Pridwen or Wynebgwrthucher

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Pridwen (also Wynebgwrthucher), the shield of King Arthur.

Pridwen

Pridwen has been interpreted as meaning "white face", "fair face", "blessed form" or "precious and white". The name was taken from Welsh tradition, Arthur's ship in Preiddeu Annwfn and Culhwch and Olwen being called Prydwen; it was perhaps borrowed by Geoffrey because of its appropriateness to a picture of the Virgin Mary. The list of weapons finds a parallel in Culhwch and Olwen, where Arthur swears by his shield Wynebgwrthucher (perhaps meaning "face of evening"), his spear Rhongomiant, his knife Carnwennan, and his sword Caledfwlch. The motif of the Virgin Mary's image was taken by Geoffrey from the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, which describes a battle "in the castle of Guinnion, in which Arthur carried the image of saint Mary the perpetual virgin on his shoulders". In transferring it to Arthur's shield Geoffrey created the first example in all literature of religious symbolism on a shield.