Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is Episode 357.

Walter Maps courtly trifles.

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The early 11th century was an unlikely time for heroes, and by heroes I unfortunately

don't mean people of good character or brave deeds.

Instead I mean people who perform extraordinary feats for their time, and one of these people

was the very first king of whales, Griffith, Ab Thuellan.

She pulled off what no other Welsh ruler had pulled off before, and of course we know

very little about how he came to do it.

The early years of King Griffith have very few surviving documents, and as for his earliest

years we just have one that was written by a man named Walter Mapp.

Walter Mapp was a 12th century Welshman who came from the border region between England

and Wales.

In his last name, Mapp was likely a nickname given to him by his English friends, because

Mapp was derived from the Welsh term app, which means son of.

So if we assume his dad's name was Roddry, he would have said, my name is Walter

App Roddry, and it looks like his English speaking friends just started shortening that

...