Accused of murder, she was sentenced to be Pwyll's gatekeeper, bearing visitors to the door on her back; thus she was symbolically transformed into a horse. All ended happily when her son was found; Rhiannon had been falsely accused by maids who, terrified at finding the child absent, had smeared puppy blood on her face. Rhiannon was said to be the beautiful Goddess of Joy & Oblivion, as well as the Queen of Hell.
Taken
from the book "Goddesses and Heroines"
by Patricia Monahan.