Curious Clwyd
The beauty, the history, the folklore of North East Wales

'That same year Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor built the monastery of Llanegwestl in the Meadow of the Ancient Cross in Ial.'

Brut Y Tywysogyon trans. Thomas Jones(Cardiff 1952)

By the time Valle Crucis Abbey had been founded in 1201, the Pillar of Eliseg had stood in the valley for over 350 years.  Indeed, the nearby Abbey took its name from the enigmatic cross, for as a cross it was raised – Valle Crucis means, ‘valley of the cross.’ In what state the cross stood on the arrival of the 12 (possibly 13) Cistercian monks is unknown, but in its more than thousand year history, the cross has suffered much, whether from the elements, religious intolerance or simple indifference.  Today, the partial remains stand atop the barrow upon which is was originally raised, not a mile from the Abbey that took its name, an intriguing stump of memorial and defiance.

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Originally, the cross is thought to have stood at nearly 20 feet in height, topped with a cross shaft that by all accounts would have been a commanding sight.  It is, rather ironically given the nature of the inscription, Mercian in style.  Other examples of this type of cross can be seen in nearby Corwen churchyard and in Cheshire and the English Midlands.  Nothing of the cross shaft remains, and only eight feet of pillar stand on the barrow that pre-dates it.  But, a fascinating remnant it is.  Worn away to the vaguest of shadows now, an inscription in Latin was carved into its side. Edward Lluyd, the great antiquarian visited the site in 1696 and thankfully recorded that which he could see.  It remains, however, an incomplete record and very intriguing.  On Lluyd’s visit, the cross was a shattered thing, having been significantly damaged by the religious vandals that were the Puritans during the English Civil War.

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The cross was raised by Concenn (Cyngen), who was the last of the of the medieval kings of the Kingdom of Powys.  Concenn is recorded as dying in old age in Rome in 854 AD, while according to the Annales Cambriae his father died in 808.  Hence, it is assumed that the cross was originally raised at the beginning of the 9th Century, a turbulent period in British history.  It is both a memorial to the deeds of his great grandfather Eliseg, and a defiant declaration of Concenn’s legitimacy of rulership and ownership of the territory in which the cross stood.  Eliseg (also known as Elisedd) was the 8th century king of Powys that seemingly halted and threw back the Saxon advance into his land. Given that this defence came against the fearsome King Offa of Mercia, perhaps a memorial is richly deserved.  Indeed, it’s an intriguing notion that the great Offa’s Dyke was a possible Mercian reaction to a resurgent Powys under Eliseg.  It is of course, quite possible that this was also a declaration of independence from the other great power at the time, the Kingdom of Gwynedd.

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While the first half of the inscription lauds the acts of Eliseg, the second is a record of Concenn’s lineage.  As with all kings at this time, whether Welsh or English, recorded ancestry is not so much a genuine record of lineage as legitimising a rule, anchoring it in a legendary past.  What is curious about Concenn’s ancestry is that while heroes are present, he also throws in the much despised figure of Guarthigirn (otherwise known as Vortigern), blamed for bringing over the Saxons to aid the defence of his kingdom from the Picts. Why Concenn would want Powys linked to Guarthigirn is interesting, to say the least.

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The inscription, probably meant to be read aloud perhaps in formal ceremony, as written down by Edward Llyud is recorded below.

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