Mythology, Celtic -- Wales; Tales -- Wales; Welsh literature -- 1100-1400 -- Translations into English
And that night Olwen became Kilhwch's bride, and she continued to be his
wife as long as she lived. And the hosts of Arthur dispersed themselves,
each man to his own country. And thus did Kilhwch obtain Olwen the
daughter of Yspaddaden Penkawr.
THE DREAM OF MAXEN WLEDIG.
{Picture: p116.jpg}
Maxen Wledig was emperor of Rome, and he was a comelier man, and a better
and a wiser than any emperor that had been before him. {116} And one day
he held a council of Kings, and he said to his friends, "I desire to go
to-morrow to hunt." And the next day in the morning he set forth with
his retinue, and came to the valley of the river that flowed towards
Rome. And he hunted through the valley until mid-day. And with him also
were two and thirty crowned kings, that were his vassals; not for the
delight of hunting went the emperor with them, but to put himself on
equal terms with those kings. {117}
And the sun was high in the sky over their heads, and the heat was great.
And sleep came upon Maxen Wledig. And his attendants stood and set up
their shields around him upon the shafts of their spears to protect him
from the sun, and they placed a gold enamelled shield under his head, and
so Maxen slept.
And he saw a dream. And this is the dream that he saw. He was
journeying along the valley of the river towards its source; and he came
to the highest mountain in the world. And he thought that the mountain
was as high as the sky; and when he came over the mountain, it seemed to
him that he went through the fairest and most level regions that man ever
yet beheld, on the other side of the mountain. And he saw large and
mighty rivers descending from the mountain to the sea, and towards the
mouths of the rivers he proceeded. And as he journeyed thus, he came to
the mouth of the largest river ever seen. And he beheld a great city at
the entrance of the river, and a vast castle in the city, and he saw many
high towers of various colours in the castle. And he saw a fleet at the
mouth of the river, the largest ever seen. And he saw one ship among the
fleet; larger was it by far, and fairer than all the others. Of such
part of the ship as he could see above the water, one plank was gilded
and the other silvered over. He saw a bridge of the bone of the whale
from the ship to the land, and he thought that he went along the bridge
and came into the ship. And a sail was hoisted on the ship, and along
the sea and the ocean was it borne. Then it seemed that he came to the
fairest island in the whole world, and he traversed the island from sea
to sea, even to the farthest shore of the island. Valleys he saw, and
steeps, and rocks of wondrous height, and rugged precipices. {118a} Never
yet saw he the like. And thence he beheld an island in the sea, facing
this rugged {118b} land. And between him and this island was a country
of which the plain was as large as the sea, the mountain as vast as the
wood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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