The Welsh Horse Twin(s) and the Grail
As we have seen, the Welsh mythological corpus takes the central myth of the Horse Twins and the Gandharva-Wasteland myth, likely two parts of one cycle to begin with, and emphasizes their continuity, compressing them into a more unified narrative, thus ultimately laying the groundwork for the legends surrounding the great object of mystique, the Holy Grail.
Pwyll and Rhiannon's son – Pryderi – has often been put forward as both a Horse Twin and the prototype of the grail quester. So far we have seen how he takes the same role in the Welsh version of the "Aesir-Vanir War" that is taken by Irish Aengus, Norse Freyr, Roman Titus Tatius, and the Vedic Asvins. Pryderi is born on the same night as a horse, which is raised up with him as his own, and indeed almost as his twin. After being kidnapped on the night of his birth, he is fostered by Teyrnon, known as a great raiser of horses, and the boy is noted as well to have an affinity for horses. Pryderi is one of only two “young sons” around which the Mabinogion centers. The title “Mabinogion” itself is believed to refer to Mabon ap Modron, Mabon meaning “young son” and being a direct cognate of Macc Oc, the title by which Aengus is called. This Mabon has certain traits that align him with the Horse Twin type as well. As West explains, citing Koch and Carey,
“The Indo-European divine Twins, the youthful sons of *Dyeus, were especially noted for appearing in battle on their white horses and bringing assistance or deliverance...It may be added that in a poem in the Book of Taliesin, celebrating the wars and cattle-raiding of Owein of Rheged, the young god Mabon is represented as appearing in battle on a white steed and killing all of the enemy within reach” (West 483, Koch–Carey, Celtic Heroic Age, 356–8) (Aengus also appears in a Scottish folktale riding a white steed and wearing a raiment of shining gold, see: Mackenzie, Donald Alexander, 1917). Furthermore, the Mabon is kidnapped and imprisoned at birth as Pryderi is also kidnapped at birth. Garrett Olmsted outlines the details thus: Now the term in Macc Óc is only a reformation of an earlier Mac in Óc, which is preserved in the genitive in LU 2942 (Bruig Meic ind Oc) and LU 4117 (maig Meic ind Óc). Thus O’Rahilly (1946: 516-7) suggests that the name developed from an earlier *Maccan Óc “The Young Son”. Here then the name *Maccan is cognate with Welsh Mabon. In this connection it is significant that *Maccan Óc spends the first part of his life in the síd with Midir and not with his mother Boand. In the Welsh Trioedd Ynys Prydein, Mabon ap Modron is one of the Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain (Tri Goruchel Garchravr Ynys Brydein) (Bromwich 1961: 140 ‘52). Similarly in Culhwch ac Owein the motif of the prisoner is continued, where Mabon is again cruelly imprisoned.
Mabon uab Modron yssys yma ygcarch(ar) ac ny charcharvyt neb kyn dosted yn llvrv carchur a mil. (Evans 1907: 492).”
He concludes: “The implication is that Boand may be equated with Modron. Modron in turn derives from the earlier Gaulish Matrona “the Mother”, eponymous goddess of the river Marne. The fact that Modron derives from a river and source goddess Matrona confirms the identification with Boand, herself the eponymous goddess of the Boind” (Olmsted, 91).
Hence the Mabinogion is theoretically the book of Mabon, the book of the young son. The only other “young son” of the Mabinogion that this epithet could refer to is Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who we can confidently say is not a Horse Twin [we have shown Lleu/Lugh to be the Mitraic god in previous chapters]. Instead, Lleu appears only in the final branch of the four, and provides a thematic mirror for Pryderi, completes the cycle that he begins, in precisely the same way that Baldr is a mirror of Freyr and he along with the mysterious Lord of the endtimes completes the cycle that Freyr and the Vanir begin. In fact, Pryderi is a central figure of two out of the four "branches" of the Mabinogion, and appears in all four, more than can be said for any other figure. The idea that the Mabinogion is “Pryderi's book” then, revolving around his birth, life and death narrative, and that he is thus "the Mabon," is by no means far-fetched. Ifor Williams, for one, has argued that the Mabinogion as a whole may have originally centered around Pryderi. In other medieval texts such as the poem “Preiddeu Annwn,” the mysterious Mabon is said to be imprisoned somewhere in the otherworld, and figures such as King Arthur and Cei seek to free him. In Pryderi's story in the Mabinogion, he and his mother are lured into a mysterious fort and place their hands on a golden bowl found inside. They are frozen in place and then vanish from sight. It is only after significant time passes that Manawydan, Rhiannon's then husband, is able to rescue them by outwitting their captors. This is after Pryderi had caused the region to become an enchanted "wasteland" by ill-advisedly sitting on the mystical mound Gorsedd Arberth (from which Pwyll had first seen Rhiannon), and the land is only restored to normalcy and vitality when Manawydan rescues him from the Otherworld fort by means of his cunning. This theme of the restoration of the wasteland is one of several elements from this story that seems to have been carried through into the grail legends, and we have seen how it exists also in the parallel Indian tale of Samvarana.
Crucially, Pryderi is also the theorized inspiration for the Welsh version of the grail quester, Peredur, who was either influenced by or himself influenced, in an unclear way, or came from the same shared source as, the better known grail quester Perceval. While Peredur is theorized to mean “hard spear,” we can't ignore the similarity of the names Peredur and Pryderi. Whereas the Asvins in the Vedic tale end by being given the secret to attain the soma and are admitted among the gods, and as Aengus in his Irish tale drinks a drink of immortality at Goibniu's feast, the Welsh Pryderi in his myth places his hand on a golden bowl found in a mysterious fort and is taken to the Otherworld. The general structure of Pryderi's myth of course is more similar to Samvarana's dalliance on the celestial mountain breast as his kingdom turns to a waste, yet the feature of accessing this golden bowl does not appear in Samvarana's tale and is instead reminiscent of the Asvins' accessing of the soma, thus suggesting a colliding of these two overlapping tale types, which were probably originally seen as succeeding each other in the greater Lunar Cycle. Pryderi and Rhiannon, trapped by this golden bowl, must then be rescued by Manawydan. In the Arthurian lore, which seems a later elaboration of the theme, both the Mabon and a magical cauldron become objects of quest for King Arthur and Cei, and are said to reside in the underworld of Annwn.
Peredurus as Horse Twin
One significant clue to the identity of Peredur lies in an account by Geoffrey of Monmouth found in his pseudo-historical work Historia Regum Britanniae. As readers have recognized, this account contains the name of a certain King Peredurus, who appears among a sequence of brothers. Four brothers to Peredurus and one father are mentioned here, succeeding one another in kingship, and based on our acquaintanceship with the oft-repeated pattern of the six incarnations of the gods of society, showing up as the Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata and the primary heroes of the Iliad (see chapter: The Iliad Heroes as Indo-European Gods), as well as slightly more dispersed in the other mythologies, our suspicions should be alerted. For the Pandavas too were made up of five brothers and one father, and in descending order by age were: the incarnations of Varuna, Mitra, Vayu, Indra, and the two Horse Twins. Upon analysis this sequence of kings of the Britons appears more and more alike to the Pandava (and Iliad, etc.) template.
First is the father, Morvidus, who is ill-tempered but generous. His reign, like that of all the Terrible Sovereigns, is notable for its series of invasions and conquests, and Morvidus is said to have defeated invaders of his country, as Nuada defeated the Fir Bolg. He was so bloody and terrible in his wrath that he personally killed every enemy captive after the battle, skinning and burning many, behavior consonant with the Varunian name “Terrible Sovereign.” Eventually, Morvidus faced off against a dragon that appeared from the sea and began devouring his subjects. In single combat Morvidus fell and was eaten by this dragon, while Nuada was beheaded in the war with the Fomorians. Morvidus' reign was succeeded by his son Gorbonianus, who is said to have ruled with justice and fair laws, and to have been frugal, upholding equity in his kingdom. This already seems almost a caricature of the Lawful Sovereign, Mitra, who we would expect to follow immediately after the Terrible Sovereign. But even more, Gorbonianus is said to have been very pious and to have frequently paid respects to the gods, even restoring many temples in his time. He reduced violence by giving gifts of gold and protection to soldiers and farmers. Again this seems to explicitly reflect the pious and Brahmin-like nature of the Mitra archetype -- Yudhishthira, for one, depicted as an ascetic Brahmin who also brings justice and peace via victory in war. Consider also the even more similar Roman Mitraic incarnation Numa Pompilius, who lived a life of piety and to whom many religious institutions and reforms are attributed.
We would expect the following two brothers to then be alike to the two warrior gods, Indra and Vayu; however, they are somewhat difficult to identify based on their descriptions in this account. First is Archgallo, who is said to be a cruel king desirous of demolishing the nobles. His focus is directly described as being to reverse what his brother Gorbonianus had accomplished, and, in particular, to steal the wealth of the nobles. This sounds most like a description of the repeated conflict of the Indra archetype with the Mitra-Varuna archetype (whichever one takes the position of the Sovereign of Justice in a given version). This would be the perennial theme of the warrior caste in conflict with the priestly and kingly class, chafing under the dictates of sovereign law, subject to their own warrior ethical codes that put them at odds with or outside of the norms of society, yet still remaining, uncomfortably, subject to the rule of the Sovereign and of Natural Law. This conflict appears famously in the Iliad as that between Achilles and Agamemnon, and repeats in the Mahabharata with Arjuna being dishonored by Yudhishthira when the latter tells the former to give away his signature bow, symbolic of his warrior honor, prowess, and autonomy, because he hasn't up to that point succeeded in killing Karna. It repeats as well in the Irish conflict between the thunder god Tuireann's sons and Lugh. Compare also Roman Tullus Hostilius, who Dumezil compared to the warrior function gods, and who succeeds Numa Pompilius, but is a war king and believes his predecessor's pacifism had weakened the kingdom. Despite Archgallo's cruel agenda, his brother Elidurus supported him loyally and even forced dissenters to swear loyalty to Archgallo after they installed Elidurus as a replacement. Eventually Archgallo improved as a ruler and ruled peacefully, perhaps reflecting the positive light in which the Thunderer was still seen despite his perpetual conflict with the sovereign and priestly caste. On Archgallo's death, Elidurus succeeded him and ruled justly. Though it is hard to place any very specific parallel with regard to Elidurus, it can in fact be said that the second function god Vayu (and even more so his sons Hanuman and Bhima) was known for loyalty, which Elidurus more than anything embodies.
During Elidurus' reign however, his two younger brothers, Ingenius and the aforementioned Peredurus, are said to have teamed up and attacked him, winning the kingdom from him and trapping him in a tower. The two brothers then decided to split the kingdom of Britain in half, each one ruling simultaneously in their respective halves. The seeming close unity of these two youngest brothers, acting almost as one and then dividing the kingdom into two even halves, of course seems to be a reflection of the unity, to the point of identification, which we often see with regard to the Horse Twins. These gods are twins in both name and action, referred to simply by the unifying moniker “the Asvins” in Vedic myth, and frequently seem to be connected at the hip in their exploits.
To reiterate, we have first a terrible and bloodthirsty father king, followed by an eldest son who is a just and pious king who loves fair laws, followed by a king who is in conflict with the nobles who had aligned with the previous just sovereign, followed by one king whose main attribute is loyalty, followed by two fully united brother kings whose actions and division of the kingdom can be said to be twin-like, and who even team up to make war against their brother in an action again reminiscent of the Aesir-Vanir War motif. Thus, if this sketchy but highly suggestive sequence of kings can be said to follow what we have seen elsewhere to be a widespread and ubiquitous pattern, a pattern deeply ingrained in ancient European myth and central to ancient European religion, then we can feel confident in identifying King Peredurus as a pseudo-historical stand-in for one of the Horse Twin gods. Already we have seen that Pryderi has been plausibly identified as one of these Twins without this added evidence, and more tentatively has been called an early form of the grail quester, whose name became Peredur. The structural analysis of this passage of Monmouth suggests that this can be, if not verified, then strongly supported from a second angle. Here we have excavated the fact that Peredurus was likely to have been seen as one name of one of the Horse Twins. Thus we have strengthened the crucial supposition that Peredur, the grail quester, was, in his true identity, originally one of these Twins. And if Pryderi too can be confidently identified as a Horse Twin by the evidence we have previously laid out, then his identity with Peredur the grail quester is strengthened as well. We must at the same time wonder at the name of the brother of Peredurus in this pseudo-historical account – Ingenius – so mysteriously reminiscent of Freyr's other name, Ing or Yngvi; reminiscent as well of the other coincidentally named Horse Twins from Ireland and Britain, Aengus and Hengist. This Ingenius is even said to be another version of the Welsh name Owain, and Owain is himself identified with Mabon in the poem “A Rumor Has Come to Me From Calchvynyd” from the Book of Taliesin (see a similar case in Peniarth 147). Consider also the close coincidence of the proposed Proto-Germanic form of Ingvi-Freyr's name, *Inguz, and Aengus.
Peredur (as opposed to Peredurus) is the central character of a late 12th century romance, Peredur son of Efrawg, telling the same story as Chretien de Troye's Perceval, but with a few notable differences. One of these differences is the absence of the grail itself, in its place a salver with a severed head on it. Due to the closeness of the romances of Peredur and Perceval in terms of their narrative details, scholars have sought to understand the relationship of the names of the respective heroes, Peredur and Perceval. Percival, meaning “pierce the vale” is a difficult one to connect to Peredur “hard spear,” though each name does denote something relating to piercing, in one fashion or another. Some scholars have suggested, due to the supposed dates of composition, that Peredurus was an approximation of the name Percival in the Welsh language, though it is quite possible that the direction of influence could have been reversed – in any case, they could both come from other earlier shared sources. Jeffrey Gantz believed in such a general reversal of priority if not influence, saying, “inasmuch as Crestiens admits that Perceval is a Welshman, and inasmuch as the name Perceval means little, it seems likely that the name Peredur is the more original form of the hero's name. Peredur moreover looks suspiciously like Pryderi” (Gantz, Mabinogion, Introduction). He further points out two key connections, one between Pryderi and Peredur and one between Pryderi and Perceval. Pryderi is said to be accompanied by a companion named Gwgri in the Mabinogion tale “Math fab Mathonwy.” The Peredur found in Welsh history, cited as living in the fifth century, had a companion of the same name, Gwgri. Of the same opinion, Roger Sherman Loomis explains that
The Annales Cambriae record the death of Peredur and Gwgri in the same year, 580. Of this tradition the Mabinogi of Math seems to afford a vague reminiscence. Gwydion overcoming Pryderi in battle, then Pryderi giving hostages Gwgri Gwastra and 23 others, sons and nobles. The hostages were set free to follow the men of the South. It cannot be without significance that a Gwgri should be closely associated with the deaths of both Peredur and Pryderi (Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance).
Gantz then compares the parallel personalities of Pryderi and Perceval as both being “naive” and “freewheeling...prone to serious errors in judgment,” concluding boldly that “Perhaps at an earlier stage Pryderi-Peredurus was both the focal point of the Four Branches and the central figure in the first Grail narratives” (Gantz, Mabinogion, 1976). Clearly, there is a well-established case for the continuity of the figures Pryderi, Peredurus, Peredur, and Perceval, and hence a strong foundation for a case that the original grail quester was based on the Horse Twin god.
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