Everything about Uther Pendragon totally explained
Uther Pendragon (
French:
Uter Pendragon;
Welsh:
Wthyr Bendragon,
Uthr Bendragon,
Uthyr Pendraeg) is a legendary king of
sub-Roman Britain and the father of
King Arthur.
A few minor references to Uther appear in
Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by
Geoffrey of Monmouth in his
Historia Regum Britanniae (
History of the Kings of Britain), and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in most later versions. He is a fairly ambiguous individual throughout the literature; he's described as a strong king and a defender of the people. Uther, through circumstances (and Merlin's help) tricks the wife of his enemy
Gorlois, Lady
Igraine and sleeps with her. Thus Arthur, "the once and future king," is an illegitimate child. This act of conception occurs the very night Uther's troops dispatch Gorlois. This theme of
illegitimate conception is repeated in Arthur's siring of
Mordred on his own sister
Morgause in the later prose romances. It is
Mordred who will eventually mortally wound
King Arthur in the
Battle of Camlann.
Epithet
Uther's epithet
Pendragon means "Chief Dragon" in a figurative sense, referring to his status as "foremost leader" or "chief of warriors". The name was misinterpreted by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the
Historia to mean "dragon's head". According to Geoffrey and works based on his version, Uther acquires the epithet when he witnesses a portentous
dragon-shaped comet, which inspires him to use dragons on his
standards. According to the
Lancelot-Grail cycle, it was Uther's older brother (elsewhere called
Ambrosius Aurelianus) who sees the comet and receives the name "Pendragon"; Uther takes his epithet in his honor after his death.
Early Welsh poetry
Uther is known from earlier Welsh tradition, where he's associated with Arthur and, in some cases, even appears as his father. He is mentioned in the 10th century Arthurian poem
Pa gur yv y porthaur ("What man is the gatekeeper?"), and is memorialized with "The Death-song of Uther Pen" from the
Book of Taliesin. The latter includes a reference to Arthur, so the marginal addition of "dragon" to Uther's name is probably justified. "The Colloquy of Arthur and the Eagle," a poem contemporary with but independent of Geoffrey, mentions another son of Uther named Madoc, the father of Arthur's nephew
Eliwlod. The
Welsh Triads name Uther as the creator of one of the Three Great Enchantments of the Island of Britain, which he taught to the wizard
Menw.
History of the Kings of Britain
Uther is best known from Geoffrey of Monmouth's
History of the Kings of Britain (1136) where he's the youngest son of King of Britannia
Constantine II. His eldest brother
Constans succeeds to the throne on their father's death, but is murdered at the instigation of his adviser
Vortigern, who seizes the throne. Uther and his other brother
Aurelius Ambrosius, still children, flee to
Brittany. After Vortigern's alliance with the
Saxons under
Hengist goes disastrously wrong, Aurelius and Uther, now adults, return. Aurelius burns Vortigern in his castle and becomes king.
With Aurelius on the throne, Uther leads his brother's army to
Ireland to help
Merlin bring the stones of
Stonehenge from there to Britain. Later, while Aurelius is ill, Uther leads his army against Vortigern's son Paschent and his Saxon allies. On the way to the battle, he sees a
comet in the shape of a dragon, which Merlin interprets as presaging Aurelius's death and Uther's glorious future. Uther wins the battle and takes the epithet "Pendragon", and returns to find that Aurelius has been poisoned by an assassin. He becomes king and orders the construction of two gold dragons, one of which he uses as his standard. He secures Britain's frontiers and quells Saxon uprisings with the aid of his retainers, one of which is
Gorlois,
Duke of Cornwall. At a banquet celebrating their victories, Uther becomes obsessively enamoured of Gorlois' wife, Igerna (Igraine), and a war ensues between Uther and his vassal. Gorlois sends Igerna to the impregnable castle of
Tintagel for protection, while he himself is besieged by Uther in another town. Uther consults with Merlin, who uses his magic to transform the king into the likeness of Gorlois and thus gain access to Igerna at Tintagel. He spends the night with her, and they conceive a son, Arthur; but the next morning it's discovered that Gorlois had been killed. Uther marries Igerna, and they've another child, a daughter called Anna. She later marries
King Lot and becomes the mother of
Gawain and
Mordred (in later romances she's called
Morgause, and is usually Igerna's daughter by her previous marriage).
Uther later falls ill, but when the wars against the Saxons go badly he insists on leading his army himself, propped up on his horse. He defeats Hengist's son
Octa at
Verulamium (
St Albans), despite the Saxons calling him the "Half-Dead King." However, the Saxons soon contrive his death by poisoning a spring he drinks from near Verulamium.
Geoffrey based some members of Uther's family on historical figures. Constantine is based on the historical
usurper Constantine III, a claimant to the Roman throne from 407–411; Constans is based on his son. Aurelius Ambrosius is based on the legendary Welsh figure Ambrosius Aurelianus, though his connection to Constantine and Constans is an invention. It is less likely, however, that Uther ever existed outside of Britain's mythical history.
Other medieval literature
In
Robert de Boron's
Merlin, Uther Pendragon personally kills Hengest after an assassination attempt by the Saxon leader, and Merlin creates the
Round Table for him. In
Prose Lancelot, Uther Pendragon claims to have been born in
Bourges. He takes an army to
Brittany to fight against King
Claudas of Bourges, a situation resembling that of the historical ruler,
Riothamus, who went to Brittany to fight ravagers based in Bourges. There is an alternate account of Uther Pendragon's background in
Wolfram von Eschenbach's
Parzival. A certain Mazadân went with a Fay named Terdelaschoye to the land of Feimurgân. (This looks like a garbling of some source that told of Mazadân's alliance with the Fay
Morgan in Terre de la Joye; the "Land of Joy"). Mazadân becomes father of two sons, Lazaliez and Brickus. Brickus becomes father of Utepandragûn father of Arthur while the elder son Lazaliez becomes father of Gandin of
Anjou father of
Gahmuret father of Parzival/
Perceval. Uther Pendragon and Arthur here appear as the scions of the junior branch of an imagined 5th/6th century House of
Anjou.
Modern literature
Uther Pendragon remains a widely used character in modern
Arthurian literature. In
T.H. White's
The Once and Future King, Uther the Conqueror is the Norman King of England from
1066 to
1216.
Mary Stewart's first two books in her Arthurian saga,
The Crystal Cave,
The Hollow Hills, feature Uther Pendragon. Notably, he's
Merlin's uncle, since in this version the latter is his brother
Ambrosius' illegitimate son. In
Bernard Cornwell's
The Warlord Chronicles, Uther is the King of
Dumnonia as well as the High King of Britain. In
Jack Whyte's
The Camulod Chronicles, Uther is King of the Pendragon, the Celtic people of South Cambria, cousin to Caius Merlyn Britannicus and Ambrose Ambrosianus Britannicus. In contrast to traditional versions,
Stephen R. Lawhead's
Pendragon Cycle makes Uther's brother
Aurelius, whose widow (
Ygerna) he marries, Arthur's true father. In
Marion Zimmer Bradley's
Mists of Avalon, Uther is the nephew of
Aurelianus instead of his brother; while Aurelianus is the son of a
Roman Emperor, Uther has no Roman blood. In
Valerio Massimo Manfredi's
The Last Legion, Uther is himself a Roman Emperor - the last,
Romulus Augustus. While the real Romulus Augustus disappeared from history after being deposed by
Goths, in the novel he escapes to Britain, where he adopts the name Pendragon and eventually sires Arthur. In the 2000 book by Jack Whyte "Uther" the novel revolves around a fictionalized version of Uther's life.
Further Information
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