Caswallawn

Caswallawn is a son of Beli whose rise to kingship is reported in the aftermath of Bendigeid Fran’s war in Ireland. The account makes his victory visible through its consequences: crowned in London, he takes control of the island, while a later report of his violence leaves Caradawc grieving and one young page escaped.

Family and Kingship

The genealogy of Beli’s family names Caswallawn among his sons, alongside Lludd and Nynyaw, and also records Llevelys as a fourth son. It identifies Lludd as the eldest and says that, after Beli’s death, the kingdom passed to him. Elsewhere, a report delivered on the road to Harlech says that Caswallawn has conquered the Island of the Mighty and is crowned king in London. The accounts establish both his place in Beli’s family and his kingship, but do not set out the chronology connecting Lludd’s inheritance with Caswallawn’s rule.

Caswallawn’s accession is described as the outcome of conquest, not as a ceremony or a negotiated transfer. The report reaches Manawyddan and his companions while they are carrying Bendigeid Fran’s severed head toward Harlech. The political news sharply changes the journey’s meaning: the island they have left behind has a new king, and the companions learn that the remnant of their own people there has been attacked.

The Veil and the Killing of Caradawc’s Men

The travelers hear that Caswallawn came upon Caradawc, son of Bran, and the six men left with him on the island, and killed the six. The method makes the attack uncanny as well as lethal. Caswallawn casts the Veil of Illusion over himself; no one can see the person wielding the weapon, only the sword as it strikes. The men can perceive the blows without seeing their assailant.

Caradawc is not killed by Caswallawn. Caswallawn refrains because Caradawc is his nephew, the son of his cousin; instead, Caradawc’s heart breaks from grief as he watches the six men die without being able to see who is killing them. The distinction makes Caswallawn’s violence selective, but does not lessen its effect: his concealment turns the survivors’ inability to intervene into part of the catastrophe.

Pendaran Dyved, who had remained among the men as a young page, escapes into the wood. His flight is the sole survival specifically reported in this account. The news reaches Manawyddan indirectly, through people encountered on the road, so Caswallawn’s attack is recounted rather than staged as a scene in which he speaks or appears.

Political and Narrative Significance

Caswallawn is presented through two linked forms of power: public rule, announced by his conquest and coronation, and personal violence, conveyed by the invisible attacker and the visible sword. The Veil conceals the king but cannot conceal what his weapon does. That contrast gives the report its force: the new ruler’s presence is unseen, yet his authority is registered in deaths, grief, and flight.

The news also reaches Manawyddan at a moment of mourning and displacement. After Bendigeid Fran’s burial at the White Mount in London, Manawyddan grieves that another man occupies the place of his brother and says he cannot be happy in the same dwelling with him. Caswallawn is identified as his cousin and as the king, but the account does not describe a direct confrontation between them. Instead, his kingship stands behind Manawyddan’s loss of a home and the companions’ knowledge that the island’s remaining defenders have been destroyed.