Who is Blodeuedd? What is Mur-y-Castell? I finally tell it all! + mini review

I have been asked, and asked, but why have I never posted? Uh, beats me. Anyway, no, I am not Welsh, I have never been to Wales (would love to go though), and no my name is not Blodeuedd either. And yes I do know how to spell castle, there is nothing wrong with the name of the blog.

The truth will finally come out. It's from a tale in the Welsh epos The Mabinogi.

There once was a prince named Lleu, and his mother said he could not marry a mortal woman. Poor Lleu, but in comes Gwydion and Math, and create a woman for him from oak, broom, and meadowsweet, and they call her Blodeuedd, meaning flowers. She was the fairest of them all. But Blodeuedd fell in love with someone else and together they tried to kill her husband. Which is not easy, because he could not be killed by usual means, but they did it. Gwydion and Math manage to save Lleu and then they come after Blodeuedd:

"You will not dare to show your face ever again in the light of day ever again, and that will be because of enmity between you and all other birds. It will be in their nature to harass you and despise you wherever they find you. And you will not lose your name - that will always be "Bloddeuwedd (Flower-face/owl)."

So they changed her name and she became an owl.

Middle Welsh composite name from blodeu 'flowers, blossoms' + gwedd 'face, aspect, appearance': "flower face".

There are some variations on how to spell her name, and when she is called what and so on, but this is one version.

I forgot, thanks Pattepoiliou (oh I can't spell your name so you are not alone :) and Bermudaonion!

blod-EH-yeth

That is how you say it, I found different variations of that one too ... 

And why I picked it. I used it in a story I was writing. Then like 9 years ago I needed a name for this Lord of the rings forum, all the LOTR ones were taken so I used Blodeuedd. Then I used it on another forum, and then on another. After that it was just easy to keep using the name.

Then on to Mur-y-Castell:

Llet Llaw Gyffes held court at Mur-y-Castell according to the Mabinogion. It was the palace of the rules of Arduwy.

The place is now called Tomen-y-Mur and there used to be a Roman fortress there.

Castell should mean castle, mur wall, something established. Y...some small word, ahem, yes I do not know ;)

And now time for a short review:

The unmentionables 1

Genre: Chick-lit paranormal humor

Pages: 320

Published: 2010

Seven Stones of Power. No one knows when they were created or by whom, each said to represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

For centuries, treasure hunters have been eager to possess the stones, undeterred by their corrupting nature. The list is long -- Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, to name a few. Now the Stones have found their way to Salem, Massachusetts, and so has Gerwulf Grimoire, adding himself to this rogues' gallery of power seekers. He's an uncommonly dangerous man, with a hunger for the forbidden, and a set of abilities that are way beyond ordinary. Abilities that he feels entitle him to possess anything he might desire.

That would include Elizabeth Tucker, the woman he needs to find the Stones. She's freshly transplanted from New York City to Boston's North Shore. With a new job as pastry chef at Dazzle's bakery and an old house inherited from her Aunt Ophelia, her life is pretty much on track …until it's suddenly derailed by a guy named Diesel, a rude monkey, and a ninja cat.

Lizzy can handle the monkey and the cat. She's not sure about Diesel. He's offering up his own set of unusual talents, promising to protect her from Grimoire. The kind of protection that Lizzy suspects might involve guarding her body day and night.

The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, lust, envy wrath, sloth and gluttony. That pretty much covers everything that is wicked. Diesel thinks it also pretty much covers everything that's fun. And Lizzy thinks Diesel and the Seven Deadly Sins cover everything her mother warned her about.

I think it's good there was a long blurb cos I was not happy. I read about 50-100 pages, got scared that I had to DNF, so I skimmed the rest. Why? Well I will tell you.

I never liked Diesel in the in between Plum novels. I had read plenty of Plum novels and suddenly there was a paranormal twist in the in-between numbers novels. I did not like it, why was there suddenly magic and stuff?! I read them, didn't really care for them and thought of them as her being high on doughnuts.

Which lead to this book. I could have liked it, I even giggle once, but the thing is that is was still the Plum world, and I do not want magic there. It felt like she did it just to sell more cos it was big. If this book had been a new world I might just have enjoyed this tale. Now, no!

Lizzy, well first I thought oh she saw magic and did not freak, but then I got that she just didn't believe, and then I just thought she was stupid. If there is plenty of magic around you do not go around and think how did that happen. It was so obvious. So she was an idiot.

And the monkey was funny once, but giving them the finger on every page gets boring.

I have totally dissed this book, but if you read this one, and do not know about the Plum world, then I am sure you will like it. Even Plum lovers will love it...I just can't handle it.

Will I read more...yes cos I can't give up on her, not even with these books.