Cigfa: a Cymric heroine (She of the Feast)

Synonyms: Kicva
Cym: She of the Feast

Cigfa, daughter of Gwynn Gohoyw ap Gloyw Wallt Lydan ap Casnar (this lineage is often used in the ancestry of a number of Cymric houses and may be used here to show how Cigfa was as a wife). Indeed, Gigfa first appears at the very end of the Mabinogi of Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed as the wife of Pryderi. Along with Pryderi we next encounter Cigfa in the Mabinogi of Manawyddan fab Llŷr. After the events of the Mabinogi of Branwen ferch Llŷr, Manawyddan is the only man left without a realm and Pryderi offers his own realm to Manawyddan and gifts him his mother, Rhiannon to be Manawyddan's wife. Whereupon Pwyll and Manawyddan come to the seven cantrefs of Dyfed where Rhiannon and Cigfa prepare a feast for them. hen Pwyll and Manawyddan depart for Oxford to pay homage to Caswallon fab Beli who, after Brân's death is now king of Britain. They return to Narberth and a feast is prepared for them and when they had feasted they made their way to the Gorsedd of Narberth and as they sat there they heard a peal of thunder and a thick fog sprang up about them and after the mist came a bright light and when they looked all the animals and all the people about them were gone, so that only Manawyddan, Pwyll, Rhiannon and Cigfa were left.

They hunt and feast, but after two years they grow weary and go to Lloegr (England) to ply a craft whereby they can sustain themselves. They go to Hereford and make saddles until all the local saddlers turn against them and plot to kill them then they make shields and then shoes, but in each cases they make better goods than the locals and are driven away. Eventually they return home to Dyfed where they set about hunting until two of Pryderi's hounds are lost and he goes to seek them. He finds a deserted castle and though Manawyddan counsels him against entering he does so anyway and sees a spring with a golden bowl on a marble slab. Moving to the bowl he takes hold of it and as soon as he touches it he becomes frozen. Manawyddan waits for him until the close of day and he returns to Rhiannon and tells her what had happened. She berates him for not following Pryderi and makes to find her son. She also enters the castle and takes hold of the golden bowl and is frozen in her turn. When night came there was a peal of thunder and a mist rose and the castle and all its contents vanished.

When Cigfa, Pryderi's wife saw that there was none but Manawyddan and herself left she became fearful until Manawyddan reassured her that he would not molest her, for as he is a friend to Pryderi, thus shall he be a friend to her. They set forth to Lloegr, for they have lost their dogs and cannot support themselves by hunting, where Manawyddan once more begins making shoes. But once again they are driven out and return to Dyfed. On his way Manawyddan brought with him a burden of wheat which was planted. When the wheat was ripe Manawyddan went to inspect it and decided to reap on the morrown. But when he came out the following morning, though the wheat still stood each and every ripened ear had been cut and carried away. But there was another ripened field and Manawyddan decided to guard this through the night. And at midnight there arose a mighty tumult around him and when he looked he saw a great host of mice which came into the field and cut off the ears of wheat to carry them away. Angrily he rushed at the mice, but they were too quick and he could catch none of them. All save one mouse which was more sluggish than the others. He caught this one and placed it in his glove before tying it securely with string. He presents Cigfa with the mouse, saying it is a thief fit only to be hanged on the morrow. Cigfa asks him whether a man of such stature as himself should trouble himself with such a tiny creature. But he is adamant that the mouse should pay for its crimes.

Manawyddan was preparing to hang the mouse upon the Gorsedd of Narberth when a poor clerk wandered along (the first other human he had seen in Dyfed in seven years) who failed to persuade or bribe him to let it go, followed by a priest and finally a bishop. This latter finally admitted to being Llwyd ap Cil Coed and friend of Gwawl ap Clud (humiliated by Pryderi's father Pwyll in the Mabinogi of Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed), who had enchanted Dyfed to avenge his friend, captured Pryderi (Pwyll's son) and Rhiannon (who had spurned Gwawl) and transformed his warband and court into mice, including his own pregnant wife whom Manawydan had captured. In return for his wife's safe return Llwyd promises to reverse the enchantment upon Dyfed and thus all returns to what it was before.

Etymologically Cigfa's name is derived from the the Brythonic word *kik (meat) which yields the Cymric word cig (meat) and may be derived as 'she of the meat'. Of course, meat was used synonymously with 'feast' in the Middle Ages and Cigfa's name may be interpreted as 'She of the Feast' ie 'she who provides the feast'.

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