Rhiannon

Rhiannon riding in Arberth. From The Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest, 1877

Rhiannon (/ˈrænən/) is a major figure in Welsh mythology, appearing in the First Branch of the Mabinogi, and again in the Third Branch. Ronald Hutton called her "one of the great female personalities in World literature", adding that "there is in fact, nobody quite like her in previous human literature".[1] In the Mabinogi, Rhiannon is a strong-minded Otherworld woman, who chooses Pwyll, prince of Dyfed (west Wales), as her consort, in preference to another man to whom she has already been betrothed. She is intelligent, politically strategic, beautiful, and famed for her wealth and generosity. With Pwyll she has a son, the hero Pryderi, who later inherits the lordship of Dyfed. She endures tragedy when her newborn child is abducted, and she is accused of infanticide. As a widow she marries Manawydan of the British royal family, and has further adventures involving enchantments.

Like some other figures of British/Welsh literary tradition, Rhiannon may be a reflection of an earlier Celtic deity. Her name appears to derive from the reconstructed Brittonic form *Rīgantonā, a derivative of *rīgan- "queen" (cf. Welsh rhiain ‘maiden’, Old Irish rígain ‘queen’). In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, Rhiannon is strongly associated with horses, and so is her son Pryderi. She is often considered to be related to the Gaulish horse goddess Epona.[2][3] She and her son are often depicted as mare and foal. Like Epona, she sometimes sits on her horse in a calm, stoic way.[4] This connection with Epona is generally accepted among scholars of the Mabinogi and Celtic studies, but Ronald Hutton, a historian of paganism, is skeptical.[5]

  1. ^ Hutton, Ronald (5 May 2023). "Finding Lost Gods in Wales". YouTube. Gresham College. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  2. ^ Ford, Patrick K. (12 February 2008). The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520253964 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ e.g. Sioned Davies (trans.), The Mabinogion, Oxford 2007, p. 231.
  4. ^ Gruffydd, W. J. Rhiannon: An Inquiry into the Origins of the First and Third Branches of the Mabinogi
  5. ^ Hutton, Ronald (2014). Pagan Britain. Yale University Press. p. 366. ISBN 978-0300197716.