Manawyddan: a Cymric god (He who came from [the Isle of] Man)

Synonyms: Maelgwn Gwynedd, Maglocunos
Cym: He who came from [the Isle of] Man

Manawyddan exists as a figure in both the Cymric and Irish mediaeval tales. In the Cymric mythos he is the brother of Brân and Branwen. They are all the children of Llŷr and Penarddun. As one of the chief members of the Plant Llŷr (children of Llŷr) and as such he figures in the Mabinogi of Branwen Ferch Llŷr as well as the Mabinogi of Manawyddan fab Llŷr. Though Manawyddan is involved in almost all the events of the Mabinogi of Branwen ferch Ll±r he is there as an observer. His only real role is to be one of the seven survivors of the Brythonic invasion of Ireland to return to Britain with Brân's head. His story really starts in the next tale, the Mabinogi of Manawyddan fab Llŷr.

After the events of the Mabinogi of Branwen ferch Llŷr, Manawyddan is the only man left without a realm and Pryderi (who also survived the war in Ireland) offers his own realm to Manawyddan and gifts him his mother, Rhiannon to be Manawyddan's wife. Whereupon Pryderi and Manawyddan come to the seven cantrefs of Dyfed where Rhiannon and Cigfa (Pryderi's wife) prepare a feast for them. After the feast is done, Pryderi and Manawyddan depart for Oxford to pay homage to Caswallon fab Beli who, after Brân's death is now king of Britain. They return to Narberth and a feast is prepared for them and when they had feasted they made their way to the Gorsedd of Narberth and as they sat there they heard a peal of thunder and a thick fog sprang up about them and after the mist came a bright light and when they looked all the animals and all the people about them were gone, so that only Manawyddan, Pryderi, Rhiannon and Cigfa were left.

They hunt and feast, but after two years they grow weary and go to Lloegr (England) to ply a craft whereby they can sustain themselves. They go to Hereford and make saddles until all the local saddlers turn against them and plot to kill them then they make shields and then shoes, but in each cases they make better goods than the locals and are driven away. Eventually they return home to Dyfed where they set about hunting until two of Pryderi's hounds are lost and he goes to seek them. He finds a deserted castle and though Manawyddan counsels him against entering he does so anyway and sees a spring with a golden bowl on a marble slab. Moving to the bowl he takes hold of it and as soon as he touches it he becomes frozen. Manawyddan waits for him until the close of day and he returns to Rhiannon and tells her what had happened. She berates him for not following Pryderi and makes to find her son. She also enters the castle and takes hold of the golden bowl and is frozen in her turn. When night came there was a peal of thunder and a mist rose and the castle and all its contents vanished.

When Cigfa, Pryderi's wife saw that there was none but Manawyddan and herself left she became fearful until Manawyddan reassured her that he would not molest her, for as he is a friend to Pryderi, thus shall he be a friend to her. They set forth to Lloegr, for they have lost their dogs and cannot support themselves by hunting, where Manawyddan once more begins making shoes. But once again they are driven out and return to Dyfed. On his way Manawyddan brought with him a burden of wheat which was planted. When the wheat was ripe Manawyddan went to inspect it and decided to reap on the morrown. But when he came out the following morning, though the wheat still stood each and every ripened ear had been cut and carried away. But there was another ripened field and Manawyddan decided to guard this through the night. And at midnight there arose a mighty tumult around him and when he looked he saw a great host of mice which came into the field and cut off the ears of wheat to carry them away. Angrily he rushed at the mice, but they were too quick and he could catch none of them. All save one mouse which was more sluggish than the others. He caught this one and placed it in his glove before tying it securely with string. He presents Cigfa with the mouse, saying it is a thief fit only to be hanged on the morrow. Cigfa asks him whether a man of such stature as himself should trouble himself with such a tiny creature. But he is adamant that the mouse should pay for its crimes.

Manawyddan was preparing to hang the mouse upon the Gorsedd of Narberth when a poor clerk wandered along (the first other human he had seen in Dyfed in seven years) who failed to persuade or bribe him to let it go, followed by a priest and finally a bishop. This latter finally admitted to being Llwyd ap Cil Coed and friend of Gwawl ap Clud (humiliated by Pryderi's father Pwyll in the Mabinogi of Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed), who had enchanted Dyfed to avenge his friend, captured Pryderi (Pwyll's son) and Rhiannon (who had spurned Gwawl) and transformed his warband and court into mice, including his own pregnant wife whom Manawydan had captured. In return for his wife's safe return Llwyd promises to reverse the enchantment upon Dyfed and thus all returns to what it was before.

Manawyddan mab Llŷr also figures amongst Arthur's retinue in the Mabinogion of Culhwch ac Olwen. He also figures in two triads of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein. In triad 8 he is named as the son of Llŷr Lledyeith and one of the 'Three Prostrate Chieftains of the Island of Britain' which undoubtedly relates to his landless nature in the Mabinogi of Manawyddan fab Llŷr. The next triad, triad 67 also refers to the events of the Mabinogi as Manawyddan is named as one of the 'Three Golden Shoemakers of the Island of Britain'. Manawyddan is again named as one of Arthur's men in the poem Pa Gur yw y Porthawr (What man is the porter) from the Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin in the followin stanzas: Manawidan ab llyr/oet duis y cusil. (Manawyddan son of Llŷr/was wise in his counsel). This may relate to lost legends about Manawyddan's counsel, or (more likely) it is another example of the old heroes and gods being brought into the the all-encompassing orbit of Arthur. He is also named in poem XIV of the Llyfr Taliesin in a poem entitled Cerd am veib Llyr (A poem about the sons of Llŷr) where we have the stanza: Ys gwyr manawyt a phryderi (The men of Manawyddan and Pryderi) which probably relates to the step-link between these two figures.

Because of the seemingly obvious link between the Cymric Manawyddan fab Llŷr and the Irish Manannán mac Lír it has been mooted that the name of both father and son came to Britain from Ireland. However this seems unlikely (for a discussion see the entry on Llŷr). Manawyddan's name is fairly evidently linked to the name for the Isle of Man which in Cymric is Manaw and in Gaelic is Mannan. The same name also occurs in south-eastern Scotland (along the Firth of Forth) in the name of the ancient realm, the Manaw Gododdin. The most reasonable explanation is that both the Cymric and Irish names are independently derived from the name of the Isle of Man. The name seems superficially linked to the Cymric for awl, manawyd and this may explain the link between the god and shoe-making. In the Irish tradition Manannán mac Lír was a sea and weather god. He is usually counted as one of the Tuatha Dé Danann (the cognates of the Cymric Plant Dôn whereas in the Cymric tradition he is numbered amongst the race of giants, the Plant Llŷr) although he was sometimes considered as older than them. His wife was Fand and he ruled over the Blessed Isles as well as Mag Mell, the underworld. According to legend he gave Cormac mac Airt his magic goblet of truth; he had a ship that did not need sails named "Wave Sweeper"; he owned a cloak that granted him invisibility, a flaming helmet, and a sword named "Answerer" that could never miss its target. He also owned a horse called "Enbarr of the Flowing Mane" which could travel over water as easily as land. Cymric folk tradition also links Manawyddan with the sea and one of the names for the wild white-tipped waves seen before a storm was the Ceffylau Manawyddan (The Steeds of Manawyddan) and this linking of Manawyddan and his sea-stteds may also be the reason for the link betwen Manawyddan and Rhiannon, the horse goddess.

If the link between Manawyddan and Manaw (The Isle of Man) is correct then Manawyddan's name can be derived as: 'He who came from [the isle of] Man' and this may explain his links to and with the sea.

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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