Editing Cunedda (section)

== Allt Cunedda ==
There is a hill called '''Allt Cunedda''', close to Cydweli (now [[Kidwelly]]) in [[Carmarthenshire]], in [[West Wales|southwest Wales]]. A local folk story, recorded by Victorian antiquarians, claims that Cunedda and his sons attempted to invade Cydweli, but was defeated and killed by rebellious locals and was buried in the Allt Cunedda. Amateur and ill-recorded excavations did reveal a [[hill fort]], probably pre-Roman, the broken head of a stone [[Axe#Hammer axe|hammer axe]],<ref name="kidwellyhistory.co.uk">Kidwelly History [http://www.kidwellyhistory.co.uk/Articles/AlltCunedda/AlltCunedda.htm] accessed 11 December 2022</ref> and several collapsed stone [[cist]]s containing the well-preserved skeletons of several men with formidable physical proportions. At least one of these was found in the "seated position" and another buried beneath a massive stone "shield" who had apparently been killed by a head wound. John Fenton's excavations in 1851 destroyed much of the archaeological evidence from Allt Cunedda, and more by [[John William Watson Stephens]]' dig in the 1930s.<ref name="kidwellyhistory.co.uk"/> The bones are lost; Fenton sent them to an institution in London, and Stephens' long searches for them were unsuccessful.

One of the [[tumuli]] was known locally as ''Banc Benisel'' and was reputedly the grave of a [[Sawyl Penuchel]], a legendary [[List of legendary kings of Britain|King of the Britons]] presumably from late [[Iron Age Britain]]. His [[epithet]] ''Penuchel'' or ''Ben Uchel'' means "high head" perhaps on account of his height. [http://www.kidwellyhistory.co.uk/Articles/AlltCunedda/AlltCunedda.htm#2] According to the Welsh ''Life of Saint [[Cadoc]]'', a king named [[Sawyl Penuchel]] held court at Allt Cunedda. Confusingly, [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]], in his ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' (1136), uses the name [[Sawyl Penuchel|Samuil Penessil]] for a legendary pre-Roman king of Britain, preceded by [[Redechius]] and succeeded by [[Pir of the Britons|Pir]].<ref>[[wikisource:History of the Kings of Britain/Book 3#19|''History of the Kings of Britain'' 3.19]] at Wikisource. Lewis Thorpe's translation for [[Penguin Classics]] (p. 105) gives two kings, Samuil followed by Penessil.</ref> Whether this is the same king and Cadoc's tale is just revisiting an old folk memory, a different man of the same name, or simply an error by the composer of the ''Life'', is unclear.