Blodeuwedd (; Welsh "Flower-Faced", a composite name from ''blodau'' "flowers" + ''gwedd'' "face"), is married to Lleu Llaw Gyffes in

Welsh mythology Welsh mythology (also commonly known as ''Y Chwedlau'', meaning "The Legends") consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of t ...

. She was made from the flowers of

broom A broom (also known as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool, consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. It is thus a ...

, meadowsweet and

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

by the magicians

Math Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and Gwydion, and is a central figure in ''Math fab Mathonwy'', the last of the ''

Four Branches of the Mabinogi The ''Four Branches of the Mabinogi'' or are the earliest prose stories in the literature of Great Britain, Britain. Originally written in Wales in Middle Welsh, but widely available in translations, the is generally agreed to be a single work i ...

''.

Role in Welsh tradition

The hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes has been placed under a '' tynged'' ("doom") by his mother, Arianrhod, that he may never have a human wife. To counteract this curse, the magicians Math and Gwydion: Some time later, while Lleu is away on business, Blodeuwedd has an affair with Gronw Pebr, the lord of Penllyn, and the two lovers conspire to murder Lleu. Blodeuwedd tricks Lleu into revealing how he may be killed, since he cannot be killed during the day or night, nor indoors or outdoors, neither riding nor walking, not clothed and not naked, nor by any weapon lawfully made. He reveals to her that he can only be killed at dusk, wrapped in a net, with one foot on a bath and one on a black goat, by a riverbank and by a spear forged for a year during the hours when everyone is at Mass. With this information she arranges his death. Struck by the spear thrown by Gronw's hand, Lleu transforms into an

eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

and flies away. Gwydion tracks him down and finds him perched high on an oak tree. Through the singing of an

englyn (; plural ) is a traditional Welsh short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as . Ear ...

(known as englynion Gwydion) Gwydion lures Lleu down from the oak tree and switches him back to his human form. Gwydion and Math nurse Lleu back to health before mustering Gwynedd and reclaiming his lands from Gronw and Blodeuwedd. Gwydion overtakes the fleeing Blodeuwedd and turns her into an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

(in Welsh ''tylluan'' or ''gwdihŵ''), the creature hated by all other birds, proclaiming: The narrative adds: Meanwhile, Gronw escapes to Penllyn and sends emissaries to Lleu, to beg his forgiveness. Lleu refuses, demanding that Gronw must stand on the bank of the River Cynfael and receive a blow from his spear. Gronw desperately asks if anyone from his warband will take the spear in his place, but his men refuse his plea. Eventually, Gronw agrees to receive the blow on the condition that he may place a large stone between himself and Lleu. Lleu allows Gronw to do so, then throws the spear with such strength that it pierces the stone, killing his rival. A holed stone in Ardudwy is still known as '' Llech Ronw'' (Gronw's Stone).

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...

and others consider lines 142–153 of ''

Cad Goddeu ''Cad Goddeu'' (, ) is a medieval Welsh language, Welsh poem preserved in the 14th-century manuscript known as the Book of Taliesin. The poem refers to a traditional story in which the legendary enchanter Gwydion animates the trees of the forest to ...

'' to be a "Song of Blodeuwedd".

In literature

Alan Garner Alan Garner (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. Much of his work is rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native count ...

's novel, '' The Owl Service'' (1967), makes the story of Blodeuwedd an eternal cycle played out each generation, in a Welsh valley. The only way to break the cycle is for the Blodeuwedd character to realise she is supposed to be flowers, not an owl. *Louise M. Hewett explores the story of Blodeuwedd and Math Son of Mathonwy from a feminist perspective in the second and third books, ''Wind'' (2017) ( ); and ''Flowers'' (2017) ( ), of her novel series, ''Pictish Spirit''. Within the novels, a discussion about the three significant females in the story of Math Son of Mathonwy – Goewin, Arianrhod and Blodeuwedd – has taken place between Róisín and a group of the Pictish Spirit Braves. It culminates with Róisín's "re-vision" of the story in the closing chapter of ''Flowers'', pages 810–814. *Blodeuwedd's creation by Gwydion and Math is delicately described in the poem "The Wife of Llew" by Francis Ledwidge. *The Blodeuwedd story is referenced in the novel and film '' Tylluan Wen''. *In

John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys ( ; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English novelist, philosopher, lecturer, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...

's novel '' Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages'' (1951), where the adulterous Blodeuwedd "is released from her prison of beak and feathers" by the magic of King Arthur's magician Myrddin (Merlin).C. A. Coates, ''John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape''. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1982, pp. 142–3. *

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

's '' Sweet Thursday'' (1954) mentions Blodeuwedd's story briefly. Doc tells Suzy of the story, as he looks at the wild iris in her hand, while they're on their arranged date.

Notes

{{Celtic mythology (Welsh) Welsh mythology Women in mythology Mythological birds of prey Adultery