tom and belief regarding the relics of
the dead and the power of divine images or sculptured heads.[354] The
god Bran has become a king and law-giver in the _Mabinogion_ and the
_Triads_,[355] while Geoffrey of Monmouth describes how Belinus and
Brennus, in the Welsh version Beli and Bran, dispute the crown of
Britain, are reconciled, and finally conquer Gaul and Rome.[356] The
mythic Bran is confused with Brennus, leader of the Gauls against Rome
in 390 B.C., and Belinus may be the god Belenos, as well as Beli, father
of Lludd and Caswallawn. But Bran also figures as a Christian
missionary. He is described as hostage at Rome for his son Caradawc,
returning thence as preacher of Christianity to the Cymry--a legend
arising out of a misunderstanding of his epithet "Blessed" and a
confusing of his son with the historic Caractacus.[357] Hence Bran's
family is spoken of as one of the three saintly families of Prydein, and
he is ancestor of many saints.[358]

Branwen, "White Bosom," daughter of a sea-god, may be a sea-goddess,
"Venus of the northern sea,"[359] unless with Mr. Nutt we connect her
with the cauldron described in her legend,[360] symbol of an orgiastic
cult, and regard her as a goddess of fertility. But the connection is
not clear in the story, though in some earlier myth the cauldron may
have been her property. As Brangwaine, she reappears in romance, giving
a love-potion to Tristram--perhaps a reminiscence of her former
functions as a goddess of love, or earlier of fertility. In the
_Mabinogion_ she is buried in Anglesey at Ynys Bronwen, where a cairn
with bones discovered in 1813 was held to be the grave and remains of
Branwen.[361]

The children of Don, the equivalent of Danu, and probably like her, a
goddess of fertility, are Gwydion, Gilvaethwy, Amaethon, Govannon, and
Arianrhod, with her sons, Dylan and Llew.[362] These correspond,
therefore, in part to the Tuatha Dea, though the only members of the
group who bear names similar to the Irish gods are Govannon (= Goibniu)
and possibly Llew (= Lug). Gwydion as a culture-god corresponds to Ogma.
In the _Triads_ Beli is called father of Arianrhod,[363] and assuming
that this Arianrhod is identical with the daughter of Don, Professor
Rh[^y]s regards Beli as husband of Don. But the identification is far
from certain, and the theory built upon it that Beli is one with the
Irish Bile, and that both are lords of a dark underworld, has already
been found precarious