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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 the categorisation in [[Ifor Williams|Williams, Ifor]] (ed.), and [[J. E. Caerwyn Williams|Caerwyn Williams, J. E. Caerwyn]] (trans.),''The Poems of Taliesin'' (Dublin: Institute for Advanced Studies, 1968), 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>[[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 nor in later sources. Nevertheless, it is said that Gwallog fought in battles all around northern Britain, against [[Picts]], [[Kingdom of Strathclyde|Strathclyde]], the [[Anglo-Saxons|English]], and [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]].<ref>''PT'' XI, ll. 7, 21, 28, 36-7.</ref> The second poem to him, his elegy, calls him the son of Llenog, and yields a connection to [[Elmet|Elfed]], since he is called ''ygnat ac'' (read ''ar'') ''eluet'' 'judge over Elfed'.<ref>''PT'' XII, ll. 21n, 37.</ref> Nothing is said about his manner or cause of death. Shortly after Gwallog's period, a probably contemporaneous poem to [[Cadwallon ap Cadfan]] claims that 'fierce Gwallog caused the greatly renowned death toll at [[Battle of Catraeth|Catraeth]]'.<ref> Koch, John T. (ed. and tr.) ''Cunedda, Cynan, Cadwallon, Cynddylan: Four Welsh Poems and Britain 383-655'' (Aberystwyth: University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, 2013), p. 190, ll. 30-1.</ref> Because of this, [[John T. Koch|John Koch]] hypothesises that Gwallog may have therefore been on the winning side of that battle, with the cause of the battle being that his rule over Elfed threatened by a claimant, [[Madog Elfed]].<ref> Koch, John T. (ed. and tr.) ''The'' Gododdin ''of Aneirin: Text and Context from Dark-Age North Britain'' (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1997), pp. xxii-xxxiv.</ref>
==Later material concerning Gwallog==
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