The Goddess Sabrina: What Lies Beneath

In a time when history and myth walked hand in hand, King Locrin, ruler of the Britons, fathered three daughters - two he fathered by his first wife, Gwendolen, and one by his second wife, Estrildis. 

This third daughter, fair Sabrina (or Hafren, in Wales), was a princess of incredible beauty and grace. More than that, she was kind and clever, and could make even the sternest of her father’s courtiers laugh. She was beloved by her father and all his subjects.

But there was one who despised her. 

The once-Queen Gwendolen hated Sabrina’s mother for stealing her husband’s heart. She hated the king for casting her aside. And she hated Sabrina even more for her beauty, popularity and grace. While she lived, her own daughters would be forever in her shadow. While the King lived happily with his new wife and beautiful daughter, she was every day humiliated. 

It wouldn’t do. 

So, one day, Gwendolen raised an army in her Cornish homeland and rode north to take her revenge. 

King Locrin fought to defend his kingdom, his wife and daughter - but it wasn’t enough. Gwendolen’s army was stronger, and her army mowed down the army of the King until everything that had been his was hers.

Gwendolen had won. The King was dead. The kingdom belonged to her, and her daughters’ place in the world was restored.  

But it wasn’t enough. 

There was one brutal act of vengeance yet to take. 

In a cruel act of reprisal, Gwendolen ordered that young Sabrina and her mother be drowned in the deep waters of the river that flowed through Shrewsbury. 

Though the people begged her not to do it, and her soldiers faces grew grim at being ordered to commit such an act, she would hear no reason.

Before the mourning crowd and spiteful gaze of the Queen, mother and daughter were thrust into the water and drowned. 

In the wake of this tragic and cruel act, people chose not to let Sabrina be forgotten. They gave the river a name: Severn, for Sabrina. And in giving the river her name, they created something eternal; their own river goddess, winding her way across the land to become the longest river in Britain.

Today, you can see her everywhere. Her river cradles Shrewsbury in a loop, and she’s remembered in a statue in the Dingle, as well as in poetry and art - including the artwork on the box you’re looking at now - across the town. 

So, next time you’re walking near the banks of our beautiful river, spare a moment for Sabrina, the eternal princess of the Severn.