Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/441

Rh already cited move than once. You will remember how it is there told that Gwydion and his son Lleu assumed the guise of shoemakers, when Gwydion wished to outwit Arianrhod so as to force her to give her disowned son a name. The stratagem proved a success; and the passage tells us that on account of that disguise Gwydion was known as one of the Three Golden Cordwainers of the Isle of Britain; but it does not include his son with him, though he took also an active part in the shoemaking. On the other hand, the triad in question, as it appears in the ordinary lists (i. 77 = ij. 58), excludes Gwydion, the three being Caswaỻon son of Beli, Manawyᵭan son of Llyr, and Lleu respectively. The story about Caswaỻon is lost, but that of Manawyᵭan is detailed in the Mabinogi that goes by his name. Probably nothing but the restricted nature of the triad is responsible for the fact that Gwydion and Lleu are not both included; and it is hard to avoid supposing that the father and the son were the Lugoves of the inscription at Osma, as that supposition would explain their association with the cobblers. This, however, raises the question how, in case the name Lug and Lleu have been rightly explained by us, the father and the son could have been called Lugoves, a word which should, according to the view expressed, have meant lights or luminaries. There was probably an inconsistency underlying this use of that term; but how small it practically was will be readily seen when it is considered that Gwydion as the benefactor of man stood in somewhat the same relation to the sun as did Indra in Hindu mythology, which represents the latter daily recovering the sun for mortals: the Norsemen made the relationship a still closer one, for in one of their stories they