(i.e. The Mysterious Hand, etc.) and the imprisonment motive arise (thus, as we find them in Mabinogi) out of two independent motives, and they occur in two different stories. According to the investigations of Sir E. Anwyl they are of different local origin. The imprisonment motive, as it occurs in the third branch of the Mabinogi, goes back to the following formula: the hero is brought to a magical castle, he touches a thing which he ought not to, and he is imprisoned. This motive occurs very often in the Quest of the Water of Life or the Magic Bird. We know from the folk-tales that it is forbidden to take anything from the land of the fairies (unless, of course, the land is conquered). From the Irish stories we know of magical castles where people are imprisoned by merely sitting down there, as in Bruidhen Chaorthainn. And so we must conclude that Pryderi's imprisonment belongs to this motive.[1] But this cannot be proved of Mabon. It might be, however, probable of Gweir, because we read in the Book of Taliessin (Skene, ii. 181):
Bu kyweir karchar Gweir yg Kaer Sidi
Trwy ebostol Pwyll a Phryderi
.......Yr gadwyn tromlas kywirwas ae ketwi
A rac preideu Annwvyn tost yt geni.
Here Pryderi seems to be the Lord of Annwn, and Gweir was probably captured while trying to get some of the Underworld jewels, as he is represented bound in heavy chains before the spoils of the Underworld. This Caer Sidi
- ↑ The Mabinogi Manawydan vab Llyr is a contamination of three different cycles:
Cycle I. has the following motives: (1) Devastation of Dyved and Mystic Fog, (2) Watching the Field (*the first two fail and are probably imprisoned (?); the third succeeds and rescues the first two).
Cycle II. (1) Hunting; Mystic Fog and coming to the Magic Castle, (2) tabooed objects which are not to be touched, resulting in imprisonment of the taboo-breaker.
Cycle III. Manawyddan as an excellent craftsman in Lloegr.
