Kingdoms of British Celts

Pengwern (Eastern Paganes) (Romano-Britons)
Incorporating Caer Guricon, Caer Luit Coyt, & Caer Magnis

With the expulsion of Roman officials in AD 409 (see feature link), Britain again became independent of Rome and was not re-occupied. The fragmentation which had begun to emerge towards the end of the fourth century now appears to have accelerated, with minor princes, newly declared kings, and Roman-style magistrates all vying for power and influence while also facing the threat of extinction at the hands of the various barbarian tribes which were encroaching from all sides.

Located on the eastern border of the early Welsh principality of Powys, Pengwern stretched deep into the Midlands. For much of its approximately two centuries of existence it was part of Powys in its original form, the territory of Paganes, being indivisible from it and bearing the same name as it. It apparently remained so until the last quarter of the sixth century (although some opinion maintains that it always remained a constituent territory of Paganes/Powys).

During at least some of that time one of its chief cities (and possible capital) was Caer Guricon (the former tribal capital of the Cornovii tribe, Roman Viroconium, modern Wroxeter). There is evidence to suggest the abandonment of Viroconium around 600 or a little later, perhaps in exchange for a more defendable location. There is also evidence to suggest occupation by a Cunorix around AD 480, possibly Irish, potentially a raider, and therefore unlikely to be under the control of the ruler of Paganes (see that page for details).

While the territory itself is usually known as Pengwern, it is uncertain whether this name was applied to all of it, being as it was the name of just one fort. It may just as well have been named after its last ruling dynasty, the Dogfeilion kings. However, 'Pengwern' would have been a powerful name: 'gwern' would have been pronounced 'wern' by the Romans, and would have been spelled 'vern' by them if it had been written down (unlikely, as it was local slang usage). The river which runs through the area, the Sabrina (modern Severn), probably had the letter 'b' mangled into a 'v' and then a 'w' by the local Cornovii Britons. Then they dropped the 'Se' from the front of Severn, turning Severn into 'Vern', which they pronounced 'Wern', and then that later altered into 'Gwern' as was the case with any word beginning in 'w'.

Also note that the original British name for the Severn was Habren - the 's' at the start was a Roman addition - so this would explain how the 's' was removed from the name - to the Britons it had not been there in the first place. That sort of mixed progression would occur only at places which had been inhabited by Romans in numbers which were sufficient enough to influence the name. Such a concentration of Romans would have to be at the town of Viroconium. Then, when the locals in that town fled up the river to Pengwern, they took their odd pronunciation with them (not even knowing that 'wern/gwern' was the same word as 'Hefren').

Pen means 'head' or 'source', so the local name became 'Pengwern', headwaters of the Severn, a strong and commanding name. An alternative explanation has been provided by Mak Wilson, who still gives 'pen' as 'head', but provides 'gwern' as the meaning of 'alder swamp'. This does though seem to rob the kingdom of some of the power and glory surrounding its name.

Although its exact origins cannot be proven, Pengwern as an independent kingdom, or at least semi-autonomous subdivision of Paganes, does appear to have been formed only in the sixth century (see feature link), well after the collapse of the post-Roman central administration. It contained all of Paganes' eastern territories.

By AD 600 it seems to have been made up of three sub-kingdoms which were based around the cities of Caer Luit Coyt (now known as Wall, in Lichfield), Caer Magnis, and Caer Guricon (Viroconium, the probable early capital of Powys) and the first two certainly had their own sub-kings. Originally, these would have been tributary to Paganes, and then subsequently to the ruler of Pengwern itself.

Caer Luit Coyt (probably a later misspelling of the more valid Caer Luit Coit/Coed or Luitcoit) came from the Latin 'Lutocetum'. Two interpretations of the name are possible, although they are very close in meaning anyway. The first translates as 'half-wooded' (in essence, lightly-wooded). In the proto-Celtic word lists, 'letos' is a combining form which can be taken to mean 'half-', while 'coit/coed' means 'wood' or 'forest'.

The second takes an alternative meaning from 'letos' to produce 'breadth, width, broadness' in the sense of a wide forest, the outcome being that the region was not 'half-forested' but heavily forested. The modern name of this location, Wall, is either a descendant of the Old English 'weald', meaning a wood or forest, or 'wealas', meaning 'Welsh'. It could be both, with the locals making a pun of it at the expense of any native Britons living there.

The first ruler of a potentially independent Pengwern was a son of Brochfael Ysgythrog of Powys, the probable defender of Caer Legion (Chester) around 613. Thanks to this name being provided, it becomes more likely that Powys had been divided, and that such a division was based upon the traditional Celtic practice of providing an inheritance for all sons, not just the eldest.

Then, according to what little source material remains, in the early seventh century Morfael ap Glast, king of Glastenning, secured the eastern capital of Caer Luit Coyt during his lifetime. His younger brother secured the remainder of the territory upon the death of their father. The capital was moved to Llys Pengwern (the 'court of Pengwern'), perhaps for security reasons - giving the territory its name and perhaps defining any independent existence it may have had. The territory survived as a bulwark against Anglian expansion in the Midlands until the mid-seventh century - although the Angles of the Midlands appear to have been allies anyway (see feature link).

Celtic Kingdoms of the British Isles

Celts of Britain

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