History Characters / ArthurianLegend

* AdaptationNameChange: Geoffrey of Monmouth swaps his ''nomen'' and ''cognomen'' to name him "Aurelius Ambrosius." Monmouth also wrote that Ambrosius's symbol was the dragon head, and that Uther took his epithet from this - as a result, later writers simplified the narrative and changed Ambrosius's name to King Pendragon or Pandragon, divorcing him even further from the historical figure. This is all in addition to his traditional Welsh name of Emrys Wledig (Ambrosius the Imperator).

* CompositeCharacter: Monmouth likely got the "Aurelius Ambrosius" name from the actual Aurelius Ambrosius, the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul in 337 - in other words, a man who had military authority in Britain during the reign of Constantine II (who was succeeded by his brother Constans). This has even led to a fringe theory that Gildas was ''actually'' praising said Prefect, and the idea that there was a post-Roman warlord named Ambrosius Aurelianus was a mistake, although this theory has never gained mainstream acceptance and had died out by the 2010s. Aurelius Ambrosius is today largely known as one of the men theorized to have been the father of Saint Ambrose of Milan (whose full named was also Aurelius Ambrosius).

* DemotedToExtra: Geoffrey of Monmouth gives him a brief (if eventful) five year reign, whereupon he is poisoned and the focus shifts to Uther. In addition, Monmouth gives his OracularUrchin backstory from ''Historia Brittonum'' to Merlin. As a result, the Romances focus on Ambrosius less and less, ultimately reducing him down to merely being the source of Uther's epithet. This reaches its ultimate conclusion with Malory, who omits the Ambrosius and Vortigern story entirely. As a result he's often skipped in retellings based on the Romances, although retellings aiming for a more historically plausible take give him greater prominence. He also maintained prominence in works that focused on Vortigern, which likely helped him survive in popular consciousness until historically-plausible Arthurian fiction came into vogue.

* FamousAncestor: Modern adaptations will often make him this to King Arthur by compositing Arthur's grandfather Constantine with a potential son of Maximus of the same name. In older sources, other sons of his are listed as the ancestors of the kings of Gwent, Dyfed, and the Isle of Man by Sevira he is the grandfather of Vortigern's sons (and thus ancestor of the kings of Powys), a different potential daughter makes him the ancestor of the rulers of Brycheiniog and Dumnonia, and there have even been arguments that he was the grandfather or great-grandfather of the later usurper Petronius Maximus. Through the kings of the Isle of Man he was also claimed as ancestor of the Aberffraw dynasty that ruled Gwynedd from the late 800s almost uninterrupted until the kingdom's final conquest by Edward I, making him ancestor to the last native Welsh rulers.

* ExactWords: A Welsh version of the Tristan and Iseult tale possibly older than the romances avoids the tragedy and lets everyone live. Here Arthur himself meditates between Drystan and March, and rules that one of them shall have Esyllt while trees have leaves and the other while trees are leafless. Esyllt then invokes holly, ivy and yew as evergreen trees to stay with Drystan forever.

* GenderBender: In the romance ''Claris et Laris'', Calogrenant is temporarily transformed into a woman after he passes a castle enchanted to transform the passerby into the form of the last person they saw. In his case he had last passed by a beautiful maiden. When the enchantment takes hold, her armor is too big for her and she soon changes into a dress. Mordred finds her like this and puts the moves on her, not knowing who she really is. Eventually he tries to take her by force, but she throws him off his own horse and gets away. She turns back to a man once she sees the three greatest knights in the land, who are Gawain and the titular Claris and Laris.
* InconsistentSpelling: Colgrevance or Colgrevaunce in Malory, Calogrenant in older French works like ''Ywain'' (where he's Ywain's cousin) and the Vulgate Cycle. It's not clear if Malory's sources had the different names for two different knights with different deaths, hence they're lumped here together.

* InconsistentSpelling: Guenevere, Guenever, etc. The Welsh form is Gwenhwyfar. (A modern equivalent is Jennifer.)

*** The name, is various permutations, appears in the Welsh genealogies of both Dumnonia. In the ''Bonedd y Saint'' he is named as a the father of Erbin and son of Lud, but all other genealogies he is the son of Erbin and father of Cadwy/Cador, with Lud never mentioned elsewhere.

* CompositeCharacter: Possibly two different warriors or saints confused for each other. ''Cynwyl'' appears in ''Culhwch and Olwen'' where it is mentioned he will be one the three survivors of Camlann and would be the last to leave Arthur (making him sort of a prototype of the Romances' Griflet and Malory's Bedivere). ''Cynfelyn'' also appears in ''Culhwch and Olwen'' ... as a patronymic, his daughter Gwaeddan being a maid for Sefylch, one of the warriors who helps Culhwch hunt the boar Twrch Trwyth, while another Welsh tradition states that ''a'' Cynfelyn participated in the battle of Arderydd (another battle the Welsh associated with tragedy). A late medieval Welsh poem lists ''seven'' survivors of Camlann - Morfran, Sandde, Saint Cynfelyn, Saint Cedwyn, Saint Pedrog, Derfel Cadarn, and Geneid Hir, with Saint Cynfelyn notably surviving in a manner similar to Saint Cynwyl (on horseback).

Amlawdd's epithet is usually translated as "the Warlord" or "the Ruler." His personal name is considered unique in Welsh and may actually come from the Old Norse Amlóði, the same source as Hamlet.

* CloudCuckoolander: In the Vulgate and works written around that time, he has moments that at times really make you wonder what goes on in his head; he has a habit of suddenly going AWOL from Camelot, a tendency to go insane often, becomes convinced that a tuft of Guinevere's hair he randomly found lying around has all manner of healing properties, falls asleep in other knights' pavilions repeatedly, becomes completely unable to fight at a tournament because of Guinevere's beauty and literally falls off his horse, almost dies due to reopening injuries despite warnings because he really didn't want to miss a tournament, and thinks that "He was a wimp anyway" is a good thing to say to a woman whose husband he just killed... Among many other things. Like with Percival below, his strange behavior may possibly be at least partially because of his unique upbringing, though it's never stated to be so.

* FandomPreferredCouple: For a variety of reasons, Gareth and Lynette have become the more popular pairing over Malory's version, most famously in Tennyson's adaptation of the story.

!!Other Kings
[[folder:Uther Pendragon]]
Arthur's father.

** In just one manuscript of Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''[[Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae History of the Kings of Britain]]'', Guinevere's name is spelled differently every time she's mentioned (Ganhumara, Ganhumera, Guenhumara, Guenhuuara). Other manuscripts have more variations. For some reason, modern English translaions of Geoffrey tend to go with spelling her name with a M, Guenhumara etc. instead of Guenhuuara or rather Guenhuvara (U and V not being separate letters yet), which is much closer to Gwenhwyfar. It's not "Guinemere" after all, so it's more likely that at some point, some copyist mistook another's cramped handwriting for "uu" i.e. "uv" for "um" rather than that the name was really spelled with an M at some point. But due to the influence of these English translations, modern historical-style retellings will sometimes use Guenhumara etc. with an M.

* InconsistentSpelling: Guenevere, Guenever, etc. The Welsh form is Gwenhwyfar. (A modern equivalent is Jennifer.) In just one manuscript of Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''[[Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae History of the Kings of Britain]]'', Guinevere's name is spelled differently every time she's mentioned (Ganhumara, Ganhumera, Guenhumara, Guenhuuara). Other manuscripts have more variations.

* ''Characters/Excalibur1981''

* ''[[Characters/Excalibur1981]]''

* ''[[Characters/{{Excalibur}} Excalibur (1981)]]''

A late addition to the Arthurian mythos, but nonetheless one of its most iconic characters. Lancelot du Lac is usually portrayed as one of the Round Table's greatest warriors and King Arthur's steadfast brother-in-arms. Lancelot is a notable knight errant and accomplishes many feats, but his affair with Queen Guinevere ultimately proves tragic.

A founding figure of Brittany associated with Magnus Maximus. In ''The Dream of Macsen Wledig'' C''y''nan was the son of Eudaf Hen and brother of Elen of the Hosts. When Macsen (Magnus Maximus) marries Elen, Cynan and his brother Afaon become Macsen's loyal retainers. As a gift, Macsen grants Cynan Armorica. In the ''History of the Kings of Britain,'' Conan is the nephew of "Octavius" (Eudaf) and cousin of Helen (Elen). According to Geoffrey, he is enraged when Maximianus marries Helen, as now Maximianus is Octavius's heir to the kingdom of Britain instead of him. After a brief conflict, Conan and Maximianus reconcile and, as in ''Dream'', Conan is granted Armorica and becomes its first king. In the ''Bonedd y Seint'' Conan appears as the ''father'' of Afaon (now called Gadeon or Cadfan, depending on the source), not the brother, and through him ancestor of the kings of Dumnonia. These sources influenced interpretations of Breton and Cornish history for centuries.

* WritersCannotDoMath: His fiancee was supposedly Saint Ursula, daughter of King Dionotus of Cornwall, who, along with her entourage of 11,000 virgins, was martyred by the Huns - a good seventy years before the Huns became a threat to Gaul. The story is now considered completely legendary, although before then it was popular enough to be the namesake of the Virgin Islands.

Initially ruler of the Gododdin tribe that lived around modern Edinburgh, the ''Historia Brittonum'' claims that Cunedda Wledig moved south with his eight living sons in northern Wales, where they defeated the invading Irish. The eldest son, Tybion, had died before the migration and so Tybion's son Meirion divided the kingdom with his eight uncles, creating the subkingdoms of modern (for the 9th century) Gwynedd. Genealogies would connect him to his presumably former neighbor Coel Hen by marrying him to Coel's daughter, and later genealogies gave him an Arthurian connection by making him Arthur's great-grandfather, the father of Igraine's mother. In addition, he lent his name to Geoffrey of Monmouth's fictional Cunedagius, a grandson of King Lear (yes, ''that'' [[Theatre/KingLear]]) who overthrows his aunt Queen Cordelia and forces her to commit suicide.

* Egopolis: Medieval historians believed he was the namesake of Colchester, which was actually named after the Colne River. Kyle in Ayrshire has also been suggested as a namesake of his.

[[Cunedda Wledig]]

[[folder:Riothamus]]
An obscure figure who was active in 470, Riothamus was a British military figure who participated in Rome's war against the Visigoths. He had a correspondence with Sidonius Apollinarius, the Bishop of Clermont at the time, and a letter from Sidonius to Riothamus survives. The historian Jordanes calls him "King of the Britons" and describes his war with the Visigothic king Euric, who defeated Riothamus at the Battle of Deols, which Gregory of Tours expanded on. After Deols Riothamus fled into Burgundian territory and then disappears from the historical record, but in the modern period historians took notice of a Brythonic king fighting in Gaul contemporary with Emperor Leo and a theory developed that Riothamus was the true King Arthur, with Badon either being his last hurrah or retroactively attributed to him by the author of the ''Historia Brittonum.'' This theory has been significantly called into question in recent years (among other things, it hinges on the fact that there is a town in France called Avallon which would have been both in Burgundian territory and a few days riding distance from Deols, even though Sidonius, Jordanes, and Gregory of Tours never mention Avallon in relation to the Battle of Deols) but the association continues to show up in modern historical-leaning Arthurian fiction. Among historians, other figures have been put forward as Riothamus's identity, including Ambrosius Aurelianus, Vortimer, and even Vortigern, although because "Riatham" shows up as a singular name in the Genealogy of Saint Winnoc most historians agree that "Riothamus" was his actual name and he should be considered a seperate figure.

* AmbiguousSituation: Virtually everything about him is mysterious - his paternity, whether he was from Brittany or Britain proper, if Riothamus was his actual name, whether or not he even died at Deols.
* CompositeCharacter: Arthur, Uther, Ambrosius Aurelianus, Vortimer, and Vortigern have all been put forward as candidates for the "real" Riothamus (or in the first case, Riothamus has been put forward as a candidate for the "real" Arthur). It is a rare piece of Arthurian fiction which includes Riothamus as his own character.
* TheHighKing: Jordanes names him "King of the Britons," which has been the main evidence for identifying him with someone more well known in the Matter of Britain.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: One of the more mysterious when it comes to this period, given how much of a cypher he is.
* MeaningfulName: "Riothamus" is the Latinization of "Rigotamos", an Old Briton name meaning "Great Ruler." As a result it is often turned into a title or eptithet ("''The'' Rigotamos") in historical fiction, although as mentioned above it is now generally accepted that his name just happened to be Riothamus.

!!Saints and Church Figures

[[folder:Saint Joseph of Arimathea]]
The one from the Bible. A silver merchant who was a follower of Jesus and gave his tomb for Christ's burial, since the 12th Century he has been better known as the first person associated with the Holy Grail.

* AdaptationExpansion: Being attached to the Arthurian and Grail mythos gave him a lot of "lore" apart from what the Church officially taught.
* FamousAncestor: In Grail lore he is the first Grail King and the ancestor of all later Grail Kings and by extent Pellinore and his sons, most notably Percivale. He is also the ancestor of Kings Ban and Bors and by extent Sir Lancelot, Sir Bors, and Sir Galahad. Late Welsh tradition gives him a daughter, Anna, who marries the ancestral figure Beli Mawr, thus making Joseph the presumed ancestor to figures as varied as Vortigern and Lot. One source even makes him the ancestor to Igraine, and thus both Arthur and Mordred.
* HijackedByJesus: He essentially replaces Brutus of Troy as the central founding figure in later Arthurian lore, even getting a son whom part of the island is named after like Brutus did - King Galahad, the namesake of Gales (Wales).
* WritersCannotDoMath: The amount of generations between him and his supposed descendants varies from genealogy to genealogy, and they tend to be either too few or too many to exist between people in Post-Roman Britain and a figure contemporary with Jesus.

[[folder:Saint Dubricius]]
In Geoffrey of Monmouth's version of events, the Archbishop of London who coronates Arthur. In Welsh tradition he has no Arthurian connection but was the grandson of the king of Ergyng (roughly modern Herefordshire).

* HeroicBastard: A spiritual version, the bastard son of Princess Efrddyl of Ergyng with no known father. He grows up to be a kind man and well respected spiritual leader who not only holds no ill will against his grandfather for attempting to kill him and his mother, but even cures his grandfather of leprosy.
* TheMentor: To Saints Samson and Teilo, according to tradition.
* WritersCannotDoMath: He seems to be one of many characters Monmouth changed the lifespan of to be contemporary with Arthur - most readings of the genealogies tend to put him a generation after Arthur's traditional dates. A different tradition has him ordained by Saint Germanus, which even the most generous interpretations of Dubricius's lifespan would make difficult as Germanus was active in the 430s.

[[folder:Archbishop Guethelin]]
The Archbishop of London in Geoffrey of Monmouth's tale who leads the lords and bishops of Britain in requesting aid from King Aldroenus of Brittany, leading to Constantinus becoming King of Britain.

* AmbiguousSituation: It hasn't escaped notice that his name is remarkably similar to the name of Vortigern's grandfather Gwydolin, both being interpretations of the Roman name Vitalinus. That said, what connection, if any, he has to Vortigern (or the mysterious Vitalinus that Ambrosius Aurelianus fought at Guoloph) is never explored or explained as he disappears from the narrative after Constantinus arrives.
* GondorCallsForAid: His only real role in the narrative is doing this. And Brittany answered.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: His call for aid from Brittany sets in motion the events that would lead to Arthur's reign.

[[folder:Saint Illtud the Knight]]
In tradition a Breton prince whose mother was sister to Igraine, making him cousin to Arthur. He initially served his cousin as a warrior over his parents' wishes for him to join the church, hence his epithet, but later did become a priest and founded a seminary and church at what is now Llantwit Major in Glanmorgan (''Llantwit'' is an English mispelling of ''Llanilltud''). At Llantwit he taught many important figures of the Welsh church, including Saint David, Saint Samson, and Saint Gildas. He had a sometimes antagonistic relationship with Merchwyn the Wild, the king of the region Llantwit Major was located in.

* DefectorFromDecadence: As a warrior in Arthur's court Illtud was an unruly youth who led his troops in reckless escapades around South Wales until he was chastised by Saint Cadoc, after which he accepted that his parents were right and became a priest like they wanted.
* TheMentor: To a host of Welsh and Breton saints, among whom the most notable include Saints David, Tudwal, Samson, and Gildas.

[[folder:Saint Derfel Cadarn]]
Derfel Cadarn ("the Mighty") was a son of King Hoel of Brittany who traveled to Britain to serve Arthur as a warrior. He became of the survivors of Camlann (Welsh tradition, unlike the Romances, usually has multiple survivors of Camlann) and after the battle became a priest who founded Llanderfel in Gwynedd.

* AmbiguousSituation: Thanks to Monmouth's pseudo-history the accounts of Breton rulers from this time period are very confused and some interpretations put Derfel's birth a good three decades after Camlann's traditional date. Not helping matters is that the earliest records of Derfel only date back to the 15th century, although Llanderfel itself appears in older records.
* InconsistentSpelling: Derfel is sometimes Derfyl, Cadarn is sometimes Gadarn.
* RetiredBadass: A skilled warrior who survived Camlann through his own strength (instead of luck or good fortune like the survivors) and was content to retire to quiet hermitage.

[[folder:Saint Cynwyl/Cynfelyn]]
Another survivor of Camlann who became a monk.

* AmbiguousSituation: Cynwyl is said to have been the last of Arthur's men to leave him at Camlann, "on his horse Hengroen". It's unclear if Hengroen is supposed to be Arthur's horse or Cynwyl's, and if the latter, why he would take Arthur's horse. As Arthur's horse in other Welsh sources is named Llamrei, the usual interpretation is to make Hengroen Cynwyl's horse. Later Cynfelyn is said to have survived by "the speed of his horse".
* CompositeCharacter: Possibly two different warriors or saints confused for each other. ''Cynwyl'' appears in ''Culhwch and Olwen'' where it is mentioned he will be one the three survivors of Camlann and would be the last to leave Arthur (making him sort of a prototype of the Romances' Griflet and Malory's Bedivere). ''Cynfelyn'' also appears in ''Culhwch and Olwen'' ... as a patronymic, his daughter Gwaeddan being a maid for Sefylch, one of the warriors who helps Culhwch hunt the boar Twrch Trwyth, while another Welsh tradition states that ''a'' Cynfelyn participated in the battle of Arderydd (another battle the Welsh associated with tragedy). A late medieval Welsh poem lists ''seven'' survivors of Camlann - Morfran, Sandde, Saint Cynfelyn, Saint Cedwyn, Saint Pedrog, Derfel Cadarn, and Geneid Hir, with Saint Cynfelyn notably surviving in a manner similar to Saint Cynwyl (on horseback).
* InconsistentSpelling: The name Cynfelyn is a later version of Cunobelinus from much earlier in Geoffrey's Historia, the basis for Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Cynwyl, for its part, could also be spelled Cynwal.
* RuleOfThree: In one source, Cynwyl is one of three survivors alongside Sandde and Morfran.
* RuleOfSeven: In another much later source, Cynfelyn is one of seven survivors alongside Sandde, Morfran, Derfel and others.

[[folder:Saint Pedrog]]
Another supposed warrior turned monk who survived Camlann. A spearman or lancer. Tradition makes him the son of King Glywys of Glywysing, which by extension makes him a descendant of Magnus Maximus, brother to Kings Gwynllyw and Merchwyn the Wild, and uncle to Saint Cadoc. Outside of Arthurian tradition he is known for founding Padstow in Cornwall and supposedly converting King Constantine of Cornwall to Christianity.

* CompositeCharacter:
** The similarity of his name to that of some renderings of Bedwyr's patronymic "son of Pedrawc/Pedrog" (in other renderings Bedrawt or Pedrod, etc.) has led a few modern writers to make it an alias of Bedwyr post-Camlann. Conveniently, Bedwyr was also said to be skilled with the spear (and, coincidentally, was with Arthur when the later first met Pedrog's brother Gwynllyw).
** He was confused with a later prince/king of Dumnonia called Pedrog Splintered-Spear, appearing with that title in a late Welsh work listing the knights of Arthur's court - although there's arguments that Pedrog Splintered-Spear and his father Clemens were, in fact, Saint Pedrog and Glywys attached to the Dumnonian genealogies ("Clemens" is somtimes interpreted as a Latinization of "Glywys"), possibly thanks to Saint Pedrog's own Cornish connections.
* InconsistentSpelling: Petroc, Pedrawg/c, etc.
* RetiredBadass: He survived Camlann by "the strength of his spear" in contrast to Derfel (mentioned next) who survived "by his strength alone", possibly meaning Derfel was physically stronger. In any case they became monks afterward.

[[folder:Saint Gildas]]
The historical Gildas, the earliest author writing about the Briton and Saxon conflicts that became the "Arthurian era", who doesn't mention Arthur himself. Became a tangential part of the mythos himself through association with figures associated with Arthur.

* PosthumousCharacter: No traditional source has him appear alive - his only mentions outside of genealogies are stories where his grandsons are adult men.

[[folder:Balin le Savage, the Knight with Two Swords]]
The unluckiest knight in Arthur's court, Balin was the anti-Galahad, the knight who struck the Dolorous Stroke. Usually said to have died before the Round Table was established.

* KickTheDog: Upon being granted Armorica, he orders that the Armorican women have their ''tongues cut out'' so that they can't accidentally teach their children the Gallic version of Celtic instead of the Brittonic version. This is a JustSo story meant to explain why the Welsh word for Brittany is "Llydaw", with a folk etymology claiming Llydaw means "Half-Speech" (it actually comes from the Pre-Roman Letavii tribe).

[[folder:Pellinore of the Isles]]
A king who has devoted himself to eternally hunting Glastinant the Questing Beast. The father of Lamorak, Aglovale, and in later versions like Malory Tor and Percivale. He has a familial relationship with the Grail Kings, and in Malory is the one who kills Lot of Orkney, for which he was murdered by Lot's sons.

* CompositeCharacter: There are a handful of figures in Welsh tradition and genealogical works whose name can be transliterated as "Mark." March ap Meirchion is listed in one geneaology as the cousin of Geraint and seems to have been the primary source, as he's given as Trystan's uncle and associated with the region of Britain Cornwall belongs to, but elements seem to have also been taken from Meirchion the Lean, a king of Rheged in the north of Britain, Meirchion's son Cynfarch the Dismal, and Merchwyn the Wild, a king associated with mid-south Wales and uncle of Saint Cadoc. In addition to all of them is Conomor, a Breton count recorded by Frankish authors who lived in the post-Clovis period and is one of the possible inspirations for Bluebeard, and an obscure figure named Cunomorus who was memorialized on a stone found in Cornwall as the father of one Drustanus.

The third tyrant of Gildas, Vortipor was king of the Demetians (the tribe that lived in and gave there name to Dyfed in Southwest Wales). He is probably the second-best attested tyrant after Maelgwn, appearing in numerous genealogies and what may be his tombstone has been discovered in Dyfed (though modern scholars with better understandings of linguistics have cast doubt on this find). Geoffrey of Monmouth makes him a decent king who came to the throne after Conan, defeated the Saxons regularly, and brought peace to Britain, but died after only four years.

* AnimalMotifs: Leopards.

* AnimalMotifs: Bears.

An obscure figure who was active in 470, Riothamus was a British military figure who participated in Rome's war against the Visigoths. He had a correspondence with Sidonius Apollinarius, the Bishop of Clermont at the time, and a letter from Sidonius to Riothamus survives. The historian Jordanes calls him "King of the Britons" and describes his war with the Visigothic king Euric, who defeated Riothamus at the Battle of Deols, which Gregory of Tours expanded on. After Deols Riothamus disappears from the historical record, but in the modern period historians took notice of a Brythonic king fighting in Gaul contemporary with Emperor Leo and a theory developed that Riothamus was the true King Arthur, with Badon either being his last hurrah or retroactively attributed to him by the author of the ''Historia Brittonum.'' This theory has been significantly called into question in recent years (among other things, it hinges on the fact that there is a town in France called Avallon which would have been a few days riding distance from Deols, even though Sidonius, Jordanes, and Gregory of Tours never mention Avallone in relation to the Battle of Deols) but the association continues to show up in modern historical-leaning Arthurian fiction. Among historians, other figures have been put forward as Riothamus's identity, including Ambrosius Aurelianus, Vortimer, and even Vortigern, although because "Riatham" shows up as a singular name in the Genealogy of Saint Winnoc most historians agree that "Riothamus" was his actual name and he should be considered a seperate figure.

* FamousAncestor: In Grail lore he is the first Grail King and the ancestor of all later Grail Kings and by extent Pellinore and his sons, most notably Percivale. He is also the ancestor of Kings Ban and Bors and by extent Sir Lancelot, Sir Bors, and Sir Galahad. Late Welsh tradition gives him a daughter, Anna, who marries the ancestral figure Beli Mawr, thus making Joseph the presumed ancestor to figures as varied as Vortigern and Lot.

In Welsh tradition, two warriors who survived Camlann thanks to their appearances. Sandde, the Angel-Faced, was so beautiful that other warriors mistook him to be an angel from Heaven, while Morfran ("The Great Raven") was so hideous that they mistook him to be a demon from Hell. This is Sandde's only appearance (although he curiously has a similar named to Saint David's father) but Morfrans appears independently in the ''Hanes Taliesin'' as the son of the enchantress Cerridwen.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: May be based on King Offa of Mercia (another Saxon kingdom), though he lived centuries after the first Saxon incursions so the two may have been confused instead.