Urien Rheged
Urien ap Cynfarch Oer or Urien Rheged was a powerful sixth-century Brittonic-speaking figure who was possibly the ruler of the territory or kingdom known as Rheged. He is one of the best-known and best documented of the British figures of the Old North. His kingdom was most likely centred around the Solway Firth. According to the section known as the "Northern History" of the Historia Brittonum, Urien gained a decisive advantage in a conflict against the Anglo-Saxons in northern Britain while leading an alliance with three other kings: Rhydderch Hen, Gwallog ap Llênog, and Morgan. The alliance led by Urien penned the Anglo-Saxons in at Lindisfarne, though this siege came to an abrupt end when Urien was murdered on the orders of his erstwhile ally Morgan.
The most secure evidence for his existence comes the Historia Brittonum and eight praise-poems in Middle Welsh orthography dedicated to him surviving in a fourteenth-century manuscript. Despite their being found in later orthography, the poems may possibly reflect early material, even material contemporaneous to Urien. One of these poems is explicitly attributed to the famed poet Taliesin in the manuscript. The "Northern History" in the Historia Brittonum also roughly synchronises Taliesin's career to the reign of Ida of Bernicia. Some of the Beirdd y Tywysogion also allude to this strong association between Taliesin and Urien. The panegyric attributed to Taliesin concerning Urien is particularly significant because if it truly originates in the sixth century it, together with the poetry attributed to Aneirin, would be the earliest vernacular post-Classical European literature.
Early material concerning Urien characterises him as a ferocious warrior and a major political figure of his time, conquering Picts, Anglo-Saxons, and Britons of the 'Old North' alike. However, the poems attributed to Taliesin do not include much biographical information about the man. According to the interpretation of John Koch, Urien may also have been the leader of the force opposing the warriors commemorated in the similarly possibly sixth-century poem known as the Gododdin who were killed in the Battle of Catraeth. In addition to this material, Urien and his family feature heavily elsewhere in other medieval literature from Wales.
Outside of the Welsh context, he was later transformed in Arthurian legend into the figure of king Urien of Garlot or Gorre. His son, Owain, likewise lent his name to Ywain.
Problems of interpretation
As with almost all figures of the early Middle Ages in Britain, the greatest difficulty when attempting to reconstruct Urien's life and career is how to interpret and reconcile our varied, late, and sometimes obscure, corrupt, or confused sources. The only place associated with him which can be located securely is the place of his besieging of Theodric, which was Lindisfarne. Nevertheless, the other places which appear in conjunction with him are generally identified with places in the north of England and south of Scotland.Another difficulty with outlining Urien's career is that the poetry to him contained in the fourteenth-century Book of Taliesin, possibly from his own time, does not contain much in the way of narrative or readily usable information about Urien and his deeds; instead, it ambiguously recalls events and extols Urien's virtues, leaving scholars to piece together any kind of reconstruction of events. Likewise, beyond a general dating of the late sixth century, Urien's date of death is very difficult to establish because of the confused chronology of the Historia Brittonum. Since this text has such difficulties, modern scholarship suggests Urien's death could have happened as early as 572 AD to as late as after Augustine's mission to the Kingdom of Kent in 597. Setting problems of the interpretation of the material concerning Urien aside, it is clear that he was a very important figure of the late sixth century, but because of these difficulties, it is best to judge each surviving source concerning him individually rather than smooth over problems or contradictions with each to create a cohesive narrative combining them all.
Early Welsh material
Material found in Harley MS 3859
The earliest material giving evidence of Urien is to be found in Harley MS 3859, a manuscript copied in Saint Augustine's, Canterbury, or in an associated centre, possibly even across the Channel. Together with various Classical texts, it contains the Harleian genealogies as well as a copy of the Historia Brittonum and the Annales Cambriae. This manuscript is celebrated among Welsh manuscripts because of its early date and the material concerning the early Middle Ages found within it. The Welsh material in Harley 3859 probably was compiled together in the exemplar of this manuscript, which was most likely written around 954 at St Davids in the reign of Owain ap Hywel Dda. The genealogies were probably first composed before 872 in Gwynedd at the court of Owain's ancestor Rhodri Mawr to support the legitimacy of this dynasty to rule over Gwynedd and the Isle of Man.The Harleian Genealogies
Urien's genealogy in Harley MS 3859 gives his patrilineal descent as "Urien son of Cynfarch son of Meirchion son of Gwrwst son of Coel Hen." His earliest recorded ancestor, Coel Hen, functioned as an origin point for many of the northern Brittonic-speaking dynasties of the early Middle Ages in northern Britain. In modern scholarship, it is not generally held that Coel was an important historic figure or truly the ancestor of all these families, especially those extraneous dynasties given descent from him in the much later fifteenth century genealogical tracts titled Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd. Since the "Coeling" first appear in genealogies together in Harley MS 3859 with the Historia Brittonum, which narrates the end of Urien's career, it is thought the compiler of the genealogies joined together the lineages of all the Brittonic-speaking leaders mentioned in the Historia Brittonum to add context to the narrative. Nothing is known of Urien's father Cynfarch, though he may have ruled over Rheged since later material makes reference to the family of the Cynferchyn, which suggests he was important enough to be treated as an ancestor-figure.Narrative in the ''Historia Brittonum''
The Historia Brittonum is our only "historical" record of Urien, though its usefulness for reconstructing history is often doubted, as it was compiled and adapted hundreds of years after Urien's death from various sources. Interestingly, in a later prologue attached to the text, the author of the Historia Brittonum claims to have assembled his text based on the work of Rhun, Urien's son, who is also credited with baptising Edwin of Northumbria in 637, together with Paulinus of York, though the existence of Rhun's text is debated. Based on Bede and a Northumbrian source David Dumville called "the Anglian collection of royal genealogies and regnal lists", the text synchronises Urien's life to the reign of Theodric and Hussa of Bernicia.In this narrative, Urien took hostile action against Theodric, together with Rhydderch Hen, Gwallog ap Llênog, and Morgan, who are all recorded as descendants of Coel in the genealogies contained in the same manuscript. The meaning of "with his sons" in the second line is also problematic, as it is uncertain whether this line refers to Urien's sons, or those of Hussa, though it is generally understood that those of Hussa are intended. Echoing Gildas, it is said that the conflict between the Britons and the Saxons went back and forth, but Urien and his allies eventually gained the upper hand and besieged Theodric on Lindisfarne. Urien was killed at the instigation of Morgan, who, according to the author of the Historia Brittonum, was jealous of Urien's martial ability. As Morgan is supposed to have come from Bernicia, a nearby territory to Lindisfarne, it has been suggested that Morgan at that moment felt more as threatened by Urien's powerful presence near his home than by the weakened Theodric.
Hussa is directly described as Urien's foe in the first sentence, which leads to difficulties of interpretation. Kenneth Jackson suggested this meant either that Urien fought against Theodric and Hussa before the latter's reign or that the chronology here is wrong and that the narrative refers to the reigns of Ida's sons in general. Ian Lovecy understood the reference to Theodric as a long parenthesis indicating that formerly the struggle went both ways, but not in Urien's last campaign against Hussa. David Dumville understood the text to refer to the warfare of all four British kings against the five English kings previously named in the Historia Brittonum besides Hussa, that is, from the reigns of Adda to Hussa. The next king is Æthelfrith, who took the throne, and so Urien could even have died as late as this. However, the section of the Historia Brittonum preceding this narrative records the Christianisation of Kent as occurring in the reign of Frithuwald, implying Urien's campaigns could even have been after 597. This is one of many places in the Historia Brittonum with a confused chronology. For this reason, Patrick Sims-Williams cast doubt on the reliability of the chronology concerning Urien and his campaigns against the Anglo-Saxons, leaving the date of Urien's death an open question.
Poetry to Urien in the Book of Taliesin
Much like many cultures in north-western Europe during Late Antiquity, medieval Welsh culture valued praise-poetry, or poems praising the virtues of a leading political figure. Urien has the almost unique distinction of having a sizeable body of possibly contemporaneous poems dedicated to him in the Book of Taliesin, a Middle Welsh manuscript of the early fourteenth century. Twelve poems in this manuscript are taken to be "historical", that is, possibly reflecting genuine sixth-century material and devoid of supernatural or gnomic content. The eight poems in this manuscript which address Urien are:- 'Gweith_Gwen_Ystrat'
- 'Urien Yrechwydd'
- 'Eg gorffowys can rychedwys'
- 'Ar vn blyned'
- 'Battle_of_Argoed_Llwyfain'
- 'Battle_of_Alclud_Ford'
- 'Yspeil Taliessin'
- 'Dadolwch Vryen'
Seven of the "historical" poems to Urien end with the same 'refrain', so it would appear that they were seen as works of Taliesin in the Middle Ages as well. Taliesin is mentioned in the Historia Brittonum, though his life is synchronised to the reign of Ida of Bernicia, slightly before Urien's reign. It is not likely that Taliesin would have been only active for twelve years, but this may be when he began to be famed for poetry, though this is another example of the difficult chronology throughout the text. Taliesin was very well known for his poetic skill in later medieval Wales, and all sorts of legends sprang up about him attributing to him magic powers, including many poems "in character" attributed to him, and these poems form the bulk of the manuscript. Taliesin's "transformation" from a poet to an omniscient wizard is paralleled by the development of the legend of Virgil in the Continent, who also was attributed magic powers in folklore and literature because of his poetic skill.
These poems are in sometimes obscure language and do not offer very much in the way of clear biographical information about Urien. Much of the place-name evidence of these poems is understood to refer to places in modern-day Cumbria, though Urien is also said to have led battle in the area of the River Ayr, in the Brittonic-speaking kingdom of Strathclyde, and perhaps against the Picts. He is also recorded as fighting against the English, much like he is said to have done in the Historia Brittonum. One poem mentions Urien and Owain as having fought a certain Fflamddwyn, which has been traditionally identified as a kenning referring to one of Ida's sons, perhaps even Theodric. Owain ab Urien is praised for killing Fflanddwyn alongside a "broad host of English" in another poem, and the practice of giving Welsh nicknames to early Northern Anglo-Saxon kings is common in the Historia Brittonum. One dadolwch, or reconciliation-poem, also survives, implying that Taliesin ran afoul of Urien at some point and was obliged to get back into his good graces.