Heledd
Heledd ferch Cyndrwyn is the name of a female figure from the Celtic mythology and history of Wales . Her life is described in the poetry collection Canu Heledd .
Canu Heledd
Heledd was a sister of the Welsh king Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn of Powys , who died in 642 (or 644 according to the Annales Cambriae ) at the Battle of Maserfield ( Welsh Maes Cogwy ). The place of slaughter is now mostly localized with Oswestry (Welsh Croesoswallt ) in Shropshire . The further fate of Heledd is the subject of a cycle of poems, probably from the 9th / 10th centuries. Century. In the Llyfr Coch Hergest ("Red Book of Hergest") and in some other manuscripts it is handed down under the name Canu Heledd ("Heledds Gesang"), whereby the poem Stafell cynddylan is tywyll beno ("The hall of Cynddylan is dark tonight " ) forms the center.
This poem describes the desolation of the royal castle of Pengwern after Cynddylan's death. The enemies have destroyed them and devastated the surrounding area, instead of fires and candlelight there is darkness, instead of happy songs there is silence. In other chants, Heledd laments the death of the brothers, the devastated land and their helplessness. Three times in the cycle she calls herself the guilty party for the fall of the royal family, although this guilt is not discussed. Some literary historians conclude from this that Canu Heledd is merely the poetic part of a prose story that has either disappeared or was already known to the audience at the time.
In the Trioedd Ynys Prydein ("The Triads of the Island of Wales") Heledd is named as one of the "three wanderers of the island of Britain".
See also
literature
- Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p. 164.