Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys

Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys [ 'kɘvraŋk ɫiːð a ɫe'velis ] ("The story of Lludd and Llefelys") is the title of a short story from the Mabinogion of Welsh mythology . The legend was written down in the 12th or 13th century and is included in both Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch ("The White Book of Rhydderch") and Llyfr Coch Hergest ("The Red Book of Hergest").

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Lludd , the king of Britain , son and successor of King Beli Mawr fab Mynogan , asks his younger brother Llefelys , the king of France , to rid his kingdom of three plagues. Llefelys had once become king through his marriage to the daughter of the king of France with the help of his brother. The people of the Coranieid, who can overhear every uttered word and are therefore invincible, a dragon that makes people and animals sterile with its piercing roar, and a witcher who puts all the guards to sleep every night and then steals the supplies of the royal court, are these afflictions.

Lludd comes to Llefelys in France and takes advice from him. Llefelys gives him a horn, the sound of which makes the Coranieid deaf so that the rescue plan can be discussed. Since the Coranieid can be killed by an insecticide that is harmless to the Britons, they are poisoned at a meal together. According to Llefelys' advice, he makes the dragon drunk with Met, lures him into a trap and locks him in a stone-walled prison in Dinas Emrys (near Beddgelert in North Wales ). Against the magic song of the magician, Lludd keeps himself awake with a pour of ice-cold water, can overcome him and makes him his loyal servant.

The legend can also be found in Brut y Brenhinedd ("Chronicle of the Kings"), the Welsh form of Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae , and belongs to the circle of stories around Beli Mawr.

See also

• List of Celtic gods and legendary figures
• Myths and legends from Wales and Britain

literature

• Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , p. 501.
• Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 .

Web links

• Sioned Davies: The Mabinogion (=  Oxford World's Classics Series ). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-283242-9 , pp. 111 ff . (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).