Blodeuwedd

In the fourth branch of the Mabinogi, Lleu Llaw Gyffes is cursed by his mother Aranrhod that he shall never marry a woman of any race on the earth. Determined to prove her wrong, Math son of Mathonwy, Lleu's uncle, and Gwydion charm three kinds of flowers - oak, broom, and meadow sweet - to create the most beautiful woman for his nephew to marry, and he names her Blodeuedd. She is immediately married to Lleu Llaw Gyffes and goes to live with him in Ardudwy.

I was curious about the three flowers used in her creation and gleaned some interesting info through a quick look at Wikipedia. Oak is common all over the northern hemisphere, and is the national tree of England, as it is a symbol of strength and endurance. Oak is also one of three kinds of trees (the other two being ash and thorn) that are most associated with fairy lore in the Celtic tradition. Broom is a shrub that most often grows wild, has bright yellow flowers that can be used to make dye, and is native to all of Europe, north Africa, and southwest Asia. Meadowsweet grows all over Europe, in damp low lying meadows, and has small white flowers with a very sweet scent.

In relation to Blodeuedd, this means that she is made up of common wildflowers that grow as weeds in some areas, and the flower of a tree associated with faries, which in the Celtic tradition, from what little I've read so far, are not necessarily nice to humans. So, unlike little girls, she's not made out of sugar and spice and everything nice, but some things with particularly not-nice potential. Also, being made out of flowers, and therefore non-human, she may not have had a soul. I also think that the tale is saying that while men can make a beautiful woman, they can't make her complete since they can never understand womanhood.

I think it is the fact that she is non-human, and treated as a possession of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, that makes it so she quickly falls in love with Gronw and have an affair with him. I think it may also be this resentment that leads her to deceive Lleu Llaw Gyffes into revealing the complicated way that he can be killed (standing with one foot on the edge of a tub, the other on a billy goat, on a riverbank with a roof frame above him, with a weapon made while people were at prayer on a Sunday), and then gets him to actually demonstrate how one would be able to do that. She has Gronw kill Lleu with a spear (but he really changes into an eagle somehow and flies off), and take possession of his land.

When Gwydion finds Llew as an eagle and finds out what happens, he catches Blodeuedd and changes her into an owl. He said," 'Because of the shame you brought upon Lleu Llaw Gyffes, you shall not dare show your face ever in the light of day for fear of the other birds. There shall be enmity between you and all the rest of the birds. It shall be natural for them to persecute you and dishonor you wherever they find you. You shall not lose your name, however, you shall always be called Blodeuewedd.' What blodeuwedd is, is 'owl' in the language of the present day" (Ford, 108). I find it particularly significant that she is turned into a bird that is a harbinger of death in several cultures and generally associated with evil and magic. Also, owls are solitary birds most of the time, so part of her punishment is isolation, as well as to be a creature of the night, which is generally associated with sin, mystery, and evil.