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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ca4528 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54616 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54616) diff --git a/old/54616-0.txt b/old/54616-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1125475..0000000 --- a/old/54616-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15613 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Mythology of the British Islands, by Charles Squire - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Mythology of the British Islands - An Introduction to Celtic Myth, Legend, Poetry, and Romance - -Author: Charles Squire - -Release Date: April 27, 2017 [EBook #54616] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGY *** - - - - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet -Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE - BRITISH ISLANDS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE MYTHOLOGY - OF THE BRITISH - ISLANDS - - AN INTRODUCTION TO - CELTIC MYTH, LEGEND - POETRY, AND ROMANCE - - BY CHARLES SQUIRE - - LONDON: BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED - 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C. GLASGOW AND - DUBLIN MCMV - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PREFACE - - -This book is what its author believes to be the only attempt yet made to -put the English reader into possession, in clear, compact, and what it -is hoped may prove agreeable, form, of the mythical, legendary, and -poetic traditions of the earliest inhabitants of our islands who have -left us written records—the Gaelic and the British Celts. It is true -that admirable translations and paraphrases of much of Gaelic mythical -saga have been recently published, and that Lady Charlotte Guest’s -translation of the _Mabinogion_ has been placed within the reach of the -least wealthy reader. But these books not merely each cover a portion -only of the whole ground, but, in addition, contain little elucidatory -matter. Their characters stand isolated and unexplained; and the details -that would explain them must be sought for with considerable trouble in -the lectures and essays of scholars to learned societies. The reader to -whom this literature is entirely new is introduced, as it were, to -numerous people of whose antecedents he knows nothing; and the effect is -often disconcerting enough to make him lay down the volume in despair. - -But here he will at last make the formal acquaintance of all the chief -characters of Celtic myth: of the Gaelic gods and the giants against -whom they struggled; of the “Champions of the Red Branch” of Ulster, -heroes of a martial epopee almost worthy to be placed beside “the tale -of Troy divine”; and of Finn and his Fenians. He will meet also with the -divine and heroic personages of the ancient Britons: with their earliest -gods, kin to the members of the Gaelic Pantheon; as well as with Arthur -and his Knights, whom he will recognize as no mortal champions, but -belonging to the same mythic company. Of all these mighty figures the -histories will be briefly recorded, from the time of their unquestioned -godhood, through their various transformations, to the last doubtful, -dying recognition of them in the present day, as “fairies”. Thus the -volume will form a kind of handbook to a subject of growing -importance—the so-called “Celtic Renaissance”, which is, after all, no -more—and, indeed, no less—than an endeavour to refresh the vitality of -English poetry at its most ancient native fount. - -The book does not, of course, profess to be for Celtic scholars, to -whom, indeed, its author himself owes all that is within it. It aims -only at interesting the reader familiar with the mythologies of Greece, -Rome, and Scandinavia in another, and a nearer, source of poetry. Its -author’s wish is to offer those who have fallen, or will fall, under the -attraction of Celtic legend and romance, just such a volume as he -himself would once have welcomed, and for which he sought in vain. It is -his hope that, in choosing from the considerable, though scattered, -translations and commentaries of students of Old Gaelic and Old Welsh, -he has chosen wisely, and that his readers will be able, should they -wish, to use his book as a stepping-stone to the authorities themselves. -To that end it is wholly directed; and its marginal notes and short -bibliographical appendix follow the same plan. They do not aspire to -anything like completeness, but only to point out the chief sources from -which he himself has drawn. - -To acknowledge, as far as possible, such debts is now the author’s -pleasing duty. First and foremost, he has relied upon the volumes of M. -H. d’Arbois de Jubainville’s _Cours de Littérature celtique_, and the -Hibbert Lectures for 1886 of John Rhys, Professor of Celtic in the -University of Oxford, with their sequel entitled _Studies in the -Arthurian Legend_. From the writings of Mr. Alfred Nutt he has also -obtained much help. With regard to direct translations, it seems almost -superfluous to refer to Lady Charlotte Guest’s _Mabinogion_ and Mr. W. -F. Skene’s _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, or to the work of such -well-known Gaelic scholars as Mr. Eugene O’Curry, Dr. Kuno Meyer, Dr. -Whitley Stokes, Dr. Ernest Windisch, Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady (to -mention no others), as contained in such publications as the _Revue -Celtique_, the _Atlantis_, and the _Transactions of the Ossianic -Society_, in Mr. O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_, Mr. Nutt’s _Voyage of -Bran_, _Son of Febal_, and Miss Hull’s _Cuchullin Saga_. But space is -lacking to do justice to all. The reader is referred to the marginal -notes and the Appendix for the works of these and other authors, who -will no doubt pardon the use made of their researches to one whose sole -object has been to gain a larger audience for the studies they have most -at heart. - -Finally, perhaps, a word should be said upon that vexed question, the -transliteration of Gaelic. As yet there is no universal or consistent -method of spelling. The author has therefore chosen the forms which -seemed most familiar to himself, hoping in that way to best serve the -uses of others. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAP. Page - - I. THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF CELTIC - MYTHOLOGY 1 - - II. THE SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE - CELTIC MYTHOLOGY 8 - - III. WHO WERE THE “ANCIENT BRITONS”? 18 - - IV. THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS AND - DRUIDISM 31 - - - THE GAELIC GODS AND THEIR STORIES - - V. THE GODS OF THE GAELS 47 - - VI. THE GODS ARRIVE 65 - - VII. THE RISE OF THE SUN-GOD 78 - - VIII. THE GAELIC ARGONAUTS 89 - - IX. THE WAR WITH THE GIANTS 107 - - X. THE CONQUEST OF THE GODS BY MORTALS 119 - - XI. THE GODS IN EXILE 132 - - XII. THE IRISH ILIAD 153 - - XIII. SOME GAELIC LOVE-STORIES 184 - - XIV. FINN AND THE FENIANS 201 - - XV. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS 227 - - - THE BRITISH GODS AND THEIR STORIES - - XVI. THE GODS OF THE BRITONS 251 - - XVII. THE ADVENTURES OF THE GODS OF HADES 278 - - XVIII. THE WOOING OF BRANWEN AND THE BEHEADING - OF BRÂN 289 - - XIX. THE WAR OF ENCHANTMENTS 298 - - XX. THE VICTORIES OF LIGHT OVER DARKNESS 305 - - XXI. THE MYTHOLOGICAL “COMING OF ARTHUR” 312 - - XXII. THE TREASURES OF BRITAIN 336 - - XXIII. THE GODS AS KING ARTHUR’S KNIGHTS 354 - - XXIV. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS 371 - - - SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM - - XXV. SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM INTO - MODERN TIMES 399 - - APPENDIX 419 - - INDEX 425 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE - BRITISH ISLANDS - - - - - CHAPTER I - - THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF CELTIC - MYTHOLOGY - - -It should hardly be necessary to remind the reader of what profound -interest and value to every nation are its earliest legendary and -poetical records. The beautiful myths of Greece form a sufficing -example. In threefold manner, they have influenced the destiny of the -people that created them, and of the country of which they were the -imagined theatre. First, in the ages in which they were still fresh, -belief and pride in them were powerful enough to bring scattered tribes -into confederation. Secondly, they gave the inspiration to sculptor and -poet of an art and literature unsurpassed, if not unequalled, by any -other age or race. Lastly, when “the glory that was Greece” had faded, -and her people had, by dint of successive invasions, perhaps even ceased -to have any right to call themselves Hellenes, they have passed over -into the literatures of the modern world, and so given to Greece herself -a poetic interest that still makes a petty kingdom of greater account in -the eyes of its compeers than many others far superior to it in extent -and resources. - -This permeating influence of the Greek poetical mythology, apparent in -all civilized countries, has acted especially upon our own. From almost -the very dawn of English literature, the Greek stories of gods and -heroes have formed a large part of the stock-in-trade of English poets. -The inhabitants of Olympus occupy, under their better-known Latin names, -almost as great a space in English poetry as they did in that of the -countries to which they were native. From Chaucer downwards, they have -captivated the imagination alike of the poets and their hearers. The -magic cauldron of classic myth fed, like the Celtic “Grail”, all who -came to it for sustenance. - -At last, however, its potency became somewhat exhausted. Alien and -exotic to English soil, it degenerated slowly into a convention. In the -shallow hands of the poetasters of the eighteenth century, its figures -became mere puppets. With every wood a “grove”, and every rustic maid a -“nymph”, one could only expect to find Venus armed with patch and -powder-puff, Mars shouldering a musket, and Apollo inspiring the -versifier’s own trivial strains. The affectation killed—and fortunately -killed—a mode of expression which had become obsolete. Smothered by just -ridicule, and abandoned to the commonplace vocabulary of the inferior -hack-writer, classic myth became a subject which only the greatest poets -could afford to handle. - -But mythology is of such vital need to literature that, deprived of the -store of legend native to southern Europe, imaginative writers looked -for a fresh impulse. They turned their eyes to the North. Inspiration -was sought, not from Olympus, but from Asgard. Moreover, it was believed -that the fount of primeval poetry issuing from Scandinavian and Teutonic -myth was truly our own, and that we were rightful heirs of it by reason -of the Anglo-Saxon in our blood. And so, indeed, we are; but it is not -our sole heritage. There must also run much Celtic—that is, truly -British—blood in our veins.[1] And Matthew Arnold was probably right in -asserting that, while we owe to the Anglo-Saxon the more practical -qualities that have built up the British Empire, we have inherited from -the Celtic side that poetic vision which has made English literature the -most brilliant since the Greek.[2] - -We have the right, therefore, to enter upon a new spiritual possession. -And a splendid one it is! The Celtic mythology has little of the heavy -crudeness that repels one in Teutonic and Scandinavian story. It is as -beautiful and graceful as the Greek; and, unlike the Greek, which is the -reflection of a clime and soil which few of us will ever see, it is our -own. Divinities should, surely, seem the inevitable outgrowth of the -land they move in! How strange Apollo would appear, naked among -icebergs, or fur-clad Thor striding under groves of palms! But the -Celtic gods and heroes are the natural inhabitants of a British -landscape, not seeming foreign and out-of-place in a scene where there -is no vine or olive, but “shading in with” our homely oak and bracken, -gorse and heath. - -Thus we gain an altogether fresh interest in the beautiful spots of our -own islands, especially those of the wilder and more mountainous west, -where the older inhabitants of the land lingered longest. Saxon conquest -obliterated much in Eastern Britain, and changed more; but in the West -of England, in Wales, in Scotland, and especially in legend-haunted -Ireland, the hills and dales still keep memories of the ancient gods of -the ancient race. Here and there in South Wales and the West of England -are regions—once mysterious and still romantic—which the British Celts -held to be the homes of gods or outposts of the Other World. In Ireland, -not only is there scarcely a place that is not connected in some way -with the traditionary exploits of the “Red Branch Champions”, or of Finn -and his mighty men, but the old deities are still remembered, dwarfed -into fairies, but keeping the same attributes and the same names as of -yore. Wordsworth’s complaint[3] that, while Pelion and Ossa, Olympus and -Parnassus are “in immortal books enrolled”, not one English mountain, -“though round our sea-girt shore they rise in crowds”, had been “by the -Celestial Muses glorified” doubtless seemed true to his own generation. -Thanks to the scholars who have unveiled the ancient Gaelic and British -mythologies, it need not be so for ours. On Ludgate Hill, as well as on -many less famous eminences, once stood the temple of the British Zeus. A -mountain not far from Bettws-y-Coed was the British Olympus, the court -and palace of our ancient gods. - -It may well be doubted, however, whether Wordsworth’s contemporaries -would have welcomed the mythology which was their own by right of birth -as a substitute for that of Greece and Rome. The inspiration of classic -culture, which Wordsworth was one of the first to break with, was still -powerful. How some of its professors would have held their sides and -roared at the very notion of a British mythology! Yet, all the time, it -had long been secretly leavening English ideas and ideals, none the less -potently because disguised under forms which could be readily -appreciated. Popular fancy had rehabilitated the old gods, long banned -by the priests’ bell, book, and candle, under various disguises. They -still lived on in legend as kings of ancient Britain reigning in a -fabulous past anterior to Julius Caesar—such were King Lud, founder of -London; King Lear, whose legend was immortalized by Shakespeare; King -Brennius, who conquered Rome; as well as many others who will be found -filling parts in old drama. They still lived on as long-dead saints of -the early churches of Ireland and Britain, whose wonderful attributes -and adventures are, in many cases, only those of their original -namesakes, the old gods, told afresh. And they still lived on in -another, and a yet more potent, way. Myths of Arthur and his cycle of -gods passed into the hands of the Norman story-tellers, to reappear as -romances of King Arthur and his Knights of the Table Round. Thus spread -over civilized Europe, their influence was immense. Their primal poetic -impulse is still resonant in our literature; we need only instance -Tennyson and Swinburne as minds that have come under its sway. - -This diverse influence of Celtic mythology upon English poetry and -romance has been eloquently set forth by Mr. Elton in his _Origins of -English History_. “The religion of the British tribes”, he writes, “has -exercised an important influence upon literature. The mediæval romances -and the legends which stood for history are full of the ‘fair -humanities’ and figures of its bright mythology. The elemental powers of -earth and fire, and the spirits which haunted the waves and streams -appear again as kings in the Irish Annals, or as saints and hermits in -Wales. The Knights of the Round Table, Sir Kay and Tristrem and the bold -Sir Bedivere, betray their mighty origin by the attributes they retained -as heroes of romance. It was a goddess, ‘_Dea quaedam phantastica_’, who -bore the wounded Arthur to the peaceful valley. ‘There was little -sunlight on its woods and streams, and the nights were dark and gloomy -for want of the moon and stars.’ This is the country of Oberon and of -Sir Huon of Bordeaux. It is the dreamy forest of Arden. In an older -mythology, it was the realm of a King of Shadows, the country of Gwyn ap -Nudd, who rode as Sir Guyon in the ‘Fairie Queene’— - - ‘And knighthood took of good Sir Huon’s hand, - When with King Oberon he came to Fairyland’.”[4] - -To trace Welsh and Irish kings and saints and hermits back to “the -elemental powers of earth and fire, and the spirits that haunted the -woods and streams” of Celtic imagination, and to disclose primitive -pagan deities under the mediæval and Christian trappings of “King -Arthur’s Knights” will necessarily fall within the scope of this volume. -But meanwhile the reader will probably be asking what evidence there is -that apocryphal British kings like Lear and Lud, and questionable Irish -saints like Bridget are really disguised Celtic divinities, or that the -Morte D’Arthur, with its love of Launcelot and the queen, and its quest -of the Holy Grail, was ever anything more than an invention of the -Norman romance-writers. He will demand to know what facts we really -possess about this supposed Celtic mythology alleged to have furnished -their prototypes, and of what real antiquity and value are our -authorities upon it. - -The answer to his question will be found in the next chapter. - ------ - -Footnote 1: - - “There is good ground to believe”, writes Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, - M.A., the librarian of the Bodleian Library, in the preface to his - recently-published _Keltic Researches_, “that Lancashire, West - Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, - Leicestershire, Rutland, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, and part - of Sussex, are as Keltic as Perthshire and North Munster; that - Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire, - Devon, Dorset, Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, and Bedfordshire are - more so—and equal to North Wales and Leinster; while Buckinghamshire - and Hertfordshire exceed even this degree and are on a level with - South Wales and Ulster. Cornwall, of course, is more Keltic than any - other English county, and as much so as Argyll, Inverness-shire, or - Connaught.” - -Footnote 2: - - _The Study of Celtic Literature._ - -Footnote 3: - - In a sonnet written in 1801. - -Footnote 4: - - Elton: _Origins of English History_, chap. X. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - THE SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE - CELTIC MYTHOLOGY - - -We may begin by asserting with confidence that Mr. Elton has touched -upon a part only of the material on which we may draw, to reconstruct -the ancient British mythology. Luckily, we are not wholly dependent upon -the difficult tasks of resolving the fabled deeds of apocryphal Irish -and British kings who reigned earlier than St. Patrick or before Julius -Caesar into their original form of Celtic myths, of sifting the -attributes and miracles of doubtfully historical saints, or of -separating the primitive pagan elements in the legends of Arthur and his -Knights from the embellishments added by the romance-writers. We have, -in addition to these—which we may for the present put upon one side as -secondary—sources, a mass of genuine early writings which, though -post-Christian in the form in which they now exist, none the less -descend from the preceding pagan age. These are contained in vellum and -parchment manuscripts long preserved from destruction in mansions and -monasteries in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and only during the last -century brought to light, copied, and translated by the patient labours -of scholars who have grappled with the long-obsolete dialects in which -they were transcribed. - -Many of these volumes are curious miscellanies. Usually the one book of -a great house or monastic community, everything was copied into it that -the scholar of the family or brotherhood thought to be best worth -preserving. Hence they contain matter of the most diverse kind. There -are translations of portions of the Bible and of the classics, and of -such then popular books as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s and Nennius’ Histories -of Britain; lives of famous saints, together with works attributed to -them; poems and romances of which, under a thin disguise, the old Gaelic -and British gods are the heroes; together with treatises on all the -subjects then studied—grammar, prosody, law, history, geography, -chronology, and the genealogies of important chiefs. - -The majority of these documents were put together during a period which, -roughly speaking, lasted from the beginning of the twelfth century to -the end of the sixteenth. In Ireland, in Wales, and, apparently, also in -Scotland, it was a time of literary revival after the turmoils of the -previous epoch. In Ireland, the Norsemen, after long ravaging, had -settled peacefully down, while in Wales, the Norman Conquest had -rendered the country for the first time comparatively quiet. The -scattered remains of history, lay and ecclesiastical, of science, and of -legend were gathered together. - -Of the Irish manuscripts, the earliest, and, for our purposes, the most -important, on account of the great store of ancient Gaelic mythology -which, in spite of its dilapidated condition, it still contains, is in -the possession of the Royal Irish Academy. Unluckily, it is reduced to a -fragment of one hundred and thirty-eight pages, but this remnant -preserves a large number of romances relating to the old gods and heroes -of Ireland. Among other things, it contains a complete account of the -epical saga called the _Táin Bó Chuailgné_, the “Raiding of the Cattle -of Cooley”, in which the hero, Cuchulainn, performed his greatest feats. -This manuscript is called the Book of the Dun Cow, from the tradition -that it was copied from an earlier book written upon the skin of a -favourite animal belonging to Saint Ciaran, who lived in the seventh -century. An entry upon one of its pages reveals the name of its scribe, -one Maelmuiri, whom we know to have been killed by robbers in the church -of Clonmacnois in the year 1106. - -Far more voluminous, and but little less ancient, is the Book of -Leinster, said to have been compiled in the early part of the twelfth -century by Finn mac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare. This also contains an -account of Cuchulainn’s mighty deeds which supplements the older version -in the Book of the Dun Cow. Of somewhat less importance from the point -of view of the student of Gaelic mythology come the Book of Ballymote -and the Yellow Book of Lecan, belonging to the end of the fourteenth -century, and the Books of Lecan and of Lismore, both attributed to the -fifteenth. Besides these six great collections, there survive many other -manuscripts which also contain ancient mythical lore. In one of these, -dating from the fifteenth century, is to be found the story of the -Battle of Moytura, fought between the gods of Ireland and their enemies, -the Fomors, or demons of the deep sea. - -The Scottish manuscripts, preserved in the Advocates’ Library at -Edinburgh, date back in some cases as far as the fourteenth century, -though the majority of them belong to the fifteenth and sixteenth. They -corroborate the Irish documents, add to the Cuchulainn saga, and make a -more special subject of the other heroic cycle, that which relates the -not less wonderful deeds of Finn, Ossian, and the Fenians. They also -contain stories of other characters, who, more ancient than either Finn -or Cuchulainn, are the Tuatha Dé Danann, the god-tribe of the ancient -Gaels. - -The Welsh documents cover about the same period as the Irish and the -Scottish. Four of these stand out from the rest, as most important. The -oldest is the Black Book of Caermarthen, which dates from the third -quarter of the twelfth century; the Book of Aneurin, which was written -late in the thirteenth; the Book of Taliesin, assigned to the -fourteenth; and the Red Book of Hergest, compiled by various persons -during that century and the one following it. The first three of these -“Four Ancient Books of Wales” are small in size, and contain poems -attributed to the great traditional bards of the sixth century, Myrddin, -Taliesin, and Aneurin. The last—the Red Book of Hergest—is far larger. -In it are to be found Welsh translations of the British Chronicles; the -oft-mentioned Triads, verses celebrating famous traditionary persons or -things; ancient poems attributed to Llywarch Hên; and, of priceless -value to any study of our subject, the so-called Mabinogion, stories in -which large portions of the old British mythology are worked up into -romantic form. - -The whole bulk, therefore, of the native literature bearing upon the -mythology of the British Islands may be attributed to a period which -lasted from the beginning of the twelfth century to the end of the -sixteenth. But even the commencement of this era will no doubt seem far -too late a day to allow authenticity to matter which ought to have -vastly preceded it. The date, however, merely marks the final redaction -of the contents of the manuscripts into the form in which they now -exist, without bearing at all upon the time of their authorship. -Avowedly copies of ancient poems and tales from much older manuscripts, -the present books no more fix the period of the original composition of -their contents than the presence of a portion of the _Canterbury Tales_ -in a modern anthology of English poetry would assign Chaucer to the -present year of grace. - -This may be proved both directly and inferentially.[5] In some -instances—as in that of an elegy upon Saint Columba in the Book of the -Dun Cow—the dates of authorship are actually given. In others, we may -depend upon evidence which, if not quite so absolute, is nearly as -convincing. Even where the writer does not state that he is copying from -older manuscripts, it is obvious that this must have been the case, from -the glosses in his version. The scribes of the earlier Gaelic -manuscripts very often found, in the documents from which they -themselves were copying, words so archaic as to be unintelligible to the -readers of their own period. To render them comprehensible, they were -obliged to insert marginal notes which explained these obsolete words by -reference to other manuscripts more ancient still. Often the mediæval -copyists have ignorantly moved these notes from the margin into the -text, where they remain, like philological fossils, to give evidence of -previous forms of life. The documents from which they were taken have -perished, leaving the mediæval copies as their sole record. In the Welsh -Mabinogion the same process is apparent. Peculiarities in the existing -manuscripts show plainly enough that they must have been copied from -some more archaic text. Besides this, they are, as they at present -stand, obviously made up of earlier tales pieced together. Almost as -clearly as the Gaelic manuscripts, the Welsh point us back to older and -more primitive forms. - -The ancient legends of the Gael and the Briton are thus shown to have -been no mere inventions of scholarly monks in the Middle Ages. We have -now to trace, if possible, the date, not necessarily of their first -appearance on men’s lips, but of their first redaction into writing in -approximately the form in which we have them now. - -Circumstantial evidence can be adduced to prove that the most important -portions both of Gaelic and British early literature can be safely -relegated to a period of several centuries prior to their now-existing -record. Our earliest version of the episode of the _Táin Bó Chuailgné_, -which is the nucleus and centre of the ancient Gaelic heroic cycle of -which Cuchulainn, _fortissimus heros Scotorum_, is the principal figure, -is found in the twelfth-century Book of the Dun Cow. But legend tells us -that at the beginning of the seventh century the Saga had not only been -composed, but had actually become so obsolete as to have been forgotten -by the bards. Their leader, one Senchan Torpeist, a historical -character, and chief bard of Ireland at that time, obtained permission -from the Saints to call Fergus, Cuchulainn’s contemporary, and a chief -actor in the “Raid”, from the dead, and received from the resurrected -hero a true and full version. This tradition, dealing with a real -personage, surely shows that the story of the _Táin_ was known before -the time of Senchan, and probably preserves the fact, either that his -version of Cuchulainn’s famous deeds became the accepted one, or that he -was the first to reduce it to writing. An equally suggestive -consideration approximately fixes for us the earliest redaction of the -Welsh mythological prose tales called the “Mabinogion”, or, more -correctly speaking, the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi”.[6] In none of -these is there the slightest mention, or apparently the least knowledge, -of Arthur, around whom and whose supposed contemporaries centres the -mass of British legend as it was transmitted by the Welsh to the -Normans. These mysterious mythological records must in all probability, -therefore, antedate the Arthurian cycle of myth, which was already being -put into form in the sixth century. On the other hand, the characters of -the “Four Branches” are mentioned without comment—as though they were -personages with whom no one could fail to be familiar—in the supposed -sixth-century poems contained in those “Four Ancient Books of Wales” in -which are found the first meagre references to the British hero. - -Such considerations as these throw back, with reasonable certainty, the -existence of the Irish and Welsh poems and prose tales, in something -like their present shape, to a period antedating the seventh century. - -But this, again, means only that the myths, traditions, and legends were -current at that to us early, but to them, in their actual substance, -late date, in literary form. A mythology must always be far older than -the oldest verses and stories that celebrate it. Elaborate poems and -sagas are not made in a day, or in a year. The legends of the Gaelic and -British gods and heroes could not have sprung, like Athena from the head -of Zeus, full-born out of some poet’s brain. The bard who first put them -into artistic shape was setting down the primitive traditions of his -race. We may therefore venture to describe them as not of the twelfth -century or of the seventh, but as of a prehistoric and immemorial -antiquity. - -Internal evidence bears this out. An examination of both the Gaelic and -British legendary romances shows, under embellishing details added by -later hands, an inner core of primeval thought which brings them into -line with the similar ideas of other races in the earliest stage of -culture. Their “local colour” may be that of their last “editor”, but -their “plots” are pre-mediæval, pre-Christian, pre-historic. The -characters of early Gaelic legend belong to the same stamp of -imagination that created Olympian and Titan, Æsir and Jötun. We must go -far to the back of civilized thought to find parallels to such a story -as that in which the British sun-god, struck by a rival in love with a -poisoned spear, is turned into an eagle, from whose wound great pieces -of carrion are continually failing.[7] - -This aspect of the Celtic literary records was clearly seen, and -eloquently expressed, by Matthew Arnold in his _Study of Celtic -Literature_.[8] He was referring to the Welsh side, but his image holds -good equally for the Gaelic. “The first thing that strikes one”, he -says, “in reading the _Mabinogion_ is how evidently the mediæval -story-teller is pillaging an antiquity of which he does not fully -possess the secret: he is like a peasant building his hut on the site of -Halicarnassus or Ephesus; he builds, but what he builds is full of -materials of which he knows not the history, or knows by a glimmering -tradition merely: stones ‘not of this building’, but of an older -architecture, greater, cunninger, more majestical.” His heroes “are no -mediæval personages: they belong to an older, pagan, mythological -world”. So, too, with the figures, however euhemerized, of the three -great Gaelic cycles: that of the Tuatha Dé Danann, of the Heroes of -Ulster, of Finn and the Fenians. Their divinity outshines their -humanity; through their masks may be seen the faces of gods. - -Yet, gods as they are, they had taken on the semblance of mortality by -the time their histories were fixed in the form in which we have them -now. Their earliest records, if those could be restored to us, would -doubtless show them eternal and undying, changing their shapes at will, -but not passing away. But the post-Christian copyists, whether Irish or -Welsh, would not countenance this. Hence we have the singular paradox of -the deaths of Immortals. There is hardly one of the figures of either -the Gaelic or the British Pantheon whose demise is not somewhere -recorded. Usually they fell in the unceasing battles between the -divinities of darkness and of light. Their deaths in earlier cycles of -myth, however, do not preclude their appearance in later ones. Only, -indeed, with the closing of the lips of the last mortal who preserved -his tradition can the life of a god be truly said to end. - ------ - -Footnote 5: - - Satisfactory summaries of the evidence for the dates of both the - Gaelic and Welsh legendary material will be found in pamphlets No. 8 - and 11 of Mr. Nutt’s _Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and - Folklore_. - -Footnote 6: - - Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, chap. I. - -Footnote 7: - - See chap. XVI of this book—“The Gods of the Britons”. - -Footnote 8: - - Lecture II. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - WHO WERE THE “ANCIENT BRITONS”? - - -But, before proceeding to recount the myths of the “Ancient Britons”, it -will be well to decide what people, exactly, we mean by that loose but -convenient phrase. We have, all of us, vague ideas of Ancient Britons, -recollected, doubtless, from our school-books. There we saw their -pictures as, painted with woad, they paddled coracles, or drove scythed -chariots through legions of astonished Romans. Their Druids, -white-bearded and wearing long, white robes, cut the mistletoe with a -golden sickle at the time of the full moon, or, less innocently -employed, made bonfires of human beings shut up in gigantic figures of -wicker-work. - -Such picturesque details were little short of the sum-total, not only of -our own knowledge of the subject, but also of that of our teachers. -Practically all their information concerning the ancient inhabitants of -Britain was taken from the Commentaries of Julius Caesar. So far as it -went, it was no doubt correct; but it did not go far. Caesar’s interest -in our British ancestors was that of a general who was his own -war-correspondent rather than that of an exhaustive and painstaking -scientist. It has been reserved for modern archæologists, philologists, -and ethnologists to give us a fuller account of the Ancient Britons. - -The inhabitants of our islands previous to the Roman invasion are -generally described as “Celts”. But they must have been largely a mixed -race; and the people with whom they mingled must have modified to -some—and perhaps to a large—extent their physique, their customs, and -their language. - -Speculation has run somewhat wild over the question of the composition -of the Early Britons. But out of the clash of rival theories there -emerges one—and one only—which may be considered as scientifically -established. We have certain proof of two distinct human stocks in the -British Islands at the time of the Roman Conquest; and so great an -authority as Professor Huxley has given his opinion that there is no -evidence of any others.[9] - -The earliest of these two races would seem to have inhabited our islands -from the most ancient times, and may, for our purpose, be described as -aboriginal. It was the people that built the “long barrows”; and which -is variously called by ethnologists the Iberian, Mediterranean, Berber, -Basque, Silurian, or Euskarian race. In physique it was short, swarthy, -dark-haired, dark-eyed, and long-skulled; its language belonged to the -class called “Hamitic”, the surviving types of which are found among the -Gallas, Abyssinians, Berbers, and other North African tribes; and it -seems to have come originally from some part either of Eastern, -Northern, or Central Africa. Spreading thence, it was probably the first -people to inhabit the Valley of the Nile, and it sent offshoots into -Syria and Asia Minor. The earliest Hellenes found it in Greece under the -name of “Pelasgoi”; the earliest Latins in Italy, as the “Etruscans”; -and the Hebrews in Palestine, as the “Hittites”. It spread northward -through Europe as far as the Baltic, and westward, along the Atlas -chain, to Spain, France, and our own islands.[10] In many countries it -reached a comparatively high level of civilization, but in Britain its -development must have been early checked. We can discern it as an -agricultural rather than a pastoral people, still in the Stone Age, -dwelling in totemistic tribes on hills whose summits it fortified -elaborately, and whose slopes it cultivated on what is called the -“terrace system”, and having a primitive culture which ethnologists -think to have much resembled that of the present hill-tribes of Southern -India.[11] It held our islands till the coming of the Celts, who fought -with the aborigines, dispossessed them of the more fertile parts, -subjugated them, even amalgamated with them, but certainly never -extirpated them. In the time of the Romans they were still practically -independent in South Wales. In Ireland they were long unconquered, and -are found as allies rather than serfs of the Gaels, ruling their own -provinces, and preserving their own customs and religion. Nor, in spite -of all the successive invasions of Great Britain and Ireland, are they -yet extinct, or so merged as to have lost their type, which is still the -predominant one in many parts of the west both of Britain and Ireland, -and is believed by some ethnologists to be generally upon the increase -all over England. - -The second of the two races was the exact opposite to the first. It was -the tall, fair, light-haired, blue- or gray-eyed, broad-headed people -called, popularly, the “Celts”, who belonged in speech to the “Aryan” -family, their language finding its affinities in Latin, Greek, Teutonic, -Slavic, the Zend of Ancient Persia, and the Sanscrit of Ancient India. -Its original home was probably somewhere in Central Europe, along the -course of the upper Danube, or in the region of the Alps. The “round -barrows” in which it buried its dead, or deposited their burnt ashes, -differ in shape from the “long barrows” of the earlier race. It was in a -higher stage of culture than the “Iberians”, and introduced into Britain -bronze and silver, and, perhaps, some of the more lately domesticated -animals. - -Both Iberians and Celts were divided into numerous tribes, but there is -nothing to show that there was any great diversity among the former. It -is otherwise with the Celts, who were separated into two main branches -which came over at different times. The earliest were the Goidels, or -Gaels; the second, the Brythons, or Britons. Between these two branches -there was not only a dialectical, but probably, also, a considerable -physical difference. Some anthropologists even postulate a different -shape of skull. Without necessarily admitting this, there is reason to -suppose a difference of build and of colour of hair. With regard to -this, we have the evidence of Latin writers—of Tacitus,[12] who tells us -that the “Caledonians” of the North differed from the Southern Britons -in being larger-limbed and redder-haired, and of Strabo,[13] who -described the tribes in the interior of Britain as taller than the -Gaulish colonists on the coast, with hair less yellow and limbs more -loosely knit. Equally do the classic authorities agree in recognizing -the “Silures” of South Wales as an entirely different race from any -other in Britain. The dark complexions and curly hair of these Iberians -seemed to Tacitus to prove them immigrants from Spain.[14] - -Professor Rhys also puts forward evidence to show that the Goidels and -the Brythons had already separated before they first left Gaul for our -islands.[15] He finds them as two distinct peoples there. We do not -expect so much nowadays from “the merest school-boy” as we did in -Macaulay’s time, but even the modern descendant of that paragon could -probably tell us that all Gaul was divided into three parts, one of -which was inhabited by the Belgae, another by the Aquitani, and the -third by those who called themselves Celtae, but were termed Galli by -the Romans; and that they all differed from one another in language, -customs, and laws.[16] Of these, Professor Rhys identifies the Belgae -with the Brythons, and the Celtae with the Goidels, the third people, -the Aquitani, being non-Celtic and non-Aryan, part of the great -Hamitic-speaking Iberian stock.[17] The Celtae, with their Goidelic -dialect of Celtic, which survives to-day in the Gaelic languages of -Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, were the first to come over to -Britain, pushed forward, probably, by the Belgae, who, Caesar tells us, -were the bravest of the Gauls.[18] Here they conquered the native -Iberians, driving them out of the fertile parts into the rugged -districts of the north and west. Later came the Belgae themselves, -compelled by press of population; and they, bringing better weapons and -a higher civilization, treated the Goidels as those had treated the -Iberians. Thus harried, the Goidels probably combined with the Iberians -against what was now the common foe, and became to a large degree -amalgamated with them. The result was that during the Roman domination -the British Islands were roughly divided with regard to race as follows: -The Brythons, or second Celtic race, held all Britain south of the -Tweed, with the exception of the extreme west, while the first Celtic -race, the Goidelic, had most of Ireland, as well as the Isle of Man, -Cumberland, the West Highlands, Cornwall, Devon, and North Wales. North -of the Grampians lived the Picts, who were probably more or less -Goidelicized Iberians, the aboriginal race also holding out, unmixed, in -South Wales and parts of Ireland. - -It is now time to decide what, for the purposes of this book, it will be -best to call the two different branches of the Celts, and their -languages. With such familiar terms as “Gael” and “Briton”, “Gaelic” and -“British”, ready to our hands, it seems pedantic to insist upon the more -technical “Goidel” and “Brython”, “Goidelic” and “Brythonic”. The -difficulty is that the words “Gael” and “Gaelic” have been so long -popularly used to designate only the modern “Goidels” of Scotland and -their language, that they may create confusion when also applied to the -people and languages of Ireland and the Isle of Man. Similarly, the -words “Briton” and “British” have come to mean, at the present day, the -people of the whole of the British Islands, though they at first only -signified the inhabitants of England, Central Wales, the Lowlands of -Scotland, and the Brythonic colony in Brittany. However, the words -“Goidel” and “Brython”, with their derivatives, are so clumsy that it -will probably prove best to use the neater terms. In this volume, -therefore, the “Goidels” of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man are -our “Gaels” and the “Brythons” of England and Wales are our “Britons”. - -We get the earliest accounts of the life of the inhabitants of the -British Islands from two sources. The first is a foreign one, that of -the Latin writers. But the Romans only really knew the Southern Britons, -whom they describe as similar in physique and customs to the Continental -Gauls, with whom, indeed, they considered them to be identical.[19] At -the time they wrote, colonies of Belgae were still settling upon the -coasts of Britain opposite to Gaul.[20] Roman information grew scantier -as it approached the Wall, and of the Northern tribes they seem to have -had only such knowledge as they gathered through occasional warfare with -them. They describe them as entirely barbarous, naked and tattooed, -living by the chase alone, without towns, houses, or fields, without -government or family life, and regarding iron as an ornament of value, -as other, more civilized peoples regarded gold.[21] As for Ireland, it -never came under their direct observation, and we are entirely dependent -upon its native writers for information as to the manners and customs of -the Gaels. It may be considered convincing proof of the authenticity of -the descriptions of life contained in the ancient Gaelic manuscripts -that they corroborate so completely the observations of the Latin -writers upon the Britons and Gauls. Reading the two side by side, we may -largely reconstruct the common civilization of the Celts. - -Roughly speaking, one may compare it with the civilization of the -Greeks, as described by Homer.[22] Both peoples were in the tribal and -pastoral stage of culture, in which the chiefs are the great -cattle-owners round whom their less wealthy fellows gather. Both wear -much the same attire, use the same kind of weapons, and fight in the -same manner—from the war-chariot, a vehicle already obsolete even in -Ireland by the first century of the Christian era. Battles are fought -single-handed between chiefs, the ill-armed common people contributing -little to their result, and less to their history. Such chiefs are said -to be divinely descended—sons, even, of the immortal gods. Their -tremendous feats are sung by the bards, who, like the Homeric poets, -were privileged persons, inferior only to the war-lord. Ancient Greek -and Ancient Celt had very much the same conceptions of life, both as -regards this world and the next. - -We may gather much detailed information of the early inhabitants of the -British Islands from our various authorities.[23] Their clothes, which -consisted, according to the Latin writers, of a blouse with sleeves, -trousers fitting closely round the ankles, and a shawl or cloak, -fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, were made either of thick felt -or of woven cloth dyed with various brilliant colours. The writer -Diodorus tells us that they were crossed with little squares and lines, -“as though they had been sprinkled with flowers”. They were, in fact, -like “tartans”, and we may believe Varro, who tells us that they “made a -gaudy show”. The men alone seem to have worn hats, which were of soft -felt, the women’s hair being uncovered, and tied in a knot behind. In -time of battle, the men also dispensed with any head-covering, brushing -their abundant hair forward into a thick mass, and dyeing it red with a -soap made of goat’s fat and beech ashes, until they looked (says -Cicero’s tutor Posidonius, who visited Britain about 110 B.C.) less like -human beings than wild men of the woods. Both sexes were fond of -ornaments, which took the form of gold bracelets, rings, pins, and -brooches, and of beads of amber, glass, and jet. Their knives, daggers, -spear-heads, axes, and swords were made of bronze or iron; their shields -were the same round target used by the Highlanders at the battle of -Culloden; and they seem also to have had a kind of lasso to which a -hammer-shaped ball was attached, and which they used as the Gauchos of -South America use their _bola_. Their war-chariots were made of wicker, -the wooden wheels being armed with sickles of bronze. These were drawn -either by two or four horses, and were large enough to hold several -persons in each. Standing in these, they rushed along the enemy’s lines, -hurling darts, and driving the scythes against all who came within -reach. The Romans were much impressed by the skill of the drivers, who -“could check their horses at full speed on a steep incline, and turn -them in an instant, and could run along the pole, and stand on the yoke, -and then get back into their chariots again without a moment’s -delay”.[24] - -With these accounts of the Roman writers we may compare the picture of -the Gaelic hero, Cuchulainn, as the ancient Irish writers describe him -dressed and armed for battle. Glorified by the bard, he yet wears -essentially the same costume and equipment which the classic historians -and geographers described more soberly. “His gorgeous raiment that he -wore in great conventions” consisted of “a fair crimson tunic of five -plies and fringed, with a long pin of white silver, gold-enchased and -patterned, shining as if it had been a luminous torch which for its -blazing property and brilliance men might not endure to see. Next his -skin, a body-vest of silk, bordered and fringed all round with gold, -with silver, and with white bronze, which vest came as far as the upper -edge of his russet-coloured kilt.... About his neck were a hundred -linklets of red gold that flashed again, with pendants hanging from -them. His head-gear was adorned with a hundred mixed carbuncle jewels, -strung.” He carried “a trusty special shield, in hue dark crimson, and -in its circumference armed with a pure white silver rim. At his left -side a long and golden-hilted sword. Beside him, in the chariot, a -lengthy spear; together with a keen, aggression-boding javelin, fitted -with hurling thong, with rivets of white bronze.”[25] Another passage of -Gaelic saga describes his chariot. It was made of fine wood, with -wicker-work, moving on wheels of white bronze. It had a high rounded -frame of creaking copper, a strong curved yoke of gold, and a pole of -white silver, with mountings of white bronze. The yellow reins were -plaited, and the shafts were as hard and straight as sword-blades.[26] - -In like manner the ancient Irish writers have made glorious the halls -and fortresses of their mythical kings. Like the palaces of Priam, of -Menelaus, and of Odysseus, they gleam with gold and gems. Conchobar,[27] -the legendary King of Ulster in its golden age, had three such “houses” -at Emain Macha. Of the one called the “Red Branch”, we are told that it -contained nine compartments of red yew, partitioned by walls of bronze, -all grouped around the king’s private chamber, which had a ceiling of -silver, and bronze pillars adorned with gold and carbuncles.[28] But the -far less magnificent accounts of the Latin writers have, no doubt, more -truth in them than such lavish pictures. They described the Britons they -knew as living in villages of bee-hive huts, roofed with fern or thatch, -from which, at the approach of an enemy, they retired to the local -_dún_. This, so far from being elaborate, merely consisted of a round or -oval space fenced in with palisades and earthworks, and situated either -upon the top of a hill or in the midst of a not easily traversable -morass.[29] We may see the remains of such strongholds in many parts of -England—notable ones are the “castles” of Amesbury, Avebury, and Old -Sarum in Wiltshire, Saint Catherine’s Hill, near Winchester, and Saint -George’s Hill, in Surrey—and it is probable that, in spite of the Celtic -praisers of past days, the “palaces” of Emain Macha and of Tara were -very like them. - -The Celtic customs were, like the Homeric, those of the primitive world. -All land (though it may have theoretically belonged to the chief) was -cultivated in common. This community of possessions is stated by -Caesar[30] to have extended to their wives; but the imputation cannot be -said to have been proved. On the contrary, in the stories of both -branches of the Celtic race, women seem to have taken a higher place in -men’s estimation, and to have enjoyed far more personal liberty, than -among the Homeric Greeks. The idea may have arisen from a -misunderstanding of some of the curious Celtic customs. Descent seems to -have been traced through the maternal rather than through the paternal -line, a very un-Aryan procedure which some believe to have been borrowed -from another race. The parental relation was still further lessened by -the custom of sending children to be brought up outside the family in -which they were born, so that they had foster-parents to whom they were -as much, or even more, attached than to their natural ones. - -Their political state, mirroring their family life, was not less -primitive. There was no central tribunal. Disputes were settled within -the families in which they occurred, while, in the case of graver -injuries, the injured party or his nearest relation could kill the -culprit or exact a fine from him. As families increased in number, they -became petty tribes, often at war with one another. A defeated tribe had -to recognize the sovereignty of the head man of the conquering tribe, -and a succession of such victories exalted him into the position of a -chief of his district. But even then, though his decision was the whole -of the law, he was little more than the mouthpiece of public opinion. - ------ - -Footnote 9: - - Huxley: _On Some Fixed Points in British Ethnology_. 1871. - -Footnote 10: - - Sergi: _The Mediterranean Race_. - -Footnote 11: - - Gomme: _The Village Community_. Chap. IV—“The non-Aryan Elements in - the English Village Community”. - -Footnote 12: - - Tacitus: _Agricola_, chap. XI. - -Footnote 13: - - Strabo: _Geographica_, Book IV, chap. V. - -Footnote 14: - - Tacitus, _op. cit._ - -Footnote 15: - - Rhys: _The Early Ethnology of the British Islands_. _Scottish Review._ - April, 1890. - -Footnote 16: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book I, chap. I. - -Footnote 17: - - Rhys: _Scottish Review_. April, 1890. - -Footnote 18: - - Op. Caesar, _op. cit._ - -Footnote 19: - - Tacitus: _Agricola_, chap. XI. - -Footnote 20: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book V, chap. XII. - -Footnote 21: - - Elton: _Origins of English History_, chap. VII. - -Footnote 22: - - See “_La Civilisation des Celtes et celle de l’Épopée Homérique_”, by - M. d’Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de Littérature Celtique_, Vol. VI. - -Footnote 23: - - See Elton: _Origins of English History_, chap. VII. - -Footnote 24: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book IV, chap. XXXIII. - -Footnote 25: - - From the _Táin Bó Chuailgné_. The translator is Mr. Standish Hayes - O’Grady. - -Footnote 26: - - _Tochmarc Emire_—the _Wooing of Emer_—an old Irish romance. - -Footnote 27: - - Sometimes spelt “Conachar”, and pronounced _Conhower_ or _Connor_. - -Footnote 28: - - The _Wooing of Emer_. - -Footnote 29: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book V, chap. XXI, and various passages in - Book VII. - -Footnote 30: - - _Ibid._, chap. XIV. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS AND - DRUIDISM - - -The ancient inhabitants of Britain—the Gaelic and British Celts—have -been already described as forming a branch of what are roughly called -the “Aryans”. This name has, however, little reference to race, and -really signifies the speakers of a group of languages which can be all -shown to be connected, and to descend remotely from a single source—a -hypothetical mother-tongue spoken by a hypothetical people which we term -“Aryan”, or, more correctly, “Indo-European”. This primeval speech, -evolved, probably, upon some part of the great plain which stretches -from the mountains of Central Europe to the mountains of Central Asia, -has spread, superseding, or amalgamating with the tongues of other -races, until branches of it are spoken over almost the whole of Europe -and a great portion of Asia. All the various Latin, Greek, Slavic, -Teutonic, and Celtic languages are “Aryan”, as well as Persian and other -Asiatic dialects derived from the ancient “Zend”, and the numerous -Indian languages which trace their origin to Sanscrit. - -Not very long ago, it was supposed that this common descent of language -involved a common descent of blood. A real brotherhood was -enthusiastically claimed for all the principal European nations, who -were also invited to recognize Hindus and Persians as their long-lost -cousins. Since then, it has been conceded that, while the Aryan speech -survived, though greatly modified, the Aryan blood might well have -disappeared, diluted beyond recognition by crossing with the other races -whom the Aryans conquered, or among whom they more or less peacefully -settled. As a matter of fact, there are no European nations—perhaps no -people at all except a few remote savage tribes—which are not made up of -the most diverse elements. Aryan and non-Aryan long ago blended -inextricably, to form by their fusion new peoples. - -But, just as the Aryan speech influenced the new languages, and the -Aryan customs the new civilizations, so we can still discern in the -religions of the Aryan-speaking nations similar ideas and expressions -pointing to an original source of mythological conceptions. Hence, -whether we investigate the mythology of the Hindus, the Greeks, the -Teutons, or the Celts, we find the same mythological groundwork. In -each, we see the powers of nature personified, and endowed with human -form and attributes, though bearing, with few exceptions, different -names. Like the Vedic brahmans, the Greek and Latin poets, and the Norse -scalds, the Celtic bards—whether Gaels or Britons—imagined the sky, the -sun, the moon, the earth, the sea, and the dark underworld, as well as -the mountains, the streams and the woods, to be ruled by beings like -their own chiefs, but infinitely more powerful; every passion, as War -and Love, and every art, as Poetry and Smithcraft, had its divine -founder, teacher, and exponent; and of all these deities and their -imagined children, they wove the poetical and allegorical romances which -form the subject of the present volume. - -Like other nations, too, whether Aryan or non-Aryan, the Celts had, -besides their mythology, a religion. It is not enough to tell tales of -shadowy gods; they must be made visible by sculpture, housed in groves -or temples, served with ritual, and propitiated with sacrifices, if one -is to hope for their favours. Every cult must have its priests living by -the altar. - -The priests of the Celts are well-known to us by name as the “Druids”—a -word derived from a root DR which signifies a tree, and especially the -oak, in several Aryan languages.[31] This is generally—though not by all -scholars—taken as proving that they paid an especial veneration to the -king of trees. It is true that the mistletoe—that strange parasite upon -the oak—was prominent among their “herbs of power”, and played a part in -their ritual;[32] but this is equally true of other Aryan nations. By -the Norse it was held sacred to the god Balder, while the Romans -believed it to be the “golden bough” that gave access to Hades.[33] - -The accounts both of the Latin and Gaelic writers give us a fairly -complete idea of the nature of the Druids, and especially of the high -estimation in which they were held. They were at once the priests, the -physicians, the wizards, the diviners, the theologians, the scientists, -and the historians of their tribes. All spiritual power and all human -knowledge were vested in them, and they ranked second only to the kings -and chiefs. They were freed from all contribution to the State, whether -by tribute or service in war, so that they might the better apply -themselves to their divine offices. Their decisions were absolutely -final, and those who disobeyed them were laid under a terrible -excommunication or “boycott”.[34] Classic writers tell us how they -lorded it in Gaul, where, no doubt, they borrowed splendour by imitating -their more civilized neighbours. Men of the highest rank were proud to -cast aside the insignia of mere mortal honour to join the company of -those who claimed to be the direct mediators with the sky-god and the -thunder-god, and who must have resembled the ecclesiastics of mediæval -Europe in the days of their greatest power, combining, like them, -spiritual and temporal dignities, and possessing the highest culture of -their age. Yet it was not among these Druids of Gaul, with their -splendid temples and vestments and their elaborate rituals, that the -metropolis of Druidism was to be sought. We learn from Caesar that the -Gallic Druids believed their religion to have come to them, originally, -from Britain, and that it was their practice to send their “theological -students” across the Channel to learn its doctrines at their purest -source.[35] To trace a cult backwards is often to take a retrograde -course in culture, and it was no doubt in Britain—which Pliny the Elder -tells us “might have taught magic to Persia”[36]—that the sufficiently -primitive and savage rites of the Druids of Gaul were preserved in their -still more savage and primitive forms. It is curious corroboration of -this alleged British origin of Druidism that the ancient Irish also -believed their Druidism to have come from the sister island. Their -heroes and seers are described as only gaining the highest knowledge by -travelling to Alba.[37] However this may be, we may take it as certain -that this Druidism was the accepted religion of the Celtic race. - -Certain scholars look deeper for its origin, holding its dark -superstitions and savage rites to bear the stamp of lower minds than -those of the poetic and manly Celts. Professor Rhys inclines to see -three forms of religion in the British Islands at the time of the Roman -invasion: the “Druidism” of the Iberian aborigines; the pure polytheism -of the Brythons, who, having come later into the country, had mixed but -little with the natives; and the mingled Aryan and non-Aryan cults of -the Goidels, who were already largely amalgamated with them.[38] But -many authorities dissent from this view, and, indeed, we are not obliged -to postulate borrowing from tribes in a lower state of culture, to -explain primitive and savage features underlying a higher religion. The -“Aryan” nations must have passed, equally with all others, through a -state of pure savagery; and we know that the religion of the Greeks, in -many respects so lofty, sheltered features and legends as barbarous as -any that can be attributed to the Celts.[39] - -Of the famous teaching of the Druids we know little, owing to their -habit of never allowing their doctrines to be put into writing. Caesar, -however, roughly records its scope. “As one of their leading dogmas”, he -says, “they inculcate this: that souls are not annihilated, but pass -after death from one body to another, and they hold that by this -teaching men are much encouraged to valour, through disregarding the -fear of death. They also discuss and impart to the young many things -concerning the heavenly bodies and their movements, the size of the -world and of our earth, natural science, and of the influence and power -of the immortal gods.”[40] The Romans seem to have held their wisdom in -some awe, though it is not unlikely that the Druids themselves borrowed -whatever knowledge they may have had of science and philosophy from the -classical culture. That their creed of transmigration was not, however, -merely taken over from the Greeks seems certain from its appearance in -the ancient Gaelic myths. Not only the “shape-shifting” common to the -magic stories of all nations, but actual reincarnation was in the power -of privileged beings. The hero Cuchulainn was urged by the men of Ulster -to marry, because they knew “that his rebirth would be of himself”,[41] -and they did not wish so great a warrior to be lost to their tribe. -Another legend tells how the famous Finn mac Coul was reborn, after two -hundred years, as an Ulster king called Mongan.[42] - -Such ideas, however, belonged to the metaphysical side of Druidism. Far -more important to the practical primitive mind are ritual and sacrifice, -by the due performance of which the gods are persuaded or compelled to -grant earth’s increase and length of days to men. Among the Druids, this -humouring of the divinities took the shape of human sacrifice, and that -upon a scale which would seem to have been unsurpassed in horror even by -the most savage tribes of West Africa or Polynesia. “The whole Gaulish -nation”, says Caesar, “is to a great degree devoted to superstitious -rites; and on this account those who are afflicted with severe diseases, -or who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice human beings -for victims, or vow that they will immolate themselves, and these employ -the Druids as ministers for such sacrifices, because they think that, -unless the life of man be repaid for the life of man, the will of the -immortal gods cannot be appeased. They also ordain national offerings of -the same kind. Others make wicker-work images of vast size, the limbs of -which they fill with living men and set on fire.”[43] - -We find evidence of similarly awful customs in pagan Ireland. Among the -oldest Gaelic records are tracts called _Dinnsenchus_, in which famous -places are enumerated, together with the legends relating to them. Such -topographies are found in several of the great Irish mediæval -manuscripts, and therefore, of course, received their final -transcription at the hands of Christian monks. But these ecclesiastics -rarely tampered with compositions in elaborate verse. Nor can it be -imagined that any monastic scribe could have invented such a legend as -this one which describes the practice of human sacrifice among the -ancient Irish. The poem (which is found in the Books of Leinster, of -Ballymote, of Lecan, and in a document called the Rennes MS.)[44] -records the reason why a spot near the present village of Ballymagauran, -in County Cavan, received the name of Mag Slecht, the “Plain of -Adoration”. - - “Here used to be - A high idol with many fights, - Which was named the Cromm Cruaich; - It made every tribe to be without peace. - - “’Twas a sad evil! - Brave Gaels used to worship it. - From it they would not without tribute ask - To be satisfied as to their portion of the hard world. - - “He was their god, - The withered Cromm with many mists, - The people whom he shook over every host, - The everlasting kingdom they shall not have. - - “To him without glory - They would kill their piteous, wretched offspring - With much wailing and peril, - To pour their blood around Cromm Cruaich. - - “Milk and corn - They would ask from him speedily - In return for one-third of their healthy issue: - Great was the horror and the scare of him. - - “To him - Noble Gaels would prostrate themselves, - From the worship of him, with many manslaughters, - The plain is called “Mag Slecht”. - - * * * * * * * * * * - - “They did evil, - They beat their palms, they pounded their bodies, - Wailing to the demon who enslaved them, - They shed falling showers of tears. - - * * * * * * * * * * - - “Around Cromm Cruaich - There the hosts would prostrate themselves; - Though he put them under deadly disgrace, - Their name clings to the noble plain. - - “In their ranks (stood) - Four times three stone idols; - To bitterly beguile the hosts, - The figure of the Cromm was made of gold. - - “Since the rule - Of Herimon[45], the noble man of grace, - There was worshipping of stones - Until the coming of good Patrick of Macha. - - “A sledge-hammer to the Cromm - He applied from crown to sole, - He destroyed without lack of valour - The feeble idol which was there.” - -Such, we gather from a tradition which we may deem authentic, was human -sacrifice in early Ireland. According to the quoted verse, one third of -the healthy children were slaughtered, presumably every year, to wrest -from the powers of nature the grain and grass upon which the tribes and -their cattle subsisted. In a prose _dinnsenchus_ preserved in the Rennes -MS.,[46] there is a slight variant. “’Tis there”, (at Mag Slecht), it -runs, “was the king idol of Erin, namely the Crom Croich, and around him -were twelve idols made of stones, but he was of gold. Until Patrick’s -advent he was the god of every folk that colonized Ireland. To him they -used to offer the firstlings of every issue and the chief scions of -every clan.” The same authority also tells us that these sacrifices were -made at “Hallowe’en”, which took the place, in the Christian calendar, -of the heathen _Samhain_—“Summer’s End”—when the sun’s power waned, and -the strength of the gods of darkness, winter, and the underworld grew -great. - -Who, then, was this bloodthirsty deity? His name, _Cromm Cruaich_, means -the “Bowed One of the Mound”, and was evidently applied to him only -after his fall from godhead. It relates to the tradition that, at the -approach of the all-conquering Saint Patrick, the “demon” fled from his -golden image, which thereupon sank forward in the earth in homage to the -power that had come to supersede it.[47] But from another source we -glean that the word _cromm_ was a kind of pun upon _cenn_, and that the -real title of the “king idol of Erin” was _Cenn Cruaich_, “Head” or -“Lord” of the Mound. Professor Rhys, in his _Celtic Heathendom_,[48] -suggests that he was probably the Gaelic heaven-god, worshipped, like -the Hellenic Zeus, upon “high places”, natural or artificial. At any -rate, we may see in him the god most revered by the Gaels, surrounded by -the other twelve chief members of their Pantheon. - -It would appear probable that the Celtic State worship was what is -called “solar”. All its chief festivals related to points in the sun’s -progress, the equinoxes having been considered more important than the -solstices. It was at the spring equinox (called by the Celts -“Beltaine”[49]) in every nineteenth year that, we learn from Diodorus -the Sicilian, a writer contemporary with Julius Caesar, Apollo himself -appeared to his worshippers, and was seen harping and dancing in the sky -until the rising of the Pleiades.[50] The other corresponding festival -was “Samhain”[51], the autumn equinox. As Beltaine marked the beginning -of summer, so Samhain recorded its end. The summer solstice was also a -great Celtic feast. It was held at the beginning of August in honour of -the god called Lugus by the Gauls, Lugh by the Gaels, and Lleu by the -Britons—the pan-Celtic Apollo, and, probably, when the cult of the -war-god had fallen from its early prominence, the chief figure of the -common Pantheon. - -It was doubtless at Stonehenge that the British Apollo was thus seen -harping and dancing. That marvellous structure well corresponds to -Diodorus’s description of a “magnificent temple of Apollo” which he -locates “in the centre of Britain”. “It is a circular enclosure,” he -says, “adorned with votive offerings and tablets with Greek inscriptions -suspended by travellers upon the walls. The rulers of the temple and -city are called ‘Boreadæ’[52], and they take up the government from each -other according to the order of their tribes. The citizens are given up -to music, harping and chanting in honour of the sun.”[53] Stonehenge, -therefore, was a sacred religious centre, equally revered by and equally -belonging to all the British tribes—a Rome or Jerusalem of our ancient -paganism. - -The same great gods were, no doubt, adored by all the Celts, not only of -Great Britain and Ireland, but of Continental Gaul as well. Sometimes -they can be traced by name right across the ancient Celtic world. In -other cases, what is obviously the same personified power of nature is -found in various places with the same attributes, but with a different -title. Besides these, there must have been a multitude of lesser gods, -worshipped by certain tribes alone, to whom they stood as ancestors and -guardians. “I swear by the gods of my people”, was the ordinary oath of -a hero in the ancient Gaelic sagas. The aboriginal tribes must also have -had their gods, whether it be true or not that their religion influenced -the Celtic Druidism. Professor Rhys inclines to see in the _genii -locorum_, the almost nameless spirits of well and river, mountain and -wood—shadowy remnants of whose cults survive to-day,—members of a -swarming Pantheon of the older Iberians.[54] These local beings would in -no way conflict with the great Celtic nature-gods, and the two worships -could exist side by side, both even claiming the same votary. It needs -the stern faith of monotheism to deny the existence of the gods of -others. Polytheistic nations have seldom or never risen to such a -height. In their dealings with a conquered people, the conquerors -naturally held their own gods to be the stronger. Still, it could not be -denied that the gods of the conquered were upon their own ground; they -knew, so to speak, the country, and might have unguessed powers of doing -evil! What if, to avenge their worshippers and themselves, they were to -make the land barren and useless to the conquerors? So that conquering -pagan nations have usually been quite ready to stretch out the hand of -welcome to the deities of their new subjects, to propitiate them by -sacrifice, and even to admit them within the pale of their own Pantheon. - -This raises the question of the exact nationality of the gods whose -stories we are about to tell. Were they all Aryan, or did any of the -greater aboriginal deities climb up to take their place among the Gaelic -tribe of the goddess Danu, or the British children of the goddess Dôn? -Some of the Celtic gods have seemed to scholars to bear signs of a -non-Aryan origin.[55] The point, however, is at present very obscure. -Neither does it much concern us. Just as the diverse deities of the -Greeks—some Aryan and Hellenic, some pre-Aryan and Pelasgian, some -imported and Semitic—were all gathered into one great divine family, so -we may consider as members of one national Olympus all these gods whose -legends make up “The Mythology of the British Islands”. - ------ - -Footnote 31: - - See Schrader: _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_, pp. 138, - 272. - -Footnote 32: - - A description of the Druidical cult of the mistletoe is given by - Pliny: _Natural History_, XVI, chap. XCV. - -Footnote 33: - - See Frazer: _The Golden Bough_, chap. IV. - -Footnote 34: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chaps. XIII, XIV. But for a full - exposition of what is known of the Druids the reader is referred to M. - d’Arbois de Jubainville’s _Introduction à l’Étude de la Littérature - Celtique_, Vol. I of his _Cours de Littérature Celtique_. - -Footnote 35: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chap. XIII. - -Footnote 36: - - Pliny: _Natural History_, XXX. - -Footnote 37: - - See chap. XII, _The Irish Iliad_. - -Footnote 38: - - Rhys: _Celtic Britain_, chap. II. See also Gomme: _Ethnology in - Folk-lore_, pp. 58-62; _Village Community_, p. 104. - -Footnote 39: - - Abundant evidence of this is contained in Pausanias’ _Description of - Greece_. - -Footnote 40: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chap. XIV. - -Footnote 41: - - The _Wooing of Emer_. - -Footnote 42: - - It is contained in the Book of the Dun Cow, and has been translated or - commented upon by Eugene O’Curry (_Manners and Customs of the Ancient - Irish_), De Jubainville (_Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_), and Nutt - (_Voyage of Bran_). - -Footnote 43: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chap. XVI. - -Footnote 44: - - The following translation was made by Dr. Kuno Meyer, and appears as - Appendix B to Nutt’s _Voyage of Bran_. Three verses, here omitted, - will be found later as a note to chap. XII—“The Irish Iliad”. - -Footnote 45: - - The first King of the Milesians. The name is more usually spelt - Eremon. - -Footnote 46: - - The Rennes _Dinnsenchus_ has been translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes in - Vol. XVI of the _Revue Celtique_. - -Footnote 47: - - Told in the Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick, a fifteenth-century - combination of three very ancient Gaelic MSS. - -Footnote 48: - - The _Hibbert Lectures_ for 1886. Lecture II—“The Zeus of the Insular - Celts”. - -Footnote 49: - - Pronounced _Baltinna_. - -Footnote 50: - - _Diodorus Siculus_: Book II, chap. III. - -Footnote 51: - - Pronounced _Sowin_. - -Footnote 52: - - It has been suggested that this title is an attempt to reproduce the - ancient British word for “bards”. - -Footnote 53: - - _Diodorus Siculus_: Book II, chap. III. - -Footnote 54: - - _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886. Lecture I—“The Gaulish Pantheon”. - -Footnote 55: - - See Rhys: _Lectures on Welsh Philology_, pp. 426, 552, 653. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE GAELIC GODS AND THEIR - STORIES - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE GODS OF THE GAELS - - -Of the two Celtic races that settled in our islands, it is the earlier, -the Gaels, that has best preserved its old mythology. It is true that we -have in few cases such detailed account of the Gaelic gods as we gain of -the Hellenic deities from the Greek poets, of the Indian Devas from the -Rig Veda, or of the Norse Æsir from the Eddas. Yet none the less may we -draw from the ancient Irish manuscripts quite enough information to -enable us to set forth their figures with some clearness. We find them, -as might have been anticipated, very much like the divine hierarchies of -other Aryan peoples. - -We also find them separated into two opposing camps, a division common -to all the Aryan religions. Just as the Olympians struggled with the -Giants, the Æsir fought the Jötuns, and the Devas the Asuras, so there -is warfare in the Gaelic spiritual world between two superhuman hosts. -On one side are ranged the gods of day, light, life, fertility, wisdom, -and good; on the other, the demons of night, darkness, death, -barrenness, and evil. The first were the great spirits symbolizing the -beneficial aspects of nature and the arts and intelligence of man; the -second were the hostile powers thought to be behind such baneful -manifestations as storm and fog, drought and disease. The first are -ranged as a divine family round a goddess called Danu, from whom they -took their well-known name of _Tuatha Dé Danann_,[56] “Tribe” or “Folk -of the Goddess Danu”. The second owned allegiance to a female divinity -called Domnu; their king, Indech, is described as her son, and they are -all called “Domnu’s gods”. The word “Domnu” appears to have signified -the abyss or the deep sea,[57] and the same idea is also expressed in -their better-known name of “Fomors”, derived from two Gaelic words -meaning “under sea”.[58] The waste of water seems to have always -impressed the Celts with the sense of primeval ancientness; it was -connected in their minds with vastness, darkness, and monstrous -births—the very antithesis of all that was symbolized by the earth, the -sky, and the sun. - -Therefore the Fomors were held to be more ancient than the gods, before -whom they were, however, destined to fall in the end. Offspring of -“Chaos and Old Night”, they were, for the most part, huge and deformed. -Some had but one arm and one leg apiece, while others had the heads of -goats, horses, or bulls.[59] The most famous, and perhaps the most -terrible of them all was Balor, whose father is said to have been one -Buarainech, that is, the “cow-faced”,[60] and who combined in himself -the two classical rôles of the Cyclops and the Medusa. Though he had two -eyes, one was always kept shut, for it was so venomous that it slew -anyone on whom its look fell. This malignant quality of Balor’s eye was -not natural to him, but was the result of an accident. Urged by -curiosity, he once looked in at the window of a house where his father’s -sorcerers were preparing a magic potion, and the poisonous smoke from -the cauldron reached his eye, infecting it with so much of its own -deadly nature as to make it disastrous to others. Neither god nor giant -seems to have been exempt from its dangers; so that Balor was only -allowed to live on condition that he kept his terrible eye shut. On days -of battle he was placed opposite to the enemy, the lid of the destroying -eye was lifted up with a hook, and its gaze withered all who stood -before it. The memory of Balor and his eye still lingers in Ireland: the -“eye of Balor” is the name for what the peasantry of other countries -call the “evil eye”; stories are still told of _Balar Beimann_, or -“Balor of the Mighty Blows”; and “Balor’s Castle” is the name of a -curious cliff on Tory Island. This island, off the coast of Donegal, was -the Fomorian outpost upon earth, their real abode being in the cold -depths of the sea. - -This rule, however, as to the hideousness of the Fomors had its -exceptions. Elathan, one of their chiefs, is described in an old -manuscript as of magnificent presence—a Miltonic prince of darkness. “A -man of fairest form,” it says, “with golden hair down to his shoulders. -He wore a mantle of gold braid over a shirt interwoven with threads of -gold. Five golden necklaces were round his neck, and a brooch of gold -with a shining precious stone thereon was on his breast. He carried two -silver spears with rivets of bronze, and his sword was golden-hilted and -golden-studded.”[61] Nor was his son less handsome. His name was Bress, -which means “beautiful”, and we are told that every beautiful thing in -Ireland, “whether plain, or fortress, or ale, or torch, or woman, or -man”, was compared with him, so that men said of them, “that is a -Bress”.[62] - -Balor, Bress, and Elathan are the three Fomorian personages whose -figures, seen through the mists of antiquity, show clearest to us. But -they are only a few out of many, nor are they the oldest. We can learn, -however, nothing but a few names of any ancestors of the Gaelic giants. -This is equally true of the Gaelic gods. Those we know are evidently not -without parentage, but the names of their fathers are no more than -shadows following into oblivion the figures they designated. The most -ancient divinity of whom we have any knowledge is Danu herself, the -goddess from whom the whole hierarchy of gods received its name of -Tuatha Dé Danann. She was also called Anu or Ana, and her name still -clings to two well-known mountains near Killarney, which, though now -called simply “The Paps”, were known formerly as the “Paps of Ana”.[63] -She was the universal mother; “well she used to cherish the gods”, says -the commentator of a ninth-century Irish glossary.[64] Her husband is -never mentioned by name, but one may assume him, from British analogies, -to have been Bilé, known to Gaelic tradition as a god of Hades, a kind -of Celtic Dis Pater from whom sprang the first men. Danu herself -probably represented the earth and its fruitfulness, and one might -compare her with the Greek Demeter. All the other gods are, at least by -title, her children. The greatest of these would seem to have been -Nuada, called _Argetlám_, or “He of the Silver Hand”. He was at once the -Gaelic Zeus, or Jupiter, and their war-god; for among primitive nations, -to whom success in war is all-important, the god of battles is the -supreme god.[65] Among the Gauls, Camulus, whose name meant -“Heaven”,[66] was identified by the Romans with Mars; and other such -instances come readily to the mind. He was possessed of an invincible -sword, one of the four chief treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann, over -whom he was twice king; and there is little doubt that he was one of the -most important gods of both the Gaels and the Britons, for his name is -spread over the whole of the British Isles, which we may surmise the -Celts conquered under his auspices. We may picture him as a more savage -Mars, delighting in battle and slaughter, and worshipped, like his -Gaulish affinities, Teutates and Hesus, of whom the Latin poet Lucan -tells us, with human sacrifices, shared in by his female consorts, who, -we may imagine, were not more merciful than himself, or than that -Gaulish Taranis whose cult was “no gentler than that of the Scythian -Diana”, and who completes Lucan’s triad as a fit companion to the -“pitiless Teutates” and the “horrible Hesus”.[67] Of these warlike -goddesses there were five—Fea, the “Hateful”, Nemon, the “Venomous”, -Badb, the “Fury”, Macha, a personification of “battle”, and, over all of -them, the Morrígú, or “Great Queen”. This supreme war-goddess of the -Gaels, who resembles a fiercer Herê, perhaps symbolized the moon, deemed -by early races to have preceded the sun, and worshipped with magical and -cruel rites. She is represented as going fully armed, and carrying two -spears in her hand. As with Arês[68] and Poseidon[69] in the “Iliad”, -her battle-cry was as loud as that of ten thousand men. Wherever there -was war, either among gods or men, she, the great queen, was present, -either in her own shape or in her favourite disguise, that of a “hoodie” -or carrion crow. An old poem shows her inciting a warrior: - - “Over his head is shrieking - A lean hag, quickly hopping - Over the points of the weapons and shields; - She is the gray-haired Morrígú”.[70] - -With her, Fea and Nemon, Badb and Macha also hovered over the fighters, -inspiring them with the madness of battle. All of these were sometimes -called by the name of “Badb”[71]. An account of the Battle of Clontarf, -fought by Brian Boru, in 1014, against the Norsemen, gives a gruesome -picture of what the Gaels believed to happen in the spiritual world when -battle lowered and men’s blood was aflame. “There arose a wild, -impetuous, precipitate, mad, inexorable, furious, dark, lacerating, -merciless, combative, contentious _badb_, which was shrieking and -fluttering over their heads. And there arose also the satyrs, and -sprites, and the maniacs of the valleys, and the witches and goblins and -owls, and destroying demons of the air and firmament, and the demoniac -phantom host; and they were inciting and sustaining valour and battle -with them.” When the fight was over, they revelled among the bodies of -the slain; the heads cut off as barbaric trophies were called “Macha’s -acorn crop”. These grim creations of the savage mind had immense -vitality. While Nuada, the supreme war-god, vanished early out of the -Pantheon—killed by the Fomors in the great battle fought between them -and the gods—Badb and the Morrígú lived on as late as any of the Gaelic -deities. Indeed, they may be said to still survive in the superstitious -dislike and suspicion shown in all Celtic-speaking countries for their -_avatar_, the hoodie-crow.[72] - -After Nuada, the greatest of the gods was the Dagda, whose name seems to -have meant the “Good God”.[73] The old Irish tract called “The Choice of -Names” tells us that he was a god of the earth; he had a cauldron called -“The Undry”, in which everyone found food in proportion to his merits, -and from which none went away unsatisfied. He also had a living harp; as -he played upon it, the seasons came in their order—spring following -winter, and summer succeeding spring, autumn coming after summer, and, -in its turn, giving place to winter. He is represented as of venerable -aspect and of simple mind and tastes, very fond of porridge, and a -valiant consumer of it. In an ancient tale we have a description of his -dress. He wore a brown, low-necked tunic which only reached down to his -hips, and, over this, a hooded cape which barely covered his shoulders. -On his feet and legs were horse-hide boots, the hairy side outwards. He -carried, or, rather, drew after him on a wheel, an eight-pronged -war-club, so huge that eight men would have been needed to carry it; and -the wheel, as he towed the whole weapon along, made a track like a -territorial boundary.[74] Ancient and gray-headed as he was, and sturdy -porridge-eater, it will be seen from this that he was a formidable -fighter. He did great deeds in the battle between the gods and the -Fomors, and, on one occasion, is even said to have captured -single-handed a hundred-legged and four-headed monster called Mata, -dragged him to the “Stone of Benn”, near the Boyne, and killed him -there. - -The Dagda’s wife was called Boann. She was connected in legend with the -River Boyne, to which she gave its name, and, indeed, its very -existence.[75] Formerly there was only a well[76], shaded by nine magic -hazel-trees. These trees bore crimson nuts, and it was the property of -the nuts that whoever ate of them immediately became possessed of the -knowledge of everything that was in the world. The story is, in fact, a -Gaelic version of the Hebrew myth of “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good -and Evil”. One class of creatures alone had this privilege—divine salmon -who lived in the well, and swallowed the nuts as they dropped from the -trees into the water, and thus knew all things, and appear in legend as -the “Salmons of Knowledge”. All others, even the highest gods, were -forbidden to approach the place. Only Boann, with the proverbial woman’s -curiosity, dared to disobey this fixed law. She came towards the sacred -well, but, as she did so, its waters rose up at her, and drove her away -before them in a mighty, rushing flood. She escaped; but the waters -never returned. They made the Boyne; and as for the all-knowing -inhabitants of the well, they wandered disconsolately through the depths -of the river, looking in vain for their lost nuts. One of these salmon -was afterwards eaten by the famous Finn mac Coul, upon whom all its -omniscience descended.[77] This way of accounting for the existence of a -river is a favourite one in Irish legend. It is told also of the -Shannon, which burst, like the Boyne, from an inviolable well, to pursue -another presumptuous nymph called Sinann, a granddaughter of the sea-god -Lêr.[78] - -The Dagda had several children, the most important of whom are Brigit, -Angus, Mider, Ogma, and Bodb the Red. Of these, Brigit will be already -familiar to English readers who know nothing of Celtic myth. Originally -she was a goddess of fire and the hearth, as well as of poetry, which -the Gaels deemed an immaterial, supersensual form of flame. But the -early Christianizers of Ireland adopted the pagan goddess into their -roll of saintship, and, thus canonized, she obtained immense popularity -as Saint Bridget, or Bride.[79] - -Angus was called _Mac Oc_, which means the “Son of the Young”, or, -perhaps, the “Young God”. This most charming of the creations of the -Celtic mythology is represented as a Gaelic Eros, an eternally youthful -exponent of love and beauty. Like his father, he had a harp, but it was -of gold, not oak, as the Dagda’s was, and so sweet was its music that no -one could hear and not follow it. His kisses became birds which hovered -invisibly over the young men and maidens of Erin, whispering thoughts of -love into their ears. He is chiefly connected with the banks of the -Boyne, where he had a “brugh”, or fairy palace; and many stories are -told of his exploits and adventures. - -Mider, also the hero of legends, would seem to have been a god of the -underworld, a Gaelic Pluto. As such, he was connected with the Isle of -Falga—a name for what was otherwise, and still is, called the Isle of -Man—where he had a stronghold in which he kept three wonderful cows and -a magic cauldron. He was also the owner of the “Three Cranes of Denial -and Churlishness”, which might be described flippantly as personified -“gentle hints”. They stood beside his door, and when anyone approached -to ask for hospitality, the first one said: “Do not come! do not come!” -and the second added: “Get away! get away!” while the third chimed in -with: “Go past the house! go past the house!”[80] These three birds -were, however, stolen from Mider by Aitherne, an avaricious poet, to -whom they would seem to have been more appropriate than to their owner, -who does not otherwise appear as a churlish and illiberal deity.[81] On -the contrary, he is represented as the victim of others, who plundered -him freely. The god Angus took away his wife Etain,[82] while his cows, -his cauldron, and his beautiful daughter Blathnat were carried off as -spoil by the heroes or demi-gods who surrounded King Conchobar in the -golden age of Ulster. - -Ogma, who appears to have been also called Cermait, that is, the -“honey-mouthed”, was the god of literature and eloquence. He married -Etan, the daughter of Diancecht, the god of medicine, and had several -children, who play parts more or less prominent in the mythology of the -Gaelic Celts. One of them was called Tuirenn, whose three sons murdered -the father of the sun-god, and were compelled, as expiation, to pay the -greatest fine ever heard of—nothing less than the chief treasures of the -world.[83] Another son, Cairpré, became the professional bard of the -Tuatha Dé Danann, while three others reigned for a short time over the -divine race. As patron of literature, Ogma was naturally credited with -having been the inventor of the famous _Ogam_ alphabet. This was an -indigenous script of Ireland, which spread afterwards to Great Britain, -inscriptions in ogmic characters having been found in Scotland, the Isle -of Man, South Wales, Devonshire, and at Silchester in Hampshire, the -Roman city of Calleva Attrebatum. It was originally intended for -inscriptions upon upright pillar-stones or upon wands, the equivalents -for letters being notches cut across, or strokes made upon one of the -faces of the angle, the alphabet running as follows: - -[Illustration] - -When afterwards written in manuscript, the strokes were placed over, -under, or through a horizontal line, in the manner above; and the vowels -were represented by short lines instead of notches, as: - -[Illustration] - -A good example of an ogmic inscription is given in Professor Rhys’s -_Hibbert Lectures_. It comes from a pillar on a small promontory near -Dunmore Head, in the west of Kerry, and, read horizontally, reads: - -[Illustration: ERC, THE SON OF THE SON OF ERCA (DESCENDANT OF) -MODOVINIA.[84]] - -The origin of this alphabet is obscure. Some authorities consider it of -great antiquity, while others believe it entirely post-Christian. It -seems, at any rate, to have been based upon, and consequently to -presuppose a knowledge of, the Roman alphabet. - -Ogma, besides being the patron of literature, was the champion, or -professional strong man of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His epithet is -_Grianainech_, that is, the “Sunny-faced”, from his radiant and shining -countenance. - -The last of the Dagda’s more important children is Bodb[85] the Red, who -plays a greater part in later than in earlier legend. He succeeded his -father as king of the gods. He is chiefly connected with the south of -Ireland, especially with the Galtee Mountains, and with Lough Dearg, -where he had a famous _sídh_, or underground palace. - -The Poseidon of the Tuatha Dé Danann Pantheon was called Lêr, but we -hear little of him in comparison with his famous son, Manannán, the -greatest and most popular of his many children. Manannán mac Lir[86] was -the special patron of sailors, who invoked him as “God of Headlands”, -and of merchants, who claimed him as the first of their guild. His -favourite haunts were the Isle of Man, to which he gave his name, and -the Isle of Arran, in the Firth of Clyde, where he had a palace called -“Emhain of the Apple-Trees”. He had many famous weapons—two spears -called “Yellow Shaft” and “Red Javelin”, a sword called “The -Retaliator”, which never failed to slay, as well as two others known as -the “Great Fury” and the “Little Fury”. He had a boat called -“Wave-sweeper”, which propelled and guided itself wherever its owner -wished, and a horse called “Splendid Mane”, which was swifter than the -spring wind, and travelled equally fast on land or over the waves of the -sea. No weapon could hurt him through his magic mail and breast-plate, -and on his helmet there shone two magic jewels bright as the sun. He -endowed the gods with the mantle which made them invisible at will, and -he fed them from his pigs, which, like the boar Sæhrimnir, in the Norse -Valhalla, renewed themselves as soon as they had been eaten. Of these, -no doubt, he made his “Feast of Age”, the banquet at which those who ate -never grew old. Thus the people of the goddess Danu preserved their -immortal youth, while the ale of Goibniu the Smith-God bestowed -invulnerability upon them. It is fitting that Manannán himself should -have been blessed beyond all the other gods with inexhaustible life; up -to the latest days of Irish heroic literature his luminous figure shines -prominent, nor is it even yet wholly forgotten. - -Goibniu, the Gaelic Hephaestus, who made the people of the goddess Danu -invulnerable with his magic drink, was also the forger of their weapons. -It was he who, helped by Luchtainé, the divine carpenter, and Credné, -the divine bronze-worker, made the armoury with which the Tuatha Dé -Danann conquered the Fomors. Equally useful to them was Diancecht, the -god of medicine.[87] It was he who once saved Ireland, and was -indirectly the cause of the name of the River Barrow. The Morrígú, the -heaven-god’s fierce wife, had borne a son of such terrible aspect that -the physician of the gods, foreseeing danger, counselled that he should -be destroyed in his infancy. This was done; and Diancecht opened the -infant’s heart, and found within it three serpents, capable, when they -grew to full size, of depopulating Ireland. He lost no time in -destroying these serpents also, and burning them into ashes, to avoid -the evil which even their dead bodies might do. More than this, he flung -the ashes into the nearest river, for he feared that there might be -danger even in them; and, indeed, so venomous were they that the river -boiled up and slew every living creature in it, and therefore has been -called “Barrow” (boiling) ever since.[88] - -Diancecht had several children, of whom two followed their father’s -profession. These were Miach and his sister Airmid. There were also -another daughter, Etan, who married Cermait (or Ogma), and three other -sons called Cian, Cethé, and Cu. Cian married Ethniu, the daughter of -Balor the Fomor, and they had a son who was the crowning glory of the -Gaelic Pantheon—its Apollo, the Sun-God,—Lugh[89], called -_Lamhfada_[90], which means the “Long-handed”, or the “Far-shooter”. It -was not, however, with the bow, like the Apollo of the Greeks, but with -the rod-sling that Lugh performed his feats; his worshippers sometimes -saw the terrible weapon in the sky as a rainbow, and the Milky Way was -called “Lugh’s Chain”. He also had a magic spear, which, unlike the -rod-sling, he had no need to wield, himself; for it was alive, and -thirsted so for blood that only by steeping its head in a -sleeping-draught of pounded poppy leaves could it be kept at rest. When -battle was near, it was drawn out; then it roared, and struggled against -its thongs; fire flashed from it; and, once slipped from the leash, it -tore through and through the ranks of the enemy, never tired of slaying. -Another of his possessions was a magic hound which an ancient poem,[91] -attributed to the Fenian hero, Caoilte, calls— - - “That hound of mightiest deeds, - Which was irresistible in hardness of combat, - Was better than wealth ever known, - A ball of fire every night. - - “Other virtues had that beautiful hound - (Better this property than any other property), - Mead or wine would grow of it, - Should it bathe in spring water.” - -This marvellous hound, as well as the marvellous spear, and the -indestructible pigs of Manannán were obtained for Lugh by the sons of -Tuirenn as part of the blood-fine he exacted from them for the murder of -his father Cian.[92] A hardly less curious story is that which tells how -Lugh got his name of the _Ioldanach_, or the “Master of All Arts”.[93] - -These are, of course, only the greater deities of the Gaelic Pantheon, -their divinities which answered to such Hellenic figures as Demeter, -Zeus, Herê, Cronos, Athena, Eros, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus, -Aesculapius, and Apollo. All of them had many descendants, some of whom -play prominent parts in the heroic cycles of the “Red Branch of Ulster” -and of the “Fenians”. In addition to these, there must have been a -multitude of lesser gods who stood in much the same relation to the -great gods as the rank and file of tribesmen did to their chiefs. Most -of these were probably local deities of the various clans—the gods their -heroes swore by. But it is also possible that some may have been -divinities of the aboriginal race. Professor Rhys thinks that he can -still trace a few of such Iberian gods by name, as Nêt, Ri or Roi, Corb, -and Beth.[94] But they play no recognizable part in the stories of the -Gaelic gods. - ------ - -Footnote 56: - - Pronounced _Tooăha dae donnann_. - -Footnote 57: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886. Lecture VI—“Gods, Demons, and Heroes”. - -Footnote 58: - - _Ibid._ - -Footnote 59: - - De Jubainville: _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, chap. V. - -Footnote 60: - - De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, chap. IX. - -Footnote 61: - - From the fifteenth-century Harleian MS. in the British Museum, - numbered 5280, and called the _Second Battle of Moytura_. - -Footnote 62: - - Harleian MS. 5280. - -Footnote 63: - - “In Munster was worshipped the goddess of prosperity, whose name was - Ana, and from her are named the Two Paps of Ana over Luachair Degad.” - From _Coir Anmann_, the _Choice of Names_, a sixteenth-century tract, - published by Dr. Whitley Stokes in _Irische Texte_. - -Footnote 64: - - Attributed to Cormac, King-Bishop of Cashel. - -Footnote 65: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886—“The Zeus of the Insular Celts”. - -Footnote 66: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886—“The Gaulish Pantheon”. - -Footnote 67: - - _Pharsalia_, Book I, l. 444, &c.: - - “Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro - Teutates, horrensque feris altaribus Hesus; - Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae”. - -Footnote 68: - - _Iliad_, Book V. - -Footnote 69: - - _Op. cit._, Book XIV. - -Footnote 70: - - It commemorates the battle of Magh Rath. - -Footnote 71: - - The word is approximately pronounced _Bive_ or _Bibe_. - -Footnote 72: - - For a full account of these beings see a paper by Mr. W. M. Hennessey - in Vol. I of the _Revue Celtique_, entitled “The Ancient Irish Goddess - of War”. - -Footnote 73: - - De Jubainville: _Le Cycle Mythologique_. Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. - 154. The _Coir Anmann_, however, translates it “Fire of God”. - -Footnote 74: - - _The Second Battle of Moytura._ Harleian MS. 5280. - -Footnote 75: - - The story is told in the Book of Leinster. - -Footnote 76: - - Now called “Trinity Well”. - -Footnote 77: - - See chap. XIV—“Finn and the Fenians”. - -Footnote 78: - - Book of Leinster. A paraphrase of the story will be found in O’Curry’s - _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, Vol. II, p. 143. - -Footnote 79: - - See chap. XV—“The Decline and Fall of the Gods”. - -Footnote 80: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 331. - -Footnote 81: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 331. - -Footnote 82: - - See chap. XI—“The Gods in Exile”. - -Footnote 83: - - See chap. VIII—“The Gaelic Argonauts”. - -Footnote 84: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 524. - -Footnote 85: - - Pronounced _Bove_. - -Footnote 86: - - Lêr—genitive Lir. - -Footnote 87: - - Pronounced _Dianket_. His name is explained, both in the _Choice of - Names_ and in Cormac’s _Glossary_, as meaning “God of Health”. - -Footnote 88: - - Standish O’Grady: _The Story of Ireland_, p. 17. - -Footnote 89: - - Pronounced _Luga_ or _Loo_. - -Footnote 90: - - Pronounced _Lavāda_. - -Footnote 91: - - Translated by O’Curry in _Atlantis_, Vol. III, from the Book of - Lismore. - -Footnote 92: - - Chap. VIII—“The Gaelic Argonauts”. - -Footnote 93: - - Chap. VII—“The Rise of the Sun-God”. - -Footnote 94: - - Rhys: _Celtic Britain_, chap. VII. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE GODS ARRIVE - - -The people of the goddess Danu were not the first divine inhabitants of -Ireland. Others had been before them, dwellers in “the dark backward and -abysm of time”. In this the Celtic mythology resembles those of other -nations, in almost all of which we find an old, dim realm of gods -standing behind the reigning Pantheon. Such were Cronos and the Titans, -dispossessed by the Zeus who seemed, even to Hesiod, something of a -_parvenu_ deity. Gaelic tradition recognizes two divine dynasties -anterior to the Tuatha Dé Danann. The first of these was called “The -Race of Partholon”. Its head and leader came—as all gods and men came, -according to Celtic ideas—from the Other World, and landed in Ireland -with a retinue of twenty-four males and twenty-four females upon the -first of May, the day called “Beltaine”, sacred to Bilé, the god of -death. At this remote time, Ireland consisted of only one treeless, -grassless plain, watered by three lakes and nine rivers. But, as the -race of Partholon increased, the land stretched, or widened, under -them—some said miraculously, and others, by the labours of Partholon’s -people. At any rate, during the three hundred years they dwelt there, it -grew from one plain to four, and acquired seven new lakes; which was -fortunate, for the race of Partholon increased from forty-eight members -to five thousand, in spite of battles with the Fomors. - -These would seem to have been inevitable. Whatever gods ruled, they -found themselves in eternal opposition to the not-gods—the powers of -darkness, winter, evil, and death. The race of Partholon warred against -them with success. At the Plain of Ith, Partholon defeated their leader, -a gigantic demon called Cichol the Footless, and dispersed his deformed -and monstrous host. After this there was quiet for three hundred years. -Then—upon the same fatal first of May—there began a mysterious epidemic, -which lasted a week, and destroyed them all. In premonition of their -end, they foregathered upon the original, first-created plain—then -called _Sen Mag_, or the “Old Plain”,—so that those who survived might -the more easily bury those that died. Their funeral-place is still -marked by a mound near Dublin, called “Tallaght” in the maps, but -formerly known as _Tamlecht Muintre Partholain_, the “Plague-grave of -Partholon’s People”. This would seem to have been a development of the -very oldest form of the legend—which knew nothing of a plague, but -merely represented the people of Partholon as having returned, after -their sojourn in Ireland, to the other world, whence they came—and is -probably due to the gradual euhemerization of the ancient gods into -ancient men. - -Following the race of Partholon, came the race of Nemed, which carried -on the work and traditions of its forerunner. During its time, Ireland -again enlarged herself, to the extent of twelve new plains and four more -lakes. Like the people of Partholon, the race of Nemed struggled with -the Fomors, and defeated them in four consecutive battles. Then Nemed -died, with two thousand of his people, from an epidemic, and the -remnant, left without their leader, were terribly oppressed by the -Fomors. Two Fomorian kings—Morc, son of Dela, and Conann, son of -Febar—had built a tower of glass upon Tory Island, always their chief -stronghold, and where stories of them still linger, and from this -vantage-point they dictated a tax which recalls that paid, in Greek -story, to the Cretan Minotaur. Two-thirds of the children born to the -race of Nemed during the year were to be delivered up on each day of -Samhain. Goaded by this to a last desperate effort, the survivors of -Nemed’s people attacked the tower, and took it, Conann perishing in the -struggle. But their triumph was short. Morc, the other king, collected -his forces, and inflicted such a slaughter upon the people of Nemed -that, out of the sixteen thousand who had assembled for the storming of -the tower, only thirty survived. And these returned whence they came, or -died—the two acts being, mythologically speaking, the same.[95] - -One cannot help seeing a good deal of similarity between the stories of -these two mythical invasions of Ireland. Especially noticeable is the -account of the epidemic which destroyed all Partholon’s people and -nearly all of Nemed’s. Hence it has been held that the two legends are -duplicates, and that there was at first only one, which has been adapted -somewhat differently by two races, the Iberians and the Gaels. Professor -Rhys considers[96] the account of Nemed to have been the original Celtic -one, and the Partholon story, the version of it which the native races -made to please themselves. The name “Partholon”, with its initial _p_, -is entirely foreign to the genius of Gaelic speech. Moreover, Partholon -himself is given, by the early chroniclers, ancestors whose decidedly -non-Aryan names reappear afterwards as the names of Fir Bolg chiefs. -Nemed was later than Partholon in Ireland, as the Gaels, or “Milesians”, -were later than the Iberians, or “Fir Bolgs”. - -These “Fir Bolgs” are found in myth as the next colonizers of Ireland. -Varying traditions say that they came from Greece, or from “Spain”—which -was a post-Christian euphemism for the Celtic Hades.[97] They consisted -of three tribes, called the “Fir Domnann” or “Men of Domnu”, the “Fir -Gaillion” or “Men of Gaillion”, and the “Fir Bolg” or “Men of Bolg”; -but, in spite of the fact that the first-named tribe was the most -important, they are usually called collectively after the last. Curious -stories are told of their life in Greece, and how they came to Ireland; -but these are somewhat factitious, and obviously do not belong to the -earliest tradition. - -In the time of their domination they had, we are told, partitioned -Ireland among them: the Fir Bolg held Ulster; the Fir Domnann, divided -into three kingdoms, occupied North Munster, South Munster, and -Connaught; while the Fir Gaillion owned Leinster. These five provinces -met at a hill then called “Balor’s Hill”, but afterwards the “Hill of -Uisnech”. It is near Rathconrath, in the county of West Meath, and was -believed, in early times, to mark the exact centre of Ireland. They held -the country from the departure of the people of Nemed to the coming of -the people of the goddess Danu, and during this period they had nine -supreme kings. At the time of the arrival of the gods, their king’s name -was Eochaid[98] son of Erc, surnamed “The Proud”. - -We have practically no other details regarding their life in Ireland. It -is obvious, however, that they were not really gods, but the pre-Aryan -race which the Gaels, when they landed in Ireland, found already in -occupation. There are many instances of peoples at a certain stage of -culture regarding tribes in a somewhat lower one as semi-divine, or, -rather, half-diabolical.[99] The suspicion and fear with which the early -Celts must have regarded the savage aborigines made them seem “larger -than human”. They feared them for the weird magical rites which they -practised in their inaccessible forts among the hills, amid storms and -mountain mists. The Gaels, who held themselves to be the children of -light, deemed these “dark Iberians” children of the dark. Their tribal -names seem to have been, in several instances, founded upon this idea. -There were the _Corca-Oidce_ (“People of Darkness”) and the -_Corca-Duibhne_ (“People of the Night”). The territory of the western -tribe of the _Hi Dorchaide_ (“Sons of Dark”) was called the “Night -Country”.[100] The Celts, who held their own gods to have preceded them -into Ireland, would not believe that even the Tuatha Dé Danann could -have wrested the land from these magic-skilled Iberians without battle. - -They seem also to have been considered as in some way connected with the -Fomors. Just as the largest Iberian tribe was called the “Men of Domnu”, -so the Fomors were called the “Gods of Domnu”, and Indech, one of their -kings, is a “son of Domnu”. Thus eternal battle between the gods, -children of Danu, and the giants, children of Domnu, would reflect, in -the supernatural world, the perpetual warfare between invading Celt and -resisting Iberian. It is shadowed, too, in the later heroic cycle. The -champions of Ulster, Aryans and Gaels _par excellence_, have no such -bitter enemies as the Fir Domnann of Munster and the Fir Gaillion of -Leinster. A few scholars would even see in the later death-struggle -between the High King of Ireland and his rebellious Fenians the last -historic or mythological adumbration of racial war.[101] - -The enemies alike of Fir Bolg and Fomor, the Tuatha Dé Danann, gods of -the Gaels, were the next to arrive. What is probably the earliest -account tells us that they came from the sky. Later versions, however, -give them a habitation upon earth—some say in the north, others in the -“southern isles of the world”. They had dwelt in four mythical cities -called Findias, Gorias, Murias, and Falias, where they had learned -poetry and magic—to the primitive mind two not very dissimilar -things—and whence they had brought to Ireland their four chief -treasures. From Findias came Nuada’s sword, from whose stroke no one -ever escaped or recovered; from Gorias, Lugh’s terrible lance; from -Murias, the Dagda’s cauldron; and from Falias, the Stone of Fál, better -known as the “Stone of Destiny”, which afterwards fell into the hands of -the early kings of Ireland. According to legend, it had the magic -property of uttering a human cry when touched by the rightful King of -Erin. Some have recognized in this marvellous stone the same rude block -which Edward I brought from Scone in the year 1300, and placed in -Westminster Abbey, where it now forms part of the Coronation Chair. It -is a curious fact that, while Scottish legend asserts this stone to have -come to Scotland from Ireland, Irish legend should also declare that it -was taken from Ireland to Scotland. This would sound like conclusive -evidence, but it is none the less held by leading modern -archæologists—including Dr. W. F. Skene, who has published a monograph -on the subject[102]—that the Stone of Scone and the Stone of Tara were -never the same. Dr. Petrie identifies the real _Lia Fáil_ with a stone -which has always remained in Ireland, and which was removed from its -original position on Tara Hill, in 1798, to mark the tomb of the rebels -buried close by under a mound now known as “the Croppies’ grave”.[103] - -Whether the Tuatha Dé Danann came from earth or heaven, they landed in a -dense cloud upon the coast of Ireland on the mystic first of May without -having been opposed, or even noticed by the people whom it will be -convenient to follow the manuscript authorities in calling the “Fir -Bolgs”.[104] That those might still be ignorant of their coming, the -Morrígú, helped by Badb and Macha, made use of the magic they had -learned in Findias, Gorias, Murias, and Falias. They spread -“druidically-formed showers and fog-sustaining shower-clouds” over the -country, and caused the air to pour down fire and blood upon the Fir -Bolgs, so that they were obliged to shelter themselves for three days -and three nights. But the Fir Bolgs had druids of their own, and, in the -end, they put a stop to these enchantments by counter-spells, and the -air grew clear again. - -The Tuatha Dé Danann, advancing westward, had reached a place called the -“Plain of the Sea”, in Leinster, when the two armies met. Each sent out -a warrior to parley. The two adversaries approached each other -cautiously, their eyes peeping over the tops of their shields. Then, -coming gradually nearer, they spoke to one another, and the desire to -examine each other’s weapons made them almost friends. - -The envoy of the Fir Bolgs looked with wonder at the -“beautifully-shaped, thin, slender, long, sharp-pointed spears” of the -warrior of the Tuatha Dé Danann, while the ambassador of the tribe of -the goddess Danu was not less impressed by the lances of the Fir Bolgs, -which were “heavy, thick, pointless, but sharply-rounded”. They agreed -to exchange weapons, so that each side might, by an examination of them, -be able to come to some opinion as to its opponent’s strength. Before -parting, the envoy of the Tuatha Dé Danann offered the Fir Bolgs, -through their representative, peace, with a division of the country into -two equal halves. - -The Fir Bolg envoy advised his people to accept this offer. But their -king, Eochaid, son of Erc, would not. “If we once give these people -half,” he said, “they will soon have the whole.” - -The people of the goddess Danu were, on the other hand, very much -impressed by the sight of the Fir Bolgs’ weapons. They decided to secure -a more advantageous position, and, retreating farther west into -Connaught, to a plain then called Nia, but now Moytura, near the present -village of Cong, they drew up their line at its extreme end, in front of -the pass of Balgatan[105], which offered a retreat in case of defeat. - -The Fir Bolgs followed them, and encamped on the nearer side of the -plain. Then Nuada, King of the Tuatha Dé Danann, sent an ambassador -offering the same terms as before. Again the Fir Bolgs declined them. - -“Then when”, asked the envoy, “do you intend to give battle?” - -“We must have a truce,” they said, “for we want time to repair our -armour, burnish our helmets, and sharpen our swords. Besides, we must -have spears like yours made for us, and you must have spears like ours -made for you.” - -The result of this chivalrous, but, to modern ideas, amazing, parley was -that a truce of one hundred and five days was agreed upon. - -It was on Midsummer Day that the opposing armies at last met. The people -of the goddess Danu appeared in “a flaming line”, wielding their -“red-bordered, speckled, and firm shields”. Opposite to them were ranged -the Fir Bolgs, “sparkling, brilliant, and flaming, with their swords, -spears, blades, and trowel-spears”. The proceedings began with a kind of -deadly hurley-match, in which thrice nine of the Tuatha Dé Danann played -the same number of the Fir Bolgs, and were defeated and killed. Then -followed another parley, to decide how the battle should be carried on, -whether there should be fighting every day or only on every second day. -Moreover, Nuada obtained from Eochaid an assurance that the battles -should always be fought with equal numbers, although this was, we are -told, “very disagreeable to the Fir Bolg king, because he had largely -the advantage in the numbers of his army”. Then warfare recommenced with -a series of single combats, like those of the Greeks and Trojans in the -“Iliad”. At the end of each day the conquerors on both sides went back -to their camps, and were refreshed by being bathed in healing baths of -medicinal herbs. - -So the fight went on for four days, with terrible slaughter upon each -side. A Fir Bolg champion called Sreng fought in single combat with -Nuada, the King of the Gods, and shore off his hand and half his shield -with one terrific blow. Eochaid, the King of the Fir Bolgs, was even -less fortunate than Nuada; for he lost his life. Suffering terribly from -thirst, he went, with a hundred of his men, to look for water, and was -followed, and pursued as far as the strand of Ballysadare, in Sligo. -Here he turned to bay, but was killed, his grave being still marked by a -tumulus. The Fir Bolgs, reduced at last to three hundred men, demanded -single combat until all upon one side were slain. But, sooner than -consent to this, the Tuatha Dé Danann offered them a fifth part of -Ireland, whichever province they might choose. They agreed, and chose -Connaught, ever afterwards their especial home, and where, until the -middle of the seventeenth century, men were still found tracing their -descent from Sreng. - -The whole story has a singularly historical, curiously unmythological -air about it, which contrasts strangely with the account of the other -battle of the same name which the Tuatha Dé Danann waged afterwards with -the Fomors. The neighbourhood of Cong still preserves both relics and -traditions of the fight. Upon the plain of “Southern Moytura” (as it is -called, to distinguish it from the “Northern Moytura” of the second -battle) are many circles and tumuli. These circles are especially -numerous near the village itself; and it is said that there were -formerly others, which have been used for making walls and dykes. Large -cairns of stones, too, are scattered over what was certainly once the -scene of a great battle.[106] These various prehistoric monuments each -have their still-told story; and Sir William Wilde, as he relates in his -_Lough Corrib_,[107] was so impressed by the unexpected agreement -between the details of the legendary battle, as he read them in the -ancient manuscript, and the traditions still attaching to the mounds, -circles, and cairns, that he tells us he could not help coming to the -conclusion that the account was absolutely historical. Certainly the -coincidences are curious. His opinion was that the “Fir Bolgs” were a -colony of Belgæ, and that the “Tuatha Dé Danann” were Danes. But the -people of the goddess Danu are too obviously mythical to make it worth -while to seek any standing-ground for them in the world of reality. In -their superhuman attributes, they are quite different from the Fir -Bolgs. In the epical cycle it is made as clear that the Tuatha Dé Danann -are divine beings as it is that the Fir Bolg, the Fir Domnann, and the -Fir Gaillion stand on exactly the same footing as the men of Ulster. -Later history records by what Milesian kings and on what terms of -rack-rent the three tribes were allowed settlements in other parts of -Ireland than their native Connaught. They appear in ancient, mediæval, -and almost modern chronicles as the old race of the land. The truth -seems to be that the whole story of the war between the gods and the Fir -Bolgs is an invention of comparatively late times. In the earliest -documents there is only one battle of Moytura, fought between the people -of the goddess Danu and the Fomors. The idea of doubling it seems to -date from after the eleventh century;[108] and its inventor may very -well have used the legends concerning this battle-field, where two -unknown armies had fought in days gone by, in compiling his story. It -never belonged to the same genuine mythological stratum as the legend of -the original battle fought by the Tuatha Dé Danann, the gods of the -Gaels, against the Fomors, the gods of the Iberians. - ------ - -Footnote 95: - - De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique_, chap. V. - -Footnote 96: - - Rhys: “The Mythographical Treatment of Celtic Ethnology”, _Scottish - Review_, Oct. 1890. - -Footnote 97: - - De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique_, chap. V. Rhys: _Hibbert - Lectures_, pp. 90, 91. - -Footnote 98: - - Pronounced _Ecca_ or _Eohee_. - -Footnote 99: - - Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, chap. III—“The Mythic Influence of a - Conquered Race”. - -Footnote 100: - - Elton: _Origins of English History_, note to p. 136. - -Footnote 101: - - It has been contended that the Fenians were originally the gods or - heroes of an aboriginal people in Ireland, the myths about them - representing the pre-Celtic and pre-Aryan ideal, as the sagas of the - Red Branch of Ulster embodied that of the Celtic Aryans. The question, - however, is as yet far from being satisfactorily solved. - -Footnote 102: - - _The Coronation Stone_, by William Forbes Skene. - -Footnote 103: - - See _History and Antiquities of Tara Hill_. - -Footnote 104: - - Our authorities for the details of this war between the Tuatha Dé - Danann and the Fir Bolgs are the opening verses of the Harleian MS. - 5280, as translated by Stokes and De Jubainville, and Eugene O’Curry’s - translations, in his _MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_ and his - _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, from a manuscript - preserved at Trinity College, Dublin. - -Footnote 105: - - Now called Benlevi. - -Footnote 106: - - See Dr. James Fergusson: _Rude Stone Monuments_, pp. 177-180. - -Footnote 107: - - _Lough Corrib, Its Shores and Islands_, by Sir William R. Wilde, chap. - VIII. - -Footnote 108: - - De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, p. 156. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - THE RISE OF THE SUN-GOD[109] - - -It was as a result of the loss of his hand in this battle with the Fir -Bolgs that Nuada got his name of _Argetlám_, that is, the “Silver -Handed”. For Diancecht, the physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann, made him -an artificial hand of silver, so skilfully that it moved in all its -joints, and was as strong and supple as a real one. But, good as it was -of its sort, it was a blemish; and, according to Celtic custom, no -maimed person could sit upon the throne. Nuada was deposed; and the -Tuatha Dé Danann went into council to appoint a new king. - -They agreed that it would be a politic thing for them to conciliate the -Fomors, the giants of the sea, and make an alliance with them. So they -sent a message to Bress, the son of the Fomorian king, Elathan, asking -him to come and rule over them. Bress accepted this offer; and they made -a marriage between him and Brigit, the daughter of the Dagda. At the -same time, Cian[110], the son of Diancecht, the physician of the Tuatha -Dé Danann, married Ethniu, the daughter of the Fomor, Balor. Then Bress -was made king, and endowed with lands and a palace; and he, on his part, -gave hostages that he would abdicate if his rule ever became unpleasing -to those who had elected him. - -But, in spite of all his fair promises, Bress, who belonged in heart to -his own fierce people, began to oppress his subjects with excessive -taxes. He put a tax upon every hearth, upon every kneading-trough, and -upon every quern, as well as a poll-tax of an ounce of gold upon every -member of the Tuatha Dé Danann. By a crafty trick, too, he obtained the -milk of all their cattle. He asked at first only for the produce of any -cows which happened to be brown and hairless, and the people of the -goddess Danu granted him this cheerfully. But Bress passed all the -cattle in Ireland between two fires, so that their hair was singed off, -and thus obtained the monopoly of the main source of food. To earn a -livelihood, all the gods, even the greatest, were now forced to labour -for him. Ogma, their champion, was sent out to collect firewood, while -the Dagda was put to work building forts and castles. - -One day, when the Dagda was at his task, his son, Angus, came to him. -“You have nearly finished that castle,” he said. “What reward do you -intend to ask from Bress when it is done?” The Dagda replied that he had -not yet thought of it. “Let me give you some advice,” said Angus. “Ask -Bress to have all the cattle in Ireland gathered together upon a plain, -so that you can pick out one for yourself. He will consent to that. Then -choose the black-maned heifer called ‘Ocean’.” - -The Dagda finished building the fort, and then went to Bress for his -reward. “What will you have?” asked Bress. “I want all the cattle in -Ireland gathered together upon a plain, so that I may choose one of them -for myself.” Bress did this; and the Dagda took the black-maned heifer -Angus had told him of. The king, who had expected to be asked very much -more, laughed at what he thought was the Dagda’s simplicity. But Angus -had been wise; as will be seen hereafter. - -Meanwhile Bress was infuriating the people of the goddess Danu by adding -avarice to tyranny. It was for kings to be liberal to all-comers, but at -the court of Bress no one ever greased his knife with fat, or made his -breath smell of ale. Nor were there ever any poets or musicians or -jugglers or jesters there to give pleasure to the people; for Bress -would distribute no largess. Next, he cut down the very subsistence of -the gods. So scanty was his allowance of food that they began to grow -weak with famine. Ogma, through feebleness, could only carry one-third -of the wood needed for fuel; so that they suffered from cold as well as -from hunger. - -It was at this crisis that two physicians, Miach, the son, and Airmid, -the daughter, of Diancecht, the god of medicine, came to the castle -where the dispossessed King Nuada lived. Nuada’s porter, blemished, like -himself (for he had lost an eye), was sitting at the gate, and on his -lap was a cat curled up asleep. The porter asked the strangers who they -were. “We are good doctors,” they said. “If that is so,” he replied, -“perhaps you can give me a new eye.” “Certainly,” they said, “we could -take one of the eyes of that cat, and put it in the place where your -lost eye used to be.” “I should be very pleased if you would do that,” -answered the porter, So Miach and Airmid removed one of the cat’s eyes, -and put it in the hollow where the man’s eye had been. - -The story goes on to say that this was not wholly a benefit to him; for -the eye retained its cat’s nature, and, when the man wished to sleep at -nights, the cat’s eye was always looking out for mice, while it could -hardly be kept awake during the day. Nevertheless, he was pleased at the -time, and went and told Nuada, who commanded that the doctors who had -performed this marvellous cure should be brought to him. - -As they came in, they heard the king groaning, for Nuada’s wrist had -festered where the silver hand joined the arm of flesh. Miach asked -where Nuada’s own hand was, and they told him that it had been buried -long ago. But he dug it up, and placed it to Nuada’s stump; he uttered -an incantation over it, saying: “Sinew to sinew, and nerve to nerve be -joined!” and in three days and nights the hand had renewed itself and -fixed itself to the arm, so that Nuada was whole again. - -When Diancecht, Miach’s father, heard of this, he was very angry to -think that his son should have excelled him in the art of medicine. He -sent for him, and struck him upon the head with a sword, cutting the -skin, but not wounding the flesh. Miach easily healed this. So Diancecht -hit him again, this time to the bone. Again Miach cured himself. The -third time his father smote him, the sword went right through the skull -to the membrane of the brain, but even this wound Miach was able to -leech. At the fourth stroke, however, Diancecht cut the brain in two, -and Miach could do nothing for that. He died, and Diancecht buried him. -And upon his grave there grew up three hundred and sixty-five stalks of -grass, each one a cure for any illness of each of the three hundred and -sixty-five nerves in a man’s body. Airmid, Miach’s sister, plucked all -these very carefully, and arranged them on her mantle according to their -properties. But her angry and jealous father overturned the cloak, and -hopelessly confused them. If it had not been for that act, says the -early writer, men would know how to cure every illness, and would so be -immortal. - -The healing of Nuada’s blemish happened just at the time when all the -people of the goddess Danu had at last agreed that the exactions and -tyranny of Bress could no longer be borne. It was the insult he put upon -Cairpré, son of Ogma the god of literature, that caused things to come -to this head. Poets were always held by the Celts in great honour; and -when Cairpré, the bard of the Tuatha Dé Danann, went to visit Bress, he -expected to be treated with much consideration, and fed at the king’s -own table. But, instead of doing so, Bress lodged him in a small, dark -room where there was no fire, no bed, and no furniture except a mean -table on which small cakes of dry bread were put on a little dish for -his food. The next morning, Cairpré rose early and left the palace -without having spoken to Bress. It was the custom of poets when they -left a king’s court to utter a panegyric on their host, but Cairpré -treated Bress instead to a magical satire. It was the first satire ever -made in Ireland, and seems to us to bear upon it all the marks of an -early effort. Roughly rendered, it said: - - “No meat on the plates, - No milk of the cows; - No shelter for the belated; - No money for the minstrels: - May Bress’s cheer be what he gives to others!” - -This satire of Cairpré’s was, we are assured, so virulent that it caused -great red blotches to break out all over Bress’s face. This in itself -constituted a blemish such as should not be upon a king, and the Tuatha -Dé Danann called upon Bress to abdicate and let Nuada take the throne -again. - -Bress was obliged to do so. He went back to the country of the Fomors, -underneath the sea, and complained to his father Elathan, its king, -asking him to gather an army to reconquer his throne. The Fomors -assembled in council—Elathan, Tethra, Balor, Indech, and all the other -warriors and chiefs—and they decided to come with a great host, and take -Ireland away, and put it under the sea where the people of the goddess -Danu would never be able to find it again. - -At the same time, another assembly was also being held at Tara, the -capital of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Nuada was celebrating his return to the -throne by a feast to his people. While it was at its height, a stranger -clothed like a king came to the palace gate. The porter asked him his -name and errand. - -“I am called Lugh,” he said. “I am the grandson of Diancecht by Cian, my -father, and the grandson of Balor by Ethniu, my mother.” - -“But what is your profession?” asked the porter; “for no one is admitted -here unless he is a master of some craft.” - -“I am a carpenter,” said Lugh. - -“We have no need of a carpenter. We already have a very good one; his -name is Luchtainé.” - -“I am an excellent smith,” said Lugh. - -“We do not want a smith. We have a very good one; his name is Goibniu.” - -“I am a professional warrior,” said Lugh. - -“We have no need of one. Ogma is our champion.” - -“I am a harpist,” said Lugh. - -“We have an excellent harpist already.” - -“I am a warrior renowned for skilfulness rather than for mere strength.” - -“We already have a man like that.” - -“I am a poet and tale-teller,” said Lugh. - -“We have no need of such. We have a most accomplished poet and -tale-teller.” - -“I am a sorcerer,” said Lugh. - -“We do not want one. We have numberless sorcerers and druids.” - -“I am a physician,” said Lugh. - -“Diancecht is our physician.” - -“I am a cup-bearer,” said Lugh. - -“We already have nine of them.” - -“I am a worker in bronze.” - -“We have no need of you. We already have a worker in bronze. His name is -Credné.” - -“Then ask the king,” said Lugh, “if he has with him a man who is master -of all these crafts at once, for, if he has, there is no need for me to -come to Tara.” - -So the door-keeper went inside, and told the king that a man had come -who called himself Lugh the _Ioldanach_[111], or the “Master of all -Arts”, and that he claimed to know everything. - -The king sent out his best chess-player to play against the stranger. -Lugh won, inventing a new move called “Lugh’s enclosure”. - -Then Nuada invited him in. Lugh entered, and sat down upon the chair -called the “sage’s seat”, kept for the wisest man. - -Ogma, the champion, was showing off his strength. Upon the floor was a -flagstone so large that fourscore yokes of oxen would have been needed -to move it. Ogma pushed it before him along the hall, and out at the -door. Then Lugh rose from his chair, and pushed it back again. But this -stone, huge as it was, was only a portion broken from a still greater -rock outside the palace. Lugh picked it up, and put it back into its -place. - -The Tuatha Dé Danann asked him to play the harp to them. So he played -the “sleep-tune”, and the king and all his court fell asleep, and did -not wake until the same hour of the following day. Next he played a -plaintive air, and they all wept. Lastly, he played a measure which sent -them into transports of joy. - -When Nuada had seen all these numerous talents of Lugh, he began to -wonder whether one so gifted would not be of great help against the -Fomors. He took counsel with the others, and, by their advice, lent his -throne to Lugh for thirteen days, taking the “sage’s seat” at his side. - -Lugh summoned all the Tuatha Dé Danann to a council. - -“The Fomors are certainly going to make war on us,” he said. “What can -each of you do to help?” - -Diancecht the Physician said: “I will completely cure everyone who is -wounded, provided his head is not cut off, or his brain or spinal marrow -hurt.” - -“I,” said Goibniu the Smith, “will replace every broken lance and sword -with a new one, even though the war last seven years. And I will make -the lances so well that they shall never miss their mark, or fail to -kill. Dulb, the smith of the Fomors, cannot do as much as that. The fate -of the fighting will be decided by my lances.” - -“And I,” said Credné the Bronze-worker, “will furnish all the rivets for -the lances, the hilts for the swords, and the rims and bosses for the -shields.” - -“And I,” said Luchtainé the Carpenter, “will provide all the shields and -lance-shafts.” - -Ogma the Champion promised to kill the King of the Fomors, with thrice -nine of his followers, and to capture one-third of his army. - -“And you, O Dagda,” said Lugh, “what will you do?” - -“I will fight,” said the Dagda, “both with force and craft. Wherever the -two armies meet, I will crush the bones of the Fomors with my club, till -they are like hailstones under a horse’s feet.” - -“And you, O Morrígú?” said Lugh. - -“I will pursue them when they flee,” she replied. “And I always catch -what I chase.” - -“And you, O Cairpré, son of Etan?” said Lugh to the poet, “what can you -do?” - -“I will pronounce an immediately-effective curse upon them; by one of my -satires I will take away all their honour, and, enchanted by me, they -shall not be able to stand against our warriors.” - -“And ye, O sorcerers, what will ye do?” - -“We will hurl by our magic arts,” replied Mathgan, the head sorcerer, -“the twelve mountains of Ireland at the Fomors. These mountains will be -Slieve League, Denna Ulad, the Mourne Mountains, Bri Ruri, Slieve Bloom, -Slieve Snechta, Slemish, Blai-Sliab, Nephin, Sliab Maccu Belgodon, -Segais[112], and Cruachan Aigle[113]”. - -Then Lugh asked the cup-bearers what they would do. - -“We will hide away by magic,” they said, “the twelve chief lakes and the -twelve chief rivers of Ireland from the Fomors, so that they shall not -be able to find any water, however thirsty they may be; those waters -will conceal themselves from the Fomors so that they shall not get a -drop, while they will give drink to the people of the goddess Danu as -long as the war lasts, even if it last seven years.” And they told Lugh -that the twelve chief lakes were Lough Derg, Lough Luimnigh[114], Lough -Corrib, Lough Ree, Lough Mask, Strangford Lough, Lough Læig, Lough -Neagh, Lough Foyle, Lough Gara, Lough Reagh, and Márloch, and that the -twelve chief rivers were the Bush, the Boyne, the Bann, the Nem, the -Lee, the Shannon, the Moy, the Sligo, the Erne, the Finn, the Liffey, -and the Suir. - -Finally, the Druid, Figol, son of Mamos, said: “I will send three -streams of fire into the faces of the Fomors, and I will take away -two-thirds of their valour and strength, but every breath drawn by the -people of the goddess Danu will only make them more valorous and strong, -so that even if the fighting lasts seven years, they will not be weary -of it.” - -All decided to make ready for a war, and to give the direction of it to -Lugh. - ------ - -Footnote 109: - - The principal sources of information for this chapter are the Harleian - MS. 5280 entitled _The Second Battle of Moytura_, of which - translations have been made by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the _Revue - Celtique_ and M. de Jubainville in his _L’Épopée Celtique en Irlande_, - and Eugene O’Curry’s translation in Vol. IV. of _Atlantis_ of the - _Fate of the Children of Tuirenn_. - -Footnote 110: - - Pronounced _Kian_. - -Footnote 111: - - Pronounced _Ildāna_. - -Footnote 112: - - The Curlieu Hills, between Roscommon and Sligo. - -Footnote 113: - - Croagh Patrick. - -Footnote 114: - - The estuary of the Shannon. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE GAELIC ARGONAUTS - - -The preparations for this war are said to have lasted seven years. It -was during the interval that there befel an episode which might almost -be called the “Argonautica” of the Gaelic mythology.[115] - -In spite of the dethronement of Bress, the Fomors still claimed their -annual tribute from the tribe of the goddess Danu, and sent their -tax-gatherers, nine times nine in number, to “Balor’s Hill” to collect -it. But, while they waited for the gods to come to tender their -submission and their subsidy, they saw a young man approaching them. He -was riding upon “Splendid Mane”, the horse of Manannán son of Lêr, and -was dressed in Manannán’s breastplate and helmet, through which no -weapon could wound their wearer, and he was armed with sword and shield -and poisoned darts. “Like to the setting sun”, says the story, “was the -splendour of his countenance and his forehead, and they were not able to -look in his face for the greatness of his splendour.” And no wonder! for -he was Lugh the Far-shooter, the new-come sun-god of the Gaels. He fell -upon the Fomorian tax-gatherers, killing all but nine of them, and these -he only spared that they might go back to their kinsmen and tell how the -gods had received them. - -There was consternation in the under-sea country. “Who can this terrible -warrior be?” asked Balor. “I know,” said Balor’s wife; “he must be the -son of our daughter Ethniu; and I foretell that, since he has cast in -his lot with his father’s people, we shall never bear rule in Erin -again.” - -The chiefs of the Fomors saw that this slaughter of their tax-gatherers -signified that the Tuatha Dé Danann meant fighting. They held a council -to debate on it. There came to it Elathan and Tethra and Indech, kings -of the Fomors; Bress himself, and Balor of the stout blows; Cethlenn the -crooked tooth, Balor’s wife; Balor’s twelve white-mouthed sons; and all -the chief Fomorian warriors and druids. - -Meanwhile, upon earth, Lugh was sending messengers all over Erin to -assemble the Tuatha Dé Danann. Upon this errand went Lugh’s father Cian, -who seems to have been a kind of lesser solar deity,[116] son of -Diancecht, the god of medicine. As Cian was going over the plain of -Muirthemne,[117] he saw three armed warriors approaching him, and, when -they got nearer, he recognized them as the three sons of Tuirenn, son of -Ogma, whose names were Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba. Between these three -and Cian, with his brothers Cethé and Cu, there was, for some reason, a -private enmity. Cian saw that he was now at a disadvantage. “If my -brothers were with me,” he said to himself, “what a fight we would make; -but, as I am alone, it will be best for me to conceal myself.” Looking -round, he saw a herd of pigs feeding on the plain. Like all the gods, he -had the faculty of shape-shifting; so, striking himself with a magic -wand, he changed himself into a pig, joined the herd, and began feeding -with them. - -But he had been seen by the sons of Tuirenn. “What has become of the -warrior who was walking on the plain a moment ago?” said Brian to his -brothers. “We saw him then,” they replied, “but we do not know where he -is now.” “Then you have not used the proper vigilance which is needed in -time of war,” said the elder brother. “However, I know what has become -of him. He has struck himself with a druidical wand, and changed himself -into a pig, and there he is, in that herd, rooting up the ground, just -like all the other pigs. I can also tell you who he is. His name is -Cian, and you know that he is no friend of ours.” - -“It is a pity that he has taken refuge among the pigs,” they replied, -“for they belong to some one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and, even if we -were to kill them all, Cian might still escape us.” - -Again Brian reproached his brothers. “You are very ignorant,” he said, -“if you cannot distinguish a magical beast from a natural beast. -However, I will show you.” And thereupon he struck his two brothers with -his own wand of shape-changing, and turned them into two swift, slender -hounds, and set them upon the pigs. - -The magic hounds soon found the magic pig, and drove it out of the herd -on to the open plain. Then Brian threw his spear, and hit it. The -wounded pig came to a stop. “It was an evil deed of yours, casting that -spear,” it cried, in a human voice, “for I am not a pig, but Cian, son -of Diancecht. So give me quarter.” - -Iuchar and Iucharba would have granted it, and let him go; but their -fiercer brother swore that Cian should be put an end to, even if he came -back to life seven times. So Cian tried a fresh ruse. “Give me leave”, -he asked, “only to return to my own shape before you slay me.” “Gladly,” -replied Brian, “for I would much rather kill a man than a pig.” - -So Cian spoke the befitting spell, cast off his pig’s disguise, and -stood before them in his own shape. “You will be obliged to spare my -life now,” he said. “We will not,” replied Brian. “Then it will be the -worst day’s work for all of you that you ever did in your lives,” he -answered; “for, if you had killed me in the shape of a pig, you would -only have had to pay the value of a pig, but if you kill me now, I tell -you that there never has been, and there never will be, anyone killed in -this world for whose death a greater blood-fine will be exacted than for -mine.” - -But the sons of Tuirenn would not listen to him. They slew him, and -pounded his body with stones until it was a crushed mass. Six times they -tried to bury him, and the earth cast him back in horror; but, the -seventh time, the mould held him, and they put stones upon him to keep -him down. They left him buried there, and went to Tara. - -Meanwhile Lugh had been expecting his father’s return. As he did not -come, he determined to go and look for him. He traced him to the Plain -of Muirthemne, and there he was at fault. But the indignant earth -itself, which had witnessed the murder, spoke to Lugh, and told him -everything. So Lugh dug up his father’s corpse, and made certain how he -had come to his death; then he mourned over him, and laid him back in -the earth, and heaped a barrow over him, and set up a pillar with his -name on it in “ogam”.[118] - -He went back to Tara, and entered the great hall. It was filled with the -people of the goddess Danu, and among them Lugh saw the three sons of -Tuirenn. So he shook the “chiefs’ chain”, with which the Gaels used to -ask for a hearing in an assembly, and when all were silent, he said: - -“People of the goddess Danu, I ask you a question. What would be the -vengeance that any of you would take upon one who had murdered his -father?” - -A great astonishment fell upon them, and Nuada, their king, said: -“Surely it is not your father that has been murdered?” - -“It is,” replied Lugh. “And I am looking at those who murdered him; and -they know how they did it better than I do.” - -Then Nuada declared that nothing short of hewing the murderer of his -father limb from limb would satisfy him, and all the others said the -same, including the sons of Tuirenn. - -“The very ones who did the deed say that,” cried Lugh. “Then let them -not leave the hall till they have settled with me about the blood-fine -to be paid for it.” - -“If it was I who had killed your father,” said the king, “I should think -myself lucky if you were willing to accept a fine instead of vengeance.” - -The sons of Tuirenn took counsel together in whispers. Iuchar and -Iucharba were in favour of admitting their guilt, but Brian was afraid -that, if they confessed, Lugh would withdraw his offer to accept a fine, -and would demand their deaths. So he stood out, and said that, though it -was not they who had killed Cian, yet, sooner than remain under Lugh’s -anger, as he suspected them, they would pay the same fine as if they -had. - -“Certainly you shall pay the fine,” said Lugh, “and I will tell you what -it shall be. It is this: three apples; and a pig’s-skin; and a spear; -and two horses and a chariot; and seven pigs; and a hound-whelp; and a -cooking-spit; and three shouts on a hill: that is the fine, and, if you -think it is too much, I will remit some of it, but, if you do not think -it is too much, then pay it.” - -“If it were a hundred times that,” replied Brian, “we should not think -it too much. Indeed, it seems so little that I fear there must be some -treachery concealed in it.” - -“I do not think it too little,” replied Lugh. “Give me your pledge -before the people of the goddess Danu that you will pay it faithfully, -and I will give you mine that I will ask no more.” - -So the sons of Tuirenn bound themselves before the Tuatha Dé Danann to -pay the fine to Lugh. - -When they had sworn, and given sureties, Lugh turned to them again. “I -will now”, he said, “explain to you the nature of the fine you have -pledged yourselves to pay me, so that you may know whether it is too -little or not.” And, with foreboding hearts, the sons of Tuirenn set -themselves to listen. - -“The three apples that I have demanded,” he began, “are three apples -from the Garden of the Hesperides, in the east of the world. You will -know them by three signs. They are the size of the head of a month-old -child, they are of the colour of burnished gold, and they taste of -honey. Wounds are healed and diseases cured by eating them, and they do -not diminish in any way by being eaten. Whoever casts one of them hits -anything he wishes, and then it comes back into his hand. I will accept -no other apples instead of these. Their owners keep them perpetually -guarded because of a prophecy that three young warriors from the west of -the world will come to take them by force, and, brave as you may be, I -do not think that you will ever get them. - -“The pig’s-skin that I have demanded is the pig’s-skin of Tuis, King of -Greece. It has two virtues: its touch perfectly cures all wounded or -sick persons if only there is any life still left in them; and every -stream of water through which it passes is turned into wine for nine -days. I do not think that you will get it from the King of Greece, -either with his consent or without it. - -“And can you guess what spear it is that I have demanded?” asked Lugh. -“We cannot,” they said. “It is the poisoned spear of Pisear[119], King -of Persia; it is irresistible in battle; it is so fiery that its blade -must always be held under water, lest it destroy the city in which it is -kept. You will find it very difficult to obtain. - -“And the two horses and the chariot are the two wonderful horses of -Dobhar[120], King of Sicily, which run equally well over land and sea; -there are no other horses in the world like them, and no other vehicle -equal to the chariot. - -“And the seven pigs are the pigs of Easal[121], King of the Golden -Pillars; though they may be killed every night, they are found alive -again the next day, and every person that eats part of them can never be -afflicted with any disease. - -“And the hound-whelp I claim is the hound-whelp of the King of -Ioruaidhe[122]; her name is Failinis; every wild beast she sees she -catches at once. It will not be easy for you to secure her. - -“The cooking-spit which you must get for me is one of the cooking-spits -of the women of the Island of Fianchuivé[123], which is at the bottom of -the sea, between Erin and Alba. - -“You have also pledged yourselves to give three shouts upon a hill. The -hill upon which they must be given is the hill called Cnoc -Miodhchaoin[124], in the north of Lochlann[125]. Miodhchaoin and his -sons do not allow shouts to be given on that hill; besides this, it was -they who gave my father his military education, and, even if I were to -forgive you, they would not; so that, though you achieve all the other -adventures, I think that you will fail in this one. - -“Now you know what sort of a fine it is that you have bargained to pay -me,” said Lugh. - -And fear and astonishment fell upon the sons of Tuirenn. - -This tale is evidently the work of some ancient Irish story-teller who -wished to compile from various sources a more or less complete account -of how the Gaelic gods obtained their legendary possessions. The spear -of Pisear, King of Persia, is obviously the same weapon as the lance of -Lugh, which another tradition describes as having been brought by the -Tuatha Dé Danann from their original home in the city of Gorias;[126] -Failinis, the whelp of the King of Ioruaidhe, is Lugh’s “hound of -mightiest deeds”, which was irresistible in battle, and which turned any -running water it bathed in into wine,[127] a property here transferred -to the magic pig’s-skin of King Tuis: the seven swine of the King of the -Golden Pillars must be the same undying porkers from whose flesh -Manannán mac Lir made the “Feast of Age” which preserved the eternal -youth of the gods;[128] it was with horses and chariot that ran along -the surface of the sea that Manannán used to journey to and fro between -Erin and the Celtic Elysium in the West;[129] the apples that grew in -the Garden of the Hesperides were surely of the same celestial growth as -those that fed the inhabitants of that immortal country;[130] while the -cooking-spit reminds us of three such implements at Tara, made by -Goibniu and associated with the names of the Dagda and the Morrígú.[131] - -The burden of collecting all these treasures was placed upon the -shoulders of the three sons of Tuirenn. - -They consulted together, and agreed that they could never hope to -succeed unless they had Manannán’s magic horse, “Splendid Mane”, and -Manannán’s magic coracle, “Wave-sweeper”. But both these had been lent -by Manannán to Lugh himself. So the sons of Tuirenn were obliged to -humble themselves to beg them from Lugh. The sun-god would not lend them -the horse, for fear of making their task too easy, but he let them have -the boat, because he knew how much the spear of Pisear and the horses of -Dobhar would be needed in the coming war with the Fomors. They bade -farewell to their father, and went down to the shore and put out to sea, -taking their sister with them. - -“Which portion of the fine shall we seek first?” said the others to -Brian. “We will seek them in the order in which they were demanded,” he -replied. So they directed the magic boat to sail to the Garden of the -Hesperides, and presently they arrived there. - -They landed at a harbour, and held a council of war. It was decided that -their best chance of obtaining three of the apples would be by taking -the shapes of hawks. Thus they would have strength enough in their claws -to carry the apples away, together with sufficient quickness upon the -wing to hope to escape the arrows, darts, and sling-stones which would -be shot and hurled at them by the warders of the garden. - -They swooped down upon the orchard from above. It was done so swiftly -that they carried off the three apples, unhit either by shaft or stone. -But their difficulties were not yet over. The king of the country had -three daughters who were well skilled in witchcraft. By sorcery they -changed themselves into three ospreys, and pursued the three hawks. But -the sons of Tuirenn reached the shore first, and, changing themselves -into swans, dived into the sea. They came up close to their coracle, and -got into it, and sailed swiftly away with the spoil. - -Thus their first quest was finished, and they voyaged on to Greece, to -seek the pig’s-skin of King Tuis. No one could go without some excuse -into a king’s court, so they decided to disguise themselves as poets, -and to tell the door-keeper that they were professional bards from Erin, -seeking largess at the hands of kings. The porter let them into the -great hall, where the poets of Greece were singing before the king. - -When those had all finished, Brian rose, and asked permission to show -his art. This was accorded; and he sang: - - “O Tuis, we conceal not thy fame. - We praise thee as the oak above the kings; - The skin of a pig, bounty without hardness! - This is the reward which I ask for it. - - “A stormy host and raging sea - Are a dangerous power, should one oppose it. - The skin of a pig, bounty without hardness! - This is the reward I ask, O Tuis.” - -“That is a good poem,” said the king, “only I do not understand it.” - -“I will explain it,” said Brian. “‘_We praise thee as the oak above the -kings_’; this means that, as the oak excels all other trees, so do you -excel all other kings in nobility and generosity. ‘_The skin of a pig, -bounty without hardness_’; that is a pig’s-skin which you have, O Tuis, -and which I should like to receive as the reward of my poem. ‘_A stormy -host and raging sea are a dangerous power, should one oppose it_’; this -means to say, that we are not used to going without anything on which we -have set our hearts, O Tuis.” - -“I should have liked your poem better,” replied the king, “if my -pig’s-skin had not been mentioned in it. It was not a wise thing for you -to have done, O poet. But I will measure three fills of red gold out of -the skin, and you shall have those.” - -“May all good be thine, O King!” answered Brian. “I knew that I should -get a noble reward.” - -So the king sent for the pig’s-skin to measure out the gold with. But, -as soon as Brian saw it, he seized it with his left hand, and slew the -man who was holding it, and Iuchar and Iucharba also hacked about them; -and they cut their way down to the boat, leaving the King of Greece -among the dead behind them. - -“And now we will go and get King Pisear’s spear,” said Brian. So, -leaving Greece, they sailed in their coracle to Persia. - -Their plan of disguising themselves as poets had served them so well -that they decided to make use of it again. So they went into the King of -Persia’s hall in the same way as they had entered that of the King of -Greece. Brian first listened to the poets of Persia singing; then he -sang his own song: - - “Small the esteem of any spear with Pisear; - The battles of foes are broken; - No oppression to Pisear; - Everyone whom he wounds. - - “A yew-tree, the finest of the wood, - It is called King without opposition. - May that splendid shaft drive on - Yon crowd into their wounds of death.” - -“That is a good poem, O man of Erin,” said the king, “but why is my -spear mentioned in it?” - -“The meaning is this,” replied Brian: “I should like to receive that -spear as a reward for my poem.” - -“You make a rash request,” said the king. “If I spare your life after -having heard it, it will be a sufficient reward for your poem.” - -Brian had one of the magic apples in his hand, and he remembered its -boomerang-like quality. He hurled it full in the King of Persia’s face, -dashing out his brains. The Persians flew to arms, but the three sons of -Tuirenn conquered them, and made them yield up the spear. - -They had now to travel to Sicily, to obtain the horses and chariot of -King Dobhar. But they were afraid to go as poets this time, for fear the -fame of their deeds might have got abroad. They therefore decided to -pretend to be mercenary soldiers from Erin, and offer the King of Sicily -their service. This, they thought, would be the easiest way of finding -out where the horses and the chariot were kept. So they went and stood -on the green before the royal court. - -When the King of Sicily heard that there had come mercenaries from Erin, -seeking wages from the kings of the world, he invited them to take -service with him. They agreed; but, though they stayed with him a -fortnight and a month, they never saw the horses, or even found out -where they were kept. So they went to the king, and announced that they -wished to leave him. - -“Why?” he asked, for he did not want them to go. - -“We will tell you, O King!” replied Brian. “It is because we have not -been honoured with your confidence, as we have been accustomed with -other kings. You have two horses and a chariot, the best in the world, -and we have not even been allowed to see them.” - -“I would have shown them to you on the first day if you had asked me,” -said the king; “and you shall see them at once, for I have seldom had -warriors with me so good as you are, and I do not wish you to leave me.” - -So he sent for the steeds, and had them yoked to the chariot, and the -sons of Tuirenn were witnesses of their marvellous speed, and how they -could run equally well over land or water. - -Brian made a sign to his brothers, and they watched their opportunity -carefully, and, as the chariot passed close beside them, Brian leaped -into it, hurling its driver over the side. Then, turning the horses, he -struck King Dobhar with Pisear’s spear, and killed him. He took his two -brothers up into the chariot and they drove away. - -By the time the sons of Tuirenn reached the country of Easal, King of -the Pillars of Gold, rumour had gone before them. The king came down to -the harbour to meet them, and asked them if it were really true that so -many kings had fallen at their hands. They replied that it was true, but -that they had no quarrel with any of them; only they must obtain at all -costs the fine demanded by Lugh. Then Easal asked them why they had come -to his land, and they told him that they needed his seven pigs to add to -the tribute. So Easal thought it better to give them up, and to make -friends with the three sons of Tuirenn, than to fight with such -warriors. The sons of Tuirenn were very glad at this, for they were -growing weary of battles. - -It happened that the King of Ioruaidhe, who had the hound-whelp that -Lugh had demanded, was the husband of King Easal’s daughter. Therefore -King Easal did not wish that there should be fighting between him and -the three sons of Tuirenn. He proposed to Brian and his brothers that he -should sail with them to Ioruaidhe, and try to persuade the king of the -country to give up the hound-whelp peacefully. They consented, and all -set foot safely on the “delightful, wonderful shores of Ioruaidhe”,[132] -as the manuscript calls them. But King Easal’s son-in-law would not -listen to reason. He assembled his warriors, and fought; but the sons of -Tuirenn defeated them, and compelled their king to yield up the -hound-whelp as the ransom for his life. - -All these quests had been upon the earth, but the next was harder. No -coracle, not even Manannán’s “Wave-sweeper”, could penetrate to the -Island of Fianchuivé, in the depths of the sea that severs Erin from -Alba. So Brian left his brothers, and put on his “water-dress, with his -transparency of glass upon his head”—evidently an ancient Irish -anticipation of the modern diver’s dress. Thus equipped, he explored the -bottom of the sea for fourteen days before he found the island. But when -at last he reached it, and entered the hall of its queen, she and her -sea-maidens were so amazed at Brian’s hardihood in having penetrated to -their kingdom that they presented him with the cooking-spit, and sent -him back safe. - -By this time, Lugh had found out by his magic arts that the sons of -Tuirenn had obtained all the treasures he had demanded as the -blood-fine. He desired to get them safely into his own custody before -his victims went to give their three shouts upon Miodhchaoin’s Hill. He -therefore wove a druidical spell round them, so that they forgot the -rest of their task altogether, and sailed back to Erin. They searched -for Lugh, to give him the things, but he had gone away, leaving word -that they were to be handed over to Nuada, the Tuatha Dé Danann king. As -soon as they were in safe-keeping, Lugh came back to Tara and found the -sons of Tuirenn there. And he said to them: - -“Do you not know that it is unlawful to keep back any part of a -blood-fine? So have you given those three shouts upon Miodhchaoin’s -Hill?” - -Then the magic mist of forgetfulness fell from them, and they -remembered. Sorrowfully they went back to complete their task. - -Miodhchaoin[133] himself was watching for them, and, when he saw them -land, he came down to the beach. Brian attacked him, and they fought -with the swiftness of two bears and the ferocity of two lions until -Miodhchaoin fell. - -Then Miodhchaoin’s three sons—Corc, Conn, and Aedh—came out to avenge -their father, and they drove their spears through the bodies of the -three sons of Tuirenn. But the three sons of Tuirenn also drove their -spears through the bodies of the three sons of Miodhchaoin. - -The three sons of Miodhchaoin were killed, and the three sons of Tuirenn -were so sorely wounded that birds might have flown through their bodies -from one side to the other. Nevertheless Brian was still able to stand -upright, and he held his two brothers, one in each hand, and kept them -on their feet, and, all together, they gave three faint, feeble shouts. - -Their coracle bore them, still living, to Erin. They sent their father -Tuirenn as a suppliant to Lugh, begging him to lend them the magic -pig’s-skin to heal their wounds. - -But Lugh would not, for he had counted upon their fight with the sons of -Miodhchaoin to avenge his father Cian’s death. So the children of -Tuirenn resigned themselves to die, and their father made a farewell -song over them and over himself, and died with them. - -Thus ends that famous tale—“The Fate of the Sons of Tuirenn”, known as -one of the “Three Sorrowful Stories of Erin”.[134] - ------ - -Footnote 115: - - This story of the _Fate of the Children of Tuirenn_ is mentioned in - the ninth-century “Cormac’s Glossary”. It is found in various Irish - and Scottish MSS., including the Book of Lecan. The present re-telling - is from Eugene O’Curry’s translation, published in _Atlantis_, Vol. - IV. - -Footnote 116: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 390-396. - -Footnote 117: - - A part of County Louth, between the Boyne and Dundalk. The heroic - cycle connects it especially with Cuchulainn. Pronounced _Mŭrthemna_ - or _Mŭrhevna_. - -Footnote 118: - - There is known to have been a hill called Ard Chein (Cian’s Mound) in - the district of Muirthemne, and O’Curry identifies it tentatively with - one now called Dromslian. - -Footnote 119: - - Pronounced _Pēzar_. - -Footnote 120: - - Pronounced _Dobar_. - -Footnote 121: - - Pronounced _Asal_. - -Footnote 122: - - Pronounced _Irōda_. - -Footnote 123: - - Pronounced _Fincāra_. - -Footnote 124: - - The _Hill_ (cnoc) _of Midkēna_. - -Footnote 125: - - A mythical country inhabited by Fomors. - -Footnote 126: - - See chap. VI—“The Gods Arrive”. - -Footnote 127: - - _Ibid._ - -Footnote 128: - - See chap. VI—“The Gods Arrive”. - -Footnote 129: - - See chap. XI—“The Gods in Exile”. - -Footnote 130: - - _Ibid._ - -Footnote 131: - - Petrie: _Hist. and Antiq. of Tara Hill_. - -Footnote 132: - - The country seems to have been identified with Norway or Iceland. - -Footnote 133: - - Pronounced _Midkēna_. - -Footnote 134: - - The other two are “The Fate of the Children of Lêr”, told in chap. XI, - and “The Fate of the Sons of Usnach”, an episode of the Heroic Cycle, - related in chap. XIII. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE WAR WITH THE GIANTS[135] - - -By this time the seven years of preparation had come to an end. A week -before the Day of Samhain, the Morrígú discovered that the Fomors had -landed upon Erin. She at once sent a messenger to tell the Dagda, who -ordered his druids and sorcerers to go to the ford of the River Unius, -in Sligo, and utter incantations against them. - -The people of the goddess Danu, however, were not yet quite ready for -battle. So the Dagda decided to visit the Fomorian camp as an -ambassador, and, by parleying with them, to gain a little more time. The -Fomors received him with apparent courtesy, and, to celebrate his -coming, prepared him a feast of porridge; for it was well-known how fond -he was of such food. They poured into their king’s cauldron, which was -as deep as five giant’s fists, fourscore gallons of new milk, with meal -and bacon in proportion. To this they added the whole carcasses of -goats, sheep, and pigs; they boiled the mixture together, and poured it -into a hole in the ground. “Now,” said they, “if you do not eat it all, -we shall put you to death, for we will not have you go back to your own -people and say that the Fomors are inhospitable.” But they did not -succeed in frightening the Dagda. He took his spoon, which was so large -that two persons of our puny size might have reclined comfortably in the -middle of it, dipped it into the porridge, and fished up halves of -salted pork and quarters of bacon. - -“If it tastes as good as it smells,” he said, “it is good fare.” And so -it proved; for he ate it all, and scraped up even what remained at the -bottom of the hole. Then he went away to sleep it off, followed by the -laughter of the Fomors; for his stomach was so swollen with food that he -could hardly walk. It was larger than the biggest cauldron in a large -house, and stood out like a sail before the wind. - -But the Fomors’ little practical joke upon the Dagda had given the -Tuatha Dé Danann time to collect their forces. It was on the eve of -Samhain that the two armies came face to face. Even then the Fomors -could not believe that the people of the goddess Danu would offer them -much resistance. - -“Do you think they will really dare to give us battle?” said Bress to -Indech, the son of Domnu. “If they do not pay their tribute, we will -pound their bones for them,” he replied. - -The war of gods and giants naturally mirrored the warfare of the Gaels, -in whose battles, as in those of most semi-barbarous people, single -combat figured largely. The main armies stood still, while, every day, -duels took place between ambitious combatants. But no great warriors -either of the Tuatha Dé Danann or of the Fomors took part in them. - -Sometimes a god, sometimes a giant would be the victor; but there was a -difference in the net results that astonished the Fomors. If their own -swords and lances were broken, they were of no more use, and if their -own champions were killed, they never came back to life again; but it -was quite otherwise with the people of the goddess Danu. Weapons -shattered on one day re-appeared upon the next in as good condition as -though they had never been used, and warriors slain on one day came back -upon the morrow unhurt, and ready, if necessary, to be killed again. - -The Fomors decided to send someone to discover the secret of these -prodigies. The spy they chose was Ruadan, the son of Bress and of -Brigit, daughter of the Dagda, and therefore half-giant and half-god. He -disguised himself as a Tuatha Dé Danann warrior, and went to look for -Goibniu. He found him at his forge, together with Luchtainé, the -carpenter, and Credné, the bronze-worker. He saw how Goibniu forged -lance-heads with three blows of his hammer, while Luchtainé cut shafts -for them with three blows of his axe, and Credné fixed the two parts -together so adroitly that his bronze nails needed no hammering in. He -went back and told the Fomors, who sent him again, this time to try and -kill Goibniu. - -He reappeared at the forge, and asked for a javelin. Without suspicion, -Goibniu gave him one, and, as soon as he got it into his hand, he thrust -it through the smith’s body. But Goibniu plucked it out, and, hurling it -back at his assailant, mortally wounded him. Ruadan went home to die, -and his father Bress and his mother Brigit mourned for him, inventing -for the purpose the Irish “keening”. Goibniu, on the other hand, took no -harm. He went to the physician Diancecht, who, with his daughter Airmid, -was always on duty at a miraculous well called the “spring of health”. -Whenever one of the Tuatha Dé Danann was killed or wounded, he was -brought to the two doctors, who plunged him into the wonder-working -water, and brought him back to life and health again. - -The mystic spring was not long, however, allowed to help the people of -the goddess. A young Fomorian chief, Octriallach son of Indech, found it -out. He and a number of his companions went to it by night, each -carrying a large stone from the bed of the River Drowes. These they -dropped into the spring, until they had filled it, dispersed the healing -water, and formed a cairn above it. Legend has identified this place by -the name of the “Cairn of Octriallach”. - -This success determined the Fomors to fight a pitched battle. They drew -out their army in line. There was not a warrior in it who had not a coat -of mail and a helmet, a stout spear, a strong buckler, and a heavy -sword. “Fighting the Fomors on that day”, says the old author, “could -only be compared to one of three things—beating one’s head against a -rock, or plunging it into a fire, or putting one’s hand into a serpent’s -nest.” - -All the great fighters of the Tuatha Dé Danann were drawn out opposite -to them, except Lugh. A council of the gods had decided that his varied -accomplishments made his life too valuable to be risked in battle. They -had, therefore, left him behind, guarded by nine warriors. But, at the -last moment, Lugh escaped from his warders, and appeared in his chariot -before the army. He made them a patriotic speech. “Fight bravely,” he -said, “that your servitude may last no longer; it is better to face -death than to live in vassalage and pay tribute.” With these encouraging -words, he drove round the ranks, standing on tiptoe, so that all the -Tuatha Dé Danann might see him. - -The Fomors saw him too, and marvelled. “It seems wonderful to me,”[136] -said Bress to his druids, “that the sun should rise in the west to-day -and in the east every other day.” “It would be better for us if it were -so,” replied the druids. “What else can it be, then?” asked Bress. “It -is the radiance of the face of Lugh of the Long Arms,” said they. - -Then the two armies charged each other with a great shout. Spears and -lances smote against shields, and so great was the shouting of the -fighters, the shattering of shields, the clattering of swords, the -rattling of quivers, and the whistling of darts and javelins that it -seemed as if thunder rolled everywhere. - -They fought so closely that the heads, hands, and feet of those on one -side were touching the heads, hands, and feet of those on the other -side; they shed so much blood on to the ground that it became hard to -stand on it without slipping; and the river of Unsenn was filled with -dead bodies, so hard and swift and bloody and cruel was the battle. - -Many great chiefs fell on each side. Ogma, the champion of the Tuatha Dé -Danann, killed Indech, the son of the goddess Domnu. But, meanwhile, -Balor of the Mighty Blows raged among the gods, slaying their king, -Nuada of the Silver Hand, as well as Macha, one of his warlike wives. At -last he met with Lugh. The sun-god shouted a challenge to his -grandfather in the Fomorian speech. Balor heard it, and prepared to use -his death-dealing eye. - -“Lift up my eyelid,” he said to his henchmen, “that I may see this -chatterer who talks to me.” - -The attendants lifted Balor’s eye with a hook, and if the glance of the -eye beneath had rested upon Lugh, he would certainly have perished. But, -when it was half opened, Lugh flung a magic stone which struck Balor’s -eye out through the back of his head. The eye fell on the ground behind -Balor, and destroyed a whole rank of thrice nine Fomors who were unlucky -enough to be within sight of it. - -An ancient poem has handed down the secret of this magic stone. It is -there called a _tathlum_, meaning a “concrete ball” such as the ancient -Irish warriors used sometimes to make out of the brains of dead enemies -hardened with lime. - - “A tathlum, heavy, fiery, firm, - Which the Tuatha Dé Danann had with them, - It was that broke the fierce Balor’s eye, - Of old, in the battle of the great armies. - - “The blood of toads and furious bears, - And the blood of the noble lion, - The blood of vipers and of Osmuinn’s trunks;— - It was of these the tathlum was composed. - - “The sand of the swift Armorian sea, - And the sand of the teeming Red Sea;— - All these, being first purified, were used - In the composition of the tathlum. - - “Briun, the son of Bethar, no mean warrior, - Who on the ocean’s eastern border reigned;— - It was he that fused, and smoothly formed, - It was he that fashioned the tathlum. - - “To the hero Lugh was given - This concrete ball,—no soft missile;— - In Mag Tuireadh of shrieking wails, - From his hand he threw the tathlum.”[137] - -This blinding of the terrible Balor turned the fortunes of the fight; -for the Fomors wavered, and the Morrígú came and encouraged the people -of the goddess Danu with a song, beginning “Kings arise to the battle”, -so that they took fresh heart, and drove the Fomors headlong back to -their country underneath the sea. - -Such was the battle which is called in Irish _Mag Tuireadh na -b-Fomorach_, that is to say, the “Plain of the Towers of the Fomors”, -and, more popularly, the “Battle of Moytura the Northern”, to -distinguish it from the other Battle of Moytura fought by the Tuatha Dé -Danann against the Fir Bolgs farther to the south. More of the Fomors -were killed in it, says the ancient manuscript, than there are stars in -the sky, grains of sand on the sea-shore, snow-flakes in winter, drops -of dew upon the meadows in spring-time, hailstones during a storm, -blades of grass trodden under horses’ feet, or Manannán son of Lêr’s -white horses, the waves of the sea, when a tempest breaks. The “towers” -or pillars said to mark the graves of the combatants still stand upon -the plain of Carrowmore, near Sligo, and form, in the opinion of Dr. -Petrie, the finest collection of prehistoric monuments in the world, -with the sole exception of Carnac, in Brittany.[138] Megalithic -structures of almost every kind are found among them—stone cairns with -dolmens in their interiors, dolmens standing open and alone, dolmens -surrounded by one, two, or three circles of stones, and circles without -dolmens—to the number of over a hundred. Sixty-four of such prehistoric -remains stand together upon an elevated plateau not more than a mile -across, and make the battle-field of Moytura, though the least known, -perhaps the most impressive of all primeval ruins. What they really -commemorated we may never know, but, in all probability, the place was -the scene of some important and decisive early battle, the monuments -marking the graves of the chieftains who were interred as the result of -it. Those which have been examined were found to contain burnt wood and -the half-burnt bones of men and horses, as well as implements of flint -and bone. The actors, therefore, were still in the Neolithic Age. -Whether the horses were domesticated ones buried with their riders, or -wild ones eaten at the funeral feasts, it would be hard to decide. The -history of the real event must have been long lost even at the early -date when its relics were pointed out as the records of a battle between -the gods and the giants of Gaelic myth. - -The Tuatha Dé Danann, following the routed Fomors, overtook and captured -Bress. He begged Lugh to spare his life. - -“What ransom will you pay for it?” asked Lugh. - -“I will guarantee that the cows of Ireland shall always be in milk,” -promised Bress. - -But, before accepting, Lugh took counsel with his druids. - -“What good will that be,” they decided, “if Bress does not also lengthen -the lives of the cows?” - -This was beyond the power of Bress to do; so he made another offer. - -“Tell your people,” he said to Lugh, “that, if they will spare my life, -they shall have a good wheat harvest every year.” - -But they said: “We already have the spring to plough and sow in, the -summer to ripen the crops, the autumn for reaping, and the winter in -which to eat the bread; and that is all we want.” - -Lugh told this to Bress. But he also said: “You shall have your life in -return for a much less service to us than that.” - -“What is it?” asked Bress. - -“Tell us when we ought to plough, when we ought to sow, and when we -ought to harvest.” - -Bress replied: “You should plough on a Tuesday, sow on a Tuesday, and -harvest on a Tuesday.” - -And this lying maxim (says the story) saved Bress’s life. - -Lugh, the Dagda, and Ogma still pursued the Fomors, who had carried off -in their flight the Dagda’s harp. They followed them into the submarine -palace where Bress and Elathan lived, and there they saw the harp -hanging on the wall. This harp of the Dagda’s would not play without its -owner’s leave. The Dagda sang to it: - - “Come, oak of the two cries! - Come, hand of fourfold music! - Come, summer! Come, winter! - Voice of harps, bellows[139], and flutes!” - -For the Dagda’s harp had these two names; it was called “Oak of the two -cries” and “Hand of fourfold music”. - -It leaped down from the wall, killing nine of the Fomors as it passed, -and came into the Dagda’s hand. The Dagda played to the Fomors the three -tunes known to all clever harpists—the weeping-tune, the laughing-tune, -and the sleeping-tune. While he played the weeping-tune, they were bowed -with weeping; while he played the laughing-tune, they rocked with -laughter; and when he played the sleeping-tune, they all fell asleep. -And while they slept, Lugh, the Dagda, and Ogma got away safely. - -Next, the Dagda brought the black-maned heifer which he had, by the -advice of Angus son of the Young, obtained from Bress. The wisdom of -Angus had been shown in this advice, for it was this very heifer that -the cattle of the people of the goddess Danu were accustomed to follow, -whenever it lowed. Now, when it lowed, all the cattle which the Fomors -had taken away from the Tuatha Dé Danann came back again. - -Yet the power of the Fomors was not wholly broken. Four of them still -carried on a desultory warfare by spoiling the corn, fruit, and milk of -their conquerors. But the Morrígú and Badb and Mider and Angus pursued -them, and drove them out of Ireland for ever.[140] - -Last of all, the Morrígú and Badb went up on to the summits of all the -high mountains of Ireland, and proclaimed the victory. All the lesser -gods who had not been in the battle came round and heard the news. And -Badb sang a song which began: - - “Peace mounts to the heavens, - The heavens descend to earth, - Earth lies under the heavens, - Everyone is strong ...”, - -but the rest of it has been lost and forgotten. - -Then she added a prophecy in which she foretold the approaching end of -the divine age, and the beginning of a new one in which summers would be -flowerless and cows milkless and women shameless and men strengthless, -in which there would be trees without fruit and seas without fish, when -old men would give false judgments and legislators make unjust laws, -when warriors would betray one another, and men would be thieves, and -there would be no more virtue left in the world. - ------ - -Footnote 135: - - This chapter is, with slight interpolations, based upon the Harleian - MS. in the British Museum numbered 5280, and called the _Second Battle - of Moytura_, or rather from translations made of it by Dr. Whitley - Stokes, published in the _Revue Celtique_, Vol. XII, and by M. de - Jubainville in his _L’Épopée Celtique en Irlande_. - -Footnote 136: - - I have interpolated this picturesque passage from the account of a - fight between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomors in the “Fate of the - Children of Tuirenn”. O’Curry’s translation in _Atlantis_, Vol. IV. - -Footnote 137: - - This translation was made by Eugene O’Curry from an ancient vellum MS. - formerly belonging to Mr. W. Monck Mason, but since sold by auction in - London. See his _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, Lecture - XII, p. 252. - -Footnote 138: - - See Fergusson: _Rude Stone Monuments_, pp. 180, &c. - -Footnote 139: - - ? Bagpipes. - -Footnote 140: - - _Book of Fermoy._ See _Revue Celtique_, Vol. I.—“The Ancient Irish - Goddess of War”. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - THE CONQUEST OF THE GODS BY MORTALS - - -Of what Badb had in mind when she uttered this prophecy we have no -record. But it was true. The twilight of the Irish gods was at hand. A -new race was coming across the sea to dispute the ownership of Ireland -with the people of the goddess Danu. And these new-comers were not -divinities like themselves, but men like ourselves, ancestors of the -Gaels. - -This story of the conquest of the gods by mortals—which seems such a -strange one to us—is typically Celtic. The Gaelic mythology is the only -one which has preserved it in any detail; but the doctrine would seem to -have been common at one time to all the Celts. It was, however, of less -shame to the gods than would otherwise have been; for men were of as -divine descent as themselves. The dogma of the Celts was that men were -descended from the god of death, and first came from the Land of the -Dead to take possession of the present world.[141] Caesar tells us, in -his too short account of the Gauls, that they believed themselves to be -sprung from Dis Pater, the god of the underworld.[142] In the Gaelic -mythology Dis Pater was called Bilé, a name which has for root the -syllable _bel_, meaning “to die”. The god Beli in British mythology was -no doubt the same person, while the same idea is expressed by the same -root in the name of Balor, the terrible Fomor whose glance was -death.[143] - -The post-Christian Irish chroniclers, seeking to reconcile Christian -teachings with the still vital pagan mythology by changing the gods into -ancient kings and incorporating them into the annals of the country, -with appropriate dates, also disposed of the genuine early doctrine by -substituting Spain for Hades, and giving a highly-fanciful account of -the origin and wanderings of their ancestors. To use a Hibernicism, -appropriate in this connection, the first Irishman was a Scythian called -Fenius Farsa. Deprived of his own throne, he had settled in Egypt, where -his son Niul married a daughter of the reigning Pharaoh. Her name was -Scôta, and she had a son called Goidel, whose great-grandson was named -Eber Scot, the whole genealogy being probably invented to explain the -origin of the three names by which the Gaels called themselves—Finn, -Scot, and Goidel. Fenius and his family and clan were turned out of -Egypt for refusing to join in the persecution of the children of Israel, -and sojourned in Africa for forty-two years. Their wanderings took them -to “the altars of the Philistines, by the Lake of Osiers”; then, passing -between Rusicada and the hilly country of Syria, they travelled through -Mauretania as far as the Pillars of Hercules; and thence landed in -Spain, where they lived many years, greatly increasing and multiplying. -The same route is given by the twelfth-century British historian, -Geoffrey of Monmouth, as that taken by Brutus and the Trojans when they -came to colonize Britain.[144] Its only connection with any kind of fact -is that it corresponds fairly well with what ethnologists consider must -have been the westward line of migration taken, not, curiously enough, -by the Aryan Celts, but by the pre-Aryan Iberians. - -It is sufficient for us to find the first men in Spain, remembering that -“Spain” stood for the Celtic Hades, or Elysium. In this country Bregon, -the father of two sons, Bilé and Ith, had built a watch-tower, from -which, one winter’s evening, Ith saw, far off over the seas, a land he -had never noticed before. “It is on winter evenings, when the air is -pure, that man’s eyesight reaches farthest”, remarks the old tract -called the “Book of Invasions”,[145] gravely accounting for the fact -that Ith saw Ireland from Spain. - -Wishing to examine it nearer, he set sail with thrice thirty warriors, -and landed without mishap at the mouth of the River Scêné.[146] The -country seemed to him to be uninhabited, and he marched with his men -towards the north. At last he reached Aileach, near the present town of -Londonderry. - -Here he found the three reigning kings of the people of the goddess -Danu, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, and Mac Greiné, the sons of Ogma, and -grandsons of the Dagda. These had succeeded Nuada the Silver-handed, -killed in the battle with the Fomors; and had met, after burying their -predecessor in a tumulus called Grianan Aileach, which still stands on -the base of the Inishowen Peninsula, between Lough Swilly and Lough -Foyle, to divide his kingdom among them. Unable to arrive at any -partition satisfactory to all, they appealed to the new-comer to -arbitrate. - -The advice of Ith was moral rather than practical. “Act according to the -laws of justice” was all that he would say to the claimants; and then he -was indiscreet enough to burst into enthusiastic praises of Ireland for -its temperate climate and its richness in fruit, honey, wheat, and fish. -Such sentiments from a foreigner seemed to the Tuatha Dé Danann -suggestive of a desire to take the country from them. They conspired -together and treacherously killed Ith at a place since called “Ith’s -Plain”. They, however, spared his followers, who returned to “Spain”, -taking their dead leader’s body with them. The indignation there was -great, and Milé, Bilé’s son and Ith’s nephew, determined to go to -Ireland and get revenge. - -Milé therefore sailed with his eight sons and their wives. Thirty-six -chiefs, each with his shipful of warriors, accompanied him. By the magic -arts of their druid, Amergin of the Fair Knee, they discovered the exact -place at which Ith had landed before them, and put in to shore there. -Two alone failed to reach it alive. The wife of Amergin died during the -voyage, and Aranon, a son of Milé, on approaching the land, climbed to -the top of the mast to obtain a better view, and, falling off, was -drowned. The rest disembarked safely upon the first of May. - -Amergin was the first to land. Planting his right foot on Irish soil, he -burst into a poem preserved in both the Book of Lecan and the Book of -Ballymote.[147] It is a good example of the pantheistic philosophy of -the Celtic races, and a very close parallel to it is contained in an -early Welsh poem, called the “Battle of the Trees”, and attributed to -the famous bard Taliesin.[148] “I am the wind that blows upon the sea,” -sang Amergin; “I am the ocean wave; I am the murmur of the surges; I am -seven battalions; I am a strong bull; I am an eagle on a rock; I am a -ray of the sun; I am the most beautiful of herbs; I am a courageous wild -boar; I am a salmon in the water; I am a lake upon a plain; I am a -cunning artist; I am a gigantic, sword-wielding champion; I can shift my -shape like a god. In what direction shall we go? Shall we hold our -council in the valley or on the mountain-top? Where shall we make our -home? What land is better than this island of the setting sun? Where -shall we walk to and fro in peace and safety? Who can find you clear -springs of water as I can? Who can tell you the age of the moon but I? -Who can call the fish from the depths of the sea as I can? Who can cause -them to come near the shore as I can? Who can change the shapes of the -hills and headlands as I can? I am a bard who is called upon by -seafarers to prophesy. Javelins shall be wielded to avenge our wrongs. I -prophesy victory. I end my song by prophesying all other good -things.”[149] - -The Welsh bard Taliesin sings in the same strain as the druid Amergin -his unity with, and therefore his power over, all nature, animate and -inanimate. “I have been in many shapes”, he says, “before I attained a -congenial form. I have been a narrow blade of a sword; I have been a -drop in the air; I have been a shining star; I have been a word in a -book; I have been a book in the beginning; I have been a light in a -lantern a year and a half; I have been a bridge for passing over -threescore rivers; I have journeyed as an eagle; I have been a boat on -the sea; I have been a director in battle; I have been a sword in the -hand; I have been a shield in fight; I have been the string of a harp; I -have been enchanted for a year in the foam of water. There is nothing in -which I have not been.” It is strange to find Gael and Briton combining -to voice almost in the same words this doctrine of the mystical Celts, -who, while still in a state of semi-barbarism, saw, with some of the -greatest of ancient and modern philosophers, the One in the Many, and a -single Essence in all the manifold forms of life. - -The Milesians (for so, following the Irish annalists, it will be -convenient to call the first Gaelic settlers in Ireland) began their -march on Tara, which was the capital of the Tuatha Dé Danann, as it had -been in earlier days the chief fortress of the Fir Bolgs, and would in -later days be the dwelling of the high kings of Ireland. On their way -they met with a goddess called Banba, the wife of Mac Cuill. She greeted -Amergin. “If you have come to conquer Ireland,” she said, “your cause is -no just one.” “Certainly it is to conquer it we have come,” replied -Amergin, without condescending to argue upon the abstract morality of -the matter. “Then at least grant me one thing,” she asked. “What is -that?” replied Amergin. “That this island shall be called by my name.” -“It shall be,” replied Amergin. - -A little farther on, they met a second goddess, Fotla, the wife of Mac -Cecht, who made the same request, and received the same answer from -Amergin. - -Last of all, at Uisnech, the centre of Ireland, they came upon the third -of the queens, Eriu, the wife of Mac Greiné. “Welcome, warriors,” she -cried. “To you who have come from afar this island shall henceforth -belong, and from the setting to the rising sun there is no better land. -And your race will be the most perfect the world has ever seen.” “These -are fair words and a good prophecy,” said Amergin. “It will be no thanks -to you,” broke in Donn, Milé’s eldest son. “Whatever success we have we -shall owe to our own strength.” “That which I prophesy has no concern -with you,” retorted the goddess, “and neither you nor your descendants -will live to enjoy this island.” Then, turning to Amergin, she, too, -asked that Ireland might be called after her. “It shall be its principal -name,” Amergin promised. - -And so it has happened. Of the three ancient names of Ireland—Banba, -Fotla, and Eriu—the last, in its genitive form of “Erinn”, is the one -that has survived. - -The invaders came to Tara, then called Drumcain, that is, the “Beautiful -Hill”. Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, and Mac Greiné met them, with all the host -of the Gaelic gods. As was usual, they held a parley. The people of the -goddess Danu complained that they had been taken by surprise, and the -Milesians admitted that to invade a country without having first warned -its inhabitants was not strictly according to the courtesies of -chivalrous warfare. The Tuatha Dé Danann proposed to the invaders that -they should leave the island for three days, during which they -themselves would decide whether to fight for their kingdom or to -surrender it; but the Milesians did not care for this, for they knew -that, as soon as they were out of the island, the Tuatha Dé Danann would -oppose them with druidical enchantments, so that they would not be able -to make a fresh landing. In the end, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, and Mac -Greiné offered to submit the matter to the arbitration of Amergin, the -Milesians’ own lawgiver, with the express stipulation that, if he gave -an obviously partial judgment, he was to suffer death at their hands. -Donn asked his druid if he were prepared to accept this very delicate -duty. Amergin replied that he was, and at once delivered the first -judgment pronounced by the Milesians in Ireland. - - “The men whom we found dwelling in the land, to them is possession due - by right. - It is therefore your duty to set out to sea over nine green waves; - And if you shall be able to effect a landing again in spite of them, - You are to engage them in battle, and I adjudge to you the land in - which you found them living. - I adjudge to you the land wherein you found them dwelling, by the right - of battle. - But although you may desire the land which these people possess, yet - yours is the duty to show them justice. - I forbid you from injustice to those you have found in the land, - however you may desire to obtain it.”[150] - -This judgment was considered fair by both parties. The Milesians retired -to their ships, and waited at a distance of nine waves’ length from the -land until the signal was given to attack, while the Tuatha Dé Danann, -drawn up upon the beach, were ready with their druidical spells to -oppose them. - -The signal was given, and the Milesians bent to their oars. But they had -hardly started before they discovered that a strong wind was blowing -straight towards them from the shore, so that they could make no -progress. At first they thought it might be a natural breeze, but Donn -smelt magic in it. He sent a man to climb the mast of his ship, and see -if the wind blew as strong at that height as it did at the level of the -sea. The man returned, reporting that the air was quite still “up -aloft”. Evidently it was a druidical wind. But Amergin soon coped with -it. Lifting up his voice, he invoked the Land of Ireland itself, a power -higher than the gods it sheltered. - - “I invoke the land of Eriu! - The shining, shining sea! - The fertile, fertile hill! - The wooded vale! - The river abundant, abundant in water! - The fishful, fishful lake!” - -In such strain runs the original incantation, one of those magic -formulas whose power was held by ancient, and still is held by savage, -races to reside in their exact consecrated wording rather than in their -meaning. To us it sounds nonsense, and so no doubt it did to those who -put the old Irish mythical traditions into literary shape; for a later -version expands and explains it as follows:[151]— - - “I implore that we may regain the land of Erin, - We who have come over the lofty waves, - This land whose mountains are great and extensive, - Whose streams are clear and numerous, - Whose woods abound with various fruit, - Its rivers and waterfalls are large and beautiful, - Its lakes are broad and widely spread, - It abounds with fountains on elevated grounds! - May we gain power and dominion over its tribes! - May we have kings of our own ruling at Tara! - May Tara be the regal residence of our many succeeding kings! - May the Milesians be the conquerors of its people! - May our ships anchor in its harbours! - May they trade along the coast of Erin! - May Eremon be its first ruling monarch! - May the descendants of Ir and Eber be mighty kings! - I implore that we may regain the land of Erin, - I implore!” - -The incantation proved effectual. The Land of Ireland was pleased to be -propitious, and the druidical wind dropped down. - -But success was not quite so easy as they had hoped. Manannán, son of -the sea and lord of headlands, shook his magic mantle at them, and -hurled a fresh tempest out over the deep. The galleys of the Milesians -were tossed helplessly on the waves; many sank with their crews. Donn -was among the lost, thus fulfilling Eriu’s prophecy, and three other -sons of Milé also perished. In the end, a broken remnant, after long -beating about the coasts, came to shore at the mouth of the River Boyne. -They landed; and Amergin, from the shore, invoked the aid of the sea as -he had already done that of the land. - - “Sea full of fish! - Fertile land! - Fish swarming up! - Fish there! - Under-wave bird! - Great fish! - Crab’s hole! - Fish swarming up! - Sea full of fish!” - -which, being interpreted like the preceding charm, seems to have meant: - - “May the fishes of the sea crowd in shoals to the land for our use! - May the waves of the sea drive forth to the shore abundance of fish! - May the salmon swim abundantly into our nets! - May all kinds of fish come plentifully to us from the sea! - May its flat-fishes also come in abundance! - This poem I compose at the sea-shore that fishes may swim in shoals to - our coast.” - -Then, gathering their forces, they marched on the people of the goddess -Danu. - -Two battles were fought, the first in Glenn Faisi, a valley of the -Slieve Mish Mountains, south of Tralee, and the second at Tailtiu, now -called Telltown. In both, the gods were beaten. Their three kings were -killed by the three surviving sons of Milé—Mac Cuill by Eber, Mac Cecht -by Eremon, and Mac Greiné by the druid Amergin. Defeated and -disheartened, they gave in, and, retiring beneath the earth, left the -surface of the land to their conquerors. - -From this day begins the history of Ireland according to the annalists. -Milé’s eldest son, Donn, having perished, the kingdom fell by right to -the second, Eremon. But Eber, the third son, backed by his followers, -insisted upon a partition, and Ireland was divided into two equal parts. -At the end of a year, however, war broke out between the brothers; Eber -was killed in battle, and Eremon took the sole rule. - ------ - -Footnote 141: - - It may be noted that, according to Welsh legend, the ancestors of the - Cymri came from Gwlâd yr Hâv, the “Land of Summer”, _i.e._ the Celtic - Other World. - -Footnote 142: - - _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chap. XVIII. - -Footnote 143: - - De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique_, chap. X. Rhys: _Hibbert - Lectures_—“The Gaulish Pantheon”. - -Footnote 144: - - Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _Historia Britonum_, Book I, chap. II. - -Footnote 145: - - Contained in the _Book of Leinster_ and other ancient manuscripts. - -Footnote 146: - - Now called the Kenmare River. - -Footnote 147: - - This poem and the three following ones, all attributed to Amergin, are - said to be the oldest Irish literary records. - -Footnote 148: - - _Book of Taliesin_, poem VIII, in Skene’s Four Ancient Books of Wales, - Vol. I, p. 276. - -Footnote 149: - - De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique_. See also the _Transactions of - the Ossianic Society_, Vol. V. - -Footnote 150: - - Translated by Professor Owen Connellan in Vol. V of the _Transactions - of the Ossianic Society_. - -Footnote 151: - - The original versions of this and the following charm are from De - Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, the later from Professor - Owen Connellan’s translations in Vol. V of the _Transactions of the - Ossianic Society_. “Some of these poems”, explains the Professor, - “have been glossed by writers or commentators of the Middle Ages, - without which it would be almost impossible now for any Irish scholar - to interpret them; and it is proper to remark that the translation - accompanying them is more in accordance with this gloss than with the - original text.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - THE GODS IN EXILE - - -But though mortals had conquered gods upon a scale unparalleled in -mythology, they had by no means entirely subdued them. Beaten in battle, -the people of the goddess Danu had yet not lost their divine attributes, -and could use them either to help or hurt. “Great was the power of the -Dagda”, says a tract preserved in the Book of Leinster, “over the sons -of Milé, even after the conquest of Ireland; for his subjects destroyed -their corn and milk, so that they must needs make a treaty of peace with -the Dagda. Not until then, and thanks to his good-will, were they able -to harvest corn and drink the milk of their cows.”[152] The basis of -this lost treaty seems to have been that the Tuatha Dé Danann, though -driven from the soil, should receive homage and offerings from their -successors. We are told in the verse _dinnsenchus_ of Mag Slecht, that— - - “Since the rule - Of Eremon, the noble man of grace, - There was worshipping of stones - Until the coming of good Patrick of Macha”.[153] - -Dispossessed of upper earth, the gods had, however, to seek for new -homes. A council was convened, but its members were divided between two -opinions. One section of them chose to shake the dust of Ireland off its -disinherited feet, and seek refuge in a paradise over-seas, situate in -some unknown, and, except for favoured mortals, unknowable island of the -west, the counterpart in Gaelic myth of the British - - ... “island-valley of Avilion; - Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, - Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies - Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard-lawns - And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea”[154] - -—a land of perpetual pleasure and feasting, described variously as the -“Land of Promise” (_Tir Tairngiré_), the “Plain of Happiness” (_Mag -Mell_), the “Land of the Living” (_Tir-nam-beo_), the “Land of the -Young” (_Tir-nan-ōg_), and “Breasal’s Island” (_Hy-Breasail_). Celtic -mythology is full of the beauties and wonders of this mystic country, -and the tradition of it has never died out. Hy-Breasail has been set -down on old maps as a reality again and again;[155] some pioneers in the -Spanish seas thought they had discovered it, and called the land they -found “Brazil”; and it is still said, by lovers of old lore, that a -patient watcher, after long gazing westward from the westernmost shores -of Ireland or Scotland, may sometimes be lucky enough to catch a glimpse -against the sunset of its— - - “summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea”. - -Of these divine emigrants the principal was Manannán son of Lêr. But, -though he had cast in his lot beyond the seas, he did not cease to visit -Ireland. An old Irish king, Bran, the son of Febal, met him, according -to a seventh-century poem, as Bran journeyed to, and Manannán from, the -earthly paradise. Bran was in his boat, and Manannán was driving a -chariot over the tops of the waves, and he sang:[156] - - “Bran deems it a marvellous beauty - In his coracle across the clear sea: - While to me in my chariot from afar - It is a flowery plain on which he rides about. - - “What is a clear sea - For the prowed skiff in which Bran is, - That is a happy plain with profusion of flowers - To me from the chariot of two wheels. - - “Bran sees - The number of waves beating across the clear sea: - I myself see in Mag Mon[157] - Red-headed flowers without fault. - - “Sea-horses glisten in summer - As far as Bran has stretched his glance: - Rivers pour forth a stream of honey - In the land of Manannán son of Lêr. - - “The sheen of the main, on which thou art, - The white hue of the sea, on which thou rowest about, - Yellow and azure are spread out, - It is land, and is not rough. - - “Speckled salmon leap from the womb - Of the white sea, on which thou lookest: - They are calves, they are coloured lambs - With friendliness, without mutual slaughter. - - “Though but one chariot-rider is seen - In Mag Mell[158] of many flowers, - There are many steeds on its surface, - Though them thou seest not. - - * * * * * * * * * * - - “Along the top of a wood has swum - Thy coracle across ridges, - There is a wood of beautiful fruit - Under the prow of thy little skiff. - - “A wood with blossom and fruit, - On which is the vine’s veritable fragrance; - A wood without decay, without defect, - On which are leaves of a golden hue.” - -And, after this singularly poetical enunciation of the philosophical and -mystical doctrine that all things are, under their diverse forms, -essentially the same, he goes on to describe to Bran the beauties and -pleasures of the Celtic Elysium. - -But there were others—indeed, the most part—of the gods who refused to -expatriate themselves. For these residences had to be found, and the -Dagda, their new king, proceeded to assign to each of those who stayed -in Ireland a _sídh_. These _sídhe_ were barrows, or hillocks, each being -the door to an underground realm of inexhaustible splendour and delight, -according to the somewhat primitive ideas of the Celts. A description is -given of one which the Dagda kept for himself, and out of which his son -Angus cheated him, which will serve as a fair example of all. There were -apple-trees there always in fruit, and one pig alive and another ready -roasted, and the supply of ale never failed. One may still visit in -Ireland the _sídhe_ of many of the gods, for the spots are known, and -the traditions have not died out. To Lêr was given _Sídh -Fionnachaidh_,[159] now known as the “Hill of the White Field”, on the -top of Slieve Fuad, near Newtown Hamilton, in County Armagh. Bodb Derg -received a _sídh_ called by his own name, _Sídh Bodb_[160], just to the -south of Portumna, in Galway. Mider was given the _sídh_ of _Bri Leith_, -now called Slieve Golry, near Ardagh, in County Longford. Ogma’s _sídh_ -was called _Airceltrai_; to Lugh was assigned _Rodrubân_; Manannán’s -son, Ilbhreach, received _Sídh Eas Aedha Ruaidh_[161], now the Mound of -Mullachshee, near Ballyshannon, in Donegal; Fionnbharr[162] had _Sídh -Meadha_, now “Knockma”, about five miles west of Tuam, where, as present -king of the fairies, he is said to live to-day; while the abodes of -other gods of lesser fame are also recorded. For himself the Dagda -retained two, both near the River Boyne, in Meath, the best of them -being the famous Brugh-na-Boyne. None of the members of the Tuatha Dé -Danann were left unprovided for, save one. - -It was from this time that the Gaelic gods received the name by which -the peasantry know them to-day—_Aes Sídhe_, the “People of the Hills”, -or, more shortly, the _Sídhe_. Every god, or fairy, is a -_Fer-Sídhe_[163], a “Man of the Hill”; and every goddess a _Bean-Sídhe_, -a “Woman of the Hill”, the _banshee_ of popular legend.[164] - -The most famous of such fairy hills are about five miles from -Drogheda.[165] They are still connected with the names of the Tuatha Dé -Danann, though they are now not called their dwelling-places, but their -tombs. On the northern bank of the Boyne stand seventeen barrows, three -of which—Knowth, Dowth, and New Grange—are of great size. The last -named, largest, and best preserved, is over 300 feet in diameter, and 70 -feet high, while its top makes a platform 120 feet across. It has been -explored, and Roman coins, gold torques, copper pins, and iron rings and -knives have been found in it; but what else it may have once contained -will never be known, for, like Knowth and Dowth, it was thoroughly -ransacked by Danish spoilers in the ninth century. It is entered by a -square doorway, the rims of which are elaborately ornamented with a kind -of spiral pattern. This entrance leads to a stone passage, more than 60 -feet long, which gradually widens and rises, until it opens into a -chamber with a conical dome 20 feet high. On each side of this central -chamber is a recess, with a shallow oval stone basin in it. The huge -slabs of which the whole is built are decorated upon both the outer and -the inner faces with the same spiral pattern as the doorway. - -The origin of these astonishing prehistoric monuments is unknown, but -they are generally attributed to the race that inhabited Ireland before -the Celts. Gazing at marvellous New Grange, one might very well echo the -words of the old Irish poet Mac Nia, in the Book of Ballymote: - - “Behold the _Sídh_ before your eyes, - It is manifest to you that it is a king’s mansion, - Which was built by the firm Dagda, - It was a wonder, a court, an admirable hill.”[166] - -It is not, however, with New Grange, or even with Knowth or Dowth, that -the Dagda’s name is now associated. It is a smaller barrow, nearer to -the Boyne, which is known as the “Tomb of the Dagda”. It has never been -opened, and Dr. James Fergusson, the author of _Rude Stone Monuments_, -who holds the Tuatha Dé Danann to have been a real people, thinks that -“the bones and armour of the great Dagda may still be found in his -honoured grave”.[167] Other Celtic scholars might not be so sanguine, -though verses as old as the eleventh century assert that the Tuatha Dé -Danann used the brughs for burial. It was about this period that the -mythology of Ireland was being rewoven into spurious history. The poem, -which is called the “Chronicles of the Tombs”, not only mentions the -“Monument of the Dagda” and the “Monument of the Morrígú”, but also -records the last resting-places of Ogma, Etain, Cairpré, Lugh, Boann, -and Angus. - -We have for the present, however, to consider Angus in a far less -sepulchral light. He is, indeed, very much alive in the story to be -related. The “Son of the Young” was absent when the distribution of the -_sídhe_ was made. When he returned, he came to his father, the Dagda, -and demanded one. The Dagda pointed out to him that they had all been -given away. Angus protested, but what could be done? By fair means, -evidently nothing; but by craft, a great deal. The wily Angus appeared -to reconcile himself to fate, and only begged his father to allow him to -stay at the _sídh_ of Brugh-na-Boyne (New Grange) for a day and a night. -The Dagda agreed to this, no doubt congratulating himself on having got -out of the difficulty so easily. But when he came to Angus to remind him -that the time was up, Angus refused to go. He had been granted, he -claimed, day and night, and it is of days and nights that time and -eternity are composed; therefore there was no limit to his tenure of the -_sídh_. The logic does not seem very convincing to our modern minds, but -the Dagda is said to have been satisfied with it. He abandoned the best -of his two palaces to his son, who took peaceable possession of it. Thus -it got a second name, that of the _Sídh_ or _Brugh_ of the “Son of the -Young”.[168] - -The Dagda does not, after this, play much active part in the history of -the people of the goddess Danu. We next hear of a council of gods to -elect a fresh ruler. There were five candidates for the vacant -throne—Bodb the Red, Mider, Ilbhreach[169] son of Manannán, Lêr, and -Angus himself, though the last-named, we are told, had little real -desire to rule, as he preferred a life of freedom to the dignities of -kingship. The Tuatha Dé Danann went into consultation, and the result of -their deliberation was that their choice fell upon Bodb the Red, for -three reasons—firstly, for his own sake; secondly, for his father, the -Dagda’s sake; and thirdly, because he was the Dagda’s eldest son. The -other competitors approved this choice, except two. Mider refused to -give hostages, as was the custom, to Bodb Derg, and fled with his -followers to “a desert country round Mount Leinster”, in County Carlow, -while Lêr retired in great anger to Sídh Fionnachaidh, declining to -recognize or obey the new king. - -Why Lêr and Mider should have so taken the matter to heart is difficult -to understand, unless it was because they were both among the oldest of -the gods. The indifference of Angus is easier to explain. He was the -Gaelic Eros, and was busy living up to his character. At this time, the -object of his love was a maiden who had visited him one night in a -dream, only to vanish when he put out his arms to embrace her. All the -next day, we are told, Angus took no food. Upon the following night, the -unsubstantial lady again appeared, and played and sang to him. That -following day, he also fasted. So things went on for a year, while Angus -pined and wasted for love. At last the physicians of the Tuatha Dé -Danann guessed his complaint, and told him how fatal it might be to him. -Angus asked that his mother Boann might be sent for, and, when she came, -he told her his trouble, and implored her help. She went to the Dagda -and begged him, if he did not wish to see his son die of unrequited -love, a disease that all Diancecht’s medicine and Goibniu’s magic could -not heal, to find the dream-maiden. The Dagda could do nothing himself, -but he sent to Bodb the Red, and the new king of the gods sent in turn -to the lesser deities of Ireland, ordering all of them to search for -her. For a year she could not be found, but at last the disconsolate -lover received a message, charging him to come and see if he could -recognize the lady of his dreams. Angus came, and knew her at once, even -though she was surrounded by thrice fifty attendant nymphs. Her name was -Caer, and she was the daughter of Etal Ambuel, who had a _sídh_ at -Uaman, in Connaught. Bodb the Red demanded her for Angus in marriage, -but her father declared that he had no control over her. She was a -swan-maiden, he said; and every year, as soon as summer was over, she -went with her companions to a lake called “Dragon-Mouth”, and there all -of them became swans. But, refusing to be thus put off, Angus waited in -patience until the day of the magical change, and then went down to the -shore of the lake. There, surrounded by thrice fifty swans, he saw Caer, -herself a swan surpassing all the rest in beauty and whiteness. He -called to her, proclaiming his passion and his name, and she promised to -be his bride, if he too would become a swan. He agreed, and with a word -she changed him into swan-shape, and thus they flew side by side to -Angus’s _sídh_, where they retook the human form, and, no doubt, lived -happily as long as could be expected of such changeable immortals as -pagan deities.[170] - -Meanwhile, the people of the goddess Danu were justly incensed against -both Lêr and Mider. Bodb the Red made a yearly war upon Mider in his -_sídh_, and many of the divine race were killed on either side. But -against Lêr, the new king of the gods refused to move, for there had -been a great affection between them. Many times Bodb Derg tried to -regain Lêr’s friendship by presents and compliments, but for a long time -without success. - -At last Lêr’s wife died, to the sea-god’s great sorrow. When Bodb the -Red heard the news, he sent a messenger to Lêr, offering him one of his -own foster-daughters, Aebh[171], Aeife[172], and Ailbhe[173], the -children of Ailioll of Arran. Lêr, touched by this, came to visit Bodb -the Red at his _sídh_, and chose Aebh for his wife. “She is the eldest, -so she must be the noblest of them,” he said. They were married, and a -great feast made; and Lêr took her back with him to Sídh Fionnachaidh. - -Aebh bore four children to Lêr. The eldest was a daughter called Finola, -the second was a son called Aed; the two others were twin boys called -Fiachra and Conn, but in giving birth to those Aebh died. - -Bodb the Red then offered Lêr another of his foster-children, and he -chose the second, Aeife. Every year Lêr and Aeife and the four children -used to go to Manannán’s “Feast of Age”, which was held at each of the -_sídhe_ in turn. The four children grew up to be great favourites among -the people of the goddess Danu. - -But Aeife was childless, and she became jealous of Lêr’s children; for -she feared that he would love them more than he did her. She brooded -over this until she began, first to hope for, and then to plot their -deaths. She tried to persuade her servants to murder them, but they -would not. So she took the four children to Lake Darvra (now called -Lough Derravargh in West Meath), and sent them into the water to bathe. -Then she made an incantation over them, and touched them, each in turn, -with a druidical wand, and changed them into swans. - -But, though she had magic enough to alter their shapes, she had not the -power to take away their human speech and minds. Finola turned, and -threatened her with the anger of Lêr and of Bodb the Red when they came -to hear of it. She, however, hardened her heart, and refused to undo -what she had done. The children of Lêr, finding their case a hopeless -one, asked her how long she intended to keep them in that condition. - -“You would be easier in mind,” she said, “if you had not asked the -question; but I will tell you. You shall be three hundred years here, on -Lake Darvra; and three hundred years upon the Sea of Moyle[174], which -is between Erin and Alba; and three hundred years more at Irros -Domnann[175] and the Isle of Glora in Erris[176]. Yet you shall have two -consolations in your troubles; you shall keep your human minds, and yet -suffer no grief at knowing that you have been changed into swans, and -you shall be able to sing the softest and sweetest songs that were ever -heard in the world.” - -Then Aeife went away and left them. She returned to Lêr, and told him -that the children had fallen by accident into Lake Darvra, and were -drowned. - -But Lêr was not satisfied that she spoke the truth, and went in haste to -the lake, to see if he could find traces of them. He saw four swans -close to the shore, and heard them talking to one another with human -voices. As he approached, they came out of the water to meet him. They -told him what Aeife had done, and begged him to change them back into -their own shapes. But Lêr’s magic was not so powerful as his wife’s, and -he could not. - -Nor even could Bodb the Red—to whom Lêr went for help,—for all that he -was king of the gods. What Aeife had done could not be undone. But she -could be punished for it! Bodb ordered his foster-daughter to appear -before him, and, when she came, he put an oath on her to tell him truly -“what shape of all others, on the earth, or above the earth, or beneath -the earth, she most abhorred, and into which she most dreaded to be -transformed”. Aeife was obliged to answer that she most feared to become -a demon of the air. So Bodb the Red struck her with his wand, and she -fled from them, a shrieking demon. - -All the Tuatha Dé Danann went to Lake Darvra to visit the four swans. -The Milesians heard of it, and also went; for it was not till long after -this that gods and mortals ceased to associate. The visit became a -yearly feast. But, at the end of three hundred years, the children of -Lêr were compelled to leave Lake Darvra, and go to the Sea of Moyle, to -fulfil the second period of their exile. - -They bade farewell to gods and men, and went. And, for fear lest they -might be hurt by anyone, the Milesians made it law in Ireland that no -man should harm a swan, from that time forth for ever. - -The children of Lêr suffered much from tempest and cold on the stormy -Sea of Moyle, and they were very lonely. Once only during that long -three hundred years did they see any of their friends. An embassy of the -Tuatha Dé Danann, led by two sons of Bodb the Red, came to look for -them, and told them all that had happened in Erin during their exile. - -At last that long penance came to an end, and they went to Irros Domnann -and Innis Glora for their third stage. And while it was wearily dragging -through, Saint Patrick came to Ireland, and put an end to the power of -the gods for ever. They had been banned and banished when the children -of Lêr found themselves free to return to their old home. Sídh -Fionnechaidh was empty and deserted, for Lêr had been killed by Caoilté, -the cousin of Finn mac Coul.[177] - -So, after long, vain searching for their lost relatives, they gave up -hope, and returned to the Isle of Glora. They had a friend there, the -Lonely Crane of Inniskea[178], which has lived upon that island ever -since the beginning of the world, and will be still sitting there on the -day of judgment. They saw no one else until, one day, a man came to the -island. He told them that he was Saint Caemhoc[179], and that he had -heard their story. He brought them to his church, and preached the new -faith to them, and they believed on Christ, and consented to be -baptised. This broke the pagan spell, and, as soon as the holy water was -sprinkled over them, they returned to human shape. But they were very -old and bowed—three aged men and an ancient woman. They did not live -long after this, and Saint Caemhoc, who had baptised them, buried them -all together in one grave.[180] - -But, in telling this story, we have leaped nine hundred years—a great -space in the history even of gods. We must retrace our steps, if not -quite to the days of Eremon and Eber, sons of Milé, and first kings of -Ireland, at any rate to the beginning of the Christian era. - -At this time Eochaid Airem was high king of Ireland, and reigned at -Tara; while, under him, as vassal monarchs, Conchobar mac Nessa ruled -over the Red Branch Champions of Ulster; Curoi son of Daire[181], was -king of Munster; Mesgegra was king of Leinster; and Ailell, with his -famous queen, Medb, governed Connaught. - -Shortly before, among the gods, Angus Son of the Young, had stolen away -Etain, the wife of Mider. He kept her imprisoned in a bower of glass, -which he carried everywhere with him, never allowing her to leave it, -for fear Mider might recapture her. The Gaelic Pluto, however, found out -where she was, and was laying plans to rescue her, when a rival of -Etain’s herself decoyed Angus away from before the pleasant -prison-house, and set his captive free. But, instead of returning her to -Mider, she changed the luckless goddess into a fly, and threw her into -the air, where she was tossed about in great wretchedness at the mercy -of every wind. - -At the end of seven years, a gust blew her on to the roof of the house -of Etair, one of the vassals of Conchobar, who was celebrating a feast. -The unhappy fly, who was Etain, was blown down the chimney into the room -below, and fell, exhausted, into a golden cup full of beer, which the -wife of the master of the house was just going to drink. And the woman -drank Etain with the beer. - -But, of course, this was not the end of her—for the gods cannot really -die,—but only the beginning of a new life. Etain was reborn as the -daughter of Etair’s wife, no one knowing that she was not of mortal -lineage. She grew up to be the most beautiful woman in Ireland. - -When she was twenty years old, her fame reached the high king, who sent -messengers to see if she was as fair as men reported. They saw her, and -returned to the king full of her praises. So Eochaid himself went to pay -her a visit. He chose her to be his queen, and gave her a splendid -dowry. - -It was not till then that Mider heard of her. He came to her in the -shape of a young man, beautifully dressed, and told her who she really -was, and how she had been his wife among the people of the goddess Danu. -He begged her to leave the king, and come with him to his _sídh_ at Bri -Leith. But Etain refused with scorn. - -“Do you think,” she said, “that I would give up the high king of Ireland -for a person whose name and kindred I do not know, except from his own -lips?” - -The god retired, baffled for the time. But one day, as King Eochaid sat -in his hall, a stranger entered. He was dressed in a purple tunic, his -hair was like gold, and his eyes shone like candles. - -The king welcomed him. - -“But who are you?” he asked; “for I do not know you.” - -“Yet I have known you a long time,” returned the stranger. - -“Then what is your name?” - -“Not a very famous one. I am Mider of Bri Leith.” - -“Why have you come here?” - -“To challenge you to a game of chess.” - -“I am a good chess-player,” replied the king, who was reputed to be the -best in Ireland. - -“I think I can beat you,” answered Mider. - -“But the chess-board is in the queen’s room, and she is asleep,” -objected Eochaid. - -“It does not matter,” replied Mider. “I have brought a board with me -which can be in no way worse than yours.” - -He showed it to the king, who admitted that the boast was true. The -chess-board was made of silver set in precious stones, and the pieces -were of gold. - -“Play!” said Mider to the king. - -“I never play without a wager,” replied Eochaid. - -“What shall be the stake?” asked Mider. - -“I do not care,” replied Eochaid. - -“Good!” returned Mider. “Let it be that the loser pays whatever the -winner demands.” - -“That is a wager fit for a king,” said Eochaid. - -They played, and Mider lost. The stake that Eochaid claimed from him was -that Mider and his subjects should make a road through Ireland. Eochaid -watched the road being made, and noticed how Mider’s followers yoked -their oxen, not by the horns, as the Gaels did, but at the shoulders, -which was better. He adopted the practice, and thus got his nickname, -Airem, that is, “The Ploughman”. - -After a year, Mider returned and challenged the king again, the terms to -be the same as before. Eochaid agreed with joy; but, this time, he lost. - -“I could have beaten you before, if I had wished,” said Mider, “and now -the stake I demand is Etain, your queen.” - -The astonished king, who could not for shame go back upon his word, -asked for a year’s delay. Mider agreed to return upon that day year to -claim Etain. Eochaid consulted with his warriors, and they decided to -keep watch through the whole of the day fixed by Mider, and let no one -pass in or out of the royal palace till sunset. For Eochaid held that if -the fairy king could not get Etain upon that one day, his promise would -be no longer binding on him. - -So, when the day came, they barred the door and guarded it, but suddenly -they saw Mider among them in the hall. He stood beside Etain, and sang -this song to her, setting out the pleasures of the homes of the gods -under the enchanted hills. - - “O fair lady! will you come with me - To a wonderful country which is mine, - Where the people’s hair is of golden hue, - And their bodies the colour of virgin snow? - - “There no grief or care is known; - White are their teeth, black their eyelashes; - Delight of the eye is the rank of our hosts, - With the hue of the fox-glove on every cheek. - - “Crimson are the flowers of every mead, - Gracefully speckled as the blackbird’s egg; - Though beautiful to see be the plains of Inisfail[182] - They are but commons compared to our great plains. - - “Though intoxicating to you be the ale-drink of Inisfail, - More intoxicating the ales of the great country; - The only land to praise is the land of which I speak, - Where no one ever dies of decrepit age. - - “Soft sweet streams traverse the land; - The choicest of mead and of wine; - Beautiful people without any blemish; - Love without sin, without wickedness. - - “We can see the people upon all sides, - But by no one can we be seen; - The cloud of Adam’s transgression it is - That prevents them from seeing us. - - “O lady, should you come to my brave land, - It is golden hair that will be on your head; - Fresh pork, beer, new milk, and ale, - You there with me shall have, O fair lady!”[183] - -Then Mider greeted Eochaid, and told him that he had come to take away -Etain, according to the king’s wager. And, while the king and his -warriors looked on helplessly, he placed one arm round the now willing -woman, and they both vanished. This broke the spell that hung over -everyone in the hall; they rushed to the door, but all they could see -were two swans flying away. - -The king would not, however, yield to the god. He sent to every part of -Ireland for news of Etain, but his messengers all came back without -having been able to find her. At last, a druid named Dalân learned, by -means of ogams carved upon wands of yew, that she was hidden under -Mider’s _sídh_ of Bri Leith. So Eochaid marched there with an army, and -began to dig deep into the abode of the gods of which the “fairy hill” -was the portal. Mider, as terrified as was the Greek god Hades when it -seemed likely that the earth would be rent open,[184] and his domains -laid bare to the sight, sent out fifty fairy maidens to Eochaid, every -one of them having the appearance of Etain. But the king would only be -content with the real Etain, so that Mider, to save his _sídh_, was at -last obliged to give her up. And she lived with the King of Ireland -after that until the death of both of them. - -But Mider never forgave the insult. He bided his time for three -generations, until Eochaid and Etain had a male descendant. For they had -no son, but only a daughter called Etain, like her mother, and this -second Etain had a daughter called Messbuachallo, who had a son called -Conairé, surnamed “the Great”. Mider and the gods wove the web of fate -round Conairé, so that he and all his men died violent deaths.[185] - ------ - -Footnote 152: - - De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, p. 269. - -Footnote 153: - - See chap. IV—“The Religion of the Ancient Britons and Druidism”. - -Footnote 154: - - Tennyson: _Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur_. - -Footnote 155: - - See Wood-Martin: _Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland_, Vol I, pp. - 213-215. - -Footnote 156: - - The following verses are taken from Dr. Kuno Meyer’s translation of - the romance entitled _The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal_, published in - Mr. Nutt’s Grimm Library, Vol. IV. - -Footnote 157: - - The Plain of Sports. - -Footnote 158: - - The Happy Plain. - -Footnote 159: - - Pronounced _Shee Finneha_. - -Footnote 160: - - Pronounced _Shee Bove_. - -Footnote 161: - - Pronounced _Shee Assaroe_. - -Footnote 162: - - Pronounced _Finnvar_. - -Footnote 163: - - Pronounced _Far-shee_. - -Footnote 164: - - O’Curry: _Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_, - Appendix, p. 505. - -Footnote 165: - - See Fergusson: _Rude Stone Monuments_, pp. 200-213. - -Footnote 166: - - O’Curry: _MS. Materials_, p. 505. - -Footnote 167: - - Fergusson: _Rude Stone Monuments_, p. 209. - -Footnote 168: - - This story is contained in the Book of Leinster. - -Footnote 169: - - Pronounced _Ilbrec_. - -Footnote 170: - - This story, called the _Dream of Angus_, will be found translated into - English by Dr. Edward Müller in Vol. III. of the _Revue Celtique_, - from an eighteenth-century MS. in the British Museum. - -Footnote 171: - - Pronounced _Aive_. - -Footnote 172: - - Pronounced _Aiva_. - -Footnote 173: - - Pronounced _Alva_. - -Footnote 174: - - Now called “North Channel”. - -Footnote 175: - - The Peninsula of Erris, in Mayo. - -Footnote 176: - - A small island off Benmullet. - -Footnote 177: - - See chap. XIV—“Finn and the Fenians”. - -Footnote 178: - - An island off the coast of Mayo. Its lonely crane was one of the - “Wonders of Ireland”, and is still an object of folk-belief. - -Footnote 179: - - Pronounced _Kemoc_. - -Footnote 180: - - This famous story of the _Fate of the Children of Lêr_ is not found in - any MS. earlier than the beginning of the seventeenth century. A - translation of it has been published by Eugene O’Curry in _Atlantis_, - Vol. IV, from which the present abridgment is made. - -Footnote 181: - - Pronounced _Dara_. - -Footnote 182: - - A poetical name for Ireland. - -Footnote 183: - - Translated by O’Curry, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, - Lecture IX, p. 192, 193. - -Footnote 184: - - _Iliad_, Book XX. - -Footnote 185: - - The story of Mider’s revenge and Conairé’s death is told in the - romance _Bruidhen Dá Derga_, “The Destruction of Da Derga’s Fort”, - translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes, Eugene O’Curry, and Professor Zimmer - from the original text. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - THE IRISH ILIAD - - -With Eber and Eremon, sons of Milé, and conquerors of the gods, begins a -fresh series of characters in Gaelic tradition—the early “Milesian” -kings of Ireland. Though monkish chroniclers have striven to find -history in the legends handed down concerning them, they are none the -less almost as mythical as the Tuatha Dé Danann. The first of them who -has the least appearance of reality is Tigernmas, who is recorded to -have reigned a hundred years after the coming of the Milesians. He seems -to have been what is sometimes called a “Culture-king”, bearing much the -same kind of relation to Ireland as Theseus bore to Athens or Minos to -Crete. During his reign, nine new lakes and three new rivers broke forth -from beneath the earth to give their waters to Erin. Under his auspices, -gold was first smelted, ornaments of gold and silver were first made, -and clothes first dyed. He is said to have perished mysteriously[186] -with three-fourths of the men of Erin while worshipping Cromm Cruaich on -the field of Mag Slecht. In him Mr. Nutt sees, no doubt rightly, the -great mythical king who, in almost all national histories, closes the -strictly mythological age, and inaugurates a new era of less obviously -divine, if hardly less apocryphal characters.[187] - -In spite, however, of the worship of the Tuatha Dé Danann instituted by -Eremon, we find the early kings and heroes of Ireland walking very -familiarly with their gods. Eochaid Airem, high king of Ireland, was -apparently reckoned a perfectly fit suitor for the goddess Etain, and -proved a far from unsuccessful rival of Mider, the Gaelic Pluto.[188] -And adventures of love or war were carried quite as cheerfully among the -_sídh_ dwellers by Eochaid’s contemporaries—Conchobar son of Nessa, King -of Ulster, Curoi son of Daire, King of Munster, Mesgegra, King of -Leinster, and Ailell and Medb[189], King and Queen of Connaught. - -All these figures of the second Gaelic cycle (that of the heroes of -Ulster, and especially of their great champion, Cuchulainn) lived, -according to Irish tradition, at about the beginning of the Christian -era. Conchobar, indeed, is said to have expired in a fit of rage on -hearing of the death of Christ.[190] - -But this is a very transparent monkish interpolation into the original -story. A quite different view is taken by most modern scholars, who -would see gods and not men in all the legendary characters of the Celtic -heroic cycles. Upon such a subject, however, one may legitimately take -sides. Were King Conchobar and his Ultonian champions, Finn and his -Fenians, Arthur and his Knights once living men round whom the -attributes of gods have gathered, or were they ancient deities renamed -and stripped of some of their divinity to make them more akin to their -human worshippers? History or mythology? A mingling, perhaps, of both. -Cuchulainn[191] may have been the name of a real Gaelic warrior, however -suspiciously he may now resemble the sun-god, who is said to have been -his father. King Conchobar may have been the real chief of a tribe of -Irish Celts before he became an adumbration of the Gaelic sky-god. It is -the same problem that confronts us in dealing with the heroic legends of -Greece and Rome. Were Achilles, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Paris, Æneas gods, -demi-gods, or men? Let us call them all alike—whether they be Greek or -Trojan heroes, Red Branch Champions, or followers of the Gaelic Finn or -the British Arthur—demi-gods. Even so, they stand definitely apart from -the older gods who were greater than they were. - -We are stretching no point in calling them demi-gods, for they were -god-descended.[192] Cuchulainn, the greatest hero of the Ulster cycle, -was doubly so; for on his mother’s side he was the grandson of the -Dagda, while Lugh of the Long Hand is said to have been his father. His -mother, Dechtiré, daughter of Maga, the daughter of Angus “Son of the -Young”, was half-sister to King Conchobar, and all the other principal -heroes were of hardly less lofty descent. It is small wonder that they -are described in ancient manuscripts[193] as terrestrial gods and -goddesses. - -“Terrestrial” they may have been in form, but their acts were -superhuman. Indeed, compared with the more modest exploits of the heroes -of the “Iliad”, they were those of giants. Where Greek warriors slew -their tens, these Ultonians despatched their hundreds. They came home -after such exploits so heated that their cold baths boiled over. When -they sat down to meat, they devoured whole oxen, and drank their mead -from vats. With one stroke of their favourite swords they beheaded hills -for sport. The gods themselves hardly did more, and it is easy to -understand that in those old days not only might the sons of gods look -upon the daughters of men and find them fair, but immortal women also -need not be too proud to form passing alliances with mortal men. - -Some of the older deities seem to have already passed out of memory at -the time of the compilation of the Ulster cycle. At any rate, they make -no appearance in it. Dead Nuada rests in the _grianan_ of Aileach; Ogma -lies low in _sídh_ Airceltrai; while the Dagda, thrust into the -background by his son Angus, mixes himself very little in the affairs of -Erin.[194] But the Morrígú is no less eager in encouraging human or -semi-divine heroes to war than she was when she revived the fainting -spirits of the folk of the goddess Danu at the Battle of Moytura. The -gods who appear most often in the cycle of the Red Branch of Ulster are -the same that have lived on throughout with the most persistent -vitality. Lugh the Long-handed, Angus of the Brugh, Mider, Bodb the Red, -and Manannán son of Lêr, are the principal deities that move in the -background of the stage where the chief parts are now played by mortals. -But, to make up for the loss of some of the greater divine figures, the -ranks of the gods are being recruited from below. All manner of inferior -divinities claim to be members of the tribe of the goddess Danu. The -goblins and sprites and demons of the air who shrieked around battles -are described collectively as Tuatha Dé Danann.[195] - -As for the Fomors, they have lost their distinctive names, though they -are still recognized as dwellers beneath the deep, who at times raid -upon the coast, and do battle with the heroes over whom Conchobar ruled -at Emain Macha. - -This seat of his government, the traditionary site of which is still -marked by an extensive prehistoric entrenchment called Navan Fort[196], -near Armagh, was the centre of an Ulster that stretched southwards as -far as the Boyne, and round its ruler gathered such a galaxy of warriors -as Ireland had never seen before, or will again. They called themselves -the “Champions of the Red Branch”; there was not one of them who was not -a hero; but they are all dwarfed by one splendid figure—Cuchulainn, -whose name means “Culann’s Hound”. Mr. Alfred Nutt calls him “the Irish -Achilles”[197], while Professor Rhys would rather see in him a Heracles -of the Gaels.[198] Like Achilles, he was the chosen hero of his people, -invincible in battle, and yet “at once to early death and sorrows doomed -beyond the lot of man”, while, like Heracles, his life was a series of -wonderful exploits and labours. It matters little enough; for the lives -of all such mythical heroes must be of necessity somewhat alike. - -If Achilles and Heracles were, as some think, personifications of the -sun, Cuchulainn is not less so. Most of his attributes, as the old -stories record them, are obviously solar symbols. He seemed generally -small and insignificant, yet, when he was at his full strength, no one -could look him in the face without blinking, while the heat of his -constitution melted snow for thirty feet all round him. He turned red -and hissed as he dipped his body into its bath—the sea. Terrible was his -transformation when sorely oppressed by his enemies, as the sun is by -mist, storm, or eclipse. At such times “among the aërial clouds over his -head were visible the virulent pouring showers and sparks of ruddy fire -which the seething of his savage wrath caused to mount up above him. His -hair became tangled about his head, as it had been branches of a red -thorn-bush stuffed into a strongly-fenced gap.... Taller, thicker, more -rigid, longer than mast of a great ship was the perpendicular jet of -dusky blood which out of his scalp’s very central point shot upwards and -then was scattered to the four cardinal points; whereby was formed a -magic mist of gloom resembling the smoky pall that drapes a regal -dwelling, what time a king at nightfall of a winter’s day draws near to -it.”[199] - -So marvellous a being[200] was, of course, of marvellous birth. His -mother, Dechtiré, was on the point of being married to an Ulster -chieftain called Sualtam, and was sitting at the wedding-feast, when a -may-fly flew into her cup of wine and was unwittingly swallowed by her. -That same afternoon she fell into a deep sleep, and in her dream the -sun-god Lugh appeared to her, and told her that it was he whom she had -swallowed, and bore within her. He ordered her and her fifty attendant -maidens to come with him at once, and he put upon them the shapes of -birds, so that they were not seen to go. Nothing was heard of them -again. But one day, months later, a flock of beautiful birds appeared -before Emain Macha, and drew out its warriors in their chariots to hunt -them. - -They followed the birds till nightfall, when they found themselves at -the Brugh on the Boyne, where the great gods had their homes. As they -looked everywhere for shelter, they suddenly saw a splendid palace. A -tall and handsome man, richly dressed, came out and welcomed them and -led them in. Within the hall were a beautiful and noble-faced woman and -fifty maidens, and on the tables were the richest meats and wines, and -everything fit for the needs of warriors. So they rested there the -night, and, during the night, they heard the cry of a new-born child. -The next morning, the man told them who he was, and that the woman was -Conchobar’s half-sister Dechtiré, and he ordered them to take the child, -and bring it up among the warriors of Ulster. So they brought him back, -together with his mother and the maidens, and Dechtiré married Sualtam, -and all the chiefs, champions, druids, poets, and lawgivers of Ulster -vied with one another in bringing up the mysterious infant. - -At first they called him Setanta; and this is how he came to change his -name. While still a child, he was the strongest of the boys of Emain -Macha, and the champion in their sports. One day he was playing hurley -single-handed against all the others, and beating them, when Conchobar -the King rode by with his nobles on the way to a banquet given by -Culann, the chief smith of the Ultonians. Conchobar called to the boy, -inviting him to go with them, and he replied that, when the game was -finished, he would follow. As soon as the Ulster champions were in -Culann’s hall, the smith asked the king’s leave to unloose his terrible -watch-dog, which was as strong and fierce as a hundred hounds; and -Conchobar, forgetting that the boy was to follow them, gave his -permission. Immediately the hound saw Setanta coming, it rushed at him, -open-mouthed. But the boy flung his playing-ball into its mouth, and -then, seizing it by the hind-legs, dashed it against a rock till he had -killed it. - -The smith Culann was very angry at the death of his dog; for there was -no other hound in the world like him for guarding a house and flocks. So -Setanta promised to find and train up another one, not less good, for -Culann, and, until it was trained, to guard the smith’s house as though -he were a dog himself. This is why he was called Cuchulainn, that is, -“Culann’s Hound”; and Cathbad the Druid prophesied that the time would -come when the name would be in every man’s mouth. - -Not long after this, Cuchulainn overheard Cathbad giving druidical -instruction, and one of his pupils asking him what that day would be -propitious for. Cathbad replied that, if any young man first took arms -on that day, his name would be greater than that of any other hero’s, -but his life would be short. At once, the boy went to King Conchobar, -and demanded arms and a chariot. Conchobar asked him who had put such a -thought into his head; and he answered that it was Cathbad the Druid. So -Conchobar gave him arms and armour, and sent him out with a charioteer. -That evening, Cuchulainn brought back the heads of three champions who -had killed many of the warriors of Ulster. He was then only seven years -old. - -The women of Ulster so loved Cuchulainn after this that the warriors -grew jealous, and insisted that a wife should be found for him. But -Cuchulainn was very hard to please. He would have only one, Emer[201], -the daughter of Forgall the Wily, the best maiden in Ireland for the six -gifts—the gift of beauty, the gift of voice, the gift of sweet speech, -the gift of needlework, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of chastity. So -he went to woo her, but she laughed at him for a boy. Then Cuchulainn -swore by the gods of his people that he would make his name known -wherever the deeds of heroes were spoken of, and Emer promised to marry -him if he could take her from her warlike kindred. - -When Forgall, her father, came to know of this betrothal, he devised a -plan to put an end to it. He went to visit King Conchobar at Emain -Macha. There he pretended to have heard of Cuchulainn for the first -time, and he saw him do all his feats. He said, loud enough to be -overheard by all, that if so promising a youth dared to go to the Island -of Scathach the Amazon, in the east of Alba,[202] and learn all her -warrior-craft, no living man would be able to stand before him. It was -hard to reach Scathach’s Isle, and still harder to return from it, and -Forgall felt certain that, if Cuchulainn went, he would get his death -there. - -Of course, nothing would now satisfy Cuchulainn but going. His two -friends, Laegaire the Battle-winner and Conall the Victorious, said that -they would go with him. But, before they had gone far, they lost heart -and turned back. Cuchulainn went on alone, crossing the Plain of -Ill-Luck, where men’s feet stuck fast, while sharp grasses sprang up and -cut them, and through the Perilous Glens, full of devouring wild beasts, -until he came to the Bridge of the Cliff, which rose on end, till it -stood straight up like a ship’s mast, as soon as anyone put foot on it. -Three times Cuchulainn tried to cross it, and thrice he failed. Then -anger came into his heart, and a magic halo shone round his head, and he -did his famous feat of the “hero’s salmon leap”, and landed, in one -jump, on the middle of the bridge, and then slid down it as it rose up -on end. - -Scathach was in the _dún_, with her two sons. Cuchulainn went to her, -and put his sword to her breast, and threatened to kill her if she would -not teach him all her own skill in arms. So he became her pupil, and she -taught him all her war-craft. In return, Cuchulainn helped her against a -rival queen of the Amazons, called Aoife[203]. He conquered Aoife, and -compelled her to make peace with Scathach. - -Then he returned to Ireland, and went in a scythed chariot to Forgall’s -palace. He leaped over its triple walls, and slew everyone who came near -him. Forgall met his death in trying to escape Cuchulainn’s rage. He -found Emer, and placed her in his chariot, and drove away; and, every -time that Forgall’s warriors came up to them, he turned, and slew a -hundred, and put the rest to flight. He reached Emain Macha in safety, -and he and Emer were married there. - -And so great, after this, were the fame of Cuchulainn’s prowess and -Emer’s beauty that the men and women of Ulster yielded them -precedence—him among the warriors and her among the women—in every feast -and banquet at Emain Macha. - -But all that Cuchulainn had done up to this time was as nothing to the -deeds he did in the great war which all the rest of Ireland, headed by -Ailill and Medb, King and Queen of Connaught, made upon Ulster, to get -the Brown Bull of Cualgne.[204] This Bull was one of two, of fairy -descent. They had originally been the swineherds of two of the gods, -Bodb, King of the Sídhe of Munster, and Ochall Ochne, King of the Sídhe -of Connaught. As swineherds they were in perpetual rivalry; then, the -better to carry on their quarrel, they changed themselves into two -ravens, and fought for a year; next they turned into water-monsters, -which tore one another for a year in the Suir and a year in the Shannon; -then they became human again and fought as champions; and ended by -changing into eels. One of these eels went into the River Cruind, in -Cualgne[205], in Ulster, where it was swallowed by a cow belonging to -Daire of Cualgne, and the other into the spring of Uaran Garad, in -Connaught, where it passed into the belly of a cow of Queen Medb’s. Thus -were born those two famous beasts, the Brown Bull of Ulster and the -White-horned Bull of Connaught. - -Now the White-horned was of such proud mind that he scorned to belong to -a woman, and he went out of Medb’s herds into those of her husband -Ailill. So that when Ailill and Medb one day, in their idleness, counted -up their possessions, to set them off one against the other, although -they were equal in every other thing, in jewels and clothes and -household vessels, in sheep and horses and swine and cattle, Medb had no -one bull that was worthy to be set beside Ailill’s White-horned. -Refusing to be less in anything than her husband, the proud queen sent -heralds, with gifts and compliments, to Daire, asking him to lend her -the Brown Bull for a year. Daire would have done so gladly had not one -of Medb’s messengers been heard boasting in his cups that, if Daire had -not lent the Brown Bull of his own free-will, Medb would have taken it. -This was reported to Daire, who at once swore that she should never have -it. Medb’s messenger returned; and the Queen of Connaught, furious at -his refusal, vowed that she would take it by force. - -She assembled the armies of all the rest of Ireland to go against -Ulster, and made Fergus son of Roy, an Ulster champion who had -quarrelled with King Conchobar, its leader. They expected to have an -easy victory, for the warriors of Ulster were at that time lying under a -magic weakness which fell upon them for many days in each year, as the -result of a curse laid upon them, long before, by a goddess who had been -insulted by one of Conchobar’s ancestors. Medb called up a prophetess of -her people to foretell victory. “How do you see our hosts?” asked the -queen of the seeress. “I see crimson on them; I see red,” she replied. -“But the warriors of Ulster are lying in their sickness. Nay, how do you -see our men?” “I see them all crimson; I see them all red,” she -repeated. And then she added to the astonished queen, who had expected a -quite different foretelling: “For I see a small man doing deeds of arms, -though there are many wounds on his smooth skin; the hero-light shines -round his head, and there is victory on his forehead; he is richly -clothed, and young and beautiful and modest, but he is a dragon in -battle. His appearance and his valour are those of Cuchulainn of -Muirthemne; who that ‘Culann’s hound’ from Muirthemne may be, I do not -know; but I know this, that all our army will be reddened by him. He is -setting out for battle; he will hew down your hosts; the slaughter he -shall make will be long remembered; there will be many women crying over -the bodies mangled by the Hound of the Forge whom I see before me -now.”[206] For Cuchulainn was, for some reason unknown to us, the only -man in Ulster who was not subject to the magic weakness, and therefore -it fell upon him to defend Ulster single-handed against the whole of -Medb’s army. - -In spite of the injury done him by King Conchobar, Fergus still kept a -love for his own country. He had not the heart to march upon the -Ultonians without first secretly sending a messenger to warn them. So -that, though all the other champions of the Red Branch were helpless, -Cuchulainn was watching the marches when the army came. - -Now begins the story of the _aristeia_ of the Gaelic hero. It is, after -the manner of epics, the record of a series of single combats, in each -of which Cuchulainn slays his adversary. Man after man comes against -him, and not one goes back. In the intervals between these duels, -Cuchulainn harasses the army with his sling, slaying a hundred men a -day. He kills Medb’s pet dog, bird, and squirrel, and creates such -terror that no one dares to stir out of the camp. Medb herself has a -narrow escape; for one of her serving-women, who puts on her mistress’s -golden head-dress, is killed by a stone flung from Cuchulainn’s sling. - -The great queen determines to see with her own eyes this marvellous hero -who is holding all her warriors at bay. She sends an envoy, asking him -to come and parley with her. Cuchulainn agrees, and, at the meeting, -Medb is amazed at his boyish look. She finds it hard to believe that it -is this beardless stripling of seventeen who is killing her champions, -until the whole army seems as though it were melting away. She offers -him her own friendship and great honours and possessions in Connaught if -he will forsake Conchobar. He refuses; but she offers it again and -again. At last Cuchulainn indignantly declares that the next man who -comes with such a message will do so at his peril. One bargain, however, -he will make. He is willing to fight one of the men of Ireland every -day, and, while the duel lasts, the main army may march on; but, as soon -as Cuchulainn has killed his man, it must halt until the next day. Medb -agrees to this, thinking it better to lose one man a day than a hundred. - -Medb makes the same offer to every famous warrior, to induce him to go -against Cuchulainn. The reward for the head of the champion will be the -hand of her daughter, Findabair[207]. In spite of this, not one of the -aspirants to the princess can stand before Cuchulainn. All perish; and -Findabair, when she finds out how she is being promised to a fresh -suitor every day, dies of shame. But, while Cuchulainn is engaged in -these combats, Medb sends men who scour Ulster for the brown bull, and -find him, and drive him, with fifty heifers, into her camp. - -Meanwhile the Æs Sídhe, the fairy god-clan, are watching the -half-divine, half-mortal hero, amazed at his achievements. His exploits -kindle love in the fierce heart of the Morrígú, the great war-goddess. -Cuchulainn is awakened from sleep by a terrible shout from the north. He -orders his driver, Laeg, to yoke the horses to his chariot, so that he -may find out who raised it. They go in the direction from which the -sound had come, and meet with a woman in a chariot drawn by a red horse. -She has red eyebrows, and a red dress, and a long, red cloak, and she -carries a great, gray spear. He asks her who she is, and she tells him -that she is a king’s daughter, and that she has fallen in love with him -through hearing of his exploits. Cuchulainn says that he has other -things to think of than love. She replies that she has been giving him -her help in his battles, and will still do so; and Cuchulainn answers -that he does not need any woman’s help. “Then,” says she, “if you will -not have my love and help, you shall have my hatred and enmity. When you -are fighting with a warrior as good as yourself, I will come against you -in various shapes and hinder you, so that he shall have the advantage.” -Cuchulainn draws his sword, but all he sees is a hoodie crow sitting on -a branch. He knows from this that the red woman in the chariot was the -great queen of the gods. - -The next day, a warrior named Loch went to meet Cuchulainn. At first he -refused to fight one who was beardless; so Cuchulainn smeared his chin -with blackberry juice, until it looked as though he had a beard. While -Cuchulainn was fighting Loch, the Morrígú came against him three -times—first as a heifer which tried to overthrow him, and next as an eel -which got beneath his feet as he stood in running water, and then as a -wolf which seized hold of his right arm. But Cuchulainn broke the -heifer’s leg, and trampled upon the eel, and put out one of the wolf’s -eyes, though, every one of these three times, Loch wounded him. In the -end, Cuchulainn slew Loch with his invincible spear, the _gae -bolg_[208], made of a sea-monster’s bones. The Morrígú came back to -Cuchulainn, disguised as an old woman, to have her wounds healed by him, -for no one could cure them but he who had made them. She became his -friend after this, and helped him. - -But the fighting was so continuous that Cuchulainn got no sleep, except -just for a while, from time to time, when he might rest a little, with -his head on his hand and his hand on his spear and his spear on his -knee. So that his father, Lugh the Long-handed, took pity on him and -came to him in the semblance of a tall, handsome man in a green cloak -and a gold-embroidered silk shirt, and carrying a black shield and a -five-pronged spear. He put him into a sleep of three days and three -nights, and, while he rested, he laid druidical herbs on to all his -wounds, so that, in the end, he rose up again completely healed and as -strong as at the very beginning of the war. While he was asleep, the -boy-troop of Emain Macha, Cuchulainn’s old companions, came and fought -instead of him, and slew three times their own number, but were all -killed. - -It was at this time that Medb asked Fergus to go and fight with -Cuchulainn. Fergus answered that he would never fight against his own -foster-son. Medb asked him again and again, and at last he went, but -without his famous sword. “Fergus, my guardian,” said Cuchulainn, “it is -not safe for you to come out against me without your sword.” “If I had -the sword,” replied Fergus, “I would not use it on you.” Then Fergus -asked Cuchulainn, for the sake of all he had done for him in his -boy-hood, to pretend to fight with him, and then give way before him and -run away. Cuchulainn answered that he was very loth to be seen running -from any man. But Fergus promised Cuchulainn that, if Cuchulainn would -run away from Fergus then, Fergus would run away from Cuchulainn at some -future time, whenever Cuchulainn wished. Cuchulainn agreed to this, for -he knew that it would be for the profit of Ulster. So they fought a -little, and then Cuchulainn turned and fled in the sight of all Medb’s -army. Fergus went back; and Medb could not reproach him any more. - -But she cast about to find some other way of vanquishing Cuchulainn. The -agreement made had been that only one man a day should be sent against -him. But now Medb sent the wizard Calatin with his twenty-seven sons and -his grandson all at once, for she said “they are really only one, for -they are all from Calatin’s body”. They never missed a throw with their -poisoned spears, and every man they hit died, either on the spot or -within the week. When Fergus heard of this, he was in great grief, and -he sent a man called Fiacha, an exile, like himself, from Ulster, to -watch the fight and report how it went. Now Fiacha did not mean to join -in it, but when he saw Cuchulainn assailed by twenty-nine at a time, and -overpowered, he could not restrain himself. So he drew his sword and -helped Cuchulainn, and, between them, they killed Calatin and his whole -family. - -As a last resource, now, Medb sent for Ferdiad, who was the great -champion of the Iberian “Men of Domnu”, who had thrown in their lot with -Medb in the war for the Brown Bull. Ferdiad had been a companion and -fellow-pupil of Cuchulainn with Scathach, and he did not wish to fight -with him. But Medb told him that, if he refused, her satirists should -make such lampoons on him that he would die of shame, and his name would -be a reproach for ever. She also offered him great rewards and honours, -and bound herself in six sureties to keep her promises. At last, -reluctantly, he went. - -Cuchulainn saw him coming, and went out to welcome him; but Ferdiad said -that he had not come as a friend, but to fight. Now Cuchulainn had been -Ferdiad’s junior and serving-boy in Scathach’s Island, and he begged him -by the memory of those old times to go back; but Ferdiad said he could -not. They fought all day, and neither had gained any advantage by -sunset. So they kissed one another, and each went back to his camp. -Ferdiad sent half his food and drink to Cuchulainn, and Cuchulainn sent -half his healing herbs and medicines to Ferdiad, and their horses were -put in the same stable, and their charioteers slept by the same fire. -And so it happened on the second day. But at the end of the third day -they parted gloomily, knowing that on the morrow one of them must fall; -and their horses were not put in the same stall that night, neither did -their charioteers sleep at the same fire. On the fourth day, Cuchulainn -succeeded in killing Ferdiad, by casting the _gae bolg_ at him from -underneath. But when he saw that he was dying, the battle-fury passed -away, and he took his old companion up in his arms, and carried him -across the river on whose banks they had fought, so that he might be -with the men of Ulster in his death, and not with the men of Ireland. -And he wept over him, and said: “It was all a game and a sport until -Ferdiad came; Oh, Ferdiad! your death will hang over me like a cloud for -ever. Yesterday he was greater than a mountain; to-day he is less than a -shadow.” - -By this time, Cuchulainn was so covered with wounds that he could not -bear his clothes to touch his skin, but had to hold them off with -hazel-sticks, and fill the spaces in between with grass. There was not a -place on him the size of a needle-point that had not a wound on it, -except his left hand, which held the shield. - -But Sualtam, Cuchulainn’s reputed father, had learned what a sore plight -his son was in. “Do I hear the heaven bursting, or the sea running away, -or the earth breaking open,” he cried, “or is it my son’s groaning that -I hear?” He came to look for him, and found him covered with wounds and -blood. But Cuchulainn would not let his father either weep for him or -try to avenge him. “Go, rather,” he said to him, “to Emain Macha, and -tell Conchobar that I can no longer defend Ulster against all the four -provinces of Erin without help. Tell him that there is no part of my -body on which there is not a wound, and that, if he wishes to save his -kingdom, he must make no delay.” - -Sualtam mounted Cuchulainn’s war-horse, the “Gray of Battle”, and -galloped to Emain Macha. Three times he shouted: “Men are being killed, -women carried off, and cattle lifted in Ulster”. Twice he met with no -response. The third time, Cathbad the Druid roused himself from his -lethargy to denounce the man who was disturbing the king’s sleep. In his -indignation Sualtam turned away so sharply that the gray steed reared, -and struck its rider’s shield against his neck with such force that he -was decapitated. The startled horse then turned back into Conchobar’s -stronghold, and dashed through it, Sualtam’s severed head continuing to -cry out: “Men are being killed, women carried off, and cattle lifted in -Ulster.” Such a portent was enough to rouse the most drowsy. Conchobar, -himself again, swore a great oath. “The heavens are over us, the earth -is beneath us, and the sea circles us round, and, unless the heavens -fall, with all their stars, or the earth gives way beneath us, or the -sea bursts over the land, I will restore every cow to her stable, and -every woman to her home.” - -He sent messengers to rally Ulster, and they gathered, and marched on -the men of Erin. And then was fought such a battle as had never been -before in Ireland. First one side, then the other, gave way and rallied -again, until Cuchulainn heard the noise of the fight, and rose up, in -spite of all his wounds, and came to it. - -He called out to Fergus, reminding him how he had bound himself with an -oath to run from him when called upon to do so. So Fergus ran before -Cuchulainn, and when Medb’s army saw their leader running they broke and -fled like one man. - -But the Brown Bull of Cualgne went with the army into Connaught, and -there he met Ailill’s bull, the White-horned. And he fought the -White-horned, and tore him limb from limb, and carried off pieces of him -on his horns, dropping the loins at Athlone and the liver at Trim. Then -he went back to Cualgne, and turned mad, killing all who crossed his -path, until his heart burst with bellowing, and he fell dead. - -This was the end of the great war called _Táin Bó Chuailgné_, the -“Driving of the Cattle of Cooley”. - -Yet, wondrous as it was, it was not the most marvellous of Cuchulainn’s -exploits. Like all the solar gods and heroes of Celtic myth, he carried -his conquests into the dark region of Hades. On this occasion the -mysterious realm is an island called _Dún Scaith_, that is, the “Shadowy -Town”, and though its king is not mentioned by name, it seems likely -that he was Mider, and that Dún Scaith is another name for the Isle of -Falga, or Man. The story, as a poem[209] relates it, is curiously -suggestive of a raid which the powers of light, and especially the -sun-gods, are represented as having made upon Hades in kindred British -myth.[210] The same loathsome combatants issue out of the underworld to -repel its assailants. There was a pit in the centre of Dún Scaith, out -of which swarmed a vast throng of serpents. No sooner had Cuchulainn and -the heroes of Ulster disposed of these than “a house full of toads” was -loosed upon them—“sharp, beaked monsters” (says the poem), which caught -them by the noses, and these were in turn replaced by fierce dragons. -Yet the heroes prevailed and carried off the spoil—three cows of magic -qualities and a marvellous cauldron in which was always found an -inexhaustible supply of meat, with treasure of silver and gold to boot. -They started back for Ireland in a coracle, the three cows being towed -behind, with the treasure in bags around their necks. But the gods of -Hades raised a storm which wrecked their ship, and they had to swim -home. Here Cuchulainn’s more than mortal prowess came in useful. We are -told that he floated nine men to shore on each of his hands, and thirty -on his head, while eight more, clinging to his sides, used him as a kind -of life-belt. - -After this, came the tragedy of Cuchulainn’s career, the unhappy duel in -which he killed his only son, not knowing who he was. The story is one -common, apparently, to the Aryan nations, for it is found not only in -the Gaelic, but in the Teutonic and Persian mythic traditions. It will -be remembered that Cuchulainn defeated a rival of Scathach the Amazon, -named Aoife, and compelled her to render submission. The hero had also a -son by Aoife, and he asked that the boy should be called Conlaoch[211], -and that, when he was of age to travel, he should be sent to Ireland to -find his father. Aoife promised this, but, a little later, news came to -her that Cuchulainn had married Emer. Mad with jealousy, she determined -to make the son avenge her slight upon the father. She taught him the -craft of arms until there was no more that he could learn, and sent him -to Ireland. Before he started, she laid three _geasa_[212] upon him. The -first was that he was not to turn back, the second that he was never to -refuse a challenge, and the third that he was never to tell his name. - -He arrived at Dundealgan[213], Cuchulainn’s home, and the warrior Conall -came down to meet him, and asked him his name and lineage. He refused to -tell them, and this led to a duel, in which Conall was disarmed and -humiliated. Cuchulainn next approached him, asked the same question, and -received the same answer. “Yet if I was not under a command,” said -Conlaoch, who did not know he was speaking to his father, “there is no -man in the world to whom I would sooner tell it than to yourself, for I -love your face.” Even this compliment could not stave off the fight, for -Cuchulainn felt it his duty to punish the insolence of this stripling -who refused to declare who he was. The fight was a fierce one, and the -invincible Cuchulainn found himself so pressed that the “hero-light” -shone round him and transfigured his face. When Conlaoch saw this, he -knew who his antagonist must be, and purposely flung his spear slantways -that it might not hit his father. But before Cuchulainn understood, he -had thrown the terrible _gae bolg_. Conlaoch, dying, declared his name; -and so passionate was Cuchulainn’s grief that the men of Ulster were -afraid that in his madness he might wreak his wrath upon them. They, -therefore, called upon Cathbad the Druid to put him under a glamour. -Cathbad turned the waves of the sea into the appearance of armed men, -and Cuchulainn smote them with his sword until he fell prone from -weariness. - -It would take too long to relate all the other adventures and exploits -of Cuchulainn. Enough has been done if any reader of this chapter should -be persuaded by it to study the wonderful saga of ancient Ireland for -himself. We must pass on quickly to its tragical close—the hero’s death. - -Medb, Queen of Connaught, had never forgiven him for keeping back her -army from raiding Ulster, and for slaying so many of her friends and -allies. So she went secretly to all those whose relations Cuchulainn had -killed (and they were many), and stirred them up to revenge. - -Besides this, she had sent the three daughters of Calatin the Wizard, -born after their father’s death at the hands of Cuchulainn, to Alba and -to Babylon to learn witchcraft. When they came back they were mistresses -of every kind of sorcery, and could make the illusion of battle with an -incantation. - -And, lest she might fail even then, she waited with patience until the -Ultonians were again in their magic weakness, and there was no one to -help Cuchulainn but himself. - -Lugaid[214], son of the Curoi, King of Munster whom Cuchulainn had -killed for the sake of Blathnat, Mider’s daughter, gathered the Munster -men; Erc, whose father had also fallen at Cuchulainn’s hands, called the -men of Meath; the King of Leinster brought out his army; and, with -Ailill and Medb and all Connaught, they marched into Ulster again, and -began to ravage it. - -Conchobar called his warriors and druids into council, to see if they -could find some means of putting off war until they were ready to meet -it. He did not wish Cuchulainn to go out single-handed a second time -against all the rest of Ireland, for he knew that, if the champion -perished, the prosperity of Ulster would fall with him for ever. So, -when Cuchulainn came to Emain Macha, the king set all the ladies, -singers, and poets of the court to keep his thoughts from war until the -men of Ulster had recovered from their weakness. - -But while they sat feasting and talking in the “sunny house”, the three -daughters of Calatin came fluttering down on to the lawn before it, and -began gathering grass and thistles and puff-balls and withered leaves, -and turning them into the semblance of armies. And, by the same magic, -they caused shouts and shrieks and trumpet-blasts and the clattering of -arms to be heard all round the house, as though a battle were being -fought. - -Cuchulainn leaped up, red with shame to think that fighting should be -going on without his help, and seized his sword. But Cathbad’s son -caught him by the arms. All the druids explained to him that what he saw -was only an enchantment raised by the children of Calatin to draw him -out to his death. But it was as much as all of them could do to keep him -quiet while he saw the phantom armies and heard the magic sounds. - -So they decided that it would be well to remove Cuchulainn from Emain -Macha to _Glean-na-Bodhar_[215], the “Deaf Valley”, until all the -enchantments of the daughters of Calatin were spent. It was the quality -of this valley that, if all the men of Ireland were to shout round it at -once, no one within it would hear a sound. - -But the daughters of Calatin went there too, and again they took -thistles and puff-balls and withered leaves, and put on them the -appearance of armed men; so that there seemed to be no place outside the -whole valley that was not filled with shouting battalions. And they made -the illusion of fires all around and the sound of women shrieking. -Everyone who heard that outcry was frightened at it, not only the men -and women, but even the dogs. - -Though the women and the druids shouted back with all the strength of -their voices, to drown it, they could not keep Cuchulainn from hearing. -“Alas!” he cried, “I hear the men of Ireland shouting as they ravage the -province. My triumph is at an end; my fame is gone; Ulster lies low for -ever.” “Let it pass,” said Cathbad; “it is only the idle magic noises -made by the children of Calatin, who want to draw you out, to put an end -to you. Stay here with us, and take no heed of them.” - -Cuchulainn obeyed; and the daughters of Calatin went on for a long time -filling the air with noises of battle. But they grew tired of it at -last; for they saw that the druids and women had outwitted them. - -They did not succeed until one of them took the form of a leman of -Cuchulainn’s, and came to him, crying out that Dundealgan was burnt, and -Muirthemne ruined, and the whole province of Ulster ravaged. Then, at -last, he was deceived, and took his arms and armour, and, in spite of -all that was said to him, he ordered Laeg to yoke his chariot. - -Signs and portents now began to gather as thickly round the doomed hero -as they did round the wooers in the hall of Odysseus. His famous -war-horse, the Gray of Macha, refused to be bridled, and shed large -tears of blood. His mother, Dechtiré, brought him a goblet full of wine, -and thrice the wine turned into blood as he put it to his lips. At the -first ford he crossed, he saw a maiden of the _sídhe_ washing clothes -and armour, and she told him that it was the clothes and arms of -Cuchulainn, who was soon to be dead. He met three ancient hags cooking a -hound on spits of rowan, and they invited him to partake of it. He -refused, for it was taboo to him to eat the flesh of his namesake; but -they shamed him into doing so by telling him that he ate at rich men’s -tables and refused the hospitality of the poor. The forbidden meat -paralysed half his body. Then he saw his enemies coming up against him -in their chariots. - -Cuchulainn had three spears, of which it was prophesied that each should -kill a king. Three druids were charged in turn to ask for these spears; -for it was not thought lucky to refuse anything to a druid. The first -one came up to where Cuchulainn was making the plain red with slaughter. -“Give me one of those spears,” he said, “or I will lampoon you.” “Take -it,” replied Cuchulainn, “I have never yet been lampooned for refusing -anyone a gift.” And he threw the spear at the druid, and killed him. But -Lugaid, son of Curoi, got the spear, and killed Laeg with it. Laeg was -the king of all chariot-drivers. - -“Give me one of your spears, Cuchulainn,” said the second druid. “I need -it myself,” he replied. “I will lampoon the province of Ulster because -of you, if you refuse.” “I am not obliged to give more than one gift in -a day,” said Cuchulainn, “but Ulster shall never be lampooned because of -me.” He threw the spear at the druid, and it went through his head. But -Erc, King of Leinster, got it, and mortally wounded the Gray of Macha, -the king of all horses. - -“Give me your spear,” said the third druid. “I have paid all that is due -from myself and Ulster,” replied Cuchulainn. “I will satirize your -kindred if you do not,” said the druid. “I shall never go home, but I -will be the cause of no lampoons there,” answered Cuchulainn, and he -threw the spear at the asker, and killed him. But Lugaid threw it back, -and it went through Cuchulainn’s body, and wounded him to the death. - -Then, in his agony, he greatly desired to drink. He asked his enemies to -let him go to a lake that lay close by, and quench his thirst, and then -come back again. “If I cannot come back to you, come to fetch me,” he -said; and they let him go. - -Cuchulainn drank, and bathed, and came out of the water. But he found -that he could not walk; so he called to his enemies to come to him. -There was a pillar-stone near; and he bound himself to it with his belt, -so that he might die standing up, and not lying down. His dying horse, -the Gray of Macha, came back to fight for him, and killed fifty men with -his teeth and thirty with each of his hoofs. But the “hero-light” had -died out of Cuchulainn’s face, leaving it as pale as “a one-night’s -snow”, and a crow came and perched upon his shoulder. - -“Truly it was not upon that pillar that birds used to sit,” said Erc. - -Now that they were certain that Cuchulainn was dead, they all gathered -round him, and Lugaid cut off his head to take it to Medb. But vengeance -came quickly, for Conall the Victorious was in pursuit, and he made a -terrible slaughter of Cuchulainn’s enemies. - -Thus perished the great hero of the Gaels in the twenty-seventh year of -his age. And with him fell the prosperity of Emain Macha and of the Red -Branch of Ulster. - ------ - -Footnote 186: - - “There came - Tigernmas, the prince of Tara yonder, - On Hallowe’en with many hosts, - A cause of grief to them was the deed. - - “Dead were the men - Of Banba’s host, without happy strength, - Around Tigernmas, the destructive man in the North, - From the worship of Cromm Cruaich—’twas no luck for them. - - “For I have learnt, - Except one-fourth of the keen Gaels - Not a man alive—lasting the snare! - Escaped without death in his mouth.” - - —Dr. Kuno Meyer’s translation of the _Dinnsenchus of Mag Slecht_. - -Footnote 187: - - Nutt: _Voyage of Bran_, p. 164. - -Footnote 188: - - See chap. XI—“The Gods in Exile”. - -Footnote 189: - - Pronounced _Maive_. - -Footnote 190: - - The story of the _Tragical Death of King Conchobar_, translated by - Eugene O’Curry from the Book of Leinster, will be found in the - appendix to his _MS. Materials of Irish History_, and (more - accessible) in Miss Hull’s _Cuchullin Saga_. - -Footnote 191: - - The name is best pronounced _Cŭhoolin_ or _Cuchullin_ (_ch_ as in - German). - -Footnote 192: - - The descent of the principal Red Branch Heroes from the Tuatha Dé - Danann is given in a table in Miss Hull’s Introduction to her - _Cuchullin Saga_. - -Footnote 193: - - Conchobar is called a terrestrial god of the Ultonians in the Book of - the Dun Cow, and Dechtiré is termed a goddess in the Book of Leinster. - -Footnote 194: - - He is last heard of as chief cook to Conairé the Great, a mythical - king of Ireland. - -Footnote 195: - - In the Book of Leinster. - -Footnote 196: - - For a description of Navan Fort see a paper by M. de Jubainville in - the _Revue Celtique_, Vol. XVI. - -Footnote 197: - - _Cuchulainn, the Irish Achilles._ By Alfred Nutt. Popular Studies in - Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 8. - -Footnote 198: - - See a series of interesting parallels between Cuchulainn and Heracles - in _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, chap. IX and X. - -Footnote 199: - - The _Táin Bó Chuailgné_. Translated by Standish Hayes O’Grady. - -Footnote 200: - - The Irish romances relating to Cuchulainn and his cycle, nearly a - hundred in number, need hardly be referred to severally in this - chapter. Of many of the tales, too, there exist several - slightly-varying versions. Many of them have been translated by - different scholars. The reader desiring a more complete survey of the - Cuchulainn legend is referred to Miss Hull’s _Cuchullin Saga_ or to - Lady Gregory’s _Cuchulain of Muirthemne_. - -Footnote 201: - - Pronounced _Avair_. - -Footnote 202: - - Usually identified, however, with the Isle of Skye. - -Footnote 203: - - Pronounced _Eefa_. - -Footnote 204: - - A literal translation by Miss Winifred Faraday of the _Táin Bo - Chuailgné_ from the Book of the Dun Cow and the Yellow Book of Lecan - has been published by Mr. Nutt—Grimm Library, No. 16. - -Footnote 205: - - Pronounced _Cooley_. - -Footnote 206: - - This prophecy (here much abridged) is, in the original, in verse. - -Footnote 207: - - Finnavár. - -Footnote 208: - - “Bellows-dart”, apparently a kind of harpoon. It had thirty barbs. - -Footnote 209: - - It is contained in the Book of the Dun Cow story called the “Phantom - Chariot”. - -Footnote 210: - - See chap. XX—“The Victories of Light over Darkness”. - -Footnote 211: - - Pronounced _Conla_. - -Footnote 212: - - A kind of mystic prohibition or taboo; singular, _geis_. - -Footnote 213: - - Now called Dundalk. - -Footnote 214: - - Pronounced _Lewy_. - -Footnote 215: - - Pronounced _Glen na Mower_. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - SOME GAELIC LOVE-STORIES - - -The heroic age of Ireland was not, however, the mere orgy of battle -which one might assume from the previous chapter. It had room for its -Helen and its Andromache as well as for its Achilles and its Hector. Its -champions could find time to make love as well as war. More than this, -the legends of their courtships often have a romantic beauty found in no -other early literature. The women have free scope of choice, and claim -the respect of their wooers. Indeed, it has been pointed out that the -mythical stories of the Celts must have created the chivalrous romances -of mediæval Europe. In them, and in no other previous literature, do we -find such knightly treatment of an enemy as we see in the story of -Cuchulainn and Ferdiad, or such poetic delicacy towards a woman as is -displayed in the wooing of Emer.[216] The talk between man and maid when -Cuchulainn comes in his chariot to pay his suit to Emer at Forgall’s -_dún_ might, save for its strangeness, almost have come out of some -quite modern romance. - -“Emer lifted up her lovely face and recognised Cuchulainn, and she said, -‘May God make smooth the path before you!’ - -“‘And you,’ he said, ‘may you be safe from every harm.’” - -She asks him whence he has come, and he tells her. Then he questions her -about herself. - -“I am a Tara of women,” she replies, “the whitest of maidens, one who is -gazed at but who gazes not back, a rush too far to be reached, an -untrodden way.... I was brought up in ancient virtues, in lawful -behaviour, in the keeping of chastity, in rank equal to a queen, in -stateliness of form, so that to me is attributed every noble grace among -the hosts of Erin’s women.” In more boastful strain Cuchulainn tells of -his own birth and deeds. Not like the son of a peasant had he been -reared at Conchobar’s court, but among heroes and champions, jesters and -druids. When he is weakest his strength is that of twenty; alone he will -fight against forty; a hundred men would feel safe under his protection. -One can imagine Emer’s smile as she listens to these braggings. “Truly,” -she says, “they are goodly feats for a tender boy, but they are not yet -those of chariot-chiefs.” Very modern, too, is the way in which she -coyly reminds her wooer that she has an elder sister as yet unwed. But, -when at last he drives her to the point, she answers him with gentle, -but proud decision. Not by words, but by deeds is she to be won. The man -she will marry must have his name mentioned wherever the exploits of -heroes are spoken of. - -“Even as thou hast commanded, so shall all by me be done,” said -Cuchulainn. - -“And by me your offer is accepted, it is taken, it is granted,” replied -Emer. - -It seems a pity that, after so fine a wooing, Cuchulainn could not have -kept faithful to the bride he won. Yet such is not the way of heroes -whom goddesses as well as mortal women conspire to tempt from their -loyalty. Fand, the wife of Manannán son of Lêr, deserted by the sea-god, -sent her sister Liban to Cuchulainn as an ambassador of love. At first -he refused to visit her, but ordered Laeg, his charioteer, to go with -Liban to the “Happy Plain” to spy out the land. Laeg returned -enraptured. “If all Ireland were mine,” he assured his master, “with -supreme rule over its fair inhabitants, I would give it up without -regret to go and live in the place that I have seen.” - -So Cuchulainn himself went and stayed a month in the Celtic Paradise -with Fand, the fairest woman of the Sídhe. Returning to the land of -mortals, he made a tryst with the goddess to meet him again in his own -country by the yew-tree at the head of Baile’s strand. - -But Emer came to hear of it, and went to the meeting-place herself, with -fifty of her maidens, each armed with a knife to kill her rival. There -she found Cuchulainn, Laeg, and Fand. - -“What has led you, Cuchulainn,” said Emer, “to shame me before the women -of Erin and all honourable people? I came under your shelter, trusting -in your faithfulness, and now you seek a cause of quarrel with me.” - -But Cuchulainn, hero-like, could not understand why his wife should not -be content to take her turn with this other woman—surely no unworthy -rival, for she was beautiful, and came of the lofty race of gods. We see -Emer yield at last, with queenly pathos. - -“I will not refuse this woman to you, if you long for her,” she said, -“for I know that everything that is new seems fair, and everything that -is common seems bitter, and everything we have not seems desirable to -us, and everything we have we think little of. And yet, Cuchulainn, I -was once pleasing to you, and I would wish to be so again.” - -Her grief touched him. “By my word,” he said, “you are pleasing to me, -and will be as long as I live.” - -“Then let me be given up,” said Fand. “It is better that I should be,” -replied Emer. “No,” said Fand; “it is I who must be given up in the end. - -“It is I who will go, though I go with great sorrow. I would rather stay -with Cuchulainn than live in the sunny home of the gods. - -“O Emer, he is yours, and you are worthy of him! What my hand cannot -have, my heart may yet wish well to. - -“A sorrowful thing it is to love without return. Better to renounce than -not to receive a love equal to one’s own. - -“It was not well of you, O fair-haired Emer, to come to kill Fand in her -misery.” - -It was while the goddess and the human woman were contending with one -another in self-sacrifice that Manannán, Son of the Sea, heard of Fand’s -trouble, and was sorry that he had forsaken her. So he came, invisible -to all but her alone. He asked her pardon, and she herself could not -forget that she had once been happy with the “horseman of the crested -waves”, and still might be happy with him again. The god asked her to -make her choice between them, and, when she went to him, he shook his -mantle between her and Cuchulainn. It was one of the magic properties of -Manannán’s mantle that those between whom it was shaken could never meet -again. Then Fand returned with her divine husband to the country of the -immortals; and the druids of Emain Macha gave Cuchulainn and Emer each a -drink of oblivion, so that Cuchulainn forgot his love and Emer her -jealousy.[217] - -The scene of this story takes its name from another, and hardly less -beautiful love-tale. The “yew-tree at the head of Baile’s strand” had -grown out of the grave of Baile of the Honeyed Speech, and it bore the -appearance of Baile’s love, Ailinn. This Gaelic Romeo and Juliet were of -royal birth: Baile was heir to Ulster, and Ailinn was daughter of the -King of Leinster’s son. Not by any feud of Montague and Capulet were -they parted, however, but by the craft of a ghostly enemy. They had -appointed to meet one another at Dundealgan, and Baile, who arrived -there first, was greeted by a stranger. “What news do you bring?” asked -Baile. “None,” replied the stranger, “except that Ailinn of Leinster was -setting out to meet her lover, but the men of Leinster kept her back, -and her heart broke then and there from grief.” When Baile heard this, -his own heart broke, and he fell dead on the strand, while the messenger -went on the wings of the wind to the home of Ailinn, who had not yet -started. “Whence come you?” she asked him. “From Ulster, by the shore of -Dundealgan, where I saw men raising a stone over one who had just died, -and on the stone I read the name of Baile. He had come to meet some -woman he was in love with, but it was destined that they should never -see one another again in life.” At this news Ailinn, too, fell dead, and -was buried; and we are told that an apple-tree grew out of her grave, -the apples of which bore the likeness of the face of Baile, while a -yew-tree sprung from Baile’s grave, and took the appearance of Ailinn. -This legend, which is probably a part of the common heritage of the -Aryans, is found in folk-lore over an area which stretches from Ireland -to India. The Gaelic version has, however, an ending unknown to the -others. The two trees, it relates, were cut down, and made into wands -upon which the poets of Ulster and of Leinster cut the songs of the -love-tragedies of their two provinces, in _ogam_. But even these mute -memorials of Baile and Ailinn were destined not to be divided. After two -hundred years, Art the “Lonely”, High-King of Ireland, ordered them to -be brought to the hall of Tara, and, as soon as the wands found -themselves under the same roof, they all sprang together, and no force -or skill could part them again. So the king commanded them to be “kept, -like any other jewel, in the treasury of Tara.”[218] - -Neither of these stories, however, has as yet attained the fame of one -now to be retold.[219] To many, no doubt, Gaelic romance is summed up in -the one word Deirdre. It is the legend of this Gaelic Helen that the -poets of the modern Celtic school most love to elaborate, while old men -still tell it round the peat-fires of Ireland and the Highlands. Scholar -and peasant alike combine to preserve a tradition no one knows how many -hundred years old, for it was written down in the twelfth-century Book -of Leinster as one of the “prime stories” which every bard was bound to -be able to recite. It takes rank with the “Fate of the Sons of Tuirenn”, -and with the “Fate of the Children of Lêr”, as one of the “Three -Sorrowful Stories of Erin”. - -So favourite a tale has naturally been much altered and added to in its -passage down the generations. But its essential story is as follows:— - -King Conchobar of Ulster was holding festival in the house of one of his -bards, called Fedlimid, when Fedlimid’s wife gave birth to a daughter, -concerning whom Cathbad the Druid uttered a prophecy. He foretold that -the new-born child would grow up to be the most lovely woman the world -had ever seen, but that her beauty would bring death to many heroes, and -much peril and sorrow to Ulster. On hearing this, the Red Branch -warriors demanded that she should be killed, but Conchobar refused, and -gave the infant to a trusted serving-woman, to be hidden in a secret -place in the solitude of the mountains, until she was of an age to be -his own wife. - -So Deirdre (as Cathbad named her) was taken away to a hut so remote from -the paths of men that none knew of it save Conchobar. Here she was -brought up by a nurse, a fosterer, and a teacher, and saw no other -living creatures save the beasts and birds of the hills. Nevertheless, -woman-like, she aspired to be loved. - -One day, her fosterer was killing a calf for their food, and its blood -ran out upon the snowy ground, which brought a black raven swooping to -the spot. “If there were a man,” said Deirdre, “who had hair of the -blackness of that raven, skin of the whiteness of the snow, and cheeks -as red as the calf’s blood, that is the man whom I would wish to marry -me.” - -“Indeed there is such a man,” replied her teacher thoughtlessly. -“Naoise[220], one of the sons of Usnach[221], heroes of the same race as -Conchobar the King.” - -The curious Deirdre prevailed upon her teacher to bring Naoise to speak -with her. When they met she made good use of her time, for she offered -Naoise her love, and begged him to take her away from King Conchobar. - -Naoise, bewitched by her beauty, consented. Accompanied by his two -brothers, Ardan and Ainle, and their followers, he fled with Deirdre to -Alba, where they made alliance with one of its kings, and wandered over -the land, living by following the deer, and by helping the king in his -battles. - -The revengeful Conchobar bided his time. One day, as the heroes of the -Red Branch feasted together at Emain Macha, he asked them if they had -ever heard of a nobler company than their own. They replied that the -world could not hold such another. “Yet”, said the king, “we lack our -full tale. The three sons of Usnach could defend the province of Ulster -against any other province of Ireland by themselves, and it is a pity -that they should still be exiles, for the sake of any woman in the -world. Gladly would I welcome them back!” - -“We ourselves,” replied the Ultonians, “would have counselled this long -ago had we dared, O King!” - -“Then I will send one of my three best champions to fetch them,” said -Conchobar. “Either Conall the Victorious, or Cuchulainn, the son of -Sualtam, or Fergus, the son of Roy; and I will find out which of those -three loves me best.” - -First he called Conall to him secretly. - -“What would you do, O Conall,” he asked, “if you were sent to fetch the -sons of Usnach, and they were killed here, in spite of your -safe-conduct?” - -“There is not a man in Ulster,” answered Conall, “who had hand in it -that would escape his own death from me.” - -“I see that I am not dearest of all men to you,” replied Conchobar, and, -dismissing Conall, he called Cuchulainn, and put the same question to -him. - -“By my sworn word,” replied Cuchulainn, “if such a thing happened with -your consent, no bribe or blood-fine would I accept in lieu of your own -head, O Conchobar.” - -“Truly,” said the king, “it is not you I will send.” - -The king then asked Fergus, and he replied that, if the sons of Usnach -were slain while under his protection, he would revenge the deed upon -anyone who was party to it, save only the king himself. - -“Then it is you who shall go,” said Conchobar. “Set forth to-morrow, and -rest not by the way, and when you put foot again in Ireland at the _Dún_ -of Borrach, whatever may happen to you yourself, send the sons of Usnach -forward without delay.” - -The next morning, Fergus, with his two sons, Illann the Fair and Buinne -the Ruthless Red, set out for Alba in their galley, and reached Loch -Etive, by whose shores the sons of Usnach were then living. Naoise, -Ainle, and Ardan were sitting at chess when they heard Fergus’s shout. - -“That is the cry of a man of Erin,” said Naoise. - -“Nay,” replied Deirdre, who had forebodings of trouble. “Do not heed it; -it is only the shout of a man of Alba.” But the sons of Usnach knew -better, and sent Ardan down to the sea-shore, where he found Fergus and -his sons, and gave them greeting, and heard their message, and brought -them back with him. - -That night Fergus persuaded the sons of Usnach to return with him to -Emain Macha. Deirdre, with her “second sight”, implored them to remain -in Alba. But the exiles were weary for the sight of their own country, -and did not share their companion’s fears. As they put out to sea, -Deirdre uttered her beautiful “Farewell to Alba”, that land she was -never to behold again. - - “A lovable land is yon eastern land, - Alba, with its marvels. - I would not have come hither out of it, - Had I not come with Naoise. - - “Lovable are Dún-fidga and Dún-finn, - Lovable the fortress over them; - Dear to the heart Inis Draigende, - And very dear is Dún Suibni. - - “Caill Cuan! - Unto which Ainle would wend, alas! - Short the time seemed to me, - With Naoise in the region of Alba. - - “Glenn Láid! - Often I slept there under the cliff; - Fish and venison and the fat of the badger - Was my portion in Glenn Láid. - - “Glenn Masáin! - Its garlic was tall, its branches white; - We slept a rocking sleep, - Over the grassy estuary of Masáin. - - “Glenn Etive! - Where my first house I raised; - Beauteous its wood:—upon rising - A cattle-fold for the sun was Glenn Etive. - - * * * * * * * * * * - - “Glenn Dá-Rúad! - My love to every man who hath it as an heritage! - Sweet the cuckoos’ note on bending bough, - On the peak over Glenn Dá-Rúad. - - “Beloved is Draigen, - Dear the white sand beneath its waves; - I would not have come from it, from the East, - Had I not come with my beloved.” - -They crossed the sea, and arrived at the _Dún_ of Borrach, who bade them -welcome to Ireland. Now King Conchobar had sent Borrach a secret -command, that he should offer a feast to Fergus on his landing. Strange -taboos called _geasa_ are laid upon the various heroes of ancient -Ireland in the stories; there are certain things that each one of them -may not do without forfeiting life or honour; and it was a _geis_ upon -Fergus to refuse a feast. - -Fergus, we are told, “reddened with anger from crown to sole” at the -invitation. Yet he could not avoid the feast. He asked Naoise what he -should do, and Deirdre broke in with: “Do what is asked of you if you -prefer to forsake the sons of Usnach for a feast. Yet forsaking them is -a good price to pay for it.” - -Fergus, however, perceived a possible compromise. Though he himself -could not refuse to stop to partake of Borrach’s hospitality, he could -send Deirdre and the sons of Usnach on to Emain Macha at once, under the -safeguard of his two sons, Illann the Fair and Buinne the Ruthless Red. -So this was done, albeit to the annoyance of the sons of Usnach and the -terror of Deirdre. Visions came to the sorrowful woman; she saw the -three sons of Usnach and Illann, the son of Fergus, without their heads; -she saw a cloud of blood always hanging over them. She begged them to -wait in some safe place until Fergus had finished the feast. But Naoise, -Ainle, and Ardan laughed at her fears. They arrived at Emain Macha, and -Conchobar ordered the “Red Branch” palace to be placed at their -disposal. - -In the evening Conchobar called Levarcham, Deirdre’s old teacher, to -him. “Go”, he said, “to the ‘Red Branch’, and see Deirdre, and bring me -back news of her appearance, whether she still keeps her former beauty, -or whether it has left her.” - -So Levarcham came to the “Red Branch”, and kissed Deirdre and the three -sons of Usnach, and warned them that Conchobar was preparing treachery. -Then she went back to the king, and reported to him that Deirdre’s hard -life upon the mountains of Alba had ruined her form and face, so that -she was no longer worthy of his regard. - -At this, Conchobar’s jealousy was partly allayed, and he began to doubt -whether it would be wise to attack the sons of Usnach. But later on, -when he had drunk well of wine, he sent a second messenger to see if -what Levarcham had reported about Deirdre was truth. - -The messenger, this time a man, went and looked in through a window. -Deirdre saw him and pointed him out to Naoise, who flung a chessman at -the peering face, and put out one of its eyes. But the man went back to -Conchobar, and told him that, though one of his eyes had been struck -out, he would gladly have stayed looking with the other, so great was -Deirdre’s loveliness. - -Then Conchobar, in his wrath, ordered the men of Ulster to set fire to -the Red Branch House and slay all within it except Deirdre. They flung -fire-brands upon it, but Buinne the Ruthless Red came out and quenched -them, and drove the assailants back with slaughter. But Conchobar called -to him to parley, and offered him a “hundred” of land and his friendship -to desert the sons of Usnach. Buinne was tempted, and fell; but the land -given him turned barren that very night in indignation at being owned by -such a traitor. - -The other of Fergus’s sons was of different make. He charged out, torch -in hand, and cut down the Ultonians, so that they hesitated to come near -the house again. Conchobar dared not offer him a bribe. But he armed his -own son, Fiacha, with his own magic weapons, including his shield, the -“Moaner”, which roared when its owner was in danger, and sent him to -fight Illann. - -The duel was a fierce one, and Illann got the better of Fiacha, so that -the son of Conchobar had to crouch down beneath his shield, which roared -for help. Conall the Victorious heard the roar from far off, and thought -that his king must be in peril. He came to the place, and, without -asking questions, thrust his spear “Blue-green” through Illann. The -dying son of Fergus explained the situation to Conall, who, by way of -making some amends, at once killed Fiacha as well. - -After this, the sons of Usnach held their fort till dawn against all -Conchobar’s host. But, with day, they saw that they must either escape -or resign themselves to perish. Putting Deirdre in their centre, -protected by their shields, they opened the door suddenly and fled out. - -They would have broken through and escaped, had not Conchobar asked -Cathbad the Druid to put a spell upon them, promising to spare their -lives. So Cathbad raised the illusion of a stormy sea before and all -around the sons of Usnach. Naoise lifted Deirdre upon his shoulder, but -the magic waves rose higher, until they were all obliged to fling away -their weapons and swim. - -Then was seen the strange sight of men swimming upon dry land. And, -before the glamour passed away, the sons of Usnach were seized from -behind, and brought to Conchobar. - -In spite of his promise to the druid, the king condemned them to death. -None of the men of Ulster would, however, deal the blow. In the end, a -foreigner from Norway, whose father Naoise had slain, offered to behead -them. Each of the brothers begged to die first, that he might not -witness the deaths of the others. But Naoise ended this noble rivalry by -lending their executioner the sword called “The Retaliator”, which had -been given him by Manannán son of Lêr. They knelt down side by side, and -one blow of the sword of the god shore off all their heads. - -As for Deirdre, there are varying stories of her death, but most of them -agree that she did not survive the sons of Usnach many hours. But, -before she died, she made an elegy over them. That it is of a singular -pathos and beauty the few verses which there is space to give will -show.[222] - - “Long the day without Usnach’s children! - It was not mournful to be in their company! - Sons of a king by whom sojourners were entertained, - Three lions from the Hill of the Cave. - - * * * * * * * * * * - - “Three darlings of the women of Britain, - Three hawks of Slieve Gullion, - Sons of a king whom valour served, - To whom soldiers used to give homage! - - * * * * * * * * * * - - “That I should remain after Naoise - Let no one in the world suppose: - After Ardan and Ainle - My time would not be long. - - “Ulster’s over-king, my first husband, - I forsook for Naoise’s love. - Short my life after them: - I will perform their funeral game. - - “After them I shall not be alive— - Three that would go into every conflict, - Three who liked to endure hardships, - Three heroes who refused not combats. - - * * * * * * * * * * - - “O man, that diggest the tomb - And puttest my darling from me, - Make not the grave too narrow: - I shall be beside the noble ones.” - -It was a poor triumph for Conchobar. Deirdre in all her beauty had -escaped him by death. His own chief followers never forgave it. Fergus, -when he returned from Borrach’s feast, and found out what had been done, -gathered his own people, slew Conchobar’s son and many of his warriors, -and fled to Ulster’s bitterest enemies, Ailill and Medb of Connaught. -And Cathbad the Druid cursed both king and kingdom, praying that none of -Conchobar’s race might ever reign in Emain Macha again. - -So it came to pass. The capital of Ulster was only kept from ruin by -Cuchulainn’s prowess. When he perished, it also fell, and soon became -what it is now—a grassy hill. - ------ - -Footnote 216: - - The romance of the _Wooing of Emer_, a fragment of which is contained - in the Book of the Dun Cow, has been translated by Dr. Kuno Meyer, and - published by him in the _Archæological Review_, Vol. I, 1888. Miss - Hull has included this translation in her _Cuchullin Saga_. Another - version of it from a Bodleian MS., translated by the same scholar, - will be found in the _Revue Celtique_, Vol. XI. - -Footnote 217: - - This story, known as the _Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn_, translated into - French by M. d’Arbois de Jubainville, will be found in his _L’Épopée - Celtique en Irlande_, the fifth volume of _Cour de Littérature - Celtique_. Another translation, into English, by Eugene O’Curry is in - _Atlantis_, Vols. I and II. - -Footnote 218: - - For the full story of Baile and Ailinn see Dr. Kuno Meyer’s - translation in Vol. XIII of the _Revue Celtique_. - -Footnote 219: - - There are not only numerous translations of this romance, but also - many Gaelic versions. The oldest of the latter is in the Book of - Leinster, while the fullest are in two MSS. in the Advocates’ Library - at Edinburgh. The version followed here is from one of these, the - so-called Glenn Masáin MS., translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes, and - contained in Miss Hull’s _Cuchullin Saga_. - -Footnote 220: - - Pronounced _Naisi_. - -Footnote 221: - - Pronounced _Usna_. - -Footnote 222: - - It will be found in full in Miss Hull’s _Cuchullin Saga_. The version - there given was first translated into French by M. Ponsinet from the - Book of Leinster. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - FINN AND THE FENIANS[223] - - -The epoch of Emain Macha is followed in the annals of ancient Ireland by -a succession of monarchs who, though doubtless as mythical as King -Conchobar and his court, seem to grow gradually more human. Their line -lasts for about two centuries, culminating in a dynasty with which -legend has occupied itself more than with its immediate predecessors. -This is the one which began, according to the annalists, in A.D. 177, -with the famous Conn “the Hundred-Fighter”, and, passing down to the -reign of his even more famous grandson, Cormac “the Magnificent”, is -connected with the third Gaelic cycle—that which relates the exploits of -Finn and the Fenians. All these kings had their dealings with the -national gods. A story contained in a fifteenth-century Irish -manuscript, and called “The Champion’s Prophecy”,[224] tells how Lugh -appeared to Conn, enveloped him in a magic mist, led him away to an -enchanted palace, and there prophesied to him the number of his -descendants, the length of their reigns, and the manner of their deaths. -Another tradition relates how Conn’s son, Connla, was wooed by a goddess -and borne away, like the British Arthur, in a boat of glass to the -Earthly Paradise beyond the sea.[225] Yet another relates Conn’s own -marriage with Becuma of the Fair Skin, wife of that same Labraid of the -Quick Hand on Sword who, in another legend, married Liban, the sister of -Fand, Cuchulainn’s fairy love. Becuma had been discovered in an intrigue -with Gaiar, a son of Manannán, and, banished from the “Land of Promise”, -crossed the sea that sunders mortals and immortals to offer her hand to -Conn. The Irish king wedded her, but evil came of the marriage. She grew -jealous of Conn’s other son, Art, and insisted upon his banishment; but -they agreed to play chess to decide which should go, and Art won. Art, -called “the Lonely” because he had lost his brother Connla, was king -after Conn, but he is chiefly known to legend as the father of Cormac. - -Many Irish stories occupy themselves with the fame of Cormac, who is -pictured as a great legislator—a Gaelic Solomon. Certain traditions -credit him with having been the first to believe in a purer doctrine -than the Celtic polytheism, and even with having attempted to put down -druidism, in revenge for which a druid called Maelcen sent an evil -spirit who placed a salmon-bone crossways in the king’s throat, as he -sat at meat, and so compassed his death. Another class of stories, -however, make him an especial favourite with those same heathen deities. -Manannán son of Lêr, was so anxious for his friendship that he decoyed -him into fairyland, and gave him a magic branch. It was of silver, and -bore golden apples, and, when it was shaken, it made such sweet music -that the wounded, the sick, and the sorrowful forgot their pains, and -were lulled into deep sleep. Cormac kept this treasure all his life; -but, at his death, it returned into the hands of the gods.[226] - -King Cormac was a contemporary of Finn mac Coul[227], whom he appointed -head of the _Fianna[228] Eirinn_, more generally known as the “Fenians”. -Around Finn and his men have gathered a cycle of legends which were -equally popular with the Gaels of both Scotland and Ireland. We read of -their exploits in stories and poems preserved in the earliest Irish -manuscripts, while among the peasantry both of Ireland and of the West -Highlands their names and the stories connected with them are still -current lore. Upon some of these floating traditions, as preserved in -folk ballads, MacPherson founded his factitious _Ossian_, and the -collection of them from the lips of living men still affords plenty of -employment to Gaelic students. - -How far Finn and his followers may have been historical personages it is -impossible to say. The Irish people themselves have always held that the -Fenians were a kind of native militia, and that Finn was their general. -The early historical writers of Ireland supported this view. The -chronicler Tighernach, who died in 1088, believed in him, and the -“Annals of the Four Masters”, compiled between the years 1632 and 1636 -from older chronicles, while they ignore King Conchobar and his Red -Branch Champions as unworthy of the serious consideration of historians, -treat Finn as a real person whose death took place in 283 A.D. Even so -great a modern scholar as Eugene O’Curry declared in the clearest -language that Finn, so far from being “a merely imaginary or mythical -character”, was “an undoubtedly historical personage; and that he -existed about the time at which his appearance is recorded in the Annals -is as certain as that Julius Caesar lived and ruled at the time stated -on the authority of the Roman historians”.[229] - -The opinion of more recent Celtic scholars, however, is opposed to this -view. Finn’s pedigree, preserved in the Book of Leinster, may seem at -first to give some support to the theory of his real existence, but, on -more careful examination of it, his own name and that of his father -equally bewray him. Finn or Fionn, meaning “fair”, is the name of one of -the mythical ancestors of the Gaels, while his father’s name, -Cumhal[230], signifies the “sky”, and is the same word as _Camulus_, the -Gaulish heaven-god identified by the Romans with Mars. His followers are -as doubtfully human as himself. One may compare them with Cuchulainn and -the rest of the heroes of Emain Macha. Their deeds are not less -marvellous. Like the Ultonian warriors, they move, too, on equal terms -with the gods. “The Fianna of Erin”, says a tract called “The Dialogue -of the Elders”,[231] contained in thirteenth and fourteenth century -manuscripts, “had not more frequent and free intercourse with the men of -settled habitation than with the Tuatha Dé Danann”.[232] Angus, Mider, -Lêr, Manannán, and Bodb the Red, with their countless sons and -daughters, loom as large in the Fenian, or so-called “Ossianic” stories -as do the Fenians themselves. They fight for them, or against them; they -marry them, and are given to them in marriage. - -A luminous suggestion of Professor Rhys also hints that the Fenians -inherited the conduct of that ancient war formerly waged between the -Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomors. The most common antagonists of Finn and -his heroes are tribes of invaders from oversea, called in the stories -the _Lochlannach_. These “Men of Lochlann” are usually identified, by -those who look for history in the stories of the Fenian cycle, with the -invading bands of Norsemen who harried the Irish coasts in the ninth -century. But the nucleus of the Fenian tales antedates these -Scandinavian raids, and mortal foes have probably merely stepped into -the place of those immortal enemies of the gods whose “Lochlann” was a -country, not over the sea—but under it.[233] - -The earlier historians of Ireland were as ready with their dates and -facts regarding the Fenian band as an institution as with the -personality of Finn. It was said to have been first organized by a king -called Fiachadh, in 300 B.C., and abolished, or rather, exterminated, by -Cairbré, the son of Cormac mac Art, in 284 _A.D._ We are told that it -consisted of three regiments modelled on the Roman legion; each of these -bodies contained, on a peace footing, three thousand men, but in time of -war could be indefinitely strengthened. Its object was to defend the -coasts of Ireland and the country generally, throwing its weight upon -the side of any prince who happened to be assailed by foreign foes. -During the six months of winter, its members were quartered upon the -population, but during the summer they had to forage for themselves, -which they did by hunting and fishing. Thus they lived in the woods and -on the open moors, hardening themselves for battle by their adventurous -life. The sites of their enormous camp-fires were long pointed out under -the name of the “Fenians’ cooking-places”. - -It was not easy to become a member of this famous band. A candidate had -to be not only an expert warrior, but a poet and a man of culture as -well. He had practically to renounce his tribe; at any rate he made oath -that he would neither avenge any of his relatives nor be avenged by -them. He put himself under bonds never to refuse hospitality to anyone -who asked, never to turn his back in battle, never to insult any woman, -and not to accept a dowry with his wife. In addition to all this, he had -to pass successfully through the most stringent physical tests. Indeed, -as these have come down to us, magnified by the perfervid Celtic -imagination, they are of an altogether marvellous and impossible -character. An aspirant to the _Fianna Eirinn_, we are told, had first to -stand up to his knees in a pit dug for him, his only arms being his -shield and a hazel wand, while nine warriors, each with a spear, -standing within the distance of nine ridges of land, all hurled their -weapons at him at once; if he failed to ward them all off, he was -rejected. Should he succeed in this first test, he was given the -distance of one tree-length’s start, and chased through a forest by -armed men; if any of them came up to him and wounded him, he could not -belong to the Fenians. If he escaped unhurt, but had unloosed a single -lock of his braided hair, or had broken a single branch in his flight, -or if, at the end of the run, his weapons trembled in his hands, he was -refused. As, besides these tests, he was obliged to jump over a branch -as high as his forehead, and stoop under one as low as his knee, while -running at full speed, and to pluck a thorn out of his heel without -hindrance to his flight, it is clear that even the rank and file of the -Fenians must have been quite exceptional athletes.[234] - -But it is time to pass on to a more detailed description of these -champions.[235] They are a goodly company, not less heroic than the -mighty men of Ulster. First comes Finn himself, not the strongest in -body of the Fenians, but the truest, wisest, and kindest, gentle to -women, generous to men, and trusted by all. If he could help it, he -would never let anyone be in trouble or poverty. “If the dead leaves of -the forest had been gold, and the white foam of the water silver, Finn -would have given it all away.” - -Finn had two sons, Fergus and his more famous brother Ossian[236]. -Fergus of the sweet speech was the Fenian’s bard, and, also, because of -his honeyed words, their diplomatist and ambassador. Yet, by the irony -of fate, it is to Ossian, who is not mentioned as a poet in the earliest -texts, that the poems concerning the Fenians which are current in -Scotland under the name of “Ossianic Ballads” are attributed. Ossian’s -mother was Sadb, a daughter of Bodb the Red. A rival goddess changed her -into a deer—which explains how Ossian got his name, which means “fawn”. -With such advantages of birth, naturally he was speedy enough to run -down a red deer hind and catch her by the ear, though far less -swift-footed than his cousin Caoilte[237], the “Thin Man”. Neither was -he so strong as his own son Oscar, the mightiest of all the Fenians, -yet, in his youth, so clumsy that the rest of the band refused to take -him with them on their warlike expeditions. They changed their minds, -however, when, one day, he followed them unawares, found them giving way -before an enemy, and, rushing to their help, armed only with a great log -of wood which lay handy on the ground, turned the fortunes of the fight. -After this, Oscar was hailed the best warrior of all the Fianna; he was -given command of a battalion, and its banner, called the “Terrible -Broom”, was regarded as the centre of every battle, for it was never -known to retreat a foot. Other prominent Fenians were Goll[238], son of -Morna, at first Finn’s enemy but afterwards his follower, a man skilled -alike in war and learning. Even though he was one-eyed, we are told that -he was much loved by women, but not so much as Finn’s cousin, Diarmait -O’Duibhne[239], whose fatal beauty ensnared even Finn’s betrothed bride, -Grainne[240]. Their comic character was Conan, who is represented as an -old, bald, vain, irritable man, as great a braggart as ancient Pistol -and as foul-mouthed as Thersites, and yet, after he had once been shamed -into activity, a true man of his hands. These are the prime Fenian -heroes, the chief actors in its stories. - -The Fenian epic begins, before the birth of its hero, with the struggle -of two rival clans, each of whom claimed to be the real and only Fianna -Eirinn. They were called the Clann Morna, of which Goll mac Morna was -head, and the Clann Baoisgne[241], commanded by Finn’s father, Cumhal. A -battle was fought at Cnucha[242], in which Goll killed Cumhal, and the -Clann Baoisgne was scattered. Cumhal’s wife, however, bore a posthumous -son, who was brought up among the Slieve Bloom Mountains secretly, for -fear his father’s enemies should find and kill him. The boy, who was at -first called Deimne[243], grew up to be an expert hurler, swimmer, -runner, and hunter. Later, like Cuchulainn, and indeed many modern -savages, he took a second, more personal name. Those who saw him asked -who was the “fair” youth. He accepted the omen, and called himself -Deimne Finn. - -At length, he wandered to the banks of the Boyne, where he found a -soothsayer called Finn the Seer living beside a deep pool near Slane, -named “Fec’s Pool”, in hope of catching one of the “salmons of -knowledge”, and, by eating it, obtaining universal wisdom. He had been -there seven years without result, though success had been prophesied to -one named “Finn”. When the wandering son of Cumhal appeared, Finn the -Seer engaged him as his servant. Shortly afterwards, he caught the -coveted fish, and handed it over to our Finn to cook, warning him to eat -no portion of it. “Have you eaten any of it?” he asked the boy, as he -brought it up ready boiled. “No indeed,” replied Finn; “but, while I was -cooking it, a blister rose upon the skin, and, laying my thumb down upon -the blister, I scalded it, and so I put it into my mouth to ease the -pain.” The man was perplexed. “You told me your name was Deimne,” he -said; “but have you any other name?” “Yes, I am also called Finn.” “It -is enough,” replied his disappointed master. “Eat the salmon yourself, -for you must be the one of whom the prophecy told.” Finn ate the “salmon -of knowledge”, and thereafter he had only to put his thumb under his -tooth, as he had done when he scalded it, to receive fore-knowledge and -magic counsel.[244] - -Thus armed, Finn was more than a match for the Clann Morna. Curious -legends tell how he discovered himself to his father’s old followers, -confounded his enemies with his magic, and turned them into faithful -servants.[245] Even Goll of the Blows had to submit to his sway. -Gradually he welded the two opposing clans into one Fianna, over which -he ruled, taking tribute from the kings of Ireland, warring against the -Fomorian “Lochlannach”, destroying every kind of giant, serpent, or -monster that infested the land, and at last carrying his mythical -conquests over all Europe. - -Out of the numberless stories of the Fenian exploits it is hard to -choose examples. All are heroic, romantic, wild, fantastic. In many of -them the Tuatha Dé Danann play prominent parts. One such story connects -itself with an earlier mythological episode already related. The reader -will remember[246] how, when the Dagda gave up the kingship of the -immortals, five aspirants appeared to claim it; how of these five—Angus, -Mider, Lêr, Ilbhreach son of Manannán, and Bodb the Red—the latter was -chosen; how Lêr refused to acknowledge him, but was reconciled later; -how Mider, equally rebellious, fled to “desert country round Mount -Leinster” in County Carlow; and how a yearly war was waged upon him and -his people by the rest of the gods to bring them to subjection. This war -was still raging in the time of Finn, and Mider was not too proud to -seek his help. One day that Finn was hunting in Donegal, with Ossian, -Oscar, Caoilte, and Diarmait, their hounds roused a beautiful fawn, -which, although at every moment apparently nearly overtaken, led them in -full chase as far as Mount Leinster. Here it suddenly disappeared into a -cleft in the hillside. Heavy snow, “making the forest’s branches as it -were a withe-twist”, now fell, forcing the Fenians to seek for some -shelter, and they therefore explored the place into which the fawn had -vanished. It led to a splendid _sídh_ in the hollow of the hill. -Entering it, they were greeted by a beautiful goddess-maiden, who told -them that it was she, Mider’s daughter, who had been the fawn, and that -she had taken that shape purposely to lead them there, in the hope of -getting their help against the army that was coming to attack the -_sídh_. Finn asked who the assailants would be, and was told that they -were Bodb the Red with his seven sons, Angus “Son of the Young” with his -seven sons, Lêr of Sídh Fionnechaidh with his twenty-seven sons, and -Fionnbharr of Sídh Meadha with his seventeen sons, as well as numberless -gods of lesser fame drawn from _sídhe_ not only over all Ireland, but -from Scotland and the islands as well. Finn promised his aid, and, with -the twilight of that same day, the attacking forces appeared, and made -their annual assault. They were beaten off, after a battle that lasted -all night, with the loss of “ten men, ten score, and ten hundred”. Finn, -Oscar, and Diarmait, as well as most of Mider’s many sons, were sorely -wounded, but the leech Labhra healed all their wounds.[247] - -Sooth to say, the Fenians did not always require the excuse of fairy -alliance to start them making war on the race of the hills. One of the -so-called “Ossianic ballads” is entitled “The Chase of the Enchanted -Pigs of Angus of the Brugh[248]”. This Angus is, of course, the “Son of -the Young”, and the Brugh that famous _sídh_ beside the Boyne out of -which he cheated his father, the Dagda. After the friendly manner of -gods towards heroes, he invited Finn and a picked thousand of his -followers to a banquet at the Brugh. They came to it in their finest -clothes, “goblets went from hand to hand, and waiters were kept in -motion”. At last conversation fell upon the comparative merits of the -pleasures of the table and of the chase, Angus stoutly contending that -“the gods’ life of perpetual feasting” was better than all the Fenian -huntings, and Finn as stoutly denying it. Finn boasted of his hounds, -and Angus said that the best of them could not kill one of his pigs. -Finn angrily replied that his two hounds, Bran[249] and Sgeolan[250], -would kill any pig that trod on dry land. Angus answered that he could -show Finn a pig that none of his hounds or huntsmen could catch or kill. -Here were the makings of a pretty quarrel among such inflammable -creatures as gods and heroes, but the steward of the feast interposed -and sent everyone to bed. The next morning, Finn left the Brugh, for he -did not want to fight all Angus’s fairies with his handful of a thousand -men. A year passed before he heard more of it; then came a messenger -from Angus, reminding Finn of his promise to pit his men and hounds -against Angus’s pigs. The Fenians seated themselves on the tops of the -hills, each with his favourite hound in leash, and they had not been -there long before there appeared on the eastern plain a hundred and one -such pigs as no Fenian had ever seen before. Each was as tall as a deer, -and blacker than a smith’s coals, having hair like a thicket and -bristles like ships’ masts. Yet such was the prowess of the Fenians that -they killed them all, though each of the pigs slew ten men and many -hounds. Then Angus complained that the Fenians had murdered his son and -many others of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who, indeed, were none other than -the pigs whose forms they had taken. There were mighty recriminations on -both sides, and, in the end, the enraged Fenians prepared to attack the -Brugh on the Boyne. Then only did Angus begin to yield, and, by the -advice of Ossian, Finn made peace with him and his fairy folk. - -Such are specimens of the tales which go to make up the Fenian cycle of -sagas. Hunting is the most prominent feature of them, for the Fenians -were essentially a race of mighty hunters. But the creatures of their -chase were not always flesh and blood. Enchanters who wished the Fenians -ill could always lure them into danger by taking the shape of boar or -deer, and many a story begins with an innocent chase and ends with a -murderous battle. But out of such struggles the Fenians always emerge -successfully, as Ossian is represented proudly boasting, “through -truthfulness and the might of their hands”. - -The most famous chase of all is, however, not that of deer or boar, but -of a woman and a man, Finn’s betrothed wife and his nephew -Diarmait.[251] Ever fortunate in war, the Fenian leader found disaster -in his love. Wishing for a wife in his old age, he sent to seek Grainne, -the daughter of Cormac, the High-King of Ireland. Both King Cormac and -his daughter consented, and Finn’s ambassadors returned with an -invitation to the suitor to come in a fortnight’s time to claim his -bride. He arrived with his picked band, and was received in state in the -great banqueting-hall of Tara. There they feasted, and there Grainne, -the king’s daughter, casting her eyes over the assembled Fenian heroes, -saw Diarmait O’Duibhne. - -This Fenian Adonis had a beauty-spot upon his cheek which no woman could -see without falling instantly in love with him. Grainne, for all her -royal birth, was no exception to this rule. She asked a druid to point -her out the principal guests. The druid told her all their names and -exploits. Then she called for a jewelled drinking-horn, and, filling it -with a drugged wine, sent it round to each in turn, except to Diarmait. -None could be so discourteous as to refuse wine from the hand of a -princess. All drank, and fell into deep sleep. - -Then, rising, she came to Diarmait, told him her passion for him, and -asked for its return. “I will not love the betrothed of my chief,” he -replied, “and, even if I wished, I dare not.” And he praised Finn’s -virtues, and decried his own fame. But Grainne merely answered that she -put him under _geasa_ (bonds which no hero could refuse to redeem) to -flee with her; and at once went back to her chair before the rest of the -company awoke from their slumber. - -After the feast, Diarmait went round to his comrades, one by one, and -told them of Grainne’s love for him, and of the _geasa_ she had placed -upon him to take her from Tara. He asked each of them what he ought to -do. All answered that no hero could break a _geis_ put upon him by a -woman. He even asked Finn, concealing Grainne’s name, and Finn gave him -the same counsel as the others. That night, the lovers fled from Tara to -the ford of the Shannon at Athlone, crossed it, and came to a place -called the “Wood of the Two Tents”, where Diarmait wove a hut of -branches for Grainne to shelter in. - -Meanwhile Finn had discovered their flight, and his rage knew no bounds. -He sent his trackers, the Clann Neamhuain[252], to follow them. They -tracked them to the wood, and one of them climbed a tree, and, looking -down, saw the hut, with a strong seven-doored fence built round it, and -Diarmait and Grainne inside. When the news came to the Fenians, they -were sorry, for their sympathies were with Diarmait and not with Finn. -They tried to warn him, but he took no heed; for he had determined to -fight and not to flee. Indeed, when Finn himself came to the fence, and -called over it to Diarmait, asking if he and Grainne were within, he -replied that they were, but that none should enter unless he gave -permission. - -So Diarmait, like Cuchulainn in the war of Ulster against Ireland, found -himself matched single-handed against a host. But, also like Cuchulainn, -he had a divine helper. The favourite of the Tuatha Dé Danann, he had -been the pupil of Manannán son of Lêr in the “Land of Promise”, and had -been fostered by Angus of the Brugh. Manannán had given him his two -spears, the “Red Javelin” and the “Yellow Javelin”, and his two swords, -the “Great Fury” and the “Little Fury”. And now Angus came to look for -his foster-son, and brought with him the magic mantle of invisibility -used by the gods. He advised Diarmait and Grainne to come out wrapped in -the cloak, and thus rendered invisible. Diarmait still refused to flee, -but asked Angus to protect Grainne. Wrapping the magic mantle round her, -the god led the princess away unseen by any of the Fenians. - -By this time, Finn had posted men outside all the seven doors in the -fence. Diarmait went to each of them in turn. At the first, were Ossian -and Oscar with the Clann Baoisgne. They offered him their protection. At -the second, were Caoilte and the Clann Ronan, who said they would fight -to the death for him. At the third, were Conan and the Clann Morna, also -his friends. At the fourth, stood Cuan with the Fenians of Munster, -Diarmait’s native province. At the fifth, were the Ulster Fenians, who -also promised him protection against Finn. But at the sixth, were the -Clann Neamhuain, who hated him; and at the seventh, was Finn himself. - -“It is by your door that I will pass out, O Finn,” cried Diarmait. Finn -charged his men to surround Diarmait as he came out, and kill him. But -he leaped the fence, passing clean over their heads, and fled away so -swiftly that they could not follow him. He never halted till he reached -the place to which he knew Angus had taken Grainne. The friendly god -left them with a little sage advice: never to hide in a tree with only -one trunk; never to rest in a cave with only one entrance; never to land -on an island with only one channel of approach; not to eat their supper -where they had cooked it, nor to sleep where they had supped, and, where -they had slept once, never to sleep again. With these Red-Indian-like -tactics, it was some time before Finn discovered them. - -However, he found out at last where they were, and sent champions with -venomous hounds to take or kill them. But Diarmait conquered all who -were sent against him. - -Yet still Finn pursued, until Diarmait, as a last hope of escape, took -refuge under a magic quicken-tree[253], which bore scarlet fruit, the -ambrosia of the gods. It had grown from a single berry dropped by one of -the Tuatha Dé Danann, who, when they found that they had carelessly -endowed mortals with celestial and immortal food, had sent a huge, -one-eyed Fomor called Sharvan the Surly to guard it, so that no man -might eat of its fruit. All day, this Fomor sat at the foot of the tree, -and, all night, he slept among its branches, and so terrible was his -appearance that neither the Fenians nor any other people dared to come -within several miles of him. - -But Diarmait was willing to brave the Fomor in the hope of getting a -safe hiding-place for Grainne. He came boldly up to him, and asked leave -to camp and hunt in his neighbourhood. The Fomor told him surlily that -he might camp and hunt where he pleased, so long as he refrained from -taking any of the scarlet berries. So Diarmait built a hut near a -spring; and he and Grainne lived there, killing the wild animals for -food. - -But, unhappily, Grainne conceived so strong a desire to eat the quicken -berries that she felt that she must die unless her wish could be -gratified. At first she tried to hide this longing, but in the end she -was forced to tell her companion. Diarmait had no desire to quarrel with -the Fomor; so he went to him and told the plight that Grainne was in, -and asked for a handful of the berries as a gift. - -But the Fomor merely answered: “I swear to you that if nothing would -save the princess and her unborn child except my berries, and if she -were the last woman upon the earth, she should not have any of them.” -Whereupon Diarmait fought the Fomor, and, after much trouble, killed -him. - -It was reported to Finn that the guardian of the magic quicken-tree -lived no longer, and he guessed that Diarmait must have killed him; so -he came down to the place with seven battalions of the Fenians to look -for him. By this time, Diarmait had abandoned his own hut and taken -possession of that built by the Fomor among the branches of the magic -quicken. He was sitting in it with Grainne when Finn and his men came -and camped at the foot of the tree, to wait till the heat of noon had -passed before beginning their search. - -To beguile the time, Finn called for his chess-board and challenged his -son Ossian to a game. They played until Ossian had only one more move. - -“One move would make you a winner,” said Finn to him, “but I challenge -you and all the Fenians to guess it.” - -Only Diarmait, who had been looking down through the branches upon the -players, knew the move. He could not resist dropping a berry on to the -board, so deftly that it hit the very chess-man which Ossian ought to -move in order to win. Ossian took the hint, moved it, and won. A second -and a third game were played; and in each case the same thing happened. -Then Finn felt sure that the berries that had prompted Ossian must have -been thrown by Diarmait. - -He called out, asking Diarmait if he were there, and the Fenian hero, -who never spoke an untruth, answered that he was. So the quicken-tree -was surrounded by armed men, just as the fenced hut in the woods had -been. But, again, things happened in the same way; for Angus of the -Brugh took away Grainne wrapped in the invisible magic cloak, while -Diarmait, walking to the end of a thick branch, cleared the circle of -Fenians at a bound, and escaped untouched. - -This was the end of the famous “Pursuit”; for Angus came as ambassador -to Finn, urging him to become reconciled to the fugitives, and all the -best of the Fenians begged Finn to consent. So Diarmait and Grainne were -allowed to return in peace. - -But Finn never really forgave, and, soon after, he urged Diarmait to go -out to the chase of the wild boar of Benn Gulban[254]. Diarmait killed -the boar without getting any hurt; for, like the Greek Achilles, he was -invulnerable, save in his heel alone. Finn, who knew this, told him to -measure out the length of the skin with his bare feet. Diarmait did so. -Then Finn, declaring that he had measured it wrongly, ordered him to -tread it again in the opposite direction. This was against the lie of -the bristles; and one of them pierced Diarmait’s heel, and inflicted a -poisoned and mortal wound. - -This “Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne”, which has been told at such -length, marks in some degree the climax of the Fenian power, after which -it began to decline towards its end. The friends of Diarmait never -forgave the treachery with which Finn had compassed his death. The -ever-slumbering rivalry between Goll and his Clann Morna and Finn and -his Clann Baoisgne began to show itself as open enmity. Quarrels arose, -too, between the Fenians and the High-Kings of Ireland, which culminated -at last in the annihilation of the Fianna at the battle of Gabhra[255]. - -This is said to have been fought in A.D. 284. Finn himself had perished -a year before it, in a skirmish with rebellious Fenians at the Ford of -Brea on the Boyne. King Cormac the Magnificent, Grainne’s father, was -also dead. It was between Finn’s grandson Oscar and Cormac’s son Cairbré -that war broke out. This mythical battle was as fiercely waged as that -of Arthur’s last fight at Camlan. Oscar slew Cairbré, and was slain by -him. Almost all the Fenians fell, as well as all Cairbré’s forces. - -Only two of the greater Fenian figures survived. One was Caoilte, whose -swiftness of foot saved him at the end when all was lost. The famous -story, called the “Dialogue of the Elders”, represents him discoursing -to St. Patrick, centuries after, of the Fenians’ wonderful deeds. Having -lost his friends of the heroic age, he is said to have cast in his lot -with the Tuatha Dé Danann. He fought in a battle, with Ilbhreach son of -Manannán, against Lêr himself, and killed the ancient sea-god with his -own hand.[256] The tale represents him taking possession of Lêr’s fairy -palace of Sídh Fionnechaidh, after which we know no more of him, except -that he has taken rank in the minds of the Irish peasantry as one of, -and a ruler among, the Sídhe. - -The other was Ossian, who did not fight at Gabhra, for, long before, he -had taken the great journey which most heroes of mythology take, to that -bourne from which no ordinary mortal ever returns. Like Cuchulainn, it -was upon the invitation of a goddess that he went. The Fenians were -hunting near Lake Killarney when a lady of more than human beauty came -to them, and told them that her name was Niamh[257], daughter of the Son -of the Sea. The Gaelic poet, Michael Comyn, who, in the eighteenth -century, rewove the ancient story into his own words,[258] describes her -in just the same way as one of the old bards would have done: - - “A royal crown was on her head; - And a brown mantle of precious silk, - Spangled with stars of red gold, - Covering her shoes down to the grass. - - “A gold ring was hanging down - From each yellow curl of her golden hair; - Her eyes, blue, clear, and cloudless, - Like a dew-drop on the top of the grass. - - “Redder were her cheeks than the rose, - Fairer was her visage than the swan upon the wave, - And more sweet was the taste of her balsam lips - Than honey mingled thro’ red wine. - - “A garment, wide, long, and smooth - Covered the white steed, - There was a comely saddle of red gold, - And her right hand held a bridle with a golden bit. - - “Four shoes well-shaped were under him, - Of the yellow gold of the purest quality; - A silver wreath was on the back of his head, - And there was not in the world a steed better.” - -Such was Niamh of the Golden Hair, Manannán’s daughter; and it is small -wonder that, when she chose Ossian from among the sons of men to be her -lover, all Finn’s supplications could not keep him. He mounted behind -her on her fairy horse, and they rode across the land to the sea-shore, -and then over the tops of the waves. As they went, she described the -country of the gods to him in just the same terms as Manannán himself -had pictured it to Bran, son of Febal, as Mider had painted it to Etain, -and as everyone that went there limned it to those that stayed at home -on earth. - - “It is the most delightful country to be found - Of greatest repute under the sun; - Trees drooping with fruit and blossom, - And foliage growing on the tops of boughs. - - “Abundant, there, are honey and wine, - And everything that eye has beheld, - There will not come decline on thee with lapse of time. - Death or decay thou wilt not see.” - -As they went they saw wonders. Fairy palaces with bright sun-bowers and -lime-white walls appeared on the surface of the sea. At one of these -they halted, and Ossian, at Niamh’s request, attacked a fierce Fomor who -lived there, and set free a damsel of the Tuatha Dé Danann whom he kept -imprisoned. He saw a hornless fawn leap from wave to wave, chased by one -of those strange hounds of Celtic myth which are pure white, with red -ears. At last they reached the “Land of the Young”, and there Ossian -dwelt with Niamh for three hundred years before he remembered Erin and -the Fenians. Then a great wish came upon him to see his own country and -his own people again, and Niamh gave him leave to go, and mounted him -upon a fairy steed for the journey. One thing alone she made him -swear—not to let his feet touch earthly soil. Ossian promised, and -reached Ireland on the wings of the wind. But, like the children of Lêr -at the end of their penance, he found all changed. He asked for Finn and -the Fenians, and was told that they were the names of people who had -lived long ago, and whose deeds were written of in old books. The Battle -of Gabhra had been fought, and St. Patrick had come to Ireland, and made -all things new. The very forms of men had altered; they seemed dwarfs -compared with the giants of his day. Seeing three hundred of them trying -in vain to raise a marble slab, he rode up to them in contemptuous -kindness, and lifted it with one hand. But, as he did so, the golden -saddle-girth broke with the strain, and he touched the earth with his -feet. The fairy horse vanished, and Ossian rose from the ground, no -longer divinely young and fair and strong, but a blind, gray-haired, -withered old man. - -A number of spirited ballads[259] tell how Ossian, stranded in his old -age upon earthly soil, unable to help himself or find his own food, is -taken by St. Patrick into his house to be converted. The saint paints to -him in the brightest colours the heaven which may be his own if he will -but repent, and in the darkest the hell in which he tells him his old -comrades now lie in anguish. Ossian replies to the saint’s arguments, -entreaties, and threats in language which is extraordinarily frank. He -will not believe that heaven could be closed to the Fenians if they -wished to enter it, or that God himself would not be proud to claim -friendship with Finn. And if it be not so, what is the use to him of -eternal life where there is no hunting, or wooing fair women, or -listening to the songs and tales of bards? No, he will go to the -Fenians, whether they sit at the feast or in the fire; and so he dies as -he had lived. - ------ - -Footnote 223: - - The translations of Fenian stories are numerous. The reader will find - many of them popularly retold in Lady Gregory’s _Gods and Fighting - Men_. Thence he may pass on to Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady’s _Silva - Gadelica_; the _Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition_, especially Vol. - IV; Mr. J. G. Campbell’s _The Fians_; as well as the volumes of the - _Revue Celtique_ and the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_. - -Footnote 224: - - See O’Curry’s translation in Appendix CXXVIII to his _MS. Materials_. - -Footnote 225: - - The story, found in the Book of the Dun Cow, appears in French in De - Jubainville’s _Épopée Celtique_. - -Footnote 226: - - This famous story is told in several MSS. of the fourteenth and - fifteenth centuries. For translations see Dr. Whitley Stokes, _Irische - Texte_, and Standish Hayes O’Grady, _Transactions of the Ossianic - Society_, Vol. III. - -Footnote 227: - - In Gaelic spelling, Fionn mac Cumhail. - -Footnote 228: - - Pronounced _Fēna_. - -Footnote 229: - - O’Curry: _MS. Materials_, Lecture XIV, p. 303. - -Footnote 230: - - Pronounced _Coul_ or _Cooal_. - -Footnote 231: - - _Agalamh na Senórach._ Under the title _The Colloquy of the Ancients_, - there is an excellent translation of it, from the Book of Lismore, in - Standish Hayes O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_. - -Footnote 232: - - O’Grady: _Silva Gadelica_. - -Footnote 233: - - _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 355. - -Footnote 234: - - See _The Enumeration of Finn’s Household_, translated by O’Grady in - _Silva Gadelica_. - -Footnote 235: - - For a good account, see J. G. Campbell’s _The Fians_, pp. 10-80. - -Footnote 236: - - In more correct spelling, _Oisin_, and pronounced _Usheen_ or - _Isheen_. - -Footnote 237: - - Pronounced _Kylta_ or _Cweeltia_. - -Footnote 238: - - Pronounced _Gaul_. - -Footnote 239: - - Pronounced _Dermat O’Dyna_. - -Footnote 240: - - Pronounced _Grania_. - -Footnote 241: - - Pronounced _Baskin_. - -Footnote 242: - - Now Castleknock, near Dublin. - -Footnote 243: - - Pronounced _Demna_. - -Footnote 244: - - This and other “boy-exploits” of Finn mac Cumhail are contained in a - little tract written upon a fragment of the ninth century Psalter of - Cashel. It is translated in Vol. IV of the _Transactions of the - Ossianic Society_. - -Footnote 245: - - Campbell’s _Fians_, p. 22. - -Footnote 246: - - See chap. XI—“The Gods in Exile”. - -Footnote 247: - - From the _Colloquy of the Ancients_ in O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_. - -Footnote 248: - - It is translated in Vol. VI of the _Transactions of the Ossianic - Society_. - -Footnote 249: - - Pronounced _Brăn_, not _Brān_. - -Footnote 250: - - Pronounced _Skōlaun_ or _Scolaing_. - -Footnote 251: - - A fine translation of the _Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne_ has been - published by S. H. O’Grady in Vol. III of the _Transactions of the - Ossianic Society_. - -Footnote 252: - - Pronounced _Navin_ or _Nowin_. - -Footnote 253: - - The mountain-ash, or rowan. - -Footnote 254: - - Now called Benbulben. It is near Sligo. - -Footnote 255: - - Pronounced _Gavra_. - -Footnote 256: - - See O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_. - -Footnote 257: - - Pronounced _Nee-av_. - -Footnote 258: - - _The Lay of Oisin in the Land of Youth_, translated by Brian O’Looney - for the Ossianic Society—_Transactions_, Vol. IV. A fine modern poem - on the same subject is W. B. Yeats’ _Wanderings of Oisin_. - -Footnote 259: - - See the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_. They are generally - called the _Dialogues of Oisin and Patrick_. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS - - -In spite, however, of the wide-spread popularity of the ballads that -took the form of dialogues between Ossian and Patrick, certain -traditions say that the saint succeeded in converting the hero. Caoilté, -the other great surviving Fenian, was also represented as having gladly -exchanged his pagan lore for the faith and salvation offered him. We may -see the same influence on foot in the later legends concerning the Red -Branch Champions. It was the policy of the first Christianizers of -Ireland to describe the loved heroes of their still half-heathen flocks -as having handed in their submission to the new creed. The tales about -Conchobar and Cuchulainn were amended, to prove that those very pagan -personages had been miraculously brought to accept the gospel at the -last. An entirely new story told how the latter hero was raised from the -dead by Saint Patrick that he might bear witness of the truth of -Christianity to Laogaire the Second, King of Ireland, which he did with -such fervour and eloquence that the sceptical monarch was -convinced.[260] - -Daring attempts were also made to change the Tuatha Dé Danann from pagan -gods into Christian saints, but these were by no means so profitable as -the policy pursued towards the more human-seeming heroes. With one of -them alone, was success immediate and brilliant. Brigit, the goddess of -fire, poetry, and the hearth, is famous to-day as Saint Bridget, or -Bride. Most popular of all the Irish saints, she can still be easily -recognized as the daughter of the Dagda. Her Christian attributes, -almost all connected with fire, attest her pagan origin.[261] She was -born at sunrise; a house in which she dwelt blazed into a flame which -reached to heaven; a pillar of fire rose from her head when she took the -veil; and her breath gave new life to the dead. As with the British -goddess Sul, worshipped at Bath, who—the first century Latin writer -Solinus[262] tells us—“ruled over the boiling springs, and at her altar -there flamed a perpetual fire which never whitened into ashes, but -hardened into a stony mass”, the sacred flame on her shrine at Kildare -was never allowed to go out. It was extinguished once, in the thirteenth -century, but was relighted, and burnt with undying glow until the -suppression of the monasteries by Henry the Eighth. This sacred fire -might not be breathed on by the impure human breath. For nineteen nights -it was tended by her nuns, but on the twentieth night it was left -untouched, and kept itself alight miraculously. With so little of her -essential character and ritual changed, it is small wonder that the -half-pagan, half-Christian Irish gladly accepted the new saint in the -stead of the old goddess. - -Doubtless a careful examination of Irish hagiology would result in the -discovery of many other saints whose names and attributes might render -them suspect of previous careers as pagan gods. But their acceptation -was not sufficiently general to do away with the need of other means of -counteracting the still living influence of the Gaelic Pantheon. -Therefore a fresh school of euhemerists arose to prove that the gods -were never even saints, but merely worldly men who had once lived and -ruled in Erin. Learned monks worked hard to construct a history of -Ireland from the Flood downwards. Mr. Eugene O’Curry has compiled from -the various pedigrees they elaborated, and inserted into the books of -Ballymote, Lecan, and Leinster an amazing genealogy which shows how, not -merely the Tuatha Dé Danann, but also the Fir Bolgs, the Fomors, the -Milesians, and the races of Partholon and Nemed were descended from -Noah. Japhet, the patriarch’s son, was the father of Magog, from whom -came two lines, the first being the Milesians, while the second branched -out into all the other races.[263] - -Having once worked the gods, first into universal history, and then into -the history of Ireland, it was an easy matter to supply them with dates -of birth and death, local habitations, and places of burial. We are told -with precision exactly how long Nuada, the Dagda, Lugh, and the others -reigned at Tara. The barrows by the Boyne provided them with comfortable -tombs. Their enemies, the Fomors, became real invaders who were beaten -in real battles. Thus it was thought to make plain prose of their -divinities. - -It is only fair, however, to these early euhemerists to say that they -have their modern disciples. There are many writers, of recognized -authority upon their subjects, who, in dealing with the history of -Ireland or the composition of the British race, claim to find real -peoples in the tribes mentioned in Gaelic myth. Unfortunately, the only -point they agree upon is the accepted one—that the “Milesians” were -Aryan Celts. They are divided upon the question of the “Fir Bolgs”, in -whom some see the pre-Aryan tribes, while others, led astray by the -name, regard them as Belgic Gauls; and over the really mythological -races they run wild. In the Tuatha Dé Danann are variously found Gaels, -Picts, Danes, Scandinavians, Ligurians, and Finns, while the Fomors rest -under the suspicion of having been Iberians, Moors, Romans, Finns, -Goths, or Teutons. As for the people of Partholon and Nemed, they have -even been explained as men of the Palæolithic Age. This chaos of opinion -was fortunately avoided by the native annalists, who had no particular -views upon the question of race, except that everybody came from -“Spain”. - -Of course there were dissenters from this prevailing mania for -euhemerization. As late as the tenth century, a poet called Eochaid -O’Flynn, writing of the Tuatha Dé Danann, at first seems to hesitate -whether to ascribe humanity or divinity to them, and at last frankly -avows their godhead. In his poem, preserved in the Book of -Ballymote,[264] he says:— - - “Though they came to learned Erinn - Without buoyant, adventurous ships, - No man in creation knew - Whether they were of the earth or of the sky. - - “If they were diabolical demons, - They came from that woeful expulsion;[265] - If they were of a race of tribes and nations, - If they were human, they were of the race of Beothach.” - -Then he enumerates them in due succession, and ends by declaring:— - - “Though I have treated of these deities in their order, - Yet I have not adored them”. - -One may surmise with probability that the common people agreed rather -with the poet than with the monk. Pious men in monasteries might write -what they liked, but mere laymen would not be easily persuaded that -their cherished gods had never been anything more than men like -themselves. Probably they said little, but acted in secret according to -their inherited ideas. Let it be granted, for the sake of peace, that -Goibniu was only a man; none the less, his name was known to be -uncommonly effective in an incantation. This applied equally to -Diancecht, and invocations to both of them are contained in some verses -which an eighth-century Irish monk wrote on the margin of a manuscript -still preserved at St. Gall, in Switzerland. Some prescriptions of -Diancecht’s have come down to us, but it must be admitted that they -hardly differ from those current among ordinary mediæval physicians. -Perhaps, after that unfortunate spilling of the herbs that grew out of -Miach’s body, he had to fall back upon empirical research. He invented a -porridge for “the relief of ailments of the body, as cold, phlegm, -throat cats, and the presence of living things in the body, as worms”; -it was compounded of hazel buds, dandelion, chickweed, sorrel, and -oatmeal; and was to be taken every morning and evening. He also -prescribed against the effects of witchcraft and the fourteen diseases -of the stomach. - -Goibniu, in addition to his original character as the divine smith and -sorcerer, gained a third reputation among the Irish as a great builder -and bridge-maker. As such he is known as the Gobhan Saer, that is, -Goibniu the Architect, and marvellous tales, current all over Ireland -attest his prowess. - - “Men call’d him Gobhan Saer, and many a tale - Yet lingers in the by-ways of the land - Of how he cleft the rock, or down the vale - Led the bright river, child-like, in his hand: - Of how on giant ships he spread great sail, - And many marvels else by him first plann’d”, - -writes a poet of modern Ireland.[266] Especially were the “round towers” -attributed to him, and the Christian clerics appropriated his popularity -by describing him as having been the designer of their churches. He -used, according to legend, to wander over the country, clad, like the -Greek Hephaestus, whom he resembles, in working dress, seeking -commissions and adventures. His works remain in the cathedrals and -churches of Ireland; and, with regard to his adventures, many strange -legends are still, or were until very recently, current upon the lips of -old people in remote parts of Ireland. - -Some of these are, as might have been expected, nothing more than -half-understood recollections of the ancient mythology. In them appear -as characters others of the old, yet not quite forgotten gods—Lugh, -Manannán, and Balor—names still remembered as those of long-past druids, -heroes, and kings of Ireland in the misty olden time. - -One or two of them are worth re-telling. Mr. William Larminie, -collecting folk-tales in Achill Island, took one from the lips of an -aged peasant, which tells in its confused way what might almost be -called the central incident of Gaelic mythology, the mysterious birth of -the sun-god from demoniac parentage, and his eventual slaying of his -grandfather when he came to full age.[267] - -Gobhan the Architect and his son, young Gobhan, runs the tale, were sent -for by Balor of the Blows to build him a palace. They built it so well -that Balor decided never to let them leave his kingdom alive, for fear -they should build another one equally good for someone else. He -therefore had all the scaffolding removed from round the palace while -they were still on the top, with the intention of leaving them up there -to die of hunger. But, when they discovered this, they began to destroy -the roof, so that Balor was obliged to let them come down. - -He, none the less, refused to allow them to return to Ireland. The -crafty Gobhan, however, had his plan ready. He told Balor that the -injury that had been done to the palace roof could not be repaired -without special tools, which he had left behind him at home. Balor -declined to let either old Gobhan or young Gobhan go back to fetch them; -but he offered to send his own son. Gobhan gave Balor’s son directions -for the journey. He was to travel until he came to a house with a stack -of corn at the door. Entering it, he would find a woman with one hand -and a child with one eye. - -Balor’s son found the house, and asked the woman for the tools. She -expected him; for it had been arranged between Gobhan and his wife what -should be done, if Balor refused to let him return. She took Balor’s son -to a huge chest, and told him that the tools were at the bottom of it, -so far down that she could not reach them, and that he must get into the -chest, and pick them up himself. But, as soon as he was safely inside, -she shut the lid on him, telling him that he would have to stay there -until his father allowed old Gobhan and young Gobhan to come home with -their pay. And she sent the same message to Balor himself. - -There was an exchange of prisoners, Balor giving the two Gobhans their -pay and a ship to take them home, and Gobhan’s wife releasing Balor’s -son. But, before the two builders went, Balor asked them whom he should -now employ to repair his palace. Old Gobhan told him that, next to -himself, there was no workman in Ireland better than one Gavidjeen Go. - -When Gobhan got back to Ireland, he sent Gavidjeen Go to Balor. But he -gave him a piece of advice—to accept as pay only one thing: Balor’s gray -cow, which would fill twenty barrels at one milking. Balor agreed to -this, but, when he gave the cow to Gavidjeen Go to take back with him to -Ireland, he omitted to include her byre-rope, which was the only thing -that would keep her from returning to her original owner. - -The gray cow gave so much trouble to Gavidjeen Go by her straying, that -he was obliged to hire military champions to watch her during the day -and bring her safely home at night. The bargain made was that Gavidjeen -Go should forge the champion a sword for his pay, but that, if he lost -the cow, his life was to be forfeited. - -At last, a certain warrior called Cian was unlucky enough to let the cow -escape. He followed her tracks down to the sea-shore and right to the -edge of the waves, and there he lost them altogether. He was tearing his -hair in his perplexity, when he saw a man rowing a coracle. The man, who -was no other than Manannán son of Lêr, came in close to the shore, and -asked what was the matter. - -Cian told him. - -“What would you give to anyone who would take you to the place where the -gray cow is?” asked Manannán. - -“I have nothing to give,” replied Cian. - -“All I ask,” said Manannán, “is half of whatever you gain before you -come back.” - -Cian agreed to that willingly enough, and Manannán told him to get into -the coracle. In the wink of an eye, he had landed him in Balor’s -kingdom, the realm of the cold, where they roast no meat, but eat their -food raw. Cian was not used to this diet, so he lit himself a fire, and -began to cook some food. Balor saw the fire, and came down to it, and he -was so pleased that he appointed Cian to be his fire-maker and cook. - -Now Balor had a daughter, of whom a druid had prophesied that she would, -some day, bear a son who would kill his grandfather. Therefore, like -Acrisius, in Greek legend, he shut her up in a tower, guarded by women, -and allowed her to see no man but himself. One day, Cian saw Balor go to -the tower. He waited until he had come back, and then went to explore. -He had the gift of opening locked doors and shutting them again after -him. When he got inside, he lit a fire, and this novelty so delighted -Balor’s daughter that she invited him to visit her again. After this—in -the Achill islander’s quaint phrase—“he was ever coming there, until a -child happened to her.” Balor’s daughter gave the baby to Cian to take -away. She also gave him the byre-rope which belonged to the gray cow. - -Cian was in great danger now, for Balor had found out about the child. -He led the gray cow away with the rope to the sea-shore, and waited for -Manannán. The Son of Lêr had told Cian that, when he was in any -difficulty, he was to think of him, and he would at once appear. Cian -thought of him now, and, in a moment, Manannán appeared with his -coracle. Cian got into the boat, with the baby and the gray cow, just as -Balor, in hot pursuit, came down to the beach. - -Balor, by his incantations, raised a great storm to drown them; but -Manannán, whose druidism was greater, stilled it. Then Balor turned the -sea into fire, to burn them; but Manannán put it out with a stone. - -When they were safe back in Ireland, Manannán asked Cian for his -promised reward. - -“I have gained nothing but the boy, and I cannot cut him in two, so I -will give him to you whole,” he replied. - -“That is what I was wanting all the time,” said Manannán; “when he grows -up, there will be no champion equal to him.” - -So Manannán baptized the boy, calling him “the Dul-Dauna”. This name, -meaning “Blind-Stubborn”, is certainly a curious corruption of the -original _Ioldanach_[268] “Master of all Knowledge”. When the boy had -grown up, he went one day to the sea-shore. A ship came past, in which -was a man. The traditions of Donnybrook Fair are evidently prehistoric, -for the boy, without troubling to ask who the stranger was, took a dart -“out of his pocket”, hurled it, and hit him. The man in the boat -happened to be Balor. Thus, in accordance with the prophecy, he was -slain by his grandson, who, though the folktale does not name him, was -obviously Lugh. - -Another version of the same legend, collected by the Irish scholar -O’Donovan on the coast of Donegal, opposite Balor s favourite haunt, -Tory Island, is interesting as completing the one just narrated.[269] In -this folk-tale, Goibniu is called Gavida, and is made one of three -brothers, the other two being called Mac Kineely and Mac Samthainn. They -were chiefs of Donegal, smiths and farmers, while Balor was a robber who -harassed the mainland from his stronghold on Tory Island. The gray cow -belonged to Mac Kineely, and Balor stole it. Its owner determined to be -revenged, and, knowing the prediction concerning Balor’s death at the -hands of an as yet unborn grandson, he persuaded a kindly fairy to -spirit him in female disguise to Tor Mor, where Balor’s daughter, who -was called Ethnea, was kept imprisoned. The result of this expedition -was not merely the one son necessary to fulfil the prophecy, but three. -This apparent superfluity was fortunate; for Balor drowned two of them, -the other being picked out of the sea by the same fairy who had been -incidentally responsible for his birth, and handed over to his father, -Mac Kineely, to be brought up. Shortly after this, Balor managed to -capture Mac Kineely, and, in retaliation for the wrong done him, chopped -off his head upon a large white stone, still known locally as the “Stone -of Kineely”. Satisfied with this, and quite unaware that one of his -daughter’s children had been saved from death, and was now being brought -up as a smith by Gavida, Balor went on with his career of robbery, -varying it by visits to the forge to purchase arms. One day, being there -during Gavida’s absence, he began boasting to the young assistant of how -he had compassed Mac Kineely’s death. He never finished the story, for -Lugh—which was the boy’s name—snatched a red-hot iron from the fire, and -thrust it into Balor’s eye, and through his head. - -Thus, in these two folk-tales,[270] gathered in different parts of -Ireland, at different times, by different persons, survives quite a mass -of mythological detail only to be found otherwise in ancient manuscripts -containing still more ancient matter. Crystallized in them may be found -the names of six members of the old Gaelic Pantheon, each filling the -same part as of old. Goibniu has not lost his mastery of smithcraft; -Balor is still the Fomorian king of the cold regions of the sea; his -daughter Ethniu becomes, by Cian, the mother of the sun-god; Lugh, who -still bears his old title of _Ioldanach_, though it is strangely -corrupted into a name meaning almost the exact opposite, is still -fostered by Manannán, Son of the Sea, and in the end grows up to destroy -his grandfather by a blow in the one vulnerable place, his death-dealing -eye. Perhaps, too, we may claim to see a genuine, though jumbled -tradition, in the Fomor-like deformities of Gobhan’s wife and child, and -in the story of the gray cow and her byre-rope, which recalls that of -the Dagda’s black-maned heifer, Ocean. - -The memories of the peasantry still hold many stories of Lugh, as well -as of Angus, and others of the old gods. But, next to the Gobhan Saer, -the one whose fame is still greatest is that ever-potent and -ever-popular figure, the great Manannán. - -The last, perhaps, to receive open adoration, he is represented by -kindly tradition as having been still content to help and watch over the -people who had rejected and ceased to worship him. Up to the time of St. -Columba, he was the special guardian of Irishmen in foreign parts, -assisting them in their dangers and bringing them home safe. For the -peasantry, too, he caused favourable weather and good crops. His fairy -subjects tilled the ground while men slept. But this is said to have -come to an end at last. Saint Columba, having broken his golden chalice, -gave it to a servant to get repaired. On his way, the servant was met by -a stranger, who asked him where he was going. The man told him, and -showed him the chalice. The stranger breathed upon it, and, at once, the -broken parts reunited. Then he begged him to return to his master, give -him the chalice, and tell him that Manannán son of Lêr, who had mended -it, desired to know in very truth whether he would ever attain paradise. -“Alas,” said the ungrateful saint, “there is no forgiveness for a man -who does such works as this!” The servant went back with the answer, and -Manannán, when he heard it, broke out into indignant lament. “Woe is me, -Manannán mac Lêr! for years I’ve helped the Catholics of Ireland, but -I’ll do it no more, till they’re as weak as water. I’ll go to the gray -waves in the Highlands of Scotland.”[271] - -And there he remained. For, unless the charming stories of Miss Fiona -Macleod are mere beautiful imaginings and nothing more, he is not -unknown even to-day among the solitary shepherds and fishers of “the -farthest Hebrides”. In the _Contemporary Review_ for October, 1902,[272] -she tells how an old man of fourscore years would often be visited in -his shieling by a tall, beautiful stranger, with a crest on his head, -“like white canna blowing in the wind, but with a blueness in it”, and -“a bright, cold, curling flame under the soles of his feet”. The man -told him many things, and prophesied to him the time of his death. -Generally, the stranger’s hands were hidden in the folds of the white -cloak he wore, but, once, he moved to touch the shepherd, who saw then -that his flesh was like water, with sea-weed floating among the bones. -So that Murdo MacIan knew that he could be speaking with none other than -the Son of the Sea. - -Nor is he yet quite forgotten in his own Island of Man, of which local -tradition says he was the first inhabitant. He is also described as its -king, who kept it from invasion by his magic. He would cause mists to -rise at any moment and conceal the island, and by the same glamour he -could make one man seem like a hundred, and little chips of wood which -he threw into the water to appear like ships of war. It is no wonder -that he held his kingdom against all-comers, until his sway was ended, -like that of the other Gaelic gods, by the arrival of Saint Patrick. -After this, he seems to have declined into a traditionary giant who used -to leap from Peel Castle to Contrary Head for exercise, or hurl huge -rocks, upon which the mark of his hand can still be seen. It is said -that he took no tribute from his subjects, or worshippers except bundles -of green rushes, which were placed every Midsummer Eve upon two mountain -peaks, one called Warrefield in olden days, but now South Barrule, and -the other called Man, and not now to be identified. His grave, which is -thirty yards long, is pointed out, close to Peel Castle. The most -curious legend connected with him, however, tells us that he had three -legs, on which he used to travel at a great pace. How this was done may -be seen from the arms of the island, on which are pictured his three -limbs, joined together, and spread out like the spokes of a wheel.[273] - -An Irish tradition tells us that, when Manannán left Ireland for -Scotland, the vacant kingship of the gods or fairies was taken by one -Mac Moineanta, to the great grief of those who had known Manannán.[274] -Perhaps this great grief led to Mac Moineanta’s being deposed, for the -present king of the Irish fairies is Finvarra, the same Fionnbharr to -whom the Dagda allotted the _sídh_ of Meadha after the conquest of the -Tuatha Dé Danann by the Milesians, and who takes a prominent part in the -Fenian stories. So great is the persistence of tradition in Ireland that -this hill of Meadha, now spelt Knockma, is still considered to be the -abode of him and his queen, Onagh. Numberless stories are told about -Finvarra, including, of course, that very favourite Celtic tale of the -stolen bride, and her recapture from the fairies by the siege and -digging up of the _sídh_ in which she was held prisoner. Finvarra, like -Mider of Bri Leith, carried away a human Etain—the wife, not of a high -king, but of an Irish lord. The modern Eochaid Airem, having heard an -invisible voice tell him where he was to look for his lost bride, -gathered all his workmen and labourers and proceeded to demolish -Knockma. Every day they almost dug it up, but every night the breach was -found to have been repaired by fairy workmen of Finvarra’s. This went on -for three days, when the Irish lord thought of the well-known device of -sanctifying the work of excavation by sprinkling the turned-up earth -with salt. Needless to say, it succeeded. Finvarra gave back the bride, -still in the trance into which he had thrown her; and the deep cut into -the fairy hill still remains to furnish proof to the incredulous.[275] - -Finvarra does not always appear, however, in such unfriendly guise. He -was popularly reputed to have under his special care the family of the -Kirwans of Castle Hacket, on the northern slope of Knockma. Owing to his -benevolent influence, the castle cellars never went dry, nor did the -quality of the wine deteriorate. Besides the wine-cellar, Finvarra -looked after the stables, and it was owing to the exercise that he and -his fairy followers gave the horses by night that Mr. John Kirwan’s -racers were so often successful on the Curragh. That such stories could -have passed current as fact, which they undoubtedly did, is excellent -proof of how late and how completely a mythology may survive among the -uncultured.[276] - -Finvarra rules to-day over a wide realm of fairy folk. Many of these, -again, have their own vassal chieftains, forming a tribal hierarchy such -as must have existed in the Celtic days of Ireland. Finvarra and Onagh -are high king and queen, but, under them, Cliodna[277] is tributary -queen of Munster, and rules from a _sídh_ near Mallow in County Cork, -while, under her again, are Aoibhinn[278], queen of the fairies of North -Munster, and Ainé, queen of the fairies of South Munster. These names -form but a single instance. A map of fairy Ireland could without much -difficulty be drawn, showing, with almost political exactness, the -various kingdoms of the Sídhe. - -Far less easy, however, would be the task of ascertaining the origin and -lineage of these fabled beings. Some of them can still be traced as -older gods and goddesses. In the eastern parts of Ireland, Badb and her -sisters have become “banshees” who wail over deaths not necessarily -found in battle. Aynia, deemed the most powerful fairy in Ulster, and -Ainé, queen of South Munster, are perhaps the same person, the -mysterious and awful goddess once adored as Anu, or Danu. Of the two, it -is Ainé who especially seems to carry on the traditions of the older -Anu, worshipped, according to the “Choice of Names”, in Munster as a -goddess of prosperity and abundance. Within living memory, she was -propitiated by a magical ritual upon every Saint John’s Eve, to ensure -fertility during the coming year. The villagers round her _sídh_ of Cnoc -Ainé (Knockainy) carried burning bunches of hay or straw upon poles to -the top of the hill, and thence dispersed among the fields, waving these -torches over the crops and cattle. This fairy, or goddess was held to be -friendly, and, indeed, more than friendly, to men. Whether or not she -were the mother of the gods, she is claimed as first ancestress by half -a dozen famous Irish families. - -Among her children was the famous Earl Gerald, offspring of her alliance -with the fourth Earl of Desmond, known as “The Magician”. As in the -well-known story of the Swan-maidens, the magician-earl is said to have -stolen Ainé’s cloak while she was bathing, and refused to return it -unless she became his bride. But, in the end, he lost her. Ainé had -warned her husband never to show surprise at anything done by their son; -but a wonderful feat which he performed made the earl break this -condition, and Ainé was obliged, by fairy law, to leave him. But, though -she had lost her husband, she was not separated from her son, who was -received into the fairy world after his death, and now lives under the -surface of Lough Gur, in County Limerick, waiting, like the British -Arthur, for the hour to strike in which he shall lead forth his warriors -to drive the foreigners from Ireland. But this will not be until, by -riding round the lake once in every seventh year, he shall have worn his -horse’s silver shoes as thin as a cat’s ear.[279] - -Not only the tribe of Danu, but heroes of the other mythical cycles -swell the fairy host to-day. Donn, son of Milé, who was drowned before -ever he set foot on Irish soil, lives at “Donn’s House”, a line of -sand-hills in the Dingle Peninsula of Kerry, and, as late as the -eighteenth century, we find him invoked by a local poet, half in jest, -no doubt, but still, perhaps also a little in earnest.[280] The heroes -of Ulster have no part in fairyland; but their enemy, Medb, is credited -with queenly rule among the Sídhe, and is held by some to have been the -original of “Queen Mab”. Caoilté, last of the Fenians, was, in spite of -his leanings towards Christianity, enrolled among the Tuatha Dé Danann, -but none of his kin are known there, neither Ossian, nor Oscar, nor even -Finn himself. Yet not even to merely historical mortals are the gates of -the gods necessarily closed. The Barry, chief of the barony of -Barrymore, is said to inhabit an enchanted palace in Knockthierna, one -of the Nagles Hills. The not less traditionally famous O’Donaghue, whose -domain was near Killarney, now dwells beneath the waters of that lake, -and may still be seen, it is said, upon May Day.[281] - -But besides these figures, which can be traced in mythology or history, -and others who, though all written record of them has perished, are -obviously of the same character, there are numerous beings who suggest a -different origin from that of the Aryan-seeming fairies. They correspond -to the elves and trolls of Scandinavian, or the silenoi and satyrs of -Greek myth. Such is the Leprechaun, who makes shoes for the fairies, and -knows where hidden treasures are; the Gan Ceanach, or “love-talker”, who -fills the ears of idle girls with pleasant fancies when, to merely -mortal ideas, they should be busy with their work; the Pooka, who leads -travellers astray, or, taking the shape of an ass or mule, beguiles them -to mount upon his back to their discomfiture; the Dulachan, who rides -without a head; and other friendly or malicious sprites. Whence come -they? A possible answer suggests itself. Preceding the Aryans, and -surviving the Aryan conquest all over Europe, was a large non-Aryan -population, which must have had its own gods, who would retain their -worship, be revered by successive generations, and remain rooted to the -soil. May not these uncouth and half-developed Irish Leprechauns, -Pookas, and Dulachans, together with the Scotch Cluricanes, Brownies, -and their kin, be no “creations of popular fancy”, but the dwindling -figures of those darker gods of “the dark Iberians”? - ------ - -Footnote 260: - - The story, contained in the Book of the Dun Cow, is called _The - Phantom Chariot_. It has been translated by Mr. O’Beirne Crowe, and is - included in Miss Hull’s _Cuchulinn Saga_. - -Footnote 261: - - See Elton, _Origins of English History_, pp. 269-271. - -Footnote 262: - - Caius Julius Solinus, known as Polyhistor, chap. XXIV. - -Footnote 263: - - It is appended to his translation of the tale of the _Exile of the - Children of Usnach_ in _Atlantis_, Vol. III. - -Footnote 264: - - See Cusack’s _History of Ireland_, pp. 160-162. - -Footnote 265: - - _I.e._ from Heaven. - -Footnote 266: - - Thomas D’Arcy M‘Gee: _Poems_, p. 78, “The Gobhan Saer”. - -Footnote 267: - - Larminie: _West Irish Folk-Tales_, pp. 1-9. - -Footnote 268: - - Pronounced _Ildāna_. - -Footnote 269: - - It is told in Rhys’s _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 314-317. - -Footnote 270: - - For still other folk-tale versions of this same myth see Curtin’s - _Hero Tales of Ireland_. - -Footnote 271: - - A Donegal story, collected by Mr. David Fitzgerald and published in - the _Revue Celtique_, Vol. IV, p. 177. - -Footnote 272: - - The paper is called “Sea-Magic and Running Water”. - -Footnote 273: - - Moore: _Folklore of the Isle of Man_. - -Footnote 274: - - See an article in the _Dublin University Magazine_ for June, 1864 - -Footnote 275: - - The story is among those told by Lady Wilde in her _Ancient Legends of - Ireland_, Vol. I, pp. 77-82. - -Footnote 276: - - _Dublin University Magazine_, June, 1864. - -Footnote 277: - - Pronounced _Cleena_. - -Footnote 278: - - Pronounced _Evin_. - -Footnote 279: - - See Fitzgerald, _Popular Tales of Ireland_, in Vol. IV of the _Revue - Celtique_. - -Footnote 280: - - _Dublin University Magazine_, June, 1864. - -Footnote 281: - - For stories of these two Norman-Irish heroes, see Crofton Croker’s - _Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland_. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - THE BRITISH GODS AND THEIR - STORIES - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - THE GODS OF THE BRITONS - - -The descriptions and the stories of the British gods have hardly come -down to us in so ample or so compact a form as those of the deities of -the Gaels, as they are preserved in the Irish and Scottish manuscripts. -They have also suffered far more from the sophistications of the -euhemerist. Only in the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi” do the gods of -the Britons appear in anything like their real character of supernatural -beings, masters of magic, and untrammelled by the limitations which -hedge in mortals. Apart from those four fragments of mythology, and from -a very few scattered references in the early Welsh poems, one must -search for them under strange disguises. Some masquerade as kings in -Geoffrey of Monmouth’s more than apocryphal _Historia Britonum_. Others -have received an undeserved canonization, which must be stripped from -them before they can be seen in their true colours. Others, again, were -adopted by the Norman-French romancers, and turned into the champions of -chivalry now known as Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. But, however -disguised, their real nature can still be discerned. The Gaels and the -Britons were but two branches of one race—the Celtic. In many of the -gods of the Britons we shall recognize, with names alike and attributes -the same, the familiar features of the Gaelic Tuatha Dé Danann. - -The British gods are sometimes described as divided into three -families—the “Children of Dôn”, the “Children of Nudd”, and the -“Children of Llyr”. But these three families are really only two; for -Nudd, or Lludd, as he is variously called, is himself described as a son -of Beli, who was the husband of the goddess Dôn. There can be no doubt -that Dôn herself is the same divine personage as Danu, the mother of the -Tuatha Dé Danann, and that Beli is the British equivalent of the Gaelic -Bilé, the universal Dis Pater who sent out the first Gaels from Hades to -take possession of Ireland. With the other family, the “Children of -Llyr”, we are equally on familiar ground; for the British Llyr can be -none other than the Gaelic sea-god Lêr. These two families or tribes are -usually regarded as in opposition, and their struggles seem to symbolize -in British myth that same conflict between the powers of heaven, light, -and life and of the sea, darkness, and death which are shadowed in -Gaelic mythology in the battles between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the -Fomors. - -For the children of Dôn were certainly gods of the sky. Their names are -writ large in heaven. The glittering W which we call “Cassiopeia’s -Chair” was to our British ancestors _Llys Dôn_, or “Dôn’s Court”; our -“Northern Crown” was _Caer Arianrod_, the “Castle of Arianrod”, Dôn’s -daughter; while the “Milky Way” was the “Castle of Gwydion”, Dôn’s -son.[282] More than this, the greatest of her children, the Nudd or -Lludd whom some make the head of a dynasty of his own, was the Zeus -alike of the Britons and of the Gaels. His epithet of _Llaw Ereint_, -that is, “of the Hand of Silver”, proves him the same personage as Nuada -the “Silver-Handed”. The legend which must have existed to explain this -peculiarity has been lost on British ground, but it was doubtless the -same as that told of the Irish god. With it, and, no doubt, much else, -has disappeared any direct account of battles fought by him as sky-god -against Fomor-like enemies. But, under the faint disguise of a king of -Britain, an ancient Welsh tale[283] records how he put an end to three -supernatural “plagues” which oppressed his country. In addition to this, -we find him under his name of Nudd described in a Welsh Triad as one of -“the three generous heroes of the Isle of Britain”, while another makes -him the owner of twenty-one thousand milch cows—an expression which -must, to the primitive mind, have implied inexhaustible wealth. Both -help us to the conception of a god of heaven and battle, triumphant, and -therefore rich and liberal.[284] - -More tangible evidence is, however, not lacking to prove the wide-spread -nature of his worship. A temple dedicated to him in Roman times under -the name of Nodens, or Nudens, has been discovered at Lydney, on the -banks of the Severn. The god is pictured on a plaque of bronze as a -youthful deity, haloed like the sun, and driving a four-horsed chariot. -Flying spirits, typifying the winds, accompany him; while his power over -the sea is symbolized by attendant Tritons.[285] This was in the west of -Britain, while, in the east, there is good reason to believe that he had -a shrine overlooking the Thames. Tradition declares that St. Paul’s -Cathedral occupies the site of an ancient pagan temple; while the spot -on which it stands was called, we know from Geoffrey of Monmouth, “Parth -Lludd” by the Britons, and “Ludes Geat” by the Saxons.[286] - -Great, however, as he probably was, Lludd, or Nudd occupies less space -in Welsh story, as we have it now, than his son. Gwyn ap Nudd has -outlived in tradition almost all his supernatural kin. Professor Rhys is -tempted to see in him the British equivalent of the Gaelic Finn mac -Cumhail.[287] The name of both alike means “white”; both are sons of the -heaven-god; both are famed as hunters. Gwyn, however, is more than that; -for his game is man. In the early Welsh poems, he is a god of battle and -of the dead, and, as such, fills the part of a _psychopompos_, -conducting the slain into Hades, and there ruling over them. In later, -semi-Christianized story he is described as “Gwyn, son of Nudd, whom God -has placed over the brood of devils in Annwn, lest they should destroy -the present race[288]”. Later again, as paganism still further -degenerated, he came to be considered as king of the _Tylwyth Teg_, the -Welsh fairies,[289] and his name as such has hardly yet died out of his -last haunt, the romantic vale of Neath. He is the wild huntsman of Wales -and the West of England, and it is his pack which is sometimes heard at -chase in waste places by night. - -In his earliest guise, as a god of war and death, he is the subject of a -poem in dialogue contained in the Black Book of Caermarthen.[290] -Obscure, like most of the ancient Welsh poems,[291] it is yet a spirited -production, and may be quoted here as a favourable specimen of the -poetry of the early Cymri. In it we shall see mirrored perhaps the -clearest figure of the British Pantheon, the “mighty hunter”, not of -deer, but of men’s souls, riding his demon horse, and cheering on his -demon hound to the fearful chase. He knows when and where all the great -warriors fell, for he gathered their souls upon the field of battle, and -now rules over them in Hades, or upon some “misty mountain-top”.[292] It -describes a mythical prince, named Gwyddneu Garanhir, known to Welsh -legend as the ruler of a lost country now covered by the waters of -Cardigan Bay, asking protection of the god, who accords it, and then -relates the story of his exploits: - - _Gwyddneu._ - - A bull of conflict was he, active in dispersing an arrayed army, - The ruler of hosts, indisposed to anger, - Blameless and pure his conduct in protecting life. - - _Gwyn._ - - Against a hero stout was his advance, - The ruler of hosts, disposer of wrath, - There will be protection for thee since thou askest it. - - _Gwyddneu._ - - For thou hast given me protection - How warmly wert thou welcomed! - The hero of hosts, from what region thou comest? - - _Gwyn._ - - I come from battle and conflict - With a shield in my hand; - Broken is the helmet by the pushing of spears. - - _Gwyddneu._ - - I will address thee, exalted man, - With his shield in distress. - Brave man, what is thy descent? - - _Gwyn._ - - Round-hoofed is my horse, the torment of battle, - Fairy am I called, Gwyn the son of Nudd,[293] - The lover of Creurdilad, the daughter of Lludd. - - _Gwyddneu._ - - Since it is thou, Gwyn, an upright man, - From thee there is no concealing: - I am Gwyddneu Garanhir. - - _Gwyn._ - - Hasten to my ridge, the Tawë abode; - Not the nearest Tawë name I to thee, - But that Tawë which is the farthest.[294] - - Polished is my ring, golden my saddle and bright: - To my sadness - I saw a conflict before Caer Vandwy.[295] - - Before Caer Vandwy a host I saw, - Shields were shattered and ribs broken; - Renowned and splendid was he who made the assault. - - _Gwyddneu._ - - Gwyn, son of Nudd, the hope of armies, - Quicker would legions fall before the hoofs - Of thy horse than broken rushes to the ground. - - _Gwyn._ - - Handsome my dog, and round-bodied, - And truly the best of dogs; - Dormarth[296] was he, which belonged to Maelgwyn. - - _Gwyddneu._ - - Dormarth with the ruddy nose! what a gazer - Thou art upon me because I notice - Thy wanderings on Gwibir Vynyd.[297] - - _Gwyn._ - - I have been in the place where was killed Gwendoleu, - The son of Ceidaw, the pillar of songs, - When the ravens screamed over blood. - - I have been in the place where Brân was killed, - The son of Iweridd, of far extending fame, - When the ravens of the battle-field screamed. - - I have been where Llacheu was slain, - The son of Arthur, extolled in songs, - When the ravens screamed over blood. - - I have been where Meurig was killed, - The son of Carreian, of honourable fame, - When the ravens screamed over flesh. - - I have been where Gwallawg was killed, - The son of Goholeth, the accomplished, - The resister of Lloegyr, the son of Lleynawg. - - I have been where the soldiers of Britain were slain, - From the east to the north: - I am the escort of the grave.[298] - - I have been where the soldiers of Britain were slain, - From the east to the south: - I am alive, they in death! - -A line in this poem allows us to see Gwyn in another and less sinister -rôle. “The lover of Creurdilad, the daughter of Lludd,” he calls -himself; and an episode in the mythical romance of “Kulhwch and Olwen”, -preserved in the Red Book of Hergest, gives the details of his -courtship. Gwyn had as rival a deity called Gwyrthur ap Greidawl, that -is “Victor, son of Scorcher”.[299] These two waged perpetual war for -Creurdilad, or Creudylad, each in turn stealing her from the other, -until the matter was referred to Arthur, who decided that Creudylad -should be sent back to her father, and that Gwyn and Gwyrthur “should -fight for her every first of May, from henceforth until the day of doom, -and that whichever of them should then be conqueror should have the -maiden”. What satisfaction this would be to the survivor of what might -be somewhat flippantly described as, in two senses, the longest -engagement on record, is not very clear; but its mythological -interpretation appears fairly obvious. In Gwyn, god of death and the -underworld, and in the solar deity, Gwyrthur, we may see the powers of -darkness and sunshine, of winter and summer, in contest,[300] each -alternately winning and losing a bride who would seem to represent the -spring with its grain and flowers. Creudylad, whom the story of “Kulhwch -and Olwen” calls “the most splendid maiden in the three islands of the -mighty and in the three islands adjacent”, is, in fact, the British -Persephoné. As the daughter of Lludd, she is child of the shining sky. -But a different tradition must have made her a daughter of Llyr, the -sea-god; for her name as such passed, through Geoffrey of Monmouth, to -Shakespeare, in whose hands she became that pathetic figure, Cordelia in -“King Lear”. It may not be altogether unworthy of notice, though perhaps -it is only a coincidence, that in some myths the Greek Persephoné is -made a daughter of Zeus and in others of Poseidon.[301] - -Turning from the sky-god and his son, we find others of Dôn’s children -to have been the exponents of those arts of life which early races held -to have been taught directly by the gods to men. Dôn herself had a -brother, Mâth, son of a mysterious Mâthonwy, and recognizable as a -benevolent ruler of the underworld akin to Beli, or perhaps that god -himself under another title, for the name Mâth, which means “coin, -money, treasure”,[302] recalls that of Plouton, the Greek god of Hades, -in his guise of possessor and giver of metals. It was a belief common to -the Aryan races that wisdom, as well as wealth, came originally from the -underworld; and we find Mâth represented, in the Mabinogi bearing his -name, as handing on his magical lore to his nephew and pupil Gwydion, -who, there is good reason to believe, was the same divine personage whom -the Teutonic tribes worshipped as “Woden” and “Odin”. Thus equipped, -Gwydion son of Dôn became the druid of the gods, the “master of illusion -and phantasy”, and, not only that, but the teacher of all that is useful -and good, the friend and helper of mankind, and the perpetual fighter -against niggardly underworld powers for the good gifts which they -refused to allow out of their keeping. Shoulder to shoulder with him in -this “holy war” of culture against ignorance, and light against -darkness, stood his brothers Amaethon, god of agriculture, and Govannan, -a god of smithcraft identical with the Gaelic Giobniu. He had also a -sister called Arianrod, or “Silver Circle”, who, as is common in -mythologies, was not only his sister, but also his wife. So Zeus wedded -Heré; and, indeed, it is difficult to say where otherwise the partners -of gods are to come from. Of this connection two sons were born at one -birth—Dylan and Lleu, who are considered as representing the twin powers -of darkness and light. With darkness the sea was inseparably connected -by the Celts, and, as soon as the dark twin was born and named, he -plunged headlong into his native element. “And immediately when he was -in the sea,” says the Mabinogi of Mâth, son of Mâthonwy, “he took its -nature, and swam as well as the best fish that was therein. And for that -reason was he called Dylan, the Son of the Wave. Beneath him no wave -ever broke.” He was killed with a spear at last by his uncle, Govannan, -and, according to the bard Taliesin, the waves of Britain, Ireland, -Scotland, and the Isle of Man wept for him.[303] Beautiful legends grew -up around his death. The clamour of the waves dashing upon the beach is -the expression of their longing to avenge their son. The sound of the -sea rushing up the mouth of the River Conway is still known as “Dylan’s -death-groan”[304]. A small promontory on the Carnarvonshire side of the -Menai Straits, called _Pwynt Maen Tylen_, or _Pwynt Maen Dulan_, -preserves his name.[305] - -The other child of Gwydion and Arianrod grew up to become the British -sun-god, Lleu Llaw Gyffes, the exact counterpart of the Gaelic Lugh -Lamhfada, “Light the Long-handed”. Like all solar deities, his growth -was rapid. When he was a year old, he seemed to be two years; at the age -of two, he travelled by himself; and when he was four years old, he was -as tall as a boy of eight, and was his father’s constant companion. - -One day, Gwydion took him to the castle of Arianrod—not her castle in -the sky, but her abode on earth, the still-remembered site of which is -marked by a patch of rocks in the Menai Straits, accessible without a -boat only during the lowest spring and autumn tides. Arianrod had -disowned her son, and did not recognize him when she saw him with -Gwydion. She asked who he was, and was much displeased when told. She -demanded to know his name, and, when Gwydion replied that he had as yet -received none, she “laid a destiny upon” him, after the fashion of the -Celts, that he should be without a name until she chose to bestow one on -him herself. - -To be without a name was a very serious thing to the ancient Britons, -who seem to have held the primitive theory that the name and the soul -are the same. So Gwydion cast about to think by what craft he might -extort from Arianrod some remark from which he could name their son. The -next day, he went down to the sea-shore with the boy, both of them -disguised as cordwainers. He made a boat out of sea-weed by magic, and -some beautifully-coloured leather out of some dry sticks and sedges. -Then they sailed the boat to the port of Arianrod’s castle, and, -anchoring it where it could be seen, began ostentatiously to stitch away -at the leather. Naturally, they were soon noticed, and Arianrod sent -someone out to see who they were and what they were doing. When she -found that they were shoemakers, she remembered that she wanted some -shoes. Gwydion, though he had her measure, purposely made them, first -too large, and then too small. This brought Arianrod herself down to the -boat to be fitted. - -While Gwydion was measuring Arianrod’s foot for the shoes, a wren came -and stood upon the deck. The boy took his bow and arrow, and hit the -wren in the leg—a favourite shot of Celtic “crack” archers, at any rate -in romance. The goddess was pleased to be amiable and complimentary. -“Truly,” said she, “the lion aimed at it with a steady hand.” It is from -such incidents that primitive people take their names, all the world -over. The boy had got his. “It is no thanks to you,” said Gwydion to -Arianrod, “but now he has a name. And a good name it is. He shall be -called Llew Llaw Gyffes[306].” - -This name of the sun-god is a good example of how obsolete the ancient -pagan tradition had become before it was put into writing. The old word -_Lleu_, meaning “light”, had passed out of use, and the scribe -substituted for a name that was unintelligible to him one like it which -he knew, namely _Llew_, meaning “lion”. The word _Gyffes_ seems also to -have suffered change, and to have meant originally not “steady”, but -“long”[307]. - -At any rate, Arianrod was defeated in her design to keep her son -nameless. Neither did she even get her shoes; for, as soon as he had -gained his object, Gwydion allowed the boat to change back into -sea-weed, and the leather to return to sedge and sticks. So, in her -anger, she put a fresh destiny on the boy, that he should not take arms -till she herself gave them him. - -Gwydion, however, took Lleu to Dinas Dinllev, his castle, which still -stands at the edge of the Menai Straits, and brought him up as a -warrior. As soon as he thought him old enough to have arms, he took him -with him again to Caer Arianrod. This time, they were disguised as -bards. Arianrod received them gladly, heard Gwydion’s songs and tales, -feasted them, and prepared a room for them to sleep in. - -The next morning, Gwydion got up very early, and prepared his most -powerful incantations. By his druidical arts he made it seem as if the -whole country rang with the shouts and trumpets of an army, and he put a -glamour over everyone, so that they saw the bay filled with ships. -Arianrod came to him in terror, asking what could be done to protect the -castle. “Give us arms,” he replied, “and we will do the best we can.” So -Arianrod’s maidens armed Gwydion, while Arianrod herself put arms on -Lleu. By the time she had finished, all the noises had ceased, and the -ships had vanished. “Let us take our arms off again,” said Gwydion; “we -shall not need them now.” “But the army is all round the castle!” cried -Arianrod. “There was no army,” answered Gwydion; “it was only an -illusion of mine to cause you to break your prophecy and give our son -arms. And now he has got them, without thanks to you.” “Then I will lay -a worse destiny on him,” cried the infuriated goddess. “He shall never -have a wife of the people of this earth.” “He shall have a wife in spite -of you,” said Gwydion. - -So Gwydion went to Mâth, his uncle and tutor in magic, and between them -they made a woman out of flowers by charms and illusion. “They took the -blossoms of the oak, and the blossoms of the broom, and the blossoms of -the meadow-sweet, and produced from them a maiden, the fairest and most -graceful that man ever saw.” They called her Blodeuwedd (Flower-face), -and gave her to Lleu as his wife. And they gave Lleu a palace called Mur -y Castell, near Bala Lake. - -All went well until, one day, Gronw Pebyr, one of the gods of darkness, -came by, hunting, and killed the stag at nightfall near Lleu’s castle. -The sun-god was away upon a visit to Mâth, but Blodeuwedd asked the -stranger to take shelter with her. That night they fell in love with one -another, and conspired together how Lleu might be put away. When Lleu -came back from Mâth’s court, Blodeuwedd, like a Celtic Dalilah, wormed -out of him the secret of how his life was preserved. He told her that he -could only die in one way; he could not be killed either inside or -outside a house, either on horseback or on foot, but that if a spear -that had been a year in the making, and which was never worked upon -except during the sacrifice on Sunday, were to be cast at him as he -stood beneath a roof of thatch, after having just bathed, with one foot -upon the edge of the bath and the other upon a buck goat’s back, it -would cause his death. Blodeuwedd piously thanked Heaven that he was so -well protected, and sent a messenger to her paramour, telling him what -she had learned. Gronw set to work on the spear; and in a year it was -ready. When she knew this, Blodeuwedd asked Lleu to show her exactly how -it was he could be killed. - -Lleu agreed; and Blodeuwedd prepared the bath under the thatched roof, -and tethered the goat by it. Lleu bathed, and then stood with one foot -upon the edge of the bath, and the other upon the goat’s back. At this -moment, Gronw, from an ambush, flung the spear, and hit Lleu, who, with -a terrible cry, changed into an eagle, and flew away. He never came -back; and Gronw took possession of both his wife and his palace. - -But Gwydion set out to search everywhere for his son. At last, one day, -he came to a house in North Wales where the man was in great anxiety -about his sow; for as soon as the sty was opened, every morning, she -rushed out, and did not return again till late in the evening. Gwydion -offered to follow her, and, at dawn, the man took him to the sty, and -opened the door. The sow leaped forth, and ran, and Gwydion ran after -her. He tracked her to a brook between Snowdon and the sea, still called -Nant y Llew, and saw her feeding underneath an oak. Upon the top of the -tree there was an eagle, and, every time it shook itself, there fell off -it lumps of putrid meat, which the sow ate greedily. Gwydion suspected -that the eagle must be Lleu. So he sang this verse: - - “Oak that grows between the two banks; - Darkened is the sky and hill! - Shall I not tell him by his wounds, - That this is Lleu?” - -The eagle, on hearing this, came half-way down the tree. So Gwydion -sang: - - “Oak that grows in upland ground, - Is it not wetted by the rain? Has it not been drenched - By nine score tempests? - It bears in its branches Lleu Llaw Gyffes.” - -The eagle came slowly down until it was on the lowest branch. Gwydion -sang: - - “Oak that grows beneath the steep; - Stately and majestic is its aspect! - Shall I not speak it? - That Lleu will come to my lap?” - -Then the eagle came down, and sat on Gwydion’s knee. Gwydion struck it -with his magic wand, and it became Lleu again, wasted to skin and bone -by the poison on the spear. - -Gwydion took him to Mâth to be healed, and left him there, while he went -to Mur y Castell, where Blodeuwedd was. When she heard that he was -coming, she fled. But Gwydion overtook her, and changed her into an owl, -the bird that hates the day. A still older form of this probably -extremely ancient myth of the sun-god—the savage and repulsive details -of which speak of a hoary antiquity—makes the chase of Blodeuwedd by -Gwydion to have taken place in the sky, the stars scattered over the -Milky Way being the traces of it.[308] As for her accomplice, Lleu would -accept no satisfaction short of Gronw’s submitting to stand exactly -where Lleu had stood, to be shot at in his turn. To this he was obliged -to agree; and Lleu killed him.[309] - -There are two other sons of Beli and Dôn of whom so little is recorded -that it would hardly be worth while mentioning them, were it not for the -wild poetry of the legend connected with them. The tale, put into -writing at a time when all the gods were being transfigured into simple -mortals, tells us that they were two kings of Britain, brothers. One -starlight night they were walking together. “See,” said Nynniaw to -Peibaw, “what a fine, wide-spreading field I have.” “Where is it?” asked -Peibaw. “There,” replied Nynniaw; “the whole stretch of the sky, as far -as the eye reaches.” “Look then,” returned Peibaw, “what a number of -cattle I have grazing on your field.” “Where are they?” asked Nynniaw. -“All the stars that you can see,” replied Peibaw, “every one of them of -fiery-coloured gold, with the moon for a shepherd over them.” “They -shall not feed on my field,” cried Nynniaw. “They shall,” exclaimed -Peibaw. “They shall not,” cried Nynniaw, “They shall,” said Peibaw. -“They shall not,” Nynniaw answered; and so they went on, from -contradiction to quarrel, and from private quarrel to civil war, until -the armies of both of them were destroyed, and the two authors of the -evil were turned by God into oxen for their sins.[310] - -Last of the children of Dôn, we find a goddess called Penardun, of whom -little is known except that she was married to the sea-god Llyr. This -incident is curious, as forming a parallel to the Gaelic story which -tells of intermarriage between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomors.[311] -Brigit, the Dagda’s daughter, was married to Bress, son of Elathan, -while Cian, the son of Diancecht, wedded Ethniu, the daughter of Balor. -So, in this kindred mythology, a slender tie of relationship binds the -gods of the sky to the gods of the sea. - -The name _Llyr_ is supposed, like its Irish equivalent Lêr, to have -meant “the Sea”.[312] The British sea-god is undoubtedly the same as the -Gaelic; indeed, the two facts that he is described in Welsh literature -as Llyr Llediath, that is, “Llyr of the Foreign Dialect”, and is given a -wife called Iweridd (Ireland)[313], suggest that he may have been -borrowed by the Britons from the Gaels later than any mythology common -to both. As a British god, he was the far-off original of Shakespeare’s -“King Lear”. The chief city of his worship is still called after him, -Leicester, that is, Llyr-cestre, in still earlier days, Caer Llyr. - -Llyr, we have noticed, married two wives, Penardun and Iweridd. By the -daughter of Dôn he had a son called Manawyddan, who is identical with -the Gaelic Manannán mac Lir.[314] We know less of his character and -attributes than we do of the Irish god; but we find him equally a ruler -in that Hades or Elysium which the Celtic mind ever connected with the -sea. Like all the inhabitants of that other world, he is at once a -master of magic and of the useful arts, which he taught willingly to his -friends. To his enemies, however, he could show a different side of his -character. A triad tells us that— - - “The achievement of Manawyddan the Wise, - After lamentation and fiery wrath, - Was the constructing of the bone-fortress of Oeth and Anoeth”,[315] - -which is described as a prison made, in the shape of a bee-hive, -entirely of human bones mortared together, and divided into innumerable -cells, forming a kind of labyrinth. In this ghastly place he immured -those whom he found trespassing in Hades; and among his captives was no -less a person than the famous Arthur.[316] - -“Ireland” bore two children to Llyr: a daughter called Branwen and a son -called Brân. The little we know of Branwen of the “Fair Bosom” shows her -as a goddess of love—child, like the Greek Aphrodité, of the sea. Brân, -on the other hand, is, even more clearly than Manawyddan, a dark deity -of Hades. He is represented as of colossal size, so huge, in fact, that -no house or ship was big enough to hold him.[317] He delighted in battle -and carnage, like the hoodie-crow or raven from which he probably took -his name,[318] but he was also the especial patron of bards, minstrels, -and musicians, and we find him in one of the poems ascribed to Taliesin -claiming to be himself a bard, a harper, a player on the crowth, and -seven-score other musicians all at once.[319] His son was called -Caradawc the Strong-armed, who, as the British mythology crumbled, -became confounded with the historical Caratacus, known popularly as -“Caractacus”. - -Both Brân and Manawyddan were especially connected with the Swansea -peninsula. The bone-fortress of Oeth and Anoeth was placed by tradition -in Gower.[320] That Brân was equally at home there may be proved from -the Morte Darthur, in which storehouse of forgotten and misunderstood -mythology Brân of Gower survives as “King Brandegore”.[321] - -Such identification of a mere mortal country with the other world seems -strange enough to us, but to our Celtic ancestors it was a quite natural -thought. All islands—and peninsulas, which, viewed from an opposite -coast, probably seemed to them islands—were deemed to be pre-eminently -homes of the dark Powers of Hades. Difficult of access, protected by the -turbulent and dangerous sea, sometimes rendered quite invisible by fogs -and mists and, at other times, looming up ghostlily on the horizon, -often held by the remnant of a hostile lower race, they gained a mystery -and a sanctity from the law of the human mind which has always held the -unknown to be the terrible. The Cornish Britons, gazing from the shore, -saw Gower and Lundy, and deemed them outposts of the over-sea Other -World. To the Britons of Wales, Ireland was no human realm, a view -reciprocated by the Gaels, who saw Hades in Britain, while the Isle of -Man was a little Hades common to them both. Nor even was the sea always -necessary to sunder the world of ghosts from that of “shadow-casting -men”. Glastonbury Tor, surrounded by almost impassable swamps, was one -of the especial haunts of Gwyn ap Nudd. The Britons of the north held -that beyond the Roman wall and the vast Caledonian wood lived ghosts and -not men. Even the Roman province of Demetia—called by the Welsh Dyfed, -and corresponding, roughly, to the modern County of Pembrokeshire—was, -as a last stronghold of the aborigines, identified with the mythic -underworld. - -As such, Dyfed was ruled by a local tribe of gods, whose greatest -figures were Pwyll, “Head of Annwn” (the Welsh name for Hades), with his -wife Rhiannon, and their son Pryderi. These beings are described as -hostile to the children of Dôn, but friendly to the race of Llyr. After -Pwyll’s death or disappearance, his widow Rhiannon becomes the wife of -Manawyddan.[322] In a poem of Taliesin’s we find Manawyddan and Pryderi -joint-rulers of Hades, and warders of that magic cauldron of -inspiration[323] which the gods of light attempted to steal or capture, -and which became famous afterwards as the “Holy Grail”. Another of their -treasures were the “Three Birds of Rhiannon”, which, we are told in an -ancient book, could sing the dead to life and the living into the sleep -of death. Fortunately they sang seldom. “There are three things,” says a -Welsh triad, “which are not often heard: the song of the birds of -Rhiannon, a song of wisdom from the mouth of a Saxon, and an invitation -to a feast from a miser.” - -Nor is the list of British gods complete without mention of Arthur, -though most readers will be surprised to find him in such company. The -genius of Tennyson, who drew his materials mostly from the Norman-French -romances, has stereotyped the popular conception of Arthur as a king of -early Britain who fought for his fatherland and the Christian faith -against invading Saxons. Possibly there may, indeed, have been a -powerful British chieftain bearing that typically Celtic name, which is -found in Irish legend as Artur, one of the sons of Nemed who fought -against the Fomors, and on the Continent as Artaius, a Gaulish deity -whom the Romans identified with Mercury, and who seems to have been a -patron of agriculture.[324] But the original Arthur stands upon the same -ground as Cuchulainn and Finn. His deeds are mythical, because -superhuman. His companions can be shown to have been divine. Some we -know were worshipped in Gaul. Others are children of Dôn, of Llyr, and -of Pwyll, dynasties of older gods to whose head Arthur seems to have -risen, as his cult waxed and theirs waned. Stripped of their godhead, -and strangely transformed, they fill the pages of romance as Knights of -the Table Round. - -These deities were the native gods of Britain. Many others are, however, -mentioned upon inscriptions found in our island, but these were almost -all exotic and imported. Imperial Rome brought men of diverse races -among her legions, and these men brought their gods. Scattered over -Britain, but especially in the north, near the Wall, we find evidence -that deities of many nations—from Germany to Africa, and from Gaul to -Persia—were sporadically worshipped.[325] Most of these foreign gods -were Roman, but a temple at Eboracum (now York) was dedicated to -Serapis, and Mithras, the Persian sun-god, was also adored there; while -at Corbridge, in Northumberland (the ancient Corspitium), there have -been found altars to the Tyrian Hercules and to Astarte. The war-god was -also invoked under many strange names—as “Cocidius” by a colony of -Dacians in Cumberland; as Toutates, Camulus, Coritiacus, Belatucador, -Alator, Loucetius, Condates, and Rigisamos by men of different -countries. A goddess of war was worshipped at Bath under the name of -Nemetona. The hot springs of the same town were under the patronage of a -divinity called Sul, identified by the Romans with Minerva, and she was -helped by a god of medicine described on a dedicatory tablet as “Sol -Apollo Anicetus”. Few of these “strange gods”, however, seem to have -taken hold of the imagination of the native Britons. Their worshippers -did not proselytize, and their general influence was probably about -equal to that of an Evangelical Church in a Turkish town. The sole -exceptions to this rule are where the foreign gods are Gaulish; but in -several instances it can be proved that they were not so much of Roman, -as of original Celtic importation. The warlike heaven-god Camulus -appears in Gaelic heroic myth as Cumhal, the father of Finn, and in -British mythical history as Coel, a duke of Caer Coelvin (known earlier -as Camulodunum, and now as Colchester), who seized the crown of Britain, -and spent his short reign in a series of battles.[326] The name of the -sun-god Maponos is found alike upon altars in Gaul and Britain, and in -Welsh literature as Mabon, a follower of Arthur; while another Gaulish -sun-god, Belinus, who had a splendid temple at Bajocassos (the modern -Bayeux), though not mentioned in the earliest British mythology, as its -scattered records have come down to us, must have been connected with -Brân, for we find in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History “King Belinus” as -brother of “King Brennius”,[327] and in the Morte Darthur “Balin” as -brother of “Balan”.[328] A second-century Greek writer gives an account -of a god of eloquence worshipped in Gaul under the name of Ogmios, and -represented as equipped like Heracles, a description which exactly -corresponds to the conception of the Gaelic Ogma, at once patron of -literature and writing and professional strong man of the Tuatha Dé -Danann. Nemetona, the war-goddess worshipped at Bath, was probably the -same as Nemon, one of Nuada’s Valkyr-wives, while a broken inscription -to _athubodva_, which probably stood, when intact, for _Cathubodva_, may -well have been addressed to the Gaulish equivalent of Badb Catha, the -“War-fury”. Lugh, or Lleu, was also widely known on the Continent as -Lugus. Three important towns—Laon, Leyden, and Lyons—were all anciently -called after him _Lugu-dunum_ (Lugus’ town), and at the last and -greatest of these a festival was still held in Roman times upon the -sun-god’s day—the first of August—which corresponded to the _Lugnassad_ -(Lugh’s commemoration) held in ancient Ireland. Brigit, the Gaelic -Minerva, is also found in Britain as Brigantia, tutelary goddess of the -Brigantes, a Northern tribe, and in Eastern France as Brigindo, to whom -Iccavos, son of Oppianos, made a dedicatory offering of which there is -still record.[329] - -Other, less striking agreements between the mythical divine names of the -Insular and Continental Celts might be cited. These recorded should, -however, prove sufficiently that Gaul, Gael, and Briton shared in a -common heritage of mythological names and ideas, which they separately -developed into three superficially different, but essentially similar -cults. - ------ - -Footnote 282: - - Lady Guest’s _Mabinogion_, a note to _Math, the Son of Mathonwy_. - -Footnote 283: - - _The Story of Lludd and Llevelys._ See chap. XXIV—“The Decline and - Fall of the Gods”. - -Footnote 284: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 128. - -Footnote 285: - - See a monograph by the Right Hon. Charles Bathurst: _Roman Antiquities - in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire_. - -Footnote 286: - - chap. XXIV—“The Decline and Fall of the Gods”. - -Footnote 287: - - _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 178, 179. - -Footnote 288: - - So translated by Lady Guest. Professor Rhys, however, renders it, “in - whom God has put the instinct of the demons of Annwn”. _Arthurian - Legend_, p. 341. - -Footnote 289: - - Lady Guest’s _Mabinogion_. Note to “Kulhwch and Olwen”. - -Footnote 290: - - Black Book of Caermarthen, poem XXXIII. Vol. I, p. 293, of Skene’s - _Four Ancient Books_. - -Footnote 291: - - I have taken the liberty of omitting a few lines whose connection with - their context is not very apparent. - -Footnote 292: - - Gwyn was said to specially frequent the summits of hills. - -Footnote 293: - - This line is Professor Rhys’s. Skene translates it: “Whilst I am - called Gwyn the son of Nudd”. - -Footnote 294: - - I have here preferred Rhys’s rendering: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 364. - -Footnote 295: - - A name for Hades, of unknown meaning. - -Footnote 296: - - Dormarth means “Death’s Door”. Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 156-158. - -Footnote 297: - - Rhys has it: - - “Dormarth, red-nosed, ground-grazing— - On him we perceived the speed - Of thy wandering on Cloud Mount.” - - —_Arthurian Legend_, p. 156. - -Footnote 298: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 383. Skene translates: “I am alive, they - in their graves!” - -Footnote 299: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 561. - -Footnote 300: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 561-563. - -Footnote 301: - - Dyer: _Studies of the Gods in Greece_, p. 48. - - Gwyn, son of Nudd, had a brother, Edeyrn, of whom so little has come - down to us that he finds his most suitable place in a foot-note. - Unmentioned in the earliest Welsh legends, he first appears as a - knight of Arthur’s court in the _Red Book_ stories of “Kulhwch and - Olwen”, the “Dream of Rhonabwy”, and “Geraint, the Son of Erbin”. He - accompanied Arthur on his expedition to Rome, and is said also to have - slain “three most atrocious giants” at Brentenol (Brent Knoll), near - Glastonbury. His name occurs in a catalogue of Welsh saints, where he - is described as a bard, and the chapel of Bodedyrn, near Holyhead, - still stands to his honour. Modern readers will know him from - Tennyson’s Idyll of “Geraint and Enid”, which follows very closely the - Welsh romance of “Geraint, the Son of Erbin”. - -Footnote 302: - - Rhys—who calls him “a Cambrian Pluto”: _Lectures on Welsh Philology_, - p. 414. - -Footnote 303: - - _Book of Taliesin_, XLIII. _The Death-song of Dylan, Son of the Wave_, - Vol. I, p. 288 of Skene. - -Footnote 304: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 387. - -Footnote 305: - - Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, p. 210. - -Footnote 306: - - _i.e._ The Lion with the Steady Hand. - -Footnote 307: - - See Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, note to p. 237. - -Footnote 308: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 240. - -Footnote 309: - - Retold from the Mabinogi of _Math, Son of Mathonwy_, in Lady Guest’s - _Mabinogion_. - -Footnote 310: - - The Iolo Manuscripts: collected by Edward Williams, the bard, at about - the beginning of the nineteenth century—_The Tale of Rhitta Gawr_. - -Footnote 311: - - See Chapter VII—“The Rise of the Sun-God”. - -Footnote 312: - - Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, p. 130. - -Footnote 313: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 130. - -Footnote 314: - - The old Irish tract called _Coir Anmann_ (the _Choice of Names_) says: - “Manannan mac Lir ... the Britons and the men of Erin deemed that he - was the god of the sea”. - -Footnote 315: - - _Iolo MSS._, stanza 18 of _The Stanzas of the Achievements_, composed - by the Azure Bard of the Chair. - -Footnote 316: - - See note to chap. XXII—“The Treasures of Britain”. - -Footnote 317: - - Mabinogi of _Branwen, Daughter of Llyr_. - -Footnote 318: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 245. - -Footnote 319: - - _Book of Taliesin_, poem XLVIII, in Skene’s _Four Ancient Books of - Wales_, Vol. I, p. 297. - -Footnote 320: - - The _Verses of the Graves of the Warriors_, in the Black Book of - Caermarthen. See also Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 347. - -Footnote 321: - - Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, p. 160. - -Footnote 322: - - Mabinogi of _Manawyddan, Son of Llyr_. - -Footnote 323: - - _Book of Taliesin_, poem xiv, Vol. I, p. 276, of Skene. - -Footnote 324: - - Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, p. 48 and note. - -Footnote 325: - - See a paper in the _Edinburgh Review_ for July, 1851—“The Romans in - Britain”. - -Footnote 326: - - It is said that the “Old King Cole” of the popular ballad, who “was a - merry old soul”, represents the last faint tradition of the Celtic - god. - -Footnote 327: - - _Geoffrey of Monmouth_, Book III, chap. I. - -Footnote 328: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book I, chap. XVI. - -Footnote 329: - - For full account of Gaulish gods, and their Gaelic and British - affinities, see Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, I and II—“The Gaulish - Pantheon”. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - THE ADVENTURES OF THE GODS OF HADES - - -It is with the family of Pwyll, deities connected with the south-west -corner of Wales, called by the Romans Demetia, and by the Britons Dyfed, -and, roughly speaking, identical with the modern county of -Pembrokeshire, that the earliest consecutive accounts of the British -gods begin. The first of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi tell us how -“Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed”, gained the right to be called _Pen Annwn_, the -“Head of Hades”. Indeed, it almost seems as if it had been deliberately -written to explain how the same person could be at once a mere mortal -prince, however legendary, and a ruler in the mystic Other World, and so -to reconcile two conflicting traditions.[330] But to an earlier age than -that in which the legend was put into a literary shape, such forced -reconciliation would not have been needed; for the two legends would not -have been considered to conflict. When Pwyll, head of Annwn, was a -mythic person whose tradition was still alive, the unexplored, rugged, -and savage country of Dyfed, populated by the aboriginal Iberians whom -the Celt had driven into such remote districts, appeared to those who -dwelt upon the eastern side of its dividing river, the Tawë, at least a -dependency of Annwn, if not that weird realm itself. But, as men grew -bolder, the frontier was crossed, and Dyfed entered and traversed, and -found to be not so unlike other countries. Its inhabitants, if not of -Celtic race, were yet of flesh and blood. So that, though the province -still continued to bear to a late date the names of the “Land of -Illusion” and the “Realm of Glamour”,[331] it was no longer deemed to be -Hades itself. That fitful and shadowy country had folded its tents, and -departed over or under seas. - -The story of “Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed”,[332] tells us how there was war -in Annwn between its two kings—or between two, perhaps, of its many -chieftains. Arawn (“Silver-Tongue”) and Havgan (“Summer-White”) each -coveted the dominions of the other. In the continual contests between -them, Arawn was worsted, and in despair he visited the upper earth to -seek for a mortal ally. - -At this time Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, held his court at Narberth. He had, -however, left his capital upon a hunting expedition to Glyn Cûch, known -to-day as a valley upon the borders of the two counties of Pembroke and -Carmarthen. Like so many kings of European and Oriental romance, when an -adventure is at hand, he became separated from his party, and was, in -modern parlance, “thrown out”. He could, however, still hear the music -of his hounds, and was listening to them, when he also distinguished the -cry of another pack coming towards him. As he watched and listened, a -stag came into view; and the strange hounds pulled it down almost at his -feet. At first Pwyll hardly looked at the stag, he was so taken up with -gazing at the hounds, for “of all the hounds that he had seen in the -world, he had never seen any that were like unto these. For their hair -was of a brilliant shining white, and their ears were red; and as the -whiteness of their bodies shone, so did the redness of their ears -glisten.” They were, indeed, though Pwyll does not seem to have known -it, of the true Hades breed—the snow-white, red-eared hounds we meet in -Gaelic legends, and which are still said to be sometimes heard and seen -scouring the hills of Wales by night. Seeing no rider with the hounds, -Pwyll drove them away from the dead stag, and called up his own pack to -it. - -While he was doing this, a man “upon a large, light-gray steed, with a -hunting-horn round his neck, and clad in garments of gray woollen in the -fashion of a hunting garb” appeared, and rated Pwyll for his -unsportsmanlike conduct. “Greater discourtesy,” said he, “I never saw -than your driving away my dogs after they had killed the stag, and -calling your own to it. And though I may not be revenged upon you for -this, I swear that I will do you more damage than the value of a hundred -stags.” - -Pwyll expressed his contrition, and, asking the new-comer’s name and -rank, offered to atone for his fault. The stranger told his name—Arawn, -a king of Annwn—and said that Pwyll could gain his forgiveness only in -one way, by going to Annwn instead of him, and fighting for him with -Havgan. Pwyll agreed to do this, and the King of Hades put his own -semblance upon the mortal prince, so that not a person in Annwn—not even -Arawn’s own wife—would know that he was not that king. He led him by a -secret path into Annwn, and left him before his castle, charging him to -return to the place where they had first met, at the end of a year from -that day. On the other hand, Arawn took on Pwyll’s shape, and went to -Narberth. - -No one in Annwn suspected Pwyll of being anyone else than their king. He -spent the year in ruling the realm, in hunting, minstrelsy, and -feasting. Both by day and night, he had the company of Arawn’s wife, the -most beautiful woman he had ever yet seen, but he refrained from taking -advantage of the trust placed in him. At last the day came when he was -to meet Havgan in single combat. One blow settled it; for Pwyll, -Havgan’s destined conqueror, thrust his antagonist an arm’s and a -spear’s length over the crupper of his horse, breaking his shield and -armour, and mortally wounding him. Havgan was carried away to die, and -Pwyll, in the guise of Arawn, received the submission of the dead king’s -subjects, and annexed his realm. Then he went back to Glyn Cûch, to keep -his tryst with Arawn. - -They retook their own shapes, and each returned to his own kingdom. -Pwyll learned that Dyfed had never been ruled so well, or been so -prosperous, as during the year just passed. As for the King of Hades, he -found his enemy gone, and his domains extended. And when he caressed his -wife, she asked him why he did so now, after the lapse of a whole year. -So he told her the truth, and they both agreed that they had indeed got -a true friend in Pwyll. - -After this, the kings of Annwn and Dyfed made their friendship strong -between them. From that time forward, says the story, Pwyll was no -longer called Prince of Dyfed, but _Pen Annwn_, “the Head of Hades”. - -The second mythological incident in the Mabinogi of Pwyll, Prince of -Dyfed, tells how the Head of Hades won his wife, Rhiannon, thought by -Professor Rhys to have been a goddess either of the dawn or of the -moon.[333] There was a mound outside Pwyll’s palace at Narberth which -had a magical quality. To anyone who sat upon it there happened one of -two things: either he received wounds and blows, or else he saw a -wonder. One day, it occurred to Pwyll that he would like to try the -experience of the mound. So he went and sat upon it. - -No unseen blows assailed Pwyll, but he had not been sitting long upon -the mound before he saw, coming towards him, “a lady on a pure-white -horse of large size, with a garment of shining gold around her”, riding -very quietly. He sent a man on foot to ask her who she was, but, though -she seemed to be moving so slowly, the man could not come up to her. He -failed utterly to overtake her, and she passed on out of sight. - -The next day, Pwyll went again to the mound. The lady appeared, and, -this time, Pwyll sent a horseman. At first, the horseman only ambled -along at about the same pace at which the lady seemed to be going; then, -failing to get near her, he urged his horse into a gallop. But, whether -he rode slow or fast, he could come no closer to the lady than before, -although she seemed to the eyes of those who watched to have been going -only at a foot’s pace. - -The day after that, Pwyll determined to accost the lady himself. She -came at the same gentle walk, and Pwyll at first rode easily, and then -at his horse’s topmost speed, but with the same result, or lack of it. -At last, in despair, he called to the mysterious damsel to stop. “I will -stop gladly,” said she, “and it would have been better for your horse if -you had asked me before.” She told him that her name was Rhiannon, -daughter of Heveydd the Ancient. The nobles of her realm had determined -to give her in marriage against her will, so she had come to seek out -Pwyll, who was the man of her choice. Pwyll was delighted to hear this, -for he thought that she was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen. -Before they parted, they had plighted troth, and Pwyll had promised to -appear on that day twelvemonth at the palace of her father, Heveydd. -Then she vanished, and Pwyll returned to Narberth. - -At the appointed time, Pwyll went to visit Heveydd the Ancient, with a -hundred followers. He was received with much welcome, and the -disposition of the feast put under his command, as the Celts seem to -have done to especially honoured guests. As they sat at meat, with Pwyll -between Rhiannon and her father, a tall auburn-haired youth came into -the hall, greeted Pwyll, and asked a boon of him. “Whatever boon you may -ask of me,” said Pwyll thoughtlessly, “if it is in my power, you shall -have it.” Then the suitor threw off all disguise, called the guests to -witness Pwyll’s promise, and claimed Rhiannon as his bride. Pwyll was -dumb. “Be silent as long as you will,” said the masterful Rhiannon; -“never did a man make worse use of his wits than you have done.” “Lady,” -replied the amazed Pwyll, “I knew not who he was.” “He is the man to -whom they would have given me against my will,” she answered, “Gwawl, -the son of Clûd. You must bestow me upon him now, lest shame befall -you.” “Never will I do that,” said Pwyll. “Bestow me upon him,” she -insisted, “and I will cause that I shall never be his.” So Pwyll -promised Gwawl that he would make a feast that day year, at which he -would resign Rhiannon to him. - -The next year, the feast was made, and Rhiannon sat by the side of her -unwelcome bridegroom. But Pwyll was waiting outside the palace, with a -hundred men in ambush. When the banquet was at its height, he came into -the hall, dressed in coarse, ragged garments, shod with clumsy old -shoes, and carrying a leather bag. But the bag was a magic one, which -Rhiannon had given to her lover, with directions as to its use. Its -quality was that, however much was put into it, it could never be -filled. “I crave a boon,” he said to Gwawl. “What is it?” Gwawl replied. -“I am a poor man, and all I ask is to have this bag filled with meat.” -Gwawl granted what he said was “a request within reason”, and ordered -his followers to fill the bag. But the more they put into it, the more -room in it there seemed to be. Gwawl was astonished, and asked why this -was. Pwyll replied that it was a bag that could never be filled until -someone possessed of lands and riches should tread the food down with -both his feet. “Do this for the man,” said Rhiannon to Gwawl. “Gladly I -will,” replied he, and put both his feet into the bag. But no sooner had -he done so than Pwyll slipped the bag over Gwawl’s head, and tied it up -at the mouth. He blew his horn, and all his followers came in. “What -have you got in the bag?” asked each one in turn. “A badger,” replied -Pwyll. Then each, as he received Pwyll’s answer, kicked the bag, or hit -it with a stick. “Then,” says the story, “was the game of ‘Badger in the -Bag’ first played.” - -Gwawl, however, fared better than we suspect that the badger usually -did; for Heveydd the Ancient interceded for him. Pwyll willingly -released him, on condition that he promised to give up all claim to -Rhiannon, and renounced all projects of revenge. Gwawl consented, and -gave sureties, and went away to his own country to have his bruises -healed. - -This country of Gwawl’s was, no doubt, the sky; for he was evidently a -sun-god. His name bewrays him; for the meaning of “Gwawl” is -“light”.[334] It was one of the hours of victory for the dark powers, -such as were celebrated in the Celtic calendar by the Feast of Samhain, -or Summer End. - -There was no hindrance now to the marriage of Pwyll and Rhiannon. She -became his bride, and returned with him to Dyfed. - -For three years, they were without an heir, and the nobles of Dyfed -became discontented. They petitioned Pwyll to take another wife instead -of Rhiannon. He asked for a year’s delay. This was granted, and, before -the end of the year, a son was born. But, on the night of his birth, the -six women set to keep watch over Rhiannon all fell asleep at once; and -when they woke up, the boy had vanished. Fearful lest their lives should -be forfeited for their neglect, they agreed to swear that Rhiannon had -eaten her child. They killed a litter of puppies, and smeared some of -the blood on Rhiannon’s face and hands, and put some of the bones by her -side. Then they awoke her with a great outcry, and accused her. She -swore that she knew nothing of the death of her son, but the women -persisted that they had seen her devour him, and had been unable to -prevent it. The druids of that day were not sufficiently practical -anatomists to be able to tell the bones of a child from those of a dog, -so they condemned Rhiannon upon the evidence of the women. But, even -now, Pwyll would not put her away; so she was assigned a penance. For -seven years, she was to sit by a horse-block outside the gate, and offer -to carry visitors into the palace upon her back. “But it rarely -happened,” says the Mabinogi, “that any would permit her to do so.” - -Exactly what had become of Rhiannon’s child seems to have been a mystery -even to the writer of the Mabinogi. It was, at any rate, in some way -connected with the equally mysterious disappearance on every night of -the first of May—Beltaine, the Celtic sun-festival—of the colts foaled -by a beautiful mare belonging to Teirnyon Twryv Vliant, one of Pwyll’s -vassals. Every May-day night, the mare foaled, but no one knew what -became of the colt. Teirnyon decided to find out. He caused the mare to -be taken into a house, and there he watched it, fully armed. Early in -the night, the colt was born. Then there was a great noise, and an arm -with claws came through the window, and gripped the colt’s mane. -Teirnyon hacked at the arm with his sword, and cut it off. Then he heard -wailing, and opened the door, and found a baby in swaddling clothes, -wrapped in a satin mantle. He took it up and brought it to his wife, and -they decided to adopt it. They called the boy Gwri Wallt Euryn, that is -“Gwri of the Golden Hair”. - -The older the boy grew, the more it seemed to Teirnyon that he became -like Pwyll. Then he remembered that he had found him upon the very night -that Rhiannon lost her child. So he consulted with his wife, and they -both agreed that the baby they had so mysteriously found must be the -same that Rhiannon had so mysteriously lost. And they decided that it -would not be right for them to keep the son of another, while so good a -lady as Rhiannon was being punished wrongfully. - -So, the very next day, Teirnyon set out for Narberth, taking the boy -with him. They found Rhiannon sitting, as usual, by the gate, but they -would not allow her to carry them into the palace on her back. Pwyll -welcomed them; and that evening, as they sat at supper, Teirnyon told -his hosts the story from beginning to end. And he presented her son to -Rhiannon. - -As soon as everyone in the palace saw the boy, they admitted that he -must be Pwyll’s son. So they adopted him with delight; and Pendaran -Dyfed, the head druid of the kingdom, gave him a new name. He called him -“Pryderi[335]”, meaning “trouble”, from the first word that his mother -had uttered when he was restored to her. For she had said: “_Trouble_ -is, indeed, at an end for me, if this be true”. - ------ - -Footnote 330: - - Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, p. 282. - -Footnote 331: - - It is constantly so-called by the fourteenth-century Welsh poet, - Dafydd ab Gwilym, so much admired by George Borrow. - -Footnote 332: - - This chapter is retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the Mabinogi - of _Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed_. - -Footnote 333: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 678. - -Footnote 334: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 123 and note. Clûd was probably the - goddess of the River Clyde. See Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 294. - -Footnote 335: - - Pronounced _Pridaíry_. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - - THE WOOING OF BRANWEN AND THE - BEHEADING OF BRÂN[336] - - -In the second of the “Four Branches”, Pryderi, come to man’s estate, and -married to a wife called Kicva, appears as a guest or vassal at the -court of a greater god of Hades than himself—Brân, the son of the -sea-god Llyr. The children of Llyr—Brân, with his sister Branwen of the -“Fair Bosom” and his half-brother Manawyddan, as well as two sons of -Manawyddan’s mother, Penardun, by an earlier marriage, were holding -court at _Twr Branwen_, “Branwen’s Tower”, now called Harlech. As they -sat on a cliff, looking over the sea, they saw thirteen ships coming -from Ireland. The fleet sailed close under the land, and Brân sent -messengers to ask who they were, and why they had come. It was replied -that they were the vessels of Matholwch, King of Ireland, and that he -had come to ask Brân for his sister Branwen in marriage. Brân consented, -and they fixed upon Aberffraw, in Anglesey, as the place at which to -hold the wedding feast. Matholwch and his fleet went there by sea, and -Brân and his host by land. When they arrived, and met, they set up -pavilions; for “no house could ever hold the blessed Brân”. And there -Branwen became the King of Ireland’s bride.[337] - -These relations were not long, however, allowed to be friendly. Of the -two other sons of Llyr’s wife, Penardun, the mother of Manawyddan, one -was called Nissyen, and the other, Evnissyen. Nissyen was a lover of -peace, and would always “cause his family to be friends when their wrath -was at the highest”, but Evnissyen “would cause strife between his two -brothers when they were most at peace”. Now Evnissyen was enraged -because his consent had not been asked to Branwen’s marriage. Out of -spite at this, he cut off the lips, ears, eyebrows, and tails of all -Matholwch’s horses. - -When the King of Ireland found this out, he was very indignant at the -insult. But Brân sent an embassy to him twice, explaining that it had -not been done by his consent or with his knowledge. He appeased -Matholwch by giving him a sound horse in place of every one that -Evnissyen had mutilated, as well as a staff of silver as large and tall -as Matholwch himself, and a plate of gold as broad as Matholwch’s face. -To these gifts he also added a magic cauldron brought from Ireland. Its -property was that any slain man who was put into it was brought to life -again, except that he lost the use of speech. The King of Ireland -accepted this recompense for the insult done him, renewed his friendship -with the children of Llyr, and sailed away with Branwen to Ireland. - -Before a year was over, Branwen bore a son. They called him Gwern, and -put him out to be foster-nursed among the best men of Ireland. But, -during the second year, news came to Ireland of the insult that -Matholwch had received in Britain. The King of Ireland’s foster-brothers -and near relations insisted that he should revenge himself upon Branwen. -So the queen was compelled to serve in the kitchen, and, every day, the -butcher gave her a box upon the ear. That this should not become known -to Brân, all traffic was forbidden between Ireland and Britain. This -went on for three years. - -But, in the meantime, Branwen had reared a tame starling, and she taught -it to speak, and tied a letter of complaint to the root of its wing, and -sent it off to Britain. At last it found Brân, whom its mistress had -described to it, and settled upon his shoulder, ruffling its wings. This -exposed the letter, and Brân read it. He sent messengers to one hundred -and forty-four countries, to raise an army to go to Ireland. Leaving his -son Caradawc, with seven others, in charge of Britain, he -started—himself wading through the sea, while his men went by ship. - -No one in Ireland knew that they were coming until the royal swineherds, -tending their pigs near the sea-shore, beheld a marvel. They saw a -forest on the surface of the sea—a place where certainly no forest had -been before—and, near it, a mountain with a lofty ridge on its top, and -a lake on each side of the ridge. Both the forest and the mountain were -swiftly moving towards Ireland. They informed Matholwch, who could not -understand it, and sent messengers to ask Branwen what she thought it -might be. “It is the men of the Island of the Mighty[338],” said she, -“who are coming here because they have heard of my ill-treatment. The -forest that is seen on the sea is made of the masts of ships. The -mountain is my brother Brân, wading into shoal water; the lofty ridge is -his nose, and the two lakes, one on each side of it, are his eyes.” - -The men of Ireland were terrified. They fled beyond the Shannon, and -broke down the bridge over it. But Brân lay down across the river, and -his army walked over him to the opposite side. - -Matholwch now sent messengers suing for peace. He offered to resign the -throne of Ireland to Gwern, Branwen’s son and Brân’s nephew. “Shall I -not have the kingdom myself?” said Brân, and would not hear of anything -else. So the counsellors of Matholwch advised him to conciliate Brân by -building him a house so large that it would be the first house that had -ever held him, and, in it, to hand over the kingdom to his will. Brân -consented to accept this, and the vast house was built. - -It concealed treachery. Upon each side of the hundred pillars of the -house was hung a bag, and in the bag was an armed man, who was to cut -himself out at a given signal. But Evnissyen came into the house, and -seeing the bags there, suspected the plot. “What is in this bag?” he -said to one of the Irish, as he came up to the first one. “Meal,” -replied the Irishman. Then Evnissyen kneaded the bag in his hands, as -though it really contained meal, until he had killed the man inside; and -he treated all of them in turn in the same way. - -A little later, the two hosts met in the house. The men of Ireland came -in on one side, and the men of Britain on the other, and met at the -hearth in the middle, and sat down. The Irish court did homage to Brân, -and they crowned Gwern, Branwen’s son, King of Ireland in place of -Matholwch. When the ceremonies were over, the boy went from one to -another of his uncles, to make acquaintance with them. Brân fondled and -caressed him, and so did Manawyddan, and Nissyen. But when he came to -Evnissyen, the wicked son of Penardun seized the child by the feet, and -dropped him head first into the great fire. - -When Branwen saw her son killed, she tried to leap into the flames after -him, but Brân held her back. Then every man armed himself, and such a -tumult was never heard in one house before. Day after day they fought; -but the Irish had the advantage, for they had only to plunge their dead -men into the magic cauldron to bring them back to life. When Evnissyen -knew this, he saw a way of atoning for the misfortunes his evil nature -had brought upon Britain. He disguised himself as an Irishman, and lay -upon the floor as if dead, until they put him into the cauldron. Then he -stretched himself, and, with one desperate effort, burst both the -cauldron and his own heart. - -Thus things were made equal again, and in the next battle the men of -Britain killed all the Irish. But of themselves there were only seven -left unhurt—Pryderi; Manawyddan; Gluneu, the son of Taran[339]; Taliesin -the Bard; Ynawc; Grudyen, the son of Muryel; and Heilyn, the son of -Gwynn the Ancient. - -Brân himself was wounded in the foot with a poisoned dart, and was in -agony. So he ordered his seven surviving followers to cut off his head, -and to take it to the White Mount in London[340], and bury it there, -with the face towards France. He prophesied how they would perform the -journey. At Harlech they would be feasting seven years, the birds of -Rhiannon singing to them all the time, and Brân’s own head conversing -with them as agreeably as when it was on his body. Then they would be -fourscore years at Gwales[341]. All this while, Brân’s head would remain -uncorrupted, and would talk so pleasantly that they would forget the -flight of time. But, at the destined hour, someone would open a door -which looked towards Cornwall, and, after that, they could stay no -longer, but must hurry to London to bury the head. - -So the seven beheaded Brân, and set off, taking Branwen also with them. -They landed at the mouth of the River Alaw, in Anglesey. Branwen first -looked back towards Ireland, and then forward towards Britain. “Alas,” -she cried, “that I was ever born! two islands have been destroyed -because of me.” Her heart broke with sorrow, and she died. An old Welsh -poem says, with a touch of real pathos: - - “Softened were the voices in the brakes - Of the wondering birds - On seeing the fair body. - Will there not be relating again - Of that which befel the paragon - At the stream of Amlwch?”[342] - -“They made her a four-sided grave,” says the Mabinogi, “and buried her -upon the banks of the Alaw.” The traditionary spot has always borne the -name of _Ynys Branwen_, and, curiously enough, an urn was found there, -in 1813, full of ashes and half-burnt bones, which certain enthusiastic -local antiquaries saw “every reason to suppose” were those of the fair -British Aphrodité herself.[343] - -The seven went on towards Harlech, and, as they journeyed, they met men -and women who gave them the latest news. Caswallawn, a son of Beli, the -husband of Dôn, had destroyed the ministers left behind by Brân to take -care of Britain. He had made himself invisible by the help of a magic -veil, and thus had killed all of them except Pendaran Dyfed, -foster-father of Pryderi, who had escaped into the woods, and Caradawc -son of Brân, whose heart had broken from grief. Thus he had made himself -king of the whole island in place of Manawyddan, its rightful heir now -that Brân was dead. - -However, the destiny was upon the seven that they should go on with -their leader’s head. They went to Harlech and feasted for seven years, -the three birds of Rhiannon singing them songs compared with which all -other songs seemed unmelodious. Then they spent fourscore years in the -Isle of Gwales, eating and drinking, and listening to the pleasant -conversation of Brân’s head. The “Entertaining of the Noble Head” this -eighty years’ feast was called. Brân’s head, indeed, is almost more -notable in British mythology than Brân before he was decapitated. -Taliesin and the other bards invoke it repeatedly as _Urddawl Ben_ (the -“Venerable Head”) and _Uther Ben_ (the “Wonderful Head”). - -But all pleasure came to an end when Heilyn, the son of Gwynn, opened -the forbidden door, like Bluebeard’s wife, “to know if that was true -which was said concerning it”. As soon as they looked towards Cornwall, -the glamour that had kept them merry for eighty-seven years failed, and -left them as grieved about the death of their lord as though it had -happened that very day. They could not rest for sorrow, but went at once -to London, and laid the now dumb and corrupting head in its grave on -Tower Hill, with its face turned towards France, to watch that no foe -came from foreign lands to Britain. There it reposed until, ages -afterwards, Arthur, in his pride of heart, dug it up, “as he thought it -beneath his dignity to hold the island otherwise than by valour”. -Disaster, in the shape of - - “the godless hosts - Of heathen swarming o’er the Northern sea”,[344] - -came of this disinterment; and therefore it is called, in a triad, one -of the “Three Wicked Uncoverings of Britain”. - ------ - -Footnote 336: - - Retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the Mabinogi of _Branwen, the - Daughter of Llyr_. - -Footnote 337: - - Rhys—_Lectures on Welsh Philology_—compares Matholwch with Mâth, and - the story, generally, with the Greek myth of Persephoné. - -Footnote 338: - - A bardic name for Britain. - -Footnote 339: - - This personage may have been the same as the Gaulish god Taranis. - Mention, too, is made in an ancient Irish glossary of “Etirun, an idol - of the Britons”. - -Footnote 340: - - This spot, called by a twelfth-century Welsh poet “The White Eminence - of London, a place of splendid fame”, was probably the hill on which - the Tower of London now stands. - -Footnote 341: - - The island of Gresholm, off the coast of Pembrokeshire. - -Footnote 342: - - _The Gododin_ of Aneurin, as translated by T. Stephens. Branwen is - there called “the lady Bradwen”. - -Footnote 343: - - See note to _Branwen, the Daughter of Llyr_ in Lady Guest’s - _Mabinogion_. - -Footnote 344: - - Tennyson: _Idylls of the King_—“Guinevere”. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - - THE WAR OF ENCHANTMENTS[345] - - -Manawyddan was now the sole survivor of the family of Llyr. He was -homeless and landless. But Pryderi offered to give him a realm in Dyfed, -and his mother, Rhiannon, for a wife. The lady, her son explained, was -still not uncomely, and her conversation was pleasing. Manawyddan seems -to have found her attractive, while Rhiannon was not less taken with the -son of Llyr. They were wedded, and so great became the friendship of -Pryderi and Kicva, Manawyddan and Rhiannon, that the four were seldom -apart. - -One day, after holding a feast at Narberth, they went up to the same -magic mound where Rhiannon had first met Pwyll. As they sat there, -thunder pealed, and immediately a thick mist sprang up, so that not one -of them could see the other. When it cleared, they found themselves -alone in an uninhabited country. Except for their own castle, the land -was desert and untilled, without sign of dwelling, man, or beast. One -touch of some unknown magic had utterly changed the face of Dyfed from a -rich realm to a wilderness. - -Manawyddan and Pryderi, Rhiannon and Kicva traversed the country on all -sides, but found nothing except desolation and wild beasts. For two -years they lived in the open upon game and honey. - -During the third year, they grew weary of this wild life, and decided to -go into Lloegyr[346], and support themselves by some handicraft. -Manawyddan could make saddles, and he made them so well that soon no one -in Hereford, where they had settled, would buy from any saddler but -himself. This aroused the enmity of all the other saddlers, and they -conspired to kill the strangers. So the four went to another city. - -Here they made shields, and soon no one would purchase a shield unless -it had been made by Manawyddan and Pryderi. The shield-makers became -jealous, and again a move had to be made. - -But they fared no better at the next town, where they practised the -craft of cordwainers, Manawyddan shaping the shoes and Pryderi stitching -them. So they went back to Dyfed again, and occupied themselves in -hunting. - -One day, the hounds of Manawyddan and Pryderi roused a white wild boar. -They chased it till they came to a castle at a place where both the -huntsmen were certain that no castle had been before. Into this castle -went the boar, and the hounds after it. For some time, Manawyddan and -Pryderi waited in vain for their return. Pryderi then proposed that he -should go into the castle, and see what had become of them. Manawyddan -tried to dissuade him, declaring that whoever their enemy was who had -laid Dyfed waste had also caused the appearance of this castle. But -Pryderi insisted upon entering. - -In the castle, he found neither the boar nor his hounds, nor any trace -of man or beast. There was nothing but a fountain in the centre of the -castle floor, and, on the brink of the fountain, a beautiful golden bowl -fastened to a marble slab by chains. - -Pryderi was so pleased with the beauty of the bowl that he put out his -hands and took hold of it. Whereupon his hands stuck to the bowl, so -that he could not move from where he stood. - -Manawyddan waited for him till the evening, and then returned to the -palace, and told Rhiannon. She, more daring than her husband, rebuked -him for cowardice, and went straight to the magic castle. In the court -she found Pryderi, his hands still glued to the bowl and his feet to the -slab. She tried to free him, but became fixed, herself, and, with a clap -of thunder and a fall of mist, the castle vanished with its two -prisoners. - -Manawyddan was now left alone with Kicva, Pryderi’s wife. He calmed her -fears, and assured her of his protection. But they had lost their dogs, -and could not hunt any more, so they set out together to Lloegyr, to -practise again Manawyddan’s old trade of cordwainer. A second time, the -envious cordwainers conspired to kill them, so they were obliged to -return to Dyfed. - -But Manawyddan took back a burden of wheat with him to Narberth, and -sowed three crofts, all of which sprang up abundantly. - -When harvest time came, he went to look at his first croft, and found it -ripe. “I will reap this to-morrow,” he said. But in the morning he found -nothing but the bare straw. Every ear had been taken away. - -So he went to the next croft, which was also ripe. But, when he came to -cut it, he found it had been stripped like the first. Then he knew that -whoever had wasted Dyfed, and carried off Rhiannon and Pryderi, was also -at work upon his wheat. - -The third croft was also ripe, and over this one he determined to keep -watch. In the evening he armed himself and waited. At midnight he heard -a great tumult, and, looking out, saw a host of mice coming. Each mouse -bit off an ear of wheat and ran off with it. He rushed among them, but -could only catch one, which was more sluggish than the rest. This one he -put into his glove, and took it back, and showed it to Kicva. - -“To-morrow I will hang it,” he said. “It is not a fit thing for a man of -your dignity to hang a mouse,” she replied. “Nevertheless will I do so,” -said he. “Do so then,” said Kicva. - -The next morning, Manawyddan went to the magic mound, and set up two -forks on it, to make a gallows. He had just finished, when a man dressed -like a poor scholar came towards him, and greeted him. - -“What are you doing, Lord?” he said. - -“I am going to hang a thief,” replied Manawyddan. - -“What sort of a thief? I see an animal like a mouse in your hand, but a -man of rank like yours should not touch so mean a creature. Let it go -free.” - -“I caught it robbing me,” replied Manawyddan, “and it shall die a -thief’s death.” - -“I do not care to see a man like you doing such a thing,” said the -scholar. “I will give you a pound to let it go.” - -“I will not let it go,” replied Manawyddan, “nor will I sell it.” - -“As you will, Lord. It is nothing to me,” returned the scholar. And he -went away. - -Manawyddan laid a cross-bar along the forks. As he did so, another man -came by, a priest riding on a horse. He asked Manawyddan what he was -doing, and was told. “My lord,” he said, “such a reptile is worth -nothing to buy, but rather than see you degrade yourself by touching it, -I will give you three pounds to let it go.” - -“I will take no money for it,” replied Manawyddan. “It shall be hanged.” - -“Let it be hanged,” said the priest, and went his way. - -Manawyddan put the noose round the mouse’s neck, and was just going to -draw it up, when he saw a bishop coming, with his whole retinue. - -“Thy blessing, Lord Bishop,” he said. - -“Heaven’s blessing upon you,” said the bishop. “What are you doing?” - -“I am hanging a thief,” replied Manawyddan. “This mouse has robbed me.” - -“Since I happen to have come at its doom, I will ransom it,” said the -bishop. “Here are seven pounds. Take them, and let it go.” - -“I will not let it go,” replied Manawyddan. - -“I will give you twenty-four pounds of ready money if you will let it -go,” said the bishop. - -“I would not, for as much again,” replied Manawyddan. - -“If you will not free it for that,” said the bishop, “I will give you -all my horses and their baggage to let it go.” - -“I will not,” replied Manawyddan. - -“Then name your own price,” said the bishop. - -“That offer I accept,” replied Manawyddan. “My price is that Rhiannon -and Pryderi be set free.” - -“They shall be set free,” replied the bishop. - -“Still I will not let the mouse go,” said Manawyddan. - -“What more do you ask?” exclaimed the bishop. - -“That the charm be removed from Dyfed,” replied Manawyddan. - -“It shall be removed,” promised the bishop. “So set the mouse free.” - -“I will not,” said Manawyddan, “till I know who the mouse is.” - -“She is my wife,” replied the bishop, “and I am called Llwyd, the son of -Kilcoed, and I cast the charm over Dyfed, and upon Rhiannon and Pryderi, -to avenge Gwawl son of Clûd for the game of ‘badger in the bag’ which -was played on him by Pwyll, Head of Annwn. It was my household that came -in the guise of mice and took away your corn. But since my wife has been -caught, I will restore Rhiannon and Pryderi and take the charm off Dyfed -if you will let her go.” - -“I will not let her go,” said Manawyddan, “until you have promised that -there shall be no charm put upon Dyfed again.” - -“I will promise that also,” replied Llwyd. “So let her go.” - -“I will not let her go,” said Manawyddan, “unless you swear to take no -revenge for this hereafter.” - -“You have done wisely to claim that,” replied Llwyd. “Much trouble would -else have come upon your head because of this. Now I swear it. So set my -wife free.” - -“I will not,” said Manawyddan, “until I see Rhiannon and Pryderi.” - -Then he saw them coming towards him; and they greeted one another. - -“Now set my wife free,” said the bishop. - -“I will, gladly,” replied Manawyddan. So he released the mouse, and -Llwyd struck her with a wand, and turned her into “a young woman, the -fairest ever seen”. - -And when Manawyddan looked round him, he saw Dyfed tilled and cultivated -again, as it had formerly been. - -The powers of light had, this time, the victory. Little by little, they -increased their mastery over the dominion of darkness, until we find the -survivors of the families of Llyr and Pwyll mere vassals of Arthur. - ------ - -Footnote 345: - - Retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the Mabinogi of _Manawyddan, - the Son of Llyr_. - -Footnote 346: - - Saxon Britain—England. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XX - - THE VICTORIES OF LIGHT OVER DARKNESS - - -The powers of light were, however, by no means invariably successful in -their struggles with the powers of darkness. Even Gwydion son of Dôn had -to serve his apprenticeship to misfortune. Assailing Caer -Sidi—Hades[347] under one of its many titles,—he was caught by Pwyll and -Pryderi, and endured a long imprisonment.[348] The sufferings he -underwent made him a bard—an ancient Celtic idea which one can still see -surviving in the popular tradition that whoever dares to spend a night -alone either upon the chair of the Giant Idris (the summit of Cader -Idris, in Merionethshire), or under the haunted Black Stone of Arddu, -upon the Llanberis side of Snowdon, will be found in the morning either -inspired or mad.[349] How he escaped we are not told; but the episode -does not seem to have quenched his ardour against the natural enemies of -his kind. - -Helped by his brother, Amaethon, god of agriculture, and his son, Lleu, -he fought the Battle of Godeu, or “the Trees”, an exploit which is not -the least curious of Celtic myths. It is known also as the Battle of -Achren, or Ochren, a name for Hades of unknown meaning, but appearing -again in the remarkable Welsh poem which describes the “Spoiling of -Annwn” by Arthur. The King of Achren was Arawn; and he was helped by -Brân, who apparently had not then made his fatal journey to Ireland. The -war was made to secure three boons for man—the dog, the deer, and the -lapwing, all of them creatures for some reason sacred to the gods of the -nether world. - -Gwydion was this time not alone, as he apparently was when he made his -first unfortunate reconnaissance of Hades. Besides his brother and his -son, he had an army which he raised for the purpose. For a leader of -Gwydion’s magical attainments there was no need of standing troops. He -could call battalions into being with a charm, and dismiss them when -they were no longer needed. The name of the battle shows what he did on -this occasion; and the bard Taliesin adds his testimony: - - “I have been in the battle of Godeu, with Lleu and Gwydion, - They changed the forms of the elementary trees and sedges”. - -In a poem devoted to it[350] he describes in detail what happened. The -trees and grasses, he tells us, hurried to the fight: the alders led the -van, but the willows and the quickens came late, and the birch, though -courageous, took long in arraying himself; the elm stood firm in the -centre of the battle, and would not yield a foot; heaven and earth -trembled before the advance of the oak-tree, that stout door-keeper -against an enemy; the heroic holly and the hawthorn defended themselves -with their spikes; the heather kept off the enemy on every side, and the -broom was well to the front, but the fern was plundered, and the furze -did not do well; the stout, lofty pine, the intruding pear-tree, the -gloomy ash, the bashful chestnut-tree, the prosperous beech, the -long-enduring poplar, the scarce plum-tree, the shelter-seeking privet -and woodbine, the wild, foreign laburnum; “the bean, bearing in its -shade an army of phantoms”; rose-bush, raspberry, ivy, cherry-tree, and -medlar—all took their parts. - -In the ranks of Hades there were equally strange fighters. We are told -of a hundred-headed beast, carrying a formidable battalion under the -root of its tongue and another in the back of its head; there was a -gaping black toad with a hundred claws; and a crested snake of many -colours, within whose flesh a hundred souls were tormented for their -sins—in fact, it would need a Doré or a Dante to do justice to this -weird battle between the arrayed magics of heaven and hell. - -It was magic that decided its fate. There was a fighter in the ranks of -Hades who could not be overcome unless his antagonist guessed his name—a -peculiarity of the terrene gods, remarks Professor Rhys,[351] which has -been preserved in our popular fairy tales. Gwydion guessed the name, and -sang these two verses:— - - “Sure-hoofed is my steed impelled by the spur; - The high sprigs of alder are on thy shield; - _Brân_ art thou called, of the glittering branches! - - “Sure-hoofed is my steed in the day of battle: - The high sprigs of alder are on thy hand: - _Brân_ ... by the branch thou bearest - Has Amaethon the Good prevailed!”[352] - -Thus the power of the dark gods was broken, and the sons of Dôn retained -for the use of men the deer, the dog, and the lapwing, stolen from that -underworld, whence all good gifts came. - -It was always to obtain some practical benefit that the gods of light -fought against the gods of darkness. The last and greatest of Gwydion’s -raids upon Hades was undertaken to procure—pork![353] - -Gwydion had heard that there had come to Dyfed some strange beasts, such -as had never been seen before. They were called “pigs” or “swine”, and -Arawn, King of Annwn, had sent them as a gift to Pryderi son of Pwyll. -They were small animals, and their flesh was said to be better than the -flesh of oxen. He thought it would be a good thing to get them, either -by force or fraud, from the dark powers. Mâth son of Mâthonwy, who ruled -the children of Dôn from his Olympus of Caer Dathyl[354], gave his -consent, and Gwydion set off, with eleven others, to Pryderi’s -palace[355]. They disguised themselves as bards, so as to be received by -Pryderi, and Gwydion, who was “the best teller of tales in the world”, -entertained the Prince of Dyfed and his court more than they had ever -been entertained by any story-teller before. Then he asked Pryderi to -grant him a boon—the animals which had come from Annwn. But Pryderi had -pledged his word to Arawn that he would neither sell nor give away any -of the new creatures until they had increased to double their number, -and he told the disguised Gwydion so. - -“Lord,” said Gwydion, “I can set you free from your promise. Neither -give me the swine at once, nor yet refuse them to me altogether, and -to-morrow I will show you how.” - -He went to the lodging Pryderi had assigned him, and began to work his -charms and illusions. Out of fungus he made twelve gilded shields, and -twelve horses with gold harness, and twelve black greyhounds with white -breasts, each wearing a golden collar and leash. And these he showed to -Pryderi. - -“Lord,” said he, “there is a release from the word you spoke last -evening concerning the swine—that you may neither give them nor sell -them. You may exchange them for something which is better. I will give -you these twelve horses with their gold harness, and these twelve -greyhounds with their gold collars and leashes, and these twelve gilded -shields for them.” - -Pryderi took counsel with his men, and agreed to the bargain. So Gwydion -and his followers took the swine and went away with them, hurrying as -fast as they could, for Gwydion knew that the illusion would not last -longer than a day. The memory of their journey was long kept up; every -place where they rested between Dyfed and Caer Dathyl is remembered by a -name connecting it with pigs. There is a Mochdrev (“Swine’s Town”) in -each of the three counties of Cardiganshire, Montgomeryshire, and -Denbighshire, and a Castell y Moch (“Swine’s Castle”) near Mochnant -(“Swine’s Brook”), which runs through part of the two latter counties. -They shut up the pigs in safety, and then assembled all Mâth’s army; for -the horses and hounds and shields had returned to fungus, and Pryderi, -who guessed Gwydion’s part in it, was coming northward in hot haste. - -There were two battles—one at Maenor Penardd, near Conway, and the other -at Maenor Alun, now called Coed Helen, near Caernarvon. Beaten in both, -Pryderi fell back upon Nant Call, about nine miles from Caernarvon. Here -he was again defeated with great slaughter, and sent hostages, asking -for peace and a safe retreat. - -This was granted by Mâth; but, none the less, the army of the sons of -Dôn insisted on following the retreating host, and harassing it. So -Pryderi sent a complaint to Mâth, demanding that, if there must still be -war, Gwydion, who had caused all the trouble, should fight with him in -single combat. - -Gwydion agreed, and the champions of light and darkness met face to -face. But Pryderi was the waning power, and he fell before the strength -and magic of Gwydion. “And at Maen Tyriawc, above Melenryd, was he -buried, and there is his grave”, says the Mabinogi, though the ancient -Welsh poem, called the “Verses of the Graves of the Warriors”[356], -assigns him a different resting-place.[357] - -This decisive victory over Hades and its kings was the end of the -struggle, until it was renewed, with still more complete success, by one -greater than Gwydion—the invincible Arthur. - ------ - -Footnote 347: - - Or the Celtic Elysium, “a mythical country beneath the waves of the - sea”. - -Footnote 348: - - See the _Spoiling of Annwn_, quoted in chap. XXI—“The Mythological - ‘Coming of Arthur’”. - -Footnote 349: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 250-251. - -Footnote 350: - - _Book of Taliesin VIII_, Vol. I, p. 276, of Skene. I have followed - Skene’s translation, with the especial exception of the curious line - referring to the bean, so translated in D. W. Nash’s _Taliesin_. If a - correct rendering of the Welsh original, it offers an interesting - parallel to certain superstitions of the Greeks concerning this - vegetable. - -Footnote 351: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, note to p. 245. - -Footnote 352: - - Lady Guest’s translation in her notes to _Kulhwch and Olwen_. - -Footnote 353: - - The following episode is retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the - Mabinogi of _Mâth, Son of Mathonwy_. - -Footnote 354: - - Now called Pen y Gaer. It is on the summit of a hill half-way between - Llanrwst and Conway, and about a mile from the station of Llanbedr. - -Footnote 355: - - Said to have been at Rhuddlan Teivi, which is, perhaps, Glan Teivy, - near Cardigan Bridge. - -Footnote 356: - - Poem XIX in the _Black Book of Caermarthen_, Vol. I, p. 309, of Skene. - -Footnote 357: - - “In Aber Gwenoli is the grave of Pryderi, - Where the waves beat against the land.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - - THE MYTHOLOGICAL “COMING OF ARTHUR” - - -The “Coming of Arthur”, his sudden rise into prominence, is one of the -many problems of the Celtic mythology. He is not mentioned in any of the -Four Branches of the Mabinogi, which deal with the races of British gods -equivalent to the Gaelic Tuatha Dé Danann. The earliest references to -him in Welsh literature seem to treat him as merely a warrior-chieftain, -no better, if no worse, than several others, such as “Geraint, a -tributary prince of Devon”, immortalized both by the bards[358] and by -Tennyson. Then, following upon this, we find him lifted to the -extraordinary position of a king of gods, to whom the old divine -families of Dôn, of Llyr, and of Pwyll pay unquestioned homage. Triads -tell us that Lludd—the Zeus of the older Pantheon—was one of Arthur’s -“Three Chief War-Knights”, and Arawn, King of Hades, one of his “Three -Chief Counselling Knights”. In the story called the “Dream of Rhonabwy”, -in the Red Book of Hergest, he is shown as a leader to whom are subject -those we know to have been of divine race—sons of Nudd, of Llyr, of -Brân, of Govannan, and of Arianrod. In another “Red Book” tale, that of -“Kulhwch and Olwen”, even greater gods are his vassals. Amaethon son of -Dôn, ploughs for him, and Govannan son of Dôn, rids the iron, while two -other sons of Beli, Nynniaw and Peibaw, “turned into oxen on account of -their sins”, toil at the yoke, that a mountain may be cleared and tilled -and the harvest reaped in one day. He assembles his champions to seek -the “treasures of Britain”; and Manawyddan son of Llyr, Gwyn son of -Nudd, and Pryderi son of Pwyll rally round him at his call. - -The most probable, and only adequate explanation, is given by Professor -Rhys, who considers that the fames of two separate Arthurs have been -accidentally confused, to the exceeding renown of a composite, -half-real, half-mythical personage into whom the two blended.[359] One -of these was a divine Arthur, a god more or less widely worshipped in -the Celtic world—the same, no doubt, whom an _ex voto_ inscription found -in south-eastern France calls _Mercurius Artaius_.[360] The other was a -human Arthur, who held among the Britons the post which, under Roman -domination, had been called _Comes Britanniæ_. This “Count of Britain” -was the supreme military authority; he had a roving commission to defend -the country against foreign invasion; and under his orders were two -slightly subordinate officers, the _Dux Britanniarum_ (Duke of the -Britains), who had charge of the northern wall, and the _Comes Littoris -Saxonici_ (Count of the Saxon Shore), who guarded the south-eastern -coasts. The Britons, after the departure of the Romans, long kept intact -the organization their conquerors had built up; and it seems reasonable -to believe that this post of leader in war was the same which early -Welsh literature describes as that of “emperor”, a title given to Arthur -alone among the British heroes.[361] The fame of Arthur the Emperor -blended with that of Arthur the God, so that it became conterminous with -the area over which we have traced Brythonic settlement in Great -Britain.[362] Hence the many disputes, ably, if unprofitably, conducted, -over “Arthurian localities” and the sites of such cities as Camelot, and -of Arthur’s twelve great battles. Historical elements doubtless coloured -the tales of Arthur and his companions, but they are none the less as -essentially mythic as those told of their Gaelic analogues—the Red -Branch Heroes of Ulster and the Fenians. - -Of those two cycles, it is with the latter that the Arthurian legend -shows most affinity.[363] Arthur’s position as supreme war-leader of -Britain curiously parallels that of Finn’s as general of a “native Irish -militia”. His “Round Table” of warriors also reminds one of Finn’s -Fenians sworn to adventure. Both alike battle with human and superhuman -foes. Both alike harry Europe, even to the walls of Rome. The love-story -of Arthur, his wife Gwynhwyvar (Guinevere), and his nephew Medrawt -(Mordred), resembles in several ways that of Finn, his wife Grainne, and -his nephew Diarmait. In the stories of the last battles of Arthur and of -the Fenians, the essence of the kindred myth still subsists, though the -actual exponents of it slightly differ. At the fight of Camlan, it was -Arthur and Medrawt themselves who fought the final duel. But in the last -stand of the Fenians at Gabhra, the original protagonists have given -place to their descendants and representatives. Both Finn and Cormac -were already dead. It is Oscar, Finn’s grandson, and Cairbré, Cormac’s -son, who fight and slay each other. And again, just as Arthur was -thought by many not to have really died, but to have passed to “the -island valley of Avilion”, so a Scottish legend tells us how, ages after -the Fenians, a man, landing by chance upon a mysterious western island, -met and spoke with Finn mac Coul. Even the alternative legend, which -makes Arthur and his warriors wait under the earth in a magic sleep for -the return of their triumph, is also told of the Fenians. - -But these parallels, though they illustrate Arthur’s pre-eminence, do -not show his real place among the gods. To determine this, we must -examine the ranks of the older dynasties carefully, to see if any are -missing whose attributes this new-comer may have inherited. We find -Lludd and Gwyn, Arawn, Pryderi, and Manawyddan side by side with him -under their own names. Among the children of Dôn are Amaethon and -Govannan. But here the list stops, with a notable omission. There is no -mention, in later myth, of Gwydion. That greatest of the sons of Dôn has -fallen out, and vanished without a sign. - -Singularly enough, too, the same stories that were once told of Gwydion -are now attached to the name of Arthur. So that we may assume, with -Professor Rhys, that Arthur, the prominent god of a new Pantheon, has -taken the place of Gwydion in the old.[364] A comparison of -Gwydion-myths and Arthur-myths shows an almost exact correspondence in -everything but name. - -Like Gwydion, Arthur is the exponent of culture and of arts. Therefore -we see him carrying on the same war against the underworld for wealth -and wisdom that Gwydion and the sons of Dôn waged against the sons of -Llyr, the Sea, and of Pwyll, the Head of Hades. - -Like Gwydion, too, Arthur suffered early reverses. He failed, indeed, -even where his prototype had succeeded. Gwydion, we know from the -Mabinogi of Mâth, successfully stole Pryderi’s pigs, but Arthur was -utterly baffled in his attempt to capture the swine of a similar prince -of the underworld, called March son of Meirchion.[365] Also as with -Gwydion, his earliest reconnaissance of Hades was disastrous, and led to -his capture and imprisonment. Manawyddan son of Llyr, confined him in -the mysterious and gruesome bone-fortress of Oeth and Anoeth, and there -he languished for three days and three nights before a rescuer came in -the person of Goreu, his cousin.[366] But, in the end, he triumphed. A -Welsh poem, ascribed to the bard Taliesin, relates, under the title “The -Spoiling of Annwn”,[367] an expedition of Arthur and his followers into -the very heart of that country, from which he appears to have returned -(for the verses are somewhat obscure) with the loss of almost all his -men, but in possession of the object of his quest—the magic cauldron of -inspiration and poetry. - -Taliesin tells the story as an eye-witness. He may well have done so; -for it was his boast that from the creation of the world he had allowed -himself to miss no event of importance. He was in Heaven, he tells -us,[368] when Lucifer fell, and in the Court of Dôn before Gwydion was -born; he had been among the constellations both with Mary Magdalene and -with the pagan goddess Arianrod; he carried a banner before Alexander, -and was chief director of the building of the Tower of Babel; he saw the -fall of Troy and the founding of Rome; he was with Noah in the Ark, and -he witnessed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and he was present -both at the Manger of Bethlehem and at the Cross of Calvary. But, -unfortunately, Taliesin, as a credible personage, rests under exactly -the same disabilities as Arthur himself. It is not denied by scholars -that there was a real Taliesin, a sixth-century bard to whom were -attributed, and who may have actually composed, some of the poems in the -Book of Taliesin.[369] But there was also another Taliesin, whom, as a -mythical poet of the British Celts, Professor Rhys is inclined to equate -with the Gaelic Ossian.[370] The traditions of the two mingled, endowing -the historic Taliesin with the god-like attributes of his predecessor, -and clothing the mythical Taliesin with some of the actuality of his -successor.[371] - -It is regrettable that our bard did not at times sing a little less -incoherently, for his poem contains the fullest description that has -come down to us of the other world as the Britons conceived it. -Apparently the numerous names, all different and some now -untranslatable, refer to the same place, and they must be collated to -form a right idea of what Annwn was like. With the exception of an -obviously spurious last verse, here omitted, the poem is magnificently -pagan, and quite a storehouse of British mythology[372]. - - “I will praise the Sovereign, supreme Lord of the land, - Who hath extended his dominion over the shore of the world. - Stout was the prison of Gweir[373], in Caer Sidi, - Through the spite of Pwyll and Pryderi: - No one before him went into it. - The heavy blue chain firmly held the youth, - And before the spoils of Annwn woefully he sang, - And thenceforth till doom he shall remain a bard. - Thrice enough to fill Prydwen[374] we went into it; - Except seven, none returned from Caer Sidi[375]. - - “Am I not a candidate for fame, to be heard in song - In Caer Pedryvan[376], four times revolving? - The first word from the cauldron, when was it spoken? - By the breath of nine maidens it was gently warmed. - Is it not the cauldron of the chief of Annwn? What is its fashion? - A rim of pearls is round its edge. - It will not cook the food of a coward or one forsworn. - A sword flashing bright will be raised to him, - And left in the hand of Lleminawg. - And before the door of the gate of Uffern[377] the lamp was burning. - When we went with Arthur—a splendid labour!— - Except seven, none returned from Caer Vedwyd[378]. - - “Am I not a candidate for fame, to be heard in song - In Caer Pedryvan, in the Isle of the Strong Door, - Where twilight and pitchy darkness meet together, - And bright wine is the drink of the host? - Thrice enough to fill Prydwen we went on the sea. - Except seven, none returned from Caer Rigor[379]. - - “I will not allow much praise to the leaders of literature. - Beyond Caer Wydyr[380] they saw not the prowess of Arthur; - Three-score hundreds stood on the walls; - It was hard to converse with their watchman. - Thrice enough to fill Prydwen we went with Arthur; - Except seven, none returned from Caer Golud[381]. - - “I will not allow much praise to the spiritless. - They know not on what day, or who caused it, - Or in what hour of the serene day Cwy was born, - Or who caused that he should not go to the dales of Devwy. - They know not the brindled ox with the broad head-band, - Whose yoke is seven-score handbreadths. - When we went with Arthur, of mournful memory, - Except seven, none returned from Caer Vandwy[382]. - - “I will not allow much praise to those of drooping courage. - They know not on what day the chief arose, - Nor in what hour of the serene day the owner was born, - Nor what animal they keep, with its head of silver. - When we went with Arthur, of anxious striving, - Except seven, none returned from Caer Ochren[383]”. - -Many of the allusions of this poem will perhaps never be explained. We -know no better than the “leaders of literature” whom the vainglorious -Taliesin taunted with their ignorance and lack of spirit in what hour -Cwy was born, or even who he was, much less who prevented him from going -to the dales of Devwy, wherever they may have been. We are in the dark -as much as they were with regard to the significance of the brindled ox -with the broad head-band, and of the other animal with the silver -head.[384] But the earlier portion of the poem is, fortunately, clearer, -and it gives glimpses of a grandeur of savage imagination. The -strong-doored, foursquare fortress of glass, manned by its dumb, ghostly -sentinels, spun round in never-ceasing revolution, so that few could -find its entrance; it was pitch-dark save for the twilight made by the -lamp burning before its circling gate; feasting went on there, and -revelry, and in its centre, choicest of its many riches, was the -pearl-rimmed cauldron of poetry and inspiration, kept bubbling by the -breaths of nine British pythonesses, so that it might give forth its -oracles. To this scanty information we may add a few lines, also by -Taliesin, and contained in a poem called “A Song Concerning the Sons of -Llyr ab Brochwel Powys”:— - - “Perfect is my chair in Caer Sidi: - Plague and age hurt not him who’s in it— - They know, Manawyddan and Pryderi. - Three organs round a fire sing before it, - And about its points are ocean’s streams - And the abundant well above it— - Sweeter than white wine the drink in it.”[385] - -Little is, however, added by it to our knowledge. It reminds us that -Annwn was surrounded by the sea—“the heavy blue chain” which held Gweir -so firmly;—it informs us that the “bright wine” which was “the drink of -the host” was kept in a well; it adds to the revelry the singing of the -three organs; it makes a point that its inhabitants were freed from age -and death; and, last of all, it shows us, as we might have expected, the -ubiquitous Taliesin as a privileged resident of this delightful region. -We have two clues as to where the country may have been situated. Lundy -Island, off the coast of Devonshire, was anciently called _Ynys Wair_, -the “Island of Gweir”, or Gwydion. The Welsh translation of the _Seint -Greal_, an Anglo-Norman romance embodying much of the old mythology, -locates its “Turning Castle”—evidently the same as Caer Sidi—in the -district around and comprising Puffin Island off the coast of -Anglesey.[386] But these are slender threads by which to tether to firm -ground a realm of the imagination. - -With Gwydion, too, have disappeared the whole of the characters -connected with him in that portion of the Mabinogi of Mâth, Son of -Mathonwy, which recounts the myth of the birth of the sun-god. Neither -Mâth himself, nor Lleu Llaw Gyffes, nor Dylan, nor their mother, -Arianrod, play any more part; they have vanished as completely as -Gwydion. But the essence of the myth of which they were the figures -remains intact. Gwydion was the father by his sister Arianrod, wife of a -waning heaven-god called Nwyvre (Space), of twin sons, Lleu, a god of -light, and Dylan, a god of darkness; and we find this same story woven -into the very innermost texture of the legend of Arthur.[387] The new -Arianrod, though called “Morgawse” by Sir Thomas Malory[388], and “Anna” -by Geoffrey of Monmouth[389], is known to earlier Welsh myth as -“Gwyar”[390]. She was the sister of Arthur and the wife of the sky-god, -Lludd, and her name, which means “shed blood” or “gore”, reminds us of -the relationship of the Morrígú, the war-goddess of the Gaels, to the -heaven-god Nuada[391]. The new Lleu Llaw Gyffes is called Gwalchmei, -that is, the “Falcon of May”[392], and the new Dylan is Medrawt, at once -Arthur’s son and Gwalchmei’s brother, and the bitterest enemy of -both[393]. - -Besides these “old friends with new faces”, Arthur brings with him into -prominence a fresh Pantheon, most of whom also replace the older gods of -the heavens and earth and the regions under the earth. The Zeus of -Arthur’s cycle is called Myrddin, who passed into the Norman-French -romances as “Merlin”. All the myths told of him bear witness to his high -estate. The first name of Britain, before it was inhabited, was, we -learn from a triad, _Clas Myrddin_, that is, “Myrddin’s Enclosure”.[394] -He is given a wife whose attributes recall those of the consorts of -Nuada and Lludd. She is described as the only daughter of Coel—the -British name of the Gaulish _Camulus_, a god of war and the sky—and was -called Elen Lwyddawg, that is, “Elen, Leader of Hosts”. Her memory is -still preserved in Wales in connection with ancient roadways; such names -as _Ffordd Elen_ (“Elen’s Road”) and _Sarn Elen_ (“Elen’s Causeway”) -seem to show that the paths on which armies marched were ascribed or -dedicated to her.[395] As Myrddin’s wife, she is credited with having -founded the town of Carmarthen (_Caer Myrddin_), as well as the “highest -fortress in Arvon”, which must have been the site near Beddgelert still -called _Dinas Emrys_, the “Town of Emrys”, one of Myrddin’s epithets or -names.[396] - -Professor Rhys is inclined to credit Myrddin, or, rather, the British -Zeus under whatever name, with having been the god especially worshipped -at Stonehenge.[397] Certainly this impressive temple, ever unroofed and -open to the sun and wind and rain of heaven, would seem peculiarly -appropriate to a British supreme god of light and sky. Neither are we -quite without documentary evidence which will allow us to connect it -with him. Geoffrey of Monmouth[398], whose historical fictions usually -conceal mythological facts, relates that the stones which compose it -were erected by Merlin. Before that, they had stood in Ireland, upon a -hill which Geoffrey calls “Mount Killaraus”, and which can be identified -as the same spot known to Irish legend as the “Hill of Uisnech”, and, -still earlier, connected with Balor. According to British tradition, the -primeval giants who first colonized Ireland had brought them from their -original home on “the farthest coast of Africa”, on account of their -miraculous virtues; for any water in which they were bathed became a -sovereign remedy either for sickness or for wounds. By the order of -Aurelius, a half-real, half-mythical king of Britain, Merlin brought -them thence to England, to be set up on Salisbury Plain as a monument to -the British chieftains treacherously slain by Hengist and his Saxons. -With this scrap of native information about Stonehenge we may compare -the only other piece we have—the account of the classic Diodorus, who -called it a temple of Apollo.[399] At first, these two statements seem -to conflict. But it is far from unlikely that the earlier Celtic -settlers in Britain made little or no religious distinction between sky -and sun. The sun-god, as a separate personage, seems to have been the -conception of a comparatively late age. Celtic mythology allows us to be -present, as it were, at the births both of the Gaelic Lugh Lamhfada and -the British Lleu Llaw Gyffes. - -Even the well-known story of Myrddin’s, or Merlin’s final imprisonment -in a tomb of airy enchantment—“a tour withouten walles, or withoute eny -closure”—reads marvellously like a myth of the sun “with all his fires -and travelling glories round him”.[400] Encircled, shielded, and made -splendid by his atmosphere of living light, the Lord of Heaven moves -slowly towards the west, to disappear at last into the sea (as one local -version of the myth puts it), or on to a far-off island (as another -says), or into a dark forest (the choice of a third).[401] When the myth -became finally fixed, it was Bardsey Island, off the extreme westernmost -point of Caernarvonshire, that was selected as his last abode. Into it -he went with nine attendant bards, taking with him the “Thirteen -Treasures of Britain”, thenceforth lost to men. Bardsey Island no doubt -derives its name from this story; and what is probably an allusion to it -is found in a first-century Greek writer called Plutarch, who describes -a grammarian called Demetrius as having visited Britain, and brought -home an account of his travels. He mentioned several uninhabited and -sacred islands off our coasts which he said were named after gods and -heroes, but there was one especially in which Cronos was imprisoned with -his attendant deities, and Briareus keeping watch over him as he slept; -“for sleep was the bond forged for him”.[402] Doubtless this -disinherited deity, whom the Greek, after his fashion, called “Cronos”, -was the British heaven- and sun-god, after he had descended into the -prison of the west. - -Among other new-comers is Kai, who, as Sir Kay the Seneschal, fills so -large a part in the later romances. Purged of his worst offences, and -reduced to a surly butler to Arthur, he is but a shadow of the earlier -Kai who murdered Arthur’s son Llacheu[403], and can only be acquitted, -through the obscurity of the poem that relates the incident, of having -also carried off, or having tried to carry off, Arthur’s wife, -Gwynhwyvar.[404] He is thought to have been a personification of -fire,[405] upon the strength of a description given of him in the -mythical romance of “Kulhwch and Olwen”. “Very subtle”, it says, “was -Kai. When it pleased him he could render himself as tall as the highest -tree in the forest. And he had another peculiarity—so great was the heat -of his nature, that, when it rained hardest, whatever he carried -remained dry for a handbreadth above and a handbreadth below his hand; -and when his companions were coldest, it was to them as fuel with which -to light their fire.” - -Another personage who owes his prominence in the Arthurian story to his -importance in Celtic myth was March son of Meirchion, whose swine Arthur -attempted to steal, as Gwydion had done those of Pryderi. In the -romances, he has become the cowardly and treacherous Mark, king, -according to some stories, of Cornwall, but according to others, of the -whole of Britain, and known to all as the husband of the Fair Isoult, -and the uncle of Sir Tristrem. But as a deformed deity of the -underworld[406] he can be found in Gaelic as well as in British myth. He -cannot be considered as originally different from Morc, a king of the -Fomors at the time when from their Glass Castle they so fatally -oppressed the Children of Nemed.[407] The Fomors were distinguished by -their animal features, and March had the same peculiarity.[408] When Sir -Thomas Malory relates how, to please Arthur and Sir Launcelot, Sir -Dinadan made a song about Mark, “which was the worst lay that ever -harper sang with harp or any other instruments,”[409] he does not tell -us wherein the sting of the lampoon lay. It no doubt reminded King Mark -of the unpleasant fact that he had—not like his Phrygian counterpart, -ass’s but—horse’s ears. He was, in fact, a Celtic Midas, a distinction -which he shared with one of the mythical kings of early Ireland.[410] - -Neither can we pass over Urien, a deity of the underworld akin to, or -perhaps the same as, Brân.[411] Like that son of Llyr, he was at once a -god of battle and of minstrelsy;[412] he was adored by the bards as -their patron;[413] his badge was the raven (_bran_, in Welsh);[414] -while, to make his identification complete, there is an extant poem -which tells how Urien, wounded, ordered his own head to be cut off by -his attendants.[415] His wife was Modron,[416] known as the mother of -Mabon, the sun-god to whom inscriptions exist as _Maponos_. Another of -the children of Urien and Modron is Owain, which was perhaps only -another name for Mabon.[417] Taliesin calls him “chief of the glittering -west”,[418] and he is as certainly a sun-god as his father Urien, “lord -of the evening”,[419] was a ruler of the dark underworld. - -It is by reason of the pre-eminence of Arthur that we find gathered -round him so many gods, all probably various tribal personifications of -the same few mythological ideas. The Celts, both of the Gaelic and the -British branches, were split up into numerous petty tribes, each with -its own local deities embodying the same essential conceptions under -different names. There was the god of the underworld, gigantic in -figure, patron alike of warrior and minstrel, teacher of the arts of -eloquence and literature, and owner of boundless wealth, whom some of -the British tribes worshipped as Brân, others as Urien, others as Pwyll, -or March, or Mâth, or Arawn, or Ogyrvran. There was the lord of an -elysium—Hades in its aspect of a paradise of the departed rather than of -the primeval subterranean realm where all thing’s originated—whom the -Britons of Wales called Gwyn, or Gwynwas; the Britons of Cornwall, -Melwas; and the Britons of Somerset, Avallon, or Avallach. Under this -last title, his realm is called _Ynys Avallon_, “Avallon’s Island”, or, -as we know the word, Avilion. It was said to be in the “Land of Summer”, -which, in the earliest myth, signified Hades; and it was only in later -days that the mystic Isle of Avilion became fixed to earth as -Glastonbury, and the Elysian “Land of Summer” as Somerset.[420] There -was a mighty ruler of heaven, a “god of battles”, worshipped on high -places, in whose hands was “the stern arbitrament of war”; some knew him -as Lludd, others as Myrddin, or as Emrys. There was a gentler deity, -friendly to man, to help whom he fought or cajoled the powers of the -underworld; Gwydion he was called, and Arthur. Last, perhaps, to be -imagined in concrete shape, there was a long-armed, sharp-speared -sun-god who aided the culture-god in his work, and was known as Lleu, or -Gwalchmei, or Mabon, or Owain, or Peredur, and no doubt by many another -name; and with him is usually found a brother representing not light, -but darkness. This expression of a single idea by different names may be -also observed in Gaelic myth, though not quite so clearly. In the -hurtling of clan against clan, many such divinities perished altogether -out of memory, or survived only as names, to make up, in Ireland, the -vast, shadowy population claiming to be Tuatha Dé Danann, and, in -Britain, the long list of Arthur’s followers. Others—gods of stronger -communities—would increase their fame as their worshippers increased -their territory, until, as happened in Greece, the chief deities of many -tribes came together to form a national Pantheon. - -We have already tried to explain the “Coming of Arthur” historically. -Mythologically, he came, as, according to Celtic ideas, all things came -originally, from the underworld. His father is called Uther -Pendragon.[421] But Uther Pendragon is (for the word “dragon” is not -part of the name, but a title signifying “war-leader”) _Uther Ben_, that -is, Brân, under his name of the “Wonderful Head”,[422] so that, in spite -of the legend which describes Arthur as having disinterred Brân’s head -on Tower Hill, where it watched against invasion, because he thought it -beneath his dignity to keep Britain in any other way than by -valour,[423] we must recognize the King of Hades as his father. This -being so, it would only be natural that he should take a wife from the -same eternal country, and we need not be surprised to find in -Gwynhwyvar’s father, Ogyrvran, a personage corresponding in all respects -to the Celtic conception of the ruler of the underworld. He was of -gigantic size;[424] he was the owner of a cauldron out of which three -Muses had been born;[425] and he was the patron of the bards,[426] who -deemed him to have been the originator of their art. More than this, his -very name, analysed into its original _ocur vran_, means the evil -_bran_, or raven, the bird of death.[427] - -But Welsh tradition credits Arthur with three wives, each of them called -Gwynhwyvar. This peculiar arrangement is probably due to the Celtic love -of triads; and one may compare them with the three Etains who pass -through the mythico-heroic story of Eochaid Airem, Etain, and Mider. Of -these three Gwynhwyvars,[428] besides the Gwynhwyvar, daughter of -Ogyrvran, one was the daughter of Gwyrd Gwent, of whom we know nothing -but the name, and the other of Gwyrthur ap Greidawl, the same “Victor -son of Scorcher” with whom Gwyn son of Nudd, fought, in earlier myth, -perpetual battle for the possession of Creudylad, daughter of the -sky-god Lludd. This same eternal strife between the powers of light and -darkness for the possession of a symbolical damsel is waged again in the -Arthurian cycle; but it is no longer for Creudylad that Gwyn contends, -but for Gwynhwyvar, and no longer with Gwyrthur, but with Arthur. It -would seem to have been a Cornish form of the myth; for the dark god is -called “Melwas”, and not “Gwynwas”, or “Gwyn”, his name in Welsh.[429] -Melwas lay in ambush for a whole year, and finally succeeded in carrying -off Gwynhwyvar to his palace in Avilion. But Arthur pursued, and -besieged that stronghold, just as Eochaid Airem had, in the Gaelic -version of the universal story, mined and sapped at Mider’s _sídh_ of -Bri Leith.[430] Mythology, as well as history, repeats itself; and -Melwas was obliged to restore Gwynhwyvar to her rightful lord. - -It is not Melwas, however, that in the best-known versions of the story -contends with Arthur for the love of Gwynhwyvar. The most widespread -early tradition makes Arthur’s rival his nephew Medrawt. Here Professor -Rhys traces a striking parallel between the British legend of Arthur, -Gwynhwyvar, and Medrawt, and the Gaelic story of Airem, Etain, and -Mider.[431] The two myths are practically counterparts; for the names of -all the three pairs agree in their essential meaning. “Airem”, like -“Arthur”, signifies the “Ploughman”, the divine institutor of -agriculture; “Etain”, the “Shining One”, is a fit parallel to -“Gwynhwyvar”, the “White Apparition”; while “Mider” and “Medrawt” both -come from the same root, a word meaning “to hit”, either literally, or -else metaphorically, with the mind, in the sense of coming to a -decision. To attempt to explain this myth is to raise the vexed question -of the meaning of mythology. Is it day and dark that strive for dawn, or -summer and winter for the lovely spring, or does it shadow forth the -rescue of the grain that makes man’s life from the devouring underworld -by the farmer’s wit? When this can be finally resolved, a multitude of -Celtic myths will be explained. Everywhere arise the same combatants for -the stolen bride; one has the attributes of light, the other is a -champion of darkness. - -Even in Sir Thomas Malory’s version of the Arthurian story, taken by him -from French romances far removed from the original tradition, we find -the myth subsisting. Medrawt’s original place as the lover of Arthur’s -queen had been taken in the romances by Sir Launcelot, who, if he was -not some now undiscoverable Celtic god,[432] must have been an invention -of the Norman adapters. But the story which makes Medrawt Arthur’s rival -has been preserved in the account of how Sir Mordred would have wedded -Guinevere by force, as part of the rebellion which he made against his -king and uncle.[433] This strife was Celtic myth long before it became -part of the pseudo-history of early Britain. The triads[434] tell us how -Arthur and Medrawt raided each other’s courts during the owner’s -absence. Medrawt went to Kelli Wic, in Cornwall, ate and drank -everything he could find there, and insulted Queen Gwynhwyvar, in -revenge for which Arthur went to Medrawt’s court and killed man and -beast. Their struggle only ended with the Battle of Camlan; and that -mythical combat, which chroniclers have striven to make historical, is -full of legendary detail. Tradition tells how Arthur and his antagonist -shared their forces three times during the fight, which caused it to be -known as one of the “Three Frivolous Battles of Britain”, the idea of -doing so being one of “Britain’s Three Criminal Resolutions”. Four alone -survived the fray: one, because he was so ugly that all shrank from him, -believing him to be a devil; another, whom no one touched because he was -so beautiful that they took him for an angel; a third, whose great -strength no one could resist; and Arthur himself, who, after revenging -the death of Gwalchmei upon Medrawt, went to the island of Avilion to -heal him of his grievous wounds. - -And thence—from the Elysium of the Celts—popular belief has always been -that he will some day return. But just as the gods of the Gaels are said -to dwell sometimes in the “Land of the Living”, beyond the western wave, -and sometimes in the palace of a hollow hill, so Arthur is sometimes -thought to be in Avilion, and sometimes to be sitting with his champions -in a charmed sleep in some secret place, waiting for the trumpet to be -blown that shall call him forth to reconquer Britain. The legend is -found in the Eildon Hills; in the Snowdon district; at Cadbury, in -Somerset, the best authenticated Camelot; in the Vale of Neath, in South -Wales; as well as in other places. He slumbers, but he has not died. The -ancient Welsh poem called “The Verses of the Graves of the -Warriors”[435] enumerates the last resting-places of most of the British -gods and demi-gods. “The grave of Gwydion is in the marsh of Dinlleu”, -the grave of Lieu Llaw Gyffes is “under the protection of the sea with -which he was familiar”, and “where the wave makes a sullen sound is the -grave of Dylan”; we know the graves of Pryderi, of Gwalchmei, of March, -of Mabon, even of the great Beli, but - - “Not wise the thought—a grave for Arthur”.[436] - ------ - -Footnote 358: - - A poem in praise of Geraint, “the brave man from the region of - Dyvnaint (Devon) ... the enemy of tyranny and oppression”, is - contained in both the Black Book of Caermarthen and the Red Book of - Hergest. “When Geraint was born, open were the gates of heaven”, - begins its last verse. It is translated in Vol. I of Skene, p. 267. - -Footnote 359: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 8. - -Footnote 360: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 40-41. - -Footnote 361: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 7. - -Footnote 362: - - “It is worthy of remark that the fame of Arthur is widely spread; he - is claimed alike as a prince in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, - Cumberland, and the Lowlands of Scotland; that is to say, his fame - is conterminous with the Brythonic race, and does not extend to the - Gaels”.—_Chambers’s Encyclopædia._ - -Footnote 363: - - For Arthurian and Fenian parallels see Campbell’s _Popular Tales of - the West Highlands_. - -Footnote 364: - - See chap. I of Rhys’s _Arthurian Legend_—“Arthur, Historical and - Mythical”. - -Footnote 365: - - A triad in the Hengwrt MS. 536, translated by Skene. It was Trystan - who was watching the swine for his uncle, while the swineherd went - with a message to Essylt (Iseult), “and Arthur desired one pig by - deceit or by theft, and could not get it.” - -Footnote 366: - - See note to chap. XXII—“The Treasures of Britain”. - -Footnote 367: - - _Book of Taliesin_, poem XXX, Skene, Vol. I, p. 256. - -Footnote 368: - - In a probably very ancient poem embedded in the sixteenth-century - Welsh romance called _Taliesin_, included by Lady Guest in her - _Mabinogion_. - -Footnote 369: - - “The existence of a sixth-century bard of this name, a contemporary of - the heroic stage of British resistance to the Germanic invaders, is - well attested. A number of poems are found in mediæval Welsh MSS., - chief among them the so-called _Book of Taliesin_, ascribed to this - sixth-century poet. Some of these are almost as old as any remains of - Welsh poetry, and may go back to the early tenth or the ninth century; - others are productions of the eleventh, twelfth, and even thirteenth - centuries.”—Nutt: Notes to his (1902) edition of Lady Guest’s - _Mabinogion_. - -Footnote 370: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 551. - -Footnote 371: - - “There can be little doubt but that the sixth-century bard succeeded - to the form and attributes of a far older, a prehistoric, a mythic - singer.”—Nutt: Notes to _Mabinogion_. - -Footnote 372: - - I have been obliged to collate four different translators to obtain an - acceptable version of what Mr. T. Stephens, in his _Literature of the - Kymri_, calls “one of the least intelligible of the mythological - poems”. My authorities have been Skene, Stephens, Nash, and Rhys. - -Footnote 373: - - A form of the name Gwydion. - -Footnote 374: - - The name of Arthur’s ship. - -Footnote 375: - - Revolving Castle. - -Footnote 376: - - Four-cornered Castle. - -Footnote 377: - - The Cold Place. - -Footnote 378: - - Castle of Revelry. - -Footnote 379: - - Kingly Castle. - -Footnote 380: - - Glass Castle. - -Footnote 381: - - Castle of Riches. - -Footnote 382: - - Meaning is unknown. See chap. XVI—“The Gods of the Britons”. - -Footnote 383: - - Meaning is unknown. See chap. XX—“The Victories of Light over - Darkness”. - -Footnote 384: - - Unless they should be “the yellow and the brindled bull” mentioned in - the story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_. - -Footnote 385: - - _Book of Taliesin_, poem XIV. The translation is by Rhys: _Arthurian - Legend_, p. 301. - -Footnote 386: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 325. - -Footnote 387: - - Rhys: _ibid._, chap. I. - -Footnote 388: - - Malory’s _Morte Darthur_, Book II, chap. II. - -Footnote 389: - - _Historia Britonum_, Book VIII, chap. XX. - -Footnote 390: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 169. - -Footnote 391: - - Rhys: _ibid._, p. 169. - -Footnote 392: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 13. - -Footnote 393: - - Rhys: _ibid._, pp. 19-23. - -Footnote 394: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 168. - -Footnote 395: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 167. - -Footnote 396: - - See Rhys’s exposition of the mythological meaning of the _Red Book_ - romance of the _Dream of Maxen Wledig_, in his _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. - 160-175. - -Footnote 397: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 192-195. - -Footnote 398: - - _Historia Britonum_, Book VIII, chaps. IX-XII. - -Footnote 399: - - See chap. IV and Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 194. - -Footnote 400: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 158, 159. - -Footnote 401: - - _Ibid._, p. 155. - -Footnote 402: - - Plutarch: _De Defectu Oraculorum_. - -Footnote 403: - - The _Seint Greal_, quoted by Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 61-62. - -Footnote 404: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 59. - -Footnote 405: - - Elton: _Origins of English History_, p. 269. - -Footnote 406: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 12. - -Footnote 407: - - _Ibid._, p. 70. - -Footnote 408: - - The name March means “horse”. - -Footnote 409: - - _Morte Darthur._ Book X, chap. XXVII. - -Footnote 410: - - Called Labraid Longsech. - -Footnote 411: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_. See chap. XI—“Urien and his Congeners”. - -Footnote 412: - - _Ibid._, p. 260. - -Footnote 413: - - _Ibid._, p. 261. - -Footnote 414: - - _Ibid._, p. 256. - -Footnote 415: - - Red Book of Hergest, XII. Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 253-256. - -Footnote 416: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 247. - -Footnote 417: - - _Ibid._ - -Footnote 418: - - _The Death-song of Owain._ Taliesin, XLIV, Skene, Vol. I, p. 366. - -Footnote 419: - - Book of Taliesin, XXXII. Skene, however, translates the word rendered - “evening” by Rhys as “cultivated plain”. - -Footnote 420: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 345. - -Footnote 421: - - Both by Malory and Geoffrey of Monmouth. - -Footnote 422: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 256. - -Footnote 423: - - See chap. XVIII—“The Wooing of Branwen and the Beheading of Brân”. - -Footnote 424: - - He is called Ogyrvran the Giant. - -Footnote 425: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 326. - -Footnote 426: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 268-269. - -Footnote 427: - - Rhys: _Lectures on Welsh Philology_, p. 306. But the derivation is - only tentative, and an interesting alternative one is given, which - equates him with the Persian Ahriman. - -Footnote 428: - - The enumeration of Arthur’s three Gwynhwyvars forms one of the Welsh - triads. - -Footnote 429: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 342. - -Footnote 430: - - See chap. XI—“The Gods in Exile”. - -Footnote 431: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, chap. II—“Arthur and Airem”. - -Footnote 432: - - In the mysterious Lancelot, not found in Arthurian story before the - Norman adaptations of it, Professor Rhys is inclined to see a British - sun-god, or solar hero. A number of interesting comparisons are drawn - between him and the Peredur and Owain of the later “Mabinogion” tales, - as well as with the Gaelic Cuchulainn. See _Studies in the Arthurian - Legend_. - -Footnote 433: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XXI, chap. I. - -Footnote 434: - - The fullest list of translated triads is contained in the appendix to - Probert’s _Ancient Laws of Cambria_, 1823. Many are also given as an - appendix in Skene’s _Four Ancient Books of Wales_. - -Footnote 435: - - _Black Book of Caermarthen XIX_, Vol. I, pp. 309-318 in Skene. - -Footnote 436: - - This is Professor Rhys’s translation of the Welsh line, no doubt more - strictly correct than the famous rendering: “Unknown is the grave of - Arthur”. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - - THE TREASURES OF BRITAIN - - -It is in keeping with the mythological character of Arthur that the -early Welsh tales recorded of him are of a different nature from those -which swell the pseudo-histories of Nennius[437] and of Geoffrey of -Monmouth. We hear nothing of that subjugation of the countries of -Western Europe which fills so large a part in the two books of the -_Historia Britonum_ which Geoffrey has devoted to him.[438] Conqueror he -is, but his conquests are not in any land known to geographers. It is -against Hades, and not against Rome, that he achieves his highest -triumphs. This is the true history of King Arthur, and we may read more -fragments and snatches of it in two prose-tales preserved in the Red -Book of Hergest. Both these tales date, in the actual form in which they -have come down to us, from the twelfth century. But, in each of them, -the writer seems to be stretching out his hands to gather in the dying -traditions of a very remote past. - -When a Welsh man-at-arms named Rhonabwy lay down, one night, to sleep -upon a yellow calf-skin, the only furniture in a noisome hut, in which -he had taken shelter, that was comparatively free from vermin, he had -the vision which is related in the tale called “The Dream of -Rhonabwy”.[439] He thought that he was travelling with his companions -towards the Severn, when they heard a rushing noise behind them, and, -looking back, saw a gigantic rider upon a monstrous horse. So terrible -was the horseman’s appearance that they all started to run from him. But -their running was of no avail, for every time the horse drew in its -breath, it sucked them back to its very chest, only, however, to fling -them forward as it breathed out again. In despair they fell down and -besought their pursuer’s mercy. He granted it, asked their names, and -told them, in return, his own. He was known as Iddawc the Agitator of -Britain; for it was he who, in his love of war, had purposely -precipitated the Battle of Camlan. Arthur had sent him to reason with -Medrawt; but though Arthur had charged him with the fairest sayings he -could think of, Iddawc translated them into the harshest he could -devise. But he had done seven years’ penance, and had been forgiven, and -was now riding to Arthur’s camp. Thither he insisted upon taking -Rhonabwy and his companions. - -Arthur’s army was encamped for a mile around the ford of Rhyd y Groes, -upon both sides of the road; and on a small flat island in the middle of -the river was the Emperor himself, in converse with Bedwini the Bishop -and Gwarthegyd, the son of Kaw. Like Ossian, when he came back to -Ireland after his three hundred years’ sojourn in the “Land of -Promise”,[440] Arthur marvelled at the puny size of the people whom -Iddawc had brought for him to look at. “And where, Iddawc, didst thou -find these little men?” “I found them, Lord, up yonder on the road.” -Then the Emperor smiled. “Lord,” said Iddawc, “wherefore dost thou -laugh?” “Iddawc,” replied Arthur, “I laugh not; but it pitieth me that -men of such stature as these should have this island in their keeping, -after the men that guarded it of yore.” Then he turned away, and Iddawc -told Rhonabwy and his companions to keep silent, and they would see what -they would see. - -The scope of such a book as this allows no space to describe the persons -and equipments of the warriors who came riding down with their companies -to join Arthur, as he made his great march to fight the Battle of Badon, -thought by some to be historical, and located at Bath. The reader who -turns to the tale itself will see what Rhonabwy saw. Many of Arthur’s -warriors he will know by name: Caradawc the Strong-armed, who is here -called a son, not of Brân, but of Llyr; March son of Meirchion, the -underworld king; Kai, described as “the fairest horseman in all Arthur’s -court”; Gwalchmei, the son of Gwyar and of Arthur himself; Mabon, the -son of Modron; Trystan son of Tallwch, the lover of “The Fair Isoult”; -Goreu, Arthur’s cousin and his rescuer from Manawyddan’s bone-prison; -these, and many more, will pass before him, as they passed before -Rhonabwy during the three days and three nights that he slept and -dreamed upon the calf-skin. - -This story of the “Dream of Rhonabwy”, elaborate as it is in all its -details, is yet, in substance, little more than a catalogue. The -intention of its unknown author seems to have been to draw a series of -pictures of what he considered to be the principal among Arthur’s -followers. The other story—that of “Kulhwch and Olwen”—also takes this -catalogue form, but the matters enumerated are of a different kind. It -is not so much a record of men as of things. Not the heroes of Britain, -but the treasures of Britain are its subject. One might compare it with -the Gaelic story of the adventures of the three sons of Tuirenn.[441] - -The “Thirteen Treasures of Britain” were famous in early legend. They -belonged to gods and heroes, and were current in our island till the end -of the divine age, when Merlin, fading out of the world, took them with -him into his airy tomb, never to be seen by mortal eyes again. According -to tradition,[442] they consisted of a sword, a basket, a drinking-horn, -a chariot, a halter, a knife, a cauldron, a whetstone, a garment, a pan, -a platter, a chess-board, and a mantle, all possessed of not less -marvellous qualities than the apples, the pig-skin, the spear, the -horses and chariot, the pigs, the hound-whelp, and the cooking-spit -which the sons of Tuirenn obtained for Lugh.[443] It is these same -legendary treasures that reappear, no doubt, in the story of “Kulhwch -and Olwen”. The number tallies, for there are thirteen of them. Some are -certainly, and others probably, identical with those of the other -tradition. That there should be discrepancies need cause no surprise, -for it is not unlikely that there were several different versions of -their legend. Everyone had heard of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain. -Many, no doubt, disputed as to what they were. Others might ask whence -they came. The story of “Kulhwch and Olwen” was composed to tell them. -They were won by Arthur and his mighty men. - -Kulhwch[444] is the hero of the story and Olwen is its heroine, but -only, as it were, by courtesy. The pair provide a love-interest which, -as in the tales of all primitive people, is kept in the background. The -woman, in such romances, takes the place of the gold and gems in a -modern “treasure-hunt” story; she is won by overcoming external -obstacles, and not by any difficulty in obtaining her own consent. In -this romance[445], Kulhwch was the son of a king who afterwards married -a widow with a grown-up daughter, whom his stepmother urged Kulhwch to -marry. On his modestly replying that he was not yet of an age to wed, -she laid the destiny on him that he should never have a wife at all, -unless he could win Olwen, the daughter of a terrible father called -“Hawthorn, Chief of Giants”.[446] - -The “Chief of Giants” was as hostile to suitors as he was monstrous in -shape; and no wonder! for he knew that on his daughter’s marriage his -own life would come to an end. Both in this peculiarity and in the -description of his ponderous eyebrows, which fell so heavily over his -eyes that he could not see until they had been lifted up with forks, he -reminds one of the Fomor, Balor. Of his daughter, on the other hand, the -Welsh tale gives a description as beautiful as Olwen was, herself. “More -yellow was her head than the flower of the broom, and her skin was -whiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and her -fingers than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray of the -meadow-fountain. The eye of the trained hawk, the glance of the -three-mewed falcon was not brighter than hers. Her bosom was more snowy -than the breast of the white swan, her cheek was redder than the reddest -roses. Whoso beheld her was filled with her love. Four white trefoils -sprung up wherever she trod. And therefore was she called Olwen.”[447] - -Kulhwch had no need to see her to fall in love with her. He blushed at -her very name, and asked his father how he could obtain her in marriage. -His father reminded him that he was Arthur’s cousin, and advised him to -claim Olwen from him as a boon. - -So Kulhwch “pricked forth upon a steed with head dappled grey, of four -winters old, firm of limb, with shell-formed hoofs, having a bridle of -linked gold on his head, and upon him a saddle of costly gold. And in -the youth’s hand were two spears of silver, sharp, well-tempered, headed -with steel, three ells in length, of an edge to wound the wind, and -cause blood to flow, and swifter than the fall of the dewdrop from the -blade of reed-grass upon the earth when the dew of June is at the -heaviest. A gold-hilted sword was upon his thigh, the blade of which was -of gold, bearing a cross of inlaid gold of the hue of the lightning of -heaven; his war-horn was of ivory. Before him were two brindled -white-breasted greyhounds, having strong collars of rubies about their -necks, reaching from the shoulder to the ear. And the one that was on -the left side bounded across to the right side, and the one on the right -to the left, and like two sea-swallows sported around him. And his -courser cast up four sods with his four hoofs, like four swallows in the -air, about his head, now above, now below. About him was a four-cornered -cloth of purple, and an apple of gold was at each corner, and every one -of the apples was of the value of an hundred kine. And there was -precious gold of the value of three hundred kine upon his shoes, and -upon his stirrups, from his knee to the tip of his toe. And the blade of -grass bent not beneath him, so light was his courser’s tread as he -journeyed towards the gate of Arthur’s palace.” - -Nor did this bold suitor stand greatly upon ceremony. He arrived after -the portal of the palace had been closed for the night, and, contrary to -all precedent, sent to Arthur demanding instant entry. Although, too, it -was the custom for visitors to dismount at the horse-block at the gate, -he did not do so, but rode his charger into the hall. After greetings -had passed between him and Arthur, and he had announced his name, he -demanded Olwen for his bride at the hands of the Emperor and his -warriors. - -Neither Arthur nor any of his court had ever heard of Olwen. However, he -promised his cousin either to find her for him, or to prove that there -was no such person. He ordered his most skilful warriors to accompany -Kulhwch; Kai, with his companion Bedwyr, the swiftest of men; Kynddelig, -who was as good a guide in a strange country as in his own; Gwrhyr, who -knew all the languages of men, as well as of all other creatures; -Gwalchmei, who never left an adventure unachieved; and Menw, who could -render himself and his companions invisible at will. - -They travelled until they came to a castle on an open plain. Feeding on -the plain was a countless herd of sheep, and, on a mound close by, a -monstrous shepherd with a monstrous dog. Menw cast a spell over the dog, -and they approached the shepherd. He was called Custennin, a brother of -Hawthorn, while his wife was a sister of Kulhwch’s own mother. The evil -chief of giants had reduced his brother to servitude, and murdered all -his twenty-four sons save one, who was kept hidden in a stone chest. -Therefore he welcomed Kulhwch and the embassy from Arthur, and promised -to help them secretly, the more readily since Kai offered to take the -one surviving son under his protection. Custennin’s wife procured -Kulhwch a secret meeting with Olwen, and the damsel did not altogether -discourage her wooer’s suit. - -The party started for Hawthorn’s castle. Without raising any alarm, they -slew the nine porters and the nine watch-dogs, and came unhindered into -the hall. They greeted the ponderous giant, and announced the reason of -their coming. “Where are my pages and my servants?” he said. “Raise up -the forks beneath my two eyebrows which have fallen over my eyes, so -that I may see the fashion of my son-in-law.” He glared at them, and -told them to come again upon the next day. - -They turned to go, and, as they did so, Hawthorn seized a poisoned dart, -and threw it after them. But Bedwyr caught it, and cast it back, -wounding the giant’s knee. They left him grumbling, slept at the house -of Custennin, and returned, the next morning. - -Again they demanded Olwen from her father, threatening him with death if -he refused. “Her four great-grandmothers, and her four great-grandsires -are yet alive,” replied Hawthorn; “it is needful that I take counsel of -them.” So they turned away, and, as they went, he flung a second dart, -which Menw caught, and hurled back, piercing the giant’s body. - -The next time they came, Hawthorn warned them not to shoot at him again, -unless they desired death. Then he ordered his eyebrows to be lifted up, -and, as soon as he could see, he flung a poisoned dart straight at -Kulhwch. But the suitor himself caught it, and flung it back, so that it -pierced Hawthorn’s eyeball and came out through the back of his head. -Here again we are reminded of the myth of Lugh and Balor. Hawthorn, -however, was not killed, though he was very much discomforted. “A cursed -ungentle son-in-law, truly!” he complained. “As long as I remain alive, -my eyesight will be the worse. Whenever I go against the wind, my eyes -will water; and peradventure my head will burn, and I shall have a -giddiness every new moon. Cursed be the fire in which it was forged! -Like the bite of a mad dog is the stroke of this poisoned iron.” - -It was now the turn of Kulhwch and his party to warn the giant that -there must be no more dart-throwing. He appeared, indeed, more amenable -to reason, and allowed himself to be placed opposite to Kulhwch, in a -chair, to discuss the amount of his daughter’s bride-price. - -Its terms, as he gradually unfolded them, were terrific. The blood-fine -paid for Cian to Lugh seems, indeed, a trifle beside it. To obtain -grain, for food and liquor at his daughter’s wedding, a vast hill which -he showed to Kulhwch must be rooted up, levelled, ploughed, sown, and -harvested in one day. No one could do this except Amaethon son of Dôn, -the divine husbandman, and Govannan son of Dôn, the divine smith, and -they must have the service of three pairs of magic oxen. He must also -have returned to him the same nine bushels of flax which he had sown in -his youth, and which had never come up; for only out of this very flax -should be made the white wimple for Olwen’s head. For mead, too, he must -have honey “nine times sweeter than the honey of the virgin swarm”. - -Then followed the enumeration of the thirteen treasures to be paid to -him as dowry. Such a list of wedding presents was surely never known! No -pot could hold such honey as he demanded but the magic vessel of Llwyr, -the son of Llwyryon. There would not be enough food for all the -wedding-guests, unless he had the basket of Gwyddneu Garanhir, from -which all the men in the world could be fed, thrice nine at a time. No -cauldron could cook the meat, except that of Diwrnach the Gael. The -mystic drinking-horn of Gwlgawd Gododin must be there, to give them -drink. The harp of Teirtu, which, like the Dagda’s, played of itself, -must make music for them. The giant father-in-law’s hair could only be -shorn with one instrument—the tusk of White-tooth, King of the Boars, -and not even by that unless it was plucked alive out of its owner’s -mouth. Also, before the hair could be cut, it must be spread out, and -this could not be done until it had been first softened with the blood -of the perfectly black sorceress, daughter of the perfectly white -sorceress, from the Source of the Stream of Sorrow, on the borders of -hell. Nor could the sorceress’s blood be kept warm enough unless it was -placed in the bottles of Gwyddolwyn Gorr, which preserved the heat of -any liquor put into them, though it was carried from the east of the -world to the west. Another set of bottles he must also have to keep milk -for his guests in—those bottles of Rhinnon Rhin Barnawd in which no -drink ever turned sour. For himself, he required the sword of Gwrnach -the Giant, which that personage would never allow out of his own -keeping, because it was destined that he himself should fall by it. Last -of all, he must be given the comb, the razor, and the scissors which lay -between the ears of Twrch Trwyth, a king changed into the most terrible -of wild boars. - -It is the chase of this boar which gives the story of “Kulhwch and -Olwen” its alternative title—“The Twrch Trwyth”. The task was one worthy -of gods and demi-gods. Its contemplation might well have appalled -Kulhwch, who, however, was not so easily frightened. To every fresh -demand, every new obstacle put in his way, he gave the same answer: - -“It will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that -it will not be easy”. - -Whether it was easy or not will be seen from the conditions under which -alone the hunt could be brought to a successful end. No ordinary hounds -or huntsmen would avail. The chief of the pack must be Drudwyn, the -whelp of Greid the son of Eri, led in the one leash that would hold him, -fastened, by the one chain strong enough, to the one collar that would -contain his neck. No huntsman could hunt with this dog except Mabon son -of Modron; and he had, ages before, been taken from between his mother -and the wall when he was three nights old, and it was not known where he -was, or even whether he were living or dead. There was only one steed -that could carry Mabon, namely Gwynn Mygdwn, the horse of Gweddw. Two -other marvellous hounds, the cubs of Gast Rhymhi, must also be obtained; -they must be held in the only leash they would not break, for it would -be made out of the beard of the giant Dissull, plucked from him while he -was still alive. Even with this, no huntsman could lead them except -Kynedyr Wyllt, who was himself nine times more wild than the wildest -beast upon the mountains. All Arthur’s mighty men must come to help, -even Gwyn son of Nudd, upon his black horse; and how could he be spared -from his terrible duty of restraining the devils in hell from breaking -loose and destroying the world? - -Here is material for romance indeed! But, unhappily, we shall never know -the full story of how all these magic treasures were obtained, all these -magic hounds captured and compelled to hunt, all these magic huntsmen -brought to help. The story—which Mr. Nutt[448] considers to be, “saving -the finest tales of the ‘Arabian Nights’, the greatest romantic fairy -tale the world has ever known”—is not, as we have it now, complete. It -reads fully enough; but, on casting backwards and forwards, between the -list of feats to be performed and the body of the tale which is supposed -to relate them all, we find many of them wanting. “The host of Arthur”, -we are told, “dispersed themselves into parties of one and two”, each -party intent upon some separate quest. The adventures of some of them -have come down, but those of others have not. We are told how Kai slew -Gwrnach the Giant with his own sword; how Gwyrthur son of Greidawl, -Gwyn’s rival for the love of Creudylad, saved an anthill from fire, and -how the grateful ants searched for and found the very flax-seeds sown by -Hawthorn in his youth; how Arthur’s host surrounded and took Gast -Rhymhi’s cubs, and how Kai and Bedwyr overcame Dissull, and plucked out -his beard with wooden tweezers, to make a leash for them. We learn how -Arthur went to Ireland, and brought back the cauldron of Diwrnach the -Gael, full of Irish money; how White-tusk the Boar-king was chased and -killed; and how Arthur condescended to slay the perfectly black -sorceress with his own hand. That others of the treasures were acquired -is hinted rather than said. Most important of all (for so much depended -on him), we find out where the stolen Mabon was, and learn how he was -rescued. - -So many ages had elapsed since Mabon had disappeared that there seemed -little hope of ever finding news of him. Nevertheless Gwrhyr, who spoke -the languages of all creatures, went to enquire of that ancient bird, -the Ousel of Cilgwri. But the Ousel, though in her time she had pecked a -smith’s anvil down to the size of a nut, was yet too young to have heard -of Mabon. She sent Gwrhyr to a creature formed before her, the Stag of -Redynvre. But though the Stag had lived to see an oak-sapling slowly -grow to be a tree with a thousand branches, and as slowly decay again -till it was a withered stump, he had never heard of Mabon. - -Therefore he sent him on to a creature still older than himself—the Owl -of Cwm Cawlwyd. The wood she lived in had been thrice rooted up, and had -thrice re-sown itself, and yet, in all that immense time, she had never -heard of Mabon. There was but one who might have, she told Gwrhyr, and -he was the Eagle of Gwern Abwy. - -Here, at last, they struck Mabon’s trail. “The Eagle said: ‘I have been -here for a great space of time, and when I first came hither there was a -rock here, from the top of which I pecked at the stars every evening; -and now it is not so much as a span high. From that day to this I have -been here, and I have never heard of the man for whom you inquire, -except once when I went in search of food as far as Llyn Llyw. And when -I came there, I struck my talons into a salmon, thinking he would serve -me as food for a long time. But he drew me into the deep, and I was -scarcely able to escape from him. After that I went with my whole -kindred to attack him, and to try to destroy him, but he sent -messengers, and made peace with me; and came and besought me to take -fifty fish spears out of his back. Unless he know something of him whom -you seek, I cannot tell who may. However, I will guide you to the place -where he is.’” - -It happened that the Salmon did know. With every tide he went up the -Severn as far as the walls of Gloucester, and there, he said, he had -found such wrong as he had never found anywhere else. So he took Kai and -Gwrhyr upon his shoulders and carried them to the wall of the prison -where a captive was heard lamenting. This was Mabon son of Modron, who -was suffering such imprisonment as not even Lludd of the Silver Hand or -Greid, the son of Eri,[449] the other two of the “Three Paramount -Prisoners of Britain”, had endured before him. But it came to an end -now; for Kai sent to Arthur, and he and his warriors stormed Gloucester, -and brought Mabon away. - -All was at last ready for the final achievement—the hunting of Twrch -Trwyth, who was now, with his seven young pigs, in Ireland. Before he -was roused, it was thought wise to send the wizard Menw to find out by -ocular inspection whether the comb, the scissors, and the razor were -still between his ears. Menw took the form of a bird, and settled upon -the Boar’s head. He saw the coveted treasures, and tried to take one of -them, but Twrch Trwyth shook himself so violently that some of the venom -from his bristles spurted over Menw, who was never quite well again from -that day. - -Then the hunt was up, the men surrounded him, and the dogs were loosed -at him from every side. On the first day, the Irish attacked him. On the -second day, Arthur’s household encountered him and were worsted. Then -Arthur himself fought with him for nine days and nine nights without -even killing one of the little pigs. - -A truce was now called, so that Gwrhyr, who spoke all languages, might -go and parley with him. Gwrhyr begged him to give up in peace the comb, -the scissors, and the razor, which were all that Arthur wanted. But the -Boar Trwyth, indignant of having been so annoyed, would not. On the -contrary, he promised to go on the morrow into Arthur’s country, and do -all the harm he could there. - -So Twrch Trwyth with his seven pigs crossed the sea into Wales, and -Arthur followed with his warriors in the ship “Prydwen”. Here the story -becomes wonderfully realistic and circumstantial. We are told of every -place they passed through on the long chase through South Wales, and can -trace the course of the hunt over the map.[450] We know of every check -the huntsmen had, and what happened every time the boars turned to bay. -The “casualty-list” of Arthur’s men is completely given; and we can also -follow the shrinking of Twrch Trwyth’s herd, as his little pigs fell one -by one. None were left but Trwyth himself by the time the Severn estuary -was reached, at the mouth of the Wye. - -Here the hunt came up with him, and drove him into the water, and in -this unfamiliar element he was outmatched. Osla Big-Knife[451], -Manawyddan son of Llyr, Kacmwri, the servant of Arthur, and Gwyngelli -caught him by his four feet and plunged his head under water, while the -two chief huntsmen, Mabon son of Modron, and Kyledyr Willt, came, one on -each side of him, and took the scissors and the razor. Before they could -get the comb, however, he shook himself free, and struck out for -Cornwall, leaving Osla and Kacmwri half-drowned in the Severn. - -And all this trouble, we are told, was mere play compared with the -trouble they had with him in Cornwall before they could get the comb. -But, at last, they secured it, and drove the boar out over the deep sea. -He passed out of sight, with two of the magic hounds in pursuit of him, -and none of them have ever been heard of since. - -The sight of these treasures, paraded before Hawthorn, chief of giants, -was, of course, his death-warrant. All who wished him ill came to gloat -over his downfall. But they should have been put to shame by the giant, -whose end had, at least, a certain dignity. “My daughter”, he said to -Kulhwch, “is yours, but you need not thank me for it, but Arthur, who -has accomplished all this. By my free will you should never have had -her, for with her I lose my life.” - -Thereupon they cut off his head, and put it upon a pole; and that night -the undutiful Olwen became Kulhwch’s bride. - ------ - -Footnote 437: - - “History of the Britons”, § 50. - -Footnote 438: - - Geoffrey of Monmouth. Books IX and X, and chaps. I and II of XI. - -Footnote 439: - - Translated by Lady Guest in her _Mabinogion_. - -Footnote 440: - - See chap. XIV—“Finn and the Fenians”. - -Footnote 441: - - Chap. VIII—“The Gaelic Argonauts”. - -Footnote 442: - - The list will be found, translated from an old Welsh MS., in the notes - to _Kulhwch and Olwen_, in Lady Guest’s _Mabinogion_. - -Footnote 443: - - Chap. VIII—“The Gaelic Argonauts”. - -Footnote 444: - - Pronounced _Keelhookh_. - -Footnote 445: - - The following pages sketch out the main incidents of the story as - translated by Lady Guest in her _Mabinogion_. - -Footnote 446: - - In Welsh, _Yspaddaden Penkawr_. - -Footnote 447: - - _I.e._ She of the White Track. The beauty of Olwen was proverbial in - mediæval Welsh poetry. - -Footnote 448: - - In his notes to his edition of Lady Guest’s _Mabinogion_. Published - 1902. - -Footnote 449: - - So says the text. But a triad quoted by Lady Guest in her notes gives - the “Three Paramount Prisoners of Britain” differently. “The three - supreme prisoners of the Island of Britain, Llyr Llediath in the - prison of Euroswydd Wledig, and Madoc, or Mabon, and Gweir, son of - Gweiryoth; and one more exalted than the three, and that was Arthur, - who was for three nights in the Castle of Oeth and Anoeth, and three - nights in the prison of Wen Pendragon, and three nights in the dark - prison under the stone. And one youth released him from these three - prisons; that youth was Goreu the son of Custennin, his cousin.” - -Footnote 450: - - See Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, chap. X—“Place-name Stories”. - -Footnote 451: - - The “big knife” was, we are told in the story, “a short broad dagger. - When Arthur and his hosts came before a torrent, they would seek for a - narrow place where they might pass the water, and would lay the - sheathed dagger across the torrent, and it would form a bridge - sufficient for the armies of the three islands of Britain, and of the - three islands adjacent, with their spoil.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - - THE GODS AS KING ARTHUR’S KNIGHTS - - -It is not, however, by such fragments of legend that Arthur is best -known to English readers. Not Arthur the god, but Arthur the “blameless -king”, who founded the Table Round, from which he sent forth his knights -“to ride abroad redressing human wrongs”,[452] is the figure which the -name conjures up. Nor is it even from Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur -that this conception comes to most of us, but from Tennyson’s _Idylls of -the King_. But Tennyson has so modernized the ancient tradition that it -retains little of the old Arthur but the name. He tells us himself that -his poem had but very slight relation to— - - ... “that gray king, whose name, a ghost, - Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain-peak, - And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still; or him - Of Geoffrey’s book, or him of Malleor’s ...”;[453] - -but that he merely used the legend to give a substantial form to his -ideal figure of the perfect English gentleman—a title to which the -original Arthur could scarcely have laid claim. Still less does there -remain in it the least trace of anything that could suggest mythology. - -As much as this, however, might be said of Malory’s book. We may be -fairly certain that the good Sir Thomas had no idea that the personages -of whom he wrote had ever been anything different from the Christian -knights which they had become in the late French romances from which he -compiled his own fifteenth-century work. The old gods had been, from -time to time, very completely euhemerized. The characters of the “Four -Branches of the Mabinogi” are still recognizable as divine beings. In -the later Welsh stories, however, their divinity merely hangs about them -in shreds and tatters, and the first Norman adapters of these stories -made them still more definitely human. By the time Malory came to build -up his Morte Darthur from the foreign romances, they had altered so much -that the shapes and deeds of gods could only be recognized under their -mediæval knightly disguises by those who had known them in their ancient -forms. - -We have chosen Malory’s Morte Darthur, as almost the sole representative -of Arthurian literature later than the Welsh poems and prose stories, -for three reasons. Firstly, because it is the English Arthurian romance -_par excellence_ from which all later English authors, including -Tennyson, have drawn their material. Secondly, because the mass of -foreign literature dealing with the subject of Arthur is in itself a -life-study, and could not by any possibility be compressed within the -limits of a chapter. Thirdly, because Malory’s fine judgment caused him -to choose the best and most typical foreign tales to weave into his own -romance; and hence it is that we find most of our old British gods—both -those of the earlier cycle and those of the system connected with -Arthur—striding disguised through his pages. - -Curiously enough, Sir Edward Strachey, in his preface to the “Globe” -edition of Caxton’s Morte Darthur, uses almost the same image to -describe Malory’s prose-poem that Matthew Arnold handled with such -effect, in his _Study of Celtic Literature_, to point out the real -nature of the Mabinogion. “Malory”, he says, “has built a great, -rambling, mediæval castle, the walls of which enclose rude and even -ruinous work of earlier times.” How rude and how ruinous these relics -were Malory doubtless had not the least idea, for he has completely -jumbled the ancient mythology. Not only do gods of the older and newer -order appear together, but the same deities, under very often only -slightly varying names, come up again and again as totally different -characters. - -Take, for example, the ancient deity of death and Hades. As King -Brandegore, or Brandegoris (Brân of Gower), he brings five thousand -mounted men to oppose King Arthur;[454] but, as Sir Brandel, or -Brandiles (Brân of Gwales[455]), he is a valiant Knight of the Round -Table, who dies fighting in Arthur’s service.[456] Again, under his name -of Uther Pendragon (Uther Ben), he is Arthur’s father;[457] though as -King Ban of Benwyk (the “Square Enclosure”, doubtless the same as -Taliesin’s _Caer Pedryvan_ and Malory’s _Carbonek_), he is a foreign -monarch, who is Arthur’s ally.[458] Yet again, as the father of -Guinevere, Ogyrvran has become Leodegrance.[459] As King Uriens, or -Urience, of Gore (Gower), he marries one of Arthur’s sisters,[460] -fights against him, but finally tenders his submission, and is enrolled -among his knights.[461] Urien may also be identified in the Morte -Darthur as King Rience, or Ryons, of North Wales,[462] and as King -Nentres of Garloth;[463] while, to crown the varied disguises of this -Proteus of British gods, he appears in an isolated episode as Balan, who -fights with his brother Balin until they kill one another.[464] - -One may generally tell the divinities of the underworld in these -romances by their connection, not with the settled and civilized parts -of England, but with the wild and remote north and west, and the still -wilder and remoter islands. Just as Brân and Urien are kings of Gower, -so Arawn, under the corruptions of his name into “Anguish” and -“Anguissance”, is made King of Scotland or Ireland, both countries -having been probably confounded, as the same land of the Scotti, or -Gaels.[465] Pwyll, Head of Annwn, we likewise discover under two -disguises. As Pelles, “King of the Foreign Country”[466] and Keeper of -the Holy Grail, he is a personage of great mythological significance, -albeit the real nature of him and his surroundings has been overlaid -with a Christian veneer as foreign to the original of Pelles as his own -kingdom was to Arthur’s knights. The Chief of Hades figures as a “cousin -nigh unto Joseph of Arimathie”,[467] who, “while he might ride supported -much Christendom, and holy church”.[468] He is represented as the father -of Elayne (Elen[469]), whom he gives in marriage to Sir Launcelot, -bestowing upon the couple a residence called “Castle Bliant”,[470] the -name of which, there is good evidence to show, is connected with that of -Pwyll’s vassal called Teirnyon Twryf Vliant in the first of the -Mabinogi.[471] Under his other name of “Sir Pelleas”—the hero of -Tennyson’s Idyll of _Pelleas and Ettarre_—the primitive myth of Pwyll is -touched at a different point. After his unfortunate love-passage with -Ettarre (or Ettard, as Malory calls her), Pelleas is represented as -marrying Nimue,[472] whose original name, which was Rhiannon, reached -this form, as well as that of “Vivien”, through a series of miscopyings -of successive scribes.[473] - -With Pelles, or Pelleas, is associated a King Pellean, or Pellam, his -son, and, equally with him, the Keeper of the Grail, who can be no other -than Pryderi.[474] Like that deity in the Mabinogi of Mâth, he is -defeated by one of the gods of light. The dealer of the blow, however, -is not Arthur, as successor to Gwydion, but Balin, the Gallo-British -sun-god Belinus.[475] - -Another dark deity, Gwyn son of Nudd, we discover under all of his three -titles. Called variously “Sir Gwinas”,[476] “Sir Guynas”,[477] and “Sir -Gwenbaus”[478] by Malory, the Welsh Gwynwas (or Gwyn) is altogether on -Arthur’s side. The Cornish Melwas, split into two different knights, -divides his allegiance. As Sir Melias,[479] or Meleaus,[480] de Lile -(“of the Isle”), he is a Knight of the Round Table, though, on the -quarrel between Arthur and Launcelot, he sides with the knight against -the king. But as Sir Meliagraunce, or Meliagaunce, it is he who, as in -the older myth, captures Queen Guinevere and carries her off to his -castle.[481] Under his Somerset name of Avallon, or Avallach, he is -connected with the episode of the Grail. King Evelake[482] is a Saracen -ruler who was converted by Joseph of Arimathea, and brought by him to -Britain. In his convert’s enthusiasm, he attempted the quest of the holy -vessel, but was not allowed to succeed.[483] As a consolation, however, -it was divinely promised him that he should not die until he had seen a -knight of his blood in the ninth degree who should achieve it. This was -done by Sir Percivale, King Evelake being then three hundred years -old.[484] - -Turning from deities of darkness to deities of light, we find the -sky-god figuring largely in the Morte Darthur. The Lludd of the earlier -mythology is Malory’s King Loth, or Lot, of Orkney,[485] through an -intrigue with whose wife Arthur becomes the father of Sir Mordred. Lot’s -wife was the mother also of Sir Gawain, whose birth Malory does not, -however, attribute to Arthur, though such must have been the original -form of the myth.[486] Sir Gawain, of the Arthurian legend, is the -Gwalchmei of the Welsh stories, the successor of the still earlier Lleu -Llaw Gyffes, just as Sir Mordred—the Welsh Medrawt—corresponds to Lleu’s -brother Dylan. As Sir Mordred retains the dark character of Medrawt, so -Sir Gawain, even in Malory,[487] shows the attributes of a solar deity. -We are told that his strength increased gradually from dawn till high -noon, and then as gradually decreased again—a piece of pagan symbolism -which forms a good example of the appositeness of Sir Edward Strachey’s -figure; for it stands out of the mediæval narrative like an ancient -brick in some more modern building. - -The Zeus of the later cycle, Emrys or Myrddin, appears in the Morte -Darthur under both his names. The word “Emrys” becomes “Bors”, and King -Bors of Gaul is made a brother of King Ban of Benwyck[488]—that is, Brân -of the Square Enclosure, the ubiquitous underworld god. Myrddin we meet -under no such disguise. The ever-popular Merlin still retains intact the -attributes of the sky-god. He remains above, and apart from all the -knights, higher even in some respects than King Arthur, to whom he -stands in much the same position as Mâth does to Gwydion in the -Mabinogi.[489] Like Mâth, he is an enchanter, and, like Mâth, too, who -could hear everything said in the world, in however low a tone, if only -the wind met it, he is practically omniscient. The account of his final -disappearance, as told in the Morte Darthur, is only a re-embellishment -of the original story, the nature-myth giving place to what novelists -call “a feminine interest”. Everyone knows how the great magician fell -into a dotage upon the “lady of the lake” whom Malory calls “Nimue”, and -Tennyson “Vivien”—both names being that of “Rhiannon” in disguise. -“Merlin would let her have no rest, but always he would be with her ... -and she was ever passing weary of him, and fain would have been -delivered of him, for she was afeard of him because he was a devil’s -son, and she could not put him away by no means. And so on a time it -happed that Merlin showed to her in a rock whereas was a great wonder, -and wrought by enchantment, that went under a great stone. So, by her -subtle working, she made Merlin to go under that stone to let her wit of -the marvels there, but she wrought so there for him that he never came -out for all the craft that he could do. And so she departed and left -Merlin.”[490] - -Merlin’s living grave is still to be seen at the end of the _Val des -Fées_, in the forest of Brécilien, in Brittany. The tomb of stone is -certainly but a prosaic equivalent for the tower of woven air in which -the heaven-god went to his rest. Still, it is not quite so unpoetic as -the leather sack in which Rhiannon, the original of Nimue, caught and -imprisoned Gwawl, the earlier Merlin, like a badger in a bag.[491] - -Elen, Myrddin’s consort, appears in Malory as five different “Elaines”. -Two of them are wives of the dark god, under his names of “King -Ban”[492] and “King Nentres”.[493] A third is called the daughter of -King Pellinore, a character of uncertain origin.[494] But the two most -famous are the ladies who loved Sir Launcelot—“Elaine the Fair, Elaine -the lovable, Elaine the lily maid of Astolat”,[495] and the luckier and -less scrupulous Elaine, daughter of King Pelles, and mother of Sir -Launcelot’s son, Galahad.[496] - -But it is time, now that the most important figures of British mythology -have been shown under their knightly disguises, and their place in -Arthurian legend indicated, to pass on to some account of the real -subject-matter of Sir Thomas Malory’s romance. Externally, it is the -history of an Arthur, King of Britain, whom most people of Malory’s time -considered as eminently a historical character. Around this central -narrative of Arthur’s reign and deeds are grouped, in the form of -episodes, the personal exploits of the knights believed to have -supported him by forming a kind of household guard. But, with the -exception of a little magnified and distorted legendary history, the -whole cycle of romance may be ultimately resolved into a few myths, not -only retold, but recombined in several forms by their various tellers. -The Norman adapters of the _Matière de Bretagne_ found the British -mythology already in process of transformation, some of the gods having -dwindled into human warriors, and others into hardly less human druids -and magicians. Under their hands the British warriors became Norman -knights, who did their deeds of prowess in the tilt-yard, and found -their inspiration in the fantastic chivalry popularized by the -Trouveres, while the druids put off their still somewhat barbaric -druidism for the more conventional magic of the Latin races. More than -this, as soon as the real sequence and _raison d’être_ of the tales had -been lost sight of, their adapters used a free hand in reweaving them. -Most of the romancers had their favourite characters whom they made the -central figure in their stories. Sir Gawain, Sir Percival, Sir Tristrem, -and Sir Owain (all of them probably once local British sun-gods) appear -as the most important personages of the romances called after their -names, stories of the doughty deeds of christened knights who had little -left about them either of Briton or of pagan. - -It is only the labours of the modern scholar that can bring back to us, -at this late date, things long forgotten when Malory’s book was issued -from Caxton’s press. But oblivion is not annihilation, and Professor -Rhys points out to us the old myths lying embedded in their later -setting with almost the same certainty with which the geologist can show -us the fossils in the rock.[497] Thus treated, they resolve themselves -into three principal _motifs_, prominent everywhere in Celtic mythology: -the birth of the sun-god; the struggle between light and darkness; and -the raiding of the underworld by friendly gods for the good of man. - -The first has been already dealt with.[498] It is the retelling of the -story of the origin of the sun-god in the Mabinogi of Mâth, son of -Mâthonwy. For Gwydion we now have Arthur; instead of Arianrod, the wife -of the superannuated sky-god Nwyvre, we find the wife of King Lot, the -superannuated sky-god Lludd; Lleu Llaw Gyffes rises again as Sir Gawain -(Gwalchmei), and Dylan as Sir Mordred (Medrawt); while the wise Merlin, -the Jupiter of the new system, takes the place of his wise prototype, -Mâth. Connected with this first myth is the second—the struggle between -light and darkness, of which there are several versions in the Morte -Darthur. The leading one is the rebellion of the evilly-disposed Sir -Mordred against Arthur and Sir Gawain; while, on other stages, Balan—the -dark god Brân—fights with Balin—the sun-god Belinus; and the same Balin, -or Belinus, gives an almost mortal stroke to Pellam, the Pryderi of the -older mythology. - -The same myth has also a wider form, in which the battle is waged for -possession of a maiden. Thus (to seek no other instances) Gwynhwyvar was -contended for by Arthur and Medrawt, or, in an earlier form of the myth, -by Arthur and Gwyn. In the Morte Darthur, Gwyn, under the corruption of -his Cornish name Melwas into “Sir Meliagraunce”, still captures -Guinevere, but it is no longer Arthur who rescues her. That task, or -privilege, has fallen to a new champion. It is Sir Launcelot who follows -Sir Meliagraunce, defeats and slays him, and rescues the fair -captive.[499] But Sir Launcelot, it must be stated—probably to the -surprise of those to whom the Arthurian story without Launcelot and -Queen Guinevere must seem almost like the play of “Hamlet with Hamlet -left out”,—is unknown to the original tradition. Welsh song and story -are silent with regard to him, and he is not improbably a creation of -some Norman romancer who calmly appropriated to his hero’s credit deeds -earlier told of other “knights”. - -But the romantic treatment of these two myths by the adapters of the -_Matière de Bretagne_ are of smaller interest to us at the present day -than that of the third. The attraction of the Arthurian story lies less -in the battles of Arthur or the loves of Guinevere than in the legend -that has given it its lasting popularity—the Christian romance of the -Quest of the Holy Grail. So great and various has been the inspiration -of this legend to noble works both of art and literature that it seems -almost a kind of sacrilege to trace it back, like all the rest of -Arthur’s story, to a paganism which could not have even understood, much -less created, its mystical beauty. None the less is the whole story -directly evolved from primitive pagan myths concerning a miraculous -cauldron of fertility and inspiration. - -In the later romances, the Holy Grail is a Christian relic of marvellous -potency. It had held the Paschal lamb eaten at the Last Supper;[500] -and, after the death of Christ, Joseph of Arimathea had filled it with -the Saviour’s blood.[501] But before it received this colouring, it had -been the magic cauldron of all the Celtic mythologies—the Dagda’s -“Undry” which fed all who came to it, and from which none went away -unsatisfied;[502] Brân’s cauldron of Renovation, which brought the dead -back to life;[503] the cauldron of Ogyrvran the Giant, from which the -Muses ascended;[504] the cauldrons captured by Cuchulainn from the King -of the Shadowy City,[505] and by Arthur from the chief of Hades;[506] as -well as several other mythic vessels of less note. - -In its transition from pagan to Christian form, hardly one of the -features of the ancient myth has been really obscured. We may recount -the chief attributes, as Taliesin tells them in his “Spoiling of Annwn”, -of the cauldron captured by Arthur. It was the property of Pwyll, and of -his son Pryderi, who lived in a kingdom of the other world called, among -other titles, the “Revolving Castle”, the “Four-cornered Castle”, the -“Castle of Revelry”, the “Kingly Castle”, the “Glass Castle”, and the -“Castle of Riches”. This place was surrounded by the sea, and in other -ways made difficult of access; there was no lack of wine there, and its -happy inhabitants spent with music and feasting an existence which -neither disease nor old age could assail. As for the cauldron, it had a -rim of pearls around its edge; the fire beneath it was kept fanned by -the breaths of nine maidens; it spoke, doubtless in words of prophetic -wisdom; and it would not cook the food of a perjurer or coward.[507] -Here we have considerable data on which to base a parallel between the -pagan cauldron and the Christian Grail. - -Nor have we far to go in search of correspondences, for they are nearly -all preserved in Malory’s romance. The mystic vessel was kept by King -Pelles, who is Pwyll, in a castle called “Carbonek”, a name which -resolves itself, in the hands of the philologist, into _Caer bannawg_, -the “square” or “four-cornered castle”—in other words, the _Caer -Pedryvan_ of Taliesin’s poem.[508] Of the character of the place as a -“Castle of Riches” and a “Castle of Revelry”, where “bright wine was the -drink of the host”, we have more than a hint in the account, twice -given,[509] of how, upon the appearance of the Grail—borne, it should be -noticed, by a maiden or angel—the hall was filled with good odours, and -every knight found on the table all the kinds of meat and drink he could -imagine as most desirable. It could not be seen by sinners,[510] a -Christian refinement of the savage idea of a pot that would not cook a -coward’s food; but the sight of it alone would cure of wounds and -sickness those who approached it faithfully and humbly,[511] and in its -presence neither old age nor sickness could oppress them.[512] And, -though in Malory we find no reference either to the spot having been -surrounded by water, or to the castle as a “revolving” one, we have only -to turn from the Morte Darthur to the romance entitled the _Seint Greal_ -to discover both. Gwalchmei, going to the castle of King Peleur -(Pryderi), finds it encircled by a great water, while Peredur, -approaching the same place, sees it turning with greater speed than the -swiftest wind. Moreover, archers on the walls shoot so vigorously that -no armour can resist their shafts, which explains how it happened that, -of those that went with Arthur, “except seven, none returned from Caer -Sidi”.[513] - -It is noticeable that Arthur himself never attempts the quest of the -Grail, though it was he who had achieved its pagan original. We find in -Malory four competitors for the mantle of Arthur—Sir Pelleas,[514] Sir -Bors, Sir Percivale, and Sir Galahad.[515] The first of these may be put -out of court at once, Sir Pelleas, who, being himself Pelles, or Pwyll, -the keeper of it, could have had no reason for such exertions. At the -second we may look doubtfully; for Sir Bors is no other than Emrys, or -Myrddin,[516] and, casting back to the earlier British mythology, we do -not find the sky-god personally active in securing boons by force or -craft from the underworld. The other two have better claims—Sir -Percivale and Sir Galahad. “Sir Percivale” is the Norman-French name for -Peredur,[517] the hero of a story in the Red Book of Hergest[518] which -gives the oldest form of a Grail quest we have. It is anterior to the -Norman romances, and forms almost a connecting-link between tales of -mythology and of chivalry. Peredur, or Sir Percivale, therefore, is the -oldest, most primitive, of Grail seekers. On the other hand, Sir Galahad -is the latest and youngest. But there is reason to believe that Galahad, -in Welsh “Gwalchaved”, the “Falcon of Summer”, is the same solar hero as -Gawain, in Welsh “Gwalchmei”, the “Falcon of May”.[519] Both are made, -in the story of “Kulhwch and Olwen”, sons of the same mother, Gwyar. Sir -Gawain himself is, in one Arthurian romance, the achiever of the -Grail.[520] It is needless to attempt to choose between these two. Both -have the attributes of sun-gods. Gwalchmei, the successor of Lleu Llaw -Gyffes, and Peredur Paladrhir, that is to say, the “Spearman with the -Long Shaft”,[521] may be allowed to claim equal honours. What is -important is that the quest of the Grail, once the chief treasure of -Hades, is still accomplished by one who takes in later legend the place -of Lieu Llaw Gyffes and Lugh Lamhfada in the earlier British and Gaelic -myths as a long-armed solar deity victorious in his strife against the -Powers of Darkness. - ------ - -Footnote 452: - - Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_; _Guinevere_. - -Footnote 453: - - _Ibid._ To the Queen. - -Footnote 454: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book I, chap. X. - -Footnote 455: - - Gresholm Island, the scene of “The Entertaining of the Noble Head”. - -Footnote 456: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XX, chap. VIII. - -Footnote 457: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. III. - -Footnote 458: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book I, chap. VIII. - -Footnote 459: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. XVI. - -Footnote 460: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. II. - -Footnote 461: - - _Ibid._, Book IV, chap. IV. - -Footnote 462: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. XXIV. - -Footnote 463: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. II. - -Footnote 464: - - _Ibid._, Book II, chap. XVIII. - -Footnote 465: - - _Ibid._, Book V, chap. II; Book VIII, chap. IV; Book XIX, chap. XI. - -Footnote 466: - - _Ibid._, Book XI, chap. II. - -Footnote 467: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XI, chap. II. - -Footnote 468: - - _Ibid._, Book XVII, chap. V. - -Footnote 469: - - _Ibid._, Book XI, chap. II. - -Footnote 470: - - _Ibid._, Book XII, chap. V. - -Footnote 471: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 283. - -Footnote 472: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. XXIII. - -Footnote 473: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 284 and note. - -Footnote 474: - - The subject is treated at length by Professor Rhys in his _Arthurian - Legend_, chap. XII—“Pwyll and Pelles”. - -Footnote 475: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book II, chap. XV. - -Footnote 476: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book I, chap. XII. - -Footnote 477: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. XV. - -Footnote 478: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. IX. - -Footnote 479: - - _Ibid._, Book XIII, chap. XII. - -Footnote 480: - - _Ibid._, Book XIX, chap. XI. - -Footnote 481: - - _Ibid._, Book XIX, chap. II. - -Footnote 482: - - _Ibid._, Book XIII, chap. X. - -Footnote 483: - - _Ibid._, Book XIV, chap. IV. - -Footnote 484: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XIV, chap. IV. - -Footnote 485: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 11. - -Footnote 486: - - _Op. cit._, pp. 21-22. - -Footnote 487: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. XVIII. - -Footnote 488: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. VIII. - -Footnote 489: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 23. - -Footnote 490: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. I. - -Footnote 491: - - See chap. XVII—“The Adventures of the Gods of Hades”. - -Footnote 492: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. I. - -Footnote 493: - - _Ibid._, Book I, chap. II. - -Footnote 494: - - _Ibid._, Book III, chap. XV. - -Footnote 495: - - Whose story is told by Tennyson in the _Idylls_, and by Malory in Book - XVIII of the _Morte Darthur_. - -Footnote 496: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XI, chaps. II and III. - -Footnote 497: - - See his _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_. - -Footnote 498: - - See chap. XXI—“The Mythological ‘Coming of Arthur’”. - -Footnote 499: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XIX, chaps. I-IX. - -Footnote 500: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XVII, chap. XX. - -Footnote 501: - - _Ibid._, Book II, chap. XVI; Book XI, chap. XIV. - -Footnote 502: - - See chap. V—“The Gods of the Gaels”. - -Footnote 503: - - See chap. XVIII—“The Wooing of Branwen and the Beheading of Brân”. - -Footnote 504: - - See chap. XXI—“The Mythological ‘Coming of Arthur’”. - -Footnote 505: - - See chap. XII—“The Irish Iliad”. - -Footnote 506: - - Chap. XXI—“The Mythological ‘Coming of Arthur’”. - -Footnote 507: - - Chap. XXI—“The Mythological ‘Coming of Arthur’”. - -Footnote 508: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 305. - -Footnote 509: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XI, chaps. II and IV. - -Footnote 510: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XVI, chap. V. - -Footnote 511: - - _Ibid._, Book XI, chap. XIV; Book XII, chap. IV; Book XIII, chap. - XVIII. - -Footnote 512: - - Not mentioned by Malory, but stated in the romance called _Seint - Greal_. - -Footnote 513: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 276-277; 302. - -Footnote 514: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. XXIX. - -Footnote 515: - - _Ibid._, Book XVII, chap. XX, in which Sir Bors, Sir Percivale, and - Sir Galahad are all fed from the Sangreal. - -Footnote 516: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 162. - -Footnote 517: - - _Ibid._, p. 133. - -Footnote 518: - - Translated by Lady Guest in her _Mabinogion_, under the title of - _Peredur, the Son of Evrawc_. - -Footnote 519: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 169. But see whole of chap. VIII—“Galahad - and Gwalchaved”. - -Footnote 520: - - The German romance _Diu Krône_, by Heinrich von dem Tûrlin. - -Footnote 521: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 71. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - - THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS - - -If there be love of fame in celestial minds, those gods might count -themselves fortunate who shared in the transformation of Arthur. Their -divinity had fallen from them, but in their new rôles, as heroes of -romance, they entered upon vivid reincarnations. The names of Arthur’s -Knights might almost be described as “household words”, while the gods -who had no portion in the Table Round are known only to those who busy -themselves with antiquarian lore. It is true that a few folk-tales still -survive in the remoter parts of Wales, in which the names of such -ancient British deities as Gwydion, Gwyn, Arianrod, and Dylan appear, -but it is in such a chaos of jumbled and distorted legend that one finds -it hard to pick out even the slenderest thread of story. They have none -of the definite coherence of the contemporary Gaelic folk-tales quoted -in a previous chapter as still preserving the myths about Goibniu, Lugh, -Cian, Manannán, Ethniu, and Balor. Indeed, they have reached such a -stage of disintegration that they can hardly now survive another -generation.[522] - -There have been, however, other paths by which the fame of a god might -descend to a posterity which would no longer credit his divinity. The -rolls of early British history were open to welcome any number of -mythical personages, provided that their legends were attractive. -Geoffrey of Monmouth’s famous _Historia Britonum_ is, under its grave -pretence of exact history, as mythological as the Morte Darthur, or even -the Mabinogion. The annals of early British saintship were not less -accommodating. A god whose tradition was too potent to be ignored or -extinguished was canonized, as a matter of course, by clerics who held -as an axiom that “the toleration of the cromlech facilitated the -reception of the Gospel.[523]” Only the most irreconcilable escaped -them—such a one as Gwyn son of Nudd, who, found almost useless by -Geoffrey and intractable by the monkish writers, remains the last -survivor of the old gods—dwindled to the proportions of a fairy, but -unsubdued. - -This part of resistance is perhaps the most dignified; for deities can -be sadly changed by the caprices of their euhemerizers. Dôn, whom we -knew as the mother of the heaven gods, seems strangely described as a -_king_ of Lochlin and Dublin, who led the Irish into north Wales in A.D. -267.[524] More recognizable is _his_ son Gwydion, who introduced the -knowledge of letters into the country of his adoption. The dynasty of -“King” Dôn, according to a manuscript in the collection of Mr. Edward -Williams—better known under his bardic name of Iolo Morganwg—held north -Wales for a hundred and twenty-nine years, when the North British king, -Cunedda, invaded the country, defeated the Irish in a great battle, and -drove them across sea to the Isle of Man. This battle is historical, -and, putting Dôn and Gwydion out of the question, probably represented -the last stand of the Gael, in the extreme west of Britain, against the -second and stronger wave of Celtic invasion. In the same collection of -_Iolo Manuscripts_ is found a curious, and even comic, euhemeristic -version of the strange myth of the Bone Prison of Oeth and Anoeth which -Manawyddan son of Llyr, built in Gower. The new reading makes that -ghastly abode a real building, constructed out of the bones of the -“Caesarians” (Romans) killed in battle with the Cymri. It consisted of -numerous chambers, some of large bones and some of small, some above -ground and some under. Prisoners of war were placed in the more -comfortable cells, the underground dungeons being kept for traitors to -their country. Several times the “Caesarians” demolished the prison, -but, each time, the Cymri rebuilt it stronger than before. At last, -however, the bones decayed, and, being spread upon the ground, made an -excellent manure! “From that time forth” the people of the neighbourhood -“had astonishing crops of wheat and barley and of every other grain for -many years”.[525] - -It is not, however, in these, so to speak, unauthorized narratives that -we can best refind our British deities, but in the compact, coherent, -and at times almost convincing _Historia Britonum_ of Geoffrey of -Monmouth, published in the first half of the twelfth century, and for -hundreds of years gravely quoted as the leading authority on the early -history of our islands. The modern critical spirit has, of course, -relegated it to the region of fable. We can no longer accept the -pleasant tradition of the descent of the Britons from the survivors of -Troy, led westward in search of a new home by Brutus, the great-grandson -of the pious Æneas. Nor indeed does any portion of the “History”, from -Æneas to Athelstan, quite persuade the latter-day reader. Its kings -succeed one another in plausible sequence, but they themselves are too -obviously the heroes of popular legend. - -A large part of Geoffrey’s chronicle—two books[526] out of twelve—is, of -course, devoted to Arthur. In it he tells the story of that paladin’s -conquests, not only in his own country, against the Saxons, the Irish, -the Scots, and the Picts, but over all western Europe. We see the -British champion, after annexing Ireland, Iceland, Gothland, and the -Orkneys, following up these minor victories by subduing Norway, Dacia -(by which Denmark seems to have been meant), Aquitaine, and Gaul. After -such triumphs there was clearly nothing left for him but the overthrow -of the Roman empire; and this he had practically achieved when the -rebellion of Mordred brought him home to his death, or rather (for even -Geoffrey does not quite lose hold of the belief in the undying Arthur) -to be carried to the island of Avallon to be healed of his wounds, the -crown of Britain falling to “his kinsman Constantine, the son of Cador, -Duke of Cornwall, in the five hundred and forty-second year of our -Lord’s incarnation”.[527] Upon the more personal incidents connected -with Arthur, Geoffrey openly professes to keep silence, possibly -regarding them as not falling within the province of his history, but we -are told shortly how Mordred took advantage of Arthur’s absence on the -Continent to seize the throne, marry Guanhamara (Guinevere), and ally -himself with the Saxons, only to be defeated at that fatal battle called -by Geoffrey “Cambula”, in which Mordred, Arthur, and Walgan—the “Sir -Gawain” of Malory and the Gwalchmei of the earlier legends—all met their -dooms. - -We find the gods of the older generation standing in the same position -with regard to Arthur in Geoffrey’s “History” as they do in the later -Welsh triads and tales. Though rulers, they are yet his vassals. In -“three brothers of royal blood”, called Lot, Urian, and Augusel, who are -represented as having been chiefs in the north, we may discern Lludd, -Urien, and Arawn. To these three Arthur restored “the rights of their -ancestors”, handing over the semi-sovereignty of Scotland to Augusel, -giving Urian the government of Murief (Moray), and re-establishing Lot -“in the consulship of Loudonesia (Lothian), and the other provinces -belonging to him”.[528] Two other rulers subject to him are Gunvasius, -King of the Orkneys, and Malvasius, King of Iceland,[529] in whom we -recognize Gwyn, under Latinized forms of his Welsh name Gwynwas and his -Cornish name Melwas. But it is characteristic of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s -loose hold upon his materials that, not content with having connected -several of these gods with Arthur’s period, he further endows them with -reigns of their own. “Urien” was Arthur’s vassal, but “Urianus” was -himself King of Britain centuries before Arthur was born.[530] Lud (that -is, Lludd) succeeded his father Beli.[531] We hear nothing of his silver -hand, but we learn that he was “famous for the building of cities, and -for rebuilding the walls of Trinovantum[532], which he also surrounded -with innumerable towers ... and though he had many other cities, yet he -loved this above them all, and resided in it the greater part of the -year; for which reason it was afterwards called Kaerlud, and by the -corruption of the word, Caerlondon; and again by change of languages, in -process of time, London; as also by foreigners who arrived here, and -reduced this country under their subjection, it was called Londres. At -last, when he was dead, his body was buried by the gate which to this -time is called in the British tongue after his name Parthlud, and in the -Saxon, Ludesgata.” He was succeeded by his brother, Cassibellawn -(Cassivelaunus), during whose reign Julius Caesar first invaded Britain. - -Lludd, however, is not entirely dependent upon Geoffrey of Monmouth for -his reputation as a king of Britain. One of the old Welsh romances,[533] -translated by Lady Charlotte Guest in her Mabinogion, relates the -rebuilding of London by Lludd in almost the same words as Geoffrey. The -story which these pseudo-historical details introduce is, however, an -obviously mythological one. It tells us how, in the days of Lludd, -Britain was oppressed by three plagues. The first was the arrival of a -strange race of sorcerers called the “Coranians”,[534] who had three -qualities which made them unpopular; they paid their way in “fairy -money”, which, though apparently real, returned afterwards—like the -shields, horses, and hounds made by Gwydion son of Dôn, to deceive -Pryderi—into the fungus out of which it had been charmed by magic; they -could hear everything that was said over the whole of Britain, in -however low a tone, provided only that the wind met it; and they could -not be injured by any weapon. The second was “a shriek that came on -every May eve, over every hearth in the Island of Britain, and went -through people’s hearts and so scared them that the men lost their hue -and their strength, and the women their children, and the young men and -the maidens their senses, and all the animals and trees and the earth -and the waters were left barren”. The third was a disappearance of the -food hoarded in the king’s palace, which was so complete that a year’s -provisions vanished in a single night, and so mysterious that no one -could ever find out its cause. - -By the advice of his nobles, Lludd went to France to obtain the help of -its king, his brother Llevelys, who was “a man great of counsel and -wisdom”. In order to be able to consult with his brother without being -overheard by the Coranians, Llevelys caused a long tube of brass to be -made, through which they talked to one another. The sorcerer tribe, -however, got to know of it, and, though they could not hear what was -being said inside the speaking-tube, they sent a demon into it, who -whispered insulting messages up and down it, as though from one brother -to the other. But Lludd and Llevelys knew one another too well to be -deceived by this, and they drove the demon out of the tube by flooding -it with wine. Then Llevelys told Lludd to take certain insects, which he -would give him, and pound them in water. When the water was sufficiently -permeated with their essence, he was to call both his own people and the -Coranians together, as though for a conference, and, in the midst of the -meeting, to cast it over all of them alike. The water, though harmless -to his own people, would nevertheless prove a deadly poison to the -Coranians. - -As for the shriek, Llevelys explained it to be raised by a dragon. This -monster was the Red Dragon of Britain, and it raised the shriek because -it was being attacked by the White Dragon of the Saxons, which was -trying to overcome and destroy it. The French king told his brother to -measure the length and breadth of Britain, and, when he had found the -exact centre of the island, to cause a pit to be dug there. In this pit -was to be placed a vessel containing the best mead that could be made, -with a covering of satin over it to hide it. Lludd was then to watch -from some safe place. The dragons would appear and fight in the air -until they were exhausted, then they would fall together on to the top -of the satin cloth, and so draw it down with them into the vessel full -of mead. Naturally they would drink the mead, and, equally naturally, -they would then sleep. As soon as Lludd was sure that they were -helpless, he was to go to the pit, wrap the satin cloth round both of -them, and bury them together in a stone coffin in the strongest place in -Britain. If this were safely done, there would be no more heard of the -shriek. - -And the disappearance of the food was caused by “a mighty man of magic”, -who put everyone to sleep by charms before he removed the king’s -provisions. Lludd was to watch for him, sitting by the side of a -cauldron full of cold water. As often as he felt the approach of -drowsiness, he was to plunge into the cauldron. Thus he would be able to -keep awake and frustrate the thief. - -So Lludd came back to Britain. He pounded the insects in the water, and -then summoned both the men of Britain and the Coranians to a meeting. In -the midst of it, he sprinkled the water over everyone alike. The natives -took no harm from this mythological “beetle powder”, but the Coranians -died. - -Lludd was then ready to deal with the dragons. His careful measurements -proved that the centre of the island of Britain was at Oxford, and there -he caused the pit to be dug, with the vessel of mead in it, hidden by -the satin covering. Having made everything ready, he watched, and soon -saw the dragons appear. For a long time they fought desperately in the -air; then they fell down together on to the satin cloth, and, drawing it -after them, subsided into the mead. Lludd waited till they were quite -silent, and then pulled them out, folded them carefully in the wrapping, -and took them to the district of Snowdon, where he buried them in the -strong fortress whose remains, near Beddgelert, are still called “Dinas -Emrys”. After this the terrible shriek was not heard again until Merlin -had them dug up, five hundred years later, when they recommenced -fighting, and the red dragon drove the white one out of Britain. - -Last of all, Lludd prepared a great banquet in his hall, and watched -over it, armed, with the cauldron of water near him. In the middle of -the night, he heard soft, drowsy music, such as nearly put him to sleep; -but he kept awake by repeatedly dipping himself in the cold water. Just -before dawn a huge man, clad in armour, came into the hall, carrying a -basket, which he began to load with the viands on the table. Like the -bag in which Pwyll captured Gwawl, its holding capacity seemed endless. -However, the man filled it at last, and was carrying it out, when Lludd -stopped him. They fought, and Lludd conquered the man of magic, and made -him his vassal. Thus the “Three Plagues of Britain” came to an end. - -Lludd, in changing from god to king, seems to have lost most of his old -mythological attributes. Even his daughter Creudylad is taken from him -and given to another of the ancient British deities. Why Lludd, the -sky-god, should have been confounded with Llyr, the sea-god, is not very -apparent, but it is certain that “Creudylad” of the early Welsh legends -and poems is the same as Geoffrey’s “Cordeilla” and Shakespeare’s -“Cordelia”. The great dramatist was ultimately indebted to the Celtic -mythology for the groundwork of the legend which he wove into the tragic -story of _King Lear_. “Leir”, as Geoffrey calls him,[535] was the son of -Bladud, who built Caer Badus (Bath), and perished, like Icarus, as the -result of an accident with a flying-machine of his own invention. Having -no sons, but three daughters, Gonorilla, Regan, and Cordeilla, he -thought in his old age of dividing his kingdom among them. But, first of -all, he decided to make trial of their affection for him, with the idea -of giving the best portions of his realm to the most worthy. Gonorilla, -the eldest, replied to his question of how much she loved him, “that she -called heaven to witness, she loved him more than her own soul”. Regan -answered “with an oath, ‘that she could not otherwise express her -thoughts, but that she loved him above all creatures’”. But when it came -to Cordeilla’s turn, the youngest daughter, disgusted with her sisters’ -hypocrisy, spoke after a quite different fashion. “‘My father,’ said -she, ‘is there any daughter that can love her father more than duty -requires? In my opinion, whoever pretends to it, must disguise her real -sentiments under the veil of flattery. I have always loved you as a -father, nor do I yet depart from my purposed duty; and if you insist to -have something more extorted from me, hear now the greatness of my -affection, which I always bear you, and take this for a short answer to -all your questions; look how much you have, so much is your value, and -so much do I love you.’” Her enraged father immediately bestowed his -kingdom upon his two other daughters, marrying them to the two highest -of his nobility, Gonorilla to Maglaunus, Duke of Albania[536], and Regan -to Henuinus, Duke of Cornwall. To Cordeilla he not only refused a share -in his realm, but even a dowry. Aganippus, King of the Franks, married -her, however, for her beauty alone. - -Once in possession, Leir’s two sons-in-law rebelled against him, and -deprived him of all regal authority. The sole recompense for his lost -power was an agreement by Maglaunus to allow him maintenance, with a -body-guard of sixty soldiers. But, after two years, the Duke of Albania, -at his wife Gonorilla’s instigation, reduced them to thirty. Resenting -this, Leir left Maglaunus, and went to Henuinus, the husband of Regan. -The Duke of Cornwall at first received him honourably, but, before a -year was out, compelled him to discharge all his attendants except five. -This sent him back in a rage to his eldest daughter, who, this time, -swore that he should not stay with her, unless he would be satisfied -with one serving-man only. In despair, Leir resolved to throw himself -upon the mercy of Cordeilla, and, full of contrition for the way he had -treated her, and of misgivings as to how he might be received, took ship -for Gaul. - -Arriving at Karitia[537], he sent a messenger to his daughter, telling -her of his plight and asking for her help. Cordeilla sent him money, -robes, and a retinue of forty men, and, as soon as he was fully equipped -with the state suitable to a king, he was received in pomp by Aganippus -and his ministers, who gave the government of Gaul into his hands until -his own kingdom could be restored to him. This the king of the Franks -did by raising an army and invading Britain. Maglaunus and Henuinus were -routed, and Leir replaced on the throne, after which he lived three -years. Cordeilla, succeeding to the government of Britain, “buried her -father in a certain vault, which she ordered to be made for him under -the River Sore, in Leicester (”Llyr-cestre“), and which had been built -originally under the ground to the honour of the god Janus. And here all -the workmen of the city, upon the anniversary solemnity of that -festival, used to begin their yearly labours.” - -Exactly what myth is retold in this history of Leir and his three -daughters we are hardly likely ever to discover. But its mythological -nature is clear enough in the light of the description of the -underground temple dedicated to Llyr, at once the god of the subaqueous, -and therefore subterranean, world and a British Dis Pater, connected -with the origin of things, like the Roman god Janus, with whom he was -apparently identified.[538] - -Ten kings or so after this (for any more exact way of measuring the -flight of time is absent from Geoffrey’s _History_) we recognize two -other British gods upon the scene. Brennius (that is, Brân) disputes the -kingdom with his brother Belinus. Clearly this is a version of the -ancient myth of the twin brothers, Darkness and Light, which we have -seen expressed in so many ways in Celtic mythology. Brân, the god of -death and the underworld, is opposed to Belinus, god of the sun and -health. In the original, lost myth, probably they alternately conquered -and were conquered—a symbol of the alternation of night and day and of -winter and summer. In Geoffrey’s _History_[539], they divided Britain, -Belinus taking “the crown of the island with the dominions of Loegria, -Kambria, and Cornwall, because, according to the Trojan constitution, -the right of inheritance would come to him as the elder”, while -Brennius, as the younger, had “Northumberland, which extended from the -River Humber to Caithness”. But flatterers persuaded Brennius to ally -himself with the King of the Norwegians, and attack Belinus. A battle -was fought, in which Belinus was conqueror, and Brennius escaped to -Gaul, where he married the daughter of the Duke of the Allobroges, and -on that ruler’s death was declared successor to the throne. Thus firmly -established with an army, he invaded Britain again. Belinus marched with -the whole strength of the kingdom to meet him, and the armies were -already drawn out opposite to one another in battle array when Conwenna, -the mother of the two kings, succeeded in reconciling them. Not having -one another to fight with, the brothers now agreed upon a joint -expedition with their armies into Gaul. The Britons and the Allobroges -conquered all the other kings of the Franks, and then entered Italy, -destroying villages and cities as they marched to Rome. Gabius and -Porsena, the Roman consuls, bought them off with large presents of gold -and silver and the promise of a yearly tribute, whereupon Brennius and -Belinus withdrew their army into Germany and began to devastate it. But -the Romans, now no longer taken by surprise and unprepared, came to the -help of the Germans. This brought Brennius and Belinus back to Rome, -which, after a long siege, they succeeded in taking. Brennius remained -in Italy, “where he exercised unheard-of tyranny over the people”; and -one may take the whole of this veracious history to be due to a -patriotic desire to make out the Brennus of “Vae Victis” fame—who -actually did sack Rome, in B.C. 390—a Briton. Belinus, the other -brother, returned to England. “He made a gate of wonderful structure in -Trinovantum, upon the bank of the Thames, which the citizens call after -his name Billingsgate to this day. Over it he built a prodigiously large -tower, and under it a haven or quay for ships.... At last, when he had -finished his days, his body was burned, and the ashes put up in a golden -urn, which they placed at Trinovantum, with wonderful art, on the top of -the tower above mentioned.” He was succeeded by Gurgiunt Brabtruc,[540] -who, as he was returning by way of the Orkneys from a raid on the Danes, -met the ships of Partholon and his people as they came from Spain to -settle in Ireland.[541] - -Llyr and his children, large as they bulk in mythical history, were -hardly less illustrious as saints. The family of Llyr Llediath is always -described by the early Welsh hagiologists as the first of the “Three -chief Holy Families of the Isle of Britain”. The glory of Llyr himself, -however, is but a reflected one; for it was his son Brân “the Blesséd” -who actually introduced Christianity into Britain. Legend tells us that -he was taken captive to Rome with his son Caradawc (who was identified -for the purpose with the historical Caratacus), and the rest of his -family, and remained there seven years, during which time he became -converted to the Gospel, and spread it enthusiastically on his return. -Neither his son Caradawc nor his half-brother Manawyddan exactly -followed in his footsteps, but their descendants did. Caradawc’s sons -were all saintly, while his daughter Eigen, who married a chief called -Sarrlog, lord of Caer Sarrlog (Old Sarum), was the first female saint in -Britain. Manawyddan’s side of the family was less adaptable. His son and -his grandson were both pagans, but his great-grandson obtained Christian -fame as St. Dyfan, who was sent as a bishop to Wales by Pope -Eleutherius, and was martyred at Merthyr Dyvan. After this, the saintly -line of Llyr increases and flourishes. Singularly inappropriate persons -are found in it—Mabon, the Gallo-British Apollo, as well as Geraint and -others of King Arthur’s court.[542] - -It is so quaint a conceit that Christianity should have been, like -all other things, the gift of the Celtic Hades, that it seems almost -a pity to cast doubt on it. The witness of the classical historians -sums up, however, dead in its disfavour. Tacitus carefully -enumerates the family of Caratacus, and describes how he and his -wife, daughter, and brother were separately interviewed by the -Emperor Claudius, but makes no mention at all of the chieftain’s -supposed father Brân. Moreover, Dio Cassius gives the name of -Caratacus’s father as Cunobelinus—Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline”—who, he -adds, had died before the Romans first invaded Britain. The evidence -is wholly against Brân as a Christian pioneer. He remains the grim -old god of war and death, “blesséd” only to his pagan votaries, and -especially to the bards, who probably first called him _Bendigeid -Vran_, and whose stubborn adherence must have been the cause of the -not less stubborn efforts of their enemies, the Christian clerics, -to bring him over to their own side by canonization.[543] - -They had an easier task with Brân’s sister, Branwen of the “Fair Bosom”. -Goddesses, indeed, seem to have stood the process better than -gods—witness “Saint” Brigit, the “Mary of the Gael”. The British -Aphrodité became, under the name of Brynwyn, or Dwynwen, a patron saint -of lovers. As late as the fourteenth century, her shrine at Llandwynwyn, -in Anglesey, was the favourite resort of the disappointed of both sexes, -who came to pray to her image for either success or forgetfulness. To -make the result the more certain, the monks of the church sold Lethean -draughts from her sacred well. The legend told of her is that, having -vowed herself to perpetual celibacy, she fell in love with a young chief -called Maelon. One night, as she was praying for guidance in her -difficulty, she had a vision in which she was offered a goblet of -delicious liquor as a draught of oblivion, and she also saw the same -sweet medicine given to Maelon, whom it at once froze into a block of -ice. She was then, for her faith, offered the granting of three boons. -The first she chose was that Maelon might be allowed to resume his -natural form and temperature; the second, that she should no longer -desire to be married; and the third, that her intercessions might be -granted for all true-hearted lovers, so that they should either wed the -objects of their affection or be cured of their passion.[544] From this -cause came the virtues of her shrine and fountain. But the modern -generation no longer flocks there, and the efficacious well is choked -with sand. None the less, she whom the Welsh bards called the “Saint of -Love”[545] still has her occasional votaries. Country girls of the -neighbourhood seek her help when all else fails. The water nearest to -the church is thought to be the best substitute for the now dry and -ruined original well.[546] - -A striking contrast to this easy victory over paganism is the stubborn -resistance to Christian adoption of Gwyn son of Nudd. It is true that he -was once enrolled by some monk in the train of the “Blesséd Brân”,[547] -but it was done in so half-hearted a way that, even now, one can discern -that the writer felt almost ashamed of himself. His fame as at least a -powerful fairy was too vital to be thus tampered with. Even Spenser, -though, in his _Faerie Queene_, he calls him “the good Sir Guyon ... in -whom great rule of Temp’raunce goodly doth appeare”,[548] does not -attempt to conceal his real nature. It is no man, but - - “an Elfin born, of noble state - And mickle worship in his native land”,[549] - -who sets forth the beauties of that virtue for which the original Celtic -paradise, with its unfailing ale and rivers of mead and wine, would -hardly seem to have been the best possible school. Save for Spenser, all -authorities agree in making Gwyn the determined opponent of things -Christian. A curious and picturesque legend[550] is told of him in -connection with St. Collen, who was himself the great-grandson of Brân’s -son, Caradawc. The saint, desirous of still further retirement from the -world, had made himself a cell beneath a rock near Glastonbury Tor, in -Gwyn’s own “island of Avilion”. It was close to a road, and one day he -heard two men pass by talking about Gwyn son of Nudd, and declaring him -to be King of Annwn and the fairies. St. Collen put his head out of the -cell, and told them to hold their tongues, and that Gwyn and his fairies -were only demons. The two men retorted by warning the saint that he -would soon have to meet the dark ruler face to face. They passed on, and -not long afterwards St. Collen heard someone knocking at his door. On -asking who was there, he got the answer: “I am here, the messenger of -Gwyn ap Nudd, King of Hades, to bid thee come by the middle of the day -to speak with him on the top of the hill.” The saint did not go; and the -messenger came a second time with the same message. On the third visit, -he added a threat that, if St. Collen did not come now, it would be the -worse for him. So, a little disquieted, he went, but not unarmed. He -consecrated some water, and took it with him. - -On other days the top of Glastonbury Tor had always been bare, but on -this occasion the saint found it crowned by a splendid castle. Men and -maidens, beautifully dressed, were going in and out. A page received him -and told him that the king was waiting for him to be his guest at -dinner. St. Collen found Gwyn sitting on a golden chair in front of a -table covered with the rarest dainties and wines. He invited him to -share them, adding that if there was anything he especially liked, it -should be brought to him with all honour. “I do not eat the leaves of -trees,” replied the saint, who knew what fairy meats and drinks were -made of. Not taken aback by this discourteous answer, the King of Annwn -genially asked the saint if he did not admire his servants’ livery, -which was a motley costume, red on one side and blue on the other. -“Their dress is good enough for its kind,” said St. Collen. “What kind -is that?” asked Gwyn. “The red shows which side is being scorched, and -the blue shows which side is being frozen,” replied the saint, and, -splashing his holy water all round him, he saw castle, serving-men, and -king vanish, leaving him alone on the bare, windy hill-top. - -Gwyn, last of the gods of Annwn, has evidently by this time taken over -the functions of all the others. He has the hounds which Arawn once -had—the _Cwn Annwn_, “dogs of hell”, with the white bodies and the red -ears. We hear more of them in folklore than we do of their master, -though even their tradition is dying out with the spread of newspapers -and railways. We are not likely to find another Reverend Edmund -Jones[551] to insist upon belief in them, lest, by closing our minds to -such manifest witnesses of the supernatural world, we should become -infidels. Still, we may even now find peasants ready to swear that they -have heard them sweeping along the hill-sides upon stormy nights, as -they pursued the flying souls of unshriven men or unbaptized babes. The -tales told of them agree curiously. Their cry is like that of a pack of -foxhounds, but softer in tone. The nearer they are to a man, the less -loud their voices seem, and the farther off they are, the louder. But -they are less often seen than heard, and it has been suggested that the -sounds were the cries of migrating bean-geese, which are not unlike -those of hounds in chase. The superstition is widely spread. The _Cwn -Annwn_ of Wales are called in North Devon the “Yeth” (Heath or Heathen), -or “Yell” Hounds, and on Dartmoor, the “Wish” Hounds. In Durham and -Yorkshire they are called “Gabriel” Hounds, and they are known by -various names in Norfolk, Gloucestershire, and Cornwall. In Scotland it -is Arthur who leads the Wild Hunt, and the tradition is found over -almost the whole of western Europe. - -Not many folk-tales have been preserved in which Gwyn is mentioned by -name. His memory has lingered longest and latest in the fairy-haunted -Vale of Neath, so close to his “ridge, the Tawë abode ... not the -nearest Tawë ... but that Tawë which is the farthest”. But it may be -understood whenever the king of the fairies is mentioned. As the last of -the greater gods of the old mythology, he has been endowed by popular -fancy with the rule of all the varied fairy population of Britain, so -far, at least, as it is of Celtic or pre-Celtic origin. For some of the -fairies most famous in English literature are Teutonic. King Oberon -derives his name, through the French _fabliaux_, from Elberich, the -dwarf king of the _Niebelungenlied_,[552] though his queen, Titania, was -probably named out of Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_.[553] Puck, another of -Shakespeare’s fays, is merely the personification of his race, the -“pwccas” of Wales, “pookas” of Ireland, “poakes” of Worcestershire, and -“pixies” of the West of England.[554] It is Wales that at the present -time preserves the most numerous and diverse collection of fairies. Some -of them are beautiful, some hideous; some kindly, some malevolent. There -are the gentle damsels of the lakes and streams called Gwragedd Annwn, -and the fierce and cruel mountain fairies known as the Gwyllion. There -are the household sprites called Bwbachod, like the Scotch and English -“brownies”; the Coblynau, or gnomes of the mines (called “knockers” in -Cornwall); and the Ellyllon, or elves, of whom the pwccas are a -branch.[555] In the North of England the spirits belong more wholly to -the lower type. The bogles, brownies, killmoulis, redcaps, and their -like seem little akin to the higher, Aryan-seeming fairies. The Welsh -bwbach, too, is described as brown and hairy, and the coblynau as black -or copper-faced. We shall hardly do wrong in regarding such spectres as -the degraded gods of a pre-Aryan race, like the Irish leprechauns and -pookas, who have nothing in common with the still beautiful, still noble -figures of the Tuatha Dé Danann. - -Of these numberless and nameless subjects of Gwyn, some dwell beneath -the earth or under the surface of lakes—which seem to take, in Wales, -the place of the Gaelic “fairy hills”—and others in Avilion, a -mysterious western isle of all delights lying on or just beneath the -sea. Pembrokeshire—the ancient Dyfed—has kept the tradition most -completely. The story goes that there is a certain square yard in the -hundred of Cemmes in that county which holds the secret of the fairy -realm. If a man happens to set his feet on it by chance, his eyes are -opened, and he can see that which is hidden from other men—the fairy -country and commonwealth,—but, the moment he moves from the enchanted -spot, he loses the vision, and he can never find the same place -again.[556] That country is upon the sea, and not far from shore; like -the Irish paradise of which it is the counterpart, it may sometimes be -sighted by sailors. The “Green Meadows of Enchantment” are still an -article of faith among Pembrokeshire and Caermarthenshire sailors, and -evidently not without some reason. In 1896 a correspondent of the -_Pembroke County Guardian_ sent in a report made to him by a certain -Captain John Evans to the effect that, one summer morning, while -trending up the Channel, and passing Gresholm Island (the scene of the -entertaining of Brân’s head), in what he had always known as deep water, -he was surprised to see to windward of him a large tract of land covered -with a beautiful green meadow. It was not, however, above water, but two -or three feet below it, so that the grass waved or swam about as the -ripple floated over it, in a way that made one who watched it feel -drowsy. Captain Evans had often heard of the tradition of the fairy -island from old people, but admitted that he had never hoped to see it -with his own eyes.[557] As with the “Hounds of Annwn” one may suspect a -quite natural explanation. Mirage is at once common enough and rare -enough on our coasts to give rise to such a legend, and it must have -been some such phenomenon as the “Fata Morgana” of Sicily which has made -sober men swear so confidently to ocular evidence of the Celtic -Paradise, whether seen from the farthest western coasts of Gaelic -Ireland or Scotland, or of British Wales. - ------ - -Footnote 522: - - See, for example, a folk-tale, pp. 117-123 in Rhys’s _Celtic - Folklore_. - -Footnote 523: - - Stephens’s Preliminary Dissertation to his translation of Aneurin’s - _Gododin_. - -Footnote 524: - - _Iolo MSS._, p. 471. - -Footnote 525: - - _Iolo MSS._, pp. 597-600. - -Footnote 526: - - _Historia Britonum_, Books IX, X, and chaps. I and II of XI. - -Footnote 527: - - _Historia Britonum_, Book XI, chap. II. - -Footnote 528: - - _Ibid._, Book IX, chap. IX. - -Footnote 529: - - _Ibid._, Book IX, chap. _XII_. They appear also as Guanius, King of - the Huns, and Melga, King of the Picts, in Book V, chap. XVI. - -Footnote 530: - - _Historia Britonum_, Book III, chap. XIX. - -Footnote 531: - - _Ibid._, Book III, chap. XX. - -Footnote 532: - - _I.e._ London, under its traditionary earlier name, Troja Nova, given - it by Brutus. - -Footnote 533: - - _The Story of Lludd and Llevelys._ - -Footnote 534: - - The name means “dwarfs”. Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 606. - -Footnote 535: - - _Historia Britonum_, Book II, chap, X-XIV. - -Footnote 536: - - Alba, or North Britain. - -Footnote 537: - - Now Calais. - -Footnote 538: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 131-132. - -Footnote 539: - - _Historia Britonum_, Book III, chaps. I-X. - -Footnote 540: - - The same fabulous personage, perhaps, as the original of Rabelais’ - Gargantua, a popular Celtic god. - -Footnote 541: - - _Historia Britonum_, Book III, Chaps. XI-XII. - -Footnote 542: - - See the _Iolo MSS._ The genealogies and families of the saints of the - island of Britain. Copied by Iolo Morganwg in 1783 from the _Long Book - of Thomas Truman of Pantlliwydd_ in the parish of Llansanor in - Glamorgan, p. 515, &c. Also see _An Essay on the Welsh Saints_ by the - Rev. Rice Rees, Sections IV and V. - -Footnote 543: - - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 261-262. - -Footnote 544: - - _Iolo MSS._, p. 474. - -Footnote 545: - - “The Welsh bards call Dwynwen the goddess, or saint of love and - affection, as the poets designate Venus.” _Iolo MSS._ - -Footnote 546: - - Wirt Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 350. - -Footnote 547: - - _Iolo MSS._, p. 523. - -Footnote 548: - - _The Faerie Queene_, Prologue to Book II. - -Footnote 549: - - _Ibid._, Book II, canto I, verse 6. - -Footnote 550: - - Published in _Y Greal_ (London, 1805), and is to be found quoted in - Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 338, 339; also in Sikes: _British - Goblins_, pp. 7-8. - -Footnote 551: - - _A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth and - the Principality of Wales._ Published at Newport, 1813. - -Footnote 552: - - Thistleton Dyer: _Folklore of Shakespeare_, p. 3. - -Footnote 553: - - _Ibid._, p. 4. - -Footnote 554: - - _Ibid._, p. 5. - -Footnote 555: - - Wirt Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 12. - -Footnote 556: - - The _Brython_, Vol. I, p. 130. - -Footnote 557: - - Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, pp. 171-172. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC - PAGANISM - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - - SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM INTO MODERN - TIMES - - -The fall of the Celtic state worship began earlier in Britain than in -her sister island. Neither was it Christianity that struck the first -blow, but the rough humanity and stern justice of the Romans. That -people was more tolerant, perhaps, than any the world has ever known -towards the religions of others, and gladly welcomed the Celtic gods—as -gods—into its own diverse Pantheon. A friendly Gaulish or British -divinity might at any time be granted the so-to-speak divine Roman -citizenship, and be assimilated to Jupiter, to Mars, to Apollo, or to -any other properly accredited deity whom the Romans deemed him to -resemble. It was not against the god, but against his worship at the -hands of his priests, that Roman law struck. The colossal human -sacrifices of the druids horrified even a people who were far from -squeamish about a little bloodshed. They themselves had abolished such -practices by a decree of the senate before Caesar first invaded -Britain,[558] and could not therefore permit within their empire a cult -which slaughtered men in order to draw omens from their -death-agonies.[559] Druidism was first required to be renounced by those -who claimed Roman citizenship; then it was vigorously put down among the -less civilized tribes. Tacitus tells us how the Island of Mona -(Anglesey)—the great stronghold of druidism—was attacked, its sacred -groves cut down, its altars laid level, and its priests put to the -sword.[560] Pliny, recording how the Emperor Tiberius had “suppressed -the druids”, congratulates his fellow-countrymen on having put an end, -wherever their dominion extended, to the monstrous customs inspired by -the doctrine that the gods could take pleasure in murder and -cannibalism.[561] The practice of druidism, with its attendant -barbarities, abolished in Britain wherever the long Roman arm could -reach to strike, took refuge beyond the Northern Wall, among the savage -Caledonian tribes who had not yet submitted to the invader’s yoke. -Naturally, too, it remained untouched in Ireland. But before the Romans -left Britain, it had been extirpated everywhere, except among “the Picts -and Scots”. - -Christianity, following the Roman rule, completed the ruin of paganism -in Britain, so far, at least, as its public manifestations were -concerned. In the sixth century of our era, the monkish writer, Gildas, -is able to refer complacently to the ancient British religion as a dead -faith. “I shall not”, he says, “enumerate those diabolical idols of my -country, which almost surpassed in number those of Egypt, and of which -we still see some mouldering away within or without the deserted -temples, with stiff and deformed features as was customary. Nor will I -cry out upon the mountains, fountains, or hills, or upon the rivers, -which now are subservient to the use of men, but once were an -abomination and destruction to them, and to which the blind people paid -divine honour.”[562] And with the idols fell the priests. The very word -“druid” became obsolete, and is scarcely mentioned in the earliest -British literature, though druids are prominent characters in the Irish -writings of the same period. - -The secular arm had no power in Scotland and in Ireland, consequently -the battle between Paganism and Christianity was fought upon more equal -terms, and lasted longer. In the first country, Saint Columba, and in -the second, Saint Patrick are the personages who, at any rate according -to tradition, beat down the druids and their gods. Adamnan, Abbot of -Iona, who wrote his _Vita Columbæ_ in the last decade of the seventh -century, describes how, a century earlier, that saint had carried the -Gospel to the Picts. Their king, Brude, received him contemptuously, and -the royal druids left no heathen spell unuttered to thwart and annoy -him. But, as the power of Moses was greater than the power of the -magicians of Egypt, so Saint Columba’s prayers caused miracles more -wonderful and more convincing than any wrought by his adversaries. Such -stories belong to the atmosphere of myth which has always enveloped -heroic men; the essential fact is that the Picts abandoned the old -religion for the new. - -A similar legend sums up the life-work of Saint Patrick in Ireland. -Before he came, Cromm Cruaich had received from time immemorial his -yearly toll of human lives. But Saint Patrick faced the gruesome idol; -as he raised his crozier, we are told, the demon fell shrieking from his -image, which, deprived of its soul, bowed forward to the ground. - -It is far easier, however, to overthrow the more public manifestations -of a creed than to destroy its inner vital force. Cromm Cruaich’s idol -might fall, but his spirit would survive—a very Proteus. The sacred -places of the ancient Celtic religion might be invaded, the idols and -altars of the gods thrown down, the priests slain, scattered, or -banished, and the cult officially declared to be extinct; but, driven -from the important centres, it would yet survive outside and around -them. The more civilized Gaels and Britons would no doubt accept the -purer gospel, and abandon the gods they had once adored, but the -peasantry—the bulk of the population—would still cling to the familiar -rites and names. A nobler belief and a higher civilization come, after -all, only as surface waves upon the great ocean of human life; beneath -their agitations lies a vast slumbering abyss of half-conscious faith -and thought to which culture penetrates with difficulty and in which -changes come very slowly. - -We have already shown how long and how faithfully the Gaelic and Welsh -peasants clung to their old gods, in spite of all the efforts of the -clerics to explain them as ancient kings, to transform them into -wonder-working saints, or to ban them as demons of hell. This -conservative religious instinct of the agricultural populations is not -confined to the inhabitants of the British Islands. The modern Greeks -still believe in nereids, in lamias, in sirens, and in Charon, the dark -ferryman of Hades.[563] The descendants of the Romans and Etruscans hold -that the old Etruscan gods and the Roman deities of the woods and fields -still live in the world as spirits.[564] The high altars of the “Lord of -the Mound” and his terrible kin were levelled, and their golden images -and great temples left to moulder in abandonment; but the rude rustic -shrine to the rude rustic god still received its offerings. It is this -shifting of the care of the pagan cult from chief to peasant, from court -to hovel, and, perhaps, to some extent from higher to lower race, that -serves to explain how the more primitive and uncouth gods have tended so -largely to supplant those of higher, more graceful mien. Aboriginal -deities, thrust into obscurity by the invasion of higher foreign types, -came back to their own again. - -For it seems plain that we must divide the spiritual population of the -British Islands into two classes. There is little in common between the -“fairy”, strictly so-called, and the unsightly elf who appears under -various names and guises, as pooka, leprechaun, brownie, knocker, or -bogle. The one belongs to such divine tribes as the Tuatha Dé Danann of -Gaelic myth or their kin, the British gods of the Mabinogion. The other -owes his origin to a quite different, and much lower, kind of -imagination. One might fancy that neolithic man made him in his own -image. - -None the less has immemorial tradition wonderfully preserved the -essential features of the Celtic nature-gods. The fairy belief of the -present day hardly differs at all from the conception which the Celts -had of their deities. The description of the Tuatha Dé Danann in the -“Dialogue of the Elders” as “sprites or fairies with corporeal or -material forms but indued with immortality” would stand as an account of -prevailing ideas as to the “good people” to-day. Nor do the Irish and -Welsh fairies of popular belief differ from one another. Both alike live -among the hills, though in Wales a lake often takes the place of the -“fairy mound”; both, though they war and marry among themselves, are -semi-immortal; both covet the children of men, and will steal them from -the cradle, leaving one of their own uncanny brood in the mortal baby’s -stead; both can lay men and women under spells; both delight in music -and the dance, and live lives of unreal and fantastic splendour and -luxury. Another point in which they resemble one another is in their -tiny size. But this would seem to be the result of the literary -convention originated by Shakespeare; in genuine folktales, both Gaelic -and British, the fairies are pictured as of at least mortal -stature.[565] - -But, Aryan or Iberian, beautiful or hideous, they are fast vanishing -from belief. Every year, the secluded valleys in which men and women -might still live in the old way, and dream the old dreams, tend more and -more to be thrown open to the modern world of rapid movement and rapid -thought. The last ten years have perhaps done more in this direction -than the preceding ten generations. What lone shepherd or fisherman will -ever see again the vision of the great Manannán? Have the stable-boys of -to-day still any faith left in Finvarra? Is Gwyn ap Nudd often thought -of in his own valleys of the Tawë and the Nedd? It would be hard, -perhaps, to find a whole-hearted believer even in his local pooka or -parish bogle. - -It is the ritual observances of the old Celtic faith which have better -weathered, and will longer survive, the disintegrating influences of -time. There are no hard names to be remembered. Things may still be done -for “luck” which were once done for religion. Customary observances die -very slowly, held up by an only half acknowledged fear that, unless they -are fulfilled, “something may happen”. We shall get, therefore, more -satisfactory evidence of the nature of the Celtic paganism by examining -such customs than in any other way. - -We find three forms of the survival of the ancient religion into quite -recent times. The first is the celebration of the old solar or -agricultural festivals of the spring and autumn equinoxes and of the -summer and winter solstices. The second is the practice of a symbolic -human sacrifice by those who have forgotten its meaning, and only know -that they are keeping up an old custom, joined with late instances of -the actual sacrifices of animals to avert cattle-plagues or to change -bad luck. The third consists of many still-living relics of the once -universal worship of sacred waters, trees, stones, and animals. - -Whatever may have been the exact meaning of the Celtic state worship, -there seems to be no doubt that it centred around the four great days in -the year which chronicle the rise, progress, and decline of the sun, -and, therefore, of the fruits of the earth. These were: Beltaine, which -fell at the beginning of May; Midsummer Day, marking the triumph of -sunshine and vegetation; the Feast of Lugh, when, in August, the -turning-point of the sun’s course had been reached; and the sad Samhain, -when he bade farewell to power, and fell again for half a year under the -sway of the evil forces of winter and darkness. - -Of these great solar periods, the first and the last were, naturally, -the most important. The whole Celtic mythology seems to revolve upon -them, as upon pivots. It was on the day of Beltaine that Partholon and -his people, the discoverers, and, indeed, the makers of Ireland, arrived -there from the other world, and it was on the same day, three hundred -years later, that they returned whence they came. It was on Beltaine-day -that the Gaelic gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and, after them, the Gaelic -men, first set foot on Irish soil. It was on the day of Samhain that the -Fomors oppressed the people of Nemed with their terrible tax; and it was -again at Samhain that a later race of gods of light and life finally -conquered those demons at the Battle of Moytura. Only one important -mythological incident—and that was one added at a later time!—happened -upon any other than one of those two days; it was upon Midsummer Day, -one of the lesser solar points, that the people of the goddess Danu took -Ireland from its inhabitants, the Fir Bolgs. - -The mythology of Britain preserves the same root-idea as that of -Ireland. If anything uncanny took place, it was sure to be on May-day. -It was on “the night of the first of May” that Rhiannon lost, and -Teirnyon Twryf Vliant found, the infant Pryderi, as told in the first of -the Mabinogion.[566] It was “on every May-eve” that the two dragons -fought and shrieked in the reign of “King” Lludd.[567] It is on “every -first of May” till the day of doom that Gwyn son of Nudd, fights with -Gwyrthur son of Greidawl, for Lludd’s fair daughter, Creudylad.[568] And -it was when she was “a-maying” in the woods and fields near Westminster -that the same Gwyn, or Melwas, under his romance-name of Sir -Meliagraunce, captured Arthur’s queen, Guinevere.[569] - -The nature of the rites performed upon these days can be surmised from -their pale survivals. They are still celebrated by the descendants of -the Celts, though it is probable that few of them know—or would even -care to know—why May Day, St. John’s Day, Lammas, and Hallowe’en are -times of ceremony. The first—called “Beltaine” in Ireland, “Bealtiunn” -in Scotland, “Shenn da Boaldyn” in the Isle of Man, and “Galan-Mai” (the -Calends of May) in Wales—celebrates the waking of the earth from her -winter sleep, and the renewal of warmth, life, and vegetation. This is -the meaning of the May-pole, now rarely seen in our streets, though -Shakespeare tells us that in his time the festival was so eagerly -anticipated that no one could sleep upon its eve.[570] At midnight the -people rose, and, going to the nearest woods, tore down branches of -trees, with which the sun, when he rose, would find doors and windows -decked for him. They spent the day in dancing round the May-pole, with -rude, rustic mirth, man joining with nature to celebrate the coming of -summer. The opposite to it was the day called “Samhain” in Ireland and -Scotland, “Sauin” in Man, and “Nos Galan-gaeof” (the Night of the Winter -Calends) in Wales. This festival was a sad one: summer was over, and -winter, with its short, sunless days and long, dreary nights, was at -hand. It was the beginning, too, of the ancient Celtic year,[571] and -omens for the future might be extorted from dark powers by uncanny -rites. It was the holiday of the dead and of all the more evil -supernatural beings. “On November-eve”, says a North Cardiganshire -proverb, “there is a bogy on every stile.” The Scotch have even invented -a special bogy—the _Samhanach_ or goblin which comes out at -Samhain.[572] - -The sun-god himself is said to have instituted the August festival -called “Lugnassad” (Lugh’s commemoration) in Ireland, “Lla Lluanys” in -Man, and “Gwyl Awst” (August Feast) in Wales; and it was once of hardly -less importance than Beltaine or Samhain. It is noteworthy, too, that -the first of August was a great day at Lyons—formerly called Lugudunum, -the _dún_ (town) of Lugus. The midsummer festival, on the other hand, -has largely merged its mythological significance in the Christian Feast -of St. John. - -The characteristic features of these festivals give certain proof of -the original nature of the great pagan ceremonials of which they are -the survivals and travesties.[573] In all of them, bonfires are -lighted on the highest hills, and the hearth fires solemnly rekindled. -They form the excuse for much sport and jollity. But there is yet -something sinister in the air; the “fairies” are active and abroad, -and one must be careful to omit no prescribed rite, if one would avoid -kindling their anger or falling into their power. To some of these -still-half-believed-in nature-gods offerings were made down to a -comparatively late period. When Pennant wrote, in the eighteenth -century, it was the custom on Beltaine-day in many Highland villages -to offer libations and cakes not only to the “spirits” who were -believed to be beneficial to the flocks and herds, but also to -creatures like the fox, the eagle, and the hoodie-crow which so often -molested them.[574] At Hallowe’en (the Celtic Samhain) the natives of -the Hebrides used to pour libations of ale to a marine god called -Shony, imploring him to send sea-weed to the shore.[575] In honour, -also, of such beings, curious rites were performed. Maidens washed -their faces in morning dew, with prayers for beauty. They carried -sprigs of the rowan, that mystic tree whose scarlet berries were the -ambrosial food of the Tuatha Dé Danann. - -In their original form, these now harmless rural holidays were -undoubtedly religious festivals of an orgiastic nature-worship such as -became so popular in Greece in connection with the cult of Dionysus. The -great “lords of life” and of the powers of nature that made and ruled -life were propitiated by maddening invocations, by riotous dances, and -by human sacrifice. - -The bonfires which fill so large a part in the modern festivals have -been casually mentioned. Originally they were no mere _feux de joie_, -but had a terrible meaning, which the customs connected with them -preserve. At the Highland Beltaine, a cake was divided by lot, and -whoever drew the “burnt piece” was obliged to leap three times over the -flames. At the midsummer bonfires in Ireland all passed through the -fire; the men when the flames were highest, the women when they were -lower, and the cattle when there was nothing left but smoke. In Wales, -upon the last day of October, the old Samhain, there was a slightly -different, and still more suggestive rite. The hill-top bonfires were -watched until they were announced to be extinct. Then all would race -headlong down the hill, shouting a formula to the effect that the devil -would get the hindmost. The devil of a new belief is the god of the one -it has supplanted; in all three instances, the custom was no mere -meaningless horse-play, but a symbolical human sacrifice. - -A similar observance, but of a more cruel kind, was kept up in France -upon St. John’s Day, until forbidden by law in the reign of Louis the -Fourteenth. Baskets containing living wolves, foxes, and cats were -burned upon the bonfires, under the auspices and in the presence of the -sheriffs or the mayor of the town.[576] Caesar noted the custom among -the druids of constructing huge wicker-work images, which they filled -with living men, and set on fire, and it can hardly be doubted that the -wretched wolves, foxes, and cats were ceremonial substitutes for human -beings. - -An ingenious theory was invented, after the introduction of -Christianity, with the purpose of allowing such ancient rites to -continue, with a changed meaning. The passing of persons and cattle -through flame or smoke was explained as a practice which interposed a -magic protection between them and the powers of evil. This homœopathic -device of using the evil power’s own sacred fire as a means of -protection against himself somewhat suggests that seething of the kid in -its mother’s milk which was reprobated by the Levitical law; but, no -doubt, pagan “demons” were considered fair game. The explanation, of -course, is an obviously and clumsily forced one; it was the grim -druidical philosophy that—to quote Caesar—“unless the life of man was -repaid for the life of man, the will of the immortal gods could not be -appeased” that dictated both the national and the private human -sacrifices of the Celts, the shadows of which remain in the leaping -through the bonfires, and in the numerous recorded sacrifices of cattle -within quite recent times. - -Mr. Laurence Gomme, in his _Ethnology in Folklore_, has collected many -modern instances of the sacrifices of cattle not only in Ireland and -Scotland, but also in Wales, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Cornwall, and -the Isle of Man.[577] “Within twenty miles of the metropolis of Scotland -a relative of Professor Simpson offered up a live cow as a sacrifice to -the spirit of the murrain.”[578] In Wales, when cattle-sickness broke -out, a bullock was immolated by being thrown down from the top of a high -rock. Generally, however, the wretched victims were burned alive. In -1859 an Isle of Man farmer offered a heifer as a burnt offering near -Tynwald Hill, to avert the anger of the ghostly occupant of a barrow -which had been desecrated by opening. Sometimes, even, these burnt -oblations were offered to an alleged Christian saint. The registers of -the Presbytery of Dingwall for the years 1656 and 1678 contain records -of the sacrifices of cattle upon the site of an ancient temple in honour -of a being whom some called “St. Mourie”, and others, perhaps knowing -his doubtful character, “ane god Mourie”.[579] At Kirkcudbright, it was -St. Cuthbert, and at Clynnog, in Wales, it was St. Beuno, who was -thought to delight in the blood of bulls.[580] - -Such sacrifices of cattle appear mainly to have been offered to stay -plague among cattle. Man for man and beast for beast, was, perhaps, the -old rule. But among all nations, human sacrifices have been gradually -commuted for those of animals. The family of the O’Herlebys in -Ballyvorney, County Cork, used in olden days to keep an idol, “an image -of wood about two feet high, carved and painted like a woman”.[581] She -was the goddess of smallpox, and to her a sheep was immolated on behalf -of anyone seized with that disease. - -The third form of Celtic pagan survival is found in numerous instances -of the adoration of water, trees, stones, and animals. Like the other -“Aryan” nations, the Celts worshipped their rivers. The Dee received -divine honours as a war-goddess with the title of Aerfon, while the -Ribble, under its name of Belisama, was identified by the Romans with -Minerva.[582] Myths were told of them, as of the sacred streams of -Greece. The Dee gave oracles as to the results of the perpetual wars -between the Welsh and the English; as its stream encroached either upon -the Welsh or the English side, so one nation or the other would be -victorious.[583] The Tweed, like many of the Greek rivers, was credited -with human descendants.[584] That the rivers of Great Britain received -human sacrifices is clear from the folklore concerning many of them. -Deprived of their expected offerings, they are believed to snatch by -stealth the human lives for which they crave. “River of Dart, River of -Dart, every year thou claimest a heart,” runs the Devonshire folk-song. -The Spey, too, requires a life yearly,[585] but the Spirit of the Ribble -is satisfied with one victim at the end of every seven years.[586] - -Evidence, however, of the worship of rivers is scanty compared with that -of the adoration of wells. “In the case of well-worship,” says Mr. -Gomme, “it may be asserted with some confidence that it prevails in -every county of the three kingdoms.”[587] He finds it most vital in the -Gaelic counties, somewhat less so in the British, and almost entirely -wanting in the Teutonic south-east. So numerous, indeed, are “holy -wells” that several monographs have been written solely upon them.[588] -In some cases these wells were resorted to for the cure of diseases; in -others, to obtain change of weather, or “good luck”. Offerings were made -to them, to propitiate their guardian gods or nymphs. Pennant tells us -that in olden times the rich would sacrifice one of their horses at a -well near Abergeleu, to secure a blessing upon the rest.[589] Fowls were -offered at St. Tegla’s Well, near Wrexham, by epileptic patients.[590] -But of late years the well-spirits have had to be content with much -smaller tributes—such trifles as pins, rags, coloured pebbles, and small -coins. - -With sacred wells were often connected sacred trees, to whose branches -rags and small pieces of garments were suspended by their humble -votaries. Sometimes, where the ground near the well was bare of -vegetation, bushes were artificially placed beside the water. The same -people who venerated wells and trees would pay equal adoration to sacred -stones. Lord Roden, describing, in 1851, the Island of Inniskea, off the -coast of Mayo, asserts that a sacred well called “Derrivla” and a sacred -stone called “Neevougi”, which was kept carefully wrapped up in flannel -and brought out at certain periods to be publicly adored, seemed to be -the only deities known to that lone Atlantic island’s three hundred -inhabitants.[591] It sounds incredible; but there is ample evidence of -the worship of fetish stones by quite modern inhabitants of our islands. -The Clan Chattan kept such a stone in the Isle of Arran; it was -believed, like the stone of Inniskea, to be able to cure diseases, and -was kept carefully “wrapped up in fair linen cloth, and about that there -was a piece of woollen cloth”.[592] Similarly, too, the worship of wells -was connected with the worship of animals. At a well in the “Devil’s -Causeway”, between Ruckley and Acton, in Shropshire, lived, and perhaps -still live, four frogs who were, and perhaps still are, believed to be -“the devil and his imps”—that is to say, gods or demons of a proscribed -idolatry.[593] In Ireland such guardian spirits are usually fish—trout, -eels, or salmon thought to be endowed with eternal life.[594] The genius -of a well in Banffshire took the form of a fly, which was also said to -be undying, but to transmigrate from body to body. Its function was to -deliver oracles; according as it seemed active or lethargic, its -votaries drew their omens.[595] It is needless to multiply instances of -a still surviving cult of water, trees, stones, and animals. Enough to -say that it would be easy. What concerns us is that we are face to face -in Britain with living forms of the oldest, lowest, most primitive -religion in the world—one which would seem to have been once universal, -and which, crouching close to the earth, lets other creeds blow over it -without effacing it, and outlives one and all of them. - -It underlies the three great world-religions, and still forms the real -belief of perhaps the majority of their titular adherents. It is -characteristic of the wisdom of the Christian Church that, knowing its -power, she sought rather to sanctify than to extirpate it. What once -were the Celtic equivalents of the Greek “fountains of the nymphs” were -consecrated as “holy wells”. The process of so adopting them began -early. St. Columba, when he went in the sixth century to convert the -Picts, found a spring which they worshipped as a god; he blessed it, and -“from that day the demon separated from the water”.[596] Indeed, he so -sanctified no less than three hundred such springs.[597] Sacred stones -were equally taken under the ægis of Christianity. Some were placed on -the altars of cathedrals, others built into consecrated walls. The -animal gods either found themselves the heroes of Christian legends, or -where, for some reason, such adoption was hopeless, were proclaimed -“witches’ animals”, and dealt with accordingly. Such happened to the -hare, a creature sacred to the ancient Britons,[598] but now in bad -odour among the superstitious. The wren, too, is hunted to death upon -St. Stephen’s Day in Ireland. Its crime is said to be that it has “a -drop of the de’il’s blood in it”, but the real reason is probably to be -found in the fact that the Irish druids used to draw auguries from its -chirpings. - - * * * * * - -We have made in this volume some attempt to draw a picture of the -ancient religion of our earliest ancestors, the Gaelic and the British -Celts. We have shown what can be gathered of the broken remnants of a -mythology as splendid in conception and as brilliant in colour as that -of the Greeks. We have tried to paint its divine figures, and to retell -their heroic stories. We have seen them fall from their shrines, and -yet, rising again, take on new lives as kings, or saints, or knights of -romance, and we have caught fading glimpses of them surviving to-day as -the “fairies”, their rites still cherished by worshippers who hardly -know who or why they worship. Of necessity this survey has been brief -and incomplete. Whether the great edifice of the Celtic mythology will -ever be wholly restored one can at present only speculate. Its colossal -fragments are perhaps too deeply buried and too widely scattered. But, -even as it stands ruined, it is a mighty quarry from which poets yet -unborn will hew spiritual marble for houses not made with hands. - ------ - -Footnote 558: - - In the year 55 B.C. - -Footnote 559: - - _Strabo_, Book IV, chap. IV. - -Footnote 560: - - _Annals_, Book XIV, chap. XXX. - -Footnote 561: - - _Natural History_, Book XXX. - -Footnote 562: - - Gildas. See _Six Old English Chronicles_—Bohn’s Libraries. - -Footnote 563: - - Rennell Rodd: _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_. Stuart Glennie: - _Greek Folk Songs_. - -Footnote 564: - - Charles Godfrey Leland: _Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition_. - -Footnote 565: - - Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, p. 670; Curtin: _Tales of the Fairies and of - the Ghost World_; and Mr. Leland Duncan’s _Fairy Beliefs from County - Leitrim_ in _Folklore_, June, 1896. - -Footnote 566: - - The Mabinogi of _Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed_. - -Footnote 567: - - The story of Lludd and Llevelys. - -Footnote 568: - - _Kulhwch and Olwen._ - -Footnote 569: - - _Morte Darthur_, Book XIX, chaps. I and II. - -Footnote 570: - - _Henry VIII_, act V, scene 3. - -Footnote 571: - - Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 514. - -Footnote 572: - - _Ibid._, p. 516. - -Footnote 573: - - A good account of the Irish festivals is given by Lady Wilde in her - _Ancient Legends of Ireland_, pp. 193-221. - -Footnote 574: - - Pennant: _A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides_, 1772. - -Footnote 575: - - Martin: _Description of the Western Islands of Scotland_, 1695. - -Footnote 576: - - Gaidoz: _Esquisse de la Réligion des Gaulois_, p. 21. - -Footnote 577: - - Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, pp. 136-139. - -Footnote 578: - - _Ibid._, p. 137. - -Footnote 579: - - Mitchell: _The Past in the Present_, pp. 271, 275. - -Footnote 580: - - Elton: _Origins of English History_, p. 284. - -Footnote 581: - - Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, p. 140. - -Footnote 582: - - The word Dee probably meant “divinity”. The river was also called - Dyfridwy, _i.e._ “water of the divinity”. See Rhys: _Lectures on Welsh - Philology_, p. 307. - -Footnote 583: - - Rhys: _Celtic Britain_, p. 68. - -Footnote 584: - - Rogers: _Social Life in Scotland_, chap. III, p. 336. - -Footnote 585: - - _Folklore_, chap. III, p. 72. - -Footnote 586: - - Henderson: _Folklore of Northern Counties_, p. 265. - -Footnote 587: - - Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, p. 78. - -Footnote 588: - - Hope: _Holy Wells of England_; Harvey: _Holy Wells of Ireland_. - -Footnote 589: - - Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 351. - -Footnote 590: - - _Ibid._, p. 329. - -Footnote 591: - - Roden: _Progress of the Reformation in Ireland_, pp. 51-54. - -Footnote 592: - - Martin: _Description of the Western Islands_, pp. 166-226. - -Footnote 593: - - Burne: _Shropshire Folklore_, p. 416. - -Footnote 594: - - Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, pp. 92-93. - -Footnote 595: - - _Ibid._, p. 102. - -Footnote 596: - - Adamnan’s _Vita Columbæ_. - -Footnote 597: - - Dr. Whitley Stokes: _Three Middle Irish Homilies_. - -Footnote 598: - - Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book V, chap. XII. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - APPENDIX - - - A FEW BOOKS UPON CELTIC MYTHOLOGY - AND LITERATURE - -The object of this short list is merely to supplement the marginal notes -by pointing out to a reader desirous of going deeper into the subject -the most recent and accessible works upon it. That they should be -accessible is, in its intention, the most important thing; and therefore -only books easily and cheaply obtainable will be mentioned. - - - INTRODUCTORY - -Matthew Arnold.—THE STUDY OF CELTIC LITERATURE. Popular Edition. - London, 1891. - -Ernest Renan.—THE POETRY OF THE CELTIC RACES (and other studies). - Translated by William G. Hutchinson. London, 1896. - - _Two eloquent appreciations of Celtic literature._ - -Magnus Maclean, M.A., D.C.L.—THE LITERATURE OF THE CELTS. Its - History and Romance. London, 1902. - - _A handy exposition of all the branches of Celtic literature._ - -Elizabeth A. Sharp (editor).—LYRA CELTICA. An Anthology of - Representative Celtic Poetry. Ancient Irish, Alban, Gaelic, - Breton, Cymric, and Modern Scottish and Irish Celtic Poetry. - With introduction and notes by William Sharp. Edinburgh, 1896. - -Alfred Nutt.—CELTIC AND MEDIÆVAL ROMANCE. No. 1 of Mr. Nutt’s - “Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, - 1899. - - _A pamphlet briefly tracing the indebtedness of mediæval - European literature to pre-mediæval Celtic sources._ - - - HISTORICAL - -H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—LA CIVILISATION DES CELTES ET CELLE DE - L’ÉPOPÉE HOMÉRIQUE. Paris, 1899. - - _Vol. VI of the author’s monumental “Cours de Littérature - celtique.”_ - -Patrick Weston Joyce.—A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT IRELAND, treating - of the Government, Military System, and Law; Religion, Learning, - and Art; Trades, Industries, and Commerce; Manners, Customs, and - Domestic Life of the Ancient Irish People. 2 vols. London, 1903. - -Charles I. Elton, F.S.A.—ORIGINS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. Second edition, - revised. London, 1890. - -John Rhys.—CELTIC BRITAIN. “Early Britain” Series. London, 1882. - -H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—INTRODUCTION À L’ÉTUDE DE LA LITTÉRATURE - CELTIQUE. Vol. I of the “Cours de Littérature celtique”. Paris, - 1883. - - _Contains, among other information, the fullest and most - authentic account of the druids and druidism._ - - - GAELIC MYTHOLOGY - -H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—LE CYCLE MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS ET LA - MYTHOLOGIE CELTIQUE. Vol. II of the “Cours de Littérature - celtique”. Paris, 1884. Translated into English as - - THE IRISH MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE AND CELTIC MYTHOLOGY. With notes by - R. I. Best. Dublin, 1903. - - _An account of Irish mythical history and of some of the greater - Gaelic gods. With chapters on some of the more striking phases - of Celtic belief._ - -Alfred Nutt.—THE VOYAGE OF BRAN, SON OF FEBAL. An Irish Historic - Legend of the eighth century. Edited by Kuno Meyer. With essays - upon the Happy Otherworld in Irish Myth and upon the Celtic - Doctrine of Rebirth. Vol. I—The Happy Otherworld. Vol. II—The - Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth. Grimm Library, Vols. IV and VI. - London, 1895-1897. - - _Contains, among other notable contributions to the study of - Celtic mythology, an enquiry into the nature of the Tuatha Dé - Danann, a subject briefly treated in the same author’s_ - - THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY OF SHAKESPEARE. No. 6 of “Popular Studies in - Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1900. - -Patrick Weston Joyce.—OLD CELTIC ROMANCES. Translated from the - Gaelic. London, 1894. - - _A retelling in popular modern style of some of the more - important mythological and Fenian stories._ - -Lady Gregory.—GODS AND FIGHTING MEN. The story of the Tuatha Dé - Danann and of the Fianna of Erin. Arranged and put into English - by Lady Gregory. With a Preface by W. B. Yeats. London, 1904. - - _Covers much the same ground as Mr. Joyce’s book, but in more - literary manner._ - -Alfred Nutt.—OSSIAN AND THE OSSIANIC LITERATURE. No. 3 of “Popular - Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1899. - - _A short survey of the literature connected with the Fenians._ - -John Gregorson Campbell, Minister of Tiree.—THE FIANS. Stories, - poems, and traditions of Fionn and his Warrior Band, - collected entirely from oral sources. With introduction and - bibliographical notes by Alfred Nutt. Vol. IV of “Waifs and - Strays of Celtic Tradition”. London, 1891. - - _An account of the Fenians from the Scottish-Gaelic side._ - -Alfred Nutt.—CUCHULAINN THE IRISH ACHILLES. No. 8 of “Popular - Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1900. - - _A brief but excellent introduction to the Cuchulainn cycle._ - -Lady Gregory.—CUCHULAIN OF MUIRTHEMNE. The story of the Men of the - Red Branch of Ulster. Arranged and put into English by Lady - Gregory. With a Preface by W. B. Yeats. London, 1902. - - _A retelling in poetic prose of the tales connected with - Cuchulainn._ - -Eleanor Hull.—THE CUCHULLIN SAGA IN IRISH LITERATURE. Being a - collection of stories relating to the Hero Cuchullin, translated - from the Irish by various scholars. Compiled and edited with - introduction and notes by Eleanor Hull. With Map of Ancient - Ireland. Grimm Library, Vol. VIII. London, 1898. - - _A series of Cuchulainn stories from the ancient Irish - manuscripts. More literal than Lady Gregory’s adaptation._ - -H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—L’ÉPOPÉE CELTIQUE EN IRLANDE. Vol. V of - the “Cours de Littérature celtique”. Paris, 1892. - - _A collection, translated into French, of some of the principal - stories of the Cuchulainn cycle, with various appendices upon - Gaelic mythological subjects._ - -L. Winifred Faraday, M.A.—THE CATTLE RAID OF CUALGNE (Tain Bo - Cuailgne). An old Irish prose-epic translated for the first time - from the Leabhar na h-Uidhri and the Yellow Book of Lecan. Grimm - Library, Vol. XVI. London, 1904. - - _A strictly literal rendering of the central episode of the - Cuchulainn cycle._ - - - BRITISH MYTHOLOGY - -Ivor B. John.—THE MABINOGION. No. 11 of “Popular Studies in - Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1901. - - _A pamphlet introduction to the Mabinogion literature._ - -Lady Charlotte Guest.—THE MABINOGION. From the Welsh of the LLYFR - COCH O HERGEST (the Red Book of Hergest) in the library of Jesus - College, Oxford. Translated, with notes, by Lady Charlotte - Guest. - - First edition. Text, translation, and notes, 3 vols., 1849. - Translation and notes only, 1 vol., 1877. - The Boys’ Mabinogion, 1881. - - _Cheap editions of this classic have been lately issued. One may - obtain it in Mr. Nutt’s handsome little volume; as one of Dent’s - “Temple Classics”; or in the “Welsh Library”._ - -J. Loth.—LES MABINOGION, traduits en entier pour la première fois en - français avec un commentaire explicatif et des notes critiques. - 2 vols. Vols. III and IV of De Jubainville’s “Cours de - Littérature celtique”. Paris, 1889. - - _A more exact translation than that of Lady Guest, with notes - embodying more recent scholarship._ - -J. A. Giles, D.C.L.—OLD ENGLISH CHRONICLES, including ... Geoffrey - of Monmouth’s British History, Gildas, Nennius ... Edited, with - illustrative notes, by J. A. Giles, D.C.L. “Bohn’s Antiquarian - Library”. London, 1901. - - _The most accessible edition of Geoffrey of Monmouth._ - -Sir Thomas Malory.—THE MORTE DARTHUR. Edited by Dr. H. Oskar Sommer. - Vol. I—the Text. Vol. II—Glossary, Index, &c. Vol. III—Study on - the Sources. London, 1889-1891. - - _Vol. I of this, the best text of the Morte Darthur, can be - obtained separately._ - -Jessie L. Weston.—KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS. A survey of Arthurian - romance. No. 4 of “Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and - Folklore”. London, 1899. - -Alfred Nutt.—THE LEGENDS OF THE HOLY GRAIL. No. 14 of “Popular - Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1902. - - _Useful introductions to a more special study of Arthurian - literature._ - - - COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY - -John Rhys.—LECTURES ON THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION AS - ILLUSTRATED BY CELTIC HEATHENDOM. “The Hibbert Lectures for - 1886.” London, 1898. - -John Rhys.—STUDIES IN THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND. Oxford, 1901. - - _These two volumes are the most important attempts yet made - towards a scientific and comprehensive study of the Celtic - mythology._ - - - CELTIC FAIRY AND FOLK LORE - - - GAELIC - -T. Crofton Croker.—FAIRY LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE SOUTH OF - IRELAND. - - _This book is one of the earliest, and, if not the most - scientific, perhaps the most attractive of the many collections - of Irish fairy-lore. Later compilations are Mr. William - Larminie’s_ - - _“West Irish Folktales and Romances”, and Mr. Jeremiah Curtin’s - “Hero Tales of Ireland”, “Myths and Folklore of Ireland”, and - “Tales of the Fairies, collected in South Munster”. On the - Scotch side, notice should be particularly taken of Campbell’s - “Popular Tales of the West Highlands” and the volumes entitled - “Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition”. All these books are - either recent or recently republished, and are merely selected - out of a large list of works, valuable and otherwise, upon this - lighter side of Celtic mythology._ - - - BRITISH - -John Rhys.—CELTIC FOLKLORE, WELSH AND MANX. 2 vols. Oxford, 1901. - -Wirt Sikes.—BRITISH GOBLINS: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology, - Legends, and Traditions. By Wirt Sikes, United States Consul for - Wales. London, 1880. - - - FOLKLORE COMPARATIVELY TREATED - -George Laurence Gomme.—ETHNOLOGY IN FOLKLORE. “Modern Science” - Series. London, 1892. - - _An attempt to assign apparently non-Aryan beliefs and customs - in the British islands to pre-Aryan inhabitants._ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - INDEX - - - Aberffraw, marriage of Branwen at, 289. - Abergeleu, sacred well at, 415. - Achill Island, folk-tales preserved at, 233. - Achilles, the Irish, 158. - Achren, battle of, 305, 306; - castle of, 320. - Acrisius, 236. - Adamnan’s _Life of Saint Columba_, 401, 417. - Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh, 11, 190. - Aebh, wife of Lêr, 142. - Aed, son of Lêr, 143. - Aedh, son of Miodhchaoin, 105. - Aeife, wife of Lêr, 142, 143, 144. - Aerfon, a title of the river Dee, 413. - _Æs Sídhe_, the “folk of the mounds”, the gods or fairies, 137, 168. - Africa, 19, 120, 274, 324. - Aganippus, king of the Franks, 382, 383. - Agriculture god of, British, 261; - a Gaulish, 274. - Ailbhe, foster-daughter of Bodb the Red, 142. - Aileach, grave of Nuada at, 122, 157. - Ailill, king of Connaught, 147, 154, 164, 165, 175, 179, 200. - Ailinn, love-story of, 188, 189. - Ailioll of Arran, 142. - Ainé, queen of the fairies of South Munster, 244-246. - Ainle, one of the sons of Usnach, 192, 193, 196. - Airceltrai, the _sídh_ of Ogma, 136, 157. - Airem, Eochaid, high king of Ireland, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 331, - 332. - _Airem_, meaning of the word, 149, 333. - Airmid, daughter of Diancecht, 80, 81, 82, 110. - Alator, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275. - Alaw, river in Anglesey, 294, 295. - Alba, 97, 104, 163, 178, 192, 193, 196, 382; - Deirdre’s farewell to, 194-195. - Albania, a name for Alba, 382. - Ale of Goibniu, 61. - Allobroges, 384, 385. - Amaethon, son of Dôn, British god of Agriculture, 261, 305, 308, 313, - 316, 345; - fights against Brân in the battle of Achren, 305-308; - assists Kulhwch to win Olwen, 345. - Amergin, druid of the Milesians, 123-130. - Amesbury, “castle” of, 29. - Amlwch, stream of, 295. - Ana, see Anu. - Ancient Britons, who were the, 18-23. - Aneurin, a sixth-century British bard, 11, 295, 372. - Aneurin, the Book of, 11. - Anglesey, island of, 289, 294, 322, 388, 400. - Anglo-Saxon, our descent not entirely, 3. - Anguish, Anguissance, king of Ireland, 357. - Angus, Gaelic god of love and beauty, 56, 79, 80, 117, 136, 139-142, - 147, 156, 157, 205, 211-214, 217, 218, 221, 240; - his attributes, 56; - his wooing of Caer, 140-142; - cheats his father, the Dagda, 139; - steals Etain from Mider, 147; - helps Diarmait and Grainne, 217, 218, 221; - matches his pigs against the Fenians, 213-214. - Anicetus, Sol Apollo, a Romano-British god, 275. - Animals, sacred, 406, 416, 417; - sacrifices of, 406, 411, 412, 413. - Anna, sister of Arthur, 323. - _Annals of the Four Masters_, 204. - Annwn, the British Otherworld, 254, 273, 278-282, 303, 308, 309, 318, - 319, 321, 390, 391. - _Annwn, the Spoiling of_, a poem by Taliesin, 305, 306, 317, 366. - Anu, or Ana, a Gaelic goddess of prosperity and abundance, 50; - the “Paps of Ana”, 50; - still living in folklore as Aynia and Ainé, 245. - Aoibhinn, queen of the fairies of North Munster, 244. - Aoife, an Amazon defeated by Cuchulainn, 164, 176, 177. - Aphrodité, the British, 271, 388. - Apollo, the Gaelic, 62; - the British, 262; - a temple of, in Britain, 42, 325. - Apples, of the Garden of the Hesperides, 98, 99, 102; - in the Celtic Elysium, 98, 136. - Apple-tree of Ailenn, 189. - Aquitani, 22. - Aranon, son of Milé, 123. - Arawn, king of Annwn, 279, 280, 281, 306, 308, 309, 312, 315, 329, 357, - 375. - Ardan, a son of Usnach, 192, 193, 196. - Ard Chein, 93. - Arddu, Black Stone of, 305. - Arês, 52. - _Argetlám_, 49, 78. - Arianrod, a British goddess, 261-265, 313, 317, 322, 364, 371; - her place in later legend taken by Arthur’s sister, 364. - Armagh, 136, 158. - Arnold, Matthew, 3, 16, 356. - Arran, Isle of, 60, 142, 415. - Art, the “Lonely”, king of Tara, 189, 202. - Artaius, Mercurius, a Gaulish god, 274. - Arthur, 6, 8, 14, 155, 202, 222, 246, 258, 259, 271, 273, 274, 276, 296, - 304, 306, 311, 312-320, 322, 323, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330-343, 348, - 349, 351-360, 362, 364-366, 368, 371, 374-376, 392, 407; - the mythical and the historical, 313, 314; - assumes the attributes of Gwydion, 316; - the Spoiling of Annwn by, 319-322; - becomes head of the British Pantheon, 312-313; - wins Olwen for Kulhwch, 343-353; - in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _History_, 374, 375; - leads the Wild Hunt, 392. - _Arthurian Legend, Studies in the_, Professor Rhys’s, 148, 158, 255, - 257, 258, 269, 272, 274, 278, 285, 313, 314, 316, 321, 322, 323, 326, - 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 358, 359, 360, 364, 367, 368, 369, - 370, 383, 387, 389. - Artur, son of Nemed, 274. - Aryans, 21, 31, 32, 247; - common traditions of the, 32, 176, 189; - Aryan languages, 21. - Astarte, worshipped at Corbridge, 275. - Astolat, 362. - Athens, 153. - Athlone, 175, 216. - Augusel, a king of Scotland, 375. - Aurelius, a British king, 325. - Avallach, see Avallon. - Avallon, a British god of the Underworld, 329, 359; - Isle of, 374, and see Avilion. - Avebury, the “castle” of, 29. - Avilion, 133, 315, 329, 332, 334, 335, 390, 394. - Aynia, a fairy queen of Ulster, 245. - - Babylon, 178. - Badb, a Gaelic war-goddess, 52, 53, 72, 117, 119, 245; - the name often used generically, 53; - description of a, 53. - “Badger in the bag”, the game of, 285, 303. - Badon, battle of, 338. - Baile, love-story of, 188-189. - Baile’s Strand, 186, 188. - Bajocassus, Temple of the sun-god Belinus at, 276. - Bala lake, 265. - Balan, 276, 357, 364. - Balder, 33. - Balgatan, a mountain near Cong, 73. - Balin, 276, 357, 358, 364. - Ballymagauran, village of, 38. - Ballymote, Book of, 10, 38, 123, 138, 229, 231. - Ballysadare, 75. - Balor, a king of the Fomors, 48-49, 50, 79, 83, 84, 90, 112, 113, 120, - 233-239, 269, 324, 341, 345, 371; - his evil eye, 49; - kills Nuada and Macha, 112; - is blinded by Lugh, 112; - tales of, in modern folklore, 233-239. - “Balor’s Hill”, 69, 90. - Ban, king of Benwyk, 356, 360, 362. - Banba, a goddess representing Ireland, 125; - an ancient name of Ireland, 126, 153. - _Banshee_, meaning of the word, 137. - Baoisgne, Clann, 209, 217. - Bards, 32, 42. - Bardsey Island, 326. - Barrow, river, how it got its name, 62. - Barrule, South, 242. - Barry, the, 246. - Basque race, 19. - Bath, 228, 275, 276, 338, 381. - Bathurst’s _Roman Antiquities in Lydney Park_, 254. - Battle of Achren, 305; - of Badon, 338; - of Camlan, 222, 315, 334, 337, 375, 376; - of Clontarf, 53; - of Gabhra, 222, 223, 225, 315; - of Mag Rath, 52; - of Moytura Northern, 107-117, 407; - of Moytura Southern, 72-75; - of the Trees, 123, 305-308. - Bayeux, temple of Belinus at, 276. - Bean, curious passage relating to the, 306, 307. - Becuma of the Fair Skin, 202. - Bedivere, Sir, 6. - Bedwini, Arthur’s bishop, 337. - Bedwyr, a follower of Arthur, 343, 344, 349. - Belacatudor, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275. - Belgæ, 23, 76. - Beli, a British god, 120, 252, 260, 268, 295, 313, 335-376. - Belinus, a Celtic sun-god, 276, 358, 364; - as a king of Britain, 276, 384, 385. - Belisama, the Latin name of the Ribble, 413. - Beltaine, the Gaelic May-day, 41, 65, 287, 406, 408, 409, 410. - Berber race, 19. - Beth, an Iberian god, 64. - Bettws-y-coed, 7. - Beuno, Saint, sacrifices of cattle to, 413. - Big-Knife, Osla, 352, 353. - Bilé, father of the Gaelic gods and men, 51, 65, 120, 121, 122, 252. - Billingsgate, origin of name, 385. - Birds, of Rhiannon, the, 273, 294, 296; - Dechtiré and her maidens changed into, 160. - Black Book of Caermarthen, the, 11, 255, 311, 312, 335. - Bladud, mythical founder of Bath, 381. - Blathnat, daughter of Mider, 55, 179. - Bliant, Castle, 358. - Blodeuwedd, wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, 265, 266, 268. - Blood-fines among the Celts, 30; - blood-fine paid for Cian, 94-97. - Boann, wife of the Dagda, 55, 139, 141. - Boar, wild, of Bengulben, 221; - the Boar Trwyth, 347-353. - Bodb the Red, son of the Dagda, 60, 133, 140, 141-145, 157, 205, 208; - is made king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 140; - his swineherd, 164; - marries his daughter Sadb to Finn, 208. - Bogles, 393, 403, 405. - Bonfires in Celtic ritual, 409-412. - Bordeaux, Sir Huon of, 7. - _Boreadæ_, 42. - Borrach, 193, 195, 200. - Bors, king of Gaul, 360. - Bors, Sir, 368, 369. - Boyne, river, 55, 56, 129, 136, 137, 158, 210, 213, 230. - Brahmans, 32. - Bran, son of Febal, an Irish king, 134, 135, 224. - Bran, Finn’s favourite hound, 213. - Brân, British god of the Underworld, 258, 271-272, 276, 289-294, 296, - 306, 308, 313, 328, 329, 331, 338, 356, 357, 360, 364, 366, 384, 386, - 387, 389, 394; - fights the battle of Achren, 306; - becomes the “Wonderful Head”, 296; - in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _History_, 384, 385; - in the Morte Darthur, 356, 357; - introduces Christianity into Britain, 386. - Brandegore, King, 272, 356. - Brandegoris, King, 356. - Brandel, Brandiles, Sir, 356. - Branwen, British goddess of love, 271, 289-294, 387. - Brazil, 133. - Brea, ford of, Finn killed at the, 222. - Breasal’s Island, 133. - Brécilien, Forest of, 361. - Bregon, 121. - Brennius, a mythical British king, 5, 276, 384, 385. - Brennus, 385. - Bress, son of Elathan, a Fomor, 50, 78-80, 82, 83, 90, 108-111, 115-116, - 269; - his beauty, 50; - marries Brigit, and is made king over the Tuatha Dé Danann, 78; - is forced to abdicate, 83; - makes war on the Tuatha Dé Danann, 83; - is defeated and captured, 115-116. - Brian, son of Tuirenn, 90, 91, 92, 94, 99-102, 103, 105, 106. - Briareus, 326. - “Bridge of the Cliff”, the, 163. - Bridget, Saint, 7, 56, 228. - Brigantes, a North British tribe, 277. - Brigantia, a British Minerva, 277. - Brigindo, a Gaulish goddess, 277. - Brigit, Gaelic goddess of fire, poetry, and the hearth, 56, 78, 109, - 110, 228, 269, 277, 387; - is married to Bress, 78; - is canonized as Saint Bridget, 228, 387. - Bri Leith, the _sídh_ of Mider, 136, 148, 152, 332. - Brindled ox, the, 320. - Britain, ancient names of, 292, 323. - _British Goblins_, Mr. Wirt Sikes’, 389, 393, 415. - Britons, ancient, who were the, 18-23. - BRITONUM, HISTORIA. See Historia, Geoffrey, Nennius. - Brittany, 24. - Briun, son of Bethar, 113. - Brownies, 248, 393, 403. - Brude, king of the Picts, 401. - Brugh-na-boyne, 136, 139, 160, 213, 214. - Brutus, 121, 374. - Brythons, 21, 22, 23, 24, 35. - Buarainech, father of Balor, 48. - Buinne, the Ruthless Red, son of Fergus, 193, 196, 197. - Bull, the Brown, of Cualgne, 164, 165, 168, 175; - the White-horned, of Connaught, 165, 175. - Bwbachod, 393. - - Cadbury, the supposed site of Camelot, 335. - Cader Idris, 305. - Caemhoc, Saint, 146. - Caer, daughter of Etal Ambuel, 141. - Caer Arianrod, 252, 264. - Caer Badus, 381. - Caer Bannawg, 367. - Caer Colvin, 275. - Caer Dathyl, 308, 310. - Caer Golud, 320. - Caer Llyr, 270. - Caer London, 376. - Caer Myrddin, 324. - Caer Ochren, 320. - Caer Pedryvan, 319, 356, 367. - Caer Rigor, 319. - Caer Sarrlog, 386. - Caer Sidi, 319, 321, 322, 368. - Caer Vandwy, 257, 320. - Caer Vedwyd, 319. - Caer Wydyr, 320. - Caesar, Julius, 5, 8, 18, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30, 35, 38, 119, 204, 376, - 399, 412, 417. - Cairbré, son of Cormac, 206, 222, 315. - Cairn of Octriallach, 110. - Cairpré, son of Ogma, bard of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 58, 82, 83, 87, 139. - Calais, 383. - Calatin the wizard, 171, 172; - daughters of Calatin, 178-181. - Caledonians, 22. - Camelot, 314, 335. - Camlan, battle of, 222, 315, 334, 337, 375, 376. - Camulodunum, the Roman name of Colchester, 276. - Camulus, a Gaulish god of war and the sky, 51, 204, 275, 323. - Caoilte, a Fenian hero, 63, 146, 208, 212, 217, 222, 227, 246. - Caractacus, Caratacus, 271, 386, 387. - Caradawc of the Strong Arms, son of Brân, 271, 291, 295, 338, 386, 389. - Carbonek, 357, 367. - Carmarthen, 324. - Carnac, 114. - Carnarvon, 310. - Carrowmore, 114. - Cassibellawn, Cassivelaunus, 376. - “Cassiopeia’s Chair”, 252. - Castell y Moch, 310. - Castle of Arianrod, 252, 264. - Castle Bliant, 358. - Castle of Gwydion, 253. - Castle Hacket, 244. - Castle of Revelry, 366, 367. - Castle of Riches, 367. - “Castles”, Celtic, 29. - Caswallawn, son of Beli, 295. - _Cath Godeu._ See the “Battle of the Trees”. - Cathbad, druid of Emain Macha, 161, 162, 174, 178, 181, 190, 198, 200. - Cathubodva, a Gaulish war-goddess, 276. - Cauldrons in Celtic mythology; the Dagda’s, 54, 71, 366; - of Ogyrvran the Giant, 366; - of Diwrnach the Gael, 346, 349; - cauldron given by Brân to Matholwch, 290, 293, 366; - cauldron stolen from Mider by Cuchulainn, 176, 366; - cauldron kept in Annwn by the chief of Hades, 273, 319, 366; - the legend of the Holy Grail founded upon Celtic myths of a cauldron - of fertility and inspiration, 365-370. - Celtæ, 22. - Celtic mythical literature the forerunner of mediæval romance, 184. - Celtic strain in modern Englishmen, 3. - Celts, the, 19, 20, 21, 25-44, 70, 119, 121, 124, 136, 138, 261, 262, - 278, 283, 329, 404, 407, 412. - Cemmes, a parish in Pembrokeshire, 394. - _Cenn Cruaich_, 41. - _Cermait_, _i.e._ “Honey-mouth”, a title of Ogma, 57. - Cethé, son of Diancecht, 62, 90. - Cethlenn, wife of Balor, 90. - “Chain, Lugh’s”, 62; - “chief’s”, 93. - Champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 59, 276; - Champions of the Red Branch, see Red Branch; - “The Champion’s Prophecy”, 201. - Chariots, war, of the Celts, 25, 27, 28. - Charon, 403. - Chaucer, 2, 12. - Chess, Mider’s game with Eochaid Airem, 149; - Ossian’s game with Finn, 220. - Children of Dôn, Nudd, and Llyr, 252. - Christianity, introduced into Britain by Brân, 386, 387; - conquers Druidism, 400, 401; - adopts harmless heathen cults, 416, 417. - Cian, son of Diancecht, 62, 63, 78, 84, 90-94, 106, 235-237, 239, 269, - 345, 371. - Ciaran, Saint, 10. - Cichol the Footless, a Fomor, 66. - Cilgwri, the Ousel of, 349. - Clann Baoisgne, 209, 217, 222: - Clan Chattan, 415. - Clann Morna, 209, 211, 218, 232. - Clann Neamhuinn, 216, 218. - Clann Ronan, 218. - _Clas Myrddin_, an old name for Britain, 323. - Claudius, Roman emperor, 387. - Cliodna, fairy queen of Munster, 244. - Clontarf, battle of, 53. - Clûd, goddess of the river Clyde, 284, 285. - Cluricanes, 248. - _Cnoc Miodhchaoin_, 97. - Cnucha, battle of, 209. - Coblynau, 393. - Cocidius, a war-god worshipped by a Dacian colony in Cumberland, 275. - Coed Helen, 310. - Coel, a mythical king of Britain, 275, 323. - _Coir Anmann_, the “Choice of Names”, an old Irish tract, 50, 54, 61, - 245, 270. - Colchester, 276. - “Cole, Old King”, 276. - Collen, Saint, 389, 390, 391. - Columba, Saint, 12, 240, 401, 417. - _Comes Britanniæ_, 313. - _Comes Littoris Saxonici_, 314. - Comyn, Michael, a Gaelic poet, 223. - Conairé the Great, high king of Ireland, 152, 157. - Conall the Victorious, 163, 177, 183, 192, 193, 197, 198. - Conan, a Fenian hero, 209, 218. - Conann, son of Febar, a king of the Fomors, 67. - Conchobar, king of Ulster, 29, 147, 154-156, 158, 160-162, 166-168, 173, - 174, 179, 185, 190-192, 193, 195-198, 200, 201, 204, 227; - his treachery towards the sons of Usnach, 192-200; - his tragical death, 155. - Condates, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275. - Cong, village of, 73, 76. - Conlaoch, son of Cuchulainn, 177, 178. - Conn the Hundred Fighter, 201, 202. - Conn, son of Lêr, 143. - Conn, son of Miodhchaoin, 105. - Connaught, 73, 75, 76, 165, 168. - Connla, son of Conn the Hundred Fighter, 202. - _Contemporary Review_, the, 241. - Contrary Head, 242. - Conway, river, 262. - Cooking-places of the Fenians, 206. - Cooking-spits of the women of Fianchuivé, 96; - at Tara, 98. - Cooley, see Cualgne. - Coranians, a mythical tribe of dwarfs, 377-379. - Corb, an Iberian god, 64. - Corbridge, 275. - Corc, son of Miodhchaoin, 105. - Corca-Duibhne, 70. - Corca-Oidce, 70. - Cordeilla, daughter of Leir, in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _History_, - 381-383. - Cordelia, daughter of Shakespeare’s _King Lear_, 259, 381. - Coritiacus, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275. - Cormac, “the Magnificent”, 201, 202, 203, 206, 215, 222, 315. - Cornwall, 3, 23, 294, 296, 327, 334, 353, 382, 384. - Coronation Stone, the, 71. - Corrib, see Lough Corrib. - Corspitium, see Corbridge. - Corwenna, mother of Brennius and Belinus, 385. - Count of Britain, 313; - of the Saxon Shore, 314. - Court of Dôn, the, 252, 317. - Cow, Balor’s Gray, 235, 236, 237, 240; - Mider’s three cows, 57, 176. - Cow, Book of the Dun, 10, 12, 14, 37, 156, 164, 175, 184, 202, 227. - Credné, the bronze-worker of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 85, 86, 109. - Crete, 153. - Creudylad, daughter of the British sky-god Lludd, 256, 258, 259, 332, - 348, 381, 407. - Criminal Resolutions of Britain, the Three, 334. - _Crom Croich_, 40. - _Cromm Cruaich_, 38, 39, 41, 154, 402. - Cronos, 63, 65, 326. - “Croppies’ Grave”, the, at Tara, 72. - Cruind, the river, 165. - Cu, son of Diancecht, 62, 90. - Cualgne, a province of Ulster, 164, 165, 175. - Cuan, head of the Munster Fenians, 218. - Cuchulainn, chief hero of the Ultonians, 10, 11, 14, 27, 154, 155, 156, - 158-188, 192, 193, 202, 204, 210, 217, 223, 227, 274, 366; - is the son of Lugh, 159-160; - obvious solar character of, 158-159; - how he obtained his name, 160-161; - fights in the Táin Bó Chuailgne, 164-175; - his wooing of Emer, 184-186; - his raid upon the Other World, 175-176; - his death, 183; - is raised from the dead by Saint Patrick, 227. - Culann, chief smith of the Ultonians, 161; - “Culann’s Hound”, 161, 166. - “Culture-King”, 153. - Cumhal, father of Finn, 204, 209, 210, 275. - Cunedda, a North British king, 373. - Cunobelinus, king of Britain, 387. - Curoi, king of Munster, 147, 154, 179. - Custennin, 343, 344. - Cuthbert, Saint, bulls sacrificed to, 413. - Cwm Cawlwyd, the Owl of, 349. - _Cwm Annwn_, the “Hounds of Hell”, 391, 392. - Cwy, 320. - Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s, 387. - Cymri, 255, 373. - - Dagda, the, Gaelic god of the Earth, 54, 78, 79, 87, 98, 107-109, 116, - 117, 122, 132, 135, 136, 138-141, 156, 157, 211, 213, 228, 230, 240, - 243, 269, 346, 366; - his dress, arms, and harp, 54; - his porridge-feast, 108; - is cheated by his son Angus, 139; - resigns the kingship of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 140; - his last appearance, 157. - Daire of Cualgne, owner of the Brown Bull, 165. - Dalân, druid of Eochaid Airem, 392. - Danes, the, 230. - Danu, the mother of the Gaelic gods, the same as Anu, _q.v._, 44, 50, - 51, 70, 245, 252, 407. - Dart, river, 414. - Dartmoor, 392. - Darvha, Lake, 143-145. - Deaf Valley, the, 180. - Dechtiré, mother of Cuchulainn, 156, 159, 160, 181. - Dé Danann, see Tuatha Dé Danann. - Dee, river, 413. - Deimne, the first name of Finn, 210. - Deirdre, 190-200; - Deirdre’s Farewell to Alba, 194-195; - Deirdre’s Lament over the Sons of Usnach, 199-200. - Demetia, Roman province of, 273, 278. - Demetrius, an early traveller in Britain, 326. - “Demon of the air”, Aeife changed into a, 145. - Derivla, a sacred well in the island of Inniskea, 415. - Desmond, fourth Earl of, nicknamed “the Magician”, 245. - “Destiny, laying a”, a Celtic custom, 262-265, 340. - Devon, 312, 392. - Devwy, the dales of, 320. - _Dialogue of the Elders_, the, 205, 222, 404; - Dialogues of Patrick and Ossian, 226-227. - Diancecht, the Gaelic god of medicine, 61, 62, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, - 86, 90, 110, 141, 232, 269; - makes a silver hand for Nuada, 78; - kills his son Miach, 81-82; - presides over the “Spring of Health”, 110; - prescriptions of Diancecht, 232. - Diarmait O’Duibhne, the Fenian Adonis, 209, 212, 215-221, 315. - Dinadan, Sir, 328. - Dinas Dinllev, 264. - Dinas Emrys, 324, 381. - Dingwall, Registers of the Presbytery of, 412. - _Dinnsenchus_, 38, 40, 132, 154. - Dio Cassius, 387. - Diodorus Siculus, 41, 42, 325. - Dionysus, rites of, 410. - Dis Pater, 51, 120, 252, 383. - Dissull the Giant, 348-349. - Diwrnach the Gael, the cauldron of, 346, 349. - Dobhar, king of Sicily, 96, 98, 102, 103. - Doctrine of the transmigration of souls, 36, 37. - Domnann, Fir, _i.e._ men of Domnu. See Fir Domnann. - Domnu, a goddess, mother of the Fomors, 48, 70, 112; - meaning of the name, 48; - gods of Domnu, 48, 70; - men of Domnu, 70. - Dôn, the British equivalent of the Gaelic Danu, 44, 252, 260, 268, 269, - 273, 295, 308, 310, 316; - euhemerized into a king of Dublin, 372-373. - Donn, son of Milé, 126-131, 246. - “Donn’s House”, 246. - Dormarth, the hound of Gwyn son of Nudd, 257. - Dowth, 137-138. - Dragon, Red, of Britain, 378; - White, of the Saxons, 378. - “Dragon-mouth”, a lake called, 141. - _Dream of Rhonabwy_, the, 260, 312, 337, 338. - Drogheda, 137. - Drowes, river, 110. - Drudwyn, the whelp of Greid the son of Eri, 347. - Druidism, the religion of the Celts, 35, 43; - possibly non-Aryan in origin, 36; - in Gaul, 34; - derived from Britain, 35; - suppressed by the Romans, 399, 400. - Druids, 18, 33-37, 84, 111, 115, 151, 179, 180, 182, 188, 202, 399-401, - 411, 412, 417; - origin of the name, 33; - in Gaul, 34; - in Britain, 35; - human sacrifices of the druids, 37, 412; - the druids of Brude, king of the Picts, 401. - Drumcain, an old name for Tara, 126. - Dublin, 66, 372. - Duke of the Britains, the, 313. - Dulachan, 247, 248. - _Dul-dauna_, the, 237. - Dun Cow, Book of the. See Cow. - Dundalk, 177. - Dundealgan, 177, 181, 188, 189. - Dún Scaith, 175-176. - _Dux Britanniarum._ See Duke of the Britains. - Dwynwen, Saint, 388. - Dyfan, Saint, 386. - Dyfed, or Demetia, a province of South Wales, 273, 278, 279, 281, 282, - 286, 298-301, 303, 304, 309, 310, 394. - Dylan, a British god, 261, 262, 322, 335, 360, 364, 371. - - Eagle, of Gwern Abwy, 350; - Lleu changed into an, 266-268. - Earl Gerald, 245. - Easal, king of the Golden Pillars, 96, 103. - Eber, son of Milé, 129-131, 146, 153. - Eber Scot, 120. - Eboracum, Roman name of York, 275. - Edeyrn, son of Nudd, 260. - Edinburgh, the Advocates’ Library at, 11. - Eel, the Morrígú takes the shape of an, 169; - transformation of the rival swineherds into eels, 165. - Egypt, 120. - Eigen, the first female saint in Britain, 386. - Eildon Hills, Arthur living beneath the, 335. - Elaine, 362. - Elathan, a king of the Fomors, 49, 50, 78, 83, 90, 116, 269. - Elayne, 358. - Elberich, 392. - _Elders, Dialogue of the._ See _Dialogue_. - Elen Lwyddawg, wife of Myrddin, 323, 362. - Eleutherius, Pope, 386. - Ellylion, the Welsh elves, 393. - Elton’s _Origins of English History_, 6, 8, 25, 26, 70, 228, 327, 413. - Elves, 393. - Elysium, Celtic. See Other World, Celtic. - Emain Macha, the capital of ancient Ulster, 28, 29, 158, 160, 161, 162, - 164, 173, 174, 179, 180, 183, 188, 192, 194, 196, 200, 201, 204. - Emer, wife of Cuchulainn, 162, 164, 177, 184-188. - _Emer, the Wooing of_, an old Irish saga, 28, 29, 37, 184. - Emperor, a title given in Welsh legend to Arthur, 314, 338. - Emrys, a title of Myrddin, 324, 329, 360, 369. - Englishmen, Celtic strain in, 3. - “Entertaining of the Noble Head”, the, 296. - Eochaid, son of Erc, king of the Fir Bolgs, 69, 73, 74, 75. - Eochaid Airem, see Airem. - Eochaid O’Flynn, an Irish poet, 231. - Erc, king of Tara, 179, 182, 183. - Eremon, son of Milé, and first king of Ireland, 40, 129, 130, 131, 132, - 146, 153, 154. - Erin, 97, 98, 99, 102, 104, 126, 193, 225, 231; - meaning of the word, 126. - Eriu, a goddess representing Ireland, 125, 126, 128, 129. - Eros, the Gaelic, 56, 140. - See Angus. - Essyllt, wife of March, or Mark. See Iseult. - Etain, wife of Mider, 57, 139, 147-152, 154, 224, 331-333. - Etair, a vassal of King Conchobar, 147. - Etal Ambuel, father of Caer, 141. - Etan, wife of Ogma, 62, 87, 239. - Ethnea, a name of Ethniu in modern folklore, 238. - Ethniu, daughter of Balor, 62, 79, 84, 90, 269, 371. - _Ethnology in Folklore_, Mr. G. L. Gomme’s, 35, 69, 412, 413, 414, 416. - Etirun, “an idol of the Britons”, 294. - Etive, Loch, 193. - Etruscans, the, 20; Etruscan mythology in modern Italian folklore, 403. - Ettard, 358. - _Ettarre, Pelleas and_, Tennyson’s idyll of, 358. - Euhemerism of Gaelic gods, 227-230; - of British gods, 372-389. - Euskarian race, 19. - Evelake, King, 359. - Evnissyen, son of Penardun, 290, 292, 293. - - Failinis, the hound of the king of Ioruaidhé, 96, 97, 104. - _Fairie Queene_, Spenser’s, 7, 389. - Fairies, the, 4, 137, 242-248, 389-393, 403, 404, 409, 418; - the old gods are remembered as “fairies”, 243-248, 389-393; - two varieties of fairy in folklore, 403; - Irish and Welsh fairies identical in nature, 404; - king of the Irish fairies, 136; - king of the Welsh fairies, 392; - size of the fairies, 404; - fairy money, 377; - fairy food, 391; - the “fairy hills”, 135-139, 394. - Fal, the stone of. See Stone of Destiny. - “Falcon of May”, 369; - “Falcon of Summer”, 369. - Falga, Isle of, 57, 175. - Falias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 71, 72. - Fand, wife of Manannán son of Lêr, 186-188, 202. - Faraday, Miss, her translation of the _Táin Bó Chuailgné_, 164. - Fata Morgana, 395. - Fate of the Children of Lêr, 142-146; - of the Sons of Tuirenn, 90-105; - of the Sons of Usnach, 190-200. - Fea, a war-goddess, wife of Nuada, 52. - “Feast of Age”, Manannán’s, 61, 98, 143. - Feast of Lugh, see Lugnassad. - Feast of St. John, 409. - Fec’s Pool, on the Boyne, 210. - Fedlimid, vassal to King Conchobar, 190. - Fenians, the, 11, 17, 155, 201, 203-209, 211-215, 217-219, 220-223, 225, - 226, 314, 315; - real or mythical, 203-205; - origin of, 206; - duties of, 206; - accomplishments of, 207; - chief heroes of, 207-209; - destruction of, at the battle of Gabhra, 222; - stories of, 209-226; - the Fenian sagas possibly non-Aryan, 70. - Fenius Farsa, 120. - Ferdiad, a warrior slain by Cuchulainn, 172, 173, 184. - Fergus, son of Finn, 208. - Fergus, son of Roy, an Ulster hero, 14, 166, 167, 170, 171, 175, - 192-196, 198, 200. - Fergusson, Dr. James, 76, 114, 137, 138. - Festivals, Celtic solar or agricultural, 405-412. - Ffordd Elen, 324. - Fiacha, son of Conchobar, 197, 198. - Fiachadh, king of Ireland, 206. - Fiachra, son of Lêr, 143. - Fianchuivé, submarine island of, 97, 104. - _Fianna Eirinn_, see Fenians. - Figol, son of Mamos, druid of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 90. - Findabair, daughter of Medb, 168. - Findias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 71, 72. - Finn mac Coul (Cumhail), 4, 11, 16, 37, 146, 155, 201, 203, 204, 206, - 207, 208, 209, 210-218, 220-222, 224, 226, 246, 254, 274, 314, 315; - his upbringing and boy-feats, 209-210; - reorganizes the Fenians, 211; - is killed at the Ford of Brea, 222; - is reborn as Mongan, an Ulster chief, 37; - is he historical or mythical, 204; - parallels between Finn and Arthur, 314-315. - Finn mac Gorman, compiler of the Book of Leinster, 10. - Finn the Seer, 210. - Finola, daughter of Lêr, 143. - Finvarra, king of the Irish fairies, 243, 244, 405. - Fiona Macleod, Miss, 241. - Fionn, see Finn. - Fionnbharr, the _sídh_ of Meadha assigned to, 136; - his appearance in the Fenian sagas, 212; - becomes fairy king of Ireland, 243. - Fir Bolgs, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 72-78, 114, 125, 229, 230, 407. - Fir Domnann, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 76, 172. - Fir Gaillion, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 76. - Fish, sacred, 416. - Fly, Etain changed into a, 147; - Lugh takes the form of a, 159; - a sacred, 416. - _Folklore, Ethnology in._ See _Ethnology_. - Folk-tales, Irish, 233-240; Welsh, 371. - Fomors, Gaelic deities of Death, Darkness, and the Sea, 11, 48-50, 67, - 70, 76, 83, 86, 88, 89, 90, 98, 107-117, 120, 122, 157, 205, 225, - 229, 230, 252, 269, 274, 327, 406; - meaning of the name, 48; - their war with the Tuatha Dé Danann, 107-117; - are the Lochlannach in the Fenian sagas, 205. - Forgall the Wily, father of Emer, 162, 163, 164, 184. - Fotla, a goddess representing Ireland, 125; - an ancient name of Ireland, 126. - “Four Ancient Books of Wales”, the, 11, 15. - See also Skene. - “Four Branches of the Mabinogi”, the, 14, 15, 251, 278, 289, 312, 355. - “Four-cornered castle”, the, 366. - Frazer’s _Golden Bough_, 33. - “Frivolous Battles of Britain, The Three”, 334. - Frogs, sacred, 416. - Fury, Great, and Little Fury, two swords of Manannán, 60, 217. - - Gabhra, battle of, 222, 223, 225, 315. - Gabius, a Roman consul, 385. - Gabriel Hounds, the, 392. - _Gae bolg_, Cuchulainn’s spear, 170, 173, 178. - Gaels, 68, 69, 70, 71, 76, 93, 108, 119, 124, 149, 183, 203, 204, 230, - 357. - Gaiar, son of Manannán, 202. - Gaillion, Fir. See Fir Gaillion. - Galahad, Sir, 362, 368, 369. - _Galan-mai_, Welsh spring festival, 408. - _Gan Ceanach_, 247. - Garden of the Hesperides, the, 95, 98, 99. - Gargantua, Rabelais’, 386. - Gast Rhymri’s cubs, 347, 349. - Gaul, 22, 274, 276, 383, 384, 385. - Gauls, the, 22, 23, 119, 230. - Gavida, 238, 239. - Gavidjeen Go, 235. - Gawain, Sir, 360, 363, 364, 369, 375. - _Geasa_, taboos among the Irish Celts, 177, 195, 216. - _Genii locorum_, 43. - Geoffrey of Monmouth, 9, 121, 251, 254, 259, 276, 323, 324, 330, 336, - 372, 373-376, 381, 384. - George’s Hill, Saint, 29. - Geraint, 312, 387. - Gildas, a British writer, 400. - “Glamour, the Realm of”, an old name for Dyfed, 279. - Glamour put on Cuchulainn by Cathbad, 178; - by the daughters of Calatin, 179, 180; - put on the sons of Usnach, 198; - on Arianrod, 264, 265; - on Dyfed, 298. - Glass Castle, of the Fomors, 67; - a synonym for the other world, 320, 367. - Glastonbury, 260, 329. - Glastonbury Tor, 272, 390. - Glenn Faisi, 130. - Glora, Isle of, 144, 145, 146. - Glyn Cûch, 279, 281. - Gobhan Saer, the, 232, 235, 240. - Goibniu, Gaelic god of smithcraft, 61, 84, 86, 98, 109, 110, 141, 231, - 232, 238, 239, 261, 371; - forges the weapons of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 61, 109; - kills Ruadan, 110; - his ale, 61; - survives in tradition as the Gobhan Saer, _q.v._; - as a character in folk-tale, 232-240. - See Gavida and Gavidjeen Go. - Goidel, a mythical ancestor of the Irish, 120. - Goidels, the, 21, 22, 23, 24, 35. - Golden bough, the mistletoe the, 33. - Golden Pillars, king of the. See Easal. - Goll, 209, 211, 222. - Gomme, Mr. G. L., 20, 35, 69, 412, 413, 414, 416. - Gonorilla, daughter of Leir, 381, 382. - Gore, 357. See Gower. - Goreu, Arthur’s cousin, 317, 338. - Gorias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 71, 72, 97. - Govannan son of Dôn, British god of Smithcraft, 261, 313, 316, 345; - kills his nephew Dylan, 261; - assists Kulhwch, 345. - Gower regarded as part of the other world, 272, 356, 357, 373. - Grail, the Holy, 2, 7, 273, 357-359, 365-370. - Grainne, 209, 215-221, 315. - _Graves of the Warriors, the Verses of the_, 272, 311, 334. - Gray of Macha, Cuchulainn’s horse, 174, 181, 182, 183. - Greece, 1, 20, 68, 99, 100, 101, 155. - Greek mythology, ancient, 1, 2, 4; - modern, 403. - “Green Meadows of Enchantment”, the, 394. - Gregory, Lady, 159, 201. - Greid, the son of Eri, 347, 350. - Gresholm Island, 294, 356, 394. - _Grianainech_, the “sunny-faced”, an epithet of Ogma, 59. - Grianan Aileach, grave of Nuada at. See Aileach. - Gronw Pebyr, 265, 266, 268. - Guanius, Gwyn as a mythical king of the Huns, 375. - Guest, Lady Charlotte, 253, 255, 268, 278, 289, 295, 298, 308, 317, 337, - 339, 340, 348, 350, 369, 377. - Guinevere, Arthur’s queen, 315, 334, 357, 359, 365, 375, 407. - Gunvasius, king of the Orkneys, 376. - Gurgiunt Brabtruc, king of Britain, 385. - Guyon, Sir, in Spenser’s _Fairie Queene_, 7, 389. - Gwalchaved, 369. - Gwalchmei, 323, 330, 334, 335, 338, 343, 360, 364, 368, 369, 375. - Gwales, island of, 294, 296, 356. - Gwarthegyd, son of Kaw, 337. - Gwawl, son of Clûd, Pwyll’s rival for Rhiannon, 284, 285, 303, 362, 380. - Gweddw, owner of a magic horse, 347. - Gweir, a form of the name Gwydion, _q.v._, 319, 321, 322. - Gwenbaus, Sir, 359. - Gwern, son of Matholwch and Branwen, 291, 292, 293. - Gwinas, Sir, 359. - Gwlgawd Gododin, the drinking-horn of, 346. - Gwragedd Annwn, 393. - Gwrhyr, a companion of Arthur, 343, 349, 350, 351. - Gwri of the Golden Hair, 287. - Gwrnach the Giant, 346, 348. - Gwyar, wife of Lludd, 323, 338, 369. - Gwyddneu Garanhir, his dialogue with Gwyn, 255-258; - his magic basket, 346. - Gwyddolwyn Gorr, the magic bottles of, 346. - Gwydion son of Dôn, the British Mercury, 260-268, 305, 306, 308-311, - 316, 317, 322, 327, 330, 335, 358, 360, 364, 371, 372, 373, 377; - druid of the gods, 260; - father of the sun-god, 261; - fights the “Battle of the Trees”, 306; - is the British equivalent of the Teutonic Woden, 260; - his place taken in later myth by Arthur, 316. - _Gwyl Awst_, the Welsh August festival, 409. - Gwyllion, 393. - Gwyn son of Nudd, British god of the Other World, 7, 254-259, 272, 313, - 315, 329, 332, 348, 359, 365, 371, 372, 376, 389-393, 405, 407; - attributes of, 255; - his dialogue with Gwyddneu Garanhir, 255-258; - contends with Gwyn for Lludd’s daughter Creudylad, 259; - is made warder of Hades, 254-255; - prominent in the Arthur legend, 359; - becomes king of the Welsh fairies, 392; - his interview with Saint Collen, 389-391. - Gwynas, Sir, 359. - Gwyngelli, a companion of Arthur, 352. - Gwynhwyvar, 315, 326, 331-333, 334, 364. - See Guinevere. - Gwynn Mygddwn, the horse of Gweddw, 347. - Gwynwas, a form of the name Gwyn, _q.v._, 332, 359. - Gwyrd Gwent, father of one of the three Gwynhwyvars, 331. - Gwyrthur, son of Greidawl, contends with Gwyn for Creudylad, 258, 259, - 348, 407; - father of one of the three Gwynhwyvars, 331. - - Hacket, Castle, 244. - Hades, the Celtic. See Other World, Celtic. - Hades, the Greek god, 152, 260. - “Hades, Head of”, a name given to Pwyll, 278, 282. - Hallowe’en, 40, 153, 407, 410. - Hamitic languages, 19. - “Happy Plain”, the, 133, 135, 186. - See Mag Mell. - Hare held sacred by the Ancient Britons, 417. - Harlech, 289, 294, 295, 296. - Harp of the Dagda, 54, 346; - of Angus, 56; - of Teirtu, 346. - Havgan, a king of Annwn, 279, 281. - Hawthorn, chief of Giants, father of Olwen, 340, 341, 343-345, 349, 353. - Heifer, a black-maned, called “Ocean”, 80, 117, 240; - the Morrígú takes the shape of a, 169-170. - Hengist, 325. - Henuinus, Duke of Cornwall, 382, 383. - Hephæstus, the Gaelic, 61, 63, 233. - Heracles, 158, 276. - Heré, 263. - Hereford, 299. - Hergest, the Red Book of, 11, 258, 260, 312, 328, 336, 369. - Herimon, 40. - See Eremon. - “Hero-light”, Cuchulainn’s, 177, 183. - “Hero’s salmon-leap”, Cuchulainn’s, 163. - Hesiod, 65. - Hesperides, garden of the. See Garden. - Hesus, a Gaulish god, 52. - Hevydd the Ancient, father of Rhiannon, 283, 285. - Hi Dorchaide, 70. - _Hibbert Lectures_ (for 1886) on _Celtic Heathendom_, Professor Rhys’s, - 41, 43, 48, 51, 54, 57, 59, 90, 120, 205, 238, 253, 254, 258, 262, - 264, 268, 271, 277, 282, 284, 307, 313, 318, 324, 325, 331, 377, 408. - Hill of Uisnech, 69, 324. - _Historia Britonum_ of Nennius, 9, 336; - of Geoffrey of Monmouth, 9, 251, 323, 324, 336, 372, 373, 374, 375, - 376, 381, 384, 386. - Hittites, the, 20. - Holy Families of Britain, the Three Chief, 386. - Holy Grail, the. See Grail. - Holy wells, 414-415. - Homeric and Celtic civilization compared, 25, 29. - Hoodie-crow, 52, 53, 169, 271. - Horse of Manannán mac Lir, 60, 88, 98; - of Gweddw, 347; - of Gwyn son of Nudd, 255, 256, 348. - “Hound of Culann”, the, 161, 166; - hound of Lugh, 63; - of the king of Ioruaidhé, 104; - hounds of Finn mac Coul, 213; - hounds of Celtic myth, 225, 280, 391, 392. - Hull, Miss Eleanor, her _Cuchullin Saga_, 155, 156, 159, 184, 190, 199, - 227. - Human sacrifices of the Druids, 37, 38; - to Cromm Cruaich, 38, 39, 40, 400; - symbolical, 405, 410, 411. - Huon of Bordeaux, Sir, 7. - Huxley, Professor, 19. - Hy-Breasail, 133. - - Iberians, the, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 35, 68, 69, 70, 76, 230, 248, 278; - their physique, 19; - language, 19; - original home, 19; - state of culture, 20; - gods, 43, 44, 64. - Iddawc, the Agitator of Britain, 337, 338. - Ilbhreach, son of Manannán, 136, 140, 211, 222. - Iliad, the, 75, 156. - Illann the Fair, son of Fergus mac Roy, 193, 196-198. - “Illusion, the Land of”, an old name for Dyfed, 279. - Indech, son of Domnu, a king of the Fomors, 48, 70, 83, 90, 108, 112. - Inniskea, the Lonely Crane of, 146; - stone worship in, 415. - _Invasions, the Book of_, 121. - _Ioldanach_, the “Master of All Arts”, a title of Lugh, 63, 85, 237, - 239. - Iolo Morganwg, bardic name of Mr. Edward Williams, 372. - _Iolo MSS._, the, 269, 270, 372, 373, 387, 388, 389. - Iona, Adamnan, Abbot of, 401. - Ioruaidhe, 96, 97, 104. - Ireland, old names of, 125, 126, 150. - See also Iweridd. - Iseult, wife of King Mark, 327, 338. - Island, submarine, 97, 104. - “Island of the Mighty”, a bardic name for Britain, 292. - Islands, sacred, 326. - Ith, 121, 122; - Ith’s Plain, 66, 122. - Iuchar, son of Tuirenn, 90-106. - Iucharba, son of Tuirenn, 90-106. - Iweridd, _i.e._ “Ireland”, wife of the British sea-god Llyr, 258, 270, - 271. - - Janus, 383. - Javelin, Red, one of Manannán’s spears, 60, 217. - John, Feast of Saint, 245, 407, 411. - Jones, the Rev. Edward, on apparitions, 391. - Joseph of Arimathea, 358, 359, 366. - Jubainville, M. H. d’Arbois de, 25, 34, 37, 48, 54, 67, 68, 72, 77, 78, - 107, 120, 124, 128, 132, 158, 188, 202. - Judgment of Amergin, the, 127. - Julius Caesar, see Caesar. - - Kacmwri, the servant of Arthur, 352, 353. - Kaerlud, 376. - Kai, 326, 327, 338, 343, 348, 349, 350, 351. - Karitia, see Calais. - Kay, Sir, 6, 326. - “Keening” invented, 110. - Kelli Wic, 334. - _Keltic Researches_, Mr. Nicholson’s, 3. - Kenmare, river, 121. - Kicva, wife of Pryderi, 289-301. - Kildare, shrine of St. Bridget at, 228. - Killaraus, Mount, 324. - Killarney, Lake, 223, 247. - “Kingly Castle”, see Caer Rigor. - Kirwans of Castle Hacket, the, 244. - Knights, King Arthur’s, 6, 7, 8, 155, 251, 274, 358, 371. - Knockainy, 245. - Knockers, 393, 403. - Knockma, fairy hill of, 136, 243, 244. - Knockthierna, 247. - Knowth, 137, 138. - Kulhwch, 340, 341, 343, 344, 345, 347, 353. - _Kulhwch and Olwen_, the tale of, 258, 259, 260, 313, 321, 327, 339, - 340-353, 369, 407. - Kyndellig, 343. - Kynedyr Wyllt, 348, 352. - - Labhra, Mider’s leech, 213. - Labraid of the Quick Hand on Sword, 202. - Lady of the Lake, 361. - Laeg, Cuchulainn’s charioteer, 169, 181, 182, 186. - Laegaire the Battle-winner, 163. - Lakes, twelve chief, of Ireland, 88. - Lamias, 403. - Lammas, 407. - Land of Illusion, 279; - of Happiness, 119, 133; - of the Living, 133, 335; - of Promise, 133, 217, 337; - of Summer, 119, 329; - of the Young, 133, 225. - Laon, 277. - Larminie, Mr. William, 233. - Launcelot, Sir, 7, 328, 333, 358, 359, 362, 365. - _Lear, King_, Shakespeare’s, 5, 7, 259, 270, 381. - Lecan, the Book of, 10, 38, 123, 229; - the Yellow Book of, 10, 164. - Leicester, 270, 383. - Leinster, 179, 189. - Leinster, Mount, 140, 211, 212. - Leinster, the Book of, 10, 38, 55, 56, 121, 132, 139, 155, 156, 157, - 190, 199, 204, 229. - Leir, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s King, 381-383. - Leodogrance, father of Guinevere, 357. - Leprechaun, 247, 248, 393, 403. - Lêr, the Gaelic sea-god, 60, 140, 142-144, 146, 205, 211, 212, 222, 252, - 269; - his rebellion against Bodb the Red, 140; - their reconciliation, 142; - the fate of the children of, 142-146; - is killed by the Fenian hero Caoilté, 146, 222. - Levarcham, 196. - Leyden, 277. - _Lia Fáil_, see Stone of Destiny. - Liban, 186, 202. - Lismore, the Book of, 10. - _Lla Lluanys_, the Manx August festival, 409. - Llacheu, son of Arthur, 258, 326. - Llandwynwyn, the church of Dwynwyn (Branwen), in Anglesey, 388. - Lleminawg, 319. - Lleu (Llew) Llaw Gyffes, the British sun-god, 261-268, 276, 305, 306, - 322, 323, 325, 330, 335, 360, 364, 369, 370; - his birth, 261; - and naming, 263; - takes part in the Battle of the Trees, 306; - is changed into an eagle, 266; - his place taken in later myth by Gwalchmei, 323; - and in the Arthurian legend by Sir Gawain, 360. - Llevelys, king of France, 378. - Lloegyr (Loegria), Saxon Britain, 258, 299, 300, 384. - Lludd Llaw Ereint, the British Zeus, 252, 253, 254, 259, 312, 315, 323, - 329, 332, 350, 359, 364, 375-381, 407; - his wife Gwyar, 323; - puts an end to the “Three Plagues of Britain”, 377-380; - founds London, 376; - appears in the Morte Darthur as King Lot of Orkney, 359. - Llwyd, son of Kilcoed, avenges Gwawl, son of Clûd, 303, 304. - Llwyr, son of Llwyrion, the magic vessel of, 346. - Llyn Llyw, the salmon of, 350. - Llyr, the British sea-god, 252, 259, 269, 270, 271, 273, 289, 290, 304, - 313, 316, 338, 381, 383, 386; - possibly borrowed from the Gaels, 270; - becomes the “King Leir” of Geoffrey of Monmouth, 381; - and the “King Lear” of Shakespeare, 270, 381; - founds a family of saints, 386; - his tomb or temple at Leicester, 383. - Llyr-cestre, 270, 283. - _Llys Dôn_, 252, 317. - Llywarch Hên, a sixth-century British poet, 11. - Loch, a warrior slain by Cuchulainn, 169-170. - Lochlann (Lochlin), 97, 205, 372; - Lochlannach, the, 205, 211. - London, 294, 296, 376, 377. - Londres, 376. - Lot or Loth, king of Orkney, 359, 364, 375. - Loucetius, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275. - _Lough Corrib, its Shores and Islands_, Sir William Wilde’s, 76. - Lough Gur, 246. - Lucan, the Roman poet, 52. - Luchtainé, the carpenter of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 61, 84, 86, 109. - Lud, king of Britain, 5, 7, 376-381. - Ludesgata, Ludgate, 5, 254, 376. - Lugaid, son of Curoi, 179, 182, 183. - Lugh Lamhfada, the Gaelic sun-god, 62-63, 84-90, 93-97, 103, 105, 106, - 111-113, 115-117, 136, 139, 156, 157, 160, 170, 201, 230, 233, - 238-240, 262, 276, 325, 339, 344, 345, 370, 371; - his spear, 63, 71, 97; - his hound, 63, 97; - his rod-sling and chain, 62; - his first appearance at Tara, 84; - gains the title of _Ioldanach_, 85; - avenges his father’s murder upon the sons of Tuirenn, 94-106; - leads the Tuatha Dé Danann against the Fomors, 111; - prophecies to Conn the Hundred Fighter, 201. - _Lugnassad_, “Lugh’s Commemoration”, 277, 409. - _Lugudunum_, “town of Lugus”, 277, 409. - Lugus, the Gaulish sun-god, 42, 276, 409. - Lundy Island, 272, 322. - Lydney, temple of Nodens at, 254; - monograph upon it, 254. - Lyons, 277, 409. - - Mab, Queen, 246. - Mabinogi, the Four Branches of the, 14, 15, 355. - Mabinogion, 12, 14, 16, 356, 372, 377, 403, 407. - See also Guest, Lady Charlotte. - Mabon, a British sun-god, 276, 328, 330, 335, 338, 347, 349-352, 387. - Macaulay, 22. - Mac Cecht, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 122, 125, 126, 130. - Mac Cuill, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 122, 125, 126, 130. - Mac Gee, Thomas D’Arcy, 232. - Mac Greiné, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 122, 125, 126, 130. - Mac Kineely, 238-239. - Mac Moineanta, a king of the Irish fairies, 242. - Mac Nia, an old Irish poet, 138. - _Mac Oc_, “Son of the Young”, a title of Angus, 56, 139. - MacPherson’s _Ossian_, 203. - Mac Samthainn, 238. - Macha, a war-goddess of the Gaels, 52, 72, 112; - meaning of her name, 52; - “Macha’s acorn-crop”, 53; - is killed by Balor, 112. - Macleod, Miss Fiona, 241. - Maelmuiri, scribe of the Book of the Dun Cow, 10. - Maelon, 388. - Maenor Alun, 310; - Maenor Penarth, 310. - Maen Tyriawc, the grave of Pryderi, 311. - Maglaunus, Duke of Albania, 382, 383. - _Mag Mell_, the “Happy Plain”, a name for the Celtic Elysium, 133, 135. - _Mag Mon_, the “Plain of Sports”, a name for the Celtic Elysium, 134. - Mag Slecht, human sacrifices at, 38-40, 132, 154. - Mag Tuireadh, see Moytura. - Magog, 229. - Malory, Sir Thomas, 323, 328, 330, 333, 354-357, 359-364, 367, 368. - Malvasius, king of Iceland, 376. - Man, Isle of, 23, 24, 57, 60, 175, 241, 261, 272, 273, 408, 409. - Manannán son of Lêr, a Gaelic god, 60-61, 89, 98, 129, 134, 136, 140, - 143, 157, 186, 188, 199, 202, 203, 205, 217, 224, 233, 235-237, 239, - 240-242, 270, 371, 405; - his armour, 60, 88; - weapons, 60, 217; - horse, 60, 89, 98; - mantle, 61, 129, 188, 217, 221; - pigs, 61, 98; - his “Feast of Age”, 61, 143; - lord of the Celtic Paradise, 134; - his wife Fand in love with Cuchulainn, 186-188; - his friendship with Cormac, king of Ireland, 203; - his message to Saint Columba, 240-241; - his connection with the Isle of Man, 60, 241-242. - Manawyddan son of Llyr, his British analogue, 270, 271, 273, 289, 290, - 293, 294, 296, 298-304, 313, 315, 317, 321, 338, 352, 373; - his attributes, 270-271; - accompanies Brân to Ireland, 289-294; - marries Rhiannon, 298; - defeats the magic of Llwyd, son of Kilcoed, 301-304; - constructs the bone-prison of Oeth and Anoeth, 270; - helps Arthur in the chase of Twrch Trwyth, 352. - Maponos, a Gallo-British sun-god, 276, 328. - March, a British god of the Under World, 316, 327, 329, 335, 338. - Mark, King, 327, 328. - Mars, 51, 204. - “Master of All Arts”, see _Ioldanach_. - Mâth, a British god, brother to Dôn, 260, 265, 266, 268, 308, 310, 322, - 329, 360, 361, 364; - meaning of his name, 260; - teaches magic to Gwydion, 260; - rules from Caer Dathyl, 308; - compared with Merlin, 360, 361, 362. - Matholwch, king of Ireland, 289-293. - Mâthonwy, father of Mâth, 260, 308. - _Matière de Bretagne_, the, 363, 365. - Matthew Arnold, 3, 16, 356. - May Day, 123, 259, 287, 407. - May Eve, 377, 407. - Maypole, 408. - Meadha, the _sídh_ of, 136, 212, 243. - Meath, 179. - Medb, queen of Connaught, 147, 154, 164-168, 170, 171, 172, 175, 178, - 179, 183, 200, 246; - makes war on Ulster to get the Brown Bull of Cualgne, 165-166; - becomes a fairy queen, 246; - is perhaps the original of “Queen Mab”, 246. - Mediterranean race, 19; - _Mediterranean Race, The_, Prof. Sergi’s, 20. - Medrawt, 315, 323, 332, 333, 334, 337, 360, 364. - Meleaus, or Melias, de Lile, Sir, 359. - Melga, king of the Picts, 375. - Meliagaunce, or Meliagraunce, Sir, 359, 365, 407. - Melwas, 329, 332, 359, 365, 407. - Menai Straits, the, 262, 264. - Menw, 343, 344, 351. - Mercurius Artaius, a Gallo-Roman god, 274, 313. - Mercury, 274, 313. - Merlin, 324, 325, 339, 360, 361, 364. - See Myrddin. - Mesgegra, king of Leinster, 147, 154. - Meyer, Dr. Kuno, 38, 134, 154, 184, 190. - Miach, son of Diancecht, 62, 80-82, 232. - Midas, the British, 328. - Mider, Gaelic god of the Under World, 56, 57, 117, 136, 140, 142, - 147-151, 154, 157, 175, 179, 205, 211-213, 224, 243, 331-333; - rebels against Bodb the Red, 140; - gambles with Eochaid Airem for possession of Etain, 149; - is besieged in his _sídh_, and helped by the Fenians, 211-213. - Midsummer Day, 75, 406, 407. - Midsummer Eve, 242. - Milé, the ancestor of the Gaels, 122, 123, 126, 129, 130, 132, 146, 153. - Milesians, the, 76, 125-127, 129, 145, 153, 229, 230, 243. - “Milky Way”, the, 62, 253, 268. - Minerva, 275, 277, 413. - Minos, 153. - Miodhchaoin, 97, 105, 106. - Mistletoe, 18, 33. - Mithras, a Persian sun-god worshipped at York, 275. - Mochdrev, 310. - Mochnant, 310. - Modron, wife of Urien and mother of Mabon, 328, 338. - Mona, see Anglesey. - Mongan, an Ulster prince, a reincarnation of Finn mac Coul, 37. - Monmouth, Geoffrey of. See Geoffrey. - Morc, son of Dela, a king of the Fomors, 67, 327. - Mordred, Sir, 315, 334, 360, 364, 374, 375. - Morgawse, sister to Arthur, 323. - Morrígú, the, Gaelic goddess of war, 52, 53, 72, 87, 98, 107, 113, 117, - 139, 157, 168-170, 323; - description of, 52; - her dealings with Cuchulainn on the Táin Bó Chuailgne, 168-170. - Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory’s, 7, 272, 276, 323, 328, 334, 354, - 362, 364-368, 372, 407. - “Mound, Lord of the”, 41, 403. - Mountains of Ireland, the twelve chief, 87. - Mourie, “Saint”, 413. - Mouse, Manawyddan and the, 301-304. - Moyle, Sea of, 144, 145. - Moytura, Northern, Battle of, 11, 107-117, 157, 407; - Southern, Battle of, 72-77, 114. - Muirthemne, 90, 93, 166, 181. - Munster, 69, 164, 218, 244, 245. - Murias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 71, 72. - Mur y Castell, Lleu’s palace near Bala Lake, 265, 268. - Myrddin, a British Zeus, 323-325, 329, 360, 362, 369; - gave its first name to Britain, 323; - his wife Elen, 323; - his town Carmarthen, 324; - appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth and in the Morte Darthur as Merlin, - _q.v._ - Myrddin, a sixth-century British bard, 11. - Mythology, importance of, 1; - Greek, 1, 2, 4, 403; - Scandinavian, 3; - Celtic, its influence on English literature, 6, 7; - on mediæval chivalric romance, 184. - - Name, ancient British superstitions with regard to, 263. - _Names, Choice of_, The. See _Coir Anmann_. - Names, early of Britain, 292, 323; - of Ireland, 126, 150, 151. - Nant Call, 310. - Nant y Llew, 267. - Naoise, son of Usnach, 191-193, 195-198. - Narberth, 279, 281, 282, 283, 288, 298, 300. - Navan Fort, 158. - Neamhuainn, Clann, 216, 218. - Neath, Vale of, 255, 335, 392. - Nedd, river, 405. - Neevougi, a stone worshipped at Inniskea, 415. - Nemed, 67-69, 274; - the race of, 229, 230, 327, 406. - Nemetona, a war-goddess worshipped at Bath, 275, 276. - Nemon, a Gaelic war-goddess, wife of Nuada, 52, 276. - Nennius, his _History of the Britons_, 9, 336. - Nentres, King, 357, 362. - Nereids, 403. - Nêt, an Iberian god, 64. - New Grange, 137-139. - Nia, the Plain of, 73. - Niamh of the Golden Hair, daughter of Manannán, 223-225. - Nicholson’s _Keltic Researches_, 3. - _Niebelungenlied_, 393. - Nimue, 358, 361, 362. - Nissyen, son of Penardun, 290, 293. - Niul, 120. - Noah, descent of the Gaelic gods and men from, 329. - Nodens, a temple to, at Lydney, 253. - “Northern Crown”, constellation of the, 252. - _Nos galan-gaeof_, the Welsh winter festival, 408. - Nuada of the Silver Hand, a Gaelic Zeus, 51, 52, 74, 75, 78, 80, 81, - 83-86, 93, 94, 105, 122, 157, 230, 253, 276, 323; - his sword, 51, 71; - his wives, 52; - his hand cut off in battle, 75; - a silver hand made for him by Diancecht, 78; - his own hand renewed by Miach and Airmid, 81; - his death at the hands of Balor, 112; - his tomb at Grianan Aileach, 122, 157. - Nudd, British god, 252, 253, 254, 313; - to be identified with Lludd, _q.v._ - Nutt, Mr. Alfred, 12, 37, 38, 134, 154, 158, 164, 318, 348. - Nwyvre, 322, 364. - Nynniaw, son of Beli, 268, 269, 313. - - Oak, held sacred by the Druids, 33. - Oberon, 7, 392. - “Ocean”, a black-maned heifer called, 80, 240. - Ochall Ochne, king of the Sídhe of Connaught, 164. - Ochren, battle of, 305; - Caer, 320; - see Achren. - Octriallach, son of Indech, 110; - the “Cairn of Octriallach”, 110. - O’Curry, Eugene, 37, 56, 63, 72, 78, 89, 93, 111, 113, 137, 138, 146, - 151, 152, 155, 188, 201, 204. - Odin, 260. - O’Donaghue, the, 247. - O’Donovan, 238. - Oeth and Anoeth, the Bone-prison of, 270, 271, 317, 373. - O’Flynn, Eochaid, an old Irish poet, 231. - Ogam, writings in, 58, 93, 151, 189. - Ogma, Gaelic god of Literature and Eloquence, 57-60, 79, 80, 82, 84, 85, - 112, 116, 117, 122, 136, 139, 157, 276; - his wife and children, 57; - his epithets of “Cermait” and “Grianainech”, 57, 59; - his great strength, 59; - kills Indech in the battle of Moytura, 112; - inventor of the ogam alphabet, 58. - Ogmios, a Gaulish god, 276. - O’Grady, Standish Hayes, Mr., 28, 159, 201, 203, 205, 207, 213, 215, - 222. - Ogyrvran, a British god of the Under World, father of Gwynhwyvar, - 329-331, 357, 366. - O’Herlebys, wooden idol of the, 413. - Old Plain, the, 66. - Old Sarum, 29, 386. - Olwen, 340, 341, 343, 345, 353. - Onagh, queen of the Irish fairies, 243, 244. - _Origins of English History_, Mr. Elton’s, 6, 8, 25, 26, 70, 228, 327, - 413. - Orkneys, 386; - King Lot of Orkney, 359. - Oscar, son of Ossian, 208, 212, 217, 222, 246, 315. - Osla Big-Knife, 352, 353. - _Ossian_, MacPherson’s, 203. - Ossian, son of Finn mac Coul, 11, 208, 212, 214, 215, 217, 220, 223-227, - 246, 318, 337. - “Ossianic ballads”, 205, 208, 213; - Ossianic Society, see _Transactions_. - Other World, the Celtic, 65, 68, 71, 98, 119, 121, 133-136, 150, 151, - 175, 176, 201, 202, 203, 224, 252, 255, 270, 271, 272, 273, 278, 279, - 281, 305, 307, 316, 317, 318-322, 329, 334, 336, 366, 387, 389, 395; - different names of, 133, 318-320; - descriptions of, 136, 150-151, 224; - variously imagined as upon the sea, 202, 224, 272, 394; - under the sea, 305; - under the earth, 135-136; - upon earth, 271, 272, 273, 278, 279; - original abode of men, 119; - visited by Cuchulainn, 175-176, 186; - Conn, 201; - Connla, 202; - Ossian, 224; - Pwyll, 281; - Gwydion, 305; - Arthur, 317-320. - See also Annwn, Avilion, Happy Plain, Mag Mell, Mag Mon, Land of - Happiness, of the Living, of Promise, of Summer, of the Young. - Ousel of Cilgwri, 349. - Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, 393. - Owain, son of Urien, 328, 330; - Sir Owain, 363. - Owl, of Cwm Cawlwyd, 349; - Blodeuwedd changed into an, 268. - Ox, the brindled, 320, 321; - oxen, magic, 345. - Oxford, 379. - - Paradise, the Celtic. - See Other World, Celtic. - Parthludd, 254, 376. - Partholon, 65-68, 386; race of, 229, 230, 406. - Patrick, Saint, 8, 40, 41, 132, 145, 222, 225, 226, 227, 242, 401, 402. - Paul’s Cathedral, Saint, 254. - Pausanias’s _Description of Greece_, 36. - Pedigree of the gods, 229; - of Finn mac Coul, 204. - Pedryvan, Caer, 319, 356, 367. - Peel Castle, 242. - Peibaw, son of Beli, 268, 269, 313. - Pelasgoi, 20. - Peleur, King, 368. - Pellam, King, 358, 364. - Pellean, King, 358. - Pelleas, Sir, 358, 368; - _Pelleas and Ettarre_, Tennyson’s Idyll of, 358. - Pelles, King, 357, 362, 367. - Pellinore, King, 362. - _Pembroke, County Guardian_, the, 394. - Pembrokeshire, 273, 278, 394. - _Pen Annwn_, the “Head of Hades”, a title of Pwyll, 278, 282. - Penardun, daughter of Beli and wife of Llyr, 269, 270, 289, 290, 293. - Pendaran Dyfed, 288, 295. - Pendragon, meaning of the word, 330. - Pennant, 409. - Percivale, Sir, 359, 363, 368, 369. - Peredur, 330, 368, 369. - Perilous glens, the, 163. - Persephoné, the British, 259, 260. - Persia, 274; - Pisear, king of, 96, 97, 101-103. - Petrie, Dr., 72, 98, 114. - Picts, 23, 230, 401, 417. - Pigs, in the Celtic Other World, 136; - of Manannán, 61, 63; - of Easal, king of the Golden Pillars, 96, 97, 103; - of Pryderi, 308, 316, 327; - of March, 316, 327; - of Angus, 214; - Cian changed into a pig, 91. - Pigskin of King Tuis, the, 96, 99, 100. - Pillars, king of the Golden. See Easal. - Pisear, king of Persia, 96, 97, 101-103. - Pixies, 393. - Plain of Ill Luck, 163; - of the Sea, 72; - of Adoration, 38; - the Old, 66. - Pliny, 33, 35, 400. - Plutarch, 326. - Pluto, the Gaelic, 57; - the Cambrian, 260. - Poetry, the Gaelic goddess of, 56; - cauldron of inspiration and, 365-370. - Policy of the Christian Church towards objects of pagan worship, 417. - Pookas, 247, 248, 393, 403, 405. - Porsena, a Roman consul, 385. - Poseidon, 52, 260; - the Gaelic, 60; - the British, 269. - Posidonius, 26. - Prophecy of Badb, 117-118; - of Eriu, 125-126; - of the seeress to Queen Medb, 166; - of Lugh to Conn the Hundred-Fighter, 201-202; - of Cathbad concerning Cuchulainn, 161; - concerning Deirdre, 190-191. - Pryderi, son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, 273, 286-288, 289, 294, 295, - 298-301, 303-305, 308, 309-311, 313, 315, 316, 319, 321, 327, 335, - 358, 364, 366, 368, 377, 407; - is stolen at birth, 286; - meaning of his name, 288; - accompanies Brân to Ireland, 289-294; - is spirited away by Llwyd and recovered by Manawyddan, 300-304; - receives a present of pigs from Annwn, 308; - is killed by Gwydion, 311; - appears in Arthurian legend, 358. - Prydwen, Arthur’s ship, 319, 320, 352. - Puck, 393. - Puffin Island, 322. - _Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne, The_, 215-221. - Pwccas, 393. - Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed and “Head of Annwn”, 273, 274, 278-288, 298, 303, - 304, 305, 308, 316, 319, 329, 357-358, 366, 367, 380; - changes shapes with Arawn, king of Annwn, 281; - his wooing of Rhiannon, 282-286; - is owner of a magic cauldron in Hades, 321; - and keeper of the Holy Grail in the Morte Darthur, 357-358. - Pwynt Maen Dulan, 262. - - Queen Guinevere, 315, 334, 357, 359, 365, 375, 407. - “Queen Mab”, 246. - Queen of the Irish fairies, 243, 244; - of the fairies of Munster, 244; - of the fairies of North Munster, 244; - of the fairies of South Munster, 244. - _Queene, The Fairie_, Spenser’s, 7. - Quicken-tree, the magic, 219. - - Races of Britain, the, 19-21. - Rathconrath, 69. - “Realm of Glamour, The”, a name for Dyfed, 279. - Re-birth of Cuchulainn, 37; - of Finn mac Coul, 37. - Red Book of Hergest, see Hergest. - Red Branch Champions of Ulster, the, 4, 147, 157, 167, 183, 191, 192, - 204, 227, 314. - Red Branch House, the, 29, 196, 197. - Red Dragon of Britain, the, 378. - Redynvre, the stag of, 349. - Regan, daughter of King Leir, 381, 382. - Religion, Aryan, 32, 47. - Retaliator, the, the sword of Manannán mac Lir, 60, 198. - Revelry, the Castle of, 319, 366. - Revolving Castle, the, 319, 366. - _Revue Celtique_, 40, 53, 78, 107, 117, 142, 158, 184, 190, 201, 241, - 246. - Rhiannon, a British goddess, 273, 282-288, 298, 300, 301, 303, 304, 358, - 361, 362, 407; - her three magic birds, 273, 294, 296; - her name afterwards corrupted into Nimue and Vivien, 358, 361. - Rhinnon Rhin Barnawd, the magic bottles of, 346. - Rhonabwy, 336, 337, 338; - The _Dream of Rhonabwy_, 312, 337, 338. - Rhyd y Groes, a ford on the Severn, 337. - Rhys, Professor, 22, 23, 35, 41, 44, 64, 68, 158, 205, 254, 256, 262, - 282, 289, 307, 313, 316, 318, 319, 324, 331, 335, 352, 363, 370, 395, - 404, 413, 414. - See also _Arthurian Legend_ and _Hibbert Lectures_. - Ri, Roi, an Iberian god, 64. - Ribble, the river, 413, 414. - Riches, the Castle of, 367. - Rience, King, 357. - Rigor, Caer, 319. - Rigosamos, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275. - Ritual, remains of Celtic, 405-412. - Rivers, the twelve chief, of Ireland, 88. - Rivers, the worship of, 413, 414. - Rodrubân, the _sídh_ of Lugh, 136. - Romans, the, 23, 24, 25, 373, 385, 386, 399, 413. - Rome, 5, 155, 274, 315, 317. - Ronan, Clann, 218. - Round Table, King Arthur’s, 6, 314. - “Round Towers”, the, attributed to Goibniu, 233. - Rowan-tree, 219, 410. - Ruadan, son of Bress and Brigit, 109-110. - _Rude Stone Monuments_, Fergusson’s, 76, 114, 137, 138. - Ryons, King, 357. - - Sacred animals, 406, 416, 417; - islands, 326; - fish, 416; - frogs, 416; - stones, 406, 415, 417; - trees, 406, 415; - wells, 414-416. - Sacrifices of animals, 406, 412; - human, 18, 37-40, 399; - symbolical human sacrifices, 405, 410, 411. - Sadb, daughter of Bodb the Red, and mother of Ossian, 208. - “Sage’s seat”, the, 85, 86. - St. Catherine’s Hill, 29; - St. George’s Hill, 29. - St. Gall MS., the, 232. - Saints, transformation of Celtic gods into, 6, 228, 229, 372, 386, 389. - Salisbury Plain, 325. - Salmon of Knowledge, the, 55, 210; - of Llyn Llyw, 350. - Samhain, the Celtic winter festival, 40, 42, 67, 107, 108, 286, 406, - 407, 408, 410, 411. - _Samhanach_, 408. - Sarn Elen, 324. - Sarrlog, 386; - Caer Sarrlog, 386. - Satires, magical, 83, 87, 172, 182. - Scathach the Amazon, 163, 164, 172, 173, 176. - Scêné, the river, 121. - Scot, Eber, a mythical ancestor of the Gaels, 120. - Scota, 120. - Scotti, 357. - Sea, Celtic ideas regarding the, 48, 261, 270. - _Second Battle of Moytura, The_, the Harleian MS. called, 50, 54, 72, - 78, 107. - _Seint Greal_, the, 322, 326, 368. - Senchan Torpeist, 14. - _Sen Mag_, see Old Plain. - Serapis worshipped at York, 275. - Setanta, original name of Cuchulainn, 160, 161. - Severn, the river, 254, 337, 350, 352, 353. - Sgeolan, one of Finn’s hounds, 213. - “Shadowy Town, or City”, 175, 366. - Shakespeare, 5, 259, 270, 381, 393, 408. - Shannon, the river, 88, 165, 292. - “Shape-shifting”, 37. - Sharvan the Surly, 219. - Shield, Conchobar’s magic, 197. - Shony, a Hebridean sea-god, 410. - Shouts on a hill, the three, 94, 97, 105, 106. - Sicily, 96, 102. - _Sídh_ Airceltrai, 136; - Bodb, 136; - Eas Aedha Ruaidh, 136; - Fionnachaidh, 136, 140, 142, 146, 222; - Meadha, 136, 243; - Rodrubân, 136. - _Sídhe_, “fairy mounds”, 135, 136, 139, 181. - _Sídhe, The_, the Gaelic gods, or fairies, 136, 223, 244, 246. - Sidi, Caer, 319, 321, 322, 368. - Silures, tribe of the, 22. - Silurian race, the, 19. - Silver Hand, Nuada’s, 51, 78, 81, 253; - Lludd’s, 253. - Sinann, goddess of the Shannon, 56. - Skene, Dr. W. F., 71, 123, 256, 258, 311, 312, 316, 317, 319, 328, 334. - Skye, Isle of, 163. - Slecht, Mag. See Mag Slecht. - Slieve Bloom, 209; - Slieve Fuad, 136; - Slieve Mish, 130. - Smallpox, goddess of the, 413. - Snowdon, 267, 305, 335, 380. - Sol Apollo Anicetus, a sun-god worshipped at Bath, 275. - Solar festivals of the Celts, 41, 405-412. - Solinus, Caius Julius, 228. - Somerset, 329. - “Son of the Young”, see Mac Oc. - Sore, the river, 383. - _Sorrowful Stories of Erin, The Three_, 106. - Spain, 22, 121; - used as an euphemism for the Celtic Other World, 68, 120, 121, 230, - 386. - Spear of Lugh, 62, 97; - of Pisear, king of Persia, 96, 97, 101, 103. - “Spearman with the Long Shaft”, 369. - Speech, Aryan, 21, 31. - Spenser, 7, 389. - Spey, the river, 414. - “Splendid Mane”, the horse of Manannán mac Lir, 60, 88, 98. - _Spoiling of Annwn, The_, a poem of Taliesin, 306, 317-321, 366. - “Spring of Health”, the, 110. - Sreng, a warrior of the Fir Bolgs, 75. - Stag of Redynvre, the, 349. - Stokes, Dr. Whitley, 40, 50, 72, 78, 107, 152, 190, 203, 417. - Stone, Black, of Arddhu, 305; - Coronation, 71; - of Destiny, 72; - of Kineely, 239. - Stones, worship of, 406, 415. - Stonehenge, 42, 324, 325. - Strabo, 22, 399. - Strachey, Sir Edward, 356. - _Study of Celtic Literature_, Matthew Arnold’s, 3, 16, 356. - Sualtam, the mortal father of Cuchulainn, 159, 160, 173, 174. - Suir, the river, 165. - Sul, a goddess worshipped at Bath, 228, 275. - “Summer, the Land of”, _i.e._ the Celtic Other World, 119, 329. - Sun, worship of the, 41, 42; - Cuchulainn a personification of the, 158-159. - Swans, Caer and Angus take the forms of, 141-142; - the children of Lêr changed into, 143; - Mider and Etain become, 151. - Sword, of Manannán, 60, 198; - of Nuada, 51; - of Gwrnach the Giant, 346, 348. - Swinburne, 6. - Swineherds, the rival, 164-165. - - Table Round, the, 6, 354, 371. - Taboos, Celtic. See Destiny, _Geasa_. - Tacitus, 22, 24, 387, 400. - Tailtiu, the Gaelic gods defeated by the Milesians at, 130. - _Táin Bó Chuailgné_, 10, 14, 28, 159, 164, 175. - Taliesin, 11, 123, 124, 261, 271, 273, 294, 296, 306, 317, 318, 320, - 321, 328, 356, 366, 367. - Taliesin, the Book of, 11, 123, 261, 271, 273, 306, 317, 318, 321, 328. - Tallacht, burial-place of Partholon’s people, 66. - Tara, 29, 72, 84, 93, 98, 105, 125, 126, 129, 147, 153, 189, 190, 216, - 230. - Taran, 294. - Taranis, 294. - _Tathlum_, a sling-stone, 112, 113. - Tawë, a river in South Wales, sacred to Gwyn ap Nudd, 257, 279, 392, - 405. - Tegla’s well, Saint, 415. - Teirnyon Twryf Vliant, 287, 288, 358, 407. - Teirtu, the harp of, 346. - Telltown, see Tailtiu. - Temple of Nodens at Lydney, 253-254; - St. Paul’s cathedral occupying the site of a, 254; - sacrifices of cattle on the site of a, 413; - ancient British temples still standing in the sixth century, 400. - Tennyson, 6, 133, 260, 274, 297, 312, 354, 355, 358, 361, 362. - “Terrace cultivation”, 20. - “Terrestrial gods and goddesses”, 156. - “Terrible Broom, The”, name of the banner of Oscar’s battalion, 209. - Tethra, a king of the Fomors, 83, 90. - Teutates, a god of the Gauls, 51, 52. - Thames, the river, 254. - Theseus, 153. - Thirteen Treasures of Britain, the, 313, 326, 339, 340. - Three Birds of Rhiannon, the, 273, 94, 296. - Three Chief Holy Families of Britain, 386. - Three Counselling Knights of Arthur, 312. - Three Cows of Mider, 57, 176. - Three Cranes of Denial and Churlishness, 57. - Three Criminal Resolutions of Britain, 334. - Three Etains, 331. - Three Frivolous Battles of Britain, 334. - Three Generous Heroes of Britain, 253. - Three Gwynhwyvars, 333. - Three Paramount Prisoners of Britain, 350-351. - Three Plagues of Britain, 253, 377-380. - Three shouts on a hill, 94, 97, 105, 106. - Three Sorrowful Stories of Erin, 106. - Three War-knights of Arthur, 312. - Three Wicked Uncoverings of Britain, 297. - Tiberius, the Emperor, 400. - Tigernmas, a mythical Irish king, 153-154. - Tighernach, an old Irish chronicler, 204. - _Tir nam beo_, see Land of the Living. - _Tir nan og_, see Land of the Young. - _Tir Tairngiré_, see Land of Promise. - Titania, 393. - Tomb of the Dagda, 138. - Tombs of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 138-139. - Torpeist, Senchan. See Senchan. - Tory Island, 49, 67, 238. - Toutates, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275. - Tower Hill, Brân’s head buried at, 294, 296, 331. - _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_, 124, 127, 128, 201, 203, 211, - 213, 215, 223, 226. - Transmigration of souls, 36; - of the swineherds, 164-165. - Treasures of Britain, the Thirteen, 313, 326, 339, 340. - Trees, the Battle of the, 123, 305-308. - Trees, worship of, 406. - Triads, 11, 253, 273, 331, 334, 350, 351. - Trim, 175. - Trinity Well, the source of the Boyne, 55. - Trinovantum, _i.e._ New Troy, a mythic name of London, 376, 385. - Tristrem, Sir, 6, 327, 363. - Trouveres, the, 363. - Troy, 374. - Tuatha Dé Danann, the gods of the ancient Gaels, 11, 17, 48, 50, 51, 58, - 59, 60, 65, 70-79, 82-86, 91, 95, 97, 104, 108-112, 114, 115, 117, - 123, 125, 126, 129, 132, 136-138, 140, 141, 145, 153, 154, 156, 157, - 205, 211, 214, 217, 219, 222, 225, 228, 229-231, 243, 246, 252, 269, - 276, 312, 330, 393, 403, 404, 406, 410; - their arrival in Ireland, 71, 72; - their battle with the Fomors, 108-117; - are conquered by the Milesians, 130; - retire into underground palaces, 135, 136; - and become the fairies of Irish belief, 137. - Tuirenn, son of Ogma, 57, 90, 106. - “Tuirenn, the Fate of the Sons of”, 90-106. - Tuis, king of Greece, 96, 98, 102. - “Turning Castle”, 322. - Tweed, the river, 23, 414. - Twr Branwen, 289. - Twrch Trwyth, the hunting of, 347-353. - _Tylwyth Teg_, the Welsh fairies, 255. - Tynwald Hill, 412. - Tyrian Hercules worshipped at Corbridge, 275. - - Uaman, _sídh_ of, 141. - Uaran Garad, spring of, 165. - Uffern, the “Cold Place”, a name for Annwn, 319. - Uisnech, the hill of, 69, 324. - Ulster, 29, 57, 64, 69, 76, 158, 164, 165, 166, 171, 174, 175, 180, 183, - 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 217, 245. - “Undry”, the name of the Dagda’s cauldron, 54, 366. - Unius, the river, 107. - Unsenn, the river, 112. - _Urddawl Ben_, see Venerable Head. - Urien, an Under World king, 328, 329, 357, 376; - Uriens, Urience, King, in the Morte Darthur, 357; - Urianus, King, in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _History_, 376. - Usnach, the sons of, 191-200. - _Uther Ben_, the “Wonderful Head”, a name for Brân, 296, 330, 356. - Uther Pendragon, Arthur’s father, 330, 356. - - Val des Fées, in the forest of Brécilien, 361. - Vandwy, Caer, 257, 320. - Varro, 26. - Vedwyd, Caer, 319. - “Venerable Head, The”, 296. - _Verses of the Graves of the Warriors, The_, 272, 311, 334. - “Victor, son of Scorcher”. See Gwyrthur, son of Greidawl. - _Vita Columbæ_, Adamnan’s, 401, 417. - Vivien, 358, 361. - - Wales, the Four Ancient Books of, 11, 15. - See Skene. - Walgan, 375. - Wall, Roman, 25, 273, 274, 400. - War-chariots, 27; - Cuchulainn’s, 28. - Warrefield, 242. - “Water-dress”, Brian’s, 104. - Waves, the Four, of Britain, 261. - “Wave-sweeper”, Manannán’s boat, 60, 98, 104. - Weapons of the Celts, 27. - Wells, worship of, 414, 415; - holy, 414. - Welsh fairies, 255, 392-394. - Westminster, 407; - Westminster Abbey, 71. - White Dragon of the Saxons, 378. - White-horned Bull of Connaught, 165, 175. - White Mount in London, see Tower Hill. - White-tusk, king of the Boars, 346, 349. - Wild Huntsman, the, 255. - Wilde, Sir William, his _Lough Corrib_, 76; - Lady Wilde’s _Ancient Legends of Ireland_, 243, 409. - Williams, Mr. Edward. See Iolo Morganwg. - Wish Hounds, the, 392. - Woden, 260. - Wolf, the Morrígú takes the shape of a, 170. - Women, position of, among the Celts, 30. - “Wonderful Head”, the, 296, 330. - “Wood of the Two Tents”, the, 216. - Wordsworth, 4, 5. - Wren, Lleu and the, 263; - a bird of augury among the druids, 417. - Wydyr, Caer, 320. - Wye, the river, 352. - - Yeats’, Mr., The _Wanderings of Oisin_, 223. - Yell, or Yeth, Hounds, the, 392. - Yellow Book of Lecan, the, 10, 164. - “Yellow Shaft”, one of Manannán’s spears, 60, 217. - Ynys Avallon, 329. - See Avilion, Glastonbury. - Ynys Branwen, 295. - Ynys Wair, 322. - See Lundy Island. - York, 275. - Young, Land of the, 133, 225; - Son of the, see Mac Oc. - Yspaddaden Penkawr, see Hawthorn, Chief of Giants. - - Zeus, 65, 260, 261; - the Gaelic, 41, 51, 253; - the British, 5, 324. - Zimmer, Professor, 152. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s note: - -Variations in accented characters have been retained. - -Format of the index has been regularised. - -Page 25, ‘Bellico’ changed to ‘Bello,’ “Caesar: De Bello Gallico” - -Page 34, ‘l’étude’ changed to ‘l’Étude,’ “Introduction à l’étude de la” - -Page 43, full stop inserted after ‘Pantheon”,’ ““The Gaulish Pantheon”.” - -Page 76, full stop inserted after ‘VIII,’ “William R. Wilde, chap. -VIII.” - -Page 84, double quote inserted after ‘Luchtainé,’ “his name is -Luchtainé.”” - -Page 88, double quote inserted after ‘it,’ “not be weary of it.”” - -Page 90, ‘daugher’ changed to ‘daughter,’ “the son of our daughter -Ethniu” - -Page 90, comma changed to full stop after ‘Dundalk,’ “Boyne and Dundalk. -The heroic” - -Page 94, double quote struck before ‘Then,’ “Then Nuada declared that” - -Page 146, ‘XIV’ changed to ‘XIV,’ “See chap. XIV” - -Page 187, double quote inserted before ‘for,’ “she said, “for I know” - -Page 192, double quote inserted after ‘King,’ “race as Conchobar the -King.”” - -Page 192, ‘”,’ changed to ‘,”,’ ““We ourselves,” replied” - -Page 206, ‘happend’ changed to ‘happened,’ “who happened to be assailed” - -Page 208, full stop inserted after ‘Cweeltia,’ “Pronounced Kylta or -Cweeltia.” - -Page 211, ‘Mannanán’ changed to ‘Manannán,’ “Ilbhreach son of Manannán, -and” - -Page 215, full stop inserted after ‘Society,’ “Transactions of the -Ossianic Society.” - -Page 238, ‘capure’ changed to ‘capture,’ “managed to capture Mac -Kineely” - -Page 241, ‘four-score’ changed to ‘fourscore,’ “man of fourscore years -would” - -Page 262, ‘Lamh-fada’ changed to ‘Lamhfada,’ “of the Gaelic Lugh -Lamhfada” - -Page 271, full stop inserted after ‘Vol,’ “of Wales, Vol. I” - -Page 292, full stop inserted after ‘Britain,’ “A bardic name for -Britain.” - -Page 304, double quote inserted after ‘Pryderi,’ “I see Rhiannon and -Pryderi.”” - -Page 316, full stop inserted after ‘it,’ “and could not get it.” - -Page 323, full stop inserted after ‘p,’ “Rhys: ibid., p. 169.” - -Page 366, full stop inserted after ‘Brân,’ “and the Beheading of Brân”.” - -Page 366, full stop inserted after ‘Chap,’ “Chap. XXI—“The Mythological” - -Page 375, full stop changed to comma after ‘Britonum,’ “Historia -Britonum, Books IX” - -Page 388, full stop inserted after ‘MSS,’ “Iolo MSS., p. 474.” - -Page 389, full stop inserted after ‘MSS,’ “Iolo MSS., p. 523.” - -Page 415, full stop inserted after ‘St,’ “were offered at St. Tegla’s -Well” - -Page 420, ‘homérique’ changed to ‘Homérique,’ “et celle de l’Épopée -Homérique” - -Page 420, ‘a’ changed to ‘à,’ “Introduction à l’Étude de la” - -Page 421, ‘Danaan’ changed to ‘Danann,’ “The story of the Tuatha Dé -Danann” - -Page 428, ‘Danaan’ changed to ‘Danann,’ “on the Tuatha Dé Danann” - -Page 430, ‘Dairé’ changed to ‘Daire,’ “Daire of Cualgne, owner of the -Brown Bull” - -Page 431, ‘Aeifé’ changed to ‘Aeife,’ ““Demon of the air”, Aeife changed -into a” - -Page 435, ‘226’ changed to ‘326,’ “Gwynhwyvar, 315, 326, 331-333, 334, -364.” - -Page 438, ‘Lochlannoch’ changed to ‘Lochlannach,’ “Lochlannach, the, -205, 211.” - -Page 442, ‘Porsenna’ changed to ‘Porsena,’ “Porsena, a Roman consul, -385.” - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mythology of the British Islands, by -Charles Squire - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGY *** - -***** This file should be named 54616-0.txt or 54616-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/6/1/54616/ - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet -Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Mythology of the British Islands - An Introduction to Celtic Myth, Legend, Poetry, and Romance - -Author: Charles Squire - -Release Date: April 27, 2017 [EBook #54616] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGY *** - - - - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet -Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div> - <h1 class='c000'>THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE<br />BRITISH ISLANDS</h1> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='xxlarge'>THE MYTHOLOGY</span></div> - <div><span class='xxlarge'>OF THE BRITISH</span></div> - <div><span class='xxlarge'>ISLANDS</span></div> - <div class='c001'>AN INTRODUCTION TO</div> - <div>CELTIC MYTH, LEGEND</div> - <div>POETRY, AND ROMANCE</div> - <div class='c001'>BY CHARLES SQUIRE</div> - <div class='c001'>LONDON: BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED</div> - <div>50 OLD BAILEY, E.C. GLASGOW AND</div> - <div>DUBLIN MCMV</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> - <h2 class='c003'>PREFACE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>This book is what its author believes to be the only attempt -yet made to put the English reader into possession, -in clear, compact, and what it is hoped may prove -agreeable, form, of the mythical, legendary, and poetic -traditions of the earliest inhabitants of our islands who -have left us written records—the Gaelic and the British -Celts. It is true that admirable translations and paraphrases -of much of Gaelic mythical saga have been recently -published, and that Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation of -the <i>Mabinogion</i> has been placed within the reach of the -least wealthy reader. But these books not merely each -cover a portion only of the whole ground, but, in addition, -contain little elucidatory matter. Their characters stand -isolated and unexplained; and the details that would explain -them must be sought for with considerable trouble -in the lectures and essays of scholars to learned societies. -The reader to whom this literature is entirely new is -introduced, as it were, to numerous people of whose antecedents -he knows nothing; and the effect is often disconcerting -enough to make him lay down the volume in -despair.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But here he will at last make the formal acquaintance -of all the chief characters of Celtic myth: of the Gaelic -gods and the giants against whom they struggled; of the -“Champions of the Red Branch” of Ulster, heroes of a -martial epopee almost worthy to be placed beside “the -tale of Troy divine”; and of Finn and his Fenians. He -will meet also with the divine and heroic personages of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>the ancient Britons: with their earliest gods, kin to the -members of the Gaelic Pantheon; as well as with Arthur -and his Knights, whom he will recognize as no mortal -champions, but belonging to the same mythic company. -Of all these mighty figures the histories will be briefly -recorded, from the time of their unquestioned godhood, -through their various transformations, to the last doubtful, -dying recognition of them in the present day, as “fairies”. -Thus the volume will form a kind of handbook to a subject -of growing importance—the so-called “Celtic Renaissance”, -which is, after all, no more—and, indeed, no less—than -an endeavour to refresh the vitality of English poetry at -its most ancient native fount.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The book does not, of course, profess to be for Celtic -scholars, to whom, indeed, its author himself owes all that -is within it. It aims only at interesting the reader familiar -with the mythologies of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia -in another, and a nearer, source of poetry. Its author’s -wish is to offer those who have fallen, or will fall, under -the attraction of Celtic legend and romance, just such a -volume as he himself would once have welcomed, and for -which he sought in vain. It is his hope that, in choosing -from the considerable, though scattered, translations and -commentaries of students of Old Gaelic and Old Welsh, -he has chosen wisely, and that his readers will be able, -should they wish, to use his book as a stepping-stone to -the authorities themselves. To that end it is wholly -directed; and its marginal notes and short bibliographical -appendix follow the same plan. They do not aspire to -anything like completeness, but only to point out the chief -sources from which he himself has drawn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>To acknowledge, as far as possible, such debts is now -the author’s pleasing duty. First and foremost, he has -relied upon the volumes of M. H. d’Arbois de Jubainville’s -<i>Cours de Littérature celtique</i>, and the Hibbert Lectures -for 1886 of John Rhys, Professor of Celtic in the University -<span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>of Oxford, with their sequel entitled <i>Studies in the -Arthurian Legend</i>. From the writings of Mr. Alfred Nutt -he has also obtained much help. With regard to direct -translations, it seems almost superfluous to refer to Lady -Charlotte Guest’s <i>Mabinogion</i> and Mr. W. F. Skene’s <i>Four -Ancient Books of Wales</i>, or to the work of such well-known -Gaelic scholars as Mr. Eugene O’Curry, Dr. Kuno Meyer, -Dr. Whitley Stokes, Dr. Ernest Windisch, Mr. Standish -Hayes O’Grady (to mention no others), as contained in -such publications as the <i>Revue Celtique</i>, the <i>Atlantis</i>, and -the <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>, in Mr. O’Grady’s -<i>Silva Gadelica</i>, Mr. Nutt’s <i>Voyage of Bran</i>, <i>Son of Febal</i>, -and Miss Hull’s <i>Cuchullin Saga</i>. But space is lacking to -do justice to all. The reader is referred to the marginal -notes and the Appendix for the works of these and other -authors, who will no doubt pardon the use made of their -researches to one whose sole object has been to gain a -larger audience for the studies they have most at heart.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Finally, perhaps, a word should be said upon that vexed -question, the transliteration of Gaelic. As yet there is -no universal or consistent method of spelling. The author -has therefore chosen the forms which seemed most familiar -to himself, hoping in that way to best serve the uses of -others.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='11%' /> -<col width='80%' /> -<col width='7%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='sc'>Chap.</span></td> - <td class='c007'> </td> - <td class='c008'>Page</td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>I.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Interest and Importance of Celtic Mythology</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>II.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Sources of our Knowledge of the Celtic Mythology</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_8'>8</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>III.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Who were the “Ancient Britons”?</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IV.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Religion of the Ancient Britons and Druidism</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td class='c009' colspan='3'>THE GAELIC GODS AND THEIR STORIES</td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>V.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Gods of the Gaels</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_47'>47</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VI.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Gods Arrive</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Rise of the Sun-God</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>VIII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Gaelic Argonauts</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>IX.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The War with the Giants</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>X.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Conquest of the Gods by Mortals</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_119'>119</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XI.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Gods in Exile</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_132'>132</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Irish Iliad</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Some Gaelic Love-Stories</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_184'>184</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XIV.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Finn and the Fenians</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_201'>201</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XV.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Decline and Fall of the Gods</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td class='c009' colspan='3'>THE BRITISH GODS AND THEIR STORIES</td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVI.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Gods of the Britons</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_251'>251</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Adventures of the Gods of Hades</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_278'>278</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XVIII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Wooing of Branwen and the Beheading of Brân</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_289'>289</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span>XIX.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The War of Enchantments</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_298'>298</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XX.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Victories of Light over Darkness</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_305'>305</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXI.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Mythological “Coming of Arthur”</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_312'>312</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Treasures of Britain</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_336'>336</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXIII.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Gods as King Arthur’s Knights</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_354'>354</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXIV.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>The Decline and Fall of the Gods</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_371'>371</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td class='c009' colspan='3'>SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM</td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'>XXV.</td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Survivals of the Celtic Paganism into Modern Times</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_399'>399</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Appendix</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_419'>419</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c006'> </td> - <td class='c007'><span class='sc'>Index</span></td> - <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_425'>425</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE<br />BRITISH ISLANDS</span></h2> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER I<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF CELTIC<br />MYTHOLOGY</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>It should hardly be necessary to remind the -reader of what profound interest and value to every -nation are its earliest legendary and poetical records. -The beautiful myths of Greece form a sufficing example. -In threefold manner, they have influenced -the destiny of the people that created them, and of -the country of which they were the imagined theatre. -First, in the ages in which they were still fresh, -belief and pride in them were powerful enough to -bring scattered tribes into confederation. Secondly, -they gave the inspiration to sculptor and poet of an -art and literature unsurpassed, if not unequalled, by -any other age or race. Lastly, when “the glory -that was Greece” had faded, and her people had, by -dint of successive invasions, perhaps even ceased -to have any right to call themselves Hellenes, they -have passed over into the literatures of the modern -<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>world, and so given to Greece herself a poetic -interest that still makes a petty kingdom of greater -account in the eyes of its compeers than many -others far superior to it in extent and resources.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This permeating influence of the Greek poetical -mythology, apparent in all civilized countries, has -acted especially upon our own. From almost the -very dawn of English literature, the Greek stories of -gods and heroes have formed a large part of the -stock-in-trade of English poets. The inhabitants of -Olympus occupy, under their better-known Latin -names, almost as great a space in English poetry as -they did in that of the countries to which they were -native. From Chaucer downwards, they have captivated -the imagination alike of the poets and their -hearers. The magic cauldron of classic myth fed, -like the Celtic “Grail”, all who came to it for -sustenance.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At last, however, its potency became somewhat -exhausted. Alien and exotic to English soil, it -degenerated slowly into a convention. In the -shallow hands of the poetasters of the eighteenth -century, its figures became mere puppets. With -every wood a “grove”, and every rustic maid a -“nymph”, one could only expect to find Venus -armed with patch and powder-puff, Mars shouldering -a musket, and Apollo inspiring the versifier’s own -trivial strains. The affectation killed—and fortunately -killed—a mode of expression which had become -obsolete. Smothered by just ridicule, and -abandoned to the commonplace vocabulary of the -inferior hack-writer, classic myth became a subject -<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>which only the greatest poets could afford to -handle.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But mythology is of such vital need to literature -that, deprived of the store of legend native to -southern Europe, imaginative writers looked for a -fresh impulse. They turned their eyes to the North. -Inspiration was sought, not from Olympus, but from -Asgard. Moreover, it was believed that the fount -of primeval poetry issuing from Scandinavian and -Teutonic myth was truly our own, and that we were -rightful heirs of it by reason of the Anglo-Saxon in -our blood. And so, indeed, we are; but it is not -our sole heritage. There must also run much Celtic—that -is, truly British—blood in our veins.<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c010'><sup>[1]</sup></a> And -Matthew Arnold was probably right in asserting -that, while we owe to the Anglo-Saxon the more -practical qualities that have built up the British -Empire, we have inherited from the Celtic side that -poetic vision which has made English literature the -most brilliant since the Greek.<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c010'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>We have the right, therefore, to enter upon a new -spiritual possession. And a splendid one it is! The -Celtic mythology has little of the heavy crudeness -that repels one in Teutonic and Scandinavian story. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>It is as beautiful and graceful as the Greek; and, -unlike the Greek, which is the reflection of a clime -and soil which few of us will ever see, it is our own. -Divinities should, surely, seem the inevitable outgrowth -of the land they move in! How strange -Apollo would appear, naked among icebergs, or fur-clad -Thor striding under groves of palms! But the -Celtic gods and heroes are the natural inhabitants of -a British landscape, not seeming foreign and out-of-place -in a scene where there is no vine or olive, but -“shading in with” our homely oak and bracken, -gorse and heath.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Thus we gain an altogether fresh interest in the -beautiful spots of our own islands, especially those -of the wilder and more mountainous west, where the -older inhabitants of the land lingered longest. Saxon -conquest obliterated much in Eastern Britain, and -changed more; but in the West of England, in -Wales, in Scotland, and especially in legend-haunted -Ireland, the hills and dales still keep memories of -the ancient gods of the ancient race. Here and -there in South Wales and the West of England are -regions—once mysterious and still romantic—which -the British Celts held to be the homes of gods or -outposts of the Other World. In Ireland, not only -is there scarcely a place that is not connected in some -way with the traditionary exploits of the “Red -Branch Champions”, or of Finn and his mighty men, -but the old deities are still remembered, dwarfed -into fairies, but keeping the same attributes and the -same names as of yore. Wordsworth’s complaint<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c010'><sup>[3]</sup></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>that, while Pelion and Ossa, Olympus and Parnassus -are “in immortal books enrolled”, not one English -mountain, “though round our sea-girt shore -they rise in crowds”, had been “by the Celestial -Muses glorified” doubtless seemed true to his own -generation. Thanks to the scholars who have unveiled -the ancient Gaelic and British mythologies, -it need not be so for ours. On Ludgate Hill, as -well as on many less famous eminences, once stood -the temple of the British Zeus. A mountain not -far from Bettws-y-Coed was the British Olympus, -the court and palace of our ancient gods.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It may well be doubted, however, whether Wordsworth’s -contemporaries would have welcomed the -mythology which was their own by right of birth -as a substitute for that of Greece and Rome. The -inspiration of classic culture, which Wordsworth was -one of the first to break with, was still powerful. -How some of its professors would have held their -sides and roared at the very notion of a British -mythology! Yet, all the time, it had long been -secretly leavening English ideas and ideals, none -the less potently because disguised under forms -which could be readily appreciated. Popular fancy -had rehabilitated the old gods, long banned by the -priests’ bell, book, and candle, under various disguises. -They still lived on in legend as kings of -ancient Britain reigning in a fabulous past anterior -to Julius Caesar—such were King Lud, founder of -London; King Lear, whose legend was immortalized -by Shakespeare; King Brennius, who conquered -Rome; as well as many others who will be found -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>filling parts in old drama. They still lived on as -long-dead saints of the early churches of Ireland -and Britain, whose wonderful attributes and adventures -are, in many cases, only those of their original -namesakes, the old gods, told afresh. And they still -lived on in another, and a yet more potent, way. -Myths of Arthur and his cycle of gods passed into -the hands of the Norman story-tellers, to reappear -as romances of King Arthur and his Knights of the -Table Round. Thus spread over civilized Europe, -their influence was immense. Their primal poetic -impulse is still resonant in our literature; we need -only instance Tennyson and Swinburne as minds -that have come under its sway.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This diverse influence of Celtic mythology upon -English poetry and romance has been eloquently set -forth by Mr. Elton in his <i>Origins of English History</i>. -“The religion of the British tribes”, he writes, “has -exercised an important influence upon literature. -The mediæval romances and the legends which -stood for history are full of the ‘fair humanities’ -and figures of its bright mythology. The elemental -powers of earth and fire, and the spirits which -haunted the waves and streams appear again as -kings in the Irish Annals, or as saints and hermits -in Wales. The Knights of the Round Table, Sir -Kay and Tristrem and the bold Sir Bedivere, betray -their mighty origin by the attributes they retained -as heroes of romance. It was a goddess, ‘<i>Dea -quaedam phantastica</i>’, who bore the wounded Arthur -to the peaceful valley. ‘There was little sunlight -on its woods and streams, and the nights were dark -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>and gloomy for want of the moon and stars.’ This -is the country of Oberon and of Sir Huon of Bordeaux. -It is the dreamy forest of Arden. In an -older mythology, it was the realm of a King of -Shadows, the country of Gwyn ap Nudd, who rode -as Sir Guyon in the ‘Fairie Queene’—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>‘And knighthood took of good Sir Huon’s hand,</div> - <div class='line in1'>When with King Oberon he came to Fairyland’.”<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c010'><sup>[4]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>To trace Welsh and Irish kings and saints and -hermits back to “the elemental powers of earth -and fire, and the spirits that haunted the woods -and streams” of Celtic imagination, and to disclose -primitive pagan deities under the mediæval and -Christian trappings of “King Arthur’s Knights” will -necessarily fall within the scope of this volume. -But meanwhile the reader will probably be asking -what evidence there is that apocryphal British kings -like Lear and Lud, and questionable Irish saints -like Bridget are really disguised Celtic divinities, or -that the Morte D’Arthur, with its love of Launcelot -and the queen, and its quest of the Holy Grail, was -ever anything more than an invention of the Norman -romance-writers. He will demand to know what -facts we really possess about this supposed Celtic -mythology alleged to have furnished their prototypes, -and of what real antiquity and value are our authorities -upon it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The answer to his question will be found in the -next chapter.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER II<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE<br />CELTIC MYTHOLOGY</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>We may begin by asserting with confidence that -Mr. Elton has touched upon a part only of the -material on which we may draw, to reconstruct -the ancient British mythology. Luckily, we are -not wholly dependent upon the difficult tasks of -resolving the fabled deeds of apocryphal Irish and -British kings who reigned earlier than St. Patrick -or before Julius Caesar into their original form of -Celtic myths, of sifting the attributes and miracles -of doubtfully historical saints, or of separating the -primitive pagan elements in the legends of Arthur -and his Knights from the embellishments added by -the romance-writers. We have, in addition to these—which -we may for the present put upon one side as -secondary—sources, a mass of genuine early writings -which, though post-Christian in the form in which -they now exist, none the less descend from the preceding -pagan age. These are contained in vellum -and parchment manuscripts long preserved from -destruction in mansions and monasteries in Ireland, -Scotland, and Wales, and only during the last century -brought to light, copied, and translated by the -patient labours of scholars who have grappled with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>the long-obsolete dialects in which they were transcribed.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Many of these volumes are curious miscellanies. -Usually the one book of a great house or monastic -community, everything was copied into it that the -scholar of the family or brotherhood thought to be -best worth preserving. Hence they contain matter -of the most diverse kind. There are translations of -portions of the Bible and of the classics, and of such -then popular books as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s and -Nennius’ Histories of Britain; lives of famous saints, -together with works attributed to them; poems and -romances of which, under a thin disguise, the old -Gaelic and British gods are the heroes; together -with treatises on all the subjects then studied—grammar, -prosody, law, history, geography, chronology, -and the genealogies of important chiefs.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The majority of these documents were put together -during a period which, roughly speaking, lasted from -the beginning of the twelfth century to the end of -the sixteenth. In Ireland, in Wales, and, apparently, -also in Scotland, it was a time of literary -revival after the turmoils of the previous epoch. In -Ireland, the Norsemen, after long ravaging, had -settled peacefully down, while in Wales, the Norman -Conquest had rendered the country for the first -time comparatively quiet. The scattered remains of -history, lay and ecclesiastical, of science, and of -legend were gathered together.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Of the Irish manuscripts, the earliest, and, for our -purposes, the most important, on account of the -great store of ancient Gaelic mythology which, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>spite of its dilapidated condition, it still contains, is -in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy. Unluckily, -it is reduced to a fragment of one hundred -and thirty-eight pages, but this remnant preserves a -large number of romances relating to the old gods -and heroes of Ireland. Among other things, it contains -a complete account of the epical saga called -the <i>Táin Bó Chuailgné</i>, the “Raiding of the Cattle -of Cooley”, in which the hero, Cuchulainn, performed -his greatest feats. This manuscript is called the Book -of the Dun Cow, from the tradition that it was copied -from an earlier book written upon the skin of a -favourite animal belonging to Saint Ciaran, who -lived in the seventh century. An entry upon one -of its pages reveals the name of its scribe, one Maelmuiri, -whom we know to have been killed by robbers -in the church of Clonmacnois in the year 1106.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Far more voluminous, and but little less ancient, -is the Book of Leinster, said to have been compiled -in the early part of the twelfth century by Finn mac -Gorman, Bishop of Kildare. This also contains an -account of Cuchulainn’s mighty deeds which supplements -the older version in the Book of the Dun Cow. -Of somewhat less importance from the point of view -of the student of Gaelic mythology come the Book -of Ballymote and the Yellow Book of Lecan, belonging -to the end of the fourteenth century, and the -Books of Lecan and of Lismore, both attributed to -the fifteenth. Besides these six great collections, -there survive many other manuscripts which also -contain ancient mythical lore. In one of these, -dating from the fifteenth century, is to be found the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>story of the Battle of Moytura, fought between the -gods of Ireland and their enemies, the Fomors, or -demons of the deep sea.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Scottish manuscripts, preserved in the Advocates’ -Library at Edinburgh, date back in some cases -as far as the fourteenth century, though the majority -of them belong to the fifteenth and sixteenth. They -corroborate the Irish documents, add to the Cuchulainn -saga, and make a more special subject of the -other heroic cycle, that which relates the not less -wonderful deeds of Finn, Ossian, and the Fenians. -They also contain stories of other characters, who, -more ancient than either Finn or Cuchulainn, are -the Tuatha Dé Danann, the god-tribe of the ancient -Gaels.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Welsh documents cover about the same -period as the Irish and the Scottish. Four of these -stand out from the rest, as most important. The -oldest is the Black Book of Caermarthen, which -dates from the third quarter of the twelfth century; -the Book of Aneurin, which was written late -in the thirteenth; the Book of Taliesin, assigned -to the fourteenth; and the Red Book of Hergest, -compiled by various persons during that century and -the one following it. The first three of these “Four -Ancient Books of Wales” are small in size, and contain -poems attributed to the great traditional bards -of the sixth century, Myrddin, Taliesin, and Aneurin. -The last—the Red Book of Hergest—is far larger. -In it are to be found Welsh translations of the British -Chronicles; the oft-mentioned Triads, verses celebrating -famous traditionary persons or things; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>ancient poems attributed to Llywarch Hên; and, -of priceless value to any study of our subject, the -so-called Mabinogion, stories in which large portions -of the old British mythology are worked up into -romantic form.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The whole bulk, therefore, of the native literature -bearing upon the mythology of the British Islands -may be attributed to a period which lasted from the -beginning of the twelfth century to the end of the -sixteenth. But even the commencement of this era -will no doubt seem far too late a day to allow -authenticity to matter which ought to have vastly -preceded it. The date, however, merely marks the -final redaction of the contents of the manuscripts -into the form in which they now exist, without -bearing at all upon the time of their authorship. -Avowedly copies of ancient poems and tales from -much older manuscripts, the present books no more -fix the period of the original composition of their -contents than the presence of a portion of the <i>Canterbury -Tales</i> in a modern anthology of English poetry -would assign Chaucer to the present year of grace.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This may be proved both directly and inferentially.<a id='r5' /><a href='#f5' class='c010'><sup>[5]</sup></a> -In some instances—as in that of an elegy upon Saint -Columba in the Book of the Dun Cow—the dates of -authorship are actually given. In others, we may -depend upon evidence which, if not quite so absolute, -is nearly as convincing. Even where the writer -does not state that he is copying from older manuscripts, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>it is obvious that this must have been the -case, from the glosses in his version. The scribes -of the earlier Gaelic manuscripts very often found, in -the documents from which they themselves were -copying, words so archaic as to be unintelligible to -the readers of their own period. To render them -comprehensible, they were obliged to insert marginal -notes which explained these obsolete words by -reference to other manuscripts more ancient still. -Often the mediæval copyists have ignorantly moved -these notes from the margin into the text, where they -remain, like philological fossils, to give evidence of -previous forms of life. The documents from which -they were taken have perished, leaving the mediæval -copies as their sole record. In the Welsh Mabinogion -the same process is apparent. Peculiarities -in the existing manuscripts show plainly enough -that they must have been copied from some more -archaic text. Besides this, they are, as they at -present stand, obviously made up of earlier tales -pieced together. Almost as clearly as the Gaelic -manuscripts, the Welsh point us back to older and -more primitive forms.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The ancient legends of the Gael and the Briton -are thus shown to have been no mere inventions of -scholarly monks in the Middle Ages. We have now -to trace, if possible, the date, not necessarily of their -first appearance on men’s lips, but of their first redaction -into writing in approximately the form in which -we have them now.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Circumstantial evidence can be adduced to prove -that the most important portions both of Gaelic -<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>and British early literature can be safely relegated -to a period of several centuries prior to their now-existing -record. Our earliest version of the episode -of the <i>Táin Bó Chuailgné</i>, which is the nucleus and -centre of the ancient Gaelic heroic cycle of which -Cuchulainn, <i>fortissimus heros Scotorum</i>, is the principal -figure, is found in the twelfth-century Book of -the Dun Cow. But legend tells us that at the beginning -of the seventh century the Saga had not -only been composed, but had actually become so -obsolete as to have been forgotten by the bards. -Their leader, one Senchan Torpeist, a historical -character, and chief bard of Ireland at that time, -obtained permission from the Saints to call Fergus, -Cuchulainn’s contemporary, and a chief actor in the -“Raid”, from the dead, and received from the resurrected -hero a true and full version. This tradition, -dealing with a real personage, surely shows that the -story of the <i>Táin</i> was known before the time of -Senchan, and probably preserves the fact, either -that his version of Cuchulainn’s famous deeds -became the accepted one, or that he was the first -to reduce it to writing. An equally suggestive consideration -approximately fixes for us the earliest -redaction of the Welsh mythological prose tales -called the “Mabinogion”, or, more correctly speaking, -the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi”.<a id='r6' /><a href='#f6' class='c010'><sup>[6]</sup></a> In -none of these is there the slightest mention, or -apparently the least knowledge, of Arthur, around -whom and whose supposed contemporaries centres -the mass of British legend as it was transmitted by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>the Welsh to the Normans. These mysterious -mythological records must in all probability, therefore, -antedate the Arthurian cycle of myth, which -was already being put into form in the sixth century. -On the other hand, the characters of the -“Four Branches” are mentioned without comment—as -though they were personages with whom no -one could fail to be familiar—in the supposed sixth-century -poems contained in those “Four Ancient -Books of Wales” in which are found the first -meagre references to the British hero.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Such considerations as these throw back, with -reasonable certainty, the existence of the Irish and -Welsh poems and prose tales, in something like -their present shape, to a period antedating the -seventh century.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But this, again, means only that the myths, traditions, -and legends were current at that to us early, -but to them, in their actual substance, late date, in -literary form. A mythology must always be far -older than the oldest verses and stories that celebrate -it. Elaborate poems and sagas are not made -in a day, or in a year. The legends of the Gaelic -and British gods and heroes could not have sprung, -like Athena from the head of Zeus, full-born out of -some poet’s brain. The bard who first put them -into artistic shape was setting down the primitive -traditions of his race. We may therefore venture -to describe them as not of the twelfth century or -of the seventh, but as of a prehistoric and immemorial -antiquity.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Internal evidence bears this out. An examination -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>of both the Gaelic and British legendary romances -shows, under embellishing details added by later -hands, an inner core of primeval thought which -brings them into line with the similar ideas of other -races in the earliest stage of culture. Their “local -colour” may be that of their last “editor”, but their -“plots” are pre-mediæval, pre-Christian, pre-historic. -The characters of early Gaelic legend belong to the -same stamp of imagination that created Olympian -and Titan, Æsir and Jötun. We must go far to -the back of civilized thought to find parallels to such -a story as that in which the British sun-god, struck -by a rival in love with a poisoned spear, is turned -into an eagle, from whose wound great pieces of -carrion are continually failing.<a id='r7' /><a href='#f7' class='c010'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>This aspect of the Celtic literary records was -clearly seen, and eloquently expressed, by Matthew -Arnold in his <i>Study of Celtic Literature</i>.<a id='r8' /><a href='#f8' class='c010'><sup>[8]</sup></a> He was -referring to the Welsh side, but his image holds -good equally for the Gaelic. “The first thing that -strikes one”, he says, “in reading the <i>Mabinogion</i> is -how evidently the mediæval story-teller is pillaging -an antiquity of which he does not fully possess the -secret: he is like a peasant building his hut on the -site of Halicarnassus or Ephesus; he builds, but -what he builds is full of materials of which he knows -not the history, or knows by a glimmering tradition -merely: stones ‘not of this building’, but of an older -architecture, greater, cunninger, more majestical.” -His heroes “are no mediæval personages: they belong -to an older, pagan, mythological world”. So, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>too, with the figures, however euhemerized, of the -three great Gaelic cycles: that of the Tuatha Dé -Danann, of the Heroes of Ulster, of Finn and the -Fenians. Their divinity outshines their humanity; -through their masks may be seen the faces of gods.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Yet, gods as they are, they had taken on the -semblance of mortality by the time their histories -were fixed in the form in which we have them now. -Their earliest records, if those could be restored to -us, would doubtless show them eternal and undying, -changing their shapes at will, but not passing away. -But the post-Christian copyists, whether Irish or -Welsh, would not countenance this. Hence we -have the singular paradox of the deaths of Immortals. -There is hardly one of the figures of -either the Gaelic or the British Pantheon whose -demise is not somewhere recorded. Usually they -fell in the unceasing battles between the divinities -of darkness and of light. Their deaths in earlier -cycles of myth, however, do not preclude their appearance -in later ones. Only, indeed, with the -closing of the lips of the last mortal who preserved -his tradition can the life of a god be truly said to -end.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER III<br /> <br /><span class='small'>WHO WERE THE “ANCIENT BRITONS”?</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>But, before proceeding to recount the myths of -the “Ancient Britons”, it will be well to decide -what people, exactly, we mean by that loose but -convenient phrase. We have, all of us, vague ideas -of Ancient Britons, recollected, doubtless, from our -school-books. There we saw their pictures as, -painted with woad, they paddled coracles, or drove -scythed chariots through legions of astonished -Romans. Their Druids, white-bearded and wearing -long, white robes, cut the mistletoe with a golden -sickle at the time of the full moon, or, less innocently -employed, made bonfires of human beings shut up -in gigantic figures of wicker-work.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Such picturesque details were little short of the -sum-total, not only of our own knowledge of the -subject, but also of that of our teachers. Practically -all their information concerning the ancient inhabitants -of Britain was taken from the Commentaries of -Julius Caesar. So far as it went, it was no doubt -correct; but it did not go far. Caesar’s interest in -our British ancestors was that of a general who was -his own war-correspondent rather than that of an -exhaustive and painstaking scientist. It has been -reserved for modern archæologists, philologists, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>ethnologists to give us a fuller account of the -Ancient Britons.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The inhabitants of our islands previous to the -Roman invasion are generally described as “Celts”. -But they must have been largely a mixed race; and -the people with whom they mingled must have modified -to some—and perhaps to a large—extent their -physique, their customs, and their language.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Speculation has run somewhat wild over the -question of the composition of the Early Britons. -But out of the clash of rival theories there emerges -one—and one only—which may be considered as -scientifically established. We have certain proof of -two distinct human stocks in the British Islands at -the time of the Roman Conquest; and so great an -authority as Professor Huxley has given his opinion -that there is no evidence of any others.<a id='r9' /><a href='#f9' class='c010'><sup>[9]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The earliest of these two races would seem to -have inhabited our islands from the most ancient -times, and may, for our purpose, be described as -aboriginal. It was the people that built the “long -barrows”; and which is variously called by ethnologists -the Iberian, Mediterranean, Berber, Basque, -Silurian, or Euskarian race. In physique it was -short, swarthy, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and long-skulled; -its language belonged to the class called -“Hamitic”, the surviving types of which are found -among the Gallas, Abyssinians, Berbers, and other -North African tribes; and it seems to have come -originally from some part either of Eastern, Northern, -or Central Africa. Spreading thence, it was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>probably the first people to inhabit the Valley of -the Nile, and it sent offshoots into Syria and Asia -Minor. The earliest Hellenes found it in Greece -under the name of “Pelasgoi”; the earliest Latins -in Italy, as the “Etruscans”; and the Hebrews in -Palestine, as the “Hittites”. It spread northward -through Europe as far as the Baltic, and westward, -along the Atlas chain, to Spain, France, and our -own islands.<a id='r10' /><a href='#f10' class='c010'><sup>[10]</sup></a> In many countries it reached a comparatively -high level of civilization, but in Britain -its development must have been early checked. We -can discern it as an agricultural rather than a -pastoral people, still in the Stone Age, dwelling -in totemistic tribes on hills whose summits it fortified -elaborately, and whose slopes it cultivated on -what is called the “terrace system”, and having a -primitive culture which ethnologists think to have -much resembled that of the present hill-tribes -of Southern India.<a id='r11' /><a href='#f11' class='c010'><sup>[11]</sup></a> It held our islands till the -coming of the Celts, who fought with the aborigines, -dispossessed them of the more fertile parts, subjugated -them, even amalgamated with them, but -certainly never extirpated them. In the time of the -Romans they were still practically independent in -South Wales. In Ireland they were long unconquered, -and are found as allies rather than serfs of -the Gaels, ruling their own provinces, and preserving -their own customs and religion. Nor, in spite of all -the successive invasions of Great Britain and Ireland, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>are they yet extinct, or so merged as to have lost -their type, which is still the predominant one in -many parts of the west both of Britain and Ireland, -and is believed by some ethnologists to be generally -upon the increase all over England.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The second of the two races was the exact opposite -to the first. It was the tall, fair, light-haired, -blue- or gray-eyed, broad-headed people called, -popularly, the “Celts”, who belonged in speech -to the “Aryan” family, their language finding its -affinities in Latin, Greek, Teutonic, Slavic, the -Zend of Ancient Persia, and the Sanscrit of Ancient -India. Its original home was probably somewhere -in Central Europe, along the course of the upper -Danube, or in the region of the Alps. The “round -barrows” in which it buried its dead, or deposited -their burnt ashes, differ in shape from the “long -barrows” of the earlier race. It was in a higher -stage of culture than the “Iberians”, and introduced -into Britain bronze and silver, and, perhaps, -some of the more lately domesticated animals.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Both Iberians and Celts were divided into numerous -tribes, but there is nothing to show that there -was any great diversity among the former. It is -otherwise with the Celts, who were separated into -two main branches which came over at different -times. The earliest were the Goidels, or Gaels; the -second, the Brythons, or Britons. Between these -two branches there was not only a dialectical, but -probably, also, a considerable physical difference. -Some anthropologists even postulate a different -shape of skull. Without necessarily admitting this, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>there is reason to suppose a difference of build and -of colour of hair. With regard to this, we have the -evidence of Latin writers—of Tacitus,<a id='r12' /><a href='#f12' class='c010'><sup>[12]</sup></a> who tells us -that the “Caledonians” of the North differed from -the Southern Britons in being larger-limbed and -redder-haired, and of Strabo,<a id='r13' /><a href='#f13' class='c010'><sup>[13]</sup></a> who described the -tribes in the interior of Britain as taller than the -Gaulish colonists on the coast, with hair less yellow -and limbs more loosely knit. Equally do the classic -authorities agree in recognizing the “Silures” of -South Wales as an entirely different race from any -other in Britain. The dark complexions and curly -hair of these Iberians seemed to Tacitus to prove -them immigrants from Spain.<a id='r14' /><a href='#f14' class='c010'><sup>[14]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Professor Rhys also puts forward evidence to -show that the Goidels and the Brythons had already -separated before they first left Gaul for our islands.<a id='r15' /><a href='#f15' class='c010'><sup>[15]</sup></a> -He finds them as two distinct peoples there. We -do not expect so much nowadays from “the merest -school-boy” as we did in Macaulay’s time, but even -the modern descendant of that paragon could probably -tell us that all Gaul was divided into three -parts, one of which was inhabited by the Belgae, -another by the Aquitani, and the third by those -who called themselves Celtae, but were termed -Galli by the Romans; and that they all differed -from one another in language, customs, and laws.<a id='r16' /><a href='#f16' class='c010'><sup>[16]</sup></a> -Of these, Professor Rhys identifies the Belgae with -the Brythons, and the Celtae with the Goidels, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>third people, the Aquitani, being non-Celtic and -non-Aryan, part of the great Hamitic-speaking -Iberian stock.<a id='r17' /><a href='#f17' class='c010'><sup>[17]</sup></a> The Celtae, with their Goidelic -dialect of Celtic, which survives to-day in the Gaelic -languages of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, -were the first to come over to Britain, pushed forward, -probably, by the Belgae, who, Caesar tells us, -were the bravest of the Gauls.<a id='r18' /><a href='#f18' class='c010'><sup>[18]</sup></a> Here they conquered -the native Iberians, driving them out of the -fertile parts into the rugged districts of the north -and west. Later came the Belgae themselves, -compelled by press of population; and they, bringing -better weapons and a higher civilization, treated -the Goidels as those had treated the Iberians. -Thus harried, the Goidels probably combined with -the Iberians against what was now the common foe, -and became to a large degree amalgamated with -them. The result was that during the Roman -domination the British Islands were roughly divided -with regard to race as follows: The Brythons, or -second Celtic race, held all Britain south of the -Tweed, with the exception of the extreme west, -while the first Celtic race, the Goidelic, had most -of Ireland, as well as the Isle of Man, Cumberland, -the West Highlands, Cornwall, Devon, and North -Wales. North of the Grampians lived the Picts, -who were probably more or less Goidelicized Iberians, -the aboriginal race also holding out, unmixed, -in South Wales and parts of Ireland.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is now time to decide what, for the purposes -of this book, it will be best to call the two different -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>branches of the Celts, and their languages. With -such familiar terms as “Gael” and “Briton”, -“Gaelic” and “British”, ready to our hands, it -seems pedantic to insist upon the more technical -“Goidel” and “Brython”, “Goidelic” and “Brythonic”. -The difficulty is that the words “Gael” -and “Gaelic” have been so long popularly used to -designate only the modern “Goidels” of Scotland -and their language, that they may create confusion -when also applied to the people and languages of -Ireland and the Isle of Man. Similarly, the words -“Briton” and “British” have come to mean, at the -present day, the people of the whole of the British -Islands, though they at first only signified the inhabitants -of England, Central Wales, the Lowlands -of Scotland, and the Brythonic colony in Brittany. -However, the words “Goidel” and “Brython”, -with their derivatives, are so clumsy that it will -probably prove best to use the neater terms. In -this volume, therefore, the “Goidels” of Ireland, -Scotland, and the Isle of Man are our “Gaels” and -the “Brythons” of England and Wales are our -“Britons”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We get the earliest accounts of the life of the -inhabitants of the British Islands from two sources. -The first is a foreign one, that of the Latin writers. -But the Romans only really knew the Southern -Britons, whom they describe as similar in physique -and customs to the Continental Gauls, with whom, -indeed, they considered them to be identical.<a id='r19' /><a href='#f19' class='c010'><sup>[19]</sup></a> At -the time they wrote, colonies of Belgae were still -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>settling upon the coasts of Britain opposite to Gaul.<a id='r20' /><a href='#f20' class='c010'><sup>[20]</sup></a> -Roman information grew scantier as it approached -the Wall, and of the Northern tribes they seem to -have had only such knowledge as they gathered -through occasional warfare with them. They describe -them as entirely barbarous, naked and tattooed, -living by the chase alone, without towns, houses, -or fields, without government or family life, and regarding -iron as an ornament of value, as other, more -civilized peoples regarded gold.<a id='r21' /><a href='#f21' class='c010'><sup>[21]</sup></a> As for Ireland, -it never came under their direct observation, and we -are entirely dependent upon its native writers for -information as to the manners and customs of the -Gaels. It may be considered convincing proof of -the authenticity of the descriptions of life contained -in the ancient Gaelic manuscripts that they corroborate -so completely the observations of the Latin -writers upon the Britons and Gauls. Reading the -two side by side, we may largely reconstruct the -common civilization of the Celts.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Roughly speaking, one may compare it with the -civilization of the Greeks, as described by Homer.<a id='r22' /><a href='#f22' class='c010'><sup>[22]</sup></a> -Both peoples were in the tribal and pastoral stage -of culture, in which the chiefs are the great cattle-owners -round whom their less wealthy fellows gather. -Both wear much the same attire, use the same kind -of weapons, and fight in the same manner—from -the war-chariot, a vehicle already obsolete even in -Ireland by the first century of the Christian era. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>Battles are fought single-handed between chiefs, the -ill-armed common people contributing little to their -result, and less to their history. Such chiefs are -said to be divinely descended—sons, even, of the -immortal gods. Their tremendous feats are sung -by the bards, who, like the Homeric poets, were -privileged persons, inferior only to the war-lord. -Ancient Greek and Ancient Celt had very much the -same conceptions of life, both as regards this world -and the next.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We may gather much detailed information of the -early inhabitants of the British Islands from our -various authorities.<a id='r23' /><a href='#f23' class='c010'><sup>[23]</sup></a> Their clothes, which consisted, -according to the Latin writers, of a blouse with -sleeves, trousers fitting closely round the ankles, -and a shawl or cloak, fastened at the shoulder with -a brooch, were made either of thick felt or of -woven cloth dyed with various brilliant colours. -The writer Diodorus tells us that they were crossed -with little squares and lines, “as though they had -been sprinkled with flowers”. They were, in fact, -like “tartans”, and we may believe Varro, who -tells us that they “made a gaudy show”. The -men alone seem to have worn hats, which were -of soft felt, the women’s hair being uncovered, -and tied in a knot behind. In time of battle, -the men also dispensed with any head-covering, -brushing their abundant hair forward into a thick -mass, and dyeing it red with a soap made of -goat’s fat and beech ashes, until they looked (says -Cicero’s tutor Posidonius, who visited Britain about -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>110 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>) less like human beings than wild men of -the woods. Both sexes were fond of ornaments, -which took the form of gold bracelets, rings, pins, -and brooches, and of beads of amber, glass, and jet. -Their knives, daggers, spear-heads, axes, and swords -were made of bronze or iron; their shields were the -same round target used by the Highlanders at the -battle of Culloden; and they seem also to have had -a kind of lasso to which a hammer-shaped ball was -attached, and which they used as the Gauchos of -South America use their <i>bola</i>. Their war-chariots -were made of wicker, the wooden wheels being -armed with sickles of bronze. These were drawn -either by two or four horses, and were large enough -to hold several persons in each. Standing in these, -they rushed along the enemy’s lines, hurling darts, -and driving the scythes against all who came within -reach. The Romans were much impressed by the -skill of the drivers, who “could check their horses -at full speed on a steep incline, and turn them in an -instant, and could run along the pole, and stand on -the yoke, and then get back into their chariots -again without a moment’s delay”.<a id='r24' /><a href='#f24' class='c010'><sup>[24]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>With these accounts of the Roman writers we -may compare the picture of the Gaelic hero, Cuchulainn, -as the ancient Irish writers describe him -dressed and armed for battle. Glorified by the -bard, he yet wears essentially the same costume -and equipment which the classic historians and -geographers described more soberly. “His gorgeous -raiment that he wore in great conventions” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>consisted of “a fair crimson tunic of five plies and -fringed, with a long pin of white silver, gold-enchased -and patterned, shining as if it had been a luminous -torch which for its blazing property and brilliance -men might not endure to see. Next his skin, a -body-vest of silk, bordered and fringed all round -with gold, with silver, and with white bronze, which -vest came as far as the upper edge of his russet-coloured -kilt.... About his neck were a hundred -linklets of red gold that flashed again, with pendants -hanging from them. His head-gear was adorned -with a hundred mixed carbuncle jewels, strung.” -He carried “a trusty special shield, in hue dark -crimson, and in its circumference armed with a pure -white silver rim. At his left side a long and golden-hilted -sword. Beside him, in the chariot, a lengthy -spear; together with a keen, aggression-boding -javelin, fitted with hurling thong, with rivets of -white bronze.”<a id='r25' /><a href='#f25' class='c010'><sup>[25]</sup></a> Another passage of Gaelic saga -describes his chariot. It was made of fine wood, -with wicker-work, moving on wheels of white bronze. -It had a high rounded frame of creaking copper, -a strong curved yoke of gold, and a pole of white -silver, with mountings of white bronze. The yellow -reins were plaited, and the shafts were as hard and -straight as sword-blades.<a id='r26' /><a href='#f26' class='c010'><sup>[26]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>In like manner the ancient Irish writers have -made glorious the halls and fortresses of their -mythical kings. Like the palaces of Priam, of -Menelaus, and of Odysseus, they gleam with gold -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>and gems. Conchobar,<a id='r27' /><a href='#f27' class='c010'><sup>[27]</sup></a> the legendary King of -Ulster in its golden age, had three such “houses” -at Emain Macha. Of the one called the “Red -Branch”, we are told that it contained nine compartments -of red yew, partitioned by walls of bronze, -all grouped around the king’s private chamber, -which had a ceiling of silver, and bronze pillars -adorned with gold and carbuncles.<a id='r28' /><a href='#f28' class='c010'><sup>[28]</sup></a> But the far -less magnificent accounts of the Latin writers have, -no doubt, more truth in them than such lavish -pictures. They described the Britons they knew -as living in villages of bee-hive huts, roofed with -fern or thatch, from which, at the approach of an -enemy, they retired to the local <i>dún</i>. This, so far -from being elaborate, merely consisted of a round -or oval space fenced in with palisades and earthworks, -and situated either upon the top of a hill or -in the midst of a not easily traversable morass.<a id='r29' /><a href='#f29' class='c010'><sup>[29]</sup></a> We -may see the remains of such strongholds in many -parts of England—notable ones are the “castles” of -Amesbury, Avebury, and Old Sarum in Wiltshire, -Saint Catherine’s Hill, near Winchester, and Saint -George’s Hill, in Surrey—and it is probable that, in -spite of the Celtic praisers of past days, the “palaces” -of Emain Macha and of Tara were very like them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Celtic customs were, like the Homeric, those -of the primitive world. All land (though it may -have theoretically belonged to the chief) was cultivated -in common. This community of possessions -<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>is stated by Caesar<a id='r30' /><a href='#f30' class='c010'><sup>[30]</sup></a> to have extended to their wives; -but the imputation cannot be said to have been -proved. On the contrary, in the stories of both -branches of the Celtic race, women seem to have -taken a higher place in men’s estimation, and to -have enjoyed far more personal liberty, than among -the Homeric Greeks. The idea may have arisen -from a misunderstanding of some of the curious -Celtic customs. Descent seems to have been traced -through the maternal rather than through the paternal -line, a very un-Aryan procedure which some -believe to have been borrowed from another race. -The parental relation was still further lessened by -the custom of sending children to be brought up -outside the family in which they were born, so that -they had foster-parents to whom they were as much, -or even more, attached than to their natural ones.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Their political state, mirroring their family life, -was not less primitive. There was no central -tribunal. Disputes were settled within the families -in which they occurred, while, in the case of graver -injuries, the injured party or his nearest relation -could kill the culprit or exact a fine from him. As -families increased in number, they became petty -tribes, often at war with one another. A defeated -tribe had to recognize the sovereignty of the head -man of the conquering tribe, and a succession of -such victories exalted him into the position of a -chief of his district. But even then, though his -decision was the whole of the law, he was little -more than the mouthpiece of public opinion.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER IV<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS AND<br />DRUIDISM</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The ancient inhabitants of Britain—the Gaelic -and British Celts—have been already described as -forming a branch of what are roughly called the -“Aryans”. This name has, however, little reference -to race, and really signifies the speakers of a group -of languages which can be all shown to be connected, -and to descend remotely from a single source—a -hypothetical mother-tongue spoken by a hypothetical -people which we term “Aryan”, or, more -correctly, “Indo-European”. This primeval speech, -evolved, probably, upon some part of the great -plain which stretches from the mountains of Central -Europe to the mountains of Central Asia, has spread, -superseding, or amalgamating with the tongues of -other races, until branches of it are spoken over -almost the whole of Europe and a great portion -of Asia. All the various Latin, Greek, Slavic, -Teutonic, and Celtic languages are “Aryan”, -as well as Persian and other Asiatic dialects -derived from the ancient “Zend”, and the numerous -Indian languages which trace their origin to -Sanscrit.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Not very long ago, it was supposed that this -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>common descent of language involved a common -descent of blood. A real brotherhood was enthusiastically -claimed for all the principal European -nations, who were also invited to recognize Hindus -and Persians as their long-lost cousins. Since then, -it has been conceded that, while the Aryan speech -survived, though greatly modified, the Aryan blood -might well have disappeared, diluted beyond recognition -by crossing with the other races whom the -Aryans conquered, or among whom they more or less -peacefully settled. As a matter of fact, there are no -European nations—perhaps no people at all except -a few remote savage tribes—which are not made up -of the most diverse elements. Aryan and non-Aryan -long ago blended inextricably, to form by their fusion -new peoples.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But, just as the Aryan speech influenced the new -languages, and the Aryan customs the new civilizations, -so we can still discern in the religions of the -Aryan-speaking nations similar ideas and expressions -pointing to an original source of mythological conceptions. -Hence, whether we investigate the mythology -of the Hindus, the Greeks, the Teutons, or -the Celts, we find the same mythological groundwork. -In each, we see the powers of nature personified, -and endowed with human form and attributes, -though bearing, with few exceptions, different -names. Like the Vedic brahmans, the Greek and -Latin poets, and the Norse scalds, the Celtic bards—whether -Gaels or Britons—imagined the sky, the -sun, the moon, the earth, the sea, and the dark -underworld, as well as the mountains, the streams -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>and the woods, to be ruled by beings like their own -chiefs, but infinitely more powerful; every passion, -as War and Love, and every art, as Poetry and -Smithcraft, had its divine founder, teacher, and -exponent; and of all these deities and their imagined -children, they wove the poetical and allegorical -romances which form the subject of the present -volume.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Like other nations, too, whether Aryan or non-Aryan, -the Celts had, besides their mythology, a -religion. It is not enough to tell tales of shadowy -gods; they must be made visible by sculpture, -housed in groves or temples, served with ritual, -and propitiated with sacrifices, if one is to hope -for their favours. Every cult must have its priests -living by the altar.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The priests of the Celts are well-known to us by -name as the “Druids”—a word derived from a root -DR which signifies a tree, and especially the oak, in -several Aryan languages.<a id='r31' /><a href='#f31' class='c010'><sup>[31]</sup></a> This is generally—though -not by all scholars—taken as proving that they paid -an especial veneration to the king of trees. It is -true that the mistletoe—that strange parasite upon -the oak—was prominent among their “herbs of -power”, and played a part in their ritual;<a id='r32' /><a href='#f32' class='c010'><sup>[32]</sup></a> but this is -equally true of other Aryan nations. By the Norse -it was held sacred to the god Balder, while the -Romans believed it to be the “golden bough” that -gave access to Hades.<a id='r33' /><a href='#f33' class='c010'><sup>[33]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>The accounts both of the Latin and Gaelic writers -give us a fairly complete idea of the nature of the -Druids, and especially of the high estimation in -which they were held. They were at once the -priests, the physicians, the wizards, the diviners, the -theologians, the scientists, and the historians of their -tribes. All spiritual power and all human knowledge -were vested in them, and they ranked second -only to the kings and chiefs. They were freed from -all contribution to the State, whether by tribute or -service in war, so that they might the better apply -themselves to their divine offices. Their decisions -were absolutely final, and those who disobeyed them -were laid under a terrible excommunication or -“boycott”.<a id='r34' /><a href='#f34' class='c010'><sup>[34]</sup></a> Classic writers tell us how they lorded -it in Gaul, where, no doubt, they borrowed splendour -by imitating their more civilized neighbours. Men -of the highest rank were proud to cast aside the -insignia of mere mortal honour to join the company -of those who claimed to be the direct mediators with -the sky-god and the thunder-god, and who must -have resembled the ecclesiastics of mediæval Europe -in the days of their greatest power, combining, like -them, spiritual and temporal dignities, and possessing -the highest culture of their age. Yet it was not -among these Druids of Gaul, with their splendid -temples and vestments and their elaborate rituals, -that the metropolis of Druidism was to be sought. -We learn from Caesar that the Gallic Druids believed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>their religion to have come to them, originally, -from Britain, and that it was their practice to send -their “theological students” across the Channel to -learn its doctrines at their purest source.<a id='r35' /><a href='#f35' class='c010'><sup>[35]</sup></a> To trace -a cult backwards is often to take a retrograde course -in culture, and it was no doubt in Britain—which -Pliny the Elder tells us “might have taught magic -to Persia”<a id='r36' /><a href='#f36' class='c010'><sup>[36]</sup></a>—that the sufficiently primitive and -savage rites of the Druids of Gaul were preserved -in their still more savage and primitive forms. It is -curious corroboration of this alleged British origin of -Druidism that the ancient Irish also believed their -Druidism to have come from the sister island. Their -heroes and seers are described as only gaining the -highest knowledge by travelling to Alba.<a id='r37' /><a href='#f37' class='c010'><sup>[37]</sup></a> However -this may be, we may take it as certain that this Druidism -was the accepted religion of the Celtic race.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Certain scholars look deeper for its origin, holding -its dark superstitions and savage rites to bear -the stamp of lower minds than those of the poetic -and manly Celts. Professor Rhys inclines to see -three forms of religion in the British Islands at the -time of the Roman invasion: the “Druidism” of -the Iberian aborigines; the pure polytheism of the -Brythons, who, having come later into the country, -had mixed but little with the natives; and the -mingled Aryan and non-Aryan cults of the Goidels, -who were already largely amalgamated with them.<a id='r38' /><a href='#f38' class='c010'><sup>[38]</sup></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>But many authorities dissent from this view, and, -indeed, we are not obliged to postulate borrowing -from tribes in a lower state of culture, to explain -primitive and savage features underlying a higher -religion. The “Aryan” nations must have passed, -equally with all others, through a state of pure -savagery; and we know that the religion of the -Greeks, in many respects so lofty, sheltered features -and legends as barbarous as any that can be attributed -to the Celts.<a id='r39' /><a href='#f39' class='c010'><sup>[39]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Of the famous teaching of the Druids we know -little, owing to their habit of never allowing their -doctrines to be put into writing. Caesar, however, -roughly records its scope. “As one of their leading -dogmas”, he says, “they inculcate this: that souls -are not annihilated, but pass after death from one -body to another, and they hold that by this teaching -men are much encouraged to valour, through disregarding -the fear of death. They also discuss and -impart to the young many things concerning the -heavenly bodies and their movements, the size of -the world and of our earth, natural science, and of -the influence and power of the immortal gods.”<a id='r40' /><a href='#f40' class='c010'><sup>[40]</sup></a> -The Romans seem to have held their wisdom in -some awe, though it is not unlikely that the Druids -themselves borrowed whatever knowledge they may -have had of science and philosophy from the classical -culture. That their creed of transmigration -was not, however, merely taken over from the -Greeks seems certain from its appearance in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>ancient Gaelic myths. Not only the “shape-shifting” -common to the magic stories of all nations, but -actual reincarnation was in the power of privileged -beings. The hero Cuchulainn was urged by the -men of Ulster to marry, because they knew “that -his rebirth would be of himself”,<a id='r41' /><a href='#f41' class='c010'><sup>[41]</sup></a> and they did not -wish so great a warrior to be lost to their tribe. -Another legend tells how the famous Finn mac Coul -was reborn, after two hundred years, as an Ulster -king called Mongan.<a id='r42' /><a href='#f42' class='c010'><sup>[42]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Such ideas, however, belonged to the metaphysical -side of Druidism. Far more important to the practical -primitive mind are ritual and sacrifice, by the -due performance of which the gods are persuaded -or compelled to grant earth’s increase and length of -days to men. Among the Druids, this humouring of -the divinities took the shape of human sacrifice, and -that upon a scale which would seem to have been -unsurpassed in horror even by the most savage -tribes of West Africa or Polynesia. “The whole -Gaulish nation”, says Caesar, “is to a great degree -devoted to superstitious rites; and on this account -those who are afflicted with severe diseases, or who -are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice -human beings for victims, or vow that they will -immolate themselves, and these employ the Druids -as ministers for such sacrifices, because they think -that, unless the life of man be repaid for the life -of man, the will of the immortal gods cannot be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>appeased. They also ordain national offerings of the -same kind. Others make wicker-work images of -vast size, the limbs of which they fill with living men -and set on fire.”<a id='r43' /><a href='#f43' class='c010'><sup>[43]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>We find evidence of similarly awful customs in -pagan Ireland. Among the oldest Gaelic records -are tracts called <i>Dinnsenchus</i>, in which famous places -are enumerated, together with the legends relating -to them. Such topographies are found in several of -the great Irish mediæval manuscripts, and therefore, -of course, received their final transcription at the -hands of Christian monks. But these ecclesiastics -rarely tampered with compositions in elaborate -verse. Nor can it be imagined that any monastic -scribe could have invented such a legend as this one -which describes the practice of human sacrifice among -the ancient Irish. The poem (which is found in the -Books of Leinster, of Ballymote, of Lecan, and in a -document called the Rennes MS.)<a id='r44' /><a href='#f44' class='c010'><sup>[44]</sup></a> records the reason -why a spot near the present village of Ballymagauran, -in County Cavan, received the name of Mag Slecht, -the “Plain of Adoration”.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Here used to be</div> - <div class='line in1'>A high idol with many fights,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Which was named the Cromm Cruaich;</div> - <div class='line in1'>It made every tribe to be without peace.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“’Twas a sad evil!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Brave Gaels used to worship it.</div> - <div class='line in1'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>From it they would not without tribute ask</div> - <div class='line in1'>To be satisfied as to their portion of the hard world.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“He was their god,</div> - <div class='line in1'>The withered Cromm with many mists,</div> - <div class='line in1'>The people whom he shook over every host,</div> - <div class='line in1'>The everlasting kingdom they shall not have.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“To him without glory</div> - <div class='line in1'>They would kill their piteous, wretched offspring</div> - <div class='line in1'>With much wailing and peril,</div> - <div class='line in1'>To pour their blood around Cromm Cruaich.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Milk and corn</div> - <div class='line in1'>They would ask from him speedily</div> - <div class='line in1'>In return for one-third of their healthy issue:</div> - <div class='line in1'>Great was the horror and the scare of him.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“To him</div> - <div class='line in1'>Noble Gaels would prostrate themselves,</div> - <div class='line in1'>From the worship of him, with many manslaughters,</div> - <div class='line in1'>The plain is called “Mag Slecht”.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'> * * * * * * * * * *</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“They did evil,</div> - <div class='line in1'>They beat their palms, they pounded their bodies,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Wailing to the demon who enslaved them,</div> - <div class='line in1'>They shed falling showers of tears.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'> * * * * * * * * * *</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Around Cromm Cruaich</div> - <div class='line in1'>There the hosts would prostrate themselves;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Though he put them under deadly disgrace,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Their name clings to the noble plain.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“In their ranks (stood)</div> - <div class='line in1'>Four times three stone idols;</div> - <div class='line in1'>To bitterly beguile the hosts,</div> - <div class='line in1'>The figure of the Cromm was made of gold.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>“Since the rule</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of Herimon<a id='r45' /><a href='#f45' class='c010'><sup>[45]</sup></a>, the noble man of grace,</div> - <div class='line in1'>There was worshipping of stones</div> - <div class='line in1'>Until the coming of good Patrick of Macha.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A sledge-hammer to the Cromm</div> - <div class='line in1'>He applied from crown to sole,</div> - <div class='line in1'>He destroyed without lack of valour</div> - <div class='line in1'>The feeble idol which was there.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Such, we gather from a tradition which we may -deem authentic, was human sacrifice in early Ireland. -According to the quoted verse, one third of the -healthy children were slaughtered, presumably every -year, to wrest from the powers of nature the grain -and grass upon which the tribes and their cattle subsisted. -In a prose <i>dinnsenchus</i> preserved in the -Rennes MS.,<a id='r46' /><a href='#f46' class='c010'><sup>[46]</sup></a> there is a slight variant. “’Tis -there”, (at Mag Slecht), it runs, “was the king idol -of Erin, namely the Crom Croich, and around him -were twelve idols made of stones, but he was of -gold. Until Patrick’s advent he was the god of -every folk that colonized Ireland. To him they -used to offer the firstlings of every issue and the -chief scions of every clan.” The same authority -also tells us that these sacrifices were made at -“Hallowe’en”, which took the place, in the Christian -calendar, of the heathen <i>Samhain</i>—“Summer’s -End”—when the sun’s power waned, and the -strength of the gods of darkness, winter, and the -underworld grew great.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>Who, then, was this bloodthirsty deity? His -name, <i>Cromm Cruaich</i>, means the “Bowed One of -the Mound”, and was evidently applied to him only -after his fall from godhead. It relates to the tradition -that, at the approach of the all-conquering -Saint Patrick, the “demon” fled from his golden -image, which thereupon sank forward in the earth -in homage to the power that had come to supersede -it.<a id='r47' /><a href='#f47' class='c010'><sup>[47]</sup></a> But from another source we glean that the -word <i>cromm</i> was a kind of pun upon <i>cenn</i>, and that -the real title of the “king idol of Erin” was <i>Cenn -Cruaich</i>, “Head” or “Lord” of the Mound. Professor -Rhys, in his <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>,<a id='r48' /><a href='#f48' class='c010'><sup>[48]</sup></a> suggests that -he was probably the Gaelic heaven-god, worshipped, -like the Hellenic Zeus, upon “high places”, natural -or artificial. At any rate, we may see in him the -god most revered by the Gaels, surrounded by the -other twelve chief members of their Pantheon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It would appear probable that the Celtic State -worship was what is called “solar”. All its chief -festivals related to points in the sun’s progress, the -equinoxes having been considered more important -than the solstices. It was at the spring equinox -(called by the Celts “Beltaine”<a id='r49' /><a href='#f49' class='c010'><sup>[49]</sup></a>) in every nineteenth -year that, we learn from Diodorus the Sicilian, -a writer contemporary with Julius Caesar, Apollo -himself appeared to his worshippers, and was seen -harping and dancing in the sky until the rising of -the Pleiades.<a id='r50' /><a href='#f50' class='c010'><sup>[50]</sup></a> The other corresponding festival was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>“Samhain”<a id='r51' /><a href='#f51' class='c010'><sup>[51]</sup></a>, the autumn equinox. As Beltaine -marked the beginning of summer, so Samhain recorded -its end. The summer solstice was also a -great Celtic feast. It was held at the beginning of -August in honour of the god called Lugus by the -Gauls, Lugh by the Gaels, and Lleu by the Britons—the -pan-Celtic Apollo, and, probably, when the -cult of the war-god had fallen from its early prominence, -the chief figure of the common Pantheon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was doubtless at Stonehenge that the British -Apollo was thus seen harping and dancing. That -marvellous structure well corresponds to Diodorus’s -description of a “magnificent temple of Apollo” -which he locates “in the centre of Britain”. “It is -a circular enclosure,” he says, “adorned with votive -offerings and tablets with Greek inscriptions suspended -by travellers upon the walls. The rulers of -the temple and city are called ‘Boreadæ’<a id='r52' /><a href='#f52' class='c010'><sup>[52]</sup></a>, and they -take up the government from each other according -to the order of their tribes. The citizens are given -up to music, harping and chanting in honour of the -sun.”<a id='r53' /><a href='#f53' class='c010'><sup>[53]</sup></a> Stonehenge, therefore, was a sacred religious -centre, equally revered by and equally belonging to -all the British tribes—a Rome or Jerusalem of our -ancient paganism.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The same great gods were, no doubt, adored by -all the Celts, not only of Great Britain and Ireland, -but of Continental Gaul as well. Sometimes they -can be traced by name right across the ancient -<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>Celtic world. In other cases, what is obviously the -same personified power of nature is found in various -places with the same attributes, but with a different -title. Besides these, there must have been a multitude -of lesser gods, worshipped by certain tribes -alone, to whom they stood as ancestors and guardians. -“I swear by the gods of my people”, was -the ordinary oath of a hero in the ancient Gaelic -sagas. The aboriginal tribes must also have had -their gods, whether it be true or not that their religion -influenced the Celtic Druidism. Professor -Rhys inclines to see in the <i>genii locorum</i>, the almost -nameless spirits of well and river, mountain and -wood—shadowy remnants of whose cults survive to-day,—members -of a swarming Pantheon of the older -Iberians.<a id='r54' /><a href='#f54' class='c010'><sup>[54]</sup></a> These local beings would in no way conflict -with the great Celtic nature-gods, and the two -worships could exist side by side, both even claiming -the same votary. It needs the stern faith of monotheism -to deny the existence of the gods of others. -Polytheistic nations have seldom or never risen to -such a height. In their dealings with a conquered -people, the conquerors naturally held their own gods -to be the stronger. Still, it could not be denied that -the gods of the conquered were upon their own -ground; they knew, so to speak, the country, and -might have unguessed powers of doing evil! What -if, to avenge their worshippers and themselves, they -were to make the land barren and useless to the conquerors? -So that conquering pagan nations have -usually been quite ready to stretch out the hand of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>welcome to the deities of their new subjects, to propitiate -them by sacrifice, and even to admit them -within the pale of their own Pantheon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This raises the question of the exact nationality of -the gods whose stories we are about to tell. Were -they all Aryan, or did any of the greater aboriginal -deities climb up to take their place among the Gaelic -tribe of the goddess Danu, or the British children -of the goddess Dôn? Some of the Celtic gods have -seemed to scholars to bear signs of a non-Aryan -origin.<a id='r55' /><a href='#f55' class='c010'><sup>[55]</sup></a> The point, however, is at present very -obscure. Neither does it much concern us. Just -as the diverse deities of the Greeks—some Aryan -and Hellenic, some pre-Aryan and Pelasgian, some -imported and Semitic—were all gathered into one -great divine family, so we may consider as members -of one national Olympus all these gods whose -legends make up “The Mythology of the British -Islands”.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span> - <h2 class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>THE GAELIC GODS AND THEIR<br />STORIES</span></h2> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c002' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER V<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE GODS OF THE GAELS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>Of the two Celtic races that settled in our islands, -it is the earlier, the Gaels, that has best preserved -its old mythology. It is true that we have in few -cases such detailed account of the Gaelic gods as we -gain of the Hellenic deities from the Greek poets, of -the Indian Devas from the Rig Veda, or of the -Norse Æsir from the Eddas. Yet none the less -may we draw from the ancient Irish manuscripts -quite enough information to enable us to set forth -their figures with some clearness. We find them, as -might have been anticipated, very much like the -divine hierarchies of other Aryan peoples.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We also find them separated into two opposing -camps, a division common to all the Aryan religions. -Just as the Olympians struggled with the Giants, -the Æsir fought the Jötuns, and the Devas the -Asuras, so there is warfare in the Gaelic spiritual -world between two superhuman hosts. On one side -are ranged the gods of day, light, life, fertility, -wisdom, and good; on the other, the demons of -night, darkness, death, barrenness, and evil. The -first were the great spirits symbolizing the beneficial -aspects of nature and the arts and intelligence of -man; the second were the hostile powers thought to -be behind such baneful manifestations as storm and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>fog, drought and disease. The first are ranged as -a divine family round a goddess called Danu, from -whom they took their well-known name of <i>Tuatha -Dé Danann</i>,<a id='r56' /><a href='#f56' class='c010'><sup>[56]</sup></a> “Tribe” or “Folk of the Goddess -Danu”. The second owned allegiance to a female -divinity called Domnu; their king, Indech, is described -as her son, and they are all called “Domnu’s -gods”. The word “Domnu” appears to have signified -the abyss or the deep sea,<a id='r57' /><a href='#f57' class='c010'><sup>[57]</sup></a> and the same -idea is also expressed in their better-known name of -“Fomors”, derived from two Gaelic words meaning -“under sea”.<a id='r58' /><a href='#f58' class='c010'><sup>[58]</sup></a> The waste of water seems to have -always impressed the Celts with the sense of primeval -ancientness; it was connected in their minds -with vastness, darkness, and monstrous births—the -very antithesis of all that was symbolized by the -earth, the sky, and the sun.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Therefore the Fomors were held to be more -ancient than the gods, before whom they were, -however, destined to fall in the end. Offspring of -“Chaos and Old Night”, they were, for the most -part, huge and deformed. Some had but one arm -and one leg apiece, while others had the heads of -goats, horses, or bulls.<a id='r59' /><a href='#f59' class='c010'><sup>[59]</sup></a> The most famous, and -perhaps the most terrible of them all was Balor, -whose father is said to have been one Buarainech, -that is, the “cow-faced”,<a id='r60' /><a href='#f60' class='c010'><sup>[60]</sup></a> and who combined in himself -the two classical rôles of the Cyclops and the -Medusa. Though he had two eyes, one was always -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>kept shut, for it was so venomous that it slew anyone -on whom its look fell. This malignant quality -of Balor’s eye was not natural to him, but was the -result of an accident. Urged by curiosity, he once -looked in at the window of a house where his -father’s sorcerers were preparing a magic potion, -and the poisonous smoke from the cauldron reached -his eye, infecting it with so much of its own deadly -nature as to make it disastrous to others. Neither -god nor giant seems to have been exempt from its -dangers; so that Balor was only allowed to live on -condition that he kept his terrible eye shut. On -days of battle he was placed opposite to the enemy, -the lid of the destroying eye was lifted up with a -hook, and its gaze withered all who stood before it. -The memory of Balor and his eye still lingers in -Ireland: the “eye of Balor” is the name for what -the peasantry of other countries call the “evil eye”; -stories are still told of <i>Balar Beimann</i>, or “Balor of -the Mighty Blows”; and “Balor’s Castle” is the name -of a curious cliff on Tory Island. This island, off -the coast of Donegal, was the Fomorian outpost -upon earth, their real abode being in the cold depths -of the sea.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This rule, however, as to the hideousness of the -Fomors had its exceptions. Elathan, one of their -chiefs, is described in an old manuscript as of -magnificent presence—a Miltonic prince of darkness. -“A man of fairest form,” it says, “with -golden hair down to his shoulders. He wore a -mantle of gold braid over a shirt interwoven with -threads of gold. Five golden necklaces were round -<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>his neck, and a brooch of gold with a shining precious -stone thereon was on his breast. He carried two -silver spears with rivets of bronze, and his sword -was golden-hilted and golden-studded.”<a id='r61' /><a href='#f61' class='c010'><sup>[61]</sup></a> Nor was -his son less handsome. His name was Bress, which -means “beautiful”, and we are told that every -beautiful thing in Ireland, “whether plain, or fortress, -or ale, or torch, or woman, or man”, was compared -with him, so that men said of them, “that is a -Bress”.<a id='r62' /><a href='#f62' class='c010'><sup>[62]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Balor, Bress, and Elathan are the three Fomorian -personages whose figures, seen through the mists of -antiquity, show clearest to us. But they are only a -few out of many, nor are they the oldest. We can -learn, however, nothing but a few names of any ancestors -of the Gaelic giants. This is equally true of -the Gaelic gods. Those we know are evidently not -without parentage, but the names of their fathers are -no more than shadows following into oblivion the -figures they designated. The most ancient divinity -of whom we have any knowledge is Danu herself, -the goddess from whom the whole hierarchy of gods -received its name of Tuatha Dé Danann. She was -also called Anu or Ana, and her name still clings to -two well-known mountains near Killarney, which, -though now called simply “The Paps”, were known -formerly as the “Paps of Ana”.<a id='r63' /><a href='#f63' class='c010'><sup>[63]</sup></a> She was the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>universal mother; “well she used to cherish the -gods”, says the commentator of a ninth-century Irish -glossary.<a id='r64' /><a href='#f64' class='c010'><sup>[64]</sup></a> Her husband is never mentioned by -name, but one may assume him, from British analogies, -to have been Bilé, known to Gaelic tradition -as a god of Hades, a kind of Celtic Dis Pater from -whom sprang the first men. Danu herself probably -represented the earth and its fruitfulness, and one -might compare her with the Greek Demeter. All -the other gods are, at least by title, her children. -The greatest of these would seem to have been -Nuada, called <i>Argetlám</i>, or “He of the Silver -Hand”. He was at once the Gaelic Zeus, or -Jupiter, and their war-god; for among primitive -nations, to whom success in war is all-important, the -god of battles is the supreme god.<a id='r65' /><a href='#f65' class='c010'><sup>[65]</sup></a> Among the -Gauls, Camulus, whose name meant “Heaven”,<a id='r66' /><a href='#f66' class='c010'><sup>[66]</sup></a> was -identified by the Romans with Mars; and other such -instances come readily to the mind. He was possessed -of an invincible sword, one of the four chief -treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann, over whom he -was twice king; and there is little doubt that he was -one of the most important gods of both the Gaels -and the Britons, for his name is spread over the -whole of the British Isles, which we may surmise -the Celts conquered under his auspices. We may -picture him as a more savage Mars, delighting in -battle and slaughter, and worshipped, like his -Gaulish affinities, Teutates and Hesus, of whom the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>Latin poet Lucan tells us, with human sacrifices, -shared in by his female consorts, who, we may -imagine, were not more merciful than himself, or -than that Gaulish Taranis whose cult was “no -gentler than that of the Scythian Diana”, and who -completes Lucan’s triad as a fit companion to the -“pitiless Teutates” and the “horrible Hesus”.<a id='r67' /><a href='#f67' class='c010'><sup>[67]</sup></a> Of -these warlike goddesses there were five—Fea, the -“Hateful”, Nemon, the “Venomous”, Badb, the -“Fury”, Macha, a personification of “battle”, and, -over all of them, the Morrígú, or “Great Queen”. -This supreme war-goddess of the Gaels, who resembles -a fiercer Herê, perhaps symbolized the -moon, deemed by early races to have preceded the -sun, and worshipped with magical and cruel rites. -She is represented as going fully armed, and carrying -two spears in her hand. As with Arês<a id='r68' /><a href='#f68' class='c010'><sup>[68]</sup></a> and -Poseidon<a id='r69' /><a href='#f69' class='c010'><sup>[69]</sup></a> in the “Iliad”, her battle-cry was as loud -as that of ten thousand men. Wherever there was -war, either among gods or men, she, the great queen, -was present, either in her own shape or in her -favourite disguise, that of a “hoodie” or carrion -crow. An old poem shows her inciting a warrior:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Over his head is shrieking</div> - <div class='line in3'>A lean hag, quickly hopping</div> - <div class='line in1'>Over the points of the weapons and shields;</div> - <div class='line in3'>She is the gray-haired Morrígú”.<a id='r70' /><a href='#f70' class='c010'><sup>[70]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>With her, Fea and Nemon, Badb and Macha also -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>hovered over the fighters, inspiring them with the -madness of battle. All of these were sometimes -called by the name of “Badb”<a id='r71' /><a href='#f71' class='c010'><sup>[71]</sup></a>. An account of the -Battle of Clontarf, fought by Brian Boru, in 1014, -against the Norsemen, gives a gruesome picture of -what the Gaels believed to happen in the spiritual -world when battle lowered and men’s blood was -aflame. “There arose a wild, impetuous, precipitate, -mad, inexorable, furious, dark, lacerating, -merciless, combative, contentious <i>badb</i>, which was -shrieking and fluttering over their heads. And -there arose also the satyrs, and sprites, and the -maniacs of the valleys, and the witches and goblins -and owls, and destroying demons of the air and -firmament, and the demoniac phantom host; and -they were inciting and sustaining valour and battle -with them.” When the fight was over, they revelled -among the bodies of the slain; the heads cut off as -barbaric trophies were called “Macha’s acorn crop”. -These grim creations of the savage mind had immense -vitality. While Nuada, the supreme war-god, -vanished early out of the Pantheon—killed by -the Fomors in the great battle fought between them -and the gods—Badb and the Morrígú lived on as -late as any of the Gaelic deities. Indeed, they may -be said to still survive in the superstitious dislike -and suspicion shown in all Celtic-speaking countries -for their <i>avatar</i>, the hoodie-crow.<a id='r72' /><a href='#f72' class='c010'><sup>[72]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>After Nuada, the greatest of the gods was the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>Dagda, whose name seems to have meant the “Good -God”.<a id='r73' /><a href='#f73' class='c010'><sup>[73]</sup></a> The old Irish tract called “The Choice of -Names” tells us that he was a god of the earth; -he had a cauldron called “The Undry”, in which -everyone found food in proportion to his merits, and -from which none went away unsatisfied. He also -had a living harp; as he played upon it, the seasons -came in their order—spring following winter, and -summer succeeding spring, autumn coming after -summer, and, in its turn, giving place to winter. He -is represented as of venerable aspect and of simple -mind and tastes, very fond of porridge, and a valiant -consumer of it. In an ancient tale we have a description -of his dress. He wore a brown, low-necked -tunic which only reached down to his hips, -and, over this, a hooded cape which barely covered -his shoulders. On his feet and legs were horse-hide -boots, the hairy side outwards. He carried, or, -rather, drew after him on a wheel, an eight-pronged -war-club, so huge that eight men would have been -needed to carry it; and the wheel, as he towed the -whole weapon along, made a track like a territorial -boundary.<a id='r74' /><a href='#f74' class='c010'><sup>[74]</sup></a> Ancient and gray-headed as he was, -and sturdy porridge-eater, it will be seen from this -that he was a formidable fighter. He did great deeds -in the battle between the gods and the Fomors, and, -on one occasion, is even said to have captured single-handed -a hundred-legged and four-headed monster -called Mata, dragged him to the “Stone of Benn”, -near the Boyne, and killed him there.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>The Dagda’s wife was called Boann. She was -connected in legend with the River Boyne, to -which she gave its name, and, indeed, its very existence.<a id='r75' /><a href='#f75' class='c010'><sup>[75]</sup></a> -Formerly there was only a well<a id='r76' /><a href='#f76' class='c010'><sup>[76]</sup></a>, shaded by -nine magic hazel-trees. These trees bore crimson -nuts, and it was the property of the nuts that whoever -ate of them immediately became possessed of -the knowledge of everything that was in the world. -The story is, in fact, a Gaelic version of the Hebrew -myth of “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and -Evil”. One class of creatures alone had this -privilege—divine salmon who lived in the well, and -swallowed the nuts as they dropped from the trees -into the water, and thus knew all things, and appear -in legend as the “Salmons of Knowledge”. All -others, even the highest gods, were forbidden to -approach the place. Only Boann, with the proverbial -woman’s curiosity, dared to disobey this -fixed law. She came towards the sacred well, but, -as she did so, its waters rose up at her, and drove -her away before them in a mighty, rushing flood. -She escaped; but the waters never returned. They -made the Boyne; and as for the all-knowing inhabitants -of the well, they wandered disconsolately -through the depths of the river, looking in vain for -their lost nuts. One of these salmon was afterwards -eaten by the famous Finn mac Coul, upon whom all -its omniscience descended.<a id='r77' /><a href='#f77' class='c010'><sup>[77]</sup></a> This way of accounting -for the existence of a river is a favourite one in Irish -legend. It is told also of the Shannon, which burst, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>like the Boyne, from an inviolable well, to pursue -another presumptuous nymph called Sinann, a granddaughter -of the sea-god Lêr.<a id='r78' /><a href='#f78' class='c010'><sup>[78]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The Dagda had several children, the most important -of whom are Brigit, Angus, Mider, Ogma, -and Bodb the Red. Of these, Brigit will be -already familiar to English readers who know nothing -of Celtic myth. Originally she was a goddess -of fire and the hearth, as well as of poetry, which -the Gaels deemed an immaterial, supersensual form -of flame. But the early Christianizers of Ireland -adopted the pagan goddess into their roll of saintship, -and, thus canonized, she obtained immense -popularity as Saint Bridget, or Bride.<a id='r79' /><a href='#f79' class='c010'><sup>[79]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Angus was called <i>Mac Oc</i>, which means the “Son -of the Young”, or, perhaps, the “Young God”. -This most charming of the creations of the Celtic -mythology is represented as a Gaelic Eros, an -eternally youthful exponent of love and beauty. -Like his father, he had a harp, but it was of gold, -not oak, as the Dagda’s was, and so sweet was its -music that no one could hear and not follow it. His -kisses became birds which hovered invisibly over -the young men and maidens of Erin, whispering -thoughts of love into their ears. He is chiefly -connected with the banks of the Boyne, where he -had a “brugh”, or fairy palace; and many stories -are told of his exploits and adventures.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Mider, also the hero of legends, would seem to -have been a god of the underworld, a Gaelic -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>Pluto. As such, he was connected with the Isle -of Falga—a name for what was otherwise, and still -is, called the Isle of Man—where he had a stronghold -in which he kept three wonderful cows and -a magic cauldron. He was also the owner of the -“Three Cranes of Denial and Churlishness”, which -might be described flippantly as personified “gentle -hints”. They stood beside his door, and when anyone -approached to ask for hospitality, the first one -said: “Do not come! do not come!” and the second -added: “Get away! get away!” while the third -chimed in with: “Go past the house! go past the -house!”<a id='r80' /><a href='#f80' class='c010'><sup>[80]</sup></a> These three birds were, however, stolen -from Mider by Aitherne, an avaricious poet, to -whom they would seem to have been more appropriate -than to their owner, who does not otherwise -appear as a churlish and illiberal deity.<a id='r81' /><a href='#f81' class='c010'><sup>[81]</sup></a> On the -contrary, he is represented as the victim of others, -who plundered him freely. The god Angus took -away his wife Etain,<a id='r82' /><a href='#f82' class='c010'><sup>[82]</sup></a> while his cows, his cauldron, -and his beautiful daughter Blathnat were carried off -as spoil by the heroes or demi-gods who surrounded -King Conchobar in the golden age of Ulster.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Ogma, who appears to have been also called -Cermait, that is, the “honey-mouthed”, was the -god of literature and eloquence. He married -Etan, the daughter of Diancecht, the god of medicine, -and had several children, who play parts more -or less prominent in the mythology of the Gaelic -Celts. One of them was called Tuirenn, whose -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>three sons murdered the father of the sun-god, and -were compelled, as expiation, to pay the greatest fine -ever heard of—nothing less than the chief treasures -of the world.<a id='r83' /><a href='#f83' class='c010'><sup>[83]</sup></a> Another son, Cairpré, became the -professional bard of the Tuatha Dé Danann, while -three others reigned for a short time over the divine -race. As patron of literature, Ogma was naturally -credited with having been the inventor of the famous -<i>Ogam</i> alphabet. This was an indigenous script of -Ireland, which spread afterwards to Great Britain, -inscriptions in ogmic characters having been found -in Scotland, the Isle of Man, South Wales, Devonshire, -and at Silchester in Hampshire, the Roman -city of Calleva Attrebatum. It was originally intended -for inscriptions upon upright pillar-stones or -upon wands, the equivalents for letters being notches -cut across, or strokes made upon one of the faces of -the angle, the alphabet running as follows:</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/p_068.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>When afterwards written in manuscript, the strokes -were placed over, under, or through a horizontal -line, in the manner above; and the vowels were -represented by short lines instead of notches, as:</p> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/p_069_a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>A good example of an ogmic inscription is given -in Professor Rhys’s <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>. It comes from -a pillar on a small promontory near Dunmore Head, -in the west of Kerry, and, read horizontally, reads:</p> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/p_069_b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic003'> -<p><span class='sc'>ERC, the SON of the SON of ERCA (descendant of) MODOVINIA.</span><a id='r84' /><a href='#f84' class='c010'><sup>[84]</sup></a></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>The origin of this alphabet is obscure. Some -authorities consider it of great antiquity, while others -believe it entirely post-Christian. It seems, at any -rate, to have been based upon, and consequently to -presuppose a knowledge of, the Roman alphabet.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Ogma, besides being the patron of literature, was -the champion, or professional strong man of the -Tuatha Dé Danann. His epithet is <i>Grianainech</i>, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>that is, the “Sunny-faced”, from his radiant and -shining countenance.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The last of the Dagda’s more important children -is Bodb<a id='r85' /><a href='#f85' class='c010'><sup>[85]</sup></a> the Red, who plays a greater part in later -than in earlier legend. He succeeded his father as -king of the gods. He is chiefly connected with -the south of Ireland, especially with the Galtee -Mountains, and with Lough Dearg, where he had -a famous <i>sídh</i>, or underground palace.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Poseidon of the Tuatha Dé Danann Pantheon -was called Lêr, but we hear little of him in comparison -with his famous son, Manannán, the greatest -and most popular of his many children. Manannán -mac Lir<a id='r86' /><a href='#f86' class='c010'><sup>[86]</sup></a> was the special patron of sailors, who -invoked him as “God of Headlands”, and of merchants, -who claimed him as the first of their guild. -His favourite haunts were the Isle of Man, to which -he gave his name, and the Isle of Arran, in the -Firth of Clyde, where he had a palace called “Emhain -of the Apple-Trees”. He had many famous weapons—two -spears called “Yellow Shaft” and “Red -Javelin”, a sword called “The Retaliator”, which -never failed to slay, as well as two others known as -the “Great Fury” and the “Little Fury”. He had -a boat called “Wave-sweeper”, which propelled and -guided itself wherever its owner wished, and a horse -called “Splendid Mane”, which was swifter than -the spring wind, and travelled equally fast on land -or over the waves of the sea. No weapon could -hurt him through his magic mail and breast-plate, -and on his helmet there shone two magic jewels -<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>bright as the sun. He endowed the gods with -the mantle which made them invisible at will, and -he fed them from his pigs, which, like the boar -Sæhrimnir, in the Norse Valhalla, renewed themselves -as soon as they had been eaten. Of these, -no doubt, he made his “Feast of Age”, the banquet -at which those who ate never grew old. Thus the -people of the goddess Danu preserved their immortal -youth, while the ale of Goibniu the Smith-God -bestowed invulnerability upon them. It is -fitting that Manannán himself should have been -blessed beyond all the other gods with inexhaustible -life; up to the latest days of Irish heroic literature -his luminous figure shines prominent, nor is it even -yet wholly forgotten.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Goibniu, the Gaelic Hephaestus, who made the -people of the goddess Danu invulnerable with his -magic drink, was also the forger of their weapons. -It was he who, helped by Luchtainé, the divine -carpenter, and Credné, the divine bronze-worker, -made the armoury with which the Tuatha Dé Danann -conquered the Fomors. Equally useful to -them was Diancecht, the god of medicine.<a id='r87' /><a href='#f87' class='c010'><sup>[87]</sup></a> It -was he who once saved Ireland, and was indirectly -the cause of the name of the River Barrow. The -Morrígú, the heaven-god’s fierce wife, had borne -a son of such terrible aspect that the physician of -the gods, foreseeing danger, counselled that he -should be destroyed in his infancy. This was done; -and Diancecht opened the infant’s heart, and found -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>within it three serpents, capable, when they grew to -full size, of depopulating Ireland. He lost no time -in destroying these serpents also, and burning them -into ashes, to avoid the evil which even their dead -bodies might do. More than this, he flung the -ashes into the nearest river, for he feared that there -might be danger even in them; and, indeed, so -venomous were they that the river boiled up and -slew every living creature in it, and therefore has -been called “Barrow” (boiling) ever since.<a id='r88' /><a href='#f88' class='c010'><sup>[88]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Diancecht had several children, of whom two followed -their father’s profession. These were Miach -and his sister Airmid. There were also another -daughter, Etan, who married Cermait (or Ogma), -and three other sons called Cian, Cethé, and Cu. -Cian married Ethniu, the daughter of Balor the -Fomor, and they had a son who was the crowning -glory of the Gaelic Pantheon—its Apollo, the Sun-God,—Lugh<a id='r89' /><a href='#f89' class='c010'><sup>[89]</sup></a>, -called <i>Lamhfada</i><a id='r90' /><a href='#f90' class='c010'><sup>[90]</sup></a>, which means the -“Long-handed”, or the “Far-shooter”. It was not, -however, with the bow, like the Apollo of the -Greeks, but with the rod-sling that Lugh performed -his feats; his worshippers sometimes saw -the terrible weapon in the sky as a rainbow, and -the Milky Way was called “Lugh’s Chain”. He -also had a magic spear, which, unlike the rod-sling, -he had no need to wield, himself; for it was alive, -and thirsted so for blood that only by steeping its -head in a sleeping-draught of pounded poppy leaves -could it be kept at rest. When battle was near, it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>was drawn out; then it roared, and struggled against -its thongs; fire flashed from it; and, once slipped -from the leash, it tore through and through the -ranks of the enemy, never tired of slaying. Another -of his possessions was a magic hound which an -ancient poem,<a id='r91' /><a href='#f91' class='c010'><sup>[91]</sup></a> attributed to the Fenian hero, Caoilte, -calls—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“That hound of mightiest deeds,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Which was irresistible in hardness of combat,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Was better than wealth ever known,</div> - <div class='line in1'>A ball of fire every night.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Other virtues had that beautiful hound</div> - <div class='line in1'>(Better this property than any other property),</div> - <div class='line in1'>Mead or wine would grow of it,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Should it bathe in spring water.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>This marvellous hound, as well as the marvellous -spear, and the indestructible pigs of Manannán were -obtained for Lugh by the sons of Tuirenn as part of -the blood-fine he exacted from them for the murder -of his father Cian.<a id='r92' /><a href='#f92' class='c010'><sup>[92]</sup></a> A hardly less curious story is -that which tells how Lugh got his name of the -<i>Ioldanach</i>, or the “Master of All Arts”.<a id='r93' /><a href='#f93' class='c010'><sup>[93]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>These are, of course, only the greater deities of -the Gaelic Pantheon, their divinities which answered -to such Hellenic figures as Demeter, Zeus, Herê, -Cronos, Athena, Eros, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus, -Aesculapius, and Apollo. All of them had many -descendants, some of whom play prominent parts -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>in the heroic cycles of the “Red Branch of Ulster” -and of the “Fenians”. In addition to these, there -must have been a multitude of lesser gods who -stood in much the same relation to the great gods -as the rank and file of tribesmen did to their chiefs. -Most of these were probably local deities of the -various clans—the gods their heroes swore by. But -it is also possible that some may have been divinities -of the aboriginal race. Professor Rhys thinks -that he can still trace a few of such Iberian gods by -name, as Nêt, Ri or Roi, Corb, and Beth.<a id='r94' /><a href='#f94' class='c010'><sup>[94]</sup></a> But -they play no recognizable part in the stories of the -Gaelic gods.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER VI<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE GODS ARRIVE</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The people of the goddess Danu were not the -first divine inhabitants of Ireland. Others had been -before them, dwellers in “the dark backward and -abysm of time”. In this the Celtic mythology resembles -those of other nations, in almost all of which -we find an old, dim realm of gods standing behind -the reigning Pantheon. Such were Cronos and the -Titans, dispossessed by the Zeus who seemed, even -to Hesiod, something of a <i>parvenu</i> deity. Gaelic -tradition recognizes two divine dynasties anterior to -the Tuatha Dé Danann. The first of these was -called “The Race of Partholon”. Its head and -leader came—as all gods and men came, according -to Celtic ideas—from the Other World, and landed -in Ireland with a retinue of twenty-four males and -twenty-four females upon the first of May, the day -called “Beltaine”, sacred to Bilé, the god of death. -At this remote time, Ireland consisted of only one -treeless, grassless plain, watered by three lakes and -nine rivers. But, as the race of Partholon increased, -the land stretched, or widened, under them—some -said miraculously, and others, by the labours of -Partholon’s people. At any rate, during the three -hundred years they dwelt there, it grew from one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>plain to four, and acquired seven new lakes; which -was fortunate, for the race of Partholon increased -from forty-eight members to five thousand, in spite -of battles with the Fomors.</p> - -<p class='c005'>These would seem to have been inevitable. -Whatever gods ruled, they found themselves in -eternal opposition to the not-gods—the powers of -darkness, winter, evil, and death. The race of -Partholon warred against them with success. At -the Plain of Ith, Partholon defeated their leader, -a gigantic demon called Cichol the Footless, and -dispersed his deformed and monstrous host. After -this there was quiet for three hundred years. Then—upon -the same fatal first of May—there began a -mysterious epidemic, which lasted a week, and destroyed -them all. In premonition of their end, they -foregathered upon the original, first-created plain—then -called <i>Sen Mag</i>, or the “Old Plain”,—so that -those who survived might the more easily bury -those that died. Their funeral-place is still marked -by a mound near Dublin, called “Tallaght” in the -maps, but formerly known as <i>Tamlecht Muintre -Partholain</i>, the “Plague-grave of Partholon’s -People”. This would seem to have been a development -of the very oldest form of the legend—which -knew nothing of a plague, but merely represented -the people of Partholon as having returned, -after their sojourn in Ireland, to the other world, -whence they came—and is probably due to the -gradual euhemerization of the ancient gods into -ancient men.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Following the race of Partholon, came the race -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>of Nemed, which carried on the work and traditions -of its forerunner. During its time, Ireland again -enlarged herself, to the extent of twelve new plains -and four more lakes. Like the people of Partholon, -the race of Nemed struggled with the -Fomors, and defeated them in four consecutive -battles. Then Nemed died, with two thousand of -his people, from an epidemic, and the remnant, left -without their leader, were terribly oppressed by the -Fomors. Two Fomorian kings—Morc, son of -Dela, and Conann, son of Febar—had built a tower -of glass upon Tory Island, always their chief stronghold, -and where stories of them still linger, and -from this vantage-point they dictated a tax which -recalls that paid, in Greek story, to the Cretan -Minotaur. Two-thirds of the children born to the -race of Nemed during the year were to be delivered -up on each day of Samhain. Goaded by this to -a last desperate effort, the survivors of Nemed’s -people attacked the tower, and took it, Conann -perishing in the struggle. But their triumph was -short. Morc, the other king, collected his forces, -and inflicted such a slaughter upon the people of -Nemed that, out of the sixteen thousand who had -assembled for the storming of the tower, only thirty -survived. And these returned whence they came, -or died—the two acts being, mythologically speaking, -the same.<a id='r95' /><a href='#f95' class='c010'><sup>[95]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>One cannot help seeing a good deal of similarity -between the stories of these two mythical invasions -of Ireland. Especially noticeable is the account of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>the epidemic which destroyed all Partholon’s people -and nearly all of Nemed’s. Hence it has been held -that the two legends are duplicates, and that there -was at first only one, which has been adapted somewhat -differently by two races, the Iberians and the -Gaels. Professor Rhys considers<a id='r96' /><a href='#f96' class='c010'><sup>[96]</sup></a> the account of -Nemed to have been the original Celtic one, and -the Partholon story, the version of it which the -native races made to please themselves. The name -“Partholon”, with its initial <i>p</i>, is entirely foreign to -the genius of Gaelic speech. Moreover, Partholon -himself is given, by the early chroniclers, ancestors -whose decidedly non-Aryan names reappear afterwards -as the names of Fir Bolg chiefs. Nemed was -later than Partholon in Ireland, as the Gaels, or “Milesians”, -were later than the Iberians, or “Fir Bolgs”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>These “Fir Bolgs” are found in myth as the -next colonizers of Ireland. Varying traditions say -that they came from Greece, or from “Spain”—which -was a post-Christian euphemism for the -Celtic Hades.<a id='r97' /><a href='#f97' class='c010'><sup>[97]</sup></a> They consisted of three tribes, -called the “Fir Domnann” or “Men of Domnu”, -the “Fir Gaillion” or “Men of Gaillion”, and the -“Fir Bolg” or “Men of Bolg”; but, in spite of the -fact that the first-named tribe was the most important, -they are usually called collectively after -the last. Curious stories are told of their life in -Greece, and how they came to Ireland; but these -are somewhat factitious, and obviously do not belong -to the earliest tradition.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>In the time of their domination they had, we are -told, partitioned Ireland among them: the Fir Bolg -held Ulster; the Fir Domnann, divided into three -kingdoms, occupied North Munster, South Munster, -and Connaught; while the Fir Gaillion owned Leinster. -These five provinces met at a hill then called -“Balor’s Hill”, but afterwards the “Hill of Uisnech”. -It is near Rathconrath, in the county of West -Meath, and was believed, in early times, to mark -the exact centre of Ireland. They held the country -from the departure of the people of Nemed to the -coming of the people of the goddess Danu, and during -this period they had nine supreme kings. At -the time of the arrival of the gods, their king’s name -was Eochaid<a id='r98' /><a href='#f98' class='c010'><sup>[98]</sup></a> son of Erc, surnamed “The Proud”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We have practically no other details regarding -their life in Ireland. It is obvious, however, that -they were not really gods, but the pre-Aryan race -which the Gaels, when they landed in Ireland, found -already in occupation. There are many instances -of peoples at a certain stage of culture regarding -tribes in a somewhat lower one as semi-divine, or, -rather, half-diabolical.<a id='r99' /><a href='#f99' class='c010'><sup>[99]</sup></a> The suspicion and fear -with which the early Celts must have regarded the -savage aborigines made them seem “larger than -human”. They feared them for the weird magical -rites which they practised in their inaccessible forts -among the hills, amid storms and mountain mists. -The Gaels, who held themselves to be the children -of light, deemed these “dark Iberians” children of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>the dark. Their tribal names seem to have been, -in several instances, founded upon this idea. There -were the <i>Corca-Oidce</i> (“People of Darkness”) and -the <i>Corca-Duibhne</i> (“People of the Night”). The -territory of the western tribe of the <i>Hi Dorchaide</i> -(“Sons of Dark”) was called the “Night Country”.<a id='r100' /><a href='#f100' class='c010'><sup>[100]</sup></a> -The Celts, who held their own gods to have preceded -them into Ireland, would not believe that even the -Tuatha Dé Danann could have wrested the land -from these magic-skilled Iberians without battle.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They seem also to have been considered as in -some way connected with the Fomors. Just as -the largest Iberian tribe was called the “Men of -Domnu”, so the Fomors were called the “Gods of -Domnu”, and Indech, one of their kings, is a “son -of Domnu”. Thus eternal battle between the gods, -children of Danu, and the giants, children of Domnu, -would reflect, in the supernatural world, the perpetual -warfare between invading Celt and resisting -Iberian. It is shadowed, too, in the later heroic -cycle. The champions of Ulster, Aryans and Gaels -<i>par excellence</i>, have no such bitter enemies as the -Fir Domnann of Munster and the Fir Gaillion of -Leinster. A few scholars would even see in the -later death-struggle between the High King of -Ireland and his rebellious Fenians the last historic -or mythological adumbration of racial war.<a id='r101' /><a href='#f101' class='c010'><sup>[101]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The enemies alike of Fir Bolg and Fomor, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>Tuatha Dé Danann, gods of the Gaels, were the -next to arrive. What is probably the earliest -account tells us that they came from the sky. Later -versions, however, give them a habitation upon -earth—some say in the north, others in the “southern -isles of the world”. They had dwelt in four mythical -cities called Findias, Gorias, Murias, and Falias, -where they had learned poetry and magic—to the -primitive mind two not very dissimilar things—and -whence they had brought to Ireland their four chief -treasures. From Findias came Nuada’s sword, -from whose stroke no one ever escaped or recovered; -from Gorias, Lugh’s terrible lance; from -Murias, the Dagda’s cauldron; and from Falias, the -Stone of Fál, better known as the “Stone of Destiny”, -which afterwards fell into the hands of the -early kings of Ireland. According to legend, it had -the magic property of uttering a human cry when -touched by the rightful King of Erin. Some have -recognized in this marvellous stone the same rude -block which Edward I brought from Scone in the -year 1300, and placed in Westminster Abbey, where -it now forms part of the Coronation Chair. It is a -curious fact that, while Scottish legend asserts this -stone to have come to Scotland from Ireland, Irish -legend should also declare that it was taken from -Ireland to Scotland. This would sound like conclusive -evidence, but it is none the less held by -leading modern archæologists—including Dr. W. F. -Skene, who has published a monograph on the subject<a id='r102' /><a href='#f102' class='c010'><sup>[102]</sup></a>—that -the Stone of Scone and the Stone of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>Tara were never the same. Dr. Petrie identifies -the real <i>Lia Fáil</i> with a stone which has always -remained in Ireland, and which was removed from -its original position on Tara Hill, in 1798, to mark -the tomb of the rebels buried close by under a -mound now known as “the Croppies’ grave”.<a id='r103' /><a href='#f103' class='c010'><sup>[103]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Whether the Tuatha Dé Danann came from -earth or heaven, they landed in a dense cloud upon -the coast of Ireland on the mystic first of May -without having been opposed, or even noticed by -the people whom it will be convenient to follow the -manuscript authorities in calling the “Fir Bolgs”.<a id='r104' /><a href='#f104' class='c010'><sup>[104]</sup></a> -That those might still be ignorant of their coming, -the Morrígú, helped by Badb and Macha, made use -of the magic they had learned in Findias, Gorias, -Murias, and Falias. They spread “druidically-formed -showers and fog-sustaining shower-clouds” -over the country, and caused the air to pour down -fire and blood upon the Fir Bolgs, so that they were -obliged to shelter themselves for three days and -three nights. But the Fir Bolgs had druids of their -own, and, in the end, they put a stop to these enchantments -by counter-spells, and the air grew clear -again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Tuatha Dé Danann, advancing westward, -had reached a place called the “Plain of the Sea”, -in Leinster, when the two armies met. Each sent -out a warrior to parley. The two adversaries approached -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>each other cautiously, their eyes peeping -over the tops of their shields. Then, coming -gradually nearer, they spoke to one another, and the -desire to examine each other’s weapons made them -almost friends.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The envoy of the Fir Bolgs looked with wonder -at the “beautifully-shaped, thin, slender, long, sharp-pointed -spears” of the warrior of the Tuatha Dé -Danann, while the ambassador of the tribe of the -goddess Danu was not less impressed by the lances -of the Fir Bolgs, which were “heavy, thick, pointless, -but sharply-rounded”. They agreed to exchange -weapons, so that each side might, by an -examination of them, be able to come to some -opinion as to its opponent’s strength. Before parting, -the envoy of the Tuatha Dé Danann offered -the Fir Bolgs, through their representative, peace, -with a division of the country into two equal halves.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Fir Bolg envoy advised his people to accept -this offer. But their king, Eochaid, son of Erc, -would not. “If we once give these people half,” -he said, “they will soon have the whole.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The people of the goddess Danu were, on the -other hand, very much impressed by the sight of -the Fir Bolgs’ weapons. They decided to secure a -more advantageous position, and, retreating farther -west into Connaught, to a plain then called Nia, but -now Moytura, near the present village of Cong, -they drew up their line at its extreme end, in front -of the pass of Balgatan<a id='r105' /><a href='#f105' class='c010'><sup>[105]</sup></a>, which offered a retreat in -case of defeat.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>The Fir Bolgs followed them, and encamped on -the nearer side of the plain. Then Nuada, King of -the Tuatha Dé Danann, sent an ambassador offering -the same terms as before. Again the Fir Bolgs -declined them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Then when”, asked the envoy, “do you intend -to give battle?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We must have a truce,” they said, “for we -want time to repair our armour, burnish our helmets, -and sharpen our swords. Besides, we must have -spears like yours made for us, and you must have -spears like ours made for you.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The result of this chivalrous, but, to modern -ideas, amazing, parley was that a truce of one hundred -and five days was agreed upon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was on Midsummer Day that the opposing -armies at last met. The people of the goddess -Danu appeared in “a flaming line”, wielding their -“red-bordered, speckled, and firm shields”. Opposite -to them were ranged the Fir Bolgs, “sparkling, -brilliant, and flaming, with their swords, spears, -blades, and trowel-spears”. The proceedings began -with a kind of deadly hurley-match, in which thrice -nine of the Tuatha Dé Danann played the same -number of the Fir Bolgs, and were defeated and -killed. Then followed another parley, to decide -how the battle should be carried on, whether there -should be fighting every day or only on every -second day. Moreover, Nuada obtained from -Eochaid an assurance that the battles should always -be fought with equal numbers, although this was, -we are told, “very disagreeable to the Fir Bolg -<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>king, because he had largely the advantage in the -numbers of his army”. Then warfare recommenced -with a series of single combats, like those of the -Greeks and Trojans in the “Iliad”. At the end of -each day the conquerors on both sides went back to -their camps, and were refreshed by being bathed in -healing baths of medicinal herbs.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So the fight went on for four days, with terrible -slaughter upon each side. A Fir Bolg champion -called Sreng fought in single combat with Nuada, -the King of the Gods, and shore off his hand and -half his shield with one terrific blow. Eochaid, -the King of the Fir Bolgs, was even less fortunate -than Nuada; for he lost his life. Suffering terribly -from thirst, he went, with a hundred of his men, -to look for water, and was followed, and pursued -as far as the strand of Ballysadare, in Sligo. -Here he turned to bay, but was killed, his grave -being still marked by a tumulus. The Fir Bolgs, -reduced at last to three hundred men, demanded -single combat until all upon one side were slain. -But, sooner than consent to this, the Tuatha Dé -Danann offered them a fifth part of Ireland, whichever -province they might choose. They agreed, -and chose Connaught, ever afterwards their especial -home, and where, until the middle of the seventeenth -century, men were still found tracing their -descent from Sreng.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The whole story has a singularly historical, curiously -unmythological air about it, which contrasts -strangely with the account of the other battle of the -same name which the Tuatha Dé Danann waged -<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>afterwards with the Fomors. The neighbourhood -of Cong still preserves both relics and traditions of -the fight. Upon the plain of “Southern Moytura” -(as it is called, to distinguish it from the “Northern -Moytura” of the second battle) are many circles -and tumuli. These circles are especially numerous -near the village itself; and it is said that there were -formerly others, which have been used for making -walls and dykes. Large cairns of stones, too, are -scattered over what was certainly once the scene of -a great battle.<a id='r106' /><a href='#f106' class='c010'><sup>[106]</sup></a> These various prehistoric monuments -each have their still-told story; and Sir -William Wilde, as he relates in his <i>Lough Corrib</i>,<a id='r107' /><a href='#f107' class='c010'><sup>[107]</sup></a> -was so impressed by the unexpected agreement -between the details of the legendary battle, as he -read them in the ancient manuscript, and the traditions -still attaching to the mounds, circles, and -cairns, that he tells us he could not help coming to -the conclusion that the account was absolutely historical. -Certainly the coincidences are curious. -His opinion was that the “Fir Bolgs” were a colony -of Belgæ, and that the “Tuatha Dé Danann” were -Danes. But the people of the goddess Danu are -too obviously mythical to make it worth while to -seek any standing-ground for them in the world of -reality. In their superhuman attributes, they are -quite different from the Fir Bolgs. In the epical -cycle it is made as clear that the Tuatha Dé Danann -are divine beings as it is that the Fir Bolg, the -Fir Domnann, and the Fir Gaillion stand on exactly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>the same footing as the men of Ulster. Later -history records by what Milesian kings and on what -terms of rack-rent the three tribes were allowed -settlements in other parts of Ireland than their -native Connaught. They appear in ancient, mediæval, -and almost modern chronicles as the old race -of the land. The truth seems to be that the whole -story of the war between the gods and the Fir -Bolgs is an invention of comparatively late times. -In the earliest documents there is only one battle of -Moytura, fought between the people of the goddess -Danu and the Fomors. The idea of doubling it -seems to date from after the eleventh century;<a id='r108' /><a href='#f108' class='c010'><sup>[108]</sup></a> and -its inventor may very well have used the legends -concerning this battle-field, where two unknown -armies had fought in days gone by, in compiling -his story. It never belonged to the same genuine -mythological stratum as the legend of the original -battle fought by the Tuatha Dé Danann, the gods -of the Gaels, against the Fomors, the gods of the -Iberians.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER VII<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE RISE OF THE SUN-GOD<a id='r109' /><a href='#f109' class='c010'><sup>[109]</sup></a></span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>It was as a result of the loss of his hand in this -battle with the Fir Bolgs that Nuada got his name -of <i>Argetlám</i>, that is, the “Silver Handed”. For -Diancecht, the physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann, -made him an artificial hand of silver, so skilfully -that it moved in all its joints, and was as strong and -supple as a real one. But, good as it was of its -sort, it was a blemish; and, according to Celtic custom, -no maimed person could sit upon the throne. -Nuada was deposed; and the Tuatha Dé Danann -went into council to appoint a new king.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They agreed that it would be a politic thing for -them to conciliate the Fomors, the giants of the -sea, and make an alliance with them. So they sent -a message to Bress, the son of the Fomorian king, -Elathan, asking him to come and rule over them. -Bress accepted this offer; and they made a marriage -between him and Brigit, the daughter of the Dagda. -At the same time, Cian<a id='r110' /><a href='#f110' class='c010'><sup>[110]</sup></a>, the son of Diancecht, the -physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann, married -<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>Ethniu, the daughter of the Fomor, Balor. Then -Bress was made king, and endowed with lands and -a palace; and he, on his part, gave hostages that he -would abdicate if his rule ever became unpleasing to -those who had elected him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But, in spite of all his fair promises, Bress, who -belonged in heart to his own fierce people, began to -oppress his subjects with excessive taxes. He put -a tax upon every hearth, upon every kneading-trough, -and upon every quern, as well as a poll-tax -of an ounce of gold upon every member of the -Tuatha Dé Danann. By a crafty trick, too, he -obtained the milk of all their cattle. He asked at -first only for the produce of any cows which happened -to be brown and hairless, and the people of -the goddess Danu granted him this cheerfully. -But Bress passed all the cattle in Ireland between -two fires, so that their hair was singed off, and thus -obtained the monopoly of the main source of food. -To earn a livelihood, all the gods, even the greatest, -were now forced to labour for him. Ogma, their -champion, was sent out to collect firewood, while -the Dagda was put to work building forts and -castles.</p> - -<p class='c005'>One day, when the Dagda was at his task, his -son, Angus, came to him. “You have nearly -finished that castle,” he said. “What reward do -you intend to ask from Bress when it is done?” -The Dagda replied that he had not yet thought of -it. “Let me give you some advice,” said Angus. -“Ask Bress to have all the cattle in Ireland gathered -together upon a plain, so that you can pick out one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>for yourself. He will consent to that. Then choose -the black-maned heifer called ‘Ocean’.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Dagda finished building the fort, and then -went to Bress for his reward. “What will you -have?” asked Bress. “I want all the cattle in Ireland -gathered together upon a plain, so that I may -choose one of them for myself.” Bress did this; -and the Dagda took the black-maned heifer Angus -had told him of. The king, who had expected to -be asked very much more, laughed at what he -thought was the Dagda’s simplicity. But Angus -had been wise; as will be seen hereafter.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Meanwhile Bress was infuriating the people of -the goddess Danu by adding avarice to tyranny. -It was for kings to be liberal to all-comers, but at -the court of Bress no one ever greased his knife -with fat, or made his breath smell of ale. Nor were -there ever any poets or musicians or jugglers or -jesters there to give pleasure to the people; for -Bress would distribute no largess. Next, he cut -down the very subsistence of the gods. So scanty -was his allowance of food that they began to grow -weak with famine. Ogma, through feebleness, could -only carry one-third of the wood needed for fuel; so -that they suffered from cold as well as from hunger.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was at this crisis that two physicians, Miach, -the son, and Airmid, the daughter, of Diancecht, -the god of medicine, came to the castle where the -dispossessed King Nuada lived. Nuada’s porter, -blemished, like himself (for he had lost an eye), was -sitting at the gate, and on his lap was a cat curled -up asleep. The porter asked the strangers who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>they were. “We are good doctors,” they said. “If -that is so,” he replied, “perhaps you can give me a -new eye.” “Certainly,” they said, “we could take -one of the eyes of that cat, and put it in the place -where your lost eye used to be.” “I should be very -pleased if you would do that,” answered the porter, -So Miach and Airmid removed one of the cat’s -eyes, and put it in the hollow where the man’s eye -had been.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The story goes on to say that this was not wholly -a benefit to him; for the eye retained its cat’s -nature, and, when the man wished to sleep at nights, -the cat’s eye was always looking out for mice, while -it could hardly be kept awake during the day. -Nevertheless, he was pleased at the time, and went -and told Nuada, who commanded that the doctors -who had performed this marvellous cure should be -brought to him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>As they came in, they heard the king groaning, -for Nuada’s wrist had festered where the silver hand -joined the arm of flesh. Miach asked where Nuada’s -own hand was, and they told him that it had been -buried long ago. But he dug it up, and placed it -to Nuada’s stump; he uttered an incantation over -it, saying: “Sinew to sinew, and nerve to nerve be -joined!” and in three days and nights the hand had -renewed itself and fixed itself to the arm, so that -Nuada was whole again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When Diancecht, Miach’s father, heard of this, -he was very angry to think that his son should have -excelled him in the art of medicine. He sent for him, -and struck him upon the head with a sword, cutting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>the skin, but not wounding the flesh. Miach easily -healed this. So Diancecht hit him again, this time -to the bone. Again Miach cured himself. The -third time his father smote him, the sword went -right through the skull to the membrane of the -brain, but even this wound Miach was able to leech. -At the fourth stroke, however, Diancecht cut the -brain in two, and Miach could do nothing for that. -He died, and Diancecht buried him. And upon his -grave there grew up three hundred and sixty-five -stalks of grass, each one a cure for any illness of -each of the three hundred and sixty-five nerves in -a man’s body. Airmid, Miach’s sister, plucked all -these very carefully, and arranged them on her -mantle according to their properties. But her angry -and jealous father overturned the cloak, and hopelessly -confused them. If it had not been for that -act, says the early writer, men would know how to -cure every illness, and would so be immortal.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The healing of Nuada’s blemish happened just -at the time when all the people of the goddess -Danu had at last agreed that the exactions and -tyranny of Bress could no longer be borne. It was -the insult he put upon Cairpré, son of Ogma the -god of literature, that caused things to come to -this head. Poets were always held by the Celts in -great honour; and when Cairpré, the bard of the -Tuatha Dé Danann, went to visit Bress, he expected -to be treated with much consideration, and -fed at the king’s own table. But, instead of doing -so, Bress lodged him in a small, dark room where -there was no fire, no bed, and no furniture except -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>a mean table on which small cakes of dry bread -were put on a little dish for his food. The next -morning, Cairpré rose early and left the palace -without having spoken to Bress. It was the custom -of poets when they left a king’s court to utter a -panegyric on their host, but Cairpré treated Bress -instead to a magical satire. It was the first satire -ever made in Ireland, and seems to us to bear upon -it all the marks of an early effort. Roughly rendered, -it said:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“No meat on the plates,</div> - <div class='line in3'>No milk of the cows;</div> - <div class='line in1'>No shelter for the belated;</div> - <div class='line in3'>No money for the minstrels:</div> - <div class='line in1'>May Bress’s cheer be what he gives to others!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>This satire of Cairpré’s was, we are assured, so -virulent that it caused great red blotches to break -out all over Bress’s face. This in itself constituted -a blemish such as should not be upon a king, and -the Tuatha Dé Danann called upon Bress to abdicate -and let Nuada take the throne again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Bress was obliged to do so. He went back to -the country of the Fomors, underneath the sea, -and complained to his father Elathan, its king, -asking him to gather an army to reconquer his -throne. The Fomors assembled in council—Elathan, -Tethra, Balor, Indech, and all the other -warriors and chiefs—and they decided to come with -a great host, and take Ireland away, and put it -under the sea where the people of the goddess -Danu would never be able to find it again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At the same time, another assembly was also -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>being held at Tara, the capital of the Tuatha Dé -Danann. Nuada was celebrating his return to the -throne by a feast to his people. While it was at its -height, a stranger clothed like a king came to the -palace gate. The porter asked him his name and -errand.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am called Lugh,” he said. “I am the grandson -of Diancecht by Cian, my father, and the grandson -of Balor by Ethniu, my mother.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“But what is your profession?” asked the porter; -“for no one is admitted here unless he is a master -of some craft.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a carpenter,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We have no need of a carpenter. We already -have a very good one; his name is Luchtainé.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am an excellent smith,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We do not want a smith. We have a very -good one; his name is Goibniu.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a professional warrior,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We have no need of one. Ogma is our champion.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a harpist,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We have an excellent harpist already.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a warrior renowned for skilfulness rather -than for mere strength.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We already have a man like that.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a poet and tale-teller,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We have no need of such. We have a most -accomplished poet and tale-teller.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a sorcerer,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We do not want one. We have numberless -sorcerers and druids.”</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>“I am a physician,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Diancecht is our physician.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a cup-bearer,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We already have nine of them.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a worker in bronze.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We have no need of you. We already have a -worker in bronze. His name is Credné.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Then ask the king,” said Lugh, “if he has with -him a man who is master of all these crafts at once, -for, if he has, there is no need for me to come to -Tara.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>So the door-keeper went inside, and told the -king that a man had come who called himself Lugh -the <i>Ioldanach</i><a id='r111' /><a href='#f111' class='c010'><sup>[111]</sup></a>, or the “Master of all Arts”, and -that he claimed to know everything.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The king sent out his best chess-player to play -against the stranger. Lugh won, inventing a new -move called “Lugh’s enclosure”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then Nuada invited him in. Lugh entered, and -sat down upon the chair called the “sage’s seat”, -kept for the wisest man.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Ogma, the champion, was showing off his strength. -Upon the floor was a flagstone so large that fourscore -yokes of oxen would have been needed to -move it. Ogma pushed it before him along the -hall, and out at the door. Then Lugh rose from -his chair, and pushed it back again. But this stone, -huge as it was, was only a portion broken from a -still greater rock outside the palace. Lugh picked -it up, and put it back into its place.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Tuatha Dé Danann asked him to play the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>harp to them. So he played the “sleep-tune”, and -the king and all his court fell asleep, and did not -wake until the same hour of the following day. -Next he played a plaintive air, and they all wept. -Lastly, he played a measure which sent them into -transports of joy.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When Nuada had seen all these numerous talents -of Lugh, he began to wonder whether one so gifted -would not be of great help against the Fomors. -He took counsel with the others, and, by their -advice, lent his throne to Lugh for thirteen days, -taking the “sage’s seat” at his side.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lugh summoned all the Tuatha Dé Danann to a -council.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“The Fomors are certainly going to make war -on us,” he said. “What can each of you do to -help?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Diancecht the Physician said: “I will completely -cure everyone who is wounded, provided his head -is not cut off, or his brain or spinal marrow hurt.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I,” said Goibniu the Smith, “will replace every -broken lance and sword with a new one, even though -the war last seven years. And I will make the lances -so well that they shall never miss their mark, or fail -to kill. Dulb, the smith of the Fomors, cannot do -as much as that. The fate of the fighting will be -decided by my lances.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And I,” said Credné the Bronze-worker, “will -furnish all the rivets for the lances, the hilts for the -swords, and the rims and bosses for the shields.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And I,” said Luchtainé the Carpenter, “will -provide all the shields and lance-shafts.”</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>Ogma the Champion promised to kill the King -of the Fomors, with thrice nine of his followers, and -to capture one-third of his army.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And you, O Dagda,” said Lugh, “what will you -do?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will fight,” said the Dagda, “both with force -and craft. Wherever the two armies meet, I will -crush the bones of the Fomors with my club, till -they are like hailstones under a horse’s feet.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And you, O Morrígú?” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will pursue them when they flee,” she replied. -“And I always catch what I chase.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And you, O Cairpré, son of Etan?” said Lugh -to the poet, “what can you do?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will pronounce an immediately-effective curse -upon them; by one of my satires I will take away -all their honour, and, enchanted by me, they shall -not be able to stand against our warriors.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And ye, O sorcerers, what will ye do?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We will hurl by our magic arts,” replied Mathgan, -the head sorcerer, “the twelve mountains of -Ireland at the Fomors. These mountains will be -Slieve League, Denna Ulad, the Mourne Mountains, -Bri Ruri, Slieve Bloom, Slieve Snechta, -Slemish, Blai-Sliab, Nephin, Sliab Maccu Belgodon, -Segais<a id='r112' /><a href='#f112' class='c010'><sup>[112]</sup></a>, and Cruachan Aigle<a id='r113' /><a href='#f113' class='c010'><sup>[113]</sup></a>”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then Lugh asked the cup-bearers what they -would do.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We will hide away by magic,” they said, “the -twelve chief lakes and the twelve chief rivers of -Ireland from the Fomors, so that they shall not be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>able to find any water, however thirsty they may -be; those waters will conceal themselves from the -Fomors so that they shall not get a drop, while they -will give drink to the people of the goddess Danu -as long as the war lasts, even if it last seven years.” -And they told Lugh that the twelve chief lakes were -Lough Derg, Lough Luimnigh<a id='r114' /><a href='#f114' class='c010'><sup>[114]</sup></a>, Lough Corrib, -Lough Ree, Lough Mask, Strangford Lough, -Lough Læig, Lough Neagh, Lough Foyle, Lough -Gara, Lough Reagh, and Márloch, and that the -twelve chief rivers were the Bush, the Boyne, the -Bann, the Nem, the Lee, the Shannon, the Moy, -the Sligo, the Erne, the Finn, the Liffey, and the -Suir.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Finally, the Druid, Figol, son of Mamos, said: -“I will send three streams of fire into the faces of -the Fomors, and I will take away two-thirds of their -valour and strength, but every breath drawn by the -people of the goddess Danu will only make them -more valorous and strong, so that even if the fighting -lasts seven years, they will not be weary of it.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>All decided to make ready for a war, and to give -the direction of it to Lugh.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER VIII<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE GAELIC ARGONAUTS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The preparations for this war are said to have -lasted seven years. It was during the interval that -there befel an episode which might almost be called -the “Argonautica” of the Gaelic mythology.<a id='r115' /><a href='#f115' class='c010'><sup>[115]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>In spite of the dethronement of Bress, the Fomors -still claimed their annual tribute from the tribe of the -goddess Danu, and sent their tax-gatherers, nine -times nine in number, to “Balor’s Hill” to collect it. -But, while they waited for the gods to come to -tender their submission and their subsidy, they saw -a young man approaching them. He was riding -upon “Splendid Mane”, the horse of Manannán -son of Lêr, and was dressed in Manannán’s breastplate -and helmet, through which no weapon could -wound their wearer, and he was armed with sword -and shield and poisoned darts. “Like to the setting -sun”, says the story, “was the splendour of his countenance -and his forehead, and they were not able to -look in his face for the greatness of his splendour.” -And no wonder! for he was Lugh the Far-shooter, -the new-come sun-god of the Gaels. He fell upon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>the Fomorian tax-gatherers, killing all but nine of -them, and these he only spared that they might go -back to their kinsmen and tell how the gods had -received them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>There was consternation in the under-sea country. -“Who can this terrible warrior be?” asked Balor. -“I know,” said Balor’s wife; “he must be the son of -our daughter Ethniu; and I foretell that, since he -has cast in his lot with his father’s people, we -shall never bear rule in Erin again.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The chiefs of the Fomors saw that this slaughter -of their tax-gatherers signified that the Tuatha Dé -Danann meant fighting. They held a council to -debate on it. There came to it Elathan and Tethra -and Indech, kings of the Fomors; Bress himself, -and Balor of the stout blows; Cethlenn the crooked -tooth, Balor’s wife; Balor’s twelve white-mouthed -sons; and all the chief Fomorian warriors and -druids.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Meanwhile, upon earth, Lugh was sending messengers -all over Erin to assemble the Tuatha Dé -Danann. Upon this errand went Lugh’s father -Cian, who seems to have been a kind of lesser solar -deity,<a id='r116' /><a href='#f116' class='c010'><sup>[116]</sup></a> son of Diancecht, the god of medicine. As -Cian was going over the plain of Muirthemne,<a id='r117' /><a href='#f117' class='c010'><sup>[117]</sup></a> he -saw three armed warriors approaching him, and, -when they got nearer, he recognized them as the -three sons of Tuirenn, son of Ogma, whose names -were Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba. Between these -three and Cian, with his brothers Cethé and Cu, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>there was, for some reason, a private enmity. Cian -saw that he was now at a disadvantage. “If my -brothers were with me,” he said to himself, “what a -fight we would make; but, as I am alone, it will be -best for me to conceal myself.” Looking round, he -saw a herd of pigs feeding on the plain. Like all -the gods, he had the faculty of shape-shifting; so, -striking himself with a magic wand, he changed himself -into a pig, joined the herd, and began feeding -with them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But he had been seen by the sons of Tuirenn. -“What has become of the warrior who was walking -on the plain a moment ago?” said Brian to his -brothers. “We saw him then,” they replied, “but -we do not know where he is now.” “Then you -have not used the proper vigilance which is needed -in time of war,” said the elder brother. “However, -I know what has become of him. He has -struck himself with a druidical wand, and changed -himself into a pig, and there he is, in that herd, -rooting up the ground, just like all the other pigs. -I can also tell you who he is. His name is Cian, -and you know that he is no friend of ours.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“It is a pity that he has taken refuge among the -pigs,” they replied, “for they belong to some one of -the Tuatha Dé Danann, and, even if we were to kill -them all, Cian might still escape us.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Again Brian reproached his brothers. “You are -very ignorant,” he said, “if you cannot distinguish -a magical beast from a natural beast. However, I -will show you.” And thereupon he struck his two -brothers with his own wand of shape-changing, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>turned them into two swift, slender hounds, and set -them upon the pigs.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The magic hounds soon found the magic pig, and -drove it out of the herd on to the open plain. Then -Brian threw his spear, and hit it. The wounded pig -came to a stop. “It was an evil deed of yours, casting -that spear,” it cried, in a human voice, “for I -am not a pig, but Cian, son of Diancecht. So give -me quarter.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Iuchar and Iucharba would have granted it, and -let him go; but their fiercer brother swore that Cian -should be put an end to, even if he came back to -life seven times. So Cian tried a fresh ruse. “Give -me leave”, he asked, “only to return to my own -shape before you slay me.” “Gladly,” replied -Brian, “for I would much rather kill a man than -a pig.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Cian spoke the befitting spell, cast off his -pig’s disguise, and stood before them in his own -shape. “You will be obliged to spare my life -now,” he said. “We will not,” replied Brian. -“Then it will be the worst day’s work for all of -you that you ever did in your lives,” he answered; -“for, if you had killed me in the shape of a pig, you -would only have had to pay the value of a pig, but -if you kill me now, I tell you that there never has -been, and there never will be, anyone killed in this -world for whose death a greater blood-fine will be -exacted than for mine.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>But the sons of Tuirenn would not listen to him. -They slew him, and pounded his body with stones -until it was a crushed mass. Six times they tried -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>to bury him, and the earth cast him back in horror; -but, the seventh time, the mould held him, and they -put stones upon him to keep him down. They left -him buried there, and went to Tara.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Meanwhile Lugh had been expecting his father’s -return. As he did not come, he determined to go -and look for him. He traced him to the Plain of -Muirthemne, and there he was at fault. But the -indignant earth itself, which had witnessed the -murder, spoke to Lugh, and told him everything. -So Lugh dug up his father’s corpse, and made -certain how he had come to his death; then he -mourned over him, and laid him back in the earth, -and heaped a barrow over him, and set up a pillar -with his name on it in “ogam”.<a id='r118' /><a href='#f118' class='c010'><sup>[118]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>He went back to Tara, and entered the great -hall. It was filled with the people of the goddess -Danu, and among them Lugh saw the three sons -of Tuirenn. So he shook the “chiefs’ chain”, with -which the Gaels used to ask for a hearing in an -assembly, and when all were silent, he said:</p> - -<p class='c005'>“People of the goddess Danu, I ask you a question. -What would be the vengeance that any of -you would take upon one who had murdered his -father?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>A great astonishment fell upon them, and Nuada, -their king, said: “Surely it is not your father that -has been murdered?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“It is,” replied Lugh. “And I am looking at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>those who murdered him; and they know how they -did it better than I do.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then Nuada declared that nothing short of -hewing the murderer of his father limb from limb -would satisfy him, and all the others said the same, -including the sons of Tuirenn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“The very ones who did the deed say that,” -cried Lugh. “Then let them not leave the hall -till they have settled with me about the blood-fine -to be paid for it.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“If it was I who had killed your father,” said the -king, “I should think myself lucky if you were -willing to accept a fine instead of vengeance.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The sons of Tuirenn took counsel together in -whispers. Iuchar and Iucharba were in favour of -admitting their guilt, but Brian was afraid that, if -they confessed, Lugh would withdraw his offer to -accept a fine, and would demand their deaths. So -he stood out, and said that, though it was not they -who had killed Cian, yet, sooner than remain under -Lugh’s anger, as he suspected them, they would -pay the same fine as if they had.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Certainly you shall pay the fine,” said Lugh, -“and I will tell you what it shall be. It is this: -three apples; and a pig’s-skin; and a spear; and -two horses and a chariot; and seven pigs; and a -hound-whelp; and a cooking-spit; and three shouts -on a hill: that is the fine, and, if you think it is too -much, I will remit some of it, but, if you do not -think it is too much, then pay it.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“If it were a hundred times that,” replied Brian, -“we should not think it too much. Indeed, it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>seems so little that I fear there must be some -treachery concealed in it.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I do not think it too little,” replied Lugh. -“Give me your pledge before the people of the -goddess Danu that you will pay it faithfully, and -I will give you mine that I will ask no more.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>So the sons of Tuirenn bound themselves before -the Tuatha Dé Danann to pay the fine to Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When they had sworn, and given sureties, Lugh -turned to them again. “I will now”, he said, -“explain to you the nature of the fine you have -pledged yourselves to pay me, so that you may -know whether it is too little or not.” And, with -foreboding hearts, the sons of Tuirenn set themselves -to listen.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“The three apples that I have demanded,” he -began, “are three apples from the Garden of the -Hesperides, in the east of the world. You will -know them by three signs. They are the size of -the head of a month-old child, they are of the -colour of burnished gold, and they taste of honey. -Wounds are healed and diseases cured by eating -them, and they do not diminish in any way by -being eaten. Whoever casts one of them hits -anything he wishes, and then it comes back into -his hand. I will accept no other apples instead of -these. Their owners keep them perpetually guarded -because of a prophecy that three young warriors -from the west of the world will come to take them -by force, and, brave as you may be, I do not think -that you will ever get them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“The pig’s-skin that I have demanded is the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>pig’s-skin of Tuis, King of Greece. It has two -virtues: its touch perfectly cures all wounded or -sick persons if only there is any life still left in -them; and every stream of water through which it -passes is turned into wine for nine days. I do not -think that you will get it from the King of Greece, -either with his consent or without it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And can you guess what spear it is that I have -demanded?” asked Lugh. “We cannot,” they said. -“It is the poisoned spear of Pisear<a id='r119' /><a href='#f119' class='c010'><sup>[119]</sup></a>, King of Persia; -it is irresistible in battle; it is so fiery that its blade -must always be held under water, lest it destroy the -city in which it is kept. You will find it very difficult -to obtain.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And the two horses and the chariot are the two -wonderful horses of Dobhar<a id='r120' /><a href='#f120' class='c010'><sup>[120]</sup></a>, King of Sicily, which -run equally well over land and sea; there are no -other horses in the world like them, and no other -vehicle equal to the chariot.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And the seven pigs are the pigs of Easal<a id='r121' /><a href='#f121' class='c010'><sup>[121]</sup></a>, -King of the Golden Pillars; though they may be -killed every night, they are found alive again the -next day, and every person that eats part of them -can never be afflicted with any disease.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And the hound-whelp I claim is the hound-whelp -of the King of Ioruaidhe<a id='r122' /><a href='#f122' class='c010'><sup>[122]</sup></a>; her name is -Failinis; every wild beast she sees she catches at -once. It will not be easy for you to secure her.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“The cooking-spit which you must get for me is -one of the cooking-spits of the women of the Island -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>of Fianchuivé<a id='r123' /><a href='#f123' class='c010'><sup>[123]</sup></a>, which is at the bottom of the sea, -between Erin and Alba.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“You have also pledged yourselves to give three -shouts upon a hill. The hill upon which they must -be given is the hill called Cnoc Miodhchaoin<a id='r124' /><a href='#f124' class='c010'><sup>[124]</sup></a>, in -the north of Lochlann<a id='r125' /><a href='#f125' class='c010'><sup>[125]</sup></a>. Miodhchaoin and his sons -do not allow shouts to be given on that hill; besides -this, it was they who gave my father his military -education, and, even if I were to forgive you, they -would not; so that, though you achieve all the other -adventures, I think that you will fail in this one.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Now you know what sort of a fine it is that you -have bargained to pay me,” said Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And fear and astonishment fell upon the sons of -Tuirenn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This tale is evidently the work of some ancient -Irish story-teller who wished to compile from various -sources a more or less complete account of how the -Gaelic gods obtained their legendary possessions. -The spear of Pisear, King of Persia, is obviously -the same weapon as the lance of Lugh, which -another tradition describes as having been brought -by the Tuatha Dé Danann from their original home -in the city of Gorias;<a id='r126' /><a href='#f126' class='c010'><sup>[126]</sup></a> Failinis, the whelp of the -King of Ioruaidhe, is Lugh’s “hound of mightiest -deeds”, which was irresistible in battle, and which -turned any running water it bathed in into wine,<a id='r127' /><a href='#f127' class='c010'><sup>[127]</sup></a> -a property here transferred to the magic pig’s-skin -of King Tuis: the seven swine of the King of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>Golden Pillars must be the same undying porkers -from whose flesh Manannán mac Lir made the -“Feast of Age” which preserved the eternal youth -of the gods;<a id='r128' /><a href='#f128' class='c010'><sup>[128]</sup></a> it was with horses and chariot that -ran along the surface of the sea that Manannán -used to journey to and fro between Erin and the -Celtic Elysium in the West;<a id='r129' /><a href='#f129' class='c010'><sup>[129]</sup></a> the apples that grew -in the Garden of the Hesperides were surely of the -same celestial growth as those that fed the inhabitants -of that immortal country;<a id='r130' /><a href='#f130' class='c010'><sup>[130]</sup></a> while the cooking-spit -reminds us of three such implements at Tara, -made by Goibniu and associated with the names of -the Dagda and the Morrígú.<a id='r131' /><a href='#f131' class='c010'><sup>[131]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The burden of collecting all these treasures was -placed upon the shoulders of the three sons of -Tuirenn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They consulted together, and agreed that they -could never hope to succeed unless they had Manannán’s -magic horse, “Splendid Mane”, and Manannán’s -magic coracle, “Wave-sweeper”. But -both these had been lent by Manannán to Lugh -himself. So the sons of Tuirenn were obliged to -humble themselves to beg them from Lugh. The -sun-god would not lend them the horse, for fear of -making their task too easy, but he let them have -the boat, because he knew how much the spear of -Pisear and the horses of Dobhar would be needed -in the coming war with the Fomors. They bade -farewell to their father, and went down to the shore -and put out to sea, taking their sister with them.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>“Which portion of the fine shall we seek first?” -said the others to Brian. “We will seek them in -the order in which they were demanded,” he replied. -So they directed the magic boat to sail to the Garden -of the Hesperides, and presently they arrived there.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They landed at a harbour, and held a council of -war. It was decided that their best chance of obtaining -three of the apples would be by taking the -shapes of hawks. Thus they would have strength -enough in their claws to carry the apples away, -together with sufficient quickness upon the wing to -hope to escape the arrows, darts, and sling-stones -which would be shot and hurled at them by the -warders of the garden.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They swooped down upon the orchard from above. -It was done so swiftly that they carried off the three -apples, unhit either by shaft or stone. But their -difficulties were not yet over. The king of the -country had three daughters who were well skilled -in witchcraft. By sorcery they changed themselves -into three ospreys, and pursued the three hawks. -But the sons of Tuirenn reached the shore first, -and, changing themselves into swans, dived into -the sea. They came up close to their coracle, and -got into it, and sailed swiftly away with the spoil.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Thus their first quest was finished, and they -voyaged on to Greece, to seek the pig’s-skin of King -Tuis. No one could go without some excuse into -a king’s court, so they decided to disguise themselves -as poets, and to tell the door-keeper that -they were professional bards from Erin, seeking -largess at the hands of kings. The porter let them -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>into the great hall, where the poets of Greece were -singing before the king.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When those had all finished, Brian rose, and -asked permission to show his art. This was accorded; -and he sang:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O Tuis, we conceal not thy fame.</div> - <div class='line in1'>We praise thee as the oak above the kings;</div> - <div class='line in1'>The skin of a pig, bounty without hardness!</div> - <div class='line in1'>This is the reward which I ask for it.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A stormy host and raging sea</div> - <div class='line in1'>Are a dangerous power, should one oppose it.</div> - <div class='line in1'>The skin of a pig, bounty without hardness!</div> - <div class='line in1'>This is the reward I ask, O Tuis.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>“That is a good poem,” said the king, “only I -do not understand it.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will explain it,” said Brian. “‘<i>We praise thee -as the oak above the kings</i>’; this means that, as the -oak excels all other trees, so do you excel all other -kings in nobility and generosity. ‘<i>The skin of a -pig, bounty without hardness</i>’; that is a pig’s-skin -which you have, O Tuis, and which I should like to -receive as the reward of my poem. ‘<i>A stormy host -and raging sea are a dangerous power, should one -oppose it</i>’; this means to say, that we are not used -to going without anything on which we have set our -hearts, O Tuis.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I should have liked your poem better,” replied -the king, “if my pig’s-skin had not been mentioned -in it. It was not a wise thing for you to have done, -O poet. But I will measure three fills of red gold -out of the skin, and you shall have those.”</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>“May all good be thine, O King!” answered -Brian. “I knew that I should get a noble reward.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>So the king sent for the pig’s-skin to measure -out the gold with. But, as soon as Brian saw it, -he seized it with his left hand, and slew the man -who was holding it, and Iuchar and Iucharba also -hacked about them; and they cut their way down to -the boat, leaving the King of Greece among the -dead behind them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And now we will go and get King Pisear’s -spear,” said Brian. So, leaving Greece, they sailed -in their coracle to Persia.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Their plan of disguising themselves as poets had -served them so well that they decided to make use -of it again. So they went into the King of Persia’s -hall in the same way as they had entered that of the -King of Greece. Brian first listened to the poets of -Persia singing; then he sang his own song:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Small the esteem of any spear with Pisear;</div> - <div class='line in1'>The battles of foes are broken;</div> - <div class='line in1'>No oppression to Pisear;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Everyone whom he wounds.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A yew-tree, the finest of the wood,</div> - <div class='line in1'>It is called King without opposition.</div> - <div class='line in1'>May that splendid shaft drive on</div> - <div class='line in1'>Yon crowd into their wounds of death.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>“That is a good poem, O man of Erin,” said the -king, “but why is my spear mentioned in it?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“The meaning is this,” replied Brian: “I should -like to receive that spear as a reward for my poem.”</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>“You make a rash request,” said the king. “If -I spare your life after having heard it, it will be a -sufficient reward for your poem.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Brian had one of the magic apples in his hand, -and he remembered its boomerang-like quality. He -hurled it full in the King of Persia’s face, dashing -out his brains. The Persians flew to arms, but the -three sons of Tuirenn conquered them, and made -them yield up the spear.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They had now to travel to Sicily, to obtain the -horses and chariot of King Dobhar. But they were -afraid to go as poets this time, for fear the fame of -their deeds might have got abroad. They therefore -decided to pretend to be mercenary soldiers from -Erin, and offer the King of Sicily their service. -This, they thought, would be the easiest way of -finding out where the horses and the chariot were -kept. So they went and stood on the green before -the royal court.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When the King of Sicily heard that there had -come mercenaries from Erin, seeking wages from -the kings of the world, he invited them to take -service with him. They agreed; but, though they -stayed with him a fortnight and a month, they never -saw the horses, or even found out where they were -kept. So they went to the king, and announced -that they wished to leave him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Why?” he asked, for he did not want them to -go.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We will tell you, O King!” replied Brian. “It -is because we have not been honoured with your -confidence, as we have been accustomed with other -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>kings. You have two horses and a chariot, the best -in the world, and we have not even been allowed to -see them.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I would have shown them to you on the first -day if you had asked me,” said the king; “and you -shall see them at once, for I have seldom had warriors -with me so good as you are, and I do not wish -you to leave me.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>So he sent for the steeds, and had them yoked to -the chariot, and the sons of Tuirenn were witnesses -of their marvellous speed, and how they could run -equally well over land or water.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Brian made a sign to his brothers, and they -watched their opportunity carefully, and, as the -chariot passed close beside them, Brian leaped into -it, hurling its driver over the side. Then, turning -the horses, he struck King Dobhar with Pisear’s -spear, and killed him. He took his two brothers -up into the chariot and they drove away.</p> - -<p class='c005'>By the time the sons of Tuirenn reached the -country of Easal, King of the Pillars of Gold, -rumour had gone before them. The king came -down to the harbour to meet them, and asked them -if it were really true that so many kings had fallen -at their hands. They replied that it was true, but -that they had no quarrel with any of them; only -they must obtain at all costs the fine demanded by -Lugh. Then Easal asked them why they had come -to his land, and they told him that they needed his -seven pigs to add to the tribute. So Easal thought -it better to give them up, and to make friends with -the three sons of Tuirenn, than to fight with such -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>warriors. The sons of Tuirenn were very glad at -this, for they were growing weary of battles.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It happened that the King of Ioruaidhe, who had -the hound-whelp that Lugh had demanded, was the -husband of King Easal’s daughter. Therefore King -Easal did not wish that there should be fighting between -him and the three sons of Tuirenn. He proposed -to Brian and his brothers that he should sail -with them to Ioruaidhe, and try to persuade the king -of the country to give up the hound-whelp peacefully. -They consented, and all set foot safely on -the “delightful, wonderful shores of Ioruaidhe”,<a id='r132' /><a href='#f132' class='c010'><sup>[132]</sup></a> as -the manuscript calls them. But King Easal’s -son-in-law would not listen to reason. He assembled -his warriors, and fought; but the sons -of Tuirenn defeated them, and compelled their -king to yield up the hound-whelp as the ransom -for his life.</p> - -<p class='c005'>All these quests had been upon the earth, but the -next was harder. No coracle, not even Manannán’s -“Wave-sweeper”, could penetrate to the Island of -Fianchuivé, in the depths of the sea that severs -Erin from Alba. So Brian left his brothers, and -put on his “water-dress, with his transparency of -glass upon his head”—evidently an ancient Irish -anticipation of the modern diver’s dress. Thus -equipped, he explored the bottom of the sea for -fourteen days before he found the island. But -when at last he reached it, and entered the hall -of its queen, she and her sea-maidens were so -amazed at Brian’s hardihood in having penetrated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>to their kingdom that they presented him with the -cooking-spit, and sent him back safe.</p> - -<p class='c005'>By this time, Lugh had found out by his magic -arts that the sons of Tuirenn had obtained all the -treasures he had demanded as the blood-fine. He -desired to get them safely into his own custody -before his victims went to give their three shouts -upon Miodhchaoin’s Hill. He therefore wove a -druidical spell round them, so that they forgot the -rest of their task altogether, and sailed back to Erin. -They searched for Lugh, to give him the things, but -he had gone away, leaving word that they were to -be handed over to Nuada, the Tuatha Dé Danann -king. As soon as they were in safe-keeping, Lugh -came back to Tara and found the sons of Tuirenn -there. And he said to them:</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Do you not know that it is unlawful to keep -back any part of a blood-fine? So have you given -those three shouts upon Miodhchaoin’s Hill?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then the magic mist of forgetfulness fell from -them, and they remembered. Sorrowfully they -went back to complete their task.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Miodhchaoin<a id='r133' /><a href='#f133' class='c010'><sup>[133]</sup></a> himself was watching for them, and, -when he saw them land, he came down to the beach. -Brian attacked him, and they fought with the swiftness -of two bears and the ferocity of two lions until -Miodhchaoin fell.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then Miodhchaoin’s three sons—Corc, Conn, and -Aedh—came out to avenge their father, and they -drove their spears through the bodies of the three -sons of Tuirenn. But the three sons of Tuirenn -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>also drove their spears through the bodies of the -three sons of Miodhchaoin.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The three sons of Miodhchaoin were killed, and -the three sons of Tuirenn were so sorely wounded -that birds might have flown through their bodies -from one side to the other. Nevertheless Brian -was still able to stand upright, and he held his two -brothers, one in each hand, and kept them on their -feet, and, all together, they gave three faint, feeble -shouts.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Their coracle bore them, still living, to Erin. -They sent their father Tuirenn as a suppliant to -Lugh, begging him to lend them the magic pig’s-skin -to heal their wounds.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Lugh would not, for he had counted upon -their fight with the sons of Miodhchaoin to avenge -his father Cian’s death. So the children of Tuirenn -resigned themselves to die, and their father made a -farewell song over them and over himself, and died -with them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Thus ends that famous tale—“The Fate of the -Sons of Tuirenn”, known as one of the “Three -Sorrowful Stories of Erin”.<a id='r134' /><a href='#f134' class='c010'><sup>[134]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER IX<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE WAR WITH THE GIANTS<a id='r135' /><a href='#f135' class='c010'><sup>[135]</sup></a></span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>By this time the seven years of preparation had -come to an end. A week before the Day of Samhain, -the Morrígú discovered that the Fomors had -landed upon Erin. She at once sent a messenger -to tell the Dagda, who ordered his druids and -sorcerers to go to the ford of the River Unius, in -Sligo, and utter incantations against them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The people of the goddess Danu, however, were -not yet quite ready for battle. So the Dagda -decided to visit the Fomorian camp as an ambassador, -and, by parleying with them, to gain a little -more time. The Fomors received him with apparent -courtesy, and, to celebrate his coming, prepared -him a feast of porridge; for it was well-known -how fond he was of such food. They poured into -their king’s cauldron, which was as deep as five -giant’s fists, fourscore gallons of new milk, with -meal and bacon in proportion. To this they added -the whole carcasses of goats, sheep, and pigs; they -boiled the mixture together, and poured it into a hole -in the ground. “Now,” said they, “if you do not -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>eat it all, we shall put you to death, for we will not -have you go back to your own people and say that -the Fomors are inhospitable.” But they did not -succeed in frightening the Dagda. He took his -spoon, which was so large that two persons of our -puny size might have reclined comfortably in the -middle of it, dipped it into the porridge, and fished -up halves of salted pork and quarters of bacon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“If it tastes as good as it smells,” he said, “it is -good fare.” And so it proved; for he ate it all, and -scraped up even what remained at the bottom of the -hole. Then he went away to sleep it off, followed -by the laughter of the Fomors; for his stomach -was so swollen with food that he could hardly -walk. It was larger than the biggest cauldron in -a large house, and stood out like a sail before the -wind.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But the Fomors’ little practical joke upon the -Dagda had given the Tuatha Dé Danann time to -collect their forces. It was on the eve of Samhain -that the two armies came face to face. Even then -the Fomors could not believe that the people of the -goddess Danu would offer them much resistance.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Do you think they will really dare to give us -battle?” said Bress to Indech, the son of Domnu. -“If they do not pay their tribute, we will pound -their bones for them,” he replied.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The war of gods and giants naturally mirrored -the warfare of the Gaels, in whose battles, as in those -of most semi-barbarous people, single combat figured -largely. The main armies stood still, while, every -day, duels took place between ambitious combatants. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>But no great warriors either of the Tuatha Dé -Danann or of the Fomors took part in them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Sometimes a god, sometimes a giant would be -the victor; but there was a difference in the net -results that astonished the Fomors. If their own -swords and lances were broken, they were of no -more use, and if their own champions were killed, -they never came back to life again; but it was quite -otherwise with the people of the goddess Danu. -Weapons shattered on one day re-appeared upon -the next in as good condition as though they had -never been used, and warriors slain on one day came -back upon the morrow unhurt, and ready, if necessary, -to be killed again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Fomors decided to send someone to discover -the secret of these prodigies. The spy they chose -was Ruadan, the son of Bress and of Brigit, daughter -of the Dagda, and therefore half-giant and half-god. -He disguised himself as a Tuatha Dé Danann -warrior, and went to look for Goibniu. He found -him at his forge, together with Luchtainé, the carpenter, -and Credné, the bronze-worker. He saw -how Goibniu forged lance-heads with three blows of -his hammer, while Luchtainé cut shafts for them -with three blows of his axe, and Credné fixed the -two parts together so adroitly that his bronze nails -needed no hammering in. He went back and told -the Fomors, who sent him again, this time to try -and kill Goibniu.</p> - -<p class='c005'>He reappeared at the forge, and asked for a -javelin. Without suspicion, Goibniu gave him one, -and, as soon as he got it into his hand, he thrust it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>through the smith’s body. But Goibniu plucked it -out, and, hurling it back at his assailant, mortally -wounded him. Ruadan went home to die, and his -father Bress and his mother Brigit mourned for him, -inventing for the purpose the Irish “keening”. -Goibniu, on the other hand, took no harm. He -went to the physician Diancecht, who, with his -daughter Airmid, was always on duty at a miraculous -well called the “spring of health”. Whenever -one of the Tuatha Dé Danann was killed or -wounded, he was brought to the two doctors, who -plunged him into the wonder-working water, and -brought him back to life and health again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The mystic spring was not long, however, allowed -to help the people of the goddess. A young Fomorian -chief, Octriallach son of Indech, found it out. -He and a number of his companions went to it by -night, each carrying a large stone from the bed of -the River Drowes. These they dropped into the -spring, until they had filled it, dispersed the healing -water, and formed a cairn above it. Legend has -identified this place by the name of the “Cairn of -Octriallach”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This success determined the Fomors to fight a -pitched battle. They drew out their army in line. -There was not a warrior in it who had not a coat of -mail and a helmet, a stout spear, a strong buckler, -and a heavy sword. “Fighting the Fomors on that -day”, says the old author, “could only be compared -to one of three things—beating one’s head against a -rock, or plunging it into a fire, or putting one’s hand -into a serpent’s nest.”</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>All the great fighters of the Tuatha Dé Danann -were drawn out opposite to them, except Lugh. A -council of the gods had decided that his varied -accomplishments made his life too valuable to be -risked in battle. They had, therefore, left him -behind, guarded by nine warriors. But, at the last -moment, Lugh escaped from his warders, and appeared -in his chariot before the army. He made -them a patriotic speech. “Fight bravely,” he said, -“that your servitude may last no longer; it is better -to face death than to live in vassalage and pay -tribute.” With these encouraging words, he drove -round the ranks, standing on tiptoe, so that all the -Tuatha Dé Danann might see him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Fomors saw him too, and marvelled. “It -seems wonderful to me,”<a id='r136' /><a href='#f136' class='c010'><sup>[136]</sup></a> said Bress to his druids, -“that the sun should rise in the west to-day and in -the east every other day.” “It would be better for -us if it were so,” replied the druids. “What else -can it be, then?” asked Bress. “It is the radiance -of the face of Lugh of the Long Arms,” said they.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then the two armies charged each other with a -great shout. Spears and lances smote against shields, -and so great was the shouting of the fighters, the -shattering of shields, the clattering of swords, the -rattling of quivers, and the whistling of darts and -javelins that it seemed as if thunder rolled everywhere.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They fought so closely that the heads, hands, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>feet of those on one side were touching the heads, -hands, and feet of those on the other side; they -shed so much blood on to the ground that it became -hard to stand on it without slipping; and the river -of Unsenn was filled with dead bodies, so hard and -swift and bloody and cruel was the battle.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Many great chiefs fell on each side. Ogma, the -champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann, killed Indech, -the son of the goddess Domnu. But, meanwhile, -Balor of the Mighty Blows raged among the gods, -slaying their king, Nuada of the Silver Hand, as well -as Macha, one of his warlike wives. At last he -met with Lugh. The sun-god shouted a challenge -to his grandfather in the Fomorian speech. Balor -heard it, and prepared to use his death-dealing -eye.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Lift up my eyelid,” he said to his henchmen, -“that I may see this chatterer who talks to -me.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The attendants lifted Balor’s eye with a hook, -and if the glance of the eye beneath had rested -upon Lugh, he would certainly have perished. But, -when it was half opened, Lugh flung a magic stone -which struck Balor’s eye out through the back of his -head. The eye fell on the ground behind Balor, and -destroyed a whole rank of thrice nine Fomors who -were unlucky enough to be within sight of it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>An ancient poem has handed down the secret of -this magic stone. It is there called a <i>tathlum</i>, meaning -a “concrete ball” such as the ancient Irish warriors -used sometimes to make out of the brains of -dead enemies hardened with lime.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>“A tathlum, heavy, fiery, firm,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Which the Tuatha Dé Danann had with them,</div> - <div class='line in1'>It was that broke the fierce Balor’s eye,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of old, in the battle of the great armies.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The blood of toads and furious bears,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And the blood of the noble lion,</div> - <div class='line in1'>The blood of vipers and of Osmuinn’s trunks;—</div> - <div class='line in1'>It was of these the tathlum was composed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The sand of the swift Armorian sea,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And the sand of the teeming Red Sea;—</div> - <div class='line in1'>All these, being first purified, were used</div> - <div class='line in1'>In the composition of the tathlum.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Briun, the son of Bethar, no mean warrior,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Who on the ocean’s eastern border reigned;—</div> - <div class='line in1'>It was he that fused, and smoothly formed,</div> - <div class='line in1'>It was he that fashioned the tathlum.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“To the hero Lugh was given</div> - <div class='line in1'>This concrete ball,—no soft missile;—</div> - <div class='line in1'>In Mag Tuireadh of shrieking wails,</div> - <div class='line in1'>From his hand he threw the tathlum.”<a id='r137' /><a href='#f137' class='c010'><sup>[137]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>This blinding of the terrible Balor turned the fortunes -of the fight; for the Fomors wavered, and the -Morrígú came and encouraged the people of the -goddess Danu with a song, beginning “Kings arise -to the battle”, so that they took fresh heart, and -drove the Fomors headlong back to their country -underneath the sea.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Such was the battle which is called in Irish -<i>Mag Tuireadh na b-Fomorach</i>, that is to say, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>“Plain of the Towers of the Fomors”, and, more -popularly, the “Battle of Moytura the Northern”, to -distinguish it from the other Battle of Moytura -fought by the Tuatha Dé Danann against the Fir -Bolgs farther to the south. More of the Fomors -were killed in it, says the ancient manuscript, than -there are stars in the sky, grains of sand on the sea-shore, -snow-flakes in winter, drops of dew upon the -meadows in spring-time, hailstones during a storm, -blades of grass trodden under horses’ feet, or Manannán -son of Lêr’s white horses, the waves of the -sea, when a tempest breaks. The “towers” or -pillars said to mark the graves of the combatants -still stand upon the plain of Carrowmore, near Sligo, -and form, in the opinion of Dr. Petrie, the finest collection -of prehistoric monuments in the world, with -the sole exception of Carnac, in Brittany.<a id='r138' /><a href='#f138' class='c010'><sup>[138]</sup></a> Megalithic -structures of almost every kind are found -among them—stone cairns with dolmens in their -interiors, dolmens standing open and alone, dolmens -surrounded by one, two, or three circles of stones, -and circles without dolmens—to the number of over -a hundred. Sixty-four of such prehistoric remains -stand together upon an elevated plateau not more -than a mile across, and make the battle-field of Moytura, -though the least known, perhaps the most impressive -of all primeval ruins. What they really -commemorated we may never know, but, in all probability, -the place was the scene of some important -and decisive early battle, the monuments marking -the graves of the chieftains who were interred as the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>result of it. Those which have been examined were -found to contain burnt wood and the half-burnt bones -of men and horses, as well as implements of flint and -bone. The actors, therefore, were still in the Neolithic -Age. Whether the horses were domesticated -ones buried with their riders, or wild ones eaten at -the funeral feasts, it would be hard to decide. The -history of the real event must have been long -lost even at the early date when its relics were -pointed out as the records of a battle between the -gods and the giants of Gaelic myth.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Tuatha Dé Danann, following the routed -Fomors, overtook and captured Bress. He begged -Lugh to spare his life.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What ransom will you pay for it?” asked -Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will guarantee that the cows of Ireland shall -always be in milk,” promised Bress.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But, before accepting, Lugh took counsel with his -druids.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What good will that be,” they decided, “if Bress -does not also lengthen the lives of the cows?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>This was beyond the power of Bress to do; so he -made another offer.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Tell your people,” he said to Lugh, “that, if -they will spare my life, they shall have a good wheat -harvest every year.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>But they said: “We already have the spring to -plough and sow in, the summer to ripen the crops, -the autumn for reaping, and the winter in which to -eat the bread; and that is all we want.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lugh told this to Bress. But he also said: “You -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>shall have your life in return for a much less service -to us than that.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What is it?” asked Bress.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Tell us when we ought to plough, when we -ought to sow, and when we ought to harvest.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Bress replied: “You should plough on a Tuesday, -sow on a Tuesday, and harvest on a Tuesday.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>And this lying maxim (says the story) saved -Bress’s life.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lugh, the Dagda, and Ogma still pursued the -Fomors, who had carried off in their flight the Dagda’s -harp. They followed them into the submarine -palace where Bress and Elathan lived, and there -they saw the harp hanging on the wall. This harp -of the Dagda’s would not play without its owner’s -leave. The Dagda sang to it:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Come, oak of the two cries!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Come, hand of fourfold music!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Come, summer! Come, winter!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Voice of harps, bellows<a id='r139' /><a href='#f139' class='c010'><sup>[139]</sup></a>, and flutes!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>For the Dagda’s harp had these two names; it was -called “Oak of the two cries” and “Hand of fourfold -music”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It leaped down from the wall, killing nine of the -Fomors as it passed, and came into the Dagda’s -hand. The Dagda played to the Fomors the three -tunes known to all clever harpists—the weeping-tune, -the laughing-tune, and the sleeping-tune. -While he played the weeping-tune, they were bowed -with weeping; while he played the laughing-tune, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>they rocked with laughter; and when he played the -sleeping-tune, they all fell asleep. And while they -slept, Lugh, the Dagda, and Ogma got away safely.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Next, the Dagda brought the black-maned heifer -which he had, by the advice of Angus son of the -Young, obtained from Bress. The wisdom of Angus -had been shown in this advice, for it was this very -heifer that the cattle of the people of the goddess -Danu were accustomed to follow, whenever it lowed. -Now, when it lowed, all the cattle which the Fomors -had taken away from the Tuatha Dé Danann came -back again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Yet the power of the Fomors was not wholly -broken. Four of them still carried on a desultory -warfare by spoiling the corn, fruit, and milk of their -conquerors. But the Morrígú and Badb and Mider -and Angus pursued them, and drove them out of -Ireland for ever.<a id='r140' /><a href='#f140' class='c010'><sup>[140]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Last of all, the Morrígú and Badb went up on to -the summits of all the high mountains of Ireland, -and proclaimed the victory. All the lesser gods -who had not been in the battle came round and -heard the news. And Badb sang a song which -began:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Peace mounts to the heavens,</div> - <div class='line in1'>The heavens descend to earth,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Earth lies under the heavens,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Everyone is strong ...”,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>but the rest of it has been lost and forgotten.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then she added a prophecy in which she foretold -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>the approaching end of the divine age, and the -beginning of a new one in which summers would -be flowerless and cows milkless and women shameless -and men strengthless, in which there would be -trees without fruit and seas without fish, when old -men would give false judgments and legislators -make unjust laws, when warriors would betray one -another, and men would be thieves, and there would -be no more virtue left in the world.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER X<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE CONQUEST OF THE GODS BY MORTALS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>Of what Badb had in mind when she uttered -this prophecy we have no record. But it was true. -The twilight of the Irish gods was at hand. A -new race was coming across the sea to dispute the -ownership of Ireland with the people of the goddess -Danu. And these new-comers were not divinities -like themselves, but men like ourselves, ancestors -of the Gaels.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This story of the conquest of the gods by mortals—which -seems such a strange one to us—is typically -Celtic. The Gaelic mythology is the only one -which has preserved it in any detail; but the doctrine -would seem to have been common at one time -to all the Celts. It was, however, of less shame to -the gods than would otherwise have been; for men -were of as divine descent as themselves. The -dogma of the Celts was that men were descended -from the god of death, and first came from the -Land of the Dead to take possession of the present -world.<a id='r141' /><a href='#f141' class='c010'><sup>[141]</sup></a> Caesar tells us, in his too short account of -the Gauls, that they believed themselves to be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>sprung from Dis Pater, the god of the underworld.<a id='r142' /><a href='#f142' class='c010'><sup>[142]</sup></a> -In the Gaelic mythology Dis Pater was called Bilé, -a name which has for root the syllable <i>bel</i>, meaning -“to die”. The god Beli in British mythology was -no doubt the same person, while the same idea is -expressed by the same root in the name of Balor, -the terrible Fomor whose glance was death.<a id='r143' /><a href='#f143' class='c010'><sup>[143]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The post-Christian Irish chroniclers, seeking to -reconcile Christian teachings with the still vital -pagan mythology by changing the gods into ancient -kings and incorporating them into the annals of the -country, with appropriate dates, also disposed of the -genuine early doctrine by substituting Spain for -Hades, and giving a highly-fanciful account of the -origin and wanderings of their ancestors. To use -a Hibernicism, appropriate in this connection, the -first Irishman was a Scythian called Fenius Farsa. -Deprived of his own throne, he had settled in -Egypt, where his son Niul married a daughter of -the reigning Pharaoh. Her name was Scôta, and -she had a son called Goidel, whose great-grandson -was named Eber Scot, the whole genealogy being -probably invented to explain the origin of the three -names by which the Gaels called themselves—Finn, -Scot, and Goidel. Fenius and his family and clan -were turned out of Egypt for refusing to join in the -persecution of the children of Israel, and sojourned -in Africa for forty-two years. Their wanderings -took them to “the altars of the Philistines, by the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>Lake of Osiers”; then, passing between Rusicada -and the hilly country of Syria, they travelled -through Mauretania as far as the Pillars of Hercules; -and thence landed in Spain, where they lived -many years, greatly increasing and multiplying. -The same route is given by the twelfth-century -British historian, Geoffrey of Monmouth, as that -taken by Brutus and the Trojans when they came -to colonize Britain.<a id='r144' /><a href='#f144' class='c010'><sup>[144]</sup></a> Its only connection with any -kind of fact is that it corresponds fairly well with -what ethnologists consider must have been the -westward line of migration taken, not, curiously -enough, by the Aryan Celts, but by the pre-Aryan -Iberians.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is sufficient for us to find the first men in -Spain, remembering that “Spain” stood for the -Celtic Hades, or Elysium. In this country Bregon, -the father of two sons, Bilé and Ith, had built a -watch-tower, from which, one winter’s evening, Ith -saw, far off over the seas, a land he had never -noticed before. “It is on winter evenings, when -the air is pure, that man’s eyesight reaches -farthest”, remarks the old tract called the “Book -of Invasions”,<a id='r145' /><a href='#f145' class='c010'><sup>[145]</sup></a> gravely accounting for the fact that -Ith saw Ireland from Spain.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Wishing to examine it nearer, he set sail with -thrice thirty warriors, and landed without mishap at -the mouth of the River Scêné.<a id='r146' /><a href='#f146' class='c010'><sup>[146]</sup></a> The country seemed -to him to be uninhabited, and he marched with his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>men towards the north. At last he reached Aileach, -near the present town of Londonderry.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Here he found the three reigning kings of the -people of the goddess Danu, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, -and Mac Greiné, the sons of Ogma, and grandsons -of the Dagda. These had succeeded Nuada the -Silver-handed, killed in the battle with the Fomors; -and had met, after burying their predecessor in a -tumulus called Grianan Aileach, which still stands -on the base of the Inishowen Peninsula, between -Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle, to divide his kingdom -among them. Unable to arrive at any partition -satisfactory to all, they appealed to the new-comer -to arbitrate.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The advice of Ith was moral rather than practical. -“Act according to the laws of justice” was all that -he would say to the claimants; and then he was -indiscreet enough to burst into enthusiastic praises -of Ireland for its temperate climate and its richness -in fruit, honey, wheat, and fish. Such sentiments -from a foreigner seemed to the Tuatha Dé Danann -suggestive of a desire to take the country from -them. They conspired together and treacherously -killed Ith at a place since called “Ith’s Plain”. -They, however, spared his followers, who returned -to “Spain”, taking their dead leader’s body with -them. The indignation there was great, and Milé, -Bilé’s son and Ith’s nephew, determined to go to -Ireland and get revenge.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Milé therefore sailed with his eight sons and -their wives. Thirty-six chiefs, each with his shipful -of warriors, accompanied him. By the magic arts -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>of their druid, Amergin of the Fair Knee, they -discovered the exact place at which Ith had landed -before them, and put in to shore there. Two alone -failed to reach it alive. The wife of Amergin died -during the voyage, and Aranon, a son of Milé, on -approaching the land, climbed to the top of the -mast to obtain a better view, and, falling off, was -drowned. The rest disembarked safely upon the -first of May.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Amergin was the first to land. Planting his right -foot on Irish soil, he burst into a poem preserved in -both the Book of Lecan and the Book of Ballymote.<a id='r147' /><a href='#f147' class='c010'><sup>[147]</sup></a> -It is a good example of the pantheistic philosophy -of the Celtic races, and a very close parallel to it -is contained in an early Welsh poem, called the -“Battle of the Trees”, and attributed to the famous -bard Taliesin.<a id='r148' /><a href='#f148' class='c010'><sup>[148]</sup></a> “I am the wind that blows upon -the sea,” sang Amergin; “I am the ocean wave; I -am the murmur of the surges; I am seven battalions; -I am a strong bull; I am an eagle on a -rock; I am a ray of the sun; I am the most beautiful -of herbs; I am a courageous wild boar; I am a -salmon in the water; I am a lake upon a plain; I -am a cunning artist; I am a gigantic, sword-wielding -champion; I can shift my shape like a god. In -what direction shall we go? Shall we hold our -council in the valley or on the mountain-top? -Where shall we make our home? What land is -better than this island of the setting sun? Where -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>shall we walk to and fro in peace and safety? -Who can find you clear springs of water as I can? -Who can tell you the age of the moon but I? Who -can call the fish from the depths of the sea as I -can? Who can cause them to come near the shore -as I can? Who can change the shapes of the hills -and headlands as I can? I am a bard who is called -upon by seafarers to prophesy. Javelins shall be -wielded to avenge our wrongs. I prophesy victory. -I end my song by prophesying all other good -things.”<a id='r149' /><a href='#f149' class='c010'><sup>[149]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The Welsh bard Taliesin sings in the same strain -as the druid Amergin his unity with, and therefore -his power over, all nature, animate and inanimate. -“I have been in many shapes”, he says, “before I -attained a congenial form. I have been a narrow -blade of a sword; I have been a drop in the air; -I have been a shining star; I have been a word -in a book; I have been a book in the beginning; -I have been a light in a lantern a year and a half; -I have been a bridge for passing over threescore -rivers; I have journeyed as an eagle; I have been -a boat on the sea; I have been a director in battle; -I have been a sword in the hand; I have been a -shield in fight; I have been the string of a harp; -I have been enchanted for a year in the foam of -water. There is nothing in which I have not been.” -It is strange to find Gael and Briton combining to -voice almost in the same words this doctrine of the -mystical Celts, who, while still in a state of semi-barbarism, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>saw, with some of the greatest of ancient -and modern philosophers, the One in the Many, and -a single Essence in all the manifold forms of life.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Milesians (for so, following the Irish annalists, -it will be convenient to call the first Gaelic -settlers in Ireland) began their march on Tara, -which was the capital of the Tuatha Dé Danann, -as it had been in earlier days the chief fortress of -the Fir Bolgs, and would in later days be the -dwelling of the high kings of Ireland. On their -way they met with a goddess called Banba, the -wife of Mac Cuill. She greeted Amergin. “If -you have come to conquer Ireland,” she said, -“your cause is no just one.” “Certainly it is to -conquer it we have come,” replied Amergin, without -condescending to argue upon the abstract -morality of the matter. “Then at least grant me -one thing,” she asked. “What is that?” replied -Amergin. “That this island shall be called by -my name.” “It shall be,” replied Amergin.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A little farther on, they met a second goddess, -Fotla, the wife of Mac Cecht, who made the same -request, and received the same answer from Amergin.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Last of all, at Uisnech, the centre of Ireland, -they came upon the third of the queens, Eriu, the -wife of Mac Greiné. “Welcome, warriors,” she -cried. “To you who have come from afar this -island shall henceforth belong, and from the setting -to the rising sun there is no better land. And your -race will be the most perfect the world has ever -seen.” “These are fair words and a good prophecy,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>said Amergin. “It will be no thanks to -you,” broke in Donn, Milé’s eldest son. “Whatever -success we have we shall owe to our own strength.” -“That which I prophesy has no concern with you,” -retorted the goddess, “and neither you nor your -descendants will live to enjoy this island.” Then, -turning to Amergin, she, too, asked that Ireland -might be called after her. “It shall be its principal -name,” Amergin promised.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And so it has happened. Of the three ancient -names of Ireland—Banba, Fotla, and Eriu—the -last, in its genitive form of “Erinn”, is the one -that has survived.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The invaders came to Tara, then called Drumcain, -that is, the “Beautiful Hill”. Mac Cuill, -Mac Cecht, and Mac Greiné met them, with all -the host of the Gaelic gods. As was usual, they -held a parley. The people of the goddess Danu -complained that they had been taken by surprise, -and the Milesians admitted that to invade a country -without having first warned its inhabitants was not -strictly according to the courtesies of chivalrous -warfare. The Tuatha Dé Danann proposed to -the invaders that they should leave the island for -three days, during which they themselves would -decide whether to fight for their kingdom or to -surrender it; but the Milesians did not care for -this, for they knew that, as soon as they were out -of the island, the Tuatha Dé Danann would oppose -them with druidical enchantments, so that they -would not be able to make a fresh landing. In -the end, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, and Mac Greiné -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>offered to submit the matter to the arbitration of -Amergin, the Milesians’ own lawgiver, with the -express stipulation that, if he gave an obviously -partial judgment, he was to suffer death at their -hands. Donn asked his druid if he were prepared -to accept this very delicate duty. Amergin replied -that he was, and at once delivered the first judgment -pronounced by the Milesians in Ireland.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The men whom we found dwelling in the land, to them is possession due by right.</div> - <div class='line in1'>It is therefore your duty to set out to sea over nine green waves;</div> - <div class='line in1'>And if you shall be able to effect a landing again in spite of them,</div> - <div class='line in1'>You are to engage them in battle, and I adjudge to you the land in which you found them living.</div> - <div class='line in1'>I adjudge to you the land wherein you found them dwelling, by the right of battle.</div> - <div class='line in1'>But although you may desire the land which these people possess, yet yours is the duty to show them justice.</div> - <div class='line in1'>I forbid you from injustice to those you have found in the land, however you may desire to obtain it.”<a id='r150' /><a href='#f150' class='c010'><sup>[150]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>This judgment was considered fair by both parties. -The Milesians retired to their ships, and waited at -a distance of nine waves’ length from the land until -the signal was given to attack, while the Tuatha -Dé Danann, drawn up upon the beach, were ready -with their druidical spells to oppose them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The signal was given, and the Milesians bent to -their oars. But they had hardly started before they -discovered that a strong wind was blowing straight -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>towards them from the shore, so that they could -make no progress. At first they thought it might be -a natural breeze, but Donn smelt magic in it. He -sent a man to climb the mast of his ship, and see -if the wind blew as strong at that height as it did -at the level of the sea. The man returned, reporting -that the air was quite still “up aloft”. Evidently -it was a druidical wind. But Amergin soon -coped with it. Lifting up his voice, he invoked -the Land of Ireland itself, a power higher than the -gods it sheltered.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I invoke the land of Eriu!</div> - <div class='line in1'>The shining, shining sea!</div> - <div class='line in1'>The fertile, fertile hill!</div> - <div class='line in1'>The wooded vale!</div> - <div class='line in1'>The river abundant, abundant in water!</div> - <div class='line in1'>The fishful, fishful lake!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>In such strain runs the original incantation, one -of those magic formulas whose power was held by -ancient, and still is held by savage, races to reside -in their exact consecrated wording rather than in -their meaning. To us it sounds nonsense, and so -no doubt it did to those who put the old Irish -mythical traditions into literary shape; for a later -version expands and explains it as follows:<a id='r151' /><a href='#f151' class='c010'><sup>[151]</sup></a>—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I implore that we may regain the land of Erin,</div> - <div class='line in1'>We who have come over the lofty waves,</div> - <div class='line in1'><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>This land whose mountains are great and extensive,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Whose streams are clear and numerous,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Whose woods abound with various fruit,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Its rivers and waterfalls are large and beautiful,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Its lakes are broad and widely spread,</div> - <div class='line in1'>It abounds with fountains on elevated grounds!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May we gain power and dominion over its tribes!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May we have kings of our own ruling at Tara!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May Tara be the regal residence of our many succeeding kings!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May the Milesians be the conquerors of its people!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May our ships anchor in its harbours!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May they trade along the coast of Erin!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May Eremon be its first ruling monarch!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May the descendants of Ir and Eber be mighty kings!</div> - <div class='line in1'>I implore that we may regain the land of Erin,</div> - <div class='line in29'>I implore!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>The incantation proved effectual. The Land of -Ireland was pleased to be propitious, and the -druidical wind dropped down.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But success was not quite so easy as they had -hoped. Manannán, son of the sea and lord of -headlands, shook his magic mantle at them, and -hurled a fresh tempest out over the deep. The -galleys of the Milesians were tossed helplessly on -the waves; many sank with their crews. Donn -was among the lost, thus fulfilling Eriu’s prophecy, -and three other sons of Milé also perished. In the -end, a broken remnant, after long beating about the -coasts, came to shore at the mouth of the River -Boyne. They landed; and Amergin, from the -shore, invoked the aid of the sea as he had already -done that of the land.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>“Sea full of fish!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Fertile land!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Fish swarming up!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Fish there!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Under-wave bird!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Great fish!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Crab’s hole!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Fish swarming up!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Sea full of fish!”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>which, being interpreted like the preceding charm, -seems to have meant:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“May the fishes of the sea crowd in shoals to the land for our use!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May the waves of the sea drive forth to the shore abundance of fish!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May the salmon swim abundantly into our nets!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May all kinds of fish come plentifully to us from the sea!</div> - <div class='line in1'>May its flat-fishes also come in abundance!</div> - <div class='line in1'>This poem I compose at the sea-shore that fishes may swim in shoals to our coast.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Then, gathering their forces, they marched on the -people of the goddess Danu.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Two battles were fought, the first in Glenn Faisi, -a valley of the Slieve Mish Mountains, south of -Tralee, and the second at Tailtiu, now called Telltown. -In both, the gods were beaten. Their -three kings were killed by the three surviving -sons of Milé—Mac Cuill by Eber, Mac Cecht by -Eremon, and Mac Greiné by the druid Amergin. -Defeated and disheartened, they gave in, and, retiring -beneath the earth, left the surface of the land -to their conquerors.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>From this day begins the history of Ireland -according to the annalists. Milé’s eldest son, Donn, -having perished, the kingdom fell by right to the -second, Eremon. But Eber, the third son, backed -by his followers, insisted upon a partition, and Ireland -was divided into two equal parts. At the end -of a year, however, war broke out between the -brothers; Eber was killed in battle, and Eremon -took the sole rule.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XI<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE GODS IN EXILE</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>But though mortals had conquered gods upon a -scale unparalleled in mythology, they had by no -means entirely subdued them. Beaten in battle, -the people of the goddess Danu had yet not lost -their divine attributes, and could use them either -to help or hurt. “Great was the power of the -Dagda”, says a tract preserved in the Book of -Leinster, “over the sons of Milé, even after the -conquest of Ireland; for his subjects destroyed their -corn and milk, so that they must needs make a -treaty of peace with the Dagda. Not until then, -and thanks to his good-will, were they able to -harvest corn and drink the milk of their cows.”<a id='r152' /><a href='#f152' class='c010'><sup>[152]</sup></a> -The basis of this lost treaty seems to have been -that the Tuatha Dé Danann, though driven from -the soil, should receive homage and offerings from -their successors. We are told in the verse <i>dinnsenchus</i> -of Mag Slecht, that—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Since the rule</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of Eremon, the noble man of grace,</div> - <div class='line in1'>There was worshipping of stones</div> - <div class='line in1'>Until the coming of good Patrick of Macha”.<a id='r153' /><a href='#f153' class='c010'><sup>[153]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>Dispossessed of upper earth, the gods had, however, -to seek for new homes. A council was convened, -but its members were divided between two -opinions. One section of them chose to shake the -dust of Ireland off its disinherited feet, and seek -refuge in a paradise over-seas, situate in some unknown, -and, except for favoured mortals, unknowable -island of the west, the counterpart in Gaelic -myth of the British</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in10'>... “island-valley of Avilion;</div> - <div class='line'>Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,</div> - <div class='line'>Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies</div> - <div class='line'>Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard-lawns</div> - <div class='line'>And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea”<a id='r154' /><a href='#f154' class='c010'><sup>[154]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>—a land of perpetual pleasure and feasting, described -variously as the “Land of Promise” (<i>Tir Tairngiré</i>), -the “Plain of Happiness” (<i>Mag Mell</i>), the “Land -of the Living” (<i>Tir-nam-beo</i>), the “Land of the -Young” (<i>Tir-nan-ōg</i>), and “Breasal’s Island” (<i>Hy-Breasail</i>). -Celtic mythology is full of the beauties -and wonders of this mystic country, and the tradition -of it has never died out. Hy-Breasail has been set -down on old maps as a reality again and again;<a id='r155' /><a href='#f155' class='c010'><sup>[155]</sup></a> -some pioneers in the Spanish seas thought they -had discovered it, and called the land they found -“Brazil”; and it is still said, by lovers of old lore, -that a patient watcher, after long gazing westward -from the westernmost shores of Ireland or Scotland, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>may sometimes be lucky enough to catch a glimpse -against the sunset of its—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea”.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Of these divine emigrants the principal was -Manannán son of Lêr. But, though he had cast -in his lot beyond the seas, he did not cease to visit -Ireland. An old Irish king, Bran, the son of Febal, -met him, according to a seventh-century poem, as -Bran journeyed to, and Manannán from, the earthly -paradise. Bran was in his boat, and Manannán -was driving a chariot over the tops of the waves, -and he sang:<a id='r156' /><a href='#f156' class='c010'><sup>[156]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Bran deems it a marvellous beauty</div> - <div class='line in1'>In his coracle across the clear sea:</div> - <div class='line in1'>While to me in my chariot from afar</div> - <div class='line in1'>It is a flowery plain on which he rides about.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“What is a clear sea</div> - <div class='line in1'>For the prowed skiff in which Bran is,</div> - <div class='line in1'>That is a happy plain with profusion of flowers</div> - <div class='line in1'>To me from the chariot of two wheels.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Bran sees</div> - <div class='line in1'>The number of waves beating across the clear sea:</div> - <div class='line in1'>I myself see in Mag Mon<a id='r157' /><a href='#f157' class='c010'><sup>[157]</sup></a></div> - <div class='line in1'>Red-headed flowers without fault.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Sea-horses glisten in summer</div> - <div class='line in1'>As far as Bran has stretched his glance:</div> - <div class='line in1'>Rivers pour forth a stream of honey</div> - <div class='line in1'>In the land of Manannán son of Lêr.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>“The sheen of the main, on which thou art,</div> - <div class='line in1'>The white hue of the sea, on which thou rowest about,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Yellow and azure are spread out,</div> - <div class='line in1'>It is land, and is not rough.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Speckled salmon leap from the womb</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of the white sea, on which thou lookest:</div> - <div class='line in1'>They are calves, they are coloured lambs</div> - <div class='line in1'>With friendliness, without mutual slaughter.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Though but one chariot-rider is seen</div> - <div class='line in1'>In Mag Mell<a id='r158' /><a href='#f158' class='c010'><sup>[158]</sup></a> of many flowers,</div> - <div class='line in1'>There are many steeds on its surface,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Though them thou seest not.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'> * * * * * * * * * *</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Along the top of a wood has swum</div> - <div class='line in1'>Thy coracle across ridges,</div> - <div class='line in1'>There is a wood of beautiful fruit</div> - <div class='line in1'>Under the prow of thy little skiff.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A wood with blossom and fruit,</div> - <div class='line in1'>On which is the vine’s veritable fragrance;</div> - <div class='line in1'>A wood without decay, without defect,</div> - <div class='line in1'>On which are leaves of a golden hue.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>And, after this singularly poetical enunciation of the -philosophical and mystical doctrine that all things -are, under their diverse forms, essentially the same, -he goes on to describe to Bran the beauties and pleasures -of the Celtic Elysium.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But there were others—indeed, the most part—of -the gods who refused to expatriate themselves. For -these residences had to be found, and the Dagda, -their new king, proceeded to assign to each of those -who stayed in Ireland a <i>sídh</i>. These <i>sídhe</i> were -barrows, or hillocks, each being the door to an underground -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>realm of inexhaustible splendour and delight, -according to the somewhat primitive ideas of the -Celts. A description is given of one which the -Dagda kept for himself, and out of which his son -Angus cheated him, which will serve as a fair example -of all. There were apple-trees there always -in fruit, and one pig alive and another ready roasted, -and the supply of ale never failed. One may still -visit in Ireland the <i>sídhe</i> of many of the gods, for -the spots are known, and the traditions have not -died out. To Lêr was given <i>Sídh Fionnachaidh</i>,<a id='r159' /><a href='#f159' class='c010'><sup>[159]</sup></a> -now known as the “Hill of the White Field”, on the -top of Slieve Fuad, near Newtown Hamilton, in -County Armagh. Bodb Derg received a <i>sídh</i> called -by his own name, <i>Sídh Bodb</i><a id='r160' /><a href='#f160' class='c010'><sup>[160]</sup></a>, just to the south of -Portumna, in Galway. Mider was given the <i>sídh</i> of -<i>Bri Leith</i>, now called Slieve Golry, near Ardagh, in -County Longford. Ogma’s <i>sídh</i> was called <i>Airceltrai</i>; -to Lugh was assigned <i>Rodrubân</i>; Manannán’s son, -Ilbhreach, received <i>Sídh Eas Aedha Ruaidh</i><a id='r161' /><a href='#f161' class='c010'><sup>[161]</sup></a>, now -the Mound of Mullachshee, near Ballyshannon, -in Donegal; Fionnbharr<a id='r162' /><a href='#f162' class='c010'><sup>[162]</sup></a> had <i>Sídh Meadha</i>, now -“Knockma”, about five miles west of Tuam, where, -as present king of the fairies, he is said to live to-day; -while the abodes of other gods of lesser fame -are also recorded. For himself the Dagda retained -two, both near the River Boyne, in Meath, the best -of them being the famous Brugh-na-Boyne. None -of the members of the Tuatha Dé Danann were left -unprovided for, save one.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>It was from this time that the Gaelic gods received -the name by which the peasantry know them -to-day—<i>Aes Sídhe</i>, the “People of the Hills”, or, -more shortly, the <i>Sídhe</i>. Every god, or fairy, is a -<i>Fer-Sídhe</i><a id='r163' /><a href='#f163' class='c010'><sup>[163]</sup></a>, a “Man of the Hill”; and every goddess -a <i>Bean-Sídhe</i>, a “Woman of the Hill”, the <i>banshee</i> -of popular legend.<a id='r164' /><a href='#f164' class='c010'><sup>[164]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The most famous of such fairy hills are about five -miles from Drogheda.<a id='r165' /><a href='#f165' class='c010'><sup>[165]</sup></a> They are still connected -with the names of the Tuatha Dé Danann, though -they are now not called their dwelling-places, but -their tombs. On the northern bank of the Boyne -stand seventeen barrows, three of which—Knowth, -Dowth, and New Grange—are of great size. The -last named, largest, and best preserved, is over -300 feet in diameter, and 70 feet high, while its top -makes a platform 120 feet across. It has been explored, -and Roman coins, gold torques, copper pins, -and iron rings and knives have been found in it; -but what else it may have once contained will never -be known, for, like Knowth and Dowth, it was -thoroughly ransacked by Danish spoilers in the -ninth century. It is entered by a square doorway, -the rims of which are elaborately ornamented with -a kind of spiral pattern. This entrance leads to a -stone passage, more than 60 feet long, which gradually -widens and rises, until it opens into a chamber -with a conical dome 20 feet high. On each side of -this central chamber is a recess, with a shallow oval -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>stone basin in it. The huge slabs of which the -whole is built are decorated upon both the outer -and the inner faces with the same spiral pattern as -the doorway.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The origin of these astonishing prehistoric monuments -is unknown, but they are generally attributed -to the race that inhabited Ireland before the Celts. -Gazing at marvellous New Grange, one might very -well echo the words of the old Irish poet Mac Nia, -in the Book of Ballymote:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Behold the <i>Sídh</i> before your eyes,</div> - <div class='line in1'>It is manifest to you that it is a king’s mansion,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Which was built by the firm Dagda,</div> - <div class='line in1'>It was a wonder, a court, an admirable hill.”<a id='r166' /><a href='#f166' class='c010'><sup>[166]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>It is not, however, with New Grange, or even -with Knowth or Dowth, that the Dagda’s name is -now associated. It is a smaller barrow, nearer to -the Boyne, which is known as the “Tomb of the -Dagda”. It has never been opened, and Dr. James -Fergusson, the author of <i>Rude Stone Monuments</i>, -who holds the Tuatha Dé Danann to have been a -real people, thinks that “the bones and armour of -the great Dagda may still be found in his honoured -grave”.<a id='r167' /><a href='#f167' class='c010'><sup>[167]</sup></a> Other Celtic scholars might not be so -sanguine, though verses as old as the eleventh -century assert that the Tuatha Dé Danann used -the brughs for burial. It was about this period that -the mythology of Ireland was being rewoven into -spurious history. The poem, which is called the -“Chronicles of the Tombs”, not only mentions the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>“Monument of the Dagda” and the “Monument -of the Morrígú”, but also records the last resting-places -of Ogma, Etain, Cairpré, Lugh, Boann, and -Angus.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We have for the present, however, to consider -Angus in a far less sepulchral light. He is, indeed, -very much alive in the story to be related. The -“Son of the Young” was absent when the distribution -of the <i>sídhe</i> was made. When he returned, -he came to his father, the Dagda, and demanded -one. The Dagda pointed out to him that they had -all been given away. Angus protested, but what -could be done? By fair means, evidently nothing; -but by craft, a great deal. The wily Angus appeared -to reconcile himself to fate, and only begged -his father to allow him to stay at the <i>sídh</i> of Brugh-na-Boyne -(New Grange) for a day and a night. -The Dagda agreed to this, no doubt congratulating -himself on having got out of the difficulty so easily. -But when he came to Angus to remind him that the -time was up, Angus refused to go. He had been -granted, he claimed, day and night, and it is of days -and nights that time and eternity are composed; -therefore there was no limit to his tenure of the -<i>sídh</i>. The logic does not seem very convincing to -our modern minds, but the Dagda is said to have -been satisfied with it. He abandoned the best of -his two palaces to his son, who took peaceable possession -of it. Thus it got a second name, that of -the <i>Sídh</i> or <i>Brugh</i> of the “Son of the Young”.<a id='r168' /><a href='#f168' class='c010'><sup>[168]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The Dagda does not, after this, play much active -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>part in the history of the people of the goddess -Danu. We next hear of a council of gods to elect -a fresh ruler. There were five candidates for the -vacant throne—Bodb the Red, Mider, Ilbhreach<a id='r169' /><a href='#f169' class='c010'><sup>[169]</sup></a> -son of Manannán, Lêr, and Angus himself, though -the last-named, we are told, had little real desire to -rule, as he preferred a life of freedom to the dignities -of kingship. The Tuatha Dé Danann went -into consultation, and the result of their deliberation -was that their choice fell upon Bodb the Red, for -three reasons—firstly, for his own sake; secondly, -for his father, the Dagda’s sake; and thirdly, because -he was the Dagda’s eldest son. The other -competitors approved this choice, except two. -Mider refused to give hostages, as was the custom, -to Bodb Derg, and fled with his followers to “a -desert country round Mount Leinster”, in County -Carlow, while Lêr retired in great anger to Sídh -Fionnachaidh, declining to recognize or obey the -new king.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Why Lêr and Mider should have so taken the -matter to heart is difficult to understand, unless it -was because they were both among the oldest of the -gods. The indifference of Angus is easier to explain. -He was the Gaelic Eros, and was busy living up -to his character. At this time, the object of his love -was a maiden who had visited him one night in a -dream, only to vanish when he put out his arms to -embrace her. All the next day, we are told, Angus -took no food. Upon the following night, the unsubstantial -lady again appeared, and played and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>sang to him. That following day, he also fasted. -So things went on for a year, while Angus pined -and wasted for love. At last the physicians of the -Tuatha Dé Danann guessed his complaint, and told -him how fatal it might be to him. Angus asked -that his mother Boann might be sent for, and, when -she came, he told her his trouble, and implored her -help. She went to the Dagda and begged him, -if he did not wish to see his son die of unrequited -love, a disease that all Diancecht’s medicine and -Goibniu’s magic could not heal, to find the dream-maiden. -The Dagda could do nothing himself, but -he sent to Bodb the Red, and the new king of the -gods sent in turn to the lesser deities of Ireland, -ordering all of them to search for her. For a year -she could not be found, but at last the disconsolate -lover received a message, charging him to come and -see if he could recognize the lady of his dreams. -Angus came, and knew her at once, even though -she was surrounded by thrice fifty attendant nymphs. -Her name was Caer, and she was the daughter of -Etal Ambuel, who had a <i>sídh</i> at Uaman, in Connaught. -Bodb the Red demanded her for Angus -in marriage, but her father declared that he had no -control over her. She was a swan-maiden, he said; -and every year, as soon as summer was over, she -went with her companions to a lake called “Dragon-Mouth”, -and there all of them became swans. But, -refusing to be thus put off, Angus waited in patience -until the day of the magical change, and then went -down to the shore of the lake. There, surrounded -by thrice fifty swans, he saw Caer, herself a swan -<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>surpassing all the rest in beauty and whiteness. He -called to her, proclaiming his passion and his name, -and she promised to be his bride, if he too would -become a swan. He agreed, and with a word she -changed him into swan-shape, and thus they flew -side by side to Angus’s <i>sídh</i>, where they retook the -human form, and, no doubt, lived happily as long as -could be expected of such changeable immortals as -pagan deities.<a id='r170' /><a href='#f170' class='c010'><sup>[170]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Meanwhile, the people of the goddess Danu were -justly incensed against both Lêr and Mider. Bodb -the Red made a yearly war upon Mider in his <i>sídh</i>, -and many of the divine race were killed on either -side. But against Lêr, the new king of the gods -refused to move, for there had been a great affection -between them. Many times Bodb Derg tried to -regain Lêr’s friendship by presents and compliments, -but for a long time without success.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At last Lêr’s wife died, to the sea-god’s great -sorrow. When Bodb the Red heard the news, he -sent a messenger to Lêr, offering him one of his -own foster-daughters, Aebh<a id='r171' /><a href='#f171' class='c010'><sup>[171]</sup></a>, Aeife<a id='r172' /><a href='#f172' class='c010'><sup>[172]</sup></a>, and Ailbhe<a id='r173' /><a href='#f173' class='c010'><sup>[173]</sup></a>, -the children of Ailioll of Arran. Lêr, touched by -this, came to visit Bodb the Red at his <i>sídh</i>, and -chose Aebh for his wife. “She is the eldest, so she -must be the noblest of them,” he said. They were -married, and a great feast made; and Lêr took her -back with him to Sídh Fionnachaidh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Aebh bore four children to Lêr. The eldest was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>a daughter called Finola, the second was a son called -Aed; the two others were twin boys called Fiachra -and Conn, but in giving birth to those Aebh died.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Bodb the Red then offered Lêr another of his -foster-children, and he chose the second, Aeife. -Every year Lêr and Aeife and the four children -used to go to Manannán’s “Feast of Age”, which -was held at each of the <i>sídhe</i> in turn. The four -children grew up to be great favourites among the -people of the goddess Danu.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Aeife was childless, and she became jealous -of Lêr’s children; for she feared that he would love -them more than he did her. She brooded over this -until she began, first to hope for, and then to plot -their deaths. She tried to persuade her servants to -murder them, but they would not. So she took the -four children to Lake Darvra (now called Lough -Derravargh in West Meath), and sent them into the -water to bathe. Then she made an incantation over -them, and touched them, each in turn, with a druidical -wand, and changed them into swans.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But, though she had magic enough to alter their -shapes, she had not the power to take away their -human speech and minds. Finola turned, and -threatened her with the anger of Lêr and of Bodb -the Red when they came to hear of it. She, however, -hardened her heart, and refused to undo what -she had done. The children of Lêr, finding their -case a hopeless one, asked her how long she intended -to keep them in that condition.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“You would be easier in mind,” she said, “if you -had not asked the question; but I will tell you. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>You shall be three hundred years here, on Lake -Darvra; and three hundred years upon the Sea of -Moyle<a id='r174' /><a href='#f174' class='c010'><sup>[174]</sup></a>, which is between Erin and Alba; and -three hundred years more at Irros Domnann<a id='r175' /><a href='#f175' class='c010'><sup>[175]</sup></a> and -the Isle of Glora in Erris<a id='r176' /><a href='#f176' class='c010'><sup>[176]</sup></a>. Yet you shall have two -consolations in your troubles; you shall keep your -human minds, and yet suffer no grief at knowing -that you have been changed into swans, and you -shall be able to sing the softest and sweetest songs -that were ever heard in the world.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then Aeife went away and left them. She returned -to Lêr, and told him that the children had -fallen by accident into Lake Darvra, and were -drowned.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Lêr was not satisfied that she spoke the truth, -and went in haste to the lake, to see if he could find -traces of them. He saw four swans close to the -shore, and heard them talking to one another with -human voices. As he approached, they came out -of the water to meet him. They told him what -Aeife had done, and begged him to change them -back into their own shapes. But Lêr’s magic was -not so powerful as his wife’s, and he could not.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Nor even could Bodb the Red—to whom Lêr -went for help,—for all that he was king of the gods. -What Aeife had done could not be undone. But -she could be punished for it! Bodb ordered his -foster-daughter to appear before him, and, when she -came, he put an oath on her to tell him truly “what -shape of all others, on the earth, or above the earth, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>or beneath the earth, she most abhorred, and into -which she most dreaded to be transformed”. Aeife -was obliged to answer that she most feared to become -a demon of the air. So Bodb the Red struck -her with his wand, and she fled from them, a shrieking -demon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>All the Tuatha Dé Danann went to Lake Darvra -to visit the four swans. The Milesians heard of it, -and also went; for it was not till long after this that -gods and mortals ceased to associate. The visit -became a yearly feast. But, at the end of three -hundred years, the children of Lêr were compelled -to leave Lake Darvra, and go to the Sea of Moyle, -to fulfil the second period of their exile.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They bade farewell to gods and men, and went. -And, for fear lest they might be hurt by anyone, the -Milesians made it law in Ireland that no man should -harm a swan, from that time forth for ever.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The children of Lêr suffered much from tempest -and cold on the stormy Sea of Moyle, and they were -very lonely. Once only during that long three -hundred years did they see any of their friends. -An embassy of the Tuatha Dé Danann, led by two -sons of Bodb the Red, came to look for them, and -told them all that had happened in Erin during their -exile.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At last that long penance came to an end, and -they went to Irros Domnann and Innis Glora for -their third stage. And while it was wearily dragging -through, Saint Patrick came to Ireland, and -put an end to the power of the gods for ever. They -had been banned and banished when the children of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>Lêr found themselves free to return to their old -home. Sídh Fionnechaidh was empty and deserted, -for Lêr had been killed by Caoilté, the cousin of -Finn mac Coul.<a id='r177' /><a href='#f177' class='c010'><sup>[177]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>So, after long, vain searching for their lost relatives, -they gave up hope, and returned to the Isle of Glora. -They had a friend there, the Lonely Crane of Inniskea<a id='r178' /><a href='#f178' class='c010'><sup>[178]</sup></a>, -which has lived upon that island ever since the -beginning of the world, and will be still sitting there -on the day of judgment. They saw no one else -until, one day, a man came to the island. He told -them that he was Saint Caemhoc<a id='r179' /><a href='#f179' class='c010'><sup>[179]</sup></a>, and that he had -heard their story. He brought them to his church, -and preached the new faith to them, and they believed -on Christ, and consented to be baptised. This broke -the pagan spell, and, as soon as the holy water was -sprinkled over them, they returned to human shape. -But they were very old and bowed—three aged men -and an ancient woman. They did not live long after -this, and Saint Caemhoc, who had baptised them, -buried them all together in one grave.<a id='r180' /><a href='#f180' class='c010'><sup>[180]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>But, in telling this story, we have leaped nine -hundred years—a great space in the history even -of gods. We must retrace our steps, if not quite -to the days of Eremon and Eber, sons of Milé, and -first kings of Ireland, at any rate to the beginning -of the Christian era.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>At this time Eochaid Airem was high king of -Ireland, and reigned at Tara; while, under him, as -vassal monarchs, Conchobar mac Nessa ruled over -the Red Branch Champions of Ulster; Curoi son of -Daire<a id='r181' /><a href='#f181' class='c010'><sup>[181]</sup></a>, was king of Munster; Mesgegra was king -of Leinster; and Ailell, with his famous queen, Medb, -governed Connaught.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Shortly before, among the gods, Angus Son of -the Young, had stolen away Etain, the wife of Mider. -He kept her imprisoned in a bower of glass, which -he carried everywhere with him, never allowing her -to leave it, for fear Mider might recapture her. The -Gaelic Pluto, however, found out where she was, -and was laying plans to rescue her, when a rival of -Etain’s herself decoyed Angus away from before the -pleasant prison-house, and set his captive free. But, -instead of returning her to Mider, she changed the -luckless goddess into a fly, and threw her into the -air, where she was tossed about in great wretchedness -at the mercy of every wind.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At the end of seven years, a gust blew her on to -the roof of the house of Etair, one of the vassals of -Conchobar, who was celebrating a feast. The unhappy -fly, who was Etain, was blown down the -chimney into the room below, and fell, exhausted, -into a golden cup full of beer, which the wife of the -master of the house was just going to drink. And -the woman drank Etain with the beer.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But, of course, this was not the end of her—for -the gods cannot really die,—but only the beginning -of a new life. Etain was reborn as the daughter of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>Etair’s wife, no one knowing that she was not of -mortal lineage. She grew up to be the most beautiful -woman in Ireland.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When she was twenty years old, her fame reached -the high king, who sent messengers to see if she -was as fair as men reported. They saw her, and -returned to the king full of her praises. So Eochaid -himself went to pay her a visit. He chose her to be -his queen, and gave her a splendid dowry.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was not till then that Mider heard of her. He -came to her in the shape of a young man, beautifully -dressed, and told her who she really was, and how -she had been his wife among the people of the -goddess Danu. He begged her to leave the king, -and come with him to his <i>sídh</i> at Bri Leith. But -Etain refused with scorn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Do you think,” she said, “that I would give up -the high king of Ireland for a person whose name -and kindred I do not know, except from his own -lips?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The god retired, baffled for the time. But one -day, as King Eochaid sat in his hall, a stranger -entered. He was dressed in a purple tunic, his hair -was like gold, and his eyes shone like candles.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The king welcomed him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“But who are you?” he asked; “for I do not -know you.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Yet I have known you a long time,” returned the -stranger.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Then what is your name?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Not a very famous one. I am Mider of Bri -Leith.”</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>“Why have you come here?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“To challenge you to a game of chess.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a good chess-player,” replied the king, who -was reputed to be the best in Ireland.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I think I can beat you,” answered Mider.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“But the chess-board is in the queen’s room, and -she is asleep,” objected Eochaid.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“It does not matter,” replied Mider. “I have -brought a board with me which can be in no way -worse than yours.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>He showed it to the king, who admitted that the -boast was true. The chess-board was made of -silver set in precious stones, and the pieces were -of gold.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Play!” said Mider to the king.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I never play without a wager,” replied Eochaid.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What shall be the stake?” asked Mider.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I do not care,” replied Eochaid.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Good!” returned Mider. “Let it be that the -loser pays whatever the winner demands.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“That is a wager fit for a king,” said Eochaid.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They played, and Mider lost. The stake that -Eochaid claimed from him was that Mider and his -subjects should make a road through Ireland. -Eochaid watched the road being made, and noticed -how Mider’s followers yoked their oxen, not by the -horns, as the Gaels did, but at the shoulders, which -was better. He adopted the practice, and thus got -his nickname, Airem, that is, “The Ploughman”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>After a year, Mider returned and challenged the -king again, the terms to be the same as before. -Eochaid agreed with joy; but, this time, he lost.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>“I could have beaten you before, if I had wished,” -said Mider, “and now the stake I demand is Etain, -your queen.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The astonished king, who could not for shame -go back upon his word, asked for a year’s delay. -Mider agreed to return upon that day year to claim -Etain. Eochaid consulted with his warriors, and -they decided to keep watch through the whole of -the day fixed by Mider, and let no one pass in or -out of the royal palace till sunset. For Eochaid -held that if the fairy king could not get Etain upon -that one day, his promise would be no longer binding -on him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So, when the day came, they barred the door and -guarded it, but suddenly they saw Mider among -them in the hall. He stood beside Etain, and sang -this song to her, setting out the pleasures of the -homes of the gods under the enchanted hills.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O fair lady! will you come with me</div> - <div class='line in1'>To a wonderful country which is mine,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Where the people’s hair is of golden hue,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And their bodies the colour of virgin snow?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“There no grief or care is known;</div> - <div class='line in1'>White are their teeth, black their eyelashes;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Delight of the eye is the rank of our hosts,</div> - <div class='line in1'>With the hue of the fox-glove on every cheek.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Crimson are the flowers of every mead,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Gracefully speckled as the blackbird’s egg;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Though beautiful to see be the plains of Inisfail<a id='r182' /><a href='#f182' class='c010'><sup>[182]</sup></a></div> - <div class='line in1'>They are but commons compared to our great plains.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>“Though intoxicating to you be the ale-drink of Inisfail,</div> - <div class='line in1'>More intoxicating the ales of the great country;</div> - <div class='line in1'>The only land to praise is the land of which I speak,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Where no one ever dies of decrepit age.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Soft sweet streams traverse the land;</div> - <div class='line in1'>The choicest of mead and of wine;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Beautiful people without any blemish;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Love without sin, without wickedness.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“We can see the people upon all sides,</div> - <div class='line in1'>But by no one can we be seen;</div> - <div class='line in1'>The cloud of Adam’s transgression it is</div> - <div class='line in1'>That prevents them from seeing us.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O lady, should you come to my brave land,</div> - <div class='line in1'>It is golden hair that will be on your head;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Fresh pork, beer, new milk, and ale,</div> - <div class='line in1'>You there with me shall have, O fair lady!”<a id='r183' /><a href='#f183' class='c010'><sup>[183]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Then Mider greeted Eochaid, and told him that -he had come to take away Etain, according to the -king’s wager. And, while the king and his warriors -looked on helplessly, he placed one arm round the -now willing woman, and they both vanished. This -broke the spell that hung over everyone in the hall; -they rushed to the door, but all they could see were -two swans flying away.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The king would not, however, yield to the god. -He sent to every part of Ireland for news of Etain, -but his messengers all came back without having -been able to find her. At last, a druid named -Dalân learned, by means of ogams carved upon -wands of yew, that she was hidden under Mider’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span><i>sídh</i> of Bri Leith. So Eochaid marched there with -an army, and began to dig deep into the abode of -the gods of which the “fairy hill” was the portal. -Mider, as terrified as was the Greek god Hades -when it seemed likely that the earth would be rent -open,<a id='r184' /><a href='#f184' class='c010'><sup>[184]</sup></a> and his domains laid bare to the sight, sent -out fifty fairy maidens to Eochaid, every one of -them having the appearance of Etain. But the -king would only be content with the real Etain, so -that Mider, to save his <i>sídh</i>, was at last obliged to -give her up. And she lived with the King of Ireland -after that until the death of both of them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Mider never forgave the insult. He bided -his time for three generations, until Eochaid and -Etain had a male descendant. For they had no -son, but only a daughter called Etain, like her -mother, and this second Etain had a daughter called -Messbuachallo, who had a son called Conairé, surnamed -“the Great”. Mider and the gods wove -the web of fate round Conairé, so that he and all his -men died violent deaths.<a id='r185' /><a href='#f185' class='c010'><sup>[185]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XII<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE IRISH ILIAD</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>With Eber and Eremon, sons of Milé, and -conquerors of the gods, begins a fresh series of -characters in Gaelic tradition—the early “Milesian” -kings of Ireland. Though monkish chroniclers -have striven to find history in the legends handed -down concerning them, they are none the less -almost as mythical as the Tuatha Dé Danann. The -first of them who has the least appearance of reality -is Tigernmas, who is recorded to have reigned a -hundred years after the coming of the Milesians. -He seems to have been what is sometimes called -a “Culture-king”, bearing much the same kind of -relation to Ireland as Theseus bore to Athens or -Minos to Crete. During his reign, nine new lakes -and three new rivers broke forth from beneath the -earth to give their waters to Erin. Under his -auspices, gold was first smelted, ornaments of gold -and silver were first made, and clothes first dyed. -He is said to have perished mysteriously<a id='r186' /><a href='#f186' class='c010'><sup>[186]</sup></a> with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>three-fourths of the men of Erin while worshipping -Cromm Cruaich on the field of Mag Slecht. In him -Mr. Nutt sees, no doubt rightly, the great mythical -king who, in almost all national histories, closes -the strictly mythological age, and inaugurates a new -era of less obviously divine, if hardly less apocryphal -characters.<a id='r187' /><a href='#f187' class='c010'><sup>[187]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>In spite, however, of the worship of the Tuatha -Dé Danann instituted by Eremon, we find the early -kings and heroes of Ireland walking very familiarly -with their gods. Eochaid Airem, high king of -Ireland, was apparently reckoned a perfectly fit -suitor for the goddess Etain, and proved a far from -unsuccessful rival of Mider, the Gaelic Pluto.<a id='r188' /><a href='#f188' class='c010'><sup>[188]</sup></a> And -adventures of love or war were carried quite as -cheerfully among the <i>sídh</i> dwellers by Eochaid’s -contemporaries—Conchobar son of Nessa, King -of Ulster, Curoi son of Daire, King of Munster, -Mesgegra, King of Leinster, and Ailell and Medb<a id='r189' /><a href='#f189' class='c010'><sup>[189]</sup></a>, -King and Queen of Connaught.</p> - -<p class='c005'>All these figures of the second Gaelic cycle (that -of the heroes of Ulster, and especially of their -great champion, Cuchulainn) lived, according to -Irish tradition, at about the beginning of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>Christian era. Conchobar, indeed, is said to have -expired in a fit of rage on hearing of the death -of Christ.<a id='r190' /><a href='#f190' class='c010'><sup>[190]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>But this is a very transparent monkish interpolation -into the original story. A quite different view -is taken by most modern scholars, who would see -gods and not men in all the legendary characters -of the Celtic heroic cycles. Upon such a subject, -however, one may legitimately take sides. Were -King Conchobar and his Ultonian champions, Finn -and his Fenians, Arthur and his Knights once living -men round whom the attributes of gods have -gathered, or were they ancient deities renamed and -stripped of some of their divinity to make them -more akin to their human worshippers? History -or mythology? A mingling, perhaps, of both. -Cuchulainn<a id='r191' /><a href='#f191' class='c010'><sup>[191]</sup></a> may have been the name of a real -Gaelic warrior, however suspiciously he may now -resemble the sun-god, who is said to have been his -father. King Conchobar may have been the real -chief of a tribe of Irish Celts before he became an -adumbration of the Gaelic sky-god. It is the same -problem that confronts us in dealing with the heroic -legends of Greece and Rome. Were Achilles, -Agamemnon, Odysseus, Paris, Æneas gods, demi-gods, -or men? Let us call them all alike—whether -they be Greek or Trojan heroes, Red Branch -Champions, or followers of the Gaelic Finn or the -British Arthur—demi-gods. Even so, they stand -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>definitely apart from the older gods who were -greater than they were.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We are stretching no point in calling them demi-gods, -for they were god-descended.<a id='r192' /><a href='#f192' class='c010'><sup>[192]</sup></a> Cuchulainn, -the greatest hero of the Ulster cycle, was doubly -so; for on his mother’s side he was the grandson -of the Dagda, while Lugh of the Long Hand is -said to have been his father. His mother, Dechtiré, -daughter of Maga, the daughter of Angus “Son of -the Young”, was half-sister to King Conchobar, -and all the other principal heroes were of hardly -less lofty descent. It is small wonder that they are -described in ancient manuscripts<a id='r193' /><a href='#f193' class='c010'><sup>[193]</sup></a> as terrestrial gods -and goddesses.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Terrestrial” they may have been in form, but -their acts were superhuman. Indeed, compared -with the more modest exploits of the heroes of the -“Iliad”, they were those of giants. Where Greek -warriors slew their tens, these Ultonians despatched -their hundreds. They came home after such exploits -so heated that their cold baths boiled over. -When they sat down to meat, they devoured whole -oxen, and drank their mead from vats. With one -stroke of their favourite swords they beheaded hills -for sport. The gods themselves hardly did more, -and it is easy to understand that in those old days -not only might the sons of gods look upon the -daughters of men and find them fair, but immortal -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>women also need not be too proud to form passing -alliances with mortal men.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Some of the older deities seem to have already -passed out of memory at the time of the compilation -of the Ulster cycle. At any rate, they make no -appearance in it. Dead Nuada rests in the <i>grianan</i> -of Aileach; Ogma lies low in <i>sídh</i> Airceltrai; while -the Dagda, thrust into the background by his son -Angus, mixes himself very little in the affairs of -Erin.<a id='r194' /><a href='#f194' class='c010'><sup>[194]</sup></a> But the Morrígú is no less eager in encouraging -human or semi-divine heroes to war than -she was when she revived the fainting spirits of the -folk of the goddess Danu at the Battle of Moytura. -The gods who appear most often in the cycle of -the Red Branch of Ulster are the same that have -lived on throughout with the most persistent vitality. -Lugh the Long-handed, Angus of the Brugh, Mider, -Bodb the Red, and Manannán son of Lêr, are the -principal deities that move in the background of the -stage where the chief parts are now played by -mortals. But, to make up for the loss of some of -the greater divine figures, the ranks of the gods are -being recruited from below. All manner of inferior -divinities claim to be members of the tribe of the -goddess Danu. The goblins and sprites and demons -of the air who shrieked around battles are described -collectively as Tuatha Dé Danann.<a id='r195' /><a href='#f195' class='c010'><sup>[195]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>As for the Fomors, they have lost their distinctive -names, though they are still recognized as -dwellers beneath the deep, who at times raid upon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>the coast, and do battle with the heroes over whom -Conchobar ruled at Emain Macha.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This seat of his government, the traditionary site -of which is still marked by an extensive prehistoric -entrenchment called Navan Fort<a id='r196' /><a href='#f196' class='c010'><sup>[196]</sup></a>, near Armagh, -was the centre of an Ulster that stretched southwards -as far as the Boyne, and round its ruler -gathered such a galaxy of warriors as Ireland had -never seen before, or will again. They called themselves -the “Champions of the Red Branch”; there -was not one of them who was not a hero; but they -are all dwarfed by one splendid figure—Cuchulainn, -whose name means “Culann’s Hound”. Mr. -Alfred Nutt calls him “the Irish Achilles”<a id='r197' /><a href='#f197' class='c010'><sup>[197]</sup></a>, while -Professor Rhys would rather see in him a Heracles -of the Gaels.<a id='r198' /><a href='#f198' class='c010'><sup>[198]</sup></a> Like Achilles, he was the chosen -hero of his people, invincible in battle, and yet -“at once to early death and sorrows doomed beyond -the lot of man”, while, like Heracles, his life -was a series of wonderful exploits and labours. It -matters little enough; for the lives of all such -mythical heroes must be of necessity somewhat -alike.</p> - -<p class='c005'>If Achilles and Heracles were, as some think, -personifications of the sun, Cuchulainn is not less -so. Most of his attributes, as the old stories record -them, are obviously solar symbols. He seemed -generally small and insignificant, yet, when he was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>at his full strength, no one could look him in the -face without blinking, while the heat of his constitution -melted snow for thirty feet all round him. -He turned red and hissed as he dipped his body -into its bath—the sea. Terrible was his transformation -when sorely oppressed by his enemies, -as the sun is by mist, storm, or eclipse. At such -times “among the aërial clouds over his head were -visible the virulent pouring showers and sparks of -ruddy fire which the seething of his savage wrath -caused to mount up above him. His hair became -tangled about his head, as it had been branches of -a red thorn-bush stuffed into a strongly-fenced gap.... -Taller, thicker, more rigid, longer than mast -of a great ship was the perpendicular jet of dusky -blood which out of his scalp’s very central point -shot upwards and then was scattered to the four -cardinal points; whereby was formed a magic mist -of gloom resembling the smoky pall that drapes -a regal dwelling, what time a king at nightfall of a -winter’s day draws near to it.”<a id='r199' /><a href='#f199' class='c010'><sup>[199]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>So marvellous a being<a id='r200' /><a href='#f200' class='c010'><sup>[200]</sup></a> was, of course, of marvellous -birth. His mother, Dechtiré, was on the -point of being married to an Ulster chieftain called -Sualtam, and was sitting at the wedding-feast, when -a may-fly flew into her cup of wine and was unwittingly -swallowed by her. That same afternoon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>she fell into a deep sleep, and in her dream the -sun-god Lugh appeared to her, and told her that -it was he whom she had swallowed, and bore within -her. He ordered her and her fifty attendant maidens -to come with him at once, and he put upon them -the shapes of birds, so that they were not seen to -go. Nothing was heard of them again. But one -day, months later, a flock of beautiful birds appeared -before Emain Macha, and drew out its warriors in -their chariots to hunt them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They followed the birds till nightfall, when they -found themselves at the Brugh on the Boyne, where -the great gods had their homes. As they looked -everywhere for shelter, they suddenly saw a splendid -palace. A tall and handsome man, richly -dressed, came out and welcomed them and led -them in. Within the hall were a beautiful and -noble-faced woman and fifty maidens, and on the -tables were the richest meats and wines, and everything -fit for the needs of warriors. So they rested -there the night, and, during the night, they heard -the cry of a new-born child. The next morning, -the man told them who he was, and that the woman -was Conchobar’s half-sister Dechtiré, and he ordered -them to take the child, and bring it up among the -warriors of Ulster. So they brought him back, -together with his mother and the maidens, and -Dechtiré married Sualtam, and all the chiefs, champions, -druids, poets, and lawgivers of Ulster vied -with one another in bringing up the mysterious infant.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At first they called him Setanta; and this is how -he came to change his name. While still a child, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>he was the strongest of the boys of Emain Macha, -and the champion in their sports. One day he was -playing hurley single-handed against all the others, -and beating them, when Conchobar the King rode -by with his nobles on the way to a banquet given -by Culann, the chief smith of the Ultonians. Conchobar -called to the boy, inviting him to go with -them, and he replied that, when the game was -finished, he would follow. As soon as the Ulster -champions were in Culann’s hall, the smith asked -the king’s leave to unloose his terrible watch-dog, -which was as strong and fierce as a hundred hounds; -and Conchobar, forgetting that the boy was to -follow them, gave his permission. Immediately -the hound saw Setanta coming, it rushed at him, -open-mouthed. But the boy flung his playing-ball -into its mouth, and then, seizing it by the hind-legs, -dashed it against a rock till he had killed it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The smith Culann was very angry at the death -of his dog; for there was no other hound in the -world like him for guarding a house and flocks. -So Setanta promised to find and train up another -one, not less good, for Culann, and, until it was -trained, to guard the smith’s house as though he -were a dog himself. This is why he was called -Cuchulainn, that is, “Culann’s Hound”; and Cathbad -the Druid prophesied that the time would -come when the name would be in every man’s -mouth.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Not long after this, Cuchulainn overheard Cathbad -giving druidical instruction, and one of his -pupils asking him what that day would be propitious -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>for. Cathbad replied that, if any young -man first took arms on that day, his name would -be greater than that of any other hero’s, but his -life would be short. At once, the boy went to King -Conchobar, and demanded arms and a chariot. Conchobar -asked him who had put such a thought into -his head; and he answered that it was Cathbad the -Druid. So Conchobar gave him arms and armour, -and sent him out with a charioteer. That evening, -Cuchulainn brought back the heads of three champions -who had killed many of the warriors of Ulster. -He was then only seven years old.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The women of Ulster so loved Cuchulainn after -this that the warriors grew jealous, and insisted that -a wife should be found for him. But Cuchulainn -was very hard to please. He would have only one, -Emer<a id='r201' /><a href='#f201' class='c010'><sup>[201]</sup></a>, the daughter of Forgall the Wily, the best -maiden in Ireland for the six gifts—the gift of -beauty, the gift of voice, the gift of sweet speech, -the gift of needlework, the gift of wisdom, and the -gift of chastity. So he went to woo her, but she -laughed at him for a boy. Then Cuchulainn swore -by the gods of his people that he would make his -name known wherever the deeds of heroes were -spoken of, and Emer promised to marry him if he -could take her from her warlike kindred.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When Forgall, her father, came to know of this -betrothal, he devised a plan to put an end to it. -He went to visit King Conchobar at Emain Macha. -There he pretended to have heard of Cuchulainn -for the first time, and he saw him do all his feats. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>He said, loud enough to be overheard by all, that if -so promising a youth dared to go to the Island of -Scathach the Amazon, in the east of Alba,<a id='r202' /><a href='#f202' class='c010'><sup>[202]</sup></a> and -learn all her warrior-craft, no living man would be -able to stand before him. It was hard to reach -Scathach’s Isle, and still harder to return from it, -and Forgall felt certain that, if Cuchulainn went, -he would get his death there.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Of course, nothing would now satisfy Cuchulainn but -going. His two friends, Laegaire the Battle-winner -and Conall the Victorious, said that they would go -with him. But, before they had gone far, they lost -heart and turned back. Cuchulainn went on alone, -crossing the Plain of Ill-Luck, where men’s feet -stuck fast, while sharp grasses sprang up and cut -them, and through the Perilous Glens, full of devouring -wild beasts, until he came to the Bridge of the -Cliff, which rose on end, till it stood straight up like -a ship’s mast, as soon as anyone put foot on it. -Three times Cuchulainn tried to cross it, and thrice -he failed. Then anger came into his heart, and a -magic halo shone round his head, and he did his -famous feat of the “hero’s salmon leap”, and landed, -in one jump, on the middle of the bridge, and then -slid down it as it rose up on end.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Scathach was in the <i>dún</i>, with her two sons. -Cuchulainn went to her, and put his sword to her -breast, and threatened to kill her if she would not -teach him all her own skill in arms. So he became -her pupil, and she taught him all her war-craft. In -return, Cuchulainn helped her against a rival queen -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>of the Amazons, called Aoife<a id='r203' /><a href='#f203' class='c010'><sup>[203]</sup></a>. He conquered Aoife, -and compelled her to make peace with Scathach.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then he returned to Ireland, and went in a -scythed chariot to Forgall’s palace. He leaped -over its triple walls, and slew everyone who came -near him. Forgall met his death in trying to -escape Cuchulainn’s rage. He found Emer, and -placed her in his chariot, and drove away; and, -every time that Forgall’s warriors came up to them, -he turned, and slew a hundred, and put the rest -to flight. He reached Emain Macha in safety, and -he and Emer were married there.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And so great, after this, were the fame of Cuchulainn’s -prowess and Emer’s beauty that the men -and women of Ulster yielded them precedence—him -among the warriors and her among the women—in -every feast and banquet at Emain Macha.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But all that Cuchulainn had done up to this time -was as nothing to the deeds he did in the great war -which all the rest of Ireland, headed by Ailill and -Medb, King and Queen of Connaught, made upon -Ulster, to get the Brown Bull of Cualgne.<a id='r204' /><a href='#f204' class='c010'><sup>[204]</sup></a> This -Bull was one of two, of fairy descent. They had -originally been the swineherds of two of the gods, -Bodb, King of the Sídhe of Munster, and Ochall -Ochne, King of the Sídhe of Connaught. As -swineherds they were in perpetual rivalry; then, -the better to carry on their quarrel, they changed -themselves into two ravens, and fought for a year; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>next they turned into water-monsters, which tore -one another for a year in the Suir and a year in -the Shannon; then they became human again and -fought as champions; and ended by changing into -eels. One of these eels went into the River Cruind, -in Cualgne<a id='r205' /><a href='#f205' class='c010'><sup>[205]</sup></a>, in Ulster, where it was swallowed by -a cow belonging to Daire of Cualgne, and the other -into the spring of Uaran Garad, in Connaught, -where it passed into the belly of a cow of Queen -Medb’s. Thus were born those two famous beasts, -the Brown Bull of Ulster and the White-horned -Bull of Connaught.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Now the White-horned was of such proud mind -that he scorned to belong to a woman, and he went -out of Medb’s herds into those of her husband -Ailill. So that when Ailill and Medb one day, in -their idleness, counted up their possessions, to set -them off one against the other, although they were -equal in every other thing, in jewels and clothes -and household vessels, in sheep and horses and -swine and cattle, Medb had no one bull that was -worthy to be set beside Ailill’s White-horned. Refusing -to be less in anything than her husband, -the proud queen sent heralds, with gifts and compliments, -to Daire, asking him to lend her the Brown -Bull for a year. Daire would have done so gladly -had not one of Medb’s messengers been heard boasting -in his cups that, if Daire had not lent the Brown -Bull of his own free-will, Medb would have taken -it. This was reported to Daire, who at once swore -that she should never have it. Medb’s messenger -<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>returned; and the Queen of Connaught, furious at -his refusal, vowed that she would take it by force.</p> - -<p class='c005'>She assembled the armies of all the rest of Ireland -to go against Ulster, and made Fergus son of Roy, -an Ulster champion who had quarrelled with King -Conchobar, its leader. They expected to have an -easy victory, for the warriors of Ulster were at that -time lying under a magic weakness which fell upon -them for many days in each year, as the result of a -curse laid upon them, long before, by a goddess who -had been insulted by one of Conchobar’s ancestors. -Medb called up a prophetess of her people to foretell -victory. “How do you see our hosts?” asked -the queen of the seeress. “I see crimson on them; -I see red,” she replied. “But the warriors of Ulster -are lying in their sickness. Nay, how do you see -our men?” “I see them all crimson; I see them -all red,” she repeated. And then she added to the -astonished queen, who had expected a quite different -foretelling: “For I see a small man doing deeds of -arms, though there are many wounds on his smooth -skin; the hero-light shines round his head, and there -is victory on his forehead; he is richly clothed, and -young and beautiful and modest, but he is a dragon -in battle. His appearance and his valour are those -of Cuchulainn of Muirthemne; who that ‘Culann’s -hound’ from Muirthemne may be, I do not know; -but I know this, that all our army will be reddened -by him. He is setting out for battle; he will hew -down your hosts; the slaughter he shall make will -be long remembered; there will be many women -crying over the bodies mangled by the Hound of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>the Forge whom I see before me now.”<a id='r206' /><a href='#f206' class='c010'><sup>[206]</sup></a> For Cuchulainn -was, for some reason unknown to us, the -only man in Ulster who was not subject to the -magic weakness, and therefore it fell upon him to -defend Ulster single-handed against the whole of -Medb’s army.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In spite of the injury done him by King Conchobar, -Fergus still kept a love for his own country. -He had not the heart to march upon the Ultonians -without first secretly sending a messenger to warn -them. So that, though all the other champions of -the Red Branch were helpless, Cuchulainn was -watching the marches when the army came.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Now begins the story of the <i>aristeia</i> of the Gaelic -hero. It is, after the manner of epics, the record of -a series of single combats, in each of which Cuchulainn -slays his adversary. Man after man comes -against him, and not one goes back. In the intervals -between these duels, Cuchulainn harasses -the army with his sling, slaying a hundred men a -day. He kills Medb’s pet dog, bird, and squirrel, -and creates such terror that no one dares to stir out -of the camp. Medb herself has a narrow escape; -for one of her serving-women, who puts on her -mistress’s golden head-dress, is killed by a stone -flung from Cuchulainn’s sling.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The great queen determines to see with her own -eyes this marvellous hero who is holding all her -warriors at bay. She sends an envoy, asking him -to come and parley with her. Cuchulainn agrees, -and, at the meeting, Medb is amazed at his boyish -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>look. She finds it hard to believe that it is this -beardless stripling of seventeen who is killing her -champions, until the whole army seems as though -it were melting away. She offers him her own -friendship and great honours and possessions in -Connaught if he will forsake Conchobar. He refuses; -but she offers it again and again. At last -Cuchulainn indignantly declares that the next man -who comes with such a message will do so at his -peril. One bargain, however, he will make. He is -willing to fight one of the men of Ireland every day, -and, while the duel lasts, the main army may march -on; but, as soon as Cuchulainn has killed his man, -it must halt until the next day. Medb agrees to -this, thinking it better to lose one man a day than a -hundred.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Medb makes the same offer to every famous warrior, -to induce him to go against Cuchulainn. The -reward for the head of the champion will be the -hand of her daughter, Findabair<a id='r207' /><a href='#f207' class='c010'><sup>[207]</sup></a>. In spite of this, -not one of the aspirants to the princess can stand -before Cuchulainn. All perish; and Findabair, -when she finds out how she is being promised to a -fresh suitor every day, dies of shame. But, while -Cuchulainn is engaged in these combats, Medb sends -men who scour Ulster for the brown bull, and find -him, and drive him, with fifty heifers, into her camp.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Meanwhile the Æs Sídhe, the fairy god-clan, are -watching the half-divine, half-mortal hero, amazed -at his achievements. His exploits kindle love in the -fierce heart of the Morrígú, the great war-goddess. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>Cuchulainn is awakened from sleep by a terrible -shout from the north. He orders his driver, Laeg, -to yoke the horses to his chariot, so that he may find -out who raised it. They go in the direction from -which the sound had come, and meet with a woman -in a chariot drawn by a red horse. She has red -eyebrows, and a red dress, and a long, red cloak, -and she carries a great, gray spear. He asks her -who she is, and she tells him that she is a king’s -daughter, and that she has fallen in love with him -through hearing of his exploits. Cuchulainn says -that he has other things to think of than love. She -replies that she has been giving him her help in his -battles, and will still do so; and Cuchulainn answers -that he does not need any woman’s help. “Then,” -says she, “if you will not have my love and help, -you shall have my hatred and enmity. When you -are fighting with a warrior as good as yourself, -I will come against you in various shapes and hinder -you, so that he shall have the advantage.” Cuchulainn -draws his sword, but all he sees is a hoodie -crow sitting on a branch. He knows from this that -the red woman in the chariot was the great queen -of the gods.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The next day, a warrior named Loch went to -meet Cuchulainn. At first he refused to fight one -who was beardless; so Cuchulainn smeared his chin -with blackberry juice, until it looked as though he -had a beard. While Cuchulainn was fighting Loch, -the Morrígú came against him three times—first as -a heifer which tried to overthrow him, and next as -an eel which got beneath his feet as he stood in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>running water, and then as a wolf which seized hold -of his right arm. But Cuchulainn broke the heifer’s -leg, and trampled upon the eel, and put out one of -the wolf’s eyes, though, every one of these three -times, Loch wounded him. In the end, Cuchulainn -slew Loch with his invincible spear, the <i>gae bolg</i><a id='r208' /><a href='#f208' class='c010'><sup>[208]</sup></a>, -made of a sea-monster’s bones. The Morrígú came -back to Cuchulainn, disguised as an old woman, to -have her wounds healed by him, for no one could -cure them but he who had made them. She became -his friend after this, and helped him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But the fighting was so continuous that Cuchulainn -got no sleep, except just for a while, from -time to time, when he might rest a little, with his -head on his hand and his hand on his spear and his -spear on his knee. So that his father, Lugh the Long-handed, -took pity on him and came to him in the -semblance of a tall, handsome man in a green cloak -and a gold-embroidered silk shirt, and carrying a -black shield and a five-pronged spear. He put him -into a sleep of three days and three nights, and, -while he rested, he laid druidical herbs on to all his -wounds, so that, in the end, he rose up again completely -healed and as strong as at the very beginning -of the war. While he was asleep, the boy-troop of -Emain Macha, Cuchulainn’s old companions, came -and fought instead of him, and slew three times their -own number, but were all killed.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was at this time that Medb asked Fergus to -go and fight with Cuchulainn. Fergus answered -that he would never fight against his own foster-son. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>Medb asked him again and again, and at last -he went, but without his famous sword. “Fergus, -my guardian,” said Cuchulainn, “it is not safe for -you to come out against me without your sword.” -“If I had the sword,” replied Fergus, “I would not -use it on you.” Then Fergus asked Cuchulainn, -for the sake of all he had done for him in his boy-hood, -to pretend to fight with him, and then give -way before him and run away. Cuchulainn answered -that he was very loth to be seen running from any -man. But Fergus promised Cuchulainn that, if -Cuchulainn would run away from Fergus then, -Fergus would run away from Cuchulainn at some -future time, whenever Cuchulainn wished. Cuchulainn -agreed to this, for he knew that it would be -for the profit of Ulster. So they fought a little, -and then Cuchulainn turned and fled in the sight -of all Medb’s army. Fergus went back; and Medb -could not reproach him any more.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But she cast about to find some other way of -vanquishing Cuchulainn. The agreement made had -been that only one man a day should be sent against -him. But now Medb sent the wizard Calatin with -his twenty-seven sons and his grandson all at once, -for she said “they are really only one, for they are -all from Calatin’s body”. They never missed a -throw with their poisoned spears, and every man -they hit died, either on the spot or within the week. -When Fergus heard of this, he was in great grief, -and he sent a man called Fiacha, an exile, like himself, -from Ulster, to watch the fight and report how -it went. Now Fiacha did not mean to join in it, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>but when he saw Cuchulainn assailed by twenty-nine -at a time, and overpowered, he could not restrain -himself. So he drew his sword and helped Cuchulainn, -and, between them, they killed Calatin and his -whole family.</p> - -<p class='c005'>As a last resource, now, Medb sent for Ferdiad, -who was the great champion of the Iberian “Men -of Domnu”, who had thrown in their lot with Medb -in the war for the Brown Bull. Ferdiad had been -a companion and fellow-pupil of Cuchulainn with -Scathach, and he did not wish to fight with him. -But Medb told him that, if he refused, her satirists -should make such lampoons on him that he would -die of shame, and his name would be a reproach -for ever. She also offered him great rewards and -honours, and bound herself in six sureties to keep -her promises. At last, reluctantly, he went.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Cuchulainn saw him coming, and went out to -welcome him; but Ferdiad said that he had not -come as a friend, but to fight. Now Cuchulainn -had been Ferdiad’s junior and serving-boy in Scathach’s -Island, and he begged him by the memory -of those old times to go back; but Ferdiad said he -could not. They fought all day, and neither had -gained any advantage by sunset. So they kissed -one another, and each went back to his camp. Ferdiad -sent half his food and drink to Cuchulainn, -and Cuchulainn sent half his healing herbs and -medicines to Ferdiad, and their horses were put -in the same stable, and their charioteers slept by -the same fire. And so it happened on the second -day. But at the end of the third day they parted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>gloomily, knowing that on the morrow one of them -must fall; and their horses were not put in the same -stall that night, neither did their charioteers sleep at -the same fire. On the fourth day, Cuchulainn succeeded -in killing Ferdiad, by casting the <i>gae bolg</i> -at him from underneath. But when he saw that -he was dying, the battle-fury passed away, and he -took his old companion up in his arms, and carried -him across the river on whose banks they had -fought, so that he might be with the men of Ulster -in his death, and not with the men of Ireland. And -he wept over him, and said: “It was all a game and -a sport until Ferdiad came; Oh, Ferdiad! your death -will hang over me like a cloud for ever. Yesterday -he was greater than a mountain; to-day he is less -than a shadow.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>By this time, Cuchulainn was so covered with -wounds that he could not bear his clothes to touch -his skin, but had to hold them off with hazel-sticks, -and fill the spaces in between with grass. There -was not a place on him the size of a needle-point -that had not a wound on it, except his left hand, -which held the shield.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Sualtam, Cuchulainn’s reputed father, had -learned what a sore plight his son was in. “Do I -hear the heaven bursting, or the sea running away, -or the earth breaking open,” he cried, “or is it my -son’s groaning that I hear?” He came to look for -him, and found him covered with wounds and blood. -But Cuchulainn would not let his father either weep -for him or try to avenge him. “Go, rather,” he -said to him, “to Emain Macha, and tell Conchobar -<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>that I can no longer defend Ulster against all the -four provinces of Erin without help. Tell him that -there is no part of my body on which there is not -a wound, and that, if he wishes to save his kingdom, -he must make no delay.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Sualtam mounted Cuchulainn’s war-horse, the -“Gray of Battle”, and galloped to Emain Macha. -Three times he shouted: “Men are being killed, -women carried off, and cattle lifted in Ulster”. -Twice he met with no response. The third time, -Cathbad the Druid roused himself from his lethargy -to denounce the man who was disturbing the king’s -sleep. In his indignation Sualtam turned away so -sharply that the gray steed reared, and struck its -rider’s shield against his neck with such force that -he was decapitated. The startled horse then turned -back into Conchobar’s stronghold, and dashed -through it, Sualtam’s severed head continuing to -cry out: “Men are being killed, women carried off, -and cattle lifted in Ulster.” Such a portent was -enough to rouse the most drowsy. Conchobar, -himself again, swore a great oath. “The heavens -are over us, the earth is beneath us, and the sea -circles us round, and, unless the heavens fall, with -all their stars, or the earth gives way beneath us, -or the sea bursts over the land, I will restore every -cow to her stable, and every woman to her home.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>He sent messengers to rally Ulster, and they -gathered, and marched on the men of Erin. And -then was fought such a battle as had never been -before in Ireland. First one side, then the other, -gave way and rallied again, until Cuchulainn heard -<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>the noise of the fight, and rose up, in spite of all his -wounds, and came to it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>He called out to Fergus, reminding him how he -had bound himself with an oath to run from him -when called upon to do so. So Fergus ran before -Cuchulainn, and when Medb’s army saw their leader -running they broke and fled like one man.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But the Brown Bull of Cualgne went with the -army into Connaught, and there he met Ailill’s -bull, the White-horned. And he fought the White-horned, -and tore him limb from limb, and carried -off pieces of him on his horns, dropping the loins -at Athlone and the liver at Trim. Then he went -back to Cualgne, and turned mad, killing all who -crossed his path, until his heart burst with bellowing, -and he fell dead.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This was the end of the great war called <i>Táin Bó -Chuailgné</i>, the “Driving of the Cattle of Cooley”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Yet, wondrous as it was, it was not the most marvellous -of Cuchulainn’s exploits. Like all the solar -gods and heroes of Celtic myth, he carried his conquests -into the dark region of Hades. On this -occasion the mysterious realm is an island called -<i>Dún Scaith</i>, that is, the “Shadowy Town”, and -though its king is not mentioned by name, it seems -likely that he was Mider, and that Dún Scaith is -another name for the Isle of Falga, or Man. The -story, as a poem<a id='r209' /><a href='#f209' class='c010'><sup>[209]</sup></a> relates it, is curiously suggestive -of a raid which the powers of light, and especially -the sun-gods, are represented as having made upon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>Hades in kindred British myth.<a id='r210' /><a href='#f210' class='c010'><sup>[210]</sup></a> The same loathsome -combatants issue out of the underworld to -repel its assailants. There was a pit in the centre -of Dún Scaith, out of which swarmed a vast throng -of serpents. No sooner had Cuchulainn and the -heroes of Ulster disposed of these than “a house full -of toads” was loosed upon them—“sharp, beaked -monsters” (says the poem), which caught them by -the noses, and these were in turn replaced by fierce -dragons. Yet the heroes prevailed and carried off -the spoil—three cows of magic qualities and a -marvellous cauldron in which was always found an -inexhaustible supply of meat, with treasure of silver -and gold to boot. They started back for Ireland in -a coracle, the three cows being towed behind, with -the treasure in bags around their necks. But the -gods of Hades raised a storm which wrecked their -ship, and they had to swim home. Here Cuchulainn’s -more than mortal prowess came in useful. We are -told that he floated nine men to shore on each of his -hands, and thirty on his head, while eight more, -clinging to his sides, used him as a kind of life-belt.</p> - -<p class='c005'>After this, came the tragedy of Cuchulainn’s -career, the unhappy duel in which he killed his only -son, not knowing who he was. The story is one -common, apparently, to the Aryan nations, for it is -found not only in the Gaelic, but in the Teutonic -and Persian mythic traditions. It will be remembered -that Cuchulainn defeated a rival of Scathach -the Amazon, named Aoife, and compelled her to -render submission. The hero had also a son by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>Aoife, and he asked that the boy should be called -Conlaoch<a id='r211' /><a href='#f211' class='c010'><sup>[211]</sup></a>, and that, when he was of age to travel, -he should be sent to Ireland to find his father. -Aoife promised this, but, a little later, news came to -her that Cuchulainn had married Emer. Mad with -jealousy, she determined to make the son avenge -her slight upon the father. She taught him the -craft of arms until there was no more that he could -learn, and sent him to Ireland. Before he started, -she laid three <i>geasa</i><a id='r212' /><a href='#f212' class='c010'><sup>[212]</sup></a> upon him. The first was that -he was not to turn back, the second that he was -never to refuse a challenge, and the third that he -was never to tell his name.</p> - -<p class='c005'>He arrived at Dundealgan<a id='r213' /><a href='#f213' class='c010'><sup>[213]</sup></a>, Cuchulainn’s home, -and the warrior Conall came down to meet him, -and asked him his name and lineage. He refused -to tell them, and this led to a duel, in which Conall -was disarmed and humiliated. Cuchulainn next -approached him, asked the same question, and received -the same answer. “Yet if I was not under -a command,” said Conlaoch, who did not know he -was speaking to his father, “there is no man in the -world to whom I would sooner tell it than to yourself, -for I love your face.” Even this compliment -could not stave off the fight, for Cuchulainn felt it -his duty to punish the insolence of this stripling who -refused to declare who he was. The fight was a -fierce one, and the invincible Cuchulainn found himself -so pressed that the “hero-light” shone round -<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>him and transfigured his face. When Conlaoch saw -this, he knew who his antagonist must be, and purposely -flung his spear slantways that it might not -hit his father. But before Cuchulainn understood, -he had thrown the terrible <i>gae bolg</i>. Conlaoch, -dying, declared his name; and so passionate was Cuchulainn’s -grief that the men of Ulster were afraid -that in his madness he might wreak his wrath upon -them. They, therefore, called upon Cathbad the -Druid to put him under a glamour. Cathbad turned -the waves of the sea into the appearance of armed -men, and Cuchulainn smote them with his sword -until he fell prone from weariness.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It would take too long to relate all the other -adventures and exploits of Cuchulainn. Enough -has been done if any reader of this chapter should -be persuaded by it to study the wonderful saga of -ancient Ireland for himself. We must pass on -quickly to its tragical close—the hero’s death.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Medb, Queen of Connaught, had never forgiven -him for keeping back her army from raiding Ulster, -and for slaying so many of her friends and allies. -So she went secretly to all those whose relations -Cuchulainn had killed (and they were many), and -stirred them up to revenge.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Besides this, she had sent the three daughters of -Calatin the Wizard, born after their father’s death -at the hands of Cuchulainn, to Alba and to Babylon -to learn witchcraft. When they came back they -were mistresses of every kind of sorcery, and could -make the illusion of battle with an incantation.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And, lest she might fail even then, she waited -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>with patience until the Ultonians were again in their -magic weakness, and there was no one to help -Cuchulainn but himself.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lugaid<a id='r214' /><a href='#f214' class='c010'><sup>[214]</sup></a>, son of the Curoi, King of Munster -whom Cuchulainn had killed for the sake of Blathnat, -Mider’s daughter, gathered the Munster men; -Erc, whose father had also fallen at Cuchulainn’s -hands, called the men of Meath; the King of -Leinster brought out his army; and, with Ailill -and Medb and all Connaught, they marched into -Ulster again, and began to ravage it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Conchobar called his warriors and druids into -council, to see if they could find some means of -putting off war until they were ready to meet it. -He did not wish Cuchulainn to go out single-handed -a second time against all the rest of Ireland, -for he knew that, if the champion perished, the -prosperity of Ulster would fall with him for ever. -So, when Cuchulainn came to Emain Macha, the -king set all the ladies, singers, and poets of the -court to keep his thoughts from war until the men -of Ulster had recovered from their weakness.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But while they sat feasting and talking in the -“sunny house”, the three daughters of Calatin came -fluttering down on to the lawn before it, and began -gathering grass and thistles and puff-balls and -withered leaves, and turning them into the semblance -of armies. And, by the same magic, they caused -shouts and shrieks and trumpet-blasts and the -clattering of arms to be heard all round the house, -as though a battle were being fought.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>Cuchulainn leaped up, red with shame to think -that fighting should be going on without his help, -and seized his sword. But Cathbad’s son caught -him by the arms. All the druids explained to him -that what he saw was only an enchantment raised -by the children of Calatin to draw him out to his -death. But it was as much as all of them could do -to keep him quiet while he saw the phantom armies -and heard the magic sounds.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So they decided that it would be well to remove -Cuchulainn from Emain Macha to <i>Glean-na-Bodhar</i><a id='r215' /><a href='#f215' class='c010'><sup>[215]</sup></a>, -the “Deaf Valley”, until all the enchantments of -the daughters of Calatin were spent. It was the -quality of this valley that, if all the men of Ireland -were to shout round it at once, no one within it -would hear a sound.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But the daughters of Calatin went there too, and -again they took thistles and puff-balls and withered -leaves, and put on them the appearance of armed -men; so that there seemed to be no place outside -the whole valley that was not filled with shouting -battalions. And they made the illusion of fires all -around and the sound of women shrieking. Everyone -who heard that outcry was frightened at it, not -only the men and women, but even the dogs.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Though the women and the druids shouted back -with all the strength of their voices, to drown it, -they could not keep Cuchulainn from hearing. -“Alas!” he cried, “I hear the men of Ireland shouting -as they ravage the province. My triumph is at -an end; my fame is gone; Ulster lies low for ever.” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>“Let it pass,” said Cathbad; “it is only the idle -magic noises made by the children of Calatin, who -want to draw you out, to put an end to you. Stay -here with us, and take no heed of them.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Cuchulainn obeyed; and the daughters of Calatin -went on for a long time filling the air with noises of -battle. But they grew tired of it at last; for they -saw that the druids and women had outwitted them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They did not succeed until one of them took -the form of a leman of Cuchulainn’s, and came to -him, crying out that Dundealgan was burnt, and -Muirthemne ruined, and the whole province of -Ulster ravaged. Then, at last, he was deceived, -and took his arms and armour, and, in spite of all -that was said to him, he ordered Laeg to yoke his -chariot.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Signs and portents now began to gather as -thickly round the doomed hero as they did round -the wooers in the hall of Odysseus. His famous -war-horse, the Gray of Macha, refused to be bridled, -and shed large tears of blood. His mother, Dechtiré, -brought him a goblet full of wine, and thrice -the wine turned into blood as he put it to his lips. -At the first ford he crossed, he saw a maiden of the -<i>sídhe</i> washing clothes and armour, and she told him -that it was the clothes and arms of Cuchulainn, who -was soon to be dead. He met three ancient hags -cooking a hound on spits of rowan, and they invited -him to partake of it. He refused, for it was taboo -to him to eat the flesh of his namesake; but they -shamed him into doing so by telling him that he ate -at rich men’s tables and refused the hospitality of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>the poor. The forbidden meat paralysed half his -body. Then he saw his enemies coming up against -him in their chariots.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Cuchulainn had three spears, of which it was -prophesied that each should kill a king. Three -druids were charged in turn to ask for these spears; -for it was not thought lucky to refuse anything to -a druid. The first one came up to where Cuchulainn -was making the plain red with slaughter. -“Give me one of those spears,” he said, “or I will -lampoon you.” “Take it,” replied Cuchulainn, “I -have never yet been lampooned for refusing anyone -a gift.” And he threw the spear at the druid, and -killed him. But Lugaid, son of Curoi, got the -spear, and killed Laeg with it. Laeg was the king -of all chariot-drivers.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Give me one of your spears, Cuchulainn,” said -the second druid. “I need it myself,” he replied. -“I will lampoon the province of Ulster because of -you, if you refuse.” “I am not obliged to give -more than one gift in a day,” said Cuchulainn, “but -Ulster shall never be lampooned because of me.” -He threw the spear at the druid, and it went -through his head. But Erc, King of Leinster, got -it, and mortally wounded the Gray of Macha, the -king of all horses.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Give me your spear,” said the third druid. “I -have paid all that is due from myself and Ulster,” -replied Cuchulainn. “I will satirize your kindred -if you do not,” said the druid. “I shall never go -home, but I will be the cause of no lampoons there,” -answered Cuchulainn, and he threw the spear at the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>asker, and killed him. But Lugaid threw it back, -and it went through Cuchulainn’s body, and wounded -him to the death.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then, in his agony, he greatly desired to drink. -He asked his enemies to let him go to a lake that -lay close by, and quench his thirst, and then come -back again. “If I cannot come back to you, come -to fetch me,” he said; and they let him go.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Cuchulainn drank, and bathed, and came out of -the water. But he found that he could not walk; -so he called to his enemies to come to him. There -was a pillar-stone near; and he bound himself to it -with his belt, so that he might die standing up, and -not lying down. His dying horse, the Gray of -Macha, came back to fight for him, and killed fifty -men with his teeth and thirty with each of his hoofs. -But the “hero-light” had died out of Cuchulainn’s -face, leaving it as pale as “a one-night’s snow”, and -a crow came and perched upon his shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Truly it was not upon that pillar that birds used -to sit,” said Erc.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Now that they were certain that Cuchulainn was -dead, they all gathered round him, and Lugaid cut -off his head to take it to Medb. But vengeance -came quickly, for Conall the Victorious was in -pursuit, and he made a terrible slaughter of Cuchulainn’s -enemies.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Thus perished the great hero of the Gaels in the -twenty-seventh year of his age. And with him fell -the prosperity of Emain Macha and of the Red -Branch of Ulster.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XIII<br /> <br /><span class='small'>SOME GAELIC LOVE-STORIES</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The heroic age of Ireland was not, however, the -mere orgy of battle which one might assume from -the previous chapter. It had room for its Helen -and its Andromache as well as for its Achilles and -its Hector. Its champions could find time to make -love as well as war. More than this, the legends of -their courtships often have a romantic beauty found -in no other early literature. The women have free -scope of choice, and claim the respect of their -wooers. Indeed, it has been pointed out that the -mythical stories of the Celts must have created the -chivalrous romances of mediæval Europe. In them, -and in no other previous literature, do we find such -knightly treatment of an enemy as we see in the -story of Cuchulainn and Ferdiad, or such poetic -delicacy towards a woman as is displayed in the -wooing of Emer.<a id='r216' /><a href='#f216' class='c010'><sup>[216]</sup></a> The talk between man and -maid when Cuchulainn comes in his chariot to pay -his suit to Emer at Forgall’s <i>dún</i> might, save for its -strangeness, almost have come out of some quite -modern romance.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>“Emer lifted up her lovely face and recognised -Cuchulainn, and she said, ‘May God make smooth -the path before you!’</p> - -<p class='c005'>“‘And you,’ he said, ‘may you be safe from -every harm.’”</p> - -<p class='c005'>She asks him whence he has come, and he tells -her. Then he questions her about herself.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am a Tara of women,” she replies, “the -whitest of maidens, one who is gazed at but who -gazes not back, a rush too far to be reached, an -untrodden way.... I was brought up in ancient -virtues, in lawful behaviour, in the keeping of -chastity, in rank equal to a queen, in stateliness of -form, so that to me is attributed every noble grace -among the hosts of Erin’s women.” In more boastful -strain Cuchulainn tells of his own birth and -deeds. Not like the son of a peasant had he been -reared at Conchobar’s court, but among heroes and -champions, jesters and druids. When he is weakest -his strength is that of twenty; alone he will fight -against forty; a hundred men would feel safe under -his protection. One can imagine Emer’s smile as -she listens to these braggings. “Truly,” she says, -“they are goodly feats for a tender boy, but they -are not yet those of chariot-chiefs.” Very modern, -too, is the way in which she coyly reminds her -wooer that she has an elder sister as yet unwed. -But, when at last he drives her to the point, she -answers him with gentle, but proud decision. Not -by words, but by deeds is she to be won. The man -she will marry must have his name mentioned -wherever the exploits of heroes are spoken of.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>“Even as thou hast commanded, so shall all by -me be done,” said Cuchulainn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“And by me your offer is accepted, it is taken, -it is granted,” replied Emer.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It seems a pity that, after so fine a wooing, -Cuchulainn could not have kept faithful to the bride -he won. Yet such is not the way of heroes whom -goddesses as well as mortal women conspire to -tempt from their loyalty. Fand, the wife of Manannán -son of Lêr, deserted by the sea-god, sent -her sister Liban to Cuchulainn as an ambassador of -love. At first he refused to visit her, but ordered -Laeg, his charioteer, to go with Liban to the -“Happy Plain” to spy out the land. Laeg returned -enraptured. “If all Ireland were mine,” -he assured his master, “with supreme rule over -its fair inhabitants, I would give it up without -regret to go and live in the place that I have -seen.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Cuchulainn himself went and stayed a month -in the Celtic Paradise with Fand, the fairest woman -of the Sídhe. Returning to the land of mortals, he -made a tryst with the goddess to meet him again in -his own country by the yew-tree at the head of -Baile’s strand.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Emer came to hear of it, and went to the -meeting-place herself, with fifty of her maidens, each -armed with a knife to kill her rival. There she -found Cuchulainn, Laeg, and Fand.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What has led you, Cuchulainn,” said Emer, “to -shame me before the women of Erin and all honourable -people? I came under your shelter, trusting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>in your faithfulness, and now you seek a cause of -quarrel with me.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Cuchulainn, hero-like, could not understand -why his wife should not be content to take her turn -with this other woman—surely no unworthy rival, -for she was beautiful, and came of the lofty race of -gods. We see Emer yield at last, with queenly -pathos.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will not refuse this woman to you, if you long -for her,” she said, “for I know that everything that -is new seems fair, and everything that is common -seems bitter, and everything we have not seems -desirable to us, and everything we have we think -little of. And yet, Cuchulainn, I was once pleasing -to you, and I would wish to be so again.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Her grief touched him. “By my word,” he said, -“you are pleasing to me, and will be as long as I -live.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Then let me be given up,” said Fand. “It is -better that I should be,” replied Emer. “No,” said -Fand; “it is I who must be given up in the end.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“It is I who will go, though I go with great -sorrow. I would rather stay with Cuchulainn than -live in the sunny home of the gods.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“O Emer, he is yours, and you are worthy of -him! What my hand cannot have, my heart may -yet wish well to.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“A sorrowful thing it is to love without return. -Better to renounce than not to receive a love equal -to one’s own.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“It was not well of you, O fair-haired Emer, to -come to kill Fand in her misery.”</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>It was while the goddess and the human woman -were contending with one another in self-sacrifice -that Manannán, Son of the Sea, heard of Fand’s -trouble, and was sorry that he had forsaken her. -So he came, invisible to all but her alone. He -asked her pardon, and she herself could not forget -that she had once been happy with the “horseman -of the crested waves”, and still might be happy -with him again. The god asked her to make her -choice between them, and, when she went to him, -he shook his mantle between her and Cuchulainn. -It was one of the magic properties of Manannán’s -mantle that those between whom it was shaken -could never meet again. Then Fand returned with -her divine husband to the country of the immortals; -and the druids of Emain Macha gave Cuchulainn -and Emer each a drink of oblivion, so that Cuchulainn -forgot his love and Emer her jealousy.<a id='r217' /><a href='#f217' class='c010'><sup>[217]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The scene of this story takes its name from -another, and hardly less beautiful love-tale. The -“yew-tree at the head of Baile’s strand” had grown -out of the grave of Baile of the Honeyed Speech, -and it bore the appearance of Baile’s love, Ailinn. -This Gaelic Romeo and Juliet were of royal birth: -Baile was heir to Ulster, and Ailinn was daughter -of the King of Leinster’s son. Not by any feud -of Montague and Capulet were they parted, however, -but by the craft of a ghostly enemy. They -had appointed to meet one another at Dundealgan, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>and Baile, who arrived there first, was greeted by a -stranger. “What news do you bring?” asked Baile. -“None,” replied the stranger, “except that Ailinn -of Leinster was setting out to meet her lover, but -the men of Leinster kept her back, and her heart -broke then and there from grief.” When Baile -heard this, his own heart broke, and he fell dead -on the strand, while the messenger went on the -wings of the wind to the home of Ailinn, who had -not yet started. “Whence come you?” she asked -him. “From Ulster, by the shore of Dundealgan, -where I saw men raising a stone over one who had -just died, and on the stone I read the name of Baile. -He had come to meet some woman he was in love -with, but it was destined that they should never see -one another again in life.” At this news Ailinn, too, -fell dead, and was buried; and we are told that an -apple-tree grew out of her grave, the apples of which -bore the likeness of the face of Baile, while a yew-tree -sprung from Baile’s grave, and took the appearance -of Ailinn. This legend, which is probably a -part of the common heritage of the Aryans, is found -in folk-lore over an area which stretches from Ireland -to India. The Gaelic version has, however, an ending -unknown to the others. The two trees, it relates, -were cut down, and made into wands upon which -the poets of Ulster and of Leinster cut the songs of -the love-tragedies of their two provinces, in <i>ogam</i>. -But even these mute memorials of Baile and Ailinn -were destined not to be divided. After two hundred -years, Art the “Lonely”, High-King of Ireland, -ordered them to be brought to the hall of Tara, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>and, as soon as the wands found themselves under -the same roof, they all sprang together, and no force -or skill could part them again. So the king commanded -them to be “kept, like any other jewel, in -the treasury of Tara.”<a id='r218' /><a href='#f218' class='c010'><sup>[218]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Neither of these stories, however, has as yet -attained the fame of one now to be retold.<a id='r219' /><a href='#f219' class='c010'><sup>[219]</sup></a> To -many, no doubt, Gaelic romance is summed up in -the one word Deirdre. It is the legend of this -Gaelic Helen that the poets of the modern Celtic -school most love to elaborate, while old men still tell -it round the peat-fires of Ireland and the Highlands. -Scholar and peasant alike combine to preserve a -tradition no one knows how many hundred years -old, for it was written down in the twelfth-century -Book of Leinster as one of the “prime stories” -which every bard was bound to be able to recite. -It takes rank with the “Fate of the Sons of Tuirenn”, -and with the “Fate of the Children of Lêr”, -as one of the “Three Sorrowful Stories of Erin”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So favourite a tale has naturally been much altered -and added to in its passage down the generations. -But its essential story is as follows:—</p> - -<p class='c005'>King Conchobar of Ulster was holding festival in -the house of one of his bards, called Fedlimid, when -Fedlimid’s wife gave birth to a daughter, concerning -whom Cathbad the Druid uttered a prophecy. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>foretold that the new-born child would grow up to -be the most lovely woman the world had ever -seen, but that her beauty would bring death to -many heroes, and much peril and sorrow to Ulster. -On hearing this, the Red Branch warriors demanded -that she should be killed, but Conchobar refused, -and gave the infant to a trusted serving-woman, -to be hidden in a secret place in the solitude of -the mountains, until she was of an age to be his -own wife.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Deirdre (as Cathbad named her) was taken -away to a hut so remote from the paths of men that -none knew of it save Conchobar. Here she was -brought up by a nurse, a fosterer, and a teacher, -and saw no other living creatures save the beasts -and birds of the hills. Nevertheless, woman-like, -she aspired to be loved.</p> - -<p class='c005'>One day, her fosterer was killing a calf for their -food, and its blood ran out upon the snowy ground, -which brought a black raven swooping to the spot. -“If there were a man,” said Deirdre, “who had -hair of the blackness of that raven, skin of the -whiteness of the snow, and cheeks as red as the -calf’s blood, that is the man whom I would wish -to marry me.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Indeed there is such a man,” replied her teacher -thoughtlessly. “Naoise<a id='r220' /><a href='#f220' class='c010'><sup>[220]</sup></a>, one of the sons of Usnach<a id='r221' /><a href='#f221' class='c010'><sup>[221]</sup></a>, -heroes of the same race as Conchobar the King.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The curious Deirdre prevailed upon her teacher -to bring Naoise to speak with her. When they -met she made good use of her time, for she offered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>Naoise her love, and begged him to take her away -from King Conchobar.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Naoise, bewitched by her beauty, consented. -Accompanied by his two brothers, Ardan and -Ainle, and their followers, he fled with Deirdre -to Alba, where they made alliance with one of its -kings, and wandered over the land, living by following -the deer, and by helping the king in his battles.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The revengeful Conchobar bided his time. One -day, as the heroes of the Red Branch feasted together -at Emain Macha, he asked them if they had -ever heard of a nobler company than their own. -They replied that the world could not hold such -another. “Yet”, said the king, “we lack our full -tale. The three sons of Usnach could defend the -province of Ulster against any other province of -Ireland by themselves, and it is a pity that they -should still be exiles, for the sake of any woman -in the world. Gladly would I welcome them back!”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“We ourselves,” replied the Ultonians, “would -have counselled this long ago had we dared, O -King!”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Then I will send one of my three best champions -to fetch them,” said Conchobar. “Either Conall -the Victorious, or Cuchulainn, the son of Sualtam, -or Fergus, the son of Roy; and I will find out which -of those three loves me best.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>First he called Conall to him secretly.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What would you do, O Conall,” he asked, “if -you were sent to fetch the sons of Usnach, and they -were killed here, in spite of your safe-conduct?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“There is not a man in Ulster,” answered Conall, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>“who had hand in it that would escape his own -death from me.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I see that I am not dearest of all men to you,” -replied Conchobar, and, dismissing Conall, he called -Cuchulainn, and put the same question to him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“By my sworn word,” replied Cuchulainn, “if -such a thing happened with your consent, no bribe -or blood-fine would I accept in lieu of your own -head, O Conchobar.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Truly,” said the king, “it is not you I will -send.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The king then asked Fergus, and he replied -that, if the sons of Usnach were slain while under -his protection, he would revenge the deed upon -anyone who was party to it, save only the king -himself.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Then it is you who shall go,” said Conchobar. -“Set forth to-morrow, and rest not by the way, -and when you put foot again in Ireland at the -<i>Dún</i> of Borrach, whatever may happen to you -yourself, send the sons of Usnach forward without -delay.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The next morning, Fergus, with his two sons, -Illann the Fair and Buinne the Ruthless Red, set -out for Alba in their galley, and reached Loch -Etive, by whose shores the sons of Usnach were -then living. Naoise, Ainle, and Ardan were sitting -at chess when they heard Fergus’s shout.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“That is the cry of a man of Erin,” said Naoise.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Nay,” replied Deirdre, who had forebodings of -trouble. “Do not heed it; it is only the shout of a -man of Alba.” But the sons of Usnach knew better, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>and sent Ardan down to the sea-shore, where he -found Fergus and his sons, and gave them greeting, -and heard their message, and brought them -back with him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>That night Fergus persuaded the sons of Usnach -to return with him to Emain Macha. Deirdre, with -her “second sight”, implored them to remain in -Alba. But the exiles were weary for the sight of -their own country, and did not share their companion’s -fears. As they put out to sea, Deirdre -uttered her beautiful “Farewell to Alba”, that land -she was never to behold again.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A lovable land is yon eastern land,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Alba, with its marvels.</div> - <div class='line in1'>I would not have come hither out of it,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Had I not come with Naoise.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Lovable are Dún-fidga and Dún-finn,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Lovable the fortress over them;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Dear to the heart Inis Draigende,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And very dear is Dún Suibni.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Caill Cuan!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Unto which Ainle would wend, alas!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Short the time seemed to me,</div> - <div class='line in1'>With Naoise in the region of Alba.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Glenn Láid!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Often I slept there under the cliff;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Fish and venison and the fat of the badger</div> - <div class='line in1'>Was my portion in Glenn Láid.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Glenn Masáin!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Its garlic was tall, its branches white;</div> - <div class='line in1'>We slept a rocking sleep,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Over the grassy estuary of Masáin.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>“Glenn Etive!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Where my first house I raised;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Beauteous its wood:—upon rising</div> - <div class='line in1'>A cattle-fold for the sun was Glenn Etive.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'> * * * * * * * * * *</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Glenn Dá-Rúad!</div> - <div class='line in1'>My love to every man who hath it as an heritage!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Sweet the cuckoos’ note on bending bough,</div> - <div class='line in1'>On the peak over Glenn Dá-Rúad.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Beloved is Draigen,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Dear the white sand beneath its waves;</div> - <div class='line in1'>I would not have come from it, from the East,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Had I not come with my beloved.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>They crossed the sea, and arrived at the <i>Dún</i> of -Borrach, who bade them welcome to Ireland. Now -King Conchobar had sent Borrach a secret command, -that he should offer a feast to Fergus on his -landing. Strange taboos called <i>geasa</i> are laid upon -the various heroes of ancient Ireland in the stories; -there are certain things that each one of them may -not do without forfeiting life or honour; and it was -a <i>geis</i> upon Fergus to refuse a feast.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Fergus, we are told, “reddened with anger from -crown to sole” at the invitation. Yet he could not -avoid the feast. He asked Naoise what he should -do, and Deirdre broke in with: “Do what is asked -of you if you prefer to forsake the sons of Usnach -for a feast. Yet forsaking them is a good price to -pay for it.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Fergus, however, perceived a possible compromise. -Though he himself could not refuse to stop -to partake of Borrach’s hospitality, he could send -<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>Deirdre and the sons of Usnach on to Emain -Macha at once, under the safeguard of his two sons, -Illann the Fair and Buinne the Ruthless Red. So -this was done, albeit to the annoyance of the sons -of Usnach and the terror of Deirdre. Visions came -to the sorrowful woman; she saw the three sons of -Usnach and Illann, the son of Fergus, without their -heads; she saw a cloud of blood always hanging -over them. She begged them to wait in some safe -place until Fergus had finished the feast. But -Naoise, Ainle, and Ardan laughed at her fears. -They arrived at Emain Macha, and Conchobar -ordered the “Red Branch” palace to be placed at -their disposal.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the evening Conchobar called Levarcham, -Deirdre’s old teacher, to him. “Go”, he said, “to -the ‘Red Branch’, and see Deirdre, and bring me -back news of her appearance, whether she still -keeps her former beauty, or whether it has left her.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Levarcham came to the “Red Branch”, and -kissed Deirdre and the three sons of Usnach, and -warned them that Conchobar was preparing treachery. -Then she went back to the king, and reported -to him that Deirdre’s hard life upon the mountains -of Alba had ruined her form and face, so that she -was no longer worthy of his regard.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At this, Conchobar’s jealousy was partly allayed, -and he began to doubt whether it would be wise to -attack the sons of Usnach. But later on, when he -had drunk well of wine, he sent a second messenger -to see if what Levarcham had reported about Deirdre -was truth.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>The messenger, this time a man, went and looked -in through a window. Deirdre saw him and pointed -him out to Naoise, who flung a chessman at the peering -face, and put out one of its eyes. But the man -went back to Conchobar, and told him that, though -one of his eyes had been struck out, he would gladly -have stayed looking with the other, so great was -Deirdre’s loveliness.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then Conchobar, in his wrath, ordered the men -of Ulster to set fire to the Red Branch House and -slay all within it except Deirdre. They flung fire-brands -upon it, but Buinne the Ruthless Red came -out and quenched them, and drove the assailants -back with slaughter. But Conchobar called to him -to parley, and offered him a “hundred” of land and -his friendship to desert the sons of Usnach. Buinne -was tempted, and fell; but the land given him -turned barren that very night in indignation at -being owned by such a traitor.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The other of Fergus’s sons was of different make. -He charged out, torch in hand, and cut down the -Ultonians, so that they hesitated to come near the -house again. Conchobar dared not offer him a -bribe. But he armed his own son, Fiacha, with -his own magic weapons, including his shield, the -“Moaner”, which roared when its owner was in -danger, and sent him to fight Illann.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The duel was a fierce one, and Illann got the -better of Fiacha, so that the son of Conchobar had -to crouch down beneath his shield, which roared for -help. Conall the Victorious heard the roar from far -off, and thought that his king must be in peril. He -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>came to the place, and, without asking questions, -thrust his spear “Blue-green” through Illann. The -dying son of Fergus explained the situation to -Conall, who, by way of making some amends, at -once killed Fiacha as well.</p> - -<p class='c005'>After this, the sons of Usnach held their fort till -dawn against all Conchobar’s host. But, with day, -they saw that they must either escape or resign -themselves to perish. Putting Deirdre in their -centre, protected by their shields, they opened the -door suddenly and fled out.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They would have broken through and escaped, -had not Conchobar asked Cathbad the Druid to -put a spell upon them, promising to spare their -lives. So Cathbad raised the illusion of a stormy -sea before and all around the sons of Usnach. -Naoise lifted Deirdre upon his shoulder, but the -magic waves rose higher, until they were all obliged -to fling away their weapons and swim.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then was seen the strange sight of men swimming -upon dry land. And, before the glamour -passed away, the sons of Usnach were seized from -behind, and brought to Conchobar.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In spite of his promise to the druid, the king -condemned them to death. None of the men of -Ulster would, however, deal the blow. In the end, -a foreigner from Norway, whose father Naoise had -slain, offered to behead them. Each of the brothers -begged to die first, that he might not witness the -deaths of the others. But Naoise ended this noble -rivalry by lending their executioner the sword -called “The Retaliator”, which had been given -<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>him by Manannán son of Lêr. They knelt down -side by side, and one blow of the sword of the god -shore off all their heads.</p> - -<p class='c005'>As for Deirdre, there are varying stories of her -death, but most of them agree that she did not -survive the sons of Usnach many hours. But, -before she died, she made an elegy over them. -That it is of a singular pathos and beauty the few -verses which there is space to give will show.<a id='r222' /><a href='#f222' class='c010'><sup>[222]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Long the day without Usnach’s children!</div> - <div class='line in1'>It was not mournful to be in their company!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Sons of a king by whom sojourners were entertained,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Three lions from the Hill of the Cave.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'> * * * * * * * * * *</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Three darlings of the women of Britain,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Three hawks of Slieve Gullion,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Sons of a king whom valour served,</div> - <div class='line in1'>To whom soldiers used to give homage!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'> * * * * * * * * * *</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“That I should remain after Naoise</div> - <div class='line in1'>Let no one in the world suppose:</div> - <div class='line in1'>After Ardan and Ainle</div> - <div class='line in1'>My time would not be long.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Ulster’s over-king, my first husband,</div> - <div class='line in1'>I forsook for Naoise’s love.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Short my life after them:</div> - <div class='line in1'>I will perform their funeral game.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“After them I shall not be alive—</div> - <div class='line in1'>Three that would go into every conflict,</div> - <div class='line in1'><span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>Three who liked to endure hardships,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Three heroes who refused not combats.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'> * * * * * * * * * *</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“O man, that diggest the tomb</div> - <div class='line in1'>And puttest my darling from me,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Make not the grave too narrow:</div> - <div class='line in1'>I shall be beside the noble ones.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>It was a poor triumph for Conchobar. Deirdre in -all her beauty had escaped him by death. His own -chief followers never forgave it. Fergus, when he -returned from Borrach’s feast, and found out what -had been done, gathered his own people, slew Conchobar’s -son and many of his warriors, and fled to -Ulster’s bitterest enemies, Ailill and Medb of Connaught. -And Cathbad the Druid cursed both king -and kingdom, praying that none of Conchobar’s -race might ever reign in Emain Macha again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So it came to pass. The capital of Ulster was -only kept from ruin by Cuchulainn’s prowess. When -he perished, it also fell, and soon became what it is -now—a grassy hill.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XIV<br /> <br /><span class='small'>FINN AND THE FENIANS<a id='r223' /><a href='#f223' class='c010'><sup>[223]</sup></a></span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The epoch of Emain Macha is followed in the -annals of ancient Ireland by a succession of monarchs -who, though doubtless as mythical as King -Conchobar and his court, seem to grow gradually -more human. Their line lasts for about two centuries, -culminating in a dynasty with which legend -has occupied itself more than with its immediate predecessors. -This is the one which began, according -to the annalists, in <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 177, with the famous Conn -“the Hundred-Fighter”, and, passing down to the -reign of his even more famous grandson, Cormac -“the Magnificent”, is connected with the third Gaelic -cycle—that which relates the exploits of Finn and -the Fenians. All these kings had their dealings with -the national gods. A story contained in a fifteenth-century -Irish manuscript, and called “The Champion’s -Prophecy”,<a id='r224' /><a href='#f224' class='c010'><sup>[224]</sup></a> tells how Lugh appeared to Conn, enveloped -him in a magic mist, led him away to an -enchanted palace, and there prophesied to him the -number of his descendants, the length of their reigns, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>and the manner of their deaths. Another tradition -relates how Conn’s son, Connla, was wooed by a -goddess and borne away, like the British Arthur, -in a boat of glass to the Earthly Paradise beyond -the sea.<a id='r225' /><a href='#f225' class='c010'><sup>[225]</sup></a> Yet another relates Conn’s own marriage -with Becuma of the Fair Skin, wife of that same -Labraid of the Quick Hand on Sword who, in another -legend, married Liban, the sister of Fand, -Cuchulainn’s fairy love. Becuma had been discovered -in an intrigue with Gaiar, a son of Manannán, -and, banished from the “Land of Promise”, -crossed the sea that sunders mortals and immortals -to offer her hand to Conn. The Irish king wedded -her, but evil came of the marriage. She grew -jealous of Conn’s other son, Art, and insisted upon -his banishment; but they agreed to play chess to -decide which should go, and Art won. Art, called -“the Lonely” because he had lost his brother -Connla, was king after Conn, but he is chiefly -known to legend as the father of Cormac.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Many Irish stories occupy themselves with the -fame of Cormac, who is pictured as a great legislator—a -Gaelic Solomon. Certain traditions credit him -with having been the first to believe in a purer -doctrine than the Celtic polytheism, and even with -having attempted to put down druidism, in revenge -for which a druid called Maelcen sent an evil spirit -who placed a salmon-bone crossways in the king’s -throat, as he sat at meat, and so compassed his -death. Another class of stories, however, make him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>an especial favourite with those same heathen deities. -Manannán son of Lêr, was so anxious for his friendship -that he decoyed him into fairyland, and gave -him a magic branch. It was of silver, and bore -golden apples, and, when it was shaken, it made -such sweet music that the wounded, the sick, and -the sorrowful forgot their pains, and were lulled into -deep sleep. Cormac kept this treasure all his life; -but, at his death, it returned into the hands of the -gods.<a id='r226' /><a href='#f226' class='c010'><sup>[226]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>King Cormac was a contemporary of Finn mac -Coul<a id='r227' /><a href='#f227' class='c010'><sup>[227]</sup></a>, whom he appointed head of the <i>Fianna<a id='r228' /><a href='#f228' class='c010'><sup>[228]</sup></a> -Eirinn</i>, more generally known as the “Fenians”. -Around Finn and his men have gathered a cycle -of legends which were equally popular with the -Gaels of both Scotland and Ireland. We read of -their exploits in stories and poems preserved in the -earliest Irish manuscripts, while among the peasantry -both of Ireland and of the West Highlands -their names and the stories connected with them are -still current lore. Upon some of these floating traditions, -as preserved in folk ballads, MacPherson -founded his factitious <i>Ossian</i>, and the collection -of them from the lips of living men still affords -plenty of employment to Gaelic students.</p> - -<p class='c005'>How far Finn and his followers may have been -historical personages it is impossible to say. The -Irish people themselves have always held that the -Fenians were a kind of native militia, and that Finn -<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>was their general. The early historical writers of -Ireland supported this view. The chronicler Tighernach, -who died in 1088, believed in him, and the -“Annals of the Four Masters”, compiled between -the years 1632 and 1636 from older chronicles, while -they ignore King Conchobar and his Red Branch -Champions as unworthy of the serious consideration -of historians, treat Finn as a real person whose death -took place in 283 <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> Even so great a modern -scholar as Eugene O’Curry declared in the clearest -language that Finn, so far from being “a merely -imaginary or mythical character”, was “an undoubtedly -historical personage; and that he existed -about the time at which his appearance is recorded -in the Annals is as certain as that Julius Caesar -lived and ruled at the time stated on the authority -of the Roman historians”.<a id='r229' /><a href='#f229' class='c010'><sup>[229]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The opinion of more recent Celtic scholars, however, -is opposed to this view. Finn’s pedigree, preserved -in the Book of Leinster, may seem at first to -give some support to the theory of his real existence, -but, on more careful examination of it, his own name -and that of his father equally bewray him. Finn -or Fionn, meaning “fair”, is the name of one of the -mythical ancestors of the Gaels, while his father’s -name, Cumhal<a id='r230' /><a href='#f230' class='c010'><sup>[230]</sup></a>, signifies the “sky”, and is the same -word as <i>Camulus</i>, the Gaulish heaven-god identified -by the Romans with Mars. His followers are as -doubtfully human as himself. One may compare -them with Cuchulainn and the rest of the heroes of -Emain Macha. Their deeds are not less marvellous. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>Like the Ultonian warriors, they move, too, on equal -terms with the gods. “The Fianna of Erin”, says -a tract called “The Dialogue of the Elders”,<a id='r231' /><a href='#f231' class='c010'><sup>[231]</sup></a> contained -in thirteenth and fourteenth century manuscripts, -“had not more frequent and free intercourse -with the men of settled habitation than with the -Tuatha Dé Danann”.<a id='r232' /><a href='#f232' class='c010'><sup>[232]</sup></a> Angus, Mider, Lêr, Manannán, -and Bodb the Red, with their countless sons -and daughters, loom as large in the Fenian, or so-called -“Ossianic” stories as do the Fenians themselves. -They fight for them, or against them; they -marry them, and are given to them in marriage.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A luminous suggestion of Professor Rhys also -hints that the Fenians inherited the conduct of that -ancient war formerly waged between the Tuatha -Dé Danann and the Fomors. The most common -antagonists of Finn and his heroes are tribes of -invaders from oversea, called in the stories the -<i>Lochlannach</i>. These “Men of Lochlann” are usually -identified, by those who look for history in the stories -of the Fenian cycle, with the invading bands of -Norsemen who harried the Irish coasts in the ninth -century. But the nucleus of the Fenian tales antedates -these Scandinavian raids, and mortal foes have -probably merely stepped into the place of those immortal -enemies of the gods whose “Lochlann” was -a country, not over the sea—but under it.<a id='r233' /><a href='#f233' class='c010'><sup>[233]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The earlier historians of Ireland were as ready -with their dates and facts regarding the Fenian band -<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>as an institution as with the personality of Finn. -It was said to have been first organized by a king -called Fiachadh, in 300 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span>, and abolished, or rather, -exterminated, by Cairbré, the son of Cormac mac -Art, in 284 <i>A.D.</i> We are told that it consisted of -three regiments modelled on the Roman legion; -each of these bodies contained, on a peace footing, -three thousand men, but in time of war could be -indefinitely strengthened. Its object was to defend -the coasts of Ireland and the country generally, -throwing its weight upon the side of any prince -who happened to be assailed by foreign foes. During -the six months of winter, its members were quartered -upon the population, but during the summer -they had to forage for themselves, which they did -by hunting and fishing. Thus they lived in the -woods and on the open moors, hardening themselves -for battle by their adventurous life. The sites of -their enormous camp-fires were long pointed out -under the name of the “Fenians’ cooking-places”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was not easy to become a member of this famous -band. A candidate had to be not only an expert -warrior, but a poet and a man of culture as well. -He had practically to renounce his tribe; at any -rate he made oath that he would neither avenge -any of his relatives nor be avenged by them. He -put himself under bonds never to refuse hospitality -to anyone who asked, never to turn his back in -battle, never to insult any woman, and not to accept -a dowry with his wife. In addition to all this, he -had to pass successfully through the most stringent -physical tests. Indeed, as these have come down -<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>to us, magnified by the perfervid Celtic imagination, -they are of an altogether marvellous and impossible -character. An aspirant to the <i>Fianna Eirinn</i>, we -are told, had first to stand up to his knees in a pit -dug for him, his only arms being his shield and a -hazel wand, while nine warriors, each with a spear, -standing within the distance of nine ridges of land, -all hurled their weapons at him at once; if he failed -to ward them all off, he was rejected. Should he -succeed in this first test, he was given the distance -of one tree-length’s start, and chased through a -forest by armed men; if any of them came up to -him and wounded him, he could not belong to the -Fenians. If he escaped unhurt, but had unloosed -a single lock of his braided hair, or had broken a -single branch in his flight, or if, at the end of the -run, his weapons trembled in his hands, he was -refused. As, besides these tests, he was obliged to -jump over a branch as high as his forehead, and -stoop under one as low as his knee, while running -at full speed, and to pluck a thorn out of his heel -without hindrance to his flight, it is clear that even -the rank and file of the Fenians must have been -quite exceptional athletes.<a id='r234' /><a href='#f234' class='c010'><sup>[234]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>But it is time to pass on to a more detailed description -of these champions.<a id='r235' /><a href='#f235' class='c010'><sup>[235]</sup></a> They are a goodly -company, not less heroic than the mighty men of -Ulster. First comes Finn himself, not the strongest -in body of the Fenians, but the truest, wisest, and -kindest, gentle to women, generous to men, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>trusted by all. If he could help it, he would never -let anyone be in trouble or poverty. “If the dead -leaves of the forest had been gold, and the white -foam of the water silver, Finn would have given it -all away.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Finn had two sons, Fergus and his more famous -brother Ossian<a id='r236' /><a href='#f236' class='c010'><sup>[236]</sup></a>. Fergus of the sweet speech was -the Fenian’s bard, and, also, because of his honeyed -words, their diplomatist and ambassador. Yet, by -the irony of fate, it is to Ossian, who is not mentioned -as a poet in the earliest texts, that the poems -concerning the Fenians which are current in Scotland -under the name of “Ossianic Ballads” are -attributed. Ossian’s mother was Sadb, a daughter -of Bodb the Red. A rival goddess changed her into -a deer—which explains how Ossian got his name, -which means “fawn”. With such advantages of -birth, naturally he was speedy enough to run down -a red deer hind and catch her by the ear, though -far less swift-footed than his cousin Caoilte<a id='r237' /><a href='#f237' class='c010'><sup>[237]</sup></a>, the -“Thin Man”. Neither was he so strong as his own -son Oscar, the mightiest of all the Fenians, yet, in -his youth, so clumsy that the rest of the band refused -to take him with them on their warlike expeditions. -They changed their minds, however, when, one day, -he followed them unawares, found them giving way -before an enemy, and, rushing to their help, armed -only with a great log of wood which lay handy on -the ground, turned the fortunes of the fight. After -this, Oscar was hailed the best warrior of all the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>Fianna; he was given command of a battalion, -and its banner, called the “Terrible Broom”, -was regarded as the centre of every battle, for -it was never known to retreat a foot. Other prominent -Fenians were Goll<a id='r238' /><a href='#f238' class='c010'><sup>[238]</sup></a>, son of Morna, at first -Finn’s enemy but afterwards his follower, a man -skilled alike in war and learning. Even though -he was one-eyed, we are told that he was much -loved by women, but not so much as Finn’s -cousin, Diarmait O’Duibhne<a id='r239' /><a href='#f239' class='c010'><sup>[239]</sup></a>, whose fatal beauty -ensnared even Finn’s betrothed bride, Grainne<a id='r240' /><a href='#f240' class='c010'><sup>[240]</sup></a>. -Their comic character was Conan, who is represented -as an old, bald, vain, irritable man, as great -a braggart as ancient Pistol and as foul-mouthed as -Thersites, and yet, after he had once been shamed -into activity, a true man of his hands. These are -the prime Fenian heroes, the chief actors in its -stories.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Fenian epic begins, before the birth of its -hero, with the struggle of two rival clans, each of -whom claimed to be the real and only Fianna -Eirinn. They were called the Clann Morna, of -which Goll mac Morna was head, and the Clann -Baoisgne<a id='r241' /><a href='#f241' class='c010'><sup>[241]</sup></a>, commanded by Finn’s father, Cumhal. -A battle was fought at Cnucha<a id='r242' /><a href='#f242' class='c010'><sup>[242]</sup></a>, in which Goll -killed Cumhal, and the Clann Baoisgne was scattered. -Cumhal’s wife, however, bore a posthumous -son, who was brought up among the Slieve Bloom -Mountains secretly, for fear his father’s enemies -should find and kill him. The boy, who was at first -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>called Deimne<a id='r243' /><a href='#f243' class='c010'><sup>[243]</sup></a>, grew up to be an expert hurler, -swimmer, runner, and hunter. Later, like Cuchulainn, -and indeed many modern savages, he took a -second, more personal name. Those who saw him -asked who was the “fair” youth. He accepted the -omen, and called himself Deimne Finn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At length, he wandered to the banks of the Boyne, -where he found a soothsayer called Finn the Seer -living beside a deep pool near Slane, named “Fec’s -Pool”, in hope of catching one of the “salmons of -knowledge”, and, by eating it, obtaining universal -wisdom. He had been there seven years without -result, though success had been prophesied to one -named “Finn”. When the wandering son of -Cumhal appeared, Finn the Seer engaged him as -his servant. Shortly afterwards, he caught the -coveted fish, and handed it over to our Finn to -cook, warning him to eat no portion of it. “Have -you eaten any of it?” he asked the boy, as he brought -it up ready boiled. “No indeed,” replied Finn; -“but, while I was cooking it, a blister rose upon the -skin, and, laying my thumb down upon the blister, I -scalded it, and so I put it into my mouth to ease the -pain.” The man was perplexed. “You told me -your name was Deimne,” he said; “but have you -any other name?” “Yes, I am also called Finn.” -“It is enough,” replied his disappointed master. -“Eat the salmon yourself, for you must be the one -of whom the prophecy told.” Finn ate the “salmon -of knowledge”, and thereafter he had only to put his -thumb under his tooth, as he had done when he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>scalded it, to receive fore-knowledge and magic -counsel.<a id='r244' /><a href='#f244' class='c010'><sup>[244]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Thus armed, Finn was more than a match for the -Clann Morna. Curious legends tell how he discovered -himself to his father’s old followers, confounded -his enemies with his magic, and turned -them into faithful servants.<a id='r245' /><a href='#f245' class='c010'><sup>[245]</sup></a> Even Goll of the -Blows had to submit to his sway. Gradually he -welded the two opposing clans into one Fianna, -over which he ruled, taking tribute from the kings -of Ireland, warring against the Fomorian “Lochlannach”, -destroying every kind of giant, serpent, -or monster that infested the land, and at last carrying -his mythical conquests over all Europe.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Out of the numberless stories of the Fenian exploits -it is hard to choose examples. All are heroic, -romantic, wild, fantastic. In many of them the -Tuatha Dé Danann play prominent parts. One -such story connects itself with an earlier mythological -episode already related. The reader will remember<a id='r246' /><a href='#f246' class='c010'><sup>[246]</sup></a> -how, when the Dagda gave up the kingship of the -immortals, five aspirants appeared to claim it; how -of these five—Angus, Mider, Lêr, Ilbhreach son -of Manannán, and Bodb the Red—the latter was -chosen; how Lêr refused to acknowledge him, but -was reconciled later; how Mider, equally rebellious, -fled to “desert country round Mount Leinster” in -County Carlow; and how a yearly war was waged -upon him and his people by the rest of the gods to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>bring them to subjection. This war was still raging -in the time of Finn, and Mider was not too proud to -seek his help. One day that Finn was hunting in -Donegal, with Ossian, Oscar, Caoilte, and Diarmait, -their hounds roused a beautiful fawn, which, although -at every moment apparently nearly overtaken, led -them in full chase as far as Mount Leinster. Here -it suddenly disappeared into a cleft in the hillside. -Heavy snow, “making the forest’s branches as it -were a withe-twist”, now fell, forcing the Fenians to -seek for some shelter, and they therefore explored -the place into which the fawn had vanished. It led -to a splendid <i>sídh</i> in the hollow of the hill. Entering -it, they were greeted by a beautiful goddess-maiden, -who told them that it was she, Mider’s -daughter, who had been the fawn, and that she had -taken that shape purposely to lead them there, in -the hope of getting their help against the army that -was coming to attack the <i>sídh</i>. Finn asked who the -assailants would be, and was told that they were -Bodb the Red with his seven sons, Angus “Son -of the Young” with his seven sons, Lêr of Sídh -Fionnechaidh with his twenty-seven sons, and -Fionnbharr of Sídh Meadha with his seventeen -sons, as well as numberless gods of lesser fame -drawn from <i>sídhe</i> not only over all Ireland, but from -Scotland and the islands as well. Finn promised -his aid, and, with the twilight of that same day, the -attacking forces appeared, and made their annual -assault. They were beaten off, after a battle that -lasted all night, with the loss of “ten men, ten -score, and ten hundred”. Finn, Oscar, and Diarmait, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>as well as most of Mider’s many sons, were sorely -wounded, but the leech Labhra healed all their -wounds.<a id='r247' /><a href='#f247' class='c010'><sup>[247]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Sooth to say, the Fenians did not always require -the excuse of fairy alliance to start them making -war on the race of the hills. One of the so-called -“Ossianic ballads” is entitled “The Chase of the -Enchanted Pigs of Angus of the Brugh<a id='r248' /><a href='#f248' class='c010'><sup>[248]</sup></a>”. This -Angus is, of course, the “Son of the Young”, and -the Brugh that famous <i>sídh</i> beside the Boyne out -of which he cheated his father, the Dagda. After -the friendly manner of gods towards heroes, he invited -Finn and a picked thousand of his followers -to a banquet at the Brugh. They came to it in their -finest clothes, “goblets went from hand to hand, -and waiters were kept in motion”. At last conversation -fell upon the comparative merits of the -pleasures of the table and of the chase, Angus stoutly -contending that “the gods’ life of perpetual feasting” -was better than all the Fenian huntings, and -Finn as stoutly denying it. Finn boasted of his -hounds, and Angus said that the best of them could -not kill one of his pigs. Finn angrily replied that -his two hounds, Bran<a id='r249' /><a href='#f249' class='c010'><sup>[249]</sup></a> and Sgeolan<a id='r250' /><a href='#f250' class='c010'><sup>[250]</sup></a>, would kill any -pig that trod on dry land. Angus answered that he -could show Finn a pig that none of his hounds or -huntsmen could catch or kill. Here were the -makings of a pretty quarrel among such inflammable -creatures as gods and heroes, but the steward of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>the feast interposed and sent everyone to bed. The -next morning, Finn left the Brugh, for he did not -want to fight all Angus’s fairies with his handful of -a thousand men. A year passed before he heard -more of it; then came a messenger from Angus, -reminding Finn of his promise to pit his men and -hounds against Angus’s pigs. The Fenians seated -themselves on the tops of the hills, each with his -favourite hound in leash, and they had not been -there long before there appeared on the eastern -plain a hundred and one such pigs as no Fenian had -ever seen before. Each was as tall as a deer, and -blacker than a smith’s coals, having hair like a -thicket and bristles like ships’ masts. Yet such was -the prowess of the Fenians that they killed them all, -though each of the pigs slew ten men and many -hounds. Then Angus complained that the Fenians -had murdered his son and many others of the -Tuatha Dé Danann, who, indeed, were none other -than the pigs whose forms they had taken. There -were mighty recriminations on both sides, and, in the -end, the enraged Fenians prepared to attack the -Brugh on the Boyne. Then only did Angus begin -to yield, and, by the advice of Ossian, Finn made -peace with him and his fairy folk.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Such are specimens of the tales which go to -make up the Fenian cycle of sagas. Hunting is the -most prominent feature of them, for the Fenians -were essentially a race of mighty hunters. But the -creatures of their chase were not always flesh and -blood. Enchanters who wished the Fenians ill -could always lure them into danger by taking the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>shape of boar or deer, and many a story begins -with an innocent chase and ends with a murderous -battle. But out of such struggles the Fenians -always emerge successfully, as Ossian is represented -proudly boasting, “through truthfulness and the -might of their hands”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The most famous chase of all is, however, not -that of deer or boar, but of a woman and a man, -Finn’s betrothed wife and his nephew Diarmait.<a id='r251' /><a href='#f251' class='c010'><sup>[251]</sup></a> -Ever fortunate in war, the Fenian leader found -disaster in his love. Wishing for a wife in his old -age, he sent to seek Grainne, the daughter of -Cormac, the High-King of Ireland. Both King -Cormac and his daughter consented, and Finn’s -ambassadors returned with an invitation to the -suitor to come in a fortnight’s time to claim his -bride. He arrived with his picked band, and was -received in state in the great banqueting-hall of -Tara. There they feasted, and there Grainne, the -king’s daughter, casting her eyes over the assembled -Fenian heroes, saw Diarmait O’Duibhne.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This Fenian Adonis had a beauty-spot upon his -cheek which no woman could see without falling -instantly in love with him. Grainne, for all her -royal birth, was no exception to this rule. She -asked a druid to point her out the principal guests. -The druid told her all their names and exploits. -Then she called for a jewelled drinking-horn, and, -filling it with a drugged wine, sent it round to each -in turn, except to Diarmait. None could be so -<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>discourteous as to refuse wine from the hand of a -princess. All drank, and fell into deep sleep.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then, rising, she came to Diarmait, told him her -passion for him, and asked for its return. “I will -not love the betrothed of my chief,” he replied, -“and, even if I wished, I dare not.” And he -praised Finn’s virtues, and decried his own fame. -But Grainne merely answered that she put him -under <i>geasa</i> (bonds which no hero could refuse to -redeem) to flee with her; and at once went back to -her chair before the rest of the company awoke -from their slumber.</p> - -<p class='c005'>After the feast, Diarmait went round to his comrades, -one by one, and told them of Grainne’s love -for him, and of the <i>geasa</i> she had placed upon him -to take her from Tara. He asked each of them -what he ought to do. All answered that no hero -could break a <i>geis</i> put upon him by a woman. He -even asked Finn, concealing Grainne’s name, and -Finn gave him the same counsel as the others. -That night, the lovers fled from Tara to the ford of -the Shannon at Athlone, crossed it, and came to -a place called the “Wood of the Two Tents”, -where Diarmait wove a hut of branches for Grainne -to shelter in.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Meanwhile Finn had discovered their flight, and -his rage knew no bounds. He sent his trackers, -the Clann Neamhuain<a id='r252' /><a href='#f252' class='c010'><sup>[252]</sup></a>, to follow them. They -tracked them to the wood, and one of them climbed -a tree, and, looking down, saw the hut, with a strong -seven-doored fence built round it, and Diarmait and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>Grainne inside. When the news came to the -Fenians, they were sorry, for their sympathies were -with Diarmait and not with Finn. They tried to -warn him, but he took no heed; for he had determined -to fight and not to flee. Indeed, when Finn -himself came to the fence, and called over it to -Diarmait, asking if he and Grainne were within, he -replied that they were, but that none should enter -unless he gave permission.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Diarmait, like Cuchulainn in the war of Ulster -against Ireland, found himself matched single-handed -against a host. But, also like Cuchulainn, -he had a divine helper. The favourite of the -Tuatha Dé Danann, he had been the pupil of -Manannán son of Lêr in the “Land of Promise”, -and had been fostered by Angus of the Brugh. -Manannán had given him his two spears, the -“Red Javelin” and the “Yellow Javelin”, and his -two swords, the “Great Fury” and the “Little -Fury”. And now Angus came to look for his -foster-son, and brought with him the magic mantle -of invisibility used by the gods. He advised Diarmait -and Grainne to come out wrapped in the -cloak, and thus rendered invisible. Diarmait still -refused to flee, but asked Angus to protect Grainne. -Wrapping the magic mantle round her, the god led -the princess away unseen by any of the Fenians.</p> - -<p class='c005'>By this time, Finn had posted men outside all the -seven doors in the fence. Diarmait went to each of -them in turn. At the first, were Ossian and Oscar -with the Clann Baoisgne. They offered him their -protection. At the second, were Caoilte and the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>Clann Ronan, who said they would fight to the -death for him. At the third, were Conan and the -Clann Morna, also his friends. At the fourth, stood -Cuan with the Fenians of Munster, Diarmait’s native -province. At the fifth, were the Ulster Fenians, -who also promised him protection against Finn. -But at the sixth, were the Clann Neamhuain, who -hated him; and at the seventh, was Finn himself.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“It is by your door that I will pass out, O Finn,” -cried Diarmait. Finn charged his men to surround -Diarmait as he came out, and kill him. But he -leaped the fence, passing clean over their heads, -and fled away so swiftly that they could not follow -him. He never halted till he reached the place to -which he knew Angus had taken Grainne. The -friendly god left them with a little sage advice: -never to hide in a tree with only one trunk; never -to rest in a cave with only one entrance; never to -land on an island with only one channel of approach; -not to eat their supper where they had -cooked it, nor to sleep where they had supped, and, -where they had slept once, never to sleep again. -With these Red-Indian-like tactics, it was some time -before Finn discovered them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>However, he found out at last where they were, -and sent champions with venomous hounds to take -or kill them. But Diarmait conquered all who were -sent against him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Yet still Finn pursued, until Diarmait, as a last -hope of escape, took refuge under a magic quicken-tree<a id='r253' /><a href='#f253' class='c010'><sup>[253]</sup></a>, -which bore scarlet fruit, the ambrosia of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>gods. It had grown from a single berry dropped -by one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who, when they -found that they had carelessly endowed mortals with -celestial and immortal food, had sent a huge, one-eyed -Fomor called Sharvan the Surly to guard it, -so that no man might eat of its fruit. All day, this -Fomor sat at the foot of the tree, and, all night, he -slept among its branches, and so terrible was his -appearance that neither the Fenians nor any other -people dared to come within several miles of him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Diarmait was willing to brave the Fomor in -the hope of getting a safe hiding-place for Grainne. -He came boldly up to him, and asked leave to camp -and hunt in his neighbourhood. The Fomor told -him surlily that he might camp and hunt where he -pleased, so long as he refrained from taking any of -the scarlet berries. So Diarmait built a hut near -a spring; and he and Grainne lived there, killing -the wild animals for food.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But, unhappily, Grainne conceived so strong a -desire to eat the quicken berries that she felt that -she must die unless her wish could be gratified. At -first she tried to hide this longing, but in the end -she was forced to tell her companion. Diarmait -had no desire to quarrel with the Fomor; so he -went to him and told the plight that Grainne was -in, and asked for a handful of the berries as a -gift.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But the Fomor merely answered: “I swear to -you that if nothing would save the princess and her -unborn child except my berries, and if she were the -last woman upon the earth, she should not have any -<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>of them.” Whereupon Diarmait fought the Fomor, -and, after much trouble, killed him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was reported to Finn that the guardian of the -magic quicken-tree lived no longer, and he guessed -that Diarmait must have killed him; so he came -down to the place with seven battalions of the -Fenians to look for him. By this time, Diarmait -had abandoned his own hut and taken possession of -that built by the Fomor among the branches of the -magic quicken. He was sitting in it with Grainne -when Finn and his men came and camped at the -foot of the tree, to wait till the heat of noon had -passed before beginning their search.</p> - -<p class='c005'>To beguile the time, Finn called for his chess-board -and challenged his son Ossian to a game. -They played until Ossian had only one more -move.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“One move would make you a winner,” said -Finn to him, “but I challenge you and all the -Fenians to guess it.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Only Diarmait, who had been looking down -through the branches upon the players, knew the -move. He could not resist dropping a berry on to -the board, so deftly that it hit the very chess-man -which Ossian ought to move in order to win. -Ossian took the hint, moved it, and won. A second -and a third game were played; and in each case the -same thing happened. Then Finn felt sure that -the berries that had prompted Ossian must have -been thrown by Diarmait.</p> - -<p class='c005'>He called out, asking Diarmait if he were there, -and the Fenian hero, who never spoke an untruth, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>answered that he was. So the quicken-tree was -surrounded by armed men, just as the fenced hut in -the woods had been. But, again, things happened in -the same way; for Angus of the Brugh took away -Grainne wrapped in the invisible magic cloak, while -Diarmait, walking to the end of a thick branch, -cleared the circle of Fenians at a bound, and -escaped untouched.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This was the end of the famous “Pursuit”; for -Angus came as ambassador to Finn, urging him -to become reconciled to the fugitives, and all the -best of the Fenians begged Finn to consent. So -Diarmait and Grainne were allowed to return in -peace.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Finn never really forgave, and, soon after, he -urged Diarmait to go out to the chase of the wild -boar of Benn Gulban<a id='r254' /><a href='#f254' class='c010'><sup>[254]</sup></a>. Diarmait killed the boar -without getting any hurt; for, like the Greek -Achilles, he was invulnerable, save in his heel alone. -Finn, who knew this, told him to measure out the -length of the skin with his bare feet. Diarmait did -so. Then Finn, declaring that he had measured it -wrongly, ordered him to tread it again in the opposite -direction. This was against the lie of the -bristles; and one of them pierced Diarmait’s heel, -and inflicted a poisoned and mortal wound.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This “Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne”, which -has been told at such length, marks in some degree -the climax of the Fenian power, after which it began -to decline towards its end. The friends of Diarmait -never forgave the treachery with which Finn had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>compassed his death. The ever-slumbering rivalry -between Goll and his Clann Morna and Finn and -his Clann Baoisgne began to show itself as open -enmity. Quarrels arose, too, between the Fenians -and the High-Kings of Ireland, which culminated -at last in the annihilation of the Fianna at the battle -of Gabhra<a id='r255' /><a href='#f255' class='c010'><sup>[255]</sup></a>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This is said to have been fought in <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 284. -Finn himself had perished a year before it, in a -skirmish with rebellious Fenians at the Ford of -Brea on the Boyne. King Cormac the Magnificent, -Grainne’s father, was also dead. It was between -Finn’s grandson Oscar and Cormac’s son Cairbré -that war broke out. This mythical battle was as -fiercely waged as that of Arthur’s last fight at -Camlan. Oscar slew Cairbré, and was slain by him. -Almost all the Fenians fell, as well as all Cairbré’s -forces.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Only two of the greater Fenian figures survived. -One was Caoilte, whose swiftness of foot saved -him at the end when all was lost. The famous -story, called the “Dialogue of the Elders”, represents -him discoursing to St. Patrick, centuries after, of -the Fenians’ wonderful deeds. Having lost his -friends of the heroic age, he is said to have cast -in his lot with the Tuatha Dé Danann. He fought -in a battle, with Ilbhreach son of Manannán, against -Lêr himself, and killed the ancient sea-god with his -own hand.<a id='r256' /><a href='#f256' class='c010'><sup>[256]</sup></a> The tale represents him taking possession -of Lêr’s fairy palace of Sídh Fionnechaidh, -after which we know no more of him, except that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>he has taken rank in the minds of the Irish peasantry -as one of, and a ruler among, the Sídhe.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The other was Ossian, who did not fight at -Gabhra, for, long before, he had taken the great -journey which most heroes of mythology take, to -that bourne from which no ordinary mortal ever -returns. Like Cuchulainn, it was upon the invitation -of a goddess that he went. The Fenians were -hunting near Lake Killarney when a lady of more -than human beauty came to them, and told them -that her name was Niamh<a id='r257' /><a href='#f257' class='c010'><sup>[257]</sup></a>, daughter of the Son -of the Sea. The Gaelic poet, Michael Comyn, who, -in the eighteenth century, rewove the ancient story -into his own words,<a id='r258' /><a href='#f258' class='c010'><sup>[258]</sup></a> describes her in just the same -way as one of the old bards would have done:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A royal crown was on her head;</div> - <div class='line in1'>And a brown mantle of precious silk,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Spangled with stars of red gold,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Covering her shoes down to the grass.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“A gold ring was hanging down</div> - <div class='line in1'>From each yellow curl of her golden hair;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Her eyes, blue, clear, and cloudless,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Like a dew-drop on the top of the grass.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Redder were her cheeks than the rose,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Fairer was her visage than the swan upon the wave,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And more sweet was the taste of her balsam lips</div> - <div class='line in1'>Than honey mingled thro’ red wine.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>“A garment, wide, long, and smooth</div> - <div class='line in1'>Covered the white steed,</div> - <div class='line in1'>There was a comely saddle of red gold,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And her right hand held a bridle with a golden bit.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Four shoes well-shaped were under him,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of the yellow gold of the purest quality;</div> - <div class='line in1'>A silver wreath was on the back of his head,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And there was not in the world a steed better.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Such was Niamh of the Golden Hair, Manannán’s -daughter; and it is small wonder that, when she -chose Ossian from among the sons of men to be her -lover, all Finn’s supplications could not keep him. -He mounted behind her on her fairy horse, and -they rode across the land to the sea-shore, and then -over the tops of the waves. As they went, she -described the country of the gods to him in just the -same terms as Manannán himself had pictured it -to Bran, son of Febal, as Mider had painted it to -Etain, and as everyone that went there limned it -to those that stayed at home on earth.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“It is the most delightful country to be found</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of greatest repute under the sun;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Trees drooping with fruit and blossom,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And foliage growing on the tops of boughs.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Abundant, there, are honey and wine,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And everything that eye has beheld,</div> - <div class='line in1'>There will not come decline on thee with lapse of time.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Death or decay thou wilt not see.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>As they went they saw wonders. Fairy palaces with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>bright sun-bowers and lime-white walls appeared on -the surface of the sea. At one of these they halted, -and Ossian, at Niamh’s request, attacked a fierce -Fomor who lived there, and set free a damsel of -the Tuatha Dé Danann whom he kept imprisoned. -He saw a hornless fawn leap from wave to wave, -chased by one of those strange hounds of Celtic -myth which are pure white, with red ears. At last -they reached the “Land of the Young”, and there -Ossian dwelt with Niamh for three hundred years -before he remembered Erin and the Fenians. Then -a great wish came upon him to see his own country -and his own people again, and Niamh gave him -leave to go, and mounted him upon a fairy steed -for the journey. One thing alone she made him -swear—not to let his feet touch earthly soil. Ossian -promised, and reached Ireland on the wings of the -wind. But, like the children of Lêr at the end of -their penance, he found all changed. He asked -for Finn and the Fenians, and was told that they -were the names of people who had lived long ago, -and whose deeds were written of in old books. The -Battle of Gabhra had been fought, and St. Patrick -had come to Ireland, and made all things new. The -very forms of men had altered; they seemed dwarfs -compared with the giants of his day. Seeing three -hundred of them trying in vain to raise a marble -slab, he rode up to them in contemptuous kindness, -and lifted it with one hand. But, as he did so, the -golden saddle-girth broke with the strain, and he -touched the earth with his feet. The fairy horse -vanished, and Ossian rose from the ground, no -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>longer divinely young and fair and strong, but a -blind, gray-haired, withered old man.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A number of spirited ballads<a id='r259' /><a href='#f259' class='c010'><sup>[259]</sup></a> tell how Ossian, -stranded in his old age upon earthly soil, unable to -help himself or find his own food, is taken by St. -Patrick into his house to be converted. The saint -paints to him in the brightest colours the heaven -which may be his own if he will but repent, and -in the darkest the hell in which he tells him his -old comrades now lie in anguish. Ossian replies -to the saint’s arguments, entreaties, and threats in -language which is extraordinarily frank. He will -not believe that heaven could be closed to the -Fenians if they wished to enter it, or that God -himself would not be proud to claim friendship -with Finn. And if it be not so, what is the use -to him of eternal life where there is no hunting, -or wooing fair women, or listening to the songs -and tales of bards? No, he will go to the Fenians, -whether they sit at the feast or in the fire; and so -he dies as he had lived.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XV<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>In spite, however, of the wide-spread popularity -of the ballads that took the form of dialogues between -Ossian and Patrick, certain traditions say -that the saint succeeded in converting the hero. -Caoilté, the other great surviving Fenian, was also -represented as having gladly exchanged his pagan -lore for the faith and salvation offered him. We -may see the same influence on foot in the later -legends concerning the Red Branch Champions. It -was the policy of the first Christianizers of Ireland -to describe the loved heroes of their still half-heathen -flocks as having handed in their submission -to the new creed. The tales about Conchobar and -Cuchulainn were amended, to prove that those very -pagan personages had been miraculously brought to -accept the gospel at the last. An entirely new story -told how the latter hero was raised from the dead -by Saint Patrick that he might bear witness of the -truth of Christianity to Laogaire the Second, King -of Ireland, which he did with such fervour and -eloquence that the sceptical monarch was convinced.<a id='r260' /><a href='#f260' class='c010'><sup>[260]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>Daring attempts were also made to change the -Tuatha Dé Danann from pagan gods into Christian -saints, but these were by no means so profitable as -the policy pursued towards the more human-seeming -heroes. With one of them alone, was success immediate -and brilliant. Brigit, the goddess of fire, -poetry, and the hearth, is famous to-day as Saint -Bridget, or Bride. Most popular of all the Irish -saints, she can still be easily recognized as the -daughter of the Dagda. Her Christian attributes, -almost all connected with fire, attest her pagan -origin.<a id='r261' /><a href='#f261' class='c010'><sup>[261]</sup></a> She was born at sunrise; a house in which -she dwelt blazed into a flame which reached to -heaven; a pillar of fire rose from her head when -she took the veil; and her breath gave new life to -the dead. As with the British goddess Sul, worshipped -at Bath, who—the first century Latin writer -Solinus<a id='r262' /><a href='#f262' class='c010'><sup>[262]</sup></a> tells us—“ruled over the boiling springs, -and at her altar there flamed a perpetual fire which -never whitened into ashes, but hardened into a -stony mass”, the sacred flame on her shrine at -Kildare was never allowed to go out. It was extinguished -once, in the thirteenth century, but was -relighted, and burnt with undying glow until the -suppression of the monasteries by Henry the Eighth. -This sacred fire might not be breathed on by the -impure human breath. For nineteen nights it was -tended by her nuns, but on the twentieth night it -was left untouched, and kept itself alight miraculously. -With so little of her essential character -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>and ritual changed, it is small wonder that the -half-pagan, half-Christian Irish gladly accepted the -new saint in the stead of the old goddess.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Doubtless a careful examination of Irish hagiology -would result in the discovery of many other -saints whose names and attributes might render -them suspect of previous careers as pagan gods. -But their acceptation was not sufficiently general to -do away with the need of other means of counteracting -the still living influence of the Gaelic Pantheon. -Therefore a fresh school of euhemerists -arose to prove that the gods were never even saints, -but merely worldly men who had once lived and -ruled in Erin. Learned monks worked hard to -construct a history of Ireland from the Flood downwards. -Mr. Eugene O’Curry has compiled from -the various pedigrees they elaborated, and inserted -into the books of Ballymote, Lecan, and Leinster -an amazing genealogy which shows how, not merely -the Tuatha Dé Danann, but also the Fir Bolgs, the -Fomors, the Milesians, and the races of Partholon -and Nemed were descended from Noah. Japhet, -the patriarch’s son, was the father of Magog, from -whom came two lines, the first being the Milesians, -while the second branched out into all the other -races.<a id='r263' /><a href='#f263' class='c010'><sup>[263]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Having once worked the gods, first into universal -history, and then into the history of Ireland, it was -an easy matter to supply them with dates of birth -and death, local habitations, and places of burial. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>We are told with precision exactly how long Nuada, -the Dagda, Lugh, and the others reigned at Tara. -The barrows by the Boyne provided them with -comfortable tombs. Their enemies, the Fomors, -became real invaders who were beaten in real -battles. Thus it was thought to make plain prose -of their divinities.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is only fair, however, to these early euhemerists -to say that they have their modern disciples. There -are many writers, of recognized authority upon their -subjects, who, in dealing with the history of Ireland -or the composition of the British race, claim to find -real peoples in the tribes mentioned in Gaelic myth. -Unfortunately, the only point they agree upon is -the accepted one—that the “Milesians” were Aryan -Celts. They are divided upon the question of the -“Fir Bolgs”, in whom some see the pre-Aryan -tribes, while others, led astray by the name, regard -them as Belgic Gauls; and over the really mythological -races they run wild. In the Tuatha Dé -Danann are variously found Gaels, Picts, Danes, -Scandinavians, Ligurians, and Finns, while the -Fomors rest under the suspicion of having been -Iberians, Moors, Romans, Finns, Goths, or Teutons. -As for the people of Partholon and Nemed, they -have even been explained as men of the Palæolithic -Age. This chaos of opinion was fortunately avoided -by the native annalists, who had no particular views -upon the question of race, except that everybody -came from “Spain”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Of course there were dissenters from this prevailing -mania for euhemerization. As late as the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>tenth century, a poet called Eochaid O’Flynn, writing -of the Tuatha Dé Danann, at first seems to hesitate -whether to ascribe humanity or divinity to them, -and at last frankly avows their godhead. In his -poem, preserved in the Book of Ballymote,<a id='r264' /><a href='#f264' class='c010'><sup>[264]</sup></a> he -says:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Though they came to learned Erinn</div> - <div class='line in1'>Without buoyant, adventurous ships,</div> - <div class='line in1'>No man in creation knew</div> - <div class='line in1'>Whether they were of the earth or of the sky.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“If they were diabolical demons,</div> - <div class='line in1'>They came from that woeful expulsion;<a id='r265' /><a href='#f265' class='c010'><sup>[265]</sup></a></div> - <div class='line in1'>If they were of a race of tribes and nations,</div> - <div class='line in1'>If they were human, they were of the race of Beothach.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Then he enumerates them in due succession, and -ends by declaring:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Though I have treated of these deities in their order,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Yet I have not adored them”.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>One may surmise with probability that the -common people agreed rather with the poet than -with the monk. Pious men in monasteries might -write what they liked, but mere laymen would not -be easily persuaded that their cherished gods had -never been anything more than men like themselves. -Probably they said little, but acted in -secret according to their inherited ideas. Let it -be granted, for the sake of peace, that Goibniu was -only a man; none the less, his name was known -to be uncommonly effective in an incantation. This -<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>applied equally to Diancecht, and invocations to -both of them are contained in some verses which an -eighth-century Irish monk wrote on the margin of -a manuscript still preserved at St. Gall, in Switzerland. -Some prescriptions of Diancecht’s have come -down to us, but it must be admitted that they -hardly differ from those current among ordinary -mediæval physicians. Perhaps, after that unfortunate -spilling of the herbs that grew out of Miach’s -body, he had to fall back upon empirical research. -He invented a porridge for “the relief of ailments -of the body, as cold, phlegm, throat cats, and the -presence of living things in the body, as worms”; -it was compounded of hazel buds, dandelion, chickweed, -sorrel, and oatmeal; and was to be taken -every morning and evening. He also prescribed -against the effects of witchcraft and the fourteen -diseases of the stomach.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Goibniu, in addition to his original character as -the divine smith and sorcerer, gained a third reputation -among the Irish as a great builder and -bridge-maker. As such he is known as the Gobhan -Saer, that is, Goibniu the Architect, and marvellous -tales, current all over Ireland attest his prowess.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Men call’d him Gobhan Saer, and many a tale</div> - <div class='line in3'>Yet lingers in the by-ways of the land</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of how he cleft the rock, or down the vale</div> - <div class='line in3'>Led the bright river, child-like, in his hand:</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of how on giant ships he spread great sail,</div> - <div class='line in3'>And many marvels else by him first plann’d”,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>writes a poet of modern Ireland.<a id='r266' /><a href='#f266' class='c010'><sup>[266]</sup></a> Especially were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>the “round towers” attributed to him, and the -Christian clerics appropriated his popularity by describing -him as having been the designer of their -churches. He used, according to legend, to wander -over the country, clad, like the Greek Hephaestus, -whom he resembles, in working dress, seeking commissions -and adventures. His works remain in the -cathedrals and churches of Ireland; and, with regard -to his adventures, many strange legends are still, -or were until very recently, current upon the lips -of old people in remote parts of Ireland.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Some of these are, as might have been expected, -nothing more than half-understood recollections of -the ancient mythology. In them appear as characters -others of the old, yet not quite forgotten gods—Lugh, -Manannán, and Balor—names still remembered -as those of long-past druids, heroes, and kings -of Ireland in the misty olden time.</p> - -<p class='c005'>One or two of them are worth re-telling. Mr. -William Larminie, collecting folk-tales in Achill -Island, took one from the lips of an aged peasant, -which tells in its confused way what might almost -be called the central incident of Gaelic mythology, -the mysterious birth of the sun-god from demoniac -parentage, and his eventual slaying of his grandfather -when he came to full age.<a id='r267' /><a href='#f267' class='c010'><sup>[267]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Gobhan the Architect and his son, young Gobhan, -runs the tale, were sent for by Balor of the -Blows to build him a palace. They built it so well -that Balor decided never to let them leave his kingdom -alive, for fear they should build another one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>equally good for someone else. He therefore had -all the scaffolding removed from round the palace -while they were still on the top, with the intention -of leaving them up there to die of hunger. But, -when they discovered this, they began to destroy -the roof, so that Balor was obliged to let them come -down.</p> - -<p class='c005'>He, none the less, refused to allow them to return -to Ireland. The crafty Gobhan, however, had his -plan ready. He told Balor that the injury that had -been done to the palace roof could not be repaired -without special tools, which he had left behind him -at home. Balor declined to let either old Gobhan -or young Gobhan go back to fetch them; but he -offered to send his own son. Gobhan gave Balor’s -son directions for the journey. He was to travel -until he came to a house with a stack of corn at -the door. Entering it, he would find a woman with -one hand and a child with one eye.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Balor’s son found the house, and asked the woman -for the tools. She expected him; for it had been -arranged between Gobhan and his wife what should -be done, if Balor refused to let him return. She -took Balor’s son to a huge chest, and told him that -the tools were at the bottom of it, so far down that -she could not reach them, and that he must get into -the chest, and pick them up himself. But, as soon -as he was safely inside, she shut the lid on him, -telling him that he would have to stay there until -his father allowed old Gobhan and young Gobhan -to come home with their pay. And she sent the -same message to Balor himself.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>There was an exchange of prisoners, Balor giving -the two Gobhans their pay and a ship to take them -home, and Gobhan’s wife releasing Balor’s son. But, -before the two builders went, Balor asked them -whom he should now employ to repair his palace. -Old Gobhan told him that, next to himself, there -was no workman in Ireland better than one Gavidjeen -Go.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When Gobhan got back to Ireland, he sent Gavidjeen -Go to Balor. But he gave him a piece of -advice—to accept as pay only one thing: Balor’s -gray cow, which would fill twenty barrels at one -milking. Balor agreed to this, but, when he gave -the cow to Gavidjeen Go to take back with him to -Ireland, he omitted to include her byre-rope, which -was the only thing that would keep her from returning -to her original owner.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The gray cow gave so much trouble to Gavidjeen -Go by her straying, that he was obliged to hire military -champions to watch her during the day and -bring her safely home at night. The bargain made -was that Gavidjeen Go should forge the champion -a sword for his pay, but that, if he lost the cow, his -life was to be forfeited.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At last, a certain warrior called Cian was unlucky -enough to let the cow escape. He followed her -tracks down to the sea-shore and right to the edge -of the waves, and there he lost them altogether. He -was tearing his hair in his perplexity, when he saw -a man rowing a coracle. The man, who was no -other than Manannán son of Lêr, came in close to -the shore, and asked what was the matter.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>Cian told him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What would you give to anyone who would -take you to the place where the gray cow is?” asked -Manannán.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I have nothing to give,” replied Cian.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“All I ask,” said Manannán, “is half of whatever -you gain before you come back.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Cian agreed to that willingly enough, and Manannán -told him to get into the coracle. In the wink -of an eye, he had landed him in Balor’s kingdom, -the realm of the cold, where they roast no meat, but -eat their food raw. Cian was not used to this diet, -so he lit himself a fire, and began to cook some food. -Balor saw the fire, and came down to it, and he was -so pleased that he appointed Cian to be his fire-maker -and cook.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Now Balor had a daughter, of whom a druid had -prophesied that she would, some day, bear a son who -would kill his grandfather. Therefore, like Acrisius, -in Greek legend, he shut her up in a tower, guarded -by women, and allowed her to see no man but himself. -One day, Cian saw Balor go to the tower. He -waited until he had come back, and then went to -explore. He had the gift of opening locked doors -and shutting them again after him. When he got -inside, he lit a fire, and this novelty so delighted -Balor’s daughter that she invited him to visit her -again. After this—in the Achill islander’s quaint -phrase—“he was ever coming there, until a child -happened to her.” Balor’s daughter gave the baby -to Cian to take away. She also gave him the byre-rope -which belonged to the gray cow.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>Cian was in great danger now, for Balor had -found out about the child. He led the gray cow -away with the rope to the sea-shore, and waited for -Manannán. The Son of Lêr had told Cian that, -when he was in any difficulty, he was to think of -him, and he would at once appear. Cian thought -of him now, and, in a moment, Manannán appeared -with his coracle. Cian got into the boat, with the -baby and the gray cow, just as Balor, in hot pursuit, -came down to the beach.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Balor, by his incantations, raised a great storm to -drown them; but Manannán, whose druidism was -greater, stilled it. Then Balor turned the sea into -fire, to burn them; but Manannán put it out with a -stone.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When they were safe back in Ireland, Manannán -asked Cian for his promised reward.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I have gained nothing but the boy, and I cannot -cut him in two, so I will give him to you whole,” he -replied.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“That is what I was wanting all the time,” said -Manannán; “when he grows up, there will be no -champion equal to him.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Manannán baptized the boy, calling him “the -Dul-Dauna”. This name, meaning “Blind-Stubborn”, -is certainly a curious corruption of the original -<i>Ioldanach</i><a id='r268' /><a href='#f268' class='c010'><sup>[268]</sup></a> “Master of all Knowledge”. When the -boy had grown up, he went one day to the sea-shore. -A ship came past, in which was a man. -The traditions of Donnybrook Fair are evidently -prehistoric, for the boy, without troubling to ask who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>the stranger was, took a dart “out of his pocket”, -hurled it, and hit him. The man in the boat happened -to be Balor. Thus, in accordance with the prophecy, -he was slain by his grandson, who, though the folktale -does not name him, was obviously Lugh.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Another version of the same legend, collected by -the Irish scholar O’Donovan on the coast of Donegal, -opposite Balor s favourite haunt, Tory Island, is -interesting as completing the one just narrated.<a id='r269' /><a href='#f269' class='c010'><sup>[269]</sup></a> In -this folk-tale, Goibniu is called Gavida, and is made -one of three brothers, the other two being called -Mac Kineely and Mac Samthainn. They were chiefs -of Donegal, smiths and farmers, while Balor was a -robber who harassed the mainland from his stronghold -on Tory Island. The gray cow belonged to -Mac Kineely, and Balor stole it. Its owner determined -to be revenged, and, knowing the prediction -concerning Balor’s death at the hands of an as yet -unborn grandson, he persuaded a kindly fairy to -spirit him in female disguise to Tor Mor, where -Balor’s daughter, who was called Ethnea, was kept -imprisoned. The result of this expedition was not -merely the one son necessary to fulfil the prophecy, -but three. This apparent superfluity was fortunate; -for Balor drowned two of them, the other being -picked out of the sea by the same fairy who had -been incidentally responsible for his birth, and -handed over to his father, Mac Kineely, to be -brought up. Shortly after this, Balor managed to -capture Mac Kineely, and, in retaliation for the wrong -done him, chopped off his head upon a large white -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>stone, still known locally as the “Stone of Kineely”. -Satisfied with this, and quite unaware that one of -his daughter’s children had been saved from death, -and was now being brought up as a smith by Gavida, -Balor went on with his career of robbery, varying it -by visits to the forge to purchase arms. One day, -being there during Gavida’s absence, he began boasting -to the young assistant of how he had compassed -Mac Kineely’s death. He never finished the story, -for Lugh—which was the boy’s name—snatched a -red-hot iron from the fire, and thrust it into Balor’s -eye, and through his head.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Thus, in these two folk-tales,<a id='r270' /><a href='#f270' class='c010'><sup>[270]</sup></a> gathered in different -parts of Ireland, at different times, by -different persons, survives quite a mass of mythological -detail only to be found otherwise in -ancient manuscripts containing still more ancient -matter. Crystallized in them may be found the -names of six members of the old Gaelic Pantheon, -each filling the same part as of old. Goibniu has -not lost his mastery of smithcraft; Balor is still the -Fomorian king of the cold regions of the sea; his -daughter Ethniu becomes, by Cian, the mother of -the sun-god; Lugh, who still bears his old title of -<i>Ioldanach</i>, though it is strangely corrupted into a -name meaning almost the exact opposite, is still -fostered by Manannán, Son of the Sea, and in the -end grows up to destroy his grandfather by a blow -in the one vulnerable place, his death-dealing eye. -Perhaps, too, we may claim to see a genuine, though -<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>jumbled tradition, in the Fomor-like deformities of -Gobhan’s wife and child, and in the story of the -gray cow and her byre-rope, which recalls that of -the Dagda’s black-maned heifer, Ocean.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The memories of the peasantry still hold many -stories of Lugh, as well as of Angus, and others of -the old gods. But, next to the Gobhan Saer, the -one whose fame is still greatest is that ever-potent -and ever-popular figure, the great Manannán.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The last, perhaps, to receive open adoration, he is -represented by kindly tradition as having been still -content to help and watch over the people who had -rejected and ceased to worship him. Up to the -time of St. Columba, he was the special guardian -of Irishmen in foreign parts, assisting them in their -dangers and bringing them home safe. For the -peasantry, too, he caused favourable weather and -good crops. His fairy subjects tilled the ground while -men slept. But this is said to have come to an end -at last. Saint Columba, having broken his golden -chalice, gave it to a servant to get repaired. On -his way, the servant was met by a stranger, who -asked him where he was going. The man told -him, and showed him the chalice. The stranger -breathed upon it, and, at once, the broken parts reunited. -Then he begged him to return to his master, -give him the chalice, and tell him that Manannán -son of Lêr, who had mended it, desired to know in -very truth whether he would ever attain paradise. -“Alas,” said the ungrateful saint, “there is no forgiveness -for a man who does such works as this!” -The servant went back with the answer, and Manannán, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>when he heard it, broke out into indignant -lament. “Woe is me, Manannán mac Lêr! for -years I’ve helped the Catholics of Ireland, but I’ll -do it no more, till they’re as weak as water. I’ll go -to the gray waves in the Highlands of Scotland.”<a id='r271' /><a href='#f271' class='c010'><sup>[271]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>And there he remained. For, unless the charming -stories of Miss Fiona Macleod are mere beautiful -imaginings and nothing more, he is not unknown -even to-day among the solitary shepherds and fishers -of “the farthest Hebrides”. In the <i>Contemporary -Review</i> for October, 1902,<a id='r272' /><a href='#f272' class='c010'><sup>[272]</sup></a> she tells how an old -man of fourscore years would often be visited in -his shieling by a tall, beautiful stranger, with a crest -on his head, “like white canna blowing in the wind, -but with a blueness in it”, and “a bright, cold, curling -flame under the soles of his feet”. The man -told him many things, and prophesied to him the -time of his death. Generally, the stranger’s hands -were hidden in the folds of the white cloak he wore, -but, once, he moved to touch the shepherd, who saw -then that his flesh was like water, with sea-weed -floating among the bones. So that Murdo MacIan -knew that he could be speaking with none other -than the Son of the Sea.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Nor is he yet quite forgotten in his own Island of -Man, of which local tradition says he was the first -inhabitant. He is also described as its king, who -kept it from invasion by his magic. He would cause -mists to rise at any moment and conceal the island, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>and by the same glamour he could make one man -seem like a hundred, and little chips of wood which -he threw into the water to appear like ships of war. -It is no wonder that he held his kingdom against -all-comers, until his sway was ended, like that of -the other Gaelic gods, by the arrival of Saint -Patrick. After this, he seems to have declined -into a traditionary giant who used to leap from -Peel Castle to Contrary Head for exercise, or hurl -huge rocks, upon which the mark of his hand can -still be seen. It is said that he took no tribute -from his subjects, or worshippers except bundles of -green rushes, which were placed every Midsummer -Eve upon two mountain peaks, one called Warrefield -in olden days, but now South Barrule, and -the other called Man, and not now to be identified. -His grave, which is thirty yards long, is pointed -out, close to Peel Castle. The most curious legend -connected with him, however, tells us that he had -three legs, on which he used to travel at a great -pace. How this was done may be seen from the -arms of the island, on which are pictured his three -limbs, joined together, and spread out like the -spokes of a wheel.<a id='r273' /><a href='#f273' class='c010'><sup>[273]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>An Irish tradition tells us that, when Manannán -left Ireland for Scotland, the vacant kingship of the -gods or fairies was taken by one Mac Moineanta, -to the great grief of those who had known Manannán.<a id='r274' /><a href='#f274' class='c010'><sup>[274]</sup></a> -Perhaps this great grief led to Mac Moineanta’s -being deposed, for the present king of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>Irish fairies is Finvarra, the same Fionnbharr to -whom the Dagda allotted the <i>sídh</i> of Meadha after -the conquest of the Tuatha Dé Danann by the -Milesians, and who takes a prominent part in the -Fenian stories. So great is the persistence of -tradition in Ireland that this hill of Meadha, now -spelt Knockma, is still considered to be the abode -of him and his queen, Onagh. Numberless stories -are told about Finvarra, including, of course, that -very favourite Celtic tale of the stolen bride, and -her recapture from the fairies by the siege and -digging up of the <i>sídh</i> in which she was held -prisoner. Finvarra, like Mider of Bri Leith, carried -away a human Etain—the wife, not of a high king, -but of an Irish lord. The modern Eochaid Airem, -having heard an invisible voice tell him where he -was to look for his lost bride, gathered all his -workmen and labourers and proceeded to demolish -Knockma. Every day they almost dug it up, but -every night the breach was found to have been -repaired by fairy workmen of Finvarra’s. This -went on for three days, when the Irish lord thought -of the well-known device of sanctifying the work -of excavation by sprinkling the turned-up earth -with salt. Needless to say, it succeeded. Finvarra -gave back the bride, still in the trance into which -he had thrown her; and the deep cut into the -fairy hill still remains to furnish proof to the incredulous.<a id='r275' /><a href='#f275' class='c010'><sup>[275]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Finvarra does not always appear, however, in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>such unfriendly guise. He was popularly reputed -to have under his special care the family of the -Kirwans of Castle Hacket, on the northern slope -of Knockma. Owing to his benevolent influence, -the castle cellars never went dry, nor did the -quality of the wine deteriorate. Besides the wine-cellar, -Finvarra looked after the stables, and it -was owing to the exercise that he and his fairy -followers gave the horses by night that Mr. John -Kirwan’s racers were so often successful on the -Curragh. That such stories could have passed -current as fact, which they undoubtedly did, is -excellent proof of how late and how completely a -mythology may survive among the uncultured.<a id='r276' /><a href='#f276' class='c010'><sup>[276]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Finvarra rules to-day over a wide realm of fairy -folk. Many of these, again, have their own vassal -chieftains, forming a tribal hierarchy such as must -have existed in the Celtic days of Ireland. Finvarra -and Onagh are high king and queen, but, -under them, Cliodna<a id='r277' /><a href='#f277' class='c010'><sup>[277]</sup></a> is tributary queen of Munster, -and rules from a <i>sídh</i> near Mallow in County Cork, -while, under her again, are Aoibhinn<a id='r278' /><a href='#f278' class='c010'><sup>[278]</sup></a>, queen of the -fairies of North Munster, and Ainé, queen of the -fairies of South Munster. These names form but -a single instance. A map of fairy Ireland could -without much difficulty be drawn, showing, with -almost political exactness, the various kingdoms of -the Sídhe.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Far less easy, however, would be the task of -ascertaining the origin and lineage of these fabled -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>beings. Some of them can still be traced as older -gods and goddesses. In the eastern parts of Ireland, -Badb and her sisters have become “banshees” who -wail over deaths not necessarily found in battle. -Aynia, deemed the most powerful fairy in Ulster, -and Ainé, queen of South Munster, are perhaps -the same person, the mysterious and awful goddess -once adored as Anu, or Danu. Of the two, -it is Ainé who especially seems to carry on the -traditions of the older Anu, worshipped, according -to the “Choice of Names”, in Munster as a goddess -of prosperity and abundance. Within living memory, -she was propitiated by a magical ritual upon every -Saint John’s Eve, to ensure fertility during the -coming year. The villagers round her <i>sídh</i> of Cnoc -Ainé (Knockainy) carried burning bunches of hay -or straw upon poles to the top of the hill, and thence -dispersed among the fields, waving these torches -over the crops and cattle. This fairy, or goddess -was held to be friendly, and, indeed, more than -friendly, to men. Whether or not she were the -mother of the gods, she is claimed as first ancestress -by half a dozen famous Irish families.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Among her children was the famous Earl Gerald, -offspring of her alliance with the fourth Earl of -Desmond, known as “The Magician”. As in the -well-known story of the Swan-maidens, the magician-earl -is said to have stolen Ainé’s cloak while she -was bathing, and refused to return it unless she -became his bride. But, in the end, he lost her. -Ainé had warned her husband never to show surprise -at anything done by their son; but a wonderful -<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>feat which he performed made the earl break this -condition, and Ainé was obliged, by fairy law, to -leave him. But, though she had lost her husband, -she was not separated from her son, who was received -into the fairy world after his death, and now -lives under the surface of Lough Gur, in County -Limerick, waiting, like the British Arthur, for the -hour to strike in which he shall lead forth his warriors -to drive the foreigners from Ireland. But this -will not be until, by riding round the lake once in -every seventh year, he shall have worn his horse’s -silver shoes as thin as a cat’s ear.<a id='r279' /><a href='#f279' class='c010'><sup>[279]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Not only the tribe of Danu, but heroes of the -other mythical cycles swell the fairy host to-day. -Donn, son of Milé, who was drowned before ever -he set foot on Irish soil, lives at “Donn’s House”, -a line of sand-hills in the Dingle Peninsula of Kerry, -and, as late as the eighteenth century, we find him -invoked by a local poet, half in jest, no doubt, but -still, perhaps also a little in earnest.<a id='r280' /><a href='#f280' class='c010'><sup>[280]</sup></a> The heroes of -Ulster have no part in fairyland; but their enemy, -Medb, is credited with queenly rule among the -Sídhe, and is held by some to have been the original -of “Queen Mab”. Caoilté, last of the Fenians, -was, in spite of his leanings towards Christianity, -enrolled among the Tuatha Dé Danann, but none -of his kin are known there, neither Ossian, nor -Oscar, nor even Finn himself. Yet not even to -merely historical mortals are the gates of the gods -necessarily closed. The Barry, chief of the barony -<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>of Barrymore, is said to inhabit an enchanted palace -in Knockthierna, one of the Nagles Hills. The not -less traditionally famous O’Donaghue, whose domain -was near Killarney, now dwells beneath the waters -of that lake, and may still be seen, it is said, upon -May Day.<a id='r281' /><a href='#f281' class='c010'><sup>[281]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>But besides these figures, which can be traced in -mythology or history, and others who, though all -written record of them has perished, are obviously -of the same character, there are numerous beings -who suggest a different origin from that of the -Aryan-seeming fairies. They correspond to the -elves and trolls of Scandinavian, or the silenoi and -satyrs of Greek myth. Such is the Leprechaun, -who makes shoes for the fairies, and knows where -hidden treasures are; the Gan Ceanach, or “love-talker”, -who fills the ears of idle girls with pleasant -fancies when, to merely mortal ideas, they should be -busy with their work; the Pooka, who leads travellers -astray, or, taking the shape of an ass or mule, -beguiles them to mount upon his back to their -discomfiture; the Dulachan, who rides without a -head; and other friendly or malicious sprites. -Whence come they? A possible answer suggests -itself. Preceding the Aryans, and surviving the -Aryan conquest all over Europe, was a large non-Aryan -population, which must have had its own -gods, who would retain their worship, be revered -by successive generations, and remain rooted to the -soil. May not these uncouth and half-developed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>Irish Leprechauns, Pookas, and Dulachans, together -with the Scotch Cluricanes, Brownies, and their -kin, be no “creations of popular fancy”, but the -dwindling figures of those darker gods of “the dark -Iberians”?</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span> - <h2 class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>THE BRITISH GODS AND THEIR<br />STORIES</span></h2> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c011' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XVI<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE GODS OF THE BRITONS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The descriptions and the stories of the British -gods have hardly come down to us in so ample or -so compact a form as those of the deities of the -Gaels, as they are preserved in the Irish and Scottish -manuscripts. They have also suffered far more -from the sophistications of the euhemerist. Only -in the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi” do the -gods of the Britons appear in anything like their -real character of supernatural beings, masters of -magic, and untrammelled by the limitations which -hedge in mortals. Apart from those four fragments -of mythology, and from a very few scattered references -in the early Welsh poems, one must search -for them under strange disguises. Some masquerade -as kings in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s more than -apocryphal <i>Historia Britonum</i>. Others have received -an undeserved canonization, which must be -stripped from them before they can be seen in their -true colours. Others, again, were adopted by the -Norman-French romancers, and turned into the -champions of chivalry now known as Arthur’s -Knights of the Round Table. But, however disguised, -their real nature can still be discerned. The -Gaels and the Britons were but two branches of one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>race—the Celtic. In many of the gods of the Britons -we shall recognize, with names alike and attributes -the same, the familiar features of the Gaelic Tuatha -Dé Danann.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The British gods are sometimes described as -divided into three families—the “Children of Dôn”, -the “Children of Nudd”, and the “Children of -Llyr”. But these three families are really only -two; for Nudd, or Lludd, as he is variously called, -is himself described as a son of Beli, who was the -husband of the goddess Dôn. There can be no -doubt that Dôn herself is the same divine personage -as Danu, the mother of the Tuatha Dé Danann, -and that Beli is the British equivalent of the Gaelic -Bilé, the universal Dis Pater who sent out the first -Gaels from Hades to take possession of Ireland. -With the other family, the “Children of Llyr”, we -are equally on familiar ground; for the British Llyr -can be none other than the Gaelic sea-god Lêr. -These two families or tribes are usually regarded as -in opposition, and their struggles seem to symbolize -in British myth that same conflict between the -powers of heaven, light, and life and of the sea, -darkness, and death which are shadowed in Gaelic -mythology in the battles between the Tuatha Dé -Danann and the Fomors.</p> - -<p class='c005'>For the children of Dôn were certainly gods of -the sky. Their names are writ large in heaven. -The glittering W which we call “Cassiopeia’s -Chair” was to our British ancestors <i>Llys Dôn</i>, or -“Dôn’s Court”; our “Northern Crown” was <i>Caer -Arianrod</i>, the “Castle of Arianrod”, Dôn’s daughter; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>while the “Milky Way” was the “Castle of Gwydion”, -Dôn’s son.<a id='r282' /><a href='#f282' class='c010'><sup>[282]</sup></a> More than this, the greatest of her -children, the Nudd or Lludd whom some make the -head of a dynasty of his own, was the Zeus alike of -the Britons and of the Gaels. His epithet of <i>Llaw -Ereint</i>, that is, “of the Hand of Silver”, proves -him the same personage as Nuada the “Silver-Handed”. -The legend which must have existed -to explain this peculiarity has been lost on British -ground, but it was doubtless the same as that told -of the Irish god. With it, and, no doubt, much else, -has disappeared any direct account of battles fought -by him as sky-god against Fomor-like enemies. -But, under the faint disguise of a king of Britain, -an ancient Welsh tale<a id='r283' /><a href='#f283' class='c010'><sup>[283]</sup></a> records how he put an end -to three supernatural “plagues” which oppressed -his country. In addition to this, we find him under -his name of Nudd described in a Welsh Triad as -one of “the three generous heroes of the Isle of -Britain”, while another makes him the owner of -twenty-one thousand milch cows—an expression -which must, to the primitive mind, have implied -inexhaustible wealth. Both help us to the conception -of a god of heaven and battle, triumphant, -and therefore rich and liberal.<a id='r284' /><a href='#f284' class='c010'><sup>[284]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>More tangible evidence is, however, not lacking -to prove the wide-spread nature of his worship. A -temple dedicated to him in Roman times under the -name of Nodens, or Nudens, has been discovered at -<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>Lydney, on the banks of the Severn. The god is -pictured on a plaque of bronze as a youthful deity, -haloed like the sun, and driving a four-horsed -chariot. Flying spirits, typifying the winds, accompany -him; while his power over the sea is symbolized -by attendant Tritons.<a id='r285' /><a href='#f285' class='c010'><sup>[285]</sup></a> This was in the west of -Britain, while, in the east, there is good reason to -believe that he had a shrine overlooking the Thames. -Tradition declares that St. Paul’s Cathedral occupies -the site of an ancient pagan temple; while the -spot on which it stands was called, we know from -Geoffrey of Monmouth, “Parth Lludd” by the -Britons, and “Ludes Geat” by the Saxons.<a id='r286' /><a href='#f286' class='c010'><sup>[286]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Great, however, as he probably was, Lludd, or -Nudd occupies less space in Welsh story, as we -have it now, than his son. Gwyn ap Nudd has -outlived in tradition almost all his supernatural kin. -Professor Rhys is tempted to see in him the British -equivalent of the Gaelic Finn mac Cumhail.<a id='r287' /><a href='#f287' class='c010'><sup>[287]</sup></a> The -name of both alike means “white”; both are sons -of the heaven-god; both are famed as hunters. -Gwyn, however, is more than that; for his game is -man. In the early Welsh poems, he is a god of -battle and of the dead, and, as such, fills the part of -a <i>psychopompos</i>, conducting the slain into Hades, -and there ruling over them. In later, semi-Christianized -story he is described as “Gwyn, son -of Nudd, whom God has placed over the brood of -devils in Annwn, lest they should destroy the present -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>race<a id='r288' /><a href='#f288' class='c010'><sup>[288]</sup></a>”. Later again, as paganism still further -degenerated, he came to be considered as king of -the <i>Tylwyth Teg</i>, the Welsh fairies,<a id='r289' /><a href='#f289' class='c010'><sup>[289]</sup></a> and his name -as such has hardly yet died out of his last haunt, the -romantic vale of Neath. He is the wild huntsman -of Wales and the West of England, and it is his -pack which is sometimes heard at chase in waste -places by night.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In his earliest guise, as a god of war and death, -he is the subject of a poem in dialogue contained in -the Black Book of Caermarthen.<a id='r290' /><a href='#f290' class='c010'><sup>[290]</sup></a> Obscure, like -most of the ancient Welsh poems,<a id='r291' /><a href='#f291' class='c010'><sup>[291]</sup></a> it is yet a -spirited production, and may be quoted here as a -favourable specimen of the poetry of the early -Cymri. In it we shall see mirrored perhaps the -clearest figure of the British Pantheon, the “mighty -hunter”, not of deer, but of men’s souls, riding his -demon horse, and cheering on his demon hound to -the fearful chase. He knows when and where all -the great warriors fell, for he gathered their souls -upon the field of battle, and now rules over them in -Hades, or upon some “misty mountain-top”.<a id='r292' /><a href='#f292' class='c010'><sup>[292]</sup></a> It -describes a mythical prince, named Gwyddneu -Garanhir, known to Welsh legend as the ruler of -a lost country now covered by the waters of Cardigan -Bay, asking protection of the god, who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>accords it, and then relates the story of his exploits:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><i>Gwyddneu.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>A bull of conflict was he, active in dispersing an arrayed army,</div> - <div class='line'>The ruler of hosts, indisposed to anger,</div> - <div class='line'>Blameless and pure his conduct in protecting life.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'><i>Gwyn.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Against a hero stout was his advance,</div> - <div class='line'>The ruler of hosts, disposer of wrath,</div> - <div class='line'>There will be protection for thee since thou askest it.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><i>Gwyddneu.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>For thou hast given me protection</div> - <div class='line'>How warmly wert thou welcomed!</div> - <div class='line'>The hero of hosts, from what region thou comest?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'><i>Gwyn.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I come from battle and conflict</div> - <div class='line'>With a shield in my hand;</div> - <div class='line'>Broken is the helmet by the pushing of spears.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><i>Gwyddneu.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I will address thee, exalted man,</div> - <div class='line'>With his shield in distress.</div> - <div class='line'>Brave man, what is thy descent?</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'><i>Gwyn.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Round-hoofed is my horse, the torment of battle,</div> - <div class='line'>Fairy am I called, Gwyn the son of Nudd,<a id='r293' /><a href='#f293' class='c010'><sup>[293]</sup></a></div> - <div class='line'>The lover of Creurdilad, the daughter of Lludd.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span><i>Gwyddneu.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Since it is thou, Gwyn, an upright man,</div> - <div class='line'>From thee there is no concealing:</div> - <div class='line'>I am Gwyddneu Garanhir.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'><i>Gwyn.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Hasten to my ridge, the Tawë abode;</div> - <div class='line'>Not the nearest Tawë name I to thee,</div> - <div class='line'>But that Tawë which is the farthest.<a id='r294' /><a href='#f294' class='c010'><sup>[294]</sup></a></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Polished is my ring, golden my saddle and bright:</div> - <div class='line'>To my sadness</div> - <div class='line'>I saw a conflict before Caer Vandwy.<a id='r295' /><a href='#f295' class='c010'><sup>[295]</sup></a></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Before Caer Vandwy a host I saw,</div> - <div class='line'>Shields were shattered and ribs broken;</div> - <div class='line'>Renowned and splendid was he who made the assault.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><i>Gwyddneu.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Gwyn, son of Nudd, the hope of armies,</div> - <div class='line'>Quicker would legions fall before the hoofs</div> - <div class='line'>Of thy horse than broken rushes to the ground.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'><i>Gwyn.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Handsome my dog, and round-bodied,</div> - <div class='line'>And truly the best of dogs;</div> - <div class='line'>Dormarth<a id='r296' /><a href='#f296' class='c010'><sup>[296]</sup></a> was he, which belonged to Maelgwyn.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><i>Gwyddneu.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Dormarth with the ruddy nose! what a gazer</div> - <div class='line'>Thou art upon me because I notice</div> - <div class='line'>Thy wanderings on Gwibir Vynyd.<a id='r297' /><a href='#f297' class='c010'><sup>[297]</sup></a></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in18'><span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span><i>Gwyn.</i></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have been in the place where was killed Gwendoleu,</div> - <div class='line'>The son of Ceidaw, the pillar of songs,</div> - <div class='line'>When the ravens screamed over blood.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have been in the place where Brân was killed,</div> - <div class='line'>The son of Iweridd, of far extending fame,</div> - <div class='line'>When the ravens of the battle-field screamed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have been where Llacheu was slain,</div> - <div class='line'>The son of Arthur, extolled in songs,</div> - <div class='line'>When the ravens screamed over blood.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have been where Meurig was killed,</div> - <div class='line'>The son of Carreian, of honourable fame,</div> - <div class='line'>When the ravens screamed over flesh.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have been where Gwallawg was killed,</div> - <div class='line'>The son of Goholeth, the accomplished,</div> - <div class='line'>The resister of Lloegyr, the son of Lleynawg.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have been where the soldiers of Britain were slain,</div> - <div class='line'>From the east to the north:</div> - <div class='line'>I am the escort of the grave.<a id='r298' /><a href='#f298' class='c010'><sup>[298]</sup></a></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>I have been where the soldiers of Britain were slain,</div> - <div class='line'>From the east to the south:</div> - <div class='line'>I am alive, they in death!</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>A line in this poem allows us to see Gwyn in -another and less sinister rôle. “The lover of -Creurdilad, the daughter of Lludd,” he calls himself; -and an episode in the mythical romance of “Kulhwch -and Olwen”, preserved in the Red Book of -Hergest, gives the details of his courtship. Gwyn -had as rival a deity called Gwyrthur ap Greidawl, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>that is “Victor, son of Scorcher”.<a id='r299' /><a href='#f299' class='c010'><sup>[299]</sup></a> These two -waged perpetual war for Creurdilad, or Creudylad, -each in turn stealing her from the other, until -the matter was referred to Arthur, who decided that -Creudylad should be sent back to her father, and -that Gwyn and Gwyrthur “should fight for her -every first of May, from henceforth until the day -of doom, and that whichever of them should then -be conqueror should have the maiden”. What -satisfaction this would be to the survivor of what -might be somewhat flippantly described as, in two -senses, the longest engagement on record, is not -very clear; but its mythological interpretation appears -fairly obvious. In Gwyn, god of death and -the underworld, and in the solar deity, Gwyrthur, -we may see the powers of darkness and sunshine, -of winter and summer, in contest,<a id='r300' /><a href='#f300' class='c010'><sup>[300]</sup></a> each alternately -winning and losing a bride who would seem to -represent the spring with its grain and flowers. -Creudylad, whom the story of “Kulhwch and -Olwen” calls “the most splendid maiden in the -three islands of the mighty and in the three islands -adjacent”, is, in fact, the British Persephoné. As -the daughter of Lludd, she is child of the shining -sky. But a different tradition must have made -her a daughter of Llyr, the sea-god; for her name -as such passed, through Geoffrey of Monmouth, -to Shakespeare, in whose hands she became that -pathetic figure, Cordelia in “King Lear”. It may -not be altogether unworthy of notice, though perhaps -it is only a coincidence, that in some myths -<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>the Greek Persephoné is made a daughter of Zeus -and in others of Poseidon.<a id='r301' /><a href='#f301' class='c010'><sup>[301]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Turning from the sky-god and his son, we find -others of Dôn’s children to have been the exponents -of those arts of life which early races held to have -been taught directly by the gods to men. Dôn -herself had a brother, Mâth, son of a mysterious -Mâthonwy, and recognizable as a benevolent ruler -of the underworld akin to Beli, or perhaps that god -himself under another title, for the name Mâth, -which means “coin, money, treasure”,<a id='r302' /><a href='#f302' class='c010'><sup>[302]</sup></a> recalls that -of Plouton, the Greek god of Hades, in his guise -of possessor and giver of metals. It was a belief -common to the Aryan races that wisdom, as well as -wealth, came originally from the underworld; and -we find Mâth represented, in the Mabinogi bearing -his name, as handing on his magical lore to his -nephew and pupil Gwydion, who, there is good -reason to believe, was the same divine personage -whom the Teutonic tribes worshipped as “Woden” -and “Odin”. Thus equipped, Gwydion son of -Dôn became the druid of the gods, the “master -of illusion and phantasy”, and, not only that, but -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>the teacher of all that is useful and good, the friend -and helper of mankind, and the perpetual fighter -against niggardly underworld powers for the good -gifts which they refused to allow out of their keeping. -Shoulder to shoulder with him in this “holy -war” of culture against ignorance, and light against -darkness, stood his brothers Amaethon, god of agriculture, -and Govannan, a god of smithcraft identical -with the Gaelic Giobniu. He had also a sister -called Arianrod, or “Silver Circle”, who, as is common -in mythologies, was not only his sister, but -also his wife. So Zeus wedded Heré; and, indeed, -it is difficult to say where otherwise the partners of -gods are to come from. Of this connection two -sons were born at one birth—Dylan and Lleu, who -are considered as representing the twin powers of -darkness and light. With darkness the sea was -inseparably connected by the Celts, and, as soon as -the dark twin was born and named, he plunged -headlong into his native element. “And immediately -when he was in the sea,” says the Mabinogi -of Mâth, son of Mâthonwy, “he took its nature, -and swam as well as the best fish that was therein. -And for that reason was he called Dylan, the Son -of the Wave. Beneath him no wave ever broke.” -He was killed with a spear at last by his uncle, -Govannan, and, according to the bard Taliesin, the -waves of Britain, Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of -Man wept for him.<a id='r303' /><a href='#f303' class='c010'><sup>[303]</sup></a> Beautiful legends grew up -around his death. The clamour of the waves dashing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>upon the beach is the expression of their longing -to avenge their son. The sound of the sea rushing -up the mouth of the River Conway is still known as -“Dylan’s death-groan”<a id='r304' /><a href='#f304' class='c010'><sup>[304]</sup></a>. A small promontory on -the Carnarvonshire side of the Menai Straits, called -<i>Pwynt Maen Tylen</i>, or <i>Pwynt Maen Dulan</i>, preserves -his name.<a id='r305' /><a href='#f305' class='c010'><sup>[305]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The other child of Gwydion and Arianrod grew -up to become the British sun-god, Lleu Llaw -Gyffes, the exact counterpart of the Gaelic Lugh -Lamhfada, “Light the Long-handed”. Like all -solar deities, his growth was rapid. When he -was a year old, he seemed to be two years; at -the age of two, he travelled by himself; and -when he was four years old, he was as tall as -a boy of eight, and was his father’s constant companion.</p> - -<p class='c005'>One day, Gwydion took him to the castle of -Arianrod—not her castle in the sky, but her abode -on earth, the still-remembered site of which is -marked by a patch of rocks in the Menai Straits, -accessible without a boat only during the lowest -spring and autumn tides. Arianrod had disowned -her son, and did not recognize him when she saw -him with Gwydion. She asked who he was, and -was much displeased when told. She demanded to -know his name, and, when Gwydion replied that he -had as yet received none, she “laid a destiny upon” -him, after the fashion of the Celts, that he should be -without a name until she chose to bestow one on -him herself.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>To be without a name was a very serious thing -to the ancient Britons, who seem to have held the -primitive theory that the name and the soul are the -same. So Gwydion cast about to think by what -craft he might extort from Arianrod some remark -from which he could name their son. The next day, -he went down to the sea-shore with the boy, both of -them disguised as cordwainers. He made a boat -out of sea-weed by magic, and some beautifully-coloured -leather out of some dry sticks and sedges. -Then they sailed the boat to the port of Arianrod’s -castle, and, anchoring it where it could be seen, -began ostentatiously to stitch away at the leather. -Naturally, they were soon noticed, and Arianrod -sent someone out to see who they were and what -they were doing. When she found that they were -shoemakers, she remembered that she wanted some -shoes. Gwydion, though he had her measure, purposely -made them, first too large, and then too -small. This brought Arianrod herself down to the -boat to be fitted.</p> - -<p class='c005'>While Gwydion was measuring Arianrod’s foot -for the shoes, a wren came and stood upon the deck. -The boy took his bow and arrow, and hit the wren -in the leg—a favourite shot of Celtic “crack” -archers, at any rate in romance. The goddess was -pleased to be amiable and complimentary. “Truly,” -said she, “the lion aimed at it with a steady hand.” -It is from such incidents that primitive people take -their names, all the world over. The boy had got -his. “It is no thanks to you,” said Gwydion to -Arianrod, “but now he has a name. And a good -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>name it is. He shall be called Llew Llaw Gyffes<a id='r306' /><a href='#f306' class='c010'><sup>[306]</sup></a>.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>This name of the sun-god is a good example of -how obsolete the ancient pagan tradition had become -before it was put into writing. The old word -<i>Lleu</i>, meaning “light”, had passed out of use, and -the scribe substituted for a name that was unintelligible -to him one like it which he knew, namely <i>Llew</i>, -meaning “lion”. The word <i>Gyffes</i> seems also to -have suffered change, and to have meant originally -not “steady”, but “long”<a id='r307' /><a href='#f307' class='c010'><sup>[307]</sup></a>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At any rate, Arianrod was defeated in her design -to keep her son nameless. Neither did she even -get her shoes; for, as soon as he had gained his -object, Gwydion allowed the boat to change back -into sea-weed, and the leather to return to sedge and -sticks. So, in her anger, she put a fresh destiny on -the boy, that he should not take arms till she herself -gave them him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Gwydion, however, took Lleu to Dinas Dinllev, -his castle, which still stands at the edge of the -Menai Straits, and brought him up as a warrior. -As soon as he thought him old enough to have -arms, he took him with him again to Caer Arianrod. -This time, they were disguised as bards. Arianrod -received them gladly, heard Gwydion’s songs and -tales, feasted them, and prepared a room for them -to sleep in.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The next morning, Gwydion got up very early, -and prepared his most powerful incantations. By -his druidical arts he made it seem as if the whole -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>country rang with the shouts and trumpets of an -army, and he put a glamour over everyone, so that -they saw the bay filled with ships. Arianrod came -to him in terror, asking what could be done to -protect the castle. “Give us arms,” he replied, -“and we will do the best we can.” So Arianrod’s -maidens armed Gwydion, while Arianrod herself -put arms on Lleu. By the time she had finished, all -the noises had ceased, and the ships had vanished. -“Let us take our arms off again,” said Gwydion; -“we shall not need them now.” “But the army -is all round the castle!” cried Arianrod. “There -was no army,” answered Gwydion; “it was only an -illusion of mine to cause you to break your prophecy -and give our son arms. And now he has got them, -without thanks to you.” “Then I will lay a worse -destiny on him,” cried the infuriated goddess. “He -shall never have a wife of the people of this earth.” -“He shall have a wife in spite of you,” said -Gwydion.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Gwydion went to Mâth, his uncle and tutor in -magic, and between them they made a woman out -of flowers by charms and illusion. “They took the -blossoms of the oak, and the blossoms of the broom, -and the blossoms of the meadow-sweet, and produced -from them a maiden, the fairest and most -graceful that man ever saw.” They called her Blodeuwedd -(Flower-face), and gave her to Lleu as his -wife. And they gave Lleu a palace called Mur y -Castell, near Bala Lake.</p> - -<p class='c005'>All went well until, one day, Gronw Pebyr, one -of the gods of darkness, came by, hunting, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>killed the stag at nightfall near Lleu’s castle. The -sun-god was away upon a visit to Mâth, but Blodeuwedd -asked the stranger to take shelter with her. -That night they fell in love with one another, and -conspired together how Lleu might be put away. -When Lleu came back from Mâth’s court, Blodeuwedd, -like a Celtic Dalilah, wormed out of him the -secret of how his life was preserved. He told her -that he could only die in one way; he could not be -killed either inside or outside a house, either on -horseback or on foot, but that if a spear that had -been a year in the making, and which was never -worked upon except during the sacrifice on Sunday, -were to be cast at him as he stood beneath a roof of -thatch, after having just bathed, with one foot upon -the edge of the bath and the other upon a buck -goat’s back, it would cause his death. Blodeuwedd -piously thanked Heaven that he was so well protected, -and sent a messenger to her paramour, telling -him what she had learned. Gronw set to work on -the spear; and in a year it was ready. When she -knew this, Blodeuwedd asked Lleu to show her -exactly how it was he could be killed.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lleu agreed; and Blodeuwedd prepared the bath -under the thatched roof, and tethered the goat by it. -Lleu bathed, and then stood with one foot upon the -edge of the bath, and the other upon the goat’s back. -At this moment, Gronw, from an ambush, flung the -spear, and hit Lleu, who, with a terrible cry, changed -into an eagle, and flew away. He never came back; -and Gronw took possession of both his wife and his -palace.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>But Gwydion set out to search everywhere for his -son. At last, one day, he came to a house in North -Wales where the man was in great anxiety about -his sow; for as soon as the sty was opened, every -morning, she rushed out, and did not return again -till late in the evening. Gwydion offered to follow -her, and, at dawn, the man took him to the sty, and -opened the door. The sow leaped forth, and ran, -and Gwydion ran after her. He tracked her to -a brook between Snowdon and the sea, still called -Nant y Llew, and saw her feeding underneath an -oak. Upon the top of the tree there was an eagle, -and, every time it shook itself, there fell off it lumps -of putrid meat, which the sow ate greedily. Gwydion -suspected that the eagle must be Lleu. So he sang -this verse:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Oak that grows between the two banks;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Darkened is the sky and hill!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Shall I not tell him by his wounds,</div> - <div class='line in1'>That this is Lleu?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>The eagle, on hearing this, came half-way down the -tree. So Gwydion sang:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Oak that grows in upland ground,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Is it not wetted by the rain? Has it not been drenched</div> - <div class='line in1'>By nine score tempests?</div> - <div class='line in1'>It bears in its branches Lleu Llaw Gyffes.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>The eagle came slowly down until it was on the -lowest branch. Gwydion sang:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Oak that grows beneath the steep;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Stately and majestic is its aspect!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Shall I not speak it?</div> - <div class='line in1'>That Lleu will come to my lap?”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>Then the eagle came down, and sat on Gwydion’s -knee. Gwydion struck it with his magic wand, and -it became Lleu again, wasted to skin and bone by -the poison on the spear.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Gwydion took him to Mâth to be healed, and left -him there, while he went to Mur y Castell, where -Blodeuwedd was. When she heard that he was -coming, she fled. But Gwydion overtook her, and -changed her into an owl, the bird that hates the -day. A still older form of this probably extremely -ancient myth of the sun-god—the savage and repulsive -details of which speak of a hoary antiquity—makes -the chase of Blodeuwedd by Gwydion to have -taken place in the sky, the stars scattered over the -Milky Way being the traces of it.<a id='r308' /><a href='#f308' class='c010'><sup>[308]</sup></a> As for her -accomplice, Lleu would accept no satisfaction short -of Gronw’s submitting to stand exactly where Lleu -had stood, to be shot at in his turn. To this he was -obliged to agree; and Lleu killed him.<a id='r309' /><a href='#f309' class='c010'><sup>[309]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>There are two other sons of Beli and Dôn of -whom so little is recorded that it would hardly be -worth while mentioning them, were it not for the -wild poetry of the legend connected with them. -The tale, put into writing at a time when all the -gods were being transfigured into simple mortals, -tells us that they were two kings of Britain, brothers. -One starlight night they were walking together. -“See,” said Nynniaw to Peibaw, “what a fine, -wide-spreading field I have.” “Where is it?” asked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>Peibaw. “There,” replied Nynniaw; “the whole -stretch of the sky, as far as the eye reaches.” “Look -then,” returned Peibaw, “what a number of cattle -I have grazing on your field.” “Where are they?” -asked Nynniaw. “All the stars that you can see,” -replied Peibaw, “every one of them of fiery-coloured -gold, with the moon for a shepherd over them.” -“They shall not feed on my field,” cried Nynniaw. -“They shall,” exclaimed Peibaw. “They shall not,” -cried Nynniaw, “They shall,” said Peibaw. “They -shall not,” Nynniaw answered; and so they went -on, from contradiction to quarrel, and from private -quarrel to civil war, until the armies of both of them -were destroyed, and the two authors of the evil were -turned by God into oxen for their sins.<a id='r310' /><a href='#f310' class='c010'><sup>[310]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Last of the children of Dôn, we find a goddess -called Penardun, of whom little is known except -that she was married to the sea-god Llyr. This -incident is curious, as forming a parallel to the -Gaelic story which tells of intermarriage between the -Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomors.<a id='r311' /><a href='#f311' class='c010'><sup>[311]</sup></a> Brigit, the -Dagda’s daughter, was married to Bress, son of -Elathan, while Cian, the son of Diancecht, wedded -Ethniu, the daughter of Balor. So, in this kindred -mythology, a slender tie of relationship binds the -gods of the sky to the gods of the sea.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The name <i>Llyr</i> is supposed, like its Irish equivalent -Lêr, to have meant “the Sea”.<a id='r312' /><a href='#f312' class='c010'><sup>[312]</sup></a> The British -sea-god is undoubtedly the same as the Gaelic; indeed, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>the two facts that he is described in Welsh -literature as Llyr Llediath, that is, “Llyr of the -Foreign Dialect”, and is given a wife called Iweridd -(Ireland)<a id='r313' /><a href='#f313' class='c010'><sup>[313]</sup></a>, suggest that he may have been borrowed -by the Britons from the Gaels later than any mythology -common to both. As a British god, he was -the far-off original of Shakespeare’s “King Lear”. -The chief city of his worship is still called after him, -Leicester, that is, Llyr-cestre, in still earlier days, -Caer Llyr.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Llyr, we have noticed, married two wives, Penardun -and Iweridd. By the daughter of Dôn he -had a son called Manawyddan, who is identical -with the Gaelic Manannán mac Lir.<a id='r314' /><a href='#f314' class='c010'><sup>[314]</sup></a> We know -less of his character and attributes than we do of the -Irish god; but we find him equally a ruler in that -Hades or Elysium which the Celtic mind ever connected -with the sea. Like all the inhabitants of -that other world, he is at once a master of magic -and of the useful arts, which he taught willingly to -his friends. To his enemies, however, he could -show a different side of his character. A triad tells -us that—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The achievement of Manawyddan the Wise,</div> - <div class='line in1'>After lamentation and fiery wrath,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Was the constructing of the bone-fortress of Oeth and Anoeth”,<a id='r315' /><a href='#f315' class='c010'><sup>[315]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>which is described as a prison made, in the shape of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>a bee-hive, entirely of human bones mortared together, -and divided into innumerable cells, forming a -kind of labyrinth. In this ghastly place he immured -those whom he found trespassing in Hades; and -among his captives was no less a person than the -famous Arthur.<a id='r316' /><a href='#f316' class='c010'><sup>[316]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>“Ireland” bore two children to Llyr: a daughter -called Branwen and a son called Brân. The little -we know of Branwen of the “Fair Bosom” shows -her as a goddess of love—child, like the Greek -Aphrodité, of the sea. Brân, on the other hand, -is, even more clearly than Manawyddan, a dark -deity of Hades. He is represented as of colossal -size, so huge, in fact, that no house or ship was big -enough to hold him.<a id='r317' /><a href='#f317' class='c010'><sup>[317]</sup></a> He delighted in battle and -carnage, like the hoodie-crow or raven from which -he probably took his name,<a id='r318' /><a href='#f318' class='c010'><sup>[318]</sup></a> but he was also the -especial patron of bards, minstrels, and musicians, -and we find him in one of the poems ascribed to -Taliesin claiming to be himself a bard, a harper, -a player on the crowth, and seven-score other -musicians all at once.<a id='r319' /><a href='#f319' class='c010'><sup>[319]</sup></a> His son was called Caradawc -the Strong-armed, who, as the British mythology -crumbled, became confounded with the historical -Caratacus, known popularly as “Caractacus”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Both Brân and Manawyddan were especially connected -with the Swansea peninsula. The bone-fortress -of Oeth and Anoeth was placed by tradition in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>Gower.<a id='r320' /><a href='#f320' class='c010'><sup>[320]</sup></a> That Brân was equally at home there may -be proved from the Morte Darthur, in which storehouse -of forgotten and misunderstood mythology -Brân of Gower survives as “King Brandegore”.<a id='r321' /><a href='#f321' class='c010'><sup>[321]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Such identification of a mere mortal country with -the other world seems strange enough to us, but to -our Celtic ancestors it was a quite natural thought. -All islands—and peninsulas, which, viewed from an -opposite coast, probably seemed to them islands—were -deemed to be pre-eminently homes of the dark -Powers of Hades. Difficult of access, protected by -the turbulent and dangerous sea, sometimes rendered -quite invisible by fogs and mists and, at other times, -looming up ghostlily on the horizon, often held by -the remnant of a hostile lower race, they gained a -mystery and a sanctity from the law of the human -mind which has always held the unknown to be the -terrible. The Cornish Britons, gazing from the -shore, saw Gower and Lundy, and deemed them -outposts of the over-sea Other World. To the -Britons of Wales, Ireland was no human realm, a -view reciprocated by the Gaels, who saw Hades -in Britain, while the Isle of Man was a little Hades -common to them both. Nor even was the sea -always necessary to sunder the world of ghosts -from that of “shadow-casting men”. Glastonbury -Tor, surrounded by almost impassable swamps, was -one of the especial haunts of Gwyn ap Nudd. The -Britons of the north held that beyond the Roman -<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>wall and the vast Caledonian wood lived ghosts -and not men. Even the Roman province of Demetia—called -by the Welsh Dyfed, and corresponding, -roughly, to the modern County of Pembrokeshire—was, -as a last stronghold of the aborigines, -identified with the mythic underworld.</p> - -<p class='c005'>As such, Dyfed was ruled by a local tribe of -gods, whose greatest figures were Pwyll, “Head -of Annwn” (the Welsh name for Hades), with his -wife Rhiannon, and their son Pryderi. These -beings are described as hostile to the children of -Dôn, but friendly to the race of Llyr. After -Pwyll’s death or disappearance, his widow Rhiannon -becomes the wife of Manawyddan.<a id='r322' /><a href='#f322' class='c010'><sup>[322]</sup></a> In a poem -of Taliesin’s we find Manawyddan and Pryderi joint-rulers -of Hades, and warders of that magic cauldron -of inspiration<a id='r323' /><a href='#f323' class='c010'><sup>[323]</sup></a> which the gods of light attempted to -steal or capture, and which became famous afterwards -as the “Holy Grail”. Another of their -treasures were the “Three Birds of Rhiannon”, -which, we are told in an ancient book, could sing -the dead to life and the living into the sleep of -death. Fortunately they sang seldom. “There -are three things,” says a Welsh triad, “which are -not often heard: the song of the birds of Rhiannon, -a song of wisdom from the mouth of a Saxon, and -an invitation to a feast from a miser.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Nor is the list of British gods complete without -mention of Arthur, though most readers will -be surprised to find him in such company. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>genius of Tennyson, who drew his materials mostly -from the Norman-French romances, has stereotyped -the popular conception of Arthur as a king of early -Britain who fought for his fatherland and the Christian -faith against invading Saxons. Possibly there -may, indeed, have been a powerful British chieftain -bearing that typically Celtic name, which is found in -Irish legend as Artur, one of the sons of Nemed who -fought against the Fomors, and on the Continent -as Artaius, a Gaulish deity whom the Romans identified -with Mercury, and who seems to have been -a patron of agriculture.<a id='r324' /><a href='#f324' class='c010'><sup>[324]</sup></a> But the original Arthur -stands upon the same ground as Cuchulainn and -Finn. His deeds are mythical, because superhuman. -His companions can be shown to have -been divine. Some we know were worshipped in -Gaul. Others are children of Dôn, of Llyr, and -of Pwyll, dynasties of older gods to whose head -Arthur seems to have risen, as his cult waxed and -theirs waned. Stripped of their godhead, and -strangely transformed, they fill the pages of romance -as Knights of the Table Round.</p> - -<p class='c005'>These deities were the native gods of Britain. -Many others are, however, mentioned upon inscriptions -found in our island, but these were almost -all exotic and imported. Imperial Rome brought -men of diverse races among her legions, and these -men brought their gods. Scattered over Britain, -but especially in the north, near the Wall, we find -evidence that deities of many nations—from Germany -to Africa, and from Gaul to Persia—were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>sporadically worshipped.<a id='r325' /><a href='#f325' class='c010'><sup>[325]</sup></a> Most of these foreign -gods were Roman, but a temple at Eboracum (now -York) was dedicated to Serapis, and Mithras, the -Persian sun-god, was also adored there; while at -Corbridge, in Northumberland (the ancient Corspitium), -there have been found altars to the Tyrian -Hercules and to Astarte. The war-god was also -invoked under many strange names—as “Cocidius” -by a colony of Dacians in Cumberland; as Toutates, -Camulus, Coritiacus, Belatucador, Alator, Loucetius, -Condates, and Rigisamos by men of different countries. -A goddess of war was worshipped at Bath -under the name of Nemetona. The hot springs -of the same town were under the patronage of a -divinity called Sul, identified by the Romans with -Minerva, and she was helped by a god of medicine -described on a dedicatory tablet as “Sol Apollo -Anicetus”. Few of these “strange gods”, however, -seem to have taken hold of the imagination of the -native Britons. Their worshippers did not proselytize, -and their general influence was probably -about equal to that of an Evangelical Church in -a Turkish town. The sole exceptions to this rule -are where the foreign gods are Gaulish; but in -several instances it can be proved that they were -not so much of Roman, as of original Celtic -importation. The warlike heaven-god Camulus -appears in Gaelic heroic myth as Cumhal, the -father of Finn, and in British mythical history as -Coel, a duke of Caer Coelvin (known earlier as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>Camulodunum, and now as Colchester), who seized -the crown of Britain, and spent his short reign -in a series of battles.<a id='r326' /><a href='#f326' class='c010'><sup>[326]</sup></a> The name of the sun-god -Maponos is found alike upon altars in Gaul -and Britain, and in Welsh literature as Mabon, a -follower of Arthur; while another Gaulish sun-god, -Belinus, who had a splendid temple at Bajocassos -(the modern Bayeux), though not mentioned in the -earliest British mythology, as its scattered records -have come down to us, must have been connected -with Brân, for we find in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s -History “King Belinus” as brother of -“King Brennius”,<a id='r327' /><a href='#f327' class='c010'><sup>[327]</sup></a> and in the Morte Darthur -“Balin” as brother of “Balan”.<a id='r328' /><a href='#f328' class='c010'><sup>[328]</sup></a> A second-century -Greek writer gives an account of a god of eloquence -worshipped in Gaul under the name of Ogmios, and -represented as equipped like Heracles, a description -which exactly corresponds to the conception of the -Gaelic Ogma, at once patron of literature and writing -and professional strong man of the Tuatha Dé -Danann. Nemetona, the war-goddess worshipped -at Bath, was probably the same as Nemon, one of -Nuada’s Valkyr-wives, while a broken inscription -to <i>athubodva</i>, which probably stood, when intact, -for <i>Cathubodva</i>, may well have been addressed to -the Gaulish equivalent of Badb Catha, the “War-fury”. -Lugh, or Lleu, was also widely known on -the Continent as Lugus. Three important towns—Laon, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>Leyden, and Lyons—were all anciently called -after him <i>Lugu-dunum</i> (Lugus’ town), and at the -last and greatest of these a festival was still held -in Roman times upon the sun-god’s day—the first -of August—which corresponded to the <i>Lugnassad</i> -(Lugh’s commemoration) held in ancient Ireland. -Brigit, the Gaelic Minerva, is also found in Britain -as Brigantia, tutelary goddess of the Brigantes, a -Northern tribe, and in Eastern France as Brigindo, -to whom Iccavos, son of Oppianos, made a dedicatory -offering of which there is still record.<a id='r329' /><a href='#f329' class='c010'><sup>[329]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Other, less striking agreements between the mythical -divine names of the Insular and Continental -Celts might be cited. These recorded should, however, -prove sufficiently that Gaul, Gael, and Briton -shared in a common heritage of mythological names -and ideas, which they separately developed into -three superficially different, but essentially similar -cults.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XVII<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE ADVENTURES OF THE GODS OF HADES</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>It is with the family of Pwyll, deities connected -with the south-west corner of Wales, called by the -Romans Demetia, and by the Britons Dyfed, and, -roughly speaking, identical with the modern county -of Pembrokeshire, that the earliest consecutive -accounts of the British gods begin. The first of -the Four Branches of the Mabinogi tell us how -“Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed”, gained the right to be -called <i>Pen Annwn</i>, the “Head of Hades”. Indeed, -it almost seems as if it had been deliberately written -to explain how the same person could be at once a -mere mortal prince, however legendary, and a ruler -in the mystic Other World, and so to reconcile two -conflicting traditions.<a id='r330' /><a href='#f330' class='c010'><sup>[330]</sup></a> But to an earlier age than -that in which the legend was put into a literary -shape, such forced reconciliation would not have -been needed; for the two legends would not have -been considered to conflict. When Pwyll, head of -Annwn, was a mythic person whose tradition was -still alive, the unexplored, rugged, and savage -country of Dyfed, populated by the aboriginal -Iberians whom the Celt had driven into such remote -districts, appeared to those who dwelt upon the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>eastern side of its dividing river, the Tawë, at least a -dependency of Annwn, if not that weird realm itself. -But, as men grew bolder, the frontier was crossed, -and Dyfed entered and traversed, and found to be -not so unlike other countries. Its inhabitants, if -not of Celtic race, were yet of flesh and blood. So -that, though the province still continued to bear to a -late date the names of the “Land of Illusion” and -the “Realm of Glamour”,<a id='r331' /><a href='#f331' class='c010'><sup>[331]</sup></a> it was no longer deemed -to be Hades itself. That fitful and shadowy country -had folded its tents, and departed over or under seas.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The story of “Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed”,<a id='r332' /><a href='#f332' class='c010'><sup>[332]</sup></a> tells us -how there was war in Annwn between its two kings—or -between two, perhaps, of its many chieftains. -Arawn (“Silver-Tongue”) and Havgan (“Summer-White”) -each coveted the dominions of the other. -In the continual contests between them, Arawn was -worsted, and in despair he visited the upper earth to -seek for a mortal ally.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At this time Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, held his -court at Narberth. He had, however, left his -capital upon a hunting expedition to Glyn Cûch, -known to-day as a valley upon the borders of the -two counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen. Like -so many kings of European and Oriental romance, -when an adventure is at hand, he became separated -from his party, and was, in modern parlance, “thrown -out”. He could, however, still hear the music of -his hounds, and was listening to them, when he also -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>distinguished the cry of another pack coming towards -him. As he watched and listened, a stag came into -view; and the strange hounds pulled it down almost -at his feet. At first Pwyll hardly looked at the -stag, he was so taken up with gazing at the hounds, -for “of all the hounds that he had seen in the world, -he had never seen any that were like unto these. -For their hair was of a brilliant shining white, and -their ears were red; and as the whiteness of their -bodies shone, so did the redness of their ears glisten.” -They were, indeed, though Pwyll does not seem to -have known it, of the true Hades breed—the snow-white, -red-eared hounds we meet in Gaelic legends, -and which are still said to be sometimes heard and -seen scouring the hills of Wales by night. Seeing -no rider with the hounds, Pwyll drove them away -from the dead stag, and called up his own pack to it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>While he was doing this, a man “upon a large, -light-gray steed, with a hunting-horn round his neck, -and clad in garments of gray woollen in the fashion -of a hunting garb” appeared, and rated Pwyll for -his unsportsmanlike conduct. “Greater discourtesy,” -said he, “I never saw than your driving away my -dogs after they had killed the stag, and calling your -own to it. And though I may not be revenged -upon you for this, I swear that I will do you more -damage than the value of a hundred stags.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Pwyll expressed his contrition, and, asking the -new-comer’s name and rank, offered to atone for his -fault. The stranger told his name—Arawn, a king -of Annwn—and said that Pwyll could gain his -forgiveness only in one way, by going to Annwn -<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>instead of him, and fighting for him with Havgan. -Pwyll agreed to do this, and the King of Hades put -his own semblance upon the mortal prince, so that -not a person in Annwn—not even Arawn’s own wife—would -know that he was not that king. He led -him by a secret path into Annwn, and left him -before his castle, charging him to return to the place -where they had first met, at the end of a year from -that day. On the other hand, Arawn took on -Pwyll’s shape, and went to Narberth.</p> - -<p class='c005'>No one in Annwn suspected Pwyll of being anyone -else than their king. He spent the year in ruling -the realm, in hunting, minstrelsy, and feasting. -Both by day and night, he had the company of -Arawn’s wife, the most beautiful woman he had ever -yet seen, but he refrained from taking advantage of -the trust placed in him. At last the day came when -he was to meet Havgan in single combat. One -blow settled it; for Pwyll, Havgan’s destined conqueror, -thrust his antagonist an arm’s and a spear’s -length over the crupper of his horse, breaking his -shield and armour, and mortally wounding him. -Havgan was carried away to die, and Pwyll, in the -guise of Arawn, received the submission of the dead -king’s subjects, and annexed his realm. Then he -went back to Glyn Cûch, to keep his tryst with -Arawn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They retook their own shapes, and each returned -to his own kingdom. Pwyll learned that Dyfed had -never been ruled so well, or been so prosperous, as -during the year just passed. As for the King of -Hades, he found his enemy gone, and his domains -<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>extended. And when he caressed his wife, she -asked him why he did so now, after the lapse of a -whole year. So he told her the truth, and they both -agreed that they had indeed got a true friend in -Pwyll.</p> - -<p class='c005'>After this, the kings of Annwn and Dyfed made -their friendship strong between them. From that -time forward, says the story, Pwyll was no longer -called Prince of Dyfed, but <i>Pen Annwn</i>, “the Head -of Hades”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The second mythological incident in the Mabinogi -of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, tells how the Head of -Hades won his wife, Rhiannon, thought by Professor -Rhys to have been a goddess either of the dawn or -of the moon.<a id='r333' /><a href='#f333' class='c010'><sup>[333]</sup></a> There was a mound outside Pwyll’s -palace at Narberth which had a magical quality. -To anyone who sat upon it there happened one of -two things: either he received wounds and blows, -or else he saw a wonder. One day, it occurred to -Pwyll that he would like to try the experience of the -mound. So he went and sat upon it.</p> - -<p class='c005'>No unseen blows assailed Pwyll, but he had not -been sitting long upon the mound before he saw, -coming towards him, “a lady on a pure-white horse -of large size, with a garment of shining gold around -her”, riding very quietly. He sent a man on foot -to ask her who she was, but, though she seemed -to be moving so slowly, the man could not come up -to her. He failed utterly to overtake her, and she -passed on out of sight.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The next day, Pwyll went again to the mound. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>The lady appeared, and, this time, Pwyll sent a -horseman. At first, the horseman only ambled along -at about the same pace at which the lady seemed to -be going; then, failing to get near her, he urged his -horse into a gallop. But, whether he rode slow or -fast, he could come no closer to the lady than before, -although she seemed to the eyes of those who -watched to have been going only at a foot’s pace.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The day after that, Pwyll determined to accost -the lady himself. She came at the same gentle -walk, and Pwyll at first rode easily, and then at -his horse’s topmost speed, but with the same result, -or lack of it. At last, in despair, he called to the -mysterious damsel to stop. “I will stop gladly,” -said she, “and it would have been better for your -horse if you had asked me before.” She told him -that her name was Rhiannon, daughter of Heveydd -the Ancient. The nobles of her realm had determined -to give her in marriage against her will, so -she had come to seek out Pwyll, who was the man -of her choice. Pwyll was delighted to hear this, for -he thought that she was the most beautiful lady -he had ever seen. Before they parted, they had -plighted troth, and Pwyll had promised to appear -on that day twelvemonth at the palace of her father, -Heveydd. Then she vanished, and Pwyll returned -to Narberth.</p> - -<p class='c005'>At the appointed time, Pwyll went to visit Heveydd -the Ancient, with a hundred followers. He -was received with much welcome, and the disposition -of the feast put under his command, as the -Celts seem to have done to especially honoured -<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>guests. As they sat at meat, with Pwyll between -Rhiannon and her father, a tall auburn-haired youth -came into the hall, greeted Pwyll, and asked a boon -of him. “Whatever boon you may ask of me,” -said Pwyll thoughtlessly, “if it is in my power, -you shall have it.” Then the suitor threw off all -disguise, called the guests to witness Pwyll’s promise, -and claimed Rhiannon as his bride. Pwyll -was dumb. “Be silent as long as you will,” said -the masterful Rhiannon; “never did a man make -worse use of his wits than you have done.” -“Lady,” replied the amazed Pwyll, “I knew not -who he was.” “He is the man to whom they -would have given me against my will,” she answered, -“Gwawl, the son of Clûd. You must -bestow me upon him now, lest shame befall you.” -“Never will I do that,” said Pwyll. “Bestow -me upon him,” she insisted, “and I will cause -that I shall never be his.” So Pwyll promised -Gwawl that he would make a feast that day year, -at which he would resign Rhiannon to him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The next year, the feast was made, and Rhiannon -sat by the side of her unwelcome bridegroom. But -Pwyll was waiting outside the palace, with a hundred -men in ambush. When the banquet was at its -height, he came into the hall, dressed in coarse, -ragged garments, shod with clumsy old shoes, and -carrying a leather bag. But the bag was a magic -one, which Rhiannon had given to her lover, with -directions as to its use. Its quality was that, however -much was put into it, it could never be filled. -“I crave a boon,” he said to Gwawl. “What is -<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>it?” Gwawl replied. “I am a poor man, and all -I ask is to have this bag filled with meat.” Gwawl -granted what he said was “a request within reason”, -and ordered his followers to fill the bag. But the -more they put into it, the more room in it there -seemed to be. Gwawl was astonished, and asked -why this was. Pwyll replied that it was a bag that -could never be filled until someone possessed of -lands and riches should tread the food down with -both his feet. “Do this for the man,” said Rhiannon -to Gwawl. “Gladly I will,” replied he, and -put both his feet into the bag. But no sooner -had he done so than Pwyll slipped the bag over -Gwawl’s head, and tied it up at the mouth. He -blew his horn, and all his followers came in. “What -have you got in the bag?” asked each one in turn. -“A badger,” replied Pwyll. Then each, as he -received Pwyll’s answer, kicked the bag, or hit it -with a stick. “Then,” says the story, “was the -game of ‘Badger in the Bag’ first played.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Gwawl, however, fared better than we suspect that -the badger usually did; for Heveydd the Ancient -interceded for him. Pwyll willingly released him, on -condition that he promised to give up all claim to -Rhiannon, and renounced all projects of revenge. -Gwawl consented, and gave sureties, and went away -to his own country to have his bruises healed.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This country of Gwawl’s was, no doubt, the sky; -for he was evidently a sun-god. His name bewrays -him; for the meaning of “Gwawl” is “light”.<a id='r334' /><a href='#f334' class='c010'><sup>[334]</sup></a> It -<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>was one of the hours of victory for the dark powers, -such as were celebrated in the Celtic calendar by -the Feast of Samhain, or Summer End.</p> - -<p class='c005'>There was no hindrance now to the marriage of -Pwyll and Rhiannon. She became his bride, and -returned with him to Dyfed.</p> - -<p class='c005'>For three years, they were without an heir, and -the nobles of Dyfed became discontented. They -petitioned Pwyll to take another wife instead of -Rhiannon. He asked for a year’s delay. This -was granted, and, before the end of the year, a son -was born. But, on the night of his birth, the six -women set to keep watch over Rhiannon all fell -asleep at once; and when they woke up, the boy -had vanished. Fearful lest their lives should be -forfeited for their neglect, they agreed to swear -that Rhiannon had eaten her child. They killed -a litter of puppies, and smeared some of the blood -on Rhiannon’s face and hands, and put some of -the bones by her side. Then they awoke her with -a great outcry, and accused her. She swore that -she knew nothing of the death of her son, but the -women persisted that they had seen her devour -him, and had been unable to prevent it. The druids -of that day were not sufficiently practical anatomists -to be able to tell the bones of a child from those of -a dog, so they condemned Rhiannon upon the evidence -of the women. But, even now, Pwyll would -not put her away; so she was assigned a penance. -For seven years, she was to sit by a horse-block -outside the gate, and offer to carry visitors into -the palace upon her back. “But it rarely happened,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>says the Mabinogi, “that any would permit -her to do so.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Exactly what had become of Rhiannon’s child -seems to have been a mystery even to the writer -of the Mabinogi. It was, at any rate, in some way -connected with the equally mysterious disappearance -on every night of the first of May—Beltaine, the -Celtic sun-festival—of the colts foaled by a beautiful -mare belonging to Teirnyon Twryv Vliant, -one of Pwyll’s vassals. Every May-day night, the -mare foaled, but no one knew what became of the -colt. Teirnyon decided to find out. He caused -the mare to be taken into a house, and there he -watched it, fully armed. Early in the night, the colt -was born. Then there was a great noise, and an -arm with claws came through the window, and -gripped the colt’s mane. Teirnyon hacked at the -arm with his sword, and cut it off. Then he heard -wailing, and opened the door, and found a baby in -swaddling clothes, wrapped in a satin mantle. He -took it up and brought it to his wife, and they -decided to adopt it. They called the boy Gwri -Wallt Euryn, that is “Gwri of the Golden Hair”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The older the boy grew, the more it seemed to -Teirnyon that he became like Pwyll. Then he -remembered that he had found him upon the very -night that Rhiannon lost her child. So he consulted -with his wife, and they both agreed that -the baby they had so mysteriously found must be -the same that Rhiannon had so mysteriously -lost. And they decided that it would not be -right for them to keep the son of another, while -<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>so good a lady as Rhiannon was being punished -wrongfully.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So, the very next day, Teirnyon set out for Narberth, -taking the boy with him. They found Rhiannon -sitting, as usual, by the gate, but they would -not allow her to carry them into the palace on -her back. Pwyll welcomed them; and that evening, -as they sat at supper, Teirnyon told his hosts the -story from beginning to end. And he presented -her son to Rhiannon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>As soon as everyone in the palace saw the boy, -they admitted that he must be Pwyll’s son. So -they adopted him with delight; and Pendaran Dyfed, -the head druid of the kingdom, gave him a -new name. He called him “Pryderi<a id='r335' /><a href='#f335' class='c010'><sup>[335]</sup></a>”, meaning -“trouble”, from the first word that his mother had -uttered when he was restored to her. For she -had said: “<i>Trouble</i> is, indeed, at an end for me, -if this be true”.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XVIII<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE WOOING OF BRANWEN AND THE<br />BEHEADING OF BRÂN</span><a id='r336' /><a href='#f336' class='c010'><sup>[336]</sup></a></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>In the second of the “Four Branches”, Pryderi, -come to man’s estate, and married to a wife called -Kicva, appears as a guest or vassal at the court of -a greater god of Hades than himself—Brân, the son -of the sea-god Llyr. The children of Llyr—Brân, -with his sister Branwen of the “Fair Bosom” and -his half-brother Manawyddan, as well as two sons -of Manawyddan’s mother, Penardun, by an earlier -marriage, were holding court at <i>Twr Branwen</i>, -“Branwen’s Tower”, now called Harlech. As they -sat on a cliff, looking over the sea, they saw thirteen -ships coming from Ireland. The fleet sailed close -under the land, and Brân sent messengers to ask -who they were, and why they had come. It was -replied that they were the vessels of Matholwch, -King of Ireland, and that he had come to ask Brân -for his sister Branwen in marriage. Brân consented, -and they fixed upon Aberffraw, in Anglesey, as the -place at which to hold the wedding feast. Matholwch -and his fleet went there by sea, and Brân and his -host by land. When they arrived, and met, they -set up pavilions; for “no house could ever hold the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>blessed Brân”. And there Branwen became the -King of Ireland’s bride.<a id='r337' /><a href='#f337' class='c010'><sup>[337]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>These relations were not long, however, allowed -to be friendly. Of the two other sons of Llyr’s wife, -Penardun, the mother of Manawyddan, one was -called Nissyen, and the other, Evnissyen. Nissyen -was a lover of peace, and would always “cause his -family to be friends when their wrath was at the -highest”, but Evnissyen “would cause strife between -his two brothers when they were most at peace”. -Now Evnissyen was enraged because his consent -had not been asked to Branwen’s marriage. Out of -spite at this, he cut off the lips, ears, eyebrows, and -tails of all Matholwch’s horses.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When the King of Ireland found this out, he was -very indignant at the insult. But Brân sent an -embassy to him twice, explaining that it had not -been done by his consent or with his knowledge. -He appeased Matholwch by giving him a sound -horse in place of every one that Evnissyen had -mutilated, as well as a staff of silver as large and tall -as Matholwch himself, and a plate of gold as broad -as Matholwch’s face. To these gifts he also added a -magic cauldron brought from Ireland. Its property -was that any slain man who was put into it was -brought to life again, except that he lost the use of -speech. The King of Ireland accepted this recompense -for the insult done him, renewed his friendship -with the children of Llyr, and sailed away with -Branwen to Ireland.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>Before a year was over, Branwen bore a son. -They called him Gwern, and put him out to be -foster-nursed among the best men of Ireland. But, -during the second year, news came to Ireland of the -insult that Matholwch had received in Britain. The -King of Ireland’s foster-brothers and near relations -insisted that he should revenge himself upon Branwen. -So the queen was compelled to serve in the -kitchen, and, every day, the butcher gave her a box -upon the ear. That this should not become known -to Brân, all traffic was forbidden between Ireland -and Britain. This went on for three years.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But, in the meantime, Branwen had reared a -tame starling, and she taught it to speak, and tied -a letter of complaint to the root of its wing, and sent -it off to Britain. At last it found Brân, whom its -mistress had described to it, and settled upon his -shoulder, ruffling its wings. This exposed the letter, -and Brân read it. He sent messengers to one hundred -and forty-four countries, to raise an army to go -to Ireland. Leaving his son Caradawc, with seven -others, in charge of Britain, he started—himself -wading through the sea, while his men went by -ship.</p> - -<p class='c005'>No one in Ireland knew that they were coming -until the royal swineherds, tending their pigs near -the sea-shore, beheld a marvel. They saw a forest -on the surface of the sea—a place where certainly -no forest had been before—and, near it, a mountain -with a lofty ridge on its top, and a lake on each side -of the ridge. Both the forest and the mountain were -swiftly moving towards Ireland. They informed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>Matholwch, who could not understand it, and sent -messengers to ask Branwen what she thought it -might be. “It is the men of the Island of the -Mighty<a id='r338' /><a href='#f338' class='c010'><sup>[338]</sup></a>,” said she, “who are coming here because -they have heard of my ill-treatment. The forest -that is seen on the sea is made of the masts of ships. -The mountain is my brother Brân, wading into shoal -water; the lofty ridge is his nose, and the two lakes, -one on each side of it, are his eyes.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>The men of Ireland were terrified. They fled -beyond the Shannon, and broke down the bridge -over it. But Brân lay down across the river, -and his army walked over him to the opposite -side.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Matholwch now sent messengers suing for peace. -He offered to resign the throne of Ireland to Gwern, -Branwen’s son and Brân’s nephew. “Shall I not -have the kingdom myself?” said Brân, and would -not hear of anything else. So the counsellors of -Matholwch advised him to conciliate Brân by building -him a house so large that it would be the first -house that had ever held him, and, in it, to hand -over the kingdom to his will. Brân consented to -accept this, and the vast house was built.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It concealed treachery. Upon each side of the -hundred pillars of the house was hung a bag, and in -the bag was an armed man, who was to cut himself -out at a given signal. But Evnissyen came into the -house, and seeing the bags there, suspected the -plot. “What is in this bag?” he said to one of the -Irish, as he came up to the first one. “Meal,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>replied the Irishman. Then Evnissyen kneaded -the bag in his hands, as though it really contained -meal, until he had killed the man inside; and he -treated all of them in turn in the same way.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A little later, the two hosts met in the house. -The men of Ireland came in on one side, and the -men of Britain on the other, and met at the hearth -in the middle, and sat down. The Irish court did -homage to Brân, and they crowned Gwern, Branwen’s -son, King of Ireland in place of Matholwch. -When the ceremonies were over, the boy went from -one to another of his uncles, to make acquaintance -with them. Brân fondled and caressed him, and so -did Manawyddan, and Nissyen. But when he came -to Evnissyen, the wicked son of Penardun seized -the child by the feet, and dropped him head first -into the great fire.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When Branwen saw her son killed, she tried to -leap into the flames after him, but Brân held her -back. Then every man armed himself, and such a -tumult was never heard in one house before. Day -after day they fought; but the Irish had the advantage, -for they had only to plunge their dead men -into the magic cauldron to bring them back to life. -When Evnissyen knew this, he saw a way of atoning -for the misfortunes his evil nature had brought -upon Britain. He disguised himself as an Irishman, -and lay upon the floor as if dead, until they put him -into the cauldron. Then he stretched himself, and, -with one desperate effort, burst both the cauldron -and his own heart.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Thus things were made equal again, and in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>next battle the men of Britain killed all the Irish. -But of themselves there were only seven left unhurt—Pryderi; -Manawyddan; Gluneu, the son of -Taran<a id='r339' /><a href='#f339' class='c010'><sup>[339]</sup></a>; Taliesin the Bard; Ynawc; Grudyen, the -son of Muryel; and Heilyn, the son of Gwynn the -Ancient.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Brân himself was wounded in the foot with a poisoned -dart, and was in agony. So he ordered his -seven surviving followers to cut off his head, and to -take it to the White Mount in London<a id='r340' /><a href='#f340' class='c010'><sup>[340]</sup></a>, and bury -it there, with the face towards France. He prophesied -how they would perform the journey. At -Harlech they would be feasting seven years, the -birds of Rhiannon singing to them all the time, -and Brân’s own head conversing with them as -agreeably as when it was on his body. Then they -would be fourscore years at Gwales<a id='r341' /><a href='#f341' class='c010'><sup>[341]</sup></a>. All this -while, Brân’s head would remain uncorrupted, and -would talk so pleasantly that they would forget the -flight of time. But, at the destined hour, someone -would open a door which looked towards Cornwall, -and, after that, they could stay no longer, but must -hurry to London to bury the head.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So the seven beheaded Brân, and set off, taking -Branwen also with them. They landed at the -mouth of the River Alaw, in Anglesey. Branwen -first looked back towards Ireland, and then forward -towards Britain. “Alas,” she cried, “that I was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>ever born! two islands have been destroyed because -of me.” Her heart broke with sorrow, and she -died. An old Welsh poem says, with a touch of -real pathos:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Softened were the voices in the brakes</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of the wondering birds</div> - <div class='line in1'>On seeing the fair body.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Will there not be relating again</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of that which befel the paragon</div> - <div class='line in1'>At the stream of Amlwch?”<a id='r342' /><a href='#f342' class='c010'><sup>[342]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>“They made her a four-sided grave,” says the -Mabinogi, “and buried her upon the banks of the -Alaw.” The traditionary spot has always borne the -name of <i>Ynys Branwen</i>, and, curiously enough, an -urn was found there, in 1813, full of ashes and half-burnt -bones, which certain enthusiastic local antiquaries -saw “every reason to suppose” were those -of the fair British Aphrodité herself.<a id='r343' /><a href='#f343' class='c010'><sup>[343]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The seven went on towards Harlech, and, as they -journeyed, they met men and women who gave -them the latest news. Caswallawn, a son of Beli, -the husband of Dôn, had destroyed the ministers -left behind by Brân to take care of Britain. He -had made himself invisible by the help of a magic -veil, and thus had killed all of them except Pendaran -Dyfed, foster-father of Pryderi, who had escaped -into the woods, and Caradawc son of Brân, whose -heart had broken from grief. Thus he had made -himself king of the whole island in place of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>Manawyddan, its rightful heir now that Brân was -dead.</p> - -<p class='c005'>However, the destiny was upon the seven that -they should go on with their leader’s head. They -went to Harlech and feasted for seven years, the -three birds of Rhiannon singing them songs compared -with which all other songs seemed unmelodious. -Then they spent fourscore years in the -Isle of Gwales, eating and drinking, and listening to -the pleasant conversation of Brân’s head. The -“Entertaining of the Noble Head” this eighty -years’ feast was called. Brân’s head, indeed, is -almost more notable in British mythology than Brân -before he was decapitated. Taliesin and the other -bards invoke it repeatedly as <i>Urddawl Ben</i> (the -“Venerable Head”) and <i>Uther Ben</i> (the “Wonderful -Head”).</p> - -<p class='c005'>But all pleasure came to an end when Heilyn, the -son of Gwynn, opened the forbidden door, like -Bluebeard’s wife, “to know if that was true which -was said concerning it”. As soon as they looked -towards Cornwall, the glamour that had kept them -merry for eighty-seven years failed, and left them as -grieved about the death of their lord as though it -had happened that very day. They could not rest -for sorrow, but went at once to London, and laid -the now dumb and corrupting head in its grave -on Tower Hill, with its face turned towards France, -to watch that no foe came from foreign lands to -Britain. There it reposed until, ages afterwards, -Arthur, in his pride of heart, dug it up, “as he -thought it beneath his dignity to hold the island -<span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span>otherwise than by valour”. Disaster, in the shape -of</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'>“the godless hosts</div> - <div class='line'>Of heathen swarming o’er the Northern sea”,<a id='r344' /><a href='#f344' class='c010'><sup>[344]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>came of this disinterment; and therefore it is called, -in a triad, one of the “Three Wicked Uncoverings -of Britain”.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XIX<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE WAR OF ENCHANTMENTS<a id='r345' /><a href='#f345' class='c010'><sup>[345]</sup></a></span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>Manawyddan was now the sole survivor of the -family of Llyr. He was homeless and landless. -But Pryderi offered to give him a realm in Dyfed, -and his mother, Rhiannon, for a wife. The lady, -her son explained, was still not uncomely, and her -conversation was pleasing. Manawyddan seems -to have found her attractive, while Rhiannon was -not less taken with the son of Llyr. They were -wedded, and so great became the friendship of -Pryderi and Kicva, Manawyddan and Rhiannon, -that the four were seldom apart.</p> - -<p class='c005'>One day, after holding a feast at Narberth, they -went up to the same magic mound where Rhiannon -had first met Pwyll. As they sat there, thunder -pealed, and immediately a thick mist sprang up, so -that not one of them could see the other. When -it cleared, they found themselves alone in an uninhabited -country. Except for their own castle, the -land was desert and untilled, without sign of dwelling, -man, or beast. One touch of some unknown -magic had utterly changed the face of Dyfed from -a rich realm to a wilderness.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Manawyddan and Pryderi, Rhiannon and Kicva -<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>traversed the country on all sides, but found nothing -except desolation and wild beasts. For two years -they lived in the open upon game and honey.</p> - -<p class='c005'>During the third year, they grew weary of this -wild life, and decided to go into Lloegyr<a id='r346' /><a href='#f346' class='c010'><sup>[346]</sup></a>, and support -themselves by some handicraft. Manawyddan -could make saddles, and he made them so well that -soon no one in Hereford, where they had settled, -would buy from any saddler but himself. This -aroused the enmity of all the other saddlers, and -they conspired to kill the strangers. So the four -went to another city.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Here they made shields, and soon no one would -purchase a shield unless it had been made by -Manawyddan and Pryderi. The shield-makers -became jealous, and again a move had to be made.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But they fared no better at the next town, where -they practised the craft of cordwainers, Manawyddan -shaping the shoes and Pryderi stitching them. So -they went back to Dyfed again, and occupied themselves -in hunting.</p> - -<p class='c005'>One day, the hounds of Manawyddan and Pryderi -roused a white wild boar. They chased it till they -came to a castle at a place where both the huntsmen -were certain that no castle had been before. -Into this castle went the boar, and the hounds -after it. For some time, Manawyddan and Pryderi -waited in vain for their return. Pryderi then proposed -that he should go into the castle, and see what -had become of them. Manawyddan tried to dissuade -him, declaring that whoever their enemy was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>who had laid Dyfed waste had also caused the -appearance of this castle. But Pryderi insisted -upon entering.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the castle, he found neither the boar nor his -hounds, nor any trace of man or beast. There was -nothing but a fountain in the centre of the castle -floor, and, on the brink of the fountain, a beautiful -golden bowl fastened to a marble slab by chains.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Pryderi was so pleased with the beauty of the -bowl that he put out his hands and took hold of it. -Whereupon his hands stuck to the bowl, so that he -could not move from where he stood.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Manawyddan waited for him till the evening, and -then returned to the palace, and told Rhiannon. -She, more daring than her husband, rebuked him -for cowardice, and went straight to the magic -castle. In the court she found Pryderi, his hands -still glued to the bowl and his feet to the slab. -She tried to free him, but became fixed, herself, and, -with a clap of thunder and a fall of mist, the castle -vanished with its two prisoners.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Manawyddan was now left alone with Kicva, -Pryderi’s wife. He calmed her fears, and assured -her of his protection. But they had lost their dogs, -and could not hunt any more, so they set out together -to Lloegyr, to practise again Manawyddan’s -old trade of cordwainer. A second time, the envious -cordwainers conspired to kill them, so they were -obliged to return to Dyfed.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But Manawyddan took back a burden of wheat -with him to Narberth, and sowed three crofts, all of -which sprang up abundantly.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>When harvest time came, he went to look at his -first croft, and found it ripe. “I will reap this to-morrow,” -he said. But in the morning he found -nothing but the bare straw. Every ear had been -taken away.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So he went to the next croft, which was also ripe. -But, when he came to cut it, he found it had been -stripped like the first. Then he knew that whoever -had wasted Dyfed, and carried off Rhiannon and -Pryderi, was also at work upon his wheat.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The third croft was also ripe, and over this one -he determined to keep watch. In the evening he -armed himself and waited. At midnight he heard -a great tumult, and, looking out, saw a host of mice -coming. Each mouse bit off an ear of wheat and -ran off with it. He rushed among them, but could -only catch one, which was more sluggish than the -rest. This one he put into his glove, and took it -back, and showed it to Kicva.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“To-morrow I will hang it,” he said. “It is not -a fit thing for a man of your dignity to hang a -mouse,” she replied. “Nevertheless will I do so,” -said he. “Do so then,” said Kicva.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The next morning, Manawyddan went to the -magic mound, and set up two forks on it, to make a -gallows. He had just finished, when a man dressed -like a poor scholar came towards him, and greeted -him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What are you doing, Lord?” he said.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am going to hang a thief,” replied Manawyddan.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What sort of a thief? I see an animal like a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>mouse in your hand, but a man of rank like yours -should not touch so mean a creature. Let it go -free.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I caught it robbing me,” replied Manawyddan, -“and it shall die a thief’s death.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I do not care to see a man like you doing such -a thing,” said the scholar. “I will give you a pound -to let it go.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will not let it go,” replied Manawyddan, “nor -will I sell it.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“As you will, Lord. It is nothing to me,” returned -the scholar. And he went away.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Manawyddan laid a cross-bar along the forks. -As he did so, another man came by, a priest riding -on a horse. He asked Manawyddan what he was -doing, and was told. “My lord,” he said, “such a -reptile is worth nothing to buy, but rather than see -you degrade yourself by touching it, I will give you -three pounds to let it go.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will take no money for it,” replied Manawyddan. -“It shall be hanged.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Let it be hanged,” said the priest, and went his -way.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Manawyddan put the noose round the mouse’s -neck, and was just going to draw it up, when he saw -a bishop coming, with his whole retinue.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Thy blessing, Lord Bishop,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Heaven’s blessing upon you,” said the bishop. -“What are you doing?”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I am hanging a thief,” replied Manawyddan. -“This mouse has robbed me.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Since I happen to have come at its doom, I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>will ransom it,” said the bishop. “Here are seven -pounds. Take them, and let it go.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will not let it go,” replied Manawyddan.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will give you twenty-four pounds of ready -money if you will let it go,” said the bishop.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I would not, for as much again,” replied -Manawyddan.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“If you will not free it for that,” said the bishop, -“I will give you all my horses and their baggage to -let it go.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will not,” replied Manawyddan.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Then name your own price,” said the bishop.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“That offer I accept,” replied Manawyddan. -“My price is that Rhiannon and Pryderi be set -free.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“They shall be set free,” replied the bishop.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Still I will not let the mouse go,” said Manawyddan.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“What more do you ask?” exclaimed the bishop.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“That the charm be removed from Dyfed,” -replied Manawyddan.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“It shall be removed,” promised the bishop. -“So set the mouse free.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will not,” said Manawyddan, “till I know who -the mouse is.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“She is my wife,” replied the bishop, “and I am -called Llwyd, the son of Kilcoed, and I cast the -charm over Dyfed, and upon Rhiannon and Pryderi, -to avenge Gwawl son of Clûd for the game of -‘badger in the bag’ which was played on him by -Pwyll, Head of Annwn. It was my household that -came in the guise of mice and took away your corn. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>But since my wife has been caught, I will restore -Rhiannon and Pryderi and take the charm off Dyfed -if you will let her go.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will not let her go,” said Manawyddan, “until -you have promised that there shall be no charm put -upon Dyfed again.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will promise that also,” replied Llwyd. “So -let her go.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will not let her go,” said Manawyddan, “unless -you swear to take no revenge for this hereafter.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“You have done wisely to claim that,” replied -Llwyd. “Much trouble would else have come -upon your head because of this. Now I swear it. -So set my wife free.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will not,” said Manawyddan, “until I see -Rhiannon and Pryderi.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then he saw them coming towards him; and they -greeted one another.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Now set my wife free,” said the bishop.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“I will, gladly,” replied Manawyddan. So he -released the mouse, and Llwyd struck her with a -wand, and turned her into “a young woman, the -fairest ever seen”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And when Manawyddan looked round him, he -saw Dyfed tilled and cultivated again, as it had -formerly been.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The powers of light had, this time, the victory. -Little by little, they increased their mastery over the -dominion of darkness, until we find the survivors -of the families of Llyr and Pwyll mere vassals of -Arthur.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XX<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE VICTORIES OF LIGHT OVER DARKNESS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The powers of light were, however, by no means -invariably successful in their struggles with the -powers of darkness. Even Gwydion son of Dôn -had to serve his apprenticeship to misfortune. Assailing -Caer Sidi—Hades<a id='r347' /><a href='#f347' class='c010'><sup>[347]</sup></a> under one of its many -titles,—he was caught by Pwyll and Pryderi, and -endured a long imprisonment.<a id='r348' /><a href='#f348' class='c010'><sup>[348]</sup></a> The sufferings he -underwent made him a bard—an ancient Celtic idea -which one can still see surviving in the popular -tradition that whoever dares to spend a night alone -either upon the chair of the Giant Idris (the summit -of Cader Idris, in Merionethshire), or under the -haunted Black Stone of Arddu, upon the Llanberis -side of Snowdon, will be found in the morning -either inspired or mad.<a id='r349' /><a href='#f349' class='c010'><sup>[349]</sup></a> How he escaped we are -not told; but the episode does not seem to have -quenched his ardour against the natural enemies -of his kind.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Helped by his brother, Amaethon, god of agriculture, -and his son, Lleu, he fought the Battle of -Godeu, or “the Trees”, an exploit which is not the -least curious of Celtic myths. It is known also as -the Battle of Achren, or Ochren, a name for Hades -<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>of unknown meaning, but appearing again in the -remarkable Welsh poem which describes the “Spoiling -of Annwn” by Arthur. The King of Achren -was Arawn; and he was helped by Brân, who -apparently had not then made his fatal journey to -Ireland. The war was made to secure three boons -for man—the dog, the deer, and the lapwing, all of -them creatures for some reason sacred to the gods -of the nether world.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Gwydion was this time not alone, as he apparently -was when he made his first unfortunate reconnaissance -of Hades. Besides his brother and his -son, he had an army which he raised for the purpose. -For a leader of Gwydion’s magical attainments -there was no need of standing troops. He -could call battalions into being with a charm, and -dismiss them when they were no longer needed. -The name of the battle shows what he did on this -occasion; and the bard Taliesin adds his testimony:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I have been in the battle of Godeu, with Lleu and Gwydion,</div> - <div class='line in1'>They changed the forms of the elementary trees and sedges”.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>In a poem devoted to it<a id='r350' /><a href='#f350' class='c010'><sup>[350]</sup></a> he describes in detail -what happened. The trees and grasses, he tells us, -hurried to the fight: the alders led the van, but the -willows and the quickens came late, and the birch, -though courageous, took long in arraying himself; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>the elm stood firm in the centre of the battle, -and would not yield a foot; heaven and earth -trembled before the advance of the oak-tree, that -stout door-keeper against an enemy; the heroic -holly and the hawthorn defended themselves with -their spikes; the heather kept off the enemy on -every side, and the broom was well to the front, -but the fern was plundered, and the furze did not -do well; the stout, lofty pine, the intruding pear-tree, -the gloomy ash, the bashful chestnut-tree, the -prosperous beech, the long-enduring poplar, the -scarce plum-tree, the shelter-seeking privet and -woodbine, the wild, foreign laburnum; “the bean, -bearing in its shade an army of phantoms”; rose-bush, -raspberry, ivy, cherry-tree, and medlar—all -took their parts.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the ranks of Hades there were equally strange -fighters. We are told of a hundred-headed beast, -carrying a formidable battalion under the root of its -tongue and another in the back of its head; there -was a gaping black toad with a hundred claws; and -a crested snake of many colours, within whose flesh -a hundred souls were tormented for their sins—in -fact, it would need a Doré or a Dante to do justice -to this weird battle between the arrayed magics of -heaven and hell.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was magic that decided its fate. There was -a fighter in the ranks of Hades who could not be -overcome unless his antagonist guessed his name—a -peculiarity of the terrene gods, remarks Professor -Rhys,<a id='r351' /><a href='#f351' class='c010'><sup>[351]</sup></a> which has been preserved in our popular -<span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>fairy tales. Gwydion guessed the name, and sang -these two verses:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Sure-hoofed is my steed impelled by the spur;</div> - <div class='line in1'>The high sprigs of alder are on thy shield;</div> - <div class='line in1'><i>Brân</i> art thou called, of the glittering branches!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Sure-hoofed is my steed in the day of battle:</div> - <div class='line in1'>The high sprigs of alder are on thy hand:</div> - <div class='line in1'><i>Brân</i> ... by the branch thou bearest</div> - <div class='line in1'>Has Amaethon the Good prevailed!”<a id='r352' /><a href='#f352' class='c010'><sup>[352]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Thus the power of the dark gods was broken, -and the sons of Dôn retained for the use of men -the deer, the dog, and the lapwing, stolen from that -underworld, whence all good gifts came.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was always to obtain some practical benefit -that the gods of light fought against the gods of -darkness. The last and greatest of Gwydion’s raids -upon Hades was undertaken to procure—pork!<a id='r353' /><a href='#f353' class='c010'><sup>[353]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Gwydion had heard that there had come to Dyfed -some strange beasts, such as had never been seen -before. They were called “pigs” or “swine”, and -Arawn, King of Annwn, had sent them as a gift to -Pryderi son of Pwyll. They were small animals, -and their flesh was said to be better than the flesh -of oxen. He thought it would be a good thing to -get them, either by force or fraud, from the dark -powers. Mâth son of Mâthonwy, who ruled the -children of Dôn from his Olympus of Caer Dathyl<a id='r354' /><a href='#f354' class='c010'><sup>[354]</sup></a>, -gave his consent, and Gwydion set off, with eleven -<span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span>others, to Pryderi’s palace<a id='r355' /><a href='#f355' class='c010'><sup>[355]</sup></a>. They disguised themselves -as bards, so as to be received by Pryderi, -and Gwydion, who was “the best teller of tales in -the world”, entertained the Prince of Dyfed and -his court more than they had ever been entertained -by any story-teller before. Then he asked Pryderi -to grant him a boon—the animals which had come -from Annwn. But Pryderi had pledged his word -to Arawn that he would neither sell nor give away -any of the new creatures until they had increased -to double their number, and he told the disguised -Gwydion so.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Lord,” said Gwydion, “I can set you free from -your promise. Neither give me the swine at once, -nor yet refuse them to me altogether, and to-morrow -I will show you how.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>He went to the lodging Pryderi had assigned him, -and began to work his charms and illusions. Out -of fungus he made twelve gilded shields, and twelve -horses with gold harness, and twelve black greyhounds -with white breasts, each wearing a golden -collar and leash. And these he showed to Pryderi.</p> - -<p class='c005'>“Lord,” said he, “there is a release from the -word you spoke last evening concerning the swine—that -you may neither give them nor sell them. -You may exchange them for something which is -better. I will give you these twelve horses with -their gold harness, and these twelve greyhounds -with their gold collars and leashes, and these twelve -gilded shields for them.”</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>Pryderi took counsel with his men, and agreed -to the bargain. So Gwydion and his followers -took the swine and went away with them, hurrying -as fast as they could, for Gwydion knew that the -illusion would not last longer than a day. The -memory of their journey was long kept up; every -place where they rested between Dyfed and Caer -Dathyl is remembered by a name connecting it with -pigs. There is a Mochdrev (“Swine’s Town”) in -each of the three counties of Cardiganshire, Montgomeryshire, -and Denbighshire, and a Castell y -Moch (“Swine’s Castle”) near Mochnant (“Swine’s -Brook”), which runs through part of the two latter -counties. They shut up the pigs in safety, and -then assembled all Mâth’s army; for the horses and -hounds and shields had returned to fungus, and -Pryderi, who guessed Gwydion’s part in it, was -coming northward in hot haste.</p> - -<p class='c005'>There were two battles—one at Maenor Penardd, -near Conway, and the other at Maenor Alun, now -called Coed Helen, near Caernarvon. Beaten in -both, Pryderi fell back upon Nant Call, about nine -miles from Caernarvon. Here he was again defeated -with great slaughter, and sent hostages, -asking for peace and a safe retreat.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This was granted by Mâth; but, none the less, -the army of the sons of Dôn insisted on following -the retreating host, and harassing it. So Pryderi -sent a complaint to Mâth, demanding that, if there -must still be war, Gwydion, who had caused all the -trouble, should fight with him in single combat.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Gwydion agreed, and the champions of light and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>darkness met face to face. But Pryderi was the -waning power, and he fell before the strength and -magic of Gwydion. “And at Maen Tyriawc, above -Melenryd, was he buried, and there is his grave”, -says the Mabinogi, though the ancient Welsh poem, -called the “Verses of the Graves of the Warriors”<a id='r356' /><a href='#f356' class='c010'><sup>[356]</sup></a>, -assigns him a different resting-place.<a id='r357' /><a href='#f357' class='c010'><sup>[357]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>This decisive victory over Hades and its kings -was the end of the struggle, until it was renewed, -with still more complete success, by one greater than -Gwydion—the invincible Arthur.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XXI<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE MYTHOLOGICAL “COMING OF ARTHUR”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The “Coming of Arthur”, his sudden rise into -prominence, is one of the many problems of the -Celtic mythology. He is not mentioned in any -of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, which deal -with the races of British gods equivalent to the -Gaelic Tuatha Dé Danann. The earliest references -to him in Welsh literature seem to treat him as -merely a warrior-chieftain, no better, if no worse, -than several others, such as “Geraint, a tributary -prince of Devon”, immortalized both by the bards<a id='r358' /><a href='#f358' class='c010'><sup>[358]</sup></a> -and by Tennyson. Then, following upon this, we -find him lifted to the extraordinary position of a -king of gods, to whom the old divine families of -Dôn, of Llyr, and of Pwyll pay unquestioned -homage. Triads tell us that Lludd—the Zeus of -the older Pantheon—was one of Arthur’s “Three -Chief War-Knights”, and Arawn, King of Hades, -one of his “Three Chief Counselling Knights”. In -the story called the “Dream of Rhonabwy”, in the -Red Book of Hergest, he is shown as a leader to -whom are subject those we know to have been of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span>divine race—sons of Nudd, of Llyr, of Brân, of -Govannan, and of Arianrod. In another “Red -Book” tale, that of “Kulhwch and Olwen”, even -greater gods are his vassals. Amaethon son of -Dôn, ploughs for him, and Govannan son of Dôn, -rids the iron, while two other sons of Beli, Nynniaw -and Peibaw, “turned into oxen on account of their -sins”, toil at the yoke, that a mountain may be -cleared and tilled and the harvest reaped in one day. -He assembles his champions to seek the “treasures -of Britain”; and Manawyddan son of Llyr, Gwyn -son of Nudd, and Pryderi son of Pwyll rally round -him at his call.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The most probable, and only adequate explanation, -is given by Professor Rhys, who considers -that the fames of two separate Arthurs have been -accidentally confused, to the exceeding renown of -a composite, half-real, half-mythical personage into -whom the two blended.<a id='r359' /><a href='#f359' class='c010'><sup>[359]</sup></a> One of these was a divine -Arthur, a god more or less widely worshipped in -the Celtic world—the same, no doubt, whom an -<i>ex voto</i> inscription found in south-eastern France -calls <i>Mercurius Artaius</i>.<a id='r360' /><a href='#f360' class='c010'><sup>[360]</sup></a> The other was a human -Arthur, who held among the Britons the post which, -under Roman domination, had been called <i>Comes -Britanniæ</i>. This “Count of Britain” was the -supreme military authority; he had a roving commission -to defend the country against foreign invasion; -and under his orders were two slightly -subordinate officers, the <i>Dux Britanniarum</i> (Duke -of the Britains), who had charge of the northern -<span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span>wall, and the <i>Comes Littoris Saxonici</i> (Count of -the Saxon Shore), who guarded the south-eastern -coasts. The Britons, after the departure of the -Romans, long kept intact the organization their -conquerors had built up; and it seems reasonable -to believe that this post of leader in war was the -same which early Welsh literature describes as that -of “emperor”, a title given to Arthur alone among -the British heroes.<a id='r361' /><a href='#f361' class='c010'><sup>[361]</sup></a> The fame of Arthur the -Emperor blended with that of Arthur the God, -so that it became conterminous with the area over -which we have traced Brythonic settlement in Great -Britain.<a id='r362' /><a href='#f362' class='c010'><sup>[362]</sup></a> Hence the many disputes, ably, if unprofitably, -conducted, over “Arthurian localities” -and the sites of such cities as Camelot, and of -Arthur’s twelve great battles. Historical elements -doubtless coloured the tales of Arthur and his companions, -but they are none the less as essentially -mythic as those told of their Gaelic analogues—the -Red Branch Heroes of Ulster and the Fenians.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Of those two cycles, it is with the latter that the -Arthurian legend shows most affinity.<a id='r363' /><a href='#f363' class='c010'><sup>[363]</sup></a> Arthur’s -position as supreme war-leader of Britain curiously -parallels that of Finn’s as general of a “native Irish -militia”. His “Round Table” of warriors also -reminds one of Finn’s Fenians sworn to adventure. -Both alike battle with human and superhuman foes. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>Both alike harry Europe, even to the walls of Rome. -The love-story of Arthur, his wife Gwynhwyvar -(Guinevere), and his nephew Medrawt (Mordred), -resembles in several ways that of Finn, his wife -Grainne, and his nephew Diarmait. In the stories -of the last battles of Arthur and of the Fenians, the -essence of the kindred myth still subsists, though -the actual exponents of it slightly differ. At the -fight of Camlan, it was Arthur and Medrawt themselves -who fought the final duel. But in the last -stand of the Fenians at Gabhra, the original protagonists -have given place to their descendants and -representatives. Both Finn and Cormac were -already dead. It is Oscar, Finn’s grandson, and -Cairbré, Cormac’s son, who fight and slay each -other. And again, just as Arthur was thought by -many not to have really died, but to have passed -to “the island valley of Avilion”, so a Scottish -legend tells us how, ages after the Fenians, a -man, landing by chance upon a mysterious western -island, met and spoke with Finn mac Coul. Even -the alternative legend, which makes Arthur and -his warriors wait under the earth in a magic sleep -for the return of their triumph, is also told of the -Fenians.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But these parallels, though they illustrate Arthur’s -pre-eminence, do not show his real place among -the gods. To determine this, we must examine the -ranks of the older dynasties carefully, to see if any -are missing whose attributes this new-comer may -have inherited. We find Lludd and Gwyn, Arawn, -Pryderi, and Manawyddan side by side with him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span>under their own names. Among the children of -Dôn are Amaethon and Govannan. But here the -list stops, with a notable omission. There is no -mention, in later myth, of Gwydion. That greatest -of the sons of Dôn has fallen out, and vanished -without a sign.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Singularly enough, too, the same stories that were -once told of Gwydion are now attached to the -name of Arthur. So that we may assume, with -Professor Rhys, that Arthur, the prominent god of -a new Pantheon, has taken the place of Gwydion -in the old.<a id='r364' /><a href='#f364' class='c010'><sup>[364]</sup></a> A comparison of Gwydion-myths and -Arthur-myths shows an almost exact correspondence -in everything but name.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Like Gwydion, Arthur is the exponent of culture -and of arts. Therefore we see him carrying on the -same war against the underworld for wealth and -wisdom that Gwydion and the sons of Dôn waged -against the sons of Llyr, the Sea, and of Pwyll, the -Head of Hades.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Like Gwydion, too, Arthur suffered early reverses. -He failed, indeed, even where his prototype had -succeeded. Gwydion, we know from the Mabinogi -of Mâth, successfully stole Pryderi’s pigs, but Arthur -was utterly baffled in his attempt to capture the -swine of a similar prince of the underworld, called -March son of Meirchion.<a id='r365' /><a href='#f365' class='c010'><sup>[365]</sup></a> Also as with Gwydion, -his earliest reconnaissance of Hades was disastrous, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span>and led to his capture and imprisonment. Manawyddan -son of Llyr, confined him in the mysterious -and gruesome bone-fortress of Oeth and Anoeth, -and there he languished for three days and three -nights before a rescuer came in the person of Goreu, -his cousin.<a id='r366' /><a href='#f366' class='c010'><sup>[366]</sup></a> But, in the end, he triumphed. A -Welsh poem, ascribed to the bard Taliesin, relates, -under the title “The Spoiling of Annwn”,<a id='r367' /><a href='#f367' class='c010'><sup>[367]</sup></a> an expedition -of Arthur and his followers into the very -heart of that country, from which he appears to -have returned (for the verses are somewhat obscure) -with the loss of almost all his men, but in possession -of the object of his quest—the magic cauldron of -inspiration and poetry.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Taliesin tells the story as an eye-witness. He -may well have done so; for it was his boast that -from the creation of the world he had allowed himself -to miss no event of importance. He was in -Heaven, he tells us,<a id='r368' /><a href='#f368' class='c010'><sup>[368]</sup></a> when Lucifer fell, and in the -Court of Dôn before Gwydion was born; he had -been among the constellations both with Mary -Magdalene and with the pagan goddess Arianrod; -he carried a banner before Alexander, and was chief -director of the building of the Tower of Babel; he -saw the fall of Troy and the founding of Rome; he -was with Noah in the Ark, and he witnessed the -destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and he was -present both at the Manger of Bethlehem and at -the Cross of Calvary. But, unfortunately, Taliesin, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span>as a credible personage, rests under exactly the same -disabilities as Arthur himself. It is not denied by -scholars that there was a real Taliesin, a sixth-century -bard to whom were attributed, and who -may have actually composed, some of the poems in -the Book of Taliesin.<a id='r369' /><a href='#f369' class='c010'><sup>[369]</sup></a> But there was also another -Taliesin, whom, as a mythical poet of the British -Celts, Professor Rhys is inclined to equate with the -Gaelic Ossian.<a id='r370' /><a href='#f370' class='c010'><sup>[370]</sup></a> The traditions of the two mingled, -endowing the historic Taliesin with the god-like attributes -of his predecessor, and clothing the mythical -Taliesin with some of the actuality of his successor.<a id='r371' /><a href='#f371' class='c010'><sup>[371]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>It is regrettable that our bard did not at times -sing a little less incoherently, for his poem contains -the fullest description that has come down to us of -the other world as the Britons conceived it. Apparently -the numerous names, all different and some -now untranslatable, refer to the same place, and -they must be collated to form a right idea of what -Annwn was like. With the exception of an obviously -spurious last verse, here omitted, the poem is magnificently -pagan, and quite a storehouse of British -mythology<a id='r372' /><a href='#f372' class='c010'><sup>[372]</sup></a>.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>“I will praise the Sovereign, supreme Lord of the land,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Who hath extended his dominion over the shore of the world.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Stout was the prison of Gweir<a id='r373' /><a href='#f373' class='c010'><sup>[373]</sup></a>, in Caer Sidi,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Through the spite of Pwyll and Pryderi:</div> - <div class='line in1'>No one before him went into it.</div> - <div class='line in1'>The heavy blue chain firmly held the youth,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And before the spoils of Annwn woefully he sang,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And thenceforth till doom he shall remain a bard.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Thrice enough to fill Prydwen<a id='r374' /><a href='#f374' class='c010'><sup>[374]</sup></a> we went into it;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Except seven, none returned from Caer Sidi<a id='r375' /><a href='#f375' class='c010'><sup>[375]</sup></a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Am I not a candidate for fame, to be heard in song</div> - <div class='line in1'>In Caer Pedryvan<a id='r376' /><a href='#f376' class='c010'><sup>[376]</sup></a>, four times revolving?</div> - <div class='line in1'>The first word from the cauldron, when was it spoken?</div> - <div class='line in1'>By the breath of nine maidens it was gently warmed.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Is it not the cauldron of the chief of Annwn? What is its fashion?</div> - <div class='line in1'>A rim of pearls is round its edge.</div> - <div class='line in1'>It will not cook the food of a coward or one forsworn.</div> - <div class='line in1'>A sword flashing bright will be raised to him,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And left in the hand of Lleminawg.</div> - <div class='line in1'>And before the door of the gate of Uffern<a id='r377' /><a href='#f377' class='c010'><sup>[377]</sup></a> the lamp was burning.</div> - <div class='line in1'>When we went with Arthur—a splendid labour!—</div> - <div class='line in1'>Except seven, none returned from Caer Vedwyd<a id='r378' /><a href='#f378' class='c010'><sup>[378]</sup></a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Am I not a candidate for fame, to be heard in song</div> - <div class='line in1'>In Caer Pedryvan, in the Isle of the Strong Door,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Where twilight and pitchy darkness meet together,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And bright wine is the drink of the host?</div> - <div class='line in1'>Thrice enough to fill Prydwen we went on the sea.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Except seven, none returned from Caer Rigor<a id='r379' /><a href='#f379' class='c010'><sup>[379]</sup></a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>“I will not allow much praise to the leaders of literature.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Beyond Caer Wydyr<a id='r380' /><a href='#f380' class='c010'><sup>[380]</sup></a> they saw not the prowess of Arthur;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Three-score hundreds stood on the walls;</div> - <div class='line in1'>It was hard to converse with their watchman.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Thrice enough to fill Prydwen we went with Arthur;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Except seven, none returned from Caer Golud<a id='r381' /><a href='#f381' class='c010'><sup>[381]</sup></a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I will not allow much praise to the spiritless.</div> - <div class='line in1'>They know not on what day, or who caused it,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Or in what hour of the serene day Cwy was born,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Or who caused that he should not go to the dales of Devwy.</div> - <div class='line in1'>They know not the brindled ox with the broad head-band,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Whose yoke is seven-score handbreadths.</div> - <div class='line in1'>When we went with Arthur, of mournful memory,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Except seven, none returned from Caer Vandwy<a id='r382' /><a href='#f382' class='c010'><sup>[382]</sup></a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“I will not allow much praise to those of drooping courage.</div> - <div class='line in1'>They know not on what day the chief arose,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Nor in what hour of the serene day the owner was born,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Nor what animal they keep, with its head of silver.</div> - <div class='line in1'>When we went with Arthur, of anxious striving,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Except seven, none returned from Caer Ochren<a id='r383' /><a href='#f383' class='c010'><sup>[383]</sup></a>”.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Many of the allusions of this poem will perhaps -never be explained. We know no better than the -“leaders of literature” whom the vainglorious Taliesin -taunted with their ignorance and lack of spirit -in what hour Cwy was born, or even who he was, -much less who prevented him from going to the -dales of Devwy, wherever they may have been. -We are in the dark as much as they were with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span>regard to the significance of the brindled ox with -the broad head-band, and of the other animal with -the silver head.<a id='r384' /><a href='#f384' class='c010'><sup>[384]</sup></a> But the earlier portion of the -poem is, fortunately, clearer, and it gives glimpses -of a grandeur of savage imagination. The strong-doored, -foursquare fortress of glass, manned by its -dumb, ghostly sentinels, spun round in never-ceasing -revolution, so that few could find its entrance; it -was pitch-dark save for the twilight made by the -lamp burning before its circling gate; feasting went -on there, and revelry, and in its centre, choicest of -its many riches, was the pearl-rimmed cauldron of -poetry and inspiration, kept bubbling by the breaths -of nine British pythonesses, so that it might give -forth its oracles. To this scanty information we -may add a few lines, also by Taliesin, and contained -in a poem called “A Song Concerning the Sons -of Llyr ab Brochwel Powys”:—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Perfect is my chair in Caer Sidi:</div> - <div class='line in1'>Plague and age hurt not him who’s in it—</div> - <div class='line in1'>They know, Manawyddan and Pryderi.</div> - <div class='line in1'>Three organs round a fire sing before it,</div> - <div class='line in1'>And about its points are ocean’s streams</div> - <div class='line in1'>And the abundant well above it—</div> - <div class='line in1'>Sweeter than white wine the drink in it.”<a id='r385' /><a href='#f385' class='c010'><sup>[385]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>Little is, however, added by it to our knowledge. -It reminds us that Annwn was surrounded by the -sea—“the heavy blue chain” which held Gweir so -firmly;—it informs us that the “bright wine” which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span>was “the drink of the host” was kept in a well; it -adds to the revelry the singing of the three organs; -it makes a point that its inhabitants were freed from -age and death; and, last of all, it shows us, as we -might have expected, the ubiquitous Taliesin as a -privileged resident of this delightful region. We -have two clues as to where the country may have -been situated. Lundy Island, off the coast of -Devonshire, was anciently called <i>Ynys Wair</i>, the -“Island of Gweir”, or Gwydion. The Welsh translation -of the <i>Seint Greal</i>, an Anglo-Norman romance -embodying much of the old mythology, locates its -“Turning Castle”—evidently the same as Caer Sidi—in -the district around and comprising Puffin Island -off the coast of Anglesey.<a id='r386' /><a href='#f386' class='c010'><sup>[386]</sup></a> But these are slender -threads by which to tether to firm ground a realm of -the imagination.</p> - -<p class='c005'>With Gwydion, too, have disappeared the whole -of the characters connected with him in that portion -of the Mabinogi of Mâth, Son of Mathonwy, which -recounts the myth of the birth of the sun-god. -Neither Mâth himself, nor Lleu Llaw Gyffes, nor -Dylan, nor their mother, Arianrod, play any more -part; they have vanished as completely as Gwydion. -But the essence of the myth of which they were the -figures remains intact. Gwydion was the father by -his sister Arianrod, wife of a waning heaven-god -called Nwyvre (Space), of twin sons, Lleu, a god -of light, and Dylan, a god of darkness; and we find -this same story woven into the very innermost texture -of the legend of Arthur.<a id='r387' /><a href='#f387' class='c010'><sup>[387]</sup></a> The new Arianrod, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span>though called “Morgawse” by Sir Thomas Malory<a id='r388' /><a href='#f388' class='c010'><sup>[388]</sup></a>, -and “Anna” by Geoffrey of Monmouth<a id='r389' /><a href='#f389' class='c010'><sup>[389]</sup></a>, is known -to earlier Welsh myth as “Gwyar”<a id='r390' /><a href='#f390' class='c010'><sup>[390]</sup></a>. She was the -sister of Arthur and the wife of the sky-god, Lludd, -and her name, which means “shed blood” or “gore”, -reminds us of the relationship of the Morrígú, the -war-goddess of the Gaels, to the heaven-god Nuada<a id='r391' /><a href='#f391' class='c010'><sup>[391]</sup></a>. -The new Lleu Llaw Gyffes is called Gwalchmei, that -is, the “Falcon of May”<a id='r392' /><a href='#f392' class='c010'><sup>[392]</sup></a>, and the new Dylan is -Medrawt, at once Arthur’s son and Gwalchmei’s -brother, and the bitterest enemy of both<a id='r393' /><a href='#f393' class='c010'><sup>[393]</sup></a>.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Besides these “old friends with new faces”, Arthur -brings with him into prominence a fresh Pantheon, -most of whom also replace the older gods of the -heavens and earth and the regions under the earth. -The Zeus of Arthur’s cycle is called Myrddin, who -passed into the Norman-French romances as “Merlin”. -All the myths told of him bear witness to his -high estate. The first name of Britain, before it -was inhabited, was, we learn from a triad, <i>Clas -Myrddin</i>, that is, “Myrddin’s Enclosure”.<a id='r394' /><a href='#f394' class='c010'><sup>[394]</sup></a> He is -given a wife whose attributes recall those of the -consorts of Nuada and Lludd. She is described as -the only daughter of Coel—the British name of the -Gaulish <i>Camulus</i>, a god of war and the sky—and -was called Elen Lwyddawg, that is, “Elen, Leader -of Hosts”. Her memory is still preserved in Wales -in connection with ancient roadways; such names -<span class='pageno' id='Page_324'>324</span>as <i>Ffordd Elen</i> (“Elen’s Road”) and <i>Sarn Elen</i> -(“Elen’s Causeway”) seem to show that the paths -on which armies marched were ascribed or dedicated -to her.<a id='r395' /><a href='#f395' class='c010'><sup>[395]</sup></a> As Myrddin’s wife, she is credited with -having founded the town of Carmarthen (<i>Caer -Myrddin</i>), as well as the “highest fortress in Arvon”, -which must have been the site near Beddgelert still -called <i>Dinas Emrys</i>, the “Town of Emrys”, one of -Myrddin’s epithets or names.<a id='r396' /><a href='#f396' class='c010'><sup>[396]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Professor Rhys is inclined to credit Myrddin, or, -rather, the British Zeus under whatever name, with -having been the god especially worshipped at Stonehenge.<a id='r397' /><a href='#f397' class='c010'><sup>[397]</sup></a> -Certainly this impressive temple, ever -unroofed and open to the sun and wind and rain of -heaven, would seem peculiarly appropriate to a -British supreme god of light and sky. Neither are -we quite without documentary evidence which will -allow us to connect it with him. Geoffrey of Monmouth<a id='r398' /><a href='#f398' class='c010'><sup>[398]</sup></a>, -whose historical fictions usually conceal -mythological facts, relates that the stones which compose -it were erected by Merlin. Before that, they -had stood in Ireland, upon a hill which Geoffrey -calls “Mount Killaraus”, and which can be identified -as the same spot known to Irish legend as the “Hill -of Uisnech”, and, still earlier, connected with Balor. -According to British tradition, the primeval giants -who first colonized Ireland had brought them from -their original home on “the farthest coast of Africa”, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_325'>325</span>on account of their miraculous virtues; for any water -in which they were bathed became a sovereign -remedy either for sickness or for wounds. By the -order of Aurelius, a half-real, half-mythical king of -Britain, Merlin brought them thence to England, -to be set up on Salisbury Plain as a monument to -the British chieftains treacherously slain by Hengist -and his Saxons. With this scrap of native information -about Stonehenge we may compare the only -other piece we have—the account of the classic -Diodorus, who called it a temple of Apollo.<a id='r399' /><a href='#f399' class='c010'><sup>[399]</sup></a> At -first, these two statements seem to conflict. But it -is far from unlikely that the earlier Celtic settlers in -Britain made little or no religious distinction between -sky and sun. The sun-god, as a separate personage, -seems to have been the conception of a comparatively -late age. Celtic mythology allows us to be present, -as it were, at the births both of the Gaelic Lugh -Lamhfada and the British Lleu Llaw Gyffes.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Even the well-known story of Myrddin’s, or Merlin’s -final imprisonment in a tomb of airy enchantment—“a -tour withouten walles, or withoute eny -closure”—reads marvellously like a myth of the sun -“with all his fires and travelling glories round -him”.<a id='r400' /><a href='#f400' class='c010'><sup>[400]</sup></a> Encircled, shielded, and made splendid by -his atmosphere of living light, the Lord of Heaven -moves slowly towards the west, to disappear at last -into the sea (as one local version of the myth puts -it), or on to a far-off island (as another says), or into -a dark forest (the choice of a third).<a id='r401' /><a href='#f401' class='c010'><sup>[401]</sup></a> When the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_326'>326</span>myth became finally fixed, it was Bardsey Island, off -the extreme westernmost point of Caernarvonshire, -that was selected as his last abode. Into it he -went with nine attendant bards, taking with him -the “Thirteen Treasures of Britain”, thenceforth -lost to men. Bardsey Island no doubt derives its -name from this story; and what is probably an -allusion to it is found in a first-century Greek writer -called Plutarch, who describes a grammarian called -Demetrius as having visited Britain, and brought -home an account of his travels. He mentioned -several uninhabited and sacred islands off our coasts -which he said were named after gods and heroes, -but there was one especially in which Cronos was -imprisoned with his attendant deities, and Briareus -keeping watch over him as he slept; “for sleep was -the bond forged for him”.<a id='r402' /><a href='#f402' class='c010'><sup>[402]</sup></a> Doubtless this disinherited -deity, whom the Greek, after his fashion, called -“Cronos”, was the British heaven- and sun-god, -after he had descended into the prison of the west.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Among other new-comers is Kai, who, as Sir -Kay the Seneschal, fills so large a part in the later -romances. Purged of his worst offences, and reduced -to a surly butler to Arthur, he is but a -shadow of the earlier Kai who murdered Arthur’s -son Llacheu<a id='r403' /><a href='#f403' class='c010'><sup>[403]</sup></a>, and can only be acquitted, through -the obscurity of the poem that relates the incident, -of having also carried off, or having tried to carry -off, Arthur’s wife, Gwynhwyvar.<a id='r404' /><a href='#f404' class='c010'><sup>[404]</sup></a> He is thought -<span class='pageno' id='Page_327'>327</span>to have been a personification of fire,<a id='r405' /><a href='#f405' class='c010'><sup>[405]</sup></a> upon the -strength of a description given of him in the mythical -romance of “Kulhwch and Olwen”. “Very -subtle”, it says, “was Kai. When it pleased him -he could render himself as tall as the highest tree -in the forest. And he had another peculiarity—so -great was the heat of his nature, that, when it -rained hardest, whatever he carried remained dry -for a handbreadth above and a handbreadth below -his hand; and when his companions were coldest, -it was to them as fuel with which to light their -fire.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Another personage who owes his prominence in -the Arthurian story to his importance in Celtic -myth was March son of Meirchion, whose swine -Arthur attempted to steal, as Gwydion had done -those of Pryderi. In the romances, he has become -the cowardly and treacherous Mark, king, according -to some stories, of Cornwall, but according to -others, of the whole of Britain, and known to all as -the husband of the Fair Isoult, and the uncle of -Sir Tristrem. But as a deformed deity of the -underworld<a id='r406' /><a href='#f406' class='c010'><sup>[406]</sup></a> he can be found in Gaelic as well as in -British myth. He cannot be considered as originally -different from Morc, a king of the Fomors at -the time when from their Glass Castle they so -fatally oppressed the Children of Nemed.<a id='r407' /><a href='#f407' class='c010'><sup>[407]</sup></a> The -Fomors were distinguished by their animal features, -and March had the same peculiarity.<a id='r408' /><a href='#f408' class='c010'><sup>[408]</sup></a> When Sir -<span class='pageno' id='Page_328'>328</span>Thomas Malory relates how, to please Arthur and -Sir Launcelot, Sir Dinadan made a song about -Mark, “which was the worst lay that ever harper -sang with harp or any other instruments,”<a id='r409' /><a href='#f409' class='c010'><sup>[409]</sup></a> he does -not tell us wherein the sting of the lampoon lay. It -no doubt reminded King Mark of the unpleasant -fact that he had—not like his Phrygian counterpart, -ass’s but—horse’s ears. He was, in fact, a Celtic -Midas, a distinction which he shared with one of -the mythical kings of early Ireland.<a id='r410' /><a href='#f410' class='c010'><sup>[410]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Neither can we pass over Urien, a deity of the -underworld akin to, or perhaps the same as, Brân.<a id='r411' /><a href='#f411' class='c010'><sup>[411]</sup></a> -Like that son of Llyr, he was at once a god of -battle and of minstrelsy;<a id='r412' /><a href='#f412' class='c010'><sup>[412]</sup></a> he was adored by the -bards as their patron;<a id='r413' /><a href='#f413' class='c010'><sup>[413]</sup></a> his badge was the raven -(<i>bran</i>, in Welsh);<a id='r414' /><a href='#f414' class='c010'><sup>[414]</sup></a> while, to make his identification -complete, there is an extant poem which tells how -Urien, wounded, ordered his own head to be cut off -by his attendants.<a id='r415' /><a href='#f415' class='c010'><sup>[415]</sup></a> His wife was Modron,<a id='r416' /><a href='#f416' class='c010'><sup>[416]</sup></a> known -as the mother of Mabon, the sun-god to whom -inscriptions exist as <i>Maponos</i>. Another of the -children of Urien and Modron is Owain, which was -perhaps only another name for Mabon.<a id='r417' /><a href='#f417' class='c010'><sup>[417]</sup></a> Taliesin -calls him “chief of the glittering west”,<a id='r418' /><a href='#f418' class='c010'><sup>[418]</sup></a> and he is -as certainly a sun-god as his father Urien, “lord of -the evening”,<a id='r419' /><a href='#f419' class='c010'><sup>[419]</sup></a> was a ruler of the dark underworld.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_329'>329</span>It is by reason of the pre-eminence of Arthur that -we find gathered round him so many gods, all -probably various tribal personifications of the same -few mythological ideas. The Celts, both of the -Gaelic and the British branches, were split up into -numerous petty tribes, each with its own local -deities embodying the same essential conceptions -under different names. There was the god of the -underworld, gigantic in figure, patron alike of -warrior and minstrel, teacher of the arts of eloquence -and literature, and owner of boundless -wealth, whom some of the British tribes worshipped -as Brân, others as Urien, others as Pwyll, or March, -or Mâth, or Arawn, or Ogyrvran. There was the -lord of an elysium—Hades in its aspect of a paradise -of the departed rather than of the primeval -subterranean realm where all thing’s originated—whom -the Britons of Wales called Gwyn, or Gwynwas; -the Britons of Cornwall, Melwas; and the -Britons of Somerset, Avallon, or Avallach. Under -this last title, his realm is called <i>Ynys Avallon</i>, -“Avallon’s Island”, or, as we know the word, -Avilion. It was said to be in the “Land of Summer”, -which, in the earliest myth, signified Hades; and it -was only in later days that the mystic Isle of -Avilion became fixed to earth as Glastonbury, and -the Elysian “Land of Summer” as Somerset.<a id='r420' /><a href='#f420' class='c010'><sup>[420]</sup></a> -There was a mighty ruler of heaven, a “god of -battles”, worshipped on high places, in whose hands -was “the stern arbitrament of war”; some knew -him as Lludd, others as Myrddin, or as Emrys. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_330'>330</span>There was a gentler deity, friendly to man, to help -whom he fought or cajoled the powers of the underworld; -Gwydion he was called, and Arthur. Last, -perhaps, to be imagined in concrete shape, there -was a long-armed, sharp-speared sun-god who aided -the culture-god in his work, and was known as Lleu, -or Gwalchmei, or Mabon, or Owain, or Peredur, -and no doubt by many another name; and with him -is usually found a brother representing not light, -but darkness. This expression of a single idea by -different names may be also observed in Gaelic -myth, though not quite so clearly. In the hurtling -of clan against clan, many such divinities perished -altogether out of memory, or survived only as names, -to make up, in Ireland, the vast, shadowy population -claiming to be Tuatha Dé Danann, and, in Britain, -the long list of Arthur’s followers. Others—gods -of stronger communities—would increase their fame -as their worshippers increased their territory, until, -as happened in Greece, the chief deities of many -tribes came together to form a national Pantheon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We have already tried to explain the “Coming -of Arthur” historically. Mythologically, he came, -as, according to Celtic ideas, all things came originally, -from the underworld. His father is called -Uther Pendragon.<a id='r421' /><a href='#f421' class='c010'><sup>[421]</sup></a> But Uther Pendragon is (for -the word “dragon” is not part of the name, but -a title signifying “war-leader”) <i>Uther Ben</i>, that is, -Brân, under his name of the “Wonderful Head”,<a id='r422' /><a href='#f422' class='c010'><sup>[422]</sup></a> -so that, in spite of the legend which describes -<span class='pageno' id='Page_331'>331</span>Arthur as having disinterred Brân’s head on Tower -Hill, where it watched against invasion, because he -thought it beneath his dignity to keep Britain in -any other way than by valour,<a id='r423' /><a href='#f423' class='c010'><sup>[423]</sup></a> we must recognize -the King of Hades as his father. This being so, it -would only be natural that he should take a wife -from the same eternal country, and we need not -be surprised to find in Gwynhwyvar’s father, Ogyrvran, -a personage corresponding in all respects to -the Celtic conception of the ruler of the underworld. -He was of gigantic size;<a id='r424' /><a href='#f424' class='c010'><sup>[424]</sup></a> he was the owner of a -cauldron out of which three Muses had been born;<a id='r425' /><a href='#f425' class='c010'><sup>[425]</sup></a> -and he was the patron of the bards,<a id='r426' /><a href='#f426' class='c010'><sup>[426]</sup></a> who deemed -him to have been the originator of their art. More -than this, his very name, analysed into its original -<i>ocur vran</i>, means the evil <i>bran</i>, or raven, the bird -of death.<a id='r427' /><a href='#f427' class='c010'><sup>[427]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>But Welsh tradition credits Arthur with three -wives, each of them called Gwynhwyvar. This -peculiar arrangement is probably due to the Celtic -love of triads; and one may compare them with the -three Etains who pass through the mythico-heroic -story of Eochaid Airem, Etain, and Mider. Of -these three Gwynhwyvars,<a id='r428' /><a href='#f428' class='c010'><sup>[428]</sup></a> besides the Gwynhwyvar, -daughter of Ogyrvran, one was the daughter of -Gwyrd Gwent, of whom we know nothing but the -name, and the other of Gwyrthur ap Greidawl, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_332'>332</span>the same “Victor son of Scorcher” with whom -Gwyn son of Nudd, fought, in earlier myth, perpetual -battle for the possession of Creudylad, -daughter of the sky-god Lludd. This same eternal -strife between the powers of light and darkness for -the possession of a symbolical damsel is waged -again in the Arthurian cycle; but it is no longer for -Creudylad that Gwyn contends, but for Gwynhwyvar, -and no longer with Gwyrthur, but with Arthur. -It would seem to have been a Cornish form of -the myth; for the dark god is called “Melwas”, -and not “Gwynwas”, or “Gwyn”, his name in -Welsh.<a id='r429' /><a href='#f429' class='c010'><sup>[429]</sup></a> Melwas lay in ambush for a whole year, -and finally succeeded in carrying off Gwynhwyvar -to his palace in Avilion. But Arthur pursued, and -besieged that stronghold, just as Eochaid Airem -had, in the Gaelic version of the universal story, -mined and sapped at Mider’s <i>sídh</i> of Bri Leith.<a id='r430' /><a href='#f430' class='c010'><sup>[430]</sup></a> -Mythology, as well as history, repeats itself; and -Melwas was obliged to restore Gwynhwyvar to her -rightful lord.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is not Melwas, however, that in the best-known -versions of the story contends with Arthur -for the love of Gwynhwyvar. The most widespread -early tradition makes Arthur’s rival his -nephew Medrawt. Here Professor Rhys traces -a striking parallel between the British legend of -Arthur, Gwynhwyvar, and Medrawt, and the Gaelic -story of Airem, Etain, and Mider.<a id='r431' /><a href='#f431' class='c010'><sup>[431]</sup></a> The two myths -are practically counterparts; for the names of all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_333'>333</span>the three pairs agree in their essential meaning. -“Airem”, like “Arthur”, signifies the “Ploughman”, -the divine institutor of agriculture; “Etain”, -the “Shining One”, is a fit parallel to “Gwynhwyvar”, -the “White Apparition”; while “Mider” and -“Medrawt” both come from the same root, a word -meaning “to hit”, either literally, or else metaphorically, -with the mind, in the sense of coming to a -decision. To attempt to explain this myth is to -raise the vexed question of the meaning of mythology. -Is it day and dark that strive for dawn, or -summer and winter for the lovely spring, or does it -shadow forth the rescue of the grain that makes -man’s life from the devouring underworld by the -farmer’s wit? When this can be finally resolved, a -multitude of Celtic myths will be explained. Everywhere -arise the same combatants for the stolen -bride; one has the attributes of light, the other is -a champion of darkness.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Even in Sir Thomas Malory’s version of the -Arthurian story, taken by him from French romances -far removed from the original tradition, -we find the myth subsisting. Medrawt’s original -place as the lover of Arthur’s queen had been -taken in the romances by Sir Launcelot, who, if he -was not some now undiscoverable Celtic god,<a id='r432' /><a href='#f432' class='c010'><sup>[432]</sup></a> must -have been an invention of the Norman adapters. -But the story which makes Medrawt Arthur’s rival -<span class='pageno' id='Page_334'>334</span>has been preserved in the account of how Sir -Mordred would have wedded Guinevere by force, -as part of the rebellion which he made against his -king and uncle.<a id='r433' /><a href='#f433' class='c010'><sup>[433]</sup></a> This strife was Celtic myth long -before it became part of the pseudo-history of early -Britain. The triads<a id='r434' /><a href='#f434' class='c010'><sup>[434]</sup></a> tell us how Arthur and Medrawt -raided each other’s courts during the owner’s -absence. Medrawt went to Kelli Wic, in Cornwall, -ate and drank everything he could find there, and -insulted Queen Gwynhwyvar, in revenge for which -Arthur went to Medrawt’s court and killed man -and beast. Their struggle only ended with the -Battle of Camlan; and that mythical combat, which -chroniclers have striven to make historical, is full -of legendary detail. Tradition tells how Arthur -and his antagonist shared their forces three times -during the fight, which caused it to be known as -one of the “Three Frivolous Battles of Britain”, -the idea of doing so being one of “Britain’s Three -Criminal Resolutions”. Four alone survived the -fray: one, because he was so ugly that all shrank -from him, believing him to be a devil; another, -whom no one touched because he was so beautiful -that they took him for an angel; a third, whose -great strength no one could resist; and Arthur -himself, who, after revenging the death of Gwalchmei -upon Medrawt, went to the island of Avilion -to heal him of his grievous wounds.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And thence—from the Elysium of the Celts—popular -<span class='pageno' id='Page_335'>335</span>belief has always been that he will some -day return. But just as the gods of the Gaels are -said to dwell sometimes in the “Land of the -Living”, beyond the western wave, and sometimes -in the palace of a hollow hill, so Arthur is sometimes -thought to be in Avilion, and sometimes to -be sitting with his champions in a charmed sleep -in some secret place, waiting for the trumpet to -be blown that shall call him forth to reconquer -Britain. The legend is found in the Eildon Hills; -in the Snowdon district; at Cadbury, in Somerset, -the best authenticated Camelot; in the Vale of -Neath, in South Wales; as well as in other places. -He slumbers, but he has not died. The ancient -Welsh poem called “The Verses of the Graves of -the Warriors”<a id='r435' /><a href='#f435' class='c010'><sup>[435]</sup></a> enumerates the last resting-places -of most of the British gods and demi-gods. “The -grave of Gwydion is in the marsh of Dinlleu”, the -grave of Lieu Llaw Gyffes is “under the protection -of the sea with which he was familiar”, and “where -the wave makes a sullen sound is the grave of -Dylan”; we know the graves of Pryderi, of Gwalchmei, -of March, of Mabon, even of the great Beli, -but</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Not wise the thought—a grave for Arthur”.<a id='r436' /><a href='#f436' class='c010'><sup>[436]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_336'>336</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XXII<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE TREASURES OF BRITAIN</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>It is in keeping with the mythological character -of Arthur that the early Welsh tales recorded of -him are of a different nature from those which swell -the pseudo-histories of Nennius<a id='r437' /><a href='#f437' class='c010'><sup>[437]</sup></a> and of Geoffrey -of Monmouth. We hear nothing of that subjugation -of the countries of Western Europe which fills -so large a part in the two books of the <i>Historia -Britonum</i> which Geoffrey has devoted to him.<a id='r438' /><a href='#f438' class='c010'><sup>[438]</sup></a> -Conqueror he is, but his conquests are not in any -land known to geographers. It is against Hades, -and not against Rome, that he achieves his highest -triumphs. This is the true history of King Arthur, -and we may read more fragments and snatches of -it in two prose-tales preserved in the Red Book of -Hergest. Both these tales date, in the actual form -in which they have come down to us, from the -twelfth century. But, in each of them, the writer -seems to be stretching out his hands to gather in -the dying traditions of a very remote past.</p> - -<p class='c005'>When a Welsh man-at-arms named Rhonabwy -lay down, one night, to sleep upon a yellow calf-skin, -the only furniture in a noisome hut, in which he had -taken shelter, that was comparatively free from -vermin, he had the vision which is related in the tale -<span class='pageno' id='Page_337'>337</span>called “The Dream of Rhonabwy”.<a id='r439' /><a href='#f439' class='c010'><sup>[439]</sup></a> He thought -that he was travelling with his companions towards -the Severn, when they heard a rushing noise behind -them, and, looking back, saw a gigantic rider upon -a monstrous horse. So terrible was the horseman’s -appearance that they all started to run from him. -But their running was of no avail, for every time -the horse drew in its breath, it sucked them back to -its very chest, only, however, to fling them forward -as it breathed out again. In despair they fell down -and besought their pursuer’s mercy. He granted -it, asked their names, and told them, in return, his -own. He was known as Iddawc the Agitator of -Britain; for it was he who, in his love of war, had -purposely precipitated the Battle of Camlan. Arthur -had sent him to reason with Medrawt; but though -Arthur had charged him with the fairest sayings -he could think of, Iddawc translated them into the -harshest he could devise. But he had done seven -years’ penance, and had been forgiven, and was -now riding to Arthur’s camp. Thither he insisted -upon taking Rhonabwy and his companions.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Arthur’s army was encamped for a mile around -the ford of Rhyd y Groes, upon both sides of the -road; and on a small flat island in the middle of the -river was the Emperor himself, in converse with -Bedwini the Bishop and Gwarthegyd, the son of -Kaw. Like Ossian, when he came back to Ireland -after his three hundred years’ sojourn in the “Land -of Promise”,<a id='r440' /><a href='#f440' class='c010'><sup>[440]</sup></a> Arthur marvelled at the puny size of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_338'>338</span>the people whom Iddawc had brought for him to -look at. “And where, Iddawc, didst thou find -these little men?” “I found them, Lord, up yonder -on the road.” Then the Emperor smiled. “Lord,” -said Iddawc, “wherefore dost thou laugh?” “Iddawc,” -replied Arthur, “I laugh not; but it pitieth -me that men of such stature as these should have -this island in their keeping, after the men that -guarded it of yore.” Then he turned away, and -Iddawc told Rhonabwy and his companions to keep -silent, and they would see what they would see.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The scope of such a book as this allows no space -to describe the persons and equipments of the -warriors who came riding down with their companies -to join Arthur, as he made his great march -to fight the Battle of Badon, thought by some to -be historical, and located at Bath. The reader who -turns to the tale itself will see what Rhonabwy saw. -Many of Arthur’s warriors he will know by name: -Caradawc the Strong-armed, who is here called a -son, not of Brân, but of Llyr; March son of Meirchion, -the underworld king; Kai, described as “the -fairest horseman in all Arthur’s court”; Gwalchmei, -the son of Gwyar and of Arthur himself; Mabon, -the son of Modron; Trystan son of Tallwch, the -lover of “The Fair Isoult”; Goreu, Arthur’s cousin -and his rescuer from Manawyddan’s bone-prison; -these, and many more, will pass before him, as they -passed before Rhonabwy during the three days and -three nights that he slept and dreamed upon the -calf-skin.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This story of the “Dream of Rhonabwy”, elaborate -<span class='pageno' id='Page_339'>339</span>as it is in all its details, is yet, in substance, little -more than a catalogue. The intention of its unknown -author seems to have been to draw a series -of pictures of what he considered to be the principal -among Arthur’s followers. The other story—that -of “Kulhwch and Olwen”—also takes this catalogue -form, but the matters enumerated are of a different -kind. It is not so much a record of men as of -things. Not the heroes of Britain, but the treasures -of Britain are its subject. One might compare it -with the Gaelic story of the adventures of the three -sons of Tuirenn.<a id='r441' /><a href='#f441' class='c010'><sup>[441]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The “Thirteen Treasures of Britain” were famous -in early legend. They belonged to gods and heroes, -and were current in our island till the end of the -divine age, when Merlin, fading out of the world, -took them with him into his airy tomb, never to be -seen by mortal eyes again. According to tradition,<a id='r442' /><a href='#f442' class='c010'><sup>[442]</sup></a> -they consisted of a sword, a basket, a drinking-horn, -a chariot, a halter, a knife, a cauldron, a whetstone, -a garment, a pan, a platter, a chess-board, and a -mantle, all possessed of not less marvellous qualities -than the apples, the pig-skin, the spear, the horses -and chariot, the pigs, the hound-whelp, and the -cooking-spit which the sons of Tuirenn obtained -for Lugh.<a id='r443' /><a href='#f443' class='c010'><sup>[443]</sup></a> It is these same legendary treasures -that reappear, no doubt, in the story of “Kulhwch -and Olwen”. The number tallies, for there are -thirteen of them. Some are certainly, and others -<span class='pageno' id='Page_340'>340</span>probably, identical with those of the other tradition. -That there should be discrepancies need cause no -surprise, for it is not unlikely that there were several -different versions of their legend. Everyone had -heard of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain. Many, -no doubt, disputed as to what they were. Others -might ask whence they came. The story of -“Kulhwch and Olwen” was composed to tell them. -They were won by Arthur and his mighty men.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Kulhwch<a id='r444' /><a href='#f444' class='c010'><sup>[444]</sup></a> is the hero of the story and Olwen is -its heroine, but only, as it were, by courtesy. The -pair provide a love-interest which, as in the tales of -all primitive people, is kept in the background. The -woman, in such romances, takes the place of the -gold and gems in a modern “treasure-hunt” story; -she is won by overcoming external obstacles, and -not by any difficulty in obtaining her own consent. -In this romance<a id='r445' /><a href='#f445' class='c010'><sup>[445]</sup></a>, Kulhwch was the son of a king -who afterwards married a widow with a grown-up -daughter, whom his stepmother urged Kulhwch to -marry. On his modestly replying that he was not -yet of an age to wed, she laid the destiny on him -that he should never have a wife at all, unless he -could win Olwen, the daughter of a terrible father -called “Hawthorn, Chief of Giants”.<a id='r446' /><a href='#f446' class='c010'><sup>[446]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The “Chief of Giants” was as hostile to suitors -as he was monstrous in shape; and no wonder! for -he knew that on his daughter’s marriage his own -life would come to an end. Both in this peculiarity -<span class='pageno' id='Page_341'>341</span>and in the description of his ponderous eyebrows, -which fell so heavily over his eyes that he could not -see until they had been lifted up with forks, he reminds -one of the Fomor, Balor. Of his daughter, -on the other hand, the Welsh tale gives a description -as beautiful as Olwen was, herself. “More -yellow was her head than the flower of the broom, -and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave, -and fairer were her hands and her fingers than the -blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray -of the meadow-fountain. The eye of the trained -hawk, the glance of the three-mewed falcon was -not brighter than hers. Her bosom was more -snowy than the breast of the white swan, her -cheek was redder than the reddest roses. Whoso -beheld her was filled with her love. Four white -trefoils sprung up wherever she trod. And therefore -was she called Olwen.”<a id='r447' /><a href='#f447' class='c010'><sup>[447]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Kulhwch had no need to see her to fall in love -with her. He blushed at her very name, and asked -his father how he could obtain her in marriage. -His father reminded him that he was Arthur’s -cousin, and advised him to claim Olwen from him -as a boon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Kulhwch “pricked forth upon a steed with -head dappled grey, of four winters old, firm of limb, -with shell-formed hoofs, having a bridle of linked -gold on his head, and upon him a saddle of costly -gold. And in the youth’s hand were two spears -of silver, sharp, well-tempered, headed with steel, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_342'>342</span>three ells in length, of an edge to wound the wind, -and cause blood to flow, and swifter than the fall of -the dewdrop from the blade of reed-grass upon the -earth when the dew of June is at the heaviest. A -gold-hilted sword was upon his thigh, the blade of -which was of gold, bearing a cross of inlaid gold of -the hue of the lightning of heaven; his war-horn -was of ivory. Before him were two brindled white-breasted -greyhounds, having strong collars of rubies -about their necks, reaching from the shoulder to the -ear. And the one that was on the left side bounded -across to the right side, and the one on the right to -the left, and like two sea-swallows sported around -him. And his courser cast up four sods with his -four hoofs, like four swallows in the air, about his -head, now above, now below. About him was a -four-cornered cloth of purple, and an apple of gold -was at each corner, and every one of the apples was -of the value of an hundred kine. And there was -precious gold of the value of three hundred kine -upon his shoes, and upon his stirrups, from his knee -to the tip of his toe. And the blade of grass bent -not beneath him, so light was his courser’s tread as -he journeyed towards the gate of Arthur’s palace.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Nor did this bold suitor stand greatly upon ceremony. -He arrived after the portal of the palace -had been closed for the night, and, contrary to all -precedent, sent to Arthur demanding instant entry. -Although, too, it was the custom for visitors to dismount -at the horse-block at the gate, he did not do -so, but rode his charger into the hall. After greetings -had passed between him and Arthur, and he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_343'>343</span>had announced his name, he demanded Olwen for -his bride at the hands of the Emperor and his -warriors.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Neither Arthur nor any of his court had ever -heard of Olwen. However, he promised his cousin -either to find her for him, or to prove that there -was no such person. He ordered his most skilful -warriors to accompany Kulhwch; Kai, with his -companion Bedwyr, the swiftest of men; Kynddelig, -who was as good a guide in a strange country as -in his own; Gwrhyr, who knew all the languages of -men, as well as of all other creatures; Gwalchmei, -who never left an adventure unachieved; and Menw, -who could render himself and his companions invisible -at will.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They travelled until they came to a castle on an -open plain. Feeding on the plain was a countless -herd of sheep, and, on a mound close by, a monstrous -shepherd with a monstrous dog. Menw cast a spell -over the dog, and they approached the shepherd. -He was called Custennin, a brother of Hawthorn, -while his wife was a sister of Kulhwch’s own mother. -The evil chief of giants had reduced his brother to -servitude, and murdered all his twenty-four sons -save one, who was kept hidden in a stone chest. -Therefore he welcomed Kulhwch and the embassy -from Arthur, and promised to help them secretly, -the more readily since Kai offered to take the one -surviving son under his protection. Custennin’s wife -procured Kulhwch a secret meeting with Olwen, -and the damsel did not altogether discourage her -wooer’s suit.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_344'>344</span>The party started for Hawthorn’s castle. Without -raising any alarm, they slew the nine porters -and the nine watch-dogs, and came unhindered into -the hall. They greeted the ponderous giant, and -announced the reason of their coming. “Where -are my pages and my servants?” he said. “Raise -up the forks beneath my two eyebrows which have -fallen over my eyes, so that I may see the fashion -of my son-in-law.” He glared at them, and told -them to come again upon the next day.</p> - -<p class='c005'>They turned to go, and, as they did so, Hawthorn -seized a poisoned dart, and threw it after them. -But Bedwyr caught it, and cast it back, wounding -the giant’s knee. They left him grumbling, slept -at the house of Custennin, and returned, the next -morning.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Again they demanded Olwen from her father, -threatening him with death if he refused. “Her -four great-grandmothers, and her four great-grandsires -are yet alive,” replied Hawthorn; “it is needful -that I take counsel of them.” So they turned away, -and, as they went, he flung a second dart, which -Menw caught, and hurled back, piercing the giant’s -body.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The next time they came, Hawthorn warned them -not to shoot at him again, unless they desired death. -Then he ordered his eyebrows to be lifted up, and, -as soon as he could see, he flung a poisoned dart -straight at Kulhwch. But the suitor himself caught -it, and flung it back, so that it pierced Hawthorn’s -eyeball and came out through the back of his head. -Here again we are reminded of the myth of Lugh -<span class='pageno' id='Page_345'>345</span>and Balor. Hawthorn, however, was not killed, -though he was very much discomforted. “A cursed -ungentle son-in-law, truly!” he complained. “As -long as I remain alive, my eyesight will be the -worse. Whenever I go against the wind, my eyes -will water; and peradventure my head will burn, -and I shall have a giddiness every new moon. -Cursed be the fire in which it was forged! Like -the bite of a mad dog is the stroke of this poisoned -iron.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>It was now the turn of Kulhwch and his party to -warn the giant that there must be no more dart-throwing. -He appeared, indeed, more amenable to -reason, and allowed himself to be placed opposite -to Kulhwch, in a chair, to discuss the amount of his -daughter’s bride-price.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Its terms, as he gradually unfolded them, were -terrific. The blood-fine paid for Cian to Lugh -seems, indeed, a trifle beside it. To obtain grain, -for food and liquor at his daughter’s wedding, a -vast hill which he showed to Kulhwch must be -rooted up, levelled, ploughed, sown, and harvested -in one day. No one could do this except Amaethon -son of Dôn, the divine husbandman, and Govannan -son of Dôn, the divine smith, and they must have the -service of three pairs of magic oxen. He must also -have returned to him the same nine bushels of flax -which he had sown in his youth, and which had -never come up; for only out of this very flax should -be made the white wimple for Olwen’s head. For -mead, too, he must have honey “nine times sweeter -than the honey of the virgin swarm”.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_346'>346</span>Then followed the enumeration of the thirteen -treasures to be paid to him as dowry. Such a list -of wedding presents was surely never known! No -pot could hold such honey as he demanded but the -magic vessel of Llwyr, the son of Llwyryon. There -would not be enough food for all the wedding-guests, -unless he had the basket of Gwyddneu Garanhir, -from which all the men in the world could be fed, -thrice nine at a time. No cauldron could cook the -meat, except that of Diwrnach the Gael. The mystic -drinking-horn of Gwlgawd Gododin must be there, -to give them drink. The harp of Teirtu, which, like -the Dagda’s, played of itself, must make music for -them. The giant father-in-law’s hair could only be -shorn with one instrument—the tusk of White-tooth, -King of the Boars, and not even by that unless it -was plucked alive out of its owner’s mouth. Also, -before the hair could be cut, it must be spread out, -and this could not be done until it had been first -softened with the blood of the perfectly black sorceress, -daughter of the perfectly white sorceress, from -the Source of the Stream of Sorrow, on the borders -of hell. Nor could the sorceress’s blood be kept -warm enough unless it was placed in the bottles of -Gwyddolwyn Gorr, which preserved the heat of any -liquor put into them, though it was carried from the -east of the world to the west. Another set of bottles -he must also have to keep milk for his guests in—those -bottles of Rhinnon Rhin Barnawd in which no -drink ever turned sour. For himself, he required -the sword of Gwrnach the Giant, which that personage -would never allow out of his own keeping, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_347'>347</span>because it was destined that he himself should fall -by it. Last of all, he must be given the comb, the -razor, and the scissors which lay between the ears -of Twrch Trwyth, a king changed into the most -terrible of wild boars.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is the chase of this boar which gives the story -of “Kulhwch and Olwen” its alternative title—“The -Twrch Trwyth”. The task was one worthy of gods -and demi-gods. Its contemplation might well have -appalled Kulhwch, who, however, was not so easily -frightened. To every fresh demand, every new -obstacle put in his way, he gave the same answer:</p> - -<p class='c005'>“It will be easy for me to compass this, although -thou mayest think that it will not be easy”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Whether it was easy or not will be seen from the -conditions under which alone the hunt could be -brought to a successful end. No ordinary hounds -or huntsmen would avail. The chief of the pack -must be Drudwyn, the whelp of Greid the son of -Eri, led in the one leash that would hold him, -fastened, by the one chain strong enough, to the -one collar that would contain his neck. No huntsman -could hunt with this dog except Mabon son -of Modron; and he had, ages before, been taken -from between his mother and the wall when he was -three nights old, and it was not known where he -was, or even whether he were living or dead. There -was only one steed that could carry Mabon, namely -Gwynn Mygdwn, the horse of Gweddw. Two other -marvellous hounds, the cubs of Gast Rhymhi, must -also be obtained; they must be held in the only -leash they would not break, for it would be made -<span class='pageno' id='Page_348'>348</span>out of the beard of the giant Dissull, plucked from -him while he was still alive. Even with this, no -huntsman could lead them except Kynedyr Wyllt, -who was himself nine times more wild than the -wildest beast upon the mountains. All Arthur’s -mighty men must come to help, even Gwyn son of -Nudd, upon his black horse; and how could he be -spared from his terrible duty of restraining the -devils in hell from breaking loose and destroying -the world?</p> - -<p class='c005'>Here is material for romance indeed! But, unhappily, -we shall never know the full story of how -all these magic treasures were obtained, all these -magic hounds captured and compelled to hunt, all -these magic huntsmen brought to help. The story—which -Mr. Nutt<a id='r448' /><a href='#f448' class='c010'><sup>[448]</sup></a> considers to be, “saving the finest -tales of the ‘Arabian Nights’, the greatest romantic -fairy tale the world has ever known”—is not, as we -have it now, complete. It reads fully enough; but, -on casting backwards and forwards, between the list -of feats to be performed and the body of the tale -which is supposed to relate them all, we find many -of them wanting. “The host of Arthur”, we are -told, “dispersed themselves into parties of one and -two”, each party intent upon some separate quest. -The adventures of some of them have come down, -but those of others have not. We are told how -Kai slew Gwrnach the Giant with his own sword; -how Gwyrthur son of Greidawl, Gwyn’s rival for -the love of Creudylad, saved an anthill from fire, -and how the grateful ants searched for and found -<span class='pageno' id='Page_349'>349</span>the very flax-seeds sown by Hawthorn in his youth; -how Arthur’s host surrounded and took Gast -Rhymhi’s cubs, and how Kai and Bedwyr overcame -Dissull, and plucked out his beard with wooden -tweezers, to make a leash for them. We learn how -Arthur went to Ireland, and brought back the cauldron -of Diwrnach the Gael, full of Irish money; how -White-tusk the Boar-king was chased and killed; -and how Arthur condescended to slay the perfectly -black sorceress with his own hand. That others of -the treasures were acquired is hinted rather than -said. Most important of all (for so much depended -on him), we find out where the stolen Mabon was, -and learn how he was rescued.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So many ages had elapsed since Mabon had disappeared -that there seemed little hope of ever finding -news of him. Nevertheless Gwrhyr, who spoke -the languages of all creatures, went to enquire of that -ancient bird, the Ousel of Cilgwri. But the Ousel, -though in her time she had pecked a smith’s anvil -down to the size of a nut, was yet too young to have -heard of Mabon. She sent Gwrhyr to a creature -formed before her, the Stag of Redynvre. But -though the Stag had lived to see an oak-sapling -slowly grow to be a tree with a thousand branches, -and as slowly decay again till it was a withered -stump, he had never heard of Mabon.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Therefore he sent him on to a creature still older -than himself—the Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd. The -wood she lived in had been thrice rooted up, and -had thrice re-sown itself, and yet, in all that immense -time, she had never heard of Mabon. There was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_350'>350</span>but one who might have, she told Gwrhyr, and he -was the Eagle of Gwern Abwy.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Here, at last, they struck Mabon’s trail. “The -Eagle said: ‘I have been here for a great space of -time, and when I first came hither there was a rock -here, from the top of which I pecked at the stars -every evening; and now it is not so much as a span -high. From that day to this I have been here, and -I have never heard of the man for whom you inquire, -except once when I went in search of food as far as -Llyn Llyw. And when I came there, I struck my -talons into a salmon, thinking he would serve me as -food for a long time. But he drew me into the -deep, and I was scarcely able to escape from him. -After that I went with my whole kindred to attack -him, and to try to destroy him, but he sent messengers, -and made peace with me; and came and besought -me to take fifty fish spears out of his back. -Unless he know something of him whom you seek, -I cannot tell who may. However, I will guide you -to the place where he is.’”</p> - -<p class='c005'>It happened that the Salmon did know. With -every tide he went up the Severn as far as the walls -of Gloucester, and there, he said, he had found such -wrong as he had never found anywhere else. So he -took Kai and Gwrhyr upon his shoulders and carried -them to the wall of the prison where a captive was -heard lamenting. This was Mabon son of Modron, -who was suffering such imprisonment as not even -Lludd of the Silver Hand or Greid, the son of Eri,<a id='r449' /><a href='#f449' class='c010'><sup>[449]</sup></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_351'>351</span>the other two of the “Three Paramount Prisoners -of Britain”, had endured before him. But it came to -an end now; for Kai sent to Arthur, and he and his -warriors stormed Gloucester, and brought Mabon -away.</p> - -<p class='c005'>All was at last ready for the final achievement—the -hunting of Twrch Trwyth, who was now, with -his seven young pigs, in Ireland. Before he was -roused, it was thought wise to send the wizard -Menw to find out by ocular inspection whether the -comb, the scissors, and the razor were still between -his ears. Menw took the form of a bird, and settled -upon the Boar’s head. He saw the coveted treasures, -and tried to take one of them, but Twrch -Trwyth shook himself so violently that some of the -venom from his bristles spurted over Menw, who -was never quite well again from that day.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Then the hunt was up, the men surrounded him, -and the dogs were loosed at him from every side. -On the first day, the Irish attacked him. On the -second day, Arthur’s household encountered him and -were worsted. Then Arthur himself fought with -him for nine days and nine nights without even -killing one of the little pigs.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A truce was now called, so that Gwrhyr, who -spoke all languages, might go and parley with him. -Gwrhyr begged him to give up in peace the comb, -the scissors, and the razor, which were all that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_352'>352</span>Arthur wanted. But the Boar Trwyth, indignant -of having been so annoyed, would not. On the -contrary, he promised to go on the morrow into -Arthur’s country, and do all the harm he could -there.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Twrch Trwyth with his seven pigs crossed -the sea into Wales, and Arthur followed with his -warriors in the ship “Prydwen”. Here the story -becomes wonderfully realistic and circumstantial. -We are told of every place they passed through on -the long chase through South Wales, and can trace -the course of the hunt over the map.<a id='r450' /><a href='#f450' class='c010'><sup>[450]</sup></a> We know of -every check the huntsmen had, and what happened -every time the boars turned to bay. The “casualty-list” -of Arthur’s men is completely given; and we -can also follow the shrinking of Twrch Trwyth’s -herd, as his little pigs fell one by one. None were -left but Trwyth himself by the time the Severn -estuary was reached, at the mouth of the Wye.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Here the hunt came up with him, and drove him -into the water, and in this unfamiliar element he -was outmatched. Osla Big-Knife<a id='r451' /><a href='#f451' class='c010'><sup>[451]</sup></a>, Manawyddan -son of Llyr, Kacmwri, the servant of Arthur, and -Gwyngelli caught him by his four feet and plunged -his head under water, while the two chief huntsmen, -Mabon son of Modron, and Kyledyr Willt, came, -one on each side of him, and took the scissors and -the razor. Before they could get the comb, however, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_353'>353</span>he shook himself free, and struck out for -Cornwall, leaving Osla and Kacmwri half-drowned -in the Severn.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And all this trouble, we are told, was mere play -compared with the trouble they had with him in -Cornwall before they could get the comb. But, at -last, they secured it, and drove the boar out over -the deep sea. He passed out of sight, with two -of the magic hounds in pursuit of him, and none -of them have ever been heard of since.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The sight of these treasures, paraded before -Hawthorn, chief of giants, was, of course, his death-warrant. -All who wished him ill came to gloat -over his downfall. But they should have been put -to shame by the giant, whose end had, at least, a -certain dignity. “My daughter”, he said to Kulhwch, -“is yours, but you need not thank me for it, but -Arthur, who has accomplished all this. By my free -will you should never have had her, for with her I -lose my life.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Thereupon they cut off his head, and put it upon -a pole; and that night the undutiful Olwen became -Kulhwch’s bride.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_354'>354</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XXIII<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE GODS AS KING ARTHUR’S KNIGHTS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>It is not, however, by such fragments of legend -that Arthur is best known to English readers. Not -Arthur the god, but Arthur the “blameless king”, -who founded the Table Round, from which he sent -forth his knights “to ride abroad redressing human -wrongs”,<a id='r452' /><a href='#f452' class='c010'><sup>[452]</sup></a> is the figure which the name conjures up. -Nor is it even from Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte -Darthur that this conception comes to most of us, but -from Tennyson’s <i>Idylls of the King</i>. But Tennyson -has so modernized the ancient tradition that it retains -little of the old Arthur but the name. He tells us -himself that his poem had but very slight relation -to—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in8'>... “that gray king, whose name, a ghost,</div> - <div class='line'>Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain-peak,</div> - <div class='line'>And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still; or him</div> - <div class='line'>Of Geoffrey’s book, or him of Malleor’s ...”;<a id='r453' /><a href='#f453' class='c010'><sup>[453]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>but that he merely used the legend to give a substantial -form to his ideal figure of the perfect -English gentleman—a title to which the original -Arthur could scarcely have laid claim. Still less -does there remain in it the least trace of anything -that could suggest mythology.</p> - -<p class='c005'>As much as this, however, might be said of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_355'>355</span>Malory’s book. We may be fairly certain that the -good Sir Thomas had no idea that the personages -of whom he wrote had ever been anything different -from the Christian knights which they had become -in the late French romances from which he compiled -his own fifteenth-century work. The old gods had -been, from time to time, very completely euhemerized. -The characters of the “Four Branches of the -Mabinogi” are still recognizable as divine beings. -In the later Welsh stories, however, their divinity -merely hangs about them in shreds and tatters, and -the first Norman adapters of these stories made -them still more definitely human. By the time -Malory came to build up his Morte Darthur from -the foreign romances, they had altered so much that -the shapes and deeds of gods could only be recognized -under their mediæval knightly disguises by -those who had known them in their ancient forms.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We have chosen Malory’s Morte Darthur, as -almost the sole representative of Arthurian literature -later than the Welsh poems and prose stories, for -three reasons. Firstly, because it is the English -Arthurian romance <i>par excellence</i> from which all later -English authors, including Tennyson, have drawn -their material. Secondly, because the mass of foreign -literature dealing with the subject of Arthur is in -itself a life-study, and could not by any possibility -be compressed within the limits of a chapter. -Thirdly, because Malory’s fine judgment caused -him to choose the best and most typical foreign -tales to weave into his own romance; and hence -it is that we find most of our old British gods—both -<span class='pageno' id='Page_356'>356</span>those of the earlier cycle and those of the system -connected with Arthur—striding disguised through -his pages.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Curiously enough, Sir Edward Strachey, in his -preface to the “Globe” edition of Caxton’s Morte -Darthur, uses almost the same image to describe -Malory’s prose-poem that Matthew Arnold handled -with such effect, in his <i>Study of Celtic Literature</i>, -to point out the real nature of the Mabinogion. -“Malory”, he says, “has built a great, rambling, -mediæval castle, the walls of which enclose rude -and even ruinous work of earlier times.” How -rude and how ruinous these relics were Malory -doubtless had not the least idea, for he has completely -jumbled the ancient mythology. Not only -do gods of the older and newer order appear together, -but the same deities, under very often only -slightly varying names, come up again and again -as totally different characters.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Take, for example, the ancient deity of death and -Hades. As King Brandegore, or Brandegoris (Brân -of Gower), he brings five thousand mounted men to -oppose King Arthur;<a id='r454' /><a href='#f454' class='c010'><sup>[454]</sup></a> but, as Sir Brandel, or Brandiles -(Brân of Gwales<a id='r455' /><a href='#f455' class='c010'><sup>[455]</sup></a>), he is a valiant Knight of -the Round Table, who dies fighting in Arthur’s -service.<a id='r456' /><a href='#f456' class='c010'><sup>[456]</sup></a> Again, under his name of Uther Pendragon -(Uther Ben), he is Arthur’s father;<a id='r457' /><a href='#f457' class='c010'><sup>[457]</sup></a> though -as King Ban of Benwyk (the “Square Enclosure”, -doubtless the same as Taliesin’s <i>Caer Pedryvan</i> and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_357'>357</span>Malory’s <i>Carbonek</i>), he is a foreign monarch, who is -Arthur’s ally.<a id='r458' /><a href='#f458' class='c010'><sup>[458]</sup></a> Yet again, as the father of Guinevere, -Ogyrvran has become Leodegrance.<a id='r459' /><a href='#f459' class='c010'><sup>[459]</sup></a> As King -Uriens, or Urience, of Gore (Gower), he marries one -of Arthur’s sisters,<a id='r460' /><a href='#f460' class='c010'><sup>[460]</sup></a> fights against him, but finally -tenders his submission, and is enrolled among his -knights.<a id='r461' /><a href='#f461' class='c010'><sup>[461]</sup></a> Urien may also be identified in the Morte -Darthur as King Rience, or Ryons, of North Wales,<a id='r462' /><a href='#f462' class='c010'><sup>[462]</sup></a> -and as King Nentres of Garloth;<a id='r463' /><a href='#f463' class='c010'><sup>[463]</sup></a> while, to crown -the varied disguises of this Proteus of British gods, -he appears in an isolated episode as Balan, who fights -with his brother Balin until they kill one another.<a id='r464' /><a href='#f464' class='c010'><sup>[464]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>One may generally tell the divinities of the underworld -in these romances by their connection, not -with the settled and civilized parts of England, but -with the wild and remote north and west, and the -still wilder and remoter islands. Just as Brân and -Urien are kings of Gower, so Arawn, under the -corruptions of his name into “Anguish” and “Anguissance”, -is made King of Scotland or Ireland, -both countries having been probably confounded, -as the same land of the Scotti, or Gaels.<a id='r465' /><a href='#f465' class='c010'><sup>[465]</sup></a> Pwyll, -Head of Annwn, we likewise discover under two -disguises. As Pelles, “King of the Foreign Country”<a id='r466' /><a href='#f466' class='c010'><sup>[466]</sup></a> -and Keeper of the Holy Grail, he is a personage -of great mythological significance, albeit the -real nature of him and his surroundings has been -overlaid with a Christian veneer as foreign to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_358'>358</span>original of Pelles as his own kingdom was to -Arthur’s knights. The Chief of Hades figures as -a “cousin nigh unto Joseph of Arimathie”,<a id='r467' /><a href='#f467' class='c010'><sup>[467]</sup></a> who, -“while he might ride supported much Christendom, -and holy church”.<a id='r468' /><a href='#f468' class='c010'><sup>[468]</sup></a> He is represented as the father -of Elayne (Elen<a id='r469' /><a href='#f469' class='c010'><sup>[469]</sup></a>), whom he gives in marriage to -Sir Launcelot, bestowing upon the couple a residence -called “Castle Bliant”,<a id='r470' /><a href='#f470' class='c010'><sup>[470]</sup></a> the name of which, there is -good evidence to show, is connected with that of -Pwyll’s vassal called Teirnyon Twryf Vliant in the -first of the Mabinogi.<a id='r471' /><a href='#f471' class='c010'><sup>[471]</sup></a> Under his other name of -“Sir Pelleas”—the hero of Tennyson’s Idyll of -<i>Pelleas and Ettarre</i>—the primitive myth of Pwyll -is touched at a different point. After his unfortunate -love-passage with Ettarre (or Ettard, as -Malory calls her), Pelleas is represented as marrying -Nimue,<a id='r472' /><a href='#f472' class='c010'><sup>[472]</sup></a> whose original name, which was Rhiannon, -reached this form, as well as that of -“Vivien”, through a series of miscopyings of successive -scribes.<a id='r473' /><a href='#f473' class='c010'><sup>[473]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>With Pelles, or Pelleas, is associated a King -Pellean, or Pellam, his son, and, equally with him, -the Keeper of the Grail, who can be no other than -Pryderi.<a id='r474' /><a href='#f474' class='c010'><sup>[474]</sup></a> Like that deity in the Mabinogi of Mâth, -he is defeated by one of the gods of light. The -dealer of the blow, however, is not Arthur, as -successor to Gwydion, but Balin, the Gallo-British -sun-god Belinus.<a id='r475' /><a href='#f475' class='c010'><sup>[475]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_359'>359</span>Another dark deity, Gwyn son of Nudd, we discover -under all of his three titles. Called variously -“Sir Gwinas”,<a id='r476' /><a href='#f476' class='c010'><sup>[476]</sup></a> “Sir Guynas”,<a id='r477' /><a href='#f477' class='c010'><sup>[477]</sup></a> and “Sir Gwenbaus”<a id='r478' /><a href='#f478' class='c010'><sup>[478]</sup></a> -by Malory, the Welsh Gwynwas (or Gwyn) -is altogether on Arthur’s side. The Cornish Melwas, -split into two different knights, divides his -allegiance. As Sir Melias,<a id='r479' /><a href='#f479' class='c010'><sup>[479]</sup></a> or Meleaus,<a id='r480' /><a href='#f480' class='c010'><sup>[480]</sup></a> de Lile -(“of the Isle”), he is a Knight of the Round -Table, though, on the quarrel between Arthur and -Launcelot, he sides with the knight against the -king. But as Sir Meliagraunce, or Meliagaunce, -it is he who, as in the older myth, captures Queen -Guinevere and carries her off to his castle.<a id='r481' /><a href='#f481' class='c010'><sup>[481]</sup></a> Under -his Somerset name of Avallon, or Avallach, he is -connected with the episode of the Grail. King -Evelake<a id='r482' /><a href='#f482' class='c010'><sup>[482]</sup></a> is a Saracen ruler who was converted by -Joseph of Arimathea, and brought by him to Britain. -In his convert’s enthusiasm, he attempted the quest -of the holy vessel, but was not allowed to succeed.<a id='r483' /><a href='#f483' class='c010'><sup>[483]</sup></a> -As a consolation, however, it was divinely promised -him that he should not die until he had seen a -knight of his blood in the ninth degree who should -achieve it. This was done by Sir Percivale, King -Evelake being then three hundred years old.<a id='r484' /><a href='#f484' class='c010'><sup>[484]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Turning from deities of darkness to deities of -light, we find the sky-god figuring largely in the -Morte Darthur. The Lludd of the earlier mythology -is Malory’s King Loth, or Lot, of Orkney,<a id='r485' /><a href='#f485' class='c010'><sup>[485]</sup></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_360'>360</span>through an intrigue with whose wife Arthur becomes -the father of Sir Mordred. Lot’s wife was -the mother also of Sir Gawain, whose birth Malory -does not, however, attribute to Arthur, though such -must have been the original form of the myth.<a id='r486' /><a href='#f486' class='c010'><sup>[486]</sup></a> Sir -Gawain, of the Arthurian legend, is the Gwalchmei -of the Welsh stories, the successor of the still earlier -Lleu Llaw Gyffes, just as Sir Mordred—the Welsh -Medrawt—corresponds to Lleu’s brother Dylan. -As Sir Mordred retains the dark character of -Medrawt, so Sir Gawain, even in Malory,<a id='r487' /><a href='#f487' class='c010'><sup>[487]</sup></a> shows -the attributes of a solar deity. We are told that -his strength increased gradually from dawn till high -noon, and then as gradually decreased again—a piece -of pagan symbolism which forms a good example of -the appositeness of Sir Edward Strachey’s figure; -for it stands out of the mediæval narrative like an -ancient brick in some more modern building.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The Zeus of the later cycle, Emrys or Myrddin, -appears in the Morte Darthur under both his names. -The word “Emrys” becomes “Bors”, and King -Bors of Gaul is made a brother of King Ban of -Benwyck<a id='r488' /><a href='#f488' class='c010'><sup>[488]</sup></a>—that is, Brân of the Square Enclosure, -the ubiquitous underworld god. Myrddin we meet -under no such disguise. The ever-popular Merlin -still retains intact the attributes of the sky-god. -He remains above, and apart from all the knights, -higher even in some respects than King Arthur, -to whom he stands in much the same position as -Mâth does to Gwydion in the Mabinogi.<a id='r489' /><a href='#f489' class='c010'><sup>[489]</sup></a> Like -<span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span>Mâth, he is an enchanter, and, like Mâth, too, who -could hear everything said in the world, in however -low a tone, if only the wind met it, he is practically -omniscient. The account of his final disappearance, -as told in the Morte Darthur, is only a re-embellishment -of the original story, the nature-myth giving -place to what novelists call “a feminine interest”. -Everyone knows how the great magician fell into a -dotage upon the “lady of the lake” whom Malory -calls “Nimue”, and Tennyson “Vivien”—both -names being that of “Rhiannon” in disguise. -“Merlin would let her have no rest, but always he -would be with her ... and she was ever passing -weary of him, and fain would have been delivered -of him, for she was afeard of him because he was a -devil’s son, and she could not put him away by no -means. And so on a time it happed that Merlin -showed to her in a rock whereas was a great -wonder, and wrought by enchantment, that went -under a great stone. So, by her subtle working, -she made Merlin to go under that stone to let her -wit of the marvels there, but she wrought so there -for him that he never came out for all the craft -that he could do. And so she departed and left -Merlin.”<a id='r490' /><a href='#f490' class='c010'><sup>[490]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Merlin’s living grave is still to be seen at the end -of the <i>Val des Fées</i>, in the forest of Brécilien, in -Brittany. The tomb of stone is certainly but a -prosaic equivalent for the tower of woven air in -which the heaven-god went to his rest. Still, it is -not quite so unpoetic as the leather sack in which -<span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span>Rhiannon, the original of Nimue, caught and imprisoned -Gwawl, the earlier Merlin, like a badger -in a bag.<a id='r491' /><a href='#f491' class='c010'><sup>[491]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Elen, Myrddin’s consort, appears in Malory as -five different “Elaines”. Two of them are wives -of the dark god, under his names of “King Ban”<a id='r492' /><a href='#f492' class='c010'><sup>[492]</sup></a> -and “King Nentres”.<a id='r493' /><a href='#f493' class='c010'><sup>[493]</sup></a> A third is called the -daughter of King Pellinore, a character of uncertain -origin.<a id='r494' /><a href='#f494' class='c010'><sup>[494]</sup></a> But the two most famous are the -ladies who loved Sir Launcelot—“Elaine the Fair, -Elaine the lovable, Elaine the lily maid of Astolat”,<a id='r495' /><a href='#f495' class='c010'><sup>[495]</sup></a> -and the luckier and less scrupulous Elaine, daughter -of King Pelles, and mother of Sir Launcelot’s son, -Galahad.<a id='r496' /><a href='#f496' class='c010'><sup>[496]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>But it is time, now that the most important -figures of British mythology have been shown under -their knightly disguises, and their place in Arthurian -legend indicated, to pass on to some account of the -real subject-matter of Sir Thomas Malory’s romance. -Externally, it is the history of an Arthur, King of -Britain, whom most people of Malory’s time considered -as eminently a historical character. Around -this central narrative of Arthur’s reign and deeds -are grouped, in the form of episodes, the personal -exploits of the knights believed to have supported -him by forming a kind of household guard. But, -with the exception of a little magnified and distorted -legendary history, the whole cycle of romance may -<span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span>be ultimately resolved into a few myths, not only -retold, but recombined in several forms by their -various tellers. The Norman adapters of the -<i>Matière de Bretagne</i> found the British mythology -already in process of transformation, some of the -gods having dwindled into human warriors, and -others into hardly less human druids and magicians. -Under their hands the British warriors became -Norman knights, who did their deeds of prowess in -the tilt-yard, and found their inspiration in the fantastic -chivalry popularized by the Trouveres, while -the druids put off their still somewhat barbaric -druidism for the more conventional magic of the -Latin races. More than this, as soon as the real -sequence and <i>raison d’être</i> of the tales had been lost -sight of, their adapters used a free hand in reweaving -them. Most of the romancers had their favourite -characters whom they made the central figure in -their stories. Sir Gawain, Sir Percival, Sir Tristrem, -and Sir Owain (all of them probably once -local British sun-gods) appear as the most important -personages of the romances called after their names, -stories of the doughty deeds of christened knights -who had little left about them either of Briton or of -pagan.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is only the labours of the modern scholar that -can bring back to us, at this late date, things long -forgotten when Malory’s book was issued from -Caxton’s press. But oblivion is not annihilation, -and Professor Rhys points out to us the old myths -lying embedded in their later setting with almost -the same certainty with which the geologist can -<span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span>show us the fossils in the rock.<a id='r497' /><a href='#f497' class='c010'><sup>[497]</sup></a> Thus treated, they -resolve themselves into three principal <i>motifs</i>, prominent -everywhere in Celtic mythology: the birth -of the sun-god; the struggle between light and -darkness; and the raiding of the underworld by -friendly gods for the good of man.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The first has been already dealt with.<a id='r498' /><a href='#f498' class='c010'><sup>[498]</sup></a> It is the -retelling of the story of the origin of the sun-god -in the Mabinogi of Mâth, son of Mâthonwy. For -Gwydion we now have Arthur; instead of Arianrod, -the wife of the superannuated sky-god Nwyvre, we -find the wife of King Lot, the superannuated sky-god -Lludd; Lleu Llaw Gyffes rises again as Sir -Gawain (Gwalchmei), and Dylan as Sir Mordred -(Medrawt); while the wise Merlin, the Jupiter of -the new system, takes the place of his wise prototype, -Mâth. Connected with this first myth is the -second—the struggle between light and darkness, -of which there are several versions in the Morte -Darthur. The leading one is the rebellion of the -evilly-disposed Sir Mordred against Arthur and Sir -Gawain; while, on other stages, Balan—the dark -god Brân—fights with Balin—the sun-god Belinus; -and the same Balin, or Belinus, gives an almost -mortal stroke to Pellam, the Pryderi of the older -mythology.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The same myth has also a wider form, in which -the battle is waged for possession of a maiden. -Thus (to seek no other instances) Gwynhwyvar was -contended for by Arthur and Medrawt, or, in an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span>earlier form of the myth, by Arthur and Gwyn. In -the Morte Darthur, Gwyn, under the corruption of -his Cornish name Melwas into “Sir Meliagraunce”, -still captures Guinevere, but it is no longer Arthur -who rescues her. That task, or privilege, has fallen -to a new champion. It is Sir Launcelot who follows -Sir Meliagraunce, defeats and slays him, and rescues -the fair captive.<a id='r499' /><a href='#f499' class='c010'><sup>[499]</sup></a> But Sir Launcelot, it must be -stated—probably to the surprise of those to whom -the Arthurian story without Launcelot and Queen -Guinevere must seem almost like the play of -“Hamlet with Hamlet left out”,—is unknown to -the original tradition. Welsh song and story are -silent with regard to him, and he is not improbably -a creation of some Norman romancer who calmly -appropriated to his hero’s credit deeds earlier told -of other “knights”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>But the romantic treatment of these two myths -by the adapters of the <i>Matière de Bretagne</i> are of -smaller interest to us at the present day than that -of the third. The attraction of the Arthurian story -lies less in the battles of Arthur or the loves of -Guinevere than in the legend that has given it its -lasting popularity—the Christian romance of the -Quest of the Holy Grail. So great and various -has been the inspiration of this legend to noble -works both of art and literature that it seems almost -a kind of sacrilege to trace it back, like all the rest -of Arthur’s story, to a paganism which could not -have even understood, much less created, its mystical -beauty. None the less is the whole story -<span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span>directly evolved from primitive pagan myths concerning -a miraculous cauldron of fertility and inspiration.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In the later romances, the Holy Grail is a -Christian relic of marvellous potency. It had held -the Paschal lamb eaten at the Last Supper;<a id='r500' /><a href='#f500' class='c010'><sup>[500]</sup></a> and, -after the death of Christ, Joseph of Arimathea had -filled it with the Saviour’s blood.<a id='r501' /><a href='#f501' class='c010'><sup>[501]</sup></a> But before it -received this colouring, it had been the magic cauldron -of all the Celtic mythologies—the Dagda’s -“Undry” which fed all who came to it, and from -which none went away unsatisfied;<a id='r502' /><a href='#f502' class='c010'><sup>[502]</sup></a> Brân’s cauldron -of Renovation, which brought the dead back to life;<a id='r503' /><a href='#f503' class='c010'><sup>[503]</sup></a> -the cauldron of Ogyrvran the Giant, from which the -Muses ascended;<a id='r504' /><a href='#f504' class='c010'><sup>[504]</sup></a> the cauldrons captured by Cuchulainn -from the King of the Shadowy City,<a id='r505' /><a href='#f505' class='c010'><sup>[505]</sup></a> and by -Arthur from the chief of Hades;<a id='r506' /><a href='#f506' class='c010'><sup>[506]</sup></a> as well as several -other mythic vessels of less note.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In its transition from pagan to Christian form, -hardly one of the features of the ancient myth has -been really obscured. We may recount the chief -attributes, as Taliesin tells them in his “Spoiling of -Annwn”, of the cauldron captured by Arthur. It was -the property of Pwyll, and of his son Pryderi, who -lived in a kingdom of the other world called, among -other titles, the “Revolving Castle”, the “Four-cornered -Castle”, the “Castle of Revelry”, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span>“Kingly Castle”, the “Glass Castle”, and the -“Castle of Riches”. This place was surrounded by -the sea, and in other ways made difficult of access; -there was no lack of wine there, and its happy -inhabitants spent with music and feasting an existence -which neither disease nor old age could assail. -As for the cauldron, it had a rim of pearls around -its edge; the fire beneath it was kept fanned by the -breaths of nine maidens; it spoke, doubtless in -words of prophetic wisdom; and it would not cook -the food of a perjurer or coward.<a id='r507' /><a href='#f507' class='c010'><sup>[507]</sup></a> Here we have -considerable data on which to base a parallel between -the pagan cauldron and the Christian Grail.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Nor have we far to go in search of correspondences, -for they are nearly all preserved in -Malory’s romance. The mystic vessel was kept by -King Pelles, who is Pwyll, in a castle called “Carbonek”, -a name which resolves itself, in the hands -of the philologist, into <i>Caer bannawg</i>, the “square” -or “four-cornered castle”—in other words, the -<i>Caer Pedryvan</i> of Taliesin’s poem.<a id='r508' /><a href='#f508' class='c010'><sup>[508]</sup></a> Of the character -of the place as a “Castle of Riches” and a -“Castle of Revelry”, where “bright wine was the -drink of the host”, we have more than a hint in the -account, twice given,<a id='r509' /><a href='#f509' class='c010'><sup>[509]</sup></a> of how, upon the appearance -of the Grail—borne, it should be noticed, by a -maiden or angel—the hall was filled with good -odours, and every knight found on the table all the -kinds of meat and drink he could imagine as most -<span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span>desirable. It could not be seen by sinners,<a id='r510' /><a href='#f510' class='c010'><sup>[510]</sup></a> a -Christian refinement of the savage idea of a pot -that would not cook a coward’s food; but the sight -of it alone would cure of wounds and sickness those -who approached it faithfully and humbly,<a id='r511' /><a href='#f511' class='c010'><sup>[511]</sup></a> and in its -presence neither old age nor sickness could oppress -them.<a id='r512' /><a href='#f512' class='c010'><sup>[512]</sup></a> And, though in Malory we find no reference -either to the spot having been surrounded by -water, or to the castle as a “revolving” one, we -have only to turn from the Morte Darthur to the -romance entitled the <i>Seint Greal</i> to discover both. -Gwalchmei, going to the castle of King Peleur -(Pryderi), finds it encircled by a great water, while -Peredur, approaching the same place, sees it turning -with greater speed than the swiftest wind. Moreover, -archers on the walls shoot so vigorously that -no armour can resist their shafts, which explains -how it happened that, of those that went with -Arthur, “except seven, none returned from Caer -Sidi”.<a id='r513' /><a href='#f513' class='c010'><sup>[513]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>It is noticeable that Arthur himself never attempts -the quest of the Grail, though it was he -who had achieved its pagan original. We find in -Malory four competitors for the mantle of Arthur—Sir -Pelleas,<a id='r514' /><a href='#f514' class='c010'><sup>[514]</sup></a> Sir Bors, Sir Percivale, and Sir -Galahad.<a id='r515' /><a href='#f515' class='c010'><sup>[515]</sup></a> The first of these may be put out of -court at once, Sir Pelleas, who, being himself Pelles, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span>or Pwyll, the keeper of it, could have had no -reason for such exertions. At the second we may -look doubtfully; for Sir Bors is no other than -Emrys, or Myrddin,<a id='r516' /><a href='#f516' class='c010'><sup>[516]</sup></a> and, casting back to the -earlier British mythology, we do not find the -sky-god personally active in securing boons by -force or craft from the underworld. The other -two have better claims—Sir Percivale and Sir -Galahad. “Sir Percivale” is the Norman-French -name for Peredur,<a id='r517' /><a href='#f517' class='c010'><sup>[517]</sup></a> the hero of a story in the Red -Book of Hergest<a id='r518' /><a href='#f518' class='c010'><sup>[518]</sup></a> which gives the oldest form of -a Grail quest we have. It is anterior to the Norman -romances, and forms almost a connecting-link -between tales of mythology and of chivalry. Peredur, -or Sir Percivale, therefore, is the oldest, most -primitive, of Grail seekers. On the other hand, Sir -Galahad is the latest and youngest. But there is -reason to believe that Galahad, in Welsh “Gwalchaved”, -the “Falcon of Summer”, is the same -solar hero as Gawain, in Welsh “Gwalchmei”, the -“Falcon of May”.<a id='r519' /><a href='#f519' class='c010'><sup>[519]</sup></a> Both are made, in the story -of “Kulhwch and Olwen”, sons of the same mother, -Gwyar. Sir Gawain himself is, in one Arthurian -romance, the achiever of the Grail.<a id='r520' /><a href='#f520' class='c010'><sup>[520]</sup></a> It is needless -to attempt to choose between these two. Both -have the attributes of sun-gods. Gwalchmei, the -successor of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, and Peredur Paladrhir, -that is to say, the “Spearman with the Long -<span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>Shaft”,<a id='r521' /><a href='#f521' class='c010'><sup>[521]</sup></a> may be allowed to claim equal honours. -What is important is that the quest of the Grail, -once the chief treasure of Hades, is still accomplished -by one who takes in later legend the place -of Lieu Llaw Gyffes and Lugh Lamhfada in the -earlier British and Gaelic myths as a long-armed -solar deity victorious in his strife against the Powers -of Darkness.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_371'>371</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XXIV<br /> <br /><span class='small'>THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>If there be love of fame in celestial minds, those -gods might count themselves fortunate who shared -in the transformation of Arthur. Their divinity -had fallen from them, but in their new rôles, as -heroes of romance, they entered upon vivid reincarnations. -The names of Arthur’s Knights might -almost be described as “household words”, while -the gods who had no portion in the Table Round -are known only to those who busy themselves with -antiquarian lore. It is true that a few folk-tales -still survive in the remoter parts of Wales, in which -the names of such ancient British deities as Gwydion, -Gwyn, Arianrod, and Dylan appear, but it is in -such a chaos of jumbled and distorted legend that -one finds it hard to pick out even the slenderest -thread of story. They have none of the definite -coherence of the contemporary Gaelic folk-tales -quoted in a previous chapter as still preserving -the myths about Goibniu, Lugh, Cian, Manannán, -Ethniu, and Balor. Indeed, they have reached such -a stage of disintegration that they can hardly now -survive another generation.<a id='r522' /><a href='#f522' class='c010'><sup>[522]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>There have been, however, other paths by which -the fame of a god might descend to a posterity -<span class='pageno' id='Page_372'>372</span>which would no longer credit his divinity. The -rolls of early British history were open to welcome -any number of mythical personages, provided that -their legends were attractive. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s -famous <i>Historia Britonum</i> is, under its -grave pretence of exact history, as mythological as -the Morte Darthur, or even the Mabinogion. The -annals of early British saintship were not less -accommodating. A god whose tradition was too -potent to be ignored or extinguished was canonized, -as a matter of course, by clerics who held as an -axiom that “the toleration of the cromlech facilitated -the reception of the Gospel.<a id='r523' /><a href='#f523' class='c010'><sup>[523]</sup></a>” Only the most -irreconcilable escaped them—such a one as Gwyn -son of Nudd, who, found almost useless by Geoffrey -and intractable by the monkish writers, remains the -last survivor of the old gods—dwindled to the proportions -of a fairy, but unsubdued.</p> - -<p class='c005'>This part of resistance is perhaps the most dignified; -for deities can be sadly changed by the caprices -of their euhemerizers. Dôn, whom we knew as the -mother of the heaven gods, seems strangely described -as a <i>king</i> of Lochlin and Dublin, who led the Irish -into north Wales in <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 267.<a id='r524' /><a href='#f524' class='c010'><sup>[524]</sup></a> More recognizable -is <i>his</i> son Gwydion, who introduced the knowledge -of letters into the country of his adoption. The -dynasty of “King” Dôn, according to a manuscript -in the collection of Mr. Edward Williams—better -known under his bardic name of Iolo Morganwg—held -north Wales for a hundred and twenty-nine -<span class='pageno' id='Page_373'>373</span>years, when the North British king, Cunedda, invaded -the country, defeated the Irish in a great -battle, and drove them across sea to the Isle of Man. -This battle is historical, and, putting Dôn and Gwydion -out of the question, probably represented the -last stand of the Gael, in the extreme west of Britain, -against the second and stronger wave of Celtic invasion. -In the same collection of <i>Iolo Manuscripts</i> -is found a curious, and even comic, euhemeristic -version of the strange myth of the Bone Prison of -Oeth and Anoeth which Manawyddan son of Llyr, -built in Gower. The new reading makes that ghastly -abode a real building, constructed out of the bones of -the “Caesarians” (Romans) killed in battle with the -Cymri. It consisted of numerous chambers, some of -large bones and some of small, some above ground -and some under. Prisoners of war were placed in -the more comfortable cells, the underground dungeons -being kept for traitors to their country. -Several times the “Caesarians” demolished the -prison, but, each time, the Cymri rebuilt it stronger -than before. At last, however, the bones decayed, -and, being spread upon the ground, made an excellent -manure! “From that time forth” the people of -the neighbourhood “had astonishing crops of wheat -and barley and of every other grain for many years”.<a id='r525' /><a href='#f525' class='c010'><sup>[525]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>It is not, however, in these, so to speak, unauthorized -narratives that we can best refind our -British deities, but in the compact, coherent, and -at times almost convincing <i>Historia Britonum</i> of -Geoffrey of Monmouth, published in the first half of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_374'>374</span>the twelfth century, and for hundreds of years gravely -quoted as the leading authority on the early history -of our islands. The modern critical spirit has, of -course, relegated it to the region of fable. We can -no longer accept the pleasant tradition of the descent -of the Britons from the survivors of Troy, led westward -in search of a new home by Brutus, the great-grandson -of the pious Æneas. Nor indeed does -any portion of the “History”, from Æneas to Athelstan, -quite persuade the latter-day reader. Its -kings succeed one another in plausible sequence, -but they themselves are too obviously the heroes -of popular legend.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A large part of Geoffrey’s chronicle—two books<a id='r526' /><a href='#f526' class='c010'><sup>[526]</sup></a> -out of twelve—is, of course, devoted to Arthur. In -it he tells the story of that paladin’s conquests, not -only in his own country, against the Saxons, the -Irish, the Scots, and the Picts, but over all western -Europe. We see the British champion, after annexing -Ireland, Iceland, Gothland, and the Orkneys, -following up these minor victories by subduing Norway, -Dacia (by which Denmark seems to have been -meant), Aquitaine, and Gaul. After such triumphs -there was clearly nothing left for him but the overthrow -of the Roman empire; and this he had practically -achieved when the rebellion of Mordred -brought him home to his death, or rather (for even -Geoffrey does not quite lose hold of the belief in -the undying Arthur) to be carried to the island of -Avallon to be healed of his wounds, the crown of -Britain falling to “his kinsman Constantine, the son -<span class='pageno' id='Page_375'>375</span>of Cador, Duke of Cornwall, in the five hundred -and forty-second year of our Lord’s incarnation”.<a id='r527' /><a href='#f527' class='c010'><sup>[527]</sup></a> -Upon the more personal incidents connected with -Arthur, Geoffrey openly professes to keep silence, -possibly regarding them as not falling within the -province of his history, but we are told shortly how -Mordred took advantage of Arthur’s absence on the -Continent to seize the throne, marry Guanhamara -(Guinevere), and ally himself with the Saxons, only -to be defeated at that fatal battle called by Geoffrey -“Cambula”, in which Mordred, Arthur, and Walgan—the -“Sir Gawain” of Malory and the Gwalchmei -of the earlier legends—all met their dooms.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We find the gods of the older generation standing -in the same position with regard to Arthur in -Geoffrey’s “History” as they do in the later Welsh -triads and tales. Though rulers, they are yet his -vassals. In “three brothers of royal blood”, called -Lot, Urian, and Augusel, who are represented as -having been chiefs in the north, we may discern -Lludd, Urien, and Arawn. To these three Arthur -restored “the rights of their ancestors”, handing -over the semi-sovereignty of Scotland to Augusel, -giving Urian the government of Murief (Moray), -and re-establishing Lot “in the consulship of Loudonesia -(Lothian), and the other provinces belonging -to him”.<a id='r528' /><a href='#f528' class='c010'><sup>[528]</sup></a> Two other rulers subject to him are -Gunvasius, King of the Orkneys, and Malvasius, -King of Iceland,<a id='r529' /><a href='#f529' class='c010'><sup>[529]</sup></a> in whom we recognize Gwyn, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_376'>376</span>under Latinized forms of his Welsh name Gwynwas -and his Cornish name Melwas. But it is characteristic -of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s loose hold -upon his materials that, not content with having -connected several of these gods with Arthur’s period, -he further endows them with reigns of their own. -“Urien” was Arthur’s vassal, but “Urianus” was -himself King of Britain centuries before Arthur -was born.<a id='r530' /><a href='#f530' class='c010'><sup>[530]</sup></a> Lud (that is, Lludd) succeeded his father -Beli.<a id='r531' /><a href='#f531' class='c010'><sup>[531]</sup></a> We hear nothing of his silver hand, but -we learn that he was “famous for the building of -cities, and for rebuilding the walls of Trinovantum<a id='r532' /><a href='#f532' class='c010'><sup>[532]</sup></a>, -which he also surrounded with innumerable towers -... and though he had many other cities, yet he -loved this above them all, and resided in it the -greater part of the year; for which reason it was -afterwards called Kaerlud, and by the corruption -of the word, Caerlondon; and again by change of -languages, in process of time, London; as also -by foreigners who arrived here, and reduced this -country under their subjection, it was called -Londres. At last, when he was dead, his body -was buried by the gate which to this time is -called in the British tongue after his name -Parthlud, and in the Saxon, Ludesgata.” He was -succeeded by his brother, Cassibellawn (Cassivelaunus), -during whose reign Julius Caesar first -invaded Britain.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lludd, however, is not entirely dependent upon -Geoffrey of Monmouth for his reputation as a king -<span class='pageno' id='Page_377'>377</span>of Britain. One of the old Welsh romances,<a id='r533' /><a href='#f533' class='c010'><sup>[533]</sup></a> translated -by Lady Charlotte Guest in her Mabinogion, -relates the rebuilding of London by Lludd in -almost the same words as Geoffrey. The story -which these pseudo-historical details introduce is, -however, an obviously mythological one. It tells -us how, in the days of Lludd, Britain was oppressed -by three plagues. The first was the arrival of a -strange race of sorcerers called the “Coranians”,<a id='r534' /><a href='#f534' class='c010'><sup>[534]</sup></a> -who had three qualities which made them unpopular; -they paid their way in “fairy money”, -which, though apparently real, returned afterwards—like -the shields, horses, and hounds made by -Gwydion son of Dôn, to deceive Pryderi—into -the fungus out of which it had been charmed by -magic; they could hear everything that was said -over the whole of Britain, in however low a tone, -provided only that the wind met it; and they -could not be injured by any weapon. The second -was “a shriek that came on every May eve, over -every hearth in the Island of Britain, and went -through people’s hearts and so scared them that the -men lost their hue and their strength, and the women -their children, and the young men and the maidens -their senses, and all the animals and trees and the -earth and the waters were left barren”. The third -was a disappearance of the food hoarded in the -king’s palace, which was so complete that a year’s -provisions vanished in a single night, and so mysterious -that no one could ever find out its cause.</p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_378'>378</span>By the advice of his nobles, Lludd went to France -to obtain the help of its king, his brother Llevelys, -who was “a man great of counsel and wisdom”. -In order to be able to consult with his brother without -being overheard by the Coranians, Llevelys -caused a long tube of brass to be made, through -which they talked to one another. The sorcerer -tribe, however, got to know of it, and, though they -could not hear what was being said inside the speaking-tube, -they sent a demon into it, who whispered -insulting messages up and down it, as though from -one brother to the other. But Lludd and Llevelys -knew one another too well to be deceived by this, -and they drove the demon out of the tube by flooding -it with wine. Then Llevelys told Lludd to take -certain insects, which he would give him, and pound -them in water. When the water was sufficiently -permeated with their essence, he was to call both -his own people and the Coranians together, as -though for a conference, and, in the midst of the -meeting, to cast it over all of them alike. The -water, though harmless to his own people, would -nevertheless prove a deadly poison to the Coranians.</p> - -<p class='c005'>As for the shriek, Llevelys explained it to be -raised by a dragon. This monster was the Red -Dragon of Britain, and it raised the shriek because -it was being attacked by the White Dragon of the -Saxons, which was trying to overcome and destroy -it. The French king told his brother to measure -the length and breadth of Britain, and, when he -had found the exact centre of the island, to cause -a pit to be dug there. In this pit was to be placed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_379'>379</span>a vessel containing the best mead that could be -made, with a covering of satin over it to hide it. -Lludd was then to watch from some safe place. -The dragons would appear and fight in the air -until they were exhausted, then they would fall -together on to the top of the satin cloth, and so -draw it down with them into the vessel full of -mead. Naturally they would drink the mead, -and, equally naturally, they would then sleep. As -soon as Lludd was sure that they were helpless, -he was to go to the pit, wrap the satin cloth round -both of them, and bury them together in a stone -coffin in the strongest place in Britain. If this -were safely done, there would be no more heard -of the shriek.</p> - -<p class='c005'>And the disappearance of the food was caused -by “a mighty man of magic”, who put everyone -to sleep by charms before he removed the king’s -provisions. Lludd was to watch for him, sitting -by the side of a cauldron full of cold water. As -often as he felt the approach of drowsiness, he -was to plunge into the cauldron. Thus he would -be able to keep awake and frustrate the thief.</p> - -<p class='c005'>So Lludd came back to Britain. He pounded the -insects in the water, and then summoned both the -men of Britain and the Coranians to a meeting. In -the midst of it, he sprinkled the water over everyone -alike. The natives took no harm from this mythological -“beetle powder”, but the Coranians died.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lludd was then ready to deal with the dragons. -His careful measurements proved that the centre -of the island of Britain was at Oxford, and there he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_380'>380</span>caused the pit to be dug, with the vessel of mead in -it, hidden by the satin covering. Having made everything -ready, he watched, and soon saw the dragons -appear. For a long time they fought desperately -in the air; then they fell down together on to the -satin cloth, and, drawing it after them, subsided -into the mead. Lludd waited till they were quite -silent, and then pulled them out, folded them carefully -in the wrapping, and took them to the district -of Snowdon, where he buried them in the strong -fortress whose remains, near Beddgelert, are still -called “Dinas Emrys”. After this the terrible -shriek was not heard again until Merlin had them -dug up, five hundred years later, when they recommenced -fighting, and the red dragon drove the -white one out of Britain.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Last of all, Lludd prepared a great banquet in -his hall, and watched over it, armed, with the -cauldron of water near him. In the middle of the -night, he heard soft, drowsy music, such as nearly -put him to sleep; but he kept awake by repeatedly -dipping himself in the cold water. Just before dawn -a huge man, clad in armour, came into the hall, -carrying a basket, which he began to load with the -viands on the table. Like the bag in which Pwyll -captured Gwawl, its holding capacity seemed endless. -However, the man filled it at last, and was -carrying it out, when Lludd stopped him. They -fought, and Lludd conquered the man of magic, and -made him his vassal. Thus the “Three Plagues -of Britain” came to an end.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Lludd, in changing from god to king, seems to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_381'>381</span>have lost most of his old mythological attributes. -Even his daughter Creudylad is taken from him and -given to another of the ancient British deities. Why -Lludd, the sky-god, should have been confounded -with Llyr, the sea-god, is not very apparent, but it is -certain that “Creudylad” of the early Welsh legends -and poems is the same as Geoffrey’s “Cordeilla” -and Shakespeare’s “Cordelia”. The great dramatist -was ultimately indebted to the Celtic mythology for -the groundwork of the legend which he wove into -the tragic story of <i>King Lear</i>. “Leir”, as Geoffrey -calls him,<a id='r535' /><a href='#f535' class='c010'><sup>[535]</sup></a> was the son of Bladud, who built Caer -Badus (Bath), and perished, like Icarus, as the result -of an accident with a flying-machine of his own -invention. Having no sons, but three daughters, -Gonorilla, Regan, and Cordeilla, he thought in his -old age of dividing his kingdom among them. But, -first of all, he decided to make trial of their affection -for him, with the idea of giving the best portions of -his realm to the most worthy. Gonorilla, the eldest, -replied to his question of how much she loved him, -“that she called heaven to witness, she loved him -more than her own soul”. Regan answered “with -an oath, ‘that she could not otherwise express her -thoughts, but that she loved him above all creatures’”. -But when it came to Cordeilla’s turn, the youngest -daughter, disgusted with her sisters’ hypocrisy, spoke -after a quite different fashion. “‘My father,’ said -she, ‘is there any daughter that can love her father -more than duty requires? In my opinion, whoever -pretends to it, must disguise her real sentiments -<span class='pageno' id='Page_382'>382</span>under the veil of flattery. I have always loved you -as a father, nor do I yet depart from my purposed -duty; and if you insist to have something more -extorted from me, hear now the greatness of my -affection, which I always bear you, and take this -for a short answer to all your questions; look how -much you have, so much is your value, and so much -do I love you.’” Her enraged father immediately -bestowed his kingdom upon his two other daughters, -marrying them to the two highest of his nobility, -Gonorilla to Maglaunus, Duke of Albania<a id='r536' /><a href='#f536' class='c010'><sup>[536]</sup></a>, and -Regan to Henuinus, Duke of Cornwall. To Cordeilla -he not only refused a share in his realm, but -even a dowry. Aganippus, King of the Franks, -married her, however, for her beauty alone.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Once in possession, Leir’s two sons-in-law rebelled -against him, and deprived him of all regal authority. -The sole recompense for his lost power was an agreement -by Maglaunus to allow him maintenance, with -a body-guard of sixty soldiers. But, after two years, -the Duke of Albania, at his wife Gonorilla’s instigation, -reduced them to thirty. Resenting this, Leir -left Maglaunus, and went to Henuinus, the husband -of Regan. The Duke of Cornwall at first received -him honourably, but, before a year was out, compelled -him to discharge all his attendants except -five. This sent him back in a rage to his eldest -daughter, who, this time, swore that he should not -stay with her, unless he would be satisfied with one -serving-man only. In despair, Leir resolved to -throw himself upon the mercy of Cordeilla, and, full -<span class='pageno' id='Page_383'>383</span>of contrition for the way he had treated her, and of -misgivings as to how he might be received, took -ship for Gaul.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Arriving at Karitia<a id='r537' /><a href='#f537' class='c010'><sup>[537]</sup></a>, he sent a messenger to his -daughter, telling her of his plight and asking for her -help. Cordeilla sent him money, robes, and a retinue -of forty men, and, as soon as he was fully equipped -with the state suitable to a king, he was received in -pomp by Aganippus and his ministers, who gave the -government of Gaul into his hands until his own -kingdom could be restored to him. This the king -of the Franks did by raising an army and invading -Britain. Maglaunus and Henuinus were routed, -and Leir replaced on the throne, after which he -lived three years. Cordeilla, succeeding to the -government of Britain, “buried her father in a -certain vault, which she ordered to be made for him -under the River Sore, in Leicester (”Llyr-cestre“), -and which had been built originally under the ground -to the honour of the god Janus. And here all the -workmen of the city, upon the anniversary solemnity -of that festival, used to begin their yearly labours.”</p> - -<p class='c005'>Exactly what myth is retold in this history of -Leir and his three daughters we are hardly likely -ever to discover. But its mythological nature is -clear enough in the light of the description of the -underground temple dedicated to Llyr, at once the -god of the subaqueous, and therefore subterranean, -world and a British Dis Pater, connected with the -origin of things, like the Roman god Janus, with -whom he was apparently identified.<a id='r538' /><a href='#f538' class='c010'><sup>[538]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_384'>384</span>Ten kings or so after this (for any more exact -way of measuring the flight of time is absent from -Geoffrey’s <i>History</i>) we recognize two other British -gods upon the scene. Brennius (that is, Brân) -disputes the kingdom with his brother Belinus. -Clearly this is a version of the ancient myth of -the twin brothers, Darkness and Light, which we -have seen expressed in so many ways in Celtic -mythology. Brân, the god of death and the underworld, -is opposed to Belinus, god of the sun and -health. In the original, lost myth, probably they -alternately conquered and were conquered—a symbol -of the alternation of night and day and of winter and -summer. In Geoffrey’s <i>History</i><a id='r539' /><a href='#f539' class='c010'><sup>[539]</sup></a>, they divided Britain, -Belinus taking “the crown of the island with -the dominions of Loegria, Kambria, and Cornwall, -because, according to the Trojan constitution, the -right of inheritance would come to him as the elder”, -while Brennius, as the younger, had “Northumberland, -which extended from the River Humber to -Caithness”. But flatterers persuaded Brennius to -ally himself with the King of the Norwegians, and -attack Belinus. A battle was fought, in which -Belinus was conqueror, and Brennius escaped to -Gaul, where he married the daughter of the Duke -of the Allobroges, and on that ruler’s death was -declared successor to the throne. Thus firmly -established with an army, he invaded Britain again. -Belinus marched with the whole strength of the kingdom -to meet him, and the armies were already drawn -<span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span>out opposite to one another in battle array when -Conwenna, the mother of the two kings, succeeded in -reconciling them. Not having one another to fight -with, the brothers now agreed upon a joint expedition -with their armies into Gaul. The Britons and the -Allobroges conquered all the other kings of the -Franks, and then entered Italy, destroying villages -and cities as they marched to Rome. Gabius and -Porsena, the Roman consuls, bought them off with -large presents of gold and silver and the promise of -a yearly tribute, whereupon Brennius and Belinus -withdrew their army into Germany and began to -devastate it. But the Romans, now no longer taken -by surprise and unprepared, came to the help of the -Germans. This brought Brennius and Belinus back -to Rome, which, after a long siege, they succeeded -in taking. Brennius remained in Italy, “where he -exercised unheard-of tyranny over the people”; and -one may take the whole of this veracious history to -be due to a patriotic desire to make out the Brennus -of “Vae Victis” fame—who actually did sack Rome, -in <span class='fss'>B.C.</span> 390—a Briton. Belinus, the other brother, -returned to England. “He made a gate of wonderful -structure in Trinovantum, upon the bank of the -Thames, which the citizens call after his name -Billingsgate to this day. Over it he built a prodigiously -large tower, and under it a haven or quay -for ships.... At last, when he had finished his -days, his body was burned, and the ashes put up in -a golden urn, which they placed at Trinovantum, -with wonderful art, on the top of the tower above -mentioned.” He was succeeded by Gurgiunt Brabtruc,<a id='r540' /><a href='#f540' class='c010'><sup>[540]</sup></a> -<span class='pageno' id='Page_386'>386</span>who, as he was returning by way of the -Orkneys from a raid on the Danes, met the ships of -Partholon and his people as they came from Spain -to settle in Ireland.<a id='r541' /><a href='#f541' class='c010'><sup>[541]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Llyr and his children, large as they bulk in mythical -history, were hardly less illustrious as saints. -The family of Llyr Llediath is always described by -the early Welsh hagiologists as the first of the -“Three chief Holy Families of the Isle of Britain”. -The glory of Llyr himself, however, is but a reflected -one; for it was his son Brân “the Blesséd” who -actually introduced Christianity into Britain. Legend -tells us that he was taken captive to Rome with his -son Caradawc (who was identified for the purpose -with the historical Caratacus), and the rest of his -family, and remained there seven years, during -which time he became converted to the Gospel, and -spread it enthusiastically on his return. Neither his -son Caradawc nor his half-brother Manawyddan -exactly followed in his footsteps, but their descendants -did. Caradawc’s sons were all saintly, while -his daughter Eigen, who married a chief called Sarrlog, -lord of Caer Sarrlog (Old Sarum), was the first -female saint in Britain. Manawyddan’s side of the -family was less adaptable. His son and his grandson -were both pagans, but his great-grandson -obtained Christian fame as St. Dyfan, who was -sent as a bishop to Wales by Pope Eleutherius, -and was martyred at Merthyr Dyvan. After this, -the saintly line of Llyr increases and flourishes. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_387'>387</span>Singularly inappropriate persons are found in it—Mabon, -the Gallo-British Apollo, as well as Geraint -and others of King Arthur’s court.<a id='r542' /><a href='#f542' class='c010'><sup>[542]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>It is so quaint a conceit that Christianity should -have been, like all other things, the gift of the Celtic -Hades, that it seems almost a pity to cast doubt on -it. The witness of the classical historians sums up, -however, dead in its disfavour. Tacitus carefully -enumerates the family of Caratacus, and describes -how he and his wife, daughter, and brother were -separately interviewed by the Emperor Claudius, -but makes no mention at all of the chieftain’s supposed -father Brân. Moreover, Dio Cassius gives -the name of Caratacus’s father as Cunobelinus—Shakespeare’s -“Cymbeline”—who, he adds, had -died before the Romans first invaded Britain. The -evidence is wholly against Brân as a Christian -pioneer. He remains the grim old god of war and -death, “blesséd” only to his pagan votaries, and -especially to the bards, who probably first called him -<i>Bendigeid Vran</i>, and whose stubborn adherence -must have been the cause of the not less stubborn -efforts of their enemies, the Christian clerics, to -bring him over to their own side by canonization.<a id='r543' /><a href='#f543' class='c010'><sup>[543]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>They had an easier task with Brân’s sister, Branwen -of the “Fair Bosom”. Goddesses, indeed, seem -to have stood the process better than gods—witness -“Saint” Brigit, the “Mary of the Gael”. The -<span class='pageno' id='Page_388'>388</span>British Aphrodité became, under the name of Brynwyn, -or Dwynwen, a patron saint of lovers. As -late as the fourteenth century, her shrine at Llandwynwyn, -in Anglesey, was the favourite resort of -the disappointed of both sexes, who came to pray -to her image for either success or forgetfulness. To -make the result the more certain, the monks of the -church sold Lethean draughts from her sacred well. -The legend told of her is that, having vowed herself -to perpetual celibacy, she fell in love with a young -chief called Maelon. One night, as she was praying -for guidance in her difficulty, she had a vision in -which she was offered a goblet of delicious liquor as -a draught of oblivion, and she also saw the same -sweet medicine given to Maelon, whom it at once -froze into a block of ice. She was then, for her -faith, offered the granting of three boons. The first -she chose was that Maelon might be allowed to resume -his natural form and temperature; the second, -that she should no longer desire to be married; and -the third, that her intercessions might be granted -for all true-hearted lovers, so that they should either -wed the objects of their affection or be cured of -their passion.<a id='r544' /><a href='#f544' class='c010'><sup>[544]</sup></a> From this cause came the virtues of -her shrine and fountain. But the modern generation -no longer flocks there, and the efficacious well is -choked with sand. None the less, she whom the -Welsh bards called the “Saint of Love”<a id='r545' /><a href='#f545' class='c010'><sup>[545]</sup></a> still -has her occasional votaries. Country girls of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_389'>389</span>neighbourhood seek her help when all else fails. -The water nearest to the church is thought to be -the best substitute for the now dry and ruined -original well.<a id='r546' /><a href='#f546' class='c010'><sup>[546]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>A striking contrast to this easy victory over -paganism is the stubborn resistance to Christian -adoption of Gwyn son of Nudd. It is true that he -was once enrolled by some monk in the train of the -“Blesséd Brân”,<a id='r547' /><a href='#f547' class='c010'><sup>[547]</sup></a> but it was done in so half-hearted -a way that, even now, one can discern that the -writer felt almost ashamed of himself. His fame -as at least a powerful fairy was too vital to be -thus tampered with. Even Spenser, though, in his -<i>Faerie Queene</i>, he calls him “the good Sir Guyon -... in whom great rule of Temp’raunce goodly doth -appeare”,<a id='r548' /><a href='#f548' class='c010'><sup>[548]</sup></a> does not attempt to conceal his real -nature. It is no man, but</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>“an Elfin born, of noble state</div> - <div class='line'>And mickle worship in his native land”,<a id='r549' /><a href='#f549' class='c010'><sup>[549]</sup></a></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c005'>who sets forth the beauties of that virtue for which -the original Celtic paradise, with its unfailing ale -and rivers of mead and wine, would hardly seem -to have been the best possible school. Save for -Spenser, all authorities agree in making Gwyn the -determined opponent of things Christian. A curious -and picturesque legend<a id='r550' /><a href='#f550' class='c010'><sup>[550]</sup></a> is told of him in connection -with St. Collen, who was himself the great-grandson -of Brân’s son, Caradawc. The saint, desirous of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_390'>390</span>still further retirement from the world, had made -himself a cell beneath a rock near Glastonbury Tor, -in Gwyn’s own “island of Avilion”. It was close -to a road, and one day he heard two men pass by -talking about Gwyn son of Nudd, and declaring -him to be King of Annwn and the fairies. St. -Collen put his head out of the cell, and told them to -hold their tongues, and that Gwyn and his fairies -were only demons. The two men retorted by -warning the saint that he would soon have to meet -the dark ruler face to face. They passed on, and -not long afterwards St. Collen heard someone -knocking at his door. On asking who was there, -he got the answer: “I am here, the messenger of -Gwyn ap Nudd, King of Hades, to bid thee come -by the middle of the day to speak with him on the -top of the hill.” The saint did not go; and the -messenger came a second time with the same message. -On the third visit, he added a threat that, if -St. Collen did not come now, it would be the worse -for him. So, a little disquieted, he went, but not -unarmed. He consecrated some water, and took -it with him.</p> - -<p class='c005'>On other days the top of Glastonbury Tor had -always been bare, but on this occasion the saint -found it crowned by a splendid castle. Men and -maidens, beautifully dressed, were going in and -out. A page received him and told him that the -king was waiting for him to be his guest at dinner. -St. Collen found Gwyn sitting on a golden chair in -front of a table covered with the rarest dainties and -wines. He invited him to share them, adding that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_391'>391</span>if there was anything he especially liked, it should -be brought to him with all honour. “I do not eat -the leaves of trees,” replied the saint, who knew -what fairy meats and drinks were made of. Not -taken aback by this discourteous answer, the King -of Annwn genially asked the saint if he did not -admire his servants’ livery, which was a motley -costume, red on one side and blue on the other. -“Their dress is good enough for its kind,” said St. -Collen. “What kind is that?” asked Gwyn. “The -red shows which side is being scorched, and the -blue shows which side is being frozen,” replied the -saint, and, splashing his holy water all round him, -he saw castle, serving-men, and king vanish, leaving -him alone on the bare, windy hill-top.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Gwyn, last of the gods of Annwn, has evidently by -this time taken over the functions of all the others. -He has the hounds which Arawn once had—the -<i>Cwn Annwn</i>, “dogs of hell”, with the white bodies -and the red ears. We hear more of them in folklore -than we do of their master, though even their -tradition is dying out with the spread of newspapers -and railways. We are not likely to find another -Reverend Edmund Jones<a id='r551' /><a href='#f551' class='c010'><sup>[551]</sup></a> to insist upon belief in -them, lest, by closing our minds to such manifest -witnesses of the supernatural world, we should -become infidels. Still, we may even now find -peasants ready to swear that they have heard them -sweeping along the hill-sides upon stormy nights, as -they pursued the flying souls of unshriven men or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_392'>392</span>unbaptized babes. The tales told of them agree -curiously. Their cry is like that of a pack of foxhounds, -but softer in tone. The nearer they are to -a man, the less loud their voices seem, and the -farther off they are, the louder. But they are less -often seen than heard, and it has been suggested -that the sounds were the cries of migrating bean-geese, -which are not unlike those of hounds in -chase. The superstition is widely spread. The -<i>Cwn Annwn</i> of Wales are called in North Devon -the “Yeth” (Heath or Heathen), or “Yell” -Hounds, and on Dartmoor, the “Wish” Hounds. -In Durham and Yorkshire they are called “Gabriel” -Hounds, and they are known by various names in -Norfolk, Gloucestershire, and Cornwall. In Scotland -it is Arthur who leads the Wild Hunt, and the -tradition is found over almost the whole of western -Europe.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Not many folk-tales have been preserved in -which Gwyn is mentioned by name. His memory -has lingered longest and latest in the fairy-haunted -Vale of Neath, so close to his “ridge, the Tawë abode -... not the nearest Tawë ... but that Tawë which -is the farthest”. But it may be understood whenever -the king of the fairies is mentioned. As the -last of the greater gods of the old mythology, he -has been endowed by popular fancy with the rule of -all the varied fairy population of Britain, so far, at -least, as it is of Celtic or pre-Celtic origin. For -some of the fairies most famous in English literature -are Teutonic. King Oberon derives his name, -through the French <i>fabliaux</i>, from Elberich, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_393'>393</span>dwarf king of the <i>Niebelungenlied</i>,<a id='r552' /><a href='#f552' class='c010'><sup>[552]</sup></a> though his -queen, Titania, was probably named out of Ovid’s -<i>Metamorphoses</i>.<a id='r553' /><a href='#f553' class='c010'><sup>[553]</sup></a> Puck, another of Shakespeare’s -fays, is merely the personification of his race, the -“pwccas” of Wales, “pookas” of Ireland, “poakes” -of Worcestershire, and “pixies” of the West of -England.<a id='r554' /><a href='#f554' class='c010'><sup>[554]</sup></a> It is Wales that at the present time -preserves the most numerous and diverse collection -of fairies. Some of them are beautiful, some hideous; -some kindly, some malevolent. There are -the gentle damsels of the lakes and streams called -Gwragedd Annwn, and the fierce and cruel mountain -fairies known as the Gwyllion. There are the -household sprites called Bwbachod, like the Scotch -and English “brownies”; the Coblynau, or gnomes -of the mines (called “knockers” in Cornwall); and -the Ellyllon, or elves, of whom the pwccas are a -branch.<a id='r555' /><a href='#f555' class='c010'><sup>[555]</sup></a> In the North of England the spirits -belong more wholly to the lower type. The bogles, -brownies, killmoulis, redcaps, and their like seem -little akin to the higher, Aryan-seeming fairies. -The Welsh bwbach, too, is described as brown and -hairy, and the coblynau as black or copper-faced. -We shall hardly do wrong in regarding such -spectres as the degraded gods of a pre-Aryan race, -like the Irish leprechauns and pookas, who have -nothing in common with the still beautiful, still -noble figures of the Tuatha Dé Danann.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Of these numberless and nameless subjects of -Gwyn, some dwell beneath the earth or under the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_394'>394</span>surface of lakes—which seem to take, in Wales, the -place of the Gaelic “fairy hills”—and others in -Avilion, a mysterious western isle of all delights -lying on or just beneath the sea. Pembrokeshire—the -ancient Dyfed—has kept the tradition most -completely. The story goes that there is a certain -square yard in the hundred of Cemmes in that county -which holds the secret of the fairy realm. If a man -happens to set his feet on it by chance, his eyes are -opened, and he can see that which is hidden from -other men—the fairy country and commonwealth,—but, -the moment he moves from the enchanted spot, -he loses the vision, and he can never find the same -place again.<a id='r556' /><a href='#f556' class='c010'><sup>[556]</sup></a> That country is upon the sea, and -not far from shore; like the Irish paradise of which -it is the counterpart, it may sometimes be sighted -by sailors. The “Green Meadows of Enchantment” -are still an article of faith among Pembrokeshire -and Caermarthenshire sailors, and evidently -not without some reason. In 1896 a correspondent -of the <i>Pembroke County Guardian</i> sent in a report -made to him by a certain Captain John Evans to -the effect that, one summer morning, while trending -up the Channel, and passing Gresholm Island (the -scene of the entertaining of Brân’s head), in what -he had always known as deep water, he was surprised -to see to windward of him a large tract of -land covered with a beautiful green meadow. It -was not, however, above water, but two or three -feet below it, so that the grass waved or swam about -as the ripple floated over it, in a way that made one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_395'>395</span>who watched it feel drowsy. Captain Evans had -often heard of the tradition of the fairy island from -old people, but admitted that he had never hoped to -see it with his own eyes.<a id='r557' /><a href='#f557' class='c010'><sup>[557]</sup></a> As with the “Hounds of -Annwn” one may suspect a quite natural explanation. -Mirage is at once common enough and rare -enough on our coasts to give rise to such a legend, -and it must have been some such phenomenon as -the “Fata Morgana” of Sicily which has made -sober men swear so confidently to ocular evidence of -the Celtic Paradise, whether seen from the farthest -western coasts of Gaelic Ireland or Scotland, or of -British Wales.</p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_397'>397</span> - <h2 class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC<br />PAGANISM</span></h2> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c011' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_399'>399</span> - <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER XXV<br /> <br /><span class='small'>SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM INTO MODERN<br />TIMES</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c004'>The fall of the Celtic state worship began earlier -in Britain than in her sister island. Neither was it -Christianity that struck the first blow, but the rough -humanity and stern justice of the Romans. That -people was more tolerant, perhaps, than any the -world has ever known towards the religions of -others, and gladly welcomed the Celtic gods—as -gods—into its own diverse Pantheon. A friendly -Gaulish or British divinity might at any time be -granted the so-to-speak divine Roman citizenship, -and be assimilated to Jupiter, to Mars, to Apollo, or -to any other properly accredited deity whom the -Romans deemed him to resemble. It was not -against the god, but against his worship at the hands -of his priests, that Roman law struck. The colossal -human sacrifices of the druids horrified even a -people who were far from squeamish about a little -bloodshed. They themselves had abolished such -practices by a decree of the senate before Caesar -first invaded Britain,<a id='r558' /><a href='#f558' class='c010'><sup>[558]</sup></a> and could not therefore permit -within their empire a cult which slaughtered men -in order to draw omens from their death-agonies.<a id='r559' /><a href='#f559' class='c010'><sup>[559]</sup></a> -Druidism was first required to be renounced by -<span class='pageno' id='Page_400'>400</span>those who claimed Roman citizenship; then it was -vigorously put down among the less civilized tribes. -Tacitus tells us how the Island of Mona (Anglesey)—the -great stronghold of druidism—was attacked, -its sacred groves cut down, its altars laid level, and -its priests put to the sword.<a id='r560' /><a href='#f560' class='c010'><sup>[560]</sup></a> Pliny, recording how -the Emperor Tiberius had “suppressed the druids”, -congratulates his fellow-countrymen on having put -an end, wherever their dominion extended, to the -monstrous customs inspired by the doctrine that the -gods could take pleasure in murder and cannibalism.<a id='r561' /><a href='#f561' class='c010'><sup>[561]</sup></a> -The practice of druidism, with its attendant barbarities, -abolished in Britain wherever the long Roman -arm could reach to strike, took refuge beyond the -Northern Wall, among the savage Caledonian -tribes who had not yet submitted to the invader’s -yoke. Naturally, too, it remained untouched in -Ireland. But before the Romans left Britain, it had -been extirpated everywhere, except among “the -Picts and Scots”.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Christianity, following the Roman rule, completed -the ruin of paganism in Britain, so far, at least, as -its public manifestations were concerned. In the -sixth century of our era, the monkish writer, Gildas, -is able to refer complacently to the ancient British -religion as a dead faith. “I shall not”, he says, -“enumerate those diabolical idols of my country, -which almost surpassed in number those of Egypt, -and of which we still see some mouldering away -within or without the deserted temples, with stiff -and deformed features as was customary. Nor will -<span class='pageno' id='Page_401'>401</span>I cry out upon the mountains, fountains, or hills, or -upon the rivers, which now are subservient to the -use of men, but once were an abomination and -destruction to them, and to which the blind people -paid divine honour.”<a id='r562' /><a href='#f562' class='c010'><sup>[562]</sup></a> And with the idols fell the -priests. The very word “druid” became obsolete, -and is scarcely mentioned in the earliest British -literature, though druids are prominent characters -in the Irish writings of the same period.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The secular arm had no power in Scotland and -in Ireland, consequently the battle between Paganism -and Christianity was fought upon more equal terms, -and lasted longer. In the first country, Saint Columba, -and in the second, Saint Patrick are the -personages who, at any rate according to tradition, -beat down the druids and their gods. Adamnan, -Abbot of Iona, who wrote his <i>Vita Columbæ</i> in the -last decade of the seventh century, describes how, -a century earlier, that saint had carried the Gospel -to the Picts. Their king, Brude, received him contemptuously, -and the royal druids left no heathen -spell unuttered to thwart and annoy him. But, as -the power of Moses was greater than the power of -the magicians of Egypt, so Saint Columba’s prayers -caused miracles more wonderful and more convincing -than any wrought by his adversaries. Such -stories belong to the atmosphere of myth which has -always enveloped heroic men; the essential fact is -that the Picts abandoned the old religion for the -new.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A similar legend sums up the life-work of Saint -<span class='pageno' id='Page_402'>402</span>Patrick in Ireland. Before he came, Cromm -Cruaich had received from time immemorial his -yearly toll of human lives. But Saint Patrick faced -the gruesome idol; as he raised his crozier, we are -told, the demon fell shrieking from his image, which, -deprived of its soul, bowed forward to the ground.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is far easier, however, to overthrow the more -public manifestations of a creed than to destroy its -inner vital force. Cromm Cruaich’s idol might fall, -but his spirit would survive—a very Proteus. The -sacred places of the ancient Celtic religion might be -invaded, the idols and altars of the gods thrown -down, the priests slain, scattered, or banished, and -the cult officially declared to be extinct; but, -driven from the important centres, it would yet -survive outside and around them. The more civilized -Gaels and Britons would no doubt accept the -purer gospel, and abandon the gods they had once -adored, but the peasantry—the bulk of the population—would -still cling to the familiar rites and -names. A nobler belief and a higher civilization -come, after all, only as surface waves upon the great -ocean of human life; beneath their agitations lies a -vast slumbering abyss of half-conscious faith and -thought to which culture penetrates with difficulty -and in which changes come very slowly.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We have already shown how long and how faithfully -the Gaelic and Welsh peasants clung to their -old gods, in spite of all the efforts of the clerics to -explain them as ancient kings, to transform them -into wonder-working saints, or to ban them as -demons of hell. This conservative religious instinct -<span class='pageno' id='Page_403'>403</span>of the agricultural populations is not confined to the -inhabitants of the British Islands. The modern -Greeks still believe in nereids, in lamias, in sirens, -and in Charon, the dark ferryman of Hades.<a id='r563' /><a href='#f563' class='c010'><sup>[563]</sup></a> The -descendants of the Romans and Etruscans hold that -the old Etruscan gods and the Roman deities of the -woods and fields still live in the world as spirits.<a id='r564' /><a href='#f564' class='c010'><sup>[564]</sup></a> -The high altars of the “Lord of the Mound” and -his terrible kin were levelled, and their golden -images and great temples left to moulder in abandonment; -but the rude rustic shrine to the rude rustic -god still received its offerings. It is this shifting -of the care of the pagan cult from chief to peasant, -from court to hovel, and, perhaps, to some extent -from higher to lower race, that serves to explain -how the more primitive and uncouth gods have -tended so largely to supplant those of higher, more -graceful mien. Aboriginal deities, thrust into -obscurity by the invasion of higher foreign types, -came back to their own again.</p> - -<p class='c005'>For it seems plain that we must divide the -spiritual population of the British Islands into two -classes. There is little in common between the -“fairy”, strictly so-called, and the unsightly elf who -appears under various names and guises, as pooka, -leprechaun, brownie, knocker, or bogle. The one -belongs to such divine tribes as the Tuatha Dé -Danann of Gaelic myth or their kin, the British -gods of the Mabinogion. The other owes his origin -<span class='pageno' id='Page_404'>404</span>to a quite different, and much lower, kind of imagination. -One might fancy that neolithic man made him -in his own image.</p> - -<p class='c005'>None the less has immemorial tradition wonderfully -preserved the essential features of the Celtic -nature-gods. The fairy belief of the present day -hardly differs at all from the conception which the -Celts had of their deities. The description of the -Tuatha Dé Danann in the “Dialogue of the Elders” -as “sprites or fairies with corporeal or material -forms but indued with immortality” would stand as -an account of prevailing ideas as to the “good -people” to-day. Nor do the Irish and Welsh -fairies of popular belief differ from one another. -Both alike live among the hills, though in Wales -a lake often takes the place of the “fairy mound”; -both, though they war and marry among themselves, -are semi-immortal; both covet the children -of men, and will steal them from the cradle, leaving -one of their own uncanny brood in the mortal baby’s -stead; both can lay men and women under spells; -both delight in music and the dance, and live lives -of unreal and fantastic splendour and luxury. -Another point in which they resemble one another -is in their tiny size. But this would seem to be the -result of the literary convention originated by Shakespeare; -in genuine folktales, both Gaelic and British, -the fairies are pictured as of at least mortal stature.<a id='r565' /><a href='#f565' class='c010'><sup>[565]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>But, Aryan or Iberian, beautiful or hideous, they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_405'>405</span>are fast vanishing from belief. Every year, the -secluded valleys in which men and women might -still live in the old way, and dream the old dreams, -tend more and more to be thrown open to the -modern world of rapid movement and rapid thought. -The last ten years have perhaps done more in this -direction than the preceding ten generations. What -lone shepherd or fisherman will ever see again the -vision of the great Manannán? Have the stable-boys -of to-day still any faith left in Finvarra? Is -Gwyn ap Nudd often thought of in his own valleys -of the Tawë and the Nedd? It would be hard, -perhaps, to find a whole-hearted believer even in -his local pooka or parish bogle.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It is the ritual observances of the old Celtic faith -which have better weathered, and will longer survive, -the disintegrating influences of time. There are no -hard names to be remembered. Things may still -be done for “luck” which were once done for religion. -Customary observances die very slowly, -held up by an only half acknowledged fear that, -unless they are fulfilled, “something may happen”. -We shall get, therefore, more satisfactory evidence -of the nature of the Celtic paganism by examining -such customs than in any other way.</p> - -<p class='c005'>We find three forms of the survival of the ancient -religion into quite recent times. The first is the -celebration of the old solar or agricultural festivals -of the spring and autumn equinoxes and of the -summer and winter solstices. The second is the -practice of a symbolic human sacrifice by those who -have forgotten its meaning, and only know that they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_406'>406</span>are keeping up an old custom, joined with late instances -of the actual sacrifices of animals to avert -cattle-plagues or to change bad luck. The third -consists of many still-living relics of the once -universal worship of sacred waters, trees, stones, -and animals.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Whatever may have been the exact meaning of -the Celtic state worship, there seems to be no doubt -that it centred around the four great days in the -year which chronicle the rise, progress, and decline -of the sun, and, therefore, of the fruits of the earth. -These were: Beltaine, which fell at the beginning of -May; Midsummer Day, marking the triumph of -sunshine and vegetation; the Feast of Lugh, when, -in August, the turning-point of the sun’s course had -been reached; and the sad Samhain, when he bade -farewell to power, and fell again for half a year -under the sway of the evil forces of winter and -darkness.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Of these great solar periods, the first and the -last were, naturally, the most important. The -whole Celtic mythology seems to revolve upon -them, as upon pivots. It was on the day of Beltaine -that Partholon and his people, the discoverers, and, -indeed, the makers of Ireland, arrived there from -the other world, and it was on the same day, three -hundred years later, that they returned whence they -came. It was on Beltaine-day that the Gaelic gods, -the Tuatha Dé Danann, and, after them, the Gaelic -men, first set foot on Irish soil. It was on the day -of Samhain that the Fomors oppressed the people -of Nemed with their terrible tax; and it was again -<span class='pageno' id='Page_407'>407</span>at Samhain that a later race of gods of light and -life finally conquered those demons at the Battle -of Moytura. Only one important mythological -incident—and that was one added at a later time!—happened -upon any other than one of those two -days; it was upon Midsummer Day, one of the -lesser solar points, that the people of the goddess -Danu took Ireland from its inhabitants, the Fir -Bolgs.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The mythology of Britain preserves the same -root-idea as that of Ireland. If anything uncanny -took place, it was sure to be on May-day. It was -on “the night of the first of May” that Rhiannon -lost, and Teirnyon Twryf Vliant found, the infant -Pryderi, as told in the first of the Mabinogion.<a id='r566' /><a href='#f566' class='c010'><sup>[566]</sup></a> It -was “on every May-eve” that the two dragons -fought and shrieked in the reign of “King” Lludd.<a id='r567' /><a href='#f567' class='c010'><sup>[567]</sup></a> -It is on “every first of May” till the day of doom -that Gwyn son of Nudd, fights with Gwyrthur son -of Greidawl, for Lludd’s fair daughter, Creudylad.<a id='r568' /><a href='#f568' class='c010'><sup>[568]</sup></a> -And it was when she was “a-maying” in the woods -and fields near Westminster that the same Gwyn, -or Melwas, under his romance-name of Sir Meliagraunce, -captured Arthur’s queen, Guinevere.<a id='r569' /><a href='#f569' class='c010'><sup>[569]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>The nature of the rites performed upon these -days can be surmised from their pale survivals. -They are still celebrated by the descendants of the -Celts, though it is probable that few of them know—or -would even care to know—why May Day, -St. John’s Day, Lammas, and Hallowe’en are times -<span class='pageno' id='Page_408'>408</span>of ceremony. The first—called “Beltaine” in Ireland, -“Bealtiunn” in Scotland, “Shenn da Boaldyn” -in the Isle of Man, and “Galan-Mai” (the Calends -of May) in Wales—celebrates the waking of the -earth from her winter sleep, and the renewal of -warmth, life, and vegetation. This is the meaning -of the May-pole, now rarely seen in our streets, -though Shakespeare tells us that in his time the -festival was so eagerly anticipated that no one could -sleep upon its eve.<a id='r570' /><a href='#f570' class='c010'><sup>[570]</sup></a> At midnight the people rose, -and, going to the nearest woods, tore down branches -of trees, with which the sun, when he rose, would -find doors and windows decked for him. They -spent the day in dancing round the May-pole, with -rude, rustic mirth, man joining with nature to celebrate -the coming of summer. The opposite to it -was the day called “Samhain” in Ireland and Scotland, -“Sauin” in Man, and “Nos Galan-gaeof” -(the Night of the Winter Calends) in Wales. This -festival was a sad one: summer was over, and -winter, with its short, sunless days and long, dreary -nights, was at hand. It was the beginning, too, of -the ancient Celtic year,<a id='r571' /><a href='#f571' class='c010'><sup>[571]</sup></a> and omens for the future -might be extorted from dark powers by uncanny -rites. It was the holiday of the dead and of all the -more evil supernatural beings. “On November-eve”, -says a North Cardiganshire proverb, “there -is a bogy on every stile.” The Scotch have even -invented a special bogy—the <i>Samhanach</i> or goblin -which comes out at Samhain.<a id='r572' /><a href='#f572' class='c010'><sup>[572]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_409'>409</span>The sun-god himself is said to have instituted the -August festival called “Lugnassad” (Lugh’s commemoration) -in Ireland, “Lla Lluanys” in Man, -and “Gwyl Awst” (August Feast) in Wales; and -it was once of hardly less importance than Beltaine -or Samhain. It is noteworthy, too, that the first of -August was a great day at Lyons—formerly called -Lugudunum, the <i>dún</i> (town) of Lugus. The midsummer -festival, on the other hand, has largely -merged its mythological significance in the Christian -Feast of St. John.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The characteristic features of these festivals give -certain proof of the original nature of the great -pagan ceremonials of which they are the survivals -and travesties.<a id='r573' /><a href='#f573' class='c010'><sup>[573]</sup></a> In all of them, bonfires are lighted -on the highest hills, and the hearth fires solemnly -rekindled. They form the excuse for much sport -and jollity. But there is yet something sinister in -the air; the “fairies” are active and abroad, and -one must be careful to omit no prescribed rite, if -one would avoid kindling their anger or falling into -their power. To some of these still-half-believed-in -nature-gods offerings were made down to a comparatively -late period. When Pennant wrote, in -the eighteenth century, it was the custom on Beltaine-day -in many Highland villages to offer libations -and cakes not only to the “spirits” who were believed -to be beneficial to the flocks and herds, but -also to creatures like the fox, the eagle, and the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_410'>410</span>hoodie-crow which so often molested them.<a id='r574' /><a href='#f574' class='c010'><sup>[574]</sup></a> At -Hallowe’en (the Celtic Samhain) the natives of the -Hebrides used to pour libations of ale to a marine -god called Shony, imploring him to send sea-weed -to the shore.<a id='r575' /><a href='#f575' class='c010'><sup>[575]</sup></a> In honour, also, of such beings, -curious rites were performed. Maidens washed -their faces in morning dew, with prayers for beauty. -They carried sprigs of the rowan, that mystic tree -whose scarlet berries were the ambrosial food of the -Tuatha Dé Danann.</p> - -<p class='c005'>In their original form, these now harmless rural -holidays were undoubtedly religious festivals of an -orgiastic nature-worship such as became so popular -in Greece in connection with the cult of Dionysus. -The great “lords of life” and of the powers of nature -that made and ruled life were propitiated by maddening -invocations, by riotous dances, and by human -sacrifice.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The bonfires which fill so large a part in the -modern festivals have been casually mentioned. -Originally they were no mere <i>feux de joie</i>, but had -a terrible meaning, which the customs connected -with them preserve. At the Highland Beltaine, -a cake was divided by lot, and whoever drew the -“burnt piece” was obliged to leap three times over -the flames. At the midsummer bonfires in Ireland -all passed through the fire; the men when the flames -were highest, the women when they were lower, -and the cattle when there was nothing left but -smoke. In Wales, upon the last day of October, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_411'>411</span>the old Samhain, there was a slightly different, and -still more suggestive rite. The hill-top bonfires were -watched until they were announced to be extinct. -Then all would race headlong down the hill, shouting -a formula to the effect that the devil would get the -hindmost. The devil of a new belief is the god of -the one it has supplanted; in all three instances, the -custom was no mere meaningless horse-play, but a -symbolical human sacrifice.</p> - -<p class='c005'>A similar observance, but of a more cruel kind, -was kept up in France upon St. John’s Day, until -forbidden by law in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth. -Baskets containing living wolves, foxes, -and cats were burned upon the bonfires, under the -auspices and in the presence of the sheriffs or the -mayor of the town.<a id='r576' /><a href='#f576' class='c010'><sup>[576]</sup></a> Caesar noted the custom -among the druids of constructing huge wicker-work -images, which they filled with living men, and set -on fire, and it can hardly be doubted that the -wretched wolves, foxes, and cats were ceremonial -substitutes for human beings.</p> - -<p class='c005'>An ingenious theory was invented, after the introduction -of Christianity, with the purpose of allowing -such ancient rites to continue, with a changed meaning. -The passing of persons and cattle through -flame or smoke was explained as a practice which -interposed a magic protection between them and the -powers of evil. This homœopathic device of using -the evil power’s own sacred fire as a means of protection -against himself somewhat suggests that seething -of the kid in its mother’s milk which was reprobated -<span class='pageno' id='Page_412'>412</span>by the Levitical law; but, no doubt, pagan -“demons” were considered fair game. The explanation, -of course, is an obviously and clumsily forced -one; it was the grim druidical philosophy that—to -quote Caesar—“unless the life of man was repaid -for the life of man, the will of the immortal gods -could not be appeased” that dictated both the -national and the private human sacrifices of the -Celts, the shadows of which remain in the leaping -through the bonfires, and in the numerous recorded -sacrifices of cattle within quite recent times.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Mr. Laurence Gomme, in his <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, -has collected many modern instances of the -sacrifices of cattle not only in Ireland and Scotland, -but also in Wales, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, -Cornwall, and the Isle of Man.<a id='r577' /><a href='#f577' class='c010'><sup>[577]</sup></a> “Within twenty miles -of the metropolis of Scotland a relative of Professor -Simpson offered up a live cow as a sacrifice to the -spirit of the murrain.”<a id='r578' /><a href='#f578' class='c010'><sup>[578]</sup></a> In Wales, when cattle-sickness -broke out, a bullock was immolated by -being thrown down from the top of a high rock. -Generally, however, the wretched victims were -burned alive. In 1859 an Isle of Man farmer -offered a heifer as a burnt offering near Tynwald -Hill, to avert the anger of the ghostly occupant of -a barrow which had been desecrated by opening. -Sometimes, even, these burnt oblations were offered -to an alleged Christian saint. The registers of the -Presbytery of Dingwall for the years 1656 and 1678 -contain records of the sacrifices of cattle upon the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_413'>413</span>site of an ancient temple in honour of a being whom -some called “St. Mourie”, and others, perhaps knowing -his doubtful character, “ane god Mourie”.<a id='r579' /><a href='#f579' class='c010'><sup>[579]</sup></a> At -Kirkcudbright, it was St. Cuthbert, and at Clynnog, -in Wales, it was St. Beuno, who was thought to -delight in the blood of bulls.<a id='r580' /><a href='#f580' class='c010'><sup>[580]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Such sacrifices of cattle appear mainly to have -been offered to stay plague among cattle. Man for -man and beast for beast, was, perhaps, the old rule. -But among all nations, human sacrifices have been -gradually commuted for those of animals. The -family of the O’Herlebys in Ballyvorney, County -Cork, used in olden days to keep an idol, “an image -of wood about two feet high, carved and painted like -a woman”.<a id='r581' /><a href='#f581' class='c010'><sup>[581]</sup></a> She was the goddess of smallpox, and -to her a sheep was immolated on behalf of anyone -seized with that disease.</p> - -<p class='c005'>The third form of Celtic pagan survival is found -in numerous instances of the adoration of water, -trees, stones, and animals. Like the other “Aryan” -nations, the Celts worshipped their rivers. The -Dee received divine honours as a war-goddess with -the title of Aerfon, while the Ribble, under its name -of Belisama, was identified by the Romans with -Minerva.<a id='r582' /><a href='#f582' class='c010'><sup>[582]</sup></a> Myths were told of them, as of the -sacred streams of Greece. The Dee gave oracles -as to the results of the perpetual wars between the -Welsh and the English; as its stream encroached -<span class='pageno' id='Page_414'>414</span>either upon the Welsh or the English side, so one -nation or the other would be victorious.<a id='r583' /><a href='#f583' class='c010'><sup>[583]</sup></a> The -Tweed, like many of the Greek rivers, was credited -with human descendants.<a id='r584' /><a href='#f584' class='c010'><sup>[584]</sup></a> That the rivers of Great -Britain received human sacrifices is clear from the -folklore concerning many of them. Deprived of -their expected offerings, they are believed to snatch -by stealth the human lives for which they crave. -“River of Dart, River of Dart, every year thou -claimest a heart,” runs the Devonshire folk-song. -The Spey, too, requires a life yearly,<a id='r585' /><a href='#f585' class='c010'><sup>[585]</sup></a> but the Spirit -of the Ribble is satisfied with one victim at the end -of every seven years.<a id='r586' /><a href='#f586' class='c010'><sup>[586]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c005'>Evidence, however, of the worship of rivers is -scanty compared with that of the adoration of wells. -“In the case of well-worship,” says Mr. Gomme, “it -may be asserted with some confidence that it prevails -in every county of the three kingdoms.”<a id='r587' /><a href='#f587' class='c010'><sup>[587]</sup></a> He finds -it most vital in the Gaelic counties, somewhat less -so in the British, and almost entirely wanting in the -Teutonic south-east. So numerous, indeed, are “holy -wells” that several monographs have been written -solely upon them.<a id='r588' /><a href='#f588' class='c010'><sup>[588]</sup></a> In some cases these wells were -resorted to for the cure of diseases; in others, to -obtain change of weather, or “good luck”. Offerings -were made to them, to propitiate their guardian -gods or nymphs. Pennant tells us that in olden -<span class='pageno' id='Page_415'>415</span>times the rich would sacrifice one of their horses at -a well near Abergeleu, to secure a blessing upon the -rest.<a id='r589' /><a href='#f589' class='c010'><sup>[589]</sup></a> Fowls were offered at St. Tegla’s Well, near -Wrexham, by epileptic patients.<a id='r590' /><a href='#f590' class='c010'><sup>[590]</sup></a> But of late years -the well-spirits have had to be content with much -smaller tributes—such trifles as pins, rags, coloured -pebbles, and small coins.</p> - -<p class='c005'>With sacred wells were often connected sacred -trees, to whose branches rags and small pieces of -garments were suspended by their humble votaries. -Sometimes, where the ground near the well was -bare of vegetation, bushes were artificially placed -beside the water. The same people who venerated -wells and trees would pay equal adoration to sacred -stones. Lord Roden, describing, in 1851, the Island -of Inniskea, off the coast of Mayo, asserts that a -sacred well called “Derrivla” and a sacred stone -called “Neevougi”, which was kept carefully wrapped -up in flannel and brought out at certain periods to -be publicly adored, seemed to be the only deities -known to that lone Atlantic island’s three hundred -inhabitants.<a id='r591' /><a href='#f591' class='c010'><sup>[591]</sup></a> It sounds incredible; but there is -ample evidence of the worship of fetish stones by -quite modern inhabitants of our islands. The Clan -Chattan kept such a stone in the Isle of Arran; it -was believed, like the stone of Inniskea, to be able -to cure diseases, and was kept carefully “wrapped -up in fair linen cloth, and about that there was a -piece of woollen cloth”.<a id='r592' /><a href='#f592' class='c010'><sup>[592]</sup></a> Similarly, too, the worship -<span class='pageno' id='Page_416'>416</span>of wells was connected with the worship of animals. -At a well in the “Devil’s Causeway”, between Ruckley -and Acton, in Shropshire, lived, and perhaps -still live, four frogs who were, and perhaps still are, -believed to be “the devil and his imps”—that is to -say, gods or demons of a proscribed idolatry.<a id='r593' /><a href='#f593' class='c010'><sup>[593]</sup></a> In -Ireland such guardian spirits are usually fish—trout, -eels, or salmon thought to be endowed with eternal -life.<a id='r594' /><a href='#f594' class='c010'><sup>[594]</sup></a> The genius of a well in Banffshire took the -form of a fly, which was also said to be undying, -but to transmigrate from body to body. Its function -was to deliver oracles; according as it seemed active -or lethargic, its votaries drew their omens.<a id='r595' /><a href='#f595' class='c010'><sup>[595]</sup></a> It is -needless to multiply instances of a still surviving -cult of water, trees, stones, and animals. Enough -to say that it would be easy. What concerns us is -that we are face to face in Britain with living forms -of the oldest, lowest, most primitive religion in the -world—one which would seem to have been once -universal, and which, crouching close to the earth, -lets other creeds blow over it without effacing it, -and outlives one and all of them.</p> - -<p class='c005'>It underlies the three great world-religions, and -still forms the real belief of perhaps the majority -of their titular adherents. It is characteristic of the -wisdom of the Christian Church that, knowing its -power, she sought rather to sanctify than to extirpate -it. What once were the Celtic equivalents of -the Greek “fountains of the nymphs” were consecrated -as “holy wells”. The process of so adopting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_417'>417</span>them began early. St. Columba, when he went in -the sixth century to convert the Picts, found a -spring which they worshipped as a god; he blessed -it, and “from that day the demon separated from -the water”.<a id='r596' /><a href='#f596' class='c010'><sup>[596]</sup></a> Indeed, he so sanctified no less than -three hundred such springs.<a id='r597' /><a href='#f597' class='c010'><sup>[597]</sup></a> Sacred stones were -equally taken under the ægis of Christianity. Some -were placed on the altars of cathedrals, others built -into consecrated walls. The animal gods either -found themselves the heroes of Christian legends, -or where, for some reason, such adoption was hopeless, -were proclaimed “witches’ animals”, and dealt -with accordingly. Such happened to the hare, a -creature sacred to the ancient Britons,<a id='r598' /><a href='#f598' class='c010'><sup>[598]</sup></a> but now in -bad odour among the superstitious. The wren, too, -is hunted to death upon St. Stephen’s Day in Ireland. -Its crime is said to be that it has “a drop of -the de’il’s blood in it”, but the real reason is probably -to be found in the fact that the Irish druids -used to draw auguries from its chirpings.</p> - -<hr class='c012' /> - -<p class='c005'>We have made in this volume some attempt to -draw a picture of the ancient religion of our earliest -ancestors, the Gaelic and the British Celts. We -have shown what can be gathered of the broken -remnants of a mythology as splendid in conception -and as brilliant in colour as that of the Greeks. -We have tried to paint its divine figures, and to -retell their heroic stories. We have seen them -<span class='pageno' id='Page_418'>418</span>fall from their shrines, and yet, rising again, take on -new lives as kings, or saints, or knights of romance, -and we have caught fading glimpses of them surviving -to-day as the “fairies”, their rites still -cherished by worshippers who hardly know who -or why they worship. Of necessity this survey -has been brief and incomplete. Whether the great -edifice of the Celtic mythology will ever be wholly -restored one can at present only speculate. Its -colossal fragments are perhaps too deeply buried -and too widely scattered. But, even as it stands -ruined, it is a mighty quarry from which poets yet -unborn will hew spiritual marble for houses not -made with hands.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. </span>“There is good ground to believe”, writes Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, M.A., the -librarian of the Bodleian Library, in the preface to his recently-published <i>Keltic -Researches</i>, “that Lancashire, West Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, -Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, and -part of Sussex, are as Keltic as Perthshire and North Munster; that Cheshire, -Shropshire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire, Devon, Dorset, -Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, and Bedfordshire are more so—and equal -to North Wales and Leinster; while Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire exceed -even this degree and are on a level with South Wales and Ulster. Cornwall, of -course, is more Keltic than any other English county, and as much so as Argyll, -Inverness-shire, or Connaught.”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f2'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. </span><i>The Study of Celtic Literature.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f3'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. </span>In a sonnet written in 1801.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f4'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. </span>Elton: <i>Origins of English History</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>X</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f5'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. </span>Satisfactory summaries of the evidence for the dates of both the Gaelic and -Welsh legendary material will be found in pamphlets No. 8 and 11 of Mr. Nutt’s -<i>Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f6'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Studies in the Arthurian Legend</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>I</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f7'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XVI</span> of this book—“The Gods of the Britons”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f8'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. </span>Lecture II.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f9'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. </span>Huxley: <i>On Some Fixed Points in British Ethnology</i>. 1871.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f10'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. </span>Sergi: <i>The Mediterranean Race</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f11'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. </span>Gomme: <i>The Village Community</i>. Chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>—“The non-Aryan Elements in -the English Village Community”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f12'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. </span>Tacitus: <i>Agricola</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f13'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. </span>Strabo: <i>Geographica</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>V</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f14'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r14'>14</a>. </span>Tacitus, <i>op. cit.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f15'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r15'>15</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>The Early Ethnology of the British Islands</i>. <i>Scottish Review.</i> April, -1890.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f16'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r16'>16</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>I</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f17'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r17'>17</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Scottish Review</i>. April, 1890.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f18'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r18'>18</a>. </span>Op. Caesar, <i>op. cit.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f19'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r19'>19</a>. </span>Tacitus: <i>Agricola</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f20'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r20'>20</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book V, chap. <span class='fss'>XII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f21'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r21'>21</a>. </span>Elton: <i>Origins of English History</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>VII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f22'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r22'>22</a>. </span>See “<i>La Civilisation des Celtes et celle de l’Épopée Homérique</i>”, by M. d’Arbois -de Jubainville, <i>Cours de Littérature Celtique</i>, Vol. VI.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f23'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r23'>23</a>. </span>See Elton: <i>Origins of English History</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>VII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f24'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r24'>24</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>XXXIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f25'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r25'>25</a>. </span>From the <i>Táin Bó Chuailgné</i>. The translator is Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f26'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r26'>26</a>. </span><i>Tochmarc Emire</i>—the <i>Wooing of Emer</i>—an old Irish romance.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f27'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r27'>27</a>. </span>Sometimes spelt “Conachar”, and pronounced <i>Conhower</i> or <i>Connor</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f28'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r28'>28</a>. </span>The <i>Wooing of Emer</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f29'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r29'>29</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book V, chap. <span class='fss'>XXI</span>, and various passages in -Book VII.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f30'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r30'>30</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>XIV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f31'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r31'>31</a>. </span>See Schrader: <i>Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples</i>, pp. 138, 272.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f32'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r32'>32</a>. </span>A description of the Druidical cult of the mistletoe is given by Pliny: <i>Natural -History</i>, XVI, chap. <span class='fss'>XCV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f33'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r33'>33</a>. </span>See Frazer: <i>The Golden Bough</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f34'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r34'>34</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book VI, chaps. <span class='fss'>XIII</span>, <span class='fss'>XIV</span>. But for a full exposition -of what is known of the Druids the reader is referred to M. d’Arbois de Jubainville’s -<i>Introduction à l’Étude de la Littérature Celtique</i>, Vol. I of his <i>Cours de Littérature -Celtique</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f35'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r35'>35</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book VI, chap. <span class='fss'>XIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f36'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r36'>36</a>. </span>Pliny: <i>Natural History</i>, XXX.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f37'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r37'>37</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XII</span>, <i>The Irish Iliad</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f38'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r38'>38</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Celtic Britain</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>. See also Gomme: <i>Ethnology in Folk-lore</i>, -pp. 58-62; <i>Village Community</i>, p. 104.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f39'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r39'>39</a>. </span>Abundant evidence of this is contained in Pausanias’ <i>Description of Greece</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f40'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r40'>40</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book VI, chap. <span class='fss'>XIV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f41'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r41'>41</a>. </span>The <i>Wooing of Emer</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f42'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r42'>42</a>. </span>It is contained in the Book of the Dun Cow, and has been translated or commented -upon by Eugene O’Curry (<i>Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish</i>), -De Jubainville (<i>Cycle Mythologique Irlandais</i>), and Nutt (<i>Voyage of Bran</i>).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f43'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r43'>43</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book VI, chap. <span class='fss'>XVI</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f44'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r44'>44</a>. </span>The following translation was made by Dr. Kuno Meyer, and appears as -Appendix B to Nutt’s <i>Voyage of Bran</i>. Three verses, here omitted, will be found -later as a note to chap. <span class='fss'>XII</span>—“The Irish Iliad”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f45'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r45'>45</a>. </span>The first King of the Milesians. The name is more usually spelt Eremon.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f46'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r46'>46</a>. </span>The Rennes <i>Dinnsenchus</i> has been translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes in Vol. XVI -of the <i>Revue Celtique</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f47'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r47'>47</a>. </span>Told in the Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick, a fifteenth-century combination of -three very ancient Gaelic MSS.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f48'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r48'>48</a>. </span>The <i>Hibbert Lectures</i> for 1886. Lecture II—“The Zeus of the Insular Celts”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f49'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r49'>49</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Baltinna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f50'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r50'>50</a>. </span><i>Diodorus Siculus</i>: Book II, chap. <span class='fss'>III</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f51'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r51'>51</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Sowin</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f52'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r52'>52</a>. </span>It has been suggested that this title is an attempt to reproduce the ancient -British word for “bards”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f53'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r53'>53</a>. </span><i>Diodorus Siculus</i>: Book II, chap. <span class='fss'>III</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f54'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r54'>54</a>. </span><i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, 1886. Lecture I—“The Gaulish Pantheon”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f55'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r55'>55</a>. </span>See Rhys: <i>Lectures on Welsh Philology</i>, pp. 426, 552, 653.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f56'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r56'>56</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Tooăha dae donnann</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f57'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r57'>57</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, 1886. Lecture VI—“Gods, Demons, and Heroes”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f58'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r58'>58</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f59'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r59'>59</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>V</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f60'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r60'>60</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Cycle Mythologique Irlandais</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>IX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f61'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r61'>61</a>. </span>From the fifteenth-century Harleian MS. in the British Museum, numbered -5280, and called the <i>Second Battle of Moytura</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f62'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r62'>62</a>. </span>Harleian MS. 5280.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f63'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r63'>63</a>. </span>“In Munster was worshipped the goddess of prosperity, whose name was Ana, -and from her are named the Two Paps of Ana over Luachair Degad.” From <i>Coir -Anmann</i>, the <i>Choice of Names</i>, a sixteenth-century tract, published by Dr. Whitley -Stokes in <i>Irische Texte</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f64'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r64'>64</a>. </span>Attributed to Cormac, King-Bishop of Cashel.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f65'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r65'>65</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, 1886—“The Zeus of the Insular Celts”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f66'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r66'>66</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, 1886—“The Gaulish Pantheon”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f67'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r67'>67</a>. </span><i>Pharsalia</i>, Book I, l. 444, &c.:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro</div> - <div class='line in1'>Teutates, horrensque feris altaribus Hesus;</div> - <div class='line in1'>Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae”.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f68'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r68'>68</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, Book V.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f69'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r69'>69</a>. </span><i>Op. cit.</i>, Book XIV.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f70'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r70'>70</a>. </span>It commemorates the battle of Magh Rath.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f71'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r71'>71</a>. </span>The word is approximately pronounced <i>Bive</i> or <i>Bibe</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f72'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r72'>72</a>. </span>For a full account of these beings see a paper by Mr. W. M. Hennessey in -Vol. I of the <i>Revue Celtique</i>, entitled “The Ancient Irish Goddess of War”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f73'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r73'>73</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Le Cycle Mythologique</i>. Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 154. The -<i>Coir Anmann</i>, however, translates it “Fire of God”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f74'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r74'>74</a>. </span><i>The Second Battle of Moytura.</i> Harleian MS. 5280.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f75'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r75'>75</a>. </span>The story is told in the Book of Leinster.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f76'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r76'>76</a>. </span>Now called “Trinity Well”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f77'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r77'>77</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XIV</span>—“Finn and the Fenians”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f78'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r78'>78</a>. </span>Book of Leinster. A paraphrase of the story will be found in O’Curry’s -<i>Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish</i>, Vol. II, p. 143.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f79'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r79'>79</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XV</span>—“The Decline and Fall of the Gods”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f80'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r80'>80</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 331.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f81'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r81'>81</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 331.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f82'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r82'>82</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>—“The Gods in Exile”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f83'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r83'>83</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>—“The Gaelic Argonauts”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f84'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r84'>84</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 524.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f85'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r85'>85</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Bove</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f86'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r86'>86</a>. </span>Lêr—genitive Lir.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f87'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r87'>87</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Dianket</i>. His name is explained, both in the <i>Choice of Names</i> -and in Cormac’s <i>Glossary</i>, as meaning “God of Health”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f88'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r88'>88</a>. </span>Standish O’Grady: <i>The Story of Ireland</i>, p. 17.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f89'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r89'>89</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Luga</i> or <i>Loo</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f90'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r90'>90</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Lavāda</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f91'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r91'>91</a>. </span>Translated by O’Curry in <i>Atlantis</i>, Vol. III, from the Book of Lismore.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f92'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r92'>92</a>. </span>Chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>—“The Gaelic Argonauts”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f93'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r93'>93</a>. </span>Chap. <span class='fss'>VII</span>—“The Rise of the Sun-God”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f94'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r94'>94</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Celtic Britain</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>VII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f95'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r95'>95</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Cycle Mythologique</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>V</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f96'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r96'>96</a>. </span>Rhys: “The Mythographical Treatment of Celtic Ethnology”, <i>Scottish Review</i>, -Oct. 1890.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f97'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r97'>97</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Cycle Mythologique</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>V</span>. Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 90, 91.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f98'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r98'>98</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Ecca</i> or <i>Eohee</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f99'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r99'>99</a>. </span>Gomme: <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>III</span>—“The Mythic Influence of a Conquered -Race”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f100'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r100'>100</a>. </span>Elton: <i>Origins of English History</i>, note to p. 136.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f101'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r101'>101</a>. </span>It has been contended that the Fenians were originally the gods or heroes of an -aboriginal people in Ireland, the myths about them representing the pre-Celtic and -pre-Aryan ideal, as the sagas of the Red Branch of Ulster embodied that of the -Celtic Aryans. The question, however, is as yet far from being satisfactorily -solved.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f102'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r102'>102</a>. </span><i>The Coronation Stone</i>, by William Forbes Skene.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f103'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r103'>103</a>. </span>See <i>History and Antiquities of Tara Hill</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f104'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r104'>104</a>. </span>Our authorities for the details of this war between the Tuatha Dé Danann and -the Fir Bolgs are the opening verses of the Harleian MS. 5280, as translated by -Stokes and De Jubainville, and Eugene O’Curry’s translations, in his <i>MS. Materials -of Ancient Irish History</i> and his <i>Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish</i>, from -a manuscript preserved at Trinity College, Dublin.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f105'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r105'>105</a>. </span>Now called Benlevi.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f106'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r106'>106</a>. </span>See Dr. James Fergusson: <i>Rude Stone Monuments</i>, pp. 177-180.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f107'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r107'>107</a>. </span><i>Lough Corrib, Its Shores and Islands</i>, by Sir William R. Wilde, chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f108'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r108'>108</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Cycle Mythologique Irlandais</i>, p. 156.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f109'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r109'>109</a>. </span>The principal sources of information for this chapter are the Harleian MS. 5280 -entitled <i>The Second Battle of Moytura</i>, of which translations have been made -by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the <i>Revue Celtique</i> and M. de Jubainville in his <i>L’Épopée -Celtique en Irlande</i>, and Eugene O’Curry’s translation in Vol. IV. of <i>Atlantis</i> of -the <i>Fate of the Children of Tuirenn</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f110'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r110'>110</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Kian</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f111'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r111'>111</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Ildāna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f112'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r112'>112</a>. </span>The Curlieu Hills, between Roscommon and Sligo.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f113'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r113'>113</a>. </span>Croagh Patrick.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f114'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r114'>114</a>. </span>The estuary of the Shannon.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f115'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r115'>115</a>. </span>This story of the <i>Fate of the Children of Tuirenn</i> is mentioned in the ninth-century -“Cormac’s Glossary”. It is found in various Irish and Scottish MSS., -including the Book of Lecan. The present re-telling is from Eugene O’Curry’s -translation, published in <i>Atlantis</i>, Vol. IV.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f116'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r116'>116</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 390-396.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f117'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r117'>117</a>. </span>A part of County Louth, between the Boyne and Dundalk. The heroic cycle -connects it especially with Cuchulainn. Pronounced <i>Mŭrthemna</i> or <i>Mŭrhevna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f118'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r118'>118</a>. </span>There is known to have been a hill called Ard Chein (Cian’s Mound) in the -district of Muirthemne, and O’Curry identifies it tentatively with one now called -Dromslian.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f119'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r119'>119</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Pēzar</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f120'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r120'>120</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Dobar</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f121'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r121'>121</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Asal</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f122'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r122'>122</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Irōda</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f123'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r123'>123</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Fincāra</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f124'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r124'>124</a>. </span>The <i>Hill</i> (cnoc) <i>of Midkēna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f125'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r125'>125</a>. </span>A mythical country inhabited by Fomors.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f126'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r126'>126</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>VI</span>—“The Gods Arrive”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f127'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r127'>127</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f128'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r128'>128</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>VI</span>—“The Gods Arrive”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f129'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r129'>129</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>—“The Gods in Exile”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f130'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r130'>130</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f131'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r131'>131</a>. </span>Petrie: <i>Hist. and Antiq. of Tara Hill</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f132'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r132'>132</a>. </span>The country seems to have been identified with Norway or Iceland.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f133'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r133'>133</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Midkēna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f134'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r134'>134</a>. </span>The other two are “The Fate of the Children of Lêr”, told in chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>, and -“The Fate of the Sons of Usnach”, an episode of the Heroic Cycle, related in -chap. <span class='fss'>XIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f135'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r135'>135</a>. </span>This chapter is, with slight interpolations, based upon the Harleian MS. in -the British Museum numbered 5280, and called the <i>Second Battle of Moytura</i>, or -rather from translations made of it by Dr. Whitley Stokes, published in the <i>Revue -Celtique</i>, Vol. XII, and by M. de Jubainville in his <i>L’Épopée Celtique en Irlande</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f136'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r136'>136</a>. </span>I have interpolated this picturesque passage from the account of a fight between -the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomors in the “Fate of the Children of Tuirenn”. -O’Curry’s translation in <i>Atlantis</i>, Vol. IV.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f137'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r137'>137</a>. </span>This translation was made by Eugene O’Curry from an ancient vellum MS. -formerly belonging to Mr. W. Monck Mason, but since sold by auction in London. -See his <i>Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish</i>, Lecture XII, p. 252.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f138'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r138'>138</a>. </span>See Fergusson: <i>Rude Stone Monuments</i>, pp. 180, &c.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f139'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r139'>139</a>. </span>? Bagpipes.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f140'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r140'>140</a>. </span><i>Book of Fermoy.</i> See <i>Revue Celtique</i>, Vol. I.—“The Ancient Irish Goddess -of War”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f141'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r141'>141</a>. </span>It may be noted that, according to Welsh legend, the ancestors of the Cymri -came from Gwlâd yr Hâv, the “Land of Summer”, <i>i.e.</i> the Celtic Other World.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f142'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r142'>142</a>. </span><i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book VI, chap. <span class='fss'>XVIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f143'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r143'>143</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Cycle Mythologique</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>X</span>. Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>—“The -Gaulish Pantheon”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f144'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r144'>144</a>. </span>Geoffrey of Monmouth’s <i>Historia Britonum</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f145'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r145'>145</a>. </span>Contained in the <i>Book of Leinster</i> and other ancient manuscripts.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f146'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r146'>146</a>. </span>Now called the Kenmare River.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f147'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r147'>147</a>. </span>This poem and the three following ones, all attributed to Amergin, are said to -be the oldest Irish literary records.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f148'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r148'>148</a>. </span><i>Book of Taliesin</i>, poem <span class='fss'>VIII</span>, in Skene’s Four Ancient Books of Wales, Vol. I, -p. 276.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f149'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r149'>149</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Cycle Mythologique</i>. See also the <i>Transactions of the Ossianic -Society</i>, Vol. V.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f150'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r150'>150</a>. </span>Translated by Professor Owen Connellan in Vol. V of the <i>Transactions of the -Ossianic Society</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f151'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r151'>151</a>. </span>The original versions of this and the following charm are from De Jubainville: -<i>Cycle Mythologique Irlandais</i>, the later from Professor Owen Connellan’s translations -in Vol. V of the <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>. “Some of these -poems”, explains the Professor, “have been glossed by writers or commentators -of the Middle Ages, without which it would be almost impossible now for any Irish -scholar to interpret them; and it is proper to remark that the translation accompanying -them is more in accordance with this gloss than with the original text.”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f152'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r152'>152</a>. </span>De Jubainville: <i>Cycle Mythologique Irlandais</i>, p. 269.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f153'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r153'>153</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>—“The Religion of the Ancient Britons and Druidism”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f154'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r154'>154</a>. </span>Tennyson: <i>Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f155'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r155'>155</a>. </span>See Wood-Martin: <i>Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland</i>, Vol I, pp. 213-215.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f156'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r156'>156</a>. </span>The following verses are taken from Dr. Kuno Meyer’s translation of the -romance entitled <i>The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal</i>, published in Mr. Nutt’s -Grimm Library, Vol. IV.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f157'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r157'>157</a>. </span>The Plain of Sports.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f158'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r158'>158</a>. </span>The Happy Plain.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f159'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r159'>159</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Shee Finneha</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f160'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r160'>160</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Shee Bove</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f161'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r161'>161</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Shee Assaroe</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f162'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r162'>162</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Finnvar</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f163'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r163'>163</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Far-shee</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f164'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r164'>164</a>. </span>O’Curry: <i>Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History</i>, Appendix, -p. 505.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f165'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r165'>165</a>. </span>See Fergusson: <i>Rude Stone Monuments</i>, pp. 200-213.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f166'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r166'>166</a>. </span>O’Curry: <i>MS. Materials</i>, p. 505.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f167'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r167'>167</a>. </span>Fergusson: <i>Rude Stone Monuments</i>, p. 209.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f168'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r168'>168</a>. </span>This story is contained in the Book of Leinster.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f169'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r169'>169</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Ilbrec</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f170'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r170'>170</a>. </span>This story, called the <i>Dream of Angus</i>, will be found translated into English -by Dr. Edward Müller in Vol. III. of the <i>Revue Celtique</i>, from an eighteenth-century -MS. in the British Museum.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f171'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r171'>171</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Aive</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f172'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r172'>172</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Aiva</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f173'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r173'>173</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Alva</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f174'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r174'>174</a>. </span>Now called “North Channel”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f175'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r175'>175</a>. </span>The Peninsula of Erris, in Mayo.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f176'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r176'>176</a>. </span>A small island off Benmullet.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f177'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r177'>177</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XIV</span>—“Finn and the Fenians”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f178'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r178'>178</a>. </span>An island off the coast of Mayo. Its lonely crane was one of the “Wonders -of Ireland”, and is still an object of folk-belief.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f179'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r179'>179</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Kemoc</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f180'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r180'>180</a>. </span>This famous story of the <i>Fate of the Children of Lêr</i> is not found in any MS. -earlier than the beginning of the seventeenth century. A translation of it has been -published by Eugene O’Curry in <i>Atlantis</i>, Vol. IV, from which the present abridgment -is made.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f181'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r181'>181</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Dara</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f182'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r182'>182</a>. </span>A poetical name for Ireland.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f183'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r183'>183</a>. </span>Translated by O’Curry, <i>Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish</i>, Lecture -<span class='fss'>IX</span>, p. 192, 193.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f184'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r184'>184</a>. </span><i>Iliad</i>, Book XX.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f185'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r185'>185</a>. </span>The story of Mider’s revenge and Conairé’s death is told in the romance -<i>Bruidhen Dá Derga</i>, “The Destruction of Da Derga’s Fort”, translated by Dr. -Whitley Stokes, Eugene O’Curry, and Professor Zimmer from the original text.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f186'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r186'>186</a>. </span></p> -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“There came</div> - <div class='line in1'>Tigernmas, the prince of Tara yonder,</div> - <div class='line in1'>On Hallowe’en with many hosts,</div> - <div class='line in1'>A cause of grief to them was the deed.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Dead were the men</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of Banba’s host, without happy strength,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Around Tigernmas, the destructive man in the North,</div> - <div class='line in1'>From the worship of Cromm Cruaich—’twas no luck for them.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“For I have learnt,</div> - <div class='line in1'>Except one-fourth of the keen Gaels</div> - <div class='line in1'>Not a man alive—lasting the snare!</div> - <div class='line in1'>Escaped without death in his mouth.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in1'>—Dr. Kuno Meyer’s translation of the <i>Dinnsenchus of Mag Slecht</i>.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f187'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r187'>187</a>. </span>Nutt: <i>Voyage of Bran</i>, p. 164.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f188'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r188'>188</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>—“The Gods in Exile”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f189'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r189'>189</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Maive</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f190'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r190'>190</a>. </span>The story of the <i>Tragical Death of King Conchobar</i>, translated by Eugene -O’Curry from the Book of Leinster, will be found in the appendix to his <i>MS. -Materials of Irish History</i>, and (more accessible) in Miss Hull’s <i>Cuchullin Saga</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f191'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r191'>191</a>. </span>The name is best pronounced <i>Cŭhoolin</i> or <i>Cuchullin</i> (<i>ch</i> as in German).</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f192'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r192'>192</a>. </span>The descent of the principal Red Branch Heroes from the Tuatha Dé Danann -is given in a table in Miss Hull’s Introduction to her <i>Cuchullin Saga</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f193'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r193'>193</a>. </span>Conchobar is called a terrestrial god of the Ultonians in the Book of the Dun -Cow, and Dechtiré is termed a goddess in the Book of Leinster.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f194'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r194'>194</a>. </span>He is last heard of as chief cook to Conairé the Great, a mythical king of -Ireland.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f195'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r195'>195</a>. </span>In the Book of Leinster.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f196'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r196'>196</a>. </span>For a description of Navan Fort see a paper by M. de Jubainville in the <i>Revue -Celtique</i>, Vol. XVI.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f197'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r197'>197</a>. </span><i>Cuchulainn, the Irish Achilles.</i> By Alfred Nutt. Popular Studies in Mythology, -Romance, and Folklore, No. 8.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f198'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r198'>198</a>. </span>See a series of interesting parallels between Cuchulainn and Heracles in <i>Studies -in the Arthurian Legend</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>IX</span> and <span class='fss'>X</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f199'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r199'>199</a>. </span>The <i>Táin Bó Chuailgné</i>. Translated by Standish Hayes O’Grady.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f200'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r200'>200</a>. </span>The Irish romances relating to Cuchulainn and his cycle, nearly a hundred in -number, need hardly be referred to severally in this chapter. Of many of the -tales, too, there exist several slightly-varying versions. Many of them have been -translated by different scholars. The reader desiring a more complete survey of -the Cuchulainn legend is referred to Miss Hull’s <i>Cuchullin Saga</i> or to Lady -Gregory’s <i>Cuchulain of Muirthemne</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f201'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r201'>201</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Avair</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f202'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r202'>202</a>. </span>Usually identified, however, with the Isle of Skye.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f203'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r203'>203</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Eefa</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f204'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r204'>204</a>. </span>A literal translation by Miss Winifred Faraday of the <i>Táin Bo Chuailgné</i> from -the Book of the Dun Cow and the Yellow Book of Lecan has been published by -Mr. Nutt—Grimm Library, No. 16.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f205'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r205'>205</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Cooley</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f206'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r206'>206</a>. </span>This prophecy (here much abridged) is, in the original, in verse.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f207'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r207'>207</a>. </span>Finnavár.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f208'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r208'>208</a>. </span>“Bellows-dart”, apparently a kind of harpoon. It had thirty barbs.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f209'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r209'>209</a>. </span>It is contained in the Book of the Dun Cow story called the “Phantom -Chariot”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f210'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r210'>210</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XX</span>—“The Victories of Light over Darkness”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f211'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r211'>211</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Conla</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f212'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r212'>212</a>. </span>A kind of mystic prohibition or taboo; singular, <i>geis</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f213'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r213'>213</a>. </span>Now called Dundalk.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f214'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r214'>214</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Lewy</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f215'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r215'>215</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Glen na Mower</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f216'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r216'>216</a>. </span>The romance of the <i>Wooing of Emer</i>, a fragment of which is contained in the -Book of the Dun Cow, has been translated by Dr. Kuno Meyer, and published by -him in the <i>Archæological Review</i>, Vol. I, 1888. Miss Hull has included this -translation in her <i>Cuchullin Saga</i>. Another version of it from a Bodleian MS., -translated by the same scholar, will be found in the <i>Revue Celtique</i>, Vol. XI.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f217'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r217'>217</a>. </span>This story, known as the <i>Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn</i>, translated into French by -M. d’Arbois de Jubainville, will be found in his <i>L’Épopée Celtique en Irlande</i>, the fifth -volume of <i>Cour de Littérature Celtique</i>. Another translation, into English, by -Eugene O’Curry is in <i>Atlantis</i>, Vols. I and II.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f218'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r218'>218</a>. </span>For the full story of Baile and Ailinn see Dr. Kuno Meyer’s translation in -Vol. XIII of the <i>Revue Celtique</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f219'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r219'>219</a>. </span>There are not only numerous translations of this romance, but also many -Gaelic versions. The oldest of the latter is in the Book of Leinster, while the fullest -are in two MSS. in the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh. The version followed -here is from one of these, the so-called Glenn Masáin MS., translated by Dr. -Whitley Stokes, and contained in Miss Hull’s <i>Cuchullin Saga</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f220'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r220'>220</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Naisi</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f221'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r221'>221</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Usna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f222'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r222'>222</a>. </span>It will be found in full in Miss Hull’s <i>Cuchullin Saga</i>. The version there -given was first translated into French by M. Ponsinet from the Book of Leinster.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f223'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r223'>223</a>. </span>The translations of Fenian stories are numerous. The reader will find many of -them popularly retold in Lady Gregory’s <i>Gods and Fighting Men</i>. Thence he may -pass on to Mr. Standish Hayes O’Grady’s <i>Silva Gadelica</i>; the <i>Waifs and Strays -of Celtic Tradition</i>, especially Vol. IV; Mr. J. G. Campbell’s <i>The Fians</i>; as well -as the volumes of the <i>Revue Celtique</i> and the <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f224'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r224'>224</a>. </span>See O’Curry’s translation in Appendix <span class='fss'>CXXVIII</span> to his <i>MS. Materials</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f225'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r225'>225</a>. </span>The story, found in the Book of the Dun Cow, appears in French in De Jubainville’s -<i>Épopée Celtique</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f226'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r226'>226</a>. </span>This famous story is told in several MSS. of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. -For translations see Dr. Whitley Stokes, <i>Irische Texte</i>, and Standish Hayes -O’Grady, <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>, Vol. III.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f227'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r227'>227</a>. </span>In Gaelic spelling, Fionn mac Cumhail.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f228'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r228'>228</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Fēna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f229'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r229'>229</a>. </span>O’Curry: <i>MS. Materials</i>, Lecture XIV, p. 303.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f230'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r230'>230</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Coul</i> or <i>Cooal</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f231'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r231'>231</a>. </span><i>Agalamh na Senórach.</i> Under the title <i>The Colloquy of the Ancients</i>, there is -an excellent translation of it, from the Book of Lismore, in Standish Hayes O’Grady’s -<i>Silva Gadelica</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f232'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r232'>232</a>. </span>O’Grady: <i>Silva Gadelica</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f233'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r233'>233</a>. </span><i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 355.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f234'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r234'>234</a>. </span>See <i>The Enumeration of Finn’s Household</i>, translated by O’Grady in <i>Silva -Gadelica</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f235'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r235'>235</a>. </span>For a good account, see J. G. Campbell’s <i>The Fians</i>, pp. 10-80.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f236'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r236'>236</a>. </span>In more correct spelling, <i>Oisin</i>, and pronounced <i>Usheen</i> or <i>Isheen</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f237'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r237'>237</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Kylta</i> or <i>Cweeltia</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f238'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r238'>238</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Gaul</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f239'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r239'>239</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Dermat O’Dyna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f240'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r240'>240</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Grania</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f241'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r241'>241</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Baskin</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f242'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r242'>242</a>. </span>Now Castleknock, near Dublin.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f243'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r243'>243</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Demna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f244'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r244'>244</a>. </span>This and other “boy-exploits” of Finn mac Cumhail are contained in a little -tract written upon a fragment of the ninth century Psalter of Cashel. It is translated -in Vol. IV of the <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f245'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r245'>245</a>. </span>Campbell’s <i>Fians</i>, p. 22.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f246'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r246'>246</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>—“The Gods in Exile”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f247'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r247'>247</a>. </span>From the <i>Colloquy of the Ancients</i> in O’Grady’s <i>Silva Gadelica</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f248'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r248'>248</a>. </span>It is translated in Vol. VI of the <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f249'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r249'>249</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Brăn</i>, not <i>Brān</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f250'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r250'>250</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Skōlaun</i> or <i>Scolaing</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f251'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r251'>251</a>. </span>A fine translation of the <i>Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne</i> has been published -by S. H. O’Grady in Vol. III of the <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f252'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r252'>252</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Navin</i> or <i>Nowin</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f253'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r253'>253</a>. </span>The mountain-ash, or rowan.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f254'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r254'>254</a>. </span>Now called Benbulben. It is near Sligo.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f255'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r255'>255</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Gavra</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f256'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r256'>256</a>. </span>See O’Grady’s <i>Silva Gadelica</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f257'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r257'>257</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Nee-av</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f258'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r258'>258</a>. </span><i>The Lay of Oisin in the Land of Youth</i>, translated by Brian O’Looney for -the Ossianic Society—<i>Transactions</i>, Vol. IV. A fine modern poem on the same -subject is W. B. Yeats’ <i>Wanderings of Oisin</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f259'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r259'>259</a>. </span>See the <i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>. They are generally called the -<i>Dialogues of Oisin and Patrick</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f260'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r260'>260</a>. </span>The story, contained in the Book of the Dun Cow, is called <i>The Phantom -Chariot</i>. It has been translated by Mr. O’Beirne Crowe, and is included in Miss -Hull’s <i>Cuchulinn Saga</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f261'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r261'>261</a>. </span>See Elton, <i>Origins of English History</i>, pp. 269-271.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f262'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r262'>262</a>. </span>Caius Julius Solinus, known as Polyhistor, chap. <span class='fss'>XXIV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f263'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r263'>263</a>. </span>It is appended to his translation of the tale of the <i>Exile of the Children of -Usnach</i> in <i>Atlantis</i>, Vol. III.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f264'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r264'>264</a>. </span>See Cusack’s <i>History of Ireland</i>, pp. 160-162.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f265'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r265'>265</a>. </span><i>I.e.</i> from Heaven.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f266'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r266'>266</a>. </span>Thomas D’Arcy M‘Gee: <i>Poems</i>, p. 78, “The Gobhan Saer”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f267'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r267'>267</a>. </span>Larminie: <i>West Irish Folk-Tales</i>, pp. 1-9.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f268'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r268'>268</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Ildāna</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f269'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r269'>269</a>. </span>It is told in Rhys’s <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 314-317.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f270'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r270'>270</a>. </span>For still other folk-tale versions of this same myth see Curtin’s <i>Hero Tales of -Ireland</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f271'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r271'>271</a>. </span>A Donegal story, collected by Mr. David Fitzgerald and published in the -<i>Revue Celtique</i>, Vol. IV, p. 177.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f272'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r272'>272</a>. </span>The paper is called “Sea-Magic and Running Water”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f273'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r273'>273</a>. </span>Moore: <i>Folklore of the Isle of Man</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f274'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r274'>274</a>. </span>See an article in the <i>Dublin University Magazine</i> for June, 1864</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f275'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r275'>275</a>. </span>The story is among those told by Lady Wilde in her <i>Ancient Legends of -Ireland</i>, Vol. I, pp. 77-82.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f276'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r276'>276</a>. </span><i>Dublin University Magazine</i>, June, 1864.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f277'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r277'>277</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Cleena</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f278'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r278'>278</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Evin</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f279'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r279'>279</a>. </span>See Fitzgerald, <i>Popular Tales of Ireland</i>, in Vol. IV of the <i>Revue Celtique</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f280'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r280'>280</a>. </span><i>Dublin University Magazine</i>, June, 1864.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f281'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r281'>281</a>. </span>For stories of these two Norman-Irish heroes, see Crofton Croker’s <i>Fairy -Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f282'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r282'>282</a>. </span>Lady Guest’s <i>Mabinogion</i>, a note to <i>Math, the Son of Mathonwy</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f283'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r283'>283</a>. </span><i>The Story of Lludd and Llevelys.</i> See chap. <span class='fss'>XXIV</span>—“The Decline and Fall of -the Gods”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f284'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r284'>284</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 128.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f285'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r285'>285</a>. </span>See a monograph by the Right Hon. Charles Bathurst: <i>Roman Antiquities in -Lydney Park, Gloucestershire</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f286'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r286'>286</a>. </span>chap. <span class='fss'>XXIV</span>—“The Decline and Fall of the Gods”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f287'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r287'>287</a>. </span><i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 178, 179.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f288'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r288'>288</a>. </span>So translated by Lady Guest. Professor Rhys, however, renders it, “in whom -God has put the instinct of the demons of Annwn”. <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 341.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f289'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r289'>289</a>. </span>Lady Guest’s <i>Mabinogion</i>. Note to “Kulhwch and Olwen”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f290'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r290'>290</a>. </span>Black Book of Caermarthen, poem <span class='fss'>XXXIII</span>. Vol. I, p. 293, of Skene’s <i>Four -Ancient Books</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f291'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r291'>291</a>. </span>I have taken the liberty of omitting a few lines whose connection with their -context is not very apparent.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f292'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r292'>292</a>. </span>Gwyn was said to specially frequent the summits of hills.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f293'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r293'>293</a>. </span>This line is Professor Rhys’s. Skene translates it: “Whilst I am called Gwyn -the son of Nudd”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f294'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r294'>294</a>. </span>I have here preferred Rhys’s rendering: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 364.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f295'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r295'>295</a>. </span>A name for Hades, of unknown meaning.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f296'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r296'>296</a>. </span>Dormarth means “Death’s Door”. Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, pp. 156-158.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f297'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r297'>297</a>. </span>Rhys has it:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Dormarth, red-nosed, ground-grazing—</div> - <div class='line in1'>On him we perceived the speed</div> - <div class='line in1'>Of thy wandering on Cloud Mount.”</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in14'>—<i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 156.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f298'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r298'>298</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 383. Skene translates: “I am alive, they in their -graves!”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f299'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r299'>299</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 561.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f300'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r300'>300</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 561-563.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f301'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r301'>301</a>. </span>Dyer: <i>Studies of the Gods in Greece</i>, p. 48.</p> - -<p class='c005'>Gwyn, son of Nudd, had a brother, Edeyrn, of whom so little has come down to -us that he finds his most suitable place in a foot-note. Unmentioned in the earliest -Welsh legends, he first appears as a knight of Arthur’s court in the <i>Red Book</i> stories -of “Kulhwch and Olwen”, the “Dream of Rhonabwy”, and “Geraint, the Son of -Erbin”. He accompanied Arthur on his expedition to Rome, and is said also to have -slain “three most atrocious giants” at Brentenol (Brent Knoll), near Glastonbury. -His name occurs in a catalogue of Welsh saints, where he is described as a bard, -and the chapel of Bodedyrn, near Holyhead, still stands to his honour. Modern -readers will know him from Tennyson’s Idyll of “Geraint and Enid”, which -follows very closely the Welsh romance of “Geraint, the Son of Erbin”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f302'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r302'>302</a>. </span>Rhys—who calls him “a Cambrian Pluto”: <i>Lectures on Welsh Philology</i>, -p. 414.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f303'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r303'>303</a>. </span><i>Book of Taliesin</i>, <span class='fss'>XLIII</span>. <i>The Death-song of Dylan, Son of the Wave</i>, Vol. I, -p. 288 of Skene.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f304'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r304'>304</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 387.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f305'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r305'>305</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Celtic Folklore</i>, p. 210.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f306'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r306'>306</a>. </span><i>i.e.</i> The Lion with the Steady Hand.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f307'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r307'>307</a>. </span>See Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, note to p. 237.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f308'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r308'>308</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 240.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f309'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r309'>309</a>. </span>Retold from the Mabinogi of <i>Math, Son of Mathonwy</i>, in Lady Guest’s <i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f310'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r310'>310</a>. </span>The Iolo Manuscripts: collected by Edward Williams, the bard, at about the -beginning of the nineteenth century—<i>The Tale of Rhitta Gawr</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f311'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r311'>311</a>. </span>See Chapter VII—“The Rise of the Sun-God”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f312'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r312'>312</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Studies in the Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 130.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f313'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r313'>313</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 130.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f314'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r314'>314</a>. </span>The old Irish tract called <i>Coir Anmann</i> (the <i>Choice of Names</i>) says: “Manannan -mac Lir ... the Britons and the men of Erin deemed that he was the god -of the sea”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f315'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r315'>315</a>. </span><i>Iolo MSS.</i>, stanza 18 of <i>The Stanzas of the Achievements</i>, composed by the -Azure Bard of the Chair.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f316'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r316'>316</a>. </span>See note to chap. <span class='fss'>XXII</span>—“The Treasures of Britain”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f317'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r317'>317</a>. </span>Mabinogi of <i>Branwen, Daughter of Llyr</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f318'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r318'>318</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 245.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f319'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r319'>319</a>. </span><i>Book of Taliesin</i>, poem <span class='fss'>XLVIII</span>, in Skene’s <i>Four Ancient Books of Wales</i>, Vol. I, -p. 297.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f320'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r320'>320</a>. </span>The <i>Verses of the Graves of the Warriors</i>, in the Black Book of Caermarthen. -See also Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 347.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f321'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r321'>321</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Studies in the Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 160.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f322'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r322'>322</a>. </span>Mabinogi of <i>Manawyddan, Son of Llyr</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f323'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r323'>323</a>. </span><i>Book of Taliesin</i>, poem xiv, Vol. I, p. 276, of Skene.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f324'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r324'>324</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Studies in the Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 48 and note.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f325'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r325'>325</a>. </span>See a paper in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> for July, 1851—“The Romans in -Britain”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f326'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r326'>326</a>. </span>It is said that the “Old King Cole” of the popular ballad, who “was a merry -old soul”, represents the last faint tradition of the Celtic god.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f327'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r327'>327</a>. </span><i>Geoffrey of Monmouth</i>, Book III, chap. <span class='fss'>I</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f328'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r328'>328</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>XVI</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f329'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r329'>329</a>. </span>For full account of Gaulish gods, and their Gaelic and British affinities, see -Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, I and II—“The Gaulish Pantheon”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f330'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r330'>330</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Studies in the Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 282.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f331'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r331'>331</a>. </span>It is constantly so-called by the fourteenth-century Welsh poet, Dafydd ab -Gwilym, so much admired by George Borrow.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f332'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r332'>332</a>. </span>This chapter is retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the Mabinogi of <i>Pwyll, -Prince of Dyfed</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f333'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r333'>333</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 678.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f334'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r334'>334</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 123 and note. Clûd was probably the goddess of -the River Clyde. See Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 294.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f335'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r335'>335</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Pridaíry</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f336'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r336'>336</a>. </span>Retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the Mabinogi of <i>Branwen, the Daughter -of Llyr</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f337'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r337'>337</a>. </span>Rhys—<i>Lectures on Welsh Philology</i>—compares Matholwch with Mâth, and the -story, generally, with the Greek myth of Persephoné.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f338'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r338'>338</a>. </span>A bardic name for Britain.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f339'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r339'>339</a>. </span>This personage may have been the same as the Gaulish god Taranis. Mention, -too, is made in an ancient Irish glossary of “Etirun, an idol of the Britons”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f340'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r340'>340</a>. </span>This spot, called by a twelfth-century Welsh poet “The White Eminence of -London, a place of splendid fame”, was probably the hill on which the Tower of -London now stands.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f341'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r341'>341</a>. </span>The island of Gresholm, off the coast of Pembrokeshire.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f342'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r342'>342</a>. </span><i>The Gododin</i> of Aneurin, as translated by T. Stephens. Branwen is there -called “the lady Bradwen”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f343'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r343'>343</a>. </span>See note to <i>Branwen, the Daughter of Llyr</i> in Lady Guest’s <i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f344'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r344'>344</a>. </span>Tennyson: <i>Idylls of the King</i>—“Guinevere”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f345'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r345'>345</a>. </span>Retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the Mabinogi of <i>Manawyddan, the -Son of Llyr</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f346'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r346'>346</a>. </span>Saxon Britain—England.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f347'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r347'>347</a>. </span>Or the Celtic Elysium, “a mythical country beneath the waves of the sea”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f348'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r348'>348</a>. </span>See the <i>Spoiling of Annwn</i>, quoted in chap. <span class='fss'>XXI</span>—“The Mythological ‘Coming -of Arthur’”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f349'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r349'>349</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 250-251.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f350'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r350'>350</a>. </span><i>Book of Taliesin VIII</i>, Vol. I, p. 276, of Skene. I have followed Skene’s -translation, with the especial exception of the curious line referring to the bean, so -translated in D. W. Nash’s <i>Taliesin</i>. If a correct rendering of the Welsh original, -it offers an interesting parallel to certain superstitions of the Greeks concerning -this vegetable.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f351'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r351'>351</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, note to p. 245.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f352'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r352'>352</a>. </span>Lady Guest’s translation in her notes to <i>Kulhwch and Olwen</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f353'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r353'>353</a>. </span>The following episode is retold from Lady Guest’s translation of the Mabinogi -of <i>Mâth, Son of Mathonwy</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f354'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r354'>354</a>. </span>Now called Pen y Gaer. It is on the summit of a hill half-way between Llanrwst -and Conway, and about a mile from the station of Llanbedr.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f355'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r355'>355</a>. </span>Said to have been at Rhuddlan Teivi, which is, perhaps, Glan Teivy, near -Cardigan Bridge.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f356'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r356'>356</a>. </span>Poem <span class='fss'>XIX</span> in the <i>Black Book of Caermarthen</i>, Vol. I, p. 309, of Skene.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f357'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r357'>357</a>. </span></p> -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“In Aber Gwenoli is the grave of Pryderi,</div> - <div class='line'>Where the waves beat against the land.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f358'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r358'>358</a>. </span>A poem in praise of Geraint, “the brave man from the region of Dyvnaint -(Devon) ... the enemy of tyranny and oppression”, is contained in both the -Black Book of Caermarthen and the Red Book of Hergest. “When Geraint was -born, open were the gates of heaven”, begins its last verse. It is translated in -Vol. I of Skene, p. 267.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f359'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r359'>359</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 8.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f360'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r360'>360</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 40-41.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f361'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r361'>361</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 7.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f362'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r362'>362</a>. </span>“It is worthy of remark that the fame of Arthur is widely spread; he is claimed -alike as a prince in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Cumberland, and the Lowlands of -Scotland; that is to say, his fame is conterminous with the Brythonic race, and -does not extend to the Gaels”.—<i>Chambers’s Encyclopædia.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f363'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r363'>363</a>. </span>For Arthurian and Fenian parallels see Campbell’s <i>Popular Tales of the West -Highlands</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f364'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r364'>364</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>I</span> of Rhys’s <i>Arthurian Legend</i>—“Arthur, Historical and Mythical”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f365'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r365'>365</a>. </span>A triad in the Hengwrt MS. 536, translated by Skene. It was Trystan who was -watching the swine for his uncle, while the swineherd went with a message to -Essylt (Iseult), “and Arthur desired one pig by deceit or by theft, and could not -get it.”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f366'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r366'>366</a>. </span>See note to chap. <span class='fss'>XXII</span>—“The Treasures of Britain”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f367'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r367'>367</a>. </span><i>Book of Taliesin</i>, poem <span class='fss'>XXX</span>, Skene, Vol. I, p. 256.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f368'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r368'>368</a>. </span>In a probably very ancient poem embedded in the sixteenth-century Welsh -romance called <i>Taliesin</i>, included by Lady Guest in her <i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f369'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r369'>369</a>. </span>“The existence of a sixth-century bard of this name, a contemporary of the -heroic stage of British resistance to the Germanic invaders, is well attested. A -number of poems are found in mediæval Welsh MSS., chief among them the so-called -<i>Book of Taliesin</i>, ascribed to this sixth-century poet. Some of these are -almost as old as any remains of Welsh poetry, and may go back to the early tenth -or the ninth century; others are productions of the eleventh, twelfth, and even -thirteenth centuries.”—Nutt: Notes to his (1902) edition of Lady Guest’s -<i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f370'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r370'>370</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 551.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f371'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r371'>371</a>. </span>“There can be little doubt but that the sixth-century bard succeeded to the -form and attributes of a far older, a prehistoric, a mythic singer.”—Nutt: Notes -to <i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f372'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r372'>372</a>. </span>I have been obliged to collate four different translators to obtain an acceptable -version of what Mr. T. Stephens, in his <i>Literature of the Kymri</i>, calls “one of the -least intelligible of the mythological poems”. My authorities have been Skene, -Stephens, Nash, and Rhys.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f373'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r373'>373</a>. </span>A form of the name Gwydion.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f374'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r374'>374</a>. </span>The name of Arthur’s ship.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f375'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r375'>375</a>. </span>Revolving Castle.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f376'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r376'>376</a>. </span>Four-cornered Castle.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f377'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r377'>377</a>. </span>The Cold Place.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f378'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r378'>378</a>. </span>Castle of Revelry.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f379'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r379'>379</a>. </span>Kingly Castle.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f380'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r380'>380</a>. </span>Glass Castle.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f381'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r381'>381</a>. </span>Castle of Riches.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f382'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r382'>382</a>. </span>Meaning is unknown. See chap. <span class='fss'>XVI</span>—“The Gods of the Britons”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f383'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r383'>383</a>. </span>Meaning is unknown. See chap. <span class='fss'>XX</span>—“The Victories of Light over Darkness”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f384'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r384'>384</a>. </span>Unless they should be “the yellow and the brindled bull” mentioned in the -story of <i>Kulhwch and Olwen</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f385'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r385'>385</a>. </span><i>Book of Taliesin</i>, poem <span class='fss'>XIV</span>. The translation is by Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, -p. 301.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f386'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r386'>386</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 325.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f387'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r387'>387</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>ibid.</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>I</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f388'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r388'>388</a>. </span>Malory’s <i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book II, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f389'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r389'>389</a>. </span><i>Historia Britonum</i>, Book VIII, chap. <span class='fss'>XX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f390'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r390'>390</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 169.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f391'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r391'>391</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>ibid.</i>, p. 169.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f392'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r392'>392</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 13.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f393'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r393'>393</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>ibid.</i>, pp. 19-23.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f394'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r394'>394</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 168.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f395'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r395'>395</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 167.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f396'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r396'>396</a>. </span>See Rhys’s exposition of the mythological meaning of the <i>Red Book</i> romance -of the <i>Dream of Maxen Wledig</i>, in his <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 160-175.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f397'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r397'>397</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 192-195.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f398'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r398'>398</a>. </span><i>Historia Britonum</i>, Book VIII, chaps. <span class='fss'>IX</span>-<span class='fss'>XII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f399'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r399'>399</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span> and Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 194.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f400'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r400'>400</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 158, 159.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f401'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r401'>401</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 155.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f402'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r402'>402</a>. </span>Plutarch: <i>De Defectu Oraculorum</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f403'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r403'>403</a>. </span>The <i>Seint Greal</i>, quoted by Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, pp. 61-62.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f404'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r404'>404</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 59.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f405'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r405'>405</a>. </span>Elton: <i>Origins of English History</i>, p. 269.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f406'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r406'>406</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 12.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f407'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r407'>407</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 70.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f408'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r408'>408</a>. </span>The name March means “horse”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f409'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r409'>409</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur.</i> Book X, chap. <span class='fss'>XXVII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f410'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r410'>410</a>. </span>Called Labraid Longsech.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f411'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r411'>411</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>. See chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>—“Urien and his Congeners”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f412'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r412'>412</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 260.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f413'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r413'>413</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 261.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f414'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r414'>414</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 256.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f415'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r415'>415</a>. </span>Red Book of Hergest, XII. Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, pp. 253-256.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f416'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r416'>416</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 247.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f417'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r417'>417</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f418'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r418'>418</a>. </span><i>The Death-song of Owain.</i> Taliesin, <span class='fss'>XLIV</span>, Skene, Vol. I, p. 366.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f419'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r419'>419</a>. </span>Book of Taliesin, <span class='fss'>XXXII</span>. Skene, however, translates the word rendered -“evening” by Rhys as “cultivated plain”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f420'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r420'>420</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 345.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f421'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r421'>421</a>. </span>Both by Malory and Geoffrey of Monmouth.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f422'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r422'>422</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 256.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f423'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r423'>423</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XVIII</span>—“The Wooing of Branwen and the Beheading of Brân”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f424'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r424'>424</a>. </span>He is called Ogyrvran the Giant.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f425'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r425'>425</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 326.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f426'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r426'>426</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, pp. 268-269.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f427'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r427'>427</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Lectures on Welsh Philology</i>, p. 306. But the derivation is only tentative, -and an interesting alternative one is given, which equates him with the Persian -Ahriman.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f428'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r428'>428</a>. </span>The enumeration of Arthur’s three Gwynhwyvars forms one of the Welsh triads.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f429'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r429'>429</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 342.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f430'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r430'>430</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>—“The Gods in Exile”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f431'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r431'>431</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>—“Arthur and Airem”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f432'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r432'>432</a>. </span>In the mysterious Lancelot, not found in Arthurian story before the Norman -adaptations of it, Professor Rhys is inclined to see a British sun-god, or solar hero. -A number of interesting comparisons are drawn between him and the Peredur and -Owain of the later “Mabinogion” tales, as well as with the Gaelic Cuchulainn. -See <i>Studies in the Arthurian Legend</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f433'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r433'>433</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XXI, chap. <span class='fss'>I</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f434'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r434'>434</a>. </span>The fullest list of translated triads is contained in the appendix to Probert’s -<i>Ancient Laws of Cambria</i>, 1823. Many are also given as an appendix in Skene’s -<i>Four Ancient Books of Wales</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f435'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r435'>435</a>. </span><i>Black Book of Caermarthen XIX</i>, Vol. I, pp. 309-318 in Skene.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f436'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r436'>436</a>. </span>This is Professor Rhys’s translation of the Welsh line, no doubt more strictly -correct than the famous rendering: “Unknown is the grave of Arthur”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f437'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r437'>437</a>. </span>“History of the Britons”, § 50.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f438'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r438'>438</a>. </span>Geoffrey of Monmouth. Books IX and X, and chaps. <span class='fss'>I</span> and <span class='fss'>II</span> of XI.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f439'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r439'>439</a>. </span>Translated by Lady Guest in her <i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f440'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r440'>440</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XIV</span>—“Finn and the Fenians”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f441'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r441'>441</a>. </span>Chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>—“The Gaelic Argonauts”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f442'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r442'>442</a>. </span>The list will be found, translated from an old Welsh MS., in the notes to -<i>Kulhwch and Olwen</i>, in Lady Guest’s <i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f443'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r443'>443</a>. </span>Chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>—“The Gaelic Argonauts”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f444'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r444'>444</a>. </span>Pronounced <i>Keelhookh</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f445'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r445'>445</a>. </span>The following pages sketch out the main incidents of the story as translated -by Lady Guest in her <i>Mabinogion</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f446'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r446'>446</a>. </span>In Welsh, <i>Yspaddaden Penkawr</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f447'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r447'>447</a>. </span><i>I.e.</i> She of the White Track. The beauty of Olwen was proverbial in mediæval -Welsh poetry.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f448'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r448'>448</a>. </span>In his notes to his edition of Lady Guest’s <i>Mabinogion</i>. Published 1902.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f449'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r449'>449</a>. </span>So says the text. But a triad quoted by Lady Guest in her notes gives the -“Three Paramount Prisoners of Britain” differently. “The three supreme prisoners -of the Island of Britain, Llyr Llediath in the prison of Euroswydd Wledig, and -Madoc, or Mabon, and Gweir, son of Gweiryoth; and one more exalted than the -three, and that was Arthur, who was for three nights in the Castle of Oeth and -Anoeth, and three nights in the prison of Wen Pendragon, and three nights in the -dark prison under the stone. And one youth released him from these three prisons; -that youth was Goreu the son of Custennin, his cousin.”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f450'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r450'>450</a>. </span>See Rhys: <i>Celtic Folklore</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>X</span>—“Place-name Stories”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f451'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r451'>451</a>. </span>The “big knife” was, we are told in the story, “a short broad dagger. -When Arthur and his hosts came before a torrent, they would seek for a narrow -place where they might pass the water, and would lay the sheathed dagger across -the torrent, and it would form a bridge sufficient for the armies of the three islands -of Britain, and of the three islands adjacent, with their spoil.”</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f452'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r452'>452</a>. </span>Tennyson’s <i>Idylls of the King</i>; <i>Guinevere</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f453'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r453'>453</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i> To the Queen.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f454'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r454'>454</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>X</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f455'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r455'>455</a>. </span>Gresholm Island, the scene of “The Entertaining of the Noble Head”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f456'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r456'>456</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XX, chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f457'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r457'>457</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>III</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f458'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r458'>458</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f459'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r459'>459</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>XVI</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f460'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r460'>460</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f461'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r461'>461</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f462'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r462'>462</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>XXIV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f463'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r463'>463</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f464'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r464'>464</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book II, chap. <span class='fss'>XVIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f465'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r465'>465</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book V, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>; Book VIII, chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>; Book XIX, chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f466'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r466'>466</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XI, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f467'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r467'>467</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XI, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f468'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r468'>468</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XVII, chap. <span class='fss'>V</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f469'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r469'>469</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XI, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f470'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r470'>470</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XII, chap. <span class='fss'>V</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f471'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r471'>471</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 283.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f472'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r472'>472</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>XXIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f473'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r473'>473</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 284 and note.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f474'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r474'>474</a>. </span>The subject is treated at length by Professor Rhys in his <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, -chap. <span class='fss'>XII</span>—“Pwyll and Pelles”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f475'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r475'>475</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book II, chap. <span class='fss'>XV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f476'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r476'>476</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>XII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f477'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r477'>477</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>XV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f478'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r478'>478</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>IX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f479'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r479'>479</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XIII, chap. <span class='fss'>XII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f480'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r480'>480</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XIX, chap. <span class='fss'>XI</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f481'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r481'>481</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XIX, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f482'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r482'>482</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XIII, chap. <span class='fss'>X</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f483'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r483'>483</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XIV, chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f484'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r484'>484</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XIV, chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f485'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r485'>485</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 11.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f486'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r486'>486</a>. </span><i>Op. cit.</i>, pp. 21-22.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f487'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r487'>487</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>XVIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f488'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r488'>488</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f489'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r489'>489</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 23.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f490'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r490'>490</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>I</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f491'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r491'>491</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XVII</span>—“The Adventures of the Gods of Hades”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f492'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r492'>492</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>I</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f493'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r493'>493</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book I, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f494'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r494'>494</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book III, chap. <span class='fss'>XV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f495'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r495'>495</a>. </span>Whose story is told by Tennyson in the <i>Idylls</i>, and by Malory in Book XVIII -of the <i>Morte Darthur</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f496'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r496'>496</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XI, chaps. <span class='fss'>II</span> and <span class='fss'>III</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f497'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r497'>497</a>. </span>See his <i>Studies in the Arthurian Legend</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f498'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r498'>498</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XXI</span>—“The Mythological ‘Coming of Arthur’”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f499'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r499'>499</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XIX, chaps. <span class='fss'>I</span>-<span class='fss'>IX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f500'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r500'>500</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XVII, chap. <span class='fss'>XX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f501'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r501'>501</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book II, chap. <span class='fss'>XVI</span>; Book XI, chap. <span class='fss'>XIV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f502'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r502'>502</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>V</span>—“The Gods of the Gaels”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f503'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r503'>503</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XVIII</span>—“The Wooing of Branwen and the Beheading of Brân”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f504'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r504'>504</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XXI</span>—“The Mythological ‘Coming of Arthur’”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f505'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r505'>505</a>. </span>See chap. <span class='fss'>XII</span>—“The Irish Iliad”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f506'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r506'>506</a>. </span>Chap. <span class='fss'>XXI</span>—“The Mythological ‘Coming of Arthur’”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f507'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r507'>507</a>. </span>Chap. <span class='fss'>XXI</span>—“The Mythological ‘Coming of Arthur’”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f508'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r508'>508</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 305.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f509'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r509'>509</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XI, chaps. <span class='fss'>II</span> and <span class='fss'>IV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f510'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r510'>510</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XVI, chap. <span class='fss'>V</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f511'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r511'>511</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XI, chap. <span class='fss'>XIV</span>; Book XII, chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>; Book XIII, chap. <span class='fss'>XVIII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f512'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r512'>512</a>. </span>Not mentioned by Malory, but stated in the romance called <i>Seint Greal</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f513'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r513'>513</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, pp. 276-277; 302.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f514'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r514'>514</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>XXIX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f515'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r515'>515</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book XVII, chap. <span class='fss'>XX</span>, in which Sir Bors, Sir Percivale, and Sir Galahad -are all fed from the Sangreal.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f516'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r516'>516</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 162.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f517'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r517'>517</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 133.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f518'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r518'>518</a>. </span>Translated by Lady Guest in her <i>Mabinogion</i>, under the title of <i>Peredur, the -Son of Evrawc</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f519'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r519'>519</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 169. But see whole of chap. <span class='fss'>VIII</span>—“Galahad -and Gwalchaved”.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f520'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r520'>520</a>. </span>The German romance <i>Diu Krône</i>, by Heinrich von dem Tûrlin.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f521'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r521'>521</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, p. 71.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f522'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r522'>522</a>. </span>See, for example, a folk-tale, pp. 117-123 in Rhys’s <i>Celtic Folklore</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f523'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r523'>523</a>. </span>Stephens’s Preliminary Dissertation to his translation of Aneurin’s <i>Gododin</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f524'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r524'>524</a>. </span><i>Iolo MSS.</i>, p. 471.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f525'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r525'>525</a>. </span><i>Iolo MSS.</i>, pp. 597-600.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f526'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r526'>526</a>. </span><i>Historia Britonum</i>, Books IX, X, and chaps. <span class='fss'>I</span> and <span class='fss'>II</span> of XI.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f527'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r527'>527</a>. </span><i>Historia Britonum</i>, Book XI, chap. <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f528'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r528'>528</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book IX, chap. <span class='fss'>IX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f529'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r529'>529</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book IX, chap. <i>XII</i>. They appear also as Guanius, King of the Huns, -and Melga, King of the Picts, in Book V, chap. <span class='fss'>XVI</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f530'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r530'>530</a>. </span><i>Historia Britonum</i>, Book III, chap. <span class='fss'>XIX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f531'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r531'>531</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book III, chap. <span class='fss'>XX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f532'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r532'>532</a>. </span><i>I.e.</i> London, under its traditionary earlier name, Troja Nova, given it by Brutus.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f533'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r533'>533</a>. </span><i>The Story of Lludd and Llevelys.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f534'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r534'>534</a>. </span>The name means “dwarfs”. Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 606.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f535'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r535'>535</a>. </span><i>Historia Britonum</i>, Book II, chap, <span class='fss'>X</span>-<span class='fss'>XIV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f536'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r536'>536</a>. </span>Alba, or North Britain.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f537'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r537'>537</a>. </span>Now Calais.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f538'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r538'>538</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, pp. 131-132.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f539'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r539'>539</a>. </span><i>Historia Britonum</i>, Book III, chaps. <span class='fss'>I</span>-<span class='fss'>X</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f540'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r540'>540</a>. </span>The same fabulous personage, perhaps, as the original of Rabelais’ Gargantua, -a popular Celtic god.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f541'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r541'>541</a>. </span><i>Historia Britonum</i>, Book III, Chaps. <span class='fss'>XI</span>-<span class='fss'>XII</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f542'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r542'>542</a>. </span>See the <i>Iolo MSS.</i> The genealogies and families of the saints of the island of -Britain. Copied by Iolo Morganwg in 1783 from the <i>Long Book of Thomas Truman -of Pantlliwydd</i> in the parish of Llansanor in Glamorgan, p. 515, &c. Also see -<i>An Essay on the Welsh Saints</i> by the Rev. Rice Rees, Sections IV and V.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f543'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r543'>543</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Arthurian Legend</i>, pp. 261-262.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f544'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r544'>544</a>. </span><i>Iolo MSS.</i>, p. 474.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f545'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r545'>545</a>. </span>“The Welsh bards call Dwynwen the goddess, or saint of love and affection, -as the poets designate Venus.” <i>Iolo MSS.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f546'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r546'>546</a>. </span>Wirt Sikes: <i>British Goblins</i>, p. 350.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f547'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r547'>547</a>. </span><i>Iolo MSS.</i>, p. 523.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f548'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r548'>548</a>. </span><i>The Faerie Queene</i>, Prologue to Book II.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f549'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r549'>549</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, Book II, canto <span class='fss'>I</span>, verse 6.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f550'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r550'>550</a>. </span>Published in <i>Y Greal</i> (London, 1805), and is to be found quoted in Rhys: -<i>Arthurian Legend</i>, pp. 338, 339; also in Sikes: <i>British Goblins</i>, pp. 7-8.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f551'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r551'>551</a>. </span><i>A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth and the Principality -of Wales.</i> Published at Newport, 1813.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f552'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r552'>552</a>. </span>Thistleton Dyer: <i>Folklore of Shakespeare</i>, p. 3.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f553'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r553'>553</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 4.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f554'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r554'>554</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 5.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f555'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r555'>555</a>. </span>Wirt Sikes: <i>British Goblins</i>, p. 12.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f556'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r556'>556</a>. </span>The <i>Brython</i>, Vol. I, p. 130.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f557'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r557'>557</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Celtic Folklore</i>, pp. 171-172.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f558'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r558'>558</a>. </span>In the year 55 <span class='fss'>B.C.</span></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f559'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r559'>559</a>. </span><i>Strabo</i>, Book IV, chap. <span class='fss'>IV</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f560'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r560'>560</a>. </span><i>Annals</i>, Book XIV, chap. <span class='fss'>XXX</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f561'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r561'>561</a>. </span><i>Natural History</i>, Book XXX.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f562'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r562'>562</a>. </span>Gildas. See <i>Six Old English Chronicles</i>—Bohn’s Libraries.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f563'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r563'>563</a>. </span>Rennell Rodd: <i>Customs and Lore of Modern Greece</i>. Stuart Glennie: <i>Greek -Folk Songs</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f564'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r564'>564</a>. </span>Charles Godfrey Leland: <i>Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f565'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r565'>565</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Celtic Folklore</i>, p. 670; Curtin: <i>Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost -World</i>; and Mr. Leland Duncan’s <i>Fairy Beliefs from County Leitrim</i> in <i>Folklore</i>, -June, 1896.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f566'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r566'>566</a>. </span>The Mabinogi of <i>Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f567'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r567'>567</a>. </span>The story of Lludd and Llevelys.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f568'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r568'>568</a>. </span><i>Kulhwch and Olwen.</i></p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f569'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r569'>569</a>. </span><i>Morte Darthur</i>, Book XIX, chaps. <span class='fss'>I</span> and <span class='fss'>II</span>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f570'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r570'>570</a>. </span><i>Henry VIII</i>, act <span class='fss'>V</span>, scene 3.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f571'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r571'>571</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, p. 514.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f572'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r572'>572</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 516.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f573'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r573'>573</a>. </span>A good account of the Irish festivals is given by Lady Wilde in her <i>Ancient -Legends of Ireland</i>, pp. 193-221.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f574'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r574'>574</a>. </span>Pennant: <i>A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides</i>, 1772.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f575'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r575'>575</a>. </span>Martin: <i>Description of the Western Islands of Scotland</i>, 1695.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f576'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r576'>576</a>. </span>Gaidoz: <i>Esquisse de la Réligion des Gaulois</i>, p. 21.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f577'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r577'>577</a>. </span>Gomme: <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, pp. 136-139.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f578'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r578'>578</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 137.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f579'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r579'>579</a>. </span>Mitchell: <i>The Past in the Present</i>, pp. 271, 275.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f580'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r580'>580</a>. </span>Elton: <i>Origins of English History</i>, p. 284.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f581'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r581'>581</a>. </span>Gomme: <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, p. 140.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f582'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r582'>582</a>. </span>The word Dee probably meant “divinity”. The river was also called Dyfridwy, -<i>i.e.</i> “water of the divinity”. See Rhys: <i>Lectures on Welsh Philology</i>, p. 307.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f583'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r583'>583</a>. </span>Rhys: <i>Celtic Britain</i>, p. 68.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f584'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r584'>584</a>. </span>Rogers: <i>Social Life in Scotland</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>III</span>, p. 336.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f585'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r585'>585</a>. </span><i>Folklore</i>, chap. <span class='fss'>III</span>, p. 72.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f586'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r586'>586</a>. </span>Henderson: <i>Folklore of Northern Counties</i>, p. 265.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f587'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r587'>587</a>. </span>Gomme: <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, p. 78.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f588'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r588'>588</a>. </span>Hope: <i>Holy Wells of England</i>; Harvey: <i>Holy Wells of Ireland</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f589'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r589'>589</a>. </span>Sikes: <i>British Goblins</i>, p. 351.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f590'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r590'>590</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 329.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f591'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r591'>591</a>. </span>Roden: <i>Progress of the Reformation in Ireland</i>, pp. 51-54.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f592'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r592'>592</a>. </span>Martin: <i>Description of the Western Islands</i>, pp. 166-226.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f593'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r593'>593</a>. </span>Burne: <i>Shropshire Folklore</i>, p. 416.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f594'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r594'>594</a>. </span>Gomme: <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, pp. 92-93.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f595'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r595'>595</a>. </span><i>Ibid.</i>, p. 102.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f596'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r596'>596</a>. </span>Adamnan’s <i>Vita Columbæ</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f597'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r597'>597</a>. </span>Dr. Whitley Stokes: <i>Three Middle Irish Homilies</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f598'> -<p class='c005'><span class='label'><a href='#r598'>598</a>. </span>Caesar: <i>De Bello Gallico</i>, Book V, chap. <span class='fss'>XII</span>.</p> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_419'>419</span> - <h2 class='c003'>APPENDIX</h2> -</div> - -<h3 class='c014'>A FEW BOOKS UPON CELTIC MYTHOLOGY<br />AND LITERATURE</h3> - -<p class='c015'>The object of this short list is merely to supplement the marginal -notes by pointing out to a reader desirous of going deeper -into the subject the most recent and accessible works upon it. -That they should be accessible is, in its intention, the most important -thing; and therefore only books easily and cheaply obtainable -will be mentioned.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>INTRODUCTORY</h3> - -<p class='c016'>Matthew Arnold.—<span class='sc'>The Study of Celtic Literature.</span> Popular -Edition. London, 1891.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Ernest Renan.—<span class='sc'>The Poetry of the Celtic Races</span> (and other -studies). Translated by William G. Hutchinson. London, -1896.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>Two eloquent appreciations of Celtic literature.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Magnus Maclean, M.A., D.C.L.—<span class='sc'>The Literature of the -Celts.</span> Its History and Romance. London, 1902.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A handy exposition of all the branches of Celtic literature.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Elizabeth A. Sharp (editor).—<span class='sc'>Lyra Celtica.</span> An Anthology -of Representative Celtic Poetry. Ancient Irish, Alban, -Gaelic, Breton, Cymric, and Modern Scottish and Irish -Celtic Poetry. With introduction and notes by William -Sharp. Edinburgh, 1896.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Alfred Nutt.—<span class='sc'>Celtic and Mediæval Romance.</span> No. 1 of Mr. -Nutt’s “Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. -London, 1899.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A pamphlet briefly tracing the indebtedness of mediæval -European literature to pre-mediæval Celtic sources.</i></p> - -<div> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_420'>420</span> - <h3 class='c014'>HISTORICAL</h3> -</div> - -<p class='c016'>H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—<span class='sc'>La Civilisation des Celtes et -celle de l’Épopée Homérique.</span> Paris, 1899.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>Vol. VI of the author’s monumental “Cours de Littérature -celtique.”</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Patrick Weston Joyce.—<span class='sc'>A Social History of Ancient Ireland</span>, -treating of the Government, Military System, and Law; -Religion, Learning, and Art; Trades, Industries, and Commerce; -Manners, Customs, and Domestic Life of the Ancient -Irish People. 2 vols. London, 1903.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Charles I. Elton, F.S.A.—<span class='sc'>Origins of English History.</span> -Second edition, revised. London, 1890.</p> - -<p class='c017'>John Rhys.—<span class='sc'>Celtic Britain.</span> “Early Britain” Series. London, -1882.</p> - -<p class='c017'>H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—<span class='sc'>Introduction à l’Étude de la -Littérature celtique.</span> Vol. I of the “Cours de Littérature -celtique”. Paris, 1883.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>Contains, among other information, the fullest and most -authentic account of the druids and druidism.</i></p> - -<h3 class='c014'>GAELIC MYTHOLOGY</h3> - -<p class='c016'>H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—<span class='sc'>Le Cycle mythologique irlandais -et la Mythologie celtique.</span> Vol. II of the “Cours -de Littérature celtique”. Paris, 1884. Translated into English -as</p> - -<p class='c019'><span class='sc'>The Irish Mythological Cycle and Celtic Mythology.</span> -With notes by R. I. Best. Dublin, 1903.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>An account of Irish mythical history and of some of the -greater Gaelic gods. With chapters on some of the more -striking phases of Celtic belief.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Alfred Nutt.—<span class='sc'>The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal.</span> An -Irish Historic Legend of the eighth century. Edited by -Kuno Meyer. With essays upon the Happy Otherworld in -Irish Myth and upon the Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth. Vol. -I—The Happy Otherworld. Vol. II—The Celtic Doctrine -of Rebirth. Grimm Library, Vols. IV and VI. London, -1895-1897.</p> - -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_421'>421</span><i>Contains, among other notable contributions to the study of -Celtic mythology, an enquiry into the nature of the Tuatha Dé -Danann, a subject briefly treated in the same author’s</i></p> - -<p class='c019'><span class='sc'>The Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare.</span> No. 6 of “Popular -Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, -1900.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Patrick Weston Joyce.—<span class='sc'>Old Celtic Romances.</span> Translated -from the Gaelic. London, 1894.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A retelling in popular modern style of some of the more important -mythological and Fenian stories.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Lady Gregory.—<span class='sc'>Gods and Fighting Men.</span> The story of the -Tuatha Dé Danann and of the Fianna of Erin. Arranged -and put into English by Lady Gregory. With a Preface by -W. B. Yeats. London, 1904.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>Covers much the same ground as Mr. Joyce’s book, but in -more literary manner.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Alfred Nutt.—<span class='sc'>Ossian and the Ossianic Literature.</span> No. 3 -of “Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. -London, 1899.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A short survey of the literature connected with the Fenians.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>John Gregorson Campbell, Minister of Tiree.—<span class='sc'>The Fians.</span> -Stories, poems, and traditions of Fionn and his Warrior -Band, collected entirely from oral sources. With introduction -and bibliographical notes by Alfred Nutt. Vol. IV of -“Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition”. London, 1891.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>An account of the Fenians from the Scottish-Gaelic side.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Alfred Nutt.—<span class='sc'>Cuchulainn the Irish Achilles.</span> No. 8 of -“Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. -London, 1900.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A brief but excellent introduction to the Cuchulainn cycle.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Lady Gregory.—<span class='sc'>Cuchulain of Muirthemne.</span> The story of -the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster. Arranged and put -into English by Lady Gregory. With a Preface by W. B. -Yeats. London, 1902.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A retelling in poetic prose of the tales connected with Cuchulainn.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Eleanor Hull.—<span class='sc'>The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature.</span> -Being a collection of stories relating to the Hero Cuchullin, -translated from the Irish by various scholars. Compiled and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_422'>422</span>edited with introduction and notes by Eleanor Hull. With -Map of Ancient Ireland. Grimm Library, Vol. VIII. -London, 1898.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A series of Cuchulainn stories from the ancient Irish manuscripts. -More literal than Lady Gregory’s adaptation.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—<span class='sc'>L’Épopée Celtique en Irlande.</span> -Vol. V of the “Cours de Littérature celtique”. Paris, 1892.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A collection, translated into French, of some of the principal -stories of the Cuchulainn cycle, with various appendices upon -Gaelic mythological subjects.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>L. Winifred Faraday, M.A.—<span class='sc'>The Cattle Raid of Cualgne</span> -(Tain Bo Cuailgne). An old Irish prose-epic translated for -the first time from the Leabhar na h-Uidhri and the Yellow -Book of Lecan. Grimm Library, Vol. XVI. London, -1904.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A strictly literal rendering of the central episode of the -Cuchulainn cycle.</i></p> - -<h3 class='c014'>BRITISH MYTHOLOGY</h3> - -<p class='c016'>Ivor B. John.—<span class='sc'>The Mabinogion.</span> No. 11 of “Popular Studies -in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1901.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A pamphlet introduction to the Mabinogion literature.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Lady Charlotte Guest.—<span class='sc'>The Mabinogion.</span> From the Welsh of -the <span class='sc'>Llyfr Coch o Hergest</span> (the Red Book of Hergest) -in the library of Jesus College, Oxford. Translated, with -notes, by Lady Charlotte Guest.</p> - -<table class='table1' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='28%' /> -<col width='71%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c020'>First edition.</td> - <td class='c021'>Text, translation, and notes, 3 vols., 1849.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c020'> </td> - <td class='c021'>Translation and notes only, 1 vol., 1877.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c020'> </td> - <td class='c021'>The Boys’ Mabinogion, 1881.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class='c018'><i>Cheap editions of this classic have been lately issued. One -may obtain it in Mr. Nutt’s handsome little volume; as one of -Dent’s “Temple Classics”; or in the “Welsh Library”.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>J. Loth.—<span class='sc'>Les Mabinogion</span>, traduits en entier pour la première -fois en français avec un commentaire explicatif et des notes -critiques. 2 vols. Vols. III and IV of De Jubainville’s -“Cours de Littérature celtique”. Paris, 1889.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>A more exact translation than that of Lady Guest, with -notes embodying more recent scholarship.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'><span class='pageno' id='Page_423'>423</span>J. A. Giles, D.C.L.—<span class='sc'>Old English Chronicles</span>, including ... -Geoffrey of Monmouth’s British History, Gildas, Nennius -... Edited, with illustrative notes, by J. A. Giles, D.C.L. -“Bohn’s Antiquarian Library”. London, 1901.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>The most accessible edition of Geoffrey of Monmouth.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Sir Thomas Malory.—<span class='sc'>The Morte Darthur.</span> Edited by Dr. -H. Oskar Sommer. Vol. I—the Text. Vol. II—Glossary, -Index, &c. Vol. III—Study on the Sources. London, -1889-1891.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>Vol. I of this, the best text of the Morte Darthur, can be -obtained separately.</i></p> - -<p class='c017'>Jessie L. Weston.—<span class='sc'>King Arthur and his Knights.</span> A survey -of Arthurian romance. No. 4 of “Popular Studies in -Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1899.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Alfred Nutt.—<span class='sc'>The Legends of the Holy Grail.</span> No. 14 of -“Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. -London, 1902.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>Useful introductions to a more special study of Arthurian -literature.</i></p> - -<h3 class='c014'>COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY</h3> - -<p class='c016'>John Rhys.—<span class='sc'>Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion -as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom.</span> “The -Hibbert Lectures for 1886.” London, 1898.</p> - -<p class='c017'>John Rhys.—<span class='sc'>Studies in the Arthurian Legend.</span> Oxford, -1901.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>These two volumes are the most important attempts yet made -towards a scientific and comprehensive study of the Celtic -mythology.</i></p> - -<h3 class='c014'>CELTIC FAIRY AND FOLK LORE</h3> - -<h4 class='c022'>GAELIC</h4> - -<p class='c016'>T. Crofton Croker.—<span class='sc'>Fairy Legends and Traditions of the -South of Ireland.</span></p> - -<p class='c018'><i>This book is one of the earliest, and, if not the most scientific, -perhaps the most attractive of the many collections of Irish -fairy-lore. Later compilations are Mr. William Larminie’s</i></p> - -<p class='c018'><span class='pageno' id='Page_424'>424</span><i>“West Irish Folktales and Romances”, and Mr. Jeremiah -Curtin’s “Hero Tales of Ireland”, “Myths and Folklore of -Ireland”, and “Tales of the Fairies, collected in South Munster”. -On the Scotch side, notice should be particularly taken -of Campbell’s “Popular Tales of the West Highlands” and -the volumes entitled “Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition”. -All these books are either recent or recently republished, and are -merely selected out of a large list of works, valuable and otherwise, -upon this lighter side of Celtic mythology.</i></p> - -<h4 class='c022'>BRITISH</h4> - -<p class='c016'>John Rhys.—<span class='sc'>Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx.</span> 2 vols. -Oxford, 1901.</p> - -<p class='c017'>Wirt Sikes.—<span class='sc'>British Goblins</span>: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology, -Legends, and Traditions. By Wirt Sikes, United States -Consul for Wales. London, 1880.</p> - -<h3 class='c014'>FOLKLORE COMPARATIVELY TREATED</h3> - -<p class='c016'>George Laurence Gomme.—<span class='sc'>Ethnology in Folklore.</span> -“Modern Science” Series. London, 1892.</p> - -<p class='c018'><i>An attempt to assign apparently non-Aryan beliefs and customs -in the British islands to pre-Aryan inhabitants.</i></p> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_425'>425</span> - <h2 class='c003'>INDEX</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c011'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Aberffraw, marriage of Branwen at, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Abergeleu, sacred well at, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Achill Island, folk-tales preserved at, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Achilles, the Irish, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Achren, battle of, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>castle of, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Acrisius, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Adamnan’s <i>Life of Saint Columba</i>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aebh, wife of Lêr, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aed, son of Lêr, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aedh, son of Miodhchaoin, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aeife, wife of Lêr, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aerfon, a title of the river Dee, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Æs Sídhe</i>, the “folk of the mounds”, the gods or fairies, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Africa, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aganippus, king of the Franks, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Agriculture god of, British, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>a Gaulish, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ailbhe, foster-daughter of Bodb the Red, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aileach, grave of Nuada at, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ailill, king of Connaught, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ailinn, love-story of, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ailioll of Arran, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ainé, queen of the fairies of South Munster, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>-246.</div> - <div class='line'>Ainle, one of the sons of Usnach, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Airceltrai, the <i>sídh</i> of Ogma, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Airem, Eochaid, high king of Ireland, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Airem</i>, meaning of the word, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Airmid, daughter of Diancecht, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Alator, a war-god worshipped in Britain, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Alaw, river in Anglesey, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Alba, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Deirdre’s farewell to, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>-195.</div> - <div class='line'>Albania, a name for Alba, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ale of Goibniu, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Allobroges, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Amaethon, son of Dôn, British god of Agriculture, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>fights against Brân in the battle of Achren, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>-308;</div> - <div class='line in2'>assists Kulhwch to win Olwen, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Amergin, druid of the Milesians, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>-130.</div> - <div class='line'>Amesbury, “castle” of, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Amlwch, stream of, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ana, see Anu.</div> - <div class='line'>Ancient Britons, who were the, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>-23.</div> - <div class='line'>Aneurin, a sixth-century British bard, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aneurin, the Book of, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Anglesey, island of, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Anglo-Saxon, our descent not entirely, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Anguish, Anguissance, king of Ireland, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Angus, Gaelic god of love and beauty, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>-142, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>-214, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his attributes, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his wooing of Caer, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>-142;</div> - <div class='line in2'>cheats his father, the Dagda, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>steals Etain from Mider, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>helps Diarmait and Grainne, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>matches his pigs against the Fenians, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>-214.</div> - <div class='line'>Anicetus, Sol Apollo, a Romano-British god, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Animals, sacred, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>sacrifices of, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Anna, sister of Arthur, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Annals of the Four Masters</i>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Annwn, the British Otherworld, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>-282, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_426'>426</span><i>Annwn, the Spoiling of</i>, a poem by Taliesin, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Anu, or Ana, a Gaelic goddess of prosperity and abundance, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the “Paps of Ana”, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>still living in folklore as Aynia and Ainé, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aoibhinn, queen of the fairies of North Munster, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aoife, an Amazon defeated by Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aphrodité, the British, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Apollo, the Gaelic, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the British, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>a temple of, in Britain, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Apples, of the Garden of the Hesperides, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>in the Celtic Elysium, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Apple-tree of Ailenn, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aquitani, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aranon, son of Milé, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Arawn, king of Annwn, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ardan, a son of Usnach, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ard Chein, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Arddu, Black Stone of, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Arês, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Argetlám</i>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Arianrod, a British goddess, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>-265, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>her place in later legend taken by Arthur’s sister, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Armagh, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Arnold, Matthew, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Arran, Isle of, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Art, the “Lonely”, king of Tara, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Artaius, Mercurius, a Gaulish god, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Arthur, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>-320, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>-343, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>-360, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>-366, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>-376, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the mythical and the historical, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>assumes the attributes of Gwydion, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Spoiling of Annwn by, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>-322;</div> - <div class='line in2'>becomes head of the British Pantheon, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>-313;</div> - <div class='line in2'>wins Olwen for Kulhwch, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>-353;</div> - <div class='line in2'>in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s <i>History</i>, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>leads the Wild Hunt, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Arthurian Legend, Studies in the</i>, Professor Rhys’s, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Artur, son of Nemed, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aryans, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>common traditions of the, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Aryan languages, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Astarte, worshipped at Corbridge, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Astolat, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Athens, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Athlone, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Augusel, a king of Scotland, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aurelius, a British king, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Avallach, see Avallon.</div> - <div class='line'>Avallon, a British god of the Underworld, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Isle of, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>, and see Avilion.</div> - <div class='line'>Avebury, the “castle” of, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Avilion, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Aynia, a fairy queen of Ulster, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Babylon, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Badb, a Gaelic war-goddess, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the name often used generically, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>description of a, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Badger in the bag”, the game of, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Badon, battle of, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Baile, love-story of, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>-189.</div> - <div class='line'>Baile’s Strand, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bajocassus, Temple of the sun-god Belinus at, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bala lake, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Balan, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Balder, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Balgatan, a mountain near Cong, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Balin, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ballymagauran, village of, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ballymote, Book of, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ballysadare, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Balor, a king of the Fomors, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>-49, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>-239, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his evil eye, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>kills Nuada and Macha, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is blinded by Lugh, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>tales of, in modern folklore, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>-239.</div> - <div class='line'>“Balor’s Hill”, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ban, king of Benwyk, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_427'>427</span>Banba, a goddess representing Ireland, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>an ancient name of Ireland, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Banshee</i>, meaning of the word, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Baoisgne, Clann, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bards, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bardsey Island, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Barrow, river, how it got its name, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Barrule, South, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Barry, the, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Basque race, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bath, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bathurst’s <i>Roman Antiquities in Lydney Park</i>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Battle of Achren, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Badon, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Camlan, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Clontarf, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Gabhra, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Mag Rath, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Moytura Northern, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>-117, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Moytura Southern, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>-75;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the Trees, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>-308.</div> - <div class='line'>Bayeux, temple of Belinus at, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bean, curious passage relating to the, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Becuma of the Fair Skin, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bedivere, Sir, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bedwini, Arthur’s bishop, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bedwyr, a follower of Arthur, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Belacatudor, a war-god worshipped in Britain, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Belgæ, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Beli, a British god, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>-376.</div> - <div class='line'>Belinus, a Celtic sun-god, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>as a king of Britain, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Belisama, the Latin name of the Ribble, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Beltaine, the Gaelic May-day, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Berber race, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Beth, an Iberian god, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bettws-y-coed, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Beuno, Saint, sacrifices of cattle to, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Big-Knife, Osla, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bilé, father of the Gaelic gods and men, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Billingsgate, origin of name, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Birds, of Rhiannon, the, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Dechtiré and her maidens changed into, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Black Book of Caermarthen, the, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bladud, mythical founder of Bath, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Blathnat, daughter of Mider, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bliant, Castle, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Blodeuwedd, wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Blood-fines among the Celts, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>blood-fine paid for Cian, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>-97.</div> - <div class='line'>Boann, wife of the Dagda, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Boar, wild, of Bengulben, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Boar Trwyth, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>-353.</div> - <div class='line'>Bodb the Red, son of the Dagda, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>-145, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is made king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his swineherd, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>marries his daughter Sadb to Finn, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bogles, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bonfires in Celtic ritual, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>-412.</div> - <div class='line'>Bordeaux, Sir Huon of, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Boreadæ</i>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Borrach, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bors, king of Gaul, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bors, Sir, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Boyne, river, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brahmans, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bran, son of Febal, an Irish king, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bran, Finn’s favourite hound, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brân, British god of the Underworld, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>-272, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>-294, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>fights the battle of Achren, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>becomes the “Wonderful Head”, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s <i>History</i>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>in the Morte Darthur, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>introduces Christianity into Britain, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brandegore, King, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brandegoris, King, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brandel, Brandiles, Sir, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Branwen, British goddess of love, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>-294, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brazil, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brea, ford of, Finn killed at the, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Breasal’s Island, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brécilien, Forest of, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bregon, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brennius, a mythical British king, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_428'>428</span>Brennus, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bress, son of Elathan, a Fomor, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>-80, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>-111, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>-116, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his beauty, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>marries Brigit, and is made king over the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is forced to abdicate, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>makes war on the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is defeated and captured, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>-116.</div> - <div class='line'>Brian, son of Tuirenn, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>-102, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Briareus, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Bridge of the Cliff”, the, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bridget, Saint, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brigantes, a North British tribe, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brigantia, a British Minerva, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brigindo, a Gaulish goddess, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brigit, Gaelic goddess of fire, poetry, and the hearth, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is married to Bress, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is canonized as Saint Bridget, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bri Leith, the <i>sídh</i> of Mider, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brindled ox, the, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Britain, ancient names of, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>British Goblins</i>, Mr. Wirt Sikes’, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Britons, ancient, who were the, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>-23.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Britonum, Historia.</span> See Historia, Geoffrey, Nennius.</div> - <div class='line'>Brittany, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Briun, son of Bethar, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brownies, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brude, king of the Picts, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brugh-na-boyne, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brutus, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Brythons, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Buarainech, father of Balor, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Buinne, the Ruthless Red, son of Fergus, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bull, the Brown, of Cualgne, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the White-horned, of Connaught, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Bwbachod, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Cadbury, the supposed site of Camelot, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cader Idris, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caemhoc, Saint, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer, daughter of Etal Ambuel, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Arianrod, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Badus, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Bannawg, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Colvin, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Dathyl, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Golud, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Llyr, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer London, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Myrddin, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Ochren, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Pedryvan, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Rigor, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Sarrlog, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Sidi, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Vandwy, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Vedwyd, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caer Wydyr, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caesar, Julius, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cairbré, son of Cormac, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cairn of Octriallach, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cairpré, son of Ogma, bard of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Calais, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Calatin the wizard, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>daughters of Calatin, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>-181.</div> - <div class='line'>Caledonians, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Camelot, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Camlan, battle of, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Camulodunum, the Roman name of Colchester, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Camulus, a Gaulish god of war and the sky, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caoilte, a Fenian hero, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caractacus, Caratacus, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caradawc of the Strong Arms, son of Brân, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Carbonek, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Carmarthen, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Carnac, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Carnarvon, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Carrowmore, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cassibellawn, Cassivelaunus, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Cassiopeia’s Chair”, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Castell y Moch, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Castle of Arianrod, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Castle Bliant, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Castle of Gwydion, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Castle Hacket, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Castle of Revelry, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Castle of Riches, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_429'>429</span>“Castles”, Celtic, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Caswallawn, son of Beli, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Cath Godeu.</i> See the “Battle of the Trees”.</div> - <div class='line'>Cathbad, druid of Emain Macha, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cathubodva, a Gaulish war-goddess, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cauldrons in Celtic mythology; the Dagda’s, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Ogyrvran the Giant, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Diwrnach the Gael, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>cauldron given by Brân to Matholwch, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>cauldron stolen from Mider by Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>cauldron kept in Annwn by the chief of Hades, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the legend of the Holy Grail founded upon Celtic myths of a cauldron of fertility and inspiration, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>-370.</div> - <div class='line'>Celtæ, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Celtic mythical literature the forerunner of mediæval romance, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Celtic strain in modern Englishmen, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Celts, the, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>-44, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cemmes, a parish in Pembrokeshire, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Cenn Cruaich</i>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Cermait</i>, <i>i.e.</i> “Honey-mouth”, a title of Ogma, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cethé, son of Diancecht, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cethlenn, wife of Balor, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Chain, Lugh’s”, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>“chief’s”, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Champions of the Red Branch, see Red Branch;</div> - <div class='line in2'>“The Champion’s Prophecy”, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Chariots, war, of the Celts, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Charon, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Chaucer, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Chess, Mider’s game with Eochaid Airem, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Ossian’s game with Finn, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Children of Dôn, Nudd, and Llyr, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Christianity, introduced into Britain by Brân, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>conquers Druidism, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>adopts harmless heathen cults, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cian, son of Diancecht, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>-94, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>-237, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ciaran, Saint, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cichol the Footless, a Fomor, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cilgwri, the Ousel of, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Clann Baoisgne, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>:</div> - <div class='line'>Clan Chattan, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Clann Morna, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Clann Neamhuinn, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Clann Ronan, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Clas Myrddin</i>, an old name for Britain, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Claudius, Roman emperor, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cliodna, fairy queen of Munster, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Clontarf, battle of, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Clûd, goddess of the river Clyde, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cluricanes, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Cnoc Miodhchaoin</i>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cnucha, battle of, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Coblynau, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cocidius, a war-god worshipped by a Dacian colony in Cumberland, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Coed Helen, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Coel, a mythical king of Britain, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Coir Anmann</i>, the “Choice of Names”, an old Irish tract, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Colchester, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Cole, Old King”, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Collen, Saint, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Columba, Saint, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Comes Britanniæ</i>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Comes Littoris Saxonici</i>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Comyn, Michael, a Gaelic poet, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conairé the Great, high king of Ireland, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conall the Victorious, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conan, a Fenian hero, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conann, son of Febar, a king of the Fomors, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conchobar, king of Ulster, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>-156, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>-162, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>-168, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>-192, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>-198, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his treachery towards the sons of Usnach, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>-200;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his tragical death, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Condates, a war-god worshipped in Britain, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cong, village of, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conlaoch, son of Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conn the Hundred Fighter, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conn, son of Lêr, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_430'>430</span>Conn, son of Miodhchaoin, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Connaught, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Connla, son of Conn the Hundred Fighter, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Contemporary Review</i>, the, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Contrary Head, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Conway, river, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cooking-places of the Fenians, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cooking-spits of the women of Fianchuivé, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>at Tara, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cooley, see Cualgne.</div> - <div class='line'>Coranians, a mythical tribe of dwarfs, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>-379.</div> - <div class='line'>Corb, an Iberian god, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Corbridge, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Corc, son of Miodhchaoin, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Corca-Duibhne, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Corca-Oidce, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cordeilla, daughter of Leir, in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s <i>History</i>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>-383.</div> - <div class='line'>Cordelia, daughter of Shakespeare’s <i>King Lear</i>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Coritiacus, a war-god worshipped in Britain, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cormac, “the Magnificent”, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cornwall, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Coronation Stone, the, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Corrib, see Lough Corrib.</div> - <div class='line'>Corspitium, see Corbridge.</div> - <div class='line'>Corwenna, mother of Brennius and Belinus, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Count of Britain, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the Saxon Shore, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Court of Dôn, the, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cow, Balor’s Gray, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Mider’s three cows, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cow, Book of the Dun, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Credné, the bronze-worker of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Crete, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Creudylad, daughter of the British sky-god Lludd, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Criminal Resolutions of Britain, the Three, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Crom Croich</i>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Cromm Cruaich</i>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cronos, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Croppies’ Grave”, the, at Tara, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cruind, the river, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cu, son of Diancecht, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cualgne, a province of Ulster, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cuan, head of the Munster Fenians, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cuchulainn, chief hero of the Ultonians, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>-188, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is the son of Lugh, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>-160;</div> - <div class='line in2'>obvious solar character of, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>-159;</div> - <div class='line in2'>how he obtained his name, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>-161;</div> - <div class='line in2'>fights in the Táin Bó Chuailgne, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>-175;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his wooing of Emer, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>-186;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his raid upon the Other World, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>-176;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his death, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is raised from the dead by Saint Patrick, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Culann, chief smith of the Ultonians, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Culann’s Hound”, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Culture-King”, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cumhal, father of Finn, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cunedda, a North British king, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cunobelinus, king of Britain, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Curoi, king of Munster, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Custennin, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cuthbert, Saint, bulls sacrificed to, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cwm Cawlwyd, the Owl of, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Cwm Annwn</i>, the “Hounds of Hell”, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cwy, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Cymri, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Dagda, the, Gaelic god of the Earth, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>-109, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>-141, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his dress, arms, and harp, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his porridge-feast, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is cheated by his son Angus, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>resigns the kingship of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his last appearance, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Daire of Cualgne, owner of the Brown Bull, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dalân, druid of Eochaid Airem, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Danes, the, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Danu, the mother of the Gaelic gods, the same as Anu, <i>q.v.</i>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dart, river, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dartmoor, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Darvha, Lake, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>-145.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_431'>431</span>Deaf Valley, the, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dechtiré, mother of Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dé Danann, see Tuatha Dé Danann.</div> - <div class='line'>Dee, river, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Deimne, the first name of Finn, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Deirdre, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>-200;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Deirdre’s Farewell to Alba, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>-195;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Deirdre’s Lament over the Sons of Usnach, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>-200.</div> - <div class='line'>Demetia, Roman province of, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Demetrius, an early traveller in Britain, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Demon of the air”, Aeife changed into a, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Derivla, a sacred well in the island of Inniskea, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Desmond, fourth Earl of, nicknamed “the Magician”, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Destiny, laying a”, a Celtic custom, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>-265, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Devon, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Devwy, the dales of, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Dialogue of the Elders</i>, the, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Dialogues of Patrick and Ossian, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>-227.</div> - <div class='line'>Diancecht, the Gaelic god of medicine, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>makes a silver hand for Nuada, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>kills his son Miach, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>-82;</div> - <div class='line in2'>presides over the “Spring of Health”, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>prescriptions of Diancecht, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Diarmait O’Duibhne, the Fenian Adonis, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>-221, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dinadan, Sir, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dinas Dinllev, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dinas Emrys, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dingwall, Registers of the Presbytery of, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Dinnsenchus</i>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dio Cassius, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Diodorus Siculus, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dionysus, rites of, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dis Pater, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dissull the Giant, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>-349.</div> - <div class='line'>Diwrnach the Gael, the cauldron of, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dobhar, king of Sicily, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Doctrine of the transmigration of souls, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Domnann, Fir, <i>i.e.</i> men of Domnu. See Fir Domnann.</div> - <div class='line'>Domnu, a goddess, mother of the Fomors, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>meaning of the name, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>gods of Domnu, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>men of Domnu, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dôn, the British equivalent of the Gaelic Danu, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>euhemerized into a king of Dublin, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>-373.</div> - <div class='line'>Donn, son of Milé, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>-131, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Donn’s House”, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dormarth, the hound of Gwyn son of Nudd, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dowth, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>-138.</div> - <div class='line'>Dragon, Red, of Britain, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>White, of the Saxons, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Dragon-mouth”, a lake called, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Dream of Rhonabwy</i>, the, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Drogheda, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Drowes, river, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Drudwyn, the whelp of Greid the son of Eri, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Druidism, the religion of the Celts, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>possibly non-Aryan in origin, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>in Gaul, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>derived from Britain, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>suppressed by the Romans, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Druids, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>-37, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>-401, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>origin of the name, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>in Gaul, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>in Britain, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>human sacrifices of the druids, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the druids of Brude, king of the Picts, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Drumcain, an old name for Tara, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dublin, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Duke of the Britains, the, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dulachan, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Dul-dauna</i>, the, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dun Cow, Book of the. See Cow.</div> - <div class='line'>Dundalk, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dundealgan, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dún Scaith, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>-176.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Dux Britanniarum.</i> See Duke of the Britains.</div> - <div class='line'>Dwynwen, Saint, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dyfan, Saint, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dyfed, or Demetia, a province of South Wales, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>-301, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Dylan, a British god, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_432'>432</span>Eagle, of Gwern Abwy, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Lleu changed into an, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>-268.</div> - <div class='line'>Earl Gerald, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Easal, king of the Golden Pillars, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eber, son of Milé, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>-131, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eber Scot, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eboracum, Roman name of York, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Edeyrn, son of Nudd, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Edinburgh, the Advocates’ Library at, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eel, the Morrígú takes the shape of an, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>transformation of the rival swineherds into eels, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Egypt, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eigen, the first female saint in Britain, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eildon Hills, Arthur living beneath the, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Elaine, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Elathan, a king of the Fomors, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Elayne, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Elberich, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Elders, Dialogue of the.</i> See <i>Dialogue</i>.</div> - <div class='line'>Elen Lwyddawg, wife of Myrddin, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eleutherius, Pope, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ellylion, the Welsh elves, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Elton’s <i>Origins of English History</i>, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Elves, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Elysium, Celtic. See Other World, Celtic.</div> - <div class='line'>Emain Macha, the capital of ancient Ulster, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Emer, wife of Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>-188.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Emer, the Wooing of</i>, an old Irish saga, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Emperor, a title given in Welsh legend to Arthur, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Emrys, a title of Myrddin, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Englishmen, Celtic strain in, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Entertaining of the Noble Head”, the, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eochaid, son of Erc, king of the Fir Bolgs, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eochaid Airem, see Airem.</div> - <div class='line'>Eochaid O’Flynn, an Irish poet, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Erc, king of Tara, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eremon, son of Milé, and first king of Ireland, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Erin, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>meaning of the word, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eriu, a goddess representing Ireland, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Eros, the Gaelic, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Angus.</div> - <div class='line'>Essyllt, wife of March, or Mark. See Iseult.</div> - <div class='line'>Etain, wife of Mider, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>-152, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>-333.</div> - <div class='line'>Etair, a vassal of King Conchobar, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Etal Ambuel, father of Caer, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Etan, wife of Ogma, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ethnea, a name of Ethniu in modern folklore, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ethniu, daughter of Balor, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, Mr. G. L. Gomme’s, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Etirun, “an idol of the Britons”, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Etive, Loch, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Etruscans, the, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>; Etruscan mythology in modern Italian folklore, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ettard, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Ettarre, Pelleas and</i>, Tennyson’s idyll of, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Euhemerism of Gaelic gods, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>-230;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of British gods, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>-389.</div> - <div class='line'>Euskarian race, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Evelake, King, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Evnissyen, son of Penardun, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Failinis, the hound of the king of Ioruaidhé, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Fairie Queene</i>, Spenser’s, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fairies, the, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>-248, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>-393, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>, <a href='#Page_418'>418</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the old gods are remembered as “fairies”, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>-248, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>-393;</div> - <div class='line in2'>two varieties of fairy in folklore, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Irish and Welsh fairies identical in nature, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>king of the Irish fairies, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>king of the Welsh fairies, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>size of the fairies, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>fairy money, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>fairy food, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the “fairy hills”, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>-139, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fal, the stone of. See Stone of Destiny.</div> - <div class='line'>“Falcon of May”, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Falcon of Summer”, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_433'>433</span>Falga, Isle of, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Falias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fand, wife of Manannán son of Lêr, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>-188, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Faraday, Miss, her translation of the <i>Táin Bó Chuailgné</i>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fata Morgana, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fate of the Children of Lêr, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>-146;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the Sons of Tuirenn, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>-105;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the Sons of Usnach, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>-200.</div> - <div class='line'>Fea, a war-goddess, wife of Nuada, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Feast of Age”, Manannán’s, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Feast of Lugh, see Lugnassad.</div> - <div class='line'>Feast of St. John, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fec’s Pool, on the Boyne, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fedlimid, vassal to King Conchobar, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fenians, the, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>-209, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>-215, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>-219, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>-223, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>real or mythical, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>-205;</div> - <div class='line in2'>origin of, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>duties of, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>accomplishments of, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>chief heroes of, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>-209;</div> - <div class='line in2'>destruction of, at the battle of Gabhra, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>stories of, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>-226;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Fenian sagas possibly non-Aryan, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fenius Farsa, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ferdiad, a warrior slain by Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fergus, son of Finn, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fergus, son of Roy, an Ulster hero, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>-196, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fergusson, Dr. James, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Festivals, Celtic solar or agricultural, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>-412.</div> - <div class='line'>Ffordd Elen, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fiacha, son of Conchobar, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fiachadh, king of Ireland, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fiachra, son of Lêr, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fianchuivé, submarine island of, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Fianna Eirinn</i>, see Fenians.</div> - <div class='line'>Figol, son of Mamos, druid of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Findabair, daughter of Medb, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Findias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Finn mac Coul (Cumhail), <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>-218, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>-222, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his upbringing and boy-feats, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>-210;</div> - <div class='line in2'>reorganizes the Fenians, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is killed at the Ford of Brea, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is reborn as Mongan, an Ulster chief, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is he historical or mythical, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>parallels between Finn and Arthur, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>-315.</div> - <div class='line'>Finn mac Gorman, compiler of the Book of Leinster, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Finn the Seer, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Finola, daughter of Lêr, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Finvarra, king of the Irish fairies, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fiona Macleod, Miss, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fionn, see Finn.</div> - <div class='line'>Fionnbharr, the <i>sídh</i> of Meadha assigned to, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his appearance in the Fenian sagas, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>becomes fairy king of Ireland, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fir Bolgs, an Iberian tribe, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>-70, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>-78, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fir Domnann, an Iberian tribe, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>-70, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fir Gaillion, an Iberian tribe, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>-70, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fish, sacred, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fly, Etain changed into a, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Lugh takes the form of a, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>a sacred, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Folklore, Ethnology in.</i> See <i>Ethnology</i>.</div> - <div class='line'>Folk-tales, Irish, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>-240; Welsh, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fomors, Gaelic deities of Death, Darkness, and the Sea, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>-50, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>-117, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>meaning of the name, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>their war with the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>-117;</div> - <div class='line in2'>are the Lochlannach in the Fenian sagas, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Forgall the Wily, father of Emer, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fotla, a goddess representing Ireland, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>an ancient name of Ireland, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Four Ancient Books of Wales”, the, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See also Skene.</div> - <div class='line'>“Four Branches of the Mabinogi”, the, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Four-cornered castle”, the, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Frazer’s <i>Golden Bough</i>, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Frivolous Battles of Britain, The Three”, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Frogs, sacred, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Fury, Great, and Little Fury, two swords of Manannán, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_434'>434</span>Gabhra, battle of, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gabius, a Roman consul, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gabriel Hounds, the, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Gae bolg</i>, Cuchulainn’s spear, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gaels, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gaiar, son of Manannán, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gaillion, Fir. See Fir Gaillion.</div> - <div class='line'>Galahad, Sir, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Galan-mai</i>, Welsh spring festival, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Gan Ceanach</i>, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Garden of the Hesperides, the, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gargantua, Rabelais’, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gast Rhymri’s cubs, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gaul, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gauls, the, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gavida, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gavidjeen Go, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gawain, Sir, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Geasa</i>, taboos among the Irish Celts, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Genii locorum</i>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Geoffrey of Monmouth, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>-376, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>George’s Hill, Saint, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Geraint, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gildas, a British writer, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Glamour, the Realm of”, an old name for Dyfed, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Glamour put on Cuchulainn by Cathbad, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>by the daughters of Calatin, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>put on the sons of Usnach, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>on Arianrod, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>on Dyfed, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Glass Castle, of the Fomors, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>a synonym for the other world, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Glastonbury, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Glastonbury Tor, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Glenn Faisi, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Glora, Isle of, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Glyn Cûch, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gobhan Saer, the, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Goibniu, Gaelic god of smithcraft, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>forges the weapons of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>kills Ruadan, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his ale, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>survives in tradition as the Gobhan Saer, <i>q.v.</i>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>as a character in folk-tale, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>-240.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Gavida and Gavidjeen Go.</div> - <div class='line'>Goidel, a mythical ancestor of the Irish, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Goidels, the, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Golden bough, the mistletoe the, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Golden Pillars, king of the. See Easal.</div> - <div class='line'>Goll, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gomme, Mr. G. L., <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gonorilla, daughter of Leir, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gore, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>. See Gower.</div> - <div class='line'>Goreu, Arthur’s cousin, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gorias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Govannan son of Dôn, British god of Smithcraft, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>kills his nephew Dylan, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>assists Kulhwch, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gower regarded as part of the other world, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Grail, the Holy, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>-359, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>-370.</div> - <div class='line'>Grainne, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>-221, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Graves of the Warriors, the Verses of the</i>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gray of Macha, Cuchulainn’s horse, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Greece, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Greek mythology, ancient, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>modern, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Green Meadows of Enchantment”, the, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gregory, Lady, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Greid, the son of Eri, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gresholm Island, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Grianainech</i>, the “sunny-faced”, an epithet of Ogma, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Grianan Aileach, grave of Nuada at. See Aileach.</div> - <div class='line'>Gronw Pebyr, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Guanius, Gwyn as a mythical king of the Huns, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Guest, Lady Charlotte, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Guinevere, Arthur’s queen, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gunvasius, king of the Orkneys, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gurgiunt Brabtruc, king of Britain, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Guyon, Sir, in Spenser’s <i>Fairie Queene</i>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_435'>435</span>Gwalchaved, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwalchmei, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwales, island of, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwarthegyd, son of Kaw, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwawl, son of Clûd, Pwyll’s rival for Rhiannon, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gweddw, owner of a magic horse, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gweir, a form of the name Gwydion, <i>q.v.</i>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwenbaus, Sir, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwern, son of Matholwch and Branwen, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a>, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwinas, Sir, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwlgawd Gododin, the drinking-horn of, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwragedd Annwn, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwrhyr, a companion of Arthur, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwri of the Golden Hair, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwrnach the Giant, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwyar, wife of Lludd, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwyddneu Garanhir, his dialogue with Gwyn, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>-258;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his magic basket, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwyddolwyn Gorr, the magic bottles of, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwydion son of Dôn, the British Mercury, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>-268, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>-311, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>druid of the gods, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>father of the sun-god, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>fights the “Battle of the Trees”, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is the British equivalent of the Teutonic Woden, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his place taken in later myth by Arthur, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Gwyl Awst</i>, the Welsh August festival, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwyllion, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwyn son of Nudd, British god of the Other World, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>-259, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>-393, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>attributes of, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his dialogue with Gwyddneu Garanhir, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>-258;</div> - <div class='line in2'>contends with Gwyn for Lludd’s daughter Creudylad, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is made warder of Hades, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>-255;</div> - <div class='line in2'>prominent in the Arthur legend, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>becomes king of the Welsh fairies, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his interview with Saint Collen, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>-391.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwynas, Sir, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwyngelli, a companion of Arthur, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwynhwyvar, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>-333, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Guinevere.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwynn Mygddwn, the horse of Gweddw, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwynwas, a form of the name Gwyn, <i>q.v.</i>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwyrd Gwent, father of one of the three Gwynhwyvars, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Gwyrthur, son of Greidawl, contends with Gwyn for Creudylad, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>father of one of the three Gwynhwyvars, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Hacket, Castle, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hades, the Celtic. See Other World, Celtic.</div> - <div class='line'>Hades, the Greek god, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Hades, Head of”, a name given to Pwyll, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hallowe’en, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hamitic languages, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Happy Plain”, the, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Mag Mell.</div> - <div class='line'>Hare held sacred by the Ancient Britons, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Harlech, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Harp of the Dagda, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Angus, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Teirtu, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Havgan, a king of Annwn, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hawthorn, chief of Giants, father of Olwen, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>-345, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Heifer, a black-maned, called “Ocean”, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Morrígú takes the shape of a, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>-170.</div> - <div class='line'>Hengist, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Henuinus, Duke of Cornwall, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hephæstus, the Gaelic, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Heracles, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Heré, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hereford, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hergest, the Red Book of, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Herimon, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Eremon.</div> - <div class='line'>“Hero-light”, Cuchulainn’s, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Hero’s salmon-leap”, Cuchulainn’s, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hesiod, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hesperides, garden of the. See Garden.</div> - <div class='line'>Hesus, a Gaulish god, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hevydd the Ancient, father of Rhiannon, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hi Dorchaide, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_436'>436</span><i>Hibbert Lectures</i> (for 1886) on <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>, Professor Rhys’s, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hill of Uisnech, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Historia Britonum</i> of Nennius, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Geoffrey of Monmouth, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hittites, the, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Holy Families of Britain, the Three Chief, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Holy Grail, the. See Grail.</div> - <div class='line'>Holy wells, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>-415.</div> - <div class='line'>Homeric and Celtic civilization compared, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hoodie-crow, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Horse of Manannán mac Lir, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Gweddw, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Gwyn son of Nudd, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Hound of Culann”, the, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>hound of Lugh, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the king of Ioruaidhé, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>hounds of Finn mac Coul, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>hounds of Celtic myth, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a>, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hull, Miss Eleanor, her <i>Cuchullin Saga</i>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Human sacrifices of the Druids, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>to Cromm Cruaich, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>symbolical, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Huon of Bordeaux, Sir, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Huxley, Professor, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Hy-Breasail, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Iberians, the, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>their physique, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>language, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>original home, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>state of culture, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>gods, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Iddawc, the Agitator of Britain, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ilbhreach, son of Manannán, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Iliad, the, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Illann the Fair, son of Fergus mac Roy, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>-198.</div> - <div class='line'>“Illusion, the Land of”, an old name for Dyfed, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Indech, son of Domnu, a king of the Fomors, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Inniskea, the Lonely Crane of, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>stone worship in, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Invasions, the Book of</i>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Ioldanach</i>, the “Master of All Arts”, a title of Lugh, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Iolo Morganwg, bardic name of Mr. Edward Williams, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Iolo MSS.</i>, the, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Iona, Adamnan, Abbot of, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ioruaidhe, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ireland, old names of, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See also Iweridd.</div> - <div class='line'>Iseult, wife of King Mark, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Island, submarine, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Island of the Mighty”, a bardic name for Britain, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Islands, sacred, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ith, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Ith’s Plain, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Iuchar, son of Tuirenn, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>-106.</div> - <div class='line'>Iucharba, son of Tuirenn, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>-106.</div> - <div class='line'>Iweridd, <i>i.e.</i> “Ireland”, wife of the British sea-god Llyr, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Janus, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Javelin, Red, one of Manannán’s spears, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>John, Feast of Saint, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Jones, the Rev. Edward, on apparitions, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Joseph of Arimathea, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Jubainville, M. H. d’Arbois de, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Judgment of Amergin, the, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Julius Caesar, see Caesar.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Kacmwri, the servant of Arthur, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Kaerlud, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Kai, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Karitia, see Calais.</div> - <div class='line'>Kay, Sir, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Keening” invented, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Kelli Wic, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Keltic Researches</i>, Mr. Nicholson’s, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Kenmare, river, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Kicva, wife of Pryderi, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>-301.</div> - <div class='line'>Kildare, shrine of St. Bridget at, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Killaraus, Mount, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Killarney, Lake, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_437'>437</span>“Kingly Castle”, see Caer Rigor.</div> - <div class='line'>Kirwans of Castle Hacket, the, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Knights, King Arthur’s, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Knockainy, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Knockers, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Knockma, fairy hill of, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Knockthierna, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Knowth, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Kulhwch, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Kulhwch and Olwen</i>, the tale of, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>-353, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Kyndellig, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Kynedyr Wyllt, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Labhra, Mider’s leech, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Labraid of the Quick Hand on Sword, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lady of the Lake, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Laeg, Cuchulainn’s charioteer, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Laegaire the Battle-winner, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lakes, twelve chief, of Ireland, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lamias, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lammas, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Land of Illusion, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Happiness, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the Living, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Promise, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Summer, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the Young, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Laon, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Larminie, Mr. William, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Launcelot, Sir, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Lear, King</i>, Shakespeare’s, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lecan, the Book of, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Yellow Book of, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Leicester, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Leinster, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Leinster, Mount, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Leinster, the Book of, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Leir, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s King, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>-383.</div> - <div class='line'>Leodogrance, father of Guinevere, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Leprechaun, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lêr, the Gaelic sea-god, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>-144, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his rebellion against Bodb the Red, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>their reconciliation, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the fate of the children of, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>-146;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is killed by the Fenian hero Caoilté, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Levarcham, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Leyden, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Lia Fáil</i>, see Stone of Destiny.</div> - <div class='line'>Liban, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lismore, the Book of, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Lla Lluanys</i>, the Manx August festival, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Llacheu, son of Arthur, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Llandwynwyn, the church of Dwynwyn (Branwen), in Anglesey, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lleminawg, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lleu (Llew) Llaw Gyffes, the British sun-god, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>-268, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his birth, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>and naming, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>takes part in the Battle of the Trees, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is changed into an eagle, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his place taken in later myth by Gwalchmei, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>and in the Arthurian legend by Sir Gawain, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Llevelys, king of France, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lloegyr (Loegria), Saxon Britain, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lludd Llaw Ereint, the British Zeus, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>-381, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his wife Gwyar, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>puts an end to the “Three Plagues of Britain”, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>-380;</div> - <div class='line in2'>founds London, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>appears in the Morte Darthur as King Lot of Orkney, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Llwyd, son of Kilcoed, avenges Gwawl, son of Clûd, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Llwyr, son of Llwyrion, the magic vessel of, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Llyn Llyw, the salmon of, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Llyr, the British sea-god, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>possibly borrowed from the Gaels, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>becomes the “King Leir” of Geoffrey of Monmouth, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>and the “King Lear” of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>founds a family of saints, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his tomb or temple at Leicester, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Llyr-cestre, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Llys Dôn</i>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_438'>438</span>Llywarch Hên, a sixth-century British poet, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Loch, a warrior slain by Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>-170.</div> - <div class='line'>Lochlann (Lochlin), <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Lochlannach, the, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>London, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Londres, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lot or Loth, king of Orkney, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Loucetius, a war-god worshipped in Britain, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Lough Corrib, its Shores and Islands</i>, Sir William Wilde’s, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lough Gur, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lucan, the Roman poet, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Luchtainé, the carpenter of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lud, king of Britain, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>-381.</div> - <div class='line'>Ludesgata, Ludgate, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lugaid, son of Curoi, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lugh Lamhfada, the Gaelic sun-god, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>-63, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>-90, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>-97, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>-113, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>-117, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>-240, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his spear, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his hound, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his rod-sling and chain, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his first appearance at Tara, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>gains the title of <i>Ioldanach</i>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>avenges his father’s murder upon the sons of Tuirenn, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>-106;</div> - <div class='line in2'>leads the Tuatha Dé Danann against the Fomors, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>prophecies to Conn the Hundred Fighter, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Lugnassad</i>, “Lugh’s Commemoration”, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Lugudunum</i>, “town of Lugus”, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lugus, the Gaulish sun-god, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lundy Island, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lydney, temple of Nodens at, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>monograph upon it, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Lyons, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Mab, Queen, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mabinogi, the Four Branches of the, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mabinogion, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See also Guest, Lady Charlotte.</div> - <div class='line'>Mabon, a British sun-god, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>-352, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Macaulay, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mac Cecht, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mac Cuill, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mac Gee, Thomas D’Arcy, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mac Greiné, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mac Kineely, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>-239.</div> - <div class='line'>Mac Moineanta, a king of the Irish fairies, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mac Nia, an old Irish poet, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Mac Oc</i>, “Son of the Young”, a title of Angus, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>MacPherson’s <i>Ossian</i>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mac Samthainn, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Macha, a war-goddess of the Gaels, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>meaning of her name, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>“Macha’s acorn-crop”, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is killed by Balor, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Macleod, Miss Fiona, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Maelmuiri, scribe of the Book of the Dun Cow, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Maelon, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Maenor Alun, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Maenor Penarth, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Maen Tyriawc, the grave of Pryderi, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Maglaunus, Duke of Albania, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Mag Mell</i>, the “Happy Plain”, a name for the Celtic Elysium, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Mag Mon</i>, the “Plain of Sports”, a name for the Celtic Elysium, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mag Slecht, human sacrifices at, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>-40, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mag Tuireadh, see Moytura.</div> - <div class='line'>Magog, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Malory, Sir Thomas, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>-357, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>-364, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Malvasius, king of Iceland, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Man, Isle of, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Manannán son of Lêr, a Gaelic god, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>-61, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>-237, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>-242, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his armour, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>weapons, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>horse, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>mantle, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>pigs, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his “Feast of Age”, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>lord of the Celtic Paradise, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his wife Fand in love with Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>-188;</div> - <div class='line in2'><span class='pageno' id='Page_439'>439</span>his friendship with Cormac, king of Ireland, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his message to Saint Columba, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>-241;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his connection with the Isle of Man, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>-242.</div> - <div class='line'>Manawyddan son of Llyr, his British analogue, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>-304, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his attributes, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>-271;</div> - <div class='line in2'>accompanies Brân to Ireland, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>-294;</div> - <div class='line in2'>marries Rhiannon, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>defeats the magic of Llwyd, son of Kilcoed, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>-304;</div> - <div class='line in2'>constructs the bone-prison of Oeth and Anoeth, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>helps Arthur in the chase of Twrch Trwyth, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Maponos, a Gallo-British sun-god, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>March, a British god of the Under World, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mark, King, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mars, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Master of All Arts”, see <i>Ioldanach</i>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mâth, a British god, brother to Dôn, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>meaning of his name, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>teaches magic to Gwydion, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>rules from Caer Dathyl, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>compared with Merlin, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Matholwch, king of Ireland, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>-293.</div> - <div class='line'>Mâthonwy, father of Mâth, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Matière de Bretagne</i>, the, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Matthew Arnold, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>May Day, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>May Eve, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Maypole, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Meadha, the <i>sídh</i> of, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Meath, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Medb, queen of Connaught, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>-168, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>makes war on Ulster to get the Brown Bull of Cualgne, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>-166;</div> - <div class='line in2'>becomes a fairy queen, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is perhaps the original of “Queen Mab”, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mediterranean race, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'><i>Mediterranean Race, The</i>, Prof. Sergi’s, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Medrawt, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Meleaus, or Melias, de Lile, Sir, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Melga, king of the Picts, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Meliagaunce, or Meliagraunce, Sir, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Melwas, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Menai Straits, the, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Menw, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mercurius Artaius, a Gallo-Roman god, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mercury, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Merlin, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Myrddin.</div> - <div class='line'>Mesgegra, king of Leinster, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Meyer, Dr. Kuno, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Miach, son of Diancecht, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>-82, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Midas, the British, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mider, Gaelic god of the Under World, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>-151, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>-213, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>-333;</div> - <div class='line in2'>rebels against Bodb the Red, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>gambles with Eochaid Airem for possession of Etain, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is besieged in his <i>sídh</i>, and helped by the Fenians, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>-213.</div> - <div class='line'>Midsummer Day, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Midsummer Eve, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Milé, the ancestor of the Gaels, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Milesians, the, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>-127, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Milky Way”, the, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Minerva, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Minos, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Miodhchaoin, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mistletoe, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mithras, a Persian sun-god worshipped at York, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mochdrev, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mochnant, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Modron, wife of Urien and mother of Mabon, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mona, see Anglesey.</div> - <div class='line'>Mongan, an Ulster prince, a reincarnation of Finn mac Coul, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Monmouth, Geoffrey of. See Geoffrey.</div> - <div class='line'>Morc, son of Dela, a king of the Fomors, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mordred, Sir, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Morgawse, sister to Arthur, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Morrígú, the, Gaelic goddess of war, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>-170, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>description of, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>her dealings with Cuchulainn on the Táin Bó Chuailgne, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>-170.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_440'>440</span>Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory’s, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>-368, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Mound, Lord of the”, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mountains of Ireland, the twelve chief, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mourie, “Saint”, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mouse, Manawyddan and the, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>-304.</div> - <div class='line'>Moyle, Sea of, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Moytura, Northern, Battle of, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>-117, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Southern, Battle of, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>-77, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Muirthemne, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Munster, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Murias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mur y Castell, Lleu’s palace near Bala Lake, <a href='#Page_265'>265</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Myrddin, a British Zeus, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>-325, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>gave its first name to Britain, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his wife Elen, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his town Carmarthen, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth and in the Morte Darthur as Merlin, <i>q.v.</i></div> - <div class='line'>Myrddin, a sixth-century British bard, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Mythology, importance of, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Greek, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Scandinavian, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Celtic, its influence on English literature, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>on mediæval chivalric romance, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Name, ancient British superstitions with regard to, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Names, Choice of</i>, The. See <i>Coir Anmann</i>.</div> - <div class='line'>Names, early of Britain, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Ireland, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nant Call, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nant y Llew, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Naoise, son of Usnach, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>-193, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>-198.</div> - <div class='line'>Narberth, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>, <a href='#Page_283'>283</a>, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Navan Fort, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Neamhuainn, Clann, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Neath, Vale of, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nedd, river, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Neevougi, a stone worshipped at Inniskea, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nemed, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>-69, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the race of, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nemetona, a war-goddess worshipped at Bath, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nemon, a Gaelic war-goddess, wife of Nuada, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nennius, his <i>History of the Britons</i>, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nentres, King, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nereids, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nêt, an Iberian god, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>New Grange, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>-139.</div> - <div class='line'>Nia, the Plain of, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Niamh of the Golden Hair, daughter of Manannán, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>-225.</div> - <div class='line'>Nicholson’s <i>Keltic Researches</i>, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Niebelungenlied</i>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nimue, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nissyen, son of Penardun, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Niul, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Noah, descent of the Gaelic gods and men from, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nodens, a temple to, at Lydney, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Northern Crown”, constellation of the, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Nos galan-gaeof</i>, the Welsh winter festival, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nuada of the Silver Hand, a Gaelic Zeus, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>-86, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his sword, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his wives, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his hand cut off in battle, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>a silver hand made for him by Diancecht, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his own hand renewed by Miach and Airmid, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his death at the hands of Balor, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his tomb at Grianan Aileach, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nudd, British god, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>to be identified with Lludd, <i>q.v.</i></div> - <div class='line'>Nutt, Mr. Alfred, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nwyvre, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Nynniaw, son of Beli, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Oak, held sacred by the Druids, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Oberon, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Ocean”, a black-maned heifer called, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ochall Ochne, king of the Sídhe of Connaught, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ochren, battle of, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Caer, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>see Achren.</div> - <div class='line'>Octriallach, son of Indech, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the “Cairn of Octriallach”, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>O’Curry, Eugene, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_441'>441</span>Odin, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>O’Donaghue, the, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>O’Donovan, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Oeth and Anoeth, the Bone-prison of, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>O’Flynn, Eochaid, an old Irish poet, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ogam, writings in, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ogma, Gaelic god of Literature and Eloquence, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>-60, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his wife and children, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his epithets of “Cermait” and “Grianainech”, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his great strength, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>kills Indech in the battle of Moytura, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>inventor of the ogam alphabet, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ogmios, a Gaulish god, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>O’Grady, Standish Hayes, Mr., <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ogyrvran, a British god of the Under World, father of Gwynhwyvar, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>-331, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>O’Herlebys, wooden idol of the, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Old Plain, the, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Old Sarum, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Olwen, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a>, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a>, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Onagh, queen of the Irish fairies, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Origins of English History</i>, Mr. Elton’s, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Orkneys, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>King Lot of Orkney, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Oscar, son of Ossian, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Osla Big-Knife, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Ossian</i>, MacPherson’s, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ossian, son of Finn mac Coul, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>-227, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Ossianic ballads”, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Ossianic Society, see <i>Transactions</i>.</div> - <div class='line'>Other World, the Celtic, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>-136, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>-322, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>different names of, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>-320;</div> - <div class='line in2'>descriptions of, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>-151, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>variously imagined as upon the sea, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>under the sea, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>under the earth, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>-136;</div> - <div class='line in2'>upon earth, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>original abode of men, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>visited by Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>-176, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Conn, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Connla, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Ossian, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Pwyll, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Gwydion, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Arthur, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>-320.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See also Annwn, Avilion, Happy Plain, Mag Mell, Mag Mon, Land of Happiness, of the Living, of Promise, of Summer, of the Young.</div> - <div class='line'>Ousel of Cilgwri, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ovid’s <i>Metamorphoses</i>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Owain, son of Urien, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Sir Owain, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Owl, of Cwm Cawlwyd, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Blodeuwedd changed into an, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ox, the brindled, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>oxen, magic, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Oxford, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Paradise, the Celtic.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Other World, Celtic.</div> - <div class='line'>Parthludd, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Partholon, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>-68, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>; race of, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Patrick, Saint, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Paul’s Cathedral, Saint, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pausanias’s <i>Description of Greece</i>, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pedigree of the gods, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Finn mac Coul, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pedryvan, Caer, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Peel Castle, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Peibaw, son of Beli, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pelasgoi, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Peleur, King, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pellam, King, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pellean, King, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pelleas, Sir, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'><i>Pelleas and Ettarre</i>, Tennyson’s Idyll of, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pelles, King, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pellinore, King, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Pembroke, County Guardian</i>, the, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pembrokeshire, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Pen Annwn</i>, the “Head of Hades”, a title of Pwyll, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Penardun, daughter of Beli and wife of Llyr, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pendaran Dyfed, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pendragon, meaning of the word, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pennant, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Percivale, Sir, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Peredur, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Perilous glens, the, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Persephoné, the British, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_442'>442</span>Persia, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Pisear, king of, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>-103.</div> - <div class='line'>Petrie, Dr., <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Picts, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pigs, in the Celtic Other World, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Manannán, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Easal, king of the Golden Pillars, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Pryderi, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of March, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Angus, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Cian changed into a pig, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pigskin of King Tuis, the, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pillars, king of the Golden. See Easal.</div> - <div class='line'>Pisear, king of Persia, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>-103.</div> - <div class='line'>Pixies, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Plain of Ill Luck, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the Sea, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Adoration, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Old, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pliny, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Plutarch, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pluto, the Gaelic, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Cambrian, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Poetry, the Gaelic goddess of, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>cauldron of inspiration and, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>-370.</div> - <div class='line'>Policy of the Christian Church towards objects of pagan worship, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pookas, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Porsena, a Roman consul, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Poseidon, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Gaelic, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the British, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Posidonius, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Prophecy of Badb, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>-118;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Eriu, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>-126;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the seeress to Queen Medb, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Lugh to Conn the Hundred-Fighter, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>-202;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Cathbad concerning Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>concerning Deirdre, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>-191.</div> - <div class='line'>Pryderi, son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>-288, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>-301, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>-305, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>-311, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is stolen at birth, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>meaning of his name, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>accompanies Brân to Ireland, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>-294;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is spirited away by Llwyd and recovered by Manawyddan, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>-304;</div> - <div class='line in2'>receives a present of pigs from Annwn, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is killed by Gwydion, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>appears in Arthurian legend, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Prydwen, Arthur’s ship, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Puck, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Puffin Island, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne, The</i>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>-221.</div> - <div class='line'>Pwccas, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed and “Head of Annwn”, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>-288, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>-358, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>changes shapes with Arawn, king of Annwn, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>his wooing of Rhiannon, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>-286;</div> - <div class='line in2'>is owner of a magic cauldron in Hades, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>and keeper of the Holy Grail in the Morte Darthur, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>-358.</div> - <div class='line'>Pwynt Maen Dulan, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Queen Guinevere, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_365'>365</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Queen Mab”, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Queen of the Irish fairies, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the fairies of Munster, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the fairies of North Munster, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the fairies of South Munster, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Queene, The Fairie</i>, Spenser’s, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Quicken-tree, the magic, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Races of Britain, the, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>-21.</div> - <div class='line'>Rathconrath, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Realm of Glamour, The”, a name for Dyfed, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Re-birth of Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Finn mac Coul, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Red Book of Hergest, see Hergest.</div> - <div class='line'>Red Branch Champions of Ulster, the, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Red Branch House, the, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Red Dragon of Britain, the, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Redynvre, the stag of, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Regan, daughter of King Leir, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Religion, Aryan, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Retaliator, the, the sword of Manannán mac Lir, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Revelry, the Castle of, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Revolving Castle, the, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Revue Celtique</i>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rhiannon, a British goddess, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>-288, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>her three magic birds, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>her name afterwards corrupted into Nimue and Vivien, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rhinnon Rhin Barnawd, the magic bottles of, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_443'>443</span>Rhonabwy, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>The <i>Dream of Rhonabwy</i>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rhyd y Groes, a ford on the Severn, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rhys, Professor, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See also <i>Arthurian Legend</i> and <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ri, Roi, an Iberian god, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ribble, the river, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Riches, the Castle of, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rience, King, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rigor, Caer, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rigosamos, a war-god worshipped in Britain, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ritual, remains of Celtic, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>-412.</div> - <div class='line'>Rivers, the twelve chief, of Ireland, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rivers, the worship of, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rodrubân, the <i>sídh</i> of Lugh, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Romans, the, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rome, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ronan, Clann, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Round Table, King Arthur’s, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_314'>314</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Round Towers”, the, attributed to Goibniu, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Rowan-tree, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ruadan, son of Bress and Brigit, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>-110.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Rude Stone Monuments</i>, Fergusson’s, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ryons, King, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Sacred animals, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>islands, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>fish, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>frogs, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>stones, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>trees, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>wells, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>-416.</div> - <div class='line'>Sacrifices of animals, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>human, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>-40, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>symbolical human sacrifices, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sadb, daughter of Bodb the Red, and mother of Ossian, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Sage’s seat”, the, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>St. Catherine’s Hill, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>St. George’s Hill, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>St. Gall MS., the, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Saints, transformation of Celtic gods into, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Salisbury Plain, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Salmon of Knowledge, the, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Llyn Llyw, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Samhain, the Celtic winter festival, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>, <a href='#Page_411'>411</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Samhanach</i>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sarn Elen, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sarrlog, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Caer Sarrlog, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Satires, magical, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Scathach the Amazon, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Scêné, the river, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Scot, Eber, a mythical ancestor of the Gaels, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Scota, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Scotti, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sea, Celtic ideas regarding the, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Second Battle of Moytura, The</i>, the Harleian MS. called, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Seint Greal</i>, the, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Senchan Torpeist, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Sen Mag</i>, see Old Plain.</div> - <div class='line'>Serapis worshipped at York, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Setanta, original name of Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Severn, the river, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>, <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sgeolan, one of Finn’s hounds, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Shadowy Town, or City”, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Shannon, the river, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Shape-shifting”, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sharvan the Surly, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Shield, Conchobar’s magic, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Shony, a Hebridean sea-god, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Shouts on a hill, the three, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sicily, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Sídh</i> Airceltrai, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Bodb, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Eas Aedha Ruaidh, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Fionnachaidh, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Meadha, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Rodrubân, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Sídhe</i>, “fairy mounds”, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Sídhe, The</i>, the Gaelic gods, or fairies, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sidi, Caer, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_368'>368</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Silures, tribe of the, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Silurian race, the, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Silver Hand, Nuada’s, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Lludd’s, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sinann, goddess of the Shannon, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Skene, Dr. W. F., <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_444'>444</span>Skye, Isle of, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Slecht, Mag. See Mag Slecht.</div> - <div class='line'>Slieve Bloom, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Slieve Fuad, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Slieve Mish, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Smallpox, goddess of the, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Snowdon, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sol Apollo Anicetus, a sun-god worshipped at Bath, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Solar festivals of the Celts, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>-412.</div> - <div class='line'>Solinus, Caius Julius, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Somerset, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Son of the Young”, see Mac Oc.</div> - <div class='line'>Sore, the river, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Sorrowful Stories of Erin, The Three</i>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Spain, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>used as an euphemism for the Celtic Other World, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Spear of Lugh, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Pisear, king of Persia, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Spearman with the Long Shaft”, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Speech, Aryan, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Spenser, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Spey, the river, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Splendid Mane”, the horse of Manannán mac Lir, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Spoiling of Annwn, The</i>, a poem of Taliesin, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>-321, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Spring of Health”, the, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sreng, a warrior of the Fir Bolgs, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Stag of Redynvre, the, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Stokes, Dr. Whitley, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Stone, Black, of Arddhu, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Coronation, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Destiny, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Kineely, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Stones, worship of, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Stonehenge, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Strabo, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Strachey, Sir Edward, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Study of Celtic Literature</i>, Matthew Arnold’s, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sualtam, the mortal father of Cuchulainn, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Suir, the river, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sul, a goddess worshipped at Bath, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Summer, the Land of”, <i>i.e.</i> the Celtic Other World, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sun, worship of the, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Cuchulainn a personification of the, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>-159.</div> - <div class='line'>Swans, Caer and Angus take the forms of, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>-142;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the children of Lêr changed into, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Mider and Etain become, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Sword, of Manannán, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Nuada, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of Gwrnach the Giant, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>, <a href='#Page_348'>348</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Swinburne, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Swineherds, the rival, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>-165.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Table Round, the, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Taboos, Celtic. See Destiny, <i>Geasa</i>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tacitus, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tailtiu, the Gaelic gods defeated by the Milesians at, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Táin Bó Chuailgné</i>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Taliesin, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>, <a href='#Page_367'>367</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Taliesin, the Book of, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tallacht, burial-place of Partholon’s people, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tara, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Taran, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Taranis, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Tathlum</i>, a sling-stone, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tawë, a river in South Wales, sacred to Gwyn ap Nudd, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tegla’s well, Saint, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Teirnyon Twryf Vliant, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a>, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Teirtu, the harp of, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Telltown, see Tailtiu.</div> - <div class='line'>Temple of Nodens at Lydney, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>-254;</div> - <div class='line in2'>St. Paul’s cathedral occupying the site of a, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>sacrifices of cattle on the site of a, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>ancient British temples still standing in the sixth century, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tennyson, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_354'>354</a>, <a href='#Page_355'>355</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Terrace cultivation”, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Terrestrial gods and goddesses”, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Terrible Broom, The”, name of the banner of Oscar’s battalion, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tethra, a king of the Fomors, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Teutates, a god of the Gauls, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Thames, the river, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Theseus, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Thirteen Treasures of Britain, the, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_445'>445</span>Three Birds of Rhiannon, the, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Chief Holy Families of Britain, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Counselling Knights of Arthur, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Cows of Mider, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Cranes of Denial and Churlishness, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Criminal Resolutions of Britain, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Etains, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Frivolous Battles of Britain, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Generous Heroes of Britain, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Gwynhwyvars, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Paramount Prisoners of Britain, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>-351.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Plagues of Britain, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>-380.</div> - <div class='line'>Three shouts on a hill, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Sorrowful Stories of Erin, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three War-knights of Arthur, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Three Wicked Uncoverings of Britain, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tiberius, the Emperor, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tigernmas, a mythical Irish king, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>-154.</div> - <div class='line'>Tighernach, an old Irish chronicler, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Tir nam beo</i>, see Land of the Living.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Tir nan og</i>, see Land of the Young.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Tir Tairngiré</i>, see Land of Promise.</div> - <div class='line'>Titania, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tomb of the Dagda, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tombs of the Tuatha Dé Danann, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>-139.</div> - <div class='line'>Torpeist, Senchan. See Senchan.</div> - <div class='line'>Tory Island, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Toutates, a war-god worshipped in Britain, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tower Hill, Brân’s head buried at, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Transactions of the Ossianic Society</i>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Transmigration of souls, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>of the swineherds, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>-165.</div> - <div class='line'>Treasures of Britain, the Thirteen, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_339'>339</a>, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Trees, the Battle of the, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>-308.</div> - <div class='line'>Trees, worship of, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Triads, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_350'>350</a>, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Trim, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Trinity Well, the source of the Boyne, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Trinovantum, <i>i.e.</i> New Troy, a mythic name of London, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tristrem, Sir, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Trouveres, the, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Troy, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tuatha Dé Danann, the gods of the ancient Gaels, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>-79, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>-86, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>-112, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>-138, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>-231, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>their arrival in Ireland, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>their battle with the Fomors, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>-117;</div> - <div class='line in2'>are conquered by the Milesians, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>retire into underground palaces, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>and become the fairies of Irish belief, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tuirenn, son of Ogma, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Tuirenn, the Fate of the Sons of”, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>-106.</div> - <div class='line'>Tuis, king of Greece, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Turning Castle”, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tweed, the river, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Twr Branwen, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Twrch Trwyth, the hunting of, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>-353.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Tylwyth Teg</i>, the Welsh fairies, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tynwald Hill, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Tyrian Hercules worshipped at Corbridge, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Uaman, <i>sídh</i> of, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Uaran Garad, spring of, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Uffern, the “Cold Place”, a name for Annwn, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Uisnech, the hill of, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ulster, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Undry”, the name of the Dagda’s cauldron, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_366'>366</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Unius, the river, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Unsenn, the river, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Urddawl Ben</i>, see Venerable Head.</div> - <div class='line'>Urien, an Under World king, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Uriens, Urience, King, in the Morte Darthur, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Urianus, King, in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s <i>History</i>, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_446'>446</span>Usnach, the sons of, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>-200.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Uther Ben</i>, the “Wonderful Head”, a name for Brân, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Uther Pendragon, Arthur’s father, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Val des Fées, in the forest of Brécilien, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Vandwy, Caer, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Varro, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Vedwyd, Caer, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Venerable Head, The”, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Verses of the Graves of the Warriors, The</i>, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Victor, son of Scorcher”. See Gwyrthur, son of Greidawl.</div> - <div class='line'><i>Vita Columbæ</i>, Adamnan’s, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Vivien, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Wales, the Four Ancient Books of, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Skene.</div> - <div class='line'>Walgan, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wall, Roman, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_400'>400</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>War-chariots, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Cuchulainn’s, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Warrefield, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Water-dress”, Brian’s, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Waves, the Four, of Britain, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Wave-sweeper”, Manannán’s boat, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Weapons of the Celts, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wells, worship of, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>holy, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Welsh fairies, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>-394.</div> - <div class='line'>Westminster, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Westminster Abbey, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>White Dragon of the Saxons, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>White-horned Bull of Connaught, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>White Mount in London, see Tower Hill.</div> - <div class='line'>White-tusk, king of the Boars, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>, <a href='#Page_349'>349</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wild Huntsman, the, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wilde, Sir William, his <i>Lough Corrib</i>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Lady Wilde’s <i>Ancient Legends of Ireland</i>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Williams, Mr. Edward. See Iolo Morganwg.</div> - <div class='line'>Wish Hounds, the, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Woden, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wolf, the Morrígú takes the shape of a, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Women, position of, among the Celts, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Wonderful Head”, the, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Wood of the Two Tents”, the, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wordsworth, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wren, Lleu and the, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>a bird of augury among the druids, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wydyr, Caer, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Wye, the river, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Yeats’, Mr., The <i>Wanderings of Oisin</i>, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Yell, or Yeth, Hounds, the, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Yellow Book of Lecan, the, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>“Yellow Shaft”, one of Manannán’s spears, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ynys Avallon, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Avilion, Glastonbury.</div> - <div class='line'>Ynys Branwen, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Ynys Wair, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.</div> - <div class='line in2'>See Lundy Island.</div> - <div class='line'>York, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Young, Land of the, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>Son of the, see Mac Oc.</div> - <div class='line'>Yspaddaden Penkawr, see Hawthorn, Chief of Giants.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Zeus, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_260'>260</a>, <a href='#Page_261'>261</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the Gaelic, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>;</div> - <div class='line in2'>the British, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.</div> - <div class='line'>Zimmer, Professor, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Transcriber’s note:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c023'>Variations in accented characters have been retained.</p> - -<p class='c023'>Format of the index has been regularised.</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 25, ‘Bellico’ changed to ‘Bello,’ “Caesar: De Bello Gallico”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 34, ‘l’étude’ changed to ‘l’Étude,’ “Introduction à l’étude de la”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 43, full stop inserted after ‘Pantheon”,’ ““The Gaulish Pantheon”.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 76, full stop inserted after ‘VIII,’ “William R. Wilde, chap. VIII.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 84, double quote inserted after ‘Luchtainé,’ “his name is Luchtainé.””</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 88, double quote inserted after ‘it,’ “not be weary of it.””</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 90, ‘daugher’ changed to ‘daughter,’ “the son of our daughter Ethniu”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 90, comma changed to full stop after ‘Dundalk,’ “Boyne and Dundalk. The heroic”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 94, double quote struck before ‘Then,’ “Then Nuada declared that”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 146, ‘XIV’ changed to ‘<span class='fss'>XIV</span>,’ “See chap. <span class='fss'>XIV</span>”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 187, double quote inserted before ‘for,’ “she said, “for I know”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 192, double quote inserted after ‘King,’ “race as Conchobar the King.””</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 192, ‘”,’ changed to ‘,”,’ ““We ourselves,” replied”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 206, ‘happend’ changed to ‘happened,’ “who happened to be assailed”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 208, full stop inserted after ‘Cweeltia,’ “Pronounced Kylta or Cweeltia.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 211, ‘Mannanán’ changed to ‘Manannán,’ “Ilbhreach son of Manannán, and”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 215, full stop inserted after ‘Society,’ “Transactions of the Ossianic Society.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 238, ‘capure’ changed to ‘capture,’ “managed to capture Mac Kineely”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 241, ‘four-score’ changed to ‘fourscore,’ “man of fourscore years would”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 262, ‘Lamh-fada’ changed to ‘Lamhfada,’ “of the Gaelic Lugh Lamhfada”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 271, full stop inserted after ‘Vol,’ “of Wales, Vol. I”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 292, full stop inserted after ‘Britain,’ “A bardic name for Britain.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 304, double quote inserted after ‘Pryderi,’ “I see Rhiannon and Pryderi.””</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 316, full stop inserted after ‘it,’ “and could not get it.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 323, full stop inserted after ‘p,’ “Rhys: ibid., p. 169.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 366, full stop inserted after ‘Brân,’ “and the Beheading of Brân”.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 366, full stop inserted after ‘Chap,’ “Chap. <span class='fss'>XXI</span>—“The Mythological”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 375, full stop changed to comma after ‘Britonum,’ “Historia Britonum, Books IX”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 388, full stop inserted after ‘MSS,’ “Iolo MSS., p. 474.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 389, full stop inserted after ‘MSS,’ “Iolo MSS., p. 523.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 415, full stop inserted after ‘St,’ “were offered at St. Tegla’s Well”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 420, ‘homérique’ changed to ‘Homérique,’ “et celle de l’Épopée Homérique”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 420, ‘a’ changed to ‘à,’ “Introduction à l’Étude de la”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 421, ‘Danaan’ changed to ‘Danann,’ “The story of the Tuatha Dé Danann”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 428, ‘Danaan’ changed to ‘Danann,’ “on the Tuatha Dé Danann”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 430, ‘Dairé’ changed to ‘Daire,’ “Daire of Cualgne, owner of the Brown Bull”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 431, ‘Aeifé’ changed to ‘Aeife,’ ““Demon of the air”, Aeife changed into a”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 435, ‘226’ changed to ‘326,’ “Gwynhwyvar, 315, 326, 331-333, 334, 364.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 438, ‘Lochlannoch’ changed to ‘Lochlannach,’ “Lochlannach, the, 205, 211.”</p> - -<p class='c023'>Page 442, ‘Porsenna’ changed to ‘Porsena,’ “Porsena, a Roman consul, 385.”</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mythology of the British Islands, by -Charles Squire - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHOLOGY *** - -***** This file should be named 54616-h.htm or 54616-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/6/1/54616/ - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet -Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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