knoll a grey rock with a cleft in it. In the cleft there was a serpent, and close by a pure white[1] lion that wished to pass, but the serpent would dart at him to bite him. Owein, judging the lion the nobler animal, approached, and quickly cut the reptile in two with his sword, whereupon the lion followed him, as it were a greyhound. At the approach of night the grateful beast went out to hunt for him, and brought back a fine roebuck, which Owein cooked and duly divided between him and the lion. Whenever Owein fought afterwards and was likely to be hard pressed, the lion would come to his rescue and kill his antagonists: nothing could prevent him. On one occasion he was shut up within the high walls of a castle, while Owein was to fight a duel outside with a brutal giant who devoured men and women; but it was not long ere the lion got on the battlements, and leaped down to deal Owein's antagonist a fatal wound. Another time the lion was confined in a stone prison, while Owein fought against two men who were likely to give him trouble, and the beast never rested till he forced his way out and killed both.[2] Some would say that the lion was a proper representative of the sun, and the serpent of darkness, which may do for countries where the lion is at home; but that the Welsh tale should have fixed on that particular brute form, is due partly, if not wholly, to the name Llew and its ordinary meaning of 'lion.'
- ↑ See the R. B. Mab. p. 186, where it will be seen that the MS. calls the lion purdu, 'purely black;' but the older MS., called Rhyᵭerch's White Book (in the Hengwrt Collection), col. 234, calls the beast purỽyn, or purely white, which is mythologically doubtless more correct.
- ↑ R. B. Mab. pp. 186—191; Guest, i. 75—81.
