Editing Border reivers (section)

===Hen Ogledd===
The pervasive tradition of cattle raiding and endemic violence in the Border region appears to have roots that extend deep into its history, suggesting that such practices have long been an intrinsic part of the area's cultural and social fabric. The earliest references to such behaviour appear in the Old Welsh ([[Hen Ogledd]]) poems attributed to bards such as [[Taliesin]], [[Aneirin]], and [[Llywarch Hen]], which describe battles and raids in the early medieval period of what is now the Anglo-Scottish Borders. These poetic accounts hint at a long-standing culture of raiding and conflict in the northern British territories.<ref>Robb, Graham. The Debatable Land: The Lost World Between Scotland and England. W. W. Norton & Company, 2021., p77</ref>

<blockquote>''I roared, my breast full of tumult,<br>Lance on my shoulder, shield in my hand,<br>When Goddeu and Rheged were ranged for war,<br>I saw a man who was raiding cattle -<br>Famous dragon, unique trampler.''<ref>Lewis, Gwyneth, and Rowan Williams, translators. ''The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain''. Penguin Classics, London, 2019, lines 44–48, p.19. {{ISBN|978-0-14-139693-4}}.</ref></blockquote>

Modern genetic studies support the idea of continuity in the Borders region, showing that its population clusters separately from both broader Scottish and English genetic groups.<ref name="Gilbert, E. 2019">Gilbert, E., O'Reilly, S., Merrigan, M., McGettigan, D., Vitart, V., Joshi, P. K., Clark, D. W., Campbell, H., Hayward, C., Ring, S., Golding, J., Goodfellow, S., Navarro, P., Kerr, S. M., Amador, C., Campbell, A., Haley, C. S., Porteous, D. J., Cavalleri, G. L., & Wilson, J. F. (2019). The genetic landscape of Scotland and the Isles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(38), 19064-19070.</ref> There is evidence of continued settlement patterns in the Anglo-Scottish Borders, suggesting a continuity of territorial practices from the pre-Anglo-Saxon period.<ref>O'Brien, C. (2002). The Early Medieval Shires of Yeavering, Breamish and Bamburgh. Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th Series, 30, p55.</ref> This distinction aligns with the historical role of the Borders as a cultural and geographical transitional zone and is consistent with the region's heritage, tracing back to the [[Brittonic languages|Brythonic-speaking]] kingdoms of [[Gododdin]] and [[Rheged]].<ref name="Gilbert, E. 2019"/>