Magnificent Mabinogi: Goddesses & Gods

Shân Morgain

Gods and Goddesses veil in ancient mystery yet if we look and look again, they are there. Or are they? Now you see now you don’t, the Celtic way.

They help with parking spaces, coping with flu, making decisions about money. They bounce off our drums in the fiery sparking of festivals. We’re dancing the old paths – aren’t we?

Free spirit

Now, the Celtic spirit is a free spirit never bound by the tight tidiness of a Greek, Roman pantheon. Ours are keepers of every small place in life, a vast web of clasped hands.

Archaeologists like Miranda Green (1989) tell us there are hundreds of deity names surviving in inscriptions. Almost all are very local to tree, pool or mound like Gorsedd Arberth. We leave notes and ribbons for them, our athrylith y lle/ genius loci ‘spirit of the place’.

Epona and Lugh (Lleu) are the only ones commanding big territory. Epona travelled far and wide with her elite Roman cavalry, marchogion Celtic/ Gaulish nobles. Anwyl ((1906) told us Epona was ancestor to our Rhiannon, peaceful riders, Mothers, ambling beside us. Unreachable but very near.

Epona often carries a patera, dish for food. Rhiannon organises great feasts and rides the cylch circuit to gather food supplies. Paleolithic figurines I muse, were probably about human fertility but just as important fat with abundant food. For food is our central urgent necessity.

In my research into these myths the most startling discovery was the close affinity between my mistress Rhiannon – and Inanna. Not shocked? That’s a 3,500 years gap and 4,500 miles. Sumer, Enheduanna, the first named author on record. For a local girl like Rhiannon that’s a big stretch.

There’s also Athena, lots of connections with her hero Perseus, starting from his vital safety bag for Medusa’s head, then the winged horse born of her dying blood. They locate along the Western shore of Europe ‘beyond the pillars of Hercules’, on our trade route.

Rhiannon would be good for money advice, for she keenly guards her wealth. She didn’t want to pay compensation to Gwawl when she dumped him, so recruited warrior prince Pwyll to aid her. They could be patrons of couples for they have a long happy marriage.

Rhiannon/ Epona is Great Mother, and Horse Goddess of ambition. Evangeline Walton gives her as the endlessly caring bodhisattva, returning again and again to Earth to help us.

Gwri Gwallt Euryn seems the eternal Golden Boy, the Mabon son. Where is the Divine Daughter? For her we have to look at little girl Rhiannon growing up with her loving father Hyfaidd. (I have theorised them in Powys where the great horses were bred.)

Ah but today we don’t always marry or couple to have a child. Many more women are using IVF to go it alone. Some have no choice due to deadbeat men. Arianrhod understands that, going her own independent way, walking her shining path in the night sky..

Arianrhod understands abuse. Men humiliated her, forced her to birth in public. Perhaps now Gisèle Pelicot has smashed open the gates of shame – “Not ours, theirs”, change can come at last.
Branwen endured blows every day, and like victims today died when she tried to leave. Perhaps she can rise once again in strength and splendour as the prif rieni she is.

Let us not forget protective Pwyll, who loved loyally through all reversals. Pryderi too was loving and loyal to his mother finding her a good husband in his best friend.

Manawydan though, is not himself divine – that Manannàn link is a snare and delusion. Manannàn nasty, Manawydan patient and good, if a little slow to get going. Demeter blighted the land in anger, like the Desolation of Dyfed.

I thrill to great King Bendigeidfran, even though he tangled my English tongue for many years. What greater loyalty to his people (us) than to live on and on, a mighty protective Head buried in London, cheerfully doing his job making us safe.
Arthur centuries later, you were a brat to dig him up. Sheer jealousy of the greater hero.

Is silly Blodeuedd among the divine? Margaret Lloyd listens to her dreaming of her former green life. Owls are mighty hunters and some say she was happier as an owl, turning her head right round to see all sides of the question.

No Goddess no God

Ah but in the Mabinogi there is not a single reference to Goddess or God. Not one. No one goes to temple, prays, holds rites. Weddings and baptisms are merely public events of witness.

People do call ‘y rof a Duw’/ ‘For God;s sake’ but this seems to simply urge how serious their words are. (Heather Rose Jones’ translation, 2003) As for Gwydion’s dressing up as priest and bishop, that’s just any old hierarchy, or perhaps an Anglo-Norman leak.

The Mabinogi is a strongly secular literature. Are you fed up with me banging on about this, its intricate literature? My apologies but many people are stuck on ‘Celtic Mythology’ and can’t open up to the native Welsh tradition of the Cymru.

‘Celtic Mythology’

It’s so political. It was generated by the snobs of the British Empire, 19thC colonisers, boots on necks across the world. Then they found the natives curious, interesting, so studied their funny habits. ‘Celtic’ was about a failed, dead people.

19thC Matthew Arnold (English) loved ancient Welsh poetry. But he declared the Celtic cyfarwydidd/ storytellers knew nothing of their own tales. These were myths stoopid.

Nowadays we have what Simon Rodway calls the Hollywood Celt. John Davies spits outrage that our native gods are sold back to us in feathers all bollixed up by the New Age.

Be careful of the Old Ones, Tylwyth, the Beautifuls. Yes you can laugh with them, feast with them, sing and make merry. Snuggle into their comfort. Ride the night hunt. Never forget they are among us – but Other. The Hunt can turn on you.

NEVER try to bargain because they’ll rip you apart. Speak so-o carefully. Manners are a very important matter here among the Cymru.

Both

Ah well, let us back off from the heat of the argument, literature or myth. The Mabinogi is a wonderful literature of genius AND also known worldwide for its myths and divinities. It pioneered as secular, but the Old Ones cannot be denied for long.

When the end comes they stand ready. Gentle Epona/ Rhiannon carries you away on her back. Brave Bendigeidfran embraces you, with chuckles. The golden children call you, sliding down the sunbeams jumping the starlight.

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Shân Morgain. 2015. ‘Map of Goddess Myths’. Inanna, Isis, Greek deities, Isianism and Epona spread through the Roman Empire. Celtic.
On sea routes: John Davies, yacht transat, naval history researcher, advises a good ship would average 100 miles in 24 hours, allowing for variations in tide and weather (a little over 4 knots average; 6 or 7 knots is possible in a favourable wind, but periods when no progress was made at all). Speed relies on waterline length; longer boats go faster; so a ship of 40 or 50 feet WL would be able to rely on about 100 miles a day. Contrast horseback 20 miles in a day, then stop overnight, if lucky in fairly clear country.

Scholars referenced in this series can be found in my Mabinogi Bibliography; dates given above should be adequate to identify specifics. Questions or comments are always welcome; contact me via LinkedIn or Academia.edu

‘The Magnificent Mabinogi’ title was first used by the playwright director Manon Eames for her famous staging, Aberystwyth Arts 2008; used here with her permission.

‘Magnificent Mabinogi’ series. 1) Genius 2) Stories 3) Howlers 4) Canon & Construction 5) Places of power 6) Myth/ Literature? 7) Politics 8) Everyday life 9) the Women 10) Goddesses and Gods (above) Trusty slave takes time off till Winter Solstive then returns with ‘Rhiannon Sun Goddess’.