Bran the Blessed

Bran the Blessed

BRAN THE BLESSED (Welsh, Pan-Celtic)Also Bran MacFebal. His name means 'crow', or 'Raven'. The brother of the mighty Manawydan ap Llyr (Ireland, Mannanan mac Lir) and Branwen; son of Llyr, and in Welsh sagas he is also the son of the Goddess Iweridd. Associated with ravens, he is the God of prophecy, the arts, leader, war, the Sun, music, writing. A master of the Isle of Britain, he is a cauldron-God, associated with a cauldron of regeneration which would revive the slain while leaving them voiceless.

The giant of a man set out with an army to avenge the ill-treatment of his sister Branwen by her husband, King Matholwch of Ireland who blamed her for an insult they endured at their wedding. Nothing would stop his army's progress, and he once laid down across the Shannon river so his forces could use him as a bridge to walk across.

In the Battle of the Trees, he could not be defeated unless someone could guess his name (a common mythological ploy in western Europe) and Gwyddion was able to do this. His forces won the battle, but he was fatally wounded by taking a poisoned arrow in the foot.

His cauldron destroyed, and he mortally wounded in a war to rescue his sister Branwen, he instructed his adherents to decapitate him and, after many travels, bear the head to London and bury it, where it would become a defense and a protection to the whole Isle.

His grieving troops took his head to their stronghold at Harlech for a period of seven years where it talked and offered warnings and divinations. It then sat eighty-seven years at Gwales (a place unknown today), then it was taken to London where it was set facing France so that is could warn of invasion.

Also: Benedigeidfran; Brennus (Gallic)

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