Cym: Most Beautiful
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Much of Penarddun's mythos is lost to us, however some of her story can be reconstructed from the genealogies, the Trioedd Ynys Prydein and the Mabinogi of Branwen ferch Llŷr. This tale from the Mabinogi names Bendigeidd Frân, Branwen and Manawyddan as the children of Llŷr and Penarddun. The half-bothers of this triad were the twins Nissien and Efnissien, with the twins' father being Euroswyd. As Brân is the elder, this suggests that somehow Euroswyd must have ousted Llŷr as Penarddun's wife to take that position himself.
A clue as to how this happened is provided by Triad 52 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein which describes Euroswyd as being the captor of one of the 'Three exalted prisoners of the Island of Britain'; his prisoner being Llŷr Lledyeith (an epithet of Llŷr's suggesting his Irish origin) This points towards there being an enmity between Euroswyd and Llŷr and goes some way to explaining how Euroswyd somehow managed to oust ŷr and replace him as Penarddun's wife. Unfortunately, however, the original tale is entirely lost to us.
According to the Harleian MS 3958, Penarddun was the daughter of Beli Mawr and the grand-daughter of Manogan. This genealogy gives Beli's consort as Anna, though this selfsame Anna may be a conflation with the goddess Dô. If this is correct then it would make Penarddun a missing member of the Plant Dôn and one of the elder Cymric gods. It is interesting therefore that her marriage to Llŷr is what engenders the Cymric race of giants known as the Plant Llŷr who would seem, according to legend at least, to be the enemies of the Plant Dôn. Mythologically it is Penarddun who bequests divinity onto her offspring but it is Llŷr that makes then into the race of giants.
Penarddun's name is derived from the Cymric elements pen (head, main) and arddun (beautiful) and gives us 'most beautiful'. If the name is a true description of how Penarddun was thought to appear then her beauty alone would be sufficient reason for Euroswyd to seek her hand.
