From
Celtic mythology, Cermunmos was the lord of animals, residing in heavily
wooded areas until his eventual disappearance. Sometimes manifest as a great
stag, sometimes as an antlered
man, and sometimes in more
grotesque guises. Such a form was witnessed by a Welsh warrior, Cynon, son of Clydno near the end of his decline, and the rise of
Christianity.
He appeared as a gigantic man, as dark as a moonless night. His two legs were fused into one mass, resting on a single foot. He leaned on an iron club (which seems odd, as iron was generally seen as the bane of such elder powers) and regarded Cynon with a single, unblinking eye, sunk deep in his forehead. Despite powerful musculature, he seemed old, perhaps as old as the trees around his clearing, as old perhaps as the sky. He said no words in greeting, but his eye was knowing.
A knight of King Arthur's time had an encounter with this relic of a dying age, although he was formed much the same as when Cynon saw him, his head was that of a massive stag.