KILHUGH AND OLWEN
PART I
Kilhugh was the son of Kilyth, son of Prince Kelython. For a long time before he was born his mother was wandering to and fro alone in solitudes and wildernesses, and a mountain was his birthplace. Soon afterwards his mother fell sick, and in a little while she died. When the boy was big his father married another woman, a widowed queen.
'It were well for thee, Kilhugh, to have a wife,' said his stepmother one day, 'and I have a daughter who is coveted by all the warriors and princes of the world.'
'But I am not of an age yet to marry,' answered Kilhugh.
Then the woman flared into anger, and when she had spent her words she said to the lad in a quiet voice:
'Thou shalt not have a wife until thou obtain Olwen, the daughter of the giant, Uspathadden Penkower.'
At the sound of the name of Olwen, though uttered in hatred, Kilhugh blushed for love. Men and women in his father's castle saw a change in his face, and heard it in his voice. 'What has come over thee, my son?' asked his father, and Kilhugh told him. 'It will be easy for thee to win Olwen,' he said, 'for King Arthur is thy cousin. Go, therefore, and seek the boon of him; but first ask him to honour thee by cutting thy hair.'
Kilhugh rode away upon a dappled grey horse, whose bridle and saddle were of gold. His shoes and stirrups also were heavy with gold. Yet his horse did not bow the grass underfoot. His sword had a golden hilt, his war horn was ivory. He carried two spears of silver, three ells long, and steel-headed; so sharp were the spears that they would draw blood from the wind, and they were swifter than the fall of the dewdrop from the blade of reed-grass upon the earth when the dew of June is at the heaviest. A greyhound with a collar of rubies ran on either side of him, sporting like sea swallows and continually crossing over in front of the horse as Kilhugh journeyed towards Arthur's palace.
The door of the hall was shut, and the porter would not open it.
'The knife is in the meat,' he said, 'and the drink is in the horn, and none may enter but the son of a king of a privileged country, or a craftsman bringing his craft. But the guest-chamber is free to thee, and thou wilt fare as well there as in Arthur's hall, and to-morrow when the hall gate is opened thou shalt enter.'
'That will I not do,' said Kilhugh, lifting up his voice, 'and if thou dost not open the gate I will give three fatal shouts—where my shout is heard, no child will be born.'
'Against the laws of the palace thou shalt not enter,' said the porter. Nevertheless, he went hastily into the hall and spoke to Arthur:
'Half of my life is past. I have been in India, in Africa, in Greece, in the East, in the islands, in Sach and Salach, in Lotor and Fotor, in Caer Oeth and Annoeth, and in Caer Nevenhyr. I have seen heroes and kings. But never did I behold one of majesty like the man yonder at the gate.'
Arthur made a quick reply:
'If walking thou didst come here, go back running. Bid him enter out of the wind and rain. Let all of you honour him and serve him.'
The gate was opened, and Kilhugh entered upon horseback into the hall. He greeted Arthur and the chiefs and warriors, and they greeted him back.
'Sit thou between two of my warriors,' said Arthur 'thou shalt have minstrels before thee and shalt enjoy the privileges of a king born to a throne.'
'I came not for meat and drink,' said Kilhugh, 'but for a boon. If I obtain it I will repay and praise thee; if not, I will carry thy dispraise to the four quarters of the earth.'
'Whatever thou ask shall be thine,' said Arthur, 'save my ship, my mantle, my sword, my lance, my shield, my dagger, and my wife.'
'I would,' said Kilhugh, 'that thou bless my hair.'
So Arthur combed Kilhugh's hair, and asked his name and family. When he heard that the youth was his own cousin he promised him any boon.
'Olwen is the boon I desire,' said Kilhugh, 'I crave it of thee, lord Arthur. I crave it of thy warriors, Kay and Bedwyr and Gwynn and Gormant, and Taliesin the bard, and Geraint, and Morvran the hideous, and Santhe Bryd Angel the beautiful, and Osla whose dagger was once a bridge for an army, and Drem who can see the gnats of Cornwall from Caithness, and Ughtryd who spread his red untrimmed beard over the eight and forty rafters of thy hall, and Ol who tracked his father's swine that were carried off seven years before he was born, and all the other warriors and huntsmen, and Bedwini the Bishop who blesses thy meat and drink. I crave it also of the golden-chained daughters of this island, Guinevere thy queen and Guiniach her sister, and Gwen and Eurolwen and Teleri and Morvyth and Gwenllian and Creithylad and the two Essyllts.'
'Kilhugh,' said Arthur, 'I have never heard of Olwen until this day, but I will send men to search. Give me time.'
Kilhugh granted him until the last night of the year, but the messengers returned on that day as ignorant as they set out.
'Everyone has his boon,' exclaimed Kilhugh that night, 'only I lack mine.'
'Dost thou reproach Arthur?' Kay asked. 'Come with us and we will not part until we obtain the maiden or thou dost confess that she does not exist.'
Kay had many strange powers. He could make himself as tall as the highest tree in the forest. So great was the heat of his nature that when his friends were cold it was like fuel to light the fire. His sword gave wounds that could not be healed. And Kay rose up to accompany Kilhugh.
Arthur called also Bedwyr, the swiftest man in the island except Drych Ail Kibthar and the king himself; and Cynthelig the guide who was as good a guide in a new land as in his own; and Gwrhyr who knew all tongues of men and birds and beasts; and his nephew Gwalchmai who never returned home before a quest was achieved; and Menw who could weave charms and illusions and make men invisible. They journeyed with Kilhugh until they came to a vast open plain and saw upon it a great castle, the fairest of the castles of the world. Though they rode all day for three days they did not reach this castle. When at last they were approaching it they saw a flock of sheep sufficient to have covered the sky in summer, and on a mound sat the herdsman and his dog, a mastiff larger than a horse. Never had that herdsman lost a lamb out of his flock. Gwrhyr was sent to salute him and Menw to cast a spell upon the dog. They greeted the man and asked him who lived in the castle.
'This,' he answered, 'is known through the world as the Castle of Uspathadden Penkower'.
'And who art thou?'
'My name is Custennin and I am oppressed by my brother Uspathadden on account of my possessions. Who are ye?'
'We are an embassy from Arthur, seeking Olwen the daughter of Uspathadden.'
'The mercy of Heaven be upon you,' cried Custennin. 'None ever returned from that quest,' and he led them to his own house.
When they had eaten and were going out again to play a little before the trouble, Custennin's wife opened a stone chest in her chimney corner and let out a youth with curled yellow hair.
'Three and twenty of my sons,' she said, 'has Uspathadden slain, and I have no more hope of this one than of the others.'
He was a goodly young man, and Kay asked her if he might join their quest. Like her husband she implored them to turn back when she heard their errand. But when she saw that they were not to be frightened, she confessed that Olwen herself was in the habit of coming to that herdsman's dwelling to wash her hair. They gave a pledge not to harm the maid, and the woman consented to send for her to come that day. She entered, and before he had recovered from the astonishment of her light-footed beauty, Kilhugh found her sitting next to him upon his bench. The name Olwen came into his soul at the first sight of her, and he knew her.
'Thou art she', said Kilhugh, 'whom I have loved. Come away with me.'
'I cannot,' Olwen said, 'for I have promised my father not to go without his counsel, for his life will last only until the day of my marriage. But go, ask my father for me. Whatever he shall ask of thee grant him, and thou shalt obtain me.'
Then she rose up and walked before them to the castle. Kilhugh and his companions slew the nine porters at the nine gates in silence, and the nine watchdogs without a bark. They entered the hall and greeted Uspathadden as he sat there like a strange crag beheld suddenly at a sharp turn in a road among the mountains when night is falling.
'The greeting of Heaven and of man to thee, Uspathadden Penkower,' they said.
'Why are you here?' he asked.
'To seek thy daughter Olwen as a wife for Kilhugh.'
'Raise up my eyebrows,' said Uspathadden to his pages and attendants, 'that I may see this son-in-law.'
They raised his eyebrows from over his eyes with forks, and he said:
'Come to-morrow for an answer.'
As they were going, he seized a poisoned dart and threw it after them. But Bedwyr caught it and flung it back, piercing Uspathadden's knee and making him say:
'A cursed ungentle son-in-law, truly. I shall limp for this. The poisoned iron stings like a gadfly. Cursed be the smith who forged it and the anvil where it was wrought.'
Next day at dawn Kilhugh and the others went again to the castle and asked for Olwen. But said Uspathadden:
'Her four great-grandmothers and four great-grandsires are yet alive and I must take counsel of them.'
They turned to leave him and he threw a second dart. Menw flung it back and it pierced his breast and came out of the small of his back.
'A cursed ungentle son-in-law, truly,' growled Uspathadden. 'This iron bites like a horse-leech. Whenever I go up hill I shall pant and have a pain in my chest, and I shall often loathe my food.'
He was cursing the smith and the anvil as Kilhugh went out to meat.
On the third day he said to them as soon as they entered:
'Shoot not at me unless you desire death. Where are my attendants? Lift up my eyebrows which have fallen over my eyeballs, that I may see the fashion of my son-in-law.' Then they arose, and, as they did so, Uspathadden Penkower took the third poisoned dart and cast it at them. And Kilhugh caught it and threw it vigorously, and wounded him through the eyeball, so that the dart came out at the back of his head.
'A cursed ungentle son-in-law, truly! Now as long as I remain alive, my eyesight will be the worse. Whenever I go against the wind, my eyes will water; and peradventure my head will burn, and I shall have a giddiness every new moon. Cursed be the fire in which it was forged. Like the bite of a mad dog is the stroke of this poisoned iron.'
And they went to meat.
The next day Kilhugh said to Uspathadden:
'Shoot at us no more, unless thou art still starving with hunger for wounds and torment such as thou hast already. Give me thy daughter. If not, thou shalt die for refusing her.'
The giant answered:
'Come hither that I may see thee,' and he placed a chair at his feet so that Kilhugh could gaze up under the overhanging eyebrows and exchange glances with the one small dodging brown eye which remained to him.
'Is it thou that seekest my daughter?'
'It is I.'
'I must have thy pledge that thou wilt be just in dealing with me. When I have got what I am going to ask for, thou shalt have my daughter.'
'Willingly I promise. Name what thou dost desire, Uspathadden Penkower.'
Still looking down, he said to Kilhugh:
'Seest thou yonder red ploughland? '
'I see it.'
'When first I met the mother of this maiden, nine bushels of flax were sown therein, and none has yet sprung up, neither white nor black; and I have the measure by me still. I require to have the flax to sow in the new land yonder, that when it grows up it may make a white wimple for my daughter's head, on the day of thy wedding.'
Kilhugh looked out through the door of the hall to the red land on the hill-side below the rocks, and said:
'It will be easy for me to do this.'
'If thou canst do this, there is something else thou canst not do which I require. For thy wedding I must shave this beard,' Kilhugh looked up at what seemed bushes of dry gorse growing on the ledge of the giant's chin—'and to shave it I must have the tusk of Yskithyrwyn Penbaeth, the boar, and the tusk has to be drawn out of his jaw while he is alive.'
'It will be easy for me to do this.'
'Supposing thou canst do it, there is something yet which thou canst not do,' said Uspathadden, shaking the tangled thickets of his grey-sprinkled black hair, which the magpies visited to gather lining for their nests. 'I must trim my hair. Throughout the world there is not a comb or scissors with which I can arrange my hair on account of its rankness, except the comb and scissors that are between the two ears of Turk Truith, the son of Prince Tared. He will not give them of his own free will, and thou wilt not be able to compel him. Nor must thou leave among the bristles Turk Truith's razor, for I shall need it to finish what is begun by the tusk of Yskithyrwyn Penbaeth.'
'It will be easy,' said Kilhugh, itching to be gone.
'Young man,' interrupted Uspathadden, with a voice like a sea-cave in storm, rumbling within, roaring out of his mouth, hissing in the hair on his lips, 'young man, Turk Truith cannot be hunted without Dridwyn the hound, whelp of Greid the son of Eri.'
'Him I can easily obtain.'
'But if thou find him thou canst not hold him except in a leash made of Dillus Varvawc's beard, plucked out while he is alive, because it would be brittle if he were dead.'
'It will be easy for me to obtain it.'
'If thou dost, thou hast yet to perform the impossible. One huntsman in all the world was born to hunt with Dridwyn, and he alone. That is Mabon, the son of Modron. He was taken from his mother when three nights old, and it is not known where he now is, nor whether he is living or dead.'
'It will be easy for me to find him.'
'If thou find Mabon and Dridwyn and twist the leash out of Dillus Varvawc's beard and with their help thou bring Turk Truith to bay, thou canst not slay him. Only the sword of Gwrnach the Giant will slay the boar, and Gwrnach will never give it of his own free will, either for a price or as a gift, nor canst thou compel him.'
'It will be easy for me to do this.' And Uspathadden grew more angry, and in a breath set him many other tasks. 'These also I shall perform,' said Kilhugh. 'Horses I shall have and chivalry and my lord and kinsman Arthur. I shall obtain all these things. I shall gain thy daughter and she shall wear the snowy wimple. Thou shalt trim thy thickets and shave thy beard and thou shalt die, Uspathadden Penkower.'
PART II
Then upon a golden morning of March, they set out, Arthur and his warriors and huntsmen, Kilhugh and the last son of Custennin. They rode on, with their eyes looking for Dillus Varvawc, and their minds dwelling on the nine bushels of flax to be unsown out of the earth, every seed of it. They crossed mountains pathless like the sea, and under forests that never knew the sun even in winter, and there were many days when Kilhugh's greyhounds had no heart to sport about him like sea-swallows. Some men went this way and some that; and one day upon a mountain, when the sun had set fire to the gorse and last year's bracken, Gwythyr the son of Greigawl heard a wailing and a grievous cry. He sprang towards the sound and traced it to an antheap right in the course of the torrent of fire that was rolling up the mountain. To save the inhabitants he drew his sword and mowed the gorse and bracken surrounding the nest. Thus the fire passed by at a distance on either side, and the ants thanked Gwythyr, saying: 'Receive from us the blessing of Heaven, and what no man can give we will give thee.' They sprinkled themselves over the red land opposite Uspathadden's castle and gathered up the nine bushels of seed all but one, and before night the lame ant came in carrying that one. Thus the ants provided a snowy bridal wimple for the head of Olwen.
The men travelled far in search of Dillus Varvawc to make a leash out of his beard for the hound Dridwyn. They were divided into many parties, and in one of these were Kay and Bedwyr. They were sitting one day on one of the cairns on the summit of Plinlimmon in a mighty wind, when they saw far off to the southward a huge column of smoke unbent by the wind. 'That is a robber's fire,' said Kay. As they hastened towards it, they saw at length a giant singeing the bristles of a wild boar before skinning it, and both knew that it was Dillus Varvawc. They hid themselves while Dillus flayed and cleaned and cooked the boar and while he ate gigantically. Then he fell asleep beside the embers. At his feet Kay dug a pit, and when it was very deep he struck the giant a fierce blow. Sleepily awaking, Dillus made efforts to rise, but fell instead into the pit. There he stuck fast like a frog in a snake's throat, and Bedwyr uprooted the hairs of his beard. When he was smooth they slew him altogether. They had now the leash for Dridwyn and hastened with it to Arthur at Gelli Wic in Cornwall.
'It is best now', said Arthur, 'to seek Dridwyn, whelp of Greid the son of Eri.' But though they set out to capture Dridwyn most men forgot the hound because of the quarrel in the north between Gwythyr and Gwynn the son of Nudd, who carried off Gwythyr's bride. Only Arthur could make peace between them. The maiden was sent to her father's house, and it was ordained that Gwythyr and Gwynn should fight for her on every May-day until the day of doom, and that whoever should be the conqueror on that day should make her his bride. From the north men followed Arthur into Armorica and into Ireland and to the north again, and they were setting out upon the scent of Yskithyrwyn when a man came up to them leading two hounds in his right hand and one in the left. Now the single hound was Dridwyn and the leash was that which had been twisted out of Dillus Varvawc's beard. But the man could not or would not tell how he had captured Dridwyn. So Kilhugh thanked him and took Dridwyn and joined Arthur in pursuit of Yskithyrwyn. Arthur's own hound Cavall was the first to come up with the boar. King Kaw of North Britain drew out the tusk that was to shave Uspathadden, and afterwards slew the beast with his great axe.
They now thought more and more of the boar, Turk Truith, who had the comb and scissors and razor hidden between his ears that were to prune Uspathadden's head for Olwen's wedding. Arthur sent Menw, the man of charms and illusions, to see if these instruments were still in their place. As the boar had laid waste a third part of Ireland it was easy for Menw to find his traces. To enter his lair Menw took the form of a bird. He could see the scissors and comb, but when the bird Menw tried to snatch them away he was angrily shaken off with nothing more than one bristle of the boar. He brought back the news and the one bristle.
The hunt was still delayed because the hound Dridwyn was useless without Mabon the son of Modron as huntsman. Chief in the search for Mabon was Gwrhyr, who knew the languages of birds and beasts. He went first to the Blackbird of Cilgwri to inquire. But the Blackbird answered out of his hawthorn leaves:
'When I first came here there was a smith's anvil in this place; and from that time no work has been done upon it save the pecking of my beak every evening; and what is left is not the size of a nut; yet I swear that during all that time I have never heard of Mabon. But go to the Stag of Redynvre. He is older than I.'
Gwrhyr tracked the Stag to the oak-trees of Redynvre, and asked if he knew Mabon. The Stag of Redynvre answered:
'When first I came hither, there was a plain all around me, without any trees save one oak sapling, which grew up to be an oak with a hundred branches. And that oak has since perished, so that now nothing remains of it but the withered stump; and from that day to this I have been here; yet have I never heard of the man for whom you inquire. Nevertheless, being an embassy from Arthur, I will be your guide to the place where there is an animal which was made before I was.' He directed them to the Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, and Gwrhyr found her among the beeches of the steep-sided and solitary coombe. She was hooting to her echoes: in Cwm Cawlwyd there were four echoes, one after the other, and the last seemed to be on the other side of the moon.
'Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, four owls in one,' said Gwrhyr, 'here is an embassy from Arthur; knowest thou aught of Mabon the son of Modron, who was taken after three nights from his mother?'
'If I knew I would tell you. When first I came hither, the wide valley you see was a wooded glen. And a race of men came and uprooted the trees. And there grew there a second wood; and this wood is the third. My wings, are they not withered stumps? Yet all this time, even until to-day, I have never heard of the man for whom you inquire. Nevertheless, I will be the guide of Arthur's embassy until you come to the place where is the oldest animal in this world, and the one that has travelled most, the Eagle of Gwern Abwy.'
So she flew along above Gwrhyr, until they came to the precipice above a lake high upon a mountain, where lived the Eagle, and he asked for news of Mabon. The Eagle of Gwern Abwy answered:
'I have been here for a great space of time; when I first came hither there was a rock here, from the top of which I pecked at the stars every evening; and now it is not so much as a span high. From that day to this I have been here, and I have never heard of the man for whom you inquire, except once when I went in search of food as far as Llyn Llyw. And when I came there, I struck my talons into a salmon, thinking he would serve me as food for a long time. But he drew me into the deep, and I was scarcely able to escape from him. After that I went with my whole kindred to attack him, and to try to destroy him; but he sent messengers, and made peace with me; and he came and besought me to take fifty fish-spears out of his back. Unless he know something of him whom you seek, I cannot tell who may. However, I will guide you to the place where he is.'
Gwrhyr bent down and asked through the glassy water of Llyn Llyw the same question. The salmon rose up to the surface, and answered in silence:
'As much as I know I will tell thee. With every tide I go along the river upwards, until I come near to the walls of Gloucester, and there have I found such wrong as I never found elsewhere; and that ye may believe it, let one of you go thither upon each of my two shoulders.' So Kay and Gwrhyr went upon the two shoulders of the salmon until they came unto the wall of the prison, and they heard a great wailing and lamenting from the dungeon. Said Gwrhyr, 'Who is it that laments in this house of stone?'
'Alas, I am Mabon the son of Modron, and no imprisonment was ever so grievous as mine, not even that of Greid the son of Eri.'
'Hast thou hope,' asked Gwrhyr, 'of being released by gold or silver, or only combat?'
'Only by combat,' said the voice of the dungeon.
Then they went thence, and returned to Arthur, and they told him where Mabon the son of Modron was imprisoned. And Arthur summoned the warriors of the Island, and they journeyed as far as Gloucester, to the place where Mabon was in prison. Kay and Bedwyr went upon the shoulders of the fish, whilst the warriors of Arthur attacked the castle. And Kay broke through the wall into the dungeon, and brought away the prisoner upon his back, whilst the fight was going on between the warriors. And Arthur returned home, and Mabon with him at liberty.
So they gave Mabon the leash made of Dillus Varvawc's beard, and he took charge of Dridwyn.
They had still to win the sword of the giant Gwrnach. When they came to Gwrnach's castle the knife was in the meat and the drink in the horn, and no man was admitted save a craftsman bringing his craft. Kay entered as a burnisher of swords. He was very welcome to Gwrnach, and a chair was placed for him opposite the Giant. Gwrnach's sword was brought for him to burnish it. When he had burnished half, he put it into the Giant's hand, asking him, 'Will this please thee?' And Gwrnach said, 'I would rather have the whole blade like this than all that is in my dominions. I marvel that such a man as thou should be without a companion.'
'I have a companion, noble sir,' said Kay, 'though he is not skilled in this art.'
'Who may he be?'
'Let the porter go out. He will recognize the man whose lance will draw blood from the wind.'
The gate opened and Bedwyr entered, and while they were in the hall the last son of Custennin contrived an entrance for himself and all his companions, so that they scattered themselves through the castle, and slew all the Giant's men in secret.
The sword was now polished, and Kay gave it unto the hand of Gwrnach the Giant, to see if he were pleased with his work. And the Giant said, 'The work is good, I am content therewith.' Said Kay, 'It is thy scabbard that hath rusted thy sword, give it to me that I may take out the wooden sides of it and put in new ones.' And he took the scabbard from him, and the sword in the other hand. And he came and stood over against the Giant, as if he would have put the sword into the scabbard; and with it he struck at the Giant, and cut off his head at one blow. Then they despoiled the castle, and took from it what goods and jewels they would. And again on the same day, at the beginning of the year, they came to Arthur's Court, bearing with them the sword of Gwrnach the Giant.
Arthur now summoned the warriors of the three islands of Britain, of France, of Armorica, and of the Summer Country. With this host he entered Ireland, and men sought his protection against Turk Truith and his seven swine. First he sent Gwrhyr to the boar to ask him to come and speak to the King. But the boar refused and said:
'To-morrow I and my young swine will go into Arthur's own country and ravage it.'
Through the sea to Wales went the boar and the seven swine, followed by Arthur and his army and huntsmen and hounds in the King's galley, Prydwen. Turk Truith kept ahead of them, and killed many men and cattle in South Wales. The dead were found, but not their destroyers. Arthur sent out the swiftest hunters, and with them Dridwyn and his own hound Cavall. They hunted through St. David's and Milford, and over the Preselly Mountains, through Cardigan and back along the valleys of the river Loughor and the Aman, over the Black Mountains and the Beacons of Caermarthen, into the Tawy Valley, and over the Beacons of Brecknock. The boar turned upon them not once or twice and slew men, kings, and giants, and many hounds and horses. Often they lost him among the hills or on the cliffs of the coast. If any of the young swine were separated from Turk Truith and surrounded, he broke through to their help. But one by one the swine were killed. All the hounds were now loose; their barking and the shouts of Mabon and Arthur's huntsmen filled every valley. Only two of the swine came alive out of the valleys of the Loughor and the Aman, and soon these also were cut off and overpowered. At the pool of Ewin in Bettws on the slopes of the valley where Aman runs into Loughor, the boar turned upon Arthur himself and slew heroes as well as hounds and yet escaped. He was making eastwards away from these fatal valleys towards the Severn, and Arthur summoned all Cornwall and Devon to meet him at the estuary of the Severn.
'While I live,' said Arthur, 'the boar shall not enter Cornwall. Before that, I will oppose him in single combat myself.'
He sent men northward and southward and forced the boar to keep on towards the Severn. Mabon the huntsman came up with him at last in the water. Arthur and the champions of Britain stood upon the banks. Four men entered the river and caught Turk Truith by his feet, dowsing him as a shepherd dowses a sheep at the washing-places. Mabon spurred his horse into the water and seized the razor. On the other side a man took the scissors. But they could not hold the comb. Turk Truith had worked himself into the shallows and found his feet. Neither horse nor hound could overtake him or come in sight of him again until he reached Cornwall. There they wrested the comb from him, but the sword of Gwrnach was never stained in his blood. They could only drive him straight forward along the narrow valleys of Cornwall into the deep sea. Two of the hounds followed him into the sea. Nor was it ever known what became of Turk Truith or of the hounds.
In Cornwall Arthur rested and anointed himself after the hunting. The lesser adventures had still to be achieved by Kilhugh. He found the basket from which Uspathadden desired to eat at the marriage feast: if the whole world came together all could eat and be filled from this basket. He found the harp that was to be played at the feast: whatever melody a man desired it would play of itself. He took the blood of the jet-black sorceress which was necessary to moisten and spread out the hair of Uspathadden before he could be shaved.
With these things Kilhugh set out for the castle of Olwen and Uspathadden, and in his train rode the last son of Custennin and a company of good men who wished ill to the giant. King Kaw of North Britain, who had wrenched the tusk from Yskithyrwyn, was the barber of Uspathadden. He was bound, and Kaw shaved him, beard, skin, and flesh, from ear to ear.
'Art thou shaved, man?' said Kilhugh.
'I am shaved,' answered the giant.
'Is thy daughter mine now?' asked Kilhugh.
'She is thine,' he said, 'but by my free will thou shouldst never have gained her, because when I lose her I lose my life.'
Then the last son of Custennin, unwilling to save Uspathadden to grace the marriage feast, dragged him to the castle keep, cut off his head, and stuck it upon a spike on high. They took possession of the castle and the giant's treasuries. Then Olwen came forth to Kilhugh. Her dress was of flame-coloured silk, and about her neck was a collar of ruddy gold, on which were precious emeralds and rubies. More yellow was her head than the flower of the broom, and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and her fingers than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray of the meadow fountain. The eye of the trained hawk, the glance of the thrice-mewed falcon was not brighter than hers. Her bosom was more snowy than the breast of the white swan, her cheek was redder than the reddest roses. Whoso beheld her was filled with love. Four white trefoils sprang up wherever she trod; and therefore was she called Olwen. She became Kilhugh's bride in that castle upon the great plain, the fairest of the castles of all the world.