Note: This piece is designed to be read by a narrator, as a sort of mummer’s play. My local grove has had good luck with this sort of production, as the actors can concentrate on acting, rather than reading or trying to remember their lines.
Cast:
Gwydion
Math ap Mathonwy
Lleu Llaw Giffes
Blodeuedd
Narrator
(Opening: Math seated in chair, wearing crown, holding wizard’s wand, Blodeuedd lying under a sheet to one side.)
Narrator: Once long ago in Gwynedd, there was a young man called Lleu Llaw Giffes who was the most handsome and able youth you could imagine. He was the son of Arianrhod daughter of Dôn, but he had been raised by his uncle Gwydion. Because of the circumstances of his birth, his mother had refused to name or arm him, but Gwydion had tricked her into doing both. In anger, she cursed him never have a wife from any race of folk upon the earth. Gwydion and Lleu went to Math ap Mathonwy, the King and head of their clan, and complained.
(Gwydion and Lleu enter to Math, miming outrage.)
Now Math was a powerful wizard, as was Gwydion, and he took thought. “Not hard,” he said. “We will make through our magic a wife for the lad from the spring flowers of our land.” So he and Gwydion gathered flowers of the oak, and of the broom, and of the meadowsweet.
(Gwydion and Math mime gathering flowers, pile them over Blodeuedd.)
And they made from them by magic a woman.
(Gwydion and Math mime magic, pull off sheet and help Blodeuedd to her feet.)
And because she was made of flowers, they named her Blodeuedd, which means “flowers” in the old tongue of their land. And they gave her to Lleu to be his bride.
(Gwydion and Math give Blodeuedd to Lleu, who takes her hand. They mime kissing.)
And for a while all was well. But flowers care not what bee comes to gather their nectar, and so it was with Blodeuedd. But that is a story for another day.
