Cynddylan

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Cynddylan, or Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn ("Cynddylan son of Cyndrwyn" in Welsh) was a 7th century ruler associated with Pengwern. Some historians have also postulated that he may also have been a king of Dogfeiling, a sub-kingdom of Gwynedd around Rhuthun to the north of Powys, all in Wales.^[1]

[edit] History

With the defeat of the Romano-British Empire by the invading Saxons the remains of the civitas of the Cornovii held the remnants of British lands in the lowland border regions of Wales. Herefordshire and Shropshire were divided amongst heirs so that by the beginning of the seventh century King Constantine ruled northern Herefordshire, while Cyndrwyn the Stubbon ruled from Wroxeter where a major urban population still survived. Several poems survive probably from the first half of the seventh century that describe this British kingdom, whose heritage could be regarded from the top of the Wrekin, then known as Dinlle Wrecon. King Cyndrwyn died before 642 when his sons, chief of whom was Cynddylan, joined King Penda of Mercia in the defeat of King Oswald of Northumbria at the battle of Maeserfelth or Maes Cogwy, which would appear to have taken place just outside Oswestry.

Cynddylan is first mentioned at ‘the field of Maes Cogwy' when the army of Penda was apparently hard pressed and ‘Cynddylan brought them aid'. A partially re-written poem says that Cynddylan brought seven hundred men to the battle. In the aftermath of victory Penda and Cynddylan seem to have fallen out and Cynddylan, allied with King Morfael of Wall-by-Lichfield (Caer Luitcoet), defeated an English army with bishops under the walls of the town possibly in 655. Probably in 656, Oswy of Northumbria invaded the region and forced Morfael to flee to Glastonbury. Cynddylan and his brothers stood and fought at the ford of the River Tren, which may have been the River Tern, but is surely more likely to be the River Trent. Certainly Wall-by-Lichfield is only some five miles from the Trent.

A 9th century Welsh poem mourns his death, Marwnad Cynddylan ("Elegy for Cynddylan"), as well as the cycle of poems known as Canu Heledd ("Song of Heledd"), Heledd being his sister.

It is in these poems that are found the statements which suggest that the hall of Cynddylan lay on the site of the later Whittington Castle. The suggestion that Pengwern is Whittington and not Shrewsbury has long been mooted. To sum up, Pengwern is unlikely to be Shrewsbury on etymology alone. Pengwern means head or end of the marsh. This hardly applies to Shrewsbury, which is first mentioned as a city in 901. Conversely Whittington, Tref wen in modern Welsh, could well be a mutation from Trefgwern the town of the marsh. Whittington of course stands in a boggy marsh that runs south-eastwards to Baschurch which is mentioned in the poem as the burial place of Cynddylan. Heledd's lament for her brother currently lasts for 113 verses. Most reference books date the manuscripts as originating in the ninth century, but the core of the poem would seem to be almost contemporary with the events it alludes to.