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==Life==
Our only possibly contemporary source for Gwallog's life comes from two [[Middle Welsh]] poems honouring him attributed to [[Taliesin]] by modern scholarship.<ref>This is because they survive in the [[Book of Taliesin]]. However, these two poems are not attributed to Taliesin in the manuscript itself, and the name 'Book of Taliesin' is an appellation of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, even if it is uncertain that the medieval compilers of the manuscript attributed the poem to Taliesin, the poems are still called 'historical' Taliesin poems by modern scholars, following Ifor Williams' categorisation in ''The Poems of Taliesin'' (henceforth ''PT'').</ref> Though both poems survive in a [[Book of Taliesin|fourteenth-century manuscript]], one of the poems may date to Gwallog's period based on an archaic feature of the text.<ref> See [[John T. Koch|Koch, John T.]], 'Why Was Welsh Literature First Written Down?’ in [[Helen Fulton|Fulton, Helen]] (ed.), ''Medieval Celtic Literature and Society'', (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005), pp. 15–31 (20). This is based on the occurrence of ''brot'' /brɔ:d/ for later ''brawt'' 'judgement' in line 17 of poem XI in ''PT'', a praise of Gwallog. This could make this poem contemporaneous with Gwallog's period, assuming this is not a case of orthographic conservatism, since the sound change /ɔ:/ > /au/ in Welsh has been dated in modern scholarship to the late sixth or early seventh century. See Rodway, Simon, ''Dating Medieval Welsh Literature: Evidence from the Verbal System'' (Aberystwyth: CMCS Publications, 2013), p. 14, n. 37, and p. 136.</ref> The first poem is a praise to Gwallog, and the second is an elegy memorialising him after his burial. There is very little biographical information in either of these poems, as they reference places and figures about which no corroborating evidence survives, neither contemporaneously
==Harleian Genealogies and the Historia Brittonum==
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The genealogies from [[Harleian Library|Harley MS]] 3859 (c. 850-950 AD), primarily concerned with northern Brythonic dynasties, give Gwallog's patrilineal descent as 'Gwallog son of Llenog son of Maeswig Gloff son of Cenau son of [[Coel Hen]]'.<ref>HG[§9] [G]uallauc map Laenauc [194rb] map Masguic Clop map Ceneu map Coyl Hen. See Guy, Ben, ''Medieval Welsh Genealogy'' (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020), chapter 2 for the dating of the genealogies, and p. 335 for Gwallog's patriline.</ref> That Coel was truly the progenitor of all these dynasties, however, is a matter of ongoing academic debate, since the only testimonies of this common descent are from texts written in Wales hundreds of years after the kingdoms they represent disappear from the historical record.<ref>Ben Guy suggests that the genealogies were grouped together and made to derive from Coel Hen by the editor of Harley MS 3859. This is because the four men who are descended from Coel (Urien, Rhydderch Hen, Gwallog, and Morgan) are all mentioned in the narrative of the Historia Brittonum (see below), which also appears in the same manuscript. See ''Medieval Welsh Genealogy'', pp. 66-7.</ref> Next to nothing is known about Gwallog's father Llenog, who may have founded a (possibly monastic) settlement called Llanllennog, the ___location of which is entirely unknown.<ref>Williams, Ifor (ed.), and Caerwyn Williams, J. E. (trans.),''The Poems of Taliesin'' (Dublin: Institute for Advanced Studies, 1968), p. lv, poem XI, line 5.</ref>
The other document of historical interest found in Harley MS 3859 is the [[Historia Brittonum]]. This text is a composite narrative cobbled together from Bede and other, lost sources, created in Gwynedd in 829 AD.<ref>See Dumville, David N., “‘Nennius’ and the ''Historia Brittonum''”, ''Studia Celtica'' 10–11 (1975–1976), pp. 78–95. It is still debated as to what extent the ''Historia Brittonum'' is useful as a historical source.</ref> In it, a series of events are connected to the reigns of various Northumbrian kings. Gwallog occurs in a section dated to the reign of [[Theodric of Bernicia]] (d. c. 572 x 593), where he, together with [[Urien]], [[Rhydderch Hael|Rhydderch Hen]], and [[Morcant Bulc|Morgan]], are recorded as fighting against that Anglian king.<ref>Morris, John (ed. and tr.) ''Nennius: British History and the Welsh Annals'' (London: Phillimore, 1980), §63.</ref> Gwallog is only mentioned in one sentence of this narrative, however, and it is unknown what other involvement he had in this campaign.
==Later reputation==
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