The Mabinogion · 84 of 192 · tr. Lady Charlotte Guest
Tale KILHWCH AND OLWENa
OR THE TWRCH TRWYTH Kilydd the son of Prince Kelyddon desired a wife as a helpmate, and the wife that he chose was Goleuddydd, the daughter of Prince Anlawdd.
And after their union, the people put up prayers that they might have an heir.
And they had a son through the prayers of the people.
From the time of her pregnancy Goleuddydd became wild, and wandered about, without habitation; but when her delivery was at hand, her reason came back to her.
Then she went to a mountain where there was a swineherd, keeping a herd of swine.
And through fear of the swine the queen was delivered.
And the swineherd took the boy, and brought him to the palace; and he was christened, and they called him Kilhwch, because he had been found in a swine’s burrow.
Nevertheless the boy was of gentle lineage, and cousin unto Arthur; and they put him out to nurse.
After this the boy’s mother, Goleuddydd, the daughter of Prince Anlawdd, fell sick.
Then she called her husband unto her, and said to him, “Of this sickness I shall die, and thou wilt take another wife.
Now wives are the gift of the Lord, but it would be wrong for thee to harm thy son.
Therefore I charge thee that thou take not a wife until thou see a briar with two blossoms upon my grave.” And this he promised her.
Then she besought him to dress her grave every year, that nothing might grow thereon.
So the queen died.
Now the king sent an attendant every morning to see if anything were growing upon the grave.
And at the end of the seventh year the master neglected that which he had promised to the queen.
One day the king went to hunt, and he rode to the place of burial to see the grave, and to know if it were time that he should take a wife; and the king saw the briar.
And when he saw it, the king took counsel where he should find a wife.
Said one of his counsellors, “I know a wife that will suit thee well, and she is the wife of King Doged.” And they resolved to go to seek her; and they slew the king, and brought away his wife and one daughter that she had along with her.
And they conquered the king’s lands.
On a certain day, as the lady walked abroad, she came to the house of an old crone that dwelt in the town, and that had no tooth in her head.
And the queen said to her, “Old woman, tell me that which I shall ask thee, for the love of Heaven.
Where are the children of the man who has carried me away by violence?” Said the crone, “He has not children.” Said the queen, “Woe is me, that I should have come to one who is childless!” Then said the hag, “Thou needest not lament on account of that, for there is a prediction he shall have an heir by thee, and by none other.
Moreover, be not sorrowful, for he has one son.” The lady returned home with joy; and she asked her consort, “Wherefore hast thou concealed thy children from me?” The king said, “I will do so no longer.” And he sent messengers for his son, and he was brought to the Court.
His stepmother said unto him, “It were well for thee to have a wife, and I have a daughter who is sought of every man of renown in the world.” “I am not yet of an age to wed,” answered the youth.
Themes
◆Ancestor Venerationpraxis
Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. Shinto uji-gami and obon, Norse disir and the alfablot, Celtic samhain and the feast for the deceased, Roman lares and parentalia, Chinese ancestor rites, Vedic śrāddha. Practice-coded rather than belief-coded: distinct from soul_migration (cosmological doctrine of soul-transmigration) and theosis_deification (deification trajectory); ancestor_veneration centres the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the dead.
The dying queen charges her husband to dress her grave every year, establishing a ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
The mother's state of being 'wild' and wandering without reason during pregnancy, regaining reason only at delivery, mirrors the motif of ecstatic irrational rapture associated with divine conception.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The narrative relies on the fulfillment of a specific sign (the briar) and a prediction by the crone, implying divine ordering of events.