Mythology, Celtic -- Wales; Tales -- Wales; Welsh literature -- 1100-1400 -- Translations into English
Then he arose and took up the boy by the feet, and before any one in the
house could seize hold of him, he thrust the boy headlong into the
blazing fire. And when Branwen saw her son burning in the fire, she
strove to leap into the fire also, from the place where she sat between
her two brothers. But Bendigeid Vran grasped her with one hand, and his
shield with the other. Then they all hurried about the house, and never
was there made so great a tumult by any host in one house as was made by
them, as each man armed himself. Then said Morddwydtyllyon, “The
gadflies of Morddwydtyllyon’s Cow!” And while they all sought their
arms, Bendigeid Vran supported Branwen between his shield and his
shoulder.
Then the Irish kindled a fire under the cauldron of renovation, and they
cast the dead bodies into the cauldron until it was full, and the next
day they came forth fighting-men as good as before, except that they were
not able to speak. Then when Evnissyen saw the dead bodies of the men of
the Island of the Mighty nowhere resuscitated, he said in his heart,
“Alas! woe is me, that I should have been the cause of bringing the men
of the Island of the Mighty into so great a strait. Evil betide me if I
find not a deliverance therefrom.” And he cast himself among the dead
bodies of the Irish, and two unshod Irishmen came to him, and, taking him
to be one of the Irish, flung him into the cauldron. And he stretched
himself out in the cauldron, so that he rent the cauldron into four
pieces, and burst his own heart also.
In consequence of that the men of the Island of the Mighty obtained such
success as they had; but they were not victorious, for only seven men of
them all escaped, and Bendigeid Vran himself was wounded in the foot with
a poisoned dart. Now the seven men that escaped were Pryderi,
Manawyddan, Gluneu Eil Taran, Taliesin, Ynawc, Grudyen the son of Muryel,
and Heilyn the son of Gwynn Hen.
And Bendigeid Vran commanded them that they should cut off his head.
“And take you my head,” said he, “and bear it even unto the White Mount,
in London, and bury it there, with the face towards France. And a long
time will you be upon the road. In Harlech you will be feasting seven
years, the birds of Rhiannon singing unto you the while. And all that
time the head will be to you as pleasant company as it ever was when on
my body. And at Gwales in Penvro you will be fourscore years, and you
may remain there, and the head with you uncorrupted, until you open the
door that looks towards Aber Henvelen, and towards Cornwall. And after
you have opened that door, there you may no longer tarry, set forth then
to London to bury the head, and go straight forward.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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