Twrch Trwyth

Twrch Trwyth
Twrch Trwyth sculpture, Tony Woodman's sculpture of three wild boars
Twrch Trwyth sculpture by Tony Woodman
Children7
  • Grugyn Gwrych Ereint (~Silver-bristle)
  • Llwydawg Govynnyad (~the Hewer)
  • Twrch Lllawin
  • Gwys
  • Banw
  • Bennwig
  • one unnamed boar
ParentTaredd Wledig

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.

Pronunciation of Twrch trwyth

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 the cliff into 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))[1] 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[2] (7th century), preserved in the Book of Aneirin, reckoned to be its earliest mention in literature.[3][7] Trwyth/Trwyd is also mentioned in several other pieces of poetry from the Middle Welsh period.[8]

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).

  1. ^ Mommsen (1898) p.217, note to line 18
  2. ^ The Lay of Cynfelyn, at the Celtic Literature Collective of the Mary Jones website
  3. ^ Roberts (1962), p. 91.
  4. ^ Guest ed., tr. (1849), pp. 356–360 (Notes to "Twrch Trwyth" -- page 286)
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference bromwich1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference rhys1885 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Lady Guest (1849) had noticed this occurrence.[4][5] Later, Rhys (1885) credits Daniel Silvan Evans for noticing it, and naming Evans as translator of the poem in Skene ed., Four Ancient Books, Vol. 1.[6]
  8. ^ Bromwich & Evans (1992), pp. lxv, 131. See p. lxv or explanatory notes below for quotations of these verses.