Myths and Legends of the Celts (Penguin Reference) (37 page)
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Authors: James MacKillop
BRANWEN, DAUGHTER OF LLŶR;
MABINOGI
, BRANCH II
Unlike Branch I, the title character Branwen [white or sacred raven] here is more of a supporting player than a lead. The focus instead is on her family, the Children of Llŷr, offspring of the Welsh sea-god. It is led by the giant Bendigeidfran (or Bran [crow/raven?] the Blessed), in the company of his stalwart brother Manawydan and their beautiful sister Branwen. In their house also are two half-brothers born of the same mother, the rancorous Efnisien [unpeaceful] and the mild Nisien [peaceful]. The action switches to Ireland when Branwen marries the Irish king Matholwch, where war breaks out after Efnisien insults the in-laws. Branwen dies, and Bendigeidfran is killed, but his severed head remains to protect the Isle of Britain.
Action begins in the ancient coastal seat of Harlech, where Bendigeidfran the new king of the Isle of the Mighty (Britain) reigns with his court and family. One day the new king sees thirteen ships with embroidered satin pennants coming from Ireland with a fair wind. On them is the Irish King Matholwch, seeking to make an alliance. Bendigeidfran and brother Manawydan agree to marry Branwen of the snowy breast to the Irish King Matholwch, which she appears to accept. At first this seems like a boon to both parties. A huge celebration is held in a tent because Bendigeidfran cannot fit into a conventional building. Then things begin to turn sour. Half-brother Efnisien rages that he was not consulted about the nuptials and takes his vengeance by mutilating Matholwch’s horses; he cuts their lips, ears and tails so that they are both disfigured and useless. The Irish guests are shocked. Covering for the household, Bendigeidfran explains that the misdeed was only a whim of his malevolent half-brother and offers to make up the loss, horse for horse. Sweetening his contrition, Bendigeidfran offers three gifts: silver, gold and, most importantly, a cauldron of regeneration that overnight will restore slain warriors to life. In giving the gift, Bendigeidfran explains that the cauldron originated in Ireland. One Llassar Llaes Gyfnewid with his wife Cymidei Cymeinfoll retrieved it while escaping from a fiery house there. They turned over
the cauldron of regeneration to Bendigeidfran, who offers it now for the merging of the families. This is sufficient for Matholwch, who has heard the story of the cauldron. He returns to Ireland with wedding gifts, his entourage and his bride.
The first year as queen of Ireland goes well for Branwen. She receives love and acclaim, which increases when she produces a son named Gwern [alder]. In the second year suppressed resentment begins to surface. Matholwch’s brothers keep remembering Efnisien’s old insult and ask that Branwen be made to suffer for it. She is removed from queenship and sent to the kitchen where the cook bullies her and kitchen boys box her ears. For three years Branwen suffers while the Irish cease all commerce that would return word of her humiliation to her family. Resourcefully, she trains a starling that carries the news to the court at Harlech, whereupon Bendigeidfran immediately prepares a great army to invade Ireland. Welsh armed men board ships for the crossing, but Bendigeidfran is so huge he must wade the Irish Sea. Matholwch’s defenders are stupefied by the Welsh king’s immense size, but Branwen knows that her brother has come to rescue her.
The Irish scurry west. When in their flight they destroy the last bridge over the Shannon River, Bendigeidfran must make of himself a human bridge, allowing his men to cross on his back. Seeing their cause weakened and wishing to ingratiate themselves with the invaders, the Irish make an entreaty. To compensate for their mistreatment of Branwen, Matholwch offers to build a house big enough to hold Bendigeidfran. Stealthily, though, they use pegs to hold a hundred bags filled with armed men inside the house. Efnisien’s malevolence is then put to rare good use. He asks what is in the bags, and being told they are filled with flour, squeezes each until he has cruelly murdered every warrior. Trapped by their own ruse, the Irish are left with nothing to say.
Despite the discomfort of this moment, both sides share in a night of feasting. In a gesture of conciliation, the Irish confer their sovereignty on Gwern, the son of Branwen and Matholwch. The boy wins the affection of both Irish and Welsh, all except scowling Efnisien, who jealously plunges Gwern into the fire. This unleashes latent tensions on both sides, with widespread fighting and slaughter. Having the cauldron of regeneration, the Irish could seize the advantage by bringing
their dead back to fight. In a climactic act of contrition, Efnisien hides himself among the Irish corpses, waiting to be thrown into the cauldron. Once he is cast inside, his body stretches out and breaks the cauldron in four ways – bursting his own heart at the same time.
All the Irish men are slaughtered, and only five of their women are spared. The Welsh suffer as well, but seven of their number survive, including Pryderi, Manawydan and Bendigeidfran. The giant king is later mortally wounded by a poisoned spear in the heel. His death request is most unusual. He implores the Welshmen to cut off his head and take it to Gwyn Fryn [white mound] near London but facing France. On their route the men hear the sweet music of the three small birds of Rhiannon. Branwen’s return brings deeper sadness. She can still see Ireland when she sets foot in Wales, and, turning, cries out, ‘Dear Son of God – alas that I was born! These good islands have been destroyed because of me.’ Sighing deeply, she dies of a shattered heart.
The five surviving Irish women, we learn, are pregnant, and each bears a son. In maturity, each young man mates with a different woman, producing the tribes that become the five provinces of Ireland.
MANAWYDAN, SON OF LLŶR;
MABINOGI
, BRANCH III
The title character of the third branch, Manawydan, continues his role as brother and heir of Bendigeidfran in the second branch. Joining him are characters from the first branch, Rhiannon and her son Pryderi, who is now ascribed a wife, Cigfa. Most of the action is set in southwestern Wales with successive forays into England. While there is much magic in this branch, there are also depictions of the lives of tradesmen
.
On their return from the foray to Ireland to rescue Branwen, Manawydan and Pryderi settle in Dyfed, where Pryderi is lord of seven
cantrefs
(100 townships each). Seeing that Manawydan lacks a companion, Pryderi promises the hand of his still beautiful mother, Rhiannon. Both parties are highly receptive to this match and sleep together as soon as they can. Pryderi chooses Cigfa, daughter of Gwyn Gogoyw,
for himself. The two couples get on together prosperously and happily until an inexplicable mist comes upon them quite suddenly. This occurs while the four are feasting at Arberth, the very same spot where Pwyll first encountered the splendid Rhiannon. The mist is equally mysterious but far less benign. It devastates the country, turning what had been some of the most verdant land on earth into a desolate waste. At first they are able to get by with what they can hunt, but Manawydan speaks of his unhappiness and urges them all to migrate to Lloegyr [England]. There they might support themselves in lucrative trades, starting with saddlemaking just across the border in Hereford. Within a short time the quartet is a raging success, turning out products of premium quality. Soon, none of the other saddlers have any business, and they rail against the Welsh intruders, threatening violence. Pryderi wants to stay and fight, but Manawydan cautiously advises retreat. And so the same pattern follows with the manufacture of shields and shoes: success, resentment, Pryderi arguing resistance, Manawydan counselling retreat. Weary of it all, the group returns to Dyfed and attempts again to live by hunting.
Hunting in the wild brings unexpected challenges. A ferocious but gleaming white boar charges them one day, drawing all the hunting dogs in his train. Worse, the boar heads for a fort and disappears, taking the dogs with him. Always impetuous, Pryderi also enters the fort, but against Manawydan’s advice. Hearing of this Rhiannon is cross with her husband for allowing her son to rush into what appears to be an enchanted snare. Rhiannon then goes in search of Pryderi. Inside the fort she finds him clinging to a bowl but unable to speak. When she too touches the bowl, she is also struck dumb and immobile. A thunderclap sounds and, poof, the fort disappears. This sets Cigfa to sobbing for her lost husband. Manawydan, always a comforting counsellor, offers to be a helpful companion to her. Cigfa then finds herself travelling with a man not her husband and not a blood relative, in effect her husband’s stepfather. Like Pwyll in the first branch, however, he is an honourable respecter of a woman’s marriage vows.
When Manawydan and Cigfa return to England, they are a celibate couple. Once again they enter the trade of shoemaking and follow the same cycle as on their first enterprise. Acclaim for their craftsmanship leads to commercial success, followed by the jealousy of English shoemakers,
recriminations, and, eventually, return to Dyfed. After a period of fishing and hunting without dogs, they till the soil in three crofts sown with wheat. This brings a new trouble. The first croft is devastated before Manawydan can bring in a single harvest. On the following night the same fate befalls the second croft. Before he loses the third croft, Manawydan keeps watch on the third night. The culprits are revealed to be an enormous host of mice ravaging the field. Manawydan suddenly grabs one of the tiny creatures and thunders that he will hang this one. Cigfa upbraids him for such trifling behaviour beneath his dignity, but Manawydan answers that he will execute them all if he can catch them. To solemnize the execution, Manawydan takes the mouse to the mound at Arberth the next day. Before the execution begins, three strangers, the first seen in seven years, arrive at the mound. Each one argues that it is unseemly to put to death such an insignificant creature as a mouse. Stepping forward, the first traveller, a shabbily dressed scholar, offers a ransom of one pound. Raising the ante, the second traveller, a priest, puts up three pounds. The grandest of the three, a bishop, offers a ransom of seven pounds. He quickly raises this to twenty-four pounds as well as his own horses and seven loads of baggage and seven horses to pull the loads. All this if only the mouse can be spared. Manawydan refuses to yield, which prompts the bishop to ask what else he could possibly want. The answer is immediate: ‘The release of Rhiannon and Pryderi and the removal of the magic enchantment from the seven
cantrefs
of Dyfed.’
Astoundingly, the bishop agrees to Manawydan’s demands. He will pay any price because the mouse is really his pregnant wife, magically transformed. The ‘bishop’ is actually Llwyd, son of Cil Coed, a friend of Gwawl, whom Pwyll, Pryderi’s father, had humiliated with the game of ‘badger-in-the-bag’ in the first branch. Llwyd and his family have been harassing Dyfed because of the remembered hurt of that episode. The devastation of the crops, the enchantment of Dyfed and the entrapment of Rhiannon and Pryderi are all means of revenge. Contrite now, Llwyd promises never to trouble Dyfed again. Manawydan releases the mouse, who is immediately restored to her natural form as the fairest young woman anyone has ever seen. In return the herds, dwellings and habitations of Dyfed are now again as
good as ever. Rhiannon and Pryderi are released from their servitude, and the two couples live together in happiness.
MATH, SON OF MATHONWY;
MABINOGI
, BRANCH IV
Action in the fourth branch shifts to the north, to Gwynedd, the medieval kingdom often at odds with Dyfed of the south. Featured here are Math, son of Mathonwy, and his niece and nephews, the children of Dôn. More complex and longer than the previous three, the fourth branch combines mythological, magical and human elements. Despite abrupt transitions, this branch is frequently the most appealing to modern readers. Novelistic episodes of intrigue and betrayal are peopled with arresting characters such as the unscrupulous enchanter Gwydion, the adulterous Blodeuedd and the heroic Lieu Llaw Gyffes.
Math reigns in Gwynedd while Pryderi has come to power in Dyfed with portions of allied nearby kingdoms. Vital to Math’s stability on his throne is his participation in a seemingly bizarre custom. Unless he is away for war, he must, when seated, keep his feet in the lap of a chosen virgin, Goewin, who is renowned for her beauty. Why this should be so is never hinted at in the text, but modern commentators have many suggestions. M. J. Green (1993) asserts that Math may represent the survival of a sacral kingship in which the life-force of the land is concentrated in the undissipated and undiluted sexuality of the virgin. Or there may be a parallel with the concept of the ritual marriage between the king and a female incarnation of sovereignty, a personified force of the territory, in order that the land may be prosperous and fertile. The king has no romantic attachment to the footholder. Other members of the court, including Math’s nephews Gilfaethwy and Gwydion, do have their eyes on her. Because he has supernatural powers, Gwydion perceives that Gilfaethwy is smitten with Goewin and so devises a complicated plan to allow his brother to be with his heart’s desire. His scheme turns on a taste for pork. Pigs are new to Wales at this time, and their meat is proclaimed sweeter than beef. Gwydion promises to scout out some of the precious comestible
by taking ten companions and going in disguise as a bard to Dyfed, where Pryderi is raising a herd. Although the delegation charms Pryderi, the Dyfed king is looking for comparable exchange before he will hand over such prized beasts. The enchanter Gwydion at last turns to magic; he ensorcells Pryderi with twelve phantom steeds and twelve phantom hounds and then leaves immediately with the pigs. Next morning when Pryderi realizes he has been defrauded, the two petty kingdoms are at war. Math’s subsequent departure for the battlefield means that he must leave footholder Goewin behind, which allows Gilfaethwy his moment with her. As virtuous as she is lovely, Goewin refuses. He then forces his affection upon her dishonourably. Elsewhere the war ends quickly when Gwydion slays Pryderi in single combat.
The outrage committed on Goewin yields consequences. When she confesses to Math that she is no longer a virgin, the king marries her to spare her further shame. His anger is directed toward his nephews instead. He has them transformed successively into a pair of deer, pigs and wolves. Simultaneously their sexes are changed so that one must be female while the other is male. As stag and hind in their first year they produce the fawn Hyddwn, the second as boar and sow gives Hychdwn Hir [tall piglet], and their third as wolf and bitch, Bleiddwn [wolf cub]. Their three-year punishment ended, the brothers return to human form, cleansed and anointed, to rejoin the court.
So well restored to good graces is Gwydion that he may again advise the court, even on such delicate matters as finding a new virgin footholder. He nominates his own sister, Arianrhod, the daughter of Dôn. Math says he will accept her after she has passed an infallible test of virginity. A magician’s rod is placed on the floor, and she must step across it. Arianrhod agrees but fails spectacularly. As her foot crosses over the rod, a golden-haired infant drops from her womb and gives out a loud cry. In humiliation Arianrhod bolts for the door, dropping another little thing on the way, which Gwydion seizes. The sturdy, golden-haired infant dropped in the test is named Dylan [ocean, wave], and immediately leaves for the sea. In maturity he will be described as dark and will bear the epithet
Eil Ton
[son of wave] and can swim as well as any fish. The cryptic ‘thing’ dropped by Arianrhod as she flees turns out to be another child. Gwydion, the unacknowledged
father of both infants, nurtures this second boy away from prying eyes, until one day he decides to present him to his mother. Arianrhod is furious to see the boy, a reminder of her foiled deception. After scolding Gwydion for bringing him, she rages that she does not want the boy to have a name until she herself decides what would be appropriate. In an attempt to have the mother view the child with more equanimity, Gwydion has him work as a shoemaker, and in that guise he throws a stone with accuracy and skill. Suitably impressed, Arianrhod admiringly calls the stone-thrower Lleu Llaw Gyffes [light/fair one of the sure/steady hand]. Returned to anger when she realizes Lleu’s true identity, she swears that he cannot have weapons until she gives them to him. But she soon has to swallow this threat when her palace appears threatened and she acknowledges that she does indeed have to give Lieu weapons. In a third fit of anger, Arianrhod proclaims that young Lleu cannot have a bride of any race on this earth. Gwydion and Math respond by constructing a wife of fragrant materials: oak, broom and meadowsweet. Her name Blodeuedd [flower face] is appropriately descriptive. She and Lleu are instantly taken with one another and make love on the first night.
The young couple’s wedded bliss is short-lived. They settle in the far
cantref
of Dinoding, where Math and Gwydion help them establish a household. Lleu then returns to Math’s court, leaving Blodeuedd by herself. One day a hunter named Gronw Pebyr stops nearby, and as soon as he and Blodeuedd lay eyes on each other they instantly fall in love. As she did with Lleu, Blodeuedd sleeps with her paramour as soon as she can. Alert to the dangers of their love affair, the adulterers agree that they must murder Lleu before he uncovers their deception. She knows that her husband is nearly invulnerable. Pretending an interest in his safety and welfare, she asks Lleu how he might be killed. Although most weapons are useless against him, Lleu recklessly allows that he can be killed only by a spear made over a year’s duration. Further, the spear must be hurled at him as he is bathing in a special kind of tub and only when one of his feet is touching a billy goat. Complicated as they are, Blodeuedd and her lover meet every one of the demands. Just as Gronw Pebyr is about to run the hero through, Lleu Llaw Gyffes lets out a horrible scream and takes flight in the shape of an eagle. Soon he is out of sight. Gronw Pebyr then shows
himself to be more than a mere adulterer by adding Lleu’s castle and lands to his own property.
News of the adultery and attempted murder weighs heavily on Math and Gwydion. After exhausting effort they track down Lleu in eagle shape. His magic now more benign, Gwydion puts his wand to the eagle and returns Lleu to his familiar human form. The hero is unexpectedly emaciated and weak. Finding the strumpet Blodeuedd as well, Gwydion is harsher. To shame her he turns her into an owl and condemns her never to show her face in light again. Aware of his guilt, Gronw Pebyr offers compensation for the thwarted murder. Lleu thinks it would be appropriate for him to return whatever blow was delivered to him. For his protection, Gronw Pebyr is allowed to hide behind a rock. It is not enough. Lleu’s thrust of the spear is so ferocious that it sunders the rock and pierces the adulterer’s back, ending his tawdry life. Lleu Llaw Gyffes retakes his possessions and rules them successfully. Later he becomes lord of all Gwynedd.
Thus end the four branches of the
Mabinogi
.