Celtyckie mity - Rhiannon (Walia)

Rhiannon, the Celtic goddess of the moon and inspiration. She rode a white horse faster than the wind. She refused to marry another god and chose a mortal husband - Prince Pwyll. She appeared to him on a mound (which sounds like a barrow) and so entranced him that he ran his horse into the ground chasing her. He finally begged her to stop and she did, telling him that he should have asked her to wait earlier. She said that she had come to find him.

She promised to marry him after a year. However, at the wedding a fight broke out. She turned her former suitor into a badger and threw him in the lake in a bag. Having married a mortal, Rhiannon had to leave the realm of the gods for ever and live as a mortal princess.

Rhiannon and Pwyll had a son after three years. Unfortunately the child was taken by the badger. His nurses, fearing to be blamed, put the blame on Rhiannon by planting evidence of blood on her. Rhiannon was forced to sit chained to the castle gates telling everyone of her "crime."

After 4 years, the boy was returned, by a nobleman who had found him after the badger had abandoned him. Despite the injustice she had suffered Rhiannon remained merciful and forgave the people who had mistreated her.

Source:www.celts.etrusia.co.uk