Culhwch and Olwen

Culhwch and Olwen

Culhwch and Olwen happens to be one of my favorite of the Mabinogion tales regardless of its possible importance to the Arthurian tradition.  It is a weird and wonderful story that is positively packed with segments of various medieval welsh bardic traditions.  Within it you will see name-lists, lineages, bardic triads, folklore, and segments of poetry, many of which seem to exist outside this story.  It is as if multiple stories and traditions have been mashed together which is probably what happened according to some scholars.  When I read it, it just feels old.  It is as if I can imagine it being recited by a bard late in the evening, with every segment hinting at another tale.  It also makes me a bit sad that many of these hinted at tales have vanished from history.  

For those who haven't read it yet, allow me to give a brief synopsis.  Culhwch (pronounced kil-hook or sometimes as key-look) is cursed to only love the daughter of the chief giant Ysbaddaden, sight unseen.  He shall never touch the flesh of a woman until he marries her.  Culhwch does not know who she is or how to find her despite his immediate longing for her so he his advised to seek out his cousin Arthur who is renown for his generosity and his fine and capable warriors.  He travels to the hall of Arthur where, after some trouble at the gate, Arthur sees him and asks his gift request.  Culhwch asks him to help him find the daughter of the giant and so Arthur send his men out to all corners of the kingdom but after 1 year has passed they still have had no luck.  Offended, Culhwch demands his gift at the expense of Arthur's honor so several of Arthur's lead men go out with Culhwch to find her till he has found her or is convinced she does not exist.  Eventually, they find his home and after stealthily murdering his staff and hounds just to even speak to Ysbaddaden, the Giant offers to think about it.  The giant has 3 poisoned stone spears and each time they are granted leave, he hurls one at their backs.  Each time they are caught and hurled back.  One goes through the giants knee, one goes through his chest (and out the back), and one goes into his eye.  These only make the giant complain about weepy eyes and indigestion!  After all of this he sends Culhwch and Arthur's men on a series of stacking, seemingly impossible tasks after which Culhwch would say "It is easy for me to accomplish that, though you may not think so."  and the giant would make it more challenging, saying "though you accomplish that, here is something you wont accomplish." and then requiring an impossible item just to complete the previous task or sometimes a new task altogether.  The requirements amount to about forty but only a few of the adventures are recorded in the story.  One involves talking the oldest animals in the world, including a giant salmon just to find a special prisoner who is needed to hunt with a special hound who needs a special collar made from a beard of a certain giant and a special chain just to find and hunt the boar Twrch Trwth who carries a special comb and shears between his ears.  All of this is so Ysbaddaden can prepare his hair for the wedding.....that will kill him.  When all of the tasks are finally complete they shave his beard....and flesh and ears off, down to the bone and ask him if he will give his daughter and he agrees "...but don't thank me for that, thank Arthur, who brought it about for you."  

This line near the end really represents the "moral" of the story, if it has one.  Arthur and his men are amazing.  From his spectacular lists of followers and their super-hero abilities to the impossible "wonders" they can achieve, Arthur's "court" is like no other.  Even Arthur himself cuts the Black Witch in half, lengthwise, with a thrown knife after she almost kills four of his men.  As Patrick K. Ford points out in his translation of The Mabinogi, "Culhwch is a flat character and Olwen...has no development as a character at all." and "...despite its title, this story is essentially Arthurian..."  In other words, this is first and foremost about the ability of Arthur and warriors.

It is important to remember that if the early dating of about 950 is accurate, then this could be considered the earliest Arthurian story in existence.  When I say story, I mean one that is clearly a fiction, not a semi-historical chronicle.  It also implies that there may be an older Celtic storytelling tradition about Arthur and his warriors.  There are already some well defined characters in Arthur's retinue you may be familiar with.  Bedwyr is Sir Bedivere.  Cai is Sir Kay and already seems to have developed his surly attitude.  Gwalchmai is Sir Gawain and still is Arthur's nephew.  We also see the 1st appearance of of Excalibur as Caledfwlch.

Outside its importance to the Arthurian tradition, as I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few interesting Welsh bardic traditions going on here.  The first one you will see is when Culhwch arrives at Arthur's gate.  The gate keeper recites a little passage that is repeated by another gatekeeper later on.  It goes, after denying entry, "Knife has gone into meat, drink into horns, and there is a thronging in the hall of Arthur.  None save the son of a rightful territorial king or a craftsman who comes with a craft is allowed in."  This is a sort of bardic set piece that allows a bard to collect his thoughts before proceeding.  The next thing you will see is an "englyn" which is a Welsh traditional short poem.  There are two of these in the story.  Apparently, this later one by Arthur caused some problems between him and Cei; "  A leash was made by Cei/ From the beard of Dillus son of Eurei;/If he were hale (healthy), 'tis you he'd slay!"  Then soon come the two lists, the list of Arthur's warriors and the list of wonders Culhwch must gain.  Both of these have strong folklore ties and remind me of our early American tall-tales similar to Paul Bunyan.  For example, Cei could hold his breath under water for 9 days and go without sleep for the same period, become, as tall as a tree, and nothing in his hand would become wet when raining, in a pinch he could start fires with is hands and you could not heal a wound from his sword.  Gilla Goeshydd stag-legs could clear 300 acres in one leap.  Osla Cyllellfawr  great-knife carried a knife as large as a bridge.  These sorts of character traits come up in many celtic tales.  From the list of wonders you get similar fare; a hamper that can feed all the men in the world, a self playing harp, and birds that raise the dead and put living men to sleep.  In the name lists, as well as in some of the tasks there are also references to bardic triads which are lists of three of specific subjects.  You will see them in the mention in things such as Gilla the "Chief leaper" of Ireland, a lot of the triads speak of the 3 chief (insert role here) of Britain. . You can also see it vaguely in the prisoner episode where he mentions two other famous prisoners he is worse-off than.  (I will mention some references and links to The Triads below.)  As we move away from the bardic traditions, I am sure you noted the huge number of named animals, some of them ancient.  The Celtic obsession with pigs and boars alone is worthy of its own article, (which I may do later!).  Culhwch was born in pig run and is named "Swine-pig" as a literal translation.  The great boar Twrch Trwth seems important enough to have a lineage of named parents and siblings.  If you investigate the triads you will even see Swineherds as a revered position.  None of this is, alone, particularly important when learning the deeds of Arthur and his knights, but I wanted to try to highlight the peculiar flavor and tradition the Welsh add to the story and maybe generate a little extra interest from some of my readership to explore more.

Like always I like to break the article into bullet points for easy skimming.

• This may be the oldest surviving Arthur "story" and may imply an older tradition.
• This is the 1st known appearance of Excalibur (as Caledfwlch).
• Although dating is difficult this may be one of the earliest references to some of Arthur's knights, Bedivere, Gawain, and Kay.
• The Welsh treatment of Arthur is much more integrated with traditional folklore thank can be found in the chronicles or romances.

For your reading:

It is not necessary to read at this point but the triads are an interesting insight in to early welsh bardic tradition and thought.  Some of the earliest Arthurian references can be found in them though they may be contemporaneous with Culhwch.  I plan on touching on them later.