Dunmail

Dunmail, last King of Cumbria (died 945) is a figure of both history and legend.

In 945AD the Saxon king Edmund I of England conquered Strathclyde and ceded Cumbria to his ally, Malcolm I MacDonald, king of Scotland. This historical conflict is the subject of a traditional King in the mountain myth with strong echoes of the King Arthur legend of the Once and Future King, as follows:

Dunmail Park, the multiplex cinema and shopping mall in Workington, is named after the last king of Cumberland

According to the legend, Dunmail, king of Cumbria, was attacked by the combined forces of Edmund and Malcolm and retreated into the heart of the Lake District. Dunmail met the kings in battle in the pass that divides Grasmere from Thirlmere but was defeated, was killed in the fight (it is said at the hands of Edmund himself) and his sons were subsequently blinded by the victors. Some of the surviving Cumbrians, taken prisoner by Edmund, were ordered to collect rocks to pile on Dunmail's body, forming a cairn that still exists to this day and gives the pass its modern name, Dunmail Raise. Others of Dunmail's warriors fled with the crown of Cumbria, climbing into the mountains to Grisedale Tarn below Helvellyn, where they threw it into the depths to be safe until some future time when Dunmail would come again to lead them. Every year the warriors are said to return to the tarn, recover the crown and carry it down to the cairn on Dunmail Raise. There they strike the cairn with their spears and a voice is heard from deep inside the stones, saying "Not yet, not yet; wait awhile my warriors."^[1]

Dunmail features as a character (and his death is described) in the classic story of the Vikings in Lakeland Thorstein of the Mere by W. G. Collingwood. He is mentioned briefly in Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease.

It is possible that the figure of "Dunmail" is based upon Domnall III of Strathclyde, who seems to have been reigning in 945, though he is also attested 30 years later.

References

1. ^ Carruthers, F. (1979) People Called Cumbri. Robert Hale: London

External links

• Cumbria: The Age of Kings, a site exploring the legend of King Dunmail and Cumbrian Dark Age history in general.

This article related to the history of the United Kingdom or its predecessor states is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: United Kingdom history stubs History of Cumbria History of Cumberland History of Westmorland 945 deaths Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР? Cristian Riveros Savio Rail Tunnel Look at other dictionaries: Dunmail Raise — (spr. dănmēl rēs ), Paßhöhe zwischen dem Helvellyn und Scafell (s. Cumbrian Mountains), 240 m hoch, wo 945 der Sachsenkönig Edmund über den König Dunmail von Cumberland siegte …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon Dunmail Raise — 54.495867 3.039955 Koordinaten: 54° 29′ 45″ N, 3° 2′ 24″ W …   Deutsch Wikipedia Dunmail Raise — A horse drawn coach passes northwards over Dunmail Raise in the late 19th or early 20th century Dunmail Raise is a hill in the English Lake District, the highest point (at 781 feet or 238 metres) of a pass on the Keswick Kendal road, the A591, to …   Wikipedia Steel Fell — Infobox Mountain Name = Steel Fell Photo = Caption = Elevation = 553 m (1,814 ft) Location = Cumbria, ENG Range = Lake District, Central Fells Prominence = c. 70 m Parent peak = High Raise Coordinates = Topographic OS Landranger 90, Explorer OL5… …   Wikipedia Seat Sandal — Infobox Mountain Name = Seat Sandal Photo = Seat Sandal from Helm Crag.jpg Caption = Seat Sandal (left) and Fairfield (right) seen from Helm Crag two km to the SW. Location = Cumbria, ENG Range = Lake District, Eastern Fells Elevation = 736 m… …   Wikipedia Fairfield (Lake District) — Infobox Mountain Name = Fairfield Photo = Fairfield.jpg Caption = Fairfield (right) and St Sunday Crag, seen from Seat Sandal Elevation = 873 m (2,863 ft) Location = Cumbria, ENG Range = Lake District, Eastern Fells Prominence = 299 m Parent peak …   Wikipedia River Rothay — The Rothay is a spate river of the Lake District in north west England. Its name comes from Old Norse and translates literally as the red one . This has come to mean trout river . It rises close to Rough Crag above Dunmail Raise at a point about… …   Wikipedia Central Fells — The Central Fells are a group of hills in the English Lake District. Reaching their highest point at High Raise (2,500 ft or 762 metres), they occupy a broad area to the east of Borrowdale. Perhaps unexpectedly the Central Fells are generally… …   Wikipedia River Rothay — Rothay Trittsteine im Rothay bei RydalVorlage:Infobox Fluss/KARTE fehlt …   Deutsch Wikipedia Kingdom of Strathclyde — For other uses, see Strathclyde (disambiguation). The core of Strathclyde is the strath of the River Clyde. The major sites associated with the kingdom are shown, as is the marker Clach nam Breatann (Rock of the Britons), the probable northern… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”