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This branch is very fairytale-like, and has a surprisingly coherent plot (surprising, that is, considering all the pell-mell events and apparently random disappearing that occurred early on.) Rhiannon returns. Unsurprisingly, she is put-upon.
After the head of Bran the Blessed is buried, Manawydan (one of the seven survivors of the cauldron affair) tells Pryderi he doesn’t want to go home to London. Pryderi offers to marry him off to his mother, Rhiannon, and give him a realm instead. (Pwyll is now dead.) Rhiannon agrees, and she and Manawydan and Pryderi and his wife Cigfa become friends and wander around and feast until poof! Everyone vanishes but them! They continue wandering and feasting, but eventually they get bored, go to London, and take up various crafts, but always get run out of town for being better craftspeople than anyone else. I had union songs going through my head every time they got in a labor dispute: Will you be a lousy scab, or will you be a man?
They return to their depopulated realm, but a white boar appears and runs into a fort which also appears, taking the dogs with them. Having learned nothing from his father’s experiences with white animals and packs of hounds, Pryderi goes into the fort and gets stuck to a golden bowl. (Another Grail precursor?) Rhiannon goes to rescue him, and also gets stuck. Then the fort vanishes with them.
In an echo of Arawn and Pwyll, Manawydan reassures Cigfa that he’s not going to try anything with her. They go back to England, where he becomes such a good shoemaker that the other shoemakers decide to kill him. I guess being a great hero means being great at everything: shoe-making, hilt-making, basket-weaving…
They go back to the realm and grow wheat. Since it’s still depopulated, no farmers try to kill them. But mice eat all the grain. Manawydan catches one fat mouse and decides to hang her. A cleric, a priest, and a bishop conveniently show up to dissuade him. The suspicious timing of these holies not having escaped Manawydan’s notice, he demands Pryderi and Rhiannon’s release from the “bishop.”
The latter explains that he’s actually a friend of Gwawl (Rhiannon’s fiancé whom she had Pwyll beat up back in the First Branch) and put all the enchantments on the realm and them in revenge. The mice were his retinue, and the fat mouse is his pregnant wife! Manawydan gets him to remove the enchantments and swear not to take revenge in exchange for Mrs. Mouse’s life. Pryderi and Rhiannon appear, along with the rest of the population. Rhiannon had to wear a donkey collar while she was held captive. Poor Rhiannon.
This branch may trump all the rest for familiar folklore motifs, especially when it gets to the mouse part. It was also probably the inspiration for the extremely creepy sequence in Lloyd Alexander’s Taran Wanderer, in which animal transformation is presented as a fate worse than death… and Taran is assisted by a mouse.
Coming soon (probably later today): gay incestuous bestiality mpreg!
After the head of Bran the Blessed is buried, Manawydan (one of the seven survivors of the cauldron affair) tells Pryderi he doesn’t want to go home to London. Pryderi offers to marry him off to his mother, Rhiannon, and give him a realm instead. (Pwyll is now dead.) Rhiannon agrees, and she and Manawydan and Pryderi and his wife Cigfa become friends and wander around and feast until poof! Everyone vanishes but them! They continue wandering and feasting, but eventually they get bored, go to London, and take up various crafts, but always get run out of town for being better craftspeople than anyone else. I had union songs going through my head every time they got in a labor dispute: Will you be a lousy scab, or will you be a man?
They return to their depopulated realm, but a white boar appears and runs into a fort which also appears, taking the dogs with them. Having learned nothing from his father’s experiences with white animals and packs of hounds, Pryderi goes into the fort and gets stuck to a golden bowl. (Another Grail precursor?) Rhiannon goes to rescue him, and also gets stuck. Then the fort vanishes with them.
In an echo of Arawn and Pwyll, Manawydan reassures Cigfa that he’s not going to try anything with her. They go back to England, where he becomes such a good shoemaker that the other shoemakers decide to kill him. I guess being a great hero means being great at everything: shoe-making, hilt-making, basket-weaving…
They go back to the realm and grow wheat. Since it’s still depopulated, no farmers try to kill them. But mice eat all the grain. Manawydan catches one fat mouse and decides to hang her. A cleric, a priest, and a bishop conveniently show up to dissuade him. The suspicious timing of these holies not having escaped Manawydan’s notice, he demands Pryderi and Rhiannon’s release from the “bishop.”
The latter explains that he’s actually a friend of Gwawl (Rhiannon’s fiancé whom she had Pwyll beat up back in the First Branch) and put all the enchantments on the realm and them in revenge. The mice were his retinue, and the fat mouse is his pregnant wife! Manawydan gets him to remove the enchantments and swear not to take revenge in exchange for Mrs. Mouse’s life. Pryderi and Rhiannon appear, along with the rest of the population. Rhiannon had to wear a donkey collar while she was held captive. Poor Rhiannon.
This branch may trump all the rest for familiar folklore motifs, especially when it gets to the mouse part. It was also probably the inspiration for the extremely creepy sequence in Lloyd Alexander’s Taran Wanderer, in which animal transformation is presented as a fate worse than death… and Taran is assisted by a mouse.
Coming soon (probably later today): gay incestuous bestiality mpreg!
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