Son of Llŷr [cf. Welsh Manaw, Isle of Man]. Welsh hero of the Mabinogi, title character and protagonist of the third branch and brother of Bendigeidfran and Branwen, protagonists of the second branch. Although he wields magic well and is a skilled craftsman, Manawydan shows no hint of the divine characteristics present in his Irish counterpart, Manannán mac Lir, the sea-god. In the third branch Manawydan is married to Rhiannon, and together with Pryderi and Cigfa he lives in exile in England, where he works first as a leather craftsman and then as a wheat farmer.
Bibliography
- Ifor Williams, Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi (Cardiff, 1930), 49–65
- Patrick K. Ford, “‘Prolegomena to a Reading of the Mabinogi, “Pwyll” and “Manawydan”’”, Studia Celtica,
16/17 (1981/2), 110–25
