Welsh mythology Welsh mythology (also commonly known as ''Y Chwedlau'', meaning "The Legends") consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of t ...

, Gwythyr ap Greidawl was a rival of

Gwyn ap Nudd Gwyn ap Nudd (, sometimes found with the antiquated spelling Gwynn ap Nudd) is a Welsh mythological figure, the king of the '' Tylwyth Teg'' or " fair folk" and ruler of the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn, and whose name means “Gwyn, son of Nudd”. D ...

, a

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

connected with the

otherworld In historical Indo-European religion, the concept of an otherworld, also known as an otherside, is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other world/side"), a term used by Lucan in his desc ...

. In the

Middle Welsh Middle Welsh (, ) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh (). Literature and history Middle Welsh is ...

prose tale ''

Culhwch ac Olwen Culhwch (, with the final consonant sounding like Scottish "loch"), in Welsh mythology, is the son of Cilydd, Cilydd son of Celyddon and Goleuddydd, a cousin of King Arthur, Arthur and the protagonist of the story ''Culhwch and Olwen'' (the earli ...

'', he is named as a member of Arthur's retinue and takes part in the quest to win the hand of Olwen for Arthur's cousin,

Culhwch Culhwch (, with the final consonant sounding like Scottish "loch"), in Welsh mythology, is the son of Cilydd son of Celyddon and Goleuddydd, a cousin of Arthur and the protagonist of the story '' Culhwch and Olwen'' (the earliest of the mediev ...

. Gwthyr would join Arthur on a journey to Pennant Gofid in

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

to retrieve the blood of the witch Orddu. His father is Greidawl Galldonyd, a fellow knight in Arthur's court. In ''Bonedd yr Arwyr'', his genealogy is given as Gwythyr son of Greidawl the son of Enfael the son of Deigyr the son of Dyfnwal the son of Ednyfed the son of Maxen the son of Llywelyn.Bromwich, Rachel. ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein.'' The

Welsh Triads The Welsh Triads (, "Triads of the Island of Britain") 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 o ...

name him as the father of Arthur's second wife, also named Gwenhwyfar. Sometime before the main events of ''Culhwch and Olwen'', Gwythyr was engaged to marry Creiddylad, daughter of Lludd, who was stolen from him by her brother,

. In a violent battle, Gwyn defeated his rival, kept Creiddylad and took a number of Gwythyr's chieftains prisoner. When Arthur heard of this, he forced Gwyn to release the noblemen and made peace between the two adversaries. Every

Calan Mai ( ' first day of May') or ( 'first day of Summer'), also historically called , is the Welsh celebration of May Day (1 May). It marks the beginning of summer and traditionally it involved festivities around bonfires, maypoles, and carol sin ...

, the two would fight over Creiddylad, until a battle on Judgment Day, in which the victor would keep her forever. Their rivalry has been taken to represent the contest between summer and winter and is a variant of the Holly King myth.''The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth''.

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...

. Octagon Books. 1978. ,

References

Welsh mythology Arthurian characters {{Europe-myth-stub