Matholwch: a Cymric God (Steed)

Synonyms: Mallolwch, Matholwch Wyddel
Cym: Steed

Matholwch figures as one of the main characters in the Mabinogi of Branwen ferch Llŷr where he is the antagonist to Brân's protagonist. Desirous to forge an alliance with the Irish Brân marries his sister, Branwen to Matholwch the king of Ireland. However, their brother Efnissien was not well pleased with the match and in outrage he maimed the Irish horses at the wedding feast, causing grave offence. In response to this Brân felt obliged to give his magic cauldron to Matholwch. At the feast Matholowch asks Brân where he obtained the magical cauldron, whereupon he relates the tale of where he encountered the cauldron and its magical keeper before. Matholwch relates the tale of Llasar and his wife, saying: one day when he was hunting in Ireland he came to the head of a lake known as the Lake of the Cauldron. There he beheld a huge yellow-haired man emerging from the lake and bearing a cauldron upon his back. This man was of enormous size and of horrid aspect and a woman followe him and she was twice the size of her husband. Matholwch asks them whence they are journeying and the man tells him that they journey because at the end of every six weeks his wife gives birth to a fully-armed warrior. Matholwch has them brought with him and they dwell in his lands for a year. During this time, however, they began to commit outrages and molested the nobles. Counsel was taken and though they were asked to leave they would not. So an iron house was built for them and coals were piled on the outside and set alight. Bellows were applied until the iron glowed white hot. But the metal had softened and Llasar was able to burst through the plating and escape, bringing their cauldron to Britain where Brân obtains it from them.

Though the Irish king was pacified with this offering and despite Branwen giving him a son, Gwern, his courtiers persuaded him to banish her to the kitchens to perform the most menial tasks. She, however, had a pet starling and she sent this across the waves to alert her brother to her predicament. On learning of Branwen's plight Brân immediately gathers an army and leads them across the Irish sea. He bestrides the waves, the poets and bards of his court upon his shoulders as the remaining warriors progress in ships behind him. Fording many rivers, in which course Brân utters the famous statement boed ben bïd bont (he who is the leader must be their peoples' bridge). Brân's men won the ensuing battle and Matholwch was forced to accept terms ’ that he would abdicate in favour of Gwern and that for the victory feast a house would be built that would house Brân himself (not a small feat because of his prodigious size). However, at the ensuing feast the Iris hid themselves in flour sacks to attack the Cymry. Efnissien, sensing treachery threw the flour sacks onto the celebratory pyre and then he threw Gwern atop the sacks. As a result, battle was rejoined. Using Brân's cauldron the Irish were able to re-animate their dead, though they could not speak as a result, and the fighting was fiercer than ever. However, in recompense for his misdeeds Efnissien threw himself into the cauldron, managing to destroy it and himself in the process. Eventually the battle ended with neither side triumphant. Brân himself was wounded in the foot with a poisoned dart and only survived long enough to instruct his seven surviving companions that his head be struck off and buried in Gwynfryn (the White Mount in Caer Lunnein or London). At Brân's death darkenss fell across the face of Britain and all the crops failed.

Apart from the Mabinogi of Branwen ferch Llŷr Matholwch is also known from Triad 53 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein which describes one of the 'Three Harmful Blows if the Island of Britain' as that which Matholwch Wyddel (Matholwch the Irishman) struck upon Branwen. Matholwch Wyddel is named by the bard Cynddelw and is also encountered in the saint's life, Buchedd Collen; though this may simply be indicative that Matholwch had become the generalized name of an Irishman. As Rachel Bromwich has pointed out in the Trioedd Ynys Prydein the elder versions of the manusciript (Peniarth 6 and the Gogynfeirdd) the name of Matholwch is consistently given as Mallolwch and the later form of the name, Matholwch (which occurs consistently in the Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch and Llyfr Coch Hergest may well have arisen under the influence of other names in the Mabinogi such as Math and Mathonwy. If the older form of the name is correct then Mallolwch can be interpreted using the reconstructed proto-Celtic lexicon as deriving from *malno- (slow, lazy [which yields the Irish mall[o]- of the same meaning) and *loku- (lake, pool) thus becomes 'slow water' and may indicate a closer relationship between the figure of Mallolwch and Llasar Llaesgyfnewid than is indicated purely by the tale of Branwen ferch Llŷr.

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