What is "cuneglas"

Cuneglas (; , " Tawny Hound"; fl. early 6th century), also known as Cynlas the Red , was a son of Owain Whitetooth (Ddantgwyn) and his successor as king of Rhos, an area of Denbighshire in northern Wales. He was the brother of saints Einion, Seiriol, and Meirion and is sometimes considered to have been the historical basis for King Arthur.

Cuneglas is one of the five "tyrants" of Britain denounced by the contemporary writer, Gildas, in his work On the Ruin of Britain. This indignant monk calls him:

• "You bear, you rider and ruler of many, and guider of the chariot which is the receptacle of the bear"
• "You contempter of God and vilifier of his order"
• "You tawny butcher, as in the Latin tongue thy name signifies"
• one who raises war against men, indeed against his own countrymen, as well as against God
• one who has "thrown out of doors your wife" and lustfully desires "her detestable sister who had vowed unto God, the everlasting chastity of widowhood".

The first phrase is notably obscure. The Latin ("container; refuge") would literally describe a bear's lair or cage, which seems unlikely. Those seeking an identification of Arthur with Cuneglas's putative father Owain have seen it as reference to Cuneglas's guiding the chariot containing his father's casket. Some have argued for its identification with a placename, the Din Arth hillfort on Bryn Euryn at Llandrillo in Rhos; excavations undertaken in 1997 by David Longley for the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust revealed an early medieval fortress with a "massive, well-built" wall of quarried limestone standing high and fronted by a rampart of of rubble. Anderson argued for an identification of the "guide" as Arcturus, the "driver" of the Great Wain or Bear (i.e., the Big Dipper). The phrase would then serve as a punning reference to the main court of Cuneglas.