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The Theosophy
King Arthur Pages
King Arthur’s
Marriage to Guinevere
Vortigern
Gwrtheyrn
in Welsh
The Meaning of the Name
The name Vortigern, which has been anglicized as, appears in the oldest Welsh records as Guorthigirn
and in modern Welsh as Gwrtheyrn. The Venerable Bede, writing in
Latin, uses the very early forms Vertigernus and Uurtigernus;
in the later Anglo-Saxon texts these are rendered as Wyrtgeorn.
The meaning is explained as ' High
Lord' or 'Overlord'. Tigern- does not quite have the meaning of
'King', which is usually represented in names with the form 'Rex', as in Ri(othamus)
or (Vortime)Rix, though a more loose translation with 'king' may not
be totally incorrect.
Superbus Tyrannus? Proud Tyrant or Arrogant Usurper; The title bestowed
on Vortigern by Gildas
Gildas
in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae “The Overthrow and Conquest of Britain” circa
540 CE does not seem to mention the name
of Vortigern, only the probable pun on his name, superbus tyrannus,
“Proud Tyrant or Arrogant Usurper” though some manuscripts of Gildas
actually do mention him directly.
This phrase, together with the
occurrence of the name twice in the works of the Venerable Bede and once in
manuscript A of Gildas but not in the oldest manuscript, C, had led to
speculation among historians. The best interpretation seems to be that British
*Wortigernos was the man's name, and only the fact that Mommsens's
popular edition was based on manuscript C, which lacked it, gave rise to these
speculations of interpolation by Bede or others in the first place.
We have seen that Gildas may have
written superbo tyranno Vortigerno after all, and that this may well
be why it appeared in Bede. In any case, the point is that in calling him
'arrogant usurper' he was characteristically playing on the meaning of the
British *Wortigernos in exactly the same way as he did with that of
Aurelius Caninus, Vortiporius, Cuneglasus and Maelgwn.
Superbus tyrannus does not mean 'outstanding ruler' or 'high
king' and is not the Latin translation of *Wortigernos. Latin superbus
means 'arrogant', 'haughty' or 'proud', and most certainly not 'superior'.
Latin tyrannos was borrowed from Greek and had always a negative
meaning of unconstitutionality or despotism.
The name Vertigernus or Vortigern
means overlord or high lord. Gildas was punning it in his usual
way, and getting an offensive meaning out of it, by rendering *wor not
by Latin super but by superbus 'arrogant, proud', and *tigernos
not by dominus 'lord' but by tyrannus 'despot, usurper'.
But Gildas may have had yet more in
mind with choosing this pun. To the latin reader, superbus had another
meaning, namely that of the name of Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the
Proud), the last (non-Roman) ruler of
Theosophy
Avalon
King Arthur &
The Round Table
Merlin & The Tree of Life
Merlin
the Magician
Born
circa 400 CE ; Welsh: Myrddin;
Latin:
Merlinus; English: Merlin.
The restored and
landscaped Chester Amphitheatre
Some historians
believe that this was the site
of King Arthur’s
Round Table. Chester’s Roman fortifications
and its proximity to
the Welsh border have always made it a
strong candidate for the location of Camelot.
Chester is also often credited with
being the site of
“ The Battle of the
City of the Legion”
which was King Arthur’s ninth victory
The Holy Grail
The Theosophy
King Arthur Pages
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Arthur Marries Guinevere
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