by Terry McCombs
Terry McCombs ran the God/dess of the Month Club (GoM) on soc.religion.paganism from 2003 onward, posting a monthly profile of a deity from a different tradition each month. This profile of Arianrhod was posted in January 2004.
Arianrhod (Welsh: Silver Wheel, or possibly Huge/Round Wheel) is one of the most important female figures in Welsh mythology, appearing in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi. She is associated with the moon, the Milky Way, and the constellation Corona Borealis — her castle, Caer Arianrhod, was understood as a realm to the North where dead warriors were carried on an oar-wheel boat. She is a weaver of fates, goddess of reincarnation and cosmic time.
The Mabinogion's account of her is tangled — she is tested for virginity, promptly gives birth twice (to Dylan, who dashes to the sea, and to a blob that becomes Llew Llaw Gyffes), and places three harsh prohibitions on her second son that are later tricked away. McCombs notes the feminist interpretation: this confused story may preserve a memory of the transition from mother-rule to father-rule, the original myth degraded as it passed through a patriarchal filter. The goddess who was once sovereign over life, death, and cosmic time became, in the telling that survived, a sorceress in a castle.
Name
Arianrhod (Silver Wheel). Also: Aranrhod, Arianrod. The name is commonly said to mean "silver wheel," though there is evidence this may be folk etymology — a more correct interpretation of arian might be "huge" or "round."
Symbols
Silver Wheel, Owl, Starry Sky, Moon. Oar Wheel — a boat used to carry dead warriors to Emania (Moon Land).
Usual Image
Woman with pale white skin, thin red lips, and blonde hair.
Holy Books
The Mabinogion.
Areas of Influence
Fertility, Reincarnation, Cosmic Time, Weaving, Sovereignty.
Home
Caer Arianrhod — the Castle of Arianrhod, or Caer Sidi — identified with the constellation Corona Borealis, thought of in Welsh myth as a magical realm to the North.
Relatives
Mother: Don. Father: Beli. Sisters: Gwenna, Maelen, Elen. Brothers: Gwydion, Gofannon. Sons: Dylan, Llew Llaw Gyffes.
Synodeities
Artemis and Selene (Greek), Chang-O or Heng-O (Chinese), Tsukiyomi (Japanese), Varuna (Hindu), Yemella (African), Amana (Calina people of South America).
Details
Arianrhod is an ancient goddess about whom real details of worship and myth are at best thin, with what little remains being highly distorted. The only detailed — if confused — account appears in the medieval work called The Mabinogion.
She is described as a sorceress who lives in a castle far away surrounded by women, and who is elected to serve as the new virgin for a king who must rest his feet in her lap when not on the battlefield. On arriving at court she is accused of having had many relations with men, mermen, and all sorts of others — even her own brother. As a test she must jump over the staff of a wizard.
On doing so she promptly gives birth to a boy and a blob. The boy, Dylan, quickly dashes to the sea. The blob — which eventually becomes a boy — receives three harsh restrictions placed on him by Arianrhod: he can have no name, bear no sword, and not wed a woman of Earth until she says so. All three are later tricked into being given him. No word on whether the king ever gets another lap virgin.
Many scholars believe this is a much-changed story telling of the time when things changed from mother-rule to father-rule. Others, who argue the Celts never had such a system, doubt this theory.
Arianrhod — whose name may mean Silver Wheel, or perhaps Huge or Round Wheel — is thought to be a memory of a once-powerful goddess associated with the moon, the Milky Way, and the weaving of people's lives into the fabric of the afterlife: sending them on to another realm, or returning them for another life.
Colophon
Posted by Terry McCombs to soc.religion.paganism, January 2004. Part of the God/dess of the Month Club series. Original Message-ID: [email protected].
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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