTALIS

ACTOR IUL LU

PI PREF

942.A (altar)

DEO

BALA

TOCA

DRO

[NOTE: One inscription is missing from this list: the Brougham altar to Belatucabrous, JRS lix (1969), 237, no. 7.  I could not find this listed in any of the RIB-related materials made available to me.]

The name Belatucadros itself has been rendered incorrectly in several recent texts on Celtic gods.  One of the most common etymologies offered would have the name mean ‘Fair Shining One’, the components Belatu- and cadros both being derived from words that mean bright, shining and the like.  This is scarcely creditable.

A more likely derivation would connect Belatu- with early Welsh bel-.  According to Dr. Graham Isaac of The National University of Ireland, Galway, bel-

“… is not ‘death’ in a passive sense (the death which happens), but ‘death’ in an active sense (the death which someone brings, i.e. killing).  The verb means ‘smites, strikes, kills’ and reflects the Proto-Indo-European root *gwelh1 –‘stab, smite; throw’, which also turns up in Old Irish at-baill ‘dies’, from an earlier meaning ‘he throws it’ referring to the casting off of life, or ‘he struck it’.  From Proto-Indo-European *gwelh1- we get the nominal formation *gwelh1-tu > Gaul. Belatu-,‘smiting, killing’.”

On –cadros, Dr. Isaac is also equally clear:

“… cadro- is the cognate of Old Breton cadr, Middle Breton kazr, Modern Breton kaer, “fair, beautiful”, and is derived from *cadro- < Proto-Indo-European k^d-ro- < *k^ed-, *k^d- ‘to shine, to excel’ (Pokorny 516-7).  The Welsh word cadr ‘mighty, fair’ with which it is sometimes compared is properly distinct, and reflects *kat-ro-, with the same root as cad, ‘battle’, etc.  There may have been some mixing of meanings between *kadro- and *katro- in Welsh, but that there were two originally distinct words should be beyond question (see Jackson LHEB 430-1)… In Old Welsh, the name Belatucadros would have been *Belatcair, and in Middle Welsh *Belatcaer or Belatkaer.”

I had also found a reference in Georges Dottin’s “La langue gauloise’, Paris, 1920, to cadros defined as ‘god, vakker’, “good, beautiful/handsome”.  When I asked Dr. Isaac about this, he replied:

“The meaning ‘good’ is quite within the possible range of *kadro-.”

All this being so, the full meaning of Belatucadros is ‘striker/smiter/killer - [who is] fair/beautiful/handsome/shining/good.

We cannot, of course, know the exact sense of the name that was utilized by the actual worshippers of the god.  However, if this god really had a stag form, ‘striker’ works best for –cadros.  This is because a stag’s weapon is his antlers, which he uses to strike other stags during the rut, or which the animal can use defensively against predators.  When rutting stags come together, it was seen as a metaphor for battle between two warriors.  The resounding crash of opposing antlers coming into violent contact with each other may have been likened to the heavenly thunder that issued from the lightning strike.

Despite the Roman identification of Belatucadros with Mars, it is probable Belatucadros – if indeed a stag deity – can be compared with other horned Celtic gods generally designated Cernunnos.  On the famous Gundestrup cauldron, Cernunnos holds the horned/crescent lunar snake in one hand and the (golden?) sun torc in the other.  We may interpret his antlers as an iconographic representation of the heavenly lightning (less likely as the branches of the oak sky-tree, as has sometimes been suggested).  Belatucadros did serve a martial function, and this is why he was referred to as Mars.  In reality, he was probably a sky-deity and it is in this capacity that we will further explore his nature when we treat of the white stag of Arthur.

Belatucadros’s cult center took the form of three sacred henges near Eamont.  The Roman fort of Brocavum nearby, where the heaviest concentration of dedications to the god were found, assures us that this is the main religious center of the Carvetii stag deity.  Brocavum itself has been linked to the ancient Celtic *brokko-, ‘badger’.  But this meaning has been called into question (see Rivet and Smith for the discussion of this fort name).  An alternative etymology is ‘place of the heather’.  Heather was extremely important as a food for the red deer, the largest of the deer found in Cumbria.  From the ‘Trees for Life’ Website (http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.reddeer.html):

“The diet of red deer in Scotland today is comprised of grasses (mainly Agrostis spp. but also including some Festuca spp.) and dwarf shrubs, such as heather (Calluna vulgaris) and blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), with heather being particularly important during times of winter snow. Red deer will also browse on trees, especially young ones, and their preferred native tree species are willows (Salix spp.), aspen (Populus tremula) and rowan (Sorbus aucuparia).

Throughout the year the deer will forage in different areas. In summer they move upslope to high ground, to avoid midges (Culicoides impunctatus) and other biting flies, and in winter they frequent lower lying areas, where more food is available, and also to gain shelter from the cold. Feeding grounds also vary between the sexes, with the hinds concentrating on the better, relatively grass-rich habitats, while the stags usually graze on the poorer, heather-dominated areas.”

Thus a fort called ‘place of the heather’ would be an acknowledgment on the part of the Romans of this importance of the area for the Carvetii deer/stag cult.  It was literally the place where the deer fed.

The henges of Mayburgh, King Arthur’s Round Table and the Little Round Table are nicely described at the following English Heritage Pastscape Web pages:

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=12002

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=11981

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=11978

Other excellent discussions of the henges can be found in Tom Clare’s “Prehistoric Monuments of the Lake District” (Tempus 2007) and in Aubrey Burl’s “A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany” (Yale University Press 1995).

Tom Clare brings up a couple of interesting “coincidences”.  First, the external diameter of King Arthur’s Round Table or ‘KART’ almost exactly equals the internal diameter of the Mayburgh Henge.  And second, the Little Round table is about the same size as the external diameter of KART.  This suggests a definite relationship between the three henges.

To these accounts I would like to add only a few hypothetical observations.  First, the Mayburgh Henge, which is thought to have contained a stone circle, and had at the very least a ‘four poster’ at its center, and either two or four stones flanking the inside or outside or both inside and outside of the entrance, opens ONLY to the east.  This was the direction of the Spring and Fall Equinox sunrises

KART is almost directly east of Mayburgh.  If you draw a line straight east from the entrance of Mayburgh, the line passes just over the northern edge of the King Arthur’s Round Table.  The latter had two entrances, one to the NNW and the other to the SSE.  If you draw an imaginary line straight south from the eastern side of KART, such a line runs to just about the northernmost point of the Little Round Table (this last is an approximation, as practically nothing remains of the Little Round Table, it having been for the most part destroyed in the late 1880s; see british-history.ac.uk, under their page for the parish of St. Michael, Barton).  We know only that the Little Round Table appears to have had at least one entrance, in the northeast sector.

Stonehenge’s Avenue is on the northeast, where the midsummer sunrise occurs.  Was there perhaps a southwestern entrance on the Little Round Table, one that marked the midwinter sunset?

But what of the NNW and SSE entrances of KART?  These could have marked the midsummer sunset and midwinter sunrise, respectively.  Major standstills of the moon could also have been marked by entrances facing in these directions.

We are then “missing” the Spring and Fall Equinox sunsets.  Well, if I’m right and KART marked midsummer sunset and midwinter sunrise, while the Little Round Table marked the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, it stands to reason that Mayburgh Henge, which marks the Spring and Fall Equinox risings must also have somehow marked the settings of the same solar events.  As Mayburgh appears to have had a full stone circle, and this was incorporated into its interior, I would offer as a possibility that a stone, perhaps taller than the others, stood aligned on the relevant settings of the sun in the west.  It may also be that the builders of Mayburgh intended to “trap” the risings of the equinoctial sun, but did not wish to allow “in” the settings.  This is merely speculation on my part, of course.

An alternative for the setting Equinoctial suns involves what may once have been an avenue or alignment of standing stones to the west of Mayburgh.  At http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/skirsgill.htm, Chris Collyer says:

“It's difficult to tell from the photograph to the left but this is a rather impressive block of granite that stands about 1.8 metres tall with pronounced vertical fluting down its front face…There is some speculation that the stone once stood as part of an avenue of similar stones that are now lost or broken up for building material. This avenue could have extended from Sewborrans in the northwest down to the banks of the River Eamont just a few hundred metres to the south or even on toward the remaining henges of Mayburgh and King Arthur's Round Table about half a mile away to the southeast on the other side of the river at Eamont Bridge.”

Under his page for the Sewborrans Stone, he adds:

“The 1.5 metre high granite standing stone of Sewborrans (or Sewborwens) now stands lonely in a cattle field just north of the B5288 from Penrith to Greystoke; it may, however, once have formed part of an alignment or avenue of stones as two 19th century sources claim. A William Furness writing in 1894 speculates that there was a northwest - southeast avenue that ran "from Newton (Reigny) to the ford of the Eamont at Yanwath." I don't know exactly where this ford across the river was but it is possible that it was close to the two remaining henges of Mayburgh and King Arthur's Round Table at Eamont Bridge. If this is the case then the avenue could also have included the large stone that stands in a small industrial park at Skirsgill. Another writer (Taylor) stated earlier in 1886 that there was indeed an avenue of stones but that it formed a northeast - southwest alignment running from Sewborrans towards Newbiggin. Sadly the loss of other stones that may have formed either alignment means that we cannot be sure if there were one, two or indeed more stone avenues here or how they were related to the two long cairns that stand a short distance to the northwest of Sewborrans.”

The Pastscape entry for the Skirsgill stone shows familiarity with the tradition that some kind of avenue or alignment focusing on Mayburgh may once have existed:

[NY 50972875] Standing Stone [G.T.].

A large boulder stone just north of Skirsgill, supposed to have had some connection with Mayburgh [NY 52 NW 12].

The stone is comparable with that surviving at Mayburgh, otherwise no further information. See G.P. AO/65/55/8.

NY 50982874 Standing stone 180m NNE of Skirsgill. A roughly rectangular granite stone measuring c1.8m high by 1.3m wide; scheduled.

Granted, as the Skirsgill Stone lies to the NW of Mayburgh, any alignment of this particular stone with the henge must have pointed to something other than the equinoctial setting of suns.  However, there may once have been other similar stones that served the function of the marking the equinoxes.

In Chapter 4 I discussed Myrddin as a Carvetii god who leads an army of stag-warriors and slays his wife’s new husband with a stag’s horn.  In this capacity as a sacred king, he may have been acting not in the role of the horned god Belatucadros, but in that of Lleu, who was also worshipped by the Carvetii.  As we’ve seen, Lleu takes stag form in a Mabinogion story.

Arthur may have beeb of the Carvetii as well and it should not surprise us, then, to find Arthur associated with the famous white stag in later romance.  Mary Jones (maryjones.us/jce/whitestag.html) has a useful page discussing the significance of the white stag in a Celtic and Arthurian context.  Here I will only say that real-life white stags have been recorded.  See, for example

http://tinyurl.com/mythical-white-stag

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/02/12/us-stag-idUSN1223820220080212

As Belatucadros was the ‘Shining Striker’, we might visualize him as a brilliant white stag deity.  Although there is some evidence that the white stag should be seen as a symbol for the sun, in truth the sun is not white.  The moon is, as are clouds racing across the sky.  But whatever celestial object the white stag symbolized, in the context of Arthurian story he may well be a manifestation of the chief god of the Carvetii.  As such, his appearance would indeed be miraculous, and following him would doubtless take an intrepid knight on a harrowing journey to the Otherworld, i.e. the Underworld where all heavenly bodies set.

We will see in Chapter 6 below that Gwyn, the Welsh god of the Otherworld whose name means ‘white, fair, blessed’, appears to have been the Horned God in another guise.

*Rheged was a very important Dark Age kingdom of North Britain.  It is best known for its being ruled by Urien of Rheged and his son, Owain. 

There has been a tendency in the past to link the Dark Age kingdom name Rheged with the Romano-British period polis of the Novantae tribe, RERIGONIUM.  According to Rivet and Smith’s “The Place-Names of Roman Britain”, Rerigonium should be seen as “a latinization of British *ro-rigonio- ‘very royal (place)’.  Under their entry for the place-name Regulbium, the authors cite British *ro- ‘great’ (a prefix… rendered in Latin as heard or adapted by Latin speakers, re-, a common prefix).  –rigonio- is from British *rig- *rigon ‘king’ with *-io- derivational suffix.

This is fine, so far as it goes.  But does it help us with Rheged?  I believe so. Rheged is rather easily derived from a Welsh ged, ‘gift’, and the Re-/Rhe- can again be accounted for if we allow the original Ro- to have been altered due to Roman influence.  The meaning would be something like ‘Great Gift’ and may have been formed, originally, after the model provided by nearby Rerigonium.

It would be nice to suggest that Ptolemy made a mistake, and his Rerigonium should instead be something like *Rereconion, *re-rec- meaning 'great gift'.  Welsh rheg, like ged, means ‘gift.’ Rerec[onion] would exactly match my proposed meaning for Reged.  Unfortunately, we are not justified in assuming that Ptolemy made such an error. 

Urien was murdered while on a campaign furing which he had penned up the English on the island of Metcaud/Medcaut or Lindisfarne.  Richard Coates has demonstratd that Medcaut derives from Latin medicatus, meaning ‘healing’, a reference to St. Aidan’s foundation of a monastery on Lindisfarne.  Lindisfarne itself is said by Coates to show Irish influence, as its second component is from Irish ferann, making the full place-name mean “Sea-lake land or domain.”  Nearby Bamburgh was originally a British fortress named Din Guayrdi (the variant Guoaroy is a corruption), Din Gwyardi, the ‘Fort of the People of Gwyar.’  The Gwyar in question was the mother of the famous Arthurian hero Gwalchmai.  Her name means ‘Blood’ and she was doubtless a fearsome war goddess.