" "All this shalt thou have. And truly thou
hast done wisely in asking this. Upon thy head would have lit all
this trouble." "Yea," said he, "for fear thereof was it that I
required this." "Set now my wife at liberty." "I will not," said
he, "until I see Pryderi and Rhiannon with me free." "Behold, here
they come," he answered.
And thereupon behold Pryderi and Rhiannon. And he rose up to meet
them, and greeted them, and sat down beside them. "Ah, chieftain,
set now my wife at liberty," said the bishop. "Hast thou not
received all thou didst ask?" "I will release her, gladly," said
he. And thereupon he set her free.
Then he struck her with a magic wand, and she was changed back
into a young woman, the fairest ever seen. "Look round upon thy
land," said he, "and thou wilt see it all tilled and peopled as it
was in its best estate." And he rose up and looked forth. And when
he looked he saw all the lands tilled, and full of herds and
dwellings.
And thus ends this portion of the Mabinogi.
The following allusions to the preceding story are found in a
letter of the poet Southey to John Rickman, Esq., dated June 6th,
1802:
"You will read the Mabinogeon, concerning which I ought to have
talked to you. In the last, that most odd and Arabian-like story
of the mouse, mention is made of a begging scholar, that helps to
the date; but where did the Cymri get the imagination that could
produce such a tale? That enchantment of the basin hanging by the
chain from heaven is in the wildest spirit of the Arabian Nights.
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