Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
Cadell Ddyrnllug
(fl. 5th cent.)David E. Thornton
https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/51392Published in print: 23 September 2004 Published online: 23 September 2004
Cadell Ddyrnllug (fl. 5th cent.), king of Powys, was the legendary ancestor of the later ‘Cadelling’ kings of early medieval Powys in north-east and east Wales; his epithet means ‘gleaming hilt’. His parentage is unclear from the genealogical sources, though later genealogies (probably erroneously) render him grandson of the great Vortigern. Little genuine historical information is known about Cadell, and the account in a Latin life of St Germanus has the
appearance of a dynastic origin-legend. According to this life, Cadell was a servant of one Benlli, the ruler of that region at the time of Germanus's visit(s) to Britain (428–9 and 445–6). He entertained the holy man in his household because Germanus had been refused an audience with Benlli. Germanus subsequently advised Cadell to remove himself and his sons from Benlli's fortress, and they were thus spared when the fortress and its tyrannical occupant were destroyed by fire from heaven through the holy man's intercession. Germanus then baptized Cadell and his sons and elevated them as kings, predicting that all subsequent rulers of Powys would be descended from Cadell. Cadell's son in the main genealogies is called Cadeyrn; later sources added Cyngen Glodrydd, Gwynnan, Iddig (Medig), and Tegid. The dynasty of Powys down to the middle of the ninth century was known as the Cadelling. That these later kings would be satisfied with an ancestor of such humble origins is an interesting sidelight on their attitude to their descent, as is the fact that the inscription on the so-called 'pillar of Elise' (or Eliseg), raised by Cyngen ap Cadell in the first half of the ninth century, makes no mention of him. However, the fragmentary nature of the text possibly accounts for this deficiency.
