Medieval Arthurian Legend
Old Welsh tales and Old Welsh poetry
7th–14th century Old Welsh poetry and prose in 13th–15th century MSS, National Library of Wales, Cardiff, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
King Arthur told his men that Twrch Trwyth had once been a king, but had been turned into a wild boar for his sins.
'The earliest written records of King Arthur are in Old Welsh,' said Quintin, 'and one or two of them date to as far back as the eighth century AD. And they are definitely set in a mythological landscape, not a historical one. There is no compelling evidence at all for a real King Arthur who fought against Anglo-Saxon invasions in the late-fifth and early-sixth centuries. But there is a lot of evidence for his having invaded an Otherworld to steal magic cauldrons and things, and protected Britain against the rampages of supernatural beasts and monsters, like a giant wild boar called Twrch Trwyth, whose hunting by Arthur was already an ancient folk memory when it was referred to in a ninth century text.'
'That story's in a Medieval tale from the Welsh Mabinogion as well, an adventure called 'How Culhwch won Olwen',' said Miranda. 'Culhwch receives King Arthur's support in accomplishing a long list of seemingly-impossible tasks so that he can win the hand of the beautiful Olwen in marriage. One of these is to capture the supernatural boar Twrch Trwyth. He needs to get two horned oxen... And these are Nynniaw and Peibaw, whom God turned into oxen on account of their sins.
And when Arthur has captured these oxen he has to go to find a woman called Rhymhi at Tringad's house ...and he inquired of [Tringad] whether he had heard of her there. "In what form may she be?" "She is in the form of a she-wolf," said he.
And later in the story, King Arthur sends a man to check that Twrch Trwyth has what they need before they risk fighting the beast and this man turns himself into a bird; and on being asked about Twrch Trwyth, King Arthur explains that he was once a king, and that God had transformed him into a swine for his sins.
'
'One of the earliest references to Arthur,' replied Quintin, 'concerns the battle of Camlann, where this battle occurs in a ninth-century (or a little earlier) catalogue of topographic folklore...
, that is, it is a mythological battle. And in this same Old Welsh text, we get the very clearly non-historical concept of Arthur as someone who has never been, and can never be, killed.
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