{{Short description|Term for medieval Brittonic-speaking northern Britain}} {{Use British English|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}} {{redirect|Hen Ogledd|the English rock band|Hen Ogledd (band)}} [[File:Hen_Ogledd_Map.png|thumb|A map of the Old North from circa 500 AD]] The '''Old North''' ({{langx|cy|'''Hen Ogledd'''}}, {{IPA|cy|ˌheːn ˈɔɡlɛð}}) is the term used in modern scholarship for the [[historical region|historical]] and [[Medieval Welsh literature|literary]] space which was inhabited by [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic-speaking]] [[Celtic Britons|peoples]] of modern [[Northern England]] and [[Scottish Lowlands|southern Scotland]] in the [[Early Middle Ages]]. The [[Welsh people|people of Wales]] and those of the Old North considered themselves to be one people, and both were referred to as [[Cymry]] ('fellow-countrymen') from the Brittonic word ''combrogi''. The Old North was distinct from the parts of [[Great Britain]] inhabited by the [[Picts]], [[Anglo-Saxons]], and [[Scoti]].
The major kingdoms of the Old North were [[Elmet]], [[Gododdin]], [[Rheged]], and the [[Kingdom of Strathclyde]] (Welsh: ''Ystrad Clud''). Smaller kingdoms included [[Aeron (kingdom)|Aeron]] and [[Calchfynydd]]. [[Eidyn]], [[Lothian|Lleuddiniawn]], and [[Manaw Gododdin]] were evidently parts of Gododdin. The later [[Angles (tribe)|Anglian]] kingdoms of [[Deira]] and [[Bernicia]] both had Brittonic-derived names, suggesting they may have been Brittonic kingdoms originally. All the kingdoms of the Old North except Strathclyde were gradually either integrated or subsumed by the emerging Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Gaelic Scots and fellow Brittonic Picts by about 800; Strathclyde was eventually incorporated into the rising [[Middle Irish]]-speaking [[Kingdom of Scotland]] in the 11th century.[[File:Yr.Hen.Ogledd.550.650.Koch.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Old North]]The memory of the Old North remained strong in Wales after its fall, and indeed the term came into being in Wales after the destruction of the Brittonic kingdoms of the north. Welsh tradition included genealogies of the ''Gwŷr y Gogledd'', or Men of the North, and several important Welsh dynasties traced their lineage to them. A number of important early Welsh texts were attributed to the Men of the North, such as [[Taliesin]], [[Aneirin]], [[Myrddin Wyllt]], and the [[Cynfeirdd]] poets. Heroes of the north such as [[Urien]], [[Owain mab Urien]], and [[Coel Hen]] and his descendants feature in Welsh poetry and the [[Welsh Triads]].
==Background== {{Unreferenced section|date=December 2025}} Almost nothing is reliably known of Central Britain before {{circa|550}}. There had never been a period of long-term, effective [[Roman Empire|Roman]] control north of the [[River Tyne|Tyne]]–[[Solway Firth|Solway]] line, and south of that line effective Roman control began to erode before the traditionally given date of departure of the [[Roman military]] from [[Roman Britain]] in 407. It was noted in the writings of [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] and others that there was ever-decreasing Roman control from about 100 onward, and in the years after 360 there was widespread disorder and the large-scale permanent abandonment of territory by the Romans. {{citation needed|date=July 2021}}
By 550, the region was controlled by native [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic]]-speaking peoples except for the eastern coastal areas, which were controlled by the Anglian peoples of [[Bernicia]] and [[Deira]]. To the north were the [[Picts]] (now also accepted as Brittonic speakers prior to Gaelicisation) with the [[Gaels|Gaelic]] kingdom of [[Dál Riata]] to the northwest. All of these peoples would play a role in the history of the Old North.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}
===Historical context=== From a historical perspective, wars were frequently internecine, and Britons were aggressors as well as defenders, as was also true of the Angles, Picts, and [[Gaels]].{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} However, those Welsh stories of the Old North that tell of Britons fighting Anglians have a counterpart, told from the opposite side. The story of the demise of the kingdoms of the Old North is the story of the rise of the Kingdom of [[Northumbria]] from two coastal kingdoms to become the premier power in Britain north of the [[Humber]] and south of the [[Firth of Clyde]] and the [[Firth of Forth]].{{cn|date=December 2025}} [[File:Central.Britain.c550.jpg|frameless|right|220px]] [[File:Northumbria.rise.600.700.jpg|frameless|right|220px]]
The interests of kingdoms of this era were not restricted to their immediate vicinity. Alliances were not made only within the same ethnic groups, nor were enmities restricted to nearby different ethnic groups. An alliance of Britons fought against another alliance of Britons at the [[Battle of Arfderydd]]. [[Áedán mac Gabráin]] of [[Dál Riata]] appears in the ''[[Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd]]'', a genealogy among the pedigrees of the Men of the North.<ref>Bromwich 2006, pp. 256–257</ref> The ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' states that [[Oswiu]], king of Northumbria, married a Briton who may have had some Pictish ancestry.<ref>{{Citation |last=Nennius |author-link=Nennius |year=800 |editor-last=Stevenson |editor-first=Joseph |editor-link=Joseph Stevenson |contribution=Genealogies of the Saxon kings of Northumbria |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kq8KAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA50 |title=Nennii Historia Britonum |publisher=English Historical Society |publication-date=1838 |location=London |page=50 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Nicholson |first=E. W. B. |year=1912 |editor-last=Meyer |editor-first=Kuno |contribution=The 'Annales Cambriae' and their so-called 'Exordium' |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80CwEwwb6d0C&pg=PA145 |title=Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie |volume=VIII |publisher=Max Niemeyer |publication-date=1912 |location=Halle |page=145 }}</ref> A marriage between the Northumbrian and Pictish royal families would produce the Pictish king [[Talorgan I]]. Áedán mac Gabráin fought as an ally of the Britons against the Northumbrians. [[Cadwallon ap Cadfan]] of the [[Kingdom of Gwynedd]] allied with [[Penda of Mercia]] to defeat [[Edwin of Northumbria]].{{cn|date=December 2025}}
Conquest and defeat did not necessarily mean the extirpation of one culture and its replacement by another. The Brittonic region of northwestern England was absorbed by Anglian Northumbria in the 7th century, yet it would reemerge 300 years later as South Cumbria, joined with North Cumbria (Strathclyde) into a single state.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
===Social Organisation=== {{Unreferenced section|date=December 2025}} The organisation of the Men of the North was [[tribe|tribal]],{{#tag:ref|The tribal domains were called kingdoms and were led by a king, but were not organised nation-states in the modern (or ancient Roman) sense of the word. The kingdoms might grow and shrink based on the transitory fortunes of the leading tribe and royal family, with regional alliances and enmities playing a part in the resulting organisation. This organisation was applicable to southern Wales of the [[Sub-Roman Britain|post-Roman]] era, where the royal inter-relationships of the kingdoms of [[Glywysing]], [[Kingdom of Gwent|Gwent]], and [[Ergyng]] are so completely inter-twined that it is not possible to construct an independent history for any of them. When contention (i.e., war) occurred, it was between high-ranking individuals and their respective clients, in the manner of the contending [[House of Lancaster]] and [[House of York]] during the [[Wars of the Roses]] in the 15th century.|group=note}}{{cn|date=December 2025}} based on [[kinship]] groups of extended families, owing allegiance to a dominant "royal" family, sometimes indirectly through client relationships, and receiving protection in return. For [[Celts|Celtic]] peoples, this organisation was still in effect hundreds of years later, as shown in the Irish [[Early Irish law|Brehon law]], the Welsh [[Cyfraith Hywel|Laws of Hywel Dda]], and the [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[Leges inter Brettos et Scottos|Laws of the Brets and Scots]]. The [[Anglo-Saxon law]] had culturally different origins, but with many similarities to [[Celtic law]]. Like Celtic law, it was based on cultural tradition, without any perceivable debt to the Roman occupation of Britain.<ref group=note>"Anglo-Saxon law" is a modern [[neologism]] for the Saxon Law of Wessex, the Anglian Law of Mercia, and the [[Danelaw]], all of which were sufficiently similar to merit inclusion within this umbrella term. The laws of Anglian [[Northumbria]] were supplanted by the Danelaw, but were certainly similar to these. The origins of [[English law]] have been much studied. For example, the 12th century ''[[Tractatus of Glanvill|Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Angliae]]'' (''Treatise on the laws and customs of the Kingdom of England'') is the [[books of authority|book of authority]] on English [[common law]], and scholars have held that it owes a debt to [[Norman law]] and to [[Germanic law]], and not to [[Roman law]].</ref>{{cn|date=December 2025}}
A primary ''[[royal court]]'' ({{langx|cy|llys}}) would be maintained as a "capital", but it was not the bureaucratic administrative centre of modern society, nor the settlement or ''[[civitas]]'' of Roman rule. As the ruler and protector of his kingdom, the king would maintain multiple courts throughout his territory, travelling among them to exercise his authority and to address the needs of his people, such as in the dispensing of justice. This ancient method of dispensing justice survived as a part of royal procedure until the reforms of [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] (reigned 1154–1189) modernised the administration of law.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
==Language== {{main|Cumbric}} Modern scholarship uses the term "Cumbric" for the Brittonic language spoken in the Old North. It appears to have been very closely related to [[Old Welsh]], with some local variances, and more distantly related to [[Cornish language|Cornish]] or [[Breton language|Breton]]. There are no surviving texts written in the language; evidence for it comes from placenames, proper names in a few early [[inscription]]s and later non-Cumbric sources, two terms in the ''[[Leges inter Brettos et Scottos]]'', and the corpus of poetry by the ''[[cynfeirdd]]'', the "early poets", nearly all of which deals with the north.<ref name=Koch516>Koch 2006, p. 516.</ref>
The ''cynfeirdd'' poetry is the largest source of information, and it is generally accepted that some part of the corpus was first composed in the Old North.<ref name=Koch516/> However, it survives entirely in later manuscripts created in Wales where the oral tradition continued on, and it is unknown how faithful they are to the originals. Still, the texts do contain discernible variances that distinguish the speech from the Welsh dialects. In particular, these texts contain a number of [[archaism]]s – features that appear to have once been common in all Brittonic varieties, but which later vanished from Welsh and the [[Southwestern Brittonic languages]].<ref name=Koch516/> In general, however, the differences appear to be slight, and the distinction between Cumbric and Old Welsh is largely geographical rather than linguistic.<ref name=Koch517>Koch 2006, p. 517.</ref>
Cumbric gradually disappeared as the area was conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, and later the Scots and [[Norsemen|Norse]], though it survived in the [[Kingdom of Strathclyde]], centred at Alt Clut in what is now [[Dumbarton]] in Scotland. [[Kenneth H. Jackson]] suggested that it re-emerged in [[Cumbria]] in the 10th century, as Strathclyde established hegemony over that area. It is unknown when Cumbric finally became extinct, but the series of [[Yan tan tethera|counting systems of Brittonic origin]] recorded in Northern England since the 18th century have been proposed as evidence of a survival of elements of Cumbric;<ref name=Koch517/> though the view has been largely rejected on linguistic grounds, with evidence pointing to the fact that it was imported to England after the [[Old English]] era.<ref>''A Dictionary of English Folklore'', Jacqueline Simpson, Stephen Roud, Oxford University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-19-210019-X}}, 9780192100191, ''Shepeherd's score'', pp. 271</ref><ref>Margaret L. Faull, Local Historian 15:1 (1982), 21–3</ref>
==Welsh tradition== One of the traditional stories relating to the genealogies of Welsh dynasties derived from [[Cunedda]] and his sons as "Men of the North". Cunedda himself is held to be the progenitor of the royal dynasty of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, one of the largest and most powerful of the medieval Welsh kingdoms, and an ongoing connection to the Old North. Cunedda's genealogy shows him as a descendant of one of [[Magnus Maximus]]' generals, Paternus, who Maximus appointed as commander at Alt Clut. The Welsh and the Men of the North may have seen themselves as one people. The [[Welsh language|Welsh]] name for themselves, ''Cymry'', derives from this ancient relationship, although this is debatable, as while Gwynedd seemed to have good relationships with them, and with Ceredigion, it is unknown how the other Welsh Kingdoms saw them, since they were not unified themselves, especially the southern Kingdoms like [[Kingdom of Dyfed|Dyfed]] and [[Ystrad Tywi]], which had heavy Irish presence at the time. 'Cymry' was a term that referred to both the Welsh and the Men of the North but was sometimes applied to others such as the Picts and the Irish as well.{{sfn|Lloyd|1911|pp=191–192}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Lloyd|first=John Edward|author-link=John Edward Lloyd|title=A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NYwNAAAAIAAJ|year=1912|publisher=Longmans, Green|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NYwNAAAAIAAJ/page/n213 191]}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Phillimore|first=Egerton|year=1888|editor-last=Phillimore|editor-first=Egerton|contribution=Review of "A History of Ancient Tenures of Land in the Marches of North Wales"|contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aFMrAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA368|title=Y Cymmrodor|volume=IX|publisher=Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion|publication-date=1888|location=London|pages=368–371}}</ref> It is derived from the Brittonic word c''ombrogoi'', which meant "fellow-countrymen", and it is worth noting in passing that its [[Breton language|Breton]] counterpart ''kenvroiz'' still has this original meaning of "compatriots". The word began to be used as an endonym by the Men of the North during the early 7th century (and possibly earlier),<ref>{{Citation|last=Phillimore|first=Egerton|year=1891|editor-last=Phillimore|editor-first=Egerton|contribution=Note (a) to The Settlement of Brittany|contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M35QO0vor-EC&pg=PA97|title=Y Cymmrodor|volume=XI|publisher=Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion|publication-date=1892|location=London|pages=97–101}}</ref> and was used throughout the [[Middle Ages]] to describe the [[Kingdom of Strathclyde]]. Before this, and for some centuries after, the traditional as well as the more literary term was ''Brythoniaid'', recalling the still older time when all on the island remained a unity. ''Cymry'' survives today in the native name for Wales (''Cymru'', land of the ''Cymry''), and in the English county name [[Cumbria]], both meaning "homeland", "mother country".{{cn|date=December 2025}}
Many of the traditional sources of information about the Old North survive in Welsh tradition, and bards such as [[Aneirin]] (the reputed author of ''[[Y Gododdin]]'') are thought to have been court poets in the Old North.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
==Nature of the sources== {{Essay-like|date=December 2025}} A listing of passages from the literary and historical sources, particularly relevant to the Old North, can be found in Sir [[Edward Anwyl]]'s article ''Wales and the Britons of the North''.<ref>{{Citation |last=Anwyl |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Anwyl |date=July 1907 – April 1908 |contribution=Wales and the Britons of the North |contribution-url=https://archive.org/details/celticreview04edinuoft/page/124 |title=The Celtic Review |volume=IV |publisher=Norman Macleod |publication-date=1908 |location=Edinburgh |pages=125–152; 249–273 }}</ref> A somewhat dated introduction to the study of old Welsh poetry can be found in his 1904 article ''Prolegomena to the Study of Old Welsh Poetry''.<ref> {{Citation |last=Anwyl |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Anwyl |year=1904 |contribution=Prolegomena to the Study of Old Welsh Poetry |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VoJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA64 |title=Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (Session 1903–1904) |publisher=Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion |publication-date=1905 |location=London |pages=59–83 }}</ref>
===Literary sources=== * The [[bard]]ic poetry attributed to [[Taliesin]], [[Aneirin]], and [[Llywarch Hen]]. * The genealogical tracts of the [[Harleian genealogies]], the ''[[Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd]]'', and the [[Genealogies from Jesus College MS 20|genealogies of Jesus College MS 20]]. * The ''[[Welsh Triads|Triads of the Island of Britain]]'' (note that most of the triads published in the notorious third volume of ''[[The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales]]'' are known to be the forgeries of [[Iolo Morganwg]], and are not considered valid sources of historical information).<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Lloyd|1911|pp=122–123}}, Notes on the Historical Triads, in ''The History of Wales''</ref> The standard scholarly edition is ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein'' by [[Rachel Bromwich]].<ref>Rachel Bromwich (ed.), ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein'' ([[University of Wales Press]], revised edition 1991) {{ISBN|0-7083-0690-X}}.</ref> * The other [[elegy|elegies]] ({{langx|cy|marwnadau}}) and [[paean|songs of praise]] ({{langx|cy|canu mawl}}), as well as certain [[Welsh mythology|mythological]] stories, that have been preserved.
Stories praising a patron and the construction of flattering genealogies are neither unbiased nor reliable sources of historically accurate information. However, while they may exaggerate and make apocryphal assertions, they do not falsify or change the historical facts that were known to the bards' listeners, as that would bring ridicule and disrepute to both the bards and their patrons. In addition, the existence of stories of defeat and [[tragedy]], as well as stories of victory, lends additional credibility to their value as sources of history. Within that context, the stories contain useful information, much of it incidental, about an era of British history where very little is reliably known.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
===Historical sources=== * The ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' attributed to [[Nennius]] * The ''[[Annales Cambriae]]'' * The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' * The ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'' by [[Bede]] * The ''[[Annals of Tigernach]]''
These sources are not without deficiencies. Both the authors and their later transcribers sometimes displayed a partisanship that promoted their own interests, portraying their own agendas in a positive light, always on the side of justice and moral rectitude. Facts in opposition to those agendas are sometimes omitted, and apocryphal entries are sometimes added.{{cn|date=December 2025}}{{Original research inline|date=December 2025}}
While Bede was a Northumbrian partisan and spoke with prejudice against the native Britons, his ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' is highly regarded for its effort towards an accurate telling of history, and for its use of reliable sources. When passing along "traditional" information that lacks a historical foundation, Bede takes care to note it as such.<ref>For a recent view of Bede's treatment of Britons in his work, see W. Trent Foley and N.J. Higham, "Bede on the Britons." ''Early Medieval Europe'' 17.2 (2009): pp. 154–85.</ref>
The ''[[De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae]]'' by [[Gildas]] (c. 516–570) is occasionally relevant in that it mentions early people and places also mentioned in the literary and historical sources. The work was intended to preach Christianity to Gildas' contemporaries and was not meant to be a history. It is one of the few contemporary accounts of his era to have survived.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
=== Place names === {{see also|Cumbric#Place names}} Brittonic place names in Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde, and in Cumberland and neighbouring counties, indicate areas of Old North inhabited by Britons in the early Middle Ages.
Isolated locations of later British presence are also indicated by place names of [[Old English]] and [[Old Norse]] origin. In Yorkshire, the names of [[Walden, North Yorkshire|Walden]], [[Walton, Leeds|Walton]] and [[Walburn, North Yorkshire|Walburn]], from Old English ''walas'' "Britons or Welshmen", indicate Britons encountered by the Anglo-Saxons, and the name of [[Birkby, North Yorkshire|Birkby]], from Old Norse ''Breta'' "Britons", indicates a place where the Vikings met Britons.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jensen |first1=Gillian Fellows |date= 1978|title= Place-Names and Settlement in the North Riding of Yorkshire|journal=[[Northern History]] |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=22–23 |doi= 10.1179/nhi.1978.14.1.19}}</ref>
===Dubious and fraudulent sources=== The ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' of [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] is disparaged as [[pseudohistory]], though it looms large as a source for the largely fictional [[chivalric romance]] stories known collectively as the [[Matter of Britain]]. The lack of historical value attributed to the ''Historia'' lies only partly in the fact that it contains so many fictions and falsifications of history;{{#tag:ref|Scholarly works by reputable authors, such as [[John Edward Lloyd|Lloyd]]'s 1911 ''A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest'', contain numerous citations of Geoffrey's fabrications of history, never citing him as a source of legitimate historical information.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Lloyd|1911}}, ''A History of Wales''</ref> More recent works of history tend to spend less energy on Geoffrey's ''Historia'', merely ignoring him in passing. In [[John Davies (historian)|Davies]]'s 1990 ''A History of Wales'', the first paragraph of page 1 discusses Geoffrey's prominence, after which he is occasionally mentioned as the source of historical inaccuracies and not as a source of legitimate historical information.<ref>{{Harvcolnb|Davies|1990|pp=1}}, ''A History of Wales''</ref> Earlier works might devote a few paragraphs detailing the proof that Geoffrey was the inventor of fictitious information, such as in James Parker's ''The Early History of Oxford'', where persons such as Eldad, Eldod, Abbot Ambrius, and others are noted to be the result of Geoffrey's own imagination.<ref>{{Citation |last=Parker |first=James |year=1885 |contribution=Description of Oxford in Domesday Survey |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwYtAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA291 |title=The Early History of Oxford 727–1100 |publisher=Oxford Historical Society |publication-date=1885 |location=Oxford |page=291 }}</ref>|group=note}} the fact that historical accuracy clearly was not a consideration in its creation makes any references to actual people and places no more than a literary convenience.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
The ''Iolo Manuscripts'' are a collection of manuscripts presented in the early 19th century by Edward Williams, who is better known as [[Iolo Morganwg]]. Containing various tales, anecdotal material and elaborate genealogies that connect virtually everyone of note with everyone else of note (and with many connections to [[King Arthur|Arthur]] and Iolo's native region of [[Kingdom of Morgannwg|Morgannwg]]), they were at first accepted as genuine, but have since been shown to be an assortment of forged or doctored manuscripts, transcriptions, and fantasies, mainly invented by Iolo himself. A list of works tainted by their reliance on the material presented by Iolo (sometimes without attribution) would be quite long.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
==Kingdoms and regions==
===Major kingdoms=== Places in the Old North that are mentioned as kingdoms in the literary and historical sources include: * [[Kingdom of Strathclyde|Alt Clut]] or Ystrad Clud – a kingdom centred at what is now [[Dumbarton]] in Scotland. Later known as Strathclyde, and possibly even later as Cumbria, it was one of the best attested of the northern British kingdoms. It was also the last surviving, as it operated as an independent realm into the 11th century before it was finally absorbed by the [[Kingdom of Scotland]].<ref>Koch 2006, p. 1819.</ref> * [[Elmet]] – centred in western [[Yorkshire]] in northern England. It was located south of the other northern British kingdoms, and well east of present-day Wales, but managed to survive into the early 7th century.<ref>Koch 2006, pp. 670–671.</ref> * [[Gododdin]] – a kingdom in what is now southeastern Scotland and northeastern England, the area previously noted as the territory of the [[Votadini]]. They are the subjects of the poem ''[[Y Gododdin]]'', which memorialises a [[Battle of Catraeth|disastrous raid]] by an army raised by the Gododdin on the Angles of [[Bernicia]].<ref name=Kochgododdin>Koch 2006, pp. 823–826.</ref> * [[Rheged]] – a major kingdom that evidently included parts of present-day [[Cumbria]], though its full extent is unknown. It may have covered a vast area at one point, as it is very closely associated with its king [[Urien]], whose name is tied to places all over northwestern Britain.<ref>Koch 2006, pp. 1498–1499.</ref>
===Minor kingdoms and other regions=== Several regions are mentioned in the sources, assumed to be notable regions within one of the kingdoms if not separate kingdoms themselves: * [[Aeron (kingdom)|Aeron]] – a minor kingdom mentioned in sources such as ''Y Gododdin'', its location is uncertain, but several scholars have suggested that it was in the [[Ayrshire]] region of southwest Scotland.<ref>Koch 2006, pp. 354–355; 904.</ref><ref>Bromwich 1978, pp. 12–13; 157.</ref><ref>Morris-Jones, pp. 75–77.</ref><ref>Williams 1968, p. xlvii.</ref> It is frequently associated with [[Urien Rheged]], and may have been part of his realm.<ref>Koch 2006, p. 1499.</ref> * [[Calchfynydd]] ("Chalkmountain") – almost nothing is known about this area, though it was likely somewhere in the Old North, as an evident ruler, [[Cadrawd Calchfynydd]], is listed in the ''[[Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd]]''. [[William Forbes Skene]] suggested an identification with [[Kelso, Scottish Borders|Kelso]] (formerly Calchow) in the [[Scottish Borders]].<ref>Bromwich 2006, p. 325.</ref> * [[Eidyn]] – this was the area around the modern city of [[Edinburgh]], then known as [[Din Eidyn]] (Fort of Eidyn). It was closely associated with the Gododdin kingdom.<ref name="Koch 2006, pp. 623–625">Koch 2006, pp. 623–625.</ref> [[Kenneth H. Jackson]] argued strongly that ''Eidyn'' referred exclusively to Edinburgh,<ref>Jackson 1969, pp. 77–78</ref> but other scholars have taken it as a designation for the wider area.<ref name=Williams1972>Williams 1972, p. 64.</ref><ref>Chadwick, p. 107.</ref> The name may survive today in toponyms such as [[Edinburgh]] (Dùn Èideann in Gaelic, Din Eidyn in [[Cumbric]], and [[Carriden]] (from ''Caer Eidyn'')), located fifteen miles to the west.<ref name=Dumville>Dumville, p. 297.</ref> Din Eidyn was besieged by the Angles in 638 and was under their control for most of the next three centuries.<ref name="Koch 2006, pp. 623–625"/> * [[Manaw Gododdin]] – the coastal area south of the [[Firth of Forth]], and part of the territory of the Gododdin.<ref name=Kochgododdin/> The name survives in Slamannan Moor and the village of [[Slamannan]], in [[Stirlingshire]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Rhys |first=John |author-link=John Rhys |year=1904 |contribution=The Picts and Scots |title=Celtic Britain |edition=3rd |publisher=Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge |publication-date=1904 |location=London |page=155 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DGsNAAAAIAAJ }}</ref> This is derived from ''Sliabh Manann'', the 'Moor of Manann'.<ref name=Rhys-Folklore>{{Citation |last=Rhys |first=John |author-link=John Rhys |year=1901 |contribution=Place-Name Stories |title=Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx |volume=II |publisher=Oxford University |publication-date=1901 |location=Oxford |page=550 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2mNWyM2m-zMC }}</ref> It also appears in the name of [[Dalmeny]], some 5 miles northwest of [[Edinburgh]], and formerly known as Dumanyn, assumed to be derived from ''Dun Manann''.<ref name=Rhys-Folklore/> The name also survives north of the Forth in Pictish Manaw as the name of the [[burgh]] of [[Clackmannan]] and the eponymous county of [[Clackmannanshire]],<ref name=Rhys-Britain>{{Harvcolnb|Rhys|1904|pp=155}}, ''Celtic Britain'', The Picts and the Scots.</ref> derived from ''Clach Manann'', the 'stone of Manann',<ref name=Rhys-Folklore/> referring to a monument stone located there. * [[Novant]] – a kingdom mentioned in ''Y Gododdin'', presumably related to the Iron Age [[Novantae]] tribe of southwestern Scotland.<ref>Koch 2006, pp. 824–825.</ref><ref>Koch 1997, pp. lxxxii–lxxxiii.</ref> * ''Regio Dunutinga'' – a minor kingdom or region in [[North Yorkshire]] mentioned in the ''[[Life of Wilfrid]]''. It was evidently named for a ruler named Dunaut, perhaps the [[Dunaut ap Pabo]] known from the genealogies.<ref>Koch 2006, p. 458.</ref> Its name may survive in the modern town of [[Dent, South Lakeland|Dent]], Cumbria.<ref>Koch 2006, p. 904.</ref>
Kingdoms that were not part of the Old North but are part of its history include: * [[Dál Riata]] – Though this was a [[Gaels|Gaelic]] kingdom, the family of [[Áedán mac Gabráin]] of Dál Riata appears in the ''[[Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd]]'' * The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of [[Northumbria]] and its predecessor states, [[Bernicia]] and [[Deira]] * [[Picts|Pictish kingdom]]
===Possible kingdoms=== The following names appear in historical and literary sources, but it is unknown whether or not they refer to British kingdoms and regions of the Old North. * [[Bryneich#British Bryneich|Bryneich]] – this is the British name for the [[Anglo-Saxon]] kingdom of [[Bernicia]]. There was probably a British kingdom in this area before the Anglian kingdom, it this is uncertain.<ref>Koch 2006, pp. 302–304.</ref> * [[Deifr]] or Dewr – this was the British name for Anglo-Saxon [[Deira]], a region between the [[River Tees]] and the [[Humber]]. The name is of British origin, as with Bryneich, it is unknown if it represented an earlier British kingdom.<ref>Koch 2006, pp. 584–585.</ref>
==See also== {{div col|colwidth=25em}} * [[Wales in the Early Middle Ages]] * [[Scotland in the Early Middle Ages]] * [[History of Anglo-Saxon England]] * [[England in the Middle Ages]] * [[Northumbria]] * [[Mercia]] * [[Kingdom of Gwynedd]] * [[Historical basis for King Arthur]] * [[Cumbric language]] * [[Coel Hen|King Cole]] {{div col end}}
==Notes== {{Reflist|group=note}}
==Citations== {{Reflist}}
==References== {{Refbegin}} * {{Citation |title= Astudiaethau ar yr Hengerdd: Studies in Old Welsh Poetry|last1= Bromwich|first1= Rachel |author-link= Rachel Bromwich|first2= Idris Llewelyn|last2= Foster|first3= R. Brinley |last3=Jones|year= 1978 |publisher= University of Wales Press|isbn=0-7083-0696-9 }} * {{Citation|last=Bromwich|first=Rachel|author-link=Rachel Bromwich|year=2006|title=Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain|publisher=University of Wales Press|publication-date=2006|isbn=0-7083-1386-8}} * {{Citation |title= The British Heroic Age: the Welsh and the Men of the North|last= Chadwick|first= Nora K.|author-link= Nora Kershaw Chadwick|year= 1968 |publisher= University of Wales Press|isbn=0-7083-0465-6}} * {{Citation |last=Davies |first=John |author-link=John Davies (historian) |year=1990 |title=A History of Wales |edition=First |publisher=Penguin Group |publication-date=1993 |location=London |isbn=0-7139-9098-8 }} * {{Citation |last1= Dumville |first1= David |date= 1995 |title= The eastern terminus of the Antonine wall: 12th- or 13th-century evidence |journal= [[Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland]] |volume= 124 |pages= 293–298 |doi= 10.9750/PSAS.124.293.298 |s2cid= 159974303 |url= http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-352-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_124/124_293_298.pdf |access-date= 7 September 2011 |postscript= . |archive-date= 15 May 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120515205211/http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-352-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_124/124_293_298.pdf |url-status= dead }} * {{Citation |last=Jackson |first=Kenneth Hurlstone |author-link=Kenneth H. Jackson |year=1953 |title=Language and History in Early Britain: A chronological survey of the Brittonic languages, first to twelfth century A.D. |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |publication-date=1953 |location=Edinburgh }} * {{citation | title = The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish Poem | last1 = Jackson | first1 = Kenneth H. | author-link1 = Kenneth H. Jackson | year = 1969 | publisher= Edinburgh University Press}} * {{Citation |title=The Gododdin of Aneirin: Text and Context from Dark-Age North Britain|last= Koch|first= John T.|year= 1997 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn= 0-7083-1374-4}} * {{Citation |title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia |last= Koch|first= John T.|year= 2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn= 978-1-85109-440-0}} * {{Citation |last=Lloyd |first=John Edward |author-link=John Edward Lloyd |year=1911 |title=A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest |volume=I |edition=Second |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. |publication-date=1912 |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYwNAAAAIAAJ }} * {{Citation|last1= Morris-Jones|first1= John|year= 1918|title= Taliesin|journal= [[Y Cymmrodor]]|volume= 28|publisher= Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion|url= https://archive.org/details/ycymmrodor28cymmuoft|access-date= 1 December 2010|postscript= .}} * {{Citation |title= The Poems of Taliesin: Volume 3 of Mediaeval and Modern Welsh Series|last= Williams|first= Ifor|author-link= Ifor Williams|year= 1968 |publisher= Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies}} * {{Citation |title= The Beginnings of Welsh Poetry: Studies|last= Williams|first= Ifor|author-link= Ifor Williams|year= 1972|publisher= University of Wales Press|isbn= 0-7083-0035-9}} {{Refend}}
==Further reading== {{Refbegin}} * Alcock, Leslie. ''Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain, AD 550–850''. Edinburgh, 2003. * Alcock, Leslie. "Gwyr y Gogledd. An archaeological appraisal." ''[[Archaeologia Cambrensis]]'' 132 (1984 for 1983). pp. 1–18. * Cessford, Craig. "Northern England and the Gododdin poem." ''Northern History'' 33 (1997). pp. 218–22. * Clarkson, Tim. ''The Men of the North: the Britons of Southern Scotland.'' Edinburgh: John Donald, Birlinn Ltd, 2010. * Clarkson, Tim. ''Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age.'' Edinburgh: John Donald, Birlinn Ltd, 2014. * Dark, Kenneth R. ''Civitas to Kingdom. British political continuity, 300–800.'' London: Leicester UP, 1994. * Dumville, David N. "Early Welsh Poetry: Problems of Historicity." In ''Early Welsh Poetry: Studies in the Book of Aneirin'', ed. Brynley F. Roberts. Aberystwyth, 1988. 1–16. * Dumville, David N. "The origins of Northumbria: Some aspects of the British background." In ''The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms'', ed. S. Bassett. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1989. pp. 213–22. * Higham, N.J. "Britons in Northern England: Through a Thick Glass Darkly." ''Northern History'' 38 (2001). pp. 5–25. * Macquarrie, A. "The Kings of Strathclyde, c.400–1018." In ''Medieval Scotland: Government, Lordship and Community'', ed. A. Grant and K.J. Stringer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1993. pp. 1–19. * Miller, Molly. "Historicity and the pedigrees of north countrymen." ''[[Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies]]'' 26 (1975). pp. 255–80. * Woolf, Alex. "Cædualla Rex Brettonum and the Passing of the Old North." ''Northern History'' 41.1 (2004): 1–20. {{Refend}}
==External links== * Matthews, Keith J. [http://www.heroicage.org/issues/4/Matthews.html "What's in a name? Britons, Angles, ethnicity and material culture from the fourth to seventh centuries."] ''Heroic Age'' 4 (Winter 2001).
{{Hen ogledd}} {{Barbarian kingdoms}}
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