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mantle of Tegau Eurfron [item:container] [Welsh:Taliesin]

[OWNER / TESTED WIFE]
[Tegau from teg [W.] "beauty"; eur gold + bron "bosom, breast"]
Tegau Eurfron (Lady Guest, notes to Kulhwch)*1[E.];
Tegau Eurfron (?? c. "Thirteen Hallows", in Y Brython)

[HER MANTLE]
"mantle of Tegau Eurfron" (Lady Guest, notes to Kulhwch) [E.];
Mantell Tegau Eurfron (?? c. "Thirteen Hallows", in Y Brython)
Tegau means "fair" and she is reckoned among the fair maidens of Arthur's court. The story of how she got her nickname "gold-breasted" does not exist or survive in Welsh; it is explained in the French first continuation to Perceval that she was bitten by a venomous snake and the affected area had to be removed, so a gold breast was fashioned to replace her loss.

[HER HUSBAND]
Caradawg Strong Arm (Gantz tr., Rhonabwy); Caradawg Strong-Arm (Bromwich, Triad 18, 38, etc.);
Caradog Freichfras, ~Breibras, Vreichvras "armstrong, short arms" (MacKillop, Dict. of Celt. Myth.)[W.];
Karadues Breibraz "short arms" (Chrestien Perceval), Carados Briebras (First Perceval Continuation) [OF];
Karadues Breibraz (??)[Breton];
Husband of Tegau; he imperiled his arm to save her from a venomous snake [?] (unconfirmed).

Thus, probably should be considered distinct from Caradoc son of Branwho was attacked by Caswallawn (although Rhys considers them the same).

[CARADAWG'S HORSE]
Host-Splitter (Bromwich, Triad 38);
Lluagor (Bromwich, Triad 38)[W.];
Lorzagor (First Perceval Continuation) [OF]

A magical mantle (mantell [W.]) that would only fit a woman who is chaste.

According to Lady Guest's notes*1, this mantle occurs in a variant text of the "
Thirteen Treasures of Britain" [LOC], in which certain substitutions are made. The text she refers to is the one printed in Jones's Welsh Bards*2. I have found a similar text

*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).]

*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).

§ Ystoria Taliesin

*1.
4.   Mantell Tegau Eurfron : yr hon ni weddai i wraig aniwair, ag nis cuddiai; ond hi guddiai wraig ddiwair hyd at y llawr.
— ed. Pedrog (John Owen Williams, 1853-1932),
Y Brython, Vol. 3, No. 24 (1860), pp. 372-3
4. The Mantle of Tegau "Eurfron" (of the "Golden Bosom"), this [mantle of hers] would not fit an unchaste woman even if she concealed [the fact], but for a chaste woman, its length would reach the floor.
—tr. mine

*1


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