Newsgroups: alt.mythology,alt.pagan
From: skye@netcom.com (Alexandra Knepper)
Subject: Re: Avalon was, Re: Druids and stonehenge
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 08:58:23 GMT

Ian.Foot@UK.Sun.COM (Ian Paul Foot) writes:
[deleted]
> BTW Someone told me yesterday the Rhiannon was a sea-goddess.  I had
> thought that she was a horse-goddess.  There appears to be nothing
> in the Mabinogion that would link her to the sea.  Does she appear
> in any other tales?


From Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses by R.J. Stewart:

The Horse or Mare is best known through the worship of the goddess
Epona, an eponymous deity known in Britain and Gaul.  Her British and
Irish equivalents are Rhiannon (Wales) and Macha and Etain (Ireland).
It seems likely that the famous White Horse and Uffington Castle (in
Berkshire, England) are constructs of the Belgae, who worshipped
Epona.  The horse goddess appears also in the *Mabinogion* in the form
of Rhiannon, deriving from Rig Antona or Great High Queen.  

In her tale the power and fertility of the horse, and its connection
to the sacred kingship, are found in a confused and shadowy form.
Interestingly, when we consider the motif of the bull and three cranes
described above <<that section not included here, sorry>>, Rhiannon,
the horse goddess, is also associated with birds, whose songs could
awaken the dead and lull the living to sleep.  ...

Rhiannon gives birth to a boy, who is mysteriously abducted while
mother and nurses sleep.  Fearing revenge, the nurses smear blood and
bones from a dog around the sleeping Rhiannon, and declare that she
has devoured the child.  Judgement is passed upon her for her crime:

     And the penance that was imposed upon her was this, that she
     should remain in that palace of Narberth until the end of seven
     years, and that she should sit every day near unto a horse block
     that was outside the gate.  And that she should relate her story
     to all who should come there if they did not know it already; and
     that she should offer to carry guests and strangers, if they
     would permit her, upon her back into the palace.  But it rarely
     happened that any would so permit.
          (From Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, *The Mabinogion*, trans. C. Guest)
===

From: ksm@abb-sc.abb-sc.com (Ashley)
Subject: Rhiannon (Re: Avalon)
Date: 15 Dec 93 18:05:47 GMT

Ian.Foot@UK.Sun.COM (Ian Paul Foot) writes:
> BTW Someone told me yesterday the Rhiannon was a sea-goddess.  I had
> thought that she was a horse-goddess.  There appears to be nothing
> in the Mabinogion that would link her to the sea.  Does she appear
> in any other tales?


	Rhiannon is a moon Goddess mainly, also a protector of
children and women, a warrior, a Horse Goddess and often takes on the
form of a white rabbit. Very old tradition tells that a image of her
should be worn about the throat by a woman getting married so that she
not be mistreated by her husband, her children be born safely and be
safe from harm. She is usually accompanied by three birds who can sing
the dead to life and the living to sleep for 10,000 years. She is also
my patron Goddess.

	I've never heard of her as a sea goddess but such associations
are probably due to her closeness with water. In my experience it is
always fresh water, however there are legends of her traveling over
the seas to be queen of an island of the gods that lays between the
worlds.

	I collect stories about her, so if anyone has any references.......

  +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
  | Ashley of Kaos Laboratories ..........................ksm@abb-sc.com |
  |  "I thought I saw a burning light, saw angels fall into the night    |
  |   `Oh we're with God' they cried, and with their God they died."     |
  |					                - Sol Invictus   |
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