Cynon ap Clydno

His quest to the Castle of Maidens and his subsequent trial against the Black Knight, serve as a prelude to the adventure of Owain and The Lady of the Fountain.

Cynon was the son of Clydno Eiddin, a ruler of Eidyn in the Hen Ogledd, the Brittonic-speaking parts of northern England and southern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages.

Three warriors and three score and three hundred, wearing the golden torques.— Of those who marched forth after the excess of revelling, But three escaped from the conflict of gashing weapons; The two War-dogs of Aeron and Kynon the dauntless, (and I myself from the spilling of blood) worthy are they of my song.'

Later works mention Cynon's great love for Morvydd (Morvyth), daughter of Urien Rheged, and he appears in the prose tale Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain, taking the role given to Calogrenant in other versions of the story.

The lord of the castle is a yellow-haired man who shares his home with twenty-four maidens, described by Cynon as each being more beautiful than Queen Guinevere.

In some retellings the keeper is described as an ogre or giant, while Arthur Cotterell draws comparisons with the Fomorians, the deformed sea gods of Irish mythology.

The keeper ridicules Cynon, but after enduring his torments, he directs the knight to travel a path out of the woods where he must climb a hill.

Cynon is then approached by a figure, who accuses the knight of killing the people and animals of the land who were unable to find shelter in the supernatural hailstorm.