- [OWNER]
Gwyddneu (Gwyddno) Garanhir (Lady Guest)*1,
Gwyddno Long-Shank (Bromwich)*2,
Gwyđno (John Rhŷs)*3
Gwyddneu Garanhir "long crane" (Arthur C.L. Brown, "The Bleeding Lance," 27, n1) [E.];
- Gwyddno Garanhir "Long-Shanks" was the lord of Cantref y Gwaelod, which is not identifiable as any cantref in the present Wales, for legend has it was flooded and submerged in the sea.
(reminescent of the Brittany legend of the City of Ys, as ys means "under" in both Breton and Welsh).
- In the story of Taliessin and of ⇒Ceridwen's cauldron of inspiration, Gwyddno's horses are poisoned from the overflow of the cauldron while Ceridwen is concoting her elixir of knowledge. In the same tale, he also has a magical weir that traps fish aplenty.
Parallels can probably be made between Gwyddno "Long-Shanks", lord of the submerged land and
Llassar Llaes Gyngwyd, the original possessor of the cauldron of regeneration, who was a man of giant stature, and who was witnessed carrying the cauldron out of the Lake of the Cauldron.
The parallel can also extend to Bran the Blessed (to whom Llassar prsented the cauldron) for Bran was also a so tall (no house had heretofore been built for him to contain him) and he was the son of Llyr (the sea). (in the Mabinogi tale of "Branwen")
- [BASKET]
-
basket of Gwyddneu Garanhir (Lady Guest tr., "Kulhwch and Olwen" and "Thirteen Treasures" quoted in her notes to it) [E.],
hamper of Gwyddno Long-Shank [E.] (Bromwich tr., "Apendix III: Thirteen Treasures") [E.],
Mwys of Gwyđno (John Rhŷs) [E.];
Mwys Gwyddno Garanir (Guest "Thirteen Treasures"; Bromwich after Cardiff 17 pp. 95-6) [W.]
[mwys "That has capacity, or that comprehends;.. a pan; also a kind of covered basket, pannier or hamper; also the quantity contained in such a vessel. Mwys o ysgadain a mease, or five-score of herrings" (Pughe's dict.) cog. OCornish muis, moys "table" OIr. mias "table, dish"; Manx meays "mease, five hundred fish" prob. < L. mensa (according to Rhys, Arth. Leg. P.313)]
- A basket of plenty, counted among the "Thirteen Treasures of Britain" [LOC]
- In the story of the ⇒cauldron of Ceridwen, Taliessin, the child reborn from Gwon Bach, the unwitting thief of the drops of inspiration is left discarded in a leathern bag, but Elphin discovers the bag caught in Gwyddno Garanhir's weir kored , gored ore [W.], which normally yields a catch a hundred pounds' worth gwerth deec puntt <<ger eec pun>> (of fish). *4.
*1
Guest, Charlotte, Lady, [Schreiber, Charlotte, Lady] 1812-1895,
in her "Notes to Kilhwch and Olwen" in her edition of the The Mabinogion, Vol. II (London, 1844)pp. 353-4 .
[* The Welsh text has been left out in sacred-texts.com's e-text of
Notes to The Basket of Gwyddneu Garnahir from the 1877 edition (with different pagination).
But see also: "Taliesin",
Notes to Taliesin]
*2
Jones, Edward 1752-1824, Musical and Poetical Relicks of The Welsh Bards, II, p.47, (The Bardic Museum 1784; 1794; 1802), where the treasures are referred to as "Thirteen Rarities of Kingly Regalia (of the Island of Britain)" (cf. Child, vol. I, part II, p.265, commentary on Ballad #29 Boy and the Mantle)
*3
ed. Pedrog (John Owen Williams, 1853-1932),
Y Brython, Vol. 3, No. 24 (1860), pp. 372-3
*4
Mackillop, James, ed. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford University Press 1998).
| | |
HOME > Fantasy Items Index >
Celtic Mythology >
§ Ystoria Taliesin