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‘Then they took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet,
and from those they conjured up the fairest and most beautiful maiden that anyone had ever seen. And they baptized her in
the way they did at that time, and named her Blodeuedd.’(The Fourth Branch, The
Mabinogion)
‘Blodeuedd’
means ‘Flowers’ and ‘Blodeuwedd’ means ‘Flower-Face’ ~ two names for the same goddess.
At first she is the beautiful spring maiden, ‘Flowers’, but at the end of her story she is transformed into an
owl, to live in the night forever, and she is re-named ‘Flower-Face’ ~ play on words to express her dual aspects;
her light and her dark.
Blodeuedd
was created by magic, by Gwydion (the god of Magic) assisted by his uncle, Math son of Mathonwy. She was created as a bride
for Lleu Llaw Gyffes ~ a Summer King of Welsh tradition. Lleu was the unwanted son of the goddess Aranrhod and she put a curse
upon him that he should not have a wife ‘of the race which now inhabits this earth’; so Gwydion and Math
used their magical skills and created Blodeuedd. All was well until this goddess of love fell in love.
One day (whilst Lleu was away) a handsome hunter came by chasing a stag with his horse and hounds (classical Winter
King imagery) ~ Gronw Pebr ‘the strong’ or ‘radiant’ and Blodeuedd fell desperately in love as soon
as they saw each other,
‘Blodeuedd looked at him, and from the moment she
looked there was no part of her that was not filled with love for him. And he gazed at her, and the same thought came to him
as had come to her. He could not hide the fact that he loved her, and he told her so. She was overjoyed. And their talk that
night was of the attraction and love they felt for one another. And they did not put off making love to each other any longer
than that night ~ that night they slept together.’(The Fourth Branch, The Mabinogion)
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Gronw Pebwr talked Blodeuedd into assisting him in killing Lleu (a long and complicated
saga ~ the annual cycle is there though, it takes Gronw a whole year to create the spear that he uses to kill Lleu). Summer
kings and deities never truly die. Lleu turns into an eagle and flies to the top of a faraway oak tree. Gwydion eventually
finds him and restores him to his normal form; Lleu then returns the favour and kills Gronw with a spear. Gwydion then punishes
Blodeuedd for her hand in Lleu’s murder, turning her into an owl to live in the darkness forever and he re-names her
Blodeuwedd, ‘Flower-Face’. It is said that as the owl Blodeuwedd still mourns for her lost love. The colours of
the flora that she was created from were white and gold; it is thus most probable that it was a Barn Owl that she was formed
into. Uniquely beautiful with its heart-shaped face the Barn Owl, Tyto Alba (‘White-Owl) haunts Britain at
dawn and dusk, ghost-like, its phantom screech echoing in the air.
The Blodeuwedd story is a classical Holly King verses Oak King saga. She was created from summer flowers to be the
wife of the Summer King but goddesses of love are not sex-slaves, they love who they choose to love. Blodeuwedd was created
from the flowers of Oak, Broom and Meadowsweet (tree, shrub and flower). Oak is the tree of the Summer King and Meadowsweet
is of Gwena and is known as ‘Queen of the Meadows’ , ‘Bride of the Meadows’ and ‘Little Queen’.
Meadowsweet is a member of the rose family, Culpepper the herbalist equates it with Venus, its little flowers are five-petalled
and almond scented and it has many bridal traditions connected with it.
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This original painting
is for sale (£10,000) and private viewings in Glastonbury can be arranged by appointment.
This painting
is 3ft wide and 5ft high, acrylic paint upon a solid wooden board. The painting is not actually framed ~ this is a textured
intergrated frame effect. The border and halo have real oak leaves and feathers embedded into the texture.
Prints
are available from Fine Art America (you can choose your own size) click link below to visit Yuri's Fine Art America
pages.
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