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Owain mab Urien (or Owein) (d. circa 595) was the son of Urien, king of Rheged c. 590 AD, and fought with his father against the Angles of Bernicia.
Our chief reference to Owain is in the poems of Taliesin, Urien's bard. The poem Gweith Argoed Llwyfain ("The Battle of Argoed Llwyfain") tells of Owain's part in a battle between the men of Rheged under Urien and the men of Bernicia under "Fflamddwyn" (Firebrand), possibly the Anglian king Theodoric. When Fflamddwyn demands hostages, Owain shouts defiance and inspires the men of Rheged to fight rather than give tribute to the English.
Taliesin also composed Marwnad Owain, an elegy to Owain. In the poem, it is said that Owain slew Fflamddwyn:
Pan laddodd Owain Fflamddwyn Nid oedd fwy nogyd cysgaid
Cysgid Lloegr llydan nifer A lleufer yn eu llygaid
A rhai ni ffoynt haeach A oeddynt hyach na rhaid
Owain a'u cosbes yn ddrud Mal cnud yn dylud defaid
When Owain slew Fflamddwyn it was no more to him than to sleep
The wide host of Lloegr [England] sleeps with the light in their eyes
And those that did not flee were braver than was needed
Owain punished them harshly like a pack of wolves chasing sheep
The Welsh stories of Owain were later incorporated into the Arthurian cycle of legends, appearing in the Mabinogion tale of the Lady of the Fountain and in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as "Sir Uwain".
As Sir Owain, also called Sir Yvain and the Knight of the Lion, he was a knight in Arthurian Legend. Son of King Uriens of Rheged, and supposedly of Morgan Le Fay, he is best known in Chrétien de Troyes's stories. He had heard of a magical spring in the forest of Broceliande where it was defended by Esclados. Owain later married Esclados's wife, Laudine. When he traveled with King Arthur, he promised his wife that he would return, although he didn't. When he finally did, she rejected him and he became very upset and went off into the forest. There, he then saw a lion fighting a serpent and came to the lion's aid. From then on, the lion became his companion.
See also: List of Arthurian Characters
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