Gwydion- Celtic GodDeity"Master of Illusion"

Son of Dôn

Gwydion fab Dôn was a child of the goddess Dôn and brother to Arianrhod and Gilfaethwy, among others of the divine kindred of Gwynedd. He served his uncle Math fab Mathonwy, lord of Gwynedd, who possessed extraordinary powers: Math could hear any whisper carried by the wind across his kingdom and was bound by a geas that in peacetime his feet had to rest in the lap of a virgin or he would die. Gwydion was Math's most gifted nephew, trained in the arts of magic and illusion.

Starting a War

Gwydion's brother Gilfaethwy was consumed with desire for Goewin, the maiden who served as Math's footholder. Since Math never left Goewin's side except in wartime, Gwydion devised a scheme to draw him away. He traveled south to the court of Pryderi, prince of Dyfed, disguised as a wandering bard. The Mabinogi calls him the best storyteller in the world, and that night he delighted Pryderi's entire court with tales beyond anything they had heard. Then he offered a trade: Pryderi's prized pigs, magical swine gifted by Arawn, lord of Annwn, in exchange for twelve stallions with gold-chased saddles and twelve greyhounds with jeweled collars.

Pryderi agreed. The horses and hounds were conjured from mushrooms, and the enchantment lasted only a single day. When the splendid gifts reverted to toadstools and forest litter, Pryderi raised the full host of southern Wales to march on Gwynedd. Math was forced to lead his armies south. Exactly as Gwydion had planned.

Crime and Punishment

While Math was away at war, Gilfaethwy raped Goewin in Math's own bed. Gwydion killed Pryderi in single combat at Maentwrog by "strength and valor and magic and enchantment," ending the war he had provoked. When Math returned and discovered both the rape and the deception, his punishment was terrible.

He transformed the brothers into mated pairs of animals: the first year, Gwydion became a stag and Gilfaethwy a hind, and they produced a fawn. The second year, Gwydion was a sow and Gilfaethwy a boar, and they produced a piglet. The third year, Gwydion was a she-wolf and Gilfaethwy a wolf, and they produced a cub. Each offspring was taken by Math and given human form. After three years of degradation and forced coupling, the brothers were returned to their own shapes.

The Birth of Lleu

With Goewin no longer a virgin, Math needed a new footholder. Gwydion suggested his sister Arianrhod. Math tested her virginity by having her step over his magical wand, and as she crossed it, she gave birth unexpectedly. A golden-haired boy, Dylan, tumbled from her and made for the sea, taking to the water with the nature of a fish. He became Dylan Eil Ton, "Dylan Son of the Wave." But something else fell from Arianrhod, something small and unformed, which Gwydion snatched up before anyone could see it clearly and wrapped in silk. He hid it in a chest at the foot of his bed. Some time later, he heard a cry from the chest and opened it to find a baby boy.

Arianrhod, humiliated by the public exposure, refused to acknowledge this second child. She laid three curses upon him: he would receive no name unless she herself named him, he would bear no arms unless she herself armed him, and he would never marry a woman of any race on earth.

Breaking the Curses

Gwydion devoted years to circumventing his sister's curses. For the first, he disguised himself and the boy as shoemakers and sailed to Arianrhod's island fortress of Caer Arianrhod. While they worked at the ship's side, Gwydion conjured a wren to land on the deck. The boy cast a stone and struck the wren's leg with extraordinary skill. Arianrhod, watching from the castle, exclaimed: "The fair one has a deft hand!" In Welsh: Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Gwydion threw off his disguise and declared the boy named.

For the second curse, Gwydion conjured the illusion of a hostile fleet attacking Caer Arianrhod. In the panic, Arianrhod armed both Gwydion and Lleu from her own armory, not recognizing them. When the phantom ships vanished, Gwydion revealed the trick. Arianrhod had armed her son with her own hands.

The Creation of Blodeuwedd

The third curse required the most ambitious magic. Gwydion and Math together gathered the blossoms of oak, broom, and meadowsweet and from these flowers conjured a woman of surpassing beauty. They called her Blodeuwedd, "Flower-Face," and since she was born of no race on earth, she could lawfully marry Lleu.

But Blodeuwedd had no bond to her assigned husband. When she encountered Gronw Pebr, lord of Penllyn, while Lleu was away, she fell in love. Together they plotted to kill Lleu. Blodeuwedd, feigning concern, extracted from Lleu the conditions under which alone he could be slain: neither indoors nor outdoors, neither riding nor walking, neither clothed nor naked, standing with one foot on a cauldron's rim and the other on the back of a goat, beneath a thatched frame beside a river, struck by a spear forged only during Sunday Mass over the course of a year. Gronw crafted the spear and, when all conditions were met, struck Lleu. He flew away as a wounded eagle.

The Healing of Lleu

Lleu did not die but transformed into an eagle, wounded and wasting away. Gwydion searched all of Gwynedd for his nephew, finally tracking a sow from Math's court to a great oak tree in the valley of Nantlle. In the tree's crown perched a pitiful eagle, its flesh rotting and falling in maggots that the sow fed upon below.

Gwydion sang three englynion, three stanzas of enchantment, each calling the eagle lower. With the first verse, the eagle descended to the middle branches. With the second, it came to the lowest limb. With the third, it alighted on Gwydion's knee. He struck the eagle with his wand, and Lleu was restored to human form, though wasted to skin and bone.

Vengeance and Transformation

Once healed, Lleu marched with Gwydion to exact justice. Gronw Pebr offered gold and silver, but Lleu demanded the same blow Gronw had dealt him. Gronw asked to hold a stone between himself and the spear. Lleu agreed, and his cast pierced straight through the stone and through Gronw, killing him. The stone, with a hole through its center, was said to stand on the bank of the Cynfael river.

Gwydion pursued Blodeuwedd and her maidens through the mountains. Her women, fleeing in terror, looked backward and fell into a lake and drowned. Gwydion overtook Blodeuwedd and told her he would not kill her but would do worse. He transformed her into an owl, condemned to haunt the night, shunned and mobbed by all other birds. In Welsh, the owl is still called blodeuwedd.

Caer Gwydion

The Milky Way is called Caer Gwydion in Welsh, "Gwydion's Fortress." Cassiopeia is Llys Dôn, the Court of Dôn. The Corona Borealis is Caer Arianrhod, the castle of Gwydion's sister. The family of Dôn was mapped across the heavens, their names written in the stars long after the stories that put them there were half-forgotten.