
Into Annwn
Exploring the Very Deep Path of Welsh Polytheism,
Folklore, & Witchcraft
Rhiannon
(Divine Queen)
Who is Rhiannon? Fairy Bride, Fairy Queen, or Goddess? Sovereignty & Motherhood
Grief, Hope, Death, Rebirth, & the Winter Sun Perseverance through Injustice Eloquence & Wit
Horse Goddess Recommended Sources & Further Learning
Hail Rhiannon
Hail to you Rhiannon,
our Great Divine Queen.
You who of old emerged, shining, from Annwfn at the portal of Gorsedd Arberth.
Lady of Shining Hope, Mothers and Warriors, the Land and Horses.
Star of the Apple and Rose of Purest Beauty.
Key to the Gates of Death and Womb of Birth.
Shining Beacon unto Women and Lamp of Graces,
Body of the Land and Crown of the Lord of the Tumultuous Sea.
Shield of Protection,
Saddle of Power,
And Supple Shoes to those who travel Your Path.
Lands flourish ripe and abundant,
and peoples prosper under the wisdom of Your word and reign.
Seat of Sovereignty and Fount of Freedom,
You can neither be pursued nor overtaken.
Your great power cannot be usurped, O Maker of Kings and Lords.
None may approach You but by Your consent.
Respect alone finds Your favor,
And only polite request finds Your audience,
For in Your elegant hands rest the reins of power and authority.
Yet You travel alongside men and Gods,
Stepping apace with others, You neither follow behind
Nor go ahead with your back to those who follow You.
Loyally and graciously, You walk with us.
White Rider of the Deep,
Clothed in the golden light of the sun,
You light the vast sea of darkness,
And Your radiance illumines the path before us.
You rule the known and the unknown,
The depths of mysteries and the heights of wisdom,
As You ride the paths of Life and Death, of joys and sorrows,
Of light and darkness, of creation, destruction, and protection,
You travel with ease between the Worlds.
Instructor of Kings, of Heroes, and of Gods,
We are wise to lend our ears to Your silver seer’s tongue
As it dances its Spirals of Mystery and Knowledge upon the air.
We are wise to heed the teachings of Your ways and Your words.
Clever and Wise Goddess and Pillar of Autonomy,
Sharp and cunning, You outwit Your foes,
Subduing those who would disrespect You or circumvent Your will.
None may escape the sly wrath of Your vengeance who dare defy Your sovereignty,
Great Revealer of Wisdom and of Ways, Light of Hope in the Darkness,
You shine through the clouds of suffering and the cold of grief to guide the afflicted, the ailing,
The mourning, the oppressed, the abused, and all who seek to overcome and endure.
Your back bows under the weight of Your people in need.
You aid us in bearing our burdens, Gracious Queen,
With dignity and aplomb. You carry us without complaint,
Never too proud to lower Yourself to serve Your people.
Rebuker of Gods and Mare Mother,
The wise know those who would subdue You fool only themselves,
For You are the source of power, and
Your eye cannot turn blind towards injustice or abuse.
With sharpness do You rebuke those who mistreat animals.
With prejudice do you curse those who objectify women.
Defense of children and innocents alone may ensnare You into bridled subjugation.
The depths of Your Mother’s love spurs you to ride the winds to their aid,
And great peril holds no sway before You in Your pursuit.
Undaunted by fear or the unknown, You rush to their defense
O Protectress of Children.
Well of Dignity and Lady of Even Hand,
You answer not to crude demands and blunt speech.
You see it fit to preserve the life of others,
Even when tradition and law would dictate your domination.
You stand in eminent equanimity and espouse compassion,
Even in the face of abuse, accusations, and lies.
You rein in all temptation to tyranny despite your great power,
Dressing Yourself instead in patience, endurance, and hope,
For You know justice will prevail and truth will be revealed.
Your crown cannot be tarnished, and
Your power cannot be diminished,
O Rose of Truth and Long-Suffering.
Powerful Mistress of Battle and Support of Soldiers,
Bravely do You ride out alongside those who would fight and die
For the sake of You – our land, our people.
Great Warrior Goddess, Your strength is that of the unyielding earth,
Your power rises as the crashing waves of the sea,
And Your speed is that of the flying winds over the plains --
Fill us with Your fire that burns as the sun,
As You stand our fierce and loyal companion to the end,
Leading us to victory or honorable death,
O White Mare of the icy Winter Mists.
Keeper of the Keys of the Gate of the West, and Womb and Tomb of the Land,
Within Your arms we find both our rest and our restoration.
Your sweet birds’ song breathes new life into the dead
And brings the lull of soothing sleep to the living.
Ever-present, You are always near, even when seeming far away.
Yours is the sweet Apple of Life, housing the seeds of creation
From which all things spring forth.
And Yours is the Winter Sun and the promise of the return of the light
when the cold dark grip of death and sorrow is strongest.
Great Queen!
None may hold true power if it is not sought in honor and respect from You,
Nor find a welcoming home among all the lands of the verdant Earth,
Nor find peace within their hearts, if Your graces are not found therein.
For Yours is the Seat of Power and the Authority to Rule,
Yours is the Heart of the Mother and the Vitality of the Warrior,
And Yours is the Key to the Gates of the Afterlife and the Rose of Purest Love.
You are the Autonomy of Women and Protector of Children, Travelers, and Warriors,
You are the Rose of Beauty and the Lady of Shining Hope,
And You are the golden guiding light of the Winter Sun's promise of the return of the light in the depths of darkness.
Majesty of Horses and the Sacred Land beneath our feet,
Hope of Soldiers and of Farmers, of highest Kings and of lowest Poor,
Wisdom of Endless Ages and Sharp Wit of Youth,
Freedom of the Unbound Winds galloping the plains
And the soothing, crashing waves of the Sea.
It becomes me to praise You
And hold sacred Your festivals, symbols, and virtues in honor of You and all You stand for.
Great is Your name upon the lips of the living, O Goddess,
And gentle is Your hand upon the eyes of the passing.
I live in humbled thankfulness of Your blessings
As I walk alongside You in gladness.
Guide me always in Your sacred ways I pray,
Sacred Sovereign,
Mare Mother,
Divine Queen
Rhiannon
Who is Rhiannon?
My background is in linguistics, so let's look into Her name to start with.
Rhiannon's name is a divine name by its very structure -- the suffix -on is a theonymic suffix (meaning, it denotes a deity or divine being). You may recognize this suffix in the names of other figures in Welsh medieval literature (by polytheists, often referred to as "Welsh mythology") such as Gofannon, Amaethon, Modron, Mabon, etc (do be careful with its presence outside of proper names, as the suffix in modern Welsh can also denote the plural).
The rhian part of Her name comes from the Proto-Celtic *rīganī, meaning queen, and indeed, in modern Welsh, the word rhiain (which is the modern evolution from the ancient word *rīganī) still means maiden or queen (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, https://welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html). Rhiannon, were it attested in ancient Brythonic or Gaulish, would have likely been rendered *Rigantona -- however, it is important to note that, to date, no pre-Christian archaeological remains have been found that bear the name Rigantona. (There are, however, pre-Christian devotions found in archaeological remains for deities whose names are cognate with other figures from Welsh medieval literature, such as Nudd, Mabon, Modron, Gofannon, Gwydion, Lleu, Math, and perhaps even Gwyn [ap Nudd]. Those will be discussed on their own pages.)
You may notice the G getting dropped from words when occurring between vowels in the evolution from ancient Gaulish or Brythonic to modern Welsh (such as the G in Rigantona) as well as the presence of NN in modern Welsh pointing to a former combination of NT or ND in ancient Brythonic or Gaulish (which leads from RiGanTona to Ri-anNona). So, the course of word change over time roughly is expressed as Rigantona > Ri-annon- > Rhiannon. We also see these patterns with words such as Annwfn (from an- prefix + dwfn = anDwfn, which reduces to anNwfn) and the word Braint from Brigantia (Brigantia > Bri-antia > Briant > Braint). Given that Her name is made up of the components rhiain (or ancient *rīgan-) + the theonymic suffix -on, Her name literally means "Divine/Deific Queen".
Rhiannon is one of the main figures in the First and Third Branches of The Mabinogi, and She is mentioned in Culhwch and Olwen. A powerful, magical, assertive, and intelligent monarch, She is a goddess whose stories are of much value.
Fairy Bride, Fairy Queen, or Goddess?
The short answer to this question is: Yes. They aren't mutually exclusive.
The long answer is: One of the big differences in foundational concepts between monotheism and polytheism is in how one sees divinity. In monotheism, divinity is absolute -- it is either present (in the singular deity) or absent (in everything else). Polytheisms, in many regions across the world as far afoot from the West as East Asia (China, Japan, etc), tend to see divinity as a spectrum. Beings (animate or inanimate, bodied or disembodied) are on a sliding scale of divinity and/or spiritual power, as well as a sliding scale of closeness to and interest in human activities and welfare. This is precisely what makes both apotheosis and the shuffling of divine power dynamics (as is often portrayed in the mythologies) possible in polytheisms -- a spirit or being's divinity or spiritual power is not fixed; it can and does change, and that divinity itself is not an on-off switch but a dimmer switch.
Taking on this foundational understanding can be of indispensable aid, especially to former monotheists, in making sense of polytheistic lore and myths. The question changes from "Is X a God?" with a binary "Yes/No" answer, to "How divine is X?" (which will intrinsically require you to define what makes a being divine to you) or "How spiritually powerful is X compared to Y?" or "Are X and Y equally spiritually powerful, just in different ways?"
Seeing beings on a spectrum of divinity and/or spiritual power makes sense of many features of polytheism all at once.
It explains...
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the rise and fall in perceived power and popularity of Gods over time, especially if one subscribes to the idea that receiving offerings and being worshipped feeds energy to spiritual beings (which would literally increase their power and facilitate their rise on the deific spectrum -- or their fall, if worship wanes; note I said facilitate -- I am not implying that human worship alone defines one's divine power),
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why many (all?) polytheistic cultures will leave offerings for, worship, and/or propitiate beings who aren't necessarily considered "gods" per se (in addition to the idea of hospitality and just being good neighbors),
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how humans or other beings become more divine and eventually take on the mantle of godhood (apotheosis),
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the insistence of many cultures on the veneration of ancestors, especially very important ones -- so they may reach some critical mass of spiritual power and become gods who may then have the power to intervene on behalf of humans &/or so living humans can claim descent from a god (again, apotheosis),
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the overlap between the Tylwyth Teg/Fair Folk and the Gods (or Álfar, or Yōkai, or whatever your culture calls the not-quite-human but also not-quite-gods sometimes-very-powerful spirit beings who inhabit the Otherworld, not that these are all identical, they aren't, but making sweeping generalizations here) -- whether you see them as demi-gods, or as just other types of spirit beings who are more powerful than humans (in some ways) but not quite powerful enough to be rendered gods (except of course when they are also rendered gods!),
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and, of course, it also makes sense of the fact that qualifying to be a "god" in polytheism is a blurry, wishy-washy thing causing people to disagree on whether a specific being is actually a "god" or not!
Taken in this light, the fact that Rhiannon's name literally means divine queen is clear evidence for Her being a god. Her explicitly being described as "wearing a shining golden garment of brocaded silk" (Davies, p. 8) indicates She is royalty -- this also applies in Annwfn, where both Arawn and his unnamed wife were also described as wearing the exact same type of clothing previous to Rhiannon's arrival in the First Branch. That She comes from Annwfn, moves outside of time, has magical powers and magical items, is very wise, is associated with a mound, and readily takes action and stands up for Herself (as opposed to the passive behavior one might expect of medieval human women, which Branwen is more an embodiment of) can be indicators of either Her being a "fairy" (Tylwyth Teg) queen and/or as indicators of Her being a god (because these factors could be said to describe both). And, the fact that She arrives on the scene as a fully mature woman (as opposed to our getting Her childhood and birth backstory) and an immediate love interest of the prince Pwyll, who Pwyll then must act appropriately in order to earn Her favor, points to Her overlaps with the Fairy Bride motif. There is also whether we look at the stories through the lens of folklore and folk religion or the lens of literature and a more official type of religion, and so forth (Dr. Gwilym Morus-Baird goes over several such factors and more in his videos on the matter, see: "Celtic Source: Is Rhiannon a goddess?" and "The Ancient Celtic Horse Goddess?", links to these and more can also be found below in the Recommended Sources & Further Learning section.)
So, is Rhiannon a deity? Royalty among the Tylwyth Teg? A human's (or perhaps a deity who is a role model for human kings) fairy bride? ...Yes.
D. All of the Above.
Sovereignty & Motherhood
Rhiannon is a sovereignty figure not only in Her name (divine queen), but also in Her roles and behaviors. She is unable to be captured by pursuit; no matter how fast one chases Her down, one cannot get any closer. She can only be approached by request and only answers to respectful address -- She will not be hunted down like some animal or prize, nor can She be overtaken by brute force of strength or speed. She also chooses Her own mate, in defiance of Her father's preferred betrothal as well as in defiance of Her betrothed's attempts to manipulate and force the situation. Force -- be it by way of the patriarchy or physically -- cannot win the Lady of Sovereignty. She chooses for Herself, and Her choice is for the one who addresses Her with courtesy and heeds Her advice in issues which involve Her. These are the actions of a self-determined, autonomous woman with healthy boundaries.
Repeatedly throughout the Mabinogi, when Rhiannon is disrespected, disaster immediately follows (this is actually a recurring theme for all of the women in the Mabinogi). Rhiannon is framed and unjustly punished, made to behave as the animal She earlier defended (highlighting again Her empathy with the horse’s treatment), in conjunction with the tragedy of Her son Pryderi’s disappearance. It is not insignificant that, had Pwyll trusted and listened to his wife as he did before their marriage, he could have known that Pryderi was missing (rather than dead) and likely would have found his son much sooner. There is no small bit of irony in the fact that the very same council who insisted Pwyll put Rhiannon away and get a new wife over Her failure to produce an heir quickly enough is also largely responsible for Her unjust punishment. This same council's actions simultaneously resulted in the heir they were previously so very concerned about not being found for years. Indeed, the Mabinogi also repeatedly sends the message of warning regarding whose council to trust in which situations.
This is mirrored in the Third Branch when Pryderi gives his widowed mother Rhiannon to Manawydan (as would have been his legal right to do in human Welsh medieval law) without consulting Her first. (And Manawydan is, significantly, the rightful heir to be the High King of Britain.) Although She does prick up Her ears at their conversation about the transaction and says “I will agree to that gladly”, almost as if to assert Her own will one final time, this response only comes after the transaction has already been made as far as the men are concerned. The very next major plot point, as Andrew Welsh notes, is that the land “is deserted but not infertile. Even under the enchantment it abounds in game, fish, and wild honey. Only the refinements of civilized life are gone: domestic herds, dwellings with their hearth fires, the society of people. It is not nature but culture that has failed” (p. 135).
Although Andrew Welsh is making a different point about Manawydan’s hero’s journey in the source cited, highlighting the failure of the “old ways” and the consequences of the “relentless processes of honor and revenge which characterize the heroic code: apocalyptic destruction in the Second Branch, an empty land in the Third”, the words still ring true in the context here. It is adherence to the culture of machismo – violence, absolute domination, and objectification of others – which continuously leads to ruin in the Mabinogi, and in Rhiannon's portions of the story, this is expressed via the effects on the land itself and on the loss of both Rhiannon Herself and the royal heir (Her son). Only by way of rejecting this culture is the day ultimately won when the land, Rhiannon, and Her son are restored in the Third Branch. Indeed, Manawydan’s story alone is resolved without loss of life in the Mabinogi.
Rhiannon's name may mean divine queen, but She is also very much a mother figure. Her punishment in the First Branch, being made to go on all fours and give people rides on Her back like a horse -- as well as Her being collared like a horse and made to labor in the fortress of the mist in the Third Branch -- both come as a result of the loss of Her only child, Pryderi. When others pursue Her or attempt to subjugate Her directly, Rhiannon cannot be overcome -- She is a sovereignty goddess and rules Her own fate. But, when Her beloved child is involved, She is yoked, unjustly punished, oppressed, and subdued. This is not coincidence -- whether looking at Her sovereignty aspect or Her motherly one -- both caring sovereigns and loving mothers are brought to their knees when the welfare of their children (and/or their people) are at stake. Endangerment of Her child also brings out heroism in Rhiannon -- when the king (Manawydan) does not do His duty to protect the fruits of Her womb, it is the Divine Queen of Sovereignty and the caring Mother who shows the initiative and bravery that Manawydan does not. She is the one who heroically dashes off to the rescue of the adult man (Her son) who is locked away in the magical castle in the mist by the adversarial wizard! So much for gender stereotypes, and so much for chivalry! Epona, a Gaulish goddess who is not identical to Rhiannon but shares several thematic parallels with Her, was also a mother goddess figure (so much so that She was not only frequently depicted with a foal, but was even included in carvings of the Matres) -- this is gone into in more detail in my blog post here.
Her immediate and bold response to Pryderi going missing in the Third Branch is enough to make one wonder to what lengths She would have gone to find Her son if She had not been immediately apprehended for punishment in the First Branch. This question will resurface when considering Rhiannon in discussing the tradition of the Mari Lwyd.
Grief, Hope, Death, Rebirth, & the Winter Sun
Without question, one of the central themes of Rhiannon's story, despite Her sovereignty, is that She is a goddess who endures much suffering and grief. As if losing Her son on the very night of His birth were not too much for any loving mother to bear, She was also falsely accused of not only killing but viciously eating Him. She was then heinously punished (although the medieval audience may have seen it as mercy, as She could easily have been put to death for such a crime, and Pwyll did not even divorce Her) by being forced to carry people on Her back at the horseblock and repeat the false story of how She ate Her own son, who She did not actually harm. (And She had to do all this, remember, while filled with gut-wrenching worry about what actually happened to Her son!) She was forced to endure this for three years (Davies, pp. 18-19). The psychological and emotional damage this would cause would be nothing short of catastrophic to anyone. Later, Her second husband, Manawydan, simply walks away when Her son was lost again in the Third Branch, leaving Her to attempt to rescue Him Herself, from which attempt She was again forced into slavery performing labor in the role of a horse (this time alongside Her son, who was twinned with the foal in the First Branch). She struggles and survives through all of this, only to ultimately still lose Her son in death at the hand of Gwydion, that great catalyst of chaos, in the Fourth and final Branch.
Pryderi rushed into combat with the more magically powerful Gwydion in His rage at the insult of having been tricked out of the swine of Annwfn gifted from Arawn, having seemingly learned nothing of caution from His father Pwyll (whose very name means as much and who certainly experiences the most character growth of anyone in the Four Branches). Pryderi likewise does not seem to have learned from His step-father Manawydan (who was perhaps too cautious -- too cautious to go into the fortress of the mists after Pryderi, too cautious to attack those threatening to kill them, and even too cautious to challenge Caswallon for His rightful place as high king). Nor did Pryderi learn from Rhiannon Herself, who surely would have urged a more sly approach than taking on Gwydion head-on, if Her handling of Gwawl were any indication. Rescued once by the Lord of the Tumultuous Sea (Teyrnon Twrf Liant), attempted to be rescued by Rhiannon and later eventually freed by Manawydan (another Lord of the Sea, and perhaps another case of twinning), Pryderi could not be rescued the third time from His own deadly recklessness, living up to the name His mother had given Him (anxiety -- who is wed with Cigfa, literally slaugherhouse, slaughter, or carnage -- not a coincidence). How heartbreaking is the lament of a loving Mother who has lost Her dear son not once, but three times... She knows intimately what it is to lose those who are most dear and precious to us.
No discussion of Rhiannon and Her associations with death, grief, and rebirth would be complete without addressing Her birds. The song of the Birds of Rhiannon lulls the living to sleep and wakes the dead, reminisce of the death and (re)birth portion of the life-death-(re)birth cycle (Davies, 2007, p. 196). Theirs is a song that always seems near even if the birds themselves appear to be far away (Davies, 2007, p. 33). Here, we have the warping of space-time and, to me at least, what could be a metaphor for the fact that death can be near to us even if it seems like it should be far out on the horizon of our concerns. It could also be a metaphor for time, and how it rushes up on us, the future being much closer than it appears or seems to be. Or, it could be a metaphor for our passed loved ones themselves, the song of their memory making them seem closer to us. There are many potential deeply meaningful interpretations here, and they will surely have different but equally significant symbolism to different people. The theme of grief, and softening its sting, is also tied into Rhiannon's birds, who sang their magical song for 7 years to ease the grief of the friends and brothers of the colossal giant and high king Brân, whose head was severed in war in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi (Davies, 2007, p. 32-3). The birds were also demanded by the giant chief Ysbaddaden in Culhwch and Olwen specifically for their song to soothe him on the night before his death (Davies, 2007, p. 196). It would appear then, even just solely from Her birds, that Rhiannon has some fairly direct associations with death -- and more specifically with soothing grief and the death-to-(re)birth arc of the circle of life. The solace of sweet bird song at death is also attested in Welsh folklore. Elias Owen gives two examples of specifically bird song soothing the death of good people, among other accounts of hearing beautiful singing before a death, in Welsh Folklore (pp. 373-4).
Rhiannon's associations with death are not limited to the three losses of Her son, Pryderi or Her three birds. Rhiannon is the only figure from the whole of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi who is described as emerging from (or at least near) a mound -- specifically the magical mound at Gorsedd Arberth. Mounds have long been associated with death, ancestors, and the Tylwyth Teg (Fair Folk) across Celtic cultures, including the Welsh. What's more, in the First Branch, She appears at the mound the sacred number of three times (there it is again...), proving the ease with which She can traverse between the worlds, and each time She appears at evening (itself a time often symbolizing liminality and the closing of life). She does this dressed in a "shining golden garment of brocaded silk" (Davies, 2007, p. 8) while riding on a large pale white horse and moving as if outside of time. As She rides out from the mound, She appears to move steadily by those viewing from a distance, but in reality, as one gets closer to Her, they find She is going so fast as to never be caught. As Pwyll blatantly states, "there is some magical explanation here" (Davies, p. 96; Dr. Gwilym Morus-Baird also has valuable and insightful commentary on these passages as well as several other topics of interest to a Welsh polytheist).
There are two times of year most associated with Rhiannon: Nos Galan Haf or Nos Galan Mai (Summer Eve or May Eve) and the period between Winter Solstice and New Year's, during the longest nights and the death of the old year leading to the birth of the new. Nos Galan Haf is the night that Her son Pryderi, and the foal with which He is twinned in the First Branch, was born. Stolen on the night of His birth, Pryderi is rescued by Teyrnon who simultaneously saves Pryderi's twinned foal from the claw of the giant who has been stealing Teyrnon's mare's foals each May Eve.
Rhiannon's ties to the depths of winter darkness are not attested so much in the literature as in symbolism, ancient associations, and folk practices that continue into the modern day. While no symbolic meaning is spoon-fed to us in the Mabinogi itself, much symbolism could be interpreted from the depiction of Rhiannon at the mound. She appears to move slowly, but in actuality She is moving so fast as to never be caught -- just as life and time seem, in objective outside observation, to go by at a steady pace, but as soon as we try to pin down a moment of it, we find it is slipping from our grasp faster than we can ever hope to capture it. This movement can also be taken in a more literal way, especially in conjunction with Her portrayal as shining and dressed in gold -- it could easily symbolize the movement of the sun (itself the great daily and yearly time-keeper), which also seems to move slowly across the sky and gradually settles into the horizon at the close of evening (when Rhiannon appears at the mound), yet to catch up with it is a vain pursuit. Indeed, horses and the sun are depicted together on ancient Celtic coins in Britain (Nash Briggs), and even the late-Bronze to early-Iron-Age White Horse of Uffington faces west (following the trek of the sun towards sunset) and is well-aligned with the rise and set points of the sun against the hill at Winter Solstice (Pollard, 2017). Taken with the fact that the ancient Gauls celebrated their horse goddess's holiday, Eponalia, on 18 December and the still-surviving (and in many areas recently revived) Welsh horse skull tradition of the Mari Lwyd between Winter Solstice and New Year's time, the ties between the sun, the Winter Solstice, and the horse begin to stack into a noticeable pattern. Could the ghastly Mari Lwyd, a skull -- the very symbol of death -- yet clad in joyous attire and bestowing blessings on those she visits, represent the hope of a grieving mother's endless search for a son She has thrice lost? To me, the Mari Lwyd symbolizes not only Rhiannon and Her story, but also the story of the Winter Solstice -- the story of hope born from the depths of despair, of life born from death, just as light returns from the depths of the longest, darkest night each winter and new year is born from the death of the passing year.
There are some who interpret the white horse that Rhiannon rides upon as symbolic of the moon (which also appears to move slowly across the sky and cannot be caught), especially when also taking into account the association between horses and the sea (perhaps illustrated by Teyrnon and Manawydan) which is itself affected by the pull of the moon on the tides. Others point (as I have above) to Her shining golden dress and the ancient Celtic associations between horses and the sun as evidence of a more solar symbology to Rhiannon. While I personally believe the solar connection is the stronger, I would ultimately argue the two are not mutually exclusive. As is pointed out by Nash Briggs in her assessment of ancient Brittonic coins, some depict the horse carrying the 12.5 moons of the solar year on its back. The association between the darkness of Winter Solstice and the nightly journey of the heavenly bodies across the dark sky is not a far stretch to reach -- indeed, the Mari Lwyd is decked in stars -- those twinkling tapers of the night sky -- and ribbons (although, of course, the sun is also a star). There could easily be associations with both the sun and the moon -- but personally, I would disagree if one were to posit that there is an association only with the moon and excluding the sun, given the evidence above.
Perseverance through Injustice
We have already touched on the gross injustices and trauma that Rhiannon endures. She is forced to tell false incriminating stories about Herself and carry others in a demeaning, animalistic way, all while suffering the grief and heartbreak of having lost Her only child who She had just given birth to -- which also means, by the way, that She was being forced to stand outside all day and carry people on Her back while still recovering from the injuries of having given birth just the day before, and for the next three years. She suffered through all of this, and "accepted her punishment" (Davies, p. 17) until such time as She was finally released from it and exonerated by the return of Her precious Son, which relieves Her of Her pryder -- but, sadly, only for a time.
In the Third Branch, Rhiannon is disrespected by the same Son who She has endured so much for, as He arranges Her marriage with Manawydan with neither Her consent nor even informing Her first. Immediately afterwards, when they return to Gorsedd Arberth (from whence Rhiannon originally emerged), the mist falls upon the land and the disaster that symbolizes Their disrespect of Her ensues -- a disaster that ultimately is only rectified by use of harsh judgement, stubborn aggression, strict adherence to the law, wit, and superior negotiation (this will be investigated more deeply on a future page for Manawydan). The fact that the mist is caused by someone loyal to and taking revenge on behalf of Gwawl, who had also disrespected Rhiannon's autonomy in marriage in the First Branch, is not likely to be insignificant (nor is the fact that it also happened right after paying homage to the high king who is in the place Manawydan should rightfully have occupied, but that is a point to be delved into for Manawydan rather than for Rhiannon). In the meantime, however, Manawydan loses not only His people but also His wife and adopted heir due to His own stagnant inaction and lack of initiative to help Them (whoever heard of a stagnant sea?), and so both Rhiannon and Pryderi are trapped for two years (one year while Manawydan and Cigfa are in England, and another year while Manawydan is planting and then reaping His wheat). Indeed, only when Manawydan finally takes aggressive action and stands His ground to ensure He secures both Rhiannon and Pryderi's safety is He able to break the curse and set things right again. During the two years They are captured, Pryderi is made to wear "the gate-hammers" while Rhiannon is yoked with "the collars of the asses" (Davies, p. 46) -- again, punished by being forced to act like a horse.
As if this were not enough, Rhiannon (as a mother) and Pryderi (Himself) suffer the ultimate loss when Pryderi dies in combat against Gwydion in the Fourth Branch, fighting over the pigs sent to Pwyll as a gift from Arawn in Annwfn -- bringing us back full-circle to the events of the First Branch. Rhiannon is a goddess whose story demonstrates that She is intimately familiar with what it means to suffer, both physically and psycho-emotionally. She maintains Her dignity to the best of Her ability through and in spite of it, and we may turn to Her for solace, comfort, and understanding when facing or overcoming our own trials of abuse, false accusations, trauma, and gross injustice.
Eloquence & Wit
As is fitting of a goddess of sovereignty whose name means divine queen, Rhiannon takes no bull. She does not accept the man chosen as suitable for Her by Her (presumably also divine) father and goes off to find one of Her own. That Rhiannon's father is probably also a deity is not mere groundless speculation -- Her father is (H)euf(e)ydd Hen (sometimes written Hyfaidd) -- Heufydd the Old. His name is cognate with the ancient pre-Christian Gaulish god Ogmios (you may recognize the name Ogmios as cognate with the more obviously linguistically related Irish Oghma as well) (Rhŷs, 1908, p. 62). Also depicted as old, Ogmios was the god of eloquence and binding, bearing chthonic associations with death and the underworld (hey, there's that death connection again) -- Lucian tells us that the ancient Gauls used Hercules as interpretatio Romana for Ogmios, the god of eloquence who led people willingly by chains connecting their ears to His tongue, because they believed the power of words was the greatest strength (Brunaux, 1988, p. 72; Lucian, pp. 63-7; MacCana, pp. 37-41). This serves as an eye-opening example of how very symbolic and not-straightforward interpretatio Romana could be and how cautiously we should approach it.
If Her father is the Welsh evolution of the god of eloquence and binding, Rhiannon is every bit as swaying with Her words, although perhaps not always with the height of eloquence so much as with the power of authority. She calls a prince (Pwyll) stupid to his face, and not just any prince, but Her prospective future husband (Davies, p. 12). This is not hyperbole or summary; She literally calls him stupid. While this may invoke a shrug or a reaction of distaste in the modern audience, it perhaps cannot be emphasized enough what a bold move this would have been to a medieval audience -- anyone directly insulting a ruling noble to his face, nevertheless a woman doing so, could easily have been a death sentence. This marks Her out not only as special compared to other women, but also as authoritative in comparison to other rulers, as She is not only unpunished nor rebuked for saying such a thing, but She is still the pursued and desired prospective wife, and Her suggestions are still followed by Pwyll without question or argument. She is sovereignty -- anyone who desires Her will do as She wills, and anyone who attempts to usurp, circumvent, or disrespect Her faces the consequences, as Gwawl discovers the hard way.
Speaking of Gwawl, Rhiannon can be not only bitingly blunt but also scathingly sarcastic -- one can almost see Her tilting Her head to one side and lifting Her starry eyes aloft, clutching Her palms together at Her heart in mock-damsel behavior as She knowingly tricks Gwawl into being beaten to a bloody pulp, spurring him on to his doom with "My hero!" (Davies, p. 14). Gwawl should have known better than to try to force the matter
Say what you will about Rhiannon, despite Her darker associations, She has a sense of humor and a sharp tongue.
Horse Goddess
Like many youngsters, I was in love with horses when I was a child. I would draw horses, color pictures of horses, study different types of horses in a big horse encyclopedia I had received as a gift, obsessively watch movies and read books centered on horses (e.g. Black Beauty), collect and play with horse toys, and I even would pull my younger sister around the backyard in a wagon or carry her on my back and pretend to be a horse (neighing and all) and chew my vegetables like a horse (much to my mother's irritation) -- if it involved horses, I was all over it. I still hold a very special place for them in my heart, and my relationship with Rhiannon has brought me back full-circle to this nostalgic childhood passion of mine that I thought I had long outgrown.
That Rhiannon is connected to horses is obvious in the Mabinogi. A horse is the first being She stands up to protect (She also mercifully, and some might say strategically, offers to protect Her accusers who lie about Her killing Her son from the consequences of their own lies, and She runs immediately into the fortress of the mist in attempt to rescue Pryderi as well) -- in fact, the very first sentence She utters in the First Branch rebukes Pwyll for not considering the welfare of his horse. She is, famously, punished twice by being forced to labor like a horse -- in the First Branch, She is made to offer rides on Her back at the horseblock, and in the Third Branch, She is forced to wear "the collars of the asses" (Davies, p. 46). Her son, Pryderi, is also born on Nos Galan Haf (May Eve) at the same time as a foal which is later given to Him.
To see a white horse was considered good luck in Wales, and it was believed they could see spirits (Owen, p. 425). I know that there are still several people here in the U.S. who believe this of horses, dogs (also associated with death in Celtic culture -- dog howling at the doorstep in particular was a death portent, according to Owen, p. 370), and cats to this day -- that they are able to see spirits, often better than humans are able to sense them. This is also reflected in everyday parlance in English, as people will say a horse acting strangely or scared (even if of seemingly nothing) is "spooked".
Turning to comparative analyses: in addition to the usual horse(s), the ancient Gaulish goddess Epona (meaning: divine horse; epos = horse [cognate modern Welsh ebol, foal, from Brittonic epālos] + -on = theonymic + -a = feminine suffix) was also sometimes depicted in Her iconography with ravens, those well-known symbols of death (Green, 1989, p. 18). Rhiannon also has birds who are associated with death, although it is not attested in the Welsh literature what type of birds Rhiannon's birds are, to my knowledge. However, raven song is also not frequently thought of by humans as sweet or soothing, so the similarity is merely in the birds and not necessarily in the type. There are also several known ancient depictions of Epona with dogs (Green, 1989, pp. 17-18), which were symbolic of healing, hunting, the underworld (there's that death symbolism again), and fertility (Green, 1992, pp. 197-205). In addition, dogs were a common attribute across Gaulish and Brythonic goddess carvings "of a general mother-goddess type" (Green, 1992, p. 201) -- immediately upon motherhood, Rhiannon was framed for Her newborn son's death in the First Branch specifically with the blood of newborn dogs, tying in themes of both death and loss alongside birth and fertility simultaneously within the same event. (In Welsh culture, dogs are also symbolic of fierce warriors in praise poetry such as in Stanzas 9 and 21 of The Gododdin.) Of course, the foal -- often suckling Epona's mare or lying at rest beneath Her -- is also often present in Epona's iconography (Green, 1989, pp. 20-1). As mentioned above, Pryderi, Rhiannon's son, was born on the same night as a foal which was given to Him, a literary device often referred to as "twinning".
Epona's more common epithets in archaeological inscription remains, to my knowledge, are Rigana (Gaulish: "queen" -- a direct cognate of the root of the word Rhiannon) and Regina (Latin: "queen") and Augusta (Latin: "august; majestic/venerable/supreme), although it should be noted She is not the only Gaulish goddess with these epithets. Much of Epona's iconography depicts Her with the attributes common to the Mother Goddesses and granters of fertility and abundance of the land, even sometimes being depicted alongside the Matres or in triplicate Herself in the style of the Matres (Green, 1989, pp. 17 & 21-22). Epona's imagery has been found not at one specific body of water or healing spring (as is often the case with other more local, less supra-regionally worshipped ancient Celtic deities) but across a number of healing springs, and in at least one site, She was depicted in relation to other Gallo-Roman deities of healing, namely Apollo and Stirona (Green, 1989, p. 17). Statuary of Epona has also been found at ancient gravesites (alongside more blatant death deities such as Erecura) and holding keys, a common attribute of psychopomps (Green, 1989, pp. 18-19). In addition, Epona's feast day was Eponalia, observed as part of the popular winter celebrations of Saturnalia on 18 December (Green, 1989, p. 23). I find this a bit too conveniently aligning with the timing of the still-ongoing horse skull tradition of the Mari Lwyd from Christmas to New Year's time in Wales.
Epona and Rhiannon are clearly not identical, and I am not trying to imply that They are. Epona is Gaulish and Rhiannon is Welsh (and likely Brittonic before that). Their places of origin and the majority of Their attestations are separated not only by the Channel but also by hundreds of years. There is no ancient direct written evidence spelling out that Epona and Rhiannon are related, and unlike some other figures in Welsh literature, Their names are not linguistically cognate, although Rhiannon's name does have the tell-tale theonymic suffix -on. Ronald Hutton, rather famously, in Pagan Britain, says "There is no trace of a widespread cult of Epona in Britain ... and no solid evidence for a native British horse goddess" (2013, p. 367).
I respect Hutton's work, but I have to disagree, because his stance does not take into account the reality we are dealing with. Almost nothing written survives concerning pre-Christian Celtic religion in the first place, especially before Roman contact. The same can be said of physical remains of images or writing to deities. They are virtually non-existent in Celtic regions before Roman occupation, and for Britain in particular, the Roman occupation was quite late and butted right up against the importing of Christianity, leaving little time for native British culture (as opposed to imported Roman or Gallo-Roman culture) to take up interpretatio Romana for their own deities or to leave statuary and written votives to their gods. It appears in fact that the pre-Roman Celtic cultures did not make statues and inscription dedications to their gods for us to find -- it was not a part of native culture. As David Rankin summarises: "Brennus is said to have mocked the anthropomorphic statues of the gods he saw in Delphi" (p. 25), and he also later clarifies "Greek sources knew that it was against Celtic sentiments to make naturalistic likenesses of the gods" (p. 26, emphasis added). Therefore, to insist on the presence of such in the archaeological record in order to even consider the existence of any pre-Roman Celtic deity is to ignore the culture of the relevant time period and dismiss most possibilities out of hand. At the end of the day, we simply cannot say for certain, but things need not be known without a shadow of a doubt in order to consider the evidence of their possibility.
Personally, I do not require something to be literally carved in ancient stone that spells out "Rhiannon and Epona are related" in order to consider it probable. I'm a big fan of Occam's Razor. Given that we do not have a whole lot to go on regarding Epona in the first place, and even less to go on from the pre-Christian archaeological record of the island of Britain, I find an uncanny amount of what we do have lines up quite thematically well to point to a possible shared origin between Epona and Rhiannon, especially when taken all together. Other pre-Christian Gallo-Roman goddesses were also depicted as mothers, with dogs, or birds, or keys (I do struggle to think of any goddesses besides Epona depicted with horses and foals -- that was pretty solidly Her schtick). It is, however, the case that I do not know of any other pre-Christian Gallo-Roman goddesses who are depicted as mothers and with dogs and with birds and with keys (representing opening the way to the afterlife) and with horses and foals and have an epithet of "queen", and all of these together align very well with what we have of Rhiannon's story in Wales.
Again, this is not to say that I think They are identical. I do not. I am dedicated to Rhiannon, not Epona. It is important not to reduce beloved individual figures with unique stories, personalities, and cultural significance -- such as Rhiannon -- to just an "archetype" or "aspect" or "version" of something else (like Epona). To do so waters them down and threatens to devalue them or even separate them from their source cultures. They are not, and should not be, considered as incomplete, dimmer versions of some once-greater deity further back in history, nor should they be seen as merely portions or spin-offs from some long-lost "original". They are whole and beautiful and meaningful just as they are, just as we find them in Welsh literature, poetry, folklore, and culture.
That said, I do think Rhiannon and Epona have some sort of relation (evolution? ancestry? regional variation?). They have overlaps which I find to be beyond merely circumstantial, and Their relationship is a far cry from Ronald Hutton's claim that "all that Rhiannon and Epona have in common is a horse" (Hutton, 2013, p. 366).
Recommended Sources & Further Learning
Books
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Davies, Sioned, (Trnsl), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007).
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This is the recommended and most accurate translation available according to Gwilym Morus-Baird, Kristoffer Hughes, and Mhara Starling, who are all Welsh speakers. Please support your local bookstore, if possible.
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Green, Miranda, Symbol & Image in Celtic Religious Art, (London: Routledge, 1989).
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Green, Miranda, Animals in Celtic Life and Myth, (London: Routledge, 1992).
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Hughes, Kristoffer, The Book of Celtic Magic: Transformative Teachings from the Cauldron of Awen, (Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2014).
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Hutton, Ronald, Pagan Britain, (Yale University Press, 2013), http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vm0m8.13.
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Owen, Elias, Welsh Folklore: A Collection of the Folk Tales and Legends of North Wales, (Cockatrice Books, 1896; 2020).
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Rankin, David, ‘The Celts through Classical Eyes’, in The Celtic World ed. by Miranda J. Green, (London: Rutledge, 1995/2005), 21-32, Chapter 3, https://www.perlego.com/book/1685972/the-celtic-world.
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Telyndru, Jhenah, Pagan Portals. Rhiannon: Divine Queen of the Celtic Britons, (Winchester, UK: Moon Books, 2018).
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Welsh, Andrew, “Manawydan fab Llŷr: Wales, England, and the ‘New Man’”, in The Mabinogi: A Book of Essays, ed. by C.W. Sullivan III, (London: Routledge, 2015), pp. 121-141, https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315720715-8/manawydan-fab-ll%C5%B7r-wales-england-new-man-andrew-welsh.
Articles
(Some JSTOR articles may be able to be accessed free via their "100 articles per month free" option, while others may not be available via this option.)
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Doan, James, “Sovereignty Aspects in the Roles of Women in Medieval Irish and Welsh Society”, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 5, (1985), 87–102, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20557160.
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Hemming, Jessica, “Reflections on Rhiannon and the Horse Episodes in ‘Pwyll'”, Western Folklore, 57: 1, (1998), 19–40, JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1500247.
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Linduff, Katheryn M., “Epona : A Celt among the Romans”, Latomus, 38: 4, (1979), 817–37, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41531375.
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Nash Briggs, Daphne, "2. Horses of the Day and Night", Reading the Images on Iron Age Coins, (???? year), https://www.academia.edu/27787445/Reading_the_images_on_lron_Age_coins_2_Horses_of_the_day_and_night&nav_from=82f56ba6-ad2b-41ba-b421-127c634efe48&rw_pos=0. (Free)
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Pollard, Joshua, "The Uffington White Horse Geoglyph as Sun-Horse", Antiquity, 91 (2017), 406–20, http://dx.doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2016.269. (Free)
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Sessle, Erica J., “Exploring the Limitations of the Sovereignty Goddess through the Role of Rhiannon”, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 14, (1994), 9–13, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20557270.
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Warmind, Morten, “Once More the Celtic Horse-Goddess”, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 36, (2016), 231–40, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26383351.
Videos & Courses by Welsh Scholars & Practitioners
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Dr. Gwilym Morus-Baird's "Celtic Source" courses website:
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The Goddess of Sovereignty (Free Course)
https://celticsource.online/free-course-website-sign-up/ -
The Celtic Mythology Programme: 2. Mabinogi (Paid Course)
https://celticsource.online/courses/the-four-branches-of-the-mabinogi/
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Dr. Gwilym Morus-Baird's YouTube Channel "Celtic Source":
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Celtic Source: Is Rhiannon a goddess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNY6vGNXFcc -
The Ancient Celtic Horse Goddess?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIgOAmitYeA -
Rhiannon's Mabinogi Part 1 with Dr Gwilym Morus-Baird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slx-RH4eD3o -
How can we understand the Mabinogi? With Dr Gwilym Morus-Baird [This video serves as Rhiannon's Mabinogi Part 2]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-9YUVpg4sc -
The Celtic Wonder-child Myth (Rhiannon's Mabinogi Part 3) with Dr Gwilym Morus-Baird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxB7-vWamhg -
A Queen Betrayed (Rhiannon's Mabinogi Part 4) with Dr Gwilym Morus-Baird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0kfq4nyVcM
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Mhara Starling's Patreon:
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Welsh Deities course series:
https://www.patreon.com/mharastarling/posts
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Mhara Starling's YouTube Channel "Mhara Starling":
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What is Welsh Polytheism? | A Chat With Kristoffer Hughes | Welsh Celtic Paganism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDb31yAWNB0 -
Welsh Celtic Deities: Are the Welsh Gods REALLY Gods? | Welsh Celtic Paganism | Mhara Starling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x0BvrmR7UI -
Rhiannon | Welsh Goddess of Sovereignty | Welsh Deities 101
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRO2FQl5MZ
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Regarding Rhiannon's Father Heufydd Hen & His Ancient Gaulish Cognate Ogmios
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Brunaux, Jean-Louis, The Celtic Gauls: Gods, Rites and Sanctuaries, (London, Great Britain: B.A. Seaby, 1988).
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Lucian, The Works of Lucian : with an English translation, translated by A.M. Harmon, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1913), https://archive.org/details/lucianiii130luci/page/74/mode/2up. (Free)
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MacCana, Proinsias, Celtic Mythology, (Feltham, Hamlyn, 1970).
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Rhŷs, John, "All Around the Wrekin" in Y Cymmrodor, 31, (1908), https://archive.org/details/cu31924028058059/page/n71/mode/2up. (Free)