Blodeuwedd: Welsh Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty (Pagan Portals)

Jhenah Telyndru made an interesting choice when she centered their 2021 book for Pagan Portals on Blodeuwedd. Blodeuwedd, Welsh Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty makes no bones about the tricky role she (that is, Blodeuwedd) plays in the Fourth Branch of Y Mabinogi, a Welsh story cycle. (All credit to the author, by the way, I knew very little about Welsh mythology going into this book.) As our author says, "[a]t best, her shortcomings can be blamed on her naivety; after alkl, what could be expected of this weak and simple creature created out of flowers, formed as a fully-grown woman with no life experience, having had no mother to raise her or guide her on her role as wife? At worst, however, she is the embodiment of the evils of women who give into their wanton sexual desires, who plot against the men in their lives, and who defy the social contract by seeking to circumvent the roles and expectations placed upon them by the over-culture." As you might expect, Telyndru has a lot to say about the symbolism of these characteristics and Blodeuwedd may be misinterpreted, purposefully or otherwise, in the context of sexual politics.

There is no doubting the author's scholarly approach to this work. While it is beyond me to pass judgment on the quality of their work, the book at least passes the "smell test" of not coming off as utter nonsense. The bibliography is extensive, and you won't find Telyndru using weasel words to finesse a point they are trying to make. If they *know* something they say that, and otherwise they don't obfuscate when they are making suppositions or even educated guesses. All that being said, I found the efforts made to recast Blodeuwedd's tale into an argument for her being a Sovereignty Goddess at times tortured. Blodeuwedd's infidelity, abandoning her husband for the love of a rival lord, is made out to be symbolic of the passing primacy of the seasons one to another. I'm the first to admit that true things can feel counter-intuitive, but at the end of my reading I did find myself convinced. Sometimes (heck, many many times) a woman gets a raw deal in these old stories, and while that stinks it feels to me that the author moves heaven and earth to change up what is probably a much simpler story.

It is entirely fair to note that this is my intuition versus the scholarship of the author, and if current events hadn't already put a spotlight on the folly of such arguments, I would still call myself out for this mismatch. As I said, I don't have reason to suspect the underpinning scholarship of Jhenah Telyndru's work, and the book is compellingly written. If only to educate yourself on Welsh myth if, like me, this is a weak spot in your education I recommend Blodeuwedd, Welsh Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty as an engaging read. And in the end, it may be a convincing work for you; I can only stand by my own integrity in acknowledging that I was not personally convinced.

~review by Patricia Mullen

Author: Jenah Telyndru
Moon books, 2022
pp. 136, $10.95