Llywarch Hen

Llywarch Hen (meaning 'Llywarch the Old') was a 6th-century prince of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a ruling family in the Hen Ogledd or 'Old North' of Britain (modern southern Scotland and northern England). He was first cousin to King Urien Rheged and may possibly have been a monarch himself in the same region.

His life was the subject of a presumed lost saga of which only the poetry, a series of englynion, survives. The words are put into the mouth of Llywarch himself, although they were clearly composed somewhat later, possibly in the 9th century. He bemoans the death of Urien and returns to Rheged with his severed head. Other Brythons make war on Llywarch and he is soon found living in poverty. He is advised to flee to Powys and this he does. He is also sometimes associated with Llanfor, near Llyn Tegid in Gwynedd.

In the poems about Llywarch, known as Canu Llywarch Hen, it is said he had twenty-four sons, but various sources list as many as thirty-nine, plus a few daughters. The Canu Heledd, concerning the fall of the kings of the Pengwern region, and the elegy Geraint son of Erbin, concerning the Battle of Llongborth, are also associated indirectly with Llywarch.

References

• Ifor Williams (ed.), Canu Llywarch Hen (University of Wales Press, 1935). Original Welsh text, edited with notes.

External links

• Ancient Texts: The Names of the Sons of Llywarch Hen

Further reading

• Ford, Patrick K. "Llywarch, Ancestor of Welsh Princes." Speculum 45.3 (1970): pp. 442–50.
• Jackson, Kenneth. "The Poems of Llywarch the Aged." Antiquity 9:35 (1935): 323-7.
• Rowland, Jenny. Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the Englynion. Cambridge, 1990.
• Sims-Williams, Patrick. "The Provenance of the Llywarch Hen Poems: A Case for Llan-gors, Brycheiniog." Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 26 (1993): 27-63.
• Sims-Williams, Patrick. "The Death of Urien." Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 32 (1996): 25-56.
• Williams, Ifor, Sir. "The poems of Llywarch Hên (Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture)." Proceedings of the British Academy 18 (1934 for 1932): 209-302.
• Williams, Ifor, Sir. Lectures on Early Welsh Poetry. Dublin, 1944.