Ysbaddaden
Ysbaddaden Bencawr [ əsbaˈðadɛn ˈbɛnkaur ], also Ysbaddaden Pengawyr, is in Welsh mythology a "upper giant" or "main giant" (bencawr, pengawyr). He owns a castle with nine gates and is the father of Olwen , the brother of the giant shepherd Custenhin and the uncle of Goreu .
The Welsh saga Mal y kavas Kulhwch Olwen ("How Kulhwch Olwen has won"), or Kulhwch ac Olwen ("Kulhwch and Olwen") for short , is recorded in the collective manuscript Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch ("The white book of Rhydderch"). The Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi (“Four Branches of Mabinogi”) are also included.
mythology
The youthful hero Kulhwch asks King Arthur as a non-refusable request that he get Olwen's hand for him. With the help of five companions, Kulhwch finds the giant's castle after a long search. Ysbaddaden has eyelids that are so heavy that a servant has to lift them with a fork to look at someone (compare Balor ). The companions try to talk to him three times, three times Ysbaddaden throws a poisoned stone spear at them, which Bedwyr fab Bedrawg , Menw and Kulhwch catch and throw back, Kulhwch pierces one of the giant's eyes.
- “Damn cruel son-in-law! As long as I'm left alive, my face will be that much worse. my eyes will water when i walk against the wind, i will have a headache and dizzy spells with every new moon. Cursed be the forge in which [the iron] was glowed. Like the bite of a mad dog, I feel the poisonous iron that pierced me. "
Only the fourth time does he inform him of his conditions. Kulhwch learns why the giant tries to kill every suitor from Olwen, who tells him that her father will die on the day of their wedding due to a cynnedyf (obligation, taboo).
Ysbadadden now demands the fulfillment of forty almost unsolvable tasks, the most difficult of which are that Kulhwch has to win the tusks of the boar Ysgithyrwyn 'Weißhauer', as well as the "valuables" that the boar Twrch Trwyth carries between his ears, a comb and a pair of scissors . The last task is to get the blood of the "Black Witch", with Gwythyr playing an important role. With Arthur's help, the tasks are solved and Ysbaddaden has to agree to his daughter's wedding, although he rightly reproaches Kulhwch for not having fulfilled the tasks, but Arthur and his companions. The giant is “combed and shaved” with the boar's comb and scissors, Kulhwch's companions shave his beard and hair, including his skin, cut off his ears and finally his nephew Goreu chops off his head.
- And then Goreu, the son of Custenhin, grabbed his hair and dragged him to the dung-heap; he cut off his head and put it on a stake in the forecourt. And he took possession of the castle and the kingdom of the giant.
So the prophecy comes true and Ysbaddaden dies at Olwen's wedding.
See also
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 .
- Helmut Birkhan: Celtic stories from the emperor Arthur. Part 2, Lit-Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7563-6 .
- Ingeborg Clarus : Celtic Myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 .
- Bernhard Maier : The legend book of the Welsh Celts. The four branches of the Mabinogi . dtv, supra April 1999; ISBN 3423126280 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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. 473.
- ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celtic stories from the emperor Arthur. Part 2, p. 56. It is one of many discrepancies that happened to the compiler of the saga that a stone spear is made of iron.
- ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celtic stories from the emperor Arthur. Part 2, p. 91. Here, too, the author's mistake: Goreu is dragging Ysbaddaden by the hair that he has just shaved off.
- ^ 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. 297.