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Bronwen is a character who appears exclusively in the Dragon's Lair TV series episode "The Girl from Crow's Wood." An almost exact physical look-alike of Princess Daphne, Bronwen is a kind pauper girl who lives happily with her parents in their village of Crow’s Wood. She looks forward to meeting the princess who is visiting Crow’s Wood to celebrate its festival. Her parents gift her with a comb and compliment her that she is just as pretty as the princess.

The evil Sybilla, who had long been held captive in a fortress by a wizard’s magic, learns of Bronwen’s uncanny physical resemblance to the Princess Daphne through her magical pet raven, who is able to travel freely and report back to the sorceress. From her raven, she also learns that Princess Daphne and Dirk the Daring visited Crow's Wood to celebrate the festival commemorating Sybilla's defeat by a wizard many years prior. Sybilla lures Bronwen to her by instructing her raven to steal the girl’s comb, resulting in Bronwen following the raven into Sybilla’s fortress. Using both her red gaze and an enchanted brooch, Sybilla hypnotizes Bronwen into impersonating Daphne and manipulating Dirk into stealing the Griffin's Stone, the only thing that would permit her to break free from her fortress prison.

Returning to Crow’s Wood under Sybilla’s spell, Brownwen meets a delighted Daphne and convinces her to switch identities to play a trick on Dirk and Timothy. Bronwen adorns Daphne’s crown and regal attire, then leads Dirk and Timothy on a quest to steal the Griffin's Stone, under the ruse of a rescue mission to save Rosemary, Daphne’s horse. Despite the real Daphne’s interference, the hypnotized Bronwen escapes with the Stone.

After returning the Griffin's Stone to Sybilla, the villainess grows larger in size, places a subservient Bronwen on her shoukder, flies out of the fortress, and returns to Crow's Wood. Dirk is able to defeat Sybilla by destroying the Griffin Stone, which presumably breaks her spell over Bronwen. As the heroes prepare to return home to King Ethelred’s castle, Bronwen and Daphne conspire to play another trick on Dirk, trying to confuse him as to which girl is the real princess.

Trivia[]

  • Bronwen’s name may be a reference to Welsh mythology and folk tradition. “Bronwen” or “Branwen” was the daughter of Llyr, the god of the sea, and appears in Welsh medieval literature as a tragic mistreated figure, later worshipped as the goddess of the moon and love and associated with birds.
  • Bronwen’s and Daphne’s shared character arc is obviously inspired by Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, aside from the twist of a hypnotic evil sorceress.

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