The hunt for Twrch Trwyth

The hunt for Twrch Trwyth turns a quest for three prized objects into a grueling campaign across Ireland and Britain. Arthur’s host pursues a boar who was once a king, transformed for his sins, while the animals’ resistance repeatedly reverses the expected relation between hunter and prey. The comb is finally recovered, but Twrch Trwyth escapes into the sea, leaving the central quarry’s fate unresolved.

Cause and Stakes

Twrch Trwyth’s tusks conceal the comb, razor, and scissors Arthur seeks. When Arthur’s envoy explains that the campaign is for these objects, Grugyn Gwrych Ereint answers that they will not be surrendered unless Twrch Trwyth is first killed. He also warns that the boar and his young pigs will enter Arthur’s country and cause as much harm as they can. The mission therefore becomes both a retrieval of treasures and a defense against a destructive incursion.

Arthur assembles a force on an extraordinary scale, summoning warriors from the three Islands of Britain and three neighboring islands, as well as from France, Armorica, Normandy, and the Summer Country. When he lands in Ireland, its saints seek his protection; he grants it, and the people supply provisions. The political breadth of the expedition is matched by its practical difficulty: the hunt will require armies, named champions, horses, and dogs, yet neither a large host nor Arthur’s personal strength can quickly master the quarry.

The story gives the pursuit a moral as well as martial premise. Arthur tells his warriors that Twrch Trwyth had been a king and that God transformed him into a swine for his sins. This past identity distinguishes the quarry from an ordinary animal, but it does not make him compliant or remove the danger he poses. The hunt proceeds against a being whose changed form is itself the consequence of an earlier moral history.

Pursuit Across Ireland and Wales

Arthur’s forces find Twrch Trwyth with seven young pigs at Esgeir Oervel in Ireland. The Irish fight him through the day, but he lays waste to a fifth of the country. On the following day Arthur’s household engages him without gaining an advantage; on the third day Arthur himself fights him for nine nights and nine days, yet does not kill even one of the young pigs. The extravagant duration makes the contest feel less like a decisive battle than a test of endurance that the human side cannot bring to a close by strength alone.

Arthur sends Gwrhyr Gwalstawt Ieithoedd to speak with the boar. Gwrhyr takes the form of a bird and approaches the lair, but Grugyn speaks for the group and refuses discussion. His answer returns the conflict to its irreducible condition: the treasures cannot be taken while Twrch Trwyth lives. Soon the boar and his pigs cross the sea toward Wales. Arthur and his host embark in Prydwen to intercept them; Twrch Trwyth lands in Dyved, while Arthur comes to Mynyw. By the time Arthur catches up, the animals have already killed people and cattle at Aber Gleddyf.

The pursuit becomes an organized hunt through the country. At Preseleu, Arthur divides the search among several parties: Eli and Trachmyr lead Drutwyn, while other hunters range with dogs, including Bedwyr with Arthur’s own dog, Cavall. The warriors gather around the Nyver, and the three sons of Cleddyf Divwlch, already famed for killing Yskithyrwyn Penbaedd, join the movement toward Cwm Kerwyn. Such detail gives the chase a collective shape: Arthur’s force is repeatedly assembled, split into pursuit parties, and drawn back into contact with the boar.

Losses and Reversal

At Cwm Kerwyn, Twrch Trwyth makes a stand and kills several of Arthur’s champions, then kills further members of the company, including Arthur’s son. The boar is wounded, but the losses do not end the pursuit. Before daybreak, he kills three attendants of Glewlwyd Gavaelvawr, leaving only one attendant with him, and many other men die in the continuing chase. Arthur catches the boar again at Pelumyawc, but Twrch Trwyth moves onward, killing more of the pursuing force at Aberteivi. At Glyn Ystu, the men and dogs lose his track.

The hunters later find Grugyn Gwrych Ereint and Llwydawg Govynnyad at Dyffryn Llychwr. The two kill all but one of the hunters there; Arthur arrives and sets the dogs upon them, and Twrch Trwyth comes to their aid. This episode makes the pursuit’s pattern plain: the pigs are not merely scattered quarry but active allies, capable of turning a search party’s attack into another severe loss for Arthur’s side.

The contest nevertheless begins to narrow. At Mynydd Amanw, one of the young pigs is killed, and two more are slain as the chase continues through Dyffryn Amanw. Of the pigs, only Grugyn and Llwydawg remain with Twrch Trwyth after this stage. The hunters catch up with him at Llwch Ewin, where he again stands against them and kills more men and dogs. Grugyn then separates from the group at Llwch Tawy and travels toward Din Tywi; Llwydawg continues to fight the pursuers, killing many more before he himself is slain at Ystrad Yw. The reduction of the young pigs changes the hunt’s scale, but does not make its final target easy to capture.

The Severn and the Unfinished Capture

Twrch Trwyth moves between Tawy and Euyas, and Arthur summons Cornwall and Devon to the estuary of the River Severn. He declares that the boar has killed many of his men and that he will not let him enter Cornwall; rather than continue the chase in the same way, Arthur resolves to oppose him directly. The plan is to drive the boar toward the river, using knights and the dogs of the Island to close off his route. Mabon son of Modron, Goreu son of Custennin, and Menw join the pursuit near the Severn.

At the river, Arthur’s companions seize Twrch Trwyth and plunge him into the water. Mabon son of Modron takes the razor, and Kyledyr Wyllt takes the scissors. Before the comb can be secured, however, Twrch Trwyth regains the bank. The struggle to pull two of Arthur’s men from the river compounds the danger: one is dragged down by two millstones, while another’s water-filled knife sheath weighs him down. The two treasures are thus won amid fresh peril, but the most difficult object remains with the fleeing boar.

Arthur and his company pursue Twrch Trwyth into Cornwall. The search for the comb proves harder than the earlier encounters, but at length they obtain it. They then drive the boar straight into the deep sea. No one learns where he goes; Aned and Aethlem go with him. Arthur travels to Gelli Wic to rest after the exertion. The ending completes the retrieval but not the killing promised at the start: the comb is secured, while Twrch Trwyth’s destination and ultimate fate remain unknown.

Narrative Significance

The hunt is built from repeated reversals rather than a single decisive confrontation. Arthur’s armies can surround, pursue, and wound the quarry, but Twrch Trwyth and his pigs repeatedly break the hunters’ momentum, inflict losses, and escape. The segmented route—from Ireland through Dyved and onward to the River Severn and Cornwall—turns the landscape into a record of failed captures, regroupings, and renewed pursuit.

The quest’s objects give this extended action a clear measure of progress. The razor and scissors are taken at the Severn, and the comb is secured only in Cornwall; each success comes separately, after substantial loss. Yet the final outcome remains deliberately incomplete: Arthur’s company wins the treasures but does not kill the transformed king, and the sea removes him from view. The story therefore closes the practical task while withholding the more absolute victory that the hunt’s original terms appeared to demand.