Amlawdd Wledig (Middle Welsh and other alternative spellings present in relevant sources include Amlawd, Amlawt, Anlawdd, Anlawd, Amlodd, Amlwyd, Aflawdd and Anblaud) was a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain. The Welsh title Gwledig, archaically Gwledic or Guletic and Latinised Guleticus, is defined as follows: "lord, king, prince, ruler; term applied to a number of early British rulers and princes who were prominent in the defence of Britain about the time of the Roman withdrawal; (possibly) commander of the native militia (in a Romano-British province)".[Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, Part 26, Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1974, p. 1682.]
Location
He is described as a king of 'some part of
Wales, possibly on the border with
Herefordshire.
If it is accepted that King
Gwrfoddw of
Ergyng (see below under children) is Amlawdd's son, there would be a logic to Amlawdd also having been a king in the
Ergyng or
Herefordshire area.
Family
Ancestry
At least three different genealogies are suggested for Amlawdd Wledig:
-
The Bonedd yr Arwyr (Section 31) names Amlawdd as the son of Kynwal, son of Ffrewdwr, son of Gwarvawr/Gwdion, son of Kadifen/Kadien (Gadeon), son of Cynan, son of Eudaf, son of Caradoc, son of Brân, son of Llŷr.
-
Peter Bartrum notes that a different genealogy for Amlawdd is present in Peniarth MS 178, part 1, p. 1 (by Gruffudd Hiraethog, c. 1545). There, Amlawdd's daughter is named as Igraine ('daughter of') Aflawdd Wledig ap Lambor (or Lambord) ap Manael ap Carcelois ap Jossue ap Evgen ('sister of') Joseph Armathia. Bartrum explains (p. 130) that around the year 1400 the monks of Glastonbury adapted the lineage of the Lancelot-Grail's Grail Kings to descend from Enigeus (sister of Joseph of Arimathea) down to Lambor, father of the Fisher King, who in this account fathers an unnamed son who is in turn the father of Arthur's mother Igraine. Bartrum points out that later Welsh texts adapted this genealogy, replacing the word filius (‘son’), which stood for the unnamed son, with Amlawdd Wledig.
-
It has also been suggested that the name Amlawdd could be a variation of the name Amleth or Amlethus, which appears in Saxo Grammaticus' thirteenth century Gesta Danorum and is the origin of Shakespeare's character Hamlet. However, Amleth is described as a Jute (rather than a Dane) who marries the daughter of the British King on his first trip to Britain. In terms of the chronology, Amleth could be identical to Amlawdd Wledig. However, Amlawdd is not described as being of Jutish or Saxon origin in the Welsh Arthurian texts.
Wives
Amlawdd is said to have been the husband of Gwen, the daughter of
Cunedda, the legendary northern king said either to have migrated
or to have been sent south by
Vortigern to drive Irish invaders from the Kingdom of Gwynedd.
Children
A number of figures from the Arthurian legends are suggested (with varying levels of plausibility) to have been the children of Amlawdd, including:
-
Igraine the mother of King Arthur.
-
Rieingulid, the mother of Illtud.
-
Goleuddydd, the mother of Culhwch.
-
Tywanwedd, Tywynwedd or Dwywanedd, the wife of Hawystl Gloff and the mother of Caradoc, Gwyn ab Nudd, Gwallawc ab Lleenawg, and Tyfrydog. (Source: Bonedd y Saint)
[Rice Rees. The Welsh Saints (1839) - see External References, below)]
-
Two unnamed daughters, sisters to Enfeidas (f), by Amlawdd's fifth wife Denyw (see Wives, above). Enfeidas is said, in Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône to be Arthur's aunt, a goddess, and the queen of Avalon.
-
Gwyar, argued by some to be the mother of Gwalchmai or Gawain;
[R. Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the Welsh Triads (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978), pp.372–3.] however, others argue that Gwyar is a male name and that Gwyar is therefore the name of Gwalchmai's father. Gwyar is also said to be the wife of Geraint and the mother of Cadwy (Cador)
-
Llygadrudd Emys ('Red-Eye Stallion') and Gwrbothu Hen ('Gwrfoddw the Old'), listed as brothers of Arthur's unnamed mother in Culhwch and Olwen, killed by Twrch Trwyth at Talgarth. Gwrbothu Hen may refer to the later historical King Gwrfoddw of Ergyng, or an ancestor of his as denoted by the epithet Hen ('the old' or 'the elder').
-
Gweir Paladr Hir ('Gwair Long Staff') and Gweir Gwrhyd Ennwir ('Gwair False Valour'), listed as "uncles of Arthur, his mother's brothers" later in the Arthurian court lists of Culhwch and Olwen.
Relationship to King Arthur and debated historicity
Amlawdd Wledig is named in many sources to have been the maternal grandfather of
King Arthur,
while others suggest he is a genealogical construct, created in order to justify the kinship connections referred to in the Welsh prose tale of
Culhwch and Olwen between Arthur,
Culhwch,
Illtud and Goreu fab Custennin.
Amlawdd does not appear in the list of Kings of Britain given by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
[Peter Bartrum ed. Bonedd yr Arwyr (Unpublished genealogical material concerning the heroes of early Welsh history and legend, 1959).]
[Peter Bartrum ed. Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts (University of Wales, 1966)]
[Peter Bartrum ed. Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend Up to About A.D. 1000 (National Library of Wales, February 1994) ]
[Bromwich, R. and Evans, D. Simon. Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.44-5 ]
[Bruce, Christopher W. The Arthurian Name Dictionary (Routledge, 2013) ]
[Davies, John. A History of Wales. Penguin (New York), 1994. .]
[Norma Lorre Goodrich, King Arthur (HarperPerennial; New edition, 1989) ]
[Wade-Evans, A.W. Welsh Christian Origins (Oxford, 1934) pp.102 quoted in Peter Bartrum ed. Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend Up to About A.D. 1000 (National Library of Wales, February 1994) pp.14-15 ]
External links
