page_title: Dyfnwal ab Owain
section_title: Death and descendants
hierarchical_section_title: Dyfnwal ab Owain / Death and descendants
caption_attribution_description: English: Dunmail Raise, an ancient cairn on the Pass of Dunmail Raise, beside the A591 road
context_page_description: Dyfnwal ab Owain was a tenth-century King of Strathclyde. He was a son of Owain ap Dyfnwal, King of Strathclyde, and seems to have been a member of the royal dynasty of Strathclyde. At some point in the ninth- or tenth century, the Kingdom of Strathclyde expanded substantially southwards. As a result of this extension far beyond the valley of the River Clyde, the realm became known as the Kingdom of Cumbria. By 927, the kingdom seems to have reached as far south as the River Eamont.
  Dyfnwal appears to have reigned between the 930s and the 970s. He is first attested in the 940s, when he is recorded associated with the ecclesiast Cathróe on the latter's journey to Continental Europe. At the midpoint of the decade, the Cumbrian kingdom was ravaged by the forces of Edmund, King of the English. Two of Dyfnwal's sons are said to have been blinded by the English, which could indicate that Dyfnwal had broken a pledge to his southern counterpart. One possibility is that he had harboured insular Scandinavian opponents of Edmund. The latter is recorded to have handed over control of the Cumbrian realm to Máel Coluim mac Domnaill, King of Alba.
context_section_description: Both Dyfnwal and his English counterpart died in 975. According to various Irish annals, which style Dyfnwal King of the Britons, he met his end whilst undertaking a pilgrimage. These sources are corroborated by Welsh texts such as the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Brenhinedd y Saesson, and Brut y Tywysogyon, with the latter stating that Dyfnwal died in Rome having received the tonsure. Such religious retirement late in the life of a ruler was not uncommon amongst contemporaries. For example, Custantín evidently became a monk upon his own abdication, whilst Amlaíb Cúarán retired to the holy island of Iona in pilgrimage. One possibility is that Dyfnwal decided to undertake his religious journey—or was perhaps forced to undertake it—as a result of the violent actions of Rhydderch.
  It is conceivable that Dyfnwal was still reigning in 973, and that it was Edgar's death two years later that precipitated the transfer of the kingship to Dyfnwal's son Máel Coluim, and contributed to Dyfnwal's pilgrimage to Rome. In fact, the upheaval caused by the absence of the English and Cumbrian kings could well have contributed to Cináed's final elimination of Amlaíb mac Illuilb in 997. Another possibility is that Máel Coluim's part in the 973 assembly may have partly concerned his father's impending pilgrimage, and that he sought surety for Dyfnwal's safe passage through Edgar's realm. The fact that Máel Coluim is identified as one of the assembled kings could indicate that Dyfnwal had relinquished control to him at some point before the convention. Evidence that he had indeed assumed the kingship may exist in the record of a certain Malcolm dux who witnessed an English royal charter in 970. Although the authenticity of this document is questionable, the attested Malcolm could well be identical to Máel Coluim himself. If Máel Coluim was indeed king in 973, Dyfnwal's role at the assembly may have been that of an 'elder statesman' of sorts—possibly serving as an adviser or mentor—especially considering his decades of experience in international affairs. The fact that he left his realm for Rome could be evidence that he did not regard his realm or dynasty to be threatened during his absence.
  Surviving sources fail to note the Cumbrian kingdom between the obituaries of Dyfnwal in 975 and his son, Máel Coluim, in 997. There is reason to suspect that Dyfnwal had another son, Owain, who reigned after Máel Coluim. For instance, according to the "B" version of Annales Cambriæ, a certain Owain—identified as the son of a man named Dyfnwal—was slain in 1015. This obituary is corroborated by Brut y Tywysogyon, and Brenhinedd y Saesson. Although it may be possible that the record of this man's death refers to Owain Foel, King of Strathclyde, there is no reason to disregard the obituaries as erroneous. If the like-named men are indeed different people, they could well have been closely related. Whilst the former may have been a son of Dyfnwal himself, the latter could well have been a son of Dyfnwal's son, Máel Coluim. The Owain who died in 1015, therefore, would seem to have assumed the Cumbrian kingship after Máel Coluim's death in 997, and would appear to have reigned into the early eleventh century before Owain Foel's assumption of the throne.
  Dyfnwal may be the man immortalised in the name of a mountain pass in the Lake District known as Dunmail Raise (meaning "Dyfnwal's Cairn"). According to popular legend, a local king named Dunmail was slain by Saxons on the pass and buried beneath a cairn. Forms of this tradition may date to about the sixteenth century, as the place name is first marked on a map dating to 1576. By the end of the seventeenth century, it was claimed that the place name marked the site of "a great heap of Stones call'd Dunmail-Raise-Stones, suppos'd to have been cast up by Dunmail K. of Cumberland for the Bounds of his Kingdom". Forms of the tale began to appear in print in the following century. In time, the ever-evolving legend became associated with the events of 945. The cairn itself lies between the dual carriageways of t
caption: The cairn of Dunmail Raise lying between the dual carriageways of the A591 road.
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