Llŷr: a Cymric and Irish god (Sea)

Synonyms: Llyr, Llŷr Lledyeith, Llŷr Marini, Lír
Cym, Goi: Sea (Llŷr Half-speech, Llŷr of the Sea)

Llŷr and his Irish cognate Lír are both shadowy figures and both the Irish and Cymric cognates mean 'sea' (see below for the etymology). Early accounts of Llŷr and Lír mention them only as patronymics and extant legends about these deities are almost all medieval in origin. Indeed, at least for the Irish Lír it seems that the deity was derived from an attempt at explaining the name of Mananná mac Lír. This deity probably originated from the name of the Isle of Man (or may have been the patron deity of that Island) and the mac Lír simply meant 'from the sea' (from the Irish ler) and was not a proper name at all. Over the course of the intervening centuries the origins of the name were lost and some kind of interpretatin was sought for the mysterious Lír the supposed 'father' of Manannán. This deity's Cymric counterpart is Manawyddan and it seems that this deity's name also derived independently from the name of the Isle of Man (see the entry on Manawyddan for further details). It is unknown, however, whether the Cymric Manawyddan originally bore the epithet 'ap llŷr' (from the sea) or whether this came to Britain from later scholarly understanding of Irish sources where mac Lír became its cognage ap Llŷr (which may explain why the myths of Lír and Llŷr share almost no similarities save for the main protagonist's name). This might also explain the origin of one of Llŷr's epithets Lledyeith. Literally this mans 'half-speech' but it might also be interpreted as 'half-nation' using the Celtic practice of defining a people in terms of the language they spoke. Perhaps Llŷr is 'lledieyth' because of his foreign (ie Irish) origins. Llŷr's other common epithet is Llŷr Marini which is derived from the Old Cymric merin (Llŷr of the sea); which may simply reflect a doublet of the meaning of Llŷr.

Though Llŷr's name occurs frequently in the Mabinogion and the ancient poems of the Cymry, in most cases he is mentioned only in the patronymic. As Llŷr Lledyeith the only instance of this comes in Triad 52 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein which describes Euroswyd as being the captor of one of the 'Three exalted prisoners of the Island of Britain'. His prisoner being Llŷr Lledyeith. This points towards there being an emnity between Euroswyd and Llŷ and goes some way to explaining how Euroswyd somehow managed to oust Llŷr and replace him as Penarddun's wife. Though, unfortunately the original tale is entirely lost to us. What is known from the Mabinogi of Branwen Ferch Llŷr is that Penarddun was the daughter of Beli Mawr, son of Manogan. Their children, the elder members of the group of supernatural beings known as the Plant Llŷr being Manawyddan, Brân and Branwen. Their half-brothers by way of Euroswyd being the cosmic twins Nissien and Efnissien. It is interesting to note that all Llŷr's children are considered to be giants and thus they have been identified with the giant inhabitants of Ireland, the Fomorians. Now, in Irish legend the Fomorians were eternally opposed to the newcomer gods of that land, the Tuatha Dé Danann (The People of Danu) whose cognate in Cymric mythology are the descendants of Beli Mawr and Dôn, known as the Plant Dôn (The Descendants of Dôn). However, it is not only the names that correspond but also the emnity for a nuber of the tales in the Mabinogi show conflict between the two lineages. This is made even plainer in the poem within the poem found within the Llyfr Taliesin known as the Cad Goddeu (The Battle of the Trees).

As Llŷr Marini he figures in two of the Triads, Triad 63 which names the spectre of Llŷr Marini as one of the 'Three Bull-spectres of the Island of Britain'. This may seem like a rather odd description and in reality the term spectre (ellyll in the original) may in this context be related to the term gwyllt (geilt in Irish) which describes the process of battle-induced madness and indicates that we have lost a tale of an epic battle in which Llŷr Marini became a 'wild man', dwelling in the wilderness. (For a similar tale see the page on Myrddin Wyllt.) The Peniarth MSS 267 of Triad 71 names the 'Three Surpassing bonds of Enduring Love' of which one was the love of Caradawg Strong-arm son of Llŷr Marini for Tegau Gold-breast daughter of Nudd Generous-hand, king of the North. This is fairly obviously a garbled geneology and may well be fairly late in its composition. However, it does fit in with the mediaeval practice of using mythological figures to root the genealogies of various noble houses. This has happened bot to Beli and Llŷ, possibly based on older traditons of their being the fathers of the gods and giants, respectively. Llŷr himself is hailed in all the ancient Cymricc chronicles as the ancestor of the royal Dumnonian Line (The Brythonic rulers of Devon) who claimed descent through Cadwr to Cynan to Caradog mab Brân to Brân and finally to Llŷr Lledyeith himself. In lineages such as those of Mostyn 117 Arthur is grafted onto this same lineage. Obviously as one of the men of the old North, Arthur could not easily be related to the royal line of Dumnonia; it is simply an example of the transposition of the lineages of the old heroes of the Cymric north of Britain to the south. Whish is not to say that the descent of Arthur from Llŷr does not have some mythological merit. Though in the Cymric tales Arthur is presented as the slayer of giants, he and his kin (as well as his wife, Gwenhwyfar) are considered both in written mythos and in folklore either as giants or the offspring of giants. Thus, from a folkloric prespective at least, it seems natural that Arthur would be related to the Brythonic race of giants, the Plant Llŷr and this is where we see the split between the (possibly) historic Arthur and the purely mythological figure.

It has also been proposed that the figures Llŷr and Nudd Llaw Ereint are one and the same figure (see Rachel Bromwich's Trieodd Ynys Prydein for a discussion). I would tend to disagree with this. Lludd is ultimately derived from the god Nodons. Nodons gives us the god Nudd and with his epithet of llaw ereint ('silver hand', which is comparable to his Irish cognate Nuadu Aratlám) a linguistic shift occurs in Cymric with Nudd becoming Lludd to echo the 'll' consonant in llaw. We now have two deities, Lludd and Llŷr with very similar names and it seems that for the copyists of the various Cymric legends and poems they became confused with one another. An example being the version of Triadd 52, about Llŷr's imprisonment contained in the Mabinogi of Culhwch ac Olwen which substitutes Lludd for Llŷr. However, all this points to is a copyist's error rather than any true identity between the two deities (see the entry on Nudd for further details; which is not to say that the two deities do not have similar attributes, both being associated with the sea and fishing. In defence of the separation of Llŷr and Nudd are the works of the gogynfeirdd who name Llŷr frequently in their works indicating that the two deities were known as being separate even in the earliest works.

One of the few other references to Llŷr comes from the Llyfr Taliesin contained in the poem that begins with the line Torrit anuyndawl and is sometimes known as: Y dofiessvys byt where the following lines are seen Ny thric y gofel/No neithavr llyr (His concealment lasts no loger/than the wedding feast of Llŷr). Which suggests some kind of story about the interrupion or prevention of Llŷr's nuptials, though the tale, once more, is lost to us. Though again it may have a bearing on Llŷr's relationship with his wife, Penarddun, who was taken away from him. The only other mentions of Llŷr come from the works of later poets, the cywyddwyr who mention the Tŵr Llŷr (Llŷr's Tower) which may refer to Harlech in Gwynedd. This makes some mythological sense as in the Mabinogi of Branwen ferch Llŷr Brân is first encountered outside his chief llys in Harlech and this may well be the fortress or tower of his father, Llŷr. Llyr's name survives in the name of the city of Leicester which is still known as Caer Lŷr in Cymric. The latinized from Lir Ceastor (The fortress of Llŷr) becoming Leicester.

Etymologically the name Llŷr (and its Irish cognate Lír) is proably derived from the reconstructed proto-Celtic root lījant- (flood, sea). Thus the name of this maritime deity literally means 'Sea'.

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