Urien

Urien Rheged
Arms of Rhys ap Thomas (d. 1525), attributed to Urien, with whom Rhys claimed kinship.[1]
King of Rheged
Reign	c. 550? – c. 572 x 593
Predecessor	Cynfarch Oer?
Successor	Owain ab Urien?
Died	c. 572 x 593 Aber Lleu[2]
Cause of death	Assassination
Spouse	Modron ferch Afallach (legendary)
Issue	Owain ab Urien Rhun ab Urien Pasgen ab Urien Elffin ab Urien Rhiwallon ab Urien (legendary) Morfydd ferch Urien (legendary) Various other legendary children
Dynasty	Cynferching (Coeling)
Father	Cynfarch Oer
Mother	Nefyn ferch Brychan Brycheiniog (legendary)

Urien ap Cynfarch Oer or Urien Rheged (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈɨ̞riɛn ˈr̥ɛɡɛd], Old Welsh: Urbgen or Urbagen) was a powerful sixth-century Brittonic-speaking figure who was possibly the ruler of the territory or kingdom known as Rheged. This kingdom was probably centred around the Solway Firth.^[3] The most secure evidence for his existence comes from a ninth-century Welsh history and eight praise-poems in Middle Welsh dedicated to him surviving in a fourteenth-century manuscript. Despite their being found in Middle Welsh orthography, these poems may possibly reflect earlier material, even material contemporaneous to Urien. One of these poems is explicitly attributed to the poet Taliesin. In addition to this poetry, Urien and his family feature elsewhere in medieval literature from Wales, and in popular culture down to the present. Outside of the Welsh context, he eventually was transformed in Arthurian legend into the figure of king Urien of Garlot or Gore.^[4] His most celebrated son, Owain ab Urien, similarly gave his name to the character of Ywain.

The earliest genealogy of Urien, found in Harley MS 3859 (c. 850–950 AD), gives his patrilineal descent as 'Urien son of Cynfarch son of Meirchion son of Gwrwst son of Coel Hen.'^[5] His earliest recorded ancestor is Coel Hen, who functioned as an origin point for many of the northern Brythonic-speaking dynasties of the early Middle Ages in England. In modern scholarship, it is not generally held that Coel was an important historic figure or the ancestor of all these dynasties, known collectively as the 'Coeling'. Rather, the fact that he features as the origin of so many pedigrees of important figures from the sixth century is because it adds a greater sense of cohesion to the narrative of Urien's career.^[6] Since the 'Coeling' first appear in genealogies together in Harley 3859 with the Historia Brittonum, the earliest historical reference to Urien, it is thought the compiler of the genealogies joined together the lineages of all the British (i.e. 'Welsh'-speaking) leaders mentioned in the narrative. Nothing reliable is known of Urien's father Cynfarch, even if he ruled over Rheged, though this may be assumed given that later material refers to the 'Cynferching', those claiming (or attributed) descent from him.^[7]

The Historia Brittonum, written in 829 AD in Gwynedd, is our only historical record of Urien, though its usefulness for reconstructing history is a matter of academic debate as it was composed hundreds of years after Urien's death.^[8] The Historia Brittonum, based on Bede, synchronises Urien's life to the reign of Theodric of Bernicia (d. c. 579 x 593).^[9] Interestingly, in a later prologue attached to the text, the author of the History 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, together with Paulinus of York, though as with much of the Historia Brittonum, this is of uncertain historical value.^[10] The narrative concerning Urien relates him as having taken hostile action against Theodric, together with Rhydderch Hen, Gwallog ap Llênog, and Morgan, who are (excluding Rhydderch) all recorded as descendants of Coel in the genealogies contained in the same manuscript. 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 (Old Welsh: Medcaut). Urien, however, was killed at the instigation of Morgan, who, according to the author of the Historia Brittonum, was jealous of Urien's martial ability.^[11] As Morgan is supposed to have come from 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 Theodric.^[12]

Urien has the distinction of having a sizeable body of possibly contemporaneous poems dedicated to him. These are attributed to his court poet Taliesin. Taliesin is mentioned in the Historia Brittonum as well, though his life is synchronised to the reign of Ida of Bernicia (c. 547 – 559), slightly before Urien's reign.^[13] Much like many cultures in north-western Europe during Late Antiquity, medieval Welsh culture valued praise-poetry, or poems extolling the virtues of a ruler or leading figure in a society.^[14] The poems which are attributed to Taliesin survive in the Book of Taliesin, a Middle Welsh manuscript of the early fourteenth century. 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 this text.^[15] The manuscript was given its title in the seventeenth century because of the preponderance of this legendary material within it.

There are eight poems in this manuscript attributed to Taliesin which are dedicated to Urien Rheged and devoid of supernatural or gnomic content. These are categorised as the 'historic' Taliesin poems, together with one poem to Cynan Garwyn, one to Owain ab Urien, and two to Gwallog ap Llênog.^[16] Only one poem of these twelve, "Yspeil Taliessin", is explicitly attributed to Taliesin in the manuscript, but since Taliesin was strongly associated with Urien in later medieval Welsh literature, and the bulk of the content of the manuscript is to do with Taliesin, the attribution has stuck.^[17] The dating of these poems is still hotly debated between those who see the poems as reflecting early material, and those who favour a later date.^[18]

These poems are in sometimes obscure language and do not offer very much in the way of clear biographical information about Urien, though fleeting references to Urien as 'lord of Catraeth' have led to much speculation about his involvement in the Battle of Catraeth.^[19] 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 Brythonic-speaking kingdom of Strathclyde, and perhaps against the Picts.^[20] He is also recorded as fighting against the English, much like he is said to have done in the Historia Brittonum.^[21] One poem mentions Urien and Owain as having fought one 'Fflamddwyn' (meaning 'flame-bearing'), which has been traditionally identified as a kenning referring to one of Ida's sons, perhaps even Theodric, since Owain ab Urien is praised for killing Fflanddwyn alongside a 'broad host of English' in another poem.^[22] Nevertheless, Urien is far more often mentioned fighting other Britons or the Picts than the English. The two most technically accomplished poems in the corpus are generally taken to be 'Uryen yr echwyd', and 'Gweith argoet llwyfein'.^[23] There is also one dadolwch, or reconciliation-poem, among these poems, implying that Taliesin ran afoul of Urien at some point and was obliged to get back into his good graces.^[24]

Due to his appearance in early poetry and place in the narrative of the Historia Brittonum, Urien became a figure in the later Welsh literature concerning the 'Old North', which functioned as the setting for much medieval Welsh literature. One such piece of literature concerning Urien, or more accurately Urien's sons, is fittingly called the 'Urien Rheged' cycle (Welsh: Canu Urien) by modern scholars, as the poems are concerned with the events in Rheged after the killing of Urien. The poems survive mainly from two Middle Welsh manuscripts, the Black Book of Carmarthen (c. 1250) and the Red Book of Hergest (after 1382). Nevertheless, Canu Urien is traditionally understood to be a copy Old Welsh-period material, dated to around the same period of the Historia Brittonum.^[25] This material is called 'saga poetry' by comparison with Icelandic sagas, both because like the Icelandic material, the Welsh poems are thought to have been taken from longer, partly prose (or oral) works, and because they both might reflect earlier history through a literary lens.

Though one of Urien's allies in the narrative of the Historia Brittonum was Gwallog ap Llênog, he is recorded as having fought against Urien's son Elffin in another one of the poems in this cycle, "Dwy Blaid". Likewise, one Dunod fought with Owain, while Brân ab Ymellyrn and Morgan – the orderer of Urien's killing – fought the narrator.^[26]

The most impactful and moving poems from this cycle are given the titles "Pen Urien" (Urien's Head) and "Celain Urien" (Urien's corpse) by modern scholarship. They relate the immediate aftermath of Urien's killing, with the name of the assassin given in another poem as Llofan Llaw Ddifro.^[27] In "Pen Urien" and "Celain Urien", it is an unnamed companion and relative of Urien who was forced to finish Urien off and strike off his head, with the implication that it was unsafe to carry Urien's entire body home for burial. The narrator laments his fortune that he must leave the body of his caring lord behind and curses his hand for carrying out this grim task.

Urien is mentioned in passing in the Llywarch Hen cycle, poems about the sufferings of his kinsman Llywarch and written with the poet speaking from Llywarch's point of view. They are, like Canu Urien, certainly later than Llywarch and Urien's time. Urien is recorded as supplying Llywarch's last surviving son Gwên with a horn which Llywarch advises Gwên to blow if he needs aid while on guard at night.^[29]

In the mnemonic devices known as the Welsh Triads, intended for poets to recall traditional stories, Urien is mentioned repeatedly. These mostly agree with the testimony of the Historia Brittonum and the other early sources, though there are some references to the later traditions.^[30] Urien is one of the 'Three Armoured Warriors', 'Three battle-rulers', and 'Three Holy Womb-burdens'. The latter gives his mother as Nefyn ferch Brychan Brycheiniog, and his wife as Modron ferch Afallach. Likewise, his killing at the hands of Llofan Llaw Ddifo is one of the 'Three Unfortunate Slaughters'.^[31] There are chronological impossibilities with associating his wife with a daughter of Brychan, however, and Modron is a purely legendary figure, whose first association with Urien is in this triad.^[32] Nevertheless, these show the enduring interest in Urien in the later Middle Ages, and the invention of tradition to satisfy continued regard for his life and deeds.^[33]

As well as Taliesin, Urien was supposed to have employed a poet named Tristfardd (literally 'sad poet'), as recorded in another triad, which calls Tristfardd one of the 'Three Red-Speared Bards'.^[34] Three englynion preserved in a very late manuscript record a story recounting how this Tristfardd secretly courted Urien's wife, and, not recognising the king, sent a disguised Urien to send a message to her. Urien slew Tristfardd for this offence at 'Rhyd Tristfardd', supposed to be in Radnorshire.^[35] This is a late tradition, and runs contrary to the association of Urien with Taliesin and the very strong association of Urien with the North, though it seems probable that this story was affixed to the name of Trisfardd even later than his appearance in the Triads.

Literature about Urien, whether reflecting early material or not, seems to have circulated in more channels than survive to the present. This can be evidenced by the twelfth-century poet Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr's attribution of the 'wrath of Urien' to his patron Owain Cyfeiliog, using the form Urfoën (Middle Welsh: Uruoen).^[36] This reflects an older form of the name *Urbogen which retained the composition vowel also reflected in weakened form in a rendition of Urien's name in the Historia Brittonum, Urbagen.^[37] Kenneth Jackson dated the loss of this vowel to the sixth century in Welsh, and Ifor Williams went so far as to say the trisyllabic form must be reinserted in one of the Taliesin poems to rectify a defect in the metre in a line in one poem.^[38] Assuming Cynddelw did not independently create this form so that he might fill the metre of this line in his own poem, this gives the tantalising suggestion that he was reading sources about Urien which do not survive to us, or that this name survived in a fossilised spoken form as a part of bardic lore.^[39]

Like many other figures of the Early Middle Ages in Welsh tradition, Urien captured interest well into a millennium after his death. In the sixteenth century, Rhys ap Gruffydd, a grandson of Rhys ap Thomas who greatly aided Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field, was disinherited from his grandfather's estates by order of Henry VIII, who instead gave these lands to Walter Devereux. This greatly incensed Rhys, who began a long feud with Devereux, ultimately culminating in the execution of Rhys on charges of treason. Like Henry Tudor, Rhys tried to weaponise political prophecy to gather support for his cause, and he was accused of going by the name 'FitzUryen' (son of Urien) and attempting to gain support to make himself Prince of Wales independent of Henry with the help of James V of Scotland.^[40] Rhys claimed to be a member of the house of Dinefwr, which originated with Rhodri Mawr's son Cadell. Rhodri's ancestry claims an origin from Llywarch Hen, which would make Rhys ap Gruffydd a distant relative of Urien.^[41] As Urien was remembered for his battles against the English, the authorities feared he would be able to capitalise on anti-English sentiment in Wales. Urien's son Owain was associated with ravens in later Welsh literature, and Rhys ap Gruffydd, together with his grandfather Rhys ap Thomas, bore three ravens on their coat of arms, which were called the 'ravens of Urien' by contemporaneous poets.^[42]

Geoffrey of Monmouth, drawing on Welsh sources and his own imagination, adapted Urien into Arthurian legend, and made him known across Europe with the explosive popularity of his Historia Regum Britanniae. In Geoffrey's telling, taken on by many following him, Urien is one of three brothers who ruled Scotland before the Saxon invasion – the others being Lot of Lothian, and Augusel. After freeing Scotland, Arthur restored the throne of Alba to Augusel, and made Urien king of Mureif (perhaps Monreith, or Moray). Urien's son Eventus later succeeds Augusel as king of Alba.^[43]

In the 13th-century Arthurian chivalric romances, the location of his kingdom is transferred to either the Otherworldly and magical Kingdom of Gorre [fr] (Gore) or a much less fantastic Garlot (Garloth). During the reign of Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father, Urien (or Uriens) marries a sister or half-sister of the young Arthur. She is either Morgan or one of the others, such as Hermesan in the Livre d'Artus and Blasine in Of Arthour and of Merlin. Urien, like the kings of several other lands, initially opposes Arthur's accession to the throne after Uther's death. He and the others rebel against the young monarch (with Urien even briefly kidnapping Arthur's wife Guinevere in the Livre d'Artus). Upon their defeat, he is among the rebel leaders become Arthur's allies and vassals. His marriage to Morgan is not portrayed as a happy one, however, as in a popular version from the Post-Vulgate Cycle (later included in Thomas Malory's influential Le Morte d'Arthur) Morgan plots to use Excalibur to kill both Urien and Arthur and place herself and her lover Accolon on the throne. Morgan fails in both parts of that plan, foiled by their own son and by the Lady of the Lake, respectively.

Urien is usually said to be the father of Ywain (Owain) by Morgan, but many texts also give him a second son, Ywain the Bastard, fathered on his seneschal's wife. Welsh tradition further attributes to him a daughter named Morfydd, daughter of Modron.

According to Roger Sherman Loomis, the name and character of another Arthurian king, Nentres of Garlot (in Malory, the husband of Arthur's sister Elaine), could have been derived from that of Urien.^[44] Malory spells Urien's name as Urience of Gore (Gower), which has led some later authors (e.g. Alfred Tennyson) to identify him with Arthur's relentless rival King Rience.

In the Didot-Perceval manuscript of the Perceval en prose (c. 1200), Perceval fights Urbain, son of the Queen of the Black Thorn (Reine de la Noire Espine) and defender of a ford and an invisible castle. Following Urbain's defeat, a flock of monstrous ravens attacks Perceval, who manages to wound one of them which immediately transforms into a beautiful young girl, soon carried off by the other birds to Avalon. Urbain explains that she is the sister of his fairy mistress and her attendants. According to Loomis, the story's Urbain corresponds to Urien, father of Owain (Yvain) and husband of Morgen (Morgan), the latter being the equivalent of the Welsh Modron and the Irish Mórrigan ("Great Queen").^[45][46]

• The [c]awraidd freichiau Urien 'giant arms of Urien' are mentioned in the 1917 awdl 'Yr Arwr' by Hedd Wyn, for which he was awarded the Bardic Chair posthumously in the 1917 National Eisteddfod.
• He is a minor character in Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.
• He appears as Uryens in John Boorman's film Excalibur (1981), depicted as an enemy lord who becomes Arthur's ally and is the one to knight him. He is ultimately killed by Mordred’s rebellion.
• He is one of the key characters in Melvyn Bragg's novel Credo (1996) (reprinted as The Sword and the Miracle in the USA), a celebration of the Celtic tradition and its fight against the Northumbrian and Roman (Catholic) incursions.