The Mabinogion · 108 of 192 · tr. Lady Charlotte Guest
Tale KILHWCH AND OLWENy
And thence he sent Menw the son of Teirgwaedd to see if the precious things were between the two ears of Twrch Trwyth, since it were useless to encounter him if they were not there.
Albeit it was certain where he was, for he had laid waste the third part of Ireland.
And Menw went to seek for him, and he met with him in Ireland, in Esgeir Oervel.
And Menw took the form of a bird; and he descended upon the top of his lair, and strove to snatch away one of the precious things from him, but he carried away nothing but one of his bristles.
And the boar rose up angrily and shook himself so that some of his venom fell upon Menw, and he was never well from that day forward.
After this Arthur sent an embassy to Odgar, the son of Aedd king of Ireland, to ask for the cauldron of Diwrnach Wyddel, his purveyor.
And Odgar commanded him to give it.
But Diwrnach said, “Heaven is my witness, if it would avail him anything even to look at it, he should not do so.” And the embassy of Arthur returned from Ireland with this denial.
And Arthur set forward with a small retinue, and entered into Prydwen, his ship, and went over to Ireland.
And they proceeded into the house of Diwrnach Wyddel.
And the hosts of Odgar saw their strength.
When they had eaten and drunk as much as they desired, Arthur demanded to have the cauldron.
And he answered, “If I would have given it to any one, I would have given it at the word of Odgar king of Ireland.” When he had given them this denial, Bedwyr arose and seized hold of the cauldron, and placed it upon the back of Hygwyd, Arthur’s servant, who was brother, by the mother’s side, to Arthur’s servant, Cachamwri.
His office was always to carry Arthur’s cauldron, and to place fire under it.
And Llenlleawg Wyddel seized Caledvwlch, and brandished it.
And they slew Diwrnach Wyddel and his company.
Then came the Irish and fought with them.
And when he had put them to flight, Arthur with his men went forward to the ship, carrying away the cauldron full of Irish money.
And he disembarked at the house of Llwydden the son of Kelcoed, at Porth Kerddin in Dyved.
And there is the measure of the cauldron.
Then Arthur summoned unto him all the warriors that were in the three Islands of Britain, and in the three Islands adjacent, and all that were in France and in Armorica, in Normandy and in the Summer Country, and all that were chosen footmen and valiant horsemen.
And with all these he went into Ireland.
And in Ireland there was great fear and terror concerning him.
And when Arthur had landed in the country, there came unto him the saints of Ireland and besought his protection.
And he granted his protection unto them, and they gave him their blessing.
Then the men of Ireland came unto Arthur, and brought him provisions.
And Arthur went as far as Esgeir Oervel in Ireland, to the place where the Boar Trwyth was with his seven young pigs.
And the dogs were let loose upon him from all sides.
That day until evening the Irish fought with him, nevertheless he laid waste the fifth part of Ireland.
And on the day following the household of Arthur fought with him, and they were worsted by him, and got no advantage.
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 narrative depicts a world populated by spiritual agents embodied in the landscape, such as the magical boar Twrch Trwyth and the local saints of Ireland.
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 intervention of the saints who seek out Arthur and provide blessings and provisions suggests a divinely ordered unfolding of events aiding the hero.
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.
The passage explicitly describes Menw taking the form of a bird to interact with the magical boar, fitting the definition of form-mutability in preternatural beings.