HISTORY. 251 



For if Ella in 477 came to Sussex, and Cerdic in 495 to Wessex, 

 why are we to suppose the Humber neglected by the Northmen 

 till 547, when Ida began to reign in Northumberland ? Accord- 

 ing to Nennius, this great prince, the ninth in descent from 

 Woden, possessed lands on the ' left-hand side ' (i. e. on the 

 north) of Britain, united Deira and Bernicia, and was the first 

 king in Caer Ebrauc (York). But the same author tells us that 

 Soemil, fifth in descent from Woden, and ancestor of Ella, 

 tenth in descent, who succeeded Ida, was the first who sepa- 

 rated Deira from Bernicia. This seems to indicate an Anglian 

 conquest of Deira, four generations before Ida one generation 

 after Hengist. 



The twelve sons of Ida landed at Flamborough with forty 

 ships full of Anglians, to assist their father in his wars*. At 

 this time, according to the triads of the Kymri, the country 

 between the Humber and the Lowlands of Scotland (perhaps we 

 may say the mountainous district) was under the command of 

 three British sovereigns Gall, Dyvedel, and Ysgwnell, e bards 

 and sons of the bard Dysgyfeddawg't- No record of their oppo- 

 sition survives. Urien was king in Reged, the British kingdom 

 of Strathcluyd; Rhydderc, Gwallog, and Morgant reigned in 

 Cumbria. The poems attributed to Taliesin and Llywarch Hen, 

 and some of the Triads, refer to the contest which these princes 

 firmly maintained against the warlike Anglian chief ' flame- 

 bearing' Ida, and his brave descendants. Llywarch Hen, the 

 great elegiac poet of the Kymri, the personal friend of Urien, 

 stood by the side of the valiant monarch, and embalmed his 

 memory in affectionate and beautiful verses J. Ida died in 560, 

 perhaps by the sword of Owain, the heroic son of Urien. Reged 

 was saved till a later day ; the Bernician chiefs retired to North 

 Wales, and were welcomed by Maelgwn, whose ancestor Cu- 

 nedda four generations before had quitted Bernicia and 

 settled in North Wales. That powerful monarch also received 



* Matthew of Westminster. 



t Stephens's Literature of the Kymri. The names are differently given 

 by Williams (Gododin, p. 3). J Ibid. 



