Summer White

 "Hail, men of grey Arawn! My master comes, the Golden One, he who is ancient yet ever young. He whom no bird's wings can outstrip, whose flame shrivels all feathers, consumes all flesh. Do you hear me, men of the Western World? Then tremble. Nergal comes, the Lord of the Abyss, the Lord of the burning summer sun! He that rises out of Meslam, the Underworld, to blast every green and growing thing. He that of old dragged Ereshkigal, Queen of the Eastern Dead, from her ancient throne by the hair of her terrible head. He that turned her pride to cringing fear and made her the weak receiver of his seed. Even so will he deal with your Brenhines-y-nef, with your Modron, the Mother. Too long has She queened it here, over you gelded weaklings of the West. She shall learn Her place, the woman's place! East and west the dead shall know but one Lord: Havgan the Destroyer!"

"What right had you to seek my death, Lord? I never harmed you; I do not know why you sought my life. But since you have begun to kill me, end it---put me out of this pain."

I must say I've fallen absolutely in love with Evangeline Walton's re-telling of the Mabinogion, the collection of interwoven Welsh medieval legends. While the tales themselves are wonderful, it is really Walton's beautifully entrancing writing style, her use of symbolism and allusion to other cultural myths. I'm afraid much of the meaning and feeling of the quotations above is lost without the rest of the text. But Havgan was so well built up as a particularly vicious figure I just had to. An opponent whom even the Lord of the dead, Arawn, cannot defeat. Who if killed is, more or less, able to recover invulnerable to the one who slew him.

Original: (calligraphy) pen and ink with watercolour and rough pencil background.

Thanks to Evangelin Walton I had such a clear image of what Havgan looked like. A gorgeous youth hiding an arrogant, cruel and deceptively ancient personality. If the battle was really something like the seasonal battle between the Holly King and Oak King then it all the more implies his disruption of an ancient balance. Though he's clearly a very minor character in the Mabinogion he's fascinating in Walton's version and I could go on.

I did a little bit of research to find suitable garb that would fit Walton's suggested connection to the Phoenician god Nergal. The Khopesh swords seemed like a sword I could get away with and it fitted with what I wanted: something that was of an attractive, boastful shape. And from what I understand the Khopesh was often used as a ceremonious sword, buried with the dead which couldn't be more perfect. However, I cheated a bit with the belt since I'm assuming it's kind of impossible to sheath such a sword.