Gwallog ap Llênog: Difference between revisions

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'''Gwallog ap Llaennog''' (several [[Middle Welsh]] variant orthographies include '''Gwallawc fab Lleynawc''' ; standard [[Welsh language|Welsh]] : ''Gwallog ap Llëenog'' or ''Llëynog'') was a hero of the [[Hen Ogledd]] and probable 6th-century king of the [[Sub-Roman Britain|sub-Roman]] state of [[Elmet]] in the [[Leeds]] area of modern [[Yorkshire]].

==Life==

He joined a group of [[Britons (historical)|Brythonic]] kings, including [[Urien|Urien Rheged]], [[Riderch I of Alt Clut|Rhydderch Hael]] and [[Morcant Bulc|Morgant Bwlch]] of [[Bryneich]], in an attempt to defeat the [[Angles]] of [[Bernicia]]. This endeavour failed after Urien was slain by Llofan Llaf Difo.

Gwallog is most clearly attested in a note incorporated into [[Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies]] of Northumbrian kings found in London, British Library, MS Harley 3859 (the earliest manuscript of the ''[[Historia Brittonum]]''). These are thought to originate in a perhaps eighth-century source and so to be relatively reliable. Commenting on the regin of the [[Bernicia|Bernician]] king [[Hussa of Bernicia|Hussa]], the regnal list states

::Contra illum quattuor reges, Urbgen et Riderchen et Guallanc (''leg''. Guallauc) et Morcant, dimicaverunt. Deodric contra illum Urbgen cum filiis dimicabat fortiter--in illo autem tempore aliquando hostes, nunc cives vincebantur--et ipse conclusit eos tribus diebus et noctibus in insula Metcaud et, dum erat in expeditione, iugulatus est, Morcante destinante pro invidia, quia in ipso prae omnibus regibus virtus maxima erat instauratione belli.

::Against him fought four kings, Urbgen ([[Urien]]) and Riderc Hen ([[Riderch I of Alt Clut|Rhydderch Hen]]) and Guallauc (Gwallawg) and Morcant ([[Morcant Bulc|Morgant]]). [[Theodric of Bernicia|Deodric]] fought bravely with his sons against that Urbgen--at that time sometimes the enemy, now the citizens, were being overcome--and he shut them up three days and nights in the island of Metcaud ([[Lindisfarne]]), and, while he was on an expedition, he was murdered at the instance of Morcant out of envy, because in him above all the kings was the greatest skill in the renewing of battle.<ref>''The Poems of Taliesin'', ed. by Ifor Williams, trans. by J. E. Caerwyn Williams, Medieval and Modern Welsh Series, 3 (Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1968), pp. xi-xii.</ref>

HeThus it appears that Gwallog joined a group of [[Britons (historical)|BrythonicBrittonic]] kings, including [[Urien|Urien Rheged]], [[Riderch I of Alt Clut|Rhydderch Hael]] and [[Morcant Bulc|Morgant Bwlch]] of [[Bryneich]], in an attempt to defeat the [[Angles]] of [[Bernicia]]. This endeavour failed after Urien was slain by Llofan Llaf Difo.

Another tradition asserts that Gwallog later made war against Urien's former kingdom of [[Rheged]] in concert with [[Dunod Fawr]] of the [[Pennines|Northern Pennines]], attacking Urien's sons.