Llew's punishment of Blodeuwedd and killing of Gronw

Llew Llaw Gyffes’s retribution against Blodeuwedd and Gronw Pebyr brings the story’s betrayal to a reckoning through two sharply different punishments: Blodeuwedd is made to live in a bird’s despised form, while Gronw is killed by the very kind of weapon with which he wounded Llew. The encounter ends not only with Gronw’s death but with Llew’s restoration to his land and rule in Gwynedd; its lasting traces are the owl’s name and a pierced slab still remembered at the riverbank.

Recovery and the Return to Ardudwy

The action follows Llew’s recovery from the suffering that had reduced him to skin and bone. Gwydion restored him from his eagle form with a blow of his magic wand, and physicians in Gwynedd healed him before the year was out. Once the time came, Llew told Math son of Mathonwy that he wanted retribution from the person who had caused his woe. Math answered that the wrongdoer would not keep what rightfully belonged to Llew, and Llew made clear that he wanted his right restored soon.

The response is collective as well as personal. The whole of Gwynedd is assembled, and the company sets out for Ardudwy. Gwydion goes ahead to Mur y Castell. Hearing of his approach, Blodeuwedd flees with her maidens toward a court on the mountain. They cross the Cynvael River, but fear prevents them from continuing except with their faces turned backward; they fall into a lake. All drown except Blodeuwedd, whom Gwydion catches up with. The flight ends in a reversal: the attempt to escape the pursuer becomes the circumstance in which her companions perish and she is left alone to face him.

Blodeuwedd’s Transformation

Gwydion does not kill Blodeuwedd. Instead, he declares that her punishment will be worse than death: she will become a bird, unable to show her face in daylight and subject to attack and pursuit by other birds. She will retain the name Blodeuwedd. The account identifies her with the owl, explaining that the bird is hateful to the others because of what was done to Llew; it adds that the owl is still called Blodeuwedd.

The punishment thus makes the name of the betrayer endure, but in a transformed life marked by exposure and exclusion. Blodeuwedd’s fate differs from Gronw’s: she survives, yet the change fixes her in a lasting condition, while the narrative gives the consequence a continuing presence in the natural world. The story presents this as Gwydion’s sentence for the shame she brought upon Llew, and ties the sentence directly to the owl’s name and its treatment by other birds.

Gronw’s Terms and the Final Blow

Gronw Pebyr withdraws to Penllyn and sends messengers to offer compensation for Llew’s injury. The proposed alternatives include land, a domain, gold, or silver. Llew refuses them and sets a different condition: each man must stand in the place the other occupied when the wound was inflicted, and Llew will aim a dart at Gronw. The demand makes the settlement a reenactment rather than a payment; the positions are to be reversed, and Gronw is to face the weapon himself.

Gronw asks whether one of his faithful warriors, household, or foster-brothers will take the blow in his place. None agrees. The narrative preserves their refusal as more than a private failure of loyalty: because they will not suffer one stroke for their lord, they are called the third disloyal tribe from that time onward. With no substitute, Gronw agrees to meet Llew.

At the banks of the Cynvael River, the two take the positions specified. Gronw appeals to Llew on the ground that a woman’s wiles had been involved in the injury he inflicted, and asks permission to place a slab between himself and the dart. Llew grants the request. Gronw sets the slab between them, but it does not save him: Llew’s dart pierces the stone and passes through Gronw’s back, killing him. The protection Gronw asks for is allowed, yet the weapon passes through it, making the slab a witness to the force of the reversed blow rather than an escape from it.

Restoration and Lasting Traces

The slab remains on the bank of the Cynvael River in Ardudwy, pierced through, and is called Llech Gronw. The landscape therefore retains a material record of the encounter. Where the owl’s name carries Blodeuwedd’s punishment into the present of the tale, the stone preserves the precise site and manner of Gronw’s death.

After Gronw is slain, Llew takes possession of the land a second time and governs it prosperously. The account further states that he is thereafter lord over Gwynedd. The ending restores the right Math had identified and Llew had demanded, but it does so through two forms of retribution: a transformation that keeps Blodeuwedd alive under an enduring sentence, and a reciprocal execution that removes Gronw and leaves a visible mark behind. Together, these outcomes close the conflict by linking personal redress, restored rule, and consequences that outlast the confrontation.