It is not Melwas, however, that in the best-known versions of the story contends with Arthur for the love of Gwynhwyvar. The most widespread early tradition makes Arthur’s rival his nephew Medrawt. Here Professor Rhys traces a striking parallel between the British legend of Arthur, Gwynhwyvar, and Medrawt, and the Gaelic story of Airem, Etain, and Mider.[431] The two myths are practically counterparts; for the names of all the three pairs agree in their essential meaning. “Airem”, like “Arthur”, signifies the “Ploughman”, the divine institutor of agriculture; “Etain”, the “Shining One”, is a fit parallel to “Gwynhwyvar”, the “White Apparition”; while “Mider” and “Medrawt” both come from the same root, a word meaning “to hit”, either literally, or else metaphorically, with the mind, in the sense of coming to a decision. To attempt to explain this myth is to raise the vexed question of the meaning of mythology. Is it day and dark that strive for dawn, or summer and winter for the lovely spring, or does it shadow forth the rescue of the grain that makes man’s life from the devouring underworld by the farmer’s wit? When this can be finally resolved, a multitude of Celtic myths will be explained. Everywhere arise the same combatants for the stolen bride; one has the attributes of light, the other is a champion of darkness. Even in Sir Thomas Malory’s version of the Arthurian story, taken by him from French romances far removed from the original tradition, we find the myth subsisting. Medrawt’s original place as the lover of Arthur’s queen had been taken in the romances by Sir Launcelot, who, if he was not some now undiscoverable Celtic god,[432] must have been an invention of the Norman adapters. But the story which makes Medrawt Arthur’s rival has been preserved in the account of how Sir Mordred would have wedded Guinevere by force, as part of the rebellion which he made against his king and uncle.[433] This strife was Celtic myth long before it became part of the pseudo-history of early Britain. The triads[434] tell us how Arthur and Medrawt raided each other’s courts during the owner’s absence. Medrawt went to Kelli Wic, in Cornwall, ate and drank everything he could find there, and insulted Queen Gwynhwyvar, in revenge for which Arthur went to Medrawt’s court and killed man and beast. Their struggle only ended with the Battle of Camlan; and that mythical combat, which chroniclers have striven to make historical, is full of legendary detail. Tradition tells how Arthur and his antagonist shared their forces three times during the fight, which caused it to be known as one of the “Three Frivolous Battles of Britain”, the idea of doing so being one of “Britain’s Three Criminal Resolutions”. Four alone survived the fray: one, because he was so ugly that all shrank from him, believing him to be a devil; another, whom no one touched because he was so beautiful that they took him for an angel; a third, whose great