Culhwch and Olwen

The story of Culhwch and Owen, originally in medieval Welsh, features one of the earliest appearances of the character who became more familiar as King Arthur. Arthur’s a kind of king here too, at least the leader of a war band, less chivalrous and more ruthless, with each of his warriors gifted with a magical, and often peculiar, power. The original tale, which Catherine Fisher does her best to honour in simple, direct idiomatic prose and some haunting poems, is a dauntingly rambling one, which has all the appearance of being several separate tales bundled up together. The single thread that binds them is the quest of Culhwch to marry Olwen, the daughter of Ysbaddaden, chief of giants, which can only be achieved by carrying out a series of impossible tasks set by her demanding father and the death of Ysbaddaden himself. These tasks reach their climax in Arthur’s hunt of the great boar Twrch Twyrth and his piglets. They chase Twrch all over Wales and into Cornwall. They kill his piglets and, as required by the giant, snatch the boar’s razors, shears and comb as trophies, but the boar himself escapes. The death of Ysbaddaden and the marriage of Culhwch and Olwen follow. Fisher’s retelling is accompanied by illustrations by Efa Lois in which Culhwch and Olwen appear as somewhat New Age teenagers. Despite Catherine Fisher’s brave attempt, the tale seems to me to have successfully resisted a modern retelling, but it’s definitely worth reading for her poems and for her determination to bring the tale to a young readership in all its ancient unruliness.