Welsh · 8 min read
Rhiannon and Pwyll
An unwanted marriage arrangement, confinement in a bag, blows and threats; the captive is released under agreed terms.
The rider on the road
After a feast at his court, Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, went to sit on the mound above Arberth. His companions said that anyone who sat there would see a marvel or receive a blow. With so many men around him, Pwyll felt safe enough to wait for the marvel. Soon a woman appeared on the road below, riding a large pale horse and dressed in shining gold.
Her horse moved at a steady, leisurely pace. Pwyll sent a man to speak to her, but he could not catch up. A rider on a fast horse tried next, with no better result. On the following day the woman appeared again, and another pursuit failed. However hard the riders urged their horses, the distance between them never closed.
At last Pwyll rode after her himself. His horse tired, while hers continued at its easy pace. He called out and asked her to wait. She stopped at once. It would have been kinder to his horse, she told him, if he had asked sooner. Now they could speak face to face.
Rhiannon's choice
She introduced herself as Rhiannon, daughter of Hefeydd the Old. Her family intended her to marry a man she did not want. She had come to find Pwyll because he was the man she wished to choose. Pwyll answered that, given a choice of all women, he would choose her too.
Rhiannon arranged for him to come to her father's court in a year's time. A wedding feast would be ready. Pwyll kept the appointment and arrived with his company of riders. He was welcomed warmly and seated between Rhiannon and her father. Around them, the guests ate, drank and talked.
Then a tall young stranger entered the hall and asked Pwyll for a favour. Pwyll promised whatever he could give, before hearing the request. Rhiannon immediately challenged his answer, but the words had already been spoken in front of everyone. The stranger asked for Rhiannon and the feast prepared for her wedding. He was Gwawl, the man she had refused.
A plan for the next feast
Pwyll fell silent. Rhiannon rebuked him for speaking so carelessly, then found a way forward. The feast was hers to give, she explained, and had already been promised to the guests. Gwawl could not simply take it. She arranged another feast for him one year later, while privately telling Pwyll what he must do.
She gave Pwyll a small bag. At the appointed time he was to return with his men, leave them in the orchard and enter the hall in ragged clothes. He would ask only for enough food to fill the bag. Rhiannon would make sure that no quantity of food could fill it.
When Gwawl asked how it could be filled, Pwyll was to explain that a wealthy nobleman must step inside with both feet and declare that there was enough. Rhiannon would persuade Gwawl to do it. Then Pwyll must pull up the bag, tie it shut and sound his horn to summon his men.
The bag that would not fill
Another year passed. Gwawl came to the feast prepared for him, and Pwyll waited in the orchard with his followers. Dressed as a poor traveller, Pwyll entered the hall carrying the little bag. His request seemed modest. Gwawl ordered the servants to give him food.
They brought more and more, but the bag remained as empty as before. At last Gwawl asked the question Rhiannon had anticipated. Pwyll gave the answer, and Rhiannon urged Gwawl to step inside. As soon as both his feet were in the bag, Pwyll drew it over him, secured the opening and blew his horn.
Pwyll's men rushed into the hall and seized Gwawl's followers. They struck the bag with feet and sticks, calling their cruel game a badger in a bag. From inside, Gwawl begged to be heard. Hefeydd intervened: the captive did not deserve to be killed like this. Pwyll agreed to listen.
A wedding at last
Rhiannon proposed terms. Gwawl must give gifts to the petitioners and entertainers and promise not to seek revenge. Men would stand as guarantors of the agreement. Gwawl accepted. The bag was opened, his followers were freed, and the terms were settled before he departed, bruised and humiliated.
The hall was put in order, and Rhiannon and Pwyll took their places at the feast. That night they went to their chamber together. In the morning, Rhiannon reminded Pwyll to give generously to everyone who came asking. The celebration continued, with food and gifts for the guests.
When the visit ended, Rhiannon travelled with Pwyll to Dyfed. The woman he had once chased along the road now went with him by her own choice. Their company left her father's court behind and made its way toward their new home together.
About this telling
The First Branch of the Mabinogi, preserved in medieval Welsh manuscripts
This telling follows the courtship episode in the First Branch, ending with the marriage and return to Dyfed. It preserves Rhiannon's initiative, Pwyll's rash promise and the uncomfortable violence of the bag episode without graphic detail. Dialogue is paraphrased. The later story of their child belongs to another episode.
Version note
Revised 30 September 2026 for clearer reading in eight languages. Written in Codex with reference to the listed sources; not a certified scholarly or native-speaker review.
Sources
These sources informed the retelling. The wording was written for Mythic Dream.
- Pwyll Prince of Dyfed — Anonymous; literal English translation by Will Parker, The Four Branches of the Mabinogi
The First Branch supplies the rider, Rhiannon’s choice, Pwyll’s promise, the bag and Gwawl’s release. Our telling ends after the marriage.
- White Book of Rhydderch — National Library of Wales
Background on the Four Branches in the mid-fourteenth-century White Book of Rhydderch.
- Pwyll Prince of Dyved — Anonymous; translated by Lady Charlotte Guest, The Mabinogion, public-domain translation, Internet Sacred Text Archive
A public-domain translation used to check the courtship, promise, bag episode, settlement and wedding sequence.