Vortigern : diforc'h etre ar stummoù

Endalc’h diverket Danvez ouzhpennet
Diverradenn ebet eus ar c'hemm
brezhoneg e-lec'h saozneg; kempenn
Linenn 28:
Un dra nec'hus all d'an arbennigourion eo ar gerioù "e tu reter an enez": daoust pe aod Kent, pe [[East Anglia]], pe [[Northumbria]]? Pe daoust ha strewet e oa ar Saozon un tamm e pep lec'h a-hed an aod reter?
 
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'''Vortigern''' ({{pronEng|ˈvɔrtɨɡɝːn}}; {{lang-cy|Gwrtheyrn}}; {{lang-ang|Wyrtgeorne}}; {{lang-br|Guorthigern}}; {{lang-gle|Foirtchern}}), also spelled '''Vortiger''' and '''Vortigen''',
But Gildas also describes that their raids took them "sea to sea, heaped up by the eastern band of impious men; and as it devastated all the neighbouring cities and lands, did not cease after it had been kindled, until it burnt nearly the whole surface of the island, and licked the western ocean with its red and savage tongue" (chapter 24).
 
The only certainty one gets, after reading much of the secondary literature, is that even the writers close to Gildas in time struggled with the gaps in his account, which they filled with either their own research, or imagination.
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===Bede===
Kentañ hini a zalc'has kont eus skrid Gweltaz eo [[Bede]], a vez istimet bras gant an istorourien a vremañ dre ma oa desket ha gouest da varn. Met an dra-se ne vern ket kalz pa gomz Bede eus ar Vvet ha VIvet kantved, eñ un den eus an VIIIvet kantved. Tost ger ha ger e kemer frazennoù Gweltaz en e ''[[Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum]]'' ha ''[[De Temporum Ratione]]''.
 
<!-- Bede only adds several details, perhaps most importantly the name of this "proud tyrant", Vortigern ([[Latin]] ''Uurtigernus''/''Uuertigernus''/''Vertigernus'', from the [[Old Welsh]] ''Gwrtheyrn''. The [[Old English language|Old English]] version was ''Wyrtgeorn''). Since Bede leaned heavily on Gildas, this may simply be a confirmation that Gildas indeed used the name of Vortigern, too. Another significant detail which Bede added to Gildas' account is to call Vortigern the [[King of the Britons|king of the British people]].
 
Bede also supplies a date (which has been traditionally accepted, but has been considered suspect since the late 20th century) of AD 446, "[[Marcian]] being made emperor with [[Valentinian III|Valentinian]], and the forty-sixth from [[Caesar Augustus|Augustus]], ruled the empire seven years." However, he also provides dates such as 449-455 and 446-447, which does not add to his credibility. It will be obvious that these dates do not represent a single source, but are the result of calculated approximations, and therefore useless as hard facts. Bede seems to have used a period of 40 years, which he added to the end of Roman Britain, which he reasonably calculated at AD 409 or 406, when the first usurper may have attempted to rise against the regular Roman government. Where this vague period of 40 years originated is unknown to us, other than that the Historia Brittonum mentions a similar period, which its author uses for a calculation of a similar period, which he placed between the death of the usurper Magnus Maximus (388) and the adventus (428).
 
Bede gives names to the leaders of the Saxons, [[Hengest]] and [[Horsa]]; and specifically identifies their tribes, the [[Saxons]], [[Angles]], and [[Jutes]]. (''H.E.'', 1.14,15).
 
===''Historia Brittonum''===
The ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' (History of the Britons), usually attributed to a certain [[Nennius]], a [[monk]] from [[Bangor, Wales|Bangor]], [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]] in [[Wales]], was probably compiled during the early 9th century. The writer mentions a great number of sources, ranging from dry chronicles to tasty slander. "Nennius" was the first to blacken the name of Vortigern, who nonetheless figures heavily in genealogies of many Welsh royal houses. Vortigern is accused of [[incest]] (a possible or perhaps intentional mistake of Vortigern for Vortipor, accused by Gildas of the same crime), oath-breaking, treason, love for a pagan woman, and lesser vices such as pride.
 
The ''Historia Brittonum'' recounts many details about Vortigern and his sons.
Chapters 31-49 tell how Vortigern (Guorthigirn) deals with the Saxons and St. [[Germanus]].
Chapters 50-55 deal with [[St. Patrick]] ;
Chapters 56 tells us about [[King Arthur]] and his battles;
Chapters 57-65 mention English genealogies, mingled with English and Welsh history;
Chapter 66 give important chronological calculations, mostly on Vortigern and the ''[[Adventus Saxonum]]''.
 
Excluding what is taken from Gildas, there are six groupings of traditions:
 
* Material quoted from a ''Life of Saint Germanus''. These excerpts describe [[Germanus of Auxerre|Saint Germanus]]' incident with one [[Benlli]], an inhospitable host seemingly unrelated to Vortigern, who comes to an untimely end, but his servant, who provides hospitality, is made the progenitor of kings of [[Powys]]; Vortigern's son by his own daughter, whom Germanus in the end raises; and Vortigern's own end caused by fire brought from heaven by Germanus' prayers. Comparing this material with [[Constantius of Lyon]]' Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre, it suggests that the two are not the same person. It has been suggested that the saint mentioned here may be no more than a local saint or a tale that had to explain all the holy places dedicated to a St. Germanus or a 'Garmon', who may have been a Powys saint or even a bishop from the [[Isle of Man]] around the time of writing the ''Historia Britonum''. The side-step to Benlli seems only to be explained as a jab towards the rival dynasty of Powys, suggesting they did not descend from Vortigern, but from a mere slave.
* Stories that explain why Vortigern granted land in Britain to the Saxons -- first [[Thanet]], in exchange for service as ''foederati'' troops; then the rest of Kent, in exchange for the hand of Hengest's daughter; then [[Essex, England|Essex]] and [[Sussex]], after a banquet where the Saxons treacherously slew all of the leaders of the British, but saved Vortigern to extract this ransom. This is no more than an explanatory legend. No finds suggest the origin of Anglo-Saxon occupation in Thanet, or even Kent - Dorchester-on-Thames (Oxford) is a far more likely candidate of that, as is East Anglia.
* The magical tale of [[Ambrosius Aurelianus]] and the two [[European dragon|dragons]] found beneath [[Dinas Emrys]]. This origin of the later legend of [[Merlin]] is clearly a local tale that had attracted the names of Vortigern and Ambrosius to usurp the roles of earlier characters. While neither of them has any connection with that remote part of Wales, the personage of Vortigern is best known to us because of this tale.
* The dates of 425 for when Vortigern came to power, the date of 428 of the arrival of the Saxons (''Adventus Saxonum'') and 437 for the battle between a certain Vitalinus with Ambrosius at the [[Middle Wallop|Battle of Wallop]] (probably in [[Hampshire]]). These may be the best candidates for a contemporary source. As both dates are derived from a source that mentioned "the ''x''th year of Vortigern", there is a possibility of an underlying chronicle here.
* A number of calculations attempting to fix the year Vortigern invited the Saxons into Britain. These are several calculations made by the writer, dropping interesting names and calculating their dates, making several mistakes in the process.
* Genealogical material about Vortigern's ancestry, the names of his four sons ([[Vortimer]], [[Pascent]], [[Catigern]], Faustus), a father (Vitalis), a grandfather (Vitalinus) and a great-grandfather who is probably just an eponym (Gloui) which associates Vortigern with [[Glevum]], the civitas of [[Gloucester]].
 
The ''Historia Brittonum'' relates four battles taking place in Kent, obviously related to material in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' (see below). In the ''Historia Brittonum'' it is claimed that Vortigern's son [[Vortimer]], led the Britons against Hengest's Saxons. Moreover, it is claimed that the Saxons were driven out of Britain, only to return at Vortigern's re-invitation a few years later, following the death of Vortimer.
 
The stories preserved in the ''Historia Brittonum'' reveal an attempt by one or more anonymous British scholars to provide more detail to this story, while struggling to accommodate the facts of the British tradition. This is an important point, as it indicates that either at the time, or near that time, there were one or more Welsh kings who traced their genealogy back to Vortigern.
 
===An early British chronicle fragment===
The earliest form of the name of Vortigern that we know of is Uuertigernus, which comes from a manuscript bound at the end of the [[Bern Codex]] 178. This is a short British chronicle-fragment, based on a text of Bede and probably produced in France during the 9th century. The Bern Codex 178 chronicle-fragment consists of 116 folios and was probably written after c. AD 850, possibly in France. The chronicle is the last in a collection of short, often grammatical tracts that follow a Latin glossary. The main purpose of this MS therefore probably was of a grammatical nature, with no interest in history intended. If so, we may probably be grateful for Bede's fine Latin.
 
Our main interest in this altered copy of Bede's recapitulation is the name "Uuertigerno". This form of the name Vortigern is unique, although for all we know the annalist might have drawn it also from Bede, as the rest of the text. Bede, who drew largely from Gildas, used Vertigernus in his ''De Temporum Ratione'' (III, 66), a form which he also must have obtained from an early British source, whether this was a version of Gildas or some other, lost source. The earliest version of Gildas' manuscript (MS Avranches A 162) has Uur- and Uor-. However, most of Bede's MSS write it with -e-, which probably means this annal used a different source. Bede's usual form is the pre-literary English form Uur-, which he uses in his ''Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum'' (I.14), which must have been copied from a document written in the early 7th century.
 
A similar annal to this one, containing the form Vertigerno, was found by [[H. M. Chadwick]] in another copy of Bede's chronicle, this time interpolated ''sub anno passionis'' 348 in [[Isidore of Seville]]'s ''Chronica Maiora'', though this manuscript dates back only to the 15th century. This also shows that by the 7th century, the form Uer- began to separate into Welsh, Irish and English forms. The post-Roman Uor- was developed from the Celtic preposition ver, and that this was replaced by the former.
 
The earliest form of Vortigern would be the reconstructed Brythonic Celtic *Wortigernos. This form regularly developed into Old Welsh ''Guorthigirn'', as used in the [[Historia Brittonum]], and that in turn became Middle Welsh ''Gwrtheyrn'', the form mostly used today. The Irish form of the name, also found in Scotland, is ''Foirtchern(n)''. In Brittany the name is ''Gurthiern'', a form related to the Welsh Gwrtheyrn. In Old English, wor- had become wur- due to sound-substitution of the unfamiliar vowel sequence o-i (in Vortigernus) by the familiar AS. u-i. Thus *Wortigernos became *Wurtigern by the 7th century and finally ''Wyrtgeorn'' in literary Anglo-Saxon.
 
===The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''===
When we reach the accounts in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', we are presented with a great amount of information and seemingly great detail. The ''Chronicle'' provides dates and locations of four battles Hengest and his brother Horsa fought against the British in southeast Britain, in the historic county of [[Kent]]. Vortigern is said to have been the leader of the British in only the first battle, the opponents in the next three battles variously called "[[Britons (historic)|British]]" and "[[Welsh people|Welsh]]" -- which is not unusual for this part of the ''Chronicle''. No Saxon defeat is acknowledged, but the geographical sequence of the battles suggests a Saxon retreat and the ''Chronicle'' locates the last battle, dated to 465 in ''Wippedsfleot'', the place where the Saxons first landed.
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' presents the year 455 as the last date when Vortigern is mentioned. However, the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is not a single document but the end result of combining several sources, combined over a period of time. The ''Chronicle'''s annals for the 5th century were only put into their current form in the 9th century, probably during the reign of Alfred the Great.<ref name=MS_xxi>{{cite book |last= Swanton|first= Michael|title= The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|pages=xxi-xxviii|year= 1998|publisher= Routledge|isbn=0-415-92129-5 |nopp= true}}</ref> Therefore, the dates as presented by this ''Chronicle'' cannot be considered original as they cannot be compared to dates from contemporary sources.
 
Because the date of the material underlying the compilation of the ''Historia Brittonum'' is disputed, and could be later than the ''Chronicle'', some argue that the ''Historia Britonum'' took its material from a source close to the ''Chronicle''; but after reading both accounts side by side, one has to wonder at their similarities and differences, and wonder if both do not draw upon an earlier tradition.
 
===William of Malmesbury===
Writing shortly before [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]], William added much to the [[damnatio memoriae]] of Vortigern: "At this time Vortigern was King of Britain; a man calculated neither for the field nor the council, but wholly given up to the lusts of the flesh, the slave of every vice: a character of insatiable avarice, ungovernable pride, and polluted by his lusts. To complete the picture, as we read in the History of the Britons, he had defiled his own daughter, who was lured to the participation of such a crime by the hope of sharing his kingdom, and she had born him a son. Regardless of his treasures at this dreadful juncture, and wasting the resources of the kingdom in riotous living, he was awake only to the blandishments of abandoned women." No other sources confirm this very evil image, and it seems safe to assume that this is a groundless exaggeration of accusations made by earlier writers.
 
William however does add some detail, no doubt because of a good local knowledge.
In "De Gestis Regum Anglorum book I, chapter 23 he relates:
"He (i.e. Cenwalh, king of Wessex) defeated in two actions the Britons, furious with the recollection of their ancient liberty, and in consequence perpetually meditating resistance; first, at a place called Wirtgernesburg, and then at a mountain named Pene..".
Wirtgernesburg means "Vortigern’s Stronghold" and it has been identified with [[Bradford on Avon]] in western [[Wiltshire]]. Though this might simply indicate that Vortigern’s name was attached to a wandering folk-tale old enough to become attached to Bradford ("Broad Ford") before the Saxons came there in the second half of the 7th century, we must consider that William lived nearby and must have known the region well.
 
===Geoffrey of Monmouth===
It was with the pen of [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] that the story of Vortigern adopted its best-known form in the fictional ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' (''History of the Kings of Britain''). Geoffrey &mdash; or the [[oral tradition]] he may have drawn upon &mdash; attempted to harmonize the conflicting materials of the ''Historia Brittonum'' and many other traditions into a coherent narrative, that combined insular with continental material. Geoffrey claimed that his source was (or had access to) a "certain book in the British language". Modern historians agree that it seems impossible to maintain that sources like the Welsh Bruts are the Welsh originals, instead of Welsh copies of Geoffrey's work. Whereas some have seen an underlying Welsh tradition, other have pointed to the possibility that this was a Breton tradition instead. According to some Geoffrey was a foreigner from France, bringing his Breton background with him. His work shows many Breton influences and continental sources. This argument points out Geoffrey's Bretons are also always more noble than the treacherous Welsh, who to the new elite must have ranked one step below the vanquished English. Geoffrey may then have been attempting to Normandise the British history, but whatever his aims, which ultimately are in dispute, he created a history equally popular in Wales, England and Normandy and indeed all of Europe.
 
Some of the new elements he introduces may however come from contemporary oral tradition: for instance the site of the banquet where the Saxons slew the British, located in modern [[Wiltshire]] (suggested by the construction of Stonehenge in their honour), and the figure of [[Eldol, Consul of Gloucester]], who fights his way out of the Saxon trap to serve as a loyal retainer to Aurelius Ambrosius (Geoffrey's form of the name of the aristocrat Gildas calls [[Ambrosius Aurelianus]]). With his version of Amesbury ("Mons Ambrius"), Geoffrey betrays a complete lack of local knowledge. Likewise, the numerous battles with hundreds of thousands of soldiers who savagely annihilate each other are clearly creations of Geoffrey's own imaginative brain, as are the many speeches from the mouth of many kings and generals.
 
In addition, Geoffrey states that Vortigern was the successor to [[Constans son of Constantine|Constans]], the son of the usurping emperor [[Constantine III (usurper)|Constantine III]]. Further, Vortigern used Constans as a [[puppet king]] and ruled the nation through him until he finally managed to kill him through the use of insurgent [[Picts]].
However, Geoffrey mentions a similar tale just before that episode, which may be an unintentional duplication. Just after the Romans leave, the archbishop of London is put forward by the representatives of Britain to organise the island's defences. To do so, he arranges for continental soldiers to come to Britain. Besides that, more reminds us of Vortigern; the name of the bishop is Guitelin, a name similar to the Vitalinus mentioned in the ancestry of Vortigern, and to the Vitalinus who is said to have fought with an Ambrosius at Guoploph/Wallop. This Guithelin/Vitalinus disappears without a trace from the story as soon as Vortigern arrives. All these coincidences add up to the assumption that Geoffrey duplicated the story of the invitation of the Saxons, and that the tale of Guithelinus the archbishop might possibly give us some insight into the background of Vortigern before his rise to power.
 
Geoffrey is also the first to mention the name of Hengest's daughter, who seduces Vortigern to marry her, after which his sons rebel, as a certain [[Rowena, Queen of Britain|Rowen]], also called Ronwen, Renwein or Rowena, none of which is a Germanic name.
Like the ''Historia Brittonum'', Geoffrey adds that Vortigern was succeeded briefly by his son Vortimer.
 
===Wace===
After [[William of Malmesbury]], [[Wace]] adds any more material to the tale of Vortigern, and scholars consider him a more reliable reporter of the oral tradition than Geoffrey. Vortigern rarely appears in the later stories of [[King Arthur]], but when he does he is usually the figure as described by either Geoffrey of Monmouth or Wace.
 
It is not easy to dismiss Vortigern as a fictional character, invented to explain how the Saxons came to dwell in Britain and control much of the eastern part of the island. History (not only of the 5th and 6th centuries, but over the longer span of record) tells of countless times when a ruler hired mercenaries to fight for him, only to have them turn on him and carve their own kingdom out of his.
 
==Vortigern: history or apocrypha?==
Having waded through all of these stories, one probably wants to know if there was a real human being behind it all: was there a [[magistrate]] or [[aristocrat]] in post-Roman Britain who actually negotiated a treaty with a number of Saxons to serve as [[mercenary|mercenaries]]?
 
The inscription on the [[Pillar of Eliseg]], a mid-9th-century [[stone cross]] in [[North Wales]], gives the [[Brythonic]] variant of Vortigern: '''Guorthigern''', a name similar to Vortigern, or Gildas' "''superbus tyrannus''". The pillar also states that he was married to [[Sevira]], and gave a line of descent leading to the royal family of [[Powys]], who erected the cross.
 
It has been suggested that Vortigern is a title rather than a name. The Brythonic word "tigern" (kingly) would seem to be etymologically related, thus "Vor-tigern" would mean something like "high lord", which looks suspiciously alike to "overlord". However, none of the contemporary persons bearing similar names containing -tigern ([[St. Kentigern]], [[Catigern]], [[Ritigern]] or [[Tigernmaglus]]) are ranked as kings, which makes this suggestion unlikely. And although there are more persons named Vortigern (nine persons in [[Ireland]] named Vortigern, [[Fortchern]] or [[Foirtchern]] are known), all but one are commoners. Further, the office of High King was not established outside Ireland for this time. That makes it extremely unlikely that Vortigern is a title. However, it is possible that he assumed a meaningful name late in life that was intended to signal a new career: compare [[Augustus]], [[Atatürk]], or [[Stalin]]. A last possibility is that "tigern" had the connotation of 'leader', 'important person' or 'chairman', without a compelling relation to aristocracy. This would fit the names mentioned above. Vortigern then would be the indication of his position in the council. The members of the council would be considered 'tigern' (high ranking persons) and their chairman would be called 'upper tigern' or Vortigern.
 
It seems certain that there existed a person called Vortigern. The stories surrounding him may have been based on the facts of his life, and may also have been based on events not directly related to him. Either way, the legendary Vortigern is of more impact than the real Vortigern, in much the same manner as the legendary Greek king [[Theseus]].
 
 
 
According to Bede , Historia Ecclesiastica , the Saxons came to Britain to assist the Britons against the Picts and the Scots , being invited to do so by the Britons and their king ‘ Uurtigern .’ The Roman emperors at that time were Marcian and Valentinian ; they began to govern, according to Bede , in A.D. 449 . Not so, says Plummer ( Baedae Opera , ii, 27), but in 450 , and Marciand in 457 . Bede wrote this in 731 ; he had seen the lachrymose book of the Briton Gildas (q.v.) which was written before 547 , the year in which Maelgwn Gwynedd (q.v.) d. There it is related (§ 23) that such a blindness fell upon all the counsellors and upon their proud ruler that instead of a garrison to defend their country they brought complete destruction upon it — because, in order to drive out the tribes from the north, they received into the island, like wolves into a sheepfold, the fiercely wild and impious Saxons , a people hated by God and men. These hired troops turned upon him who had engaged them and laid waste his kingdom. The first part of the land into which they dug their frightful claws was the eastern extremity of the island and that ‘at the request’ of the unfortunate king . It would be better to read ‘at the command’ or ‘at the behest of’ — the Latin reads ‘iubente’ — because the reference is to the land given them by the king as a dwelling place.
Towards the year 796 Nennius (q.v.) wrote his Historia Brittonum , in part from foreign chronicles and in part from Welsh tradition. He calls the king ‘ Guorthigirnus ,’ and the leaders of the Saxons ‘ Hors ’ and ‘ Hengist ,’ adding that they had been exiled from Germany ; he relates that the king received them in a kind manner and gave them the island which in their tongue is called ‘ Tanet .’ Bede assigns this occurrence to the year 347 after the Passion of Christ — ‘when Gratianus and Equitius were the rulers’ ( Mommsen , 171-2). This is much too early; as Stenton says ( Anglo-Saxon England , 1), when S. Germanus visited Britain in 447 the Britons had not yet been conquered by the barbarians. He places the ‘invitation’ to the Saxons between 446 and 454 and that seems a possible date. It is consistent with the testimony of archaeology to the presence of English settlements in Britain some time before the end of the 5th cent. ; it also agrees with the pedigrees given by Nennius himself (£ 49) — from ‘ Fernmail ,’ who was king of ‘ Buelt ’ and ‘ Guorthigirniaun ’ when he was writing, to ‘ Guorthigirn Guortheneu ’ son of ‘ Guitaul ’ son of ‘ Guitolin ’ son of ‘ Gloiu ’ he gives eleven names. Between 450 and 798 there are 348 years; share these among the eleven persons and each is given a generation of thirty-one and seven-elevenths years. That is not unreasonable.
 
Later, ‘ Guorthigirn ’ became ‘ Gwrtheyrn ’ and ‘Guorthenau’ became ‘Gwrthenau,’ i.e. ‘very thin’; the ‘ Guorthigirniaun ’ of the 8th cent. developed, through various forms, into ‘ Gwertheyrn-iawn ’ or ‘ Gwrtheyrniawn ,’ and, by transposition, into ‘ Gwerthrynion ’ (as in the Bruts). Its meaning can be seen if one compares pairs such as ‘ Edern ’ and ‘ Edeirniawn ,’ or the tribal families of Powys according to Gynddelw ( Ll. H. , 163-6), e.g. ‘ Yorueirthyawn ’ from ‘ Iorwerth (‘ Iorferth ’); ‘ Gweirnyawn ’ from ‘ Gwern ’; ‘ Tygyryawn ’ from ‘ Tengyr ,’ ‘ Tyngyr ’; ‘ Lleissyawn ’ from ‘ Lles .’ A name ending in ‘-iawn’ can therefore denote the descendants of the family of some chieftain or the district in which they dwell. For the position of Gwerthrynion between the rivers Wye and Ieithon , see Lloyd , Hist. W. , 253-4. For an attempt to explain the name as an example of ‘calumpnia iuste retorta’ see Mommsen , 187, n. 2; from ‘gwarth-a-yr-yn-iawn’! According to Nennius (§ 48), Pascent , the son of Gwrtheyrn , received, after the death of his father, two districts, viz. Buellt and Gwrtheyrniawn , by the gift of Emrys who was a (great) king ‘amongst’ all the kings of the Britons (or ‘over them’; the texts vary).
 
The story of Gwrtheyrn as given in the Historia is a mixture of two tales that were told by the cyfarwyddiaid , i.e. professional storytellers ; the one tale a product of the court, the other a product of the church. According to the former tale, Gwrtheyrn , in order that he might have Hengist 's daughter to wife, gave the Saxons the land of Kent . When he saw how the Saxons were increasing in number, he became afraid, wandered, and sought a place in Eryri ( Snowdonia ) where he could build a fort that would be strong enough against them. This provides the occasion for the tale to include the story of the little boy without a father, who overcame the king 's druids with his great wisdom in explaining the battle between the red dragon and the white dragon and who obtained the fort — Emrys — for himself. He was Emrys Wledig . Gwrtheyrn had perforce to build his fort elsewhere.
 
In the meantime, Gwerthefyr , son of Gwertheyrn , was fighting with some success against the enemy. But he died fairly soon. The Saxons returned, and by the deceit called ‘ Brad y Cyllyll Hirion ’ (‘ The Treachery of the Long Knives ’), they killed 300 of Gwrtheyrn 's chieftains , and he was forced to give them Essex , Sussex , and Middlesex as a ransom for his own life. In consequence, hated by everybody, he died of a broken heart, like a wandering beggar . That is the story of the courts.
 
According to the ecclesiastical version of the tale as found in the ‘vita’ of S. Germanus , Gwrtheyrn was guilty of incest and of marrying his own daughter. He was cursed by the saint and hounded from place to place. A fire from heaven came and burnt him and his wives in Caer Wrtheyrn , Dyfed , near the river Teifi .
 
No light at all is thrown on the manner in which Gwrtheyrn became king of the Britons or on his relationship to the sons of Cunedda (q.v.) in Wales . As Gildas also extols the bravery of Emrys , one might conclude that what is now England was his battle-ground, and that what is now Wales was left to the sons of Cunedda . Gildas 's praise of Emrys shows that the latter was a Roman ; his name, Ambrosius Aurelianus, was Latin, as was that of ‘ Artorius ’ ( Arthur ) . Gwrtheyrn bears a Celtic name — but his father and grandfather bore Latin names. And so with Cunedda. All this shows the admixture of blood and tradition which characterized the men who became prominent in Wales after the departure of the Romans .
 
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==Vortigern el lennegezh==
Anavet eo [[William Henry Ireland]] evel falser hag oberour falsdornskridoù, diwar zorn [[William Shakespeare]] hervezañ. Kavet en doa, emezañ, ur pezh kollet anvet ''[[Vortigern and Rowena]]'', a voe c'hoariet e [[Drury Lane]] d'an [[2 a viz Ebrel]] [[1796]]. Evel ma oa anat diouzh an doare-skrivañ n'halle ket bezañ labour Shakespeare, ha goapaet e voe ar pezh adalek ar c'hoariadenn gentañ.<ref>[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/ireland.html William Henry Ireland's Shakespeare Forgeries]</ref> Kement-se zo bet kontet er romant''[[The Lambs of London]]'' diwar zorn [[Peter Ackroyd]] e 2004 .
 
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==Vortigern in film and television==
 
Vortigern appears in the [[2008 in film|2008]] Anglo-American fantasy film ''[[Merlin and the War of the Dragons]]'', in which he is portrayed as the successor to [[King Arthur]]. He was portrayed by [[Wales|Welsh]] actor [[Hefin Wyn]].
 
Vortigern also appeared in the mini-series ''[[Merlin (film)|Merlin]]'', in which he is portrayed as a tyrant played by [[Rutger Hauer]].
Vortigern also appeared in the movie ''[[The Last Legion]]'', in which he is portrayed as a tyrant played by Harry Van Gorkum.
 
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== Lennadurezh ==
* Myles Dillon, [[Nora Kershaw Chadwick]], [[Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h]] ha [[Françoise Le Roux]], ''Les Royaumes celtiques'', Éditions Armeline, [[Kraozon]], 2001, ISBN 2-910878-13-9
* Christian Y. M. Kerboul, ''Les Royaumes brittoniques au Très Haut Moyen Âge'', Éditions du Pontig / Coop Breizh, [[SpezedSpeied]], 1997, ISBN 2-84346-030-1
*Ifor Williams, ‘Hen Chwedlau', ine-barzh Trans. Cymm. , 1947 .
 
 
Linenn 171 ⟶ 59:
==Liammoù diavaez==
*[http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk Vortigern Studies, ul lec'hienn saoznek dediet d'ar marevezh istorel-hont en Enez Vreizh]
*[http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-GWRT-HEY-0400.html?query=Vortigern&field=content NationalLevraoueg LibraryVroadel of Wales Dictionary of Welsh BiographyKembre]
 
[[Rummad:Enez Vreizh]]