cheerfully. "Hast
thou finished arming the youth," said he. "I have finished," she
answered. "I likewise have finished," said Gwydion. "Let us now take
off our arms, we have no need of them." "Wherefore?" said she. "Here is
the army around the house." "Oh, lady, there is here no army." "Oh,"
cried she, "Whence then was this tumult?" "The tumult was but to break
thy prophecy {96} and to obtain arms for thy son. And now has he got
arms without any thanks unto thee." "By Heaven," said Arianrod, "thou
art a wicked man. Many a youth might have lost his life, through the
uproar thou hast caused in this Cantrev to-day. Now will I lay a destiny
upon this youth," she said, "that he shall never have a wife of the race
that now inhabits this earth." "Verily," said he, "thou wast ever a
malicious woman, and no one ought to support thee. A wife shall he have
notwithstanding."

{Picture: p97.jpg}

They went thereupon unto Math the son of Mathonwy, and complained unto
him most bitterly of Arianrod. Gwydion showed him also how he had
procured arms for the youth. "Well," said Math, "we will seek, I and
thou, by charms and illusion, to form a wife for him out of flowers. He
has now come to man's stature, and he is the comeliest youth that was
ever beheld." So they took the blossoms of the oak, and the blossoms of
the broom, and the blossoms of the meadow-sweet, and produced from them a
maiden, the fairest and most graceful that man ever saw. And they
baptized her, {98a} and gave her the name of Blodeuwedd.

After she had become his bride, and they had feasted, said Gwydion, "It
is not easy for a man to maintain himself without possessions." "Of a
truth," said Math, "I will give the young man the best Cantrev to hold."
{98b} "Lord," said he, "what Cantrev is that?" "The Cantrev of
Dinodig," he answered. Now it is called at this day Eivionydd and
Ardudwy. And the place in the Cantrev where he dwelt, was a palace of
his in a spot called Mur y Castell, on the confines of Ardudwy. There
dwelt he and reigned, and both he and his sway were beloved by all.

One day he went forth to Caer Dathyl, to visit Math the son of Mathonwy.
And on the day that he set out for Caer Dathyl, Blodeuwedd walked in the
court. And she heard the sound of a horn. And after the sound of the
horn, behold, a tired stag went by, with dogs and huntsmen following it.
And after the dogs and the huntsmen there came a crowd of men on foot.
"Sen