- Gwyddno Garanhir
Gwyddno Garanhir was the supposed ruler of a sunken land off the coast of
Wales , known asCantre'r Gwaelod . He was the father ofElffin ap Gwyddno , the foster-father of the famous Welshpoet ,Taliesin , in the legendary account given in the late medieval "Chwedl Taliesin" ("Ystoria Taliesin"/"Hanes Taliesin"; "The Tale of Taliesin").Legend
The basket of Gwyddno Garanhir is one of the
Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain . According to tradition, Gwyddno was the lord of "Cantre'r Gwaelod " (Welsh: 'Lowland Hundred') in what is nowCardigan Bay . His chieffortress ("caer") was said to have been 'Caer Wyddno' located north-west ofAberystwyth . The whole kingdom was protected from the sea by floodgates which had to be shut before high tide. One day the keeper of the floodgates, Seithenyn, was drunk and failed to close them, with the result that the sea rushed in and covered the land.Kingdom
Stories of the drowned lands of Gwyddno appear to have arisen from the identification of natural submarinal ridges as the remains of sea walls. However, tradition also assigns Gwyddno a landlocked portion of his kingdom to which he was able to flee. He was called 'King of
Ceredigion ' by the 18th century Welshantiquarian ,Iolo Morganwg , well-known for his literary forgeries, but he does not appear in the Old Welsh pedigrees for that kingdom. He is identified with a number of different historical Gwyddnos in various sources. 16th century writers favoured Gwyddno ap Clydno, the late 6th century King ofMeirionydd , who is perhaps the most likely candidate.Epithet
His name is Welsh and means "Gwyddno Long-Shanks" or "Crane-Legs".
Fiction
King Gwyddno and his kingdom appeared as 'The Lost Land' in the final volume of
Susan Cooper 'sThe Dark is Rising Sequence .References
*Ford, Patrick K. (ed.) (1992). "Ystoria Taliesin". University of Wales Press. (The text of the "Story of Taliesin" in the hand of Elis Gruffydd)
*North, Frederick John. (1957). "Sunken cities: Some legends of the coast and lakes of Wales"
*Citation
last=Williams
first=Edward
author-link=Iolo Morganwg
year=c. 1810
date=c. 1810
editor-last=Williams (ab Iolo)
editor-first=Taliesin
editor-link=
contribution=
title=Iolo Manuscripts
publisher=William Rees
publication-date=1848
publication-place=Llandovery
pages=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=TnBoaWNvArEC&printsec=frontcoverExternal links
* [http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/bbc33.html Dialogue of Gwyddno Garanhir and Gwyn ap Nudd]
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