Cuneglas

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Cuneglas (also known in Latin as Cuneglasus and in modern Welsh as Cynlas. He is sometimes referred to as Cynlas Goch meaning Cynlas the Red). He is recorded as a son of Owain Danwyn, a popular contender for an historical basis to the famous King Arthur. Both father and son were, according to one Old Welsh genealogical source, Kings of Rhôs, part of Denbighshire in mid-North Wales. They lived in the early 6th century.

Cuneglas is one of the 'tyrants' denounced by the contemporary writer, Gildas, in his De Excidio Britanniae. This indignant monk calls him:

"You bear, you rider and ruler of many, and guider of the chariot which is the receptacle of the bear"
"You contempter of God and vilifier of his order"
"You tawny butcher, as in the Latin tongue thy name signifies" (This is incorrect: his name means Blue Hound)
one who raises war against men, indeed against his own countrymen, as well as against God
one who has "thrown out of doors your wife" and lustfully desires "her detestable sister who had vowed unto God, the everlasting [chastity of widowhhod]".

The "receptacle of the bear" is more generally interpreted as the "home of the bear". In Welsh, this might be Din Arth or Din Erth - "Fort of the Bear" - still the name of a Dark Age hillfort at Llandrillo-yn-Rhôs in Cynlas' old kingdom. Although there is also a Dinerth in Ceredigion.

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