“They made me of flowers.”
01
Oak, broom, meadowsweet
02
The other man
03
The owl
Lleu is cursed not to have a wife from the race of men. Magicians make him one from oak, broom, and meadowsweet. They name her Blodeuwedd: flower-face. She has no say in the making. She falls in love with Gronw and they plot Lleu’s death. As punishment she is transformed into an owl, hunted by other birds.
A modern reading does not have to excuse murder to notice that a person made to be a gift will eventually want a will. The owl is night-vision after a daytime identity that was never hers.
Inspect
INTERPRETATION
Blodeuwedd is the manufactured self: the pretty arrangement built to complete someone else’s geis. When she appears, a life is clawing toward agency with unclean hands. The work is to want a will without becoming only the plot.
The shadow
The manufactured wife. Flowers assembled to complete someone else’s geis.
Four lookings
Campbell
Where were you made of flowers, assembled to be suitable, and what would a self-made night look like?
von Franz
What betrayal of yours was also a first attempt at having a preference?
Hillman
If you are the owl now, what can you see that the garden could not?
Coelho
Which of your features were arranged for someone else’s story, and what omen is the night?