For Gwyndoc’s verse in Chapter Three, describing Ygerne, I am deeply indebted to the Chapter, Culhwch and Olwen, in the translation of The Mabinogion, by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones (Dent). I have adapted their words only slightly in this passage.
For the incident of the head, in Chapter Twenty-eight, I went back to the Scots story which tells how the forester, Drummond of Drummondernoch, suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Macdonalds, who left his head on a dish in the house of the dead man’s sister, Mrs. Stewart of Ardvorlich.
I have often taken liberties with those names which have a Roman version, usually by omitting the Latin termination, which gives these names a less musical, more barbaric sound—an effect which I felt justified in trying to obtain in view of the nature of this story.
H.T.