1. Welsh name for an ancient British chieftain, the son of Cynfelyn, claimed by the Welsh as a national hero. Known to the Romans as Caractacus, he has been a character in Welsh oral tradition only since the 16th century. Trained by the Silures to defend western Britain from the Romans, Caradog led his people into battle over a period of eight years during the reign of Claudius (after AD 51). He was defeated on the slopes of a hill in Shropshire still known as Caer Caradog. After his defeat he fled to Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, who betrayed him. Caradog was taken to Rome, where his nobility so pleased the emperor that he pardoned and released him. In much of Welsh oral tradition the name of Caradog is a byword for bravery and nobility; sometimes called Colofn Cymry, ‘Pillar of Wales/Cambria’. Under the name Caratach (from Holinshed) he is a character in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca (c.1619). Under the latinized form Caractacus he is the title-character in a play by William Mason (1725–97) and of a dramatic cantata by Sir Edward Elgar (1897).
2. Often spelled as Caradawg; the son of Bendigeidfran in Branwen, the second branch of the Mabinogi. Caradog is chief of the seven stewards left by Bendigeidfran (Bran the Blessed) during the expedition to Ireland. He dies of grief when the invisible Caswallon slays the other six.
