Ælla (died 588), is the first certain king of Deira. One of his sons was Edwin of Northumbria

Edwin of Northumbria

Edwin , also known as Eadwine or Æduini, was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He converted to Christianity and was baptised in 627; after he fell at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, he was venerated as a saint.Edwin was the son...

 and his daughter Acha married Æthelfrith of Bernicia.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

, he became king the same year as Ceawlin of Wessex

Ceawlin of Wessex

Ceawlin was a King of Wessex. He may have been the son of Cynric of Wessex and the grandson of Cerdic of Wessex, whom the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle represents as the leader of the first group of Saxons to come to the land which later became Wessex...

 (560) on the death of Ida of Bernicia

Ida of Bernicia

Ida is the first known king of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, which he ruled from around 547 until his death in 559. Little is known of his life or reign, but he was regarded as the founder of a line from which later Anglo-Saxon kings in this part of northern England and southern Scotland...

, and ruled 30 years. However, the Chronicle records in the year 588 that Ælla died, and was succeeded by Aethelric

Aethelric of Deira

Æthelric was supposedly a King of Deira . He is thought to have succeeded Ælla of Deira, but his existence is historically obscure....

. Possibly this is the reason Florence of Worcester

Florence of Worcester

Florence of Worcester , known in Latin as Florentius, was a monk of Worcester, who played some part in the production of the Chronicon ex chronicis, a Latin world chronicle which begins with the creation and ends in 1140....

 offered the date Ælla came to the throne as 559, which would harmonize with a reign of thirty years.

The manuscripts of Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of Anglican theological thought....

, and their dependent copies, preserve the following genealogy

Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

 of Ælla:

Ælla was the son of Yffe, the son of Uxfrea, the son of Wilgisl, the son of Westerfalca, the son of Sæfugl, the son of Sæbald, the son of Segegeat, the son of Swebdæg, the son of Sigegar, the son of Wædæg

Wecta

Wecta is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Brittonum.He is considered mythological, though he shows up in the genealogies as a Saxon ancestor of Hengest and Horsa and the kings of Kent, as well as of Aella of Deira and his son Edwin of Northumbria.He appears in the Prose Edda...

, the son of Woden

Woden

Woden or Wodan is a major deity of Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic polytheism. Together with his Norse counterpart Odin, Woden represents a development of the Proto-Germanic god *Wōdanaz....

.

A somewhat different genealogy is given in the Historia Brittonum, where it is stated that Aella was the son of Iffi, grandson of Giulgis, great grandson of Sguerthing and great-great grandson of Soemil who "first separated Deira from Bernicia" (presumably the British kingdom Bryneich was meant). Nothing more is known of Ælla, but he appears to be mentioned in the legendary saga

Legendary saga

A Legendary saga or Fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which takes place in the 11th century...

 Gautreks saga

Gautreks saga

Gautreks saga is a Scandinavian legendary saga put to text towards the end of the 13th century which survives only in much later manuscripts...

, where he is visited by the peasant hero, Ref.