Editing Gilfaethwy

{{short description|Character on Welsh mythology}}
{{Infobox deity
| type         = Welsh
| name         = Gilfaethwy
| cult_center  = Wales
| animals      = Deers, boars, wolves
| consort      = [[Goewin]] (through force and rape)
| parents      = [[Dôn]] (mother) and [[Beli Mawr]]<ref name="IoMGGilfaethwy">{{cite book |last=d'Este |first=Sorita |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Isles_of_the_Many_Gods/4GhrBAAACAAJ?hl=cy |title=The Isles of the Many Gods: An A-Z of the Pagan Gods & Goddesses of Ancient Britain worshipped during the First Millennium through to the Middle Ages |last2=Rankine |first2=David |date=2007 |publisher=Avalonia |page=146 |language=English}}</ref> (father)
| siblings     = [[Gwydion]] (brother) and [[Arianrhod]] (sister)
| offspring    = [[Hyddwn]], [[Hychddwn]], and [[Bleiddwn]]<ref name="IoMGGilfaethwy" /> with [[Gwydion]]
| gender       = Male
}}
In [[Welsh mythology]], '''Gilfaethwy''' ({{IPA|cy|ɡɪlˈvɑːɨ̯θ.ʊ̯ɨ}}) was a son of the goddess [[Dôn]] and brother of [[Gwydion]] and [[Arianrhod]] in the [[Four Branches of the Mabinogi#Math.2C son of Mathonwy|Fourth Branch]] of the [[Mabinogion|Mabinogi]].

His uncle [[Math fab Mathonwy]], king of [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]], must keep his feet in the lap of a young virgin at all times unless he is going to war. Gilfaethwy [[lust]]s after Math's current foot holder, [[Goewin]], so to get her alone he and Gwydion steal pigs from [[Pryderi]], king of [[Dyfed]], sparking a conflict between the neighboring kingdoms. While his uncle is off fighting, Gilfaethwy sneaks back to Gwynedd and [[rape]]s Goewin. Math is furious when he discovers this, and punishes his nephews by transforming them into a series of paired animals using his great skill in magic, thus impressing vividly upon them the brutish (and brutal) nature of their transgressions. For a year Gilfaethwy becomes a [[deer|hind deer]] and Gwydion a stag; they mate and produce an offspring, [[Hyddwn]], which is delivered to Math. Next Math makes Gilfaethwy a [[boar]] and Gwydion a sow, and together they birth Hychddwn; when they return a year later with the sons, he makes them [[Gray Wolf|wolves]], and finally they give birth to Bleiddwn. After the third year he relieves them of their punishment and makes them human again.<ref>Jeffrey Gantz (translator, introduction), ''The Mabinogion'', Penguin Books, London, 1976.</ref>

Gilfaethwy is a minor character in Welsh legend, and may have been used in the Fourth Branch simply to advance the story of his more illustrious brother Gwydion.

==In Arthurian romance==
Like many another character in the Mabinogion, Gilfaethwy has given rise to a character or characters in [[Arthurian romance]] - in this instance [[Sir Griflet]], who first appears as ''Girflet ( or Giflet ) fils Do'' <ref>MacKillop, James, ''A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology'' pub. Oxford University Press, 1998, p.223.</ref> in the romance ''[[Erec et Enide]] ''<ref>Chrétien de Troyes, 'Erec et Enide' in ''Chrétien de Troyes - Arthurian Romances'', translated from the Old French with an introduction and notes by William W. Kibler, pub. Penguin books in series Penguin Classics, 1991, pps. 37-122.</ref> by the twelfth century [[Champagne (province)|Champénois]] master [[Chrétien de Troyes]]<ref name= "Loomis Chrétien">Loomis, Roger Sherman, ''Arthurian Tradition And Chrétien de Troyes'' pub. Columbia University Press, New York 1948, page 162.</ref> and appears later as the [[eponym]]ous hero of the romance ''[[Jaufre]]'', the only surviving romance written in the [[Occitan language|Occitan]] language.<ref>
Arthur, Ross G., ed. (2014) [1992]. ''Jaufre: an Occitan Arthurian romance''. New York: Routledge (Garland). {{ISBN|9781317693642}}.</ref>

[[Roger Sherman Loomis|Loomis]] wrote that Dôn, goddess mother of Gilfaethwy, had been misconstrued to be a male character by at least as early as the time of composition of Chretien's ''Erec et Enide'' : <blockquote>The Arthurian ''Do'' or ''Don'', father of ''Giflet'' and ''Lore'', has undergone a strange metamorphosis, from an ancient [[Celtic mythology|Brythonic goddess]] into the [[castellan]] of [[Carlisle, Cumbria|Carlisle]] and the chief [[forester]] of ''[[Uther Pendragon|Uterpandragon]]''.<ref name= "Loomis Chrétien"/></blockquote>

The ''Lore'' in the above-quoted passage concerning ''Don'' is an abbreviated form of ''Florée'', the Flower Bride, an Arthurian cognate of the Irish [[Blathnat]] and Welsh [[Blodeuwedd]].<ref>Loomis, Roger Sherman, ''Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance'' first pub. Columbia University Press 1926 and reprinted by Constable and Company Limited 1993 {{ISBN|0 09 472800 3}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* d'Este, Sorita; Rankine, David (2007). ''The Isles of the Many Gods: An A-Z of the Pagan Gods & Goddesses of Ancient Britain worshipped during the First Millennium through to the Middle Ages''. Avalonia.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Celtic mythology (Welsh)}}

[[Category:Welsh gods]]
[[Category:Welsh mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological rapists]]
[[Category:Mythological deer]]
[[Category:Mythological pigs]]
[[Category:Wolves in folklore, religion and mythology]]
[[Category:Mabinogion]]