Custenhin

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Custenhin , also Custennin , is in the Welsh saga Mal y kavas Kulhwch Olwen (“How Kulhwch Olwen has won”), or Kulhwch ac Olwen (“Kulhwch and Olwen”) for short, a giant shepherd. He is the brother of the giant Ysbaddaden and the brother-in-law of Goleuddydd .

mythology

When Kulhwch came to Custenhin in search of Ysbaddaden's castle, he found Custenhin tending his flock of sheep. Kulhwch's request to help him win Ysbaddaden's daughter Olwen is rejected by the shepherd and threatens to destroy Kulhwch and his companions with his fiery breath. However, when he learns that the young hero is his wife's nephew, the son of Goleuddydd, he agrees to support him, all the more so because his brother has already stolen and killed 23 children from him. He could only hide the last son Goreu . He and his wife warn, however, that Ysbaddaden kills every suitor because he would have to die at Olwen's wedding.

“Woe to you (men), God be gracious to you! For anything in the world don't do that! No one has yet come with this desire and passed away alive. "

Custenhin invites Olwen to visit him so that Kulhwch can get to know her. In the shepherd's hut, the two see each other for the first time and fall in love for each other.

Custenhin's shepherd dog is a mastiff, larger than a nine-year-old mare .

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celtic stories from the emperor Arthur. Part 2, p. 51.
  2. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 , p. 285 f (for the entire section Mythology).