Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd is a brief Middle Welsh tract which claims to give the pedigrees of twenty 6th-century rulers of the Hen Ogledd

Hen Ogledd

Yr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh term used by scholars to refer to those parts of what is now northern England and southern Scotland in the years between 500 and the Viking invasions of c. 800, with particular interest in the Brythonic-speaking peoples who lived there.The term is derived from heroic...

("Old North"), the Brythonic

Brythonic languages

The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...

-speaking parts of southern Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 and northern England

Northern England

Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...

. It is attested in a number of manuscripts, the earliest being NLW, Peniarth

Robert Vaughan (antiquary)

Robert Powell Vaughan was an eminent Welsh antiquary and collector of manuscripts. His collection, later known as the Hengwrt-Peniarth Library from the houses in which it was successively preserved, formed the nucleus of the National Library of Wales, and is still in its care.-Biography:Vaughan...

 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

Harleian genealogies

The Harleian genealogies are a collection of Old Welsh genealogies preserved in British Library, Harleian MS 3859. Part of the Harleian Collection, the manuscript, which also contains the Annales Cambriae and a version of the Historia Brittonum, has been dated to c. 1100, although a date of c.1200...

, 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 prince Llywarch Hen

Llywarch Hen

Llywarch Hen was a 6th-century prince of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a ruling family in the Hen Ogledd or 'Old North' of Britain...

.

Contents

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, including the houses of Rheged

Rheged

Rheged is described in poetic sources as one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , the Brythonic-speaking region of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, during the Early Middle Ages...

 and Din Eidyn. The second takes Dyfnwal Hen as its ancestor figure, who is here identified as a grandson of the Roman emperor Macsen Wledig. A confused genealogy of Áedán mac Gabráin

Áedán mac Gabráin

Áedán mac Gabráin was a king of Dál Riata from circa 574 until his death, perhaps on 17 April 609. The kingdom of Dál Riata was situated in modern Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and parts of County Antrim, Ireland...

, ruler of the Gaelic

Gaels

The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....

 kingdom of Dál Riata

Dál Riata

Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...

, 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

Gabrán mac Domangairt was king of Dál Riata in the middle of the 6th century. He is the eponymous ancestor of the Cenél nGabraín.The historical evidence for Gabrán is limited to the notice of his death in the Irish annals...

.

In between the two main genealogies, the tract also includes a Welsh triad, referring to the three items of weaponry and armour which never failed in battle: the 300 swords of the Cynferching (descendants of Cynfarch), the 300 shields of the Cynwydion (descendants of Cynwyd

Cinuit of Alt Clut

Cinuit may have been an early king of Alt Clut, later known as Strathclyde, a Brythonic kingdom in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain. The Harleian genealogies indicate that he was the son of Ceretic Guletic, who may be identified with the warlord Ceredig rebuked by Saint Patrick in one of...

) 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

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 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).

Further reading

• Jackson, Kenneth H. Language and History in Early Britain. Edinburgh University Press, 1953.
• Bartrum, Peter C. Early Welsh genealogical tracts. Cardiff, 1966.
• Rachel Bromwich and R. Brinley Jones (eds.), Astudiaethau ar yr Hengerdd. Cardiff, 1978.

External links

• The Descent of the Men of the North, Mary Jones.