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In Welsh mythology, Gwythyr ap Greidawl was a rival of Gwyn ap Nudd, a deity connected with the otherworld. In the Middle Welsh prose tale Culhwch ac Olwen, he is named as a member of Arthur's retinue and takes part in the quest to win the hand of Olwen for Arthur's cousin, Culhwch. Gwthyr would join Arthur on a journey to Pennant Gofid in Hell to retrieve the blood of the witch Orddu. His father is Greidawl Galldonyd, a fellow knight in Arthur's court. In Bonedd yr Arwyr, his genealogy is given as Gwythyr son of Greidawl the son of Enfael the son of Deigyr the son of Dyfnwal the son of Ednyfed the son of Maxen the son of Llywelyn. The Welsh Triads name him as the father of Arthur's second wife, also named Gwenhwyfar.
Modron ("mother") is a figure in Welsh tradition, known as the mother of the hero Mabon ap Modron. Both characters may have derived from earlier divine figures, in her case the Gaulish goddess Matrona. She may have been a prototype for Morgan le Fay from the Arthurian legend.
The Mabinogion are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created c. 1350–1410, as well as a few earlier fragments. The title covers a collection of eleven prose stories of widely different types, offering drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour, and created by various narrators over time. There is a classic hero quest, "Culhwch and Olwen"; a historic legend in "Lludd and Llefelys", complete with glimpses of a far off age; and other tales portray a very different King Arthur from the later popular versions. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defies categorisation. The stories are so diverse that it has been argued that they are not even a true collection.
In the Matter of Britain, Igraine is the mother of King Arthur. Igraine is also known in Latin as Igerna, in Welsh as Eigr, in French as Ygraine, in Le Morte d'Arthur as Ygrayne—often modernised as Igraine or Igreine—and in Parzival as Arnive. She becomes the wife of Uther Pendragon, after the death of her first husband, Gorlois.
Culhwch and Olwen is a Welsh tale that survives in only two manuscripts about a hero connected with Arthur and his warriors: a complete version in the Red Book of Hergest, c. 1400, and a fragmented version in the White Book of Rhydderch, c. 1325. It is the longest of the surviving Welsh prose tales. Lady Charlotte Guest included this tale among those she collected under the title The Mabinogion.
Morgause, Queen of Orkney, is a character in Arthurian legend in which she is the mother of Gawain and Mordred, both key players in the story of King Arthur and his downfall.
Welsh mythology consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Celtic mythology and history were recorded orally by specialists such as druids. This oral record has been lost or altered as a result of outside contact and invasion over the years. Much of this altered mythology and history is preserved in medieval Welsh manuscripts, which include the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin. Other works connected to Welsh mythology include the ninth-century Latin historical compilation Historia Brittonum and Geoffrey of Monmouth's twelfth-century Latin chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae, as well as later folklore, such as the materials collected in The Welsh Fairy Book by William Jenkyn Thomas (1908).
Twrch Trwyth, is a fabulous wild boar from the Legend of King Arthur, of which a richly elaborate account of its hunt described in the Welsh prose romance Culhwch and Olwen, probably written around 1100.
Cuneglasus was a prince of Rhos in Gwynedd, Wales, in the late 5th or early 6th century. He was castigated for various sins by Gildas in De Excidio Britanniae. The Welsh form Cynlas Goch is attested in several genealogies of the Rhos royal line. The two names are assumed to refer to the same ruler.
Preiddeu Annwfn or Preiddeu Annwn is a cryptic poem of sixty lines in Middle Welsh, found in the Book of Taliesin. The text recounts an expedition with King Arthur to Annwfn or Annwn, the Otherworld in Welsh.
Peibo Clafrog, was King of Ergyng in south-east Wales in the 5th or 6th century. He is chiefly known from the legends of Saint Dubricius, who was supposedly his grandson. The contemporary rendering of this name would seem to be Peibio, as in Garthbeibio, a parish in Montgomeryshire, or Ynys Beibio, near Holyhead.
King Gwrfoddw was the King of Ergyng, a south-east Welsh kingdom of the early medieval period. He usurped the throne from Gwrgan ap Cynfyn.
King Arthur's family grew throughout the centuries with King Arthur's legend. Many of the legendary members of this mythical king's family became leading characters of mythical tales in their own right.
Edern ap Nudd was a knight of the Round Table in Arthur's court in early Arthurian tradition. As the son of Nudd, he is the brother of Gwyn, Creiddylad, and Owain ap Nudd. In French romances, he is sometimes made the king of a separate realm. As St Edern, he has two churches dedicated to him in Wales.
Giants feature prominently in Welsh folklore and mythology. Among the most notable are Bendigeidfran fab Llyr, a mythological king of Britain during the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, Idris Gawr of Cader Idris, and Ysbaddaden Bencawr, the chief antagonist of the early Arthurian tale How Culhwch won Olwen. Both Arthur and Gwalchmai fab Gwyar feature prominently as giant-slayers in Welsh tradition.
Goreu fab Custennin is a hero of Welsh and early Arthurian mythology, the son of Custennin, and cousin to Arthur, Culhwch and Saint Illtud through their grandfather Amlawdd Wledig. He is a significant character in the Middle Welsh Arthurian tale Culhwch and Olwen, and also appears in a number of other medieval texts. His name may be derived from Gorneu; "of Cornwall."
Drudwas ap Tryffin is a knight of King Arthur's court in early Arthurian mythology and the owner of the magical Adar Llwch Gwin. His father, Tryffin, is described as the king of Denmark, while his sister, Erdudwyl, was, according to The Death of Drudwas, supposedly a “mistress” of Arthur.
Saint Gwrddlew or Gwrtheli, Gartheli, was a pre-congregational saint of 5th century medieval Wales.
Prydwen plays a part in the early Welsh poem Preiddeu Annwfn as King Arthur's ship, which bears him to the Celtic otherworld Annwn, while in Culhwch and Olwen he sails in it on expeditions to Ireland. The 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth named Arthur's shield after it. In the early modern period Welsh folklore preferred to give Arthur's ship the name Gwennan. Prydwen has however made a return during the last century in several Arthurian works of fiction.
Indeg, daughter of Garwy Hir, was known in early Welsh legend as one of the three mistresses of King Arthur. Though her story seems to have survived down to the later Middle Ages, when she was frequently cited by Welsh poets as a standard for beauty, it has since been lost.
References
- ↑ Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, Part 26, Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1974, p. 1682.
- ↑ Wade-Evans, A.W. Welsh Christian Origins (Oxford, 1934) pp.102 quoted in Bartrum, Peter C. ed. Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend Up to About A.D. 1000 (National Library of Wales, February 1994) pp.14-15 ISBN 978-0907158738
- ↑ Bartrum, Peter C. ed. Bonedd yr Arwyr (Unpublished genealogical material concerning the heroes of early Welsh history and legend, 1959).
- 1 2 3 Bartrum, Peter C. ed. Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend Up to About A.D. 1000 (National Library of Wales, February 1994) ISBN 978-0907158738
- ↑ Bartrum, Peter C. ed. Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts (University of Wales, 1966)
- ↑ Davies, John. A History of Wales. Penguin (New York), 1994. ISBN 0-14-014581-8.
- 1 2 3 Bruce, Christopher W. The Arthurian Name Dictionary (Routledge, 2013) ISBN 9781136755385
- ↑ Rees, Rice. The Welsh Saints (1839) - see External References, below)
- ↑ R. Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: the Welsh Triads (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1978), pp.372–3.
- ↑ David Nash Ford. "WEST COUNTRY ROYAL PEDIGREE" . Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- ↑ Parker, Will (2016). "Culhwch and Olwen Translation". Culhwch ac Olwen. Footnotes 157–159. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
- ↑ Parker, Will (2016). "Culhwch and Olwen Translation". Culhwch ac Olwen. Footnotes 195–197. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
- ↑ Norma Lorre Goodrich, King Arthur (HarperPerennial; New edition, 1989) ISBN 978-0060971823
- ↑ Bromwich, R. and Evans, D. Simon. Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp.44-5 ISBN 978-0708326190