Idwal Iwrch ( en, Idwal the Roebuck), or Idwal ap Cadwaladr ( en, Idwal son of Cadwaladr), is a figure in the genealogies of the kings of

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, an ...

. He was the son of King Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon (reigned c. 655 – 682) and the father of King

Rhodri Molwynog Rhodri Molwynog ("Rhodri the Bald and Grey"; died ), also known as Rhodri ap Idwal ("Rhodri son of Idwal") was an 8th-century king of Gwynedd. He was listed as a King of the Britons by the ''Annals of Wales''. This era in the history of Gwynedd i ...

(died 754). William Wynne places Cynan Dindaethwy as his son, but other sources have Cynan as the son of Rhodri. The records of this era are scanty, and Idwal's name appears only in the pedigrees of later kings and in a prophecy found in two 14th-century Welsh manuscripts, which says that he will succeed his father Cadwaladr as king. The only mention of Idwal Iwrch in the historical record is the appearance of his name in genealogies such as those from Jesus College MS. 20 (as the father of "Rhodri Molwynog son of Idwal Iwrch son of Cadwaladr Fendigiad") and 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 ...

(as the father of "Rotri son of Intguaul son of Catgualart"). John Davies' ''History of Wales'' does not mention Idwal, while

John Edward Lloyd Sir John Edward Lloyd (5 May 1861 – 20 June 1947) was a Welsh historian, He was the author of the first serious history of the country's formative years, ''A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest'' (1911). Ano ...

's ''History'' says only that Idwal was Rhodri Molwynog's father. The King of Gwynedd during Idwal's lifetime is not known, and while he is one of the most likely candidates (because he was both the son of a king and the father of a king), there is no sufficiently reliable basis to either assert or deny it. Idwal's name appears in the ''Dialogue between

Myrddin Myrddin Wyllt (—"Myrddin the Wild", kw, Marzhin Gwyls, br, Merzhin Gueld) is a figure in medieval Welsh legend. In Middle Welsh poetry he is accounted a chief bard, the speaker of several poems in The Black Book of Carmarthen and The Red B ...

and his sister

Gwenddydd Gwenddydd, also known as Gwendydd and Ganieda, is a character from Welsh legend. She first appears in the early Welsh poems like the ''Dialoge of Myrddin'' and in the 12th-century Latin ''Vita Merlini'' by Geoffrey of Monmouth, where she is rep ...

'' ( cy,

Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer ''Cyfoesi Myrddin a Gwenddydd ei Chwaer'' ("The Conversation of Myrddin and His Sister Gwenddydd") is an anonymous Middle Welsh poem of uncertain date consisting of 136 stanzas, mostly in ''englyn'' form. Myrddin, the legendary 6th-century Nort ...

), a

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 ...

vaticinatory poem whose text is preserved in two medieval Welsh manuscripts, Peniarth 3 (c. 1300) and the

Red Book of Hergest The ''Red Book of Hergest'' ( cy, Llyfr Coch Hergest, Oxford, Jesus College, MS 111) is a large vellum manuscript written shortly after 1382, which ranks as one of the most important medieval manuscripts written in the Welsh language. It pres ...

(c. 1380-1410). In the text's question-answer form, a succession of "future" kings is prophesied, with Idwal among them. This succession agrees with the historical genealogies from father to son, but does not agree with the known royal succession. — for example, Cadwallon was the father of Cadwaladr, but Cadafael followed Cadwallon in the royal succession and Cadwaladr followed Cadafael, not as the prophecy claims.

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Idwal Iwrch Medieval Welsh literature 7th-century Welsh monarchs 8th-century Welsh monarchs

See also

Citations