THE WOOING OF BRANWEN AND THE
BEHEADING OF BRÂN[336]
In the second of the “Four Branches”, Pryderi, come to man’s estate, and
married to a wife called Kicva, appears as a guest or vassal at the
court of a greater god of Hades than himself—Brân, the son of the
sea-god Llyr. The children of Llyr—Brân, with his sister Branwen of the
“Fair Bosom” and his half-brother Manawyddan, as well as two sons of
Manawyddan’s mother, Penardun, by an earlier marriage, were holding
court at _Twr Branwen_, “Branwen’s Tower”, now called Harlech. As they
sat on a cliff, looking over the sea, they saw thirteen ships coming
from Ireland. The fleet sailed close under the land, and Brân sent
messengers to ask who they were, and why they had come. It was replied
that they were the vessels of Matholwch, King of Ireland, and that he
had come to ask Brân for his sister Branwen in marriage. Brân consented,
and they fixed upon Aberffraw, in Anglesey, as the place at which to
hold the wedding feast. Matholwch and his fleet went there by sea, and
Brân and his host by land. When they arrived, and met, they set up
pavilions; for “no house could ever hold the blessed Brân”. And there
Branwen became the King of Ireland’s bride.[337]
These relations were not long, however, allowed to be friendly. Of the
two other sons of Llyr’s wife, Penardun, the mother of Manawyddan, one
was called Nissyen, and the other, Evnissyen. Nissyen was a lover of
peace, and would always “cause his family to be friends when their wrath
was at the highest”, but Evnissyen “would cause strife between his two
brothers when they were most at peace”. Now Evnissyen was enraged
because his consent had not been asked to Branwen’s marriage. Out of
spite at this, he cut off the lips, ears, eyebrows, and tails of all
Matholwch’s horses.
When the King of Ireland found this out, he was very indignant at the
insult. But Brân sent an embassy to him twice, explaining that it had
not been done by his consent or with his knowledge. He appeased
Matholwch by giving him a sound horse in place of every one that
Evnissyen had mutilated, as well as a staff of silver as large and tall
as Matholwch himself, and a plate of gold as broad as Matholwch’s face.
To these gifts he also added a magic cauldron brought from Ireland. Its
property was that any slain man who was put into it was brought to life
again, except that he lost the use of speech. The King of Ireland
accepted this recompense for the insult done him, renewed his friendship
with the children of Llyr, and sailed away with Branwen to Ireland.
Before a year was over, Branwen bore a son. They called him Gwern, and
put him out to be foster-nursed among the best men of Ireland. But,
during the second year, news came to Ireland of the insult that
Matholwch had received in Britain. The King of Ireland’s foster-brothers
and near relations insisted that he should revenge himself upon Branwen.
So the queen was compelled to serve in the kitchen, and, every day, the
butcher gave her a box upon the ear. That this should not become known
to Brân, all traffic was forbidden between Ireland and Britain. This
went on for three years.
But, in the meantime, Branwen had reared a tame starling, and she taught
it to speak, and tied a letter of complaint to the root of its wing, and
sent it off to Britain. At last it found Brân, whom its mistress had
described to it, and settled upon his shoulder, ruffling its wings. This
exposed the letter, and Brân read it. He sent messengers to one hundred
and forty-four countries, to raise an army to go to Ireland. Leaving his
son Caradawc, with seven others, in charge of Britain, he
started—himself wading through the sea, while his men went by ship.
No one in Ireland knew that they were coming until the royal swineherds,
tending their pigs near the sea-shore, beheld a marvel. They saw a
forest on the surface of the sea—a place where certainly no forest had
been before—and, near it, a mountain with a lofty ridge on its top, and
a lake on each side of the ridge. Both the forest and the mountain were
swiftly moving towards Ireland. They informed Matholwch, who could not
understand it, and sent messengers to ask Branwen what she thought it
might be. “It is the men of the Island of the Mighty[338],” said she,
“who are coming here because they have heard of my ill-treatment. The
forest that is seen on the sea is made of the masts of ships. The
mountain is my brother Brân, wading into shoal water; the lofty ridge is
his nose, and the two lakes, one on each side of it, are his eyes.”
The men of Ireland were terrified. They fled beyond the Shannon, and
broke down the bridge over it. But Brân lay down across the river, and
his army walked over him to the opposite side.
Matholwch now sent messengers suing for peace. He offered to resign the
throne of Ireland to Gwern, Branwen’s son and Brân’s nephew. “Shall I
not have the kingdom myself?” said Brân, and would not hear of anything
else. So the counsellors of Matholwch advised him to conciliate Brân by
building him a house so large that it would be the first house that had
ever held him, and, in it, to hand over the kingdom to his will. Brân
consented to accept this, and the vast house was built.
It concealed treachery. Upon each side of the hundred pillars of the
house was hung a bag, and in the bag was an armed man, who was to cut
himself out at a given signal. But Evnissyen came into the house, and
seeing the bags there, suspected the plot. “What is in this bag?” he
said to one of the Irish, as he came up to the first one. “Meal,”
replied the Irishman. Then Evnissyen kneaded the bag in his hands, as
though it really contained meal, until he had killed the man inside; and
he treated all of them in turn in the same way.
A little later, the two hosts met in the house. The men of Ireland came
in on one side, and the men of Britain on the other, and met at the
hearth in the middle, and sat down. The Irish court did homage to Brân,
and they crowned Gwern, Branwen’s son, King of Ireland in place of
Matholwch. When the ceremonies were over, the boy went from one to
another of his uncles, to make acquaintance with them. Brân fondled and
caressed him, and so did Manawyddan, and Nissyen. But when he came to
Evnissyen, the wicked son of Penardun seized the child by the feet, and
dropped him head first into the great fire.
When Branwen saw her son killed, she tried to leap into the flames after
him, but Brân held her back. Then every man armed himself, and such a
tumult was never heard in one house before. Day after day they fought;
but the Irish had the advantage, for they had only to plunge their dead
men into the magic cauldron to bring them back to life. When Evnissyen
knew this, he saw a way of atoning for the misfortunes his evil nature
had brought upon Britain. He disguised himself as an Irishman, and lay
upon the floor as if dead, until they put him into the cauldron. Then he
stretched himself, and, with one desperate effort, burst both the
cauldron and his own heart.
Thus things were made equal again, and in the next battle the men of
Britain killed all the Irish. But of themselves there were only seven
left unhurt—Pryderi; Manawyddan; Gluneu, the son of Taran[339]; Taliesin
the Bard; Ynawc; Grudyen, the son of Muryel; and Heilyn, the son of
Gwynn the Ancient.
Brân himself was wounded in the foot with a poisoned dart, and was in
agony. So he ordered his seven surviving followers to cut off his head,
and to take it to the White Mount in London[340], and bury it there,
with the face towards France. He prophesied how they would perform the
journey. At Harlech they would be feasting seven years, the birds of
Rhiannon singing to them all the time, and Brân’s own head conversing
with them as agreeably as when it was on his body. Then they would be
fourscore years at Gwales[341]. All this while, Brân’s head would remain
uncorrupted, and would talk so pleasantly that they would forget the
flight of time. But, at the destined hour, someone would open a door
which looked towards Cornwall, and, after that, they could stay no
longer, but must hurry to London to bury the head.
So the seven beheaded Brân, and set off, taking Branwen also with them.
They landed at the mouth of the River Alaw, in Anglesey. Branwen first
looked back towards Ireland, and then forward towards Britain. “Alas,”
she cried, “that I was ever born! two islands have been destroyed
because of me.” Her heart broke with sorrow, and she died. An old Welsh
poem says, with a touch of real pathos:
“Softened were the voices in the brakes
Of the wondering birds
On seeing the fair body.
Will there not be relating again
Of that which befel the paragon
At the stream of Amlwch?”[342]
“They made her a four-sided grave,” says the Mabinogi, “and buried her
upon the banks of the Alaw.” The traditionary spot has always borne the
name of _Ynys Branwen_, and, curiously enough, an urn was found there,
in 1813, full of ashes and half-burnt bones, which certain enthusiastic
local antiquaries saw “every reason to suppose” were those of the fair
British Aphrodité herself.[343]
The seven went on towards Harlech, and, as they journeyed, they met men
and women who gave them the latest news. Caswallawn, a son of Beli, the
husband of Dôn, had destroyed the ministers left behind by Brân to take
care of Britain. He had made himself invisible by the help of a magic
veil, and thus had killed all of them except Pendaran Dyfed,
foster-father of Pryderi, who had escaped into the woods, and Caradawc
son of Brân, whose heart had broken from grief. Thus he had made himself
king of the whole island in place of Manawyddan, its rightful heir now
that Brân was dead.
However, the destiny was upon the seven that they should go on with
their leader’s head. They went to Harlech and feasted for seven years,
the three birds of Rhiannon singing them songs compared with which all
other songs seemed unmelodious. Then they spent fourscore years in the
Isle of Gwales, eating and drinking, and listening to the pleasant
conversation of Brân’s head. The “Entertaining of the Noble Head” this
eighty years’ feast was called. Brân’s head, indeed, is almost more
notable in British mythology than Brân before he was decapitated.
Taliesin and the other bards invoke it repeatedly as _Urddawl Ben_ (the
“Venerable Head”) and _Uther Ben_ (the “Wonderful Head”).
But all pleasure came to an end when Heilyn, the son of Gwynn, opened
the forbidden door, like Bluebeard’s wife, “to know if that was true
which was said concerning it”. As soon as they looked towards Cornwall,
the glamour that had kept them merry for eighty-seven years failed, and
left them as grieved about the death of their lord as though it had
happened that very day. They could not rest for sorrow, but went at once
to London, and laid the now dumb and corrupting head in its grave on
Tower Hill, with its face turned towards France, to watch that no foe
came from foreign lands to Britain. There it reposed until, ages
afterwards, Arthur, in his pride of heart, dug it up, “as he thought it
beneath his dignity to hold the island otherwise than by valour”.
Disaster, in the shape of
“the godless hosts
Of heathen swarming o’er the Northern sea”,[344]
came of this disinterment; and therefore it is called, in a triad, one
of the “Three Wicked Uncoverings of Britain”.
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Footnote 336:
Retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the Mabinogi of _Branwen, the
Daughter of Llyr_.
Footnote 337:
Rhys—_Lectures on Welsh Philology_—compares Matholwch with Mâth, and
the story, generally, with the Greek myth of Persephoné.
Footnote 338:
A bardic name for Britain.
Footnote 339:
This personage may have been the same as the Gaulish god Taranis.
Mention, too, is made in an ancient Irish glossary of “Etirun, an idol
of the Britons”.
Footnote 340:
This spot, called by a twelfth-century Welsh poet “The White Eminence
of London, a place of splendid fame”, was probably the hill on which
the Tower of London now stands.
Footnote 341:
The island of Gresholm, off the coast of Pembrokeshire.
Footnote 342:
_The Gododin_ of Aneurin, as translated by T. Stephens. Branwen is
there called “the lady Bradwen”.
Footnote 343:
See note to _Branwen, the Daughter of Llyr_ in Lady Guest’s
_Mabinogion_.
Footnote 344:
Tennyson: _Idylls of the King_—“Guinevere”.
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