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Twrch Trwyth
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Twrch Trwyth
Twrch Trwyth (Welsh pronunciation: [tuːɾχ tɾʊɨθ] ⓘ; also Welsh: Trwyd) is a fabulous wild boar from the Legend of King Arthur of which a richly elaborate account of its hunt described in the Welsh prose romance Culhwch and Olwen, probably written around 1100.
Its hunt involved King Arthur and his hosts and his hound Cafall, and was also deemed to require other recruited men of talent, other hounds, and additional equipment such as leash, according to the tasks (anoetheu) prescribed by the giant Ysbaddaden, though events did not always unfold as the giant foretold. The boar was brought out of Ireland, driven to Britain, and finally shoved off a cliff into the sea at Cornwall.
The legend, in simpler form, dates much earlier, since Arthur's use of his hound Cavall (Latin: Cavall (base text, MS. MS. H), Latin: caball (MS. K), Latin: caballusMS. D1), Latin: caballus(MSS. D2 G) to hunt the boar (Latin: Troynt (base text, MSS.H K), Troit (MSS.C1 D G Q); or Terit (MSS. C2 L)) is glimpsed in a piece of geographical onomasticon composed in Latin in the ninth century, the Historia Brittonum.
A passing reference in the elegy Gwarchan Cynfelyn (7th century), preserved in the Book of Aneirin, reckoned to be its earliest mention in literature. Trwyth/Trwyd is also mentioned in several other pieces of poetry from the Middle Welsh period.
The name in Welsh can be construed to mean "the boar Trwyth", and past scholars argued it may be analogous to the boar Triath of Irish mythology (see #Etymology and Irish cognate below).
The earliest reference to Trwyth in the Arthurian context occurs in the tract De Mirabilibus Britanniae (or Mirabilia in shorthand), variously titled in English as "Wonders of Britain". The Mirabilia though probably a separate work, believed to be near-contemporaneous to pseudo-Nennius's early ninth-century Historia Brittonum.
It claims that Arthur was chasing the great boar Troynt [recte Troit] assisted by his dog Cabal, and the dog left its pawprint in rock, somewhere in the region of "Buelt"[≈Buellt, the cantref of medieval Wales], while pursuing the boar. The boar Troynt /Troit is identifiable with Trwyth Trwyth of the Welsh romance of Culhwch, while the dog is also recognizable as the dog Cavall of Welsh literature.
Lady Charlotte Guest has conjectured that the route in pursuit of Twrch Trwyth (according to the Welsh romance source) must have passed through this cairn: "..across Carn Cavall and the Brecon Mountains [Brecon Beacons?] to Abergwy [the mouth of the Wye], where the Wye falls into the Severn below Chepstow".
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Twrch Trwyth
Twrch Trwyth (Welsh pronunciation: [tuːɾχ tɾʊɨθ] ⓘ; also Welsh: Trwyd) is a fabulous wild boar from the Legend of King Arthur of which a richly elaborate account of its hunt described in the Welsh prose romance Culhwch and Olwen, probably written around 1100.
Its hunt involved King Arthur and his hosts and his hound Cafall, and was also deemed to require other recruited men of talent, other hounds, and additional equipment such as leash, according to the tasks (anoetheu) prescribed by the giant Ysbaddaden, though events did not always unfold as the giant foretold. The boar was brought out of Ireland, driven to Britain, and finally shoved off a cliff into the sea at Cornwall.
The legend, in simpler form, dates much earlier, since Arthur's use of his hound Cavall (Latin: Cavall (base text, MS. MS. H), Latin: caball (MS. K), Latin: caballusMS. D1), Latin: caballus(MSS. D2 G) to hunt the boar (Latin: Troynt (base text, MSS.H K), Troit (MSS.C1 D G Q); or Terit (MSS. C2 L)) is glimpsed in a piece of geographical onomasticon composed in Latin in the ninth century, the Historia Brittonum.
A passing reference in the elegy Gwarchan Cynfelyn (7th century), preserved in the Book of Aneirin, reckoned to be its earliest mention in literature. Trwyth/Trwyd is also mentioned in several other pieces of poetry from the Middle Welsh period.
The name in Welsh can be construed to mean "the boar Trwyth", and past scholars argued it may be analogous to the boar Triath of Irish mythology (see #Etymology and Irish cognate below).
The earliest reference to Trwyth in the Arthurian context occurs in the tract De Mirabilibus Britanniae (or Mirabilia in shorthand), variously titled in English as "Wonders of Britain". The Mirabilia though probably a separate work, believed to be near-contemporaneous to pseudo-Nennius's early ninth-century Historia Brittonum.
It claims that Arthur was chasing the great boar Troynt [recte Troit] assisted by his dog Cabal, and the dog left its pawprint in rock, somewhere in the region of "Buelt"[≈Buellt, the cantref of medieval Wales], while pursuing the boar. The boar Troynt /Troit is identifiable with Trwyth Trwyth of the Welsh romance of Culhwch, while the dog is also recognizable as the dog Cavall of Welsh literature.
Lady Charlotte Guest has conjectured that the route in pursuit of Twrch Trwyth (according to the Welsh romance source) must have passed through this cairn: "..across Carn Cavall and the Brecon Mountains [Brecon Beacons?] to Abergwy [the mouth of the Wye], where the Wye falls into the Severn below Chepstow".
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