Cynon or Kynon son of Clydno Eiddin is mentioned in medieval Welsh texts as one of the “Men of the North” who took part in the Battle of Catraeth told of in the Goddodin and as a kinsman of Owein Rheged with whose sister Morfydd he had a love affair.
Meaning of the name Cynon[]
Cynon (from *Kunonos) means ‘Great Hound’.
Cynon in the Goddodin[]
Cynon appears several times in the Goddodin, in line 416 Cynon’s father said to be klytno clot hir (‘Clydno of long fame’).
Lines 1405–6 have been interpreted to mean that Cynon and two others alone escaped from the slaughter. However Bromwich, Jones (1978, ch. VI and introduction, pp. 12–13) interpret these lines to not imply that Cynon survived the battle.
Cynon’s Grave[]
In the Song of the Graves, Cynon’s grave is placed in Wales (translation by Bromwich [2006, p. 326]):
In Llanbadarn the grave of Cynon ... whose is the grave under the hill, the grave of a man strong in the attack, the grave of Cynon, etc. ... In a cold place in the earth the grave of Cynon in the ford of Reon ...
Cynon in The Lady of the Fountain[]
The Welsh author of the medieval Welsh Lady of the Fountain equates the Cynon son of Clydno from his own traditions with the Calogrenant of Chrétien’s Yvain. In the French tale Calogrenant is Yvain’s kinsman (cousin) and it may have seemed fortuitous to the Welsh teller that Owein Rheged in Welsh tradition has a cousin named Cynon, a name not altogether dissimilar from Calogrenant.
Cynon the Lover of Morfydd[]
In Welsh Triad 71, in Bromwich’s edition, Cynon is one of the Three Lovers of the Island of Britain, noted for his love for Morfydd daughter of Urien, the other two lovers being Caswallawn son of Beli (who loved Fflur daughter of Mugnach the Dwarf) and Drystan son of Tallwch (who loved Essyllt the wife of Drystan’s uncle March. This triad may only date to the 14th century.
The poet Gruffudd ap Meredith, in the early years of the 14th century, compares his own love to that of Cynon for Morfydd, and that of Uthyr Pendragon for Eigyr:
As the sigh of Uthyr for the love of Eigyr, the fair and splendid,
And the sigh of Kynon for the love of the beauteous daughter of Urien,
Such is the sigh of the bard for the lovely object of his affections.
It is possible that some memory of this tale lies under the medieval French romance Claris and Laris in which Laris falls in love with Marine daughter of King Urien and gains her as his wife.
Cynon as one of the Twenty-four Knights of Arthur’s Court[]
Cynon is listed as one of the Twenty-four Knights of Arthur’s court in the mid-15th century listing. Cynon is one of the three Counselor Knights, along with Aron and Llywarch the Old.