by Elizabeth Hedger

Created on: December 20, 2011

The story of Bleiddwn the Wolfling is told in the fourth of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, a series of legends which form part of the Mabinogion. These late-medieval Welsh legends are taken from two manuscripts – the Red Book of Hergest (c. 1325) and the White Book of Rhydderch (c. 1400) – and were translated into English in 1838-49 by Lady Charlotte Guest. The word “Mabinogion” comes from an error at the end of the First Branch of the Mabinogi, and was applied by Lady Charlotte as a title for the whole collection.

The Fourth Branch tells the story of Math ap Mathonwy, a powerful sorcerer and lord of Gwynedd in the north of Wales. Unless he is at war Math must keep his feet upon the lap of a virgin – or die. While he sits in his stronghold, the golden fortress of Caer Dathyl, with his feet in the lap of the virgin Goewin, he leaves the business of running the kingdom to his nephews Gwydyon and Gilvaethwy.

Gilvaethwy loves Goewin but knows that her duty as his uncle’s foot-holder places her firmly out of reach. Sympathetic to his brother’s plight, Gwydyon devises a scheme to help him. He disguises himself as a bard and uses his skills as a storyteller to charm Pryderi, the ruler of Dyfed in the south-west of Wales. He then deploys sorcery to cheat Pryderi and lure him into starting a war against Gwynedd.

The presence of an advancing army releases Math from his need for Goewin and allows his absence from Caer Dathyl. While he leads his men into battle, Gilvaethwy attempts to seduce Goewin. When she rejects his overtures, he rapes her.

After Gwydyon kills Pryderi in single combat, Math returns to the castle and goes looking or his foot-holder. When he finds Goewin she tells him that she can no longer serve him, and thus Math discovers what his nephews have conspired to do.

He promises that he will marry Goewin to spare her from shame. Then he vents his anger upon Gwydyon and Gilvaethwy, striking them with his magic wand to deliver his punishment. Gwydyon is transformed into a stag, Gilvaethwy into a hind. Math banishes them into the forest with orders to mate, and to return in a year’s time with their offspring.

A year later they return to Caer Dathyl with a fawn. Math changes the fawn into a human child and names him Hyddwn (“stag-man”). Then he strikes his nephews with his wand, transforming Gwydyon into a wild sow and Gilvaethwy into a wild boar. With the same instructions as before, Math exiles them back into the forest.

A year later they return with a piglet, large for its age, which Math changes into a red-haired boy and names Hychdwn Hir (“sow-man the long”). With two more strikes of his magic wand he transforms his nephews into a pair of wolves, reversing their genders once again.

After another year in the forest they return with a wolf cub, which Math changes into a human child and names Bleiddwn (“wolf-man”). At last he declares that Gwydyon and Gilvaethwy have been punished enough for their crime, restores them to their human forms, and accepts them back into his court. He then asks them to provide him with a new foot-holder, and Gwydyon offers their sister Arianrhod.

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