Culhwch and Olwen is a
WelshWelsh literature may be used to refer to any literature originating from Wales or by Welsh writers:*See Literature of Wales for literature in the Welsh language*See Literature of Wales for literature in the English language...
tale about a hero connected with
ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated...
and his warriors that survives in only two manuscripts: a complete version in the
Red Book of HergestThe Red Book of Hergest is one of the most important medieval Welsh language manuscripts.- History :The manuscript includes both prose and poetry and was written between about 1382 and 1410. One of the several copyists responsible for the manuscript has been identified as Hywel Fychan fab Hywel...
, ca. 1400, and a fragmented version in the
White Book of RhydderchThe White Book of Rhydderch is one of the most notable and celebrated manuscripts in Welsh. Written in the middle of the fourteenth century it is the earliest collection of Welsh prose texts, though it also contains some examples of early Welsh poetry...
, ca. 1325. It is the longest of the surviving Welsh prose tales. Certain linguistic evidence indicates it took its present form by the 11th century, making it perhaps the earliest Arthurian tale and one of
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
' earliest extant prose texts.
Culhwch and Olwen is a
WelshWelsh literature may be used to refer to any literature originating from Wales or by Welsh writers:*See Literature of Wales for literature in the Welsh language*See Literature of Wales for literature in the English language...
tale about a hero connected with
ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated...
and his warriors that survives in only two manuscripts: a complete version in the
Red Book of HergestThe Red Book of Hergest is one of the most important medieval Welsh language manuscripts.- History :The manuscript includes both prose and poetry and was written between about 1382 and 1410. One of the several copyists responsible for the manuscript has been identified as Hywel Fychan fab Hywel...
, ca. 1400, and a fragmented version in the
White Book of RhydderchThe White Book of Rhydderch is one of the most notable and celebrated manuscripts in Welsh. Written in the middle of the fourteenth century it is the earliest collection of Welsh prose texts, though it also contains some examples of early Welsh poetry...
, ca. 1325. It is the longest of the surviving Welsh prose tales. Certain linguistic evidence indicates it took its present form by the 11th century, making it perhaps the earliest Arthurian tale and one of
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
' earliest extant prose texts. The title is a later invention and does not occur in early manuscripts.
Lady Charlotte Guest included this tale among those she collected under the title
The MabinogionThe Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
. Besides the quality of its storytelling it contains several remarkable passages: the description of Culhwch riding on his horse is frequently mentioned for its vividness (a passage reused to similar effect in the 16th century prose "parody"
Araith Wgon, as well as in 17th century poetic adaptations of that work), the fight against the terrible boar
Twrch TrwythTwrch Trwyth is a particularly potent wild boar in the Arthurian legend. The hunt for Twrch Trwyth by King Arthur was the subject of a popular stock narrative in medieval Welsh literature...
certainly has antecedents in Celtic tradition, and the list of
King Arthur'sKing Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated...
retainers recited by the hero is a rhetorical flourish that preserves snippets of Welsh tradition that otherwise would be lost.
Synopsis
Culhwch'sCulhwch , in Welsh mythology, is the son of Cilydd son of Celyddon and Goleuddydd, a cousin of Arthur and the protagonist of the story Culhwch and Olwen...
father, King Cilydd son of Celyddon, loses his wife
GoleuddyddGoleuddydd , in the Middle Welsh prose tale Culhwch ac Olwen, is the daughter of Amlawdd Wledig, and is desired by Cilydd, who marries her. She becomes pregnant with his child, but becomes mad and turns to wandering the countryside...
after a difficult childbirth. When he remarries, the young Culhwch rejects his stepmother's attempt to pair him with his new stepsister. Offended, the new queen puts a curse on him so that he can marry no one besides the beautiful
OlwenIn Welsh mythology, Olwen is the daughter and aunt of the giant Ysbaddaden. She is the heroine of the story Culhwch and Olwen in the Mabinogion....
, daughter of the
giantThe mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
Ysbaddaden PencawrIn Welsh romance Culhwch and Olwen, Ysbaddaden the giant is the father of the beautiful Olwen. He is cursed to die when his daughter marries, so when Culhwch comes to court her, he is naturally perturbed. He tries to kill Culhwch a number of times but ends up getting more injured in the process...
. Though he has never seen her, Culhwch becomes infatuated with her, but his father warns him that he will never find her without the aid of his famous cousin
ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated...
. The young man immediately sets off to seek his kinsman. He finds him at his court in
CelliwigCelliwig, Kelliwic or Gelliwic, is perhaps the earliest named location for the court of King Arthur. It may be translated as 'forest grove'.-Literary references:...
in
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
; this is one of the earliest instances in literature or oral tradition of Arthur's court being assigned a specific location.
Arthur agrees to help, and sends six of his finest warriors to join Culhwch in his search for Olwen. These warriors include
CaiIn Arthurian legend, Sir Kay is Sir Ector's son and King Arthur's foster brother and later seneschal, as well as one of the first Knights of the Round Table...
(known to later literature as Sir Kay, Arthur's foster brother),
BedwyrIn Arthurian legend, Sir Bedivere is the Knight of the Round Table who returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. He serves as King Arthur's marshal and is frequently associated with Sir Kay. Sir Lucan is his brother, Sir Griflet is his cousin. The Welsh give him a son and daughter named Amren and...
(Sir Bedivere) and
GwalchmeiGawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
(Sir Gawain, Arthur's nephew). The group meets some relatives of Culhwch's that know Olwen and agree to arrange a meeting. Olwen is receptive to Culhwch's attraction, but she cannot marry him unless her father agrees, and he, unable to survive past his daughter's wedding, will not consent until Culhwch completes a series of about forty impossible-sounding tasks. Fortunately for Culhwch (and the reader), the completion of only a few of these tasks is recorded and the giant is killed, leaving Olwen free to marry her lover.
The story is on one level a typical folktale, in which a young hero sets out to wed a giant's daughter, and many of the accompanying motifs reinforce this (the strange birth, the jealous stepmother, the hero falling in love with a stranger after hearing only her name, etc.). However, for most of the narrative the title characters go unmentioned, their story serving as a frame for other events.
Culhwch and Olwen is as a whole more than simply a folktale.
In fact, the majority of the writing is taken up by two long lists and the adventures of King Arthur and his men. The first of these occurs when Arthur welcomes his young kinsman to his court and offers to give him whatever he wishes. Culhwch, of course, asks that Arthur help him get Olwen, and invokes some two hundred of the greatest men, women, dogs, horses and swords in Arthur's kingdom to underscore his request. Included in the list are names taken from Irish legend, hagiography, and sometimes actual history.
The second list includes the tasks Culhwch must complete before Ysbaddaden will allow him to marry Olwen. Only a fraction are recounted, but several that are of great significance. A version of the longest episode, the hunt for the boar
Twrch TrwythTwrch Trwyth is a particularly potent wild boar in the Arthurian legend. The hunt for Twrch Trwyth by King Arthur was the subject of a popular stock narrative in medieval Welsh literature...
, is referenced in
Historia Brittonum and it may also be related to the boar hunt in the Irish stories of
Diarmuid Ua DuibhneDiarmuid Ua Duibhne or Diarmid O'Dyna is a son of Donn and a warrior of the Fianna in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is most famous as the lover of Gráinne, the intended wife of Fianna leader Fionn mac Cumhaill in The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne...
. The rescue of
Mabon ap ModronMabon ap Modron is a figure of Welsh mythology, the son of Modron. Both he and his mother were likely deities in origin, decending from a divine mother-son pair...
from his watery prison has numerous parallels in Celtic legend, and the quest for the cauldron of Diwrnach the Irishman may well be related to the tales of Bran the Blessed in the second branch of the
MabinogionThe Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
and the poem
The Spoils of AnnwnPreiddeu Annwfn or Preiddeu Annwn is a cryptic early medieval Welsh poem of sixty lines found in the Book of Taliesin. The text recounts an expedition with King Arthur to Annwfn or Annwn, a Welsh otherworld...
in the
Book of TaliesinThe Book of Taliesin is one of the most famous of Middle Welsh manuscripts, dating from the first half of the 14th century though many of the fifty-seven poems it preserves are taken to originate in the 10th century...
, possibly linking it to the
Grail QuestAccording to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers...
.
Cultural influence
Writers
Tom ShippeyThomas Alan Shippey is a scholar of medieval literature, including that of Anglo-Saxon England, and of modern fantasy and science fiction, in particular the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, about whom he has written several scholarly studies. He is widely considered one of the leading academic scholars...
and
David DayDavid Day may refer to:*David Day , author from British Columbia*David Day , Australian historian*Dave Day of punk band Th Monks...
have pointed out the similarities between "
The Tale of Beren and LúthienThe Tale of Beren and Lúthien is the story of the love and adventures of the mortal Man Beren and the immortal Elf-maiden Lúthien, as told in several works of J. R. R. Tolkien. It takes place during the First Age of Middle-earth, about 6500 years before the events of his most famous book, The Lord...
", one of the main storylines of
J. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from...
's novel
The SilmarillionThe Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
, and
Culhwch and Olwen.
External links