My name is Miguel Camacho and I am a Creative Writing major from the Class of 2025. I was born in Bogota, Colombia and when I’m not at Bucknell, I live in Miami, Florida. My interests outside of class include but are not limited to discussing and watching films, reading, playing and listening to rock music, hiking, and scuba diving. As a Roman Catholic, a lover of literature and writing, and someone who takes my role as a steward of the earth seriously, I am very interested in taking this course.

There was one particular section of the story I was assigned, Pwyll Prince of Dyfed, which I found interesting and reminded me of a discussion we had in my Literary Studies class last year. In pages 11-14, Pwyll weds Rhiannon, but in promising to honor a stranger’s request at the wedding, he accidentally gives Rhiannon’s hand in marriage to Gwawl, the man she was originally arranged to be married. However, she refuses to accept this, and creates a plan with Pwyll to trick Gwawl during his wedding and finally be together, which Pwyll follows through with successfully. In her steadfast refusal to have herself given away to a man she doesn’t love and use of cunning to prevent that fate, Rhiannon becomes a symbol for powerful women and women taking ownership of their personhood and destiny, the former appearing in other examples of medieval literature like The Green Knight. This section stood out to me the most because I find it interesting how these archetypes are woven into the literature of that era when these ideas were nearly unheard of within society at the time. There is also the more overt moral lesson being taught in this story, which is a warning against being too trusting and slow-witted. I found it difficult to extract much scriptural or spiritual significance from this section, other than the strong adherence to the institution of marriage that the three characters demonstrate.