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Hefeydd
In ''Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed'', the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, first branch of the ''Mabinogi'', Hefeydd Hen (or Heyfedd the Old) was the father of Rhiannon. Hefeydd Hen, according to legend, tried to force his daughter Rhiannon to be married against her will to Gwawl. She met Pwyll of Dyfed and fell in love, planning to marry in one year and one day at his court on his estate. In accordance with the plan, they tried to marry but were thwarted by Clud and his son Gwawl. They put the wedding off for a further year. Pwyll and Rhiannon then went to Hefeydd's court; he dressed as a beggar, asking for food. By a trick, Gwawl was captured and killed and Hefeydd was forced to allow Rhiannon to marry Pwyll in his court and then let her to return to Arberth. Heyfedd Hir (''Hir'' meaning "long" in Welsh, but also referring to distance in time), is mentioned as one of the Seven Knights left to take charge of the Island of Britain when Bran went to rescue his sister in the Branwen ferch Llŷr, ...
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Four Branches Of The Mabinogi
The ''Four Branches of the Mabinogi'' or ''Pedair Cainc Y Mabinogi'' are the earliest prose stories in the literature of Britain. Originally written in Wales in Middle Welsh, but widely available in translations, the ''Mabinogi'' is generally agreed to be a single work in four parts, or "branches." The interrelated tales can be read as mythology, political themes, romances, or magical fantasies. They appeal to a wide range of readers, from young children to the most sophisticated adult. The tales are popular today in book format, as storytelling or theatre performances; they appear in recordings and on film, and continue to inspire many reinterpretations in artwork and modern fiction. Overview The ''Mabinogi'' are known as the ''Four Branches of the Mabinogi'', or ''Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi'' in Welsh. The tales were compiled from oral tradition in the 11th century. They survived in private family libraries via medieval manuscripts, of which two main versions and some fragments stil ...
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Rhiannon
Rhiannon is a major figure in the Mabinogi, the medieval Welsh story collection. She appears mainly in the First Branch of the Mabinogi, and again in the Third Branch. She is a strong-minded Otherworld woman, who chooses Pwyll, prince of Dyfed (west Wales), as her consort, in preference to another man to whom she has already been betrothed. She is intelligent, politically strategic, beautiful, and famed for her wealth and generosity. With Pwyll she has a son, the hero Pryderi, who later inherits the lordship of Dyfed. She endures tragedy when her newborn child is abducted, and she is accused of infanticide. As a widow she marries Manawydan of the British royal family, and has further adventures involving enchantments. Like some other figures of British/Welsh literary tradition, Rhiannon may be a reflection of an earlier Celtic deity. Her name appears to derive from the reconstructed Brittonic form *''Rīgantonā'', a derivative of *''rīgan-'' "queen". In the First Branch of ...
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Gwawl
In Welsh mythology, Gwawl (Gwawl fab Clud) was the son of Clud, and tricks Pwyll into promising him Rhiannon. She decides to marry Pwyll instead. Nothing is known of his father Clud. Gwawl, son of Clud, is initially mentioned in the first of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, when Rhiannon tells Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed Dyfed () is a preserved county in southwestern Wales. It is a mostly rural area with a coastline on the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel. Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed was also the name of the area's county council and the name remains in use f ..., who wishes to marry her, that she is intended for Gwawl. Rhiannon and Pwyll form a plan to free her from her forced marriage to Gwawl and make arrangements for their own marriage in a year's time. The year passes and it is assumed, if not mentioned, that Gwawl has heard of Rhiannon's pending marriage to Pwyll and has had sufficient time to create a plan so he can marry Rhiannon himself. During the wedding feast at the ...
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Pwyll
Pwyll Pen Annwn () is a prominent figure in Welsh mythology and literature, the lord of Dyfed, husband of Rhiannon and father of the hero Pryderi. Meaning ''wisdom" he is the eponymous hero of Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed, the first branch of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, and also appears briefly as a member of Arthur's court in the medieval tale ''Culhwch ac Olwen''. ''Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed'' also carries many similarities to the Mabinogi Branwen. Origin of ''Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed'' This tale is one of a group found in ''The Mabinogion'', one of the earliest known efforts to form a collection of traditional Welsh tales. Such tales, which date back to circa 1325 C.E., were originally passed from person to person and generation to generation orally. The Celtic oral tradition lasted for several centuries and is a possible reason for the abundance of errors and discrepancies found in ''The Mabinogion'' as well as other Welsh literature dating back to the fourteenth century or earli ...
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Dyfed
Dyfed () is a preserved county in southwestern Wales. It is a mostly rural area with a coastline on the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel. Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed was also the name of the area's county council and the name remains in use for certain ceremonial and other purposes. History Dyfed is a preserved county of Wales. It was originally created as an administrative county council on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, and covered approximately the same geographic extent as the ancient Principality of Deheubarth, although excluding the Gower Peninsula and the area west of the River Tawe. The choice of the name ''Dyfed'' was based on the historic name given to the region once settled by the Irish Déisi and today known as Pembrokeshire. The historic Dyfed never included Ceredigion and only briefly included Carmarthenshire. Modern Dyfed was formed from the administrative counties which corresponded to the ancient counties of Cardiganshire, Car ...
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Arberth
Narberth ( cy, Arberth) is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was founded around a Welsh court and later became a Norman stronghold on the Landsker Line. It became the headquarters of the hundred of Narberth. It was once a marcher borough. George Owen described it in 1603 as one of nine Pembrokeshire "boroughs in decay". In 2011, the population was 2,150, of which a third are Welsh-speaking. Narberth is close to the A40 trunk road and is on the A478. Narberth railway station is on the main line from Swansea. The community includes the village of Crinow. Etymology The Welsh name of the town, ', is a compound of ' "on, against" + ' "hedge" (cf. Perth in Scotland). The phrase ' "in Narberth" was rebracketed when borrowed into English, giving the present-day English name, Narberth. History In the Iron Age, there was a defended enclosure to the south of the current town centre on Camp Hill. Narberth was founded around a Welsh court, but later becam ...
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Branwen Ferch Llŷr
; "Branwen, daughter of Llŷr" is a legendary tale from medieval Welsh literature and the second of the four branches of the Mabinogi. It concerns the children of Llŷr; Bendigeidfran (literally "Brân the Blessed"), high king of Britain, and his siblings Manawydan and Branwen, and deals with the latter's marriage to Matholwch, king of Ireland. Matholwch's mistreatment of the British princess leads to a mutually destructive war between the two islands, the deaths of most of the principal characters, and the ascension of Caswallon fab Beli to the British throne. Along with the other branches, the tale can be found in the medieval Red Book of Hergest and White Book of Rhydderch. It is followed directly by the third branch, ''Manawydan fab Llŷr''. It has been suggested that the tale derives in part from the third-century BC Gallic invasion of the Balkans, identifying Brân with the Gallic chieftain Brennus. Nikolai Tolstoy has suggested that the present version of the legend may ...
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Y Gododdin
''Y Gododdin'' () is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a place named '' Catraeth'' in about AD 600. It is traditionally ascribed to the bard Aneirin and survives only in one manuscript, the ''Book of Aneirin''. The ''Book of Aneirin'' manuscript is from the later 13th century, but ''Y Gododdin'' has been dated to between the 7th and the early 11th centuries. The text is partly written in Middle Welsh orthography and partly in Old Welsh. The early date would place its oral composition soon after the battle, presumably in the ''Hen Ogledd'' ("Old North"); as such it would have originated in the Cumbric dialect of Common Brittonic.Elliott (2005), p. 583. Others consider it the work of a poet from Wales in the 9th, 10th, or 11th century. Even a 9th-century date would make it one of the oldest survivi ...
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Welsh Mythology
Welsh mythology (Welsh: ''Mytholeg Cymru'') consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Celtic mythology and history were recorded orally by specialists such as druids ( cy, derwyddon). This oral record has been lost or altered as a result of outside contact and invasion over the years. Much of this altered mythology and history is preserved in medieval Welsh manuscripts, which include the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin. Other works connected to Welsh mythology include the ninth-century Latin historical compilation ''Historia Brittonum'' ("History of the Britons") and Geoffrey of Monmouth's twelfth-century Latin chronicle ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' ("History of the Kings of Britain"), as well as later folklore, such as the materials collected in ''The Welsh Fa ...
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