Only a few more weeks to spring
Welcome Fellow Nerds, Book Geeks and Tarot Lovers
FYI: TRIVIUM RESEARCH TIDBITS ON CELTIC MYTH
Once a month, I'll focus on a topic in Celtic Myth that gives my Trivium World authenticity and depth. Do read the novel beforehand. All FYI sections contain SPOILERS.
The Mabinogion: Focus for winter 2021
What is the Mabinogion?
The title of this work, The Mabinogion, is the plural form of the word Mabinogi. A Mabinogi was a story that was one in a collection of stories that each bard must learn by heart as part of his training. Mab means boy or boyhood. Each memorized Mabinogi, then, was a story relating to the growth of a hero's legend added to the bard's repertoire.
The Mabinogion, then, is a collection of such stories, that were first written down in the 12th and 13th centuries and then made available to English readers by Lady Charlotte Guest who collected and translated the stories from Medieval Welsh circa 1850. The collection consists of four branches that comprise the oldest known Welsh mythological saga.
The Fourth Branch introduces the characters, Gwydion, Math and Blodeuwedd, intrinsic to the backstory of Trivium: the Lovers.
The Celtic Connection: Focus for Fall 2020
How Does the Legend of Gwydion and Blodeuwedd Impact Trivium: The Lovers?
Once Billie associates Finn and his Gwyddien roots with the Welsh magician, Gwydion from the Mabingion, she sees Blodeuwedd's legend as a metaphor for her life.
The Legend's Players
Blodeuwedd is called by many names, ranging from good to bad: Flower Face… Spring Maiden… May Bride… Adulterer… Husband Betrayer… Night-Exiled Owl… Night Hunter… Forever Damned.
Not born of flesh, she is the result of an incantation utilizing oak, broom, and meadowsweet flowers. The magicians Gwydion and Math conjured her into being with one sole purpose: to be the wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, son of the goddess, Arianrhod. Her creation strengthens Lleu's eligibility for kingship.
Gwydion
According to a collection of pagan tales compiled in the 13th or 14th century AD and called the Mabinogi, Math ap Mathony is the lord of Gwynedd, Wales. He is a powerful magician, but he is unable to function unless his feet rest in the lap of a maiden, the exception being only during campaigns of war. His footholder's name is Goewin, a beautiful maid with a pristine reputation. Math's nephew Gilvaethwy falls in love with her at first sight and he asks his brother, the magician, Gwydion, to aid him in his quest for love. Gwydion instigates a war between Math and the lord of South Wales, Pryderi ap Pwyll. Math must physically intervene, leaving Goewin unprotected. In Math's absence, Gilvaethwy rapes the poor maid and when Math returns, he punishes his nephews and saves Goewin's honor by marrying her. Using his magical arts, he changes the brothers into three different animal pairs, one for each of the three years of their punishment. After the three years pass, he restores Gwydion to human form and petitions Gwydion's assistance in finding a new virgin footholder to take Goewin's place. Gwydion suggests his sister Arianrhod.
Arianrhod
Arianrhod's name means 'silver wheel' which suggests she is a goddess in her own right--perhaps a goddess of the moon. When she arrives at Math's court and Math asks her if she is a maiden, she answers cryptically. "I know not, Lord, other than that I am." Math tests her virginity by commanding her to step over his magic wand. When she complies, two things drop from her body: a full grown baby that crawls toward the sea, becoming Dylan of the Waves and a small thing that Gwydion snatches up and sequesters in a blanket chest he keeps at the foot of his bed. An embarrassed and disgraced Arianrhod flees the court. When Gwydion inspects the object he put into his chest, he discovers a grown baby--a magical being that grows more rapidly than a normal child.
Lleu Llaw Gyffes
Gwydion brings the boy to Arianrhod, but still smarting from her experience at Math's court, she becomes angry and lays a curse or tynged upon the child: she forbids the boy to have a name until she herself names him. A battle of wits commences, and Gwydion tricks her with his shapeshifting magic, forcing her to name the boy Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Arianrhod retaliates by cursing the boy again with the words: "You will bear no arms until I arm you." Again Gwydion fools her into doing what she wishes not to do and, infuriated, Arianrhod curses Lleu one last time: he will never have a wife of the human race. This is a great blow for Lleu; without a wife, he can never come into his own as a man, nor ever take his place as ruler without the ability to sire an heir.
Blodeuwedd
Gwydion explains to Math what Arianrhod has done and together they derive a plan to foil her best efforts. They find a loophole in Arianrhod's words, deciding Lley Llaw Gyffes may have a wife as long as she isn't human.
"They took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet, and from those they conjured up the fairest and most beautiful maiden that anyone had ever seen. And they baptised her, and gave her the name Blodeuwedd." (From Sioned Davies, "The Mabinogion" New York, Oxford University Press, 2007)
The Story's Outcome
Lleu and Blodeuwedd married and Lleu became a king.
Only Blodeuwedd does not live happily-ever-after like an ordinary princess of legend. Gwydion and Math do not take into account that once they form Blodeuwedd as a maiden, she automatically becomes a maiden possessing a maiden's heart, despite her unorthodox origins.
If only she could love Lleu.
But, she does not.
Not even the great magicians, Math and Gwydion, can force Blodeuwedd's heart to love the man they chose as her husband. Resentful of Lleu's ownership, her heart seeks fulfillment in another.
Truly Lleu does love Blodeuwedd's perfect body, her beauty is incomparable, but he isn't interested in her thoughts and often leaves their home on campaigns to rid himself of her company. In her loneliness, Blodeuwedd wanders often into their apple orchard to sit among the flowers that contributed to her essence.
Enter Gronw.
One day, Gronw Pebyr, the lord of Penllyn goes hunting; it grows late when he happens upon Lleu Llaw Gyffes' household. Blodeuwedd, hearing his hunting horn, offers him hospitality. Together they sit outdoors and talk of many things. Gronw's attentiveness is unexpected, his kindness a rare treat. Soon, the pair falls in love and can not bear to part from one another.
They derive a plan to dispose of Lleu. As a special being, there in only one circumstance in which Lleu can die. He can only be slain by a wound. The striking spear must take a year to create. He can not be slain inside a house or on horseback or on foot. The oddest circumstance and timing is necessary for Lleu's demise: at dusk, he must stand on the rim of a cauldron on one foot while his other foot rests on a buck's back.
Gronw began to carve the required spear. Twelve months later, Gronw anticipates hurling the weapon at Blodeuwedd's husband.
By drawing Lleu a bath by a riverbank, Blodeuwedd manages to fulfill each of the parameters necessary to enact Lleu's death. As Lleu lifts himself from the bath, he places one foot on the tub's rim and the other on the back of a buck. Gronw jumps out of hiding and thrusts the spear at Lleu, striking him on the side. Lleu transforms into an eagle; after screaming in pain, the eagle flies away.
Aware that Gronw and Blodeuwedd are now living together, Gwydion sets out to find his nephew. A sow leads him to an oak tree where a wounded eagle sits and nurses its vermin-ridden flesh. Gwydion sings the eagle off the tree, coaxing it into his lap. A touch of his magic wand returns Lleu to his human form. The resurrected Lleu is brought back to Gwynedd and once Math's doctors heal him, he wants only retribution.
The Flower Maiden Becomes Blodeuwedd, the Owl
An army sets off to storm Ardudwy where Blodeuwedd and Gronw live. Blodeuwedd flees to the mountains with her maidens before the army arrives. In their haste, the maidens drown, and only Blodeuwedd remains. Eventually, Gwydion overtakes her, but rather than kill her, he decides to punish her by turning her into a nocturnal bird, feared by all other birds and never seen in the light of day. From that day forth, the owl name Blodeuwedd becomes synonomous with owl.
When Gwydion transforms Blodeuwedd into a nocturnal bird, he banishs her from the presence of the sun. Lleu Llaw Gyffes is a solar spirit in this sense. Gwydion dictates that the natures of both Blodeuwedd and Arianrhod (whose names means Silver Wheel) evoke the mysteries of the night and hence, belong together.
Gronw's Death
Once captured, Gronw asks to be killed in a manner fitting his crime. Lleu decides to thrust a spear at him but, he was tricked by a woman, Gronw asks if he can put a rock slab between him and Lleu as an extra layer of protection. Lleu agrees. When he releases the spear, it strikes the rock, pierces it and hits Gronw in the back. He dies and Lleu Llaw Gyffes again takes possession of his land, governing it for many years.
How Does Blodeuwedd Relate to Billie?
Billie approaches the Blodeuwedd archetype as a symbolic journey summarizing her own life.
Consider Blodeuwedd as a magical creature, the agency surrounding her origin is nothing short of an incantation. She embodies the essence of the perfect wife and partner, custom-made for Lleu Llaw Gyffes by his indulgent uncles. As a wife, Blodeuwedd remains a silent observer, not exactly a participant--her passion remains incumbent. True passion flares only after meeting Gronw. It is then she truly flowers as a woman in a spiritual, physical and mental sense. And yet, for this transformation, she is punished--exiled to the realm of night as a feared predator.
Doesn't Blodeuwedd reflect the secondary nature every woman is forced to accept? Is she innocent--or is she a product of expectations--marginalized--forced to live within a limiting situation where she must commit adultery to ignite the spirit buried inside her soul?
Does Blodeuwedd perceive herself as tainted? Does she consider her actions wrong? Or is she a heroine who sees the writing on the wall, who takes that risk despite the probable disaster to fulfill the need overflowing from her soul?
Billie Desanges possesses a complicated nature. She represses memories to better accept her current situation. When she transforms and accepts her nature--a nature that is both prim and sexual, will she become an owl--limited to dark passages where no one can condemn her for what they cannot see, or will she hide within the flower-maiden role, doing what is expected and pretending all is right?
Is Finn her Gronw? Or is it Christian?
Although many interpret the Blodeuwedd myth as a sexual awakening, Billie is a modern amalgam. She accepts her sexuality and enjoys her sexuality on whim.
