Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

313the knights he had with him, who were concealed outside, rushedin, and captured and bound the followers of Gwawl. “What isin the bag?” they cried, and others answered, “A badger,” andso they played the game of “Badger in the Bag,” striking it andkicking it about the hall.At last a voice was heard from it. “Lord,” cried Gwawl, “ifthou wouldst but hear me, I merit not to be slain in a bag.” “Hespeaks truth,” said Hevydd Hēn.So an agreement was come to that Gwawl should providemeans for Pwyll to satisfy all the suitors and minstrels whoshould come to the wedding, and abandon Rhiannon, and neverseek to have revenge for what had been done to him. This wasconfirmed by sureties, and Gwawl and his men were releasedand went to their own territory. And Pwyll wedded Rhiannon,and dispensed gifts royally to all and sundry; and at last the pair,when the feasting was done, journeyed down to the palace ofNarberth in Dyfed, where Rhiannon gave rich gifts, a braceletand a ring or a precious stone to all the lords and ladies of her [363]new country, and they ruled the land in peace both that year andthe next. But the reader will find that we have not yet done withGwawl.The Penance of RhiannonNow Pwyll was still without an heir to the throne, and hisnobles urged him to take another wife. “Grant us a year longer,”said he, “and if there be no heir after that it shall be as you wish.”Before the year's end a son was born to them in Narberth. Butalthough six women sat up to watch the mother and the infant,it happened towards the morning that they all fell asleep, andRhiannon also slept, and when the women awoke, behold, theboy was gone! “We shall be burnt for this,” said the women,and in their terror they concocted a horrible plot: they killed acub of a staghound that had just been littered, and laid the bonesby Rhiannon, and smeared her face and hands with blood as sheslept, and when she woke and asked for her child they said she