Creiddylad

Creiddylad is a figure from Welsh mythology known from the early medieval Welsh Arthurian tale of Culhwch ac Olwen, one of the tales of the Mabinogion. She is the daughter of Lludd Llaw Eraint. It is over her that Gwythyr ap Greidawl and Gwyn ap Nudd fight.^[1]

Originally betrothed to Gwythr ap Greidawl, Creiddylad is abducted by her other suitor, Gwyn ap Nudd, causing the two rivals to go to fight over her. King Arthur settles the feud by arranging for the two to engage in single combat every May Day until Doomsday; in the meantime Creiddylad will stay with her father.

The names of Creiddylad's and Gwyn's fathers, Lludd and Nudd, are likely cognate, and both seem to be variants of the pan-Celtic deity Nodons. The etymology of Creiddylad is uncertain.

Creiddylad's story is somewhat similar to Persephone's in Greek mythology. Some researchers equate her with Queen Cordelia in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin pseudo-history Historia Regum Britanniae, and therefore the source of Cordelia in William Shakespeare's play King Lear, but there are notable differences in the legends and the Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia use the name Cordelia, not Creiddylad.^[2]

References

1. ^ Rachel Bromwich & D. Simon Davies (eds.), Culhwch ac Olwen (University of Wales Press, 1988).
2. ^ See for instance: Henry Lewis (ed.), Brut Dingestow (University of Wales Press, 1940), sub. 'Cordeila' (=Cordelia).