Teyrnon

In Welsh tradition, Teyrnon Twryf Lliant is the lord of Gwent and the foster-father of the divine son, Pryderi. He appears most prominently in Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed, the first branch of the Mabinogi, but also features briefly in the early Arthurian tale, Culhwch ac Olwen as a knight of King Arthur's. The name Teyrnon is widely acknowledged as deriving from the Brythonic *Tigernonos, "great lord".

Role

A son is born in Arberth to Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed, and Rhiannon, daughter of Hyfaidd Hen. On the night of his birth, the child disappears while in the care of six of Rhiannon's ladies-in-waiting. To avoid the king's wrath, they smear dog's blood onto a sleeping Rhiannon, claiming that she had committed infanticide and cannibalism through eating her child.

Teyrnon, meanwhile, owns a mare who gives birth each year but whose foals have all disappeared. He guards his stables and sees a mysterious clawed beast coming to take the foal; Teyrnon cuts off the beast's arm and found the child outside the stable. He and his wife claim the boy as their own and name him Gwri Wallt Euryn (English: Gwri of the Golden hair), for "all the hair was as yellow as gold."