Post by Lee on Dec 19, 2005 22:37:11 GMT -1
ok, well Gruffydd's Math vab Mathonowy has been read over and i will admit it is a little confusing. if i have gotten the gist correctly Gruffydd has interpreted it as a little garbled and corrupted by other folkloric tales so that we have the version in the mabinogion today.
to sumarise his points - the main theme is the tale of the King/Ruler with the prophesised death (to be killed by his grandson), Math doesnt have any children, yet beli mawr does (what with him being father to gwydion, aranrhot etc)
so the liely original ruler is Beli, who got his virgin daughter Aranrhot to be his foot maiden so he could be sure of her virginity (the taboo on him needing one is flaky at best - after all , he didnt die when goewin was raped or aranrhot gave birth - hence it is regarded as diltuted in the mabinogi we have)
Gwydion wants her and enlists Math to help out. Dylan is born and is cast inot the sea as a means of killing him - ie. no grandson, he becomes a seal and as was traditional he was probably born with a caul making him immune to drowning etc hence seal goddom. the little bit gwydion picked up was the caul which he secreted away and became lleu (this sort of thing happened a fair bit in various mythologies - including irish)
the taboos on lleu are broken - math helps make a wife for Lleu but she betrays him and is punished. gruffydd also concludes that Blodeuwedd wasnt originally turned into an owl - that was a later corruption and confusion of her name with that of the owl.
im going to photocopy the whoel text in the new year and am happy to become a mini lending library if people would like to borrow the text and copy it for themselves.
lee
to sumarise his points - the main theme is the tale of the King/Ruler with the prophesised death (to be killed by his grandson), Math doesnt have any children, yet beli mawr does (what with him being father to gwydion, aranrhot etc)
so the liely original ruler is Beli, who got his virgin daughter Aranrhot to be his foot maiden so he could be sure of her virginity (the taboo on him needing one is flaky at best - after all , he didnt die when goewin was raped or aranrhot gave birth - hence it is regarded as diltuted in the mabinogi we have)
Gwydion wants her and enlists Math to help out. Dylan is born and is cast inot the sea as a means of killing him - ie. no grandson, he becomes a seal and as was traditional he was probably born with a caul making him immune to drowning etc hence seal goddom. the little bit gwydion picked up was the caul which he secreted away and became lleu (this sort of thing happened a fair bit in various mythologies - including irish)
the taboos on lleu are broken - math helps make a wife for Lleu but she betrays him and is punished. gruffydd also concludes that Blodeuwedd wasnt originally turned into an owl - that was a later corruption and confusion of her name with that of the owl.
im going to photocopy the whoel text in the new year and am happy to become a mini lending library if people would like to borrow the text and copy it for themselves.
lee