Gwawl
Gwawl is a candidate for the hand of Rhiannon in Welsh mythology . His fate is described in the Mabinogion .
mythology
In the "First Branch of the Mabinogi" Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed ("Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed") it is said that Rhiannon rejects Gwawl as a husband. So she asks Pwyll for help on the hill of Arbeth. She appears to him as a gray rider and when he catches up with her, she confesses her love for him and asks him to come to her father Hefaidd Hen's palace to celebrate the wedding . At this celebration, however, Gwawl also appears and asks Pwyll to fulfill a request, a request that cannot be refused. When Pwyll agrees, he demands Rhiannon from him. Rhiannon cunningly put off Gwawl for a year, then the wedding would be celebrated. At this festival, Pwyll appears disguised as a beggar and makes Gwawl climb into his beggar sack.
- Then Pwyll turned the bag over so that Gwawl disappeared upside down in the bag, quickly closed the bag, knotted the straps and thrust his horn. [...] And as each of his armed men came in, each one gave the bag a push and asked: “What is this here?” “A badger,” they said. Such a game they played that everyone gave the bag a push, either with his foot or with a stick. [...] And that's when they played "Badger in a Bag" for the first time .
His companions now beat the sack until Gwawl promises to renounce Rhiannon and not want to take revenge.
Many years later , when Gwawl wants revenge on Pryderi , Pwyll's son, he depopulates the whole country through the magic mist of his friend Llwyd fab Cil Coed and all animals disappear. Pryderi and his mother Rhiannon are also captured by the underworld . Manawydan , Rhiannon's second husband after Pwyll's death, can free her from Gwawl's power with the help of his magical powers and restore fertility to the land (see Manawydan fab Llŷr , "Manawydan, the son of Llŷr").
- "And so I [Gwawl's helper Llwyd] avenged Pryderi, that Pwyll, the head of Annwn , played" badger in the bag "out of arrogance at the court of Hefeydd the old man with Gwawl, the son of Clud."
See also
- Myths and legends from Wales and Britain
- List of Celtic gods and legendary figures
- Celtic otherworld
literature
- Bernhard Maier : The legend book of the Welsh Celts . The four branches of the Mabinogi . Dtv Munich, April 1999, ISBN 3-423-12628-0 .
- Ingeborg Clarus : Celtic Myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 .