Celtic Gods: The Cymric hero/god, Naf (Lord)

Naf
A Cymric Arthurian Hero/God, also known as Naw, Lliaws: Lord

Naf (Naw, Lliaws) is a Cymric (Welsh) god/hero known primarily in the early Welsh sources from the patronymic of Gwenwynwyn. The tale of Naf is one of the lost tales of the Mabinogion and Naf could represent the continuation of the god Narius in later form.



Synonyms: Naw, Lliaws
Gaul: Lord

As Lliaws, Naf is known mainly from the patronymic of Gwenwynwyn and as such he is named in several sources: Triad 14 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein, the Mabinogion of Culhwch ac Olwen and the Mabinogion of Breuddwyd Rhonabwy. It has also been proposed by Rachel Bromwich in the Trioedd Ynys Prydein that the character of Lliaws mab Nwyfre mentioned in Triad 35 as the third levy to depart the Island of Britain in pursuit of Caesar. This triad names both Gwenwynwyn and his brother, Gwnar as the sons of Lliaws mab Nwyfre and Arianrhod daughter of Beli. Gwenwynwyn has already been described as the son of Naf, which presents us with a problem. However, if Lliaws mab Nwyfre was originally an alliterating pair, in a similar vein to the father-son pairings seen in 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. This would naturally lead to a genealogy such as the one given above.

Such a genealogy also strongly suggests that the tale of Arianrhod does not end with the events told in the Mabinogi of Math fab Mathonwy in that she married Naf and had at least two children by him: Gwenwynwyn and Gwnar. This strongly indicates a lost tale concerning Arianrhod and her children.

Etymologically Naf is related to the Celtic deity Narius whose name also means 'Lord' and Naf may represent the mythological continuation of this deity which would indicate that we have lost a corpus of mythos regarding this deity.



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