In the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, Blodeuwedd is created by Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion as a magical solution to a tynged placed on Lleu Llaw Gyffes by Arianrhod that he should not have a human wife. The magicians gather specified flowers—commonly listed in the narrative as flowers of the broom, meadowsweet and oak—and from these conjure and baptize "the fairest and most beautiful maiden anyone had ever seen," naming her Blodeuwedd (literally 'Flower-Faced' or 'Flower-Aspect'). She is thus an intentionally constructed human figure with legal and social roles enacted within the tale (wife, agent) but whose creation is explicitly magical.
As created, Blodeuwedd is described in the Mabinogi as an exceptionally fair human maiden, formed from flowers (broom, meadowsweet, oak) and given a name and a place in society through baptism. After her betrayal, Gwydion transforms her into an owl (Welsh tylluan/gwdihŵ); the tale records that she shall not show her face by day and will be harassed and despised by other birds, associating her transformed appearance with nocturnality and the physical and behavioral traits of an owl.
Within the story Blodeuwedd displays human-level agency and cunning: she takes a lover (Gronw Pebr), solicits from Lleu the precise conditions of his vulnerability, and arranges an attack that nearly kills him. She is a magical construct rather than an independently documented practitioner of magic: the narrative shows her as created by, and later subject to, the arts of Math and Gwydion. The tale attributes restorative and coercive magic (englynion sung by Gwydion to restore Lleu; Gwydion's transformation of Blodeuwedd into an owl) to those magicians rather than to Blodeuwedd herself.
Weaknesses
- conditionsubject to alteration by the magicians who created her (Math and Gwydion)
Wards
- ritualmagical control by Math and Gwydion
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
Abarta (Ábartach)
Abarta (also Ábartach) is a figure of Irish myth who, in surviving accounts, tricks Fionn mac Cumhaill's warriors by giving them a supernatural grey horse that bears them into the Otherworld. Sources variably identify him as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann or as a Fomorian; after the incident he is compelled to release the captured warriors and is refused entry to the Fianna.
Abcán (Abhcán)
Abcán (modern spelling Abhcán) is a named dwarf poet and musician of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish myth. He appears in a small number of narratives as a musician whose art has soporific power and as the ferryman who brings the goddess Ruad from the Otherworld to the human world.
Abhean
Abhean is a named poet of the Tuatha Dé Danann in medieval Irish literature, described as a poet in particular of Lugh and recorded as having been killed by Óengus before Midir in a poem by Fland Mainistreach preserved in the Lebor Gabála Érenn.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
Accolon
Accolon is a mortal knight of the Arthurian court, presented in the Post-Vulgate Merlin tradition and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as Morgan le Fay's paramour and instrument in a plot to supplant King Arthur; his tale centers on enchanted weapons (Excalibur and its scabbard), love-manipulation, and a tragic duel with Arthur.
Achall
Achall is an eponymous mortal woman in the Ulster Cycle of early Irish literature whose grief-induced death is given as the origin of the hill-name Achall (identified with the modern Hill of Skryne). She appears as a genealogical and etiological figure tied to Tara and later legendary events at the hill, rather than as a recurring supernatural agent.
Achtland
Achtland is a figure from Irish tradition who, according to the surviving account, was a mortal woman famed for rejecting mortal suitors who married a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and crossed into the síde to become immortal as his wife.
Adar Llwch Gwin
Legendary large, intelligent birds from Welsh tradition said to understand human speech and obey their master's commands; best known for tearing their master Drudwas ap Tryffin to pieces when bound by a literal order in an Arthurian battle narrative. The term later came to be applied to raptors and metaphorically to brave men in medieval Welsh poetry.
Adar Rhiannon
Adar Rhiannon ('birds of Rhiannon') are a set of three magical birds in medieval Welsh narrative (the Mabinogi) whose song can 'wake the dead and lull the living to sleep.' They appear as otherworldly song‑beings tied to the figure Rhiannon and function within tales as providers of enchanted music that sustains and consoles characters.
Aderyn y Corff
Aderyn y Corff (literally 'bird of the corpse') is a bird-like death-porter in Welsh folklore said to call outside the door of a person about to die. Described as an avian portent that may lack feathers or wings and as existing on another plane when not manifesting, it is treated in Welsh ghost lore and sometimes naturalized as a screech owl in modern accounts.
Adhene
A class of Manx fairies (Cloan ny moyrn) described in Isle of Man tradition as a social people of beings said to be "fallen angels cast from heaven but too good for hell," who interact with human livelihoods and families, sometimes benevolent but often mischievous.
Community Record
- [1]Blodeuwedd (Wikipedia). Wikipedia, 'Blodeuwedd'wiki
- [2]Blodeuwedd (text from The Mabinogi). AncientTexts.org, 'Blodeuwedd' (Mabinogi material)literary
- [3]Blodeuwedd (Mary Jones / JCE reproduction). John Carey / J. E. Caerwyn Williams reproductions of Mabinogi material via Mary Jonesliterary
- [4]Gronw Pebr (Wikipedia). Wikipedia, 'Gronw Pebr' (related character)wiki
- [5]Archive: The Owl Service (Alan Garner adaptation). Alan Garner, The Owl Service (adaptation/archive)other
- [6]Blodeuwedd (OrderWhiteMoon modern reinterpretation). OrderWhiteMoon, contemporary spiritual/artistic reinterpretation of Blodeuweddother