Three Faithless Wives of the Island of Britain.
Three daughters of Culfanawyd of Britain:
- Essyllt Fair-Hair (Trystan's mistress),
- and Penarwan (wife of Owain son of Urien),
- and Bun, wife of Fflamddwyn.
And one was more faithless than those three: Gwenhwyfar, Arthur's wife, since she shamed a better man than any (of the others).
The first of course is
Isolde; the second is one of the many wives attributed to
Owein ap Urien; the third is relatively unspoken of.
The Gwenhwyfar entry shows a Norman influence on the triads; this becomes more prevalent as the triads go on.
Back to The Welsh Triads