Royston

Hi BizFacers

Most people will of course be aware about the great Welsh Panthenon of Gods - who lived on the windy slopes of Snowdon where year in an out aided by the great God of rain Dwnpwr mingled and delved into the matters of men and women. Interfering and generally making whoopee until fed up with the rain and the god awful food in Wales (especially the leeks and warm beer) they disappeared back to their mountain top retreat.

Anyhoo -- The Gods of Wales

Children of Don - One of the main dynasties of Welsh mythology, who equated with the Tuatha de Danaan of Ireland.

The Children of Don and Blodwin (which means white flower in old welsh and cloth-ears in modern) includes Gwydion, a warrior magician (AKA Merlin) and Aranrhod, sky goddess and symbol of fertility.

Their sons were Dylan, a sea God and Lleu Llaw Gyffes (the God of Mistakes).

Amaethon - The Welsh god of agriculture.

Arianrhod - Celtic earth goddess (She is the daughter of Don, sister of Gwydion).

Bran - Bran ("raven"), son of Llyr and Penarddun, and a hero god and perhaps also the god of poetry and the underworld.

Branwen - Branwen is the Celtic goddess of love and beauty, also worshipped in Manx and Wales (After the death of her brother Bran due to a war caused by her husband, Branwen died of a broken heart). She roughly corresponds with Aphrodite and Venus.

Belatu-Cadros (Belatucadros) - The Celtic god of war whose name means fair shining one (The Romans equated him with their god Mars).

Caridwen - Mother of Taliesen, greatest and wisest of all the bards, therefore she is patron of poets (She is connected with wolves, and some believe that her cult dates to the Neolithic era).

Dewi - An old Welsh god. The official emblem of Wales, a red dragon, is derived from the Great Red Serpent that once represented the god Dewi - although it is more likely that the Welsh Dragon is derived from a Legionary Standard adopted by the Welsh Tribe the Llanethii (incidentally Wales is the only country in the world who entered the first Millennium with the same flag as the last millennium)

Dylan - Welsh sea god, brother of Lleu.

Gwydion - Welsh warrior and magician god who fathered Lleu and Dylan by his sister Arianrhod

Lleu - Brother of Dylan, son of Arianrhod and Gwydion - His festival, the Lugnasad, was held on the first day of August.

Pwyll - Prince of Dyfed who marries the Goddess Rhiannon and has a son Pryderi.

Rhiannon - Believed to be the Welsh counterpart of Gaulish horse goddess Epona.

Here is a nice picture of the Meadowsweet flower used for thousands of years to decorate the funeral mounds of great warriers in Wales: