Blodeuwedd
A Cymric Goddess/Heroine: Flower Aspect
Synonyms:
Cym: Flower-face, Flower Aspect

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A Cymric goddess, she was created from flowers by Gwydion as a wife for Lleu Llaw Gyffes who, because of a dihenydd placed upon him by his mother, Arianrhod could not take a human wife.

However, Blodeuwedd had an affair with Goronwy Bebyr and egged-on by her lover determined the magical way in which Lleu could be killed. She led him to his death and, mortally wounded, Lleu escaped to a magical oak in the form of an eagle.

Gwydion managed to transmute Lleu back into human form and he punished Blodeuwedd by turning her into an owl, forever to dwell in the night-time, shunned by all the other birds.

Blodeuwedd was created from nine types of flowers: oak, meadowsweet, broom, cockle, bean, nettle, chestnut, primrose, and hawthorn; thus she is in and of herself magical, being a nine-fold maiden. By definition she is a spring goddess, the maiden aspect of the Triple Goddess.

It should also be noted that in Cymric folklore the owl is known as aderyn y corff (the corpse bird) and is supposed to be a bird of ill omen, denoting the approach of death. The part Blodeuwedd palys in the attempted murder of Lleu and her conversion into an owl may indicate that she was a goddess of death and the otherworld.