Preiddeu Annwfn
In the first Gweir is encountered imprisoned in the fort's walls, a character whom Rachel Bromwich associates with Gwair, one of "Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain" known from the Welsh Triads.
The third and fourth allude to difficulties with the forces of Annwfn while the fifth and sixth describe a great ox, also richly decorated, that may also form part of Arthur's spoils.
The first stanza has already mentioned Pwyll, the legendary prince of Dyfed who in the first branch of the Mabinogi becomes the Chief of Annwfn after helping its king, Arawn, and was credited with ownership of a cauldron.
Just as, we are told, the cauldron "does not boil the food of a coward", so the song it is inspires is "honoured in praise", too good for petty men of ordinary mentality.
Preiddeu Annwfn is usually understood to say that a sword described either as "bright" or else "of Lleawch" was raised to the cauldron, leaving it in the hands of "Lleminawc" (cledyf lluch lleawc idaw rydyrchit/ Ac yn llaw leminawc yd edewit).
[7] Sir John Rhys was quick to connect these campaigns in Ireland with the symbolic "western isles" of the Celtic otherworld and, in this general sense, Preiddeu Annfwn may be associated with the maritime adventure genres of Immram and Echtra.
[8] Culhwch also recounts Arthur's nearby rescue of another of the three famous prisoners, Mabon ap Modron, a god of poetry after whom the Mabinogi are named, and gives details of another ruler of Annwfn, Gwynn ap Nudd, king of the Tylwyth Teg - the fairies in Welsh lore - "whom God has placed over the brood of devils in Annwn lest they should destroy the present race".
Another fortress, "Caer Sidi", is often linked through its name with the Irish fairyland, where live the Tuatha Dé Danann, whom the Milesians eventually conquer.
In a third poem, "Kadeir Teyrnon", three "awens" come from the ogyruen, just as in the birth legend Taliesin receives inspiration in three drops from the cauldron of Ceridwen, the enchantress who gives a second birth to the legendary Taliesin, and who is also mentioned other poems from the collection, "Kerd Veib am Llyr" and "Kadeir Kerrituen", and by another poet, Cuhelyn, in connection with ogyruen.
[10] These poems draw freely upon a wide variety of otherworldly tales, representing the fateful voyage, the battle, imprisonment and the cauldron as allegories of a mystical poetic knowledge beyond the ordinary.
Robert Graves aligned himself personally with the poets' standpoint, commenting that literary scholars are psychologically incapable of interpreting myth[11] Early translators suggested a link between Preiddeu Annwfn (taken together with the Bran story) and the later Grail narratives, with varying degrees of success.
Similarities are sometimes peripheral, such as that both Bran the Blessed and the Grail keeper the Fisher King receive wounds in their legs and both dwell in a castle of delights where no time seems to pass.
[12] R. S. Loomis, however, argued that it was more logical to search for recurrent themes and imagery found in both the Grail stories and Celtic material rather than exact ancestors; many or most modern scholars share this opinion.
