[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Gwawl, son of Clud, and is the suitor to escape from whom she had fled to Pwyll.
Pwyll is bound in honour by his word, and Rhiannon explains that the banquet cannot be given to Gwawl, for
it is not in Pwyll's power, but that she herself will be his bride in a twelvemonth; Gwawl is to come and claim
her then, and a new bridal feast will be prepared for him. Meantime she concerts a plan with Pwyll, and gives
Chapter VIII: Myths and Tales of the Cymry 179
 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race
him a certain magical bag, which he is to make use of when the time shall come.
A year passed away, Gwawl appeared according to the compact, and a great feast was again set forth, in
which he, and not Pwyll, had the place of honour. As the company were making merry, however, a beggar
clad in rags and shod with clumsy old shoes came into the hall, carrying a bag, as beggars are wont to do. He
humbly craved a boon of Gwawl. It was merely that full of his bag of food might be given him from
[361]
the banquet. Gwawl cheerfully consented, and an attendant went to fill the bag. But however much they put
into it it never got fuller - by degrees all the good things on the tables had gone in; and at last Gwawl cried :
"My soul, will thy bag never be full?"
"It will not, I declare to heaven," answered Pwyll - for he, of course, was the disguised beggar man - "unless
some man wealthy in lands and treasure shall get into the bag and stamp it down with his feet, and declare,
'Enough has been put herein."' Rhiannon urged Gwawl to check the voracity of the bag. He put his two feet
into it; Pwyll immediately drew up the sides of the bag over Gwawl's head and tied it up. Then he blew his
horn, and the knights he had with him, who were concealed outside, rushed in, and captured and bound the
followers of Gwawl. "What is in the bag ?" they cried, and others answered, "A badger," and so they played
the game of "Badger in the Bag," striking it and kicking it about the hall.
At last a voice was heard from it. "Lord," cried Gwawl, "if thou wouldst but hear me, I merit not to be slain in
a bag." "He speaks truth," said Hevydd Hen.
So an agreement was come to that Gwawl should provide means for Pwyll to satisfy all the suitors and
minstrels who should come to the wedding, and abandon Rhiannon, and never seek to have revenge for what
had been done to him. This was confirmed by sureties, and Gwawl and his men were released and went to
their own territory. And Pwyll wedded Rhiannon, and dispensed gifts royally to all and sundry; and at last the
pair, when the feasting was done, journeyed down to the palace of Narberth in Dyfed, where Rhiannon gave
rich gifts, a bracelet and a ring or a precious atone to all the lords and ladies of
[362]
her new country, and they ruled the land in peace both that year and the next. But the reader will find that we
have not yet done with Gwawl.
The Penance of Rhiannon
Now Pwyll was still without an heir to the throne, and his nobles urged him to take another wile. "Grant us a
year longer," said he, "and if there be no heir after that it shall be as you wish." Before the year's end a son
was born to them in Narberth. But although six women sat up to watch the mother and the infant, it happened
towards the morning that they all fell asleep, and Rhiannon also slept, and when the women awoke, behold,
the boy was gone ! "We shall be burnt for this," said the women, and in their terror they concocted a horrible
plot: they killed a cub of a staghound that had just been littered, and laid the bones by Rhiannon, and smeared
her face and hands with blood as she slept, and when she woke and asked for her child they said she had
devoured it in the night, and had overcome them with furious strength when they would have prevented her -
and for all she could say or do the six women persisted in this story.
Chapter VIII: Myths and Tales of the Cymry 180
 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race
When the story was told to Pwyll he would not put away Rhiannon, as his nobles now again begged him to
do, but a penance was imposed on her - namely, that she was to sit every day by the horse-block at the gate
of the castle and tell the tale to every stranger who came, and offer to carry them on her back into the castle.
And this she did for part of a year.
The Finding of Pryderi [prounounced ãPry-dairóyä]
Now at this time there lived a man named Teirnyon of Gwent Is Coed, who had the most beautiflil mare in
[363]
the world, but there was this misfortune attending her, that although she foaled on the night of every first of
May, none ever knew what became of the colts. At last Teirnyon resolved to get at the truth of the matter, and
the next night on which the mare should foal he armed himself and watched in the stable. So the mare foaled,
and the colt stood up, and Teirnyon was admiring its size and beauty when a great noise was heard outside,
and a long, clawed arm came through the window of the stable and laid hold of the colt. Teirnyon
immediately smote at the arm with his sword, and severed it at the elbow, so that it fell inside with the colt,
and a great wailing and tumult was heard outside. He rushed out, leaving the door open behind him, but could [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]