Manawyddan Son of the Boundless: a gay Theosophist writes about two gods in love

 

Around fifth or sixth grade, I found a book in the Denkmann Elementary School Library, Hero Tales from Many Lands: short vignettes from the lives of Beowulf, Achilles from the Iliad, Sigurd from the Volsunga Saga,  Rustem from the Shah Nameh, and many others. 

Most were unreadable due to the old-fashioned writing style or silly subject matter  -- "How Cuchulain wooed his wife"?  Why not tell about his heroic deeds? 

But "Manawyddan, Son of the Boundless," from the Welsh  Mabinogion,  brought that moment of ecstatic joy that I knew from Rich and Sean in The Secret of Boyne Castle

Barnabas Collins and Willie Loomis on Dark Shadows

Ray and Cho in Operation Time Search

 Chekov and Sulu on Star Trek

It was about two boys together:

The gods are thinking of raising Pwyll Prince of Dyfed to godhood, but first they give him some trials to see if he's worthy.  They remove his memories -- he will be called Dienw, Nameless -- and send him out into the wilderness.  

After wandering for years, hungry, tired, and "knowing all sorrow," Dienw stumbles upon "a youth of great beauty" harping a song so beautiful that the animals stop to listen. He introduces himself as Goreu fab Ser, Son of the Stars.

When I was ten years old, this was the  most beautiful picture I had ever seen.

They travel from Ireland to Wales together.  

When they are crossing the Menai Strait, between Anglesey Island and mainland Wales, their coracle capsizes, and Goreu can't swim!  Dienw drags him kicking and struggling to the shore, and then, overcome by exhaustion, dies.  

Goreu carries him to to Mount Wyddfa (Mount Snowden, the highest mountain in Wales), where the gods live, and immerses him in the Cauldron of Life, Pair Dadeni.  

Dienw awakens to "one of immortal beauty, whose forehead shone like the Morning Star. " Goreu, revealed to be the God Gwydion ap Don, hugs him and says that his new name is Manawyddan, son of the Boundless.

Same-sex love not only exists, it carries with it a spark of the Divine!  

In junior high my friend Darry and I started writing a fantasy novel that, we claimed, was absolutely not imitating Tolkien.  I borrowed the Cauldron of Life and the last scene, where Jim awakens and Rai greets him with a hug, directly from the story.  

And I wanted to know more.  What happened next? Did Manawyddan and Gwydion ap Don rule together?  Did they have more adventures?  

More adventures after the break