Join us at the campfire for tales from around the world, told by storytellers of all backgrounds and creeds. From the heros and heroines of old, let us relearn and rediscover the wisdom of our ancestors. Shhh..the story begins..

The story of Bran the Blessed, a giant of superhuman strength, begins with the marriage of his sister, Branwen, to Matholwch, King of Ireland. Tents were erected on the Isle of Anglesey to accommodate the guests, but the house had yet to be built which would contain Bran's immense bulk. One among the merriment, however, was discontented. Piqued that his opinion had not been asked on the forthcoming alliance, Bran's half-brother, Efnissyen, went to the stables where Matholwch kept his horses and sliced off their lips, tails, ears and eyelids.

Bewildered by this cruel and sudden discourtesy, Matholwch ordered his men to return to their ships, but Bran hurried to save the situation. He promised Matholwch that he would supply a new horse for every one that had been mutilated, plus a silver staff of his own height and a gold plate the size of his face. Still Matholwch was hesitant, so Bran offered him the most magnificent treasure that Wales possessed...a magic cauldron that could restore the dead to full health, excepting the power of speech.

Mollified, Matholwch accepted the gifts and set sail for Ireland with his bride where, before the year was out, she gave birth to a son which they named Gwern. Nevertheless, Efnissyen's insult continued to play on Matholwch's mind and, in the year after Gwern's birth, he banished Branwen to a life of drudgery in the royal kitchen. To prevent news of this reaching Bran, Matholwch prohibited any ships from sailing to Britain and imprisoned all incoming British crews. Branwen, however, reared a young starling and sent it to her brother with a message tied to its leg.

Without further delay, Bran mounted an invasion, leaving in charge six chiefs under the command of his son, Caradawc. Shortly thereafter, Matholwch was informed of an extraordinary apparition. A forest had materialized in the sea and, beside the forest, was a mountain from which jutted a ridge flanked by two lakes. Unable to explain this phenomenon, Matholwch sought Branwen's advice. The forest, she told him, was the British fleet coming to save her and what was believed to be a mountain was really Bran himself, wading through the waters because there was no ship large enough to carry him. The ridge, Branwen confirmed, was Bran's nose and the lakes, his eyes.

Matholwch was alarmed and hatched a plan. He would seek to pacify Bran by building the first house that was big enough to hold him...and not only him, but also his entire army. But, in truth, what Matholwch was planning was treachery. From every pillar of the house, he would hang a sack containing an Irish warrior. At the arranged signal, the warriors would emerge and slaughter the guests of the Irish king during a great feast. Bran was indeed very impressed with the house, but Efnissyen was suspicious of the sacks. On being told that they contained only flour, Efnissyen inspected each one closely and felt the shape of a man's head. He squeezed the head between his thumb and forefinger until they met in the middle. He did the same to all one hundred sacks and then finally declared himself satisfied that everything was safe.

Somewhat disgruntled, Matholwch abandoned his plot, but the banquet went ahead as planned. During the feasting, in which Matholwch was forced to agree to abdicate his throne in favor of Gwern, Efnissyen asked if he might be allowed to embrace the child. Permission was granted and Gwern approached across the hall...whereupon Efnissyen seized the youth and hurled him into the raging fire.

Immediately, the banquet turned into a bloody brawl in which the Irish soon got the upper hand, because they possessed the cauldron that brought all their dead warriors back to life. Efnissyen, however, hid himself under a pile of Irish corpses and was thrown along with them into the cauldron, whereupon he stretched out his limbs and broke the vessel into four pieces. But the effort proved to be too much for him. His heart burst within his chest and he destroyed himself as well.

After three days of brutal bloodshed, Bran's army was victorious, but at a terrible cost. His force had been reduced to only seven men, and Bran himself was dying from a poisoned arrow in the foot. On the side of the Irish, there remained only five pregnant women to repopulate the island. Branwen, realizing that two kingdoms had been destroyed on her account, became stricken with grief and died.

Back in Britain, the regency had been overthrown by Caswallawn, one of Bran's arch-rivals. Caswallawn proceeded to slay Caradawc's six chieftains with the help of a magic spell. Helpless to save them, Caradawc too become the victim of grief, rapidly succumbing to the anguish which quickly killed him.

The dying Bran instructed the seven survivors of the Irish debacle to sever his head and carry it to London. On the way, he commanded that they stop at Harlech and at Gwales, a Welsh Otherworld off the coast of Penvo, which is now known as Pembrokeshire. Gwales had three doors, one of which would be closed. There, they would remain for eighty years in bliss, during which time the head would talk to them and sustain them. But, if at the end of this time, they opened the closed door, they would remember all their sorrows. If that time ever came, warned Bran, they must hurry to London and bury the head under the White Mount, where it would guard Britain forever against invaders.

In Gwales, all was done as instructed and the magical head kept them in good spirits. But, after eighty years had passed, one of them opened the third door and all were at once filled with misery. They immediately set out for London and buried the head under the White Mount, as Bran had told them to do.

There it remained until it was excavated by a noble monarch who would form a brotherhood of knights and come to be known as a champion of chivalry. The name of that great king was Arthur.