Malgven
[3] Malgven is often cited as the wife of King Gradlon, and therefore the mother of the princess Dahut, in the legend of the city of Ys, after being popularised in this role by Charles Guyot at the beginning of the 20th century.
According to Le Roux and Guyonvarc'h, she represents a Celtic figure "with no age and no origin"[5] and Malgven is therefore a later addition to the legend of the city of Ys.
Schuré makes vague references to sources in oral tradition recorded near the Cap Sizun, according to which King Gradlon was looking for a princess of Hibernia (Ireland).
[10] Boyd therefore disagrees with the conclusion that Malgven is purely a literary invention of Charles Guyot, although he remains cautious as to a possible origin in Breton mythology, as Schuré did not give precise sources.
[11] Based on this lai, Jean Markale — whose theories are strongly criticised by Le Roux et Guyonvarc'h[12] — developed the hypothesis that after meeting the woman from the Otherworld, the "knight Gradlon" returned with Dahut, "a small girl with long hair".
[13] There are no sources confirming that this woman from the Otherworld is related to Dahut, or that she is Malgven, but in Celtic tradition, these women bring good fortune to their husbands and are capable of having children with them, which could provide clues as to her identity.
Guyonvarc'h (2000) consider Malgven and the horse Morvarc'h to be literary inventions by Charles Guyot, for his version of the legend of Ys.
[1] The earliest known version, that of Édouard Schuré, depicts Malgven as a sorceress, "an Irish druid or a Scandinavian goddess who killed her first owner, to follow the Armorican leader" Gradlon.
[24] Gradlon is inconsolable after the death of his lover and shifts all his affection onto his daughter, who resembles Malgven and practices the Celtic religion.
[26] Thierry Jigourel believes that, through the addition of Morvarc'h and Malgven, Guyot gives "an astonishing novelistic strength" to his text.
The various authors who speak about the city of Ys, often basing their works on Charles Guyot's text, introduce slight differences to his version.
Georges-Gustave Toudouze quotes a summary of the legend in the journal L'Ouest-Éclair (which would later become Ouest-France) in 1933: When Gradlon succeeded Conan Meriadoc, he departed across the sea, roaming with a fleet, of which he lost three-quarters.
[30] In Thierry Jigourel's version of the legend, Gradlon learns of the existence of the kingdom of the North, of its treasures and of Malgven by overhearing a conversation between sailors in an inn in Quimper.
[31] In the majority of recent literary adaptations of the legend of the city of Ys, the portrayal of Malgven resembles Charles Guyot's version.
[12] Malgven is present in the humorous version of the legend of Ys in La Dérive des incontinents by Gordon Zola.
[36] The graphic novel series Les Druides by Thierry Jigourel, Jean-Luc Istin and Jacques Lamontagne mentions Malgven in its second volume, "Is la blanche" (2006), when Gwench'lan must investigate a murder in the legendary city, against a background of tensions between Catholics and Pagans.
