King Urien

Urien was actually a historical figure. Urien was a Welsh king who ruled Rheged in Scotland and defeated the invading Angles, according to the Welsh Book of Taliesin. Taliesin was a Welsh poet, supposedly a contemporary of Urien. Taliesin praised Urien in the poem in the war against the Angles, in which Urien's son Owain (Yvain) was killed in battle (late 6th century).

If Arthur was a real historical figure, then Urien lived fifty or so years after Arthur. Urien and his son Owain later appeared in the Mabinogion and Arthurian legends as contemporaries of Arthur; Owain being Arthur's nephew and Urien as his brother-in-law.

Urien appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, as the brother of Lot (Loth), king of Lothian, and Auguselus (Angel), king of Albany (Scotland). The three brothers became important allies of Arthur when the young king restored them to their respective kingdoms.

Early tradition (Geoffrey) says that Urien was the king of Moray, a northern kingdom of Scotland. Later writers, however, moved Urien's kingdom to the mythical Gorre. There are several speculations on the location of Gorre. Gorre was most likely a Celtic Otherworld, such as the Isle de Voirre (Isle of Glass). Others placed it at Glastonbury, Somerset, or in Bath, Avon.

In the early Arthurian legend, Urien was the father of the Round Table knight named Yvain (English Ywain, Welsh Owain or Owein), by some unknown mother.

But according to the early Welsh myths, Urien Rheged was married to the goddess Modron, the mother of Mabon. Modron was also the mother of the hero Owain and a daughter named Morvudd.

According to early 13th century French writers and the English Thomas Malory, Arthur's fairy half-sister, Morgan le Fay, was the wife of Urien and mother of Yvain (Owain). As it can be seen here, Modron and Morgan were one and the same person.

In the Vulgate Cycle (Prose Lancelot), Urien refused to surrender Gorre to Uther and refused to accept Uther as his liege lord. In the war that followed between the two kings, Urien was captured. Still, Urien refused to pay homage to Uther. Baudemagus was a nephew of Urien. To save his uncle from hanging, Baudemagus surrendered Gorre to Uther. Uther rewarded Baudemagus by crowning Urien's nephew as the new king of Gorre. Urien was forced to retire to a hermitage.

In Suite du Merlin and the le Morte d'Arthur, his wife Morgan took Accolon of Gaul as her lover [Book IV Chapters 6-12]. While Accolon died in a duel against Arthur, she tried to murder Urien while he was asleep. Yvain saved his father's life but allowed his mother to go free [Book IV, Chapter 13]. (See the article The Conspiracy of Morgan le Fay in the Legend of Excalibur.)