Llys Don and Caer Aranrhod

Llys Don and Caer Aranrhod

According to Lady Charlotte Guest there are two central female characters in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi or Math vab Mathonwy whose identities are linked to the Ptolemaic or classical constellations. She associated Aranrhod with that beautiful circle of stars Corona Borealis or the Crown of the North Wind which the Welsh call Caer Aranrhod or 'Aranrhod's Fort', and secondly she equated the shadowy matriarch Don with Cassiopeia known in Wales as Llys Don or the 'Court of Don'.ⁱ 

How old is this material? Was the author of Math vab Mathonwy, (and his intended audience) aware of these celestial associations? Or are these later accretions, inventions of the likes of Owen Pughe and Iolo Morganwg? Present scholarship takes this second view, for example Patrick Simms Williams has said: 'On balance, however, Caer Sidi, sidydd, and the like as astronomical terms look like eighteenth century inventions based on the extant Taliesin poetry'. Caer Sidi does not concern us for the moment, but the reference here in '...and the like...' can only be to Llys Don and Caer Aranrhod in the 'Legendary' Taliesin poem Cadeir Ceridwen which mentions Gwydion, Llys Don and Arianrhod. The antiquity of Gwydion in association with the Milky Way (Caer Gwydion) is not in question. Can the same be said of Don and Cassiopeia and Aranrhod and Corona Borealis?

Llys Don and Casseiopeia

Cassiopeia or 'Llys Don'. The lady in the town with breasts?

The origins for the association of Don with the constellation Cassiopeia are not clear cut and one searches the prose, the poetry and the Triads in vain for an early unambiguous celestial reference. Conversely, notices in later authorities are plentiful but most appear to hark back to Lady Guest's note on Gwydion in her translation of Math, or to her sources, (probably Iolo Morgannwg and Owen Pughe, maybe Robert Roberts too).ⁱⁱ Lady Guest understood Don as a man, other writers who followed include Richard Hinckley Allen who noted in 'Star Myths': 'As the figure almost wholly lies in the Milky Way, the Celts fixed upon it as their Llys Don, the Home of Don, their king of the fairies and father of the mythical character Gwydyon, who gave his name to that great circle'.ⁱⁱⁱ And, in 'Celtic Mythology and Religion', Alexander Macbain also betrays his source: 'The family of Don is evidently connected with the sky and its changes. He has given his name in Welsh to the constellation of Cassiopeia, called Llys Don, the court of Don'. Iolo Morgannwg though, in his list of Welsh constellations in 'Y Barddas', offers no clues as to the gender of Dôn, simply stating: 'Llys Don - The Palace of Don, with the note 'Cassiopeia' attached. Likewise, Matthew Arnold in 'On the Study of Celtic Literature' enthused: 'Why, the heroes and heroines of the old Cymric world are all in the sky as well as in Welsh story … Cassiopeia's chair is Llys Don, Don's Court'. However, John Rhys in 'Celtic Folklore: Welsh And Manx' treats Don as the mother of the Plant Don, the Children of Dôn and says: 'The last stage in the Welsh history of Don consists of her translation to the skies, where the constellation of Cassiopeia is supposed to constitute Llys Don or Don's Court'.

There is, at least, one mention looking beyond the influence horizon of Iolo Morganwg and Lady Guest, towards a traditional origin for Don = Cassiopeia. Robert Roberts (1777-1836) who “was well read in astronomy, and science more generally”, and who can be viewed “as a relatively reliable source". He recorded in the astronomical section, Arweiniad i Wybodaeth o Seryddiaeth ("A Guide to a Knowledge of Astronomy"), of his book Daearyddiaeth "Geography" (published in Chester in 1816). the following: Llys Don – The Court of Don – Cassiopeia. This is, however, still very late.

It is now generally accepted that in medieval Wales Don was regarded as the mother of Aranrhod and that, in accord with Triad 35, Beli Mawr was the father. Interestingly, this triad also mentions a son of Aranrhod (the redactor of Triad 35 understood Ar(y)anrot as 'Silver Wheel'.^iv) named Nwyfre, meaning 'Firmament', 'Sky', which seems to confirm this family's early celestial connections.

The earliest mention I can find of 'Llys Don' is in the poem known as Kadeir Kerrituen (Cadair Ceridwen) The Song or The (bardic) Chair of Ceridwen in The Book of Taliesin (In connection with this title it is interesting to note that Cassiopeia is always depicted as seated in a chair). The poem refers to other characters from Math vab Mathonwy - Gwydion, Aranrhod and Lleu, and to their adventures, including the Stealing of the Swine and the Creation of Blodeuedd. The mention of 'Llys Don' is in the voice of Taliesin who declares, 'Ry'm gelwir kyfrwys yn Llys Don', 'I'm called a knowledgeable one in Don's Court'. Marged Haycock has suggested 'Don's Court (llys) was imagined (like Kaer Sidi) as a place for poetry and entertainment' Later in the poem there are references to the (scientific) books of Bede and to Ocean currents, but there appears to be no overt astronomy here, unlike several other poems in the collection.

Cassiopeia belongs to that group of constellations called by astronomers, 'The Royal Family'. They are Cassiopiea The Queen, Cepheus The King, Andromeda The Princess and Perseus The Hero. The analogous roles in The Fourth Branch (a 'Perseus type tale') are thus Don The Queen, Math vab Mathonwy The King, Aranrhod The Princess and Llew Llaw Gyffes The Hero. The two families differ in their relationships with one another

Queen Cassiopiea Mother Wife (Queen)            Don Mother Sister Grandmother

King Cepheus Husband Father (in-law) (King)    Math Brother Uncle Father-in-law

Princess Andromeda Daughter Wife (Princess)   Aranrhod Daughter Niece

Hero Perseus Husband Son-in-Law (Hero)        Llew Grandson Nephew Son

The only kinship, that of mother and daughter, which does not differ in the two families is that between Cassiopeia and Andromeda, on the one hand and Don and Aranrhod, on the other. All four are associated with constellations:

Cassiopeia Cassiopeia = Don Llys Don (The Court of Don) = Cassiopeia.

Andromeda Andromeda = Aranrhod Caer Aranrhod (The Fort of Aranrhod) = Corona Borealis.

This is a very unlikely correspondence, it suggests that the two traditions are more than superficially related. Nonetheless, as far as Don is concerned it has to be admitted that firm evidence of an early connection with Cassiopeia is slight, however absence of evidence does not constitute evidence of absence. It is surely significant that her brother Gwydion and her son Nwyfre in connection with the Milky Way and the Firmament are both found early in the literature. My identification of Math vab Mathonwy with Cepheus (Cassiopeia's husband), should also be taken into consideration, as should Llew Llaw Gyffes' long historical association with the constellation Perseus.

There is one curious passage, however, in Math vab Mathonwy itself which just might be a reference to Don in her guise as Cassiopeia.

As Gwydion was on a day in his bed and waking, he heard a cry in the chest below his feet; though it was not loud, yet it was so loud that he heard it. This is what he did then, he arose quickly and opened the chest, and as he opened it, he could see a little boy waving his arms from the fold of a sheet, and parting it. And he took the boy between his hands and took him to the town, where he knew there was a woman with breasts, and he fixed a price with the woman to foster the child.^v

Present consensus does not recognise Don as the 'woman in the town with breasts', with whom Gwydion makes a deal to suckle the, (as yet unnamed) child Llew, but her role in the tale as the 'royal Mother' is undisputed; Don is the the Mother of Gwydion, Gilvaethwy, Aranrhod and Gofannon and the grandmother of Llew Llaw Gyffes and Dylan Eil Ton as well as Bleiddwn, Hyddwn and Hychdwn Hir. She is also the sister of Math vab Mathonwy whom I have identified with the constellation Cepheus (husband of Cassiopeia). Scholars have generally accepted that Don is to be equated with Danu 'the mother of the gods in the Irish pantheon', it may well be significant then that Cassiepeia is the only constellation figure who is consistently characterised as bare breasted, and in some late classical sources her bared beasts are part of her punishment so as to bring shame upon her for the crime of vanity. Or alternatively as Deborah Holding has suggested:

A distinguishing feature of Cassiopeia is the easily observed celestial 'W', formed by the shape of its five brightest stars. Schedar (or Schedir), the brightest of them all, is a 2nd magnitude star, rose pink in colour and situated in the breast of the figure, perhaps in order to highlight the theme of royal motherhood.

 'he could see a little boy waving his arms from the fold of a sheet, and parting it. And he took the boy between his hands and took him to the town, where he knew there was a woman with breasts'.

It might be coincidental that it is Gwydion (The Milky Way) who finds (Llew) the boy in the chest (Perseus) and carries him to 'the lady in the town with breasts' (Cassiopeia). But I don't think so.

Aranrhod and Coronae Borealis.

It has often been remarked that the name of the classical mythological princess most often associated with Corona Borealis, namely 'Ariadne' is very similar to that of 'Arianrhod', for example Allen noted 'this name (Arianrhod) bearing a singular resemblance to that of the classical owner of the Crown' (Ariadne), with the implication that this similarity of names is solely what lies behind the association of Arianrhod with the constellation Corona Borealis. But it is worth mentioning that both Ariadne and Arianrhod are characterised as princesses and as virginal island dwellers, presenting multiple connections:

Arianrhod   princess      virgin    Island dwelling     Caer Aranrhod (Corona Borealis)

Ariadne      princess      virgin    Island dwelling     Corona Borealis

It is also true that, whatever the actual etymology of 'Aranrhod,' as Rachel Bromwich noted '...Aryanrot is the spelling of the name in triad 35... In the mind of the triad's redactor there was clearly a connection between the name Ar(y)anrot and the title (of the triad) Tri Aryanllu, 'Three Silver Hosts'. The second part of the name Rot or Rhod means 'wheel'. The name, then, meant 'Silver Wheel' or 'Silver Circle' to the redactor and presumably to his 'audience'. This has led some to claim that Aranrhod was a goddess of the Moon or of the Milky Way, but it is surely simpler to assume an association with the constellation Caer Aranrhod or Corona Borealis which is depicted as a crown, in other words a 'Silver Circle'. Put this beside the fact that her mother Don is said to be Cassiopeia, her brother is represented as the Milky Way or Caer Gwydion and that her son is named 'Sky', 'Firmament' and the evidence starts to look convincing for an early association of Ar(y)anrhod with 'The Crown of the North Wind'.

There is a further surprising connection. The Welsh constellation Caer Arianrhod, has an earthly counterpart, it is a "submerged rock, visible at low water," about a mile off the coast of Gwynedd. It has been marked on maps of Wales ever since it first appeared on Humphrey Lhwyd's map Cambriae Typus as Caer Ierjenrod. A visual comparison of the constellation Caer Aranrhod with the sea girt 'town' of Caer Aranrhod reveals an uncanny topographical resemblance between Coronae Borealis and its relationship with the Milky Way (at the point where it branches), and the 'island' Caer Aranrhod and its relationship to the coast at the point where the river Llyfni enters the sea. One is reminded of the ancient dictum 'As above so below', This is of course an entirely natural coincidence, but it is curious that we are now confronted with several coincidences. 

There is even more to this, Caer Aranrhod, the natural rocky outcrop is known locally by several different names which recall not Ariadne but another classical princess, namely Andromeda. Edward Lhuyd noted Tre Ga'r Anthrag and two other versions as Caer Anrhad and Caer Anrhod, (these two both closer to Andromeda than Ariadne) whilst Rees recorded Tregan Anthrod (even closer). The first part of the name Andromeda is from the Greek Andro or anthro. These similarities are easily as noteworthy as that between Arianrhod and Ariadne.

Corona Borealis/Caer Arianrod

Caer Ierjenrhod on Cambriae Typus

Notes and References

iThe Mabinogion. Guest. 2^nd ed. Notes to Math son of Mathonwy pp 436 – 437 1877. London.

ii But this is not certain as some medieval sources speak of a 'fairy king' called Don. See for instance Marged Haycock's note to line 26 of the BT. Poem Kadeir Kerrituen in Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin. Aberystwyth. 2007.

iiiStar Names. Their Lore and Meanining. Hinckley Allen. Stechert. 1899. Republication Dover. 1963.

ivSee Trioedd Ynys Prydein.Ed. Trans. Rachel Bromwich. 3^rd edition. 2006. Cardiff. P284.

vMath vab Mathonwy. Gruffydd. P. 19. 1928. Cardiff.

Gilfaethwy son of Don & The Ploughman

Gilfaethwy son of Don & The Ploughman

It is a fact that Gwydion's brother Gilvaethwy can be found nowhere else in the entire corpus of Welsh vernacular literature other than in the Fourth Branch, but I propose that he is one and the same, (in the mind of the author of Math vab Mathonwy) with the Amaethon (also Gwydion's brother), of the Cad Goddeu or Kat Godeu (The Battle of the Trees) and of Culhwch ac Olwen. I don’t believe this is a new suggestion either, though I don't recall where I might have read it. Both names contain the Welsh word amaeth, in the case of Gilvaethwy it is the mutated form faeth, and means: farmer or agriculture. The endings in both names 'wy' and 'on' both signify divinity. Others have derived Amaethon from a proto-celtic word ambaxtonos, meaning: 'divine ploughman'.

Like Gilfaethwy in Math, Amaethon, in the poem Kat Godeu is responsible for a war between the Children of Don and the Lord of Annwfn after he steals a dog (Canis Major), a lapwing (Corvus) and a roebuck (Capricornus) from him. Gilfaethwy is the cause of the war in the mabinogi of Math because of his lust for Geowin (who, as explained in 'Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Perseus', is Ursa Minor, and when pregnant Ursa Major which contains The Plough). Gilvaethwy and Amaethon are, then, essentially the same character, playing esentially the same role, with essentially the same name.

The constellation Bootes is also called The Ploughman because he drives the oxen of The Plough, the great asterism of Ursa Major, and is credited by the Greeks with the invention of the plough. Whereas Amaethon appears in Culhwch and Olwen in the remarkable series of exchanges where it is stated that only he could till the field of Ysbaddaden Pencawr in one day, which is precisely what Bootes does - once a day, every day.

In another Greek tradition Bootes is known Arctophylax The Bear Watcher or Lover of the Bear(s) because he gazes upon those constellations, as Gilvaethwy gazes upon Goewin. Accepting all of this, it is easy to see why we can equate Bootes with Gilvaethwy/Amaethon. What is further beginning to emerge at this stage is that, it is not only the direct pictorial clues and the mythical allusions which urge these identifications but also the spatial and geometric relationships which the constellations share.

Gilvaethwy/Amaethon - The Divine Ploughman 

Pryderi, Pwyll and Arawn

Pryderi, Pwyll and Arawn

'...and Pryderi the son of Pwyll was lord over twenty-one cantrefs in the south.'

Having found such a strong case for Math and Goewin as Cepheus and Ursa Minor it would seem inconsistent if the author did not intend that the figure of Pryderi ought similarly to be understood, that is, that the author also assigned a constellation to him. The fact that Math son of Mathonwy and Pryderi son of Pwyll are the two characters who are being juxtaposed in the very first sentence of the Fourth Branch, should, now, at least urge this suspicion. It took some time to fully understand the intentions of the author of the Four Branches in relation to the figure of Pryderi as we find him in Math, but when it did finally dawn on me what was going on, the full mechanism of the swine swindling saga, very quickly, began to unfold, almost literally, before my eyes. What I came to discover was completely extraordinary, and totally unexpected. I think that the identity of Pryderi is tied up with not one but two constellations. Two identical constellations – Orion and Hercules. To explain.

In Trioedd Ynys Prydein, (3rd Ed.) Rachel Bromwich translates triad 84 thus:

'Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain:

One of them was the battle of Goddau: it was brought about because of the bitch, the roebuck and the plover'.

The other two battles do not concern us here. The reference in the triad is to the poem Kat Godeu attributed to Taliesin. In her notes to this triad Dr. Bromwich writes:

A fragment of a story about the battle, containing two early englynion, is preserved in a seventeenth-century manuscript, Pen. 98B, 81-2... In this passage it is stated, in words which recall the triad, that the battle was brought about, 'because of a white roebuck and a greyhound pup which came from Annwfn, and Amathaon (= Amaethon) vab Don caught them'. According to this account the battle was fought between Amaethon, assisted by his brother Gwydion, and Arawn king of Annwfn... It would appear, then, that there was a tradition about a mythological battle in which Lleu and the sons of Don took part, and it is tempting to connect the allusion to its cause, (i.e. to the animals which Amaethon brought from Annwfn) with the swine originating from Annwfn, which Gwydion steals in the tale of Math... Perhaps originally Gwydion won the swine, as well as the dog and the white roebuck, in a raid upon Annwfn itself rather than upon Dyfed.

In this Dr. Bromwich is at one with W. J. Gruffydd, who commented:

Whether this history of the mysterious Cad Goddeu correctly represents the tradition in every detail or not, we shall be justified in regarding Gwydion as concerned in an animal lifting raid upon Annwvn. It may be supposed therefore that the older tradition described Gwydion himself as the stealer of the swine, not from Dyfed, but from Annwvn. If that is so, then the choice of this particular method of causing war between Pryderi and the family of Don was obvious; it was already supplied by independent tradition.

But what this also suggests is that the roles in the Cad Godeu and in Math are identical, even if names have been changed. Gwydion is present in both and his role is the same in both, to defeat the king of the Otherworld, which he achieves through some form of trickery. The second role is that of Gwydion’s brother, who is the primary cause of the war in both stories - Amaethon in Cad Godeu and Gilvaethwy in Math. They are essentially the same character, and it could be argued that even their names bear a suspicious resemblance to one another, but more on this later. The third role is that of 'Lord of Annwfn' the king of the Otherworld who must be defeated, this part is played by Arawn Pen Annwfn in Cad Godeu and by the ’Powerful Swineherd’ Pryderi in Math. In the first episode of the First Branch the title 'Lord of Annwfn' is transferred from Arawn to Pwyll. Might it then be inferred that Pryderi may have inherited this role, if not the title, from his father? Or put another way; just as Pwyll plays the role of Lord of the Underworld in the First Branch so Pryderi plays the same role in the Fourth Branch. We therefore have a succession of ‘Lords of the Otherworld’ - Arawn - Pwyll - Pryderi. These three have something else in common - they are so similar in appearance that no-one can tell them apart. As Arawn King of Annwfn says to Pwyll:

“You will have my shape and manner, so that neither chamberlain, nor officer, nor any other who has ever followed me shall know that you are not I”. (Ford)

Later in the tale it is the uncanny physical likeness of Pryderi to Pwyll Pen Annwfn which allows Teyrnon to understand Pryderi’s true parentage:

In the matter of appearance, he (Teyrnon) began to realize that he had never seen a son so like his father as the boy was to Pwyll Pen Annwfn.(Ford)

And this ‘exceeding’ similarity is again made plain when Teyrnon presents the boy at the court in Arberth, when he announces:

‘And I believe…that there is none of all this company who will not recognise that the boy is Pwyll’s son.’ ‘There is none,’ said everyone, ‘who is not sure of it.’ (Ford)

Something of significance appeared to being hinted at here and it seemed worth taking a closer look at the opening episode of the First Branch to see what more, if anything, might be learned. The first thing that draws ones attention is the occurrence of 'Glyn Cuch' in both episodes. Also striking is the use of exactly parallel phraseology in the descriptions of Pwyll's journey to Glyn Cuch and Gwydion's flight from Glyn Cuch, as if deliberately inviting a comparison:

Math: 'And from there they went on, and that night they went as far as a commot in Powys which is called, also for the same reason, Mochnant, and they were there that night.

Pwyll: 'This is the part of his realm he wished to hunt - Glyn Cuch .and he set out that night from Arberth, and he came as far as Penn Llwyn Diarwya, and he stayed there that night'.

This was an encouraging start. But it is the following passage, which describes the appearance of the hounds of Arawn which started a train of thought which was to lead to the stellar identities of all three Lords of Annwfn:

        And of all the hounds he had seen in the world, he had never seen dogs of this colour - they were a gleaming shining white, and their ears were red. And as the whiteness of the dogs shone so did their ears.

Canis Major & Canis Minor

Such  is the description of the hunting dogs of Arawn. Now the usual explanation for the white shininess and the red-ears of these dogs of Annwfn and for that matter other shiny white, red eared boars, horses, cattle and hinds etc., (which appear numerously in Welsh and Irish medieval literature), is that this is how the animals of the Otherworld were traditionally described. Or put differently, this red and white shininess acted as a signal enabling a contemporary medieval audience or readership to identify and anticipate imminent magical contact with the Otherworld. This has always seemed to me not so much an explanation as a tautology. It does not tell us anything about why these unearthly creatures are ‘gleaming shining white, or why their ears are shiny and red. It was noticed in the section on Culhwch and Olwen that Drudwyn the whelp of Greid son of Eri or Fierce-White the whelp of Scorcher son of Eri was a barely underhand reference to Canis Major the Great Dog and the brightest star Sirius the 'Scorcher' son of(?) Orion, which Aratus described in the Phenomena '… the tip of its jaw is inset with a formidable star, that blazes most intensely: and so men call it the Scorcher. So, it occurred to me that in the description of Arawn's hounds in Math we have a similar reference, but now to both hunting dogs of Orion, the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor - the Greater Dog and the Lesser Dog. Canis Major contains Sirius the brightest, shiniest star in the sky and his ears are marked by two red stars. Canis Minor contains Procyon, the fifth brightest star and is commonly depicted as a spaniel, or such-like, with a white coat and red ears. It seemed to me that the author of the First Branch had clearly provided as obvious a clue as he possibly could that Arawn the hunter and the ‘Cwn Annwfn’ are to be associated with the constellations depicting the celestial hunter Orion and his hounds, Canis Major and Canis Minor. Welsh tradition places the presence in the night sky of the Cwn Annwfn in the late Autumn, Winter and early Spring, precisely the months when Orion and his hounds dominate the southern night sky. The fact that it is Gwynn ap Nudd who is usually said to be the hunter who leads the Cwn Annwfn, may only reflect a separate, perhaps earlier insular tradition about these constellations.

The similarity in the names Orion and Arawn is undeniable and this becomes even more striking in the pronunciation; Orion -uh-rahy-uhn, Arawn -A-ra-oon. Clearly then, it seems not unlikely that Arawn is a Welsh rendering of the Greek Orion. Who then is Pwyll? If Arawn can be identified with Orion, who does he exchange places with? Consider the position of Orion as he appears on Ptolemaic constellation charts. Firstly, he is entirely below the Ecliptic, (the apparent path of the sun, moon and the planets) he is also neatly dissected through the three stars of his belt by the Celestial Equator, (this is the Earth's Equator extended out into space). Thus he occupies the liminal space between the Heavens above (the Northern celestial hemisphere) and the Underworld, (the Southern celestial hemisphere).This is most obviously illustrated in the charts which were drawn up by Schaubach towards the end of the 18th century, but based upon the Eratosthenean and Ptolemaic catalogues compiled in the 3rd Century BC and the 2nd Century AD, respectively.

The upper body of Orion is positioned at the edge of the Northern chart, whilst the lower torso and legs appear at the edge of the Southern chart. The figure of Orion can only be resolved if the two circular charts are placed one above the other and turned around their centres so that the two halves of the figure are joined where the charts touch at the celestial equator. With the maps so arranged it will be observed that directly above Orion, at the top of the Northern chart is another figure almost indistinguishable from Orion. This is the constellational figure of Hercules. Both figures are the same size. The pose is the same; right leg bent under, the left leg bent up but with the foot apparently to the ground. Both figures hold a club in the right hand, held high above the head. Both figures wear a lionskin. Traditionally, both are hunters, but strangely both have also been envisaged as the prey which they hunt, i.e. the stag, (Allen). The spatial relationship is also striking. To all intents and purposes these two constellational figures are identical. This resemblance is certainly not illusory and is well known to historians of Astronomy. In her book 'The Stargazers Guide', Emily Winterburn (former Curator of Astronomy at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich) notes of Orion:

              'It's hard to ignore the similarity to the Hercules story ... Our hero is set impossible tasks, he destroys the relationship with the woman he loves while in a state of diminished responsibility and turns to the oracle for redemption. He even wears a lionskin, although it isn't commented upon in the Orion story. These similarities have provoked some commentators to suggest that both characters derive from the same source.

            The name Orion comes from Sumerian Uru-anna meaning 'light of heaven'. This is different from the Sumerian name for Hercules, Gilgamesh; so the Sumerians, who pre-date the Greeks and are the source for much of Greek mythology, must have had separate characters too. What is puzzling is that Orion is depicted wearing a lionskin and fighting Taurus, the bull. No myth appears to exist in which Orion kills a lion or fights a bull; but both the Greek Hercules and the Sumerian Gilgamesh do'.

Hercules and Orion as Pwyll and Arawn in Branch One, and as the double identity of Pryderi in Branch Four

It is important to be aware that this correspondence between the two constellation figures has nothing whatsoever to do with the appearance of their respective stars which they overlie and represent. Orion is probably the brightest and most recognisable of all the stellar groupings, whilst Hercules contains no bright stars and is not easily made out without reference to nearby constellations. It is crucially important to make the distinction between a constellation or 'star group' and the figure which traditionally represents that group of stars. The visual similarity between Orion and Hercules is only apparent in the context of constellational charts. The point is that if one were to 'cut and paste' Orion into Hercules' position and vice versa, nobody would know the difference. Says Arawn to Pwyll: "I shall arrange that no man or woman in your realm realizes that I am not you, and I will take your place". (Davies)

This notion of the two figures changing places may be based on the astronomical observation that when, during the winter months Orion dominates the night sky, rising to his highest point in the South, Hercules is in the North and setting below the horizon. Conversely during the Summer Hercules dominates the Northern celestial dome, whilst Orion has now returned to his realm beneath the Southern horizon. Indeed, the ’man who was Arawn’s’ defeat of Hafgan (Summer-white) at the ford has led some commentators to suggest a seasonal allegory behind this episode. There is an evident similarity, which has not gone unnoticed elsewhere, with this single combat and that between Pryderi and Gwydion in the Fourth Branch, both take place at a ford, (The Milky Way) victory is achieved in each case by the use of force and of magic, but here in a complete reversal, it is the son of the ’man who was Arawn’ who is defeated and Gwydion/Cygnus, The (white) Swan of Summer, who is the victor.

It is therefore, this ability of Hercules/Pwyll and Orion/Arawn to interchange magically, pictorially, seasonally and astronomically, explicit in the First Branch, which informs us of the double identity of Pryderi in the Fourth Branch. In the first case an audience would see Pryderi son of Pwyll Pen Annwfn as Orion, the dominant figure of the 21 constellations of the southern hemisphere, as Pryderi is the dominant figure of the 21 cantrefs of the South. He is the inheritor of the role Lord of Annwfn, which his (identical) father, Pwyll, in turn inherited from his (identical) friend Arawn, (Orion).

Later in the tale when the twelve northern bards go to south Wales (or otherwise Annwfn, the southern celestial hemisphere), Pryderi will now be seen to be Hercules being entertained by Gwydion with his harp, (Cygnus and Lyra). Later still during the fight at the ford (The Milky Way), both Hercules (now upside down) and Orion (now split in two) combine to show how Gwydion defeated Pryderi by strength and by magic.

The tale does not mention the number of cantrefs in the north, but historically Gwynedd combined with Powys make up 26 cantrefs, just 1 short of the constellations of Ptolemy's northern hemisphere. Within the first few paragraphs of Math a remarkable relationship between the geopolitical cartography of early medieval Wales and the Ptolemaic charts emerges, this theme of 'as above so below' pervades Math and finds it's most astonishing articulation in the form of Gwydion's circuitous route with the pigs and afterwards in the naming of Llew Llaw Gyffes.

Gwydion/Cygnus disguised as a Pencerdd or Chief Poet, wearing his swan-feather tugen and playing his crwth or lyre as he entertains Pryderi in his guise as Hercules.

Geometry in Irish Maps

Geometry in Irish Maps

Ptolemy's Ibernia Britannica. (c. 87 - 150 AD). It is tempting to see in the three islands centered on the line of longitude in the Irish Sea (Mona, Limnos and ?) the source for the three mysterious islands which sometimes appear in the first printed maps of  Ireland

Hiberniae Britannicae Insvlae Nova Descriptio published by Abraham Ortelius in 1592. Note the phantom islands below Dublin on the east coast.

The underlying structure of the map is a fusion of circle and square, and the 'islands' can be seen to function as the eastern side of that square. The rendering of the North half of Ireland as a circle is very reminiscent of the depiction of South Wales in Cambriae Typus which is also based on a circle - the circle which is delineated by Gwydion's pig sties in Math vab Mathonwy. These two maps (Cambriae Typus and Hiberniae Britannicae), are clearly part of the same tradition of Cartography which generated the 'Angel of Lincoln', The Lion of Scotland and The Unicorn of England.

Mercator's Irlandia of 1602 has relegated the phantom isles to mere sand banks as 'South ground', 'Middel ground' and 'North ground' but still retains the tradition of the Giant's Head with it's Lake of the Red Eye.

The following is Lady Guest's translation of the famous 'night watchman scene' from the Second Branch or Branwen Daughter of Llyr.

The King's Head.

Then he proceeded with what provisions he had on his own back, and approached the shore of Ireland.

Now the swineherds of Matholwch were upon the sea-shore, and they came to Matholwch. 

"Lord," said they, "greeting be unto thee." 

"Heaven protect you," said he, "have you any news?" 

"Lord," said they, "we have marvellous news, a wood have we seen upon the sea, in a place where we never yet saw a single tree." 

"This is indeed a marvel," said he; "saw you aught else?" 

"We saw, lord," said they, "a vast mountain beside the wood, which moved, and there was a lofty ridge on the top of the mountain, and a lake on each side of the ridge. And the wood, and the mountain, and all these things moved." 

"Verily," said he, "there is none who can know aught concerning this, unless it be Branwen."

Messengers then went unto Branwen. "Lady," said they, what thinkest thou that this is?" 

"The men of the Island of the Mighty, who have come hither on hearing of my ill treatment and my woes." 

"What is the forest that is seen upon the sea?" asked they. 

"The yards and the masts of ships," she answered. 

"Alas," said they, "what is the mountain that is seen by the side of the ships?" 
"Bendigeid Vran, my brother," she replied, "coming to shoal water; there is no ship that can contain him in it." 

"What is the lofty ridge with the lake on each side thereof?" 

"On looking towards this island he is wroth, and his two eyes, one on each side of his nose, are the two lakes beside the ridge."

Mercator's map, as well as maps derived from it, also kept to a strict underlying geometry, which in this case is comprised of two adjacent squares.

Giraldus Cambrensis' (Gerald of Wales, c. 1146-1223) map of Ireland from the Topographia Hiberniae, suggests that he was not really capable of producing the now lost Totius Kambria Mappa, which is sometimes attributed to him and which Henry Owen described as 'a map of the whole of Wales, with the mountains. rivers, towns, castles and monasteries carefully set out'. 

(See 'The Journey of the Swine' for the significance of this).


On the other hand it is clear that Rhygyfarch ap Sulien,, judging 

from the following excerpt from his Vita Davidus, possessed a 

more sophisticated concept of a map of Ireland:  

"Rejoice, Patrick, for the Lord hath sent me to you that I may show you the whole of the island of Ireland from the seat which is in Vallis Rosina," which now is named "the Seat of Patrick." And the angel says to him, "Exult, Patrick, for you shall be the apostle of the whole of that island which you see, and you shall suffer many things in it for the name of the Lord your God, but the Lord will be with you in all things which you shall do, for as yet it has not received the word of life; and there you ought to do good; there the Lord has prepared a seat for you; there you shall shine in signs and miracles, and you shall subdue the whole people to God. Let this be to you for a sign. I will show you the whole island. Let the mountains be bent; the sea shall be made smooth; the eye bearing forth across all things, looking out from [this] place, shall behold the promise." At these words he raised his eyes from the place in which he was standing, which now is called "the Seat of Patrick," and beheld the whole island.