Reigned fl 60 BC-ca 48 BC “Silures and High King”

Lud or Llud Legendary king of the British mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History. Lud is listed as the eldest son of Heli (or Beli), and the brother of the historically real Caswallon, which would place Lud’s existence at about 60 BC. Lud was that rare combination of warrior king and town planner. He rebult New Troy, or Trinovantum as it was then known, and renamed it kaerLud after him. This became Lud’s Town or London. When he died he was buried by the city wall where Ludgate is named after him. There is a story of Lud in the Welsh tale “Lludd and Llefelys” collected in the Mabinogion, wherein Lud consults his brother Llefelys on how to combat three supernatural plagues that are smiting Britain. He succeeds in defeating the source of the plagues and rules peacefully thereafter. This tale, like that of Merlin’s, to which it is closely related, may be about a real British prince who ruled later than Geoffrey’s Lud, possibly in the first or second century AD. He has become remembered in Welsh lengend as the Celtic god Llud, also known as Nudd, the Celtic form of Nodens. A temple to Nodens was built at Lydney in Gloucestershire, where there are other places starting with Lyd-, and which may have some relation to a local prince who assumed the name Lud.540