Eudaf Hen
Eudaf Hen , also Octavius of the Britons , is the name of a British king from Welsh mythology . He is an important figure in the short story Breuddwyd Macsen ("Macsen's Dream") - recorded in the Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch ("The White Book of Rhydderch") - and in Brut y Brenhinedd ("Chronicle of the Kings", in the original Historia Regum Britanniae) of Geoffrey of Monmouth ).
"Chronicle of the Kings"
Eudaf Hen is the father of Conan Meriadoc and Elen Luyddawg (Helena), who later became the wife of Emperor Macsen Wledig . Geoffrey von Monmouth calls him the half-brother of Constantine , King of Britain. When he became emperor in Rome after the death of his father Constantius I , he installed a proconsul with the British. Eudaf Hen murders him and proclaims himself king.
Thereupon Constantine sends three legions to the island, which he puts under the command of Trahern, a brother of the future King Coel . Eudaf Hen can defeat Trahern at Winchester and drive him to Alba ( Scotland ). From there, he sacked the country and eventually won at Westmorland . Eudaf Hen fled to Norway , but after his followers murder Trahern, he was able to regain his royal dignity. On the advice of Caradoc , he married his daughter Elen to Macsen, the new Roman emperor, against the resistance of his son Conan.
Web links
- David Hughes: The British Chronicles . tape 1 . Heritage Books, Westminster, Md. 2007, ISBN 978-0-7884-4490-6 , pp. 125 ff . (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).