Hoo you looking at

The owl makes a comeback.

Look hoo is back

Dancing around the May Pole is for Folktale Week day 7 and “Dance”.

So this dance doesn’t exactly happen in the Mabinogion, however, the backstory of the beautiful otherworldly Blodeuwedd (see also day 5, the death of Gronw Pebr) who was magically created out of flowers to be the wife of Lleu, is also the story of the Flower Bride, alternatively, the May Queen.

In brief, in the Mabinogion, Blodeuwedd falls in love with Gronw, tragedy ensues, and the magicians turn her into an owl so that she may never again show her face in the light of day.

She was the beauty in the light of day, she is now the dark night at odds with other birds.

This flower maiden is created as the perfect wife to serve her man, but she empowers herself by falling in love with another man. She must mature and gain wisdom through taking responsibility for her actions.

The dance of the May Queen occurs at Beltane, where she weaves a ribbon around a pole, a symbol of fertility and the spiralling nature of life.1

This Mabinogion story also tells us that beauty is only skin-deep.

Deep stuff.