Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/72



The second part of this branch of the Mabinogi deals with Pwyll and Rhiannon, and it contains again three leading motives.

Pwyll and Gwawl;

Rhiannon punished for her supposed killing of her own child; and

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The first motive was originally an independent Mährchen; that the application of this Mährchen to Pwyll and Gwawl was pretty current is proved by the repeated mention of enmities between Pwyll's son Pryderi and Llwyd vab Cil Coet, who endeavours to avenge his friend Gwawl on Pryderi and Rhiannon; even the gware broch yg cot (R.B. 750, W.B. 170 a) is mentioned.

The name of Rhiannon is identical with the name of the Old Celtic Rigantona (name of goddess), but I do not know whether we are right in supposing that our Rhiannon is an ancient goddess; what we know of her from Mabinogi allows only one conclusion ; it is that she is a lady of great magical knowledge, and in this point she does not differ from Gwydyon, about whom the Old Welsh poem says (R.B.; Skene, ii. 302):

This suggests that these mythical personages were merely great magicians, or that even if they possessed a divine power, this power resulted merely from their knowledge of magic.

As to the tale itself, Miss Lucy Paton (Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance, p. 225 n. 5) com-