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8

The Mabinogion

blance^[1] shall be upon you, so that there shall not be a page of the chamber,^[2] nor an officer, nor any other person who has ever followed me who shall know that I myself am not you.^[3] And that,’ said he, ‘till the end of a year from to-morrow,^[4] when we will meet in this place.’ ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘but though I may be there to the end of a year, what indication shall I have to find the man of whom you speak?’ ‘One year from to-night’, he said, ‘is there an appointment between me and him at the ford. Be you there in my likeness,’ said he, ‘and one stroke that you give him, he shall not survive. And although he ask you to give him a second, give it not, however much he may entreat you. I gave him one; nevertheless, he fought with me next day as well as before.’ ‘Yes,’ said Pwyll, ‘what shall I do regarding my dominions?’ Said Arawn, ‘I will arrange that neither man nor woman shall there be in your domi-

↑ W.B. ‘ansawd’, R.B. ‘gosked’; meaning identical.
↑ ‘gwas ystauell’. Page of the chamber. One of the regular officers of court mentioned in the Welsh Laws.
↑ ‘a wypo na bo miui vych di’. Professor Anwyl’s literal rendering is, ‘that it shall not be myself that shou shalt be’. It is an instance of the prospective use of the subjunctive. The meaning is that no one will have any hesitation in accepting Pwyll, when in Arawn’s guise, as Arawn. Cf., with ‘a wypo na bo tidi wyf i’, a few lines lower down. Lit. ‘that it shall not be you that I shall be’, and rendered ‘who shall know that you yourself are not I’.
↑ ‘a year from to-morrow’. ‘A year and a day’ was a common period in medieval Welsh calculation. It formed, for example, the almost invariable period of limitation for legal claims, other than those connected with land.

[1] W.B. ‘ansawd’, R.B. ‘gosked’; meaning identical.

[2] ‘gwas ystauell’. Page of the chamber. One of the regular officers of court mentioned in the Welsh Laws.

[3] ‘a wypo na bo miui vych di’. Professor Anwyl’s literal rendering is, ‘that it shall not be myself that shou shalt be’. It is an instance of the prospective use of the subjunctive. The meaning is that no one will have any hesitation in accepting Pwyll, when in Arawn’s guise, as Arawn. Cf., with ‘a wypo na bo tidi wyf i’, a few lines lower down. Lit. ‘that it shall not be you that I shall be’, and rendered ‘who shall know that you yourself are not I’.

[4] ‘a year from to-morrow’. ‘A year and a day’ was a common period in medieval Welsh calculation. It formed, for example, the almost invariable period of limitation for legal claims, other than those connected with land.

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