The departure of the wounded Arthur to Avalon, though
mentioned by Geoffrey, does not occur in native Welsh story;
yet in other sources which refer to it there is probably to be
found a Brythonic tradition on the subject. In the Vita
Merlini attributed to Geoffrey, Avalon appears as Insula
Pomorum , or “Isle of Apples,” where the labour of cultivating
the soil is unnecessary, so abundant is nature. Grapes and
corn grow plentifully, and nine sisters, of whom Morgen is
chief, and who can take the form of birds, bear rule there.
These nine recall the nine maidens whose breath boiled the
cauldron of Annwfn, and the bird sisters perhaps recur in
the Perceval story where Perceval, attacked by black birds,
kills one which turns to a beautiful woman whom the others
bear away to Avalon . 25 In another description the island
lacks no good thing and is unvisited by enemies. Peace, con-
cord, and eternal spring and flowers are there; its people are
youthful; there is no old age, disease, or grief; all is happiness,
and all things are in common. A regia virgo rules it, more


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beautiful than the lovely maidens who serve her; she healed
Arthur when he was brought to the court of King Avallo and
now they live together . 26 Her name is Morgen, though else-
where Morgen is Arthur’s sister, and Giraldus Cambrensis
calls her dea phantastica; while William of Malmesbury speaks
of Avalloc (Avallo) as dwelling at Avalon with his daughters.
How close is the resemblance of this island to the Irish Elysium
must at once be seen. It is mainly a land of women; there
is no toil, but plenty; no sickness nor death, but immortal
youth; and the divine women there can take the form of birds
like Fand, Liban, and others. They who visit Arthur find
the place full of all delights, says the Vita Merlini; and if
Arthur went to Avalon to his sister, he resembles Oisin who,
in one account, went with his mother to Elysium . 27 In the
Didot Perceval Arthur declares that he will return, so that
Britons expect him and have sometimes heard him hunting
in the forest ; 28 and Layamon, who lived in a district where
Brythonic tradition must have abounded, says also that
Arthur, when wounded, announced his departure to the fair-
est of all maidens, Argante, Queen in Avalon, who would
heal him, but that he would return. A boat appeared, in which
were two women, who placed him in it; and now he dwells
in Avalon with the fairest of elves, the fees or goddesses of other
traditions, while Britons await his coming . 29 In Malory the
boat is full of queens, among them Morgen, Arthur’s sister,
and Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, “always friendly to Arthur.”
From her had come the sword Excalibur, and her home was
in a wonderful palace within a rock in a lake — an Elysium
water-world. All this points to the interest taken in a hero by
other-world beings.

The identification of Glastonbury with Avalon may be due
to two influences. Glastonbury and its Tor were surrounded
by marshes, which would cause it to be considered as an
island; and probably, too, the Tor was a divine abode analogous
to the sid, as the legend of Gwyn suggests. Some local myth


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would lead this “island” to be regarded as Elysium, while in
Arthur’s case it came to be called Avalon either because a
local lord of Elysium was named Avallo, or because magic
trees with apples {avail, “apple-tree”), like those of the Irish
Elysium, were supposed to grow there. Glastonbury as a
sid Elysium is supported by another early Arthur tradition;
and one form of this had been transferred to Italy by the Nor-
mans, for Gervase of Tilbury speaks of a groom finding him-
self in a castle on Etna, wherein Arthur lay in bed, suffering
from Mordred’s wounds, which broke out afresh each year . 30
More usually, however, the legend is that of Arthur and his
knights waiting, like Fionn, in an enchanted sleep within a hill
for the time when their services will be required, this story
being attached to the Eildon Hills and other places . 31

Welsh literature shows that at a period contemporary with
Geoffrey, and in manuscripts perhaps going back to an ear-
lier period, there was an Arthurian tradition in Wales which
differed considerably from that of the historian and was
much fuller. Arthur became a figure to whom floating myths
and traditions might be attached and, like Fionn, he was a
slayer of witches, monsters, and serpents, so that in the Life
of St. Carannog a huge reptile which devastated the land was
hunted and destroyed by him. It is certain that, before the
great French poems of the Arthurian cycle were written,
Arthur was popular both in Britain and in Brittany . 32

The outburst of Arthurian romance proper, that of the
Anglo-Norman writers, belongs to the end of the twelfth
and the beginning of the thirteenth century, opening
with the Lais of Marie de France and the Tristan , Erec,
Chevalier de la Charette, and Conte del Graal of Chrestien de
Troyes. Whence was its subject-matter drawn? Some hold
that beyond the scanty facts related of the historic Arthur,
all was taken from Armorican sources, popularized by conteurs
there. These traditions, according to Zimmer, were originally
Welsh, but were brought to Armorica by immigrants from


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Britain; but others, e. g. Gaston Paris and A. Nutt, find the
sources in Welsh tradition and native Celtic tales, learned by
Normans after the Conquest of England and passed thence
to France, either directly or via Anglo-Norman poems. This
is supported by the identity of episodes in the Romances with
those of Irish sagas; and Miss Weston has adduced new
evidence which indicates that in Wauchier’s Perceval, the
Elucidation, and the English Gawain poems “we have a
precious survival of the earliest collected form of Arthurian
romantic tradition.” 33 Wauchier de Denain refers to a certain
Bleheris, of Welsh birth, whose patron was the Count of
Poitiers, and to him he attributes the source of his narrative.
Bleheris is probably the Blihis to whom the Elucidation refers
as source of the Grail story, the Bledhericus described by
Giraldus as famosus ille fabulator, and the Breri mentioned
by an Anglo-Norman poet named Thomas, who wrote on Tris-
tan about 1170. 34 Arthurian romance is thus traced directly to
Welsh sources through this writer, who certainly flourished not
later than the beginning of the twelfth century.

Arthur and Arthur’s court are a centre toward which or from
which stories converge or issue, whence other personages are
apt to be regarded as more interesting than he or to have
a larger number of deeds attributed to them. Conchobar’s
court, with its heroes, where boys are brought up and go forth
armed to their first adventures, suggests the primitive Celtic
Arthurian court, unaltered by mediaeval chivalric ideas. 35 In
the Cuchulainn stories it is not so much Conchobar who is
the chief figure as Cuchulainn, though he is always in the back-
ground, and in this Arthur in relation to Gawain, Perceval,
and others corresponds to him. Arthur has little to do with
the Grail, and new important personages, not necessarily of the
early Celtic group, tend to be introduced.

Gawain was Arthur’s nephew as Cuchulainn was Concho-
bar’s, and the earlier presentation of him is more just than the
later. “He never returned from a mission without having


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fulfilled it; he was the best of walkers and the best of horse-
men,” says Kulhzvch; and according to the Triads , he had a
golden tongue and was one of the best knights of Arthur’s
court for guests and strangers . 36 He had a valuable steed
Gringalet as Cuchulainn had two. His sword Escalibur
(Latin Caliburnus), made in Avalon, was given him by Arthur,
its first owner; and its Welsh name, Caledvzvlch, seems identical
with that of Cuchulainn’s caladbolg, w'hich was forged in the
sid. One incident of Gawain’s legend is his visit to an island
castle ‘where are many knights and maidens, who can never
speak to each other, ruled by a mysterious lady allied with its
magician chief, the captor of these knights and maidens; and
he who goes there must remain always. Gawain reached it,
guided by the lady, who met him at a fountain , 37 a visit which
suggests those of Bran, Connla, and Cuchulainn to Elysium
(not the region of the dead) at the invitation of a goddess
connected with its lord. Gawain was given up as dead, and
this legend persisted, though he returned to Arthur. Prob-
ably, like Connla, he remained in Elysium, so that mediaeval
tradition regarded him as living in fairy-land. In a second
incident the other-world momentarily appears. Guinevere
was abducted by Meleagant (Melwas) to a castle on an island
whence no traveller returned. It was approached by a sword-
bridge and an under-water bridge, Lancelot crossing by the
former, Gawain choosing the latter; and although in Chres-
tien’s Le Chevalier de la Charette Lancelot rescues Guinevere,
evidence exists which points to Gawain as the real hero of the
adventure . 38 A sword-bridge is otherwise unknown to Celtic
myth; a realm reached by descending into water is known;
and Gawain himself came to a palace under water, where
he met with strange adventures . 39 Possibly Gawain, like his
brother Mordred, was lover of Guinevere, a situation to
which Lancelot succeeded when he was later evolved. The
question also arises whether Gawain and Mordred were
Arthur’s sons by his sister, wife of King Loth, as Malory


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198

asserts of Mordred . 40 This is not impossible, just as one
tradition made Cuchulainn son of Conchobar by his sister
Dechtire. Gawain, in Miss Weston’s opinion, is the earliest
hero of the Grail, his position as such being emphasized by
Wauchier, drawing on a version by Bleheris. Perceval next
became the hero of the Quest, then Lancelot, and finally
Galahad, who achieved it.

Among those who are known to Welsh literature and who
appear in the Romances is Kei. His counsel was not to open
the gate to Kulhwch, but Arthur said that courtesy must be
shown; and he was one of those whose help Kulhwch demanded
on entering. He passed for offspring of Kynyr Keinvarvawc,
who told his wife that if her son took after him, his heart
and hands would always be cold, and he would be obstinate;
when he carried a burden, none would perceive him from
behind or before, and none would support fire and water as
long as he. Kei could breathe for nine days and nine nights
under water and could remain that time without sleeping,
while nothing could heal a blow of his sword. When he pleased,
he could become as high as the highest tree; and when heavy
rain fell, all that he held in his hand was dry above and below
to the distance of a handbreadth, so great was his natural heat,
which also served as fuel to his companions when they suffered
most from cold . 41 These characteristics recall those of Celtic
saints, who remained dry in wet weather and could produce
light from their hands, and also Cuchulainn’s “distortion”
and heat. Kei took an important part with Bedwyr in seek-
ing Olwen for Kulhwch, Bedwyr seizing one of the poisoned
javelins thrown at them by Yspaddaden; and he was also
active in questing for the treasures and reached the castle
of Gwrnach Gawr, where, as at the stronghold of Arthur and
the Tuatha De Danann, none could enter but the master of
an art. Kei proclaimed himself the best sword-polisher in the
world and gained entrance by saying that he had a companion
whom the porter would recognize because his spear-head would


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199


detach itself from the shaft, draw blood from the wind, and
resume its place on the shaft. This was Bedwyr. Kei then
killed Gwrnach with his own sword and carried it off, since
the boar could be killed by it alone . 42 Kei and Bedwyr dis-
covered and aided in releasing Mabon, and obtained the leash
made from the beard of Dillus Varvawc while he was living,
which alone could hold the Little Dog of Greit; but Arthur
sang a teasing verse about this and irritated Kei so much
that peace between them was restored with difficulty. At the
hunt of the boar Bedwyr held Arthur’s dog Cavall in leash . 43

In Kulhwch , as in the Black Book of Caermarthen , Kei is not
only a mighty warrior, fighting against a hundred, but also a
great drinker, and his valour as well as his nobility and wisdom
is sung in later poetry. In a curious dialogue between Arthur
and Guinevere after her abduction she told him that Kei
could vanquish a hundred, including Arthur, while she described
Arthur as small compared with Kei the tall. Possibly Kei
rather than Melwas was here Guinevere’s ravisher . 44 In Geof-
frey, Kei is Arthur’s sewer and received a province from him,
while Bedwyr is butler and Duke of Normandy, and both
assist Arthur in his adventures and are mentioned together . 45
Kei is also sewer in the Welsh romances which show traces
of Continental influence — Peredur , Olwen and Lunet — where,
as in the Anglo-French romances, his boastful, quarrelsome
nature appears. He is always ready to fight, yet always over-
thrown; and he is to the Arthur saga what Conan and Bricriu
are to those of Fionn and Cuchulainn. Reference is made in
Kulhwch to his death at the hands of Gwddawc, a deed re-
venged by Arthur, but in the Welsh Saint Graal Kei slew
Arthur’s son, Llacheu, and made war on Arthur.

Of Bedwyr Kulhwch says that he never hesitated to take
part in any mission on which Kei was sent; none equalled him
in running save Drych; though he had but one hand, three
combatants did not make blood flow more quickly than he;
and his lance, which produced one wound in entering, caused

III 14


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CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


nine in retiring — i. e. it was studded with points turned back
so that they caught the flesh on being withdrawn . 46 In like
manner Cuchulainn’s gai bolga inflicted thirty wounds when
pulled out, and reference is frequently made to pointed
spears of similar character. Bedwyr is praised in Welsh
poetry and is the Sir Bedevere of the Romances. In Geoffrey
he reconnoitred the hill where the giant was supposed to live
and comforted the nurse of the dead woman abducted by him,
and he is also said to have been slain by the Romans . 47

Nennius relates that Vortigern’s attempts to build a city
mysteriously failed until his wise men said that he must obtain
a child without a father and sprinkle the foundation with his
blood — an instance of the well-known Foundation Sacrifice.
This victim is at last found because a companion is heard
taunting him, as they play at ball, that he is “a boy without
a father.” His mother alleged that he had no mortal sire, and
the child exposed the wise men’s ignorance, by telling what
would be discovered beneath the foundation — a pool, two
vases, with a tent, and in it two serpents. One of these expelled
the other, and all this is explained as symbolic of the world,
Vortigern’s kingdom, the Britons, and the Saxon invaders.
Giving his name as Ambrose (Embreis gwledig , or “prince”)
and saying that a Roman consul was his father, the boy
obtained the place as a site for a citadel of his own, Dinas
Emrys . 48 Ambrosius Aurelianus the gwledig was a real person
who fought the Saxons in the fifth century , 49 and to his history
these myths have been attached. In Geoffrey this boy is Merlin
or Ambrosius Merlin, whose mother said that often a beauti-
ful youth appeared, kissed her, and vanished, although after-
ward he sometimes spoke with her invisibly and finally as a
man slept with her, leaving her with child. One of Vortigern’s
wise men explained him as an incubus (the Celtic dusius ).
Merlin told how two dragons were asleep in two hollow stones,
and when dug up, they fought, the red dragon finally being
worsted; and he now uttered many tedious prophecies, in-


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201


eluding that of the coming of Ambrosius as king. At a later
time he advised Ambrosius, who wished to erect a memorial
for native heroes, to send for the “Giants’ Dance” to Ireland,
whither African giants had carried it; and by Merlin’s in-
genuity the stones, which had healing and magic virtues, were
removed to Stonehenge. Geoffrey then recounts how Merlin
transformed Uther so that he might gain access to Igerna . 50

In Welsh literature Merlin or Myrddin is connected with
the Britons of the north. Whether this Merlin is the same as
Geoffrey’s is uncertain, the former being called Merlin the
Wild or Caledonius, but at all events the two are combined
in later literature. He is a bard and prophet who fled frenzied
to the Caledonian Forest after learning of his sister’s son’s
death; and there he prophesied to his pig under an apple-tree
and had a friend Chwimbian, the Viviane of romance. The
later chroniclers and romantic accounts develop Merlin’s
magic, e. g. his shape-shifting, the removal of the stones here
becoming supernatural; while his birth is ascribed to demoniac
power, and but for his baptism he would have been a kind of
Antichrist. He took the child Arthur; and when, as King,
Arthur unwittingly had an amour with his sister, he appeared
as a child and revealed the secret of the king’s birth, after
which, as an old man, he disclosed to Arthur how he had
sinned with his sister in ignorance. In the Triads he and his
nine bards went into the sea in a glass house, or he took with
him the Treasures of Britain to the isle of Bardsey. In other
accounts, however, his disappearance was caused by his fairy
mistress’s treachery, for she learned the secret of his magic
power and how to imprison a man in a wall-less tower; in which
she shut him up, visiting him daily, while it appeared to
others as a “smoke of mist.” Another version describes him
as enclosed in a rocky grave, whence perhaps the phrase of a
Welsh poem — “the man who speaks from the grave” — and
in yet another tradition he retires from the world in an
Esplumeor , which he made himself . 51


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176

accounts tell how Fionn, seeking to wed Grainne, had to per-
form tasks; but when he had accomplished these and mar-
ried her, she eloped with Diarmaid . 57 In the longer narrative,
when Fionn and his friends came to ask Grainne’s hand, she
administered a sleeping-potion to all of them save Oisin and
Diarmaid, both of whom she asked in succession to elope with
her. They refused; but, madly in love with Diarmaid’s beauty,
she put geasa on him to flee with her. Thus he was forced to
elope against his will, and when the disappointed suitor Fionn
discovered this, he pursued them and came upon them in a
wood, while in his sight Diarmaid kissed Grainne. At this
point the god Oengus came to carry them off unseen, and
when Diarmaid refused his help, Oengus took Grainne away,
the hero himself escaping through his own cleverness. Having
reached Oengus and Grainne, “whose heart all but fled out
of her mouth with joy at meeting Diarmaid,” he received
advice from the god, who then left them. They still fled,
with Fionn on their track, while the forces sent after them
were overpowered by Diarmaid. For long he would not con-
sent to treat Grainne as his wife, and only when he overheard
her utter a curious reproach would he do so . 58 From two
warriors, whose fathers had helped in the battle against
Cumhal, Fionn demanded as eric , or fine, either Diarmaid’s
head or a handful of berries from the quicken-tree of Dubhros;
but when the warriors came to Diarmaid, he parleyed long with
them and at last, as they were determined to fight him, he bound
them both. Grainne, who was now with child, asked for these
wonderful berries, whereupon Diarmaid slew their giant guar-
dian and sent the warriors with the berries to Fionn. He and
Grainne then climbed the tree; and when Fionn arrived, he
offered great rewards to the man who would bring down
Diarmaid’s head. Oengus again appeared, and when nine of
the Feinn climbed the tree and were slain, he gave each one
Diarmaid’s form and threw the bodies down, their true shape
returning only when their heads were cut off. Oengus now



PLATE XXII

Page of an Irish Manuscript

Rawlinson B 512, 1 1 9 a (in the Bodleian Library,
Oxford), containing part of the story of “ The Voy-
age of Bran, Son of Febal.”




THE HEROIC MYTHS


1 77


carried Grainne in his magic mantle to the Brug na Boinne,
while Diarmaid alighted like a bird on the shafts of his spears
far outside the ring of the Feinn and fought all who opposed
him, Oscar, who had pleaded for his forgiveness, accompany-
ing him to Oengus’s sid. Meanwhile Fionn sought the help of
his nurse from the Land of Promise, and she enveloped the
Feinn in a mist, herself flying on the leaf of a water-lily, through
a hole in which she dropped darts on Diarmaid. He flung his
invincible spear, the gai dearg , through the hole and killed the
witch, whereupon Oengus made peace between Fionn and
Diarmaid, who was allowed to keep Grainne.

Fionn, however, still sought revenge against Diarmaid, who
one night heard in his sleep the baying of a hound. He would
have gone after it, for it was one of his geasa always to follow
when he heard that sound , 59 but Grainne detained him, saying
that this was the craft of the Tuatha De Danann, notwithstand-
ing Oengus’s friendship. Nevertheless at daylight he departed,
refusing to take, despite Grainne’s desire, Manannan’s sword
and the gai dearg; and at Ben Gulban Fionn told him that the
wild boar of Gulban was being hunted, as always, in vain.
Now Diarmaid was under geasa never to hunt a boar, for his
father had killed Roc’s son in the sid of Oengus, and Roc had
transformed the body into a boar which would have the same
length of life as Diarmaid, whom Oengus now conjured never
to hunt a boar. Diarmaid, however, resolved to slay the
boar of Gulban, viz. the transformed child, though he under-
stood that he had been brought to this by Fionn’s wiles; and
in the great hunt which followed “the old fierce magic boar”
was killed, though not before it had mortally wounded the
hero. In other versions Diarmaid was unhurt, but Fionn bade
him pace the boar to find out its length, whereupon a bristle
entered his heel and made a deadly wound . 60 Diarmaid now
lay dying, while Fionn taunted him. He begged water, for
whoever drank from Fionn’s hands would recover from any
injury; and he recalled all he had ever done for him, while


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CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


Oscar, too, pleaded for him. Fionn went to a well and brought
water in his hands, but let it slowly trickle away. Again
Diarmaid besought him, and again and yet again Fionn
brought water, but each time let it drop away, as inexorable
with the hero as Lug was with Bran. So Diarmaid died,
lamented by all. Oengus, too, mourned him, singing sadly of
his death; and since he could not restore him to life, he took
the body to his sid, where he breathed a soul into it so that
Diarmaid might speak to him for a little while each day . 61
Fionn, who knew that Grainne intended her sons to avenge
Diarmaid, was afterward afraid and went secretly to her,
only to be greeted with evil words. As a result of his gentle,
loving discourse, however, “he brought her to his own will,
and he had the desire of his heart and soul of her.” She became
his wife and made peace between him and her sons, who were
received into the Feinn . 62

So ends this tragic tale, the cynical conclusion of which
resembles a scene in Richard III. A ballad of the Pursuit ,
however, relates that Diarmaid’s daughter Eachtach summoned
her brothers and made war with Fionn, wounding him severely,
so that for four years he got no healing . 63 In a Scots Gaelic
folk-tale Grainne, while with Diarmaid, plotted with an old
man to kill him, but was forgiven. Diarmaid was discovered
by Fionn through wood-shavings floating down-stream from
cups which he had made, and Fionn then raised the hunt-
ing-cry which the hero must answer, his death by the boar
following . 64 In the Dindsenchas this “shavings” incident is
told of Oisin, who was captured by Fionn’s enemies and
hidden in a cave, his presence there being revealed in the
same way to Fionn, who rescued him . 65 Ballad versions do
not admit that Diarmaid ever treated Grainne as his wife,
in spite of her reproaches or the spells put upon him; and it
was only after his death that Fionn discovered his innocence
and constancy, notwithstanding appearances . 66 In tradition
the pursuit lasted many years, and sepulchral monuments


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179


in Ireland are still known as “the beds of Diarmaid and
Grainne.” Some incidents of the pursuit are also told sepa-
rately, as when one story relates that after an old woman had
betrayed the pair to Fionn, they escaped in a boat in which
was a man with beautiful garments, viz. the god Oengus . 67

Various reasons for the final quarrel between Fionn and Goll
are given, but in the end Goll was driven to bay on a sea-crag
with none beside him but his faithful wife, where, though
overcome by hunger and thirst, he yet refused the offer of
the milk of her breasts. Noble in his loneliness, he is repre-
sented in several poems as recounting his earlier deeds. Then
for the last time he faced Fionn, and fighting manfully, he fell,
covered with wounds . 68

The accounts of Fionn’s death vary, some placing it before,
some after, the battle of Gabhra, which, in the annalistic
scheme, was the result of the exactions of the Feinn. Cairbre,
High King of Ireland, summoned his nobles, and they resolved
on their destruction, whereupon huge forces gathered on both
sides, and “the greatest battle ever fought in Ireland” fol-
lowed. Few Feinn survived it, and the most mournful event
was the slaying of Oisin’s son Oscar by Cairbre — the subject
of numerous laments, purporting to be written by Oisin , 69
full of pathos and of a wild hunger for the brave days long past.
In Fionn’s old age he always drank from a quaigh, for his wife
Smirgat had foretold that to drink from a horn would be
followed by his death; but one day he forgot this and then,
through his thumb of knowledge, he learned that the end
was near. Long before, Uirgreann had fallen by his hand, and
now Uirgreann’s sons came against him and slew him . 70 In
another version, however, Goll’s grandson plotted to kill
him with Uirgreann’s sons and others, and succeeded . 71 There
is no mention of the High King here, and it suggests the long-
drawn clan vendetta and nothing more. Thus perished the
great hero, brave, generous, courteous, of whom many noble
things are spoken in later literature, but none nobler than


i8o


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


Caoilte’s eulogy to St. Patrick — “He was a king, a seer, a
poet, a bard, a lord with a manifold and great train, our ma-
gician, our man of knowledge, our soothsayer; all whatsoever
he said was sweet with him. Excessive perchance as ye deem
my testimony of Fionn, nevertheless, by the King that is
above me, he was three times better still.” 72 Yet he had un-
desirable traits — craft and vindictiveness, while his final un-
forgiving vengeance on Diarmaid is a blot upon his character.
One tradition alleged that, like Arthur, Fionn was still living
secretly somewhere, within a hill or on an island, ready to
come with his men in the hour of his country’s need; and
daring persons have penetrated to his hiding-place and have
spoken to the resting hero . 73 Noteworthy in this connexion
is the story which makes the seventh century King Mongan,
who represents an earlier mythic Mongan, a rebirth of Fionn,
this being shown by Caoilte’s reappearance to prove to Mon-
gan’s poet the truth of the King’s statement regarding the
death of Fothad Airglech. “We were with thee, with Fionn,”
said Caoilte. “Hush,” said Mongan, “that is not fair.” “We
were with Fionn then”; but the narrator adds, “Mongan,
however, was Fionn, though he would not let it be said .” 74
Other stories, as we have seen, make Mongan the son of
Manannan.

Of the survivors of the Feinn, the main interest centres
in Oisin and Caoilte, the latter of whom lingered on with some
of his warriors until the coming of St. Patrick. In tales and
poems of later date, notably in Michael Comyn’s eighteenth
century poem, Oisin went into a sid or to Tir na nOg (“the
Land of Youth”). The Colloquy with the Ancients , on the other
hand, says that he went to the sid of Ucht Cleitich, where was
his mother Blai, although later he is found in St. Patrick’s
company without any explanation of his return; and now
Caoilte rejoins him . 75 This agrees with the Scots tradition
that a pretty woman met Oisin in his old age and said, “Will
you not go with your mother?” Thereupon she opened a door


THE HEROIC MYTHS


181


in the rock, and Oisin remained with her for centuries, al-
though it seemed only a week; but when he wished to return
to the Feinn, she told him that none of them was left . 76 In
an Irish version Oisin entered a cave and there saw a woman
with whom he lived for what seemed a few days, although it
was really three hundred years. When he went to revisit the
Feinn, he was warned not to dismount from his white steed;
but in helping to raise a cart he alighted and became an old
man . 77 The tales of his visit to the Land of Youth vary. Some
refer it to his more youthful days, but Michael Comyn was
probably on truer ground in placing it after the battle of
Gabhra. In these, however, it is not his mother, but Niamh,
the exquisitely beautiful daughter of the King of Tir na nOg,
who takes him there, laying upon him geasa whose fulfilment
would give him immortal life. Crossing the sea with her, he
killed a giant who had abducted the daughter of the King of
Tir na m-Beo (‘‘the Land of the Living”) ; and in Tir na nOg he
married Niamh, with whom he remained three centuries. In one
tale he actually became King because he outraced Niamh’s father,
who held the throne until his son-in-law should do this; and to
prevent it he had given his daughter a pig’s head, but Oisin,
after hearing Niamh’s story, accepted her, and her true form was
then restored . 78 In the poem the radiant beauty and joy of Tir
na nOg are described in traditional terms; but, in spite of these,
Oisin longed for Erin, although he thought that his absence
from it had been brief. Niamh sought to dissuade him from
going, but in vain, and now she bade him not descend from
his horse. When he reached Erin, the Feinn were forgotten;
the old forts were in ruins; a new faith had arisen. In a glen
men trying to lift a marble flagstone appealed to him for aid,
and stooping from his horse, he raised the stone; but as he
did so, his foot touched ground, whereupon his horse vanished,
and he found himself a worn, blind old man. In this guise he
met St. Patrick and became dependent on his bounty . 79

These stories illustrate what is found in all Celtic tales of


1 82 CELTIC MYTHOLOGY

divine or fairy mistresses — they are the wooers, and mortals
tire of them and their divine land sooner than they weary of
their lovers. Mortals were apt to find that land tedious, for,
as one of them said, “I had rather lead the life of the Feinn
than that which I lead in the sid ” — it is the plaint of Achilles,
who would liefer serve for hire on earth than rule the dead in
Hades, or of the African proverb, “One day in this world is
worth a year in Srahmandazi.”

The meeting of the saint with the survivors of the Feinn
is an interesting if impossible situation, and it is freely de-
veloped both in the Colloquy with the Ancients and in many
poems. While a kindly relationship between clerics and Feinn
is found in the Colloquy , even there Caoilte and Oisin regret
the past. Both here and in the poems St. Patrick shows much
curiosity regarding the old days, but in some of the latter he
is not too tender to Oisin’s obstinate heathendom. Oisin, it
is true, is “almost persuaded” at times to accept the faith,
but his paganism constantly breaks forth, and he utters
daring blasphemies and curses the new order and its annoy-
ances — shaven priests instead of warriors, bell-ringing and
psalm-singing instead of the music and merriment of the past.
Yet in these poems there is tragic pathos and wild regret —
for the Feinn and their valorous deeds, for the joys never now
to be recalled, for shrunken muscles and dimmed eyes and tired
feet and shaking hands, for Oisin’s long silent harp, above all
for his noble son Oscar.

“ Fionn wept not for his own son,

Nor did he even weep for his brother;

But he wept on seeing my son lie dead,

While all the rest wept for Oscar.

From that day of the battle of Gabhra
We did not speak boldly;

And we passed not either night or day
That we did not breathe heavy sighs.” 80

One fine ballad tells how Oisin fought hopelessly against the
new order, scorning Christian rites and beliefs, but at last


THE HEROIC MYTHS 183

craved forgiveness of God, and then, weak and weary, passed
away.

“Thus it was that death carried off

Oisin, whose strength and vigours had been mighty;

As it will every warrior

Who shall come after him upon the earth.” 81

In others the Feinn are shown to be in hell, and St. Patrick
rejoices in their fate. Sometimes Oisin cries on Fionn to let
no devil in hell conquer him; sometimes, weak old man as he
is, his cursing of St. Patrick mingles with confession of sin
and prayers for Fionn’s welfare and regrets that he cannot be
saved.

“Oh, how lamentable the news
Thou relatest to me, O cleric;

That though I am performing pious acts,

The Feinn have not gained heaven.” 82

Tradition maintains that Oisin was baptized, and a curious
story from Roscommon tells how, at St. Patrick’s prayer for
solace to the Feinn in hell, though they cannot be released,
Oscar received a flail and a handful of sand to spread on the
ground. The demons could not cross this to torment the
Feinn, for if they attempted to do so, Oscar pursued them
with his flail. 83


hi — 13


CHAPTER XIV

THE HEROIC MYTHS

0 Continued )

III. ARTHUR

N ENNIUS, writing in the ninth century, is the first to
mention Arthur. 1 This hero is dux bellorum, waging war
against the Saxons along with kings who had twelve times
chosen him as chief; and twelve successful battles were fought,
the last at Mount Badon, where Arthur alone killed over nine
hundred men. Gildas (sixth century), however, refers to this
struggle without mentioning Arthur’s name. 2 In one of these
conflicts Arthur carried an image of the Virgin on his shoulder,
or a cross made at Jerusalem; and the Mirabilia added by a
later hand to Nennius’s History state that Arthur and his
dog Caball (or Cavall) hunted the Porcus Troit, the dog
leaving the mark of its foot on a stone near Builth. Nennius
himself gives a simple, possibly semi-historical, account of
Arthur; and the Annales Cambriae (tenth century) say that
Arthur with his nephew and enemy Medraut (Mordred) fell
at Camlan.

Geoffrey of Monmouth (1100-54), wh° reports the Arthurian
legend as it was known in South Wales, states that Uther
Pendragon, King of Britain, loved Igerna, wife of Gorlois,
Duke of Cornwall; but for safety Gorlois shut her up in Tinta-
gel. Merlin now came to Uther’s help and by “medicines”
gave him Gorlois’s form, and his confidant Ulfin that of the
Duke’s friend, while Merlin himself took another guise, so
that Uther thus gained access to Igerna. News of Gorlois’s
death arrived, and the messengers marvelled to see him at

CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


a bull’s head and two birds — a possible combination of the
incidents on the other altar. M. d’Arbois regards this as
illustrating the Tain. Esus, the woodman, is Cuchulainn;
his action depicts what the hero did — cutting down trees to
bar the way of Medb’s host; “Esus” is derived from words
meaning “anger,” “rapid motion,” such as Cuchulainn often
displayed. The bull is the Brown Bull; the birds are the
forms in which Morrigan and her sisters appeared , 49 though
these bird-forms were those of the crow, not the crane; the
personal name Donnotaurus is found in Gaul and is the equiva-
lent of the Donn Tarb — the “Brown Bull.” 50 Again, Diodorus
says that the Dioscuri, i. e. Castor and Pollux, were the gods
most worshipped by the Celts in the west of Gaul , 51 and M.
d’Arbois finds these in Cuchulainn and Conall Cernach, the
former being foster-brother of the latter, having been suckled
by Findchoem, Conall’s mother. He bases this identification
on an altar found at Paris, on the four sides of which are
represented the Roman Castor and Pollux and two Gaulish
divinities — Smertullos attacking a serpent with a club, and
an unnamed horned god, perhaps the god Cernunnos ( cernu
“horn”). Smertullos is, therefore, the native equivalent of
Pollux, Cernunnos of Castor; and at the same time Smertullos
is Cuchulainn, and Cernunnos is Conall Cernach. In the Tain
Cuchulainn vanquished Morrigan as an eel — the serpent of
the monument — and, again, to hide his youthfulness, he
smeared ( smerthain , hence Smertullos) his chin with a false
beard. As for Conall Cernach, whose epithet means “victori-
ous,” M. d’Arbois connects it also with the hypothetical
cernu- (“horn”), though Conall is never said to be horned . 52

Lug, Cuchulainn’s father, was a widely worshipped Celtic
god, his equivalent in Gaul being a hypothetical Lugus, whose
name appears in place-names there. As Lug was called
samildanach (“skilled in many arts ”), 53 Lugus may be the
Gaulish god equated by Caesar with Mercury, whom he calls
“inventor of all arts” and associates with the simulacra, or










PLATE XX

A AND B

Altar from Notre Dame

A. The god Esus (cf. p. 9) was perhaps a deity of
vegetation, and human victims offered to him were
hanged on trees. He has been identified, though
with slight probability, with Cuchulainn (cf. Plate
XVIII). He is here shown cutting down a tree,
the branches of which are carried over to the next
side of the altar.

B. The next side of the same altar, dedicated by
sailors and found at Notre Dame, Paris. Under the
branches of the tree which Esus is felling stands a
bull with three cranes perched on his back — Tarvos
Trigaranos (see p. 9). For the bull see also Plates
II, 4-5, 9, III, 5, IX, B, XIX, 1, 6. The subjects
of these two sides of the altar recur in an altar from
Treves (Plate XXI).








THE HEROIC MYTHS


159


standing-stones, of Gaul. Now on one of these at Kervadel
four bas-reliefs were sculptured in Gallo-Roman times, one
of them depicting the god Mercury together with a smaller
childish figure; and M. d’Arbois assumes that this represents
the god Lug with his son Cuchulainn . 54

Tempting as these identifications are, it must be confessed
that they rest upon comparatively slender evidence and on
what may be merely apparent coincidences, while they are of
an extremely speculative character.


CHAPTER XIII


THE HEROIC MYTHS

(' Continued , )

II. FIONN AND THE FfilNN

T HE annalists gave a historic aspect and a specific date
and ancestry to Fionn and his men, the Feinn, but they
exist and are immortal because they sprang from the heroic
ideals of the folk; if they were once men, it was in a period of
which no written record remains. Their main story possesses
a framework and certain outstanding facts, but whatever far
distant actuality the epos has is thickly overlaid with fancy,
so that we are in a world of exaggerated action, of magic,
whenever we approach any story dealing with the Feinn.
The annalistic scheme added nothing to the epos; rather is it
as if to the vague personalities of folk-tale had been given
a date, names, and a line of long descent, which may delight
prosaic minds, though it spoils the folk-tale for the imaginative.

Traces of the annalistic scheme occur in the chronological
poem of Gilla Caemhain (ob. 1072) and in the Annals of
Tighernach (ob. 1088), which regarded the Feinn as a hireling
militia defending Ireland, consisting of seven legions or Fianna
(also Feinn , literally “troops”), each of three thousand men
with a commander. The Feinn of Leinster and Meath com-
prised those of our epos — the clanna Baoisgne, its later
chiefs being Cumhal, Goll (of the clanna Morna), and Fionn.
We are told of their arms, dress, and privileges, and of the
conditions of admission to their ranks — some almost super-
human; 1 and we learn that their exactions became so heavy
that king and people rose against them and routed them


THE HEROIC MYTHS


161


at Cnucha, where Cumhal, father of Fionn, fell. Later his
opponent Goll became head of the Feinn, and then Fionn
himself; but as a result of their new pretensions the Feinn were
finally destroyed at Gabhra.

Many Feinn stories are coloured by this scheme, which was
applied to them at an early period; yet alongside the oldest
references to it we find stories or allusions which show that the
imaginative aspect was as strong then as it was later, and
that at an early date there was much Fionn literature so well
known that mere reference to its persons or incidents sufficed . 2

A recent writer suggests that Fionn was originally a hero
of the subject race of the Galioin in North Leinster , 3 who
are constantly associated with Firbolgs and Fir Domnann.
These appear to be remnants of a pre-Celtic population in
Ireland , 4 and are usually despised for evil qualities, though
they have strong magical powers, just as conquerors often
consider aboriginal races to be superior magicians, if inferior
human beings. These races furnished military service for the
Celtic kings of their district down to the rise of the dominant
“Milesian” monarchs in the fifth century; and of these Fianna,
Fionn (whose name means “white” and has nothing to do
with fianna or feinn), whether he really existed or not, was
regarded as chief. Mac Firbis, a seventeenth century author,
quotes an earlier writer who says that Fionn was of the sept
of the Ui Tarsig, part of the tribe of the Galioin. Cumhal,
his father, of the clanna Baoisgne, is represented in the Boyish
Deeds of Fionn ( Macgnimartha Finn ) 5 — a story copied from
the tenth century Psalter of Cashel into a later manuscript —
as striving at Cnucha with Uirgreann and the clanna Luagni,
aided by the clanna Morna, both subject tribes, for the chief
Fiannship ( Fiannuigeacht ). Only in later accounts of the
battle is Conn, the High King ( Ardri ), introduced, and though
the annalistic conception colours the introduction to this
otherwise mythical tale, it appears to be based on recollections
of clan feuds, especially as Fionn himself was later slain by


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


162

members of the clanna Uirgreann. With growing popularity,
he became a Leinster Irish hero, fighting against other Irish
tribes, mainly those of Ulster; but it was not until the middle
Irish period that the Fionn story, which had now spread
through a great part of Ireland among the Celtic folk, with
many local developments, was adopted by the literary class
of the dominant tribes, as at an earlier period they had taken
over the Cuchulainn saga from the Ulstermen. They were
rewriting Irish history in the light of contemporary events
and of their own ambitions; and accordingly they transfigured
and remoulded the legend of Fionn, which afforded them an
ever-growing literary structure. The forced service of the
Fianna became that of a highly developed militia under
imaginary high kings, whence the rise of tales in which Fionn
is brought into relation with these rulers — Conn, Cormac,
Art, and Cairbre — in the second and third centuries. The
Fianna became defenders of Ireland against foreign invasion;
they battled with Norsemen; they even went outside Ireland
and conquered European or Asiatic kings.

In origin Fionn was the ideal hero of a subject, non-Celtic
race, as Cumhal had been, and they were located at Almha —
the Hill of Allen. They tended, however, to become historic
figures, associated primarily with the forced service of such
a race, then with the later mythic national militia; but despite
this, a mythic aspect was theirs from first to last, while the
cycle of legends was constantly being augmented. To Oisin,
son of Fionn, are ascribed many poems about the Feinn: hence
he must have been regarded traditionally as the poet of the
band, rather than his father, who studied the art and ate
the salmon of knowledge. Few excelled in bravery Oisin’s
son, Oscar. Caoilte mac Ronan, Fionn’s nephew, was famed
for fleetness; at full speed he appeared as three persons and
could overtake the swift March wind, though it could not
outstrip him. Diarmaid ui Duibhne, who “never knew weari-
ness of foot, nor shortness of breath, nor, whether in going


THE HEROIC MYTHS 163

out or in coming in, ever flagged,” possessed a “ beauty-spot”
{ball-seirc ) ; and no woman who saw it could resist “the light-
some countenance ” of “ yellow-haired Diarmaid of the women.”
Goll of clanna Morna, Fionn’s enemy, and then his friend,
but with whom a feud arose which ended in his death, was
probably the ideal warrior, prodigiously strong, noble, and
brave, of a separate saga. Conan Maol was also of clanna
Morna, and his father aided in slaying Cumhal at Cnucha,
for which Fionn afterward put an eric, or fine, upon him.
Although of the Feinn, he was continually rejoicing at their
misfortunes in foul-mouthed language; and this Celtic Ther-
sites, “wrecker and great disturber of the Feinn,” was con-
stantly in trouble through his boldness and reckless bravery
— “claw for claw, and devil take the shortest nails, as Conan
said to the devil.” In later accounts he appears rather as a
comic character. MacLugach of the Terrible Hand is also
prominent; so, too, is Fergus True-Lips, the wise seer, inter-
preter of dreams, and poet. Others come and go, but round
these circles all the breathless interest of this heroic epos.
Their occupations were fighting on a vast scale, the records
of which, like those of the Cuchulainn saga, are often tiresome
and ghastly; mighty huntings, watched from some hill- top
by Fionn, and described with zest and not a little romantic
beauty as the hunt wends by forests, glens, watercourses,
or smiling valleys; lastly, love-making, for these warriors
could woo tenderly and with compelling power. Their vast
strength and size — one of their skulls held a man seated —
tend to remove them from the puny race of mere human
beings; yet though of divine descent, they were not im-
mortal, so that Caoilte says of a goddess: “She is of the
Tuatha De Danann, who are unfading and whose duration
is perennial; I am of the sons of Milesius, that are perishable
and fade away.” 6

While the Cuchulainn legend had a definite number of
tales and, after a certain date, remained complete, the Fionn


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


164

cycle received continual additions. New stories were written,
new incidents invented or borrowed from existing folk-tale
or saga, until comparatively recent times. Again, unlike the
Cuchulainn saga, the Fionn cycle contains numerous poems;
while the former has fewer folk-tale versions of its literary
stories than the latter.

The interest of Fionn’s ancestral line begins with Cumhal.
The Boyish Deeds shows him engaging in a clan feud with the
clanna Luagni, assisted by the clanna of which Morna was
chief. Morna’s son Aodh took a leading part in the battle
and was prominent afterward under the name Goll (“One-
Eyed”), because he lost an eye there; Cumhal fell at his stroke . 7
A different account of the battle is given in the Leahhar na
hUidhre. In this, Tadg, a Druid, succeeded to Almha, the
castle of his father Nuada, who also was a Druid; and Tadg’s
daughter Muirne was sought in marriage by Cumhal, but
refused, because Tadg foresaw that he would lose Almha
through him. Cumhal then abducted her, whereupon Tadg
complained to the High King, Conn, who ordered Cumhal to
give her up or leave the country. He refused, however, and
collecting an army, fought Conn’s men, including Uirgreann,
Morna, and Goll, the latter of whom slew him, whence there
was feud between Cumhal’s descendants and Goll . 8

Although Tadg and Nuada are called Druids, Nuada is
elsewhere one of the Tuatha De Danann, and he is probably
the god Nuada who fought at Mag-Tured ; 9 while Tadg is
also said to be from the sid of Almha, which is thus regarded
both as a divine dwelling and as a fort. Hence Fionn is affili-
ated to the gods, and another tradition makes his mother’s
father Bracan, a warrior of the Tuatha De Danann . 10 Cumhal
has been identified with a god Camulos, known from inscrip-
tions in Gaul and Scotland, whose name is also found in
Camulodunum (? Colchester). As Camulos was equated with
Mars, he was a warrior-god — a character in keeping with
that of Cumhal, though if the latter was a non-Celtic hero,


THE HEROIC MYTHS 165

and if his name should be read Umall, the identification is
excluded. 11

Fionn, a posthumous child, was at first called Deimne. For
safety’s sake he was taken by Bodhmhall and the Liath
Luchra and reared in the wilds, where, while still a child, he
strangled a polecat and had other adventures. 12 At ten years
old he came to a fortress on the Liffey, where the boys were
playing hurley, and beat them; and when they described him
as “fair” to its owner, he said that his name should be Fionn
(“Fair”), but that they must kill him if he returned. Never-
theless, next day he slew seven of them and a week later
drowned nine more when they challenged him at swimming. 13
While this incident resembles one in Cuchulainn’s early career,
in other, probably later, accounts, the match takes place
in the presence of the High King, Conn, who called the boy
“Fionn.” 14 In the Colloquy with the Ancients , however, another
incident is found. Goll had been made chief of the Feinn after
Cumhal’s death; and when ten years old, Fionn came to
Conn, announcing that he wished to be reconciled with him
and to enter his service. Conn now offered his rightful heritage
to him who would save Tara from being burnt by Aillen mac
Midhna of the Tuatha De Danann, who yearly made every
one sleep through his fairy music and then set fire to the
fortress. Fionn did not succumb to the music, because of
the magic power of a weapon given him by one of his father’s
comrades, and he also warded off with his mantle the flame
from Aillen’s mouth and succeeded in beheading him, so that
he was given Goll’s position, while Goll made friends with
him rather than go into exile. 15 In the account of Cumhal’s
death as given in the Leahhar na hUidhre , Conn advised
Muirne to go to her sister Bodhmhall, at whose house Fionn
was born. Later he challenged Tadg to single combat, or to
fight him with many, or to pay a fine for Cumhal’s death; and
Tadg, appealing for a judgement, was forced to surrender
AlmhatoFionn. Peace was now made between Fionn and Goll. 16


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


1 66

The story of Fionn’s “thumb of knowledge” belongs in
some versions to this period. To learn the art of poetry he
went to Finneces, who for seven years sought to capture a
salmon which would impart supernatural knowledge to him
— the “salmon of knowledge” — and after he had caught it,
he bade Fionn cook it, forbidding him to taste it. When
Finneces inquired whether he had eaten any of it, Fionn
replied, “No, but my thumb I burned, and I put it into my
mouth after that”; whereupon Finneces gave him the name
Fionn, since prophecy had announced that Fionn should eat
the salmon. He ate it in fact, and ever after, on placing his
thumb in his mouth, knowledge of things unknown came to
him . 17 This story, based on the universal idea that super-
natural knowledge or acquaintance with the language of beasts
comes from eating part of an animal, often a snake, is par-
allel to the story of Gwion’s obtaining inspiration intended for
Avagddu 18 and to that of the Norse Sigurd, who, roasting
the heart of the dragon Fafnir, intended for the dwarf, burned
his finger, placed it in his mouth, and so obtained supernatural
wisdom. In German tales the animal is a Haselwurm , a snake
found under a hazel, like the Celtic salmon which ate the nuts
falling from the hazels of knowledge. As told of Fionn, the
story is a folk-tale formula applied to him, but the conception
ultimately rests upon the belief in beneficial results from the
ritual eating of a sacred animal with knowledge superior to
man’s. Among American Indians, Maoris, Solomon Islanders,
and others there are figured representations of a medicine-
man with a reptile whose tongue is attached to his own, and
it is actually believed by the American Indians that the
postulant magician catches a mysterious otter, takes its
tongue, and hangs it round his neck in a bag, after which he
understands the language of all creatures . 19

When Fionn sought supernatural knowledge, he chewed
his thumb or laid it on his tooth, to which it had given this
clairvoyant gift; or, again, the knowledge is already in his



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PLATE XXI

Altar from Treves

A deity (Esus) fells a tree in the foliage of which a
bull’s head appears, while three cranes perch on the
branches (Tarvos Trigaranos). The bas-relief thus
combines the subjects of two sides of the altar from
Notre Dame (Plate XX).




THE HEROIC MYTHS 167

thumb. Culdub from the sid stole the food of the Feinn on
three successive nights, but was caught by Fionn, who also
followed a woman who had come from the sid to obtain water.
She shut the door on his thumb, which he extricated with
difficulty; and then, having sucked it, he found that he knew
future events. 20 In another account, however, part of his
knowledge came from drinking at a well owned by the Tuatha
De Danann. 21

The boyish deeds of Cuchulainn were described to Medb
during the Tain by Fergus and others. Before his fifth year,
when already possessed of man’s strength, he heard of the
“boy corps” of his uncle Conchobar and went to test them,
taking his club, ball, spear, and javelin, playing with these
as he went. At Emain he joined the boys at play without
permission; but this was an insult, and they set upon him,
throwing at him clubs, spears, and balls, all of which he fended
off, besides knocking down fifty of the boys, while his “con-
tortion” seized him — the first reference to this curious
phenomenon. Conchobar now interfered, but Cuchulainn
would not desist until all the boys came under his protection
and guarantee . 9

At Conchobar’s court he performed extraordinary feats
and expelled a band of invaders when the Ulstermen were
in their yearly weakness . 10 He was first known as Setanta,
and was called Cuchulainn in the following way. Culann the
smith had prepared a banquet for Conchobar, who, on his
way to it, saw the youth holding the field at ball against three
hundred and fifty others; and though he bade him follow,


142


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


Setanta refused to come until the play was over. While the
banquet was progressing, Culann let loose his great watch-
dog, which had the strength of a hundred, and when Setanta
reached the fort, the beast attacked him, whereupon he thrust
his ball into its mouth, and seizing its hind legs, battered it
against a rock. Culann complained that the safe-guard of
his flocks and herds was destroyed, but the boy said that he
would act as watch-dog until a whelp of its breed was ready;
and Cathbad the Druid now gave him a name — Cu Chulainn,
or “Culann’s Dog.” This adventure took place before he
was seven years old . 11 Baudis suggests that as Cuchulainn
was not the hero’s birth-name, a dog may have been his
manito , 12 his name being given him in some ceremonial way
at puberty, a circumstance afterward explained by the mythical
story of Culann’s Hound . 13

One day Cuchulainn overheard Cathbad saying that what-
ever stripling assumed arms on that day would have a short
life, but would be the greatest of warriors. He now demanded
arms from Conchobar, but broke every set of weapons given
him until he received Conchobar’s own sword and shield;
and he also destroyed seventeen chariots, so that nothing
but Conchobar’s own chariot sufficed him. Cuchulainn made
the charioteer drive fast and far until they reached the dun
of the sons of Nechtan, each of whom he fought and slew,
cutting off their heads; while on his return he killed two huge
stags and then captured twenty-four wild swans, fastening all
these to the chariot. From afar Levarcham the prophetess
saw the strange cavalcade approaching Emain and bade all
be on their guard, else the warrior would slay them; but Con-
chobar alone knew who he was and recognized the danger
from a youth whose appetite for slaughter had been whetted.
A stratagem was adopted, based upon Cuchulainn’s well-known
modesty. A hundred and fifty women with uncovered breasts
were sent to meet him , 14 and while he averted his face, he
was seized and plunged into vessels of cold water. The first


THE HEROIC MYTHS


143


burst asunder; the water of the second boiled with the heat
from his body; that of the third became warm; and thus his
rage was calmed. Fiacha, who tells this story, now describes
the hero. Besides being very handsome, with golden tresses,
he had seven toes on each foot, seven fingers on each hand,
and seven pupils in each eye, while on his body was a shirt
of gold thread and a green mantle with silver clasps. No
wonder, added Fiacha, that now at seventeen he is slaughter-
ing so many in the Tain Bo Cualnge , 15

Cuchulainn’s beauty attracted women, whence Conchobar’s
warriors, fearing for the virtue of their wives, sent him to
woo Forgall’s daughter, Emer ; 16 but to hinder this, Forgall
urged him to find Domnal the Warlike in Alba, hoping that
he would never return. He set off with Conchobar, Loegaire,
and Conall; and after Domnal had taught them extraordinary
feats, he sent them to receive instruction from Scathach, who
dwelt to the east of Alba. Meanwhile Cuchulainn had refused
the love of Domnal’s ugly daughter, Dornolla. She vowed
vengeance, and when the heroes departed, she caused a vision
of Emain to rise before Cuchulainn’s companions, which made
them so home-sick that he had to proceed alone. Instructed
by a youth, he crossed the Plain of Ill-Luck safely. On its
first half men’s feet stuck fast, and on the second half the
grass held their feet on the points of its blades; but he must
first follow the track of a wheel and then that of an apple which
rolled before him. A narrow path through a glen would bring
him to Scathach’s house, which was on an island approached
by a narrow bridge, slippery as an eel’s tail, or, in another
version, high in the centre, while the other end rose up when-
ever anyone leaped on it, and flung him backward. This
island and bridge are not mentioned in the older recensions
of the story. After many attempts Cuchulainn reached the
other side by his “ salmon-leap.” Uathach, Scathach’s daughter,
fell in love with him and told him how to obtain valour from
her mother. He must make his salmon-leap to the great yew-


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CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


tree where Scathach was teaching her sons, Cuare and Cet,
and set his sword between her breasts. Thus he obtained
from Scathach all his wishes — acquaintance with her feats,
marriage to Uathach without a dowry, and knowledge of his
future, while she yielded herself to him. For a year he remained
with Scathach, learning skill in arms, and then, despite her
attempts to hinder him, he assisted her in fighting the amazon
Aife and her warriors. Having discovered that Aife loved
above all else her charioteer and chariot-horses, he exclaimed,
as he fought her, that these had perished. She looked aside,
and that moment Cuchulainn overcame her and made her
promise never again to oppose Scathach. From his amour
with Aife, a son would be born called Conlaoch, who was to
wear a ring which Cuchulainn left for him and to seek his
father when he was a warrior of seven years old. He must
make himself known to none, turn aside for none, and refuse
combat to none.

On his return to Scathach Cuchulainn slew a hag who
disputed the crossing of the bridge of leaps, and Scathach
bound him and Ferdiad, Fraoch, Naisi, and Fergus, whom she
had trained, never to combat with each other. While going
home to Ireland he slew the Fomorians to whom Devorgilla,
daughter of the King of the Isles, was to be given in trib-
ute — an early Celtic version of the story of Perseus and
Andromeda . 17

Though Devorgilla was awarded to Cuchulainn, he after-
ward gave her to Lugaid as wife, since he himself was to marry
Emer; whereupon Devorgilla and her handmaid sought the
hero in the form of birds, and when he wounded them, their
true form appeared. Cuchulainn sucked out the sling-stone
and with it some blood; and for this reason also he could not
wed her, for he had drunk her blood — a mythical version of
the rite of blood brotherhood. He now carried off Emer despite
Forgall’s opposition, and she became his wife, though not be-
fore Conchobar exercised his royal prerogative on her . 18


THE HEROIC MYTHS 145

The feats which Cuchulainn learned from Scathach are no
longer intelligible and are probably exaggerated or imaginary
warrior exploits. Scathach and Aife may be reminiscences
of actual Celtic female warriors, though the hero’s visit to
Scathach’s isle is akin to his journey to Fand — it is a visit to
a divine land, whose people are sometimes at war (as in the
stories of Fand and Loegaire), but where wisdom, valour, and
other things may be gained by mortals.

When Conlaoch came to Ireland, his father’s injunctions
were the cause of his slaying his own son in ignorance with
his marvellous spear, the gai bolga; and when he recognized
the ring which his son wore, great was his sorrow. 19 This is
a Celtic version of the story of Suhrab and Rustam. 20

Cuchulainn did not at once become hero of Ulster. In the
story of Mac Datho’s Boar, to which reference has already
been made, the hero is Conall, who never passed a day without
killing a Connaughtman or slept without a Connaughtman’s
head under his knee. Bricriu, the provoker of strife, advised
that each man should get a share of the boar according to
his warlike deeds. Cet of Connaught was chief until Conall
arrived and put him to shame; and then, though the boar’s
tail required sixty men to carry it, he sucked it into his mouth,
allotting scanty portions to the men of Connaught. In the
fight which ensued the latter were routed, Mac Datho’s hound
siding with the Ulstermen. 21

The Fled Brier end, or Feast of Bricriu, tells of a feast
made for Conchobar and his men by Bricriu in a vast house
built for this purpose. Bricriu prepared for himself a balcony
with a window looking down on the hall, for he knew that the
Ulstermen would not allow him to enter it; yet they feared to
accept the invitation lest he should provoke quarrels among
them, and the dead should outnumber the living. Thereupon
he asserted that if they refused, he would do still worse; and
after discussion it was agreed that they should go, but that
Bricriu should be guarded from entering the feast. In the


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CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


sequel, however, he provoked a quarrel between Loegaire,
Conall, and Cuchulainn as to which of them should receive
the champion’s portion; whereupon each claimed it, and a
fight arose between them in the hall. This reflects actual
Celtic custom, for Poseidonius speaks of festivals at which a
quarter of pork was taken by the bravest; and if another
claimed it, they fought until one was killed . 22 Conchobar
separated the heroes, and Sencha announced that the question
should be submitted to Ailill, King of Connaught. Meanwhile
Bricriu stirred up strife among the heroes’ wives, who had left
the hall, by telling each in turn that she should have the right
of first entry; and this caused a quarrel among them, every
one extolling her own husband. Loegaire and Conall each made
a breach in the wall so that his wife should enter first, the door
having been closed; but Cuchulainn removed one side of the
house, and his wife Emer had precedence. Bricriu then de-
manded that the damage should be repaired, but none could
do this save Cuchulainn, and he only after extraordinary
exertions. Conchobar now bade the heroes go to Curoi mac
Daire, whose judgements were always equitable, in order
that he might settle the question.

On his way Loegaire encountered a repulsive giant with a
cudgel, who beat him and made him return without horses,
chariot, or charioteer; and Conall met the same fate, Cuchu-
lainn alone being able to overcome the giant and to return in
triumph with arms and horses. Bricriu thereupon announced
that the champion’s morsel was Cuchulainn’s, but his rivals
objected, saying that one of his friends of the side had over-
come them. The Ulstermen now sought judgement from Ailill,
but Cuchulainn remained behind to amuse the women with
his feats until Loeg, his charioteer, reproached him with delay.
By the swiftness of their chariot-horses they arrived first at
Ailill’s palace, where water was brought by a hundred and
fifty young girls to provide baths for the heroes, and the most
beautiful of these accompanied them to their couches, Cuchu-


THE HEROIC MYTHS


147


lainn choosing Findabair, Ailill’s daughter. Ailill asked three
days and nights to consider the question, and on the first
night three cats — “druidic beasts” from the cave of Cruachan
— arrived. Conall and Loegaire abandoned their food to
them, but Cuchulainn attacked them, and at dawn the cats
disappeared, after the manner of other supernatural beings,
who vanish at daybreak. Ailill was in despair how to solve
the problem of the championship, but Medb sneered at him,
and sending for each hero, gave him a cup without the others
knowing it, saying that it would assure him of the champion’s
morsel at Conchobar’s board. Meanwhile Cuchulainn van-
quished the others in the sport of wheel-throwing, while he
also threw needles so that each one entered the eye of the
other, forming a single line.

Medb now sent them to Ercol and Garmna to seek their
judgement, and they referred them to Samera, who dispatched
them to the Geniti Glinni. Loegaire and Conall returned with-
out arms or garments; Cuchulainn was at first overcome, but
when Loeg reproached him, his demoniac fury began, and he
attacked them and filled the valley with their blood, taking
their banner and going back as a conqueror to Samera, who
said that he should have the champion’s morsel. Returning
to Ercol, the warriors were challenged to combat him and his
horse. Loegaire’s steed was killed by Ercol’s, and he fled to
Emain, saying that the others were slain by Ercol. Conall
also fled, but Cuchulainn’s horse, the Grey of Macha, killed
Ercol’s, and he then carried Ercol prisoner to Emain, where
he found everyone lamenting his death. On the way Samera’s
daughter Buan, who had fallen in love with Cuchulainn, leaped
after his chariot, and falling on a rock, was killed. A feast
was prepared at Emain Macha and now each hero produced
his cup in expectation of the award. Cuchulainn’s cup, how-
ever, of gold and precious stones, proved the most valuable
and beautiful, and all would have given him the championship,
had not his rivals maintained that this was not a true judge-


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CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


ment and threatened to attack the hero. Conchobar therefore
sent them to Yellow, son of Fair, who bade them go to Terror,
son of Great Fear, a giant who could assume whatever form
pleased him. He proposed the “covenant of the axe,” which
Loegaire and Conall refused, whereas Cuchulainn accepted
it, provided they would acknowledge his supremacy, the cov-
enant being that Cuchulainn should cut off Terror’s head
today, while Terror cut off his tomorrow. When Cuchulainn
did his part, Terror took his head and axe and plunged into
his loch; but next day he appeared, and Cuchulainn placed
himself in position. Three times Terror drew the axe over
his neck and then bade him rise in token of his bravery; but
still his rivals would not give way, so that now the Ulstermen
bade them seek the judgement of Curoi. This axe game is
found in Arthurian romance in the story of Sir Gawayne and
the Green Knight , and it is apparently based on an actual
Celtic custom of a man, in token of bravery, after an entertain-
ment, allowing someone to cut his throat with a sword . 23

At Curoi’s castle Blathnat, his wife, welcomed them in his
absence, though he knew they would come, and she bade them
take turns in guarding it. In whatever part of the world Curoi
was, he sang a spell over the castle at night, and it revolved
as swiftly as a millstone, so that the entrance could not be
found — an incident found elsewhere in Celtic romance.
Loegaire took the first watch and saw a giant approaching
from the sea, as high as heaven and bearing oak-trees in his
hands, which he threw at Loegaire, missing him each time, after
which the monster stretched out his hand, and squeezing him
till he was half-dead, threw him outside the castle. Next
night Conall met the same fate. On the night when Cuchulainn
watched, the three goblins of Sescind Uairbeoil, the three
herdsmen of Bregia, and the three sons of Big-Fist the Siren
were to unite to take the castle, while the spirit of the lake
near by would swallow it whole; but Cuchulainn slew the
nine foes when they arrived, as well as two other bands of nine,


THE HEROIC MYTHS


149


making a cairn of their heads and arms. Wearied and sad,
he now heard the loch roaring like the sea and saw a monster
emerging from it and approaching with open jaws to gulp the
castle down. With one leap he came behind it, tore out its
heart, and cutting off its head, placed it on the heap. At dawn
the giant arrived, and when he stretched out his hand, Cuchu-
lainn made his salmon-leap and whirled his sword round his
head, whereupon the monster vanished after having agreed
to grant his three wishes — the sovereignty of Ireland’s heroes,
the champion’s morsel, and precedence for Emer over the
women of Ulster. Cuchulainn’s leap had brought him outside
the castle, but after several trials he sprang back into it with
a sigh, and Blathnat said, “That is a sigh of victory.” When
Curoi arrived, he found the trophies outside his castle and
gave judgement in Cuchulainn’s favour.

Later, when all three were absent from Emain Macha, a
huge boor arrived, carrying a tree, a vast beam, and an axe
with a handle which required a plough-team to move it. He
announced that he had sought everywhere for a man capable
of fighting him and proposed the covenant of the axe. This
passage repeats grotesquely the former incident, save that
Fat-Neck, who struck off the boor’s head, refused to fulfil
his part of the covenant, as also did Loegaire and Conall on
their return. Cuchulainn took his place, but the boor spared
him, calling him the bravest of warriors and fulfilling for him
the three wishes he had made; for he was none other than
Curoi, who had taken first the giant’s, then the boor’s form . 24

The story of The Exile of the Sons of Doel the Forgotten
( Longes mac nDuil Dermait ) opens with a version of Bricriu’s
Feast. Cuchulainn had been cursed by Eocho Rond to have
no rest until he discovered why Doel’s sons left their country.
With Loeg and Lugaid he captured the ship of the King of
Alba’s son, who gave him a charm; and thus they reached an
island with a rampart of silver and a palisade of bronze, while
on it was a castle where dwelt a royal pair — Riangabair and


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY

Thus the Irish and Welsh placed Elysium in various regions
— local other-worlds — in hills, on earth’s surface, under or
oversea; and this doubtless reflects the different environments


THE DIVINE LAND


123


of the Celtic folk. With neither is it a region of the dead, nor
in any sense associated with torment or penance. This is true
also of later folk-stories of the Green Isle, now seen beneath,
now above, the waters. Its people are deathless, skilled in
magic; its waters restore life and health to mortals; there
magic apples grow; and thither mortals are lured or wander
by chance. 23 The same conception is still found in a late story
told of Dunlang O’Hartigan, who fought at Clontarf in 1014.
A fairy woman offered him two hundred years of life and
joy — “life without death, without cold, without thirst, with-
out hunger, without decay” — if he would put off combat for
a day; but he preferred death in battle to dishonour, and
“foremost fighting, fell.” 24

The parallel between Celtic and early Greek conceptions of
Elysium 25 is wonderfully close. Both are open to favoured
human beings, who are thus made immortal without death;
both are exquisitely beautiful, but sensuous and unmoral.
In both are found islands ruled by goddesses who sometimes
love mortals; both are oversea, while a parallel to the sid
Elysium underground may be found in the later Greek tradi-
tion of Elysium as a region of Hades, which may have had
roots in an earlier period. 26 The main difference is the occa-
sional Celtic view of Elysium as a place where gods are at
war. This may be due to warrior aspects of Celtic life, while
the more peaceful conception reflects settled, agricultural life;
although Norse influences have sometimes been suggested as
originating the former. 27


CHAPTER X

MYTHICAL ANIMALS AND OTHER BEINGS

T HE Celts worshipped animals or their anthropomorphic
representations — the horse, swine, stag, bull, serpent,
bear, and various birds. There was a horse-goddess Epona, a
horse-god Rudiobus, a mule-god Mullo, a swine-god Moccus,
and bear-goddesses called Artio and Andarta, dedications to or
images of these occurring in France and Britain . 1 Personal
names meaning “son of the bear” or “of the dog,” etc., sug-
gest myths of animal descent lost to us, though they find a
partial illustration in stories like that of Oisin, son of a woman
transformed to a fawn. We have seen that gods and magi-
cians assume animal forms or force these upon others; and
other stories point to the belief that domesticated animals came
from the gods’ land.

From these we turn to tales in which certain animals have a
mythic aspect, perhaps connected with a cult of them. A
divine bull or swine might readily be regarded as enormously
large or strong, or possessed of magic power, or otherwise dis-
tinguished; and these are the aspects under which such animals
appear in the stories now to be considered.

In the Irish tale of Mac Datho’s Boar ( Seel Mucci Mate
Datho ) Mac Datho, King of Leinster, had a dog famed through'
out the land. It could run round Leinster in a day and was
coveted both by Ailill and Medb of Connaught and by
Conchobar of Ulster; but Mac Datho promised it to both and
invited the monarchs and their retinues to a feast, hoping that
he would escape in the quarrel which would certainly arise
between them. The chief dish was a boar reared by Mac





PLATE XV
Epona


1. The horse-goddess Epona may have been
originally a deity of a spring or river, conceived as a
spirited steed. She is here represented as feeding
horses (for the horse see Plates II, 1-3, III, 2, 4).
From a bas-relief found at Bregenz, Tyrol.

2. The goddess is shown seated between two
foals, and the cornucopia which she holds would
characterize her as a divinity of plenty (cf. Plates
IX, A, XIV, and p. 9). From a bronze statuette
found in Wiltshire.




2



MYTHICAL ANIMALS AND OTHER BEINGS 125


Datho’s grandson, Lena, who, though buried in a trench which
the boar rooted up over him, succeeded in killing the animal
with his sword. For seven years the boar had been nurtured
on the flesh of fifty cows; sixty oxen were required to drag its
carcass; and its tail was a load for sixty men; yet Conall
Cernach sucked it entire into his mouth! 2 The story tells
nothing more of this remarkable animal, but it may commem-
orate an old ritual feast upon an animal regarded as divine and
endowed with mythic qualities.

The Mirabilia added to Nennius’s History speak of the
Porcus Troit or Twrch Trzvyth , hunted by Arthur, an episode
related in the tale of Kulhwch and Olwen. This creature, which
was a transformed knight, slaughtered many of the hunters
before it was overcome and three desirable possessions taken
from between its ears. 3 The Porcus Troit resembles the Wild
Boar of Gulban, a transformed child, hunted by Diarmaid
when the Feinn had fled before it; and tradition tells of its
great size — sixteen feet long. 4 Fionn himself chased a huge
boar which terrified every one until it was slain by his grand-
son, Oscar. It was blue-black, with rough bristles, and no
ears or tail; its teeth protruded horribly; and each flake of
foam from its mouth resembled the foam of a mighty water-
fall. 5 A closer analogy to Arthur’s hunt occurs in a story of the
Dindsenchas concerning a pig which wasted the land. Manan-
nan and Mod’s hounds pursued it, when it sprang into a lake
where it maimed or drowned the following hounds; and then
it crossed to Muic-Inis, or Pig Island, where it slew Mod with
its tusk. 6 Another hunting of magic swine concerns animals
from the cave of Cruachan, which is elsewhere associated with
divinities. Nothing grew where they went, and they destroyed
corn and milk; no one could count them accurately, and when
shot at they disappeared. Medb and Ailill hunted them, and
when one of them leaped into Medb’s chariot, she seized its
leg, but the skin broke, and the pig left it in her hand.
After that no one knew whither they went, although a variant


126


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


version says that now they were counted. From this cave
came other destructive creatures — a great three-headed bird
which wasted Erin till Amairgen killed it, and red birds which
withered everything with their breath until the Ulstermen slew
them . 7 It is strange why such animals should be associated
with this divine cave, but probably the tradition dates from
the time when it was regarded as “Ireland’s gate of hell,” so
that any evil spirit might inhabit it.

In these stories of divinities or heroes hunting fabulous swine
it is possible that the animals represent some hurtful power,
dangerous to vegetation; for the swine is apt to be regarded
in a sinister light and might well be the embodiment of
demoniac beings. On the other hand, the animal sacrificed
to a god, or of which the god is an anthropomorphic aspect,
is sometimes regarded as his enemy, slain by him. Whether
this conception lurks behind these tales is uncertain, as also
is the question whether the magic immortal swine — the food
of the gods — were originally animals sacrificed to them.
Divine swine appear in a Fionn tale. The Feinn were at a
banquet given by Oengus, when the deity said that the best
of Fionn’s hounds could not kill one of his pigs, but rather
his great pig would kill them. Fionn, on the contrary, main-
tained that his hounds, Bran and Sgeolan, could do so. A year
after, a hundred and one pigs appeared, one of them coal-
black, and each tall as a deer; but the Feinn and their dogs
killed them all, Bran slaying the black one, whereupon Oengus
complained that they had caused the death of his sons and
many of the Tuatha De Danann, for they were in the form of
the swine. A quarrel ensued, and Fionn prepared to attack
Oengus’s brug, when the god made peace . 8 In another instance
a fairy as a wild boar eluded the Feinn, but Fionn offered the
choice of the women to its slayer, and by the help of a “familiar
spirit” in love with him Caoilte “got the diabolical beast
killed.” Fionn covered the women’s heads lest Caoilte should
take his wife, but his ruse was unsuccessful . 9


MYTHICAL ANIMALS AND OTHER BEINGS 127


In still another instance Derbrenn, Oengus’s first love, had
six foster-children; but their mother changed them into swine,
and Oengus gave charge of them to Buichet, whose wife de-
sired the flesh of one of them. A hundred heroes and as many
hounds prepared to hunt them, when they fled to Oengus for
help, only to find that he could not give it until they shook
the tree of Tarbga and ate the salmon of Inver Umaill. Not
for a year were they able to do this, but now Medb hunted
them, and all were slain save one. Other huntings of these
swine, less fortunate for the hunters, are also mentioned, and
in one passage Derbrenn’s swine are said to have been fash-
ioned by magic. 10 Both in Irish and in Welsh story pigs are
associated with the gods’ land and are brought thence by
heroes or by the gods. The Tuatha De Danann are said to
have first introduced swine into Ireland or Munster. 11

The mythic bulls of the Tain Bo Cualgne were reincarna-
tions of divinities, whence enormous strength was theirs, and
the Brown Bull was of vast size. He carried a hundred and
fifty children, until one day he threw them off and killed all
but fifty; a hundred warriors were protected by his shadow
from the heat, or by his shelter from the cold. His melodious
evening lowing was such as any one would desire to hear, and
no eldritch thing dared approach him; he covered fifty heifers
daily, and each next morning had a calf. 12 Two gifts given to
Conn by a princess who was with the god Lug were a boar’s
rib and that of an ox, twenty-four feet long, forming an arch
eight feet high; but nothing further is told of the animals which
owned these huge bones. 13

Cattle were a valued possession of the gods’ land and, like
swine, were brought thence by heroes. Man easily concluded
that animals useful to him were also useful to the gods, but
he regarded these as magical. The divine mother of Fraoch
gave him cows from the sid. Flidais, “one of the tribe of the
god folk,” was wife of Ailill the Fair and had a cow which
supplied milk to three hundred men at one night’s milking;


128


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


while during the Tain another account speaks of Flidais
having several cows which fed Ailill’s army every seventh day.
Flidais loved Fergus and urged him to carry her off with her
cow 14 — a proof of its value, which is seen also in tales of the
capture of cows along with some desirable woman, divine or
human. In many Welsh instances cattle are a possession of the
fairy-folk dwelling under a lake and often come to land
to feed . 15 The cow of Flidais resembles the seven kine of
Manannan’s wife; their milk suffices the people of the entire
Land of Promise or the men of the whole world, while from the
wool of her seven sheep came all their clothing . 16

Though the waves were “the Son of Ler’s horses in a sea-
storm,” Manannan rode them on his steed Enbarr, which he
gave to Lug; and this horse was “fleet as the naked cold wind
of spring,” while its rider was never killed off its back . 17
In Elysium “a stud of steeds with grey-speckled manes and
another crimson-brown” were seen by Laeg, and similar horses
were given to carry mortals back to earth, whence, if they did
not dismount, they could return safely to Elysium. Such a
steed was brought by Gilla Decair to Fionn and his men, and
miserable-looking though it was, when placed among the
Feinn’s horses, it bit and tore them. Conan mounted it in
order to ride it to death, but it would not move; and when
thirteen others vaulted on it, the Gilla fled, followed swiftly by
the horse with its riders. Carrying them over land and sea,
with another hero holding its tail, it brought them to the Land
of Promise, whence Fionn ultimately rescued them. This forms
the first part of a late artificial tale, based upon a mythic
foundation . 18 Other mythical horses came from a water-world,
e. g. the steeds which [Cuchulainn captured, one of these being
the Grey of Macha, out of the Grey Lake. Cuchulainn slipped
behind it and wrestled with it all round Erin until it was
mastered; and when it was wounded at his death, it went into
the lake to be healed. The other was Dubsainglend of the
Marvellous Valley, which was captured in similar fashion . 19







I



PLATE XVI

Cernunnos


This horned deity with torques on his horns is
perhaps identical with the horned god shown in
Plate XXV. He was doubtless a divinity of the
underworld (see pp. 9, 104-05, 158, and for other
deities of Elysium cf. Smertullos, Plate V; the three-
headed god, Plates VII, XII, the squatting god,
Plates VIII-IX; Sucellos, Plates XIII, XXVI; and
Dispater, Plate XIV). From an altar found at
Notre Dame, Paris.





MYTHICAL ANIMALS AND OTHER BEINGS 129

Possibly the rushing stream was personified as a steed, and
the horse-goddess Epona is occasionally connected with streams,
while horses which emerge from lakes or rivers may be mythic
forms of water-divinities. In more recent folk-belief the mon-
strous water-horse of France and Scotland was capable of self-
transformation and waylaid travellers, or, assuming human
form, he made love to women, luring them to destruction.
Did such demoniac horses already exist in the pagan period,
or are they a legacy from Scandinavian belief, or are they
earlier equine water-divinities thus distorted in Christian
times? This must remain uncertain, but at all events they
were amenable to the power of Christian saints, since St.
Fechin of Fore, when one of his chariot-horses died on a
journey, compelled a water-horse to take its place, afterward
allowing it to return to the water. 20 Akin to these is the Welsh
afanc, one of which was drawn by the oxen of Hu Gadarn
from a pond, while another was slain by Peredur (Percival)
after he had obtained a jewel of invisibility which hid him
from the monster with its poisoned spear. 21

Mortals as well as side were transformed into deer, and
fairies possessed herds of those animals, while Caoilte slew
a wild three-antlered stag — “the grey one of three antlers”

— which had long eluded the hunters. 22 Three-horned animals

— bull or boar — are depicted on Gaulish monuments, and
the third horn symbolizes divinity or divine strength, the
word “horn” being often used as a synonym of might, es-
pecially divine power. On an altar discovered at Notre
Dame in Paris, the god Cernunnos (“the Horned,” from cernu-,
“horn”?) has stag’s horns; and other unnamed divinities
also show traces of antlers. Possibly these gods were anthro-
pomorphic forms of stag-divinities, like other Gaulish deities
with bull’s horns. 23

Serpents or dragons infesting lochs, sometimes generically
called peist or heist (Latin hestia, “beast”), occur in Celtic
and other mythologies and are reminiscent of earlier reptile


130


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


forms, dwelling in watery places and regarded as embodiments
of water-spirits or guardians of the waters. In later tradition
such monsters were said to have been imprisoned in lochs or
destroyed by Celtic saints. As has been seen, a dragon’s
shriek on May-Eve made the land barren till Lludd buried
it and its opponent alive after stupifying them with mead.
They were placed in a cistvaen at Dinas Emreis in Snowdon,
and long afterward Merlin got rid of them when they hin-
dered Vortigern’s building operations. Here the dragons are
embodiments of powers hostile to man and to fertility, but are
conquered by gods, Lludd and Merlin . 24

Another story of a peist occurs in the Tain Bo Fraich.
Fraoch was the most beautiful of Erin’s heroes, and his mother
was the divine Behind, her sister the goddess Boann. Finda-
bair, daughter of Ailill and Medb, loved him, but before going
to claim her he was advised to seek from Boann treasure of the
sid, which she gave him in abundance, while he was made wel-
come at Ailill’s dun. After staying there for some time, he
desired Findabair to elope with him, only to be refused, where-
upon he demanded her of Ailill, but would not give the bride-
price asked. Ailill and Medb therefore plotted his death,
fearing that if he took Findabair by force, the Kings who
sought her would attack them. While Fraoch was swimming
in the river, Ailill bade him bring a branch from a rowan-
tree growing on the bank, and swimming there, he returned
with it, Findabair meanwhile admiring the beauty of his
body. Ailill sent him for more, but the monster guardian
of the tree attacked him; and when he called for a sword,
Findabair leaped into the water with it, Ailill throwing a five-
pronged spear at her. Fraoch caught it and hurled it back;
and though the monster all the while was biting his side, with
the sword he cut off its head and brought it to land. A bath
of broth was made for him, and afterward he was laid on a bed.
Then was heard lamentation, and a hundred and fifty women of
the side, clad in crimson with green head-dresses, appeared,


MYTHICAL ANIMALS AND OTHER BEINGS 13 1


all of one age, shape, and loveliness, coming for Fraoch, the
darling of the side. They bore him off, bringing him back on
the morrow recovered of his wound, and Findabair was now
betrothed to Fraoch on his promising to assist in the raid of
Cualnge. Thus Fraoch, a demi-god, overcame the peist . 25
In the ballad version from the Dean of Lismore's Book , Medb
sent him for the berries because he scorned her love. The tree
grew on an island in a loch, with the peist coiled round its
roots. Every month it bore sweetest fruit, and one berry
satisfied hunger for a long time, while its juice prolonged life
for a year and healed sickness. Fraoch killed the peist, but
died of his wounds. 26 The tree was the tree of the gods and
resembles the quicken-tree of Dubhros, guarded by a one-eyed
giant whom Diarmaid slew. 27 These stories recall the Greek
myth of Herakles slaying the dragon guardian of the apples
of the Hesperides, 28 which has a certain parallel in Babylonia.
A marvellous tree with jewelled fruit was seen by Gilgamesh
in a region on this side of the Waters of Death; and in the Fields
of the Blessed beyond these waters he found a magic plant,
the twigs of which renewed man’s youth. He gathered it,
but a serpent seized it and carried it off. The stories of Fraoch
and Diarmaid point to myths showing that gods were jealous
of men sharing their divine food; and their tree of life was
guarded against mortals, though perhaps semi-divine heroes
might gain access to it and obtain its benefits for human beings.
The guardian peist recalls the dragons entwined round oaks
in the grove described by Lucan. 29

Such Celtic peists were slain by Fionn, and in one poem
Fionn or, in another, his son, Daire, was swallowed by the
monster, but hacked his way out, liberating others besides
himself. 30 They also defended duns in Celtic story, and in the
sequel to the tale of Fraoch he and Conall reached a dun
where his stolen cattle were. A serpent sprang into Conall’s
belt, but was later released by him, and “neither did harm to
the other.” In Cuchulainn’s account of his journey to Scath,


132

THE MYTHS OF THE BRITISH CELTS 105


god of the Celtic underworld, which he regarded as a dark
region^ contrary to all that we can gather of it, while Bran
was the Brythonic equivalent of Cernunnos and was slain by a
sun-hero, his wading to Ireland representing his crossing the
waters to Hades, like Yama, there to reign as lord of the dead. 31
The heads, however, can be explained only conjecturally as
heads of Cernunnos. The exigencies of the story demanded
that Ireland should be brought in, and as Bran had to reach it
somehow, it was easiest to make the gigantic god wade there;
if the parallel with Yama were true, Bran should have died
before crossing the water of death. Yama’s realm was not
“dark,” but a heavenly region of light, like the Celtic other-
world, even if the latter, unlike the former, was subterranean.
Far from being “dark,” Bran is bright and cheerful and has
Elysian traits. Eighty years are as a day, and men think only
of feasting and happiness in the presence of his head, which is as
agreeable to them as he himself was in life; it produces an Elys-
ium on earth, which is lost through opening a door, exactly as
others lose it and become decrepit through contact with earth.
Thus if Bran, sitting on the rock at Harlech or existing as a
talking head afterward solemnly buried, like Orpheus’s singing
head interred in a sacred place, is the equivalent of the squat-
ting Gaulish god Cernunnos, perhaps also represented as a single
or triple head, this can only be because both were lords of a
bright other-world, whether the region of the dead or a divine
land. Bran is certainly not a dark god of blight, but rather
the reverse, since his cauldron resuscitates the dead. In cross-
ing to Ireland he carried his musicians on his back, and this
may point to his being a divinity of musicians and bards. If
so, he, as the Urdawl Ben (“Noble Head”), may be compared
to the Uthr Ben (“Wonderful Head”) of a Taliesin poem,
which boasted of being a bard, harper, and piper, and equal to
seven score professionals. 32 Arthur disinterred Bran’s head,
not wishing to owe the defence of Britain to it.

Bran was euhemerized into a British king who was confused


io6


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


with Brennus, leader of the Gauls in the sack of Rome, 390
b. c., and was transformed into a conqueror of Gaul and
Rome. 33 He also figures as a saint, Bran the Blessed, if that
was not already a pagan epithet; and remaining at Rome
seven years as hostage with his son Caradawc, he brought
Christianity thence to the Cymry. Caradawc is here the his-
toric Caratacus, who was carried prisoner to Rome, but there
is confusion with a Caradawc (“Great Arms,” or “Prince of
Combat”), son of Llyr Marini, about whom a saga may have
existed. In any case Bran was regarded as head of one of the
three saintly families of Britain. 34

In the Mabinogi of Branwen, Caswallawn, clothed in a
mantle of invisibility, destroyed the heroes of Britain and
usurped the kingdom, leaving Manawyddan landless; and
though his sister was married to Llyr, he was hostile to Llyr’s
descendants. Caswallawn, Lludd, Llevelys, and Nynnyaw
were sons of Beli, although Geoffrey makes his Lear long pre-
cede Beli or Heli as king, while he also introduces a Belinus
and confuses Caswallawn with Cassivellaunus, Caesar’s foe. 35
Beli and Belinus may represent the god Belenos, who was
equated with Apollo; and Beli is victorious champion of the
land and the preserver of its qualities in a Taliesin poem, in
which the singer implores him 36 — perhaps a reminiscence of
earlier divine traits. A Triad calls Beli father of Arianrhod,
and Rhys, assuming that this is Arianrhod, the daughter of
Don, makes Don consort of Beli, equates Don with Danu, and,
without the slightest evidence, assigns to Danu as consort the
shadowy figure Bile, father of Mile, invented by Irish annal-
ists. Beli and Bile are then equated with the Celtic Dispater,
the divine ancestor of the Celtic race, whom he assumes to
have been a “dark” god, ruling a “dark” underworld. 37 All
this is modern mythologizing.

Caswallawn is confused in the Triads with Cassivellaunus, a
warrior who may have been named after him; and he is called
“war-king,” an epithet which may recall his divine functions,



? <aO


i



PLATE XI

Gauls and Romans in Combat

Bas-relief from a sarcophagus found near Rome.





THE MYTHS OF THE BRITISH CELTS 107


those of a god invisibly leading armies to battle and embodied
in chiefs who bore his name. Yet the epithet might be that of
actual warriors, just as the German Emperor calls himself the
“war-lord.”

Lludd,as King, rebuilt London orCaer Ludd, and was buried
at Ludgate Hill, which thus preserves his name and points to
an earlier cult of Lludd at this place. 38 He is also said to have
been enclosed in a narrow prison — an unexplained reference
to some tale now lost. In the story of Lludd and Llevelys 39 his
country of Britain was subjected to three plagues — the Cora-
nians who heard every whisper, like Math Hen; a shriek on
May-Eve caused by a foreign dragon attacking the dragon of
the land and producing wide-spread desolation; and the mys-
terious disappearance of a year’s supply of food. Llevelys bade
Lludd bruise certain insects in water and throw the mixture
over his assembled people and the Coranians; the latter alone
would be poisoned by it. The dragons were to be made drunk
with mead and then buried. The third plague was caused by a
magician who lulled every one to sleep and then carried off the
provisions; but Lludd was to keep awake by plunging into
cold water and then to capture the giant, who would become
his vassal. This last plague recalls “the hand of glory,” the
hand of a new-born infant or a criminal, which, anointed with
grease and ignited, rendered a robber invisible and caused
every one to sleep in whatever house the thief entered. Treasure
was also discovered by its means, and as Dousterswivel in
Scott’s Antiquary said, “he who seeksh for treasuresh shall
never find none at all,” to which the Antiquary replied, “I
dare take my corporal oath of that conclusion.” Whether this
episode of the story is based on such a folk-belief is not clear.
As a whole nation suffers from the plagues, and as two of them
affect fertility and plenty, the origin of the tale may be found
in the mythical contest of divine powers with hostile potencies
of blight, as at Mag-Tured. 40 In a Triad the plague of the
Coranians is called that of March Malaen from beyond the


io8


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


sea; 41 and March suggests the Fomorian More, who taxed
the Nemedians in two-thirds of their children, corn, and milk
on November-Eve. 42 The Welsh plagues, however, occur at Bel-
tane, i. e. at the beginning of summer, rather than winter, as
might be expected. Lludd is praised for generosity in giving
meat and drink — the attribute of a kindly god. The Cora-
nians are connected with Welsh cor (“dwarf”) and are still
known as mischievous fairies.

In connexion with such dwarfs it is interesting to note that a
dwarf fairy-folk is described by Giraldus Cambrensis (1147-
1223). Two of them took the priest Elidurus, when a boy,
through subterranean passages to a delightful region, whose
people lived on milk and saffron, swore no oaths, and contemned
human ambition and inconstancy. Elidurus frequently visited
them, but being persuaded by his mother to steal their gold, he
was pursued and the gold was taken from him, after which he
never again found the way to fairy-land. 43 Save for their size,
these fairies recall the Tuatha De Danann, dwelling in the sid.

Gwyn, son of Nudd, is connected both with Annwfn and also
in later belief with fairy-land. 44 He was a great magician and a
mighty warrior — “the hope of armies” — while his horse was
also “the torment of battle”; 45 without him and a certain
steed named Du, the monster boar, the Twrch Trwyth, could
not be caught by Kulhwch. Gwyn abducted Creidylad (Cor-
delia), daughter of Lludd, who was affianced to Gwythur; but
in the fight which followed Gwyn was victor and forced one of
his foes to eat his dead father’s heart so that he became mad.
Arthur interfered, however, and ordered that Creidylad should
remain with her father, while Gwyn and Gwythur must fight
for her every day until doom, when she would be given to the
victor. 46 This story is illustrated by folk-survivals. On May-
day in the Isle of Man a girl representing the May Queen was
attended by a captain and several others; and there was also a
Queen of Winter with her company. The two bands met in
mock battle, and if the May Queen was captured, her men had


THE MYTHS OF THE BRITISH CELTS 109


to ransom her. 47 Ritual combats between representatives of
summer and winter occur among the folk everywhere and in
origin symbolized the defeat of winter, as well as actually
aided the gods of light and growth. The story of Creidylad is
perhaps the debris of an old myth explaining the reason of such
a contest when its real purpose was forgotten.

Another group of divine personages is found in the Hanes
Taliesin , which was written in the sixteenth or seventeenth
century, although references to incidents in it occur in far ear-
lier poems in the Book of Taliesin and presuppose its existence
in some form when they were composed. It contains mythical
elements which introduce old divinities, a culture hero or god,
Taliesin, and the conceptions of inspiration, rebirth, and shape-
shifting, the last being expressed in the folk-tale formula of the
Transformation Combat, as it already is in one of the poems. 48
Taliesin is unknown to the Mabinogion , save as a bearer of
Bran’s head, and this suggests his local character, while the
saga was probably developed in a district to the south of the
estuary of the Dyfi. 49 Before story or poem was written, three
facts concerning his mythic history must have been remem-
bered — his inspiration, his shape-shifting powers, and his
being the rebirth of Gwion. Whether or not there was an
actual poet called Taliesin living in the sixth or, as his latest
translator and commentator, Mr. J. G. Evans, thinks, in the
thirteenth century, it is certain that his poems contain many
mythical references which must once have been told of a myth-
ical being doubtless bearing the same name as himself.

Tegid the Bald lived in Lake Tegid (Bala) with his wife
Cerridwen, their beautiful daughter Creirwy, and their sons
Morvran and Avagddu, the latter the most ill-favoured of
men, although Morvran (“Sea-Crow”) is elsewhere said to
have been also of repellent aspect. Cerridwen wished to com-
pensate Avagddu by giving him knowledge, so that he might
have entry among men of standing; and with the aid of the
books of Ffergll (Vergil) she prepared a cauldron of inspiration


no


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


and science to boil for a year. While she went to gather herbs
of virtue, she set the blind Mordu to kindle the fire and Gwion
to stir the pot; but three drops from it fell on his finger, which
he put in his mouth, and he found himself master of knowledge,
which taught him to flee from Cerridwen’s rage. Here follows
the incident of the Transformation Combat, with the goddess
as a hen finally swallowing Gwion as a grain . 50 She later gave
birth to him, and wrapping him up in a hide, placed him in the
sea. At Gwydno’s weir the value of a hundred pounds was
found every first of May, and Elphin was to obtain whatever was
discovered on the next occasion, which proved to be the child.
When the package was opened, Gwydno exclaimed, “Here is
a fine or radiant brow” or “fine profit” ( tal iessin), whence
Elphin named the child Taliesin, and the infant sang and
showed how deep was his knowledge. He was nurtured by
Elphin and became one of the greatest of bards. Now Elphin
had boasted at court that he had a more virtuous wife and a
better bard than any there, whence he was imprisoned until
his claim was verified. Rhun was sent to seduce his wife, but
Taliesin put a servant in her place, and she fell victim to Rhun,
who cut off her finger with her mistress’s ring. When Elphin
was confronted with it, he showed an ingenuity equal to that
of Sherlock Holmes in proving that the finger was not his
wife’s — the ring was too tight, the finger-nail was uncut, and on
her finger some flour had remained from her baking. Now his wife
never baked; she cut her finger-nails weekly; and the ring was
loose even on her thumb. Taliesin next came forward and by
his spells made the other bards utter nonsense. He sang of his
origin — “the region of the summer stars” — his existence in
long past ages, from that of Lucifer’s fall to the days of the
Patriarchs, and his life at the Nativity and Crucifixion of
Christ, and referred to his birth from Cerridwen. Then the
castle shook; Elphin was summoned; and as Taliesin sang his
chains fell from him . 51

The latter part of tne story is purely romantic, but in poems


THE MYTHS OF THE BRITISH CELTS hi


ascribed to Taliesin and in a Triad his greatness as the “chief
of bards” appears —

“With me is the splendid chair,

The inspiration of fluent and urgent song.”

He has been with the gods and ranks himself as one of them,
telling how he was created and enchanted by them before he
became immortal ; 52 he has a chair not only on earth but in
the gods’ land . 53 Taliesin was the ideal bard, a god of inspira-
tion like Ogma, and, besides his reincarnation, his birth from
Cerridwen shows his divine nature. Yet, like other semi-
divine personages connected with inspiration or culture, he
obtains his powers by accident or by force. One myth, that
of the cauldron, shows the former and is parallel to the story
of Fionn and the salmon ; 54 but in another, darkly referred to
in a poem, he with Arthur and many companions goes overseas
to Caer Sidi for the spoils of Annwfn, including the cauldron
of Pen Annwfn . 55 Here, whether successfully or not, the gifts
of culture and inspiration are sought by force or craft. Are
two separate myths combined in the Hanes Taliesin , one making
Taliesin son of a goddess with an abode in the divine land; the
other viewing him as a culture hero, stealing the gifts of the
gods’ land, and therefore obnoxious to Cerridwen? And if so,
do these myths “reflect the encroachment of the cult of a god
on that of a goddess, his worshippers regarding him as her son,
her worshippers reflecting their hostility to the new god in a
myth of her enmity to him ”? 56

Taliesin was supreme in shape-shifting and rebirth. Of no
other Brythonic god or hero is the latter asserted, and several
poems obscurely enumerate various forms which he assumed
and recount his adventures in them. When, however, the poet,
speaking in his name, asserts that he has been a sword, tear,
word, book, coracle, etc., it is obvious that this is mere bardic
nonsense and not pantheism, as some have suggested. The
claims of Taliesin and of the Irish Amairgen resemble those of
the Eskimo angakok, who has the entree of the other-world and


1 12 CELTIC MYTHOLOGY

can transform himself at will ; 57 and the gift of transformation
and rebirth is then associated with inspiration in the Hanes
Taliesin. Here the equation with Fionn and Oisin, already
noted by J. G. Campbell and accepted by Rhys, is worth ob-
serving. Fionn and Gwion obtain inspiration accidentally.
Fionn is reborn, not as Oisin, but as Mongan, and Gwion as
Taliesin. Oisin and Taliesin are both bards, and Oisin’s name
is perhaps equivalent to -essin or -eisin in Taliesin. Taliesin’s
shape-shifting has no parallel with Fionn or Oisin, but Oisin’s
mother and, in one tradition, Fionn’s also became a fawn.
Thus inspiration, rebirth, and shape-shifting are attached to
different personages in different ways, showing that mythical
elements common to the Celtic race have been employed.

Tegid is a god of the world under waters, but is not other-
wise known to existing myth; though he and Cerridwen, pos-
sessor of a cauldron, are perhaps parallel to the giant pair out
of a lake with their cauldron in Bramven, Cerridwen being a
local goddess of inspiration, as her cauldron of knowledge shows.
The Celtic mythical cauldron, bestowing knowledge, plenty
(like Dagda’s), and life (like Bran’s ), 58 is recognizable as a
property of the gods’ land; but it was dangerous, and a bard
sings of his chair being defended from Cerridwen’s cauldron . 59
Cerridwen was regarded as a daughter of Ogyrven, from whose
cauldron came three muses, and who was perhaps an epony-
mous deity of the elements of language, poetry, and the letters
of the alphabet, called ogyrvens , as well as a god of bards.
Cerridwen is styled “the ogyrven of various seeds, those of
poetic harmony, the exalted spirit of the minstrel”; but
ogyrven also means “a spiritual form,” “a personified idea,”
and may here be equivalent to “goddess.” 60 Thus Cerridwen
was a deity of inspiration, like Brigit, though, like other Celtic
goddesses, her primary function may have been with fertility,
of which the cauldron, supplying plenty and giving life, is a
symbol. She is also called a “goddess of grain.” 61

Tegid’s water-world is the land under waves of Irish myth —



PLATE XII

Three-Headed God

The statue, adorned with torques, was once
horned. For another representation of this divinity,
perhaps a deity of the underworld, see Plate VII.
Found at Condat, France.






THE MYTHS OF THE BRITISH CELTS 113

one aspect of Elysium, examples of which have already been
considered. Another instance occurs in the Voyage of Maelduin,
where the voyagers reach a sea, beneath which is descried a
country with castles, men, and cattle; but in a tree is a great
beast eating an ox, and the sight so terrifies them that they
sail quickly away. In another story Murough is invited to
come below the waters. He dives down and reaches the land
of King Under-Waves, whom he sees sitting on a golden throne;
a year spent there feasting seems but a few days. Welsh tradi-
tion has also many stories of water-worlds, as well as of fairy
brides, daughters of the lord of the lake, and cattle which came
thence. 62 In a Christianized Irish version of the conception a
bishop from time to time visited a monastery beneath the
waters of a lake, finally disappearing from his own monastery,
none knew whither. 63

PLATE IX

A AND B

Altar from Saintes

A. The obverse shows a seated god and goddess.
The god is squatting (cf. Plates III, 3, VIII, XXV),
and holds a torque in his hand. The goddess has a
cornucopia (cf. Plates XIV, XV), and a small fe-
male figure stands beside her.

B. On the reverse is a squatting god with a purse
in his right hand; to the left is a god with a hammer
(see Plates XIII, XIV, XXVI), and to the right is
a goddess. Three bulls’ heads are shown below
(cf. Plates II, 4-5, 9, III, 5, XIX, 1, 6, XX, B, XXI).
From an altar found at Saintes, Charente-Inferieure,
France.






THE LOVES OF THE GODS


87


At this point we hear of Loeg’s visit and return, and next
follows a long passage that has nothing to do with the story,
which then continues as if from another version in which
Liban’s visit had not occurred. Cuchulainn was still ill and
sent Loeg to tell Emer, his wife, how women of the side had
destroyed his strength; but when she reproached him for his
weakness, he arose and went to the enclosure (the pillar-stone
of the first part). There Liban appeared, singing of Labraid’s
prowess and of his need for Cuchulainn, and striving to lead
the hero to the dwelling of the side or to Labraid’s home on a
lake where troops of women came and went. Cuchulainn re-
fused to go at a woman’s call, whereupon Liban proposed that
Loeg should bring tidings of Labraid’s land. The two visits of
Loeg are thus the same, but differently described-. In the first
Liban took Loeg by the shoulder, for he could not go in safety,
unless under the protection of a woman. In a bronze boat they
reached an island in a lake, and in a palace Loeg saw thrice
fifty women who welcomed him. While he spoke with Fand,
Labraid arrived, gloomy because of the approaching contest,
but Liban cheered him by announcing that Loeg was there,
and that Cuchulainn would come. Now Loeg returned to tell
of all he had seen.

The other version describes how Loeg passed with Liban to
the plain of Fidga, where dwelt Aed Abrat and his daughters.
There Fand bade him at once bring Cuchulainn, for on that
day the strife would begin; and Loeg returned, urging Cuchu-
lainn to go and recounting what he had beheld. In one house
were thrice fifty men; at the eastern gate were three purple
trees with birds singing; in the forecourt was a silver tree
with musical branches; from sixty other trees dropped food to
nourish three hundred; and there was, too, a vat of unfailing
ale. He described Fand’s marvellous beauty and still urged
Cuchulainn with accounts of the attractiveness of the land,
without any lie or injustice, and of the glory of its warriors and

its women. Cuchulainn at last went there and by his might
m— 7


88


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


quelled the enemies of the god. Fand and Liban now sang in
praise of him, and he remained for a month with Fand, after
which he bade her farewell. She appointed a tryst with him in
Erin, but Emer heard of it and with fifty women came to at-
tack Fand. Cuchulainn, however, bade Fand have no fear, and
addressing Emer he told her how the goddess was more worthy
of his love. Emer reproached him, and when she added, “If
only I could find favour in thy sight,” Cuchulainn’s love for
her returned: “Thou shalt find favour so long as I am in life.”
Then began a noble contest between Fand and Emer as to
which of them should sacrifice herself for the other, and Fand
sang a beautiful lament. At this moment Manannan became
aware of Fand’s predicament and arrived to rescue her, unseen
by all save her and Loeg. Fand again sang, describing the
coming of “the horseman of the crested sea-waves,” and told
of her former love for the god and the splendour of their es-
pousals. Now, deserted by Cuchulainn, she would return to
Manannan; but still her heart yearned for the hero, as she
told Manannan when he asked her whether she would depart
with him or no. Yet one thing weighed with her: Manannan
had no consort worthy of him, while Cuchulainn already had
Emer. So she departed; and when the hero knew it, he bounded
thrice in air and gave three leaps southward, and abode for a
long time fasting in the mountains. Emer went to Conchobar,
who sent his Druids to bind Cuchulainn; and when the hero
would have slain them, they chanted spells and fettered him,
giving him a draught of oblivion so that he remembered Fand
no more. Emer also shared in this potion and forgot her
jealousy; “and Manannan shook his mantle between Cuchu-
lainn and Fand, so that they should never meet again.” 15 In
this story Emer addresses Loeg as one who often searches the
sid, while he speaks of the divine land as well-known to him
and seems to see Manannan when he is invisible to the others,
Manannan himself was an ardent lover, and what St. Pat-
rick called “a complicated bit of romance,” was told to him


THE LOVES OF THE GODS


89


by Caoilte. Aillen, of the Tuatha De Danann, became en-
amoured of Manannan’s wife, while his sister Aine, daughter of
Eogabal, loved Manannan and was dearer to him than all
mankind. Aine asked the cause of her brother’s sadness, and
he told her that he loved the goddess Uchtdelbh (“Shapely
Bosom”). Aine accordingly bade him come with her where
the divine pair were, and taking her seat by Manannan, she
gave him passionate kisses. Meanwhile Uchtdelbh, seeing
Aillen, loved him; and Manannan gave her to him, himself
taking Aine . 16 On another occasion Manannan desired Tuag,
a maiden guarded by hosts of the King of Erin’s daughters;
and since no man might see her, Manannan sent a divine
Druid, Fer Fidail, son of Eogabal, in the form of a woman to
gain access to Tuag. He remained with her three nights and
then, singing a sleep-strain over her, he carried her to the
shore and left her slumbering while he looked for a boat wherein
to carry her asleep to the Land of Ever-Living Women, or, in
another version, to go to take counsel of Manannan. But a
wave came and drowned her, the wave in one version being
Manannan the sea-god himself — a primitive piece of person-
alization of nature. For his misdeed Fer Fidail was slain by
Manannan, and probably the cause of offence was that he had
loved Tuag , 17 this explaining why she was drowned by the
disappointed god.

A parallel myth, connected with other personages, tells how
Clidna the Shapely went from the Hill of the Two Wheels, in
the Pleasant Plain of the Land of Promise, with Iuchna Curly-
Locks to go to Oengus Mac Ind Oc. But Iuchna practised
guile upon her so that she slept in the boat of bronze through
his music; and then he turned the boat’s head, altering its
course till it reached the place called Clidna. At that time
occurred one of the three great seabursts which spread through
all the world. It caught up the boat, and Clidna was drowned;
whence this seaburst was called Clidna’s Wave . 18 The
others were Tuag’s and Rudraige’s, or Ladru’s and Baile’s.


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CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


The story of Crimthann Nia Nair shows that one who so-
journs in the divine land or tastes its food may not be able to
return to earth with impunity, for he has become a member of
the other-world state and is no longer fit for earth. This is
found in other Irish tales and in stories of fairyland or the world
of the dead elsewhere . 19 Crimthann was son of Lugaid Red
Stripes, of whom one of those occasional stories of incest, not
uncommon in primitive society, is told, proving that it had
at one time been common in Celtic custom, perhaps in the
royal house. Lugaid’s mother was Clothru, a sister of Medb
and Ethne. Clothru and Ethne are both said to have been
wives of Conchobar after Medb left him for Ailiil; and their
brothers, Bres, Nar, and Lothar, were called the Three Finns,
or White Ones, of Emuin. Once Clothru bewailed her childless
condition to them, and as a result of her entreaties she had a
son Lugaid by all three . 20 Clothru again bore a child to Lugaid,
Crimthann Nia Nair, or “Nar’s Man,” the hero of this story
and afterward supreme king, who fared on what is called “a
splendid adventure” with a goddess or witch called Nar. He
went to a land overseas, where he remained with her for a
month and a half; and at his departure he obtained many
love-tokens — a chariot and a golden draught-board, a sword
richly ornamented, a spear whose wounds were always mortal,
a sling which never missed its aim, two dogs worth a hundred
female slaves, and a beautiful mantle. Soon after his return,
however, he fell from his horse and died 21 — an incident per-
haps to be explained in terms of the myths of Loegaire Liban
and Oisin, who, in order to return to the divine land, were
warned not to dismount from their horses . 22 On the other
hand, Cuchulainn was able to return to Ireland from Elysium
without hurt, and so also was Aedh, son of the King of Lein-
ster, who was enticed into the sid by Bodb Dearg’s daughters.
For three years the folk of the sid cared for him while his
father mourned, not knowing whither the divine people had
taken him — into the sky or down under the earth. He and


THE LOVES OF THE GODS


9i


fifty other youths escaped, however, and Aedh met St. Pat-
rick, who restored him to his father and said that he would
eventually die as God willed, i. e. the Tuatha De Danann
would have no further power over him . 23

Sometimes mortals, or gods later envisaged as mortals,
abducted daughters of gods. Garman took Bodb’s daughter
Mesca from the sid; but she died of shame, and the plain
where her grave was dug was named after her, Mag Mesca . 24
Men of the sid, divine or semi-divine beings, but regarded as
attendants on men, also had love-affairs with goddesses.
Cliach, from sid Baine, was harper to the King of the three
Rosses and made music at the sid of Femen to attract Con-
chenn, Bodb’s daughter. For a year Bodb’s magic prevented
the lover from approaching nearer, so that he “ could do noth-
ing to the girls” in the sid; but he harped until earth opened,
and a dragon issued forth, when he died in terror. This dragon
will arise at the end of the world and afflict Ireland in ven-
geance for St. John Baptist — perhaps an altered fragment of
an old cosmogonic myth . 25 Another story has some resem-
blance to this. Liath, a young Prince of the side, loved Midir’s
daughter Bri, who went with her attendants to meet him as
he approached. But the slingers on Midir’s sid kept him back,
and their sling-stones were like “a swarm of bees on a day of
beauty.” Liath’s servant was slain, and because Liath could
not reach her, Bri turned back to the sid and died of a broken
heart . 26

Besides these, a large number of Irish and Welsh tales illus-
trate the amours of the gods, as may be seen elsewhere in this
volume.


CHAPTER VIII

THE MYTHS OF THE BRITISH CELTS

T HE surviving myths of the British Celts (Brythons), as
distinguished from the Irish Celts (Goidels), exist in the
form of romantic tales in the Mabinogion and similar Welsh
stories and in the Arthurian and Taliesin literature, or are re-
ferred to in the Triads and Welsh poems. Have the divinities
who there figure as kings and queens, heroes and heroines,
magicians and fairies, retained any of their original traits and
functions? The question is less easily answered than in the
case of Irish divinities subjected to the same romantic and
euhemerizing processes. With religious and social changes it
was forgotten that the gods were gods, and they became more
or less human, for the mediaeval story-teller was “pillaging
an antiquity of which he does not fully possess the secret.”
The composition of the stories of the Mabinogion, like those of
the great Irish manuscripts, dates from the tenth and eleventh
centuries, yet in both cases materials and personages are
of far older date, the supernatural element is strong, and there
is a mythical substratum surviving all changes. Further, the
Welsh tales belong to a systematized method of treating an-
cient traditions, and were the literary stock-in-trade of the
Mabinog, or aspirant to the position of a qualified bard. This
process was still further carried out in Ireland, where myths
were recast into a chronological as well as a romantic mould,
the file, or man of letters, being estimated according to the
number of his stories and his power of harmonizing and syn-
chronizing them. In Welsh literature the euhemerizing,
historical process is seen at work less in the legends than in


THE MYTHS OF THE BRITISH CELTS 93


the historians Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth, with
whom some gods became kings having a definite date, as in
the Irish annals.

Certain personages and incidents of Welsh story resemble
those of Irish tradition. Was there, then, once a common
mythology among the ancestors of Goidel and Brython, to
which new local myths later accrued? Or did Irish and Welsh
myths mingle because Goidels existed either as a primitive
population in Wales, conquered by Brythons, or as a later
Irish immigration? Probably we are right in assuming that
the Mabinogion literature contains the debris of Brythonic
myths, influenced more or less from Goidelic sources, as the
occasional presence of Irish names and episodes suggests. The
Arthurian and Taliesin cycles are purely Brythonic. What is
certain is that the dim divinities of the Mabinogion are local
in character and belong to specific districts in Wales, gods of
tribes settled there. Celtic divinities were apt to be local,
though some had a wider repute. Few of the many British
divinities mentioned in inscriptions are known to Welsh story.
Nodons is Nudd or Lludd; Maponos is Mabon; the Belenos
and Taranos of Continental inscriptions may be respectively
Beli or Belinus and Taran of Welsh story, while the latter sug-
gests the British idol called Heithiurun in the Dindsenchas . 1

The Mabinogi of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, 2 begins by tell-
ing why he was called Pen Annwfn , or “Head of Annwfn”
(Elysium). One day he observed a strange pack following a
deer, but when he drove them off and urged on his own hounds,
a horesman appeared, rebuking him for interfering with his
sport. Pwyll apologized, and presently he and the stranger,
Arawn, King of Annwfn, agreed to exchange their forms and
kingdoms for a year: Pwyll would have Arawn’s beautiful
wife and would fight Arawn’s rival, Havgan, giving him but
one blow, which would slay him, for a second would resusci-
tate him. All this happened satisfactorily; never had Pwyll’s
kingdom been so well ruled, and complete friendship was


94


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


effected between the monarchs. As in Irish myth, this is the
theme of a mortal helping a deity in the Other-World. Yet
Pwyll was once himself a god, as his title Pen Annzvfn denotes,
and was later euhemerized into a king, or confused with an
actual monarch called Pwyll, while Annwfn here becomes a
mere kingdom on earth.

One day Pwyll sat on a mound which had the property of
causing him who was seated on it to receive a blow or see a
prodigy. A beautiful woman rode toward him and his men,
who pursued, but could not take her. This happened again on
the morrow, but on the third day, when Pwyll himself pursued,
she stood still at his bidding. She was Rhiannon, daughter
of Heveidd Hen, and wished to marry him instead of Gwawl,
whom she detested; and in a year he must come to her father’s
court for her. When Pwyll arrived, a stranger, who in reality
was Gwawl, appeared demanding a boon of him, and on his
promising it, asked for Rhiannon. She solved the difficulty
by agreeing to be Gwawl’s wife in a year, but bade Pwyll ap-
pear then as a beggar, carrying a certain magic bag, which, in
the sequel, could not be filled with food. Gwawl was enraged,
but was told by the beggar that unless a man of lands and
riches stamped down the contents, it never could be filled.
Gwawl did so and was immediately imprisoned in the bag,
which was kicked about the hall by Pwyll’s followers until, to
escape death, he renounced his claim to Rhiannon.

The magic mound is here the equivalent of the sid, and such
hills are favourite places for the appearance of immortals or
fairies in Celtic story. Rhiannon, who suddenly appeared on
the hill, was a goddess, like Fand or Connla’s lover, and the
theme is that of the Fairy Bride.

The story now tells how Rhiannon, whose child disappeared
at birth, was accused of slaying it and was forced to sit at the
horse-block of the palace, to tell her story to each new comer,
and to offer to carry him inside. Meanwhile Teyrnon, Lord of
Gwent-is-coed, had a mare whose foals disappeared on May-



PLATE X

Incised Stones from Scotland

1. Incised stone, locally known as “the Picardy
Stone,” with double disc and Z-rod symbol, serpent
and Z-symbol, and mirror with double-disc handle.
From Insch, Aberdeenshire.

2. Incised stone with double disc and serpent
and Z-rod symbols. From Newton, Aberdeenshire.
Cf. Plate XVII.






THE MYTHS OF THE BRITISH CELTS 95


Eve, and this May-Eve he saw a huge claw clutching the new-
born colt. He severed it with his sword, and the intruder
vanished; but at the door-way was a new-born infant, which
Teyrnon nurtured. Like Cuchulainn and other heroes, it had
a rapid growth and was called Gwri Golden-Hair. Noticing
Gwri’s likeness to Pwyll, Teyrnon carried the boy to him,
and Rhiannon was reinstated, exclaiming that her anguish
( pryderi ) was past; whence Gwri was called Pryderi and
succeeded Pwyll as King.

Folk-tale formulae abound in this section — that of the
Abandoned Wife, found also in the Mabinogi of Branwen; and
that of an animal born the same night as the hero; while the
claw incident occurs in tales of Fionn. The importance of the
story is in Pryderi’s birth. The fact that Teyrnon’s foal dis-
appeared on the same night as Pryderi, who was found at
Teymon’s door, and the meanings of the names Teyrnon =
Tigernonos (“Great King”) or Tigernos (“Chief”), and
Rhiannon = Rigantona (“Great Queen”), may point to a
myth in which they were Pryderi’s parents. 3 Manawyddan,
who becomes Rhiannon’s husband and rescues both her and
Pryderi from the vengeance of Gwawl, may have been his
father in another myth, for a poem associates him with Pry-
deri in Caer Sidi, a part of Annwfn. In the story, however,
Pwyll, an original lord of Elysium, is Pryderi’s parent. Does
this point to a number of goddesses, bearing the name Rigan-
tona, consorts of different gods, and later fused into one as
Rhiannon? In another Mabinogi, Pryderi is despoiled of
swine sent him by Arawn, or of which, according to a Triad,
he was swineherd, Pwyll having brought them from Annwfn
and given them to Pryderi’s foster-father. Pwyll and Pryderi
are thus associated with Elysium and with animals brought
thence. A Taliesin poem tells of the magic cauldron of Pen
Annwfn, viz. Pwyll. Round it was a ridge of pearls; it would
not boil a coward’s food; voices issued from it; it was warmed
by the breath of nine maidens; and it formed part of the