Aberffraw, Dinefwr and Gwynedd, AD 942-950
A black-fletched arrow thudded into the chest of the foremost rider of King Idwal’s men. As he toppled off his pony, his scream was the first warning of an ambush. The warband had ridden out of Aberffraw to deal with the incursion of two ships, one clearly a Danish longship, the other a Wessex warship, bearing the emblem of that kingdom.
Idwal had expected some sort of reaction to his refusal to attend a charter signing in Winchester and his non-payment of tribute to the new Saxon king, Edmund, his erstwhile ally. He led out his best warriors, confident of success in battle. None of the Gwynedd men suspected that two other longships had landed farther up the coast, or that their crews had taken a covert position in this gorge.
“An ambush!” Idwa
