Gwydion fab Dôn: a Cymric god of the Mabinogi (Great in Knowledge)

Synonyms:
Cym: Great in Knowledge

Gwydion is the elder members of the Plant Dô and also the senior member of the primary triad of deities, Gwydion, Gofannon (great smith) and Amaethon (great husbander) that mark their mother Dôn as a 'Great Mother' archetype.

Gwydion is primarily known from the fourth branch of the Mabinogi, the tale of Math mab Mathonwy. Gwydion starts out as the foil of this tale, before emerging as its hero. He starts a war with Pryderi of Dyfed and steals the swine of Annwfn by exchanging them for gifts of steeds and greyhounds he has engendered from mushrooms. All of which is done so that his uncle Math mab Mathonwy goes to war, allowing Gwydion to aid his brother Gilfaethwy.html in raping Math's foot-holder, Goewin. During the ensuing war Gwydion kills Pryderi and secures the magical swine of Annwfn for Math. As punishment for the rape of Goewin (whom Math marries) Gwydion and Gilfaethwy.html are turned successively into male and female deer, swine and wolves to spend a year in each form and to bear sons one upon the other. This punishment concluded and the rift between Gwydion and Math is healed.

Math now asks Gwydion whom he would suggest as a replacement foot holder and Gwydion suggests his own sister, Arianrhod. She is brought and Math tests her to see whether she is a virgin. Upon stepping over Math's magic staff she bears a child, Dylan and a small dark object that Gwydion covers in cloth and hides in a chest at the foot of his bed. One morning Gwydion hears a cry and opens the chest to find a child there. This child is reared by a wet-nurse and grows very rapidly. At age two the child makes his own way to Math's llys and Gwydion takes him to his mother, Arianrhod, that he might meet his mother. At Arianrhod's llys she enquires of Gwydion as to who the boy following him is and he replies that this is Arianrhod's son. She berates Gwydion that he has brought the boy to shame her. And then enquires as to the name of the boy (the exact language being beth yw enw dy fab [what is the name of your son] a direct indication that the boy is the son of Arianrhod and Gwydion). Arianrhod then gives the boy a dihenydd (a fate) that he shall not receive a name save from herself. Using his magics Gwydion disguises himself and the boy as cobblers and they trick Arianrhod into visiting them; at which time the boy uses a needle to strike a wren in the leg and Arianrhod exclaims: 'truly, with a skilful hand did the fair one strike it.' and thus was the boy named Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Gwydion removes the glamour disguising them and Arianrhod places a further dihenydd on Lleu, that he shall not gain arms if it is not by her own hand.

Once again Math uses his magics and disguises himself and the boy as bards from Morgannwg and they go to Arianrhod's llys. There they entertain the court and the following morning Math fashions an invading fleet. Arianrhod implores him and the boy to help defend her llys and thus does Lleu gain his arms, given to him by his mother's hand. The illusion is dissolved and enraged Arianrhod places a third and final dihenydd on her son: that he shall not gain a wife from the race of mortal women. To overcome this fate Gwydion and Math arrange to create a wife for Lleu from the flowers of oak, broom and meadowsweet. And for this reason was she called Blodeuwedd. Blodeuwedd and Lleu are married, but one day as Lleu goes to his great uncle Math's llys Blodeuwedd meets a charming huntsman, Goronwy Bebyr and they fall in love. They decide to do away with Lleu and trick him into revealing how he may be slain. Goronwy casts a spear at Lleu which pierces him in the flank an, screaming, he flies away in the form of an eagle. News of this atrocity reach Math and Gwydion and Gwydion vows not to rest until Lleu is found. So he hunts the length of Gwynedd and Powys until he comes to the house of a villein whose swineherd watches over a sow who disappears each day. Gwydion follows the sow until she comes to a stop beneath a great oak tree and begins to feed on rotten flesh and maggots. At the crown of the oak Gwydion spies an injured eagle. Singing three englynion he entices the eagle into his lap and by dint of his magics he transforms the bird back into Lleu. Taking Lleu back to MAth's court at Caer Dathyl he nurses the boy back to health and then goes with him on his quest for revenge. Math eventually catches-up with Blodeuwedd and for her treachery he transforms her into an owl; a bird so loathed by other birds that it must dwell in the night-time and shun the company of her fellows lest she be attacked.

Gwydion is the archetypal great mage; able to create animals from mushrooms, leather and boats from seaweed, a woman from flowers and able to create the illusion of an invading fleet almost at will. He is great in knowledge (which is also the literal meaning of his name). Indeed, Gwydion could be considered as the deified personification of a druid. Indeed, the Cymric form of druid, Derwydd contains the same same component Gwydd (meaning knowledge) that is also found in Gwydion's name.

Outside of the Mabinogi of Math mab Mathonwy Gwydion is also known from the Taliesin saga (see Ystoria Taliesin) and also triads 28 and 67 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein which all allude to or correspond with the tale and properties expounded in the Mabinogi of Math. He is also referred to in the Llyfr Taliesin. The poem entitled Kadeir Kerrituen (Cerridwen's Chair) has the following lines:

Gwydyon ap don dygyn uertheu.
A hudwys gwreic a vlodeu.
A dyduc moch o deheu.
Kan bu idaw dis goreu.
Drut y myt a gwryt pletheu.
A rithwys gorwydawt
Y ar plagawt lys.
ac enwerys kyfrwyeu.

Gwydion the son of Don, of great abilities,
He encanted a woman to be,
And brought pigs from the South,
For he was the greatest of learning;
Brave one in the world, interweaving me
And made from illusion steeds,
To please the court [To please Pryderi's court?]
bearing wonderful saddles.

Another passage in the Llyfr Taliesin, in the poem the Kat Godeu (Battle of the Trees) Gwydion is credited in this line am swynwys i wytyon mawnut o brython (Gwydion, great leader of the Brython, charmed me into being) with the creation of Taliesin himself. This should be considered with the other allusions to Gwydion in this poem. The poem describes a conflict between Arawn and Brân on the side of the underworld and Gwydion and Amaethon on the side of the Plant Dôn. The battle being occasioned by Amaethon's theft of a sacred dog, a lapwing and a roebuck. By dint of his magic Gwydion makes the grass and trees march off in his defence. Gwydion finally wins the day by defeating Brân, which can only be done by someone who recognizes his tree-emblem of the alder. Thus is Brân defeated and Gwydion becomes victorious.

Again, in the poem Kadeir Kerrituen we have this passage:

Gweleis ymlad taer yn nant ffrangcon
Duw sul pryt pylgeint rwg wytheint a gwydyon
Dyf ieu y geugant yd aethant von
y geissaw yscut [?ysgod] a hudolyon

I saw fierce fighting at Nant Ffrangcon
On Sunday, in the early morn between Gwydion and the wrathful men
On Thursay, indeed, they went to Môn
To seek shades and enchanters

Gwydion's associations are all with Gwynedd, most notably with Dinas Dinlle and, indeed, even today there is a Bryn Gwydion (Gwydion's Hill) near Clynnog Fawr. The Peniarth 98b 'stanzas of the graves' gives Gwydion's grave as 'Morfa Dinlen' which, once again, probably refers to Dinas Dinlleu. All this would point towards Gwydion's original mythos having been far more extensive than what has currently survived. There was probably an extensive mythos about the raid on Annwfn, which only survives in the Câd Goddeu poem, further adventures of Gwydion and his son Lleu, and battles which we have no means of placing in context.

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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