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58-1036: Preiddeu Annwfn or Preiddeu Annwn (English: The Spoils of Annwfn ) is a cryptic poem of sixty lines in Middle Welsh , found in the Book of Taliesin . The text recounts an expedition with King Arthur to Annwfn or Annwn , the Otherworld in Welsh . Preiddeu Annwfn is one of the best known medieval British poems. English translations, in whole or in part, have been published by R. Williams (in William Forbes Skene 's Four Ancient Books of Wales ), by Robert Graves in The White Goddess and by Roger Sherman Loomis , Herbert Pilch , John T. Koch , Marged Haycock, John K. Bollard, Sarah Higley . At points it requires individual interpretation on

116-557: A -affection is found, most notably, in the feminine forms of adjectives that do have gender declension, and it changes the stem vowels as follows: Pwyll This tale is one of a group found in The Mabinogion , one of the earliest known efforts to form a collection of traditional Welsh tales. Such tales, which date back to circa 1325 A.D., were originally passed from person to person and generation to generation orally. The Celtic oral tradition lasted for several centuries and

174-400: A boy. On the night of his birth, the boy was lost while under the care of six of Rhiannon's ladies-in-waiting. Scared of the punishment, the ladies smear dog's blood onto a sleeping Rhiannon, claiming that she had committed infanticide and cannibalism through eating and "destroying" her child. Word traveled throughout the land and the nobles requested Pwyll to divorce his wife. But since it

232-438: A third poem, "Kadeir Teyrnon", three "awens" come from the ogyruen , just as in the birth legend Taliesin receives inspiration in three drops from the cauldron of Ceridwen , the enchantress who gives a second birth to the legendary Taliesin, and who is also mentioned other poems from the collection, "Kerd Veib am Llyr" and "Kadeir Kerrituen", and by another poet, Cuhelyn, in connection with ogyruen . These poems draw freely upon

290-416: A wide variety of otherworldly tales, representing the fateful voyage, the battle, imprisonment and the cauldron as allegories of a mystical poetic knowledge beyond the ordinary. Robert Graves aligned himself personally with the poets' standpoint, commenting that literary scholars are psychologically incapable of interpreting myth Early translators suggested a link between Preiddeu Annwfn (taken together with

348-432: A year and a day, and takes his place at Arawn's court. At the end of the year, Pwyll engages in single combat against Hafgan , Arawn's rival, and mortally wounds him with one blow, earning Arawn overlordship of all of Annwn. After Hafgan's death, Pwyll and Arawn meet once again, revert to their old appearance and return to their respective courts. They become lasting friends because Pwyll slept chastely with Arawn's wife for

406-756: Is "honoured in praise", too good for petty men of ordinary mentality. Two works in particular, the tale of Bran the Blessed in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi and a tale included in Culhwch and Olwen in which Arthur's retinue sail to Ireland aboard Prydwen (the ship used in Preiddeu ) to obtain the Cauldron of Diwrnach , are frequently cited as narratives resembling that of the present poem. In

464-520: Is a possible reason for the abundance of errors and discrepancies found in The Mabinogion as well as other Welsh literature dating back to the fourteenth century or earlier. Professor Sioned Davies of Cardiff University explains the importance of the Celtic oral tradition, in appreciating Welsh literature, this way; "The Mabinogion were tales to be read aloud to a listening audience--the parchment

522-447: Is a productive alternation between final syllables and non-final syllables known as mutation or centring ( ), which is by necessity triggered by the addition of any suffix and operates as follows: dwg 's/he leads' – dygaf 'I lead' hawl 's/he claims' – holaf 'I claim' marchawg 'horseman' – marchoges 'horsewoman' The centring mutation is due to a process of vowel reduction that operated earlier, in late Brythonic, when

580-597: Is apparently referred to by several names, including "Mound or Fairy Fortress," "Four Peaked or Cornered Fortress," and "Glass Fortress", though it is possible these are intended to be distinct. Whatever tragedy occurred is not clearly explained. Each stanza except the last two begins in the first person; the first begins "I praise the Lord", the second and third "I am honoured in praise", the next three declare "I do not merit little men" who rely on books and lack understanding. The last two refer to crowds of monks who again rely upon

638-531: Is closer to the other medieval Celtic languages, e.g. Old Irish, in its morphology. For example, the endings -wŷs, -ws, -es and -as are used for 3rd person singular of the preterite in Middle Welsh as well as the form -odd . In the same person and tense exists the old reduplicated preterite kigleu 'he heard' of the verb klywet 'to hear', which corresponds to the Old Irish ·cúalae '(s)he heard' from

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696-410: Is connected to a similar story in the legend of his birth. Song is heard in the fourfold fort, which therefore seems also to be Annwfn: Gweir was imprisoned in perpetual song before a cauldron that first gave out poetry when breathed upon by nine maidens, reminiscent of the nine muses of classical thought. Just as, we are told, the cauldron "does not boil the food of a coward", so the song it is inspires

754-600: Is either i or a , hence the alternations are referred to as i-affection and a-affection . The more common type is i -affection, which occurs in plurals with a zero ending and in the present singular of many verbs. In addition, in some cases, the singular has an affected vowel, but the plural does not (this has been termed 'reversion'). The alternation operates as follows: maen 'stone' – pl. mein safaf 'I stand' – seif 's/he stands' dragon 'dracons' – dreic 'dracon' Saeson 'Saxons' – Seis 'Saxon' corn 'horn' – pl. cyrn gwr 'man' – pl. gwyr Ultimate

812-482: Is found in unstressed final syllables in Middle Welsh, while in Modern Welsh it has become o (e.g. Middle Welsh marchawc = Modern Welsh marchog "horseman"). Similarly, the Middle Welsh diphthongs ei and eu have become ai and au in final syllables, e. g. Middle Welsh seith = modern saith "seven", Middle Welsh heul = modern haul "sun". The vowels are as follows: Vowel length

870-749: Is often linked through its name with the Irish fairyland , where live the Tuatha Dé Danann , whom the Milesians eventually conquer. it appears again in the same collection, in "Kerd Veib am Llyr" , ("The Song of the Sons of Llyr"), in language that closely follows that of Preiddeu ; Complete is my chair in Caer Siddi/ No one will be afflicted with disease or old age that may be in it./ Manawyddan and Pryderi know it./ Three (musical?) instruments by

928-562: Is predictable: vowels are long in monosyllables unless followed by a geminate or one of the consonants /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , /m/ , /ŋ/ or a geminate. The vowels could combine into the following falling diphthongs: 1. ending in /w/ : /aw/ , /ew/ , /iw/ , /ɨw/ ~ /əw/ 2. ending in /ɨ/ : /aɨ/ , /oɨ/ , /uɨ/ 3. others: /ej/ , /eʉ/ (and possibly /æj/ , /æʉ/ ) The diphthongs /æj/ and /æʉ/ , whose first component gradually changed into /a/ , were originally allophones of /ej/ and /eʉ/ , respectively, and no distinction between

986-539: Is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The phonology of Middle Welsh is quite similar to that of modern Welsh, with only a few differences. The letter u , which today represents /ɨ/ in North Western Welsh dialects and /i/ in South Welsh and North East Welsh dialects, represented the close central rounded vowel /ʉ/ in Middle Welsh. The diphthong aw

1044-456: Is tricked when Pwyll forces Gwawl inside the bag and he and his men begin to beat him brutally. Gwawl finally gives in so long as Pwyll will spare his life. Pwyll agrees, having managed to win back Rhiannon through the deceiving and dishonoring of Gwawl. The men of the land were worried that there would not be an heir to follow Pwyll and advised him to take a second wife. He set a date where this would happen, but before long Rhiannon gave birth to

1102-400: Is uniquely preserved in the Book of Taliesin (Aberystwyth, NLW, MS Peniarth 2), which has been dated to the first quarter of the 14th century. The text of the poem itself has proved immensely difficult to date. Estimates range from the time of the bard Taliesin in the late 6th century to that of the completion of the manuscript. On the basis of linguistic criteria Norris J. Lacy suggests that

1160-439: Is usually understood to say that a sword described either as "bright" or else "of Lleawch" was raised to the cauldron, leaving it in the hands of "Lleminawc" ( cledyf lluch lleawc idaw rydyrchit/ Ac yn llaw leminawc yd edewit ). Some scholars have found the similarity to this Llenlleawc compelling, but the evidence is not conclusive. Higley suggests a common story has influenced these various Welsh and Irish accounts. Sir John Rhys

1218-529: Is usually written, in contrast to Modern Welsh: e.g. mwnwgyl rather than mwnwgl "neck". In general, the spelling is both variable and historical and does not reflect some sound changes that had taken place by the Middle Welsh period, most notably the lenition. Some of the less predictable letter-sound correspondences are the following: /β/ /w/ /w/ (hence ⟨wy⟩ for /wɨ/ ) /ə/ (elsewhere, reflecting mutation – see below) /j/ (between consonants and vowels) /i/ (occasionally; in

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1276-547: The First Branch of the Mabinogi Pwyll marries Rhiannon and their son Pryderi receives a gift of pigs from Arawn. He later follows a white boar to a mysterious tower where he is trapped by a beautiful golden bowl in an enchanted "blanket of mist" and temporarily vanishes with Rhiannon and the tower itself. This motif has also been compared with that of Gweir/Gwair's imprisonment. Roger Sherman Loomis pointed out

1334-678: The Second Branch Bran gives his magic life-restoring cauldron to his new brother-in-law Matholwch of Ireland when he marries Bran's sister Branwen. Matholwch mistreats his new wife and Bran's men cross the Irish Sea to rescue her. This attack involves the destruction of the cauldron, which Matholwch uses to resuscitate his soldiers. There is a battle between the hosts and in the end only seven of Bran's men escape alive, including Taliesin and Pryderi. In Culhwch and Olwen Arthur's retinue also sail to Ireland (aboard his ship Prydwen ,

1392-466: The 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( Welsh : Hen Gymraeg ). Middle Welsh is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion , although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of most of the manuscripts of mediaeval Welsh law . Middle Welsh

1450-402: The 3rd person possessive y and the negative particle ny ) /ɨ/ (only word-finally; especially in early texts) /ə/ (non-word-finally; especially in early texts) /ej/ (elsewhere) /eʉ/ (elsewhere) /β/ (medially and word-finally) (rarely /ð/ ) /r̥/ /d/ /ŋ/ (occasionally) /b/ (postvocalically) /d/ (postvocalically) /ɡ/ (postvocalically) Middle Welsh

1508-546: The Black Book of Carmarthen) have pointed out analogues in other medieval Welsh literature : some suggest that it represents a tradition that evolved into the grail of Arthurian literature . Haycock (in The Figure of Taliesin ) says that the poem is "about Taliesin and his vaunting of knowledge", and Higley calls the poem "a metaphor of its own making—a poem about the material 'spoils' of poetic composition". The poem

1566-713: The Bran story) and the later Grail narratives, with varying degrees of success. Similarities are sometimes peripheral, such as that both Bran the Blessed and the Grail keeper the Fisher King receive wounds in their legs and both dwell in a castle of delights where no time seems to pass. The graal portrayed in Chrétien de Troyes ' Perceval, the Story of the Grail is taken to be reminiscent of Bran's cauldron, and, as in Preiddeu ,

1624-565: The Grail romances always result in initial tragedy and frequently in huge loss of life. Earlier scholars were quicker to read Celtic origins in the Holy Grail stories than their modern counterparts. Whereas early 20th-century Celtic enthusiast Jessie Weston unequivocally declared that an earlier form of the Grail narrative could be found in Preiddeu Annwfn , modern researcher Richard Barber denies Celtic myth had much influence on

1682-467: The arm and kept the colt but heard a roar outside and found a baby boy. He and his wife claimed the boy as their own and named him Gwri Wallt Euryn (English: Gwri of the Golden hair ), for "all the hair on his head was as yellow as gold". The child grew to adulthood at a superhuman pace and, as he matured, his likeness to Pwyll grew more obvious and, eventually, Teyrnon realised Gwri's true identity. The boy

1740-411: The court extremely distraught and sues for a favor of the king. Gwawl plays to the nobility and generosity of Pwyll, as well as his rashness and passion, and Pwyll tells Gwawl that whatever it is that he should ask him, that he (Pwyll) would give it to him. Gwawl of course asks for his fiancée, Rhiannon, which Pwyll, due to his naive promise, could not refuse. It is decided that they should all come back to

1798-1043: The duration of the year. As a result of Pwyll's successful ruling of Annwn, he earns the title Pwyll Pen Annwfn ; 'Pwyll, head of Annwn'. Some time later, Pwyll and his noblemen ascend the mound of Gorsedd Arberth and witness the arrival of Rhiannon , appearing to them as a beautiful woman dressed in gold silk brocade and riding a shining white horse . Pwyll sends his best horsemen after her, but she always remains ahead of them, though her horse never does more than amble. After three days, Pwyll, himself, rides out to meet her and when he cannot catch her, he calls out to her in desperation. Only then does Rhiannon stop. She tells him her name and that she has come seeking him because she would rather marry him than her fiancé, Gwawl ap Clud . She tells him to come to her kingdom one year from that day, with his soldiers, and they will marry. A year after their meeting, Pwyll arrives as promised but accidentally and foolishly promises his beloved Rhiannon to Gwawl (her previous fiancé). This occurs when Gwawl enters

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1856-544: The end of a word, where it is spelled with an f (in Modern Welsh, it is always spelled with a f , e.g. Middle Welsh auall = modern afall "apple tree"). The sound /ð/ is usually spelled with a d (in Modern Welsh, it is spelled with a dd , e.g. Middle Welsh dyd = modern dydd "day"). The sound /r̥/ is spelled r and is thus not distinguished from /r/ (in Modern Welsh, they are distinguished as rh and r respectively, e.g. Middle Welsh redec "running" vs. modern rhedeg ). The epenthetic vowel /ə/

1914-499: The fire, will sing before it/ and around its borders are the streams of the ocean/ and the fruitful fountain is above it... . The poet, this time definitely speaking as Taliesin, also claims to have been with Bran in Ireland, Bran and Manawyddan being the sons of Llŷr . Higley affirms that Annwfn is "popularly associated with the land of the old gods who can bestow gifts, including the gift of poetry ( awen )". She cites another poem in

1972-400: The kingdom in one year's time for yet another wedding. (Pwyll and Rhiannon were not yet married the first time, the festivities had simply begun but no marriage ceremony had occurred.) Rhiannon devises a plan by which Pwyll might win her back from Gwawl. Pwyll enters the festivities of Gwawl and Rhiannon's wedding dressed as a beggar and asks Gwawl for a bag full of food. Gwawl nobly consents but

2030-405: The legend's development at all. R. S. Loomis, however, argued that it was more logical to search for recurrent themes and imagery found in both the Grail stories and Celtic material rather than exact ancestors; many or most modern scholars share this opinion. Middle Welsh Middle Welsh ( Welsh : Cymraeg Canol , Middle Welsh: Kymraec ) is the label attached to the Welsh language of

2088-466: The legendary prince of Dyfed who in the first branch of the Mabinogi becomes the Chief of Annwfn after helping its king, Arawn , and was credited with ownership of a cauldron. The speaker may be intended to be Taliesin himself, for the second stanza says "my poetry, from the cauldron it was uttered, from the breath of nine maidens it was kindled, the cauldron of the chief of Annwfyn" and Taliesin's name

2146-487: The letters t c at the end of a word, e.g. diffryt "protection" (modern diffryd ), redec "running" (modern rhedeg ). The sound /k/ is very often spelled k before the vowels e i y (in Modern Welsh, it is always spelled with a c , e.g. Middle Welsh keivyn = modern ceifn "third cousin"). The sound /v/ is usually spelled with a u or v (these are interchangeable as in Latin MSS), except at

2204-413: The most part united by a single rhyme but with irregular numbers of lines. The first stanza begins and the last ends with two lines of praise to the Lord, generally taken to be Christian. In the last couplet of each stanza except the last the speaker mentions a dangerous journey into Annwfn with Arthur and three boat-loads of men, of whom only seven returned, presumably with the "spoils" from Annwfn. Annwfn

2262-458: The part of its translators owing to its terse style, the ambiguities of its vocabulary, its survival in a single copy of doubtful reliability, the lack of exact analogues of the tale it tells and the host of real or fancied resonances with other poems and tales. A number of scholars (in particular, Marshall H. James, who points out the remarkable similarity in Line 1, of Verse 2 in "Mic Dinbych", from

2320-547: The poem took its present form around AD 900. Marged Haycock notes that the poem shares a formal peculiarity with a number of pre-Gogynfeirdd poems found in the Book of Taliesin, that is, the caesura usually divides the lines into a longer and shorter section. She contends, however, that there is no firm linguistic evidence that the poem predates the time of the Gogynfeirdd . The poem may be divided into eight stanzas, each for

2378-461: The post-stress syllable, reflecting the earlier final stress of the late Brythonic period, since this persists even in Modern Welsh. The orthography of Middle Welsh was not standardised, and there is great variation between manuscripts in how certain sounds are spelled. Some generalisations of differences between Middle Welsh spelling and Modern Welsh spelling can be made. For example, the possessive adjectives ei "his, her", eu "their" and

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2436-532: The preposition i "to" are very commonly spelled y in Middle Welsh, and are thus spelled the same as the definite article y and the indirect relative particle y . A phrase such as y gath is therefore ambiguous in Middle Welsh between the meaning "the cat" (spelled the same in Modern Welsh), the meaning "his cat" (modern ei gath ), and the meaning "to a cat" (modern i gath ). The voiced stop consonants /d ɡ/ are represented by

2494-517: The promiscuous Welsh literary tradition. Shadows of Pwyll's story-lines can be seen in the early Irish tale Fled Bricrend , which in turn greatly influenced the Gawain poet. Shared themes include: "ritualized competitions between two noblemen to win the hand of a lady; ritualized missions or 'errands,' always involving some request; battles in which the combatants are pledged to return to the same place in exactly one year's time; elaborate tricks in which

2552-422: The same collection, called "Angar Kyfyndawt", which states that Annwfn is in the deeps below the earth, and that "It is Awen I sing, / from the deep I bring it". The great ox has "seven score links on his collar" while in "Angar Kyfyndawt" awen has "seven score ogyruen “. Though this latter is not a well-understood term, it can be interpreted as - possibly - personification, attribute, characteristic or symbol. In

2610-536: The ship used in Preiddeu ) to obtain the cauldron which, like that in Preiddeu Annwfn , would never boil meat for a coward whereas it would boil quickly if meat for a brave man were put in it. Arthur's warrior Llenlleawc the Irishman seizes Caledfwlch (Excalibur) and swings it around, killing Diwrnach's entire retinue. Taliesin is mentioned in Culhwch among Arthur's retinue, as are several Gweirs. Preiddeu Annwfn

2668-742: The similarities between Preiddeu' s description of the "Glass Fortress" and a story from Irish mythology recorded in both the Book of Invasions and the 9th-century Historia Britonum , in which the Milesians , the ancestors to the Irish people, encounter a glass tower in the middle of the ocean whose inhabitants do not speak with them, just as, in Preiddeu , the Glass Fortress is defended by 6,000 men and Arthur's crew finds it difficult to speak with their sentinel. The Milesians attack and most of their force perishes. Another fortress, " Caer Sidi ",

2726-400: The spoils of Annwfn. The second stanza describes the cauldron of the Chief of Annwn, finished with pearl, and how it was taken, presumably being itself the "spoils". The third and fourth allude to difficulties with the forces of Annwfn while the fifth and sixth describe a great ox, also richly decorated, that may also form part of Arthur's spoils. The first stanza has already mentioned Pwyll ,

2784-421: The stress was placed on the last syllable. Further, there are two types of alternations that are caused by following vowels (extant or lost) and are no longer entirely productive, but nonetheless very frequent in the morphology. The first type is ultimate affection , which occurs in the last syllable of a word and is caused by a vowel that used to be located in the next syllable. The originally triggering vowel

2842-404: The thirteenth to fourteenth centuries. The consonants are as follows: Consonants may be geminate. /ʃ/ is mostly found in loanwords such as siacet 'jacket'. Stress was placed on the penultimate syllable with some exceptions such as the causative verbs in -háu , e.g. sicrháu ('to make things secure' from sicr ' secure'). In terms of intonation, the tonal peak must have been aligned with

2900-679: The three famous prisoners, Mabon ap Modron , a god of poetry after whom the Mabinogi are named, and gives details of another ruler of Annwfn, Gwynn ap Nudd , king of the Tylwyth Teg - the fairies in Welsh lore - "whom God has placed over the brood of devils in Annwn lest they should destroy the present race". Gwynn is also made part of Arthur's retinue, though he is the son of a god , after Arthur intervenes in his dispute over Creiddylad . In

2958-588: The two was expressed in Middle Welsh spelling, so their presence during most of Middle Welsh is not immediately observable. However, the fact that the modern pronunciations beginning with an /a/ occur in all word-final syllables, regardless of stress, makes it plausible that their distinctness from /ej/ and /eʉ/ was a legacy from the time before the stress shifted from final to penultimate syllables in Old Welsh. The full opening to /aj/ and /aʉ/ may have been completed at some point in later Middle Welsh, possibly

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3016-456: The verb ro·cluinethar '(s)he hears'. Middle Welsh also retains more plural forms of adjectives that do not appear in modern Welsh, e.g. cochion , plural of coch 'red'. The nominal plural ending -awr is very common in Middle Welsh, but has been replaced in modern Welsh by -au . Like modern Welsh, Middle Welsh exhibits in its morphology numerous vowel alternations as well as the typical Insular Celtic initial consonant mutations. There

3074-520: The words and the knowledge of authorities and lack the type of experience the poem claims. Between these beginnings and ends the first six stanzas offer brief allusions to the journey. In the first Gweir is encountered imprisoned in the fort's walls, a character whom Rachel Bromwich associates with Gwair, one of "Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain" known from the Welsh Triads . He is imprisoned in chains, apparently until Judgment Day, singing before

3132-569: Was "interactive" and vocality was of its essence. Indeed, many passages can only be truly captured by the speaking voice." While hunting in Glyn Cuch , Pwyll, prince of Dyfed becomes separated from his companions and stumbles across a pack of hounds feeding on a slain stag. Pwyll drives the hounds away and sets his own hounds to feast, earning the anger of Arawn , lord of the otherworldly kingdom of Annwn . In recompense, Pwyll agrees to taking on Arawn's appearance and trade places with him for

3190-504: Was eventually reunited with Pwyll and Rhiannon and was renamed Pryderi , meaning 'anxiety' or 'care'. The tale ends with Pwyll's death and Pryderi's ascension to the throne. The stories of Pwyll greatly influenced the literature and story-telling of England, Ireland and Wales. The oral tradition of the Celts along with the highly fluid nature of society (caused by nearly constant conquest from circa 50 B.A.D. to circa 1500 A.D.) aided in

3248-442: Was proven that Rhiannon could have children and produce an heir, he did not want to divorce her, rather have her punished for her wrongdoings by the courts. Rhiannon finally decide to accept the punishment given to her. This punishment was to sit outside the city's gates at the mounting block and tell everyone her story for seven years. She also had to offer to carry all guests up to the city on her back for payment of her crimes. This

3306-489: Was quick to connect these campaigns in Ireland with the symbolic "western isles" of the Celtic otherworld and, in this general sense, Preiddeu Annfwn may be associated with the maritime adventure genres of Immram and Echtra . Rhys also noted that the Isle of Lundy was once known as Ynys Wair, and suggested that it was once accounted the place of Gweir's imprisonment. Culhwch also recounts Arthur's nearby rescue of another of

3364-421: Was to be her punishment for her accused crimes of eating her child. At the same time, Teyrnon , the lord of Gwent Is Coed, had a mare which produced a foal every year but would disappear the night it was born. To solve this problem, he brought the mare into his house and kept watch over it throughout the night. As soon as the colt was born, a great claw came through the window and grabbed the colt. Teyrnon cut off

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