Gwriad ap Merfyn

This is a Welsh name. It means Gwriad son of Merfyn or Rhodri.

This article is about the Merfynion prince who fell with Rhodri the Great. For other people of the same name, see Gwriad (disambiguation).

Gwriad ap Merfyn or ap Rhodri was a 9th-century prince of Gwynedd in northern Wales. He is an obscure figure, sometimes being listed as Rhodri the Great's brother and sometimes as his son.

The Chronicle of the Princes' entry for AD 873 reads:

The action on Sunday in Mona, in which Rhodri and his brother Gwriad[1] and Gweirydd son of Owain of Glamorgan were killed by the Saxons; and then the women of Anglesey took arms and rushed upon the Saxons and slaughtered them grievously until they were obliged to flee.[2]

Similarly, the 877 entry for The Kings of the English reads "Rhodri and Gwriad his brother..."[3]

Other sources, however, record a Gwriad ap Rhodri as the progenitor of the "men of Nant Mawr in Twrcelyn" on Anglesey[4] or list him among the children of Rhodri Mawr. As the lesser figures of these lists of children vary both in name and number from source to source, it is possible this Gwriad was simply created to link other genealogies to Rhodri.[5]

References

1. Welsh: ...Rhodri mawr a Gwriad ei frawd....
2. Archæologia Cambrensis: The Chronicle of the Princes, p. 15. Accessed 26 Feb 2013.
3. Jones, Thomas. Brenhinedd y Saesson: or, The King of the Saxons: BM Cotton MS Cleopatra B v, and The Black book of Basingwerk, NLW MS. 7006, p. 25. Univ. of Wales Press, 1971. Accessed 26 Feb 2013.
4. Charles-Edwards, T. Wales and the Britons, 350–1064, p. 363. Accessed 26 Feb 2013.
5. Maund, Kari. The Welsh Kings, p. 43. Tempus Pub., 2002. Accessed 27 Feb 2013.