The Mabinogion · 99 of 192 · tr. Lady Charlotte Guest
Tale KILHWCH AND OLWENp
It is needful for me to wash my head, and shave my beard, and I require the tusk of Yskithyrwyn Penbaedd to shave myself withal, neither shall I profit by its use if it be not plucked alive out of his head.” “It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that it will not be easy.” “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
There is no one in the world that can pluck it out of his head except Odgar the son of Aedd, king of Ireland.” “It will be easy for me to compass this.” “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
I will not trust any one to keep the tusk except Gado of North Britain.
Now the threescore Cantrevs of North Britain are under his sway, and of his own free will he will not come out of his kingdom, and thou wilt not be able to compel him.” “It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that it will not be easy.” “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
I must spread out my hair in order to shave it, and it will never be spread out unless I have the blood of the jet-black sorceress, the daughter of the pure white sorceress, from Pen Nant Govid, on the confines of Hell.” “It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that it will not be easy.” “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
I will not have the blood unless I have it warm, and no vessels will keep warm the liquid that is put therein except the bottles of Gwyddolwyd Gorr, which preserve the heat of the liquor that is put into them in the east, until they arrive at the west.
And he will not give them of his own free will, and thou wilt not be able to compel him.” “It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that it will not be easy.” “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
Some will desire fresh milk, and it will not be possible to have fresh milk for all, unless we have the bottles of Rhinnon Rhin Barnawd, wherein no liquor ever turns sour.
And he will not give them of his own free will, and thou wilt not be able to compel him.” “It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that it will not be easy.” “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
Throughout the world there is not a comb or scissors with which I can arrange my hair, on account of its rankness, except the comb and scissors that are between the two ears of Twrch Trwyth, the son of Prince Tared.
He will not give them of his own free will, and thou wilt not be able to compel him.” “It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that it will not be easy.” “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
It will not be possible to hunt Twrch Trwyth without Drudwyn the whelp of Greid, the son of Eri.” “It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that it will not be easy.” “Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get.
Themes
◆Animismcosmology
The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
The passage reflects a worldview where specific places, creatures, and objects possess inherent spiritual power and agency.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
Magical objects like the bottles preserve heat across vast distances (east to west), suggesting hidden affinities.
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
Twrch Trwyth is identified as a boar who is also the son of a Prince, implying a transformed state.