1Ida son of Eobba held regions in the northern part of Britain, that is of the Humber Sea, and reigned twelve years, and he joined Dinguayrdi2 guurth Berneich, Bamborough to Bernicia.
§ 62. Then Dutigern3 at that time used to fight bravely against the nation of the Angles.
80Then Talhaern Tataguen4 gained renown in poetry, and Neirin5 and Taliessin and Bluchbard and Cian, who is called Gueinth Guaut,6 gained renown together at the same time in British poetry.
Mailcunus,7 the great king, was reigning among the Britons, that is in the region of Guenedota, Gwynedd, for his ancestor that is Cunedag,8 with his sons, whose number was eight, had come previously from the northern part, that is from the region which is called Manau Guotodin,9 one hundred and forty-six years before Mailcun reigned. And they drove out with immense slaughter the Scots from these regions, who never returned again to inhabit them.
§ 63. Adda son of Ida reigned eight years.
Aedlric son of Adda reigned four years.
Deoric son of Ida reigned seven years.
Friodolguald reigned six years, in whose time the kingdom of the Kentishmen received baptism in consequence of the mission of Gregory.10
Hussa reigned seven years. Against him fought four kings, Urbgen and Riderc hen and Guallanc (Susan note spelled Guallauc everywhere else) and Morcant.11 Deodric fought bravely with his sons 81 against that Urbgen — at that time sometimes the enemy, now the citizens were being overcome12 — and he shut them up three days and nights in the island of Metcaud,13 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.
Eadfered Flesaurs14 reigned twelve years in Berneich and twelve others in Deur; he reigned twenty-four years between the two kingdoms. And he gave Dinguoaroy to his wife, who is called Bebbab, and from the name of his wife it took its name, that is Bebban-burh, Bamborough.
Eoguin15 son of Alli reigned seventeen years, and he took Elmet16 and drove out Certic,17 the king of that region. Eanfled, his daughter, on the twelfth day after Pentecost received baptism, with all her people with her, both men and women. And Eadgum in the following Easter received baptism, and twelve thousand persons were baptized with him. If anyone should wish to know who baptized them, Rum map Urbgen18 baptized them and for forty days ceased not to baptize the whole 82 race of the Ambrons,19 and through his preaching many believed in Christ.
§ 64. Oswald son of Eadfred reigned nine years, that is, Oswald Lamnguin.20 He killed Catgublaun, king of the region of Guenedota, Gwynedd, in the battle of Catscaul21 with great loss to his own army. Osguid son of Eadlfrid reigned twenty-eight years and six months. While he was reigning there came a pestilence on men, Catgualart22 the while reigning among the Britons after his father, and in it he perished. And he killed Pantha in the field of Gai,23 and now occurred the slaughter of the field of Gai, and the kings of the Britons were slain,24 (who had gone out with King Pantha on an expedition as far as the city which is called Iudeu.
§ 65. Then Osguid restored all the riches which were with him in the city even into the hand of Penda, and Penda distributed them among the kings of the Britons, that is Atbret Iudeu.25 Catgabail alone, king of the region of Guenedota, Gwynedd, escaped with his army, rising up in the night, for which reason he was called Catgabail Catguommed26).
83Ecgfrid, son of Osbiu, reigned nine27 years — in his time saint Cudbert the bishop died in the island of Medcaut.28 It is he who made war against the Picts and perished there.
Penda son of Pybba reigned ten years.29 He first separated the kingdom of the Mercians from the kingdom of the Nordi, Northerners. And he slew by craft Onna,30 king of the East Anglians, and saint Oswald, king the Nordi, Northerners. He fought the battle of Cocboy,31 in which fell Eoua son of Pippa, his brother, king of the Mercians, and Oswald, king of the Nordi, Northerners. And he was victorious by diabolical agency. He was not baptized and never believed in God.
§ 66. 32 From the beginning of the world to Constantine and Rufus are found five thousand, six hundred, and fifty-eight years. Likewise from the two Gemini, Rufus33 and Rubelius, to Stilicho the consul are three hundred and seventy-three years. Likewise from Stilicho to Valentinian, the son of Placida, and the reign of Guorthigirn are twenty-eight years. And from the reign of Guorthigirn to the discord between Guitolin and Ambrosius are twelve years, which is Guoloppum, that is, Cat Guoloph the Battle of Guoloph. Guorthigirn held rule in Britain when Theodosius and Valentinian were consuls, and in the fourth year of his 84 reign the Saxons came to Britain, Felix and Taurus being consuls in the four hundred and first year34 from the Incarnation35 of our Lord Jesus Christ.
From the year in which the Saxons came into Britain and were received by Guorthigirn to Decius and Valerian36 are sixty-nine years.
1 This paragraph resumes the narrative begun and broken at the end of § 56.
2 Dinguayrdi, read Dinguayroi (later Dingueirm, Dingueirin, errors for Dingueirui, C.M., 205), cf. Dinguoaroy in § 63. The word guurth is the preposition now written wrth, ãto.ä
3 Dutigern, probably for Outigern, i.e. Eudeyrn. See Pedigree 10 for the name among the early ancestors of Coyl, King of Kyle. Doubtless, like the other British princes who fought against the Angles, he was from ãthe North.ä
4 Talhaearn Tad Awen, ãfather of the muse.ä
5 Neirin, also called Aneirin (frequently misspelt Aneurin).
6 Cian Gwenith Gwawd, ãwheat of song.ä
7 Maelgwn Gwynedd, great-grandson of Cunedda (see Pedigree 1).
8 Cunedag, an earlier form of Cunedda.
9 Manaw Gododdin, i.e. Manaw of the Votadini in the East Lowlands. Cf. Campus Manand, ãthe plain of Manannä (in Welsh, Manaw), between the Avon and the Carron, two streams which disembogue into the Firth of Forth at points some two miles apart. The former rises in Slamannan Moor.
10 Friodolgualdâs reign, therefore, must have embraced 597, the year in which the Kentishmen received baptism.
11 Of these four British kings it is to be noted that they all hail from South-West Scotland. Riderc hen, i.e. Rhydderch Hen, is the son of Tudwal (see Pedigree 6), of the line of the kings of Dumbarton. Of him, St. Columba prophesied that he would die in his own house on a feather pillow (Adamnan, I, 15). The other three, Urbgen, i.e. Urien Rheged, Guallauc, i.e. Gwallog, and Morcant, i.e. Morgan (see Pedigrees 8, 9, 10), are of the family of Coel Hen (after whom is named Kyle in Ayrshire). There is no indication that they are Britons flying westwards before English invaders from across the sea. On the contrary, they are invaders of the old Brigantian territory from the north-west.
12 This statement of alternate victories and defeats is from the Loss (z), cf., too, the last sentence of § 43 above. It is to be noted (1) that they are made to occur in the sixth century and the seventh; (2) that is the Angles and not the Britons who are on the defensive; (3) that they should have ended with the Badonic Hill in 665 as in the Loss.
13 Metcaud, identified in § 65 with the island in which St. Cuthbert died, is Lindisfarne, i.e. Holy Island off the coast of Northumberland, chosen by St. Aidan as the site of his monastery in 635. The Irish named it Inis Metgoit, whence doubtless the British name.
14 For Flesaur, as in § 57.
15 For Edguin, i.e. Edwin.
16 Elmet, a district encircling Barwick-in-Elmet and Sherborne-in-Elmet to the east of Leeds, where the Britons from the West Lowlands had established themselves.
17 Certic, King of Elmet, was the son of the above-mentioned Guallauc of the line of the kings of Kyle. He appears in Triad 54 as Keredic ap Gwallawc (Phillimore, Y Cymmrodor, vii, 131).
18 Rhun fab Urien (see Introduction, pp. 11-2).
19 Loss (m) and § 57.
20 Lamnguin, i.e. Llafn gwyn, ãwhite blade.ä
21 For Cantscaul, as in the Annals of the Britons, p. 89 below; in later Welsh Canyscawl (cant, enclosure, scaul, youth), a translation of Hagustaldes ham, i.e. Hexham (Ifor Williams, Bulletin, vi, 351-4; vii, 33). Bede (iii, 1) fixes the contest at Denisesburn, the Rowley Water or tributary south of Hexham. The date is 634.
22 Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd, son of Cadwallon. See Bede (iii, 27) for the plague of 664.
23 Bede (iii, 24) fixes the battle near the river Winwaed, Oswy finishing the war in the district of Loidis. The river is identified by some with the Went, and Loidis with Ledstone, near Pontefract. The date is 655.
24 From ãwho had gone outä down to ãCatguommedä in the next section, printed here between round brackets, is a parenthesis.
25 Atbret (modern Welsh Edfryd) means ãrestoration.ä Iudeu is generally identified with Inchkeith in the Forth (Bede, i, 12).
26 Cadafael Cadomedd, ãbattle-seizer, battle-shirker.ä He is one of the three kings mentioned in Triad 59 as having sprung from serfs, A chadauel ap kynuedw ygwyned, ãand Cadafel, son of Cynfedw in Gwyneddä (Y Cymmrodor, vii, 132).
27 For novem (viiii) read xiiii (14). Ecgfrith reigned from February 15, 671, to May 20, 685, when he fell at Nechtansmere. See Introduction, 26, n. 1.
28 St. Cuthbert died at Lindisfarne, March 20, 687, some two years after the death of Ecgfrith.
29 Bede (ii, 20) says twenty-two years (633-655). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at 626, ãPenda had the kingdom for thirty winters, and he was fifty winters old when he succeeded to the kingdom.ä
30 Bede (iii, 18), ãAnna, son of Eniä; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 654, ãKing Onna was slain.ä
31 Cocboy, known later as Gweith Goguy, ãthe Action at Cogwy.ä Bede (iii, 9) calls it Maserfelth, August 5, 642.
32 See Introduction, 26-8.
33 Error for Fufius.
34 K.
35 Error for ãPassion.ä
36 Errors for ãAëtius and Valerius,ä consuls in A.D. 432. See Introduction, 30-1.