What makes something untranslatable? How about a royal title, or epithet, given to kings and fictional characters for two centuries... before vanishing without a trace.
What it left behind was a bizarre metaphor, whose direct translation means nothing, and that hasn't been figured out in over 200 years.
Welsh history is full of oddities, but it is rare to find something that cannot even be conveyed in English. In this Cambrian Chronicles video, I'll be taking a deep dive into one of the strangest aspects, not only of the history of Wales, but of all of royal history.
This is Gwledig, or wledig. This is the royal title that no one can remember, this is the untranslatable.

Chapters:
0:00 - The Untranslatable
0:34 - A Word
2:22 - The Monarchs
5:15 - Dr War
6:32 - Big Man
8:47 - Uh-Oh
11:14 - Hello
13:21 - Literary Gwledig-nificance
15:58 - Who Is? Who Isn't?

Sources (turn on captions):
Bartrum, P.C. (1993). A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000. The National Library of Wales.
[1] p.14,
[2] 84,
[3] 122,
[4] 141,
[5] 172-173,
[6] 183,
[7] 190,
[8] 281-282,
[9] 295,
[10] 300,
[11] 308, 601,
[12] 364,
[13] 384-389,
[14] 407-408,
[15] 494-495,
[16] 640-641,
[17] 706.

Bromwich, R. (2014). Trioedd Ynys Prydein. 4th ed. University of Wales Press.
[18] pp.443-444.

Charles-Edwards, T.M. (2013). Wales and the Britons, 350-1064. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[19] p.321.

Deansley, M. (1943). Roman Traditionalist Influence among the Anglo-Saxons. The English Historical Review, 58(203).
[20] p.1.

Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: www.geiriadur.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html
[21] gwledig 1
[22] gwledig 2
[23] gwlad
[24] -ig 2

Higham, N.J. (1992). Medieval ‘overkingship’ in Wales: the Earliest Evidence. Welsh History Review, 16(2).
[25] pp.154-159

Jones, W.L. (1911). King Arthur in History and Legend. Cambridge University Press.
[26] p.17.

MacNeill, E. (1924). The Native Place of St. Patrick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, 37.
[27] p.135.

McClure, E. (1877). On Irish Personal Names. Dublin: Ponsonby and Murphy.
[28] p.312.

Meyrick, T. (1878). Life of St Wenefred. London: R. Washbourne.
[29] p.22.

Moffat, A. (2015). Scotland: A History from the Earliest Times. Edinburgh: Birlinn.
[30] p.CCXII

Newell, W.W. (1905). Doubts Concerning the British History Attributed to Nennius. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 20(3).
[31] p.649

Pryce, H. (1998). Owain Gwynedd and Louis VII: the Franco-Welsh Diplomacy of the First Prince of Wales. Welsh History Review, 19(1).
[32] pp.1–28.

Pugh, W.O. (1803). A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Explained in English. London: E. Williams.
[33] Gwledig, a. (gwlâd)

Rhys, J. (1882). Early Britain, Celtic Britain. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
[34] p.116-118

Wade-Evans, A. (1909). Welsh Medieval Law. Clarendon Press.
[35] p.XXIX-X

Willis-Bund, J.W. (1892). The Early Welsh Monasteries. Archaeologia Cambrensis, 5(33).
[36] p.30.

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Music courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library:
Heaven and Hell - Jeremy Blake
Average - Patrick Patrikios
Blast From The Past - Jeremy Black
Castlevania - Density & Time
Fast Times - Quincas Moreira
Cloud Wheels, Castle Builder - Puddle of Infinity
Gas Giant - I Think I Can Help You
Cosmic Drift - DivKid
Black Swan - Quincas Moreira
Fortress Europe - Dan Bodan

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Images of, and from:
Y Ddraig Goch: Tobias Jakobs, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

all other images are public domain, via the National Library of Wales, the British Library, the Wellcome Collection the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Yale Center for British Art