Rhiannon- Celtic GodDeity"Great Queen"

The Appearance at Gorsedd Arberth

Rhiannon first appears in the First Branch of the Mabinogi when Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, takes his seat upon Gorsedd Arberth, a magical mound where whoever sits will either receive a wonder or suffer a blow. While seated there, Pwyll saw a woman clad in gold brocade riding a great pale horse along the road past the mound. He sent a rider after her, but though her horse moved at what seemed a gentle, unhurried pace, the rider could not close the distance no matter how hard he spurred his mount. The next day Pwyll sent his fastest rider on his swiftest horse, and again the mysterious woman remained effortlessly ahead, her horse never appearing to quicken its stride.

On the third day, Pwyll rode out himself and likewise failed to overtake her. At last he called out, asking her to stop. She halted immediately and told him, "I will gladly, and it would have been better for your horse had you asked sooner."

Courtship and Marriage to Pwyll

Rhiannon revealed to Pwyll that she had come seeking him specifically. She was the daughter of Hefeydd the Old, a lord of the Otherworld, and she had been promised against her will to a man named Gwawl fab Clud. Having heard of Pwyll and set her heart on him, she came to offer herself in marriage and to enlist his help in breaking the unwanted betrothal.

She gave Pwyll precise instructions. At the feast celebrating her marriage to Gwawl, Pwyll was to appear disguised as a beggar carrying a small bag. He would ask Gwawl to fill the bag with food, but the bag was enchanted and could never be filled. When Gwawl climbed into the bag to press the food down, Pwyll's men would seize him. The plan succeeded exactly as Rhiannon designed it. Pwyll's warriors trapped Gwawl in the bag and beat it in a rough game they called "Badger in the Bag." Gwawl surrendered his claim to Rhiannon, and she married Pwyll, becoming lady of Dyfed.

The Disappearance of Pryderi

After several years, Rhiannon bore Pwyll a son. On the night of his birth, six women were set to watch over mother and child while Rhiannon slept. All six fell asleep, and when they woke the infant was gone. Terrified of being blamed for their negligence, the women devised a terrible deception. They killed a litter of puppies, smeared their blood on Rhiannon's face and hands, and scattered the bones around her. When she woke, they accused her of having killed and devoured her own child.

Rhiannon protested her innocence, but the testimony of six witnesses against one accused woman proved overwhelming. She offered to do penance rather than face execution. The terms were deliberately humiliating: for seven years, she was to sit beside the horse-block at the gate of Arberth, tell every visitor what she was said to have done, and offer to carry each of them on her back into the court, as a horse carries a rider.

The Recovery of Pryderi

The child had not been killed. He had been taken by a supernatural force connected to an old enmity. That same night, at the farm of Teyrnon Twrf Liant, lord of Gwent Is Coed, a mare that foaled every May Eve lost her foal as she always did to some mysterious predator. This time Teyrnon kept watch and struck at a great clawed arm reaching through the stable window. The arm withdrew, and at the stable door Teyrnon found a newborn infant wrapped in silk.

Teyrnon and his wife raised the boy, who grew with supernatural speed. As the child matured, his resemblance to Pwyll became unmistakable. Teyrnon, hearing of Rhiannon's penance, realized what had happened and brought the boy to Pwyll's court. Rhiannon was restored to honor, and the child was named Pryderi, from the Welsh word for "worry" or "care," for the anguish his disappearance had caused.

The Birds of Rhiannon

In the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, after the disastrous war in Ireland that cost Brân the Blessed his life, the seven survivors carried Brân's severed head to Harlech for a feast of consolation. There, three birds came to sing for them. These were the Birds of Rhiannon, and their song surpassed all other music. Though the birds seemed to sing far out over the sea, their voices sounded as if they were in the room. Their music erased all sorrow and caused the listeners to lose all sense of time. The company feasted at Harlech for seven years under the enchantment of the birds' song before moving to Gwales, where they spent eighty years in timeless contentment.

The Welsh Triads number the Birds of Rhiannon among the wonders of Britain. According to the Triads, the birds could wake the dead and lull the living to sleep.

Marriage to Manawydan and the Enchantment of Dyfed

After Pwyll's death, Pryderi arranged for his mother to marry Manawydan fab Llŷr, the patient and resourceful brother of Brân. The marriage was harmonious, but catastrophe soon struck. While sitting on Gorsedd Arberth, the same mound where Pwyll had first seen Rhiannon, a magical mist descended. When it lifted, every person, house, and animal in Dyfed had vanished, leaving only Rhiannon, Manawydan, Pryderi, and Pryderi's wife Cigfa in a depopulated wasteland.

The four survived by hunting and, later, by practicing crafts in the towns of England. When they returned to Dyfed, Pryderi followed a white boar into a mysterious fortress where he found a golden bowl on a marble fountain. He seized the bowl and was frozen in place, unable to speak or let go. Rhiannon went in after her son and suffered the same fate. Both vanished along with the fortress.

Manawydan eventually discovered that the enchantment had been cast by Llwyd fab Cil Coed, who was avenging the humiliation of Gwawl, the same Gwawl whom Rhiannon had outwitted in the First Branch. By capturing Llwyd's pregnant wife, who had been transformed into a mouse, Manawydan forced Llwyd to release Rhiannon and Pryderi and lift the enchantment from Dyfed. When asked about her captivity, Rhiannon revealed she had been held wearing the halters of donkeys around her neck.