Note 19 — Chapter I · THE EARLIEST ARTHURIAN RECORDS

A number of chieftains are styled gwledig in the Mabinogion (see index to edition of Welsh Red Book, text by Rhys and Evans, p. 342). Among them is one Amlawdd, or Amlodd, who in Kulhwch and Olwen is the father of Goleuddydd, the mother of Kulhwch, “a boy of gentle birth and cousin unto Arthur.” In a poem ascribed to Taliesin the deity even is called gwledig—“gwledig nef a phob tud,” “ruler of heaven and of every land.”