Harleian genealogies

{{Short description|Manuscript collection of Old Welsh genealogies}}

__NOTOC__

{{Infobox Medieval text

| name = Harleian genealogies

| alternative title(s) =

| image =File:Harl.MS.3859.page.jpg

| width = 200px

| caption =

| full title =

| also known as =

| author(s) = anonymous

| ascribed to =

| compiled by =

| illustrated by =

| patron =

| dedicated to =

| audience =

| language = Latin

| date = 10th century

| date of issue =

| provenance =

| state of existence =

| authenticity =

| series =

| manuscript(s) = British Library, Harley MS 3859 (c. 1100-1200)

| MS class 1 =

| MS class 2 =

| MS class 3 =

| MS class 4 =

| MS class 5 =

| MS class 6 =

| MS class 7 =

| principal manuscript(s)=

| first printed edition =

| verse form =

| length =

| illustration(s) =

| genre = genealogical collection

| subject =

| setting =

| period covered =

| personages =

| personages (long list)=

| sources =

| below =

}}

The Harleian genealogies are a collection of Old Welsh genealogies preserved in British Library, Harley MS 3859. Part of the Harleian Library, the manuscript, which also contains the Annales Cambriae (Recension A) and a version of the Historia Brittonum, has been dated to c. 1100, although a date of c.1200 is also possible.Siddons, "Genealogies, Welsh," pp. 800-2; Remfry, P.M., 'Annales Cambriae. A Translation...', p. 4.

Since the genealogies begin with the paternal and maternal pedigrees of Owain ap Hywel Dda (d. 988), the material was probably compiled during his reign. The collection also traces the lineages of less prominent rulers of Wales and the Hen Ogledd. Some of the genealogies reappear in the genealogies from Jesus College MS 20. The collection features the oldest genealogies of Welsh royal families, and include the dynasty of Cunedda (Cunedag), all the way to Beli Mawr, as head of the house of Gwynedd.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FlUrAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA63|last=Nicholson|first=E. Williams B.|date=1908|title=The Dynasty of Cunedag and the 'Harleian Genealogies'|volume=XXI|publisher=Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion|publication-place=London|pages=63-67-105}}

Despite their sometimes contradictory pedigrees and recognizable distortions,{{cite journal |last1=Guy |first1=Ben |title=The earliest Welsh genealogies: textual layering and the phenomenon of 'pedigree growth' |journal=Early Medieval Europe |date=2018 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=462-485 |doi=10.1111/emed.12296 |url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/9730b98e-0a95-43f2-8179-f17840cc4bfe/download |access-date=6 April 2025 |language=en |issn=1468-0254}} they contain genuine historical material of a sometimes surprising variety. One of the genealogies preserved the names of the Iron Age rulers Caratacus, Cunobelinus, and "Teuhant", the last of whom was unknown elsewhere until coins minted with his original Brythonic name, Tasciovanus, were discovered.{{cite journal |last1=Koch |first1=J. T. |title=Llawr en asseð (CA 932) 'The laureate hero in the war-chariot': Some Recollections of the Iron Age in the Gododdin |journal=Études celtiques |date=1987 |volume=24 |pages=266-270 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_1987_num_24_1_1851 |access-date=7 April 2025}}