Mynyddog Mwynfawr

Mynyddawg Mwynfawr was king of the Gododdin in the early seventh century. Having ruled from a stronghold at Din Eidyn, on the site of modern day Edinburgh, his the kingdom of Gododdin stretched from the Firth of Forth to the Tees River. His reign was lovingly recounted by the Brythonic bard Aneirin in the saga Y Gododdin.

Like many kings of the dark ages, Mynyddawg Mwynfawr was said to have supernatural and superhuman powers, many of which dealt with his sexual prowess. He is said to have possessed a nearly insatiable appetite for sexual debauchery and violence, and supposedly fathered 36 different children with wives and concubines of all the races of his area, including the Picts. Mynyddawg Mwynfawr, the Y Gododdin claimed, singlehandedly slaughtered no less than two-hundred twenty seven Angles in one battle in 634 and placed their skulls, it was said, upon a high wall that he had constructed between his kingdom and that of Northumbria.

After a savage war, Mynyddawg Mwynfawr was killed by the forces of King Edwin I of the Angles of Northumbria in 638, and his capital was renamed Edwins burgh, which morphed into the familiar name of the Scottish capital today.

In addition to Edwin, Mynyddag Mwynfawar was a contemporary of Penda of Mercia, and Saint Augustine, who introduced Kent to Christinatiy.

The laws of Mynyddawg Mwynfawr were surprisingly lenient relative to the law codes of the Angles to the south, as well as the Cumbrians of the southwest. While homosexuality was treated as a treasonous crime in much of the remaining British areas of what was to become Wales and Scotland, Mynyddawg Mwynfawr was very tolerant of it, and included rampant homosexuals in the ranks of his warriors. Aneirin told that the king was not himself above occaisonal indulgence in sodomy as well, perhaps due to his legendary libido.

Sources

Magnus Magnusson, Scotland: The story of a nation. London: harper collins, 2000, pp. 25-28.