The UK'S Royal Mail captures the four eras of girlhood in its latest stamp release, Myths and Legends.

when rhiannon met blodeuedd

sorry guys he's really not feeling up to it this year 😔 (his annual "until judgement day" battle with gwythyr)

but fear not! another competitor appears!

RIGHT after Bryce asks Azriel if he has a mate, she brushes her hand along the wall of the cave, which has been covered in art.

The art depicts a girl sitting on a toadstool, with a hound resting at her feet. It seemed strange that SJM would include a description of such a casual gesture, and my gut told me that the art itself might somehow be important. I started researching … and it led me straight to the Mabinogion.

In the 4th branch of the Mabinogion - the same branch as Blodeuwedd’s story - Gwydion, a magician, tricks a king by turning hounds into toadstools. This is one small facet of a greater story that involves Blodeuwedd, a woman “made of flowers”, who is turned into an owl when she and her warrior lover conspire to kill the man that she was magically created to be with.

Royal Mail Myths And Legends Stamps 2025

The Blodeuwedd Art Ring by Charlotte Rowenna

“THE BLODEUWEDD RING embodies the spirit of the Welsh goddess of spring, with delicate floral motifs symbolising resilience and renewal. Inspired by wildflowers that bloom after winter, this ring captures the essence of transformation and new beginnings. The warm glow of gold reflects the beauty of individuality, inviting the wearer to embrace their true self, just as Blodeuwedd does in her enchanting Mabinogion tale."

Dear Tumblr, I have been desperately wanting to share this news with you since May last year and now I finally can: Gollancz is publishing not one, not two, but THREE of my queer medieval retellings over the next few years! You'll have seen me posting little bits about these books in the past, but I'm so excited to get to share them with you properly.

First up in 2025: The Wolf and His King, a queer retelling of Bisclavret that uses werewolfism as a metaphor to explore chronic pain and illness. It's also very much about gay yearning, fealty, and the mortifying ordeal of being known. Partially in second person and partially in verse, you can see my previous posts about it under the tag the wolf and his king or, for the really early ones, werewolves and gay yearning.

In 2026, I'm bringing you The Animals We Became [working title], which is a queertrans retelling of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, looking at gender, compulsory heterosexuality, and trauma, via nonconsensual shapeshifting. Lotta trans vibes, lotta trauma; I wrote a first draft of this last year because I got carried away writing the sample chapters for my proposal and I'm excited to get deeper into it in edits. Aka t4t shapeshifting and trauma; generally tagged as also owls are transmasculine now.

And finally, in 2027, which is the one I've honestly been most excited to tell you guys about, it's To Run With The Hound [working title]. If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I wrote a book with this title way back in 2018… well, the one I've sold isn't exactly that book, it's a proposal for how I intend to completely rewrite that book from the ground up, but yes, this is it: my Cú Chulainn novel, my queer medieval Irish book, my (hopefully) magnum opus. Haven't written it yet, but the plan is to use a nonlinear narrative to explore why Táin Bó Cúailnge is a tragedy, featuring a great many feelings about Fer Diad, Láeg, and Cú Chulainn himself.