Mabiog and his wife…

Suddenly from nowhere, two standing stones in a field - a field we’d passed a thousand times before. How had we missed them? They must have been there all along an acres length between them, far beneath the hilltop fort, in opposite corners of the field. Stones don’t appear overnight – do they? Maybe they were hiding from us, concealing themselves.

Later, at the pub, we asked about them.

‘Ah, Mabiog and his wife, so you’ve seen them then. Not everyone does.’

The story goes that old King Mabiog took a younger wife, he loved her very much but the life of a King is busy and full of responsibility, there are wars to fight, uprisings to put down, decrees to be made, and feasts to be held. After a while Mabiog’s wife felt neglected so took a lover, a young chieftain in Mabiog’s council, but their affair was soon discovered and Mabiog confronted them.

Not able to bear his wife’s unfaithfulness, Mabiog had the young chieftain executed and threw his wife out of the fortress, high on the hill that was home. He decreed that none should give her shelter and that she should be left to wander the land alone to make her own way or perish.

Summer turned to autumn, then winter and still she wandered, growing weaker and weaker, until one day she was seen no more. Mabiog, racked with guilt, sent forth search parties to find his wife, it was time to forgive her and take her back in. She could make a bed by the fire alongside his hunting dogs and eat the scraps from his table. But after weeks of searching there was still no sign of the woman so Mabiog set out to find her himself.

He found her in a field, her willowy form walking a league or so in front of him, but no matter how hard he tried he could not catch her up - she remained out of his reach in the distance.

And so they remain to this day, together yet apart - Mabiog close enough to keep his wife in sight but always too far way to ask for her forgiveness and make things right.

Not everybody sees Mabiog and his wife. They are there for all to see but most are simply too busy to notice them in their field – busy with themselves, after all there are always wars to fight, uprisings to put down, decrees to be made, and feasts to be held… if you want there to be.