Aeron (kingdom)

Aeron's location is unclear from the sources, but the hypothesis most commonly accepted by modern scholars places it in the Ayrshire region of present-day Scotland.[1] During the post-Roman period, the area around the River Ayr was part of the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking part of northern Britain. William J. Watson noted the similarities between Aeron and the modern placename Ayr, suggesting they may have derived from a pre-Christian deity *Agronā, perhaps meaning 'Goddess of Slaughter',[4] though other meanings have been suggested, such as 'Queen of Brightness',[5] and the linguistic conflation of Aeron/Ayr in Scotland and Aeron in Wales has been controversial since William J. Watson's Celtic Placenames of Scotland introduced the idea in 1926.[6]

Nevertheless, John Morris-Jones noted the region was a good fit, considering that the poetry in the Book of Aneirin makes it clear that Aeron was nearby to Urien of Rheged, who is celebrated as its defender and may have been its overlord.[7] He further notes that in later poetry an Aeron is associated with "Clud", which he interprets as a reference to Alt Clut (now Dumbarton); this would firmly place Aeron in southwestern Scotland.[7] Ifor Williams, however, is skeptical of the reading of "Clud" as a reference to the Scottish Alt Clut, noting that similar names appeared all across the Hen Ogledd and Wales. However, he ultimately concludes that "the references in the Gododdin to Aeron, and the place of importance given to Cynddylig Aeron, would seem to favour the identification of Aeron with Ayr."[2]

Williams and Rachel Bromwich note that another possible location is along the River Aire in Yorkshire, which would place Aeron next to the kingdom of Elmet.[1][2]

The earliest reliable information on the region of southwestern Scotland during the time when Aeron was supposed to have been located there is from archaeology that researches Roman Britain, which shows that forts were not planted in the region. This is in contrast to Roman behaviour in southernmost Scotland and northern England, where the land was heavily planted with forts. This suggests (but does not confirm) that the people of the region had reached an amicable understanding with the Romans (such as an unequal alliance), and consequently continued to exist as a tribe or kingdom. There is no indication that the Romans ever waged war against the people of this region.

The earliest historical reference to the region where Aeron is supposed to have been located is from the Geography of Ptolemy in c. 150. He says that this was the territory of the Damnonii,[22] a people later known as the Kingdom of Alt Clut. The later royal genealogies that implicitly suggested a connection between Aeron and Alt Clut are consistent with this, though not confirmed by it.

Aeron could not have existed as a kingdom beyond the 7th century. The Kingdom of Northumbria was ascendant, and it would conquer all of Scotland south of the Firths of Clyde and Forth. The definitive years were the middle of the 7th century, when Penda of Mercia led an alliance of Mercians, Cymry (from both the north and from Gwynedd), East Anglians, and Deirans against Bernicia. Penda would be defeated and killed at the Battle of Winwaed in 655, ending the alliance and cementing Bernician control over all of Britain between the English Midlands and the Scottish firths. Bernicia would again be united with Deira to form Northumbria as the premier military power of the era. Alt Clut would soon re-establish its independence, but all other Brythonic kingdoms north of the Solway–Tyne were gone forever.