Dunmail is a legendary king of Cumberland associated with

Dunmail Raise Dunmail Raise is the name of a large cairn in the English Lake District, which may have been an old boundary marker. It has given its name to the mountain pass of Dunmail Raise, on which it stands. This mountain pass forms part of the only low-lev ...

. According to tradition, Dunmail was the last king of Cumberland, and buried beneath the cairn at Dunmail Raise after having been slain by the English. Dunmail Raise, meaning "Dyfnwal's Cairn", may well be named after the historical

Dyfnwal ab Owain Dyfnwal ab Owain (died 975) was a tenth-century King of Strathclyde. He was a son of Owain ap Dyfnwal, King of Strathclyde, and seems to have been a member of the royal dynasty of Strathclyde. At some point in the ninth- or tenth century, the Ki ...

, King of

Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...

Legend

According to local legend, Dunmail, king of Cumberland, was attacked by the combined forces of

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and ...

and

Malcolm Malcolm, Malcom, Máel Coluim, or Maol Choluim may refer to: People * Malcolm (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Clan Malcolm * Maol Choluim de Innerpeffray, 14th-century bishop-elect of Dunkeld Nobility * Máe ...

and retreated into the heart of the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

. Dunmail met the kings in battle in the pass that divides Grasmere from

Thirlmere Thirlmere is a reservoir in the Allerdale, Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria and the English Lake District National Park, Lake District. The Helvellyn ridge lies to the east of Thirlmere. To the west of Thirlmere are a number of fells; for inst ...

but was defeated, was killed in the fight (it is said at the hands of Edmund himself) and his sons were subsequently blinded by the victors. Some of the surviving Cumbrians, taken prisoner by Edmund, were ordered to collect rocks to pile on Dunmail's body, forming a cairn that still exists to this day and gives the pass its modern name,

. Others of Dunmail's warriors fled with the crown of Cumberland, climbing into the mountains to

Grisedale Tarn Grisedale Tarn is a tarn in the Lake District of England between Fairfield and Dollywagon Pike. It is the legendary resting place of the crown of the kingdom of Cumbria, after the crown was conveyed there in 945 by soldiers of the last king, ...

below

Helvellyn Helvellyn (; possible meaning: ''pale yellow moorland'') is a mountain in the English Lake District, the highest point of the Helvellyn range, a north–south line of mountains to the north of Ambleside, between the lakes of Thirlmere and Ulls ...

, where they threw it into the depths to be safe until some future time when Dunmail would come again to lead them. Every year the warriors are said to return to the tarn, recover the crown and carry it down to the cairn on Dunmail Raise. There they strike the cairn with their spears and a voice is heard from deep inside the stones, saying "Not yet, not yet; wait awhile, my warriors."Carruthers, F. (1979) People Called Cumbri. Robert Hale: London Dunmail features as a character (and his death is described) in the classic story of the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

s in Lakeland ''Thorstein of the Mere'' by

W. G. Collingwood William Gershom Collingwood (; 6 August 1854, in Liverpool – 1 October 1932) was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading.Obituary in ''The Times'', ''Mr W.G. Collingwood'', ''Artist, Autho ...

. He is mentioned briefly in '' Cue for Treason'' by Geoffrey Trease. At an earlier date, the story was versified by

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

: ::They now have reach'd that pile of stones ::Heap'd over brave king Dunmail's bones,— ::He who once held supreme command, ::Last king of rocky Cumberland. ::His bones and those of all his power, ::Slain here in a disastrous hour. As far as

written history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world his ...

is concerned, the name of the "Dumbalrase stones" is recorded in a map of the 1570s, and the association of the cairn with the king is recorded as early as the seventeenth century, when

John Ogilby John Ogilby (also ''Ogelby'', ''Oglivie''; November 1600 – 4 September 1676) was a Scottish translator, impresario and cartographer. Best known for publishing the first British road atlas, he was also a successful translator, noted for publishi ...

wrote that "Dunmail-Raise-Stones" were erected by a Cumbrian ruler of that name to mark the frontier of his kingdom.Ogilby, T. (1699) The Traveller's Guide: Or, A Most Exact Description Of The Roads Of England. Abel Swall: Londo

/ref> The specific association with the historic invasion of the Kingdom of the Cumbrians in 945 appears repeatedly in the 1700s, in the works of the antiquaries Thomas West (priest), Thomas West,West, T (1784) A Guide to the Lakes, in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire. 3rd. ed., Law, Richardson & Urquhart, Pennington: London and Kenda

/ref>

Thomas Pennant Thomas Pennant (14 June Old Style, OS 172616 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales ...

.Pennant, T. (1776) A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides; MDCCLXXII. 2nd. ed, Benjamin White: Londo

/ref> and William Gilpin (priest), William Gilpin.Gilpin, W. (1786). Observations, relative chiefly to Pictureseque Beauty, Made in the Year 1772, On several Parts of England; particularly the Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland, and Westmoreland. R. Blamire: London

/ref> Joseph Nicolson and Richard Burn gave both versions of the story.Nicolson, J. & Burn, R. (1777), History and Antiquities of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Strahan and Cadell, Londo

/ref> William Wordsworth mentions the legend of Dunmail in Canto First of 'The Waggoner', ll. 209-14; composed 1805, published 1819.William Wordsworth, The Collected Poems of William Wordsworth. Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1995.

References

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External links

Cumbria: The Age of Kings
a site exploring the legend of King Dunmail and Cumbrian Dark Age history in general. History of Cumbria History of Cumberland History of Westmorland