King Lot
Encyclopedia
Lot or Loth ˈlɒt is the eponymous king of Lothian
in the Arthurian legend. He is best known as the father of Sir Gawain
. Such a ruler evidently first appeared in hagiographical
material concerning Saint Kentigern (also known as Saint Mungo), which feature a Leudonus, king of Leudonia, a Latin name for Lothian. Later, Geoffrey of Monmouth
included a Lot, king of Lothian in his influential chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae
, portraying him as King Arthur
's brother-in-law and ally. In the wake of Geoffrey Lot appeared regularly in later romance.
Lot chiefly figures as king of Lothian, but in other sources he also rules Orkney and sometimes Norway
. He is generally depicted as the husband of Arthur's sister or half-sister, variously named Anna or Morgause
. The names and number of his children vary depending on the source, but the later romance tradition gives him the sons Gawain
, Agravain
, Gaheris
, Gareth
, and Mordred
.
and Welsh
sources. An early fragmentary Life of St Kentigern contains a Leudonus of Leudonia as the maternal grandfather of Saint Kentigern, also known as Mungo. In this text Leudonus becomes enraged when he discovers his daughter, Kentigern's mother Teneu, has been impregnated by Owain mab Urien
, and has her thrown from a cliff. However, with divine protection she survives the ordeal and goes to Saint Serf
's community, where she gives birth to Kentigern.
Welsh sources call this same character Lewdwn or Llewdwn Lluydauc (Llewdwn of the Hosts). Geoffrey of Monmouth
seems to recall this earlier figure in the king he called Lot or Loth in his Historia Regum Britanniae
. Although his sources are obscure, his choice of name is probably based on its similarity to "Lodonesia", a typical Latinized
name for Lothian. This toponymical connection parallels Geoffrey's association of King Leir
with Leicester
and Coel with Colchester
, and William of Malmesbury
's assertion that Gawain was king of Galloway
; in the Middle Ages no principle of historiography was more solidly established than the idea that places took their names from persons.
Geoffrey's Lot is one of three brothers who each rule a part of northern Britain: Lot rules Londonesia or Lothian
, while his brothers Urien
(the father of Owain, both generally reckoned historical kings of Rheged
) and Angusel rule over Mureif (Moray
) and "Scotland
", respectively. Lot is first mentioned as a loyal vassal to Uther Pendragon
, King of Britain, in the king's wars against Octa
, the Saxon
King of Kent. When Uther falls ill, he marries his daughter Anna
to Lot and entrusts them with the oversight of the kingdom. Lot and Anna have two sons, Gawain
and Mordred
. When Uther's son Arthur
takes up the kingship, he helps Lot and his brothers regain their territories, which have fallen to the Saxons. Lot is also the heir to the kingdom of Norway
, as nephew to the previous king Sichelm; with Arthur's aid he takes the kingdom from the usurper Riculf. Lot later leads one of Arthur's armies in his war with Emperor Lucius
of Rome.
, such those of Chrétien de Troyes
, often refer to Lot, but he rarely receives more than a mention in connection to his more famous son Gawain. In some romances Lot's wife is called Morcades, a name which Roger Sherman Loomis
argued was a variant of Morgan le Fay
.
Chretien's hero Yvain is identified in Welsh sources with Owain, son of Urien, the supposed father of Kentigern. An article by J. C. Lozac'hmeur identifies similarities between Chrétien's tale and that of Kentigern. In the romance Owain travels from Carlisle to marry the lady of "Landuc" or the daughter of "Duke Landuc": in one manuscript she is named as "Laudine". It has been proposed that both of these names again derive from a form of "Lothian" and that Chrétien was drawing upon an unknown source that resembled the saint's legend and the Breton lai
Desiré. The history of Urien, Owein and Kentigern refers to events among the Men of the North that took place up to a century after the timeframe generally associated with a historical Arthur, but the romance, influenced by Geoffrey as well as the saint's tale, has ended up with both a King Lot and an eponymous princess' father.
Lot takes a more prominent role in the later cyclical narratives. Probably due to his earlier association with Norway, in these works he is king not only of Lothian, but Orkney as well. In the Lancelot-Grail
, after Uther Pendragon weds Igraine
, he marries her daughters from her first marriage off to his political allies. Her oldest daughter, here named Morgause
, is married off to King Lot; they have five sons, Gawain, Agravain
, Gaheris
, Gareth
, and Mordred
(whose biological father, unbeknown to Lot, is actually Arthur). Later, when Arthur comes to power, Lot at first opposes him, and with his brothers and several other Brythonic kings, raises an army against him. It is only after Arthur defeats the coalition at Bedegraine and helps them fend off the Saxons that Lot becomes Arthur's ally.
The Post-Vulgate Cycle
offers a different version of Lot's story. As in the Lancelot-Grail Lot opposes Arthur until the defeat at Bedegraine. Afterwards, however, Arthur hears a prophecy that a child born on May Day
will destroy him. He gathers up all noble babies born around that time, including his own bastard son Mordred, and puts them on a ship where they all seemingly perish. The incensed Lot joins Arthur's enemy Rience
and resumes his campaign against the king. In the ensuing battle he is killed by King Pellinore
, leading to a long feud between their families. This version of Lot's story was taken up by Thomas Malory
in his English work Le Morte d'Arthur
, and has subsequently appeared in a number of modern Arthurian works.
maintain Geoffrey's association between Lot and Urien
as brothers, drawing Lot into the historical Urien's genealogical tradition as a son of Cynfarch and Nefyn, daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog. Lleu ap Cynfarch shares his name with the figure Llew Llaw Gyffes, likely a euhemerized deity known from the Four Branches of the Mabinogi
, though the extent of this connection is conjectural. Charles Squire further identified Lot with the British hero Lludd Llaw Eraint
.
The name Lot may be connected to the Norse name Hlot or Ljot, which appears in the Norse sagas and was known in Orkney. It may also be connected to the standing stone called the Stone Lud
.
Lothian
Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills....
in the Arthurian legend. He is best known as the father of Sir Gawain
Gawain
Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
. Such a ruler evidently first appeared in hagiographical
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
material concerning Saint Kentigern (also known as Saint Mungo), which feature a Leudonus, king of Leudonia, a Latin name for Lothian. Later, Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
included a Lot, king of Lothian in his influential chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
, portraying him as King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
's brother-in-law and ally. In the wake of Geoffrey Lot appeared regularly in later romance.
Lot chiefly figures as king of Lothian, but in other sources he also rules Orkney and sometimes Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. He is generally depicted as the husband of Arthur's sister or half-sister, variously named Anna or Morgause
Morgause
Morgause , known in earlier works as Gwyar or Anna, is the sister or half-sister of King Arthur in the Arthurian legend. In her earliest appearance she is Arthur's full sister by Uther Pendragon and Igraine; Gwyar is her name and she is the mother of Gwalchmei...
. The names and number of his children vary depending on the source, but the later romance tradition gives him the sons Gawain
Gawain
Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
, Agravain
Agravain
Sir Agravain or Sir Agravaine is a nephew of King Arthur and a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He is the second son of King Lot of Orkney and Lothian and Morgause , full brother to Gawain, Gaheris and Gareth. His half-brother and most frequent associate in the Post-Vulgate Cycle is...
, Gaheris
Gaheris
Gaheris is a figure of Arthurian legend, a knight of the Round Table, and a son of Morgause and King Lot of Orkney and Lothian. His brothers are Gawain, Agravaine, Gareth and Mordred, a half-brother. His mother is a daughter of Gorlois and Igraine, and a sister of Elaine and Morgan le Fay...
, Gareth
Gareth
Sir Gareth was a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian Legend. He was the youngest son of Lot and of Morgause, King Arthur's half-sister, thus making him Arthur's nephew, as well as brother to Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, and half brother of Mordred...
, and Mordred
Mordred
Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...
.
Early literature
An eponymous king of Lothian appears in both early LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
sources. An early fragmentary Life of St Kentigern contains a Leudonus of Leudonia as the maternal grandfather of Saint Kentigern, also known as Mungo. In this text Leudonus becomes enraged when he discovers his daughter, Kentigern's mother Teneu, has been impregnated by Owain mab Urien
Owain mab Urien
Owain mab Urien was the son of Urien, king of Rheged c. 590, and fought with his father against the Angles of Bernicia. The historical figure of Owain became incorporated into the Arthurian cycle of legends where he is also known as Ywain, Yvain, Ewain or Uwain...
, and has her thrown from a cliff. However, with divine protection she survives the ordeal and goes to Saint Serf
Saint Serf
Saint Serf or Serbán is a saint of Scotland. Serf was venerated in western Fife. He is also called the apostle of Orkney, with less historical plausibility. Saint Serf is also somehow connected with Saint Mungo's Church near Simonburn, Northumberland...
's community, where she gives birth to Kentigern.
Welsh sources call this same character Lewdwn or Llewdwn Lluydauc (Llewdwn of the Hosts). Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
seems to recall this earlier figure in the king he called Lot or Loth in his Historia Regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
. Although his sources are obscure, his choice of name is probably based on its similarity to "Lodonesia", a typical Latinized
Latinisation (literature)
Latinisation is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly met with for historical personal names, with toponyms, or for the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than Romanisation, which is the writing of a word in the Latin alphabet...
name for Lothian. This toponymical connection parallels Geoffrey's association of King Leir
King Leir
King Leir is an anonymous Elizabethan play about the life of the ancient Celtic king Leir of Britain. It was published in 1605 but was entered into the Stationers' Register on 15 May 1594...
with Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
and Coel with Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
, and William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
's assertion that Gawain was king of Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
; in the Middle Ages no principle of historiography was more solidly established than the idea that places took their names from persons.
Geoffrey's Lot is one of three brothers who each rule a part of northern Britain: Lot rules Londonesia or Lothian
Lothian
Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills....
, while his brothers Urien
Urien
Urien , often referred to as Urien Rheged, was a late 6th century king of Rheged, an early British kingdom of the Hen Ogledd . His power and his victories, including the battles of Gwen Ystrad and Alt Clut Ford, are celebrated in the praise poems to him by Taliesin, preserved in the Book of Taliesin...
(the father of Owain, both generally reckoned historical kings of Rheged
Rheged
Rheged is described in poetic sources as one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , the Brythonic-speaking region of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, during the Early Middle Ages...
) and Angusel rule over Mureif (Moray
Moray
Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...
) and "Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
", respectively. Lot is first mentioned as a loyal vassal to Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
, King of Britain, in the king's wars against Octa
Octa of Kent
Octa was an Anglo-Saxon King of Kent during the 6th century. Sources disagree on his relationship to the other kings in his line; he may have been the son of Hengist or Oisc, and may have been the father of Oisc or Eormenric. The dates of his reign are unclear, but he may have ruled from 512 to...
, the Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
King of Kent. When Uther falls ill, he marries his daughter Anna
Morgause
Morgause , known in earlier works as Gwyar or Anna, is the sister or half-sister of King Arthur in the Arthurian legend. In her earliest appearance she is Arthur's full sister by Uther Pendragon and Igraine; Gwyar is her name and she is the mother of Gwalchmei...
to Lot and entrusts them with the oversight of the kingdom. Lot and Anna have two sons, Gawain
Gawain
Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
and Mordred
Mordred
Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...
. When Uther's son Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
takes up the kingship, he helps Lot and his brothers regain their territories, which have fallen to the Saxons. Lot is also the heir to the kingdom of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, as nephew to the previous king Sichelm; with Arthur's aid he takes the kingdom from the usurper Riculf. Lot later leads one of Arthur's armies in his war with Emperor Lucius
Lucius Tiberius
Lucius Tiberius is a fictional Roman Emperor from Arthurian legend appearing first in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. No Roman Emperor of that name ever existed; Geoffrey either heard of him from folk tradition or made him up...
of Rome.
Romance
The early romancesRomance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
, such those of Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
, often refer to Lot, but he rarely receives more than a mention in connection to his more famous son Gawain. In some romances Lot's wife is called Morcades, a name which Roger Sherman Loomis
Roger Sherman Loomis
Roger Sherman Loomis was an American scholar and one of the foremost authorities on medieval and Arthurian literature.-Biography:...
argued was a variant of Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay , alternatively known as Morgane, Morgaine, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful sorceress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or magician...
.
Chretien's hero Yvain is identified in Welsh sources with Owain, son of Urien, the supposed father of Kentigern. An article by J. C. Lozac'hmeur identifies similarities between Chrétien's tale and that of Kentigern. In the romance Owain travels from Carlisle to marry the lady of "Landuc" or the daughter of "Duke Landuc": in one manuscript she is named as "Laudine". It has been proposed that both of these names again derive from a form of "Lothian" and that Chrétien was drawing upon an unknown source that resembled the saint's legend and the Breton lai
Breton lai
A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short , rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs...
Desiré. The history of Urien, Owein and Kentigern refers to events among the Men of the North that took place up to a century after the timeframe generally associated with a historical Arthur, but the romance, influenced by Geoffrey as well as the saint's tale, has ended up with both a King Lot and an eponymous princess' father.
Lot takes a more prominent role in the later cyclical narratives. Probably due to his earlier association with Norway, in these works he is king not only of Lothian, but Orkney as well. In the Lancelot-Grail
Lancelot-Grail
The Lancelot–Grail, also known as the Prose Lancelot, the Vulgate Cycle, or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is a major source of Arthurian legend written in French. It is a series of five prose volumes that tell the story of the quest for the Holy Grail and the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere...
, after Uther Pendragon weds Igraine
Igraine
Igraine , in Arthurian legend, is the mother of King Arthur. She is also known in Latin as Igerna, in Welsh as Eigyr, in French as Igerne, in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as Ygrayne— often modernized as Igraine—and in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival as Arnive...
, he marries her daughters from her first marriage off to his political allies. Her oldest daughter, here named Morgause
Morgause
Morgause , known in earlier works as Gwyar or Anna, is the sister or half-sister of King Arthur in the Arthurian legend. In her earliest appearance she is Arthur's full sister by Uther Pendragon and Igraine; Gwyar is her name and she is the mother of Gwalchmei...
, is married off to King Lot; they have five sons, Gawain, Agravain
Agravain
Sir Agravain or Sir Agravaine is a nephew of King Arthur and a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He is the second son of King Lot of Orkney and Lothian and Morgause , full brother to Gawain, Gaheris and Gareth. His half-brother and most frequent associate in the Post-Vulgate Cycle is...
, Gaheris
Gaheris
Gaheris is a figure of Arthurian legend, a knight of the Round Table, and a son of Morgause and King Lot of Orkney and Lothian. His brothers are Gawain, Agravaine, Gareth and Mordred, a half-brother. His mother is a daughter of Gorlois and Igraine, and a sister of Elaine and Morgan le Fay...
, Gareth
Gareth
Sir Gareth was a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian Legend. He was the youngest son of Lot and of Morgause, King Arthur's half-sister, thus making him Arthur's nephew, as well as brother to Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, and half brother of Mordred...
, and Mordred
Mordred
Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...
(whose biological father, unbeknown to Lot, is actually Arthur). Later, when Arthur comes to power, Lot at first opposes him, and with his brothers and several other Brythonic kings, raises an army against him. It is only after Arthur defeats the coalition at Bedegraine and helps them fend off the Saxons that Lot becomes Arthur's ally.
The Post-Vulgate Cycle
Post-Vulgate Cycle
The Post-Vulgate Cycle is one of the major Old French prose cycles of Arthurian literature. It is essentially a rehandling of the earlier Vulgate Cycle , with much left out and much added, including characters and scenes from the Prose Tristan.The Post-Vulgate, written probably between 1230 and...
offers a different version of Lot's story. As in the Lancelot-Grail Lot opposes Arthur until the defeat at Bedegraine. Afterwards, however, Arthur hears a prophecy that a child born on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
will destroy him. He gathers up all noble babies born around that time, including his own bastard son Mordred, and puts them on a ship where they all seemingly perish. The incensed Lot joins Arthur's enemy Rience
Rience
King Rience is a character from Arthurian legend, an enemy of King Arthur in the early years of his reign...
and resumes his campaign against the king. In the ensuing battle he is killed by King Pellinore
Pellinore
King Pellinore is the king of Listenoise or of "the Isles" , according to the Arthurian legend. Son of King Pellam and brother of Kings Pelles and Alain, he is most famous for his endless hunt of the Questing Beast, which he is tracking when King Arthur first meets him...
, leading to a long feud between their families. This version of Lot's story was taken up by Thomas Malory
Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. The antiquary John Leland as well as John Bale believed him to be Welsh, but most modern scholars, beginning with G. L...
in his English work Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table...
, and has subsequently appeared in a number of modern Arthurian works.
Other information
In the wake of Geoffrey, Lot entered into Welsh Arthurian tradition as Lleu. The Welsh TriadsWelsh Triads
The Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness...
maintain Geoffrey's association between Lot and Urien
Urien
Urien , often referred to as Urien Rheged, was a late 6th century king of Rheged, an early British kingdom of the Hen Ogledd . His power and his victories, including the battles of Gwen Ystrad and Alt Clut Ford, are celebrated in the praise poems to him by Taliesin, preserved in the Book of Taliesin...
as brothers, drawing Lot into the historical Urien's genealogical tradition as a son of Cynfarch and Nefyn, daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog. Lleu ap Cynfarch shares his name with the figure Llew Llaw Gyffes, likely a euhemerized deity known from the Four Branches of the Mabinogi
Four Branches of the Mabinogi
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi are the best known tales from the collection of medieval Welsh prose known as the Mabinogion. The word "Mabinogi" originally designated only these four tales, which are really parts or "branches" of a single work, rather than the whole collection...
, though the extent of this connection is conjectural. Charles Squire further identified Lot with the British hero Lludd Llaw Eraint
Lludd Llaw Eraint
Lludd Llaw Eraint, "Lludd of the Silver Hand", son of Beli Mawr, is a legendary hero from Welsh mythology. As Nudd Llaw Eraint he is the father of Gwyn ap Nudd...
.
The name Lot may be connected to the Norse name Hlot or Ljot, which appears in the Norse sagas and was known in Orkney. It may also be connected to the standing stone called the Stone Lud
Stone Lud
The Stone Lud is a standing stone in the parish of Bower in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland. It is located and about south of Castletown....
.