History of Gwynedd during the High Middle Ages controlled Ceredigion, taking Llanfihangel, Aberystwyth, and Llanbadarn Fawr. Liberating Llanbadarn, one local chronicler hailed Owain and Cadwaladr both as "bold lions, virtuous, fearless and wise, who guard the churches and their indwellers, defenders of the poor [who] overcome their enemies, affording a safest retreat to all those who seek their protection". The brothers restored the Welsh monks of Llanbadarn, who had been displaced by monks from Gloucester brought there by the Normans who had controlled Ceredigion. By late September 1136 a vast Welsh host gathered in Ceredigion, which included the combined forces of Gwynedd, Deheubarth, and Powys; and met the
History of the Welsh language speaking Cumbric, and those in the south-west, speaking what would become Cornish, and so the languages diverged. The Book of Aneirin ("Canu Aneirin", c. AD 600) and the Poetry, or Book, of Taliesin ("Canu Taliesin") belong to this era, though both also include some poems originally written in Primitive Welsh. Middle Welsh () is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the "Mabinogion", although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also