Background Matholwch, King of Ireland, sails across the
Irish Sea to ask the British High King,
Brân, for the hand of his sister
Branwen in marriage. Bendigeidfran agrees to this, but during a feast to celebrate the betrothal, Efnisien, a half-brother of Branwen and Bendigeidfran, arrives and asks what was going on. When told, he is furious that Branwen has been given in marriage without his permission, and retaliates by mutilating Matholwch's horses. Matholwch is deeply angered until Bendigeidfran gives him a magic
cauldron which restores the dead to life. hands. Once in Ireland, Branwen is treated cruelly by her husband, Matholwch, and is forced to work in the kitchen. She tames a
starling and sends it across the
Irish Sea with a message to her brother Bendigeidfran, who sails from Wales to Ireland to rescue her with his brother,
Manawydan and a host raised from the one hundred and fifty four
cantrefs of Britain. The Irish offer to make peace by building a house big enough to entertain Bendigeidfrân but hang a hundred bags inside, supposedly containing flour but actually containing armed warriors. Efnisien, suspecting treachery, reconnoitres the hall and kills the warriors by crushing their skulls.
Death To make peace between the kingdoms, Branwen and Matholwch's young son, Gwern, ascends to the
throne of Ireland and, during the feast held in the Great House in his honour, is called in turn to his uncles Bran, Manawydan and
Nisien. He is then called to Efnysien who, seemingly without motive, throws the boy into the flames, burning him to death. Branwen attempts to rescue her son from the fire but is held back by Bendigeidfran.
Aftermath As a result of Efnysien's "unspeakable crime", the two hosts rise up against each other and a vicious fighting begins. In the ensuing battle, the Irish at first have the advantage because of the magic cauldron. When the Irish dead are placed in it, they came to life and were able to fight as well as ever, though they cannot speak. Efnisien lies down among the dead and is placed in the cauldron, then breaks it, bursting his heart and dying in the process. The Welsh eventually win the war, but only seven men survived. Bendigeidfran himself is dying from a mortal wound in the foot, and orders that his head should be cut off and buried in
London. When the survivors return to Britain, Branwen dies of grief from believing that she was the cause of the war; she is buried beside the
River Alaw in
Anglesey. For seven years the seven survivors, amongst them Manawydan and
Pryderi, stay in
Harlech, where they are entertained by Bendigeidfran's head, which continues to speak. They later move on to Gwales (often identified with
Grassholm Island off
Dyfed) where they live for eighty years without perceiving the passing of time. Eventually, one of the men opens the door of the hall facing
Cornwall and the sorrow of what had befallen them returns. As instructed they take the now silent head to the
Gwynfryn, the "White Hill" (thought to be the location where the
Tower of London now stands), where they bury it facing
France so as to ward off invasion. The imagery of the talking head is widely considered to derive from the ancient Celtic "
cult of the head"; the head was considered the home of the
soul.
The Battle of the Trees A number of texts relate to
Cad Goddeu or, The Battle of the Trees, a conflict between
Arawn, king of the
otherworld, and the children of
Dôn,
Amaethon,
Gwydion and his nephew
Lleu. The battle was fought on account of the "white
roebuck and the whelp" stolen by Amaethon from the Otherworld. A great warrior fights alongside Arawn and cannot be overcome unless his name can be guessed by the opposing force. Gwydion, the
Venedotian magician sings these
englyns, identifying the warrior as Bran: Bran is here identified by the "sprigs of alder" (
gwern) on his shield. A number of scholars have suggested an association between Gwern's role in
Branwen and in the bardic tradition relating to the Battle of the Trees. ==References==