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diff --git a/old/14672-h/14672-h.htm b/old/14672-h/14672-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd7b74a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14672-h/14672-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,22965 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content= +"HTML Tidy for Windows (vers 1st March 2004), see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=us-ascii" /> +<title>Religion of the Ancient Celts.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + + /*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + + .note, .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; + text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 6em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 8em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 10em;} + + span.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; + font-size: 8pt;} + + --> + /*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Religion of the Ancient Celts, by J. A. MacCulloch + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Religion of the Ancient Celts + +Author: J. A. MacCulloch + +Release Date: January 12, 2005 [EBook #14672] +[Date last updated: December 14, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT CELTS *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, David King, and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT CELTS</h1> +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>J.A. MACCULLOCH</h2> +<center>HON. D.D.(ST. ANDREWS); HON. CANON OF CUMBRAE +CATHEDRAL</center> +<br /> +<center>AUTHOR OF "COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY"<br /> +"RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS" "THE MISTY ISLE OF SKYE"<br /> +"THE CHILDHOOD OF FICTION: A STUDY OF FOLK-TALES AND PRIMITIVE +THOUGHT"</center> +<br /> +<center>Edinburgh: T. & T. CLARK, 38 George Street</center> +<br /> +<center>1911</center> +<br /> +<center>Printed by</center> +<br /> +<center>MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED,</center> +<br /> +<center>FOR</center> +<br /> +<center>T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.</center> +<br /> +<center>LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. +LIMITED.</center> +<br /> +<center>NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.</center> +<br /> +<center>TO</center> +<br /> +<center>ANDREW LANG</center> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<p>The scientific study of ancient Celtic religion is a thing of +recent growth. As a result of the paucity of materials for such a +study, earlier writers indulged in the wildest speculative flights +and connected the religion with the distant East, or saw in it the +remains of a monotheistic faith or a series of esoteric doctrines +veiled under polytheistic cults. With the works of MM. Gaidoz, +Bertrand, and D'Arbois de Jubainville in France, as well as by the +publication of Irish texts by such scholars as Drs. Windisch and +Stokes, a new era may be said to have dawned, and a flood of light +was poured upon the scanty remains of Celtic religion. In this +country the place of honour among students of that religion belongs +to Sir John Rh[^y]s, whose Hibbert Lectures <i>On the Origin and +Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom</i> (1886) +was an epoch-making work. Every student of the subject since that +time feels the immense debt which he owes to the indefatigable +researches and the brilliant suggestions of Sir John Rh[^y]s, and I +would be ungrateful if I did not record my indebtedness to him. In +his Hibbert Lectures, and in his later masterly work on <i>The +Arthurian Legend</i>, however, he took the standpoint of the +"mythological" school, and tended to see in the old stories myths +of the sun and dawn and the darkness, and in the divinities +sun-gods and dawn-goddesses and a host of dark personages of +supernatural character. The present writer, studying the subject +rather from an anthropological point of view and in the light of +modern folk survivals, has found himself in disagreement with Sir +John Rh[^y]s on more than one occasion. But he is convinced that +Sir John would be the last person to resent this, and that, in +spite of his mythological interpretations, his Hibbert Lectures +must remain as a source of inspiration to all Celtic students. More +recently the studies of M. Salomon Reinach and of M. Dottin, and +the valuable little book on <i>Celtic Religion</i>, by Professor +Anwyl, have broken fresh ground.<a id="footnotetag1" name= +"footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a></p> +<p>In this book I have made use of all the available sources, and +have endeavoured to study the subject from the comparative point of +view and in the light of the anthropological method. I have also +interpreted the earlier cults by means of recent folk-survivals +over the Celtic area wherever it has seemed legitimate to do so. +The results are summarised in the introductory chapter of the work, +and students of religion, and especially of Celtic religion, must +judge how far they form a true interpretation of the earlier faith +of our Celtic forefathers, much of which resembles primitive +religion and folk-belief everywhere.</p> +<p>Unfortunately no Celt left an account of his own religion, and +we are left to our own interpretations, more or less valid, of the +existing materials, and to the light shed on them by the +comparative study of religions. As this book was written during a +long residence in the Isle of Skye, where the old language of the +people still survives, and where the <i>genius loci</i> speaks +everywhere of things remote and strange, it may have been easier to +attempt to realise the ancient religion there than in a busier or +more prosaic place. Yet at every point I have felt how much would +have been gained could an old Celt or Druid have revisited his +former haunts, and permitted me to question him on a hundred +matters which must remain obscure. But this, alas, might not +be!</p> +<p>I have to thank Miss Turner and Miss Annie Gilchrist for +valuable help rendered in the work of research, and the London +Library for obtaining for me several works not already in its +possession. Its stores are an invaluable aid to all students +working at a distance from libraries.</p> +<p>J.A. MACCULLOCH.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>THE RECTORY,</p> +<p>BRIDGE OF ALLAN,</p> +<p><i>October</i> 1911.</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name= +"footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1">(return)</a> +<p>See also my article "Celts" in Hastings' <i>Encyclopædia +of Religion and Ethics</i>, vol. iii.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Throughout this book, some characters are +used which are not part of the Latin-1 character set used in this +e-book. The string "[^y]" is used to represent a lower-case "Y" +with a circumflex mark on top of it, "[=a]" is used to represent a +lower-case "A" with a line on top of it, and "[oe]" is used to +represent the "oe"-ligature. Numbers in superscripts such as +<sup>3</sup> were used in the book to give edition numbers to +books.]</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<p><a href="#chap1">I. INTRODUCTORY</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap2">II. THE CELTIC PEOPLE</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap3">III. THE GODS OF GAUL AND THE CONTINENTAL +CELTS</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap4">IV. THE IRISH MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap5">V. THE TUATHA DÉ DANANN</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap6">VI. THE GODS OF THE BRYTHONS</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap7">VII. THE CÚCHULAINN CYCLE</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap8">VIII. THE FIONN SAGA</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap9">IX. GODS AND MEN</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap10">X. THE CULT OF THE DEAD</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap11">XI. PRIMITIVE NATURE WORSHIP</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap12">XII. RIVER AND WELL WORSHIP</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap13">XIII. TREE AND PLANT WORSHIP</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap14">XIV. ANIMAL WORSHIP</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap15">XV. COSMOGONY</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap16">XVI. SACRIFICE, PRAYER, AND DIVINATION</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap17">XVII. TABU</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap18">XVIII. FESTIVALS</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap19">XIX. ACCESSORIES OF CULT</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap20">XX. THE DRUIDS</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap21">XXI. MAGIC</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap22">XXII. THE STATE OF THE DEAD</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap23">XXIII. REBIRTH AND TRANSMIGRATION</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap24">XXIV. ELYSIUM</a></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h3>LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES THROUGHOUT THIS +WORK</h3> +<p>(<i>This list is not a Bibliography.</i>)</p> +<p>BRAND: Rev. J. Brand, <i>Observations on the Popular Antiquities +of Great Britain.</i> 3 vols. 1870.</p> +<p>BLANCHET: A. Blanchet, <i>Traité des monnaies +gauloises.</i> 2 vols. Paris, 1905.</p> +<p>BERTRAND: A. Bertrand, <i>Religion des gaulois.</i> Paris, +1897.</p> +<p>CAMPBELL, <i>WHT</i>: J.F. Campbell, <i>Popular Tales of the +West Highlands.</i> 4 vols. Edinburgh, 1890.</p> +<p>CAMPBELL <i>LF</i>: J.F. Campbell, <i>Leabhar na Feinne.</i> +London, 1872.</p> +<p>CAMPBELL, <i>Superstitions</i>: J.G. Campbell, <i>Superstitions +of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.</i> 1900.</p> +<p>CAMPBELL, <i>Witchcraft</i>: J.G. Campbell, <i>Witchcraft and +Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.</i> +1902.</p> +<p>CORMAC: <i>Cormac's Glossary.</i> Tr. by J. O'Donovan. Ed. by W. +Stokes. Calcutta, 1868.</p> +<p>COURCELLE—SENEUIL.: J.L. Courcelle-Seneuil, <i>Les dieux +gaulois d'après les monuments figurés.</i> Paris, +1910.</p> +<p><i>CIL</i>: <i>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.</i> Berlin, 1863 +f.</p> +<p><i>CM</i>: <i>Celtic Magazine.</i> Inverness, 1875 f.</p> +<p>CURTIN, <i>HTI</i>: J. Curtin, <i>Hero Tales of Ireland.</i> +1894.</p> +<p>CURTIN, <i>Tales</i>: J. Curtin, <i>Tales of the Fairies and +Ghost World.</i> 1895.</p> +<p>DALZELL: Sir J.G. Dalzell, <i>Darker Superstitions of +Scotland.</i> 1835.</p> +<p>D'ARBOIS: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, <i>Cours de litterature +celtique.</i> 12 vols. Paris, 1883-1902.</p> +<p>D'ARBOIS <i>Les Celtes</i>: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, <i>Les +Celtes.</i> Paris, 1904.</p> +<p>D'ARBOIS <i>Les Druides</i>: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, <i>Les +Druides et les dieux celtiques à formes d'animaux.</i> +Paris, 1906.</p> +<p>D'ARBOIS <i>PH</i>: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, <i>Les premiers +habitants de l'Europe.</i> 2 vols. Paris, 1889-1894.</p> +<p>DOM MARTIN: Dom Martin, <i>Le religion des gaulois.</i> 2 vols. +Paris, 1727.</p> +<p>DOTTIN: G. Dottin, <i>Manuel pour servir a l'étude de +l'antiquité celtique.</i> Paris, 1906.</p> +<p>ELTON: C.I. Elton, <i>Origins of English History.</i> London, +1890.</p> +<p>FRAZER, <i>GB</i><sup>2</sup>: J.G. Frazer, <i>Golden +Bough</i><sup>2</sup>. 3 vols. 1900,</p> +<p>GUEST: Lady Guest, <i>The Mabinogion.</i> 3 vols. Liandovery, +1849.</p> +<p>HAZLITT: W.C. Hazlitt, <i>Faiths and Folk-lore: A Dictionary of +National Beliefs, Superstitions, and Popular Customs.</i> 2 vols. +1905.</p> +<p>HOLDER: A. Holder, <i>Altceltischer Sprachschatz.</i> 3 vols. +Leipzig, 1891 f.</p> +<p>HULL: Miss E. Hull, <i>The Cuchullin Saga.</i> London, 1898.</p> +<p><i>IT</i>: See Windisch-Stokes.</p> +<p><i>JAI</i>: <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute.</i> +London, 1871 f.</p> +<p>JOYCE, <i>OCR</i>: P.W. Joyce, <i>Old Celtic +Romances</i><sup>2</sup>. London, 1894.</p> +<p>JOYCE, <i>PN</i>: P.W. Joyce, <i>History of Irish Names of +Places</i><sup>4</sup>. 2 vols. London, 1901.</p> +<p>JOYCE, <i>SH</i>: P.W. Joyce, <i>Social History of Ancient +Ireland.</i> 2 vols. London, 1903.</p> +<p>JULLIAN: C. Jullian, <i>Recherches sur la religion gauloise.</i> +Bordeaux, 1903.</p> +<p>KEATING: Keating, <i>History of Ireland.</i> Tr. O'Mahony. +London, 1866.</p> +<p>KENNEDY: P. Kennedy, <i>Legendary Fictions of the Irish +Celts.</i> 1866.</p> +<p>LARMINIE: W. Larminie, <i>West Irish Folk-Tales and +Romances.</i> 1893.</p> +<p>LEAHY: Leahy, <i>Heroic Romances of Ireland.</i> 2 vols. London, +1905.</p> +<p>LE BRAZ: A. Le Braz, <i>La Legende de la Mort chez les Bretons +armoricains.</i> 2 vols. Paris, 1902.</p> +<p><i>LL</i>: <i>Leabhar Laignech</i> (Book of Leinster), facsimile +reprint. London, 1880.</p> +<p>LOTH: Loth, <i>Le Mabinogion.</i> 2 vols. Paris, 1889.</p> +<p><i>LU</i>: <i>Leabhar na h-Uidhre</i> (Book of the Dun Cow), +facsimile reprint. London, 1870.</p> +<p>MACBAIN: A. MacBain, <i>Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic +Language.</i> Inverness, 1896.</p> +<p>MACDOUGALL: Macdougall, <i>Folk and Hero Tales.</i> London, +1891.</p> +<p>MACKINLAY: J.M. Mackinlay, <i>Folk-lore of Scottish Lochs and +Springs.</i> Glasgow, 1893.</p> +<p>MARTIN: M. Martin, <i>Description of the Western Islands of +Scotland</i><sup>2</sup>. London, 1716.</p> +<p>MAURY: A. Maury, <i>Croyances et legendes du Moyen Age.</i> +Paris, 1896.</p> +<p>MONNIER: D. Monnier, <i>Traditions populaires +comparées.</i> Paris, 1854.</p> +<p>MOORE: A.W. Moore, <i>Folk-lore of the Isle of Man.</i> +1891.</p> +<p>NUTT-MEYER: A. Nutt and K. Meyer, <i>The Voyage of Bran.</i> 2 +vols. London, 1895-1897.</p> +<p>O'CURRY <i>MC</i>: E. O'Curry, <i>Manners and Customs of the +Ancient Irish.</i> 4 vols. London, 1873.</p> +<p>O'CURRY <i>MS. Mat</i>: E. O'Curry, <i>MS. Materials of Ancient +Irish History.</i> Dublin, 1861.</p> +<p>O'GRADY: S.H. O'Grady, <i>Silva Gadelica.</i> 2 vols. 1892.</p> +<p>REES: Rev. W.J. Rees, <i>Lives of Cambro-British Saints.</i> +Llandovery, 1853.</p> +<p>REINACH, BF: S. Reinach, <i>Bronzes Figurés de la Gaule +romaine.</i> Paris, 1900.</p> +<p>REINACH, BF <i>Catal. Sommaire</i>: S. Reinach, <i>Catalogue +Commaire du Musée des Antinquitée +Nationales</i><sup>4</sup>. Paris.</p> +<p>REINACH, BF CMR: S. Reinach, <i>Cultes, Mythes, et +Religions.</i> 2 vols. Paris, 1905.</p> +<p>RC: <i>Revue Celtique.</i> Paris, 1870 f.</p> +<p>RENEL: C. Renel, <i>Religions de la Gaule.</i> Paris 1906.</p> +<p>RH[^Y]S, <i>AL</i>: Sir John Rh[^y]s, <i>The Arthurian +Legend.</i> Oxford, 1891.</p> +<p>RH[^Y]S, <i>CB</i><sup>4</sup>: Sir John Rh[^y]s, <i>Celtic +Britain</i><sup>4</sup>. London, 1908.</p> +<p>RH[^Y]S, <i>CFL</i>: Sir John Rh[^y]s, <i>Celtic Folk-Lore.</i> +2 vols. Oxford, 1901.</p> +<p>RH[^Y]S, <i>HL</i>: Sir John Rh[^y]s, <i>Hibbert Lectures on +Celtic Heathendom.</i> London, 1888.</p> +<p>SÉBILLOT: P. Sebillot, <i>La Folk-lore de la France.</i> +4 vols. Paris, 1904 f.</p> +<p>SKENE: W.F. Skene, <i>Four Ancient Books of Wales.</i> 2 vols. +Edinburgh, 1868.</p> +<p>STOKES, <i>TIG</i>: Whitley Stokes, <i>Three Irish +Glossaries.</i> London, 1862.</p> +<p>STOKES, <i>Trip. Life</i>: Whitley Stokes, <i>The Tripartite +Life of Patrick.</i> London 1887.</p> +<p>STOKES, <i>US</i>: Whitley Stokes, <i>Urkeltischer +Sprachschatz.</i> Göttingen, 1894 (in Fick's <i>Vergleichende +Wörterbuch</i><sup>4</sup>).</p> +<p>TAYLOR: I. Taylor, <i>Origin of the Aryans.</i> London, n.d.</p> +<p><i>TSC</i>: <i>Transactions of Society of Cymmrodor.</i></p> +<p><i>TOS</i>: <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society.</i> Dublin +1854-1861.</p> +<p><i>Trip. Life</i>: See Stokes.</p> +<p>WILDE: Lady Wilde, <i>Ancient Legends and Superstitions of +Ireland.</i> 2 vols. 1887.</p> +<p>WINDISCH, <i>Táin</i>: E. Windisch, <i>Die altirische +Heldensage Táin Bó Cúalgne.</i> Leipzig, +1905.</p> +<p>WINDISCH-STOKES, <i>IT</i>: E. Windisch and W. Stokes, +<i>Irische Texte.</i> Leipzig, 1880 f.</p> +<p>WOOD-MARTIN: Wood-Martin, <i>Elder Faiths of Ireland.</i> 2 +vols. London, 1903.</p> +<p><i>ZCP</i>: <i>Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie.</i> +Halle, 1897 f.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page1" id="page1"></a>{1}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap1" id="chap1">CHAPTER I.</a></h2> +<h3>INTRODUCTORY.</h3> +<p>To summon a dead religion from its forgotten grave and to make +it tell its story, would require an enchanter's wand. Other old +faiths, of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, are known to us. But in +their case liturgies, myths, theogonies, theologies, and the +accessories of cult, remain to yield their report of the outward +form of human belief and aspiration. How scanty, on the other hand, +are the records of Celtic religion! The bygone faith of a people +who have inspired the world with noble dreams must be constructed +painfully, and often in fear and trembling, out of fragmentary and, +in many cases, transformed remains.</p> +<p>We have the surface observations of classical observers, +dedications in the Romano-Celtic area to gods mostly assimilated to +the gods of the conquerors, figured monuments mainly of the same +period, coins, symbols, place and personal names. For the Irish +Celts there is a mass of written material found mainly in eleventh +and twelfth century MSS. Much of this, in <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page2" id="page2"></a>{2}</span> spite of +alteration and excision, is based on divine and heroic myths, and +it also contains occasional notices of ritual. From Wales come +documents like the <i>Mabinogion</i>, and strange poems the +personages of which are ancient gods transformed, but which tell +nothing of rite or cult.<a id="footnotetag2" name= +"footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> Valuable +hints are furnished by early ecclesiastical documents, but more +important is existing folk-custom, which preserves so much of the +old cult, though it has lost its meaning to those who now use it. +Folk-tales may also be inquired of, if we discriminate between what +in them is Celtic and what is universal. Lastly, Celtic +burial-mounds and other remains yield their testimony to ancient +belief and custom.</p> +<p>From these sources we try to rebuild Celtic paganism and to +guess at its inner spirit, though we are working in the twilight on +a heap of fragments. No Celt has left us a record of his faith and +practice, and the unwritten poems of the Druids died with them. Yet +from these fragments we see the Celt as the seeker after God, +linking himself by strong ties to the unseen, and eager to conquer +the unknown by religious rite or magic art. For the things of the +spirit have never appealed in vain to the Celtic soul, and long ago +classical observers were struck with the religiosity of the Celts. +They neither forgot nor transgressed the law of the gods, and they +thought that no good befell men apart from their will.<a id= +"footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href= +"#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> The submission of the Celts to the +Druids shows how they welcomed authority in matters of religion, +and all Celtic regions have been characterised by religious +devotion, easily passing over to superstition, and by loyalty to +ideals and lost causes. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" +id="page3"></a>{3}</span> Celts were born dreamers, as their +exquisite Elysium belief will show, and much that is spiritual and +romantic in more than one European literature is due to them.</p> +<p>The analogy of religious evolution in other faiths helps us in +reconstructing that of the Celts. Though no historic Celtic group +was racially pure, the profound influence of the Celtic temperament +soon "Celticised" the religious contributions of the non-Celtic +element which may already have had many Celtic parallels. Because a +given Celtic rite or belief seems to be "un-Aryan," it need not +necessarily be borrowed. The Celts had a savage past, and, +conservative as they were, they kept much of it alive. Our +business, therefore, lies with Celtic religion as a whole. These +primitive elements were there before the Celts migrated from the +old "Aryan" home; yet since they appear in Celtic religion to the +end, we speak of them as Celtic. The earliest aspect of that +religion, before the Celts became a separate people, was a cult of +nature spirits, or of the life manifested in nature. But men and +women probably had separate cults, and, of the two, perhaps that of +the latter is more important. As hunters, men worshipped the +animals they slew, apologising to them for the slaughter. This +apologetic attitude, found with all primitive hunters, is of the +nature of a cult. Other animals, too sacred to be slain, would be +preserved and worshipped, the cult giving rise to domestication and +pastoral life, with totemism as a probable factor. Earth, producing +vegetation, was the fruitful mother; but since the origin of +agriculture is mainly due to women, the Earth cult would be +practised by them, as well as, later, that of vegetation and corn +spirits, all regarded as female. As men began to interest +themselves in agriculture, they would join in the female cults, +probably with the result of changing the sex of the spirits +worshipped. An Earth-god would take the place of the Earth-mother, +or stand as her consort or son. Vegetation <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4"></a>{4}</span> and corn +spirits would often become male, though many spirits, even when +they were exalted into divinities, remained female.</p> +<p>With the growth of religion the vaguer spirits tended to become +gods and goddesses, and worshipful animals to become +anthropomorphic divinities, with the animals as their symbols, +attendants, or victims. And as the cult of vegetation spirits +centred in the ritual of planting and sowing, so the cult of the +divinities of growth centred in great seasonal and agricultural +festivals, in which the key to the growth of Celtic religion is to +be found. But the migrating Celts, conquering new lands, evolved +divinities of war; and here the old female influence is still at +work, since many of these are female. In spite of possessing so +many local war-gods, the Celts were not merely men of war. Even the +<i>equites</i> engaged in war only when occasion arose, and +agriculture as well as pastoral industry was constantly practised, +both in Gaul and Britain, before the conquest.<a id="footnotetag4" +name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> In +Ireland, the belief in the dependence of fruitfulness upon the +king, shows to what extent agriculture flourished there.<a id= +"footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href= +"#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> Music, poetry, crafts, and trade gave +rise to culture divinities, perhaps evolved from gods of growth, +since later myths attributed to them both the origin of arts and +crafts, and the introduction of domestic animals among men. +Possibly some culture gods had been worshipful animals, now +worshipped as gods, who had given these animals to man. +Culture-goddesses still held their place among culture-gods, and +were regarded as their mothers. The prominence of these divinities +shows that the Celts were more than a race of warriors.</p> +<p>The pantheon was thus a large one, but on the whole the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5"></a>{5}</span> +divinities of growth were more generally important. The older +nature spirits and divine animals were never quite forgotten, +especially by the folk, who also preserved the old rituals of +vegetation spirits, while the gods of growth were worshipped at the +great festivals. Yet in essence the lower and the higher cults were +one and the same, and, save where Roman influence destroyed Celtic +religion, the older primitive strands are everywhere apparent. The +temperament of the Celt kept him close to nature, and he never +quite dropped the primitive elements of his religion. Moreover, the +early influence of female cults of female spirits and goddesses +remained to the end as another predominant factor.</p> +<p>Most of the Celtic divinities were local in character, each +tribe possessing its own group, each god having functions similar +to those of other groups. Some, however, had or gained a more +universal character, absorbing divinities with similar functions. +Still this local character must be borne in mind. The numerous +divinities of Gaul, with differing names—but, judging by +their assimilation to the same Roman divinity, similar functions, +are best understood as gods of local groups. This is probably true +also of Britain and Ireland. But those gods worshipped far and wide +over the Celtic area may be gods of the undivided Celts, or gods of +some dominant Celtic group extending their influence on all sides, +or, in some cases, popular gods whose cult passed beyond the tribal +bounds. If it seem precarious to see such close similarity in the +local gods of a people extending right across Europe, appeal can be +made to the influence of the Celtic temperament, producing +everywhere the same results, and to the homogeneity of Celtic +civilisation, save in local areas, <i>e.g.</i> the South of Gaul. +Moreover, the comparison of the various testimonies of onlookers +points to a general similarity, while the permanence of the +primitive elements in Celtic religion must have tended to keep it +everywhere <span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id= +"page6"></a>{6}</span> the same. Though in Gaul we have only +inscriptions and in Ireland only distorted myths, yet those +testimonies, as well as the evidence of folk-survivals in both +regions, point to the similarity of religious phenomena. The +Druids, as a more or less organised priesthood, would assist in +preserving the general likeness.</p> +<p>Thus the primitive nature-spirits gave place to greater or +lesser gods, each with his separate department and functions. +Though growing civilisation tended to separate them from the soil, +they never quite lost touch with it. In return for man's worship +and sacrifices, they gave life and increase, victory, strength, and +skill. But these sacrifices, had been and still often were rites in +which the representative of a god was slain. Some divinities were +worshipped over a wide area, most were gods of local groups, and +there were spirits of every place, hill, wood, and stream. Magic +rites mingled with the cult, but both were guided by an organised +priesthood. And as the Celts believed in unseen gods, so they +believed in an unseen region whither they passed after death.</p> +<p>Our knowledge of the higher side of Celtic religion is +practically a blank, since no description of the inner spiritual +life has come down to us. How far the Celts cultivated religion in +our sense of the term, or had glimpses of Monotheism, or were +troubled by a deep sense of sin, is unknown. But a people whose +spiritual influence has later been so great, must have had glimpses +of these things. Some of them must have known the thirst of the +soul for God, or sought a higher ethical standard than that of +their time. The enthusiastic reception of Christianity, the +devotion of the early Celtic saints, and the character of the old +Celtic church, all suggest this.</p> +<p>The relation of the Celtic church to paganism was mainly +intolerant, though not wholly so. It often adopted the less +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>{7}</span> +harmful customs of the past, merging pagan festivals in its own, +founding churches on the sites of the old cult, dedicating sacred +wells to a saint. A saint would visit the tomb of a pagan to hear +an old epic rehearsed, or would call up pagan heroes from hell and +give them a place in paradise. Other saints recall dead heroes from +the Land of the Blessed, and learn the nature of that wonderland +and the heroic deeds</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Of the old days, which seem to be</p> +<p>Much older than any history</p> +<p>That is written in any book."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Reading such narratives, we gain a lesson in the fine spirit of +Christian tolerance and Christian sympathy.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name= +"footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag2">(return)</a> +<p>Some writers saw in the bardic poetry a Druidic-esoteric system +and traces of a cult practised secretly by the bards—the +"Neo-Druidic heresy"; see Davies, <i>Myth. of the Brit. Druids</i>, +1809; Herbert, <i>The Neo-Druidic Heresy</i>, 1838. Several French +writers saw in "Druidism" a monotheistic faith, veiled under +polytheism.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name= +"footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag3">(return)</a> +<p>Livy, v. 46; Cæsar, vi. 16; Dion. Hal. vii. 70; Arrian, +<i>Cyneg</i>. xxxv. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name= +"footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag4">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 15, cf. v. 12, "having waged war, remained +there and cultivated the lands."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name= +"footnote5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag5">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. Pliny, <i>HN</i> xvii. 7, xviii. 18 on the wheeled ploughs +and agricultural methods of Gauls and Britons. Cf. also Strabo, iv. +1. 2, iv. 5. 5; Girald. Camb. <i>Top. Hib.</i> i. 4, <i>Descr. +Camb.</i> i. 8; Joyce, <i>SH</i> ii. 264.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>{8}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap2" id="chap2">CHAPTER II.</a></h2> +<h3>THE CELTIC PEOPLE.</h3> +<p>Scrutiny reveals the fact that Celtic-speaking peoples are of +differing types—short and dark as well as tall and fairer +Highlanders or Welshmen, short, broad-headed Bretons, various types +of Irishmen. Men with Norse names and Norse aspect "have the +Gaelic." But all alike have the same character and temperament, a +striking witness to the influence which the character as well as +the language of the Celts, whoever they were, made on all with whom +they mingled. Ethnologically there may not be a Celtic race, but +something was handed down from the days of comparative Celtic +purity which welded different social elements into a common type, +found often where no Celtic tongue is now spoken. It emerges where +we least expect it, and the stolid Anglo-Saxon may suddenly awaken +to something in himself due to a forgotten Celtic strain in his +ancestry.</p> +<p>Two main theories of Celtic origins now hold the field:</p> +<p>(1) The Celts are identified with the progenitors of the short, +brachycephalic "Alpine race" of Central Europe, existing there in +Neolithic times, after their migrations from Africa and Asia. The +type is found among the Slavs, in parts of Germany and Scandinavia, +and in modern France in the region of Cæsar's "Celtæ," +among the Auvergnats, the Bretons, and in Lozère and Jura. +Representatives of the type have been <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>{9}</span> found in +Belgian and French Neolithic graves.<a id="footnotetag6" name= +"footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> Professor +Sergi calls this the "Eurasiatic race," and, contrary to general +opinion, identifies it with the Aryans, a savage people, inferior +to the dolichocephalic Mediterranean race, whose language they +Aryanised.<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href= +"#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a> Professor Keane thinks that they were +themselves an Aryanised folk before reaching Europe, who in turn +gave their acquired Celtic and Slavic speech to the preceding +masses. Later came the Belgæ, Aryans, who acquired the Celtic +speech of the people they conquered.<a id="footnotetag8" name= +"footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a></p> +<p>Broca assumed that the dark, brachycephalic people whom he +identified with Cæsar's "Celtæ," differed from the +Belgæ, were conquered by them, and acquired the language of +their conquerors, hence wrongly called Celtic by philologists. The +Belgæ were tall and fair, and overran Gaul, except Aquitaine, +mixing generally with the Celtæ, who in Cæsar's time +had thus an infusion of Belgic blood.<a id="footnotetag9" name= +"footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> But before +this conquest, the Celtæ had already mingled with the +aboriginal dolichocephalic folk of Gaul, Iberians, or +Mediterraneans of Professor Sergi. The latter had apparently +remained comparatively pure from admixture in Aquitaine, and are +probably the Aquitani of Cæsar.<a id="footnotetag10" name= +"footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a></p> +<p>But were the short, brachycephalic folk Celts? Cæsar says +the people who call themselves "Celtæ" were called Gauls by +the Romans, and Gauls, according to classical writers, were tall +and fair.<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href= +"#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a> Hence the Celtæ were not a +short, dark race, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id= +"page10"></a>{10}</span> and Cæsar himself says that Gauls +(including Celtæ) looked with contempt on the short +Romans.<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href= +"#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a> Strabo also says that Celtæ +and Belgæ had the same Gaulish appearance, <i>i.e.</i> tall +and fair. Cæsar's statement that Aquitani, Galli, and +Belgæ differ in language, institutions, and laws is vague and +unsupported by evidence, and may mean as to language no more than a +difference in dialects. This is also suggested by Strabo's words, +Celtæ and Belgæ "differ a little" in language.<a id= +"footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href= +"#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a> No classical writer describes the +Celts as short and dark, but the reverse. Short, dark people would +have been called Iberians, without respect to skulls. Classical +observers were not craniologists. The short, brachycephalic type is +now prominent in France, because it has always been so, eliminating +the tall, fair Celtic type. Conquering Celts, fewer in number than +the broad and narrow-headed aborigines, intermarried or made less +lasting alliances with them. In course of time the type of the more +numerous race was bound to prevail. Even in Cæsar's day the +latter probably outnumbered the tall and fair Celts, who had, +however, Celticised them. But classical writers, who knew the true +Celt as tall and fair, saw that type only, just as every one, on +first visiting France or Germany, sees his generalised type of +Frenchman or German everywhere. Later, he modifies his opinion, but +this the classical observers did not do. Cæsar's campaigns +must have drained Gaul of many tall and fair Celts. This, with the +tendency of dark types to out-number fair types in South and +Central Europe, may help to explain the growing prominence of the +dark type, though the tall, fair type is far from uncommon.<a id= +"footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href= +"#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a></p> +<p>(2) The second theory, already anticipated, sees in Gauls and +Belgæ a tall, fair Celtic folk, speaking a Celtic language, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>{11}</span> +and belonging to the race which stretched from Ireland to Asia +Minor, from North Germany to the Po, and were masters of Teutonic +tribes till they were driven by them from the region between Elbe +and Rhine.<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href= +"#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a> Some Belgic tribes claimed a +Germanic ancestry,<a id="footnotetag16" name= +"footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a> but +"German" was a word seldom used with precision, and in this case +may not mean Teutonic. The fair hair of this people has made many +suppose that they were akin to the Teutons. But fairness is +relative, and the dark Romans may have called brown hair fair, +while they occasionally distinguished between the "fair" Gauls and +fairer Germans. Their institutions and their religions (<i>pace</i> +Professor Rh[^y]s) differed, and though they were so long in +contact the names of their gods and priests are unlike.<a id= +"footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href= +"#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a> Their languages, again, though of +"Aryan" stock, differ more from each other than does Celtic from +Italic, pointing to a long period of Italo-Celtic unity, before +Italiotes and Celts separated, and Celts came in contact with +Teutons.<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href= +"#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a> The typical German differs in +mental and moral qualities from the typical Celt. Contrast an east +country Scot, descendant of Teutonic stock, with a West Highlander, +and the difference leaps to the eyes. Celts and Germans of history +differ, then, in relative fairness, character, religion, and +language.</p> +<p>The tall, blonde Teutonic type of the Row graves is +dolichocephalic. Was the Celtic type (assuming that Broca's "Celts" +were not true Celts) dolicho or brachy? Broca thinks the +Belgæ or "Kymri" were dolichocephalic, but all must agree +with him that the skulls are too few to generalise from. Celtic +iron-age skulls in Britain are dolichocephalic, perhaps a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>{12}</span> +recrudescence of the aboriginal type. Broca's "Kymric" skulls are +mesocephalic; this he attributes to crossing with the short +round-heads. The evidence is too scanty for generalisation, while +the Walloons, perhaps descendants of the Belgæ, have a high +index, and some Gauls of classical art are broad-headed.<a id= +"footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href= +"#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a></p> +<p>Skulls of the British round barrows (early Celtic Bronze Age) +are mainly broad, the best specimens showing affinity to Neolithic +brachycephalic skulls from Grenelle (though their owners were 5 +inches shorter), Selaigneaux, and Borreby.<a id="footnotetag20" +name="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a> +Dr. Beddoe thinks that the narrow-skulled Belgæ on the whole +reinforced the meso- or brachycephalic round barrow folk in +Britain. Dr. Thurnam identifies the latter with the Belgæ +(Broca's Kymri), and thinks that Gaulish skulls were round, with +beetling brows.<a id="footnotetag21" name= +"footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a> +Professors Ripley and Sergi, disregarding their difference in +stature and higher cephalic index, identify them with the short +Alpine race (Broca's Celts). This is negatived by Mr. Keane.<a id= +"footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href= +"#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a> Might not both, however, have +originally sprung from a common stock and reached Europe at +different times?<a id="footnotetag23" name= +"footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a></p> +<p>But do a few hundred skulls justify these far-reaching +conclusions regarding races enduring for thousands of years? At +some very remote period there may have been a Celtic type, as at +some further period there may have been an Aryan type. But the +Celts, as we know them, must have mingled with the aborigines of +Europe and become a mixed race, though preserving and endowing +others with their racial and mental characteristics. Some Gauls or +Belgæ were dolichocephalic, <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page13" id="page13"></a>{13}</span> to judge by their skulls, +others were brachycephalic, while their fairness was a relative +term. Classical observers probably generalised from the higher +classes, of a purer type; they tell us nothing of the people. But +the higher classes may have had varying skulls, as well as stature +and colour of hair,<a id="footnotetag24" name= +"footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a> and +Irish texts tell of a tall, fair, blue-eyed stock, and a short, +dark, dark-eyed stock, in Ireland. Even in those distant ages we +must consider the people on whom the Celts impressed their +characteristics, as well as the Celts themselves. What happened on +the Eurasian steppe, the hypothetical cradle of the "Aryans," +whence the Celts came "stepping westwards," seems clear to some, +but in truth is a book sealed with seven seals. The men whose Aryan +speech was to dominate far and wide may already have possessed +different types of skull, and that age was far from "the very +beginning."</p> +<p>Thus the Celts before setting out on their <i>Wanderjahre</i> +may already have been a mixed race, even if their leaders were of +purer stock. But they had the bond of common speech, institutions, +and religion, and they formed a common Celtic type in Central and +Western Europe. Intermarriage with the already mixed Neolithic folk +of Central Europe produced further removal from the unmixed Celtic +racial type; but though both reacted on each other as far as +language, custom, and belief were concerned, on the whole the +Celtic elements predominated in these respects. The Celtic +migration into Gaul produced further racial mingling with +descendants of the old palæolithic stock, dolichocephalic +Iberians and Ligurians, and brachycephalic swarthy folk (Broca's +Celts). Thus even the first Celtic arrivals in Britain, the +Goidels, were a people of mixed race, though probably relatively +purer than the late coming Brythons, the latest of whom had +probably mingled with the Teutons. Hence among Celtic-speaking folk +or their <span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id= +"page14"></a>{14}</span> descendants—short, dark, +broad-beaded Bretons, tall, fair or rufous Highlanders, tall +chestnut-haired Welshmen or Irishmen, Highlanders of Norse descent, +short, dark, narrow-headed Highlanders, Irishmen, and +Welshmen—there is a common Celtic <i>facies</i>, the result +of old Celtic characteristics powerful enough so to impress +themselves on such varied peoples in spite of what they gave to the +Celtic incomers. These peoples became Celtic, and Celtic in speech +and character they have remained, even where ancestral physical +types are reasserting themselves. The folk of a Celtic type, +whether pre-Celtic, Celtic, or Norse, have all spoken a Celtic +language and exhibit the same old Celtic +characteristics—vanity, loquacity, excitability, fickleness, +imagination, love of the romantic, fidelity, attachment to family +ties, sentimental love of their country, religiosity passing over +easily to superstition, and a comparatively high degree of sexual +morality. Some of these traits were already noted by classical +observers.</p> +<p>Celtic speech had early lost the initial <i>p</i> of old +Indo-European speech, except in words beginning with <i>pt</i> and, +perhaps, <i>ps</i>. Celtic <i>pare</i> (Lat. <i>præ</i>) +became <i>are</i>, met with in <i>Aremorici</i>, "the dwellers by +the sea," <i>Arecluta</i>, "by the Clyde," the region watered by +the Clyde. Irish <i>athair</i>, Manx <i>ayr</i>, and Irish +<i>iasg</i>, represent respectively Latin <i>pater</i> and +<i>piscis</i>. <i>P</i> occurring between vowels was also lost, +<i>e.g.</i> Irish <i>caora</i>, "sheep," is from <i>kaperax</i>; +<i>for</i>, "upon" (Lat. <i>super</i>), from <i>uper</i>. This +change took place before the Goidelic Celts broke away and invaded +Britain in the tenth century B.C., but while Celts and Teutons were +still in contact, since Teutons borrowed words with initial +<i>p</i>, <i>e.g.</i> Gothic <i>fairguni</i>, "mountain," from +Celtic <i>percunion</i>, later <i>Ercunio</i>, the Hercynian +forest. The loss must have occurred before 1000 B.C. But after the +separation of the Goidelic group a further change took place. +Goidels preserved the sound represented by <i>qu</i>, or more +simply by <i>c</i> or <i>ch</i>, but this <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>{15}</span> was changed +into <i>p</i> by the remaining continental Celts, who carried with +them into Gaul, Spain, Italy, and Britain (the Brythons) words in +which <i>q</i> became <i>p</i>. The British <i>Epidii</i> is from +Gaulish <i>epos</i>, "horse," which is in Old Irish <i>ech</i> +(Lat. <i>equus</i>). The Parisii take their name from +<i>Qarisii</i>, the Pictones or Pictavi of Poictiers from +<i>Pictos</i> (which in the plural <i>Pidi</i> gives us "Picts"), +derived from <i>quicto</i>. This change took place after the +Goidelic invasion of Britain in the tenth century B.C. On the other +hand, some continental Celts may later have regained the power of +pronouncing <i>q</i>. In Gaul the <i>q</i> of <i>Sequana</i> +(Seine) was not changed to <i>p</i>, and a tribe dwelling on its +banks was called the Sequani. This assumes that Sequana was a +pre-Celtic word, possibly Ligurian.<a id="footnotetag25" name= +"footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a> +Professor Rh[^y]s thinks, however, that Goidelic tribes, identified +by him with Cæsar's Celtæ, existed in Gaul and Spain +before the coming of the Galli, and had preserved <i>q</i> in their +speech. To them we owe Sequana, as well as certain names with +<i>q</i> in Spain.<a id="footnotetag26" name= +"footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> This at +least is certain, that Goidelic Celts of the <i>q</i> group +occupied Gaul and Spain before reaching Britain and Ireland. Irish +tradition and archæological data confirm this.<a id= +"footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href= +"#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a> But whether their descendants were +represented by Cæsar's "Celtæ" must be uncertain. +Celtæ and Galli, according to Cæsar, were one and the +same,<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href= +"#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a> and must have had the same general +form of speech.</p> +<p>The dialects of Goidelic speech—Irish, Manx, Gaelic, and +that of the continental Goidels—preserved the <i>q</i> sound; +those of Gallo-Brythonic speech—Gaulish, Breton, Welsh, +Cornish—changed <i>q</i> into <i>p</i>. The speech of the +Picts, perhaps connected with the Pictones of Gaul, also had this +<i>p</i> sound. Who, then, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" +id="page16"></a>{16}</span> were the Picts? According to Professor +Rh[^y]s they were pre-Aryans,<a id="footnotetag29" name= +"footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a> but +they must have been under the influence of Brythonic Celts. Dr. +Skene regarded them as Goidels speaking a Goidelic dialect with +Brythonic forms.<a id="footnotetag30" name= +"footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a> Mr. +Nicholson thinks they were Goidels who had preserved the +Indo-European <i>p</i>.<a id="footnotetag31" name= +"footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a> But +might they not be descendants of a Brythonic group, arriving early +in Britain and driven northwards by newcomers? Professor Windisch +and Dr. Stokes regard them as Celts, allied to the Brythons rather +than to the Goidels, the phonetics of their speech resembling those +of Welsh rather than Irish.<a id="footnotetag32" name= +"footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32"><sup>32</sup></a></p> +<p>The theory of an early Goidelic occupation of Britain has been +contested by Professor Meyer,<a id="footnotetag33" name= +"footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33"><sup>33</sup></a> who +holds that the first Goidels reached Britain from Ireland in the +second century, while Dr. MacBain<a id="footnotetag34" name= +"footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34"><sup>34</sup></a> was of +the opinion that England, apart from Wales and Cornwall, knew no +Goidels, the place-names being Brythonic. But unless all Goidels +reached Ireland from Gaul or Spain, as some did, Britain was more +easily reached than Ireland by migrating Goidels from the +Continent. Prominent Goidelic place-names would become Brythonic, +but insignificant places would retain their Goidelic form, and to +these we must look for decisive evidence.<a id="footnotetag35" +name="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35"><sup>35</sup></a> A +Goidelic occupation by the ninth century B.C. is suggested by the +name "Cassiterides" (a word of the <i>q</i> group) applied to +Britain. If the Goidels occupied Britain first, they may have +called their land <i>Qretanis</i> or <i>Qritanis</i>, which Pictish +invaders would change to <i>Pretanis</i>, found in Welsh "Ynys +Pridain," Pridain's Isle, or Isle of the Picts, "pointing to the +original underlying the Greek [Greek: Pretanikai Nêsoi] +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>{17}</span> +or Pictish Isles,"<a id="footnotetag36" name= +"footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36"><sup>36</sup></a> though +the change may be due to continental <i>p</i> Celts trading with +<i>q</i> Celts in Britain. With the Pictish occupation would agree +the fact that Irish Goidels called the Picts who came to Ireland +<i>Cruithne=Qritani=Pre-tani</i>. In Ireland they almost certainly +adopted Goidelic speech.</p> +<p>Whether or not all the Pictish invaders of Britain were called +"Pictavi," this word or Picti, perhaps from <i>quicto</i> (Irish +<i>cicht</i>, "engraver"),<a id="footnotetag37" name= +"footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37"><sup>37</sup></a> became +a general name for this people. <i>Q</i> had been changed into +<i>p</i> on the Continent; hence "Pictavi" or "Pictones," "the +tattooed men," those who "engraved" figures on their bodies, as the +Picts certainly did. Dispossessed and driven north by incoming +Brythons and Belgæ, they later became the virulent enemies of +Rome. In 306 Eumenius describes all the northern tribes as +"Caledonii and other Picts," while some of the tribes mentioned by +Ptolemy have Brythonic names or names with Gaulish cognates. +Place-names in the Pictish area, personal names in the Pictish +chronicle, and Pictish names like "Peanfahel,"<a id="footnotetag38" +name="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38"><sup>38</sup></a> +have Brythonic affinities. If the Picts spoke a Brythonic dialect, +S. Columba's need of an interpreter when preaching to them would be +explained.<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href= +"#footnote39"><sup>39</sup></a> Later the Picts were conquered by +Irish Goidels, the Scotti. The Picts, however, must already have +mingled with aboriginal peoples and with Goidels, if these were +already in Britain, and they may have adopted their supposed +non-Aryan customs from the aborigines. On the other hand, the +matriarchate seems at one time to have been Celtic, and it may have +been no more than a conservative survival in the Pictish royal +house, as it was elsewhere.<a id="footnotetag40" name= +"footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40"><sup>40</sup></a> +Britons, as well as Caledonii, had wives in common.<a id= +"footnotetag41" name="footnotetag41"></a><a href= +"#footnote41"><sup>41</sup></a> As to tattooing, it was practised +by the Scotti ("the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id= +"page18"></a>{18}</span> scarred and painted men"?), and the +Britons dyed themselves with woad, while what seem to be tattoo +marks appear on faces on Gaulish coins.<a id="footnotetag42" name= +"footnotetag42"></a><a href="#footnote42"><sup>42</sup></a> +Tattooing, painting, and scarifying the body are varieties of one +general custom, and little stress can be laid on Pictish tattooing +as indicating a racial difference. Its purpose may have been +ornamental, or possibly to impart an aspect of fierceness, or the +figures may have been totem marks, as they are elsewhere. Finally, +the description of the Caledonii, a Pictish people, possessing +flaming hair and mighty limbs, shows that they differed from the +short, dark pre-Celtic folk.<a id="footnotetag43" name= +"footnotetag43"></a><a href="#footnote43"><sup>43</sup></a></p> +<p>The Pictish problem must remain obscure, a welcome puzzle to +antiquaries, philologists, and ethnologists. Our knowledge of +Pictish religion is too scanty for the interpretation of Celtic +religion to be affected by it. But we know that the Picts offered +sacrifice before war—a Celtic custom, and had Druids, as also +had the Celts.</p> +<p>The earliest Celtic "kingdom" was in the region between the +upper waters of the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Danube, where probably +in Neolithic times the formation of their Celtic speech as a +distinctive language began. Here they first became known to the +Greeks, probably as a semi-mythical people, the +Hyperboreans—the folk dwelling beyond the Ripoean mountains +whence Boreas blew—with whom Hecatæus in the fourth +century identifies them. But they were now known as Celts, and +their territory as Celtica, while "Galatas" was used as a synonym +of "Celtæ," in the third century B.C.<a id="footnotetag44" +name="footnotetag44"></a><a href="#footnote44"><sup>44</sup></a> +The name generally applied by the Romans to the Celts was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>{19}</span> +"Galli" a term finally confined by them to the people of +Gaul.<a id="footnotetag45" name="footnotetag45"></a><a href= +"#footnote45"><sup>45</sup></a> Successive bands of Celts went +forth from this comparatively restricted territory, until the +Celtic "empire" for some centuries before 300 B.C. included the +British Isles, parts of the Iberian peninsula, Gaul, North Italy, +Belgium, Holland, great part of Germany, and Austria. When the +German tribes revolted, Celtic bands appeared in Asia Minor, and +remained there as the Galatian Celts. Archæological +discoveries with a Celtic <i>facies</i> have been made in most of +these lands but even more striking is the witness of place-names. +Celtic <i>dunon</i>, a fort or castle (the Gaelic <i>dun</i>), is +found in compound names from Ireland to Southern Russia. +<i>Magos</i>, "a field," is met with in Britain, France, +Switzerland, Prussia, Italy, and Austria. River and mountain names +familiar in Britain occur on the Continent. The Pennine range of +Cumberland has the same name as the Appenines. Rivers named for +their inherent divinity, <i>devos</i>, are found in Britain and on +the Continent—Dee, Deva, etc.</p> +<p>Besides this linguistic, had the Celts also a political unity +over their great "empire," under one head? Such a unity certainly +did not prevail from Ireland to the Balkan peninsula, but it +prevailed over a large part of the Celtic area. Livy, following +Timagenes, who perhaps cited a lost Celtic epos, speaks of king +Ambicatus ruling over the Celts from Spain to Germany, and sending +his sister's sons, Bellovesus and Segovesus, with many followers, +to found new colonies in Italy and the Hercynian forest.<a id= +"footnotetag46" name="footnotetag46"></a><a href= +"#footnote46"><sup>46</sup></a> Mythical as this may be, it +suggests the hegemony of one tribe or one chief over other tribes +and chiefs, for Livy says that the sovereign power rested with the +Bituriges who appointed the king of Celticum, <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>{20}</span> viz. +Ambicatus. Some such unity is necessary to explain Celtic power in +the ancient world, and it was made possible by unity of race or at +least of the congeries of Celticised peoples, by religious +solidarity, and probably by regular gatherings of all the kings or +chiefs. If the Druids were a Celtic priesthood at this time, or +already formed a corporation as they did later in Gaul, they must +have endeavoured to form and preserve such a unity. And if it was +never so compact as Livy's words suggest, it must have been +regarded as an ideal by the Celts or by their poets, Ambicatus +serving as a central figure round which the ideas of empire +crystallised. The hegemony existed in Gaul, where the Arverni and +their king claimed power over the other tribes, and where the +Romans tried to weaken the Celtic unity by opposing to them the +Aedni.<a id="footnotetag47" name="footnotetag47"></a><a href= +"#footnote47"><sup>47</sup></a> In Belgium the hegemony was in the +hands of the Suessiones, to whose king Belgic tribes in Britain +submitted.<a id="footnotetag48" name="footnotetag48"></a><a href= +"#footnote48"><sup>48</sup></a> In Ireland the "high king" was +supreme over other smaller kings, and in Galatia the unity of the +tribes was preserved by a council with regular assemblies.<a id= +"footnotetag49" name="footnotetag49"></a><a href= +"#footnote49"><sup>49</sup></a></p> +<p>The diffusion of the Ambicatus legend would help to preserve +unity by recalling the mythic greatness of the past. The Boii and +Insubri appealed to transalpine Gauls for aid by reminding them of +the deeds of their ancestors.<a id="footnotetag50" name= +"footnotetag50"></a><a href="#footnote50"><sup>50</sup></a> Nor +would the Druids omit to infuse into their pupils' minds the +sentiment of national greatness. For this and for other reasons, +the Romans, to whom "the sovereignty of all Gaul" was an obnoxious +watch-word, endeavoured to suppress them.<a id="footnotetag51" +name="footnotetag51"></a><a href="#footnote51"><sup>51</sup></a> +But the Celts were too widely scattered ever to form a compact +empire.<a id="footnotetag52" name="footnotetag52"></a><a href= +"#footnote52"><sup>52</sup></a> The Roman empire extended itself +gradually in the consciousness of <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page21" id="page21"></a>{21}</span> its power; the cohesion of the +Celts in an empire or under one king was made impossible by their +migrations and diffusion. Their unity, such as it was, was broken +by the revolt of the Teutonic tribes, and their subjugation was +completed by Rome. The dreams of wide empire remained dreams. For +the Celts, in spite of their vigour, have been a race of dreamers, +their conquests in later times, those of the spirit rather than of +the mailed fist. Their superiority has consisted in imparting to +others their characteristics; organised unity and a vast empire +could never be theirs.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name= +"footnote6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag6">(return)</a> +<p>Ripley, <i>Races of Europe</i>; Wilser, <i>L'Anthropologie</i>, +xiv. 494; Collignon, <i>ibid.</i> 1-20; Broca, <i>Rev. +d'Anthrop.</i> ii. 589 ff.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name= +"footnote7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag7">(return)</a> +<p>Sergi, <i>The Mediterranean Race</i>, 241 ff., 263 ff.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name= +"footnote8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag8">(return)</a> +<p>Keane, <i>Man, Past and Present</i>, 511 ff., 521, 528.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9" name= +"footnote9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag9">(return)</a> +<p>Broca, <i>Mem. d'Anthrop.</i> i. 370 ff. Hovelacque thinks, with +Keane, that the Gauls learned Celtic from the dark round-heads. But +Galatian and British Celts, who had never been in contact with the +latter, spoke Celtic. See Holmes, <i>Cæsar's Conquest of +Gaul</i>, 311-312.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10" name= +"footnote10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag10">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, i. 1; Collignon, <i>Mem. Soc. d'Anthrop. de +Paris</i>, 3<sup>me</sup> ser. i. 67.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11" name= +"footnote11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag11">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, i. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12" name= +"footnote12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag12">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, ii. 30.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote13" name= +"footnote13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag13">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, i. 1; Strabo, iv. 1. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote14" name= +"footnote14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag14">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. Holmes, 295; Beddoe, <i>Scottish Review</i>, xix. 416.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote15" name= +"footnote15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag15">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 175.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote16" name= +"footnote16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag16">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, ii. 4; Strabo, vii. 1. 2. Germans are taller and +fairer than Gauls; Tacitus, <i>Agric.</i> ii. Cf. Beddoe, +<i>JAI</i> xx. 354-355.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote17" name= +"footnote17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag17">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>PH</i> ii. 374. Welsh Gwydion and Teutonic Wuotan +may have the same root, see p. <a href="#page105">105</a>. Celtic +Taranis has been compared to Donar, but there is no connection, and +Taranis was not certainly a thunder-god. Much of the folk-religion +was alike, but this applies to folk-religion everywhere.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote18" name= +"footnote18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag18">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 251.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote19" name= +"footnote19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag19">(return)</a> +<p>Beddoe, <i>L'Anthropologie</i>, v. 516. Tall, fair, and highly +brachycephalic types are still found in France, <i>ibid.</i> i. +213; Bortrand-Reinach, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 39.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote20" name= +"footnote20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag20">(return)</a> +<p>Beddoe, 516; <i>L'Anthrop.</i>, v. 63; Taylor, 81; Greenwell, +<i>British Barrows</i>, 680.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote21" name= +"footnote21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag21">(return)</a> +<p><i>Fort. Rev.</i> xvi. 328; <i>Mem. of London Anthr. Soc.</i>, +1865.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote22" name= +"footnote22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag22">(return)</a> +<p>Ripley, 309; Sergi, 243; Keane, 529; Taylor, 112.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote23" name= +"footnote23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag23">(return)</a> +<p>Taylor, 122, 295.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote24" name= +"footnote24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag24">(return)</a> +<p>The Walloons are both dark and fair.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote25" name= +"footnote25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag25">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>PH</i> ii. 132.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote26" name= +"footnote26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag26">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>Proc. Phil. Soc.</i> 1891; "Celtæ and Galli," +<i>Proc. Brit. Acad.</i> ii. D'Arbois points out that we do not +know that these words are Celtic (<i>RC</i> xii, 478).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote27" name= +"footnote27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag27">(return)</a> +<p>See pp. <a href="#page51">51</a>, <a href= +"#page376">376</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote28" name= +"footnote28"></a><b>Footnote 28:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag28">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, i. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote29" name= +"footnote29"></a><b>Footnote 29:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag29">(return)</a> +<p><i>CB</i><sup>4</sup> 160.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote30" name= +"footnote30"></a><b>Footnote 30:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag30">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. ch. 8; see p. <a href="#page135">135</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote31" name= +"footnote31"></a><b>Footnote 31:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag31">(return)</a> +<p><i>ZCP</i> iii. 308; <i>Keltic Researches</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote32" name= +"footnote32"></a><b>Footnote 32:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag32">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, "Kelt. Sprachen," Ersch-Gruber's +<i>Encylopädie</i>; Stokes, <i>Linguistic Value of the Irish +Annals</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote33" name= +"footnote33"></a><b>Footnote 33:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag33">(return)</a> +<p><i>THSC</i> 1895-1896, 55 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote34" name= +"footnote34"></a><b>Footnote 34:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag34">(return)</a> +<p><i>CM</i> xii. 434.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote35" name= +"footnote35"></a><b>Footnote 35:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag35">(return)</a> +<p>In the Isle of Skye, where, looking at names of prominent places +alone, Norse derivatives are to Gaelic as 3 to 2, they are as 1 to +5 when names of insignificant places, untouched by Norse influence, +are included.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote36" name= +"footnote36"></a><b>Footnote 36:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag36">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>CB</i><sup>4</sup> 241.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote37" name= +"footnote37"></a><b>Footnote 37:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag37">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 22.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote38" name= +"footnote38"></a><b>Footnote 38:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag38">(return)</a> +<p>Bede, <i>Eccl. Hist.</i> i. 12.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote39" name= +"footnote39"></a><b>Footnote 39:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag39">(return)</a> +<p>Adamnan, <i>Vita S. Col.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote40" name= +"footnote40"></a><b>Footnote 40:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag40">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page222">222</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote41" name= +"footnote41"></a><b>Footnote 41:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag41">(return)</a> +<p>Dio Cass. lxxvi. 12; Cæsar, v. 14. See p. <a href= +"#page223">223</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote42" name= +"footnote42"></a><b>Footnote 42:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag42">(return)</a> +<p>Isidore, <i>Etymol.</i> ix. 2, 103; Rh[^y]s, <i>CB</i> 242-243; +Cæsar, v. 14; Nicholson, <i>ZCP</i> in. 332.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote43" name= +"footnote43"></a><b>Footnote 43:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag43">(return)</a> +<p>Tacitus, <i>Agric.</i> ii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote44" name= +"footnote44"></a><b>Footnote 44:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag44">(return)</a> +<p>If <i>Celtæ</i> is from <i>qelo</i>, "to raise," it may +mean "the lofty," just as many savages call themselves "the men," +<i>par excellence</i>. Rh[^y]s derives it from <i>qel</i>, "to +slay," and gives it the sense of "warriors." See Holder, +<i>s.v.</i>; Stokes, <i>US</i> 83. <i>Galatæ</i> is from +<i>gala</i> (Irish <i>gal</i>), "bravery." Hence perhaps +"warriors."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote45" name= +"footnote45"></a><b>Footnote 45:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag45">(return)</a> +<p>"Galli" may be connected with "Galatæ," but D'Arbois +denies this. For all these titles see his <i>PH</i> ii. 396 ff.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote46" name= +"footnote46"></a><b>Footnote 46:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag46">(return)</a> +<p>Livy, v. 31 f.; D'Arbois, <i>PH</i> ii. 304, 391.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote47" name= +"footnote47"></a><b>Footnote 47:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag47">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, iv. 10. 3; Cæsar, i. 31, vii. 4; <i>Frag. Hist. +Græc.</i> i. 437.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote48" name= +"footnote48"></a><b>Footnote 48:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag48">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, ii. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote49" name= +"footnote49"></a><b>Footnote 49:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag49">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, xii. 5. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote50" name= +"footnote50"></a><b>Footnote 50:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag50">(return)</a> +<p>Polybius, ii. 22.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote51" name= +"footnote51"></a><b>Footnote 51:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag51">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, i. 2, 1-3.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote52" name= +"footnote52"></a><b>Footnote 52:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag52">(return)</a> +<p>On the subject of Celtic unity see Jullian, "Du patriotisme +gaulois," <i>RC</i> xxiii. 373.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>{22}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap3" id="chap3">CHAPTER III.</a></h2> +<h3>THE GODS OF GAUL AND THE CONTINENTAL CELTS.</h3> +<p>The passage in which Cæsar sums up the Gaulish pantheon +runs: "They worship chiefly the god Mercury; of him there are many +symbols, and they regard him as the inventor of all the arts, as +the guide of travellers, and as possessing great influence over +bargains and commerce. After him they worship Apollo and Mars, +Juppiter and Minerva. About these they hold much the same beliefs +as other nations. Apollo heals diseases, Minerva teaches the +elements of industry and the arts, Juppiter rules over the heavens, +Mars directs war.... All the Gauls assert that they are descended +from Dispater, their progenitor."<a id="footnotetag53" name= +"footnotetag53"></a><a href="#footnote53"><sup>53</sup></a></p> +<p>As will be seen in this chapter, the Gauls had many other gods +than these, while the Roman gods, by whose names Cæsar calls +the Celtic divinities, probably only approximately corresponded to +them in functions. As the Greeks called by the names of their own +gods those of Egypt, Persia, and Babylonia, so the Romans +identified Greek, Teutonic, and Celtic gods with theirs. The +identification was seldom complete, and often extended only to one +particular function or attribute. But, as in Gaul, it was often +part of a state policy, and there the fusion of cults was intended +to break the power of the Druids. The Gauls seem to have adopted +Roman civilisation easily, and to have acquiesced in the process of +assimilation of their <span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id= +"page23"></a>{23}</span> divinities to those of their conquerors. +Hence we have thousands of inscriptions in which a god is called by +the name of the Roman deity to whom he was assimilated and by his +own Celtic name—Jupiter Taranis, Apollo Grannus, etc. Or +sometimes to the name of the Roman god is added a descriptive +Celtic epithet or a word derived from a Celtic place-name. Again, +since Augustus reinstated the cult of the Lares, with himself as +chief Lar, the epithet Augustus was given to all gods to whom the +character of the Lares could be ascribed, <i>e.g.</i> Belenos +Augustus. Cults of local gods became cults of the genius of the +place, coupled with the genius of the emperor. In some cases, +however, the native name stands alone. The process was aided by +art. Celtic gods are represented after Greco-Roman or +Greco-Egyptian models. Sometimes these carry a native divine +symbol, or, in a few cases, the type is purely native, <i>e.g.</i> +that of Cernunnos. Thus the native paganism was largely transformed +before Christianity appeared in Gaul. Many Roman gods were +worshipped as such, not only by the Romans in Gaul, but by the +Gauls, and we find there also traces of the Oriental cults affected +by the Romans.<a id="footnotetag54" name= +"footnotetag54"></a><a href="#footnote54"><sup>54</sup></a></p> +<p>There were probably in Gaul many local gods, tribal or +otherwise, of roads and commerce, of the arts, of healing, etc., +who, bearing different names, might easily be identified with each +other or with Roman gods. Cæsar's Mercury, Mars, Minerva, +etc., probably include many local Minervas, Mars, and Mercuries. +There may, however, have been a few great gods common to all Gaul, +universally worshipped, besides the numerous local gods, some of +whom may have been adopted from the aborigines. An examination of +the divine names in Holder's <i>Altceltischer Sprachschatz</i> will +show how numerous the local gods of the continental Celts must have +been. Professor <span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id= +"page24"></a>{24}</span> Anwyl reckons that 270 gods are mentioned +once on inscriptions, 24 twice, 11 thrice, 10 four times, 3 five +times, 2 seven times, 4 fifteen times, 1 nineteen times (Grannos), +and 1 thirty-nine times (Belenos).<a id="footnotetag55" name= +"footnotetag55"></a><a href="#footnote55"><sup>55</sup></a></p> +<p>The god or gods identified with Mercury were very popular in +Gaul, as Cæsar's words and the witness of place-names derived +from the Roman name of the god show. These had probably supplanted +earlier names derived from those of the corresponding native gods. +Many temples of the god existed, especially in the region of the +Allobrogi, and bronze statuettes of him have been found in +abundance. Pliny also describes a colossal statue designed for the +Arverni who had a great temple of the god on the Puy de +Dôme.<a id="footnotetag56" name="footnotetag56"></a><a href= +"#footnote56"><sup>56</sup></a> Mercury was not necessarily the +chief god, and at times, <i>e.g.</i> in war, the native war-gods +would be prominent. The native names of the gods assimilated to +Mercury are many in number; in some cases they are epithets, +derived from the names of places where a local "Mercury" was +worshipped, in others they are derived from some function of the +gods.<a id="footnotetag57" name="footnotetag57"></a><a href= +"#footnote57"><sup>57</sup></a> One of these titles is Artaios, +perhaps cognate with Irish <i>art</i>, "god," or connected with +<i>artos</i>, "bear." Professor Rh[^y]s, however, finds its cognate +in Welsh <i>âr</i>, "ploughed land," as if one of the god's +functions connected him with agriculture.<a id="footnotetag58" +name="footnotetag58"></a><a href="#footnote58"><sup>58</sup></a> +This is supported by another inscription to Mercurius Cultor at +Wurtemberg. Local gods of agriculture must thus have been +assimilated to Mercury. A god Moccus, "swine," was also identified +with Mercury, and the swine was a frequent representative of the +corn-spirit or of vegetation divinities in <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>{25}</span> Europe. The +flesh of the animal was often mixed with the seed corn or buried in +the fields to promote fertility. The swine had been a sacred animal +among the Celts, but had apparently become an anthropomorphic god +of fertility, Moccus, assimilated to Mercury, perhaps because the +Greek Hermes caused fertility in flocks and herds. Such a god was +one of a class whose importance was great among the Celts as an +agricultural people.</p> +<p>Commerce, much developed among the settled Gauls, gave rise to a +god or gods who guarded roads over which merchants travelled, and +boundaries where their transactions took place. Hence we have an +inscription from Yorkshire, "To the god who invented roads and +paths," while another local god of roads, equated with Mercury, was +Cimiacinus.<a id="footnotetag59" name="footnotetag59"></a><a href= +"#footnote59"><sup>59</sup></a></p> +<p>Another god, Ogmíos, a native god of speech, who draws +men by chains fastened to the tip of his tongue, is identified in +Lucian with Heracles, and is identical with the Goidelic +Ogma.<a id="footnotetag60" name="footnotetag60"></a><a href= +"#footnote60"><sup>60</sup></a> Eloquence and speech are important +matters among primitive peoples, and this god has more likeness to +Mercury as a culture-god than to Heracles, Greek writers speaking +of eloquence as binding men with the chains of Hermes.</p> +<p>Several local gods, of agriculture, commerce, and culture, were +thus identified with Mercury, and the Celtic Mercury was sometimes +worshipped on hilltops, one of the epithets of the god, Dumias, +being connected with the Celtic word for hill or mound. Irish gods +were also associated with mounds.</p> +<p>Many local gods were identified with Apollo both in his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>{26}</span> +capacity of god of healing and also that of god of light.<a id= +"footnotetag61" name="footnotetag61"></a><a href= +"#footnote61"><sup>61</sup></a> The two functions are not +incompatible, and this is suggested by the name Grannos, god of +thermal springs both in Britain and on the Continent. The name is +connected with a root which gives words meaning "burning," +"shining," etc., and from which comes also Irish <i>grian</i>, +"sun." The god is still remembered in a chant sung round bonfires +in Auvergne. A sheaf of corn is set on fire, and called "Granno +mio," while the people sing, "Granno, my friend; Granno, my father; +Granno, my mother."<a id="footnotetag62" name= +"footnotetag62"></a><a href="#footnote62"><sup>62</sup></a> Another +god of thermal springs was Borvo, Bormo, or Bormanus, whose name is +derived from <i>borvo</i>, whence Welsh <i>berw</i>, "boiling," and +is evidently connected with the bubbling of the springs.<a id= +"footnotetag63" name="footnotetag63"></a><a href= +"#footnote63"><sup>63</sup></a> Votive tablets inscribed Grannos or +Borvo show that the offerers desired healing for themselves or +others.</p> +<p>The name Belenos found over a wide area, but mainly in Aquileia, +comes from <i>belo-s</i>, bright, and probably means "the shining +one." It is thus the name of a Celtic sun-god, equated with Apollo +in that character. If he is the Belinus referred to by Geoffrey of +Monmouth,<a id="footnotetag64" name="footnotetag64"></a><a href= +"#footnote64"><sup>64</sup></a> his cult must have extended into +Britain from the Continent, and he is often mentioned by classical +writers, while much later Ausonius speaks of his priest in +Gaul.<a id="footnotetag65" name="footnotetag65"></a><a href= +"#footnote65"><sup>65</sup></a> Many place and personal names point +to the popularity of his cult, and inscriptions show that he, too, +was a god of health and of healing-springs. The plant +<i>Belinuntia</i> <span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id= +"page27"></a>{27}</span> was called after him and venerated for its +healing powers.<a id="footnotetag66" name= +"footnotetag66"></a><a href="#footnote66"><sup>66</sup></a> The +sun-god's functions of light and fertility easily passed over into +those of health-giving, as our study of Celtic festivals will +show.</p> +<p>A god with the name Maponos, connected with words denoting +"youthfulness," is found in England and Gaul, equated with Apollo, +who himself is called <i>Bonus Puer</i> in a Dacian inscription. +Another god Mogons or Mogounos, whose name is derived from +<i>Mago</i>, "to increase," and suggests the idea of youthful +strength, may be a form of the sun-god, though some evidence points +to his having been a sky-god.<a id="footnotetag67" name= +"footnotetag67"></a><a href="#footnote67"><sup>67</sup></a></p> +<p>The Celtic Apollo is referred to by classical writers. Diodorus +speaks of his circular temple in an island of the Hyperboreans, +adorned with votive offerings. The kings of the city where the +temple stood, and its overseers, were called "Boreads," and every +nineteenth year the god appeared dancing in the sky at the spring +equinox.<a id="footnotetag68" name="footnotetag68"></a><a href= +"#footnote68"><sup>68</sup></a> The identifications of the temple +with Stonehenge and of the Boreads with the Bards are quite +hypothetical. Apollonius says that the Celts regarded the waters of +Eridanus as due to the tears of Apollo—probably a native myth +attributing the creation of springs and rivers to the tears of a +god, equated by the Greeks with Apollo.<a id="footnotetag69" name= +"footnotetag69"></a><a href="#footnote69"><sup>69</sup></a> The +Celtic sun-god, as has been seen, was a god of healing springs.</p> +<p>Some sixty names or titles of Celtic war-gods are known, +generally equated with Mars.<a id="footnotetag70" name= +"footnotetag70"></a><a href="#footnote70"><sup>70</sup></a> These +were probably local tribal <span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" +id="page28"></a>{28}</span> divinities regarded as leading their +worshippers to battle. Some of the names show that these gods were +thought of as mighty warriors, <i>e.g.</i> Caturix, "battle-king," +Belatu-Cadros—a common name in Britain—perhaps meaning +"comely in slaughter,"<a id="footnotetag71" name= +"footnotetag71"></a><a href="#footnote71"><sup>71</sup></a> and +Albiorix, "world-king."<a id="footnotetag72" name= +"footnotetag72"></a><a href="#footnote72"><sup>72</sup></a> Another +name, Rigisamus, from <i>rix</i> and <i>samus</i>, "like to," gives +the idea of "king-like."<a id="footnotetag73" name= +"footnotetag73"></a><a href="#footnote73"><sup>73</sup></a></p> +<p>Toutatis, Totatis, and Tutatis are found in inscriptions from +Seckau, York, and Old Carlisle, and may be identified with Lucan's +Teutates, who with Taranis and Esus mentioned by him, is regarded +as one of three pan-Celtic gods.<a id="footnotetag74" name= +"footnotetag74"></a><a href="#footnote74"><sup>74</sup></a> Had +this been the case we should have expected to find many more +inscriptions to them. The scholiast on Lucan identifies Teutates +now with Mars, now with Mercury. His name is connected with +<i>teuta</i>, "tribe," and he is thus a tribal war-god, regarded as +the embodiment of the tribe in its warlike capacity.</p> +<p>Neton, a war-god of the Accetani, has a name connected with +Irish <i>nia</i>, "warrior," and may be equated with the Irish +war-god Nét. Another god, Camulos, known from British and +continental inscriptions, and figured on British coins with warlike +emblems, has perhaps some connection with Cumal, father of Fionn, +though it is uncertain whether Cumal was an Irish divinity.<a id= +"footnotetag75" name="footnotetag75"></a><a href= +"#footnote75"><sup>75</sup></a></p> +<p>Another god equated with Mars is the Gaulish Braciaca, god of +malt. According to classical writers, the Celts were <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>{29}</span> drunken +race, and besides importing quantities of wine, they made their own +native drinks, <i>e.g.</i> [Greek: chourmi], the Irish +<i>cuirm</i>, and <i>braccat</i>, both made from malt +(<i>braich</i>).<a id="footnotetag76" name= +"footnotetag76"></a><a href="#footnote76"><sup>76</sup></a> These +words, with the Gaulish <i>brace</i>, "spelt,"<a id="footnotetag77" +name="footnotetag77"></a><a href="#footnote77"><sup>77</sup></a> +are connected with the name of this god, who was a divine +personification of the substance from which the drink was made +which produced, according to primitive ideas, the divine frenzy of +intoxication. It is not clear why Mars should have been equated +with this god.</p> +<p>Cæsar says that the Celtic Juppiter governed heaven. A god +who carries a wheel, probably a sun-god, and another, a god of +thunder, called Taranis, seem to have been equated with Juppiter. +The sun-god with the wheel was not equated with Apollo, who seems +to have represented Celtic sun-gods only in so far as they were +also gods of healing. In some cases the god with the wheel carries +also a thunderbolt, and on some altars, dedicated to Juppiter, both +a wheel and a thunderbolt are figured. Many races have symbolised +the sun as a circle or wheel, and an old Roman god, Summanus, +probably a sun-god, later assimilated to Juppiter, had as his +emblem a wheel. The Celts had the same symbolism, and used the +wheel symbol as an amulet,<a id="footnotetag78" name= +"footnotetag78"></a><a href="#footnote78"><sup>78</sup></a> while +at the midsummer festivals blazing wheels, symbolising the sun, +were rolled down a slope. Possibly the god carries a thunderbolt +because the Celts, like other races, believed that lightning was a +spark from the sun.</p> +<p>Three divinities have claims to be the god whom Cæsar +calls Dispater—a god with a hammer, a crouching god called +Cernunnos, and a god called Esus or Silvanus. Possibly the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>{30}</span> +native Dispater was differently envisaged in different districts, +so that these would be local forms of one god.</p> +<p>1. The god Taranis mentioned by Lucan is probably the Taranoos +and Taranucnos of inscriptions, sometimes equated with +Juppiter.<a id="footnotetag79" name="footnotetag79"></a><a href= +"#footnote79"><sup>79</sup></a> These names are connected with +Celtic words for "thunder"; hence Taranis is a thunder-god. The +scholiasts on Lucan identify him now with Juppiter, now with +Dispater. This latter identification is supported by many who +regard the god with the hammer as at once Taranis and Dispater, +though it cannot be proved that the god with the hammer is Taranis. +On one inscription the hammer-god is called Sucellos; hence we may +regard Taranis as a distinct deity, a thunder-god, equated with +Juppiter, and possibly represented by the Taran of the Welsh tale +of <i>Kulhwych</i>.<a id="footnotetag80" name= +"footnotetag80"></a><a href="#footnote80"><sup>80</sup></a></p> +<p>Primitive men, whose only weapon and tool was a stone axe or +hammer, must have regarded it as a symbol of force, then of +supernatural force, hence of divinity. It is represented on remains +of the Stone Age, and the axe was a divine symbol to the +Mycenæans, a hieroglyph of Neter to the Egyptians, and a +worshipful object to Polynesians and Chaldeans. The cult of axe or +hammer may have been widespread, and to the Celts, as to many other +peoples, it was a divine symbol. Thus it does not necessarily +denote a thunderbolt, but rather power and might, and possibly, as +the tool which shaped things, creative might. The Celts made <i>ex +voto</i> hammers of lead, or used axe-heads as amulets, or figured +them on altars and coins, and they also placed the hammer in the +hand of a god.<a id="footnotetag81" name= +"footnotetag81"></a><a href="#footnote81"><sup>81</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>{31}</span> +<p>The god with the hammer is a gracious bearded figure, clad in +Gaulish dress, and he carries also a cup. His plastic type is +derived from that of the Alexandrian Serapis, ruler of the +underworld, and that of Hades-Pluto.<a id="footnotetag82" name= +"footnotetag82"></a><a href="#footnote82"><sup>82</sup></a> His +emblems, especially that of the hammer, are also those of the Pluto +of the Etruscans, with whom the Celts had been in contact.<a id= +"footnotetag83" name="footnotetag83"></a><a href= +"#footnote83"><sup>83</sup></a> He is thus a Celtic Dispater, an +underworld god, possibly at one time an Earth-god and certainly a +god of fertility, and ancestor of the Celtic folk. In some cases, +like Serapis, he carries a <i>modius</i> on his head, and this, +like the cup, is an emblem of chthonian gods, and a symbol of the +fertility of the soil. The god being benevolent, his hammer, like +the tool with which man forms so many things, could only be a +symbol of creative force.<a id="footnotetag84" name= +"footnotetag84"></a><a href="#footnote84"><sup>84</sup></a> As an +ancestor of the Celts, the god is naturally represented in Celtic +dress. In one bas-relief he is called Sucellos, and has a consort, +Nantosvelta.<a id="footnotetag85" name="footnotetag85"></a><a href= +"#footnote85"><sup>85</sup></a> Various meanings have been assigned +to "Sucellos," but it probably denotes the god's power of striking +with the hammer. M. D'Arbois hence regards him as a god of blight +and death, like Balor.<a id="footnotetag86" name= +"footnotetag86"></a><a href="#footnote86"><sup>86</sup></a> But +though this Celtic Dispater was a god of the dead who lived on in +the underworld, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id= +"page32"></a>{32}</span> he was not necessarily a destructive god. +The underworld god was the god from whom or from whose kingdom men +came forth, and he was also a god of fertility. To this we shall +return.</p> +<p>2. A bearded god, probably squatting, with horns from each of +which hangs a torque, is represented on an altar found at +Paris.<a id="footnotetag87" name="footnotetag87"></a><a href= +"#footnote87"><sup>87</sup></a> He is called Cernunnos, perhaps +"the horned," from <i>cerna</i>, "horn," and a whole group of +nameless gods, with similar or additional attributes, have +affinities with him.</p> +<p>(<i>a</i>) A bronze statuette from Autun represents a similar +figure, probably horned, who presents a torque to two ram's-headed +serpents. Fixed above his ears are two small heads.<a id= +"footnotetag88" name="footnotetag88"></a><a href= +"#footnote88"><sup>88</sup></a> On a monument from Vandoeuvres is a +squatting horned god, pressing a sack. Two genii stand beside him +on a serpent, while one of them holds a torque.<a id= +"footnotetag89" name="footnotetag89"></a><a href= +"#footnote89"><sup>89</sup></a></p> +<p>(<i>b</i>) Another squatting horned figure with a torque occurs +on an altar from Reims. He presses a bag, from which grain escapes, +and on it an ox and stag are feeding. A rat is represented on the +pediment above, and on either side stand Apollo and Mercury.<a id= +"footnotetag90" name="footnotetag90"></a><a href= +"#footnote90"><sup>90</sup></a> On the altar of Saintes is a +squatting but headless god with torque and purse. Beside him is a +goddess with a cornucopia, and a smaller divinity with a cornucopia +and an apple. A similar squatting figure, supported by male and +female deities, is represented on the other side of the +altar.<a id="footnotetag91" name="footnotetag91"></a><a href= +"#footnote91"><sup>91</sup></a> On the altar of Beaune are three +figures, one horned with a cornucopia, another three-headed, +holding a basket.<a id="footnotetag92" name= +"footnotetag92"></a><a href="#footnote92"><sup>92</sup></a> Three +figures, one female and two male, are found on the Dennevy altar. +One god is three-faced, the other has a cornucopia, which he offers +to a serpent.<a id="footnotetag93" name= +"footnotetag93"></a><a href="#footnote93"><sup>93</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>{33}</span> +<p>(<i>c</i>) Another image represents a three-faced god, holding a +serpent with a ram's head.<a id="footnotetag94" name= +"footnotetag94"></a><a href="#footnote94"><sup>94</sup></a></p> +<p>(<i>d</i>) Above a seated god and goddess on an altar from +Malmaison is a block carved to represent three faces. To be +compared with these are seven steles from Reims, each with a triple +face but only one pair of eyes. Above some of these is a ram's +head. On an eighth stele the heads are separated.<a id= +"footnotetag95" name="footnotetag95"></a><a href= +"#footnote95"><sup>95</sup></a></p> +<p>Cernunnos may thus have been regarded as a three-headed, horned, +squatting god, with a torque and ram's-headed serpent. But a horned +god is sometimes a member of a triad, perhaps representing myths in +which Cernunnos was associated with other gods. The three-headed +god may be the same as the horned god, though on the Beaune altar +they are distinct. The various representations are linked together, +but it is not certain that all are varying types of one god. Horns, +torque, horned snake, or even the triple head may have been symbols +pertaining to more than one god, though generally associated with +Cernunnos.</p> +<p>The squatting attitude of the god has been differently +explained, and its affinities regarded now as Buddhist, now as +Greco-Egyptian.<a id="footnotetag96" name= +"footnotetag96"></a><a href="#footnote96"><sup>96</sup></a> But if +the god is a Dispater, and the ancestral god of the Celts, it is +natural, as M. Mowat points out, to represent him in the typical +attitude of the Gauls when sitting, since they did not use +seats.<a id="footnotetag97" name="footnotetag97"></a><a href= +"#footnote97"><sup>97</sup></a> While the horns were probably +symbols of power and worn also by chiefs on their helmets,<a id= +"footnotetag98" name="footnotetag98"></a><a href= +"#footnote98"><sup>98</sup></a> they may also show that the god was +an anthropomorphic form of an earlier animal god, like the +wolf-skin of other gods. Hence also horned animals would be +regarded as symbols of the god, and this may account for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>{34}</span> +their presence on the Reims monument. Animals are sometimes +represented beside the divinities who were their anthropomorphic +forms.<a id="footnotetag99" name="footnotetag99"></a><a href= +"#footnote99"><sup>99</sup></a> Similarly the ram's-headed serpent +points to animal worship. But its presence with three-headed and +horned gods is enigmatic, though, as will be seen later, it may +have been connected with a cult of the dead, while the serpent was +a chthonian animal.<a id="footnotetag100" name= +"footnotetag100"></a><a href="#footnote100"><sup>100</sup></a> +These gods were gods of fertility and of the underworld of the +dead. While the bag or purse (interchangeable with the cornucopia) +was a symbol of Mercury, it was also a symbol of Pluto, and this +may point to the fact that the gods who bear it had the same +character as Pluto. The significance of the torque is also +doubtful, but the Gauls offered torques to the gods, and they may +have been regarded as vehicles of the warrior's strength which +passed from him to the god to whom the victor presented it.</p> +<p>Though many attempts have been made to prove the non-Celtic +origin of the three-headed divinities or of their images,<a id= +"footnotetag101" name="footnotetag101"></a><a href= +"#footnote101"><sup>101</sup></a> there is no reason why the +conception should not be Celtic, based on some myth now lost to us. +The Celts had a cult of human heads, and fixed them up on their +houses in order to obtain the protection of the ghost. Bodies or +heads of dead warriors had a protective influence on their land or +tribe, and myth told how the head of the god Bran saved his country +from invasion. In other myths human heads speak after being cut +off.<a id="footnotetag102" name="footnotetag102"></a><a href= +"#footnote102"><sup>102</sup></a> It might thus easily have been +believed that the representation of a god's head had a still more +powerful protective influence, especially when it was triplicated, +thus looking in all directions, like Janus.</p> +<p>The significance of the triad on these monuments is <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>{35}</span> uncertain +but since the supporting divinities are now male, now female, now +male and female, it probably represents myths of which the horned +or three-headed god was the central figure. Perhaps we shall not be +far wrong in regarding such gods, on the whole, as Cernunnos, a god +of abundance to judge by his emblems, and by the cornucopia held by +his companions, probably divinities of fertility. In certain cases +figures of squatting and horned goddesses with cornucopia +occur.<a id="footnotetag103" name="footnotetag103"></a><a href= +"#footnote103"><sup>103</sup></a> These may be consorts of +Cernunnos, and perhaps preceded him in origin. We may also go +further and see in this god of abundance and fertility at once an +Earth and an Under-earth god, since earth and under-earth are much +the same to primitive thought, and fertility springs from below the +earth's surface. Thus Cernunnos would be another form of the Celtic +Dispater. Generally speaking, the images of Cernunnos are not found +where those of the god with the hammer (Dispater) are most +numerous. These two types may thus be different local forms of +Dispater. The squatting attitude of Cernunnos is natural in the +image of the ancestor of a people who squatted. As to the symbols +of plenty, we know that Pluto was confounded with Plutus, the god +of riches, because corn and minerals came out of the earth, and +were thus the gifts of an Earth or Under-earth god. Celtic myth may +have had the same confusion.</p> +<p>On a Paris altar and on certain steles a god attacks a serpent +with a club. The serpent is a chthonian animal, and the god, called +Smertullos, may be a Dispater.<a id="footnotetag104" name= +"footnotetag104"></a><a href="#footnote104"><sup>104</sup></a> Gods +who are anthropomorphic forms of earlier animal divinities, +sometimes have the animals as symbols or attendants, or are +regarded as hostile to them. In some cases Dispater <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>{36}</span> may have +outgrown the serpent symbolism, the serpent being regarded locally +as his foe; this assumes that the god with the club is the same as +the god with the hammer. But in the case of Cernunnos the animal +remained as his symbol.</p> +<p>Dispater was a god of growth and fertility, and besides being +lord of the underworld of the dead, not necessarily a dark region +or the abode of "dark" gods as is so often assumed by writers on +Celtic religion, he was ancestor of the living. This may merely +have meant that, as in other mythologies, men came to the surface +of the earth from an underground region, like all things whose +roots struck deep down into the earth. The lord of the underworld +would then easily be regarded as their ancestor.<a id= +"footnotetag105" name="footnotetag105"></a><a href= +"#footnote105"><sup>105</sup></a></p> +<p>3. The hammer and the cup are also the symbols of a god called +Silvanus, identified by M. Mowat with Esus,<a id="footnotetag106" +name="footnotetag106"></a><a href="#footnote106"><sup>106</sup></a> +a god represented cutting down a tree with an axe. Axe and hammer, +however, are not necessarily identical, and the symbols are those +of Dispater, as has been seen. A purely superficial connection +between the Roman Silvanus and the Celtic Dispater may have been +found by Gallo-Roman artists in the fact that both wear a +wolf-skin, while there may once have been a Celtic wolf totem-god +of the dead.<a id="footnotetag107" name= +"footnotetag107"></a><a href="#footnote107"><sup>107</sup></a> The +Roman god was also associated with the wolf. This might be regarded +as one out of many examples of a mere superficial assimilation of +Roman and Celtic divinities, but in this case they still kept +certain symbols of the native Dispater—the cup and hammer. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>{37}</span> +Of course, since the latter was also a god of fertility, there was +here another link with Silvanus, a god of woods and vegetation. The +cult of the god was widespread—in Spain, S. Gaul, the Rhine +provinces, Cisalpine Gaul, Central Europe and Britain. But one +inscription gives the name Selvanos, and it is not impossible that +there was a native god Selvanus. If so, his name may have been +derived from <i>selva</i>, "possession," Irish <i>sealbh</i>, +"possession," "cattle," and he may have been a chthonian god of +riches, which in primitive communities consisted of cattle.<a id= +"footnotetag108" name="footnotetag108"></a><a href= +"#footnote108"><sup>108</sup></a> Domestic animals, in Celtic +mythology, were believed to have come from the god's land. Selvanus +would thus be easily identified with Silvanus, a god of flocks.</p> +<p>Thus the Celtic Dispater had various names and forms in +different regions, and could be assimilated to different foreign +gods. Since Earth and Under-earth are so nearly connected, this +divinity may once have been an Earth-god, and as such perhaps took +the place of an earlier Earth-mother, who now became his consort or +his mother. On a monument from Salzbach, Dispater is accompanied by +a goddess called Aeracura, holding a basket of fruit, and on +another monument from Ober-Seebach, the companion of Dispater holds +a cornucopia. In the latter instance Dispater holds a hammer and +cup, and the goddess may be Aeracura. Aeracura is also associated +with Dispater in several inscriptions.<a id="footnotetag109" name= +"footnotetag109"></a><a href="#footnote109"><sup>109</sup></a> It +is not yet certain that she is a Celtic goddess, but her presence +with this evidently Celtic god is almost sufficient proof of the +fact. She may thus represent the old Earth-goddess, whose place the +native Dispater gradually usurped.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>{38}</span> +<p>Lucan mentions a god Esus, who is represented on a Paris altar +as a woodman cutting down a tree, the branches of which are carried +round to the next side of the altar, on which is represented a bull +with three cranes—Tarvos Trigaranos. The same figure, +unnamed, occurs on another altar at Trèves, but in this case +the bull's head appears in the branches, and on them sit the birds. +M. Reinach applies one formula to the subjects of these +altars—"The divine Woodman hews the Tree of the Bull with +Three Cranes."<a id="footnotetag110" name= +"footnotetag110"></a><a href="#footnote110"><sup>110</sup></a> The +whole represents some myth unknown to us, but M. D'Arbois finds in +it some allusion to events in the Cúchulainn saga. To this +we shall return.<a id="footnotetag111" name= +"footnotetag111"></a><a href="#footnote111"><sup>111</sup></a> Bull +and tree are perhaps both divine, and if the animal, like the +images of the divine bull, is three-horned, then the three cranes +(<i>garanus</i>, "crane") may be a rebus for three-horned +(<i>trikeras</i>), or more probably three-headed +(<i>trikarenos</i>).<a id="footnotetag112" name= +"footnotetag112"></a><a href="#footnote112"><sup>112</sup></a> In +this case woodman, tree, and bull might all be representatives of a +god of vegetation. In early ritual, human, animal, or arboreal +representatives of the god were periodically destroyed to ensure +fertility, but when the god became separated from these +representatives, the destruction or slaying was regarded as a +sacrifice to the god, and myths arose telling how he had once slain +the animal. In this case, tree and bull, really identical, would be +mythically regarded as destroyed by the god whom they had once +represented. If Esus was a god of vegetation, once represented by a +tree, this would explain why, as the scholiast on Lucan relates, +human sacrifices to Esus were suspended from a tree. Esus was +worshipped at Paris and at Trèves; a coin with the name +Æsus was found in England; and personal names like Esugenos, +"son of Esus," <span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id= +"page39"></a>{39}</span> and Esunertus, "he who has the strength of +Esus," occur in England, France, and Switzerland.<a id= +"footnotetag113" name="footnotetag113"></a><a href= +"#footnote113"><sup>113</sup></a> Thus the cult of this god may +have been comparatively widespread. But there is no evidence that +he was a Celtic Jehovah or a member, with Teutates and Taranis, of +a pan-Celtic triad, or that this triad, introduced by Gauls, was +not accepted by the Druids.<a id="footnotetag114" name= +"footnotetag114"></a><a href="#footnote114"><sup>114</sup></a> Had +such a great triad existed, some instance of the occurrence of the +three names on one inscription would certainly have been found. +Lucan does not refer to the gods as a triad, nor as gods of all the +Celts, or even of one tribe. He lays stress merely on the fact that +they were worshipped with human sacrifice, and they were apparently +more or less well-known local gods.<a id="footnotetag115" name= +"footnotetag115"></a><a href="#footnote115"><sup>115</sup></a></p> +<p>The insular Celts believed that some of their gods lived on or +in hills. We do not know whether such a belief was entertained by +the Gauls, though some of their deities were worshipped on hills, +like the Puy de Dôme. There is also evidence of mountain +worship among them. One inscription runs, "To the Mountains"; a god +of the Pennine Alps, Poeninus, was equated with Juppiter; and the +god of the Vosges mountains was called Vosegus, perhaps still +surviving in the giant supposed to haunt them.<a id= +"footnotetag116" name="footnotetag116"></a><a href= +"#footnote116"><sup>116</sup></a></p> +<p>Certain grouped gods, <i>Dii Casses</i>, were worshipped by +Celts on the right bank of the Rhine, but nothing is known +regarding their functions, unless they were road gods. The name +means "beautiful" or "pleasant," and <i>Cassi</i> appears in +personal and tribal names, and also in <i>Cassiterides</i>, an +early name of Britain, perhaps signifying that the new lands were +"more beautiful" than those the Celts had left. When tin was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>{40}</span> +discovered in Britain, the Mediterranean traders called it [Greek: +chassiteros], after the name of the place where it was found, as +<i>cupreus</i>, "copper," was so called from Cyprus.<a id= +"footnotetag117" name="footnotetag117"></a><a href= +"#footnote117"><sup>117</sup></a></p> +<p>Many local tutelar divinities were also worshipped. When a new +settlement was founded, it was placed under the protection of a +tribal god, or the name of some divinised river on whose banks the +village was placed, passed to the village itself, and the divinity +became its protector. Thus Dea Bibracte, Nemausus, and Vasio were +tutelar divinities of Bibracte, Nimes, and Vaison. Other places +were called after Belenos, or a group of divinities, usually the +<i>Matres</i> with a local epithet, watched over a certain +district.<a id="footnotetag118" name="footnotetag118"></a><a href= +"#footnote118"><sup>118</sup></a> The founding of a town was +celebrated in an annual festival, with sacrifices and libations to +the protecting deity, a practice combated by S. Eloi in the eighth +century. But the custom of associating a divinity with a town or +region was a great help to patriotism. Those who fought for their +homes felt that they were fighting for their gods, who also fought +on their side. Several inscriptions, "To the genius of the place," +occur in Britain, and there are a few traces of tutelar gods in +Irish texts, but generally local saints had taken their place.</p> +<p>The Celtic cult of goddesses took two forms, that of individual +and that of grouped goddesses, the latter much more numerous than +the grouped gods. Individual goddesses were worshipped as consorts +of gods, or as separate personalities, and in the latter case the +cult was sometimes far extended. Still more popular was the cult of +grouped goddesses. Of these the <i>Matres</i>, like some individual +goddesses, were probably early Earth-mothers, and since the +primitive fertility-cults included all that might then be summed up +as "civilisation," <span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id= +"page41"></a>{41}</span> such goddesses had already many functions, +and might the more readily become divinities of special crafts or +even of war. Many individual goddesses are known only by their +names, and were of a purely local character.<a id="footnotetag119" +name="footnotetag119"></a><a href="#footnote119"><sup>119</sup></a> +Some local goddesses with different names but similar functions are +equated with the same Roman goddess; others were never so +equated.</p> +<p>The Celtic Minerva, or the goddesses equated with her, "taught +the elements of industry and the arts,"<a id="footnotetag120" name= +"footnotetag120"></a><a href="#footnote120"><sup>120</sup></a> and +is thus the equivalent of the Irish Brigit. Her functions are in +keeping with the position of woman as the first +civiliser—discovering agriculture, spinning, the art of +pottery, etc. During this period goddesses were chiefly worshipped, +and though the Celts had long outgrown this primitive stage, such +culture-goddesses still retained their importance. A goddess +equated with Minerva in Southern France and Britain is Belisama, +perhaps from <i>qval</i>, "to burn" or "shine."<a id= +"footnotetag121" name="footnotetag121"></a><a href= +"#footnote121"><sup>121</sup></a> Hence she may have been +associated with a cult of fire, like Brigit and like another +goddess Sul, equated with Minerva at Bath and in Hesse, and in +whose temple perpetual fires burned.<a id="footnotetag122" name= +"footnotetag122"></a><a href="#footnote122"><sup>122</sup></a> She +was also a goddess of hot springs. Belisama gave her name to the +Mersey,<a id="footnotetag123" name="footnotetag123"></a><a href= +"#footnote123"><sup>123</sup></a> and many goddesses in Celtic myth +are associated with rivers.</p> +<p>Some war-goddesses are associated with Mars—Nemetona (in +Britain and Germany), perhaps the same as the Irish Nemon, and +Cathubodua, identical with the Irish war-goddess Badb-catha, +"battle-crow," who tore the bodies of the slain.<a id= +"footnotetag124" name="footnotetag124"></a><a href= +"#footnote124"><sup>124</sup></a> Another goddess Andrasta, +"invincible," perhaps the same as the Andarta of the Voconces, was +worshipped by <span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id= +"page42"></a>{42}</span> the people of Boudicca with human +sacrifices, like the native Bellona of the Scordisci.<a id= +"footnotetag125" name="footnotetag125"></a><a href= +"#footnote125"><sup>125</sup></a></p> +<p>A goddess of the chase was identified with Artemis in Galatia, +where she had a priestess Camma, and also in the west. At the feast +of the Galatian goddess dogs were crowned with flowers, her +worshippers feasted and a sacrifice was made to her, feast and +sacrifice being provided out of money laid aside for every animal +taken in the chase.<a id="footnotetag126" name= +"footnotetag126"></a><a href="#footnote126"><sup>126</sup></a> +Other goddesses were equated with Diana, and one of her statues was +destroyed in Christian times at Trèves.<a id= +"footnotetag127" name="footnotetag127"></a><a href= +"#footnote127"><sup>127</sup></a> These goddesses may have been +thought of as rushing through the forest with an attendant train, +since in later times Diana, with whom they were completely +assimilated, became, like Holda, the leader of the "furious host" +and also of witches' revels.<a id="footnotetag128" name= +"footnotetag128"></a><a href="#footnote128"><sup>128</sup></a> The +Life of Cæsarius of Arles speaks of a "demon" called Diana by +the rustics. A bronze statuette represents the goddess riding a +wild boar,<a id="footnotetag129" name="footnotetag129"></a><a href= +"#footnote129"><sup>129</sup></a> her symbol and, like herself, a +creature of the forest, but at an earlier time itself a divinity of +whom the goddess became the anthropomorphic form.</p> +<p>Goddesses, the earlier spirits of the waters, protected rivers +and springs, or were associated with gods of healing wells. Dirona +or Sirona is associated with Grannos mainly in Eastern Gaul and the +Rhine provinces, and is sometimes represented carrying grapes and +grain.<a id="footnotetag130" name="footnotetag130"></a><a href= +"#footnote130"><sup>130</sup></a> Thus this goddess may once have +been connected with fertility, perhaps an Earth-mother, and if her +name means "the long-lived,"<a id="footnotetag131" name= +"footnotetag131"></a><a href="#footnote131"><sup>131</sup></a> this +would be an appropriate title for an Earth-goddess. Another +goddess, Stanna, mentioned in an inscription at Perigueux, is +perhaps <span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id= +"page43"></a>{43}</span> "the standing or abiding one," and thus +may also have been Earth-goddess.<a id="footnotetag132" name= +"footnotetag132"></a><a href="#footnote132"><sup>132</sup></a> +Grannos was also associated with the local goddesses Vesunna and +Aventia, who gave their names to Vesona and Avanche. His statue +also stood in the temple of the goddess of the Seine, +Sequana.<a id="footnotetag133" name="footnotetag133"></a><a href= +"#footnote133"><sup>133</sup></a> With Bormo were associated +Bormana in Southern Gaul, and Damona in Eastern Gaul—perhaps +an animal goddess, since the root of her name occurs in Irish +<i>dam</i>, "ox," and Welsh <i>dafad</i>, "sheep." Dea Brixia was +the consort of Luxovius, god of the waters of Luxeuil. Names of +other goddesses of the waters are found on <i>ex votos</i> and +plaques which were placed in or near them. The Roman Nymphæ, +sometimes associated with Bormo, were the equivalents of the Celtic +water-goddesses, who survived in the water-fairies of later +folk-belief. Some river-goddesses gave their names to many rivers +in the Celtic area—the numerous Avons being named from +Abnoba, goddess of the sources of the Danube, and the many Dees and +Dives from Divona. Clota was goddess of the Clyde, Sabrina had her +throne "beneath the translucent wave" of the Severn, Icauna was +goddess of the Yonne, Sequana of the Seine, and Sinnan of the +Shannon.</p> +<p>In some cases forests were ruled by goddesses—that of the +Ardennes by Dea Arduinna, and the Black Forest, perhaps because of +the many waters in it, by Dea Abnoba.<a id="footnotetag134" name= +"footnotetag134"></a><a href="#footnote134"><sup>134</sup></a> +While some goddesses are known only by being associated with a god, +<i>e.g.</i> Kosmerta with Mercury in Eastern Gaul, others have +remained separate, like Epona, perhaps a river-goddess merged with +an animal divinity, and known from inscriptions as a +horse-goddess.<a id="footnotetag135" name= +"footnotetag135"></a><a href="#footnote135"><sup>135</sup></a> But +the most striking instance is found in the grouped goddesses.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>{44}</span> +<p>Of these the <i>Deoe Matres</i>, whose name has taken a Latin +form and whose cult extended to the Teutons, are mentioned in many +inscriptions all over the Celtic area, save in East and North-West +Gaul.<a id="footnotetag136" name="footnotetag136"></a><a href= +"#footnote136"><sup>136</sup></a> In art they are usually +represented as three in number, holding fruit, flowers, a +cornucopia, or an infant. They were thus goddesses of fertility, +and probably derived from a cult of a great Mother-goddess, the +Earth personified. She may have survived as a goddess Berecynthia; +worshipped at Autun, where her image was borne through the fields +to promote fertility, or as the goddesses equated with Demeter and +Kore, worshipped by women on an island near Britain.<a id= +"footnotetag137" name="footnotetag137"></a><a href= +"#footnote137"><sup>137</sup></a> Such cults of a Mother-goddess +lie behind many religions, but gradually her place was taken by an +Earth-god, the Celtic Dispater or Dagda, whose consort the goddess +became. She may therefore be the goddess with the cornucopia on +monuments of the horned god, or Aeracura, consort of Dispater, or a +goddess on a monument at Epinal holding a basket of fruit and a +cornucopia, and accompanied by a ram's-headed serpent.<a id= +"footnotetag138" name="footnotetag138"></a><a href= +"#footnote138"><sup>138</sup></a> These symbols show that this +goddess was akin to the <i>Matres</i>. But she sometimes preserved +her individuality, as in the case of Berecynthia and the +<i>Matres</i>, though it is not quite clear why she should have +been thus triply multiplied. A similar phenomenon is found in the +close connection of Demeter and Persephone, while the Celts +regarded three as a sacred number. The primitive division of the +year into three seasons—spring, summer, and winter—may +have had its effect in triplicating a goddess of fertility with +which the course of the seasons was connected.<a id= +"footnotetag139" name="footnotetag139"></a><a href= +"#footnote139"><sup>139</sup></a> In other mythologies groups of +three goddesses are found, the <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page45" id="page45"></a>{45}</span> Hathors in Egypt, the Moirai, +Gorgons, and Graiæ of Greece, the Roman Fates, and the Norse +Nornæ, and it is noticeable that the <i>Matres</i> were +sometimes equated with the Parcæ and Fates.<a id= +"footnotetag140" name="footnotetag140"></a><a href= +"#footnote140"><sup>140</sup></a></p> +<p>In the <i>Matres</i>, primarily goddesses of fertility and +plenty, we have one of the most popular and also primitive aspects +of Celtic religion. They originated in an age when women cultivated +the ground, and the Earth was a goddess whose cult was performed by +priestesses. But in course of time new functions were bestowed on +the <i>Matres</i>. Possibly river-goddesses and others are merely +mothers whose functions have become specialised. The <i>Matres</i> +are found as guardians of individuals, families, houses, of towns, +a province, or a whole nation, as their epithets in inscriptions +show. The <i>Matres Domesticæ</i> are household goddesses; +the <i>Matres Treveræ</i>, or <i>Gallaicæ</i>, or +<i>Vediantæ</i>, are the mothers of Trèves, of the +Gallaecæ, of the Vediantii; the <i>Matres Nemetiales</i> are +guardians of groves. Besides presiding over the fields as <i>Matres +Campestræ</i> they brought prosperity to towns and +people.<a id="footnotetag141" name="footnotetag141"></a><a href= +"#footnote141"><sup>141</sup></a> They guarded women, especially in +childbirth, as <i>ex votos</i> prove, and in this aspect they are +akin to the <i>Junones</i> worshipped also in Gaul and Britain. The +name thus became generic for most goddesses, but all alike were the +lineal descendants of the primitive Earth-mother.<a id= +"footnotetag142" name="footnotetag142"></a><a href= +"#footnote142"><sup>142</sup></a></p> +<p>Popular superstition has preserved the memory of these goddesses +in the three <i>bonnes dames</i>, <i>dames blanches</i>, and White +Women, met by wayfarers in forests, or in the three fairies or wise +women of folk-tales, who appear at the birth of <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>{46}</span> children. +But sometimes they have become hateful hags. The <i>Matres</i> and +other goddesses probably survived in the beneficent fairies of +rocks and streams, in the fairy Abonde who brought riches to +houses, or Esterelle of Provence who made women fruitful, or Aril +who watched over meadows, or in beings like Melusine, Viviane, and +others.<a id="footnotetag143" name="footnotetag143"></a><a href= +"#footnote143"><sup>143</sup></a> In Gallo-Roman Britain the cult +of the <i>Matres</i> is found, but how far it was indigenous there +is uncertain. A Welsh name for fairies, <i>Y Mamau</i>, "the +Mothers," and the phrase, "the blessing of the Mothers" used of a +fairy benediction, may be a reminiscence of such goddesses.<a id= +"footnotetag144" name="footnotetag144"></a><a href= +"#footnote144"><sup>144</sup></a> The presence of similar goddesses +in Ireland will be considered later.<a id="footnotetag145" name= +"footnotetag145"></a><a href="#footnote145"><sup>145</sup></a> +Images of the <i>Matres</i> bearing a child have sometimes been +taken for those of the Virgin, when found accidentally, and as they +are of wood blackened with age, they are known as <i>Vierges +Noires</i>, and occupy an honoured place in Christian sanctuaries. +Many churches of Nôtre Dame have been built on sites where an +image of the Virgin is said to have been miraculously +found—the image probably being that of a pagan Mother. +Similarly, an altar to the <i>Matres</i> at Vaison is now dedicated +to the Virgin as the "good Mother."<a id="footnotetag146" name= +"footnotetag146"></a><a href="#footnote146"><sup>146</sup></a></p> +<p>In inscriptions from Eastern and Cisalpine Gaul, and from the +Rhine and Danube region, the <i>Matronæ</i> are mentioned, +and this name is probably indicative of goddesses like the +<i>Matres</i>.<a id="footnotetag147" name= +"footnotetag147"></a><a href="#footnote147"><sup>147</sup></a> It +is akin to that of many rivers, <i>e.g.</i> the Marne or Meyrone, +and shows that the Mothers were associated with rivers. The Mother +river fertilised a large district, and <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>{47}</span> exhibited +the characteristic of the whole group of goddesses.</p> +<p>Akin also to the <i>Matres</i> are the <i>Suleviæ</i>, +guardian goddesses called <i>Matres</i> in a few inscriptions; the +<i>Comedovæ</i>, whose name perhaps denotes guardianship or +power; the <i>Dominæ</i>, who watched over the home, perhaps +the <i>Dames</i> of mediæval folk-lore; and the +<i>Virgines</i>, perhaps an appellative of the <i>Matres</i>, and +significant when we find that virgin priestesses existed in Gaul +and Ireland.<a id="footnotetag148" name= +"footnotetag148"></a><a href="#footnote148"><sup>148</sup></a> The +<i>Proxumæ</i> were worshipped in Southern Gaul, and the +<i>Quadriviæ</i>, goddesses of cross-roads, at +Cherbourg.<a id="footnotetag149" name="footnotetag149"></a><a href= +"#footnote149"><sup>149</sup></a></p> +<p>Some Roman gods are found on inscriptions without being equated +with native deities. They may have been accepted by the Gauls as +new gods, or they had perhaps completely ousted similar native +gods. Others, not mentioned by Cæsar, are equated with native +deities, Juno with Clivana, Saturn with Arvalus, and to a native +Vulcan the Celts vowed spoils of war.<a id="footnotetag150" name= +"footnotetag150"></a><a href="#footnote150"><sup>150</sup></a> +Again, many native gods are not equated with Roman deities on +inscriptions. Apart from the divinities of Pyrenæan +inscriptions, who may not be Celtic, the names of over 400 native +deities, whether equated with Roman gods or not, are known. Some of +these names are mere epithets, and most of the gods are of a local +character, known here by one name, there by another. Only in a very +few cases can it be asserted that a god was worshipped over the +whole Celtic area by one name, though some gods in Gaul, Britain, +and Ireland with different names have certainly similar +functions.<a id="footnotetag151" name="footnotetag151"></a><a href= +"#footnote151"><sup>151</sup></a></p> +<p>The pantheon of the continental Celts was a varied one. Traces +of the primitive agricultural rites, and of the priority of +goddesses to gods, are found, and the vaguer aspects of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>{48}</span> +primitive nature worship are seen behind the cult of divinities of +sky, sun, thunder, forests, rivers, or in deities of animal origin. +We come next to evidence of a higher stage, in divinities of +culture, healing, the chase, war, and the underworld. We see +divinities of Celtic groups—gods of individuals, the family, +the tribe. Sometimes war-gods assumed great prominence, in time of +war, or among the aristocracy, but with the development of +commerce, gods associated with trade and the arts of peace came to +the front.<a id="footnotetag152" name="footnotetag152"></a><a href= +"#footnote152"><sup>152</sup></a> At the same time the popular +cults of agricultural districts must have remained as of old. With +the adoption of Roman civilisation, enlightened Celts separated +themselves from the lower aspects of their religion, but this would +have occurred with growing civilisation had no Roman ever entered +Gaul. In rural districts the more savage aspects of the cult would +still have remained, but that these were entirely due to an +aboriginal population is erroneous. The Celts must have brought +such cults with them or adopted cults similar to their own wherever +they came. The persistence of these cults is seen in the fact that +though Christianity modified them, it could not root them out, and +in out-of-the-way corners, survivals of the old ritual may still be +found, for everywhere the old religion of the soil dies hard.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote53" name= +"footnote53"></a><b>Footnote 53:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag53">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, <i>de Bell. Gall.</i> vi. 17, 18.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote54" name= +"footnote54"></a><b>Footnote 54:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag54">(return)</a> +<p>Bloch (Lavisse), <i>Hist, de France</i>, i. 2, 419; Reinaoh, +<i>BF</i> 13, 23.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote55" name= +"footnote55"></a><b>Footnote 55:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag55">(return)</a> +<p><i>Trans. Gaelic Soc. of Inverness</i>, xxvi. p. 411 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote56" name= +"footnote56"></a><b>Footnote 56:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag56">(return)</a> +<p>Vallentin, <i>Les Dieux de la cité des Allobroges</i>, +15; Pliny, <i>HN</i> xxxiv. 7.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote57" name= +"footnote57"></a><b>Footnote 57:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag57">(return)</a> +<p>These names are Alaunius, Arcecius, Artaius, Arvernorix, +Arvernus, Adsmerius, Canetonensis, Clavariatis, Cissonius, +Cimbrianus, Dumiatis, Magniacus, Moecus, Toeirenus, Vassocaletus, +Vellaunus, Visuoius, Biausius, Cimiacinus, Naissatis. See Holder, +<i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote58" name= +"footnote58"></a><b>Footnote 58:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag58">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote59" name= +"footnote59"></a><b>Footnote 59:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag59">(return)</a> +<p>Hübner, vii. 271; <i>CIL</i> iii. 5773.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote60" name= +"footnote60"></a><b>Footnote 60:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag60">(return)</a> +<p>Lucian, <i>Heracles</i>, 1 f. Some Gaulish coins figure a head +to which are bound smaller heads. In one case the cords issue from +the mouth (Blanchet, i. 308, 316-317). These may represent Lucian's +Ogmíos, but other interpretations have been put upon them. +See Robert, <i>RC</i> vii. 388; Jullian, 84.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote61" name= +"footnote61"></a><b>Footnote 61:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag61">(return)</a> +<p>The epithets and names are Anextiomarus, Belenos, Bormo, Borvo, +or Bormanus, Cobledulitavus, Cosmis (?), Grannos, Livicus, Maponos, +Mogo or Mogounos, Sianus, Toutiorix, Viudonnus, Virotutis. See +Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote62" name= +"footnote62"></a><b>Footnote 62:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag62">(return)</a> +<p>Pommerol, <i>Ball. de Soc. d'ant. de Paris</i>, ii. fasc. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote63" name= +"footnote63"></a><b>Footnote 63:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag63">(return)</a> +<p>See Holder, <i>s.v.</i> Many place-names are derived from +<i>Borvo, e.g.</i> Bourbon l'Archambaut, which gave its name to the +Bourbon dynasty, thus connected with an old Celtic god.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote64" name= +"footnote64"></a><b>Footnote 64:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag64">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page102">102</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote65" name= +"footnote65"></a><b>Footnote 65:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag65">(return)</a> +<p>Jul. Cap. <i>Maxim.</i> 22; Herodian, viii. 3; Tert. +<i>Apol.</i> xxiv. 70; Auson. <i>Prof.</i> xi. 24.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote66" name= +"footnote66"></a><b>Footnote 66:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag66">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes derives <i>belinuntia</i> from <i>beljo</i>-, a tree or +leaf, Irish <i>bile</i>, <i>US</i> 174.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote67" name= +"footnote67"></a><b>Footnote 67:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag67">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i>; Stokes, <i>US</i> 197; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> +23; see p. <a href="#page180">180</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote68" name= +"footnote68"></a><b>Footnote 68:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag68">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. ii. 47.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote69" name= +"footnote69"></a><b>Footnote 69:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag69">(return)</a> +<p>Apoll. Rhod. iv. 609.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote70" name= +"footnote70"></a><b>Footnote 70:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag70">(return)</a> +<p>Albiorix, Alator, Arixo, Beladonnis, Barrex, Belatucadros, +Bolvinnus, Braciaca, Britovis, Buxenus, Cabetius, Camulus, +Cariocecius, Caturix, Cemenelus, Cicollius, Carrus, Cocosus, +Cociduis, Condatis, Cnabetius, Corotiacus, Dinomogetimarus, +Divanno, Dunatis, Glarinus, Halamardus, Harmogius, Ieusdriuus, +Lacavus, Latabius, Leucetius, Leucimalacus, Lenus, Mullo, Medocius, +Mogetius, Nabelcus, Neton, Ocelos, Ollondios, Rudianus, Rigisamus, +Randosatis, Riga, Segomo, Sinatis, Smertatius, Toutates, Tritullus, +Vesucius, Vincius, Vitucadros, Vorocius. See Holder, +<i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote71" name= +"footnote71"></a><b>Footnote 71:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag71">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 215; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 37.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote72" name= +"footnote72"></a><b>Footnote 72:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag72">(return)</a> +<p>So Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 42.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote73" name= +"footnote73"></a><b>Footnote 73:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag73">(return)</a> +<p>Hübner, 61.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote74" name= +"footnote74"></a><b>Footnote 74:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag74">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i>; Lucan, i. 444 f. The opinions of writers +who take this view are collected by Reinach, <i>RC</i> xviii. +137.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote75" name= +"footnote75"></a><b>Footnote 75:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag75">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i> The Gaulish name Camulogenus, "born of +Cumel," represents the same idea as in Fionn's surname, +MacCumall.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote76" name= +"footnote76"></a><b>Footnote 76:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag76">(return)</a> +<p>Athen. iv. 36; Dioscorides, ii. 110; Joyce, <i>SH</i> ii. 116, +120; <i>IT</i> i. 437, 697.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote77" name= +"footnote77"></a><b>Footnote 77:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag77">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, <i>HN</i> xviii. 7.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote78" name= +"footnote78"></a><b>Footnote 78:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag78">(return)</a> +<p>Gaidoz, <i>Le Dieu Gaulois de Soleil</i>; Reinach, <i>CS</i> 98, +<i>BF</i> 35; Blanchet, i. 27.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote79" name= +"footnote79"></a><b>Footnote 79:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag79">(return)</a> +<p>Lucan, <i>Phar.</i> i. 444. Another form, Tanaros, may be simply +the German Donar.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote80" name= +"footnote80"></a><b>Footnote 80:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag80">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 270.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote81" name= +"footnote81"></a><b>Footnote 81:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag81">(return)</a> +<p>Gaidoz, <i>RC</i> vi. 457; Reinach, <i>OS</i> 65, 138; Blanchet, +i. 160. The hammer is also associated with another Celtic Dispater, +equated with Sylvanus, who was certainly not a thunder-god.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote82" name= +"footnote82"></a><b>Footnote 82:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag82">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>BF</i> 137 f.; Courcelle-Seneuil, 115 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote83" name= +"footnote83"></a><b>Footnote 83:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag83">(return)</a> +<p>Barthelemy, <i>RC</i> i. l f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote84" name= +"footnote84"></a><b>Footnote 84:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag84">(return)</a> +<p>See Flouest, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> v. 17.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote85" name= +"footnote85"></a><b>Footnote 85:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag85">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>RC</i> xvii. 45.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote86" name= +"footnote86"></a><b>Footnote 86:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag86">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 126. He explains Nantosvelta as meaning "She who +is brilliant in war." The goddess, however, has none of the +attributes of a war-goddess. M. D'Arbois also saw in a bas-relief +of the hammer-god, a female figure, and a child, the Gaulish +equivalents of Balor, Ethne, and Lug (<i>RC</i> xv. 236). M. +Reinach regards Sucellos, Nantosvelta, and a bird which is figured +with them, as the same trio, because pseudo-Plutarch (<i>de +Fluv.</i> vi. 4) says that <i>lougos</i> means "crow" in Celtic. +This is more than doubtful. In any case Ethne has no warlike traits +in Irish story, and as Lug and Balor were deadly enemies, it +remains to be explained why they appear tranquilly side by side. +See <i>RC</i> xxvi. 129. Perhaps Nantosvelta, like other Celtic +goddesses, was a river nymph. <i>Nanto</i> Gaulish is "valley," and +<i>nant</i> in old Breton is "gorge" or "brook." Her name might +mean "shining river." See Stokes, <i>US</i> 193, 324.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote87" name= +"footnote87"></a><b>Footnote 87:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag87">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xviii. 254. Cernunnos may be the Juppiter Cernenos of +an inscription from Pesth, Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote88" name= +"footnote88"></a><b>Footnote 88:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag88">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>BF</i> 186, fig. 177.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote89" name= +"footnote89"></a><b>Footnote 89:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag89">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rev. Arch.</i> xix. 322, pl. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote90" name= +"footnote90"></a><b>Footnote 90:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag90">(return)</a> +<p>Bertrand, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> xv. 339, xvi. pl. 12.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote91" name= +"footnote91"></a><b>Footnote 91:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag91">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> xv. pl. 9, 10.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote92" name= +"footnote92"></a><b>Footnote 92:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag92">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> xvi. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote93" name= +"footnote93"></a><b>Footnote 93:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag93">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> pl. 12 <i>bis</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote94" name= +"footnote94"></a><b>Footnote 94:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag94">(return)</a> +<p>Bertrand, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> xvi. 8.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote95" name= +"footnote95"></a><b>Footnote 95:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag95">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> xvi. 10 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote96" name= +"footnote96"></a><b>Footnote 96:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag96">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> xv., xvi.; Reinach, <i>BF</i> 17, 191.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote97" name= +"footnote97"></a><b>Footnote 97:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag97">(return)</a> +<p><i>Bull. Epig.</i> i. 116; Strabo, iv. 3; Diod. Sic. v. 28.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote98" name= +"footnote98"></a><b>Footnote 98:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag98">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 30; Reinach, <i>BF</i> 193.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote99" name= +"footnote99"></a><b>Footnote 99:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag99">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page212">212</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote100" name= +"footnote100"></a><b>Footnote 100:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag100">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page166">166</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote101" name= +"footnote101"></a><b>Footnote 101:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag101">(return)</a> +<p>See, <i>e.g.</i>, Mowat, <i>Bull. Epig.</i> i. 29; de Witte, +<i>Rev. Arch.</i> ii. 387, xvi. 7; Bertrand, <i>ibid.</i> xvi. +3.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote102" name= +"footnote102"></a><b>Footnote 102:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag102">(return)</a> +<p>See pp. <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page242">242</a>, +<i>infra</i>; Joyce, <i>SH</i> ii. 554; Curtin, 182; <i>RC</i> +xxii. 123, xxiv. 18.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote103" name= +"footnote103"></a><b>Footnote 103:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag103">(return)</a> +<p>Dom Martin, ii. 185; Reinach, <i>BF</i> 192, 199.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote104" name= +"footnote104"></a><b>Footnote 104:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag104">(return)</a> +<p>See, however, p. <a href="#page136">136</a>, <i>infra</i>; and +for another interpretation of this god as equivalent of the Irish +Lug slaying Balor, see D'Arbois, ii. 287.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote105" name= +"footnote105"></a><b>Footnote 105:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag105">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page229">229</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote106" name= +"footnote106"></a><b>Footnote 106:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag106">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>BF</i> 162, 184; Mowat, <i>Bull. Epig.</i> i. 62, +<i>Rev. Epig.</i> 1887, 319, 1891, 84.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote107" name= +"footnote107"></a><b>Footnote 107:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag107">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>BF</i> 141, 153, 175, 176, 181; see p. <a href= +"#page218">218</a>, <i>infra</i>. Flouest, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> 1885, +i. 21, thinks that the identification was with an earlier chthonian +Silvanus. Cf. Jullian, 17, note 3, who observes that the +Gallo-Roman assimilations were made "sur le doinaine archaisant des +faits populaires et rustiques de l'Italie." For the inscriptions, +see Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote108" name= +"footnote108"></a><b>Footnote 108:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag108">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>US</i> 302; MacBain, 274; <i>RC</i> xxvi. 282.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote109" name= +"footnote109"></a><b>Footnote 109:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag109">(return)</a> +<p>Gaidoz, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> ii. 1898; Mowat, <i>Bull. Epig.</i> i. +119; Courcelle-Seneuil, 80 f.; Pauly-Wissowa, <i>Real. Lex.</i> i. +667; Daremberg-Saglio, <i>Dict.</i> ii., <i>s.v.</i> +"Dispater."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote110" name= +"footnote110"></a><b>Footnote 110:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag110">(return)</a> +<p>Lucan, i. 444; <i>RC</i> xviii. 254, 258.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote111" name= +"footnote111"></a><b>Footnote 111:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag111">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page127">127</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote112" name= +"footnote112"></a><b>Footnote 112:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag112">(return)</a> +<p>For a supposed connection between this bas-relief and the myth +of Geryon, see Reinach, <i>BF</i> 120; <i>RC</i> xviii. 258 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote113" name= +"footnote113"></a><b>Footnote 113:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag113">(return)</a> +<p><i>Coins of the Ancient Britons</i>, 386; Holder, i. 1475, +1478.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote114" name= +"footnote114"></a><b>Footnote 114:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag114">(return)</a> +<p>For these theories see Dom Martin, ii. 2; Bertrand, 335 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote115" name= +"footnote115"></a><b>Footnote 115:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag115">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. Reinach, <i>RC</i> xviii. 149.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote116" name= +"footnote116"></a><b>Footnote 116:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag116">(return)</a> +<p>Orelli, 2107, 2072; Monnier, 532; Tacitus, xxi. 38.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote117" name= +"footnote117"></a><b>Footnote 117:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag117">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, i. 824; Reinach, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> xx. 262; D'Arbois, +<i>Les Celtes</i>, 20. Other grouped gods are the Bacucei, +Castoeci, Icotii, Ifles, Lugoves, Nervini, and Silvani. See Holder, +<i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote118" name= +"footnote118"></a><b>Footnote 118:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag118">(return)</a> +<p>For all these see Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote119" name= +"footnote119"></a><b>Footnote 119:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag119">(return)</a> +<p>Professor Anwyl gives the following statistics: There are 35 +goddesses mentioned once, 2 twice, 3 thrice, 1 four times, 2 six +times, 2 eleven times, 1 fourteen times (Sirona), 1 twenty-one +times (Rosmerta), 1 twenty-six times (Epona) (<i>Trans. Gael. Soc. +Inverness</i>, xxvi. 413).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote120" name= +"footnote120"></a><b>Footnote 120:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag120">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 17.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote121" name= +"footnote121"></a><b>Footnote 121:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag121">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 54; <i>Rev. Arch.</i> i. 201. See +Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote122" name= +"footnote122"></a><b>Footnote 122:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag122">(return)</a> +<p>Solinus, xxii. 10; Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote123" name= +"footnote123"></a><b>Footnote 123:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag123">(return)</a> +<p>Ptolemy, ii. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote124" name= +"footnote124"></a><b>Footnote 124:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag124">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page71">71</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote125" name= +"footnote125"></a><b>Footnote 125:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag125">(return)</a> +<p>Dio Cass. lxii. 7; Amm. Mare, xxvii. 4. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote126" name= +"footnote126"></a><b>Footnote 126:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag126">(return)</a> +<p>Plutarch, <i>de Vir. Mul.</i> 20; Arrian, <i>Cyneg.</i> xxxiv. +1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote127" name= +"footnote127"></a><b>Footnote 127:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag127">(return)</a> +<p>S. Greg. <i>Hist.</i> viii. 15.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote128" name= +"footnote128"></a><b>Footnote 128:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag128">(return)</a> +<p>Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> 283, 933; Reinach, <i>RC</i> xvi. +261.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote129" name= +"footnote129"></a><b>Footnote 129:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag129">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>BF</i> 50.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote130" name= +"footnote130"></a><b>Footnote 130:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag130">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, i. 1286; Robert, <i>RC</i> iv. 133.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote131" name= +"footnote131"></a><b>Footnote 131:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag131">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 27.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote132" name= +"footnote132"></a><b>Footnote 132:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag132">(return)</a> +<p>Anwyl, <i>Celt. Rev.</i> 1906, 43.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote133" name= +"footnote133"></a><b>Footnote 133:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag133">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i>; Bulliot, <i>RC</i> ii. 22.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote134" name= +"footnote134"></a><b>Footnote 134:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag134">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, i. 10, 89.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote135" name= +"footnote135"></a><b>Footnote 135:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag135">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i>; see p. <a href="#page213">213</a>, +<i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote136" name= +"footnote136"></a><b>Footnote 136:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag136">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, ii. 463. They are very numerous in South-East Gaul, +where also three-headed gods are found.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote137" name= +"footnote137"></a><b>Footnote 137:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag137">(return)</a> +<p>See pp. <a href="#page274">274-5</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote138" name= +"footnote138"></a><b>Footnote 138:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag138">(return)</a> +<p>Courcelle-Seneuil, 80-81.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote139" name= +"footnote139"></a><b>Footnote 139:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag139">(return)</a> +<p>See my article "Calendar" in Hastings' <i>Encyclop. of Religion +and Ethics</i>, iii. 80.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote140" name= +"footnote140"></a><b>Footnote 140:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag140">(return)</a> +<p><i>CIL</i> v. 4208, 5771, vii. 927; Holder, ii. 89.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote141" name= +"footnote141"></a><b>Footnote 141:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag141">(return)</a> +<p>For all these titles see Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote142" name= +"footnote142"></a><b>Footnote 142:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag142">(return)</a> +<p>There is a large literature devoted to the <i>Matres</i>. See De +Wal, <i>Die Mæder Gottinem</i>; Vallentin, <i>Le Culte des +Matræ</i>; Daremberg-Saglio, <i>Dict. s.v. Matres</i>; Ihm, +<i>Jahrbuch. des Vereins von Alterth. in Rheinlande</i>, No. 83; +Roscher, <i>Lexicon</i>, ii. 2464 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote143" name= +"footnote143"></a><b>Footnote 143:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag143">(return)</a> +<p>See Maury, <i>Fées du Moyen Age</i>; Sébillot, i. +262; Monnier, 439 f.; Wright, <i>Celt, Roman, and Saxon</i>, 286 +f.; Vallentin, <i>RC</i> iv. 29. The <i>Matres</i> may already have +had a sinister aspect in Roman times, as they appear to be intended +by an inscription <i>Lamiis Tribus</i> on an altar at Newcastle. +Hübner, 507.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote144" name= +"footnote144"></a><b>Footnote 144:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag144">(return)</a> +<p>Anwyl, <i>Celt. Rev.</i> 1906, 28. Cf. <i>Y Foel Famau</i>, "the +hill of the Mothers," in the Clwydian range.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote145" name= +"footnote145"></a><b>Footnote 145:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag145">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page73">73</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote146" name= +"footnote146"></a><b>Footnote 146:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag146">(return)</a> +<p>Vallentin, <i>op. cit.</i> iv. 29; Maury, <i>Croyances du Moyen +Age</i>, 382.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote147" name= +"footnote147"></a><b>Footnote 147:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag147">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote148" name= +"footnote148"></a><b>Footnote 148:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag148">(return)</a> +<p>See pp. <a href="#page69">69</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>, +<i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote149" name= +"footnote149"></a><b>Footnote 149:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag149">(return)</a> +<p>For all these see Holder, <i>s.v.</i>; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 103; +<i>RC</i> iv. 34.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote150" name= +"footnote150"></a><b>Footnote 150:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag150">(return)</a> +<p>Florus, ii. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote151" name= +"footnote151"></a><b>Footnote 151:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag151">(return)</a> +<p>See the table of identifications, p. <a href="#page125">125</a>, +<i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote152" name= +"footnote152"></a><b>Footnote 152:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag152">(return)</a> +<p>We need not assume with Jullian, 18, that there was one supreme +god, now a war-god, now a god of peace. Any prominent god may have +become a war-god on occasion.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>{49}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap4" id="chap4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2> +<h3>THE IRISH MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE.</h3> +<p>Three divine and heroic cycles of myths are known in Ireland, +one telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the others of +Cúchulainn and of the Fians. They are distinct in character +and contents, but the gods of the first cycle often help the heroes +of the other groups, as the gods of Greece and India assisted the +heroes of the epics. We shall see that some of the personages of +these cycles may have been known in Gaul; they are remembered in +Wales, but, in the Highlands, where stories of Cúchulainn +and Fionn are still told, the Tuatha Dé Danann are less +known now than in 1567, when Bishop Carsewell lamented the love of +the Highlanders for "idle, turbulent, lying, worldly stories +concerning the Tuatha Dédanans."<a id="footnotetag153" name= +"footnotetag153"></a><a href="#footnote153"><sup>153</sup></a></p> +<p>As the new Achæan religion in Greece and the Vedic sacred +books of India regarded the aboriginal gods and heroes as demons +and goblins, so did Christianity in Ireland sometimes speak of the +older gods there. On the other hand, it was mainly Christian +scribes who changed the old mythology into history, and made the +gods and heroes kings. Doubtless myths already existed, telling of +the descent of rulers and people from divinities, just as the Gauls +spoke of their <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id= +"page50"></a>{50}</span> descent from Dispater, or as the Incas of +Peru, the Mikados of Japan, and the kings of Uganda considered +themselves offspring of the gods. This is a universal practice, and +made it the more easy for Christian chroniclers to transmute myth +into history. In Ireland, as elsewhere, myth doubtless told of +monstrous races inhabiting the land in earlier days, of the strife +of the aborigines and incomers, and of their gods, though the +aboriginal gods may in some cases have been identified with Celtic +gods, or worshipped in their own persons. Many mythical elements +may therefore be looked for in the euhemerised chronicles of +ancient Ireland. But the chroniclers themselves were but the +continuers of a process which must have been at work as soon as the +influence of Christianity began to be felt.<a id="footnotetag154" +name="footnotetag154"></a><a href="#footnote154"><sup>154</sup></a> +Their passion, however, was to show the descent of the Irish and +the older peoples from the old Biblical personages, a process dear +to the modern Anglo-Israelite, some of whose arguments are based on +the wild romancing of the chroniclers.</p> +<p>Various stories were told of the first peopling of Ireland. +Banba, with two other daughters of Cain, arrived with fifty women +and three men, only to die of the plague. Three fishermen next +discovered Ireland, and "of the island of Banba of Fair Women with +hardihood they took possession." Having gone to fetch their wives, +they perished in the deluge at Tuath Inba.<a id="footnotetag155" +name="footnotetag155"></a><a href="#footnote155"><sup>155</sup></a> +A more popular account was that of the coming of Cessair, Noah's +granddaughter, with her father, husband, a third man, Ladru, "the +first dead man of Erin," and fifty damsels. Her coming was the +result of the advice of a <i>laimh-dhia</i>, or "hand-god," but +their ship was wrecked, and all save her husband, Finntain, who +survived for centuries, perished <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page51" id="page51"></a>{51}</span> in the flood.<a id= +"footnotetag156" name="footnotetag156"></a><a href= +"#footnote156"><sup>156</sup></a> Cessair's ship was less +serviceable than her grandparent's! Followed the race of Partholan, +"no wiser one than the other," who increased on the land until +plague swept them away, with the exception of Tuan mac Caraill, who +after many transformations, told the story of Ireland to S. Finnen +centuries after.<a id="footnotetag157" name= +"footnotetag157"></a><a href="#footnote157"><sup>157</sup></a> The +survival of Finntain and Tuan, doubles of each other, was an +invention of the chroniclers, to explain the survival of the +history of colonists who had all perished. Keating, on the other +hand, rejecting the sole survivor theory as contradictory to +Scripture, suggests that "aerial demons," followers of the +invaders, revealed all to the chroniclers, unless indeed they found +it engraved with "an iron pen and lead in the rocks."<a id= +"footnotetag158" name="footnotetag158"></a><a href= +"#footnote158"><sup>158</sup></a></p> +<p>Two hundred years before Partholan's coming, the Fomorians had +arrived,<a id="footnotetag159" name="footnotetag159"></a><a href= +"#footnote159"><sup>159</sup></a> and they and their chief Cichol +Gricenchos fought Partholan at Mag Itha, where they were defeated. +Cichol was footless, and some of his host had but one arm and one +leg.<a id="footnotetag160" name="footnotetag160"></a><a href= +"#footnote160"><sup>160</sup></a> They were demons, according to +the chroniclers, and descendants of the luckless Ham. Nennius makes +Partholan and his men the first Scots who came from Spain to +Ireland. The next arrivals were the people of Nemed who returned to +Spain, whence they came (Nennius), or died to a man (Tuan). They +also were descendants of the inevitable Noah, and their sojourn in +Ireland was much disturbed by the Fomorians who had recovered from +their defeat, and finally overpowered the Nemedians after the death +of Nemed.<a id="footnotetag161" name="footnotetag161"></a><a href= +"#footnote161"><sup>161</sup></a> From Tory Island the Fomorians +ruled Ireland, and forced the <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page52" id="page52"></a>{52}</span> Nemedians to pay them annually +on the eve of Samhain (Nov. 1st) two-thirds of their corn and milk +and of the children born during the year. If the Fomorians are gods +of darkness, or, preferably, aboriginal deities, the tribute must +be explained as a dim memory of sacrifice offered at the beginning +of winter when the powers of darkness and blight are in the +ascendant. The Fomorians had a tower of glass in Tory Island. This +was one day seen by the Milesians, to whom appeared on its +battlements what seemed to be men. A year after they attacked the +tower and were overwhelmed in the sea.<a id="footnotetag162" name= +"footnotetag162"></a><a href="#footnote162"><sup>162</sup></a> From +the survivors of a previously wrecked vessel of their fleet are +descended the Irish. Another version makes the Nemedians the +assailants. Thirty of them survived their defeat, some of them +going to Scotland or Man (the Britons), some to Greece (to return +as the Firbolgs), some to the north, where they learned magic and +returned as the Tuatha Dé Danann.<a id="footnotetag163" +name="footnotetag163"></a><a href="#footnote163"><sup>163</sup></a> +The Firbolgs, "men of bags," resenting their ignominious treatment +by the Greeks, escaped to Ireland. They included the Firbolgs +proper, the Fir-Domnann, and the Galioin.<a id="footnotetag164" +name="footnotetag164"></a><a href="#footnote164"><sup>164</sup></a> +The Fomorians are called their gods, and this, with the +contemptuous epithets bestowed on them, may point to the fact that +the Firbolgs were the pre-Celtic folk of Ireland and the Fomorians +their divinities, hostile to the gods of the Celts or regarded as +dark deities. The Firbolgs are vassals of Ailill and Medb, and with +the Fir Domnann and Galioin are hostile to Cúchulainn and +his men,<a id="footnotetag165" name="footnotetag165"></a><a href= +"#footnote165"><sup>165</sup></a> just as Fomorians were to the +Tuatha Dé Danann. The strifes of races and of their gods are +inextricably confused.</p> +<p>The Tuatha Dé Danann arrived from heaven—an idea in +keeping with their character as beneficent gods, but later legend +told how they came from the north. They reached <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>{53}</span> Ireland on +Beltane, shrouded in a magic mist, and finally, after one or, in +other accounts, two battles, defeated the Firbolgs and Fomorians at +Magtured. The older story of one battle may be regarded as a +euhemerised account of the seeming conflict of nature powers.<a id= +"footnotetag166" name="footnotetag166"></a><a href= +"#footnote166"><sup>166</sup></a> The first battle is described in +a fifteenth to sixteenth century MS.,<a id="footnotetag167" name= +"footnotetag167"></a><a href="#footnote167"><sup>167</sup></a> and +is referred to in a fifteenth century account of the second battle, +full of archaic reminiscences, and composed from various earlier +documents.<a id="footnotetag168" name="footnotetag168"></a><a href= +"#footnote168"><sup>168</sup></a> The Firbolgs, defeated in the +first battle, join the Fomorians, after great losses. Meanwhile +Nuada, leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann, lost his hand, and as +no king with a blemish could sit on the throne, the crown was given +to Bres, son of the Fomorian Elatha and his sister Eri, a woman of +the Tuatha Dé Danann. One day Eri espied a silver boat +speeding to her across the sea. From it stepped forth a magnificent +hero, and without delay the pair, like the lovers in Theocritus, +"rejoiced in their wedlock." The hero, Elatha, foretold the birth +of Eri's son, so beautiful that he would be a standard by which to +try all beautiful things. He gave her his ring, but she was to part +with it only to one whose finger it should fit. This was her child +Bres, and by this token he was later, as an exile, recognised by +his father, and obtained his help against the Tuatha Dé +Danann. Like other wonderful children, Bres grew twice as quickly +as any other child until he was seven.<a id="footnotetag169" name= +"footnotetag169"></a><a href="#footnote169"><sup>169</sup></a> +Though Elatha and Eri are brother and sister, she is among the +Tuatha Dé Danann.<a id="footnotetag170" name= +"footnotetag170"></a><a href="#footnote170"><sup>170</sup></a> +There is the usual inconsistency of myth here and in other accounts +of Fomorian and Tuatha Dé Danann unions. The latter had just +landed, but already had united in marriage with the Fomorians. This +inconsistency <span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id= +"page54"></a>{54}</span> escaped the chroniclers, but it points to +the fact that both were divine not human, and that, though in +conflict, they united in marriage as members of hostile tribes +often do.</p> +<p>The second battle took place twenty-seven years after the first, +on Samhain. It was fought like the first on the plain of Mag-tured, +though later accounts made one battle take place at Mag-tured in +Mayo, the other at Mag-tured in Sligo.<a id="footnotetag171" name= +"footnotetag171"></a><a href="#footnote171"><sup>171</sup></a> +Inconsistently, the conquering Tuatha Dé Danann in the +interval, while Bres is their king, must pay tribute imposed by the +Fomorians. Obviously in older accounts this tribute must have been +imposed before the first battle and have been its cause. But why +should gods, like the Tuatha Dé Danann, ever have been in +subjection? This remains to be seen, but the answer probably lies +in parallel myths of the subjection or death of divinities like +Ishtar, Adonis, Persephone, and Osiris. Bres having exacted a +tribute of the milk of all hornless dun cows, the cows of Ireland +were passed through fire and smeared with ashes—a myth based +perhaps on the Beltane fire ritual.<a id="footnotetag172" name= +"footnotetag172"></a><a href="#footnote172"><sup>172</sup></a> The +avaricious Bres was satirised, and "nought but decay was on him +from that hour,"<a id="footnotetag173" name= +"footnotetag173"></a><a href="#footnote173"><sup>173</sup></a> and +when Nuada, having recovered, claimed the throne, he went to +collect an army of the Fomorians, who assembled against the Tuatha +Dé Danann. In the battle Indech wounded Ogma, and Balor slew +Nuada, but was mortally wounded by Lug. Thereupon the Fomorians +fled to their own region.</p> +<p>The Tuatha Dé Danann remained masters of Ireland until +the coming of the Milesians, so named from an eponymous Mile, son +of Bile. Ith, having been sent to reconnoitre, was slain, and the +Milesians now invaded Ireland in force. In spite of a mist raised +by the Druids, they landed, and, having met the three princes who +slew Ith, demanded instant battle or surrender of the land. The +princes agreed to abide by <span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" +id="page55"></a>{55}</span> the decision of the Milesian poet +Amairgen, who bade his friends re-embark and retire for the +distance of nine waves. If they could then effect a landing, +Ireland was theirs. A magic storm was raised, which wrecked many of +their ships, but Amairgen recited verses, fragments, perhaps, of +some old ritual, and overcame the dangers. After their defeat the +survivors of the Tuatha Dé Danann retired into the hills to +become a fairy folk, and the Milesians (the Goidels or Scots) +became ancestors of the Irish.</p> +<p>Throughout the long story of the conquests of Ireland there are +many reduplications, the same incidents being often ascribed to +different personages.<a id="footnotetag174" name= +"footnotetag174"></a><a href="#footnote174"><sup>174</sup></a> +Different versions of similar occurrences, based on older myths and +traditions, may already have been in existence, and ritual +practices, dimly remembered, required explanation. In the hands of +the chroniclers, writing history with a purpose and combining their +information with little regard to consistency, all this was reduced +to a more or less connected narrative. At the hands of the prosaic +chroniclers divinity passed from the gods, though traces of it +still linger.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Ye are gods, and, behold, ye shall die, and the waves be upon +you at last.</p> +<p>In the darkness of time, in the deeps of the years, in the +changes of things,</p> +<p>Ye shall sleep as a slain man sleeps, and the world shall forget +you for kings."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>From the annalistic point of view the Fomorians are sea demons +or pirates, their name being derived from <i>muir</i>, "sea," while +they are descended along with other monstrous beings from them. +Professor Rh[^y]s, while connecting the name with Welsh +<i>foawr</i>, "giant" (Gaelic <i>famhair</i>), derives the name +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>{56}</span> +from <i>fo</i>, "under," and <i>muir</i>, and regards them as +submarine beings.<a id="footnotetag175" name= +"footnotetag175"></a><a href="#footnote175"><sup>175</sup></a> Dr. +MacBain connected them with the fierce powers of the western sea +personified, like the <i>Muireartach</i>, a kind of sea hag, of a +Fionn ballad.<a id="footnotetag176" name= +"footnotetag176"></a><a href="#footnote176"><sup>176</sup></a> But +this association of the Fomorians with the ocean may be the result +of a late folk-etymology, which wrongly derived their name from +<i>muir</i>. The Celtic experience of the Lochlanners or Norsemen, +with whom the Fomorians are associated,<a id="footnotetag177" name= +"footnotetag177"></a><a href="#footnote177"><sup>177</sup></a> +would aid the conception of them as sea-pirates of a more or less +demoniacal character. Dr. Stokes connects the second syllable +<i>mor</i> with <i>mare</i> in "nightmare," from <i>moro</i>, and +regards them as subterranean as well as submarine.<a id= +"footnotetag178" name="footnotetag178"></a><a href= +"#footnote178"><sup>178</sup></a> But the more probable derivation +is that of Zimmer and D'Arbois, from <i>fo</i> and <i>morio</i> +(<i>mor</i>, "great "),<a id="footnotetag179" name= +"footnotetag179"></a><a href="#footnote179"><sup>179</sup></a> +which would thus agree with the tradition which regarded them as +giants. They were probably beneficent gods of the aborigines, whom +the Celtic conquerors regarded as generally evil, perhaps equating +them with the dark powers already known to them. They were still +remembered as gods, and are called "champions of the +<i>síd</i>," like the Tuatha Dé Danann.<a id= +"footnotetag180" name="footnotetag180"></a><a href= +"#footnote180"><sup>180</sup></a> Thus King Bres sought to save his +life by promising that the kine of Ireland would always be in milk, +then that the men of Ireland would reap every quarter, and finally +by revealing the lucky days for ploughing, sowing, and +reaping.<a id="footnotetag181" name="footnotetag181"></a><a href= +"#footnote181"><sup>181</sup></a> Only an autochthonous god could +know this, and the story is suggestive of the true nature of the +Fomorians. The hostile character attributed to them is seen from +the fact that they destroyed corn, milk, and fruit. But in Ireland, +as elsewhere, this destructive power was deprecated by begging them +not to destroy "corn nor milk in Erin beyond their fair +tribute."<a id="footnotetag182" name="footnotetag182"></a><a href= +"#footnote182"><sup>182</sup></a> Tribute was also paid to them on +Samhain, the time when <span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id= +"page57"></a>{57}</span> the powers of blight feared by men are in +the ascendant. Again, the kingdom of Balor, their chief, is still +described as the kingdom of cold.<a id="footnotetag183" name= +"footnotetag183"></a><a href="#footnote183"><sup>183</sup></a> But +when we remember that a similar "tribute" was paid to Cromm +Cruaich, a god of fertility, and that after the conquest of the +Tuatha Dé Danann they also were regarded as hostile to +agriculture,<a id="footnotetag184" name= +"footnotetag184"></a><a href="#footnote184"><sup>184</sup></a> we +realise that the Fomorians must have been aboriginal gods of +fertility whom the conquering Celts regarded as hostile to them and +their gods. Similarly, in folk-belief the beneficent corn-spirit +has sometimes a sinister and destructive aspect.<a id= +"footnotetag185" name="footnotetag185"></a><a href= +"#footnote185"><sup>185</sup></a> Thus the stories of "tribute" +would be distorted reminiscences of the ritual of gods of the soil, +differing little in character from that of the similar Celtic +divinities. What makes it certain that the Fomorians were +aboriginal gods is that they are found in Ireland before the coming +of the early colonist Partholan. They were the gods of the +pre-Celtic folk—Firbolgs, Fir Domnann, and Galioin<a id= +"footnotetag186" name="footnotetag186"></a><a href= +"#footnote186"><sup>186</sup></a>—all of them in Ireland +before the Tuatha Dé Danaan arrived, and all of them +regarded as slaves, spoken of with the utmost contempt. Another +possibility, however, ought to be considered. As the Celtic gods +were local in character, and as groups of tribes would frequently +be hostile to other groups, the Fomorians may have been local gods +of a group at enmity with another group, worshipping the Tuatha +Dé Danaan.</p> +<p>The strife of Fomorians and Tuatha Dé Danann suggests the +dualism of all nature religions. Demons or giants or monsters +strive with gods in Hindu, Greek, and Teutonic <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>{58}</span> mythology, +and in Persia the primitive dualism of beneficent and hurtful +powers of nature became an ethical dualism—the eternal +opposition of good and evil. The sun is vanquished by cloud and +storm, but shines forth again in vigour. Vegetation dies, but +undergoes a yearly renewal. So in myth the immortal gods are +wounded and slain in strife. But we must not push too far the +analogy of the apparent strife of the elements and the wars of the +gods. The one suggested the other, especially where the gods were +elemental powers. But myth-making man easily developed the +suggestion; gods were like men and "could never get eneuch o' +fechtin'." The Celts knew of divine combats before their arrival in +Ireland, and their own hostile powers were easily assimilated to +the hostile gods of the aborigines.</p> +<p>The principal Fomorians are described as kings. Elatha was son +of Nét, described by Cormac as "a battle god of the heathen +Gael," i.e. he is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and has as +wives two war-goddesses, Badb and Nemaind.<a id="footnotetag187" +name="footnotetag187"></a><a href="#footnote187"><sup>187</sup></a> +Thus he resembles the Fomorian Tethra whose wife is a <i>badb</i> +or "battle-crow," preying on the slain.<a id="footnotetag188" name= +"footnotetag188"></a><a href="#footnote188"><sup>188</sup></a> +Elatha's name, connected with words meaning "knowledge," suggests +that he was an aboriginal culture-god.<a id="footnotetag189" name= +"footnotetag189"></a><a href="#footnote189"><sup>189</sup></a> In +the genealogies, Fomorians and Tuatha Dé Danann are +inextricably mingled. Bres's temporary position as king of the +Tuatha Déa may reflect some myth of the occasional supremacy +of the powers of blight. Want and niggardliness characterise his +reign, and after his defeat a better state of things prevails. +Bres's consort was Brigit, and their son Ruadan, sent to spy on the +Tuatha Dé Danann, was slain. His mother's wailing for him +was the first mourning wail ever heard in Erin.<a id= +"footnotetag190" name="footnotetag190"></a><a href= +"#footnote190"><sup>190</sup></a> Another god, Indech, <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>{59}</span> was son of +Déa Domnu, a Fomorian goddess of the deep, i.e. of the +underworld and probably also of fertility, who may hold a position +among the Fomorians similar to that of Danu among the Tuatha +Dé Danann. Indech was slain by Ogma, who himself died of +wounds received from his adversary.</p> +<p>Balor had a consort Cethlenn, whose venom killed Dagda. His one +eye had become evil by contact with the poisonous fumes of a +concoction which his father's Druids were preparing. The eyelid +required four men to raise it, when his evil eye destroyed all on +whom its glance fell. In this way Balor would have slain Lug at +Mag-tured, but the god at once struck the eye with a sling-stone +and slew him.<a id="footnotetag191" name= +"footnotetag191"></a><a href="#footnote191"><sup>191</sup></a> +Balor, like the Greek Medusa, is perhaps a personification of the +evil eye, so much feared by the Celts. Healthful influences and +magical charms avert it; hence Lug, a beneficent god, destroys +Balor's maleficence.</p> +<p>Tethra, with Balor and Elatha, ruled over Erin at the coming of +the Tuatha Dé Danann. From a phrase used in the story of +Connla's visit to Elysium, "Thou art a hero of the men of Tethra," +M. D'Arbois assumes that Tethra was ruler of Elysium, which he +makes one with the land of the dead. The passage, however, bears a +different interpretation, and though a Fomorian, Tethra, a god of +war, might be regarded as lord of all warriors.<a id= +"footnotetag192" name="footnotetag192"></a><a href= +"#footnote192"><sup>192</sup></a> Elysium was not the land of the +dead, and when M. D'Arbois equates Tethra with Kronos, who after +his defeat became ruler of a land of dead heroes, the analogy, like +other analogies with Greek mythology, is misleading. He also +equates Bres, as temporary king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, +with Kronos, king of heaven in the age of gold. Kronos, again, +slain by Zeus, is parallel to Balor slain by his grandson Lug. +Tethra, Bres, and Balor are thus separate fragments of one god +equivalent to Kronos.<a id="footnotetag193" name= +"footnotetag193"></a><a href="#footnote193"><sup>193</sup></a> Yet +their <span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id= +"page60"></a>{60}</span> personalities are quite distinct. Each +race works out its mythology for itself, and, while parallels are +inevitable, we should not allow these to override the actual myths +as they have come down to us.</p> +<p>Professor Rh[^y]s makes Bile, ancestor of the Milesians who came +from Spain, a Goidelic counterpart of the Gaulish Dispater, lord of +the dead, from whom the Gauls claimed descent. But Bile, neither a +Fomorian nor of the Tuatha Dé Danann, is an imaginary and +shadowy creation. Bile is next equated with a Brythonic Beli, +assumed to be consort of Dôn, whose family are equivalent to +the Tuatha Dé Danann.<a id="footnotetag194" name= +"footnotetag194"></a><a href="#footnote194"><sup>194</sup></a> Beli +was a mythic king whose reign was a kind of golden age, and if he +was father of Dôn's children, which is doubtful, Bile would +then be father of the Tuatha Dé Danann. But he is ancestor +of the Milesians, their opponents according to the annalists. Beli +is also equated with Elatha, and since Dôn, reputed consort +of Beli, was grandmother of Llew, equated with Irish Lug, grandson +of Balor, Balor is equivalent to Beli, whose name is regarded by +Professor Rh[^y]s as related etymologically to Balor's.<a id= +"footnotetag195" name="footnotetag195"></a><a href= +"#footnote195"><sup>195</sup></a> Bile, Balor, and Elatha are thus +Goidelic equivalents of the shadowy Beli. But they also are quite +distinct personalities, nor are they ever hinted at as ancestral +gods of the Celts, or gods of a gloomy underworld. In Celtic belief +the underworld was probably a fertile region and a place of light, +nor were its gods harmful and evil, as Balor was.</p> +<p>On the whole, the Fomorians came to be regarded as the powers of +nature in its hostile aspect. They personified blight, winter, +darkness, and death, before which men trembled, yet were not wholly +cast down, since the immortal gods of growth and light, rulers of +the bright other-world, were on their side and fought against their +enemies. Year by year the gods suffered deadly harm, but returned +as conquerors to renew <span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id= +"page61"></a>{61}</span> the struggle once more. Myth spoke of this +as having happened once for all, but it went on continuously.<a id= +"footnotetag196" name="footnotetag196"></a><a href= +"#footnote196"><sup>196</sup></a> Gods were immortal and only +seemed to die. The strife was represented in ritual, since men +believe that they can aid the gods by magic, rite, or prayer. Why, +then, do hostile Fomorians and Tuatha Dé Danann intermarry? +This happens in all mythologies, and it probably reflects, in the +divine sphere, what takes place among men. Hostile peoples carry +off each the other's women, or they have periods of friendliness +and consequent intermarriage. Man makes his gods in his own image, +and the problem is best explained by facts like these, exaggerated +no doubt by the Irish annalists.</p> +<p>The Tuatha Dé Danann, in spite of their euhemerisation, +are more than human. In the north where they learned magic, they +dwelt in four cities, from each of which they brought a magical +treasure—the stone of Fal, which "roared under every king," +Lug's unconquerable spear, Nuada's irresistible sword, the Dagda's +inexhaustible cauldron. But they are more than wizards or Druids. +They are re-born as mortals; they have a divine world of their own, +they interfere in and influence human affairs. The euhemerists did +not go far enough, and more than once their divinity is practically +acknowledged. When the Fian Caoilte and a woman of the Tuatha +Dé Danann appear before S. Patrick, he asks, "Why is she +youthful and beautiful, while you are old and wrinkled?" And +Caoilte replies, "She is of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who are +unfading and whose duration is perennial. I am of the sons of +Milesius, that are perishable and fade away."<a id="footnotetag197" +name="footnotetag197"></a><a href= +"#footnote197"><sup>197</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>{62}</span> +<p>After their conversion, the Celts, sons of Milesius, thought +that the gods still existed in the hollow hills, their former +dwellings and sanctuaries, or in far-off islands, still caring for +their former worshippers. This tradition had its place with that +which made them a race of men conquered by the Milesians—the +victory of Christianity over paganism and its gods having been +transmuted into a strife of races by the euhemerists. The new +faith, not the people, conquered the old gods. The Tuatha Dé +Danann became the <i>Daoine-sidhe</i>, a fairy folk, still +occasionally called by their old name, just as individual fairy +kings or queens bear the names of the ancient gods. The euhemerists +gave the Fomorians a monstrous and demoniac character, which they +did not always give to the Tuatha Dé Danann; in this +continuing the old tradition that Fomorians were hostile and the +Tuatha Dé Danann beneficent and mild.</p> +<p>The mythological cycle is not a complete "body of divinity"; its +apparent completeness results from the chronological order of the +annalists. Fragments of other myths are found in the +<i>Dindsenchas</i>; others exist as romantic tales, and we have no +reason to believe that all the old myths have been preserved. But +enough remains to show the true nature of the Tuatha Dé +Danann—their supernatural character, their powers, their +divine and unfailing food and drink, their mysterious and beautiful +abode. In their contents, their personages, in the actions that are +described in them, the materials of the "mythological cycle," show +how widely it differs from the Cúchulainn and Fionn +cycles.<a id="footnotetag198" name="footnotetag198"></a><a href= +"#footnote198"><sup>198</sup></a> "The white radiance of eternity" +suffuses it; the heroic cycles, magical and romantic as they are, +belong far more to earth and time.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote153" name= +"footnote153"></a><b>Footnote 153:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag153">(return)</a> +<p>For some Highland references to the gods in saga and +<i>Märchen</i>, see <i>Book of the Dean of Lismore</i>, 10; +Campbell, <i>WHT</i> ii. 77. The sea-god Lir is probably the Liur +of Ossianic ballads (Campbell, <i>LF</i> 100, 125), and his son +Manannan is perhaps "the Son of the Sea" in a Gaelic song +(Carmichael, <i>CG</i> ii. 122). Manannan and his daughters are +also known (Campbell, <i>witchcraft</i>, 83).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote154" name= +"footnote154"></a><b>Footnote 154:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag154">(return)</a> +<p>The euhemerising process is first seen in tenth century poems by +Eochaid hua Flainn, but was largely the work of Flainn Manistrech, +<i>ob.</i> 1056. It is found fully fledged in the <i>Book of +Invasions</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote155" name= +"footnote155"></a><b>Footnote 155:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag155">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 105-106.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote156" name= +"footnote156"></a><b>Footnote 156:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag156">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 107; <i>LL</i> 4<i>b</i>. Cf. <i>RC</i> xvi. 155.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote157" name= +"footnote157"></a><b>Footnote 157:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag157">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 5.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote158" name= +"footnote158"></a><b>Footnote 158:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag158">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 111. Giraldus Cambrensis, <i>Hist. Irel.</i> c. 2, +makes Roanus survive and tell the tale of Partholan to S. Patrick. +He is the Caoilte mac Ronan of other tales, a survivor of the +Fians, who held many racy dialogues with the Saint. Keating abuses +Giraldus for equating Roanus with Finntain in his "lying history," +and for calling him Roanus instead of Ronanus, a mistake in which +he, "the guide bull of the herd," is followed by others.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote159" name= +"footnote159"></a><b>Footnote 159:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag159">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 164.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote160" name= +"footnote160"></a><b>Footnote 160:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag160">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 5<i>a</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote161" name= +"footnote161"></a><b>Footnote 161:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag161">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 121; <i>LL</i> 6<i>a</i>; <i>RC</i> xvi. 161.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote162" name= +"footnote162"></a><b>Footnote 162:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag162">(return)</a> +<p>Nennius, <i>Hist. Brit.</i> 13.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote163" name= +"footnote163"></a><b>Footnote 163:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag163">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 6, 8<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote164" name= +"footnote164"></a><b>Footnote 164:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag164">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 6<i>b</i>, 127<i>a</i>; <i>IT</i> iii. 381; <i>RC</i> +xvi. 81.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote165" name= +"footnote165"></a><b>Footnote 165:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag165">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 9<i>b</i>, 11<i>a</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote166" name= +"footnote166"></a><b>Footnote 166:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag166">(return)</a> +<p>See Cormac, <i>s.v.</i> "Nescoit," <i>LU</i> 51.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote167" name= +"footnote167"></a><b>Footnote 167:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag167">(return)</a> +<p><i>Harl. MSS.</i> 2, 17, pp. 90-99. Cf. fragment from <i>Book of +Invasions</i> in <i>LL</i> 8.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote168" name= +"footnote168"></a><b>Footnote 168:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag168">(return)</a> +<p><i>Harl. MS.</i> 5280, translated in <i>RC</i> xii. 59 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote169" name= +"footnote169"></a><b>Footnote 169:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag169">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 60; D'Arbois, v. 405 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote170" name= +"footnote170"></a><b>Footnote 170:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag170">(return)</a> +<p>For Celtic brother-sister unions see p. <a href= +"#page224">224</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote171" name= +"footnote171"></a><b>Footnote 171:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag171">(return)</a> +<p>O'Donovan, <i>Annals</i>, i. 16.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote172" name= +"footnote172"></a><b>Footnote 172:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag172">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xv. 439.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote173" name= +"footnote173"></a><b>Footnote 173:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag173">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 71.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote174" name= +"footnote174"></a><b>Footnote 174:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag174">(return)</a> +<p>Professor Rh[^y]s thinks the Partholan story is the aboriginal, +the median the Celtic version of the same event. Partholan, with +initial <i>p</i> cannot be Goidelic (<i>Scottish Review</i>, 1890, +"Myth. Treatment of Celtic Ethnology").</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote175" name= +"footnote175"></a><b>Footnote 175:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag175">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 591.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote176" name= +"footnote176"></a><b>Footnote 176:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag176">(return)</a> +<p><i>CM</i> ix. 130; Campbell <i>LF</i> 68.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote177" name= +"footnote177"></a><b>Footnote 177:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag177">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 75.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote178" name= +"footnote178"></a><b>Footnote 178:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag178">(return)</a> +<p><i>US</i> 211.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote179" name= +"footnote179"></a><b>Footnote 179:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag179">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 52; <i>RC</i> xii. 476.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote180" name= +"footnote180"></a><b>Footnote 180:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag180">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 73.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote181" name= +"footnote181"></a><b>Footnote 181:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag181">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 105.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote182" name= +"footnote182"></a><b>Footnote 182:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag182">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxii. 195.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote183" name= +"footnote183"></a><b>Footnote 183:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag183">(return)</a> +<p>Larmime, "Kian, son of Kontje."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote184" name= +"footnote184"></a><b>Footnote 184:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag184">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page78">78</a>; <i>LL</i> 245<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote185" name= +"footnote185"></a><b>Footnote 185:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag185">(return)</a> +<p>Mannhardt, <i>Mythol. Forsch.</i> 310 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote186" name= +"footnote186"></a><b>Footnote 186:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag186">(return)</a> +<p>"Fir Domnann," "men of Domna," a goddess (Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> +597), or a god (D'Arbois, ii. 130). "Domna" is connected with +Irish-words meaning "deep" (Windisch, <i>IT</i> i. 498; Stokes, +<i>US</i> 153). Domna, or Domnu, may therefore have been a goddess +of the deep, not the sea so much as the underworld, and so perhaps +an Earth-mother from whom the Fir Domnann traced their descent.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote187" name= +"footnote187"></a><b>Footnote 187:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag187">(return)</a> +<p>Cormac, <i>s.v.</i> "Neith"; D'Arbois, v. 400; <i>RC</i> xii. +61.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote188" name= +"footnote188"></a><b>Footnote 188:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag188">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 50. Tethra is glossed <i>badb</i> (<i>IT</i> i. +820).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote189" name= +"footnote189"></a><b>Footnote 189:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag189">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 521; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 274 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote190" name= +"footnote190"></a><b>Footnote 190:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag190">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 95.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote191" name= +"footnote191"></a><b>Footnote 191:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag191">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 101.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote192" name= +"footnote192"></a><b>Footnote 192:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag192">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page374">374</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote193" name= +"footnote193"></a><b>Footnote 193:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag193">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 198, 375.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote194" name= +"footnote194"></a><b>Footnote 194:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag194">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 90-91.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote195" name= +"footnote195"></a><b>Footnote 195:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag195">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 274, 319, 643. For Beli, see p. <a href= +"#page112">112</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote196" name= +"footnote196"></a><b>Footnote 196:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag196">(return)</a> +<p>Whatever the signification of the battle of Mag-tured may be, +the place which it was localised is crowded with Neolithic +megaliths, dolmens, etc. To later fancy these were the graves of +warriors slain in a great battle fought there, and that battle +became the fight between Fomorians and Tuatha Dé Dananns. +Mag-tured may have been the scene of a battle between their +respective worshippers.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote197" name= +"footnote197"></a><b>Footnote 197:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag197">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 203.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote198" name= +"footnote198"></a><b>Footnote 198:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag198">(return)</a> +<p>It should be observed that, as in the Vedas, the Odyssey, the +Japanese <i>Ko-ji-ki</i>, as well as in barbaric and savage +mythologies, <i>Märchen</i> formulæ abound in the Irish +mythological cycle.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>{63}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap5" id="chap5">CHAPTER V.</a></h2> +<h3>THE TUATHA DÉ DANANN</h3> +<p>The meaning formerly given to <i>Tuatha Dé Danann</i> was +"the men of science who were gods," <i>danann</i> being here +connected with <i>dán</i>, "knowledge." But the true meaning +is "the tribes <i>or</i> folk of the goddess Danu,"<a id= +"footnotetag199" name="footnotetag199"></a><a href= +"#footnote199"><sup>199</sup></a> which agrees with the cognates +<i>Tuatha</i> or <i>Fir Dea</i>, "tribes <i>or</i> men of the +goddess." The name was given to the group, though Danu had only +three sons, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharbar. Hence the group is also +called <i>fir tri ndea</i>, "men of the three gods."<a id= +"footnotetag200" name="footnotetag200"></a><a href= +"#footnote200"><sup>200</sup></a> The equivalents in Welsh story of +Danu and her folk are Dôn and her children. We have seen that +though they are described as kings and warriors by the annalists, +traces of their divinity appear. In the Cúchulainn cycle +they are supernatural beings and sometimes demons, helping or +harming men, and in the Fionn cycle all these characteristics are +ascribed to them. But the theory which prevailed most is that which +connected them with the hills or mounds, the last resting-places of +the mighty dead. Some of these bore their names, while other beings +were also associated with the mounds +(<i>síd</i>)—Fomorians and Milesian chiefs, heroes of +the sagas, or those who had actually been buried in them.<a id= +"footnotetag201" name="footnotetag201"></a><a href= +"#footnote201"><sup>201</sup></a> Legend told how, after the defeat +of the gods, the mounds were divided among them, the method +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>{64}</span> +of division varying in different versions. In an early version the +Tuatha Dé Danann are immortal and the Dagda divides the +<i>síd</i>.<a id="footnotetag202" name= +"footnotetag202"></a><a href="#footnote202"><sup>202</sup></a> But +in a poem of Flann Manistrech (<i>ob.</i> 1056) they are mortals +and die.<a id="footnotetag203" name="footnotetag203"></a><a href= +"#footnote203"><sup>203</sup></a> Now follows a regular chronology +giving the dates of their reigns and their deaths, as in the poem +of Gilla Coemain (eleventh century).<a id="footnotetag204" name= +"footnotetag204"></a><a href="#footnote204"><sup>204</sup></a> +Hence another legend told how, Dagda being dead, Bodb Dearg divided +the <i>síd</i>, yet even here Manannan is said to have +conferred immortality upon the Tuatha Dé Danann.<a id= +"footnotetag205" name="footnotetag205"></a><a href= +"#footnote205"><sup>205</sup></a> The old pagan myths had shown +that gods might die, while in ritual their representatives were +slain, and this may have been the starting-point of the +euhemerising process. But the divinity of the Tuatha Dé +Danann is still recalled. Eochaid O'Flynn (tenth century), doubtful +whether they are men or demons, concludes, "though I have treated +of these deities in order, yet have I not adored them."<a id= +"footnotetag206" name="footnotetag206"></a><a href= +"#footnote206"><sup>206</sup></a> Even in later times they were +still thought of as gods in exile, a view which appears in the +romantic tales and sagas existing side by side with the notices of +the annalists. They were also regarded as fairy kings and queens, +and yet fairies of a different order from those of ordinary +tradition. They are "fairies or sprites with corporeal forms, +endowed with immortality," and yet also <i>dei terreni</i> or +<i>síde</i> worshipped by the folk before the coming of S. +Patrick. Even the saint and several bishops were called by the fair +pagan daughters of King Loegaire, <i>fir síde</i>, "men of +the <i>síd</i>," that is, gods.<a id="footnotetag207" name= +"footnotetag207"></a><a href="#footnote207"><sup>207</sup></a> The +<i>síd</i> were named after the names of the Tuatha +Dé Danann <span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id= +"page65"></a>{65}</span> who reigned in them, but the tradition +being localised in different places, several mounds were sometimes +connected with one god. The <i>síd</i> were marvellous +underground palaces, full of strange things, and thither favoured +mortals might go for a time or for ever. In this they correspond +exactly to the oversea Elysium, the divine land.</p> +<p>But why were the Tuatha Dé Danann associated with the +mounds? If fairies or an analogous race of beings were already in +pagan times connected with hills or mounds, gods now regarded as +fairies would be connected with them. Dr. Joyce and O'Curry think +that an older race of aboriginal gods or <i>síd-folk</i> +preceded the Tuatha Déa in the mounds.<a id="footnotetag208" +name="footnotetag208"></a><a href="#footnote208"><sup>208</sup></a> +These may have been the Fomorians, the "champions of the +<i>síd</i>," while in <i>Mesca Ulad</i> the Tuatha +Déa go to the underground dwellings and speak with the +<i>síde</i> already there. We do not know that the fairy +creed as such existed in pagan times, but if the <i>síde</i> +and the Tuatha Dé Danann were once distinct, they were +gradually assimilated. Thus the Dagda is called "king of the +<i>síde</i>"; Aed Abrat and his daughters, Fand and Liban, +and Labraid, Liban's husband, are called <i>síde</i>, and +Manannan is Fand's consort.<a id="footnotetag209" name= +"footnotetag209"></a><a href="#footnote209"><sup>209</sup></a> +Labraid's island, like the <i>síd</i> of Mider and the land +to which women of the <i>síde</i> invite Connla, differs but +little from the usual divine Elysium, while Mider, one of the +<i>síde</i>, is associated with the Tuatha Dé +Danann.<a id="footnotetag210" name="footnotetag210"></a><a href= +"#footnote210"><sup>210</sup></a> The <i>síde</i> are once +said to be female, and are frequently supernatural women who run +away or marry mortals.<a id="footnotetag211" name= +"footnotetag211"></a><a href="#footnote211"><sup>211</sup></a> Thus +they may be a reminiscence of old Earth goddesses. But they are not +exclusively female, since there are kings of the +<i>síde</i>, and as the name <i>Fir síde</i>, "men of +the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id= +"page66"></a>{66}</span> <i>síde</i>," shows, while S. +Patrick and his friends were taken for <i>síd</i>-folk.</p> +<p>The formation of the legend was also aided by the old cult of +the gods on heights, some of them sepulchral mounds, and now +occasionally sites of Christian churches.<a id="footnotetag212" +name="footnotetag212"></a><a href="#footnote212"><sup>212</sup></a> +The Irish god Cenn Cruaich and his Welsh equivalent Penn Cruc, +whose name survives in <i>Pennocrucium</i>, have names meaning +"chief <i>or</i> head of the mound."<a id="footnotetag213" name= +"footnotetag213"></a><a href="#footnote213"><sup>213</sup></a> +Other mounds or hills had also a sacred character. Hence gods +worshipped at mounds, dwelling or revealing themselves there, still +lingered in the haunted spots; they became fairies, or were +associated with the dead buried in the mounds, as fairies also have +been, or were themselves thought to have died and been buried +there. The haunting of the mounds by the old gods is seen in a +prayer of S. Columba's, who begs God to dispel "this host +(<i>i.e.</i> the old gods) around the cairns that reigneth."<a id= +"footnotetag214" name="footnotetag214"></a><a href= +"#footnote214"><sup>214</sup></a> An early MS also tells how the +Milesians allotted the underground part of Erin to the Tuatha +Déa who now retired within the hills; in other words, they +were gods of the hills worshipped by the Milesians on hills.<a id= +"footnotetag215" name="footnotetag215"></a><a href= +"#footnote215"><sup>215</sup></a> But, as we shall see, the gods +dwelt elsewhere than in hills.<a id="footnotetag216" name= +"footnotetag216"></a><a href="#footnote216"><sup>216</sup></a></p> +<p>Tumuli may already in pagan times have been pointed out as tombs +of gods who died in myth or ritual, like the tombs of Zeus in Crete +and of Osiris in Egypt. Again, fairies, in some aspects, are ghosts +of the dead, and haunt tumuli; hence, when gods became fairies they +would do the same. And once they were thought of as dead kings, any +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>{67}</span> +notable tumuli would be pointed out as theirs, since it is a law in +folk-belief to associate tumuli or other structures not with the +dead or with their builders, but with supernatural or mythical or +even historical personages. If <i>síde</i> ever meant +"ghosts," it would be easy to call the dead gods by this name, and +to connect them with the places of the dead.<a id="footnotetag217" +name="footnotetag217"></a><a href= +"#footnote217"><sup>217</sup></a></p> +<p>Many strands went to the weaving of the later conception of the +gods, but there still hung around them an air of mystery, and the +belief that they were a race of men was never consistent with +itself.</p> +<p>Danu gave her name to the whole group of gods, and is called +their mother, like the Egyptian Neith or the Semitic Ishtar.<a id= +"footnotetag218" name="footnotetag218"></a><a href= +"#footnote218"><sup>218</sup></a> In the annalists she is daughter +of Dagda, and has three sons. She may be akin to the goddess Anu, +whom Cormac describes as "<i>mater deorum hibernensium</i>. It was +well she nursed the gods." From her name he derives <i>ana</i>, +"plenty," and two hills in Kerry are called "the Paps of +Anu."<a id="footnotetag219" name="footnotetag219"></a><a href= +"#footnote219"><sup>219</sup></a> Thus as a goddess of plenty Danu +or Anu may have been an early Earth-mother, and what may be a dim +memory of Anu in Leicestershire confirms this view. A cave on the +Dane Hills is called "Black Annis' Bower," and she is said to have +been a savage woman who devoured human victims.<a id= +"footnotetag220" name="footnotetag220"></a><a href= +"#footnote220"><sup>220</sup></a> Earth-goddesses <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>{68}</span> usually have +human victims, and Anu would be no exception. In the cult of Earth +divinities Earth and under-Earth are practically identical, while +Earth-goddesses like Demeter and Persephone were associated with +the underworld, the dead being Demeter's folk. The fruits of the +earth with their roots below the surface are then gifts of the +earth- or under-earth goddess. This may have been the case with +Danu, for in Celtic belief the gifts of civilisation came from the +underworld or from the gods. Professor Rh[^y]s finds the name Anu +in the dat. <i>Anoniredi</i>, "chariot of Anu," in an inscription +from Vaucluse, and the identification is perhaps established by the +fact that goddesses of fertility were drawn through the fields in a +vehicle.<a id="footnotetag221" name="footnotetag221"></a><a href= +"#footnote221"><sup>221</sup></a> Cormac also mentions Buanann as +mother and nurse of heroes, perhaps a goddess worshipped by +heroes.<a id="footnotetag222" name="footnotetag222"></a><a href= +"#footnote222"><sup>222</sup></a></p> +<p>Danu is also identified with Brigit, goddess of knowledge +(<i>dán</i>), perhaps through a folk-etymology. She was +worshipped by poets, and had two sisters of the same name connected +with leechcraft and smithwork.<a id="footnotetag223" name= +"footnotetag223"></a><a href="#footnote223"><sup>223</sup></a> They +are duplicates or local forms of Brigit, a goddess of culture and +of poetry, so much loved by the Celts. She is thus the equivalent +of the Gaulish goddess equated with Minerva by Cæsar, and +found on inscriptions as Minerva Belisama and Brigindo. She is the +Dea Brigantia of British inscriptions.<a id="footnotetag224" name= +"footnotetag224"></a><a href="#footnote224"><sup>224</sup></a> One +of the seats of her worship was the land of the Brigantes, of whom +she was the eponymous goddess, and her name (cf. Ir. <i>brig</i>, +"power" or "craft"; Welsh <i>bri</i>, "honour," "renown") suggests +her high functions. But her popularity is seen in the continuation +of her personality and cult in those of S. Brigit, at <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>{69}</span> whose shrine +in Kildare a sacred fire, which must not be breathed on, or +approached by a male, was watched daily by nineteen nuns in turn, +and on the twentieth day by the saint herself.<a id= +"footnotetag225" name="footnotetag225"></a><a href= +"#footnote225"><sup>225</sup></a> Similar sacred fires were kept up +in other monasteries,<a id="footnotetag226" name= +"footnotetag226"></a><a href="#footnote226"><sup>226</sup></a> and +they point to the old cult of a goddess of fire, the nuns being +successors of a virgin priesthood like the vestals, priestesses of +Vesta. As has been seen, the goddesses Belisama and Sul, probably +goddesses of fire, resembled Brigit in this.<a id="footnotetag227" +name="footnotetag227"></a><a href="#footnote227"><sup>227</sup></a> +But Brigit, like Vesta, was at once a goddess of fire and of +fertility, as her connection with Candlemas and certain ritual +survivals also suggest. In the Hebrides on S. Bride's day +(Candlemas-eve) women dressed a sheaf of oats in female clothes and +set it with a club in a basket called "Briid's bed." Then they +called, "Briid is come, Briid is welcome." Or a bed was made of +corn and hay with candles burning beside it, and Bride was invited +to come as her bed was ready. If the mark of the club was seen in +the ashes, this was an omen of a good harvest and a prosperous +year.<a id="footnotetag228" name="footnotetag228"></a><a href= +"#footnote228"><sup>228</sup></a> It is also noteworthy that if +cattle cropped the grass near S. Brigit's shrine, next day it was +as luxuriant as ever.</p> +<p>Brigit, or goddesses with similar functions, was regarded by the +Celts as an early teacher of civilisation, inspirer of the +artistic, poetic, and mechanical faculties, as well as a goddess of +fire and fertility. As such she far excelled her sons, gods of +knowledge. She must have originated in the period when the Celts +worshipped goddesses rather than gods, and when +knowledge—leechcraft, agriculture, inspiration—were +women's rather than men's. She had a female priesthood, and men +were perhaps excluded from her cult, as the tabued shrine at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>{70}</span> +Kildare suggests. Perhaps her fire was fed from sacred oak wood, +for many shrines of S. Brigit were built under oaks, doubtless +displacing pagan shrines of the goddess.<a id="footnotetag229" +name="footnotetag229"></a><a href="#footnote229"><sup>229</sup></a> +As a goddess, Brigit is more prominent than Danu, also a goddess of +fertility, even though Danu is mother of the gods.</p> +<p>Other goddesses remembered in tradition are Cleena and Vera, +celebrated in fairy and witch lore, the former perhaps akin to a +river-goddess Clota, the Clutoida (a fountain-nymph) of the +continental Celts; the latter, under her alternative name Dirra, +perhaps a form of a goddess of Gaul, Dirona.<a id="footnotetag230" +name="footnotetag230"></a><a href="#footnote230"><sup>230</sup></a> +Aine, one of the great fairy-queens of Ireland, has her seat at +Knockainy in Limerick, where rites connected with her former cult +are still performed for fertility on Midsummer eve. If they were +neglected she and her troops performed them, according to local +legend.<a id="footnotetag231" name="footnotetag231"></a><a href= +"#footnote231"><sup>231</sup></a> She is thus an old goddess of +fertility, whose cult, even at a festival in which gods were +latterly more prominent, is still remembered. She is also +associated with the waters as a water-nymph captured for a time as +a fairy-bride by the Earl of Desmond.<a id="footnotetag232" name= +"footnotetag232"></a><a href="#footnote232"><sup>232</sup></a> But +older legends connect her with the <i>síd</i>. She was +daughter of Eogabal, king of the <i>síd</i> of Knockainy, +the grass on which was annually destroyed at Samhain by his people, +because it had been taken from them, its rightful owners. Oilill +Olomm and Ferchus resolved to watch the <i>síd</i> on +Samhain-eve. They saw Eogabal and Aine emerge from it. Ferchus +killed Eogabal, and Oilill tried to outrage Aine, who bit the flesh +from his ear. Hence his name of "Bare Ear."<a id="footnotetag233" +name="footnotetag233"></a><a href="#footnote233"><sup>233</sup></a> +In this legend we see how earlier gods of fertility come to be +regarded as hostile to growth. Another story tells of the love of +Aillén, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id= +"page71"></a>{71}</span> Eogabal's son, for Manannan's wife and +that of Aine for Manannan. Aine offered her favours to the god if +he would give his wife to her brother, and "the complicated bit of +romance," as S. Patrick calls it, was thus arranged.<a id= +"footnotetag234" name="footnotetag234"></a><a href= +"#footnote234"><sup>234</sup></a></p> +<p>Although the Irish gods are warriors, and there are special +war-gods, yet war-goddesses are more prominent, usually as a group +of three—Morrigan, Neman, and Macha. A fourth, Badb, +sometimes takes the place of one of these, or is identical with +Morrigan, or her name, like that of Morrigan, may be generic.<a id= +"footnotetag235" name="footnotetag235"></a><a href= +"#footnote235"><sup>235</sup></a> <i>Badb</i> means "a scald-crow," +under which form the war-goddesses appeared, probably because these +birds were seen near the slain. She is also called Badbcatha, +"battle-Badb," and is thus the equivalent of <i>-athubodua,</i> or, +more probably, <i>Cathubodua</i>, mentioned in an inscription from +Haute-Savoie, while this, as well as personal names like +<i>Boduogenos</i>, shows that a goddess Bodua was known to the +Gauls.<a id="footnotetag236" name="footnotetag236"></a><a href= +"#footnote236"><sup>236</sup></a> The <i>badb</i> or battle-crow is +associated with the Fomorian Tethra, but Badb herself is consort of +a war-god Nét, one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who may +be the equivalent of Neton, mentioned in Spanish inscriptions and +equated with Mars. Elsewhere Neman is Nét's consort, and she +may be the Nemetona of inscriptions, <i>e.g.</i> at Bath, the +consort of Mars. Cormac calls Nét and Neman "a venomous +couple," which we may well believe them to have been.<a id= +"footnotetag237" name="footnotetag237"></a><a href= +"#footnote237"><sup>237</sup></a> To Macha were devoted the heads +of slain enemies, "Macha's mast," but she, according to the +annalists, was slain at Mag-tured, though she reappears in the +Cúchulainn saga as the Macha whose ill-treatment led to the +"debility" of the Ulstermen.<a id="footnotetag238" name= +"footnotetag238"></a><a href="#footnote238"><sup>238</sup></a> The +name Morrigan may mean "great queen," though Dr. Stokes, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>{72}</span> +connecting <i>mor</i> with the same syllable in "Fomorian," +explains it as "nightmare-queen."<a id="footnotetag239" name= +"footnotetag239"></a><a href="#footnote239"><sup>239</sup></a> She +works great harm to the Fomorians at Mag-tured, and afterwards +proclaims the victory to the hills, rivers, and fairy-hosts, +uttering also a prophecy of the evils to come at the end of +time.<a id="footnotetag240" name="footnotetag240"></a><a href= +"#footnote240"><sup>240</sup></a> She reappears prominently in the +Cúchulainn saga, hostile to the hero because he rejects her +love, yet aiding the hosts of Ulster and the Brown Bull, and in the +end trying to prevent the hero's death.<a id="footnotetag241" name= +"footnotetag241"></a><a href="#footnote241"><sup>241</sup></a></p> +<p>The prominent position of these goddesses must be connected with +the fact that women went out to war—a custom said to have +been stopped by Adamnan at his mother's request, and that many +prominent heroines of the heroic cycles are warriors, like the +British Boudicca, whose name may be connected with <i>boudi</i>, +"victory." Specific titles were given to such classes of female +warriors—<i>bangaisgedaig</i>, <i>banfeinnidi</i>, etc.<a id= +"footnotetag242" name="footnotetag242"></a><a href= +"#footnote242"><sup>242</sup></a> But it is possible that these +goddesses were at first connected with fertility, their functions +changing with the growing warlike tendencies of the Celts. Their +number recalls that of the threefold <i>Matres</i>, and possibly +the change in their character is hinted in the Romano-British +inscription at Benwell to the <i>Lamiis Tribus</i>, since +Morrigan's name is glossed <i>lamia</i>.<a id="footnotetag243" +name="footnotetag243"></a><a href="#footnote243"><sup>243</sup></a> +She is also identified with Anu, and is mistress of Dagda, an +Earth-god, and with Badb and others expels the Fomorians when they +destroyed the agricultural produce of Ireland.<a id= +"footnotetag244" name="footnotetag244"></a><a href= +"#footnote244"><sup>244</sup></a> Probably the scald-crow was at +once the symbol and the incarnation of the war-goddesses, who +resemble the Norse Valkyries, appearing sometimes as crows, and the +Greek Keres, bird-like beings which drank the blood of the slain. +It <span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id= +"page73"></a>{73}</span> is also interesting to note that Badb, who +has the character of a prophetess of evil, is often identified with +the "Washer at the Ford," whose presence indicates death to him +whose armour or garments she seems to cleanse.<a id= +"footnotetag245" name="footnotetag245"></a><a href= +"#footnote245"><sup>245</sup></a></p> +<p>The <i>Matres</i>, goddesses of fertility, do not appear by name +in Ireland, but the triplication of such goddesses as Morrigan and +Brigit, the threefold name of Dagda's wife, or the fact that Arm, +Danu, and Buanan are called "mothers," while Buanan's name is +sometimes rendered "good mother," may suggest that such grouped +goddesses were not unknown. Later legend knows of white women who +assist in spinning, or three hags with power over nature, or, as in +the <i>Battle of Ventry</i>, of three supernatural women who fall +in love with Conncrithir, aid him in fight, and heal his wounds. In +this document and elsewhere is mentioned the "<i>síd</i> of +the White Women."<a id="footnotetag246" name= +"footnotetag246"></a><a href="#footnote246"><sup>246</sup></a> +Goddesses of fertility are usually goddesses of love, and the +prominence given to females among the <i>síde</i>, the fact +that they are often called <i>Be find</i>, "White Women," like +fairies who represent the <i>Matres</i> elsewhere, and that they +freely offer their love to mortals, may connect them with this +group of goddesses. Again, when the Milesians arrived in Ireland, +three kings of the Tuatha Déa had wives called Eriu, Banba, +and Fotla, who begged that Ireland should be called after them. +This was granted, but only Eriu (Erin) remained in general +use.<a id="footnotetag247" name="footnotetag247"></a><a href= +"#footnote247"><sup>247</sup></a> The story is an ætiological +myth explaining the names of Ireland, but the three wives may be a +group like the <i>Matres</i>, guardians of the land which took its +name from them.</p> +<p>Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, who give a title to the whole +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>{74}</span> +group, are called <i>tri dee Donand</i>, "the three gods (sons of) +Danu," or, again, "gods of <i>dán</i>" (knowledge), perhaps +as the result of a folk-etymology, associating <i>dân</i> +with their mother's name Danu.<a id="footnotetag248" name= +"footnotetag248"></a><a href="#footnote248"><sup>248</sup></a> +Various attributes are personified as their descendants, Wisdom +being son of all three.<a id="footnotetag249" name= +"footnotetag249"></a><a href="#footnote249"><sup>249</sup></a> +Though some of these attributes may have been actual gods, +especially Ecne or Wisdom, yet it is more probable that the +personification is the result of the subtleties of bardic science, +of which similar examples occur.<a id="footnotetag250" name= +"footnotetag250"></a><a href="#footnote250"><sup>250</sup></a> On +the other hand, the fact that Ecne is the son of three brothers, +may recall some early practice of polyandry of which instances are +met with in the sagas.<a id="footnotetag251" name= +"footnotetag251"></a><a href="#footnote251"><sup>251</sup></a> M. +D'Arbois has suggested that Iuchar and Iucharba are mere duplicates +of Brian, who usually takes the leading place, and he identifies +them with three kings of the Tuatha Déa reigning at the time +of the Milesian invasion—MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGrainne, +so called, according to Keating, because the hazel (<i>coll</i>), +the plough (<i>cecht</i>), and the sun (<i>grian</i>) were "gods of +worship" to them. Both groups are grandsons of Dagda, and M. +D'Arbois regards this second group as also triplicates of one god, +because their wives Fotla, Banba, and Eriu all bear names of +Ireland itself, are personifications of the land, and thus may be +"reduced to unity."<a id="footnotetag252" name= +"footnotetag252"></a><a href="#footnote252"><sup>252</sup></a> +While this reasoning is ingenious, it should be remembered that we +must not lay too much stress upon Irish divine genealogies, while +each group of three may have been similar local gods associated at +a later time as brothers. Their separate personality is suggested +by the fact that the Tuatha Dé Danann are called after them +"the Men of the Three Gods," and their supremacy appears in the +incident of Dagda, Lug, and Ogma consulting them before the fight +at Mag-tured—a natural proceeding if they <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>{75}</span> were gods of +knowledge or destiny.<a id="footnotetag253" name= +"footnotetag253"></a><a href="#footnote253"><sup>253</sup></a> The +brothers are said to have slain the god Cian, and to have been +themselves slain by Lug, and on this seems to have been based the +story of <i>The Children of Tuirenn</i>, in which they perish +through their exertions in obtaining the <i>eric</i> demanded by +Lug.<a id="footnotetag254" name="footnotetag254"></a><a href= +"#footnote254"><sup>254</sup></a> Here they are sons of Tuirenn, +but more usually their mother Danu or Brigit is mentioned.</p> +<p>Another son of Brigit's was Ogma, master of poetry and inventor +of <i>ogham</i> writing, the word being derived from his +name.<a id="footnotetag255" name="footnotetag255"></a><a href= +"#footnote255"><sup>255</sup></a> It is more probable that Ogma's +name is a derivative from some word signifying "speech" or +"writing," and that the connection with "ogham" may be a mere +folk-etymology. Ogma appears as the champion of the gods,<a id= +"footnotetag256" name="footnotetag256"></a><a href= +"#footnote256"><sup>256</sup></a> a position given him perhaps from +the primitive custom of rousing the warriors' emotions by eloquent +speeches before a battle. Similarly the Babylonian Marduk, "seer of +the gods," was also their champion in fight. Ogma fought and died +at Mag-tured; but in other accounts he survives, captures Tethra's +sword, goes on the quest for Dagda's harp, and is given a +<i>síd</i> after the Milesian victory. Ogma's counterpart in +Gaul is Ogmíos, a Herakles and a god of eloquence, thus +bearing the dual character of Ogma, while Ogma's epithet +<i>grianainech</i>, "of the smiling countenance," recalls Lucian's +account of the "smiling face" of Ogmíos.<a id= +"footnotetag257" name="footnotetag257"></a><a href= +"#footnote257"><sup>257</sup></a> Ogma's high position is the +result of the admiration of bardic eloquence among the Celts, whose +loquacity was proverbial, and to him its origin was doubtless +ascribed, as well as that of poetry. The genealogists explain his +relationship to the other divinities in different ways, but these +confusions may result from the fact that gods had more than one +name, of which the annalists made separate personalities. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>{76}</span> +Most usually Ogma is called Brigit's son. Her functions were like +his own, but in spite of the increasing supremacy of gods over +goddesses, he never really eclipsed her.</p> +<p>Among other culture gods were those associated with the arts and +crafts—the development of Celtic art in metal-work +necessitating the existence of gods of this art. Such a god is +Goibniu, eponymous god of smiths (Old Ir. <i>goba</i>, "smith"), +and the divine craftsman at the battle of Mag-tured, making spears +which never failed to kill.<a id="footnotetag258" name= +"footnotetag258"></a><a href="#footnote258"><sup>258</sup></a> +Smiths have everywhere been regarded as uncanny—a tradition +surviving from the first introduction of metal among those hitherto +accustomed to stone weapons and tools. S. Patrick prayed against +the "spells of women, smiths, and Druids," and it is thus not +surprising to find that Goibniu had a reputation for magic, even +among Christians. A spell for making butter, in an eighth century +MS. preserved at S. Gall, appeals to his "science."<a id= +"footnotetag259" name="footnotetag259"></a><a href= +"#footnote259"><sup>259</sup></a> Curiously enough, Goibniu is also +connected with the culinary art in myth, and, like Hephaistos, +prepares the feast of the gods, while his ale preserves their +immortality.<a id="footnotetag260" name= +"footnotetag260"></a><a href="#footnote260"><sup>260</sup></a> The +elation produced by heady liquors caused them to be regarded as +draughts of immortality, like Soma, Haoma, or nectar. Goibniu +survives in tradition as the <i>Gobhan Saer</i>, to whom the +building of round towers is ascribed.</p> +<p>Another god of crafts was Creidne the brazier (Ir. <i>cerd</i>, +"artificer"; cf. Scots <i>caird</i>, "tinker"), who assisted in +making a silver hand for Nuada, and supplied with magical rapidity +parts of the weapons used at Mag-tured.<a id="footnotetag261" name= +"footnotetag261"></a><a href="#footnote261"><sup>261</sup></a> +According to the annalists, he was drowned while bringing golden +ore from Spain.<a id="footnotetag262" name= +"footnotetag262"></a><a href="#footnote262"><sup>262</sup></a> +Luchtine, god of carpenters, provided spear-handles <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>{77}</span> for the +battle, and with marvellous skill flung them into the sockets of +the spear-heads.<a id="footnotetag263" name= +"footnotetag263"></a><a href="#footnote263"><sup>263</sup></a></p> +<p>Diancecht, whose name may mean "swift in power," was god of +medicine, and, with Creidne's help, fashioned a silver hand for +Nuada.<a id="footnotetag264" name="footnotetag264"></a><a href= +"#footnote264"><sup>264</sup></a> His son Miach replaced this by a +magic restoration of the real hand, and in jealousy his father slew +him—a version of the <i>Märchen</i> formula of the +jealous master. Three hundred and sixty-five herbs grew from his +grave, and were arranged according to their properties by his +sister Airmed, but Diancecht again confused them, "so that no one +knows their proper cures."<a id="footnotetag265" name= +"footnotetag265"></a><a href="#footnote265"><sup>265</sup></a> At +the second battle of Mag-tured, Diancecht presided over a +healing-well containing magic herbs. These and the power of spells +caused the mortally wounded who were placed in it to recover. Hence +it was called "the spring of health."<a id="footnotetag266" name= +"footnotetag266"></a><a href="#footnote266"><sup>266</sup></a> +Diancecht, associated with a healing-well, may be cognate with +Grannos. He is also referred to in the S. Gall MS., where his +healing powers are extolled.</p> +<p>An early chief of the gods is Dagda, who, in the story of the +battle of Mag-tured, is said to be so called because he promised to +do more than all the other gods together. Hence they said, "It is +thou art the <i>good hand</i>" (<i>dag-dae</i>). The <i>Cóir +Anmann</i> explains <i>Dagda</i> as "fire of god" (<i>daig</i> and +<i>déa</i>). The true derivation is from <i>dagos</i>, +"good," and <i>deivos</i>, "god," though Dr. Stokes considers +<i>Dagda</i> as connected with <i>dagh</i>, whence <i>daghda</i>, +"cunning."<a id="footnotetag267" name="footnotetag267"></a><a href= +"#footnote267"><sup>267</sup></a> Dagda is also called Cera, a word +perhaps derived from <i>kar</i> and connected with Lat. +<i>cerus</i>, "creator" and other names of his are +<i>Ruad-rofhessa</i>, "lord of great knowledge," <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>{78}</span> and +<i>Eochaid Ollathair</i>, "great father," "for a great father to +the Tuatha Dé Danann was he."<a id="footnotetag268" name= +"footnotetag268"></a><a href="#footnote268"><sup>268</sup></a> He +is also called "a beautiful god," and "the principal god of the +pagans."<a id="footnotetag269" name="footnotetag269"></a><a href= +"#footnote269"><sup>269</sup></a> After the battle he divides the +<i>brugs</i> or <i>síd</i> among the gods, but his son +Oengus, having been omitted, by a stratagem succeeded in ousting +his father from his <i>síd</i>, over which he now himself +reigned<a id="footnotetag270" name="footnotetag270"></a><a href= +"#footnote270"><sup>270</sup></a>—possibly the survival of an +old myth telling of a superseding of Dagda's cult by that of +Oengus, a common enough occurrence in all religions. In another +version, Dagda being dead, Bodb Dearg divides the +<i>síd</i>, and Manannan makes the Tuatha Déa +invisible and immortal. He also helps Oengus to drive out his +foster-father Elemar from his <i>brug</i>, where Oengus now lives +as a god.<a id="footnotetag271" name="footnotetag271"></a><a href= +"#footnote271"><sup>271</sup></a> The underground <i>brugs</i> are +the gods' land, in all respects resembling the oversea Elysium, and +at once burial-places of the euhemerised gods and local forms of +the divine land. Professor Rh[^y]s regards Dagda as an atmospheric +god; Dr. MacBain sees in him a sky-god. More probably he is an +early Earth-god and a god of agriculture. He has power over corn +and milk, and agrees to prevent the other gods from destroying +these after their defeat by the Milesians—former beneficent +gods being regarded as hurtful, a not uncommon result of the +triumph of a new faith.<a id="footnotetag272" name= +"footnotetag272"></a><a href="#footnote272"><sup>272</sup></a> +Dagda is called "the god of the earth" "because of the greatness of +his power."<a id="footnotetag273" name= +"footnotetag273"></a><a href="#footnote273"><sup>273</sup></a> +Mythical objects associated with him suggest plenty and +fertility—his cauldron which satisfied all comers, his +unfailing swine, one always living, the other ready for cooking, a +vessel <span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id= +"page79"></a>{79}</span> of ale, and three trees always laden with +fruit. These were in his <i>síd</i>, where none ever tasted +death;<a id="footnotetag274" name="footnotetag274"></a><a href= +"#footnote274"><sup>274</sup></a> hence his <i>síd</i> was a +local Elysium, not a gloomy land of death, but the underworld in +its primitive aspect as the place of gods of fertility. In some +myths he appears with a huge club or fork, and M. D'Arbois suggests +that he may thus be an equivalent of the Gaulish god with the +mallet.<a id="footnotetag275" name="footnotetag275"></a><a href= +"#footnote275"><sup>275</sup></a> This is probable, since the +Gaulish god may have been a form of Dispater, an Earth or +under-Earth god of fertility.</p> +<p>If Dagda was a god of fertility, he may have been an equivalent +of a god whose image was called <i>Cenn</i> or <i>Cromm +Cruaich</i>, "Head <i>or</i> Crooked One of the Mound," or "Bloody +Head <i>or</i> Crescent."<a id="footnotetag276" name= +"footnotetag276"></a><a href="#footnote276"><sup>276</sup></a> +Vallancey, citing a text now lost, says that <i>Crom-eocha</i> was +a name of Dagda, and that a motto at the sacrificial place at Tara +read, "Let the altar ever blaze to Dagda."<a id="footnotetag277" +name="footnotetag277"></a><a href="#footnote277"><sup>277</sup></a> +These statements may support this identification. The cult of Cromm +is preserved in some verses:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"He was their god,</p> +<p>The withered Cromm with many mists...</p> +<p>To him without glory</p> +<p>They would kill their piteous wretched offspring,</p> +<p>With much wailing and peril,</p> +<p>To pour their blood around Cromm Cruaich.</p> +<p>Milk and corn</p> +<p>They would ask from him speedily</p> +<p>In return for a third of their healthy issue,</p> +<p>Great was the horror and fear of him.</p> +<p>To him noble Gaels would prostrate themselves."<a id= +"footnotetag278" name="footnotetag278"></a><a href= +"#footnote278"><sup>278</sup></a></p> +</div> +</div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>{80}</span> +<p>Elsewhere we learn that this sacrifice in return for the gifts +of corn and milk from the god took place at Samhain, and that on +one occasion the violent prostrations of the worshippers caused +three-fourths of them to die. Again, "they beat their palms, they +pounded their bodies ... they shed falling showers of tears."<a id= +"footnotetag279" name="footnotetag279"></a><a href= +"#footnote279"><sup>279</sup></a> These are reminiscences of +orgiastic rites in which pain and pleasure melt into one. The god +must have been a god of fertility; the blood of the victims was +poured on the image, the flesh, as in analogous savage rites and +folk-survivals, may have been buried in the fields to promote +fertility. If so, the victims' flesh was instinct with the power of +the divinity, and, though their number is obviously exaggerated, +several victims may have taken the place of an earlier slain +representative of the god. A mythic <i>Crom Dubh</i>, "Black Crom," +whose festival occurs on the first Sunday in August, may be another +form of Cromm Cruaich. In one story the name is transferred to S. +Patrick's servant, who is asked by the fairies when they will go to +Paradise. "Not till the day of judgment," is the answer, and for +this they cease to help men in the processes of agriculture. But in +a variant Manannan bids Crom ask this question, and the same result +follows.<a id="footnotetag280" name="footnotetag280"></a><a href= +"#footnote280"><sup>280</sup></a> These tales thus enshrine the +idea that Crom and the fairies were ancient gods of growth who +ceased to help men when they deserted them for the Christian faith. +If the sacrifice was offered at the August festival, or, as the +texts suggest, at Samhain, after harvest, it must have been on +account of the next year's crop, and the flesh may have been +mingled with the seed corn.</p> +<p>Dagda may thus have been a god of growth and fertility. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>{81}</span> +His wife or mistress was the river-goddess, Boand (the +Boyne),<a id="footnotetag281" name="footnotetag281"></a><a href= +"#footnote281"><sup>281</sup></a> and the children ascribed to him +were Oengus, Bodb Dearg, Danu, Brigit, and perhaps Ogma. The +euhemerists made him die of Cethlenn's venom, long after the battle +of Mag-tured in which he encountered her.<a id="footnotetag282" +name="footnotetag282"></a><a href="#footnote282"><sup>282</sup></a> +Irish mythology is remarkably free from obscene and grotesque +myths, but some of these cluster round Dagda. We hear of the +Gargantuan meal provided for him in sport by the Fomorians, and of +which he ate so much that "not easy was it for him to move and +unseemly was his apparel," as well as his conduct with a Fomorian +beauty. Another amour of his was with Morrigan, the place where it +occurred being still known as "The Couple's Bed."<a id= +"footnotetag283" name="footnotetag283"></a><a href= +"#footnote283"><sup>283</sup></a> In another tale Dagda acts as +cook to Conaire the great.<a id="footnotetag284" name= +"footnotetag284"></a><a href="#footnote284"><sup>284</sup></a></p> +<p>The beautiful and fascinating Oengus is sometimes called <i>Mac +Ind Oc</i>, "Son of the Young Ones," <i>i.e.</i> Dagda and Boand, +or <i>In Mac Oc</i>, "The Young Son." This name, like the myth of +his disinheriting his father, may point to his cult superseding +that of Dagda. If so, he may then have been affiliated to the older +god, as was frequently done in parallel cases, <i>e.g.</i> in +Babylon. Oengus may thus have been the high god of some tribe who +assumed supremacy, ousting the high god of another tribe, unless we +suppose that Dagda was a pre-Celtic god with functions similar to +those of Oengus, and that the Celts adopted his cult but gave that +of Oengus a higher place. In one myth the supremacy of Oengus is +seen. After the first battle of Mag-tured, Dagda is forced to +become the slave of Bres, and is much annoyed by a lampooner who +extorts the best pieces of his rations. Following the advice of +Oengus, he not only causes the lampooner's death, but triumphs over +the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id= +"page82"></a>{82}</span> Fomorians.<a id="footnotetag285" name= +"footnotetag285"></a><a href="#footnote285"><sup>285</sup></a> On +insufficient grounds, mainly because he was patron of Diarmaid, +beloved of women, and because his kisses became birds which +whispered love thoughts to youths and maidens, Oengus has been +called the Eros of the Gaels. More probably he was primarily a +supreme god of growth, who occasionally suffered eclipse during the +time of death in nature, like Tammuz and Adonis, and this may +explain his absence from Mag-tured. The beautiful story of his +vision of a maiden with whom he fell violently in love contains too +many <i>Märchen</i> formulæ to be of any mythological or +religious value. His mother Boand caused search to be made for her, +but without avail. At last she was discovered to be the daughter of +a semi-divine lord of a <i>síd</i>, but only through the +help of mortals was the secret of how she could be taken wrung from +him. She was a swan-maiden, and on a certain day only would Oengus +obtain her. Ultimately she became his wife. The story is +interesting because it shows how the gods occasionally required +mortal aid.<a id="footnotetag286" name= +"footnotetag286"></a><a href="#footnote286"><sup>286</sup></a></p> +<p>Equally influenced by <i>Märchen</i> formulæ is the +story of Oengus and Etain. Etain and Fuamnach were wives of Mider, +but Fuamnach was jealous of Etain, and transformed her into an +insect. In this shape Oengus found her, and placed her in a glass +<i>grianan</i> or bower filled with flowers, the perfume of which +sustained her. He carried the <i>grianan</i> with him wherever he +went, but Fuamnach raised a magic wind which blew Etain away to the +roof of Etair, a noble of Ulster. She fell through a smoke-hole +into a golden cup of wine, and was swallowed by Etair's wife, of +whom she was reborn.<a id="footnotetag287" name= +"footnotetag287"></a><a href="#footnote287"><sup>287</sup></a> +Professor Rh[^y]s resolves all <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page83" id="page83"></a>{83}</span> this into a sun and dawn myth. +Oengus is the sun, Etain the dawn, the <i>grianan</i> the expanse +of the sky.<a id="footnotetag288" name= +"footnotetag288"></a><a href="#footnote288"><sup>288</sup></a> But +the dawn does not grow stronger with the sun's influence, as Etain +did under that of Oengus. At the sun's appearance the dawn +begins</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">"to faint in the light of the sun she loves,</p> +<p>To faint in his light and to die."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The whole story is built up on the well-known +<i>Mãrchen</i> formulæ of the "True Bride" and the +"Two Brothers," but accommodated to well-known mythic personages, +and the <i>grianan</i> is the Celtic equivalent of various objects +in stories of the "Cinderella" type, in which the heroine conceals +herself, the object being bought by the hero and kept in his +room.<a id="footnotetag289" name="footnotetag289"></a><a href= +"#footnote289"><sup>289</sup></a> Thus the tale reveals nothing of +Etain's divine functions, but it illustrates the method of the +"mythological" school in discovering sun-heroes and dawn-maidens in +any incident, mythical or not.</p> +<p>Oengus appears in the Fionn cycle as the fosterer and protector +of Diarmaid.<a id="footnotetag290" name= +"footnotetag290"></a><a href="#footnote290"><sup>290</sup></a> With +Mider, Bodb, and Morrigan, he expels the Fomorians when they +destroy the corn, fruit, and milk of the Tuatha Dé +Danann.<a id="footnotetag291" name="footnotetag291"></a><a href= +"#footnote291"><sup>291</sup></a> This may point to his functions +as a god of fertility.</p> +<p>Although Mider appears mainly as a king of the +<i>síde</i> and ruler of the <i>brug</i> of Bri +Léith, he is also connected with the Tuatha +Déa.<a id="footnotetag292" name= +"footnotetag292"></a><a href="#footnote292"><sup>292</sup></a> +Learning that Etain had been reborn and was now married to King +Eochaid, he recovered her from him, but lost her again when Eochaid +attacked his <i>brug</i>. He was <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page84" id="page84"></a>{84}</span> ultimately avenged in the +series of tragic events which led to the death of Eochaid's +descendant Conaire. Though his <i>síd</i> is located in +Ireland, it has so much resemblance to Elysium that Mider must be +regarded as one of its lords. Hence he appears as ruler of the Isle +of Falga, <i>i.e.</i> the Isle of Man regarded as Elysium. Thence +his daughter Bláthnat, his magical cows and cauldron, were +stolen by Cúchulainn and Curoi, and his three cranes from +Bri Léith by Aitherne<a id="footnotetag293" name= +"footnotetag293"></a><a href= +"#footnote293"><sup>293</sup></a>—perhaps distorted versions +of the myths which told how various animals and gifts came from the +god's land. Mider may be the Irish equivalent of a local Gaulish +god, Medros, depicted on bas-reliefs with a cow or bull.<a id= +"footnotetag294" name="footnotetag294"></a><a href= +"#footnote294"><sup>294</sup></a></p> +<p>The victory of the Tuatha Déa at the first battle of +Mag-tured, in June, their victory followed, however, by the deaths +of many of them at the second battle in November, may point to old +myths dramatising the phenomena of nature, and connected with the +ritual of summer and winter festivals. The powers of light and +growth are in the ascendant in summer; they seem to die in winter. +Christian euhemerists made use of these myths, but regarded the +gods as warriors who were slain, not as those who die and revive +again. At the second battle, Nuada loses his life; at the first, +though his forces are victorious, his hand was cut off by the +Fomorian Sreng, for even when victorious the gods must suffer. A +silver hand was made for him by Diancecht, and hence he was called +Nuada <i>Argetlám</i>, "of the silver hand." Professor +Rh[^y]s regards him as a Celtic Zeus, partly because he is king of +the Tuatha Dé Danann, partly because he, like Zeus or Tyr, +who lost tendons or a hand through the wiles of evil gods, is also +maimed.<a id="footnotetag295" name="footnotetag295"></a><a href= +"#footnote295"><sup>295</sup></a> Similarly in the <i>Rig-Veda</i> +the Açvins substitute a <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page85" id="page85"></a>{85}</span> leg of iron for the leg of +Vispala, cut off in battle, and the sun is called "golden-handed" +because Savitri cut off his hand and the priests replaced it by one +of gold. The myth of Nuada's hand may have arisen from primitive +attempts at replacing lopped-off limbs, as well as from the fact +that no Irish king must have any bodily defect, or possibly because +an image of Nuada may have lacked a hand or possessed one of +silver. Images were often maimed or given artificial limbs, and +myths then arose to explain the custom.<a id="footnotetag296" name= +"footnotetag296"></a><a href="#footnote296"><sup>296</sup></a> +Nuada appears to be a god of life and growth, but he is not a +sun-god. His Welsh equivalent is Llûd Llawereint, or +"silver-handed," who delivers his people from various scourges. His +daughter Creidylad is to be wedded to Gwythur, but is kidnapped by +Gwyn. Arthur decides that they must fight for her yearly on 1st May +until the day of judgment, when the victor would gain her +hand.<a id="footnotetag297" name="footnotetag297"></a><a href= +"#footnote297"><sup>297</sup></a> Professor Rh[^y]s regards +Creidylad as a Persephone, wedded alternately to light and dark +divinities.<a id="footnotetag298" name= +"footnotetag298"></a><a href="#footnote298"><sup>298</sup></a> But +the story may rather be explanatory of such ritual acts as are +found in folk-survivals in the form of fights between summer and +winter, in which a Queen of May figures, and intended to assist the +conflict of the gods of growth with those of blight.<a id= +"footnotetag299" name="footnotetag299"></a><a href= +"#footnote299"><sup>299</sup></a> Creidylad is daughter of a +probable god of growth, nor is it impossible that the story of the +battle of Mag-tured is based on mythic explanations of such ritual +combats.</p> +<p>The Brythons worshipped Nuada as Nodons in Romano-British times. +The remains of his temple exist near the mouth of the Severn, and +the god may have been equated with Mars, though certain symbols +seem to connect him with the waters as a kind of Neptune.<a id= +"footnotetag300" name="footnotetag300"></a><a href= +"#footnote300"><sup>300</sup></a> An Irish mythic poet Nuada +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>{86}</span> +Necht may be the Nechtan who owned a magic well whence issued the +Boyne, and was perhaps a water-god. If such a water-god was +associated with Nuada, he and Nodons might be a Celtic +Neptune.<a id="footnotetag301" name="footnotetag301"></a><a href= +"#footnote301"><sup>301</sup></a> But the relationship and +functions of these various personages are obscure, nor is it +certain that Nodons was equated with Neptune or that Nuada was a +water-god. His name may be cognate with words meaning "growth," +"possession," "harvest," and this supports the view taken here of +his functions.<a id="footnotetag302" name= +"footnotetag302"></a><a href="#footnote302"><sup>302</sup></a> The +Welsh Nudd Hael, or "the Generous," who possessed a herd of 21,000 +milch kine, may be a memory of this god, and it is possible that, +as a god of growth, Nuada had human incarnations called by his +name.<a id="footnotetag303" name="footnotetag303"></a><a href= +"#footnote303"><sup>303</sup></a></p> +<p>Ler, whose name means "sea," and who was a god of the sea, is +father of Manannan as well as of the personages of the beautiful +story called <i>The Children of Lir</i>, from which we learn +practically all that is known of him. He resented not being made +ruler of the Tuatha Déa, but was later reconciled when the +daughter of Bodb Dearg was given to him as his wife. On her death, +he married her sister, who transformed her step-children into +swans.<a id="footnotetag304" name="footnotetag304"></a><a href= +"#footnote304"><sup>304</sup></a> Ler is the equivalent of the +Brythonic Llyr, later immortalised by Shakespeare as King Lear.</p> +<p>The greatness of Manannan mac Lir, "son of the sea," is proved +by the fact that he appears in many of the heroic tales, and is +still remembered in tradition and folk-tale. He is a sea-god who +has become more prominent than the older god of the sea, and though +not a supreme god, he must have had a far-spreading cult. With Bodb +Dearg he was elected king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He made +the gods invisible and immortal, gave them magical food, and +assisted Oengus in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id= +"page87"></a>{87}</span> driving out Elemar from his +<i>síd</i>. Later tradition spoke of four Manannans, +probably local forms of the god, as is suggested by the fact that +the true name of one of them is said to be Orbsen, son of Allot. +Another, the son of Ler, is described as a renowned trader who +dwelt in the Isle of Man, the best of pilots, weather-wise, and +able to transform himself as he pleased. The <i>Cóir +Anmann</i> adds that the Britons and the men of Erin deemed him god +of the sea.<a id="footnotetag305" name= +"footnotetag305"></a><a href="#footnote305"><sup>305</sup></a> That +position is plainly seen in many tales, <i>e.g.</i> in the +magnificent passage of <i>The Voyage of Bran</i>, where he suddenly +sweeps into sight, riding in a chariot across the waves from the +Land of Promise; or in the tale of <i>Cúchulainn's +Sickness</i>, where his wife Fand sees him, "the horseman of the +crested sea," coming across the waves. In the <i>Agallamh na +Senorach</i> he appears as a cavalier breasting the waves. "For the +space of nine waves he would be submerged in the sea, but would +rise on the crest of the tenth without wetting chest or +breast."<a id="footnotetag306" name="footnotetag306"></a><a href= +"#footnote306"><sup>306</sup></a> In one archaic tale he is +identified with a great sea wave which swept away Tuag, while the +waves are sometimes called "the son of Lir's horses"—a name +still current in Ireland, or, again, "the locks of Manannan's +wife."<a id="footnotetag307" name="footnotetag307"></a><a href= +"#footnote307"><sup>307</sup></a> His position as god of the sea +may have given rise to the belief that he was ruler of the oversea +Elysium, and, later, of the other-world as a magical domain +coterminous with this earth. He is still remembered in the Isle of +Man, which may owe its name to him, and which, like many another +island, was regarded by the Goidels as the island Elysium under its +name of Isle of Falga. He is also the Manawyddan of Welsh +story.</p> +<p>Manannan appears in the Cúchulainn and Fionn cycles, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>{88}</span> +usually as a ruler of the Other-world. His wife Fand was +Cúchulainn's mistress, Diarmaid was his pupil in fairyland, +and Cormac was his guest there. Even in Christian times surviving +pagan beliefs caused legend to be busy with his name. King Fiachna +was fighting the Scots and in great danger, when a stranger +appeared to his wife and announced that he would save her husband's +life if she would consent to abandon herself to him. She +reluctantly agreed, and the child of the <i>amour</i> was the +seventh-century King Mongan, of whom the annalist says, "every one +knows that his real father was Manannan."<a id="footnotetag308" +name="footnotetag308"></a><a href="#footnote308"><sup>308</sup></a> +Mongan was also believed to be a rebirth of Fionn. Manannan is +still remembered in folk-tradition, and in the Isle of Man, where +his grave is to be seen, some of his ritual survived until lately, +bundles of rushes being placed for him on midsummer eve on two +hills.<a id="footnotetag309" name="footnotetag309"></a><a href= +"#footnote309"><sup>309</sup></a> Barintus, who steers Arthur to +the fortunate isles, and S. Barri, who crossed the sea on +horseback, may have been legendary forms of a local sea-god akin to +Manannan, or of Manannan himself.<a id="footnotetag310" name= +"footnotetag310"></a><a href="#footnote310"><sup>310</sup></a> His +steed was Enbarr, "water foam <i>or</i> hair," and Manannan was +"the horseman of the manéd sea." "Barintus," perhaps +connected with <i>barr find</i>, "white-topped," would thus be a +surname of the god who rode on Enbarr, the foaming wave, or who was +himself the wave, while his mythic sea-riding was transferred to +the legend of S. Barri, if such a person ever existed.</p> +<p>Various magical possessions were ascribed to Manannan—his +armour and sword, the one making the wearer invulnerable, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>{89}</span> +the other terrifying all who beheld it; his horse and canoe; his +swine, which came to life again when killed; his magic cloak; his +cup which broke when a lie was spoken; his tablecloth, which, when +waved, produced food. Many of these are found everywhere in +<i>Märchen</i>, and there is nothing peculiarly Celtic in +them. We need not, therefore, with the mythologists, see in his +armour the vapoury clouds or in his sword lightning or the sun's +rays. But their magical nature as well as the fact that so much +wizardry is attributed to Manannan, points to a copious mythology +clustering round the god, now for ever lost.</p> +<p>The parentage of Lug is differently stated, but that account +which makes him son of Cian and of Ethne, daughter of Balor, is +best attested.<a id="footnotetag311" name= +"footnotetag311"></a><a href="#footnote311"><sup>311</sup></a> +Folk-tradition still recalls the relation of Lug and Balor. Balor, +a robber living in Tory Island, had a daughter whose son was to +kill her father. He therefore shut her up in an inaccessible place, +but in revenge for Balor's stealing MacIneely's cow, the latter +gained access to her, with the result that Ethne bore three sons, +whom Balor cast into the sea. One of them, Lug, was recovered by +MacIneely and fostered by his brother Gavida. Balor now slew +MacIneely, but was himself slain by Lug, who pierced his single eye +with a red-hot iron.<a id="footnotetag312" name= +"footnotetag312"></a><a href="#footnote312"><sup>312</sup></a> In +another version, Kian takes MacIneely's place and is aided by +Manannan, in accordance with older legends.<a id="footnotetag313" +name="footnotetag313"></a><a href="#footnote313"><sup>313</sup></a> +But Lug's birth-story has been influenced in these tales by the +<i>Märchen</i> formula of the girl hidden away because it has +been foretold that she will have a son who will slay her +father.</p> +<p>Lug is associated with Manannan, from whose land he comes to +assist the Tuatha Déa against the Fomorians. His appearance +was that of the sun, and by this brilliant warrior's <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>{90}</span> prowess the +hosts were utterly defeated.<a id="footnotetag314" name= +"footnotetag314"></a><a href="#footnote314"><sup>314</sup></a> This +version, found in <i>The Children of Tuirenn</i>, differs from the +account in the story of Mag-tured. Here Lug arrives at the gates of +Tara and offers his services as a craftsman. Each offer is refused, +until he proclaims himself "the man of each and every art," or +<i>samildánach</i>, "possessing many arts." Nuada resigns +his throne to him for thirteen days, and Lug passes in review the +various craftsmen (<i>i.e.</i> the gods), and though they try to +prevent such a marvellous person risking himself in fight, he +escapes, heads the warriors, and sings his war-song. Balor, the +evil-eyed, he slays with a sling-stone, and his death decided the +day against the Fomorians. In this account Lug +<i>samildánach</i> is a patron of the divine patrons of +crafts; in other words, he is superior to a whole group of gods. He +was also inventor of draughts, ball-play, and horsemanship. But, as +M. D'Arbois shows, <i>samildánach</i> is the equivalent of +"inventor of all arts," applied by Cæsar to the Gallo-Roman +Mercury, who is thus an equivalent of Lug.<a id="footnotetag315" +name="footnotetag315"></a><a href="#footnote315"><sup>315</sup></a> +This is attested on other grounds. As Lug's name appears in Irish +Louth (<i>Lug-magh</i>) and in British Lugu-vallum, near Hadrian's +Wall, so in Gaul the names Lugudunum (Lyons), Lugudiacus, and +Lugselva ("devoted to Lugus") show that a god Lugus was worshipped +there. A Gaulish feast of Lugus in August—the month of Lug's +festival in Ireland—was perhaps superseded by one in honour +of Augustus. No dedication to Lugus has yet been found, but images +of and inscriptions to Mercury abound at Lugudunum +Convenarum.<a id="footnotetag316" name= +"footnotetag316"></a><a href="#footnote316"><sup>316</sup></a> As +there were three Brigits, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" +id="page91"></a>{91}</span> so there may have been several forms of +Lugus, and two dedications to the <i>Lugoves</i> have been found in +Spain and Switzerland, one of them inscribed by the shoemakers of +Uxama.<a id="footnotetag317" name="footnotetag317"></a><a href= +"#footnote317"><sup>317</sup></a> Thus the Lugoves may have been +multiplied forms of Lugus or <i>Lugovos</i>, "a hero," the meaning +given to "Lug" by O'Davoren.<a id="footnotetag318" name= +"footnotetag318"></a><a href="#footnote318"><sup>318</sup></a> +Shoe-making was not one of the arts professed by Lug, but Professor +Rh[^y]s recalls the fact that the Welsh Lleu, whom he equates with +Lug, disguised himself as a shoemaker.<a id="footnotetag319" name= +"footnotetag319"></a><a href="#footnote319"><sup>319</sup></a> +Lugus, besides being a mighty hero, was a great Celtic culture-god, +superior to all other culture divinities.</p> +<p>The euhemerists assigned a definite date to Lug's death, but +side by side with this the memory of his divinity prevailed, and he +appears as the father and helper of Cúchulainn, who was +possibly a rebirth of the god.<a id="footnotetag320" name= +"footnotetag320"></a><a href="#footnote320"><sup>320</sup></a> His +high position appears in the fact that the Gaulish assembly at +Lugudunum was held in his honour, like the festival of Lugnasad in +Ireland. Craftsmen brought their wares to sell at this festival of +the god of crafts, while it may also have been a harvest +festival.<a id="footnotetag321" name="footnotetag321"></a><a href= +"#footnote321"><sup>321</sup></a> Whether it was a strictly solar +feast is doubtful, though Professor Rh[^y]s and others insist that +Lug is a sun-god. The name of the Welsh Lleu, "light," is equated +with Lug, and the same meaning assigned to the latter.<a id= +"footnotetag322" name="footnotetag322"></a><a href= +"#footnote322"><sup>322</sup></a> This equation has been contested +and is doubtful, Lugus probably meaning "hero."<a id= +"footnotetag323" name="footnotetag323"></a><a href= +"#footnote323"><sup>323</sup></a> Still the sun-like traits +ascribed to Lug before Mag-tured suggest that he was a sun-god, and +solar gods elsewhere, <i>e.g.</i> the Polynesian Maui, are +culture-gods as well. But it should be remembered that Lug is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92"></a>{92}</span> +not associated with the true solar festivals of Beltane and +Midsummer.</p> +<p>While our knowledge of the Tuatha Dé Danann is based upon +a series of mythic tales and other records, that of the gods of the +continental Celts, apart from a few notices in classical authors +and elsewhere, comes from inscriptions. But as far as can be +judged, though the names of the two groups seldom coincide, their +functions must have been much alike, and their origins certainly +the same. The Tuatha Dé Danann were nature divinities of +growth, light, agriculture—their symbols and possessions +suggesting fertility, <i>e.g.</i> the cauldron. They were +divinities of culture and crafts, and of war. There must have been +many other gods in Ireland than those described here, while some of +those may not have been worshipped all over Ireland. Generally +speaking, there were many local gods in Gaul with similar functions +but different names, and this may have been true of Ireland. +Perhaps the different names given to Dagda, Manannan, and others +were simply names of similar local gods, one of whom became +prominent, and attracted to himself the names of the others. So, +too, the identity of Danu and Brigit might be explained, or the +fact that there were three Brigits. We read also in the texts of +the god of Connaught, or of Ulster, and these were apparently +regional divinities, or of "the god of Druidism"—perhaps a +god worshipped specially by Druids.<a id="footnotetag324" name= +"footnotetag324"></a><a href="#footnote324"><sup>324</sup></a> The +remote origin of some of these divinities may be sought in the +primitive cult of the Earth personified as a fertile being, and in +that of vegetation and corn-spirits, and the vague spirits of +nature in all its aspects. Some of these still continued to be +worshipped when the greater gods had been evolved. Though animal +worship was not lacking in Ireland, divinities who are +anthropomorphic forms of earlier animal-gods are less in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>{93}</span> +evidence than on the Continent. The divinities of culture, crafts, +and war, and of departments of nature, must have slowly assumed the +definite personality assigned them in Irish religion. But, +doubtless, they already possessed that before the Goidels reached +Ireland. Strictly speaking, the underground domain assigned later +to the Tuatha Dé Danann belongs only to such of them as were +associated with fertility. But in course of time most of the group, +as underground dwellers, were connected with growth and increase. +These could be blighted by their enemies, or they themselves could +withhold them when their worshippers offended them.<a id= +"footnotetag325" name="footnotetag325"></a><a href= +"#footnote325"><sup>325</sup></a></p> +<p>Irish mythology points to the early pre-eminence of goddesses. +As agriculture and many of the arts were first in the hands of +women, goddesses of fertility and culture preceded gods, and still +held their place when gods were evolved. Even war-goddesses are +prominent in Ireland. Celtic gods and heroes are often called after +their mothers, not their fathers, and women loom largely in the +tales of Irish colonisation, while in many legends they play a most +important part. Goddesses give their name to divine groups, and, +even where gods are prominent, their actions are free, their +personalities still clearly defined. The supremacy of the divine +women of Irish tradition is once more seen in the fact that they +themselves woo and win heroes; while their capacity for love, their +passion, their eternal youthfulness and beauty are suggestive of +their early character as goddesses of ever-springing +fertility.<a id="footnotetag326" name="footnotetag326"></a><a href= +"#footnote326"><sup>326</sup></a></p> +<p>This supremacy of goddesses is explained by Professor Rh[^y]s as +non-Celtic, as borrowed by the Celts from the aborigines.<a id= +"footnotetag327" name="footnotetag327"></a><a href= +"#footnote327"><sup>327</sup></a> But it is too deeply impressed on +the fabric of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id= +"page94"></a>{94}</span> Celtic tradition to be other than native, +and we have no reason to suppose that the Celts had not passed +through a stage in which such a state of things was normal. Their +innate conservatism caused them to preserve it more than other +races who had long outgrown such a state of things.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote199" name= +"footnote199"></a><b>Footnote 199:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag199">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 89; Stokes, <i>RC</i> xii. 129. D'Arbois, ii. 125, +explains it as "Folk of the god whose mother is called Danu."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote200" name= +"footnote200"></a><b>Footnote 200:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag200">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 77. The usual Irish word for "god" is <i>dia</i>; +other names are <i>Fiadu</i>, <i>Art</i>, <i>Dess</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote201" name= +"footnote201"></a><b>Footnote 201:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag201">(return)</a> +<p>See Joyce, <i>SII</i>. i. 252, 262; <i>PN</i> i. 183.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote202" name= +"footnote202"></a><b>Footnote 202:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag202">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 245<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote203" name= +"footnote203"></a><b>Footnote 203:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag203">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 11.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote204" name= +"footnote204"></a><b>Footnote 204:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag204">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 127. The mounds were the sepulchres of the euhemerised +gods.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote205" name= +"footnote205"></a><b>Footnote 205:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag205">(return)</a> +<p><i>Book of Fermoy</i>, fifteenth century.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote206" name= +"footnote206"></a><b>Footnote 206:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag206">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 11<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote207" name= +"footnote207"></a><b>Footnote 207:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag207">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 14, 774; Stokes, <i>TL</i> i. 99, 314, 319. +<i>Síd</i> is a fairy hill, the hill itself or the dwelling +within it. Hence those who dwell in it are <i>Aes</i> or <i>Fir +síde</i>, "men of the mound," or <i>síde</i>, fairy +folk. The primitive form is probably <i>sêdos</i>, from +<i>sêd</i>, "abode" or "seat"; cf. Greek [Greek: edos] "a +temple." Thurneysen suggests a connection with a word equivalent to +Lat. <i>sidus</i>, "constellation," or "dwelling of the gods."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote208" name= +"footnote208"></a><b>Footnote 208:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag208">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 252; O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 505.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote209" name= +"footnote209"></a><b>Footnote 209:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag209">(return)</a> +<p>"Vision of Oengus," <i>RC</i> iii. 344; <i>IT</i> i. 197 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote210" name= +"footnote210"></a><b>Footnote 210:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag210">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, <i>Ir. Gram.</i> 118; O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 71; see +p. <a href="#page363">363</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote211" name= +"footnote211"></a><b>Footnote 211:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag211">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, <i>Ir. Gram.</i> 118, § 6; <i>IT</i> iii. 407; +<i>RC</i> xvi. 139.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote212" name= +"footnote212"></a><b>Footnote 212:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag212">(return)</a> +<p>Shore, <i>JAI</i> xx. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote213" name= +"footnote213"></a><b>Footnote 213:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag213">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 203 f. <i>Pennocrucium</i> occurs in the +<i>Itinerary</i> of Antoninus.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote214" name= +"footnote214"></a><b>Footnote 214:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag214">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 434.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote215" name= +"footnote215"></a><b>Footnote 215:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag215">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 252.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote216" name= +"footnote216"></a><b>Footnote 216:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag216">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page228">228</a>. In Scandinavia the dead were +called elves, and lived feasting in their barrows or in hills. +These became the seat of ancestral cults. The word "elf" also means +any divine spirit, later a fairy. "Elf" and <i>síde</i> may +thus, like the "elf-howe" and the <i>síd</i> or mound, have +a parallel history. See Vigfusson-Powell, <i>Corpus Poet. +Boreale</i>, i. 413 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote217" name= +"footnote217"></a><b>Footnote 217:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag217">(return)</a> +<p>Tuan MacCairill (<i>LU</i> 166) calls the Tuatha Déa, +"dée ocus andée," and gives the meaning as "poets and +husbandmen." This phrase, with the same meaning, is used in +"Cóir Anmann" (<i>IT</i> iii. 355), but there we find that +it occurred in a pagan formula of blessing—"The blessing of +gods and not-gods be on thee." But the writer goes on to +say—"These were their gods, the magicians, and their +non-gods, the husbandmen." This may refer to the position of +priest-kings and magicians as gods. Rh[^y]s compares Sanskrit +<i>deva</i> and <i>adeva</i> (<i>HL</i> 581). Cf. the phrase in a +Welsh poem (Skene, i. 313), "Teulu Oeth et Anoeth," translated by +Rh[^y]s as "Household of Power and Not-Power" (<i>CFL</i> ii. 620), +but the meaning is obscure. See Loth, i. 197.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote218" name= +"footnote218"></a><b>Footnote 218:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag218">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 10<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote219" name= +"footnote219"></a><b>Footnote 219:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag219">(return)</a> +<p>Cormac, 4. Stokes (<i>US</i> 12) derives Anu from <i>(p)an</i>, +"to nourish"; cf. Lat. <i>panis</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote220" name= +"footnote220"></a><b>Footnote 220:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag220">(return)</a> +<p><i>Leicester County Folk-lore</i>, 4. The <i>Cóir +Anmann</i> says that Anu was worshipped as a goddess of plenty +(<i>IT</i> iii. 289).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote221" name= +"footnote221"></a><b>Footnote 221:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag221">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>Trans. 3rd Inter. Cong. Hist. of Rel.</i> ii. 213. +See Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> 251 ff., and p. <a href= +"#page275">275</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote222" name= +"footnote222"></a><b>Footnote 222:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag222">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>ibid.</i> ii. 213. He finds her name in the +place-name <i>Bononia</i> and its derivatives.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote223" name= +"footnote223"></a><b>Footnote 223:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag223">(return)</a> +<p>Cormac, 23.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote224" name= +"footnote224"></a><b>Footnote 224:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag224">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 17; Holder, <i>s.v.</i>; Stokes, <i>TIG</i> +33.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote225" name= +"footnote225"></a><b>Footnote 225:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag225">(return)</a> +<p>Girald. Cambr. <i>Top. Hib.</i> ii. 34 f. Vengeance followed +upon rash intrusion. For the breath tabu see Frazer, <i>Early Hist. +of the Kingship</i>, 224.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote226" name= +"footnote226"></a><b>Footnote 226:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag226">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 335.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote227" name= +"footnote227"></a><b>Footnote 227:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag227">(return)</a> +<p>P. <a href="#page41">41</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote228" name= +"footnote228"></a><b>Footnote 228:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag228">(return)</a> +<p>Martin, 119; Campbell, <i>Witchcraft</i>, 248.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote229" name= +"footnote229"></a><b>Footnote 229:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag229">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, <i>op. cit.</i> 225.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote230" name= +"footnote230"></a><b>Footnote 230:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag230">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>PN</i> i. 195; O'Grady, ii. 198; Wood-Martin, i. 366; +see p. <a href="#page42">42</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote231" name= +"footnote231"></a><b>Footnote 231:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag231">(return)</a> +<p>Fitzgerald, <i>RC</i> iv. 190. Aine has no connection with Anu, +nor is she a moon-goddess, as is sometimes supposed.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote232" name= +"footnote232"></a><b>Footnote 232:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag232">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> iv. 189.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote233" name= +"footnote233"></a><b>Footnote 233:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag233">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 318; <i>IT</i> iii. 305; <i>RC</i> xiii. 435.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote234" name= +"footnote234"></a><b>Footnote 234:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag234">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 197.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote235" name= +"footnote235"></a><b>Footnote 235:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag235">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 109, xxii. 295; Cormac, 87; Stokes, <i>TIG</i> +xxxiii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote236" name= +"footnote236"></a><b>Footnote 236:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag236">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, i. 341; <i>CIL</i> vii. 1292; Cæsar, ii. 23.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote237" name= +"footnote237"></a><b>Footnote 237:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag237">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 11<i>b</i>; Cormac, s.v. <i>Neit</i>; <i>RC</i> iv. +36; <i>Arch. Rev.</i> i. 231; Holder, ii. 714, 738.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote238" name= +"footnote238"></a><b>Footnote 238:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag238">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>TIG, LL</i> 11<i>a</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote239" name= +"footnote239"></a><b>Footnote 239:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag239">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 43; Stokes, <i>RC</i> xii. 128.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote240" name= +"footnote240"></a><b>Footnote 240:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag240">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 91, 110.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote241" name= +"footnote241"></a><b>Footnote 241:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag241">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page131">131</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote242" name= +"footnote242"></a><b>Footnote 242:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag242">(return)</a> +<p>Petrie, <i>Tara</i>, 147; Stokes, <i>US</i> 175; Meyer, <i>Cath +Finntrága</i>, Oxford, 1885, 76 f.; <i>RC</i> xvi. 56, 163, +xxi. 396.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote243" name= +"footnote243"></a><b>Footnote 243:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag243">(return)</a> +<p><i>CIL</i> vii. 507; Stokes, <i>US</i> 211.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote244" name= +"footnote244"></a><b>Footnote 244:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag244">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> i. 41, xii. 84.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote245" name= +"footnote245"></a><b>Footnote 245:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag245">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxi. 157, 315; Miss Hull, 247. A <i>baobh</i> (a +common Gaelic name for "witch") appears to Oscar and prophesies his +death in a Fionn ballad (Campbell, <i>The Fians</i>, 33). In +Brittany the "night-washers," once water-fairies, are now regarded +as <i>revenants</i> (Le Braz, i. 52).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote246" name= +"footnote246"></a><b>Footnote 246:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag246">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 261; Miss Hull, 186; Meyer, <i>Cath +Finntraga</i>, 6, 13; <i>IT</i> i. 131, 871.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote247" name= +"footnote247"></a><b>Footnote 247:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag247">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 10<i>a</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote248" name= +"footnote248"></a><b>Footnote 248:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag248">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 10<i>a</i>, 30<i>b</i>, 187<i>c</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote249" name= +"footnote249"></a><b>Footnote 249:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag249">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxvi. 13; <i>LL</i> 187<i>c</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote250" name= +"footnote250"></a><b>Footnote 250:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag250">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. the personification of the three strains of Dagda's harp +(Leahy, ii. 205).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote251" name= +"footnote251"></a><b>Footnote 251:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag251">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page223">223</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote252" name= +"footnote252"></a><b>Footnote 252:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag252">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 372.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote253" name= +"footnote253"></a><b>Footnote 253:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag253">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 77, 83.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote254" name= +"footnote254"></a><b>Footnote 254:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag254">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 11; <i>Atlantis</i>, London, 1858-70, iv. 159.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote255" name= +"footnote255"></a><b>Footnote 255:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag255">(return)</a> +<p>O'Donovan, <i>Grammar</i>, Dublin, 1845, xlvii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote256" name= +"footnote256"></a><b>Footnote 256:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag256">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 77.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote257" name= +"footnote257"></a><b>Footnote 257:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag257">(return)</a> +<p>Lucian, <i>Herakles</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote258" name= +"footnote258"></a><b>Footnote 258:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag258">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 89. The name is found in Gaulish Gobannicnos, and +in Welsh Abergavenny.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote259" name= +"footnote259"></a><b>Footnote 259:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag259">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 56; Zimmer, <i>Glossæ Hibernicæ</i>, +1881, 270.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote260" name= +"footnote260"></a><b>Footnote 260:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag260">(return)</a> +<p><i>Atlantis</i>, 1860, iii. 389.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote261" name= +"footnote261"></a><b>Footnote 261:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag261">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 89.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote262" name= +"footnote262"></a><b>Footnote 262:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag262">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> ll<i>a</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote263" name= +"footnote263"></a><b>Footnote 263:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag263">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 93.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote264" name= +"footnote264"></a><b>Footnote 264:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag264">(return)</a> +<p>Connac, 56, and <i>Cóir Anmann</i> (<i>IT</i> iii. 357) +divide the name as <i>día-na-cecht</i> and explain it as +"god of the powers."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote265" name= +"footnote265"></a><b>Footnote 265:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag265">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 67. For similar stories of plants springing from +graves, see my <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, 115.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote266" name= +"footnote266"></a><b>Footnote 266:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag266">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii, 89, 95.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote267" name= +"footnote267"></a><b>Footnote 267:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag267">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> vi. 369; Cormac, 23.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote268" name= +"footnote268"></a><b>Footnote 268:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag268">(return)</a> +<p>Cormac, 47, 144; <i>IT</i> iii. 355, 357.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote269" name= +"footnote269"></a><b>Footnote 269:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag269">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 355; D'Arbois, i. 202.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote270" name= +"footnote270"></a><b>Footnote 270:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag270">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 246<i>a</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote271" name= +"footnote271"></a><b>Footnote 271:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag271">(return)</a> +<p><i>Irish MSS. Series</i>, i. 46; D'Arbois, ii. 276. In a MS. +edited by Dr. Stirn, Oengus was Dagda's son by Elemar's wife, the +amour taking place in her husband's absence. This incident is a +parallel to the birth-stories of Mongan and Arthur, and has also +the Fatherless Child theme, since Oengus goes in tears to Mider +because he has been taunted with having no father or mother. In the +same MS. it is the Dagda who instructs Oengus how to obtain +Elemar's <i>síd</i>. See <i>RC</i> xxvii. 332, xxviii. +330.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote272" name= +"footnote272"></a><b>Footnote 272:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag272">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 245<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote273" name= +"footnote273"></a><b>Footnote 273:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag273">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 355.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote274" name= +"footnote274"></a><b>Footnote 274:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag274">(return)</a> +<p>O'Donovan, <i>Battle of Mag-Rath</i>, Dublin, 1842, 50; +<i>LL</i> 246<i>a</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote275" name= +"footnote275"></a><b>Footnote 275:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag275">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, v. 427, 448.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote276" name= +"footnote276"></a><b>Footnote 276:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag276">(return)</a> +<p>The former is Rh[^y]s's interpretation (<i>HL</i> 201) +connecting <i>Cruaich</i> with <i>crúach</i>, "a heap"; the +latter is that of D'Arbois (ii. 106), deriving <i>Cruaich</i> from +<i>cru</i>, "blood." The idea of the image being bent or crooked +may have been due to the fact that it long stood ready to topple +over, as a result of S. Patrick's miracle. See p. <a href= +"#page286">286</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote277" name= +"footnote277"></a><b>Footnote 277:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag277">(return)</a> +<p>Vallancey, in <i>Coll. de Rebus Hib.</i> 1786, iv. 495.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote278" name= +"footnote278"></a><b>Footnote 278:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag278">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 213<i>b</i>. D'Arbois thinks Cromm was a Fomorian, the +equivalent of Taranis (ii. 62). But he is worshipped by Gaels. +<i>Crin</i>, "withered," probably refers to the idol's position +after S. Patrick's miracle, no longer upright but bent like an old +man. Dr. Hyde, <i>Lit. Hist. of Ireland</i>, 87, with exaggerated +patriotism, thinks the sacrificial details are copied by a +Christian scribe from the Old Testament, and are no part of the old +ritual.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote279" name= +"footnote279"></a><b>Footnote 279:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag279">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xvi. 35, 163.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote280" name= +"footnote280"></a><b>Footnote 280:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag280">(return)</a> +<p>Fitzgerald, <i>RL</i> iv. 175.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote281" name= +"footnote281"></a><b>Footnote 281:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag281">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxvi. 19.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote282" name= +"footnote282"></a><b>Footnote 282:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag282">(return)</a> +<p><i>Annals of the Four Masters</i>, A.M. 3450.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote283" name= +"footnote283"></a><b>Footnote 283:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag283">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 83, 85; Hyde, <i>op. cit.</i> 288.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote284" name= +"footnote284"></a><b>Footnote 284:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag284">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 94.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote285" name= +"footnote285"></a><b>Footnote 285:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag285">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 65. Elsewhere three supreme "ignorances" are +ascribed to Oengus (<i>RL</i> xxvi. 31).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote286" name= +"footnote286"></a><b>Footnote 286:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag286">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> iii. 342.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote287" name= +"footnote287"></a><b>Footnote 287:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag287">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 11<i>c</i>; <i>LU</i> 129; <i>IT</i> i. 130. Cf. the +glass house, placed between sky and moon, to which Tristan conducts +the queen. Bedier, <i>Tristan et Iseut</i>, 252. In a fragmentary +version of the story Oengus is Etain's wooer, but Mider is +preferred by her father, and marries her. In the latter half of the +story, Oengus does not appear (see p. <a href="#page363">363</a>, +<i>infra</i>). Mr. Nutt (<i>RC</i> xxvii. 339) suggests that +Oengus, not Mider, was the real hero of the story, but that its +Christian redactors gave Mider his place in the second part. The +fragments are edited by Stirn (<i>ZCP</i> vol. v.).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote288" name= +"footnote288"></a><b>Footnote 288:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag288">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 146.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote289" name= +"footnote289"></a><b>Footnote 289:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag289">(return)</a> +<p>See my <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, 114, 153. The tale has some +unique features, as it alone among Western <i>Märchen</i> and +saga variants of the "True Bride" describes the malicious woman as +the wife of Mider. In other words, the story implies polygamy, +rarely found in European folk-tales.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote290" name= +"footnote290"></a><b>Footnote 290:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag290">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, <i>TOS</i> iii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote291" name= +"footnote291"></a><b>Footnote 291:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag291">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> i. 41.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote292" name= +"footnote292"></a><b>Footnote 292:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag292">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> i. 71.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote293" name= +"footnote293"></a><b>Footnote 293:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag293">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 117<i>a</i>. See p. <a href="#page381">381</a>, +<i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote294" name= +"footnote294"></a><b>Footnote 294:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag294">(return)</a> +<p>Cumont, <i>RC</i> xxvi. 47; D'Arbois, <i>RC</i> xxvii. 127, +notes the difficulty of explaining the change of <i>e</i> to +<i>i</i> in the names.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote295" name= +"footnote295"></a><b>Footnote 295:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag295">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 121.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote296" name= +"footnote296"></a><b>Footnote 296:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag296">(return)</a> +<p>See Crooke, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, viii. 341. Cf. Herod, ii. 131.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote297" name= +"footnote297"></a><b>Footnote 297:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag297">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 269.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote298" name= +"footnote298"></a><b>Footnote 298:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag298">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 563.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote299" name= +"footnote299"></a><b>Footnote 299:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag299">(return)</a> +<p>Train, <i>Isle of Man</i>, Douglas, 1845, ii. 118; Grimm, +<i>Teut. Myth.</i> ii. ch. 24; Frazer, <i>GB</i><sup>2</sup> ii. 99 +f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote300" name= +"footnote300"></a><b>Footnote 300:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag300">(return)</a> +<p>Bathurst, <i>Roman Antiquities at Lydney Park</i>, 1879; Holder, +<i>s.v.</i> "Nodons."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote301" name= +"footnote301"></a><b>Footnote 301:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag301">(return)</a> +<p>See Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 122; Cook, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, xvii. +30.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote302" name= +"footnote302"></a><b>Footnote 302:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag302">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>US</i> 194-195; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i>, 128, <i>IT</i> i. +712.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote303" name= +"footnote303"></a><b>Footnote 303:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag303">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 235, 296. See p. <a href="#page160">160</a>, +<i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote304" name= +"footnote304"></a><b>Footnote 304:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag304">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote305" name= +"footnote305"></a><b>Footnote 305:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag305">(return)</a> +<p>For these four Manannans see Cormac 114, <i>RC</i> xxiv. 270, +<i>IT</i> iii. 357.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote306" name= +"footnote306"></a><b>Footnote 306:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag306">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote307" name= +"footnote307"></a><b>Footnote 307:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag307">(return)</a> +<p><i>Bodley Dindsenchas</i>, No. 10, <i>RC</i> xii. 105; Joyce, +<i>SH</i> i. 259; <i>Otia Merseiana</i>, ii. "Song of the Sea."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote308" name= +"footnote308"></a><b>Footnote 308:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag308">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 133.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote309" name= +"footnote309"></a><b>Footnote 309:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag309">(return)</a> +<p>Moore, 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote310" name= +"footnote310"></a><b>Footnote 310:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag310">(return)</a> +<p>Geoffrey, <i>Vita Merlini</i>, 37; Rees, 435. Other saintly +legends are derived from myths, <i>e.g.</i> that of S. Barri in his +boat meeting S. Scuithne walking on the sea. Scuithne maintains he +is walking on a field, and plucks a flower to prove it, while Barri +confutes him by pulling a salmon out of the sea. This resembles an +episode in the meeting of Bran and Manannan (Stokes, +<i>Félire</i>, xxxix.; Nutt-Meyer, i. 39). Saints are often +said to assist men just as the gods did. Columcille and Brigit +appeared over the hosts of Erin assisting and encouraging them +<i>(RC</i> xxiv. 40).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote311" name= +"footnote311"></a><b>Footnote 311:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag311">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 59.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote312" name= +"footnote312"></a><b>Footnote 312:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag312">(return)</a> +<p><i>Folk-Lore Journal</i>, v. 66; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 314.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote313" name= +"footnote313"></a><b>Footnote 313:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag313">(return)</a> +<p>Larminie, "Kian, son of Kontje."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote314" name= +"footnote314"></a><b>Footnote 314:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag314">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 37.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote315" name= +"footnote315"></a><b>Footnote 315:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag315">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, vi. 116, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 39, <i>RC</i> xii. 75, +101, 127, xvi. 77. Is the defaced inscription at Geitershof, <i>Deo +M ... Sam ...</i> (Holder, ii. 1335), a dedication to Mercury +Samildánach? An echo of Lug's story is found in the Life of +S. Herve, who found a devil in his monastery in the form of a man +who said he was a good carpenter, mason, locksmith, etc., but who +could not make the sign of the cross. Albert le Grand, <i>Saints de +la Bretagne</i>, 49, <i>RC</i> vii. 231.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote316" name= +"footnote316"></a><b>Footnote 316:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag316">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i>; D'Arbois, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 44, <i>RC</i> +vii. 400.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote317" name= +"footnote317"></a><b>Footnote 317:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag317">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i> "Lugus."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote318" name= +"footnote318"></a><b>Footnote 318:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag318">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>TIG</i> 103. Gaidoz contests the identification of +the Lugoves and of Lug with Mercury, and to him the Lugoves are +grouped divinities like the <i>Matres</i> (<i>RC</i> vi. 489).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote319" name= +"footnote319"></a><b>Footnote 319:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag319">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 425.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote320" name= +"footnote320"></a><b>Footnote 320:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag320">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page349">349</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote321" name= +"footnote321"></a><b>Footnote 321:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag321">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page272">272</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote322" name= +"footnote322"></a><b>Footnote 322:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag322">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 409.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote323" name= +"footnote323"></a><b>Footnote 323:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag323">(return)</a> +<p>See Loth, <i>RC</i> x. 490.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote324" name= +"footnote324"></a><b>Footnote 324:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag324">(return)</a> +<p>Leahy, i. 138, ii. 50, 52, <i>LU</i> 124<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote325" name= +"footnote325"></a><b>Footnote 325:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag325">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 215<i>a</i>; see p. <a href="#page78">78</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote326" name= +"footnote326"></a><b>Footnote 326:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag326">(return)</a> +<p>See, further, p. <a href="#page385">385</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote327" name= +"footnote327"></a><b>Footnote 327:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag327">(return)</a> +<p><i>The Welsh People</i>, 61. Professor Rh[^y]s admits that the +theory of borrowing "cannot easily be proved."</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>{95}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap6" id="chap6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2> +<h3>THE GODS OF THE BRYTHONS</h3> +<p>Our knowledge of the gods of the Brythons, <i>i.e.</i> as far as +Wales is concerned, is derived, apart from inscriptions, from the +<i>Mabinogion</i>, which, though found in a fourteenth century MS., +was composed much earlier, and contains elements from a remote +past. Besides this, the <i>Triads</i>, probably of twelfth-century +origin, the <i>Taliesin</i>, and other poems, though obscure and +artificial, the work of many a "confused bard drivelling" (to cite +the words of one of them), preserve echoes of the old +mythology.<a id="footnotetag328" name="footnotetag328"></a><a href= +"#footnote328"><sup>328</sup></a> Some of the gods may lurk behind +the personages of Geoffrey of Monmouth's <i>Historia Britonum</i> +and of the Arthurian cycle, though here great caution is required. +The divinities have become heroes and heroines, kings and +princesses, and if some of the episodes are based on ancient myths, +they are treated in a romantic spirit. Other episodes are mere +<i>Märchen</i> formulæ. Like the wreckage of some rich +galleon, the <i>débris</i> of the old mythology has been +used to construct a new fabric, and the old divinities have even +less of the god-like traits of the personages of the Irish +texts.</p> +<p>Some of the personages bear similar names to the Irish +divinities, and in some cases there is a certain similarity of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>{96}</span> +incidents to those of the Irish tales.<a id="footnotetag329" name= +"footnotetag329"></a><a href="#footnote329"><sup>329</sup></a> Are, +then, the gods dimly revealed in Welsh literature as much Goidelic +as Brythonic? Analysing the incidents of the <i>Mabinogion</i>, +Professor Anwyl has shown that they have an entirely local +character, and are mainly associated with the districts of Dyfed +and Gwent, of Anglesey, and of Gwynedd, of which Pryderi, Branwen, +and Gwydion are respectively the heroic characters.<a id= +"footnotetag330" name="footnotetag330"></a><a href= +"#footnote330"><sup>330</sup></a> These are the districts where a +strong Goidelic element prevailed, whether these Goidels were the +original inhabitants of Britain, driven there by Brythons,<a id= +"footnotetag331" name="footnotetag331"></a><a href= +"#footnote331"><sup>331</sup></a> or tribes who had settled there +from Ireland,<a id="footnotetag332" name= +"footnotetag332"></a><a href="#footnote332"><sup>332</sup></a> or +perhaps a mixture of both. In any case they had been conquered by +Brythons and had become Brythonic in speech from the fifth century +onwards. On account of this Goidelic element, it has been claimed +that the personages of the <i>Mabinogion</i> are purely Goidelic. +But examination proves that only a few are directly parallel in +name with Irish divinities, and while here there are fundamental +likenesses, the <i>incidents</i> with Irish parallels may be due to +mere superficial borrowings, to that interchange of +<i>Märchen</i> and mythical <i>données</i> which has +everywhere occurred. Many incidents have no Irish parallels, and +most of the characters are entirely different in name from Irish +divinities. Hence any theory which would account for the +likenesses, must also account for the differences, and must explain +why, if the <i>Mabinogion</i> is due to Irish Goidels, there should +have been few or no borrowings in Welsh literature <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>{97}</span> from the +popular Cúchulainn and Ossianic sagas,<a id="footnotetag333" +name="footnotetag333"></a><a href="#footnote333"><sup>333</sup></a> +and why, at a time when Brythonic elements were uppermost, such +care should have been taken to preserve Goidelic myths. If the +tales emanated from native Welsh Goidels, the explanation might be +that they, the kindred of the Irish Goidels, must have had a +certain community with them in divine names and myths, while others +of their gods, more local in character, would differ in name. Or if +they are Brythonic, the likenesses might be accounted for by an +early community in myth and cult among the common ancestors of +Brythons and Goidels.<a id="footnotetag334" name= +"footnotetag334"></a><a href="#footnote334"><sup>334</sup></a> But +as the date of the composition of the <i>Mabinogion</i> is +comparatively late, at a time when Brythons had overrun these +Goidelic districts, more probably the tales contain a mingling of +Goidelic (Irish or Welsh) and Brythonic divinities, though some of +these may be survivals of the common Celtic heritage.<a id= +"footnotetag335" name="footnotetag335"></a><a href= +"#footnote335"><sup>335</sup></a> Celtic divinities were mainly of +a local, tribal character. Hence some would be local Goidelic +divinities, others, classed with these, local Brythonic divinities. +This would explain the absence of divinities and heroes of other +local Brythonic groups, <i>e.g.</i> Arthur, from the +<i>Mabinogion</i>. But with the growing importance of these, they +attracted to their legend the folk of the <i>Mabinogion</i> and +other tales. These are associated with Arthur in <i>Kulhwych</i>, +and the Dôn group mingles with that of Taliesin in the +<i>Taliesin</i> poems.<a id="footnotetag336" name= +"footnotetag336"></a><a href="#footnote336"><sup>336</sup></a> +Hence Welsh literature, as far as concerns the old religion, may be +regarded as including both local Goidelic and Brythonic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98"></a>{98}</span> +divinities, of whom the more purely Brythonic are Arthur, Gwynn, +Taliesin, etc.<a id="footnotetag337" name= +"footnotetag337"></a><a href="#footnote337"><sup>337</sup></a> They +are regarded as kings and queens, or as fairies, or they have +magical powers. They are mortal and die, and the place of their +burial is pointed out, or existing tumuli are associated with them, +All this is parallel to the history of the Tuatha Dé Danann, +and shows how the same process of degradation had been at work in +Wales as in Ireland.</p> +<p>The story of the Llyr group is told in the <i>Mabinogion</i> of +Branwen and of Manawyddan. They are associated with the Pwyll +group, and apparently opposed to that of Dôn. Branwen is +married to Matholwych, king of Ireland, but is ill-treated by him +on account of the insults of the mischievous Evnissyen, in spite of +the fact that Bran had atoned for the insult by many gifts, +including that of a cauldron of regeneration. Now he crosses with +an army to Ireland, where Evnissyen throws Branwen's child, to whom +the kingdom is given, on the fire. A fight ensues; the dead Irish +warriors are resuscitated in the cauldron, but Evnissyen, at the +cost of his life, destroys it. Bran is slain, and by his directions +his head is cut off and carried first to Harlech, then to Gwales, +where it will entertain its bearers for eighty years. At the end of +that time it is to be taken to London and buried. Branwen, +departing with the bearers, dies of a broken heart at Anglesey, and +meanwhile Caswallyn, son of Beli, seizes the kingdom.<a id= +"footnotetag338" name="footnotetag338"></a><a href= +"#footnote338"><sup>338</sup></a> Two of the bearers of the head +are Manawyddan and Pryderi, whose fortunes we follow in the +<i>Mabinogi</i> of the former. Pryderi gives his mother Rhiannon to +Manawyddan as his wife, along with some land which by magic art is +made barren. After following different crafts, they are led by a +boar to a strange castle, where Rhiannon and Pryderi disappear +along with the building. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id= +"page99"></a>{99}</span> Manawyddan, with Pryderi's wife Kieva, set +out as shoemakers, but are forced to abandon this craft on account +of the envy of the craftsmen. Finally, we learn how Manawyddan +overcame the enchanter Llwyt, who, because of an insult offered by +Pryderi's father to his friend Gwawl, had made Rhiannon and Pryderi +disappear. They are now restored, and Llwyt seeks no further +revenge.</p> +<p>The story of Branwen is similar to a tale of which there are +variants in Teutonic and Scandinavian sagas, but the resemblance is +closer to the latter.<a id="footnotetag339" name= +"footnotetag339"></a><a href="#footnote339"><sup>339</sup></a> +Possibly a similar story with their respective divinities or heroes +for its characters existed among Celts, Teutons, and Norsemen, but +more likely it was borrowed from Norsemen who occupied both sides +of the Irish Sea in the ninth and tenth century, and then +naturalised by furnishing it with Celtic characters. But into this +framework many native elements were set, and we may therefore +scrutinise the story for Celtic mythical elements utilised by its +redactor, who probably did not strip its Celtic personages of their +earlier divine attributes. In the two <i>Mabinogi</i> these +personages are Llyr, his sons Bran and Manawyddan, his daughter +Branwen, their half-brothers Nissyen and Evnissyen, sons of Llyr's +wife Penardim, daughter of Beli, by a previous marriage with +Eurosswyd.</p> +<p>Llyr is the equivalent of the Irish Ler, the sea-god, but two +other Llyrs, probably duplicates of himself, are known to Welsh +story—Llyr Marini, and the Llyr, father of Cordelia, of the +chroniclers.<a id="footnotetag340" name= +"footnotetag340"></a><a href="#footnote340"><sup>340</sup></a> He +is constantly confused with Lludd Llawereint, <i>e.g.</i> both are +described as one of three notable prisoners of Britain, and both +are called fathers of Cordelia or Creiddylad.<a id="footnotetag341" +name="footnotetag341"></a><a href="#footnote341"><sup>341</sup></a> +Perhaps the two were once identical, for <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>{100}</span> Manannan +is sometimes called son of Alloid (= Lludd), in Irish texts, as +well as son of Ler.<a id="footnotetag342" name= +"footnotetag342"></a><a href="#footnote342"><sup>342</sup></a> But +the confusion may be accidental, nor is it certain that Nodons or +Lludd was a sea-god. Llyr's prison was that of Eurosswyd,<a id= +"footnotetag343" name="footnotetag343"></a><a href= +"#footnote343"><sup>343</sup></a> whose wife he may have abducted +and hence suffered imprisonment. In the <i>Black Book of +Caermarthen</i> Bran is called son of Y Werydd or "Ocean," +according to M. Loth's interpretation of the name, which would thus +point to Llyr's position as a sea-god. But this is contested by +Professor Rh[^y]s who makes Ywerit wife of Llyr, the name being in +his view a form of the Welsh word for Ireland. In Geoffrey and the +chroniclers Llyr becomes a king of Britain whose history and that +of his daughters was immortalised by Shakespeare. Geoffrey also +refers to Llyr's burial in a vault built in honour of Janus.<a id= +"footnotetag344" name="footnotetag344"></a><a href= +"#footnote344"><sup>344</sup></a> On this Professor Rh[^y]s builds +a theory that Llyr was a form of the Celtic Dis with two faces and +ruler of a world of darkness.<a id="footnotetag345" name= +"footnotetag345"></a><a href="#footnote345"><sup>345</sup></a> But +there is no evidence that the Celtic Dispater was lord of a gloomy +underworld, and it is best to regard Llyr as a sea-divinity.</p> +<p>Manawyddan is not god-like in these tales in the sense in which +the majestic Manannan of Irish story is, though elsewhere we learn +that "deep was his counsel."<a id="footnotetag346" name= +"footnotetag346"></a><a href="#footnote346"><sup>346</sup></a> +Though not a magician, he baffles one of the great wizards of Welsh +story, and he is also a master craftsman, who instructs Pryderi in +the arts of shoe-making, shield-making, and saddlery. In this he is +akin to Manannan, the teacher of Diarmaid. Incidents of his career +are reflected in the <i>Triads</i>, and his union with Rhiannon may +point to an old myth in which they were from the first a divine +pair, parents of Pryderi. This would give point to his deliverance +of Pryderi and Rhiannon from the <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page101" id="page101"></a>{101}</span> hostile magician.<a id= +"footnotetag347" name="footnotetag347"></a><a href= +"#footnote347"><sup>347</sup></a> Rhiannon resembles the Irish +Elysium goddesses, and Manawyddan, like Manannan, is lord of +Elysium in a <i>Taliesin</i> poem.<a id="footnotetag348" name= +"footnotetag348"></a><a href="#footnote348"><sup>348</sup></a> He +is a craftsman and follows agriculture, perhaps a reminiscence of +the old belief that fertility and culture come from the god's land. +Manawyddan, like other divinities, was drawn into the Arthurian +cycle, and is one of those who capture the famous boar, the +<i>Twrch Trwyth</i>.<a id="footnotetag349" name= +"footnotetag349"></a><a href="#footnote349"><sup>349</sup></a></p> +<p>Bran, or Bendigeit Vran ("Bran the Blessed"), probably an old +pagan title which appropriately enough denotes one who figured +later in Christian hagiology, is so huge that no house or ship can +hold him. Hence he wades over to Ireland, and as he draws near is +thought to be a mountain. This may be an archaic method of +expressing his divinity—a gigantic non-natural man like some +of the Tuatha Déa and Ossianic heroes. But Bran also appears +as the <i>Urdawl Ben</i>, or "Noble Head," which makes time pass to +its bearers like a dream, and when buried protects the land from +invasion. Both as a giant squatting on a rock and as a head, Bran +is equated by Professor Rh[^y]s with Cernunnos, the squatting god, +represented also as a head, and also with the Welsh Urien whose +attribute was a raven, the supposed meaning of Bran's name.<a id= +"footnotetag350" name="footnotetag350"></a><a href= +"#footnote350"><sup>350</sup></a> He further equates him with Uthr +Ben, "Wonderful Head," the superior bard, harper and piper of a +<i>Taliesin</i> poem.<a id="footnotetag351" name= +"footnotetag351"></a><a href="#footnote351"><sup>351</sup></a> +Urien, Bran, and Uthr are three forms of a god worshipped by bards, +and a "dark" divinity, whose wading over to Ireland signifies +crossing to Hades, of which he, like Yama, who first crossed the +rapid waters to the land of death, is the ruler.<a id= +"footnotetag352" name="footnotetag352"></a><a href= +"#footnote352"><sup>352</sup></a> But Bran is not a "dark" god in +the sense implied here. Cernunnos is god of a happy underworld, and +there is nothing <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id= +"page102"></a>{102}</span> dark or evil in him or in Bran and his +congeners. Professor Rh[^y]s's "dark" divinities are sometimes, in +his view, "light" gods, but they cannot be both. The Celtic lords +of the dead had no "dark" character, and as gods of fertility they +were, so to speak, in league with the sun-god, the slayer of Bran, +according to Professor Rh[^y]s's ingenious theory. And although to +distracted Irish secretaries Ireland may be Hades, its introduction +into this <i>Mabinogi</i> merely points to the interpretation of a +mythico-historic connection between Wales and Ireland. Thus if Bran +is Cernunnos, this is because he is a lord of the underworld of +fertility, the counterpart of which is the distant Elysium, to +which Bran seems rather to belong. Thus, in presence of his head, +time passes as a dream in feasting and joy. This is a true Elysian +note, and the tabued door of the story is also suggestive of the +tabus of Elysium, which when broken rob men of happiness.<a id= +"footnotetag353" name="footnotetag353"></a><a href= +"#footnote353"><sup>353</sup></a> As to the power of the head in +protecting the land, this points to actual custom and belief +regarding the relics of the dead and the power of divine images or +sculptured heads.<a id="footnotetag354" name= +"footnotetag354"></a><a href="#footnote354"><sup>354</sup></a> The +god Bran has become a king and law-giver in the <i>Mabinogion</i> +and the <i>Triads</i>,<a id="footnotetag355" name= +"footnotetag355"></a><a href="#footnote355"><sup>355</sup></a> +while Geoffrey of Monmouth describes how Belinus and Brennus, in +the Welsh version Beli and Bran, dispute the crown of Britain, are +reconciled, and finally conquer Gaul and Rome.<a id= +"footnotetag356" name="footnotetag356"></a><a href= +"#footnote356"><sup>356</sup></a> The mythic Bran is confused with +Brennus, leader of the Gauls against Rome in 390 B.C., and Belinus +may be the god Belenos, as well as Beli, father of Lludd and +Caswallawn. But Bran also figures as a Christian missionary. He is +described as hostage at Rome for his son Caradawc, returning thence +as preacher of Christianity to the Cymry—a legend arising out +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id= +"page103"></a>{103}</span> of a misunderstanding of his epithet +"Blessed" and a confusing of his son with the historic +Caractacus.<a id="footnotetag357" name= +"footnotetag357"></a><a href="#footnote357"><sup>357</sup></a> +Hence Bran's family is spoken of as one of the three saintly +families of Prydein, and he is ancestor of many saints.<a id= +"footnotetag358" name="footnotetag358"></a><a href= +"#footnote358"><sup>358</sup></a></p> +<p>Branwen, "White Bosom," daughter of a sea-god, may be a +sea-goddess, "Venus of the northern sea,"<a id="footnotetag359" +name="footnotetag359"></a><a href="#footnote359"><sup>359</sup></a> +unless with Mr. Nutt we connect her with the cauldron described in +her legend,<a id="footnotetag360" name= +"footnotetag360"></a><a href="#footnote360"><sup>360</sup></a> +symbol of an orgiastic cult, and regard her as a goddess of +fertility. But the connection is not clear in the story, though in +some earlier myth the cauldron may have been her property. As +Brangwaine, she reappears in romance, giving a love-potion to +Tristram—perhaps a reminiscence of her former functions as a +goddess of love, or earlier of fertility. In the <i>Mabinogion</i> +she is buried in Anglesey at Ynys Bronwen, where a cairn with bones +discovered in 1813 was held to be the grave and remains of +Branwen.<a id="footnotetag361" name="footnotetag361"></a><a href= +"#footnote361"><sup>361</sup></a></p> +<p>The children of Dôn, the equivalent of Danu, and probably +like her, a goddess of fertility, are Gwydion, Gilvæthwy, +Amæthon, Govannon, and Arianrhod, with her sons, Dylan and +Llew.<a id="footnotetag362" name="footnotetag362"></a><a href= +"#footnote362"><sup>362</sup></a> These correspond, therefore, in +part to the Tuatha Déa, though the only members of the group +who bear names similar to the Irish gods are Govannon (= Goibniu) +and possibly Llew (= Lug). Gwydion as a culture-god corresponds to +Ogma. In the <i>Triads</i> Beli is called father of +Arianrhod,<a id="footnotetag363" name="footnotetag363"></a><a href= +"#footnote363"><sup>363</sup></a> and assuming that this Arianrhod +is identical with the daughter of Dôn, Professor Rh[^y]s +regards Beli as husband of Dôn. But the identification is far +from certain, and the theory built upon it that Beli is one with +the Irish Bile, and that both <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page104" id="page104"></a>{104}</span> are lords of a dark +underworld, has already been found precarious.<a id= +"footnotetag364" name="footnotetag364"></a><a href= +"#footnote364"><sup>364</sup></a> In later belief Dôn was +associated with the stars, the constellation Cassiopeia being +called her court. She is described as "wise" in a <i>Taliesin</i> +poem.<a id="footnotetag365" name="footnotetag365"></a><a href= +"#footnote365"><sup>365</sup></a></p> +<p>This group of divinities is met with mainly in the +<i>Mabinogi</i> of Math, which turns upon Gilvæthwy's illicit +love of Math's "foot-holder" Goewin. To assist him in his +<i>amour</i>, Gwydion, by a magical trick, procures for Math from +the court of Pryderi certain swine sent him by Arawn, king of +Annwfn. In the battle which follows when the trick is discovered, +Gwydion slays Pryderi by enchantment. Math now discovers that +Gilvæthwy has seduced Goewin, and transforms him and Gwydion +successively into deer, swine, and wolves. Restored to human form, +Gwydion proposes that Arianrhod should be Math's foot-holder, but +Math by a magic test discovers that she is not a virgin. She bears +two sons, Dylan, fostered by Math, and another whom Gwydion +nurtures and for whom he afterwards by a trick obtains a name from +Arianrhod, who had sworn never to name him. The name is Llew Llaw +Gyffes, "Lion of the Sure Hand." By magic, Math and Gwydion form a +wife for Llew out of flowers. She is called Blodeuwedd, and later, +at the instigation of a lover, Gronw, she discovers how Llew can be +killed. Gronw attacks and wounds him, and he flies off as an eagle. +Gwydion seeks for Llew, discovers him, and retransforms him to +human shape. Then he changes Blodeuwedd into an owl, and slays +Gronw.<a id="footnotetag366" name="footnotetag366"></a><a href= +"#footnote366"><sup>366</sup></a> Several independent tales have +gone to the formation of this <i>Mabinogi</i>, but we are concerned +here merely with the light it may throw on the divine characters +who figure in it.</p> +<p>Math or Math Hen, "the Ancient,"<a id="footnotetag367" name= +"footnotetag367"></a><a href="#footnote367"><sup>367</sup></a> is +probably an old <span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id= +"page105"></a>{105}</span> divinity of Gwyned, of which he is +called lord. He is a king and a magician, pre-eminent in wizardry, +which he teaches to Gwydion, and in a <i>Triad</i> he is called one +of the great men of magic and metamorphosis of Britain.<a id= +"footnotetag368" name="footnotetag368"></a><a href= +"#footnote368"><sup>368</sup></a> More important are his traits of +goodness to the suffering, and justice with no trace of vengeance +to the wrong-doer. Whether these are derived from his character as +a god or from the Celtic kingly ideal, it is impossible to say, +though the former is by no means unlikely. Possibly his supreme +magical powers make him the equivalent of the Irish "god of +Druidism," but this is uncertain, since all gods were more or less +dowered with these.</p> +<p>Gwydion's magical powers are abundantly illustrated in the tale. +At Pryderi's court he changes fungus into horses and dogs, and +afterwards slays Pryderi by power of enchantments; he produces a +fleet by magic before Arianrhod's castle; with Math's help he forms +Blodeuwedd out of flowers; he gives Llew his natural shape when he +finds him as a wasted eagle on a tree, his flesh and the worms +breeding in it dropping from him; he transforms the faithless +Blodeuwedd into an owl. Some of these and other deeds are referred +to in the <i>Taliesin</i> poems, while Taliesin describes himself +as enchanted by Gwydion.<a id="footnotetag369" name= +"footnotetag369"></a><a href="#footnote369"><sup>369</sup></a> In +the <i>Triads</i> he is one of the three great astrologers of +Prydein, and this emphasis laid on his powers of divination is +significant when it is considered that his name may be derived from +a root <i>vet</i>, giving words meaning "saying" or "poetry," while +cognate words are Irish <i>fáith</i>, "a prophet" or "poet," +German <i>wuth</i>, "rage," and the name of Odinn.<a id= +"footnotetag370" name="footnotetag370"></a><a href= +"#footnote370"><sup>370</sup></a> The name is suggestive of the +ecstasy of inspiration producing prophetic and poetic utterance. In +the <i>Mabinogion</i> he is a mighty bard, and in a poem, he, under +the name of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id= +"page106"></a>{106}</span> Gweir, is imprisoned in the Other-world, +and there becomes a bard, thus receiving inspiration from the gods' +land.<a id="footnotetag371" name="footnotetag371"></a><a href= +"#footnote371"><sup>371</sup></a> He is the ideal +<i>fáith</i>—diviner, prophet, and poet, and thus the +god of those professing these arts. Strabo describes how the Celtic +<i>vates</i> (<i>fáith</i>) was also a philosopher, and this +character is given in a poem to Seon (probably = Gwydion), whose +artists are poets and magicians.<a id="footnotetag372" name= +"footnotetag372"></a><a href="#footnote372"><sup>372</sup></a> But +he is also a culture-god, bringing swine to men from the gods' +land. For though Pryderi is described as a mortal who has himself +received the swine from Annwfn (Elysium), there is no doubt that he +himself was a lord of Annwfn, and it was probably on account of +Gwydion's theft from Annwfn that he, as Gweir, was imprisoned there +"through the messenger of Pwyll and Pryderi."<a id="footnotetag373" +name="footnotetag373"></a><a href="#footnote373"><sup>373</sup></a> +A raid is here made directly on the god's land for the benefit of +men, and it is unsuccessful, but in the <i>Mabinogi</i> a different +version of the raid is told. Perhaps Gwydion also brought kine from +Annwfn, since he is called one of the three herds of Britain,<a id= +"footnotetag374" name="footnotetag374"></a><a href= +"#footnote374"><sup>374</sup></a> while he himself may once have +been an animal god, then an anthropomorphic deity associated with +animals. Thus in the <i>Mabinogi</i>, when Gwydion flees with the +swine, he rests each night at a place one of the syllables of which +is <i>Moch</i>, "swine"—an ætiological myth explaining +why places which were once sites of the cult of a swine-god, +afterwards worshipped as Gwydion, were so called.</p> +<p>Gwydion has also a tricky, fraudulent character in the +<i>Mabinogi</i>, and although "in his life there was counsel," yet +he had a "vicious muse."<a id="footnotetag375" name= +"footnotetag375"></a><a href="#footnote375"><sup>375</sup></a> It +is also implied that he is lover of his sister Arianrhod and father +of Dylan and Llew—the mythic reflections of a time when such +unions, perhaps only in royal houses, were permissible. Instances +occur in Irish tales, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id= +"page107"></a>{107}</span> and Arthur was also his sister's +lover.<a id="footnotetag376" name="footnotetag376"></a><a href= +"#footnote376"><sup>376</sup></a> In later belief Gwydion was +associated with the stars; and the Milky Way was called Caer +Gwydion. Across it he had chased the faithless Blodeuwedd.<a id= +"footnotetag377" name="footnotetag377"></a><a href= +"#footnote377"><sup>377</sup></a> Professor Rh[^y]s equates him +with Odinn, and regards both as representing an older +Celto-Teutonic hero, though many of the alleged similarities in +their respective mythologies are not too obvious.<a id= +"footnotetag378" name="footnotetag378"></a><a href= +"#footnote378"><sup>378</sup></a></p> +<p>Amæthon the good is described in <i>Kulhwych</i> as the +only husbandman who could till or dress a certain piece of land, +though Kulhwych will not be able to force him or to make him follow +him.<a id="footnotetag379" name="footnotetag379"></a><a href= +"#footnote379"><sup>379</sup></a> This, together with the name +Amæthon, from Cymric <i>amæth</i>, "labourer" or +"ploughman," throws some light on his functions.<a id= +"footnotetag380" name="footnotetag380"></a><a href= +"#footnote380"><sup>380</sup></a> He was a god associated with +agriculture, either as one who made waste places fruitful, or +possibly as an anthropomorphic corn divinity. But elsewhere his +taking a roebuck and a whelp, and in a <i>Triad</i>, a lapwing from +Arawn, king of Annwfn, led to the battle of Godeu, in which he +fought Arawn, aided by Gwydion, who vanquished one of Arawn's +warriors, Bran, by discovering his name.<a id="footnotetag381" +name="footnotetag381"></a><a href="#footnote381"><sup>381</sup></a> +Amæthon, who brings useful animals from the gods' land, plays +the same part as Gwydion, bringer of the swine. The dog and deer +are frequent representatives of the corn-spirit, of which +Amæthon may have been an anthropomorphic form, or they, with +the lapwing, may have been earlier worshipful animals, associated +with Amæthon as his symbols, while later myth told how he had +procured them from Annwfn.</p> +<p>The divine functions of Llew Llaw Gyffes are hardly apparent in +the <i>Mabinogi</i>. The incident of Blodeuwedd's unfaithfulness is +simply that of the <i>Märchen</i> formula of the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>{108}</span> +treacherous wife who discovers the secret of her husband's life, +and thus puts him at her lover's mercy.<a id="footnotetag382" name= +"footnotetag382"></a><a href="#footnote382"><sup>382</sup></a> But +since Llew is not slain, but changes to eagle form, this unusual +ending may mean that he was once a bird divinity, the eagle later +becoming his symbol. Some myth must have told of his death, or he +was afterwards regarded as a mortal who died, for a poem mentions +his tomb, and adds, "he was a man who never gave justice to any +one." Dr. Skene suggests that truth, not justice, is here meant, +and finds in this a reference to Llew's disguises.<a id= +"footnotetag383" name="footnotetag383"></a><a href= +"#footnote383"><sup>383</sup></a> Professor Rh[^y]s, for reasons +not held convincing by M. Loth, holds that <i>Llew</i>, "lion," was +a misapprehension for his true name <i>Lleu</i>, interpreted by him +"light."<a id="footnotetag384" name="footnotetag384"></a><a href= +"#footnote384"><sup>384</sup></a> This meaning he also gives to +<i>Lug</i>, equating Lug and Llew, and regarding both as sun-gods. +He also equates <i>Llaw Gyffes</i>, "steady <i>or</i> strong hand," +with Lug's epithet <i>Lám fada</i>, "long hand," suggesting +that <i>gyffes</i> may have meant "long," although it was Llew's +steadiness of hand in shooting which earned him the title.<a id= +"footnotetag385" name="footnotetag385"></a><a href= +"#footnote385"><sup>385</sup></a> Again, Llew's rapid growth need +not make him the sun, for this was a privilege of many heroes who +had no connection with the sun. Llew's unfortunate matrimonial +affairs are also regarded as a sun myth. Blodeuwedd is a dawn +goddess dividing her love between the sun-god and the prince of +darkness. Llew as the sun is overcome by the latter, but is +restored by the culture-hero Gwydion, who slays the dark rival. The +transformation of Blodeuwedd into an owl means that the Dawn has +become the Dusk.<a id="footnotetag386" name= +"footnotetag386"></a><a href="#footnote386"><sup>386</sup></a> As +we have seen, all this is a <i>Märchen</i> formula with no +mythical significance. Evidence of the precariousness of such an +interpretation is furnished from <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page109" id="page109"></a>{109}</span> the similar interpretation +of the story of Curoi's wife, Blathnat, whose lover +Cúchulainn slew Curoi.<a id="footnotetag387" name= +"footnotetag387"></a><a href="#footnote387"><sup>387</sup></a> Here +a supposed sun-god is the treacherous villain who kills a dark +divinity, husband of a dawn goddess.</p> +<p>If Llew is a sun-god, the equivalent of Lug, it is curious that +he is never connected with the August festival in Wales which +corresponds to Lugnasad in Ireland. There may be some support to +the theory which makes him a sun-god in a <i>Triad</i> where he is +one of the three <i>ruddroawc</i> who cause a year's sterility +wherever they set their feet, though in this Arthur excels them, +for he causes seven years' sterility!<a id="footnotetag388" name= +"footnotetag388"></a><a href="#footnote388"><sup>388</sup></a> Does +this point to the scorching of vegetation by the summer sun? The +mythologists have not made use of this incident. On the whole the +evidence for Llew as a sun-god is not convincing. The strongest +reason for identifying him with Lug rests on the fact that both +have uncles who are smiths and have similar names—Govannon +and Gavida (Goibniu). Like Amæthon, Govannon, the artificer +or smith (<i>gôf</i>, "smith"), is mentioned in +<i>Kulhwych</i> as one whose help must be gained to wait at the end +of the furrows to cleanse the iron of the plough.<a id= +"footnotetag389" name="footnotetag389"></a><a href= +"#footnote389"><sup>389</sup></a> Here he is brought into +connection with the plough, but the myth to which the words refer +is lost. A <i>Taliesin</i> poem associates him with Math—"I +have been with artificers, with the old Math and with Govannon," +and refers to his <i>Caer</i> or castle.<a id="footnotetag390" +name="footnotetag390"></a><a href= +"#footnote390"><sup>390</sup></a></p> +<p>Arianrhod, "silver wheel," has a twofold character. She pretends +to be a virgin, and disclaims all knowledge of her son Llew, yet +she is mistress of Gwydion. In the <i>Triads</i> she appears as one +of the three blessed (or white) ladies of Britain.<a id= +"footnotetag391" name="footnotetag391"></a><a href= +"#footnote391"><sup>391</sup></a> Perhaps these two aspects of her +character may point to a divergence between religion and mythology, +the cult of a virgin <span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id= +"page110"></a>{110}</span> goddess of whom myth told discreditable +things. More likely she was an old Earth-goddess, at once a virgin +and a fruitful mother, like Artemis, the virgin goddess, yet +neither chaste nor fair, or like a Babylonian goddess addressed as +at once "mother, wife, and maid." Arianrhod, "beauty famed beyond +summer's dawn," is mentioned in a <i>Taliesin</i> poem, and she was +later associated with the constellation Corona Borealis.<a id= +"footnotetag392" name="footnotetag392"></a><a href= +"#footnote392"><sup>392</sup></a> Possibly her real name was +forgotten, and that of Arianrhod derived from a place-name, "Caer +Arianrhod," associated with her. The interpretation which makes her +a dawn goddess, mother of light, Lleu, and darkness, Dylan, is far +from obvious.<a id="footnotetag393" name= +"footnotetag393"></a><a href="#footnote393"><sup>393</sup></a> +Dylan, after his baptism, rushed into the sea, the nature of which +became his. No wave ever broke under him; he swam like a fish; and +hence was called Dylan Eil Ton or "son of the wave." Govannon, his +uncle, slew him, an incident interpreted as the defeat of darkness, +which "hies away to lurk in the sea." Dylan, however, has no dark +traits and is described as a blonde. The waves lament his death, +and, as they dash against the shore, seek to avenge it. His grave +is "where the wave makes a sullen sound," but popular belief +identifies him with the waves, and their noise as they press into +the Conway is his dying groan. Not only is he <i>Eil Ton</i>, "son +of the wave," but also <i>Eil Mor</i>, "son of the sea."<a id= +"footnotetag394" name="footnotetag394"></a><a href= +"#footnote394"><sup>394</sup></a> He is thus a local sea-god, and +like Manannan identified with the waves, and yet separate from +them, since they mourn his death. The <i>Mabinogi</i> gives us the +<i>débris</i> of myths explaining how an anthropomorphic +sea-god was connected with the goddess Arianrhod and slain by a god +Govannon.</p> +<p>Another <i>Mabinogion</i> group is that of Pwyll, prince of +Dyved, his wife Rhiannon, and their son Pryderi.<a id= +"footnotetag395" name="footnotetag395"></a><a href= +"#footnote395"><sup>395</sup></a> Pwyll <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>{111}</span> agrees +with Arawn, king of Annwfn (Elysium), to reign over his kingdom for +a year. At the end of that time he slays Arawn's rival Havgan. +Arawn sends him gifts, and Pwyll is now known as Pen or Head of +Annwfn, a title showing that he was once a god, belonging to the +gods' land, later identified with the Christian Hades. Pwyll now +agrees with Rhiannon,<a id="footnotetag396" name= +"footnotetag396"></a><a href="#footnote396"><sup>396</sup></a> who +appears mysteriously on a magic hillock, and whom he captures, to +rid her of an unwelcome suitor Gwawl. He imprisons him in a magical +bag, and Rhiannon weds Pwyll. The story thus resolves itself into +the formula of the Fairy Bride, but it paves the way for the +vengeance taken on Pryderi and Rhiannon by Gwawl's friend Llwyt. +Rhiannon has a son who is stolen as soon as born. She is accused of +slaying him and is degraded, but Teyrnon recovers the child from +its super-human robber and calls him Gwri. As he grows up, Teyrnon +notices his resemblance to Pwyll, and takes him to his court. +Rhiannon is reinstated, and because she cries that her anguish +(<i>pryderi</i>) is gone, the boy is now called Pryderi. Here, +again, we have <i>Märchen</i> incidents, which also appear in +the Fionn saga.<a id="footnotetag397" name= +"footnotetag397"></a><a href="#footnote397"><sup>397</sup></a></p> +<p>Though there is little that is mythological here, it is evident +that Pwyll is a god and Rhiannon a goddess, whose early importance, +like that of other Celtic goddesses, appears from her name, a +corruption of Rigantona, "great queen." Elsewhere we hear of her +magic birds whose song charmed Bran's companions for seven years, +and of her marriage to Manawyddan—an old myth in which +Manawyddan may have been Pryderi's father, while possibly in some +other myth Pryderi may have been child of Rigantona and Teyrnon +(=Tigernonos, "king").<a id="footnotetag398" name= +"footnotetag398"></a><a href="#footnote398"><sup>398</sup></a> We +may postulate an old Rhiannon saga, fragments of which <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>{112}</span> are to be +found in the <i>Mabinogi</i>, and there may have been more than one +goddess called Rigantona, later fused into one. But in the tales +she is merely a queen of old romance.</p> +<p>Pryderi, as has been seen, was despoiled of his swine by +Gwydion. They were the gift of Arawn, but in the <i>Triads</i> they +seem to have been brought from Annwfn by Pwyll, while Pryderi acted +as swineherd.<a id="footnotetag399" name= +"footnotetag399"></a><a href="#footnote399"><sup>399</sup></a> Both +Pwyll and Pryderi are thus connected with those myths which told of +the bringing of domestic animals from the gods' land. But since +they are certainly gods, associated with the gods' land, this is +perhaps the result of misunderstanding. A poem speaks of the magic +cauldron of Pen Annwfn, <i>i.e.</i> Pwyll, and this points to a +myth explaining his connection with Annwfn in a different way from +the account in the <i>Mabinogi</i>. The poem also tells how Gweir +was imprisoned in Caer Sidi (=Annwfn) "through the messenger of +Pwyll and Pryderi."<a id="footnotetag400" name= +"footnotetag400"></a><a href="#footnote400"><sup>400</sup></a> They +are thus lords of Annwfn, whose swine Gweir (Gwydion) tries to +steal. Elsewhere Caer Sidi is associated with Manawyddan and +Pryderi, perhaps a reference to their connection as father and +son.<a id="footnotetag401" name="footnotetag401"></a><a href= +"#footnote401"><sup>401</sup></a> Thus Pryderi and Pwyll belong to +the bright Elysium, and may once have been gods of fertility +associated with the under-earth region, which was by no means a +world of darkness. Whatever be the meaning of the death of Pryderi +at the hands of Gwydion, it is connected with later references to +his grave.<a id="footnotetag402" name="footnotetag402"></a><a href= +"#footnote402"><sup>402</sup></a></p> +<p>A fourth group is that of Beli and his sons, referred to in the +<i>Mabinogi</i> of Branwen, where one of them, Caswallawn, usurps +the throne, and thus makes Manawyddan, like MacGregor, landless. In +the <i>Dream of Maxen</i>, the sons of Beli are Lludd, Caswallawn, +Nynnyaw, and Llevelys.<a id="footnotetag403" name= +"footnotetag403"></a><a href="#footnote403"><sup>403</sup></a> +Geoffrey calls Beli Heli, and speaks of an earlier king Belinus, at +enmity with his brother Brennius.<a id="footnotetag404" name= +"footnotetag404"></a><a href="#footnote404"><sup>404</sup></a> But +probably Beli or Heli and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" +id="page113"></a>{113}</span> Belinus are one and the same, and +both represent the earlier god Belenos. Caswellawn becomes +Cassivellaunus, opponent of Cæsar, but in the <i>Mabinogi</i> +he is hostile to the race of Llyr, and this may be connected with +whatever underlies Geoffrey's account of the hostility of Belinus +and Brennius (=Bran, son of Llyr), perhaps, like the enmity of the +race of D[^o]n to Pryderi, a reminiscence of the strife of rival +tribes or of Goidel and Brython.<a id="footnotetag405" name= +"footnotetag405"></a><a href="#footnote405"><sup>405</sup></a> As +has been seen, the evidence for regarding Beli as D[^o]n's consort +or the equivalent of Bile is slender. Nor, if he is Belenos, the +equivalent of Apollo, is he in any sense a "dark" god. He is +regarded as a victorious champion, preserver of his "honey isle" +and of the stability of his kingdom, in a <i>Taliesin</i> poem and +in the <i>Triads</i>.<a id="footnotetag406" name= +"footnotetag406"></a><a href="#footnote406"><sup>406</sup></a></p> +<p>The personality of Casswallawn is lost in that of the historic +Cassivellaunus, but in a reference to him in the <i>Triads</i> +where, with Caradawc and Gweirydd, he bears the title "war king," +we may see a glimpse of his divine character, that of a god of war, +invisibly leading on armies to battle, and as such embodied in +great chiefs who bore his name.<a id="footnotetag407" name= +"footnotetag407"></a><a href="#footnote407"><sup>407</sup></a> +Nynnyaw appears in Geoffrey's pages as Nennius, who dies of wounds +inflicted by Cæsar, to the great grief of +Cassivellaunus.<a id="footnotetag408" name= +"footnotetag408"></a><a href="#footnote408"><sup>408</sup></a></p> +<p>The theory that Lludd Llaw Ereint or <i>Lodens Lamargentios</i> +represents <i>Nodens</i> (Nuada) <i>L[=a]margentios</i>, the change +being the result of alliteration, has been contested,<a id= +"footnotetag409" name="footnotetag409"></a><a href= +"#footnote409"><sup>409</sup></a> while if the Welsh Lludd and Nudd +were identical it is strange that they should have become distinct +personalities, Gwyn, son of Nudd, being the lover of Creiddylad, +daughter of Lludd,<a id="footnotetag410" name= +"footnotetag410"></a><a href="#footnote410"><sup>410</sup></a> +unless in some earlier myth their love was that of brother and +sister. Lludd is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id= +"page114"></a>{114}</span> also confused or is identical with Llyr, +just as the Irish Ler is with Alloid. He is probably the son of +Beli who, in the tale of <i>Lludd and Llevelys</i>, by the advice +of Llevelys rids his country of three plagues.<a id= +"footnotetag411" name="footnotetag411"></a><a href= +"#footnote411"><sup>411</sup></a> These are, first, the Coranians +who hear every whisper, and whom he destroys by throwing over them +water in which certain insects given him by Levelys have been +bruised. The second is a shriek on May-eve which makes land and +water barren, and is caused by a dragon which attacks the dragon of +the land. These Lludd captures and imprisons at Dinas Emreis, where +they afterwards cause trouble to Vortigern at the building of his +castle. The third is that of the disappearance of a year's supply +of food by a magician, who lulls every one to sleep and who is +captured by Lludd. Though the Coranians appear in the <i>Triads</i> +as a hostile tribe,<a id="footnotetag412" name= +"footnotetag412"></a><a href="#footnote412"><sup>412</sup></a> they +may have been a supernatural folk, since their name is perhaps +derived from <i>còr</i>, "dwarf," and they are now regarded +as mischievous fairies.<a id="footnotetag413" name= +"footnotetag413"></a><a href="#footnote413"><sup>413</sup></a> They +may thus be analogous to the Fomorians, and their story, like that +of the dragon and the magician who produce blight and loss of food, +may be based on older myth or ritual embodying the belief in powers +hostile to fertility, though it is not clear why those powers +should be most active on May-day. But this may be a +misunderstanding, and the dragons are overcome on May-eve. The +references in the tale to Lludd's generosity and liberality in +giving food may reflect his function as a god of growth, but, like +other euhemerised gods, he is also called a mighty warrior, and is +said to have rebuilt the walls of Caer Ludd (London), his name +still surviving in "Ludgate Hill," where he was buried.<a id= +"footnotetag414" name="footnotetag414"></a><a href= +"#footnote414"><sup>414</sup></a> This legend doubtless points to +some ancient cult of Lludd at this spot.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id= +"page115"></a>{115}</span> +<p>Nudd already discussed under his title Nodons, is less prominent +than his son Gwyn, whose fight with Gwthur we have explained as a +mythic explanation of ritual combats for the increase of fertility. +He also appears as a hunter and as a great warrior,<a id= +"footnotetag415" name="footnotetag415"></a><a href= +"#footnote415"><sup>415</sup></a> "the hope of armies," and thus he +may be a god of fertility who became a god of war and the chase. +But legend associated him with Annwfn, and regarded him, like the +Tuatha Déa, as a king of fairyland.<a id="footnotetag416" +name="footnotetag416"></a><a href="#footnote416"><sup>416</sup></a> +In the legend of S. Collen, the saint tells two men, whom he +overhears speaking of Gwyn and the fairies, that these are demons. +"Thou shalt receive a reproof from Gwyn," said one of them, and +soon after Collen was summoned to meet the king of Annwfn on +Glastonbury Tor. He climbed the hill with a flask of holy water, +and saw on its top a splendid castle, with crowds of beautiful and +youthful folk, while the air resounded with music. He was brought +to Gwyn, who politely offered him food, but "I will not eat of the +leaves of the tree," cried the saint; and when he was asked to +admire the dresses of the crowd, all he would say was that the red +signified burning, the blue coldness. Then he threw the holy water +over them, and nothing was left but the bare hillside.<a id= +"footnotetag417" name="footnotetag417"></a><a href= +"#footnote417"><sup>417</sup></a> Though Gwyn's court on +Glastonbury is a local Celtic Elysium, which was actually located +there, the story marks the hostility of the Church to the cult of +Gwyn, perhaps practised on hilltops, and this is further seen in +the belief that he hunts souls of the wicked and is connected with +Annwfn in its later sense of hell. But a mediant view is found in +<i>Kulhwych</i>, where it is said of him that he restrains the +demons of hell lest they should destroy the people of this world. +In the <i>Triads</i> he is, like other gods, a great magician and +astrologer.<a id="footnotetag418" name= +"footnotetag418"></a><a href="#footnote418"><sup>418</sup></a></p> +<p>Another group, unknown to the <i>Mabinogion</i>, save that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id= +"page116"></a>{116}</span> Taliesin is one of the bearers of Bran's +head, is found in the <i>Book of Taliesin</i> and in the late story +of Taliesin. These, like the <i>Arthur</i> cycle, often refer to +personages of the <i>Mabinogion</i>; hence we gather that local +groups of gods, originally distinct, were later mingled in story, +the references in the poems reflecting this mingling. Late as is +the <i>Hanes Taliesin</i> or story of Taliesin, and expressed as +much of it is in a <i>Märchen</i> formula, it is based on old +myths about Cerridwen and Taliesin of which its compiler made use, +following an old tradition already stereotyped in one of the poems +in the <i>Märchen</i> formula of the Transformation +Combat.<a id="footnotetag419" name="footnotetag419"></a><a href= +"#footnote419"><sup>419</sup></a> But the mythical fragments are +also mingled with traditions regarding the sixth century poet +Taliesin. The older saga was perhaps developed in a district south +of the Dyfi estuary.<a id="footnotetag420" name= +"footnotetag420"></a><a href="#footnote420"><sup>420</sup></a> In +Lake Tegid dwell Tegid Voel, Cerridwen, and their +children—the fair maiden Creirwy, Morvran, and the ugly +Avagddu. To give Avagddu knowledge, his mother prepares a cauldron +of inspiration from which three drops of inspiration will be +produced. These fall on the finger of Gwion, whom she set to stir +it. He put the finger in his mouth, and thus acquired the +inspiration. He fled, and Cerridwen pursued, the rest of the story +being accommodated to the Transformation Combat formula. Finally, +Cerridwen as a hen swallows Gwion as a grain of wheat, and bears +him as a child, whom she throws into the sea. Elphin, who rescues +him, calls him Taliesin, and brings him up as a bard.<a id= +"footnotetag421" name="footnotetag421"></a><a href= +"#footnote421"><sup>421</sup></a></p> +<p>The water-world of Tegid is a submarine Elysium with the +customary cauldron of inspiration, regeneration, and fertility, +like the cauldron associated with a water-world in the +<i>Mabinogion</i>. "Shall not my chair be defended from the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id= +"page117"></a>{117}</span> cauldron of Cerridwen," runs a line in a +Taliesin poem, while another speaks of her chair, which was +probably in Elysium like that of Taliesin himself in Caer +Sidi.<a id="footnotetag422" name="footnotetag422"></a><a href= +"#footnote422"><sup>422</sup></a> Further references to her +connection with poetry show that she may have been worshipped by +bards, her cauldron being the source of their inspiration.<a id= +"footnotetag423" name="footnotetag423"></a><a href= +"#footnote423"><sup>423</sup></a> Her anger at Gwion may point to +some form of the Celtic myth of the theft of the elements of +culture from the gods' land. But the cauldron was first of all +associated with a fertility cult,<a id="footnotetag424" name= +"footnotetag424"></a><a href="#footnote424"><sup>424</sup></a> and +Cerridwen must therefore once have been a goddess of fertility, +who, like Brigit, was later worshipped by bards. She may also have +been a corn-goddess, since she is called a goddess of grain, and +tradition associates the pig—a common embodiment of the +corn-spirit—with her.<a id="footnotetag425" name= +"footnotetag425"></a><a href="#footnote425"><sup>425</sup></a> If +the tradition is correct, this would be an instance, like that of +Demeter and the pig, of an animal embodiment of the corn-spirit +being connected with a later anthropomorphic corn-goddess.</p> +<p>Taliesin was probably an old god of poetic inspiration confused +with the sixth century poet of the same name, perhaps because this +boastful poet identified himself or was identified by other bards +with the gods. He speaks of his "splendid chair, inspiration of +fluent and urgent song" in Caer Sidi or Elysium, and, speaking in +the god's name or identifying himself with him, describes his +presence with Llew, Bran, Gwydion, and others, as well as his +creation and his enchantment before he became immortal.<a id= +"footnotetag426" name="footnotetag426"></a><a href= +"#footnote426"><sup>426</sup></a> He was present with Arthur when a +cauldron was stolen from Aunwfn, and basing his verses on the +mythic transformations and rebirths of the gods, recounts in highly +inflated <span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id= +"page118"></a>{118}</span> language his own numerous forms and +rebirths.<a id="footnotetag427" name="footnotetag427"></a><a href= +"#footnote427"><sup>427</sup></a> His claims resemble those of the +<i>Shaman</i> who has the entree of the spirit-world and can +transform himself at will. Taliesin's rebirth is connected with his +acquiring of inspiration. These incidents appear separately in the +story of Fionn, who acquired his inspiration by an accident, and +was also said to have been reborn as Mongan. They are myths common +to various branches of the Celtic people, and applied in different +combinations to outstanding gods or heroes.<a id="footnotetag428" +name="footnotetag428"></a><a href="#footnote428"><sup>428</sup></a> +The <i>Taliesin</i> poems show that there may have been two gods or +two mythic aspects of one god, later combined together. He is the +son of the goddess and dwells in the divine land, but he is also a +culture-hero stealing from the divine land. Perhaps the myths +reflect the encroachment of the cult of a god on that of a goddess, +his worshippers regarding him as her son, her worshippers +reflecting their hostility to the new god in a myth of her enmity +to him. Finally, the legend of the rescue of Taliesin the poet from +the waves became a myth of the divine outcast child rescued by +Elphin, and proving himself a bard when normal infants are merely +babbling.</p> +<p>The occasional and obscure references to the other members of +this group throw little light on their functions, save that +Morvran, "sea-crow," is described in <i>Kulhwych</i> as so ugly and +terrible that no one would strike him at the battle of Camlan. He +may have been a war-god, like the scald-crow goddesses of Ireland, +and he is also spoken of in the <i>Triads</i> as an "obstructor of +slaughter" or "support of battle."<a id="footnotetag429" name= +"footnotetag429"></a><a href="#footnote429"><sup>429</sup></a></p> +<p>Ingenuity and speculation have busied themselves with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id= +"page119"></a>{119}</span> trying to prove that the personages of +the Arthurian cycle are the old gods of the Brythons, and the +incidents of the romances fragments of the old mythology. While +some of these personages—those already present in genuinely +old Welsh tales and poems or in Geoffrey's <i>History</i>—are +reminiscent of the old gods, the romantic presentment of them in +the cycle itself is so largely imaginative, that nothing certain +can be gained from it for the understanding of the old mythology, +much less the old religion. Incidents which are the common stock of +real life as well as of romance are interpreted mythologically, and +it is never quite obvious why the slaying of one hero by another +should signify the conquest of a dark divinity by a solar hero, or +why the capture of a heroine by one knight when she is beloved of +another, should make her a dawn-goddess sharing her favours, now +with the sun-god, now with a "dark" divinity. Or, even granting the +truth of this method, what light does it throw on Celtic +religion?</p> +<p>We may postulate a local Arthur saga fusing an old Brythonic god +with the historic sixth century Arthur. From this or from +Geoffrey's handling of it sprang the great romantic cycle. In the +ninth century Nennius Arthur is the historic war-chief, possibly +Count of Britain, but in the reference to his hunting the <i>Porcus +Troit</i> (the <i>Twrch Trwyth</i>) the mythic Arthur momentarily +appears.<a id="footnotetag430" name="footnotetag430"></a><a href= +"#footnote430"><sup>430</sup></a> Geoffrey's Arthur differs from +the later Arthur of romance, and he may have partially rationalised +the saga, which was either of recent formation or else local and +obscure, since there is no reference to Arthur in the +<i>Mabinogion</i>—a fact which shows that "in the legends of +Gwynedd and Dyfedd he had no place whatever,"<a id="footnotetag431" +name="footnotetag431"></a><a href="#footnote431"><sup>431</sup></a> +and also that Arthur the god or mythic hero was also purely local. +In Geoffrey Arthur is the fruit <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page120" id="page120"></a>{120}</span> of Igerna's <i>amour</i> +with Uther, to whom Merlin has given her husband's shape. Arthur +conquers many hosts as well as giants, and his court is the resort +of all valorous persons. But he is at last wounded by his wife's +seducer, and carried to the Isle of Avallon to be cured of his +wounds, and nothing more is ever heard of him.<a id= +"footnotetag432" name="footnotetag432"></a><a href= +"#footnote432"><sup>432</sup></a> Some of these incidents occur +also in the stories of Fionn and Mongan, and those of the +mysterious begetting of a wonder child and his final disappearance +into fairyland are local forms of a tale common to all branches of +the Celts.<a id="footnotetag433" name="footnotetag433"></a><a href= +"#footnote433"><sup>433</sup></a> This was fitted to the history of +the local god or hero Arthur, giving rise to the local saga, to +which was afterwards added events from the life of the historic +Arthur. This complex saga must then have acquired a wider fame long +before the romantic cycle took its place, as is suggested by the +purely Welsh tales of <i>Kulhwych</i> and the <i>Dream of +Rhonabwy</i>, in the former of which the personages (gods) of the +<i>Mabinogion</i> figure in Arthur's train, though he is far from +being the Arthur of the romances. Sporadic references to Arthur +occur also in Welsh literature, and to the earlier saga belongs the +Arthur who spoils Elysium of its cauldron in a <i>Taliesin</i> +poem.<a id="footnotetag434" name="footnotetag434"></a><a href= +"#footnote434"><sup>434</sup></a> In the <i>Triads</i> there is a +mingling of the historic, the saga, and the later romance Arthur, +but probably as a result of the growing popularity of the saga +Arthur he is added to many Triads as a more remarkable person than +the three whom they describe.<a id="footnotetag435" name= +"footnotetag435"></a><a href="#footnote435"><sup>435</sup></a> +Arthurian place-names over the Brythonic area are more probably the +result of the popularity of the saga than that of the later +romantic cycle, a parallel instance being found in the extent of +Ossianic place-names over the Goidelic area as a result of the +spread of the Fionn saga.</p> +<p>The character of the romance Arthur—the flower of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id= +"page121"></a>{121}</span> knighthood and a great warrior—and +the blending of the historic war-leader Arthur with the mythic +Arthur, suggest that the latter was the ideal hero of certain +Brythonic groups, as Fionn and Cúchulainn of certain +Goidelic groups. He may have been the object of a cult as these +heroes perhaps were, or he may have been a god more and more +idealised as a hero. If the earlier form of his name was Artor, "a +ploughman," but perhaps with a wider significance, and having an +equivalent in Artaius, a Gaulish god equated with Mercury,<a id= +"footnotetag436" name="footnotetag436"></a><a href= +"#footnote436"><sup>436</sup></a> he may have been a god of +agriculture who became a war-god. But he was also regarded as a +culture-hero, stealing a cauldron and also swine from the gods' +land, the last incident euhemerised into the tale of an +unsuccessful theft from March, son of Meirchion,<a id= +"footnotetag437" name="footnotetag437"></a><a href= +"#footnote437"><sup>437</sup></a> while, like other culture-heroes, +he is a bard. To his story was easily fitted that of the +wonder-child, who, having finally disappeared into Elysium (later +located at Glastonbury), would reappear one day, like Fionn, as the +Saviour of his people. The local Arthur finally attained a fame far +exceeding that of any Brythonic god or hero.</p> +<p>Merlin, or Myrddin, appears in the romances as a great magician +who is finally overcome by the Lady of the Lake, and is in Geoffrey +son of a mysterious invisible personage who visits a woman, and, +finally taking human shape, begets Merlin. As a son who never had a +father he is chosen as the foundation sacrifice for Vortigern's +tower by his magicians, but he confutes them and shows why the +tower can never be built, namely, because of the dragons in the +pool beneath it. Then follow his prophecies regarding the dragons +and the future of the country, and the story of his removal of the +Giant's Dance, or Stonehenge, from Ireland to its present +site—an ætiological myth explaining the origin of the +great <span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id= +"page122"></a>{122}</span> stone circle. His description of how the +giants used the water with which they washed the stones for the +cure of sickness or wounds, probably points to some ritual for +healing in connection with these megaliths. Finally, we hear of his +transformation of the lovelorn Uther and of his confidant Ulfin, as +well as of himself.<a id="footnotetag438" name= +"footnotetag438"></a><a href="#footnote438"><sup>438</sup></a> Here +he appears as little more than an ideal magician, possibly an old +god, like the Irish "god of Druidism," to whose legend had been +attached a story of supernatural conception. Professor Rh[^y]s +regards him as a Celtic Zeus or as the sun, because late legends +tell of his disappearance in a glass house into the sea. The glass +house is the expanse of light travelling with the sun (Merlin), +while the Lady of the Lake who comes daily to solace Merlin in his +enchanted prison is a dawn-goddess. Stonehenge was probably a +temple of this Celtic Zeus "whose late legendary self we have in +Merlin."<a id="footnotetag439" name="footnotetag439"></a><a href= +"#footnote439"><sup>439</sup></a> Such late romantic episodes and +an ætiological myth can hardly be regarded as affording safe +basis for these views, and their mythological interpretation is +more than doubtful. The sun is never prisoner of the dawn as Merlin +is of Viviane. Merlin and his glass house disappear for ever, but +the sun reappears every morning. Even the most poetic mythology +must conform in some degree to actual phenomena, but this cannot be +said of the systems of mythological interpretation. If Merlin +belongs to the pagan period at all, he was probably an ideal +magician or god of magicians, prominent, perhaps, in the Arthur +saga as in the later romances, and credited with a mysterious +origin and an equally mysterious ending, the latter described in +many different ways.</p> +<p>The boastful Kei of the romances appears already in <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>{123}</span> +<i>Kulhwych</i>, while in Geoffrey he is Arthur's seneschal.<a id= +"footnotetag440" name="footnotetag440"></a><a href= +"#footnote440"><sup>440</sup></a> Nobler traits are his in later +Welsh poetry; he is a mighty warrior, fighting even against a +hundred, though his powers as a toper are also great. Here, too, +his death is lamented.<a id="footnotetag441" name= +"footnotetag441"></a><a href="#footnote441"><sup>441</sup></a> He +may thus have been a god of war, and his battle-fury may be +poetically described in a curious passage referring to him in +<i>Kulhwych</i>: "His breath lasted nine days and nine nights under +water. He could remain without sleep for the same period. No +physician could heal a wound inflicted by his sword. When he +pleased he could make himself as tall as the tallest tree in the +wood. And when it rained hardest, whatever he carried remained dry +above and below his hand to the distance of a handbreadth, so great +was his natural heat. When it was coldest he was as glowing fuel to +his companions."<a id="footnotetag442" name= +"footnotetag442"></a><a href="#footnote442"><sup>442</sup></a> This +almost exactly resembles Cúchulainn's aspect in his +battle-fury. In a curious poem Gwenhyvar (Guinevere) extols his +prowess as a warrior above that of Arthur, and in <i>Kulhwych</i> +and elsewhere there is enmity between the two.<a id= +"footnotetag443" name="footnotetag443"></a><a href= +"#footnote443"><sup>443</sup></a> This may point to Kei's having +been a god of tribes hostile to those of whom Arthur was hero.</p> +<p>Mabon, one of Arthur's heroes in <i>Kulhwych</i> and the +<i>Dream of Rhonabwy</i>, whose name, from <i>mab</i> (<i>map</i>), +means "a youth," may be one with the god Maponos equated with +Apollo in Britain and Gaul, perhaps as a god of healing +springs.<a id="footnotetag444" name="footnotetag444"></a><a href= +"#footnote444"><sup>444</sup></a> His mother's name, Modron, is a +local form of <i>Matrona</i>, a river-goddess and probably one of +the mother-goddesses as her name implies. In the <i>Triads</i> +Mabon is one of the three eminent prisoners of Prydein. To obtain +his help in hunting the magic boar his prison must be found, and +this is done by <span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id= +"page124"></a>{124}</span> animals, in accordance with a +<i>Märchen</i> formula, while the words spoken by them show +the immense duration of his imprisonment—perhaps a hint of +his immortality.<a id="footnotetag445" name= +"footnotetag445"></a><a href="#footnote445"><sup>445</sup></a> But +he was also said to have died and been buried at Nantlle,<a id= +"footnotetag446" name="footnotetag446"></a><a href= +"#footnote446"><sup>446</sup></a> which, like Gloucester, the place +of his prison, may have been a site of his widely extended +cult.<a id="footnotetag447" name="footnotetag447"></a><a href= +"#footnote447"><sup>447</sup></a></p> +<hr /> +<p>Taken as a whole the various gods and heroes of the Brythons, so +far as they are known to us, just as they resemble the Irish +divinities in having been later regarded as mortals, magicians, and +fairies, so they resemble them in their functions, dimly as these +are perceived. They are associated with Elysium, they are lords of +fertility and growth, of the sea, of the arts of culture and of +war. The prominent position of certain goddesses may point to what +has already been discovered of them in Gaul and Ireland—their +pre-eminence and independence. But, like the divinities of Gaul and +Ireland, those of Wales were mainly local in character, and only in +a few cases attained a wider popularity and cult.</p> +<p>Certain British gods mentioned on inscriptions may be identified +with some of those just considered—Nodons with Nudd or Lludd, +Belenos with Belinus or Beli, Maponos with Mabon, Taranos (in +continental inscriptions only), with a Taran mentioned in +<i>Kulhwych</i>.<a id="footnotetag448" name= +"footnotetag448"></a><a href="#footnote448"><sup>448</sup></a> +Others are referred to in classical <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page125" id="page125"></a>{125}</span> writings—Andrasta, a +goddess of victory, to whom Boudicca prayed;<a id="footnotetag449" +name="footnotetag449"></a><a href="#footnote449"><sup>449</sup></a> +Sul, a goddess of hot springs, equated with Minerva at Bath.<a id= +"footnotetag450" name="footnotetag450"></a><a href= +"#footnote450"><sup>450</sup></a> Inscriptions also mention Epona, +the horse-goddess; Brigantia, perhaps a form of Brigit; Belisama +(the Mersey in Ptolemy),<a id="footnotetag451" name= +"footnotetag451"></a><a href="#footnote451"><sup>451</sup></a> a +goddess in Gaulish inscriptions. Others refer to the group +goddesses, the <i>Matres</i>. Some gods are equated with +Mars—Camulos, known also on the Continent and perhaps the +same as Cumal, father of Fionn; Belatucadros, "comely in +slaughter"; Cocidius, Corotiacus, Barrex, and Totatis (perhaps +Lucan's Teutates). Others are equated with Apollo in his character +as a god of healing—Anextiomarus, Grannos (at Musselburgh and +in many continental inscriptions), Arvalus, Mogons, etc. Most of +these and many others found on isolated inscriptions were probably +local in character, though some, occurring also on the Continent, +had attained a wider popularity.<a id="footnotetag452" name= +"footnotetag452"></a><a href="#footnote452"><sup>452</sup></a> But +some of the inscriptions referring to the latter may be due to +Gaulish soldiers quartered in Britain.</p> +<h3>COMPARATIVE TABLE OF DIVINITIES WITH SIMILAR NAMES IN IRELAND, +BRITAIN, AND GAUL.</h3> +<p><i>Italics denote names found in Inscriptions.</i></p> +<table summary="Divinity Names" align="center"> +<tr> +<td align="left">IRELAND.</td> +<td align="left">BRITAIN.</td> +<td align="left">GAUL.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Anextiomarus</i></td> +<td align="left"><i>Anextiomarus</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Anu</td> +<td align="left">Anna (?)</td> +<td align="left"><i>Anoniredi</i>, "chariot of Anu"</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Badb</td> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Bodua</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left">Beli, Belinus</td> +<td align="left"><i>Belenos</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left">Belisama</td> +<td align="left"><i>Belisama</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Brigit</td> +<td align="left"><i>Brigantia</i></td> +<td align="left"><i>Brigindu</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Bron</td> +<td align="left">Bran</td> +<td align="left">Brennus (?)</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Buanann</td> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Buanu</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Cumal</td> +<td align="left"><i>Camulos</i></td> +<td align="left"><i>Camulos</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Danu</td> +<td align="left">Dôn</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Epona</i></td> +<td align="left"><i>Epona</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Goibniu</td> +<td align="left">Govannon</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Grannos</i></td> +<td align="left"><i>Grannos</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Ler</td> +<td align="left">Llyr</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Lug</td> +<td align="left">Llew or Lleu (?)</td> +<td align="left">Lugus, <i>Lugores</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left">Mabon, <i>Maponos</i></td> +<td align="left"><i>Maponos</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Manannan</td> +<td align="left">Manawyddan</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Matres</i></td> +<td align="left"><i>Matres</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Mider</td> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Medros</i> (?)</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left">Modron</td> +<td align="left"><i>Matrona</i> (?)</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Nemon</td> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Nemetona</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Nét</td> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Neton</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Nuada</td> +<td align="left"><i>Nodons</i>, Nudd</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left">Hael, Llûdd (?)</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">Ogma</td> +<td></td> +<td align="left">Ogmíos</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Silvanus</i></td> +<td align="left"><i>Silvanus</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left">Taran</td> +<td align="left"><i>Taranis</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td align="left"><i>Totatis, Tutatis</i></td> +<td align="left">Teutates</td> +</tr> +</table> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote328" name= +"footnote328"></a><b>Footnote 328:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag328">(return)</a> +<p>The text of the <i>Mabinogion</i> has been edited by Rh[^y]s and +Evans, 1887, and it has been translated into English by Lady Guest, +and more critically, into French, by Loth. Many of the +<i>Triads</i> will be found in Loth's second volume. For the poetry +see Skene, <i>Four Ancient Books of Wales</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote329" name= +"footnote329"></a><b>Footnote 329:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag329">(return)</a> +<p>These incidents are found mainly in the story of Branwen, +<i>e.g.</i> those of the cauldron, a frequent accessory in Irish +tales; the regeneration of the warriors, also found in the story of +Mag-tured, though no cauldron is used; the red-hot house, occurring +also in <i>Mesca Ulad</i>; the description of Bran paralleled by +that of MacCecht.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote330" name= +"footnote330"></a><b>Footnote 330:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag330">(return)</a> +<p>Anwyl, <i>ZCP</i> i. 277, ii. 124, iii. 122.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote331" name= +"footnote331"></a><b>Footnote 331:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag331">(return)</a> +<p>Bp. of S. Davids, <i>Vestiges of the Gael in Gwynned</i>, 1851; +Rh[^y]s, <i>TSC</i> 1894-1895, 21.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote332" name= +"footnote332"></a><b>Footnote 332:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag332">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 45; Meyer, <i>TSC</i> 1895-1896, 55.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote333" name= +"footnote333"></a><b>Footnote 333:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag333">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. John, <i>The Mabinogion</i>, 1901, 19. Curoi appears as +Kubert, and Conchobar as Knychur in <i>Kulhwych</i> (Loth, i. 202). +A poem of <i>Taliesin</i> has for subject the death of Corroi, son +of Dayry (Curoi mac Daire), Skene, i. 254.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote334" name= +"footnote334"></a><b>Footnote 334:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag334">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, <i>RC</i> x. 356; John, <i>op. cit.</i> 19; Nutt, <i>Arch. +Rev.</i> i. 331.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote335" name= +"footnote335"></a><b>Footnote 335:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag335">(return)</a> +<p>The giant Ysppadden in <i>Kulhwych</i> resembles Balor, but has +no evil eye.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote336" name= +"footnote336"></a><b>Footnote 336:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag336">(return)</a> +<p>Anwyl, <i>ZCP</i> ii. 127-128, "The merging of the two legends +[of Dôn and Taliesin] may have arisen through the fusion of +Penllyn with Ardudwy and Arvon."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote337" name= +"footnote337"></a><b>Footnote 337:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag337">(return)</a> +<p>Professor Rh[^y]s thinks that the Llyr family may be pre-Celtic, +<i>TSC</i> 1894-1895, 29 f.; <i>CFL</i> 552.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote338" name= +"footnote338"></a><b>Footnote 338:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag338">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 97 f.; Lady Guest, iii. 143 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote339" name= +"footnote339"></a><b>Footnote 339:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag339">(return)</a> +<p>See Nutt, <i>Folk-lore Record</i>, v. 1 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote340" name= +"footnote340"></a><b>Footnote 340:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag340">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 298, ii. 243-244; Geoffrey, <i>Hist. Brit.</i> ii. +11.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote341" name= +"footnote341"></a><b>Footnote 341:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag341">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 224, 265, ii. 215, 244; Geoff. ii. 11.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote342" name= +"footnote342"></a><b>Footnote 342:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag342">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 81; Rh[^y]s, <i>Academy</i>, Jan. 7, 1882.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote343" name= +"footnote343"></a><b>Footnote 343:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag343">(return)</a> +<p><i>Triads</i>, Loth, ii. 293; Nutt, <i>Folk-lore Record</i>, v. +9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote344" name= +"footnote344"></a><b>Footnote 344:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag344">(return)</a> +<p><i>Hist. Brit.</i> ii. 11-14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote345" name= +"footnote345"></a><b>Footnote 345:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag345">(return)</a> +<p><i>AL</i> 131.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote346" name= +"footnote346"></a><b>Footnote 346:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag346">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 262.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote347" name= +"footnote347"></a><b>Footnote 347:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag347">(return)</a> +<p>See Nutt-Meyer, ii. 17.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote348" name= +"footnote348"></a><b>Footnote 348:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag348">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 276.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote349" name= +"footnote349"></a><b>Footnote 349:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag349">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 208, 280; see also i. 197, ii. 245, 294.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote350" name= +"footnote350"></a><b>Footnote 350:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag350">(return)</a> +<p>See Skene i. 355. The raven is rather the bird of prey come to +devour Urien than his "attribute."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote351" name= +"footnote351"></a><b>Footnote 351:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag351">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 298.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote352" name= +"footnote352"></a><b>Footnote 352:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag352">(return)</a> +<p>For these theories see Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 90<i>f</i>.; <i>AL</i> +ch. 11; <i>CFL</i> 552.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote353" name= +"footnote353"></a><b>Footnote 353:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag353">(return)</a> +<p>See Ch. <a href="#chap24">XXIV</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote354" name= +"footnote354"></a><b>Footnote 354:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag354">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page242">242</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote355" name= +"footnote355"></a><b>Footnote 355:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag355">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 65, ii. 285.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote356" name= +"footnote356"></a><b>Footnote 356:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag356">(return)</a> +<p><i>Hist. Brit.</i> iii. 1<i>f</i>. Geoffrey says that +Billingsgate was called after Belinus, and that his ashes were +preserved in the gate, a tradition recalling some connection of the +god with the gate.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote357" name= +"footnote357"></a><b>Footnote 357:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag357">(return)</a> +<p>An early Caradawc saga may have become mingled with the story of +Caractacus.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote358" name= +"footnote358"></a><b>Footnote 358:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag358">(return)</a> +<p>Rees, 77.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote359" name= +"footnote359"></a><b>Footnote 359:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag359">(return)</a> +<p>So Elton, 291.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote360" name= +"footnote360"></a><b>Footnote 360:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag360">(return)</a> +<p><i>Folk-lore Record</i>, v. 29.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote361" name= +"footnote361"></a><b>Footnote 361:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag361">(return)</a> +<p>Lady Guest, iii. 134.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote362" name= +"footnote362"></a><b>Footnote 362:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag362">(return)</a> +<p>Dôn is sometimes held to be male, but she is distinctly +called sister of Math (Loth, i. 134), and as the equivalent of Danu +she must be female.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote363" name= +"footnote363"></a><b>Footnote 363:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag363">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 209.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote364" name= +"footnote364"></a><b>Footnote 364:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag364">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page60">60</a>, <i>supra</i>, and Rh[^y]s, +<i>HL</i> 90<i>f</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote365" name= +"footnote365"></a><b>Footnote 365:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag365">(return)</a> +<p>Lady Guest, iii. 255; Skene, i. 297, 350.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote366" name= +"footnote366"></a><b>Footnote 366:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag366">(return)</a> +<p>For this <i>Mabinogi</i> see Loth, i. 117f.; Guest, iii. +189f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote367" name= +"footnote367"></a><b>Footnote 367:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag367">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 286.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote368" name= +"footnote368"></a><b>Footnote 368:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag368">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 229, 257; and for other references to Math, Skene, i. +281, 269, 299.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote369" name= +"footnote369"></a><b>Footnote 369:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag369">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 296, 281.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote370" name= +"footnote370"></a><b>Footnote 370:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag370">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 297; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 276.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote371" name= +"footnote371"></a><b>Footnote 371:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag371">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 264.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote372" name= +"footnote372"></a><b>Footnote 372:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag372">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 270. Skene, i. 430, 537, gives a different +meaning to <i>seon</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote373" name= +"footnote373"></a><b>Footnote 373:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag373">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 264.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote374" name= +"footnote374"></a><b>Footnote 374:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag374">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 296.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote375" name= +"footnote375"></a><b>Footnote 375:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag375">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 299, 531.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote376" name= +"footnote376"></a><b>Footnote 376:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag376">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page224">224</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote377" name= +"footnote377"></a><b>Footnote 377:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag377">(return)</a> +<p>Guest, iii. 255; Morris, <i>Celtic Remains</i>, 231.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote378" name= +"footnote378"></a><b>Footnote 378:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag378">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 283 <i>f</i>. See also Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> i. +131.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote379" name= +"footnote379"></a><b>Footnote 379:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag379">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 240.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote380" name= +"footnote380"></a><b>Footnote 380:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag380">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>US</i> 34.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote381" name= +"footnote381"></a><b>Footnote 381:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag381">(return)</a> +<p><i>Myvyrian Archæol.</i> i. 168; Skene, i. 275, 278 f.; +Loth, ii. 259.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote382" name= +"footnote382"></a><b>Footnote 382:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag382">(return)</a> +<p>See my <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, 127. Llew's vulnerability +does not depend on the discovery of his separable soul, as is +usual. The earliest form of this <i>Märchen</i> is the +Egyptian story of the Two Brothers, and that of Samson and Delilah +is another old form of it.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote383" name= +"footnote383"></a><b>Footnote 383:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag383">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 314, ii. 342.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote384" name= +"footnote384"></a><b>Footnote 384:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag384">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 408; <i>RC</i> x. 490.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote385" name= +"footnote385"></a><b>Footnote 385:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag385">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 237, 319, 398, 408.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote386" name= +"footnote386"></a><b>Footnote 386:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag386">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 384.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote387" name= +"footnote387"></a><b>Footnote 387:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag387">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 474, 424.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote388" name= +"footnote388"></a><b>Footnote 388:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag388">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 231.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote389" name= +"footnote389"></a><b>Footnote 389:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag389">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 240.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote390" name= +"footnote390"></a><b>Footnote 390:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag390">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i, 286-287.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote391" name= +"footnote391"></a><b>Footnote 391:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag391">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 263.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote392" name= +"footnote392"></a><b>Footnote 392:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag392">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, ii. 159; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 157; Guest, iii. 255.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote393" name= +"footnote393"></a><b>Footnote 393:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag393">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 161, 566.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote394" name= +"footnote394"></a><b>Footnote 394:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag394">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 282, 288, 310, 543, ii. 145; Loth, i. 135; Rh[^y]s, +<i>HL</i> 387.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote395" name= +"footnote395"></a><b>Footnote 395:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag395">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 27 f.; Guest, iii. 7 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote396" name= +"footnote396"></a><b>Footnote 396:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag396">(return)</a> +<p>Rhiannon is daughter of Heveidd Hen or "the Ancient," probably +an old divinity.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote397" name= +"footnote397"></a><b>Footnote 397:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag397">(return)</a> +<p>In the <i>Mabinogi</i> and in Fionn tales a mysterious hand +snatches away newly-born children. Cf. <i>ZCP</i> i. 153.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote398" name= +"footnote398"></a><b>Footnote 398:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag398">(return)</a> +<p>Anwyl, <i>ZCP</i> i. 288.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote399" name= +"footnote399"></a><b>Footnote 399:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag399">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 247.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote400" name= +"footnote400"></a><b>Footnote 400:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag400">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 264.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote401" name= +"footnote401"></a><b>Footnote 401:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag401">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> i. 276.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote402" name= +"footnote402"></a><b>Footnote 402:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag402">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> i. 310.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote403" name= +"footnote403"></a><b>Footnote 403:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag403">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 166.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote404" name= +"footnote404"></a><b>Footnote 404:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag404">(return)</a> +<p><i>Hist. Brit.</i> ii. 11, iii. 1, 20, iv. 3.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote405" name= +"footnote405"></a><b>Footnote 405:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag405">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. Anwyl, <i>ZCP</i> i. 287.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote406" name= +"footnote406"></a><b>Footnote 406:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag406">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 431; Loth, ii. 278. Some phrases seem to connect Beli +with the sea—the waves are his cattle, the brine his +liquor.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote407" name= +"footnote407"></a><b>Footnote 407:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag407">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 209, 249, 260, 283.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote408" name= +"footnote408"></a><b>Footnote 408:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag408">(return)</a> +<p>Geoffrey, <i>Brit. Hist.</i> iv. 3. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote409" name= +"footnote409"></a><b>Footnote 409:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag409">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 125 f.; Loth, i. 265; MacBain, <i>CM</i> ix. +66.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote410" name= +"footnote410"></a><b>Footnote 410:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag410">(return)</a> +<p>See Loth, i. 269; and Skene, i. 293.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote411" name= +"footnote411"></a><b>Footnote 411:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag411">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 173 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote412" name= +"footnote412"></a><b>Footnote 412:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag412">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 256, 274.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote413" name= +"footnote413"></a><b>Footnote 413:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag413">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 606. Cf. the Breton fairies, the <i>Korr</i> +and <i>Korrigan</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote414" name= +"footnote414"></a><b>Footnote 414:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag414">(return)</a> +<p>Geoffrey, iii. 20.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote415" name= +"footnote415"></a><b>Footnote 415:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag415">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 253-254; Skene, i. 293.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote416" name= +"footnote416"></a><b>Footnote 416:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag416">(return)</a> +<p>Guest, iii. 323.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote417" name= +"footnote417"></a><b>Footnote 417:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag417">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> 325.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote418" name= +"footnote418"></a><b>Footnote 418:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag418">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 253, ii. 297.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote419" name= +"footnote419"></a><b>Footnote 419:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag419">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page353">353</a>, <i>infra</i>.; Skene, i. +532.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote420" name= +"footnote420"></a><b>Footnote 420:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag420">(return)</a> +<p>Anwyl, <i>ZCP</i> i. 293.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote421" name= +"footnote421"></a><b>Footnote 421:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag421">(return)</a> +<p>Guest, iii. 356 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote422" name= +"footnote422"></a><b>Footnote 422:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag422">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 275, 296.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote423" name= +"footnote423"></a><b>Footnote 423:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag423">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> i. 498, 500.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote424" name= +"footnote424"></a><b>Footnote 424:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag424">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page382">382</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote425" name= +"footnote425"></a><b>Footnote 425:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag425">(return)</a> +<p><i>Mon. Hist. Brit.</i> i. 698, ii.; Thomas, <i>Revue de l'hist. +des Religions</i>, xxxviii. 339.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote426" name= +"footnote426"></a><b>Footnote 426:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag426">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 263, 274-276, 278, 281-282, 286-287. His "chair" +bestows immortal youth and freedom from sickness.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote427" name= +"footnote427"></a><b>Footnote 427:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag427">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 264, 376 f., 309, 532. See p. <a href= +"#page356">356</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote428" name= +"footnote428"></a><b>Footnote 428:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag428">(return)</a> +<p>See pp. <a href="#page350">350-1</a>, <i>infra</i>. Fionn and +Taliesin are examples of the <i>Märchen</i> formula of a hero +expelled and brought back to honour, Nutt-Meyer, ii. 88.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote429" name= +"footnote429"></a><b>Footnote 429:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag429">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 209, ii. 238; Skene, ii. 459.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote430" name= +"footnote430"></a><b>Footnote 430:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag430">(return)</a> +<p>Nennius, ch. 50, 79.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote431" name= +"footnote431"></a><b>Footnote 431:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag431">(return)</a> +<p>Anwyl, <i>ZCP</i> i. 293.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote432" name= +"footnote432"></a><b>Footnote 432:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag432">(return)</a> +<p>Geoffrey, viii. 9-xi. 3.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote433" name= +"footnote433"></a><b>Footnote 433:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag433">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, ii. 22 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote434" name= +"footnote434"></a><b>Footnote 434:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag434">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page381">381</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote435" name= +"footnote435"></a><b>Footnote 435:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag435">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, ii. 232, 245.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote436" name= +"footnote436"></a><b>Footnote 436:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag436">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>AL</i>, 39 f. Others derive the name from +<i>arto-s</i>, "bear." MacBain, 357.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote437" name= +"footnote437"></a><b>Footnote 437:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag437">(return)</a> +<p>Loth. ii. 247; Skene, ii. 459.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote438" name= +"footnote438"></a><b>Footnote 438:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag438">(return)</a> +<p>Geoffrey, vi. 17-19, vii. viii. 1, 10-12, 19. In a poem (Skene, +i. 478), Myrddin is called "the man who speaks from the +grave"—a conception familiar to the Celts, who thought of the +dead as living on in the grave. See p. <a href="#page340">340</a>, +<i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote439" name= +"footnote439"></a><b>Footnote 439:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag439">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i>, 154 f., 158-159, 194.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote440" name= +"footnote440"></a><b>Footnote 440:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag440">(return)</a> +<p>Geoffrey, ix. 12, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote441" name= +"footnote441"></a><b>Footnote 441:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag441">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, ii. 51.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote442" name= +"footnote442"></a><b>Footnote 442:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag442">(return)</a> +<p>Loth. i. 225; cf. p. <a href="#page131">131</a>, <i>infra</i>. +From this description Elton supposes Kei to have been a god of +fire.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote443" name= +"footnote443"></a><b>Footnote 443:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag443">(return)</a> +<p><i>Myv. Arch.</i> i. 175; Loth, i. 269. Rh[^y]s, <i>AL</i> 59, +thinks Merlin may have been Guinevere's ravisher.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote444" name= +"footnote444"></a><b>Footnote 444:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag444">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, i. 414.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote445" name= +"footnote445"></a><b>Footnote 445:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag445">(return)</a> +<p>Loth i. 250, 260 f., 280, ii. 215, 244.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote446" name= +"footnote446"></a><b>Footnote 446:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag446">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 363, ii. 406; <i>Myv. Arch.</i> i. 78.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote447" name= +"footnote447"></a><b>Footnote 447:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag447">(return)</a> +<p>Hu Gadarn is mentioned in the <i>Triads</i> as a leader of the +Cymry from the east and their teacher in ploughing. He divided them +into clans, and invented music and song. The monster <i>avanc</i> +was drawn by him from the lake which had burst and caused the flood +(see p. <a href="#page231">231</a>, <i>infra</i>). Perhaps Hu is an +old culture-god of some tribes, but the <i>Triads</i> referring to +him are of late date (Loth, ii. 271, 289, 290-291, 298-299). For +the ridiculous Neo-Druidic speculations based on Hu, see Davies, +<i>Celtic Researches</i> and <i>Mythology and Rites of the +Druids</i>.</p> +<p>Gurgiunt, son of Belinus, in Geoffrey, iii. 11, may be the +French legendary Gargantua, perhaps an old god. See the works of +Sébillot and Gaidoz on <i>Gargantua</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote448" name= +"footnote448"></a><b>Footnote 448:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag448">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 270.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote449" name= +"footnote449"></a><b>Footnote 449:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag449">(return)</a> +<p>Dio Cassius, lxii. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote450" name= +"footnote450"></a><b>Footnote 450:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag450">(return)</a> +<p>Solinus, xxii. 10. See p. <a href="#page2">2</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote451" name= +"footnote451"></a><b>Footnote 451:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag451">(return)</a> +<p>Ptol. ii. 3. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote452" name= +"footnote452"></a><b>Footnote 452:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag452">(return)</a> +<p>For all these see Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id= +"page127"></a>{127}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap7" id="chap7">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2> +<h3>THE CÚCHULAINN CYCLE.</h3> +<p>The events of the Cúchulainn cycle are supposed to date +from the beginning of the Christian era—King Conchobar's +death synchronising with the crucifixion. But though some +personages who are mentioned in the Annals figure in the tales, on +the whole they deal with persons who never existed. They belong to +a world of romance and myth, and embody the ideals of Celtic +paganism, modified by Christian influences and those of classical +tales and romantic sagas of other regions, mainly Scandinavian. The +present form of the tales as they exist in the <i>Book of the Dun +Cow</i> and the <i>Book of Leinster</i> must have been given them +in the seventh or eighth century, but they embody materials of a +far older date. At an early time the saga may have had a more or +less definite form, but new tales were being constantly added to +it, and some of the longer tales are composed of incidents which +once had no connection with each other.</p> +<p>Cúchulainn is the central figure of the cycle, and its +central episode is that of the <i>Táin bó +Cuailgne</i>, or "Cattle Spoil of Cooley." Other personages are +Conchobar and Dechtire, Ailill and Medb, Fergus, Conall Cernach, +Cúroi, Deirdre, and the sons of Usnach. Some of these are of +divine descent, some are perhaps euhemerised divinities; Conchobar +is called <i>día talmaide</i>, "a terrestrial god," and +Dechtire a goddess. The cycle opens with the birth of <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>{128}</span> +Conchobar, son of Cathbad and of Nessa, daughter of one of the +Tuatha Dé Danann, though in an older rescension of the tale +he is Nessa's son by the god Lug. During Conchobar's reign over +Ulster Cúchulainn was born. He was son of Dechtire, either +by Sualtaim, or by her brother Conchobar, or by the god Lug, of +whom he may also be a reincarnation.<a id="footnotetag453" name= +"footnotetag453"></a><a href="#footnote453"><sup>453</sup></a> Like +other heroes of saga, he possesses great strength and skill at a +tender age, and, setting out for Conchobar's court, overpowers the +king's "boy corps," and then becomes their chief. His next +adventure is the slaying of the watch-dog of Culann the smith, and +his appeasing the anger of its owner by offering to act as his +watch-dog. Cathbad now announced that his name would henceforth be +Cú Chulainn, "Culann's hound."<a id="footnotetag454" name= +"footnotetag454"></a><a href="#footnote454"><sup>454</sup></a> At +the mature age of seven he obtained Conchobar's spears, sword, +shield, and chariot, and with these he overcame three mighty +champions, returning in the distortion of his "battle-fury" to +Emania. To prevent mischief from his rage, the women went forth +naked to meet him. He modestly covered his eyes, for it was one of +his <i>geasa</i> not to look on a woman's breast. Thus taken +unawares, he was plunged into three successive vats of cold water +until his natural appearance was restored to him, although the +water boiled and hissed from his heat.<a id="footnotetag455" name= +"footnotetag455"></a><a href="#footnote455"><sup>455</sup></a></p> +<p>As Cúchulainn grew up, his strength, skill, wisdom, and +beauty were unsurpassed. All women fell in love with him, and to +forestall a series of <i>bonnes fortunes</i>, the men of Ulster +sought a wife for him. But the hero's heart was set on Emer, +daughter of Forgall, whom he wooed in a strange language which none +but she could understand. At last she consented to be his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id= +"page129"></a>{129}</span> wife if he would slay a number of +warriors. Forgall was opposed to the match, and with a view to +Cúchulainn's destruction suggested that he should go to +Donall in Alba to increase his skill, and to Scathach if he would +excel all other warriors. He agreed, provided that Forgall would +give him whatever he asked for on his return. Arrived in Alba, he +refused the love of Donall's daughter, Dornolla, who swore to be +avenged. Thence he went to Scathach, overcoming all the dangers of +the way, leaping in safety the gulf surrounding her island, after +essaying in vain to cross a narrow, swinging bridge. From Scathach +he learned supreme skill in arms, and overcame her Amazonian rival +Aife. He begat a son by Aife, and instructed her to call him Conla, +to give him his father's ring, to send him to seek +Cúchulainn, and to forbid him to reveal his name. In the +sequel, Cúchulainn, unaware that Conla was his son, slew him +in single combat, too late discovering his identity from the ring +which he wore. This is the well-known saga formula of Sohrab and +Rustum, of Theseus and Hippolytus. On his return from Scathach's +isle Cúchulainn destroyed Forgall's <i>rath</i> with many of +its inmates, including Forgall, and carried off Emer. To the ten +years which followed, during which he was the great champion of +Ulster, belong many tales in which he figures prominently. One of +these is <i>The Debility of the Ultonians</i>. This was caused by +Macha, who, during her pregnancy, was forced to run a race with +Conchobar's horses. She outran them, but gave birth immediately to +twins, and, in her pangs, cursed the men of Ulster, with a curse +that, in time of oppression, they would be overcome with the +weakness of childbirth. From this Cúchulainn was exempt, for +he was not of Ulster, but a son of Lug.<a id="footnotetag456" name= +"footnotetag456"></a><a href="#footnote456"><sup>456</sup></a> +Various attempts have been <span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" +id="page130"></a>{130}</span> made to explain this "debility." It +may be a myth explaining a Celtic use of the "couvade," though no +example of a simultaneous tribal couvade is known, unless we have +here an instance of Westermarck's "human pairing season in +primitive times," with its consequent simultaneous birth-period for +women and couvade for men.<a id="footnotetag457" name= +"footnotetag457"></a><a href="#footnote457"><sup>457</sup></a> +Others, with less likelihood, explain it as a period of tabu, with +cessation from work and warfare, at a funeral or festival.<a id= +"footnotetag458" name="footnotetag458"></a><a href= +"#footnote458"><sup>458</sup></a> In any case Macha's curse is a +myth explanatory of the origin of some existing custom, the +duration of which is much exaggerated by the narrator. To this +period belong also the tale of Cúchulainn's visit to +Elysium, and others to be referred to later. Another story +describes his attack upon Morrigan because she would neither yield +up the cows which she was driving away nor tell her true +name—an instance of the well-known name tabu. Morrigan took +the form of a bird, and was then recognised by Cúchulainn, +who poured scorn upon her, while she promised to oppose him during +the fight of the <i>Táin</i> in the forms of an eel, a wolf, +and a cow, all of which he vowed to destroy.<a id="footnotetag459" +name="footnotetag459"></a><a href="#footnote459"><sup>459</sup></a> +Like many others in the saga, this story is introductory to the +main episode of the <i>Táin</i>. To this we now turn.</p> +<p>Medb had been wife of Conchobar, but, leaving him, had married +in succession two chiefs called Ailill, the second of whom had a +bull, Findbennach, the White-horned, which she resolved to match by +one in every way its equal. Having been refused the Brown Bull of +Cuailgne, she summoned all her forces to invade Ulster. The moment +was inauspicious for Ulster, for all its men were suffering from +their "debility." Cúchulainn, therefore, went out to +encounter the host, and forced Medb to agree that a succession of +her warriors should <span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id= +"page131"></a>{131}</span> engage him in single combat. Among these +was his old friend Ferdia, and nothing is so touching as his +reluctance to fight him or so pathetic as his grief when Ferdia +falls. The reluctance is primarily due to the tie of +blood-brotherhood existing between them. Finally, the Ulstermen +rose in force and defeated Medb, but not before she had already +captured the bull and sent it into her own land. There it was +fought by the Findbennach and slew it, rushing back to Ulster with +the mangled body on its horns. But in its frenzy a rock seemed to +be another bull, which it charged; its brains were dashed out, and +it fell dead.</p> +<p>The Morrigan had warned the bull of the approach of Medb's army, +and she had also appeared in the form of a beautiful woman to +Cúchulainn offering him her love, only to be repulsed. Hence +she turned against him, and described how she would oppose him as +an eel, a wolf, and a red heifer—an incident which is +probably a variant of that already described.<a id="footnotetag460" +name="footnotetag460"></a><a href="#footnote460"><sup>460</sup></a> +In each of these shapes she was conquered and wounded by the hero, +and knowing that none whom he hurt could be healed save by himself, +she appeared to him as an old crone milking a cow. At each draught +of the milk which he received from her he blessed her with "the +blessing of gods and not-gods," and so her wounds were +healed.<a id="footnotetag461" name="footnotetag461"></a><a href= +"#footnote461"><sup>461</sup></a> For this, at a later time, she +tried to ward off his death, but unsuccessfully. During the +progress of the <i>Táin</i>, one of Cúchulainn's +"fairy kinsmen," namely, Lug, who announced himself as his father, +appeared to aid him, while others of the Tuatha Déa threw +"herbs of healing" into the streams in which his wounds were +washed.<a id="footnotetag462" name="footnotetag462"></a><a href= +"#footnote462"><sup>462</sup></a></p> +<p>During the <i>Táin</i>, Cúchulainn slaughtered the +wizard Calatin and his daughters. But Calatin's wife bore three +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id= +"page132"></a>{132}</span> posthumous sons and three daughters, and +through their means the hero was at last slain. Everything was done +to keep him back from the host which now advanced against Ulster, +but finally one of Calatin's daughters took the form of Niamh and +bade him go forth. As he passed to the fight, Calatin's daughters +persuaded him to eat the flesh of a dog—a fatal deed, for it +was one of his <i>geasa</i> never to eat dog's flesh. So it was +that in the fight he was slain by Lugaid,<a id="footnotetag463" +name="footnotetag463"></a><a href="#footnote463"><sup>463</sup></a> +and his soul appeared to the thrice fifty queens who had loved him, +chanting a mystic song of the coming of Christ and the day of +doom—an interesting example of a phantasm coincidental with +death.<a id="footnotetag464" name="footnotetag464"></a><a href= +"#footnote464"><sup>464</sup></a> This and other Christian touches +show that the Christian redactors of the saga felt tenderly towards +the old pagan hero. This is even more marked in the story in which +he appears to King Loegaire and S. Patrick, begging the former to +believe in God and the saint, and praying Patrick to "bring me with +thy faithful ones unto the land of the living."<a id= +"footnotetag465" name="footnotetag465"></a><a href= +"#footnote465"><sup>465</sup></a> A similar Christianising appears +in the story of Conchobar's death, the result of his mad frenzy on +hearing from his Druid that an earthquake is the result of the +shameful crucifixion of Christ.<a id="footnotetag466" name= +"footnotetag466"></a><a href="#footnote466"><sup>466</sup></a></p> +<p>In the saga, Cúchulainn appears as the ideal Celtic +warrior, but, like other ideal warriors, he is a "magnified, +non-natural man," many of his deeds being merely exaggerations of +those common among barbaric folk. Even his "distortion" or battle +frenzy is but a magnifying of the wild frenzy of all wild fighters. +To the person of this ideal warrior, some of whose traits may have +been derived from traditional stories of actual heroes, +<i>Märchen</i> and saga episodes attached themselves. Of every +ideal hero, Celtic, Greek, Babylonian, or <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>{133}</span> +Polynesian, certain things are told—his phenomenal strength +as a child; his victory over enormous forces; his visits to the +Other-world; his amours with a goddess; his divine descent. These +belong to the common stock of folk-tale episodes, and accumulate +round every great name. Hence, save in the colouring given to them +or the use made of them by any race, they do not afford a key to +the mythic character of the hero. Such deeds are ascribed to +Cúchulainn, as they doubtless were to the ideal heroes of +the "undivided Aryans," but though parallels may be found between +him and the Greek Heracles, they might just as easily be found in +non-Aryan regions, <i>e.g.</i> in Polynesia. Thus the parallels +between Cúchulainn and Heracles throw little light on the +personality of the former, though here and there in such parallels +we observe a peculiarly Celtic touch. Thus, while the Greek hero +rescues Hesione from a dragon, it is from three Fomorians that +Cúchulainn rescues Devorgilla, namely, from beings to whom +actual human sacrifice was paid. Thus a <i>Märchen</i> formula +of world-wide existence has been moulded by Celtic religious belief +and ritual practice.<a id="footnotetag467" name= +"footnotetag467"></a><a href="#footnote467"><sup>467</sup></a></p> +<p>It was inevitable that the "mythological school" should regard +Cúchulainn as a solar hero. Thus "he reaches his full +development at an unusually early age," as the sun does,<a id= +"footnotetag468" name="footnotetag468"></a><a href= +"#footnote468"><sup>468</sup></a> but also as do many other heroes +of saga and <i>Märchen</i> who are not solar. The three +colours of Cúchulainn's hair, dark near the skin, red in the +middle, golden near the top, are claimed to be a description of the +sun's rays, or of the three parts into which the Celts divided the +day.<a id="footnotetag469" name="footnotetag469"></a><a href= +"#footnote469"><sup>469</sup></a> Elsewhere his tresses are yellow, +like Prince Charlie's in fact and in song, yet he was not a solar +hero. Again, the seven pupils of his eyes perhaps <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>{134}</span> "referred +to the days of the week."<a id="footnotetag470" name= +"footnotetag470"></a><a href="#footnote470"><sup>470</sup></a> +Blindness befell all women who loved him, a reference to the +difficulty of gazing at the sun.<a id="footnotetag471" name= +"footnotetag471"></a><a href="#footnote471"><sup>471</sup></a> This +is prosaic! The blindness was a compliment paid to +Cúchulainn the blind, by women who made themselves blind +while talking to him, just as Conall Cernach's mistresses squinted +as he did.<a id="footnotetag472" name="footnotetag472"></a><a href= +"#footnote472"><sup>472</sup></a> Cúchulainn's blindness +arose from his habit of sinking one eye into his head and +protruding the other—a well-known solar trait! His +"distortion," during which, besides this "blindness," blood shot +upwards from his head and formed a magic mist, and his anger caused +showers of sparks to mount above him, points to dawn or +sunset,<a id="footnotetag473" name="footnotetag473"></a><a href= +"#footnote473"><sup>473</sup></a> though the setting sun would +rather suggest a hero sinking calmly to rest than a mad giant +setting out to slaughter friend and foe. The "distortion," as +already pointed out, is the exaggerated description of the mad +warrior rage, just as the fear which produced death to those who +saw him brandish his weapons, was also produced by Maori warrior +methods.<a id="footnotetag474" name="footnotetag474"></a><a href= +"#footnote474"><sup>474</sup></a> Lug, who may be a sun-god, has no +such "distortion." The cooling of the hero in three vats, the +waters of which boil over, and his emergence from them pinky red in +colour, symbolise the sun sinking into the waters and reappearing +at dawn.<a id="footnotetag475" name="footnotetag475"></a><a href= +"#footnote475"><sup>475</sup></a> Might it not describe in an +exaggerated way the refreshing bath taken by frenzied warriors, the +water being supposed to grow warm from the heat of their +bodies?<a id="footnotetag476" name="footnotetag476"></a><a href= +"#footnote476"><sup>476</sup></a> One of the hero's <i>geasa</i> +was not to see Manannan's horses, the waves; which, being +interpreted, means that the sun is near its death as it approaches +the sea. Yet Lug, a sun-god, rides <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page135" id="page135"></a>{135}</span> the steed Enbarr, a +personification of the waves, while Cúchulainn himself often +crossed the sea, and also lived with the sea-god's wife, Fand, +without coming to grief. Again, the magic horses which he drives, +black and grey in colour, are "symbols of day and night,"<a id= +"footnotetag477" name="footnotetag477"></a><a href= +"#footnote477"><sup>477</sup></a> though it is not obvious why a +grey horse should symbolise day, which is not always grey even in +the isles of the west. Unlike a solar hero, too, Cúchulainn +is most active in winter, and rests for a brief space from +slaughtering at midday—the time of the sun's greatest +activity both in summer and winter.</p> +<p>Another theory is that every visit of the hero to a strange land +signifies a descent to Hades, suggested by the sun sinking in the +west. Scathach's island may be Hades, but it is more probably +Elysium with some traits borrowed from the Christian idea of hell. +But Emer's land, also visited by Cúchulainn, suggests +neither Hades nor Elysium. Emer calls herself <i>ingen rig richis +garta</i>, translated by Professor Rh[^y]s as "daughter of the +coal-faced king," <i>i.e.</i> she is daughter of darkness. Hence +she is a dawn-maiden and becomes the sun-hero's wife.<a id= +"footnotetag478" name="footnotetag478"></a><a href= +"#footnote478"><sup>478</sup></a> There is nothing in the story to +corroborate this theory, apart from the fact that it is not clear, +even to the hypothetical primitive mind, why dawn and sun should be +a divine pair. Emer's words probably mean that she is "daughter of +a king" and "a flame of hospitality" (<i>richis garta</i>.)<a id= +"footnotetag479" name="footnotetag479"></a><a href= +"#footnote479"><sup>479</sup></a> Cúchulainn, in visiting +her, went from west to east, contrary to the apparent course of the +sun. The extravagance of the solar theory is further seen in the +hypothesis that because Cúchulainn has other wives, the +sun-god made love to as many dawn-maidens as there are days in the +year,<a id="footnotetag480" name="footnotetag480"></a><a href= +"#footnote480"><sup>480</sup></a> like <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>{136}</span> the king +in Louys' romance with his 366 wives, one for each day of the year, +leap-year included.</p> +<p>Further examples of the solar theory need not be cited. It is +enough to see in Cúchulainn the ideal warrior, whose traits +are bombastic and obscure exaggerations of actual custom and +warfare, or are borrowed from folk-tale <i>motifs</i> not +exclusively Celtic. Possibly he may have been a war-god, since he +is associated with Badb<a id="footnotetag481" name= +"footnotetag481"></a><a href="#footnote481"><sup>481</sup></a> and +also with Morrigan. But he has also some traits of a culture hero. +He claims superiority in wisdom, in law, in politics, in the art of +the <i>Filid</i>, and in Druidism, while he brings various things +from the world of the gods<a id="footnotetag482" name= +"footnotetag482"></a><a href="#footnote482"><sup>482</sup></a>. In +any case the Celts paid divine honours to heroes, living or +dead,<a id="footnotetag483" name="footnotetag483"></a><a href= +"#footnote483"><sup>483</sup></a> and Cúchulainn, god or +ideal hero, may have been the subject of a cult. This lends point +to the theory of M. D'Arbois that Cúchulainn and Conall +Cernach are the equivalents of Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, +said by Diodorus to be worshipped among the Celts near the +Ocean.<a id="footnotetag484" name="footnotetag484"></a><a href= +"#footnote484"><sup>484</sup></a> Cúchulainn, like Pollux, +was son of a god, and was nursed, according to some accounts, by +Findchoém, mother of Conall,<a id="footnotetag485" name= +"footnotetag485"></a><a href="#footnote485"><sup>485</sup></a> just +as Leda was mother of Castor as well as of Pollux. But, on the +other hand, Cúchulainn, unlike Pollux, was mortal. M. +D'Arbois then identifies the two pairs of heroes with certain +figures on an altar at Cluny. These are Castor and Pollux; +Cernunnos and Smertullos. He equates Castor with Cernunnos, and +Pollux with Smertullos. Smertullos is Cúchulainn, and the +name is explained from an incident in the <i>Táin</i>, in +which the hero, reproached for his youth, puts on a false beard +before attacking Morrigan in her form as an eel. This is expressed +by <i>smérthain</i>, "to attach", and is thus connected with +and gave rise to the name Smertullos. On the altar Smertullos is +attacking an eel or serpent. Hence Pollux is <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>{137}</span> +Smertullos-Cúchulainn.<a id="footnotetag486" name= +"footnotetag486"></a><a href="#footnote486"><sup>486</sup></a> +Again, the name Cernunnos signifies "the horned one," from +<i>cernu</i>, "horn," a word found in Conall's epithet Cernach. But +this was not given him because he was horned, but because of the +angular shape of his head, the angle (<i>cern</i>) being the result +of a blow.<a id="footnotetag487" name="footnotetag487"></a><a href= +"#footnote487"><sup>487</sup></a> The epithet may mean +"victorious."<a id="footnotetag488" name= +"footnotetag488"></a><a href="#footnote488"><sup>488</sup></a> On +the whole, the theory is more ingenious than convincing, and we +have no proof that the figures of Castor and Pollux on the altar +were duplicates of the Celtic pair. Cernunnos was an underworld +god, and Conall has no trace of such a character.</p> +<p>M. D'Arbois also traces the saga in Gaul in the fact that on the +menhir of Kervadel Mercury is figured with a child, Mercury, in his +opinion, being Lug, and the child Cúchulainn.<a id= +"footnotetag489" name="footnotetag489"></a><a href= +"#footnote489"><sup>489</sup></a> On another altar are depicted (1) +a woodman, Esus, cutting down a tree, and (2) a bull on which are +perched three birds—Tarvos Trigaranos. The two subjects, as +M. Reinach points out, are combined on another altar at +Trèves, on which a woodman is cutting down a tree in which +are perched three birds, while a bull's head appears in the +branches.<a id="footnotetag490" name="footnotetag490"></a><a href= +"#footnote490"><sup>490</sup></a> These represent, according to M. +D'Arbois, incidents of the <i>Táin</i>—the cutting +down of trees by Cúchulainn and placing them in the way of +his enemies, and the warning of the bull by Morrigan in the bird +form which she shared with her sisters Badb and Macha.<a id= +"footnotetag491" name="footnotetag491"></a><a href= +"#footnote491"><sup>491</sup></a> Why, then, is Cúchulainn +called Esus? "Esus" comes from a root which gives words meaning +"rapid motion," "anger," "strength"—all shown by the +hero.<a id="footnotetag492" name="footnotetag492"></a><a href= +"#footnote492"><sup>492</sup></a> The altars were found in the land +of the Belgic Treveri, and some Belgic tribes may have passed into +Britain and Ireland carrying the Esus-Cúchulainn legend +there in the second century <span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" +id="page138"></a>{138}</span> B.C., <i>e.g.</i> the Setantii, +dwelling by the Mersey, and bearing a name similar to that of the +hero in his childhood—Setanta (<i>Setantios</i>) as well as +the Menapii and Brigantes, located in Ireland by Ptolemy.<a id= +"footnotetag493" name="footnotetag493"></a><a href= +"#footnote493"><sup>493</sup></a> In other words, the divine Esus, +with his surname Smertullos, was called in Ireland Setanta, after +the Setantii, and at a later date, Cúchulainn. The princely +name Donnotaurus resembles <i>Dond tarb</i>, the "Brown Bull" of +the saga, and also suggests its presence in Gaul, while the name +[Greek: dêiotaros], perhaps the equivalent of +<i>De[^u]io-taruos</i>, "Divine Bull," is found in Galatia.<a id= +"footnotetag494" name="footnotetag494"></a><a href= +"#footnote494"><sup>494</sup></a> Thus the main elements of the +saga may have been known to the continental Celts before it was +localised in Ireland,<a id="footnotetag495" name= +"footnotetag495"></a><a href="#footnote495"><sup>495</sup></a> and, +it may be added, if it was brought there by Gallo-British tribes, +this might account for the greater popularity of the native, +possibly pre-Celtic, Fionn saga among the folk, as well as for the +finer literary quality of the Cúchulainn saga. But the +identification of Esus with Cúchulainn rests on slight +grounds; the names Esus and Smertullos are not found in Ireland, +and the Gaulish Esus, worshipped with human sacrifice, has little +affinity with the hero, unless his deeds of slaughter are +reminiscent of such rites. It is possible, however, that the +episode of the <i>Táin</i> came from a myth explaining +ritual acts. This myth may have been the subject of the +bas-reliefs, carried to Ireland, and there worked into the +saga.</p> +<p>The folk-versions of the saga, though resembling the literary +versions, are less elaborate and generally wilder, and perhaps +represent its primitive form.<a id="footnotetag496" name= +"footnotetag496"></a><a href="#footnote496"><sup>496</sup></a> The +greatest differences are found in versions of the +<i>Táin</i> and of Cúchulainn's death, <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>{139}</span> which, +separate in the saga, are parts of one folk-tale, the death +occurring during the fighting over the bull. The bull is his +property, and Medb sends Garbh mac Stairn to take it from him. He +pretends to be a child, goes to bed, and tricks Garbh, who goes off +to get the bull. Cúchulainn arrives before him and +personates the herdsman. Each seizes a horn, and the bull is torn +in two.<a id="footnotetag497" name="footnotetag497"></a><a href= +"#footnote497"><sup>497</sup></a> Does this represent the primitive +form of the <i>Táin</i>, and, further, were the bull and +Cúchulainn once one and the same—a bull, the +incarnation of a god or vegetation spirit, being later made +anthropomorphic—a hero-god whose property or symbol was a +bull? Instances of this process are not unknown among the +Celts.<a id="footnotetag498" name="footnotetag498"></a><a href= +"#footnote498"><sup>498</sup></a> In India, Indra was a bull and a +divine youth, in Greece there was the bull-Dionysos, and among the +Celts the name of the divine bull was borne by kings.<a id= +"footnotetag499" name="footnotetag499"></a><a href= +"#footnote499"><sup>499</sup></a> In the saga Morrigan is friendly +to the bull, but fights for Medb; but she is now friendly, now +hostile to Cúchulainn, finally, however, trying to avert his +doom. If he had once been the bull, her friendliness would not be +quite forgotten, once he became human and separate from the bull. +When she first met Cúchulainn she had a cow on whom the +Brown Bull was to beget a calf, and she told the hero that "So long +as the calf which is in this cow's body is a yearling, it is up to +that time that thou art in life; and it is this that will lead to +the <i>Táin</i>."<a id="footnotetag500" name= +"footnotetag500"></a><a href="#footnote500"><sup>500</sup></a> This +suggests that the hero was to die in the battle, but it shows that +the Brown Bull's calf is bound up his life. The Bull was a +reincarnation of a divine swineherd, <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page140" id="page140"></a>{140}</span> and if, as in the case of +Cúchulainn, "his rebirth could only be of himself,"<a id= +"footnotetag501" name="footnotetag501"></a><a href= +"#footnote501"><sup>501</sup></a> the calf was simply a duplicate +of the bull, and, as it was bound up with the hero's life, bull and +hero may well have been one. The life or soul was in the calf, and, +as in all such cases, the owner of the soul and that in which it is +hidden are practically identical. Cúchulainn's "distortion" +might then be explained as representing the bull's fury in fight, +and the folk-tales would be popular forms of an old myth explaining +ritual in which a bull, the incarnation of a tree or vegetation +spirit, was slain, and the sacred tree cut down and consumed, as in +Celtic agricultural ritual. This would be the myth represented on +the bas-reliefs, and in the ritual the bull would be slain, rent, +and eaten by his worshippers. Why, then, should Cúchulainn +rend the bull? In the later stages of such rites the animal was +slain, not so much as a divine incarnation as a sacrifice to the +god once incarnated in him. And when a god was thus separated from +his animal form, myths often arose telling how he himself had slain +the animal.<a id="footnotetag502" name= +"footnotetag502"></a><a href="#footnote502"><sup>502</sup></a> In +the case of Cúchulainn and the bull, the god represented by +the bull became separate from it, became anthropomorphic, and in +that form was associated with or actually was the hero +Cúchulainn. Bull sacrifices were common among the Celts with +whom the bull had been a divine animal.<a id="footnotetag503" name= +"footnotetag503"></a><a href="#footnote503"><sup>503</sup></a> +Possibly a further echo of this myth and ritual is to be found in +the folk-belief that S. Martin was cut up and eaten in the form of +an ox—the god incarnate in the animal being associated with a +saint.<a id="footnotetag504" name="footnotetag504"></a><a href= +"#footnote504"><sup>504</sup></a> Thus the literary versions of the +<i>Táin</i>, departing from the hypothetical primitive +versions, kept the bull as the central figure, but introduced a +rival bull, and described its death differently, while both bulls +are said to be reincarnations of divine swine-herds.<a id= +"footnotetag505" name="footnotetag505"></a><a href= +"#footnote505"><sup>505</sup></a> The idea of a fight <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>{141}</span> for a +bull is borrowed from actual custom, and thus the old form of the +story was further distorted.</p> +<p>The Cúchulainn saga is more coherent than the Fionn saga, +because it possesses one central incident. The "canon" of the saga +was closed at an early date, while that of Fionn has practically +never been closed, mainly because it has been more a saga of the +folk than that of Cúchulainn. In some respects the two may +have been rivals, for if the Cúchulainn saga was introduced +by conquerors from Britain or Gaul, it would not be looked on with +favour by the folk. Or if it is the saga of Ulster as opposed to +that of Leinster, rivalry would again ensue. The Fionn saga lives +more in the hearts of the people, though it sometimes borrows from +the other. This borrowing, however, is less than some critics, +<i>e.g.</i> Zimmer, maintain. Many of the likenesses are the result +of the fact that wherever a hero exists a common stock of incidents +becomes his. Hence there is much similarity in all sagas wherever +found.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote453" name= +"footnote453"></a><b>Footnote 453:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag453">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 134; Nutt-Meyer, ii. 38 f.; Windisch, +<i>Táin</i>, 342; L. Duvau, "La Legende de la Conception de +Cúchulainn," <i>RC</i> ix. 1 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote454" name= +"footnote454"></a><b>Footnote 454:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag454">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, <i>Táin</i>, 118 f. For a similar reason +Finnchad was called Cú Cerca, "the hound of Cerc" (<i>IT</i> +iii. 377).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote455" name= +"footnote455"></a><b>Footnote 455:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag455">(return)</a> +<p>For the boyish exploits, see Windisch, <i>Táin</i>, 106 +f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote456" name= +"footnote456"></a><b>Footnote 456:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag456">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> vii. 225; Windisch, <i>Táin</i>, 20. Macha is a +granddaughter of Ler, but elsewhere she is called Mider's daughter +(<i>RC</i> xvi. 46).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote457" name= +"footnote457"></a><b>Footnote 457:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag457">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> ii. 654; Westermarck, <i>Hist. of Human +Marriage</i>, ch. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote458" name= +"footnote458"></a><b>Footnote 458:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag458">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, xii. 60, citing instances from +Jevons, <i>Hist. of Religion</i>, 65.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote459" name= +"footnote459"></a><b>Footnote 459:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag459">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, <i>IT</i> ii. 239.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote460" name= +"footnote460"></a><b>Footnote 460:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag460">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, 184, 312, 330; cf. <i>IT</i> iii. 355; Miss Hull, 164 +f.; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 468.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote461" name= +"footnote461"></a><b>Footnote 461:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag461">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 119<i>a</i>; <i>RC</i> iii. 175.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote462" name= +"footnote462"></a><b>Footnote 462:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag462">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, 342.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote463" name= +"footnote463"></a><b>Footnote 463:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag463">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> iii. 175 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote464" name= +"footnote464"></a><b>Footnote 464:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag464">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> 185.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote465" name= +"footnote465"></a><b>Footnote 465:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag465">(return)</a> +<p>Crowe, <i>Jour. Kilkenny Arch. Soc.</i> 1870-1871, 371 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote466" name= +"footnote466"></a><b>Footnote 466:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag466">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 79<i>a</i>; O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat</i>, 640.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote467" name= +"footnote467"></a><b>Footnote 467:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag467">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 125<i>a</i>. See my <i>Childhood of fiction</i>, ch. +14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote468" name= +"footnote468"></a><b>Footnote 468:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag468">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, lxxvi.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote469" name= +"footnote469"></a><b>Footnote 469:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag469">(return)</a> +<p>"Da Derga's Hostel," <i>RC</i> xxii. 283; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> +438.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote470" name= +"footnote470"></a><b>Footnote 470:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag470">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 68<i>a</i>; Rh[^y]s, 437; Ingcel the one-eyed has also +many pupils (<i>RC</i> xxii. 58).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote471" name= +"footnote471"></a><b>Footnote 471:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag471">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, lxiii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote472" name= +"footnote472"></a><b>Footnote 472:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag472">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> viii. 49.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote473" name= +"footnote473"></a><b>Footnote 473:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag473">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 77<i>b</i>; Miss Hull, lxii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote474" name= +"footnote474"></a><b>Footnote 474:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag474">(return)</a> +<p>Other Celtic heroes undergo this distortion, which resembles the +Scandinavian warrior rage followed by languor, as in the case of +Cúchulainn.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote475" name= +"footnote475"></a><b>Footnote 475:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag475">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, p. lxvi.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote476" name= +"footnote476"></a><b>Footnote 476:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag476">(return)</a> +<p>Irish saints, standing neck deep in freezing water, made it +hot.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote477" name= +"footnote477"></a><b>Footnote 477:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag477">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 268; D'Arbois, v. 103; Miss Hull, lxvi.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote478" name= +"footnote478"></a><b>Footnote 478:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag478">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 448.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote479" name= +"footnote479"></a><b>Footnote 479:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag479">(return)</a> +<p>See Meyer, <i>RC xi</i>. 435; Windisch, <i>IT</i> i. 589, 740. +Though <i>richis</i> means "charcoal," it is also glossed "flame," +hence it could only be glowing charcoal, without any idea of +darkness.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote480" name= +"footnote480"></a><b>Footnote 480:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag480">(return)</a> +<p><i>HL</i> 458.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote481" name= +"footnote481"></a><b>Footnote 481:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag481">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 107.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote482" name= +"footnote482"></a><b>Footnote 482:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag482">(return)</a> +<p><i>Arch. Rev.</i> i. 1 f.; <i>IT</i> i. 213; see p. <a href= +"#page381">381</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote483" name= +"footnote483"></a><b>Footnote 483:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag483">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page164">164</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote484" name= +"footnote484"></a><b>Footnote 484:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag484">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Siculus, iv. 56.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote485" name= +"footnote485"></a><b>Footnote 485:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag485">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 393.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote486" name= +"footnote486"></a><b>Footnote 486:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag486">(return)</a> +<p><i>Les Celtes</i>, 58 f. Formerly M. D'Arbois identified +Smertullos with Lug, ii. 217; Holder, i. 46, 262. For the incident +of the beard, see Windisch, <i>Táin</i>, 308.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote487" name= +"footnote487"></a><b>Footnote 487:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag487">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 395.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote488" name= +"footnote488"></a><b>Footnote 488:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag488">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 420.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote489" name= +"footnote489"></a><b>Footnote 489:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag489">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxvii. 319 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote490" name= +"footnote490"></a><b>Footnote 490:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag490">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xviii. 256.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote491" name= +"footnote491"></a><b>Footnote 491:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag491">(return)</a> +<p><i>Les Celtes</i>, 63; <i>RC</i> xix. 246.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote492" name= +"footnote492"></a><b>Footnote 492:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag492">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>RC</i> xx. 89.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote493" name= +"footnote493"></a><b>Footnote 493:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag493">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>RC</i> xxvii. 321; <i>Les Celtes</i>, 65.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote494" name= +"footnote494"></a><b>Footnote 494:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag494">(return)</a> +<p><i>Les Celtes</i>, 49; Cæsar, vi. 14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote495" name= +"footnote495"></a><b>Footnote 495:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag495">(return)</a> +<p>In contradiction to this, M. D'Arbois elsewhere thinks that +Druids from Britain may have taught the Cúchulainn legend in +Gaul (<i>RC</i> xxvii. 319).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote496" name= +"footnote496"></a><b>Footnote 496:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag496">(return)</a> +<p>See versions in <i>Book of the Dean of Lismore</i>; <i>CM</i> +xiii.; Campbell, <i>The Fians</i>, 6 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote497" name= +"footnote497"></a><b>Footnote 497:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag497">(return)</a> +<p><i>CM</i> xiii. 327, 514. The same story is told of Fionn, +<i>ibid.</i> 512. See also ballad versions in Campbell, <i>LF</i> 3 +f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote498" name= +"footnote498"></a><b>Footnote 498:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag498">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page212">212</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote499" name= +"footnote499"></a><b>Footnote 499:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag499">(return)</a> +<p>A Galatian king was called Brogitaros, probably a form of +<i>Brogitaruos</i>, "bull of the province," a title borne by +Conchobar, <i>tarb in chóicid</i> (<i>IT</i> i. 72). This +with the epithets applied to heroes in the <i>Triads</i>, +"bull-phantom," "prince bull of combat" (Loth, ii. 232, 243), may +be an appellative denoting great strength.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote500" name= +"footnote500"></a><b>Footnote 500:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag500">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> ii. 241 f.; D'Arbois, <i>Les Druides</i>, 168.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote501" name= +"footnote501"></a><b>Footnote 501:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag501">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 58.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote502" name= +"footnote502"></a><b>Footnote 502:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag502">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page212">212</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote503" name= +"footnote503"></a><b>Footnote 503:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag503">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page208">208</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote504" name= +"footnote504"></a><b>Footnote 504:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag504">(return)</a> +<p>Fitzgerald, <i>RC</i> vi. 254.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote505" name= +"footnote505"></a><b>Footnote 505:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag505">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page243">243</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id= +"page142"></a>{142}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap8" id="chap8">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2> +<h3>THE FIONN SAGA.</h3> +<p>The most prominent characters in the Fionn saga, after the death +of Fionn's father Cumal, are Fionn, his son Oisin, his grandson +Oscar, his nephew Diarmaid with his <i>ball-seire</i>, or +"beauty-spot," which no woman could resist; Fergus famed for wisdom +and eloquence; Caoilte mac Ronan, the swift; Conan, the comic +character of the saga; Goll mac Morna, the slayer of Cumal, but +later the devoted friend of Fionn, besides a host of less important +personages. Their doings, like those of the heroes of saga and epos +everywhere, are mainly hunting, fighting, and love-making. They +embody much of the Celtic character—vivacity, valour, +kindness, tenderness, as well as boastfulness and fiery temper. +Though dating from pagan times, the saga throws little light upon +pagan beliefs, but reveals much concerning the manners of the +period. Here, as always in early Celtdom, woman is more than a mere +chattel, and occupies a comparatively high place. The various parts +of the saga, like those of the Finnish <i>Kalevala</i>, always +existed separately, never as one complete epos, though always +bearing a certain relation to each other. Lonnrot, in Finland, was +able, by adding a few connecting links of his own, to give unity to +the <i>Kalevala</i>, and had MacPherson been content to do this for +the Fionn saga, instead of inventing, transforming, and serving up +the whole in the manner of the sentimental eighteenth century, what +a boon would he have conferred on Celtic literature. The various +parts of the saga belong to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" +id="page143"></a>{143}</span> different centuries and come from +different authors, all, however, imbued with the spirit of the +Fionn tradition.</p> +<p>A date cannot be given to the beginnings of the saga, and +additions have been made to it even down to the eighteenth century, +Michael Comyn's poem of Oisin in Tir na n-Og being as genuine a +part of it as any of the earlier pieces. Its contents are in part +written, but much more oral. Much of it is in prose, and there is a +large poetic literature of the ballad kind, as well as +<i>Märchen</i> of the universal stock made purely Celtic, with +Fionn and the rest of the heroic band as protagonists. The saga +embodies Celtic ideals and hopes; it was the literature of the +Celtic folk on which was spent all the riches of the Celtic +imagination; a world of dream and fancy into which they could enter +at all times and disport themselves. Yet, in spite of its immense +variety, the saga preserves a certain unity, and it is provided +with a definite framework, recounting the origin of the heroes, the +great events in which they were concerned, their deaths or final +appearances, and the breaking up of the Fionn band.</p> +<p>The historic view of the Fians is taken by the annalists, by +Keating, O'Curry, Dr. Joyce, and Dr. Douglas Hyde.<a id= +"footnotetag506" name="footnotetag506"></a><a href= +"#footnote506"><sup>506</sup></a> According to this view, they were +a species of militia maintained by the Irish kings for the support +of the throne and the defence of the country. From Samhain to +Beltane they were quartered on the people, and from Beltane to +Samhain they lived by hunting. How far the people welcomed this +billeting, we are not told. Their method of cooking the game which +they hunted was one well known to all primitive peoples. Holes were +dug in the ground; in them red-hot stones were placed, and on the +stones was laid venison wrapped in sedge. All was then covered +over, and in due time the meat was done to a turn. Meanwhile the +heroes engaged in an elaborate <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page144" id="page144"></a>{144}</span> toilette before sitting +down to eat. Their beds were composed of alternate layers of +brushwood, moss, and rushes. The Fians were divided into +<i>Catha</i> of three thousand men, each with its commander, and +officers to each hundred, each fifty, and each nine, a system not +unlike that of the ancient Peruvians. Each candidate for admission +to the band had to undergo the most trying ordeals, rivalling in +severity those of the American Indians, and not improbably genuine +though exaggerated reminiscences of actual tests of endurance and +agility. Once admitted he had to observe certain <i>geasa</i> or +"tabus," <i>e.g.</i> not to choose his wife for her dowry like +other Celts, but solely for her good manners, not to offer violence +to a woman, not to flee when attacked before less than nine +warriors, and the like.</p> +<p>All this may represent some genuine tradition with respect to a +warrior band, with many exaggerations in details and numbers. Some +of its outstanding heroes may have had names derived from or +corresponding to those of the heroes of an existing saga. But as +time went on they became as unhistorical as their ideal prototypes; +round their names crystallised floating myths and tales; things +which had been told of the saga heroes were told of them; their +names were given to the personages of existing folk-tales. This +might explain the great divergence between the "historical" and the +romantic aspects of the saga as it now exists. Yet we cannot fail +to see that what is claimed as historical is full of exaggeration, +and, in spite of the pleading of Dr. Hyde and other patriots, +little historic fact can be found in it. Even if this exists, it is +the least important part of the saga. What is important is that +part—nine-tenths of the whole—which "is not true +because it cannot be true." It belongs to the region of the +supernatural and the unreal. But personages, nine-tenths of whose +actions belong to this region, must bear the same character +themselves, and for that reason are all the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>{145}</span> more +interesting, especially when we remember that the Celts firmly +believed in them and in their exploits. A Fionn myth arose as all +myths do, increasing as time went on, and the historical nucleus, +if it ever existed, was swamped and lost. Throughout the saga the +Fians are more than mere mortals, even in those very parts which +are claimed as historical. They are giants; their story "bristles +with the supernatural"; they are the ideal figures of Celtic legend +throwing their gigantic shadows upon the dim and misty background +of the past. We must therefore be content to assume that whether +personages called Fionn, Oisin, Diarmaid, or Conan, ever existed, +what we know of them now is purely mythical.</p> +<p>Bearing in mind that they are the cherished heroes of popular +fancy in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, we have now to inquire +whether they were Celtic in origin. We have seen that the Celts +were a conquering people in Ireland, bringing with them their own +religion and mythology, their own sagas and tales reflected now in +the mythological and Cúchulainn cycles, which found a local +habitation in Ireland. Cúchulainn was the hero of a saga +which flourished more among the aristocratic and lettered classes +than among the folk, and there are few popular tales about him. But +it is among the folk that the Fionn saga has always been popular, +and for every peasant who could tell a story of Cúchulainn a +thousand could tell one of Fionn. Conquerors often adopt beliefs, +traditions, and customs of the aboriginal folk, after hostilities +have ceased, and if the pre-Celtic people had a popular hero and a +saga concerning him, it is possible that in time it was accepted by +the Celts or by the lower classes among them. But in the process it +must have been completely Celticised, like the aborigines +themselves; to its heroes were given Celtic names, or they may have +been associated with existing Celtic personages like Cumal, and the +whole saga <span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id= +"page146"></a>{146}</span> was in time adapted to the conceptions +and legendary history of the Celts. Thus we might account for the +fact that it has so largely remained without admixture with the +mythological and Cúchulainn cycles, though its heroes are +brought into relation with the older gods. Thus also we might +account for its popularity as compared with the Cúchulainn +saga among the peasantry in whose veins must flow so much of the +aboriginal blood both in Ireland and the Highlands. In other words, +it was the saga of a non-Celtic people occupying both Ireland and +Scotland. If Celts from Western Europe occupied the west of +Scotland at an early date, they may have been so few in number that +their own saga or sagas died out. Or if the Celtic occupation of +the West Highlands originated first from Ireland, the Irish may +have been unable to impose their Cúchulainn saga there, or +if they themselves had already adopted the Fionn saga and found it +again in the Highlands, they would but be the more attached to what +was already localised there. This would cut the ground from the +theory that the Fionn saga was brought to Scotland from Ireland, +and it would account for its popularity in the Highlands, as well +as for the fact that many Fionn stories are attached to Highland as +well as to Irish localities, while many place-names in both +countries have a Fian origin. Finally, the theory would explain the +existence of so many <i>Märchen</i> about Fionn and his men, +so few about Cúchulainn.</p> +<p>Returning to the theory of the historic aspect of the Fians, it +should be noted that, while, when seen through the eyes of the +annalists, the saga belongs to a definite historical period, when +viewed by itself it belongs to a mythic age, and though the Fians +are regarded as champions of Ireland, their foes are usually of a +supernatural kind, and they themselves move in a magic atmosphere. +They are also brought into connection with the unhistoric Tuatha +Dé Danann; they fight with them <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>{147}</span> or for +them; they have amours with or wed their women; and some of the +gods even become members of the Fian band. Diarmaid was the darling +of the gods Oengus and Manannan, and in his direst straits was +assisted by the former. In all this we are in the wonderland of +myth, not the <i>terra firma</i> of history. There is a certain +resemblance between the Cúchulainn and Fionn sagas, but no +more than that which obtains between all sagas everywhere. Both +contain similar incidents, but these are the stock episodes of +universal saga belief, fitted to the personages of individual +sagas. Hence we need not suppose with Professor Windisch that the +mythic incidents of the Fionn saga are derived from the +Cúchulainn cycle.</p> +<p>The personages against whom Fionn and his men fight show the +mythic nature of the saga. As champions of Leinster they fight the +men of Ulster and Connaught, but they also war against oversea +invaders—the Lochlanners. While Lochlann may mean any land +beyond the sea, like the Welsh <i>Llychlyn</i> it probably meant +"the fabulous land beneath the lakes or the waves of the sea," or +simply the abode of hostile, supernatural beings. Lochlanners would +thus be counterparts of the Fomorians, and the conflicts of the +Fians with them would reflect old myths. But with the Norse +invasions, the Norsemen became the true Lochlanners, against whom +Fionn and his men fight as Charlemagne fought Muhammadans—a +sheer impossibility. Professor Zimmer, however, supposes that the +Fionn saga took shape during the Norse occupation from the ninth +century onwards. Fionn is half Norse, half Irish, and equivalent to +Caittil Find, who commanded the apostate Irish in the ninth +century, while Oisin and Oscar are the Norse Asvin and Asgeirr. But +it is difficult to understand why one who was half a Norseman +should become the chosen hero of the Celts in <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>{148}</span> the very +age in which Norsemen were their bitter enemies, and why Fionn, if +of Norse origin, fights against Lochlanners, <i>i.e.</i> Norsemen. +It may also be inquired why the borrowing should have affected the +saga only, not the myths of the gods. No other Celtic scholar has +given the slightest support to this brilliant but audacious theory. +On the other hand, if the saga has Norse affinities, and if it is, +in origin, pre-Celtic, these may be sought in an earlier connection +of Ireland with Scandinavia in the early Bronze Age. Ireland had a +flourishing civilisation then, and exported beautiful gold +ornaments to Scandinavia, where they are still found in Bronze Age +deposits.<a id="footnotetag507" name="footnotetag507"></a><a href= +"#footnote507"><sup>507</sup></a> This flourishing civilisation was +overwhelmed by the invasion of the Celtic barbarians. But if the +Scandinavians borrowed gold and artistic decorations from Ireland, +and if the Fionn saga or part of it was already in existence, why +should they not have borrowed some of its incidents, or why, on the +other hand, should not some episodes have found their way from the +north to Ireland? We should also consider, however, that similar +incidents may have been evolved in both countries on similar lines +and quite independently.</p> +<p>The various contents of the saga can only be alluded to in the +briefest manner. Fionn's birth-story belongs to the well-known +"Expulsion and Return" formula, applied to so many heroes of saga +and folk-tale, but highly elaborated in his case at the hands of +the annalists. Thus his father Cumal, uncle of Conn the Hundred +Fighter, 122-157 A.D., wished to wed Muirne, daughter of Conn's +chief druid, Tadg. Tadg refused, knowing that through this marriage +he would lose his ancestral seat. Cumal seized Muirne and married +her, and the king, on Tadg's appeal, sent an army against him. +Cumal was slain; Muirne fled to his sister, and gave <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>{149}</span> birth to +Demni, afterwards known as Fionn. Perhaps in accordance with old +matriarchal usage, Fionn's descent through his mother is +emphasised, while he is related to the ancient gods, Tadg being son +of Nuada. This at once points to the mythical aspect of the saga. +Cumal may be identical with the god Camulos. In a short time, +Fionn, now a marauder and an outlaw, appeared at Conn's Court, and +that same night slew one of the Tuatha Déa, who came yearly +and destroyed the palace. For this he received his rightful +heritage—the leadership of the Fians, formerly commanded by +Cumal.<a id="footnotetag508" name="footnotetag508"></a><a href= +"#footnote508"><sup>508</sup></a> Another incident of Fionn's youth +tells how he obtained his "thumb of knowledge." The eating of +certain "salmon of knowledge" was believed to give inspiration, an +idea perhaps derived from earlier totemistic beliefs. The bard +Finnéces, having caught one of the coveted salmon, set his +pupil Fionn to cook it, forbidding him to taste it. But as he was +turning the fish Fionn burnt his thumb and thrust it into his +mouth, thus receiving the gift of inspiration. Hereafter he had +only to suck his thumb in order to obtain secret information.<a id= +"footnotetag509" name="footnotetag509"></a><a href= +"#footnote509"><sup>509</sup></a> In another story the inspiration +is already in his thumb, as Samson's strength was in his hair, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id= +"page150"></a>{150}</span> but the power is also partly in his +tooth, under which, after ritual preparation, he has to place his +thumb and chew it.<a id="footnotetag510" name= +"footnotetag510"></a><a href="#footnote510"><sup>510</sup></a></p> +<p>Fionn had many wives and sweethearts, one of them, Saar, being +mother of Oisin. Saar was turned into a fawn by a Druid, and fled +from Fionn's house. Long after he found a beast-child in the forest +and recognised him as his son. He nourished him until his beast +nature disappeared, and called him Oisin, "little fawn." Round this +birth legend many stories sprang up—a sure sign of its +popularity.<a id="footnotetag511" name= +"footnotetag511"></a><a href="#footnote511"><sup>511</sup></a> +Oisin's fame as a poet far excelled that of Fionn, and he became +the ideal bard of the Gaels.</p> +<p>By far the most passionate and tragic story of the saga is that +of Diarmaid and Grainne, to whom Fionn was betrothed. Grainne put +<i>geasa</i> upon Diarmaid to elope with her, and these he could +not break. They fled, and for many days were pursued by Fionn, who +at last overtook them, but was forced by the Fians to pardon the +beloved hero. Meanwhile Fionn waited for his revenge. Knowing that +it was one of Diarmaid's <i>geasa</i> never to hunt a wild boar, he +invited him to the chase of the boar of Gulban. Diarmaid slew it, +and Fionn then bade him measure its length with his foot. A bristle +pierced his heel, and he fell down in agony, beseeching Fionn to +bring him water in his hand, for if he did this he would heal him. +In spite of repeated appeals, Fionn, after bringing the water, let +it drip from his hands. Diarmaid's brave soul passed away, and on +Fionn's character this dire blot was fixed for ever.<a id= +"footnotetag512" name="footnotetag512"></a><a href= +"#footnote512"><sup>512</sup></a></p> +<p>Other tales relate how several of the Fians were spirited away +to the Land beyond the Seas, how they were rescued, <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>{151}</span> how +Diarmaid went to Land under Waves, and how Fionn and his men were +entrapped in a Fairy Palace. Of greater importance are those which +tell the end of the Fian band. This, according to the annalists, +was the result of their exactions and demands. Fionn was told by +his wife, a wise woman, never to drink out of a horn, but coming +one day thirsty to a well, he forgot this tabu, and so brought the +end near. He encountered the sons of Uirgrenn, whom he had slain, +and in the fight with them he fell.<a id="footnotetag513" name= +"footnotetag513"></a><a href="#footnote513"><sup>513</sup></a> Soon +after were fought several battles, culminating in that of Gabhra in +which all but a few Fians perished. Among the survivors were Oisin +and Caoilte, who lingered on until the coming of S. Patrick. +Caoilte remained on earth, but Oisin, whose mother was of the +<i>síd</i> folk, went to fairyland for a time, ultimately +returning and joining S. Patrick's company.<a id="footnotetag514" +name="footnotetag514"></a><a href="#footnote514"><sup>514</sup></a> +But a different version is given in the eighteenth century poem of +Michael Comyn, undoubtedly based on popular tales. Oisin met the +Queen of Tir na n-Og and went with her to fairyland, where time +passed as a dream until one day he stood on a stone against which +she had warned him. He saw his native land and was filled with +home-sickness. The queen tried to dissuade him, but in vain. Then +she gave him a horse, warning him not to set foot on Irish soil. He +came to Ireland; and found it all changed. Some puny people were +trying in vain to raise a great stone, and begged the huge stranger +to help them. He sprang from his horse and flung the stone from its +resting-place. But when he turned, his horse was gone, and he had +become a decrepit old man. Soon after he met S. Patrick and related +the tale to him.</p> +<p>Of most of the tales preserved in twelfth to fifteenth century +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id= +"page152"></a>{152}</span> MSS. it may be said that in essence they +come down to us from a remote antiquity, like stars pulsing their +clear light out of the hidden depths of space. Many of them exist +as folk-tales, often wild and weird in form, while some folk-tales +have no literary parallels. Some are <i>Märchen</i> with +members of the Fian band as heroes, and of these there are many +European parallels. But it is not unlikely that, as in the case of +the Cúchulainn cycle, the folk versions may be truer to the +original forms of the saga than the rounded and polished literary +versions. Whatever the Fians were in origin—gods, mythic +heroes, or actual personages—it is probable that a short +<i>Heldensage</i> was formed in early times. This slowly expanded, +new tales were added, and existing <i>Märchen</i> +formulæ were freely made use of by making their heroes the +heroes of the saga. Then came the time when many of the tales were +written down, while later they were adapted to a scheme of Irish +history, the heroes becoming warriors of a definite historic +period, or perhaps connected with such warriors. But these heroes +belonged to a timeless world, whose margins are "the shore of old +romance," and it was as if they, who were not for an age but for +all time, scorned to become the puppets of the page of history.</p> +<p>The earliest evidence of the attitude of the ecclesiastical +world to these heroes is found in the <i>Agallamh na Senorach</i>, +or "Colloquy of the Ancients."<a id="footnotetag515" name= +"footnotetag515"></a><a href="#footnote515"><sup>515</sup></a> This +may have been composed in the thirteenth century, and its author +knew scores of Fionn legends. Making use of the tradition that +Caoilte and Oisin had met S. Patrick, he makes Caoilte relate many +of the tales, usually in connection with some place-name of Fian +origin. The saint and his followers are amazed at the huge stature +of the Fians, but Patrick asperges them with holy water, and hosts +of demons flee from them. At each tale which Caoilte tells, the +saint says, "Success and benediction, Caoilte. All this is to us a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id= +"page153"></a>{153}</span> recreation of spirit and of mind, were +it only not a destruction of devotion and a dereliction of prayer." +But presently his guardian angel appears, and bids him not only +listen to the tales but cause them to be written down. He and his +attendant clerics now lend a willing ear to the recital and +encourage the narrator with their applause. Finally, baptism is +administered to Caoilte and his men, and by Patrick's intercessions +Caoilte's relations and Fionn himself are brought out of hell. In +this work the representatives of paganism are shown to be on terms +of friendliness with the representatives of Christianity.</p> +<p>But in Highland ballads collected in the sixteenth century by +the Dean of Lismore, as well as in Irish ballads found in MSS. +dating from the seventeenth century onwards, the saint is a sour +and intolerant cleric, and the Fians are equally intolerant and +blasphemous pagans. There is no attempt at compromise; the saint +rejoices that the Fian band are in hell, and Oisin throws contempt +on the God of the shaven priests. But sometimes this contempt is +mingled with humour and pathos. Were the heroes of Oisin's band now +alive, scant work would be made of the monks' bells, books, and +psalm-singing. It is true that the saint gives the weary old man +hospitality, but Oisin's eyes are blinded with tears as he thinks +of the departed glories of the Fians, and his ears are tormented +"by jangling bells, droning psalms, and howling clerics." These +ballads probably represent one main aspect of the attitude of the +Church to Celtic paganism. How, then, did the more generous +<i>Colloquy</i> come into being? We must note first that some of +the ballads have a milder tone. Oisin is urged to accept the faith, +and he prays for salvation. Probably these represent the beginning +of a reaction in favour of the old heroes, dating from a time when +the faith was well established. There was no danger of a pagan +revival, and, provided the Fians were Christianised, it might be +legitimate <span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id= +"page154"></a>{154}</span> to represent them as heroic and noble. +The <i>Colloquy</i> would represent the high-water mark of this +reaction among the lettered classes, for among the folk, to judge +by popular tales, the Fians had never been regarded in other than a +favourable light. The <i>Colloquy</i> re-established the dignity of +the Fian band in the eyes of official Christianity. They are +baptized or released from hell, and in their own nature they are +virtuous and follow lofty ideals. "Who or what was it that +maintained you in life?" asks Patrick. And Caoilte gives the noble +reply, "Truth that was in our hearts, and strength in our arms, and +fulfilment in our tongues." Patrick says of Fionn: "He was a king, +a seer, a poet, a lord with a manifold and great train; our +magician, our knowledgeable one, our soothsayer; all whatsoever he +said was sweet with him. Excessive, perchance, as ye deem my +testimony of Fionn, although ye hold that which I say to be +overstrained, nevertheless, and by the King that is above me, he +was three times better still." Not only so, but Caoilte maintains +that Fionn and his men were aware of the existence of the true God. +They possessed the <i>anima naturaliter Christiana</i>. The growing +appreciation of a wider outlook on life, and possibly acquaintance +with the romances of chivalry, made the composition of the +<i>Colloquy</i> possible, but, again, it may represent a more +generous conception of paganism existing from the time of the first +encounter of Christianity with it in Ireland.</p> +<p>The strife of creeds in Ireland, the old order changing, giving +place to new, had evidently impressed itself on the minds of Celtic +poets and romancers. It suggested itself to them as providing an +excellent "situation"; hence we constantly hear of the meeting of +gods, demigods, or heroes with the saints of the new era. +Frequently they bow before the Cross, they are baptized and receive +the Christian verity, as in the <i>Colloquy</i> and in some +documents of the Cúchulainn cycle. Probably <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>{155}</span> no other +European folk-literature so takes advantage of just this situation, +this meeting of creeds, one old and ready to vanish away, the other +with all the buoyant freshness of youth.</p> +<p>Was MacPherson's a genuine Celtic epic unearthed by him and by +no one else? No mortal eye save his has ever seen the original, but +no one who knows anything of the contents of the saga can deny that +much of his work is based on materials collected by him. He knew +some of the tales and ballads current among the folk, possibly also +some of the Irish MS. versions. He saw that there was a certain +unity among them, and he saw that it was possible to make it more +evident still. He fitted the floating incidents into an epic +framework, adding, inventing, altering, and moulding the whole into +an English style of his own. Later he seems to have translated the +whole into Gaelic. He gave his version to the world, and found +himself famous, but he gave it as the genuine translation of a +genuine Celtic epic. Here was his craft; here he was the "charlatan +of genius." His genius lay in producing an epic which people were +willing to read, and in making them believe it to be not his work +but that of the Celtic heroic age. Any one can write an epic, but +few can write one which thousands will read, which men like +Chateaubriand, Goethe, Napoleon, Byron, and Coleridge will admire +and love, and which will, as it were, crystallise the aspirations +of an age weary with classical formalism. MacPherson introduced his +readers to a new world of heroic deeds, romantic adventure, +deathless love, exquisite sentiments sentimentally expressed. He +changed the rough warriors and beautiful but somewhat unabashed +heroines of the saga into sentimental personages, who suited the +taste of an age poised between the bewigged and powdered formalism +of the eighteenth century, and the outburst of new ideals which was +to follow. His <i>Ossian</i> is a cross between Pope's <i>Homer</i> +and Byron's <i>Childe Harold</i>. His <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>{156}</span> heroes +and heroines are not on their native heath, and are uncertain +whether to mince and strut with Pope or to follow nature with +Rousseau's noble savages and Saint Pierre's Paul and Virginia. The +time has gone when it was heresy to cast doubt upon the genuineness +of MacPherson's epic, but if any one is still doubtful, let him +read it and then turn to the existing versions, ballads, and tales. +He will find himself in a totally different atmosphere, and will +recognise in the latter the true epic note—the warrior's rage +and the warrior's generosity, dire cruelty yet infinite tenderness, +wild lust yet also true love, a world of magic supernaturalism, but +an exact copy of things as they were in that far-off age. The +barbarism of the time is in these old tales—deeds which make +one shiver, customs regarding the relations of the sexes now found +only among savages, social and domestic arrangements which are +somewhat lurid and disgusting. And yet, withal, the note of +bravery, of passion, of authentic life is there; we are held in the +grip of genuine manhood and womanhood. MacPherson gives a picture +of the Ossianic age as he conceived it, an age of Celtic history +that "never was on sea or land." Even his ghosts are un-Celtic, +misty and unsubstantial phantasms, unlike the embodied +<i>revenants</i> of the saga which are in agreement with the Celtic +belief that the soul assumed a body in the other world. MacPherson +makes Fionn invariably successful, but in the saga tales he is +often defeated. He mingles the Cúchulainn and Ossianic +cycles, but these, save in a few casual instances, are quite +distinct in the old literature. Yet had not his poem been so great +as it is, though so un-Celtic, it could not have influenced all +European literature. But those who care for genuine Celtic +literature, the product of a people who loved nature, romance, +doughty deeds, the beauty of the world, the music of the sea and +the birds, the mountains, valour in men, beauty in women, will find +all these <span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id= +"page157"></a>{157}</span> in the saga, whether in its literary or +its popular forms. And through it all sounds the undertone of +Celtic pathos and melancholy, the distant echo</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Of old unhappy, far-off things</p> +<p>And battles long ago."</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote506" name= +"footnote506"></a><b>Footnote 506:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag506">(return)</a> +<p>See Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 447.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote507" name= +"footnote507"></a><b>Footnote 507:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag507">(return)</a> +<p>Montelius, <i>Les Temps Préhistoriques</i>, 57, 151; +Reinach, <i>RC</i> xxi. 8.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote508" name= +"footnote508"></a><b>Footnote 508:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag508">(return)</a> +<p>The popular versions of this early part of the saga differ much +in detail, but follow the main outlines in much the same way. See +Curtin, <i>HTI</i> 204; Campbell, <i>LF</i> 33 f.; <i>WHT</i> iii. +348.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote509" name= +"footnote509"></a><b>Footnote 509:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag509">(return)</a> +<p>In a widespread group of tales supernatural knowledge is +obtained by eating part of some animal, usually a certain snake. In +many of these tales the food is eaten by another person than he who +obtained it, as in the case of Fionn. Cf. the Welsh story of Gwion, +p. 116, and the Scandinavian of Sigurd, and other parallels in Miss +Cox, <i>Cinderella</i>, 496; Frazer, <i>Arch. Rev.</i> i. 172 f. +The story is thus a folk-tale formula applied to Fionn, doubtless +because it harmonised with Celtic or pre-Celtic totemistic ideas. +But it is based on ancient ideas regarding the supernatural +knowledge possessed by reptiles or fish, and among American +Indians, Maoris, Solomon Islanders, and others there are figured +representations of a man holding such an animal, its tongue being +attached to his tongue. He is a <i>shaman</i>, and American Indians +believe that his inspiration comes from the tongue of a mysterious +river otter, caught by him. See Dall, <i>Bureau of Ethnol.</i> 3rd +report; and Miss Buckland, <i>Jour. Anth. Inst.</i> xxii. 29.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote510" name= +"footnote510"></a><b>Footnote 510:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag510">(return)</a> +<p><i>TOS</i> iv.; O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 396; Joyce, <i>OCR</i> +194, 339.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote511" name= +"footnote511"></a><b>Footnote 511:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag511">(return)</a> +<p>For ballad versions see Campbell, <i>LF</i> 198.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote512" name= +"footnote512"></a><b>Footnote 512:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag512">(return)</a> +<p>Numerous ballad versions are given in Campbell <i>LF</i> 152 f. +The tale is localised in various parts of Ireland and the +Highlands, many dolmens in Ireland being known as Diarmaid and +Grainne's beds.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote513" name= +"footnote513"></a><b>Footnote 513:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag513">(return)</a> +<p>For an account differing from this annalistic version, see +<i>ZCP</i> i. 465.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote514" name= +"footnote514"></a><b>Footnote 514:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag514">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 102. This, on the whole, agrees with the Highland +ballad version, <i>LF</i> 198.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote515" name= +"footnote515"></a><b>Footnote 515:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag515">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iv.; O'Grady, <i>Silva Gad.</i> text and +translation.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id= +"page158"></a>{158}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap9" id="chap9">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2> +<h3>GODS AND MEN.</h3> +<p>Though man usually makes his gods in his own image, they are +unlike as well as like him. Intermediate between them and man are +ideal heroes whose parentage is partly divine, and who may +themselves have been gods. One mark of the Celtic gods is their +great stature. No house could contain Bran, and certain divine +people of Elysium who appeared to Fionn had rings "as thick as a +three-ox goad."<a id="footnotetag516" name= +"footnotetag516"></a><a href="#footnote516"><sup>516</sup></a> Even +the Fians are giants, and the skull of one of them could contain +several men. The gods have also the attribute of invisibility, and +are only seen by those to whom they wish to disclose themselves, or +they have the power of concealing themselves in a magic mist. When +they appear to mortals it is usually in mortal guise, sometimes in +the form of a particular person, but they can also transform +themselves into animal shapes, often that of birds. The animal +names of certain divinities show that they had once been animals +pure and simple, but when they became anthropomorphic, myths would +arise telling how they had appeared to men in these animal shapes. +This, in part, accounts for these transformation myths. The gods +are also immortal, though in myth we hear of their deaths. The +Tuatha Dé Danann are "unfading," their "duration is +perennial."<a id="footnotetag517" name= +"footnotetag517"></a><a href="#footnote517"><sup>517</sup></a> This +immortality is sometimes an inherent quality; sometimes it is the +result of eating immortal food—Manannan's <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>{159}</span> swine, +Goibniu's feast of age and his immortal ale, or the apples of +Elysium. The stories telling of the deaths of the gods in the +annalists may be based on old myths in which they were said to die, +these myths being connected with ritual acts in which the human +representatives of gods were slain. Such rites were an inherent +part of Celtic religion. Elsewhere the ritual of gods like Osiris +or Adonis, based on their functions as gods of vegetation, was +connected with elaborate myths telling of their death and revival. +Something akin to this may have occurred among the Celts.</p> +<p>The divinities often united with mortals. Goddesses sought the +love of heroes who were then sometimes numbered among the gods, and +gods had amours with the daughters of men.<a id="footnotetag518" +name="footnotetag518"></a><a href="#footnote518"><sup>518</sup></a> +Frequently the heroes of the sagas are children of a god or goddess +and a mortal,<a id="footnotetag519" name= +"footnotetag519"></a><a href="#footnote519"><sup>519</sup></a> and +this divine parentage was firmly believed in by the Celts, since +personal names formed of a divine name and <i>-genos</i> or +<i>-gnatos</i>, "born of," "son of," are found in inscriptions over +the whole Celtic area, or in Celtic documents—Boduogenos, +Camulognata, etc. Those who first bore these names were believed to +be of divine descent on one side. Spirits of nature or the elements +of nature personified might also be parents of mortals, as a name +like Morgen, from <i>Morigenos</i>, "Son of the Sea," and many +others suggest. For this and for other reasons the gods frequently +interfere in human affairs, assisting their children or their +favourites. Or, again, they seek the aid of mortals or of the +heroes of the sagas in their conflicts or in time of distress, as +when Morrigan besought healing from Cúchulainn.</p> +<p>As in the case of early Greek and Roman kings, Celtic kings who +bore divine names were probably believed to be <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>{160}</span> +representatives or incarnations of gods. Perhaps this explains why +a chief of the Boii called himself a god and was revered after his +death, and why the Gauls so readily accepted the divinity of +Augustus. Irish kings bear divine names, and of these Nuada occurs +frequently, one king, Irél Fáith, being identified +with Nuada Airgetlam, while in one text <i>nuadat</i> is glossed +<i>in ríg</i>, "of the king," as if <i>Nuada</i> had come to +be a title meaning "king." Welsh kings bear the name Nudd (Nodons), +and both the actual and the mythic leader Brennus took their name +from the god Bran. King Conchobar is called <i>día +talmaide</i>, "a terrestrial god." If kings were thought to be +god-men like the Pharaohs, this might account for the frequency of +tales about divine fatherhood or reincarnation, while it would also +explain the numerous <i>geasa</i> which Irish kings must observe, +unlike ordinary mortals. Prosperity was connected with their +observance, though this prosperity was later thought to depend on +the king's goodness. The nature of the prosperity—mild +seasons, abundant crops, fruit, fish, and cattle—shows that +the king was associated with fertility, like the gods of +growth.<a id="footnotetag520" name="footnotetag520"></a><a href= +"#footnote520"><sup>520</sup></a> Hence they had probably been once +regarded as incarnations of such gods. Wherever divine kings are +found, fertility is bound up with them and with the due observance +of their tabus. To prevent misfortune to the land, they are slain +before they grow old and weak, and their vigour passes on to their +successors. Their death benefits their people.<a id= +"footnotetag521" name="footnotetag521"></a><a href= +"#footnote521"><sup>521</sup></a> But frequently the king might +reign as long as he could hold his own against all comers, or, +again, a slave or <span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id= +"page161"></a>{161}</span> criminal was for a time treated as a +mock king, and slain as the divine king's substitute. Scattered +hints in Irish literature and in folk survivals show that some such +course as this had been pursued by the Celts with regard to their +divine kings, as it was also elsewhere.<a id="footnotetag522" name= +"footnotetag522"></a><a href="#footnote522"><sup>522</sup></a> It +is not impossible that some at least of the Druids stood in a +similar relation to the gods. Kings and priests were probably at +first not differentiated. In Galatia twelve "tetrarchs" met +annually with three hundred assistants at Drunemeton as the great +national council.<a id="footnotetag523" name= +"footnotetag523"></a><a href="#footnote523"><sup>523</sup></a> This +council at a consecrated place (<i>nemeton</i>), its likeness to +the annual Druidic gathering in Gaul, and the possibility that +<i>Dru</i>- has some connection with the name "Druid," point to a +religious as well as political aspect of this council. The +"tetrarchs" may have been a kind of priest-kings; they had the +kingly prerogative of acting as judges as had the Druids of Gaul. +The wife of one of them was a priestess,<a id="footnotetag524" +name="footnotetag524"></a><a href="#footnote524"><sup>524</sup></a> +the office being hereditary in her family, and it may have been +necessary that her husband should also be a priest. One tetrarch, +Deiotarus, "divine bull," was skilled in augury, and the +priest-kingship of Pessinus was conferred on certain Celts in the +second century B.C., as if the double office were already a Celtic +institution.<a id="footnotetag525" name= +"footnotetag525"></a><a href="#footnote525"><sup>525</sup></a> +Mythic Celtic kings consulted the gods without any priestly +intervention, and Queen Boudicca had priestly functions.<a id= +"footnotetag526" name="footnotetag526"></a><a href= +"#footnote526"><sup>526</sup></a> Without giving these hints undue +emphasis, we may suppose that the differentiation of the two +offices would not be simultaneous over the Celtic area. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id= +"page162"></a>{162}</span> But when it did take effect priests +would probably lay claim to the prerogatives of the priest-king as +incarnate god. Kings were not likely to give these up, and where +they retained them priests would be content with seeing that the +tabus and ritual and the slaying of the mock king were duly +observed. Irish kings were perhaps still regarded as gods, though +certain Druids may have been divine priests, since they called +themselves creators of the universe, and both continental and Irish +Druids claimed superiority to kings. Further, the name [Greek: +semnotheoi], applied along with the name "Druids" to Celtic +priests, though its meaning is obscure, points to divine +pretensions on their part.<a id="footnotetag527" name= +"footnotetag527"></a><a href="#footnote527"><sup>527</sup></a></p> +<p>The incarnate god was probably representative of a god or spirit +of earth, growth, or vegetation, represented also by a tree. A +symbolic branch of such a tree was borne by kings, and perhaps by +Druids, who used oak branches in their rites.<a id="footnotetag528" +name="footnotetag528"></a><a href="#footnote528"><sup>528</sup></a> +King and tree would be connected, the king's life being bound up +with that of the tree, and perhaps at one time both perished +together. But as kings were represented by a substitute, so the +sacred tree, regarded as too sacred to be cut down, may also have +had its <i>succedaneum</i>. The Irish <i>bile</i> or sacred tree, +connected with the kings, must not be touched by any impious hand, +and it was sacrilege to cut it down.<a id="footnotetag529" name= +"footnotetag529"></a><a href="#footnote529"><sup>529</sup></a> +Probably before cutting down the tree a branch or something growing +upon it, <i>e.g.</i> mistletoe, had to be cut, or the king's +symbolic branch secured before he could be slain. This may explain +Pliny's account of the mistletoe rite. The mistletoe or branch was +the soul of the tree, and also contained the life of the divine +representative. It must be plucked before the tree could be cut +down or the victim slain. Hypothetical as this may be, Pliny's +account is incomplete, or he is relating <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>{163}</span> something +of which all the details were not known to him. The rite must have +had some other purpose than that of the magico-medical use of the +mistletoe which he describes, and though he says nothing of cutting +down the tree or slaying a human victim, it is not unlikely that, +as human sacrifice had been prohibited in his time, the oxen which +were slain during the rite took the place of the latter. Later +romantic tales suggest that, before slaying some personage, the +mythico-romantic survivor of a divine priest or king, a branch +carried by him had to be captured by his assailant, or plucked from +the tree which he defended.<a id="footnotetag530" name= +"footnotetag530"></a><a href="#footnote530"><sup>530</sup></a> +These may point to an old belief in tree and king as divine +representatives, and to a ritual like that associated with the +Priest of Nemi. The divine tree became the mystic tree of Elysium, +with gold and silver branches and marvellous fruits. Armed with +such a branch, the gift of one of its people, mortals might +penetrate unhindered to the divine land. Perhaps they may be +regarded as romantic forms of the old divine kings with the branch +of the divine tree.</p> +<p>If in early times the spirit of vegetation was feminine, her +representative would be a woman, probably slain at recurring +festivals by the female worshippers. This would explain the slaying +of one of their number at a festival by Namnite women. But when +male spirits or gods superseded goddesses, the divine priest-king +would take the place of the female representative. On the other +hand, just as the goddess became the consort of the god, a female +representative would continue as the divine bride in the ritual of +the sacred marriage, the May Queen <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page164" id="page164"></a>{164}</span> of later folk-custom. +Sporadically, too, conservatism would retain female cults with +female divine incarnations, as is seen by the presence of the May +Queen alone in certain folk-survivals, and by many Celtic rituals +from which men were excluded.<a id="footnotetag531" name= +"footnotetag531"></a><a href="#footnote531"><sup>531</sup></a></p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote516" name= +"footnote516"></a><b>Footnote 516:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag516">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 228.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote517" name= +"footnote517"></a><b>Footnote 517:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag517">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> ii. 203. Cf. Cæsar, vi. 14, "the immortal +gods" of Gaul.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote518" name= +"footnote518"></a><b>Footnote 518:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag518">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. Ch. XXIV.; O'Grady, ii. 110, 172; Nutt-Meyer, i. 42.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote519" name= +"footnote519"></a><b>Footnote 519:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag519">(return)</a> +<p>Leahy, ii. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote520" name= +"footnote520"></a><b>Footnote 520:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag520">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 203; <i>Trip. Life</i>, 507; <i>Annals of the +Four Masters</i>, A.D. 14; <i>RC</i> xxii. 28, 168. Chiefs as well +as kings probably influenced fertility. A curious survival of this +is found in the belief that herrings abounded in Dunvegan Loch when +MacLeod arrived at his castle there, and in the desire of the +people in Skye during the potato famine that his fairy banner +should be waved.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote521" name= +"footnote521"></a><b>Footnote 521:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag521">(return)</a> +<p>An echo of this may underlie the words attributed to King +Ailill, "If I am slain, it will be the redemption of many" +(O'Grady, ii. 416).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote522" name= +"footnote522"></a><b>Footnote 522:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag522">(return)</a> +<p>See Frazer, <i>Kingship</i>; Cook, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, 1906, "The +European Sky-God." Mr. Cook gives ample evidence for the existence +of Celtic incarnate gods. With his main conclusions I agree, though +some of his inferences seem far-fetched. The divine king was, in +his view, a sky-god; he was more likely to have been the +representative of a god or spirit of growth or vegetation.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote523" name= +"footnote523"></a><b>Footnote 523:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag523">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, xii. 5. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote524" name= +"footnote524"></a><b>Footnote 524:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag524">(return)</a> +<p>Plutarch, <i>de Virt. Mul.</i> 20.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote525" name= +"footnote525"></a><b>Footnote 525:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag525">(return)</a> +<p>Cicero, <i>de Div.</i> i. 15, ii. 36; Strabo, xii. 5. 3; +Stachelin, <i>Gesch. der Kleinasiat. Galater.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote526" name= +"footnote526"></a><b>Footnote 526:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag526">(return)</a> +<p>Livy, v. 34; Dio Cass. lxii. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote527" name= +"footnote527"></a><b>Footnote 527:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag527">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ancient Laws of Ireland</i>, i. 22; Diog. Laert. i. proem 1; +see p. <a href="#page301">301</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote528" name= +"footnote528"></a><b>Footnote 528:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag528">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xvi. 95.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote529" name= +"footnote529"></a><b>Footnote 529:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag529">(return)</a> +<p>P. <a href="#page201">201</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote530" name= +"footnote530"></a><b>Footnote 530:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag530">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. the tales of Gawain and the Green Knight with his holly +bough, and of Gawain's attempting to pluck the bough of a tree +guarded by Gramoplanz (Weston, <i>Legend of Sir Gawain</i>, 22, +86). Cf. also the tale of Diarmaid's attacking the defender of a +tree to obtain its fruit, and the subsequent slaughter of each man +who attacks the hero hidden in its branches (<i>TOS</i> vol. iii.). +Cf. Cook, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, xvii. 441.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote531" name= +"footnote531"></a><b>Footnote 531:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag531">(return)</a> +<p>See Chap. <a href="#chap18">XVIII</a>.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id= +"page165"></a>{165}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap10" id="chap10">CHAPTER X.</a></h2> +<h3>THE CULT OF THE DEAD.</h3> +<p>The custom of burying grave-goods with the dead, or slaying wife +or slaves on the tomb, does not necessarily point to a cult of the +dead, yet when such practices survive over a long period they +assume the form of a cult. These customs flourished among the +Celts, and, taken in connection with the reverence for the +sepulchres of the dead, they point to a worship of ancestral +spirits as well as of great departed heroes. Heads of the slain +were offered to the "strong shades"—the ghosts of tribal +heroes whose praises were sung by bards.<a id="footnotetag532" +name="footnotetag532"></a><a href="#footnote532"><sup>532</sup></a> +When such heads were placed on houses, they may have been devoted +to the family ghosts. The honour in which mythic or real heroes +were held may point to an actual cult, the hero being worshipped +when dead, while he still continued his guardianship of the tribe. +We know also that the tomb of King Cottius in the Alps was a sacred +place, that Irish kings were often inaugurated on ancestral burial +cairns, and that Irish gods were associated with barrows of the +dead.<a id="footnotetag533" name="footnotetag533"></a><a href= +"#footnote533"><sup>533</sup></a></p> +<p>The cult of the dead culminated at the family hearth, around +which the dead were even buried, as among the Aeduii; this latter +custom may have been general.<a id="footnotetag534" name= +"footnotetag534"></a><a href="#footnote534"><sup>534</sup></a> In +any case the belief in the presence of ancestral ghosts around the +hearth was widespread, as existing superstitions show. In +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id= +"page166"></a>{166}</span> Brittany the dead seek warmth at the +hearth by night, and a feast is spread for them on All Souls' eve, +or crumbs are left for them after a family gathering.<a id= +"footnotetag535" name="footnotetag535"></a><a href= +"#footnote535"><sup>535</sup></a> But generally the family ghost +has become a brownie, lutin, or pooka, haunting the hearth and +doing the household work.<a id="footnotetag536" name= +"footnotetag536"></a><a href="#footnote536"><sup>536</sup></a> +Fairy corresponds in all respects to old ancestral ghost, and the +one has succeeded to the place of the other, while the fairy is +even said to be the ghost of a dead person.<a id="footnotetag537" +name="footnotetag537"></a><a href="#footnote537"><sup>537</sup></a> +Certain archæological remains have also a connection with +this ancient cult. Among Celtic remains in Gaul are found andirons +of clay, ornamented with a ram's head. M. Dechelette sees in this +"the symbol of sacrifice offered to the souls of ancestors on the +altar of the hearth."<a id="footnotetag538" name= +"footnotetag538"></a><a href="#footnote538"><sup>538</sup></a> The +ram was already associated as a sacrificial animal with the cult of +fire on the hearth, and by an easy transition it was connected with +the cult of the dead there. It is found as an emblem on ancient +tombs, and the domestic Lar was purified by the immolation of a +ram.<a id="footnotetag539" name="footnotetag539"></a><a href= +"#footnote539"><sup>539</sup></a> Figurines of a ram have been +found in Gaulish tombs, and it is associated with the god of the +underworld.<a id="footnotetag540" name= +"footnotetag540"></a><a href="#footnote540"><sup>540</sup></a> The +ram of the andirons was thus a permanent representative of the +victim offered in the cult of the dead. A mutilated inscription on +one of them may stand for <i>Laribus augustis</i>, and certain +markings on others may represent the garlands twined round the +victim.<a id="footnotetag541" name="footnotetag541"></a><a href= +"#footnote541"><sup>541</sup></a> Serpents with rams' heads occur +on the monuments of the underworld god. The serpent was a chthonian +god or the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id= +"page167"></a>{167}</span> emblem of such a god, and it may have +been thought appropriate to give it the head of an animal +associated with the cult of the dead.</p> +<p>The dead were also fed at the grave or in the house. Thus cups +were placed in the recess of a well in the churchyard of +Kilranelagh by those interring a child under five, and the ghost of +the child was supposed to supply the other spirits with water from +these cups.<a id="footnotetag542" name= +"footnotetag542"></a><a href="#footnote542"><sup>542</sup></a> In +Ireland, after a death, food is placed out for the spirits, or, at +a burial, nuts are placed in the coffin.<a id="footnotetag543" +name="footnotetag543"></a><a href="#footnote543"><sup>543</sup></a> +In some parts of France, milk is poured out on the grave, and both +in Brittany and in Scotland the dead are supposed to partake of the +funeral feast.<a id="footnotetag544" name= +"footnotetag544"></a><a href="#footnote544"><sup>544</sup></a> +These are survivals from pagan times and correspond to the rites in +use among those who still worship ancestors. In Celtic districts a +cairn or a cross is placed over the spot where a violent or +accidental death has occurred, the purpose being to appease the +ghost, and a stone is often added to the cairn by all +passers-by.<a id="footnotetag545" name= +"footnotetag545"></a><a href="#footnote545"><sup>545</sup></a></p> +<p>Festivals were held in Ireland on the anniversaries of the death +of kings or chiefs, and these were also utilised for purposes of +trade, pleasure, or politics. They sometimes occurred on the great +festivals, <i>e.g.</i> Lugnasad and Samhain, and were occasionally +held at the great burial-places.<a id="footnotetag546" name= +"footnotetag546"></a><a href="#footnote546"><sup>546</sup></a> Thus +the gathering at Taillti on Lugnasad was said to have been founded +by Lug in memory of his foster-mother, Tailtiu, and the Leinstermen +met at Carman on the same day to commemorate King Garman, or in a +variant account, a woman called Carman. She and her sons had tried +to blight the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id= +"page168"></a>{168}</span> corn of the Tuatha Dé Danann, but +the sons were driven off and she died of grief, begging that a fair +should always be held in her name, and promising abundance of milk, +fruit, and fish for its observance.<a id="footnotetag547" name= +"footnotetag547"></a><a href="#footnote547"><sup>547</sup></a> +These may be ætiological myths explaining the origin of these +festivals on the analogy of funeral festivals, but more likely, +since Lugnasad was a harvest festival, they are connected with the +custom of slaying a representative of the corn-spirit. The festival +would become a commemoration of all such victims, but when the +custom itself had ceased it would be associated with one particular +personage, the corn-goddess regarded as a mortal.</p> +<p>This would be the case where the victim was a woman, but where a +male was slain, the analogy of the slaying of the divine king or +his <i>succedaneum</i> would lead to the festivals being regarded +as commemorative of a king, <i>e.g.</i> Garman. This agrees with +the statement that observance of the festival produced plenty; +non-observance, dearth. The victims were slain to obtain plenty, +and the festival would also commemorate those who had died for this +good cause, while it would also appease their ghosts should these +be angry at their violent deaths. Certain of the dead were thus +commemorated at Lugnasad, a festival of fertility. Both the +corn-spirit or divinity slain in the reaping of the corn, and the +human victims, were appeased by its observance.<a id= +"footnotetag548" name="footnotetag548"></a><a href= +"#footnote548"><sup>548</sup></a> The legend of Carman makes her +hostile to the corn—a curious way of regarding a +corn-goddess. But we have already seen that gods of fertility were +sometimes thought of as causing blight, and in folk-belief the +corn-spirit is occasionally believed to be dangerous. Such +inversions occur wherever revolutions in religion take place.</p> +<p>The great commemoration of the dead was held on <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>{169}</span> Samhain +eve, a festival intended to aid the dying powers of vegetation, +whose life, however, was still manifested in evergreen shrubs, in +the mistletoe, in the sheaf of corn from last harvest—the +abode of the corn-spirit.<a id="footnotetag549" name= +"footnotetag549"></a><a href="#footnote549"><sup>549</sup></a> +Probably, also, human representatives of the vegetation or +corn-spirit were slain, and this may have suggested the belief in +the presence of their ghosts at this festival. Or the festival +being held at the time of the death of vegetation, the dead would +naturally be commemorated then. Or, as in Scandinavia, they may +have been held to have an influence on fertility, as an extension +of the belief that certain slain persons represented spirits of +fertility, or because trees and plants growing on the barrows of +the dead were thought to be tenanted by their spirits.<a id= +"footnotetag550" name="footnotetag550"></a><a href= +"#footnote550"><sup>550</sup></a> In Scandinavia, the dead were +associated with female spirits or <i>fylgjur</i>, identified with +the <i>disir</i>, a kind of earth-goddesses, living in hollow +hills.<a id="footnotetag551" name="footnotetag551"></a><a href= +"#footnote551"><sup>551</sup></a> The nearest Celtic analogy to +these is the <i>Matres</i>, goddesses of fertility. Bede says that +Christmas eve was called <i>Modranicht</i>, "Mothers' Night,"<a id= +"footnotetag552" name="footnotetag552"></a><a href= +"#footnote552"><sup>552</sup></a> and as many of the rites of +Samhain were transferred to Yule, the former date of +<i>Modranicht</i> may have been Samhain, just as the Scandinavian +<i>Disablot</i>, held in November, was a festival of the +<i>disir</i> and of the dead.<a id="footnotetag553" name= +"footnotetag553"></a><a href="#footnote553"><sup>553</sup></a> It +has been seen that the Celtic Earth-god was lord of the dead, and +that he probably took the place of an Earth-goddess or goddesses, +to whom the <i>Matres</i> certainly correspond. Hence the +connection of the dead with female Earth-spirits would be +explained. Mother Earth had received the dead before her place was +taken by the Celtic Dispater. Hence the time of Earth's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" id= +"page170"></a>{170}</span> decay was the season when the dead, her +children, would be commemorated. Whatever be the reason, Celts, +Teutons, and others have commemorated the dead at the beginning of +winter, which was the beginning of a new year, while a similar +festival of the dead at New Year is held in many other lands.</p> +<p>Both in Ireland and in Brittany, on November eve food is laid +out for the dead who come to visit the houses and to warm +themselves at the fire in the stillness of the night, and in +Brittany a huge log burns on the hearth. We have here returned to +the cult of the dead at the hearth.<a id="footnotetag554" name= +"footnotetag554"></a><a href="#footnote554"><sup>554</sup></a> +Possibly the Yule log was once a log burned on the hearth—the +place of the family ghosts—at Samhain, when new fire was +kindled in each house. On it libations were poured, which would +then have been meant for the dead. The Yule log and the log of the +Breton peasants would thus be the domestic aspect of the fire +ritual, which had its public aspect in the Samhain bonfires.</p> +<p>All this has been in part affected by the Christian feast of All +Souls. Dr. Frazer thinks that the feast of All Saints (November +1st) was intended to take the place of the pagan cult of the dead. +As it failed to do this, All Souls, a festival of all the dead, was +added on November 2nd.<a id="footnotetag555" name= +"footnotetag555"></a><a href="#footnote555"><sup>555</sup></a> To +some extent, but not entirely, it has neutralised the pagan rites, +for the old ideas connected with Samhain still survive here and +there. It is also to be noted that in some cases the friendly +aspect of the dead has been lost sight of, and, like the +<i>síd</i>-folk, they are popularly connected with evil +powers which are in the ascendant on Samhain eve.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote532" name= +"footnote532"></a><b>Footnote 532:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag532">(return)</a> +<p>Silius Italicus, v. 652; Lucan, i. 447. Cf. p. <a href= +"#page241">241</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote533" name= +"footnote533"></a><b>Footnote 533:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag533">(return)</a> +<p>Ammian. Marcell. xv. 10. 7; Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 45.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote534" name= +"footnote534"></a><b>Footnote 534:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag534">(return)</a> +<p>Bulliot, <i>Fouilles du Mont Beuvray</i>, Autun, 1899, i. 76, +396.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote535" name= +"footnote535"></a><b>Footnote 535:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag535">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz, ii. 67; Sauvé, <i>Folk-lore des Hautes +Vosges</i>, 295; Bérenger-Féraud, <i>Superstitions et +Survivances</i>, i. 11.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote536" name= +"footnote536"></a><b>Footnote 536:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag536">(return)</a> +<p>Hearn, <i>Aryan Household</i>, 43 f.; +Bérenger-Féraud, i. 33; <i>Rev. des Trad.</i> i. 142; +Carmichael, ii. 329; Cosquin, <i>Trad. Pop. de la Lorraine</i>, i. +82.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote537" name= +"footnote537"></a><b>Footnote 537:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag537">(return)</a> +<p>Kennedy, 126. The mischievous brownie who overturns furniture +and smashes crockery is an exact reproduction of the +Poltergeist.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote538" name= +"footnote538"></a><b>Footnote 538:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag538">(return)</a> +<p>Dechelette, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> xxxiii, (1898), 63, 245, 252.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote539" name= +"footnote539"></a><b>Footnote 539:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag539">(return)</a> +<p>Cicero, <i>De Leg.</i> ii. 22.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote540" name= +"footnote540"></a><b>Footnote 540:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag540">(return)</a> +<p>Dechelette, 256; Reinach, <i>BF</i> 189.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote541" name= +"footnote541"></a><b>Footnote 541:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag541">(return)</a> +<p>Dechelette, 257-258. In another instance the ram is marked with +crosses like those engraved on images of the underworld god with +the hammer.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote542" name= +"footnote542"></a><b>Footnote 542:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag542">(return)</a> +<p>Kennedy, 187.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote543" name= +"footnote543"></a><b>Footnote 543:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag543">(return)</a> +<p>Lady Wilde, 118; Curtin, <i>Tales</i>, 54.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote544" name= +"footnote544"></a><b>Footnote 544:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag544">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz, i. 229; Gregor, 21; Cambry, <i>Voyage dans le +Finistère</i>, i. 229.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote545" name= +"footnote545"></a><b>Footnote 545:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag545">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz, ii. 47; <i>Folk-Lore</i>, iv. 357; MacCulloch, <i>Misty +Isle of Skye</i>, 254; Sébillot, i. 235-236.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote546" name= +"footnote546"></a><b>Footnote 546:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag546">(return)</a> +<p>Names of places associated with the great festivals are also +those of the chief pagan cemeteries, Tara, Carman, Taillti, etc. +(O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 523).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote547" name= +"footnote547"></a><b>Footnote 547:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag547">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rennes Dindsenchas</i>, <i>RC</i> xv. 313-314.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote548" name= +"footnote548"></a><b>Footnote 548:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag548">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. Frazer, <i>Adonis</i>, 134.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote549" name= +"footnote549"></a><b>Footnote 549:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag549">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. Chambers, <i>Mediæval Stage</i>, i. 250, 253.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote550" name= +"footnote550"></a><b>Footnote 550:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag550">(return)</a> +<p>See Vigfusson-Powell, <i>Corpus Poet. Boreale</i>, i. 405, 419. +Perhaps for a similar reason a cult of the dead may have occurred +at the Midsummer festival.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote551" name= +"footnote551"></a><b>Footnote 551:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag551">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Faraday, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, xvii. 398 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote552" name= +"footnote552"></a><b>Footnote 552:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag552">(return)</a> +<p>Bede, <i>de Temp. Rat.</i> c. xv.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote553" name= +"footnote553"></a><b>Footnote 553:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag553">(return)</a> +<p>Vigfusson-Powell, i. 419.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote554" name= +"footnote554"></a><b>Footnote 554:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag554">(return)</a> +<p>Curtin, <i>Tales</i>, 157; Haddon, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, iv. 359; Le +Braz, ii. 115 <i>et passim.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote555" name= +"footnote555"></a><b>Footnote 555:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag555">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, <i>Adonis</i>, 253 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id= +"page171"></a>{171}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap11" id="chap11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2> +<h3>PRIMITIVE NATURE WORSHIP.</h3> +<p>In early thought everything was a person, in the loose meaning +then possessed by personality, and many such "persons" were +worshipped—earth, sun, moon, sea, wind, etc. This led later +to more complete personification, and the sun or earth divinity or +spirit was more or less separated from the sun or earth themselves. +Some Celtic divinities were thus evolved, but there still continued +a veneration of the objects of nature in themselves, as well as a +cult of nature spirits or secondary divinities who peopled every +part of nature. "Nor will I call out upon the mountains, fountains, +or hills, or upon the rivers, which are now subservient to the use +of man, but once were an abomination and destruction to them, and +to which the blind people paid divine honours," cries Gildas.<a id= +"footnotetag556" name="footnotetag556"></a><a href= +"#footnote556"><sup>556</sup></a> This was the true cult of the +folk, the "blind people," even when the greater gods were +organised, and it has survived with modifications in out-of-the-way +places, in spite of the coming of Christianity.</p> +<p>S. Kentigern rebuked the Cambrians for worshipping the elements, +which God made for man's use.<a id="footnotetag557" name= +"footnotetag557"></a><a href="#footnote557"><sup>557</sup></a> The +question of the daughters of Loegaire also throws much light on +Celtic nature worship. "Has your god sons or daughters?... Have +many fostered his sons? Are his daughters dear and beautiful to +men? Is he in heaven or on earth, in the sea, in the rivers, in the +mountains, in the valleys?"<a id="footnotetag558" name= +"footnotetag558"></a><a href="#footnote558"><sup>558</sup></a> The +words suggest <span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id= +"page172"></a>{172}</span> a belief in divine beings filling +heaven, earth, sea, air, hills, glens, lochs, and rivers, and +following human customs. A naïve faith, full of beauty and +poetry, even if it had its dark and grim aspects! These powers or +personalities had been invoked from time immemorial, but the +invocations were soon stereotyped into definite formulas. Such a +formula is put into the mouth of Amairgen, the poet of the +Milesians, when they were about to invade Erin, and it may have +been a magical invocation of the powers of nature at the beginning +of an undertaking or in times of danger:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"I invoke the land of Ireland!</p> +<p>Shining, shining sea!</p> +<p>Fertile, fertile mountain!</p> +<p>Wooded vale!</p> +<p>Abundant river, abundant in waters!</p> +<p>Fish abounding lake!</p> +<p>Fish abounding sea!</p> +<p>Fertile earth!</p> +<p>Irruption of fish! Fish there!</p> +<p>Bird under wave! Great fish!</p> +<p>Crab hole! Irruption of fish!</p> +<p>Fish abounding sea!"<a id="footnotetag559" name= +"footnotetag559"></a><a href="#footnote559"><sup>559</sup></a></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>A similar formula was spoken after the destruction of Da Derga's +Hostel by MacCecht on his finding water. He bathed in it and +sang—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Cold fountain! Surface of strand ...</p> +<p>Sea of lake, water of Gara, stream of river;</p> +<p>High spring well; cold fountain!"<a id="footnotetag560" name= +"footnotetag560"></a><a href="#footnote560"><sup>560</sup></a></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The goddess Morrigan, after the defeat of the Fomorians, invokes +the powers of nature and proclaims the victory to "the royal +mountains of Ireland, to its chief waters, and its river +mouths."<a id="footnotetag561" name="footnotetag561"></a><a href= +"#footnote561"><sup>561</sup></a> It was also customary to take +oaths by the elements—heaven, earth, sun, fire, moon, sea, +land, day, night, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id= +"page173"></a>{173}</span> etc., and these punished the breaker of +the oath.<a id="footnotetag562" name="footnotetag562"></a><a href= +"#footnote562"><sup>562</sup></a> Even the gods exacted such an +oath of each other. Bres swore by sun, moon, sea, and land, to +fulfil the engagement imposed on him by Lug.<a id="footnotetag563" +name="footnotetag563"></a><a href="#footnote563"><sup>563</sup></a> +The formulæ survived into Christian times, and the faithful +were forbidden to call the sun and moon gods or to swear by them, +while in Breton folk-custom at the present day oaths by sun, moon, +or earth, followed by punishment of the oath-breaker by the moon, +are still in use.<a id="footnotetag564" name= +"footnotetag564"></a><a href="#footnote564"><sup>564</sup></a> +These oaths had originated in a time when the elements themselves +were thought to be divine, and similar adjurations were used by +Greeks and Scandinavians.</p> +<p>While the greater objects of nature were worshipped for +themselves alone, the Celts also peopled the earth with spirits, +benevolent or malevolent, of rocks, hills, dales, forests, lakes, +and streams,<a id="footnotetag565" name= +"footnotetag565"></a><a href="#footnote565"><sup>565</sup></a> and +while greater divinities of growth had been evolved, they still +believed in lesser spirits of vegetation, of the corn, and of +fertility, connected, however, with these gods. Some of these still +survive as fairies seen in meadows, woodlands, or streams, or as +demoniac beings haunting lonely places. And even now, in French +folk-belief, sun, moon, winds, etc., are regarded as actual +personages. Sun and moon are husband and wife; the winds have +wives; they are addressed by personal names and reverenced.<a id= +"footnotetag566" name="footnotetag566"></a><a href= +"#footnote566"><sup>566</sup></a> Some spirits may already have had +a demoniac aspect in pagan times. The Tuatha Déa conjured up +<i>meisi</i>, "spectral bodies that rise from the ground," against +the Milesians, and at their service were malignant +sprites—<i>urtrochta</i>, and "forms, spectres, and great +queens" called <i>guidemain</i> (false demons). The Druids also +sent forth mischievous spirits called <i>siabra</i>. In the +<i>Táin</i> there are <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page174" id="page174"></a>{174}</span> references to +<i>bocânachs</i>, <i>banânaichs</i>, and +<i>geniti-glinni</i>, "goblins, eldritch beings, and +glen-folk."<a id="footnotetag567" name= +"footnotetag567"></a><a href="#footnote567"><sup>567</sup></a> +These are twice called Tuatha Dé Danann, and this suggests +that they were nature-spirits akin to the greater gods.<a id= +"footnotetag568" name="footnotetag568"></a><a href= +"#footnote568"><sup>568</sup></a> The <i>geniti-glinni</i> would be +spirits haunting glen and valley. They are friendly to +Cúchulainn in the <i>Táin</i>, but in the <i>Feast of +Bricriu</i> he and other heroes fight and destroy them.<a id= +"footnotetag569" name="footnotetag569"></a><a href= +"#footnote569"><sup>569</sup></a> In modern Irish belief they are +demons of the air, perhaps fallen angels.<a id="footnotetag570" +name="footnotetag570"></a><a href= +"#footnote570"><sup>570</sup></a></p> +<p>Much of this is probably pre-Celtic as well as Celtic, but it +held its ground because it was dear to the Celts themselves. They +upheld the aboriginal cults resembling those which, in the lands +whence they came, had been native and local with themselves. Such +cults are as old as the world, and when Christianity expelled the +worship of the greater gods, younger in growth, the ancient nature +worship, dowered with immortal youth,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">"bowed low before the blast</p> +<p>In patient deep disdain,"</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>to rise again in vigour. Preachers, councils, and laws inveighed +against it. The old rites continued to be practised, or survived +under a Christian dress and colouring. They are found in Breton +villages, in Highland glens, in Welsh and Cornish valleys, in Irish +townships, and only the spread of school-board education, with its +materialism and uninviting common sense, is forcing them at last to +yield.</p> +<p>The denunciations of these cults throw some light upon them. +Offerings at trees, stones, fountains, and cross-roads, the +lighting of fires or candles there, and vows or incantations +addressed to them, are forbidden, as is also the worship of trees, +groves, stones, rivers, and wells. The sun and moon <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>{175}</span> are not +to be called lords. Wizardry, and divination, and the leapings and +dancings, songs and choruses of the pagans, <i>i.e.</i> their +orgiastic cults, are not to be practised. Tempest-raisers are not +to ply their diabolical craft.<a id="footnotetag571" name= +"footnotetag571"></a><a href="#footnote571"><sup>571</sup></a> +These denunciations, of course, were not without their effect, and +legend told how the spirits of nature were heard bewailing the +power of the Christian saints, their mournful cries echoing in +wooded hollows, secluded valleys, and shores of lake and +river.<a id="footnotetag572" name="footnotetag572"></a><a href= +"#footnote572"><sup>572</sup></a> Their power, though limited, was +not annihilated, but the secrecy in which the old cults often +continued to be practised gave them a darker colour. They were +identified with the works of the devil, and the spirits of paganism +with dark and grisly demons.<a id="footnotetag573" name= +"footnotetag573"></a><a href="#footnote573"><sup>573</sup></a> This +culminated in the mediæval witch persecutions, for witchcraft +was in part the old paganism in a new guise. Yet even that did not +annihilate superstition, which still lives and flourishes among the +folk, though the actual worship of nature-spirits has now +disappeared.</p> +<hr /> +<p>Perhaps the most important object in nature to the early Celts +as to most primitive folk was the moon. The phases of the moon were +apparent before men observed the solstices and equinoxes, and they +formed an easy method of measuring time. The Celtic year was at +first lunar—Pliny speaks of the Celtic method of counting the +beginning of months and years by the moon—and night was +supposed to precede day.<a id="footnotetag574" name= +"footnotetag574"></a><a href="#footnote574"><sup>574</sup></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id= +"page176"></a>{176}</span> The festivals of growth began, not at +sunrise, but on the previous evening with the rising of the moon, +and the name <i>La Lunade</i> is still given to the Midsummer +festival in parts of France.<a id="footnotetag575" name= +"footnotetag575"></a><a href="#footnote575"><sup>575</sup></a> At +Vallon de la Suille a wood on the slope where the festival is held +is called <i>Bois de la Lune</i>; and in Ireland, where the +festival begins on the previous evening, in the district where an +ascent of Cnoc Aine is made, the position of the moon must be +observed. A similar combination of sun and moon cults is found in +an inscription at Lausanne—<i>To the genius of the sun and +moon.</i><a id="footnotetag576" name="footnotetag576"></a><a href= +"#footnote576"><sup>576</sup></a></p> +<p>Possibly sun festivals took the place of those of the moon. +Traces of the connection of the moon with agriculture occur in +different regions, the connection being established through the +primitive law of sympathetic magic. The moon waxes and wanes, +therefore it must affect all processes of growth or decay. Dr. +Frazer has cited many instances of this belief, and has shown that +the moon had a priority to the sun in worship, <i>e.g.</i> in Egypt +and Babylon.<a id="footnotetag577" name= +"footnotetag577"></a><a href="#footnote577"><sup>577</sup></a> +Sowing is done with a waxing moon, so that, through sympathy, there +may be a large increase. But harvesting, cutting timber, etc., +should be done with a waning moon, because moisture being caused by +a waxing moon, it was necessary to avoid cutting such things as +would spoil by moisture at that time. Similar beliefs are found +among the Celts. Mistletoe and other magical plants were culled +with a waxing moon, probably because their <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>{177}</span> power +would thus be greater. Dr. Johnson noted the fact that the +Highlanders sowed their seed with a waxing moon, in the expectation +of a better harvest. For similar occult reasons, it is thought in +Brittany that conception during a waxing moon produces a male +child, during a waning moon a female, while <i>accouchements</i> at +the latter time are dangerous. Sheep and cows should be killed at +the new moon, else their flesh will shrink, but peats should be cut +in the last quarter, otherwise they will remain moist and give out +"a power of smoke."<a id="footnotetag578" name= +"footnotetag578"></a><a href="#footnote578"><sup>578</sup></a></p> +<p>These ideas take us back to a time when it was held that the +moon was not merely the measurer of time, but had powerful effects +on the processes of growth and decay. Artemis and Diana, +moon-goddesses, had power over all growing things, and as some +Celtic goddesses were equated with Diana, they may have been +connected with the moon, more especially as Gallo-Roman images of +Diana have the head adorned with a crescent moon. In some cases +festivals of the moon remained intact, as among the Celtiberians +and other peoples to the north of them, who at the time of full +moon celebrated the festival of a nameless god, dancing all night +before the doors of their houses.<a id="footnotetag579" name= +"footnotetag579"></a><a href="#footnote579"><sup>579</sup></a> The +nameless god may have been the moon, worshipped at the time of her +intensest light. Moonlight dances round a great stone, with +singing, on the first day of the year, occurred in the Highlands in +the eighteenth century.<a id="footnotetag580" name= +"footnotetag580"></a><a href="#footnote580"><sup>580</sup></a> +Other survivals of cult are seen in the practices of bowing or +baring the head at new moon, or addressing it with words of +adoration or supplication. In Ireland, Camden found the custom at +new moon of saying the Lord's Prayer with the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>{178}</span> addition +of the words, "Leave us whole and sound as Thou hast found us." +Similar customs exist in Brittany, where girls pray to the moon to +grant them dreams of their future husbands.<a id="footnotetag581" +name="footnotetag581"></a><a href="#footnote581"><sup>581</sup></a> +Like other races, the Celts thought that eclipses were caused by a +monster attacking the moon, while it could be driven off with cries +and shouts. In 218 B.C. the Celtic allies of Attalus were +frightened by an eclipse, and much later Christian legislation +forbade the people to assemble at an eclipse and shout, <i>Vince, +Luna!</i><a id="footnotetag582" name="footnotetag582"></a><a href= +"#footnote582"><sup>582</sup></a> Such a practice was observed in +Ireland in the seventeenth century. At an earlier time, Irish poets +addressed sun and moon as divinities, and they were represented on +altars even in Christian times.<a id="footnotetag583" name= +"footnotetag583"></a><a href="#footnote583"><sup>583</sup></a></p> +<p>While the Celts believed in sea-gods—Manannan, Morgen, +Dylan—the sea itself was still personified and regarded as +divine. It was thought to be a hostile being, and high tides were +met by Celtic warriors, who advanced against them with sword and +spear, often perishing in the rushing waters rather than retreat. +The ancients regarded this as bravado. M. Jullian sees in it a +sacrifice by voluntary suicide; M. D'Arbois, a tranquil waiting for +death and the introduction to another life.<a id="footnotetag584" +name="footnotetag584"></a><a href="#footnote584"><sup>584</sup></a> +But the passages give the sense of an actual attack on the +waves—living things which men might terrify, and perhaps with +this was combined the belief that no one could die during a rising +tide. Similarly French fishermen threaten to cut a fog in two with +a knife, while the legend of S. Lunaire tells how he threw a knife +at a fog, thus causing its disappearance.<a id="footnotetag585" +name="footnotetag585"></a><a href="#footnote585"><sup>585</sup></a> +Fighting the waves is also referred to in Irish texts. <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>{179}</span> Thus +Tuirbe Trágmar would "hurl a cast of his axe in the face of +the flood-tide, so that he forbade the sea, which then would not +come over the axe." Cúchulainn, in one of his fits of anger, +fought the waves for seven days, and Fionn fought and conquered the +Muireartach, a personification of the wild western sea.<a id= +"footnotetag586" name="footnotetag586"></a><a href= +"#footnote586"><sup>586</sup></a> On the French coast fishermen +throw harpoons at certain harmful waves called the Three Witch +Waves, thus drawing their blood and causing them to subside.<a id= +"footnotetag587" name="footnotetag587"></a><a href= +"#footnote587"><sup>587</sup></a> In some cases human victims may +have been offered to the rising waters, since certain tales speak +of a child set floating on the waves, and this, repeated every +seven years, kept them in their place.<a id="footnotetag588" name= +"footnotetag588"></a><a href="#footnote588"><sup>588</sup></a></p> +<p>The sea had also its beneficent aspects. The shore was "a place +of revelation of science," and the sea sympathised with human +griefs. At the Battle of Ventry "the sea chattered, telling the +losses, and the waves raised a heavy, woeful great moan in wailing +them."<a id="footnotetag589" name="footnotetag589"></a><a href= +"#footnote589"><sup>589</sup></a> In other cases in Ireland, by a +spell put on the waves, or by the intuitive knowledge of the +listener, it was revealed that they were wailing for a death or +describing some distant event.<a id="footnotetag590" name= +"footnotetag590"></a><a href="#footnote590"><sup>590</sup></a> In +the beautiful song sung by the wife of Cael, "the wave wails +against the shore for his death," and in Welsh myth the waves +bewailed the death of Dylan, "son of the wave," and were eager to +avenge it. The noise of the waves rushing into the vale of Conwy +were his dying groans.<a id="footnotetag591" name= +"footnotetag591"></a><a href="#footnote591"><sup>591</sup></a> In +Ireland the roaring of the sea was thought to be prophetic of a +king's death or the coming of important news; and there, too, +certain great waves were celebrated in story—Clidna's, +Tuaithe's, and Rudhraidhe's.<a id="footnotetag592" name= +"footnotetag592"></a><a href="#footnote592"><sup>592</sup></a> Nine +waves, or the ninth wave, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" +id="page180"></a>{180}</span> partly because of the sacred nature +of the number nine, partly because of the beneficent character of +the waves, had a great importance. They formed a barrier against +invasion, danger, or pestilence, or they had a healing +effect.<a id="footnotetag593" name="footnotetag593"></a><a href= +"#footnote593"><sup>593</sup></a></p> +<p>The wind was also regarded as a living being whose power was to +be dreaded. It punished King Loegaire for breaking his oath. But it +was also personified as a god Vintius, equated with Pollux and +worshipped by Celtic sailors, or with Mars, the war-god who, in his +destructive aspect, was perhaps regarded as the nearest analogue to +a god of stormy winds.<a id="footnotetag594" name= +"footnotetag594"></a><a href="#footnote594"><sup>594</sup></a> +Druids and Celtic priestesses claimed the power of controlling the +winds, as did wizards and witches in later days. This they did, +according to Christian writers, by the aid of demons, perhaps the +old divinities of the air. Bishop Agobard describes how the +<i>tempestarii</i> raised tempests which destroyed the fruits of +the earth, and drew "aerial ships" from Magonia, whither the ships +carried these fruits.<a id="footnotetag595" name= +"footnotetag595"></a><a href="#footnote595"><sup>595</sup></a> +Magonia may be the upper air ruled over by a sky god Magounos or +Mogounos, equated with Apollo.<a id="footnotetag596" name= +"footnotetag596"></a><a href="#footnote596"><sup>596</sup></a> The +winds may have been his servants, ruled also by earthly magicians. +Like Yahweh, as conceived by Hebrew poets, he "bringeth the winds +out of his treasures," and "maketh lightnings with rain."</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote556" name= +"footnote556"></a><b>Footnote 556:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag556">(return)</a> +<p>Gildas ii. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote557" name= +"footnote557"></a><b>Footnote 557:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag557">(return)</a> +<p>Jocelyn, <i>Vila Kentig.</i> c. xxxii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote558" name= +"footnote558"></a><b>Footnote 558:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag558">(return)</a> +<p><i>Trip. Life</i>, 315.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote559" name= +"footnote559"></a><b>Footnote 559:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag559">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 12<i>b</i>. The translation is from D'Arbois, ii. 250 +f; cf. O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 190.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote560" name= +"footnote560"></a><b>Footnote 560:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag560">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxii. 400.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote561" name= +"footnote561"></a><b>Footnote 561:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag561">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 109.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote562" name= +"footnote562"></a><b>Footnote 562:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag562">(return)</a> +<p>Petrie, <i>Tara</i>, 34; <i>RC</i> vi. 168; <i>LU</i> 118.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote563" name= +"footnote563"></a><b>Footnote 563:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag563">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 50.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote564" name= +"footnote564"></a><b>Footnote 564:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag564">(return)</a> +<p>D'Achery, <i>Spicelegium</i>, v. 216; Sébillot, i. 16 f., +56, 211.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote565" name= +"footnote565"></a><b>Footnote 565:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag565">(return)</a> +<p>Gregory of Tours, <i>Hist.</i> ii. 10, speaks of the current +belief in the divinity of waters, birds, and beasts.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote566" name= +"footnote566"></a><b>Footnote 566:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag566">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, i. 9, 35, 75, 247, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote567" name= +"footnote567"></a><b>Footnote 567:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag567">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> ii. 273; Cormac, 87; Stokes, <i>TIG</i> +xxxiii., <i>RC</i> xv. 307.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote568" name= +"footnote568"></a><b>Footnote 568:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag568">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 170, 187, 193; <i>IT</i> i. 214; Leahy, i. 126.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote569" name= +"footnote569"></a><b>Footnote 569:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag569">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 287.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote570" name= +"footnote570"></a><b>Footnote 570:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag570">(return)</a> +<p>Henderson, <i>Irish Texts</i>, ii. 210.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote571" name= +"footnote571"></a><b>Footnote 571:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag571">(return)</a> +<p><i>Capit. Karoli Magni</i>, i. 62; <i>Leges Luitprand.</i> ii. +38; Canon 23, 2nd Coun. of Arles, Hefele, <i>Councils</i>, iii. +471; D'Achery, v. 215. Some of these attacks were made against +Teutonic superstitions, but similar superstitions existed among the +Celts.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote572" name= +"footnote572"></a><b>Footnote 572:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag572">(return)</a> +<p>See Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> ii. 498.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote573" name= +"footnote573"></a><b>Footnote 573:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag573">(return)</a> +<p>A more tolerant note is heard, <i>e.g.</i>, in an Irish text +which says that the spirits which appeared of old were divine +ministrants not demoniacal, while angels helped the ancients +because they followed natural truth. "Cormac's Sword," <i>IT</i> +iii. 220-221. Cf. p. <a href="#page152">152</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote574" name= +"footnote574"></a><b>Footnote 574:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag574">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 18; Pliny xxii. 14. Pliny speaks of culling +mistletoe on the sixth day of the moon, which is to them the +beginning of months and years (<i>sexta luna, quae principia</i>, +etc.). This seems to make the sixth, not the first, day of the moon +that from which the calculation was made. But the meaning is that +mistletoe was culled on the sixth day of the moon, and that the +moon was that by which months and years were measured. <i>Luna</i>, +not <i>sexta luna</i>, is in apposition with <i>quae</i>. Traces of +the method of counting by nights or by the moon survive locally in +France, and the usage is frequent in Irish and Welsh literature. +See my article "Calendar" (Celtic) in Hastings' <i>Encyclop. of +Religion and Ethics</i>, iii. 78 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote575" name= +"footnote575"></a><b>Footnote 575:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag575">(return)</a> +<p>Delocke, "La Procession dite La Lunade," <i>RC</i> ix. 425.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote576" name= +"footnote576"></a><b>Footnote 576:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag576">(return)</a> +<p>Monnier, 174, 222; Fitzgerald, <i>RC</i> iv. 189.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote577" name= +"footnote577"></a><b>Footnote 577:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag577">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, <i>Golden Bough</i><sup>2</sup>, ii. 154 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote578" name= +"footnote578"></a><b>Footnote 578:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag578">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xvi. 45; Johnson, <i>Journey</i>, 183; Ramsay, +<i>Scotland in the Eighteenth Century</i>, ii. 449; +Sébillot, i. 41 f.; MacCulloch, <i>Misty Isle of Skye</i>, +236. In Brittany it is thought that girls may conceive by the +moon's power (<i>RC</i> iii. 452).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote579" name= +"footnote579"></a><b>Footnote 579:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag579">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, iii. 4. 16.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote580" name= +"footnote580"></a><b>Footnote 580:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag580">(return)</a> +<p>Brand, <i>s.v.</i> "New Year's Day."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote581" name= +"footnote581"></a><b>Footnote 581:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag581">(return)</a> +<p>Chambers, <i>Popular Rhymes</i>, 35; Sébillot, i. 46, 57 +f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote582" name= +"footnote582"></a><b>Footnote 582:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag582">(return)</a> +<p>Polybius, v. 78; <i>Vita S. Eligii</i>, ii. 15.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote583" name= +"footnote583"></a><b>Footnote 583:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag583">(return)</a> +<p>Osborne, <i>Advice to his Son</i> (1656), 79; <i>RC</i> xx. 419, +428.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote584" name= +"footnote584"></a><b>Footnote 584:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag584">(return)</a> +<p>Aristotle, <i>Nic. Eth.</i> iii. 77; <i>Eud. Eth.</i> iii. 1. +25; Stobæus, vii. 40; Ælian, xii. 22; Jullian, 54; +D'Arbois, vi. 218.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote585" name= +"footnote585"></a><b>Footnote 585:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag585">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, i. 119. The custom of throwing something at a +"fairy eddy," <i>i.e.</i> a dust storm, is well known on Celtic +ground and elsewhere.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote586" name= +"footnote586"></a><b>Footnote 586:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag586">(return)</a> +<p><i>Folk-Lore,</i> iv. 488; Curtin, <i>HTI</i> 324; Campbell, +<i>The Fians</i>, 158. Fian warriors attacked the sea when told it +was laughing at them.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote587" name= +"footnote587"></a><b>Footnote 587:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag587">(return)</a> +<p><i>Mélusine</i>, ii. 200.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote588" name= +"footnote588"></a><b>Footnote 588:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag588">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 170.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote589" name= +"footnote589"></a><b>Footnote 589:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag589">(return)</a> +<p>Meyer, <i>Cath. Finntraga</i>, 40.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote590" name= +"footnote590"></a><b>Footnote 590:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag590">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xvi. 9; <i>LB</i> 32<i>b</i>, 55.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote591" name= +"footnote591"></a><b>Footnote 591:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag591">(return)</a> +<p>Meyer, <i>op. cit.</i> 55; Skene, i. 282, 288, 543; Rh[^y]s, +<i>HL</i> 387.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote592" name= +"footnote592"></a><b>Footnote 592:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag592">(return)</a> +<p>Meyer, 51; Joyce, <i>PN</i> i. 195, ii. 257; <i>RC</i> xv. +438.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote593" name= +"footnote593"></a><b>Footnote 593:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag593">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page55">55</a>, <i>supra</i>; <i>IT</i> i. 838, +iii. 207; <i>RC</i> ii. 201, ix. 118.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote594" name= +"footnote594"></a><b>Footnote 594:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag594">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i> "Vintius."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote595" name= +"footnote595"></a><b>Footnote 595:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag595">(return)</a> +<p>Agobard, i. 146.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote596" name= +"footnote596"></a><b>Footnote 596:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag596">(return)</a> +<p>See Stokes, <i>RC</i> vi. 267.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id= +"page181"></a>{181}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap12" id="chap12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2> +<h3>RIVER AND WELL WORSHIP.</h3> +<p>Among the Celts the testimony of contemporary witnesses, +inscriptions, votive offerings, and survivals, shows the importance +of the cult of waters and of water divinities. Mr. Gomme argues +that Celtic water-worship was derived from the pre-Celtic +aborigines,<a id="footnotetag597" name= +"footnotetag597"></a><a href="#footnote597"><sup>597</sup></a> but +if so, the Celts must have had a peculiar aptitude for it, since +they were so enthusiastic in its observance. What probably happened +was that the Celts, already worshippers of the waters, freely +adopted local cults of water wherever they came. Some rivers or +river-goddesses in Celtic regions seem to posses pre-Celtic +names.<a id="footnotetag598" name="footnotetag598"></a><a href= +"#footnote598"><sup>598</sup></a></p> +<p>Treasures were flung into a sacred lake near Toulouse to cause a +pestilence to cease. Caepion, who afterwards fished up this +treasure, fell soon after in battle—a punishment for +cupidity, and <i>aurum Tolosanum</i> now became an expression for +goods dishonestly acquired.<a id="footnotetag599" name= +"footnotetag599"></a><a href="#footnote599"><sup>599</sup></a> A +yearly festival, lasting three days, took place at Lake +Gévaudan. Garments, food, and wax were thrown into the +waters, and animals were sacrificed. On the fourth day, it is said, +there never failed to spring up a tempest of rain, thunder, and +lightning—a strange reward for this worship of the +lake.<a id="footnotetag600" name="footnotetag600"></a><a href= +"#footnote600"><sup>600</sup></a> S. Columba routed the spirits of +a Scottish fountain which was worshipped as a god, and <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>{182}</span> the well +now became sacred, perhaps to the saint himself, who washed in it +and blessed it so that it cured diseases.<a id="footnotetag601" +name="footnotetag601"></a><a href= +"#footnote601"><sup>601</sup></a></p> +<p>On inscriptions a river name is prefixed by some divine +epithet—<i>dea</i>, <i>augusta</i>, and the worshipper +records his gratitude for benefits received from the divinity or +the river itself. Bormanus, Bormo or Borvo, Danuvius (the Danube), +and Luxovius are found on inscriptions as names of river or +fountain gods, but goddesses are more numerous—Acionna, +Aventia, Bormana, Brixia, Carpundia, Clutoida, Divona, Sirona, +Ura—well-nymphs; and Icauna (the Yonne), Matrona, and Sequana +(the Seine)—river-goddesses.<a id="footnotetag602" name= +"footnotetag602"></a><a href="#footnote602"><sup>602</sup></a> No +inscription to the goddess of a lake has yet been found. Some +personal names like Dubrogenos (son of the Dubron), Enigenus (son +of the Aenus), and the belief of Virdumarus that one of his +ancestors was the Rhine,<a id="footnotetag603" name= +"footnotetag603"></a><a href="#footnote603"><sup>603</sup></a> +point to the idea that river-divinities might have amours with +mortals and beget progeny called by their names. In Ireland, +Conchobar was so named from the river whence his mother Nessa drew +water, perhaps because he was a child of the river-god.<a id= +"footnotetag604" name="footnotetag604"></a><a href= +"#footnote604"><sup>604</sup></a></p> +<p>The name of the water-divinity was sometimes given to the place +of his or her cult, or to the towns which sprang up on the banks of +rivers—the divinity thus becoming a tutelary god. Many towns +(<i>e.g.</i> Divonne or Dyonne, etc.) have names derived from a +common Celtic river name Deuona, "divine." This name in various +forms is found all over the Celtic area,<a id="footnotetag605" +name="footnotetag605"></a><a href="#footnote605"><sup>605</sup></a> +and there is little doubt that the Celts, in their onward progress, +named river after river by the name of the same <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>{183}</span> divinity, +believing that each new river was a part of his or her kingdom. The +name was probably first an appellative, then a personal name, the +divine river becoming a divinity. Deus Nemausus occurs on votive +tablets at Nimes, the name Nemausus being that of the clear and +abundant spring there whence flowed the river of the same name. A +similar name occurs in other regions—Nemesa, a tributary of +the Moselle; Nemh, the source of the Tara and the former name of +the Blackwater; and Nimis, a Spanish river mentioned by Appian. +Another group includes the Matrona (Marne), the Moder, the Madder, +the Maronne and Maronna, and others, probably derived from a word +signifying "mother."<a id="footnotetag606" name= +"footnotetag606"></a><a href="#footnote606"><sup>606</sup></a> The +mother-river was that which watered a whole region, just as in the +Hindu sacred books the waters are mothers, sources of fertility. +The Celtic mother-rivers were probably goddesses, akin to the +<i>Matres</i>, givers of plenty and fertility. In Gaul, Sirona, a +river-goddess, is represented like the <i>Matres</i>. She was +associated with Grannos, perhaps as his mother, and Professor +Rh[^y]s equates the pair with the Welsh Modron and Mabon; Modron is +probably connected with Matrona.<a id="footnotetag607" name= +"footnotetag607"></a><a href="#footnote607"><sup>607</sup></a> In +any case the Celts regarded rivers as bestowers of life, health, +and plenty, and offered them rich gifts and sacrifices.<a id= +"footnotetag608" name="footnotetag608"></a><a href= +"#footnote608"><sup>608</sup></a></p> +<p>Gods like Grannos, Borvo, and others, equated with Apollo, +presided over healing springs, and they are usually associated with +goddesses, as their husbands or sons. But as the goddesses are more +numerous, and as most Celtic river names are feminine, female +divinities of rivers and springs doubtless had the earlier and +foremost place, especially as <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page184" id="page184"></a>{184}</span> their cult was connected +with fertility. The gods, fewer in number, were all equated with +Apollo, but the goddesses were not merged by the Romans into the +personality of one goddess, since they themselves had their groups +of river-goddesses, Nymphs and Naiads. Before the Roman conquest +the cult of water-divinities, friends of mankind, must have formed +a large part of the popular religion of Gaul, and their names may +be counted by hundreds. Thermal springs had also their genii, and +they were appropriated by the Romans, so that the local gods now +shared their healing powers with Apollo, Æsculapius, and the +Nymphs. Thus every spring, every woodland brook, every river in +glen or valley, the roaring cataract, and the lake were haunted by +divine beings, mainly thought of as beautiful females with whom the +<i>Matres</i> were undoubtedly associated. There they revealed +themselves to their worshippers, and when paganism had passed away, +they remained as <i>fées</i> or fairies haunting spring, or +well, or river.<a id="footnotetag609" name= +"footnotetag609"></a><a href="#footnote609"><sup>609</sup></a> +Scores of fairy wells still exist, and by them mediæval +knights had many a fabled amour with those beautiful beings still +seen by the "ignorant" but romantic peasant.</p> +<p>Sanctuaries were erected at these springs by grateful +worshippers, and at some of them festivals were held, or they were +the resort of pilgrims. As sources of fertility they had a place in +the ritual of the great festivals, and sacred wells were visited on +Midsummer day, when also the river-gods claimed their human +victims. Some of the goddesses were represented by statues or busts +in Gallo-Roman times, if not earlier, and other images of them +which have been found were of the nature of <i>ex votos</i>, +presented by worshippers in gratitude <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>{185}</span> for the +goddess's healing gifts. Money, ingots of gold or silver, and +models of limbs or other parts of the body which had been or were +desired to be healed, were also presented. Gregory of Tours says of +the Gauls that they "represent in wood or bronze the members in +which they suffer, and whose healing they desire, and place them in +a temple."<a id="footnotetag610" name="footnotetag610"></a><a href= +"#footnote610"><sup>610</sup></a> Contact of the model with the +divinity brought healing to the actual limbs on the principle of +sympathetic magic. Many such models have been discovered. Thus in +the shrine of Dea Sequana was found a vase with over a hundred; +another contained over eight hundred. Inscriptions were engraved on +plaques which were fastened to the walls of temples, or placed in +springs.<a id="footnotetag611" name="footnotetag611"></a><a href= +"#footnote611"><sup>611</sup></a> Leaden tablets with inscriptions +were placed in springs by those who desired healing or when the +waters were low, and on some the actual waters are hardly +discriminated from the divinities. The latter are asked to heal or +flow or swell—words which apply more to the waters than to +them, while the tablets, with their frank animism, also show that, +in some cases, there were many elemental spirits of a well, only +some of whom were rising to the rank of a goddess. They are called +collectively <i>Niskas</i>—the Nixies of later tradition, but +some have personal names—Lerano, Dibona, Dea—showing +that they were tending to become separate divine personalities. The +Peisgi are also appealed to, perhaps the later Piskies, unless the +word is a corrupt form of a Celtic <i>peiskos</i>, or the Latin +<i>piscus</i>, "fish."<a id="footnotetag612" name= +"footnotetag612"></a><a href="#footnote612"><sup>612</sup></a> This +is unlikely, as fish could not exist in a warm sulphurous spring, +though the Celts believed in the sacred fish of wells or streams. +The fairies now associated with wells or with a <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>{186}</span> +water-world beneath them, are usually nameless, and only in a few +cases have a definite name. They, like the older spirits of the +wells, have generally a beneficent character.<a id="footnotetag613" +name="footnotetag613"></a><a href="#footnote613"><sup>613</sup></a> +Thus in the fountains of Logres dwelt damsels who fed the wayfarer +with meat and bread, until grievous wrong was done them, when they +disappeared and the land became waste.<a id="footnotetag614" name= +"footnotetag614"></a><a href="#footnote614"><sup>614</sup></a> +Occasionally, however, they have a more malevolent character.<a id= +"footnotetag615" name="footnotetag615"></a><a href= +"#footnote615"><sup>615</sup></a></p> +<p>The spirit of the waters was often embodied in an animal, +usually a fish. Even now in Brittany the fairy dweller in a spring +has the form of an eel, while in the seventeenth century Highland +wells contained fish so sacred that no one dared to catch +them.<a id="footnotetag616" name="footnotetag616"></a><a href= +"#footnote616"><sup>616</sup></a> In Wales S. Cybi's well contained +a huge eel in whose virtues the villagers believed, and terror +prevailed when any one dared to take it from the water. Two sacred +fish still exist in a holy well at Nant Peris, and are replaced by +others when they die, the dead fish being buried.<a id= +"footnotetag617" name="footnotetag617"></a><a href= +"#footnote617"><sup>617</sup></a> This latter act, solemnly +performed, is a true sign of the divine or sacred character of the +animal. Many wells with sacred fish exist in Ireland, and the fish +have usually some supernatural quality—they never alter in +size, they become invisible, or they take the form of beautiful +women.<a id="footnotetag618" name="footnotetag618"></a><a href= +"#footnote618"><sup>618</sup></a> Any one destroying such fish was +regarded as a sacrilegious person, and sometimes a hostile tribe +killed and ate the sacred fish of a district invaded by them, just +as Egyptians of one nome insulted those of another by killing their +sacred animals.<a id="footnotetag619" name= +"footnotetag619"></a><a href="#footnote619"><sup>619</sup></a> In +old Irish beliefs the salmon was the fish of knowledge. Thus +whoever ate the salmon of Connla's <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page187" id="page187"></a>{187}</span> well was dowered with the +wisdom which had come to them through eating nuts from the hazels +of knowledge around the well. In this case the sacred fish was +eaten, but probably by certain persons only—those who had the +right to do so. Sinend, who went to seek inspiration from the well, +probably by eating one of its salmon, was overwhelmed by its +waters. The legend of the salmon is perhaps based on old ritual +practices of the occasional eating of a divine animal. In other +cases, legends of a miraculous supply of fish from sacred wells are +perhaps later Christian traditions of former pagan beliefs or +customs concerning magical methods of increasing a sacred or totem +animal species, like those used in Central Australia and New +Guinea.<a id="footnotetag620" name="footnotetag620"></a><a href= +"#footnote620"><sup>620</sup></a> The frog is sometimes the sacred +animal, and this recalls the <i>Märchen</i> of the Frog +Bridegroom living in a well, who insisted on marrying the girl who +drew its waters. Though this tale is not peculiar to the Celts, it +is not improbable that the divine animal guardian of a well may +have become the hero of a folk-tale, especially as such wells were +sometimes tabu to women.<a id="footnotetag621" name= +"footnotetag621"></a><a href="#footnote621"><sup>621</sup></a> A +fly was the guardian spirit of S. Michael's well in Banffshire. +Auguries regarding health were drawn from its movements, and it was +believed that the fly, when it grew old, transmigrated into +another.<a id="footnotetag622" name="footnotetag622"></a><a href= +"#footnote622"><sup>622</sup></a></p> +<p>Such beliefs were not peculiarly Celtic. They are found in all +European folk-lore, and they are still alive among +savages—the animal being itself divine or the personification +of a divinity. A huge sacred eel was worshipped by the Fijians; in +North America and elsewhere there were serpent guardians of the +waters; and the Semites worshipped the fish of sacred wells as +incarnations or symbols of a god.</p> +<p>Later Celtic folk-belief associated monstrous and malevolent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id= +"page188"></a>{188}</span> beings with rivers and lakes. These may +be the older divinities to whom a demoniac form has been given, but +even in pagan times such monstrous beings may have been believed +in, or they may be survivals of the more primitive monstrous +guardians of the waters. The last were dragons or serpents, +conventional forms of the reptiles which once dwelt in watery +places, attacking all who came near. This old idea certainly +survived in Irish and Highland belief, for the Fians conquered huge +dragons or serpents in lochs, or saints chained them to the bottom +of the waters. Hence the common place-name of Loch na piast, "Loch +of the Monster." In other tales they emerge and devour the impious +or feast on the dead.<a id="footnotetag623" name= +"footnotetag623"></a><a href="#footnote623"><sup>623</sup></a> The +<i>Dracs</i> of French superstition—river monsters who assume +human form and drag down victims to the depths, where they devour +them—resemble these.</p> +<p>The <i>Each Uisge</i>, or "Water-horse," a horse with staring +eyes, webbed feet, and a slimy coat, is still dreaded. He assumes +different forms and lures the unwary to destruction, or he makes +love in human shape to women, some of whom discover his true nature +by seeing a piece of water-weed in his hair, and only escape with +difficulty. Such a water-horse was forced to drag the chariot of S. +Fechin of Fore, and under his influence became "gentler than any +other horse."<a id="footnotetag624" name= +"footnotetag624"></a><a href="#footnote624"><sup>624</sup></a> Many +Highland lochs are still haunted by this dreaded being, and he is +also known in Ireland and France, where, however, he has more of a +tricky and less of a demoniac nature.<a id="footnotetag625" name= +"footnotetag625"></a><a href="#footnote625"><sup>625</sup></a> His +horse form is perhaps <span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id= +"page189"></a>{189}</span> connected with the similar form ascribed +to Celtic water-divinities. Manannan's horses were the waves, and +he was invariably associated with a horse. Epona, the +horse-goddess, was perhaps originally goddess of a spring, and, +like the <i>Matres</i>, she is sometimes connected with the +waters.<a id="footnotetag626" name="footnotetag626"></a><a href= +"#footnote626"><sup>626</sup></a> Horses were also sacrificed to +river-divinities.<a id="footnotetag627" name= +"footnotetag627"></a><a href="#footnote627"><sup>627</sup></a> But +the beneficent water-divinities in their horse form have undergone +a curious distortion, perhaps as the result of later Christian +influences. The name of one branch of the Fomorians, the +Goborchinn, means the "Horse-headed," and one of their kings was +Eochaid Echchenn, or "Horse-head."<a id="footnotetag628" name= +"footnotetag628"></a><a href="#footnote628"><sup>628</sup></a> +Whether these have any connection with the water-horse is +uncertain.</p> +<p>The foaming waters may have suggested another animal +personification, since the name of the Boyne in Ptolemy, [Greek: +bououinda], is derived from a primitive <i>bóu-s</i>, "ox," +and <i>vindo-s</i>, "white," in Irish <i>bó find</i>, "white +cow."<a id="footnotetag629" name="footnotetag629"></a><a href= +"#footnote629"><sup>629</sup></a> But it is not certain that this +or the Celtic cult of the bull was connected with the belief in the +<i>Tarbh Uisge</i>, or "Water-bull," which had no ears and could +assume other shapes. It dwells in lochs and is generally friendly +to man, occasionally emerging to mate with ordinary cows. In the +Isle of Man the <i>Tarroo Ushtey</i>, however, begets +monsters.<a id="footnotetag630" name="footnotetag630"></a><a href= +"#footnote630"><sup>630</sup></a> These Celtic water-monsters have +a curious resemblance to the Australian <i>Bunyip</i>.</p> +<p>The <i>Uruisg</i>, often confused with the brownie, haunts +lonely places and waterfalls, and, according to his mood, helps or +harms the wayfarer. His appearance is that of a man with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id= +"page190"></a>{190}</span> shaggy hair and beard.<a id= +"footnotetag631" name="footnotetag631"></a><a href= +"#footnote631"><sup>631</sup></a> In Wales the <i>afanc</i> is a +water-monster, though the word first meant "dwarf," then +"water-dwarf," of whom many kinds existed. They correspond to the +Irish water-dwarfs, the <i>Luchorpáin</i>, descended with +the Fomorians and Goborchinn from Ham.<a id="footnotetag632" name= +"footnotetag632"></a><a href="#footnote632"><sup>632</sup></a></p> +<p>In other cases the old water beings have a more pleasing form, +like the syrens and other fairy beings who haunt French rivers, or +the mermaids of Irish estuaries.<a id="footnotetag633" name= +"footnotetag633"></a><a href="#footnote633"><sup>633</sup></a> In +Celtic France and Britain lake fairies are connected with a +water-world like that of Elysium tales, the region of earlier +divinities.<a id="footnotetag634" name= +"footnotetag634"></a><a href="#footnote634"><sup>634</sup></a> They +unite with mortals, who, as in the Swan-maiden tales, lose their +fairy brides through breaking a tabu. In many Welsh tales the bride +is obtained by throwing bread and cheese on the waters, when she +appears with an old man who has all the strength of youth. He +presents his daughter and a number of fairy animals to the mortal. +When she disappears into the waters after the breaking of the tabu, +the lake is sometimes drained in order to recover her; the father +then appears and threatens to submerge the whole district. Father +and daughters are earlier lake divinities, and in the bread and +cheese we may see a relic of the offerings to these.<a id= +"footnotetag635" name="footnotetag635"></a><a href= +"#footnote635"><sup>635</sup></a></p> +<p>Human sacrifice to water-divinities is suggested by the belief +that water-monsters devour human beings, and by the tradition that +a river claims its toll of victims every year. In popular rhymes +the annual character of the sacrifice is <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>{191}</span> hinted +at, and Welsh legend tells of a voice heard once a year from rivers +or lakes, crying, "The hour is come, but the man is not."<a id= +"footnotetag636" name="footnotetag636"></a><a href= +"#footnote636"><sup>636</sup></a> Here there is the trace of an +abandoned custom of sacrifice and of the traditional idea of the +anger of the divinity at being neglected. Such spirits or gods, +like the water-monsters, would be ever on the watch to capture +those who trespassed on their domain. In some cases the victim is +supposed to be claimed on Midsummer eve, the time of the sacrifice +in the pagan period.<a id="footnotetag637" name= +"footnotetag637"></a><a href="#footnote637"><sup>637</sup></a> The +spirits of wells had also a harmful aspect to those, at least, who +showed irreverence in approaching them. This is seen in legends +about the danger of looking rashly into a well or neglecting to +cover it, or in the belief that one must not look back after +visiting the well. Spirits of wells were also besought to do harm +to enemies.</p> +<p>Legends telling of the danger of removing or altering a well, or +of the well moving elsewhere because a woman washed her hands in +it, point to old tabus concerning wells. Boand, wife of Nechtain, +went to the fairy well which he and his cup-bearers alone might +visit, and when she showed her contempt for it, the waters rose and +destroyed her. They now flow as the river Boyne. Sinend met with a +similar fate for intruding on Connla's well, in this case the +pursuing waters became the Shannon.<a id="footnotetag638" name= +"footnotetag638"></a><a href="#footnote638"><sup>638</sup></a> +These are variants of a story <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page192" id="page192"></a>{192}</span> which might be used to +explain the origin of any river, but the legends suggest that +certain wells were tabu to women because certain branches of +knowledge, taught by the well, must be reserved for men.<a id= +"footnotetag639" name="footnotetag639"></a><a href= +"#footnote639"><sup>639</sup></a> The legends said in effect, "See +what came of women obtruding beyond their proper sphere." Savage +"mysteries" are usually tabu to women, who also exclude men from +their sacred rites. On the other hand, as all tribal lore was once +in the hands of the wise woman, such tabus and legends may have +arisen when men began to claim such lore. In other legends women +are connected with wells, as the guardians who must keep them +locked up save when water was drawn. When the woman neglected to +replace the cover, the waters burst forth, overwhelming her, and +formed a loch.<a id="footnotetag640" name= +"footnotetag640"></a><a href="#footnote640"><sup>640</sup></a> The +woman is the priestess of the well who, neglecting part of its +ritual, is punished. Even in recent times we find sacred wells in +charge of a woman who instructs the visitors in the due ritual to +be performed.<a id="footnotetag641" name= +"footnotetag641"></a><a href="#footnote641"><sup>641</sup></a> If +such legends and survivals thus point to former Celtic priestesses +of wells, these are paralleled by the Norse Horgabrudar, guardians +of wells, now elves living in the waters.<a id="footnotetag642" +name="footnotetag642"></a><a href="#footnote642"><sup>642</sup></a> +That such legends are based on the ritual of well-worship is +suggested by Boand's walking three times <i>widdershins</i> round +the well, instead of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" +id="page193"></a>{193}</span> customary <i>deiseil</i>. The due +ritual must be observed, and the stories are a warning against its +neglect.</p> +<p>In spite of twenty centuries of Christianity and the anathemas +of saints and councils, the old pagan practices at healing wells +have survived—a striking instance of human conservatism. S. +Patrick found the pagans of his day worshipping a well called +<i>Slán</i>, "health-giving," and offering sacrifices to +it,<a id="footnotetag643" name="footnotetag643"></a><a href= +"#footnote643"><sup>643</sup></a> and the Irish peasant to-day has +no doubt that there is something divine about his holy wells. The +Celts brought the belief in the divinity of springs and wells with +them, but would naturally adopt local cults wherever they found +them. Afterwards the Church placed the old pagan wells under the +protection of saints, but part of the ritual often remained +unchanged. Hence many wells have been venerated for ages by +different races and through changes in religion and polity. Thus at +the thermal springs of Vicarello offerings have been found which +show that their cult has continued from the Stone Age, through the +Bronze Age, to the days of Roman civilisation, and so into modern +times; nor is this a solitary instance.<a id="footnotetag644" name= +"footnotetag644"></a><a href="#footnote644"><sup>644</sup></a> But +it serves to show that all races, high and low, preserve the great +outlines of primitive nature religion unchanged. In all probability +the ritual of the healing wells has also remained in great part +unaltered, and wherever it is found it follows the same general +type. The patient perambulated the well three times <i>deiseil</i> +or sun-wise, taking care not to utter a word. Then he knelt at the +well and prayed to the divinity for his healing. In modern times +the saint, but occasionally the well itself, is prayed to.<a id= +"footnotetag645" name="footnotetag645"></a><a href= +"#footnote645"><sup>645</sup></a> Then he drank of the waters, +bathed in them, or laved his limbs or sores, probably attended +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" id= +"page194"></a>{194}</span> by the priestess of the well. Having +paid her dues, he made an offering to the divinity of the well, and +affixed the bandage or part of his clothing to the well or a tree +near by, that through it he might be in continuous <i>rapport</i> +with the healing influences. Ritual formulæ probably +accompanied these acts, but otherwise no word was spoken, and the +patient must not look back on leaving the well. Special times, +Beltane, Midsummer, or August 1st, were favourable for such +visits,<a id="footnotetag646" name="footnotetag646"></a><a href= +"#footnote646"><sup>646</sup></a> and where a patient was too ill +to present himself at the well, another might perform the ritual +for him.<a id="footnotetag647" name="footnotetag647"></a><a href= +"#footnote647"><sup>647</sup></a></p> +<p>The rag or clothing hung on the tree seems to connect the spirit +of the tree with that of the well, and tree and well are often +found together. But sometimes it is thrown into the well, just as +the Gaulish villagers of S. Gregory's day threw offerings of cloth +and wool into a sacred lake.<a id="footnotetag648" name= +"footnotetag648"></a><a href="#footnote648"><sup>648</sup></a> The +rag is even now regarded in the light of an offering, and such +offerings, varying from valuable articles of clothing to mere rags, +are still hung on sacred trees by the folk. It thus probably has +always had a sacrificial aspect in the ritual of the well, but as +magic and religion constantly blend, it had also its magical +aspect. The rag, once in contact with the patient, transferred his +disease to the tree, or, being still subtly connected with him, +through it the healing properties passed over to him.</p> +<p>The offering thrown into the well—a pin, coin, etc., may +also have this double aspect. The sore is often pricked or rubbed +with the pin as if to transfer the disease to the well, and if +picked up by another person, the disease may pass to <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>{195}</span> him. This +is also true of the coin.<a id="footnotetag649" name= +"footnotetag649"></a><a href="#footnote649"><sup>649</sup></a> But +other examples show the sacrificial nature of the pin or other +trifle, which is probably symbolic or a survival of a more costly +offering. In some cases it is thought that those who do not leave +it at the well from which they have drunk will die of thirst, and +where a coin is offered it is often supposed to disappear, being +taken by the spirit of the well.<a id="footnotetag650" name= +"footnotetag650"></a><a href="#footnote650"><sup>650</sup></a> The +coin has clearly the nature of an offering, and sometimes it must +be of gold or silver, while the antiquity of the custom on Celtic +ground is seen by the classical descriptions of the coins +glittering in the pool of Clitumnus and of the "gold of Toulouse" +hid in sacred tanks.<a id="footnotetag651" name= +"footnotetag651"></a><a href="#footnote651"><sup>651</sup></a> It +is also an old and widespread belief that all water belongs to some +divine or monstrous guardian, who will not part with any of it +without a <i>quid pro quo</i>. In many cases the two rites of rag +and pin are not both used, and this may show that originally they +had the same purpose—magical or sacrificial, or perhaps both. +Other sacrifices were also made—an animal, food, or an <i>ex +voto</i>, the last occurring even in late survivals as at S. +Thenew's Well, Glasgow, where even in the eighteenth century tin +cut to represent the diseased member was placed on the tree, or at +S. Winifred's Well in Wales, where crutches were left.</p> +<p>Certain waters had the power of ejecting the demon of madness. +Besides drinking, the patient was thrown into the waters, the shock +being intended to drive the demon away, as elsewhere demons are +exorcised by flagellation or beating. The divinity of the waters +aided the process, and an offering was usually made to him. In +other cases the sacred waters were supposed to ward off disease +from the district or from those <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page196" id="page196"></a>{196}</span> who drank of them. Or, +again, they had the power of conferring fertility. Women made +pilgrimages to wells, drank or bathed in the waters, implored the +spirit or saint to grant them offspring, and made a due +offering.<a id="footnotetag652" name="footnotetag652"></a><a href= +"#footnote652"><sup>652</sup></a> Spirit or saint, by a transfer of +his power, produced fruitfulness, but the idea was in harmony with +the recognised power of water to purify, strengthen, and heal. +Women, for a similar reason, drank or washed in the waters or wore +some articles dipped in them, in order to have an easy delivery or +abundance of milk.<a id="footnotetag653" name= +"footnotetag653"></a><a href="#footnote653"><sup>653</sup></a></p> +<p>The waters also gave oracles, their method of flowing, the +amount of water in the well, the appearance or non-appearance of +bubbles at the surface when an offering was thrown in, the sinking +or floating of various articles, all indicating whether a cure was +likely to occur, whether fortune or misfortune awaited the +inquirer, or, in the case of girls, whether their lovers would be +faithful. The movements of the animal guardian of the well were +also ominous to the visitor.<a id="footnotetag654" name= +"footnotetag654"></a><a href="#footnote654"><sup>654</sup></a> +Rivers or river divinities were also appealed to. In cases of +suspected fidelity the Celts dwelling by the Rhine placed the +newly-born child in a shield on the waters. If it floated the +mother was innocent; if it sank it was allowed to drown, and she +was put to death.<a id="footnotetag655" name= +"footnotetag655"></a><a href="#footnote655"><sup>655</sup></a> +Girls whose purity was suspected were similarly tested, and S. +Gregory of Tours tells how a woman accused of adultery was proved +by being thrown into the Saône.<a id="footnotetag656" name= +"footnotetag656"></a><a href="#footnote656"><sup>656</sup></a> The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" id= +"page197"></a>{197}</span> mediæval witch ordeal by water is +connected with this custom, which is, however, widespread.<a id= +"footnotetag657" name="footnotetag657"></a><a href= +"#footnote657"><sup>657</sup></a></p> +<p>The malevolent aspect of the spirit of the well is seen in the +"cursing wells" of which it was thought that when some article +inscribed with an enemy's name was thrown into them with the +accompaniment of a curse, the spirit of the well would cause his +death. In some cases the curse was inscribed on a leaden tablet +thrown into the waters, just as, in other cases, a prayer for the +offerer's benefit was engraved on it. Or, again, objects over which +a charm had been said were placed in a well that the victim who +drew water might be injured. An excellent instance of a +cursing-well is that of Fynnon Elian in Denbigh, which must once +have had a guardian priestess, for in 1815 an old woman who had +charge of it presided at the ceremony. She wrote the name of the +victim in a book, receiving a gift at the same time. A pin was +dropped into the well in the name of the victim, and through it and +through knowledge of his name, the spirit of the well acted upon +him to his hurt.<a id="footnotetag658" name= +"footnotetag658"></a><a href="#footnote658"><sup>658</sup></a> +Obviously rites like these, in which magic and religion mingle, are +not purely Celtic, but it is of interest to note their existence in +Celtic lands and among Celtic folk.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote597" name= +"footnote597"></a><b>Footnote 597:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag597">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ethnol. in Folklore</i>, 104 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote598" name= +"footnote598"></a><b>Footnote 598:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag598">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>PH</i> ii. 132, 169; Dottin, 240.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote599" name= +"footnote599"></a><b>Footnote 599:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag599">(return)</a> +<p>Justin, xxxii. 3; Strabo, iv. 1. 13.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote600" name= +"footnote600"></a><b>Footnote 600:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag600">(return)</a> +<p>S. Gregory, <i>In Glor. Conf.</i> ch. 2. Perhaps the feast and +offerings were intended to cause rain in time of drought. See p. +<a href="#page321">321</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote601" name= +"footnote601"></a><b>Footnote 601:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag601">(return)</a> +<p>Adamman, <i>Vita Colum.</i> ii. 10.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote602" name= +"footnote602"></a><b>Footnote 602:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag602">(return)</a> +<p>See Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote603" name= +"footnote603"></a><b>Footnote 603:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag603">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>RC</i> x. 168, xiv. 377; <i>CIL</i> xii. 33; +Propertius, iv. 10. 41.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote604" name= +"footnote604"></a><b>Footnote 604:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag604">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page349">349</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote605" name= +"footnote605"></a><b>Footnote 605:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag605">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. Ptolemy's [Greek: Dêouana] and [Greek: Dêouna] +(ii. 3. 19, 11. 29); the Scots and English Dee; the Divy in Wales; +Dêve, Dive, and Divette in France; Devon in England; Deva in +Spain (Ptolemy's [Greek: Dêoua], ii. 6. 8). The Shannon is +surnamed even in the seventh century "the goddess" (<i>Trip. +Life</i>, 313).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote606" name= +"footnote606"></a><b>Footnote 606:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag606">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i>; D'Arbois, <i>PH</i> ii. 119, thinks +<i>Matrona</i> is Ligurian. But it seems to have strong Celtic +affinities.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote607" name= +"footnote607"></a><b>Footnote 607:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag607">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 27-29, <i>RC</i> iv. 137.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote608" name= +"footnote608"></a><b>Footnote 608:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag608">(return)</a> +<p>On the whole subject see Pictet, "Quelques noms celtiques de +rivières," <i>RC</i> ii. 1 f. Orosius, v. 15. 6, describes +the sacrifices of gold, silver, and horses, made to the +Rhône.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote609" name= +"footnote609"></a><b>Footnote 609:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag609">(return)</a> +<p>Maury, 18. By extension of this belief any divinity might appear +by the haunted spring. S. Patrick and his synod of bishops at an +Irish well were supposed to be <i>síd</i> or gods (p. +<a href="#page64">64</a>, <i>supra</i>.) By a fairy well Jeanne +d'Arc had her first vision.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote610" name= +"footnote610"></a><b>Footnote 610:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag610">(return)</a> +<p>Greg. Tours, <i>Vita Patr.</i> c. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote611" name= +"footnote611"></a><b>Footnote 611:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag611">(return)</a> +<p>See Reinach, <i>Catal. Sommaire</i>, 23, 115; Baudot, <i>Rapport +sur les fouilles faits aux sources de la Seine</i>, ii. 120; +<i>RC</i> ii. 26.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote612" name= +"footnote612"></a><b>Footnote 612:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag612">(return)</a> +<p>For these tablets see Nicolson, <i>Keltic Studies</i>, 131 f.; +Jullian, <i>RC</i> 1898.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote613" name= +"footnote613"></a><b>Footnote 613:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag613">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 195.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote614" name= +"footnote614"></a><b>Footnote 614:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag614">(return)</a> +<p>Prologue to Chrestien's <i>Conte du Graal</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote615" name= +"footnote615"></a><b>Footnote 615:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag615">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 202 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote616" name= +"footnote616"></a><b>Footnote 616:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag616">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> 196-197; Martin, 140-141; Dalyell, 411.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote617" name= +"footnote617"></a><b>Footnote 617:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag617">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> i. 366; <i>Folk-Lore</i>, viii. 281. If the +fish appeared when an invalid drank of the well, this was a good +omen. For the custom of burying sacred animals, see Herod, ii. 74; +Ælian, xiii. 26.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote618" name= +"footnote618"></a><b>Footnote 618:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag618">(return)</a> +<p>Gomme, <i>Ethnol. in Folklore</i>, 92.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote619" name= +"footnote619"></a><b>Footnote 619:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag619">(return)</a> +<p><i>Trip. Life</i>, 113; Tigernach, <i>Annals</i>, A.D. 1061.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote620" name= +"footnote620"></a><b>Footnote 620:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag620">(return)</a> +<p>Mackinley, 184.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote621" name= +"footnote621"></a><b>Footnote 621:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag621">(return)</a> +<p>Burne, <i>Shropshire Folk-Lore</i>, 416; Campbell, <i>WHT</i> +ii. 145.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote622" name= +"footnote622"></a><b>Footnote 622:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag622">(return)</a> +<p><i>Old Stat. Account</i>, xii. 465.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote623" name= +"footnote623"></a><b>Footnote 623:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag623">(return)</a> +<p>S. Patrick, when he cleared Ireland of serpents, dealt in this +way with the worst specimens. S. Columba quelled a monster which +terrified the dwellers by the Ness. Joyce, <i>PN</i> i. 197; +Adamnan, <i>Vita Columb.</i> ii. 28; Kennedy, 12, 82, 246; +<i>RC</i> iv. 172, 186.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote624" name= +"footnote624"></a><b>Footnote 624:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag624">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 347.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote625" name= +"footnote625"></a><b>Footnote 625:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag625">(return)</a> +<p>For the water-horse, see Campbell, <i>WHT</i> iv. 307; +Macdongall, 294; Campbell, <i>Superstitions</i>, 203; and for the +Manx <i>Glashtyn</i>, a kind of water-horse, see Rh[^y]s, +<i>CFL</i> i. 285. For French cognates, see +Bérenger-Féraud, <i>Superstitions et Survivances</i>, +i. 349 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote626" name= +"footnote626"></a><b>Footnote 626:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag626">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>CMR</i> i. 63.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote627" name= +"footnote627"></a><b>Footnote 627:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag627">(return)</a> +<p>Orosius, v. 15. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote628" name= +"footnote628"></a><b>Footnote 628:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag628">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 2<i>a</i>. Of Eochaid is told a variant of the Midas +story—the discovery of his horse's ears. This is also told of +Labraid Lore (<i>RC</i> ii. 98; Kennedy, 256) and of King Marc'h in +Brittany and in Wales (Le Braz, ii. 96; Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> 233). +Other variants are found in non-Celtic regions, so the story has no +mythological significance on Celtic ground.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote629" name= +"footnote629"></a><b>Footnote 629:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag629">(return)</a> +<p>Ptol. ii. 2. 7.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote630" name= +"footnote630"></a><b>Footnote 630:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag630">(return)</a> +<p>Campbell, <i>WHT</i> iv. 300 f.; Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> i. 284; +Waldron, <i>Isle of Man</i>, 147.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote631" name= +"footnote631"></a><b>Footnote 631:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag631">(return)</a> +<p>Macdougall, 296; Campbell, <i>Superstitions</i>, 195. For the +Uruisg as Brownie, see <i>WHT</i> ii. 9; Graham, <i>Scenery of +Perthshire</i>, 19.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote632" name= +"footnote632"></a><b>Footnote 632:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag632">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> ii. 431, 469, <i>HL</i>, 592; <i>Book of +Taliesin</i>, vii. 135.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote633" name= +"footnote633"></a><b>Footnote 633:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag633">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 340; <i>LL</i> 165; <i>IT</i> i. 699.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote634" name= +"footnote634"></a><b>Footnote 634:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag634">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 409.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote635" name= +"footnote635"></a><b>Footnote 635:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag635">(return)</a> +<p>See Pughe, <i>The Physicians of Myddfai</i>, 1861 (these were +descendants of a water-fairy); Rh[^y]s, <i>Y Cymmrodor</i>, iv. +164; Hartland, <i>Arch. Rev.</i> i. 202. Such water-gods with +lovely daughters are known in most mythologies—the Greek +Nereus and the Nereids, the Slavonic Water-king, and the Japanese +god Ocean-Possessor (Ralston, <i>Songs of the Russian People</i>, +148; Chamberlain, <i>Ko-ji-ki</i>, 120). Manannan had nine +daughters (Wood-Martin, i. 135).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote636" name= +"footnote636"></a><b>Footnote 636:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag636">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 338, 344; Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> i. 243; +Henderson, <i>Folk-Lore of the N. Counties</i>, 262. Cf. the +rhymes, "L'Arguenon veut chaque année son poisson," the +"fish" being a human victim, and</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Blood-thirsty Dee</p> +<p>Each year needs three,</p> +<p>But bonny Don,</p> +<p>She needs none."</p> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote637" name= +"footnote637"></a><b>Footnote 637:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag637">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 339.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote638" name= +"footnote638"></a><b>Footnote 638:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag638">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rendes Dindsenchas</i>, <i>RC</i> xv. 315, 457. Other +instances of punishment following misuse of a well are given in +Sébillot, ii. 192; Rees, 520, 523. An Irish lake no longer +healed after a hunter swam his mangy hounds through it (Joyce, +<i>PN</i> ii. 90). A similar legend occurs with the Votiaks, one of +whose sacred lakes was removed to its present position because a +woman washed dirty clothes in it (<i>L'Anthropologie</i>, xv. +107).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote639" name= +"footnote639"></a><b>Footnote 639:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag639">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> i. 392.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote640" name= +"footnote640"></a><b>Footnote 640:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag640">(return)</a> +<p>Girald. Cambr. <i>Itin. Hib.</i> ii. 9; Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 97; +Kennedy, 281; O'Grady, i. 233; Skene, ii. 59; Campbell, <i>WHT</i> +ii. 147. The waters often submerge a town, now seen below the +waves—the town of Is in Armorica (Le Braz, i. p. xxxix), or +the towers under Lough Neagh. In some Welsh instances a man is the +culprit (Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> i. 379). In the case of Lough Neagh +the keeper of the well was Liban, who lived on in the waters as a +mermaid. Later she was caught and received the baptismal name of +Muirghenn, "sea-birth." Here the myth of a water-goddess, said to +have been baptized, is attached to the legend of the careless +guardian of a spring, with whom she is identified (O'Grady, ii. +184, 265).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote641" name= +"footnote641"></a><b>Footnote 641:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag641">(return)</a> +<p>Roberts, <i>Cambrian Pop. Antiq.</i> 246; Hunt, <i>Popular +Romances</i>, 291; <i>New Stat. Account</i>, x. 313.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote642" name= +"footnote642"></a><b>Footnote 642:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag642">(return)</a> +<p>Thorpe, <i>Northern Myth.</i> ii. 78.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote643" name= +"footnote643"></a><b>Footnote 643:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag643">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>PN</i> ii. 84. <i>Slán</i> occurs in many names +of wells. Well-worship is denounced in the canons of the Fourth +Council of Arles.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote644" name= +"footnote644"></a><b>Footnote 644:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag644">(return)</a> +<p>Cartailhac, <i>L'Age de Pierre</i>, 74; Bulliot et Thiollier, +<i>Mission de S. Martin</i>, 60.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote645" name= +"footnote645"></a><b>Footnote 645:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag645">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 284.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote646" name= +"footnote646"></a><b>Footnote 646:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag646">(return)</a> +<p>Dalyell, 79-80; Sébillot, ii. 282, 374; see p. <a href= +"#page266">266</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote647" name= +"footnote647"></a><b>Footnote 647:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag647">(return)</a> +<p>I have compiled this account of the ritual from notices of the +modern usages in various works. See, <i>e.g.</i>, Moore, +<i>Folk-Lore</i>, v. 212; Mackinley, <i>passim</i>; Hope, <i>Holy +Wells</i>; Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i>; Sébillot, 175 f.; Dixon, +<i>Gairloch</i>, 150 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote648" name= +"footnote648"></a><b>Footnote 648:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag648">(return)</a> +<p>Brand, ii. 68; Greg. <i>In Glor. Conf.</i> c. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote649" name= +"footnote649"></a><b>Footnote 649:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag649">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 293, 296; <i>Folk-Lore</i>, iv. 55.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote650" name= +"footnote650"></a><b>Footnote 650:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag650">(return)</a> +<p>Mackinley, 194; Sébillot, ii. 296.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote651" name= +"footnote651"></a><b>Footnote 651:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag651">(return)</a> +<p><i>Folk-Lore</i>, iii. 67; <i>Athenæum</i>, 1893, 415; +Pliny, <i>Ep.</i> viii. 8; Strabo, iv. 287; Diod. Sic. v. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote652" name= +"footnote652"></a><b>Footnote 652:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag652">(return)</a> +<p>Walker, <i>Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot.</i> vol. v.; Sébillot, +ii. 232. In some early Irish instances a worm swallowed with the +waters by a woman causes pregnancy. See p. <a href= +"#page352">352</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote653" name= +"footnote653"></a><b>Footnote 653:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag653">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 235-236.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote654" name= +"footnote654"></a><b>Footnote 654:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag654">(return)</a> +<p>See Le Braz, i. 61; <i>Folk-Lore</i>, v. 214; Rh[^y]s, +<i>CFL</i> i. 364; Dalyell, 506-507; Scott, <i>Minstrelsy</i>, +Introd. xliii; Martin, 7; Sébillot, ii. 242 f.; <i>RC</i> +ii. 486.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote655" name= +"footnote655"></a><b>Footnote 655:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag655">(return)</a> +<p>Jullian, <i>Ep. to Maximin</i>, 16. The practice may have been +connected with that noted by Aristotle, of plunging the newly-born +into a river, to strengthen it, as he says (<i>Pol.</i> vii. 15. +2), but more probably as a baptismal or purificatory rite. See p. +<a href="#page309">309</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote656" name= +"footnote656"></a><b>Footnote 656:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag656">(return)</a> +<p>Lefevre, <i>Les Gaulois</i>, 109; Michelet, <i>Origines du droit +français</i>, 268.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote657" name= +"footnote657"></a><b>Footnote 657:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag657">(return)</a> +<p>See examples of its use in Post, <i>Grundriss der Ethnol. +Jurisprudenz</i>, ii. 459 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote658" name= +"footnote658"></a><b>Footnote 658:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag658">(return)</a> +<p>Roberts, <i>Cambrian Popular Antiquities</i>, 246.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id= +"page198"></a>{198}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap13" id="chap13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2> +<h3>TREE AND PLANT WORSHIP.</h3> +<p>The Celts had their own cult of trees, but they adopted local +cults—Ligurian, Iberian, and others. The <i>Fagus Deus</i> +(the divine beech), the <i>Sex arbor</i> or <i>Sex arbores</i> of +Pyrenean inscriptions, and an anonymous god represented by a +conifer on an altar at Toulouse, probably point to local Ligurian +tree cults continued by the Celts into Roman times.<a id= +"footnotetag659" name="footnotetag659"></a><a href= +"#footnote659"><sup>659</sup></a> Forests were also personified or +ruled by a single goddess, like <i>Dea Arduinna</i> of the Ardennes +and <i>Dea Abnoba</i> of the Black Forest.<a id="footnotetag660" +name="footnotetag660"></a><a href="#footnote660"><sup>660</sup></a> +But more primitive ideas prevailed, like that which assigned a +whole class of tree-divinities to a forest, <i>e.g.</i> the +<i>Fatæ Dervones</i>, spirits of the oak-woods of Northern +Italy.<a id="footnotetag661" name="footnotetag661"></a><a href= +"#footnote661"><sup>661</sup></a> Groups of trees like <i>Sex +arbores</i> were venerated, perhaps for their height, isolation, or +some other peculiarity.</p> +<p>The Celts made their sacred places in dark groves, the trees +being hung with offerings or with the heads of victims. Human +sacrifices were hung or impaled on trees, <i>e.g.</i> by the +warriors of Boudicca.<a id="footnotetag662" name= +"footnotetag662"></a><a href="#footnote662"><sup>662</sup></a> +These, like the offerings still placed by the folk on sacred trees, +were attached to them because the trees were the abode of spirits +or divinities who in many cases had power over vegetation.</p> +<p>Pliny said of the Celts: "They esteem nothing more sacred +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id= +"page199"></a>{199}</span> than the mistletoe and the tree on which +it grows. But apart from this they choose oak-woods for their +sacred groves, and perform no sacred rite without using oak +branches."<a id="footnotetag663" name="footnotetag663"></a><a href= +"#footnote663"><sup>663</sup></a> Maximus of Tyre also speaks of +the Celtic (? German) image of Zeus as a lofty oak, and an old +Irish glossary gives <i>daur</i>, "oak," as an early Irish name for +"god," and glosses it by <i>dia</i>, "god."<a id="footnotetag664" +name="footnotetag664"></a><a href="#footnote664"><sup>664</sup></a> +The sacred need-fire may have been obtained by friction from +oak-wood, and it is because of the old sacredness of the oak that a +piece of its wood is still used as a talisman in Brittany.<a id= +"footnotetag665" name="footnotetag665"></a><a href= +"#footnote665"><sup>665</sup></a> Other Aryan folk besides the +Celts regarded the oak as the symbol of a high god, of the sun or +the sky,<a id="footnotetag666" name="footnotetag666"></a><a href= +"#footnote666"><sup>666</sup></a> but probably this was not its +earliest significance. Oak forests were once more extensive over +Europe than they are now, and the old tradition that men once lived +on acorns has been shown to be well-founded by the witness of +archæological finds, <i>e.g.</i> in Northern Italy.<a id= +"footnotetag667" name="footnotetag667"></a><a href= +"#footnote667"><sup>667</sup></a> A people living in an oak region +and subsisting in part on acorns might easily take the oak as a +representative of the spirit of vegetation or growth. It was +long-lived, its foliage was a protection, it supplied food, its +wood was used as fuel, and it was thus clearly the friend of man. +For these reasons, and because it was the most abiding and living +thing men knew, it became the embodiment of the spirits of life and +growth. Folk-lore survivals show that the spirit of vegetation in +the shape of his representative was annually slain while yet in +full vigour, that his life might benefit all things and be passed +on undiminished to his successor.<a id="footnotetag668" name= +"footnotetag668"></a><a href="#footnote668"><sup>668</sup></a> +Hence the oak or a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id= +"page200"></a>{200}</span> human being representing the spirit of +vegetation, or both together, were burned in the Midsummer fires. +How, then, did the oak come to symbolise a god equated with Zeus. +Though the equation may be worthless, it is possible that the +connection lay in the fact that Zeus and Juppiter had agricultural +functions, or that, when the equation was made, the earlier spirit +of vegetation had become a divinity with functions resembling those +of Zeus. The fires were kindled to recruit the sun's life; they +were fed with oak-wood, and in them an oak or a human victim +representing the spirit embodied in the oak was burned. Hence it +may have been thought that the sun was strengthened by the fire +residing in the sacred oak; it was thus "the original storehouse or +reservoir of the fire which was from time to time drawn out to feed +the sun."<a id="footnotetag669" name="footnotetag669"></a><a href= +"#footnote669"><sup>669</sup></a> The oak thus became the symbol of +a bright god also connected with growth. But, to judge by folk +survivals, the older conception still remained potent, and tree or +human victim affected for good all vegetable growth as well as +man's life, while at the same time the fire strengthened the +sun.</p> +<p>Dr. Evans argues that "the original holy object within the +central triliths of Stonehenge was a sacred tree," an oak, image of +the Celtic Zeus. The tree and the stones, once associated with +ancestor worship, had become symbols of "a more celestial Spirit or +Spirits than those of departed human beings."<a id="footnotetag670" +name="footnotetag670"></a><a href="#footnote670"><sup>670</sup></a> +But Stonehenge has now been proved to have been in existence before +the arrival of the Celts, hence such a cult must have been +pre-Celtic, though it may quite well have been adopted by the +Celts. Whether this hypothetical cult was practised by a tribe, a +group of tribes, or by the whole people, must remain obscure, and, +indeed, it may well be questioned whether Stonehenge was ever more +than the scene of some ancestral rites.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" id= +"page201"></a>{201}</span> +<p>Other trees—the yew, the cypress, the alder, and the ash, +were venerated, to judge by what Lucan relates of the sacred grove +at Marseilles. The Irish Druids attributed special virtues to the +hazel, rowan, and yew, the wood of which was used in magical +ceremonies described in Irish texts.<a id="footnotetag671" name= +"footnotetag671"></a><a href="#footnote671"><sup>671</sup></a> +Fires of rowan were lit by the Druids of rival armies, and +incantations said over them in order to discomfit the opposing +host,<a id="footnotetag672" name="footnotetag672"></a><a href= +"#footnote672"><sup>672</sup></a> and the wood of all these trees +is still believed to be efficacious against fairies and +witches.</p> +<p>The Irish <i>bile</i> was a sacred tree, of great age, growing +over a holy well or fort. Five of them are described in the +<i>Dindsenchas</i>, and one was an oak, which not only yielded +acorns, but nuts and apples.<a id="footnotetag673" name= +"footnotetag673"></a><a href="#footnote673"><sup>673</sup></a> The +mythic trees of Elysium had the same varied fruitage, and the +reason in both cases is perhaps the fact that when the cultivated +apple took the place of acorns and nuts as a food staple, words +signifying "nut" or "acorn" were transferred to the apple. A myth +of trees on which all these fruits grew might then easily arise. +Another Irish <i>bile</i> was a yew described in a poem as "a firm +strong god," while such phrases in this poem as "word-pure man," +"judgment of origin," "spell of knowledge," may have some reference +to the custom of writing divinations in ogham on rods of yew. The +other <i>bile</i> were ash-trees, and from one of them the <i>Fir +Bile</i>, "men of the tree," were named—perhaps a +totem-clan.<a id="footnotetag674" name= +"footnotetag674"></a><a href="#footnote674"><sup>674</sup></a> The +lives of kings and chiefs appear to have been connected with these +trees, probably as representatives of the spirit of vegetation +embodied in the tree, and under their shadow they were inaugurated. +But as a substitute for the king was slain, so doubtless these +pre-eminent sacred trees were too sacred, too much charged with +supernatural force, to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id= +"page202"></a>{202}</span> be cut down and burned, and the yearly +ritual would be performed with another tree. But in time of feud +one tribe gloried in destroying the <i>bile</i> of another; and +even in the tenth century, when the <i>bile maighe Adair</i> was +destroyed by Maelocohlen the act was regarded with horror. "But, O +reader, this deed did not pass unpunished."<a id="footnotetag675" +name="footnotetag675"></a><a href="#footnote675"><sup>675</sup></a> +Of another <i>bile</i>, that of Borrisokane, it was said that any +house in which a fragment of it was burned would itself be +destroyed by fire.<a id="footnotetag676" name= +"footnotetag676"></a><a href="#footnote676"><sup>676</sup></a></p> +<p>Tribal and personal names point to belief in descent from tree +gods or spirits and perhaps to totemism. The Eburones were the +yew-tree tribe (<i>eburos</i>); the Bituriges perhaps had the +mistletoe for their symbol, and their surname Vivisci implies that +they were called "Mistletoe men."<a id="footnotetag677" name= +"footnotetag677"></a><a href="#footnote677"><sup>677</sup></a> If +<i>bile</i> (tree) is connected with the name Bile, that of the +ancestor of the Milesians, this may point to some myth of descent +from a sacred tree, as in the case of the <i>Fir Bile</i>, or "men +of the tree."<a id="footnotetag678" name= +"footnotetag678"></a><a href="#footnote678"><sup>678</sup></a> +Other names like Guidgen (<i>Viduo-genos</i>, "son of the tree"), +Dergen (<i>Dervo-genos</i>, "son of the oak"), Guerngen +(<i>Verno-genos</i>, "son of the alder"), imply filiation to a +tree. Though these names became conventional, they express what had +once been a living belief. Names borrowed directly from trees are +also found—-Eburos or Ebur, "yew," Derua or Deruacus, "oak," +etc.</p> +<p>The veneration of trees growing beside burial mounds or +megalithic monuments was probably a pre-Celtic cult continued by +the Celts. The tree embodied the ghost of the person buried under +it, but such a ghost could then hardly be differentiated from a +tree spirit or divinity. Even now in Celtic districts extreme +veneration exists for trees growing in cemeteries and in other +places. It is dangerous to cut them <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page203" id="page203"></a>{203}</span> down or to pluck a leaf or +branch from them, while in Breton churchyards the yew is thought to +spread a root to the mouth of each corpse.<a id="footnotetag679" +name="footnotetag679"></a><a href="#footnote679"><sup>679</sup></a> +The story of the grave of Cyperissa, daughter of a Celtic king in +the Danube region, from which first sprang the "mournful +cypress,"<a id="footnotetag680" name="footnotetag680"></a><a href= +"#footnote680"><sup>680</sup></a> is connected with universal +legends of trees growing from the graves of lovers until their +branches intertwine. These embody the belief that the spirit of the +dead is in the tree, which was thus in all likelihood the object of +a cult. Instances of these legends occur in Celtic story. +Yew-stakes driven through the bodies of Naisi and Deirdre to keep +them apart, became yew-trees the tops of which embraced over Armagh +Cathedral. A yew sprang from the grave of Bailé Mac Buain, +and an apple-tree from that of his lover Aillinn, and the top of +each had the form of their heads.<a id="footnotetag681" name= +"footnotetag681"></a><a href="#footnote681"><sup>681</sup></a> The +identification of tree and ghost is here complete.</p> +<p>The elder, rowan, and thorn are still planted round houses to +keep off witches, or sprigs of rowan are placed over +doorways—a survival from the time when they were believed to +be tenanted by a beneficent spirit hostile to evil influences. In +Ireland and the Isle of Man the thorn is thought to be the resort +of fairies, and they, like the woodland fairies or "wood men" are +probably representatives of the older tree spirits and gods of +groves and forests.<a id="footnotetag682" name= +"footnotetag682"></a><a href="#footnote682"><sup>682</sup></a></p> +<p>Tree-worship was rooted in the oldest nature worship, and the +Church had the utmost difficulty in suppressing it. Councils +fulminated against the cult of trees, against offerings to them or +the placing of lights before them and before wells <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>{204}</span> or +stones, and against the belief that certain trees were too sacred +to be cut down or burned. Heavy fines were levied against those who +practised these rites, yet still they continued.<a id= +"footnotetag683" name="footnotetag683"></a><a href= +"#footnote683"><sup>683</sup></a> Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, tried +to stop the worship of a large pear-tree standing in the centre of +the town and on which the semi-Christian inhabitants hung animals' +heads with much ribaldry. At last S. Germanus destroyed it, but at +the risk of his life. S. Martin of Tours was allowed to destroy a +temple, but the people would not permit him to attack a much +venerated pine-tree which stood beside it—an excellent +example of the way in which the more official paganism fell before +Christianity, while the older religion of the soil, from which it +sprang, could not be entirely eradicated.<a id="footnotetag684" +name="footnotetag684"></a><a href="#footnote684"><sup>684</sup></a> +The Church often effected a compromise. Images of the gods affixed +to trees were replaced by those of the Virgin, but with curious +results. Legends arose telling how the faithful had been led to +such trees and there discovered the image of the Madonna +miraculously placed among the branches.<a id="footnotetag685" name= +"footnotetag685"></a><a href="#footnote685"><sup>685</sup></a> +These are analogous to the legends of the discovery of images of +the Virgin in the earth, such images being really those of the +<i>Matres</i>.</p> +<p>Representations of sacred trees are occasionally met with on +coins, altars, and <i>ex votos</i>.<a id="footnotetag686" name= +"footnotetag686"></a><a href="#footnote686"><sup>686</sup></a> If +the interpretation be correct which sees a representation of part +of the Cúchulainn legend on the Paris and Trèves +altars, the trees figured there would not necessarily be sacred. +But otherwise they may depict sacred trees.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id= +"page205"></a>{205}</span> +<p>We now turn to Pliny's account of the mistletoe rite. The Druids +held nothing more sacred than this plant and the tree on which it +grew, probably an oak. Of it groves were formed, while branches of +the oak were used in all religious rites. Everything growing on the +oak had been sent from heaven, and the presence of the mistletoe +showed that God had selected the tree for especial favour. Rare as +it was, when found the mistletoe was the object of a careful +ritual. On the sixth day of the moon it was culled. Preparations +for a sacrifice and feast were made beneath the tree, and two white +bulls whose horns had never been bound were brought there. A Druid, +clad in white, ascended the tree and cut the mistletoe with a +golden sickle. As it fell it was caught in a white cloth; the bulls +were then sacrificed, and prayer was made that God would make His +gift prosperous to those on whom He had bestowed it. The mistletoe +was called "the universal healer," and a potion made from it caused +barren animals to be fruitful. It was also a remedy against all +poisons.<a id="footnotetag687" name="footnotetag687"></a><a href= +"#footnote687"><sup>687</sup></a> We can hardly believe that such +an elaborate ritual merely led up to the medico-magical use of the +mistletoe. Possibly, of course, the rite was an attenuated survival +of something which had once been more important, but it is more +likely that Pliny gives only a few picturesque details and passes +by the <i>rationale</i> of the ritual. He does not tell us who the +"God" of whom he speaks was, perhaps the sun-god or the god of +vegetation. As to the "gift," it was probably in his mind the +mistletoe, but it may quite well have meant the gift of growth in +field and fold. The tree was perhaps cut down and burned; the oxen +may have been incarnations of a god of vegetation, as the tree also +may have been. We need not here repeat the meaning which has been +given to the ritual,<a id="footnotetag688" name= +"footnotetag688"></a><a href="#footnote688"><sup>688</sup></a> but +it may be added that if this meaning is <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page206" id="page206"></a>{206}</span> correct, +the rite probably took place at the time of the Midsummer festival, +a festival of growth and fertility. Mistletoe is still gathered on +Midsummer eve and used as an antidote to poisons or for the cure of +wounds. Its Druidic name is still preserved in Celtic speech in +words signifying "all-healer," while it is also called +<i>sùgh an daraich</i>, "sap of the oak," and <i>Druidh +lus</i>, "Druid's weed."<a id="footnotetag689" name= +"footnotetag689"></a><a href="#footnote689"><sup>689</sup></a></p> +<p>Pliny describes other Celtic herbs of grace. <i>Selago</i> was +culled without use of iron after a sacrifice of bread and +wine—probably to the spirit of the plant. The person +gathering it wore a white robe, and went with unshod feet after +washing them. According to the Druids, <i>Selago</i> preserved one +from accident, and its smoke when burned healed maladies of the +eye.<a id="footnotetag690" name="footnotetag690"></a><a href= +"#footnote690"><sup>690</sup></a> <i>Samolus</i> was placed in +drinking troughs as a remedy against disease in cattle. It was +culled by a person fasting, with the left hand; it must be wholly +uprooted, and the gatherer must not look behind him.<a id= +"footnotetag691" name="footnotetag691"></a><a href= +"#footnote691"><sup>691</sup></a> <i>Vervain</i> was gathered at +sunrise after a sacrifice to the earth as an +expiation—perhaps because its surface was about to be +disturbed. When it was rubbed on the body all wishes were +gratified; it dispelled fevers and other maladies; it was an +antidote against serpents; and it conciliated hearts. A branch of +the dried herb used to asperge a banquet-hall made the guests more +convivial<a id="footnotetag692" name="footnotetag692"></a><a href= +"#footnote692"><sup>692</sup></a></p> +<p>The ritual used in gathering these plants—silence, various +tabus, ritual purity, sacrifice—is found wherever plants are +culled whose virtue lies in this that they are possessed by a +spirit. Other plants are still used as charms by modern Celtic +peasants, and, in some cases, the ritual of gathering <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>{207}</span> them +resembles that described by Pliny.<a id="footnotetag693" name= +"footnotetag693"></a><a href="#footnote693"><sup>693</sup></a> In +Irish sagas plants have magical powers. "Fairy herbs" placed in a +bath restored beauty to women bathing therein.<a id= +"footnotetag694" name="footnotetag694"></a><a href= +"#footnote694"><sup>694</sup></a> During the <i>Táin</i> +Cúchulainn's wounds were healed with "balsams and healing +herbs of fairy potency," and Diancecht used similar herbs to +restore the dead at the battle of Mag-tured.<a id="footnotetag695" +name="footnotetag695"></a><a href= +"#footnote695"><sup>695</sup></a></p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote659" name= +"footnote659"></a><b>Footnote 659:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag659">(return)</a> +<p>Sacaze, <i>Inscr. des Pyren.</i> 255; Hirschfeld, +<i>Sitzungsberichte</i> (Berlin, 1896), 448.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote660" name= +"footnote660"></a><b>Footnote 660:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag660">(return)</a> +<p><i>CIL</i> vi. 46; <i>CIR</i> 1654, 1683.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote661" name= +"footnote661"></a><b>Footnote 661:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag661">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 52.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote662" name= +"footnote662"></a><b>Footnote 662:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag662">(return)</a> +<p>Lucan, <i>Phar.</i> Usener's ed., 32; Orosius, v. 16. 6; Dio +Cass. lxii. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote663" name= +"footnote663"></a><b>Footnote 663:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag663">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xvi. 44. The Scholiast on Lucan says that the Druids +divined with acorns (Usener, 33).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote664" name= +"footnote664"></a><b>Footnote 664:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag664">(return)</a> +<p>Max. Tyr. <i>Diss.</i> viii. 8; Stokes, <i>RC</i> i. 259.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote665" name= +"footnote665"></a><b>Footnote 665:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag665">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz, ii. 18.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote666" name= +"footnote666"></a><b>Footnote 666:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag666">(return)</a> +<p>Mr. Chadwick (<i>Jour. Anth. Inst.</i> xxx. 26) connects this +high god with thunder, and regards the Celtic Zeus (Taranis, in his +opinion) as a thunder-god. The oak was associated with this god +because his worshippers dwelt under oaks.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote667" name= +"footnote667"></a><b>Footnote 667:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag667">(return)</a> +<p>Helbig, <i>Die Italiker in der Poebene</i>, 16 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote668" name= +"footnote668"></a><b>Footnote 668:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag668">(return)</a> +<p>Mannhardt, <i>Baumkultus</i>; Frazer, <i>Golden +Bough</i><sup>2</sup> iii. 198.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote669" name= +"footnote669"></a><b>Footnote 669:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag669">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, <i>loc. cit.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote670" name= +"footnote670"></a><b>Footnote 670:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag670">(return)</a> +<p>Evans, <i>Arch. Rev.</i> i. 327 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote671" name= +"footnote671"></a><b>Footnote 671:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag671">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 236.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote672" name= +"footnote672"></a><b>Footnote 672:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag672">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> i. 213.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote673" name= +"footnote673"></a><b>Footnote 673:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag673">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 199<i>b</i>; <i>Rennes Dindsenchas</i>, <i>RC</i> xv. +420.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote674" name= +"footnote674"></a><b>Footnote 674:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag674">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xv. 455, xvi. 279; Hennessey, <i>Chron. Scot.</i> +76.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote675" name= +"footnote675"></a><b>Footnote 675:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag675">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 556; Joyce, <i>PN</i> i. 499.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote676" name= +"footnote676"></a><b>Footnote 676:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag676">(return)</a> +<p>Wood-Martin, ii. 159.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote677" name= +"footnote677"></a><b>Footnote 677:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag677">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 51; Jullian, 41.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote678" name= +"footnote678"></a><b>Footnote 678:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag678">(return)</a> +<p>Cook, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, xvii. 60.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote679" name= +"footnote679"></a><b>Footnote 679:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag679">(return)</a> +<p>See Sébillot, i. 293; Le Braz, i. 259; <i>Folk-Lore +Journal</i>, v. 218; <i>Folk-Lore Record</i>, 1882.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote680" name= +"footnote680"></a><b>Footnote 680:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag680">(return)</a> +<p>Val. Probus, <i>Comm. in Georgica</i>, ii. 84.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote681" name= +"footnote681"></a><b>Footnote 681:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag681">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 53; O'Ourry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 465. Writing tablets, +made from each of the trees when they were cut down, sprang +together and could not be separated.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote682" name= +"footnote682"></a><b>Footnote 682:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag682">(return)</a> +<p><i>Stat. Account</i>, iii. 27; Moore, 151; Sébillot, i. +262, 270.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote683" name= +"footnote683"></a><b>Footnote 683:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag683">(return)</a> +<p>Dom Martin, i. 124; <i>Vita S. Eligii</i>, ii. 16.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote684" name= +"footnote684"></a><b>Footnote 684:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag684">(return)</a> +<p><i>Acta Sanct.</i> (Bolland.), July 31; Sulp. Sever. <i>Vita S. +Mart.</i> 457.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote685" name= +"footnote685"></a><b>Footnote 685:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag685">(return)</a> +<p>Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> 76; Maury, 13, 299. The story of +beautiful women found in trees may be connected with the custom of +placing images in trees, or with the belief that a goddess might be +seen emerging from the tree in which she dwelt.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote686" name= +"footnote686"></a><b>Footnote 686:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag686">(return)</a> +<p>De la Tour, <i>Atlas des Monnaies Gaul</i>, 260, 286; Reinach, +<i>Catal. Sommaire</i>, 29.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote687" name= +"footnote687"></a><b>Footnote 687:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag687">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, <i>HN</i> xvi. 44.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote688" name= +"footnote688"></a><b>Footnote 688:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag688">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page162">162</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote689" name= +"footnote689"></a><b>Footnote 689:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag689">(return)</a> +<p>See Cameron, <i>Gaelic Names of Plants</i>, 45. In Gregoire de +Rostren, <i>Dict. françois-celt.</i> 1732, mistletoe is +translated by <i>dour-dero</i>, "oak-water," and is said to be good +for several evils.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote690" name= +"footnote690"></a><b>Footnote 690:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag690">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xxiv. 11.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote691" name= +"footnote691"></a><b>Footnote 691:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag691">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote692" name= +"footnote692"></a><b>Footnote 692:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag692">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> xxv. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote693" name= +"footnote693"></a><b>Footnote 693:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag693">(return)</a> +<p>See Carmichael, <i>Carmina Gadelica</i>; De Nore, <i>Coutumes +... des Provinces de France</i>, 150 f.; Sauvé, <i>RC</i> +vi. 67, <i>CM</i> ix. 331.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote694" name= +"footnote694"></a><b>Footnote 694:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag694">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 126.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote695" name= +"footnote695"></a><b>Footnote 695:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag695">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 172; see p. <a href="#page77">77</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id= +"page208"></a>{208}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap14" id="chap14">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h2> +<h3>ANIMAL WORSHIP.</h3> +<p>Animal worship pure and simple had declined among the Celts of +historic times, and animals were now regarded mainly as symbols or +attributes of divinities. The older cult had been connected with +the pastoral stage in which the animals were divine, or with the +agricultural stage in which they represented the corn-spirit, and +perhaps with totemism. We shall study here (1) traces of the older +animal cults; (2) the transformation of animal gods into symbols; +and (3) traces of totemism.</p> +<h4>1.</h4> +<p>The presence of a bull with three cranes (<i>Tarvos +Trigaranos</i>) on the Paris altar, along with the gods Esus, +Juppiter, and Vulcan, suggests that it was a divine animal, or the +subject of a divine myth. As has been seen, this bull may be the +bull of the <i>Táin bó Cuailgne</i>. Both it and its +opponent were reincarnations of the swine-herds of two gods. In the +Irish sagas reincarnation is only attributed to gods or heroes, and +this may point to the divinity of the bulls. We have seen that this +and another altar may depict some myth in which the bull was the +incarnation of a tree or vegetation spirit. The divine nature of +the bull is attested by its presence on Gaulish coins as a +religious symbol, and by images of the animal with <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>{209}</span> three +horns—an obvious symbol of divinity.<a id="footnotetag696" +name="footnotetag696"></a><a href="#footnote696"><sup>696</sup></a> +On such an image in bronze the Cimbri, Celticised Germans, swore. +The images are pre-Roman, since they are found at Hallstadt and La +Tène. Personal names like Donnotaurus (the equivalent of the +<i>Donn Taruos</i> of the <i>Táin</i>) or Deiotaros ("divine +bull"), show that men were called after the divine animal.<a id= +"footnotetag697" name="footnotetag697"></a><a href= +"#footnote697"><sup>697</sup></a> Similarly many place-names in +which the word <i>taruos</i> occurs, in Northern Italy, the +Pyrenees, Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere, suggest that the places +bearing these names were sites of a bull cult or that some myth, +like that elaborated in the <i>Táin</i>, had been there +localised.<a id="footnotetag698" name="footnotetag698"></a><a href= +"#footnote698"><sup>698</sup></a> But, as possibly in the case of +Cúchulainn and the bull, the animal tended to become the +symbol of a god, a tendency perhaps aided by the spread of +Mithraism with its symbolic bull. A god Medros leaning on a bull is +represented at Haguenau, possibly a form of Mider or of Meduris, a +surname of Toutatis, unless Medros is simply Mithras.<a id= +"footnotetag699" name="footnotetag699"></a><a href= +"#footnote699"><sup>699</sup></a> Echoes of the cult of the bull or +cow are heard in Irish tales of these animals brought from the +<i>síd</i>, or of magic bulls or of cows which produced +enormous supplies of milk, or in saintly legends of oxen leading a +saint to the site of his future church.<a id="footnotetag700" name= +"footnotetag700"></a><a href="#footnote700"><sup>700</sup></a> +These legends are also told of the swine,<a id="footnotetag701" +name="footnotetag701"></a><a href="#footnote701"><sup>701</sup></a> +and they perhaps arose when a Christian church took the place of +the site of a local animal cult, legend fusing the old and the new +cult by making the once divine animal point out the site of the +church. A late relic of a bull cult may be found in the carnival +procession of the <i>Boeuf Gras</i> at Paris.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page210" id= +"page210"></a>{210}</span> +<p>A cult of a swine-god Moccus has been referred to. The boar was +a divine symbol on standards, coins, and altars, and many bronze +images of the animal have been found. These were temple treasures, +and in one case the boar is three-horned.<a id="footnotetag702" +name="footnotetag702"></a><a href="#footnote702"><sup>702</sup></a> +But it was becoming the symbol of a goddess, as is seen by the +altars on which it accompanies a goddess, perhaps of fertility, and +by a bronze image of a goddess seated on a boar. The altars occur +in Britain, of which the animal may be the emblem—the +"Caledonian monster" of Claudian's poem.<a id="footnotetag703" +name="footnotetag703"></a><a href="#footnote703"><sup>703</sup></a> +The Galatian Celts abstained from eating the swine, and there has +always been a prejudice against its flesh in the Highlands. This +has a totemic appearance.<a id="footnotetag704" name= +"footnotetag704"></a><a href="#footnote704"><sup>704</sup></a> But +the swine is esteemed in Ireland, and in the texts monstrous swine +are the staple article of famous feasts.<a id="footnotetag705" +name="footnotetag705"></a><a href="#footnote705"><sup>705</sup></a> +These may have been legendary forms of old swine-gods, the feasts +recalling sacrificial feasts on their flesh. Magic swine were also +the immortal food of the gods. But the boar was tabu to certain +persons, <i>e.g.</i> Diarmaid, though whether this is the +attenuated memory of a clan totem restriction is uncertain. In +Welsh story the swine comes from Elysium—a myth explaining +the origin of its domestication, while domestication certainly +implies an earlier cult of the animal. When animals come to be +domesticated, the old cult restrictions, <i>e.g.</i> against eating +them, usually pass away. For this reason, perhaps, the Gauls, who +worshipped an anthropomorphic swine-god, trafficked in the animal +and may have eaten it.<a id="footnotetag706" name= +"footnotetag706"></a><a href="#footnote706"><sup>706</sup></a> +Welsh story also tells of the magic boar, the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>{211}</span> <i>Twrch +Trwyth</i>, hunted by Arthur, possibly a folk-tale reminiscence of +a boar divinity.<a id="footnotetag707" name= +"footnotetag707"></a><a href="#footnote707"><sup>707</sup></a> +Place-names also point to a cult of the swine, and a recollection +of its divinity may underlie the numerous Irish tales of magical +swine.<a id="footnotetag708" name="footnotetag708"></a><a href= +"#footnote708"><sup>708</sup></a> The magic swine which issued from +the cave of Cruachan and destroyed the young crops are suggestive +of the theriomorphic corn-spirit in its occasional destructive +aspect.<a id="footnotetag709" name="footnotetag709"></a><a href= +"#footnote709"><sup>709</sup></a> Bones of the swine, sometimes +cremated, have been found in Celtic graves in Britain and at +Hallstadt, and in one case the animal was buried alone in a tumulus +at Hallstadt, just as sacred animals were buried in Egypt, Greece, +and elsewhere.<a id="footnotetag710" name= +"footnotetag710"></a><a href="#footnote710"><sup>710</sup></a> When +the animal was buried with the dead, it may have been as a +sacrifice to the ghost or to the god of the underworld.</p> +<p>The divinity of the serpent is proved by the occurrence of a +horned serpent with twelve Roman gods on a Gallo-Roman altar.<a id= +"footnotetag711" name="footnotetag711"></a><a href= +"#footnote711"><sup>711</sup></a> In other cases a horned or +ram's-headed serpent appears as the attribute of a god, and we have +seen that the ram's-headed serpent may be a fusion of the serpent +as a chthonian animal with the ram, sacrificed to the dead. In +Greece Dionysus had the form both of a bull and a horned serpent, +the horn being perhaps derived from the bull symbol. M. Reinach +claims that the primitive elements of the Orphic myth of the +Thracian Dionysos-Zagreus—divine serpents producing an egg +whence came the horned snake Zagreus, occur in dislocated form in +Gaul. There enlacing serpents were believed to produce a magic egg, +and there a horned <span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id= +"page212"></a>{212}</span> serpent was worshipped, but was not +connected with the egg. But they may once have been connected, and +if so, there may be a common foundation both for the Greek and the +Celtic conceptions in a Celtic element in Thrace.<a id= +"footnotetag712" name="footnotetag712"></a><a href= +"#footnote712"><sup>712</sup></a> The resemblances, however, may be +mere coincidences, and horned serpents are known in other +mythologies—the horn being perhaps a symbol of divinity. The +horned serpent sometimes accompanies a god who has horns, possibly +Cernunnos, the underworld god, in accordance with the chthonian +character of the serpent.<a id="footnotetag713" name= +"footnotetag713"></a><a href="#footnote713"><sup>713</sup></a> In +the Cùchulainn cycle Loeg on his visit to the Other-world +saw two-headed serpents—perhaps a further hint of this aspect +of the animal.<a id="footnotetag714" name= +"footnotetag714"></a><a href="#footnote714"><sup>714</sup></a></p> +<p>In all these instances of animal cults examples of the tendency +to make the divine animal anthropomorphic have been seen. We have +now to consider some instances of the complete anthropomorphic +process.</p> +<h4>2.</h4> +<p>An old bear cult gave place to the cult of a bear goddess and +probably of a god. At Berne—an old Celtic place-name meaning +"bear"—was found a bronze group of a goddess holding a patera +with fruit, and a bear approaching her as if to be fed. The +inscription runs, <i>Deae Artioni Licinia Sabinilla</i>.<a id= +"footnotetag715" name="footnotetag715"></a><a href= +"#footnote715"><sup>715</sup></a> A local bear-cult had once +existed at Berne, and is still recalled in the presence of the +famous bears there, but the divine bear had given place to a +goddess whose name and symbol were ursine. From an old Celtic +<i>Artos</i>, fem. <i>Arta</i>, "bear," were derived various divine +names. Of these <span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" id= +"page213"></a>{213}</span> <i>Dea Artio(n)</i> means "bear +goddess," and <i>Artaios</i>, equated with Mercury, is perhaps a +bear god.<a id="footnotetag716" name="footnotetag716"></a><a href= +"#footnote716"><sup>716</sup></a> Another bear goddess, Andarta, +was honoured at Die (Drôme), the word perhaps meaning "strong +bear"—<i>And</i>- being an augmentive.<a id="footnotetag717" +name="footnotetag717"></a><a href="#footnote717"><sup>717</sup></a> +Numerous place-names derived from <i>Artos</i> perhaps witness to a +widespread cult of the bear, and the word also occurs in Welsh, and +Irish personal names—Arthmael, Arthbiu, and possibly Arthur, +and the numerous Arts of Irish texts. Descent from the divine bear +is also signified in names like Welsh <i>Arthgen</i>, Irish +<i>Artigan</i>, from <i>Artigenos</i>, "son of the bear." Another +Celtic name for "bear" was the Gaulish <i>matu</i>, Irish +<i>math</i>, found in <i>Matugenos</i>, "son of the bear," and in +MacMahon, which is a corrupt form of <i>Mac-math-ghamhain</i>, "son +of the bear's son," or "of the bear."<a id="footnotetag718" name= +"footnotetag718"></a><a href="#footnote718"><sup>718</sup></a></p> +<p>Similarly a cult of the stag seems to have given place to that +of a god with stag's horns, represented on many bas-reliefs, and +probably connected with the underworld.<a id="footnotetag719" name= +"footnotetag719"></a><a href="#footnote719"><sup>719</sup></a> The +stag, as a grain-eater, may have been regarded as the embodiment of +the corn-spirit, and then associated with the under-earth region +whence the corn sprang, by one of those inversions of thought so +common in the stage of transition from animal gods to gods with +animal symbols. The elk may have been worshipped in Ireland, and a +three antlered stag is the subject of a story in the Fionn +saga.<a id="footnotetag720" name="footnotetag720"></a><a href= +"#footnote720"><sup>720</sup></a> Its third antler, like the third +horn of bull or boar, may be a sign of divinity.</p> +<p>The horse had also been worshipped, but a goddess Epona (Gaul. +<i>epo-s</i>, "horse"), protectress of horses and asses, took its +place, and had a far-spread cult. She rides a horse or mare +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id= +"page214"></a>{214}</span> with its foal, or is seated among +horses, or feeds horses. A representation of a mare suckling a +foal—a design analogous to those in which Epona feeds +foals—shows that her primitive equine nature had not been +forgotten.<a id="footnotetag721" name="footnotetag721"></a><a href= +"#footnote721"><sup>721</sup></a> The Gauls were horse-rearers, and +Epona was the goddess of the craft; but, as in other cases, a cult +of the horse must have preceded its domestication, and its flesh +may not have been eaten, or, if so, only sacramentally.<a id= +"footnotetag722" name="footnotetag722"></a><a href= +"#footnote722"><sup>722</sup></a> Finally, the divine horse became +the anthropomorphic horse-goddess. Her images were placed in +stables, and several inscriptions and statuettes have been found in +such buildings or in cavalry barracks.<a id="footnotetag723" name= +"footnotetag723"></a><a href="#footnote723"><sup>723</sup></a> The +remains of the cult have been found in the Danube and Rhine +valleys, in Eastern Gaul, and in Northern Italy, all Celtic +regions, but it was carried everywhere by Roman cavalry recruited +from the Celtic tribes.<a id="footnotetag724" name= +"footnotetag724"></a><a href="#footnote724"><sup>724</sup></a> +Epona is associated with, and often has, the symbols of the +<i>Matres</i>, and one inscription reads <i>Eponabus</i>, as if +there were a group of goddesses called Epona.<a id="footnotetag725" +name="footnotetag725"></a><a href="#footnote725"><sup>725</sup></a> +A goddess who promoted the fertility of mares would easily be +associated with goddesses of fertility. Epona may also have been +confused with a river-goddess conceived of as a spirited steed. +Water-spirits took that shape, and the <i>Matres</i> were also +river-goddesses.</p> +<p>A statuette of a horse, with a dedication to a god Rudiobus, +otherwise unknown, may have been carried processionally, while a +mule has a dedication to Segomo, equated elsewhere with Mars. A +mule god Mullo, also equated with Mars, is mentioned on several +inscriptions.<a id="footnotetag726" name= +"footnotetag726"></a><a href="#footnote726"><sup>726</sup></a> The +connection with Mars <span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id= +"page215"></a>{215}</span> may have been found in the fact that the +October horse was sacrificed to him for fertility, while the horse +was probably associated with fertility among the Celts. The horse +was sacrificed both by Celts and Teutons at the Midsummer festival, +undoubtedly as a divine animal. Traces of the Celtic custom survive +in local legends, and may be interpreted in the fuller light of the +Teutonic accounts. In Ireland a man wearing a horse's head rushed +through the fire, and was supposed to represent all cattle; in +other words, he was a surrogate for them. The legend of Each Labra, +a horse which lived in a mound and issued from it every Midsummer +eve to give oracles for the coming year, is probably connected with +the Midsummer sacrifice of the horse.<a id="footnotetag727" name= +"footnotetag727"></a><a href="#footnote727"><sup>727</sup></a> +Among the Teutons the horse was a divine sacrificial animal, and +was also sacred to Freyr, the god of fertility, while in Teutonic +survivals a horse's head was placed in the Midsummer fire.<a id= +"footnotetag728" name="footnotetag728"></a><a href= +"#footnote728"><sup>728</sup></a> The horse was sporadically the +representative of the corn-spirit, and at Rome the October horse +was sacrificed in that capacity and for fertility.<a id= +"footnotetag729" name="footnotetag729"></a><a href= +"#footnote729"><sup>729</sup></a> Among the Celts, the horse +sacrificed at Midsummer may have represented the vegetation-spirit +and benefited all domestic animals—the old rite surviving in +an attenuated form, as described above.</p> +<p>Perhaps the goddess Damona was an animal divinity, if her name +is derived from <i>damatos</i>, "sheep," cognate to Welsh +<i>dafad</i>, "sheep," and Gaelic <i>damh</i>, "ox." Other divine +animals, as has been seen, were associated with the waters, and the +use of beasts and birds in divination doubtless points to their +divine character. A cult of bird-gods may lurk behind the divine +name Bran, "raven," and the reference to the magic birds of +Rhiannon in the <i>Triads</i>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id= +"page216"></a>{216}</span> +<h4>3.</h4> +<p>Animal worship is connected with totemism, and certain things +point to its existence among the Celts, or to the existence of +conditions out of which totemism was elsewhere developed. These are +descent from animals, animal tabus, the sacramental eating of an +animal, and exogamy.</p> +<p>(1) <i>Descent from animals.</i>—Celtic names implying +descent from animals or plants are of two classes, clan and +personal names. If the latter are totemistic, they must be derived +from the former, since totemism is an affair of the clan, while the +so-called "personal totem," exemplified by the American Indian +<i>manitou</i>, is the guardian but never the ancestor of a man. +Some clan names have already been referred to. Others are the +Bibroci of south-east Britain, probably a beaver clan +(<i>bebros</i>), and the Eburones, a yew-tree clan +(<i>eburos</i>).<a id="footnotetag730" name= +"footnotetag730"></a><a href="#footnote730"><sup>730</sup></a> +Irish clans bore animal names: some groups were called "calves," +others "griffins," others "red deer," and a plant name is seen in +<i>Fir Bile</i>, "men of the tree."<a id="footnotetag731" name= +"footnotetag731"></a><a href="#footnote731"><sup>731</sup></a> Such +clan totemism perhaps underlies the stories of the "descendants of +the wolf" at Ossory, who became wolves for a time as the result of +a saintly curse. Other instances of lycanthropy were associated +with certain families.<a id="footnotetag732" name= +"footnotetag732"></a><a href="#footnote732"><sup>732</sup></a> The +belief in lycanthropy might easily attach itself to existing +wolf-clans, the transformation being then explained as the result +of a curse. The stories of Cormac mac Art, suckled by a she-wolf, +of Lughaid mac Con, "son of a wolf-dog," suckled by that animal, +and of Oisin, whose mother was a fawn, and who would not eat +venison, are perhaps totemistic, <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page217" id="page217"></a>{217}</span> while to totemism or to a +cult of animals may be ascribed what early travellers in Ireland +say of the people taking wolves as god-fathers and praying to them +to do them no ill.<a id="footnotetag733" name= +"footnotetag733"></a><a href="#footnote733"><sup>733</sup></a> In +Wales bands of warriors at the battle of Cattraeth are described in +Oneurin's <i>Gododin</i> as dogs, wolves, bears, and ravens, while +Owein's band of ravens which fought against Arthur, may have been a +raven clan, later misunderstood as actual ravens.<a id= +"footnotetag734" name="footnotetag734"></a><a href= +"#footnote734"><sup>734</sup></a> Certain groups of Dalriad Scots +bore animal names—Cinel Gabran, "Little goat clan," and Cinel +Loarn, "Fox clan." Possibly the custom of denoting Highland clans +by animal or plant badges may be connected with a belief in descent +from plants or animals. On many coins an animal is represented on +horseback, perhaps leading a clan, as birds led the Celts to the +Danube area, and these may depict myths telling how the clan totem +animal led the clan to its present territory.<a id="footnotetag735" +name="footnotetag735"></a><a href="#footnote735"><sup>735</sup></a> +Such myths may survive in legends relating how an animal led a +saint to the site of his church.<a id="footnotetag736" name= +"footnotetag736"></a><a href="#footnote736"><sup>736</sup></a> +Celtic warriors wore helmets with horns, and Irish story speaks of +men with cat, dog, or goat heads.<a id="footnotetag737" name= +"footnotetag737"></a><a href="#footnote737"><sup>737</sup></a> +These may have been men wearing a head-gear formed of the skin or +head of the clan totem, hence remembered at a later time as +monstrous beings, while the horned helmets would be related to the +same custom. Solinus describes the Britons as wearing animal skins +before going into battle.<a id="footnotetag738" name= +"footnotetag738"></a><a href="#footnote738"><sup>738</sup></a> Were +these skins of totem animals under whose protection they thus +placed themselves? The "forms of beasts, birds, and fishes" which +the Cruithne or Picts tattooed on their bodies may have been totem +marks, while the painting of their bodies with woad among the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id= +"page218"></a>{218}</span> southern Britons may have been of the +same character, though Cæsar's words hardly denote this. +Certain marks on faces figured on Gaulish coins seem to be tattoo +marks.<a id="footnotetag739" name="footnotetag739"></a><a href= +"#footnote739"><sup>739</sup></a></p> +<p>It is not impossible that an early wolf-totem may have been +associated, because of the animal's nocturnal wanderings in +forests, with the underworld whence, according to Celtic belief, +men sprang and whither they returned, and whence all vegetation +came forth. The Gallo-Roman Silvanus, probably an underworld god, +wears a wolf-skin, and may thus be a wolf-god. There were various +types of underworld gods, and this wolf-type—perhaps a local +wolf-totem ancestor assimilated to a local "Dispater"—may +have been the god of a clan who imposed its mythic wolf origin on +other clans. Some Celtic bronzes show a wolf swallowing a man who +offers no resistance, probably because he is dead. The wolf is much +bigger than the man, and hence may be a god.<a id="footnotetag740" +name="footnotetag740"></a><a href="#footnote740"><sup>740</sup></a> +These bronzes would thus represent a belief setting forth the +return of men to their totem ancestor after death, or to the +underworld god connected with the totem ancestor, by saying that he +devoured the dead, like certain Polynesian divinities and the Greek +Eurynomos.</p> +<p>In many individual names the first part is the name of an animal +or plant, the second is usually <i>genos</i>, "born from," or "son +of," <i>e.g.</i> Artigenos, Matugenos, "son of the bear" +(<i>artos</i>, <i>matu</i>-); Urogenos, occurring as Urogenertos, +"he who has the strength of the son of the urus"; Brannogenos, "son +of the raven"; Cunogenos, "son of the dog."<a id="footnotetag741" +name="footnotetag741"></a><a href="#footnote741"><sup>741</sup></a> +These names may be derived from clan totem names, but they date +back to a time when animals, trees, and men were on a common +footing, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page219" id= +"page219"></a>{219}</span> and the possibility of human descent +from a tree or an animal was believed in. Professor Rh[^y]s has +argued from the frequency of personal names in Ireland, like +Cúrói, "Hound of Rói," Cú Corb, "Corb's +Hound," Mac Con, "Hound's Son," and Maelchon, "Hound's Slave," that +there existed a dog totem or god, not of the Celts, but of a +pre-Celtic race.<a id="footnotetag742" name= +"footnotetag742"></a><a href="#footnote742"><sup>742</sup></a> This +assumes that totemism was non-Celtic, an assumption based on +preconceived notions of what Celtic institutions ought to have +been. The names, it should be observed, are personal, not clan +names.</p> +<p>(2) <i>Animal tabus.</i>—Besides the dislike of swine's +flesh already noted among certain Celtic groups, the killing and +eating of the hare, hen, and goose were forbidden among the +Britons. Cæsar says they bred these animals for amusement, +but this reason assigned by him is drawn from his knowledge of the +breeding of rare animals by rich Romans as a pastime, since he had +no knowledge of the breeding of sacred animals which were not +eaten—a common totemic or animal cult custom.<a id= +"footnotetag743" name="footnotetag743"></a><a href= +"#footnote743"><sup>743</sup></a> The hare was used for divination +by Boudicca,<a id="footnotetag744" name= +"footnotetag744"></a><a href="#footnote744"><sup>744</sup></a> +doubtless as a sacred animal, and it has been found that a sacred +character still attaches to these animals in Wales. A cock or hen +was ceremonially killed and eaten on Shrove Tuesday, either as a +former totemic animal, or, less likely, as a representative of the +corn-spirit. The hare is not killed in certain districts, but +occasionally it is ceremonially hunted and slain annually, while at +yearly fairs the goose is sold exclusively and eaten.<a id= +"footnotetag745" name="footnotetag745"></a><a href= +"#footnote745"><sup>745</sup></a> Elsewhere, <i>e.g.</i> in Devon, +a ram or lamb is ceremonially slain and eaten, the eating being +believed to confer <span class="pagenum"><a name="page220" id= +"page220"></a>{220}</span> luck.<a id="footnotetag746" name= +"footnotetag746"></a><a href="#footnote746"><sup>746</sup></a> The +ill-luck supposed to follow the killing of certain animals may also +be reminiscent of totemic tabus. Fish were not eaten by the Pictish +Meatæ and Caledonii, and a dislike of eating certain +fresh-water fish was observed among certain eighteenth century +Highlanders.<a id="footnotetag747" name= +"footnotetag747"></a><a href="#footnote747"><sup>747</sup></a> It +has been already seen that certain fish living in sacred wells were +tabu, and were believed to give oracles. Heron's flesh was disliked +in Ireland, and it was considered unlucky to kill a swan in the +Hebrides.<a id="footnotetag748" name="footnotetag748"></a><a href= +"#footnote748"><sup>748</sup></a> Fatal results following upon the +killing or eating of an animal with which the eater was connected +by name or descent are found in the Irish sagas. Conaire was son of +a woman and a bird which could take human shape, and it was +forbidden to him to hunt birds. On one occasion he did so, and for +this as well as the breaking of other tabus, he lost his +life.<a id="footnotetag749" name="footnotetag749"></a><a href= +"#footnote749"><sup>749</sup></a> It was tabu to Cúchulainn, +"the hound of Culann," to eat dog's flesh, and, having been +persuaded to do this, his strength went from him, and he perished. +Diarmaid, having been forbidden to hunt a boar with which his life +was connected, was induced by Fionn to break this tabu, and in +consequence he lost his life by one of the boar's bristles entering +his foot, or (in a variant) by the boar's killing him. Another +instance is found in a tale of certain men transformed to badgers. +They were slain by Cormac, and brought to his father Tadg to eat. +Tadg unaccountably loathed them, because they were transformed men +and his cousins.<a id="footnotetag750" name= +"footnotetag750"></a><a href="#footnote750"><sup>750</sup></a> In +this tale, which may contain the <i>débris</i> of totemic +usage, the loathing arises from the fact that the badgers are +men—a common form of myths explanatory of misunderstood +totemic customs, but the old idea of the relation between a man and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page221" id= +"page221"></a>{221}</span> his totem is not lost sight of. The +other tales may also be reminiscent of a clan totem tabu, later +centred in a mythic hero. Perhaps the belief in lucky or unlucky +animals, or in omens drawn from their appearance, may be based on +old totem beliefs or in beliefs in the divinity of the animals.</p> +<p>(3) <i>Sacramental eating of an animal.</i>—The custom of +"hunting the wren," found over the whole Celtic area, is connected +with animal worship and may be totemistic in origin. In spite of +its small size, the wren was known as the king of birds, and in the +Isle of Man it was hunted and killed on Christmas or S. Stephen's +day. The bird was carried in procession from door to door, to the +accompaniment of a chant, and was then solemnly buried, dirges +being sung. In some cases a feather was left at each house and +carefully treasured, and there are traces of a custom of boiling +and eating the bird.<a id="footnotetag751" name= +"footnotetag751"></a><a href="#footnote751"><sup>751</sup></a> In +Ireland, the hunt and procession were followed by a feast, the +materials of which were collected from house to house, and a +similar usage obtained in France, where the youth who killed the +bird was called "king."<a id="footnotetag752" name= +"footnotetag752"></a><a href="#footnote752"><sup>752</sup></a> In +most of these districts it was considered unlucky or dangerous to +kill the bird at any other time, yet it might be ceremonially +killed once a year, the dead animal conferred luck, and was +solemnly eaten or buried with signs of mourning. Similar customs +with animals which are actually worshipped are found +elsewhere,<a id="footnotetag753" name="footnotetag753"></a><a href= +"#footnote753"><sup>753</sup></a> and they lend support to the idea +that the Celts regarded the wren as a divine animal, or perhaps a +totem animal, that it was necessary to slay it ritually, and to +carry it round the houses of the community to obtain its divine +influence, to eat it sacramentally or to bury it. <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page222" id="page222"></a>{222}</span> Probably +like customs were followed in the case of other animals,<a id= +"footnotetag754" name="footnotetag754"></a><a href= +"#footnote754"><sup>754</sup></a> and these may have given rise to +such stories as that of the eating of MacDatho's wonderful boar, as +well as to myths which regarded certain animals, <i>e.g.</i> the +swine, as the immortal food of the gods. Other examples of ritual +survivals of such sacramental eating have already been noted, and +it is not improbable that the eating of a sacred pastoral animal +occurred at Samhain.</p> +<p>(4) <i>Exogamy.</i>—Exogamy and the counting of descent +through the mother are closely connected with totemism, and some +traces of both are found among the Celts. Among the Picts, who +were, perhaps, a Celtic group of the Brythonic stock, these customs +survived in the royal house. The kingship passed to a brother of +the king by the same mother, or to a sister's son, while the king's +father was never king and was frequently a "foreigner." Similar +rules of succession prevailed in early Aryan royal +houses—Greek and Roman,—and may, as Dr. Stokes thought, +have existed at Tara in Ireland, while in a Fian tale of Oisin he +marries the daughter of the king of Tír na n-Og, and +succeeds him as king partly for that reason, and partly because he +had beaten him in the annual race for the kingship.<a id= +"footnotetag755" name="footnotetag755"></a><a href= +"#footnote755"><sup>755</sup></a> Such an athletic contest for the +kingship was known in early Greece, and this tale may support the +theory of the Celtic priest-kingship, the holder of the office +retaining it as long as he was not defeated or slain. Traces of +succession through a sister's son are found in the +<i>Mabinogion</i>, and Livy describes how the mythic Celtic king +Ambicatus sent not his own but his sister's sons to found new +kingdoms.<a id="footnotetag756" name="footnotetag756"></a><a href= +"#footnote756"><sup>756</sup></a> Irish and Welsh divine and heroic +groups <span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id= +"page223"></a>{223}</span> are named after the mother, not the +father—the children of Danu and of Dôn, and the men of +Domnu. Anu is mother of the gods, Buanann of heroes. The eponymous +ancestor of the Scots is a woman, Scota, and the earliest +colonisers of Ireland are women, not men. In the sagas gods and +heroes have frequently a matronymic, and the father's name is +omitted—Lug mac Ethnend, Conchobar mac Nessa, Indech, son of +De Domnann, Corpre, son of Etain, and others. Perhaps parallel to +this is the custom of calling men after their +wives—<i>e.g.</i> the son of Fergus is Fer Tlachtga, +Tlachtga's husband.<a id="footnotetag757" name= +"footnotetag757"></a><a href="#footnote757"><sup>757</sup></a> In +the sagas, females (goddesses and heroines) have a high place +accorded to them, and frequently choose their own lovers or +husbands—customs suggestive of the matriarchate. Thus what +was once a general practice was later confined to the royal house +or told of divine or heroic personages. Possibly certain cases of +incest may really be exaggerated accounts of misunderstood unions +once permissible by totemic law. Cæsar speaks of British +polyandry, brothers, sons, and fathers sharing a wife in +common.<a id="footnotetag758" name="footnotetag758"></a><a href= +"#footnote758"><sup>758</sup></a> Strabo speaks of Irish unions +with mothers and sisters, perhaps referring not to actual practice +but to reports of saga tales of incest.<a id="footnotetag759" name= +"footnotetag759"></a><a href="#footnote759"><sup>759</sup></a> Dio +Cassius speaks of community of wives among the Caledonians and +Meatæ, and Jerome says much the same of the Scoti and +Atecotti.<a id="footnotetag760" name="footnotetag760"></a><a href= +"#footnote760"><sup>760</sup></a> These notices, with the exception +of Cæsar's, are vague, yet they refer to marriage customs +different from those known to their reporters. In Irish sagas +incest legends circle round the descendants of Etain—fathers +unite with daughters, a son with his mother, a woman has a son by +her three brothers (just as Ecne was son of Brian, Iuchar, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224" id= +"page224"></a>{224}</span> Iucharba), and is also mother of +Crimthan by that son.<a id="footnotetag761" name= +"footnotetag761"></a><a href="#footnote761"><sup>761</sup></a> +Brother and sister unions occur both in Irish and Welsh +story.<a id="footnotetag762" name="footnotetag762"></a><a href= +"#footnote762"><sup>762</sup></a></p> +<p>In these cases incest with a mother cannot be explained by +totemic usage, but the cases may be distorted reminiscences of what +might occur under totemism, namely, a son taking the wives of his +father other than his own mother, when those were of a different +totem from his own. Under totemism, brothers and sisters by +different mothers having different totems, might possibly unite, +and such unions are found in many mythologies. Later, when totemism +passed away, the unions, regarded with horror, would be supposed to +take place between children by the same mother. According to totem +law, a father might unite with his daughter, since she was of her +mother's totem, but in practice this was frowned upon. Polygamy +also may co-exist with totemism, and of course involves the +counting of descent through the mother as a rule. If, as is +suggested by the "debility" of the Ultonians, and by other +evidence, the couvade was a Celtic institution, this would also +point to the existence of the matriarchate with the Celts. To +explain all this as pre-Aryan, or to say that the classical notices +refer to non-Aryan tribes and that the evidence in the Irish sagas +only shows that the Celts had been influenced by the customs of +aboriginal tribes among whom they lived,<a id="footnotetag763" +name="footnotetag763"></a><a href="#footnote763"><sup>763</sup></a> +is to neglect the fact that the customs are closely bound up with +Celtic life, while it leaves unexplained the influence of such +customs upon a people whose own customs, according to this theory, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id= +"page225"></a>{225}</span> were so totally different. The evidence, +taken as a whole, points to the existence of totemism among the +early Celts, or, at all events, of the elements which elsewhere +compose it.</p> +<hr /> +<p>Celtic animal worship dates back to the primitive hunting and +pastoral period, when men worshipped the animals which they hunted +or reared. They may have apologised to the animal hunted and +slain—a form of worship, or, where animals were not hunted or +were reared and worshipped, one of them may have been slain +annually and eaten to obtain its divine power. Care was taken to +preserve certain sacred animals which were not hunted, and this led +to domestication, the abstinence of earlier generations leading to +an increased food supply at a later time, when domesticated animals +were freely slain. But the earlier sacramental slaying of such +animals survived in the religious aspect of their slaughter at the +beginning of winter.<a id="footnotetag764" name= +"footnotetag764"></a><a href="#footnote764"><sup>764</sup></a> The +cult of animals was also connected with totemic usage, though at a +later stage this cult was replaced by that of anthropomorphic +divinities, with the older divine animals as their symbols, +sacrificial victims, and the like. This evolution now led to the +removal of restrictions upon slaying and eating the animals. On the +other hand, the more primitive animal cults may have remained here +and there. Animal cults were, perhaps, largely confined to men. +With the rise of agriculture mainly as an art in the hands of +women, and the consequent cult of the Earth-mother, of fertility +and corn-spirits probably regarded as female, the sacramental +eating of the divine animal may have led to the slaying and eating +of a human or animal victim supposed to embody such a spirit. Later +the two cults were bound to coalesce, and the divine animal and the +animal embodiment of the vegetation <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page226" id="page226"></a>{226}</span> spirit would not be +differentiated. On the other hand, when men began to take part in +women's fertility cults, the fact that such spirits were female or +were perhaps coming to be regarded as goddesses, may have led men +to envisage certain of the anthropomorphic animal divinities as +goddesses, since some of these, <i>e.g.</i> Epona and Damona, are +female. But with the increasing participation of men in +agriculture, the spirits or goddesses of fertility would tend to +become male, or the consorts or mothers of gods of fertility, +though the earlier aspect was never lost sight of, witness the +Corn-Mother. The evolution of divine priest-kings would cause them +to take the place of the earlier priestesses of these cults, one of +whom may have been the divine victim. Yet in local survivals +certain cults were still confined to women, and still had their +priestesses.<a id="footnotetag765" name= +"footnotetag765"></a><a href="#footnote765"><sup>765</sup></a></p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote696" name= +"footnote696"></a><b>Footnote 696:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag696">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>BF</i> 66, 244. The bull and three cranes may be a +rebus on the name of the bull, <i>Tarvos Trikarenos</i>, "the +three-headed," or perhaps <i>Trikeras</i>, "three-horned."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote697" name= +"footnote697"></a><b>Footnote 697:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag697">(return)</a> +<p>Plutarch, <i>Marius</i>, 23; Cæsar, vii. 65; D'Arbois, +<i>Les Celtes</i>, 49.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote698" name= +"footnote698"></a><b>Footnote 698:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag698">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, <i>s.v.</i> <i>Tarba</i>, <i>Tarouanna</i>, +<i>Tarvisium</i>, etc.; D'Arbois, <i>Les Druides</i>, 155; S. Greg. +<i>In Glor. Conf.</i> 48.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote699" name= +"footnote699"></a><b>Footnote 699:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag699">(return)</a> +<p><i>CIL</i> xiii. 6017; <i>RC</i> xxv. 47; Holder, ii. 528.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote700" name= +"footnote700"></a><b>Footnote 700:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag700">(return)</a> +<p>Leahy, ii. 105 f.; Curtin, <i>MFI</i> 264, 318; Joyce, <i>PN</i> +i. 174; Rees, 453. Cf. Ailred, <i>Life of S. Ninian</i>, c. 8.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote701" name= +"footnote701"></a><b>Footnote 701:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag701">(return)</a> +<p>Jocelyn, <i>Vita S. Kentig.</i> c. 24; Rees, 293, 323.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote702" name= +"footnote702"></a><b>Footnote 702:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag702">(return)</a> +<p>Tacitus, <i>Germ.</i> xlv.; Blanchet, i. 162, 165; Reinach, +<i>BF</i> 255 f., <i>CMR</i> i. 168; Bertrand, <i>Arch. Celt.</i> +419.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote703" name= +"footnote703"></a><b>Footnote 703:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag703">(return)</a> +<p>Pennant, <i>Tour in Scotland</i>, 268; Reinach, <i>RC</i> xxii. +158, <i>CMR</i> i. 67.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote704" name= +"footnote704"></a><b>Footnote 704:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag704">(return)</a> +<p>Pausan, vii. 17, 18; Johnson, <i>Journey</i>, 136.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote705" name= +"footnote705"></a><b>Footnote 705:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag705">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> ii. 127; <i>IT</i> i. 99, 256 (Bricriu's feast +and the tale of Macdatho's swine).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote706" name= +"footnote706"></a><b>Footnote 706:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag706">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, iv. 4. 3, says these swine attacked strangers. Varro, +<i>de Re Rustica</i>, ii. 4, admires their vast size. Cf. Polyb. +ii. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote707" name= +"footnote707"></a><b>Footnote 707:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag707">(return)</a> +<p>The hunt is first mentioned in Nennius, c. 79, and then appears +as a full-blown folk-tale in <i>Kulhwych</i>, Loth, i. 185 f. Here +the boar is a transformed prince.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote708" name= +"footnote708"></a><b>Footnote 708:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag708">(return)</a> +<p>I have already suggested, p. <a href="#page106">106</a>, +<i>supra</i>, that the places where Gwydion halted with the swine +of Elysium were sites of a swine-cult.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote709" name= +"footnote709"></a><b>Footnote 709:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag709">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xiii. 451. Cf. also <i>TOS</i> vi. "The Enchanted Pigs +of Oengus," and Campbell, <i>LF</i> 53.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote710" name= +"footnote710"></a><b>Footnote 710:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag710">(return)</a> +<p><i>L'Anthropologie</i>, vi. 584; Greenwell, <i>British +Barrows</i>, 274, 283, 454; <i>Arch. Rev.</i> ii. 120.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote711" name= +"footnote711"></a><b>Footnote 711:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag711">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rev. Arch.</i> 1897, 313.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote712" name= +"footnote712"></a><b>Footnote 712:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag712">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, "Zagreus le serpent cornu," <i>Rev. Arch</i>. xxxv. +210.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote713" name= +"footnote713"></a><b>Footnote 713:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag713">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>BF</i> 185; Bertrand, 316.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote714" name= +"footnote714"></a><b>Footnote 714:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag714">(return)</a> +<p>"Cúchulainn's Sick-bed," D'Arbois, v. 202.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote715" name= +"footnote715"></a><b>Footnote 715:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag715">(return)</a> +<p>See Reinach, <i>CMR</i> i. 57.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote716" name= +"footnote716"></a><b>Footnote 716:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag716">(return)</a> +<p><i>CIL</i> xiii. 5160, xii. 2199. Rh[^y]s, however, derives +Artaios from <i>ar</i>, "ploughed land," and equates the god with +Mercurius Cultor.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote717" name= +"footnote717"></a><b>Footnote 717:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag717">(return)</a> +<p><i>CIL</i> xii. 1556-1558; D'Arbois, <i>RC</i> x. 165.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote718" name= +"footnote718"></a><b>Footnote 718:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag718">(return)</a> +<p>For all these place and personal names, see Holder and D'Arbois, +<i>op. cit. Les Celtes</i>, 47 f., <i>Les Druides</i>, 157 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote719" name= +"footnote719"></a><b>Footnote 719:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag719">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page32">32</a>, <i>supra</i>; Reinach, +<i>CMR</i> i. 72, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> ii. 123.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote720" name= +"footnote720"></a><b>Footnote 720:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag720">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 123.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote721" name= +"footnote721"></a><b>Footnote 721:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag721">(return)</a> +<p>Epona is fully discussed by Reinach in his <i>Epona</i>, 1895, +and in articles (illustrated) in <i>Rev. Arch.</i> vols. 26, 33, +35, 40, etc. See also ii. [1898], 190.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote722" name= +"footnote722"></a><b>Footnote 722:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag722">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach suggests that this may explain why Vercingetorix, in +view of siege by the Romans, sent away his horses. They were too +sacred to be eaten. Cæsar, vii. 71; Reinach, <i>RC</i> xxvii. +1 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote723" name= +"footnote723"></a><b>Footnote 723:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag723">(return)</a> +<p>Juvenal, viii. 154; Apul. <i>Metam.</i> iii. 27; Min. Felix, +<i>Octav.</i> xxvii. 7.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote724" name= +"footnote724"></a><b>Footnote 724:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag724">(return)</a> +<p>For the inscriptions, see Holder, <i>s.v.</i> "Epona."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote725" name= +"footnote725"></a><b>Footnote 725:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag725">(return)</a> +<p><i>CIL</i> iii. 7904.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote726" name= +"footnote726"></a><b>Footnote 726:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag726">(return)</a> +<p><i>CIL</i> xiii. 3071; Reinach, <i>BF</i> 253, <i>CMR</i> i. 64, +<i>Répert. de la Stat.</i> ii. 745; Holder, ii. 651-652.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote727" name= +"footnote727"></a><b>Footnote 727:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag727">(return)</a> +<p>Granger, <i>Worship of the Romans</i>, 113; Kennedy, 135.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote728" name= +"footnote728"></a><b>Footnote 728:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag728">(return)</a> +<p>Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> 49, 619, 657, 661-664.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote729" name= +"footnote729"></a><b>Footnote 729:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag729">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, <i>Golden Bough</i><sup>2</sup>, ii. 281, 315.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote730" name= +"footnote730"></a><b>Footnote 730:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag730">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, v. 21, 27. Possibly the Dea Bibracte of the Aeduans +was a beaver goddess.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote731" name= +"footnote731"></a><b>Footnote 731:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag731">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 207; Elton, 298.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote732" name= +"footnote732"></a><b>Footnote 732:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag732">(return)</a> +<p>Girald. Cambr. <i>Top. Hib.</i> ii. 19, <i>RC</i> ii. 202; +<i>Folk-Lore</i>, v. 310; <i>IT</i> iii. 376.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote733" name= +"footnote733"></a><b>Footnote 733:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag733">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 286, 538; Campbell, <i>The Fians</i>, 78; Thiers, +<i>Traité des Superstitions</i>, ii. 86.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote734" name= +"footnote734"></a><b>Footnote 734:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag734">(return)</a> +<p>Lady Guest, ii. 409 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote735" name= +"footnote735"></a><b>Footnote 735:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag735">(return)</a> +<p>Blanchet, i. 166, 295, 326, 390.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote736" name= +"footnote736"></a><b>Footnote 736:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag736">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page209">209</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote737" name= +"footnote737"></a><b>Footnote 737:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag737">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 30; <i>IT</i> iii. 385; <i>RC</i> xxvi. 139; +Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 593.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote738" name= +"footnote738"></a><b>Footnote 738:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag738">(return)</a> +<p><i>Man. Hist. Brit.</i> p. x.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote739" name= +"footnote739"></a><b>Footnote 739:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag739">(return)</a> +<p>Herodian, iii. 14, 8; Duald MacFirbis in Irish <i>Nennius</i>, +p. vii; Cæsar, v. 10; <i>ZCP</i> iii. 331.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote740" name= +"footnote740"></a><b>Footnote 740:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag740">(return)</a> +<p>See Reinach, "Les Carnassiers androphages dans l'art +gallo-romain," <i>CMR</i> i. 279.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote741" name= +"footnote741"></a><b>Footnote 741:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag741">(return)</a> +<p>See Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote742" name= +"footnote742"></a><b>Footnote 742:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag742">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>CB</i><sup>4</sup> 267.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote743" name= +"footnote743"></a><b>Footnote 743:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag743">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, v. 12.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote744" name= +"footnote744"></a><b>Footnote 744:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag744">(return)</a> +<p>Dio Cassius, lxii. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote745" name= +"footnote745"></a><b>Footnote 745:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag745">(return)</a> +<p>See a valuable paper by N.W. Thomas, "Survivance du Culte des +Animaux dans le Pays de Galles," in <i>Rev. de l'Hist. des +Religions</i>, xxxviii. 295 f., and a similar paper by Gomme, +<i>Arch. Rev.</i> 1889, 217 f. Both writers seem to regard these +cults as pre-Celtic.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote746" name= +"footnote746"></a><b>Footnote 746:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag746">(return)</a> +<p>Gomme, <i>Ethnol. in Folklore</i>, 30, <i>Village Community</i>, +113.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote747" name= +"footnote747"></a><b>Footnote 747:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag747">(return)</a> +<p>Dio Cass. lxxii. 21; Logan, <i>Scottish Gael</i>, ii. 12.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote748" name= +"footnote748"></a><b>Footnote 748:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag748">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> ii. 529; Martin, 71.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote749" name= +"footnote749"></a><b>Footnote 749:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag749">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxii. 20, 24, 390-1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote750" name= +"footnote750"></a><b>Footnote 750:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag750">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 385.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote751" name= +"footnote751"></a><b>Footnote 751:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag751">(return)</a> +<p>Waldron, <i>Isle of Man</i>, 49; Train, <i>Account of the Isle +of Man</i>, ii. 124.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote752" name= +"footnote752"></a><b>Footnote 752:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag752">(return)</a> +<p>Vallancey, <i>Coll. de Reb. Hib.</i> iv. No. 13; Clément, +<i>Fétes</i>, 466. For English customs, see Henderson, +<i>Folklore of the Northern Counties</i>, 125.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote753" name= +"footnote753"></a><b>Footnote 753:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag753">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, <i>Golden Bough</i><sup>2</sup>, ii. 380, 441, 446.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote754" name= +"footnote754"></a><b>Footnote 754:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag754">(return)</a> +<p>For other Welsh instances of the danger of killing certain +birds, see Thomas, <i>op. cit.</i> xxxviii. 306.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote755" name= +"footnote755"></a><b>Footnote 755:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag755">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, <i>Kingship</i>, 261; Stokes, <i>RC</i> xvi. 418; +Larminie, <i>Myths and Folk-tales</i>, 327.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote756" name= +"footnote756"></a><b>Footnote 756:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag756">(return)</a> +<p>See Rh[^y]s, <i>Welsh People</i>, 44; Livy, v. 34.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote757" name= +"footnote757"></a><b>Footnote 757:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag757">(return)</a> +<p>Cf. <i>IT</i> iii. 407, 409.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote758" name= +"footnote758"></a><b>Footnote 758:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag758">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, v. 14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote759" name= +"footnote759"></a><b>Footnote 759:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag759">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, iv. 5. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote760" name= +"footnote760"></a><b>Footnote 760:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag760">(return)</a> +<p>Dio Cass. lxxvi. 12; Jerome, <i>Adv. Jovin.</i> ii. 7. Giraldus +has much to say of incest in Wales, probably actual breaches of +moral law among a barbarous people (<i>Descr. Wales</i>, ii. +6).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote761" name= +"footnote761"></a><b>Footnote 761:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag761">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 235, 238, xv. 291, xvi. 149; <i>LL</i> +23<i>a</i>, 124<i>b</i>. In various Irish texts a child is said to +have three fathers—probably a reminiscence of polyandry. See +p. <a href="#page74">74</a>, <i>supra</i>, and <i>RC</i> xxiii. +333.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote762" name= +"footnote762"></a><b>Footnote 762:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag762">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 136; Loth, i. 134 f.; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 308.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote763" name= +"footnote763"></a><b>Footnote 763:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag763">(return)</a> +<p>Zimmer, "Matriarchy among the Picts," in Henderson, <i>Leadbhar +nan Gleann</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote764" name= +"footnote764"></a><b>Footnote 764:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag764">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page259">259</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote765" name= +"footnote765"></a><b>Footnote 765:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag765">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page274">274</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id= +"page227"></a>{227}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap15" id="chap15">CHAPTER XV.</a></h2> +<h3>COSMOGONY.</h3> +<p>Whether the early Celts regarded Heaven and Earth as husband and +wife is uncertain. Such a conception is world-wide, and myth +frequently explains in different ways the reason of the separation +of the two. Among the Polynesians the children of heaven and +earth—the winds, forests, and seas personified—angry at +being crushed between their parents in darkness, rose up and +separated them. This is in effect the Greek myth of Uranus, or +Heaven, and Gæa, or Earth, divorced by their son Kronos, just +as in Hindu myth Dyaus, or Sky, and Prithivi, or Earth, were +separated by Indra. Uranus in Greece gave place to Zeus, and, in +India, Dyaus became subordinate to Indra. Thus the primitive Heaven +personified recedes, and his place is taken by a more +individualised god. But generally Mother Earth remains a constant +quantity. Earth was nearer man and was more unchanging than the +inconstant sky, while as the producer of the fruits of the earth, +she was regarded as the source of all things, and frequently +remained as an important divinity when a crowd of other divinities +became prominent. This is especially true of agricultural peoples, +who propitiate Earth with sacrifice, worship her with orgiastic +rites, or assist her processes by magic. With advancing +civilisation such a goddess is still remembered as the friend of +man, and, as in the Eleusinia, is represented sorrowing and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id= +"page228"></a>{228}</span> rejoicing like man himself. Or where a +higher religion ousts the older one, the ritual is still retained +among the folk, though its meaning may be forgotten.</p> +<p>The Celts may thus have possessed the Heaven and Earth myth, but +all trace of it has perished. There are, however, remnants of myths +showing how the sky is supported by trees, a mountain, or by +pillars. A high mountain near the sources of the Rhone was called +"the column of the sun," and was so lofty as to hide the sun from +the people of the south.<a id="footnotetag766" name= +"footnotetag766"></a><a href="#footnote766"><sup>766</sup></a> It +may have been regarded as supporting the sky, while the sun moved +round it. In an old Irish hymn and its gloss, Brigit and Patrick +are compared to the two pillars of the world, probably alluding to +some old myth of sky or earth resting on pillars.<a id= +"footnotetag767" name="footnotetag767"></a><a href= +"#footnote767"><sup>767</sup></a> Traces of this also exist in +folk-belief, as in the accounts of islands resting on four pillars, +or as in the legend of the church of Kernitou which rests on four +pillars on a congealed sea and which will be submerged when the sea +liquefies—a combination of the cosmogonic myth with that of a +great inundation.<a id="footnotetag768" name= +"footnotetag768"></a><a href="#footnote768"><sup>768</sup></a> In +some mythologies a bridge or ladder connects heaven and earth. +There may be a survival of some such myth in an Irish poem which +speaks of the <i>drochet bethad</i>, or "bridge of life," or in the +<i>drochaid na flaitheanas</i>, or "bridge of heaven," of Hebridean +folk-lore.<a id="footnotetag769" name="footnotetag769"></a><a href= +"#footnote769"><sup>769</sup></a></p> +<p>Those gods who were connected with the sky may have been held to +dwell there or on the mountain supporting it. Others, like the +Celtic Dispater, dwelt underground. Some were connected with mounds +and hills, or were supposed to have taken up their abode in them. +Others, again, dwelt in a distant region, the Celtic Elysium, +which, once the Celts reached the sea, became a far-off island. +Those divinities <span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id= +"page229"></a>{229}</span> worshipped in groves were believed to +dwell there and to manifest themselves at midday or midnight, while +such objects of nature as rivers, wells, and trees were held to be +the abode of gods or spirits. Thus it is doubtful whether the Celts +ever thought of their gods as dwelling in one Olympus. The Tuatha +Dé Danann are said to have come from heaven, but this may be +the mere assertion of some scribe who knew not what to make of this +group of beings.</p> +<p>In Celtic belief men were not so much created by gods as +descended from them. "All the Gauls assert that they are descended +from Dispater, and this, they say, has been handed down to them by +the Druids."<a id="footnotetag770" name= +"footnotetag770"></a><a href="#footnote770"><sup>770</sup></a> +Dispater was a Celtic underworld god of fertility, and the +statement probably presupposes a myth, like that found among many +primitive peoples, telling how men once lived underground and +thence came to the surface of the earth. But it also points to +their descent from the god of the underworld. Thither the dead +returned to him who was ancestor of the living as well as lord of +the dead.<a id="footnotetag771" name="footnotetag771"></a><a href= +"#footnote771"><sup>771</sup></a> On the other hand, if the earth +had originally been thought of as a female, she as Earth-mother +would be ancestress of men. But her place in the myth would easily +be taken by the Earth or Under-earth god, perhaps regarded as her +son or her consort. In other cases, clans, families, or individuals +often traced their descent to gods or divine animals or plants. +Classical writers occasionally speak of the origin of branches of +the Celtic race from eponymous founders, perhaps from their +knowledge of existing Celtic myths.<a id="footnotetag772" name= +"footnotetag772"></a><a href="#footnote772"><sup>772</sup></a> +Ammianus Marcellinus also reports a Druidic tradition to the effect +that some Gauls were indigenous, some had come from distant +islands, and others from beyond the Rhine.<a id="footnotetag773" +name="footnotetag773"></a><a href="#footnote773"><sup>773</sup></a> +But this is not so much a myth of origins, as an explanation of the +presence of different peoples in Gaul—the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>{230}</span> +aborigines, the Celtæ, and the Belgic Gauls. M. D'Arbois +assumes that "distant islands" means the Celtic Elysium, which he +regards as the land of the dead,<a id="footnotetag774" name= +"footnotetag774"></a><a href="#footnote774"><sup>774</sup></a> but +the phrase is probably no more than a distorted reminiscence of the +far-off lands whence early groups of Celts had reached Gaul.</p> +<p>Of the creation of the world no complete myth has survived, +though from a gloss to the <i>Senchus Mór</i> we learn that +the Druids, like the Br[=a]hmans, boasted that they had made sun, +moon, earth, and sea—a boast in keeping with their supposed +powers over the elements.<a id="footnotetag775" name= +"footnotetag775"></a><a href="#footnote775"><sup>775</sup></a> +Certain folk-beliefs, regarding the origin of different parts of +nature, bear a close resemblance to primitive cosmogonic myths, and +they may be taken as <i>disjecta membra</i> of similar myths held +by the Celts and perhaps taught by the Druids. Thus sea, rivers, or +springs arose from the micturition of a giant, fairy, or saint, or +from their sweat or blood. Islands are rocks cast by giants, and +mountains are the material thrown up by them as they were working +on the earth. Wells sprang up from the blood of a martyr or from +the touch of a saint's or a fairy's staff.<a id="footnotetag776" +name="footnotetag776"></a><a href="#footnote776"><sup>776</sup></a> +The sea originated from a magic cask given by God to a woman. The +spigot, when opened, could not be closed again, and the cask never +ceased running until the waters covered the earth—a tale with +savage parallels.<a id="footnotetag777" name= +"footnotetag777"></a><a href="#footnote777"><sup>777</sup></a> In +all these cases, giant, saint, or fairy has doubtless taken the +place of a god, since the stories have a very primitive +<i>facies</i>. The giant is frequently Gargantua, probably himself +once a divinity. Other references in Irish texts point to the +common cosmogonic myth of the earth having gradually <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>{231}</span> assumed +its present form. Thus many new lakes and plains are said to have +been formed in Ireland during the time of Partholan and Nemed, the +plains being apparently built up out of existing materials.<a id= +"footnotetag778" name="footnotetag778"></a><a href= +"#footnote778"><sup>778</sup></a> In some cases the formation of a +lake was the result of digging the grave of some personage after +whom the lake was then named.<a id="footnotetag779" name= +"footnotetag779"></a><a href="#footnote779"><sup>779</sup></a> Here +we come upon the familiar idea of the danger of encroaching on the +domain of a deity, <i>e.g.</i> that of the Earth-god, by digging +the earth, with the consequent punishment by a flood. The same +conception is found in Celtic stories of a lake or river formed +from the overflowing of a sacred well through human carelessness or +curiosity, which led to the anger of the divinity of the +well.<a id="footnotetag780" name="footnotetag780"></a><a href= +"#footnote780"><sup>780</sup></a> Or, again, a town or castle is +submerged on account of the wickedness of its inhabitants, the +waters being produced by the curse of God or a saint (replacing a +pagan god) and forming a lake.<a id="footnotetag781" name= +"footnotetag781"></a><a href="#footnote781"><sup>781</sup></a> +These may be regarded as forms of a Celtic deluge-myth, which in +one case, that of the Welsh story of the ship of Nevyd, which saved +Dwyvan and Dwyfach and a pair of all kinds of animals when Lake +Llion overflowed, has apparently borrowed from the Biblical +story.<a id="footnotetag782" name="footnotetag782"></a><a href= +"#footnote782"><sup>782</sup></a> In other cases lakes are formed +from the tears of a god, <i>e.g.</i> Manannan, whose tears at the +death of his son formed three lochs in Erin.<a id="footnotetag783" +name="footnotetag783"></a><a href="#footnote783"><sup>783</sup></a> +Apollonius reports that the waters of Eridanus originated from the +tears of Apollo when driven from heaven by his father.<a id= +"footnotetag784" name="footnotetag784"></a><a href= +"#footnote784"><sup>784</sup></a> This story, which he says is +Celtic, has been clothed by him in a Greek form, and the god in +question may have been Belenos, equated with Apollo. Sometimes the +formation of streams was ascribed to great hail-storms—an +evident mythic rendering of the damage done by actual spates, while +the Irish myths of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id= +"page232"></a>{232}</span> "illimitable sea-bursts," of which three +particular instances are often mentioned, were doubtless the result +of the experience of tidal waves.</p> +<p>Although no complete account of the end of all things, like that +of the Scandinavian Ragnarok, has survived, scattered hints tell of +its former existence. Strabo says that the Druids taught that "fire +and water must one day prevail"—an evident belief in some +final cataclysm.<a id="footnotetag785" name= +"footnotetag785"></a><a href="#footnote785"><sup>785</sup></a> This +is also hinted at in the words of certain Gauls to Alexander, +telling him that what they feared most of all was the fall of the +heavens upon their heads.<a id="footnotetag786" name= +"footnotetag786"></a><a href="#footnote786"><sup>786</sup></a> In +other words, they feared what would be the signal of the end of all +things. On Irish ground the words of Conchobar may refer to this. +He announced that he would rescue the captives and spoil taken by +Medb, unless the heavens fell, and the earth burst open, and the +sea engulphed all things.<a id="footnotetag787" name= +"footnotetag787"></a><a href="#footnote787"><sup>787</sup></a> Such +a myth mingled with Christian beliefs may underlie the prophecy of +Badb after Mag-tured regarding the evils to come and the end of the +world, and that of Fercertne in the <i>Colloquy of the Two +Sages</i>.<a id="footnotetag788" name="footnotetag788"></a><a href= +"#footnote788"><sup>788</sup></a> Both have a curious resemblance +to the Sybil's prophecy of doom in the Voluspa. If the gods +themselves were involved in such a catastrophe, it would not be +surprising, since in some aspects their immortality depended on +their eating and drinking immortal food and drink.<a id= +"footnotetag789" name="footnotetag789"></a><a href= +"#footnote789"><sup>789</sup></a></p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote766" name= +"footnote766"></a><b>Footnote 766:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag766">(return)</a> +<p>Avienus, <i>Ora Maritima</i>, 644 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote767" name= +"footnote767"></a><b>Footnote 767:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag767">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 25; Gaidoz, <i>ZCP</i> i. 27.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote768" name= +"footnote768"></a><b>Footnote 768:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag768">(return)</a> +<p><i>Annales de Bretagne</i>, x. 414.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote769" name= +"footnote769"></a><b>Footnote 769:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag769">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 50, cf. 184; <i>Folk-Lore</i>, vi. 170.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote770" name= +"footnote770"></a><b>Footnote 770:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag770">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 18.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote771" name= +"footnote771"></a><b>Footnote 771:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag771">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page341">341</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote772" name= +"footnote772"></a><b>Footnote 772:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag772">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 24; Appian, <i>Illyrica</i>, 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote773" name= +"footnote773"></a><b>Footnote 773:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag773">(return)</a> +<p>Amm. Marcel, xv. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote774" name= +"footnote774"></a><b>Footnote 774:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag774">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 262, xii. 220.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote775" name= +"footnote775"></a><b>Footnote 775:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag775">(return)</a> +<p><i>Antient Laws of Ireland</i>, i. 23. In one MS. Adam is said +to have been created thus—his body of earth, his blood of the +sea, his face of the sun, his breath of the wind, etc. This is also +found in a Frisian tale (Vigfusson-Powell, <i>Corpus Poet. Bor.</i> +i. 479), and both stories present an inversion of well-known myths +about the creation of the universe from the members of a giant.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote776" name= +"footnote776"></a><b>Footnote 776:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag776">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, i. 213 f., ii. 6, 7, 72, 97, 176, 327-328. Cf. +<i>RC</i> xv. 482, xvi. 152.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote777" name= +"footnote777"></a><b>Footnote 777:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag777">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote778" name= +"footnote778"></a><b>Footnote 778:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag778">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 56; Keating, 117, 123.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote779" name= +"footnote779"></a><b>Footnote 779:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag779">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xv. 429, xvi. 277.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote780" name= +"footnote780"></a><b>Footnote 780:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag780">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page191">191</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote781" name= +"footnote781"></a><b>Footnote 781:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag781">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 41 f., 391, 397; see p. <a href= +"#page372">372</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote782" name= +"footnote782"></a><b>Footnote 782:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag782">(return)</a> +<p><i>Triads</i> in Loth, ii. 280, 299; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 583, +663.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote783" name= +"footnote783"></a><b>Footnote 783:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag783">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xvi. 50, 146.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote784" name= +"footnote784"></a><b>Footnote 784:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag784">(return)</a> +<p>Apoll. iv. 609 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote785" name= +"footnote785"></a><b>Footnote 785:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag785">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, iv. 4. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote786" name= +"footnote786"></a><b>Footnote 786:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag786">(return)</a> +<p>Arrian, <i>Anab.</i> i. 4. 7; Strabo, vii. 3. 8. Cf. Jullian, +85.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote787" name= +"footnote787"></a><b>Footnote 787:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag787">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 94; Miss Hull, 205.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote788" name= +"footnote788"></a><b>Footnote 788:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag788">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 111, xxvi. 33.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote789" name= +"footnote789"></a><b>Footnote 789:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag789">(return)</a> +<p>A possible survival of a world-serpent myth may be found in "Da +Derga's Hostel" (<i>RC</i> xxii. 54), where we hear of Leviathan +that surrounds the globe and strikes with his tail to overwhelm the +world. But this may be a reflection of Norse myths of the Midgard +serpent, sometimes equated with Leviathan.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id= +"page233"></a>{233}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap16" id="chap16">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h2> +<h3>SACRIFICE, PRAYER, AND DIVINATION.</h3> +<p>The Semites are often considered the worst offenders in the +matter of human sacrifice, but in this, according to classical +evidence, they were closely rivalled by the Celts of Gaul. They +offered human victims on the principle of a life for a life, or to +propitiate the gods, or in order to divine the future from the +entrails of the victim. We shall examine the Celtic custom of human +sacrifice from these points of view first.</p> +<p>Cæsar says that those afflicted with disease or engaged in +battle or danger offer human victims or vow to do so, because +unless man's life be given for man's life, the divinity of the gods +cannot be appeased.<a id="footnotetag790" name= +"footnotetag790"></a><a href="#footnote790"><sup>790</sup></a> The +theory appears to have been that the gods sent disease or ills when +they desired a human life, but that any life would do; hence one in +danger might escape by offering another in his stead. In some cases +the victims may have been offered to disease demons or diseases +personified, such as Celtic imagination still believes in,<a id= +"footnotetag791" name="footnotetag791"></a><a href= +"#footnote791"><sup>791</sup></a> rather than to gods, or, again, +they may have been offered to native gods of healing. Coming danger +could also be averted on the same principle, and though the victims +were usually slaves, in times of great peril wives and children +were sacrificed.<a id="footnotetag792" name= +"footnotetag792"></a><a href="#footnote792"><sup>792</sup></a> +After a defeat, which showed that the gods were still implacable, +the wounded and feeble were slain, or a great leader would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id= +"page234"></a>{234}</span> offer himself.<a id="footnotetag793" +name="footnotetag793"></a><a href="#footnote793"><sup>793</sup></a> +Or in such a case the Celts would turn their weapons against +themselves, making of suicide a kind of sacrifice, hoping to bring +victory to the survivors.<a id="footnotetag794" name= +"footnotetag794"></a><a href="#footnote794"><sup>794</sup></a></p> +<p>The idea of the victim being offered on the principle of a life +for a life is illustrated by a custom at Marseilles in time of +pestilence. One of the poorer classes offered himself to be kept at +the public expense for some time. He was then led in procession, +clad in sacred boughs, and solemnly cursed, and prayer was made +that on him might fall the evils of the community. Then he was cast +headlong down. Here the victim stood for the lives of the city and +was a kind of scape-victim, like those at the Thargelia.<a id= +"footnotetag795" name="footnotetag795"></a><a href= +"#footnote795"><sup>795</sup></a></p> +<p>Human victims were also offered by way of thanksgiving after +victory, and vows were often made before a battle, promising these +as well as part of the spoil. For this reason the Celts would never +ransom their captives, but offered them in sacrifice, animals +captured being immolated along with them.<a id="footnotetag796" +name="footnotetag796"></a><a href="#footnote796"><sup>796</sup></a> +The method of sacrifice was slaughter by sword or spear, hanging, +impaling, dismembering, and drowning. Some gods were propitiated by +one particular mode of sacrifice—Taranis by burning, Teutates +by suffocation, Esus (perhaps a tree-god) by hanging on a tree. +Drowning meant devoting the victim to water-divinities.<a id= +"footnotetag797" name="footnotetag797"></a><a href= +"#footnote797"><sup>797</sup></a></p> +<p>Other propitiatory sacrifices took place at intervals, and had a +general or tribal character, the victims being criminals or slaves +or even members of the tribe. The sacrificial pile had the rude +outline of a human form, the limbs of osier, enclosing human as +well as some animal victims, who perished by fire. Diodorus says +that the victims were malefactors who <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>{235}</span> had been +kept in prison for five years, and that some of them were +impaled.<a id="footnotetag798" name="footnotetag798"></a><a href= +"#footnote798"><sup>798</sup></a> This need not mean that the +holocausts were quinquennial, for they may have been offered +yearly, at Midsummer, to judge by the ritual of modern +survivals.<a id="footnotetag799" name="footnotetag799"></a><a href= +"#footnote799"><sup>799</sup></a> The victims perished in that +element by which the sun-god chiefly manifested himself, and by the +sacrifice his powers were augmented, and thus growth and fertility +were promoted. These holocausts were probably extensions of an +earlier slaying of a victim representing the spirit of vegetation, +though their value in aiding fertility would be still in evidence. +This is suggested by Strabo's words that the greater the number of +murders the greater would be the fertility of the land, probably +meaning that there would then be more criminals as sacrificial +victims.<a id="footnotetag800" name="footnotetag800"></a><a href= +"#footnote800"><sup>800</sup></a> Varro also speaks of human +sacrifice to a god equated with Saturn, offered because of all +seeds the human race is the best, <i>i.e.</i> human victims are +most productive of fertility.<a id="footnotetag801" name= +"footnotetag801"></a><a href="#footnote801"><sup>801</sup></a> +Thus, looked at in one way, the later rite was a propitiatory +sacrifice, in another it was an act of magico-religious ritual +springing from the old rite of the divine victim. But from both +points of view the intention was the same—the promotion of +fertility in field and fold.</p> +<p>Divination with the bodies of human victims is attested by +Tacitus, who says that "the Druids consult the gods in the +palpitating entrails of men," and by Strabo, who describes the +striking down of the victim by the sword and the predicting of the +future from his convulsive movements.<a id="footnotetag802" name= +"footnotetag802"></a><a href="#footnote802"><sup>802</sup></a> To +this we shall return.</p> +<p>Human sacrifice in Gaul was put down by the Romans, who were +amazed at its extent, Suetonius summing up the whole <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>{236}</span> religion +in a phrase—<i>druidarum religionem diræ +immanitatis</i>.<a id="footnotetag803" name= +"footnotetag803"></a><a href="#footnote803"><sup>803</sup></a> By +the year 40 A.D. it had ceased, though victims were offered +symbolically, the Druids pretending to strike them and drawing a +little blood from them.<a id="footnotetag804" name= +"footnotetag804"></a><a href="#footnote804"><sup>804</sup></a> Only +the pressure of a higher civilisation forced the so-called +philosophic Druids to abandon their revolting customs. Among the +Celts of Britain human sacrifice still prevailed in 77 A.D.<a id= +"footnotetag805" name="footnotetag805"></a><a href= +"#footnote805"><sup>805</sup></a> Dio Cassius describes the +refinements of cruelty practised on female victims (prisoners of +war) in honour of the goddess Andrasta—their breasts cut off +and placed over their mouths, and a stake driven through their +bodies, which were then hung in the sacred grove.<a id= +"footnotetag806" name="footnotetag806"></a><a href= +"#footnote806"><sup>806</sup></a> Tacitus speaks of the altars in +Mona (Anglesey) laved with human blood. As to the Irish Celts, +patriotic writers have refused to believe them guilty of such +practices,<a id="footnotetag807" name="footnotetag807"></a><a href= +"#footnote807"><sup>807</sup></a> but there is no <i>a priori</i> +reason which need set them apart from other races on the same level +of civilisation in this custom. The Irish texts no doubt exaggerate +the number of the victims, but they certainly attest the existence +of the practice. From the <i>Dindsenchas</i>, which describes many +archaic usages, we learn that "the firstlings of every issue and +the chief scions of every clan" were offered to Cromm +Cruaich—a sacrifice of the first-born,—and that at one +festival the prostrations of the worshippers were so violent that +three-fourths of them perished, not improbably an exaggerated +memory of orgiastic rites.<a id="footnotetag808" name= +"footnotetag808"></a><a href="#footnote808"><sup>808</sup></a> Dr. +Joyce thinks that these notices are as incredible as the mythic +tales in the <i>Dindsenchas</i>. Yet the tales were doubtless quite +credible to the pagan Irish, and the ritual notices are certainly +founded on fact. Dr. Joyce admits the existence of foundation +sacrifices in Ireland, and it is difficult to understand why human +victims may not have been offered on other occasions also.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id= +"page237"></a>{237}</span> +<p>The purpose of the sacrifice, namely, fertility, is indicated in +the poetical version of the cult of Cromm—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Milk and corn</p> +<p>They would ask from him speedily,</p> +<p>In return for one-third of their healthy issue."<a id= +"footnotetag809" name="footnotetag809"></a><a href= +"#footnote809"><sup>809</sup></a></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The Nemedian sacrifice to the Fomorians is said to have been +two-thirds of their children and of the year's supply of corn and +milk<a id="footnotetag810" name="footnotetag810"></a><a href= +"#footnote810"><sup>810</sup></a>—an obvious +misunderstanding, the victims really being offered to obtain corn +and milk. The numbers are exaggerated,<a id="footnotetag811" name= +"footnotetag811"></a><a href="#footnote811"><sup>811</sup></a> but +there can be no doubt as to the nature of the sacrifice—the +offering of an agricultural folk to the divinities who helped or +retarded growth. Possibly part of the flesh of the victims, at one +time identified with the god, was buried in the fields or mixed +with the seed-corn, in order to promote fertility. The blood was +sprinkled on the image of the god. Such practices were as obnoxious +to Christian missionaries as they had been to the Roman Government, +and we learn that S. Patrick preached against "the slaying of yoke +oxen and milch cows and the burning of the first-born progeny" at +the Fair of Taillte.<a id="footnotetag812" name= +"footnotetag812"></a><a href="#footnote812"><sup>812</sup></a> As +has been seen, the Irish version of the Perseus and Andromeda +story, in which the victim is offered not to a dragon, but to the +Fomorians, may have received this form from actual ritual in which +human victims were sacrificed to the Fomorians.<a id= +"footnotetag813" name="footnotetag813"></a><a href= +"#footnote813"><sup>813</sup></a> In a Japanese version of the same +story the maiden is offered to the sea-gods. Another tale suggests +the offering of human victims to remove blight. In this case the +land suffers from blight because the adulteress Becuma, married to +the king of Erin, has pretended to be a virgin. <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page238" id="page238"></a>{238}</span> The +Druids announced that the remedy was to slay the son of an +undefiled couple and sprinkle the doorposts and the land with his +blood. Such a youth was found, but at his mother's request a +two-bellied cow, in which two birds were found, was offered in his +stead.<a id="footnotetag814" name="footnotetag814"></a><a href= +"#footnote814"><sup>814</sup></a> In another instance in the +<i>Dindsenchas</i>, hostages, including the son of a captive +prince, are offered to remove plagues—an equivalent to the +custom of the Gauls.<a id="footnotetag815" name= +"footnotetag815"></a><a href="#footnote815"><sup>815</sup></a></p> +<p>Human sacrifices were also offered when the foundation of a new +building was laid. Such sacrifices are universal, and are offered +to propitiate the Earth spirits or to provide a ghostly guardian +for the building. A Celtic legend attaches such a sacrifice to the +founding of the monastery at Iona. S. Oran agrees to adopt S. +Columba's advice "to go under the clay of this island to hallow +it," and as a reward he goes straight to heaven.<a id= +"footnotetag816" name="footnotetag816"></a><a href= +"#footnote816"><sup>816</sup></a> The legend is a semi-Christian +form of the memory of an old pagan custom, and it is attached to +Oran probably because he was the first to be buried in the island. +In another version, nothing is said of the sacrifice. The two +saints are disputing about the other world, and Oran agrees to go +for three days into the grave to settle the point at issue. At the +end of that time the grave is opened, and the triumphant Oran +announces that heaven and hell are not such as they are alleged to +be. Shocked at his latitudinarian sentiments, Columba ordered earth +to be piled over him, lest he cause a scandal to the faith, and +Oran was accordingly buried alive.<a id="footnotetag817" name= +"footnotetag817"></a><a href="#footnote817"><sup>817</sup></a> In a +Welsh instance, Vortigern's castle cannot be built, for the stones +disappear as soon as they are laid. Wise men, probably Druids, +order the sacrifice of a child born without a father, and the +sprinkling of the site with his blood.<a id="footnotetag818" name= +"footnotetag818"></a><a href="#footnote818"><sup>818</sup></a> +"Groaning hostages" were placed under a fort in <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>{239}</span> Ireland, +and the foundation of the palace of Emain Macha was also laid with +a human victim.<a id="footnotetag819" name= +"footnotetag819"></a><a href="#footnote819"><sup>819</sup></a> Many +similar legends are connected with buildings all over the Celtic +area, and prove the popularity of the pagan custom. The sacrifice +of human victims on the funeral pile will be discussed in a later +chapter.</p> +<p>Of all these varieties of human sacrifice, those offered for +fertility, probably at Beltane or Midsummer, were the most +important. Their propitiatory nature is of later origin, and their +real intention was to strengthen the divinity by whom the processes +of growth were directed. Still earlier, one victim represented the +divinity, slain that his life might be revived in vigour. The earth +was sprinkled with his blood and fed with his flesh in order to +fertilise it, and possibly the worshippers partook sacramentally of +the flesh. Propitiatory holocausts of human victims had taken the +place of the slain representative of a god, but their value in +promoting fertility was not forgotten. The sacramental aspect of +the rite is perhaps to be found in Pliny's words regarding "the +slaying of a human being as a most religious act and eating the +flesh as a wholesome remedy" among the Britons.<a id= +"footnotetag820" name="footnotetag820"></a><a href= +"#footnote820"><sup>820</sup></a> This may merely refer to +"medicinal cannibalism," such as still survives in Italy, but the +passage rather suggests sacramental cannibalism, the eating of part +of a divine victim, such as existed in Mexico and elsewhere. Other +acts of cannibalism are referred to by classical writers. Diodorus +says the Irish ate their enemies, and Pausanias describes the +eating the flesh and drinking the blood of children among the +Galatian Celts. Drinking <span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" +id="page240"></a>{240}</span> out of a skull the blood of slain +(sacrificial) enemies is mentioned by Ammianus and Livy, and +Solinus describes the Irish custom of bathing the face in the blood +of the slain and drinking it.<a id="footnotetag821" name= +"footnotetag821"></a><a href="#footnote821"><sup>821</sup></a> In +some of these cases the intention may simply have been to obtain +the dead enemy's strength, but where a sacrificial victim was +concerned, the intention probably went further than this. The blood +of dead relatives was also drunk in order to obtain their virtues, +or to be brought into closer <i>rapport</i> with them.<a id= +"footnotetag822" name="footnotetag822"></a><a href= +"#footnote822"><sup>822</sup></a> This is analogous to the custom +of blood brotherhood, which also existed among the Celts and +continued as a survival in the Western Isles until a late +date.<a id="footnotetag823" name="footnotetag823"></a><a href= +"#footnote823"><sup>823</sup></a></p> +<p>One group of Celtic human sacrifices was thus connected with +primitive agricultural ritual, but the warlike energies of the +Celts extended the practice. Victims were easily obtained, and +offered to the gods of war. Yet even these sacrifices preserved +some trace of the older rite, in which the victim represented a +divinity or spirit.</p> +<p>Head-hunting, described in classical writings and in Irish +texts, had also a sacrificial aspect. The heads of enemies were +hung at the saddle-bow or fixed on spears, as the conquerors +returned home with songs of victory.<a id="footnotetag824" name= +"footnotetag824"></a><a href="#footnote824"><sup>824</sup></a> This +gruesome picture often recurs in the texts. Thus, after the death +of Cúchulainn, Conall Cernach returned to Emer with the +heads of his slayers strung on a withy. He placed each on a stake +and told Emer the name of the owner. A Celtic <i>oppidum</i> or a +king's palace must have been as gruesome as a Dayak or Solomon +Island village. Everywhere were stakes crowned with heads, and the +walls of houses were adorned with them. Poseidonius tells +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id= +"page241"></a>{241}</span> how he sickened at such a sight, but +gradually became more accustomed to it.<a id="footnotetag825" name= +"footnotetag825"></a><a href="#footnote825"><sup>825</sup></a> A +room in the palace was sometimes a store for such heads, or they +were preserved in cedar-wood oil or in coffers. They were proudly +shown to strangers as a record of conquest, but they could not be +sold for their weight in gold.<a id="footnotetag826" name= +"footnotetag826"></a><a href="#footnote826"><sup>826</sup></a> +After a battle a pile of heads was made and the number of the slain +was counted, and at annual festivals warriors produced the tongues +of enemies as a record of their prowess.<a id="footnotetag827" +name="footnotetag827"></a><a href= +"#footnote827"><sup>827</sup></a></p> +<p>These customs had a religious aspect. In cutting off a head the +Celt saluted the gods, and the head was offered to them or to +ancestral spirits, and sometimes kept in grove or temple.<a id= +"footnotetag828" name="footnotetag828"></a><a href= +"#footnote828"><sup>828</sup></a> The name given to the heads of +the slain in Ireland, the "mast of Macha," shows that they were +dedicated to her, just as skulls found under an altar had been +devoted to the Celtic Mars.<a id="footnotetag829" name= +"footnotetag829"></a><a href="#footnote829"><sup>829</sup></a> +Probably, as among Dayaks, American Indians, and others, possession +of a head was a guarantee that the ghost of its owner would be +subservient to its Celtic possessor, either in this world or in the +next, since they are sometimes found buried in graves along with +the dead.<a id="footnotetag830" name="footnotetag830"></a><a href= +"#footnote830"><sup>830</sup></a> Or, suspended in temples, they +became an actual and symbolical offering of the life of their +owners, if, as is probable, the life or soul was thought to be in +the head. Hence, too, the custom of drinking from the skull of the +slain had the intention of transferring his powers directly to the +drinker.<a id="footnotetag831" name="footnotetag831"></a><a href= +"#footnote831"><sup>831</sup></a> Milk drunk from the skull of +Conall Cernach restored to enfeebled warriors <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>{242}</span> their +pristine strength,<a id="footnotetag832" name= +"footnotetag832"></a><a href="#footnote832"><sup>832</sup></a> and +a folk-survival in the Highlands—that of drinking from the +skull of a suicide (here taking the place of the slain enemy) in +order to restore health—shows the same idea at work. All +these practices had thus one end, that of the transference of +spirit force—to the gods, to the victor who suspended the +head from his house, and to all who drank from the skull. +Represented in bas-relief on houses or carved on dagger-handles, +the head may still have been thought to possess talismanic +properties, giving power to house or weapon. Possibly this cult of +human heads may have given rise to the idea of a divine head like +those figured on Gaulish images, or described, <i>e.g.</i>, in the +story of Bran. His head preserved the land from invasion, until +Arthur disinterred it,<a id="footnotetag833" name= +"footnotetag833"></a><a href="#footnote833"><sup>833</sup></a> the +story being based on the belief that heads or bodies of great +warriors still had a powerful influence.<a id="footnotetag834" +name="footnotetag834"></a><a href="#footnote834"><sup>834</sup></a> +The representation of the head of a god, like his whole image, +would be thought to possess the same preservative power.</p> +<p>A possible survival of the sacrifice of the aged may be found in +a Breton custom of applying a heavy club to the head of old persons +to lighten their death agonies, the clubs having been formerly used +to kill them. They are kept in chapels, and are regarded with +awe.<a id="footnotetag835" name="footnotetag835"></a><a href= +"#footnote835"><sup>835</sup></a></p> +<p>Animal victims were also frequently offered. The Galatian Celts +made a yearly sacrifice to their Artemis of a sheep, goat, or calf, +purchased with money laid by for each animal caught <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>{243}</span> in the +chase. Their dogs were feasted and crowned with flowers.<a id= +"footnotetag836" name="footnotetag836"></a><a href= +"#footnote836"><sup>836</sup></a> Further details of this ritual +are unfortunately lacking. Animals captured in war were sacrificed +to the war-gods by the Gauls, or to a river-god, as when the horses +of the defeated host were thrown into the Rhine by the Gaulish +conquerors of Mallius.<a id="footnotetag837" name= +"footnotetag837"></a><a href="#footnote837"><sup>837</sup></a> We +have seen that the white oxen sacrificed at the mistletoe ritual +may once have been representatives of the vegetation-spirit, which +also animated the oak and the mistletoe. Among the insular Celts +animal sacrifices are scarcely mentioned in the texts, probably +through suppression by later scribes, but the lives of Irish saints +contain a few notices of the custom, <i>e.g.</i> that of S. +Patrick, which describes the gathering of princes, chiefs, and +Druids at Tara to sacrifice victims to idols.<a id="footnotetag838" +name="footnotetag838"></a><a href="#footnote838"><sup>838</sup></a> +In Ireland the peasantry still kill a sheep or heifer for S. Martin +on his festival, and ill-luck is thought to follow the +non-observance of the rite.<a id="footnotetag839" name= +"footnotetag839"></a><a href="#footnote839"><sup>839</sup></a> +Similar sacrifices on saints' days in Scotland and Wales occurred +in Christian times.<a id="footnotetag840" name= +"footnotetag840"></a><a href="#footnote840"><sup>840</sup></a> An +excellent instance is that of the sacrifice of bulls at Gairloch +for the cure of lunatics on S. Maelrubha's day (August 25th). +Libations of milk were also poured out on the hills, ruined chapels +were perambulated, wells and stones worshipped, and divination +practised. These rites, occurring in the seventeenth century, were +condemned by the Presbytery of Dingwall, but with little effect, +and some of them still survive.<a id="footnotetag841" name= +"footnotetag841"></a><a href="#footnote841"><sup>841</sup></a> In +all these cases the saint has succeeded to the ritual of an earlier +god. Mr. Cook surmises that S. Maelrubha was the successor of a +divine king connected with an oak and sacred well, the god or +spirit of which was incarnate in him. These divine kings may at one +time have been <span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id= +"page244"></a>{244}</span> slain, or a bull, similarly incarnating +the god or spirit, may have been killed as a surrogate. This +slaying was at a later time regarded as a sacrifice and connected +with the cure of madness.<a id="footnotetag842" name= +"footnotetag842"></a><a href="#footnote842"><sup>842</sup></a> The +rite would thus be on a parallel with the slaying of the oxen at +the mistletoe gathering, as already interpreted. Eilean Maree +(Maelrubha), where the tree and well still exist, was once known as +Eilean mo righ ("the island of my king"), or Eilean a Mhor Righ +("of the great king"), the king having been worshipped as a god. +This piece of corroborative evidence was given by the oldest +inhabitant to Sir Arthur Mitchell.<a id="footnotetag843" name= +"footnotetag843"></a><a href="#footnote843"><sup>843</sup></a> The +people also spoke of the god Mourie.</p> +<p>Other survivals of animal sacrifice are found in cases of +cattle-plague, as in Morayshire sixty years ago, in Wales, Devon, +and the Isle of Man. The victim was burned and its ashes sprinkled +on the herd, or it was thrown into the sea or over a +precipice.<a id="footnotetag844" name="footnotetag844"></a><a href= +"#footnote844"><sup>844</sup></a> Perhaps it was both a +propitiatory sacrifice and a scape-animal, carrying away the +disease, though the rite may be connected with the former slaying +of a divine animal whose death benefited all the cattle of the +district. In the Hebrides the spirits of earth and air were +propitiated every quarter by throwing outside the door a cock, hen, +duck, or cat, which was supposed to be seized by them. If the rite +was neglected, misfortune was sure to follow. The animal carried +away evils from the house, and was also a propitiatory +sacrifice.</p> +<p>The blood of victims was sprinkled on altars, images, and trees, +or, as among the Boii, it was placed in a skull adorned with +gold.<a id="footnotetag845" name="footnotetag845"></a><a href= +"#footnote845"><sup>845</sup></a> Other libations are known mainly +from folk-survivals. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id= +"page245"></a>{245}</span> Thus Breton fishermen salute reefs and +jutting promontories, say prayers, and pour a glass of wine or +throw a biscuit or an old garment into the sea.<a id= +"footnotetag846" name="footnotetag846"></a><a href= +"#footnote846"><sup>846</sup></a> In the Hebrides a curious rite +was performed on Maundy Thursday. After midnight a man walked into +the sea, and poured ale or gruel on the waters, at the same time +singing:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"O God of the sea,</p> +<p>Put weed in the drawing wave,</p> +<p>To enrich the ground,</p> +<p>To shower on us food."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Those on shore took up the strain in chorus.<a id= +"footnotetag847" name="footnotetag847"></a><a href= +"#footnote847"><sup>847</sup></a> Thus the rite was described by +one who took part in it a century ago, but Martin, writing in the +seventeenth century, gives other details. The cup of ale was +offered with the words, "Shony, I give you this cup of ale, hoping +that you will be so kind as to send plenty of seaweed for enriching +our ground for the ensuing year." All then went in silence to the +church and remained there for a time, after which they indulged in +an orgy out-of-doors. This orgiastic rite may once have included +the intercourse of the sexes—a powerful charm for fertility. +"Shony" was some old sea-god, and another divinity of the sea, +Brianniul, was sometimes invoked for the same purpose.<a id= +"footnotetag848" name="footnotetag848"></a><a href= +"#footnote848"><sup>848</sup></a> Until recently milk was poured on +"Gruagach stones" in the Hebrides, as an offering to the Gruagach, +a brownie who watched over herds, and who had taken the place of a +god.<a id="footnotetag849" name="footnotetag849"></a><a href= +"#footnote849"><sup>849</sup></a></p> +<h3>PRAYER.</h3> +<p>Prayer accompanied most rites, and probably consisted of +traditional formulæ, on the exact recital of which depended +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id= +"page246"></a>{246}</span> their value. The Druids invoked a god +during the mistletoe rite, and at a Galatian sacrifice, offered to +bring birds to destroy grasshoppers, prayer was made to the birds +themselves.<a id="footnotetag850" name= +"footnotetag850"></a><a href="#footnote850"><sup>850</sup></a> In +Mona, at the Roman invasion, the Druids raised their arms and +uttered prayers for deliverance, at the same time cursing the +invaders, and Boudicca invoked the protection of the goddess +Andrasta in a similar manner.<a id="footnotetag851" name= +"footnotetag851"></a><a href="#footnote851"><sup>851</sup></a> +Chants were sung by the "priestesses" of Sena to raise storms, and +they were also sung by warriors both before and after a battle, to +the accompaniment of a measured dance and the clashing of +arms.<a id="footnotetag852" name="footnotetag852"></a><a href= +"#footnote852"><sup>852</sup></a> These warrior chants were +composed by bards, and probably included invocations of the +war-gods and the recital of famous deeds. They may also have been +of the nature of spells ensuring the help of the gods, like the +war-cries uttered by a whole army to the sound of trumpets.<a id= +"footnotetag853" name="footnotetag853"></a><a href= +"#footnote853"><sup>853</sup></a> These consisted of the name of a +god, of a tribe or clan, or of some well-known phrase. As the +recital of a divine name is often supposed to force the god to +help, these cries had thus a magical aspect, while they also struck +terror into the foe.<a id="footnotetag854" name= +"footnotetag854"></a><a href="#footnote854"><sup>854</sup></a> +Warriors also advanced dancing to the fray, and they are depicted +on coins dancing on horseback or before a sword, which was +worshipped by the Celts.<a id="footnotetag855" name= +"footnotetag855"></a><a href="#footnote855"><sup>855</sup></a> The +Celtiberian festival at the full moon consisted entirely of +dancing. The dance is a primitive method of expressing religious +emotion, and where it imitates certain actions, it is intended by +magical influence to crown the actions themselves with success. It +is thus a kind of acted prayer with magical results.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247" id= +"page247"></a>{247}</span> +<h3>DIVINATION.</h3> +<p>A special class of diviners existed among the Celts, but the +Druids practised divination, as did also the unofficial layman. +Classical writers speak of the Celts as of all nations the most +devoted to, and the most experienced in, the science of divination. +Divination with a human victim is described by Diodorus. Libations +were poured over him, and he was then slain, auguries being drawn +from the method of his fall, the movements of his limbs, and the +flowing of his blood. Divination with the entrails was used in +Galatia, Gaul, and Britain.<a id="footnotetag856" name= +"footnotetag856"></a><a href="#footnote856"><sup>856</sup></a> +Beasts and birds also provided omens. The course taken by a hare +let loose gave an omen of success to the Britons, and in Ireland +divination was used with a sacrificial animal.<a id= +"footnotetag857" name="footnotetag857"></a><a href= +"#footnote857"><sup>857</sup></a> Among birds the crow was +pre-eminent, and two crows are represented speaking into the ears +of a man on a bas-relief at Compiègne. The Celts believed +that the crow had shown where towns should be founded, or had +furnished a remedy against poison, and it was also an arbiter of +disputes.<a id="footnotetag858" name="footnotetag858"></a><a href= +"#footnote858"><sup>858</sup></a> Artemidorus describes how, at a +certain place, there were two crows. Persons having a dispute set +out two heaps of sweetmeats, one for each disputant. The birds +swooped down upon them, eating one and dispersing the other. He +whose heap had been scattered won the case.<a id="footnotetag859" +name="footnotetag859"></a><a href="#footnote859"><sup>859</sup></a> +Birds were believed to have guided the migrating Celts, and their +flight furnished auguries, because, as Deiotaurus gravely said, +birds never lie. Divination by the voices of birds was used by the +Irish Druids.<a id="footnotetag860" name= +"footnotetag860"></a><a href="#footnote860"><sup>860</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page248" id= +"page248"></a>{248}</span> +<p>Omens were drawn from the direction of the smoke and flames of +sacred fires and from the condition of the clouds.<a id= +"footnotetag861" name="footnotetag861"></a><a href= +"#footnote861"><sup>861</sup></a> Wands of yew were carried by +Druids—"the wand of Druidism" of many folk-tales—and +were used perhaps as divining-rods. Ogams were also engraved on +rods of yews, and from these Druids divined hidden things. By this +means the Druid Dalan discovered where Etain had been hidden by the +god Mider. The method used may have been that of drawing one of the +rods by lot and then divining from the marks upon it. A similar +method was used to discover the route to be taken by invaders, the +result being supposed to depend on divine interposition.<a id= +"footnotetag862" name="footnotetag862"></a><a href= +"#footnote862"><sup>862</sup></a> The knowledge of astronomy +ascribed by Cæsar to the Druids was probably of a simple +kind, and much mixed with astrology, and though it furnished the +data for computing a simple calendar, its use was largely +magical.<a id="footnotetag863" name="footnotetag863"></a><a href= +"#footnote863"><sup>863</sup></a> Irish diviners forecast the time +to build a house by the stars, and the date at which S. Columba's +education should begin, was similarly discovered.<a id= +"footnotetag864" name="footnotetag864"></a><a href= +"#footnote864"><sup>864</sup></a></p> +<p>The <i>Imbas Forosnai</i>, "illumination between the hands," was +used by the <i>Filé</i> to discover hidden things. He chewed +a piece of raw flesh and placed it as an offering to the images of +the gods whom he desired to help him. If enlightenment did not come +by the next day, he pronounced incantations on his palms, which he +then placed on his cheeks before falling asleep. The revelation +followed in a dream, or sometimes after awaking.<a id= +"footnotetag865" name="footnotetag865"></a><a href= +"#footnote865"><sup>865</sup></a> Perhaps the animal <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page249" id="page249"></a>{249}</span> whose +flesh was eaten was a sacred one. Another method was that of the +<i>Teinm Laegha</i>. The <i>Filé</i> made a verse and +repeated it over some person or thing regarding which he sought +information, or he placed his staff on the person's body and so +obtained what he sought. The rite was also preceded by sacrifice; +hence S. Patrick prohibited both it and the <i>Imbas +Forosnai</i>.<a id="footnotetag866" name= +"footnotetag866"></a><a href="#footnote866"><sup>866</sup></a> +Another incantation, the <i>Cétnad</i>, was sung through the +fist to discover the track of stolen cattle or of the thief. If +this did not bring enlightenment, the <i>Filé</i> went to +sleep and obtained the knowledge through a dream.<a id= +"footnotetag867" name="footnotetag867"></a><a href= +"#footnote867"><sup>867</sup></a> Another <i>Cétnad</i> for +obtaining information regarding length of life was addressed to the +seven daughters of the sea. Perhaps the incantation was repeated +mechanically until the seer fell into a kind of trance. Divination +by dreams was also used by the continental Celts.<a id= +"footnotetag868" name="footnotetag868"></a><a href= +"#footnote868"><sup>868</sup></a></p> +<p>Other methods resemble "trance-utterance." "A great obnubilation +was conjured up for the bard so that he slept a heavy sleep, and +things magic-begotten were shewn to him to enunciate," apparently +in his sleep. This was called "illumination by rhymes," and a +similar method was used in Wales. When consulted, the seer roared +violently until he was beside himself, and out of his ravings the +desired information was gathered. When aroused from this ecstatic +condition, he had no remembrance of what he had uttered. Giraldus +reports this, and thinks, with the modern spiritualist, that the +utterance was caused by spirits.<a id="footnotetag869" name= +"footnotetag869"></a><a href="#footnote869"><sup>869</sup></a> The +resemblance to modern trance-utterance and to similar methods used +by savages is remarkable, and psychological science sees in it the +promptings of the subliminal self in sleep.</p> +<p>The <i>taghairm</i> of the Highlanders was a survival from pagan +times. The seer was usually bound in a cow's hide—the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id= +"page250"></a>{250}</span> animal, it may be conjectured, having +been sacrificed in earlier times. He was left in a desolate place, +and while he slept spirits were supposed to inspire his +dreams.<a id="footnotetag870" name="footnotetag870"></a><a href= +"#footnote870"><sup>870</sup></a> Clothing in the skin of a +sacrificial animal, by which the person thus clothed is brought +into contact with it and hence with the divinity to which it is +offered, or with the divine animal itself where the victim is so +regarded, is a widespread custom. Hence, in this Celtic usage, +contact with divinity through the hide would be expected to produce +enlightenment. For a like reason the Irish sacrificed a sheep for +the recovery of the sick, and clothed the patient in its +skin.<a id="footnotetag871" name="footnotetag871"></a><a href= +"#footnote871"><sup>871</sup></a> Binding the limbs of the seer is +also a widespread custom, perhaps to restrain his convulsions or to +concentrate the psychic force.</p> +<p>Both among the continental and Irish Celts those who sought +hidden knowledge slept on graves, hoping to be inspired by the +spirits of the dead.<a id="footnotetag872" name= +"footnotetag872"></a><a href="#footnote872"><sup>872</sup></a> +Legend told how, the full version of the <i>Táin</i> having +been lost, Murgan the <i>Filé</i> sang an incantation over +the grave of Fergus mac Roig. A cloud hid him for three days, and +during that time the dead man appeared and recited the saga to +him.</p> +<p>In Ireland and the Highlands, divination by looking into the +shoulder-blade of a sheep was used to discover future events or +things happening at a distance, a survival from pagan times.<a id= +"footnotetag873" name="footnotetag873"></a><a href= +"#footnote873"><sup>873</sup></a> The scholiast on Lucan describes +the Druidic method of chewing acorns and then prophesying, just as, +in Ireland, eating nuts from the sacred hazels round Connla's well +gave inspiration.<a id="footnotetag874" name= +"footnotetag874"></a><a href="#footnote874"><sup>874</sup></a> The +"priestesses" of Sena and the "Druidesses" of the third century had +the gift of prophecy, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id= +"page251"></a>{251}</span> and it was also ascribed freely to the +<i>Filid</i>, the Druids, and to Christian saints. Druids are said +to have prophesied the coming of S. Patrick, and similar prophecies +are put in the mouths of Fionn and others, just as Montezuma's +priests foretold the coming of the Spaniards.<a id="footnotetag875" +name="footnotetag875"></a><a href="#footnote875"><sup>875</sup></a> +The word used for such prophecies—<i>baile</i>, means +"ecstasy," and it suggests that the prophet worked himself into a +frenzy and then fell into a trance, in which he uttered his +forecast. Prophecies were also made at the birth of a child, +describing its future career.<a id="footnotetag876" name= +"footnotetag876"></a><a href="#footnote876"><sup>876</sup></a> +Careful attention was given to the utterances of Druidic prophets, +<i>e.g.</i> Medb's warriors postponed their expedition for fifteen +days, because the Druids told them they would not succeed if they +set out sooner.<a id="footnotetag877" name= +"footnotetag877"></a><a href="#footnote877"><sup>877</sup></a></p> +<p>Mythical personages or divinities are said in the Irish texts to +have stood on one leg, with one arm extended, and one eye closed, +when uttering prophecies or incantations, and this was doubtless an +attitude used by the seer.<a id="footnotetag878" name= +"footnotetag878"></a><a href="#footnote878"><sup>878</sup></a> A +similar method is known elsewhere, and it may have been intended to +produce greater force. From this attitude may have originated myths +of beings with one arm, one leg, and one eye, like some Fomorians +or the <i>Fachan</i> whose weird picture Campbell of Islay drew +from verbal descriptions.<a id="footnotetag879" name= +"footnotetag879"></a><a href="#footnote879"><sup>879</sup></a></p> +<p>Early Celtic saints occasionally describe lapses into heathenism +in Ireland, not characterised by "idolatry," but by wizardry, +dealing in charms, and <i>fidlanna</i>, perhaps a kind of +divination with pieces of wood.<a id="footnotetag880" name= +"footnotetag880"></a><a href="#footnote880"><sup>880</sup></a> But +it is much more likely that these had never really been abandoned. +They belong to the primitive element of religion and magic which +people cling to long after they have given up "idolatry."</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote790" name= +"footnote790"></a><b>Footnote 790:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag790">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 16.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote791" name= +"footnote791"></a><b>Footnote 791:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag791">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>CB</i><sup>4</sup> 68.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote792" name= +"footnote792"></a><b>Footnote 792:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag792">(return)</a> +<p>Justin, xxvi. 2; Pomp. Mela, iii. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote793" name= +"footnote793"></a><b>Footnote 793:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag793">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. xxii. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote794" name= +"footnote794"></a><b>Footnote 794:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag794">(return)</a> +<p>See Jullian, 53.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote795" name= +"footnote795"></a><b>Footnote 795:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag795">(return)</a> +<p>Servius on <i>Æneid</i>, iii. 57.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote796" name= +"footnote796"></a><b>Footnote 796:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag796">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 16; Livy, xxxviii. 47; Diod. Sic. v. 32, xxxi. +13; Athenæus, iv. 51; Dio Cass., lxii. 7.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote797" name= +"footnote797"></a><b>Footnote 797:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag797">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic, xxxiv. 13; Strabo, iv. 4; Orosius, v. 16; Schol. on +Lucan, Usener's ed. 32.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote798" name= +"footnote798"></a><b>Footnote 798:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag798">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 16; Strabo, iv. 4; Diod. Sic. v. 32; Livy, +xxxviii. 47.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote799" name= +"footnote799"></a><b>Footnote 799:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag799">(return)</a> +<p>Mannhardt, <i>Baumkultus</i>, 529 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote800" name= +"footnote800"></a><b>Footnote 800:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag800">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, <i>ibid.</i> 4. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote801" name= +"footnote801"></a><b>Footnote 801:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag801">(return)</a> +<p>S. Aug. <i>de Civ. Dei</i>, vii. 19.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote802" name= +"footnote802"></a><b>Footnote 802:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag802">(return)</a> +<p>Tac. <i>Ann.</i> xiv. 30; Strabo, iv. 4. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote803" name= +"footnote803"></a><b>Footnote 803:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag803">(return)</a> +<p>Suet. <i>Claud.</i> 25.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote804" name= +"footnote804"></a><b>Footnote 804:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag804">(return)</a> +<p>Pomp. Mela, iii. 2. 18.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote805" name= +"footnote805"></a><b>Footnote 805:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag805">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, <i>HN</i> xxx. 4. 13.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote806" name= +"footnote806"></a><b>Footnote 806:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag806">(return)</a> +<p>Dio. Cass. lxii. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote807" name= +"footnote807"></a><b>Footnote 807:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag807">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 222; Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. ch. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote808" name= +"footnote808"></a><b>Footnote 808:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag808">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xvi. 35.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote809" name= +"footnote809"></a><b>Footnote 809:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag809">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 213<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote810" name= +"footnote810"></a><b>Footnote 810:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag810">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page52">52</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote811" name= +"footnote811"></a><b>Footnote 811:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag811">(return)</a> +<p>See, however, accounts of reckless child sacrifices in Ellis, +<i>Polynesian Researches</i>, i. 252, and Westermarck, <i>Moral +Ideas</i>, i. 397.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote812" name= +"footnote812"></a><b>Footnote 812:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag812">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> Intro, dcxli.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote813" name= +"footnote813"></a><b>Footnote 813:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag813">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 126<i>a</i>. A folk-version is given by Larminie, +<i>West Irish Folk-Tales</i>, 139.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote814" name= +"footnote814"></a><b>Footnote 814:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag814">(return)</a> +<p><i>Book of Fermoy</i>, 89<i>a</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote815" name= +"footnote815"></a><b>Footnote 815:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag815">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> Intro. dcxl, ii. 222.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote816" name= +"footnote816"></a><b>Footnote 816:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag816">(return)</a> +<p>Adamnan, <i>Vita S. Col.</i> Reeve's ed. 288.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote817" name= +"footnote817"></a><b>Footnote 817:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag817">(return)</a> +<p>Carmichael, <i>Carmina Gadelica</i>, ii. 317.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote818" name= +"footnote818"></a><b>Footnote 818:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag818">(return)</a> +<p>Nennius, <i>Hist. Brit.</i> 40.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote819" name= +"footnote819"></a><b>Footnote 819:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag819">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>TIG</i> xli.; O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote820" name= +"footnote820"></a><b>Footnote 820:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag820">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, <i>HN</i> xxx. 1. The feeding of Ethni, daughter of +Crimthann, on human flesh that she might sooner attain maturity may +be an instance of "medicinal cannibalism" (<i>IT</i> iii. 363). The +eating of parents among the Irish, described by Strabo (iv. 5), was +an example of "honorific cannibalism." See my article "Cannibalism" +in Hastings' <i>Encycl. of Rel. and Ethics</i>, iii, 194.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote821" name= +"footnote821"></a><b>Footnote 821:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag821">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. vi. 12; Paus. x. 22. 3; Amm. Marc. xxvii. 4; Livy, +xxiii. 24; Solin. xxii. 3.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote822" name= +"footnote822"></a><b>Footnote 822:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag822">(return)</a> +<p>This custom continued in Ireland until Spenser's time.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote823" name= +"footnote823"></a><b>Footnote 823:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag823">(return)</a> +<p>Leahy, i. 158; Giraldus, <i>Top. Hib.</i> iii. 22; Martin, +109.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote824" name= +"footnote824"></a><b>Footnote 824:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag824">(return)</a> +<p>Sil. Ital. iv. 213; Diod. Sic. xiv. 115; Livy, x. 26; Strabo, +iv. 4. 5; Miss Hull, 92.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote825" name= +"footnote825"></a><b>Footnote 825:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag825">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 29; Strabo, iv. 4. 5.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote826" name= +"footnote826"></a><b>Footnote 826:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag826">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, v. 11; Diod. Sic. v. 29; Strabo, <i>loc. cit.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote827" name= +"footnote827"></a><b>Footnote 827:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag827">(return)</a> +<p><i>Annals of the Four Masters</i>, 864; <i>IT</i> i. 205.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote828" name= +"footnote828"></a><b>Footnote 828:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag828">(return)</a> +<p>Sil. Ital. iv. 215, v. 652; Lucan, <i>Phar.</i> i. 447; Livy, +xxiii. 24.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote829" name= +"footnote829"></a><b>Footnote 829:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag829">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page71">71</a>, <i>supra</i>; <i>CIL</i> xii. +1077. A dim memory of head-taking survived in the seventeenth +century in Eigg, where headless skeletons were found, of which the +islanders said that an enemy had cut off their heads (Martin, +277).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote830" name= +"footnote830"></a><b>Footnote 830:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag830">(return)</a> +<p>Belloguet, <i>Ethnol. Gaul.</i> iii. 100.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote831" name= +"footnote831"></a><b>Footnote 831:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag831">(return)</a> +<p>Sil. Ital. xiii. 482; Livy, xxiii. 24; Florus, i. 39.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote832" name= +"footnote832"></a><b>Footnote 832:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag832">(return)</a> +<p><i>ZCP</i> i. 106.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote833" name= +"footnote833"></a><b>Footnote 833:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag833">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 90 f., ii. 218-219. Sometimes the weapons of a great +warrior had the same effect. The bows of Gwerthevyr were hidden in +different parts of Prydein and preserved the land from Saxon +invasion, until Gwrtheyrn, for love of a woman, dug them up (Loth, +ii. 218-219).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote834" name= +"footnote834"></a><b>Footnote 834:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag834">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page338">338</a>, <i>infra</i>. In Ireland, the +brain of an enemy was taken from the head, mixed with lime, and +made into a ball. This was allowed to harden, and was then placed +in the tribal armoury as a trophy.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote835" name= +"footnote835"></a><b>Footnote 835:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag835">(return)</a> +<p><i>L'Anthropologie</i>, xii. 206, 711. Cf. the English tradition +of the "Holy Mawle," said to have been used for the same purpose. +Thorns, <i>Anecdotes and Traditions</i>, 84.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote836" name= +"footnote836"></a><b>Footnote 836:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag836">(return)</a> +<p>Arrian, <i>Cyneg.</i> xxxiii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote837" name= +"footnote837"></a><b>Footnote 837:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag837">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 17; Orosius, v. 16. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote838" name= +"footnote838"></a><b>Footnote 838:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag838">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, i. 155.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote839" name= +"footnote839"></a><b>Footnote 839:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag839">(return)</a> +<p>Curtin, <i>Tales of the Fairies</i>, 72; <i>Folk-Lore</i>, vii. +178-179.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote840" name= +"footnote840"></a><b>Footnote 840:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag840">(return)</a> +<p>Mitchell, <i>Past in the Present</i>, 275.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote841" name= +"footnote841"></a><b>Footnote 841:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag841">(return)</a> +<p>Mitchell, <i>op. cit.</i> 271 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote842" name= +"footnote842"></a><b>Footnote 842:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag842">(return)</a> +<p>Cook, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, xvii. 332.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote843" name= +"footnote843"></a><b>Footnote 843:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag843">(return)</a> +<p>Mitchell, <i>loc. cit.</i> 147. The corruption of "Maelrubha" to +"Maree" may have been aided by confusing the name with <i>mo</i> or +<i>mhor righ</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote844" name= +"footnote844"></a><b>Footnote 844:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag844">(return)</a> +<p>Mitchell, <i>loc. cit.</i>; Moore, 92, 145; Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> +i. 305; Worth, <i>Hist. of Devonshire</i>, 339; Dalyell, +<i>passim</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote845" name= +"footnote845"></a><b>Footnote 845:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag845">(return)</a> +<p>Livy, xxiii. 24.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote846" name= +"footnote846"></a><b>Footnote 846:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag846">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 166-167; <i>L'Anthrop.</i> xv. 729.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote847" name= +"footnote847"></a><b>Footnote 847:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag847">(return)</a> +<p>Carmichael, <i>Carm. Gad.</i> i. 163.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote848" name= +"footnote848"></a><b>Footnote 848:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag848">(return)</a> +<p>Martin, 28. A scribe called "Sonid," which might be the +equivalent of "Shony," is mentioned in the Stowe missal +(<i>Folk-Lore</i>, 1895).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote849" name= +"footnote849"></a><b>Footnote 849:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag849">(return)</a> +<p>Campbell, <i>Superstitions</i>, 184 f; <i>Waifs and Strays of +Celtic Trad.</i> ii. 455.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote850" name= +"footnote850"></a><b>Footnote 850:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag850">(return)</a> +<p>Aelian, xvii. 19.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote851" name= +"footnote851"></a><b>Footnote 851:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag851">(return)</a> +<p>Tacitus, <i>Ann.</i> xiv. 30; Dio Cass. lxii. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote852" name= +"footnote852"></a><b>Footnote 852:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag852">(return)</a> +<p>Appian, <i>Celtica</i>, 8; Livy, xxi. 28, xxxviii. 17, x. +26.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote853" name= +"footnote853"></a><b>Footnote 853:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag853">(return)</a> +<p>Livy, v. 38, vii. 23; Polybius, ii. 29. Cf. Watteville, <i>Le +cri de guerre chez les differents peuples</i>, Paris, 1889.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote854" name= +"footnote854"></a><b>Footnote 854:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag854">(return)</a> +<p>Livy, v. 38.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote855" name= +"footnote855"></a><b>Footnote 855:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag855">(return)</a> +<p>Appian, vi. 53; Muret et Chabouillet, <i>Catalogue des monnaies +gauloises</i>, 6033 f., 6941 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote856" name= +"footnote856"></a><b>Footnote 856:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag856">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. v. 31; Justin, xxvi. 2, 4; Cicero, <i>de Div.</i> ii. 36, +76; Tac. <i>Ann.</i> xiv. 30; Strabo, iii. 3. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote857" name= +"footnote857"></a><b>Footnote 857:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag857">(return)</a> +<p>Dio Cass. lxii. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote858" name= +"footnote858"></a><b>Footnote 858:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag858">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>Catal. Sommaire</i>, 31; Pseudo-Plutarch, <i>de +Fluviis</i>, vi. 4; <i>Mirab. Auscult.</i> 86.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote859" name= +"footnote859"></a><b>Footnote 859:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag859">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, iv. 4. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote860" name= +"footnote860"></a><b>Footnote 860:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag860">(return)</a> +<p>Justin, xxiv, 4; Cicero, <i>de Div.</i> i. 15. 26. (Cf. the two +magic crows which announced the coming of Cúchulainn to the +other world (D'Arbois, v. 203); Irish <i>Nennius</i>, 145; O'Curry, +<i>MC</i> ii. 224; cf. for a Welsh instance, Skene, i. 433.)</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote861" name= +"footnote861"></a><b>Footnote 861:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag861">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 229; O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 224, <i>MS +Mat.</i> 284.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote862" name= +"footnote862"></a><b>Footnote 862:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag862">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 129; Livy, v. 34; Loth, <i>RC</i> xvi. 314. The +Irish for consulting a lot is <i>crann-chur</i>, "the act of +casting wood."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote863" name= +"footnote863"></a><b>Footnote 863:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag863">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote864" name= +"footnote864"></a><b>Footnote 864:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag864">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 46, 224; Stokes, <i>Three Irish +Homilies</i>, 103.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote865" name= +"footnote865"></a><b>Footnote 865:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag865">(return)</a> +<p>Cormac, 94. Fionn's divination by chewing his thumb is called +<i>Imbas Forosnai</i> (<i>RC</i> xxv. 347).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote866" name= +"footnote866"></a><b>Footnote 866:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag866">(return)</a> +<p><i>Antient Laws of Ireland</i>, i. 45.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote867" name= +"footnote867"></a><b>Footnote 867:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag867">(return)</a> +<p>Hyde, <i>Lit. Hist. of Ireland</i>, 241.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote868" name= +"footnote868"></a><b>Footnote 868:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag868">(return)</a> +<p>Justin, xliii. 5.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote869" name= +"footnote869"></a><b>Footnote 869:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag869">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 362; Giraldus, <i>Descr. Camb.</i> i. 11.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote870" name= +"footnote870"></a><b>Footnote 870:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag870">(return)</a> +<p>Pennant, <i>Tour in Scotland</i>, i. 311; Martin, 111.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote871" name= +"footnote871"></a><b>Footnote 871:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag871">(return)</a> +<p>Richardson, <i>Folly of Pilgrimages</i>, 70.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote872" name= +"footnote872"></a><b>Footnote 872:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag872">(return)</a> +<p>Tertullian, <i>de Anima</i>, 57; <i>Coll. de Reb. Hib.</i> iii. +334.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote873" name= +"footnote873"></a><b>Footnote 873:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag873">(return)</a> +<p>Campbell, <i>Superstitions</i>, 263; Curtin, <i>Tales</i>, +84.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote874" name= +"footnote874"></a><b>Footnote 874:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag874">(return)</a> +<p>Lucan, ed. Usener, 33.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote875" name= +"footnote875"></a><b>Footnote 875:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag875">(return)</a> +<p>See examples in O'Curry, <i>MS Mat.</i> 383 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote876" name= +"footnote876"></a><b>Footnote 876:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag876">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 19, 20, 23.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote877" name= +"footnote877"></a><b>Footnote 877:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag877">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 55.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote878" name= +"footnote878"></a><b>Footnote 878:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag878">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 98, xxi. 156, xxii. 61.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote879" name= +"footnote879"></a><b>Footnote 879:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag879">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xv. 432; <i>Annals of the Four Masters</i>, A.M. 2530; +Campbell, <i>WHT</i> iv. 298.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote880" name= +"footnote880"></a><b>Footnote 880:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag880">(return)</a> +<p>See "Adamnan's Second Vision." <i>RC</i> xii. 441.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page252" id= +"page252"></a>{252}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap17" id="chap17">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h2> +<h3>TABU.</h3> +<p>The Irish <i>geis</i>, pl. <i>geasa</i>, which may be rendered +by Tabu, had two senses. It meant something which must not be done +for fear of disastrous consequences, and also an obligation to do +something commanded by another.</p> +<p>As a tabu the <i>geis</i> had a large place in Irish life, and +was probably known to other branches of the Celts.<a id= +"footnotetag881" name="footnotetag881"></a><a href= +"#footnote881"><sup>881</sup></a> It followed the general course of +tabu wherever found. Sometimes it was imposed before birth, or it +was hereditary, or connected with totemism. Legends, however, often +arose giving a different explanation to <i>geasa</i>, long after +the customs in which they originated had been forgotten. It was one +of Diarmaid's <i>geasa</i> not to hunt the boar of Ben Gulban, and +this was probably totemic in origin. But legend told how his father +killed a child, the corpse being changed into a boar by the child's +father, who said its span of life would be the same as Diarmaid's, +and that he would be slain by it. Oengus put <i>geasa</i> on +Diarmaid not to hunt it, but at Fionn's desire he broke these, and +was killed.<a id="footnotetag882" name= +"footnotetag882"></a><a href="#footnote882"><sup>882</sup></a> +Other <i>geasa</i>—those of Cúchulainn not to eat +dog's flesh, and of Conaire never to chase birds—also point +to totemism.</p> +<p>In some cases <i>geasa</i> were based on ideas of right and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page253" id= +"page253"></a>{253}</span> wrong, honour or dishonour, or were +intended to cause avoidance of unlucky days. Others are +unintelligible to us. The largest number of <i>geasa</i> concerned +kings and chiefs, and are described, along with their corresponding +privileges, in the <i>Book of Rights</i>. Some of the <i>geasa</i> +of the king of Connaught were not to go to an assembly of women at +Leaghair, not to sit in autumn on the sepulchral mound of the wife +of Maine, not to go in a grey-speckled garment on a grey-speckled +horse to the heath of Cruachan, and the like.<a id="footnotetag883" +name="footnotetag883"></a><a href="#footnote883"><sup>883</sup></a> +The meaning of these is obscure, but other examples are more +obvious and show that all alike corresponded to the tabus applying +to kings in primitive societies, who are often magicians, priests, +or even divine representatives. On them the welfare of the tribe +and the making of rain or sunshine, and the processes of growth +depend. They must therefore be careful of their actions, and hence +they are hedged about with tabus which, however unmeaning, have a +direct connection with their powers. Out of such conceptions the +Irish kingly <i>geasa</i> arose. Their observance made the earth +fruitful, produced abundance and prosperity, and kept both the king +and his land from misfortune. In later times these were supposed to +be dependent on the "goodness" or the reverse of the king, but this +was a departure from the older idea, which is clearly stated in the +<i>Book of Rights</i>.<a id="footnotetag884" name= +"footnotetag884"></a><a href="#footnote884"><sup>884</sup></a> The +kings were divinities on whom depended fruitfulness and plenty, and +who must therefore submit to obey their <i>geasa</i>. Some of their +prerogatives seem also to be connected with this state of things. +Thus they might eat of certain foods or go to certain places on +particular days.<a id="footnotetag885" name= +"footnotetag885"></a><a href="#footnote885"><sup>885</sup></a> In +primitive societies kings and priests often prohibit ordinary +mortals from eating things which they desire for themselves by +making them <i>tabu</i>, and <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page254" id="page254"></a>{254}</span> in other cases the fruits +of the earth can only be eaten after king or priest has partaken of +them ceremonially. This may have been the case in Ireland. The +privilege relating to places may have meant that these were sacred +and only to be entered by the king at certain times and in his +sacred capacity.</p> +<p>As a reflection from this state of things, the heroes of the +sagas, Cúchulainn and Fionn, had numerous <i>geasa</i> +applicable to themselves, some of them religious, some magical, +others based on primitive ideas of honour, others perhaps the +invention of the narrators.<a id="footnotetag886" name= +"footnotetag886"></a><a href="#footnote886"><sup>886</sup></a></p> +<p><i>Geasa</i>, whether in the sense of tabus or of obligations, +could be imposed by any one, and must be obeyed, for disobedience +produced disastrous effects. Probably the obligation was framed as +an incantation or spell, and the power of the spell being fully +believed in, obedience would follow as a matter of course.<a id= +"footnotetag887" name="footnotetag887"></a><a href= +"#footnote887"><sup>887</sup></a> Examples of such <i>geasa</i> are +numerous in Irish literature. Cúchulainn's father-in-law put +<i>geasa</i> on him that he should know no rest until he found out +the cause of the exile of the sons of Doel. And Grainne put +<i>geasa</i> on Diarmaid that he should elope with her, and this he +did, though the act was repugnant to him.</p> +<p>Among savages the punishment which is supposed to follow +tabu-breaking is often produced through auto-suggestion when a tabu +has been unconsciously infringed and this has afterwards been +discovered. Fear produces the result which is feared. The result is +believed, however, to be the working of divine vengeance. In the +case of Irish <i>geasa</i>, destruction and death usually followed +their infringement, as in the case of Diarmaid and +Cúchulainn. But the best instance is found in the tale of +<i>The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel</i>, in which <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page255" id="page255"></a>{255}</span> the +<i>síd</i>-folk avenge themselves for Eochaid's action by +causing the destruction of his descendant Conaire, who is forced to +break his <i>geasa</i>. These are first minutely detailed; then it +is shown how, almost in spite of himself, Conaire was led on to +break them, and how, in the sequel, his tragic death +occurred.<a id="footnotetag888" name="footnotetag888"></a><a href= +"#footnote888"><sup>888</sup></a> Viewed in this light as the +working of divine vengeance to a remote descendant of the offender +by forcing him to break his tabus, the story is one of the most +terrible in the whole range of Irish literature.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote881" name= +"footnote881"></a><b>Footnote 881:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag881">(return)</a> +<p>The religious interdictions mentioned by Cæsar (vi. 13) +may be regarded as tabus, while the spoils of war placed in a +consecrated place (vi. 18), and certain animals among the Britons +(v. 12), were clearly under tabu.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote882" name= +"footnote882"></a><b>Footnote 882:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag882">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 332 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote883" name= +"footnote883"></a><b>Footnote 883:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag883">(return)</a> +<p><i>Book of Rights</i>, ed. O'Donovan, 5.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote884" name= +"footnote884"></a><b>Footnote 884:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag884">(return)</a> +<p><i>Book of Rights</i>, 7.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote885" name= +"footnote885"></a><b>Footnote 885:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag885">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> 3 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote886" name= +"footnote886"></a><b>Footnote 886:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag886">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 107; O'Grady, ii. 175.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote887" name= +"footnote887"></a><b>Footnote 887:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag887">(return)</a> +<p>In Highland tales <i>geasa</i> is translated "spells."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote888" name= +"footnote888"></a><b>Footnote 888:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag888">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxii. 27 f. The story of <i>Da Choca's Hostel</i> has +for its subject the destruction of Cormac through breaking his +<i>geasa</i> (<i>RC</i> xxi. 149 f.).</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page256" id= +"page256"></a>{256}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap18" id="chap18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h2> +<h3>FESTIVALS.</h3> +<p>The Celtic year was not at first regulated by the solstices and +equinoxes, but by some method connected with agriculture or with +the seasons. Later, the year was a lunar one, and there is some +evidence of attempts at synchronising solar and lunar time. But +time was mainly measured by the moon, while in all calculations +night preceded day.<a id="footnotetag889" name= +"footnotetag889"></a><a href="#footnote889"><sup>889</sup></a> Thus +<i>oidhche Samhain</i> was the night preceding Samhain (November +1st), not the following night. The usage survives in our "sennight" +and "fortnight." In early times the year had two, possibly three +divisions, marking periods in pastoral or agricultural life, but it +was afterwards divided into four periods, while the year began with +the winter division, opening at Samhain. A twofold, subdivided into +a fourfold division is found in Irish texts,<a id="footnotetag890" +name="footnotetag890"></a><a href="#footnote890"><sup>890</sup></a> +and may be tabulated as follows:—</p> +<table summary="Festivals"> +<tr> +<td>A. Geimredh (winter half)</td> +<td> +<table summary="Winter half"> +<tr> +<td>1st quarter, <i>Geimredh</i>, beginning with the festival of +<i>Samhain</i>, November 1st.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>2nd quarter, <i>Earrach</i>, beginning February 1st (sometimes +called <i>Oimelc</i>).</td> +</tr> +</table> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>B. Samradh (summer half)</td> +<td> +<table summary="Summer half"> +<tr> +<td>3rd quarter, <i>Samradh</i>, beginning with the festival of +<i>Beltane</i>, May 1st (called also <i>Cét-soman</i> or +<i>Cét-samain</i>, 1st day of <i>Samono-s</i>; cf. Welsh +<i>Cyntefyn</i>).</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>4th quarter, <i>Foghamar</i>, beginning with the festival of +<i>Lugnasadh</i>, August 1st (sometimes called +<i>Brontroghain</i>).</td> +</tr> +</table> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id= +"page257"></a>{257}</span> +<p>These divisions began with festivals, and clear traces of three +of them occur over the whole Celtic area, but the fourth has now +been merged in S. Brigit's day. Beltane and Samhain marked the +beginning of the two great divisions, and were perhaps at first +movable festivals, according as the signs of summer or winter +appeared earlier or later. With the adoption of the Roman calendar +some of the festivals were displaced, <i>e.g.</i> in Gaul, where +the Calends of January took the place of Samhain, the ritual being +also transferred.</p> +<p>None of the four festivals is connected with the times of +equinox and solstice. This points to the fact that originally the +Celtic year was independent of these. But Midsummer day was also +observed not only by the Celts, but by most European folk, the +ritual resembling that of Beltane. It has been held, and an old +tradition in Ireland gives some support to the theory, that under +Christian influences the old pagan feast of Beltane was merged in +that of S. John Baptist on Midsummer day.<a id="footnotetag891" +name="footnotetag891"></a><a href="#footnote891"><sup>891</sup></a> +But, though there are Christian elements in the Midsummer ritual, +denoting a desire to bring it under Church influence, the pagan +elements in folk-custom are strongly marked, and the festival is +deeply rooted in an earlier paganism all over Europe. Without much +acquaintance with astronomy, men must have noted the period of the +sun's longest course from early times, and it would probably be +observed ritually. The festivals of Beltane and Midsummer may have +arisen independently, and entered into competition with each other. +Or Beltane may have been an early pastoral festival marking the +beginning of summer when the herds went out to pasture, and +Midsummer a more purely agricultural festival. <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page258" id="page258"></a>{258}</span> And since +their ritual aspect and purpose as seen in folk-custom are similar, +they may eventually have borrowed each from the other. Or they may +be later separate fixed dates of an earlier movable summer +festival. For our purpose we may here consider them as twin halves +of such a festival. Where Midsummer was already observed, the +influence of the Roman calendar would confirm that observance. The +festivals of the Christian year also affected the older +observances. Some of the ritual was transferred to saints' days +within the range of the pagan festival days, thus the Samhain +ritual is found observed on S. Martin's day. In other cases, holy +days took the place of the old festivals—All Saints' and All +Souls' that of Samhain, S. Brigit's day that of February 1st, S. +John Baptist's day that of Midsummer, Lammas that of Lugnasad, and +some attempt was made to hallow, if not to oust, the older +ritual.</p> +<p>The Celtic festivals being primarily connected with agricultural +and pastoral life, we find in their ritual survivals traces not +only of a religious but of a magical view of things, of acts +designed to assist the powers of life and growth. The proof of this +will be found in a detailed examination of the surviving customs +connected with them.</p> +<h3>SAMHAIN.</h3> +<p>Samhain,<a id="footnotetag892" name= +"footnotetag892"></a><a href="#footnote892"><sup>892</sup></a> +beginning the Celtic year, was an important social and religious +occasion. The powers of blight were beginning their ascendancy, yet +the future triumph of the powers of growth was not forgotten. +Probably Samhain had gathered up into itself other feasts occurring +earlier or later. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page259" id= +"page259"></a>{259}</span> Thus it bears traces of being a harvest +festival, the ritual of the earlier harvest feast being transferred +to the winter feast, as the Celts found themselves in lands where +harvest is not gathered before late autumn. The harvest rites may, +however, have been associated with threshing rather than +ingathering. Samhain also contains in its ritual some of the old +pastoral cults, while as a New Year feast its ritual is in great +part that of all festivals of beginnings.</p> +<p>New fire was brought into each house at Samhain from the sacred +bonfire,<a id="footnotetag893" name="footnotetag893"></a><a href= +"#footnote893"><sup>893</sup></a> itself probably kindled from the +need-fire by the friction of pieces of wood. This preserved its +purity, the purity necessary to a festival of beginnings.<a id= +"footnotetag894" name="footnotetag894"></a><a href= +"#footnote894"><sup>894</sup></a> The putting away of the old fires +was probably connected with various rites for the expulsion of +evils, which usually occur among many peoples at the New Year +festival. By that process of dislocation which scattered the +Samhain ritual over a wider period and gave some of it to +Christmas, the kindling of the Yule log may have been originally +connected with this festival.</p> +<p>Divination and forecasting the fate of the inquirer for the +coming year also took place. Sometimes these were connected with +the bonfire, stones placed in it showing by their appearance the +fortune or misfortune awaiting their owners.<a id="footnotetag895" +name="footnotetag895"></a><a href="#footnote895"><sup>895</sup></a> +Others, like those described by Burns in his "Hallowe'en," were +unconnected with the bonfire and were of an erotic nature.<a id= +"footnotetag896" name="footnotetag896"></a><a href= +"#footnote896"><sup>896</sup></a></p> +<p>The slaughter of animals for winter consumption which took place +at Samhain, or, as now, at Martinmas, though connected with +economic reasons, had a distinctly religious aspect, as it had +among the Teutons. In recent times in <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>{260}</span> Ireland +one of the animals was offered to S. Martin, who may have taken the +place of a god, and ill-luck followed the non-observance of the +custom.<a id="footnotetag897" name="footnotetag897"></a><a href= +"#footnote897"><sup>897</sup></a> The slaughter was followed by +general feasting. This later slaughter may be traced back to the +pastoral stage, in which the animals were regarded as divine, and +one was slain annually and eaten sacramentally. Or, if the +slaughter was more general, the animals would be propitiated. But +when the animals ceased to be worshipped, the slaughter would +certainly be more general, though still preserving traces of its +original character. The pastoral sacrament may also have been +connected with the slaying and eating of an animal representing the +corn-spirit at harvest time. In one legend S. Martin is associated +with the animal slain at Martinmas, and is said to have been cut up +and eaten in the form of an ox,<a id="footnotetag898" name= +"footnotetag898"></a><a href="#footnote898"><sup>898</sup></a> as +if a former divine animal had become an anthropomorphic divinity, +the latter being merged in the personality of a Christian +saint.</p> +<p>Other rites, connected with the Calends of January as a result +of dislocation, point also in this direction. In Gaul and Germany +riotous processions took place with men dressed in the heads and +skins of animals.<a id="footnotetag899" name= +"footnotetag899"></a><a href="#footnote899"><sup>899</sup></a> This +rite is said by Tille to have been introduced from Italy, but it is +more likely to have been a native custom.<a id="footnotetag900" +name="footnotetag900"></a><a href="#footnote900"><sup>900</sup></a> +As the people ate the flesh of the slain animals sacramentally, so +they clothed themselves in the skins to promote further contact +with their divinity. Perambulating the township sunwise dressed in +the skin of a cow took place until recently in the Hebrides at New +Year, in order to keep off misfortune, a piece of the hide being +burned and the smoke inhaled by each person and animal in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page261" id= +"page261"></a>{261}</span> the township.<a id="footnotetag901" +name="footnotetag901"></a><a href="#footnote901"><sup>901</sup></a> +Similar customs have been found in other Celtic districts, and +these animal disguises can hardly be separated from the sacramental +slaughter at Samhain.<a id="footnotetag902" name= +"footnotetag902"></a><a href="#footnote902"><sup>902</sup></a></p> +<p>Evils having been or being about to be cast off in the New Year +ritual, a few more added to the number can make little difference. +Hence among primitive peoples New Year is often characterised by +orgiastic rites. These took place at the Calends in Gaul, and were +denounced by councils and preachers.<a id="footnotetag903" name= +"footnotetag903"></a><a href="#footnote903"><sup>903</sup></a> In +Ireland the merriment at Samhain is often mentioned in the +texts,<a id="footnotetag904" name="footnotetag904"></a><a href= +"#footnote904"><sup>904</sup></a> and similar orgiastic rites lurk +behind the Hallowe'en customs in Scotland and in the licence still +permitted to youths in the quietest townships of the West Highlands +at Samhain eve.</p> +<p>Samhain, as has been seen, was also a festival of the dead, +whose ghosts were fed at this time.<a id="footnotetag905" name= +"footnotetag905"></a><a href="#footnote905"><sup>905</sup></a></p> +<p>As the powers of growth were in danger and in eclipse in winter, +men thought it necessary to assist them. As a magical aid the +Samhain bonfire was chief, and it is still lit in the Highlands. +Brands were carried round, and from it the new fire was lit in each +house. In North Wales people jumped through the fire, and when it +was extinct, rushed away to escape the "black sow" who would take +the hindmost.<a id="footnotetag906" name= +"footnotetag906"></a><a href="#footnote906"><sup>906</sup></a> The +bonfire represented the sun, and was intended to strengthen it. But +representing the sun, it had all the sun's force, hence those who +jumped through it were strengthened and purified. The Welsh +reference to the hindmost and to the black sow may point to a +former human sacrifice, perhaps of any one <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>{262}</span> who +stumbled in jumping through the fire. Keating speaks of a Druidic +sacrifice in the bonfire, whether of man or beast is not +specified.<a id="footnotetag907" name="footnotetag907"></a><a href= +"#footnote907"><sup>907</sup></a> Probably the victim, like the +scapegoat, was laden with the accumulated evils of the year, as in +similar New Year customs elsewhere. Later belief regarded the +sacrifice, if sacrifice there was, as offered to the powers of +evil—the black sow, unless this animal is a reminiscence of +the corn-spirit in its harmful aspect. Earlier powers, whether of +growth or of blight, came to be associated with Samhain as demoniac +beings—the "malignant bird flocks" which blighted crops and +killed animals, the <i>samhanach</i> which steals children, and +Mongfind the banshee, to whom "women and the rabble" make petitions +on Samhain eve.<a id="footnotetag908" name= +"footnotetag908"></a><a href="#footnote908"><sup>908</sup></a> +Witches, evil-intentioned fairies, and the dead were particularly +active then.</p> +<p>Though the sacrificial victim had come to be regarded as an +offering to the powers of blight, he may once have represented a +divinity of growth or, in earlier times, the corn-spirit. Such a +victim was slain at harvest, and harvest is often late in northern +Celtic regions, while the slaying was sometimes connected not with +the harvest field, but with the later threshing. This would bring +it near the Samhain festival. The slaying of the corn-spirit was +derived from the earlier slaying of a tree or vegetation-spirit +embodied in a tree and also in a human or animal victim. The +corn-spirit was embodied in the last sheaf cut as well as in an +animal or human being.<a id="footnotetag909" name= +"footnotetag909"></a><a href="#footnote909"><sup>909</sup></a> This +human victim may have been regarded as a king, since in late +popular custom a mock king is chosen at winter festivals.<a id= +"footnotetag910" name="footnotetag910"></a><a href= +"#footnote910"><sup>910</sup></a> In other cases the effigy of a +saint is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page263" id= +"page263"></a>{263}</span> hung up and carried round the different +houses, part of the dress being left at each. The saint has +probably succeeded to the traditional ritual of the divine +victim.<a id="footnotetag911" name="footnotetag911"></a><a href= +"#footnote911"><sup>911</sup></a> The primitive period in which the +corn-spirit was regarded as female, with a woman as her human +representative, is also recalled in folk-custom. The last sheaf is +called the Maiden or the Mother, while, as in Northamptonshire, +girls choose a queen on S. Catharine's day, November 26th, and in +some Christmas pageants "Yule's wife," as well as Yule, is present, +corresponding to the May queen of the summer festival.<a id= +"footnotetag912" name="footnotetag912"></a><a href= +"#footnote912"><sup>912</sup></a> Men also masqueraded as women at +the Calends. The dates of these survivals may be explained by that +dislocation of the Samhain festival already pointed out. This view +of the Samhain human sacrifices is supported by the Irish offerings +to the Fomorians—gods of growth, later regarded as gods of +blight, and to Cromm Cruaich, in both cases at Samhain.<a id= +"footnotetag913" name="footnotetag913"></a><a href= +"#footnote913"><sup>913</sup></a> With the evolution of religious +thought, the slain victim came to be regarded as an offering to +evil powers.</p> +<p>This aspect of Samhain, as a festival to promote and assist +festivity, is further seen in the belief in the increased activity +of fairies at that time. In Ireland, fairies are connected with the +Tuatha Dé Danann, the divinities of growth, and in many +folk-tales they are associated with agricultural processes. The use +of evergreens at Christmas is perhaps also connected with the +carrying of them round the fields in older times, as an evidence +that the life of nature was not extinct.<a id="footnotetag914" +name="footnotetag914"></a><a href= +"#footnote914"><sup>914</sup></a></p> +<p>Samhain may thus be regarded as, in origin, an old pastoral and +agricultural festival, which in time came to be looked upon as +affording assistance to the powers of growth in their conflict with +the powers of blight. Perhaps some myth <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>{264}</span> +describing this combat may lurk behind the story of the battle of +Mag-tured fought on Samhain between the Tuatha Dé Danann and +the Fomorians. While the powers of blight are triumphant in winter, +the Tuatha Déa are represented as the victors, though they +suffer loss and death. Perhaps this enshrines the belief in the +continual triumph of life and growth over blight and decay, or it +may arise from the fact that Samhain was both a time of rejoicing +for the ingathered harvest, and of wailing for the coming supremacy +of winter and the reign of the powers of blight.</p> +<h3>BELTANE.</h3> +<p>In Cormac's <i>Glossary</i> and other texts, "Beltane" is +derived from <i>bel-tene</i>, "a goodly fire," or from +<i>bel-dine</i>, because newly-born (<i>dine</i>) cattle were +offered to Bel, an idol-god.<a id="footnotetag915" name= +"footnotetag915"></a><a href="#footnote915"><sup>915</sup></a> The +latter is followed by those who believe in a Celtic Belus, +connected with Baal. No such god is known, however, and the god +Belenos is in no way connected with the Semitic divinity. M. +D'Arbois assumes an unknown god of death, Beltene (from +<i>beltu</i>, "to die"), whose festival Beltane was.<a id= +"footnotetag916" name="footnotetag916"></a><a href= +"#footnote916"><sup>916</sup></a> But Beltane was a festival of +life, of the sun shining in his strength. Dr. Stokes gives a more +acceptable explanation of the word. Its primitive form was +<i>belo-te</i>[<i>p</i>]<i>niâ</i>, from <i>belo-s</i>, +"clear," "shining," the root of the names Belenos and Belisama, and +<i>te</i>[<i>p</i>]<i>nos</i>, "fire." Thus the word would mean +something like "bright fire," perhaps the sun or the bonfire, or +both.<a id="footnotetag917" name="footnotetag917"></a><a href= +"#footnote917"><sup>917</sup></a></p> +<p>The folk-survivals of the Beltane and Midsummer festivals show +that both were intended to promote fertility.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id= +"page265"></a>{265}</span> +<p>One of the chief ritual acts at Beltane was the kindling of +bonfires, often on hills. The house-fires in the district were +often extinguished, the bonfire being lit by friction from a +rotating wheel—the German "need-fire."<a id="footnotetag918" +name="footnotetag918"></a><a href="#footnote918"><sup>918</sup></a> +The fire kept off disease and evil, hence cattle were driven +through it, or, according to Cormac, between two fires lit by +Druids, in order to keep them in health during the year.<a id= +"footnotetag919" name="footnotetag919"></a><a href= +"#footnote919"><sup>919</sup></a> Sometimes the fire was lit +beneath a sacred tree, or a pole covered with greenery was +surrounded by the fuel, or a tree was burned in the fire.<a id= +"footnotetag920" name="footnotetag920"></a><a href= +"#footnote920"><sup>920</sup></a> These trees survive in the +Maypole of later custom, and they represented the +vegetation-spirit, to whom also the worshippers assimilated +themselves by dressing in leaves. They danced sunwise round the +fire or ran through the fields with blazing branches or wisps of +straw, imitating the course of the sun, and thus benefiting the +fields.<a id="footnotetag921" name="footnotetag921"></a><a href= +"#footnote921"><sup>921</sup></a> For the same reason the tree +itself was probably borne through the fields. Houses were decked +with boughs and thus protected by the spirit of vegetation.<a id= +"footnotetag922" name="footnotetag922"></a><a href= +"#footnote922"><sup>922</sup></a></p> +<p>An animal representing the spirit of vegetation may have been +slain. In late survivals of Beltane at Dublin, a horse's skull and +bones were thrown into the fire,<a id="footnotetag923" name= +"footnotetag923"></a><a href="#footnote923"><sup>923</sup></a> the +attenuated form of an earlier sacrifice or slaying of a divine +victim, by whom strength was transferred to all the animals which +passed through the fire. In some cases a human victim may have been +slain. This is suggested by customs surviving in Perthshire in the +eighteenth century, when a cake was broken up and distributed, and +the person who received a certain <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page266" id="page266"></a>{266}</span> blackened portion was +called the "Beltane carline" or "devoted." A pretence was made of +throwing him into the fire, or he had to leap three times through +it, and during the festival he was spoken of as "dead."<a id= +"footnotetag924" name="footnotetag924"></a><a href= +"#footnote924"><sup>924</sup></a> Martin says that malefactors were +burned in the fire,<a id="footnotetag925" name= +"footnotetag925"></a><a href="#footnote925"><sup>925</sup></a> and +though he cites no authority, this agrees with the Celtic use of +criminals as victims. Perhaps the victim was at one time a human +representative of the vegetation-spirit.</p> +<p>Beltane cakes or bannocks, perhaps made of the grain of the +sacred last sheaf from the previous harvest, and therefore +sacramental in character, were also used in different ways in +folk-survivals. They were rolled down a slope—a magical +imitative act, symbolising and aiding the course of the sun. The +cake had also a divinatory character. If it broke on reaching the +foot of the slope this indicated the approaching death of its +owner. In another custom in Perthshire, part of a cake was thrown +over the shoulder with the words, "This I give to thee, preserve +thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; this to thee, +O fox, preserve thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded crow; this to +thee, O eagle." Here there is an appeal to beneficial and noxious +powers, whether this was the original intention of the rite.<a id= +"footnotetag926" name="footnotetag926"></a><a href= +"#footnote926"><sup>926</sup></a> But if the cakes were made of the +last sheaf, they were probably at one time eaten sacramentally, +their sacrificial use emerging later.</p> +<p>The bonfire was a sun-charm, representing and assisting the sun. +Rain-charms were also used at Beltane. Sacred wells were visited +and the ceremony performed with their waters, these perhaps being +sprinkled over the tree or the fields to promote a copious rainfall +for the benefit of vegetation. <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page267" id="page267"></a>{267}</span> The use of such rites at +Beltane and at other festivals may have given rise to the belief +that wells were especially efficacious then for purposes of +healing. The custom of rolling in the grass to benefit by May dew +was probably connected with magical rites in which moisture played +an important part.<a id="footnotetag927" name= +"footnotetag927"></a><a href="#footnote927"><sup>927</sup></a></p> +<p>The idea that the powers of growth had successfully combated +those of blight may have been ritually represented. This is +suggested by the mimic combats of Summer and Winter at this time, +to which reference has already been made. Again, the May king and +queen represent earlier personages who were regarded as embodying +the spirits of vegetation and fertility at this festival, and whose +marriage or union magically assisted growth and fertility, as in +numerous examples of this ritual marriage elsewhere.<a id= +"footnotetag928" name="footnotetag928"></a><a href= +"#footnote928"><sup>928</sup></a> It may be assumed that a +considerable amount of sexual licence also took place with the same +magical purpose. Sacred marriage and festival orgy were an appeal +to the forces of nature to complete their beneficial work, as well +as a magical aid to them in that work. Analogy leads to the +supposition that the king of the May was originally a priest-king, +the incarnation of the spirit of vegetation. He or his surrogate +was slain, while his bodily force was unabated, in order that it +might be passed on undiminished to his successor. But the +persistent place given to the May queen rather than to the king +suggests the earlier prominence of women and of female spirits of +fertility or of a great Mother-goddess in such rites. It is also +significant that in the Perthshire ritual the man chosen was still +called the <i>Beltane carlane</i> or <i>cailleach</i> ("old +woman"). And if, as Professor Pearson maintains, witch <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page268" id="page268"></a>{268}</span> orgies +are survivals of old sex-festivals, then the popular belief in the +activity of witches on Beltane eve, also shows that the festival +had once been mainly one in which women took part. Such orgies +often took place on hills which had been the sites of a cult in +former times.<a id="footnotetag929" name= +"footnotetag929"></a><a href="#footnote929"><sup>929</sup></a></p> +<h3>MIDSUMMER.</h3> +<p>The ritual of the Midsummer festival did not materially differ +from that of Beltane, and as folk-survivals show, it was practised +not only by the Celts, but by many other European peoples. It was, +in fact, a primitive nature festival such as would readily be +observed by all under similar psychic conditions and in like +surroundings. A bonfire was again the central rite of this +festival, the communal nature of which is seen in the fact that all +must contribute materials to it. In local survivals, mayor and +priest, representing the earlier local chief and priest, were +present, while a service in church preceded the procession to the +scene of the bonfire. Dancing sunwise round the fire to the +accompaniment of songs which probably took the place of hymns or +tunes in honour of the Sun-god, commonly occurred, and by imitating +the sun's action, may have been intended to make it more powerful. +The livelier the dance the better would be the harvest.<a id= +"footnotetag930" name="footnotetag930"></a><a href= +"#footnote930"><sup>930</sup></a> As the fire represented the sun, +it possessed the purifying and invigorating powers of the sun; +hence leaping through the fire preserved from disease, brought +prosperity, or removed barrenness. Hence also cattle were driven +through the fire. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id= +"page269"></a>{269}</span> But if any one stumbled as he leaped, +ill-luck was supposed to follow him. He was devoted to the +<i>fadets</i> or spirits,<a id="footnotetag931" name= +"footnotetag931"></a><a href="#footnote931"><sup>931</sup></a> and +perhaps, like the "devoted" Beltane victim, he may formerly have +been sacrificed. Animal sacrifices are certainly found in many +survivals, the victims being often placed in osier baskets and +thrown into the fire. In other districts great human effigies of +osier were carried in procession and burned.<a id="footnotetag932" +name="footnotetag932"></a><a href= +"#footnote932"><sup>932</sup></a></p> +<p>The connection of such sacrifices with the periodical slaying of +a representative of the vegetation-spirit has been maintained by +Mannhardt and Dr. Frazer.<a id="footnotetag933" name= +"footnotetag933"></a><a href="#footnote933"><sup>933</sup></a> As +has been seen, periodic sacrifices for the fertility of the land +are mentioned by Cæsar, Strabo, and Diodorus, human victims +and animals being enclosed in an osier image and burned.<a id= +"footnotetag934" name="footnotetag934"></a><a href= +"#footnote934"><sup>934</sup></a> These images survive in the osier +effigies just referred to, while they may also be connected with +the custom of decking the human representatives of the spirit of +vegetation in greenery. The holocausts may be regarded as +extensions of the earlier custom of slaying one victim, the +incarnation of a vegetation-spirit. This slaying was gradually +regarded as sacrificial, but as the beneficial effect of the +sacrifice on growth was still believed in, it would naturally be +thought that still better effects would be produced if many victims +were offered. The victims were burned in a fire representing the +sun, and vegetation was thus doubly benefited, by the victims and +by the sun-god.</p> +<p>The oldest conception of the vegetation-spirit was that of a +tree-spirit which had power over rain, sunshine, and every species +of fruitfulness. For this reason a tree had a prominent place both +in the Beltane and Midsummer feasts. It was carried in procession, +imparting its benefits to each house or <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page270" id="page270"></a>{270}</span> field. +Branches of it were attached to each house for the same purpose. It +was then burned, or it was set up to procure benefits to vegetation +during the year and burned at the next Midsummer festival.<a id= +"footnotetag935" name="footnotetag935"></a><a href= +"#footnote935"><sup>935</sup></a> The sacred tree was probably an +oak, and, as has been seen, the mistletoe rite probably took place +on Midsummer eve, as a preliminary to cutting down the sacred tree +and in order to secure the life or soul of the tree, which must +first be secured before the tree could be cut down. The life of the +tree was in the mistletoe, still alive in winter when the tree +itself seemed to be dead. Such beliefs as this concerning the +detachable soul or life survive in <i>Märchen</i>, and are +still alive among savages.<a id="footnotetag936" name= +"footnotetag936"></a><a href="#footnote936"><sup>936</sup></a></p> +<p>Folk-survivals show that a human or an animal representative of +the vegetation-spirit, brought into connection with the tree, was +also slain or burned along with the tree.<a id="footnotetag937" +name="footnotetag937"></a><a href="#footnote937"><sup>937</sup></a> +Thus the cutting of the mistletoe would be regarded as a +preliminary to the slaying of the human victim, who, like the tree, +was the representative of the spirit of vegetation.</p> +<p>The bonfire representing the sun, and the victims, like the +tree, representing the spirit of vegetation, it is obvious why the +fire had healing and fertilising powers, and why its ashes and the +ashes or the flesh of the victims possessed the same powers. Brands +from the fire were carried through the fields or villages, as the +tree had been, or placed on the fields or in houses, where they +were carefully preserved for a year. All this aided growth and +prosperity, just as the smoke of the fire, drifting over the +fields, produced fertility. Ashes from the fire, and probably the +calcined bones or even the flesh of the victims, were scattered on +the fields or preserved and mixed <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page271" id="page271"></a>{271}</span> with the seed corn. Again, +part of the flesh may have been eaten sacramentally, since, as has +been seen, Pliny refers to the belief of the Celts in the eating of +human flesh as most wholesome.</p> +<p>In the Stone Age, as with many savages, a circle typified the +sun, and as soon as the wheel was invented its rolling motion at +once suggested that of the sun. In the <i>Edda</i> the sun is "the +beautiful, the shining wheel," and similar expressions occur in the +<i>Vedas</i>. Among the Celts the wheel of the sun was a favourite +piece of symbolism, and this is seen in various customs at the +Midsummer festival. A burning wheel was rolled down a slope or +trundled through the fields, or burning brands were whirled round +so as to give the impression of a fiery wheel. The intention was +primarily to imitate the course of the sun through the heavens, and +so, on the principle of imitative magic, to strengthen it. But +also, as the wheel was rolled through the fields, so it was hoped +that the direct beneficial action of the sun upon them would +follow. Similar rites might be performed not only at Midsummer, but +at other times, to procure blessing or to ward off evil, +<i>e.g.</i> carrying fire round houses or fields or cattle or round +a child <i>deiseil</i> or sunwise,<a id="footnotetag938" name= +"footnotetag938"></a><a href="#footnote938"><sup>938</sup></a> and, +by a further extension of thought, the blazing wheel, or the +remains of the burning brands thrown to the winds, had also the +effect of carrying off accumulated evils.<a id="footnotetag939" +name="footnotetag939"></a><a href= +"#footnote939"><sup>939</sup></a></p> +<p>Beltane and Midsummer thus appear as twin halves of a spring or +early summer festival, the intention of which was to <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page272" id="page272"></a>{272}</span> promote +fertility and health. This was done by slaying the spirit of +vegetation in his representative—tree, animal, or man. His +death quickened the energies of earth and man. The fire also +magically assisted the course of the sun. Survival of the ancient +rites are or were recently found in all Celtic regions, and have +been constantly combated by the Church. But though they were +continued, their true meaning was forgotten, and they were mainly +performed for luck or out of sheer conservatism. Sometimes a +Christian aspect was given to them, <i>e.g.</i> by connecting the +fires with S. John, or by associating the rites with the service of +the Church, or by the clergy being present at them. But their true +nature was still evident as acts of pagan worship and magic which +no veneer of Christianity could ever quite conceal.<a id= +"footnotetag940" name="footnotetag940"></a><a href= +"#footnote940"><sup>940</sup></a></p> +<h3>LUGNASAD.</h3> +<p>The 1st of August, coming midway between Beltane and Samhain, +was an important festival among the Celts. In Christian times the +day became Lammas, but its name still survives in Irish as +Lugnasad, in Gaelic as Lunasdal or Lunasduinn, and in Manx as Laa +Luanys, and it is still observed as a fair or feast in many +districts. Formerly assemblies at convenient centres were held on +this day, not only for religious purposes, but for commerce and +pleasure, both of these being of course saturated with religion. +"All Ireland" met at Taillti, just as "all Gaul" met at Lugudunum, +"Lug's town," or Lyons, in honour of Augustus, though the feast +there had formerly been in honour of the god Lugus.<a id= +"footnotetag941" name="footnotetag941"></a><a href= +"#footnote941"><sup>941</sup></a> The festival was <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page273" id="page273"></a>{273}</span> here +Romanised, as it was also in Britain, where its name appears as +<i>Goel-aoust</i>, <i>Gul-austus</i>, and <i>Gwyl Awst</i>, now the +"August feast," but formerly the "feast of Augustus," the name +having replaced one corresponding to Lugnasad.<a id= +"footnotetag942" name="footnotetag942"></a><a href= +"#footnote942"><sup>942</sup></a></p> +<p>Cormac explains the name Lugnasad as a festival of Lugh mac +Ethlenn, celebrated by him in the beginning of autumn, and the +<i>Rennes Dindsenchas</i> accounts for its origin by saying that +Lug's foster-mother, Tailtiu, having died on the Calends of August, +he directed an assembly for lamentation to be held annually on that +day at her tomb.<a id="footnotetag943" name= +"footnotetag943"></a><a href="#footnote943"><sup>943</sup></a> Lug +is thus the founder of his own festival, for that it was his, and +not Tailtiu's, is clear from the fact that his name is attached to +it. As Lammas was a Christian harvest thanksgiving, so also was +Lugnasad a pagan harvest feast, part of the ritual of which passed +over to Samhain. The people made glad before the sun-god—Lug +perhaps having that character—who had assisted them in the +growth of the things on which their lives depended. Marriages were +also arranged at this feast, probably because men had now more +leisure and more means for entering upon matrimony. Possibly +promiscuous love-making also occurred as a result of the festival +gladness, agricultural districts being still notoriously immoral. +Some evidence points to the connection of the feast with Lug's +marriage, though this has been allegorised into his wedding the +"sovereignty of Erin." Perhaps we have here a hint of the rite of +the sacred marriage, for the purpose of magically fertilising the +fields against next year's sowing.</p> +<p>Due observance of the feast produced abundance of corn, fruit, +milk, and fish. Probably the ritual observed included the +preservation of the last sheaf as representing the corn-spirit, +giving some of it to the cattle to strengthen them, and mingling +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id= +"page274"></a>{274}</span> it with next year's corn to impart to it +the power of the corn-spirit. It may also have included the slaying +of an animal or human incarnation of the corn-spirit, whose flesh +and blood quickened the soil and so produced abundance next year, +or, when partaken of by the worshippers, brought blessings to them. +To neglect such rites, abundant instances of which exist in +folk-custom, would be held to result in scarcity. This would also +explain, as already suggested, why the festival was associated with +the death of Tailtiu or of Carman. The euhemerised queen-goddess +Tailtiu and the woman Carman had once been corn-goddesses, evolved +from more primitive corn-spirits, and slain at the feast in their +female representatives. The story of their death and burial at the +festival was a dim memory of this ancient rite, and since the +festival was also connected with the sun-god Lug, it was easy to +bring him into relationship with the earlier goddess. Elsewhere the +festival, in its memorial aspect, was associated with a king, +probably because male victims had come to be representatives of a +corn-god who had taken the place of the goddess.</p> +<hr /> +<p>Some of the ritual of these festivals is illustrated by +scattered notices in classical writers, and on the whole they +support our theory that the festivals originated in a female cult +of spirits or goddesses of fertility. Strabo speaks of sacrifices +offered to Demeter and Kore, according to the ritual followed at +Samothrace, in an island near Britain, <i>i.e.</i> to native +goddesses equated with them. He also describes the ritual of the +Namnite women on an island in the Loire. They are called Bacchantes +because they conciliated Bacchus with mysteries and sacrifices; in +other words, they observed an orgiastic cult of a god equated with +Bacchus. No man must set foot on the island, but the women left it +once a year for intercourse with the other sex. Once a year the +temple of the god was unroofed, and roofed <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page275" id="page275"></a>{275}</span> again +before sunset. If any woman dropped her load of materials (and it +was said this always happened), she was torn in pieces and her +limbs carried round the temple.<a id="footnotetag944" name= +"footnotetag944"></a><a href="#footnote944"><sup>944</sup></a> +Dionysius Periegetes says the women were crowned with ivy, and +celebrated their mysteries by night in honour of Earth and +Proserpine with great clamour.<a id="footnotetag945" name= +"footnotetag945"></a><a href="#footnote945"><sup>945</sup></a> +Pliny also makes a reference to British rites in which nude women +and girls took part, their bodies stained with woad.<a id= +"footnotetag946" name="footnotetag946"></a><a href= +"#footnote946"><sup>946</sup></a></p> +<p>At a later time, S. Gregory of Tours speaks of the image of a +goddess Berecynthia drawn on a litter through the streets, fields, +and vineyards of Augustodunum on the days of her festival, or when +the fields were threatened with scarcity. The people danced and +sang before it. The image was covered with a white veil.<a id= +"footnotetag947" name="footnotetag947"></a><a href= +"#footnote947"><sup>947</sup></a> Berecynthia has been conjectured +by Professor Anwyl to be the goddess Brigindu, worshipped at +Valnay.<a id="footnotetag948" name="footnotetag948"></a><a href= +"#footnote948"><sup>948</sup></a></p> +<p>These rites were all directed towards divinities of fertility. +But in harvest customs in Celtic Scotland and elsewhere two sheaves +of corn were called respectively the Old Woman and the Maiden, the +corn-spirit of the past year and that of the year to come, and +corresponding to Demeter and Kore in early Greek agricultural +ritual. As in Greece, so among the Celts, the primitive +corn-spirits had probably become more individualised goddesses with +an elaborate cult, observed on an island or at other sacred spots. +The cult probably varied here and there, and that of a god of +fertility may have taken the place of the cult of goddesses. A god +was worshipped by the Namnite women, according to Strabo, goddesses +according to Dionysius. The mangled victim was probably regarded as +representative <span class="pagenum"><a name="page276" id= +"page276"></a>{276}</span> of a divinity, and perhaps part of the +flesh was mixed with the seed-corn, like the grain of the Maiden +sheaf, or buried in the earth. This rite is common among savages, +and its presence in old European ritual is attested by survivals. +That these rites were tabu to men probably points to the fact that +they were examples of an older general custom, in which all such +rites were in the hands of women who cultivated the earth, and who +were the natural priestesses of goddesses of growth and fertility, +of vegetation and the growing corn. Another example is found in the +legend and procession of Godiva at Coventry—the survival of a +pagan cult from which men were excluded.<a id="footnotetag949" +name="footnotetag949"></a><a href= +"#footnote949"><sup>949</sup></a></p> +<p>Pliny speaks of the nudity of the women engaged in the cult. +Nudity is an essential part of all primitive agricultural rites, +and painting the body is also a widespread ritual act. Dressing +with leaves or green stuff, as among the Namnite women, and often +with the intention of personating the spirit of vegetation, is also +customary. By unveiling the body, and especially the sexual organs, +women more effectually represented the goddess of fertility, and +more effectually as her representatives, or through their own +powers, magically conveyed fertility to the fields. Nakedness thus +became a powerful magico-religious symbol, and it is found as part +of the ritual for producing rain.<a id="footnotetag950" name= +"footnotetag950"></a><a href="#footnote950"><sup>950</sup></a></p> +<p>There is thus abundant evidence of the cult of fertility, +vegetation, and corn-spirits, who tended to become divinities, male +or female. Here and there, through conservatism, the cult remained +in the hands of women, but more generally it had become a ritual in +which both men and women took part—that <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>{277}</span> of the +great agricultural festivals. Where a divinity had taken the place +of the vaguer spirits, her image, like that of Berecynthia, was +used in the ritual, but the image was probably the successor of the +tree which embodied the vegetation-spirit, and was carried through +the fields to fertilise them. Similar processions of images, often +accompanied by a ritual washing of the image in order to invigorate +the divinity, or, as in the similar May-day custom, to produce +rain, are found in the Teutonic cult of Nerthus, the Phrygian of +Cybele, the Hindu of Bhavani, and the Roman ritual of the Bona Dea. +The image of Berecynthia was thus probably washed also. Washing the +images of saints, usually to produce rain, has sometimes taken the +place of the washing of a divine image, and similarly the relics of +a saint are carried through a field, as was the tree or image. The +community at Iona perambulated a newly sown field with S. Columba's +relics in time of drought, and shook his tunic three times in the +air, and were rewarded by a plentiful rain, and later, by a +bounteous harvest.<a id="footnotetag951" name= +"footnotetag951"></a><a href="#footnote951"><sup>951</sup></a></p> +<p>Many of these local cults were pre-Celtic, but we need not +therefore suppose that the Celts, or the Aryans as a whole, had no +such cults.<a id="footnotetag952" name= +"footnotetag952"></a><a href="#footnote952"><sup>952</sup></a> The +Aryans everywhere adopted local cults, but this they would not have +done if, as is supposed, they had themselves outgrown them. The +cults were local, but the Celts had similar local cults, and easily +accepted those of the people they conquered. We cannot explain the +persistence of such primitive cults as lie behind the great Celtic +festivals, both in classical times and over the whole area of +Europe among the peasantry, by referring them solely to a pre-Aryan +folk. They were as much Aryan as pre-Aryan. They belong to those +unchanging strata of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page278" id= +"page278"></a>{278}</span> religion which have so largely supplied +the soil in which its later and more spiritual growths have +flourished. And among these they still emerge, unchanged and +unchanging, like the gaunt outcrops of some ancient rock formation +amid rich vegetation and fragrant flowers.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote889" name= +"footnote889"></a><b>Footnote 889:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag889">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xvi. 45; Cæsar, vi. 18. See my article "Calendar +(Celtic)" in Hastings' <i>Encyclopædia of Rel. and +Ethics</i>, iii. 78 f., for a full discussion of the problems +involved.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote890" name= +"footnote890"></a><b>Footnote 890:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag890">(return)</a> +<p>O'Donovan, <i>Book of Rights</i>, Intro. lii f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote891" name= +"footnote891"></a><b>Footnote 891:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag891">(return)</a> +<p>O'Donovan, li.; Bertrand, 105; Keating, 300.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote892" name= +"footnote892"></a><b>Footnote 892:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag892">(return)</a> +<p>Samhain may mean "summer-end," from <i>sam</i>, "summer," and +<i>fuin</i>, "sunset" or "end," but Dr. Stokes (<i>US</i> 293) +makes <i>samani</i>- mean "assembly," <i>i.e.</i> the gathering of +the people to keep the feast.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote893" name= +"footnote893"></a><b>Footnote 893:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag893">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 125, 300.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote894" name= +"footnote894"></a><b>Footnote 894:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag894">(return)</a> +<p>See MacBain, <i>CM</i> ix. 328.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote895" name= +"footnote895"></a><b>Footnote 895:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag895">(return)</a> +<p>Brand, i. 390; Ramsay, <i>Scotland and Scotsmen in the +Eighteenth Century</i>, ii. 437; <i>Stat. Account</i>, xi. 621.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote896" name= +"footnote896"></a><b>Footnote 896:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag896">(return)</a> +<p>Hazlitt, 297-298, 340; Campbell, <i>Witchcraft</i>, 285 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote897" name= +"footnote897"></a><b>Footnote 897:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag897">(return)</a> +<p>Curtin, 72.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote898" name= +"footnote898"></a><b>Footnote 898:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag898">(return)</a> +<p>Fitzgerald, <i>RC</i> vi. 254.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote899" name= +"footnote899"></a><b>Footnote 899:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag899">(return)</a> +<p>See Chambers, <i>Mediæval Stage</i>, App. N, for the +evidence from canons and councils regarding these.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote900" name= +"footnote900"></a><b>Footnote 900:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag900">(return)</a> +<p>Tille, <i>Yule and Christmas</i>, 96.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote901" name= +"footnote901"></a><b>Footnote 901:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag901">(return)</a> +<p>Chambers, <i>Popular Rhymes</i>, 166.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote902" name= +"footnote902"></a><b>Footnote 902:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag902">(return)</a> +<p>Hutchinson, <i>View of Northumberland</i>, ii. 45; Thomas, +<i>Rev. de l'Hist. des Rel.</i> xxxviii. 335 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote903" name= +"footnote903"></a><b>Footnote 903:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag903">(return)</a> +<p><i>Patrol. Lot.</i> xxxix. 2001.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote904" name= +"footnote904"></a><b>Footnote 904:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag904">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 205; <i>RC</i> v. 331; Leahy, i. 57.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote905" name= +"footnote905"></a><b>Footnote 905:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag905">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page169">169</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote906" name= +"footnote906"></a><b>Footnote 906:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag906">(return)</a> +<p>The writer has himself seen such bonfires in the Highlands. See +also Hazlitt, 298; Pennant, <i>Tour</i>, ii. 47; Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> +515, <i>CFL</i> i. 225-226. In Egyptian mythology, Typhon assailed +Horus in the form of a black swine.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote907" name= +"footnote907"></a><b>Footnote 907:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag907">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 300.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote908" name= +"footnote908"></a><b>Footnote 908:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag908">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>SH</i> ii. 556; <i>RC</i> x. 214, 225, xxiv. 172; +O'Grady, ii. 374; <i>CM</i> ix. 209.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote909" name= +"footnote909"></a><b>Footnote 909:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag909">(return)</a> +<p>See Mannhardt, <i>Mythol. Forschung.</i> 333 f.; Frazer, +<i>Adonis</i>, <i>passim</i>; Thomas, <i>Rev. de l'Hist. des +Rel.</i> xxxviii. 325 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote910" name= +"footnote910"></a><b>Footnote 910:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag910">(return)</a> +<p>Hazlitt, 35; Chambers, <i>Mediæval Stage</i>, i. 261.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote911" name= +"footnote911"></a><b>Footnote 911:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag911">(return)</a> +<p>Chambers, <i>Book of Days</i>, ii. 492; Hazlitt, 131.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote912" name= +"footnote912"></a><b>Footnote 912:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag912">(return)</a> +<p>Hazlitt, 97; Davies, <i>Extracts from Munic. Records of +York</i>, 270.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote913" name= +"footnote913"></a><b>Footnote 913:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag913">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page237">237</a>, <i>supra</i>; <i>LL</i> 16, +213.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote914" name= +"footnote914"></a><b>Footnote 914:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag914">(return)</a> +<p>Chambers, <i>Med. Stage</i>, i. 250 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote915" name= +"footnote915"></a><b>Footnote 915:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag915">(return)</a> +<p>Cormac, <i>s.v.</i> "Belltaine," "Bel"; <i>Arch. Rev.</i> i. +232.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote916" name= +"footnote916"></a><b>Footnote 916:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag916">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 136.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote917" name= +"footnote917"></a><b>Footnote 917:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag917">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>US</i> 125, 164. See his earlier derivation, dividing +the word into <i>belt</i>, connected with Lithuan. <i>baltas</i>, +"white," and <i>aine</i>, the termination in <i>sechtmaine</i>, +"week" (<i>TIG</i> xxxv.).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote918" name= +"footnote918"></a><b>Footnote 918:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag918">(return)</a> +<p>Need-fire (Gael. <i>Teinne-eiginn</i>, "necessity fire") was +used to kindle fire in time of cattle plague. See Grimm, <i>Teut. +Myth.</i> 608 f.; Martin, 113; Jamieson's <i>Dictionary</i>, +<i>s.v.</i> "neidfyre."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote919" name= +"footnote919"></a><b>Footnote 919:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag919">(return)</a> +<p>Cormac, <i>s.v.</i>; Martin, 105, says that the Druids +extinguished all fires until their dues were paid. This may have +been a tradition in the Hebrides.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote920" name= +"footnote920"></a><b>Footnote 920:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag920">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>PN</i> i. 216; Hone, <i>Everyday Book</i>, i. 849, ii. +595.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote921" name= +"footnote921"></a><b>Footnote 921:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag921">(return)</a> +<p>Pennant, <i>Tour in Scotland</i>, i. 291.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote922" name= +"footnote922"></a><b>Footnote 922:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag922">(return)</a> +<p>Hazlitt, 339, 397.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote923" name= +"footnote923"></a><b>Footnote 923:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag923">(return)</a> +<p>Hone, <i>Everyday Book</i>, ii. 595. See p. <a href= +"#page215">215</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote924" name= +"footnote924"></a><b>Footnote 924:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag924">(return)</a> +<p>Sinclair, <i>Stat. Account</i>, xi. 620.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote925" name= +"footnote925"></a><b>Footnote 925:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag925">(return)</a> +<p>Martin, 105.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote926" name= +"footnote926"></a><b>Footnote 926:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag926">(return)</a> +<p>For these usages see Ramsay, <i>Scotland and Scotsmen in the +Eighteenth Century</i>, ii. 439 f.; Sinclair, <i>Stat. Account</i>, +v. 84, xi. 620, xv. 517. For the sacramental and sacrificial use of +similar loaves, see Frazer, <i>Golden Bough</i><sup>2</sup>, i. 94, +ii. 78; Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> iii. 1239 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote927" name= +"footnote927"></a><b>Footnote 927:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag927">(return)</a> +<p><i>New Stat. Account</i>, Wigtownshire, 208; Hazlitt, 38, 323, +340.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote928" name= +"footnote928"></a><b>Footnote 928:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag928">(return)</a> +<p>See Miss Owen, <i>Folk-lore of the Musquakie Indians</i>, 50; +Frazer, <i>Golden Bough</i><sup>2</sup>, ii. 205.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote929" name= +"footnote929"></a><b>Footnote 929:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag929">(return)</a> +<p>For notices of Beltane survivals see Keating, 300; Campbell, +<i>Journey from Edinburgh</i>, i. 143; Ramsay, <i>Scotland and +Scotsmen</i>, ii. 439 f.; <i>Old Stat. Account</i>, v. 84, xi. 620, +xv. 517; Gregor, <i>Folk-lore of N.E. of Scotland</i>, 167. The +paganism of the survivals is seen in the fact that Beltane fires +were frequently prohibited by Scottish ecclesiastical councils.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote930" name= +"footnote930"></a><b>Footnote 930:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag930">(return)</a> +<p>Meyrac, <i>Traditions ... des Ardennes</i>, 68.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote931" name= +"footnote931"></a><b>Footnote 931:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag931">(return)</a> +<p>Bertrand, 119.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote932" name= +"footnote932"></a><b>Footnote 932:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag932">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> 407; Gaidoz, 21; Mannhardt, <i>Baumkultus</i>, 514, +523; Brand, i. 8, 323.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote933" name= +"footnote933"></a><b>Footnote 933:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag933">(return)</a> +<p>Mannhardt, <i>op. cit.</i> 525 f.; Frazer, <i>Golden +Bough</i><sup>2</sup>, iii. 319.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote934" name= +"footnote934"></a><b>Footnote 934:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag934">(return)</a> +<p>P. <a href="#page234">234</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote935" name= +"footnote935"></a><b>Footnote 935:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag935">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, <i>op. cit.</i> i. 74; Brand, i. 222, 237, 246, 318; +Hone, <i>Everyday Book</i>, ii. 595; Mannhardt, <i>op. cit.</i> +177; Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> 621, 777 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote936" name= +"footnote936"></a><b>Footnote 936:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag936">(return)</a> +<p>See my <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, ch. v.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote937" name= +"footnote937"></a><b>Footnote 937:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag937">(return)</a> +<p>Frazer, i. 82, ii. 247 f., 275; Mannhardt, 315 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote938" name= +"footnote938"></a><b>Footnote 938:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag938">(return)</a> +<p>Martin, 117. The custom of walking <i>deiseil</i> round an +object still survives, and, as an imitation of the sun's course, it +is supposed to bring good luck or ward off evil. For the same +reason the right hand turn was of good augury. Medb's charioteer, +as she departed for the war, made her chariot turn to the right to +repel evil omens (<i>LU</i> 55). Curiously enough, Pliny (xxviii. +2) says that the Gauls preferred the left-hand turn in their +religious rites, though Athenæus refers to the right-hand +turn among them. <i>Deiseil</i> is from <i>dekso-s</i>, "right," +and <i>svel</i>, "to turn."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote939" name= +"footnote939"></a><b>Footnote 939:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag939">(return)</a> +<p>Hone, i. 846; Hazlitt, ii. 346.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote940" name= +"footnote940"></a><b>Footnote 940:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag940">(return)</a> +<p>This account of the Midsummer ritual is based on notices found +in Hone, <i>Everyday Book</i>; Hazlitt, ii. 347 f.; Gaidoz, <i>Le +Dieu Soleil</i>; Bertrand; Deloche, <i>RC</i> ix. 435; +<i>Folk-Lore</i>, xii. 315; Frazer, <i>Golden +Bough</i><sup>2</sup>, iii. 266 f.; Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> ii. +617 f.; Monnier, 186 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote941" name= +"footnote941"></a><b>Footnote 941:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag941">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xvi. 51; Guiraud, <i>Les Assemblées +provinciales dans l'Empire Romain</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote942" name= +"footnote942"></a><b>Footnote 942:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag942">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, i. 215, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 44; Loth, <i>Annales de +Bretagne</i>, xiii. No. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote943" name= +"footnote943"></a><b>Footnote 943:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag943">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xvi. 51.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote944" name= +"footnote944"></a><b>Footnote 944:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag944">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, iv. 4. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote945" name= +"footnote945"></a><b>Footnote 945:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag945">(return)</a> +<p>Dion. Per. v. 570.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote946" name= +"footnote946"></a><b>Footnote 946:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag946">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xxii. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote947" name= +"footnote947"></a><b>Footnote 947:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag947">(return)</a> +<p>Greg, <i>de Glor. Conf.</i> 477; Sulp. Sev. <i>Vita S. +Martini</i>, 9; Pass. S. Symphor. Migne, <i>Pat. Graec.</i> v. +1463, 1466. The cult of Cybele had been introduced into Gaul, and +the ritual here described resembles it, but we are evidently +dealing here with the cult of a native goddess. See, however, +Frazer, <i>Adonis</i>, 176.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote948" name= +"footnote948"></a><b>Footnote 948:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag948">(return)</a> +<p>Anwyl, <i>Celtic Religion</i>, 41.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote949" name= +"footnote949"></a><b>Footnote 949:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag949">(return)</a> +<p>See Hartland, <i>Science of Fairy-Tales</i>, 84 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote950" name= +"footnote950"></a><b>Footnote 950:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag950">(return)</a> +<p>Professor Rh[^y]s suggests that nudity, being a frequent symbol +of submission to a conqueror, acquired a similar significance in +religious rites (<i>AL</i> 180). But the magical aspect of nudity +came first in time.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote951" name= +"footnote951"></a><b>Footnote 951:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag951">(return)</a> +<p>Adamnan, <i>Vita S. Col.</i> ii. 45.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote952" name= +"footnote952"></a><b>Footnote 952:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag952">(return)</a> +<p>See Gomme, <i>Ethnology in Folk-lore</i>, 30 f., <i>Village +Community</i>, 114.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page279" id= +"page279"></a>{279}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap19" id="chap19">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h2> +<h3>ACCESSORIES OF CULT.</h3> +<h4>TEMPLES.</h4> +<p>In primitive religion the place of worship is seldom a temple +made with hands, but rather an enclosed space in which the symbol +or image of the god stands. The sacredness of the god makes the +place of his cult sacred. Often an open space in the forest is the +scene of the regular cult. There the priests perform the sacred +rites; none may enter it but themselves; and the trembling +worshipper approaches it with awe lest the god should slay him if +he came too near.</p> +<p>The earliest temples of the Gauls were sacred groves, one of +which, near Massilia, is described by Lucan. No bird built in it, +no animal lurked near, the leaves constantly shivered when no +breeze stirred them. Altars stood in its midst, and the images of +the gods were misshapen trunks of trees. Every tree was stained +with sacrificial blood. The poet then describes marvels heard or +seen in the grove—the earth groaning, dead yews reviving, +trees surrounded with flame yet not consumed, and huge serpents +twining round the oaks. The people feared to approach the grove, +and even the priest would not walk there at midday or midnight lest +he should then meet its divine guardian.<a id="footnotetag953" +name="footnotetag953"></a><a href="#footnote953"><sup>953</sup></a> +Dio speaks of human sacrifices offered to Andrasta in a British +grove, and in 61 A.D. the woods of Mona, devoted to strange rites, +were cut down by <span class="pagenum"><a name="page280" id= +"page280"></a>{280}</span> Roman soldiers.<a id="footnotetag954" +name="footnotetag954"></a><a href="#footnote954"><sup>954</sup></a> +The sacred <i>Dru-nemeton</i> of the Galatian Celts may have been a +grove.<a id="footnotetag955" name="footnotetag955"></a><a href= +"#footnote955"><sup>955</sup></a> Place-names also point to the +widespread existence of such groves, since the word <i>nemeton</i>, +"grove," occurs in many of them, showing that the places so called +had been sites of a cult. In Ireland, <i>fid-nemed</i> stood for +"sacred grove."<a id="footnotetag956" name= +"footnotetag956"></a><a href="#footnote956"><sup>956</sup></a> The +ancient groves were still the objects of veneration in Christian +times, though fines were levied against those who still clung to +the old ways.<a id="footnotetag957" name= +"footnotetag957"></a><a href="#footnote957"><sup>957</sup></a></p> +<p>Sacred groves were still used in Gallo-Roman times, and the +Druids may have had a preference for them, a preference which may +underlie the words of the scholiast on Lucan, that "the Druids +worship the gods without temples in woods." But probably more +elaborate temples, great tribal sanctuaries, existed side by side +with these local groves, especially in Cisalpine Gaul, where the +Boii had a temple in which were stored the spoils of war, while the +Insubri had a similar temple.<a id="footnotetag958" name= +"footnotetag958"></a><a href="#footnote958"><sup>958</sup></a> +These were certainly buildings. The "consecrated place" in +Transalpine Gaul, which Cæsar mentions, and where at fixed +periods judgments were given, might be either a grove or a temple. +Cæsar uses the same phrase for sacred places where the spoils +of war were heaped; these may have been groves, but Diodorus speaks +of treasure collected in "temples and sacred places" ([Greek: en +tois hierois chai temenesin]), and Plutarch speaks of the "temple" +where the Arverni hung Cæsar's sword.<a id="footnotetag959" +name="footnotetag959"></a><a href="#footnote959"><sup>959</sup></a> +The "temple" of the Namnite women, unroofed and re-roofed in a day, +must have been a building. There is no evidence that the insular +Celts had temples. In <span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id= +"page281"></a>{281}</span> Gallo-Roman times, elaborate temples, +perhaps occupying sites of earlier groves or temples, sprang up +over the Romano-Celtic area. They were built on Roman models, many +of them were of great size, and they were dedicated to Roman or +Gallo-Roman divinities.<a id="footnotetag960" name= +"footnotetag960"></a><a href="#footnote960"><sup>960</sup></a> +Smaller shrines were built by grateful worshippers at sacred +springs to their presiding divinity, as many inscriptions show. In +the temples stood images of the gods, and here were stored sacred +vessels, sometimes made of the skulls of enemies, spoils of war +dedicated to the gods, money collected for sacred purposes, and war +standards, especially those which bore divine symbols.</p> +<p>The old idea that stone circles were Druidic temples, that human +sacrifices were offered on the "altar-stone," and libations of +blood poured into the cup-markings, must be given up, along with +much of the astronomical lore associated with the circles. +Stonehenge dates from the close of the Neolithic Age, and most of +the smaller circles belong to the early Bronze Age, and are +probably pre-Celtic. In any case they were primarily places of +sepulture. As such they would be the scene of ancestor worship, but +yet not temples in the strict sense of the word. The larger +circles, burial-places of great chiefs or kings, would become +central places for the recurring rites of ghost-worship, possibly +also rallying places of the tribe on stated occasions. But whether +this ghost-worship was ever transmuted into the cult of a god at +the circles is uncertain and, indeed, unlikely. The Celts would +naturally regard these places as sacred, since the ghosts of the +dead, even those of a vanquished people, are always dangerous, and +they also took over the myths and legends<a id="footnotetag961" +name="footnotetag961"></a><a href="#footnote961"><sup>961</sup></a> +associated with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page282" id= +"page282"></a>{282}</span> them, such, <i>e.g.</i>, as regarded the +stones themselves, or trees growing within the circles, as +embodiments of the dead, while they may also have used them as +occasional places of secondary interment. Whether they were ever +led to copy such circles themselves is uncertain, since their own +methods of interment seem to have been different. We have seen that +the gods may in some cases have been worshipped at tumuli, and that +Lugnasad was, at some centres, connected with commemorative cults +at burial-places (mounds, not circles). But the reasons for this +are obscure, nor is there any hint that other Celtic festivals were +held near burial mounds. Probably such commemorative rites at +places of sepulture during Lugnasad were only part of a wider +series occurring elsewhere, and we cannot assume from such vague +notices that stone circles were Druidic temples where worship of an +Oriental nature was carried on.</p> +<p>Professor Rh[^y]s is disposed to accept the old idea that +Stonehenge was the temple of Apollo in the island of the +Hyperboreans, mentioned by Diodorus, where the sun-god was +worshipped.<a id="footnotetag962" name= +"footnotetag962"></a><a href="#footnote962"><sup>962</sup></a> But +though that temple was circular, it had walls adorned with votive +offerings. Nor does the temple unroofed yearly by the Namnite women +imply a stone circle, for there is not the slightest particle of +evidence that the circles were ever roofed in any way.<a id= +"footnotetag963" name="footnotetag963"></a><a href= +"#footnote963"><sup>963</sup></a> Stone circles with mystic trees +growing in them, one of them with a well by which entrance was +gained to Tír fa Tonn, are mentioned in Irish tales. They +were connected with magic rites, but are not spoken of as +temples.<a id="footnotetag964" name="footnotetag964"></a><a href= +"#footnote964"><sup>964</sup></a></p> +<h4>ALTARS.</h4> +<p>Lucan describes realistically the awful sacrifices of the Gauls +on cruel altars not a whit milder than those of Diana, <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page283" id="page283"></a>{283}</span> and he +speaks of "altars piled with offerings" in the sacred grove at +Marseilles.<a id="footnotetag965" name= +"footnotetag965"></a><a href="#footnote965"><sup>965</sup></a> +Cicero says that human victims were sacrificed on altars, and +Tacitus describes the altars of Mona smeared with human +blood.<a id="footnotetag966" name="footnotetag966"></a><a href= +"#footnote966"><sup>966</sup></a> "Druids' altars" are mentioned in +the Irish "Expedition of Dathi," and Cormac speaks of +<i>indelba</i>, or altars adorned with emblems.<a id= +"footnotetag967" name="footnotetag967"></a><a href= +"#footnote967"><sup>967</sup></a> Probably many of these altars +were mere heaps of stone like the Norse <i>horg</i>, or a great +block of stone. Some sacrifices, however, were too extensive to be +offered on an altar, but in such cases the blood would be sprinkled +upon it. Under Roman influence, Celtic altars took the form of +those of the conquerors, with inscriptions containing names of +native or Roman gods and bas-reliefs depicting some of these. The +old idea that dolmens were Celtic altars is now abandoned. They +were places of sepulture of the Neolithic or early Bronze Age, and +were originally covered with a mound of earth. During the era of +Celtic paganism they were therefore hidden from sight, and it is +only in later times that the earth has been removed and the massive +stones, arranged so as to form a species of chamber, have been laid +bare.</p> +<h4>IMAGES.</h4> +<p>The Gauls, according to Cæsar, possessed <i>plurima +simulacra</i> of the native Mercury, but he does not refer to +images of other gods. We need not infer from this that the Celts +had a prejudice against images, for among the Irish Celts images +are often mentioned, and in Gaul under Roman rule many images +existed.</p> +<p>The existence of images among the Celts as among other +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id= +"page284"></a>{284}</span> peoples, may owe something to the cult +of trees and of stones set up over the dead. The stone, associated +with the dead man's spirit, became an image of himself, perhaps +rudely fashioned in his likeness. A rough-hewn tree trunk became an +image of the spirit or god of trees. On the other hand, some +anthropomorphic images, like the palæolithic or +Mycenæan figurines, may have been fashioned without the +intermediary of tree-trunk or stone pillar. Maximus of Tyre says +that the Celtic image of Zeus was a lofty oak, perhaps a rough-hewn +trunk rather than a growing tree, and such roughly carved +tree-trunks, images of gods, are referred to by Lucan in his +description of the Massilian grove.<a id="footnotetag968" name= +"footnotetag968"></a><a href="#footnote968"><sup>968</sup></a> +Pillar stones set up over the graves of the dead are often +mentioned in Irish texts. These would certainly be associated with +the dead; indeed, existing legends show that they were believed to +be tenanted by the ghosts and to have the power of motion. This +suggests that they had been regarded as images of the dead. Other +stones honoured in Ireland were the <i>cloch labrais</i>, an +oracular stone; the <i>lia fail</i>, or coronation stone, which +shouted when a king of the Milesian race seated himself upon it; +and the <i>lia adrada</i>, or stone of adoration, apparently a +boundary stone.<a id="footnotetag969" name= +"footnotetag969"></a><a href="#footnote969"><sup>969</sup></a> The +<i>plurima simulacra</i> of the Gaulish Mercury may have been +boundary stones like those dedicated to Mercury or Hermes among the +Romans and Greeks. Did Cæsar conclude, or was it actually the +case, that the Gauls dedicated such stones to a god of boundaries +who might be equated with Mercury? Many such standing stones still +exist in France, and their number must have been greater in +Cæsar's time. Seeing them the objects of superstitious +observances, he may have concluded that they were <i>simulacra</i> +of a god. Other Romans besides himself had been struck by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id= +"page285"></a>{285}</span> the resemblance of these stones to their +Hermai, and perhaps the Gauls, if they did not already regard them +as symbols of a god, acquiesced in the resemblance. Thus, on the +menhir of Kervadel are sculptured four figures, one being that of +Mercury, dating from Gallo-Roman times. Beneath another, near +Peronne, a bronze statuette of Mercury was discovered.<a id= +"footnotetag970" name="footnotetag970"></a><a href= +"#footnote970"><sup>970</sup></a> This would seem to show that the +Gauls had a cult of pillar stones associated with a god of +boundaries. Cæsar probably uses the word <i>simulacrum</i> in +the sense of "symbol" rather than "image," though he may have meant +native images not fully carved in human shape, like the Irish +<i>cérmand</i>, <i>cerstach</i>, ornamented with gold and +silver, the "chief idol" of north Ireland, or like the similarly +ornamented "images" of Cromm Cruaich and his satellites.<a id= +"footnotetag971" name="footnotetag971"></a><a href= +"#footnote971"><sup>971</sup></a> The adoration of sacred stones +continued into Christian times and was much opposed by the +Church.<a id="footnotetag972" name="footnotetag972"></a><a href= +"#footnote972"><sup>972</sup></a> S. Samson of Dol (sixth century) +found men dancing round a <i>simulacrum abominabile</i>, which +seems to have been a kind of standing stone, and having besought +them to desist, he carved a cross upon it.<a id="footnotetag973" +name="footnotetag973"></a><a href="#footnote973"><sup>973</sup></a> +Several <i>menhirion</i> in France are now similarly +ornamented.<a id="footnotetag974" name= +"footnotetag974"></a><a href="#footnote974"><sup>974</sup></a></p> +<p>The number of existing Gallo-Roman images shows that the Celts +had not adopted a custom which was foreign to them, and they must +have already possessed rude native images. The disappearance of +these would be explained if they were made of perishable material. +Wooden images of the <i>Matres</i> have been occasionally found, +and these may be pre-Roman. Some of the images of the three-headed +and crouching gods show no sign of Roman influences in their +modelling, and they may have been copied from earlier images of +wood. We also find <span class="pagenum"><a name="page286" id= +"page286"></a>{286}</span> divine figures on pre-Roman coins.<a id= +"footnotetag975" name="footnotetag975"></a><a href= +"#footnote975"><sup>975</sup></a> Certain passages in classical +writings point to the existence of native images. A statue of a +goddess existed in a temple at Marseilles, according to Justin, and +the Galatian Celts had images of the native Juppiter and Artemis, +while the conquering Celts who entered Rome bowed to the seated +senators as to statues of the gods.<a id="footnotetag976" name= +"footnotetag976"></a><a href="#footnote976"><sup>976</sup></a> The +Gauls placed rich ornaments on the images of the gods, and +presumably these were native "idols."</p> +<p>"Idols" are frequently mentioned in Irish texts, and there is no +doubt that these mean images.<a id="footnotetag977" name= +"footnotetag977"></a><a href="#footnote977"><sup>977</sup></a> +Cormac mac Art refused to worship "idols," and was punished by the +Druids.<a id="footnotetag978" name="footnotetag978"></a><a href= +"#footnote978"><sup>978</sup></a> The idols of Cromm Cruaich and +his satellites, referred to in the <i>Dindsenchas</i>, were carved +to represent the human form; the chief one was of gold, the others +of stone. These were miraculously overthrown by S. Patrick; but in +the account of the miracle the chief idol was of stone adorned with +gold and silver, the others, numbering twelve, were ornamented with +bronze.<a id="footnotetag979" name="footnotetag979"></a><a href= +"#footnote979"><sup>979</sup></a> They stood in Mag Slecht, and +similar sacred places with groups of images evidently existed +elsewhere, <i>e.g.</i> at Rath Archaill, "where the Druid's altars +and images are."<a id="footnotetag980" name= +"footnotetag980"></a><a href="#footnote980"><sup>980</sup></a> The +lady Cessair, before coming to Ireland, is said to have taken +advice of her <i>laimh-dhia</i>, or "hand gods," perhaps small +images used for divination.<a id="footnotetag981" name= +"footnotetag981"></a><a href="#footnote981"><sup>981</sup></a></p> +<p>For the British Celts the evidence is slender, but idolatry in +the sense of "image-worship" is frequently mentioned in the lives +of early saints.<a id="footnotetag982" name= +"footnotetag982"></a><a href="#footnote982"><sup>982</sup></a> +Gildas also speaks of images <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page287" id="page287"></a>{287}</span> "mouldering away within and +without the deserted temples, with stiff and deformed +features."<a id="footnotetag983" name="footnotetag983"></a><a href= +"#footnote983"><sup>983</sup></a> This pathetic picture of the +forsaken shrines of forgotten gods may refer to Romano-Celtic +images, but the "stiff and deformed features" suggest rather native +art, the art of a people unskilful at reproducing the human form, +however artistic they may have been in other directions.</p> +<p>If the native Celts of Ireland had images, there is no reason to +suppose, especially considering the evidence just adduced, that the +Gauls, or at least the Druids, were antagonistic to images. This +last is M. Reinach's theory, part of a wider hypothesis that the +Druids were pre-Celtic, but became the priests of the Celts, who +till then had no priests. The Druids prohibited image-worship, and +this prohibition existed in Gaul, <i>ex hypothesi</i>, from the end +of palæolithic times. Pythagoras and his school were opposed +to image-worship, and the classical writers claimed a connection +between the Pythagoreans and the Druids. M. Reinach thinks there +must have been some analogy between them, and that was hostility to +anthropomorphism. But the analogy is distinctly stated to have lain +in the doctrine of immortality or metempsychosis. Had the Druids +been opposed to image-worship, classical observers could not have +failed to notice the fact. M. Reinach then argues that the Druids +caused the erection of the megalithic monuments in Gaul, symbols +not images. They are thus Druidic, though not Celtic. The monuments +argue a powerful priesthood; the Druids were a powerful priesthood; +therefore the Druids caused the monuments to be built. This is not +a powerful argument!<a id="footnotetag984" name= +"footnotetag984"></a><a href="#footnote984"><sup>984</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id= +"page288"></a>{288}</span> +<p>As has been seen, some purely Celtic images existed in Gaul. The +Gauls, who used nothing but wood for their houses, probably knew +little of the art of carving stone. They would therefore make most +of their images of wood—a perishable material. The insular +Celts had images, and if, as Cæsar maintained, the Druids +came from Britain to Gaul, this points at least to a similarity of +cult in the two regions. Youthful Gauls who aspired to Druidic +knowledge went to Britain to obtain it. Would the Druids of Gaul +have permitted this, had they been iconoclasts? No single text +shows that the Druids had any antipathy to images, while the Gauls +certainly had images of worshipful animals. Further, even if the +Druids were priests of a pre-Celtic folk, they must have permitted +the making of images, since many "menhir-statues" exist on French +soil, at Aveyron, Tarn, and elsewhere.<a id="footnotetag985" name= +"footnotetag985"></a><a href="#footnote985"><sup>985</sup></a> The +Celts were in constant contact with image-worshipping peoples, and +could hardly have failed to be influenced by them, even if such a +priestly prohibition existed, just as Israel succumbed to images in +spite of divine commands. That they would have been thus influenced +is seen from the number of images of all kinds dating from the +period after the Roman conquest.</p> +<p>Incidental proofs of the fondness of the Celts for images are +found in ecclesiastical writings and in late survivals. The +procession of the image of Berecynthia has already been described, +and such processions were common in Gaul, and imply a regular +folk-custom. S. Martin of Tours stopped a funeral procession +believing it to be such a pagan rite.<a id="footnotetag986" name= +"footnotetag986"></a><a href="#footnote986"><sup>986</sup></a> +Councils and edicts prohibited these processions in Gaul, but a +more effectual way was to Christianise them. The Rogation +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id= +"page289"></a>{289}</span> tide processions with crucifix and +Madonna, and the carrying of S. John's image at the Midsummer +festivals, were a direct continuation of the older practices. +Images were often broken by Christian saints in Gaul, as they had +been over-turned by S. Patrick in Ireland. "Stiff and deformed" +many of them must have been, if one may judge from the +<i>Groah-goard</i> or "Venus of Quinipily," for centuries the +object of superstitious rites in Brittany.<a id="footnotetag987" +name="footnotetag987"></a><a href="#footnote987"><sup>987</sup></a> +With it may be compared the fetich-stone or image of which an old +woman in the island of Inniskea, the guardian of a sacred well, had +charge. It was kept wrapped up to hide it from profane eyes, but at +certain periods it was brought out for adoration.<a id= +"footnotetag988" name="footnotetag988"></a><a href= +"#footnote988"><sup>988</sup></a></p> +<p>The images and bas-reliefs of the Gallo-Roman period fall mainly +into two classes. In the first class are those representing native +divinities, like Esus, Tarvos Trigaranos, Smertullos, Cernunnos, +the horned and crouching gods, the god with the hammer, and the god +with the wheel. Busts and statues of some water-goddesses exist, +but more numerous are the representations of Epona. One of these is +provided with a box pedestal in which offerings might be placed. +The <i>Matres</i> are frequently figured, usually as three seated +figures with baskets of fruit or flowers, or with one or more +infants, like the Madonna. Images of triple-headed gods, supposed +to be Cernunnos, have been found, but are difficult to place in any +category.<a id="footnotetag989" name="footnotetag989"></a><a href= +"#footnote989"><sup>989</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id= +"page290"></a>{290}</span> +<p>To the images of the second class is usually attached the Roman +name of a god, but generally the native Celtic name is added, but +the images themselves are of the traditional Roman type. Among +statues and statuettes of bronze, that of Mercury occurs most +often. This may point to the fact that Cæsar's +<i>simulacra</i> of the native Mercury were images, and that the +old preference for representing this god continued in Roman times. +Small figures of divinities in white clay have been found in large +numbers, and may have been <i>ex votos</i> or images of household +<i>lararia</i>.<a id="footnotetag990" name= +"footnotetag990"></a><a href="#footnote990"><sup>990</sup></a></p> +<h4>SYMBOLS.</h4> +<p>Images of the gods in Gaul can be classified by means of their +symbols—the mallet and cup (a symbol of plenty) borne by the +god with the hammer, the wheel of the sun-god, the cornucopia and +torque carried by Cernunnos. Other symbols occur on images, altars, +monuments, and coins. These are the swastika and triskele, probably +symbols of the sun;<a id="footnotetag991" name= +"footnotetag991"></a><a href="#footnote991"><sup>991</sup></a> +single or concentric circles, sometimes with rays;<a id= +"footnotetag992" name="footnotetag992"></a><a href= +"#footnote992"><sup>992</sup></a> crosses; and a curious <b>S</b> +figure. The triskele and the circles are sometimes found on faces +figured on coins. They may therefore have been tattoo markings of a +symbolic character. The circle and cross are often incised on +bronze images of Dispater. Much speculation has been aroused by the +<b>S</b> figure, which occurs on coins, while nine models of this +symbol hang from a ring carried by the god with the wheel, but the +most probable is that which sees in it a thunderbolt.<a id= +"footnotetag993" name="footnotetag993"></a><a href= +"#footnote993"><sup>993</sup></a> But lacking any old text +interpreting <span class="pagenum"><a name="page291" id= +"page291"></a>{291}</span> these various symbols, all explanations +of them must be conjectural. Some of them are not purely Celtic, +but are of world-wide occurrence.</p> +<h4>CULT OF WEAPONS.</h4> +<p>Here some reference may be made to the Celtic cult of weapons. +As has been seen, a hammer is the symbol of one god, and it is not +unlikely that a cult of the hammer had preceded that of the god to +whom the hammer was given as a symbol. Esus is also represented +with an axe. We need not repeat what has already been said +regarding the primitive and universal cult of hammer or axe,<a id= +"footnotetag994" name="footnotetag994"></a><a href= +"#footnote994"><sup>994</sup></a> but it is interesting to notice, +in connection with other evidence for a Celtic cult of weapons, +that there is every reason to believe that the phrase <i>sub ascia +dedicare</i>, which occurs in inscriptions on tombs from Gallia +Lugdunensis, usually with the figure of an axe incised on the +stone, points to the cult of the axe, or of a god whose symbol the +axe was.<a id="footnotetag995" name="footnotetag995"></a><a href= +"#footnote995"><sup>995</sup></a> In Irish texts the power of +speech is attributed to weapons, but, according to the Christian +scribe, this was because demons spoke from them, for the people +worshipped arms in those days.<a id="footnotetag996" name= +"footnotetag996"></a><a href="#footnote996"><sup>996</sup></a> Thus +it may have been believed that spirits tenanted weapons, or that +weapons had souls. Evidence of the cult itself is found in the fact +that on Gaulish coins a sword is figured, stuck in the ground, or +driving a chariot, or with a warrior dancing before it, or held in +the hand of a dancing warrior.<a id="footnotetag997" name= +"footnotetag997"></a><a href="#footnote997"><sup>997</sup></a> The +latter are ritual acts, and resemble that described by Spenser as +performed by Irish warriors in his day, who said prayers or +incantations before a sword stuck in the earth.<a id= +"footnotetag998" name="footnotetag998"></a><a href= +"#footnote998"><sup>998</sup></a> Swords were also addressed in +songs composed <span class="pagenum"><a name="page292" id= +"page292"></a>{292}</span> by Irish bards, and traditional remains +of such songs are found in Brittany.<a id="footnotetag999" name= +"footnotetag999"></a><a href="#footnote999"><sup>999</sup></a> They +represent the chants of the ancient cult. Oaths were taken by +weapons, and the weapons were believed to turn against those who +lied.<a id="footnotetag1000" name="footnotetag1000"></a><a href= +"#footnote1000"><sup>1000</sup></a> The magical power of weapons, +especially of those over which incantations had been said, is +frequently referred to in traditional tales and Irish texts.<a id= +"footnotetag1001" name="footnotetag1001"></a><a href= +"#footnote1001"><sup>1001</sup></a> A reminiscence of the cult or +of the magical power of weapons may be found in the wonderful +"glaives of light" of Celtic folk-tales, and the similar mystical +weapon of the Arthurian romances.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote953" name= +"footnote953"></a><b>Footnote 953:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag953">(return)</a> +<p>Lucan, <i>Pharsalia</i>, iii. 399 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote954" name= +"footnote954"></a><b>Footnote 954:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag954">(return)</a> +<p>Dio Cass. lxii. 7; Tac. <i>Ann.</i> xiv. 30.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote955" name= +"footnote955"></a><b>Footnote 955:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag955">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, xii. 51. <i>Drunemeton</i> may mean "great temple" +(D'Arbois, <i>Les Celtes</i>, 203).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote956" name= +"footnote956"></a><b>Footnote 956:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag956">(return)</a> +<p><i>Antient Laws of Ireland</i>, i. 164.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote957" name= +"footnote957"></a><b>Footnote 957:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag957">(return)</a> +<p>Holder, ii. 712. Cf. "Indiculus" in Grimm, <i>Teut. Myth.</i> +1739, "de sacris silvarum, quas nimidas (= nemeta) vocant."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote958" name= +"footnote958"></a><b>Footnote 958:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag958">(return)</a> +<p>Livy, xxiii. 24; Polyb. ii. 32.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote959" name= +"footnote959"></a><b>Footnote 959:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag959">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 13, 17; Diod. Sic. v. 27; Plutarch, +<i>Cæsar</i>, 26.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote960" name= +"footnote960"></a><b>Footnote 960:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag960">(return)</a> +<p>See examples in Dom Martin, i. 134 f.; cf. Greg. Tours, <i>Hist. +Franc.</i> i. 30.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote961" name= +"footnote961"></a><b>Footnote 961:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag961">(return)</a> +<p>See Reinach, "Les monuments de pierre brute dans le langage et +les croyances populaires," <i>Rev. Arch.</i> 1893, i. 339; Evans, +"The Roll-Right Stones," <i>Folk-Lore</i>, vi. 20 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote962" name= +"footnote962"></a><b>Footnote 962:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag962">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 194; Diod. Sic. ii. 47.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote963" name= +"footnote963"></a><b>Footnote 963:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag963">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, 197.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote964" name= +"footnote964"></a><b>Footnote 964:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag964">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 246; Kennedy, 271.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote965" name= +"footnote965"></a><b>Footnote 965:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag965">(return)</a> +<p>Lucan, i. 443, iii. 399f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote966" name= +"footnote966"></a><b>Footnote 966:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag966">(return)</a> +<p>Cicero, <i>pro Fonteio</i>, x. 21; Tac. <i>Ann.</i> xiv. 30. Cf. +Pomp. Mela, iii. 2. 18.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote967" name= +"footnote967"></a><b>Footnote 967:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag967">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 284; Cormac, 94. Cf. <i>IT</i> iii. +211, for the practice of circumambulating altars.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote968" name= +"footnote968"></a><b>Footnote 968:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag968">(return)</a> +<p>Max. Tyr. <i>Dissert.</i> viii. 8; Lucan, iii. 412f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote969" name= +"footnote969"></a><b>Footnote 969:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag969">(return)</a> +<p><i>Antient Laws of Ireland</i>, iv. 142.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote970" name= +"footnote970"></a><b>Footnote 970:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag970">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rev. Arch.</i> i. pl. iii-v.; Reinach, <i>RC</i> xi. 224, +xiii. 190.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote971" name= +"footnote971"></a><b>Footnote 971:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag971">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>Martyr. of Oengus</i>, 186-187.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote972" name= +"footnote972"></a><b>Footnote 972:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag972">(return)</a> +<p>See the Twenty-third Canon of Council of Arles, the Twenty-third +of the Council of Tours, 567, and ch. 65 of the <i>Capitularia</i>, +789.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote973" name= +"footnote973"></a><b>Footnote 973:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag973">(return)</a> +<p>Mabillon, <i>Acta</i>, i. 177.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote974" name= +"footnote974"></a><b>Footnote 974:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag974">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> 1893, xxi. 335.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote975" name= +"footnote975"></a><b>Footnote 975:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag975">(return)</a> +<p>Blanchet, i. 152-153, 386.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote976" name= +"footnote976"></a><b>Footnote 976:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag976">(return)</a> +<p>Justin, xliii. 5; Strabo, xii. 5. 2; Plutarch, <i>de Virt. +Mul.</i> xx.; Livy, v. 41.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote977" name= +"footnote977"></a><b>Footnote 977:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag977">(return)</a> +<p>Cormac, 94.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote978" name= +"footnote978"></a><b>Footnote 978:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag978">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 356. See also Stokes, <i>Martyr. of Oengus</i>, 186; +<i>RC</i> xii. 427, § 15; Joyce, <i>SH</i> 274 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote979" name= +"footnote979"></a><b>Footnote 979:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag979">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 213<i>b</i>; <i>Trip. Life</i>, i. 90, 93.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote980" name= +"footnote980"></a><b>Footnote 980:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag980">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 284.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote981" name= +"footnote981"></a><b>Footnote 981:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag981">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 49.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote982" name= +"footnote982"></a><b>Footnote 982:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag982">(return)</a> +<p>Jocelyn, <i>Vita S. Kentig.</i> 27, 32, 34; Ailred, <i>Vita S. +Ninian.</i> 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote983" name= +"footnote983"></a><b>Footnote 983:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag983">(return)</a> +<p>Gildas, § 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote984" name= +"footnote984"></a><b>Footnote 984:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag984">(return)</a> +<p>For the whole argument see Reinach, <i>RC</i> xiii. 189 f. +Bertrand, <i>Rev. Arch.</i> xv. 345, supports a similar theory, +and, according to both writers, Gallo-Roman art was the result of +the weakening of Druidic power by the Romans.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote985" name= +"footnote985"></a><b>Footnote 985:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag985">(return)</a> +<p>L'Abbé Hermet, Assoc. pour l'avancement des Sciences, +<i>Compte Rendu</i>, 1900, ii. 747; <i>L'Anthropologie</i>, v. +147.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote986" name= +"footnote986"></a><b>Footnote 986:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag986">(return)</a> +<p><i>Corp. Scrip. Eccl. Lat.</i> i. 122.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote987" name= +"footnote987"></a><b>Footnote 987:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag987">(return)</a> +<p>Monnier, 362. The image bears part of an inscription ... LIT... +and it has been thought that this read ILITHYIA originally. The +name is in keeping with the rites still in use before the image. +This would make it date from Roman times. If so, it is a poor +specimen of the art of the period. But it may be an old native +image to which later the name of the Roman goddess was given.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote988" name= +"footnote988"></a><b>Footnote 988:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag988">(return)</a> +<p>Roden, <i>Progress of the Reformation in Ireland</i>, 51. The +image was still existing in 1851.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote989" name= +"footnote989"></a><b>Footnote 989:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag989">(return)</a> +<p>For figures of most of these, see <i>Rev. Arch.</i> vols. xvi., +xviii., xix., xxxvi.; <i>RC</i> xvii. 45, xviii. 254, xx. 309, +xxii. 159, xxiv. 221; Bertrand, <i>passim</i>; Courcelle-Seneuil, +<i>Les Dieux Gaulois d'apres les Monuments Figures</i>, Paris, +1910.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote990" name= +"footnote990"></a><b>Footnote 990:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag990">(return)</a> +<p>See Courcelle-Seneuil, <i>op. cit.</i>; Reinach, <i>BF +passim</i>, <i>Catalogue Sommaire du Musée des Ant. +nat.</i><sup>4</sup> 115-116.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote991" name= +"footnote991"></a><b>Footnote 991:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag991">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>Catal.</i> 29, 87; <i>Rev. Arch.</i> xvi. 17; +Blanchet, i. 169, 316; Huchet, <i>L'art gaulois</i>, ii. 8.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote992" name= +"footnote992"></a><b>Footnote 992:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag992">(return)</a> +<p>Blanchet, i. 158; Reinach, <i>BF</i> 143, 150, 152.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote993" name= +"footnote993"></a><b>Footnote 993:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag993">(return)</a> +<p>Blanchet, i. 17; Flouest, <i>Deux Stèles</i> (Append.), +Paris, 1885; Reinach, <i>BF</i> 33.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote994" name= +"footnote994"></a><b>Footnote 994:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag994">(return)</a> +<p>P. <a href="#page30">30</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote995" name= +"footnote995"></a><b>Footnote 995:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag995">(return)</a> +<p>Hirschfeld in <i>CIL</i> xiii. 256.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote996" name= +"footnote996"></a><b>Footnote 996:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag996">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 107; Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 131.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote997" name= +"footnote997"></a><b>Footnote 997:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag997">(return)</a> +<p>Blanchet, i. 160 f.; Muret de la Tour, <i>Catalogue</i>, 6922, +6941, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote998" name= +"footnote998"></a><b>Footnote 998:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag998">(return)</a> +<p><i>View of the State of Ireland</i>, 57.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote999" name= +"footnote999"></a><b>Footnote 999:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag999">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xx. 7; Martin, <i>Études de la Myth. Celt.</i> +164.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1000" name= +"footnote1000"></a><b>Footnote 1000:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1000">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 206; <i>RC</i> ix. 144.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1001" name= +"footnote1001"></a><b>Footnote 1001:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1001">(return)</a> +<p><i>CM</i> xiii. 168 f.; Miss Hull, 44, 221, 223.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id= +"page293"></a>{293}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap20" id="chap20">CHAPTER XX.</a></h2> +<h3>THE DRUIDS.</h3> +<p>Pliny thought that the name "Druid" was a Greek appellation +derived from the Druidic cult of the oak ([Greek: +<i>drus</i>]).<a id="footnotetag1002" name= +"footnotetag1002"></a><a href="#footnote1002"><sup>1002</sup></a> +The word, however, is purely Celtic, and its meaning probably +implies that, like the sorcerer and medicine-man everywhere, the +Druid was regarded as "the knowing one." It is composed of two +parts—<i>dru</i>-, regarded by M. D'Arbois as an intensive, +and <i>vids</i>, from <i>vid</i>, "to know," or "see."<a id= +"footnotetag1003" name="footnotetag1003"></a><a href= +"#footnote1003"><sup>1003</sup></a> Hence the Druid was "the very +knowing or wise one." It is possible, however, that <i>dru</i>- is +connected with the root which gives the word "oak" in Celtic +speech—Gaulish <i>deruo</i>, Irish <i>dair</i>, Welsh +<i>derw</i>—and that the oak, occupying a place in the cult, +was thus brought into relation with the name of the priesthood. The +Gaulish form of the name was probably <i>druis</i>, the Old Irish +was <i>drai</i>. The modern forms in Irish and Scots Gaelic, +<i>drui</i> and <i>draoi</i> mean "sorcerer."</p> +<p>M. D'Arbois and others, accepting Cæsar's dictum that "the +system (of Druidism) is thought to have been devised in Britain, +and brought thence into Gaul," maintain that the Druids were +priests of the Goidels in Britain, who imposed themselves upon the +Gaulish conquerors of the Goidels, and that Druidism then passed +over into Gaul about 200 B.C.<a id="footnotetag1004" name= +"footnotetag1004"></a><a href="#footnote1004"><sup>1004</sup></a> +But it is hardly <span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id= +"page294"></a>{294}</span> likely that, even if the Druids were +accepted as priests by conquering Gauls in Britain, they should +have affected the Gauls of Gaul who were outside the reflex +influence of the conquered Goidels, and should have there obtained +that power which they possessed. Goidels and Gauls were allied by +race and language and religion, and it would be strange if they did +not both possess a similar priesthood. Moreover, the Goidels had +been a continental people, and Druidism was presumably flourishing +among them then. Why did it not influence kindred Celtic tribes +without Druids, <i>ex hypothesi</i>, at that time? Further, if we +accept Professor Meyer's theory that no Goidel set foot in Britain +until the second century A.D., the Gauls could not have received +the Druidic priesthood from the Goidels.</p> +<p>Cæsar merely says, "it is thought (<i>existimatur</i>) +that Druidism came to Gaul from Britain."<a id="footnotetag1005" +name="footnotetag1005"></a><a href= +"#footnote1005"><sup>1005</sup></a> It was a pious opinion, perhaps +his own, or one based on the fact that those who wished to perfect +themselves in Druidic art went to Britain. This may have been +because Britain had been less open to foreign influences than Gaul, +and its Druids, unaffected by these, were thought to be more +powerful than those of Gaul. Pliny, on the other hand, seems to +think that Druidism passed over into Britain from Gaul.<a id= +"footnotetag1006" name="footnotetag1006"></a><a href= +"#footnote1006"><sup>1006</sup></a></p> +<p>Other writers—Sir John Rh[^y]s, Sir G.L. Gomme, and M. +Reinach—support on different grounds the theory that the +Druids were a pre-Celtic priesthood, accepted by the Celtic +conquerors. Sir John Rh[^y]s thinks that the Druidism of the +aborigines of Gaul and Britain made terms with the Celtic +conquerors. It was accepted by the Goidels, but not by the +Brythons. Hence in Britain there were Brythons without Druids, +aborigines under the sway of Druidism, and Goidels who combined +Aryan polytheism with Druidism. Druidism <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page295" id="page295"></a>{295}</span> was also +the religion of the aborigines from the Baltic to Gibraltar, and +was accepted by the Gauls.<a id="footnotetag1007" name= +"footnotetag1007"></a><a href="#footnote1007"><sup>1007</sup></a> +But if so, it is difficult to see why the Brythons, akin to them, +did not accept it. Our knowledge of Brythonic religion is too +scanty for us to prove that the Druids had or had not sway over +them, but the presumption is that they had. Nor is there any +historical evidence to show that the Druids were originally a +non-Celtic priesthood. Everywhere they appear as the supreme and +dominant priesthood of the Celts, and the priests of a conquered +people could hardly have obtained such power over the conquerors. +The relation of the Celts to the Druids is quite different from +that of conquerors, who occasionally resort to the medicine-men of +the conquered folk because they have stronger magic or greater +influence with the autochthonous gods. The Celts did not resort to +the Druids occasionally; <i>ex hypothesi</i> they accepted them +completely, were dominated by them in every department of life, +while their own priests, if they had any, accepted this order of +things without a murmur. All this is incredible. The picture drawn +by Cæsar, Strabo, and others of the Druids and their position +among the Celts as judges, choosers of tribal chiefs and kings, +teachers, as well as ministers of religion, suggests rather that +they were a native Celtic priesthood, long established among the +people.</p> +<p>Sir G.L. Gomme supports the theory that the Druids were a +pre-Celtic priesthood, because, in his opinion, much of their +belief in magic as well as their use of human sacrifice and the +redemption of one life by another, is opposed to "Aryan sentiment." +Equally opposed to this are their functions of settling +controversies, judging, settling the succession to property, and +arranging boundaries. These views are supported by a comparison of +the position of the Druids relatively to the Celts <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>{296}</span> with that +of non-Aryan persons in India who render occasional priestly +services to Hindu village communities.<a id="footnotetag1008" name= +"footnotetag1008"></a><a href="#footnote1008"><sup>1008</sup></a> +Whether this comparison of occasional Hindu custom with Celtic +usage two thousand years ago is just, may be questioned. As already +seen, it was no mere occasional service which the Druids rendered +to the Celts, and it is this which makes it difficult to credit +this theory. Had the Celtic house-father been priest and judge in +his own clan, would he so readily have surrendered his rights to a +foreign and conquered priesthood? On the other hand, kings and +chiefs among the Celts probably retained some priestly functions, +derived from the time when the offices of the priest-king had not +been differentiated. Cæsar's evidence certainly does not +support the idea that "it is only among the rudest of the so-called +Celtic tribes that we find this superimposing of an apparently +official priesthood." According to him, the power of the Druids was +universal in Gaul, and had their position really corresponded to +that of the pariah priests of India, occasional priests of Hindu +villages, the determined hostility of the Roman power to them +because they wielded such an enormous influence over Celtic thought +and life, is inexplainable. If, further, Aryan sentiment was so +opposed to Druidic customs, why did Aryan Celts so readily accept +the Druids? In this case the receiver is as bad as the thief. Sir +G.L. Gomme clings to the belief that the Aryans were people of a +comparatively high civilisation, who had discarded, if they ever +possessed, a savage "past." But old beliefs and customs still +survive through growing civilisation, and if the views of Professor +Sergi and others are correct, the Aryans were even less civilised +than the peoples whom they conquered.<a id="footnotetag1009" name= +"footnotetag1009"></a><a href="#footnote1009"><sup>1009</sup></a> +Shape-shifting, magic, human sacrifice, priestly domination, were +as much Aryan as non-Aryan, and if the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page297" id="page297"></a>{297}</span> Celts had +a comparatively pure religion, why did they so soon allow it to be +defiled by the puerile superstitions of the Druids?</p> +<p>M. Reinach, as we have seen, thinks that the Celts had no +images, because these were prohibited by their priests. This +prohibition was pre-Celtic in Gaul, since there are no Neolithic +images, though there are great megalithic structures, suggesting +the existence of a great religious aristocracy. This aristocracy +imposed itself on the Celts.<a id="footnotetag1010" name= +"footnotetag1010"></a><a href="#footnote1010"><sup>1010</sup></a> +We have seen that there is no reason for believing that the Celts +had no images, hence this argument is valueless. M. Reinach then +argues that the Celts accepted Druidism <i>en bloc</i>, as the +Romans accepted Oriental cults and the Greeks the native Pelasgic +cults. But neither Romans nor Greeks abandoned their own faith. +Were the Celts a people without priests and without religion? We +know that they must have accepted many local cults, but that they +adopted the whole aboriginal faith and its priests <i>en bloc</i> +is not credible. M. Reinach also holds that when the Celts appear +in history Druidism was in its decline; the Celt, or at least the +military caste among the Celts, was reasserting itself. But the +Druids do not appear as a declining body in the pages of +Cæsar, and their power was still supreme, to judge by the +hostility of the Roman Government to them. If the military caste +rebelled against them, this does not prove that they were a foreign +body. Such a strife is seen wherever priest and soldier form +separate castes, each desiring to rule, as in Egypt.</p> +<p>Other writers argue that we do not find Druids existing in the +Danube region, in Cisalpine territory, nor in Transalpine Gaul, +"outside the limits of the region occupied by the +Celtæ."<a id="footnotetag1011" name= +"footnotetag1011"></a><a href="#footnote1011"><sup>1011</sup></a> +This could only have weight if any of the classical <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page298" id="page298"></a>{298}</span> writers +had composed a formal treatise on the Druids, showing exactly the +regions where they existed. They merely describe Druidism as a +general Celtic institution, or as they knew it in Gaul or Britain, +and few of them have any personal knowledge of it. There is no +reason to believe that Druids did not exist wherever there were +Celts. The Druids and Semnotheoi of the Celts and Galatæ +referred to <i>c.</i> 200 B.C. were apparently priests of other +Celts than those of Gaul, and Celtic groups of Cisalpine Gaul had +priests, though these are not formally styled Druids.<a id= +"footnotetag1012" name="footnotetag1012"></a><a href= +"#footnote1012"><sup>1012</sup></a> The argument <i>ex silentio</i> +is here of little value, since the references to the Druids are so +brief, and it tells equally against their non-Celtic origin, since +we do not hear of Druids in Aquitania, a non-Celtic region.<a id= +"footnotetag1013" name="footnotetag1013"></a><a href= +"#footnote1013"><sup>1013</sup></a></p> +<p>The theory of the non-Celtic origin of the Druids assumes that +the Celts had no priests, or that these were effaced by the Druids. +The Celts had priests called <i>gutuatri</i> attached to certain +temples, their name perhaps meaning "the speakers," those who spoke +to the gods.<a id="footnotetag1014" name= +"footnotetag1014"></a><a href="#footnote1014"><sup>1014</sup></a> +The functions of the Druids were much more general, according to +this theory, hence M. D'Arbois supposes that, before their +intrusion, the Celts had no other priests than the +<i>gutuatri</i>.<a id="footnotetag1015" name= +"footnotetag1015"></a><a href="#footnote1015"><sup>1015</sup></a> +But the probability is that they were a Druidic class, ministers of +local sanctuaries, and related to the Druids as the Levites were to +the priests of Israel, since the Druids were a composite priesthood +with a variety of functions. If the priests and servants of +Belenos, described by Ausonius and called by him <i>oedituus +Beleni</i>, were <i>gutuatri</i>, then the latter must have been +connected with the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id= +"page299"></a>{299}</span> Druids, since he says they were of +Druidic stock.<a id="footnotetag1016" name= +"footnotetag1016"></a><a href="#footnote1016"><sup>1016</sup></a> +Lucan's "priest of the grove" may have been a <i>gutuatros</i>, and +the priests (<i>sacerdotes</i>) and other ministers +(<i>antistites</i>) of the Boii may have been Druids properly so +called and <i>gutuatri</i>.<a id="footnotetag1017" name= +"footnotetag1017"></a><a href="#footnote1017"><sup>1017</sup></a> +Another class of temple servants may have existed. Names beginning +with the name of a god and ending in <i>gnatos</i>, "accustomed +to," "beloved of," occur in inscriptions, and may denote persons +consecrated from their youth to the service of a grove or temple. +On the other hand, the names may mean no more than that those +bearing them were devoted to the cult of one particular god.</p> +<p>Our supposition that the <i>gutuatri</i> were a class of Druids +is supported by classical evidence, which tends to show that the +Druids were a great inclusive priesthood with different classes +possessing different functions—priestly, prophetic, magical, +medical, legal, and poetical. Cæsar attributes these to the +Druids as a whole, but in other writers they are in part at least +in the hands of different classes. Diodorus refers to the Celtic +philosophers and theologians (Druids), diviners, and bards, as do +also Strabo and Timagenes, Strabo giving the Greek form of the +native name for the diviners, [Greek: ouateis], the Celtic form +being probably <i>vátis</i> (Irish, +<i>fáith</i>).<a id="footnotetag1018" name= +"footnotetag1018"></a><a href="#footnote1018"><sup>1018</sup></a> +These may have been also poets, since <i>vátis</i> means +both singer and poet; but in all three writers the bards are a +fairly distinct class, who sing the deeds of famous men (so +Timagenes). Druid and diviner were also closely connected, since +the Druids studied nature and moral philosophy, and the diviners +were also students of nature, according to Strabo and Timagenes. No +sacrifice was complete without a Druid, say Diodorus and Strabo, +but both speak of the diviners as concerned with sacrifice. Druids +also prophesied as well as diviners, according <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page300" id="page300"></a>{300}</span> to Cicero +and Tacitus.<a id="footnotetag1019" name= +"footnotetag1019"></a><a href="#footnote1019"><sup>1019</sup></a> +Finally, Lucan mentions only Druids and bards.<a id= +"footnotetag1020" name="footnotetag1020"></a><a href= +"#footnote1020"><sup>1020</sup></a> Diviners were thus probably a +Druidic sub-class, standing midway between the Druids proper and +the bards, and partaking of some of the functions of both. Pliny +speaks of "Druids and this race of prophets and doctors,"<a id= +"footnotetag1021" name="footnotetag1021"></a><a href= +"#footnote1021"><sup>1021</sup></a> and this suggests that some +were priests, some diviners, while some practised an empiric +medical science.</p> +<p>On the whole this agrees with what is met with in Ireland, where +the Druids, though appearing in the texts mainly as magicians, were +also priests and teachers. Side by side with them were the +<i>Filid</i>, "learned poets,"<a id="footnotetag1022" name= +"footnotetag1022"></a><a href="#footnote1022"><sup>1022</sup></a> +composing according to strict rules of art, and higher than the +third class, the Bards. The <i>Filid</i>, who may also have been +known as <i>Fáthi</i>, "prophets,"<a id="footnotetag1023" +name="footnotetag1023"></a><a href= +"#footnote1023"><sup>1023</sup></a> were also diviners according to +strict rules of augury, while some of these auguries implied a +sacrifice. The Druids were also diviners and prophets. When the +Druids were overthrown at the coming of Christianity, the +<i>Filid</i> remained as a learned class, probably because they had +abandoned all pagan practices, while the Bards were reduced to a +comparatively low status. M. D'Arbois supposes that there was +rivalry between the Druids and the <i>Filid</i>, who made common +cause with the Christian missionaries, but this is not supported by +evidence. The three classes in Gaul—Druids, <i>Vates</i>, and +Bards—thus correspond to the three classes in +Ireland—Druids, <i>Fáthi</i> or <i>Filid</i>, and +Bards.<a id="footnotetag1024" name="footnotetag1024"></a><a href= +"#footnote1024"><sup>1024</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id= +"page301"></a>{301}</span> +<p>We may thus conclude that the Druids were a purely Celtic +priesthood, belonging both to the Goidelic and Gaulish branches of +the Celts. The idea that they were not Celtic is sometimes +connected with the supposition that Druidism was something +superadded to Celtic religion from without, or that Celtic +polytheism was not part of the creed of the Druids, but sanctioned +by them, while they had a definite theological system with only a +few gods.<a id="footnotetag1025" name= +"footnotetag1025"></a><a href="#footnote1025"><sup>1025</sup></a> +These are the ideas of writers who see in the Druids an occult and +esoteric priesthood. The Druids had grown up <i>pari passu</i> with +the growth of the native religion and magic. Where they had become +more civilised, as in the south of Gaul, they may have given up +many magical practices, but as a class they were addicted to magic, +and must have taken part in local cults as well as in those of the +greater gods. That they were a philosophic priesthood advocating a +pure religion among polytheists is a baseless theory. Druidism was +not a formal system outside Celtic religion. It covered the whole +ground of Celtic religion; in other words, it was that religion +itself.</p> +<p>The Druids are first referred to by pseudo-Aristotle and Sotion +in the second century B.C., the reference being preserved by +Diogenes Laertius: "There are among the Celtæ and +Galatæ those called Druids and Semnotheoi."<a id= +"footnotetag1026" name="footnotetag1026"></a><a href= +"#footnote1026"><sup>1026</sup></a> The two words may be +synonymous, or they may describe two classes of priests, or, again, +the Druids may have been Celtic, and the Semnotheoi Galatic (? +Galatian) priests. Cæsar's account comes next in time. Later +writers gives the Druids a lofty place and speak vaguely of the +Druidic philosophy and science. Cæsar also refers to their +science, but both he and Strabo <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page302" id="page302"></a>{302}</span> speak of their human +sacrifices. Suetonius describes their religion as cruel and savage, +and Mela, who speaks of their learning, regards their human +sacrifices as savagery.<a id="footnotetag1027" name= +"footnotetag1027"></a><a href="#footnote1027"><sup>1027</sup></a> +Pliny says nothing of the Druids as philosophers, but hints at +their priestly functions, and connects them with magico-medical +rites.<a id="footnotetag1028" name="footnotetag1028"></a><a href= +"#footnote1028"><sup>1028</sup></a> These divergent opinions are +difficult to account for. But as the Romans gained closer +acquaintance with the Druids, they found less philosophy and more +superstition among them. For their cruel rites and hostility to +Rome, they sought to suppress them, but this they never would have +done had the Druids been esoteric philosophers. It has been thought +that Pliny's phrase, "Druids and that race of prophets and +doctors," signifies that, through Roman persecution, the Druids +were reduced to a kind of medicine-men.<a id="footnotetag1029" +name="footnotetag1029"></a><a href= +"#footnote1029"><sup>1029</sup></a> But the phrase rather describes +the varied functions of the Druids, as has been seen, nor does it +refer to the state to which the repressive edict reduced them, but +to that in which it found them. Pliny's information was also +limited.</p> +<p>The vague idea that the Druids were philosophers was repeated +parrot-like by writer after writer, who regarded barbaric races as +Rousseau and his school looked upon the "noble savage." Roman +writers, sceptical of a future life, were fascinated by the idea of +a barbaric priesthood teaching the doctrine of immortality in the +wilds of Gaul. For this teaching the poet Lucan sang their praises. +The Druids probably first impressed Greek and Latin observers by +their magic, their organisation, and the fact that, like many +barbaric priesthoods, but unlike those of Greece and Rome, they +taught certain doctrines. Their knowledge was divinely conveyed to +them; "they speak the language of the gods;"<a id="footnotetag1030" +name="footnotetag1030"></a><a href= +"#footnote1030"><sup>1030</sup></a> hence it was easy to read +anything into this teaching. Thus the Druidic legend <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page303" id="page303"></a>{303}</span> rapidly +grew. On the other hand, modern writers have perhaps exaggerated +the force of the classical evidence. When we read of Druidic +associations we need not regard these as higher than the organised +priesthoods of barbarians. Their doctrine of metempsychosis, if it +was really taught, involved no ethical content as in +Pythagoreanism. Their astronomy was probably astrological<a id= +"footnotetag1031" name="footnotetag1031"></a><a href= +"#footnote1031"><sup>1031</sup></a>; their knowledge of nature a +series of cosmogonic myths and speculations. If a true Druidic +philosophy and science had existed, it is strange that it is always +mentioned vaguely and that it exerted no influence upon the thought +of the time.</p> +<p>Classical sentiment also found a connection between the Druidic +and Pythagorean systems, the Druids being regarded as conforming to +the doctrines and rules of the Greek philosopher.<a id= +"footnotetag1032" name="footnotetag1032"></a><a href= +"#footnote1032"><sup>1032</sup></a> It is not improbable that some +Pythagorean doctrines may have reached Gaul, but when we examine +the point at which the two systems were supposed to meet, namely, +the doctrine of metempsychosis and immortality, upon which the +whole idea of this relationship was founded, there is no real +resemblance. There are Celtic myths regarding the rebirth of gods +and heroes, but the eschatological teaching was apparently this, +that the soul was clothed with a body in the other-world. There was +no doctrine of a series of rebirths on this earth as a punishment +for sin. The Druidic teaching of a bodily immortality was +mistakenly assumed to be the same as the Pythagorean doctrine of +the soul reincarnated in body after body. Other points of +resemblance were then discovered. The organisation of the Druids +was assumed by Ammianus to be a kind of corporate +life—<i>sodaliciis adstricti consortiis</i>—while the +Druidic mind was always searching into lofty things,<a id= +"footnotetag1033" name="footnotetag1033"></a><a href= +"#footnote1033"><sup>1033</sup></a> but <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page304" id="page304"></a>{304}</span> those who +wrote most fully of the Druids knew nothing of this.</p> +<p>The Druids, like the priests of all religions, doubtless sought +after such knowledge as was open to them, but this does not imply +that they possessed a recondite philosophy or a secret theology. +They were governed by the ideas current among all barbaric +communities, and they were at once priests, magicians, doctors, and +teachers. They would not allow their sacred hymns to be written +down, but taught them in secret,<a id="footnotetag1034" name= +"footnotetag1034"></a><a href="#footnote1034"><sup>1034</sup></a> +as is usual wherever the success of hymn or prayer depends upon the +right use of the words and the secrecy observed in imparting them +to others. Their ritual, as far as is known to us, differs but +little from that of other barbarian folk, and it included human +sacrifice and divination with the victim's body. They excluded the +guilty from a share in the cult—the usual punishment meted +out to the tabu-breaker in all primitive societies.</p> +<p>The idea that the Druids taught a secret +doctrine—monotheism, pantheism, or the like—is +unsupported by evidence. Doubtless they communicated secrets to the +initiated, as is done in barbaric mysteries everywhere, but these +secrets consist of magic and mythic formulæ, the exhibition +of <i>Sacra</i>, and some teaching about the gods or about moral +duties. These are kept secret, not because they are abstract +doctrines, but because they would lose their value and because the +gods would be angry if they were made too common. If the Druids +taught religious and moral matters secretly, these were probably no +more than an extension of the threefold maxim inculcated by them +according to Diogenes Laertius: "To worship the gods, to do no +evil, and to exercise courage."<a id="footnotetag1035" name= +"footnotetag1035"></a><a href="#footnote1035"><sup>1035</sup></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id= +"page305"></a>{305}</span> To this would be added cosmogonic myths +and speculations, and magic and religious formulæ. This will +become more evident as we examine the position and power of the +Druids.</p> +<p>In Gaul, and to some extent in Ireland, the Druids formed a +priestly corporation—a fact which helped classical observers +to suppose that they lived together like the Pythagorean +communities. While the words of Ammianus—<i>sodaliciis +adstricti consortiis</i>—may imply no more than some kind of +priestly organisation, M. Bertrand founds on them a theory that the +Druids were a kind of monks living a community life, and that Irish +monasticism was a transformation of this system.<a id= +"footnotetag1036" name="footnotetag1036"></a><a href= +"#footnote1036"><sup>1036</sup></a> This is purely imaginative. +Irish Druids had wives and children, and the Druid Diviciacus was a +family man, while Cæsar says not a word of community life +among the Druids. The hostility of Christianity to the Druids would +have prevented any copying of their system, and Irish monasticism +was modelled on that of the Continent. Druidic organisation +probably denoted no more than that the Druids were bound by certain +ties, that they were graded in different ranks or according to +their functions, and that they practised a series of common cults. +In Gaul one chief Druid had authority over the others, the position +being an elective one.<a id="footnotetag1037" name= +"footnotetag1037"></a><a href="#footnote1037"><sup>1037</sup></a> +The insular Druids may have been similarly organised, since we hear +of a chief Druid, <i>primus magus</i>, while the <i>Filid</i> had +an <i>Ard-file</i>, or chief, elected to his office.<a id= +"footnotetag1038" name="footnotetag1038"></a><a href= +"#footnote1038"><sup>1038</sup></a> The priesthood was not a caste, +but was open to those who showed aptitude for it. There was a long +novitiate, extending even to twenty years, just as, in Ireland, the +novitiate of the <i>File</i> lasted from seven to twelve +years.<a id="footnotetag1039" name="footnotetag1039"></a><a href= +"#footnote1039"><sup>1039</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page306" id= +"page306"></a>{306}</span> +<p>The Druids of Gaul assembled annually in a central spot, and +there settled disputes, because they were regarded as the most just +of men.<a id="footnotetag1040" name="footnotetag1040"></a><a href= +"#footnote1040"><sup>1040</sup></a> Individual Druids also decided +disputes or sat as judges in cases of murder. How far it was +obligatory to bring causes before them is unknown, but those who +did not submit to a decision were interdicted from the sacrifices, +and all shunned them. In other words, they were tabued. A +magico-religious sanction thus enforced the judgments of the +Druids. In Galatia the twelve tetrarchs had a council of three +hundred men, and met in a place called Drunemeton to try cases of +murder.<a id="footnotetag1041" name="footnotetag1041"></a><a href= +"#footnote1041"><sup>1041</sup></a> Whether it is philologically +permissible to connect <i>Dru</i>- with the corresponding syllable +in "Druid" or not, the likeness to the Gaulish assembly at a +"consecrated place," perhaps a grove (<i>nemeton</i>), is obvious. +We do not know that Irish Druids were judges, but the <i>Filid</i> +exercised judgments, and this may be a relic of their connection +with the Druids.<a id="footnotetag1042" name= +"footnotetag1042"></a><a href= +"#footnote1042"><sup>1042</sup></a></p> +<p>Diodorus describes the Druids exhorting combatants to peace, and +taming them like wild beasts by enchantment.<a id="footnotetag1043" +name="footnotetag1043"></a><a href= +"#footnote1043"><sup>1043</sup></a> This suggests interference to +prevent the devastating power of the blood-feud or of tribal wars. +They also appear to have exercised authority in the election of +rulers. Convictolitanis was elected to the magistracy by the +priests in Gaul, "according to the custom of the State."<a id= +"footnotetag1044" name="footnotetag1044"></a><a href= +"#footnote1044"><sup>1044</sup></a> In Ireland, after partaking of +the flesh of a white bull, probably a sacrificial animal, a man lay +down to sleep, while four Druids chanted over him "to render his +witness truthful." He then saw in a vision the person who should be +elected king, and what he was doing at the moment.<a id= +"footnotetag1045" name="footnotetag1045"></a><a href= +"#footnote1045"><sup>1045</sup></a> Possibly the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>{307}</span> Druids +used hypnotic suggestion; the medium was apparently +clairvoyant.</p> +<p>Dio Chrysostom alleges that kings were ministers of the Druids, +and could do nothing without them.<a id="footnotetag1046" name= +"footnotetag1046"></a><a href="#footnote1046"><sup>1046</sup></a> +This agrees on the whole with the witness of Irish texts. Druids +always accompany the king, and have great influence over him. +According to a passage in the <i>Táin</i>, "the men of +Ulster must not speak before the king, the king must not speak +before his Druid," and even Conchobar was silent until the Druid +Cathbad had spoken.<a id="footnotetag1047" name= +"footnotetag1047"></a><a href="#footnote1047"><sup>1047</sup></a> +This power, resembling that of many other priesthoods, must have +helped to balance that of the warrior class, and it is the more +credible when we recall the fact that the Druids claimed to have +made the universe.<a id="footnotetag1048" name= +"footnotetag1048"></a><a href="#footnote1048"><sup>1048</sup></a> +The priest-kingship may have been an old Celtic institution, and +this would explain why, once the offices were separated, priests +had or claimed so much political power.</p> +<p>That political power must have been enhanced by their position +as teachers, and it is safe to say that submission to their powers +was inculcated by them. Both in Gaul and in Ireland they taught +others than those who intended to become Druids.<a id= +"footnotetag1049" name="footnotetag1049"></a><a href= +"#footnote1049"><sup>1049</sup></a> As has been seen, their +teachings were not written down, but transmitted orally. They +taught immortality, believing that thus men would be roused to +valour, buttressing patriotism with dogma. They also imparted "many +things regarding the stars and their motions, the extent of the +universe and the earth, the nature of things, and the power and +might of the immortal gods." Strabo also speaks of their teaching +in moral science.<a id="footnotetag1050" name= +"footnotetag1050"></a><a href="#footnote1050"><sup>1050</sup></a> +As <span class="pagenum"><a name="page308" id= +"page308"></a>{308}</span> has been seen, it is easy to exaggerate +all this. Their astronomy was probably of a humble kind and mingled +with astrology; their natural philosophy a mass of cosmogonic myths +and speculations; their theology was rather mythology; their moral +philosophy a series of maxims such as are found in all barbaric +communities. Their medical lore, to judge from what Pliny says, was +largely magical. Some Druids, <i>e.g.</i> in the south of Gaul, may +have had access to classical learning, and Cæsar speaks of +the use of Greek characters among them. This could hardly have been +general, and in any case must have superseded the use of a native +script, to which the use of ogams in Ireland, and perhaps also in +Gaul, was supplementary. The Irish Druids may have had written +books, for King Loegaire desired that S. Patrick's books and those +of the Druids should be submitted to the ordeal by water as a test +of their owners' claims.<a id="footnotetag1051" name= +"footnotetag1051"></a><a href= +"#footnote1051"><sup>1051</sup></a></p> +<p>In religious affairs the Druids were supreme, since they alone +"knew the gods and divinities of heaven."<a id="footnotetag1052" +name="footnotetag1052"></a><a href= +"#footnote1052"><sup>1052</sup></a> They superintended and arranged +all rites and attended to "public and private sacrifices," and "no +sacrifice was complete without the intervention of a Druid."<a id= +"footnotetag1053" name="footnotetag1053"></a><a href= +"#footnote1053"><sup>1053</sup></a> The dark and cruel rites of the +Druids struck the Romans with horror, and they form a curious +contrast to their alleged "philosophy." They used divination and +had regular formulæ of incantation as well as ritual acts by +which they looked into the future.<a id="footnotetag1054" name= +"footnotetag1054"></a><a href="#footnote1054"><sup>1054</sup></a> +Before all matters of importance, especially before warlike +expeditions, their advice was sought because they could scan the +future.</p> +<p>Name-giving and a species of baptism were performed by the +Druids or on their initiative. Many examples of this <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page309" id="page309"></a>{309}</span> occur in +Irish texts, thus of Conall Cernach it is said, "Druids came to +baptize the child into heathenism, and they sang the heathen +baptism (<i>baithis geintlídhe</i>) over the little child", +and of Ailill that he was "baptized in Druidic streams".<a id= +"footnotetag1055" name="footnotetag1055"></a><a href= +"#footnote1055"><sup>1055</sup></a> In Welsh story we read that +Gwri was "baptized with the baptism which was usual at that +time".<a id="footnotetag1056" name="footnotetag1056"></a><a href= +"#footnote1056"><sup>1056</sup></a> Similar illustrations are +common at name-giving among many races,<a id="footnotetag1057" +name="footnotetag1057"></a><a href= +"#footnote1057"><sup>1057</sup></a> and it is probable that the +custom in the Hebrides of the midwife dropping three drops of water +on the child <i>in Nomine</i> and giving it a temporary name, is a +survival of this practice. The regular baptism takes place later, +but this preliminary rite keeps off fairies and ensures burial in +consecrated ground, just as the pagan rite was protective and +admitted to the tribal privileges.<a id="footnotetag1058" name= +"footnotetag1058"></a><a href= +"#footnote1058"><sup>1058</sup></a></p> +<p>In the burial rites, which in Ireland consisted of a lament, +sacrifices, and raising a stone inscribed with ogams over the +grave, Druids took part. The Druid Dergdamsa pronounced a discourse +over the Ossianic hero Mag-neid, buried him with his arms, and +chanted a rune. The ogam inscription would also be of Druidic +composition, and as no sacrifice was complete without the +intervention of Druids, they must also have assisted at the lavish +sacrifices which occurred at Celtic funerals.</p> +<p>Pliny's words, "the Druids and that race of prophets and +doctors", suggest that the medical art may have been in the hands +of a special class of Druids though all may have had a smattering +of it. It was mainly concerned with the use of herbs, and was mixed +up with magical rites, which may have <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page310" id="page310"></a>{310}</span> been +regarded as of more importance than the actual medicines +used.<a id="footnotetag1059" name="footnotetag1059"></a><a href= +"#footnote1059"><sup>1059</sup></a> In Ireland Druids also +practised the healing art. Thus when Cúchulainn was ill, +Emer said, "If it had been Fergus, Cúchulainn would have +taken no rest till he had found a Druid able to discover the cause +of that illness."<a id="footnotetag1060" name= +"footnotetag1060"></a><a href="#footnote1060"><sup>1060</sup></a> +But other persons, not referred to as Druids, are mentioned as +healers, one of them a woman, perhaps a reminiscence of the time +when the art was practised by women.<a id="footnotetag1061" name= +"footnotetag1061"></a><a href="#footnote1061"><sup>1061</sup></a> +These healers may, however, have been attached to the Druidic +corporation in much the same way as were the bards.</p> +<p>Still more important were the magical powers of the +Druids—giving or withholding sunshine or rain, causing +storms, making women and cattle fruitful, using spells, rhyming to +death, exercising shape-shifting and invisibility, and producing a +magic sleep, possibly hypnotic. They were also in request as +poisoners.<a id="footnotetag1062" name= +"footnotetag1062"></a><a href="#footnote1062"><sup>1062</sup></a> +Since the Gauls went to Britain to perfect themselves in Druidic +science, it is possible that the insular Druids were more devoted +to magic than those of Gaul, but since the latter are said to have +"tamed the people as wild beasts are tamed", it is obvious that +this refers to their powers as magicians rather than to any +recondite philosophy possessed by them. Yet they were clear-sighted +enough to use every means by which they might gain political power, +and some of them may have been open to the influence of classical +learning even before the Roman invasion. In the next chapter the +magic of the Druids will be described in detail.</p> +<p>The Druids, both in Gaul (at the mistletoe rite) and in Ireland, +were dressed in white, but Strabo speaks of their scarlet and gold +embroidered robes, their golden necklets and bracelets.<a id= +"footnotetag1063" name="footnotetag1063"></a><a href= +"#footnote1063"><sup>1063</sup></a> Again, the chief Druid of the +king of Erin wore <span class="pagenum"><a name="page311" id= +"page311"></a>{311}</span> a coloured cloak and had earrings of +gold, and in another instance a Druid wears a bull's hide and a +white-speckled bird headpiece with fluttering wings.<a id= +"footnotetag1064" name="footnotetag1064"></a><a href= +"#footnote1064"><sup>1064</sup></a> There was also some special +tonsure used by the Druids,<a id="footnotetag1065" name= +"footnotetag1065"></a><a href="#footnote1065"><sup>1065</sup></a> +which may have denoted servitude to the gods, as it was customary +for a warrior to vow his hair to a divinity if victory was granted +him. Similarly the Druid's hair would be presented to the gods, and +the tonsure would mark their minister.</p> +<p>Some writers have tried to draw a distinction between the Druids +of Gaul and of Ireland, especially in the matter of their priestly +functions.<a id="footnotetag1066" name= +"footnotetag1066"></a><a href="#footnote1066"><sup>1066</sup></a> +But, while a few passages in Irish texts do suggest that the Irish +Druids were priests taking part in sacrifices, etc., nearly all +passages relating to cult or ritual seem to have been deliberately +suppressed. Hence the Druids appear rather as magicians—a +natural result, since, once the people became Christian, the +priestly character of the Druids would tend to be lost sight of. +Like the Druids of Gaul, they were teachers and took part in +political affairs, and this shows that they were more than mere +magicians. In Irish texts the word "Druid" is somewhat loosely used +and is applied to kings and poets, perhaps because they had been +pupils of the Druids. But it is impossible to doubt that the Druids +in Ireland fulfilled functions of a public priesthood. They appear +in connection with all the colonies which came to Erin, the +annalists regarding the priests or medicine-men of different races +as Druids, through lack of historic perspective. But one fact shows +that they were priests of the Celtic religion in Ireland. The +euhemerised Tuatha Dé Danann are masters of Druidic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page312" id= +"page312"></a>{312}</span> lore. Thus both the gods and the priests +who served them were confused by later writers. The opposition of +Christian missionaries to the Druids shows that they were priests; +if they were not, it remains to be discovered what body of men did +exercise priestly functions in pagan Ireland. In Ireland their +judicial functions may have been less important than in Gaul, and +they may not have been so strictly organised; but here we are in +the region of conjecture. They were exempt from military service in +Gaul, and many joined their ranks on this account, but in Ireland +they were "bonny fechters," just as in Gaul they occasionally +fought like mediæval bishops.<a id="footnotetag1067" name= +"footnotetag1067"></a><a href="#footnote1067"><sup>1067</sup></a> +In both countries they were present on the field of battle to +perform the necessary religious or magical rites.</p> +<p>Since the Druids were an organised priesthood, with powers of +teaching and of magic implicitly believed in by the folk, +possessing the key of the other-world, and dominating the whole +field of religion, it is easy to see how much veneration must have +been paid them. Connoting this with the influence of the Roman +Church in Celtic regions and the power of the Protestant minister +in the Highlands and in Wales, some have thought that there is an +innate tendency in the Celt to be priest-ridden. If this be true, +we can only say, "the people wish to have it so, and the +priests—pagan, papist, or protestant—bear rule through +their means!"</p> +<p>Thus a close examination of the position and functions of the +Druids explains away two popular misconceptions. They were not +possessed of any recondite and esoteric wisdom. And the culling of +mistletoe instead of being the most important, was but a +subordinate part of their functions.</p> +<p>In Gaul the Roman power broke the sway of the Druids, aided +perhaps by the spread of Christianity, but it was Christianity +alone which routed them in Ireland and in Britain <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page313" id="page313"></a>{313}</span> outside +the Roman pale. The Druidic organisation, their power in politics +and in the administration of justice, their patriotism, and also +their use of human sacrifice and magic, were all obnoxious to the +Roman Government, which opposed them mainly on political grounds. +Magic and human sacrifice were suppressed because they were +contrary to Roman manners. The first attack was in the reign of +Augustus, who prohibited Roman citizens from taking part in the +religion of the Druids.<a id="footnotetag1068" name= +"footnotetag1068"></a><a href="#footnote1068"><sup>1068</sup></a> +Tiberius next interdicted the Druids, but this was probably aimed +at their human sacrifices, for the Druids were not suppressed, +since they existed still in the reign of Claudius, who is said to +have abolished <i>Druidarum religionem dirae immanitatis</i>.<a id= +"footnotetag1069" name="footnotetag1069"></a><a href= +"#footnote1069"><sup>1069</sup></a> The earlier legislation was +ineffective; that of Claudius was more thorough, but it, too, was +probably aimed mainly at human sacrifice and magic, since Aurelius +Victor limits it to the "notorious superstitions" of the +Druids.<a id="footnotetag1070" name="footnotetag1070"></a><a href= +"#footnote1070"><sup>1070</sup></a> It did not abolish the native +religion, as is proved by the numerous inscriptions to Celtic gods, +and by the fact that, as Mela informs us, human victims were still +offered symbolically,<a id="footnotetag1071" name= +"footnotetag1071"></a><a href="#footnote1071"><sup>1071</sup></a> +while the Druids were still active some years later. A parallel is +found in the British abolition of S[=a]ti in India, while +permitting the native religion to flourish.</p> +<p>Probably more effective was the policy begun by Augustus. +Magistrates were inaugurated and acted as judges, thus ousting the +Druids, and native deities and native ritual were assimilated to +those of Rome. Celtic religion was Romanised, and if the Druids +retained priestly functions, it could only be by their becoming +Romanised also. Perhaps the new State religion in Gaul simply +ignored them. The annual assembly of deputies at Lugudunum round +the altar of Rome and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page314" id= +"page314"></a>{314}</span> Augustus had a religious character, and +was intended to rival and to supersede the annual gathering of the +Druids.<a id="footnotetag1072" name="footnotetag1072"></a><a href= +"#footnote1072"><sup>1072</sup></a> The deputies elected a flamen +of the province who had surveillance of the cult, and there were +also flamens for each city. Thus the power of the Druids in +politics, law, and religion was quietly undermined, while Rome also +struck a blow at their position as teachers by establishing schools +throughout Gaul.<a id="footnotetag1073" name= +"footnotetag1073"></a><a href= +"#footnote1073"><sup>1073</sup></a></p> +<p>M. D'Arbois maintains that, as a result of persecution, the +Druids retired to the depths of the forests, and continued to teach +there in secret those who despised the new learning of Rome, basing +his opinion on passages of Lucan and Mela, both writing a little +after the promulgation of the laws.<a id="footnotetag1074" name= +"footnotetag1074"></a><a href="#footnote1074"><sup>1074</sup></a>. +But neither Lucan nor Mela refer to an existing state of things, +and do not intend their readers to suppose that the Druids fled to +woods and caverns. Lucan speaks of them <i>dwelling</i> in woods, +<i>i.e.</i> their sacred groves, and resuming their rites after +Cæsar's conquest not after the later edicts, and he does not +speak of the Druids teaching there.<a id="footnotetag1075" name= +"footnotetag1075"></a><a href="#footnote1075"><sup>1075</sup></a> +Mela seems to be echoing Cæsar's account of the twenty years' +novitiate, but adds to it that the teaching was given in secret, +confusing it, however, with that given to others than candidates +for the priesthood. Thus he says: "Docent multa nobilissimos gentis +clam et diu vicenis annis aut in specu aut in abditis +saltibus,"<a id="footnotetag1076" name= +"footnotetag1076"></a><a href="#footnote1076"><sup>1076</sup></a> +but there is not the slightest evidence that this secrecy was the +result of the edicts. Moreover, the attenuated sacrificial rites +which he describes were evidently practised <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page315" id="page315"></a>{315}</span> quite +openly. Probably some Druids continued their teaching in their +secret and sacred haunts, but it is unlikely that noble Gauls would +resort to them when Greco-Roman culture was now open to them in the +schools, where they are found receiving instruction in 21 +A.D.<a id="footnotetag1077" name="footnotetag1077"></a><a href= +"#footnote1077"><sup>1077</sup></a> Most of the Druids probably +succumbed to the new order of things. Some continued the old rites +in a modified manner as long as they could obtain worshippers. +Others, more fanatical, would suffer from the law when they could +not evade its grasp. Some of these revolted against Rome after +Nero's death, and it was perhaps to this class that those Druids +belonged who prophesied the world-empire of the Celts in 70 +A.D.<a id="footnotetag1078" name="footnotetag1078"></a><a href= +"#footnote1078"><sup>1078</sup></a> The fact that Druids existed at +this date shows that the proscription had not been complete. But +the complete Romanising of Gaul took away their occupation, though +even in the fourth century men still boasted of their Druidic +descent.<a id="footnotetag1079" name="footnotetag1079"></a><a href= +"#footnote1079"><sup>1079</sup></a></p> +<p>The insular Druids opposed the legions in Southern Britain, and +in Mona in 62 A.D. they made a last stand with the warriors against +the Romans, gesticulating and praying to the gods. But with the +establishment of Roman power in Britain their fate must have +resembled that of the Druids of Gaul. A recrudescence of Druidism +is found, however, in the presence of <i>magi</i> (Druids) with +Vortigern after the Roman withdrawal.<a id="footnotetag1080" name= +"footnotetag1080"></a><a href="#footnote1080"><sup>1080</sup></a> +Outside the Roman pale the Druids were still rampant and practised +their rites as before, according to Pliny.<a id="footnotetag1081" +name="footnotetag1081"></a><a href= +"#footnote1081"><sup>1081</sup></a> Much later, in the sixth +century, they opposed Christian missionaries in Scotland, just as +in Ireland they opposed S. Patrick and his monks, who combated "the +hard-hearted Druids." Finally, Christianity was victorious and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page316" id= +"page316"></a>{316}</span> powers of the Druids passed in large +measure to the Christian clergy or remained to some extent with the +<i>Filid</i>.<a id="footnotetag1082" name= +"footnotetag1082"></a><a href="#footnote1082"><sup>1082</sup></a> +In popular belief the clerics had prevailed less by the persuasive +power of the gospel, than by successfully rivalling the magic of +the Druids.</p> +<p>Classical writers speak of <i>Dryades</i> or "Druidesses" in the +third century. One of them predicted his approaching death to +Alexander Severus, another promised the empire to Diocletian, +others were consulted by Aurelian.<a id="footnotetag1083" name= +"footnotetag1083"></a><a href="#footnote1083"><sup>1083</sup></a> +Thus they were divineresses, rather than priestesses, and their +name may be the result of misconception, unless they assumed it +when Druids no longer existed as a class. In Ireland there were +divineresses—<i>ban-filid</i> or <i>ban-fáthi</i>, +probably a distinct class with prophetic powers. Kings are warned +against "pythonesses" as well as Druids, and Dr. Joyce thinks these +were Druidesses.<a id="footnotetag1084" name= +"footnotetag1084"></a><a href="#footnote1084"><sup>1084</sup></a> +S. Patrick also armed himself against "the spells of women" and of +Druids.<a id="footnotetag1085" name="footnotetag1085"></a><a href= +"#footnote1085"><sup>1085</sup></a> Women in Ireland had a +knowledge of futurity, according to Solinus, and the women who took +part with the Druids like furies at Mona, may have been +divineresses.<a id="footnotetag1086" name= +"footnotetag1086"></a><a href="#footnote1086"><sup>1086</sup></a> +In Ireland it is possible that such women were called "Druidesses," +since the word <i>ban-drui</i> is met with, the women so called +being also styled <i>ban-fili</i>, while the fact that they +belonged to the class of the <i>Filid</i> brings them into +connection with the Druids.<a id="footnotetag1087" name= +"footnotetag1087"></a><a href="#footnote1087"><sup>1087</sup></a> +But <i>ban-drui</i> may have been applied to women with priestly +functions, such as certainly existed in Ireland—<i>e.g.</i> +the virgin guardians of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page317" id= +"page317"></a>{317}</span> sacred fires, to whose functions +Christian nuns succeeded.<a id="footnotetag1088" name= +"footnotetag1088"></a><a href="#footnote1088"><sup>1088</sup></a> +We know also that the British queen Boudicca exercised priestly +functions, and such priestesses, apart from the <i>Dryades</i>, +existed among the continental Celts. Inscriptions at Arles speak of +an <i>antistita deae</i>, and at Le Prugnon of a <i>flaminica +sacerdos</i> of the goddess Thucolis.<a id="footnotetag1089" name= +"footnotetag1089"></a><a href="#footnote1089"><sup>1089</sup></a> +These were servants of a goddess like the priestess of the Celtic +Artemis in Galatia, in whose family the priesthood was +hereditary.<a id="footnotetag1090" name= +"footnotetag1090"></a><a href="#footnote1090"><sup>1090</sup></a> +The virgins called Gallizenæ, who practised divination and +magic in the isle of Sena, were priestesses of a Gaulish god, and +some of the women who were "possessed by Dionysus" and practised an +orgiastic cult on an island in the Loire, were probably of the same +kind.<a id="footnotetag1091" name="footnotetag1091"></a><a href= +"#footnote1091"><sup>1091</sup></a> They were priestesses of some +magico-religious cult practised by women, like the guardians of the +sacred fire in Ireland, which was tabu to men. M. Reinach regards +the accounts of these island priestesses as fictions based on the +story of Circe's isle, but even if they are garbled, they seem to +be based on actual observation and are paralleled from other +regions.<a id="footnotetag1092" name="footnotetag1092"></a><a href= +"#footnote1092"><sup>1092</sup></a></p> +<p>The existence of such priestesses and divineresses over the +Celtic area is to be explained by our hypothesis that many Celtic +divinities were at first female and served by women, who were +possessed of the tribal lore. Later, men assumed their functions, +and hence arose the great priesthoods, but conservatism +sporadically retained such female cults and priestesses, some +goddesses being still served by women—the Galatian Artemis, +or the goddesses of Gaul, with their female <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page318" id="page318"></a>{318}</span> servants. +Time also brought its revenges, for when paganism passed away, much +of its folk-ritual and magic remained, practised by wise women or +witches, who for generations had as much power over ignorant minds +as the Christian priesthood. The fact that Cæsar and Tacitus +speak of Germanic but not of Celtic priestesses, can hardly, in +face of these scattered notices, be taken as a proof that women had +no priestly <i>rôle</i> in Celtic religion. If they had not, +that religion would be unique in the world's history.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1002" name= +"footnote1002"></a><b>Footnote 1002:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1002">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, <i>HN</i> xvi. 249.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1003" name= +"footnote1003"></a><b>Footnote 1003:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1003">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>Les Druides</i>, 85, following Thurneysen.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1004" name= +"footnote1004"></a><b>Footnote 1004:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1004">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>op. cit.</i> 12 f.; Deloche, <i>Revue des Deux +Mondes</i>, xxxiv. 466; Desjardins, <i>Geog. de la Gaule +Romaine</i>, ii. 518.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1005" name= +"footnote1005"></a><b>Footnote 1005:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1005">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 13.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1006" name= +"footnote1006"></a><b>Footnote 1006:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1006">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, <i>HN</i> xxx. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1007" name= +"footnote1007"></a><b>Footnote 1007:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1007">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>CB</i><sup>4</sup> 69 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1008" name= +"footnote1008"></a><b>Footnote 1008:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1008">(return)</a> +<p>Gomme, <i>Ethnol. in Folk-lore</i>, 58, <i>Village +Community</i>, 104.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1009" name= +"footnote1009"></a><b>Footnote 1009:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1009">(return)</a> +<p>Sergi, <i>The Mediterranean Race</i>, 295.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1010" name= +"footnote1010"></a><b>Footnote 1010:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1010">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, "L'Art plastique en Gaule et le Druidisme," <i>RC</i> +xiii. 189.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1011" name= +"footnote1011"></a><b>Footnote 1011:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1011">(return)</a> +<p>Holmes, <i>Cæsar's Conquest of Gaul</i>, 15; Dottin, +270.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1012" name= +"footnote1012"></a><b>Footnote 1012:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1012">(return)</a> +<p>Diog. Laert. i. 1; Livy xxiii. 24.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1013" name= +"footnote1013"></a><b>Footnote 1013:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1013">(return)</a> +<p>Desjardins, <i>op. cit.</i> ii. 519; but cf. Holmes, 535.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1014" name= +"footnote1014"></a><b>Footnote 1014:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1014">(return)</a> +<p><i>Gutuatros</i> is perhaps from <i>gutu</i>-, "voice" (Holder, +i. 2046; but see Loth, <i>RC</i> xxviii. 120). The existence of the +<i>gutuatri</i> is known from a few inscriptions (see Holder), and +from Hirtius, <i>de Bell. Gall.</i> viii. 38, who mentions a +<i>gutuatros</i> put to death by Cæsar.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1015" name= +"footnote1015"></a><b>Footnote 1015:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1015">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>Les Druides</i>, 2 f., <i>Les Celtes</i>, 32.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1016" name= +"footnote1016"></a><b>Footnote 1016:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1016">(return)</a> +<p>Ausonius, <i>Professor.</i> v. 7, xi. 24.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1017" name= +"footnote1017"></a><b>Footnote 1017:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1017">(return)</a> +<p>Lucan, iii. 424; Livy, xxiii. 24.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1018" name= +"footnote1018"></a><b>Footnote 1018:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1018">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 31; Strabo, iv. 4. 4; Timagenes <i>apud</i> Amm. +Marc. xv. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1019" name= +"footnote1019"></a><b>Footnote 1019:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1019">(return)</a> +<p>Cicero, <i>de Div.</i> i. 41. 90; Tac. <i>Hist.</i> iv. 54.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1020" name= +"footnote1020"></a><b>Footnote 1020:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1020">(return)</a> +<p><i>Phars.</i> i. 449 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1021" name= +"footnote1021"></a><b>Footnote 1021:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1021">(return)</a> +<p><i>HN</i> xxx. i.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1022" name= +"footnote1022"></a><b>Footnote 1022:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1022">(return)</a> +<p><i>Filid</i>, sing. <i>File</i>, is from <i>velo</i>, "I see" +(Stokes, <i>US</i> 277).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1023" name= +"footnote1023"></a><b>Footnote 1023:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1023">(return)</a> +<p><i>Fáthi</i> is cognate with <i>Vates</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1024" name= +"footnote1024"></a><b>Footnote 1024:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1024">(return)</a> +<p>In Wales there had been Druids as there were Bards, but all +trace of the second class is lost. Long after the Druids had passed +away, the fiction of the <i>derwydd-vardd</i> or Druid-bard was +created, and the later bards were held to be depositories of a +supposititious Druidic theosophy, while they practised the old +rites in secret. The late word <i>derwydd</i> was probably invented +from <i>derw</i>, "oak," by some one who knew Pliny's derivation. +See D'Arbois, <i>Les Druides</i>, 81.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1025" name= +"footnote1025"></a><b>Footnote 1025:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1025">(return)</a> +<p>For these views see Dottin, 295; Holmes, 17; Bertrand, 192-193, +268-269.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1026" name= +"footnote1026"></a><b>Footnote 1026:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1026">(return)</a> +<p>Diog. Laert. i. proem. 1. For other references see Cæsar, +vi. 13, 14; Strabo, iv. 4. 4; Amm. Marc. xv. 9; Diod. Sic, v. 28; +Lucan, i. 460; Mela, iii. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1027" name= +"footnote1027"></a><b>Footnote 1027:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1027">(return)</a> +<p>Suet. <i>Claud.</i> 25; Mela, iii. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1028" name= +"footnote1028"></a><b>Footnote 1028:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1028">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xxx. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1029" name= +"footnote1029"></a><b>Footnote 1029:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1029">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, <i>Les Druides</i>, 77.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1030" name= +"footnote1030"></a><b>Footnote 1030:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1030">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 31. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1031" name= +"footnote1031"></a><b>Footnote 1031:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1031">(return)</a> +<p>See Cicero, <i>de Div.</i> i. 41.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1032" name= +"footnote1032"></a><b>Footnote 1032:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1032">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 28; Amm. Marc. xv. 9; Hippolytus, <i>Refut. +Hær.</i> i. 22.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1033" name= +"footnote1033"></a><b>Footnote 1033:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1033">(return)</a> +<p>Amm. Marc. xv. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1034" name= +"footnote1034"></a><b>Footnote 1034:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1034">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1035" name= +"footnote1035"></a><b>Footnote 1035:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1035">(return)</a> +<p>Diog. Laert. 6. Celtic enthusiasts see in this triple maxim +something akin to the Welsh triads, which they claim to be +Druidic!</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1036" name= +"footnote1036"></a><b>Footnote 1036:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1036">(return)</a> +<p>Bertrand, 280.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1037" name= +"footnote1037"></a><b>Footnote 1037:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1037">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 13.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1038" name= +"footnote1038"></a><b>Footnote 1038:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1038">(return)</a> +<p><i>Trip. Life</i>, ii. 325, i. 52, ii. 402; <i>IT</i> i. 373; +<i>RC</i> xxvi. 33. The title <i>rig-file</i>, "king poet," +sometimes occurs.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1039" name= +"footnote1039"></a><b>Footnote 1039:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1039">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1040" name= +"footnote1040"></a><b>Footnote 1040:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1040">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 13; Strabo, iv. 4. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1041" name= +"footnote1041"></a><b>Footnote 1041:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1041">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, xii. 5. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1042" name= +"footnote1042"></a><b>Footnote 1042:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1042">(return)</a> +<p>Their judicial powers were taken from them because their speech +had become obscure. Perhaps they gave their judgments in archaic +language.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1043" name= +"footnote1043"></a><b>Footnote 1043:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1043">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 31. 5.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1044" name= +"footnote1044"></a><b>Footnote 1044:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1044">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vii. 33.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1045" name= +"footnote1045"></a><b>Footnote 1045:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1045">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 213; D'Arbois, v. 186.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1046" name= +"footnote1046"></a><b>Footnote 1046:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1046">(return)</a> +<p>Dio, <i>Orat.</i> xlix.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1047" name= +"footnote1047"></a><b>Footnote 1047:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1047">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 93.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1048" name= +"footnote1048"></a><b>Footnote 1048:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1048">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ancient Laws of Ireland</i>, i. 22.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1049" name= +"footnote1049"></a><b>Footnote 1049:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1049">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 13, 14; Windisch, <i>Táin</i>, line 1070 +f.; <i>IT</i> i. 325; <i>Arch. Rev.</i> i. 74; <i>Trip. Life</i>, +99; cf. O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 201.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1050" name= +"footnote1050"></a><b>Footnote 1050:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1050">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 14; Strabo, iv. 4. 4.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1051" name= +"footnote1051"></a><b>Footnote 1051:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1051">(return)</a> +<p><i>Trip. Life</i>, 284.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1052" name= +"footnote1052"></a><b>Footnote 1052:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1052">(return)</a> +<p>Lucan, i. 451.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1053" name= +"footnote1053"></a><b>Footnote 1053:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1053">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. v. 31. 4; cf. Cæsar, vi. 13, 16; Strabo, iv. 4. +5.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1054" name= +"footnote1054"></a><b>Footnote 1054:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1054">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page248">248</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1055" name= +"footnote1055"></a><b>Footnote 1055:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1055">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xiv. 29; Miss Hull, 4, 23, 141; <i>IT</i> iii. 392, +423; Stokes, <i>Félire</i>, Intro. 23.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1056" name= +"footnote1056"></a><b>Footnote 1056:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1056">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 56.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1057" name= +"footnote1057"></a><b>Footnote 1057:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1057">(return)</a> +<p>See my art. "Baptism (Ethnic)" in Hastings' +<i>Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics</i>, ii. 367 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1058" name= +"footnote1058"></a><b>Footnote 1058:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1058">(return)</a> +<p>Carmichael, <i>Carm. Gadel.</i> i. 115.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1059" name= +"footnote1059"></a><b>Footnote 1059:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1059">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page206">206</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1060" name= +"footnote1060"></a><b>Footnote 1060:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1060">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 215.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1061" name= +"footnote1061"></a><b>Footnote 1061:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1061">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 221, 641.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1062" name= +"footnote1062"></a><b>Footnote 1062:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1062">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xvi. 34.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1063" name= +"footnote1063"></a><b>Footnote 1063:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1063">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, <i>HN</i> xvi. 45; <i>Trip. Life</i>, ii. 325; Strabo, +iv. 275.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1064" name= +"footnote1064"></a><b>Footnote 1064:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1064">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxii. 285; O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 215.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1065" name= +"footnote1065"></a><b>Footnote 1065:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1065">(return)</a> +<p>Reeves' ed. of Adamnan's <i>Life of S. Col.</i> 237; Todd, <i>S. +Patrick</i>, 455; Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. 234. For the relation of the +Druidic tonsure to the peculiar tonsure of the Celtic Church, see +Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 213, <i>CB</i><sup>4</sup> 72; Gougaud, <i>Les +Chrétientés Celtiques</i>, 198.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1066" name= +"footnote1066"></a><b>Footnote 1066:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1066">(return)</a> +<p>See Hyde, <i>Lit. Hist. of Ireland</i>, 88; Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. +239.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1067" name= +"footnote1067"></a><b>Footnote 1067:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1067">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 14, ii. 10.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1068" name= +"footnote1068"></a><b>Footnote 1068:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1068">(return)</a> +<p>Suetonius, <i>Claud.</i> 25.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1069" name= +"footnote1069"></a><b>Footnote 1069:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1069">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny <i>HN</i> xxx. 1; Suet. <i>Claud.</i> 25.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1070" name= +"footnote1070"></a><b>Footnote 1070:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1070">(return)</a> +<p><i>de Cæsaribus</i>, 4, "famosæ superstitiones"; cf. +p. <a href="#page328">328</a>, <i>infra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1071" name= +"footnote1071"></a><b>Footnote 1071:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1071">(return)</a> +<p>Mela, iii. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1072" name= +"footnote1072"></a><b>Footnote 1072:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1072">(return)</a> +<p>Mommsen, <i>Rom. Gesch.</i> v. 94.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1073" name= +"footnote1073"></a><b>Footnote 1073:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1073">(return)</a> +<p>Bloch (Lavisse), <i>Hist. de France</i>, i. 2, 176 f., 391 f.; +Duruy, "Comment périt l'institution Druidique," <i>Rev. +Arch.</i> xv. 347; de Coulanges, "Comment le Druidisme a disparu," +<i>RC</i> iv. 44.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1074" name= +"footnote1074"></a><b>Footnote 1074:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1074">(return)</a> +<p><i>Les Druides</i>, 73.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1075" name= +"footnote1075"></a><b>Footnote 1075:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1075">(return)</a> +<p><i>Phars.</i> i. 453, "Ye Druids, after arms were laid aside, +sought once again your barbarous ceremonials.... In remote forests +do ye inhabit the deep glades."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1076" name= +"footnote1076"></a><b>Footnote 1076:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1076">(return)</a> +<p>Mela, iii. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1077" name= +"footnote1077"></a><b>Footnote 1077:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1077">(return)</a> +<p>Tacit. iii. 43.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1078" name= +"footnote1078"></a><b>Footnote 1078:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1078">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> iv. 54.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1079" name= +"footnote1079"></a><b>Footnote 1079:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1079">(return)</a> +<p>Ausonius, <i>Prof.</i> v. 12, xi. 17.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1080" name= +"footnote1080"></a><b>Footnote 1080:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1080">(return)</a> +<p>Nennius, 40. In the Irish version they are called "Druids." See +p. <a href="#page238">238</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1081" name= +"footnote1081"></a><b>Footnote 1081:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1081">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xxx. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1082" name= +"footnote1082"></a><b>Footnote 1082:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1082">(return)</a> +<p>Adamnan, <i>Vita S. Col.</i>, i. 37. ii. 35, etc.; Reeves' +<i>Adamnan</i>, 247 f.; Stokes, <i>Three Homilies</i>, 24 f.; +<i>Antient Laws of Ireland</i>, i. 15; <i>RC</i> xvii. 142 f.; +<i>IT</i> i. 23.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1083" name= +"footnote1083"></a><b>Footnote 1083:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1083">(return)</a> +<p>Lampridius, <i>Alex. Sev.</i> 60; Vopiscus, <i>Numerienus</i>, +14, <i>Aurelianus</i>, 44.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1084" name= +"footnote1084"></a><b>Footnote 1084:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1084">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, <i>Táin</i>, 31, 221; cf. Meyer, +<i>Contributions to Irish Lexicog.</i> 176 Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. +238.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1085" name= +"footnote1085"></a><b>Footnote 1085:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1085">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 56.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1086" name= +"footnote1086"></a><b>Footnote 1086:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1086">(return)</a> +<p>Solinus, 35; Tac. <i>Ann.</i> xiv. 30.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1087" name= +"footnote1087"></a><b>Footnote 1087:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1087">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xv. 326, xvi. 34, 277; Windisch, <i>Táin</i>, +331. In <i>LL</i> 75<i>b</i> we hear of "three Druids and three +Druidesses."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1088" name= +"footnote1088"></a><b>Footnote 1088:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1088">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page69">69</a>, <i>supra</i>; Keating, 331.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1089" name= +"footnote1089"></a><b>Footnote 1089:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1089">(return)</a> +<p>Jullian, 100; Holder, <i>s.v.</i> "Thucolis."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1090" name= +"footnote1090"></a><b>Footnote 1090:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1090">(return)</a> +<p>Plutarch, <i>Vir. mul.</i> 20.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1091" name= +"footnote1091"></a><b>Footnote 1091:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1091">(return)</a> +<p>Mela, iii. 6; Strabo, iv. 4. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1092" name= +"footnote1092"></a><b>Footnote 1092:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1092">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>RC</i> xviii. 1 f. The fact that the rites were +called Dionysiac is no reason for denying the fact that some +orgiastic rites were practised. Classical writers usually reported +all barbaric rites in terms of their own religion. M. D'Arbois (vi. +325) points out that Circe was not a virgin, and had not eight +companions.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page319" id= +"page319"></a>{319}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap21" id="chap21">CHAPTER XXI.</a></h2> +<h3>MAGIC.</h3> +<p>The Celts, like all other races, were devoted to magical +practices, many of which could be used by any one, though, on the +whole, they were in the hands of the Druids, who in many aspects +were little higher than the shamans of barbaric tribes. But similar +magical rites were also attributed to the gods, and it is probably +for this reason that the Tuatha Dé Danann and many of the +divinities who appear in the <i>Mabinogion</i> are described as +magicians. Kings are also spoken of as wizards, perhaps a +reminiscence of the powers of the priest king. But since many of +the primitive cults had been in the hands of women, and as these +cults implied a large use of magic, they may have been the earliest +wielders of magic, though, with increasing civilisation, men took +their place as magicians. Still side by side with the +magic-wielding Druids, there were classes of women who also dealt +in magic, as we have seen. Their powers were feared, even by S. +Patrick, who classes the "spells of women" along with those of +Druids, and, in a mythic tale, by the father of Connla, who, when +the youth was fascinated by a goddess, feared that he would be +taken by the "spells of women" (<i>brichta ban</i>).<a id= +"footnotetag1093" name="footnotetag1093"></a><a href= +"#footnote1093"><sup>1093</sup></a> In other tales women perform +all such magical actions as are elsewhere ascribed to Druids.<a id= +"footnotetag1094" name="footnotetag1094"></a><a href= +"#footnote1094"><sup>1094</sup></a> And after the Druids had passed +away precisely <span class="pagenum"><a name="page320" id= +"page320"></a>{320}</span> similar actions—power over the +weather, the use of incantations and amulets, shape-shifting and +invisibility, etc.—were, and still are in remote Celtic +regions, ascribed to witches. Much of the Druidic art, however, was +also supposed to be possessed by saints and clerics, both in the +past and in recent times. But women remained as magicians when the +Druids had disappeared, partly because of female conservatism, +partly because, even in pagan times, they had worked more or less +secretly. At last the Church proscribed them and persecuted +them.</p> +<p>Each clan, tribe, or kingdom had its Druids, who, in time of +war, assisted their hosts by magic art. This is reflected back upon +the groups of the mythological cycle, each of which has its Druids +who play no small part in the battles fought. Though Pliny +recognises the priestly functions of the Druids, he associates them +largely with magic, and applies the name <i>magus</i> to +them.<a id="footnotetag1095" name="footnotetag1095"></a><a href= +"#footnote1095"><sup>1095</sup></a> In Irish ecclesiastical +literature, <i>drui</i> is used as the translation of <i>magus</i>, +<i>e.g.</i> in the case of the Egyptian magicians, while +<i>magi</i> is used in Latin lives of saints as the equivalent of +the vernacular <i>druides</i>.<a id="footnotetag1096" name= +"footnotetag1096"></a><a href="#footnote1096"><sup>1096</sup></a> +In the sagas and in popular tales <i>Druidecht</i>, "Druidism," +stands for "magic," and <i>slat an draoichta</i>, "rod of +Druidism," is a magic wand.<a id="footnotetag1097" name= +"footnotetag1097"></a><a href="#footnote1097"><sup>1097</sup></a> +The Tuatha Dé Danann were said to have learned "Druidism" +from the four great master Druids of the region whence they had +come to Ireland, and even now, in popular tales, they are often +called "Druids" or "Danann Druids."<a id="footnotetag1098" name= +"footnotetag1098"></a><a href="#footnote1098"><sup>1098</sup></a> +Thus in Ireland at least there is clear evidence of the great +magical power claimed by Druids.</p> +<p>That power was exercised to a great extent over the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page321" id="page321"></a>{321}</span> elements, +some of which Druids claimed to have created. Thus the Druid +Cathbad covered the plain over which Deirdre was escaping with "a +great-waved sea."<a id="footnotetag1099" name= +"footnotetag1099"></a><a href="#footnote1099"><sup>1099</sup></a> +Druids also produced blinding snow-storms, or changed day into +night—feats ascribed to them even in the Lives of +Saints.<a id="footnotetag1100" name="footnotetag1100"></a><a href= +"#footnote1100"><sup>1100</sup></a> Or they discharge +"shower-clouds of fire" on the opposing hosts, as in the case of +the Druid Mag Ruith, who made a magic fire, and flying upwards +towards it, turned it upon the enemy, whose Druid in vain tried to +divert it.<a id="footnotetag1101" name= +"footnotetag1101"></a><a href="#footnote1101"><sup>1101</sup></a> +When the Druids of Cormac dried up all the waters in the land, +another Druid shot an arrow, and where it fell there issued a +torrent of water.<a id="footnotetag1102" name= +"footnotetag1102"></a><a href="#footnote1102"><sup>1102</sup></a> +The Druid Mathgen boasted of being able to throw mountains on the +enemy, and frequently Druids made trees or stones appear as armed +men, dismaying the opposing host in this way. They could also fill +the air with the clash of battle, or with the dread cries of +eldritch things.<a id="footnotetag1103" name= +"footnotetag1103"></a><a href="#footnote1103"><sup>1103</sup></a> +Similar powers are ascribed to other persons. The daughters of +Calatin raised themselves aloft on an enchanted wind, and +discovered Cúchulainn when he was hidden away by Cathbad. +Later they produced a magic mist to discomfit the hero.<a id= +"footnotetag1104" name="footnotetag1104"></a><a href= +"#footnote1104"><sup>1104</sup></a> Such mists occur frequently in +the sagas, and in one of them the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived +in Ireland. The priestesses of Sena could rouse sea and wind by +their enchantments, and, later, Celtic witches have claimed the +same power.</p> +<p>In folk-survivals the practice of rain-making is connected with +sacred springs, and even now in rural France processions to +shrines, usually connected with a holy well, are common in time of +drought. Thus people and priest go to the fountain of Baranton in +procession, singing hymns, and there pray for <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page322" id="page322"></a>{322}</span> rain. The +priest then dips his foot in the water, or throws some of it on the +rocks.<a id="footnotetag1105" name="footnotetag1105"></a><a href= +"#footnote1105"><sup>1105</sup></a> In other cases the image of a +saint is carried to a well and asperged, as divine images formerly +were, or the waters are beaten or thrown into the air.<a id= +"footnotetag1106" name="footnotetag1106"></a><a href= +"#footnote1106"><sup>1106</sup></a> Another custom was that a +virgin should clean out a sacred well, and formerly she had to be +nude.<a id="footnotetag1107" name="footnotetag1107"></a><a href= +"#footnote1107"><sup>1107</sup></a> Nudity also forms part of an +old ritual used in Gaul. In time of drought the girls of the +village followed the youngest virgin in a state of nudity to seek +the herb <i>belinuntia</i>. This she uprooted, and was then led to +a river and there asperged by the others. In this case the +asperging imitated the falling rain, and was meant to produce it +automatically. While some of these rites suggest the use of magic +by the folk themselves, in others the presence of the Christian +priest points to the fact that, formerly, a Druid was necessary as +the rain producer. In some cases the priest has inherited through +long ages the rain-making or tempest-quelling powers of the pagan +priesthood, and is often besought to exercise them.<a id= +"footnotetag1108" name="footnotetag1108"></a><a href= +"#footnote1108"><sup>1108</sup></a></p> +<p>Causing invisibility by means of a spell called <i>feth +fiada</i>, which made a person unseen or hid him in a magic mist, +was also used by the Druids as well as by Christian saints. S. +Patrick's hymn, called <i>Fâed Fiada</i>, was sung by him +when his enemies lay in wait, and caused a glamour in them. The +incantation itself, <i>fith-fath</i>, is still remembered in +Highland glens.<a id="footnotetag1109" name= +"footnotetag1109"></a><a href="#footnote1109"><sup>1109</sup></a> +In the case of S. Patrick he and his followers appeared as deer, +and this power of shape-shifting was wielded both by Druids and +women. The Druid Fer Fidail carried off a maiden by taking the form +of a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page323" id= +"page323"></a>{323}</span> woman, and another Druid deceived +Cúchulainn by taking the form of the fair Niamh.<a id= +"footnotetag1110" name="footnotetag1110"></a><a href= +"#footnote1110"><sup>1110</sup></a> Other Druids are said to have +been able to take any shape that pleased them.<a id= +"footnotetag1111" name="footnotetag1111"></a><a href= +"#footnote1111"><sup>1111</sup></a> These powers were reflected +back upon the gods and mythical personages like Taliesin or +Amairgen, who appear in many forms. The priestesses of Sena could +assume the form of animals, and an Irish Circe in the <i>Rennes +Dindsenchas</i> called Dalb the Rough changed three men and their +wives into swine by her spells.<a id="footnotetag1112" name= +"footnotetag1112"></a><a href="#footnote1112"><sup>1112</sup></a> +This power of transforming others is often described in the sagas. +The children of Lir were changed to swans by their cruel +stepmother; Saar, the mother of Oisin, became a fawn through the +power of the Druid Fear Doirche when she rejected his love; and +similarly Tuirrenn, mother of Oisin's hounds, was transformed into +a stag-hound by the fairy mistress of her husband Iollann.<a id= +"footnotetag1113" name="footnotetag1113"></a><a href= +"#footnote1113"><sup>1113</sup></a> In other instances in the +sagas, women appear as birds.<a id="footnotetag1114" name= +"footnotetag1114"></a><a href="#footnote1114"><sup>1114</sup></a> +These transformation tales may be connected with totemism, for when +this institution is decaying the current belief in shape-shifting +is often made use of to explain descent from animals or the tabu +against eating certain animals. In some of these Irish +shape-shifting tales we find this tabu referred to. Thus, when the +children of Lir were turned into swans, it was proclaimed that no +one should kill a swan. The reason of an existing tabu seemed to be +sufficiently explained when it was told that certain human beings +had become swans. It is not impossible that the Druids made use of +hypnotic suggestion to persuade others that they had assumed +another form, as Red Indian shamans have been known to do, or even +hallucinated others into the belief that their own form had been +changed.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page324" id= +"page324"></a>{324}</span> +<p>By a "drink of oblivion" Druids and other persons could make one +forget even the most dearly beloved. Thus Cúchulainn was +made to forget Fand, and his wife Emer to forget her +jealousy.<a id="footnotetag1115" name= +"footnotetag1115"></a><a href="#footnote1115"><sup>1115</sup></a> +This is a reminiscence of potent drinks brewed from herbs which +caused hallucinations, <i>e.g.</i> that of the change of shape. In +other cases they were of a narcotic nature and caused a deep sleep, +an instance being the draught given by Grainne to Fionn and his +men.<a id="footnotetag1116" name="footnotetag1116"></a><a href= +"#footnote1116"><sup>1116</sup></a> Again, the "Druidic sleep" is +suggestive of hypnotism, practised in distant ages and also by +present-day savages. When Bodb suspected his daughter of lying he +cast her into a "Druidic sleep," in which she revealed her +wickedness.<a id="footnotetag1117" name= +"footnotetag1117"></a><a href="#footnote1117"><sup>1117</sup></a> +In other cases spells are cast upon persons so that they are +hallucinated, or are rendered motionless, or, "by the sleight of +hand of soothsayers," maidens lose their chastity without knowing +it.<a id="footnotetag1118" name="footnotetag1118"></a><a href= +"#footnote1118"><sup>1118</sup></a> These point to knowledge of +hypnotic methods of suggestion. Or, again, a spectral army is +opposed to an enemy's force to whom it is an hallucinatory +appearance—perhaps an exaggeration of natural hypnotic +powers.<a id="footnotetag1119" name="footnotetag1119"></a><a href= +"#footnote1119"><sup>1119</sup></a></p> +<p>Druids also made a "hedge," the <i>airbe druad</i>, round an +army, perhaps circumambulating it and saying spells so that the +attacking force might not break through. If any one could leap this +"hedge," the spell was broken, but he lost his life. This was done +at the battle of Cul Dremne, at which S. Columba was present and +aided the heroic leaper with his prayers.<a id="footnotetag1120" +name="footnotetag1120"></a><a href= +"#footnote1120"><sup>1120</sup></a></p> +<p>A primitive piece of sympathetic magic used still by savages is +recorded in the <i>Rennes Dindsenchas</i>. In this story one man +says spells over his spear and hurls it into his <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page325" id="page325"></a>{325}</span> +opponent's shadow, so that he falls dead.<a id="footnotetag1121" +name="footnotetag1121"></a><a href= +"#footnote1121"><sup>1121</sup></a> Equally primitive is the +Druidic "sending" a wisp of straw over which the Druid sang spells +and flung it into his victim's face, so that he became mad. A +similar method is used by the Eskimo <i>angekok</i>. All madness +was generally ascribed to such a "sending."</p> +<p>Several of these instances have shown the use of spells, and the +Druid was believed to possess powerful incantations to discomfit an +enemy or to produce other magical results. A special posture was +adopted—standing on one leg, with one arm outstretched and +one eye closed, perhaps to concentrate the force of the +spell,<a id="footnotetag1122" name="footnotetag1122"></a><a href= +"#footnote1122"><sup>1122</sup></a> but the power lay mainly in the +spoken words, as we have seen in discussing Celtic formulæ of +prayer. Such spells were also used by the <i>Filid</i>, or poets, +since most primitive poetry has a magical aspect. Part of the +training of the bard consisted in learning traditional +incantations, which, used with due ritual, produced the magic +result.<a id="footnotetag1123" name="footnotetag1123"></a><a href= +"#footnote1123"><sup>1123</sup></a> Some of these incantations have +already come before our notice, and probably some of the verses +which Cæsar says the Druids would not commit to writing were +of the nature of spells.<a id="footnotetag1124" name= +"footnotetag1124"></a><a href="#footnote1124"><sup>1124</sup></a> +The virtue of the spell lay in the spoken formula, usually +introducing the name of a god or spirit, later a saint, in order to +procure his intervention, through the power inherent in the name. +Other charms recount an effect already produced, and this, through +mimetic magic, is supposed to cause its repetition. The earliest +written documents bearing upon the paganism of the insular Celts +contain an appeal to "the science of Goibniu" to preserve butter, +and another, for magical healing, runs, "I admire the healing which +Diancecht left in his family, in order to bring health to those he +succoured." These are found in an eighth or ninth century MS., and, +with their appeal to pagan <span class="pagenum"><a name="page326" +id="page326"></a>{326}</span> gods, were evidently used in +Christian times.<a id="footnotetag1125" name= +"footnotetag1125"></a><a href="#footnote1125"><sup>1125</sup></a> +Most Druidic magic was accompanied by a spell—transformation, +invisibility, power over the elements, and the discovery of hidden +persons or things. In other cases spells were used in medicine or +for healing wounds. Thus the Tuatha Dé Danann told the +Fomorians that they need not oppose them, because their Druids +would restore the slain to life, and when Cúchulainn was +wounded we hear less of medicines than of incantations used to +stanch his blood.<a id="footnotetag1126" name= +"footnotetag1126"></a><a href="#footnote1126"><sup>1126</sup></a> +In other cases the Druid could remove barrenness by spells.</p> +<p>The survival of the belief in spells among modern Celtic peoples +is a convincing proof of their use in pagan times, and throws light +upon their nature. In Brittany they are handed down in certain +families, and are carefully guarded from the knowledge of others. +The names of saints instead of the old gods are found in them, but +in some cases diseases are addressed as personal beings. In the +Highlands similar charms are found, and are often handed down from +male to female, and from female to male. They are also in common +use in Ireland. Besides healing diseases, such charms are supposed +to cause fertility or bring good luck, or even to transfer the +property of others to the reciter, or, in the case of darker magic, +to cause death or disease.<a id="footnotetag1127" name= +"footnotetag1127"></a><a href="#footnote1127"><sup>1127</sup></a> +In Ireland, sorcerers could "rime either a man or beast to death," +and this recalls the power of satire in the mouth of <i>File</i> or +Druid. It raised blotches on the face of the victim, or even caused +his death.<a id="footnotetag1128" name= +"footnotetag1128"></a><a href="#footnote1128"><sup>1128</sup></a> +Among primitive races powerful internal emotion affects the body in +curious ways, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page327" id= +"page327"></a>{327}</span> and in this traditional power of the +satire or "rime" we have probably an exaggerated reference to +actual fact. In other cases the "curse of satire" affected nature, +causing seas and rivers to sink back.<a id="footnotetag1129" name= +"footnotetag1129"></a><a href="#footnote1129"><sup>1129</sup></a> +The satires made by the bards of Gaul, referred to by Diodorus, may +have been believed to possess similar powers.<a id= +"footnotetag1130" name="footnotetag1130"></a><a href= +"#footnote1130"><sup>1130</sup></a> Contrariwise, the <i>Filid</i>, +on uttering an unjust judgment, found their faces covered with +blotches.<a id="footnotetag1131" name= +"footnotetag1131"></a><a href="#footnote1131"><sup>1131</sup></a></p> +<p>A magical sleep is often caused by music in the sagas, +<i>e.g.</i> by the harp of Dagda, or by the branch carried by +visitants from Elysium.<a id="footnotetag1132" name= +"footnotetag1132"></a><a href="#footnote1132"><sup>1132</sup></a> +Many "fairy" lullabies for producing sleep are even now extant in +Ireland and the Highlands.<a id="footnotetag1133" name= +"footnotetag1133"></a><a href="#footnote1133"><sup>1133</sup></a> +As music forms a part of all primitive religion, its soothing +powers would easily be magnified. In orgiastic rites it caused +varying emotions until the singer and dancer fell into a deep +slumber, and the tales of those who joined in a fairy dance and +fell asleep, awaking to find that many years had passed, are mythic +extensions of the power of music in such orgiastic cults. The music +of the <i>Filid</i> had similar powers to that of Dagda's harp, +producing laughter, tears, and a delicious slumber,<a id= +"footnotetag1134" name="footnotetag1134"></a><a href= +"#footnote1134"><sup>1134</sup></a> and Celtic folk-tales abound in +similar instances of the magic charm of music.</p> +<p>We now turn to the use of amulets among the Celts. Some of these +were symbolic and intended to bring the wearer under the protection +of the god whom they symbolised. As has been seen, a Celtic god had +as his symbol a wheel, probably representing the sun, and numerous +small wheel discs made of different materials have been found in +Gaul and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page328" id= +"page328"></a>{328}</span> Britain.<a id="footnotetag1135" name= +"footnotetag1135"></a><a href="#footnote1135"><sup>1135</sup></a> +These were evidently worn as amulets, while in other cases they +were offered to river divinities, since many are met with in river +beds or fords. Their use as protective amulets is shown by a stele +representing a person wearing a necklace to which is attached one +of these wheels. In Irish texts a Druid is called Mag Ruith, +explained as <i>magus rotarum</i>, because he made his Druidical +observations by wheels.<a id="footnotetag1136" name= +"footnotetag1136"></a><a href="#footnote1136"><sup>1136</sup></a> +This may point to the use of such amulets in Ireland. A curious +amulet, connected with the Druids, became famous in Roman times and +is described by Pliny. This was the "serpents' egg," formed from +the foam produced by serpents twining themselves together. The +serpents threw the "egg" into the air, and he who sought it had to +catch it in his cloak before it fell, and flee to a running stream, +beyond which the serpents, like the witches pursuing Tam o' +Shanter, could not follow him. This "egg" was believed to cause its +owner to obtain access to kings or to gain lawsuits, and a Roman +citizen was put to death in the reign of Claudius for bringing such +an amulet into court. Pliny had seen this "egg." It was about the +size of an apple, with a cartilaginous skin covered with +discs.<a id="footnotetag1137" name="footnotetag1137"></a><a href= +"#footnote1137"><sup>1137</sup></a> Probably it was a fossil +echinus, such as has been found in Gaulish tombs.<a id= +"footnotetag1138" name="footnotetag1138"></a><a href= +"#footnote1138"><sup>1138</sup></a> Such "eggs" were doubtless +connected with the cult of the serpent, or some old myth of an egg +produced by serpents may have been made use of to account for their +formation. This is the more likely, as rings or beads of glass +found in tumuli in Wales, Cornwall, and the Highlands are called +"serpents' glass" (<i>glain naidr</i>), and are believed to be +formed in the same way as the "egg." These, as well as old +spindle-whorls called "adder stones" in <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page329" id="page329"></a>{329}</span> the +Highlands, are held to have magical virtues, <i>e.g.</i> against +the bite of a serpent, and are highly prized by their owners.<a id= +"footnotetag1139" name="footnotetag1139"></a><a href= +"#footnote1139"><sup>1139</sup></a></p> +<p>Pliny speaks also of the Celtic belief in the magical virtues of +coral, either worn as an amulet or taken in powder as a medicine, +while it has been proved that the Celts during a limited period of +their history placed it on weapons and utensils, doubtless as an +amulet.<a id="footnotetag1140" name="footnotetag1140"></a><a href= +"#footnote1140"><sup>1140</sup></a> Other amulets—white +marble balls, quartz pebbles, models of the tooth of the boar, or +pieces of amber, have been found buried with the dead.<a id= +"footnotetag1141" name="footnotetag1141"></a><a href= +"#footnote1141"><sup>1141</sup></a> Little figures of the boar, the +horse, and the bull, with a ring for suspending them to a necklet, +were worn as amulets or images of these divine animals, and phallic +amulets were also worn, perhaps as a protection against the evil +eye.<a id="footnotetag1142" name="footnotetag1142"></a><a href= +"#footnote1142"><sup>1142</sup></a></p> +<p>A cult of stones was probably connected with the belief in the +magical power of certain stones, like the <i>Lia Fail</i>, which +shrieked aloud when Conn knocked against it. His Druids explained +that the number of the shrieks equalled the number of his +descendants who should be kings of Erin.<a id="footnotetag1143" +name="footnotetag1143"></a><a href= +"#footnote1143"><sup>1143</sup></a> This is an ætiological +myth accounting for the use of this fetich-stone at coronations. +Other stones, probably the object of a cult or possessing magical +virtues, were used at the installation of chiefs, who stood on them +and vowed to follow in the steps of their predecessors, a pair of +feet being carved on the stone to represent those of the first +chief.<a id="footnotetag1144" name="footnotetag1144"></a><a href= +"#footnote1144"><sup>1144</sup></a> Other stones had more musical +virtues—the "conspicuous stone" of <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page330" id="page330"></a>{330}</span> Elysium +from which arose a hundred strains, and the melodious stone of Loch +Láig. Such beliefs existed into Christian times. S. +Columba's stone altar floated on the waves, and on it a leper had +crossed in the wake of the saint's coracle to Erin. But the same +stone was that on which, long before, the hero Fionn had +slipped.<a id="footnotetag1145" name="footnotetag1145"></a><a href= +"#footnote1145"><sup>1145</sup></a></p> +<p>Connected with the cult of stones are magical observances at +fixed rocks or boulders, regarded probably as the abode of a +spirit. These observances are in origin pre-Celtic, but were +practised by the Celts. Girls slide down a stone to obtain a lover, +pregnant women to obtain an easy delivery, or contact with such +stones causes barren women to have children or gives vitality to +the feeble. A small offering is usually left on the stone.<a id= +"footnotetag1146" name="footnotetag1146"></a><a href= +"#footnote1146"><sup>1146</sup></a> Similar rites are practised at +megalithic monuments, and here again the custom is obviously +pre-Celtic in origin. In this case the spirits of the dead must +have been expected to assist the purposes of the rites, or even to +incarnate themselves in the children born as a result of barren +women resorting to these stones.<a id="footnotetag1147" name= +"footnotetag1147"></a><a href="#footnote1147"><sup>1147</sup></a> +Sometimes when the purpose of the stones has been forgotten and +some other legendary origin attributed to them, the custom adapts +itself to the legend. In Ireland many dolmens are known, not as +places of sepulture, but as "Diarmaid and Grainne's beds"—the +places where these eloping lovers slept. Hence they have powers of +fruitfulness and are visited by women who desire children. The rite +is thus one of sympathetic magic.</p> +<p>Holed dolmens or naturally pierced blocks are used for the +magical cure of sickness both in Brittany and Cornwall, the patient +being passed through the hole.<a id="footnotetag1148" name= +"footnotetag1148"></a><a href="#footnote1148"><sup>1148</sup></a> +Similar rites <span class="pagenum"><a name="page331" id= +"page331"></a>{331}</span> are used with trees, a slit being often +made in the trunk of a sapling, and a sickly child passed through +it. The slit is then closed and bound, and if it joins together at +the end of a certain time, this is a proof that the child will +recover.<a id="footnotetag1149" name="footnotetag1149"></a><a href= +"#footnote1149"><sup>1149</sup></a> In these rites the spirit in +stone or tree was supposed to assist the process of healing, or the +disease was transferred to them, or, again, there was the idea of a +new birth with consequent renewed life, the act imitating the +process of birth. These rites are not confined to Celtic regions, +but belong to that universal use of magic in which the Celts freely +participated.</p> +<p>Since Christian writers firmly believed in the magical powers of +the Druids, aided however by the devil, they taught that Christian +saints had miraculously overcome them with their own weapons. S. +Patrick dispelled snow-storms and darkness raised by Druids, or +destroyed Druids who had brought down fire from heaven. Similar +deeds are attributed to S. Columba and others.<a id= +"footnotetag1150" name="footnotetag1150"></a><a href= +"#footnote1150"><sup>1150</sup></a> The moral victory of the Cross +was later regarded also as a magical victory. Hence also lives of +Celtic saints are full of miracles which are simply a reproduction +of Druidic magic—controlling the elements, healing, carrying +live coals without hurt, causing confusion by their curses, +producing invisibility or shape-shifting, making the ice-cold +waters of a river hot by standing in them at their devotions, or +walking unscathed through the fiercest storms.<a id= +"footnotetag1151" name="footnotetag1151"></a><a href= +"#footnote1151"><sup>1151</sup></a> They were soon regarded as more +expert magicians than the Druids themselves. They may have laid +claim to magical powers, or perhaps they used a natural shrewdness +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page332" id= +"page332"></a>{332}</span> in such a way as to suggest magic. But +all their power they ascribed to Christ. "Christ is my +Druid"—the true miracle-worker, said S. Columba. Yet they +were imbued with the superstitions of their own age. Thus S. +Columba sent a white stone to King Brude at Inverness for the cure +of his Druid Broichan, who drank the water poured over it, and was +healed.<a id="footnotetag1152" name="footnotetag1152"></a><a href= +"#footnote1152"><sup>1152</sup></a> Soon similar virtues were +ascribed to the relics of the saints themselves, and at a later +time, when most Scotsmen ceased to believe in the saints, they +thought that the ministers of the kirk had powers like those of +pagan Druid and Catholic saint. Ministers were levitated, or shone +with a celestial light, or had clairvoyant gifts, or, with dire +results, cursed the ungodly or the benighted prelatist. They +prophesied, used trance-utterance, and exercised gifts of healing. +Angels ministered to them, as when Samuel Rutherford, having fallen +into a well when a child, was pulled out by an angel.<a id= +"footnotetag1153" name="footnotetag1153"></a><a href= +"#footnote1153"><sup>1153</sup></a> The substratum of primitive +belief survives all changes of creed, and the folk impartially +attributed magical powers to pagan Druid, Celtic saints, old crones +and witches, and Presbyterian ministers.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1093" name= +"footnote1093"></a><b>Footnote 1093:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1093">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 56; D'Arbois, v. 387.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1094" name= +"footnote1094"></a><b>Footnote 1094:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1094">(return)</a> +<p>See, <i>e.g.</i>, "The Death of Muirchertach," <i>RC</i> xxiii. +394.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1095" name= +"footnote1095"></a><b>Footnote 1095:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1095">(return)</a> +<p><i>HN</i> xxx. 4, 13.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1096" name= +"footnote1096"></a><b>Footnote 1096:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1096">(return)</a> +<p>Zimmer, <i>Gloss. Hibern.</i> 183; Reeves, <i>Adamnan</i>, +260.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1097" name= +"footnote1097"></a><b>Footnote 1097:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1097">(return)</a> +<p>Kennedy, 175; cf. <i>IT</i> i. 220.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1098" name= +"footnote1098"></a><b>Footnote 1098:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1098">(return)</a> +<p>See <i>RC</i> xii. 52 f.; D'Arbois, v. 403-404; O'Curry, <i>MS. +Mat.</i> 505; Kennedy, 75, 196, 258.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1099" name= +"footnote1099"></a><b>Footnote 1099:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1099">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, v. 277.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1100" name= +"footnote1100"></a><b>Footnote 1100:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1100">(return)</a> +<p>Stokes, <i>Three Middle Irish Homilies</i>, 24; <i>IT</i> iii. +325.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1101" name= +"footnote1101"></a><b>Footnote 1101:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1101">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 83; Miss Hull, 215; D'Arbois, v. 424; O'Curry, +<i>MC</i> ii. 215.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1102" name= +"footnote1102"></a><b>Footnote 1102:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1102">(return)</a> +<p>Keating, 341; O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 271.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1103" name= +"footnote1103"></a><b>Footnote 1103:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1103">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 81.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1104" name= +"footnote1104"></a><b>Footnote 1104:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1104">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 240 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1105" name= +"footnote1105"></a><b>Footnote 1105:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1105">(return)</a> +<p>Maury, 14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1106" name= +"footnote1106"></a><b>Footnote 1106:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1106">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, ii. 226 f., i. 101, ii. 225; +Bérenger-Féraud, <i>Superstitions et Survivances</i>, +iii. 169 f.; <i>Stat. Account</i>, viii. 52.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1107" name= +"footnote1107"></a><b>Footnote 1107:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1107">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rev. des Trad.</i> 1893, 613; Sébillot, ii. 224.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1108" name= +"footnote1108"></a><b>Footnote 1108:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1108">(return)</a> +<p>Bérenger-Féraud, iii. 218 f.; Sébillot, i. +100, 109; <i>RC</i> ii. 484; Frazer, <i>Golden +Bough</i><sup>2</sup>, i. 67.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1109" name= +"footnote1109"></a><b>Footnote 1109:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1109">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, v. 387; <i>IT</i> i. 52; Dixon, <i>Gairloch</i>, 165; +Carmichael, <i>Carm. Gad.</i> ii. 25.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1110" name= +"footnote1110"></a><b>Footnote 1110:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1110">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xvi. 152; Miss Hull, 243.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1111" name= +"footnote1111"></a><b>Footnote 1111:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1111">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, v. 133; <i>IT</i> ii. 373.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1112" name= +"footnote1112"></a><b>Footnote 1112:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1112">(return)</a> +<p>Mela, iii. 6; <i>RC</i> xv. 471.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1113" name= +"footnote1113"></a><b>Footnote 1113:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1113">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 1 f.; Kennedy, 235.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1114" name= +"footnote1114"></a><b>Footnote 1114:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1114">(return)</a> +<p>Bird-women pursued by Cúchulainn; D'Arbois, v. 178; for +other instances see O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 426; Miss Hull, +82.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1115" name= +"footnote1115"></a><b>Footnote 1115:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1115">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, v. 215.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1116" name= +"footnote1116"></a><b>Footnote 1116:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1116">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 279.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1117" name= +"footnote1117"></a><b>Footnote 1117:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1117">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> 86.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1118" name= +"footnote1118"></a><b>Footnote 1118:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1118">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxiii. 394; Jocelyn, <i>Vita S. Kent.</i> c. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1119" name= +"footnote1119"></a><b>Footnote 1119:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1119">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xv. 446.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1120" name= +"footnote1120"></a><b>Footnote 1120:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1120">(return)</a> +<p>O'Conor, <i>Rer. Hib. Scrip.</i> ii. 142; Stokes, <i>Lives of +Saints</i>, xxviii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1121" name= +"footnote1121"></a><b>Footnote 1121:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1121">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xv. 444.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1122" name= +"footnote1122"></a><b>Footnote 1122:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1122">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page251">251</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1123" name= +"footnote1123"></a><b>Footnote 1123:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1123">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 240.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1124" name= +"footnote1124"></a><b>Footnote 1124:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1124">(return)</a> +<p>See pp. <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>, +<i>supra</i>; Cæsar, <i>vi</i>. 14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1125" name= +"footnote1125"></a><b>Footnote 1125:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1125">(return)</a> +<p>Zimmer, <i>Gloss. Hiber.</i> 271. Other Irish incantations, +appealing to the saints, are found in the <i>Codex Regularum</i> at +Klosternenburg (<i>RC</i> ii. 112).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1126" name= +"footnote1126"></a><b>Footnote 1126:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1126">(return)</a> +<p>Leahy, i. 137; Kennedy, 301.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1127" name= +"footnote1127"></a><b>Footnote 1127:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1127">(return)</a> +<p>Sauvé, <i>RC</i> vi. 67 f.; Carmichael, <i>Carm. +Gadel.</i>, <i>passim</i>; <i>CM</i> xii. 38; Joyce, <i>SH</i> i. +629 f.; Camden, <i>Britannia</i>, iv. 488; Scot, <i>Discovery of +Witchcraft</i>, iii. 15.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1128" name= +"footnote1128"></a><b>Footnote 1128:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1128">(return)</a> +<p>For examples see O'Curry, <i>MS. Met.</i> 248; D'Arbois, ii. +190; <i>RC</i> xii. 71, xxiv. 279; Stokes, <i>TIG</i> xxxvi. f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1129" name= +"footnote1129"></a><b>Footnote 1129:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1129">(return)</a> +<p>Windisch, <i>Táin</i>, line 3467.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1130" name= +"footnote1130"></a><b>Footnote 1130:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1130">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 31.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1131" name= +"footnote1131"></a><b>Footnote 1131:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1131">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, i. 271.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1132" name= +"footnote1132"></a><b>Footnote 1132:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1132">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xii. 109; Nutt-Meyer, i. 2; D'Arbois, v. 445.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1133" name= +"footnote1133"></a><b>Footnote 1133:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1133">(return)</a> +<p>Petrie, <i>Ancient Music of Ireland</i>, i. 73; <i>The Gael</i>, +i. 235 (fairy lullaby of MacLeod of MacLeod).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1134" name= +"footnote1134"></a><b>Footnote 1134:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1134">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 255.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1135" name= +"footnote1135"></a><b>Footnote 1135:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1135">(return)</a> +<p><i>Archæologia</i>, xxxix. 509; <i>Proc. Soc. Ant.</i> +iii. 92; Gaidoz, <i>Le Dieu Gaul. du Soleil</i>, 60 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1136" name= +"footnote1136"></a><b>Footnote 1136:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1136">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 409; but see Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 215.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1137" name= +"footnote1137"></a><b>Footnote 1137:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1137">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, <i>HN</i> xxix. 3. 54.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1138" name= +"footnote1138"></a><b>Footnote 1138:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1138">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rev. Arch.</i> i. 227, xxxiii. 283.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1139" name= +"footnote1139"></a><b>Footnote 1139:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1139">(return)</a> +<p>Hoare, <i>Modern Wiltshire</i>, 56; Camden, <i>Britannia</i>, +815; Hazlitt, 194; Campbell, <i>Witchcraft</i>, 84. In the +Highlands spindle-whorls are thought to have been perforated by the +adder, which then passes through the hole to rid itself of its old +skin.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1140" name= +"footnote1140"></a><b>Footnote 1140:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1140">(return)</a> +<p>Pliny, xxxii. 2. 24; Reinach, <i>RC</i> xx. 13 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1141" name= +"footnote1141"></a><b>Footnote 1141:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1141">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rev. Arch.</i> i. 227; Greenwell, <i>British Barrows</i>, +165; Elton, 66; Renel, 95f., 194f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1142" name= +"footnote1142"></a><b>Footnote 1142:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1142">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>BF</i> 286, 289, 362.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1143" name= +"footnote1143"></a><b>Footnote 1143:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1143">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS Mat.</i> 387. See a paper by Hartland, "The Voice +of the Stone of Destiny," <i>Folk-lore Journal</i>, xiv. 1903.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1144" name= +"footnote1144"></a><b>Footnote 1144:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1144">(return)</a> +<p>Petrie, <i>Trans. Royal Irish Acad.</i> xviii. pt. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1145" name= +"footnote1145"></a><b>Footnote 1145:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1145">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 393 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1146" name= +"footnote1146"></a><b>Footnote 1146:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1146">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, i. 334 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1147" name= +"footnote1147"></a><b>Footnote 1147:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1147">(return)</a> +<p>Trollope, <i>Brittany</i>, ii. 229; +Bérenger-Féraud, <i>Superstitions et Survivances</i>, +i. 529 f.; Borlase, <i>Dolmens of Ireland</i>, iii. 580, 689, 841 +f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1148" name= +"footnote1148"></a><b>Footnote 1148:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1148">(return)</a> +<p><i>Rev. des Trad.</i> 1894, 494; Bérenger-Féraud, +i. 529, ii. 367; Elworthy, <i>Evil Eye</i>, 70.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1149" name= +"footnote1149"></a><b>Footnote 1149:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1149">(return)</a> +<p>Bérenger-Féraud, i. 523; Elworthy, 69, 106; +Reinach, <i>L'Anthropologie</i>, iv. 33.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1150" name= +"footnote1150"></a><b>Footnote 1150:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1150">(return)</a> +<p>Kennedy, 324; Adamnan, <i>Vita S. Col.</i> ii. 35.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1151" name= +"footnote1151"></a><b>Footnote 1151:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1151">(return)</a> +<p>Life of S. Fechin of Fore, <i>RC</i> xii. 333; Life of S. +Kieran, O'Grady, ii. 13; Amra Cholumbchille, <i>RC</i> xx. 41; Life +of S. Moling, <i>RC</i> xxvii. 293; and other lives <i>passim</i>. +See also Plummer, <i>Vitæ Sanctorum Hiberniæ</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1152" name= +"footnote1152"></a><b>Footnote 1152:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1152">(return)</a> +<p>Adamnan, ii. 34. This pebble was long preserved, but +mysteriously disappeared when the person who sought it was doomed +to die.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1153" name= +"footnote1153"></a><b>Footnote 1153:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1153">(return)</a> +<p>Wodrow, <i>Analecta</i>, <i>passim</i>; Walker, <i>Six Saints of +the Covenant</i>, ed. by Dr. Hay Fleming.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page333" id= +"page333"></a>{333}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap22" id="chap22">CHAPTER XXII.</a></h2> +<h3>THE STATE OF THE DEAD.</h3> +<p>Among all the problems with which man has busied himself, none +so appeals to his hopes and fears as that of the future life. Is +there a farther shore, and if so, shall we reach it? Few races, if +any, have doubted the existence of a future state, but their +conceptions of it have differed greatly. But of all the races of +antiquity, outside Egypt, the Celts seem to have cherished the most +ardent belief in the world beyond the grave, and to have been +preoccupied with its joys. Their belief, so far as we know it, was +extremely vivid, and its chief characteristic was life in the body +after death, in another region.<a id="footnotetag1154" name= +"footnotetag1154"></a><a href="#footnote1154"><sup>1154</sup></a> +This, coupled with the fact that it was taught as a doctrine by the +Druids, made it the admiration of classical onlookers. But besides +this belief there was another, derived from the ideas of a distant +past, that the dead lived on in the grave—the two conceptions +being connected. And there may also have been a certain degree of +belief in transmigration. Although the Celts believed that the soul +could exist apart from the body, there seems to be no evidence that +they believed in a future existence of the soul as a shade. This +belief is certainly found in some late Welsh poems, where the +ghosts are described as wandering in the Caledonian forest, but +these can hardly be made use of as evidence for the old pagan +doctrine. The evidence for the latter may be gathered <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page334" id="page334"></a>{334}</span> from +classical observers, from archæology and from Irish +texts.</p> +<p>Cæsar writes: "The Druids in particular wish to impress +this on them that souls do not perish, but pass from one to another +(<i>ab aliis ... ad alios</i>) after death, and by this chiefly +they think to incite men to valour, the fear of death being +overlooked." Later he adds, that at funerals all things which had +been dear to the dead man, even living creatures, were thrown on +the funeral pyre, and shortly before his time slaves and beloved +clients were also consumed.<a id="footnotetag1155" name= +"footnotetag1155"></a><a href="#footnote1155"><sup>1155</sup></a> +Diodorus says: "Among them the doctrine of Pythagoras prevailed +that the souls of men were immortal, and after completing their +term of existence they live again, the soul passing into another +body. Hence at the burial of the dead some threw letters addressed +to dead relatives on the funeral pile, believing that the dead +would read them in the next world."<a id="footnotetag1156" name= +"footnotetag1156"></a><a href="#footnote1156"><sup>1156</sup></a> +Valerius Maximus writes: "They would fain make us believe that the +souls of men are immortal. I would be tempted to call these +breeches-wearing folk fools, if their doctrine were not the same as +that of the mantle-clad Pythagoras." He also speaks of money lent +which would be repaid in the next world, because men's souls are +immortal.<a id="footnotetag1157" name= +"footnotetag1157"></a><a href="#footnote1157"><sup>1157</sup></a> +These passages are generally taken to mean that the Celts believed +simply in transmigration of the Pythagorean type. Possibly all +these writers cite one common original, but Cæsar makes no +reference to Pythagoras. A comparison with the Pythagorean doctrine +shows that the Celtic belief differed materially from it. According +to the former, men's souls entered new bodies, even those of +animals, in this world, and as an expiation. There is nothing of +this in the Celtic doctrine. The new body is not a prison-house of +the soul in which it must expiate its former sins, and the soul +receives it not in this world but in another. The real point of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page335" id= +"page335"></a>{335}</span> connection was the insistence of both +upon immortality, the Druids teaching that it was bodily +immortality. Their doctrine no more taught transmigration than does +the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. Roman writers, aware +that Pythagoras taught immortality <i>via</i> a series of +transmigrations, and that the Druids taught a doctrine of bodily +immortality, may have thought that the receiving of a new body +meant transmigration. Themselves sceptical of a future life or +believing in a traditional gloomy Hades, they were bound to be +struck with the vigour of the Celtic doctrine and its effects upon +conduct. The only thing like it of which they knew was the +Pythagorean doctrine. Looked at in this light, Cæsar's words +need not convey the idea of transmigration, and it is possible that +he mistranslated some Greek original. Had these writers meant that +the Druids taught transmigration, they could hardly have added the +passages regarding debts being paid in the other world, or letters +conveyed there by the dead, or human sacrifices to benefit the dead +there. These also preclude the idea of a mere immortality of the +soul. The dead Celt continued to be the person he had been, and it +may have been that not a new body, but the old body glorified, was +tenanted by his soul beyond the grave. This bodily immortality in a +region where life went on as on this earth, but under happier +conditions, would then be like the Vedic teaching that the soul, +after the burning of the body, went to the heaven of Yama, and +there received its body complete and glorified. The two +conceptions, Hindu and Celtic, may have sprung from early "Aryan" +belief.</p> +<p>This Celtic doctrine appears more clearly from what Lucan says +of the Druidic teaching. "From you we learn that the bourne of +man's existence is not the silent halls of Erebus, in another world +(or region, <i>in orbe alio</i>) the spirit animates the members. +Death, if your lore be true, is but the centre of a <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page336" id="page336"></a>{336}</span> long +life." For this reason, he adds, the Celtic warrior had no fear of +death.<a id="footnotetag1158" name="footnotetag1158"></a><a href= +"#footnote1158"><sup>1158</sup></a> Thus Lucan conceived the +Druidic doctrine to be one of bodily immortality in another region. +That region was not a gloomy state; rather it resembled the +Egyptian Aalu with its rich and varied existence. Classical +writers, of course, may have known of what appears to have been a +sporadic Celtic idea, derived from old beliefs, that the soul might +take the form of an animal, but this was not the Druidic teaching. +Again, if the Gauls, like the Irish, had myths telling of the +rebirth of gods or semi-divine beings, these may have been +misinterpreted by those writers and regarded as eschatological. But +such myths do not concern mortals. Other writers, Timagenes, +Strabo, and Mela,<a id="footnotetag1159" name= +"footnotetag1159"></a><a href="#footnote1159"><sup>1159</sup></a> +speak only of the immortality of the soul, but their testimony is +probably not at variance with that of Lucan, since Mela appears to +copy Cæsar, and speaks of accounts and debts being passed on +to the next world.</p> +<p>This theory of a bodily immortality is supported by the Irish +sagas, in which ghosts, in our sense of the word, do not exist. The +dead who return are not spectres, but are fully clothed upon with a +body. Thus, when Cúchulainn returns at the command of S. +Patrick, he is described exactly as if he were still in the flesh. +"His hair was thick and black ... in his head his eye gleamed swift +and grey.... Blacker than the side of a cooking spit each of his +two brows, redder than ruby his lips." His clothes and weapons are +fully described, while his chariot and horses are equally +corporeal.<a id="footnotetag1160" name= +"footnotetag1160"></a><a href="#footnote1160"><sup>1160</sup></a> +Similar descriptions of the dead who return are not infrequent, +<i>e.g.</i> that of Caoilte in the story of Mongan, whom every one +believes to be a living warrior, and that of Fergus mac Roich, who +reappeared in a beautiful form, adorned with brown hair and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id= +"page337"></a>{337}</span> clad in his former splendour, and +recited the lost story of the <i>Táin</i>.<a id= +"footnotetag1161" name="footnotetag1161"></a><a href= +"#footnote1161"><sup>1161</sup></a> Thus the Irish Celts believed +that in another world the spirit animated the members. This bodily +existence is also suggested in Celtic versions of the "Dead Debtor" +folk-tale cycle. Generally an animal in whose shape a dead man +helps his benefactor is found in other European versions, but in +the Celtic stories not an animal but the dead man himself appears +as a living person in corporeal form.<a id="footnotetag1162" name= +"footnotetag1162"></a><a href="#footnote1162"><sup>1162</sup></a> +Equally substantial and corporeal, eating, drinking, lovemaking, +and fighting are the divine folk of the <i>síd</i> or of +Elysium, or the gods as they are represented in the texts. To the +Celts, gods, <i>síde</i>, and the dead, all alike had a +bodily form, which, however, might become invisible, and in other +ways differed from the earthly body.</p> +<p>The archæological evidence of burial customs among the +Celts also bears witness to this belief. Over the whole Celtic area +a rich profusion of grave-goods has been found, consisting of +weapons, armour, chariots, utensils, ornaments, and coins.<a id= +"footnotetag1163" name="footnotetag1163"></a><a href= +"#footnote1163"><sup>1163</sup></a> Some of the interments +undoubtedly point to sacrifice of wife, children, or slaves at the +grave. Male and female skeletons are often in close proximity, in +one case the arm of the male encircling the neck of the female. In +other cases the remains of children are found with these. Or while +the lower interment is richly provided with grave-goods, above it +lie irregularly several skeletons, without grave-goods, and often +with head separated from the body, pointing to decapitation, while +in one case the arms had been tied behind the back.<a id= +"footnotetag1164" name="footnotetag1164"></a><a href= +"#footnote1164"><sup>1164</sup></a> All this <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page338" id="page338"></a>{338}</span> suggests, +taken in connection with classical evidence regarding burial +customs, that the future life was life in the body, and that it was +a <i>replica</i> of this life, with the same affections, needs, and +energies. Certain passages in Irish texts also describe burials, +and tell how the dead were interred with ornaments and weapons, +while it was a common custom to bury the dead warrior in his +armour, fully armed, and facing the region whence enemies might be +expected. Thus he was a perpetual menace to them and prevented +their attack.<a id="footnotetag1165" name= +"footnotetag1165"></a><a href="#footnote1165"><sup>1165</sup></a> +Possibly this belief may account for the elevated position of many +tumuli. Animals were also sacrificed. Hostages were buried alive +with Fiachra, according to one text, and the wives of heroes +sometimes express their desire to be buried along with their dead +husbands.<a id="footnotetag1166" name= +"footnotetag1166"></a><a href="#footnote1166"><sup>1166</sup></a></p> +<p>The idea that the body as well as the soul was immortal was +probably linked on to a very primitive belief regarding the dead, +and one shared by many peoples, that they lived on in the grave. +This conception was never forgotten, even in regions where the +theory of a distant land of the dead was evolved, or where the body +was consumed by fire before burial. It appears from such practices +as binding the dead with cords, or laying heavy stones or a mound +of earth on the grave, probably to prevent their egress, or feeding +the dead with sacrificial food at the grave, or from the belief +that the dead come forth not as spirits, but in the body from the +grave. This primitive conception, of which the belief in a +subterranean world of the dead is an extension, long survived among +various <span class="pagenum"><a name="page339" id= +"page339"></a>{339}</span> races, <i>e.g.</i> the Scandinavians, +who believed in the barrow as the abiding place of the dead, while +they also had their conception of Hel and Valhalla, or among the +Slavs, side by side with Christian conceptions.<a id= +"footnotetag1167" name="footnotetag1167"></a><a href= +"#footnote1167"><sup>1167</sup></a> It also survived among the +Celts, though another belief in the <i>orbis alius</i> had arisen. +This can be shown from modern and ancient folk-belief and +custom.</p> +<p>In numerous Celtic folk-tales the dead rise in the body, not as +ghosts, from the grave, which is sometimes described as a house in +which they live. They perform their ordinary occupations in house +or field; they eat with the living, or avenge themselves upon them; +if scourged, blood is drawn from their bodies; and, in one curious +Breton tale, a dead husband visits his wife in bed and she then has +a child by him, because, as he said, "sa compte d'enfants" was not +yet complete.<a id="footnotetag1168" name= +"footnotetag1168"></a><a href="#footnote1168"><sup>1168</sup></a> +In other stories a corpse becomes animated and speaks or acts in +presence of the living, or from the tomb itself when it is +disturbed.<a id="footnotetag1169" name= +"footnotetag1169"></a><a href="#footnote1169"><sup>1169</sup></a> +The earliest literary example of such a tale is the tenth century +"Adventures of Nera," based on older sources. In this Nera goes to +tie a withy to the foot of a man who has been hung. The corpse begs +a drink, and then forces Nera to carry him to a house, where he +kills two sleepers.<a id="footnotetag1170" name= +"footnotetag1170"></a><a href="#footnote1170"><sup>1170</sup></a> +All such stories, showing as they do that a corpse is really +living, must in essence be of great antiquity. Another common +belief, found over the Celtic area, is that the dead rise from the +grave, not as ghosts, when they will, and that they appear <i>en +masse</i> on the night of All Saints, and join the living.<a id= +"footnotetag1171" name="footnotetag1171"></a><a href= +"#footnote1171"><sup>1171</sup></a></p> +<p>As a result of such beliefs, various customs are found in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page340" id= +"page340"></a>{340}</span> use, apparently to permit of the corpse +having freedom of movement, contrary to the older custom of +preventing its egress from the grave. In the west of Ireland the +feet of the corpse are left free, and the nails are drawn from the +coffin at the grave. In the Hebrides the threads of the shroud are +cut or the bindings of feet, hands, and face are raised when the +body is placed in the coffin, and in Brittany the arms and feet are +left free when the corpse is dressed.<a id="footnotetag1172" name= +"footnotetag1172"></a><a href="#footnote1172"><sup>1172</sup></a> +The reason is said to be that the spirit may have less trouble in +getting to the spirit world, but it is obvious that a more material +view preceded and still underlies this later gloss. Many stories +are told illustrating these customs, and the earlier belief, +Christianised, appears in the tale of a woman who haunted her +friends because they had made her grave-clothes so short that the +fires of Purgatory burnt her knees.<a id="footnotetag1173" name= +"footnotetag1173"></a><a href= +"#footnote1173"><sup>1173</sup></a></p> +<p>Earlier customs recorded among the Celts also point to the +existence of this primitive belief influencing actual custom. +Nicander says that the Celts went by night to the tombs of great +men to obtain oracles, so much did they believe that they were +still living there.<a id="footnotetag1174" name= +"footnotetag1174"></a><a href="#footnote1174"><sup>1174</sup></a> +In Ireland, oracles were also sought by sleeping on funeral cairns, +and it was to the grave of Fergus that two bards resorted in order +to obtain from him the lost story of the <i>Táin</i>. We +have also seen how, in Ireland, armed heroes exerted a sinister +influence upon enemies from their graves, which may thus have been +regarded as their homes—a belief also underlying the Welsh +story of Bran's head.</p> +<p>Where was the world of the dead situated? M. Reinach has shown, +by a careful comparison of the different uses of the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page341" id="page341"></a>{341}</span> word +<i>orbis</i>, that Lucan's words do not necessarily mean "another +world," but "another region," <i>i.e.</i> of this world.<a id= +"footnotetag1175" name="footnotetag1175"></a><a href= +"#footnote1175"><sup>1175</sup></a> If the Celts cherished so +firmly the belief that the dead lived on in the grave, a belief in +an underworld of the dead was bound in course of time to have been +evolved as part of their creed. To it all graves and tumuli would +give access. Classical observers apparently held that the Celtic +future state was like their own in being an underworld region, +since they speak of the dead Celts as <i>inferi</i>, or as going +<i>ad Manes</i>, and Plutarch makes Camma speak of descending to +her dead husband.<a id="footnotetag1176" name= +"footnotetag1176"></a><a href="#footnote1176"><sup>1176</sup></a> +What differentiated it from their own gloomy underworld was its +exuberant life and immortality. This aspect of a subterranean land +presented no difficulty to the Celt, who had many tales of an +underworld or under-water region more beautiful and blissful than +anything on earth. Such a subterranean world must have been that of +the Celtic Dispater, a god of fertility and growth, the roots of +things being nourished from his kingdom. From him men had +descended,<a id="footnotetag1177" name= +"footnotetag1177"></a><a href="#footnote1177"><sup>1177</sup></a> +probably a myth of their coming forth from his subterranean +kingdom, and to him they returned after death to a blissful +life.</p> +<p>Several writers, notably M. D'Arbois, assume that the <i>orbis +alius</i> of the dead was the Celtic island Elysium. But that +Elysium <i>never</i> appears in the tales as a land of the dead. It +is a land of gods and deathless folk who are not those who have +passed from this world by death. Mortals may reach it by favour, +but only while still in life. It might be argued that Elysium was +regarded in pagan times as the land of the dead, but after +Christian eschatological views prevailed, it became a kind of +fairyland. But the existing tales give no hint of this, and, after +being carefully examined, they show that Elysium <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page342" id="page342"></a>{342}</span> had +always been a place distinct from that of the departed, though +there may have arisen a tendency to confuse the two.</p> +<p>If there was a genuine Celtic belief in an island of the dead, +it could have been no more than a local one, else Cæsar would +not have spoken as he does of the Celtic Dispater. Such a local +belief now exists on the Breton coast, but it is mainly concerned +with the souls of the drowned.<a id="footnotetag1178" name= +"footnotetag1178"></a><a href="#footnote1178"><sup>1178</sup></a> A +similar local belief may explain the story told by Procopius, who +says that Brittia (Britain), an island lying off the mouth of the +Rhine, is divided from north to south by a wall beyond which is a +noxious region. This is a distorted reminiscence of the Roman wall, +which would appear to run in this direction if Ptolemy's map, in +which Scotland lies at right angles to England, had been consulted. +Thither fishermen from the opposite coast are compelled to ferry +over at dead of night the shades of the dead, unseen to them, but +marshalled by a mysterious leader.<a id="footnotetag1179" name= +"footnotetag1179"></a><a href="#footnote1179"><sup>1179</sup></a> +Procopius may have mingled some local belief with the current +tradition that Ulysses' island of the shades lay in the north, or +in the west.<a id="footnotetag1180" name= +"footnotetag1180"></a><a href="#footnote1180"><sup>1180</sup></a> +In any case his story makes of the gloomy land of the shades a very +different region from the blissful Elysium of the Celts and from +their joyous <i>orbis alius</i>, nor is it certain that he is +referring to a Celtic people.</p> +<p>Traces of the idea of an underworld of the dead exist in Breton +folk-belief. The dead must travel across a subterranean ocean, and +though there is scarcely any tradition regarding what happens on +landing, M. Sébillot thinks that formerly "there existed in +the subterranean world a sort of centralisation of the different +states of the dead." If so, this must have been founded on pagan +belief. The interior of the earth is <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page343" id="page343"></a>{343}</span> also believed to be the +abode of fabulous beings, of giants, and of fantastic animals, and +there is also a subterranean fairy world. In all this we may see a +survival of the older belief, modified by Christian teaching, since +the Bretons suppose that purgatory and hell are beneath the earth +and accessible from its surface.<a id="footnotetag1181" name= +"footnotetag1181"></a><a href= +"#footnote1181"><sup>1181</sup></a></p> +<p>Some British folk-lore brought to Greece by Demetrius and +reported by Plutarch might seem to suggest that certain +persons—the mighty dead—were privileged to pass to the +island Elysium. Some islands near Britain were called after gods +and heroes, and the inhabitants of one of these were regarded as +sacrosanct by the Britons, like the priestesses of Sena. They were +visited by Demetrius, who was told that the storms which arose +during his visit were caused by the passing away of some of the +"mighty" or of the "great souls." It may have been meant that such +mighty ones passed to the more distant islands, but this is +certainly not stated. In another island, Kronos was imprisoned, +watched over by Briareus, and guarded by demons.<a id= +"footnotetag1182" name="footnotetag1182"></a><a href= +"#footnote1182"><sup>1182</sup></a> Plutarch refers to these +islands in another work, repeating the story of Kronos, and saying +that his island is mild and fragrant, that people live there +waiting on the god who sometimes appears to them and prevents their +departing. Meanwhile they are happy and know no care, spending +their time in sacrificing and hymn-singing or in studying legends +and philosophy.</p> +<p>Plutarch has obviously mingled Celtic Elysium beliefs with the +classical conception of the Druids.<a id="footnotetag1183" name= +"footnotetag1183"></a><a href="#footnote1183"><sup>1183</sup></a> +In Elysium there is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page344" id= +"page344"></a>{344}</span> no care, and favoured mortals who pass +there are generally prevented from returning to earth. The +reference to Kronos may also be based partly on myths of Celtic +gods of Elysium, partly on tales of heroes who departed to +mysterious islands or to the hollow hills where they lie asleep, +but whence they will one day return to benefit their people. So +Arthur passed to Avalon, but in other tales he and his warriors are +asleep beneath Craig-y-Ddinas, just as Fionn and his men rest +within this or that hill in the Highlands. Similar legends are told +of other Celtic heroes, and they witness to the belief that great +men who had died would return in the hour of their people's need. +In time they were thought not to have died at all, but to be merely +sleeping and waiting for their hour.<a id="footnotetag1184" name= +"footnotetag1184"></a><a href="#footnote1184"><sup>1184</sup></a> +The belief is based on the idea that the dead are alive in grave or +barrow, or in a spacious land below the earth, or that dead +warriors can menace their foes from the tomb.</p> +<p>Thus neither in old sagas, nor in <i>Märchen</i>, nor in +popular tradition, is the island Elysium a world of the dead. For +the most part the pagan eschatology has been merged in that of +Christianity, while the Elysium belief has remained intact and +still survives in a whole series of beautiful tales.</p> +<p>The world of the dead was in all respects a <i>replica</i> of +this world, but it was happier. In existing Breton and Irish +belief—a survival of the older conception of the bodily state +of the dead—they resume their tools, crafts, and occupations, +and they preserve their old feelings. Hence, when they appear on +earth, it is in bodily form and in their customary dress. Like +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page345" id= +"page345"></a>{345}</span> the pagan Gauls, the Breton remembers +unpaid debts, and cannot rest till they are paid, and in Brittany, +Ireland, and the Highlands the food and clothes given to the poor +after a death, feed and clothe the dead in the other world.<a id= +"footnotetag1185" name="footnotetag1185"></a><a href= +"#footnote1185"><sup>1185</sup></a> If the world of the dead was +subterranean,—a theory supported by current +folk-belief,<a id="footnotetag1186" name= +"footnotetag1186"></a><a href= +"#footnote1186"><sup>1186</sup></a>—the Earth-goddess or the +Earth-god, who had been first the earth itself, then a being living +below its surface and causing fertility, could not have become the +divinity of the dead until the multitude of single graves or +barrows, in each of which the dead lived, had become a wide +subterranean region of the dead. This divinity was the source of +life and growth; hence he or she was regarded as the progenitor of +mankind, who had come forth from the underworld and would return +there at death. It is not impossible that the Breton conception of +Ankou, death personified, is a reminiscence of the Celtic Dispater. +He watches over all things beyond the grave, and carries off the +dead to his kingdom. But if so he has been altered for the worse by +mediæval ideas of "Death the skeleton".<a id= +"footnotetag1187" name="footnotetag1187"></a><a href= +"#footnote1187"><sup>1187</sup></a> He is a grisly god of death, +whereas the Celtic Dis was a beneficent god of the dead who enjoyed +a happy immortality. They were not cold phantasms, but alive and +endowed with corporeal form and able to enjoy the things of a +better existence, and clad in the beautiful raiment and gaudy +ornaments which were loved so much on earth. Hence Celtic warriors +did not fear death, and suicide was extremely common, while Spanish +Celts sang hymns in praise of death, and others celebrated the +birth of men with mourning, but their deaths with joy.<a id= +"footnotetag1188" name="footnotetag1188"></a><a href= +"#footnote1188"><sup>1188</sup></a> Lucan's words are thus the +truest expression of Celtic eschatology—"In another +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page346" id= +"page346"></a>{346}</span> region the spirit animates the members; +death, if your lore be true, is but the passage to enduring +life."</p> +<p>There is no decisive evidence pointing to any theory of moral +retribution beyond the grave among the pagan Celts. Perhaps, since +the hope of immortality made warriors face death without a tremor, +it may have been held, as many other races have believed, that +cowards would miss the bliss of the future state. Again, in some of +the Irish Christian visions of the other-world and in existing +folk-belief, certain characteristics of hell may not be derived +from Christian eschatology, <i>e.g.</i> the sufferings of the dead +from cold.<a id="footnotetag1189" name= +"footnotetag1189"></a><a href="#footnote1189"><sup>1189</sup></a> +This might point to an old belief in a cold region whither some of +the dead were banished. In the <i>Adventures of S. Columba's +Clerics</i>, hell is reached by a bridge over a glen of fire,<a id= +"footnotetag1190" name="footnotetag1190"></a><a href= +"#footnote1190"><sup>1190</sup></a> and a narrow bridge leading to +the other world is a common feature in most mythologies. But here +it may be borrowed from Scandinavian sources, or from such +Christian writings as the <i>Dialogues</i> of S. Gregory the +Great.<a id="footnotetag1191" name="footnotetag1191"></a><a href= +"#footnote1191"><sup>1191</sup></a> It might be contended that the +Christian doctrine of hell has absorbed an earlier pagan theory of +retribution, but of this there is now no trace in the sagas or in +classical references to the Celtic belief in the future life. Nor +is there any reference to a day of judgment, for the passage in +which Loegaire speaks of the dead buried with their weapons till +"the day of Erdathe," though glossed "the day of judgment of the +Lord," does not refer to such a judgment.<a id="footnotetag1192" +name="footnotetag1192"></a><a href= +"#footnote1192"><sup>1192</sup></a> If an ethical blindness be +attributed to the Celts for their apparent lack of any theory of +retribution, it should <span class="pagenum"><a name="page347" id= +"page347"></a>{347}</span> be remembered that we must not judge a +people's ethics wholly by their views of future punishment. +Scandinavians, Greeks, and Semites up to a certain stage were as +unethical as the Celts in this respect, and the Christian hell, as +conceived by many theologians, is far from suggesting an ethical +Deity.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1154" name= +"footnote1154"></a><b>Footnote 1154:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1154">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 370.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1155" name= +"footnote1155"></a><b>Footnote 1155:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1155">(return)</a> +<p>Cæsar, vi. 14, 19.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1156" name= +"footnote1156"></a><b>Footnote 1156:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1156">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v, 28.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1157" name= +"footnote1157"></a><b>Footnote 1157:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1157">(return)</a> +<p>Val. Max. vi. 6. 10.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1158" name= +"footnote1158"></a><b>Footnote 1158:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1158">(return)</a> +<p><i>Phars.</i> i. 455 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1159" name= +"footnote1159"></a><b>Footnote 1159:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1159">(return)</a> +<p>Amm. Marc. xv. 9; Strabo, iv. 4; Mela, iii. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1160" name= +"footnote1160"></a><b>Footnote 1160:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1160">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 275.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1161" name= +"footnote1161"></a><b>Footnote 1161:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1161">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, i. 49; Miss Hull, 293.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1162" name= +"footnote1162"></a><b>Footnote 1162:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1162">(return)</a> +<p>Larminie, 155; Hyde, <i>Beside the Fire</i>, 21, 153; <i>CM</i> +xiii. 21; Campbell, <i>WHT</i>, ii. 21; Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. p. +xii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1163" name= +"footnote1163"></a><b>Footnote 1163:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1163">(return)</a> +<p>Von Sacken, <i>Das Grabfeld von Hallstatt</i>; Greenwell, +<i>British Barrows</i>; <i>RC</i> x. 234; <i>Antiquary</i>, xxxvii. +125; Blanchet, ii. 528 f.; Anderson, <i>Scotland in Pagan +Times</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1164" name= +"footnote1164"></a><b>Footnote 1164:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1164">(return)</a> +<p><i>L'Anthropologie</i>, vi. 586; Greenwell, <i>op. cit.</i> +119.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1165" name= +"footnote1165"></a><b>Footnote 1165:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1165">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, i. 52; O'Donovan, <i>Annals</i>, i. 145, 180; +<i>RC</i> xv. 28. In one case the enemy disinter the body of the +king of Connaught, and rebury it face downwards, and then obtain a +victory. This nearly coincides with the dire results following the +disinterment of Bran's head (O'Donovan, i. 145; cf. p. <a href= +"#page242">242</a>, <i>supra</i>).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1166" name= +"footnote1166"></a><b>Footnote 1166:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1166">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 130<i>a</i>; <i>RC</i> xxiv. 185; O'Curry, <i>MC</i> +i. p. cccxxx; Campbell, <i>WHT</i> iii. 62; Leahy, i. 105.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1167" name= +"footnote1167"></a><b>Footnote 1167:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1167">(return)</a> +<p>Vigfusson-Powell, <i>Corpus Poet. Boreale</i>, i. 167, 417-418, +420; and see my <i>Childhood of Fiction</i>, 103 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1168" name= +"footnote1168"></a><b>Footnote 1168:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1168">(return)</a> +<p>Larminie, 31; Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, ii. 146, 159, 161, 184, 257 +(the <i>rôle</i> of the dead husband is usually taken by a +<i>lutin</i> or <i>follet</i>, Luzel, <i>Veillées +Bretons</i>, 79); <i>Rev. des Trad. Pop.</i> ii. 267; <i>Ann. de +Bretagne</i>, viii. 514.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1169" name= +"footnote1169"></a><b>Footnote 1169:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1169">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. 313. Cf. also an incident in the +<i>Voyage of Maelduin</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1170" name= +"footnote1170"></a><b>Footnote 1170:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1170">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> x. 214f. Cf. Kennedy, 162; Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. +217, for variants.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1171" name= +"footnote1171"></a><b>Footnote 1171:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1171">(return)</a> +<p>Curtin, <i>Tales</i>, 156; see p. <a href="#page170">170</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1172" name= +"footnote1172"></a><b>Footnote 1172:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1172">(return)</a> +<p>Curtin, <i>Tales</i>, 156; Campbell, <i>Superstitions</i>, 241; +<i>Folk-Lore</i>, xiii. 60; Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. 213.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1173" name= +"footnote1173"></a><b>Footnote 1173:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1173">(return)</a> +<p><i>Folk-Lore</i>, ii. 26; Yeats, <i>Celtic Twilight</i>, +166.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1174" name= +"footnote1174"></a><b>Footnote 1174:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1174">(return)</a> +<p>Tertullian, <i>de Anima</i>, 21.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1175" name= +"footnote1175"></a><b>Footnote 1175:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1175">(return)</a> +<p>Reinach, <i>RC</i> xxii. 447.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1176" name= +"footnote1176"></a><b>Footnote 1176:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1176">(return)</a> +<p>Val. Max. vi. 6; Mela, iii. 2. 19; Plut. <i>Virt. mul</i> +20.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1177" name= +"footnote1177"></a><b>Footnote 1177:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1177">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page229">229</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1178" name= +"footnote1178"></a><b>Footnote 1178:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1178">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. p. xxxix. This is only one out of many +local beliefs (cf. Sébillot, ii. 149).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1179" name= +"footnote1179"></a><b>Footnote 1179:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1179">(return)</a> +<p>Procop. <i>De Bello Goth.</i> vi. 20.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1180" name= +"footnote1180"></a><b>Footnote 1180:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1180">(return)</a> +<p>Claudian, <i>In Rufin.</i> i. 123.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1181" name= +"footnote1181"></a><b>Footnote 1181:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1181">(return)</a> +<p>Sébillot, i. 418 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1182" name= +"footnote1182"></a><b>Footnote 1182:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1182">(return)</a> +<p><i>de Defectu Orac.</i> 18. An occasional name for Britain in +the <i>Mabinogion</i> is "the island of the Mighty" (Loth, i. 69, +<i>et passim</i>). To the storm incident and the passing of the +mighty, there is a curious parallel in Fijian belief. A clap of +thunder was explained as "the noise of a spirit, we being near the +place in which spirits plunge to enter the other world, and a chief +in the neighbourhood having just died" (Williams, <i>Fiji</i>, i. +204).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1183" name= +"footnote1183"></a><b>Footnote 1183:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1183">(return)</a> +<p><i>de Facie Lun[oe]</i>, 26.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1184" name= +"footnote1184"></a><b>Footnote 1184:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1184">(return)</a> +<p>See Hartland, <i>Science of Fairy Tales</i>, 209; Macdougall, +<i>Folk and Hero Tales</i>, 73, 263; Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. p. +xxx. Mortals sometimes penetrated to the presence of these heroes, +who awoke. If the visitor had the courage to tell them that the +hour had not yet come, they fell asleep again, and he escaped. In +Brittany, rocky clefts are believed to be the entrance to the world +of the dead, like the cave of Lough Dearg. Similar stories were +probably told of these in pagan times, though they are now adapted +to Christian beliefs in purgatory or hell.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1185" name= +"footnote1185"></a><b>Footnote 1185:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1185">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. p. xl, ii. 4; Curtin, 10; MacPhail, +<i>Folk-Lore</i>, vi. 170.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1186" name= +"footnote1186"></a><b>Footnote 1186:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1186">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page338">338</a>, <i>supra</i>, and Logan, +<i>Scottish Gael</i>, ii. 374; <i>Folk-Lore,</i> viii. 208, +253.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1187" name= +"footnote1187"></a><b>Footnote 1187:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1187">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. 96, 127, 136f., and Intro, xlv.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1188" name= +"footnote1188"></a><b>Footnote 1188:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1188">(return)</a> +<p>Philostratus, <i>Apoll. of Tyana</i>, v. 4; Val. Max. ii. 6. +12.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1189" name= +"footnote1189"></a><b>Footnote 1189:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1189">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz<sup>1</sup>, ii. 91; Curtin, <i>Tales</i>, 146. The +punishment of suffering from ice and snow appears in the +<i>Apocalypse of Paul</i> and in later Christian accounts of +hell.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1190" name= +"footnote1190"></a><b>Footnote 1190:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1190">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxvi. 153.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1191" name= +"footnote1191"></a><b>Footnote 1191:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1191">(return)</a> +<p>Bk. iv. ch. 36.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1192" name= +"footnote1192"></a><b>Footnote 1192:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1192">(return)</a> +<p><i>Erdathe</i>, according to D'Arbois, means (1) "the day in +which the dead will resume his colour," from <i>dath</i>, "colour"; +(2) "the agreeable day," from <i>data</i>, "agreeable" (D'Arbois, +i. 185; cf. <i>Les Druides</i>, 135).</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page348" id= +"page348"></a>{348}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap23" id="chap23">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></h2> +<h3>REBIRTH AND TRANSMIGRATION.</h3> +<p>In Irish sagas, rebirth is asserted only of divinities or +heroes, and, probably because this belief was obnoxious to +Christian scribes, while some MSS. tell of it in the case of +certain heroic personages, in others these same heroes are said to +have been born naturally. There is no textual evidence that it was +attributed to ordinary mortals, and it is possible that, if +classical observers did not misunderstand the Celtic doctrine of +the future life, their references to rebirth may be based on +mythical tales regarding gods or heroes. We shall study these tales +as they are found in Irish texts.</p> +<p>In the mythological cycle, as has been seen, Etain, in insect +form, fell into a cup of wine. She was swallowed by Etar, and in +due time was reborn as a child, who was eventually married by +Eochaid Airem, but recognized and carried off by her divine spouse +Mider. Etain, however, had quite forgotten her former existence as +a goddess.<a id="footnotetag1193" name= +"footnotetag1193"></a><a href= +"#footnote1193"><sup>1193</sup></a></p> +<p>In one version of Cúchulainn's birth story Dechtire and +her women fly away as birds, but are discovered at last by her +brother Conchobar in a strange house, where Dechtire gives birth to +a child, of whom the god Lug is apparently the father. In another +version the birds are not Dechtire and her women, for she +accompanies Conchobar as his charioteer. They arrive at the house, +the mistress of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page349" id= +"page349"></a>{349}</span> which gives birth to a child, which +Dechtire brings up. It dies, and on her return from the burial +Dechtire swallows a small animal when drinking. Lug appears to her +by night, and tells her that he was the child, and that now she was +with child by him (<i>i.e.</i> he was the animal swallowed by her). +When he was born he would be called Setanta, who was later named +Cúchulainn. Cúchulainn, in this version, is thus a +rebirth of Lug, as well as his father.<a id="footnotetag1194" name= +"footnotetag1194"></a><a href= +"#footnote1194"><sup>1194</sup></a></p> +<p>In the <i>Tale of the Two Swineherds</i>, Friuch and Rucht are +herds of the gods Ochall and Bodb. They quarrel, and their fighting +in various animal shapes is fully described. Finally they become +two worms, which are swallowed by two cows; these then give birth +to the Whitehorn and to the Black Bull of Cuailgne, the animals +which were the cause of the <i>Táin.</i> The swineherds were +probably themselves gods in the older versions of this tale.<a id= +"footnotetag1195" name="footnotetag1195"></a><a href= +"#footnote1195"><sup>1195</sup></a></p> +<p>Other stories relate the rebirth of heroes. Conchobar is +variously said to be son of Nessa by her husband Cathbad, or by her +lover Fachtna. But in the latter version an incident is found which +points to a third account. Nessa brings Cathbad a draught from a +river, but in it are two worms which he forces her to swallow. She +gives birth to a son, in each of whose hands is a worm, and he is +called Conchobar, after the name of the river into which he fell +soon after his birth. The incident closes with the words, "It was +from these worms that she became pregnant, say some."<a id= +"footnotetag1196" name="footnotetag1196"></a><a href= +"#footnote1196"><sup>1196</sup></a> Possibly the divinity of the +river had taken the form of the worms and was reborn as Conchobar. +We may compare the story of the birth of Conall Cernach. His mother +was childless, until a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page350" id= +"page350"></a>{350}</span> Druid sang spells over a well in which +she bathed, and drank of its waters. With the draught she swallowed +a worm, "and the worm was in the hand of the boy as he lay in his +mother's womb; and he pierced the hand and consumed it."<a id= +"footnotetag1197" name="footnotetag1197"></a><a href= +"#footnote1197"><sup>1197</sup></a></p> +<p>The personality of Fionn is also connected with the rebirth +idea. In one story, Mongan, a seventh-century king, had a dispute +with his poet regarding the death of the hero Fothad. The Fian +Caoilte returns from the dead to prove Mongan right, and he says, +"We were with thee, with Fionn." Mongan bids him be silent, because +he did not wish his identity with Fionn to be made known. "Mongan, +however, was Fionn, though he would not let it be told."<a id= +"footnotetag1198" name="footnotetag1198"></a><a href= +"#footnote1198"><sup>1198</sup></a> In another story Mongan is son +of Manannan, who had prophesied of this event. Manannan appeared to +the wife of Fiachna when he was fighting the Saxons, and told her +that unless she yielded herself to him her husband would be slain. +On hearing this she agreed, and next day the god appeared fighting +with Fiachna's forces and routed the slain. "So that this Mongan is +a son of Manannan mac Lir, though he is called Mongan son of +Fiachna."<a id="footnotetag1199" name= +"footnotetag1199"></a><a href="#footnote1199"><sup>1199</sup></a> +In a third version Manannan makes the bargain with Fiachna, and in +his form sleeps with the woman. Simultaneously with Mongan's birth, +Fiachna's attendant had a son who became Mongan's servant, and a +warrior's wife bears a daughter who became his wife. Manannan took +Mongan to the Land of Promise and kept him there until he was +sixteen.<a id="footnotetag1200" name="footnotetag1200"></a><a href= +"#footnote1200"><sup>1200</sup></a> Many magical powers and the +faculty of shape-shifting are attributed to Mongan, and in some +stories he is brought into connection <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page351" id="page351"></a>{351}</span> with the +<i>síd</i>.<a id="footnotetag1201" name= +"footnotetag1201"></a><a href="#footnote1201"><sup>1201</sup></a> +Probably a myth told how he went to Elysium instead of dying, for +he comes from "the Land of Living Heart" to speak with S. Columba, +who took him to see heaven. But he would not satisfy the saints' +curiosity regarding Elysium, and suddenly vanished, probably +returning there.<a id="footnotetag1202" name= +"footnotetag1202"></a><a href= +"#footnote1202"><sup>1202</sup></a></p> +<p>This twofold account of Mongan's birth is curious. Perhaps the +idea that he was a rebirth of Fionn may have been suggested by the +fact that his father was called Fiachna Finn, while it is probable +that some old myth of a son of Manannan's called Mongan was +attached to the personality of the historic Mongan.</p> +<p>About the era of Mongan, King Diarmaid had two wives, one of +whom was barren. S. Finnen gave her holy water to drink, and she +brought forth a lamb; then, after a second draught, a trout, and +finally, after a third, Aed Slane, who became high king of Ireland +in 594. This is a Christianised version of the story of Conall +Cernach's birth.<a id="footnotetag1203" name= +"footnotetag1203"></a><a href= +"#footnote1203"><sup>1203</sup></a></p> +<p>In Welsh mythology the story of Taliesin affords an example of +rebirth. After the transformation combat of the goddess Cerridwen +and Gwion, resembling that of the swine-herds, Gwion becomes a +grain of wheat, which Cerridwen in the form of a hen swallows, with +the result that he is reborn of her as Taliesin.<a id= +"footnotetag1204" name="footnotetag1204"></a><a href= +"#footnote1204"><sup>1204</sup></a></p> +<p>Most of these stories no longer exist in their primitive form, +and various ideas are found in them—conception by magical +means, divine descent through the <i>amour</i> of a divinity and a +mortal, and rebirth.</p> +<p>As to the first, the help of magician or priest is often +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page352" id= +"page352"></a>{352}</span> invoked in savage society and even in +European folk-custom in case of barrenness. Prayers, charms, +potions, or food are the means used to induce conception, but +perhaps at one time these were thought to cause it of themselves. +In many tales the swallowing of a seed, fruit, insect, etc., +results in the birth of a hero or heroine, and it is probable that +these stories embody actual belief in such a possibility. If the +stories of Conall Cernach and Aed Slane are not attenuated +instances of rebirth, say, of the divinity of a well, they are +examples of this belief. The gift of fruitfulness is bestowed by +Druid and saint, but in the story of Conall it is rather the +swallowing of the worm than the Druid's incantation that causes +conception, and is the real <i>motif</i> of the tale.</p> +<p>Where the rebirth of a divinity occurs as the result of the +swallowing of a small animal, it is evident that the god has first +taken this form. The Celt, believing in conception by swallowing +some object, and in shape-shifting, combined his information, and +so produced a third idea, that a god could take the form of a small +animal, which, when swallowed, became his rebirth.<a id= +"footnotetag1205" name="footnotetag1205"></a><a href= +"#footnote1205"><sup>1205</sup></a> If, as the visits of barren +women to dolmens and megalithic monuments suggest, the Celts +believed in the possibility of the spirit of a dead man entering a +woman and being born of her or at least aiding conception,—a +belief held by other races,<a id="footnotetag1206" name= +"footnotetag1206"></a><a href= +"#footnote1206"><sup>1206</sup></a>—this may have given rise +to myths regarding the rebirth of gods by human mothers. At all +events this latter Celtic belief is paralleled by the American +Indian myths, <i>e.g.</i> of the Thlinkeet god Yehl who transformed +himself now into a pebble, now into a blade of grass, and, being +thus swallowed by women, was reborn.</p> +<p>In the stories of Etain and of Lud, reborn as Setanta, this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page353" id= +"page353"></a>{353}</span> idea of divine transformation and +rebirth occurs. A similar idea may underlie the tale of Fionn and +Mongan. As to the tales of Gwion and the Swineherds, the latter the +servants of gods, and perhaps themselves regarded once as +divinities, who in their rebirth as bulls are certainly divine +animals, they present some features which require further +consideration. The previous transformations in both cases belong to +the Transformation Combat formula of many <i>Märchen</i>, and +obviously were not part of the original form of the myths. In all +such <i>Märchen</i> the antagonists are males, hence the +rebirth incident could not form part of them. In the Welsh tale of +Gwion and in the corresponding Taliesin poem, the ingenious fusion +of the <i>Märchen</i> formula with an existing myth of rebirth +must have taken place at an early date.<a id="footnotetag1207" +name="footnotetag1207"></a><a href= +"#footnote1207"><sup>1207</sup></a> This is also true of <i>The Two +Swineherds</i>, but in this case, since the myth told how two gods +took the form of worms and were reborn of cows, the formula had to +be altered. Both remain alive at the end of the combat, contrary to +the usual formula, because both were males and both were reborn. +The fusion is skilful, because the reborn personages preserve a +remembrance of their former transformations,<a id="footnotetag1208" +name="footnotetag1208"></a><a href= +"#footnote1208"><sup>1208</sup></a> just as Mongan knows of his +former existence as Fionn. In other cases there is no such +remembrance. Etain had forgotten her former existence, and +Cúchulainn does not appear to know that he is a rebirth of +Lug.</p> +<p>The relation of Lug to Cúchulainn deserves further +inquiry. While the god is reborn he is also existing as Lug, just +as <span class="pagenum"><a name="page354" id= +"page354"></a>{354}</span> having been swallowed as a worm by +Dechtire, he appears in his divine form and tells her he will be +born of her. In the <i>Táin</i> he appears fighting for +Cúchulainn, whom he there calls his son. There are thus two +aspects of the hero's relationship to Lug; in one he is a rebirth +of the god, in the other he is his son, as indeed he seems to +represent himself in <i>The Wooing of Emer</i>, and as he is called +by Laborcham just before his death.<a id="footnotetag1209" name= +"footnotetag1209"></a><a href="#footnote1209"><sup>1209</sup></a> +In one of the birth-stories he is clearly Lug's son by Dechtire. +But both versions may simply be different aspects of one belief, +namely, that a god could be reborn as a mortal and yet continue his +divine existence, because all birth is a kind of rebirth. The men +of Ulster sought a wife for Cúchulainn, "knowing that his +rebirth would be of himself," <i>i.e.</i> his son would be himself +even while he continued to exist as his father. Examples of such a +belief occur elsewhere, <i>e.g.</i> in the <i>Laws</i> of Manu, +where the husband is said to be reborn of his wife, and in ancient +Egypt, where the gods were called "self-begotten," because each was +father to the son who was his true image or himself. Likeness +implied identity, in primitive belief. Thus the belief in mortal +descent from the gods among the Celts may have involved the theory +of a divine avatar. The god became father of a mortal by a woman, +and part of himself passed over to the child, who was thus the god +himself.</p> +<p>Conchobar was also a rebirth of a god, but he was named from the +river whence his mother had drawn water containing the worms which +she swallowed. This may point to a lost version in which he was the +son of a river-god by Nessa. This was quite in accordance with +Celtic belief, as is shown by such names as Dubrogenos, from +<i>dubron</i>, "water," and <i>genos</i>, "born of"; Divogenos, +Divogena, "son or daughter of a god," possibly a river-god, since +<i>deivos</i> is a frequent river <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page355" id="page355"></a>{355}</span> name; and Rhenogenus, "son +of the Rhine."<a id="footnotetag1210" name= +"footnotetag1210"></a><a href="#footnote1210"><sup>1210</sup></a> +The persons who first bore these names were believed to have been +begotten by divinities. Mongan's descent from Manannan, god of the +sea, is made perfectly clear, and the Welsh name Morgen = +<i>Morigenos</i>, "son of the sea," probably points to a similar +tale now lost. Other Celtic names are frequently pregnant with +meaning, and tell of a once-existing rich mythology of divine +<i>amours</i> with mortals. They show descent from +deities—Camulogenus (son of Camulos), Esugenos (son of Esus), +Boduogenus (son of Bodva); or from tree-spirits—Dergen (son +of the oak), Vernogenus (son of the alder); or from divine +animals—Arthgen (son of the bear), Urogenus (son of the +urus).<a id="footnotetag1211" name="footnotetag1211"></a><a href= +"#footnote1211"><sup>1211</sup></a> What was once an epithet +describing divine filiation became later a personal name. So in +Greece names like Apollogenes, Diogenes, and Hermogenes, had once +been epithets of heroes born of Apollo, Zeus, and Hermes.</p> +<p>Thus it was a vital Celtic belief that divinities might unite +with mortals and beget children. Heroes enticed away to Elysium +enjoyed the love of its goddesses—Cúchulainn that of +Fand; Connla, Bran, and Oisin that of unnamed divinities. So, too, +the goddess Morrigan offered herself to Cúchulainn. The +Christian Celts of the fifth century retained this belief, though +in a somewhat altered form. S. Augustine and others describe the +shaggy demons called <i>dusii</i> by the Gauls, who sought the +couches of women in order to gratify their desires.<a id= +"footnotetag1212" name="footnotetag1212"></a><a href= +"#footnote1212"><sup>1212</sup></a> <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page356" id="page356"></a>{356}</span> The <i>dusii</i> are akin +to the <i>incubi</i> and <i>fauni</i>, and do not appear to +represent the higher gods reduced to the form of demons by +Christianity, but rather a species of lesser divinities, once the +object of popular devotion.</p> +<p>These beliefs are also connected with the Celtic notions of +transformation and transmigration—the one signifying the +assuming of another shape for a time, the other the passing over of +the soul or the personality into another body, perhaps one actually +existing, but more usually by actual rebirth. As has been seen, +this power of transformation was claimed by the Druids and by other +persons, or attributed to them, and they were not likely to +minimise their powers, and would probably boast of them on all +occasions. Such boasts are put into the mouths of the Irish +Amairgen and the Welsh Taliesin. As the Milesians were approaching +Ireland, Amairgen sang verses which were perhaps part of a ritual +chant:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"I am the wind which blows over the sea,</p> +<p>I am the wave of the ocean,</p> +<p>I am the bull of seven battles,</p> +<p>I am the eagle on the rock...</p> +<p>I am a boar for courage,</p> +<p>I am a salmon in the water, etc."<a id="footnotetag1213" name= +"footnotetag1213"></a><a href= +"#footnote1213"><sup>1213</sup></a></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Professor Rh[^y]s points out that some of these verses need not +mean actual transformation, but mere likeness, through "a primitive +formation of predicate without the aid of a particle corresponding +to such a word as 'like.'"<a id="footnotetag1214" name= +"footnotetag1214"></a><a href="#footnote1214"><sup>1214</sup></a> +Enough, however, remains to show the claim of the magician. +Taliesin, in many poems, makes similar claims, and says, "I have +been in a multitude of shapes before I assumed a consistent +form"—that of a sword, a tear, a star, an eagle, etc. Then he +was created, without father or mother.<a id="footnotetag1215" name= +"footnotetag1215"></a><a href="#footnote1215"><sup>1215</sup></a> +Similar pretensions are common to the medicine-man everywhere. But +from another <span class="pagenum"><a name="page357" id= +"page357"></a>{357}</span> point of view they may be mere poetic +extravagances such as are common in Celtic poetry.<a id= +"footnotetag1216" name="footnotetag1216"></a><a href= +"#footnote1216"><sup>1216</sup></a> Thus Cúchulainn says: "I +was a hound strong for combat ... their little champion ... the +casket of every secret for the maidens," or, in another place, "I +am the bark buffeted from wave to wave ... the ship after the +losing of its rudder ... the little apple on the top of the tree +that little thought of its falling."<a id="footnotetag1217" name= +"footnotetag1217"></a><a href="#footnote1217"><sup>1217</sup></a> +These are metaphoric descriptions of a comparatively simple kind. +The full-blown bombast appears in the <i>Colloquy of the Two +Sages</i>, where Nede and Fercertne exhaust language in describing +themselves to each other.<a id="footnotetag1218" name= +"footnotetag1218"></a><a href="#footnote1218"><sup>1218</sup></a> +Other Welsh bards besides Taliesin make similar boasts to his, and +Dr. Skene thinks that their claims "may have been mere +bombast."<a id="footnotetag1219" name= +"footnotetag1219"></a><a href="#footnote1219"><sup>1219</sup></a> +Still some current belief in shape-shifting, or even in rebirth, +underlies some of these boastings and gives point to them. +Amairgen's "I am" this or that, suggests the inherent power of +transformation; Taliesin's "I have been," the actual +transformations. Such assertions do not involve "the powerful +pantheistic doctrine which is at once the glory and error of Irish +philosophy," as M. D'Arbois claims,<a id="footnotetag1220" name= +"footnotetag1220"></a><a href="#footnote1220"><sup>1220</sup></a> +else are savage medicine-men, boastful of their shape-shifting +powers, philosophic pantheists. The poems are merely highly +developed forms of primitive beliefs in shape-shifting, such as are +found among all savages and barbaric folk, but expressed in the +boastful language in which the Celt delighted.</p> +<p>How were the successive shape-shiftings effected? To answer this +we shall first look at the story of Tuan Mac Caraill, who survived +from the days of Partholan to those of S. Finnen. He was a decrepit +man at the coming of Nemed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page358" +id="page358"></a>{358}</span> and one night, having lain down to +sleep, he awoke as a stag, and lived in this form to old age. In +the same way he became a boar, a hawk, and a salmon, which was +caught and eaten by Cairell's wife, of whom he was born as Tuan, +with a perfect recollection of his different forms.<a id= +"footnotetag1221" name="footnotetag1221"></a><a href= +"#footnote1221"><sup>1221</sup></a></p> +<p>This story, the invention of a ninth or tenth century Christian +scribe to account for the current knowledge of the many invasions +of Ireland,<a id="footnotetag1222" name= +"footnotetag1222"></a><a href="#footnote1222"><sup>1222</sup></a> +must have been based on pagan myths of a similar kind, involving +successive transformations and a final rebirth. Such a myth may +have been told of Taliesin, recounting his transformations and his +final rebirth, the former being replaced at a later time by the +episode of the Transformation Combat, involving no great lapse of +time. Such a series of successive shapes—of every beast, a +dragon, a wolf, a stag, a salmon, a seal, a swan—were +ascribed to Mongan and foretold by Manannan, and Mongan refers to +some of them in his colloquy with S. Columba—"when I was a +deer ... a salmon ... a seal ... a roving wolf ... a man."<a id= +"footnotetag1223" name="footnotetag1223"></a><a href= +"#footnote1223"><sup>1223</sup></a> Perhaps the complete story was +that of a fabulous hero in human form, who assumed different +shapes, and was finally reborn. But the transformation of an old +man, or an old animal, into new youthful and vigorous forms might +be regarded as a kind of transmigration—an extension of the +transformation idea, but involving no metempsychosis, no passing of +the soul into another body by rebirth. Actual transmigration or +rebirth occurs only at the end of the series, and, as in the case +of Etain, Lug, etc., the pre-existent person is born of a woman +after being swallowed by her. Possibly the transformation belief +has reacted on the other, and <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page359" id="page359"></a>{359}</span> obscured a belief in actual +metempsychosis as a result of the soul of an ancestor passing into +a woman and being reborn as her next child. Add to this that the +soul is often thought of as a tiny animal, and we see how a +<i>point d'appui</i> for the more materialistic belief was +afforded. The insect or worms of the rebirth stories may have been +once forms of the soul. It is easy also to see how, a theory of +conception by swallowing various objects being already in +existence, it might be thought possible that eating a +salmon—a transformed man—would cause his rebirth from +the eater.</p> +<p>The Celts may have had no consistent belief on this subject, the +general idea of the future life being of a different kind. Or +perhaps the various beliefs in transformation, transmigration, +rebirth, and conception by unusual means, are too inextricably +mingled to be separated. The nucleus of the tales seems to be the +possibility of rebirth, and the belief that the soul was still clad +in a bodily form after death and was itself a material thing. But +otherwise some of them are not distinctively Celtic, and have been +influenced by old <i>Märchen</i> formulæ of successive +changes adopted by or forced upon some person, who is finally +reborn. This formulæ is already old in the fourteenth century +B.C. Egyptian story of the <i>Two Brothers</i>.</p> +<p>Such Celtic stories as these may have been known to classical +authors, and have influenced their statements regarding +eschatology. Yet it can hardly be said that the tales themselves +bear witness to a general transmigration doctrine current among the +Celts, since the stories concern divine or heroic personages. Still +the belief may have had a certain currency among them, based on +primitive theories of soul life. Evidence that it existed side by +side with the more general doctrines of the future life may be +found in old or existing folk-belief. In some cases the dead have +an animal form, as in the <i>Voyage of Maelduin</i>, where birds on +an island are said to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page360" id= +"page360"></a>{360}</span> be souls, or in the legend of S. +Maelsuthain, whose pupils appear to him after death as birds.<a id= +"footnotetag1224" name="footnotetag1224"></a><a href= +"#footnote1224"><sup>1224</sup></a> The bird form of the soul after +death is still a current belief in the Hebrides. Butterflies in +Ireland, and moths in Cornwall, and in France bats or butterflies, +are believed to be souls of the dead.<a id="footnotetag1225" name= +"footnotetag1225"></a><a href="#footnote1225"><sup>1225</sup></a> +King Arthur is thought by Cornishmen to have died and to have been +changed into the form of a raven, and in mediæval Wales souls +of the wicked appear as ravens, in Brittany as black dogs, petrels, +or hares, or serve their term of penitence as cows or bulls, or +remain as crows till the day of judgment.<a id="footnotetag1226" +name="footnotetag1226"></a><a href= +"#footnote1226"><sup>1226</sup></a> Unbaptized infants become +birds; drowned sailors appear as beasts or birds; and the souls of +girls deceived by lovers haunt them as hares.<a id= +"footnotetag1227" name="footnotetag1227"></a><a href= +"#footnote1227"><sup>1227</sup></a></p> +<p>These show that the idea of transmigration may not have been +foreign to the Celtic mind, and it may have arisen from the idea +that men assumed their totem animal's shape at death. Some tales of +shape-shifting are probably due to totemism, and it is to be noted +that in Kerry peasants will not eat hares because they contain the +souls of their grandmothers.<a id="footnotetag1228" name= +"footnotetag1228"></a><a href="#footnote1228"><sup>1228</sup></a> +On the other hand, some of these survivals may mean no more than +that the soul itself has already an animal form, in which it would +naturally be seen after death. In Celtic folk-belief the soul is +seen leaving the body in sleep as a bee, butterfly, gnat, mouse, or +mannikin.<a id="footnotetag1229" name= +"footnotetag1229"></a><a href="#footnote1229"><sup>1229</sup></a> +Such a belief is found among most savage races, and might easily be +mistaken for transmigration, or also assist the formation of the +idea of transmigration. Though the folk-survivals show that +transmigration was not <span class="pagenum"><a name="page361" id= +"page361"></a>{361}</span> necessarily alleged of all the dead, it +may have been a sufficiently vital belief to colour the mythology, +as we see from the existing tales, adulterated though these may +have been.</p> +<p>The general belief has its roots in primitive ideas regarding +life and its propagation—ideas which some hold to be +un-Celtic and un-Aryan. But Aryans were "primitive" at some period +of their history, and it would be curious if, while still in a +barbarous condition, they had forgotten their old beliefs. In any +case, if they adopted similar beliefs from non-Aryan people, this +points to no great superiority on their part. Such beliefs +originated the idea of rebirth and transmigration.<a id= +"footnotetag1230" name="footnotetag1230"></a><a href= +"#footnote1230"><sup>1230</sup></a> Nevertheless this was not a +characteristically Celtic eschatological belief; that we find in +the theory that the dead lived on in the body or assumed a body in +another region, probably underground.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1193" name= +"footnote1193"></a><b>Footnote 1193:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1193">(return)</a> +<p>For textual details see Zimmer, <i>Zeit. für Vergl. +Sprach.</i> xxviii. 585 f. The tale is obviously archaic. For a +translation see Leahy, i. 8 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1194" name= +"footnote1194"></a><b>Footnote 1194:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1194">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 134 f.; D'Arbois, v. 22. There is a suggestion in +one of the versions of another story, in which Setanta is child of +Conchobar and his sister Dechtire.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1195" name= +"footnote1195"></a><b>Footnote 1195:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1195">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 245; <i>RC</i> xv. 465; Nutt-Meyer, ii. 69.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1196" name= +"footnote1196"></a><b>Footnote 1196:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1196">(return)</a> +<p>Stowe MS. 992, <i>RC</i> vi. 174; <i>IT</i> ii. 210; D'Arbois, +v. 3f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1197" name= +"footnote1197"></a><b>Footnote 1197:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1197">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 393. Cf. the story of the wife of Cormac, who was +barren till her mother gave her pottage. Then she had a daughter +(<i>RC</i> xxii. 18).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1198" name= +"footnote1198"></a><b>Footnote 1198:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1198">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, i. 45 f., text and translation.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1199" name= +"footnote1199"></a><b>Footnote 1199:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1199">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> 42 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1200" name= +"footnote1200"></a><b>Footnote 1200:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1200">(return)</a> +<p><i>Ibid.</i> 58. The simultaneous birth formula occurs in many +<i>Märchen</i>, though that of the future wife is not +common.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1201" name= +"footnote1201"></a><b>Footnote 1201:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1201">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, i. 52, 57, 85, 87.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1202" name= +"footnote1202"></a><b>Footnote 1202:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1202">(return)</a> +<p><i>ZCP</i> ii. 316 f. Here Mongan comes directly from Elysium, +as does Oisin before meeting S. Patrick.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1203" name= +"footnote1203"></a><b>Footnote 1203:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1203">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 345; O'Grady, ii. 88. Cf. Rees, 331.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1204" name= +"footnote1204"></a><b>Footnote 1204:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1204">(return)</a> +<p>Guest, iii. 356 f.; see p. <a href="#page116">116</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1205" name= +"footnote1205"></a><b>Footnote 1205:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1205">(return)</a> +<p>In some of the tales the small animal still exists independently +after the birth, but this is probably not their primitive form.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1206" name= +"footnote1206"></a><b>Footnote 1206:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1206">(return)</a> +<p>See my <i>Religion: Its Origin and Forms</i>, 76-77.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1207" name= +"footnote1207"></a><b>Footnote 1207:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1207">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 532. After relating various shapes in which he has +been, the poet adds that he has been a grain which a hen received, +and that he rested in her womb as a child. The reference in this +early poem from a fourteenth century MS. shows that the fusion of +the <i>Märchen</i> formula with a myth of rebirth was already +well known. See also Guest, iii. 362, for verses in which the +transformations during the combat are exaggerated.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1208" name= +"footnote1208"></a><b>Footnote 1208:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1208">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 276, 532.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1209" name= +"footnote1209"></a><b>Footnote 1209:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1209">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 67; D'Arbois, v. 331.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1210" name= +"footnote1210"></a><b>Footnote 1210:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1210">(return)</a> +<p>For various forms of <i>geno</i>-, see Holder, i. 2002; Stokes, +<i>US</i> 110.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1211" name= +"footnote1211"></a><b>Footnote 1211:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1211">(return)</a> +<p>For all these names see Holder, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1212" name= +"footnote1212"></a><b>Footnote 1212:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1212">(return)</a> +<p>S. Aug. <i>de Civ. Dei</i>, xv. 23; Isidore, <i>Orat.</i> viii. +2. 103. <i>Dusios</i> may be connected with Lithuanian +<i>dvaese</i>, "spirit," and perhaps with [Greek: Thehos] (Holder, +<i>s.v.</i>). D'Arbois sees in the <i>dusii</i> water-spirits, and +compares river-names like Dhuys, Duseva, Dusius (vi. 182; <i>RC</i> +xix. 251). The word may be connected with Irish <i>duis</i>, +glossed "noble" (Stokes, <i>TIG</i> 76). The Bretons still believe +in fairies called <i>duz</i>, and our word <i>dizzy</i> may be +connected with <i>dusios</i>, and would then have once signified +the madness following on the <i>amour</i>, like Greek [Greek: +nympholeptos], or "the inconvenience of their succubi," described +by Kirk in his <i>Secret Commonwealth of the Elves</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1213" name= +"footnote1213"></a><b>Footnote 1213:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1213">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 12<i>b</i>; <i>TOS</i> v. 234.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1214" name= +"footnote1214"></a><b>Footnote 1214:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1214">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 549.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1215" name= +"footnote1215"></a><b>Footnote 1215:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1215">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 276, 309, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1216" name= +"footnote1216"></a><b>Footnote 1216:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1216">(return)</a> +<p>Sigerson, <i>Bards of the Gael</i>, 379.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1217" name= +"footnote1217"></a><b>Footnote 1217:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1217">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 288; Hyde, <i>Lit. Hist. of Ireland</i>, 300.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1218" name= +"footnote1218"></a><b>Footnote 1218:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1218">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> xxvi. 21.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1219" name= +"footnote1219"></a><b>Footnote 1219:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1219">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, ii. 506.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1220" name= +"footnote1220"></a><b>Footnote 1220:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1220">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 246, where he also derives Erigena's pantheism +from Celtic beliefs, such as he supposes to be exemplified by these +poems.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1221" name= +"footnote1221"></a><b>Footnote 1221:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1221">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 15<i>a</i>; D'Arbois, ii. 47 f.; Nutt-Meyer, ii. 294 +f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1222" name= +"footnote1222"></a><b>Footnote 1222:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1222">(return)</a> +<p>Another method of accounting for this knowledge was to imagine a +long-lived personage like Fintan who survived for 5000 years. +D'Arbois, ii. ch. 4. Here there was no transformation or +rebirth.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1223" name= +"footnote1223"></a><b>Footnote 1223:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1223">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, i. 24; <i>ZCP</i> ii. 316.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1224" name= +"footnote1224"></a><b>Footnote 1224:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1224">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 78.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1225" name= +"footnote1225"></a><b>Footnote 1225:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1225">(return)</a> +<p>Wood-Martin, <i>Pagan Ireland</i>, 140; <i>Choice Notes</i>, 61; +Monnier, 143; Maury, 272.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1226" name= +"footnote1226"></a><b>Footnote 1226:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1226">(return)</a> +<p><i>Choice Notes</i>, 69; Rees, 92; Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, ii. 82, +86, 307; <i>Rev. des Trad. Pop.</i> xii. 394.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1227" name= +"footnote1227"></a><b>Footnote 1227:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1227">(return)</a> +<p>Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, ii. 80; <i>Folk-lore Jour.</i> v. 189.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1228" name= +"footnote1228"></a><b>Footnote 1228:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1228">(return)</a> +<p><i>Folk-Lore</i>, iv. 352.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1229" name= +"footnote1229"></a><b>Footnote 1229:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1229">(return)</a> +<p>Carmichael, <i>Carm. Gadel.</i> ii. 334; Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> +602; Le Braz<sup>2</sup>, i. 179, 191, 200.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1230" name= +"footnote1230"></a><b>Footnote 1230:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1230">(return)</a> +<p>Mr. Nutt, <i>Voyage of Bran</i>, derived the origin of the +rebirth conception from orgiastic cults.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page362" id= +"page362"></a>{362}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2><a name="chap24" id="chap24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></h2> +<h3>ELYSIUM.</h3> +<p>The Celtic conception of Elysium, the product at once of +religion, mythology, and romantic imagination, is found in a series +of Irish and Welsh tales. We do not know that a similar conception +existed among the continental Celts, but, considering the likeness +of their beliefs in other matters to those of the insular Celts, +there is a strong probability that it did. There are four typical +presentations of the Elysium conception. In Ireland, while the gods +were believed to have retired within the hills or +<i>síd</i>, it is not unlikely that some of them had always +been supposed to live in these or in a subterranean world, and it +is therefore possible that what may be called the subterranean or +<i>síd</i> type of Elysium is old. But other types also +appear—that of a western island Elysium, of a world below the +waters, and of a world co-extensive with this and entered by a +mist.</p> +<p>The names of the Irish Elysium are sometimes of a general +character—Mag Mór, "the Great Plain"; Mag Mell, "the +Pleasant Plain"; Tír n'Aill, "the Other-world"; Tir na +m-Beo, "the Land of the Living"; Tír na n-Og, "the Land of +Youth"; and Tír Tairngiri, "the Land of +Promise"—possibly of Christian origin. Local names are +Tír fa Tonn, "Land under Waves"; I-Bresail and the Land of +Falga, names of the island Elysium. The last denotes the Isle of +Man as Elysium, and it may have been so regarded by Goidels in +Britain at an <span class="pagenum"><a name="page363" id= +"page363"></a>{363}</span> early time.<a id="footnotetag1231" name= +"footnotetag1231"></a><a href="#footnote1231"><sup>1231</sup></a> +To this period may belong the tales of Cúchulainn's raid on +Falga, carried at a later time to Ireland. Tír Tairngiri is +also identified with the Isle of Man.<a id="footnotetag1232" name= +"footnotetag1232"></a><a href= +"#footnote1232"><sup>1232</sup></a></p> +<p>A brief résumé of the principal Elysium tales is +necessary as a preliminary to a discussion of the problems which +they involve, though it can give but little idea of the beauty and +romanticism of the tales themselves. These, if not actually +composed in pagan times, are based upon story-germs current before +the coming of Christianity to Ireland.</p> +<p>1. <i>The síd Elysium.</i>—In the story of Etain, +when Mider discovered her in her rebirth, he described the land +whither he would carry her, its music and its fair people, its warm +streams, its choice mead and wine. There is eternal youth, and love +is blameless. It is within Mider's <i>síd</i>, and Etain +accompanies him there. In the sequel King Eochaid's Druid discovers +the <i>síd</i>, which is captured by the king, who then +regains Etain.<a id="footnotetag1233" name= +"footnotetag1233"></a><a href="#footnote1233"><sup>1233</sup></a> +Other tales refer to the <i>síd</i> in similar terms, and +describe its treasures, its food and drink better than those of +earth. It is in most respects similar to the island Elysium, save +that it is localised on earth.</p> +<p>2. <i>The island Elysium.</i>—The story of the voyage of +Bran is found fragmentarily in the eleventh century <i>LU</i>, and +complete in the fourteenth and sixteenth century MSS. It tells how +Bran heard mysterious music when asleep. On waking he found a +silver branch with blossoms, and next day there appeared a +mysterious woman singing the glory of the land overseas, its music, +its wonderful tree, its freedom from pain and death. It is one of +thrice fifty islands to the west of Erin, and there she dwells with +thousands of "motley women." Before she disappears the branch leaps +into her hand. Bran <span class="pagenum"><a name="page364" id= +"page364"></a>{364}</span> set sail with his comrades and met +Manannan crossing the sea in his chariot. The god told him that the +sea was a flowery plain, Mag Mell, and that all around, unseen to +Bran, were people playing and drinking "without sin." He bade him +sail on to the Land of Women. Then the voyagers went on and reached +the Isle of Joy, where one of their number remained behind. At last +they came to the Land of Women, and we hear of their welcome, the +dreamlike lapse of time, the food and drink which had for each the +taste he desired. Finally the tale recounts their home-sickness, +the warning they received not to set foot on Erin, how one of their +number leaped ashore and turned to ashes, how Bran from his boat +told of his wanderings and then disappeared for ever.<a id= +"footnotetag1234" name="footnotetag1234"></a><a href= +"#footnote1234"><sup>1234</sup></a></p> +<p>Another story tells how Connla was visited by a goddess from Mag +Mell. Her people dwell in a <i>síd</i> and are called "men +of the <i>síd</i>." She invites him to go to the immortal +land, and departs, leaving him an apple, which supports him for a +month without growing less. Then she reappears and tells Connla +that "the Ever-Living Ones" desire him to join them. She bids him +come with her to the Land of Joy where there are only women. He +steps into her crystal boat and vanishes from his father and the +Druid who has vainly tried to exercise his spells against +her.<a id="footnotetag1235" name="footnotetag1235"></a><a href= +"#footnote1235"><sup>1235</sup></a> In this tale there is a +confusion between the <i>síd</i> and the island Elysium.</p> +<p>The eighteenth century poem of Oisin in Tír na n-Og is +probably based on old legends, and describes how Niam, daughter of +the king of Tír na n-Og, placed <i>geasa</i> on Oisin to +accompany her to that land of immortal youth and beauty. He mounted +on her steed, which plunged forwards across the sea, and brought +them to the land where Oisin spent three <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page365" id="page365"></a>{365}</span> hundred +years before returning to Ireland, and there suffering, as has been +seen, from the breaking of the tabu not to set foot on the soil of +Erin.<a id="footnotetag1236" name="footnotetag1236"></a><a href= +"#footnote1236"><sup>1236</sup></a></p> +<p>In <i>Serglige Conculaind</i>, "Cúchulainn's Sickness," +the goddess Fand, deserted by Manannan, offers herself to the hero +if he will help her sister's husband Labraid against his enemies in +Mag Mell. Labraid lives in an island frequented by troops of women, +and possessing an inexhaustible vat of mead and trees with magic +fruit. It is reached with marvellous speed in a boat of bronze. +After a preliminary visit by his charioteer Laeg, Cúchulainn +goes thither, vanquishes Labraid's foes, and remains a month with +Fand. He returns to Ireland, and now we hear of the struggle for +him between his wife Emer and Fand. But Manannan suddenly appears, +reawakens Fand's love, and she departs with him. The god shakes his +cloak between her and Cúchulainn to prevent their ever +meeting again.<a id="footnotetag1237" name= +"footnotetag1237"></a><a href="#footnote1237"><sup>1237</sup></a> +In this story Labraid, Fand, and Liban, Fand's sister, though +dwellers on an island Elysium, are called <i>síd</i>-folk. +The two regions are partially confused, but not wholly, since +Manannan is described as coming from his own land (Elysium) to woo +Fand. Apparently Labraid of the Swift Hand on the Sword (who, +though called "chief of the <i>síde</i>", is certainly a +war-god) is at enmity with Manannan's hosts, and it is these with +whom Cúchulainn has to fight.<a id="footnotetag1238" name= +"footnotetag1238"></a><a href= +"#footnote1238"><sup>1238</sup></a></p> +<p>In an Ossianic tale several of the Fians were carried off to the +Land of Promise. After many adventures, Fionn, Diarmaid, and others +discover them, and threaten to destroy the land if they are not +restored. Its king, Avarta, agrees to the restoration, and with +fifteen of his men carries the Fians to Erin on one <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page366" id="page366"></a>{366}</span> horse. +Having reached there, he bids them look at a certain field, and +while they are doing so, he and his men disappear.<a id= +"footnotetag1239" name="footnotetag1239"></a><a href= +"#footnote1239"><sup>1239</sup></a></p> +<p>3. <i>Land under Waves.</i>—Fiachna, of the men of the +<i>síd</i>, appeared to the men of Connaught, and begged +their help against Goll, who had abducted his wife. Loegaire and +his men dive with Fiachna into Loch Naneane, and reach a wonderful +land, with marvellous music and where the rain is ale. They and the +<i>síd</i>-folk attack the fort of Mag Mell and defeat Goll. +Each then obtains a woman of the <i>síde</i>, but at the end +of a year they become homesick. They are warned not to descend from +horseback in Erin. Arrived among their own people, they describe +the marvels of Tír fa Tonn, and then return there, and are +no more seen.<a id="footnotetag1240" name= +"footnotetag1240"></a><a href="#footnote1240"><sup>1240</sup></a> +Here, again, the <i>síd</i> Elysium and Land under Waves are +confused, and the divine tribes are at war, as in the story of +Cúchulainn.</p> +<p>In a section of the Ossianic tale just cited, Fionn and his men +arrive on an island, where Diarmaid reaches a beautiful country at +the bottom of a well. This is Tír fa Tonn, and Diarmaid +fights its king who has usurped his nephew's inheritance, and thus +recovers it for him.<a id="footnotetag1241" name= +"footnotetag1241"></a><a href= +"#footnote1241"><sup>1241</sup></a></p> +<p>4. <i>Co-extensive with this world.</i>—An early example +of this type is found in the <i>Adventures of Cormac</i>. A divine +visitant appeared to Cormac and gave him in exchange for his wife, +son, and daughter, his branch of golden apples, which when shaken +produced sweetest music, dispelling sorrow. After a year Cormac set +out to seek his family, and as he journeyed encountered a mist in +which he discovered a strange house. Its master and +mistress—Manannan and his consort—offered him shelter. +The god brought in a pig, every quarter of which <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page367" id="page367"></a>{367}</span> was +cooked in the telling of a true tale, the pig afterwards coming to +life again. Cormac, in his tale, described how he had lost his +family, whereupon Manannan made him sleep, and brought his wife and +children in. Later he produced a cup which broke when a lie was +told, but became whole again when a true word was spoken. The god +said Cormac's wife had now a new husband, and the cup broke, but +was restored when the goddess declared this to be a lie. Next +morning all had disappeared, and Cormac and his family found +themselves in his own palace, with cup and branch by their +side.<a id="footnotetag1242" name="footnotetag1242"></a><a href= +"#footnote1242"><sup>1242</sup></a> Similarly, in <i>The Champion's +Ecstasy</i>, a mysterious horseman appears out of a mist to Conn +and leads him to a palace, where he reveals himself as the god Lug, +and where there is a woman called "the Sovereignty of Erin." Beside +the palace is a golden tree.<a id="footnotetag1243" name= +"footnotetag1243"></a><a href="#footnote1243"><sup>1243</sup></a> +In the story of Bran, Mag Mell is said to be all around the hero, +though he knows it not—an analogous conception to what is +found in these tales, and another instance is that of the +mysterious house entered by Conchobar and Dechtire.<a id= +"footnotetag1244" name="footnotetag1244"></a><a href= +"#footnote1244"><sup>1244</sup></a> Mag Mell may thus have been +regarded as a mysterious district of Erin. This magic mist +enclosing a marvellous dwelling occurs in many other tales, and it +was in a mist that the Tuatha Déa came to Ireland.</p> +<p>A certain correspondence to these Irish beliefs is found in +Brythonic story, but here the Elysium conception has been +influenced by Christian ideas. Elysium is called <i>Annwfn</i>, +meaning "an abyss," "the state of the dead," "hell," and it is also +conceived of as <i>is elfydd</i>, "beneath the earth."<a id= +"footnotetag1245" name="footnotetag1245"></a><a href= +"#footnote1245"><sup>1245</sup></a> But in the tales it bears no +likeness to these meanings of the word, save in so far as it has +been confused by their Christian redactors with hell. It is a +region on the earth's surface or <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page368" id="page368"></a>{368}</span> an over-or under-sea world, +in which some of the characteristics of the Irish Elysium are +found—a cauldron, a well of drink sweeter than wine, and +animals greatly desired by mortals, while it is of great beauty and +its people are not subject to death or disease. Hence the name +<i>Annwfn</i> has probably taken the place of some earlier pagan +title of Elysium.</p> +<p>In the tale of Pwyll, the earliest reference to <i>Annwfn</i> +occurs. It is ruled by Arawn, at war with Hafgan. Arawn obtains the +help of Pwyll by exchanging kingdoms with him for a year, and Pwyll +defeats Hafgan. It is a beautiful land, where merriment and +feasting go on continuously, and its queen is of great loveliness. +It has no subterranean character, and is conceived apparently as +contiguous to Pwyll's kingdom.<a id="footnotetag1246" name= +"footnotetag1246"></a><a href="#footnote1246"><sup>1246</sup></a> +In other tales it is the land whence Gwydion and others obtain +various animals.<a id="footnotetag1247" name= +"footnotetag1247"></a><a href="#footnote1247"><sup>1247</sup></a> +The later folk-conception of the demoniac dogs of Annwfn may be +based on an old myth of dogs with which its king hunted. These are +referred to in the story of Pwyll.<a id="footnotetag1248" name= +"footnotetag1248"></a><a href= +"#footnote1248"><sup>1248</sup></a></p> +<p><i>Annwfn</i> is also the name of a land under waves or over +sea, called also <i>Caer Sidi</i>, "the revolving castle," about +which "are ocean's streams." It is "known to Manawyddan and +Pryderi," just as the Irish Elysium was ruled by Manannan.<a id= +"footnotetag1249" name="footnotetag1249"></a><a href= +"#footnote1249"><sup>1249</sup></a> Another "Caer of Defence" is +beneath the waves.<a id="footnotetag1250" name= +"footnotetag1250"></a><a href="#footnote1250"><sup>1250</sup></a> +Perhaps the two ideas were interchangeable. The people of this land +are free from death and disease, and in it is "an abundant well, +sweeter than white wine the drink in it." There also is a cauldron +belonging to the lord of Annwfn, which was stolen by Arthur and his +men. Such a cauldron is the property of people belonging to a water +world in the <i>Mabinogion</i>.<a id="footnotetag1251" name= +"footnotetag1251"></a><a href= +"#footnote1251"><sup>1251</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page369" id= +"page369"></a>{369}</span> +<p>The description of the isle of Avallon (later identified with +Glastonbury), whither Arthur was carried, completes the likeness to +the Irish Elysium. No tempest, excess of heat or cold, nor noxious +animal afflicts it; it is blessed with eternal spring and with +fruit and flowers growing without labour; it is the land of eternal +youth, unvisited by death or disease. It has a <i>regia virgo</i> +lovelier than her lovely attendants; she cured Arthur of his +wounds, hence she is the Morgen of other tales, and she and her +maidens may be identified with the divine women of the Irish isle +of women. Morgen is called a <i>dea phantastica</i>, and she may be +compared with Liban, who cured Cúchulainn of his +sickness.<a id="footnotetag1252" name= +"footnotetag1252"></a><a href="#footnote1252"><sup>1252</sup></a></p> +<p>The identification of Avallon with Glastonbury is probably +post-pagan, and the names applied to Glastonbury—Avallon, +<i>Insula Pomonum</i>, <i>Insula vitrea</i>—may be primitive +names of Elysium. William of Malmesbury derives <i>Insula +Pomonum</i> in its application to Glastonbury from a native name +<i>Insula Avallonioe</i>, which he connects with the Brythonic +<i>avalla</i>, "apples," because Glastenig found an apple tree +there.<a id="footnotetag1253" name="footnotetag1253"></a><a href= +"#footnote1253"><sup>1253</sup></a> The name may thus have been +connected with marvellous apple trees, like those of the Irish +Elysium. But he also suggests that it may be derived from the name +of Avalloc, living there with his daughters. Avalloc is evidently +the "Rex Avallon" (Avallach) to whose palace Arthur was carried and +healed by the <i>regia virgo</i>.<a id="footnotetag1254" name= +"footnotetag1254"></a><a href="#footnote1254"><sup>1254</sup></a> +He may therefore have been a mythic lord of Elysium, and his +daughters would correspond to the maidens of the isle. William also +derives "Glastonbury" from the name of an eponymous founder +Glastenig, or from its native name <i>Ynesuuitron</i>, "Glass +Island." This name <span class="pagenum"><a name="page370" id= +"page370"></a>{370}</span> reappears in Chretien's <i>Eric</i> in +the form "l'isle de verre." Giraldus explains the name from the +glassy waters around Glastonbury, but it may be an early name of +Elysium.<a id="footnotetag1255" name="footnotetag1255"></a><a href= +"#footnote1255"><sup>1255</sup></a> Glass must have appealed to the +imagination of Celt, Teuton, and Slav, for we hear of Merlin's +glass house, a glass fort discovered by Arthur, a glass tower +attacked by the Milesians, Etain's glass <i>grianan</i>, and a boat +of glass which conveyed Connla to Elysium. In Teutonic and Slavonic +myth and <i>Märchen</i>, glass mountains, on which dwell +mysterious personages, frequently occur.</p> +<p>The origin of the Celtic Elysium belief may be found in +universal myths of a golden age long ago in some distant Elysian +region, where men had lived with the gods. Into that region brave +mortals might still penetrate, though it was lost to mankind as a +whole. In some mythologies this Elysium is the land whither men go +after death. Possibly the Celtic myth of man's early intercourse +with the gods in a lost region took two forms. In one it was a +joyful subterranean region whither the Celt hoped to go after +death. In the other it was not recoverable, nor was it the land of +the dead, but favoured mortals might reach it in life. The Celtic +Elysium belief, as known through the tales just cited, is always of +this second kind. We surmise, however, that the land of the dead +was a joyous underworld ruled over by a god of fertility and of the +dead, and from that region men had originally come forth. The later +association of gods with the <i>síd</i> was a continuation +of this belief, but now the <i>síd</i> are certainly not a +land of the dead, but Elysium pure and simple. There must therefore +have been at an early period a tendency to distinguish between the +happy region of the dead, and the distant Elysium, if the two were +ever really connected. The subject is obscure, but it is not +impossible that another origin of the Elysium idea may <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page371" id="page371"></a>{371}</span> be found +in the phenomenon of the setting sun: it suggested to the +continental Celts that far off there was a divine land where the +sun-god rested. When the Celts reached the coast this divine +western land would necessarily be located in a far-off island, seen +perhaps on the horizon. Hence it would also be regarded as +connected with the sea-god, Manannan, or by whatsoever name he was +called. The distant Elysium, whether on land or across the sea, was +conceived in identical terms, and hence also whenever the hollow +hills or <i>síd</i> were regarded as an abode of the gods, +they also were described just as Elysium was.</p> +<p>The idea of a world under the waters is common to many +mythologies, and, generally speaking, it originated in the +animistic belief that every part of nature has its indwelling +spirits. Hence the spirits or gods of the waters were thought of as +dwelling below the waters. Tales of supernatural beings appearing +out of the waters, the custom of throwing offerings therein, the +belief that human beings were carried below the surface or could +live in the region beneath the waves, are all connected with this +animistic idea. Among the Celts this water-world assumed many +aspects of Elysium, and it has names in common with it, <i>e.g.</i> +it is called Mag Mell. Hence in many popular tales it is hardly +differentiated from the island Elysium; oversea and under-waves are +often synonymous. Hence, too, the belief that such water-worlds as +I-Bresail, or Welsh fairy-lands, or sunken cities off the Breton +coast, rise periodically to the surface, and would remain there +permanently, like an island Elysium, if some mortal would fulfil +certain conditions.<a id="footnotetag1256" name= +"footnotetag1256"></a><a href= +"#footnote1256"><sup>1256</sup></a></p> +<p>The Celtic belief in Tír fa Tonn is closely connected +with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page372" id= +"page372"></a>{372}</span> the current belief in submerged towns or +lands, found in greatest detail on the Breton coast. Here there are +many such legends, but most prominent are those which tell how the +town of Is was submerged because of the wickedness of its people, +or of Dahut, its king's daughter, who sometimes still seeks the +love of mortals. It is occasionally seen below the waves or even on +their surface.<a id="footnotetag1257" name= +"footnotetag1257"></a><a href="#footnote1257"><sup>1257</sup></a> +Elsewhere in Celtic regions similar legends are found, and the +submersion is the result of a curse, of the breaking of a tabu, or +of neglect to cover a sacred well.<a id="footnotetag1258" name= +"footnotetag1258"></a><a href="#footnote1258"><sup>1258</sup></a> +Probably the tradition of actual cataclysms or inroads of the sea, +such as the Celts encountered on the coasts of Holland, may account +for some of these legends, which then mingled with myths of the +divine water-world.</p> +<p>The idea that Elysium is co-extensive with this world and hidden +in a mist is perhaps connected with the belief in the magical +powers of the gods. As the Druids could raise a mist at will, so +too might the gods, who then created a temporary Elysium in it. +From such a mist, usually on a hill, supernatural beings often +emerged to meet mortals, and in <i>Märchen</i> fairyland is +sometimes found within a mist.<a id="footnotetag1259" name= +"footnotetag1259"></a><a href="#footnote1259"><sup>1259</sup></a> +It was already believed that part of the gods' land was not far +off; it was invisibly on or within the hills on whose slopes men +saw the mist swirling mysteriously. Hence the mist may simply have +concealed the <i>síd</i> of the gods. But there may also +have been a belief that this world was actually interpenetrated by +the divine world, for this is believed of fairyland in Welsh and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page373" id= +"page373"></a>{373}</span> Irish folk-lore. Men may unwittingly +interfere with it, or have it suddenly revealed to them, or be +carried into it and made invisible.<a id="footnotetag1260" name= +"footnotetag1260"></a><a href= +"#footnote1260"><sup>1260</sup></a></p> +<p>In most of the tales Elysium is a land without grief or death, +where there is immortal youth and peace, and every kind of delight. +But in some, while the sensuous delights are still the same, the +inhabitants are at war, invite the aid of mortals to overcome their +foes, and are even slain in fight. Still in both groups Elysium is +a land of gods and supernatural folk whither mortals are invited by +favour. It is never the world of the dead; its people are not +mortals who have died and gone thither. The two conceptions of +Elysium as a land of peace and deathlessness, and as a land where +war and death may occur, may both be primitive. The latter may have +been formed by reflecting back on the divine world the actions of +the world of mortals, and it would also be on a parallel with the +conception of the world of the dead where warriors perhaps still +fought, since they were buried with their weapons. There were also +myths of gods warring with each other. But men may also have felt +that the gods were not as themselves, that their land must be one +of peace and deathlessness. Hence the idea of the peaceful Elysium, +which perhaps found most favour with the people. Mr. Nutt thought +that the idea of a warlike Elysium may have resulted from +Scandinavian influence acting on existing tales of a peaceful +Elysium,<a id="footnotetag1261" name="footnotetag1261"></a><a href= +"#footnote1261"><sup>1261</sup></a> but we know that old myths of +divine wars already existed. Perhaps this conception arose among +the Celts as a warlike people, appealing to their warrior +instincts, while the peaceful Elysium may have been the product of +the Celts as an agricultural folk, for we have seen that the Celt +was now a fighter, now a farmer. In its peaceful aspect Elysium is +"a familiar, cultivated land," where the fruits of the earth are +produced without <span class="pagenum"><a name="page374" id= +"page374"></a>{374}</span> labour, and where there are no storms or +excess of heat or cold—the fancies which would appeal to a +toiling, agricultural people. There food is produced magically, yet +naturally, and in agricultural ritual men sought to increase their +food supply magically. In the tales this process is, so to speak, +heightened.<a id="footnotetag1262" name= +"footnotetag1262"></a><a href= +"#footnote1262"><sup>1262</sup></a></p> +<p>Some writers have maintained that Elysium is simply the land of +the dead, although nothing in the existing tales justifies this +interpretation. M. D'Arbois argues for this view, resting his +theory mainly on a passage in the story of Connla, interpreted by +him in a way which does not give its real meaning.<a id= +"footnotetag1263" name="footnotetag1263"></a><a href= +"#footnote1263"><sup>1263</sup></a> The words are spoken by the +goddess to Connla, and their sense is—"The Ever-Living Ones +invite thee. Thou art a champion to Tethra's people. They see thee +every day in the assemblies of thy fatherland, among thy familiar +loved ones."<a id="footnotetag1264" name= +"footnotetag1264"></a><a href="#footnote1264"><sup>1264</sup></a> +M. D'Arbois assumes that Tethra, a Fomorian, is lord of Elysium, +and that after his defeat by the Tuatha Déa, he, like +Kronos, took refuge there, and now reigns as lord of the dead. By +translating <i>ar-dot-chiat</i> ("they see thee," 3rd plur., pres. +ind.) as "on t'y verra," he maintains that Connla, by going to +Elysium, will be seen among the gatherings of his dead kinsfolk. +But the words, "Thou art a champion to Tethra's people," cannot be +made to mean that Tethra is a god of the dead. It means simply that +Connla is a mighty warrior, one of those whom Tethra, a war-god, +would have approved. The phrase, "Tethra's mighty men," used +elsewhere,<a id="footnotetag1265" name= +"footnotetag1265"></a><a href="#footnote1265"><sup>1265</sup></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page375" id= +"page375"></a>{375}</span> is a conventional one for warriors. The +rest of the goddess's words imply that the Immortals from afar, or +perhaps "Tethra's mighty men," <i>i.e.</i> warriors in this world, +see Connla in the assemblies of his fatherland in Erin, among his +familiar friends. Dread death awaits <i>them</i>, she has just +said, but the Immortals desire Connla to escape that by coming to +Elysium. Her words do not imply that he will meet his dead +ancestors there, nor is she in any sense a goddess of death. If the +dead went to Elysium, there would be little need for inviting a +living person to go there. Had Connla's dead ancestors or Tethra's +people (warriors) been in Elysium, this would contradict the +picture drawn by the goddess of the land whither she desires him to +go—a land of women, not of men. Moreover, the rulers of +Elysium are always members of the Tuatha Dé Danann or the +<i>síd</i>-folk, never a Fomorian like Tethra.<a id= +"footnotetag1266" name="footnotetag1266"></a><a href= +"#footnote1266"><sup>1266</sup></a></p> +<p>M. D'Arbois also assumes that "Spain" in Nennius' account of the +Irish invasions and in Irish texts means the land of the dead, and +that it was introduced in place of some such title as Mag +Mór or Mag Mell by "the euhemerising process of the Irish +Christians." But in other documents penned by Irish Christians +these and other pagan titles of Elysium remain unchanged. Nor is +there the slightest proof that the words used by Tuan MacCaraill +about the invaders of Ireland, "They all died," were rendered in an +original text, now lost according to M. D'Arbois, "They set sail +for Mag Mór or Mag Mell," a formula in which Nennius saw +indications of a return to Spain.<a id="footnotetag1267" name= +"footnotetag1267"></a><a href="#footnote1267"><sup>1267</sup></a> +Spain, in this hypothetical text, was the Land of the Dead or +Elysium, whence the invaders <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page376" id="page376"></a>{376}</span> came. This "lost original" +exists in M. D'Arbois imagination, and there is not the slightest +evidence for these alterations. Once, indeed, Tailtiu is called +daughter of Magh Mór, King of Spain, but here a person, not +a place, is spoken of.<a id="footnotetag1268" name= +"footnotetag1268"></a><a href="#footnote1268"><sup>1268</sup></a> +Sir John Rh[^y]s accepts the identification of Spain with Elysium +as the land of the dead, and finds in every reference to Spain a +reference to the Other-world, which he regards as a region ruled by +"dark divinities." But neither the lords of Elysium nor the Celtic +Dispater were dark or gloomy deities, and the land of the dead was +certainly not a land of darkness any more than Elysium. The +numerous references to Spain probably point to old traditions +regarding a connection between Spain and Ireland in early times, +both commercial and social, and it is not impossible that Goidelic +invaders did reach Ireland from Spain.<a id="footnotetag1269" name= +"footnotetag1269"></a><a href="#footnote1269"><sup>1269</sup></a> +Early maps and geographers make Ireland and Spain contiguous; hence +in an Irish tale Ireland is visible from Spain, and this +geographical error would strengthen existing traditions.<a id= +"footnotetag1270" name="footnotetag1270"></a><a href= +"#footnote1270"><sup>1270</sup></a> "Spain" was used vaguely, but +it does not appear to have meant Elysium or the Land of the Dead. +If it did, it is strange that the Tuatha Dé Danann are never +brought into connection with it.</p> +<p>One of the most marked characteristics of the Celtic Elysium is +its deathlessness. It is "the land of the living" or of "the +Ever-Living Ones," and of eternal youth. Most primitive races +believe that death is an accident befalling men who are naturally +immortal; hence freedom from such an accident naturally +characterises the people of the divine land. But, as in other +mythologies, that immortality is more or less dependent on the +eating or drinking of some <span class="pagenum"><a name="page377" +id="page377"></a>{377}</span> food or drink of immortality. +Manannan had immortal swine, which, killed one day, came alive next +day, and with their flesh he made the Tuatha Dé Danann +immortal. Immortality was also conferred by the drinking of +Goibniu's ale, which, either by itself or with the flesh of swine, +formed his immortal feast. The food of Elysium was inexhaustible, +and whoever ate it found it to possess that taste which he +preferred. The fruit of certain trees in Elysium was also believed +to confer immortality and other qualities. Laeg saw one hundred and +fifty trees growing in Mag Mell; their nuts fed three hundred +people. The apple given by the goddess to Connla was inexhaustible, +and he was still eating it with her when Teigue, son of Cian, +visited Elysium. "When once they had partaken of it, nor age nor +dimness could affect them."<a id="footnotetag1271" name= +"footnotetag1271"></a><a href="#footnote1271"><sup>1271</sup></a> +Apples, crimson nuts, and rowan berries are specifically said to be +the food of the gods in the tale of <i>Diarmaid and Grainne</i>. +Through carelessness one of the berries was dropped on earth, and +from it grew a tree, the berries of which had the effect of wine or +mead, and three of them eaten by a man of a hundred years made him +youthful. It was guarded by a giant.<a id="footnotetag1272" name= +"footnotetag1272"></a><a href="#footnote1272"><sup>1272</sup></a> A +similar tree growing on earth—a rowan guarded by a dragon, is +found in the tale of Fraoch, who was bidden to bring a branch of it +to Ailill. Its berries had the virtue of nine meals; they healed +the wounded, and added a year to a man's life.<a id= +"footnotetag1273" name="footnotetag1273"></a><a href= +"#footnote1273"><sup>1273</sup></a> At the wells which were the +source of Irish rivers were supposed to grow hazel-trees with +crimson nuts, which fell into the water and were eaten by +salmon.<a id="footnotetag1274" name="footnotetag1274"></a><a href= +"#footnote1274"><sup>1274</sup></a> If these were caught and eaten, +the eater obtained wisdom and knowledge. These wells were in Erin, +but in some instances <span class="pagenum"><a name="page378" id= +"page378"></a>{378}</span> the well with its hazels and salmon is +in the Other-world,<a id="footnotetag1275" name= +"footnotetag1275"></a><a href="#footnote1275"><sup>1275</sup></a> +and it is obvious that the crimson nuts are the same as the food of +the gods in <i>Diarmaid and Grainne</i>.</p> +<p>Why should immortality be dependent on the eating of certain +foods? Most of man's irrational ideas have some reason in them, and +probably man's knowledge that without food life would come to an +end, joined to his idea of deathlessness, led him to believe that +there was a certain food which produced immortality just as +ordinary food supported life. On it gods and deathless beings were +fed. Similarly, as water cleansed and invigorated, it was thought +that some special kind of water had these powers in a marvellous +degree. Hence arose the tales of the Fountain of Youth and the +belief in healing wells. From the knowledge of the nourishing power +of food, sprang the idea that some food conferred the qualities +inherent in it, <i>e.g.</i> the flesh of divine animals eaten +sacramentally, and that gods obtained their immortality from eating +or drinking. This idea is widespread. The Babylonian gods had food +and water of Life; Egyptian myth spoke of the bread and beer of +eternity which nourished the gods; the Hindus and Iranians knew of +the divine <i>soma</i> or <i>haoma</i>; and in Scandinavian myth +the gods renewed their youth by tasting Iduna's golden apples.</p> +<p>In Celtic Elysium tales, the fruit of a tree is most usually the +food of immortality. The fruit never diminishes and always +satisfies, and it is the food of the gods. When eaten by mortals it +confers immortality upon them; in other words, it makes them of +like nature to the gods, and this is doubtless derived from the +widespread idea that the eating of food given by a stranger makes a +man of one kin with him. Hence to eat the food of gods, fairies, or +of the dead, binds the mortal to them and he cannot leave their +land. This might be <span class="pagenum"><a name="page379" id= +"page379"></a>{379}</span> illustrated from a wide range of myth +and folk-belief. When Connla ate the apple he at once desired to go +to Elysium, and he could not leave it once he was there; he had +become akin to its people. In the stories of Bran and Oisin, they +are not said to have eaten such fruit, but the primitive form of +the tales may have contained this incident, and this would explain +why they could not set foot on earth unscathed, and why Bran and +his followers, or, in the tale of Fiachna, Loegaire and his men who +had drunk the ale of Elysium, returned thither. In other tales, it +is true, those who eat food in Elysium can return to +earth—Cormac and Cúchulainn; but had we the primitive +form of these tales we should probably find that they had refrained +from eating. The incident of the fruit given by an immortal to a +mortal may have borrowed something from the wide folk-custom of the +presentation of an apple as a gage of love or as a part of the +marriage rite.<a id="footnotetag1276" name= +"footnotetag1276"></a><a href="#footnote1276"><sup>1276</sup></a> +Its acceptance denotes willingness to enter upon betrothal or +marriage. But as in the Roman rite of <i>confarreatio</i> with its +savage parallels, the underlying idea is probably that which has +just been considered, namely, that the giving and acceptance of +food produces the bond of kinship.</p> +<p>As various nuts and fruits were prized in Ireland as food, and +were perhaps used in some cases to produce an intoxicant,<a id= +"footnotetag1277" name="footnotetag1277"></a><a href= +"#footnote1277"><sup>1277</sup></a> it is evident that the trees of +Elysium were, primarily, a magnified form of earthly trees. But all +such trees were doubtless objects of a cult before their produce +was generally eaten; they were first sacred or totem-trees, and +their food eaten only occasionally and sacramentally. If so, this +would explain why they grew in Elysium and their fruit was the food +of the gods. For whatever man eats or drinks is <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page380" id="page380"></a>{380}</span> generally +supposed to have been first eaten and drunk by the gods, like the +<i>soma</i>. But, growing in Elysium, these trees, like the trees +of most myths of Elysium, are far more marvellous than any known on +earth. They have branches of silver and golden apples; they have +magical supplies of fruit, they produce wonderful music which +sometimes causes sleep or oblivion; and birds perch in their +branches and warble melody "such that the sick would sleep to it." +It should be noted also that, as Miss Hull points out, in some +tales the branch of a divine tree becomes a talisman leading the +mortal to Elysium; in this resembling the golden bough plucked by +Æneas before visiting the underworld.<a id="footnotetag1278" +name="footnotetag1278"></a><a href= +"#footnote1278"><sup>1278</sup></a> This, however, is not the +fundamental characteristic of the tree, in Irish story. Possibly, +as Mr. A.B. Cook maintains, the branch giving entrance to Elysium +is derived from the branch borne by early Celtic kings of the wood, +while the tree is an imaginative form of those which incarnated a +vegetation spirit.<a id="footnotetag1279" name= +"footnotetag1279"></a><a href="#footnote1279"><sup>1279</sup></a> +Be this as it may, it is rather the fruit eaten by the mortal which +binds him to the Immortal Land.</p> +<p>The inhabitants of Elysium are not only immortal, but also +invisible at will. They make themselves visible to one person only +out of many present with him. Connla alone sees the goddess, +invisible to his father and the Druid. Mananuan is visible to Bran, +but there are many near the hero whom he does not see; and when the +same god comes to Fand, he is invisible to Cúchulainn and +those with him. So Mider says to Etain, "We behold, and are not +beheld."<a id="footnotetag1280" name="footnotetag1280"></a><a href= +"#footnote1280"><sup>1280</sup></a> Occasionally, too, the people +of Elysium have the power of shape-shifting—Fand and Liban +appear to Cúchulainn as birds.</p> +<p>The hazel of knowledge connects wisdom with the gods' world, and +in Celtic belief generally civilisation and culture <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page381" id="page381"></a>{381}</span> were +supposed to have come from the gods. The things of their land were +coveted by men, and often stolen thence by them. In Welsh and Irish +tales, often with reference to the Other-world, a magical cauldron +has a prominent place. Dagda possessed such a cauldron and it was +inexhaustible, and a vat of inexhaustible mead is described in the +story of <i>Cúchulain's Sickness</i>. Whatever was put into +such cauldrons satisfied all, no matter how numerous they might +be.<a id="footnotetag1281" name="footnotetag1281"></a><a href= +"#footnote1281"><sup>1281</sup></a> Cúchulainn obtained one +from the daughter of the king of Scath, and also carried off the +king's three cows.<a id="footnotetag1282" name= +"footnotetag1282"></a><a href="#footnote1282"><sup>1282</sup></a> +In an analogous story, he stole from Cúroi, by the +connivance of his wife Bláthnat, her father Mider's +cauldron, three cows, and the woman herself. But in another version +Cúchulainn and Cúroi go to Mider's stronghold in the +Isle of Falga (Elysium), and steal cauldron, cows, and +Bláthnat. These were taken from Cúchulainn by +Cúroi; hence his revenge as in the previous tale.<a id= +"footnotetag1283" name="footnotetag1283"></a><a href= +"#footnote1283"><sup>1283</sup></a> Thus the theft was from +Elysium. In the Welsh poem "The Spoils of Annwfn," Arthur stole a +cauldron from Annwfn. Its rim was encrusted with pearls, voices +issued from it, it was kept boiling by the breath of nine maidens, +and it would not boil a coward's food.<a id="footnotetag1284" name= +"footnotetag1284"></a><a href= +"#footnote1284"><sup>1284</sup></a></p> +<p>As has been seen from the story of Gwion, he was set to watch a +cauldron which must boil until it yielded "three drops of the grace +of inspiration." It belonged to Tegid Voel and Cerridwen, divine +rulers of a Land under the Waters.<a id="footnotetag1285" name= +"footnotetag1285"></a><a href="#footnote1285"><sup>1285</sup></a> +In the <i>Mabinogi</i> of Branwen, her brother Bran received a +cauldron from two beings, a man and a huge woman, who came from a +lake. This cauldron was given by him to the <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page382" id="page382"></a>{382}</span> king of +Erin, and it had the property of restoring to life the slain who +were placed in it.<a id="footnotetag1286" name= +"footnotetag1286"></a><a href= +"#footnote1286"><sup>1286</sup></a></p> +<p>The three properties of the cauldron—inexhaustibility, +inspiration, and regeneration—may be summed up in one word, +fertility; and it is significant that the god with whom such a +cauldron was associated, Dagda, was a god of fertility. But we have +just seen it associated, directly or indirectly, with +goddesses—Cerridwen, Branwen, the woman from the +lake—and perhaps this may point to an earlier cult of +goddesses of fertility, later transferred to gods. In this light +the cauldron's power of restoring to life is significant, since in +early belief life is associated with what is feminine. Woman as the +fruitful mother suggested that the Earth, which produced and +nourished, was also female. Hence arose the cult of the +Earth-mother who was often also a goddess of love as well as of +fertility. Cerridwen, in all probability, was a goddess of +fertility, and Branwen a goddess of love.<a id="footnotetag1287" +name="footnotetag1287"></a><a href= +"#footnote1287"><sup>1287</sup></a> The cult of fertility was +usually associated with orgiastic and indiscriminate love-making, +and it is not impossible that the cauldron, like the Hindu +<i>yoni</i>, was a symbol of fertility.<a id="footnotetag1288" +name="footnotetag1288"></a><a href= +"#footnote1288"><sup>1288</sup></a> Again, the slaughter and +cooking of animals was usually regarded as a sacred act in +primitive life. The animals were cooked in enormous cauldrons, +which were found as an invariable part of the furniture of every +Celtic house.<a id="footnotetag1289" name= +"footnotetag1289"></a><a href="#footnote1289"><sup>1289</sup></a> +The quantities of meat which they contained may have suggested +inexhaustibility to people to whom the cauldron was already a +symbol of fertility. Thus the symbolic cauldron of a fertility cult +was merged with the cauldron used in the religious <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page383" id="page383"></a>{383}</span> slaughter +and cooking of animal food. The cauldron was also used in ritual. +The Cimri slaughtered human victims over a cauldron and filled it +with their blood; victims sacrificed to Teutates were suffocated in +a vat (<i>semicupium</i>); and in Ireland "a cauldron of truth" was +used in the ordeal of boiling water.<a id="footnotetag1290" name= +"footnotetag1290"></a><a href="#footnote1290"><sup>1290</sup></a> +Like the food of men which was regarded as the food of the gods, +the cauldron of this world became the marvellous cauldron of the +Other-world, and as it then became necessary to explain the origin +of such cauldrons on earth, myths arose, telling how they had been +stolen from the divine land by adventurous heroes, +Cúchulainn, Arthur, etc. In other instances, the cauldron is +replaced by a magic vessel or cup stolen from supernatural beings +by heroes of the Fionn saga or of <i>Märchen</i>.<a id= +"footnotetag1291" name="footnotetag1291"></a><a href= +"#footnote1291"><sup>1291</sup></a> Here, too, it may be noted that +the Graal of Arthurian romance has affinities with the Celtic +cauldron. In the <i>Conte du Graal</i> of pseudo-Chrétien, a +cup comes in of itself and serves all present with food. This is a +simple conception of the Graal, but in other poems its magical and +sacrosanct character is heightened. It supplies the food which the +eater prefers, it gives immortal youth and immunity from wounds. In +these respects it presents an unmistakable likeness to the cauldron +of Celtic myth. But, again, it was the vessel in which Christ had +instituted the Blessed Sacrament; it contained His Blood; and it +had been given by our Lord to Joseph of Arimathea. Thus in the +Graal there was a fusion of the magic cauldron of Celtic paganism +and the Sacred Chalice of Christianity, with the product made +mystic and glorious in a most wonderful manner. The story of the +Graal became immensely popular, and, deepening in ethical, +mystical, and romantic import as time went on, was taken up +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page384" id= +"page384"></a>{384}</span> by one poet after another, who "used it +as a type of the loftiest goal of man's effort."<a id= +"footnotetag1292" name="footnotetag1292"></a><a href= +"#footnote1292"><sup>1292</sup></a></p> +<p>In other ways myth told how the gifts of civilisation came from +the gods' world. When man came to domesticate animals, it was +believed in course of time that the knowledge of domestication or, +more usually, the animals themselves had come from the gods, only, +in this case, the animals were of a magical, supernatural kind. +Such a belief underlies the stories in which Cúchulainn +steals cows from their divine owners. In other instances, heroes +who obtain a wife from the <i>síd</i>-folk, obtain also +cattle from the <i>síd</i>.<a id="footnotetag1293" name= +"footnotetag1293"></a><a href="#footnote1293"><sup>1293</sup></a> +As has been seen the swine given to Pryderi by Arawn, king of +Annwfn, and hitherto unknown to man, are stolen from him by +Gwydion, Pryderi being son of Pwyll, a temporary king of Annwfn, +and in all probability both were lords of Elysium. The theft, in +the original form of the myth, must thus have been from Elysium, +though we have a hint in "The Spoils of Annwfn" that Gwydion +(Gweir) was unsuccessful and was imprisoned in Annwfn, to which +imprisonment the later blending of Annwfn with hell gave a doleful +aspect.<a id="footnotetag1294" name="footnotetag1294"></a><a href= +"#footnote1294"><sup>1294</sup></a> In a late Welsh MS., a white +roebuck and a puppy (or, in the <i>Triads</i>, a bitch, a roebuck, +and a lapwing) were stolen by Amæthon from Annwfn, and the +story presents archaic features.<a id="footnotetag1295" name= +"footnotetag1295"></a><a href="#footnote1295"><sup>1295</sup></a> +In some of these tales the animals are transferred to earth by a +divine or semi-divine being, in whom we may see an early Celtic +culture-hero. The tales are attenuated forms of older myths which +showed how all domestic animals were at first the property of the +gods, and an echo of these is still heard in <i>Märchen</i> +describing the theft of cattle from fairyland. In <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page385" id="page385"></a>{385}</span> the most +primitive form of the tales the theft was doubtless from the +underworld of gods of fertility, the place whither the dead went. +But with the rise of myths telling of a distant Elysium, it was +inevitable that some tales should connect the animals and the theft +with that far-off land. So far as the Irish and Welsh tales are +concerned, the thefts seem mainly to be from Elysium.<a id= +"footnotetag1296" name="footnotetag1296"></a><a href= +"#footnote1296"><sup>1296</sup></a></p> +<p>Love-making has a large place in the Elysium tales. Goddesses +seek the love of mortals, and the mortal desires to visit Elysium +because of their enticements. But the love-making of Elysium is +"without sin, without crime," and this phrase may perhaps suggest +the existence of ritual sex-unions at stated times for magical +influence upon the fertility of the earth, these unions not being +regarded as immoral, even when they trespassed on customary tribal +law. In some of the stories Elysium is composed of many islands, +one of which is the "island of women."<a id="footnotetag1297" name= +"footnotetag1297"></a><a href="#footnote1297"><sup>1297</sup></a> +These women and their queen give their favours to Bran and his men +or to Maelduin and his company. Similar "islands of women" occur in +<i>Märchen</i>, still current among Celtic peoples, and actual +islands were or still are called by that name—Eigg and +Groagez off the Breton coast.<a id="footnotetag1298" name= +"footnotetag1298"></a><a href="#footnote1298"><sup>1298</sup></a> +Similar islands of women are known to Chinese, Japanese, and Ainu +folk-lore, to Greek mythology (Circe's and Calypso's islands), and +to ancient Egyptian conceptions of the future life.<a id= +"footnotetag1299" name="footnotetag1299"></a><a href= +"#footnote1299"><sup>1299</sup></a> They were also <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page386" id="page386"></a>{386}</span> known +elsewhere,<a id="footnotetag1300" name= +"footnotetag1300"></a><a href="#footnote1300"><sup>1300</sup></a> +and we may therefore assume that in describing such an island as +part of Elysium, the Celts were using something common to universal +folk-belief. But it may also owe something to actual custom, to the +memory of a time when women performed their rites in seclusion, a +seclusion perhaps recalled in the references to the mysterious +nature of the island, its inaccessibility, and its disappearance +once the mortal leaves it. To these rites men may have been +admitted by favour, but perhaps to their detriment, because of +their temporary partner's extreme erotic madness. This is the case +in the Chinese tales of the island of women, and this, rather than +home-sickness, may explain the desire of Bran, Oisin, etc., to +leave Elysium. Celtic women performed orgiastic rites on islands, +as has been seen.<a id="footnotetag1301" name= +"footnotetag1301"></a><a href="#footnote1301"><sup>1301</sup></a> +All this may have originated the belief in an island of beautiful +divine women as part of Elysium, while it also heightened its +sensuous aspect.</p> +<p>Borrowed from the delight which the Celt took in music is the +recurring reference to the marvellous music which swelled in +Elysium. There, as the goddess says to Bran, "there is nothing +rough or harsh, but sweet music striking on the ear." It sounded +from birds on every tree, from the branches of trees, from +marvellous stones, and from the harps of divine musicians. And this +is recalled in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page387" id= +"page387"></a>{387}</span> ravishing music which the belated +traveller hears as he passes fairy-haunted spots—"what pipes +and timbrels, what wild ecstasy!" The romantic beauty of Elysium is +described in these Celtic tales in a way unequalled in all other +sagas or <i>Märchen</i>, and it is insisted on by those who +come to lure mortals there. The beauty of its +landscapes—hills, white cliffs, valleys, sea and shore, lakes +and rivers,—of its trees, its inhabitants, and its +birds,—the charm of its summer haze, is obviously the product +of the imagination of a people keenly alive to natural beauty. The +opening lines sung by the goddess to Bran strike a note which +sounds through all Celtic literature:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"There is a distant isle, around which sea-horses glisten,</p> +<p>...</p> +<p>A beauty of a wondrous land, whose aspects are lovely,</p> +<p>Whose view is a fair country, incomparable in its haze.</p> +<p>It is a day of lasting weather, that showers silver on the +land;</p> +<p>A pure white cliff on the range of the sea,</p> +<p>Which from the sun receives its heat."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>So Oisin describes it: "I saw a country all green and full of +flowers, with beautiful smooth plains, blue hills, and lakes and +waterfalls." All this and more than this is the reflection of +nature as it is found in Celtic regions, and as it was seen by the +eye of Celtic dreamers, and interpreted to a poetic race by +them.</p> +<p>In Irish accounts of the <i>síd</i>, Dagda has the +supremacy, wrested later from him by Oengus, but generally each +owner of a <i>síd</i> is its lord. In Welsh tradition Arawn +is lord of Annwfn, but his claims are contested by a rival, and +other lords of Elysium are known. Manannan, a god of the sea, +appears to be lord of the Irish island Elysium which is called "the +land of Manannan," perhaps because it was easy to associate an +oversea world "around which sea-horses glisten" with a god whose +mythic steeds were the waves. But as it <span class= +"pagenum"><a name="page388" id="page388"></a>{388}</span> lay +towards the sunset, and as some of its aspects may have been +suggested by the glories of the setting sun, the sun-god Lug was +also associated with it, though he hardly takes the place of +Manannan.</p> +<p>Most of the aspects of Elysium appear unchanged in later +folk-belief, but it has now become fairyland—a place within +hills, mounds, or <i>síd</i>, of marvellous beauty, with +magic properties, and where time lapses as in a dream. A wonderful +oversea land is also found in <i>Märchen</i> and tradition, +and Tír na n-Og is still a living reality to the Celt. There +is the fountain of youth, healing balsams, life-giving fruits, +beautiful women or fairy folk. It is the true land of heart's +desire. In the eleventh century MSS. from which our knowledge of +Elysium is mainly drawn, but which imply a remote antiquity for the +materials and ideas of the tales, the <i>síd</i>-world is +still the world of divine beings, though these are beginning to +assume the traits of fairies. Probably among the people themselves +the change had already begun to be made, and the land of the gods +was simply fairyland. In Wales the same change had taken place, as +is seen by Giraldus' account of Elidurus enticed to a subterranean +fairyland by two small people.<a id="footnotetag1302" name= +"footnotetag1302"></a><a href= +"#footnote1302"><sup>1302</sup></a></p> +<p>Some of the Elysium tales have been influenced by Christian +conceptions, and in a certain group, the <i>Imrama</i> or +"Voyages," Elysium finally becomes the Christian paradise or +heaven. But the Elysium conception also reacted on Christian ideas +of paradise. In the <i>Voyage of Maelduin</i>, which bears some +resemblance to the story of Bran, the Christian influence is still +indefinite, but it is more marked in the <i>Voyage of Snedgus and +MacRiagla</i>. One island has become a kind of intermediate state, +where dwell Enoch and Elijah, and many others waiting for the day +of judgment. Another <span class="pagenum"><a name="page389" id= +"page389"></a>{389}</span> island resembles the Christian heaven. +But in the <i>Voyage of Brandan</i> the pagan elements have +practically disappeared; there is an island of hell and an island +of paradise.<a id="footnotetag1303" name= +"footnotetag1303"></a><a href="#footnote1303"><sup>1303</sup></a> +The island conception is the last relic of paganism, but now the +voyage is undertaken for the purpose of revenge or penance or +pilgrimage. Another series of tales of visionary journeys to hell +or heaven are purely Christian, yet the joys of heaven have a +sensuous aspect which recalls those of the pagan Elysium. In one of +these, <i>The Tidings of Doomsday</i>,<a id="footnotetag1304" name= +"footnotetag1304"></a><a href="#footnote1304"><sup>1304</sup></a> +there are two hells, and besides heaven there is a place for the +<i>boni non valde</i>, resembling the island of Enoch and Elijah in +the <i>Voyage of Snedgus</i>. The connection of Elysium with the +Christian paradise is seen in the title <i>Tir Tairngiri</i>, "The +Land of Promise," which is applied to the heavenly kingdom or the +land flowing with milk and honey in early glosses, <i>e.g.</i> on +Heb. iv. 4, vi. 15, where Canaan and the <i>regnum c[oe]lorum</i> +are called <i>Tír Tairngiri</i>, and in a gloss to 1 Cor. x. +4, where the heavenly land is called Tír Tairngiri +Innambéo, "The Land of Promise of the Living Ones," thus +likening it to the "Land of the Living" in the story of Connla.</p> +<p>Sensuous as many of the aspects of Elysium are, they have yet a +spiritual aspect which must not be overlooked. The emphasis placed +on its beauty, its music, its rest and peace, its oblivion, is +spiritual rather than sensual, while the dwelling of favoured +mortals there with divine beings is suggestive of that union with +the divine which is the essence of all religion. Though men are +lured to seek it, they do not leave it, or they go back to it after +a brief absence, and Laeg says that he would prefer Elysium to the +kingship of all Ireland, and his <span class="pagenum"><a name= +"page390" id="page390"></a>{390}</span> words are echoed by others. +And the lure of the goddess often emphasises the freedom from +turmoil, grief, and the rude alarms of earthly life. This "sweet +and blessed country" is described with all the passion of a +poetical race who dreamed of perfect happiness, and saw in the joy +of nature's beauty, the love of women, and the thought of unbroken +peace and harmony, no small part of man's truest life. Favoured +mortals had reached Elysium, and the hope that he, too, might be so +favoured buoyed up the Celt as he dreamed over this state, which +was so much more blissful even than the future state of the dead. +Many races have imagined a happy Other-world, but no other race has +so filled it with magic beauty, or so persistently recurred to it +as the Celts. They stood on the cliffs which faced the west, and as +the pageant of sunset passed before them, or as at midday the light +shimmered on the far horizon and on shadowy islands, they gazed +with wistful eyes as if to catch a glimpse of Elysium beyond the +fountains of the deep and the halls of the setting sun. In all this +we see the Celtic version of a primitive and instinctive human +belief. Man refuses to think that the misery and disappointment and +strife and pain of life must always be his. He hopes and believes +that there is reserved for him, somewhere and at some time, eternal +happiness and eternal love.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1231" name= +"footnote1231"></a><b>Footnote 1231:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1231">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, i. 213.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1232" name= +"footnote1232"></a><b>Footnote 1232:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1232">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 431.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1233" name= +"footnote1233"></a><b>Footnote 1233:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1233">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 311; <i>IT</i> i. 113 f.; O'Curry, <i>MC</i> iii. +190.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1234" name= +"footnote1234"></a><b>Footnote 1234:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1234">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, i. 1 f., text and translation.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1235" name= +"footnote1235"></a><b>Footnote 1235:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1235">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 120<i>a</i>; Windisch, <i>Irische Gramm.</i> 120 f.; +D'Arbois, v. 384 f.; <i>Gaelic Journal</i>, ii. 307.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1236" name= +"footnote1236"></a><b>Footnote 1236:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1236">(return)</a> +<p><i>TOS</i> iv. 234. See also Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 385; Kennedy, +240.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1237" name= +"footnote1237"></a><b>Footnote 1237:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1237">(return)</a> +<p><i>LU</i> 43 f.; <i>IT</i> i. 205 f.; O'Curry, <i>Atlantis</i>, +ii., iii.; D'Arbois, v. 170; Leahy, i. 60 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1238" name= +"footnote1238"></a><b>Footnote 1238:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1238">(return)</a> +<p>"From Manannan came foes."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1239" name= +"footnote1239"></a><b>Footnote 1239:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1239">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 223 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1240" name= +"footnote1240"></a><b>Footnote 1240:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1240">(return)</a> +<p>O'Grady, ii. 290. In this story the sea is identified with +Fiachna's wife.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1241" name= +"footnote1241"></a><b>Footnote 1241:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1241">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 253 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1242" name= +"footnote1242"></a><b>Footnote 1242:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1242">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> iii. 211 f.; D'Arbois, ii. 185.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1243" name= +"footnote1243"></a><b>Footnote 1243:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1243">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MS. Mat.</i> 388.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1244" name= +"footnote1244"></a><b>Footnote 1244:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1244">(return)</a> +<p>A similar idea occurs in many Fian tales.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1245" name= +"footnote1245"></a><b>Footnote 1245:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1245">(return)</a> +<p>Evans, <i>Welsh Dict. s.v.</i> "Annwfn"; Anwyl, 60; Gaidoz, +<i>ZCP</i> i. 29 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1246" name= +"footnote1246"></a><b>Footnote 1246:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1246">(return)</a> +<p>Loth, i. 27 f.; see p. <a href="#page111">111</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1247" name= +"footnote1247"></a><b>Footnote 1247:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1247">(return)</a> +<p>Pp. <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1248" name= +"footnote1248"></a><b>Footnote 1248:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1248">(return)</a> +<p>Guest, iii. 75; Loth, i. 29 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1249" name= +"footnote1249"></a><b>Footnote 1249:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1249">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 264, 276. Cf. the <i>Ille tournoiont</i> of the Graal +romances and the revolving houses of <i>Märchen</i>. A +revolving rampart occurs in "Maelduin" (<i>RC</i> x. 81).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1250" name= +"footnote1250"></a><b>Footnote 1250:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1250">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 285.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1251" name= +"footnote1251"></a><b>Footnote 1251:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1251">(return)</a> +<p>Pp. <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1252" name= +"footnote1252"></a><b>Footnote 1252:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1252">(return)</a> +<p>Chretien, <i>Eric</i>, 1933 f.; Geoffrey, <i>Vita Merlini</i>, +41; San Marte, <i>Geoffrey</i>, 425. Another Irish Liban is called +Muirgen, which is the same as Morgen. See Girald. Cambr. <i>Spec. +Eccl.</i> Rolls Series, iv. 48.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1253" name= +"footnote1253"></a><b>Footnote 1253:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1253">(return)</a> +<p>William of Malmesbury, <i>de Ant. Glaston. Eccl.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1254" name= +"footnote1254"></a><b>Footnote 1254:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1254">(return)</a> +<p>San Marte, 425.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1255" name= +"footnote1255"></a><b>Footnote 1255:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1255">(return)</a> +<p><i>Op. cit.</i> iv. 49.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1256" name= +"footnote1256"></a><b>Footnote 1256:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1256">(return)</a> +<p>Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 434; Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> i. 170; Hardiman, +<i>Irish Minst.</i> i. 367; Sébillot, ii. 56 f.; Girald. +Cambr. ii. 12. The underworld is sometimes reached through a well +(cf. p. <a href="#page282">282</a>, <i>supra</i>; <i>TI</i> iii. +209).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1257" name= +"footnote1257"></a><b>Footnote 1257:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1257">(return)</a> +<p><i>Le Braz</i><sup>2</sup>, i. p. xxxix, ii. 37 f.; Albert le +Grand, <i>Vies de Saints de Bretagne</i>, 63.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1258" name= +"footnote1258"></a><b>Footnote 1258:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1258">(return)</a> +<p>A whole class of such Irish legends is called <i>Tomhadna</i>, +"Inundations." A typical instance is that of the town below Lough +Neagh, already referred to by Giraldus Cambrensis, <i>Top. Hib.</i> +ii. 9; cf. a Welsh instance in <i>Itin. Cambr.</i> i. 2. See +Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL, passim</i>; Kennedy, 282; <i>Rev. des Trad. +Pop.</i> ix. 79.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1259" name= +"footnote1259"></a><b>Footnote 1259:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1259">(return)</a> +<p><i>Scott. Celt. Rev.</i> i. 70; Campbell, <i>WHT</i> Nos. 38, +52; Loth, i. 38.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1260" name= +"footnote1260"></a><b>Footnote 1260:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1260">(return)</a> +<p>Curtin, <i>Tales</i>, 158; Rh[^y]s, <i>CFL</i> i. 230.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1261" name= +"footnote1261"></a><b>Footnote 1261:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1261">(return)</a> +<p>Nutt-Meyer, i. 159.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1262" name= +"footnote1262"></a><b>Footnote 1262:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1262">(return)</a> +<p>In the Vedas, Elysium has also a strong agricultural aspect, +probably for the same reasons.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1263" name= +"footnote1263"></a><b>Footnote 1263:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1263">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, ii. 119, 192, 385, vi. 197, 219; <i>RC</i> xxvi. 173; +<i>Les Druides</i>, 121.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1264" name= +"footnote1264"></a><b>Footnote 1264:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1264">(return)</a> +<p>For the text see Windisch, <i>Ir. Gram.</i> 120: "Totchurethar +bii bithbi at gérait do dáinib Tethrach. ar-dot-chiat +each dia i n-dálaib tathardai eter dugnathu inmaini." Dr. +Stokes and Sir John Rh[^y]s have both privately confirmed the +interpretation given above.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1265" name= +"footnote1265"></a><b>Footnote 1265:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1265">(return)</a> +<p>"Dialogue of the Sages," <i>RC</i> xxvi. 33 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1266" name= +"footnote1266"></a><b>Footnote 1266:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1266">(return)</a> +<p>Tethra was husband of the war-goddess Badb, and in one text his +name is glossed <i>badb</i> (Cormac, <i>s.v.</i> "Tethra"). The +name is also glossed <i>muir</i>, "sea," by O'Cleary, and the sea +is called "the plain of Tethra" (<i>Arch. Rev.</i> i. 152). These +obscure notices do not necessarily denote that he was ruler of an +oversea Elysium.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1267" name= +"footnote1267"></a><b>Footnote 1267:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1267">(return)</a> +<p>Nennius, <i>Hist. Brit.</i> § 13; D'Arbois, ii. 86, 134, +231.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1268" name= +"footnote1268"></a><b>Footnote 1268:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1268">(return)</a> +<p><i>LL</i> 8<i>b</i>; Keating, 126.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1269" name= +"footnote1269"></a><b>Footnote 1269:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1269">(return)</a> +<p>Both art <i>motifs</i> and early burial customs in the two +countries are similar. See Reinach, <i>RC</i> xxi. 88; +<i>L'Anthropologie</i>, 1889, 397; Siret, <i>Les Premiere Ages du +Metal dans le Sud. Est. de l'Espagne.</i></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1270" name= +"footnote1270"></a><b>Footnote 1270:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1270">(return)</a> +<p>Orosius, i. 2. 71; <i>LL</i> 11<i>b</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1271" name= +"footnote1271"></a><b>Footnote 1271:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1271">(return)</a> +<p>D'Arbois, v. 384; O'Grady, ii. 385.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1272" name= +"footnote1272"></a><b>Footnote 1272:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1272">(return)</a> +<p><i>TOS</i> iii. 119; Joyce, <i>OCR</i> 314. For a folk-tale +version see <i>Folk-lore</i>, vii. 321.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1273" name= +"footnote1273"></a><b>Footnote 1273:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1273">(return)</a> +<p>Leahy, i. 36; Campbell, <i>LF</i> 29; <i>CM</i> xiii. 285; +<i>Dean of Lismore's Book</i>, 54.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1274" name= +"footnote1274"></a><b>Footnote 1274:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1274">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 143; Cormac, 35.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1275" name= +"footnote1275"></a><b>Footnote 1275:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1275">(return)</a> +<p>See p. <a href="#page187">187</a>, <i>supra</i>; <i>IT</i> iii. +213.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1276" name= +"footnote1276"></a><b>Footnote 1276:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1276">(return)</a> +<p>See Gaidoz, "La Requisition de l'Amour et la Symbolisme de la +Pomme," <i>Ann. de l'École Pratique des Hautes +Études</i>, 1902; Fraser, <i>Pausanias</i>, iii. 67.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1277" name= +"footnote1277"></a><b>Footnote 1277:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1277">(return)</a> +<p>Rh[^y]s, <i>HL</i> 359.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1278" name= +"footnote1278"></a><b>Footnote 1278:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1278">(return)</a> +<p>"The Silver Bough in Irish Legend," <i>Folk-Lore</i>, xii. +431.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1279" name= +"footnote1279"></a><b>Footnote 1279:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1279">(return)</a> +<p>Cook, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, xvii. 158.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1280" name= +"footnote1280"></a><b>Footnote 1280:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1280">(return)</a> +<p><i>IT</i> i. 133.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1281" name= +"footnote1281"></a><b>Footnote 1281:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1281">(return)</a> +<p>O'Donovan, <i>Battle of Mag Rath</i>, 50; D'Arbois, v. 67; +<i>IT</i> i. 96. Dagda's cauldron came from Murias, probably an +oversea world.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1282" name= +"footnote1282"></a><b>Footnote 1282:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1282">(return)</a> +<p>Miss Hull, 244. Scath is here the Other-world, conceived, +however, as a dismal abode.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1283" name= +"footnote1283"></a><b>Footnote 1283:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1283">(return)</a> +<p>O'Curry, <i>MC</i> ii. 97, iii. 79; Keating, 284 f.; <i>RC</i> +xv. 449.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1284" name= +"footnote1284"></a><b>Footnote 1284:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1284">(return)</a> +<p>Skene, i. 264; cf. <i>RC</i> xxii. 14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1285" name= +"footnote1285"></a><b>Footnote 1285:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1285">(return)</a> +<p>P. <a href="#page116">116</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1286" name= +"footnote1286"></a><b>Footnote 1286:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1286">(return)</a> +<p>Guest, iii. 321 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1287" name= +"footnote1287"></a><b>Footnote 1287:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1287">(return)</a> +<p>See pp. <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, +<i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1288" name= +"footnote1288"></a><b>Footnote 1288:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1288">(return)</a> +<p>For the use of a vessel in ritual as a symbol of deity, see +Crooke, <i>Folk-Lore</i>, viii. 351 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1289" name= +"footnote1289"></a><b>Footnote 1289:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1289">(return)</a> +<p>Diod. Sic. v. 28; Athen. iv. 34; Joyce, <i>SH</i> ii. 124; +<i>Antient Laws of Ireland</i>, iv. 327. The cauldrons of Irish +houses are said in the texts to be inexhaustible (cf. <i>RC</i> +xxiii. 397).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1290" name= +"footnote1290"></a><b>Footnote 1290:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1290">(return)</a> +<p>Strabo, vii. 2. 1; Lucan, Usener's ed., p. 32; <i>IT</i> iii. +210; <i>Antient Laws of Ireland</i>, i. 195 f.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1291" name= +"footnote1291"></a><b>Footnote 1291:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1291">(return)</a> +<p>Curtin, <i>HTI</i> 249, 262.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1292" name= +"footnote1292"></a><b>Footnote 1292:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1292">(return)</a> +<p>See Villemarqué, <i>Contes Pop. des anciens Bretons</i>, +Paris, 1842; Rh[^y]s, <i>AL</i>; and especially Nutt, <i>Legend of +the Holy Grail</i>, 1888.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1293" name= +"footnote1293"></a><b>Footnote 1293:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1293">(return)</a> +<p>"Adventures of Nera," <i>RC</i> x. 226; <i>RC</i> xvi. 62, +64.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1294" name= +"footnote1294"></a><b>Footnote 1294:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1294">(return)</a> +<p>P. <a href="#page106">106</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1295" name= +"footnote1295"></a><b>Footnote 1295:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1295">(return)</a> +<p>P. <a href="#page107">107</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1296" name= +"footnote1296"></a><b>Footnote 1296:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1296">(return)</a> +<p>For parallel myths see <i>Rig-Veda</i>, i. 53. 2; Campbell, +<i>Travels in South Africa</i>, i. 306; Johnston, <i>Uganda +Protectorate</i>, ii. 704; Ling Roth, <i>Natives of Sarawak</i>, i. +307; and cf. the myth of Prometheus.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1297" name= +"footnote1297"></a><b>Footnote 1297:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1297">(return)</a> +<p>This is found in the stories of Bran, Maelduin, Connla, in Fian +tales (O'Grady, ii. 228, 238), in the "Children of Tuirenn," and in +Gaelic <i>Märchen</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1298" name= +"footnote1298"></a><b>Footnote 1298:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1298">(return)</a> +<p>Martin, 277; Sébillot, ii. 76.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1299" name= +"footnote1299"></a><b>Footnote 1299:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1299">(return)</a> +<p>Burton, <i>Thousand Nights and a Night</i>, x. 239; Chamberlain, +<i>Aino Folk-Tales</i>, 38; <i>L'Anthropologie</i>, v. 507; +Maspero, <i>Hist. anc. des peuples de l'Orient</i>, i. 183. The +lust of the women of these islands is fatal to their lovers.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1300" name= +"footnote1300"></a><b>Footnote 1300:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1300">(return)</a> +<p>An island near New Guinea is called "the land of women." On it +men are allowed to land temporarily, but only the female offspring +of the women are allowed to survive (<i>L' Anthrop.</i> v. 507). +The Indians of Florida had a tradition of an island in a lake +inhabited by the fairest women (Chateaubriand, <i>Autob.</i> 1824, +ii. 24), and Fijian mythology knows of an Elysian island of +goddesses, near the land of the gods, to which a few favoured +mortals are admitted (Williams, <i>Fiji</i>, i. 114).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1301" name= +"footnote1301"></a><b>Footnote 1301:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1301">(return)</a> +<p>P. <a href="#page274">274</a>, <i>supra</i>. Islands may have +been regarded as sacred because of such cults, as the folk-lore +reported by Plutarch suggests (p. <a href="#page343">343</a>, +<i>supra</i>). Celtic saints retained the veneration for islands, +and loved to dwell on them, and the idea survives in folk-belief. +Cf. the veneration of Lewismen for the Flannan islands.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1302" name= +"footnote1302"></a><b>Footnote 1302:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1302">(return)</a> +<p>Gir. Camb. <i>Itin. Camb.</i> i. 8.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1303" name= +"footnote1303"></a><b>Footnote 1303:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1303">(return)</a> +<p>Translations of some of these <i>Voyages</i> by Stokes are given +in <i>RC</i>, vols. ix. x. and xiv. See also Zimmer, "Brendan's +Meerfahrt," <i>Zeits. für Deut. Alt.</i> xxxiii.; cf. +Nutt-Meyer, ch. 4, 8.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1304" name= +"footnote1304"></a><b>Footnote 1304:</b><a href= +"#footnotetag1304">(return)</a> +<p><i>RC</i> iv. 243.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page391" id= +"page391"></a>{391}</span> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>INDEX</h2> +<br /> +<p>Abnoba, <a href="#page43">43</a>.</p> +<p>Adamnan, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> +<p>Aed Abrat, <a href="#page65">65</a>.</p> +<p>Aed Slane, <a href="#page351">351</a>.</p> +<p>Aeracura, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href= +"#page44">44</a>.</p> +<p>Afanc, <a href="#page190">190</a>.</p> +<p>Agricultural rites, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href= +"#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page57">57</a>, <a href="#page80">80</a>, +<a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href= +"#page227">227</a>, <a href="#page237">237</a>. See <a href= +"#index-festivals">Festivals</a>.</p> +<p>Aife, <a href="#page129">129</a>.</p> +<p>Aillén, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Aine, <a href="#page70">70</a> f.</p> +<p>Aitherne, <a href="#page84">84</a>.</p> +<p>Albiorix, <a href="#page28">28</a>.</p> +<p>All Saints' Day, <a href="#page170">170</a>.</p> +<p>All Souls' Day, <a href="#page170">170</a>.</p> +<p>Allat, <a href="#page87">87</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>.</p> +<p>Alpine race, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href= +"#page12">12</a>.</p> +<p>Altars, <a href="#page282">282</a> f.</p> +<p>Amæthon, <a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href= +"#page384">384</a>.</p> +<p>Amairgen, <a href="#page55">55</a>, <a href= +"#page172">172</a>.</p> +<p>Ambicatus, <a href="#page19">19</a>, <a href= +"#page222">222</a>.</p> +<p>Amours with mortals, divine, <a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page348">348</a>, <a href= +"#page350">350</a>, <a href="#page355">355</a>.</p> +<p>Amulets, <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page327">327</a> +f., <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> +<p>Ancestor worship, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href= +"#page200">200</a>.</p> +<p>Andarta, <a href="#page41">41</a>.</p> +<p>Andrasta, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href= +"#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Anextiomarus, <a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Animal gods, anthropomorphic, <a href="#page34">34</a>, <a href= +"#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href= +"#page139">139</a> f., <a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href= +"#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page212">212</a>, <a href= +"#page226">226</a>.</p> +<p>Animal worship, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href= +"#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href= +"#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a> f., <a href= +"#page260">260</a>.</p> +<p>Animals, burial of, <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href= +"#page211">211</a>, <a href="#page221">221</a>.</p> +<p>Animals, descent from, <a href="#page213">213</a>, <a href= +"#page216">216</a> f.</p> +<p>Animals, domestic, from the gods' land, <a href= +"#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page384">384</a>.</p> +<p>Animals, dressing as, <a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href= +"#page260">260</a>.</p> +<p>Animals, sacramental eating of, <a href="#page221">221</a> +f.</p> +<p>Animals, slaughter of, <a href="#page382">382</a>.</p> +<p>Animals, tabooed, <a href="#page219">219</a>.</p> +<p>Animism, <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href= +"#page185">185</a>.</p> +<p>Ankou, <a href="#page345">345</a>.</p> +<p>Annwfn, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page111">111</a>, +<a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href= +"#page367">367</a> f., <a href="#page381">381</a>.</p> +<p>Anu, <a href="#page67">67</a> f., <a href="#page72">72</a>, +<a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page223">223</a>.</p> +<p>Anwyl, Prof., <a href="#page41">41</a> note, <a href= +"#page96">96</a>.</p> +<p>Apollo, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page27">27</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href= +"#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>.</p> +<p>Arawn, <a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>, +<a href="#page384">384</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a>.</p> +<p>Archæology, <a href="#page2">2</a>.</p> +<p>Arduinna, <a href="#page43">43</a>.</p> +<p>Arianrhod, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href= +"#page105">105</a>, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href= +"#page109">109</a> f.</p> +<p>Artemis, <a href="#page42">42</a>, <a href="#page110">110</a>, +<a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page242">242</a>.</p> +<p>Artaios, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href= +"#page121">121</a>.</p> +<p>Arthur, <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>, +<a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href= +"#page119">119</a> f., <a href="#page211">211</a>, <a href= +"#page242">242</a>, <a href="#page344">344</a>, <a href= +"#page369">369</a>, <a href="#page381">381</a>.</p> +<p>Arthurian cycle, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href= +"#page383">383</a>.</p> +<p>Artor, <a href="#page121">121</a>.</p> +<p>Arvalus, <a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Astrology, <a href="#page248">248</a>.</p> +<p>Augustus, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href= +"#page90">90</a>.</p> +<p>Auto-suggestion, <a href="#page254">254</a>.</p> +<p>Avagddu, <a href="#page116">116</a>.</p> +<p>Avallon, <a href="#page120">120</a>, <a href= +"#page369">369</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Bacchus, <a href="#page274">274</a>.</p> +<p>Badb, <a href="#page58">58</a>, <a href="#page71">71</a>, +<a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page136">136</a>, <a href= +"#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page232">232</a>.</p> +<p>Badbcatha, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href= +"#page71">71</a>.</p> +<p>Balor, <a href="#page31">31</a>, <a href="#page35">35</a> note, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, <a href="#page57">57</a>, <a href= +"#page89">89</a>, <a href="#page90">90</a>.</p> +<p>Banba, <a href="#page50">50</a>, <a href="#page73">73</a>, +<a href="#page74">74</a>.</p> +<p><i>Banfeinnidi</i>, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> +<p><i>Bangaisgedaig</i>, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> +<p>Baptism, <a href="#page196">196</a> note, <a href= +"#page308">308</a> f.</p> +<p>Bards, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page299">299</a>, +<a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> +<p>Barintus, <a href="#page88">88</a>.</p> +<p>Barrex, <a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Barri, S., <a href="#page88">88</a>.</p> +<p>Bear, cult of, <a href="#page212">212</a>.</p> +<p>Beddoe, Dr., <a href="#page12">12</a>.</p> +<p>Belatucadros, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href= +"#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Belenos, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, +<a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page124">124</a>, <a href= +"#page231">231</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>, <a href= +"#page298">298</a>.</p> +<p>Belgæ, <a href="#page9">9</a> f.</p> +<p>Beli, <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href="#page98">98</a>, +<a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a> f., <a href= +"#page124">124</a>.</p> +<p><i>Belinuntia</i>, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href= +"#page322">322</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page392" id= +"page392"></a>{392}</span> +<p>Belinus, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, +<a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page124">124</a>.</p> +<p>Belisama, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page68">68-69</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Bellovesus, <a href="#page19">19</a>.</p> +<p>Beltane, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page194">194</a>, +<a href="#page239">239</a>, <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href= +"#page264">264</a>.</p> +<p>Bericynthia, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href= +"#page275">275</a>.</p> +<p>Bertrand, M., <a href="#page305">305</a>.</p> +<p><i>Bile</i>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href= +"#page201">201</a>.</p> +<p>Bile, <a href="#page54">54</a>, <a href="#page60">60</a>, +<a href="#page103">103</a>.</p> +<p>Bird gods, <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href= +"#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>.</p> +<p>Birth, <a href="#page196">196</a>, <a href= +"#page345">345</a>.</p> +<p>Black Annis' Bower, <a href="#page67">67</a>.</p> +<p>Blathnat, <a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>, +<a href="#page381">381</a>.</p> +<p>Blodeuwedd, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href= +"#page105">105</a> f., <a href="#page108">108</a>.</p> +<p>Blood, <a href="#page240">240</a>, <a href= +"#page244">244</a>.</p> +<p>Blood, Brotherhood, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href= +"#page240">240</a>.</p> +<p>Boand, <a href="#page81">81</a>, <a href="#page191">191</a>.</p> +<p>Boar, cult of, <a href="#page42">42</a>.</p> +<p>Bodb, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</p> +<p>Bodb Dearg, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a>, +<a href="#page86">86</a>.</p> +<p>Bormana, <a href="#page43">43</a>.</p> +<p>Borvo, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</p> +<p>Boudicca, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>.</p> +<p>Boughs, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href= +"#page270">270</a>.</p> +<p>Boundary stones, <a href="#page284">284</a>.</p> +<p>Braciaca, <a href="#page28">28</a>.</p> +<p>Bran, <a href="#page34">34</a>, <a href="#page98">98</a>, +<a href="#page100">100</a> f., <a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href= +"#page111">111</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href= +"#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page242">242</a>, <a href= +"#page363">363</a>, <a href="#page379">379</a> f.</p> +<p>Branwen, <a href="#page98">98</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a> +f., <a href="#page381">381</a> f., <a href="#page385">385</a>.</p> +<p>Braziers, god of, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</p> +<p>Brennius, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a> +f.</p> +<p>Brennus, <a href="#page160">160</a>.</p> +<p>Bres, <a href="#page53">53</a>, <a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page58">58-59</a>.</p> +<p>Brian, <a href="#page73">73</a> f.</p> +<p>Bride, S., <a href="#page69">69</a>.</p> +<p>Bridge, <a href="#page346">346</a>.</p> +<p>Bridge of Life, <a href="#page228">228</a>.</p> +<p>Brigantia, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href= +"#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Brigindo, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href= +"#page275">275</a>.</p> +<p>Brigit, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page58">58</a>, +<a href="#page68">68</a> f., <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href= +"#page92">92</a>.</p> +<p>Brigit, St., <a href="#page68">68</a> f., <a href= +"#page88">88</a> note, <a href="#page257">257</a>.</p> +<p>Broca, <a href="#page9">9</a>.</p> +<p>Bronze Age, <a href="#page148">148</a>.</p> +<p>Brother-sister unions, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href= +"#page113">113</a>.</p> +<p>Brown Bull, <a href="#page130">130</a>.</p> +<p>Brownie, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>, +<a href="#page245">245</a>.</p> +<p><i>Brug</i>. See <a href="#index-sid"><i>Síd</i></a>.</p> +<p>Brythons, <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> +<p>Brythons, gods of, <a href="#page85">85</a>, <a href= +"#page95">95</a> f., <a href="#page124">124</a>.</p> +<p>Buanann, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href="#page73">73</a>, +<a href="#page223">223</a>.</p> +<p>Bull, cult of, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href= +"#page140">140</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>, <a href= +"#page208">208</a>, <a href="#page243">243</a>.</p> +<p>Burial rites, <a href="#page309">309</a>, <a href= +"#page337">337</a> f.</p> +<br /> +<p>Caer Sidi, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href= +"#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>.</p> +<p>Cæsar, <a href="#page22">22</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page223">223</a>, <a href= +"#page233">233</a>, <a href="#page283">283</a>, <a href= +"#page294">294</a>, <a href="#page334">334</a>.</p> +<p>Cakes, <a href="#page266">266</a>.</p> +<p>Calatin, <a href="#page131">131</a> f.</p> +<p>Calendar, <a href="#page175">175</a> f., <a href= +"#page252">252</a>.</p> +<p>Camulos, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>.</p> +<p>Candlemas, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</p> +<p>Cannibalism, <a href="#page239">239</a>, <a href= +"#page271">271</a>.</p> +<p>Caoilte, <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page336">336</a>.</p> +<p>Caractacus, <a href="#page103">103</a>.</p> +<p>Carman, <a href="#page167">167</a>.</p> +<p>Carpenters, god of, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</p> +<p>Cassiterides, <a href="#page39">39</a>.</p> +<p>Cassivellaunus, <a href="#page113">113</a>.</p> +<p>Castor and Pollux, <a href="#page136">136</a>.</p> +<p>Caswallawn, <a href="#page98">98</a>, <a href= +"#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page112">112-113</a>.</p> +<p>Cathbad, <a href="#page127">127</a>.</p> +<p>Cathubodua, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href= +"#page71">71</a>.</p> +<p>Caturix, <a href="#page28">28</a>.</p> +<p>Cauldron, <a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href= +"#page120">120</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>, <a href= +"#page381">381</a>.</p> +<p>Celtæ, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page15">15</a>.</p> +<p>Celtiberians, <a href="#page176">176</a>, <a href= +"#page246">246</a>.</p> +<p>Celtic and Teutonic religion, <a href="#page11">11</a>.</p> +<p>Celtic empire, <a href="#page18">18</a> f.</p> +<p>Celtic origins, <a href="#page8">8</a> f.</p> +<p>Celtic people, types of, <a href="#page8">8</a>.</p> +<p>Celtic religion, evolution of, <a href="#page3">3</a> f.</p> +<p>Celtic religion, higher aspects of, <a href="#page6">6</a>.</p> +<p>Celtic religion, homogeneity of, <a href="#page5">5</a>.</p> +<p>Celtic religion, Roman influence on, <a href="#page5">5</a>.</p> +<p>Celts, gods of, <a href="#page158">158</a>.</p> +<p>Celts, religiosity of, <a href="#page2">2</a>.</p> +<p>Celts, temperament of, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href= +"#page14">14</a>.</p> +<p>Cenn Cruaich, <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page79">79</a> +note.</p> +<p>Cera, <a href="#page77">77</a>.</p> +<p>Cernunnos, <a href="#page29">29</a> f., <a href= +"#page32">32</a>, <a href="#page101">101</a>, <a href= +"#page136">136</a>, <a href="#page212">212</a>, <a href= +"#page282">282</a>.</p> +<p>Cerridwen, <a href="#page116">116</a> f., <a href= +"#page351">351</a>, <a href="#page358">358</a> f.</p> +<p>Cessair, <a href="#page50">50</a>.</p> +<p>Cethlenn, <a href="#page59">59</a>, <a href= +"#page81">81</a>.</p> +<p>Cetnad, <a href="#page249">249</a>.</p> +<p>Charms, <a href="#page172">172</a>, <a href= +"#page356">356</a>.</p> +<p>Church and paganism, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href= +"#page7">7</a>, <a href="#page48">48</a>, <a href="#page80">80</a>, +<a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href= +"#page152">152</a> f., <a href="#page174">174</a> f., <a href= +"#page203">203</a> f., <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href= +"#page249">249</a>, <a href="#page258">258</a>, <a href= +"#page272">272</a>, <a href="#page280">280</a>, <a href= +"#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page288">288-289</a>, <a href= +"#page315">315</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>, <a href= +"#page331">331</a>, <a href="#page389">389</a>.</p> +<p>Cian, <a href="#page75">75</a>, <a href="#page89">89</a>.</p> +<p>Clairvoyance, <a href="#page307">307</a>.</p> +<p>Cleena, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Clota, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Clutoida, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Cocidius, <a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Cock, <a href="#page219">219</a>.</p> +<p>Columba, S., <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page66">66</a>, +<a href="#page88">88</a> note, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href= +"#page238">238</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>, <a href= +"#page324">324</a>, <a href="#page331">331-332</a>, <a href= +"#page358">358</a>.</p> +<p>Combats, ritual, <a href="#page263">263</a>, <a href= +"#page267">267</a>.</p> +<p>Comedovæ, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</p> +<p>Comyn, M., <a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href= +"#page151">151</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page393" id= +"page393"></a>{393}</span> +<p>Conaire, <a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page220">220</a>, +<a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page255">255</a>.</p> +<p>Conall Cernach, <a href="#page134">134</a>, <a href= +"#page136">136</a>, <a href="#page230">230</a>, <a href= +"#page240">240</a>.</p> +<p>Conan, <a href="#page142">142</a>.</p> +<p>Conception, magical, <a href="#page351">351</a>.</p> +<p>Conchobar, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href= +"#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href= +"#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page232">232</a>, <a href= +"#page254">254</a>, <a href="#page349">349</a>.</p> +<p>Conn, <a href="#page367">367</a>.</p> +<p>Conncrithir, <a href="#page73">73</a>.</p> +<p>Connla, <a href="#page59">59</a>, <a href="#page65">65</a>, +<a href="#page364">364</a>, <a href="#page374">374</a>, <a href= +"#page377">377</a>, <a href="#page379">379</a>, <a href= +"#page380">380</a>.</p> +<p>Conservatism in belief, <a href="#page193">193</a>.</p> +<p>Coral, <a href="#page329">329</a>.</p> +<p>Coranians, <a href="#page114">114</a>.</p> +<p>Cordelia, <a href="#page99">99</a>.</p> +<p>Cormac, <a href="#page67">67</a>, <a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page366">366</a>.</p> +<p>Corn-spirit, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href= +"#page107">107</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href= +"#page168">168</a>, <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href= +"#page213">213</a>, <a href="#page260">260</a>, <a href= +"#page262">262</a>, <a href="#page273">273</a> f., <a href= +"#page275">275</a>.</p> +<p>Corotacus, <a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Cosmogony, <a href="#page227">227</a> f.</p> +<p>Couvade, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href= +"#page224">224</a>.</p> +<p>Crafts, gods of, <a href="#page93">93</a>.</p> +<p>Cranes, <a href="#page38">38</a>.</p> +<p>Craniology, <a href="#page8">8</a> f.</p> +<p>Creation, <a href="#page230">230</a>.</p> +<p>Creiddylad, <a href="#page85">85</a>, <a href="#page99">99</a>, +<a href="#page113">113</a>.</p> +<p>Creidne, <a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page77">77</a>.</p> +<p>Creirwy, <a href="#page116">116</a>.</p> +<p>Crom Dubh, <a href="#page80">80</a>.</p> +<p>Crom Eocha, <a href="#page79">79</a>.</p> +<p>Cromm Cruaich, <a href="#page57">57</a>, <a href= +"#page79">79</a>, <a href="#page236">236</a>, <a href= +"#page286">286</a>.</p> +<p>Cross, <a href="#page290">290</a>.</p> +<p>Cross-roads, <a href="#page174">174</a>.</p> +<p>Cruithne, <a href="#page17">17</a>.</p> +<p>Cúchulainn, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href= +"#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href= +"#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href= +"#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href= +"#page220">220</a>, <a href="#page240">240</a>, <a href= +"#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page254">254</a>, <a href= +"#page336">336</a>, <a href="#page349">349</a>, <a href= +"#page355">355</a>, <a href="#page357">357</a>, <a href= +"#page365">365</a>, <a href="#page369">369</a>, <a href= +"#page381">381</a>.</p> +<p>Cúchulainn saga, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href= +"#page63">63</a>, <a href="#page71">71</a>, <a href= +"#page87">87</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>, <a href= +"#page127">127</a> f., <a href="#page145">145</a>, <a href= +"#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</p> +<p>Culann, <a href="#page128">128</a>.</p> +<p>Culture goddesses, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href= +"#page68">68</a> f.</p> +<p>Culture gods and heroes, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href= +"#page58">58</a>, <a href="#page92">92-93</a>, <a href= +"#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href= +"#page124">124</a> note, <a href="#page136">136</a>.</p> +<p>Cumal, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page145">145</a> f., <a href="#page148">148</a> f.</p> +<p>Cúroi, <a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href= +"#page381">381</a>.</p> +<p>Cursing wells, <a href="#page137">137</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Dagda, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href= +"#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page74">74-75</a>, <a href= +"#page77">77</a> f., <a href="#page327">327</a>, <a href= +"#page387">387</a>.</p> +<p>Damona, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href= +"#page215">215</a>.</p> +<p>Dance, ritual, <a href="#page246">246</a>, <a href= +"#page268">268</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>.</p> +<p>Danu, <a href="#page63">63</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a> f., +<a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href= +"#page223">223</a>.</p> +<p><i>Daoine-sidhe</i>, <a href="#page62">62</a>.</p> +<p>D'Arbois, M., <a href="#page31">31</a>, <a href= +"#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page56">56</a>, <a href= +"#page59">59</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href= +"#page79">79</a>, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href= +"#page136">136</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>, <a href= +"#page264">264</a>, <a href="#page293">293</a>, <a href= +"#page314">314</a>, <a href="#page341">341</a>, <a href= +"#page357">357</a>, <a href="#page374">374</a>.</p> +<p>Day of Judgment, <a href="#page347">347</a>.</p> +<p>Dead, condition and cult of, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href= +"#page165">165</a> f., <a href="#page282">282</a>, <a href= +"#page330">330</a>, <a href="#page333">333</a> f., <a href= +"#page340">340</a>, <a href="#page344">344</a> f., <a href= +"#page378">378</a>.</p> +<p>Dead Debtor, <a href="#page337">337</a>.</p> +<p>Dead, land of, and Elysium, <a href="#page340">340</a> f.</p> +<p>Dead living in grave, <a href="#page338">338-339</a>.</p> +<p>Debility of Ultonians, <a href="#page71">71</a>, <a href= +"#page129">129</a> f., <a href="#page224">224</a>.</p> +<p>Dechelette, M., <a href="#page166">166</a>.</p> +<p>Dechtire, <a href="#page127">127</a> f., <a href= +"#page348">348</a>, <a href="#page354">354</a>.</p> +<p><i>Deiseil</i>, <a href="#page193">193</a>, <a href= +"#page237">237</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>.</p> +<p>Dei Terreni, <a href="#page64">64</a>.</p> +<p>Demeter, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page274">274</a>.</p> +<p>Demons, <a href="#page173">173</a> f., <a href= +"#page188">188</a>.</p> +<p>Devorgilla, <a href="#page133">133</a>.</p> +<p>Diana, <a href="#page42">42</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>.</p> +<p>Diancecht, <a href="#page77">77</a>, <a href="#page84">84</a>, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, <a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> +<p>Diarmaid, <a href="#page82">82</a>, <a href="#page83">83</a>, +<a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href= +"#page142">142</a>, <a href="#page147">147</a>, <a href= +"#page150">150</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href= +"#page220">220</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href= +"#page254">254</a>, <a href="#page351">351</a>, <a href= +"#page365">365-366</a>.</p> +<p><i>Dii Casses,</i> <a href="#page39">39</a>.</p> +<p>Diodorus Siculus, <a href="#page334">334</a>.</p> +<p>Dionysus, <a href="#page211">211</a>.</p> +<p>Dioscuri, <a href="#page136">136</a>.</p> +<p>Dirona, <a href="#page42">42</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Dirra, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Disablot, <a href="#page169">169</a>.</p> +<p>Disir, <a href="#page169">169</a>.</p> +<p>Dispater, <a href="#page29">29</a> f., <a href="#page44">44</a>, +<a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href= +"#page169">169</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href= +"#page229">229</a>, <a href="#page341">341</a>, <a href= +"#page345">345</a>, <a href="#page376">376</a>.</p> +<p>Distortion, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href= +"#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>.</p> +<p>Divination, <a href="#page235">235</a>, <a href= +"#page247">247</a> f., <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href= +"#page266">266</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> +<p>Divine descent, <a href="#page351">351</a>, <a href= +"#page354">354</a>.</p> +<p>Divine kings, <a href="#page253">253</a>.</p> +<p>Divineresses, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> +<p>Diviners, <a href="#page299">299</a>.</p> +<p>Divining rod, <a href="#page248">248</a>.</p> +<p>Dolmens, <a href="#page283">283</a>, <a href="#page330">330</a>, +<a href="#page352">352</a>.</p> +<p>Domestication, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href= +"#page214">214</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>.</p> +<p><i>Dominæ</i>, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</p> +<p>Domnu, <a href="#page57">57</a> note, <a href="#page59">59</a>, +<a href="#page223">223</a>.</p> +<p>Dôn, <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page223">223</a>.</p> +<p>Donnotaurus, <a href="#page138">138</a>, <a href= +"#page209">209</a>.</p> +<p>Dragon, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.</p> +<p>Drink of oblivion, <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> +<p>Druidesses, <a href="#page250">250</a>, <a href= +"#page316">316</a>.</p> +<p>Druidic Hedge, <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> +<p>Druidic sending, <a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> +<p><a name="index-druids" id="index-druids">Druids</a>, <a href= +"#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page22">22</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page150">150</a>, <a href= +"#page161">161</a> f., <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href= +"#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a>, <a href= +"#page205">205</a> f., <a href="#page235">235</a> f., <a href= +"#page238">238</a>, <a href="#page246">246</a> f., <a href= +"#page250">250</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href= +"#page280">280-281</a>, <a href="#page287">287</a> f., <a href= +"#page293">293</a> f., <a href="#page312">312</a>.</p> +<p>Druids and Filid, <a href="#page305">305</a> f.</p> +<p>Druids and magic, <a href="#page310">310</a>, <a href= +"#page319">319</a>, <a href="#page325">325</a> f.</p> +<p>Druids and medicine, <a href="#page309">309</a>.</p> +<p>Druids and monasticism, <a href="#page305">305</a>.</p> +<p>Druids and Pythagoras, <a href="#page303">303</a>.</p> +<p>Druids and Rome, <a href="#page312">312</a> f.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page394" id= +"page394"></a>{394}</span> +<p>Druids, classical references to, <a href="#page301">301</a> +f.</p> +<p>Druids, dress of, <a href="#page310">310</a> f.</p> +<p>Druids, origin of, <a href="#page292">292</a> f.</p> +<p>Druids, poems of, <a href="#page2">2</a>.</p> +<p>Druids, power of, <a href="#page312">312</a>.</p> +<p>Druids, teaching of, <a href="#page307">307</a> f., <a href= +"#page314">314</a>, <a href="#page333">333</a>.</p> +<p>Druids, varieties of, <a href="#page298">298</a> f.</p> +<p>Drunemeton, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href= +"#page280">280</a>, <a href="#page306">306</a>.</p> +<p>Dualism, <a href="#page57">57</a> f., <a href="#page60">60</a> +f.</p> +<p>Dumias, <a href="#page25">25</a>.</p> +<p>Dusii, <a href="#page355">355</a>.</p> +<p>Dwelling of gods. See <a href="#index-gods">Gods, abode +of</a>.</p> +<p>Dylan, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page110">110</a>, +<a href="#page178">178</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p><i>Each uisge</i>, <a href="#page188">188</a>.</p> +<p>Earth and Under-earth, <a href="#page35">35</a>, <a href= +"#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page68">68</a>.</p> +<p>Earth cults, <a href="#page3">3</a>.</p> +<p>Earth divinities, <a href="#page31">31</a>, <a href= +"#page35">35</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href= +"#page40">40</a>, <a href="#page42">42</a>, <a href= +"#page44">44</a> f., <a href="#page57">57</a> note, <a href= +"#page65">65</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a> f., <a href= +"#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a>, <a href= +"#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href= +"#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page169">169</a>, <a href= +"#page227">227</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a> f., <a href= +"#page345">345</a>.</p> +<p>Eclipses, <a href="#page178">178</a>.</p> +<p>Ecne, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page223">223</a>.</p> +<p>Ecstasy, <a href="#page251">251</a>.</p> +<p>Egg, serpent's, <a href="#page211">211</a>.</p> +<p>Elatha, <a href="#page53">53</a>, <a href="#page58">58</a>, +<a href="#page60">60</a>.</p> +<p>Elcmar, <a href="#page78">78</a>, <a href="#page87">87</a>.</p> +<p>Elements, cult of, <a href="#page171">171</a> f.</p> +<p>Elphin, <a href="#page118">118</a>.</p> +<p>Elves, <a href="#page66">66</a> note.</p> +<p>Elysium, <a href="#page59">59</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a> f., +<a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page87">87</a>, <a href= +"#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href= +"#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href= +"#page120">120</a>, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href= +"#page201">201</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a> f., <a href= +"#page350">350</a>, <a href="#page362">362</a> f.</p> +<p>Elysium, and Paradise, <a href="#page388">388</a> f.</p> +<p>Elysium, characteristics of, <a href="#page373">373</a> ff.</p> +<p>Elysium, lords of, <a href="#page387">387</a>.</p> +<p>Elysium, names of, <a href="#page362">362</a>.</p> +<p>Elysium, origin of, <a href="#page370">370</a> f.</p> +<p>Elysium, varieties of, <a href="#page363">363</a> f.</p> +<p>Emer, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page135">135</a>.</p> +<p>Enbarr, <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href= +"#page135">135</a>.</p> +<p>Eochaid, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</p> +<p>Eochaid Ollathair, <a href="#page78">78</a>.</p> +<p>Eochaid O'Flynn, <a href="#page64">64</a>.</p> +<p>Eogabail, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Epona, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page189">189</a>, <a href="#page213">213</a> f.</p> +<p>Eri, <a href="#page53">53</a>.</p> +<p>Eridanus, <a href="#page27">27</a>.</p> +<p>Eriu, <a href="#page73">73-74</a>.</p> +<p>Esus, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page38">38</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href= +"#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page289">289</a>.</p> +<p>Etain, <a href="#page82">82</a> f., <a href="#page223">223</a>, +<a href="#page348">348</a>, <a href="#page363">363</a>, <a href= +"#page380">380</a>.</p> +<p>Etair, <a href="#page82">82</a>.</p> +<p>Ethics, <a href="#page304">304</a>, <a href= +"#page307">307</a>.</p> +<p>Ethne, <a href="#page31">31</a> note, <a href= +"#page89">89</a>.</p> +<p>Euhemerisation, <a href="#page49">49</a> f., <a href= +"#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href= +"#page95">95</a>, <a href="#page98">98</a>, <a href= +"#page127">127</a>.</p> +<p>Eurosswyd, <a href="#page100">100</a>.</p> +<p>Evans, Dr., <a href="#page200">200</a>.</p> +<p>Evil eye, <a href="#page59">59</a>.</p> +<p>Evnissyen, <a href="#page98">98</a>.</p> +<p>Exogamy, <a href="#page222">222</a>.</p> +<p><i>Ex votos</i>, <a href="#page195">195</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Fachan, <a href="#page251">251</a>.</p> +<p>Fairies, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page45">45</a> f., +<a href="#page62">62</a>, <a href="#page64">64</a> f., <a href= +"#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href= +"#page80">80</a>, <a href="#page98">98</a>, <a href= +"#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href= +"#page166">166</a>, <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href= +"#page178">178</a> note, <a href="#page183">183</a>, <a href= +"#page185">185</a> f., <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href= +"#page201">201</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>, <a href= +"#page262">262</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>, <a href= +"#page378">378</a>.</p> +<p>Fairyland, <a href="#page372">372</a>, <a href= +"#page385">385</a>, <a href="#page388">388</a>.</p> +<p><i>Fáith</i>, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href= +"#page300">300</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>.</p> +<p>Falga, <a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page87">87</a>, +<a href="#page381">381</a>.</p> +<p>Fand, <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href="#page87">87</a>, +<a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page135">135</a>, <a href= +"#page365">365</a>, <a href="#page380">380</a>.</p> +<p>Ferdia, <a href="#page131">131</a>.</p> +<p>Fergus, <a href="#page142">142</a>, <a href= +"#page336">336</a>.</p> +<p>Fertility cults, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href= +"#page56">56</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href= +"#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a>, <a href= +"#page83">83</a>, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href= +"#page93">93</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href= +"#page114">114-115</a>, <a href="#page276">276</a>, <a href= +"#page330">330</a>, <a href="#page352">352</a>, <a href= +"#page382">382</a> f.</p> +<p><a name="index-festivals" id="index-festivals">Festivals</a>, +<a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href= +"#page256">256</a> f.</p> +<p>Festivals of dead, <a href="#page167">167</a>.</p> +<p>Fetich, <a href="#page289">289</a>.</p> +<p>Fiachna, <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page350">350</a>, +<a href="#page366">366</a>, <a href="#page379">379</a>.</p> +<p>Fians, <a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href= +"#page365">365</a>.</p> +<p><i>Filid</i>, <a href="#page248">248</a> f., <a href= +"#page300">300</a>, <a href="#page305">305</a> f., <a href= +"#page325">325</a>.</p> +<p><i>Findbennach</i>, <a href="#page130">130</a>.</p> +<p>Finnen, S., <a href="#page351">351</a>.</p> +<p>Finntain, <a href="#page50">50</a>.</p> +<p>Fionn, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page118">118</a>, +<a href="#page120">120-121</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a> f., <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href= +"#page220">220</a>, <a href="#page254">254</a>, <a href= +"#page344">344</a>, <a href="#page350">350</a>, <a href= +"#page365">365-366</a>.</p> +<p>Fionn saga, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>, +<a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>, <a href= +"#page142">142</a> f.</p> +<p><i>Fir Dea</i>, <a href="#page63">63</a>.</p> +<p><i>Fir Domnann</i>, <a href="#page52">52</a> f., <a href= +"#page157">157</a>.</p> +<p><i>Fir Síde</i>, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href= +"#page65">65</a>.</p> +<p>Firbolgs, <a href="#page52">52</a>, <a href= +"#page57">57</a>.</p> +<p>Fires, <a href="#page199">199</a> f., <a href= +"#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page261">261</a> f., <a href= +"#page265">265</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a>, <a href= +"#page270">270</a>.</p> +<p>Fires, sacred, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</p> +<p>Fish, sacred, <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href= +"#page220">220</a>.</p> +<p>Flann Manistrech, <a href="#page64">64</a>.</p> +<p>Flood, <a href="#page228">228</a>, <a href= +"#page231">231</a>.</p> +<p>Fomorians, <a href="#page51">51</a>, <a href="#page52">52</a> +f., <a href="#page55">55-56</a>, <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href= +"#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href= +"#page89">89</a>, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href= +"#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page133">133</a>, <a href= +"#page189">189</a>, <a href="#page237">237</a>, <a href= +"#page251">251</a>.</p> +<p>Food of immortality, <a href="#page377">377</a> f.</p> +<p>Food as bond of relationship, <a href="#page379">379</a>.</p> +<p>Forest divinities, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href= +"#page108">108</a>.</p> +<p>Fotla, <a href="#page73">73-74</a>.</p> +<p>Foundation sacrifices, <a href="#page238">238</a>.</p> +<p>Fountains, <a href="#page171">171</a>, <a href= +"#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>.</p> +<p>Fountains of youth, <a href="#page378">378</a>, <a href= +"#page388">388</a>.</p> +<p>Fraoch, <a href="#page377">377</a>.</p> +<p>Friuch, <a href="#page349">349</a>.</p> +<p>Frazer, Dr. J.G., <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href= +"#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page269">269</a>.</p> +<p>Fuamnach, <a href="#page22">22</a>.</p> +<p>Funeral sacrifices, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href= +"#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>.</p> +<p>Future life, <a href="#page333">333</a> f.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page395" id= +"page395"></a>{395}</span><br /> +<p>Galatæ, <a href="#page18">18</a>.</p> +<p>Galli, <a href="#page19">19</a>.</p> +<p>Gallizenæ, <a href="#page317">317</a>. See <a href= +"#index-priestesses">Priestesses</a>.</p> +<p>Galioin, <a href="#page52">52</a>, <a href="#page57">57</a>.</p> +<p>Garbh mac Stairn, <a href="#page139">139</a>.</p> +<p>Gargantua, <a href="#page124">124</a> note, <a href= +"#page230">230</a>.</p> +<p>Garman, <a href="#page167">167</a>.</p> +<p>Gauls, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page20">20</a>.</p> +<p>Gavida, <a href="#page89">89</a>, <a href= +"#page109">109</a>.</p> +<p><a name="index-geasa" id="index-geasa"><i>Geasa</i></a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href= +"#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href= +"#page150">150</a> f., <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href= +"#page252">252</a> f. See <a href="#index-tabu">Tabu</a>.</p> +<p>Geoffrey of Monmouth, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href= +"#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>.</p> +<p>Ghosts, <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a>, +<a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href="#page169">169</a>, <a href= +"#page262">262</a>, <a href="#page281">281</a>, <a href= +"#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page330">330</a>, <a href= +"#page336">336</a>.</p> +<p>Ghosts in trees, <a href="#page202">202</a> f.</p> +<p>Gildas, <a href="#page171">171</a>.</p> +<p>Gilla Coemain, <a href="#page64">64</a>.</p> +<p>Gilvæthwy, <a href="#page104">104</a>.</p> +<p>Glass, <a href="#page370">370</a>.</p> +<p>Glastonbury, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href= +"#page121">121</a>, <a href="#page369">369</a>.</p> +<p>Goborchin, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</p> +<p>God of Connaught, <a href="#page92">92</a>.</p> +<p>God of Druidism, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href= +"#page105">105</a>, <a href="#page122">122</a>.</p> +<p>God of Ulster, <a href="#page92">92</a>.</p> +<p>Goddesses and mortals, <a href="#page355">355</a>.</p> +<p>Goddesses, pre-eminence of, <a href="#page93">93</a>, <a href= +"#page124">124</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</p> +<p>Godiva, <a href="#page276">276</a>.</p> +<p><a name="index-gods" id="index-gods">Gods, abode of</a>, +<a href="#page228">228</a> f., <a href="#page362">362</a>, <a href= +"#page372">372</a>.</p> +<p>Gods, children of, <a href="#page159">159</a>.</p> +<p>Gods, fertility and civilisation from land of, <a href= +"#page100">100</a>, <a href="#page106">106-107</a>, <a href= +"#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href= +"#page380">380</a> f., <a href="#page383">383</a>.</p> +<p>Gods uniting with mortals, <a href="#page159">159</a>.</p> +<p>Goibniu, <a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, +<a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> +<p>Goidels, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page17">17</a>, +<a href="#page96">96</a>.</p> +<p>Goll mac Morna, <a href="#page142">142</a>.</p> +<p>Gomme, Sir G.L., <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href= +"#page295">295</a>.</p> +<p>Goose, <a href="#page219">219</a>.</p> +<p>Govannon, <a href="#page109">109</a> f.</p> +<p>Graal, <a href="#page383">383</a>.</p> +<p>Grainne, <a href="#page150">150</a>, <a href= +"#page254">254</a>.</p> +<p>Grannos, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page42">42</a> f., +<a href="#page77">77</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href= +"#page183">183</a>.</p> +<p>Gregory of Tours, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href= +"#page196">196</a>, <a href="#page275">275</a>.</p> +<p>Groves, <a href="#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page198">198</a>, +<a href="#page279">279</a> f.</p> +<p>Growth, divinities of, <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href= +"#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page80">80</a>, <a href= +"#page82">82</a>, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href= +"#page182">182</a>.</p> +<p>Gruagach, <a href="#page245">245</a>.</p> +<p>Guinevere, <a href="#page123">123</a>.</p> +<p>Gurgiunt, <a href="#page124">124</a>.</p> +<p>Gutuatri, <a href="#page298">298</a> f.</p> +<p>Gwawl, <a href="#page99">99</a>, <a href="#page111">111</a>.</p> +<p>Gweir, <a href="#page106">106</a>.</p> +<p>Gwion, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page351">351</a>, +<a href="#page381">381</a>.</p> +<p>Gwydion, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a> +f., <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>, +<a href="#page385">385</a>.</p> +<p>Gwyn, <a href="#page55">55</a>, <a href="#page113">113</a>, +<a href="#page115">115</a>.</p> +<p>Gwythur, <a href="#page55">55</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Hades, <a href="#page135">135</a>.</p> +<p>Hafgan, <a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href= +"#page368">368</a>.</p> +<p>Hallowe'en, <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href= +"#page281">281</a>.</p> +<p>Hallstatt, <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href= +"#page211">211</a>.</p> +<p>Hallucinations, <a href="#page323">323-324</a>.</p> +<p>Hammer as divine symbol, <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href= +"#page291">291</a>.</p> +<p>Hammer, God with, <a href="#page30">30</a> f., <a href= +"#page35">35</a>, <a href="#page36">36</a> f., <a href= +"#page79">79</a>.</p> +<p>Haoma, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</p> +<p>Hare, <a href="#page219">219</a>.</p> +<p>Harvest, <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href= +"#page273">273</a>.</p> +<p>Head-hunting, <a href="#page240">240</a>.</p> +<p>Heads, cult of, <a href="#page34">34</a>, <a href= +"#page71">71</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href= +"#page240">240</a> f.</p> +<p>Healing plants, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href= +"#page206">206</a> f.</p> +<p>Healing ritual, <a href="#page122">122</a>, <a href= +"#page193">193</a> f.</p> +<p>Healing springs, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href= +"#page186">186</a>.</p> +<p>Hearth as altar, <a href="#page165">165</a> f.</p> +<p>Heaven and earth, <a href="#page227">227</a>.</p> +<p>Hen, <a href="#page219">219</a>.</p> +<p>Hephaistos, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</p> +<p>Heracles, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page75">75</a>, +<a href="#page133">133</a>.</p> +<p>Heroes in hills, <a href="#page344">344</a>.</p> +<p>Hills, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</p> +<p>Holder, A., <a href="#page23">23</a>.</p> +<p>Horned helmets, <a href="#page217">217</a>.</p> +<p>Horns, gods with, <a href="#page32">32</a> f.</p> +<p>Horse, <a href="#page213">213</a> f.</p> +<p>Hu Gadarm, <a href="#page124">124</a> note.</p> +<p>Hyde, Dr., <a href="#page143">143-144</a>.</p> +<p>Hyperboreans, <a href="#page18">18</a>, <a href= +"#page27">27</a>.</p> +<p>Hypnotism, <a href="#page307">307</a>, <a href= +"#page310">310</a>, <a href="#page323">323-324</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Iberians, <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> +<p>Icauna, <a href="#page43">43</a>.</p> +<p>Iconoclasm, <a href="#page287">287</a>.</p> +<p>Igerna, <a href="#page120">120</a>.</p> +<p>Images, <a href="#page79">79</a>, <a href="#page85">85</a>, +<a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page277">277</a>, <a href= +"#page283">283</a> f.</p> +<p><i>Imbas Forosnai</i>, <a href="#page248">248</a>.</p> +<p>Immortality, <a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href= +"#page333">333</a>, <a href="#page376">376</a>.</p> +<p>Incantations, <a href="#page80">80</a>, <a href= +"#page248">248</a> f., <a href="#page254">254</a>, <a href= +"#page297">297</a>, <a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> +<p>Incest, <a href="#page223">223</a> f.</p> +<p>Indech, <a href="#page54">54</a>, <a href="#page58">58</a>.</p> +<p>Inspiration, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href= +"#page118">118</a>.</p> +<p>Invisibility, <a href="#page322">322</a>, <a href= +"#page380">380</a>.</p> +<p>Is, <a href="#page372">372</a>.</p> +<p>Iuchar, Iucharbar, <a href="#page63">63</a>, <a href= +"#page73">73</a> f.</p> +<br /> +<p>Janus, <a href="#page34">34</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>.</p> +<p>Joyce, Dr., <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href= +"#page143">143</a>, <a href="#page236">236</a>.</p> +<p>Juno, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</p> +<p>Junones, <a href="#page45">45</a>.</p> +<p>Jullian, <a href="#page178">178</a>.</p> +<p>Juppiter, <a href="#page29">29</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Kalevala, <a href="#page142">142</a>.</p> +<p>Keane, <a href="#page9">9</a>.</p> +<p>Keating, <a href="#page51">51</a>, <a href= +"#page143">143</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page396" id= +"page396"></a>{396}</span> +<p>Kei, <a href="#page122">122</a> f.</p> +<p>Keres, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> +<p>Kieva, <a href="#page99">99</a>.</p> +<p>King and fertility, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href= +"#page253">253</a>.</p> +<p>Kings, divine, <a href="#page160">160</a> f., <a href= +"#page243">243</a>.</p> +<p>Kings, election of, <a href="#page306">306</a>.</p> +<p>Kore, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href= +"#page274">274-275</a>.</p> +<p>Kronos, <a href="#page59">59</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>La Tène, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</p> +<p>Labraid, <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href="#page365">365</a>, +<a href="#page369">369</a>, <a href="#page380">380</a>.</p> +<p>Lakes, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href= +"#page194">194</a>.</p> +<p>Lammas, <a href="#page273">273</a>.</p> +<p>Land under waves, <a href="#page371">371</a>.</p> +<p>Lear, <a href="#page86">86</a>.</p> +<p>Ler, Lir, <a href="#page49">49</a> note, <a href= +"#page86">86</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a>.</p> +<p>Lia Fail, <a href="#page329">329</a>.</p> +<p>Liban, <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href="#page365">365</a>.</p> +<p>Libations, <a href="#page244">244</a> f., <a href= +"#page247">247</a>.</p> +<p>Ligurians, <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> +<p>Llew, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page106">106</a>.</p> +<p>Lludd Llawereint, <a href="#page85">85</a>, <a href= +"#page99">99</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href= +"#page113">113</a> f., <a href="#page124">124</a>.</p> +<p>Llyr, <a href="#page98">98</a> f.</p> +<p>Lochlanners, <a href="#page56">56</a>, <a href= +"#page147">147</a>.</p> +<p>Lodens, <a href="#page113">113</a>.</p> +<p>Loegaire, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page379">379</a>.</p> +<p>Lonnrot, <a href="#page142">142</a>.</p> +<p>Loth, M., <a href="#page108">108</a>.</p> +<p>Love, <a href="#page385">385</a>.</p> +<p>Lucan, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page279">279</a>, <a href="#page282">282</a>, <a href= +"#page335">335</a> f., <a href="#page345">345</a>.</p> +<p>Luchtine, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</p> +<p>Lucian, <a href="#page75">75</a>, <a href= +"#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Lug, <a href="#page31">31</a> note, <a href="#page35">35</a> +note, <a href="#page59">59</a>, <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href= +"#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href= +"#page75">75</a>, <a href="#page89">89</a> f., <a href= +"#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page108">108</a> f., <a href= +"#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href= +"#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href= +"#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page272">272</a>, <a href= +"#page348">348</a>, <a href="#page353">353</a> f.</p> +<p>Lugaid, <a href="#page132">132</a>.</p> +<p>Lugnasad, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>, +<a href="#page167">167</a> f., <a href="#page272">272</a> f.</p> +<p>Lugoves, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> +<p>Lugus, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page272">272</a>.</p> +<p>Lycanthropy, <a href="#page216">216</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Mabinogion, <a href="#page2">2</a>, <a href="#page95">95</a> +f.</p> +<p>Mabon, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href= +"#page183">183</a>.</p> +<p>MacBain, Dr., <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href= +"#page56">56</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a>.</p> +<p>MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGrainne, <a href= +"#page74">74</a>.</p> +<p>Macha, <a href="#page71">71</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page241">241</a>.</p> +<p>MacIneely, <a href="#page89">89</a>.</p> +<p>MacPherson, <a href="#page142">142</a>, <a href= +"#page155">155</a> f.</p> +<p>Madonna, <a href="#page289">289</a>.</p> +<p>Maelduin, <a href="#page385">385</a>.</p> +<p>Maelrubha, S. <a href="#page243">243</a>.</p> +<p>Magic, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a>, +<a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href="#page292">292</a>, <a href= +"#page319">319</a>.</p> +<p>Magic, agricultural, <a href="#page260">260</a>, <a href= +"#page265">265-266</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>, <a href= +"#page273">273</a>, <a href="#page276">276</a> note.</p> +<p>Magico-medical rites, <a href="#page330">330</a> f., <a href= +"#page332">332</a>.</p> +<p>Magonia, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p>Magtured, <a href="#page53">53</a> f., <a href= +"#page84">84</a>.</p> +<p>Man, origin of, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href= +"#page228">228</a>.</p> +<p>Manannan, <a href="#page49">49</a> note, <a href= +"#page64">64-65</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href= +"#page80">80</a>, <a href="#page86">86</a> f., <a href= +"#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href= +"#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page147">147</a>, <a href= +"#page178">178</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>, <a href= +"#page231">231</a>, <a href="#page350">350</a> f., <a href= +"#page358">358</a>, <a href="#page364">364</a> f., <a href= +"#page380">380</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a>.</p> +<p>Manawyddan, <a href="#page87">87</a>, <a href="#page98">98</a> +f., <a href="#page100">100</a> f., <a href="#page111">111</a>, +<a href="#page368">368</a>.</p> +<p>Mannhardt, <a href="#page269">269</a>.</p> +<p>Maponos, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href= +"#page123">123</a>.</p> +<p><i>Märchen</i> formulæ, <a href="#page77">77</a>, +<a href="#page82">82</a>, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href= +"#page89">89</a>, <a href="#page95">95</a>, <a href= +"#page107">107-108</a>, <a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href= +"#page116">116</a>, <a href="#page124">124</a>, <a href= +"#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page133">133</a>, <a href= +"#page143">143</a>, <a href="#page148">148</a>, <a href= +"#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href= +"#page337">337</a>, <a href="#page353">353</a>, <a href= +"#page384">384</a>.</p> +<p>Marriage, sacred, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href= +"#page267">267</a>, <a href="#page273">273</a>.</p> +<p>Mars, <a href="#page27">27</a> f., <a href="#page85">85</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page214">214</a>.</p> +<p>Martin, S., <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href= +"#page243">243</a>, <a href="#page260">260</a>.</p> +<p>Martinmas, <a href="#page259">259</a>. f.</p> +<p>Math, <a href="#page104">104</a> f.</p> +<p>Matholwych, <a href="#page98">98</a>.</p> +<p>Matres, <a href="#page40">40</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a> f., +<a href="#page72">72-73</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href= +"#page169">169</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>, <a href= +"#page214">214</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>, <a href= +"#page289">289</a>.</p> +<p>Matriarchate, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href= +"#page223">223</a>.</p> +<p>Matronæ, <a href="#page46">46</a>, <a href= +"#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</p> +<p>May-day, <a href="#page114">114</a>.</p> +<p>May-queen, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href= +"#page267">267</a>.</p> +<p>Medb, <a href="#page130">130</a> f.</p> +<p>Medicine, <a href="#page309">309</a> f.</p> +<p>Mediterranean race, <a href="#page9">9</a>.</p> +<p>Medros, <a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href= +"#page209">209</a>.</p> +<p>Megaliths, <a href="#page202">202</a>, <a href= +"#page297">297</a>, <a href="#page330">330</a>, <a href= +"#page352">352</a>. See <a href= +"#index-stonehenge">Stonehenge</a>.</p> +<p>Men, cults of, <a href="#page3">3</a>.</p> +<p>Mercury, <a href="#page24">24</a> f., <a href="#page34">34</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page284">284</a> f.</p> +<p>Merlin, <a href="#page120">120</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a> +f.</p> +<p>Mermaids, <a href="#page190">190</a>.</p> +<p>Metempsychosis, <a href="#page303">303</a>, <a href= +"#page348">348</a> f.</p> +<p>Meyer, Prof., <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href= +"#page294">294</a>.</p> +<p>Miach, <a href="#page27">27</a>.</p> +<p>Mider, <a href="#page82">82</a> f., <a href="#page209">209</a>, +<a href="#page363">363</a>, <a href="#page380">380-381</a>.</p> +<p>Midsummer, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href= +"#page191">191</a>, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href= +"#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page215">215</a>, <a href= +"#page235">235</a>, <a href="#page239">239</a>, <a href= +"#page257">257</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a> f.</p> +<p>Mile, <a href="#page54">54</a>.</p> +<p>Milesians, <a href="#page55">55</a>, <a href="#page60">60</a>, +<a href="#page78">78</a>.</p> +<p>Minerva, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Miracles, <a href="#page331">331</a>, <a href= +"#page351">351</a>.</p> +<p>Mistletoe, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href= +"#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a>, <a href= +"#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page243">243</a> f., <a href= +"#page270">270</a>.</p> +<p>Mithraism, <a href="#page209">209</a>.</p> +<p>Moccus, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href= +"#page210">210</a>.</p> +<p>Modranicht, <a href="#page169">169</a>.</p> +<p>Modron, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href= +"#page183">183</a>.</p> +<p>Mogons, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p>Mongan, <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>, +<a href="#page350">350</a> f., <a href="#page358">358</a>.</p> +<p>Moon, <a href="#page175">175</a> f., <a href= +"#page246">246</a>.</p> +<p>Morgen, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>, +<a href="#page369">369</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page397" id= +"page397"></a>{397}</span> +<p>Morrigan, <a href="#page71">71</a>, <a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href="#page130">130-131</a>, <a href= +"#page136">136-137</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href= +"#page172">172</a>.</p> +<p>Morvran, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href= +"#page118">118</a>.</p> +<p>Mounds, <a href="#page63">63</a>, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</p> +<p>Mountain gods, <a href="#page39">39</a>.</p> +<p>Mountains, <a href="#page171">171</a> f.</p> +<p>Mowat, M., <a href="#page33">33</a>, <a href= +"#page36">36</a>.</p> +<p>Muireartach, <a href="#page56">56</a>, <a href= +"#page179">179</a>.</p> +<p>Muirne, <a href="#page148">148</a>.</p> +<p>Mule, <a href="#page214">214</a>.</p> +<p>Mullo, <a href="#page214">214</a>.</p> +<p>Music, <a href="#page329">329</a>, <a href= +"#page386">386</a>.</p> +<p>Mythological school, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href= +"#page89">89</a>, <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href= +"#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page122">122</a>, <a href= +"#page133">133</a> f.</p> +<br /> +<p>Name, <a href="#page246">246</a>.</p> +<p>Name-giving, <a href="#page308">308</a> f.</p> +<p>Nantosvelta, <a href="#page31">31</a>.</p> +<p>Nature divinities and spirits, <a href="#page48">48</a>, +<a href="#page93">93</a>, <a href="#page171">171</a> f.</p> +<p>Needfire, <a href="#page199">199</a>.</p> +<p>Nemaind, <a href="#page58">58</a>.</p> +<p>Neman, <a href="#page71">71</a>.</p> +<p>Nemedians, <a href="#page51">51</a> f.</p> +<p><i>Nemeton</i>, <a href="#page161">161</a>.</p> +<p>Nemetona, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href= +"#page71">71</a>.</p> +<p>Nennius, <a href="#page119">119</a>.</p> +<p>Neo-Druidic heresy, <a href="#page2">2</a> note.</p> +<p>Neptune, <a href="#page85">85</a>.</p> +<p>Nera, <a href="#page339">339</a>.</p> +<p>Nessa, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href= +"#page349">349</a>.</p> +<p>Nét, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page58">58</a>, +<a href="#page71">71</a>.</p> +<p>Neton, <a href="#page28">28</a>.</p> +<p>New Year, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href= +"#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page261">261</a>.</p> +<p>Night, <a href="#page256">256</a>.</p> +<p>Niskas, <a href="#page185">185</a>.</p> +<p>Nodons, <a href="#page85">85</a>, <a href="#page114">114</a>, +<a href="#page124">124</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>.</p> +<p>Norse influence, <a href="#page99">99</a>, <a href= +"#page127">127</a>.</p> +<p>Nuada, <a href="#page53">53</a> f., <a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page77">77</a>, <a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href= +"#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>.</p> +<p>Nuada Necht, <a href="#page85">85</a> f.</p> +<p>Nudd, <a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a> f., +<a href="#page124">124</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>.</p> +<p>Nudd Hael, <a href="#page86">86</a>.</p> +<p>Nudity, <a href="#page275">275-276</a>, <a href= +"#page322">322</a>.</p> +<p>Nutt, Mr., <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href= +"#page373">373</a>.</p> +<p>Nymphs, <a href="#page43">43</a>.</p> +<p>Nynnyaw, <a href="#page113">113</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Oak, <a href="#page199">199</a>.</p> +<p>Oaths, <a href="#page172">172</a> f., <a href= +"#page292">292</a>.</p> +<p>O'Curry, <a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href= +"#page143">143</a>.</p> +<p>O'Davoren, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> +<p>Oengus, <a href="#page78">78</a>, <a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page86">86</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a>, <a href= +"#page387">387</a>.</p> +<p>Oghams, <a href="#page75">75</a>.</p> +<p>Ogma, <a href="#page54">54</a>, <a href="#page74">74-75</a>.</p> +<p>Ogmíos, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href= +"#page75">75</a>.</p> +<p>Oilill Olom, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Oisin, <a href="#page142">142</a>, <a href= +"#page150">150-151</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a> f., <a href= +"#page222">222</a>, <a href="#page364">364</a>, <a href= +"#page379">379</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a>.</p> +<p>Omens, <a href="#page247">247</a> f.</p> +<p>Oracles, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href= +"#page196">196</a>.</p> +<p>Oran, <a href="#page238">238</a>.</p> +<p><i>Orbis alius</i>, <a href="#page340">340</a>.</p> +<p>Orbsen, <a href="#page87">87</a>.</p> +<p>Ordeals, <a href="#page196">196</a> f., <a href= +"#page383">383</a>.</p> +<p>Orgiastic rites, <a href="#page80">80</a>, <a href= +"#page261">261</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href= +"#page386">386</a>.</p> +<p>Osiris, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Paradise, <a href="#page388">388</a> f.</p> +<p>Partholan, <a href="#page51">51</a>.</p> +<p>Pastoral stage, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href= +"#page225">225</a>, <a href="#page260">260</a>.</p> +<p>Patrick, S., <a href="#page61">61</a>. <a href="#page64">64</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href= +"#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page79">79-80</a>, <a href= +"#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href= +"#page152">152</a> f., <a href="#page171">171</a>, <a href= +"#page193">193</a>, <a href="#page237">237</a>, <a href= +"#page242">242</a>, <a href="#page249">249</a>, <a href= +"#page251">251</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>, <a href= +"#page315">315</a> f., <a href="#page319">319</a>.</p> +<p>Peanfahel, <a href="#page17">17</a>.</p> +<p>Peisgi, <a href="#page185">185</a>.</p> +<p>Penn Cruc, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</p> +<p>Pennocrucium, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</p> +<p>Perambulation, <a href="#page277">277</a>.</p> +<p>Persephone, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href= +"#page85">85</a>.</p> +<p>Picts, <a href="#page16">16</a> f., <a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page220">220</a>, <a href="#page222">222</a>.</p> +<p>Pillar of sky, <a href="#page228">228</a>.</p> +<p>Place-names, <a href="#page16">16</a> note, <a href= +"#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page19">19</a>, <a href= +"#page120">120</a>, <a href="#page146">146</a>, <a href= +"#page209">209</a>, <a href="#page211">211</a>.</p> +<p>Plants, <a href="#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a> +f.</p> +<p>Pliny, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page175">175</a>, +<a href="#page198">198</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a> f., <a href= +"#page328">328</a>.</p> +<p>Plutarch, <a href="#page343">343</a>.</p> +<p>Pluto, <a href="#page34">34</a> f.</p> +<p>Plutus, <a href="#page35">35</a>.</p> +<p>Poeninus, <a href="#page39">39</a>.</p> +<p>Poetry, divinities of, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href= +"#page75">75</a>.</p> +<p>Pollux, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p>Polyandry, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page223">223</a> +f.</p> +<p>Polygamy, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href= +"#page224">224</a>.</p> +<p>Prayer, <a href="#page245">245</a> f.</p> +<p>Pre-Celtic cults, <a href="#page48">48</a>, <a href= +"#page81">81</a>, <a href="#page93">93</a>, <a href= +"#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href= +"#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page202">202</a>, <a href= +"#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page224">224</a>, <a href= +"#page277">277</a>, <a href="#page294">294</a> f., <a href= +"#page361">361</a>.</p> +<p>Priesthood. See <a href="#index-druids">Druids</a>.</p> +<p><a name="index-priestesses" id= +"index-priestesses">Priestesses</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page192">192</a> f., <a href= +"#page226">226</a>, <a href="#page246">246</a>, <a href= +"#page250">250</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>, <a href= +"#page321">321</a>.</p> +<p>Priest-kings, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href= +"#page226">226</a>, <a href="#page267">267</a>, <a href= +"#page296">296</a>, <a href="#page307">307</a>.</p> +<p>Procopius, <a href="#page342">342</a>.</p> +<p>Prophecy, <a href="#page250">250</a> f, <a href= +"#page300">300</a> f.</p> +<p>Pryderi, <a href="#page98">98</a> f., <a href="#page110">110</a> +f., <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>, +<a href="#page385">385</a>.</p> +<p>Pwyll, <a href="#page110">110</a> f., <a href= +"#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>, <a href= +"#page385">385</a>.</p> +<p>Pythagoras, <a href="#page303">303</a>, <a href= +"#page334">334</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p><i>Quadriviæ</i>, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Ragnarok, <a href="#page232">232</a>.</p> +<p>Rain-making, <a href="#page266">266</a>, <a href= +"#page321">321</a> f.</p> +<p>Rebirth, <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page348">348</a> f.</p> +<p>Reinach, M., <a href="#page31">31</a> note, <a href= +"#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href= +"#page211">211</a>, <a href="#page287">287</a>, <a href= +"#page297">297</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>, <a href= +"#page340">340</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page398" id= +"page398"></a>{398}</span> +<p>Relics, <a href="#page332">332</a>.</p> +<p>Retribution, <a href="#page346">346</a>.</p> +<p>Rhiannon, <a href="#page98">98</a> f., <a href= +"#page110">110</a> f.</p> +<p>Rh[^y]s, Sir J., <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href= +"#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href= +"#page55">55</a>, <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href= +"#page68">68</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a>, <a href= +"#page82">82</a> f., <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href= +"#page93">93</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href= +"#page101">101</a> f., <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href= +"#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href= +"#page122">122</a>, <a href="#page135">135</a>, <a href= +"#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href= +"#page282">282</a>, <a href="#page294">294</a>, <a href= +"#page356">356</a>, <a href="#page376">376</a>.</p> +<p>Rigantona, <a href="#page111">111</a>.</p> +<p>Rigisama, <a href="#page28">28</a>.</p> +<p>River divinities, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href= +"#page46">46</a>, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href= +"#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page243">243</a>, <a href= +"#page354">354</a>.</p> +<p>Rivers, cult of, <a href="#page172">172</a>, <a href= +"#page180">180</a> f.</p> +<p>Rivers, names of, <a href="#page182">182</a>.</p> +<p>Roman and Celtic gods, <a href="#page22">22</a> f., <a href= +"#page289">289</a> f.</p> +<p>Romans and Druids, <a href="#page312">312</a> f.</p> +<p>Ruadan, <a href="#page58">58</a>.</p> +<p>Ruad-rofhessa, <a href="#page77">77</a>.</p> +<p>Rucht, <a href="#page349">349</a>.</p> +<p>Rudiobus, <a href="#page214">214</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Saar, <a href="#page150">150</a>.</p> +<p>Sacramental rites, <a href="#page222">222</a>, <a href= +"#page260">260</a>, <a href="#page266">266</a>, <a href= +"#page271">271</a>.</p> +<p>Sacrifice of aged, <a href="#page242">242</a>.</p> +<p>Sacrifice of animals, <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href= +"#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>, <a href= +"#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page242">242</a> f., <a href= +"#page260">260</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>.</p> +<p>Sacrifice, foundation, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href= +"#page238">238</a> f.</p> +<p>Sacrifice, human, <a href="#page57">57</a>, <a href= +"#page79">79</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href= +"#page190">190</a>, <a href="#page198">198</a>, <a href= +"#page233">233</a> f., <a href="#page261">261</a>, <a href= +"#page265">265</a>, <a href="#page269">269</a>, <a href= +"#page304">304</a>, <a href="#page308">308</a>, <a href= +"#page313">313</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>.</p> +<p>Sacrifice to dead, <a href="#page165">165</a> f., <a href= +"#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>.</p> +<p>Sacrificial offerings, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href= +"#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href= +"#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href= +"#page194">194</a>, <a href="#page198">198</a>, <a href= +"#page233">233</a> f., <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href= +"#page308">308</a>.</p> +<p>Sacrificial survivals, <a href="#page244">244</a> f.</p> +<p>Saints, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page209">209</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href="#page251">251</a>, <a href= +"#page285">285</a> f., <a href="#page288">288</a>, <a href= +"#page331">331</a> f., <a href="#page386">386</a> note.</p> +<p>Saints and wells, <a href="#page193">193</a>.</p> +<p>Saints' days and pagan festivals, <a href= +"#page258">258</a>.</p> +<p>Salmon of knowledge, <a href="#page149">149</a>, <a href= +"#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page377">377</a>.</p> +<p>Samhain, <a href="#page56">56</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>, +<a href="#page80">80</a>, <a href="#page167">167-168</a>, <a href= +"#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page222">222</a>, <a href= +"#page256">256</a> f., <a href="#page258">258</a> f.</p> +<p>Satire, <a href="#page326">326</a>.</p> +<p>Saturn, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</p> +<p>Scandinavia and Ireland, <a href="#page148">148</a>.</p> +<p>Scathach, <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href= +"#page135">135</a>.</p> +<p><i>Scotti</i>, <a href="#page17">17</a>.</p> +<p>Sea, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>.</p> +<p>Sébillot, <a href="#page342">342</a>.</p> +<p>Segomo, <a href="#page214">214</a>.</p> +<p>Segovesus, <a href="#page19">19</a>.</p> +<p>Selvanus, <a href="#page37">37</a>.</p> +<p>Semnotheoi, <a href="#page298">298</a>, <a href= +"#page301">301</a>.</p> +<p>Sequana, <a href="#page43">43</a>.</p> +<p>Sergi, Prof., <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href= +"#page296">296</a>.</p> +<p>Serpent, <a href="#page35">35</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>, <a href="#page211">211</a>.</p> +<p>Serpent with ram's head, <a href="#page34">34</a>, <a href= +"#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href= +"#page211">211</a>.</p> +<p>Serpent's egg, <a href="#page328">328</a>.</p> +<p>Serpent's glass, <a href="#page328">328</a>.</p> +<p>Setanta, <a href="#page349">349</a>.</p> +<p><a name="index-shape" id="index-shape">Shape-shifting</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a>, <a href= +"#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href= +"#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page150">150</a>, <a href= +"#page221">221</a>, <a href="#page322">322</a> f., <a href= +"#page350">350</a>, <a href="#page356">356</a> f.</p> +<p><a name="index-sid" id="index-sid"><i>Síd</i></a>, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, <a href="#page64">64</a> note, <a href= +"#page65">65</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a>.</p> +<p>Silvanus, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page36">36</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.</p> +<p>Sinend, <a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href= +"#page191">191</a>.</p> +<p>Sinnan, <a href="#page43">43</a>.</p> +<p>Sirona, <a href="#page42">42</a>.</p> +<p>Skene, Dr., <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href= +"#page108">108</a>.</p> +<p>Slain gods and human victims, <a href="#page159">159</a>, +<a href="#page168">168</a> f., <a href="#page199">199</a>, <a href= +"#page226">226</a>, <a href="#page235">235</a>, <a href= +"#page239">239</a>, <a href="#page262">262</a>, <a href= +"#page269">269</a>, <a href="#page272">272</a>.</p> +<p>Sleep, magic, <a href="#page327">327</a>.</p> +<p>Smertullos, <a href="#page35">35</a>, <a href= +"#page136">136</a>, <a href="#page289">289</a>.</p> +<p>Smiths, god of, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</p> +<p>Smiths, magic of, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</p> +<p>Solar hero, <a href="#page133">133</a>.</p> +<p>Soma, <a href="#page76">76</a>.</p> +<p>Soul as animal, <a href="#page360">360</a>.</p> +<p>Soul, separable, <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href= +"#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page270">270</a>.</p> +<p>Spain, <a href="#page375">375</a>.</p> +<p>Spells, <a href="#page246">246</a>, <a href="#page254">254</a>, +<a href="#page325">325</a> f.</p> +<p>Squatting gods, <a href="#page32">32</a> f.</p> +<p>Sreng, <a href="#page84">84</a>.</p> +<p>Stag, <a href="#page213">213</a>.</p> +<p>Stanna, <a href="#page42">42</a>.</p> +<p>Stokes, Dr., <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page56">56</a>, +<a href="#page71">71</a>, <a href="#page77">77</a>, <a href= +"#page222">222</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p> +<p>Stone circles, <a href="#page281">281</a>.</p> +<p><a name="index-stonehenge" id="index-stonehenge">Stonehenge</a>, +<a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href= +"#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page281">281-282</a>.</p> +<p>Stones, cult of, <a href="#page174">174</a>, <a href= +"#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page329">329</a>.</p> +<p>Sualtaim, <a href="#page128">128</a>.</p> +<p>Submerged towns, <a href="#page231">231</a>, <a href= +"#page372">372</a>.</p> +<p>Sucellos, <a href="#page30">30</a> f.</p> +<p>Suicide, <a href="#page234">234</a>, <a href= +"#page345">345</a>.</p> +<p>Sul, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Suleviæ, <a href="#page46">46</a>.</p> +<p>Sun, <a href="#page178">178</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a>.</p> +<p>Sun myths, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</p> +<p>Swan-maidens, <a href="#page82">82</a>.</p> +<p>Swastika, <a href="#page290">290</a>.</p> +<p>Swine, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page209">209</a> f.</p> +<p>Swineherds, The Two, <a href="#page349">349</a>.</p> +<p>Symbols, <a href="#page290">290</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p><a name="index-tabu" id="index-tabu">Tabu</a>, <a href= +"#page69">69</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href= +"#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href= +"#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href= +"#page191">191</a> f., <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href= +"#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a> f., <a href= +"#page276">276</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>, <a href= +"#page306">306</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>, <a href= +"#page372">372</a>. See <i><a href= +"#index-geasa">Geasa</a></i>.</p> +<p>Tadg, <a href="#page221">221</a>.</p> +<p><i>Taghairm</i>, <a href="#page249">249</a>.</p> +<p>Tailtiu, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page273">273</a>, +<a href="#page376">376</a>.</p> +<p><i>Táin bó Cuailgne</i>, <a href= +"#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page130">130</a> f.</p> +<p>Taliesin, <a href="#page95">95</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>, +<a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>, <a href= +"#page335">335</a>, <a href="#page356">356</a>, <a href= +"#page358">358</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page399" id= +"page399"></a>{399}</span> +<p>Taran, <a href="#page124">124</a>.</p> +<p>Taranis, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page30">30</a>, +<a href="#page234">234</a>.</p> +<p>Taranos, <a href="#page124">124</a>.</p> +<p><i>Tarbh Uisge</i>, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</p> +<p><i>Tarvos Trigaranos</i>, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href= +"#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href= +"#page289">289</a>.</p> +<p>Tattooing, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href= +"#page217">217</a>.</p> +<p>Tegid Voel, <a href="#page116">116</a>.</p> +<p><i>Teinm Laegha</i>, <a href="#page249">249</a>.</p> +<p><i>Tempestarii</i>, <a href="#page175">175</a>, <a href= +"#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p>Temples, <a href="#page85">85</a>, <a href="#page279">279</a> +f.</p> +<p>Tethra, <a href="#page58">58-59</a>, <a href="#page71">71</a>, +<a href="#page75">75</a>, <a href="#page374">374</a>.</p> +<p>Teutates, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page234">234</a>.</p> +<p>Teyrnon, <a href="#page111">111</a>.</p> +<p>Three-headed gods, <a href="#page32">32</a> f.</p> +<p>Thumb of knowledge, <a href="#page149">149</a>.</p> +<p>Thurnam, Dr., <a href="#page12">12</a>.</p> +<p><i>Tír na n-Og</i>, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href= +"#page362">362</a>, <a href="#page364">364</a>.</p> +<p>Tombs as sacred places, <a href="#page165">165</a>.</p> +<p>Tonsure, <a href="#page311">311</a>.</p> +<p>Torque, <a href="#page34">34</a>.</p> +<p>Totatis, <a href="#page125">125</a>.</p> +<p>Totemism, <a href="#page149">149</a>, <a href= +"#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a> f., <a href= +"#page216">216</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>, <a href= +"#page360">360</a>, <a href="#page379">379</a>.</p> +<p>Toutatis, <a href="#page28">28</a>.</p> +<p>Transformation. See <a href= +"#index-shape">Shape-shifting</a>.</p> +<p>Transformation Combat, <a href="#page353">353</a>.</p> +<p>Transmigration, <a href="#page334">334</a> f., <a href= +"#page348">348</a> f., <a href="#page356">356</a>, <a href= +"#page359">359</a> f.</p> +<p>Tree cults, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href= +"#page169">169</a>, <a href="#page174">174</a>, <a href= +"#page194">194</a>, <a href="#page198">198</a> f., <a href= +"#page208">208</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href= +"#page269">269</a>, <a href="#page331">331</a>, <a href= +"#page379">379</a>.</p> +<p>Tree descent from, <a href="#page202">202</a>.</p> +<p>Trees of Elysium, <a href="#page380">380</a>.</p> +<p>Trees of Immortality, <a href="#page377">377</a> f.</p> +<p>Triads, <a href="#page34">34</a> f., <a href="#page39">39</a>, +<a href="#page95">95</a> f., <a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href= +"#page113">113-114</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href= +"#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>, <a href= +"#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page124">124</a> note.</p> +<p>Triple goddesses, <a href="#page44">44</a> f.</p> +<p>Tristram, <a href="#page103">103</a>.</p> +<p>Tuan MacCairill, <a href="#page57">57</a>, <a href= +"#page357">357</a>, <a href="#page375">375</a>.</p> +<p>Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href="#page49">49</a> f., <a href= +"#page60">60</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href= +"#page63">63</a> f., <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href= +"#page92">92</a> f., <a href="#page146">146</a>, <a href= +"#page158">158</a>, <a href="#page168">168</a>, <a href= +"#page173">173</a>.</p> +<p>Tutelar divinities, <a href="#page40">40</a>, <a href= +"#page45">45</a>, <a href="#page73">73</a>.</p> +<p>Tuag, <a href="#page87">87</a>.</p> +<p><i>Twrch Trwyth</i>, <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href= +"#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page211">211</a>.</p> +<p>Tyr, <a href="#page84">84</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Underworld, <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href= +"#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href= +"#page341">341</a>.</p> +<p>Urien, <a href="#page101">101</a>.</p> +<p><i>Urwisg</i>, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</p> +<p>Uthyr, <a href="#page101">101</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a>, +<a href="#page122">122</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Valkyries, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> +<p>Vegetation cults, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href= +"#page215">215</a>.</p> +<p>Vegetation gods and spirits, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href= +"#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page139">139</a>, <a href= +"#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a> f., <a href= +"#page199">199</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href= +"#page215">215</a>, <a href="#page243">243</a>, <a href= +"#page265">265</a>, <a href="#page269">269</a>.</p> +<p>Venus of Quinipily, <a href="#page289">289</a>.</p> +<p>Vera, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> +<p>Vesta, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</p> +<p><i>Vierges noires</i>, <a href="#page46">46</a>.</p> +<p>Vintius, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p><i>Virgines</i>, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</p> +<p>Viviane, <a href="#page122">122</a>.</p> +<p>Vortigern, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href= +"#page238">238</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>.</p> +<p>Vosegus, <a href="#page39">39</a>.</p> +<p>Votive offerings, <a href="#page185">185</a>.</p> +<p>Vulcan, <a href="#page47">47</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>War chants, <a href="#page246">246</a>.</p> +<p>War goddesses, <a href="#page71">71</a>, <a href= +"#page93">93</a>.</p> +<p>War gods, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page27">27</a> f., +<a href="#page48">48</a>, <a href="#page71">71</a>, <a href= +"#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href= +"#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href= +"#page136">136</a>.</p> +<p>Warrior, ideal, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href= +"#page136">136</a>.</p> +<p>Warrior, power of dead, <a href="#page338">338</a>.</p> +<p>Washer at the Ford, <a href="#page73">73</a>.</p> +<p>Water bull, <a href="#page189">189</a>.</p> +<p>Water fairies, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href= +"#page73">73</a> note, <a href="#page190">190</a>.</p> +<p>Water, guardians of, <a href="#page195">195</a>.</p> +<p>Water horse, <a href="#page188">188</a>.</p> +<p>Water world, <a href="#page192">192</a> note, <a href= +"#page371">371</a>.</p> +<p>Waves, fighting the, <a href="#page178">178</a>.</p> +<p>Waves, nine, <a href="#page179">179</a>.</p> +<p>Weapons, <a href="#page291">291</a>.</p> +<p>Wells, <a href="#page77">77</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a> f., +<a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page191">191</a>, <a href= +"#page193">193</a> f., <a href="#page321">321</a>, <a href= +"#page372">372</a>.</p> +<p>Wells, origin of, <a href="#page230">230</a>.</p> +<p>Wheel, god with, <a href="#page29">29</a>.</p> +<p>Wheel symbol, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href= +"#page271">271</a>, <a href="#page327">327</a>.</p> +<p>White women, <a href="#page73">73</a>.</p> +<p>Wind, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p>Windisch, Prof., <a href="#page16">16</a>.</p> +<p>Wisdom, <a href="#page74">74</a>.</p> +<p>Wisdom from eating animal, <a href="#page149">149</a> note.</p> +<p>Wolf god, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.</p> +<p>Witch, <a href="#page201">201</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>, +<a href="#page262">262</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a>, <a href= +"#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> +<p>Women and magic, <a href="#page319">319</a> f.</p> +<p>Women as first civilisers, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href= +"#page45">45</a>, <a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href= +"#page317">317</a>.</p> +<p>Women as warriors, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> +<p>Women, cults of, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href="#page5">5</a>, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>, <a href= +"#page163">163</a> f., <a href="#page225">225</a> f., <a href= +"#page274">274</a> f., <a href="#page317">317</a>.</p> +<p>Women, islands of, <a href="#page385">385</a> f.</p> +<p>World catastrophe, <a href="#page228">228</a>, <a href= +"#page232">232</a>.</p> +<p>World, origin of, <a href="#page230">230</a>.</p> +<p>Wren, <a href="#page221">221</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Yama, <a href="#page101">101</a>.</p> +<p>Year, division of, <a href="#page256">256</a>.</p> +<p>Yule log, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href= +"#page259">259</a>.</p> +<br /> +<p>Zeus, <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page84">84</a>, +<a href="#page199">199</a> f.</p> +<p>Zimmer, <a href="#page56">56</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page147">147</a>.</p> +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Religion of the Ancient Celts +by J. 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