Peredur (Old Welsh
Peretur) is the name of a number of men from the boundaries of history and legend in
sub-Roman Britain. The most well known of them appear in the following literary and historical sources:
Gwrgi and Peredur, sons of Eliffer
Gwrgi and
Peredur are listed as sons of Eliffer (
Old Welsh:
Elidir, or
Eleuther) "of the great warband" (
cascord maur) and as scions of the
Coeling dynasty in the genealogies of
Harleian MS 3859, making them first cousins of
Urien Rheged. Likewise, a pedigree from
Jesus College MS 20 includes Gwrgi and Peredur as brothers together with one Arthur
penuchel. Their principal claim to fame rests on their having fought in the
Battle of Arfderydd. The
Annales Cambriae report that this battle (
bellum Armterid) was fought in 573, but gives no further detail. A later expansion of the entry names Gwrgi and Peredur, both described as sons of Eliffer, as the chieftains on the victorious side and tells that
Gwenddolau was defeated and slain in the battle. Under the year 580, the
Annales Cambriae record the deaths of Gwrgi (
Guurci) and his brother Peredur (
Peretur). These references give them a place as heroes in the old Brythonic North or
Hen Ogledd of the late 6th century.