Rhiannon

The horse comes on at an easy walk, and the fastest riders in Dyfed cannot close the gap. Pwyll sends one man, then another, then spurs his own mount until its flanks run with sweat, and the pale mare ahead never quickens, never slows, never lets a rider gain a single length. On its back sits a woman in gold brocaded silk that burns in the low light. She does not glance behind her. Only when Pwyll gives up the chase and simply calls out, asking her to stop, does she rein in and turn, and she tells him plainly that she has been waiting for him to ask, and that it would have been kinder to the horse if he had asked sooner.

She had appeared on the mound above Arberth, a rise where any nobleman who sat would either take a blow or witness something strange. Pwyll saw the strange thing: a rider passing on the road below, and no way to overtake her though he tried three days running. Her name was Rhiannon, daughter of Hyfaidd Hen, and she had come from beyond the ordinary world to find him. Behind the medieval story stands something much older. The name descends from a Brittonic form, Rigantona, the Great Queen, and the woman on the untiring horse carries the shape of a horse goddess into a tale that treats her as a mortal bride. She belongs to the same family as the Gaulish Epona, honoured with her mares across the Roman world, and the Irish Macha, made to race the king’s horses while heavy with child. Not everyone accepts the equation. The horse, though, is hard to argue with.

Rhiannon had been promised to another, a man named Gwawl, and she wanted Pwyll instead, so she arranged the substitution herself. At the wedding feast a year later a stranger in fine clothes asked Pwyll for a favour, and Pwyll, who had not thought the request through, granted it before hearing what it was. The stranger was Gwawl, and the favour was Rhiannon and the feast set before her. She did not panic. She handed Pwyll a small enchanted bag that could never be filled and told him exactly how to use it. When Gwawl came to claim his bride, Pwyll begged only that the bag be filled with food; it swallowed everything and stayed empty, until Gwawl was coaxed into pressing the provisions down with his own feet, at which point Pwyll pulled the mouth of the bag up over his head and drew the string tight. Pwyll’s men, waiting outside, came in and struck the bundle one after another, asking each other what could be inside such a bag, and the game they invented that night was called Badger in the Bag. Gwawl bought his freedom with a promise to seek no revenge. The promise did not hold, but that came later.

Rhiannon bore Pwyll a son. On the night of the birth, six women set to watch mother and child fell asleep, and when they woke the boy was gone. Terrified they would be put to death, they killed a stray pup, smeared its blood on the sleeping Rhiannon’s face and hands, and scattered the bones beside her, and when she woke they swore she had devoured her own child in the night. She was innocent, and it did not matter. The word of six frightened women outweighed hers.

The penance she accepted, or was handed, turned the goddess of horses into a beast of burden. For seven years she was to sit each day by the mounting block at the gate of the court, tell every arriving stranger the crime laid against her, and offer to carry them into the hall on her own back, like a horse. Most declined to be carried. She sat there through the seasons regardless, in the cold and the wet, a queen at the threshold reciting her own disgrace to anyone who would hear it.

The child had not been eaten. On the far side of the country a lord named Teyrnon kept a mare that foaled every May eve, and every year the foal vanished before morning. He lay in wait with his sword, and when a great clawed arm reached in through the stable window to seize the newborn colt, he hacked it off at the elbow. Outside the door, left behind in the confusion, he found a human infant wrapped in silk. He and his wife raised the boy, who grew with unnatural speed and loved horses above all things, until the resemblance to Pwyll became impossible to ignore. They carried him back to Dyfed. Rhiannon’s first words on seeing him lifted the burden from her, and the boy was named from her own cry of relief and worry: Pryderi. Her penance ended in the same breath that returned her son.

Her name outlived her story. Three birds are called the Birds of Rhiannon, and their song does impossible things, waking the dead and lulling the living into sleep. In the tale of Branwen, seven men come home from a ruinous war in Ireland and halt at Harlech, where the birds sing to them from somewhere far out over the sea. The song is so clear the men feel the birds are perched beside them, and it holds them at the feast for seven years without one of them noticing the time slip past. In another tale the birds are set as an impossible task, one prize among many that a giant demands before he will surrender his daughter.

After Pwyll died, Rhiannon married Manawydan, and the old grudge finally came due. A magician named Llwyd, a friend of the Gwawl she had once tricked, laid a wasting spell on the whole of Dyfed until it stood empty of people and herds. Chasing a shining white boar, Rhiannon and Pryderi came upon a fort that had not been there before, and inside it a golden bowl hanging from chains above the floor. Pryderi gripped the bowl and could not release it or speak; Rhiannon went in after him and stuck fast the same way, and the fort vanished with them both inside. In their prison they were made to wear the labour of animals, Rhiannon with the collars of asses about her neck and Pryderi with the gate-hammers of the court. Manawydan freed them only by outwitting Llwyd, trapping the magician’s wife in the shape of a mouse and refusing every ransom offered until Dyfed and its people were restored. The woman no one could catch on a horse spent her captivity yoked like one.

What power she holds runs through horses, patience, and the odd grace of the Otherworld she came from. Her mount cannot be overtaken, her birds bend both time and death, and when she chooses a husband the choice stands against every rival with a stronger legal claim. Her limits are the stranger thing in a figure so close to a goddess. She is bound again and again by the words of other people: by Pwyll’s careless promise, which nearly cost her the marriage, and by the lie of six servants, which cost her seven years at the gate. She endures rather than escapes. Twice her freedom is stripped from her by men settling scores that began with her, and twice it is a husband, not her own strength, that hands it back. The Great Queen spends much of her tale waiting at a threshold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Rhiannon in Welsh mythology?

Rhiannon is a queen and likely horse goddess of Welsh mythology who first appears in the First Branch of the Mabinogi. She rides an uncatchable pale horse, chooses the prince Pwyll as her husband, and later endures a false accusation of murdering her own newborn son. Her name derives from the Brittonic Rigantona, meaning “Great Queen.”

What was Rhiannon’s punishment and why?

Rhiannon was falsely accused of killing and eating her infant son after her six maidservants, who had let the baby vanish on their watch, smeared her with a dead puppy’s blood to shift the blame onto her. Her penance was to sit by the mounting block outside the court for seven years, tell every arriving visitor the crime, and offer to carry them into the hall on her back like a horse. She was cleared when her son Pryderi was found alive and returned.

What are the Birds of Rhiannon?

The Birds of Rhiannon are three magical birds whose song can wake the dead and lull the living to sleep. In the tale of Branwen they sing to seven survivors of a war at Harlech and hold them spellbound at a feast for seven years, even though the birds sing from far out over the sea. They are also demanded as one of the impossible tasks in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen.

Is Rhiannon connected to Epona and Macha?

Yes. Rhiannon is widely identified with the Gaulish horse goddess Epona and compared to the Irish figure Macha, all of them linked to horses and sovereignty. The connection rests on her name (from Rigantona, “Great Queen”), her uncatchable horse, and her mare-and-foal association with her son Pryderi. Some scholars are skeptical of treating her as a straightforward goddess rather than a literary character.

Who are Rhiannon’s husbands and children?

Rhiannon first marries Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, and their son is Pryderi, the only character to appear in all Four Branches of the Mabinogi. After Pwyll’s death she marries Manawydan. In the Third Branch she and Pryderi are imprisoned in an enchanted fort by the magician Llwyd, in revenge for her earlier rejection of Gwawl, until Manawydan frees them.

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Pwyll, Pryderi, Bendigeidfran, Arawn, Cŵn Annwn, Gwyn ap Nudd, Twrch Trwyth, Ceffyl Dwr, Epona