I may not be revenged upon thee,
yet I declare to Heaven that I will do thee more dishonour than the value
of an hundred stags." "O chieftain," he replied, "if I have done ill I
will redeem thy friendship." "How wilt thou redeem it?" "According as
thy dignity may be, but I know not who thou art?" "A crowned King am I
in the land whence I come." "Lord," said he, "may the day prosper with
thee, and from what land comest thou?" "From Annwvyn," answered he;
"Arawn, a King of Annwvyn, {13} am I." "Lord," said he, "how may I gain
thy friendship?" "After this manner mayest thou," he said. "There is a
man whose dominions are opposite to mine, who is ever warring against me,
and he is Havgan, a King of Annwvyn, and by ridding me of this oppression
which thou canst easily do shalt thou gain my friendship." "Gladly will
I do this," said he, "show me how I may." "I will show thee. Behold
thus it is thou mayest. I will make firm friendship with thee; and this
will I do, I will send thee to Annwvyn in my stead, and I will give thee
the fairest lady thou didst ever behold, to be thy companion, and I will
put my form and semblance upon thee, so that not a page of the chamber,
nor an officer, nor any other man that has always followed me shall know
that it is not I. And this shall be for the space of a year from
to-morrow, and then will we meet in this place." "Yes," said he; "but
when I shall have been there for the space of a year, by what means shall
I discover him of whom thou speakest?" "One year from this night," he
answered, "is the time fixed between him and me, that we should meet at
the Ford; be thou there in my likeness, and with one stroke that thou
givest him, he shall no longer live. And if he ask thee to give him
another, give it not, how much soever he may entreat thee, for when I did
so, he fought with me next day as well as ever before." "Verily," said
Pwyll, "what shall I do concerning my kingdom?" Said Arawn, "I will
cause that no one in all thy dominions, neither man, nor woman, shall
know that I am not thou, and I will go there in thy stead." "Gladly
then," said Pwyll, "will I set forward." "Clear shall be thy path and
nothing shall detain thee, until thou come into my dominions, and I
myself will be thy guide!"

So he conducted him until he came in sight of the palace and its
dwellings. "Behold," said he, "the Court and the kingdom in thy power.
Enter the Court, there is no one there who will