The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales by university

Author:university [university]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Three sons of wicked Gilfaethwy,

Three true champions.

Bleiddwn, Hyddwn and Hychdwn Hir.

Saying that, he struck the two of them so that they returned to their own shape.

“Men,” he said, “if you have done me wrong, I have punished you enough, and you have had great shame; each of you bearing the other’s child. Have these men bathed and their heads washed, and have them properly dressed.”

And that was done. After they had been properly arrayed, they went to him.

“Men,” he said, “you got peace, and you shall have friendship. Now give me advice on the sort of maiden I should seek.”

“Lord,” said Gwydion son of Dôn, “it is easy to advise you: your niece Aranrhod daughter of Dôn, your sister’s daughter.”

She was summoned to him, and came in.

“Maiden,” he said, “are you a maiden?”

“I do not know other than that I am.”

Then he took his magician’s rod and held it down low.

“Step across this,” he said, “and if you are a maiden, I will know it.”

She stepped over the rod then, and as she did she dropped a big, fine, yellow-haired boy. What the boy did was to utter a loud cry. After the boy’s cry, she made for the door, dropping as she went some little thing from her. Before anyone could have a second glance at it, Gwydion took it, wrapped a brocaded silk coverlet around it and hid it. Where he hid it was in a small chest at the foot of his bed.

“Well,” said Math son of Mathonwy, “I will have this one baptized,” he said, looking at the sturdy yellow-haired boy. “The name I will give him is Dylan.”

The boy was baptized, and as soon as he was, he made for the sea. No sooner had he come to the sea than he took the sea’s nature, and swam as well as the best fish in the sea; because of that he was called Dylan Eil Ton. No wave ever broke under him; the blow that caused his death was delivered by Gofannon his uncle, and that was one of the three unfortunate blows.

One day, as Gwydion awoke in his bed, he heard a cry from the chest at his feet. Though it was not loud, it was loud enough for him to hear it. What he did was to rise quickly and open the chest. As he opened it, he saw a little boy, flailing his arms free of the folds of the coverlet and tossing it aside. He cradled the boy between his arms and took him to the town, where he knew there was a woman in milk and he had her nurse the boy. And that year he was nursed. When he was a year old, they thought his stoutness was remarkable were he two years old. In the second year he was a large boy, and able to set out for the court on his own. After he came to the court, Gwydion himself took charge of him. The boy came to know him well, and loved him more than anyone.

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