#culhwch and olwen

[wildbasil]

everyone say hello to creiddylad! 🥰👋🥳🥳🥳🥳

#creiddylad ferch lludd #welsh mythology #arthuriana #culhwch and olwen #gwyn ap nudd #the mabinogion #celtic mythology #digital art #artists on tumblr #i hope you like her 🥺🙏💖 #i was going to wait until may day to post her but i just couldn't wait i'm sorry #of course designing her was easy #i simply thought “what sort of lady would i spend the rest of existence fighting over 😌😌💕” #art tag #anyway. i would die for her

[kvetch19]

the negotiation 1999

#art #dark art #1990s art #90s art #20th century art #dark #spooky art #Culhwch and Olwen #welsh #welsh artist #Culhwch ac Olwen #folklore #folk stories #folk art #wales #boar

[queer-ragnelle]

The Quest For Olwen by Gwyn Thomas & Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Margaret Jones PDF available to read. Enjoy!

ID: "We must go and rescue him," said Arthur. Arthur and his warriors went with Culhwch and the other knights to the river. This time it was Cai and Bedwyr who traveled up the river to Gloucester on the Salmon's back. The rest went by another route. [image of Cai and Bedwyr riding the giant salmon]

Find more Arthurian retellings to read on my blog.

#arthurian legend #arthurian legends #arthuriana #the mabinogion #culhwch and olwen #king arthur #sir kay #sir cai #sir bedwyr #sir bedivere #gwyn thomas #kevin crossley-holland #margaret jones #arthurian preservation project #book scans by L #my post

[yoga-onion]

Legends and myths about trees

Celtic beliefs in trees (15)

H for Huath (Hawthorn) - May 13th - June 9th

“May tree - Sixth month of the Celtic tree calendar (Ref)”

colour: midnight blue; Gem: lapis lazuli; Gender: female; Patrons: Olwen, Blodeuedd, Chaldean, Humen, Selene, Virgin Mary; Symbols: love + marriage, fertility + birth, reproduction, heart

The short, thorny, graceful hawthorn. The slender hawthorn trunk and branches twist as the years go by. In winter they are particularly beautiful, standing clinging to misty wildernesses and craggy rocky outcrops, or clustered on open ranges of hills that their appearance is spectacular. Leaves and flowers appear simultaneously in May, signalling the change of season from spring to summer. Hawthorn flowers bloom in clusters, so that at the height of spring, rows of white froth run across the fields and mountains, a scene aptly captured by the English writer H. E. Bates as 'the fluffy cream floating in May'.

In spring, when the hawthorn flowers are in full bloom, the air releases a musky, sweet, rich fragrance all around. Small round berries turn burgundy in autumn.

In Ireland, hawthorn is still cherished as a magical tree protected by the fairy kingdom. Tradition has it that if you cut down a single hawthorn tree standing alone in a field or burial mound, you will lose your livestock and household possessions.

Hawthorn trees protect wells and springs as fairy trees. The beautiful flowers of hawthorn are also said to deliver prayers to the heavens. Even today, many people tie rags and other items to hawthorn trees standing near wells and springs, wishing for good luck or that their love will reach the person they love.

Before Christianity, hawthorn was the supreme fertility symbol and at the May Festival, people confided their love, danced to their heart's content and made love in the woods. Among the Celts, spring was the season for marriage, and it was customary to bring a bouquet of hawthorn flowers to weddings to ensure that the couple would be blessed with children.

In Britain, the earliest known hawthorn goddess was Olwen ('white footprints'), a woman of courage, wit and beauty. The well-known mythological tale of Culhwch and Olwen, in which King Arthur's cousin, Culhwch, overcame 40 impossible tasks that seemed virtually unattainable set out by Olwen's father, the giant king, Yspaddaden, and marry his beloved Olwen.

As the beautiful, white hawthorn flowers opened, people celebrated the power of nature and love to bring new life into the world and marvelled at the miracles of sexual activity, pregnancy and childbirth. For the Celts, sexual activity, pregnancy and childbirth were not something to be ashamed of, but an essential part of life and a sacred expression that one could love.

木にまつわる伝説・神話

ケルト人の樹木の信仰 (15)

HはHuath (ｻﾝｻﾞｼ) - 5月13日 - 6月9日

『5月の木〜 ケルトの木の暦（参照）の第6月』

色: ミッドナイト・ブルー; 宝石: ラピスラズリ; 性: 女性; 守護神: オルェン、ブロダイウェズ、カルデア、ヒュメン、セレネ、聖母マリア; シンボル: 愛＋結婚、豊穣＋出産、生殖、心臓

背丈が低くとげをもった優雅なサンザシ。ほっそりとしたサンザシの幹や枝は、年が経つにつれてねじれていく。冬になるとその姿は特に美しく、霧の立ち込めた荒野や、ごつごつとした岩の露頭にしがみつくように立つ姿、また広々と連なる丘に群れをなしている様子は、見事というより他はない。葉と花は5月に同時に姿を現し、春から夏に季節が変わることを知らせている。サンザシの花は群れを成して咲くことから、春の盛り、白い泡立ちの列が野山を縦横に走り、その様子を英国人作家のH・E・ベイツは、「五月に浮かび上がるふわふわしたクリーム」と的確に表現している。

春、サンザシの花が満開になると、麝香 (じゃこう)のような甘く濃厚な香りがあたり一面に放たれる。小さな丸い実は、秋になるとワインレッドに変わる。

アイルランドでは今もなお、サンザシは妖精の国に守られた魔法の木として大切にされている。野原や埋葬塚に一本だけぽつんと立っているサンザシの木を切ると家畜を失うか家財を無くすという伝承もある。

サンザシは妖精の木として、井戸や泉を守っている。また、サンザシの美しい花は祈りを天まで届けてくれるという。現在でも井戸や泉のそばに立つサンザシには、幸運が訪れるますように、あるいは好きな人に思いが届きますようにと願う大勢の人々が、布きれや品物を結び付けている。

キリスト教以前は、サンザシは最高の豊穣のシンボルであり、5月祭には、人々は愛を打ち明け、心ゆくまで踊り明かし、森で愛を交わした。ケルト人の間で春は結婚の季節であり、夫婦が子宝に恵まれるように、結婚式にはサンザシの花束を持っていく習慣があった。

英国では、サンザシの女神として最も古くから知られているのが、勇気と機転と美貌の持ち主、オルェン (‘白い足跡’の意)。アーサー王の従兄弟であるキルフーフが、オルェンの父である巨人の王アスパザデンが課した事実上達成不可能と思われる40の無理難題を克服し、愛するオルウェンと結婚した神話『キルフーフとオルェン』がよく知られている。

美しく、そして白いサンザシの花が開くと、人々は、新しい命を宿す自然と愛の力を祝福し、性の営み、妊娠、出産という奇蹟に驚きの声を上げた。ケルト人にとって、性行為や妊娠、出産は恥ずべきことではなく、人生になくてはならない大切な一部であり、人は愛することができるということの神聖な表現であった。

#trees #tree legend #tree myth #celtic mythology #celtic calender #hawthorn #may tree #magical tree #fairy tree #culhwch and olwen #legend #mythology #folklore #white footprints #philosophy #nature #art

[gawrkin]

Let's give a good round of appreciation for Camelot's answer to the Flash: Bedivere

Other translations of Culhwch and Olwen read:

For Comparison, here are Guinevere's servants, Ysgyrdaf and Ysgudydd:

Apparently, these two aren't as fast as Arthur and Bedivere...

#kay gets hype for having superpowers #why not bedi? #sir bedivere #bedwyr bedrydant #welsh myth #culhwch and olwen #arthuriana #arthurian legend #arthurian mythology #arthurian legends

[grail-lifesupport]

New niche characters just dropped! Sanddef angel face (the blonde one) and Morfran son of Tegid (the guy with the horns)! the two guys who didn’t die at the end of arthur’s reign cause one was too pretty and the other wasn’t :[

source: Culhwch and Olwen

Sandde angel face: Haha don’t kill me Im too pretty to die

Morfran: :] I’m going to have ya for, i mean with, dinner

#arthuriana #sanddef angel face #Morfran #Sanddef #arthurian literature #art #arthurian meme #comic #knights am i right #culhwch and olwen

[knightsofsomethingorother]

Culhwch and Olwen Part 7

She's the daughter of a giant so I think she'd be Tall.

#arthuriana #arthurian shitposting #arthurian meme #culhwch and olwen #culhwch #olwen

[birdsofrhiannon]

#culhwch and olwen #margaret jones #mabinogion #welsh mythology #celtic mythology #celtic #mythology

[sunshinemoonrx]

Cai, Bedwyr and company

So pretty much ever since this post about the original folkloric magical-warrior Arthur, I've been doodling designs for other characters surrounding him (and that real good art I rb'd yesterday kicked my ass into wanting to upload them finally).

Of the companions of the Welsh version of Arthur, Cai (or Cei/Kei) has to top the list. Most magical guy in the world. Per Culhwch & Olwen dude has heat and cold powers, he can grow giant, he can survive underwater for nine days. He fought a giant cat once. (It's actually kind of interesting that he later was adapted into the boorish, incompetent Sir Kay because of how amazing he originally was; it's the classic anime rival bit where you can show how cool your new OC, Lancelot or whoever, is by having him be better than the existing best guy)

I was already leaning into the "slutty magical anime boys" aesthetic and, with characters like this who only appear once the legendary Welsh versions of the 9th century on get into full swing, I felt more license to go further with that (whereas my Arthur and Trwyth look slightly more down-to-earth because they appears even earlier as small-scale local figures).

So my concept for Cai is that since he can generate heat from his skin so intense no rain can touch him without evaporating, by anime girl character design logic obviously he has to leave his back and shoulders and thighs uncovered since that's where I'm having his wings of magical flame project from.

The hair gave me a little trouble--I briefly thought I could give him two-coloured hair to reflect his heat/cold thing, but then I remembered one of the popular HeroAca guys is a two-colour-hair fire-ice-powers guy so I hard-swerved away from treading on those toes. In the end I settled on the MILFy ponytail at the bottom since it'd keep his hair clear of his back, since again, it's very logical and strategically important for the skin there to be bare.

The gloves and metal bands, meanwhile, are meant to be like a shadow the hedgehog power-limiter kinda deal, where he can take them off to unleash his full elemental power. That works with gloves but not really the boots, but I didn't want to lose the symmetry, but then! A piece of medieval Welsh poetry gave me inspiration for another function, and a way to make the design hornier I guess.

One of the Triads of Britain refers to the Three Fettered Men of the Isle of Britain: "Because horses could not be obtained that were suited to them, owing to their size; so they put fetters of gold around the small of their legs, on the cruppers of their horses, behind their backs".

Cai isn't one of the three, but in addition to his main epithet "Cai Wyn" ("worthy Cai", or "Cai the Fair", so it's important he's hot you see), he's also known as "Cai Hir" ("Cai the Tall"), which may be a reference to his ability to grow giant, and fits the 'reasoning' in the Triad. So the bands on his legs became fetters of gold, and my idea is he releases his power by breaking the chain to do his Ultraman rise.

A "crupper", meanwhile, seems to be like, an ass-harness? Sure, that fits the vibe we've ended up at. I figured that can be what he slings his sword from, and then spent...a while trying to figure out the logistics of that. So y'know I had to draw his hips and ass a bunch. For science.

As you can see, there's a couple of attempts to render the leotard as chainmail; one story, Rhonabwy's Dream, describes Cai as wearing mail of pure white rings with pure red rivets, which sounds gorgeous but I dunno how to draw white chainmail so I mostly gave up. He can wear one over the other, I guess?

In Culhwch, Cai (who is the best sword-maker in the world, naturally) forges a sword for the giant Wrnach Gawr, then kills him with it and takes it, so I figured that'd be a cool weapon to give him. Cai asks if he'd like it to be white-bladed or dark-blue-bladed, and Wrnach answers "whichever way you prefer"; we never find out what that is, so I thought an asymmetrical design incorporating both would be fun.

Anyway, here's another friend: Bedwyr! Precursor to Sir Bedivere, Bedwyr is Cai's constant companion, who "never feared a quest that Cai went on". Do Not separate them. He's the Fast Guy; though he has one hand, he can draw blood three times faster than anyone can with two; by the time you notice he's stabbed you once, he's stabbed you another seven times, etc. He's also noted as the most beautiful man in all the land (except Arthur, and one other guy whose name never comes up anywhere else).

I had kinda wanted to give Cai lots of hair volume but was thwarted by the bare-back thing so I made that Bedwyr's thing, and he's gotta be a spear guy given the above (another fun thing is his spearhead can fly off and stab guys on its own then come back to him). Another Triad calls Cai one of the "Three Diademed Battle-Leaders of the Isle of Britain", but adds after giving the three that "And one was diademed above the three of them: that was Bedwyr son of Bedrawc." So that's why they both have little tiaras, and while I flip back and forth on the look I settled on making Bedwyr's a little fancier and Cai's simpler to conform with the poem.

So that's how we arrive at what I consider my final designs for these two lovebirds (one poet tells us Bedwyr's death left Cai "heartbroken"); in the end I prefer the sword-harness just looking like a simple belt from the front, and I added some boots? Thigh-socks? Something?? to Bedwyr to break up the design a bit. The asymmetry of them to conform with his tunic's skirt is inspired by Marin from Saint Seiya, who really rocks the asymmetrical leggings.

And on the right is an initial go at Gwenhwyfar, precursor to Guinivere (and I try to respect the Welsh spellings and pronounciations generally, but I may sometimes refer to her as just "Gwen" in this case). I was inspired by a fragmentary dialogue between her and an antagonistic warrior Melwas (who spends half the dialogue trying to fight Cai actually), where he calls her "Gwenhwyfar of the deer's glance", which brought a vision of a spooky lanky cryptid lady with all-black too-long eyes to mind.

The battle of Camlann was said to be brought about by conflict between Gwenhwyfar and her sister Gwenhwyfach, and a blow struck by the latter to the former, but they might also be like...reflections of the same person's good and bad sides or something?? It's all very murky. In any case, I couldn't stop thinking of Gwen as someone who punches dudes, and the main other instance of that in Welsh legends are their versions of "witches", who wear armour and kill with iron claws. Gwen's mother is a member of the Roman nobility, so I thought fuck it, let's get real wacky and ahistorical and dress her like a cestus-wielding gladiator. Roman influence, iron claws, punching dudes, it all comes together.

Oh, and her father is a giant, so I drew a little Arthur to scale at the bottom to show she's inherited some of that too. I wanna draw her more and refine this, make her spookier (one Triad presents her as being three people? Or Arthur just had three wives with the same name? It might just be a pun? Unclear???) But for now, here's one final page of assorted stuff, presented a couple ways up for clarity:

So there's another Bedwyr; below him, the Cath Palug, the giant cat Cai fights in the poem Pa Gur, which I do intend to do a big funky monster design for, but much like Trwyth in the first post, I had fun doing a human one too. What, am I not gonna draw a catgirl when I can draw a catgirl?

From the other angle, there's Melwas, foe of Cai and Gwen mentioned above. He describes himself as young, and Gwen calls him a "lad of black and yellow", so I made him a twink with dyed hair, but I'll do a more full design later. Probably not before doing Cai's fight with the Cath Palug though.

Caledfwlch, the pre-Excalibur, I drew before, but I did a more ostentatious version here based on its description in Rhonabwy's Dream, where drawing it is like flames leaping forth from the jaws of the serpents whose designs were on it, so blinding no-one could look at it. I like to imagine it having the more humble look until the critical moment when it reveals its true form.

Aaaaand then there's Arthur on a motorbike. (You may have noticed there's one of these way further up in this post in one of the Cai pages) This is just me continuing to think about that idea from the last post about him popping back up in the modern day. Mostly what I orbit around is that he'd defeat whatever evil wizard he was summoned to deal with and then people would be like "so your job is done?" and he'd be like "what? no, the world is clearly in grave peril" and start running around destroying fossil fuel infrastructure. In fact I have a real hankering to make that a comic, but I'd need to be like, an actual artist for that.

So anyway the idea is he gets the spirit of his horse (Llamrei) to inhabit the bike, enabling it to do sick physics-defying stunts. Here's another for the road in fact:

(Wow, Cat, do you like Kamen Rider or something?)

#arthuriana #king arthur #catia learns to draw #culhwch and olwen

[thelastofthebookworms]

My tag for this series is 'fairy tales'.

#polls #fairy tales #folktales #culhwch and olwen #culhwch ac olwen #the firebird and princess vasilisa #noori jam tamachi #the tinderbox #the snail bride #ureongi gaksi #cola pesce #nicholas fish #the three princes of serendip #the wolf and the fox #the witch in the stone boat

[wildbasil]

question 1. do you like my funky little gwyn ap nudd pin badge?

question 2. would you perhaps be interested in buying one??? 🥺💖

#mainly culhwch ac olwen inspired ✌️ #welsh mythology #arthuriana #culhwch and olwen #gwyn ap nudd #medieval literature #celtic mythology #i might change the design a bit. make dormarch's tendril things smaller #it's shiny and made of steel 😌🌟

[joemerl]

The Whumps of March 2024: "Curses"

A series of vignettes based on Arthurian legend, collected on AO3 here.

Culhwch was under a curse, technically. He could not marry anyone but Olwen. And it had felt like a curse, back when he longed for someone whom he had never met, unable to look at any woman without comparing her to an unseen beauty haunting the back of his mind. 

Now that he had seen Olwen and spoken to her, it seemed more like a blessing. He would have to thank his stepmother the next time that he saw her. It was only these endless tasks, and the slim possibility of him not wedding Olwen at the end of them, that occasionally plagued his mind.

He was thinking about curses, however, as he stared down Twrch Trwyth.

He had been a prince once, according to legend. A violent, degenerate man, transformed into a monstrous boar as punishment for his sins. Not like Culhwch, who had been cursed from sheer pettiness. But still, he felt uneasy.

Are you still in there, Prince Twrch, aware of what you're doing? Or are you just a beast now, bereft of thought and enslaved to animal instinct?

As Kay had noted, it didn't really matter. If he was a beast, he could be slaughtered like one. If he was a man inside, well, he was still on a rampage and killing innocent people. After all, he had acted like a monster even when he wore a human form.

But still, Culhwch couldn't help but feel a small twinge of sympathy. He remembered those tortured days, his mind enslaved to a woman whom he had no way to attain. Whatever Twrch Trwyth was like these days, he was probably going through worse.

#TheWhumpsOfMarch2024 #Whump #Arthurian mythology #Arthurian legend #Culhwch and Olwen #Culhwch #Twrch Trwyth

[queer-ragnelle]

So who among the Arthurian characters is into cottagecore? Morgan has to be right?

hi!

you know what i'm gonna have to disagree. i don't think morgan's affiliation to magic and nickname "le fay" are enough, especially bc she prides herself on a lofty status that elevates her above the humble rural living that cottagecore romanticizes. i mean here she is in the vulgate proclaiming herself a king's daughter (isn't she the daughter of duke gorlois?) while she prepares to kill her husband and get away with it.

queen shit. here are some characters i think would be into cottagecore.

arthur: when thomas berger wrote him as loving his simple life in wales with his family and sleeping out with the dogs and genuinely relishing his modest upbringing with his foster brother? i felt that.

blanchefleur: she definitely named herself "white flower" after her own garden's award winning blossoms at the county fair. she bottles it for perfume too, if you're interested. perceval always keeps a little vial around his neck so he can smell it and think of her while on quest or when he gets lost on his way to take out the trash. thanks wifey.

brangaine and palamedes: whether or not she can actually achieve this lifestyle whilst in the service of isolde, she definitely dreams of fleeing to the countryside with palamedes. it also makes his commute shorter (cottage is on the edge of the enchanted woods in which the questing beast roams).

culhwch and olwen: after the nightmarish tasks they underwent just to get married they absolutely retired far away from court life where those shenanigans wouldn't reach their children.

dindrane: she's the quintessential nun, one who didn't learn necromancy. she enjoys all the typical stuff expected in a remote hermitage; gardening, baking, making wine, going on an adventure bilbo style complete with chaotic means and tragic ends, bird watching.

fisher king and elaine: since the queen passed away they just want more father and daughter bonding time out on the boat to fish. they catch dinner in their little pond and take it home to cook and go to sleep happy. they do the same thing again the next day without any obligations besides living. nothing bad happens.

green knight and wife: pretty sure they invented cottagecore or at least introduced the concept into the realm. they have their own line of cottagecore starter kits with little seeds to grow personalized mini gardens for a country oasis even in the discomfort of your monarch-sanctioned barracks. so what if the plants they sell are annuals and you have to buy a new one every year. aren't you committed to the aesthetic?

isolde and tristan: did they or did they not smash in that grotto like their lives depended on it? i rest my case.

merlin: have you read mary stewart's merlin trilogy? my guy wanted the quiet life so bad it made him look stupid. he died as he lived, in the middle of fucking nowhere. say what we will he committed to the bit to the very end.

tor: he is literally a cowboy farmer kid turned knight. actually forget the whole list he's the only one.

thanks for the ask!

#arthurian legend #arthuriana #arthurian legends #arturian mythology #cottagecore #morgan le fay #king arthur #blanchfleur #brangaine #sir palamedes #sir palomides #culhwch and olwen #dindrane #the fisher king #elaine of corbenic #the green knight #lady bertilak #queen isolde #isolde #sir tristan #merlin #sir tor #ask #gawrkin

[tiodolma]

Did Kai just use Body Replacement Jutsu on the woman?

And when she met them she sought to throw her arms about their necks. And Kai placed the log between her two hands, and she squeezed it so that it became a twisted coil.

lmao he did

#Culhwch and Olwen #kilhwch and olwen #arthuriana #mabinogion #kai #sir kay #kawarimi no jutsu'd indeed

[oddnub-eye]

What the fuck are you three doing in Culhwch and Olwen

#odd does arthuriana class #arthuriana #culhwch and olwen

[grail-lifesupport]

Very cute that Kay and Bedivere immediately adopted this lil kid but both Kay and Bedivere have 4 children already, Garanwyn, Celemon, Amren and Eneuog. 5 if you count Kay's son Gronosis from Chrétien de Troyes.

Good lord they have too many children.

Source: Culhwch ac Olwen

Erec and Enide

#arthuriana #arthurian shitposting #arthurian meme #kay #culhwch and olwen #sir kay #sir bedivere #bedivere #bedwyr #arthurian literature #arthurian legends #comic