The Latin Life of Gruffudd ap Cynan, British Kingdoms and the Scandinavian Past

Abstract

The article examines the representation and purpose of dynastic struggle in the twelfth-century Latin Life of Gruffudd ap Cynan. Understudied despite the publication of Paul Russell's edition (2005), the Vita Griffini Filii Conani remains a missing piece of a larger puzzle: the flourishing of Latin historical writing in eleventhand twelfth-century Britain and northern Europe. This article sets the Vita in its wider British and European context, and assesses the significance of Gruffudd's Scandinavian heritage against the realities of political experience. It argues that the Vita's portrayal of dynasty and dynastic conflict, set on the great stage of the North Sea zone, seeks to establish the legitimacy of a ruler who was both an outsider and of Scandinavian descent. The reality of invasion and conquest in the British Isles demanded new Latin histories wherein Scandinavian dynasties could be a key source of legitimacy, and the Vita needs to be read as part of this larger discourse.