Rhun Ryfeddfawr: a Cymric Hero, also known as Run Ryfedfawr, Rhun mab Urien Rheged)

Synonyms: Run Ryfedfawr, Rhun mab Urien Rheged
Cym:

Rhun is known from the Trieodd Ynys Prydein as Rhun Ryfedfawr (Rhun of the Great Wealth). The Achau'r Mamau (Lineage of the Mothers) provides this lineage for Rhun Ryfedfawr: Mam Beli ap Run ap Maelgw(y)n Gwynedd oedd Perwawr vch Run Ryfedfawr ap Enniawn ap Masgwic kloff ap Kenau ap Koel Godeboc which would suggest that Rhun Ryfedfawr was one and the same as Rhun fab Einion. This lineage is late in origin, however, and contrasts with the Canu Llywarch Hen cycle which names Rhun Ryfedfawr with Urien and his sons, a context that makes it clear that Rhun Ryfedfawr is one and the same as Rhun fab Urien Rheged, 'a northern prince of the tribe of Coel Godebog'.

The the sons of Urien Rheged as, determined from the praise poems in the Llyfr Taliesin and several triads in the Trioedd Ynys Prydein, are given as: Rhiwallon, Rhun, Pascen and Owein. The only other source for the genealogy of Urien's sons can be derived from a later, sixteenth-century manuscript Peniarth 127 which names them as: Ywain ap Urien, Rhun ap Urien, Rhiwallon ap Urien, Elffin ap Urien, Pasgen ap Urien, Cadfael ap Urien ap Cynfarch ap Meirchion ap Gorwst ap Ceneu ap Coel.

Rhun mab Urien is probably the same personage as the Run map Urbag(h)en of Nennius' Historia Brittonum who, according to both the Annales Cambria and the Historia Brittonum was responsible for the baptizing of king Edwin of Northumbria circa 626 CE. It should also be noted that the earliest extant text of the Historia Brittonum, the Chartres 98 MS claims to have been written by Run map Urbag(h)en rather than by Nennius. It is certainly possible that Rhun may have written many of the historical elements later synthesized by Nennius, though the veracity of this supposition remains a matter of considerable debate. Rhun is also mentioned later in the Historia Brittonum where the ancestry of Rhieinmellt, wife of Oswy of Northumbria is given as: Rieinmelth filia Royth filii Rum (Rhieinmellt daughter of Rhwyth [Rhoedd] son of Rhun). The Rhwywth mentioed here was probably the last native ruler of Rheged.

Rhun is mentioned in only one of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein, Triad 79, where one of the 'Three Lively Maidens of the Island of Britain' is given as Perwyr, daughter of Rhun Ryfedfawr. In Evan Evans' copy of Robert Vaughans' notes to the Triads (Panton MS 51) it is said that Rhun fab Maelgwn Gwynedd took as his wife Perwyr the Comely, daughter of Rhun Ryfeddfawr, a northern prince of the tribe of Coel Godebog. The name of Rhun's wife is drawn from Achau'r Mamau (as above). In the Llyfr Coch Hergest poem of the Llywarch Hen Cycle, Dym kywardyat unhwch, also known as 'The Death of Urien', Rhun is described as a 'famous chief' and 'greatly fond of war' who gave Llywarch Hen a hundred hosts, a cantref and a hundred oxen and is credited with many forays against his enemies. Thus it is plain from this that Rhun, though one of the younger sons of Urien eventually took over the rule of Rheged which then passed to his son. There is also a mention of Rhun in poem XXXVIII (Rhagoriaeth Gwallawg [The Superiority of Gwallawg]) from the Llyfr Taliesin. This reference again is probably to Rhun mab Urien as the poem is effectively an elegy to Gwallawg mab mab Lleennawc one-time ally and later opponent of the forces of Rheged.

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