Llefelys

Llefelys (Middle Welsh orthography Llevelys, Lleuelys, Llefelis) is a character in Welsh mythology appearing in the medieval Welsh tale Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys. In the tale, Llefelys is king of Gaul while his brother Lludd is king of Britain. The tale appears in the Red Book of Hergest and the White Book of Rhydderch, the source texts for the Mabinogion, and embedded into various versions of the Brut y Brenhinedd, the Welsh adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae.

==Etymology== The name Llefelys seems to have been derived from Cligueillus (also spelled Digueillus and Eligueillus in various manuscripts), a character found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's famous pseudo-history Historia Regum Britanniae, which was early on translated into Welsh as the Brut y Brenhinedd. Geoffrey makes Cligueillus/Digueillus/Eligueillus the father of Heli and grandfather of Lud, (the prototype of Lludd), Cassibellaunus, and Nennius. In the Welsh Brut y Brenhinedd, Geoffrey's Heli son of Cligueillus becomes Beli son Manogan, a figure already known to Welsh audiences due to the influence of the 9th-century Historia Brittonum. Beli is the father of Lludd, Caswallawn, and Nennwy, and Llefelys is added as a fourth son. As such Cligueillus/Llefelys may have been displaced from his position as Beli's father once the well-known figure of Beli was chosen to replace the otherwise unknown Heli.