Creiddylad

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Creiddylad
ParentKing
Lludd

Creiddylad (also known as Creirddylad, Creurdilad, Creudylad or Kreiddylat), daughter of King

Arthurian tale Culhwch ac Olwen
.

Role in Welsh tradition

Creiddylad, daughter of Lludd Silver Hand, is a lady living at the

fate")[3] is made that forces the adversaries to engage in single combat for the object of their love every May Day—while she is destined to remain with her father, unmarried—until a final battle on Judgement Day
, which will determine who keeps her forever.

Creiddylad has been compared to the

Holly King" myth, possibly personifying the dynamic power struggle between summer and winter.[4]

It is also observed that the name of Creiddylad's father (Lludd) and that of Gwyn's father (Nudd) are likely

Nodons
. Hence, Gwyn is often described as Creiddylad's brother.

Additionally, she is sometimes confused with the goddess Creirwy, who is also referred to as the most beautiful girl in the world.[5]

In literature

Cordelia

Creiddylad is traditionally identified as the prototype of

Lludd Llaw Ereint, with Cordelia, "daughter of Lludd, or Lear".[7][8] In 1891, Sir John Rhys repeated this identification in Studies in the Arthurian Legend.[9]

However, Geoffrey's Welsh translators failed to use the name Creiddylad in their Latin-to-Welsh translations of Historia Regum Britanniae, where he used Cordeilla.[10] Further complicating the association, the legends surrounding Creiddylad and Cordelia are very different. Doubt has been cast on the linking of these two names, beyond "the string of consonants C-R-D-L".[11]

John Cowper Powys

Novelist

The Mabinogion.[14] In Powys's novel Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages
, which is set in Wales, Creiddylad, was the eponymous protagonist's giantess great-grandmother, as well as the name he gives to a young giantess whom he mates with.

See also

  • Fflur

References

  1. ^ Christopher Bruce's Arthurian Name Dictionary: Creiddylad
  2. ^ Rachel Bromwich & D. Simon Davies (eds.), Culhwch ac Olwen (University of Wales Press, 1988).
  3. ^ Celtnet's Nemeton: Creiddylad Archived 2008-11-19 at the Wayback Machine
  4. , 9780374932398
  5. ^ The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids..., Edward Davies
  6. ^ Google Books
  7. ^ Google Books; J. M. Dent,(1906) 1927, pp.106, 310.
  8. ^ See also The Cambrian Journal, Volume 1. Longmans, 1854, Google Books/
  9. (1886), p. 562.
  10. ^ See for instance: Henry Lewis (ed.), Brut Dingestow (University of Wales Press, 1940), sub. 'Cordeila' (=Cordelia).
  11. ^ Sara L. Uckelman, "Concerning the name Cordelia"
  12. ^ Sir John Rhys, Studies in the Arthurian Legend (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), p. 322.
  13. ^ See Richard Maxwell, "The Lie of the Land" in The Spirit of Powys: New Essays, pp. 207–8.
  14. ^ The Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest (1906). J. M. Dent: London, 1927, p. 310.