I've never been quite sure. The first part explains why Pwyll was known as "head of Annwfn", but that doesn't really have anything to do with the second part. What I'm inclined to suspect that the first part contains one, and the second part contains two, of what was originally a much longer cycle of stories (a fourth part is briefly alluded to in another Branch).
The problem is that the stories were written down so late. That the traditions of the stories go back a long way is suggested by a story that can be pieced together from several Triads, which is a version of the Roman conquest that doesn't owe much to the Roman writers.(actually, it would make a lovely opera). And there's a tale about Drustan and Esyllt that has a lot in common with the story of Persephone. And then there's the story of Rhitta of the Beards, where the cloak is made in a manner that certainly was not used in Britain after the Iron Age. Best of all is the marginalium in the "Gododdin", "Pais Dinogad", which is only really compatible with Mesolithic society at the latest.
So I think we have scraps that do belong together, but the stories that should have come between them have been lost.
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Date: 2012-03-10 08:34 pm (UTC)The problem is that the stories were written down so late. That the traditions of the stories go back a long way is suggested by a story that can be pieced together from several Triads, which is a version of the Roman conquest that doesn't owe much to the Roman writers.(actually, it would make a lovely opera). And there's a tale about Drustan and Esyllt that has a lot in common with the story of Persephone. And then there's the story of Rhitta of the Beards, where the cloak is made in a manner that certainly was not used in Britain after the Iron Age. Best of all is the marginalium in the "Gododdin", "Pais Dinogad", which is only really compatible with Mesolithic society at the latest.
So I think we have scraps that do belong together, but the stories that should have come between them have been lost.