Blodeuedd

A watercolour portrait of Blodeuedd (or Blodeuwedd – Welsh for “flower faced”), the unfaithful flower maiden cursed to take the form of an owl in the Mabinogion of Welsh myth.

The hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes was cursed by his mother Arianrhod never to take a human wife. So, to get around this, the magicians Math and Gwydion made Blodeueudd from flowers. Yet the flower maiden was unfaithful, conspiring with her lover Gronw against her husband. As a punishment, Gwydion then cursed her to take the form of an owl. To the Welsh, the owl was a bird of the night, hated by all others. It is also the most “flower faced” of British birds. So it was that “Blodeuewedd” became the Welsh name for the owl.

I may be Welsh, but I love owls, so I really enjoyed painting this!