Nine sorceresses

[5] The nine witches of Ystawingun (Ystavingun) are mentioned in a single line of the poem Pa gur (around 1100), where the feat of slaying them in this highland is listed among the greatest achievements of Cai (Sir Kay in later tradition).

[10] In this work, Saint Samson of Dol encounters just one of the sisters, a wild-looking wicked witch (malefica) calling herself Theomacha (Enemy of God), as she was flying through a forest on the island of Loire and attacking one of his young deacons.

[23][24] The witches, a group of black-clad "maiden-hags",[25] actually enter the story as Peredur's opponents-turned-benefactors, even giving him the same powers as they have when he spends time in their home,[26][27] but the central theme is his eventual unenthusiastic revenge on them for having previously harmed his relatives.

[28][29] Peredur himself vanquishes only the chief witch, and only forced to do so after giving them three chances to yield,[30] but this act breaks the magic of their spells[31] and Arthur and his men slaughter the rest without mercy and with such swiftness that not a single one escapes alive.

He is just about to slay her but stops when she begs forgiveness; after obtaining permission from the lady of the castle, he agrees to spare her life if she promises to return to her land and that she and her sisters would never trouble the dominion of his hostess (Peredur regularly gives quarter to his defeated enemies through the course of the tale, including Kai and various other knights).

[33][34][35] During the grand finale at the original[note 1] end of the tale, however, Peredur learns that a mysterious severed head (replacing the Grail in this story[38][39][40]), which he had witnessed before meeting the sorceresses, belonged to one his cousins.

[30][38][44][45][46] The narrative does not actually say how many witches are gathered for the final battle at Caer Loyw when they are wiped out, and there might be more than the nine from the first encounter between them and Perodur; according to John Rhys it is suggested "they must have mustered in a great force," possibly along with (unmentioned) "numerous allies of the other sex.

[49] As in the cases of the above stories of Samson and Cai, this romance may be an echo of an otherwise unrecorded extermination of local Celtic pagan cults by Christians during the 5th and 6th centuries, as it is considered by Flint F. Johnson;[50][51][52] Dhira B. Mahoney speculated the witches may "represent the supporters of an older order trying to regain control of the system.

[20][56] Norma Lorre Goodrich connects the motif with "magical warrior rites in Scotland" and links the witches' leader to the figure of Queen Morgan le Fay, a sorcerous half-sister of Arthur.