Editing Gwyddno Garanhir

{{Short description|Legendary Welsh ruler}}
{{nf|date=November 2015}}
'''Gwyddno Garanhir''' was the supposed ruler of a sunken land off the coast of [[Wales]], known as [[Cantre'r Gwaelod]]. He was the father of [[Elffin ap Gwyddno]], the foster-father of the famous [[Welsh people|Welsh]] [[poet]] [[Taliesin]] in the legendary account given in the late medieval ''Chwedl Taliesin'' (''Ystoria Taliesin''/''[[Hanes Taliesin]]''; "The Tale of Taliesin").

==Legend==
The basket of Gwyddno Garanhir is one of the [[Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain]]. According to tradition, Gwyddno was the lord of ''[[Cantre'r Gwaelod]]'' ({{langx|en|The Lowland [[Cantref|Hundred]]}}) in what is now [[Cardigan Bay]]. His chief [[fortress]] was said to have been ''Caer Wyddno'' ({{langx|en|the Fort of Gwyddno}}), located somewhere to the north-west of modern-day [[Aberystwyth]]. The whole kingdom was protected from the sea by floodgates, which had to be shut before high tide. One day the keeper of the floodgates, [[Seithenyn]], was drunk and failed to close them, with the result that the sea rushed in and covered the land.

==Kingdom==
Stories of the drowned lands of Gwyddno appear to have arisen from the identification of natural underwater ridges as the remains of sea walls. However, tradition also assigns Gwyddno a landlocked portion of his kingdom to which he was able to flee. He was called '[[Kingdom of Ceredigion|King of Ceredigion]]' by the 18th century [[Welsh people|Welsh]] [[antiquarian]], [[Iolo Morganwg]], well known for his literary forgeries, but he does not appear in the [[Old Welsh language|Old Welsh]] pedigrees for that kingdom. He is identified with a number of different historical Gwyddnos in various sources. 16th century writers favoured Gwyddno ap Clydno, the late 6th century King of [[Meirionydd]], who is perhaps the most likely candidate.

In [[Susan Cooper]]'s ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' series, Gwyddno is the king of the Lost Lands in ''Silver on the Tree''.

==Epithet==
His name is [[Welsh language|Welsh]] and means ''Gwyddno Long-Shanks,'' ''Crane-Legs,'' or literally ''Tall-Crane.''

==References==
*Ford, Patrick K. (ed.) (1992). ''Ystoria Taliesin''. University of Wales Press. (The text of the ''Story of Taliesin'' in the hand of Elis Gruffydd)
*North, Frederick John. (1957). ''Sunken cities: Some legends of the coast and lakes of Wales''
*{{Citation
|last=Williams
|first=Edward
|author-link=Iolo Morganwg
|date=c. 1810
|editor-last=Williams (ab Iolo)
|editor-first=Taliesin
|contribution=
|title=Iolo Manuscripts
|publisher=William Rees
|publication-date=1848
|publication-place=Llandovery
|pages=
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnBoaWNvArEC
}}

==External links==
*[http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/bbc33.html Dialogue of Gwyddno Garanhir and Gwyn ap Nudd]

[[Category:Monarchs of Meirionydd]]
[[Category:Sub-Roman monarchs]]
[[Category:Taliesin]]
[[Category:Legendary Welsh people]]