Meirchion Gul

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meirchion Gul was probably a late 5th century king of Rheged, a Brythonic realm in the area of sub-Roman known as the Hen Ogledd (in the North of England today).

Next to nothing is known about Meirchion, although his epithet means the Lean. He appears in the Old Welsh pedigrees of the 'Men of the North' as the son of the equally obscure Gwrast Lledlwm, a grandson of Coel Hen, and grandfather of the slightly better documented Urien Rheged. He is assumed, like Urien, to have ruled Rheged. His two sons appear at the head of two later dynasties. Cynfarch Oer was Urien's father. Another son, Elidyr Llydanwyn (the Stout and Handsome), is sometimes suggested as the ruler of an undocumented 'South Rheged'. He was the father of Llywarch Hen.