§ 56. At that time the Saxons were waxing strong in number and were increasing in Britain.
When Hengist was dead, Octha, his son, passed over from the northern part of Britain to the kingdom of 75 the Kentishmen and from him are sprung the kings of the Kentishmen.1
Then it was that Arthur was wont to fight against them in those days along with the kings of the Britons, but he himself was dux bellorum, leader of battles2 The first battle was at the mouth of the river, which is called Glein. The second, third, fourth, and fifth on another river, which is called Dubglas and is in the region of Linnuis.3 The sixth battle on the river, which is called Bassas. The seventh was a battle in the wood of Celidon, that Is Cat Coit Celidon. 4 The eighth was the battle at Castellum Guinnion, in which Arthur carried the image of saint Mary, ever virgin, on his shoulders, and the pagans were put to flight on that day and there was a great slaughter of them through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the power of saint Mary the Virgin, his mother.5 The ninth battle was fought at the City of the Legion.6 The tenth battle he fought on the shore of the river, which is called Tribruit. The eleventh battle occurred on the mountain, which is called Agned.7 The twelfth was the battle on Mount Badon,8 in which there fell together in one day nine hundred and sixty men in one onset of Arthur, and no one laid them low save himself alone. And in all the battles he remained victor.
And they, while they were being overcome in all the 76 battles, used to seek for assistance from Germania and were being increased manifoldly without intermission, and they used to bring kings from Germania to rule over them in Britain up to the time when Ida reigned, who was the son of Eobba. He was the first king in Beornica. 9
§ 57.10 Woden begat Beldeg, who begat Beornec,11 who begat Gechbrond, who begat Aluson, who begat Inguec, who begat Aedibrith, who begat Ossa, who begat Eobba, who begat Ida.
Ida had twelve12 sons, whose names are Adda, Aedldric, Decdric, Edric, Deothere, Osmer, and one queen Bearnoch, Eal[d]ric.
Ealdric begat Ae[d]lfret, that is Aedlfred Flesaur.13 And he also had seven sons, whose names are Anfrid, Osguald, Osbiu, Osguid, Osgudu, Oslapf, Offa.
Osguid begat Alcfrid and Aelfguin and Echfrid. Echfrid is he who made war against his cousin, who was king of the Picts, Birdei by name, and there fell together with all the strength of his army, and the Picts with their king remained victorious, and never 77 did the destroying14 Saxons proceed to exact tribute from the Picts from the time of that battle; it is called Gueith Lin Garan.15
Osguid had two wives, of whom one was called Riemmelth,16 the daughter of Royth, the son of Rum,17 and the other was called Eanfled, the daughter of Eadguin, the son of Alli.
§ 58.18 Hengist begat Octha, who begat Ossa, who begat Eormoric, who begat Ealdbert, who begat Ealdbald, who begat Ercumbert, who begat Ecgberth.
§ 59.19 Woden begat Casser, who begat Titinon, who begat Trigil, who begat Rodmunt, who begat Rippa, who begat Guillem Guecha, who first reigned in Britain over the nation of the East Angles. Guecha begat Guffa, who begat Tydil, who begat Ecni, who begat Edric, who begat Aldul, who begat Elric.
§ 60.20 Woden begat Guedolgeat, who begat Gueagon, who begat Guithleg, who begat Guerdmund, who begat Offa, who begat Ongen, who begat Eamer, who begat Pubba. This Pubba had twelve sons, of whom two are better known to me than the rest, namely Penda and Eua.
Eadlrit son of Pantha. Penda son of Pubba.
Eadlbad son of Alguing, son of Eua, son20 of Penda, son of Pubba.
Ecgfrid son of Offa, son of Duminfert, son of Eandulf, son of Ossulf, son of Eua, son of Pubba.
§ 61.21 Woden begat Beldeyg, [who begat] Brond,22 who begat Siggar,23 who begat Sebald, who begat Zegulf, who begat Soemil — he first separated Deur o Birneich, Deira from Bernicia — Soemil24 begat Sguerthing, who begat Giulglis, who begat Usfrean, who begat Iffi, who begat Ulli, [who begat] Aedgum.25
Osfird and Eadfird were two sons of Edgum26 and 79 perished with him in the battle of Meicen,27 and the kingdom was never renewed in his stock, because none of his race escaped from that battle, but they were all slain with him by the army of Catguollaun, king of the region of Gwynedd.
Osguid begat Ecgfird — he is Ecgfrid Ailguin28 — who begat Oslach, who begat Alhun, who begat Adlsing, who begat Echun, who begat Oslaph.
Ida begat Eadric, who begat Ecgulf, who begat Liodguald, who begat Aeta — that is Eata Glinmaur29 — who begat Eadbyrth and Ecgbirth the Bishop, who was the first of their nation.30
1 See notes to §§ 31, 38, 58.
2 I.e. generalissimo of combined armies of British kings, who are the historic forebears of ãthe knightsä of the legendary Arthur.
3 Linuis (C.P.L.).
4 Cad Coed Celyddon, ãthe Battle of Celidon Wood,ä perhaps the dense woodland which formerly existed between the Severn and the Cotswold Hills; the word Celidon may survive in Cheltenham.
5 The portage of Christian symbols on Arthurâs shoulders at the Battle of Castellum Guinnion is transferred to the legendary Badon in the Annals at 516.
6 Caerlon on Usk, where two streams, Lechou and Amir (B.L.D., 226), are elsewhere given as the names of Arthurâs sons, Llecheu and Amhir.
7 For Mount Agned, see Introduction, 24.
8 The obsessio Badonici montis of 665 is here forced into the list from the Loss (z). See Introduction, 24.
9 Bede (v, 24), ãIn the year 547 Ida began to reign. He was the founder of the royal family of the Northumbrians, and he reigned twelve years.ä Nennius provides no excerpt to fill the gap between Arthur and Ida (a period of some half a century), except the Anglian Genealogies, §§ 57-61. In these there is no suggestion that the Saxons ãused to bring kings from Germania to rule over them in Britain,ä but the contrary. This statement, therefore, is a deduction from the Loss.
10 The Kings of Bernicia, northwards from about the Tyne; in Welsh the men of Bernicia were called Bryneich, Brenneich, Byrneich, the Bernicii of Bede, Anglo-Saxon Baernicas. The name is supposed to derive from the Brigantes, who in Roman times occupied North England from the Irish Sea to the German Ocean.
11 Beornec, who appears to have taken his name from the Brigantes, being the seventh ancestor of Ida (547-559), must have lived about 330, in which case the family was long established in Britain.
12 Read vii for xii; also ãfrom one queen.ä
13 Fflesaur, i.e. Ffleisawr (with ffleis from Latin flex-us) ãdoubler,ä ãdodger.ä
14 Saxones Ambronum, see note to Loss (m); also § 63.
15 The action at Llyn Garan, ãcraneâs mereä; it is the Battle of Nechtansmere, identified with Dunnichen, near Forfar, fought on Sunday, May 20, 685 (Bede, iv, 26).
16 Rieinmelth, Rhiainfellt, ãlightning queen,ä cf. Rieingulid, Rhiainwylydd, interpreted as regina pudica, ãmodest queen,ä the mother of St.Illtud and aunt to Arthur (ãLife of Illtud,ä 1).
17 For Run, i.e. Rhun.
18 The Kings of Kent, down to Ecgbert (664-673). Hengist is a supposititious figure, possibly added from Bede (ii, 5), who also says, ãÆthelbert was the son of Eormenric, whose father was Octa, whose father was Oeric, surnamed Oisc, from whom the Kings of Kent are often called Oiscingas.ä The last statement is basic for a study of the foundations of the Kentish kingdom. But that Oeric Oisc was father to Octa, and not son, contradicts not only Nennius but also the codex C.C.C.C. 183, which gives Ocga, father of Oese, as here. See § 38.
19 The Kings of East Anglia. Ecni, whom Bede calls Eni, was brother to the Bretwalda, Redwald, ãbeing the son of Tytilus, whose father was Uuffa, from whom the Kings of the East Angles are called Uuffingsä (H.E., ii, 15; iii, 18). Redwald slew Æthelfrith, i.e. Ffleisawr, in 617, immediately after the Battle of Chester. So, as Redwald was ninth in descent from Casser, the latter flourished about 320. It is evident that this family was long established in Britain.
20 The Kings of Mercia. Four names have dropped out before Pubba, son of Crioda, son of Cynewald, son of Cnebba, son of Icel, son of Eomer, etc. The Life of St. Guthlac makes mention of ãthe ancient stock of Icel,ä i.e. the Iclingas. As Penda died in 655 the family was of long standing in Britain. Eua, killed at Cocboy in 642 (§ 65); Eadlrit is Aethelred (675-704), son of Pantha, i.e. Panta, later Panna, the Welsh name for Penda; Eadlbald is Aethelbald (716-764). Ecgfrid reigned a few months only in 796, and is the last dateable person in these Anglian genealogies.
Note that Wulfhere (659-675), Pendaâs most famous son, is not mentioned, to say nothing of Bellum Badonis (A.D. 665).
21 Brother.
22 The Kings of Deira, called here Deur, i.e. Dewr, the Deiri and Deri of Bede; in later Welsh Deifr. Their land was between the Humber and the Tyne.
23 Beldeyg and Brond are erroneously inserted here for Waegdaeg.
24 Two names missing after Siggar, who begat Swebdaeg, who begat Sigegeat, who begat Sebald, etc.
25 As Soemil is the sixth ancestor from Edwin (d. 633), he must have flourished c. 420, which indicates that this family, like the others, was long resident in Britain. He would have been contemporary with Idaâs grandfather, Ossa, and great-grandfather, Aedibrith.
26 Aedguin, Edguin, i.e. Edwin.
27 Battle of Meigen, October 12, 633. Bede (ii, 20) says it was in the plain called Haethfelth, and attributes to Cadwallon, King of Gwynedd, the intention of exterminating all the race of the English within the borders of Britain. This must be due to some misunderstanding, for Cadwallon was merely king of Gwynedd in North-West Wales, and was, moreover, in alliance with Penda of Mercia. Bede possibly derived the notion from the mention in the Loss (w) that the Saxons would cease to occupy Britain. Or what Cadwallon may have intended was to keep the English out of Britannia, i.e. ãWelsh-land.ä
28 Ailguin, i.e. Aelwyn, ãfair brow.ä
29 Glinmaur, i.e. Glin mawr, ãbig knee.ä
30 Eadbyrth, i.e. Eadbert, King of Northumbria, 737-758, d. 768. Ecgbirth, i.e. Egbert, Archbishop of York in 732, d. 766.