to the people properly so called, the fact was lost sight of that the Picts, who entered Britannia at this period, were no other than those who are called in Welsh literature Gwyr y Gogledd, the Men of the North,[1] including Cunedda and his Sons, who occupied the districts lying between the river Dee and the river Teify, having Scots to their north-west and south-west, and the original inhabitants (also interspersed with Scots) in occupation of the land south and east of the Dee and Teify.[2] The 'Men of the North' were almost certainly for the most part Britons both by race and language, but all who were free amongst them called themselves at a later period, even if not already, by the name Cymry, that is, compatriots.
- ↑ Skene's Four Anc. Bks. I. 165-83.
- ↑ It is very noteworthy and confirms the view expressed above that the Picts as a distinct race of northern invaders in Wales are nowhere mentioned, as are the Scots, in early Welsh literature outside the Excidium Britanniae and works influenced by it. Thus the only reference to them in the Book of Llanddv is in the Life of Teilo (pp. 99, 100), where the ' Historia Gildae ' (i. e. the Excidium) is expressly referred to as the authority. There is no reference what- ever to them in the Cambro-British Saints. It appears, however, that the identity of the invading Picts and the Cymry was not completely forgotten, for in the Peniarth MS. 118 the statement appears that ' the Picts were none other than the old Cymry ' (nid oedhynt y Picteit onyd yr hen Gymry.). Rep. on MSS. in Welsh I. 724.
' Hec sunt nomina filiorum Cuneda quorum numerus erat IX : Typiaun primogenitus qui mortuus in regione que uocatur Manau Guodotin et non uenit hue cum patre suo et cum fratribus suis pre[dictis] ; Meriaun filius eius diuisit possessiones inter fratres suos ; ii, Osmail ; iii, Rumaun ; iiii, Dunaut ; v, Ceretic ; vi, Abloyc ; vii, Enniaun Girt ; viii, Docmail ; ix, Etern.
' Hie est terminus eorum a flumine quod uocatur Dubr duiu usque ad aliud flumen Tebi et tenuerunt plurimas regiones in occidentali plaga Brittanniae.' These valuable sections are appended to the Pedigrees which follow the Annales Cambriae in Harleian MS. 3859 (Y Cymm. IX. 182-3)
