Details
Region
Arthurian
Regional Information Additional (if applicable)
Welsh Triads / Môn or Anglesey / Cath Palug tradition
Category
Group
Historicity (actuality or factual truth of persons, events, and claims)
Legendary
Gender
Male
Time Period
Legendary Arthurian setting; fuller fostering episode preserved in later versions of Welsh Triad 26
Symbol
Kitten, 3 Stars & Island
Tags
sons-of-palug, cath-palug, hen-wen, coll-son-of-collfrewy, anglesey, mon, welsh-triads, fostering, arthurian
Introduction - Overview
The Sons of Palug are the unnamed men who foster Hen Wen's discarded kitten on Môn, allowing it to become Cath Palug. Their role comes from the fuller White and Red Book version of Welsh Triad 26. After Coll son of Collfrewy throws the kitten into the Menai, the sons of Palug rear it 'to their own harm', and it becomes one of the great oppressions nurtured on the island. The text does not name the sons, state how many there were, explain why they fostered the animal or describe exactly what harm befell them. A separate early Arthurian poem, Pa Gur, connects Cath Palug with Cai and says that nine score warriors would fall for its food, but the Sons of Palug do not appear in that poem. Their record must therefore preserve the surviving silence rather than turning them into a detailed household of invented princes or monster hunters.
Gallery
Main Article - Who or What was...
Sons of Palug
The Sons of Palug appear in the expanded version of Welsh Triad 26, the Three Powerful Swineherds of the Island of Britain. The story begins with Hen Wen, a pregnant sow belonging to Dallwyr Dallben and tended by Coll son of Collfrewy. As Coll follows Hen Wen across Britain, the sow produces both useful things and dangerous animals in different regions.
At Llanfair in Arfon beneath the Black Rock, Hen Wen gives birth to a kitten. Coll throws the animal from the rock into the Menai. The surviving triad does not narrate a dramatic swim, rescue on a beach or prophecy spoken over the kitten at that moment. It moves directly from disposal to fosterage on Môn.
The fuller version says that the sons of Palug rear the kitten on Môn 'to their own harm'. This is the complete surviving statement about their personal fate. It does not say they are eaten, killed, exiled or transformed, and it never records a motive for their decision to foster the animal. Their number is also unknown.
The fostered kitten becomes Cath Palug, conventionally understood as Palug's Cat. The same version makes it one of the Three Great Oppressions of Môn nurtured on the island. Bartrum notes that the personal name Palug may itself result from a later understanding of the expression Cath Palug, which some scholars have instead connected with a word for scratching or clawing. The sons therefore belong to a tradition whose very family name may preserve an old reinterpretation.
The early Welsh poem Pa Gur gives Cath Palug another context. Cai goes to Môn and prepares his shield against the cat, while the fragment says that nine score warriors would fall for its food. Because the poem breaks off, it does not give a complete outcome for the fight, and it does not mention the Sons of Palug. The figure of 180 warriors should not be transferred into the sons' own fate.
Later French Arthurian traditions reshape the monstrous cat into forms such as Chapalu or the devil-cat fought by Arthur near Lake Lausanne. Those narratives provide new origins and locations and do not preserve the Welsh fosterers. The Sons of Palug therefore remain specific to the Welsh triadic tradition even though the monster they raise acquires a much wider medieval afterlife.
Summary
The Sons of Palug endure as the unnamed fosterers who raise Hen Wen's kitten on Môn and thereby nurture Cath Palug. Welsh Triad 26 says only that they foster the animal 'to their own harm' and gives no names, number, motive or precise fate. Pa Gur later shows Cai confronting Cath Palug and gives the monster a terrible warrior tally, but the Sons of Palug are absent from that poem. Their significance lies in one unsettling act of care: an anonymous group nurtures the creature that becomes one of the great oppressions of Anglesey.
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Sons of Palug
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Sources & Retellings
Explore the original mythological Source texts (most from over 75 years ago, some as translated, possibly with mature content) and Mythopouch's source Retellings (a modern retelling also suitable for 15+) connected to this mythological entity. We are growing this resource and will link these in the future; for now, check the References below, then find the Sources or Retellings on those pages!
References
Validation References:
- Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, Triad 26 and 26WR - Hen Wen, Coll and the Sons of Palug fostering Cath Palug to their own harm.
- P. C. Bartrum, A Welsh Classical Dictionary, entry Palug - summary of Triad 26 and discussion of the name Cath Palug.
https://www.library.wales/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/new_structure/discover/digital_exhibitions/printed_material/welsh_classical_dictionary/09_OPR.pdf
- Pa Gur yv y Porthaur, Black Book of Carmarthen - Cai, Môn and the fragmentary Cath Palug episode.
- Patrick Sims-Williams, The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems, in The Arthur of the Welsh - discussion of Pa Gur and Cath Palug.
- The Welsh Triads, public translation of Triad 26.
https://www.roman-britain.co.uk/classical-references/welsh-celtic-literature/the-welsh-triads/
Cultural Context Notice
Mythology developed across different cultures, periods and traditions, and there is rarely one universally accepted version of a story. Mythopouch approaches these traditions with respect while remaining faithful to the complexity of the surviving material. Retellings and educational content may interpret or adapt historical sources, but are not presented as definitive accounts of any culture, religion or belief system.