RE L I G I O N S AN C I ENT AND MOD ER N

TH E M Y T H OL O GY OF A N C IE N T

B R IT A IN AN D IR E L A N D
 R E L IG ION S : AN C IE NT AN D MO D E R N .

ANIM I S M .

By E D W AR D C LO DD Aut h or of TI n S t y of C ,
or rea lz on .

PAN TH E I S M .

By J A ME S ALL A NS O N P IC T O N A uth or of Tb ,
e R elzgz on
0

f tire
o

Um v e rse
I I O N S O F AN C I E N T C H IN A
.

TH E R E L G .

By Prof or G I L E S L L D Profe s sor of C h i n e s in th e U v r ty

0

es s . . e n i e si
.

of C ambr d g i e

TH E R E L I G I O N OF ANCI E N T G R E E C E
.

By J AN E HA RR I S O N Le ct r r t N wn h am Coll g C ambr dg
.

, u e a e e e, i e,

A t h or of P / g m t S t dy qf G k R lig
u ro e o en a o u re e e z on .

I S L AM
By A ME E R AL ' S Y E D M A C I E l t of H M H i gh Co r t
.
‘

, . . . . a e . . s u
of J d ic t r i Be g l A t h or of Th S pirit qfl l m a d TI
u a u e n n a , u e s a n n

E t / ucs ofIs la m .

MAG IC AN D F E T S I HI M
S .

By Dr A .C HA
D DO N ,. F R S L c tu re r o n E th ology at Cam
. . . . . e n

ri
b d ge Un ive rs it
TH E R E L G I ION F A NCI E N T E GY PT
By Profess or W M F L I ND E R S P e r ms F R S
.

TH E R E L I G I O N OF B A BY L O N I A AN D A S S Y R I A
. . , . . .

By T H E O PH I L US G P I NC H E S l t of t h e Bri t i h M e um
.

. , a e s us .

EAR L Y B U D D H I S M
By Prof ssor R HYS D AV l L L D late S e cre tary of Th e R oyal
.

e , .

As i t ic S oci e ty
a .

H IN D U I S M .

By D L D BAR NE TT of th e D partme n t of Ori ta l Pri te d

r. . .
, e en n
Boo k d M S S Bri t i h M
s an um s u se

S C AN D I NA V I A N R E L I G I O N
. . .

By W I LL I AM A CRA I GI E J oi t E d i tor of t h e O f d E gli h

.
, n x or n s
D ict xo n a

C E L T IC R E IG ION .

By Profe ssor AN W Y L Prof ss or of W e lsh at U iv rs i ty Colle g , e n e e,

A b rys twyth
e
TH E M YT H O L OGY O F ANCI E N T B R I TAI N AN D I R E LA N D
.

By C H AR L E S S ' U I R E A u t h or of Ti mMy t h l gy f t h B rz t i lz
.

, o o o e s
I l d
s an s.

J U DA I S M
By ISRAE L AB R A H A MS L e cture r i Talmud ic L i t r t r in , n e a u e
C amb ri d g U iv r i A u t h or of J w i h L if i 11 'Mid dle Ag
TH E R E L I G I O N O F t yN C IE N T R O M E
e n e s e s e n 2: t s.

By CYR I L B A I L E Y M A
.

S H I N TO TH E AN C I E N T RE L I G I O N O F J APAN
.
, .

By W G Asro rx C M O
. .

. .

TH E R E L I G I O N OF ANCI E N T M E ' I C O AN D P E R U
. . . .

By L e w rs S p e n ce M A
.

. . .

E AR L Y CH R I S T I AN I TY .

By S B S L AC K Pro f ss or t M G ill U iv rsi t

. . e a
'
n e y
TH E PS Y CH O L OG ICA L O R I G I N AN D N AT U R E OF R E
, .

L IG IO N By Pro f s or J H L E UBA
. e s . . .

TH E R E L I G I O N OF A NCI E N T PA L E S TI N E
By S TA NL E Y A C OO K
.

. .
TH E MY TH O L O G Y OF

AN C IE N T B R IT A IN

AN D IR E L A N D

By

C H A R L ES S ' U IR E
O OO O OO O O

‘
TR E M Y T H O L OG Y o r T H E m '
u r rs n TSL AN DS
’

L O ND O N

C O N ST A B L E 69
’
C O M PA N Y LTD
10 O R AN GE S TR EET L E IC ESTER S' U AR E
 FOREWORD

T H I S little book does not profess in any way to

su pplement the vol u me u pon Celtic R eligion
already contrib u ted to this series It merely aims
.

at calling the attention of the general reader to

the mythology of o u r own co u ntry that as yet ,

little known store of Celtic tradition which reflects

-

the religio u s conceptions of o ur earliest articu late

ancestors Natu rally its limits compel the writer
.
,

to dogmatise or at most to to u ch bu t very briefly

, , ,

u pon disp u ted points to ignore many fascinating

,

side iss u es and to refrain from p u tting forward

-
,

any s u ggestions of his own B u t he has based

.

his work u pon the stu dies of the leading Celtic

scholars and he believes that the reader may
,

safely accept it as in line with the latest re

search . C S . .
 CONTENTS
( H AP .

I TH E C E L Ts
. AN D TH IR
E MY T H O L O GY ,

I I TH E GODs
. OF TH E C NT I NE NTA
O L CE L Ts

III . TH E GODs OF TH E INS UL AR CE L Ts,

IV . TH E MY TH ICAI H I S T O R
. Y OF IR E L A N D,

V . TH E MY TH IOAL H I S T O R Y OF B R I TA I N,

VI . TH E H E ROIO CY C LE o r ANCI E NT UL S T E R,

V II . TH E F E N I A N, O R Oss IAN Ic, S AGAs,

V I I I TH E ART H UR I A N L E GEN D,
.

CH R O NO L OG ICA L S Y L L AE US ,

S EL E C T E D Bo o x s BE A R I NG ON C E L T IC MY T H O LOGY , 79
 TH E MY T H OL OGY OF AN CIE N T
BRITAIN AN D IR E L AND

CHAPTER I

TH E C E LTS AND TH E I R MY TH L GY O O
TH EMythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland
‘ ’
.

This title will possibly at first sight s u ggest to

the reader who has been bro u ght u p to consider
himself essentially an Anglo Saxon only a few -

dim memories of Tiw of WOde n of Th u nor , ,

( Thor ) and of Fr ig those Saxon deities who have

, ,

bequ eathed to u s the names of fo u r of the days of

o u r week
l
Yet the traces o f the E n glish gods are
.

comparatively few in Britain and are not fo u nd ,

at all in Ireland and at any rate they can be, , ,

better stu died in the Teu tonic cou ntries to which

they were native than in this remote ou tpost of
their infl u ence Preceding the Saxons in Britain
.

by many cent u ries were the Celts—the Ancient ‘

Britons — who themselves possessed a rich myth o

1
w e s d te g , W Od n e sd ee g , Th u n re s d ae g ( lat e r , Th u rre s d ae g) ,
an d F rige d ae g . p
S ee t e r( n ) e s d ae g is a d a t e d from t h e L at in ,
S a la m i d ies .

A
 MYTHOLOGY O F ANCIENT BRITAIN
logy the tr adition of which thou gh obsc u red has
, , ,

never been qu ite lost In s u ch famili ar nam e s as

.

‘
L u dgate called after a legendary good kin g
,
’ ‘

Lu d who was once the Celtic god Llfi dd ; in

’

pop u lar folk an d fairy tales ; in the stories of

Arth u r and his knights some of whom are bu t ,

British divinities in disg u ise ; and in certain of

the wilder legends of o u r early saints we have ,

fragments of the Celtic mythology handed down

ten acious ly by Englis hmen who had qu ite as
m u ch of the Celt as of the Saxon in their blood .

To what exten t the formerly prevalent belief

as to the practical extinction of the Celtic in
habitants of o u r is lands at the hands of the
Saxons has been reconsider e d of late years may
be j u dged from the dictu m of one of the most
recent stu dents of the s u bj ec t Mr Nicholson in , .
,

the preface to his Keltic R es ea r ches ‘

There is .
‘

good grou nd to believe he says that Lancashire

,
’

, ,

West Yorkshire S t aflo rd sh ire Worces tershire

'

, , ,

Warwickshire Leic e ste rshire Ru tland Cambridge

, , ,

shire Wiltshire Somerset and par t of S u ssex are

, , , ,

as Keltic as Perths hire and North M u ns ter ; tha t

Cheshire Shropshire He refordsh ire Monmou th
, , ,

Ke lt ic Resea rch e s : S tud ies in t he H is to r y an d Dis tribu t ion

f
o the A n cien t Goid elic L a n gua ge a n d Peop le ) , b y E d w ard
W illiam s B yron N ic h o ls o n M A Lo n d on , 1904
, . .
 THE CELTS AN D THEIR M YTHOLOGY
shire ,
Glo u cestershire D evon D orset North
, , ,

a m t o n s h ire H u ntingdonshire and Bedfordshire

p , ,

are more s o — and eq u al to North Wales and

Leinster ; while Bu ckinghamshire and Hertford
shire exceed even this degree and are on a level
with So u th Wales and Uls t er Cornwall of .
,

co u rse is more Keltic than any other En glish

,

co u nty and as m u ch so as Argyll Inverness

, ,

shire or Connau ght

,
I f these statements are
.
’

well fou nded Cel t and Teu ton m u st be very

,

equ ally woven into the fabric of the British

nation .

Bu t even the Celts themselves were no t the

first inhabitants of o u r islands Their earliest .

arrivals fo u nd men alre ady in po ssession We .

m e et with their relics in the long barrows and ‘

,
’

ded u ce from them a short dark long sku lled race , ,

-

of slight physiqu e and in a relatively low stage of

civilisation Its origin is u ncertain and so is all
.
,

we think we know of it and thou gh it m u st have

, ,

greatly infl u enced Aryan Celtic cu stom and myth -

,

it wo u ld be hard to pu t a finger definitely u pon

any po int where the two di fferent c u ltu res have
met and blended .

We know more abo u t its conqu erors Accord .

ing to the most generally accepted theory ,

there were two main streams of Aryan emigra

 MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN
tion from the Continen t into a non Aryan Britain -
,

bo th belonging to the same lingu istic branch of the

Indo E u ropean stock— the Celtic — bu t speaking
-

variant dialects of that to ngu e—Goidelic or Gae lic , ,

and Brythonic or British Of these the Goidels

,
.

were the earlier their first settlers having arrived

,

at some period between 1 000 and 5 00 B C while . .

,

the Brythons or B rit ten e s seem to have appeared

, ,

abo u t the th ird centu ry B C steadily encroaching . .

,

u pon and o u sting their forer u n ners With the .

Brythons m us t be considered the Be lgee who ,

made still later an ex tensive invasion of Sou thern

, ,

Bri tain bu t who s e em to have be en eventu ally

,

assimilated to or absorbed in the Brythons to

, , ,

whom they were at any rate lingu istically m u ch , ,

akin l
.In physiqu e as well as in langu age there , ,

was probably a di fference between the Brythons

and the Goidels the latter containing some a d ,

mixtu re o f the broad head ed stock of Central -

E u rope and it is thou ght also that the Goidels

,

m u st have become in cou rse of tim e modified by

admixtu re wi th the dark long sku lled non Aryan ,
- -

race . The Romans appear to have recognised

more than one type in Britain disting u ishing ,

between the inhabita nts of the coast regions

1
c
R h ys , Ce lt i B rit a in , 19 04 , an d R h ys an d B ryn mo r J -
on es ,

The Wels h Haw k , 1906 .

 THE CELTS AN D THEIR MYTHOL O GY
nearest to France who resembled the Gau ls and
, ,

the ru ddy haired large limbed natives of the

-
,
-

North who seemed to them more akin to the

,

Germans To these may be added certain people

.

of West Britain whose dark complexions and

,

c u rly hair cau sed Tacitu s to regard them as

immigrants from Spain and who probably belonged ,

either wholly or largely to the aboriginal stock 1

.

We have no records of the clash and co u nter

clash of savage warfare which m u st if this theory ,

be taken as correct have marked first the con , , ,

qu est o f the aborigines by the Goidels and ,

afterwards the displacement of the Goidels by

the later branches of the Celts Nor do we .

know when or how the Goidels crossed from

Britain to Ireland All that we can state with
.

approximate certainty is that at the time of the

Roman domination the Brythons were in posses
sion of all Britain so u th of the Tweed with the ,

exception of the extreme West while the Goidels ,

had most o f I reland the Isle of Man C u mberland

, , ,

North and So u th Wales Cornwall and Devon as , , ,

well as in the opinion of some au thorities the

, ,

West Highlands of Scotland the primitive dark

2
,

1
Ta c it u s , Agr icola , c h a x i p . .

2
It is , h ow e v e r , h e ld b y o t h e rs t h a t t h e Go id e ls of S co t lan d
d id n ot r e a c h t h a t co un t r y ( from Ir e la n d ) b e fore t h e h ris t ian C
e ra .
 M YTH O LOGY O F AN CIENT BRITAI N
race being still fou nd in certain portions of Ireland
and of West Bri tain and in Sc otland north of the
,

Grampian Hills .

I t is the beliefs traditions and legends of these

, ,

Goidels and Brythons and their more u nmix ed ,

d e scendants the modern G aels and Cymry which

, ,

make u p o u r mythology Nor is the stock of .

them by any means so scanty as the remo teness

and obsc u rity of the age in which they were still
vital will probably have led the reader to expect .

We can gather them from six different so u rce s

( 1 ) D e dications to Celtic divinities u pon altars
and votive t ablets large n u mbe rs of which have
,

been fou nd both on the Continent and in o u r

own islands ; ( 2 ) I rish Scottish and Welsh manu
, ,

scrip ts which tho u gh they date only from me di

,

ae val times contain copied from older doc u ments

, , ,

legends preserved from the pagan age ; ( 3 ) S o

called histories — notably that of Ge o flTe y of
Monmou th writte n in the twelfth centu ry
,

which consist largely of mythical matter dis

gu ised as a record of the ancient British kin gs ;
( 4) Early hagiology in which the myths of gods
,

of the p agan Goidels and Brythons have been

taken over by the eccles ias ts and fa thered u pon
the patron sain ts of the Ce ltic Chu rch ; ( 5) The
grou ndwork of British bardic tradi tion u pon
6
 THE CELTS AND THEIR MYTH O L O GY
which the Welsh Breton and Norman minstrels
, , ,

and follo wing them the romance writers of all

, ,
-

the more civilised Eu ropean co u ntries fo u nded

the Arth u rian cycle ; ( 6 ) And lastly u pon folk ,

tales which altho u gh bu t lately red u ced to

,

writing are probably as old or even older than

, , ,

any of the other so u rces .

A few lin e s m u st here be spared to show the

reader the natu re of the mediaeval manu scripts
j u st mentioned They consist of larger o r smaller
.

vellu m or parchment vol u mes in to which the ,

scribe of a great family or of a monas tery labori

o u sly copied wha t ever lore godly or worldly w as
, ,

deemed most worthy of perpet u ation They thu s .

contain very varied matter portions of the Bible ; -

lives of saints and works attrib u te d to them ;

genealogies and learned treatises ; as well as the
poems of the bards and the legends of tribal
heroes who ha d been the gods of an earlier age .

The most famo u s of them are in Irish t h e Books , ,

of the D u n Cow o f Leinster of Lecan of Bally

, , ,

mote and the Yellow Book of Lecan ; an d in

,

Welsh the s o called Fo u r Ancient Bo oks of

-

Wales — the Black Book of Carmarthen the ,

Book of Ane u rin the Book of Taliesin and the

, ,

Re d Bo ok of Hergest— toge t her with the White

Book of Rhydderch Taken as a whole th ey date
. ,
 MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BR I TAIN
from the beginning of the twelfth centu ry to the
end of the six teenth ; the oldest being the Book
of the Du n Cow the compiler of which died in
,

the year 1 1 06 Bu t m u ch of their s u bstance is

.

far older — can indeed be proved to an t e da te the

, ,
-

seventh centu ry —while the mythical tale s and

poems m ust even at this earlier age have long
, ,

been traditional They preserve for u s in how

.
,

ever distorte d a form m u ch of the legendary lore

,

of the Celts .

The Irish man u scripts have s u ffered less sophis

t ica t io n than the We lsh I n them the gods still
.

appear as divine and the heroes as the pagans

they were ; while their Welsh congeners po s e as
k ings or kn ights or even as dignitaries of the
,

Christian Ch u rch Bu t the more primitive less

.
,

ad u lterated Irish myths can be bro u ght to throw

,

light u pon the Wels h and th u s their accretions

,

can be stripped from them till they appear in

their tru e gu ise In this way sc holarship is
.

grad u ally u nveiling a mythology whose appeal is

not merely to o ur patriotism In itself it is often
.

poetic and lofty and in its disgu ise of Art h u rian

, ,

roman ce it h as influ enced modern art and lite ra

,

t u re only less potently than that mighty inspira

tion — the mythology of Ancient Gree ce .

8
 CHAPTER II

O
TH E G D S OF TH E C O N TIN E N TAL C E L TS

B UT before approaching the myths of the Celts of

Great Britain and Ireland we m u st briefly glance
,

at the mythology of the Cel ts of Continental

E u rope that Gallia from which Goidels and
,

Brythons alike came From the point of view of

.

li teratu re the su bj ect is barren ; fo r whatever

mythical and heroic legends the Gau ls once had
have perished Bu t there have been brou ght to
.

light a ve ry large nu mber not only of dedicatory .

inscriptions to bu t also of statu es and h as reliefs

,
-

of the ancient gods of Gau l An d to a fford u s

, .
,

some cl u e amid their be wildering variety a certain ,

amo u nt of information is given u s by classic

writers especially by J u li u s Caesar in his Com
,

me n t arie s on the Gallic War .

He mentions five chief divinities of the Gau ls ,

apparently in th e order of their rep u ted power .

First of all he says they worship Merc u ry as

, , ,

inventor of the arts and patron of travellers and

9
 MYTHOLOGY O F ANCIENT BRITAI N
merchants . Next comes Apollo the divine ,

healer and he is followed by Min erva the teacher

, ,

of u sefu l trades by J u pi ter who ru les the sk y

, , ,

and by Mars the director of battles

,
l
This does .

not of co u rse mean that Cae sa r considered the

, ,

gods of the Gauls to be ex actly those of the

Romans bu t that imaginary beings represen t ed
as carrying o u t m u ch the same functio n s as the
Roman Merc u ry Apollo Minerva J u pi t er an d
, , , ,

Mars were worshipped by them In practice too .

, ,

the Romans readily assimila t ed the deities of

conqu ered peoples to their own ; hence it is that
in the inscriptions discovered in Ga u l and ind ee d ,

in o ur o wn is lands we fin d the names of Celtic

,

divinities preceded by those of the Roman gods

they were cons idered to resemble — as Mercu ri u s
Art aio s Apollo Gran n o s
,
Minerva Be lisama , ,

Ju piter S uce llo s and Mars Cam ulos

,
.

Modern discoveries qu i t e be ar o u t Caesar s ’

statement as to the im portance to the Ga u lis h

min d of the god whom he ca lled Merc u ry .

N u merou s place names attest it in modern

-

France Costly sta tu e s sto od in his honou r ;

.

one of massive silver was du g u p in the gardens

, ,

of the Lu xembo u rg while another made in bronze

, ,

by a Gre ek artist for the great te mple of the

D e B ella Ga llico , iv 1 7 . .

IO
THE G OD S OF THE CONTINENTAL CELTS
Arverni u pon the s u mmit of the Pu y d e DOme is ,

said to have stood a h u ndred and twenty feet

high and to have taken ten years to finish Yet
, .

i t wou ld seem to have been rather for the war god -

th at some at least of the warlike Gauls reserved

their chief worship The regard in which he was .

held is proved by two of his names or titles

Rigis amo s ( Most and AlbiOrix ( King
‘ ‘

of the M u ch hono u r too m u st have , ,

been paid to a Gau lish Apollo Gran n o s lord , ,

of healing waters from whom Aix la Chapelle ,

- -

( anciently called Aq u ae Gran n i) Grau x and Eau x ,

Graun n es in the Vosges and Granheim in Wur

, , ,

t e mb u rg took their names for we are told by

, ,

D ion Cass iu s that the Roman Emperor Car acalla

1

invoked him as the equ al of the better known -

A e sc ulapi u s and Serapis Another Gau lish .

‘
Apollo To u t iOrix ( Lord of the People ) has
,
’ ‘
‘ ’

won however a far wider if somewhat vicariou s

, , ,

fame Accidentally confo u nded with Theodoric

.

the Goth his mythical achievements are in all

, ,

probability responsible for the wilder legends

,

connecte d with that histo rical hero u nder his title

of D ietrich von Bern 2
.

Bu t the gods of the Continental Celts are being

1
lx x vn I5 . .

9
R h ys , H ibbe r t L e ct u r es for 18 86 , pp . 30 3 2
-
.

1 1
 MYTHOL O GY O F ANCIENT BRITAIN
trea te d in th is series far more competently than
1

is in the power of the present writer For his .

p u rpose and his readers the only Ga u lish deities

’

who need be noti ced here are some whose names

reappear in the written myths of o u r own Islands .

In the oldest Irish and Welsh man u scripts we

meet with personages whose names and attrib u te s
identify them wi th divini ties whom we know to
have been worshipped in the Celtic world abroad .

Ogrn a combines in G aelic mythology the char

ac t e rs of the god of eloq u ence and poetry and the

professional champion of his circle the T u ath s ,

D é Dan an n while a second centu ry Greek wri ter

,
-

called L u cian describe s a Gau lish Ogmios who , ,

tho u gh he was represented as armed with the clu b

and lion skin of Heracles was yet considered the
-
,

exponent of pers u asive sp e ech He was depicted as .

drawing men after h im by golden cords attached

from his tongu e to their ears and as the old ,
‘

’
man eloq u ent whose varied experience made his
,

w drds worth liste ning to he was shown as wrinkled

,

and bald Alto gether ( as a native ass u red

.

L u cian ) he tau ght that tr u e power resides in

,

wise words as m u ch as in do u ghty deeds a lesson ,

1
Celt ic R eligion , b y Prof e s s or E An w yl, t o W h om t h e wr it e r
.

p
h e r e t a k es t h e O por t un it y of gr a te fu lly a c k n ow le d gin g h is in
p
d e b te d n ess for v alu able h e l to w a r ds t h e m ak in g of t h is b oo k .

12
THE GOD S OF THE CONTINENTAL CELTS
not yet qu ite forgotten by the Celt In the .
1

Continental Lugu s whose name still clin gs to the

,

cities of Lyons Laon and Leyden all anciently

, , ,

called Lugudfmu m ( Lfi gu s s we may ‘ ’

Claim to see that important fig u re of the Goidelic

legends Lu g of the Long Hand

,
With the .

Ga ulish goddess Brigin d u of whom mention is ,

made in a dedicatory tablet fo u nd at Volnay ,

near Beau ne we may connect Brigit the Irish

, ,

Minerva or Vesta who passed down into saint

ship as Saint Bridget The war god C am ulos
2
.
-

is possibly fou nd in Ireland as C u mhal ( Coa l) ,

father of the famo u s Firm ; in B elin u s an apo cry ,

phal British king who reappears in romance as

Balin of the Morte Da r th wr we probably have the ,

Gau lish Bé lé n o s whom the Latin writer A u soniu s

,

mentions as a s u n god served by Dru ids ; while

-

Mapcn o s identified by the Romans with Apollo

, ,

we find in th e Welsh stories as Mabon son of

Mo dro n ( M atr o na ) a companion of Arth u r
, .

I t is by a cu riou s irony that we m u st now look

for the stories of Celtic gods to two islands once
considered so remote and u ncivilised as hardly
to belong to the Celtic world at all .

1
R h ys , H ibbe r t L e ctu r es , 13 2 0 pp .
-
.

2
CRmtIIu s s e e m s t o h a v e b e e n a mor e im or t a n t go d t h an h is
‘

p
R om an e q u at io n w it h M a r s ( p
1 0) s u gge s t s. Profe s s or R h ys .

ca lls h im a M ar s J u it e r Cf
‘ -
p’
. .pp
2 1 , an d 6 3 of t his b oo k
.
-
.

1 3
 CHAPTER III

TH E GO DS OF TH E I N S UL AR C E LTS

IT wo u ld be impossible in so small a space as we

,

can afford to mention all or indeed any bu t a

, ,

fe w of the swarming deities of ancient Bri tain

,

and Ireland most of them in all probability

, , ,

extremely local in their natu re The best we .

can do is to look for a fixed point and this we ,

find in certain gods whose names and attribu tes

are very largely common to both the Goidels and
the Brythons In the old Gaelic literatu re they
.

are called the Tu at h a D é Dan an n ( To otth a da e

( le m m a) the Tribe of the Goddess Danu and
‘ ’
, ,

in t h e Welsh docu ments the Children of DOn

,
‘ ’

and the Children of Ll yr .

’

Danu — o r Don u as the name is sometim es

,

spelt —s e ems to have b e en considered by the

Goidels as the ancestress of the gods who collee ,

t ive ly took their title from her We also fin d .

mention of another ancient female deity of some

I4
 THE GODS OF T HE INSULAR CELTS
what similar name An u or An a worshipped in , ,

M u nster as a goddess of prosperity and abu n

dance who was likewise de scribed as the mother
l
,

of the Irish Pantheon — J Well she u sed to cherish

the gods wrote a commentator on a ninth centu ry

,
’
-

Irish glossa ry 2
T u rning to the British myt h o
.

logy we find that some of the principal figu res

,

in what seems to be its oldest stratu m are called

sons or dau ghters of D On : Gwydion son of DOD ;
Go van n o n son of D o n ; Ari anrod dau ghter of
DOn . Bu t Arianrod is als o te rmed the dau ghter
of Be li which makes it reasonably probable that
,

Beli who otherwise appears as a mythical king

,

of the Brythons was considered to be DOn s ,

’

consort His Gaelic co u nt e rpart is perhaps Bile

.
,

the ancestor of the Milesians the first Celtic ,

settlers in Ireland and thou gh Bilé is nowhere ,

connected with D anu in the scattered myths

which have come down to u s the analogy is ,

Su ggestive Bilé and Beli seem to represent

.

on Gaelic and Bri tish soil respectively the Dis

Pater from whom Caesar tells u s the Gau ls
3

believed themselves to be descended the two ,

1
Coir An ma n n Th e Ch i e .
‘
a es o c of N m
T an s la t e d b y Dr
.
’
r .

W i o
h t le y S t k e s in Ir is clt e Te x te .

2 Corm ca s Gl ssa ry
’
o .
’
r
T an s la t e d b y O D o n o van an d e d it e d
o
by S t k e s .

D e B ella Ga lli , vi 1 8 co . .

IS
 MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIEN T BRITAIN
shado wy pairs Bile and Danu Beli and D OD
, , ,

standing for the divin e Father and Mother alik e

of gods and men .

Ll y r the head of the other family appears in

, ,

Gaelic myths as Lé r (gen Lir) bo th names pro .

,

bably mean ing the Sea Tho ugh ranked among .

’

the Tu at h a Dé D an an n L ér seems to descend ,

from a different line and plays little part in the ,

stories of the earlier history of the Irish gods ,

tho u gh he is prominent in what are perhaps

equ ally ancient legends concerning Finn and the
Fenians On the other hand there are details
.
,

concerning the British Ll yr which su gge st that

he may have been borrowed by the Brythons
from the Goidels His wife is c alled Iw e rydd .

( Ireland ) and he himself,

is term e d Ll y r Lle dia it h ,

i e L1yr of the Half Tong u e which is s u pposed

’
‘ -
. .
,

to mean that his langu age co uld be bu t imper

fe c tly u nderstood He gave i ts name to Leices ter
.
,

originally Ll yr cestre called in Welsh Caer Lyr

-
, ,

while th rou gh Ge o fire y of Monmo u th he has

, ,

’
become Shakespeare s King Lear and is fo u nd ‘
,
’

in hagiology as the head of the first of the

‘
T h ree Chief Holy Families of the Isle of
Bri tain .
’

Bo th Ler and Lly r are however better known , ,

to mythology by their sons than from their own

16
 THE G OD S OF THE I NSU LAR CEL TS
exploits We find the Gaelic Bron mac Lir and
.

Man an n a n mac Lir paralleling the British Bran

ab Lly r an d Manawyddan ab Lly r O f the Irish .

Bron we know nothing except that he gave his ,

name to a pl ace called Mag B ro n Bron s Plain ’

bu t B ran is one o f the most clearly o u tlined

fig u res in the Brythonic mythology He is re pre .

sented as of gigantic si z e — no ho u se or sh ip w h ich

'

was ever made co u ld contain him in it —and ,

when he laid himself down across a river an ,

army cou ld march over him as tho ugh u pon a

bridge He was the patron of minstrelsy an d
.

bardism and claimed according to a mediaeval

, ,

poem pu t in to the mo u th of the sixth centu ry

1 -

Welsh poet Taliesin to h e himself a bard a , ,

harper a player u pon the cr ibth an d seven score

, ,

other m u sicians all at once He is a king in .

Hades with whom the sons of D OD fight to obtain

the treasu res of the Under world an d para do x i , ,

cally eno u gh has pas sed d o wn into ecclesiastical

,

legend as the Blessed Bran who bro ught Chris

‘
,
’

t ian it y from Rome to Britain .

Tu rning to the brothers of Bron and Br an it i ,

is of the Irish god this time that we have the

fu llest accou nt Manann an mac Lir has always
.

1 ‘
B oo k of Talie s in ,
’
p o m lv iii
e x .
, in S k e n
’
e a F o u r A n cien t
B oo ks of Wa les , vo l . i
. p . 2 97 .

B I7
 M YTH O LOGY O F ANCIENT BR I TAIN
be en one of the most vivid of the figu res of the
Tu ath a D é Dan an n Clad in his invu lnerable m ail
.
,

with j ewelled helm et which flashed like the su n ,

robed in h is cloak of invisibility woven from the

fleeces of the flocks of Paradise and girt with his ,

swo rd Retaliator which never failed to slay ;

‘ ’

whether riding u po n his h o rs e S ple n did Mane ‘

,
’

which went swift as the spring wind over land or

sea or voyaging in his bo at Wave Sweeper which
,
-
,
’

needed neither sail nor oar nor ru dder he pre ,

sents as striking a pictu re as can be fou nd in any

mythology The especial patron of sailors he was
.
,

’
in voked by them as The Lord of Headlands
‘
,

while the merchants claim e d that he w as t h e

fo u nder of their gu ild He was connected es pe ci
.

cally with the Isle of Man ; e u hemerising legend

asserts that he was its firs t kin g and his grave , ,

which is thirty yards long is still pointed o u t at

,

Peel Castle A c u riou s tradition credits him with

.

three legs and it is these limbs arranged like the

, ,

spokes of a wheel which appear on the arms of

,

the Island His British an alogu e Manawyddan

.
, ,

can be seen less clearly thro u gh the mis ts of

myth On the one hand he appe ars as a kind
.

of c u ltu re hero —hu nter craftsman and agricul

-
, ,

tu rist ; while on the other he is the enemy of

those gods who seem most be n e flce n t to man .

18
 THE GO D S O F THE INSULAR CELTS
O ne of his achievements was the b u ilding in the ,

penins u la of Gower of the Fortress of Oe th and

,

An n o e th which is described as a gr u esome prison

,

made of h u man bones ; and in it he is said to

have incarcerated no le ss a person than the
famou s Arth u r .

Whether or not we may take the children of

Lly r to have been gods of the sea we can hardly ,

go wrong in considering the children of D o n as

having come to be regarded as deities of the sky .

Constellations bore their names — Cas smpe ia s ’

’
Chair was called D o n s Co u rt ( L lys Don ) the ,

Northern Crown Arian ro d s Castle ( Ca er Aria/n

,
’

ro d ) and the Milky 'Vay the Castle of Gwydion

, ,

( C a
t er G w yd ion ) Taken
. as a whole they d o not ,

p resent s u ch close analogies to the Irish Tu a t h a

D é D an an n as do the Children of Llyr Never .

t h e le s s there are striking parallels extending to

,

what wo u ld seem to have been some of the

greatest of their gods In Irish myth we find
.

Nu ad a Arge tlam and in British N udd or Ll udd

, , ,

Lla w E re in t both epithets having the same mean

,

’
ing of the Silver Hand What it signified we
‘
.

do not know ; in Irish literatu re there is a lame

story to acco u nt for it ( see p bu t if there
.

was a kin dred British version it has be en lost .

Bu t the attrib u tes of both Nu ada and N udd

19
 MYTHOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BRITAIN

( Ll udd ) show them as the kind of deity whom

the Romans wo u ld have equ ated with their
J u piter Nu ad a ru les over the Tu a th a D é
.

Dan an n while Ll udd or N udd appears as a

, , ,

mythical British king who changed the name ,

of his favou ri te city from Trin o van t u m ( Ge o flre y s ’ ’

New Troy ) to Caer L u dd w hich afterwards be

’
,

came London He is said to have bee n bu ried at

.

Lu dga t e a legend which we may perhaps connect

,

with th e tradition that a temple of the Bri tons

formerly occ u pied the site of St Pa u l s However .
’
.

th is may be we know that he was wors hipped

,

at Lydney in Glo u cestershire for the r u ins of ,

his sanct u ary have been discovered the re with ,

varied in scriptions to him as DE V O N ODE NTI D M ,

. .

N o n o x r r and D E O N UD E NTE M as well as a small

,
.
,

plaq u e of bronze probably represe nti n g him , ,

which shows u s a yo u thfu l figure with head ,

s u rro u nded by solar rays standing in a fo u r horse ,

-

chariot and attended by two winged genii and

,

’
two Tritons 1
The M of the inscription m ay
.
‘

have read in fu ll M AGN O MA' IM O or more pro , , ,

bably M AR TI which w o u ld be the Roman or

2
, , ,

Romano British wa y of d e scribing the god as the

-
,

1
A mon ograp h on th e s ub e j ct , en t it le d R oma n An t iq u it ies
at L yd n ey Pa rk, Glou c es tershire , b y t h e R e v . W H Ba t h ur st
. .
,

p
w as u blis h e d in 1 8 7 9 .

7
Profe s so r R h ys , fo llow in g Dr H u b n e r . .

20
 THE GO D S OF THE INS ULAR CELTS
warrior he appears as in Irish legend With .

him thou gh not necessarily as his consort we

, ,

m u st rank a goddess of war whose name M o rrigu ,

( the Great attests her importance

‘
,

and who may ha ve been the sa me as Macha

Badb ( Carrion and Nemon
‘

whose name s u ggests comparison

with the British N emet on a a war goddess to
l
,
-

whom an inscription h as been fo u nd at Bath .

The wife of Lludd however in Welsh myth is , ,

called Gwyar bu t he r name also implies fighting

, ,

for it means gore 2

The children of both the
‘
.
’

Gaelic and the British god play noteworthy par t s

in Celtic legend Tadg ( Teagu e ) son of Nu ada
.
, ,

was the grandfather u pon his mother s side of ,

’

the famo u s Finn mac Cou l G wyn son of N udd .

, ,

originally a deity of the Underworld has passed ,

down into living folk lore as king of the Tylw ytiz -

Teg the Welsh fairies

,
.

Another of the sons of D o n whom we als o fin d

in the ranks of the Tu at h a D é D an an n is the
god of Smith craft Go van n in Irish Goibniu
n o -
3
, ,

(g e n G o i
.b n e n n
) The Gaelic deity
. appears in
1
Th e t w o are id e n t i fi e d b y t h F re ch s ch o l r M
e n a , . Gaid o z ,
bu t t h e o
e q u at i n is n ot e ve r yw h e r e u p h e ld .

2
Rh ys , S t ud ies in t h e Arth ur ia n L ege n d , p . 16 9 .

3 A ls oc
a lle d in e ls h ,
‘
W
Go vyn io n H an
’
. 11 61; me a n s
’

Th e
An c ie n t ’
.

2 1
 MYTHOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BRI TAIN
mythical literat u re as the forger of the weapons
of h is divine companions and the brewer of an
ale of im mortality ; and in folk tales as the -

Gob b an S aer the fairy architect to whom pop u lar

,

fancy has attrib u ted the ro u nd towers and the

early ch u rches of Ireland Of his British analogu e
.

we know less bu t he is fou nd in company with

, ,

his brother Amaethon the god of H u sbandry

, ,

engaging in a wonderfu l feat of agricu ltu re at

the bidding of Arth u r .

B u t greater than any of the other sons of

,

D o n wo u ld seem to have been Gwydion who ,

appea rs in Britis h myth as a C u lt u re Hero the ‘

-
,
’

te ac her of arts an d giver of gifts to his fellows .

His name and attrib u tes have caus ed more than

one leading mythologist to conj ecture whether
he may not have been identical with a still
grea ter fig u re the Teu tonic Woden or Od in
, , .

Professor Rhys especially has dra wn in his

, , ,

H ibbert L ectu res ( 1 8 8 6 ) on Celtic Heathendom ,

a remarkable series of parallels between the two

characters as they are figu red respectively in Celtic
,

and Te u tonic myth 1

. Both were alike pre
eminent in war craft and in the ar ts of story
-

telling poetry and magic an d bo th gained throu gh

, , ,

painful experiences the lore w hich they placed

Pp 2 82 304
.
-
.

2 2
 THE GO D S OF THE INSULAR CELTS
at the service of mankin d This is represen ted
on the Ce ltic side by the poetical ins piration
which Gwydion acqu ired throu gh his su fferings
wh ile in the power of the gods of Hades and ,

in Te u tonic story by two dra ughts of wisdom ,

one which Woden obtain e d by gu ile from Gu nd

fled dau ghter of the giant S u pt u n g and another
, ,

which he co u ld only get by pledging one of his

eyes to its owner S o kk mimi the Giant of the -
,

Abyss Each was born of a mysteriou s little

.
,

known father and mother ; each had a love whose

name was associated with a symboli c wheel who ,

po s ed as a maiden and was furio u sly indignant at

the bir t h of her children ; and each lost his so n 1

in a cu riou sly similar fashion and sou ght for ,

him sorrowfully to bring him back to the world .

St ill more stri k ing are the strange myths which

tell how each of them co uld create h u man o u t
of vegetable life ; Woden made a man and a
woman o u t of tr e es while Gwydion enchanted
,
‘

a woman from blossoms as a bride for Lle u ’

on whom his u nnat u ral mother had laid a ‘

destiny that he sho u ld never have a wife of

’

the people of this earth Bu t the equ ation .

,

fascinating tho u gh it is is m u ch disco u nted ,

by the fact that the only traces we find of

Bu t se e n ot e 2 on followin g p age .

2 3
 MYTH O LOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAI N
Gwydion in Brita in are a few stories connected
with certain pl ace names in the Welsh co u nties
-

of Carnarvonshire and Merionethshire This .

wo u ld s ee m to s u ggest that like so man y of ,

the divine fi gu res of the Celts his fame was ,

merely a local one and that he is more likely to

,

have been simply the lord of Mona and Arvon ‘

,
’

as a Welsh bard calls h im than so great a deity ,

as the Te u tonic god he at firs t sight seems to

rese mble His n e arest Celtic equ ivalen ts we may
.

find in the Gau lish Ogm ios figu red as a Heracles

‘

who won his way by pers u asion rather than by

force and the Gaelic Ogma at once champion
, ,

of the T u ath s Dé D an an n god of Literat u re and ,

Eloqu ence and inventor of the ogam alphabet

, .

I t is another of the family of D o n — Arianr o d ,

the goddess of the constellation Co rona Borealis ,

’

to which she sometime gave her name which ,

was pop u larly interpreted as Silver Wh ee l l ‘

,
’

who appears in con nection with Gwydion as

the mother of Lle u or Llew depicted as the , ,

helper of his u ncles G wydion and Am aethon

2
, ,

Th e form A rian rod , in ea rlie r W e ls h Aran ro t ma y h a ve be e n

,

e volve d b y pp
o u la r e t ymology u n d e r t h e in fl u e n ce of a r i n a

( s ilv e r ) .

3
L le u is om e t im es t reate d as t h e so n of Gw y dio n an d
s

Arian rod t h o u gh th e re is n o d ir e c t s t a te m e n t t o t h is e ffe ct in

,

W e ls h lite r at u r an d t h e po in t h as b
e , la b or ate d b y Prof ss or
een e e

R h ys main ly o n t h e a alo gy of im ila r C lt ic m y t h s

n s Th e fa c t
e .
,

2 4
 THE G OD S O F THE INSULAR CELTS
in their battles against the powers of the Under
world Llew s epithet is L la w Gyfies ie Of the
’ '

f
. .
,

Firm Hand with which we may compare that

,
’

of L cimfa da ( Of the Long Hand borne by the

‘

Goidelic deity L u gh or Lu g This tempts u s ,

.

to regard the two mythical figu res as identical ,

equ ating Lle u ( Llew) also with the Gaulish

Lug u s There are however considerable diffi
.
, ,

cu lt ies in the way Phonologically the word .

,

L le u or Lle w cannot be the exac t equ ivalent

of I/ tigu s while the restricted character of the
,

place names and legends connected with Lle u

-

as a mythic figu re mark him as belonging to

m u ch the same circle of local tradition as Gwydion .

Nor do we know enou gh abou t Lle u to be able

to make any large comparison between him an d
the Irish Lu g They are alike in the meaning
.

of their epithets in their rapid growth after birth

, ,

and in their helping the more be n e fi ce n t gods

against their enemies Bu t any su ch details are .

wanting with regard to Lleu as those which make

t h e Irish god so clear cu t and pictu resqu e a -

figu re S u ch was the radiance of L u g s face that ’

h ow v r t h t Lle u is fo n d in ge n e logie s as Lo u h é ( Lo u H e )
e e ,
a u a n ,

s n of G u it gé ( t h e
o Gw y d ye n of t h e B oo k of An e u r in an d t h e
B oo k of Ta li s in ) e e m s t o sh ow t h at t h e id a w as n o t a b s olu t e ly
e , s e

u f a m ili r t o t h e W e ls h
n a F o r a o t h e r s id e of t h q u es t io n s e e
. n e

c h ap ii of The Wel h Peop le ( R h ys a d Bryn mo r J on e s )

. . s n -
.

2 5
 MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN
i t seemed lik e the s un and none cou ld gaze ,

ste adily at it He was the acknowledged m aster

.

of all arts both of war and of peace Am ong

, .

his po ssessions were a magic spear which slew

of itself and a b o u n d of most wonderfu l q u alities
,
.

His rod sling was seen in heaven as the rainbow

-

and the Milky Way was called Lu g s chain ‘ ’

.
’

First accep ted as the s u n god of the Goidels it is -

,

now more u su al to regard him as a personification

of fire There is however evidence to show that
.
, ,

a certain amo u nt of confu sion be t ween the two

great sou rces of light and heat is a not u nnat u ral
phenomenon of the myth making mind 1 -
.

This similarity in name title and attrib u tes , ,

between Bilé and Beli Dan u and D o n Le r and , ,

Lly r Bron and Br a n Manann an and Manawyddan

, , ,

N u ad a and N udd ( or Nemon and

Né mé ton a Go van n o n and Goibni u and
,
Lu g ,

and Lleu h as s u ggested to seve ral compe tent

s cholars that the Brythons r e ceived them from

the other branch of the Celts either by inherit

ance from the Goidels in Bri tain or by direct
borrowing from the Goidels of Ireland Bu t .

su ch a case has not yet been made ou t con ~

vin c in gly nor is it necessary in order to acco un t

,

Th e Rig V e d a , -
for in s t an ce , t e lls us t h at ‘
Agn i ( F ire ) is
S ti ry a ( th e S u n ) in t h e mor n r
in g, S u ya is A gn i a t n igh t .
’

2 6
 THE GODS OF THE I NSULAR CELTS
for similar names and myths among kindred
races of the same stock Whatever may be .

the explanation of their likeness these names ,

are after all bu t a few taken o u t of two long lists

, ,

of divine characters Natu rally too deities .

, ,

whose attribu tes are alike appear u nder different

names in the myths of the two branches of the
Celts Specialised gods co u ld have been b u t few
.

in type ; while their names might vary with

every tribe Some of these it may be interest
.

ing to compare briefly as we have already done ,

in the case of the British Gwydion and the Gaelic

Ogma The Irish Dagda whose name ( from an
,
,

earlier D ago dévo s) wo u ld seem to have meant the ,

‘
good god whose cau ldron called the Un dry
,
’

,
‘
,
’

fed all the races of the earth and who played ,

the seasons into being with his mystic harp may ,

be compared with D o n s brother the wise and ’

j u st M a th who is represented as a great magician

,

who teaches his lore to his nephew Gwydion .

Angu s one of the D agda s sons whose m u sic

,
’

cau sed all who heard to follow it and whose ,

kis ses became birds which s ang of love wo u ld ,

be as a divinity of the tender passion a co u nter

, ,

part o f D wyn or D wyn we n the British Ven u s

1
, , ,

1
Dwyn w e n me a n s t h e Ble s se d D w yn .
’
Th e c h urch of t h is

go d d e s s s a in t is L lan d d w yn in A n gle s e y
-
.

2 7
 M Y THOLOGY OF A NCIENT BRITAIN
who was even by the later Welsh bards hymn e d as
, ,

the sa int of love Brigit the D agda s dau ghte r

.
’

,
’

patroness of poetry may find her analogu e in

,

the Welsh Ke rrid we n the owner of a cau ldron

,
‘

of Inspiration and Science D iancecht ( Dia n ke t) .

’

the Goidelic god of Healing seems to have no

certain equ ivalent in Bry thonic myth b u t Mider , ,

a deity of the Underworld — tho u gh his nam e

wo u ld bring him rather in to lin e wi th the British
Me dyr who however appears in Welsh roman ce
, , ,

only as a wonderfu l marksman—may be here

considered in connection wi th Pwyll the hero ,

of a legendary cycle apparently loc al to Dyve d

( the Rom an province of D e me t ia and ro u ghly , , ,

sou th west Wales ) Pwyll who may perhaps re pre

-
.
,

sent the same god as the Arawn who is connected

with hi m in mythic roman ce appears as an ,

Underworld deity friendly with the children of

,

Llyr and opposed to the sons of D o n and with ,

him are gro u ped his wife Rhiannon ( in older ,

Celtic Rigan t on a or Great ' u een ) and his

,
‘ ’

son Pryd éri who s u cceed s hi s fa ther as king

,

of Annwn or An n wvn ( the British Other World) ,

j ointly with M anawyddan son of Ll y r He i

s .

represented as the antagoni st of Gwydion who is ,

eventu ally his conq u eror and slayer .

Bu t even t h e briefest acco u n t of the Celtic

2 8
 THE G O D S O F THE INSULAR CELTS
gods wo u ld be incomplete witho u t som e mention
of a second grou p of fig u res of British legend ,

some of whom may have owed their names

to history with which local myths became incor
,

po ra t e d These are the characters of early

.

Welsh tradition who appear afterwards as the

kings and knights and ladies of mediaeval Arth u r
ian romance There is Arth u r himself half god
.
, ,

half king with his q u een Gw e n h wyvar— who se

,

father Tennyson s Le o d ogran the King of

,
’ ‘
,

Ca me liard was the giant Ogyrvan patron and

’

, ,

perhaps originator of bardism — and Gwalchmai

and Me drawt who thou gh they are u su ally called
, ,

his nephews seem in older story to have been

,

considered his sons A greater figu re in some .

respects even than Arth u r m u st have been

Myrddin a mythical person age do u btless to be
,

disting u ished from his namesake the s u pposed

sixth centu ry bard to whom are attrib u ted the
-

poems in the Black Book of Carmarthen Promi .

nent too are Urien who sometimes appears as a

, , ,

powerfu l prince in North Britain and sometime s ,

as a deity with similar attribu tes to those of Br an ,

the son of Lly r and Kai who may have been ( as

, ,

seems likely from a passage in the Ma bin ogion

story of Kulh wch and Olwen ) a personification
‘ ’

of fire or the mortal Chieftain with whom tradi

,

2 9
 MYTH O LOGY OF ANCIEN T BRITAI N
tion h as as sociated Caer Gai in Merioneths hire
.

and Cai Hir in Glamorganshire Connect e d too .

, ,

by a loose thread w ith Arth u r s s t ory are the ’

figu res of what is thou ght to have been the

indepe ndant mythic cycle of March ( Kin g Mark ) ,

his q u een Essyllt ( Iseul t) and his nephew D rys tan

, ,

or Trys tan ( Sir Tris trem ) All thes e and many

, .
,

others seem to be inhabitants of an obsc u re

,

borderland where vanishing myth and do u btfu l

history have mingled .

The memory of this cycle has passed down into

living folk lore among the descendan ts of those
-

Brythons who fleeing from the Saxon conq u erors

, ,

fo u nd new homes u pon the other side of the

Eng lish Channel Little Britain h as j oined with
.

Great Britain in cherishing the fame of Arth u r ,

while Myrddin ( in Breton Mar z in ) described as , ,

the mas te r of all knowledge owner of all wealth , ,

and lord of Fairyland can on ly be the folk

,

lore representative o f a once gr e at deity These .

two stand o u t clearly ; while the other characters

of the Brython ic mythology have lost their in divi
d u alities to merge in to the nameless hosts of the
,

dwarfs ( R ow ed ) the fai ries ( Kor riga n ) and the

, ,

water sp iri ts ( Morga n ) of Bre ton pop u lar belief

-
.

30
 CHA PTER I V

TH E M Y TH ICAL H IS TORY o r IR E L AN D

A CCO RD I N G to the early monkish annalists who ,

so ught to n u llify the pagan traditions against

which they fo u ght by t u rning them into a pse u do
history Ireland was first inhabite d by a lady
,

named Cess air and her followers shortly after the ,

flood They describe her as a grand dau ghter of

.
-

Noah ; bu t it is more likely that she represented

a tribal goddess or divine an cestress of the
pre Celtic people in Ireland
-
l
Whoever she may .

have been her infl u ence was not lasting She

, .

perished with all her race leaving a free field to

, ,

her s u ccessors .

We say field with in tention ; for Ireland con

sisted then of only one plain treeless and grass ,

less bu t watered by three lakes and n ine rivers

, .

The race that su cceeded Ce ssair however soon , ,

set to work to remedy this Parth o lo n who .

,

c r ta in
R h ys , Celt i B i , Th ir d e d it i on p
, . 2 88 .

31
 MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN
landed wi th twenty fou r males and twenty fou r
-
-

females u pon the first of May ( the Celtic feas t of

enlarged the island to fou r plains
wi th seven new lakes The newcomers them .

selves also in crea s ed and m u ltiplied so that in ,

t hree centu ries their original forty eight members -

had become five tho u sand Bu t on the three .

,

h u ndredth anniversary of the ir coming an epi ,

demic sprang u p which annihilated them They .

gathered together u pon the original firs t created -

plain to die and the place of their fu neral is still

,

marked by the mo u nd of Tallaght near D u blin , .

Before these early colonists Ireland had been ,

inhabited by a race of demons or giants described ,

as monstrou s in siz e and hideo u s in shape many ,

of them being footle ss and ha ndless while others ,

h ad the heads of animals Their name F omor .

,

which means u nder wave and the ir descent

‘ 1
,
’

from a goddess named D omn u or the D eep ,

‘
,

seem to show them as a personification of the sea

waves To the Celtic mind the sea represen t ed
.

darkness and death and the F omo rach appear as

,

the antithesis of the b e n e fice n t gods of light and

life Parth o lo n and his people had to figh t them
.

for a foothold in Ireland and did so s u ccessfu lly , .

1
R h ys, H ibbe rt L e t u res , c p . 59 4 .

7
Ibid .
,
p . 5 98 .

32
 THE MYTH ICAL HIST O RY OF IRELAND
The next immigrants were less fortu nate The .

People of Nemed followed the Race of Parth o lo n ,

and added twelve new plains and fou r more lakes

to I reland Bu t after being scou rged by a similar
.
,

epidemic to that which had destroyed their fore

ru nners they fo u nd themselves at the mercy of
,

the Fo mo rach who ordered them to deliver u p as

,

trib u te two thirds of the children born to them in

-

every year In desperation they attacked the

.

stronghold of the giants u pon Tory Island o ff ,

the coast of D onegal and took it slaying Con an n , , ,

one of the Fomor Kings with many of his followers , .

Bu t More the other king terribly avenged this

, ,

defeat and the Ne me dian s red u ced to a handfu l

, ,

of thirty took ship and fled the co u ntry

,
.

A new race now came into possession and here ,

we seem to find o u rselves u pon historical grou nd ,

however u ncertain These were three tribes called .

Fir Domn wn n the Men of Domnu F ir Good win

’

, , ,

the Men of Gailioin and Fir B o lg the Men of

‘ ’
,
‘

Bolg e migrants according to the annalists from

,
’

, ,

Greece They are generally considered as having

.

represented to the Gaelic mind the pre Celtic -

inhabitants of Ireland and the fact that their ,

principal tribe was called the Men of D omn u ‘

su ggests that the Fo mo rach who are called Gods ,

of Domn u may have been the divinities of their

,
’

C 33
 M Y THOLOG Y OF ANC I ENT BR I TAIN
worship At any rate we never find them in con
.
,

flict l ike the other races with the gigantic and

, ,

demon iac powers On the contrary they them

.
,

selv e s an d the F o mo ra ch alike str u ggle against ,

and are conqu ered by the next people to arrive ,

.

Th e se are the Tu ath a Dé D an an n in whom all ,

seriou s stu dents now recognis e the gods of the

Celts in Ireland and who as we have s een
, , ,

parallel the earlier divinities of the Celts in

Britain They are v ariou sly fabled to have come
.

from the sky or else from the north or the so u th

,

of the world Wherever they came from they

.
,

landed in Ireland u pon the sa me mystic First of

May bringin g with them their fou r chief treasu res
,

—Nu ad a s sword whose blow needed no s econd

’

, ,

L u gs living lance which req u ired no hand to ,

wield it in battle the D agda s cau ldron whose

,
’

s u pply of food never fail e d and the mysterio u s ,

‘
Stone of D estiny which wo u ld cry o u t with a
,
’

h u man voice to acclaim a rightfu l king This .

sto ne is said by some to be identical with o u r own

Co ron ation Stone at Westminster which was ’

brou ght from Scone by Edward L bu t it is more ,

probable that it still stands u pon the hill of Tara ,

where it was preserved as a kind of fetish by the

early kings of Irel and 1
They had not been long .

1
S e e The Coron at io n S to n e . A mo n ogr a p h by W . F Sken e. .

34
 THE M Y TH ICAL HISTOR Y OF IRELAN D
in occ u pation of the co u n try before their presen ce
was discover e d by the race in possession After .

some parleying and o ffers to partition the island ,

a battle known as that of Mo ytu ra—in Irish Mag

,

Tu irea d h Pl ain of the Pillars —was fo u ght near

'
,

Cong in Mayo in which the Tu ath s D é Dan an n

, ,

gained the victory Handin g over the province

.

of Connau ght to the conq u ered race they to ok ,

possession of the rest of Ireland fixing their ,

capital at the his toric Tara then called Dru mcain

, .

Their conqu est however still left them with a

, ,

powerfu l enemy to fac e for the F o mo rach were

,

by no means ready to accept their occu pation of

the so il Bu t the Tu a t h a Dé Dan an n thou ght to
.

find a means of conciliating those h o stile powers .

The ir own king Nua da had lost his right hand in

, ,

the battle of Moytu ra and altho u gh it had bee n

, ,

replaced by an art ifical one of silver he h ad , ,

according to the Ce ltic law which forbade a

blemished pe rson to sit u pon the throne bee n ,

obliged to reno u nce the so vereignty They there .

fore sent to E lat h an King o f the Fo mo rac h

, ,

invi ting his so n B ress to ally him self with them ,

and bec ome their ru ler This was agre e d to ; and

.

a marriage was made between Bress an d Brigit

the dau ghter of the D agda while Cian a son of , ,

D iancecht the god of Medicine wed ded E t h n iu , ,

3S
 MYTH O LOGY O F ANC I ENT BRITAIN
the dau ghter of a po werfu l prince of the Fo mo rach
na m e d Balor .

Bu t Bress soon showed himse lf in his tr u e

Fomorian colou rs He pu t exce ssive taxes u pon
.

his new s u bj e cts and seized for h im self the con

,

trol of all the n e cessities of life so that the pro u d ,

gods were forced to manu al labo u r to obtain food

and warmth Worse than this even — to the
.

Ga elic mind —h e b o ard ed all he got s pending ,

none of his wealth in free feas ts and p u blic enter

ta in me n ts B u t at last he pu t a perso nal affront
.

u pon C ai rb ré son of Ogma the principal bard of ,

the Tu at h a Dé D an an n who retorted wi th a ,

satire so scathin g that boils b roke o u t u pon i ts

victim s face Thu s Bres s him self became blem
’
.

is h e d and was obliged to abdicate and Nu ad a

, , ,

whose lost hand had meanwh ile been repla ced

by the spells and medicaments of a so n and
dau ghter of D iancecht came forward again to ,

take the Kingship Bress retu rned to his u nder

.

sea home and at a co u ncil of the F o mo rach it

, , ,

was d e cided to make war u pon the Tuat h a Dé

Danan u and drive them o u t of Irelan d
, .

Bu t now a mighty help was coming to the

gods From the marriage of D iancecht s son and
.
’

’
Balor s dau ghter was born a child call e d Lug who ,

s wiftly grew proficient in every branch of skill

36
 THE MYTH I CAL HISTOR Y OF IRE LAN D
and knowledge so that he be came known as the
,

Io ldan ach Master of all Arts

‘
He .
’

threw in his lot with his father s people and ’

organised the Tu at h a Dé D ananu for a great

str u ggle Incidentally too he obtained as a
.
, , ,

blood fin e for the m u rder of his father at the

-

hands of three grandsons of Ogma the principal ,

magic treas u res of the world The story of their .

q u est is told in the romance of The Fate of the ‘

Children of Tu ire an n one of the famo u s Three

,
’ ‘

Sorrowfu l Stories of Erin .

’
1

Thu s by the time the F o mo rach had com

,

p le t e d their seven years of preparation the Tu at h a ,

D é D an an n were also ready for battle Goibniu .

,

the god of Smithcraft had forged them magic ,

weapons while Diancecht the god of Medicine

, , ,

had made a magic well whose water healed the

wou nded and brou ght the slain to life Bu t this .

well was discovered by the spies of the F o mo rach ,

and a party of them went to it secretly and filled

it with stones .

Afte r a few des u ltory d u els the great fight ,

began on the plain of Carrowmore near Sligo , ,

the site no dou bt of some prehistoric battle the

, , ,

memorials of which still form the fin est collection

Tr an s la t e d by E u ge n e O Cu rry, d p u blish e d in vo l. iv of
'

1 an .

Atla n tis .

37
 M YTHO LOG Y O F ANC I ENT BR I TA I N
of ru de s tone mon u ments in the world wi th the ,

one e x ception of Carn ac 1

I t is called Mo yt u ra the
.

Northern —to distin gu ish it from the o ther Mag

Ta iread h fu rther to the so u th Great chiefs fell .

on either side Ogma kill e d In dec h the son o f

.
,

the goddess Do mn u while Balor the Fomor , ,

whose eye shot death slew Nu ad a the King of , ,

the Tu at h a Dé D an an n Bu t Lu g t u rned the .

fort u nes of the fray With a carefully prepared

.

magic sling stone b e blin d e d the terrible Balor

-

and at the fall of their principal champion the

, ,

F o mo rach lost heart and the T u ath s Dé Dan an n

,

drove them back headlong to the sea Bress .

him se lf was captu red and the ru le of the Gian ts

,

broken for ever .

Bu t the power of the Tu a t h a Dé D an an n w as

i tself on the wane They wo uld seem indeed to
.
, ,

have come to Ireland only to prepare the way for

men who were themselves iss u ant acc ording to
, ,

the u n iversal Ce ltic tradition from the same pro ,

genitor and co u ntry as the gods .

I n the Other World dwelt Bilé and I th deities ,

of the dead From their watch tower they co u ld

.
-

look over the earth and see its vario u s regions .

Till now they had not noti ced I reland —perhaps

on acco u nt of its slow and grad u al growth—bu t
1
F e rgu s so n , R ud e S ton e M o n umen ts , pp . 1 80, e tc.

38
 THE MYTHICAL HISTORY O F IRELAN D
at las t I th on a clear winter s night descried it
,
’

, .

F u ll of c u riosity he sta rted on a to u r of in spe c

,

tion and landed at the mou th of the Kenmare

River J ou rn e yin g northwards he came with
.
, ,

his followers u po n the Tu ath a Dé D an an n who

, ,

were in cou ncil at a spot nea r Londonderry still

called Grian an Aile ach to choose a new kin g .

Three sons of Ogma were the candidates—Mac

C u ill Mac Ce ch t and Mac Gr e ine
, , Unable to .

come to a decision the Tu at h a D é Danan u called

,

u pon the stranger to arbitrate He cou ld not or .

,

wo u ld not do so ; and indee d his whole attitu de

, , ,

seemed so su spicio u s that the gods decided to

kill him This they did b u t spared his followers
.
, ,

who ret u rned to their own cou ntry calling for ,

vengeance .

Mil e the son of Bilé was not slow in answering

, ,

their appeal He started for Ireland with his

.

eight sons and their followers and arrived there ,

u pon that same mysterio u s First of May on which

bo th Parth o lo n and the Tu at h a D é Danan u them

selves had first come to Ireland .

M archin g thr ou gh the co u ntry towards Tara ,

they met in su ccession three eponymou s god

desses of the cou ntry wives of Mac Cu ill Mac , ,

Ce ch t and Mac Gr e ine

, Their names were .

Banb a Fo tla and E rin Each in t u rn deman ded

, , .

39
 MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITA I N
of Ame rgin the dr u id of the Milesians —as these
,

first legendary Irish Celts are called — that in the ,

event of their s u ccess the island shou ld be called

,

after her Ame rgin promised it to them all bu t

.
, ,

as E rin asked last i t is her name ( in the genitive

,

case of Erinn which has su rvived The legend .

probably crystallizes what are said to have be en

the three first names of Ireland .

Soon they came to the capital and called the

Tuath a Dé D an an n to a parley After some dis .

cuss io n it was decided that as the Milesians were ,

to blame for not having made d ue declaration of

war before invading the co u ntry their prope r ,

cou rse was to retire to their ships and attempt

a fresh landing They anchored at nine green
.

waves dis tance from the shore and the Tu ath a

'
,

Dé D an an n ranged u pon the beach prepared

, ,

dr u idical spells to prevent their approaching

nearer .

Manann an son of the Sea waved his magic

, ,

mantle and shook an o ff shore wind straight into-

their teeth Bu t Ame rgin had powerfu l spells of

.

his own By incan tations which have come down

.

to u s and which are said to be the oldest Irish

,

li terary records h e propitiated both the Earth

,

and the Sea divinities more ancient and more

,

powerful than any anthropomorphic gods and in ,

40
 THE MYTHICAL H ISTOR Y OF IRE LAN D
the end a remnant o f the Milesians came safely
to shore in the estu ary of the Boyne .

In two su ccessive battles they defeated the

Tu ath a Dé Dananu whose three kings fell at the ,

hands of the three s u rviving sons of Mil e Dis .

heartened the gods yielded to the hardly less

,

divine ancestors of the Gaels A treaty of peace .

was however made with them by which in

, , , ,

retu rn for their s u rrender of the soil they were ,

to receive worship and sacrifice Thu s began .

religion in I reland .

Driven from u pper earth they sought for new ,

homes Some withdrew to a Weste rn Paradise

.

that Elysiu m o f the Celts called Avallon by

the Briton and by many poetic names by the
,

Gael . Others fo u nd safe seclu sion in u nder

gro u nd dwellin gs marked by barrows or hillocks .

From these std hc as they are c alled they took a

, ,

new name that of A es S idh e Race of the Fairy

, ,

Mou nds and it is by this title sometimes

,
’
,

shortened to The S idhe ( S h ee ) that the Irish

‘ ’

peasantry of to day call the fairies The banshee

-
.
‘ ’

of pop u lar story is none other than the bea n

sldh e the fairy woman the dethroned goddess
‘ ’
, ,

of the Goidelic mythology .

41
 CHAPTER V

TH E M Y TH IC AL H IS TOR Y o r B R TA I IN

‘
W H E N Britain fi rst at Heaven s command aros e
,
’

from o u t the az u re main her nam e w as Cla s ,

’
'

Myrdd in that is the Pl ace or Enclos u re of

, , , ,

Merlin In later days she became known as

.
,

‘
the Honey Isle of Beli 1
and it was not u ntil
,
’

safely occ u pied by mankind that she t ook her

present designation from Prydain son of Ae d d
, ,

the Great who first es tablished settle d govern

,

ment All this is told us by a Welsh Triad and

.
,

it is from s u ch fragmenta ry so u rces that we glean

the mythical history of o u r island .

Wi th thes e relics we m u st make what we can ;

for the work has not been done for u s in the
way tha t it was done by the mediaeval monkish
an n alists for I relan d We find o ur data scattered
throu gh old bardic poems and rom ances and in ,

pse u do hagiologies and hardly less apoc ryphal

-

1
Be li se e m s t o h a v e b e e n s om e t im es ass oc i te d
a in W e ls h
le ge n d w it h t h e s ea , w hic h w as c alle d t h e d r in k of Be li, an d
’

it s w a v es Be lis c a t t le
’ ’
.

42
 THE M Y TH I CAL HISTOR Y OF BR I TAIN
histories Yet witho u t perhaps u sing more free
.
,

dom with o u r mate rials than an early wri ter

wou ld have done we can piece them together
, ,

and find in them ro ughly the same s tory as that

of Ireland — the s u bj ugation of the land by friendly
god s for the s u bsequ ent u se of men .

The grea test b u lk of ancient Bri tish myth is

fo u nd in the Mabinogion— more correctly the Fo u r ,

Branches of the Mabin ogi These tal e s evidently

.

consist of fragments of varying myths pieced

together to make a cycle and Professor An wy has
,
l1

endeavou red with m u ch lea rning to trac e o u t and

dise ntangle the original legends Bu t in the form in .

which the Welsh wri ter has fixed them they show ,

a grad u al su persession of other deities by the gods

who more especially represent h u man cu lt u re .

The first of the Fo u r Branches deals with the

leading incidents in the life of Pwyll : how he
became a k ing in Annwn the Other World of ,

the Welsh ; how by a clever trick he won his

, ,

bride Rhiannon ; the birth of their son Prydéri ,

and his theft by mysteriou s powers ; the pu nish

ment incu rr e d by Rhiannon on the false charge
of having eaten him ; and his recovery and re ~

s to rat io n u pon the night of the First of May .

I n the second Branch we find Prydéri gro ,

p See a s e rie s of ar t icles in t h e Ze iwch ri

fl filr Celt icche Ph ilologie .

43
 M YTHOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BR I TAI N

up and married to a wife called Kicva as the ,

gu est of Brian son of Lly r at Harlech Math o lw ch

, , .
,

King of Ireland arrives wi th a fleet to re qu est

,

the hand of B ra n s sis ter Branwen of the Fair

’

Bosom . I t is granted and Bran wen sails to ,

Ireland Bu t later on news comes that she is

.
, ,

being badly treated by her h u sband and Bran ,

goes with an army to avenge her There is parley . ,

s u bmiss ion treachery and battle o u t of which

, , , ,

after the slau gh ter of all the Irish only seven ,

of Br ian s host remain —Pryd éri Manawyddan th e

’

, ,

bard Taliesin and fo u r others of less known mythic

,

fame Bra n himself is wo u nded in the foot wi th

.

a poisoned spear and in his agony orders th e

,

others to cu t o ff his head and carry it to the ‘

White Mo u nt in London by which Tower Hill ,

’

is believ e d to have be en mean t They were .

eighty seven years u pon the way cheered all the

-
,

while by the singin g of the Three Birds of

Rhiannon whose m u sic was so sweet that it wou ld
,

r e ca ll the dead to life and by the agree able con ,

versation of Brfin s severed head Bu t at las t

’
.

they reached the end of their j ou rney and b u ried ,

the head with i ts face tu rned towards Fran ce ,

watchin g th at no foreign foe ca me to Britain .

And here it reposed u ntil Arthu r disin terred it ,

ru in g in h is pride of hear t to hold th e islan d

, ,
‘

44
 THE MYTH I CAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN
otherwise than by valou r a rash act of which the ,
’

Saxon conqu est was the res u lt .

The third Mabin o gi recou nts the fu rther adve n

tu res of Manawyddan who m arried the apparently ,

old b u t no dou bt ever you th fu l Rhiannon mother

, , ,

of his friend Prydéri and of Pryd éri himself and ,

his wife Kicva D u ring their absence in I reland

.

their kinsmen had all b e en slain by Cas wallawn ,

a son of Beli and their kingdom taken from

,

them by the Children of D o n The fo u r fu gitives .

were compelled to live a homeless nomadic life ,

’
and it is the spiriting away by magic of ‘

Rhiannon and Pryd éri and their rec overy by the

craft of Manawyddan which forms the s u bj ect of
the tale .

’
With the fo u rth Branch the Children of D o n
come into a prominence which they keep to the
end They are sho wn as dwelling together at
.

Caer Dath yl an u nidentified spot in the mo u n

,

tains of Carnarvonshire and ru led over by M a th , ,

D o n s brother There are two chief incidents of

’
.

the story The first tells of the birth of the twin

.

so ns of Gwydion s sister Arianrod — D ylan appar

’

, ,

1
ently a marine deity who as soon as he was , ,

1
Profes s or Rh ys is in clin e d t o s ee in h im a de it y of Dar k
n ess , o pp
o s e d t o t h e god of L igh t , H ibbert L ect u r es , 38 7 p . .

S e e in t h is co n n e c t io n p 3 2 of t h e pr e se n t b oo k
. .

45
 M Y THOLOG Y OF ANCI ENT BRITAIN
bo rn disappeared in to the sea where he swam as
, ,

well as any fish and Lle u who was fos tered and
, ,

brou ght u p by Gwydion ; the rage of Ari anrod

when she fo u nd her intrigu e m ade p u blic and ,

her refu sal of n ame arms or a wife to her u n , ,

wish e d for son ; the craft by which Gwydion o b

-

ta in e d for him those three essenti als of a man s

’

life ; the infidelity of the damsel whom M a th and

Gwydion had created for Lle u by charms and ‘

ill u sion o u t of the blossoms of the oak and the ,

blossoms of the broom and the blossoms of the ,

meadow swee t and his enchantment into an

-
,
’

eagle by the c u nn ing of her lover ; the wander

ings of Gwydion in search of his protégé and his ,

eventu al recovery of him ; and the vengeance

taken by Lle u u pon the m an an d by Gwydion
upon the wo man The second relates the coming
.

of pigs to Britain as a gift from Arawn King ,

of Annwn to Pryd éri; their frau d u lent acqu isition

,

by Gwydion ; the war which followed the theft ;

and the death of Prydéri thro u gh the s u perior
strength and magic of the great son of D o n .

These Fo u r Branch e s of the Mabin ogi th u s

‘ ’

give a conse c u tive if incomplete history of some

, ,

of the most importan t of the Brythonic gods .

There are however other isolated legends from

, ,

which we can add to the information they a ffo rd .

46
 T HE MYTH ICAL H I STOR Y OF BR I TAIN
We learn more of the details of Gwydion s ’

stru ggles with his enemies I n his first atte mpts

.

he seems to have been u nfortu nate Trespassing .

u pon Hades he was ca u ght by Pwyll and Prydéri

, ,

and imprisoned in a mysteriou s island called Caer

Sidi It was the su fferings he end u red there which
.

made him a poet and any one who aspires to a

,

similar gift may try to gain it it is said by sleep

, ,

ing o u t either u pon the top of Cader Idris or

u nder the Black Stone of the Ardd u u pon the

side of Snowdon for from that night of terrors

,

he wi ll retu rn either inspired or mad .

Bu t G wydion escaped from his enemies and ,

we find him victorio u s in the strange conflict

called Ca d Godd e a the Battle of the Trees
,
‘
.
’

His brother Amaethon and his nephew Lleu

were with him and they fo u ght against Brain
,

and Arawn We learn from vario u s traditions

.

how the sons of D o n changed the forms of the

elementary trees and sedges into warriors ; how ’

Gwydion overcame the magic power of Br a n by

g u essing his name ; and how by the defeat of ,

the powers of the Underworld three boons were ,

won for man — the dog the deer and some bird
, ,

whose name is translated as lapwing .

’

Bu t now a fresh protagonist comes u pon the

scene — the famo u s Arth u r whose history and
,

47
 MYTHOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BRITAIN
even existe nce have bee n involv e d in so m u ch
dou bt The word Arth u r of which several vary
.
,

ing explanations have been attemp ted is now ,

held to have been originally Arté mu s a recog

'

n ise d La tin name fo u nd on inscriptions and as ,

Artfi/riu s in J u venal which wo u ld make him

,

a Roman ised Briton who like many others of ,

his period adopte d a La tin designation

, His .

political prominence impli e d not only by the

,

traditions which make him a s u preme war leader -

of the Bri tons bu t also by the fact that he is

,

described in a twelfth century We lsh MS as .

Empe ror ( a mhe rawd yr ) while his co n t e mpo r ,

ari e s however high in rank are only princes

, ,

(g w l eclig),
may be d u e as Profes sor Rhys has
,

sugges ted to his having filled after the with

1
, ,

d rawal of the Romans a position eq u ivalent to

,

their Comes B ritamn ia e Bu t his legendary fame

.

is hardly to be explain ed except u pon the s u p

position that the fabled exploits of a god or gods
pe rhaps of somewhat similar name have become
confo u nd e d with his own as seems to have also hap
,

pened in the case of D ietrich von Bern ( Th eodoric

the Go t h ) and the Gau lis h To u t iorix An in s crip .
.

tion has been fo u nd at Beau croissant in the valley ,

of the Isere to Merc uri u s Art aio s while the name

, ,

1 S tud ies in the Art h uria n L egen d , p . 7 .

48
 THE MYTH ICAL H ISTORY OF BR ITAI N
Artic appears elsewhere within the limits of
ancient Gau l as that of a goddess Th e se names
may have b e en derived from either o f two Celtic
roots a/r mean ing to plo u gh which wo uld su g
, ,
‘
,
’

gest a deity or deities of agricu ltu re or a rt , ,

signifyin g a bear as an animal worshipped at

,

some remote period in the history of the Celts

Probably we sh all never know exactly what
diverse local myths have been woven in to the
story of Arthu r b u t they wou ld do u btless be of
,

the kind u su ally attrib u ted to those divine bene

factors known as Cultu re Heroes and it is to
‘
,
’

be noted that in the earliest accou n ts we have

,

of him his charac ter and attribu tes are extremely

,

like those of another c u ltu re hero Gwydion son ,

of D on .

Like Gwydion he su ffered imprisonment at the

,

hands of his enemies He was for three nights .

‘

in the Castle of Oe th and An n o e th — the gr ue ’

some str u ctu re o f h u man bones b u il t by Mana

wydd an son of Ll y r in Gower and three nights
in the prison of Wen Pendr agon and three
1
,

nights in the dark prison u nder the stone a ,

’

Tri ad t ells u s Like Gwydion too he went pig

.
, ,

stealing bu t he was neither so l u cky nor so

,

1
Profe s s or An w y l s u gge s t s t h a t th is na me may h ave be e n
origin ally Ut h r Be n drago n , i e B an
. . r . Se e p 7 1. .

D 49
 M YTHOLOGY O F ANCIENT BR ITAIN
crafty as his predecessor When he had designs .

u pon the sw ine of March son of Me i rch io n ( the

‘
King Mark of the romances) which Trys tan
’

was herding he co u ld not get says another

, ,

Triad even one pig Bu t in the end he su c

,
.

ce e d e d wholly An old Welsh poem tells us of

.

his Spo iling of An nwn ( Pre iddeu An n w n ) and

‘ 1 ’
,

his captu re of the m agic cauldron of its King ,

thou gh like Br an himself when he went to

,

Ireland he br ou ght b ack with him from his ex

,

e dit io n only seven of the men who at start ing

p , ,

had been thrice enou gh to fill Pryd we n his ,

’

Bu t having accomplished this he seems to

, ,

have had the other and perhaps older gods at , ,

his feet Ll udd a ccording to Triads was one of

.
, ,

h is Three Chief War Knights and Arawn one of ,

his Three Chief Co u nselling Knigh ts In the .

story of the h u nting of the wild boar Twrch

Trwyt h a qu est in the co u rse of which he
,

acquired the Treas u res of Bri tain he is se rved

‘
,
’

not only by Amaethon and Go van n o n sons of ,

D o n b u t also by the same Manawyddan who had

,

b een his gaoler and ano ther whilom king in

Hades Gwyn so n of Nudd This tale like its
, .
,

sim ilar in Gaelic myth the Fate of the Children ,

1 ‘
B ook of Talies in p oe m x x x
,
’
, Sken e, vo l. i
. p . 2 56 .

50
 THE MYTH I CAL H I STOR Y OF BRITAIN
of Tu ire an n is a long one and the reader is
,
’

referred to L ady G u est s Ma bin ogion for the fu ll ’

story which a good j ud ge has acclaimed to be

, ,

‘
saving the finest tales of the Arabian Nights '
,
'

the greatest romantic fairy tale the world h as

’
ever kn own 1
The p u rsu it of wondrou s pigs
.

seems to have been an important featu re of

Arth u r s career ’
Be sides the boar Trwyth he
.
,

ass embled his hosts to capt u re a sow called Hen

wen which led him through the len gth of Wales
, .

Whereve r she went she dropped the germs of

wealth for Britain — three grains of wheat and
three bees a grain of barley a little pig and a
, , ,

grain of rye Bu t she left evils behind her as

.

well a wolf cu b and an eaglet which cau sed

,

trou ble afterwards as well as a kitten which grew

,

’
u p to be the Pal u g Cat famou s as o n e of the
‘
,

’
2
Three Plagu es of the Isle of Mona .

O f what may have been historical elements in

his s tory the Triads also take notice We learn
, .

how Arthu r and Me draw t raided each other s ’

cou rts d u ring the owner s absence and that the ’

battle of Camlan was one of the Three Frivolo u s

1Mr Alfr e d N u t t
.
, in his n o te s t o h is e dit ion ( 1902 ) of Lady
Gu e st s M a bin o gimz
’
.

9
Th is cr e a t u r e is als o m e n t io n e d in an Art h u r ia n poe m in
the t w e lft h c e n t u r y B lack Bo ok of a rmar t h e n C .

SI
 MYTHOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BRITA I N
’
Battles of Britain becau se d u ring it the two
,

antagonists thrice shared their forces and that ,

’
the u s u al Three alone escaped from it tho ugh
‘
,

Arth u r himself is in spite of the triadic co n ve n

,

tion added as a fo u rth

, .

So he vanishes passing to Avilion ( Avallon )

, ,

and the end of the divine age is also marked by

the similar departu re of his associate Myrddin or ,

Merlin to an island beyond the su nset aecom

, ,

an ie d by nine bards bearing with them those

p
wondro u s talismans the Thirteen Treas u res
, .

Britain was now ready for her Britons .

I n Gwlad yr H a v the Land of S u mmer a,

‘
-

name for the Brythonic O ther World — dwelt the

ancestors of the Cymry ru led over by a divine ,

hero called Hu Gadaru ( the and the ‘

time was ripe for their coming to o u r island .

Apparently we have a similar legend to

the story of the conqu est of Ireland from the
Tu ath a D é Danan u by the Milesians tho u gh ,

there is here no hint of fighting it be ing on , ,

the contrary state d in a Triad that Hu obtained

,

his dominion over Britain not by war and blood

sh ed bu t by j u stice and pe ace He instru cted
,
.

his p e ople in the art of agricu lt u re divided them ,

into fe derated tribes as a first step towards civil

gove rnment and laid the fo u ndations of lite rat u re
,

52
 THE MYTHICAL H I STORY O F BRITAIN
and his to ry by the institu tion of bardism He ,

u t a stop to disastro u s floods by dragging o u t of

p
the lake where it concealed itself the dragon like -

monster which cau s ed them and after the waters

, ,

had s u bsided he was the first to draw on British

,

soil a fu rro w with a plou gh Therefore he is

.

called the first of the Three National Pillars of

‘

the Isle of Britain the second being the Prydain

,
’

who gave her his name while the third was the
,

mythical legislator Dyvn wal Mo e lmu d who re ,

‘

d u ce d to a system th e laws c u stoms maxims and

, , ,

privileges appertaining to a cou ntry and nation .

’

53
 CHAPTE R VI

THE H ERO IC C Y C L E OF ANCI E N T ULS TE R

IN addition to the myths of the Tu at h a Dé

D anan u and the not less apocryphal stories of
,

her early Milesian kings Ireland has evolv e d

‘ ’

two heroic cycles The completest and in some

.
,

ways the most interesting of these deals with the

,

palmy days o fthe then Kingdom of Ulster d u ring

the reign of Conchobar ( Oo u a ha r ) Mac Nessa ,

whom the early annalists place at abo u t the begin

ning of the Christian era Bu t precise as this
.
,

statement so u nds and vividly as the Champions

of the Red Branch as King Co n ch o b ar s braves
,
’ ’

were called are depicted for u s by the story

,

tellers there is probably little if any fo u ndation

, , ,

of fact in their legends We may discern in their

.

genealogies and the stories of their births the

cl u e to their real natu re Their chief fig ures
.

draw descent from the Tu at h a D é Danan u and ,

are twice described in the oldest man u scripts as

54
 HER OIC CYCLE OF ANCIEN T ULSTER
’
‘
terrestrial go d s O ne may compare them with
th e divinely descended heroes of the Greeks .

The sagas or romances which make u p th e

, ,

Uls t er cycle are fo u nd mainly in three man u

scripts the Bo ok o f the Dun Cow and the Bo ok
,

of Le ins ter both of which date from the be gin

,

ning of the twelfth century and the Yellow Book ,

of Lec an assigned to the end of the fo urteenth

, .

The lon gest and most important of them is known

as the Td in B o Ch u a clgn e ( the Cattle Raid of
'
’
‘

Cooley ) the chief figu re of which is the famo u s

’

C u ch u lainn or Cu ch u llin the son of Co n ch o b ar s

, ,
’

sister D e ch tiré by Lu g of the Tu at h a D é Dan an n .

Cu ch u lainn in deed fort issimu s h eros S cot

, ,
f

to ru m is the real centre of the whole cycle

'
,
It .

is very dou btful whether he ever h ad actu al

existence His attrib u tes and adventu res are of
.

the type u s u ally recorded of what are called

‘
solar heroes Wh en in his full strength no
.
’

one co u ld look him in the face witho u t b linkin g .

The heat of his b ody mel ted snow and boiled

wa ter It was gels taboo to h im to behold the
.

sea The an tagonis ts whom he conqu ers are ofte n

.

s us piciou sly like mythologi cal person ificat ion s of

t h e dark shades of night .

He was first called Set e nta bu t it was while ,

he was s t ill qu i te a child that he ch an ged his

55
 MYTHOL O GY OF ANCI EN T BRITA I N
name to 0d Ch a la in n ( Ho u nd of Cu lan n ) as
‘ ’

the resu lt of an exploit in which he k illed the

watch dog of the chief smith of Ulster and after
-
,

wards acted as its su bstitu te u ntil another co u ld

be pr o c u red and train ed
Other stories of his yo u th tell how he ass u med
arms at the age of seven and slew t h ree ch ampio
,

who h ad set all the warriors of Uls ter at defiance ;

how he travelle d to Al ba ( Scotland ) to learn the
highest skill in arms from S cath ach the Warrior ,

Witch who gave her name to the Isle of Skye ;

how he carried o ff his bride Emer ( Ava ir) in the f

tee t h of a host ; and how by s u ccess in a series

,

of terrible t ests he gained the right to be called

,

Head Champion of U lster

-
.

B u t these isolated s agas are only external to

the real core of the cycle the TamB 6 Ch u a ilgn e
, .

This is the story of a war which the other fo u r

kin gdoms of Ireland — Meath M u ns ter Leins ter
, ,

and Conna u gh t—m ade u pon Ulster at the bidding

of Me db ( Ma in e ) the Am azon ' u een of the last
,
-

na med p rovince to ob tain possession of a magic

,

bu ll called The Brown of Cu algn e I ts in te rest .

li e s in no pro miscu o u s battles in which the de eds

of an in divid u al warrior are dwarfed by those of
his compeers For the mythic raid was u nder
.

taken a t a time when all Co n ch o bar s warriors ’

56
 HERO I C CY CLE OF ANC I ENT ULSTER
were lying u nder a strange m agic weakness which
incapacita ted them from fighting Anthropo .

lo gis ts tend to see in this mysteriou s in firmity a

distorted memory of the primitive c u stom of the
cou va d e and mythologists the helplessne ss of
,

the gods of vegetation and agricu ltu re d u ring the

winter while the storytellers attrib u te it to a
,

c urse once laid u pon Ulste r by the goddess Macha .

Bu t when the land seemed most at its enemy s

’

mercy the heroic C u ch u lainn who for some u n

, ,

explain e d reason was not s u bj ect to the same

incap acity as his fellow tribesmen stood u p to -

defend it single handed For three months he

-
.

held the marches against all comers fighting a ,

fresh champion every day and the story of the ,

Td én consists mainly of a long series of d u els in

f

which exponents of every savage art of war or

witchcraft are sent against h im —each to be de ,

feated in his t u rn Over this tremendou s stru ggle

.

hover the figu res of the Tu ath a D é D anan u .

Lu g C u chu lainn s divine father comes to heal his

’
, ,

son s wounds and the fierce M o rrigu qu ee n of

’

, ,

battle is moved to offer so u nrivalled a hero her

,

love A short lived pathos ill u mines th e story in

.
-

the tale of his combat with h is old friend and

sw o rn companion Ferdiad who dr ugged with
, , ,

love and win e had rashly pledged his word to

,

57
 M Y THOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BR I TAI N
take u p the standing challenge After a thre e .

days d u el d u ri n g which th e cou r t esies exchanged

’

betwe en the two combatan ts are not excelled in

any tale of mediaeval chivalry Cu chu lainn gives,

the death blo w to the foe who is still his friend

-
.

When he sees him at h is feet he b u rsts into ,

pass ionate lament .I t was all a game and a

‘

spo rt u ntil Ferdiad came ; the memory of this

day will be like a clo u d hangin g over me for ever .
’

Bu t the victory ende d his perilo us labo u rs ; for th e

men of Uls t er at las t shaking o ff their w e akness
, ,

came down and dispe rsed the ir enemies .

Other sto ries of the cycle tell of s u ch ep isodes

as C u ch u lainn s u nwitting slaying of his only so n
’

in single combat an old Aryan mo tif which we

,

fin d also in Te u tonic and Persian myth or h is ,

visit to the Celtic O ther World and his love ,

adventu re wi t h F and the deser t ed wife of Man

,

an n zin so n of Ler ; u n til at last the m ass of legends

which make u p a complete story of the hero s ’

caree r are closed with the tragedy of his dea th

u pon the pl ain of Mu irth e mn é .

I t was planned by Med b with the sons and

relations of th e chiefs whom Cu ch u lainn h ad
killed in battle an d no stone was left unturned to
,

compass his downfall T h ree witches who had

been to Alba and Babylon to learn all the sor cery
58
 HEROIC C Y CLE OF ANCIENT ULSTER
of the world deceive him with magic shows and ,

draw h im o u t alone into the open ; he is tricked

into breaking his ta boo by eating the flesh of a
dog —his name sake says the story bu t perhaps
-
, ,

also his to tem ; satirists demand his favo u rite

weapons threatening to lampoon his family if he
,

refu ses ; and th u s stripped of material an d su per

,

natu ral aid he is att acked by overwhelming

,

n u mbers Bu t tho u gh signs and porten ts an

.
,

no u nce his doom there is no shadow of chang

,
‘

ing in the hero s indomitable heart Wo u nded

’ ’
.

to the death he binds himself with his belt to a

,

pillar s t one so that he may die standing ; and

-
, ,

even after he has drawn his last breath his ,

sword falling from h is grasp chops off the hand

, ,

of the enemy who has come to take his head .

Out of the seven ty six stories of the Ulster -

cycle which have come down to u s no less than ,

sixteen are personal to Cu chu lainn Bu t the other .

heroes are not altogether forgotten tho ugh their ,

lists are comparatively short Most of these tales .

have been already translated and taken together , , ,

they form a narrative which is almost epic in its

1
completeness and interest .

A lis t of t h e t ale s , e x ta n t an d lo st , of t h e Ulst e r ycle w ill C

b e fo u n d a s A pp
e n d ix I of M iss E le an or H u ll s Cu ch ullin S a ga ,
.
’

L o n d on , 1 8 98 .

59
 M Y THOLO G Y O F ANC I ENT BRITA I N
Probably its gro wth w as gr ad u al and spread ,

over a considerable time Some of the redactors

.
,

too have evidently had a hand in recasting the

,

pagan myths of Uls ter for the p u rposes of

Christian e dificat io n We are told with startling
.

inconsiste ncy how C u ch u lainn going to his last ,

fight heard the angels hy mning in Heaven con

, ,

fessed the tru e faith and was cheered by the

,

certainty of salvation The Tragical D eath of

.
‘

Conchobar in the Book of the D un Cow rela tes

,
’

how that king died of wrath and sorrow at learn

ing of the Passion of Christ An other story from
.

the same sou rce enti tled The Phan tom Chariot
, ,
’

shows u s Cu ch u lainn conj u red from the dead by

,

S t Patrick testifying to the tru th of Christianity

.
,

before an Irish king Bu t s u ch interpo lations do

.

not affect the real matte r of th e cycle wh ich ,

presen t s us with a pictu re of the Celts of Ireland

at an age perhaps contemporary with Caesar s ’

invasion of her s ister isle of Bri tain .

 CHAPTER VII

THE F E N I AN , OR O S S I AN I C , S AGAS

TH E second of the two Gae lic h e ro ic cycles presents '

certain striking contrasts to the first I t depicts .

a q u ite di fferent stage of h u man cu ltu re ; for ,

while the Ulste r stories deal with chariot driving -

chiefs r u ling over settled comm u nities from forti

fie d d uns the Fenian sagas mirror u nder a faint
, ,

disgu ise the lives of nomad h u nters in primeval

,

woods The especial possession not of any one

.
,

tribal comm u nity bu t of the folk it is common

, ,

to the two Goidelic cou ntries be ing as native to ,

Scotland as to Ireland Moreover it has the

.
,

distinction u niqu e among early literatu res of

, ,

being still a living tradition So firmly rooted are .

the memories of Finn and his heroes in the minds

of the Gaelic peasantry that there is a proverb to
the e ffect that if the Fenians fo u nd that they had
not been spoken of for a day they wo uld rise ,

from the dead .

6 :
 M Y THOLOGY OF ANC I ENT BRITAIN
It may be well here to remove a few po ssible
misconceptions concerning these sagas and their
heroes The word Fenian in po p u lar parlance
.
‘

is applied to certain political agi tators of recent

no toriety B u t tho se Fen ians merely ass u med
.
‘ ’

their title from the tradition that the original

Fianna ( F EM ) were a band of patriots sworn to
the defence of I reland With regard too to the
.
, ,

second title of Ossianic which the romances and

poe ms which make u p the cycle bear i t m u st not ,

be taken that the Fenian hero Ossian w as their

au thor an idea perhaps su ggested by the prose
,

poem of James Mac Ph erso n which thou gh do u b t

, ,

less fo u nd e d u pon gen u ine Gaelic material w as

almost certainly that write r s own co mpo mt io n ’
.

Some of the poetical pieces are indeed rightly or , ,

wrongly attribu ted to Ossian as some are to Finn ,

himse lf bu t the bu lk of the poems and all the

,

prose tales are like the sagas of the Ulster cycle

, ,

by u nknown au thors A few of them are fo u nd

.

in the earliest Irish m an u scrip ts bu t there has ,

been a contin u ou s stream of literary trea tment of

them and they have also been handed down as
,

folk tal e s by oral tradition

-
.

The cycle as a whole deals with the history and

adventu res of a band of warriors who are desc ribe d
as having formed a s tanding force in the pay of ,

62
 THE FE NIAN OR O SS I AN I C SAGAS
the High Kings of Tara to protect Ireland both , ,

from internal tro u ble and foreign inv asion The .

early ann alists were qu i t e certain of their historical

reality and dated their existence as a body from
,

3 00 to 2 8 4 A D while even so late and sou nd

. .
,

a scholar as E u gene O Cu rry gave his opinion ’

that Finn himself was as u ndou btedly historical a

charac ter as J u li u s Caesar .

Modern Celtic stu dents however tend to reverse , ,

this view The name Fionn or Finn meaning

.
,

‘
white or fair appea rs elsewhere as that of a
,
’ ‘
,
’

mythical ances tor of the Gaels His father s name .

’

C umhal ( Coa l) according to Professor Rhys is

, ,

identical with Cam ulos and the German H imme l

( Heaven ) The same writer is inclined to equ ate
.

Fion u mac Cu mh ail with Gwyn ab Nudd a ,

‘
White son of Sky who we have seen was a ’

, ,

Bri tish god of the Other World and afterwards , , ,

king of the Welsh fairies l

Bu t there may have .

been a historical n u cle u s of the Fenian cycle in to

which myths of gods and heroes beca me incor
o ra t e d
p .

T h is possible starting po in t wo uld show us a -

roving band of picked soldiers follo wing the ,

chase in summer qu artered on the towns in ,

1 R h ys , H ibber t L e t u c r es p p , . 1 7 8 , 1 79 . B u t t h e s e ide n t ifica ~

ti on s are con te s te d .
 M Y THOLOG Y OF ANC I EN T BRITA I N
winte r bu t always ready to m arch at the biddin g
, ,

of the High King of Ireland to q u ell any dis ,

t urban ce or to meet any foreign fee For a time .

all goes smoothly Bu t at las t their exactions

.

ro use the people agains t them and their pride ,

affronts the king D iss ensions leading to inter

.

n ecin e strife brea k o u t among themselves and , ,

taking advantage of these kin g and people make ,

common cau se and destroy them .

I n the romances this s e ed of de cay is sown

,

before the birth of Finn His father C u mhal .

ban is hes Goll ( Ga u l) he ad of the powerfu l clan of

,

Morn a Goll g o es into exile bu t retu rns defea ts ,

and kills Cu mhal and disperses the clan of Bao isgn e

B C m h al s pos th u mo u s
’

( B as kin ) his tr
,
ibe u t u .

son is bro ught u p in secret is train e d to manly ,

feats and as the reward of a d e ed of prowess is

, , ,

called u pon by the High King to claim a boon

‘
I ask only for my la wfu l inheri tance says the ,
’

you th and tells h is name The king insists u pon

,
.

Goll admitting F inn s rights and so he becomes

’

leader of the Fenians Bu t in the end the .

, ,

smou ldering enmity breaks o u t and after the , ,

death of Goll the res t of the clan of Morna go

,

over to the High King of I reland — Cairbré son of ,

the Co rm ac who had res tored Finn to his heritage .

The disastro u s battle of Gavra is fo u ght in which ,

64
 THE FENIAN O R O SSIANIC SAGAS
Cairb ré himself falls while the Fenians are practi
,

cally annihilated .

Bu t attached to this possibly historical n u cleu s

is a mass of tales which may well have once been
independent of it Their actors are the principal
.

figu res of the Fenian chivalry— Fionn ( F in n ) him

self his son Oisin ( Ossia n ) and his grandson
, ,

Osgu r ( Osca r) ; his co u sin Cao ilte ( Kylta ) swiftest ,

footed o f men and his nephew Diarmait ( Derma t)

, ,

the lover of women ; with the pro u d G011 and his

braggart brother Conan leaders of the clan of ,

Morna They consist of wonderfu l adventu res

.
,

sometimes with invaders from abroad bu t oftener ,

u pon perilou s seas and in faery lands forlorn

‘ ’ ‘ ’

with wild beasts giants witches and wiz ards and

, , ,

the Tu at h a Dé D ananu themselves The Fenians .

have the freedom of the s td h e the palaces u nder ,

the fairy hills and help this god or that against

,

his fellows Even Bodb D erg ( Red Bove ) a son

.

of the Dagda gives his dau ghter to Finn and

,

sends his son to enlist with the Fenians The .

cu lmination of these exploits is related in the

tale called Oa th F tn n tra ighe ( the Battle of
l

Ventry ) in which D air e Donn the High King of

, ,

the World leads all his vassals against Ireland

, ,

Tr a n sla t e d b y Profe s s or Ku n o M e ye r ,
in vo l i
. . of An e cd o ta
Ox omen sia , 188 2
'

E 65
 M YTHOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BR I TAIN
and is defeated by the j oint e fforts of the Fe n ian s
and the Tu ath a Dé Dan an n .

O ssian takes of cou rse a prominent part in the

, ,

stories which are so m u ch associated with his

name Bu t he is especially connec ted with what
.

might be called the post Fenian ballads in -

,
’

which the heroic deeds of Fin n and his men are

told in the form of dialogu es between Ossian an d
St Patrick
. They hi n ge u pon the legend that
.

Ossian escaped the fate of the rest of his kin by

being taken to Tir mm 09 the Land of Yo u th,
‘
,
’

— the Celtic Paradise of old and the Celtic Fairy

land o f to day —by the fairy or goddess Nia mh
-

, ,

( Neca vc) da u ghter of Manann a n mac Lir Here

, .

he enj oyed three h u ndred years of divine yo u th ,

while time changed the face of the world o u tside .

In the end he longs to see his own co u ntry again ,

and Niam b mou nts him u pon a magic horse ,

warning him not to pu t foot u pon earthly soil .

Bu t his saddle girth breaks Ossian falls t o earth

-
, ,

and rises up a blind old man stripped of the gifts

, ,

of the gods .

The ballad D ialogu es recite the argu ments

‘ ’

held betwe en the saint and the hero Sain t .

Patrick presses the new cre e d an d c u lt u re u pon his

u nwilling gu est who answers him with passionate
,

lamen ts for the days that are dead Patrick tells .

66
 THE FENIAN O R OSSIANI C SAGAS

of God and the Angels Ossian retorts with tales

,

of Finn and the Fenians It is the clash of two

.

aspects of life the heathen idea l ofj oy and strength

, ,

and the Christian ideal of service and sacrifice .

‘
I will tell yo u a little story abo u t Finn replies ,
’

Ossian to the saint s praises of the heaven of the

’

elect and relates some heroic exploit of chase or

,

war Nor is he more read y to listen to Patrick s

.
’

exhortations to repent and weep ov e r his pagan

past .I will weep my fill he answers bu t not
‘
,
’
,
‘

for God bu t becau se Fin n and the Fenians are

,

no longer alive .
’
 CHAPTER VIII

THE AR TH UR I AN LE G E N D

BUT the Gae lic myths vital as they are have yet
, ,

cau sed no echo of themselves in the li teratu res

of the ou tside world This distinction has been
.

left for the legendary tales of the Britons The .

Norman minstrels fo u nd the stories which they

heard from their Welsh confr e res so m u ch to
their liking that they readily adopted them and ,

spread the m from camp to camp and from co u rt

to co u rt wherever their dominant race held sway
, .

Perha ps the fin er qu alities of Celtic roma n ce m ade

especial appeal to that new fashion of chivalry‘ ’

which was growing u p u nder the fosterage

of poe try and romance by noble ladies At any .

rate the Ma tters dc B re tagn e as the stories of the

,

British gods and heroes and especially of Arth u r

, ,

were called came to be the leading so u rce o f

,

poe t ic inspiration on the Continent The whole

.

vast Arth u rian literatu re has i ts origin in British

Celtic mythology .

68
 THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND
We find the names of its chief characters and ,

can trace the n u cle u s of their stories in Welsh ,

songs and tales older than the earliest ou tb u rst of

Arth u rian romance in E u rope Arth u r himself has .
,

as we have tried to show in a previou s chapter ,

seve ral of the attribu te s and adventu res of

Gwydion son of D o n while the figu res most closely
,

connec ted with his story bear striking resem

blance to the characters which s urrou nd Gwydion
in the fo u rth branch of the Mabin o gi a resu lt
‘ ’
1
,

probably du e to the same type of myth having

been c u rrent in different localities and associated
in different districts with different names .

Arianrod who is said to have been the wife of

,

a little known and perhaps s u perseded an d half

-

forgotten Sky god called w vre Space seems

-

to be represented in Arthu r s story by Gwyar the ’

consort of the Heaven god Ll udd and from com

-
,

parison with later romance we may fairly as s u me

that Gwyar was also Arth u r s sister In Gwalchmai
’
.

and Med raw t the good and evil brothers born of

,

their u nion we shall probably be right in re

,

cognis ing similar cha racters to Arian rod s sons ’

the god s of light and darkness Lleu ( Llew ) an d ,

D ylan This body of myth has passed down

.

S e e R h ys , S tu d ies in th e Ar th u ria n L egen d , ch p

a . i
. Ar t h ur ,
H s t or ica l an d My t h ical
i ’
.
 M Y THOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BRITA I N

almos t intac t in to the m ediaeval Arth u rian cycle .

The wife of King Lo t ( Ll udd ) is sis t er to Arth u r ;

’
Lle u s co u n terp art Gwalchmai appears as Sir
1
, ,

Gawain e certain descriptions of whom in Malory s

’
,

Marts Da rth u r are hardly comp rehensible except

f '

as a misu nderstood fragment of a mythology in

which he appeared as a so lar hero ; Me drawt ‘ ’

has scarcely changed at all either in name or ,

character in be coming S ir Mordre d ; while the

,

stately figu re of M a th ru ler of the children of Do n

, ,

is paralleled by the maj estic Merlin who watches ,

over and even dares to rebu ke his protégé Arth u r

, , , .

We are u pon u nce rtain gro u nd however in , ,

atte mp ting to dis cover in the Arthur ian cycle the

other personages of the Mab in ogian stories Pro .

fess o r Rh y s in his S tu d ies in the Arth ur ia n

,

Legen d h as devoted grea t ingen u ity and

learn ing to this task bu t his identifications of ,

Pwyll of Rhiannon of Prydéri of Arawn of

, , , ,

Gwyn and of Am aethon with char acte rs in the

,

mediaeval romances whatever may happen to ,

them in the fu tu re cannot at present be co n

,

s ide re d as otherwise than hazardo u s The trans .

formations of Brain s eem less open to do u bt .

In W e ls h le ge n d , G w alc h m ai ( t h e ‘
Ha wk of May ) ’
h as a

b ro t h e r , Gw alch ave d ( t h e H awk of w h os e na me

i. t h e origin a l of Galah ad
‘ ’
.

7o
 THE ARTHURIAN LEGEN D
Th e name of King Bran de go re may probably be
resolved in t o Br an of Gower and of Sir Bran dile s ,

into Br an of Gwale s ( Gre sh o lm Island ) ; he is per

haps King Ban of Ben wyk and Bron who brou ght , ,

the Gr ail to Britain ; as Balan he is bro ught into ,

contact with Balin who seems to be the Gallo

,

Briti sh Bé lén o s ; wh ile Uther Pendragon himself

may have be en originally Br an s Wonderfu l ’ ‘

Head ( Uth r B en ) which lived for e igh ty se ve n

’
~

years after it had been severed from its bo dy .

Bu t there can be little qu estion as to other per

s o n age s who s u rro u nd Arth u r both in the earlier

and late r legends Myrddin as Merlin ; March as

.

King Mark ; Gwalch ave d as Sir Galahad ; Kai as

Sir Kay ; and Gwe n h wyvar as G u inevere have o bvi
o u sl been directly taken over from Welsh story
y .

B u t here we are confronted with a notable

exception It is of Sir Lancelot King Arth u r s
.
,
’

pe erless kn ight and the lover of ' u een Gu inevere ,

that no trace can be fo u nd in earlier legend He .

is not heard of till the latter part of the twelfth

centu ry when he appears as a knight who was
,

stolen in infancy and brou ght u p by a water fairy

, ,
-

( whence his title of Du L a c)

1
bu t thenceforward ,

he su persedes in pop u larity all the others of the

Se e M iss J . L . W to es
’
n s Th e L egen d f S ir
o L a n celot D u
Lac . L o n d o n , 1901 .

71
 M Y THOLOGY OF AN CIENT BRITAIN
Table Ro u nd In h is ro le of the lover of the
.

' u een he p u shes his way in to and shatte rs the

, , ,

older traditions According to early story it was .

Me lw as the Corn ish equ ivalent of the Welsh

,

Gwyn ab N udd who stole Gwe n h wyvar and , ,

Arth u r him self who recaptu red her Bu t in the .

Mom Da rth wr thou gh Me lwas whose name has

'
, ,

become Sir Me liagrau n ce is still the abd u ctor of ,

’

' u e en G u inevere it is S ir Lancelot who appears ,

as her de liverer Nor can Sir Mordred or .

,

Me d raw t another traditional rival of Ar th u r s

,
’
,

hold his own again st the new co mer -

.

Probably we shall never solve this mystery .

Some literary or social fashion of which all r e cord

is lost may have dictated Lancelot s prominence
’
.

I t mat ters less as i t is not the core and centre of

,

the Arthu rian legend Wha t has given the cycle .

its end u rin g interest as testified by its attrac tion ,

for au thor artist and composer down to the

, ,

pre sent day is not the somewhat co mmonplace

,

love of Lancelot and the ' u e en bu t the mystical ,

qu est of the Holy Grail And here we can clea rly .

trac e the direct evolu tion of the Arth u rian legend

l
from the myths of the Celts .

l Th e c h ie f au t h or it ie s for t h e st u d y of t h e Gra il le ge n d in
it s r e la t io n t o Ce lt ic m yt h a re Profe s or R h ys S tud ie s in t he
’
s s

Art h u ria n L e gen d an d Mr Alf re d N u tt s S t ud ies o n the L egen d

’
.

of t he H oly Gra il .

72
 THE ARTHURIAN LEGEN D
Both in Gaelic and British my thology promin ,

ence is given to a cau ldron which has wondro u s

talismanic virtu es I t was one of the fo u r chief
.

treas u res brou ght by t h e Tu ath a D é Dan an n to

Ireland ; C uch u lainn captu red it from the god
Mider when he stormed his stronghold in the
,

Isle of Man ; and it reappears in the Fenian

stories I ts especial property in these myt hs was
.

that of miracu lou s food providing — all the men in

-

the world we are told cou ld be fed from it— and

, ,

in this q u ality we find it on British grou nd as the

basket of Gwyddn e u Garan h ir Bu t certain other .

s u ch vessels of Brythonic myth were endowed

with different and less material virtu es A magic
, , .

cau ldron given by Br an son of Lly r to Math o lwch ,

the h u sband of his sister Branwen wo u ld r e sto re ,

the dead to life ; in her cau ldron of Inspiration

and Science the god dess Ke rridw e n brewed a
,

drink of prophecy ; while from the cau ldron of

the giant Ogyrvan the father of Gwe n h wyvar the
, ,

three M u s e s had been born .

In what is perhaps the latest of all these vary

ing legends the qu alities of the previou s cau ldrons
,

have been brou ght together to form the trophy

which Arthu r in the early Welsh poem called
,

‘
The Spoiling of Annwn ( see p 5 0) is repres ented
,
’
.

as having captu red from the Other World King .

73
 M Y THOLOG Y OF ANC I EN T BR I TAIN
‘
I s it not the cau ldron of the Chief of Annwn ' ’

What is its fashion ' asks the h ard Taliesin and

’

he goes on to d es cribe it as rimm e d with pearls ,

and gently warm ed by the breath of nine maidens .

I t will not cook the food of a coward or one for

sworn he contin u es which allows u s to as s u me
,
’

that like su ch ve ssels as the D a da s cau ldron or

,
g
’

the basket of Gwyddn e u Garan h ir it wou ld provide ,

generou sly for the brave and tr u thful It was

kept in a squ are fortress s u rrou nded by the sea ,

and ca lled by vario u s names s u ch as the Re volving

,

Castle ( Cae r S alii) the Underworld ( Ufern ) the

/
, ,

Fo u r cornered Castle ( Caer Ped ryva n ) the Castle

- f
,

of ( Cae r Ved w yd ) the Castle ,

( C aer R ig )
o r the ,Glass Castle ( aer Wydyr ) and
C ,

the Castle of Riches ( Caer Go lu d ) This strong .

hold r ule d over by Pwyll and Pryd éri is re pre

, ,

sented as spinning rou nd wi th s u ch velocity that

it was almost impo ssible to enter i t and was in ,

pitch darkne ss save for a twilight m ade by the

-

lamp bu rning before i ts gate bu t its inhabi t an ts , ,

who were exempt from old age and diseas e led ,

lives of revelry qu affing the bright wine Evi

, .

d e n t ly as may be asc ertained from comparison

,

wi th similar myths it stood for the O ther lVo rld

, ,

as con ceived by the Celts .

This cau ldron of pagan myth has alte red

74
 THE ARTHURIAN LEGEN D
strangely little in passing down thro ugh the
cent u ries to become the Holy Grail which had
b e en filled by Joseph of Arimathea with Chris t s ’

Blood I t is still kept in a mysterio u s castle by

.

a mysteriou s king In Malory s Morte Da/rth u r

.
’

this k ing is called Pelles a name strangely like ,

tha t of the Welsh Pwyll and tho u gh in other ,

versions of the Grail story taken perhaps from ,

variant British myths the keeper of the mystic ,

vessel bears a different name he always seems to ,

be one of the r u lers of the O ther World whether ,

he be called Bron ( Bran ) or Pe le u r Pryd éri) or , ,

Goon G wyn ) or the Rich Fisher in whom

, ,

Professor Rhys recognises Gwyddn e u Garan h ir 1

.

It still retain s in essence the qu alities of the ‘

cau ldron of the Chief of Ann wn The savage .

’

cooking pot which wo u ld refu se to serve a coward

-

or perj u rer with food has been only refined not

, ,

altered in be coming the heaven ly vessel which

,

co u ld no t be seen by sinners while the older idea ,

is still retained in the acco u nt of how when it ,

appeared it filled the hall wi th sweet savo u rs

, ,

while every knight saw before him on the table

the food he loved best Like its pagan prototype
.
,

it c u red wo u nds and sickness and no one cou ld ,

grow old wh ile in its presence Tho u gh too the .

, ,

1
A r t h uria n L egen d , pp . 315 3 17
-
.

75
 MYTHOLOGY OF ANC I E NT BR I TA I N
place in which it was kept is b u t vag u ely pictu red
by Sir Thomas Malory the thirteenth cent u ry ,

Norman French romance called the S e in t Grea t

-

preserv es all the characteristics which most strike

u s in Taliesin s poem It is su rro u nded by a
’
.

great water ; it revolves more swiftly th an the

w ind ; and i ts garrison shoot so sto u tly that no
armou r can repel their shafts which explains ,

why of the men that accompanied Arth u r except

, ,

seven none retu rned from Caer Sidi

, .
’

The kingdom of heaven s u ffereth violence

‘
,

and the violent take it by force ; this is the ’

spiritu alis ed meani n g of the Ce ltic myth and in ,

this has lain the lasting inspiration of the sto ry

which attracted Milton so strongly that it was
almost by chance that we did not have from him
a Kin g Arth wr instead of Pa/ra d is e Lost I n .

o u r own times it has enchan t e d the imagination of

Te n nyson while S winb u rne Morris and Matthew

, , ,

Arnold have also borne witn e ss to the poeti c

val u e of a tradition which is as national to
Britain as the Veda to India or her epic poems ,

to Greece .

1
Ed ite d an d t r a n sla t e d by t h e Re v R o be rt
. W lli m
i a s, MA
. .

Lo n d on , 1 87 6 .
 CHRONOLOGICAL SYLLABUS
H I S T O R IC A L —Arriv al in B ritain of t h e e arlie st e lt s C
( G o id e ls ) a b o u t 1 000 500 B o- — B ry th on s an d B e lgae, comin g
. .

ove r d u rin g t h e 2 n d an d 3rd ce n t u rie s B C , large ly su p . .

plan t th e Goid e ls — B elgic se ttle rs s till crossin g ove r from

C
Gau l in th e t im e of J uliu s aes ar, w h o m ad e his fir st in vas io n
55 B c — . . B ritain d e clar e d a R om an prov in ce u n d e r lau diu s C
A D
. . 43—Ab an don ed u n d e r H o n or ius A D 4 1 0—D ru idism . .

for bidd e n to R om an cit iz e n s u n d e r Tibe riu s ( r eign ed A D . .

1 43 7 ) an d it s comple te su ppr e ssion ord e r e d b y lau diu s C

r
( g ei n e d A D . 41
. 54) —
-
Th e c h ie f st ro n gh o ld of th e Dr uids
in B ritain d est ro ye d un d e r S u e t o n iu s Paulin us, A D 6 1 . .

Ch r i tisity, in t rod u c e d un d e r t h e R om an
an r ule m ak es gr adu al ,

h e adw ay— Gild as , writ in g in t h e six t h ce n t ury d escribe s

pagan ism as e x t in ct in civilise d Britain —E ra of S t Pat rick
,

in Ir e lan d fift h c e n t u ry—S t C olumb a carr ie s t h e go sp e l to

, .

t h e N or th e r n Pic ts s ix t h c e n t u ry
,
.

TRA D I T I O NA L —F ic t it io us d at e s assign e d b y t h e Iris h com

pile rs of pse u do an n als for all th e m yt h ical e ras an d e v e n t s
-

Possibly au th e n t ic may b e t h e placin g of t h e h e ro ic age of

Ulst e r in t h e fir st c e n tu r y A D an d t h e e poc h of t h e Fe n ian s
. .

in t h e se con d an d th ird —B rit ish god s e n ro lle d as e ar ly kin gs

b y Ge of fre y of Mo n mou th or m ade th e fou n d e rs of pow e rfu l
or sain tly fam ilies b y W elsh gen ealogists—T h e h istoric Arth u r
may h av e live d in th e fifth six t h ce n tu rie s
-
.

L I T E RAR Y — Th e six th c e n tu ry a n is th e t rad ition al p e riod

. .

of th e bard s Myrddin An eu rin Talie sin an d Llyw arch Hén

, , , ,

poe m s ascrib e d t o wh om are foun d in th e Welsh m e d iae val

77
 M Y THOLOGY OF ANCI ENT BR I TA I N
MSS , wh ile Iris h t
lege n d asse r ts h at t h e Tdin B 6 Ch ua ilgn e
—
.

w as first re d u ce d to writ in g in t h e se v e n t h Grad ual acc u mu

lat ion of Iris h an d We ls h m yth ical sagas in clu din g t h e F ou r
,

B ran ch es of t h e Mabin ogi e igh t h e le v en th —Th e Irish B ook of

,
-

t h e D u n Cow an d B ook of L e in ste r an d t h e W e ls h B la ck

B ook of Ca rma rth e n comp ile d d urin g t h e t w e lfth t h e W e ls h
,

B ooks of An e u rin an d of Talies in d u rin g th e t h irte e n t h ; a n d t h e

Ir is h B ook of Ballymo te an d t h e Y e llow B ook of Le can an d th e
We lsh Red B ook of He rgest du rin g th e fourtee n th —Abo u t 1 1 36
Ge o f fre y of M on mo u t h fin ish e d h is H istoria B riton wm an d ,

d ur in g this c e n t u ry an d t h e o n e follow in g B rit ish m yt hical

a n d h e roic le ge n d w as mo u ld e d in to t h e Co n tin en tal A rt h u rian

rom an ces—Abo u t 1 470S ir Th om as Malory compose d h is Mo rte

D a rth u r from F r e n ch so u rc es — Th e workin g up of Gae lic
-

t rad it io n al ma te rial e n d e d probab ly in t h e middle of th e

e igh te e n t h c e n tury
— J am es MacPh e rson prod u ce d his ps e u do
Oss ian ic e pics 1 7 60 6 3 —In 1 83 8 49 La d y Ch arlo t te Gues t
’
- -
,

publish e d h e r Ma bin ogio n an d from t his da te th e re n ais san ce

,

of Ce ltic stu dy an d in sp irat io n may be to ha v e com

me n ce d .
 S E LE CTED B O O KS BEA RIN G ON
CELT I C M YTH OLOGY
To giv e in t h e sp ac e t h at can b e s pa re d an y ade q uate lis t
C
of b oo k s d e alin g wit h t h e w id e s ubj e c t of e lt ic Myt h ology
wou ld be impo ssible Th e read e r in te r es te d in th e mat te r
.

ca n h ar dly do be tte r t h an co n s ult N 08 1 , 3 , 4, 6 , 8 , 1 1 , an d 1 4

.

of t h e Pop u la r S tu dies in M yth o logy R oman ce a n d F olklor e,

p u blis h e d by Mr Nu t t In t h ese six pe n n y b ookle t s h e w ill
. .

fin d, n o t o n ly sc h olarly in t rod u c t io n s to t h e Gae lic Tu at h s D é

C
Dan an n , u ch ulain n an d Oss ian ic cycles , t h e We lsh Mab in o

g io n , an d t h e Art h u r ian le g e n d, b u t a ls o bib lio graph ic al

appe n d ic e s po in tin g o u t w it h su ffic ie n t fuln ess th e c h ie f work s

to co n s ult . S h ould h e be co n te n t w ith a more su pe rficial

su rv e y, h e migh t o b t ain i from t e prese n t write r s Th e
h ’
t
Myth o logy of the British Isla n ds, Lo n don , 1 905 , wh ich aim e d
at giv i n g, in a pop u la r man n e r, s k e tc h e s of t h e dif fe re n t
cycles, an d re te llin gs of t h e ir prin c ipal s tor ies , wit h a ce rtain
a mo u n t of e x p la n at ory comm e n t .

F o r t h e st ories t h e ms elv es , h e may t urn to L ad y Gre gory s

’

G uch u la in of M u irthe mn e, Lo n d o n , 1 902 , an d Gods a n d

F igh tin g M en , Lo n do n , 1 904 , w h ic h giv e in at t ract iv e
pa raph ras e all of t h e mo st importan t lege n ds d e alin g with th e
Red B ran ch of Ulst e r an d wit h th e Tua t h s Dé Dan an u an d
t h e F e n ian s . More e x ac t t ra n slat ion s of t h e Ulste r rom an ces
will be fou n d in Miss E H ull s The Cu ch u llin S a ga in
.
’

Ir ish L it er at u r e, L o n do n , 1 8 98 ; in Mon sie ur H d Arbo is

’
.

de J u bain ville s L Ep opee

’ ’ ’

C
eltiq u e en I rla n de , Pa ris, 1 8 9 2

( vo l
. v . of t h e C o u rs de Lit té rat u r e Ce lt iq u e )
’
an d in Mi ss

79
 MYTHOLOG Y OF ANCIENT BRITAIN
W . .
’
C
L F araday s The at tle R a id of Cu aln ge, L o n don , 1904 .

Th e Fe n ian sagas are be s t st u die d in t h e s ix volum e s of t h e

Tr an sa Ossia n ic S ociet y, D ublin , 1 8 5 4 6 1
ctio n s of th e in -

Mr S H O Grad y s S ilva Gadelica, Lo n don , 18 9 2 ; an d in

. .
’
.
'

th e Re v J G . . . C
ampbe ll s Th e F ia n s, Lo n don , 1 8 9 1 ( vol iv
’
. .

of ‘
W
aif s an d S t rays of e ltic C
Lad y ha rlo tt e C
Gu es t s Mabin o gio n can n o w be ob tain e d in se v e ral ch e ap
’

e d it io n s , wh ile M o n s ie u r J L o th s t ran slat ion , L es M abin o

’
.

gion , Par is, 1 8 89 , forms vols . iii an d iv

. . of t h e C ou rs d e Lit téra
ture C
e lt iq u e .
’

C ritic die s o n t h e su bj e ct in h an dy form are as ye t fe w

al s t u .

We may m e n tio n D e J u bain ville s L e Cycle M yth o logiqu e ’

Ir lan d a is e t la M yth ologie Celtiq ue Pa ris 1 8 8 4 ( vol ii of t h e , , . .

tran slate d b y M r R I B e s t as Th e I rish M yth olo gi . . .

ca l Cycle an d Celtic M yth o logy D u b lin 1 9 03 Profe s sor , ,

J Rh ys s L e ctu r es on the Origin a n d Gro wth of Religio n as

’
.

Illu str ated by Celtic H eath en d o m ( Th e H ibbe r t L ectu r es for

L o n don 3 rd e dit 1 898 wit h t h e ir se q u e l S tu dies in th e
, , , ,

A r th u r ia n L egen d Ox ford 1 8 9 1 an d Mr Alfre d N ut t s Th e

’
.
, ,

Voyage of B r a n son of F eba l 2 vols Lo n do n 1 8 9 5 9 7

,
Th e ,
.
, ,
-
.

r e sult s of mor e re ce n t an d cu rr e n t re search will b e fo un d in

, ,

sp e c ial p u blic a t io n s su c h as t h e vo lu m e s of th e I rish Tex ts

,

S ociety an d t h e n u mbe rs o f t h e R evu e Celtiqu e t h e Zeitsch r ift

, ,

fu r Celtisch e Ph ilologie an d th e Tr an saction s of th e Gymmro,

dorion S o cie ty .

i
Pr n te d by T . an d A Go s s m a n
.
,Pri t r t n e s o H is Maye st y
at th e E d in b urgh Un iv r i ty Pr
e s e ss