An ancestor of Arthur, both paternal and maternal, who occurs in Welsh pedigrees. In origin he may have been a divinity of the sea (Welsh: llyr = sea) who was regarded as the ancestor of a number of royal houses.
Most sources makes him the father of Caradoc Briefbas. He would seem to be the original of Shakespeare’s King Lear, though this character is normally associated with Leir, he may have originated from Llyr.