The following is the first of a series of articles seeking to explain the sub-Roman cult of St. Alban in terms of the syncretic adapatation of pagan traditions, associated both with 'Albion' as the earliest recorded name for Britain and divine names in 'Albio-' or 'Alb-' from a broad swathe of the Indo-European languages. It suggests the cult was in sonic sense a response to political pressures, associated both with the aspirations of Verulamium to a pan-British dominance, and, allied to that, the fostering of a pan-British identity. As well as antecedents from the Indo-European tradition, derivatives of our cult-figure are identified in the medieval Celtic tradition (especially 'Elen of the hosts', Part 11), suggestive of a likely role for the cult in the sub-Roman period as a focus for unity amongst the Britons in their struggles with invaders. In Part 111, parallel cults (especially St. Alban of Mainz) from the continent are explored while part IV seeks to analyse the etymon 'albho-' in terms of 'al-' plus '-bho-', thus helping to explain the conflation in an early medieval cult context of 'elv-' from 'albio-' with 'el-' from 'al-'. On this basis saints and heroes in 'El-' are interpreted as derivative, or at least influenced by, the cult of St. Alban and its likely role in the sub-Roman period (Part V). Part VI examines the implications of this hypothesis about the cult for sub-Roman history, together with other evidence for the achievement of, or aspirations towards, sonic degree of political unity by the Britons of that period.
