Pen Rhionydd Explained

Pen Rhionydd is named as the location of King Arthur's northern court in a Welsh triad found in Peniarth MS 54, containing pre-Galfridian traditions:

Arthur as Chief Prince in Pen Rhionydd in the North, and Gerthmwl Wledig as Chief Elder, and Cyndeyrn Garthwys as Chief Bishop.[1]

There are no other known references to this location in Arthurian literature. The same triad goes on to say Arthur's other courts were at Celliwig and Mynyw.

Location

A possible location, supported by Rachel Bromwich, the latest editor of the Welsh Triads, is a location somewhere near the Rhins of Galloway and Stranraer.[2] This would match the importance of St Mungo in that area. Both these places would have been in Rheged.

Notes

  1. Rachel Bromwich (editor and translator), Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Welsh Triads, second edition (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978), Triad 1.
  2. Rachel Bromwich (editor and translator), Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Welsh Triads, second edition (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978), pp. 3f

See also