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Maredudd ab Owain was a king of Gwynedd. A member of the House of Dinefwr, his patrimony was the kingdom of Deheubarth comprising the southern realms of Dyfed, Ceredigion, and Brycheiniog. Upon the death of his father King Owain ap Hywel Dda around 988, he also inherited the kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys, which he had conquered for his father. He was counted among the Kings of the Britons by the Chronicle of the Princes.
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Talhaearn Tad Awen, was, according to medieval Welsh sources, a celebrated British poet of the sub-Roman period. He ranks as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, named poets to have composed and performed in Welsh. The better known poets Aneirin and Taliesin, who may have been slightly younger contemporaries, also belong to this early generation, the first of those known to modern scholars as the Cynfeirdd. Whereas medieval Welsh manuscripts preserve verse composed by or otherwise ascribed to the latter two figures, no such work survives for Talhaearn and in fact, his former fame seems to have largely vanished by the later Middle Ages.
The ceiniog was the basic currency of the medieval Welsh kingdoms such as Gwynedd and Deheubarth. Hywel Dda was the only ruler recorded as minting his own proper coins; however, the ceiniog was not a coin but a value of silver. The "legal penny" was the weight of 32 wheat grains in silver; the "curt penny", the weight of 24 wheat grains. The latter was based on the old Roman pound; the former, Charlemagne's and Offa's. The Welsh half-penny was the dymey of 12 wheat grains and the farthing (quarter-penny) was the firdlyc of 6.
Welsh units of measurement are those in use in Wales between the Sub-Roman period and the 13th-century Edwardian conquest. Modern Wales no longer employs these units even for customary purposes but instead follows the custom as elsewhere in Britain of using a mixture of metric and Imperial units.
The maenor was a gathering of villages in medieval Wales. In North Wales the word maenol was used for a similar, but not identical, idea.
References
- 1 2 3 Wade-Evans, Arthur. Welsh Medieval Law . Oxford Univ., 1909. Accessed 1 Feb 2013.
- ↑ Williams, Edward. The Iolo MSS . Rees (Llandovery), 1848. Accessed 1 Feb 2013.
- ↑ Laws of Hywel Dda, I.
- 1 2 Jenkins, John. Poetry of Wales . Houlston & Sons (London), 1873. Accessed 1 Feb 2013.
- 1 2 Bradley, A.G. Owen Glyndwr and the Last Struggle for Welsh Independence . G.P. Putnam's Sons (New York), 1901. Accessed 1 Feb 2013.
- ↑ Nash, D.W. Taliesin or Bards and Druids of Britain . Kessinger, 2003. Accessed 1 Feb 2013.
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