Twrch Trwyth: a Cymric Mabinogi Mystical Being (Engendered Boar)

The Twrch Trwyth is arguably one of the most intriguing characters in Cymric mythos and he is one of the central figures of the Mabinogion of Culhwch ac Olwen. In this tale Culhwch's stepmother palces a tynged (a fate) upon him, that he would not wed until he obtained the hand of Olwen, daughter of Ysbaddaden chief of the Giants. Instantly, on hearing Olwen's name Culhwch fell madly in love with her and as he made his way from the Llys his father spied him and asked him why he was so downcast. Culhwch related what had befallen and Cilydd counselled him to go to his uncle, Arthur's court. Whereupon his long hair of youth would be cut and on entering adulthood he could ask the great Lord a boon. Culhwch eventually manages to gain entry into Arthur's court by showing the gate-keeper his powers. There he asks the great lord to aid him in the quest of gaining Olwen's hand. This boon Arthur decides to grant and a full year is spent searching for Olwen. Culhwch eventually locates her in the house of her uncle, Custennin and they go to the court of Ysbaddaden that Culhwch can ask for Olwen's hand in marriage. This way Culhwch comes into the presence of Yspadadden and asks for Olwen's hand. Which cannot be gained until a series of seemingly-impossible tasks have been achieved. One of these tasks is to hunt the Twrch Trwyth a semi-mystical boar who has a comb and razor lying between his ears that are essential to trim Ysbaddaden's hair and beard before the wedding feast.

Of course, the anoeth (literally: foolish, impossible, task) of capturing the Twrch Trwyth is not easily achieved and to be successful must first locate the whereabouts of Mabon fab Modron, the world's greatest hunter. The oldest animals in the world are asked and eventually Mabon is found and freed. Thus the hunt for the Twrch Trwyth begins in earnest. First Arthur and his retinue journey to Gelliwig in Cornwall and from there Arthur sends Menw mab Teirgwaedd to Ireland (where the Twrch Trwyth had already laid waste to a third of the land) to ensure that the precious things requested by Ysbaddaden were still caught between the boar's ears. Transforming in to a bird, Menw sought the beast and caught up with him at Esgair Oerfel (The Cold Ridge) in Ireland. Still in bird form, Menw alighted at the great boar's lair and made to snatch away one of the precious trinkets from between the twrch's ears. The boar roused himself, tossing his head so that some of the venom from his maw fell upon Menw, who was never the same thereafter. Knowing now that the boar was in posession of what he sought Arthur called all the hosts of Britain to him and they set out for Ireland. There they landed, causing consternation in the land, and made their way to Esgeir Oerfel where the boar lay with his seven young boar-lets. The dogs were loosed upon them from all sides and that day the men of Ireland fought with him and on the second day the men of Arthur's household did battle with him, but gained no advantage. On the third day Arthur himself encountered the boar and fought with him for a full nine days and nine nights without harming as much as one boar-let.

That night Arthur's men enquired of him as to the origin of the Twrch Trwyth and he told them that he had once been a king, and that god had transformed him into a swine for his sins. Then Arthur sent one of his heroes, Gwrhyr Gwalstawd Ieithoedd to parlay with the boar. Transforming himself into a bird he alights atop the boars' lair where the great boar lies with the seven young pigs. Gwrhyr beseaches them to come parlay with Arthur, but they deny him. And when he asks for the comb, scissors and razor that are lodged between the Twrch Trwyth's ears they deny him again and avow that on the morrow they shall arise, go to Arthur's court and there do all the mischief they can. Thus the boars arise and make their way to the land of the Cymry with Arthur and his men hot on their heels. At Cwm Cerwyn the Twrch Trwyth made his stand and slew four of Arthur's foremost champions. Then he made a second stand in the same place and though he slew four more of Arthur's heroes he was wounded himself in the flank. The boar travels southwards, slaying warrioris all they way until he reaches the estuary of the severn and Arthur calls all the men of Devon and Cornwall to him. Men were sent to force the great boar into the Severn. There Arthur and Mabon fall upon the boar with Arthur's host hard on their heels. They force the baor into the severn and Mabon draws parallel to snatch the razor from between the boar's ears. Kyledr Wyllt draws up on the other side and snatches the scissors, but before the comb can be taken Twrch Trwyth's feet reach solid ground and he surges into Cornwall. Arthur's host follow the bear and at length they are able to attain the comb and drive the Twrch Trwyth into the Atlantic, from whence it was never kown where he went. Thus was the great boar driven from Britain.

The Twrch Trwyth has a direct cognate in Irish mythos, the Orc-Triath (sometimes known as Torc Triath) who appears in the Leabhar Gabhála (Book of Invasions) as the King of the Boars and is listed amongst the posessions of the fertility Goddess, Brigid. Here the Orc-Triath is a symbol of plunder and destructon and in this it is cognate with the Cymric Twrch Trwyth. Much of the Cymric mythos of the Twrch Trwyth has been lost, but his name provides a clue as to his attributes. The first word, twrch means 'boar', but the second part of the name trwyth is a little more difficult to interpret. The word can mean a decoction, an infusion or an admixture of urine and faeces and in its verbal form it meant 'to imbue', 'to seep'. This may be releated to the Twrch Trwyth's status as a 'created being'. It is a boar 'imbued' with the spirit of a man, or a man turned into a boar. Thus Twrch Trwyth can be rendered as 'Imbuded Boar' or perhaps better as 'Engendered Boar'.

The Twrch Trwyth also represents what could be considred as a late survival of what must be the Celtic cult animal par excellence. Indeed, ever since the original flowering of Celtic Hallstatt culture almost two and a half millennia ago the Boar has been depicted on numerous Celtic objects. Amongst the forests of northern Europe the boar would have been amongst the most agressive creatures and this aspect of the boar became revered by the Celts. The boar came to represent the strength of the warror with the boar's erect hackles standing for the agressive 'warrior' nature of the boar. Thus in all depictions of the boar, from the Icenian coin, above left, to the almost life-size sculpture from Neuvy-en-Sullias, France (above right) to the depiction of a captured Celtic boar standard on the arch of Narbonne (bottom) the boar's hackles are erect. These attributes of the boar seen throughout Celtic culture survive in the form of the Twrch Trwyth for even in the tale of Culhwch ac Olwen the Twrch Trwyth is the consumate aggressor and warror. So much so that he is ultimately allowed an escape. Perhaps the spirit of the boar truly is unkillable.

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