i know we're all dunking on elon rn and like that's fair but can i just say i miss the little twitter birdie :(
feel like pure shit just want her back
⚔️ Basilisk & Viper & Asp 🌿
A series inspired by medieval bestiaries~
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Companions of Christmas 7: Mari Lwyd!
Mari Lwyd was a gray mare belonging to Taliesin, a poet hailed as “chief of the bards” in sixth century Wales. Taliesin frequently called on Awen, the Welsh muse, for inspiration, and Awen became so captivated by his verses that she determined that he would never again leave her cottage and stay with her forever in the forest glades on the edge of the Glamorgan pastureland.
Mari Lwyd, left tethered outside, was no fan of this plan. She was hungry, and thirsty, and if her rider wasn’t to be released to feed and water her, then the least Awen could do was let her into the cottage so that Taliesin could care for her there.
Mari Lwyd, so long the companion of a great poet, had learned to think as a poet thinks, and so, when she called on Awen to let her in, she did so in rhyme. Awen, not wanting her time with Taliesin interrupted, used rhyme in return to refuse her request, and Mari offered a different argument in favor of an invitation, which was likewise refused. Back and forth they went, neither failing to find the proper words, and their exchange went for so long that eventually Mari Lwyd was nothing but bones.
So engaged by the mare’s clever rhymes was she that Awen hadn’t spared a thought to her captive, but, a longing for him suddenly him popping into her head, she turned to him, and saw that he, too, had long become nothing but bones. Awen found herself at a loss for words, and, unable to offer further excuses to bar Mari Lwyd’s entrance, allowed her into the cottage, where the skeletal mare helped herself to the holiday food and drinks that Awen had prepared for her late paramour.
Now, each Christmas Eve, Mari Lwyd roams the roads and byways of Glamorgan, led by the silent ghost of Taliesin, asking, in rhyme, entry into homes which she suspects contain holiday fare for her to eat. As it was with Awen, she can only be kept out by rebuttal to her invitation in rhyme, but should those who would bar her entrance fail to provide a suitable excuse in verse, she and her entourage face no obstacle in entering and turning the home into their own boisterous feasting hall.
Okay, this is an interesting story, but it bears no resemblance to anything I, an actual Welsh person, have ever heard about the origins of Mari Lwyd, so I’m curious to know where OP got this from. Or if they, you know, just made it up out of whole cloth
@becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys any thoughts?
Yeah, that’s a fun fairytale spun out of the actual customs (and a couple of other Welsh myth aspects drawn in). It’s nice enough! Definitely not actual myth, you’re right about awen not being a person, and the figure Taliesin is associated with is Ceridwen. But as a fairytale it’s sweet. Feels like it would be in a children’s fairytale book.
Did you write it OP? It’s very charming
Just saw these notes when returning to this post to grab its text for another project. Short answer: yes, I made it up!
Longer answer: I haven’t ever figured out how to grapple with how tumblr posts move around on their own and sometimes lack the context provided by other posts when part of a project (at least not without clunking up each post with small print). This was an entry in a series of narratives about how different Christmas and winter holiday figures came to be doing their holiday thing from a narrative rather than anthropological/folklore standpoint - the idea being that all of these characters exist, and exist in the same world (ergo, Santa and his many regional offshoots are different people, and their differences are what I highlight). In instances where the characters don’t have a story explaining the traditions surrounding them, I’ve done my best to propose a story that uses the tradition(s) and the history or legends of the character’s region as its foundation. In cases where the existing stories about a character contradict each other, I’ve done my best to incorporate both in a way that makes the most sense.
If you follow me on here or other platforms, I will say that while I’m willy-nilly with folklore yarns (where I’m from [Appalachia], there are two schools - the scholarly, which records, and the storytellers, who constantly change and shape the stories according to their own priorities and the audience to whom they’re yarning, and I’m of the latter bunch for a variety of reasons), I’m very careful with historical subjects. The history stuff I post is as close to what we factually know or believe we know as I’m able to put forth, and when I’m speculating, I say so in whatever history post might contain speculation.
Thanks!
Smiling crescent moon face. Easy drawing primer. 1924. Endpaper detail.
This years G/t July - Enchanted
Whats more enchanting than hearing a tiny harpy sing? Probably loads of other stuff but oh well lol
Polynesian Hotel, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida.
A commission for @entomolog-t featuring their OCs being cute together~
A spirit in the mine-shaft who hates evil and has a short and fierce temper. He punishes wrongdoings and those who anger him, such as miners who deny his existence.
Athena’s pet liar
Sketch for a silly little comic I wanna make
Jaws theme but you're about to get hugged! Just Eli sneaking up on an unsuspecting human is all. Also g/t hug holiday reminder movie poster style!!
Like always Hug a Giant Day is on July 21st
and Hug a Tiny Day on August 11th