Gwern

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Gwern is a Welsh legendary figure from the four branches of the Mabinogion , a collection of medieval stories and legends.

Mythology and Etymology

The second branch of the Mabinogion, Branwen ferch Llŷr ("Branwen, the daughter of Llŷr"), reports that Matholwch , the Irish king, is traveling to Wales to marry Branwen , the sister of King Bran . Before the wedding, Branwen's half-brother Efnisien mutilated her fiancé's horses in revenge for not being asked to consent to the marriage. Bran restores peace and Branwen travels with Matholwch to Ireland, where she gives birth to Gwern.

Anger over the horse massacre smoldered in Matholwch's subjects. Eventually he casts Branwen out and lets her work in the kitchen, but she is able to inform her brother about her predicament through a trained star . Bran immediately sets out with his army to free Branwen.

Intimidated, Matholwch wants to use his son Gwern as ruler and has a new palace built. At the inauguration ceremony, Irish nobles plan to ambush the Welsh people, but Efnisien, who suspected the betrayal, slays them before a fight can start. Then he calls his nephew Gwern over.

"I confess that before God," said the [Efnisien] to himself, "the entourage does not reckon with the enormity that I am about to commit!" And he got up, grabbed the boy by the feet, and without hesitation, before anyone in the house got hold of him, he pushed the boy headlong into the fire.

The approximately three-year-old boy dies, whereupon a bitter struggle begins, which only seven Welsh and a few Irish women survive.

The name Gwern is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root * (s) u̯er- , Kymrisch gwern (plural form), or Breton gllt. gwern , Old Cornish guern ab, all names for the alder , but also for ship's mast and swampy terrain (compare also Gothic warjan and English sward ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernhard Maier: The legend book of the Welsh Celts. P. 50.
  2. ↑ Journal for Celtic Philology: Jubilee double volume for the 100th anniversary of the journal. Niemeyer 1997, p. 32, 199.
  3. ^ Karl Brugmann / Wilhelm Streitberg / August Leskien: Indo-European research. Volume 18, KJ Trübner 1906, pp. 485 f., 557.

See also

Medieval Welsh sagas:

(Welsh) gods and legendary figures: