The Hidden Hare
Melangell can be seen as a goddess of the wild and the wild creatures. The story says that she came from Ireland, but her name is Welsh and the story is set in a particular valley in Wales. Ireland, here, might represent an other-worldly origin. But we can note that in Ireland the Cailleach – a goddess of the land who features in folklore as a wise woman who consorts with the fairies – sometimes appears in the guise of a hare. Melangell may be the expression of such a deity, appearing in a legend which has grown out of the manifestation of this goddess in the form of a hare.
The valley of Pennant, where the legend is set, is a ‘blind’ valley, running up to a wall of the mountains, enclosed on all sides but one where the stream that becomes the River Tanat runs out of it. Today it is possible to follow that stream up the valley from the village of Llangynog on a ‘pilgrimage’ trail to a small church dedicated to Saint Melangell. Beyond the church the narrow road becomes a footpath leading to a waterfall at the end of the valley. The church contains a shrine to the saint and is enclosed in a ring of ancient yew trees and has apparently been built over a Bronze Age burial site. The church is reputed to be the site of an earlier nunnery set up by Saint Melangell, which is to formulate her story in a Christian context. Near the church is a large area of flat rock known as ‘Gwely Melangell’ (Melangell’s Bed) although it is also known as ‘Gwely y Gawres’ (the Giantess’s Bed), presumably based on an older legend (an earlier version of Melangell’s legend?) of a female giant who lived in the valley.
In her Christian context she is seen as ‘virginal’ and ‘pure’. But consider also that virginity in pre-christian guardians and goddesses was often a symbol of enclosure and protection. The Vestal Virgins at Rome ensured the safety of the city and the goddess Athene protected the city of Athens. Virginity here is not about saintly purity. It is a physical quality embodying protection. It can also represent a state of independence in a woman in that she is not dependent on a man but protects what is hers by her own means. Melangell willfully defies her father’s plans for her marriage. She goes to an enclosed place and becomes its tutelary guardian. But she retains the wildness of her nature, becoming identified with wild animals in general and the hare in particular. She defies the hunter the ‘lord’ of the territory and he defers to her.
She is the older authority, the untamed land and the protector of the wild creatures that still inhabit it. So the hare hides beneath her skirt. The hare also, in folklore was seen as a symbol of female sexuality. What resides beneath her skirt, then, is what she has to give, or not to give, to the man who would rule her. He considers if he should take her, but realizes she has the greater authority, and he retreats, leaving her unviolated, her valley still a haven of protection.
Seen in this way, there is no contradiction between different possible views of Melangell: as a goddess of sovereignty of the wild land, a tutelary deity of wild creatures, a woman asserting her own nature, and a saintly virgin. She is potentially all of these things, and more. She has much in common with Brigid, both in her transition from Pagan goddess to Christian saint and in the resonances of protective guardianship. But her legend also presents her as a spirited young woman, sure of her status and expressing the will of all women who desire to make their own way in the world, to live according to their own nature.