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Rhiannon is a major and classic figure in the earliest prose literature and mythology of Britain, the Mabinogi. This is a set of tales classified as Celtic or British mythology, Welsh literature, Welsh mythology. This earliest prose literature of Britain was compiled c. 1100 in mediaeval Wales from earlier oral traditions. It is culturally prominent in literary, mythological or Welsh circles today, known worldwide in English translations. The Mabinogi is made up of Four Branches, or nodes. It is published on its own but also forms part of a larger collection known as the Mabinogion. The Mabinogion is a name based on an old mediaeval scribal error in the original manuscripts. Rhiannon features prominently in these earliest British prose texts which survive in three mediaeval manuscripts. The oldest complete version of the Mabinogi is in ''Llyfr Gwyn'' (''The White Book of Rhydderch''). There is also a fragmentary manuscript known as Peniarth 6 which includes a little of Rhiannon's story. Both these manuscripts are now held at NLW (the National Library of Wales. Another later copy is in ''Llyfr Coch'' (''The Red Book of Hergest''), a manuscript now held at Jesus College, Oxford. Rhiannon's tales are retold today in countless publications as well as plays, film, storytelling and other arts. Rhiannon's original story is mainly in the First Branch of the Mabinogi, with more in the Third Branch. She is a strong minded Otherworld woman, who chooses Pwyll, prince of Dyfed (west Wales), as her consort, in preference to another man to whom she has already been betrothed. Rhiannon is highly intelligent, politically strategic, and famed for her wealth and generosity. Their son is the hero Pryderi, who later inherits the lordship of Dyfed. Rhiannon as a mother endures tragedy when her newborn child is abducted, and she is accused of infanticide. As a widow she marries Manawydan of the British royal family, and has further adventures involving enchantments. Like some other figures of British/ Welsh literary tradition, Rhiannon may be a reflex of an earlier Celtic deity. Her name appears to derive from the reconstructed Brittonic form *''Rīgantōna'', a derivative of *''rīgan-'' "queen". In the First Branch Rhiannon is strongly associated with horses, and so is her son Pryderi. She is often considered to be related to the Gaulish horse goddess Epona.〔http://books.google.com/books?id=DeaGo-Qkf2kC&pg=PA5〕〔e.g. Sioned Davies (trans.), ''The Mabinogion'', Oxford 2007, p. 231.〕 The resemblance is her horse affinity, and her son's, as mare and foal; also a paradoxical way of sitting on her horse in a calm, static way, like a key image of Epona.〔Gruffydd, W. J. ''Rhiannon: An Inquiry into the Origins of the First and Third Branches of the Mabinogi''〕 While this is generally accepted connection among scholars of the Mabinogi and Celtic studies, Ronald Hutton as a general historian, is sceptical. ==Rhiannon's story== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rhiannon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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