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Gwallog is the addressee of two poems in the [[Book of Taliesin]] which [[Ifor Williams]] identified on linguistic and historical grounds as (in part) plausibly originating in the sixth century, and possibly being genuine praise-poems addressed to Gwallog.<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, 12-15; the poems are XI and XII in Williams's numbering. Translated in Thomas Owen Clancy (ed.), ''The Triumph Tree; Scotland's Earliest Poetry, AD 550-1350'' (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1998), pp. 91-93.</ref> These afford some evidence that Gwallog was a king of [[Elmet]].<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), p. lvii.</ref> If so, he was apparently succeeded by [[Ceretic of Elmet|Ceredig]], the last king of Elmet, who was deposed by [[Edwin of Northumbria|St. Edwin]] of [[Northumbria|Deira]]; this would be consistent with the appearance of a 'Ceretic, son of Gwallawg' in one of the [[Welsh Triads]]. However, as evidence for sixth-century historical realities, this evidence is very tenuous.<ref>Tim Clarkson, 'The ''Gododdin'' Revisited', ''The Heroic Age'', 1 (1999), http://www.heroicage.org/issues/1/hatf.htm.</ref>
==Later reputation==
The somewhat later cycle of Middle Welsh poems associated with [[Llywarch Hen]] suggests 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. Here, Gwallog is given the epithet ''Marchog Trin'', meaning "battle horseman".<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. lviii-lix.</ref> Again, this poetry probably tells us more about later legends of Gwallog than any sixth-century history.
Over time, Gwallog evolved into a semi-mythological figure akin to [[King Arthur|Arthur]]. In the medieval text "Geraint son of Erbin", he is named as one of Arthur's knights<ref>http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/guest-geraint.</ref> and also appears in the [[Welsh Triads|Welsh triads]] as one of the "Three Armed Warriors of the Island of Britain" and one of the "Three Battle Pillars of the Island of Britain".<ref>''Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain'', ed. and trans. by Rachel Bromwich, 4th edn (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2014), p. 11.</ref> Gwallog is also mentioned in the [[Black Book of Carmarthen]] poem "''Ymddiddan Gwyddno Garanhir a Gwyn ap Nudd''" as one of the slain warriors escorted to their graves by [[Gwyn ap Nudd]], the lord of the Welsh [[Annwn|Otherworld]].<ref>''Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain'', ed. and trans. by Rachel Bromwich, 4th edn (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2014), p. 372.</ref>
The medieval Welsh ''[[Bonedd y Saint]]'' claims that Gwallog was the father of [[Talybont, Barmouth|Saint Dwywe]], though this is unlikely to be based on sound historical information.<ref>W. Owen Pughe, 'The Topopgraphy of Meirion', ''Transactions of the Cymmrodorion, or Metropolitan Cambrian Institution'', 1 (1822), 150-72 (p. 169).</ref>
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