Peredur slays the serpent at the Mound of Mourning

Peredur’s slaying of the serpent at the Mound of Mourning turns a guarded contest over a coveted stone into a test of individual prowess and generosity. After overcoming the people camped around the mound, he faces the serpent alone, then settles the conflict by taking the assembled company as vassals and giving the stone to Etlym Gleddyv Coch.

The Encampment and Its Stakes

The day after Peredur’s arrival at the Countess’s court, he set out for the Mound of Mourning, accompanied by Etlym, who had become the Countess’s bride after Peredur revealed that her beloved was his companion. At the mound, Peredur sent Etlym to demand homage from the people in the tents. Their response made the demand a challenge: they objected that a messenger should not deliver so arrogant an order to kings, earls, and barons. Peredur then offered them a choice between homage and battle, and they chose battle.

The fighting unfolded across three days and three groups of a hundred tent-owners. Peredur overthrew the owners of a hundred tents on the first day and another hundred on the second. On the third day, the remaining hundred agreed to do him homage. Only then did he learn why so many people had gathered: they were guarding the serpent until it died, intending to fight among themselves for the stone afterward. Their standoff over succession to the stone had made the serpent’s death the condition for a second conflict.

The Serpent’s Slaying

Peredur went to confront the serpent after the tent-owners offered to face it together. He refused their help, reasoning that if the serpent were slain, he would gain no more fame from the deed than one of them. The choice isolates the decisive act as his own achievement: he went to the serpent’s place, killed it, and returned to the assembled company.

The encounter resolves the danger but does not end with a claim to the stone for himself. Peredur asked the tent-owners to reckon their expenses during their stay and repaid each person according to the amount claimed. In return, he required only that they acknowledge themselves as his vassals. The episode thus couples a solitary feat of arms with an orderly settlement of the people’s material claims and political status.

The Stone and Its Consequences

Peredur gave the stone to Etlym and sent him back to the woman he loved, promising to reward him for having served as his attendant. The gift redirects the object at the center of the guards’ anticipated struggle: rather than keep it or let the tent-owners fight over it, Peredur assigns it to his companion. Etlym’s return with the stone links the mound adventure to the marriage established at the Countess’s court, while Peredur rides onward.

The conclusion distinguishes fame from possession. Peredur takes the risk of killing the serpent himself, but the reward he retains is authority over the former guardians, not the stone. By reimbursing them and demanding homage, he turns a contest that might have continued after the serpent’s death into a settlement; by giving Etlym the stone, he makes the companion’s service, rather than his own victory alone, part of the outcome.