Gwyddno Garanhir was the supposed ruler of a sunken land off the coast of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, known as

Cantre'r Gwaelod , also known as or ( en, The Lowland Hundred), is a legendary ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island and Bardsey Island in what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales. It has been ...

. He was the father of

Elffin ap Gwyddno :''The variant spelling 'Elphin' may refer to Saint Elphin, the town of Elphin, County Roscommon, Ireland or the Diocese of Elphin, cathedral in Sligo Town, Co. Sligo, Ireland. Elphin is also a village in Sutherland, Scotland.'' In Welsh myth ...

, the foster-father of the famous

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the court ...

in the legendary account given in the late medieval ''Chwedl Taliesin'' (''Ystoria Taliesin''/''

Hanes Taliesin ''The Hanes Taliesin'' (''Historia Taliesin, The Tale of Taliesin'') is a legendary account of the life of the poet Taliesin recorded in the mid-16th century by Elis Gruffydd. The tale was also recorded in a slightly different version by John Jo ...

''; "The Tale of Taliesin").

Legend

The basket of Gwyddno Garanhir is one of the

Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain The Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain (Welsh: ''Tri Thlws ar Ddeg Ynys Prydain'') are a series of items in late-medieval Welsh tradition. Lists of the items appear in texts dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.Jones, Mary"Tri Thlws a ...

. According to tradition, Gwyddno was the lord of ''

'' ( en, The Lowland

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

) in what is now

Cardigan Bay Cardigan Bay ( cy, Bae Ceredigion) is a large inlet of the Irish Sea, indenting the west coast of Wales between Bardsey Island, Gwynedd in the north, and Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire at its southern end. It is the largest bay in Wales. Geo ...

. His chief

fortress A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

was said to have been ''Caer Wyddno'' ( en, the Fort of Gwyddno), located somewhere to the north-west of modern-day

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth () is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location i ...

. 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 Seithenyn (sometimes spelt Seithennin) sometimes known as ''Seithenyn of the feeble mind'' is a figure from Welsh legend, apparently contemporary with King Gwyddno Garanhir. He is the protagonist of a poem in the Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin (Black Bo ...

, 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 underwater 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 Prior to the Conquest of Wales, completed in 1282, Wales consisted of a number of independent kingdoms, the most important being Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarth (originally Ceredigion, Seisyllwg and Dyfed) and Morgannwg (Glywysing and Gwent). Bounda ...

' by the 18th century

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

Iolo Morganwg Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celtic Encycloped ...

, well known for his literary forgeries, but he does not appear in the

Old Welsh Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic ...

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 of

Meirionydd Meirionnydd is a coastal and mountainous region of Wales. It has been a kingdom, a cantref, a district and, as Merionethshire, a county. Kingdom Meirionnydd (Meirion, with -''ydd'' as a Welsh suffix of land, literally ''Land adjoined to Meirio ...

, who is perhaps the most likely candidate. In

Susan Cooper Susan Mary Cooper (born 23 May 1935) is an English author of children's books. She is best known for '' The Dark Is Rising'', a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian le ...

's The Dark is Rising series, Gwyddno is the king of the Lost Lands in ''Silver on the Tree''.

Epithet

His name is

and means ''Gwyddno Long-Shanks,'' ''Crane-Legs,'' or literally ''Tall-Crane.''

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 , date=c. 1810 , editor-last=Williams (ab Iolo) , editor-first=Taliesin , contribution= , title=Iolo Manuscripts , publisher=William Rees , publication-date=1848 , publication-place=Llandovery , pages= , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnBoaWNvArEC

External links

Dialogue of Gwyddno Garanhir and Gwyn ap Nudd
Monarchs of Meirionydd Sub-Roman monarchs Taliesin Legendary Welsh people