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ArchivesHope this helps a bit:
in reply to a message by reyanna
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.
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.
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