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Kemp Owyne, says Motherwell, " was, no doubt, the same Ewein or Owain, ap Urien the king of Reged, who is celebrated by the bards, Taliessin and Llywarch-Hen, as well as in the Welsh historical Triads. In a poem of Gruffyd Llwyd, a. d. 1400, addressed to Owain Glyndwr, is the following allusion to this warrior. ' Thou hast travelled by land and by sea in the conduct of thine affairs, like Owain ap Urien in days of yore, when with activity he encountered the black knight of the water.'* His mistress had a ring esteemed one of the thirteen rarities of Britain, which, (like the wondrous ring of Gyges) would render the wearer invisible." Minstrelsy, p. Ixxxiii.
The copy of Kemp Owyne printed in Buchan's Ancient Ballads, (ii. 78,) is the same as the following.
Hee mother died when she was young, Which gave her cause to make great moan ;
* " On sea, on land, thou still didst brave The dangerous cliff and rapid wave; Like Urien, who subdued the knight, And the fell dragon put to flight, Yon moss-grown fount beside; The grim, black warrior of the flood, The dragon, gorged with human blood, The waters' scaly pride."
Jones's Welsh Bards, i. 41.