Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

331special circumstances, and Blodeuwedd has to learn from himhow he may be slain. This she does under pretence of care for hiswelfare. The problem is a hard one. Llew can only be killed by aspear which has been a year in making, and has only been workedon during the Sacrifice of the Host on Sundays. Furthermore, hecannot be slain within a house or without, on horseback or onfoot. The only way, in fact, is that he should stand with one footon a dead buck and the other in a cauldron, which is to be used fora bath and thatched with a roof—if he is wounded while in thisposition with a spear made as directed the wound may be fatal,not otherwise. After a year, during which Gronw wrought at thespear, Blodeuwedd begged Llew to show her more fully whatshe must guard against, and he took up the required position toplease her. Gronw, lurking in a wood hard by, hurled the deadlyspear, and the head, which was poisoned, sank into Llew's body,but the shaft broke off. Then Llew changed into an eagle, andwith a loud scream he soared up into the air and was no moreseen, and Gronw took his castle and lands and added them to hisown. [384]These tidings at last reached Gwydion and Māth, and Gwydionset out to find Llew. He came to the house of a vassal of his,from whom he learned that a sow that he had disappeared everyday and could not be traced, but it came home duly each night.Gwydion followed the sow, and it went far away to the brooksince called Nant y Llew, where it stopped under a tree and beganfeeding. Gwydion looked to see what it ate, and found that itfed on putrid flesh that dropped from an eagle sitting aloft onthe tree, and it seemed to him that the eagle was Llew. Gwydionsang to it, and brought it gradually down the tree till it came tohis knee, when he struck it with his magic wand and restored itto the shape of Llew, but worn to skin and bone—“no one eversaw a more piteous sight.”The Healing of LlewWhen Llew was healed, he and Gwydion took vengeance on