Math ap Mathonwy
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In Welsh mythology, Math ap Mathonwy was a king of Gwynedd who needed to rest his feet in the lap of a virgin unless he was at war. In order to gain access to the virgin,Goewin, whom his brother Gilfaethwy had fallen in love with, the magician Gwydion (Math's nephew) arranged a war between Dyfed and Gwynedd, which led to the death of Pryderi. While Math was away Gilfaethwy and Gwydion raped Goewin. For this the two nephews were transformed into animals for three years - deer, pigs and wolves (one male, one female). After this Math asked Gwydion who he should choose as his new footholder and Gwydion suggested his sister Arianrhod. To test her virginity she stepped over Math's magic wand but immediately gave birth to a young boy (Dylan) and a blob - proving that she was not a virgin. Gwydion hid the blob in a chest and later found it had grown into a boy. The boy grew extraordinarily quickly (as did Pryderi in the First Branch) and he and Gwydion grew very attached to one another. However, when Gwydion took the boy to see his mother, Aranrhod, she refused to recognise him out of shame and anger that Gwydion should have nurtured the boy. She swore three curses on him - that he should have no name unless she gave it to him, then no arms unless she gave them to him, and finally that he should have no wife of humankind. Gwydion defeated the first two curses by magically disguising himself and the boy and creating illusions that led to Aranrhod naming the boy Lleu Llaw Gyffes and then giving him the weapons he needed. However, to defeat the third curse Gwydion called on Math's help to create a woman from flowers of broom, oak and meadowsweet. This woman they named Blodeuedd (flowers) and married to Lleu, who was also given a cantref to rule over. When he was away from home visiting Math (his overlord), Blodeuedd saw a nobleman passing and invited him to stay. She and the nobleman - Gronw Bebyr, fell in love and concocted a plot to kill Lleu. Blodeuedd found out from Lleu how he could be killed - with one foot on the back of a goat and the other on a bath of water, underneath a canopy, using a spear that had been made over the course of a year only on Sundays. A year later, Lleu was persuaded to show his wife how this would be done and Gronw threw the spear he had made at him. However, rather than dying outright Lleu turned into an eagle and flew away wounded. Gronw then took Blodeuedd and Lleu's land. Gwydion went searching for his nephew and, by following a pig, found him (still an eagle) in a very bad state at the top of an oak tree by a lake. He called him down from the tree with three stanzas of poetry, transformed him back into a man and nursed him back to health. Then Lleu sought revenge on Gronw and his wife. Gwydion turned Blodeuedd into an owl - called Blodeuwedd (flower-face). Lleu demanded that Gronw accept the same from him as he had been subjected to and Gronw agreed to this but asked that a stone be placed between him and the spear-cast. Nevertheless, Lleu threw the spear right through the stone and killed Gronw. After this he took back his lands and later succeeded Math as king of Gwynedd.