#maiden of the starlings; branwen

[ofdeedsglorious]

muse tags;

twelve seals unleashed; arthur as fair as north winds; gareth ever loyal knight of the sun; gawain an echoing song; taliesin knight of sacred fire; bors knight of the lake; lancelot chosen by the other lance; percival heart of a fallen star; emrys sign of the red dragon; uther a poisonous dawn; accolon a shield of pure faith; galahad he who rejects courtly love; dinadan to you who will crown a king; elouan wielder of the poison lance; palamedes howl to the moon; marrok maiden of the starlings; branwen she on the white horse; rhiannon

[gingersnaptaff]

POLL TIME 2 ☺️☺️

Some background for each!

Gwalchmai: The OG Gawain, slayer of giants in Welsh myth, besties with Owain and Peredur. He's known for his gold/silver tongue and is literally like The Best Boi. I am enamoured with him. Tells Cai to do one when Peredur gives him a broken arm. Also this passage single-handedly convinced me that Peredur and Gwalchmai are a couple: 'And Peredur and Gwalchmai went to Gwalchmai's pavilion to take off their armour. And Peredur put on the same kind of garment that Gwalchmai wore. And they went hand in hand to where Arthur was, and greeted him.' Thank u, Sioned Davies.

Branwen: Is the only woman in the Mabinogi to have a branch named after her. Literally the sweetest woman ever. Her dad is the sea God, Llŷr, and her brothers are Bendigeidfran and Manawydan. Trained a starling to send messages to Bendigeidfran to say she was being abused by the Irish court in an absolutely amazing move. Sadly she passes away once she's made it back to Wales alongside Manawydan, Pryderi, and five other men (and Bendigeidfran's severed head!) '"Oh son of God," she said, "woe that I was even born. Two good islands have been laid waste because of me!" She gives a mighty sigh and her heart breaks. And they make a four-sided grave for her and bury her there on the banks of the Alaw.'

Cai: OG Kay. Depending on what u read he is either the most renowned warrior ever - 'Prince of plunder/The unrelenting warrior to his enemy' as Pa Gur yv y Porthaur says - the possession of the most fuckin batshit magical powers as Culhwch ac Olwen relates: 'Cai had magical qualities. For nine days and nine nights, he could hold his breath under water. For nine nights and nine days, he could go without sleep. A wound from Cai's sword no physician could heal.' And so it goes on. Or he is literally the most grumpo to have ever grumped and I respect him hugely.

Blodeuwedd: OWL WOMAN. FLOWER-FACE. 'Then they took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet, and from those they conjured up the fairest and most beautiful maiden that anyone had ever seen.' She is literally stupidly beautiful AND SHE PLOTS TO KILL HER HUSBAND, LLEU, WHO QUITE FRANKLY DESERVED IT. A fuckin queen. She fucked over Gwydion's bb boi in one fell swoop, I simply MUST Stan.

Finally, RHIANNON: HORSE WOMAN. QUEEN OF DYFED. LITERAL TYLWYTH TEG LADY. She literally says to Pwyll - who she later marries - 'Be silent for as long as you like: never has a man been more stupid than you have been.' And if a woman said that to me I WOULD PERISH. also had an amazingly fast horse and like dhdjdddj when Pwyll dies - in a, I presume, stupidity-related incident - Rhiannon marries Branwen's brother Manawydan and actually gets treated with respect instead of whatever fuckery Pwyll was pulling.

Anyways VOTE, VOTE, VOTE. Best two go through to the quarter finals. U only have 1 DAY TO VOTE SO ZOOMIES!!!!

[aneurinallday]

The Four Branches of the Mabinogion

The First Branch: Pwyll and Rhiannon

Prince Pwyll encounters a mysterious maiden, who evades him until he finally calls out to her. Her name is Rhiannon. They marry and have a son, but the newborn vanishes and is presumed dead. Rhiannon is falsely accused of the crime, but Pwyll refuses to accept her guilt. Eventually, they were reunited with their lost child, Pryderi, thus proving Rhiannon's innocence and vindicating Pwyll.

The Second Branch: Bran and Branwen

Brân the Blessed, king of Britain, is visited by a starling. The starling carries a message from his sister Branwen, telling him that her husband, the Irish king Matholwch, is abusive. Brân and his army set sail to Ireland to rescue his sister and have revenge on Matholwch. Brân is slain by a poisoned spear, and Branwen dies from heartbreak.

The Third Branch: Manawydan

Only seven British warriors survive the war with Ireland. Pryderi offers the throne to his friend Manawydan, along with his mother Rhiannon's hand in marriage. Manawydan and Rhiannon are happily married, and along with Pryderi and his wife Cigfa, lift a curse afflicting the kingdom of Dyfed.

The Fourth Branch: Math, son of Mathonwy

In the kingdom of Gwynedd, the lady Arianrhod is ashamed at losing her virginity. She curses her son to never have a name and never bear arms; but her brother, the magician Gwydion, tricks her into giving the boy a name (Lleu) and a weapon.

Angry at being deceived, she places a third curse on the boy: that he can never have a human wife. Gwydion makes Lleu a wife out of flowers, and names her Blodeuwedd, but Blodeuwedd falls for another man instead and tries to murder Lleu. Lleu has revenge on those who betrayed him, and becomes ruler of Gwynedd, since Arianrhod was the niece of King Math.

(originally posted June 17 2024)

[metal-berry]

Some ideas I had for RWBY:

Raven and Qrow’s dad is named Jackdaw Branwen and they have an aunt named Maggie “Magpie” Branwen.

They also have cousins named Rook and Jay. Jay has a daughter named Starling.

Starling is the decoy Spring Maiden instead of Vernal.

[aladyinasong]

Thinking about Branwen, sister of Bran the Blessed, and Sansa.

Branwen (and Bran) story start with the King of Ireland traveling to Wales to ask her hand in marriage to make peace between the two kingdom, the betrothal is accepted and in the next day, a feast is held to celebrate their marriage. When Branwen arrives in Ireland the King starts to treat her cruelly as punishment for the actions of Efnysien, one of her brothers. Later, she gives birth to an heir, Gwern, and continues being mistreated by her husband until she finds and trains a small bird and later sends it with a message telling what she is suffering to Bran and he takes a army to Ireland to rescue her. When the army arrives, Branwen’ husband fears a war and agrees to give the kingdom to their son, still a child, to avoid conflict but some of the irish lords don’t support the idea and plan to secretly attack Bran and his men, Efnysien discover this and kills all the lords crushing their heads one by one. A feast is hold in celebration to Gwern’ coronation but Efnysien burns his own nephew alive after getting jealous while Branwen watches everything and tries to leap into the fire after her son but Bran holds and protect her when a war breaks between Welsh and Irish in the middle of the feast. Efnysien regrets what he did after realizing that the Irish have more chances of winning the war and tries to help the Welsh soldiers breaking a magic cauldron used to resurrect dead people by the Irish, he dies in the process. The war still goes on, everybody dies except Bran, Branwen and seven welsh soldiers, including one of their other brothers, they return to Wales but discover that Bran has been hit by a poisoned arrow to his leg, he dies and because of the grief for everything she lost, Branwen also dies of a broken heart.

Sansa story start with the King of Westeros going to the North asking her father to be his hand and proposing a betrothal between her and his son, a feast is held in homage to the King. They go to KL and after Ned execution, Joffrey now the king, starts to treat Sansa badly and punishes her for the victories of her brother. In the original outline, Sansa actually marries Joffrey and gives birth to a heir. Later, Jaime kills everyone in the Red Keep including Sansa and her child (his grand nephew) to be king. Part of this became Elia Martell story and Branwen death also probably inspired Ashara Dayne a little, both died because of heart break after losing their brothers and children.

Branwen is almost always represented with birds, specially starlings. She was described as one of the most beautiful maidens of all times and considered the perfect example of wife and queen. She is one of the Goddess of Sovereignty, a woman that personifies a territory and it’s her that confers sovereignty upon a king by marrying or having a romantic relationship with him. Similarly, Sansa is considered the key to the North and a big part of her plot it’s people trying to force her into marriages to get Winterfell.