Little is known for certain about Elaeth’s life, and his dates of birth and death are unknown. He lived in the 6th century.[1] He is said to have been the son of Meurig ab Idno and his wife Onen Greg, the daughter of Gwallog ap Llaennog.[2] Elaeth was apparently a chieftain in the north of Britain, and is sometimes referred to as “Elaeth Frenhin” (the Welsh for “Elaeth the king”). He was ousted from his land and thereafter travelled to Anglesey, an island off the coast of north Wales, and settled there in the monastery run by St Seiriol at Penmon, at the south-eastern corner of the island. His feast day in the Welsh calendars of saints is 10 November;[3] one calendar, apparently by mistake, gives the date as 11 November.[2]
Some religious poetry that he is said to have written has been preserved in medieval manuscripts. The Black Book of Carmarthen, from the 12th century, attributes two poems of seven stanzas to his authorship, one of simple construction and the other more complicated. Both “are written in a strain of deepest piety.”
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