Yskithyrwyn Benbaedd’s tusk

Yskithyrwyn Benbaedd’s tusk is both a demanded implement and a measure of the difficulty imposed on Culhwck’s marriage quest. Yspaddaden requires it to shave himself, insists that it be taken from the boar alive, and claims that only Odgar son of Aedd can remove it. The tusk eventually reaches the wedding hall by a different, violent route: Arthur’s company kills the boar, and Kaw takes the tusk. Its use in shaving Yspaddaden helps bring the tasks to their conclusion and precedes the marriage of Culhwck and Olwen.

The Demand and Its Conditions

Yspaddaden introduces the tusk as another task that Culhwck will supposedly fail to accomplish. The need is stated in practical terms: Yspaddaden must wash his head and shave his beard, and the tusk is to serve as the razor. But the requirement extends beyond obtaining a useful object. Yspaddaden says that the tusk will be of no use unless it is plucked alive from the head of Yskithyrwyn Benbaedd. He further says that only Odgar son of Aedd, king of Ireland, can remove it. The demand thus combines a tool, a dangerous quarry, and an asserted restriction on who can secure it.

A further condition concerns custody rather than acquisition. Yspaddaden says he will trust the tusk only to Gado of North Britain, who governs the sixty cantrefs there and will not willingly leave his kingdom; he adds that Culhwck will be unable to compel him. The sequence makes the task appear to require more than a successful hunt: even after the tusk is obtained, its safekeeping is presented as another obstacle. Yet the account of the expedition and its completion does not describe Gado receiving or guarding the object. That unreported step distinguishes Yspaddaden’s elaborate conditions from the actions the narrative actually records.

The Hunt and the Tusk’s Recovery

The tusk is recovered during Arthur’s broader expedition to secure the marvels required for Culhwck’s marriage. After reconciling Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwythyr son of Greidawl, Arthur travels to Armorica in search of two dogs, then to the west of Ireland for Gwrgi Severi, accompanied by Odgar. He proceeds north, captures Kyledyr Wyllt, and pursues Yskithyrwyn Benbaedd. Mabon son of Mellt arrives with the two dogs and Drudwyn, while Arthur brings his own dog, Cavall.

Kaw of North Britain takes a direct part in the attack. Riding Arthur’s mare, Llamrei, he is first to engage the boar and strikes its head with a mighty axe. The narrative explicitly distinguishes the outcome from the task’s earlier framing: the boar is not killed by the dogs Yspaddaden had named, but by Cavall, Arthur’s own dog. Kaw takes the tusk after the boar is killed. The requirement that it be removed while the animal is alive is therefore not fulfilled as originally stated, at least in the account of the hunt. Nor does the narrative say that Odgar himself plucks it out. Instead, Odgar accompanies Arthur, while Kaw takes the trophy after the kill.

Use and Role in the Marriage Quest

The tusk’s later appearance makes its practical purpose explicit. At Yspaddaden’s court, Kaw comes forward and shaves Yspaddaden’s beard, skin, and flesh down to the bone, from ear to ear. The narrative does not separately describe the tusk being wielded, but this action follows the tusk’s recovery and fulfills the shaving demand associated with it. The object’s function is therefore not merely symbolic: its place in the chain of marvels is tied to the bodily act Yspaddaden prescribed.

The shaving also marks a turning point in Yspaddaden’s resistance. He acknowledges that Olwen is now Culhwck’s, while saying that Culhwck should thank Arthur rather than him; he adds that by his own will he would never have consented, because giving his daughter in marriage means losing his life. Goreu then seizes Yspaddaden, kills him, and places his head on a stake at the citadel. Culhwck and Olwen marry that night, and Arthur’s company disperses. The tusk is one item among the quest’s required marvels, but its recovery leads directly into the scene where a demanded task is performed, the father’s defeat becomes immediate, and the marriage is finally achieved.

Meaning Within the Narrative

The tusk’s history turns on the difference between a condition as Yspaddaden states it and the outcome the quest accepts. The demand insists on a living extraction by a particular person; the hunt yields a tusk after the boar has been killed, with Kaw taking it. The narrative does not pause to resolve this discrepancy or explain how the earlier stipulation is waived. Instead, it treats the tusk as one of the marvels brought to Yspaddaden’s court and allows its associated task to proceed. That shift fits the larger pattern of the challenges: Yspaddaden repeatedly predicts failure, while Arthur’s company supplies the means by which the marriage conditions are overcome.

As a narrative object, the tusk joins the distant hunt to the final confrontation. Its meaning is carried through concrete changes of context: first a proposed razor, then the prize of a dangerous chase, and finally the instrument associated with Yspaddaden’s forced shaving. The boar’s death and the tusk’s transfer make the marriage quest’s scale visible, while its eventual use translates that scale into a consequence at the bride’s father’s court. Once Kaw has shaved Yspaddaden, the object’s task is complete; the account moves from the fulfilled demand to Culhwck’s marriage and the dispersal of Arthur’s company.