It the light of recent events, I decided to rewrite/reword my old post about Maggie Stiefvater's use of Owain Glyndŵr.
There are a few good posts about why using Glendower instead of Glyndŵr is a problem: X X
In short, using the anglicized name is not only furthering the easure of welsh language but also damaging welsh culture. The "Glendower" was created and first used by Shakespeare in "Henry IV, Part 1", were Glyndŵr was portrayed as "wild and exotic; a man who claims to be able to "call spirits from the vasty deep," ruled by magic and tradition" and a magician. (Not to mention the play was written as Tudor propaganda.)
Also, Owain Glyndŵr wasn't a king, but a prince.
In The Dream Thieves (ch. 24), after pulling out a shield from the lake, we get this piece of information from Gansey:
"And it did seem like the sort of thing that would be brought along to bury with a king. He traced the ravens. Three ravens marked in a triangle — the coat of arms of Urien, Glendower’s mythological father."
The problem is it's not true, in any shape of form. Urien (or Urien Rheged) was a late 6th-century king of Rheged, an early British kingdom of the Hen Ogledd (today's northern England and southern Scotland), who in Arthurian legend became "King Urien of Gorre". He did have a son named Owain, namely Owain mab Urien, who isn't connected with Glyndŵr in anyway but name.
Owain mab Urien was the bases for the knight Ywain (Yvain/Ewain/Uwain) in Arthurian legend, best known from "Yvain, the Knight of the Lion" and "Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain".
Owain Glyndŵr 's real father was Gruffydd Fychan II.
Owain mad Urien and Owain Glyndŵr didn't even live in the same time period, with mab Urien died c. 595, while Glyndŵr lived c. 1359 - c. 1415.
Why Stiefvater merged them together is beyond my understanding.
As mention previously, the "three ravens marked in a triangle" is the coat of arms of Urien, and is not conected to Glydwr. Glydwr's coat of arms was two lions, he also had flag with a gold drangon (Y Ddraig Aur) and a banner with four lions.
Owain mab Urien/Ywian was connected to ravens in two more ways (that I could find): in "The Dream of Rhonabwy" the titular Rhonabwy has a dream were King Arthur has a game of gwyddbwyll with Owain, when "a messengers arrives declaring that Arthur's squires are attacking Owain's ravens"; and in "The Life of Saint Mungo" were is said he's a bastard son of Owain and princess Teneu, daughter of King Leudonus (Lot) who's attributed arms was a raven.
The only connection between Owain Glyndŵr and ravens I did find was, in some legends Glyndŵr was in possession of a "raven stone" which allowed him to became invisible. He could also communicated with birds.
I found no references of Glyndŵr being called "Raven King". (The only welsh figure referred to as it I could find was Brân the Blessed, but I'm not 100% sure about it. I also did find a polish legend about Raven King, which is kinda cool.)
At it's with any other historical figure with cultural importance, legends grow around Glyndŵr. Like with King Arthur, who was a real people, are know this magical and mysterious figures of stories. Maggie throughout the whole Raven Cycle blurred the lines between what's are the real information and what was just a legend about Glyndŵr, which is understandable, it's a fantasy novel after all but what she did was fabricate information and passed them as true.
Another thing is removing Glyndŵr from Wales. Owain is a example of the motif "king asleep in the mountain/sleeping hero", a historical or legendary figure sleeping until with people need him. Owian is also a national hero of Wales. Removing him from his homeland and making him nothing more than a glorified genie for a group of American kids to find is disrespectful. Someone could argue, it was stated in the book, Glyndŵr 's followers moved him to America to protect his body from the enemies and he could as well return to Wales. But this was never a point in the story, him being a Wales prince wasn't important. What was, the characters want of the wish he could grant and Gansey's obsession of finding him.
Maggie's being related to Glyndŵr doesn't give her a pass on butchering Welsh culture. (From what I know, she's a American with German and Scottish roots.) Although she did her research (in a notebook she lost before writing TRC, from what I remember) and visited Wales, she's doesn't have a inside that a welsh person or a person who lives in Wales has.
Thank you for your time, and please, don’t be an assshole who sends anonymous complaints and vagueposting on their blog.
