Pwyll

(European mythology)

Welsh nobleman and hero of one of the parts of the Mabinogion, the medieval cycle of legends. Pwyll encountered grey-clad Arawn, the magician—king of the underworld, annwfn, and they agreed to exchange forms and responsibilities for a year. Later he married Rhiannon, but lost her temporarily to the deceitful Gwawl, the disappointed suitor who had the support of her family. By ingenuity he recovered her, but his own people were annoyed by their childlessness and Rhiannon suffered a miserable fate. Though a son was eventually born, the family continued to be dogged by ill luck, even after the death of Pwyll. Years of desolation passed before the spell put on them by Gwawl's kin was lifted.

Pwyll was called chief of Dyfed, his lands in south-west Wales, and chief of the underworld, annwfn. The latter title he appears to have gained through submission and patience, yet the former he nearly lost because of his marriage to Rhiannon. She was clearly associated with horses—at her first appearance she rode ‘the swiftest steed’—and may have been the ‘great queen’ Epona, the Celtic goddess known from Roman inscriptions. Epona was portrayed astride a mare, and her authority extended to the journey of the soul after death. Gwawl meant ‘light’, so that behind the conflict arising at the wedding feast was probably the ancient ritual of seasonal combat.

Prince of Dyfed, Welsh hero of the first branch of the Mabinogi, which usually bears his name. To pay for a discourtesy to Arawn, ruler of Annwfn, Pwyll agrees to take his form for a year and to meet Arawn's enemy Hafgan. In that year he may share the bed of Arawn's wife but not make love to her. Pwyll keeps his agreement, killing Hafgan, chastely avoiding the wife, and winning the title Pen Annwfn [head of Annwfn]. Pwyll is dazzled by the beauty of Rhiannon when she rides by on a white horse, but he is thwarted for one year by the trick of a rival suitor, Gwawl. In the third year of their marriage, Rhiannon bears a son that is stolen and she is falsely accused of infanticide. For punishment, Rhiannon is obliged to sit by a horse-block for seven years, offering to give rides on her back to visitors. The child is later returned and named Pryderi. Pwyll continues to rule from his palace Arberth, and in due time is succeeded by his son, Pryderi.

Modern commentators are often unkind to Pwyll as a literary character, calling him ‘foolish’, ‘spineless’, and ‘a bungling incompetent’, especially for his treatment of Rhiannon when she is falsely accused. Like many Celtic heroes, however, he may have origins in the supernatural, as his title Pen Annwfn implies. The more likely root meaning of his name, ‘wisdom’, suggests links with the Irish figures Midir of Brí Léith and Conn [Irish, sense, wisdom, reason]. Roger Sherman Loomis (1927) thought that Pwyll's resistance to Arawn's wife may have contributed to the episode of the temptress wife in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (14th cent.).

Bibliography

• W. J. Gruffydd, Rhiannon (Cardiff, 1953)
• Kenneth H. Jackson, ‘Some Popular Motifs in Early Welsh Tradition’, Études Celtiques, 11 (1961–7), 83–9
• Catherine A. McKenna, ‘The Theme of Sovereignty in Pwyll’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 29 (1980), 35–52

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