Cumbria in Early Welsh Poetry

If we understand that the Welsh, Bretons, Cornish and Cumbrians saw themselves as members of the same fractured people who had been disinherited by the incoming invaders, we can see why the Welsh kept fragments of poetry celebrating the deeds of the Britons of the north. Certainly, the history and literature give a picture of loss after loss for the British, as their land, their language and their identity were removed from Britain from east to west over decades and centuries with failure after failure of their best efforts to stop the Anglo-Saxons.

The academic who had the most influence on our understanding of the early heroic poetry was Sir Ifor Williams.

Williams presents his edited poetry of the bard Taliesin in Canu Taliesin [12]. Taliesin sings of Urien Rheged and his son Owain, as well as a king of Powys and Gwallawg  from Elfed near Leeds (Elmet in place-names there). Williams believed, and many have agreed with him that Urien's Rheged was centred on the Solway basin with its capital at Carlisle. His son Owain's court was thought to be by the Llwyfennydd - the Lyvennet beck in Westmorland, possibly at Crosby Ravensworth.  Williams finds references to the river Idon (the Eden) and to Gwen Ystrad, which he takes to be the Vale of Eden. Urien was called lord of Catterick in Yorkshire and also Lord of the Erechwydd, which Williams argued was the Lake District. The Taliesin poetry gives a picture of a bard moving around the courts of the rulers of the Brittonic speaking rulers of Britain from Leeds to Shrewsbury to Carlisle and able to compose for them in the same Brittonic tongue. It recalls the state of the Gaelic language a thousand years later when the bards could go from Munster to Caithness composing in Classical Gaelic for the lords that would give them food and patronage. In any case the British lands east of the Pennines, including Catterick were lost soon after Urien's time, and perhaps as a consequence of the collapse of the British alliance that had held the Anglo-Saxons in siege on Lindisfarne.

The other poet whose work was edited by Ifor Williams was Aneirin.  His Canu Aneirin [15] collected the poetry of the bard Aneirin, who, following Williams, was the court poet of Mynyddog Mwynfawr, king of the tribe of Gododdin, whose capital is thought to have been Edinburgh. Aneirin's works are a series of linked verses whose main job is to celebrate the heroism of the various fighters. It seems that these fighters are drawn from all parts of the Brittonic territories - from Pictland and Devon, Wales and of course the North.  William's view was that after the death of Urien, the British kings of Edinburgh realised the threat posted by the Northumbrians (a very real threat to them as the Anglo-Saxon capture of Edinburgh less than forty years later showed). They raised an army to strike at the enemy at Catraeth, which had so recently been in British hands. This view has (of course) since been disputed.

Probably by accident, Aneirin's Gododdin preserved one or two fragments almost certainly not written by Aneirin. One is a similarly heroic verse describing the victory of Owain I of Strathclyde over the Gaels of Dal Riada and their king Dyfnwal Frych - or Domhnall Breac in Gaelic which took place in 642, and so is much later than the battle of Catraeth, which took place around 600.  The verses of Gododdin must have come down to Wales after being collected with other poetry in the North.

Also included within the Gododdin verses is a lullaby that sings of a father gone hunting in the mountains and bringing fish from the falls of the Derwent. Given the geography this might be the Cumberland Derwent and the reference to falls and mountains makes one think of Borrowdale.

In the poetry another ostensible author is Llywarch Hen, is Urien's cousin who took Urien's decapitated head to history after he had been killed at Aber Lleu at Lindisfarne, possibly where the River Low runs into the sea [16]. This has of course been disputed. Also disputed is the claim that Llywarch was the author. Much of the poetry laments the fall of the east of the kingdom of Powys, modern Shropshire , to the Anglo-Saxons.

One of the most famous of the early kings of Strathclyde is Rhydderch Hael "the generous" who reigned in the late 500s [11]. Rhydderch was a contemporary of Urien Rheged. Rhydderch is supposed to have given support to St Kentigern. In this same period Clydno Eidyn was a lord of Edinburgh. 

The Britons resisted and early Welsh poetry recalls these epic struggles with figures like Owain Rheged, whose seat is argued to be Carlisle, his son Owain and his cousin Llywarch Hen, who was king of Powys. The Llywarch Hen poetry  talks of the burning of Pengwern in Shropshire and a picture unfolds of Anglo-Saxon invaders moving gradually west and north across the island, taking land from the Britons.

In terms of geography, the Welsh poetry gives us many names that no longer exist. Rheged of course, Arfynydd and Argoed. Llwyfennydd may be Lyvennet, but other names such as Calchfynydd have been claimed for Kelso. Din Eidyn is almost certainly Edinburgh and we know that Alclud is the Rock on the Clyde. Carlisle as Lugubalium or Luel or Caer Liwelydd is not named by the Welsh poets. Lliwelydd is a personal name that occurs in Welsh from the British *Lugovalijon - strong in the power of the god Lug or Lleu.

Breeze discusses the name Rhosedd [17]. The place mentioned in Welsh poetry is, he feels, Rosset, in Great Langdale.

Tim Clarkson gives and overview of the development of the kingdom of Al clud from its origins as the tribal lands of the Damnonii [11]. He says that from the late 5th Century a vibrant new kingdom ruled from its base on Dumbarton Rock, the Rock of the Clyde. Clarkson refers to the widely held theory that the British Saint, evangelist to the Irish, St Patrick was a native of Strathclyde. Clancy cites Irish sources which state that Patrick's parents were from Strathclyde [18] Patrick died between 470 and 493. Patrick wrote a letter to the British king Coroticus for raiding and taking slaves in Ireland. Coroticus is thought to have been a king of Al Clud. Clarkson raises the possibility that Patrick's Coroticus may be the northern king whose name appears in the king lists as Ceretic Guletic, where Guletic means prince or ruler [11].

As well as the poetry, the later medieval Triads of the Island of Britain,  mnemonics used by the bards to remember characters and points of history, mention a whole host of characters and places from the Old North [19]. These will be discussed at greater length below.