THE PROPAGANDA OF CUNEDDA AS A ROMANIZED BRITON FROM THE FAR NORTH

Cunedda

In my work over the years, I have satisfactorily demonstrated that the great Cunedda of Wales was not, in fact, from Manau Gododdin in the far North of Britain, but rather originated from Drumanagh (for the proposed etymologies of this Irish place-name, see 

https://consult.fingal.ie/en/system/files/materials/8518/C%20Drumanagh%20Understanding%20the%20monument%20-%20history.pdf).

At some point in the evolution of historical tradition in Wales, it was thought desirable to erase Cunedda's Irish heritage and to substitute for it a British one that could be connected (as so many early Welsh royal genealogies are) with a mythical Roman past.  I have provided other examples of this happening, e.g. in the Deisi-Dyfed pedigree, which in the Irish version contains only Irish names, but in the Welsh replaces the earlier Irish forebearers with distinctly Roman ones.

Because I knew all of this was so, I summarily dispensed with the Book of Taliesin death-poem for Cunedda.  But some of my readers have asked me about this source, and they choose to see it as "proof" for Cunedda's British origin, a heroic elegy purporting to describe Cunedda's military activities in the Hen Ogledd or 'Old North.'  Seems I should treat of it here more fully, so that I can put it into proper perspective.  And put it to rest.  

The 'Marwnad Cunedda' or 'Death-Song of Cunedda' nicely delineates the territory this great chieftain is thought to have controlled, or at least to have won great victories within.  The sea and rock (the latter being spelled allt) are probably for the Sea of Iudeu (Iudeu = Edinburgh, and the sea in question is the Firth of Forth; Manau Gododdin was at the head of the Firth [1]) and the Rock of Clyde (Ceredig of Strathclyde is called the king of 'Aloo', this being short for Alt Clut/Alclud).  Next we are told he was at Carlisle and Wear, two place-names that are found on either end of Hadrian's Wall.  And, finally, he is situated at Echwydd, i.e. Eamont in Cumbria [2]. Thus Cunedda's domain is thought to cover all of the Scottish Lowlands plus Cumbria.  

Needless to say, if Cunedda were active in this region as the 'Marwnad Cunedda' claims, AND he still had time and energy - with his sons or teulu - to take all of NW Wales, then he was a very busy man indeed!

Another problem has to do with the relative chronologies of Taliesin, the reputed author of the death-song, and that of Cunedda.  In the words of Marged Haycock (CELTIC CULTURE: A HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, P. 1653):

"Sir Ifor Williams excluded Marwnad Cunedda from Canu

Taliesin, but was probably mistaken in not regarding it

as a poem from the Old North (Hen Ogledd);

nonetheless, since Cunedda was a chieftain of the

5th or late 4th century, Urien’s poet could not have

been the author of an authentic elegy for Cunedda."

The poem, then, attributed to Taliesin, is simply fraudulent. 

Cunedda was an Irishman.  He and his sons or teulu took kingdoms in NW Wales and, perhaps in a sort of federate status modelled after the old Roman system, fought battles in southern England for the high-king who was himself based at Wroxeter.  The memorial stone of Cunedda's son Cunorix (= the Cynric of the Gewissei) was found at Viroconium.  Without going into all the details of Cunedda's Irish pedigree, it is provable that he had a second name which occurs as Maqui-coline on the Wroxeter stone, and as Ceawlin in the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE.

There is no reason for us to concern ourselves further with the supposed authenticity of the tradition preserved in the 'Marwnad Cunedda.'  That tradition is beyond suspect.  It is, in truth, outright bogus.  

[1]

See https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2021/04/bedes-urbs-giudi-and-udd-urfai-of-eidyn.html.

[2]

There was an important region called variously Erechwydd or Yr Echwydd, mentioned in connection with Urien, his sons, Gwallog son of Lleenog of Elmet (a small kingdom centered about Leeds, probably from Welsh elfydd, ‘world, land’; see Rivet and Smith’s entry for Albion) and with Dunod Fwr. No wholly satisfactory identification of Erechwydd has yet been made, but it would seem to be somewhere in or close to Cumbria.

As Dr. Graham Isaac of The University of Wales, Aberystywyth makes clear, the Er- prefix is not the definite article yr, even though the name is sometimes wrongly written “yr echwyd” in the poetry, but a form of Ar-, as found in other place-names, e.g. Arfon. Ar- as a prefix originally meant “in front of”. But it came to have the senses of “upon, on, over, at, in”.

On echwydd, I quote the following entry from the National Dictionary of Wales

(information courtesy Andrew Hawke):

echwydd

fresh (of water, as opp. to salt); fresh water, ?cataract.

Commenting on this listing for echwydd, Dr. Isaac says:

“As to the attestation and meaning, there is no mystery there. The instances cited in GPC are, with one omission, ample. E.g. Fynnaw[n] echwit a ymchweil yn waet 'the "fresh-water" spring will turn to blood'. Fynnawn does not refer to a seeping, dripping, oozing source of water, but a vigorous, lively one, the source of a flowing river. 'Fynnawn echwit' 'fresh-water spring' is only deceptively pleonastic; the expression clarifies that the 'fynnawn' in question is a natural one, not a 'fountain', which is within the range of 'ffynnon'. Then there is, 'Aduwyn dydaw dyuyr dychwart gwyrt wrth echwyt 'Waters flow pleasantly, the green [sea] rejoices at the "fresh water" ', i.e. the river-water flowing into the sea. Omitted from GPC's instances is the important one from the Black Book of Carmarthen (p. 88 in the ms.),

redecauc duwyr echwit

Cvd a cvd ymda cv treigil cv threwna

pa hid a nev cud vit

Y pen seith mlinet y duc ren y risset

y dadwet yn yd uit

'running fresh water:

where does it go?

Where does it travel?

Where does it wander?

Where does it settle?

How long does it run?

Or where will it be?

For seven years the Lord has set its course;

[then] it will disappear wherever it is.'

This is obviously dynamic imagery; the main characteristic of this type of water is obviously its motion, its flow. It is instances like these which tell us clearly what the meaning of the word is.”

As no good etymology for echwydd had been proposed, I asked Dr. Isaac if the word could come from ech, “out of, from”, plus a form of the Indo-European root *ued, “wet” (which Rivet and Smith in their The Place-Names of Roman Britain discuss under the entry for Vedra).  Dr. Isaac’s response was:

“The etymology echwydd < *exs-wed-yo-, or *exs-ud-yo- (either would probably do it) seems plausible enough. This has no bearing on the meaning of the word, however, because 'flowing, fresh water' is the meaning of it in Welsh anyway. The interpretation of Erechwydd as 'Place by the fresh, flowing water' depends directly on the meaning of the word in Welsh. It would be fine to have an etymology of the word, but that has nothing to say about the locations of any places.”

So where was Erechwydd/Yr Echewydd? Our clue lies not only in the name of the region, but in the battles fought there between Dunod Fwr of the Dent region and Gwallog of Elmet against Urien’s sons. These engagements are recounted in the Llywarch Hen poetry. Given that Urien Rheged had his origin in Annandale (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-nucleus-of-uriens-kingdom-of-rheged.html), and both Dunod and Gwallog had kingdoms in southeastern Cumbria and just southeast of Cumbria, respectively, the most logical place to seek Erechwydd, the “Place by the fresh, flowing water’, would be the twin valleys of the Eden and Petteril.

A Roman road led from the south up through the valley of the river Lune right past Dunod’s Dentdale. This road continued north to the Eden Valley. Another Roman road led west from Leeds and joined with the Lonsdale road. Gwallog could have taken this route to the Eden or he could have gone north up Dere Street and then cut over through the Pennines at Stainmore.

The Eden and Petteril Valleys were the heartland of the ancient Carvetii kingdom.  To summarize Higham and Jones’ discussion of this region in The Carvetii:

“The twin valleys of the Eden and Petteril rivers provide the obvious natural route from Carlisle towards Lancaster and York. With the exception of a handful of wooded areas and heavy clay soils, the area has been shown to have supported a widespread, and in some areas a dense pattern of rural settlement in the Roman period.”

It is even possible that Erechwydd as a regional designation can be more precisely localized within the Eden and Petteril Valleys. The headwaters of the Petteril lie just west and northwest of Eamont. We have already discussed the importance of Eamont with its sacred henges. The river Eamont (a back-formation from the name Eamont itself, from AS ea-gemot, “river-meet”, i.e. confluence) and Lowther join at Eamont Bridge and continue for a short distance eastward to the Eden. There was also, of course, a nexus of Roman roads at Eamont.

In my opinion, the Anglo-Saxon place-name ea-gemot/Eamont may overlie an original British Echwydd. Ekwall thought Eamont refers to the confluence of the Eamont and the stream from Dacre, although given the location of the Brougham/Brocavum Roman fort at the juncture of the Eamont and Lowther, it makes much more sense to see this ea-gemot as the confluence of the latter two rivers. If I’m right, then Arechwydd was the Eamont area, specifically the land at and around the Brougham fort and the three Carvetii henges.