Celtic Gods: The Cymric God, Gwnar (The Knower)

Gwnar
A Cymric God: The Knower

Gwnar is a Cymric (Welsh) hero known from the Welsh Triads where his genealogy can be given as the son of Naf and Arianrhod. He is one of the elder gods, though his nature is lost to us.



Synonyms:
Cym: The Knower

Gwnar is one of the more obscure figures of Cymric mythos whose name survives only in a single mention in triad 35 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein.

There he is named as a member of the third levy 'that departed the Island and did not return'. Here Gwnar is a member of the host of Caswallon along with his brother, Gwenwynwyn. Both are described in this triad as the sons of Lliaw mab Nwyfre and Arianrhod daughter of Beli. Other sources name Gwenwynwyn as the som of Naf which presents us with a problem. However, if Lliaws mab Nwyfre was originally an aliterating pair, in a similar vein to the father-son pairings seen frequently in such sources as the Mabinogion of Culhwch ac Olwen then Naf mab Nwyfre (Lord, son of Firmament) makes some sense here. This also reconciles the fathers of Gwenwynwyn and Gwnar (with Gwenwynyn taking precedence as being derived from the oldest source material, which would naturally lead to a genealogy such as the one given above.

Gwnar's name is related to the form of the verb 'I know', gwn and the ending -ar (he who) and can be interpreted as 'He who knows' or 'The Knower' which would indicate that once he had a divinatory role though his entire mythos is now lost to us.



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