The Mabinogion (Oxford World's Classics) by Sioned Davies Read Free Book Online

clearing, he saw a stag in front of the other pack. And towards the middle of the clearing, the pack that was chasing caught up with the stag and brought it to the ground.
    Then Pwyll looked at the colour of the pack, without bothering to look at the stag. And of all the hounds he had seen in the world, he had never seen dogs of this colour—they were a gleaming shining white, and their ears were red. * And as the whiteness of the dogs shone so did the redness of their ears. Then he came to the dogs, and drove away the pack that had killed the stag, and fed his own pack on it.
    As he was feeding the dogs, he could see a rider coming after the pack on a large dapple-grey horse, with a hunting horn round his neck, and wearing hunting clothes of a light grey material. Then the rider came up to him, and spoke to him like this: ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘I know who you are, but I will not greet you.’ *
    ‘Well,’ said Pwyll, ‘perhaps your rank is such that you are not obliged to.’
    ‘God knows,’ he said, ‘it’s not the level of my rank that prevents me.’
    ‘What else, sir?’ said Pwyll.
    ‘Between me and God,’ he said, ‘your own lack of manners and discourtesy.’
    ‘What discourtesy, sir, have you seen in me?’
    ‘I have seen no greater discourtesy in a man,’ he said, ‘than to drive away the pack that had killed the stag, and feed your own pack on it; that’, he said, ‘was discourtesy: and although I will not take revenge upon you, between me and God,’ he said, ‘I will bring shame upon you to the value of a hundred stags.’
    ‘Sir,’ said Pwyll, ‘if I have done wrong, I will redeem your friendship.’ *
    ‘How will you redeem it?’ he replied.
    ‘According to your rank, but I do not know who you are.’
    ‘I am a crowned king in the land that I come from.’
    ‘Lord,’ said Pwyll, ‘good day to you. And which land do you come from?’
    ‘From Annwfn,’ he replied. ‘I am Arawn, king of Annwfn.’ *
    ‘Lord,’ said Pwyll, ‘how shall I win your friendship?’
    ‘This is how,’ he replied. ‘A man whose territory is next to mine is forever fighting me. He is Hafgan, a king from Annwfn. By ridding me of that oppression—and you can do that easily—you will win my friendship.’
    ‘I will do that gladly,’ said Pwyll. ‘Tell me how I can do it.’
    ‘I will,’ he replied. ‘This is how: I will make a firm alliance with you. What I shall do is to put you in my place in Annwfn, and give you the most beautiful woman you have ever seen to sleep with you every night, and give you my face and form so that no chamberlain nor officer nor any other person who has ever served me shall know that you are not me. All this’, he said, ‘from tomorrow until the end of the year, and then we shall meet again in this place.’
    ‘Well and good,’ Pwyll replied, ‘but even if I am there until the end of the year, how will I find the man of whom you speak?’
    ‘A year from tonight,’ Arawn said, ‘there is a meeting between him and me at the ford. Be there in my shape,’ he said, ‘and you must give him only one blow—he will not survive it. * And although he may ask you to give him another, you must not, however much he begs you. Because no matter how many more blows I gave him, the next day he was fighting against me as well as before.’
    ‘Well and good,’ said Pwyll, ‘but what shall I do with my realm?’
    ‘I shall arrange that no man or woman in your realm realizes that I am not you, and I will take your place,’ * said Arawn.
    ‘Gladly,’ said Pwyll, ‘and I will go on my way.’
    ‘Your path will be smooth, and nothing will hinder you until you get to my land, and I will escort you.’
    Arawn escorted Pwyll until he saw the court and dwelling-places.
    ‘There is the court and the realm under your authority,’ he said. ‘Make for the court; there is no one there who will not recognize you. And as you observe the service there, you will come to know the custom