Urien
(also spelled Urbgen, Uryen) was a warrior-king of the royal house of Rheged
some time in the late sixth century (see post on Urien Rheged). One son, Owain, was celebrated in the poetry
attributed to Taliesin and later a hero of medieval Arthurian romance (see post
on Owain son of Urien).
Another son, Rhun or Rum, is mentioned in Historia Brittonum in a context that
suggests he was an important figure in the Christian church (see post on Rhun son of Urien).
What can we say about Urien’s other children?
Evidence
Genealogies
Both the
Harleian and the Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd (Descent of the Men of the North)
genealogies end with Urien and do not mention any descendants:
[U]rbgen map Cinmarc map Merchianum map Gurgust map
Coilhen
Vryen
uab Kynuarch m Meirchavn m Gorust Letlvm m Keneu m Coel
Llywarch Hen poetry
The medieval
manuscript ‘The Red Book of Hergest’ contains several poems attributed to
Llywarch Hen (Llywarch the Old). According
to the genealogies, Llywarch was a cousin and approximate contemporary or
Urien, and the poem ‘The Death of Urien’ describes Llywarch carrying Urien’s
severed head after Urien had been assassinated.
The poem also mentions warfare in the aftermath of Urien’s death:
Dunawd,
the leading horseman, would drive onward,
Intent upon making a corpse,
Against the onset of Owain.
Dunawd, the chief of the age, would drive onward,
Intent upon making battle,
Against the conflict of Pasgen.
Gwallawg, the horseman of tumult, would drive onward,
Intent upon trying the sharpest edge,
Against the conflict of Elphin.
Owain
is identified as a son of Urien in the poetry attributed to Taliesin. The similar structure of the verses suggests
that Pasgen and Elphin are also to be regarded as sons of Urien in this
poem. A Pasgen son of Urien is identified
in the Welsh Triads.
Triads
Three
Fettered Warbands of the Island of Britain
And
the second, the War-Band of Rhiwallawn son of Urien when fighting with the
Saxons
Three
Arrogant Men of the Island of Britain:
Sawyl
High-Head, and Pasgen son of Urien, and Rhun son of Einiawn.
Three
Fair Womb Burdens of the Island of Britain:
The
second, Owain son of Urien and Mor(fudd) his sister who were carried together
in the womb of Modron daughter of Afallach
Three
Lovers of the Island of Britain:
Cynon
son of Clydno (for Morfudd daughter of Urien);
and
Caswallawn son of Beli (for Fflur daughter of Ugnach(?) the Dwarf);and
Drystan (son of Tallwch, for Essyllt, the wife of his uncle March).
A
variant of the Three Fair Womb-Burdens triad adds ‘Anarun archbishop of Llydaw’
to Owain and Morfudd. This may be a mention of Rum or Rhun ap Urien who appears
as a churchman in Historia Brittonum.
Whether it represents an independent tradition, or just a note added by
a scribe who had read Historia Brittonum, is open to interpretation (see post
on Rhun son of Urien).
Interpretation
Between
them, the various sources list five sons of Urien, Owain, Pasgen, Elphin,
Rhiwallawn and Rhun, and a daughter, Morfudd.
Owain
Owain
is celebrated in Taliesin’s poetry, where he is described as fighting alongside
his father Urien and as a chief in his own right (see article on Owain son of Urien for
more details). This is consistent with Owain being regarded as Urien’s
second-in-command, heir and successor. In turn, this is consistent with Owain
as the eldest son, although this is not definitive.
Rhun
Rhun
(also spelled Run, or Rum) is the only one of Urien’s children to be named in
Historia Brittonum. He is described in a context that suggests he was an
important figure in the Christian church, although a verse in the Llywarch Hen
poetry also describes him as a secular ruler and warrior. He may have held both
roles at different times (see the post on Rhun son of Urien).
If he was a king of Rheged, it is not known whether he ruled alone or jointly
with one or more of Urien’s other children.
Morfudd
Morfudd
appears in two Triads. In one she is
said to be the twin of Owain. As Owain
was evidently an adult of fighting age before Urien’s death, Morfudd would also
have been an adult before Urien’s death.
She would therefore have been of marriageable age, and may well have
been married.
The
second Triad refers to a great love between Morfudd and a man named Cynan ap
Clydno. A warrior called Cynan ap Clyddno appears as a hero in Y Gododdin. A man named Clyddno Eidyn
appears in the Harleian and Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd genealogies, traced back to
Coel Hen (see earlier article on Coel Hen)
in one, and to the king of Alt Clud, Dyfnwal, in another. His epithet ‘Eidyn’ suggests an association
with Edinburgh. Exactly how Cynan and Clyddno fitted into the plethora of
kingdoms in sixth-century northern England/southern Scotland is open to
interpretation. However, if either or
both were important figures in the kingdom of Gododdin and/or Alt Clud, Cynan
ap Clyddno would not be an implausible candidate as a husband or lover for the
daughter of Urien. The Triad may refer to a marriage between Cynan and Morfudd,
perhaps to seal an alliance or agreement between Rheged and one of its
northern/north-eastern neighbours. Or, given that it shares a Triad with the
famous romantic tragedy of Drystan and Essyllt (better known as Tristan and
Isolde), perhaps it refers to a star-crossed romance between them. The Triad may refer to a story or poem about
their relationship that was once well known but has now been lost. More prosaically, Morfudd and Cynan may have
been fictional characters from a medieval romance, who were given suitably
romantic family connections by medieval scribes who thought it appropriate that
a romantic hero and heroine should belong to lost sixth-century royal
dynasties.
Pasgen
Pasgen
is mentioned fighting against a warrior and/or king called Dunawd in the
Llywarch Hen poetry. Owain is also mentioned fighting against the same
adversary in the previous verse. These
verses occur after Llywarch’s lament for Urien’s death, so if this represents
the order of events, the conflict with Dunawd was thought to have followed
Urien’s assassination. This is
plausible; if Urien was a powerful ruler of a large territory, his sudden death
may have been regarded by rivals and neighbours as an opportunity to try
grabbing parts of the territory for themselves.
If Urien’s realm of Rheged was a relatively recent creation, perhaps put
together in part by conquest and coercion, subordinate kings and chiefs might
also see his sudden removal as an opportunity to regain their
independence. Unless Owain and Pasgen
fought Dunawd in conflicts widely separated in time (which is possible), the
description of them both fighting the same adversary may indicate that they
were both of fighting age at the same time, and may have been approximate
contemporaries. Pasgen also appears in
the Triads as one of the ‘Three Arrogant Men’, which may indicate the existence
of a now-lost story about him.
Elphin
Elphin
also appears as a fighter in the Llywarch Hen poetry, but his adversary is named
as Gwallawg the horseman. This may refer
to Guallauc ap Lleenauc, another late sixth-century king of somewhere in what
is now northern England/southern Scotland (see post on Guallauc ap Lleenauc for
more information).
He may be the Gwallawg who campaigned against Bernicia at the same time as
Urien. If so, and if this was the same
campaign in which Urien was assassinated at the siege of Lindisfarne, this may
be a context for a conflict between Elphin and Guallauc. Or Guallauc may simply have been an ambitious
neighbour looking to extend his territory at Rheged’s expense after Urien’s
death.
Rhiwallawn
Rhiwallawn
does not appear in the Llywarch Hen poetry.
He is mentioned in the Triads as the leader of a warband fighting the
Saxons, which may indicate that he was also thought of as a warrior-hero.
Conclusion
Owain
and Rhun can be accepted as historical figures on the basis of the Taliesin
poetry and Historia Brittonum. The other
children of Urien appear only in the later Llywarch Hen poetry and the Triads. These are later sources and may therefore be
less reliable. However, what they say about the children of Urien is not
implausible, and Morfudd, Pasgen, Elphin and Rhiwallawn could have been siblings
of Owain and Rhun.
All
of Urien’s sons are described as warriors (Owain in the Taliesin poetry, Rhun,
Elphin and Pasgen in the Llywarch Hen poetry, and Rhiwallawn in the
Triads). This may just reflect a
conventional assumption about the appropriate job description for any son of a
famous warrior-king, or it may reflect lost material about their careers.
It is
not known whether any or all of Urien’s sons succeeded him as Kings of
Rheged. If they did, it is not known
whether they ruled sequentially or jointly, in what order, for how long, or
with what degree of success. Owain and
Rhun are both described in the poetry as rulers (chiefs), suggesting that they
held some political power, at least for a time.
Pasgen, Elphin and Rhiwallawn are not so described. This may just be an
arbitrary choice on the part of the poets, or it may indicate that they were
not regarded as rulers in their own right.
The
different adversaries assigned to Owain/Pasgen, Elphin and Rhiwallawn would be
consistent with (but do not prove) partition of the territories of Urien’s
Rheged between his sons after his death.
If the sons each had a separate area of territory to rule and defend,
they might be expected to face different regional enemies. Conversely, the sons
could have been defending different border areas of the same territory, or
fighting successive enemies at different times.
Morfudd
appears in the Triads as the great love of Cynan son of Clyddno, a warrior-hero
mentioned in Y Gododdin. She was perhaps the heroine of a lost romance
telling their story. This would also be consistent with her other appearance in
the Triads and in the Story of King Urien and Modron, as the twin sister of the
hero Owain and the daughter of Urien’s possibly-supernatural queen (see post on
Owain son of Urien for more details).
It is possible that Morfudd was a fictional romantic heroine, who was later
given a connection to other famous figures of legend, Urien and Owain, by a
scribe or poet who felt that she should have a suitably romantic origin.
However, there is no obvious reason why she could not have been a genuine
historical figure. If she was, a relationship with a warrior-hero of Gododdin
or Alt Clud, Cynan ap Clydno, would not be implausible. The Triad may refer to
a dynastic marriage between them.
Conversely, given that it is bracketed with the romantic tragedy of
Tristan and Essyllt, it may refer to a doomed love affair that did not end in a
successful marriage, for whatever reason.
The
evidence for Morfudd, Pasgen, Elphin and Rhiwallawn as historical figures is
very limited, relying on late sources (the Llywarch Hen poetry and the Triads).
However, what is said about them is not implausible for children of Urien
Rheged. Whether they were genuine historical figures, and what roles they may
have played in sixth- and seventh-century history, is open to interpretation.
References