Peredur Slays the Addanc is a brief monster-slaying episode in which Peredur deliberately takes the most dangerous of three roads and kills the creature foretold as his quarry. The victory fulfills a prediction, but Peredur’s response to the reward offered afterward keeps the episode from becoming simply a tale of combat: he has come to face the monster, not to secure a marriage or a kingdom.

The Road to the Cave

The encounter follows Peredur’s arrival at a valley where a youth describes three roads: one to his palace, one to a nearby town where food and drink can be bought, and a narrower track toward the Addanc’s cave. The youth also offers Peredur the choice of visiting the palace or staying to watch a deer hunt. Peredur declines these safer and more hospitable possibilities and chooses the cave road.

That choice makes the approach part of the trial. The cave is not an accidental obstacle on his route: Peredur is told where the Addanc dwells, and he expressly asks permission to take that path. His movement away from the palace, the town, and the hunt gives the combat a clear direction before the monster appears.

The Killing and the Prediction

Peredur enters the cave carrying a stone in his left hand and a lance in his right. He sees the Addanc inside, pierces it with the lance, and cuts off its head. The action is swift and direct; the account gives no prolonged struggle or further explanation of the creature’s powers. The decisive details are Peredur’s preparation, his entry into the cave, and the killing blow.

As Peredur comes out, three companions are waiting at the entrance. They greet him and tell him that a prediction had named him as the one who would slay the monster. Their presence turns the killing into the fulfillment of an expectation already attached to Peredur, rather than an achievement whose significance is established only by the force of the blow.

Reward and Refusal

Peredur gives the severed head to the three young men. They offer him his choice of any one of their three sisters in marriage, together with half their kingdom. The scale of the reward makes the contrast with his stated purpose conspicuous: he answers that he did not come to court a bride. He adds, however, that if he were to take a wife, he would prefer their sister to all others. The episode therefore ends with an offer neither simply accepted nor wholly dismissed; Peredur distinguishes his reason for coming from the possibility of choosing a bride, while leaving that possibility open.