* Ruth Minary (1990) : "Royaume britannique (VIIè siècle) s'étendant de la frontière écossaise au Lancashire".

Plusieurs propositions sont faites (voir dans les textes ci-dessous) : 

- Dunragit (Dun Rheged) en Galloway

- Rochdale (autrefois Recedham) en Lancashire

Pour prolonger l'étude du toponyme Rochdale, voici ce qu'en dit Eilert Ekwall, p. 389 : 

"Rochdale, Lancashire; Rededham dans le Domesday Book; Rachedham a 1193 WhC; Rachedal c 1195 PNL, 1246 Asser. Rochadale is 'the valley of the roch'. Roch was originally Rached, but Rachedale became Rechedale, and a new river-name Rache was formed by back-formation. Rached itself may be a back-formation from Rachedham, the early name of Rochdale, if it has as first el. OE reced, raeced 'hall, house' (HAM with a hall). But it is possible that Rached- is a Brit name consisting of OW rac 'against' and coet 'wood'. It would then be a name of th district or possibly a river-name ('district or river opposite to the forest').

- ***

-------------------------

* Commentaire provisoire JCE : 

- poursuivre la comparaison entre *rac- + *coet et Argoët.

The poems of Taliesin

v. The Land of Urien

The eight poems addresaed to Urien which are found together (apart from the interpolation of a poem to Gwallawg between the seventh and the eighth) in the Book of Taliesin, had, I believe, been copied as a collection of songa in a considerably otder manuscript by a previous scribe. Of these eight poema five were translated and annotated by Sir John Morris-Jones in Y C,ymmrodor z8 ( i q i 8) in his review of Dr. J. Gwenogvryn Evans's Poems from the Book of Taliesin, edited, amended and translated (iqi5). It goes without saying that Morris-Jones's translations are greatly superior to those of the Revd. Robert Williams in Skene's The Four Ancient Books of Wales, ü, but, not unnaturally, they need to be corrected in the light of the tremendous progress made by Welsh scholarship in the last forty years. Unfortunately, it is my lot to correct some of Morris-Jonea's errors. No doubt other scholars will have to correct my miatakes, but this does not lessen my feeling of distaste in having to disagree so often with my old master and teacher. °

The Urien poems tranalated by Sir John are those numbered II, III, IV, VI, and IX in the present edition. He also tranalated Marumad Osaain, numbered X, and Marwnad Cunedda which he transformed into an elegy on Rhun ap Maelgwn but which I have had to reject altogether as unauthentic.

B.M. Harl. 3859, (EWGT io) gives Urien's genealogy; [U]rbgen map Cinmarc map Merchianum map Gurguat [map Ceneu] map Coilhen, i.e. Urien mab Cynfarch m. Meirchiawn m. Gwrwst [m. Cenau] m. Coel, Hen. The manuscript has been dated c. iioo; its exemplar ia believed to have been written in the court of Hywel Dda c. q5o or soon afterwarda.

The Brittonic form of Urien's name must have been •(SrrLogenos. The Brittonic composition vowel was generally lost in Welsh, but there are examples where it has been 

retained. The form Urbgen shows loss of the composition vowel; Urbgen later gave *Urfien, and, with the loss of -f-, Urien. Urbagen (Nicholson, ZCP iii. ¹⁰4, for Mommsen's Urbacen in the Chartres Historia Brittonum, p. IIq) and Urbeghen (Mommsen, p. 207) show retention of the composition vowel in the form -a-, -e-. * Urbogen gave Urfoen (Uruoen); see note on II. 32 and, more fully, B 7. 388.

The first instance of his name in the poems as edited here occurs in II. i-3,

Arwyre gwyr katraeth gan dyd.

am wledic gweithuudic gwarthegyd, Vryen hwn anwawt eineuyd.

`The men of Catraeth rise up with (the) day (dawn) round a chiefxain battle-victorious, cattle-reaving. This is Urien, renowned leader.' Catterick in Yorkshire preserves the same place-name as that which is represented by the Welsh form Catraeth, but the citadel or fort which bore the original name is best sited on the hill where Richmond Castle now stands, i.e. above the cataract on the River Swale which gave the name. Urien is thus called `gwledig' and `eineuyd' (read hynefydd) of the men of Catraeth. Still more explicit is the reference to him as `ruler of Catraeth' in VIII. 3,

Gweleis i lyw katraeth tra maeu.

`I saw the ruler of Catraeth across the plains'. `Tra maeu', `beyond the plains' would be a fitting description of Catraeth from the standpoint of someone situated to the south of the place, and this may be taken as suggesting that the bard was, at the time of composing the poem, in the region of Elmet in the vicinity of the present day Leeds. The `tra maeu' would also give some support to the view that Catraeth refers to the site of Richmond rather than to the site of Catterick; `beyond the plains' would be an apposite description of CatraethRichmond.

Besides Catraeth, Urien had in his possession and under his 

sway Rheged. He is called Glyw Reget in II. 27, Uryen Reget in III. 13, and Reget difj`reidyat in III. i¢. The bard refers to himself as being `can rychedwys' `with the men of Rheged' (read Recetuis, Rhegedwys) in IV. r, but VII. i-2,

Ardwyre reget ryssed rieu. neu ti rygosteis kyn bwyf teu. suggests that he himself was not originally a native of Rheged rysedd rieu, `Rheged the glory (pride) of kings'.

The chieftain of Rheged is also described as Uryen yr echwyd (? Yrechwydd, Erechwydd) in III, i, as Uryen ud yr echwyd in VI. 13 and as vd yr echwyd in III. i8-iq.

Tan yn tei kyn dyd rac vd yr echwyd

Yr echwyd teccaf ae dynyon haelhaf.

Urien was associated with Aeron. We are told that he is yn edyd (= yn feddydd?) yn Aeron in VII. 12, and that he is diffreidawc yn Aeron in VIII. zz.

Finally, when Fflamddwyn comes with four armies to attack Urien, we are told that Godeu (Goddau?) and Reget (?and Dyuwy) from Argoet to Arvynyd mustered under Urien and his son Owain to meet him (VI. ¢-5) and that they won the battle of Argoet Llwyfein, Le. Gweith Argoet Llwyfein.

Unfortunately it is difficult to decide the location of the districts denoted by these names, and much more difficult to define their precise boundaries.

Rheged. Sir John Morris-Jones, T 6¢-65, summarizes the various attempts that have been made to locate Rheged thus: Lewis Moms says that `Rheged is supposed to be Cumbria, now Cumberland' (Stephens, Lit. Kym., p. 267). Sir Francis Palgrave placed Rheged in the south of Scotland about Dumfriesshire, see the map opp. p. 30 in his History of England, i. 1831. The Rev. T. Price (Carnhuanawc) in his Hanes Cymru, <sup>1</sup>842, p. 278, identified it with the modern Cumberland. Stephens, in his Literature of the Kymry, <sup>1</sup>849, P• 53, ob.lects that it was within a night's ride of Maelienydd (misunderstanding a poem of Hywel ab Owein Gwynedd, noticed below), and places it between the Tawy and the Towy (Gower, Kidwelly, etc.) on the authority of the Iolo MSS., which of course is worthless. In 1852 Stephens identified it with Lancashire (The Gododin, p. 371) and in 1853 extended it to the river Swale (ib., p. 238). Nash, in his Taliesin, 1858, p. go, correcting Palgrave, puts Rheged in Cumberland. Skene, F.A.B., 1868, i, p. 59, accepts the identification of the Welsh version of Geoffrey [i.e. Rheged = Geoffrey's Mureif in the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond]. Rhys, in his Arthurian Legend, 1891, p. 238, refers to this identification, but treats Rheged as mythical: `the Welsh translator who identified Rheged with Mureif confounded it thereby with the province of Moray,' p. 240; and he thinks that `it may possibly be regarded as somewhat less mythical that Urien should be styled Ruler of Catraeth,' ibid. Professor Oman, in his England before the Norman Conquest, iqio, p. 239, dealing with the northern British kingdoms in the sixth century, speaks of the `main principality' as `comprising Clydesdale as its central nucleus, but with its capital at Alclyde, north of the Firth, on the rock of Dumbarton. ... South of it was another state, called Reged, which seems to represent the modern Cumberland with so much of Northumberland as had not yet been conquered by the Angles. Possibly the name Redesdale preserves a memory of this forgotten realm.

Sir John discusses the implications of Hywel ab Owein Gwynedd's lines in his Gorhoffedd:

and concludes that Hywel regarded Carlisle (Caer Liwelydd) as being in Rheged, but adds that Urien's kingdom may have extended northwards as far as the Southern Wall or even the Cheviot Hills.

Welsh tradition in the twelfth century obviously regarded - Cumberland, and more precisely, north Cumberland, as tir Rheged. Urien's appellation Llyw Catraeth certainly proves that his kingdom extended to the east across the mountains to the plains beyond, but I am far from convinced that this part was or could properly be called Rheged. It should be remembered that there was a Roman road running from Catraeth to Caer Liwelydd and, as an experienced cattlereaver, Urien would have seen at a very early stage in his,career the advantages of holding the fort on the rock of Richmond.

It should be remembered that there is a place called Dunragit near Stranraer in Wigtownshire, in the south-west of Scotlapd; see Hogan, Onomasticon Goidelicum (iqio), p. 388, s.v. Dûn Reichet, and Watson, Celtic Place Names of Scotland (iq26), p. 156,

`the site of the old fort is on a rounded eminence called the Mote of Dunragit. The inference is that Wigtownshire was in Rheged, and if Wigtown, then also the rest of Galloway and Dumfriesshire.' [p. 168] `Oengus records in his Félire at 24th November Colman . . . who is stated in the notes to have been "in the Rinns, i.e. from Dûn Reichet ... and from other places." One is naturally inclined to place this Colman in the Rinns of Galloway and to equate Dûn Reichet with Dunragit-an equation which is unobjectionable phonetically. There was, however, a district in Roscommon called the Rions, and there appears to have been a plain in Connacht called Mag Rechet. Thus Dûn Reichet may have been in the Rinns of Roscommon. He was a younger contemporary of Comgall of Bangor who died in 602.' 

Watson's earliest example of Dunragit dates from 1535 in the form Dunregate. It is obvious that he takes Dunragit as the dun of Rheged and seems to incline to the view that Dûn Reichet was the place in Roscommon where Colman was.

If, then, there are examples of Reichet in Ireland, should the fact be taken as proof that a tribe of that name had settled there after emigrating from Britain, or, conversely, that Ireland was the original home of the tribe of which some had elected to remain at home, and others had emigrated to Britain ? Cf. Lleyn, which, as Rhys was the first to point out, is from the nom. pl. *Lageni (Irish Laigin), `Leinstermen', and may be derived from the name of a colony of Irish from Leinster. Watson, discussing Rheged, op. cit. i56, follows Sir John in taking echwydd to mean `a flow of water, a tidal current, a cataract,' and writes; `It seems fairly certain that in this case the echwydd [i.e. the echwydd associated with Urien] is the Solway, which is noted for the violence of its tides.' As the Solway Firth is of salt water and as echwydd, to my mind, means `fresh water', I cannot accept this, but I believe, however, that the Solway does shed light on another phrase in BT 78. 15, tra merin reget, which should be considered in any attempt to locate Rheged. Tra, as we have already seen, means `beyond'; merin is `sea', (DG xv.iq merinwyr `mariners', cf. BT 35. ao mordwyeit merin), CA 358 merin Iodeo `The Firth of Forth' (there was a fort called ludeu on Inchkeith in the Firth; see further CA 218, 257), MA 258 b 49 llauar merinnyeu `noisy are the waves' (or the seas); and in CA 24. 6oz tra merin llestyr `foreign vessel', ibid. tra merin llu `foreign host', tra merin is `transmarine' and so we may take tra merin reget to mean `beyond the sea of Rheged', or, in other words, `beyond the Solway Firth', and this proves that Carlisle was definitely in the land of Rheged and that the northern shore of the Solway may also have been included in it.

How far south the territory of Rheged extended, it is difficult to say. Does Rochdale contain its name? Chadwick was of the opinion that it did.I According to Ekwall, the river Roch was called Rached or Rachet in the thirteenth century. In the Domesday Book io86, Rochdale is called Recedham, and there is an OE word reced `hall, house'. `But it is possible,' writes Ekwall, `that Rached- is a Brit. name consisting of OW rac "against" and coet "wood". It would then be a name of the district or possibly a river name ("district or river opposite to the forest").'z 

But, pace Ekwall, the Welsh name for a place opposite a wood is Argoed, not Rac-coed. The derivation from reced `a hall, a house' seems more acceptable, though, from a Welshman's point of view, a derivation from Rheged would be still better. If Rochdale is rather far from Carlisle, it is not much more than twenty miles, as the crow flies, from Darwen, older Derezvente, which preserves the old Welsh name Derwennydd. Thus it is not impossible that Rochdale, too, preserves a form of Rheged, but it must be admitted that this is doubtful on the evidepce at present available.

Erechwydd, Yrechwydd. See T 68-70, CL1H ¹¹7, AP 62-65. According to T 68, `Echwydd means a "waterfall", as in

i

Extrait de John Morris

Fond de couleur ajouté par JC Even

i

Extrait de Charles Kightly

"The best remembered of all the 6th-century 'sons of Coel', however, were Urien and his son Owain, the last rulers of Rheged. Probably centred on Carlisle and the Solway Firth, this was apparently one of the largest British princedoms, stretching perhaps as far north as Dunragit (Dun Rheged) in Galloway, or even to Ayrshire, and as far south as Rochdale (once Recedham) in Lancashire: it certainly extended eastwards across the Pennines to include Catterick in north Yorkshire. These heroes of many Welsh folktales, Urien and Owain, were subsequently absorbed into medieval Arthurian legend, where Owain became `Sir Yvain, son of King Urien', the owner of a flight of magic ravens and of an invaluable pet lion. He was also probably the original of `Ewen Caesarius', a giant said to have lived near Penrith in cumbria and to be buried beneath the 'Giant's Grave' there. If he really was known as 'Owen the caesar', the Men of the North were still using roman titles some two centuries after the end of Imperial rule in Britain".

* Eilert EKWALL : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names. Oxford University Press. Ière édition 1936.4ème édition 1960. Réimpression 1980. 

* Sir Ifor WILLIAMS : The Poems of  Taliesin. The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. 1968. Édition 1975.

* John MORRIS : History from the sources. The age of Arthur. Vol. 2 : The Successor States. 1973; édition 1977.

* Charles KIGHTLY : Folk Heroes of Britain. Thames and Hudson. 1982. 1984.

* Ruth MINARY : Petit dictionnaire arthurien. Academy Chicago Publisher. 1990. Terre de Brumes Editions. 1996.