G2G: Is PENDRAGON really a surname in Welsh genealogy ? Just double checking...

Question

Just making sure we do not have Uther Pendragon among our trees here.

He is here but as a MYTHOLOGICAL figure with disputed existence.

Comments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendragon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Pendragon (disambiguation).

Pendragon or Pen Draig, meaning in Welsh "head (Pen) dragon (Draig) " or "chief dragon" (a figurative title referring to status as a leader and shortened from Pen y Ddraig (pronounced Thraig soft 'th' as in 'then')), is the name of several traditional Kings of the Britons:

• Ambrosius Aurelianus, son of Constantine II of Britain, called "Pendragon" in the Vulgate Cycle
• Uther, brother of Aurelius and father of King Arthur, called "Uther Pendragon" because he was inspired by a dragon-shaped comet (in the Vulgate, he took the name from his brother)
• King Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon
• Maelgwn of Gwynedd, described by Gildas as the "dragon of the island"

In the Historia Regum Britanniae, one of the earliest texts of the Arthurian legend, only Uther is given the surname "Pendragon", which is explained as meaning "dragon's head".

In the prose version of Robert de Boron's Merlin, the name of Uther's elder brother Ambrosius is given as "Pendragon", while Uter (Uther) changes his name after his brother's death to "Uterpendragon".

The use of "Pendragon" to refer to Arthur, rather than to Uther or his brother, is of much more recent vintage. In literature, one of its earliest uses to refer to Arthur is in Alfred Tennyson's poem Lancelot and Elaine, where, however, it appears as Arthur's title rather than his surname, following contemporary speculation that "pendragon" had been a term for an ancient British war-chief.

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If you look up the Pendragon surname at familysearch.org , you will find over 300 with that name.

Answer 1

I have no idea if this is accurate:

https://www.houseofnames.com/pendragon-family-crest

Comments

I have to say, Doug, that any website that refers to 'Family Crest' has very little knowledge of heraldry. The 'Crest' was simply the decoration shown on the helmet. The 'Coat of Arms' was the complete bearing, and of course, that was only granted to certain specific persons, not to just anybody with the same surname. I would advise a little caution taking anything such sites say seriously.

Answer 2

As to the legendary characters with that surname/epithet, Geoffrey of Monmouth based them on renowned figures of the 11th century, specifically the immediate family of Monmouth Priory's principal baronial sponsor, Alan Rufus (c.1040 to 4 August 1093/94).

Both of the other pioneering Arthurian authors of the early to middle 1100s, Geffrei Gaimar and Wace of Jersey, wrote verses in praise of Alan Rufus's character and of how devastating he and his men were to the English army at Hastings in 1066.

King Arthur = Alan Rufus, leader of the Bretons in England, whose epitaph emphasises his royal British heritage and identifies him with the star Arcturus.

Uther Pendragon = Count Eudon Penteur (Head-of-Clan), Alan's father, whose emblems were a dragon, a gryphon and of course ermine.

Igraine of Cornwall = Orguen of Kernev (Cornouaille), Alan's mother.

Hoel of Cornwall = Count Hoel of Kernev, Orguen's brother.

Guinevere (Guanhumara and variants) of the West Country = Gunhild of Wessex, Harold Godwinson's daughter who fell in love with Alan Rufus and subsequently with his brother Alan Niger.

The traditional association of Gildas's Romano-British hero Ambrosius Aurelianus with the Dukes of Brittany suggests the possibility of some measure of Roman ancestry.

In fact, detailed Y-DNA analysis of modern male-line descendants of Count Eudon Penteur shows them to descend paternally from men who were native to central Italy in the period 600 BC to 200 BC.

The specific genetic pedigree is:

R-P312/S116 > Z40481 > ZZ11 > U152/S28 > Z56 > BY3548 > Z43/S366 > Z144 > BY28794 > PF6582 > PF6577 > FGC36902/BY3953 > FGC36897 > FGC36895 > A8380 > FGC41936

The last leaf is an approximately 12th century mutation, so it's likely that Eudon's Y-DNA was A8380.

Comments

Assuming that that analysis was made from the DNA of modern individuals, then there is a 50% chance of an NPE in the line of Eudon to the modern day (assuming a 2% NPE rate per generation, and 1000 years divided by 30 years per generation = 33 generations). So I would take conclusions about Roman DNA with a hefty pinch of salt.

I have no insight into where Geoffrey of Monmouth got his ideas from, but the association with Breton royalty sounds speculative; it’s not mentioned in Wikipedia so at the very least it’s outside the mainstream understanding of the origin of these characters.

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I take those concerns seriously, so I wish to respond to them.  I will start with the latter point first, as it is easier to argue.

(1) In the foundation charter of the Lordship of Monmouth, for the Breton minor aristocrat Withenoc de la Boussac (see e.g. Wikipedia), King William is named but not present. Representing him is Alan Rufus ('Count Alan'). The only witnesses stated as present were Withenoc, his brother Baderon, and Count Alan.

The foundation charter of the Priory of Monmouth has the same three witnesses present.

As to Wikipedia articles, like any source they are as reliable and as comprehensive as the writer makes them.  Furthermore, Wikipedia's prohibition against citing primary sources (such as charters) inhibits it from being more thorough.

(2) NPE rates are not uniform across all lines of ascent.  Not to put too fine a point on it, royalty tends to have wives for breeding, and wetnurses for raising the children. That means that the wives have little time or opportunity to stray, and they bear so many children that a 'changeling' would immediately stand out.

Another example is the O'Driscoll lineage in Ireland, which reputedly dates back over 5200 years.  NPEs have certainly occurred, many of which are due to adoption (a common event in, for example, both Roman and Russian history also).  Still, over 60% of all O'Driscoll males have the rare I2a Y haplogroup, while the remainder have the form of R1b-L21 that is overwhelmingly typical of the Irish population and in particular of the O'Neill and other families who self-identify with the Eireann (non-Gaels) and are thus closely connected with the O'Driscolls.

You will be right to remark that this I2a haplotype could also be due to an NPE during the long lapse of time.

However, recent DNA analysis at Newgrange, the legendary resting place of the O'Driscoll male-line ancestors, has shown bodies buried there to date to about 3200 BC and to have I2a Y-chromosomes.  This demonstrates that over 60% of O'Driscolls descend from the genetic 'stock' that produced the Newgrange bodies.

The moral of this is that NPE can be much less than the quoted rate of 2% per generation in some lineages.  For the O'Driscolls it must be closer to ((5200/100)*3 = 156 generations, with 40% accumulated NPE from all causes, so (0.4/156)*100%) = 0.25% per generation.

If the Breton ducal lineage is more like the O'Driscolls, then over 2600 years we would expect a 20% accumulated NPE effect, and 80% of its living descendants to be in the 'official' male line.