Hen Ogledd

Yr Hen Ogledd(Welsh pronunciation:[ərˌheːnˈɔɡlɛð]), meaningthe Old North,is thehistorical regionthat was inhabited by theBrittonic peopleofsub-Roman Britainin theEarly Middle Ages,nowNorthern Englandand the southernScottish Lowlands,alongside the fellow Brittonic CelticKingdom of Elmet.Its population spoke a variety of theBrittonic languageknown asCumbricwhich is closely related to, if not a dialect ofOld Welsh.Thepeople of Walesand the Hen Ogledd considered themselves to be one people, and both were referred to asCymry('fellow-countrymen') from the Brittonic wordcombrogi.The Hen Ogledd was distinct from the parts ofGreat Britaininhabited by thePicts,Anglo-Saxons,andScoti.

The major kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd wereElmet,Gododdin,Rheged,and theKingdom of Strathclyde(Welsh:Ystrad Clud). Smaller kingdoms includedAeronandCalchfynydd.Eidyn,Lleuddiniawn,andManaw Gododdinwere evidently parts of Gododdin. The laterAnglekingdoms ofDeiraandBerniciaboth had Brittonic-derived names, suggesting they may have been Brittonic kingdoms originally. All the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd except Strathclyde were gradually either integrated or subsumed by the emerging Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Gaelic Scots and fellow Brittonic Picts by about 800; Strathclyde was eventually incorporated into the risingMiddle Irish-speakingKingdom of Scotlandin the 11th century.

The memory of the Hen Ogledd remained strong in Wales after its fall, and indeed the term came into being in Wales after the destruction of the Brittonic kingdoms of the north. Welsh tradition included genealogies of theGwŷr y Gogledd,or Men of the North, and several important Welsh dynasties traced their lineage to them. A number of important early Welsh texts were attributed to the Men of the North, such asTaliesin,Aneirin,Myrddin Wyllt,and theCynfeirddpoets. Heroes of the north such asUrien,Owain mab Urien,andCoel Henand his descendants feature in Welsh poetry and theWelsh Triads.

Background

Almost nothing is reliably known of Central Britain before c. 550. There had never been a period of long-term, effectiveRomancontrol north of theTyne–Solwayline, and south of that line effective Roman control began to erode before the traditionally given date of departure of theRoman militaryfromRoman Britainin 407. It was noted in the writings ofAmmianus Marcellinusand others that there was ever-decreasing Roman control from about AD 100 onward, and in the years after 360 there was widespread disorder and the large-scale permanent abandonment of territory by the Romans.

By 550, the region was controlled by nativeBrittonic-speaking peoples except for the eastern coastal areas, which were controlled by the Anglian peoples ofBerniciaandDeira.To the north were thePicts(now also accepted as Brittonic speakers prior to Gaelicisation) with theGaelickingdom ofDál Riatato the northwest. All of these peoples would play a role in the history of the Old North.

Historical context

From a historical perspective, wars were frequently internecine, and Britons were aggressors as well as defenders, as was also true of the Angles, Picts, andGaels.However, those Welsh stories of the Hen Ogledd that tell of Britons fighting Anglians have a counterpart, told from the opposite side. The story of the demise of the kingdoms of the Old North is the story of the rise of the Kingdom ofNorthumbriafrom two coastal kingdoms to become the premier power in Britain north of theHumberand south of theFirth of Clydeand theFirth of Forth.

The interests of kingdoms of this era were not restricted to their immediate vicinity. Alliances were not made only within the same ethnic groups, nor were enmities restricted to nearby different ethnic groups. An alliance of Britons fought against another alliance of Britons at theBattle of Arfderydd.Áedán mac GabráinofDál Riataappears in theBonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd,a genealogy among the pedigrees of the Men of the North.TheHistoria Brittonumstates thatOswiu,king of Northumbria, married a Briton who may have had some Pictish ancestry.A marriage between the Northumbrian and Pictish royal families would produce the Pictish kingTalorgan I.Áedán mac Gabráin fought as an ally of the Britons against the Northumbrians.Cadwallon ap Cadfanof theKingdom of Gwyneddallied withPenda of Merciato defeatEdwin of Northumbria.

Conquest and defeat did not necessarily mean the extirpation of one culture and its replacement by another. The Brittonic region of northwestern England was absorbed by Anglian Northumbria in the 7th century, yet it would re-emerge 300 years later as South Cumbria, joined with North Cumbria (Strathclyde) into a single state.

Societal context

The organisation of the Men of the North wastribal,based onkinshipgroups of extended families, owing allegiance to a dominant "royal" family, sometimes indirectly through client relationships, and receiving protection in return. ForCelticpeoples, this organisation was still in effect hundreds of years later, as shown in the IrishBrehon law,the WelshLaws of Hywel Dda,and theScottishLaws of the Brets and Scots.TheAnglo-Saxon lawhad culturally different origins, but with many similarities toCeltic law.Like Celtic law, it was based on cultural tradition, without any perceivable debt to the Roman occupation of Britain.

A primaryroyal court(Welsh:llys) would be maintained as a "capital", but it was not the bureaucratic administrative centre of modern society, nor the settlement orcivitasof Roman rule. As the ruler and protector of his kingdom, the king would maintain multiple courts throughout his territory, travelling among them to exercise his authority and to address the needs of his people, such as in the dispensing of justice. This ancient method of dispensing justice survived as a part of royal procedure until the reforms ofHenry II(reigned 1154–1189) modernised the administration of law.

Language

Main article:Cumbric

Modern scholarship uses the term "Cumbric" for the Brittonic language spoken in the Hen Ogledd. It appears to have been very closely related toOld Welsh,with some local variances, and more distantly related toCornish,Bretonand the pre-Gaelic form ofPictish.There are no surviving texts written in the dialect; evidence for it comes from placenames, proper names in a few earlyinscriptionsand later non-Cumbric sources, two terms in theLeges inter Brettos et Scottos,and the corpus of poetry by thecynfeirdd,the "early poets", nearly all of which deals with the north.

Thecynfeirddpoetry is the largest source of information, and it is generally accepted that some part of the corpus was first composed in the Hen Ogledd.However, it survives entirely in later manuscripts created in Wales where the oral tradition continued on, and it is unknown how faithful they are to the originals. Still, the texts do contain discernible variances that distinguish the speech from the Welsh dialects. In particular, these texts contain a number ofarchaisms– features that appear to have once been common in all Brittonic varieties, but which later vanished from Welsh and theSouthwestern Brittonic languages.In general, however, the differences appear to be slight, and the distinction between Cumbric and Old Welsh is largely geographical rather than linguistic.

Cumbric gradually disappeared as the area was conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, and later the Scots andNorse,though it survived in theKingdom of Strathclyde,centred at Alt Clut in what is nowDumbartonin Scotland.Kenneth H. Jacksonsuggested that it re-emerged inCumbriain the 10th century, as Strathclyde established hegemony over that area. It is unknown when Cumbric finally became extinct, but the series ofcounting systems of Brittonic originrecorded in Northern England since the 18th century have been proposed as evidence of a survival of elements of Cumbric;though the view has been largely rejected on linguistic grounds, with evidence pointing to the fact that it was imported to England after theOld Englishera.

Welsh tradition

One of the traditional stories relating to the genealogies of Welsh dynasties derived fromCuneddaand his sons as "Men of the North". Cunedda himself is held to be the progenitor of the royal dynasty of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, one of the largest and most powerful of the medieval Welsh kingdoms, and an ongoing connection to the Hen Ogledd. Cunedda genealogy shows him as a descendant of one ofMagnus Maximus' generals, Paternus, who Maximus appointed as commander at Alt Clut. The Welsh and the Men of the North may have seen themselves as one people. TheWelshname for themselves,Cymry,derives from this ancient relationship, although this is debatable, as while Gwynedd seemed to have good relationships with them, and with Ceredigion, it is unknown how the other Welsh Kingdoms saw them, since they were not unified themselves, especially the southern Kingdoms likeDyfedandYstrad Tywi,which had heavy Irish presence at the time. 'Cymry' was a term that referred to both the Welsh and the Men of the North but was sometimes applied to others such as the Picts and the Irish as well.It is derived from the Brittonic word combrogoi,which meant "fellow-countrymen", and it is worth noting in passing that itsBretoncounterpartkenvroizstill has this original meaning of "compatriots". The word began to be used as an endonym by the Men of the North during the early 7th century (and possibly earlier),and was used throughout theMiddle Agesto describe theKingdom of Strathclyde.Before this, and for some centuries after, the traditional as well as the more literary term wasBrythoniaid,recalling the still older time when all on the island remained a unity.Cymrysurvives today in the native name for Wales (Cymru,land of theCymry), and in the English county nameCumbria,both meaning "homeland", "mother country".

Many of the traditional sources of information about the Hen Ogledd survive in Welsh tradition, and bards such asAneirin(the reputed author ofY Gododdin) are thought to have been court poets in the Hen Ogledd.

Nature of the sources

A listing of passages from the literary and historical sources, particularly relevant to the Hen Ogledd, can be found in SirEdward Anwyl's articleWales and the Britons of the North.A somewhat dated introduction to the study of old Welsh poetry can be found in his 1904 articleProlegomena to the Study of Old Welsh Poetry.

Literary sources

• Thebardicpoetry attributed toTaliesin,Aneirin,andLlywarch Hen.
• The genealogical tracts of theHarleian genealogies,theBonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd,and thegenealogies of Jesus College MS 20.
• TheTriads of the Island of Britain(note that most of the triads published in the notorious third volume ofThe Myvyrian Archaiology of Walesare known to be the forgeries ofIolo Morganwg,and are not considered valid sources of historical information).The standard scholarly edition isTrioedd Ynys PrydeinbyRachel Bromwich.
• The otherelegies(Welsh:marwnadau) andsongs of praise(Welsh:canu mawl), as well as certainmythologicalstories, that have been preserved.

Stories praising a patron and the construction of flattering genealogies are neither unbiased nor reliable sources of historically accurate information. However, while they may exaggerate and make apocryphal assertions, they do not falsify or change the historical facts that were known to the bards' listeners, as that would bring ridicule and disrepute to both the bards and their patrons. In addition, the existence of stories of defeat andtragedy,as well as stories of victory, lends additional credibility to their value as sources of history. Within that context, the stories contain useful information, much of it incidental, about an era of British history where very little is reliably known.

Historical sources

• TheHistoria Brittonumattributed toNennius
• TheAnnales Cambriae
• TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle
• TheEcclesiastical History of the English PeoplebyBede
• TheAnnals of Tigernach

These sources are not without deficiencies. Both the authors and their later transcribers sometimes displayed a partisanship that promoted their own interests, portraying their own agendas in a positive light, always on the side of justice and moral rectitude. Facts in opposition to those agendas are sometimes omitted, and apocryphal entries are sometimes added.

While Bede was a Northumbrian partisan and spoke with prejudice against the native Britons, hisEcclesiastical History of the English Peopleis highly regarded for its effort towards an accurate telling of history, and for its use of reliable sources. When passing along "traditional" information that lacks a historical foundation, Bede takes care to note it as such.

TheDe Excidio et Conquestu BritanniaebyGildas(c. 516–570) is occasionally relevant in that it mentions early people and places also mentioned in the literary and historical sources. The work was intended to preach Christianity to Gildas' contemporaries and was not meant to be a history. It is one of the few contemporary accounts of his era to have survived.

Place names

See also:Cumbric § Place names

Brittonic place names in Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde, and in Cumberland and neighbouring counties, indicate areas of Hen Ogledd inhabited by Britons in the early Middle Ages.

Isolated locations of later British presence are also indicated by place names ofOld EnglishandOld Norseorigin. In Yorkshire, the names ofWalden,WaltonandWalburn,from Old Englishwalas"Britons or Welshmen", indicate Britons encountered by the Anglo-Saxons, and the name ofBirkby,from Old NorseBreta"Britons", indicates a place where the Vikings met Britons.

Dubious and fraudulent sources

TheHistoria Regum BritanniaeofGeoffrey of Monmouthis disparaged aspseudohistory,though it looms large as a source for the largely fictionalchivalric romancestories known collectively as theMatter of Britain.The lack of historical value attributed to theHistorialies only partly in the fact that it contains so many fictions and falsifications of history;the fact that historical accuracy clearly was not a consideration in its creation makes any references to actual people and places no more than a literary convenience.

TheIolo Manuscriptsare a collection of manuscripts presented in the early 19th century by Edward Williams, who is better known asIolo Morganwg.Containing various tales, anecdotal material and elaborate genealogies that connect virtually everyone of note with everyone else of note (and with many connections toArthurand Iolo's native region ofMorgannwg), they were at first accepted as genuine, but have since been shown to be an assortment of forged or doctored manuscripts, transcriptions, and fantasies, mainly invented by Iolo himself. A list of works tainted by their reliance on the material presented by Iolo (sometimes without attribution) would be quite long.

Kingdoms and regions

Major kingdoms

Places in the Old North that are mentioned as kingdoms in the literary and historical sources include:

• Alt Clutor Ystrad Clud – a kingdom centred at what is nowDumbartonin Scotland. Later known as Strathclyde, and possibly even later as Cumbria, it was one of the best attested of the northern British kingdoms. It was also the last surviving, as it operated as an independent realm into the 11th century before it was finally absorbed by theKingdom of Scotland.
• Elmet– centred in westernYorkshirein northern England. It was located south of the other northern British kingdoms, and well east of present-day Wales, but managed to survive into the early 7th century.
• Gododdin– a kingdom in what is now southeastern Scotland and northeastern England, the area previously noted as the territory of theVotadini.They are the subjects of the poemY Gododdin,which memorialises adisastrous raidby an army raised by the Gododdin on the Angles ofBernicia.
• Rheged– a major kingdom that evidently included parts of present-dayCumbria,though its full extent is unknown. It may have covered a vast area at one point, as it is very closely associated with its kingUrien,whose name is tied to places all over northwestern Britain.

Minor kingdoms and other regions

Several regions are mentioned in the sources, assumed to be notable regions within one of the kingdoms if not separate kingdoms themselves:

• Aeron– a minor kingdom mentioned in sources such asY Gododdin,its location is uncertain, but several scholars have suggested that it was in theAyrshireregion of southwest Scotland.It is frequently associated withUrien Rheged,and may have been part of his realm.
• Calchfynydd( "Chalkmountain" ) – almost nothing is known about this area, though it was likely somewhere in the Hen Ogledd, as an evident ruler,Cadrawd Calchfynydd,is listed in theBonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd.William Forbes Skenesuggested an identification withKelso(formerly Calchow) in theScottish Borders.
• Eidyn– this was the area around the modern city ofEdinburgh,then known asDin Eidyn(Fort of Eidyn). It was closely associated with the Gododdin kingdom.Kenneth H. Jacksonargued strongly thatEidynreferred exclusively to Edinburgh,but other scholars have taken it as a designation for the wider area.The name may survive today in toponyms such asEdinburgh(Dunedin in Gaelic, Din Eidyn inCumbric,andCarriden(fromCaer Eidyn)), located fifteen miles to the west.Din Eidyn was besieged by the Angles in 638 and was under their control for most of the next three centuries.
• Manaw Gododdin– the coastal area south of theFirth of Forth,and part of the territory of the Gododdin.The name survives in Slamannan Moor and the village ofSlamannan,inStirlingshire.This is derived fromSliabh Manann,the 'Moor of Manann'.It also appears in the name ofDalmeny,some 5 miles northwest ofEdinburgh,and formerly known as Dumanyn, assumed to be derived fromDun Manann.The name also survives north of the Forth in Pictish Manaw as the name of theburghofClackmannanand the eponymous county ofClackmannanshire,derived fromClach Manann,the 'stone of Manann',referring to a monument stone located there.
• Novant– a kingdom mentioned inY Gododdin,presumably related to the Iron AgeNovantaetribe of southwestern Scotland.
• Regio Dunutinga– a minor kingdom or region inNorth Yorkshirementioned in theLife of Wilfrid.It was evidently named for a ruler named Dunaut, perhaps theDunaut ap Paboknown from the genealogies.Its name may survive in the modern town ofDent,Cumbria.

Kingdoms that were not part of the Old North but are part of its history include:

• Dál Riata– Though this was aGaelickingdom, the family ofÁedán mac Gabráinof Dál Riata appears in theBonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd
• Northumbriaand its predecessor states,BerniciaandDeira
• Pictish kingdom

Possible kingdoms

The following names appear in historical and literary sources, but it is unknown whether or not they refer to British kingdoms and regions of theHen Ogledd.

• Bryneich– this is the British name for theAnglo-Saxonkingdom ofBernicia.There was probably a British kingdom in this area before the Anglian kingdom, it this is uncertain.
• Deifror Dewr – this was the British name for Anglo-SaxonDeira,a region between theRiver Teesand theHumber.The name is of British origin, as with Bryneich, it is unknown if it represented an earlier British kingdom.

See also

• Wales in the Early Middle Ages
• Scotland in the Early Middle Ages
• History of Anglo-Saxon England
• England in the Middle Ages
• Northumbria
• Mercia
• Kingdom of Gwynedd
• Historical basis for King Arthur
• Cumbric language
• King Cole

References

• Bromwich, Rachel;Foster, Idris Llewelyn; Jones, R. Brinley (1978),Astudiaethau ar yr Hengerdd: Studies in Old Welsh Poetry,University of Wales Press,ISBN0-7083-0696-9
• Bromwich, Rachel(2006),Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain,University of Wales Press,ISBN0-7083-1386-8
• Chadwick, Nora K.(1968),The British Heroic Age: the Welsh and the Men of the North,University of Wales Press,ISBN0-7083-0465-6
• Davies, John(1990),A History of Wales(First ed.), London: Penguin Group (published 1993),ISBN0-7139-9098-8
• Dumville, David (1994),"The eastern terminus of the Antonine Wall: 12th or 13th century evidence"(PDF),Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,124:293–298,doi:10.9750/PSAS.124.293.298,S2CID159974303,retrieved7 September2011.
• Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone(1953),Language and History in Early Britain: A chronological survey of the Brittonic languages, first to twelfth century A.D.,Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
• Jackson, Kenneth H.(1969),The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish Poem,Edinburgh University Press
• Koch, John T. (1997),The Gododdin of Aneirin: Text and Context from Dark-Age North Britain,University of Wales Press,ISBN0-7083-1374-4
• Koch, John T. (2006),Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia,ABC-CLIO,ISBN978-1-85109-440-0
• Lloyd, John Edward(1911),A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest,vol. I (Second ed.), London: Longmans, Green, and Co. (published 1912)
• Morris-Jones, John (1918),"Taliesin",Y Cymmrodor,28,Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion,retrieved1 December2010.
• Williams, Ifor(1968),The Poems of Taliesin: Volume 3 of Mediaeval and Modern Welsh Series,Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
• Williams, Ifor(1972),The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry: Studies,University of Wales Press,ISBN0-7083-0035-9

Further reading

• Alcock, Leslie.Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain, AD 550–850.Edinburgh, 2003.
• Alcock, Leslie. "Gwyr y Gogledd. An archaeological appraisal."Archaeologia Cambrensis132 (1984 for 1983). pp. 1–18.
• Cessford, Craig. "Northern England and the Gododdin poem."Northern History33 (1997). pp. 218–22.
• Clarkson, Tim.The Men of the North: the Britons of Southern Scotland.Edinburgh: John Donald, Birlinn Ltd, 2010.
• Clarkson, Tim.Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age.Edinburgh: John Donald, Birlinn Ltd, 2014.
• Dark, Kenneth R.Civitas to Kingdom. British political continuity, 300–800.London: Leicester UP, 1994.
• Dumville, David N. "Early Welsh Poetry: Problems of Historicity." InEarly Welsh Poetry: Studies in the Book of Aneirin,ed. Brynley F. Roberts. Aberystwyth, 1988. 1–16.
• Dumville, David N. "The origins of Northumbria: Some aspects of the British background." InThe Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms,ed. S. Bassett. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1989. pp. 213–22.
• Higham, N.J. "Britons in Northern England: Through a Thick Glass Darkly."Northern History38 (2001). pp. 5–25.
• Macquarrie, A. "The Kings of Strathclyde, c.400–1018." InMedieval Scotland: Government, Lordship and Community,ed. A. Grant and K.J. Stringer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1993. pp. 1–19.
• Miller, Molly. "Historicity and the pedigrees of north countrymen."Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies26 (1975). pp. 255–80.
• Woolf, Alex. "Cædualla Rex Brettonum and the Passing of the Old North."Northern History41.1 (2004): 1–20.

External links

• Matthews, Keith J."What's in a name? Britons, Angles, ethnicity and material culture from the fourth to seventh centuries."Heroic Age4 (Winter 2001).