Parents Owain Ddantgwyn Name Cuneglas Cuneglas | Great-grandparents Cunedda | |
Grandparents Einion Yrth ap Cunedda | ||
Cuneglasus (Latin: Cuneglasus; Welsh: Cynlas, "Tawny Hound";), a British prince who flourished in the early 6th century, perhaps ruling in what is now Northern Wales.
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Cuneglasus and Gildas
Cuneglasus is one of the five "tyrants" of Britain denounced by, Gildas, in his circa early-sixth century C.E. work On the Ruin of Britain. Gildas says of him:
The first phrase is notably obscure. The Latin receptāculum ("container; refuge") would literally describe a bear's lair or cage, which seems unlikely. Those seeking an identification of Arthur with Cuneglasus's putative father Owain have seen it as reference to Cuneglasus's guiding the chariot containing his father's casket. Some have argued for its identification with a placename, the Din Arth hillfort on Bryn Euryn at Llandrillo in Rhos; excavations undertaken in 1997 by David Longley for the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust revealed an early medieval fortress with a "massive, well-built" wall of quarried limestone standing 3 m (9.8 ft) high and fronted by a rampart of 3.5 metres (11 ft) of rubble. The phrase would then serve as a punning reference to the main court of Cuneglasus.
Identification with Cynlas Goch
Cuneglasus may be the same man as Cynlas the Red (Cynlas Goch), a son of Owain Whitetooth (Ddanwyn) and his successor as king of Rhos, an area of Denbighshire in northern Wales. Cynlas Goch was the brother of saints Einion, Seiriol, and Meirion.