- Chapter Thirty-Six -
There is ambiguity in this passage: the only Welsh regio named is Gwynedd, but it
also says that Cunedda and his sons drove out the Irish ab istis regionibus, suggesting
either that Gwynedd was not the only land to be freed from the foreign settlers or
that it was perceived as a collection of regiones.^24 All one can say is that in terms of the
territories named, chapter 14 and chapter 62 look to the south-west and the north-
west of Wales respectively. Chapter 62 of the Historia Brittonum likewise differs from
the Harleian Genealogies: although it mentions eight sons of Cunedda, it makes no
reference to any land-division between them. The Vita Secunda of St Carannog
quotes the Harleian version almost verbatim, in a corrupt form, but then goes on to
say that the Irish fought against one of the sons of Cunedda, Ceredig (the eponym of
Ceredigion), and conquered all his territory.25 The defeat of the Irish, so we are left to
assume, was the work of Ceredig's successor. These differences may be tabulated as
follows:
HB c. 14 HB c.^62 Har!' Gen. Vita II S. Car.
Migration: Yes Yes Yes
Irish expelled: Yes Yes Later
Where from: Dyfed Gwynedd Ceredigion
Gwyr (+ other
Cedweli regiones?)
Land -division: Yes YesThere are some very puzzling things about these texts. It will be noticed that
the version which has Cunedda and his sons expelling the Irish from Dyfed is
contemporary with Merfyn Frych, who ruled Gwynedd, while the version which is
contemporary with Owain ap Hywel Dda, who was ruler of Dyfed, specifically
excludes Dyfed from the territories shared out among Cunedda's sons. In other
words, there is no consistent relationship between the location of a ninth-or tenth-
century kingdom and the location of the land-taking activities of Cunedda and his
sons. To regard the story, in all its versions, as essentially an origin legend justifying
the position of the Second Dynasty of Gwynedd is to ignore the layout, geographi-
cal and chronological, of the evidence. These versions may have been contemporary
with rulers belonging to the Second Dynasty, but there is no good reason to suppose
that they were sponsored by kings to justify their power.
Information from the other side of the Irish Sea does not simplify matters. The
story of the 'Expulsion (or Migration) of the Deissi' claims that one branch of the
Deissi founded the royal dynasty of Dyfed; Cormac's Glossary places the fortress of
the sons of Lfathan in Cornwall, not in Dyfed as in the Historia Brittonum, c. 14,---------_._-
24 On the one hand there is in regione Guenedotae, Historia Brittonum, c. 62, and the ab
omnibus Britannicis regionibus of c. 14, which may include Dyfed, Gwyr and Cedweli; on
the other hand there is the possiblity that districts such as Rhos, Mon, Arfon, etc. might
also bc regarded as regiones.
25 Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae et Genealogiae, ed A.W Wade-Evans (Cardiff, 1944), 148 (§§
2-3); the only significant change is that the southern boundary is the Gwaun, not the Teifi.