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TOPIC: The Myth of Blodeuwedd
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/3cc92da4a8e2af80?hl=en
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== 1 of 4 ==
Date: Wed, Jan 2 2008 10:35 am
From: James Parton

ENTS,

The tale of Blodeuwedd comes from the Welsh tales of the Mabinogion,
which is an ancient collection of such stories. All are awesome. As in
many celtic tales, trees & the natural world are woven throught them.
The Mabinogion can be a bit hard to find but I lucked out & found a
copy of it at the public library about 7 years ago. The tale of
Blodeuwedd ( Or Blodeuedd ) is one of my favorite celtic tales.

It goes as this.....

Blodeuwedd, whose name means " flower face " was created from the
flowers of oak, broom & meadowsweet by the druids Gwyddion & Mathonwy
as a wife for Gwyddion's nephew Llew. This arose because Llew had been
cursed by his mother Arianrhod that he would never win a mortal bride.

While Llew was away one day Blodeuwedd saw Gronw hunting in the woods
and the two fell madly in love at first sight. She and Gronw made
plans to kill Llew, but because he was no mere mortal, Gronw asked his
lover to discover for him the secret of his death. Blodeuwedd coaxed
the information out of Llew, and not only passed the information on to
Gronw, but tricked Llew into being in the right place at the right
time. When struck by Gronw's spear, which was a year in the making,
Llew turned into an eagle & flew away.

Gwyddion sought out Blodeuwedd to seek revenge, and for her punishment
decided to turn her into a bird, which only was active at night. One
all other birds feared. Thus she became an owl. Blodeuwedd is " Owl "
in Welsh to this day.

The above is only a brief summary. It would take me forever to type it
in complete from memory.

There are a number of variations on this legend. On some she was
magically constructed using 9 plants ( oak, meadowsweet, broom,
cockle, bean, nettle, chestnut, primrose, and hawthorn ) I have
attached some links concerning the Blodeuwedd legend.


http://www.global.visitwales.com/server.php?show=nav.3689 

http://www.druidry.org/obod/deities/blodeuwedd.html 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blodeuwedd 

Incidentally, Blodeuwedd was pictured as being not surprisingly, very
beautiful. In some versions of the legend Llew dies but in most he
turns into an eagle and is found and restored to his original form by
Gwyddion. This was so in the Mabinogion I read.

James Parton

== 2 of 4 ==
Date: Wed, Jan 2 2008 10:47 am
From: dbhguru@comcast.net


James,

Thanks. Enchanting and just what we needed.

Bob

== 3 of 4 ==
Date: Wed, Jan 2 2008 11:03 am
From: James Parton


Bob,

I thought everyone may need a break from all those forestry
discussions!

James P.

== 4 of 4 ==
Date: Wed, Jan 2 2008 11:43 am
From: dbhguru@comcast.net

James,

And right you were. Got any more Celtic jewels, oh sage one?

Bob