Gwalchmai ap Gwyar, which has by some scholars been translated as the Hawk of May, is in the French Romances changed into the form of Gawain, having first been Latinized into Walwanus and Walweyn. In the Triads, he is mentioned in the following manner:-"There were three golden-tongued Knights in the Court of Arthur: Gwalchmai the son of Gwyar; Drudwas the son of Tryffin, and Eliwlod the son of Madog ap Uthur. For there was neither King, nor Earl, nor Lord, to whom these came, but would listen to them before all others ; and whatever request they made, it would be granted them, whether willingly or unwillingly; and thence were they called the Golden Tongued."
In one Triad we find Gwalchmai extolled as one of the three most courteous men towards guests and strangers; and from another we learn that he added scientific attainments to his other remarkable qualities.
The three learned ones of the island of Britain, Gwalchmai ab Gwyar, and Llecheu ab Arthur, and Rhiwallon with the broom-bush hair; and there was nothing of which they did not know the elements and the material essence."
William of Malmesbury says, that during the reign of William the Conqueror the tomb of Gwalchmai, or Walwen, as he calls him, was discovered on the sea-shore, in a certain province of Wales called Rhos, which is understood to be that still known by the same name, in the county of Pembroke, where there is a district called in Welsh Castell Gwalchmai, and in English Walwyn's Castle.
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