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Pelles
The Fisher King (; ; ; ) is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him impotent and his kingdom barren. Unable to walk or ride a horse, he is sometimes depicted as spending his time fishing while he awaits a "chosen one" who can heal him. Versions of the story vary widely, but the Fisher King is typically depicted as being wounded in the groin, legs, or thigh. The healing of these wounds always depends upon the completion of a hero-knight's task. Most versions of the story contain the Holy Grail and the Lance of Longinus as plot elements. In some versions, a third character is introduced; this individual, unlike the hero-knight archetype, is ignorant of the King's power, but has the ability to save the king and land, or to doom it. Variations of this third party produce divergent legends. As a literary character, ...
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Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often guarded in the custody of the Fisher King and located in the hidden Grail castle. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a "holy grail" by those seeking such. A mysterious "grail" (Old French: ''graal'' or ''greal''), wondrous but not unequivocally holy, first appears in '' Perceval, the Story of the Grail'', an unfinished chivalric romance written by Chrétien de Troyes around 1190. Chrétien's story inspired many continuations, translators and interpreters in the later-12th and early-13th centuries, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, who portrayed the Grail as a stone in ''Parzival''. The Christian, Celtic or possibly other origins of the Arthurian grail trope are ...
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Perceval
Perceval (, also written Percival, Parzival, Parsifal), alternatively called Peredur (), is a figure in the legend of King Arthur, often appearing as one of the Knights of the Round Table. First mentioned by the French author Chrétien de Troyes in the tale ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail'', he is best known for being the original hero in the quest for the Holy Grail, Grail before being replaced in later literature by Galahad. Etymology and origin The earliest reference to Perceval is found in Chrétien de Troyes's first Arthurian romance ''Erec et Enide'', where, as "Percevaus Welsh person, li Galois" (Percevaus of Wales), he appears in a list of Arthur's knights. In another of Chrétien's romances, ''Cligés'', Perceval is a "renowned vassal" who is defeated by the knight Cligés in a tournament. He then becomes the eponymous protagonist of Chrétien's final romance, ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail''. In the Welsh romance ''Peredur son of Efrawg'', the corresponding ...
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Four Branches Of The Mabinogi
The ''Four Branches of the Mabinogi'' or are the earliest prose stories in the literature of Great Britain, Britain. Originally written in Wales in Middle Welsh, but widely available in translations, the is generally agreed to be a single work in four parts, or "branches." The interrelated tales can be read as mythology, political themes, romances, or magical fantasies. The tales are popular today in book format, as storytelling or theatre performances; they appear in recordings and on film, and continue to inspire reinterpretations in artwork and modern fiction, such as the ''New Stories of the Mabinogion'' series and ''The Assembly of the Severed Head'' by Hugh Lupton. Overview The are known as the ''Four Branches of the'' , or in Welsh. The tales were compiled from oral tradition in the 11th century. They survived in private family libraries via medieval manuscripts, of which two main versions and some fragments continue to survive today. Early modern scholarship of the saw ...
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Nine Sorceresses
The nine sorceresses or nine sisters () are a recurring element in Arthurian legend in variants of the popular nine maidens theme from world mythologies. Their most important appearances are in Geoffrey of Monmouth's introduction of Avalon and the character that would later become Morgan le Fay, and as the central motif of Peredur's story in the '' Peredur son of Efrawg'' part of the ''Mabinogion''. The maidens of Annwfn and the witches of Ystawingun In '' Preiddeu Annwfn'', the nine virgin priestesses of the otherworldy island of Annwfn ( Annwn, the Welsh version of the Celtic Otherworld) guard a magic cauldron, and their magic abilities seem to include fire-breathing. A raid by Arthur and his warband either steals or destroys the cauldron, but what happens to the maidens of Annwfn is not mentioned. The motif of nine supernatural women appears also in some other tales of the Celtic Otherworld, possibly derived from sisterhoods of priestesses of the old Celtic Religion. ...
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Peredur
Peredur (, Old Welsh ''Peretur'') is the name of a number of men from the boundaries of history and legend in sub-Roman Britain. The Peredur who is most familiar to a modern audience is the character who made his entrance as a knight in the Arthurian world of Middle Welsh prose literature. Gwrgi and Peredur, sons of Eliffer Gwrgi and Peredur are listed as sons of Eliffer (Old Welsh: ''Elidir'' or ''Eleuther'') "of the great warband" (''cascord maur'') and as sons of the Coeling dynasty in the Harleian genealogies, making them first cousins of Urien.Koch, "Peredur fab Efrawg", pp. 1437–8. Likewise, a pedigree from Jesus College MS 20 includes Gwrgi and Peredur as brothers together with one Arthur ''penuchel''. Their principal claim to fame rests on their having fought in the Battle of Arfderydd. The ''Annales Cambriae'' report that this battle (''bellum Armterid'') was fought in 573, but gives no further detail.Koch, "Arfderydd", pp. 82–3. A later expansion of the entry ...
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Welsh Romance
The Three Welsh Romances (Welsh language, Welsh: ') are three Middle Welsh tales associated with the ''Mabinogion''. They are versions of Arthurian tales that also appear in the work of Chrétien de Troyes. Critics have debated whether the Welsh Romances are based on Chrétien's poems or if they derive from a shared original. The Romances survive in the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest, both from the 14th century, though the material is at least as old as Chrétien. The Three Welsh Romances are: * ''Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain''; which corresponds to Chrétien's ''Yvain, the Knight of the Lion'' * ''Geraint and Enid'', which corresponds to Chrétien's ''Erec and Enide''. * ''Peredur, son of Efrawg'', which corresponds to Chrétien's ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail'' ''Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain'' ''Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain'' is analogous to Chrétien de Troyes' Old French poem ''Yvain, the Knight of the Lion''. It survives in the Wh ...
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Myths And Legends; The Celtic Race (1910) (14596966327)
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the veracity of a myth is not a defining criterion. Myths are often endorsed by religious (when they are closely linked to religion or spirituality) and secular authorities. Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and legends to be factual accounts of their remote past. In particular, creation myths take place in a primordial age when the world had not achieved its later form. Origin myths explain how a society's Norm (social), customs, institutions, and taboos were established and sanctified. National myths are narratives about a nation's past that symbolize the nation's values. There is a complex relationship between Myth and ritual, recital of myths and the enactment of rituals. Etymology The w ...
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Annwn
Annwn, Annwfn, or Annwfyn (; ''Annwvn'', ''Annwyn'', ''Annwyfn'', ''Annwvyn'', or ''Annwfyn'') is the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it is a world of delights and eternal youth where disease is absent and food is ever-abundant. Name and etymology Middle Welsh sources suggest that the term was recognised as meaning "very deep" in medieval times. The appearance of a form ''antumnos'' on an ancient Gaulish curse tablet, which means ''an'' ('other') + ''tumnos'' ('world'), however, suggests that the original term may have been *''ande-dubnos'', a common Gallo-Brittonic word that literally meant "underworld". The pronunciation of Modern Welsh ''Annwn'' is . Whereabouts of Annwn In both Welsh and Irish mythologies, the Otherworld was believed to be located either on an island or underneath the earth. In the First Branch of the '' Mabinogi'', it is implied that Annwn is a land within Dyfed, while the context of the ...
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The Spoils Of Annwn
''Preiddeu Annwfn'' or ''Preiddeu Annwn'' () is a cryptic poem of sixty lines in Middle Welsh, found in the Book of Taliesin. The text recounts an expedition with King Arthur to Annwfn or Annwn, the Otherworld in Welsh. ''Preiddeu Annwfn'' is one of the best known medieval British poems. English translations, in whole or in part, have been published by R. Williams (in William Forbes Skene's ''Four Ancient Books of Wales''), by Robert Graves in ''The White Goddess'' and by Roger Sherman Loomis, Herbert Pilch, John T. Koch, Marged Haycock, John K. Bollard, Sarah Higley. At points it requires individual interpretation on the part of its translators owing to its terse style, the ambiguities of its vocabulary, its survival in a single copy of doubtful reliability, the lack of exact analogues of the tale it tells and the host of real or fancied resonances with other poems and tales. A number of scholars (in particular, Marshall H. James, who points out the remarkable similarity i ...
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King Arthur
According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a leader of the Sub-Roman Britain, post-Roman Britons in battles against the Anglo-Saxons in the late-5th and early-6th centuries. He first appears in two early medieval historical sources, the ''Annales Cambriae'' and the ''Historia Brittonum'', but these date to 300 years after he is supposed to have lived, and most historians who study the period Historicity of King Arthur, do not consider him a historical figure.Tom Shippey, "So Much Smoke", ''review'' of , ''London Review of Books'', 40:24:23 (20 December 2018) His name also occurs in early Welsh-language literature, Welsh poetic sources, such as ''Y Gododdin''. The character developed through Welsh mythology, appearing either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatura ...
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Culhwch And Olwen
''Culhwch and Olwen'' () is a Welsh tale that survives in only two manuscripts about a hero connected with Arthur and his warriors: a complete version in the Red Book of Hergest, , and a fragmented version in the White Book of Rhydderch, . It is the longest of the surviving Welsh prose tales. Lady Charlotte Guest included this tale among those she collected under the title ''The Mabinogion''. Synopsis Culhwch's father, King Cilydd son of Celyddon, loses his wife Goleuddydd after a difficult childbirth. When he remarries, the young Culhwch rejects his stepmother's attempt to pair him with his new stepsister. Offended, the new queen puts a curse on him so that he can marry no one besides the beautiful Olwen, daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Pencawr. Though he has never seen her, Culhwch becomes infatuated with her, but his father warns him that he will never find her without the aid of his famous cousin Arthur. The young man immediately sets off to seek his kinsman. He find ...
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