The Horn of Brân Galed

[The Perilous Dreamer]

The Horn of Brân Galed from the North (Corn Brân Galed o'r Gogledd): whatever drink might be wished for was found in it.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

The Horn of Brân Galed ("the Stingy" or "the Niggard") from the North is said to have possessed the magical property of ensuring that "whatever drink might be wished for was found in it".[4] Marginal notes to the text in Peniarth MS 147 (c. 1566) elaborate on this brief entry by saying that Myrddin had approached the kings and lords of Britain to request their treasures. They consented on the condition that he obtained the horn of Brân Galed, supposing that the task would be impossible to fulfill (whether owing to Brân's reputation for being close-fisted or for some other reason). However, Myrddin somehow succeeded in obtaining the drinking horn and so received the other treasures as well. He took his hoard to the "Glass House" (Tŷ Gwydr), where it would remain forever. Tracing the prehistory of the horn to the Greek mythological past, the same notes tell that Hercules had removed the horn from the head of the centaur he had slain, whose wife then killed the hero in bloody revenge.[5]

The discrepancy between Brân's nickname ("the Stingy") and the special property of the enchanted horn appears to be explained by the Welsh poet Guto'r Glyn, who lived in the mid-15th century and was therefore contemporary with the earliest attestations of the Tri Thlws ar Ddeg. He relates that Brân Galed was a northern nobleman, whom Taliesin transformed into a man superior to the Tri Hael, i.e. the three most generous men in Britain according to one of the Welsh Triads.[5][6] Later bards to allude to the treasure include Tudur Aled and Iorwerth Fynglwyd.[7]

The identity of Brân Galed (not to be confused with Brân the Blessed) is uncertain. His northern background, which is usually described in general terms, is specified in one place elsewhere. A 16th-century note written by the scribe Gruffudd Hiraethog (died 1564) identifies Brân as the son of one Emellyr, which appears to refer to the Brân son of Ymellyrn who is depicted in the Llywarch Hen cycle of poems as an opponent of the kings of Rheged.[8] The latter has also been equated with the Brân fighting at Cynwyd (northern Wales) in the poem Gwarchan Tudfwlch, possibly against Owain of Rheged.[9]