Sawyl Penuchel

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Sawyl Penuchel or Ben Uchel ("high-head", "arrogant"), also known as Samuil Penissel ("low-head", "humble"), was a Brythonic king of the sub-Roman period, who appears in old Welsh genealogies and the Welsh Triads.

The genealogies[1], in which he appears under both epithets, make him the son of Pabo Post Prydain, a descendant of Coel Hen, the presumed king of the Old North. Some historians, notably John Morris, locate Sawyl in the south Pennines area (the modern Peak District, a name which may date from its settlement by the Anglian Pecset).[2] He is listed as one of the 'Three Arrogant Men of the Island of Britain' in the Welsh Triads.[3]

Other genealogies say he was the father of St. Asaph. Elis Geruffydd's Chronicle says that his daughter married Maelgwn Gwynedd. [4] An Irish genealogy says that a "Samuel Chendisel"[5] married Deichter, daughter of Muiredach Muinderg, the king of Ulster, and they had two sons: Sanctan, who became bishop of Cil-dá-les and founded Kilnasantan in County Dublin, and Matóc Ailithir. The Irish Liber Hymnorum confirms that both Sanctan and Matóc came to Ireland from Britain.[6]

According to the Welsh Life of Saint Cadoc, a king named Sawyl Penuchel held court at Allt Cunedda near Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire. Cadoc pursued Sawyl's warband after they stole food from Llancarfan Abbey. He found them sleeping under a tree and cut off their hair, before fleeing to a nearby bog. When Sawyl and his men gave chase, they all drowned in the bog.[7]. Whether this is the same king, having fled to Wales after his northern kingdom was overrun by the Saxons, a different man of the same name, or simply an error by the composer of the Life, is unclear. This Sawyl was supposedly buried in nearby mound known as Banc Benuchel. A body was excavated there in 1850, covered with a hexagonal stone imitating a battle-shield.[8]

Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his History of the Kings of Britain (1136), uses the name Samuil Penessil for a legendary pre-Roman king of Britain, preceded by Redechius and succeeded by Pir.[9]

Preceded by
Redechius		 Legendary kings of Britain Succeeded by
Pir of the Britons

[edit] References

  1. ^ Harleian Genealogies 19; The Descent of the Men of the North at Celtic Literature Collective
  2. ^ Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein p. 256; John Morris (1973), The Age of Arthur pp. 214-215; Ford, Sawyl Penuchel; Post-Roman Celtic Kingdoms: the Peak
  3. ^ Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, third edition, 2006, p. 45
  4. ^ Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, p. 496
  5. ^ Chend-isel is the Irish equivalent of the Welsh Pen-issel, "low-head".
  6. ^ Peter C. Bartrum (1993), A Welsh Classical Dictionary, National Library of Wales, pp. 580-581.
  7. ^ Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein p. 496; David Nash Ford, Sawyl Penuchel at Early British kingdoms
  8. ^ Ford, Sawyl Penuchel
  9. ^ History of the Kings of Britain 3.19 at Wikisource. Lewis Thorpe's translation for Penguin Classics (p. 105) gives two kings, Samuil followed by Penessil.
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