Dôn, the Welsh mother goddess, is the mystical descendant of the people of Cymru. A important and well known deity in the religion of the ancient Welsh, Dôn is considered Mother of the Universe, Queen of the Heavens as well as the Goddess of Sea and Air. Dôn’s name means “the depths of the sea” and “abyss,” and the seagull, a denizen of sea and sky, is this goddess’s familiar. Through researching this cosmic goddess, one may find various spellings and pronunciations of her name, including Don, Donn, and Domnu.

Although not much is known of the goddess Dôn, whose divine counterpart is the Irish Danu, it is known that her story came to light through the Mabinogian. The Mabinogian was first published by Lady Charlotte Guest in 1849, and contains various tales about Dôn’s royal children; Dôn herself does not take a central part with the stories. The Mabinogion’s most ancient recorded text is from about the year 1225. This tells us that by the time the tales were written into actual words they had been told and assimilated through both the Christian and Roman oral traditions. With her consort Beli Mawr, the goddess Dôn was the mother of five children: Arianrhod, Gwydion, Gilfaethwy, Govannon and Amaethon.

There are those of the Briton peoples that believe they are direct descendents of Dôn and her children. Among the ancient Welsh who worshipped Dôn, she was thanked for giving them the blessed gift of speech and the ability for metalworking. The Welsh also believed Dôn had the power to shapeshift and to change forms. The goddess Dôn’s name is pronounced like the word “tone” with a long sounding “o.” Today, we find the name Don preserved in our every day language. The words “donate” and “don,” as in when we “don” an item of clothing, are both an homage to the cosmic mother. Interestingly enough Don’s Irish name, Danu, is also preserved in the very name of the famous European river Danube.