The Mabinogion · 136 of 191 · tr. Lady Charlotte Guest
Tale PWYLL PRINCE OF DYVED-n
So the boy was given to Pendaran Dyved, and the nobles of the land were sent with him.
And Teirnyon Twryv Vliant, and his companions, set out for his country, and his possessions, with love and gladness.
And he went not without being offered the fairest jewels and the fairest horses, and the choicest dogs; but he would take none of them.
Thereupon they all remained in their own dominions.
And Pryderi, the son of Pwyll the Chief of Annwvyn, was brought up carefully as was fit, so that he became the fairest youth, and the most comely, and the best skilled in all good games, of any in the kingdom.
And thus passed years and years, until the end of Pwyll the Chief of Annwvyn’s life came, and he died.
And Pryderi ruled the seven Cantrevs of Dyved prosperously, and he was beloved by his people, and by all around him.
And at length he added unto them the three Cantrevs of Ystrad Tywi, and the four Cantrevs of Cardigan; and these were called the Seven Cantrevs of Seissyllwch.
And when he made this addition, Pryderi the son of Pwyll the Chief of Annwvyn desired to take a wife.
And the wife he chose was Kicva, the daughter of Gwynn Gohoyw, the son of Gloyw Wallt Lydan, the son of Prince Casnar, one of the nobles of this Island.
And thus ends this portion of the Mabinogion.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Ancestor Venerationpraxis
Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. Shinto uji-gami and obon, Norse disir and the alfablot, Celtic samhain and the feast for the deceased, Roman lares and parentalia, Chinese ancestor rites, Vedic śrāddha. Practice-coded rather than belief-coded: distinct from soul_migration (cosmological doctrine of soul-transmigration) and theosis_deification (deification trajectory); ancestor_veneration centres the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the dead.
The passage provides detailed genealogies for Pryderi and Kicva, emphasizing lineage and the honor of ancestors in establishing legitimacy.
All passages →Shapeshifting Transformationtheology
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
Pwyll is identified as 'Chief of Annwvyn,' a title derived from the shape-shifting exchange with Arawn central to his mythos.
All passages →Related passages · 10 parallels
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Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
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Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
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Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
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“The life of beings is a progressive transformation, and its forms can be deter-mined, renewed, prolonged further, or destroyed sooner.
If the doctrine of metempsychosis were true, might one not say that the debauch represented by Circe rea…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter XI, Section 1a
“CHAPTER XI.
Ar g una said: In consequence of the excellent and mysterious words concerning the relation of the supreme and individual soul,, which you have spoken for my welfare, this delusion of mine is gone away.
O you whose eyes are li…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
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“At every meal time, a dish of food was placed under it, and some person of the same sex and age as the one who was gone must afterward be invited in to partake of the food.
At the end of a year from the time of death, the relatives made a…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi)|13. Necromancy-f
“Thus, a fatal law drives demons downward when they wish and believe themselves to be ascending.
So also those who term themselves chiefs are the most impotent and despised of all.
As to the horde of perverse spirits, they tremble before a…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter I, Section 1c
“In consequence of the predominance of impiety, O K ri sh n a!
the women of the family become corrupt ; and the women becoming corrupt, O descendant of V ri sh n i!
intermingling of castes results; that intermingling necessarily leads the…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
mesopotamian|Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet XII — Gilgamish Enquires of the Dead|Tablet XII, Section 1a
“THE TWELFTH TABLET.
GILGAMISH, IN DESPAIR, ENQUIRES OF THE DEAD.
.
(Then), what time that the seine had pass’d through the Architect 's dwelling, (Aye, and) the net [had taken its toll] .
.
.
.
[said he]: "Lord, what [is’t I may do]…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
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“The roving Norsemen of the tenth century, very few of whom had as yet accepted Christianity, were nevertheless in close contact with Celtic races which had already been converted, and in many ways the Celtic influence was strongly felt.
It…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)