CYNOG
(
fl.
500?
),
saint
,
was, according to legend, the son ‘of
Brychan
, founder of the kingdom of
Brycheiniog
, and
Banadlwedd
, daughter of a
king
of
Powys
. He is chiefly commemorated in
Brycheiniog
, where
Defynnog
,
Ystrad Gynlais
,
Penderyn
,
Battle
,
Llangynog
,
and
Merthyr Cynog
, are all named after him, the last being reputed his place of burial. These churches, with their chapels, account for a large part of the modern county of
Brecknock
. Other churches bearing his name are
Boughrood
in
Rads.
and
Llangynog
in
Mont.
; two extinct churches of this saint stood also at
Llangunnock
on the
Garren
in
south-west Herefords.
and
Llangunnock
on the
Pill Brook
in
central Mon.
Cwrt Brychan
is close to the latter. No account of
Cynog
would be complete which did not refer to the torque which, it was averred, had been given him by his father and which became a most precious relic in the estimation of the whole countryside. It has not survived, but
Giraldus Cambrensis
had seen it and gives a detailed description, which, though not easy to interpret, points, in the opinion of
Sir
T. D.
Kendrick
, to its probably being
Welsh
or
Irish
work of the
Viking
period, i.e. the
10th or the 11th cent.
Bibliography:
-
The Lives of the British Saints
, ii, 264-71.
Author:
Sir John Edward Lloyd, D.Litt., F.B.A., F.S.A. (1861-1947), Bangor
