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Llŷr

 

[Welsh, sea]

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 Lir (1), the patronym of the sea-god Manannán, whose name also means ‘sea’. A possible hint of Llŷr's foreign origin may come in the references to him as Llŷr Llediaith [half-language]. Many commentators have sought to trace Shakespeare's King Lear to Llŷr, but the route is tortuous; Shakespeare drew from Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1577), which in turn drew from Giraldus Cambrensis' work, Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia, where the name Leir appears, and perhaps also from lost Welsh texts.

Bibliography

  • Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydain, rev. edn. (Cardiff, 1978), 427–9, 556
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Wikipedia: Llŷr
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Llŷr is a figure in Welsh mythology, the father of Brân, Brânwen and Manawydan by Penarddun. The Welsh Triads mention he was imprisoned by Euroswydd; the Second Branch of the Mabinogi names Euroswydd as the father of Penarddun's younger two sons, Nisien and Efnisien. Llŷr corresponds to Lir in Irish mythology, and, like the latter, he is identified as a god of the sea. Leir of Britain, a mythical British king most famous as the subject of William Shakespeare's King Lear, may be derived from Llŷr.

The House of Llŷr

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Llŷr
 
Penarddun
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Manawydan
 
 
Rhiannon
 
 
Pwyll
 
Brân the Blessed
 
 
 
 
Brânwen
 
Matholwch
 
 
 
 
 

See also

References

  • Bromwich, Rachel (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain. Cardiff: University of Wales. ISBN 0-7083-1386-8.
  • Gantz, Jeffrey (translator) (1987). The Mabinogion. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044322-3.
  • The New Companion to the Literature of Wales, Meic Stevens.

 
 
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Lir
Caradog Freichfras
Manawydan fab Llŷr

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Copyrights:

Celtic Mythology. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Copyright © James MacKillop 1998, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Llŷr" Read more