Father of Manawydan, Bendigeidfran, and Branwen in the Mabinogi, although only Manawydan bears his name in patronymic. A shadowy figure in Welsh tradition, Llŷr is often assumed to be borrowed from the Irish
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Llŷr (Welsh: Llŷr Llediaith; ~Lleddiarth; "half-speech" (Skene, Bromwich[1]); "half-language"(Mackillop)[2] )) is a figure in Welsh mythology, probably originally a deity.
He appears as the father of Brân, Brânwen and Manawydan by Penarddun in the Branwen, Daughter of Llyr, the Second Branch of the Mabinogi[3].
The Welsh Triads states that Llŷr was imprisoned by Euroswydd[4], and presumbably, Penaddurn consequently married Euroswydd[5], giving birth by Euroswydd to her two younger sons, Nisien and Efnisien, as stated in the Second Branch[3].
Other than his progeny and odd tidbits, his identity remains obscure. Llŷr is thought to be cognate to Lir, father of the sea-god Manannán mac Lir from Irish mythology[6], and through this association Llŷr himself is conjectured to be a sea god.
William Shakespeare's play King Lear is based on material taken secondhand (through Holinshed) from Geoffrey of Monmouth's mythical king King Leir, which in turn may derived from Llŷr[7].
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Beli mab Mynogan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Llŷr |
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Penarddun |
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Euroswydd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Brân the Blessed(♂) |
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Manawydan(♂) |
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Rhiannon |
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Pwyll |
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Brânwen(♀) |
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Matholwch |
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Nisien(♂) |
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Efnisien(♂) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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(*) Unbordered names are figures not in Llŷr's line of descent, though perhaps members of the extended family.
(*) This stemma is subject to further elaboration. If the Beli above is to be equated with Beli Mawr then Caswallawn stands as Penarddun's sibling. But Bromwich observes that Penarddun should be emended to being the sister of Beli, which would bring consistency with statement elswhere that Caswallawn and Bran are cousins[8].
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