Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

311like gold, and sitting on a pure white horse. “Is there any amongyou,” said Pwyll to his men, “who knows that lady?” “There isnot,” said they. “Then go to meet her and learn who she is.” Butas they rode towards the lady she moved away from them, andhowever fast they rode she still kept an even distance betweenher and them, yet never seemed to exceed the quiet pace withwhich she had first approached.Several times did Pwyll seek to have the lady overtaken andquestioned, but all was in vain—none could draw near to her.Next day Pwyll ascended the mound again, and once morethe fair lady on her white steed drew near. This time Pwyllhimself pursued her, but she flitted away before him as she haddone before his servants, till at last he cried : “O maiden, for thesake of him thou best lovest, stay for me.” “I will stay gladly,”said she, “and it were better for thy horse had thou asked it longsince.”Pwyll then questioned her as to the cause of her coming, andshe said: “I am Rhiannon, the daughter of Hevydd Hēn, 230 andthey sought to give me to a husband against my will. But nohusband would I have, and that because of my love for thee;neither will I yet have one if thou reject me.” “By heaven!” saidPwyll, “if I might choose among all the ladies and damsels of theworld, thee would I choose.”They then agree that in a twelvemonth from that day Pwyll isto come and claim her at the palace of Hevydd Hēn.Pwyll kept his tryst, with a following of a hundred knights, [361]and found a splendid feast prepared for him, and he sat by hislady, with her father on the other side. As they feasted and talkedthere entered a tall, auburn-haired youth of royal bearing, cladin satin, who saluted Pwyll and his knights. Pwyll invited himto sit down. “Nay, I am a suitor to thee,” said the youth; “tocrave a boon am I come.” “Whatever thou wilt thou shalt have,”230Hēn, “the Ancient”; an epithet generally implying a hoary antiquityassociated with mythological tradition.