Elystan is traditionally called the founder of the fifth (or fourth) Royal Tribe of Wales and is recorded as being of Rhwng Gŵy a Hafren, which in English means ‘Between Wye and Severn’. This region (often referred to in later times as a Kingdom) was independent of the Princes of Deheubarth in southern Wales and included the Cantrefs of Maelienydd, Elfael, Buellt, Gwerthrynion, Ceri and Cwmwd Deuddwr.

The name Elystan (sometimes written as Elstan or Ethelystan) is a Welsh rendering of the Anglo-Saxon name Athelstan. Elystan was said to have been named after his godfather King Athelstan. It is a lovely story, but the dates of Elystan’s life (c.975-1010) suggest this connection is impossible. Perhaps Athelstan was a godfather to one of Elystan’s forebears. Glodrydd is not a surname, but was an epithet added to his name and means “the renowned”, “the praiseworthy” or “the famous”

Elystan has often been referred to as King of Rhwng Gŵy a Hafren or as Prince of Fferllys, another name for the same region, and he is also said to have been Earl of Hereford a title he inherited from his mother; but these titles are not supported any historical evidence, although we can assume that Elystan and his family ruled the region in some way or other during his lifetime and we know that his descendants certainly did so afterwards.

Elystan's mother is said to have been Gwen ferch [ie: daughter of] Gronwy ap Tudur Trefor. Tudur Trefor reputedly married a daughter of Hywel Dda, King of Gwynedd who was a grandson of the famous Rhodri Mawr (i.e. Roderick the Great) - King of Gwynedd. It was Rhodri who fought for many years to rid north Wales of Vikings, as Alfred did in England; his famous victory over the Vikings, when he killed their leader Horm is celebrated in the naming of the promentary by Llandudno ‘Great Ormes Head.’ Rhodri's father, Merfyn Frych (the freckled), seized the throne of Gwynedd and the royal seat of Aberffraw, when Hywel ap Rhodri Molwynog King of Gwynedd died in 825AD. Merfyn had a dynastic claim to the throne via his father - Gwriad, who had married Esyllt, a daughter of Cynan ap Rhodri Molwynog.

Rhodri Mawr's grandmother - Esyllt, was a direct descendant of the great King Cunedda who migrated to north Wales with many of his countrymen of the Votadini tribe, whose kingdom of Manaw Gododdin - a British kingdom centered on Edinburgh (then called: Din Eidyn) had been virtually overrun by Anglo-Saxons. It was a raid by a war band of Britons (i.e. Welsh) from this kingdom to Catterick inside the nascent Angle kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia that resulted in one of the greatest, oldest surviving and most famous poems in the Welsh language - The Gododdin, which appears in the Book of Aneirin. 

Cunedda is remembered  as having driven the Irish settlers out of north Wales and founded the dynasty of Gwynedd. He is recorded in ancient pedigrees as the grandson of Padarn Beisrudd - ‘Paternus of the Red Cloak’, an epithet which suggests that he had worn the cloak of a Roman officer. As a contempory of Vortigern, Paternus would have been in his prime about 383AD, and it is possible that he had been invested with his cloak as part of the efforts of the Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus, known to the Welsh as Macsen Wledig (The Ruler’), to secure the borders of Britannia.

As mentioned above, the earliest legendary ancestor of Elystan was Casnar Wledig who lived in the 500s and is mentioned in the tales of the Mabinogion as ‘Kasnat Wledig’. He is thought by some to be the same person as Casanauth Wledig who married a granddaughter of King Vortigan and his wife Severa, daughter of Macsen Wledig.

One of the most memorable and poignant old Welsh poems survives this cataclysmic event, the poet, supposed to be Llywarch Hen (i.e. ‘the old’) looking out across the Severn valley from the top of the Wrekin hill wrote many verses that include these:

Cynddylan’s hall is dark to-night.

There burns no fire, no bed is made.

I weep awhile, and then I am quiet.

Cynddylan’s hall is dark to-night.

No fire is lit, no candle burns.

God will keep me sane.

Cynddylan’s hall. It pierces me

To see it roofless, fireless.

Dead is my Lord, and yet I am alive.

Cynddylan’s hall is desolate to-night

Where once I sat in honour.

Gone are the men who held it, gone the women.

Cynddylan’s hall. Dark is its roof

Since the English destroyed

Cynddylan, and Elvan of Powys

(translation taken from Dr John Morris’s authoritative book:

The Age of Arthur, A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650)

From this time the Mercians dominated what is now called Shropshire and before his death in 796 AD, the Mercian King Offa built his dyke to mark the border between the English and Welsh Kingdoms.   

Elystan Glodrydd was born c.975 AD (according to Bartrum); some have said that he was born c.927 AD in the city of Hereford, known in Welsh as Caer-Ffawydd (Beech-chester). Others have suggested that he was actually born c.933 AD - the reason for the different dates is that 927 AD is sometimes recorded as the second year of Athelstan’s reign and Elystan is said to have been born in the second year of the reign of King Athelstan, who it is said was Elystan’s godfather, and from whom he (reputedly) received his name. Elystan’s name is variously recorded as spelt: Athelstan, Ethelstan, Ethelystan, Elystan or Elstan. Bartrum is the best authority for an approximate birth date.

Elystan married Gwenllian, daughter of Einion ab Owain ap Hywel Dda, by whom he had a son Cadwgan, the father of a numerous family. According to Harleian manuscript 1973, Elystan was slain in a civil broil on Long Mountain near Welshpool in Montgomeryshire. In Welsh it is known as Cefn Dugoll (often incorrectly written Digoll), which translated means the ridge we didn’t lose - this is a significant name indicating the importance attached to preserving the ridge of the summit in Wales. Elystan was buried at a a ‘chapel’ in a place subsequently named Trelystan, a tiny settlement on the south east slopes of Long Mountain, inside Wales just across the Shropshire border. In Welsh Tr/Tre means ‘town/home’ - hence Tr-Elystan. Some records (see example below) describe the place as Capel Tref Elystan.

One transcription of Harleian MS 1973, whose author Jacob Chaloner died in 1631, reads:

Elistan Glodrith, or Edelstan the renouned, borne in the Castell of Hereford, anno 933, and in the 9 yeare of Edlistan, K of Saxons, who was his godfather, was Earle of Hereford, and Lord of the countrey above Offa dich, betwene Wy and Severne, in tyme of Edelred, K of Saxons.  He dyed & was buried at Cappell Tref Elistan in Causeland (i.e. Trelystan in the hundred of Cawrse).

Further records add that Elystan died in the year 1010 A.D. and is buried either on the site of the present church or on the beacon ring on top of Long Mountain. Bartrum says the story of Elystan’s death on Long Mountain is unsubstantiated, but the place name, many repeated records of this fact over time and local tradition are more than suggestive that the story is correct.

In 1485, Long Mountain became the muster point of the forces of Henry Tudor (later King Henry VII) and his famous Welsh military commander Sir Rhys ap Thomas (who counted amongst his forebears the Princes of Deheubarth), before their march to Bosworth Field where they defeated King Richard III. 

Right:

The Church of St. Mary, Trelystan.

“Cappell Tref Elistan”

This remotely located church has the distinction of being the only entirely timber framed church in Wales. The site is very ancient and has been in use since well before the 11th Century, when it is first mentioned in history. Some measurements of at least one of the yew trees in the churchyard have resulted in an estimated age of over 1,000 years.

The Church is built over the top of a barrow, which means it is on a very ancient site.

The Church at Trelystan has a notice at the door, which reads: 

THE PARISH OF TRELYSTAN

Trelystan appears in the Domesday Book as ‘Ulestanesmude’, and the neighbouring parish of Leighton as ‘Lestune’.  Both were in the hundred of ‘Witenreu’ (presumably present day Worthen). 

‘Ulestanesmude’ with many changes of spelling, remained the place-name for many years eventually becoming ‘Wolstanmynd’. A map of 1577 shows ‘Treleston’, and one of 1645 ‘Treleston’.  The parish registers first record the present spelling in 1709. The Harleian Manuscript No 1973 states that ‘Edelstan the Renowned’ was buried in ‘Chappel Trest Elistan’ in 1010.

The Registers begin in 1660 when Laurence Seddon was Rector of Worthen, in which parish the district then was, and they are complete except for the years 1717-1775.  The present parish was formed in 1873.

Trelystan Church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin was originally built of wattle and daub, which was replaced by a wooden structure in the 14th Century.  It was extensively restored in 1856, but some of the old timber is still visible in the Vestry. There is no other Church of similar construction in Wales.

The single bell is circa 1500 and bears the inscription ‘Sancta Maria Ora Pro Nobis’.  There is a barrel organ, constructed in 1827 which plays 20 hymn tunes. The ‘screen’ opposite the pulpit was in Chirbury Abbey until the dissolution under Henry VIII. The East Window, in Munich painted glass, portrays the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Although the parish lies entirely in Wales, it is in the Diocese of Hereford.  The rival claims of St Asaph and Hereford were disputed for many years, and in 1278 Anian (of St Asaph) and Cantilupe (of Hereford) referred the matter to arbitration.  In 1279 Pope Nicolas III sent the case to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and after much argument it was agreed that all parishes to the East of the Severn from a line drawn from Montgomery to Shrawardine in Shropshire should be allocated to Hereford.  Richard de Swinfield, who had succeeded Cantilupe as Bishop, traversed the district in 1288 and took formal possession of the allocated parishes.

Elystan had at least one son Cadwgan.  Follow the link to Genealogy in the index to this website for details of Cadwgan ab Elystan and his descendants.