Note (return) — Chapter VI
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Mabon, one of Arthur's heroes in Kulhwych and the Dream of Rhonabwy, whose name, from mab (map), means "a youth," may be one with the god Maponos equated with Apollo in Britain and Gaul, perhaps as a god of healing springs.444 His mother's name, Modron, is a local form of Matrona, a river-goddess and probably one of the mother-goddesses as her name implies. In the Triads Mabon is one of the three eminent prisoners of Prydein. To obtain his help in hunting the magic boar his prison must be found, and this is done by animals, in accordance with a Märchen formula, while the words spoken by them show the immense duration of his imprisonment—perhaps a hint of his immortality.445 But he was also said to have died and been buried at Nantlle,446 which, like Gloucester, the place of his prison, may have been a site of his widely extended cult.447