every man of renown in the world." "I am not yet of an age to wed,"
answered the youth. Then said she unto him, "I declare to thee, that
it is thy destiny not to be suited with a wife until thou obtain
Olwen, the daughter of Yspaddaden Penkawr." And the youth blushed,
and the love of the maiden diffused itself through all his frame,
although he had never seen her. And his father inquired of him,
"What has come over thee, my son, and what aileth thee?" "My
stepmother has declared to me that I shall never have a wife until I
obtain Olwen, the daughter of Yspaddaden Penkawr." "That will be
easy for thee," answered his father. "Arthur is thy cousin. Go,
therefore, unto Arthur, to cut thy hair, and ask this of him as a
boon."

And the youth pricked forth upon a steed with head dappled grey, of
four winters old, firm of limb, with shell-formed hoofs, having a
bridle of linked gold on his head, and upon him a saddle of costly
gold. And in the youth's hand were two spears of silver, sharp,
well-tempered, headed with steel, three ells in length, of an edge to
wound the wind, and cause blood to flow, and swifter than the fall of
the dewdrop from the blade of reed-grass upon the earth when the dew
of June is at the heaviest. A gold-hilted sword was upon his thigh,
the blade of which was of gold, bearing a cross of inlaid gold of the
hue of the lightning of heaven: his war-horn was of ivory. Before
him were two brindled white-breasted greyhounds, having strong
collars of rubies about their necks, reaching from the shoulder to
the ear. And the one that was on the left side bounded across to the
right side, and the one on the right to the left, and like two sea-
swallows sported around him. And his courser cast up four sods with
his four hoofs, like four swallows in the air, about his head, now
above, now below. About him was a four-cornered cloth of purple, and