Natanleod
| Natanleod | |
|---|---|
| Died | circa 508 Netley Marsh |
Natanleod, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was a king of the Britons. His inclusion in the Chronicle is widely believed to be the product of folk etymology.[1]
History
[edit]Under the year 508, a date which is not to be relied upon,[2] the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Cerdic and Cynric "killed a certain British king named Natanleod, and 5 thousand men with him – after whom the land as far as Cerdic's ford was named Natanleaga".[3] Cerdic's ford is identified with North Charford and South Charford in modern Hampshire and Natanleaga with a marshy area, Netley Marsh, close to the town of Totton in Hampshire.[4][5] This claim is disputed by Andrew Breeze, who takes the account to be genuine.[6] Bernard Mees, while agnostic to the entry's truth, notes that the story could be a garbled recollection of Brythonic infighting in sub-Roman Britain given Cerdic's own name is known to be of Celtic origin.[7]
Natanleaga, however, is generally thought not to preserve the name of a defeated British king, but is instead derived from the Old English element næt ("wet") (in its weak oblique form natan).[1]: 29 [8][9] However this hypothesized weak oblique form is not otherwise attested according to Bernard Mees.[7] Potential onomastic evidence for a Celtic origin exists: a recent find of pottery at a Roman settlement at Healam Bridge west of Pickhill, North Yorkshire contains the Gaulish name Natonus, which could be linguistically related.[7][10] According to this theory the second element of this name is the Old English lēod ("prince" or "chief") and the source used by the Chronicle's complier may have read something like "Natan leod".[7] Edwin Guest in 1842 suggested a similar derivation, although lacking the Healam Bridge evidence supposed "Nate to be a fem. subst. signifying a district, Natanleod will mean the Prince of Nate, and Natanleaga the lea of Nate."[11]
If his origin is as an invented persona, Natanleod is not unique in the early part of the Chronicle. Similar folk etymologies are believed to have produced the Jutish king Wihtgar, Port, the supposed eponym of Portsmouth, and others.[12][1]: 29–30 James Campbell notes the similarity between such Anglo-Saxon traditions and the Middle Irish language dindshenchas, such as the Metrical Dindshenchas, which record traditions about places.[2]
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Natanleod was frequently identified with Ambrosius Aurelianus,[13] or even Uther Pendragon.[14] Edward Gibbon, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, refers to this identification with scepticism: "By the unanimous, though doubtful, conjecture of our antiquarians, Ambrosius is confounded with Natanleod, who lost his own life and five thousand of his subjects in a battle against Cerdic, the West Saxon."[15]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c Sims-Williams, "Settlement"
- ^ a b Campbell, Anglo-Saxons, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 14, Ms. A, s.a. 508, modified after Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 20.
- ^ Swanton, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 135, note 14.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 4.
- ^ Coates and Breeze, Celtic Voices, pp. 97-99.
- ^ a b c d Mees, Bernard (2025). King Arthur and the Languages of Britain: Examining the Linguistic Evidence. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-1-350-44312-9. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms, p. 4.
- ^ The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society, ed. by Victor Watts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), s.v. NETLEY MARSH.
- ^ Ambrey, Cath; Fell, David; Fraser, Richard; Ross, Stuart; Speed, Greg; Wood, Philip N. (2017). A Roman Roadside Settlement at Healam Bridge. The Iron Age to Early Medieval Evidence. Volume 2: Artefacts. Barnard Castle, County Durham: Northern Archaeological Associates Ltd. p. 104. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ Guest, Edwin (1844). "On certain Welsh Names of Place preserved in English Compounds". Proceedings of the Philological Society for 1842-43 and 1843-44. London: Richard and John E. Taylor. p. 11. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ Campbell, Anglo-Saxons, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Poste, Beale (1853). Britannic Researches: Or, New Facts and Rectifications of Ancient British History. London: John Russell Smith. p. 67. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ Milner, John (1809). The History Civil and Ecclesiastical, & Survey of the Antiquities, of Winchester. Vol. I, being the historical part. London: Jas. Robbins. p. 67. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
- ^ Gibbon, Edward (1823). "Chapter XXXVIII". The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. IV (new complete in eight volumes ed.). London: J. F. Dove. p. 487. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
References
[edit]- Ambrey, Cath; Fell, David; Fraser, Richard; Ross, Stuart; Speed, Greg; Wood, Philip N. (2017), A Roman Roadside Settlement at Healam Bridge. The Iron Age to Early Medieval Evidence. Volume 2: Artefacts, Barnard Castle, County Durham: Northern Archaeological Associates Ltd.
- Campbell, James; John, Eric; Wormald, Patrick (1982), The Anglo-Saxons, London: Phaidon, ISBN 0-14-014395-5
- Coates, Richard; Breeze, Andrew (2000), Celtic Voices, English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-names in England, Stanford: Shaun Tyas
- Gibbon, Edward (1823), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. IV (new in eight volumes ed.), London: J. F. Dove
- Guest, Edwin (9 December 1842), "On certain Welsh Names of Place preserved in English Compounds", Proceedings of the Philological Society, I (2), London: Richard and John E. Taylor: 9–12
- Mees, Bernard (2025), King Arthur and the Languages of Britain: Examining the Linguistic Evidence, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-1-350-44312-9
- Milner, John (1809), The History Civil and Ecclesiastical, & Survey of the Antiquities, of Winchester. Vol. I, being the historical part, London: Jas. Robbins
- Poste, Beale (1853), Britannic Researches: Or, New Facts and Rectifications of Ancient British History, London: John Russell Smith
- Sims-Williams, Patrick (1983), "The settlement of England in Bede and the Chronicle", Anglo-Saxon England, 11, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1–42, doi:10.1017/S0263675100003331, ISBN 0-521-33202-8
- Stenton, Frank (1973), Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280139-2
- Swanton, Michael (1996), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, London: Dent, ISBN 0-415-92129-5
- Watts, Victor, ed. (2004), "Netley Marsh", The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-16855-7
- Yorke, Barbara (1990), Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, London: Seaby, ISBN 1-85264-027-8