''Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd'' ( en, The Descent of the Men of the North) is a brief

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 ...

tract which claims to give the pedigrees of twenty 6th century rulers of 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 sp ...

, the Brittonic-speaking parts of southern Scotland and

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angles, Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Scandinavian York, K ...

. It is attested in a number of manuscripts, the earliest being NLW, Peniarth MS 45, which has been dated to the late 13th century. The text may have been composed in the 12th century. The historicity of much of the information is spurious or in doubt. Although certain parts are in agreement with the earlier

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 ...

, the text represents a substantial revision seeking to integrate the branches of many rulers and heroes who are prominent in other traditions, such as the

Rheged Rheged () was one of the kingdoms of the ''Hen Ogledd'' ("Old North"), the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages. It is recorded in several poetic and b ...

prince

Llywarch Hen Llywarch Hen (, "Llywarch the Old"; c. 534 – c. 608), was a prince and poet of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a ruling family in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain (modern southern Scotland and northern England). Along with Taliesin, A ...

.Koch, "Cynwydion." p. 541.

The text consists chiefly of two sections, each of which seeks to trace the lineages of sixth-century rulers to a common ancestor. The first section is concerned with the Coeling or descendants of

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 ...

, including the houses of

and

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 ...

. The second takes Dyfnwal Hen as its ancestor figure, who is here identified as a grandson of the Roman emperor

Magnus Maximus Magnus Maximus (; cy, Macsen Wledig ; died 8 August 388) was Roman emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 383 to 388. He usurped the throne from emperor Gratian in 383 through negotiation with emperor Theodosius I. He was made emperor in B ...

. A confused genealogy 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 pa ...

, 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, an ...

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 n ...

, appears, though here (as in other medieval Welsh sources) Áedán is given as the father, rather than son, of

Gabrán mac Domangairt Gabrán mac Domangairt (Old Welsh: ''Gawran map Dinwarch'Annales Cambriae'' B Text) or Gabrán the Traitor (''Gwran Wradouc'') was king of Dál Riata,in the mid-6th century. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Cenél nGabráin. Gabrán was the ...

.Bromwich, pp. 256–257. In between the two main genealogies, the tract also includes a

Welsh triad The Welsh Triads ( cy, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a ...

, referring to the three items of weaponry and armour which never failed in battle: the 300 swords of the Cynferching (descendants of Cynfarch Oer), the 300 shields of the Cynwydion (descendants of Cynwyd) and the 300 spears of the Coeling. The text concludes with a final line on the parentage of Huallu, son of Tudfwlch Cor(n)eu (prince of Cornwall) and Dywanw, daughter of Amlawd Wledic.

Coel Hen

Dyfnwal Hen of Alt Clut

References

Sources

*Koch, John T. "Cynwydion." In ''Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia'', ed. John T. Koch. 5 vols. Santa Barbara et al., 2006. pp. 541–2.

Editions and translations

*Bromwich, Rachel (ed.). ''

Trioedd Ynys Prydein The Welsh Triads ( cy, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is ...

. The Triads of the Island of Britain''. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1978; revised ed. 1991. pp. 238–9 (Appendix II) *Matthews, Keith (ed.).
Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd
'. 2000. Online edition (not peer-reviewed).

Secondary sources

External links

*

', Mary Jones. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonedd Gwyr Y Gogledd Medieval Welsh literature Medieval genealogies and succession lists of Wales Medieval documents of Wales Hen Ogledd

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