#bedwyr

Dr. Malcor seeks to strengthen her argument for Ossetic influence on the story of the deposition of Arthur’s sword by associating the Arthurian hero Bedwyr, the later Bedivere, with the Nart saga hero Batraz. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no etymological connection between the two names. For the name Bedwyr (or Bedguir), there are two possible etymologies, and both are utterly Celtic.  The first would be to derive the name from *Betuo-riks, with meaning of Birch-king. The other is supplied by Dr. Isaac, again via personal correspondence: “There is an alternative to *Betuo-riks which would remove the somewhat irrelevant-looking inclusion of the ‘birch’.  Old Irish bath ‘death’ and W bad ‘plague, pestilence, death’ reflect Celtic *bato-/*bata- < Proto-Indo-European *gwh2-to-/-teh2 (root *gweh2- ‘stamp on’).  A nomen actionis derivative of this would be PIE *gwh2-tu > Celt. *batu-.  The existence of the latter is confirmed by Gallo-Latin battuere (> French batter, Eng. Battle) ‘fight’.  In composition *batu- could be extended by the thematic composition vowel, giving *batuo-: so *Batuo-riks ‘King of Fighting’ > Welsh Bedwyr.”

Makes sense.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Bedwyr being listed as a fourth addition to the "Three Battle-Diademed Men of the Island of Britain" in the Triads:

In this scene, Arthur must entrust his knife Carnwennan to one of three characters: his friend, Bedwyr (left), the mysterious onisegun, Morgan (middle), or the Saxon who is cursed with resurrection, Creoda (right). The player's choice determines the ending of Chapter Two.

Choosing a character does not always guarantee they will be able to receive Carnwennan. The game first runs an invisible stat check to determine eligibility. The stats measured are Humor, Trust, Honor, Violence, Like, Jealousy, and Hope.

Arthur's internal monologue changes depending on whether the stat has met a certain threshold (usually 3 or more out of 6). You can read these monologues under the cut.

The cumulative effect of these stats is then tallied. The tally translates into that particular character's "virtue." If a character accumulates enough virtue, the player will access the option to give Carnwennan to that character; otherwise, the script forces Arthur to choose "No.", and that character is removed from the screen.

However, because some stat increases are automatically granted, it is very rare to see Arthur reject a character on the basis of eligibility. This is done to ensure at least one character is always eligible and prevent a softlock of the game.

Old Bedwyr and Cai after Camlann, my beloveds They didn't die. Malory said Bedwyr brings the sword to the Lady of the lake, so his husband isn't dead because of the "do not separate" thing (I say as they drag me in the rubber room)

Also, a sketch from a comic-page I'm doing about Culhwch ac Olwen

I love them dearly, and I wish modern media did too, in the right way.

I'm greatly saddened by the miscarachterization that dawned on them (and several other characters that either got villainfied or erased: Morgan, Mordred, Llacheu ecc) in later centuries, and wish modern authors could understand the roots of the ancient myth without necessarily twisting it.

Still gotta see a version where these two are actually done justice and are written as they should be (a pair, the interpretation of it is then up to the author.)

I want to see their bond, and I WANT to see the original Triad (Arthur, Cai and Bedwyr) display an actual closeness, they were said to be his closest friends, where did that go?

The arrival or romances erased the epic roots in it, these characters went to wars and probably were born into war periods, they were tempered, they fought death and gods and awful beasts, usually against things beyond human, but they were just.

Yet these great epic heroes got reduced to shadows of themselves, boorish and easy to defeat. It's saddening. It gives me pain. They were beloved by the people who first wrote them and read them, respected, and their roles were intact and important.

I need

nay

require

Arthur and Bedwyr to kiss

it is narratively important okay