EINION ap COLLWYN (fl. 1100?), prince and warrior

According to tradition, he quarrelled with Iestyn ap Gwrgant, and in consequence invited the Normans to invade Glamorgan. He is a semi-legendary figure, and it is significant that at least three different accounts of his descent are given us. According to one story, he was the son of Collwyn ap Gwaethfoed of Ceredigion; another makes him the son of Cadifor ap Collwyn of Dyfed; while poets like Lewis Glyn Cothi and Gwilym Tew assert that he was a man of Gwynedd who migrated to Glamorgan in Iestyn's days - and George Owen adds that his father Collwyn was nephew to Angharad daughter of Ednowain ap Bleddyn of Ardudwy and mother of Iestyn. It may be observed that Lloyd 's A History of Wales ignores Einion completely (see p. 402, f.n.), and that he had intended to exclude him from the present work. The traditions about Einion, about the gentle families of the Glamorgan uplands who claimed descent from him, and about his connections with the literary history of Glamorgan, will be found conveniently recounted in G. J. Williams, Traddodiad Llenyddol Morgannwg, 1948, indexed.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Published date: 1959

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