Armes Prydein (Welsh pronunciation:[ˈarmɛsˈprədəin], The Prophecy of Britain) is an early 10th-century Welsh prophetic poem from the Book of Taliesin.
In a rousing style characteristic of Welsh heroic poetry, it describes a future where all of Brythonic peoples are allied with the Scots, the Irish, and the Vikings of Dublin under Welsh leadership, and together succeed in driving the Anglo-Saxons from Britain forever.[1][2][3] Two famous leaders from the distant past are invoked, Conan, the legendary founder of Brittany, and Cadwaladr, a seventh century king of Gwynedd.[4]
The poem is commonly described as an expression of Welsh frustration with the pragmatic, peaceful policies of Hywel Dda towards the then-ascendant Kingdom of Wessex. Edward the Elder (reigned 899–924) had gained acknowledged pre-eminence over almost all of the peoples south of the Firths of Clyde and Forth, including the Gaels, Vikings, English, Cornish, Welsh, and the Cumbrians. After he died and his son Æthelstan had become king (reigned 924–939), an alliance of the kingdoms of Dublin, Scotland, and Strathclyde rose against him and was defeated at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. Out of keeping with their historical stance alongside the 'Men of the North' (Welsh: Gwŷr y Gogledd) and against the English, the Welsh under Hywel Dda had stood aside, neither helping their traditional compatriots (the men of Strathclyde) nor opposing their traditional enemies (the Saxons of Wessex).
Andrew Breeze dates the poem to the summer or autumn of 940 on the grounds that 1. It refers to Lego, and Legorensis is the Latin adjective for Leicester. He sees this as a reference to a humiliating settlement which King Edmund I of England was forced to accept at Leicester in 940, surrendering the north-east midlands to the Viking leader Olaf Guthfrithson. 2. The poem refers to victory after 404 years. According to the Annales Cambriæ, King Arthur was killed at the Battle of Camlann in 537, and 404 years after that is 941. 3. The poem is therefore looking forward to the annihilation of the Anglo-Saxons in 941.[5]
^Skene, William Forbes (1868a), The Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. I, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas (published 1868) pp. 436–442.
^Skene, William Forbes (1868b), The Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. II, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas (published 1868), pp. 123–129.
^Koch, John T., ed. (2005), Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABL-CLIO (published 2006), ISBN 978-1-85109-440-0 p. 85
^Breeze, Andrew (1997). "Armes Prydein, Hywel Dda and the Reign of Edmund of Wessex". Études Celtique. 33: 215.
^Breeze, Andrew (March 2011). "Durham, Caithness and Armes Prydein". Northern History. XLVIII (1): 148. ISSN 1745-8706.
ArmesPrydein (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈarmɛs ˈprədəin], The Prophecy of Britain) is an early 10th-century Welsh prophetic poem from the Book of Taliesin...
Britain (place name) Trioedd Ynys Prydein Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, vol. IV, p. 3819. Ifor Williams (ed.), ArmesPrydein (University of Wales Press, 1955)...
Cadwaladr's name is invoked in a number of literary works such as in the ArmesPrydein, an early 10th-century prophetic poem from the Book of Taliesin. While...
("The Eternal Trinity") VI "ArmesPrydein Vawr" ("The Great Prophesy of Britain") X "Daronwy" ("Daronwy") XLVII "ArmesPrydein Bychan" ("The Lesser Prophesy...
referred to the people or their homeland, including as Kymry, in the ArmesPrydein, in the 10th century. "Wales" on the other hand, is derived from an...
date from the 10th century or earlier, as it appears in the literary ArmesPrydein. Welsh antiquarians of the 18th and 19th centuries hypothesized that...
of power in mid-10th-century Britain. A Welsh-language poem entitled ArmesPrydein, considered by Sir Ifor Williams to have been written in Deheubarth...
would drive them back into the sea. One such poem is the 10th-century ArmesPrydein from the Book of Taliesin which sees a coalition of Irish, British,...
and argues that this identification is made already in ArmesPrydein. At the time ArmesPrydein was composed, the Breton nobility under Alan II, Duke of...
Cadwallon ap Cadfan (Moliant Cadwallon, by Afan Ferddig) c. 633. In ArmesPrydein, believed to be written around 930–942, the words Cymry and Cymro are...
XXV (Cambridge, 2008), ISBN 978-1-84384-171-5. ‘When and where was ArmesPrydein Composed?’, Studia Celtica (Cardiff, 2008), xlii, pp. 145–49. ‘Cadell...
liturgical calendar on 1 March. David's popularity in Wales is shown by the ArmesPrydein of around 930, a popular poem which prophesied that in the future, when...
Tanet and Danet, found in the Historia Brittonum (c. AD 829/30) and ArmesPrydein (c. AD 930). Standard reference works for English place-names (such...
Political poetry threads throughout the period from the very early ArmesPrydein (10th-century Britain) to the goliard rebels of 12th and 13th centuries...
the term Britannia (or Prydein in the native language) appeared in many Welsh works such as the Historia Britonum, ArmesPrydein and the 12th-century Historia...
historical", but also cited the failure of the tenth century Welsh poem ArmesPrydein, which prophesied the expulsion of the English from Britain, to mention...
sea. Some of these works were presented as prophecies of Myrddin. The ArmesPrydein (one of the earliest mentions of him) contains the line “Myrddin foretells...
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1972-6060-9. Breeze, Andrew (1997). "ArmesPrydein, Hywel Dda and the Reign of Edmund of Wessex". Études Celtique. 33:...
astonished Welsh reaction to these events is found in the contemporary poem, ArmesPrydein, where the last independent king of Cornwall, reputedly King Howel,...
(1996). Cornwall: a history. Fowey: Alexander Associates "ArmesPrydein Vawr : The Prophecy of Prydein the Great : Book of Taliesin VI : From The Four Ancient...
argued, includes a reminiscence of the 10th-century prophetic poem ArmesPrydein. The description of the first finding and capture of Merlin shows close...
ISBN 978-0-521-82992-2. Fulton, H (2000). "Tenth-Century Wales and ArmesPrydein". Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. 7: 5–18. hdl:10107/1425845...
Welsh Cludwys, a term that is otherwise employed by the tenth-century ArmesPrydein and means "People of the Clyde". The title accorded to Owain Foel differs...
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