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Dywana
A Cymric Arthurian Heroine: She Who is Come Upon
Dywana is a Cymric heroine known from the genealogies of the Old North where she is named as Arthur's aunt and mother of Tallwch, the father of Drystan (Tristan). |
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Cym: She Who is Come Upon
Dylan is a member of the Cymric tribe of deities, the Plant Dôn. He is the son of Arianrhod and the twin brother of Lleu Llaw-gyffes.
Tales concerning Dylan occur in the Mabinogi of Math fab Mathonwy. He is also named in the Taliesin poem Marwnat Dylan eil Ton (The Elegy of Dylan, descendant of Dôn).
In the Mabinogi of Math fab Mathonwy, after Math's original foot-holder is raped by Gilfaethwy a replacement is sought and Gwydion suggests his sister, Arianrhod. As Math's foot-holder had to be a virgin and when Gwydion enquired of Arianrhod whether she was a virgin or not she replied that she did not know. So Gwydion devised a test for her. She was required to step step over Gwydion’s staff. On steppping over she gave birth to a tall, fair, child and then she gave birth to a dark being whom Gwydion immediately covered in a cloak and sequestered in a chest within his room. This being grew into Lleu Llaw-gyffes.
The first of these twinned pair of children was baptized and Math named him Dylan. As soon as he had received his name he ran away and plunged into the sea. Immediately he was immersed he took the sea's nature and swam as well as the most magnificent fish in the great ocean. For that reason was he named Dylan eil Ton, (Dylan son of Wave) as beneath him no wave would ever break.
Dylan's tale in the Mabinogi ends with the rather cryptic statement that "And the blow whereby he came to his death, was struck by his uncle Gofannon. The third fatal blow was it called." This seems to allude to a lost tale where Gofannon, the smith god, kills his own nephew, Dylan possibly using his magical spear. It may have been that Dylan was in fish form and Gofannon was simply fishing; however this can never be known.
The final chapter in Dylan's tale comes from the poem Marwnad Dylan eil Ton, attributed to Taliesyn whereupon all the waves or Ireland, Scotland and Britain weep over his death. Folklore attributes the restless crash of the sea as an expression of longing to avenge Dylan's death. Around Afon Conwy (the Conwy River) this roar is still termed "Dylan's death groan".
Dylan's name is a concatenation of the modern Cymric words Duw and Glan giving us 'god of the (fore)shore'. Some have said that Dylan's formal descriptive of Dylan eil Don means 'sea son of wave'. However, the Don part of the ancestral descriptor probably refers to his grandmother the goddess Dôn, especially as the term eil (though it can sometimes mean son-of) generally means 'descendant'. Thus Dylan's full descriptive title when translated to English is: God of the (fore)Shore, descendant of Dôn.
If you would like to try the foods of the time of the ancient Celts, then why not have a look at the ancient recipes section of this site. For the foods of the time when some of these tales were written down, take a look at the Medieval recipes section of the site and, in particular, the recipes from The Forme of Cury.
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