Branwen was one of the chief ladies of Britain, and while she lived there was no maiden in all the world lovelier than she. Her brother was Bran, the son of Lyr, and he was the crowned King of Britain, the Island of the Mighty. She had half-brothers also; because of one of these half-brothers much trouble came to Branwen.
One day great Bran sat upon the Rock of Harlech, looking over the sea, and the nobles of his court were with him. As they were there they saw ships coming from Ireland and making toward them. The wind was behind them, and the ships neared very rapidly. And when Bran and his court saw the ships near, certain were they that they had never seen any that were better furnished. On they came, with their flags of satin in the wind: one of the ships outstripped the others, and Bran and his court saw a shield lifted above the side of this ship, and the point of the shield was upward, and this they knew was a token of peace. And the men on the ship put out boats and came toward the land.
Now when they came upon the shore great Bran spoke down to them from the place where he was, from the top of the rock. “Heaven prosper you,” he said, when the men had saluted him. “Be ye welcome,” said he, and then he asked to whom the ships belonged, and who was chief amongst them. “Lord,” said the men, “Matholluch, the King of Ireland, is here; he is chief amongst us, and to him the ships belong.” “And will the King of Ireland come to land?” great Bran asked. “Lord,” said the men, “he comes as a suitor unto you, and he will not land unless you grant him his boon.” “What boon does he crave?” asked Bran. “He comes to ask you for Branwen, the daughter of Lyr, for his wife, so that, if it seems well to you, the Island of the Mighty may be leagued with Ireland, and both become more powerful.” Said Bran: “Verily, let your King come to land, and we will take counsel about this marriage.” That answer was brought to him, and the King of Ireland said: “I will go willingly.” So he landed, and Bran and his court received him joyfully, and, when the counsel was held, it was resolved to bestow Branwen upon Matholluch, the King of Ireland.
And so the marriage was made, and Branwen, the loveliest of the world’s maidens, became the bride of the King of Ireland. At the feast the King of the Island of the Mighty and Manawyddan, the son of Lyr, were on one side, and Matholluch on the other side, and Branwen, the daughter of Lyr, beside him. The feast was not in a house; it was under tents, for no house that was built up to that time could hold great Bran. At that feast there were also Branwen’s two half-brothers, Nissen and Evnissen: one of these youths was a good youth and of gentle nature, and would make peace between his kindred, and cause his family to be friends when their wrath was at the highest, and this one was Nissen; the other would cause strife between brothers when they were most at peace, this one was Evnissen.
The next day they all arose, and the officers of the court began to equip and range the horses and the attendants. They were doing this when Evnissen, the quarrelsome man, came along. He asked whose might be the horses that they were ranging. “They are the horses of the King of Ireland, who is married to Branwen, your sister,” he was told. “And is it thus they have done with a maiden such as she, bestowing her without my consent? They could have offered no greater insult to me than this,” said he. And then Evnissen did a terrible thing: he rushed under the horses, and he cut off their lips at their teeth, and their ears close to their heads, and their tails close to their backs, so that he disfigured the horses and made them useless.
One went with tidings of this injury to Matholluch. “Verily, lord,” this one said, “it was as an insult to you that this was meant.” “An insult indeed,” said Matholluch. “But I marvel that they should have given me a maiden of such high rank and so beloved of her kindred if they desired to insult me.” “Lord,” said the one who had come to him, “it is plain that their desire is to insult you, and there is nothing for you to do but go to your ships.” Thereupon Matholluch, without saying a word to anyone in Bran’s court, set out for his ships that were at some distance down the coast.
When Bran heard that Matholluch had quitted the court without asking leave, he sent after him messengers to inquire why he had done this. The messengers overtook him and asked him wherefore he went forth. And Matholluch said to the messengers: “I marvel that the insult was not done me before they had bestowed upon me a maiden so exalted as Branwen.” “Truly, Lord,” said they, “it was not the will of any that are of the court that thou shouldst have received this insult, and indeed, the dishonor is greater unto Bran than unto thee.” “Verily,” said he, “I think it is. Nevertheless, Bran cannot recall the insult that has been given me.” When they heard him say this the messengers went back.
They told Bran what reply Matholluch had made to them. Then the King of the Island of the Mighty sent after the King of Ireland another embassy, telling him that he should have a sound horse for every horse that had been injured, and besides, as an atonement for the insult, he should have a staff of silver, as large and as tall as himself, and a plate of gold of the breadth of his face. And Matholluch was to be told who it was who had wrought the injury and the insult, and that he could not be put to death by the King because he was the King’s half-brother. “Let Matholluch come and meet me,” said great Bran, “and we will make peace in any way he may desire.”
The embassy came to where Matholluch was and gave him the message of the King, and told him of all the King offered. He listened to what they had to say; then he had counsel with his followers, and after counsel he agreed to accept the atonement and to go back. So they turned toward Bran’s court. And when they were sitting together, the King of the Island of the Mighty and the King of Ireland, the King of the Island of the Mighty said: “I will make the atonement even greater than I said, for I will give unto thee a cauldron, the property of which is, that if one of thy men be slain to-day and be cast therein, to-morrow he will be as well as ever he was at his best, except that he will not regain his speech.” And hearing him say this, Matholluch gave Bran great thanks. “I had the cauldron of a man who had been in thy land,” Bran said, “and I would not give it except to one from Ireland.” “Lord,” said Matholluch, “Heaven reward thee.”
When the feasting was over, Matholluch journeyed toward Ireland, and Branwen went with him, and they sailed with thirteen ships, and they came to Ireland. At first they were received with great joy, and Branwen for a while enjoyed honor and friendship. But when the injury done to Matholluch’s horses became known, the people blamed the King for having submitted to the insult and taken atonement from Bran. Then a tumult arose, and the King’s foster-brothers and those who were nearest to him demanded vengeance on the people of Britain for what had been done to Matholluch in their country. Branwen drew their enmity, and in the end they drove her from the King’s chamber, and made her be a cook for the court. After they had done this they said to Matholluch: “Forbid now the ships and the ferry boats and the coracles, that they go not into Britain, and such men as come over from Britain, imprison them that they go not back and relate to Bran what we have done unto Branwen.” The King gave orders as they had told him, and for three years no ship, nor ferry boat, nor coracle went from Ireland into Britain, and any man that came into Ireland from Britain was imprisoned so that he could not go back again. And so it was for as long as three years.
All that time Branwen was baking bread and preparing food for the court. She reared a starling on the cover of her kneading-trough, and she taught the bird to speak, and she made it know what manner of a man her brother was, great Bran. And after she had reared it and trained it she wrote a letter telling of her woes in Ireland, and she bound the letter under the starling’s wing, and she sent it toward Britain. And into the Island of Britain the starling came: it found Bran in Arvon, and it alighted on his shoulder and ruffled its feathers so that the letter was seen. Bran took the letter and read it, and when he had read the letter he grieved exceedingly because of his sister’s, Branwen’s, woes.
Immediately Bran sent out messengers summoning the men of Britain together. Then all the power of the Island of the Mighty came before him, and he complained to them of the woes that his sister, Branwen, endured. They took counsel, and they resolved to go into Ireland to liberate Branwen from the thraldom that she endured in the King’s court. And they resolved, too, that they should leave Britain under the charge of seven knights while they were gone, with Caradog, the son of Bran, as chief of the seven.
The ships of the Britons sailed for Ireland. But Bran did not go in any of the ships. He strode through the sea with what provisions he had on his own back. And so, with the ships sailing before the wind, and with great Bran striding through the sea, the Britons came to where two rivers of Ireland flow into the sea.
Now there were upon the shore two swineherds of the King of Ireland; they saw a strange appearance upon the sea, and they ran back and they came before the King. “Lord,” they said, “we have marvelous tidings: a wood have we seen upon the sea, in a place where we never yet saw a single tree. And there was a mountain beside the wood, which moved, and there was a ridge on the top of the mountain, and a lake on each side of the ridge. And the wood, and the mountain, and all these things moved.” “Verily,” said the King, “there is none who can tell us aught concerning this appearance, unless it be Branwen.”
So messengers went to Branwen and told her of what the swineherds had seen, and asked her what she thought the strange appearance might be. “The men of the Island of the Mighty,” she said, “who have come hither on hearing of my ill-treatment and my woes.” “What is the wood that was seen upon the sea?” they asked. “The yards and the masts of the ships of the Britons,” she answered. “And what was the mountain that was seen by the side of the ships?” “Bran, my brother,” she answered. “So he comes to shoal-water, for there is no ship that can hold him.” “What is the ridge with the lake on each side of it?” “I will tell you,” she answered. “On looking toward Ireland, Bran, my brother, is angered, and his two eyes that are on each side of the ridge that is his nose, are like two lakes that are darkened.”
On hearing this, the lords and the chief men of Ireland were brought together in haste; they took counsel, and after counsel they advised Matholluch to go with all the men of Ireland to one side of the river Shannon and then to have the bridge over the river broken, so that the river might be between the men of Ireland and the men of Britain. “For there is lodestone at the bottom of this river, so that neither ship nor vessel can pass over it,” they told Matholluch. Then the King had the bridge broken down, and he and the men of Ireland kept one side of the river.
“Lord,” said his nobles to Bran, when they came to this river, “knowest thou the nature of the river here? Nothing can go across it when there is no bridge over it.” Then Bran said words that afterward became a proverb: “He who will be chief, let him be a bridge.” Thereupon he lay across the breadth of the river, and hurdles were placed upon him, and the whole host of the men of Britain passed over him as over a bridge.