Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

330 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[383]We have seen that the name really means the same thing asthe Gaelic Lugh Lamfada, Lugh (Light) of the Long Arm; sothat we have here an instance of a legend growing up round amisunderstood name inherited from a half-forgotten mythology.How Llew Took ArmsThe shoes went back immediately to sedges and seaweedagain, and Arianrod, angry at being tricked, laid a new curseon the boy. “He shall never bear arms till I invest him withthem.” But Gwydion, going to Caer Arianrod with the boy inthe semblance of two bards, makes by magic art the illusion ofa foray of armed men round the castle. Arianrod gives themweapons to help in the defence, and thus again finds herselftricked by the superior craft of Gwydion.The Flower-Wife of LlewNext she said, “He shall never have a wife of the race that nowinhabits this earth.” This raised a difficulty beyond the powersof even Gwydion, and he went to Māth, the supreme master ofmagic. “Well,” said Māth, “we will seek, I and thou, to forma wife for him out of flowers.” “So they took the blossoms ofthe oak, and the blossoms of the broom, and the blossoms of themeadow-sweet, and produced from them a maiden, the fairestand most graceful that man ever saw. And they baptized her,and gave her the name of Blodeuwedd, or Flower-face.” Theywedded her to Llew, and gave them the cantrev of Dinodig toreign over, and there Llew and his bride dwelt for a season,happy, and beloved by all.Betrayal of LlewBut Blodeuwedd was not worthy of her beautiful name andorigin. One day when Llew was away on a visit with Māth, alord named Gronw Pebyr came a-hunting by the palace of Llew,and Blodeuwedd loved him from the moment she looked uponhim. That night they slept together, and the next, and the next,and then they planned how to be rid of Llew for ever. But Llew,like the Gothic solar hero Siegfried, is invulnerable except under