Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [143]
The first of four tales in The Four Branches of the Mabinogi tells the story of Pwyll, his wife Rhiannon, and their son, Pryderi. The goddess Rhiannon—who is possibly a vestige of the Celtic horse goddess Epona—is betrothed against her will, and wants to marry Pwyll, a king in southwestern Wales. When she dresses in gold and rides past him on a white mare, Pwyll is smitten by her beauty. They eventually marry, and their son, Pryderi, is born. But right after his birth, the baby is stolen, and Rhiannon’s six attendants, in an attempt to clear themselves of any blame, kill a dog and smear its blood on Rhiannon’s lips. The queen is charged with murdering her son and is forced to sit outside her husband’s door, telling strangers of her crime and offering to carry them on her back, like a horse. In truth, Pryderi was never murdered but had been snatched and left near a stable. Raised by foster parents who eventually realize who he is, Pryderi is returned to his mother, and she is released from her punishment.
Links to Arthurian legend begin to appear in another part of The Four Branches of the Mabinogi. The tale of “Culhwhc and Olwen,” which dates to approximately 1100 CE, includes many names and places later connected to Arthur, among them a reference to a sword whose Welsh name—Caledvwlch—means “battle breach.” A weapon of great power, it was later identified with Excalibur, the legendary “sword in the stone.” There is also mention of Arthur’s father, Uthyr Pendragon, and his wife, Gwenhwyfar—later Anglicized as Guinevere. A reference to a cauldron, which, in some stories, acquired magical properties, is thought to be an old connection to the later idea of Arthur’s search for the Holy Grail and may hark back to the Irish cauldron of the god Daghda, which provided a never-ending source of food.
The first references to Arthur found in the Mabinogion probably emerged from even earlier Irish myths. Traditional Irish hero stories may have been merged with those of Wales, resulting in the first legends of Arthur, a character who was probably based on a powerful Celtic chief who lived in Wales during the 500s CE and led the battle against the invading Saxons. (Others have made a case that he lived during Roman times and led the revolt against Roman rule around 400 CE. The Romans withdrew from Britain in 410 CE.) In any case, the stories of Arthur were exported to Brittany, another Celtic bastion in France, around 1000, where the renowned Breton minstrels then helped spread the tales all over Europe.
The legend of Arthur that endures today is mostly derived from the traditions set down by Sir Thomas Malory (d. 1471), the English author who created the familiar Arthurian legend. No effete intellectual writer, Malory was a violent criminal who had committed robbery and murder. From 1451, he spent much of his life in prison, where he probably did most of his writing. Drawing from a variety of earlier legends and stories—such as an ancient “history” of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and a variety of other sources, including a group of eight romances originally called The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table—Malory’s legend of Arthur was printed with the more grandiose title Morte d’Arthur.
One of the central characters in Malory’s Arthur not found in the Mabinogion is Merlin, the wizard in Arthurian legend who brings about the king’s birth. In fact, Merlin’s origins go even deeper into a Celtic past, to a Welsh wizard named Myrddin. Many authorities believe the roots of Merlin’s character can be traced back to the Druidic