Culhwch and Olwen

Culhwch and Olwen (Welsh: Culhwch ac 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.

Culhwch ac Olwen
"Culhwch and Olwen"
Author(s)Anonymous
LanguageMiddle Welsh
Datec. 11-12th century
Manuscript(s)White Book of Rhydderch, Red Book of Hergest
GenreProse

Overview

Dating

The prevailing view among scholars was that the present version of the text was composed by the 11th century, making it perhaps the earliest Arthurian tale and one of Wales' earliest extant prose texts,[1] but a 2005 reassessment by linguist Simon Rodway dates it to the latter half of the 12th century.[2] The title is a later invention and does not occur in early manuscripts.[3]

Editions

Lady Charlotte Guest included this tale among those she collected under the title The Mabinogion.

Synopsis

Culhwch's father, King Cilydd son of Celyddon, loses his wife Goleuddydd 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 Olwen, daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Pencawr. 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 Arthur. The young man immediately sets off to seek his kinsman. He finds him at his court in Celliwig in Cornwall.[4][5][6]

Culhwch at Ysbaddaden's court. An illustration by E. Wallcousins in Celtic Myth & Legend, Charles Squire, 1920 "Horses shall I have, and chivalry; and my Lord and kinsman Arthur will obtain for me all these things. And I shall gain thy daughter, and thou shalt lose thy life." "Go forward...and when thou hast compassed all these marvels, thou shalt have my daughter for thy wife."

Arthur agrees to lend help in whatever capacity Culhwch asks, save the lending of his sword Caledfwlch and other named armaments, or his wife.[lower-alpha 1][7] He sends not only six of his finest warriors (Cai, Bedwyr, Gwalchmei, Gwrhyr Gwalstawd Ieithoedd, Menw son of Tairgwaedd, Cynddylig Gyfarwydd), but a huge list of personages of various skills (including Gwynn ap Nudd) recruited to join Culhwch in his search for Olwen.[8] 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 Ysbaddaden "Chief Giant" 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, including the obtaining of the basket/hamper of Gwyddneu Garanhir,[lower-alpha 2] the hunt of Ysgithyrwyn chief boar.[10] The completion of only a few of these tasks is recorded and the giant is killed, leaving Olwen free to marry her lover.

Critical studies

The story is on one level a folktale, belonging to the bridal quest "the giant's daughter" tale type[11] (more formally categorized as Six Go through the Whole World type, AT 513A).[12][13][14] The accompanying motifs (the strange birth, the jealous stepmother, the hero falling in love with a stranger after hearing only her name, helpful animals, impossible tasks) reinforce this typing.[15][11]

Frame story and lists

However, this bridal quest serves merely as a frame story for the rest of the events that form the in-story,[16] where the title characters go largely unmentioned. The in-story is taken up by two long lists and the adventures of King Arthur and his men. One list is a roster of names, some two hundred of the greatest men, women, dogs, horses and swords in Arthur's kingdom recruited to aid Arthur's kinsman Culhwch in his bridal quest.[lower-alpha 3] The other is a list of "difficult tasks" or "marvels" (pl. Welsh: anoethau, anoetheu),[19][13] set upon Culhwch as requirements for his marriage to be approved by the bride's father Ysbaddaden. Included in the list are names taken from Irish legend, hagiography, and sometimes actual history.

Boar-hunt theme

The fight against the terrible boar Twrch Trwyth certainly has antecedents in Celtic tradition, namely Arthur's boar-hunt with his hound Cafall, whose footprint is discussed in the Mirabilia appended to the Historia Brittonum.[20]

Geographical content

The description of Culhwch riding on his horse is frequently mentioned for its vividness, and features of the Welsh landscape are narrated in ways that are reminiscent of Irish onomastic narratives.[21] As for the passage where Culhwch is received by his uncle, King Arthur, at Celliwig, this is one of the earliest instances in literature or oral tradition of Arthur's court being assigned a specific location and a valuable source of comparison with the court of Camelot or Caerleon as depicted in later Welsh, English, and continental Arthurian legends.

Cultural influence

Culhwch's horse-ride passage is reused in the 16th-century prose "parody" Araith Wgon, as well as in 17th-century poetic adaptations of that work.

Writers and Tolkien scholars, Tom Shippey and David Day have pointed out the similarities between The Tale of Beren and Lúthien, one of the main cycles of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, and Culhwch and Olwen.[22][23]

Adaptations
  • The British painter/poet David Jones (1895–1974) wrote a poem called "The Hunt" based on the tale of Culwhch ac Olwen. A fragment of a larger work, "The Hunt" takes place during the pursuit of the boar Twrch Trwyth by Arthur and the various war-bands of Celtic Britain and France.
  • In 1988 Gwyn Thomas released a retelling of the story, Culhwch ac Olwen, which was illustrated by Margaret Jones. Culhwch ac Olwen won the annual Tir na n-Og Award for Welsh language nonfiction in 1989.[24]
  • A shadow play adaptation of Culhwch and Olwen toured schools in Ceredigion during 2003. The show was created by Jim Williams and was supported by Theatr Felinfach.
  • The tale of Culhwch and Olwen was adapted by Derek Webb in Welsh and English as a dramatic recreation for the reopening of Narberth Castle in Pembrokeshire in 2005.
  • The Ballad of Sir Dinadan, the fifth book of Gerold Morris's The Squire's Tales series, features an adaptation of Culhwch's quest.

Explanatory notes
  1. Arthur's other arms being his spear Rhongomyniad, his shield Wynebgwrthucher, and his dagger Carnwennan.
  2. Which is one of the Thirteen Hallows of Britain.[9]
  3. More than two hundred fifty names,[17] including two hundred thirty warriors.[18]
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References
  1. The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation, ed. James J. Wilhelm. 1994. 25.
  2. Rodway, Simon, “The date and authorship of Culhwch ac Olwen: a reassessment”, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 49 (Summer, 2005), pp. 21–44
  3. Davies, Sioned (2004). "Performing Culhwch ac Olwen". Arthurian Literature. 21: 31. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  4. Guest (1849), pp. 249–257 "Kilhwch and Olwen".
  5. Ford (1977), pp. 119–121, Ford (2019), pp. 115–117 tr. "Culhwch and Olwen".
  6. Jones & Jones (1993), pp. 80–83; Jones (2011), unpaginated tr. "Culhwch and Olwen".
  7. Guest (1849), pp. 257–258; Jones & Jones (1993), p. 84; Ford (2019), p. 119
  8. Guest (1849), pp. 258–269; Jones & Jones (1993), pp. 84–93; Ford (2019), pp. 119–125
  9. Guest (1849), pp. 353–355.
  10. Guest (1849), pp. 280–292; Ford (2019), pp. 130ff
  11. Ford (2019) :"At the level of folktale, it belongs to a widely known type, “the giant's daughter.” A number of motifs known to students of the international folktale are clustered here: the jealous stepmother, love for an unknown and unseen maiden, the oldest animals, the helper animals, and the impossible tasks are perhaps the most obvious".
  12. Owen (1968), p. 29.
  13. Loomis (2015), p. 28.
  14. Rodway (2019), pp. 72–73.
  15. Rodway (2019), p. 72: "jealous stepmother"; Loomis (2015), p. 28: ""impossible obstacles, and the hero needs prodigiously endowed helpers".
  16. Koch (2014), p. 257.
  17. Dillon, Myles; Chadwick, Nora K. (1967). The Celtic Realms. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 283–285.
  18. Knight, Stephen Thomas (2015). The Politics of Myth. Berkeley: Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN 0-522-86844-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  19. Knight & Wiesner-Hanks (1983), p. 13.
  20. Bromwich & Evans (1992), p. lxvii.
  21. Chadwick, Nora (1959). "Scéla Muicce Meicc Da Thó". In Dillon, Myles (ed.). Irish Sagas. Radio Éireann Thomas Davis Lectures. Irish Stationery Office. p. 89.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link): "details of Ailbe's route.. recalls the course taken by the boar Twrch Trwyth in.. Kuhlwch (sic.) and Olwen
  22. Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle Earth, pp. 193–194: "The hunting of the great wolf recalls the chase of the boar Twrch Trwyth in the Welsh Mabinogion, while the motif of 'the hand in the wolf's mouth' is one of the most famous parts of the Prose Edda, told of Fenris Wolf and the god Tyr; Huan recalls several faithful hounds of legend, Garm, Gelert, Cafall."
  23. David Day in Tolkien's Ring, page 82: "In the Celtic tradition, when these radiant beings—these 'ladies in white'—take on mortal heroes as lovers, there are always obstacles to overcome. These obstacles usually take the form of an almost impossible quest. This is most clearly comparable to Tolkien in the Welsh legend of the wooing of Olwyn. Olwyn was the most beautiful woman of her age; her eyes shone with light, and her skin was white as snow. Olwyn's name means 'she of the white track', so bestowed because four white trefoils sprang up with her every step on the forest floor, and the winning of her hand required the near-impossible gathering of the 'Treasures of Britain'"; "In Tolkien, we have two almost identical 'ladies in white': Lúthien in The Silmarillion, and Arwen in The Lord of the Rings".
  24. "Tir na n-Og awards Past Winners". Welsh Book Council. cllc.org.uk. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2012.

Sources
  • Foster, Idris Llewelyn (1959). Loomis, Roger S. (ed.). Culhwch and Olwen and Rhonabwy's Dream. Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-811588-1.
  • Gantz, Jeffrey (1976). Culhwch and Olwen. The Mabinogion. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044322-3.
  • Koch, John T. (2014), Lacy, Norris J. (ed.), "The Celtic Lands", Medieval Arthurian Literature: A Guide to Recent Research (revised ed.), Routledge, pp. 256–262, ISBN 1-317-65695-4
  • Rodway, Simon (2019). Lloyd-Morgan, Ceridwen; Poppe, Erich (eds.). Culhwch ac Olwen. Arthur in the Celtic Languages: The Arthurian Legend in Celtic Literatures and Traditions. University of Wales Press. pp. 67–. ISBN 1-786-83344-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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