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Gwiddolwyn Gorr
A Cymric Mabinogion Hero: Wheel of Knowlege, the Dwarf
Gwiddolwyn Gorr (Gwidolwyn Gorr, Gwythelyn Gorr, Gwyddelyn Gorr) is a Cymric (Welsh) hero known from the Welsh Triads and the Mabinogi of Culhwch ac Olwen. He is presented as a mqage, in posession of dishes that will keep anything placed in them warm. |
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Cym: Wheel of Knowlege, the Dwarf
Gwiddolwny Gorr is known only from a single version of a triad in the Trioedd Ynys Prydein and a single mention in the Mabinogi of Culhwch ac Olwen. The Llyfr Coch Hergest version of Triad 28, names the 'Three Great Enchantments of the Island of Britain' of which the third is the enchantment of Gwythelyn Gorr (which taught to Coll fab Collfrewy, his nephew). The Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch version of this triad conflates Gwiddolwyn with Rhudlwm Gorr, though the Mabinogi of Culhwch ac Olwen makes it clear that both characters are distinct.
The tale of Culhwch ac Olwen names Gwiddolwyn gor twice. The first time, his daughter, Eurolwen is named amongst the ladies of Arthur's court (though the form of his name used is Gwdolwyn Gorr. He is mentioned again amongst the lists of challenges that Ysbaddaden Pencawr gives to Culhwch that he may gain the hand of his daughter, Olwen. So that Ysbaddaden may be shaved, Culhwch must obtain the blood of the Black Witch, but this blood must be supplied warm and the only vessels that can keep it warm are the dishes of Gwiddolwyn Gorr, which 'preserve the heat of the liquor that is put into them in the east, until they arrive at the west'. Culhwch gains these vessels, though the tale of how this is achieved is not related.
As the elder tale, Culhwch ac Olwen makes it clear that Gwiddolwyn is the correct form of the name, which would be a fitting name for an enchanter dwarf, as the name is derived from the Cymric components gwydd (knowledge) and olwyn (wheel/orbit); though, as Rachel Bromwich has pointed out in Trioed Ynys Prydein the name could also be derived from Gwidawl (Vitalis [of life]). It has also been suggested that the name could be a diminutive of Gwyddel (ie Gwyddelyn [little Irishman]), but the term (as Gwyddelian) is applied to Garselit the Huntsman in Culhwch ac Olwen and the distinction of names makes this unlikely.
Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Histori Regium Brittonum introduces the character of Guit(h)elinus and it is also possible that Gwiddolwyn Gorr represents the original for Chrétien de Troyes' Gle(o)dalen the dwarf king.
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