Celtic literature

Examples of this literature include the medieval Arthurian romances written in the French language, which drew heavily from Celtic sources, or in a modern context literature in the English language by writers of Irish, Welsh, Cornish, Manx, Scottish or Breton extraction.

Arthurian legends with these components include Marie de France's Lanval, the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Perceval, The Story of the Grail.

[5] In addition to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Lanval, Perceval, The Story of the Grail contains a combination of these two Celtic themes.

A major aspect of Celtic literature within "Lanval" is the theme itself, the story of a fairy mistress who falls in love with a mortal.

In the story Lanval by Marie de France, an unpopular knight of the court becomes the lover of a mysterious and otherworldly woman.

[citation needed] Cross states that, "The influence one medieval romance of Celtic stories involving both the fairy mistress and the Journey to the Otherworld has long since been recognized".

After providing many examples of this theme within early Celtic literature, Cross states that, "Those given (examples) above demonstrate beyond the possibility of doubt that stories of fee who hanker after mortal earth-born lovers and who visit mortal soil in search of their mates existed in early Celtic tradition…".

Looking at Gaiwan, we see him as the leading leader at the Primary Table in which he is tested by the rulers of the otherworld in terms of his fitness for fame in this world and the next.