Dyfnwal Hen or Dumnagual Hen ("Dyfnwal the Old") was a ruler of the

Brittonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...

kingdom of

Alt Clut Dumbarton Castle ( gd, Dùn Breatainn, ; ) has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Scotland. It sits on a volcanic plug of basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is high and overlooks the Scottish town of Dumbarton. History Dumba ...

, later known as Strathclyde, probably sometime in the early 6th century. His biography is vague, but he was regarded as an important ancestor figure for several kingly lines in the ''

Hen Ogledd Yr Hen Ogledd (), in English the Old North, is the historical region which is now Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands that was inhabited by the Brittonic people of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages. Its population spo ...

'' or "Old North" of Britain. As an ancestor figure, he compares to

Coel Hen Coel (Old Welsh: ''Coil''), also called ''Coel Hen'' (Coel the Old) and King Cole, is a figure prominent in Welsh literature and legend since the Middle Ages. Early Welsh tradition knew of a Coel Hen, a 4th-century leader in Roman or Sub-Roman ...

, another obscure figure credited with founding a number of northern dynasties. According to the

Harleian genealogies __NOTOC__ The Harleian genealogies are a collection of Old Welsh genealogies preserved in British Library, Harley MS 3859. Part of the Harleian Library, the manuscript, which also contains the ''Annales Cambriae'' (Recension A) and a version of th ...

, Dyfnwal was the son of a Cinuit, the son of

Ceretic Guletic Ceretic Guletic of Alt Clut was a List of Kings of Strathclyde, king of Alt Clut, associated with Dumbarton Castle in the 5th century. He has been identified with Coroticus, a Britons (historical), Brittonic warrior addressed in a letter by Saint P ...

, probably his predecessors as king. The Harleian genealogies name three of his sons, each of whom formed a kingly line: Clinoch, Dyfnwal's successor as king of Alt Clut; Guipno (NB this is NOT the same name as "Gwyddno" David Dumville "St Patrick" Boydell & Brewer 1993 p 112), who fathered the later king Neithon; and Cynfelyn, a king of

Eidyn Eidyn was the region around modern Edinburgh in Britain's sub-Roman and early medieval periods, approximately the 5th–7th centuries. It centred on the stronghold of Din Eidyn, thought to have been at Castle Rock, now the site of Edinburgh Cas ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

.MacQuarrie, p. 5. The ''

Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd ''Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd'' ( en, The Descent of the Men of the North) is a brief Middle Welsh tract which claims to give the pedigrees of twenty 6th century rulers of the Hen Ogledd, the Brittonic-speaking parts of southern Scotland and norther ...

'', a later genealogy of northern kings, gives a modified version of Dyfnwal's family tree.Bromwich, pp. 256–257. Here, he is the son of Idnyued and the grandson of Maxen Wledig, better known as the

Roman usurper Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third century ...

Magnus Maximus. The ''Bonedd'' follows the Harleian in making Dyfnwal the great-grandfather of

Rhydderch Hael Rhydderch Hael ( en, Rhydderch the Generous), Riderch I of Alt Clut, or Rhydderch of Strathclyde, (floruit, ''fl.'' 580 – c. 614) was a ruler of Alt Clut, a Britons (Celtic people), Brittonic kingdom in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" of Brita ...

, a later king of Alt Clut, but his other descendants are altered significantly. A Gwyddno is included, but he listed as Dyfnwal's great-grandson rather than son, and he is specifically identified as

Gwyddno Garanhir Gwyddno Garanhir was the supposed ruler of a sunken land off the coast of Wales, known as Cantre'r Gwaelod. He was the father of Elffin ap Gwyddno, the foster-father of the famous Welsh people, Welsh poet Taliesin in the legendary account given in ...

of the

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the '' Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts ...

legend. A highly confused track makes Dyfnwal the ancestor to the family of

Áedán mac Gabráin Áedán mac Gabráin (pronounced in Old Irish; ga, Aodhán mac Gabhráin, lang), also written as Aedan, was a king of Dál Riata from 574 until c. 609 AD. The kingdom of Dál Riata was situated in modern Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and par ...

, a 6th-century ruler of the

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

kingdom of

Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is now ...

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dumnagual 01 Of Alt Clut 6th-century Scottish monarchs Monarchs of Strathclyde