[Facts] Hope this helps a bit:
by Elinor (guest)
6/21/2004, 3:40 AM
Oxford's explanation:
Gwendolen (f.) Welsh and English: apparently composed of the elements gwen white, fair, blessed, holy + dolen ring, bow. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth*, this was the name of the wife of the mythical Welsh king Locrine, who, however, left her for a German princess called Estrildis. Gwendolen in revenge had Estrildis and her daughter Sabrina drowned in the River Severn.
*Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100-1154), English historian and ecclesiastic. He was the author of Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain), a work purporting to delineate the lives of British kings from Brutus the Trojan, the mythical progenitor of the British people, to Caedwalla, King of North Wales.