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The March Malaen is cited in Celtic folklore as an evil horse associated with the Devil and witchcraft, whose mythical or historical origins remain obscure. In the 18th century, its tradition was said to be widespread among the Welsh, through a popular expression and the Welsh language goddess Andarta.
From 1807, with the publication of Iolo Morganwg's Welsh Triads, March Malaen became a creature of Welsh mythology, and one of the three scourges of the "Isle of Brittany". This reference is repeated in Joseph Loth's 1889 translation of the Mabinogion, according to which the March Malaen came to the kingdom from across the sea on May 1st. It is associated with the tale of Lludd a Llefelys,. where, in more recent translations, the first plague fought by King Lludd Llaw Eraint is the arrival of the Corannyeit people.
Nineteenth-century authors, in the midst of the Celtic Revival, comment on the horse in various ways, suggesting that it could be the Questing Beast of Arthurian legend, that May 1st was feared by the ancient Welsh as the day of the March Malaen's appearance, or that it was the memory of a Fomorians king.. March Malaen is absent from most recent publications.
Several 19th-century authors, including Anatole Le Braz, believe that March Malaen translates as "Malaen's horse",... but James Hastings assumes that March meant an evil king, and Malaen something demonic.. There is also the older form March Malen, which translates as "the stallion of Malen".The original version of The steed of Malen.
The Indo-European root Mar seems to designate liquid expanses such as the sea and , and to have given rise to marah among Celto-Germanic peoples, (hence King Marc'h), and the words and in Celtic languages, then and marka in Gaulish. All these words are related to the horse.. Alexander Haggerty Krappe has also studied the etymology of the word "", noting that this word, literally translated as "mare of the night", can be related to those mentioned above.
In 1863, a magazine stated that "Malen, among the Bretons, was a popular name for the furious Andraste, or, as the vulgar would say, the Devil's Lady". Malen's horse was then seen as the magical mount on which witches usually traveled through the air, and the Welsh proverb is said to be derived from this vision.. In a posthumous work published in 1891, Robert Owen says that the Welsh saw the figure of a woman riding this mount in the sky in the company of Witchcraft as a demonstration of the Devil's power, under the influence of canon law.. It's hard to say when the English first gave the Devil the form of a horse, but the Welsh seem to have been familiar with the figure for a long time. John Rhys likens a story in the Holy Grail Quest, in which Peredurus attempts to ride a demonic stallion, to the figure of the diabolical horse. He also cites the black stallion of Moro,. ridden by Gwynn ap Nudd during the hunt for Twrch Trwyth,. and the horse-eared King Marc'h. Moreover, as Anatole Le Braz reports, the figure of the demonic horse is known in the folklore of many Celtic countries, as Welsh folklore mentions numerous stories of revenants, some of whom appear mounted on headless horses to run the countryside all night long, as well as the psychopomp horse of death, which is white or black with a fiery gaze. The Devil transforms himself into a horse in Cornwall and Brittany folklore, and in Ireland, a popular belief has it that an evil spirit will prowl around a house where someone has recently died in the form of "a horse with a big tail".
Whether under the name March Malaen or March Malen, this association of the creature with the Welsh Triads is absent from the vast majority of more recent works,Like Pierre-Yves Lambert's version of the Mabinogion, published by Gallimard coll. "L'aube des peuples" in 1993, which was produced to correct Joseph Loth's errors. Pierre-Yves Lambert states that "Joseph Loth was too dependent on the philological tradition of 19th century Welsh; his commentary, which was intended to be both historical and linguistic, has the particular disadvantage of making too extensive use of documents invented by Iolo Morganwg in the early 19th century". where the first scourge fought by Lludd Llaw Eraint is that of the Corannyeit..
A 1989 bulletin of the Société de mythologie française attributes Celtic mythology to the March Malaen.
The March Malaen associated with Lludd Llaw Eraint in Iolo Morganwg's version of the Welsh Triads has been the subject of comments highlighting the fact that the creature was able to cross the sea, or that it moved at a "snail's pace".. As for its origin, William Rees suggests an event that took place in England during the mythological ages,. and John Rhys thinks it may be linked to King Marc'h, or according to a 1993 publication, to a horse-god of the same name, who later took on human form under the guise of King Marc'h.. In 1901, Ferdinand Lot speculated that "the March Malaen of the Welsh" might also be the Questing Beast of Arthurian legend..
Several authors point to the similarity between the March Malaen and More or Margg, a legendary Fomorians king who married the daughter of the king of Fir Morca and, like King Marc'h, possessed horse ears. He levied a tribute on corn and milk in Ireland. This last point seems to fit in with the May 1st date and the fact that March Malaen came "from across the sea"
The demonic horse of Malgis and the March Malaen may also have something in common. According to an 1820 publication, one of the three recognized demons of the Great Britain, Melen, or Malen, mentioned in another Welsh Triads, is also the March Malen and may correspond to the Bellona of ancient mythology, whose name seems to have some affinity with "Prydain".
Anatole Le Braz relates a Breton tale of a Alcoholism named Alanic, who invoked the Devil and saw a "devil's horse with a red mane hanging down to the ground" appear. He drew a parallel with the March Malaen quoted in Loth's translation.
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