Sawyl Penuchel or
Ben Uchel ("high-head", "arrogant"), also known as
Samuil Penisel ("low-head", "humble"), was a
BrythonThe Britons were the Celtic people living in Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
ic king of the
sub-RomanSub-Roman Britain is a term derived from archaeologists' label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity. "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a higher...
period, who appears in
old WelshOld Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from the British language around 550, has been called "Primitive Welsh".Many poems and some prose has...
genealogies and the
Welsh TriadsThe Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three....
.
The genealogies, in which he appears under both epithets, make him the son of
Pabo Post PrydainPabo Post Prydain was a king somewhere in the Hen Ogledd or Old North of sub-Roman Britain.According to Old Welsh genealogies, which were largely produced to prove a monarch's royal pedigree, Pabo Post Prydain inherited his kingdom from his father Arthwys ap Mor, a great grandson of Coel Hen...
, a descendant of Coel Hen, the presumed king of the
Old NorthYr 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...
.
John MorrisJohn Robert Morris was an English historian who specialised in the study of the institutions of the Roman Empire and the history of Sub-Roman Britain...
locates Sawyl in the south
PenninesThe Pennines are a low-rising mountain range in northern England and southern Scotland. They separate the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East....
area (the modern
Peak DistrictThe Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire....
, a name which may date from its settlement by the
AnglianAnglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading Germanic tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, to the Norman conquest of 1066...
Pecset). He is listed as one of the 'Three Arrogant Men of the Island of Britain' in the Welsh Triads.
Other genealogies say he was the father of
St. AsaphSaint Asaph was, in the second half of the 6th century, the first or second Bishop of St Asaph, i.e. bishop of the diocese of Saint Asaph, the Welsh See now of that name.-Biography:...
. Elis Gruffydd's
Chronicle says that his daughter married Maelgwn Gwynedd. An Irish genealogy says that a "Samuel Chendisel" married Deichter, daughter of Muiredach Muinderg, the king of Ulster, and they had two sons: Sanctan, who became bishop of Cil-dá-les and founded Kilnasantan in County Dublin, and Matóc Ailithir. The Irish
Liber Hymnorum confirms that both Sanctan and Matóc came to Ireland from Britain.
According to the Welsh
Life of Saint CadocSaint Cadoc or Cadog , Abbot of Llancarfan, was one of the 6th century Welsh saints, whose vita twice mentions King Arthur. The Abbey of Llancarfan, near Cowbridge in Glamorganshire, which he founded circa 518, became famous as a centre of learning...
, a king named Sawyl Penuchel held court at
Allt Cunedda near
KidwellyKidwelly is a town in Carmarthenshire, west Wales, approximately 10 miles west of the main town of Llanelli.It lies on the River Gwendraeth above Carmarthen Bay. The town is twinned with French village St Jacut de la Mer.-History:...
in
CarmarthenshireCarmarthenshire is a unitary authority in the south west of Wales and one of thirteen historic counties. Its three largest towns are Carmarthen, Llanelli and Ammanford...
. Cadoc pursued Sawyl's warband after they stole food from Llancarfan Abbey. He found them sleeping under a tree and cut off their hair, before fleeing to a nearby bog. When Sawyl and his men gave chase, they all drowned in the bog.. Whether this is the same king, having fled to Wales after his northern kingdom was overrun by the Saxons, a different man of the same name, or simply an error by the composer of the
Life, is unclear. This Sawyl was supposedly buried in nearby mound known as
Banc Benuchel. A body was excavated there in 1850, covered with a hexagonal stone imitating a battle-shield.
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...
, in his
History of the Kings of BritainThe 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...
(1136), uses the name Samuil Penessil for a legendary pre-Roman king of Britain, preceded by
RedechiusRedechius was a legendary king of the Britons according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain . He was preceded by Redon and succeeded by Samuil Penissel....
and succeeded by
PirPir was a legendary king of the Britons according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. He was preceded by Samuil Penissel, and succeeded by Capoir....
.