A granddaughter, a grandson, and a misplaced father.

How a Pedigree and Geoffrey of Monmouth corroborate the lost Northern Chronicle of Rhun ab Urien.

In my previous article I pointed out that there seems to have been a break in continuity within the line of succession for the late-5th century kingdom of Ebrauc.

This leads me to the conclusion that this is a fragment from a regnal list of Ebrauc itself, showing direct father-son transfer of power, except for Garbanian. It is unlikely that Garbanian’s interpolation is a mistake, as it seems quite deliberate, and it is also unlikely that it represents a missing generation, as it shifts all of the late 6th century figures out too far to be chronologically acceptable. The conclusion here is that Garbanian, potentially acting as high-king for a short time, may have ruled Ebrauc while Arthwys was young. This poises Arthwys to act as Garbanian’s Penteulu, fighting ‘cum regibus Brittonum’.

This particular interpolation in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work is quite interesting. This is also corroborated by an anomalous pedigree for the wife of Cinuit ap Cynfelyn ap Arthwys ap Mar. This pedigree gives her pedigree as Peren ferch Greidal ab Arthrwys (an interesting spelling variant which is very close in pronunciation to the most common latinisation of Arthur, Arthurus) ap Garmon, with Garmon being another form of Garbanian. The coincidence here could lead one to a few conclusions.

• Arthrwys ap Garmon is a different figure entirely, who just so happens to be in the exact same generation and locale as Arthwys ap Mar.

• They are the same, and the corroboration between Geoffrey and the Pedigree of Peren ferch Greidal may indicate that Arthwys’ father was actually Garbanian.

• They are the same, and the corroboration between Geoffrey and the Pedigree instead indicates that Garbanian was an interpolation into a regnal list, not a pedigree.

The first is unlikely, the synchronicity here between two royals operating in the same area, in the same generation, with the same name is unlikely. The second conclusion is always a possibility, but there are a few reasons to doubt it. We do have a pedigree for Garbanian/Garmon, and he is solidly given as a son of Coel dating his birth to around 410. For Arthwys to have been his son this would require shortening everything by a generation. This begins to pose a problem when it comes to Arthwys’ known decendents, like Gwgon Gwron, who was an adult when he was driven from Ebrauc in 580, and Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio ab Arthwys who died in 573 at the battle of Arfderydd. It is not a complete impossibility for a son of Coel to have sired a son in the late 460s, or possibly early 470s, but it is improbable. I find it more likely that Garbanian, the eldest Coeling probably stepped in to fill the role left open by Mar, who probably died in the 480s fighting the early incursions of the Dal Riatans.

An Irish Warlord

This is recorded in a speculated lost ‘Northern Annal’ likely written by Rhun ab Urien, that Geoffrey of Monmouth at least partially drew his information from, giving us the jumbled Arthgallo narrative, with the pedigree of Arthwys given almost completely intact, up to the last kings of Ebrauc, Peredur and Gwrgi¹. There may have been no dating associated with the manuscript, and Geoffrey seems to have fit this narrative where he wanted to, placing them some 700 years or so earlier than their actual floruits. This is again preserved in the corrupted pedigree, which may have been drawn from the same document, with the copyist knowing that Peren’s father was Greidal, and Greidal’s father was, and that Arthrwys was preceded by Garbanion, so must have been his son. Working from so many different documents etc this would be an easy mistake for one to make.

1. Geoffrey calls Peredur’s twin here Ingenius, a latinisation of the Welsh name Owain. I have speculated that Gwrgi, a nickname meaning man-dog, may have been an epithet given to him. Considering that Rhun ab Urien had a brother named Owain as well, it is likely that the lost Northern Annal or Chronicle written by Rhun ab Urien referred to him by such a nickname, in order to distinguish him from Owain ab Urien, who as the authors brother, would of course need to be featured properly. This coupled with Peredur and Gwrgi’s seemingly antagonistic nature towards the Western branch of the Coeling helps fuel this line of thinking.