#mabinogion

[spacerangersam]

A fair few of the women in Welsh are the daughters/sisters of giants, ie Branwen, Olwen and Guinevere, or otherwise strange, sometimes immortal, inhuman beings, like Rhiannon and Arianrhod, and I think that means in adaptations, they deserve to be tall. Taller than the mortal men they take, or are forced to take, as husbands, towering other folks as they walk through a village or face their subjects, taller than the tallest man in the court. Let them visibly stick out as otherworldly! As magical beings!

I'd say the only exception should probably be Blodeuwedd, who I think Gwydion would purposely make to be smaller than her husband because he's lame.

[enchantedbook]

'Tales from the Mabinogion' by Gwyn Thomas & Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Margaret Jones.

[invisible-goats]

Just to say Ynys Môn, my book about Arthurian/Mabinogi characters reincarnated on modern-day Anglesey by an immortal Myrddin as a bunch of somewhat aimless 18 year olds, is now available a bunch of non-Amazon places! Thanks Draft2Digital! (It's also still available as a physical book on Amazon, though the price has changed because otherwise there would be basically no royalties). Publishing through them also means you can request your local bookshop or library stock it

Available now at your favorite digital store!

Ynys Môn by Liz Blake, Nick Blake

For those who are interested in that sort of thing, the main trio are all some flavour of queer (bi, nonbinary, aro)

[ladyvictoriart]

Lleu Llaw Gyffes, a powerful Welsh warrior, was cursed by his mother Arianrhod to never have a human wife. Gwydion, his father, and Math, his great-uncle, counteracted this curse by creating a wife, Blodeuwedd, from the flowers of the forest.

[wildbasil]

sorry guys he's really not feeling up to it this year 😔 (his annual "until judgement day" battle with gwythyr)

but fear not! another competitor appears!

happy may day!🥳

[gingersnaptaff]

Welsh myth misconceptions (mythconceptions, wahey!)

This isn't me trying to yuck on anybody's yum, btw.

Agronā isn't a real goddess. She's made up. She has no factual basis and she was never worshipped. The Mabinogion does not mention her, and she was basically a hypothetical some dude made up to happy to the River Ayr because in the 1920's Scottish Nationalists were trying to claim Taliesin's battle poems for Scotland (as in being set there.)

Gwenhwyfar isn't a goddess and I think it's been taken out of proportion a lil because of Arthur having three wives all named Gwenhwyfar. Guy probably just really loved the name or was like 'guess I'd better marry a lady who has the exact same name so I don't have to learn another one' which is exactly the behaviour I'd expect from a guy who wanted to re-kidnap an already kidnapped princess for himself. She's probably cognate with Findabair in Irish myth tbh. She is very much a Cewri and maaaaybe had some myths ascribed to her that have been lost like, you know, 99% of Welsh mythology's lads and lasses.

I have fallen into this trap, but there's no evidence that Lleu Llaw Gyffes is the god of kingship other than him having a name that sounds like Lugh. I would not trust the guy with a wife made out of flowers to rule a kingdom. It goes very badly for him when he tries. He never even gets an heir. Like idk what to tell you.

For what it's worth, Branwen and Creiddylad weren't venerated as goddesses. I have seen websites say they were but that's a big old nope.

Madog ap Owain Gwynedd never discovered America. The Tudors made him up sonthey could lay claim to it as being part of their 'ancestral land'.

Pls don't take The White Goddess by Robert Graves as fact. Man was using outdated sources at the time to satisfy his own version of what he believed Celtic Mythology was and many of his proposed theories are false tbh. If you're looking for a guy who knows his shit can I suggest either Barry Cunliffe or Ronald Hutton?

Okay, these are some lil bits. There's probably more but yeah.

[mabinogiongame]

In 1838 Lady Charlotte Guest published her translation of "The Lady of the Fountain", one of the earliest Arthurian legends. Between 1838 and 1845, she published seven further volumes of medieval Welsh folklore, mythology, and other tales, in what became the very first English language edition of The Mabinogion.

[birdsofrhiannon]