Pwyll and Rhiannon were blissfully happy with one another. Pwyll marveled at the intelligence, humor and beauty of his wife. For her part, Rhiannon was pleased that she had found a man who would talk to her, and listen to her advice.

The nobles of Dyfed were not so pleased. Pwyll had married a strange woman: she clearly practiced magical arts, and had kept him distracted during the years of their courtship. Rhiannon was used to speaking her mind; if she disagreed with the counsel a noble offered Pwyll, that man soon learned what a powerful weapon her tongue could be.

Pwyll's devotion to Rhiannon kept the nobles silent at first. But after three years, during which time no heir had been produced, the nobles petitioned Pwyll to put Rhiannon aside. "It benefits no one if you keep a barren wife," they told him.

"Wait one more year," Pwyll said. "Then we shall discuss the matter again, if I do not have a child."

Pwyll told Rhiannon about his conversation with the nobles. "So I am not well liked," she concluded, unsurprised but still a little sad. She had not made friends in her husband's land, but until that point she had not known for certain that she had made enemies. "We shall simply have to try in earnest."

Perhaps due to some medical knowledge of Rhiannon's, or perhaps simply due to nature, Rhiannon soon conceived and delivered a child before the end of the year. He was a healthy, beautiful boy, and Rhiannon thought he was well worth the pain she had suffered bearing him.

Rhiannon slept deeply after the delivery, with six women to watch over her and the new baby. But during the night, the servants all fell asleep at the same time, and when they woke the child was gone.

"We shall be killed," they wailed. And then they saw that Rhiannon still slept peacefully, unaware that her son had been taken from her arms.

"We shall say that she ate him," one woman suggested, and the others shuddered, but agreed. They knew that their mistress was not popular; the nobles would want to believe their story, and even the grieving father would have no choice.

So they found and killed a newborn litter of puppies, and smeared the blood on Rhiannon's hands and face. They chose bones that looked to be about the right size to belong to a baby, and left those scattered on the floor. When they had cleaned their own hands and disposed of the rest of the tiny corpses, they cried out and woke Rhiannon.

"We could not stop you," they wailed. Rhiannon was confused at their behavior, and frantic to find her missing child. "You devoured him!" the women told her, and went to fetch Pwyll and some of his men. By the time they arrived, Rhiannon was hysterical. She had no memory of killing her son, but could offer no alternate explaination for his disappearance. Druids inspected the bones, which they said confirmed the story of Rhiannon's women.

"I cannot believe it," Pwyll said. "She would not do such a thing."

But the nobles, now armed with evidence against Rhiannon, persisted. "She committed this unnatural crime," they said. "She deprived you of your heir. She must be punished."

"I did not do this thing," Rhiannon insisted (although, in her grief, she sometimes wondered if she had indeed killed her son in a fit of madness). "I could not have done this thing."

Pwyll was torn. He wanted desperately to believe Rhiannon: he loved her, and if she had not in fact eaten their child, then the baby might still be alive. Yet the evidence against Rhiannon seemed overwhelming.

In the end, Pwyll could not bring himself to put her aside. "But she will perform a penance," he told his nobles, who were outraged with his leniency.

So Pwyll condemned his wife to sit for seven years beside a horse-block at the gate. She had to greet visitors with her tale, and offer to bear them into the palace on her back. Rhiannon accepted this sentence without comment; her sudden loss had done much to repress her vibrant personality. Most visitors pitied Rhiannon, and could not bring themselves to allow her to carry them.

Life in Narberth continued for years in this unhappy state, until the intercession of one of Pwyll's vassals, Teirnyon Twryv Vliant.

Teirnyon had a mare, which he had owned for years before the birth of Pwyll's son. This mare always foaled on Beltane eve, and every morning the colt was missing. Teirnyon decided that he would finally solve this mystery, so brought the mare into his house before the night when she was due to foal.

The colt was born early that night, and looked normal enough. As the hours passed, Teirnyon felt vaguely disappointed, but then heard a noise outside. A clawed arm reached in through the window and grabbed the colt. Glad that he had armed himself and remained awake, Teirnyon hacked off the arm with his sword. The creature outside withdrew, making pained noises.

After a moment, Teirnyon heard a less ominous sound outside his door: a baby's wailing. On his doorstep lay a newborn, swaddled and wrapped in silk. Though somewhat suspicious, in light of the strange events of the evening, Teirnyon brought the child inside. He discussed the situation with his wife. She found the baby perfectly normal looking, and quite adorable. True, its origins were strange; but then, Teirnyon and his wife were used to odd Beltanes. They decided to adopt the baby, who they called Gwri Wallt Euryn, Gwri of the Golden Hair.

As Gwri grew older, Teirnyon could not help but notice the strong resemblance between his adopted son and his lord. And Gwri had appeared on the same night that Pwyll's son had disappeared.

"Perhaps Rhiannon did not kill her child, but was wrongly accused," Teirnyon said to his wife. "We became so used to losing colts, we didn't think what things may have been stolen from other people on Beltane."

"It would be wrong to keep Gwri from his true parents," she said. "Especially since they can provide for him in such splendid fashion, and offer him all of Dyfed as his inheritance."

So the next day, Teirnyon took Gwri to Narberth. He refused Rhiannon's offer to bear them inside, which disappointed little Gwri. At supper, Teirnyon told Pwyll and Rhiannon his story, and presented Gwri to them.

"Trouble is at an end for me," Rhiannon exclaimed happily, "if this is true."

No one who saw the boy could doubt that Pwyll was his father. The identity of the thief remained a mystery, but no one in Narberth worried overmuch about it; they had grieved too long. Gwri was renamed by the head druid, Pendaran Dyfed. He called him Pryderi, which means "trouble", because that was the first word spoken by his mother when she was reunited with her son.

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