Blodeuwedd- Celtic GodDeity

Created from Flowers

Blodeuwedd was conjured into existence by the magicians Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion from the blossoms of oak, broom, and meadowsweet. She was made to be a wife for Lleu Llaw Gyffes, upon whom his mother Arianrhod had laid a curse that he could never marry any woman of any race then on earth. A woman fashioned from flowers belonged to no race, and so the curse was circumvented. Blodeuwedd's name meant Flower Face. She and Lleu wed, and he brought her to his lands in Ardudwy.

The Betrayal

While Lleu was away visiting Math, a stag hunt led by Gronw Pebr, Lord of Penllyn, passed near Blodeuwedd's hall. She offered Gronw hospitality, and by the end of the first night they were lovers. Together they plotted Lleu's death. Blodeuwedd drew from Lleu the secret of the impossible conditions under which alone he could be slain: standing with one foot on a bathtub and the other on a goat's back, beneath a thatched frame on a riverbank, struck by a spear worked for a year only during Sunday masses. Gronw forged the spear over the course of a year, and Blodeuwedd persuaded Lleu to demonstrate the fatal position, claiming she wished to understand how to protect him. As he stood exposed, Gronw rose from concealment and hurled the spear. Lleu screamed, transformed into an eagle, and flew away.

The Owl

Gwydion tracked the wounded eagle by following a sow that fed beneath the oak tree where Lleu perched. He restored his nephew to health through magic and song, and Lleu took his revenge on Gronw, casting a spear that pierced both a stone shield and the man behind it. Blodeuwedd fled with her maidens, but Gwydion overtook them. The maidens drowned in a lake called Llyn Morwynion ever after, but Blodeuwedd he would not kill. He transformed her into an owl, a creature that dares not show its face in daylight and is mobbed by all other birds. He declared that she would not lose her name but would always be called Blodeuwedd, and in Welsh, the owl bears her name to this day.