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https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/jun/11/wild-journey-through-britain-mythic-waterways-river-goddess>
"It’s just past midday and I appear to be inside a rain cloud. Soaked to the
skin, my walking boots squelching through tufts of grass and black bog mud, I
can hear hundreds of streams rolling off this wide mid-Wales peak, each vying
to be the fastest. I’ve hiked around more than 8 miles (13km) of Hafren Forest
trails to the top of Mount Pumlumon Fawr (Plynlimon), to reach a wooden post
carved with the words Source of the Severn. And I’m here, alone, because I’m
hoping to meet a river goddess.
It’s perhaps not as strange as it first sounds. Starting about 150 years ago,
the folklorist John Rhys travelled across Wales to archive as many local myths
as possible, and among them was the very tale that brought me to this peak: the
story of the birth of the River Severn, in which three sisters – Hafren
(Severn), Rheidolyn (Rheidol) and Gwy (Wye) – each choose their own route to
the sea. My trip to the river’s source was itself a moment of mythically
inspired travel, something that has been common practice in the British Isles
for as long as we’ve told stories, not least as a means of passing them on.
Folklore is experiencing a revival in Britain, whether it’s in wild tales told
around festival campfires or in the rise of Mabinogion-inspired romantasy
fiction. I was here on my own adventure, travelling around the islands to
rediscover our lost goddess myths and what they mean for modern womanhood, for
my new book,
No Fair Maidens. My journey took me from Somerset to Skye, from
Gower to Eryri, and was less about archaeological sightseeing and more a
journey into the landscape and waterways themselves: the river sources,
lakesides, spring wells and seashores that feature so vividly in old lore."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
