agrees with Arawn, king of
Annwfn (Elysium), to reign over his kingdom for a year. At the end of
that time he slays Arawn's rival Havgan. Arawn sends him gifts, and
Pwyll is now known as Pen or Head of Annwfn, a title showing that he was
once a god, belonging to the gods' land, later identified with the
Christian Hades. Pwyll now agrees with Rhiannon,[396] who appears
mysteriously on a magic hillock, and whom he captures, to rid her of an
unwelcome suitor Gwawl. He imprisons him in a magical bag, and Rhiannon
weds Pwyll. The story thus resolves itself into the formula of the Fairy
Bride, but it paves the way for the vengeance taken on Pryderi and
Rhiannon by Gwawl's friend Llwyt. Rhiannon has a son who is stolen as
soon as born. She is accused of slaying him and is degraded, but Teyrnon
recovers the child from its super-human robber and calls him Gwri. As he
grows up, Teyrnon notices his resemblance to Pwyll, and takes him to his
court. Rhiannon is reinstated, and because she cries that her anguish
(_pryderi_) is gone, the boy is now called Pryderi. Here, again, we have
_Maerchen_ incidents, which also appear in the Fionn saga.[397]

Though there is little that is mythological here, it is evident that
Pwyll is a god and Rhiannon a goddess, whose early importance, like that
of other Celtic goddesses, appears from her name, a corruption of
Rigantona, "great queen." Elsewhere we hear of her magic birds whose
song charmed Bran's companions for seven years, and of her marriage to
Manawyddan--an old myth in which Manawyddan may have been Pryderi's
father, while possibly in some other myth Pryderi may have been child of
Rigantona and Teyrnon (=Tigernonos, "king").[398] We may postulate an
old Rhiannon saga, fragments of which are to be found in the _Mabinogi_,
and there may have been more than one goddess called Rigantona, later
fused into one. But in the tales she is merely a queen of old romance.

Pryderi, as has been seen, was despoiled of his swine by Gwydion. They
were the gift of Arawn, but in the _Triads_ they seem to have been
brought from Annwfn by Pwyll, while Pryderi acted as swineherd.[399]
Both Pwyll and Pryderi are thus connected with those myths which told of
the bringing of domestic animals from the gods' land. But since they are
certainly gods, associated with the gods' land, this is perhaps the
result of misunderstanding. A poem speaks of the magic cauldron of Pen
Annwfn, i.e. Pwyll, and this points to a myth