# Celtic Stories/Bran and Bronwen

BRAN AND BRONWEN
The King of the Island of the Mighty, Bran the son of Lear, had his court at Harlech, and one day he sat upon the rock of Harlech, looking over the sea. With him were his brothers, Manawythan, and Nissyen the peaceful and Evnissyen the quarrelsome, and a company of nobles worthy of a king. While they sat, they saw ships coming over the sea from Ireland. They were thirteen ships, and the wind carried them rapidly towards Harlech. As they drew near the first of them showed a signal of peace, a shield lifted up with the point upwards above the side of the ship, and they sent men to the land. They saluted Bran from the shore, and he saluted them back again. Sitting on the rock he asked them the name of their lord, and why he came, and whether he would land.
'We are from Matholwch the King of Ireland,' they said; 'He comes to ask Bronwen the daughter of Lear to be his wife.'
Matholwch landed and Bran received him with honour and joy. Next day they held a council and it was decided that Bronwen should marry the King of Ireland. They went for the marriage feast to Aberfrow, Matholwch and the Irish sailing round the coast, Bran and his court riding on the cliffs above. Bran and Bronwen and the other children of Lear, and Matholwch and the nobles of the two kings, feasted at Aberfrow. No house was roomy enough for Bran, so they feasted in a tent with a roof like the sky; and when it seemed pleasanter to sleep than to carouse they went to rest.
​But Evnissyen was angry because Bronwen had been given to Matholwch without his consent. 'There could be no greater insult,' he said, and in his anger he hacked and hewed with his sword among the horses of the Irish. When Matholwch heard that his horses had been mutilated he took it as an insult. His attendants said: 'It was an insult and it was meant for an insult.' To him it was marvellous that they should insult him after giving him Bronwen for a wife, but he went down towards his fleet with indignation. Bran, hearing of his going, sent after him, and the messengers asked Matholwch the cause of this haste. When they heard it, they said: 'This was not done with the knowledge of the king. The dishonour is greater to Bran than to thee.' Matholwch replied: 'But he cannot recall the insult.'
The messengers hastened back to tell Bran. In a little time he sent others to offer a sound horse for each mutilated one, a staff of silver as large and tall as Matholwch himself, and an unbounded apology. Matholwch and his council accepted this and returned to the court.
They sat down again to feast, Bran and Matholwch and their companies. Matholwch seemed not so cheerful as before to Bran, who thought this might be because of the small atonement for the insult. 'O man,' said Bran, 'thou dost not discourse to-night so cheerfully as thou wast wont. And if it be because of the smallness of the atonement, thou shalt add thereunto whatsoever thou mayst choose, and to-morrow I will pay thee the horses.'
'Lord,' said he, 'Heaven reward thee.'
'And I will increase the atonement,' said Bran, 'for I will give unto thee a cauldron, the property of which ​is, that if one of thy men be slain to-day, and be cast therein, to-morrow he will be as well as ever he was at the best, except that he will not regain his speech.' And thereupon Matholwch gave him great thanks, and very joyful was he for that cause.
In the morning they gave Matholwch his horses.
When Bran and Matholwch again sat together, the King of Ireland asked where the cauldron had come from. 'I had it,' said Bran, 'from Llassar Llaesgyvnewid and his wife, who came hither after escaping from the red-hot Iron House in Ireland. It is strange that thou shouldst know nothing of this.' 'But,' said Matholwch: 'I do know. I was hunting in Ireland beside the Lake of the Cauldron, when I saw a yellow-haired man, hideous and huge, coming out of the lake with a cauldron upon his back. After him came a woman of twice his bulk. They greeted me, and because the woman was before long to be delivered of a child I took them back with me and maintained them. But they were a terror to my people, with their violence, and either they must go or I must lose my kingdom. They would not go of their own free will and could not be driven out. So a chamber of iron was built. Coals were heaped high all round it. Llassar and his wife were served with plenty of meat and drink, and when they were very full they were thrust into the chamber and shut in. The coal was set on fire. When the walls were red hot they held a council in the middle of the floor. They waited until the iron was white hot: then Llassar burst through the wall and his wife followed him out. Thus they came over unto thee. How didst thou receive them?'
'Their offspring are now scattered all over my country. They prosper everywhere and fortify their abodes with men and arms of the best that were ever seen.'
​At the end of the days of feasting, Matholwch went back to Ireland with Bronwen and the silver staff and the cauldron. Men in Ireland were glad of their coming, and Bronwen gave them many great gifts. But the story of the insult to Matholwch rankled in men's hearts. Bronwen bore him a son who was called Gwern, but they would not let Matholwch forget the story. At last they drove Bronwen into the kitchen to be a cook, and made the butcher give her every day a blow on the ear for punishment. For three years also, by their persuasion, Matholwch forbade all trade with Wales and ordered all who came over from Wales to be imprisoned.
In her kitchen Bronwen reared a starling secretly. She taught the starling to speak; she taught it what Bran her brother was like. Then she wrote a letter telling her woes and fastened it under the bird's wing, and sent it towards the Island of the Mighty.
One day, as Bran was at council, the starling lighted upon his shoulder and ruffled its feathers so that the letter was seen, and men knew that the bird had been trained. Bran read the letter with great sorrow at the pitiful news of Bronwen. He sent messengers to all parts of the island to summon a full council. He told them the story of Bronwen's suffering and they resolved to go to Ireland, leaving in charge of the land Caradoc the son of Bran, and six other chief men and their seven knights, and the young page Pendaran.
When the fleet came to shallow water Bran stepped overboard and strode among the ships towards Ireland. The swineherds of Matholwch saw him. 'Lord,' said they, hurrying to their master, 'we have marvellous news. We have seen a forest upon the sea, and a hill beside it, and these things are moving.' Matholwch knew nothing of this, and, 'Verily,' he said. 'only Bronwen might ​know.' Messengers were sent to her, telling her what they had seen. 'What is the forest upon the sea?' they asked. 'It is the ships of the Island of the Mighty,' she said. 'And what is that hill amongst them?' they asked. 'It is Bran, my brother,' she answered; 'he is walking in the shallow water where no ship could carry him.'
Matholwch and the warriors and chief men of Ireland took hasty counsel. They fled over a river, breaking down the bridge behind them. The invaders could not follow until Bran himself lay across the river for them to go over. 'He who will be chief,' he said, 'let him be a bridge also.' When they saw this, the enemy knew that it was useless to fly from Bran. They sent messengers to him, pleading, 'Matholwch has given the Kingdom of Ireland to Gwern, thy sister's son. Let this atone for the insult to Bronwen. As to Matholwch, he will dwell wherever thou choosest, here or in the Island of the Mighty.' Bran said, 'Shall I not have the kingdom myself?' The messengers hurried back to Matholwch, and implored him to send a more agreeable message to Bran.
Matholwch consulted his friends.
'My friends,' said Matholwch, 'what may be your counsel? ' 'Lord.' said they, 'there is no other counsel than this alone. Bran was never known to be within a house; make, therefore, a house that will hold him and the men of the Island of the Mighty on the one side, and thyself and thy host on the other; and give over thy kingdom to his will, and do him homage. So by reason of the honour thou doest him in making him a house, whereas he never before had a house to hold him, he will make peace with thee.' So the messengers went back to Bran, bearing this message.
​Bran accepted the offer, for Bronwen had pleaded with him, in fear lest he should lay waste the country.
The great house for Bran was built as if to last for ever. But the Irish were very crafty. They put brackets on each side of the hundred pillars in the house, and placed a leathern bag on each of them, and in each bag a warrior. Then Evnissyen came in before the host of the Island of the Mighty. He scanned the house with fierce and savage looks, and caught sight of the leathern bags around the pillars. 'What is in this bag?' asked he of one of the Irish. 'Meal, good soul,' said the man. And Evnissyen felt about it until he came to the warrior's head, and he squeezed the head until he felt his fingers meet together in the brain through the bone. And he left that one, and put his hand upon another, and asked what was therein. 'Meal,' said the Irishman. So he did the same to every one of them, until he had left alive, of all the two hundred men, only one; and coming to this last one, he asked what was there. 'Meal, good soul,' said the Irishman. And he felt about until he felt the head, and he squeezed that head as he had done the others; and though he found that the head of this one was armed, he left him not until he had killed him.
So the two hosts entered the house, the men of Ireland on one side and the men of the Island of the Mighty on the other. They sat down in peace, and Gwern the son of Bronwen was crowned King of Ireland. Thus the peace was confirmed. Then Bran called the boy to him, and he came, and his uncle kissed him. Manawythan called him and kissed him, and so did Nissyen. To each of them the boy ran up lovingly. 'Why does my nephew not come to me,' said Evnissyen, 'though he were not King of Ireland I would kiss him gladly.'
​Bran turned to the boy and said, 'He will go to thee gladly,' and so he did. Evnissyen said to himself, 'They do not dream of the slaughter I will now commit,' and he took up Gwern by the feet and threw him head-first into the fire. Bronwen tried to leap after her child, but Bran prevented her. The house was all in tumult. The two hosts armed themselves, and each man saw an enemy. Said Morthwyt Tyllion: 'The gadflies of Morthwyt Tyllion's cow!' Only Bran was calm amid the fury of the battle, supporting Bronwen between his shield and his shoulder.
At first the Irish were worsted because they had no help from the leathern bags on the brackets; but they kindled a fire in Llassar's cauldron and cast into it all their dead. Out of this the dead leapt up alive. These men who were restored fought as well as ever, but they could not speak. When Evnissyen saw the Irish triumphing with this advantage, but the men of the Island of the Mighty lying dead and remaining dead, he said in his heart, 'Alas! woe is me, that I should have been the cause of bringing the men of the Island of the Mighty into so great a strait. Evil betide me if I do not deliver them.' And he cast himself among the dead bodies of the Irish, and two unshod Irishmen came to him, and taking him to be one of the Irish flung him into the cauldron. And he stretched himself out in the cauldron, so that he rent the cauldron into four pieces and burst his own heart also. Nevertheless the men of the Island of the Mighty could not gain the victory. Besides Bran and Bronwen, only Manawythan and Talicsin the bard and five others escaped. Bran himself was wounded in the foot with a poisoned dart.
When they had gone aboard, Bran called these men round him and said:
​'I am at the point of death. Cut off my head, and take it and bear it to the White Mount in London, and bury it there with the face towards France. A long time will you be upon the road. In Harlech you will be feasting seven years, the birds of Rhiannon singing unto you the while. And all that time the head will be to you as pleasant company as it ever was when on my body. And at Gwales Island you will be fourscore years, and you may remain there, and the head with you uncorrupted, until you open the door that looks towards Aber Henvelen and towards Cornwall. And after you have opened that door, there you may no longer tarry; set forth then to London to bury the head, and go straight forward.'
They cut off his head and bore it carefully with them. When they had landed in Anglesey they sat down to rest. Bronwen looked sadly round her. She looked towards Ireland and the Island of the Mighty and cried, 'Alas! woe is me that I was ever born; two islands have been destroyed because of me.' She uttered a loud groan, and there broke her heart. They buried her beside the river Alaw, at the place now called Bronwen's Island.
As they journeyed towards Harlech a multitude met them.
'Have you any tidings?' asked Manawythan, the son of Lear.
'Caswallawn, the son of Beli, has conquered the Island of the Mighty,' they answered, 'and is crowned King in London. He has slain the guardians of the kingdom, except Caradoc, and his heart broke for grief; for he could see the sword slaying his companions, but he could not see the slayer. Pendaran, the young page, has run away into the woods.'
​They went on to Harlech, and there stayed to rest. As they sat eating and drinking, the three birds of Rhiannon flitted up to the darkness of the rafters and began singing. All other songs were unpleasant compared to theirs. The birds seemed to be very far away, as it were across a wide sea, yet their notes were distinct. They were seven years sitting at this repast and listening to the birds of Rhiannon, and the seven years were no longer than a summer's day.
At the end of the seventh year they travelled to the bird island of Gwales, off Pembrokeshire. They found a fair and royal site overlooking the sea, and upon it a spacious hall. Into this hall they went, and two of its doors were open, but the third, which looked towards Cornwall, was closed. 'That,' said Manawythan, pointing, 'is the door we may not open.' That night they feasted and were glad. They remembered nothing of the past, nothing they had seen or done, nothing either joyous or sorrowful. And so they remained for fourscore years, so happy that they never thought whether they were happy or not. They never wearied, nor did they ever know or think how time was passing. The head of Bran was as pleasant to them as if he himself had been in their company, and these fourscore years were called 'The Entertaining of the Noble Head'.
One day Heilyn, the son of Gwynn, said: 'Ill luck to me if I do not open the door to know if that is true which Bran said of it.' He opened the door and they looked out towards Cornwall and Aber Henvelen. As they looked they remembered all things, their misery and losses, just as they had happened and as freshly as if those eighty years had never been; and especially they remembered the death of Bran. They could rest no longer. They journeyed to London and buried the ​head of Bran in the White Mount with its face towards France; and Manawythan was sad, and gazing upon the town of London he sighed and exclaimed: 'There is none save myself without a resting-place this night.'
This was called the first goodly concealment, when Bran's head was buried. While the head was concealed no invader could enter the Island of the Mighty. The second concealment was that of the bones of Gwrthevyr, which were hid in the chief harbour of the Island: the third was when Lud the son of Beli buried the dragons in the City of Pharaon among the rocks of Snowdon. There were three unhappy uncoverings of these hidden things. Vortigern uncovered the dragons and the bones of Gwrthevyr. King Arthur uncovered the buried head of Bran because he was proud and was unwilling to keep out invaders save by his own strength. After these three uncoverings followed the chief invasions of the Island of the Mighty.