descent from Maelgwn) who was killed by Oswald in 635. Between Rhun and Cadwallon, however, the supreme power may have passed for a while into the hands of the house of Cadell Ddyrnllug of Powys, for we find Cynan Garwyn, the head of that family, battling against Anglesey, Dyved, Glywysing, and Gwent.[1] It is this house also which appears to have withstood Ethelfrith of Northumbria at the Battle of Chester in 617, in which Selyf ap Cynan Garwyn fell. This event was famous in ancient times because of the slaughter of about 1,200 monks of Bangor Iscoed, which was an incident of the fight.[2] It has become famous in modern times because of ' the decisive character which it has been the fashion to ascribe to it of late '.[3] For it is nowadays commonly and even dogmatically asserted that it divided the Britons of the North from those of Wales, whereas there is no evidence forthcoming that these were ever united by land. Late Glamorganshire legends ascribe the name of Teyrnllwg[4] to a supposed Cymric patria lying appar- ently between the river Dee and the river Derwent in Cumberland, a name based on erroneous etymology as to Durnluc in Catel Durnluc, that is, Cadell Ddyrnllug, the king who founded the royal stem of Powys.[5] But
- ↑ Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales II. 173, 447 ; Cambro-Brit. SS. 79; Owen's Pembrokeshire I. 222, note 2 ; III. 281.
- ↑ 'Annus CLXIX. Gueith Cairlegion et ibi cecidit Selim filius Cinan ' (Y Cymm. IX. 156 ; Bede's H. E. II. 2 ; Owen's Pembrokeshire III. 282, note i). The above annal is to be reckoned from the false Bedan date of the Saxon Advent, viz. 449 + 168 = A.D. 617. Cf. Plummer's Bede II. 77.
- ↑ Rhys's Celtic Britain, 3rd ed. 130.
- ↑ lolo MSS. 86. The same fragment contains the equally fictitious patria of Fferyllwg ' between Wye and Severn ' (Owen's Pem. III. 257, note 3).
- ↑ Y Cymm. VII. 119, note 3 ; IX. 179, note 6.
