Gwenhwyfach
Gwenhwyfach(Middle Welsh:Gwenhwyvach,Middle Welsh:Gwenhwywach,orMiddle Welsh:Gwenhwyach;sometimesanglicizedtoGuinevak) was a sister ofGwenhwyfar(Guinevere) inmedieval WelshArthurian legend.The tradition surrounding her is preserved in fragmentary form in twoWelsh Triadsand theMabinogitale ofCulhwch and Olwen.
Gwenhwywach
[edit]This relatively obscure figure is first mentioned inCulhwch and Olwen,where her name (spelledGwenhwyach) is among those 200 men, women, dogs, and horses invoked by the heroCulhwchto punctuate his request thatKing Arthurhelp him find his loveOlwen.Both of the Triads that mention Gwenhwyfach refer to the enmity between her and her sister that led to theBattle of Camlann.Triad 53 lists as one of the "Three Harmful Blows of the Island of Britain" the slap that Gwenhwyvach gave her sister that caused the Strife of Camlann. Identifying Camlann as one of Britain's "Three Futile Battles",Triad 84mentions it was started because of a dispute between the sisters. Some have suggested that "Gwenhwyfach" in Triad 53 is a mistake for "Medrawd"(Mordred), since Triad 54 describes Medrawd raiding Arthur's court and throwing Gwenhwyfar to the ground and beating her; this interpretation does not explain Triad 84, however.
Rachel Bromwichnotes, citing the spelling found inCulhwch and Olwenand Triad 84, thatGwenhwyachmay in fact be the original spelling of the name.[1]Melville Richards and Bromwich previously suggested that the alternate spelling of her name in medieval Welsh sources, Gwenhwywach, could have been understood asGwenhwy-fach,or "Gwenhwy the Lesser", aback-formationbased on afalse etymologyof her sister's name asGwenhwy-fawr,meaning "Gwenhwy the Great".[2][3]It is possible that Gwenhwyfach was once thought of as a darker aspect of Gwenhwyfar.[4]
False Guinevere
[edit]
TheLancelot-Grailcycle introduced a possibly related character known as "the False Guinevere" or "Guinevere the False". She is the real Guinevere's namesake identical but evil half-sister by a different mother. Also known as the Lady of Camelide (Dame de Camelide), she bewitches Arthur and turns him against the real Guinevere. She later dies of disease, confessing on her deathbed. (In the non-cyclicalLancelot,she confesses and is then burned afterLancelotwins atrial by combatagainst her three champions.)
Modern stories
[edit]Some modern writers associate Gwenhwyfach with Mordred, presumably due to her association with Camlann; she appears as the traitor's wife inThomas Love Peacock's novelThe Misfortunes of Elphin(1829), for example. InBernard Cornwell'sEnemy of God(1996), she is Guinevere's delusional and dim-witted fat sister who aids Arthur in his supposed "rescue" of Guinevere from Lancelot's castle and later becomes completely insane while living all alone.
References
[edit]- ^Bromwich, Rachel, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, 3rd Ed. University of Wales Press, 2006, p. 376.
- ^Richards, Melville, "Arthurian Onomastics", in: Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, vol. 2, 1969, p. 257.
- ^Collins, Morris."The Arthurian Court List inCulhwch and Olwen".The Camelot Projectat theUniversity of Rochester.Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- ^Ziegler, Michelle (1999)."Brigantia, Cartimandua and Gwenhwyfar".The Heroic Age(1).ISSN1526-1867.Retrieved8 December2012.
According toPatrick Sims-Williams,in Welsh the "termination of -achevokes unpleasantness "(Sims-Williams 1991:42). Therefore, Gwenhwyfar's sister Gwenhwyfach, found in the Welsh triads (Bromwich 1978) andCulhwch and Olwen(Ford 1977:131), may represent an unpleasant or evil form of Gwenhwyfar herself.
