Penardun

[W] Daughter of the mother-goddess Don who weds Llyr. She is the mother of Bran, Branwen, and Manawydan, although in some traditions Iweriadd is given as mother of Bran and Branwen. She later weds Eurosswyd and has two sons, Nisien and Efnisien, the first a youth of gentle nature and lover of peace, the second who loved nothing so much as strife and conflict.

Pendaran Dyfed

[W] A swineherd, one of the three most renowned in Britain, and foster father of Pryderi.

Percival

His first appearance in literature is in Perceval, ou le conte du Graal, written ca. a.d. 1175 by Chrétien de Troyes. The Celtic model seems to be Peredur, and a medieval Welsh tale entitled “Peredur, son of Efrawg,” included in the Mabinogi, is parallel to the tale. He becomes Parzifal in the German version of the story. From the time of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur he is Sir Percival, the virgin knight, whose quest for the Grail is the main thrust of all the stories about him.

Peredur

[W] The Celtic model for the later Percival and Parzifal. His father was Efrawc and he was a seventh son. The syllable Per occurs in all forms of this hero’s name and, interestingly enough—because Peredur is the figure around whom the first Grail legends revolve—the word means a bowl or vessel in Brythonic Celtic. The earliest Peredur tale is simply one of vengeance for the slaying of a kinsman, although setting out for magical treasure is included. See Percival.

Perilous Plain, The

A plain of devouring wild beasts that Cúchulainn had to cross to reach the fortress of Scáthach.

Picts

Sometimes given as the Pictii. In Irish saga they appear as the Tuatha Cruithne. They are also mentioned in Welsh saga as Priteni. The Picts were British Celts, a confederation of some of the northern tribes, such as the Caledonii and the Maecatae. The term “Pict” was first recorded in a Latin poem of a.d. 297, and it was simply a nickname given by the Roman soldiers garrisoned on Hadrian’s Wall to the northern Celtic warriors, who, in order to give themselves a more fearsome appearance in war, painted or tattooed their bodies: pictii is the past participle of the Latin pingere, “to paint.” There is a general misconception that the Picts were a new ethnic element in Britain. This would be the equivalent of seeing national groupings in the United States called “Yanks” or “Rebs,” or, indeed, “Limeys” or “Pommies” in England.