Peredur
Encyclopedia
Peredur is the name of a number of men from the boundaries of history and legend in sub-Roman Britain
. The most well known of them appear in the following literary and historical sources:
, making them first cousins of Urien Rheged. Likewise, a pedigree from Jesus College MS 20
includes Gwrgi and Peredur as brothers together with one Arthur penuchel. Their principal claim to fame rests on their having fought in the Battle of Arfderydd
. The Annales Cambriae
report that this battle (bellum Armterid) was fought in 573, but gives no further detail. A later expansion of the entry names Gwrgi and Peredur, both described as sons of Eliffer, as the chieftains on the victorious side and tells that Gwenddolau was defeated and slain in the battle. Under the year 580, the Annales Cambriae record the deaths of Gwrgi (Guurci) and his brother Peredur (Peretur). These references give them a place as heroes in the old Brythonic North or Hen Ogledd
of the late 6th century.
Further detail is supplied in later legendary traditions, notably those represented by the Welsh Triads
(Trioedd Ynys Prydein). One listing the three "Horse-Burdens" of Britain relates that Gwrgi, Peredur, Dunawd the Stout
and Cynfelyn Drwsgl were carried by a horse called Corvan, which enabled them to watch the clouds of dust ("battle-fog") coming from Gwenddolau and his (mounted) forces in the battle of Arfderydd. The circumstances in which Gwrgi and Peredur died are alluded to in a Triad which explains that they had one of "Three Faithless Warbands of the Island of Britain". Their warband abandoned them at Caer Greu on the day before a battle with Eda Glinmaur ("Great-Knee") and so they were slain. The Welsh Triads also refer to family relations. One on the "Three Fair Womb-Burdens" of Britain, preserved incompletely in Peniarth MS 47, suggests that Peredur and Gwrgi had a sister called Arddun, while a variant version in Peniarth MS 50 calls the third sibling Ceindrech Pen Asgell ("Wing-head") and names the mother Efrddyl verch Gynfarch. Peredur is said to have had a son by the name of Gwgon Gwron, called one of the three "Prostrate Chieftains" (Lledyf Vnben) because "they would not seek a dominion, which nobody could deny to them".
Still further allusions are found in early Welsh poetry. The poem Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin, which assumes the form of a dialogue between Myrddin Wyllt
(the prototype of Merlin
) and the poet Taliesin
, deals out praise to the brave "sons of Eliffer", saying that they did not avoid spears in the heat of battle. The apparent context is the battle of Arfderydd, where Myrddin fought as one of Gwenddolau's warriors, went mad from terror and in this way, acquired the gift of prophecy (see also Vita Merlini below). For some unknown reason, however, the poem extends the number of sons to seven. A warrior called Peredur is also listed in one of the younger sections of Y Gododdin
(awdl A.31), which shows him as one of the heroes to have died fighting in battle as a member of the warband of Mynyddog Mwynfawr
, chieftain of the Gododdin
in "the Old North"
. It has been argued that Peredur's appearance here may have been due to a tendency in the growth of the poem to draw personages known from such sources as the Annales Cambriae into the orbit of its subject matter, assuming he is the same Peredur.
, the author of the Historia regum Britanniae
, mentions a Peredur in his Vita Merlini
(The Life of Merlin), an account of Merlin
drawing heavily on narrative traditions about Myrddin Wyllt. In an early episode based clearly on the story of Arfderydd
, Peredur (Peredurus) is joined by his allies Merlin, king of the South Welsh, and Rhydderch, king of the Cumbrians, when he engages Gwenddolau (Guennolus), king of Scotland, in a battle at an unnamed site. Merlin loses three brothers and driven mad from grief, takes refuge in the woods. Peredur is here presented as prince of the North Welsh (dux Venedotorum) rather than a ruler in the British North.
In his earlier and more famous work, Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth also used the name Peredurus
for a legendary ruler of Britain who was the fifth and youngest son born to the legendary Morvidus
, king of the Britons. He is said to have conspired with his brother Ingenius to capture and oust their brother Elidurus
, locking him up in Trinovantum
. When the brothers divided the kingdom between them, Peredur became ruler over the part north of the Humber, including 'Alba
ny' (Scotland), and following Elidurus' death, succeeded to the entire kingdom.
In the same work, Geoffrey also includes one Peredur map Peridur among the leading magnates of the realm who attended King Arthur's plenary Court in the City of the Legion
.
ian world of Middle Welsh prose literature. The earliest such Arthurian text, Culhwch and Olwen
, does not mention Peredur in any of its extended catalogues of famous and less famous warriors. He is, however, the protagonist of a later Middle Welsh text, Peredur son of Efrawg
, which is one of the three Arthurian Welsh Romances
associated with the Mabinogion
, along with Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain and Geraint and Enid. It is generally acknowledged that the text is related to Chrétien de Troyes
' unfinished Old French poem Perceval
(c. 1181 x 1191), but the nature of this relation has been a topic of lively debate, notably the question if and to what extent the Welsh tale was adapted from Perceval. The earliest four manuscripts in which Peredur is contained are: Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales MS Peniarth 7, MS Peniarth 14, the White Book of Rhydderch
(MSS Peniarth 4 and 5), and the Red Book of Hergest
(Oxford, Jesus College MS 111). On orthographic grounds, Glenys Goetinck postulates a date in the 12th century, before the composition of Chrétien's poem, suggesting that Peredur is to be understood as an independent creation. Many other scholars, however, have favoured a later date. John Carey argues that "verbal parallels between the two stories are so close as to make it seem undeniable that the former [Peredur] drew upon the latter [Perceval]."
If Peredur corresponds with Chrétien's work in broad outlines, it also significantly diverges from it. In a large series of episodes, Peredur son of Efrawg tells the story of Peredur's education as a knight. It begins with his birth and secluded upbringing as a naive boy by his widowed mother. When he meets a group of knights, he joins them on their way to King Arthur's court. Once there, he is ridiculed by Cei
and sets out on further adventures, promising to avenge Cei's insults to himself and those who defended him. While travelling he meets two of his uncles. The first, who is analogous to the Gornemant
of Perceval, trains him in arms and warns him not to ask the significance of what he sees. The second uncle is analogous to Chrétien's Fisher King
, but what Peredur sees being carried before him in his uncle's castle is not a "grail" (Old French graal), but a salver containing a man's severed head. The text agrees with the French poem in listing a bleeding lance among the items which are carried in procession. The young knight does not ask about significance of these items and proceeds to further adventure, including a stay with the Nine Witches of Gloucester
and the encounter with the woman who was to be his true love, Angharad Golden-Hand. Peredur returns to Arthur's court, but soon embarks on another series of adventures that do not correspond to material in Perceval. Eventually, the hero learns the severed head at his uncle's court belonged to his cousin, who had been killed by the Nine Witches of Gloucester. Peredur avenges his family and is celebrated as a hero. Several elements in the story, such as the severed head on a salver, a hunt for a unicorn, the witches of Gloucester and a magical board of gwyddbwyl, have all been described as identifiably Celtic ingredients which are not otherwise present in Chrétien's story. Goetinck sees in Peredur a variant on the Celtic theme of the sovereignty goddess, who personifies the country and has to be won sexually by the rightful king or heir in order to secure peace and prosperity for the kingdom. N. Petrovskaia has recently suggested an alternative interpretation, linking the figure of the Empress with Empress Matilda
.
This Peredur makes brief cameo appearances elsewhere. The romance Geraint and Enid includes Peredur son of Efrawg in a list of warriors accompanying Geraint
, along with many of the greatest nobles of King Arthur's domain. A comparable list in the last pages of Breuddwyd Rhonabwy ("The Dream of Rhonabwy") refers to a Peredur Paladr Hir ("of the Long Spear-Shaft"), whom Peter Bartrum identifies as the same figure.
, who have been identified as literary transformations of the historical rulers Owain ab Urien and one of those called Gerontius or Geraint.
The origins of Perceval, called "the Welshman" (li Galois) and already present in Chrétien's first romance Erec
as Percevax li Galois, are equally difficult to explain. The names Perceval and Peredur are not alike, but Rachel Bromwich has suggested that Perceval is to be understood as only a "loose approximation" of the Welsh name, in much the same way as Gauvain and Guenievre are literary French garbles of – rather than direct loans from – Gwalchmai and Gwenhwyfar. R.S. Loomis, recently followed by John Carey, proposes that the Welsh forerunner is more likely to have been Pryderi
and that the latter was recast as Peredur by the author of Peredur son of Efrawg.
There appears to have been a late tradition about Peredur recorded by William Worcester
in the late 15th century. It says that Peredur founded the town of Pickering
in the North Riding of Yorkshire
(now North Yorkshire
). Considering the association of the Mabinogion
character with nearby York, he may have ruled a kingdom based on that city (then called Caer Ebrauc).
, another Peredur, called Peredur of Penweddig (a cantref of Ceredigion), occurs as the father of the legendary hero Môr.
Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity: the term "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a...
. The most well known of them appear in the following literary and historical sources:
Gwrgi and Peredur, sons of Eliffer
Gwrgi and Peredur are listed as sons of Eliffer (Old Welsh: Eleuthur) "of the great warband" (cascord maur) and as scions of the Coeling dynasty in the genealogies of Harleian MS 3859Harleian genealogies
The Harleian genealogies are a collection of Old Welsh genealogies preserved in British Library, Harleian MS 3859. Part of the Harleian Collection, the manuscript, which also contains the Annales Cambriae and a version of the Historia Brittonum, has been dated to c. 1100, although a date of c.1200...
, making them first cousins of Urien Rheged. Likewise, a pedigree from Jesus College MS 20
Genealogies from Jesus College MS 20
The genealogies from Jesus College MS 20 are a medieval Welsh collection of genealogies preserved in a single manuscript, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Jesus College, MS 20, folios 33r–41r...
includes Gwrgi and Peredur as brothers together with one Arthur penuchel. Their principal claim to fame rests on their having fought in the Battle of Arfderydd
Battle of Arfderydd
The Battle of Arfderydd was fought, according to the Annales Cambriae, in 573. The opposing armies are variously given in a number of Old Welsh sources, perhaps suggesting a number of allied armies were involved...
. The Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, is the name given to a complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles deriving ultimately from a text compiled from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales, not later than the 10th century...
report that this battle (bellum Armterid) was fought in 573, but gives no further detail. A later expansion of the entry names Gwrgi and Peredur, both described as sons of Eliffer, as the chieftains on the victorious side and tells that Gwenddolau was defeated and slain in the battle. Under the year 580, the Annales Cambriae record the deaths of Gwrgi (Guurci) and his brother Peredur (Peretur). These references give them a place as heroes in the old Brythonic North or Hen Ogledd
Hen Ogledd
Yr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh term used by scholars to refer to those parts of what is now northern England and southern Scotland in the years between 500 and the Viking invasions of c. 800, with particular interest in the Brythonic-speaking peoples who lived there.The term is derived from heroic...
of the late 6th century.
Further detail is supplied in later legendary traditions, notably those represented by the Welsh Triads
Welsh Triads
The Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness...
(Trioedd Ynys Prydein). One listing the three "Horse-Burdens" of Britain relates that Gwrgi, Peredur, Dunawd the Stout
Dunod Fawr
Dunod Fawr is a figure known from the Welsh Genealogies believed to have been a noble in the post-Roman Hen Ogledd. Dunod was a son of Pabo Post Prydain and is believed to have succeeded his father as ruler of a small polity somewhere in what is now the North of England, possibly in Lonsdale and/or...
and Cynfelyn Drwsgl were carried by a horse called Corvan, which enabled them to watch the clouds of dust ("battle-fog") coming from Gwenddolau and his (mounted) forces in the battle of Arfderydd. The circumstances in which Gwrgi and Peredur died are alluded to in a Triad which explains that they had one of "Three Faithless Warbands of the Island of Britain". Their warband abandoned them at Caer Greu on the day before a battle with Eda Glinmaur ("Great-Knee") and so they were slain. The Welsh Triads also refer to family relations. One on the "Three Fair Womb-Burdens" of Britain, preserved incompletely in Peniarth MS 47, suggests that Peredur and Gwrgi had a sister called Arddun, while a variant version in Peniarth MS 50 calls the third sibling Ceindrech Pen Asgell ("Wing-head") and names the mother Efrddyl verch Gynfarch. Peredur is said to have had a son by the name of Gwgon Gwron, called one of the three "Prostrate Chieftains" (Lledyf Vnben) because "they would not seek a dominion, which nobody could deny to them".
Still further allusions are found in early Welsh poetry. The poem Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin, which assumes the form of a dialogue between Myrddin Wyllt
Myrddin Wyllt
Myrddin Wyllt , Merlinus Caledonensis or Merlin Sylvestris is a figure in medieval Welsh legend, known as a prophet and a madman...
(the prototype of Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
) and the poet Taliesin
Taliesin
Taliesin was an early British poet of the post-Roman period whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin...
, deals out praise to the brave "sons of Eliffer", saying that they did not avoid spears in the heat of battle. The apparent context is the battle of Arfderydd, where Myrddin fought as one of Gwenddolau's warriors, went mad from terror and in this way, acquired the gift of prophecy (see also Vita Merlini below). For some unknown reason, however, the poem extends the number of sons to seven. A warrior called Peredur is also listed in one of the younger sections of Y Gododdin
Y Gododdin
Y Gododdin is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Britonnic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a place named Catraeth...
(awdl A.31), which shows him as one of the heroes to have died fighting in battle as a member of the warband of Mynyddog Mwynfawr
Mynyddog Mwynfawr
Mynyddog Mwynfawr was, according to Welsh tradition founded on the early Welsh language poem Y Gododdin a Brythonic ruler of the kingdom of Gododdin in the Hen Ogledd .The traditional reading of Y Gododdin, accepted by most scholars, is...
, chieftain of the Gododdin
Gododdin
The Gododdin were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britain in the sub-Roman period, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North...
in "the Old North"
Hen Ogledd
Yr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh term used by scholars to refer to those parts of what is now northern England and southern Scotland in the years between 500 and the Viking invasions of c. 800, with particular interest in the Brythonic-speaking peoples who lived there.The term is derived from heroic...
. It has been argued that Peredur's appearance here may have been due to a tendency in the growth of the poem to draw personages known from such sources as the Annales Cambriae into the orbit of its subject matter, assuming he is the same Peredur.
Geoffrey of Monmouth's Peredurs
Geoffrey of MonmouthGeoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...
, the author of the Historia regum Britanniae
Historia Regum Britanniae
The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...
, mentions a Peredur in his Vita Merlini
Vita Merlini
Vita Merlini, or The Life of Merlin, is a work by the Norman-Welsh author Geoffrey of Monmouth, composed in Latin around AD 1150. It retells incidents from the life of the Brythonic seer Merlin, and is based on traditional material about him....
(The Life of Merlin), an account of Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
drawing heavily on narrative traditions about Myrddin Wyllt. In an early episode based clearly on the story of Arfderydd
Battle of Arfderydd
The Battle of Arfderydd was fought, according to the Annales Cambriae, in 573. The opposing armies are variously given in a number of Old Welsh sources, perhaps suggesting a number of allied armies were involved...
, Peredur (Peredurus) is joined by his allies Merlin, king of the South Welsh, and Rhydderch, king of the Cumbrians, when he engages Gwenddolau (Guennolus), king of Scotland, in a battle at an unnamed site. Merlin loses three brothers and driven mad from grief, takes refuge in the woods. Peredur is here presented as prince of the North Welsh (dux Venedotorum) rather than a ruler in the British North.
In his earlier and more famous work, Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth also used the name Peredurus
Peredurus
Peredurus is a legendary king of the Britons in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudohistorical chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae. According to Geoffrey he was the youngest son of King Morvidus and brother of Gorbonianus, Archgallo, Elidurus, and Ingenius....
for a legendary ruler of Britain who was the fifth and youngest son born to the legendary Morvidus
Morvidus
Morvidus was a legendary king of the Britons from 341 to 336 B.C., as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the illegitimate son of Danius by his mistress Tanguesteaia....
, king of the Britons. He is said to have conspired with his brother Ingenius to capture and oust their brother Elidurus
Elidurus
Elidurus the Dutiful was a legendary king of the Britons as accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the third son of King Morvidus and brother of Gorbonianus, Archgallo, Ingenius, and Peredurus....
, locking him up in Trinovantum
Trinovantum
Trinovantum, in medieval British legend, is the name given to London in earliest times. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae it was founded by the exiled Trojan Brutus, who called it Troia Nova , which gradually corrupted to Trinovantum...
. When the brothers divided the kingdom between them, Peredur became ruler over the part north of the Humber, including 'Alba
Alba
Alba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is cognate to Alba in Irish and Nalbin in Manx, the two other Goidelic Insular Celtic languages, as well as similar words in the Brythonic Insular Celtic languages of Cornish and Welsh also meaning Scotland.- Etymology :The term first appears in...
ny' (Scotland), and following Elidurus' death, succeeded to the entire kingdom.
In the same work, Geoffrey also includes one Peredur map Peridur among the leading magnates of the realm who attended King Arthur's plenary Court in the City of the Legion
Caerleon
Caerleon is a suburban village and community, situated on the River Usk in the northern outskirts of the city of Newport, South Wales. Caerleon is a site of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable Roman legionary fortress, Isca Augusta, and an Iron Age hill fort...
.
Peredur son of Efrawg (Middle Welsh Arthurian romance)
The Peredur who is most familiar to a modern audience is the character of this name who made his entrance as a knight in the ArthurKing Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
ian world of Middle Welsh prose literature. The earliest such Arthurian text, Culhwch and Olwen
Culhwch and Olwen
Culhwch and Olwen is a Welsh tale about a hero connected with Arthur and his warriors that survives in only two manuscripts: a complete version in the Red Book of Hergest, ca. 1400, and a fragmented version in the White Book of Rhydderch, ca. 1325. It is the longest of the surviving Welsh prose...
, does not mention Peredur in any of its extended catalogues of famous and less famous warriors. He is, however, the protagonist of a later Middle Welsh text, Peredur son of Efrawg
Peredur son of Efrawg
Peredur son of Efrawg is one of the three Welsh Romances associated with the Mabinogion. It tells a story roughly analogous to Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished romance Perceval, the Story of the Grail, but it contains many striking differences from that work, most notably the absence of the French...
, which is one of the three Arthurian Welsh Romances
Welsh Romances
The Three Welsh Romances are three Middle Welsh tales associated with the Mabinogion. They are versions of Arthurian tales that also appear in the work of Chrétien de Troyes. Critics have debated whether the Welsh Romances are based on Chrétien's poems or if they derive from a shared original...
associated with the Mabinogion
Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
, along with Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain and Geraint and Enid. It is generally acknowledged that the text is related to Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
' unfinished Old French poem Perceval
Perceval, the Story of the Grail
Perceval, the Story of the Grail is the unfinished fifth romance of Chrétien de Troyes. Probably written between 1181 and 1191, it is dedicated to Chrétien's patron Philip, Count of Flanders...
(c. 1181 x 1191), but the nature of this relation has been a topic of lively debate, notably the question if and to what extent the Welsh tale was adapted from Perceval. The earliest four manuscripts in which Peredur is contained are: Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales MS Peniarth 7, MS Peniarth 14, the White Book of Rhydderch
White Book of Rhydderch
The White Book of Rhydderch is one of the most notable and celebrated manuscripts in Welsh. Written in the middle of the fourteenth century it is the earliest collection of Welsh prose texts, though it also contains some examples of early Welsh poetry...
(MSS Peniarth 4 and 5), and the Red Book of Hergest
Red Book of Hergest
The Red Book of Hergest is a large vellum manuscript written shortly after 1382, which ranks as one of the most important medieval manuscripts written in the Welsh language. It preserves a collection of Welsh prose and poetry, notably the tales of the Mabinogion, Gogynfeirdd poetry...
(Oxford, Jesus College MS 111). On orthographic grounds, Glenys Goetinck postulates a date in the 12th century, before the composition of Chrétien's poem, suggesting that Peredur is to be understood as an independent creation. Many other scholars, however, have favoured a later date. John Carey argues that "verbal parallels between the two stories are so close as to make it seem undeniable that the former [Peredur] drew upon the latter [Perceval]."
If Peredur corresponds with Chrétien's work in broad outlines, it also significantly diverges from it. In a large series of episodes, Peredur son of Efrawg tells the story of Peredur's education as a knight. It begins with his birth and secluded upbringing as a naive boy by his widowed mother. When he meets a group of knights, he joins them on their way to King Arthur's court. Once there, he is ridiculed by Cei
CEI
CEI may stand for:* IATA airport code for Chiang Rai International Airport* Conferenza Episcopale Italiana* Central European Initiative* Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company...
and sets out on further adventures, promising to avenge Cei's insults to himself and those who defended him. While travelling he meets two of his uncles. The first, who is analogous to the Gornemant
Gornemant
Gornemant was Percival's mentor in Arthurian legend. He is mentioned in a few early romances, but achieves prominence in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail, where he instructs the young hero in the ways of knighthood...
of Perceval, trains him in arms and warns him not to ask the significance of what he sees. The second uncle is analogous to Chrétien's Fisher King
Fisher King
The Fisher King, or the Wounded King, figures in Arthurian legend as the latest in a line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin, and incapable of moving on his own...
, but what Peredur sees being carried before him in his uncle's castle is not a "grail" (Old French graal), but a salver containing a man's severed head. The text agrees with the French poem in listing a bleeding lance among the items which are carried in procession. The young knight does not ask about significance of these items and proceeds to further adventure, including a stay with the Nine Witches of Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
and the encounter with the woman who was to be his true love, Angharad Golden-Hand. Peredur returns to Arthur's court, but soon embarks on another series of adventures that do not correspond to material in Perceval. Eventually, the hero learns the severed head at his uncle's court belonged to his cousin, who had been killed by the Nine Witches of Gloucester. Peredur avenges his family and is celebrated as a hero. Several elements in the story, such as the severed head on a salver, a hunt for a unicorn, the witches of Gloucester and a magical board of gwyddbwyl, have all been described as identifiably Celtic ingredients which are not otherwise present in Chrétien's story. Goetinck sees in Peredur a variant on the Celtic theme of the sovereignty goddess, who personifies the country and has to be won sexually by the rightful king or heir in order to secure peace and prosperity for the kingdom. N. Petrovskaia has recently suggested an alternative interpretation, linking the figure of the Empress with Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...
.
This Peredur makes brief cameo appearances elsewhere. The romance Geraint and Enid includes Peredur son of Efrawg in a list of warriors accompanying Geraint
Geraint
Geraint is a character from Welsh folklore and Arthurian legend, a king of Dumnonia and a valiant warrior. He may have lived during or shortly prior to the reign of the historical Arthur, but some scholars doubt he ever existed...
, along with many of the greatest nobles of King Arthur's domain. A comparable list in the last pages of Breuddwyd Rhonabwy ("The Dream of Rhonabwy") refers to a Peredur Paladr Hir ("of the Long Spear-Shaft"), whom Peter Bartrum identifies as the same figure.
Sources and analogues
A great deal of scholarly discussion has focused on the relation of the Arthurian figure called Peredur to (1) the sixth-century Peredur son of Eliffer and (2) to Chrétien's Grail hero Perceval. The Peredur of Welsh romance differs from the Coeling chieftain if only in that his father is here called Efrawg rather than Eliffer and there is no sign of a brother called Gwrgi. Efrawg, on the other hand, is not an ordinary personal name, but the historical Welsh name for the city of York (Latin Eburacum, modern Welsh Efrog). This may represent an epithet which originally denoted his local association, possibly pointing to Eliffer's son as the prototype, but which came to be understood and used as a patronymic in the Welsh Arthurian tales. This background would align him with the characters of the other two Welsh romances, Owain and perhaps GeraintGeraint
Geraint is a character from Welsh folklore and Arthurian legend, a king of Dumnonia and a valiant warrior. He may have lived during or shortly prior to the reign of the historical Arthur, but some scholars doubt he ever existed...
, who have been identified as literary transformations of the historical rulers Owain ab Urien and one of those called Gerontius or Geraint.
The origins of Perceval, called "the Welshman" (li Galois) and already present in Chrétien's first romance Erec
Erec
Sir Erec, the son of King Lac, is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He features in numerous Arthurian tales , but he is most famous as the protagonist in Chrétien de Troyes' first romance, Erec and Enide...
as Percevax li Galois, are equally difficult to explain. The names Perceval and Peredur are not alike, but Rachel Bromwich has suggested that Perceval is to be understood as only a "loose approximation" of the Welsh name, in much the same way as Gauvain and Guenievre are literary French garbles of – rather than direct loans from – Gwalchmai and Gwenhwyfar. R.S. Loomis, recently followed by John Carey, proposes that the Welsh forerunner is more likely to have been Pryderi
Pryderi
Pryderi fab Pwyll is a prominent figure in Welsh mythology, the son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, and king of Dyfed following his father's death. He is the only character to appear in all Four Branches of the Mabinogi, although the size of his role varies from tale to tale...
and that the latter was recast as Peredur by the author of Peredur son of Efrawg.
There appears to have been a late tradition about Peredur recorded by William Worcester
William Worcester
William Worcester , was an English chronicler and antiquary.-Life:He was a son of William of Worcester, a Bristol citizen, and is sometimes called William Botoner, his mother being a daughter of Thomas Botoner from Catalonia....
in the late 15th century. It says that Peredur founded the town of Pickering
Pickering, North Yorkshire
Pickering is an ancient market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of the county of North Yorkshire, England, on the border of the North York Moors National Park. It sits at the foot of the Moors, overlooking the Vale of Pickering to the south...
in the North Riding of Yorkshire
North Riding of Yorkshire
The North Riding of Yorkshire was one of the three historic subdivisions of the English county of Yorkshire, alongside the East and West Ridings. From the Restoration it was used as a Lieutenancy area. The three ridings were treated as three counties for many purposes, such as having separate...
(now North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
). Considering the association of the Mabinogion
Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
character with nearby York, he may have ruled a kingdom based on that city (then called Caer Ebrauc).
Other
In the Englynion y BeddauEnglynion y Beddau
The Englynion y Beddau is a Middle Welsh verse catalogue listing the resting places of legendary heroes. It consists of a series of englynion, or short stanzas in quantitative meter, and survives in a number of manuscripts...
, another Peredur, called Peredur of Penweddig (a cantref of Ceredigion), occurs as the father of the legendary hero Môr.
Primary sources
- Annales CambriaeAnnales CambriaeAnnales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, is the name given to a complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles deriving ultimately from a text compiled from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales, not later than the 10th century...
(Recension A), ed. . - Harleian genealogiesHarleian genealogiesThe Harleian genealogies are a collection of Old Welsh genealogies preserved in British Library, Harleian MS 3859. Part of the Harleian Collection, the manuscript, which also contains the Annales Cambriae and a version of the Historia Brittonum, has been dated to c. 1100, although a date of c.1200...
, ed. . - Welsh TriadsWelsh TriadsThe Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness...
, ed. and tr. Rachel BromwichRachel BromwichRachel Bromwich was a British scholar. Her focus was on medieval Welsh literature, and was Emeritus Reader in Celtic Languages and Literature at the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge until her death...
(1978, revised ed. 1991). Trioedd Ynys Prydein. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1978. - Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesin, ed. A.O.H. Jarman and E.D. Jones, Llyfr du Caerfyrddin. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1982.
- Geoffrey of Monmouth, Vita Merlini, ed. and tr. Basil Clarke, The Life of Merlin. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1973. Translation reproduced online at Celtic Literature Collective.
- Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae, ed. Acton Griscom and J.R. Ellis, The Historia regum Britanniæ of Geoffrey of Monmouth with contributions to the study of its place in early British history. London, 1929; tr. Lewis Thorpe, Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. London, 1966.
- Peredur son of EfrawgPeredur son of EfrawgPeredur son of Efrawg is one of the three Welsh Romances associated with the Mabinogion. It tells a story roughly analogous to Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished romance Perceval, the Story of the Grail, but it contains many striking differences from that work, most notably the absence of the French...
, ed. Glenys W. Goetinck, Historia Peredur vab Efrawc. University of Wales, 1976. - Englynion y BeddauEnglynion y BeddauThe Englynion y Beddau is a Middle Welsh verse catalogue listing the resting places of legendary heroes. It consists of a series of englynion, or short stanzas in quantitative meter, and survives in a number of manuscripts...
, ed. and tr. Thomas Jones, "The Black Book of Carmarthen 'Stanzas of the Graves'." Proceedings of the British AcademyProceedings of the British AcademyThe Proceedings of the British Academy is a peer-reviewed academic journal. The publication consists of conference proceedings and lectures, and several of the individual volumes have their own unique titles. Articles from volume 51 onwards are available as PDF files for members, with the first...
53 (1967). pp. 97–137. External link.