Culhwch Ac Olwen

by Rachel Bromwich, D. Simon Evans (Editor)

Culhwch ac Olwen yw un o chwedlau hynaf yr iaith Gymraeg a ddeil yn enghraifft ryfeddol o ddawn ddisgrifiadol a theithi iaith y Cyfarwydd. Yn ystorfa o draddodiadau brodorol, gwelir ynddi fotiffau amlwg chwedlau cydwladol, ac mae i'r chwedl bwysigrwydd Ewropeaidd fel un o'r testunau Arthuraidd hynaf. Ffrwyth gwaith ar destun Syr Idris Foster (1911 - 84) o'r chwedl yw'r gyfrol hon, a gwblhawyd gan Rachel Bromwich (1915 - 2010) a D. Simon Evans (1921 - 98), a'i chyhoeddi yn gyntaf gan Wasg Prifysgol Cymru ym 1988.

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 1992

About the author

Rachel Bromwich, born Rachel Sheldon Amos, was a British scholar. Her focus was on medieval Welsh literature, and she taught Celtic Languages and Literature in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge, from 1945 to 1976. Among her most important contributions to the study of Welsh literature is Trioedd Ynys Prydein, her edition of the Welsh Triads.

Reviews

[joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps it’s wise to put all that can be said for certain, narrowly, about a thing, in a separate place to where interpretations and speculations go. But the book isn’t entirely free of commentary, and authors do even make some moral points.

And why be so granularly verbose about the text while being so comparatively silent on its meaning? For one thing it leaves the field free for cranks like Layard.

So a bit disappointed.

[Gillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read an edition edited and translated by Siân Echard

[Liam Guilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update. 2025
I've spent the last year translating this story into verse and during that time I've come to realise just how good the editors were. Despite the battering it has had, my hardback copy has held together.

This book is very difficult to find, but worth the effort. There's a Welsh version, 'Culhwch ac Olwen' by the same editors, but in this one the introduction, notes and glossary are in English.

What's not to like? The story is one of the great, enjoyably lunatic performances in Literary History.

The introduction is thorough, as you'd expect from the editors, as are the notes and glossary. I'm not the model reader of the notes, it has a far greater grammatical knowledge than 99% of the world's population, but I doubt you could edit this story for 'the general reader'.

There are excellent translations available, but the original has its own beauty.

Rejecting his step sister as a wife, Culhwch is cursed by his step mother. He can only marry Olwen the Giant's daughter. So far so much the folk tale.

He heads for Arthur's court to enlist his aid. And then the story slides into the realm of the fantastic, a move that is signalled when he encounters Arthur's porter and is told there are four deputy porters, and one goes upon his head to spare his feat and rolls around the court like a stone.

There are lists that would make Umberto Eco ecstatic and James Joyce jealous.
The Giant gives Culhwch a list of 40 impossible tasks, most of which are then forgotten. Some tasks are achieved. There are talking animals, and the magnificent hunting of the great boar, Twrch Trwyth
The giant is killed. Culhwch, who is absent from most of the tale, marries Olwen.

[Flint Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A typical work from Bromwich. You get the original text in the original structure so that you can see how it appeared. Then there is a discussion on each proper noun in the work, explaining origins, and any related materials. Comprehensive is an understatement. It has proven invaluable in my own academic research but it is so simply done as to help bring the story alive to the layman.

[Volsung]

"Culhwch and Olwen" is one of the most famous of the medieval Welsh legends, and this edition is superb, with a well-glossed dictionary and extensive notes and commentary.

[Othy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good edition of Culhwch ac Olwen. The glossary is well set-up, the text clear, and the notes helpful.