by Elizabeth Cruse
“She came with a flame-red silk robe around her, and a red-gold torque around the maiden’s neck with pearls of great worth on it, and red gems. Her hair was more yellow than the flowers of the broom. Her flesh was fairer than the wave’s foam. Her palms and fingers were whiter than shoots of marsh trefoil from among the fine gravel of a welling spring. …. Four white trefoils rose up in her track wherever she went. And from that she was called Olwen.”
In the old Brythonic story of Culhwch and Olwen, the young man Culhwch is inspired by his stepmother to love and to seek Olwen, daughter of Ysbyddaden Bencawr and take her as his wife.
The terrible giant (Bencawr means Chief of Giants) who requires his servants to lift up his eyelids with forks so that he can see, sets Culhwch a series of impossible tasks each linking to another one. He must, for example uproot a wood, burn the trees for fertility, plough and sow the land with wheat so that it is ripe the following morning. As if this is not enough, Culhwch must get Amaethon, the great ploughman who is brother of the goddess Arianrhod, to plough the land. If that can be done then the young hero must get Gofannon the mythical smith to forge the iron for the ploughing. But to facilitate the ploughing Culhwch must obtain a series of pairs of mighty oxen. These are only the first few tasks.
Goading Culhwch, Ysbyddaden Bencawr speaks of the impossibility of obtaining these things which, he says, will never be given freely. To each request, Culhwch replies, “It is easy for me to get that though thou think it is not easy.”
And indeed, with help from a band of magically gifted comrades from Arthur’s court, and from Arthur himself, Culhwch obtains all that he needs to win Olwen’s hand.
On 27th November 2025, I attended an event in London called The National Emergency Briefing (NEB). I had been asked by OBOD if I would go on behalf of the order to attend this event under the umbrella of Faith for the Climate. This is an ecumenical coalition of faith groups – including non-Christians – which seeks to address the climate crisis. I was very happy to do this and duly arose at 5a.m. to make the journey to London from Glastonbury to reach the magnificent Central Hall Westminster in time for the 9am start. (Unashamed virtue signalling here I admit.)
The event had been brought into being by concerned citizen Simon Oldridge and others who were worried about the gulf between what science was telling us about the dangers of climate change and the laggard progress of government in dealing with it. They felt that the public should be receiving a national emergency briefing of the type that was so familiar during the COVID pandemic. They drew together a panel of scientists, all experts in their particular fields, to make brief presentations of the facts concerning the threat that we all now face due to human-induced climate change, mostly, but not entirely, due to rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
So it was that I found myself sitting in Westminster Central Hall beneath its impressive dome, together with, according to the organisers, some 1,200 politicians, senior civil servants, leaders from business and NGOs, faith representatives, and others. What, you may ask, has all this got to do with Culhwch and his quest?
As I listened to nine scientists giving their concise summaries of the way that an unstable climate threatens the natural mechanisms that, until recently (and still, just about), maintained a stability of climate within which life on earth could survive and thrive (the so-called Holocene era), I felt increasingly dismayed and overwhelmed. I found myself as daunted as young Culhwch must have felt faced with the threatening giant.
Many of us are familiar with the graphs that show the runaway increase in levels of CO2 (Carbon dioxide) in Earth’s atmosphere since industrialisation began around 1850. This and other disturbing facts regarding, for example, tipping points, which are points at which a catastrophe cannot be reversed, were outlined by speakers at the briefing.
The scenario I found most frightening was that outlined by Tim Lenton, director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter. He described how, if the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC) collapses due to melting ice in the Arctic and the consequent huge amounts of freshwater going into the ocean, London could experience winters of -20C and yet the summers would be hotter than we experience today. This would mean we would become completely dependent on food imports. Tim Lenton stated: “We have got to do everything in our power to limit the amount of time we spend above 1.5C (that is, above pre-industrial levels).”
This current which is responsible for what we know as the Gulf Stream has not collapsed yet but it is weakening.
Kevin Anderson, Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the Universities of Manchester, Uppsala and Bergen described our choices thus: “The choice is between deep, rapid and fair decarbonisation of modern society, and an organised-ish technical and social revolution; or ongoing rhetoric and delay as temperatures (rise). And then we’ll have a revolutionary-style change that will be both chaotic and violent.”
In the terms of the story, if we visualise those governments who wish to make change, to decarbonise, to prevent the worst catastrophes as Culhwch and his companions, then who is the giant who sends out the message that “though you get one thing changed, you won’t achieve the next thing that needs to be done”?
In this role, I cast the corporations (notably the fossil fuel companies) and countries who are refusing to admit that drastic change is necessary; that drilling for fossil fuels cannot go on. All this is done in the name of the dominant system (I would say organism) which we call Capitalism, which demands endless growth and infinite extraction of raw materials at the expense of the natural world and all our relations, human and more than human.
Ysbyddaden Bencawr only had one head. The giant we face has many. His loyal servants are the climate deniers and those spreading false data to undermine the truth that science reveals. They prop open the eyes of this giant with many heads only to show him what he wants to see.
Unlike Culhwch, none of those pushing for change would ever say that it will be easy to achieve. But still, many are prepared to act in hope and try. The UK is, at the moment, the only “developed” country to commit to opening no new oil or gas fields. In April there will be a conference jointly hosted by Columbia and the Netherlands for nations who wish to act in despite of the vastly inadequate outcome of COP (shorthand for the UN Climate Change Conference) which this year saw the absence an official USA delegation.
Culhwch has magical aid in his quest, from the superpowers of his human companions – Cai’s ability to breathe underwater, Gwrhyr’s ability to understand all languages to name but two. He also accesses the ancient enchantment of the Oldest Animals, the Blackbird of Cilgwri, the Stag of Rhedynfre, the Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, the Eagle of Gwernabwy and the Salmon of Llyn Lliw. These creatures have access to the wisdom of deep time.
Meanwhile, here we all are, individuals and communities, dwarfed by the size of the challenge outlined at the National Emergency Briefing. How can we find courage in these times? How can we create a vision for the future and seek it out? What magic can we summon?
To look at these questions from another angle, I invoke a mighty modern myth cycle: Frodo’s quest to destroy the Ring of Power.
It has become a cliché to quote Gandalf’s exchange with Frodo when the wizard has recounted the history of the Ring:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Clichés of course, usually express an undeniable truth. None of us asked to be born into an era of existential threat when, via global media we have to watch species disappearing and the relative safety of the Holocene crumbling before our eyes. Increasingly this comes to us in real life, for example when a storm like the recent Goretti, an extreme weather event, undoubtedly intensified by climate change arrives in our own country.
But here we are. Metaphorically, we have all been handed a Ring of Power. Will we enhance it by joining the consumerist race to possess more things, by travelling at whim to far-flung destinations? Or will we choose, where we are able, to set out on a quest for a more equal society, and limit our carbon output by, for example, insulating our homes and using solar energy.
The Lord of the Rings teaches us that sometimes individuals have to undertake the seemingly impossible but – and this is both comforting and depressing – the myth of the glorious, or even modest, hero who succeeds unequivocally over daunting odds is just that, a myth.
In the end, the Ring is destroyed but not because Frodo turns out to be a hero of unimpeached moral virtue like proto-chivalric heroes such as Culhwch. In the end, on the brink of the fires, he hesitates and the Ring claims him. It is Gollum, in thrall to the Ring, spared due to Frodo’s kindness (and Bilbo’s), who bites off Frodo’s ring-bearing finger and falls with it into the inferno of Mount Doom.
There is, in the end, no return to the halcyon days of Middle Earth. He elves depart. The Shire is laid waste and much work is needed to restore it.
So it will be with us. As the scientists at the NEB made clear, we cannot reverse the rising temperatures. But with effort, it is not too late to stabilise them. Weather patterns, however will remain changed but again, maybe worsening extremes can be held at bay.
We can also prepare for what awaits us. To my surprise one of the speakers who most impressed me at the NEB was Lieutenant General Richard Nugee who spoke about national security in relation to climate change. He described how the military look pragmatically at the threat that faces them, no matter how grave, and then prepare the best they can. This is not an approach evident in public-facing policy making at the moment. But in the tales both Culhwch and Frodo are helped to look squarely at the task and assemble a band of helpers with, as we have seen in the case of Culhwch, magical powers – and Frodo too has Gandalf and the help of Galadriel.
In spiritual terms we could say that if we name and recognise the forces of darkness we can name the light that will help us contest them. Then, as Druids, we can ask for the awen to inspire us and draw on nwyvre to give us strength to face what we must.
You may say, we don’t have companions with superpowers, cloaks of invisibility or wizards on our side. But as a storyteller I believe that humans need tales of such enchantments to lift their hopes and enable them to identify what qualities are needed and could be accessed in the mundane world. Just thinking about invisibility: much useful work is done out of sight. But the stories start from the position that even with magic the outcome is uncertain. But the protagonists set out regardless.
I think that’s all any of us can do: beneath the shadow (or blazing sun) of climate change as outlined at the NEB (and under the clouds of all the current threats abroad in the world), to take one step forward and then another, in companionship.
As Druids, we do this in the knowledge that we will find many moments in the journey that remind us that beauty and wonder still exist in the world. On the edge of Mordor we may briefly rest in Ithilien. If we cannot win the hand of Olwen, the Spring maiden of the white track of trefoils, forever, from time to time, we may still walk with her.
Notes:
For more information about the National Emergency Briefing and follow-up see https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yUXINjZL6t5FDQEl1BexQLyfhsyPUrpD3w8uuZrHdtA/edit?tab=t.0
You can find recordings of all the presentations on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI8z6A0c5Q4
Crowdfunder to help make a public information film here https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-peoples-emergency-briefing?link_id=2&can_id=b74819f7df1f779a1e5a4b16d868a7aa&source=email-galvanising-momentum-2&email_referrer=email_3030978&email_subject=the-peoples-emergency-briefing-taking-the-evidence-nationwide&&
Information on Storm Goretti here https://globalclimaterisks.org/insights/blog/storm-goretti-strikes-northern-europe/
There are various press articles about the NEB online: here is one https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/27/limate-related-risks-uk-economy-security
Thanks to Angharad Wynne’s Midwinter Salon on Culhwch and Olwen which provided me with some of the inspiration for this piece. https://www.dreamingtheland.com/next-events
