A long and rather acrimonious
letter survives that is addressed to Geraint from
Aldhelm,
Bishop of Sherborne, discussing the
Easter Problem and the shape of the
tonsure. It is clear from this letter that in the later 7th century the
Britons in
Cornwall and
Devon still observed Easter on the dates that the
British church had calculated, at variance with
Roman Catholic practice. Geraint ultimately agreed with Aldhelm to comply with Roman practice on these points. According to
John of Worcester, Geraint was killed in 710 after a series of battles that culminated in a victory of the West Saxons under
Ine of Wessex. It was probably around this time that the West Saxons entered Devon, possibly taking Exeter shortly afterward. Following Geraint's death, however, Ine was unable to establish his authority further west; in 722, according to the
Annales Cambriae, the Cornish won the
Battle of Hehil, probably against Wessex. Derek Bryce, following other scholars, suggests that Geraint of Dumnonia should be identified as the real warrior eulogized for his deeds at the Battle of Llongborth in the poem "
Geraint son of Erbin" (10th–11th century, traditionally ascribed to
Llywarch Hen), although its title names an earlier,
5th-century Geraint of dubious historicity. Bryce identifies Llongborth with the 710 battle between Geraint and Ine, and suggests
Langport in
Somerset as the location of the battle, though no settlement is known to have existed there until 880. Another interpretation is that the Battle of Llongborth is a different spelling of the Battle of Longecoleth , which is also dated to 710. The latter took place in the more northerly
Kingdom of Strathclyde (also called Damnonia after the
Damnonii tribe of the area in
Romano-British times, and easily confused with Dumnonia/Devon). Strathclyde had rulers named Geraint and Erbin (or Elfin) in the same era. A King Geraint is the patron
folk saint of
Gerrans, near
Falmouth, with a feast day on 10 August. It is uncertain whether this figure represents this historical Geraint of the 7th–8th centuries, the 5th-century legendary figure, or some other Geraint. ==References==