Rhiannon Tattoo Meaning

Sovereignty, dignity, and the queen on the white horse who cannot be caught.

Rhiannon is the sovereign queen of the white horse — the radiant otherworldly woman of the Welsh Mabinogi who rides at an unhurried pace none can overtake, who chooses her own husband, and who bears a terrible unjust punishment with such dignity that the punishment becomes the proof of her worth; the Great Queen, kin to the Celtic horse goddess. To carry Rhiannon is to carry sovereignty, dignity, and the queen on the white horse who cannot be caught — the woman who is overtaken only when asked, who answers injustice with grace, the sovereign self that no accusation can diminish.

Rhiannon makes her unforgettable entrance in the First Branch of the Mabinogi. The lord Pwyll, sitting at his court, sees a beautiful woman in shining gold ride past on a great white horse, moving at a pace that seems slow and unhurried — and yet no rider can catch her. Pwyll sends his fastest horsemen after her, and then rides himself, spurring his mount to its utmost; but however hard they gallop, the gap between them never closes. She is never moving fast, and she can never be overtaken. At last, in desperation, Pwyll simply calls out to her, asking her to stop — and instantly she does. She tells him, gently, that she would gladly have stopped long before, and saved the horses much weariness, if only he had thought to ask.

Rhiannon had come for Pwyll deliberately: she chooses him as her husband, against the wishes of her own family, who had intended her for another. Her whole story is marked by this sovereign self-possession. Later, after the birth of her son, the infant vanishes in the night, and Rhiannon is falsely accused of having killed and devoured her own child. Though innocent, she is given a humiliating punishment — to sit by the gate, tell her tale to all who come, and offer to carry visitors to the court on her back like a beast. She bears this cruel, unjust penalty with patience and dignity, never broken by it, until her son is at last found and her innocence revealed. The Welsh Rhiannon rode past at an uncatchable pace until simply asked to stop, chose her own husband, and bore an unjust punishment with dignity. The Welsh Rhiannon is the rider who stops only when asked — in the First Branch of the Mabinogi she rides past Pwyll's court on a white horse at a pace that seems unhurried but cannot be matched; when Pwyll finally calls to her she stops immediately, saying she would gladly have stopped long ago if he had only asked; she chooses him as her husband against her family's wishes, and later, punished unjustly for the disappearance of her son (falsely accused of killing him), she bears the humiliating punishment with patience and dignity until her innocence is revealed.

The Mabinogi (Mabinogion) is a collection of Welsh tales preserved in the Red Book of Hergest (c. 1400 CE) and the White Book of Rhydderch (c. 1350 CE) — the Four Branches of the Mabinogi are considered among the finest prose literature of medieval Europe. Rhiannon's punishment in the First Branch: accused of killing her own infant son (who was actually taken by a supernatural creature), she was sentenced to sit at the gate of the court and offer to carry visitors on her back like a horse — a punishment designed to degrade her by making her the animal her accusers associated with her. She accepts and performs this punishment with complete composure for years, until her son Pryderi is restored and her innocence proven. The Rhiannon birds: in the Third Branch, three birds of Rhiannon sing above the sea — their song is so beautiful that the dead awaken and the living fall into an enchanted sleep; time becomes distorted in their presence. Fleetwood Mac's 1975 song Rhiannon (written by Stevie Nicks) introduced the name to a global audience.

Rhiannon across cultures

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