Addanc

In Welsh mythology , the addanc or " the affanc" is a beaver, a crocodile, a dragon or an alive monstrous giant in a cave located close to a lake, and which formerly required its batch of young people to be devoured, following the example Minotaure. One can see there a monster or a pagan divinity fallen into the lapse of memory.

A Welsh novel dating from the beginning of the XIIIe century, Peredur , tells how many heroes perished while trying to embank the animal. But they found the life after being immersed in the cauldron of resurrection of the King of the Sufferings, loans thus to take again the fight. The Peredur hero, equivalent of the Christian Perceval of of Troyes and of the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, wanted to fight at their side, but they declined its offer because, contrary to them, it could not ressusciter. However, Peredur put in hunting addanc, helped by a stone of invisibility which the fairy had given to him which reigned on the magic people of Cristinobyl. It could thus approach the addanc without being considering and decapitating it.

Sources

Encyclopedia of Marvellous, Volume 2: Fantastic Bestiary by Edouard Brasey (2006)
Peredur and the Castle of the Wonders (Perceval and Graal)

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