- Mythology and the Oral Tradition: Wales -
magical birds of Rhiannon sing to the company at Harlech, while Gwales is a time-
less land where the sorrows of the mortal world are forgotten (a common theme in
Celtic literature). There is also a taboo connected with life there - in Branwen the
enchantment will be destroyed once a certain door is opened (Gruffydd 1958). In
Irish literature the Otherworld was often perceived as an island or group of islands
in the sea (Mac Cana 1983: 122-31); other times it was a land beneath the earth,
compare the Welsh Annwfn (from an (in/under) + dwfn (world)). At the turn of this
century a tale was recorded by John RhY's (1901: 158-60) concerning Plant Rhys
Ddwfn (The Children of Rhys Ddwfn), a corruption it would seem of Plant yr
Is-Ddwfn (The Children of the Underworld). According to the tale these fairies
inhabited an island off the coast of Dyfed. This is also the location of Gwales
(Grassholm Island) in the tale of Branwen where the Otherworld feasting takes
place. In the Pembroke County Guardian of 1896 Captain John Evans claimed to
have seen a 'floating island' just off Grassholm, while according to the Cambrian
Superstitions (1831), the people of Milford Haven believed that the off-shore islands
were populated with fairies. Therefore, over the centuries, the belief has survived that
Gwales and its neighbouring islands were places of magic and enchantment, thus
linking the eleventh century with the twentieth.
Manawydan is the brother of Branwen and the central figure of the third branch.
Pryderi gives his mother, Rhiannon, as wife to Manawydan. An enchantment falls on
Dyfed, Pryderi and his mother disappear in a magic fort, but Manawydan succeeds
in freeing them by capturing the wife of Llwyd, the magician who has placed the
enchantment on Dyfed. Manawydan may be the Welsh equivalent of the Irish sea-
god Manannan son of Lir (Mac Cana 1983: 78-80). However, there is no connection
between him and the sea in Welsh tradition. The enchantment falls on Dyfed while
the characters are seated on Gorsedd Arberth (The Mound at Arberth). It is from the
same spot that Pwyll sees Rhiannon, having first been warned of the peculiarity of
the mound:
whatever high-born man sits upon it will not go thence without one of two
things: wounds or blows, or else his seeing a wonder.
Gones and Jones 1976 : 9)
This reflects the dual nature of the Otherworld - Pwyll sees a wonder, but
Manawydan and his companions are less fortunate. The mound, therefore, serves as
a marker between two worlds in the Four Branches as, indeed, does the colour white.
Rhiannon first appears mounted on a white horse; Arawn's dogs are shining white
with red ears; Pryderi's dogs are lured into the Otherworld fortress of the third
branch by a shining white boar. Once inside the fortress, Pryderi is transfixed by a
fountain and 'a golden bowl fastened to four chains ... and the chains ascending into
the air, and he could see no end to them' Gones and Jones 1976: 46). His hands stick
to the bowl and he loses his power of speech (compare the effect of the cauldron in
Branwen). Shape-shifting also occurs in this third branch - Llwyd transforms his
war-band and subsequently the ladies of his court into mice so that they may destroy
Manawydan's corn.
Metamorphosis is most apparent in the fourth branch which tells of the family of
Don, the equivalent perhaps of the Irish Tuatha De Danann (Mac Cana 1983: 78).