Don

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Welsh name for the Celtic mother-goddess, whose name in Continental Europe may have been Danu; counterpart of the Irish Ana, goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Surviving Welsh literature, especially the fourth branch of the Mabinogi, tells us more about Dôn than we can know about either Danu or Ana. Sister of Math fab Mathonwy, she bore at least five important children, the daughter Arianrhod and the sons Gwydion, Gilfaethwy, Gofannon, and Amaethon; in the Triads her husband is given as Beli. She may have had powers over fertility. The Children of Dôn, representing light and good, are often seen in conflict with the Children of Lly^r, forces of dark and evil. She lends her name to a Welsh phrase for the constellation Cassiopeia, Llys Dôn, ‘Dôn's Court’. Dôn appears to have become confused with St Anne in Christian times.

Bibliography

• Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydain, rev. edn. (Cardiff, 1978), 327, 549