Great lecture!!! Thanks so much Gwilym. Next up on KZread was the Mabinogi Christmas film, so I watched that too. Hours later... I popped back here for the moral of the story - wild nature pitted against rotten patriarchy. Also a current story.

@elainedaprano9130

3 жыл бұрын

That "rotten patriarchy" is being termed "Dominionism" as in the King James version of "dominion over the earth". Earlier Christian writings in the Pseudopigrapha translate it as "guardianship of the earth". I repeat this every chance I get!

Very professional, very informative! Diolch yn fawr!

Gwydion lives on with these Merlin stories today. I watch the kids watch these King Arthur stories where Merlin helps Uther rape Igraine, and then Merlin raises Arthur like Gwydion raises Llew La Giffis to be king. Gwydion even helps him get a sword! Gwdions also there when the untrue wife cheats on him and threatens everything. And if you read about the historic Merddyn he doesn't do any of these things in the "Lives of Scottish Saints" a.k.a "The Lives of Saint Kentigern" or the later "Vita Merlini". Gwydion's story is just kind of grafted onto the Merlin figure. Even stranger still if you see art or a movie about Gwydion or Merlin...they are both made to look like Queens Elizabeth's John Dee. lol

Love your discussion on the sacred feminine and masculine. Facinating perspective. Thought provoking.

Really enjoyed this. Will seek out more of your work.

Just found your channel - thank you so much for this! So interesting.

Great work, as always.

Amazing lecture!

@CelticSource

2 жыл бұрын

thank you

I love this mythological story and the lessons it imparts. Thank you for your insightful explanation! Let's hope that in modern times, the sacred feminine doesn't turn into a rotten matriarchy that disrespects men, as Gwydion disrespected Arianrhod. The pendulum is in perpetual motion. Perhaps one of the lessons is the loss of balance between the feminine and masculine energies and the consequences thereof. Both energies can be toxic.

Thank you for making this video :)

@CelticSource

5 жыл бұрын

Pleasure! Thanks for watching.

Good lecture. Thank you!

@elainedaprano9130

3 жыл бұрын

...and good pronunciation!😉

Thank you for finally calling a spade "a spade" and admitting (as no one else seems willing to) that Gwydion is NOT somehow a good or cool guy. I'm not certain (because of course no one is), but I do think it is possible that he may have originally been a deity of the nasty trouble-making amoral trickster type (e.g. Loki) -- he bears many of the telltale symptoms of a trickster god. I've also heard speculation that Gwydion's story is a symbolic retelling of the rise of oppressive patriarchy taking away the power and autonomy of women, as he rapes Goewin, shames his sister, takes her child, overrides her authority regarding her child through manipulation, and then literally co-creates a female for the sole purpose of being used as a bride for his nephew and punishes her when she dares to try to make her own decisions about her life, and even killing Rhiannon's son for whose sake she had endured so very much hardship and sorrow. It's very interesting to hear basically the same assessment from you.

@CelticSource

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, in the Fourth Branch as we have it he certainly does stand for these things, although there appears to be a more positive Gwydion in The Book of Taliesin. My own sense is that there are two different Gwydions here, having evolved in two different oral lineages, same name but different types of character.

@McAulay99

2 жыл бұрын

Gwydion is cognate with Greek Pan and Vedic Pushan who is also an aspect of Odin.

I am a christian and i began to make my own research regarding irish and welsh legends. I apologize because of what the church did. It is sad that we do not have these tales in their original structure. Gods are euhemerized and turned into legendary heroes and kings, and that's not how it works. However, i believe in these tales, Bran might be the equivalent to Zeus, a ruler of gods. Branwen the equivalent to Bóinn and irish goddess and the same character as Modron. Manawydan might be the underworld god.

@elgranlugus7267

3 жыл бұрын

@Pisces West Thank you brother. But we both know that, if a time machine is invented, the first thing we might do is to travel back in time, and record as much as we can these ancient tales and stories. And, if you see, i never speak of these tales as mythology, because that word "myth" in modern times, is often used as a mean to debunk beliefs.

I've been obsessively listening to Isabela's Villain Song by Lydia the Bard and it could just as easily be Blodeuwedd singing to Gwydion. I recently discussed loving tales like Encanto and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi as they present complex motivations over villains. I spent a lot longer than I would like trying to find redeemable qualities in Gwydion, but after watching this I'm more inclined to give that a rest.

@CelticSource

4 ай бұрын

The version of Gwydion in The Battle of the Trees seems more heroic, but yes, the author of the 4th Branch was having none of it.

I thought Lady Charlotte Guest "Christianized" it, and added Arthur and gang. Christianity SHOULD be a nature AND science based mythology. Pope Francis advocates that...As a result, the conservative American bishops are fighting him tooth and nail. I will attempt a finishing of all the takes and want an illustrated. My Kindle offers one. I hope it's complete and the illustrations are WITHIN the body of the book.

@elainedaprano9130

3 жыл бұрын

*tales

I've always had a strange feeling when reading the 4th branch, I could never really identify what that feeling was or where it was stemming from, watching this video has shown me exactly where this feeling stems from. The toxicity of some of the Male figures in this story & how they behave is very uncomfortable to read and it lands in a very hard hitting way once the origins of the feelings are identified. I think reading them as just stories takes away the depth of the stories and the archetypes they explore thus avoiding the lessons they offer.

@CelticSource

Жыл бұрын

yes, they are moral tales

I sincerely doubt the 4th branch of the Mabinogi was written by a post-modernist, intersectional third-wave feminist. A lot of plot details have to be cut out to fit the summary here.

Im a decendant of the UK. My mother and all of my grandparents where born overseas. Myself I was born in Canada. Out of a personal need for earthbased connection I became u volved with First Nations here in Canada. I became very drawn and found teachers in the community, which helped to neurish my sense of woundednesw for the abscence of my own indigenoys spurituality. I can not express to you the drpth and breadth of the crimes of Christuanity here on Turtle Island by its representatives. Here, it was a destroyer of families, culture, forced elimination of indigenoys languages being a huge loss... a common theme in Christianities history, communities and their structures... Christianity as it was partnered with political agendas has been a disaster. Genecide is the correct identifying word to apply to what the church has participated in here. You may be too close to the experience being whefe you are and its bzing so fzr back in time that perhaps its scars are faiding. But, look around you. I struggle with your statements as I have also looked into its trail of destruction in places like Africa even in more recent times. Im very impressed with your research and presentations, but please, diminishing the cultural spiritual genocides that Christianity has bern i volved with is in my opinion, a slippery slope... and really adds ontothese harms by lack of acknowledgement. This has really saddened me as I have witnessed the need for that acknowledgement and the victoms... I see them every day. I was married to a victim of the residential schools and lived on a reserve as my home. Again, I admire your work. ButI ask you to rethink what you referred to and your defenceof the church. A more neutral, more balanced perspective would be appreciated.

@gwilmor

4 жыл бұрын

Apologies, I don't understand how this video is a defence of the church? Where exactly do I defend or take a 'slippery slope' towards defending their many historical atrocities? I'm simply stating the historical context that the tales were created in. This isn't a video on the history of the church but (at least partly) about how the Christianity of medieval Wales relates to the non-Christian elements in the Mabinogi. I'm very aware of the many, many crimes carried out in the name of Christianity, not least of all those carried out in Britain and Ireland. But that's not the focus of this video.