Caradoc of Llancarfan (
WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
:
Caradog o Lancarfan) was a Welsh cleric and author who was associated with
LlancarfanLlancarfan is a rural village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The village, located west of Barry near Cowbridge, has a pub and a well-known parish church, the site of Saint Cadoc's 6th-century abbey, famed for its learning. Cainnech of Aghaboe, Caradoc of Llancarfan and many other...
in
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
during the 12th century. He is generally accepted to be the author of a
Life of GildasSaint Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens . He was ordained in the Church, and in his works favoured the...
and of a
Life of Saint Cadog in Latin.
He was a contemporary of
Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth was a British clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
, author of the
Historia Regum BritanniaeThe Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
. At the end of his pseudo-history, Geoffrey refers to Caradoc writing its continuation covering the period from 689 to his own times, a reference to the genuine historical chronicle
Brut y TywysogionBrut y Tywysogion is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae. Brut y Tywysogion has survived as several Welsh translations of an original Latin version, which has...
.
Caradoc of Llancarfan (
WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
:
Caradog o Lancarfan) was a Welsh cleric and author who was associated with
LlancarfanLlancarfan is a rural village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The village, located west of Barry near Cowbridge, has a pub and a well-known parish church, the site of Saint Cadoc's 6th-century abbey, famed for its learning. Cainnech of Aghaboe, Caradoc of Llancarfan and many other...
in
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
during the 12th century. He is generally accepted to be the author of a
Life of GildasSaint Gildas was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens . He was ordained in the Church, and in his works favoured the...
and of a
Life of Saint Cadog in Latin.
He was a contemporary of
Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth was a British clergyman and one of the major figures in the development of British history and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
, author of the
Historia Regum BritanniaeThe Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
. At the end of his pseudo-history, Geoffrey refers to Caradoc writing its continuation covering the period from 689 to his own times, a reference to the genuine historical chronicle
Brut y TywysogionBrut y Tywysogion is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae. Brut y Tywysogion has survived as several Welsh translations of an original Latin version, which has...
. None of the extant medieval copies in Latin and Welsh of
Brut y Tywysogion mention Caradog as author of the text.
In the 16th century, in his
Historie of Cambria, Welsh antiquary
David PowelDavid Powel was a Welsh Church of England clergyman and historian who published the first printed history of Wales in 1584.-Life:...
claimed his work was a continuation of Caradoc's chronicle. At the end of the 18th century,
Iolo MorganwgEdward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg , was an influential Welsh antiquarian, poet, collector, and literary forger. He was widely considered a leading collector and expert on medieval Welsh literature in his day, but after his death it was revealed that he had forged a...
wrote what he claimed was Caradoc's lost chronicle,
Brut Aberpergwm. Published in
The Myvyrian Archaiology of WalesThe Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales is a printed collection of medieval Welsh literature, published in three volumes between 1801 and 1807. Until John Gwenogvryn Evans produced diplomatic editions of the important medieval Welsh manuscripts, the Myvyrian Archaiology provided the source text for many...
, the work became one of the most influential and best-known of Iolo's numerous literary and antiquarian forgeries. Like the rest of Iolo's work, it gives Morgannwg (
GlamorganGlamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying names and boundaries until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three preserved...
) a central place in early and medieval Welsh history.