Hywel Sele (died c. 1402) was a Welsh nobleman. A cousin of

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

, he was a friend of

Henry IV of England Henry IV ( April 1367 – 20 March 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philip IV of France, to the Kingdom of F ...

and opposed his cousin's 1400–1415 uprising. Sele was captured by Glyndŵr but is said to have accepted an invitation to hunt with his cousin on the Nannau Estate. Sele attempted to kill Glyndŵr but failed and was himself killed, his body being hidden within the hollow of an oak tree. The oak is subsequently said to have been haunted and was named Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl ("The Hollow Oak of the Devils") or Ceubren yr Ellyll ("The Hollow Tree of the Ghost").

Biography

There are several different versions of the life of Hywel Sele. Hywel Sele was a distant cousin of

(c. 1359 – c. 1415), the last native

.{{cite book , last1=Barber , first1=C , title=In Search of Owain Glyndŵr , date=1998 , publisher=Blorenge Books , location=Abergavenny Sele was a friend of the English King Henry IV and due to this was opposed to the

Glyndŵr Rising The Welsh Revolt (also called the Glyndŵr Rising or Last War of Independence) ( cy, Rhyfel Glyndŵr) or ( cy, Gwrthryfel Glyndŵr) was a Welsh rebellion in Wales led by Owain Glyndŵr against the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ag ...

.{{cite book , last1=Davies , first1=R R , authorlink=Rees Davies , title=The Revolt of Owain Glyndŵr , date=1995 , publisher=Oxford University Press , location=Oxford According to Richard Vaughan of Nannau (c. 1650), Sele sided against Glyndŵr, was captured and an attempt to free him was defeated in a battle at Beddau’r Gwŷr. The abbot of

Cymer Abbey Cymer Abbey (Welsh: ''Abaty Cymer'') is a ruined Cistercian abbey near the village of Llanelltyd, just north of Dolgellau, Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, United Kingdom. History It was founded in 1189 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the ...

brokered a reconciliation between the two men and they later went hunting together in the Nannau Estate. It is said that during the hunt Sele drew his bow to shoot Glyndŵr. However Glyndŵr anticipated this and struck Sele with his sword before he could release the arrow. Fearing repercussions from the abbot, Glyndŵr hid Sele's body in a

hollow Hollow may refer to: Natural phenomena *Hollow, a low, wooded area, such as a copse * Hollow (landform), a small vee-shaped, riverine type of valley *Tree hollow, a void in a branch or trunk, which may provide habitat for animals Places * Sleepy ...

in an ancient oak tree."Realising the repercussions from the Abbott and the followers of Hywel, Owain concealed the body in the hollow of an ancient oak tree" {{cite book , last1=Breverton , first1=Terry , authorlink=Terry Breverton , title=Owain Glyndwr: The Story of the Last Prince of Wales , date=2009 , publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited , isbn=9781445608761 , page=109 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XGoAwAAQBAJ , accessdate=8 April 2019 , language=en This subsequently became known as Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl ("The Hollow Oak of the Devils"). Glyndŵr burnt down Sele's estate, leaving Sele's 2-year-old son to be brought up by an uncle. A cousin of Sele, Gruffydd ap Gwyn of Ardudwy heard of the burning of the estate and set out to rescue his kinsman. But Glyndŵr ambushed Gruffydd's 200-strong force at Llanelltyd Bridge and killed sixty men before razing Gruffydd's own estates.{{cite book , last1=Breverton , first1=Terry , title=Owain Glyndwr: The Story of the Last Prince of Wales , date=2009 , publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited , isbn=9781445608761 , page=110 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XGoAwAAQBAJ , accessdate=8 April 2019 , language=en

Different accounts

There are significant differences in other accounts of Sele's life. In T. P. Ellis' 19th-century writings the sequence of events is reversed. Glyndŵr is said to have captured Sele and carried him to Llanelltud, where Gruffydd unsuccessfully attempted to release him. After Glyndŵr's victory the abbot attempted his reconciliation, and the fateful hunting expedition was carried out. In Ellis' version Glyndŵr, suspicious of Sele, survived by wearing a coat of mail beneath his clothes. In William Wynne's ''History of Wales'', the attempted killing of Glyndŵr takes place after Glyndŵr asked Sele to prove his skill with a bow and Gruffydd is said to have demolished the bridge at Llanelltud to prevent Glyndŵr's passage; his subsequent defeat taking place at Rhyd Cadwallon (a nearby ford) and in the surrounding countryside.

John Humffreys Parry John Humffreys Parry (24 January 1816 – 10 January 1880) was a British barrister, who became serjeant-at-law. Early life The son of John Humffreys Parry the antiquarian (1786–1825), he was born in London on 24 January 1816. He received a comm ...

(1786–1825) relates another account in which the meeting came about by accident while Glyndŵr was hunting on Sele's land and a confrontation turned violent. The story is regarded as a legend by Elissa R. Henken, who states that the story was at some point muddled and Sele's name sometime rendered as Huw Selef. She notes that some local people still regard the site of the tree as haunted. The story was also ascribed to legend by D. Helen Allday. Breverton states that there is some uncertainty over the date of the killing with 1402 given most credence, though some sources state 1404 or 1406. The story was well known among the inhabitants of Dolgellau.

Nannau Oak

The tree that supposedly entombed Sele subsequently became known as the Nannau Oak.{{cite book , title=The Book of Trees: Descriptive of the Principal Timber-trees, and the Larger Species of Palms , date=1837 , publisher=J. W. Parker , page=97 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D-W6J2eP90AC , accessdate=8 April 2019 , language=en

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 ...

inspected the oak in 1778 and noted that it was {{convert, 27, ft, 6, in, m in girth but that it was in an advanced state of decay. The tree was said to have resembled the shape of a gothic arch. The tree fell on 13 July 1813 and it was said that the body of Sele fell from within it and was laid to rest at Cymer Abbey.

Sir Richard Colt Hoare Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Baronet FRS (9 December 1758 – 19 May 1838) was an English antiquarian, archaeologist, artist, and traveller of the 18th and 19th centuries, the first major figure in the detailed study of the history of his home c ...

was present at the time it fell and had completed a drawing of the tree that very morning. The drawing shows the tree in its decrepit state and damaged by lightning. As with the rest of the story there are different versions of events. T. P. Ellis states that Sele's body lay within the tree only for forty years. He further notes that the oak was also known as Ceubren yr Ellyll ("The Hollow Tree of the Ghost") and was regarded as haunted, with people afraid to approach it at night. The site of the tree was marked on the day it fell by a sundial and brass plate with a sketch of the tree. The landowner, a baronet, is said to have had the wood of the tree made into various utensils. It is also said that many houses in Dolgellau contained an engraving of the tree with a frame made from its wood. The tree was immortalised by

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

in his 1808 work '' Marmion'' as "the spirit's Blasted Tree".{{cite journal , last1=Simpson , first1=Roger , title=The Nannau Oak: Bulwer Lytton and his Midsummer Knight at the Westminster Round Table , journal=Arthuriana , date=1997 , volume=7 , issue=3 , page=126 , issn=1078-6279, jstor=27869279

References

{{reflist 1402 deaths 14th-century Welsh people 15th-century Welsh people Glyndŵr Rising