The Mabinogion (Oxford World's Classics) (20 page)

‘Who was the man you loved best?’

‘By my faith, Edlym Gleddyf Goch was the man I loved best, but I have never seen him.’

‘God knows,’ he said, ‘Edlym is my companion, and here he is. And it was for his sake that I came to challenge your retinue. But he could have done it better than I, had he wanted. And I will give you to him.’

‘God thank you, fair young man, and I will take the man I love best.’ That night Edlym and the countess slept together.

The next day Peredur set off for the Mound of Mourning.

‘By your hand, lord, I will go with you,’ said Edlym.

They came to where they could see the Mound and the pavilions.

‘Go to those men over there,’ said Peredur to Edlym, ‘and tell them to come and pay homage to me.’ Edlym came to them and said, ‘Come to pay homage to my lord.’

‘Who is your lord?’ they said.

‘My lord is Peredur Baladr Hir,’
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said Edlym.

‘If it were lawful to kill a messenger, you would not return to your lord alive for making such an arrogant request of kings and earls and barons to come and pay homage to your lord.’

Edlym returned to Peredur. Peredur told him to go back to them and give them a choice, either to pay homage or fight him. They chose to fight him. And Peredur overthrew the owners of a hundred pavilions that day. The next day he overthrew the owners of another hundred. But the third hundred decided to pay homage to Peredur. He asked them what they were doing there. They said that they were guarding the serpent until it died.

‘And then we will fight each other for the stone, and whichever one of us is victorious will get the stone.’

‘Wait for me here, I will go and confront the serpent.’

‘No, lord,’ they said, ‘we will go together to fight the serpent.’

‘No,’ said Peredur, ‘I do not want that. If the serpent were killed, I would get no more praise than any one of you.’ And he went to where the serpent was, and killed it, and returned to them.

‘Add up what you have spent since you came here, and I will repay it to you in gold,’ said Peredur. He paid them as much as each one said he was owed, and asked nothing of them save to acknowledge that they were his men.

And he said to Edlym, ‘You shall go to the woman you love best, and I will go on my way and repay you for becoming my man.’ And then he gave the stone to Edlym.

‘May God repay you, and may God speed your journey.’

Peredur went on his way. He came to a river valley, the fairest he had ever seen, and he could see many pavilions there of different colours. But he was more surprised to see the number of watermills and windmills. A large, auburn-haired man came up to him with the look of a craftsman about him. Peredur asked him who he was.

‘I am the head miller over all the mills over there.’

‘May I have lodging with you?’ said Peredur.

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘gladly.’ He came to the miller’s house, and saw that the miller had a fair and pleasant place. Peredur asked the miller if he could borrow money to buy food and drink for himself and the household, and he would repay him before leaving. He asked the miller why there was such a crowd of people. The miller said to Peredur, ‘It is either one or the other: either you are a man from afar or else you are mad. The empress of great Constantinople is there, and she wants only the bravest man since she has no need of wealth. And it was impossible to carry food to the several thousands that are here, and that is why there are all these mills.’ That night they rested.

The next day Peredur got up and armed himself and his horse to go to the tournament. He could see a pavilion among the other pavilions, the fairest he had ever seen. And he could see a beautiful maiden craning her head through a window in the pavilion. He had never seen a more beautiful maiden, dressed in a garment of gold brocaded silk. He stared at the maiden and was filled with great love for her. And he gazed at the maiden in this way from morning until midday, and from midday until it was afternoon. By then the tournament had ended. He came to his lodging and he took off his armour and asked the miller if he could borrow money. The miller’s wife was angry with Peredur. But even so the miller lent him money. The next day he did the same as he had done the day before. That night he came to his lodging and borrowed money from the miller. The third day, when he was in the same place gazing at the maiden, he felt a large blow with the handle of an axe between his shoulder and neck. When he looked round at the miller, the miller said to him, ‘Do one of two things,’ said the miller, ‘either turn your head away or go to the tournament.’

Peredur smiled at the miller and went to the tournament. He overthrew all those he encountered that day. Of those he overthrew, he sent the men as a gift to the empress, and the horses and armour
as a gift to the miller’s wife, as a guarantee of the money he had borrowed. Peredur took part in the tournament until he had overthrown everyone. Those he overthrew, he sent the men to the empress’s prison, and the horses and armour to the miller’s wife as a guarantee of the money he had borrowed.

The empress sent word to the Knight of the Mill asking him to come and see her. But he rejected the first messenger. And the second went to him. And the third time she sent one hundred knights to ask him to come and see her, and unless he came voluntarily they were to take him against his will. They went to him and related their message from the empress. He fought well against them—he had them tied up as one ties a roebuck, and thrown into the mill ditch. And the empress asked the advice of a wise man who was in her council.

He said to her, ‘I will go to him with your message.’ He came to Peredur and greeted him, and asked him for the sake of his lover to come and see the empress. And Peredur and the miller went. He sat down in the first part of the pavilion to which he came, and she sat down next to him. They talked together for a while. Peredur took his leave and went to his lodging. The next day he went to visit her. When he came to the pavilion there was no part of it less well appointed than the rest, for they did not know where he would sit. Peredur sat next to the empress and talked lovingly. As they were sitting like that, they saw a black-haired man entering, with a golden goblet full of wine in his hand. He went down on his knee before the empress and told her to give it only to the man who would fight him for it. She looked at Peredur.

‘Lady,’ he said, ‘give the goblet to me.’ He drank the wine, and gave the goblet to the miller’s wife. Meanwhile, behold, a black-haired man who was bigger than the other, with a wild animal’s claw in his hand shaped like a goblet and full of wine. He presented it to the empress and told her to give it only to the man who would fight him.

‘Lady,’ said Peredur, ‘give it to me.’ And she gave it to Peredur. He drank the wine and gave the goblet to the miller’s wife. Meanwhile, behold, a man with red curly hair who was bigger than either of the other men, and a crystal goblet in his hand, full of wine. He went down on his knee and placed it in the empress’s hand and told her to give it only to the man who would fight him for it. And she gave it to

The next day he armed himself and his horse, and came to the meadow. Peredur killed the three men and then went to the pavilion. The empress said to him, ‘Fair Peredur, remember the promise you made me when I gave you the stone, when you killed the monster.’

‘Lady,’ he replied, ‘what you say is true, and I remember it too.’ And Peredur ruled with the empress for fourteen years, according to the story.
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Arthur was in Caerllion ar Wysg, one of his chief courts, and in the middle of the hall floor sat four men on a mantle of brocaded silk— Owain son of Urien, and Gwalchmai son of Gwyar, and Hywel son of Emyr Llydaw,
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and Peredur Baladr Hir. Suddenly they saw a black, curly-haired maiden come in on a yellow mule, with rough reins in her hand urging the mule forward, and a rough, unfriendly look about her. Blacker were her face and her hands than the blackest iron daubed with pitch; and the colour was not the ugliest thing about her, but her shape—high cheeks and a sagging, baggy face, and a snub nose with flaring nostrils, and one eye mottled-green and piercing, and the other black, like jet, sunk deep in her head. Long yellow teeth, yellower than the flowers of the broom, and her belly rising from her breastbone higher than her chin. Her backbone was shaped like a crutch; her hips were broad and bony, but everything from there down was scrawny, except her feet and knees, which were stout.
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She greeted Arthur and all his retinue except Peredur; for him she had angry, insolent words.

‘Peredur, I will not greet you, for you are not worthy of it. Fate was blind when it gave you talent and fame. When you came to the court of the lame king and when you saw there the young man carrying the sharpened spear, and from the tip of the spear a drop of blood streaming down to the young man’s fist, and you saw other wonders there, too—you did not question their meaning or their cause.
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And had you done so, the king would have recovered his health and held his kingdom in peace. But now there is conflict and combat, knights lost and wives left widowed and young girls unprovided for, and all that because of you.’

And then she said to Arthur, ‘With your permission, lord, my home is far away from here, in the Castle of Pride—I do not know if
you have heard of it. There are sixty-six knights and five hundred ordained knights there,
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each with the woman he loves best. And whoever wants to gain fame in arms and combat and conflict will do so there if he deserves it. But whoever wants the ultimate fame and admiration I know where he can get that. There is a castle on a prominent mountain, and in it there’s a maiden, and the castle is under siege. Whoever could set her free would receive the highest praise in the world.’

And with that she set off. Gwalchmai said, ‘By my faith, I will not sleep in peace until I know whether I can set the maiden free.’ And many of Arthur’s retinue agreed with him. Peredur, however, said otherwise, ‘By my faith, I will not sleep in peace until I know the story and significance of the spear about which the black-haired maiden spoke.’

As everyone was getting ready, behold, a knight came to the gate, of the size and strength of a warrior, and equipped with horse and armour, and he came forward and greeted Arthur and all his retinue except for Gwalchmai. On the knight’s shoulder there was a gold-chased shield with a cross-piece of blue azure, and all his armour was the same colour as that. He said to Gwalchmai, ‘You killed my lord through your deceit and treachery, and I will prove it to you.’

Gwalchmai got up. ‘Here is my pledge against you,’ he said, ‘either here or in a place of your choice, that I am neither a deceiver nor a traitor.’

‘I want the combat between us to take place in front of my king.’

‘Gladly,’ said Gwalchmai. ‘Go on ahead, I will follow you.’

The knight set off, and Gwalchmai got ready. He was offered many weapons, but he only wanted his own. Gwalchmai and Peredur armed themselves, and rode after him because of their friendship and the extent of their love for each other. But they did not continue together—each went his own way.

At daybreak Gwalchmai came to a valley,
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and in the valley he could see a fort, and a large court inside the fort with very high, splendid turrets around it. And he could see a knight coming out through the gate to hunt on a shiny black, wide-nostrilled, swift-moving palfrey with a pace steady and stately, sure-footed and lively.
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He was the man who owned the court. Gwalchmai greeted him.

‘May God be good to you, lord, and where do you come from?’

‘I come from Arthur’s court,’ he said.

‘Are you Arthur’s man?’

‘I am, by my faith,’ said Gwalchmai.

‘I have good advice for you,’ said the knight. ‘I see that you are tired and weary. Go to the court and stay there tonight if you want.’

‘I will, lord, and may God repay you.’

‘Take a ring as a sign to the gatekeeper, and make for that tower; a sister of mine is there.’

Gwalchmai came to the gate, and showed the ring, and made for the tower. When he arrived there was a big fire blazing with a bright, tall, smokeless flame, and a fair noble maiden sitting in a chair by the fire. The maiden was glad to see him and welcomed him, and got up to meet him. And he went to sit next to the maiden. They had their dinner.

After their dinner they engaged in pleasant conversation. As they were doing so, a handsome grey-haired man entered.

‘You wretched whore,’ he said, ‘if you knew how wrong it is for you to sit and amuse yourself with that man, you would not do so.’ He withdrew his head, and left.

‘Lord,’ said the maiden, ‘if you take my advice you will secure the door, in case the man has set a trap for you,’ she said.

Gwalchmai got up, but when he got to the door the man was with thirty others, fully armed, climbing up the tower. Gwalchmai used a
gwyddbwyll
board so that no one could come up until the man returned from hunting. Then the earl arrived.

‘What is this?’ he said.

‘It’s not right’, said the grey-haired man, ‘for the wretched girl over there to sit and drink until evening with the man who killed your father—he is Gwalchmai son of Gwyar.’

‘No more of this,’ said the earl. ‘I will go inside.’

The earl made Gwalchmai welcome.

‘Lord,’ he said, ‘it was wrong of you to come to our court, if you knew you had killed our father. Since we cannot avenge that, may God avenge it.’

‘Friend,’ said Gwalchmai, ‘this is the situation. I came here neither to admit to killing your father nor to deny it. I am on a quest for Arthur and myself. However, I ask for a year’s respite until I return from my quest, and then, on my word, I will come to this court to do one of two things, either to admit it or deny it.’ They granted him the respite gladly. He stayed there that night.

The next day he set off, but the story says no more than that about Gwalchmai on the matter.

But Peredur went on his way. He wandered the island searching for news about the black-haired maiden, but found none. And he came to land that he did not recognize in a river valley. As he was travelling through the valley, he could see a rider coming towards him with the mark of a priest on him. Peredur asked for his blessing.