Meldred

Meldred is a character who appears in literary accounts of post-Roman Britain. He is identified as a chieftain in part of what is now southern Scotland for a period in the 6th Century. A twelfth century text references a petty king named Meldredus who had ruled in Tweeddale.[1] The village of Drumelzier in Peeblesshire may take its name from him and his seat of power may have been the fort of Tinnis Castle.[2] He is of interest as a character in the source texts on which the Arthurian romances are based and potentially the first named political leader associated with the Scottish Borders in the post-Roman period.

  1. ^ MacQueen, W. and MacQueen, J. (eds.), (1989), Vita Merlini Sylvestris, in Scottish Studies 29, pp. 77 - 93, at 81
  2. ^ Clarkson, T. (2016), Scotland's Merlin: A Medieval Legend and its Dark Age Origins, Birlinn, Edinburgh ISBN 978-1-906566999