Bride's Norse equivalent is Frigg, whose married to Odin (he of the Ravens). Bran, in my view, is a male manifestation of Bride: in view of this, its easy to see how he'd end up as Odin (rather than Freyr). The question is: how did the Raven come to be called Bran?

Of course the fact that Odin is also a god of poets *may* rather undermine this...

> Bran means Raven...

In modern Welsh 'bran' means crow (not raven), but Robert Graves reckons the distinction between crows and ravens is a modern one. Can't argue with that.