Cross-legged Gods and One-legged Foresters

Abstract

The present article is a re-evaluation of a marvellous element in a medieval Welsh romance, Chwedl Iarlles y Ffynnawn ‘Tale of the Lady of the Fountain’, also known as Owein. One of the characters encountered by the hero is a one-eyed one-legged dark giant forester who appears to have a particular power over animals. Previous interpretations of this character and episode have sought explanations and parallels in re-constructed Celtic mythology and the Celtic ‘Otherworld’. The objective of the present article is to demonstrate that the element in question belongs to the pan-European medieval tradition of the marvelous rather than, as has previously been suggested, to an exclusively Celtic tradition.