Gwydion Son of Dôn.
He is intimately associated with the district in North Wales, which is somewhat loosely termed Arvon.[1] In order to place Gwydion's character in a clear light, I venture to give you an abstract of one or two connected tales about him, contained in the Mabinogi, bearing the name of his uncle and tutor Mâth,[2] who was mentioned in the last lecture (p. 225), as having his head-quarters in the Arvonian district with which the name of Gwydion was also connected. The first story relates how Gwydion thrice thwarted his mistress, Arianrhod, with regard to a son of theirs whom she wished to disown. Gwydion had the boy reared at Dinas Dinỻe, a town or fortress now represented by a huge mound, into which the sea, not far from the western entrance into the Menai Straits, is fast eating its way: the site seems to have been turned to use by the Romans. But be that as it may, a short distance thence, one is shown a spot where the waves break on a rock visible only at low water. It is the supposed remains of Caer Arianrhod, or Arianrhod's Castle, which local legend affirms to have subsided owing to the wickedness of its occupants. Well, Gwydion one day took his boy with him to visit his mother, who had not seen him since his birth; she was disgusted to find that his father had had him reared, as she was desirous of passing for a virtuous maid: so she laid the boy under a destiny that he was never to have a name till she gave him one her-
