Amlawdd Wledig (

Middle Welsh Middle Welsh ( cy, Cymraeg Canol, wlm, Kymraec) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( cy, Hen G ...

and other alternative spellings present in relevant sources include Amlawd, Amlawt, Anlawdd, Anlawd, Amlodd, Amlwyd, Aflawdd and Anblaud) was a legendary king of

sub-Roman Britain Sub-Roman Britain is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hin ...

. The Welsh title '' ledig'', archaically ''Gwledic'' or ''Guletic'' and Latinised ''Guleticus'', is defined as follows: "lord, king, prince, ruler; term applied to a number of early British rulers and princes who were prominent in the defence of Britain about the time of the Roman withdrawal; (possibly) commander of the native militia (in a Romano-British province)".

Location

He is described as a king of 'some part of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, possibly on the border with

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouths ...

. If it is accepted that King

Gwrfoddw King Gwrfoddw ( la, Gurvodius rex Ercyg, died c. 619) was the King of Ergyng, a south-east Welsh kingdom of the early medieval period. He usurped the throne from Gwrgan ap Cynfyn. Life According to the Book of Llandaff, Gwrfoddw was victoriou ...

of Ergyng (see below under

children A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

) is Amlawdd's son, there would be a logic to Amlawdd also having been a king in the Ergyng or

area.

Family

Ancestry

At least three different genealogies are suggested for Amlawdd Wledig: *The ''Bonedd yr Arwyr'' (Section 31) names Amlawdd as the son of Kynwal, son of Ffrewdwr, son of Gwarvawr/Gwdion, son of Kadif nKadien (Gadeon), son of Cynan, son of Eudaf, son of Caradoc, son of Brân, son of Llŷr. * Peter Bartrum notes that a different genealogy for Amlawdd is present in Peniarth MS 178, part 1, p. 1 (by

Gruffudd Hiraethog Gruffudd Hiraethog (died 1564) was a 16th century Welsh language poet, born in Llangollen, north-east Wales. Gruffudd was one of the foremost poets of the sixteenth century to use the cywydd metre. He was a prolific author and gifted scholar. Tho ...

, c. 1545). There, Amlawdd's daughter is named as Eigr ferch ('daughter of') Aflawdd Wledig ap Lambor (or Lambord) ap Manael ap Carcelois ap Jossue ap Evgen chwaer ('sister of') Joseph Armathia. Bartrum explains (p. 130) that around the year 1400 the monks of

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbur ...

adapted the lineage of the Vulgate Quest's Grail Kings to descend from Enigeus (sister of

Joseph of Arimathea Joseph of Arimathea was, according to all four canonical gospels, the man who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion. The historical location of Arimathea is uncertain, although it has been identified with several ...

) down to Lambor, father of the

Maimed King The Fisher King is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him incapable and hi ...

, who in this account fathers an unnamed son who is in turn the father of Arthur's mother Eigr or Ygerne. Bartrum points out that later Welsh texts adapted this genealogy, replacing the word ''filius'' (‘son’), which stood for the unnamed son, with Amlawdd Wledig. * It has also been suggested that the name Amlawdd could be a variation of the name ''

Amleth Amleth (; Latinized as ''Amlethus'') is a figure in a medieval Scandinavian legend, the direct inspiration of the character of Prince Hamlet, the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy '' Hamlet, Prince of Denmark''. The chief authority for th ...

'' or ''Amlethus'', which appears in

Saxo Grammaticus Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark ...

' thirteenth century

Gesta Danorum ''Gesta Danorum'' ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark an ...

and is the origin of Shakespeare's character

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

. However, Amleth is described as a Jute (rather than a Dane) who marries the daughter of the British King on his first trip to Britain. In terms of the chronology, Amleth could be identical to Amlawdd Wledig. However, Amlawdd is not described as being of Jutish or Saxon origin in the Welsh Arthurian texts.

Wives

Amlawdd is said to have been the husband of Gwen, the daughter of

Cunedda Wledig Cunedda ap Edern, also called Cunedda ''Wledig'' ( 5th century), was an important early Welsh leader, and the progenitor of the Royal dynasty of Gwynedd, one of the very oldest of western Europe. Name The name ''Cunedda'' (spelled ''Cunedag ...

, the legendary northern king said either to have migrated or to have been sent south by Vortigern to drive Irish invaders from the

Kingdom of Gwynedd The Kingdom of Gwynedd (Medieval Latin: ; Middle Welsh: ) was a Welsh kingdom and a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. Based in northwest Wales, ...

Children

A number of figures from the Arthurian legends are suggested (with varying levels of plausibility) to have been the children of Amlawdd, including: * Eigyr, Igraine, Ygerne the mother of

King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as ...

. * Rieingulid, the mother of

St Illtud Saint Illtud (also spelled Illtyd, Eltut, and, in Latin, Hildutus), also known as Illtud Farchog or Illtud the Knight, is venerated as the abbot teacher of the divinity school, Bangor Illtyd, located in Llanilltud Fawr (Llantwit Major) in Gla ...

. *

Goleuddydd Goleuddydd ("light of day" from the Welsh ''golau'', "light", and ''dydd'', "day"), in the Middle Welsh prose tale '' Culhwch ac Olwen'', is the daughter of Amlawdd Wledig, and is desired by Cilydd, who marries her. She becomes pregnant with his ...

, the mother of

Culhwch Culhwch (, with the final consonant sounding like Scottish "loch"), in Welsh mythology, is the son of Cilydd son of Celyddon and Goleuddydd, a cousin of Arthur and the protagonist of the story '' Culhwch and Olwen'' (the earliest of the medie ...

. * Tywanwedd, Tywynwedd or Dwywanedd, the wife of Hawystl Gloff and the mother of Caradawc Vreichvras, Gwyn ab Nudd, Gwallawc ab Lleenawg, and Tyfrydog or Tyvrydog. (Source: ''

Bonedd y Saint The ''Bonedd y Saint'' or ''Seint'' (Welsh for "Descent of the Saints") is a Welsh genealogical tract detailing the lineages of the early British saints In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degr ...

'') Tyfrydog was a saint who flourished in the sixth century. * Two unnamed daughters, sisters to Enfeidas (f), by Amlawdd's fifth wife Denyw (see

Wives A wife ( : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, a wife is referred to as ...

, above). Enfeidas is said, in Heinrich von dem Türlin's

Diu Crône ''Diu Crône'' ( en, The Crown) is a Middle High German poem of about 30,000 lines treating of King Arthur and the Matter of Britain, dating from around the 1220s and attributed to the epic poet Heinrich von dem Türlin. Little is known of the ...

to be Arthur's aunt, a goddess, and the queen of Avalon. * Gwyar, argued by some to be the mother of Gwalchmai or

Gawain Gawain (), also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest ...

; however, others argue that Gwyar is a male name and that Gwyar is therefore the name of Gwalchmai's father. Gwyar is also said to be the wife of Geraint and the mother of Cadwy (

Cador Cador (''Latin'': Cadorius) was a legendary Duke of Cornwall, known chiefly through Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudohistorical ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' and previous manuscript sources such as the Life of Carantoc. Early sources present Ca ...

) * Llygadrudd Emys ('Red-Eye Stallion') and Gwrbothu Hen ('Gwrfoddw the Old'), listed as brothers of Arthur's unnamed mother in ''

Culhwch and Olwen ''Culhwch and Olwen'' ( cy, Culhwch ac Olwen) is a Welsh tale that survives in only two manuscripts about a hero connected with Arthur and his warriors: a complete version in the Red Book of Hergest, c. 1400, and a fragmented version in the Whi ...

'', killed by

Twrch Trwyth Twrch Trwyth (; also Trwyd, Troynt (MSS.''HK''); Troit (MSS.''C1 D G Q''); or Terit (MSS. ''C2 L'')) is an enchanted wild boar in the ''Matter of Britain'' great story cycle that King Arthur or his men pursued with the aid of Arthur's dog Cavall ( ...

at Ystrad Yw. Gwrbothu Hen may refer to the later historical King

of Ergyng, or an ancestor of his as denoted by the epithet ('the old' or 'the elder'). * Gweir Paladr Hir ('Gwair Long Staff') and Gweir Gwrhyd Ennwir ('Gwair False Valour'), listed as "uncles of Arthur, his mother's brothers" later in the Arthurian court lists of ''Culhwch and Olwen''.

Relationship to King Arthur and debated historicity

Amlawdd Wledig is named in many sources to have been the maternal grandfather of

, while others suggest he is a genealogical construct, created in order to justify the kinship connections referred to in the Welsh prose tale of ''

'' between Arthur,

and

Goreu fab Custennin Goreu fab Custennin (also spelled as Gorau) is a hero of Welsh and early Arthurian mythology, the son of Custennin, and cousin to Arthur, Culhwch and Saint Illtud through their grandfather Amlawdd Wledig. He is a significant character in the Middl ...

. Amlawdd does not appear in the list of Kings of Britain given by

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...

References

Bartrum, Peter C. ed. Bonedd yr Arwyr (Unpublished genealogical material concerning the heroes of early Welsh history and legend, 1959). Bartrum, Peter C. ed. Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts (University of Wales, 1966) Bartrum, Peter C. ed. Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend Up to About A.D. 1000 (National Library of Wales, February 1994) Bromwich, R. and Evans, D. Simon. Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.44-5 Bruce, Christopher W. The Arthurian Name Dictionary (Routledge, 2013) Davies, John. A History of Wales. Penguin (New York), 1994. . Norma Lorre Goodrich, King Arthur (HarperPerennial; New edition, 1989) Wade-Evans, A.W. Welsh Christian Origins (Oxford, 1934) pp.102 quoted in Bartrum, Peter C. ed. Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend Up to About A.D. 1000 (National Library of Wales, February 1994) pp.14-15

External links

*{{Cite journal , last=Rees , first=Rice , author-link=Rice Rees , year=1836 , contribution= , title=An Essay on the Welsh Saints , publisher=Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, Rees , publication-date=1836 , publication-place=London , pages= , url=https://archive.org/details/anessayonwelshs00reesgoog Arthurian characters British traditional history Hamlet Holy Grail King Arthur's family Mythological kings People whose existence is disputed Sub-Roman Britons Sub-Roman monarchs Welsh mythology Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown