Dunmail
Dunmail was the legendary last king of Cumbria .
legend
King Dunmail is said to have been killed by Edmund I in 945 on the Dunmail Raise pass in Cumbria, where a burial mound still marks his resting place. So that his crown, which gave its bearers the undisputed rule, would not fall into the hands of the Anglo-Saxons or Scots , the mortally wounded king instructed his warriors to sink it in the Grisedale Tarn . Once a year the warriors are supposed to fetch the crown from the lake and ask Dummail in his grave whether he is ready to take control again, which he always denied.
Historical background
It is certain that King Eógan I (also Owain), who is considered to be Dunmail's father, fought against the Anglo-Saxons and died in 937 in the Battle of Brunanburh . King Dunmail would therefore be the historically documented Dyfnwal III. King of Strathclyde son Eógan I. Edmund I waged war against the Kingdom of Strathclyde in 945, but unlike in 937 the Scots allied themselves with the Anglo-Saxons and the Scottish king Malcolm I was made ruler of Strathclyde after the victory of Edmund I . Dyfnwal III. however, did not die until around 971.
Web links
- Dunmail, last King of Cumbria on Esmerald's Cumbrian History & Folklore
- King Dunmail: Last King of Cumbria? on Cumbria: The Ages of Kings
- Grisedale Tarn on Lake, Meres, Tarns and Waters
literature
- F. Carruthers, People Called Cumbri , Robert Hale: London, 1979.
- William Wordsworth refers to the story of King Dunmail in his poem The Wagoner .