Celtic Gods: The Cymric Heroine, Penarwan (Chief Carrier, Chief of the Great Strikers)

Penarwan
A Cymric Heroine: Chief Carrier, Chief of the Great Strikers

Pnarwan is a Cymric (Welsh) heroine known from two of the Welsh triads where she is named as the unfaithful wife of Urien of Rheged, though her name suggests she was a warrior and battle leader in her own light, thus only a very distorted view of this heroine may have come down to us.



Synonyms:
Cym: Chief Carrier, Chief of the Great Strikers, Chief Hero in Battle

Penarwan is named in only two sources. Triad 80 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein and the notes to Evan Evans' copy of Robert Vaughan's version of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein. The primary source, of course is Triad 80 which names the 'Three Faithless Wives of Ynys Prydein' as three daughters of Kulfanwyd Post Prydein and names Penarwan, wife of Owein mab Urien as one of these. Evan Evans' note to his copy of the text says that 'for her [Penarwan's] licentious and unchaste life I presume he did not long cohabit'. Attempting, perhaps, to explain why the name of Penarwan is not mentioned in any other sources.

There are several possible interpretations of Penarwan's name, and most seem to have masculine connotations. The first element pen is fairly obvious meaning 'head' or 'chief'; the next component arwan could be a form of the archaic word arwen (to carry) or could be composed of the two components ar (on, hero, or the intensive particle) and gwan (strike, attack, thrust, battle) yielding the interpretations 'chief carrier', 'chief hero in battle', 'chief of the great strikers'. These are all odd interpretations for a woman known only for her unfaithfulness and indicate that we may well have lost all the pertinent legends regarding Penarwan which well have painted her in a different light to the surviving triad.



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