The northern Cymry or Gwynedd had, however, been separated from their kinsmen to the south owing to the important capture of Chester and the Wirral Peninsula by Ethelfrith, king of Northumbria in 607. It is to them we owe one of the most beautiful and refined cycles of folk tales in Europe—the legends of Arthur and the far earlier mythological stories translated by Lady Charlotte Guest in the _Mabinogion_, of which they were a development and somewhat of a medley. In every respect, save possession of the ruthlessness and strength which characterise savage races, the Gwynedd were in advance of their conquerors whose very heathenism was of a comparatively low type. When Penda began his reign the dominant power was Northumbria, but the overthrow of its great king Edwin by Penda and Cadwalla, king of the Gwynedd, brought Mercia to the first place. The list of Penda’s subsequent victories is a long one and more brilliant than that of any general of his times, not excepting the Welsh hero Cadwalla. On his overthrow after thirty years of victory Mercia for a few months passed under the rule of Northumbria, but was restored to Penda’s son Wulfere by the act of the Mercians themselves. His older son, Peada, had married Oswy’s daughter and already adopted Christianity. Under him and his brother Wulfere Mercia became Christian, though this probably only meant that the king and court were “converted” and the people were expected to follow. The men who were really in earnest in the spread either of Christianity or Heathenism, like Edwin, Penda, Oswald, Oswy, and Peada, were few. They, and Penda, the great ruler and organiser, stood out from among their fellows as giants amongst pigmies and gave their mental and moral backbone to the English people. So solid indeed were the foundations which Penda had laid in Mercia that for nearly two centuries after she maintained her place as practically the first power in Britain.