|
|
Yniol
Yniol, an earl of decayed fortune, father of Enid. He was ousted from his earldom by his nephew Edyrn (son of Nudd), called “The Sparrow-Hawk.” When Edyrn was overthrown by prince Geraint in single combat, he was compelled to restore the earldom to his uncle. He is described in the Mabinogion as “a hoary-headed man, clad in tattered garments.” Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (“Geraint and Enid”).
He spake: the Prince, as Enid past him, fain
To follow, strode a stride, but Yniol caught
His purple scarf, and held, and said, ‘Forbear!
Rest! the good house, though ruined, O my son,
Endures not that her guest should serve himself.’
And reverencing the custom of the house
Geraint, from utter courtesy, forbore.
The
Marriage of Geraint
He says to Geraint, “I lost a great earldom as well as a
city and castle, and this is how I lost them: I had a nephew,
… and when he came to his strength he demanded of me his
property, but I withheld it from him. So he made war upon me, and
wrested from me all that I possessed.”
The
Mabinogion by Translated by Lady Charlotte Guest
(“Geraint,
the son of Erbin,” twelfth century).
