ABSTRACT
The tale in question has already been the subject of a good deal of investigation. The most comprehensive attempt to analyse it has been that of W. J. Gruffydd in his Rhiannon. Jackson, however, does not provide a comprehensive explanation of the tale as Gruffydd had. The explanation provided is an attempt to supply this deficiency. The real analogues to this section are such Irish tales as Echtra Laegaire and Serglige Con Culainn, especially the former. In these a mortal is rewarded for his aid to an other world being with the love of a fairy woman. Of Pwyll, Jackson says: “The mortal hero’s reward, the love of a beautiful woman, is evidently an integral part of the plot, but in the episode in Pwyll this has been very much modified by the introduction of the international themes of the transformation into the likeness of the husband and of the Chaste Brother.”
