Pengwern
Pengwern is the name of a British ruling seat of the post-Roman times in the Welsh Kingdom of Powys . The place was in the Welsh-English border area in the area of the English county of Shropshire ( Welsh Swydd Amwythig ), which was formerly part of Powys. Pengwern is mentioned in the legends as the seat of the Powys kings before this became Mathrafal further west. The exact location and dating of the foundation of Pengwern have not yet been found.
History and mythology
Pengwern is mentioned as the seat of the Powys kings or as the seat of an under-king in the early Middle Ages ( Llys Pengwern , "the court of Pengwern"). The old Powys, of greater extent than the later kingdom, should coincide with the dominion of the tribe of the Cornovii (Kornen), who had their main place in Viroconium Cornoviorum (today Wroxeter in Shropshire).
In the poetry collection of Canu Heledd ("Heledds Gesang"), probably from the 7th century, which Heledd ferch Cyndrwyn , the sister of King Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn of Pengwern, is the seat of this king. After his death, probably at the Battle of Maserfield (Welsh Maes Cogwy ) on August 5, 642, she mourned the death of her brother and the decline of his castle. The poem Stafell cynddylan is tywyll beno (“The hall of Cynddylan is dark tonight ”) is the focus of this cycle.
localization
Since there are still some places with the name Pengwern in this area, the exact location of the prince's seat is difficult. There is a hamlet with this name in the local area of Bodelwyddan ( Denbighshire ). At Giraldus Cambrensis , today's Shrewsbury is mentioned as a possible location in the 12th century , although this city has had the Welsh name Amwythig since the Middle Ages . Even The Berth , a hill fort at Baschurch , the already mentioned Wroxeter, the Cornovii-main town, and the earthworks of Whittington Castle , all in Shropshire, are suspected also as Pengwern.
Even today in Shropshire a boat club ( Pengwern Boat Club ) on the Severn , several shops and trading establishments bear the name Pengwern.
Web links
- Pengwern on Celtic Kingdoms of the British Isles , accessed May 27, 2012
- Pengwern Boat Club
Individual evidence
- ^ Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p. 164.