Rhonwen is a legendary Kinain and magus from Cymru, the land mortals know as Wales.
Overview[]
Rhonwen of the golden hair and grey eyes was the daughter of Taliesin. She had the beauty of the fair folk and the vigor of her human father. When the mage Abernaeron came to see her father after finding the Llyn Brianne, the two fell in love at first sight, as the tale would have it, and Taliesin blessed their union with almost his last breath. When her father died, she became Princess of Powys and instituted the first Festival of Talecraft in honor of her father in 891.
Caer Caledfwlch[]
Upon their marriage, the two conceived a great and wondrous working, the building of a new freehold near the Pool Brianne. In a single night, under the full moon, they built atop Mount Snowdon Caer Caledfwlch, a glorious castle and shining summer city surrounded by snow.
Caledfwlch became the cultural center for all the Kithain of Cymru. Of the poetry and songs of its bards, and the wonders of everyday life there, I need say nothing, for you have all heard those songs and marveled at the tales of those wonders. My sad task it is to tell of Caledfwlch's fall, and of the demise of the lovers who built it.
Caledfwlch and Queen Caerna's domains were always the checks upon the Unseelie Prince Carniog's ambition. The other principalities became more worried by the year as Carniog's schemes grew ever bolder. In Caledfwlch, Abernaeron and Rhonwen spent much time kenning his defenses and drilling their armies. Yet the Seelie in Cymru have always been honorable folk, and to declare war without overt cause sat well with nobody. So Caledfwlch hoped for peace, but prepared for war.
At last, when the tercentenary of Carniog's rule in Glamorgan was only a few years off, the chief of Mount Snowdon's snow giants arrived in the Caledfwlch court. These giants were a foul, greedy, thick-headed lot, never friendly to the fair folk, and none at Caledfwlch trusted them. But strength the giants had, colossal strength beyond any troll of today, and so none dared ignore them. I am glad they are gone, these days.
This giant chief, Mog was his name, told Rhonwen, "I have learned from kinfolk in Glamorgan that Carniog plans to invade Powis. We fear the Shining Sword of Glamorgan, which killed many of our kind long ago. We shall help you defend your freehold." It seemed a harmless offer on its face, and the giants did not ask to be let in the freehold; and so Rhonwen and Abernaeron accepted Mog's offer.
The giants began heaping great ice boulders in a huge pile on the slope of Mount Snowdon. "Ammunition," they said, and the rulers did not doubt it, for the snow giants did often throw such boulders as weapons. Then one cold night Mog and his treacherous tribe, who had been in Carniog's pay all along, let loose the boulders in a roaring big avalanche. This killed the ghille dhu guardians of the Brianne, covered the pool and shut off its magick. Then the giants fled Powis, and not a bit do I know of what became of them. When the fae tried to dig out the pool, it was gone.
With its source of magickal power gone, Caledfwlch's defenses gradually faded. The next year, Prince Carniog himself broke through the freehold walls and slew right and left. With the Black Torc he had enslaved a weak-kneed magus, Prester Fflydd was his name; at Carniog's behest, Fflydd transformed Abernaeron into a small white fox. By a sad mistake of the magickal effect, Rhonwen thought Abernaeron had died. Heavy was her heart, as all her life's work fell to pieces around her; so heavy that she fell into despair and she swallowed a quick poison.
References[]
- CTD. Isle of the Mighty, pp. 136-137.