Origins
The name Hu Gadarn first appears in Pererindod Siarlymaen, a Welsh adaptation of the 12th-century French romance Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne (The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne). In this story, part of the literary cycle known as the Matter of France, Hu Gadarn (Hugo or Hugun le Fort in the French) is Emperor of Constantinople and an enemy of Siarlymaen (Charlemagne). After Siarlymaen's wife tells him his valor is overshadowed by Hu's, Siarlymaen sets off on a pilgrimage to find the emperor in Constantinople. With the aid of his knights, he bests his adversary and returns to his wife triumphant.
The story, which may have precedents in Celtic literature, specifically associates Hu with ploughing, a detail later picked up by Iolo Morganwg. Hu Gadarn is mentioned metaphorically in Iolo Goch's (fl. 14th century) poem "Y Llafurwr", on the ploughman, suggesting the poet knew some version of the story. Other early references to "Hu Gadarn" have been cited in poems by Rhys Brydydd and Llywelyn ab y Moel, both of whom associated him with semi-divine attributes during the 1400s.
Read more about this topic: Hu Gadarn
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)