Vortigern
Studies Index
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Caer Guorthegirn
Robert
Vermaat |
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Stonehenge
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Stonehenge
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Wiltshire |
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There have been several
sources that have connected Vortigern with the area of
Salibury plain, notably Stonehenge and Salisbury.
Historia Brittonum
The first of these was 'Nennius' in the ninth century:
Historia
brittonum, Chapter 66
And
from the reign of Vortigern to the quarrel between Guitolinus and Ambrosius, are
twelve years, which is Guolopum, that is
Catgwaloph. Vortigern reigned in Britain when
Theodosius and Valentinian were consuls, and in
the fourth year of his reign the Saxons came to
Britain, in the consulship of Feliz and Taurus,
in the four hundredth year from the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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et a
regno guorthigirni usque ad discordiam
guitolini et ambrosii anni sunt duodecim, quod
est guoloppum; id est catguoloph. guorthigirnus autem tenuit imperium in
brittannia theodosio et ualentiniano consulibus
et in quarto anno regni sui saxones ad
brittanniam uenerunt felice et tauro consulibus
quadringentesimo anno ab incarnatione domini
nostri iesu christi.
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This Ambrosius is fighting Vitalinus at Guoloph (Wallop in Hampshire,
which is only a few miles to the south-east of Amesbury),
is also strongly connected with Vortigern. Ambrosius'
estate may have been situated in the fort near the modern
abbey in Amesbury, giving the family name to the whole
area. Both men were therefore already linked to the area
at an early date.
Geoffrey of
Monmouth
Next, Vortigern became linked to Stonehenge through
Geoffrey of Monmouth:
Historia
Regum Britanniae, Book VI, chapter 15
And if these terms pleased Vortigern , he
desired him to appoint a time and place for their meeting,
and adjusting matters according to his pleasure. When
these things were represented to the king, he was
mightily pleased, as being very unwilling to part with
Hengist; and at last ordered his subjects and the Saxons
to meet upon the kalends of May, which were now very near,
at the monastery of Ambrius, for the settling of the
matters above mentioned. The appointment being agreed to
on both sides, Hengist, with a new design of villany in
his head, ordered his soldiers to carry every one of them
a long dagger under their garments; and while the
conference should be held with the Britons, who would
have no suspicion of them, he would give them this word
of command, "Nemet oure Saxas;" at which moment
they were all to be ready to seize boldly every one his
next man, and with his drawn dagger stab him.
That Geoffrey of Monmouth later confused Ambresbyrig
(the fortress of Ambrosius) with Ambrius Mons (the
hill of Ambr(os)ius) causes no wonder, for the Anglo-Saxon
byrig can mean both 'fortress' (burgh)
and 'hill' (byrg). Both names can be about one
and the same place: Amesbury and the surrounding area. It
is clear that, though Geoffrey did not know about Guoloph
and the quarrel between Ambrosius and Vitalinus/Vortigern
in the area, he was prapared to accept their involvement
ther for different reasons.
Aside from Vortigern
being betrayed there, Ambrosius is later buried there, in
the monument that he commanded merlin to build in
commemoration of the betrayed elders. Merlin (called by
Geoffrey 'Merlin Ambrosius'), having had his hands both
in the construction of Vortigern's tower and Stonehenge
may well have added to the confusion about Ambrosius,
causing a duplication of the Collapsing Castle
from Gwynedd (Dinas Emrys) to Wiltshire.
Of Arthour and
of Merlin![Stonehenge](../stoneh2.jpg)
The thirteenth-century English poem 'Of
Arthour and of Merlin' went one step further and
located the tower of Vortigern indeed Vpon ye
pleyn of Salesbury,
right in the middle of Stonehenge!
This reeks of course
strongly of a duplication. I have spoken elsewhere of the legendary relations of
Vortigern and Merlin. While Merlin was strongly connected
with Dinas Emrys (through his connections and early
identification with Ambrosius) and thus with Vortigern,
Merlin was also connected with Stonehenge through
probably quite different legends. Now Stonehenge lies
closest (only 2 miles) to Amesbury, which earliest
recorded name of Ambresbyrig makes it a very
good candidate of being named after a Romano-British
estate-owner by the name of Ambrosius! Though we do not
know for sure that this was the Ambrosius related by
Gildas or any other from later legend, all subsequent
connections made by history and pseudo-history make him a
good candidate.
William of
Worcester
William wrote in his notes made during his travels around
Britain in the late 15th century about all he could find
on antiquarian material. In his chapter written during
his stay in Oxford in 1480 he directly identified the 'Caer
Guorthigirn' from the Historia Brittonum with
the Salisbury area:
Itineraries,
Oxford, 1480:
Beginning of the
ancient names of the cities of Britain:
The first city of Britain is called Caer Guorthegirn (that
is to say the Castle of Vortigern, now Salisbury).
Salisbury was also very
closely linked to Stonehenge, indeed so much that both
were interchangeble to commentators of those days. I have
looked at Salibury, or rather the hillfort of Old
Sarum,
elsewhere.
Though we might wonder
how this indentification might have come so far south, it
is not that far from Bradford-on-Avon, once called Wirtgernesburg.
Bibliography ![](../books.gif)
- Tolstoy, Nikolai: The Quest for Merlin, (Little
& Brown 1985)*
- William Worcestre: Itineraries, edited from
the unique MS. Corpus Christi College Cambridge,
210, Latin and trans. John Harvey, (Oxford 1969).
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