The Quest for Olwen (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS159 One may question (as does John) whether Mordred is self-deluded, but there is little evidence to contradict his observations regarding Merlin and his influence overArthur. All three tales suggest Merlin's culpability in the Arthurian tragedy, albeit not entirely from selfish motives. Indeed, Merlin does create the estrangements between Arthur and his wife and between the king and his illegitimate son. If the other characters are less than ideal (Lancelot is especially debunked) Merlin nonetheless must shoulder a great deal of the blame for the catastrophic end ofArthur's tealm. Even if Mordred exaggerates when he views Merlin as a flim-flam man a la Twain's 'rival magician,' thete issome truth to hisclaims.AnArthurian Triptych is an enjoyable read for anyone interested in the continuing Arthurian tradition. REBECCA UMLAND University ofNebraska at Kearney The Questfor Olwen. Directed byValeri Ugarov. Script by Gwyn Thomas. Produced by Metta (Llangolen, Wales) and Soyuzmultfilm (Moscow) for S4C and HTV (Wales), 1990. Videotape available from Films for the Humanities & Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543—2053 (1-800-257-5126). 22 minutes. $89.95. Although animatots have created more than fifty film tteatments of the Arthurian legend, the matter ofWales has curiously all but escaped their notice. In 1990 Welsh television S4C corrected this oversight with The Questfor Olwen, a twenty-two-minute animated feature based squarely on Culhwch andOlwen from TheMabinogion. While purists will always find details to quibble over in any adaptation, theywill also discover that scriptwriter Gwyn Thomas and the crew of Soviet artists who animated The Questfor Olwen do a reasonably faithful job of rendering Culhwch and Olwen for younger and/or less-sophisticated audiences that otherwise would be put offby some ofthe original tale's difficulties. As such, the film can be a useful classroom adjunct when teaching the mattet ofWales. The producers could not have found a mote sympathetic author than Thomas for the task ofsimplifying the story to meet the exigencies ofa short film. He has repeatedly streamlined the tale: as librettist for William Mathias's 1971 twenty-eight-minute Welsh/English choral work for children, Culhwch ac Olwen: Difyrrwch, as author of a 1988 modern Welsh version of Culhwch for children, and as author ofa 1988 English version as well, The Questfor Olwen, the immediate source behind this animated feature. Over the years, Thomas has labored to pare the narrative to its essential elementswithout doing harm to the intent ofthe original. In this film, he has generally done well. In the animated vetsion of The Questfor Olwen, after a mercifully briefnarrator's 'historical' introduction, the story moves rapidly through Culhwch's unusual birth in the pig-tun, the curse of love (Culhwch's quest for Olwen) his stepmother places upon him, his journey to Arthur's court for help in finding Olwen, Culhwch's first meeting with Olwen, and then on to Olwen's father, the giant Ysbaddaden, for the i6oarthuriana tasks Culhwch must complete before Olwen will be his and the giant will die—here, expiring when he sees his shaved face in a mirror rather than dying at the hands of one of Arthur's knights. Thomas strategically abridges the tale to limit Culhwch's adventures, trimming the original's many tasks to just four major ones: (i) recovering and planting the flax seed necessary for Olwen's bridal veil, (2) gaining the scissors and comb ofthe giant boar,TwrchTrwyth, to groomYsbaddaden, (3) finding Mabon, the hunter who will be required to locate Twrch, and (4) obtaining the blood ofthe Black Witch, needed to shave Ysbaddaden's tough beard. Thomas's revision is not unreasonable, given that even the original relates only a few ofCulhwch's adventures in any detail. The animators take more liberties than the scriptwriter. For instance, the object ofCulhwch's quest is on screen more than a readingofthe tale mightsuggest, making the film more clearly a love story than the original warrants. In fact, this film is The Quest for Olwen—without even a 'Culhwch' in the title—and the visuals have sometimes been skewed to emphasize this new perspective. The animators have also given themselves free rein in determining what the Welsh original's sketchy...