Trafodwn y chwedl ‘Historia Peredur fab Efrog’ yn y bennod hon gan awgrymu’i bod yn disgrifio perthynas Peredur a’i fam mewn modd hynod ddynol a thyner. Mae gwrthgyferbyniad amlwg rhwng bydolwg gwrywaidd treisgar tad Peredur a doethineb ei fam. Ond er i’w fam geisio’i fagu mewn byd benywaidd yn bell o unrhyw sôn am arfau a rhyfel, ac er iddi ddweud wrtho mai ‘angylion’ yw’r marchogion a wêl un diwrnod, mae’r hogyn ifanc yn mynnu dilyn y dynion arfog ar y ‘farchocffordd’ a dysgu bod yn farchog ei hun. Dyma destun canoloesol sy’n cwestiynu’r union ymddygiad ‘macho’ y mae’n ei ddyrchafu.

Peredur’s Marchocffordd

In this episode we discuss ‘Historia Peredur fab Efrog’ and suggest that it describes the relationship between Peredur and his mother in a remarkably human and tender fashion. There is an obvious contrast between the violent male worldview of Peredur’s father and the wisdom of his mother. However, while his mother tries to raise him in a femine world far from any mention of weapons and warfare, and although she tells him that the knights he sees one day are ‘angles’, the young lad insists on following the armed men on the marchocffordd – meaning the ‘bridle path’ or ‘horse path’ but also in our reading of the text, ‘the way of a knight’ – and learn to be a knight himself. This is a medieval text which questions the same macho behaviour it appears to promote.

Cyflwynwyd gan: Yr Athro Jerry Hunter a'r Athro Richard Wyn Jones

Cynhyrchwyd gan: Richard Martin

Cerddoriaeth: Might Have Done gan The Molenes

Dilynwch ni ar Trydar: http://www.twitter.com/YrHenIaith

Tanysgrifwch yn eich hoff ap podlediadau neu ar YouTube i derbyn y pennod nesaf ar cyhoeddiad.

Darllen pellach: / Further Reading:

- Dafydd Ifans a Rhiannon Ifans, Y Mabinogion[:] Diweddariad (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, 1980)

- Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan a Erich Poppe (goln.), Arthur in the Celtic Languages (Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 2019)