Taliesin's Map

The Celtic Creation Myth: Branwen, Matholwch, and Efnysien, or: Earth, Sky, and Rudra Part 2 of 4 < Part 1 Efnysien, Guardian and Liberator Let us look a bit closer now at Efnysien with the more esoteric role in mind as elucidated by Kramrisch’s reading of Rudra’s myth. Rudra is attempting to stop the Father, Father Sky of the Vedas or the “Prajapati” of the Brahmanas who carries the same Dyaus myth, from the sexual effusion that will begin the life of the world, that will bring on the Spring of the cycle. Kramrisch, perhaps influenced by the philosophy of the Brahmanas, interprets the state that Rudra is protecting in the myth as a true pre-cosmic phase, when all is undifferentiated and simultaneous, when Time does not yet exist. However, Rudra cannot stop the conjunction, his arrow reaches the Father “too late,” and the primal seed is made to spill, bringing forth the fire youths from the fiery seed, the ancestors of mankind. Rudra is thus the god whose power of destruction is aim...

  The Celtic Creation Myth: Branwen, Matholwch, and Efnysien, or: Earth, Sky, and Rudra Part 1 of 4 [Endnotes can be found at the end of each part] Is Efnysien Rudraic? The Second Branch of the Mabinogi , Branwen, daughter of Llyr , is a tantalizing canvas on which interpreters have painted many a colorful thesis. We will add our own here, as certain considerations point to a momentous Rudraic quality in the sower of strife, Efnysien. Marcel Meulder in his article “Nisien and Efnisien: Odinic couple or dioscuric?” has shown a strong parallel of Efnysien, known as the sower of strife, and his brother Nisien, known as the bringer of peace and accord, to Scandinavian figures Bolwis and Bilwis of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum , two figures who are also described in very similar terms, as a bringer of strife and a bringer of peace. Meulder has then demonstrated that these are each Odinnic pairs in terms of their qualities and mythic parallels. 1 The Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of Llyr descr...