In Welsh mythology, Gwydion is a magician appearing prominently in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi and the ancient poem Cad Goddeu. He is the brother of Gilfaethwy and Arianrhod, and the nephew of Math fab Mathonwy. In the Mabinogion he is called the son of the goddess Dôn, making it likely he is an euhemerized god or demi-god. The name Gwydion may mean 'To Speak Poetry'.
Mythological exploits
In the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, Gwydion helps his brother Gilfaethwy rape Goewin, Math's foot-holder. To this end he steals Pryderi of Dyfed's pigs, thus forcing Math away to fight a war (Math only took his feet from his foot-holder's lap to go to battle). Gwydion and Gilfaethwy sneak back to Math's court where Gilfaethwy rapes Goewin. When Math hears of this, he turns his nephews into a series of mated pairs of animals; Gwydion becomes a stag for a year, then a sow and finally a wolf. Gilfaethwy becomes a hind deer, a boar and a she-wolf. Each year they produce an offspring which is sent to Math: Hyddwn, Hychddwn and Bleiddwn; after three years Math releases his nephews from their punishment.
In the search for a new foot-holder, who must be a virgin, Math tests Gwydion's sister Arianrhod. The test reveals that Arianrhod is not a virgin, however, when she immediately gives birth to two children after stepping over Math's wand: Dylan Ail Don and an unformed blob.
Dylan is a sea-creature who immediately moved into the ocean, but on the other child Arianrhod places three tynged (see the Irish geis) upon him: the child will never have a name unless she herself names him, he cannot carry weapons unless she arms him (neither of these things does she intend to do), and he cannot marry any human woman. In effect she denies her child three major aspects of humanity, but Gwydion puts his nephew in a box and raises him. When the boy is old enough Gwydion takes him incognito to see Arianrhod, who declares he is a "bright one with a sure hand" or in some versions "fair-haired skillful hand" when she sees him drop a wren with a single stone. Gwydion reveals the child is her son and that she has unknowingly supplied him with a name; from then on he goes by Lleu Llaw Gyffes, "bright one with a sure hand". Arianrhod is similarly tricked into supplying her son with weapons. The third curse proves harder to overcome, so Gwydion and Math use magic to create a wife for Lleu out of flowers, named Blodeuwedd (flower face). Blodeuwedd proves unfaithful and with her lover, Goronwy, attempts to slay Lleu. Lleu does not die but transforms into a wounded eagle, and Gwydion tracks him with the help of a pig and finds him perched on an oak. He calls Lleu down from the tree by singing an englyn known as englyn Gwydion, returns Lleu back to his human form and with the help of Math heals him. They return to Lleu's estate where Gwydion turns Blodeuwedd into an owl, and Lleu himself kills Goronwy.
Gwydion also appears in the 6th century poem Cad Goddeu (The Battle of the Trees), found in the Book of Taliesin. There he wins a battle against Bendigeidfran by animating an army of trees and guessing Bendigeidfran's name.
Etymology
The etymology of his name is uncertain. The intervocalic -d- in the name implies descent from an Early Welsh *-t- according to the established sound changes in the history of the Welsh language: Early Welsh intervocalic *-t- routinely developed into Old Welsh -d- (McCone, 1996) . This then rules out suggestions that the name is related to Modern Welsh words like gwyddion ‘ploughs, looms’ or gwydd ‘trees’ because these words are descended from the Proto-Celtic word *widu ‘wood’ with an intervocalic *-d-. Likewise, suggestions that the name is related to the Modern Welsh word gwyddonydd ‘scientist’ is unsustainable for similar reasons because the source of this word is the Proto-Celtic *weid-o- ‘knowledge’ which also must be reconstructed with an intervocalic *-d- [1]. The intervocalic *-d- in these words would not have developed into -dd- until post-Early-Welsh periods (McCone, 1996). Rather, if the word is assumed to be native in origin, established knowledge about regular sound change in the history of Welsh would encourage one to relate the name to Proto-Celtic roots with forms such as *weit- *wit- and *wīt-.
A root *wet- ‘say, recite poetry’ seems reconstructible for Proto-Celtic [2] and this could plausibly have had a lengthened form *wīt-. A verbal suffix *-jā-, forming abstract nouns from verbal roots, is also reconstructible for Proto-Celtic [3], and this is frequently suffixed with *-n-os when masculine names are derived from nouns ending in *-jā-. The name Gwydion can then plausibly be reconstructed as *wīt-jā-n-os, an extended masculine form of *wīt-jā- meaning ‘poetic recital, speech.’
All the same, this is not the only possibility. A root *wī-ti ‘food’ with the related *wīto- ‘feast’ is also reconstructible for Proto-Celtic [4] and the former may plausibly have had extended forms *wī-ti-o and *wī-ti-o-nos. The name Gwydion can also be held to be derived from a Proto-Celtic *wī-ti-o-nos ‘food.’ This word would then be related to Proto-Celtic *witt- ‘vein’ (whence Modern Welsh gwythien ‘blood vessel’ Old Irish féith ‘sinew, vein) and *wit-n-o- ‘sinewy, tough’ (whence Modern Welsh gwydn ‘tough’). A root *weit- ‘thread’ related to *witt- ‘vein,’ is also reconstructible for Proto-Celtic [5].
Related to the Old Irish féith ‘sinew’ is Irish féith ‘sinuous stream, bog-rill, marsh-rill’ [6]. The name Gwydion, then, may be derived from a hypothetical Proto-Celtic *Witi-o-no-s ‘great rill', a possible extended variant form of *weiti- in the sense of ‘sinuous stream.’
Another possibility is that the word is not a native item and is related to the Modern Welsh word gwŷd ‘vice,’ a borrowing, like the English word vice, from the Latin vitium ‘offense, defect.’ The etymology of the name Gwydion is therefore uncertain but it is possible to limit the etymology to a small number of plausible possibilities.
See also
References
McCone, Kim (1996). Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change. Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish, St. Patrick's College. ISBN 0-901519-40-5.
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