Pillar of Eliseg, Llangollen, North Wales/title> <meta name="description" content="Pillar of Eliseg, Llangollen, North Wales - King Arthur connections"> <meta name="keywords" content="Pillar of Eliseg, king arthur"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head> <body background="/white-spotted.gif"> <h2 align="center">Pillar of Eliseg, Llangollen, North Wales</h2> <p align="center"> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </p> <p>The Pillar of Eliseg is outside the town of Llangollen in North Wales. It is north of the ruined Valle Crucis Abbey </p> <p>The pillar itself is set up on a concrete base and protected by iron railing. It was originally a complete Celtic cross, but the cross has fallen off and the shaft is all that remains. The pillar has two separate inscriptions, one newer and more legible than the other. The old, weathered inscription was the one containing the pedigree.</p> <p>The last line gives an identifiable time period to Vortigern's son, since St. Germanus was a bishop known to be in Britain during the early 400s.This hints help place Vortigern, and thus Arthur, in the correct time period.</p> <p> It was erected by Cygen, king of Powys. The Latin inscription mentions several individuals described in the <a href="/literature/nennius.htm">Historia Britonum</a>. A generally accepted translation of this inscription, one of the longest surviving inscriptions from pre-Viking Wales, is as follows:</p> <p> [Cross] Concenn son of Catell, Catell son of Brochmail, Brochmail son of Eliseg, Eliseg son of Guoillauc.<br> [Cross] And that Concenn, great-grandson of Eliseg, erected this stone for his great-grandfather Eliseg.<br> [Cross] The same Eliseg, who joined together the inheritance of Powys . . . out of the power of the Angles with his sword and with fire.<br> [Cross] Whosoever repeats the writing, let him give a blessing on the soul of Eliseg.<br> [Cross] This is that Concenn who captured with his hand eleven hundred acres [4.5 km²] which used to belong to his kingdom of Powys . . .</p> <p>[the column is broken here]</p> <p> [Cross] Britu son of Vortigern, whom Germanus blessed, and whom Sevira bore to him, daughter of Maximus the king, who killed the king of the Romans.<br> [Cross] Conmarch painted this writing at the request of king Concenn.<br> [Cross] The blessing of the Lord be upon Concenn and upon his entire household, and upon the entire region of Powys until the Day of Judgement.</p> <p>The Pillar of Eliseg was thrown down by the Roundheads during the English Civil War and a grave under it opened. Edward Lhuyd examined the Pillar of Eliseg and copied the inscription in 1696. The lower half disappeared but the upper half was re-erected in 1779. The original inscription on the Pillar of Eliseg is now illegible.</p> <p><a href="/wales-king-arthur.htm"><strong>Arthurian Sites in Wales</strong></a> </p> </body> </html>