View source for Creiddylad

{{Short description|Character in Welsh Arthurian folklore}}
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| parents            = King [[Lludd]]
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'''Creiddylad''' (also known as ''Creirddylad'', ''Creurdilad'', ''Creudylad'' or ''Kreiddylat''), daughter of King [[Lludd]], is a [[Romantic interest|minor character]] in the early [[Middle Welsh|medieval Welsh]] [[Arthurian legend|Arthurian]] tale ''[[Culhwch and Olwen|Culhwch ac Olwen]]''.

== Role in Welsh tradition ==
Creiddylad, daughter of Lludd Silver Hand, is a lady living at the [[Celliwig|court of King Arthur]]. Considered to be the most beautiful girl in the [[British Isles]], she is loved by two of Arthur's warriors: [[Gwythyr ap Greidawl|Gwythyr]] and [[Gwyn ap Nudd|Gwyn]].<ref name="Bruce">[http://gorddcymru.org/twilight/camelot/bruce_dictionary/index_c.htm Christopher Bruce's Arthurian Name Dictionary: Creiddylad]</ref> Her rival suitors are thrust into conflict when Gwythyr [[Bride kidnapping|abducts her]] from her father's house, to which Gwyn retaliates by kidnapping her from Gwythyr.<ref>Rachel Bromwich & D. Simon Davies (eds.), ''Culhwch ac Olwen'' (University of Wales Press, 1988).</ref> Due to Arthur's intervention in the ensuing feud, the lady Creiddylad is returned to her father and an arrangement (a ''dihenydd'', or "[[fate]]")<ref>[http://www.celtnet.org.uk/gods_c/creiddylad.html Celtnet's Nemeton: Creiddylad] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119094047/http://www.celtnet.org.uk/gods_c/creiddylad.html |date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> is made that forces the adversaries to engage in single combat for the object of their love every [[Calan Mai|May Day]]—while she is destined to remain with her father, unmarried—until a final battle on [[Last Judgment|Judgement Day]], which will determine who keeps her forever.

Creiddylad has been compared to the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] springtime goddess [[Persephone]], who is similarly [[Rape of Persephone|abducted]] by an admirer (the [[Greek underworld|underworld]] god Hades), rescued by an intervening character (Zeus), and reunited with her family (her mother Demeter), then cursed to repeat the experience every year. Here, the warrior duo's ritual battle for possession of Creiddylad may be understood as a version of the "[[Holly King (archetype)|Holly King]]" myth, possibly personifying the dynamic power struggle between summer and winter.<ref>''The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth''. [[Robert Graves]]. Octagon Books. 1978. {{ISBN|0374932395}}, 9780374932398</ref>

It is also observed that the name of Creiddylad's father (Lludd) and that of Gwyn's father (Nudd) are likely [[cognate]], which suggests that the characters are different incarnations of the pan-Celtic deity [[Nodons]]. Hence, Gwyn is often described as Creiddylad's brother.

Additionally, she is sometimes confused with the goddess [[Creirwy]], who is also referred to as the most beautiful girl in the world.<ref>[http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/edward-davies/the-mythology-and-rites-of-the-british-druids-ascertained-by-national-documents-hci/page-14-the-mythology-and-rites-of-the-british-druids-ascertained-by-national-documents-hci.shtml ''The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids...'', Edward Davies]</ref>

==In literature==
=== Cordelia ===
Creiddylad is traditionally identified as the prototype of [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s pseudo-historical [[Cordelia of Britain|Queen Cordeilla]], who is the source of [[William Shakespeare]]'s heroine [[Cordelia (King Lear)|Cordelia]] (the youngest daughter of [[King Lear]]). This identification can be found in the 1833 edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HKgMAAAAYAAJ&q=%22creiddylad%22 Google Books]</ref> [[Lady Charlotte Guest]], in the notes to her edition of ''[[The Mabinogion]]'', which was first published in 1849, identifies Creiddylad, daughter of [[Lludd Llaw Ereint]], with Cordelia, "daughter of Lludd, or Lear".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Sp7YAAAAMAAJ&q=%22creiddylad%22 Google Books]; J. M. Dent,(1906) 1927, pp.106, 310.</ref><ref>See also [https://books.google.com/books?id=hh8tAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22creiddylad%22&pg=PA165 ''The Cambrian Journal, Volume 1. Longmans, 1854, Google Books/]</ref> In 1891, Sir John Rhys repeated this identification in ''Studies in the Arthurian Legend''.<ref>Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891, p. 322 (see also [[John Rhys]], ''[[s:Celtic Heathendom|Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic heathendom]]'' (1886), p. 562.</ref>

However, Geoffrey's Welsh translators failed to use the name Creiddylad in their Latin-to-Welsh translations of ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'', where he used ''Cordeilla''.<ref>See for instance: Henry Lewis (ed.), ''Brut Dingestow'' (University of Wales Press, 1940), ''sub.'' 'Cordeila' (=Cordelia).</ref> Further complicating the association, the legends surrounding Creiddylad and Cordelia are very different. Doubt has been cast on the linking of these two names, beyond "the string of consonants C-R-D-L".<ref>[http://medievalscotland.org/problem/given/cordelia.shtml Sara L. Uckelman, "Concerning the name Cordelia"]</ref>

===John Cowper Powys===
Novelist [[John Cowper Powys]], as an admirer of both Guest's ''Mabinogion'' as well as the work of [[Sir John Rhys]], was aware of the idea that Creiddylad can be identified with Geoffrey of Monmouth's Queen Cordelia.<ref>Sir John Rhys, ''Studies in the Arthurian Legend'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891), p. 322.</ref><ref>See Richard Maxwell, "The Lie of the Land" in ''The Spirit of Powys: New Essays'', pp. 207–8.</ref> In ''[[A Glastonbury Romance]]'', Cordelia Geard's name may indicate a mythological identification with Creiddylad, daughter of Lludd in ''[[The Mabinogion]]''.<ref>''The Mabinogion'', translated by [[Lady Charlotte Guest]] (1906). J. M. Dent: London, 1927, p. 310.</ref> In Powys's novel ''[[Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages]]'', which is set in Wales, Creiddylad, was the eponymous protagonist's giantess great-grandmother, as well as the name he gives to a young giantess whom he mates with.

==See also==
* [[Fflur]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Celtic mythology (Welsh)}}

[[Category:Arthurian characters]]
[[Category:Kidnapped British people]]
[[Category:Welsh goddesses]]