Topic: Celtic Mythology

[Prometheus]

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,


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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


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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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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


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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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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-


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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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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,


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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


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[Prometheus]

150

Finnabair — with three beautiful daughters. These welcomed
them, because Loeg was their son; and Riangabair told Cuchu-
lainn that the sister of Doel’s sons and her husband were in
a southern isle. In the morning Cuchulainn gave a ring to
Etan, one of the daughters, who had slept with him, and
then sailed for the isle. Connla, husband of Achtland, Doel’s
daughter, had his head against a stone in the west of the isle,
and his feet against another in the east — a position resembling
that in which Nut is represented above the earth in Egyptian
mythology . 25 Achtland was combing his hair. As the ship
approached, Connla blew so violently that a wave was formed,
but as no diviner had announced danger from Cuchulainn,
he was allowed to land. Achtland made him a sign and then
said that she knew where her brothers were and that she
would go with him, for it was foretold that he would rescue
them. They reached an island where two women were cutting
rushes, and one of them sang of seven Kings who ruled it.
Cuchulainn brained her, whereupon the other told him the
names of the Kings, one of whom was Coirpre, Doel’s brother.
Coirpre attacked Cuchulainn, but was forced to sue for mercy
and carried him into the castle, where he gave him his daughter
and told him the story of Doel’s sons. Next day Eocho Glas
arrived to fight Coirpre, and Cuchulainn leaped on the edge
of his shield, but Eocho blew him into the sea. Now he leaped
on the boss of the shield, again on Eocho himself, and both
times he was blown into the ocean; but at last he slew his foe
with the gai bolga. Then came the side whom Eocho had
outraged, among them Doel’s sons, and bathed in his blood
to wash away the shame. Cuchulainn returned to Riangabair’s
isle, where he slept with Finnabair, and finally reaching Emain
Macha, he went thence to Ailill and Medb, who caused Eocho
Rond to be brought. He had fought Cuchulainn because his
daughter Findchoem loved him, and on her account had put
geasa (spells) on the hero, who now, having fulfilled them,
demanded and obtained her . 26


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Both these tales contain many primitive traits and mythical
incidents which throw considerable light on earlier Celtic folk-
belief.

Previous to Bricriu’s feast must be placed a story in which
Curoi discomfited Cuchulainn. He joined the hero and others
in attacking the stronghold of the god Midir in the Isle of
Falga ( = the Land of Promise) and led them into it when their
efforts failed through the magic of its defenders, his condition
being that he must have whatever jewel he chose. The in-
vaders carried off Midir’s three cows, his cauldron, and his
daughter Blathnat. To Cuchulainn’s chagrin, however, Curoi
chose her and took her away by magic; and though the hero
pursued him, he was bound hand and foot by Curoi and shaved
with his sword . 27 Another version of this exploit, or per-
haps of an analogous feat, tells how Cuchulainn journeyed to
Scath and by aid of the King’s daughter stole a cauldron,
three cows, and much gold; but his coracle was wrecked, and
he had to swim home with his men clinging to him . 28

When Cuchulainn went to obtain Curoi’s judgement, he

may have come to an arrangement with Blathnat, for Keating

says that, finding him alone, she told him that she loved him , 29

while a story in the Dind'senchas describes her as his paramour

and declares that she bade him come and take his revenge.

She brought it about that Curoi was alone in his castle and

as a signal she caused milk to flow down-stream to Cuchulainn,

whereupon he entered and slew Curoi, whose sword Blathnat

had taken . 30 In another version, however, the incident of

the separable soul occurs. Curoi’s soul was in an apple, and

this in a salmon, which appeared every seven years in a certain

well, while the apple could be split only by Curoi’s sword.

This knowledge was obtained by Curoi’s wife, as in parallel

stories, and the sword given by her to Cuchulainn, who thus

compassed her husband’s death . 31 The folk-tale formula is

thus complete, though doubtless Curoi is a genuine Celtic

personality, whose fame was known to Welsh bards . 32 Prob-
iii — 11


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ably a complete saga existed about this great hero or divinity
and magician, who, according to another story, with his magic
wand took possession of Ireland and the great world . 33 The
slaying of Curoi should be compared with that of Lieu, brought
about by Blodeuwedd’s treachery, and with the killing of
Searbhan by his own club, especially as Blodeuwedd’s name,
meaning “Flower-Face,” from blodeu (“flowers”) is akin to
Blathnat’s, which is probably from blath (“bloom”). In the
sequel Curoi’s poet avenged his death by leaping off a cliff
with Blathnat in his arms . 34

The greatest adventure in Cuchulainn’s career occurs in
the Tain Bo Cualnge, or Cattle-Raid of Cualnge” to which
belong a number of prefatory tales, some of them already
cited. Only the briefest account of this long story can be given
here. Queen Medb of Connaught desired the Donn or Brown
Bull of Cualnge in Ulster, so that she might have the equivalent
of her husband Ailill’s bull, the Findbennach, or “White-
Horned,” these bulls, as narrated above , 35 being rebirths of
semi-divinities. When Daire, owner of the bull, refused to give
it, Medb collected an enormous force to march against Ulster
at the time when the Ulstermen were in their “debility” —
the result of Macha’s curse . 36 Cuchulainn and Sualtam were
unaffected by that curse, however, and they went against the
host, in which were some heroes of Ulster, Cormac, Conall,
Fiacha, and Fergus, exiled because of a quarrel with Conchobar
for his treacherous murder of the sons of Usnech. As Medb
set out, a beautiful girl suddenly appeared on her chariot-
shaft, announcing herself as servant of Medb’s people, Fedelm
the prophetess ( banfaid ) from the sid of Cruachan (hence Medb
was also of the side ) ; but she prophesied disaster because of
Cuchulainn, whom she saw in a vision.

Cuchulainn, having entered a forest, stood on one leg, and
using one hand and one eye, he cut down an oak sapling, which
he twisted into a ring, inscribing on it his name, and placing
it over a pillar-stone. This was a geis (tabu) to the host not to



PLATE XIX


Bulls and S-Symbols

1. 6. Bulls, conventionally treated, with the
characteristic Celtic spiral ornament. From stones
found at Burghhead near Forres, Elginshire. Simi-
lar figures exist on stones at Inverness and Ulbster
(Caithness). They are believed to date from the
Christian Celtic period, but perhaps represent a
pagan tradition. Cf. also Plates II, 4-5, 9, III, 5,
IX, B, XX, B, XXI.

2-5. S-symbol, also believed to be of the Celtic
Christian period, but doubtless derived from the
same symbol as used on Gaulish coins and carried
by a divinity (see Plates II, 2, 4, 7-9, n, III, 3,
IV).

2. On a silver brooch found at Croy, Inverness-
shire.

3. On a stone found at Kintradwell, Sutherland-
shire. It exists on a few other stones.

4. Engraved with numerous other figures and
symbols on a cave at East Wemyss, Fife.

5- On a silver ring attached to a chain found at
Parkhill, Aberdeenshire.




???As



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advance until they had done the same; and meanwhile he
kept tryst with Conchobar’s daughter Fedelm or with her
handmaid. Again entering a wood, he cut down the fork of
a tree, placed on it four heads of the enemy slain by him, and
set it in a ford to prevent the chariots from passing until it
was drawn out. Now he slew hundreds of the host, but a
treaty was made that every day a warrior should meet him in
single combat, while he allowed the army to proceed. These
combats, described with great spirit, as well as other daring
deeds of Cuchulainn’s, occupy the greater part of the Tain,
but none of them is so full of interest and pathos as the long
episode of the fight with Ferdia, his former fellow-pupil with
Scathach, whom at last to his sorrow he slew.

One incident tells of the warning given by the goddess
Morrigan, in the form of a bird, to the bull to beware of Medb’s
men, so that with fifty heifers he fled to the Heifer’s Glen,
but was ultimately taken and brought to Medb’s host; and
another passage describes Cuchulainn’s rejection of Morri-
gan’s advances, and her wounding and later healing by him . 37
There is also the incident of Medb’s sending her women to
bid him smear a false beard on himself when her warrior, Loch,
refused to fight this beardless youth, whereupon he said a spell
over some grass and clapped it to his chin, so that all thought
he had a beard. The help given to Cuchulainn by Lug has
already been described ; 38 and the Tuatha De Danann likewise
aided him by throwing healing herbs and plants into the
streams in which his wounds were washed. Interesting is the
long account of his riastrad, or “distortion,” before wreaking
his fury on the men of Connaught for slaying the “boy corps”
of Emain. He grew to an immense size and quivered in every
limb, while his feet, shins, and knees were reversed in his
body. This was the permanent condition of Levarcham and
Dornolla, already mentioned, and implied swiftness and
strength, since Levarcham traversed all Ireland every day.
Of Cuchulainn’s eyes, one sank in his head so that a heron


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could not have reached it, while the other protruded from
its socket as large as the rim of a cauldron. His mouth reached
his ears, and fire streamed from it, mounting above his head
in showers, while a great jet of blood higher and more rigid
than a ship’s mast shot upward from his scalp, within which
his hair retreated, and formed a mist all about. This distortion
frequently came upon Cuchulainn, like the terrific heat some-
times given off by his body, enough to melt deep snow for
thirty feet around.

During the progress of the Tain Ailill sent messengers to
Cuchulainn, offering him his daughter Findabair if he would
keep away from the host. Finally his fool, taking Ailill’s
shape, approached the hero with Findabair, but Cuchulainn
detected the transformation and slew him, besides thrusting
a stone through Findabair’s mantle and tunic. She had been
offered to Ferdia and others if they conquered Cuchulainn;
but later she died of shame because of the slaughter of warriors
in the fight between the chiefs to whom she had been promised
and her lover Reochaid and his men. In the version given in
the Book of Lecan , however, she remained with Cuchulainn
when peace was concluded. This is the same Findabair who
is the heroine of the story of Fraoch cited above, and whose
favours Cuchulainn had already gained . 39

Meanwhile the Ulstermen had recovered from their debility
and gathered for the battle with the enemy, while the goddess
Morrigan uttered a song of slaughter between the armies.
Medb’s forces were defeated, but she sent the bull by a cir-
cuitous way to Cruachan; and seeing the trackless land before
him, he uttered three terrible bellowings, at which the Findben-
nach came hurrying toward him. Bricriu saw the wild combat
between the maddened animals, but as they struggled he was
trampled into the earth by their hoofs. All over Ireland they
drove, fighting as they went; and next day the Brown Bull
was seen coming to Cualnge with the Findbennach in a mangled
heap on his horns. Women and children wept as they beheld


THE HEROIC MYTHS


155


him, but these he slew; and then, turning his back against a
hill, his heart was rent with his mighty exertions. Thus ended
the Tain. i0

Cuchulainn was now seventeen years old, and to the few
years which ensued before his death probably belong his
amour with the goddess Fand and that with Blathnat, since
Curoi intended to oppose him during the Tain , but was sent
back by Medb.

The slaying of Curoi, of Cairbre Niaper in fair fight at Ros na
Righ, and of Calatin, as well as his twenty-seven sons and
his sister’s son, during the Tain , led to the hero’s death. Cala-
tin’s wife bore posthumously three monstrous sons and three
daughters who were nurtured by Medb and studied magic
arts in order to compass Cuchulainn’s death. Joining at last
with Lugaid, Curoi’s son, and Ere, Cairbre’s son, they marched
toward Ulster while its men were in their debility. Mighty
efforts were made to restrain Cuchulainn from a combat which
all knew would be fatal to him, and he was at last concealed
in the Glen of the Deaf; but Calatin’s daughters discovered
this and created a phantasmal army out of puff-balls and
withered leaves, as Lug’s witches transformed into soldiers
trees, sods, and stones, and Gwydion trees and sedges . 41 This
army and other eldritch things filled the glen with strange
noises, and Cuchulainn thought that enemies were harassing
Ulster, though Cathbad told him that this was merely magic
illusion. Then one of the weird daughters took the form of
Niamh, daughter of Celtchar, and speaking in her name,
bade Cuchulainn attack the foes who were overwhelming
Ulster. Neither the protestations of the real Niamh, nor of
Dechtire, nor of Conchobar, nor the assurances of Cathbad
that the hosts were illusions could withhold him. On his way
to Emain he saw Badb’s daughter washing blood from a
warrior’s gear — the “Washer at the Ford,” a prophecy of
his own death — but he was resolute and cheerful in face of
the desperate fight to which he bound himself. During the


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


156

night Morrigan broke his chariot, hoping thus to stay him
from the combat, but next morning he bade it be yoked with
the Grey of Macha, though the horse reproached him. On his
way three crones, cooking dog’s flesh with poisons and spells,
called him, but since one of his geasa was not to approach a
cooking-hearth nor to eat the flesh of his namesake ( cu , “dog”),
he would have passed on, had not the crones reproached him.
So he turned aside, took the flesh with his left hand, and ate it,
placing his hand under his thigh, whereupon strength departed
from thigh and hand. In the fight he slew many foes, until
Lugaid possessed himself of Cuchulainn’s spear and wounded
first the Grey of Macha, which plunged into the loch for healing;
and then Cuchulainn, who begged permission to crawl to the
loch for water. He set himself against a pillar-stone, and there
the faithful horse returned and killed many of his foes with
teeth and hoofs; but at last Lugaid struck off Cuchulainn’s
head, though as the hero’s sword fell from his grasp, it lopped
off his enemy’s hand. Meanwhile Conall was met by the horse,
and together they sought and found Cuchulainn’s body, the
Grey placing its head on its master’s breast. Conall pursued
Lugaid, for Cuchulainn and he had vowed that whoever
survived must avenge the others; and his own horse aided him,
biting a piece from Lugaid’s side, while Conall cut off his
head, thus taking vengeance for the hero’s death . 42

Lugaid, Curoi’s son, was called Mac na Tri Con, or “Son of
the Three Dogs,” viz. Curoi, Cuchulainn, and Conall — con
being the genitive of cu (“dog”) — because it was believed that
his mother Blathnat, Curoi’s wife, had loved these two as
well as her husband . 43 Thus Lugaid killed one reputed father
of his and was himself slain by another. A tenth century poem
calls the three flags of his grave Murder, Disgrace, and
Treachery . 44 He was probably not Cuchulainn’s friend Lugaid
Red-Stripes, who, however, was also a son of three fathers,
Bres, Nar, and Lothar, by their sister Clothru.

In his old age Conall retired to the Court of Medb, who


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157


induced him to slay Ailill; but for this the three Reds, or
Wolves, killed him and cut off his head in revenge for the death
of Curoi at the hands of Cuchulainn . 45

Conchobar met his fate in a curious way. Among the
trophies in Emain Macha was a sling-ball made of the brain
of Mesgegra, King of Leinster, slain by Conall. One day Cet,
whom Conall killed at the feast on Mac Datho’s Boar, stole
this ball, which was mixed with earth, and thus hardened, and
later induced the women of Connaught to get Conchobar to
show himself to them, whereupon Cet flung the ball into his
forehead, whence it could not be removed lest he should die.
Years after, an earthquake occurred, and when his Druid told
him that this signified our Lord’s crucifixion, Conchobar, who
now believed in God, felt such emotion at not being able to
avenge Christ that the ball started from his head, and he
died . 46

M. d’Arbois maintained that the saga of Cuchulainn was
known in Gaul. Cuchulainn’s name Setanta is akin to that
of the Setantii, Celtic tribes living in the district between the
Ribble and Morecambe Bay, and this, according to Rhys , 47
suggests a British ancestry for the Irish hero. D’Arbois, on
the other hand, regards this folk, as well as the Brigantes, as
of Belgic Gaulish provenance, while the latter had colonies
in Ireland. They had a well-known god, Esus, whom d’Arbois
identifies with Cuchulainn; whence the story is of Gaulish
origin, perhaps taught by the Druids; and it was ultimately
carried to Ulster, where it was received with enthusiasm . 48
The identification rests on certain figured monuments, in the
persons, names, or episodes of which M. d’Arbois sees those of
the saga. On one altar Esus is cutting down a tree, while on the
same altar is figured a bull on which are perched three birds,
this animal being entitled Tarvos Trigaranos — “the bull with
three cranes” {gar anus), unless the cranes are a rebus for the
three horns ( karenos ) of divine animals. On another altar from
Treves a god is cutting down a tree, and in its branches are


158

[Prometheus]

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

[Prometheus]

Folk-tale versions of Fionn’s youth resemble the literary
forms, with differences in detail. Cumhal did not marry,
because it was prophesied that if he did he would die in the
next battle; yet having fallen in love with the king’s daughter,
he wedded her secretly, although a Druid had told the mon-
arch that his daughter’s son would dethrone him, wherefore
he kept her concealed — a common folk-tale incident. As his
death was at hand Cumhal begged his mother to rear his
child, but it was thrown into a loch, from which it was rescued
by its grandmother, who caused a man to make them a room
in a tree and, to preserve the secret, killed him. When the
boy was fifteen, she took him to a hurling-match, and the king,
who was present, cried, “Who is that fin cumhal (‘white
cap’)?” The woman called out, “Fin mac Cumhal will be his
name,” and again fled, this being followed by the thumb
incident with the formula of Odysseus and the Cyclops, in
which a one-eyed giant is substituted for Finneces. Later,
Fionn fought the beings who threw down a dun which was
in course of construction and for this obtained the king’s
daughter, while the heroes killed by these beings were restored
by him and became his followers. 22 Scots ballad and folk-tale
versions contain some of these incidents, but vary much as
to Cumhal. In one he goes to Scotland and defeats the Norse,
and there sets up as a king; but Irish and Norse kings entice
him to Ireland, persuade him to marry, and kill him in his
wife’s arms. His posthumous son is carried by his nurse to

the wilds, and then follows the naming incident and that of
hi — 12


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


168

the thumb of knowledge, though here Black Arcan, Cumhal’s
murderer, takes the place of Finneces and is slain by Fionn
on learning of his guilt from his thumb. Lastly Fionn obtains
his rightful due . 23 His birth incident and subsequent history
is an example of the Aryan “Expulsion and Return” formula,
as Nutt pointed out, and is paralleled in other Celtic instances.

In the Boyish Deeds of Fionn Cruithne became Fionn’s
wife, but in other tales he possesses other wives or mistresses.
In the Colloquy with the Ancients his wife Sabia, daughter of
the god Bodb Dearg, died of horror at the slaughter when
Fionn’s men fought Goll and the clanna Morna . 24 An Irish
ballad also makes Dearg’s daughter mother of Oisin, while
a second daughter offered herself to Fionn for a year to the
exclusion of all others, after which she was to enjoy half of
his society; but he refused, whereupon she gave him a potion
which caused a frenzy . 25 Sabia, Oisin’s mother, is the Saar
of tradition, whom a Druid changed into a deer. Spells were
laid on Fionn to marry the first female creature whom he met,
and this was Saar, as a deer, though by his knowledge he
recognized her as a woman transformed. He afterward found
a child with deer’s hair on his temple, for if Saar licked her
offspring, he would have a deer’s form; if not, that of a human
being. She could not resist giving him one lick, however, and
hair grew on his brow, whence his name Oisin, or “Little
Fawn.” Many ballads recount this incident, but in one the
deer is Grainne, whose story will be told presently , 26 although
elsewhere she is called Blai . 27 Another divine or fairy mistress
of Fionn’s could assume many animal shapes, and hence he
renounced her. Mair, wife of Bersa, also fell in love with him
and formed nine nuts with love-charms, sending them to him
that he might eat them; but he refused and buried them, be-
cause they were “an enchantment for drinking love.” 28 An-
other love-affair turned Fionn’s hair grey. Cuailnge, smith
to the Tuatha De Danann, had two daughters, Miluchradh
and Aine, both of whom loved Fionn. Aine, however, said


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that she would never marry a man with grey hair, where-
upon Miluchradh caused the gods to make a lake, on which
she breathed a spell that all who bathed there should become
grey. One day Fionn was drawn to this lake by a doe and
was induced to jump into it to recover the ring of a woman
sitting by the shore; but when he emerged, she had vanished,
and he was a withered old man. The Feinn dug down toward
Miluchradh’s sid, when she appeared with a drinking-horn
which restored Fionn’s youth, but left his hair grey, while
Conan jeered at his misfortune . 29 One poem offers a partial
parallel to the incident of Cuchulainn and Conlaoch, without
its tragic ending. Oisin, angry with his father, went away for
a year, after which father and son met without recognition.
Fionn gave Oisin a blow, and both then reviled each other
until the discovery of their relationship, when the dispute
was happily settled . 30

Fionn’s hounds, Bran and Sgeolan, were nephews of his
own, for Ilian married Fionn’s wife’s sister Tuirrean, whom
his fairy mistress transformed into a wolf-hound which gave
birth to these famous dogs. Afterward, when Ilian promised
to renounce Tuirrean, the fairy restored her form . 31

Fionn’s adventures are mainly of a supernatural kind —
combats with gods, giants, phantoms, and other fantastic
beings, apart from those in which he fought Norsemen or
other foreign powers, an anachronism needing no comment.
On one occasion Fionn, Oisin, and Caoilte came to a mysterious
house, where a giant seized their horses and bade them enter.
In the house were a three-headed hag and a headless man
with an eye in his breast; and as they sang at the giant’s bid-
ding, nine bodies arose on one side and nine heads on the
other, shrieking discordantly. Slaying the horses, he cooked
their flesh on rowan spits, and a part, uncooked, was brought
to Fionn, but was refused by him. Then a fight began, and
Fionn wielded his sword until sunrise, when all three heroes
fell into a swoon. When they recovered, the house had van-


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ished, and they realized that the three “phantoms” were the
three shapes out of Yew Glen, which had thus taken revenge
for injury done to their sister, Culenn Wide-Maw . 32

In The Fairy Palace of the Quicken-Trees ( Bruighean Caor-
thuinn ) Fionn defeated and killed the King of Lochlann,
but spared his son Midac, bringing him up in his household.
Midac requited him ill, for he chose land on either side of the
Shannon’s mouth, where armies could land, and then invited
Fionn and his men to the palace of the quicken-trees, while
Oisin, Diarmaid, and four others remained outside. Presently
Midac left the palace, when all its splendour disappeared, and
the Feinn were unable to move. Meanwhile an army arrived,
but Diarmaid and the others repulsed it after long fighting;
and he released Fionn and the rest with the blood of three
kings . 33 In a folk-tale version the blood was exhausted before
Conan was reached, and he said to Diarmaid, “If I were a
pretty woman, you would not have left me to the last,” where-
upon Diarmaid tore him away, leaving his skin sticking to the
seat . 34 The house created by glamour in these stories, and
vanishing at dawn, has frequently been found in other tales.

The Feinn were sometimes aided by, sometimes at war
with, the Tuatha De Danann, though in later tales these
seem robbed of much of their divinity, one story regarding
them almost as demoniac. Conaran, a chief of the Tuatha
De Danann, bade his three daughters punish Fionn for his
hunting. On three holly sticks they hung hasps of yarn in
front of a cave and reeled them off withershins, while they sat
in the cavern as hideous hags and magically bound Fionn and
others w r ho entered it. Now arrived Goll, Fionn’s former
enemy, and with him the hags fought; but two of them he
halved by a clean sword-sweep, and the third, after being
vanquished, restored the heroes. Afterward, however, when
she reappeared to avenge her sisters’ death, Goll slew her and
then burned Conaran’s sid, giving its wealth to Fionn, who
bestowed his daughter on him . 35 Goll is here deemed a hero,


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as in many poems which lament his ultimate lonely death by
Fionn, after a brave defence. In these Goll is superior to Fionn,
and he was the popular hero of the Feinn in Donegal and
Connaught, as if there had been a cycle of tales in these
districts in which he was the central figure . 36

Fionn also fought the Muireartach, a horrible one-eyed hag
whose husband was the ocean-smith, while she was foster-
mother to the King of Lochlann. She captured from the Feinn
their “cup of victory” — a clay vessel the contents of which
made them victorious — but after a battle in which the
King of Lochlann was slain, the cup was recovered. The hag
returned, however, and killed some of the Feinn, but Fionn
caused the ground to be cut from under her and then slew
her . 37 This hag, whose name perhaps means “the eastern sea,”
has been regarded as an embodiment of the tempestuous wa-
ters; and in one version the ocean-smith says that she can-
not die until she is drowned in “deep, smooth sea” — as if
this were a description of the storm lulled to rest. When she
is let down into the ground, the suggestion is that of water
confined in a hollow space ; 38 and if so, the story is a roman-
tic treatment of the Celtic rite of “fighting the waves” with
weapons at high tides . 39

While the King of Lochlann is associated with this hag, he
and the Lochlanners are scarcely discriminated from Norsemen
who came across the eastern sea, invading Ireland and captur-
ing Fionn’s magic possessions, his dogs, or his wife. Yet there
is generally something supernatural about them; hence, prob-
ably before Norsemen came to Ireland, Lochlann was a super-
natural region with superhuman people. Rhys equates it
with the Welsh Llychlyn — “a mysterious country in the
lochs or the sea” — whence Fionn’s strife would be with
supernatural beings connected with the sea, an interpretation
agreeing with the explanation of the Muireartach.

Once Fionn, having made friends with the giant Seachran,
was taken with him to the castle of his mother and brother,


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CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


who hated him. While dancing, Seachran was seized by
a hairy claw from the roof, but escaped, throwing his mother
into the cauldron destined for him. He and Fionn fled, pur-
sued by the brother, who slew Seachran, but was killed by
Fionn, who learned from his thumb that a ring guarded by
warriors would heal him who drank thrice above it. Diarmaid
obtained the ring, but was pursued by the warriors, whom
Seachran’s wife slew, after which the giant was restored to life . 40

Other stories record the chase of enchanted or monstrous
animals. Oisin slew a huge boar of the breed of Balor’s swine,
which supplied a week’s eating for men and hounds; but
meanwhile Donn, one of the side, carried off a hundred maidens
from Aodh’s sid. Aodh’s wife, secretly in love with Donn,
changed them into hinds, and when he would not return her
love, transformed him into a stag. In this guise he boasted
that the Feinn could not take him, but after a mighty en-
counter, Oisin, with Bran and Sgeolan, slew him . 41 In another
tale a vast boar, off whom weapons only glanced, killed many
hounds; but at last it was brought to bay by Bran, when
“a churl of the hill” appeared and carried it away, inviting
the Feinn to follow. They reached a sid where the churl
changed the boar into a handsome youth, his son; and in the
sid were many splendours, fair women, and noble youths.
The churl was Eanna, King of the sid , his wife Manannan’s
daughter. Fionn offered to wed their daughter, Sgathach,
for a year; and Eanna agreed to give her, saying that the
chase had been arranged in order to bring Fionn to the sid.
Presents were then given to him and his men, but at night
Sgathach played a sleep-strain on the harp which lulled to
slumber Fionn and the others, who in the morning found
themselves far from the sid , but with the presents beside
them, while it proved that the night had not yet arrived, an
incident which should be compared with a similar one in
the story of Nera . 42 This overcoming of the Feinn by glamour
and enchantment is a common episode in these stories.


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173


Allusion has already been made 43 to the Tale of the Gilla
Dacker and his Horse (Toruighecht in Ghilla Dhecair ). After
the horse had disappeared with fifteen of the Feinn, Fionn
and his men sought them overseas and reached a cliff up which
Diarmaid alone was able to ascend by the magic staves of
Manannan. He came to a magic well of whose waters he drank,
whereupon a wizard appeared, fought with him, and then
vanished into the well. This occurred on several days, but at
last Diarmaid clasped him in his arms, and together they
leaped into the well. There he found himself in a spacious
country where he conquered many opposing hosts; but a
giant advised him to come to a finer land, Ttr fo Thiunn, or
“Land under Waves,” a form of the gods’ realm, and there he
was nobly entertained, the wizard being its King, with whom
the giant and his people were at feud, as in other tales of
Elysium its dwellers fight each other. Meanwhile Fionn and
his men met the King of Sorcha and helped him in battle with
other monarchs, among them the King of Greece, whose
daughter Taise, in love with Fionn, adored him still more
when he slew her brother! She stole away to him, but was
intercepted by one of the King’s captains; and soon after
this, Fionn and the King of Sorcha saw a host approaching
them, among whom was Diarmaid. He informed Fionn that
the Gilla was Abartach, son of Alchad, King of the Land of
Promise, and from him Conan and the others were rescued.
Goll and Oscar now brought Taise from Greece to Fionn, and
indemnity was levied on Abartach, Conan choosing that it
should consist of fourteen women, including Abartach’s wife;
but Abartach disappeared magically, and Conan was balked
of his prize . 44 This story, the romantic incidents of which are
treated prosaically, jumbles together myth and later history,
and while never quite forgetting that Tir fo Thiunn , Sorcha,
and the Land of Promise are part of the gods’ realm, does its
best to do so.

Several other instances of aid given by the Feinn to the


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folk of Elysium occur in the Colloquy with the Ancients. The
Feinn pursued a hind into a sid whose people were Donn and
other children of Midir. When their uncle Bodb Dearg was
lord of the Tuatha De Danann, he required hostages from
Midir’s children, but these they refused, and to prevent Bodb’s
vengeance on Midir, they sought a secluded sid. Here, how-
ever, the Tuatha De Danann came yearly and slew their
men until only twenty-eight were left, when, to obtain Fionn’s
help, one of their women as a fawn had lured him to the sid , as
the boar led Pryderi into the enchanted castle . 45 The Feinn
assisted Midir’s sons in next day’s fight against a host of the
gods, including Bodb, Dagda, Oengus, Ler, and Morrigan’s
children, when many of the host were slain; and three other
battles were fought during that year, the Feinn remaining
to assist. Oscar and Diarmaid were wounded, and by Donn’s
advice, Fionn captured the gods’ physician and caused him
to heal their wounds, after which hostages were taken of the
Tuatha De Danann, so that Midir’s sons might live in peace . 46
Caoilte told this to St. Patrick centuries after, and he had
scarce finished, when Donn himself appeared and did homage
to the saint. The old gods were still a mysterious people to
the compilers or transmitters of such tales, but they were
capable of being beaten by heroes and might be on good terms
with saints. Even in St. Patrick’s time the side or Tuatha De
Danann were harassed by mortal foes; but old and worn as
he was, Caoilte assisted them and for reward was cured
of his ailments . 47 Long before, moreover, he had killed the
supernatural bird of the god Ler, which wrought nightly
destruction on the sid, and when Ler came to avenge this, he
was slain by Caoilte . 48 Thus were the gods envisaged in Chris-
tian times as capable of being killed, not only by each other
but by heroes.

Sometimes, however, they helped the Feinn, nor is this
unnatural, considering Fionn’s divine descent. Diarmaid was
a pupil and protege of Manannan and Oengus and was aided


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by the latter . 49 Oengus helped Fionn in a quarrel with Cormac
mac Art, who taunted him with Conn’s victory over Cumhal;
whereupon Fionn and the rest forsook their strife with Oengus
(the cause of this is unknown), and he guided them in a foray
against Tara, aiding in the fight and alone driving the spoil . 50
Again when the Feinn were in straits, a giant-like being assisted
them and proved to be a chief of the side, and in a tale from the
Dindsenchas Sideng, daughter of Mongan of the sid, brought
Fionn a flat stone with a golden chain, by means of which he
slew three adversaries . 51 Other magic things belonging to the
Feinn were once the property of the gods. Manannan had a
“crane-bag” made of a crane’s skin, the bird being the goddess
Aoife, transformed by a jealous rival; and in it he kept his
treasures, though these were visible only when the tide was
full. This bag became Cumhal’s . 52 Manannan’s magic shield
has already been described, and it also was later the property
of Cumhal and Fionn . 53 In the story of The Battle of Ventry
( Cath Finntraga ), at which the Tuatha De Danann helped
the Feinn, weapons were sent to Fionn through Druidic sorcery
from the sid of Tadg, son of Nuada, by Labraid Lamfhada,
“the brother of thine own mother”; and these weapons shot
forth balls of fire . 54 Others were forged by a smith and his
two brothers, Roc and the ocean-smith, who had only one
leg and one eye . 55 Whether these beings are borrowings from
the Norse or supernatural creations of earlier Celtic myth is
uncertain. Fionn had also a magic hood made in the Land
of Promise, and of this hood it was said, “You will be hound,
man, or deer, as you turn it, as you change it.” 56

We now approach the most moving episode of the whole
cycle — The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Grainne ( Toruigheacht
Dhiarmada agus Ghrainne), the subject of a long tale with
many mythical allusions, of several ballads and folk-tales, and
of numerous references in earlier Celtic literature. Only the
briefest outline can be given here, but all who would know
that literature at its best should read the story itself. Early


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY

[Prometheus]

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.”




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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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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


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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


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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

[Prometheus]

THE HEROIC MYTHS 185

Tintagel; but Uther disclosed himself and presently married
Igerna, who bore him Arthur and a daughter Anne, the former
becoming king at Uther’s death. His exploits against Saxons
are related and how he carried his shield Pridwen, with a
picture of the Virgin, and his sword Caliburnus, which was
made in the Isle of Avalon. His conquests extended to Ireland,
Iceland, Gothland, the Orkneys, Norway, and Gaul; his
coronation and his court are described, and how he resolved
to conquer Rome. On the way he slew a giant who had ab-
ducted to St. Michael’s Mount Helena, niece of Duke Hoel,
and had challenged Arthur to fight after his refusal to send
him his beard, which was to have the chief place in a fur made
by the giant from the beards of other kings. This monster
was greater than the giant Ritho, whom Arthur had fought
on Mount Aravius. After conquering the Romans, Arthur
heard how his nephew Mordred had usurped the throne,
while Queen Guanhumara (Gwenhwyfar, Guinevere) had
married him. Arthur returned and vanquished Mordred, but
was mortally wounded and carried to Avalon, resigning the
crown to Constantine, while Guanhumara entered a nunnery. 3

Geoffrey obtained some information from a book in the
British tongue, and some from Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford;
besides which he must also have incorporated floating tradi-
tions, to which William of Malmesbury (ob. 1142) refers as
“idle tales.” The narrative has a mythical aspect and is
embellished after the manner of the time. Arthur’s wide-
spread conquests and his fights with giants resemble Fionn’s,
while his birth of a father who changed his form recalls that
of Mongan, son of Manannan, who did the same, 4 whence
Uther may be a Brythonic god, and Arthur a semi-divine hero
like Mongan or Cuchulainn. Fionn, who in one account was
a reincarnation of Mongan, was betrayed by his wife Grainne
and his nephew Diarmaid, 5 Arthur by his wife and nephew;
and as Mongan went to Elysium, so Arthur went to Avalon.
Geoffrey, as well as all existing native Welsh story, knows


i86


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


nothing of the Grail or of the Round Table, which first appears
in Wace’s Brut , completed in 1155.

Three questions now arise. Was there a historic Arthur
on whom myths of a fabulous personage were fathered? Is
Geoffrey in part rationalizing and amplifying in chivalric
fashion an existing mythic story of Arthur? Does he omit
some existing traditions of Arthur? These questions are
probably to be answered in the affirmative. If the name
“Arthur” is from Latin Artorius , 6 it must have been intro-
duced into Britain in Roman times; and hence the mythic
Arthur need not have been so called unless the whole myth
post-dates the possibly historic sixth century Arthur. If, more-
over, the Latin derivation is correct, the supposed source in a
hypothetical Celtic artor (“ploughman” or “one who harnesses
for the plough”) falls to the ground. Had the mythic per-
sonality a name resembling Artorius? That is possible, and
there was a Celtic god Artaios, who was equated with Mercury
in Gaul. Artaios may be akin to Artio, the name of a bear-
goddess, from artos (“bear”), although Rhys connects it
with words associated with ploughing, e. g. Welsh ar (“plough-
land”). 7 Artaios would then be equivalent to Mercurius cultor;
but the connexion of Artaios and Arthur is problematical.

In any case the story of Arthur is largely mythic, like that
of Cuchulainn or of Fionn. Nennius appears to know a more
or less historic Arthur; but if there was a mythic Arthur-
saga in his time, why does he not allude to it? Did the “ancient
traditions” to which he had access not know this mythic
hero, or was he not interested in this aspect of his “magnan-
imous Arthur?” Still more curious is it that neither Gildas
nor Bede refers to Arthur. Geoffrey’s narrative became
popular and is the basis of Wace’s Brut , where the Round
Table appears as made by Arthur to prevent quarrels about
precedence, and it is said that the Britons had many tales
about it. Layamon (c. 1200), on the other hand, states that it
was made by a cunning workman and seated sixteen hundred,





PLATE XXIII

Artio


The bear-goddess (see p. 124) feeds a bear. The
inscription states that “Licinia Sabinilla (dedicated
this) to the goddess Artio,” and the box pedestal
has a slit through which to drop offerings of coins.
Found at Berne (“Bear-City”), which still preserves
a trace of the ancient Celtic cult in its famous den
of bears. Cf. Plate II, 10.






THE HEROIC MYTHS


187


while in the Romances it was made by Merlin. Layamon
also declares that three ladies prophesied at Arthur’s birth
regarding his future greatness — the three Matres or Fees
of Celtic belief, found also in other mythologies. Yet before
Geoffrey’s time Arthur was known in Brittany, whither Britons
had fled from the Saxons; and there the Normans learned of
the saga, which they carried to Italy before 1100 a. d., so that
Alanus ab Insulis (ob. c. 1200) says that in his time resentment
would have been aroused in Brittany by the denial of Arthur’s
expected return.

Among the Welsh romantic tales about Arthur the chief
is that of Kulhwch and Olwen , 8 where he and his warriors,
some of whom have magic powers, aid Kulhwch in different
quests. The story, which antedates Geoffrey, and proves that
an Arthurian legend existed before his time, is based on the
folk-tale formula of a woman’s hatred to her step-son. She
bade Kulhwch seek as his wife Olwen, daughter of Yspaddaden
Penkawr, whose eyelids, like Balor’s, must be raised by his
servitors, though he is not said to possess an evil eye. The
quest was difficult, and when Kulhwch found Yspaddaden’s
castle, he learned that many suitors for Olwen had been slain,
for Yspaddaden would die when she married — a variant of
the theme of the separable soul. 9 Yspaddaden set Kulhwch
many tasks, some of them connected with each other, and
in many of these his cousin Arthur assisted him. Among them
is the capture of the Twrch Trwyth (Nennius’s Porcus Troit),
on account of the scissors, comb, and razors between its ears,
which Yspaddaden desired. This boar was a knight trans-
formed by God for his sins, and to capture it the aid of Mabon,
son of Modron, must be obtained. First, however, his prison
must be found, for he had been stolen on the third night after
his birth, and none knew where he was. With the help of
various animals his place of bondage was discovered, and he
was released by Arthur, whose aid, with that of others, Yspad-
daden had said that Kulhwch would never obtain. Arthur


1 88


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


now collected an army for the chase of the boar, and this
pursuit recalls many stories of Fionn. A great combat with it
took place, and after Arthur had fought it for nine days and
nights without being able to kill it, he sent to it and its pigs
Gwrhyr Gwalstawt in the form of a bird to invite one of them
to speak with him. The invitation was refused, however, and
accordingly Arthur, with his dog Cavall and a host of heroes,
hunted the boar from place to place. Many were slain, but
at last the boar was seized, and the razor and scissors were
taken. Nevertheless, before the comb could be obtained, the
boar fled to Kernyu (Cornwall), where it was captured;
although all that had happened previously was merely a game
compared with the taking of the comb. The boar was now
chased into the sea, and Arthur went north to obtain the blood
of the sorceress Gorddu on the confines of hell, another of the
things required by Yspaddaden. Arthur slew Gorddu, and
Kaw of Prydein (Pictland) collected her blood, which, with
the other marvellous objects, was taken to Yspaddaden, who
was now slain.

In this story Kulhwch comes to Arthur’s court, which is
attended by many warriors and supernatural personages,
some of whose names (e. g. Conchobar, Curoi) recur in the
Romances or are taken from other parts of Brythonic as well
as Irish traditions. The gate was shut while feasting went on,
save to a king’s son or to the master of an art — an incident
recalling the approach of Lug, “master of many arts,” to the
abode of the Tuatha De Danann before the battle of Mag-
Tured 10 — all others being entertained outside with food,
music, and a bedfellow. Among the personages of this tale
who recur in the Romances are Kei, Bedwyr (Bedivere),
Gwalchmei (Gawain), and Gwenhwyfar; characters from the
Mabinogion or other tales are Manawyddan, Morvran, Teyr-
non, Taliesin, and Creidylad, daughter of Lludd. Mabon, son
of Modron, is the Maponos of British and Gaulish inscrip-
tions, where he is equated with Apollo; and his mother’s name



PLATE XXIV


Boars

The boar appears as a worshipful animal on Gaul-
ish coins (see Plate III, I, 3, 6), and there was a
Gallic boar-deity, Moccus (p. 124). It also plays a
role in Irish saga (pp. 124-27, 172) and in the Welsh
story of the Twrch Trwyth (or Porcus Troit ) (pp.
108, 125, 187-88). Bronze figures found at Houns-
low, Middlesex.


© ^





THE HEROIC MYTHS


189

is equivalent to that of the goddesses called Matronae (akin to
the Matres), whose designation appears in that of the Marne.
Mabon means “a youth,” and Maponos “the great (or divine)
youth,” whence he must have been a youthful god. His
immortality is suggested by the fact that he had been in prison
so long that animals which had attained fabulous ages had
no knowledge of him, and only a salmon, older than any of
them, knew where his prison was. It carried Kei and Gwrhyr
thither on its shoulders, and when Arthur attacked the strong-
hold, it supported Kei and Bedwyr, who made a breach in the
wall and released the captive. Mabon rode a horse swifter
than the waves, and he is called “the swift” in the Stanzas
of the Graves. The chase of the boar could not take place
without him, and he followed it into the Bristol Channel,
where he took the razor from it. Reference is made to Mabon’s
imprisonment in a Triad; and he and Gweir, whose prison is
mentioned in a Taliesin poem about Arthur and his men,
with Llyr Lledyeith, were the three notable prisoners. Yet
there was one still more notable — Arthur, who was three
nights in prison in Caer Oeth and Anoeth, three nights in
prison by Gwenn Pendragon, and three nights in an enchanted
prison under Llech Echymeint; but Goreu, his cousin, deliv-
ered him . 11

Other mythical or magic-wielding personages in Kulhwch
are the following. Gwrhyr, who could speak with birds and
animals, transformed himself into a bird in order to speak to
the boar; and Menw also took that shape and sought to remove
one of the boar’s treasures, when it hurt him with its venom.
He could also make Arthur and his men invisible, though
they could see other men. Morvran, son of Tegid Voel, seemed
a demon, covered with hair like a stag; none struck him at
the battle of Camlan on account of his ugliness, just as none
struck Sandde Bryd-angel because of his beauty. Sgilti Light-
Foot could march on the ends of tree-branches, and so light
was he that the grass never bent under him. Drem saw the


190


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


gnat rise with the sun from Kelliwic in Cornwall to Pen
Blathaon in Scotland. Under Gwadyn Ossol’s feet the highest
mountain became a plain, and Sol could hold himself all day
on one foot. Gwadyn Odyeith made as many sparks from the
sole of his foot as when white-hot iron strikes a solid object;
he cleared the way of all obstacles before Arthur and his men.
Gwevyl, when sad, let one of his lips fall to his stomach,
while the other made a hood over his head; and Ychdryt
Varyvdraws projected his beard above the beams of Arthur’s
hall. Yskyrdaw and Yseudydd, servants of Gwenhwyfar, had
feet as rapid as their thoughts; and Klust, interred a hundred
cubits underground, could hear the ant leave its nest fifty
miles away. Medyr could pass through the legs of a wren in
the twinkling of an eye from Cornwall to Esgeir Oervel in
Ireland; Gwiawn could remove with one stroke a speck from
the eye of a midge without injuring it; 01 found the track of
swine stolen seven years before his birth. Many of these
invaluable personages have parallels in Celtic as well as other
folk-tales, and are the clever companions of the hero, who
execute tasks impossible to himself. 12

In the Dream of Rhonabwy the hero had a vision of the
knightly court of Arthur, different from that in Kulhwch,
and found himself transported thither. Arthur had mighty
armies, and he and others were of gigantic size, while his
mantle rendered the wearer invisible. The story describes
Arthur’s game at chess with Owein, and how Owein’s crows
were first ill-treated and then killed their tormentors. These
crows are frequently mentioned in Welsh poetry, and Arthur
is said to have feared them and their master. In this tale we
also hear of Iddawc (mentioned in the Triads), whose horse,
on exhaling its breath, blows far off those whom he pursues,
and as it respires, it draws them to him. He was an interme-
diary between Arthur and Mordred at Camlan, sent with
gracious words from Arthur, reminding Mordred how he had
nurtured him and desiring to make peace; but Iddawc altered


THE HEROIC MYTHS


191

these messages to threats and thus caused the battle. Arthur’s
court appears again in The Lady of the Fountain , a Welsh tale
which is the equivalent of Chretien’s Yvain (twelfth century),
but here again the conception of it is far more knightly and
romantic than in Kulhwch. The supernatural in this story,
whether Celtic or not, is found, e. g., in the one-eyed black
giant with one foot and an iron club, who guards a forest in
which wild animals feed. He tells Kyncn to throw a bowlful
of water on a slab by a fountain, when a storm will burst,
followed by the music of birds, and a black-armoured knight
will appear and fight with Kynon. In these two tales the follow-
ing personages known to Welsh literature and the Romances
appear — Mordred, Caradawc, Llyr, Nudd, Mabon, Peredur,
Llacheu, Kei, Gwalchmei, Owein, March son of Meirchion
(Mark, King of Cornwall), and Gwchyvar.

In the early Welsh poems there are many references to
Arthur and his circle, as when, in the Black Book of Caermarthen
(twelfth century), one poem, telling of Arthur’s expedition to
the north, mentions Kei, whose sword was unerring in his
hand, Bedwyr the Accomplished, Mabon, Manawyddan,
“deep was his counsel,” and Llacheu, Arthur’s son. Kei
pierced nine witches, probably the nine witches of Gloucester
mentioned in Peredur , while Arthur fought with a witch and
clove the Paluc Cat. A Triad declares that this creature w r as
born of a pig hunted by Arthur, because it was prophesied
that the isle would suffer from its litter; and although Coll,
its guardian, threw the cat into the Menai Strait, Paluc’s
children found it and nourished it until it became one of the
three plagues of Mon (Anglesey). This demon cat, which should
be compared with those fought by Cuchulainn, recurs in
Merlin , but is then located on the continent. In this poem
Arthur is also said to have distributed gifts . 13 Llacheu figures
in another poem, which tells of his death, as “marvellous in
song,” and he is mentioned there with Bran, Gwyn, and
Creidylad . 14 The Stanzas of the Graves refer to the graves of


192


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


Gwythur, March, and Arthur, the latter’s being anoeth bid
(“the object of a difficult search”); and Arthur’s horse Cavall,
not his dog Cavall or Caball (as in Nennius and Kulhwch,
where Bedwyr held it in leash), is mentioned in another poem.

Arthur’s expedition to Annwfn in Kulhwch , where Annwfn
is equivalent to hell, lying to the north, is paralleled by another
in a Taliesin poem to which reference has already been made . 15
Arthur and others went in his ship Prydwn (Prytwenn in
Kulhwch , where it goes a long distance in the twinkling of an
eye 16 ) over seas to Caer Sidi for the “spoils of Annwfn,”
including the magic cauldron of Penn Annwfn, and apparently
to release Gweir, who had been lured there through the
messenger of Pwyll and Pryderi. While Annwfn was spoiled,
Gweir “grievously sang, and thenceforth till doom he remains
a bard”; but the expedition was fatal to many who went
on it, for “thrice Prydwn’s freight” voyaged to Caer Sidi,
but only seven returned . 17 This recalls Cuchulainn’s similar
journey to Scath for its cauldron and cows ; 18 and there is
also a parallel in Kulhwch , where one of the treasures desired
of the hero by Yspaddaden is the cauldron of Diwrnach the
Irishman, who refused it when Arthur sent for it. Arthur
then sailed for Ireland in his ship, and Bedwyr seized the
cauldron, placing it on the shoulders of Arthur’s cauldron-
bearer, who brought it away full of money . 19 Another treasure
which Kulhwch had to obtain, but of which there is no further
mention, is the basket of Gwyddneu, from which the whole
world might eat according to their desire, this basket resembling
Dagda’s cauldron . 20

The Guinevere incident in Geoffrey is differently rendered
in Welsh tradition. A Triad says that the blow given her by
Gwenhwyfach (her sister in Kulhwch ) caused the battle of
Camlan , 21 and another Triad speaks of Medraut’s drawing
her from her royal seat at Kelliwic and giving her a blow,
while he is also said to have outraged her. Medraut at the
same time consumed all the food and drink, but Arthur retali-


THE HEROIC MYTHS


193


ated by doing likewise at Medraut’s court and leaving neither
man nor beast alive. Medraut resembled Hir Erwn and Hir
Atrym in Kulhwch , who wherever they went ate all provided
for them and left the land bare ; 22 although another view of
him is found in a Triad which speaks of the blow given him
by Arthur as “an evil blow” and of himself as gentle, kindly,
and fair. Guinevere seems to have had an ill character in
Welsh tradition, a spiteful couplet speaking of her as “bad
when young, worse later.” 23 Her name means “white phantom
or fee” from given (“white”) and hzvyvar , a word cognate
with Irish siabur , siabhra (“phantom,” “fairy”), the corre-
sponding Irish name being Finnabair ; 24 and this seems to point
to her divine aspect, just as Etain was called be find (“white
woman”) by Midir. A Triad speaks of three Guineveres,
all wives of Arthur, with different fathers; but Celtic myth
loved triple forms, and the different Guineveres, Llyrs, Mana-
wyddans, etc., may have been local forms of the same divinity.

[Prometheus]

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


194


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


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


THE HEROIC MYTHS


195


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


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


196

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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197


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


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


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


200


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


202

[Prometheus]

CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


How much of all this is pure romance, how much is genuine
Brythonic myth, is uncertain; and Merlin may be an old god
degraded to a mere magician. Nennius and Geoffrey in their
narratives suggest the well-known “Expulsion and Return”
formula — the boy without a father, taunted when playing
at ball, comes into favour because he shows why a castle cannot
be built. This recalls Fionn’s youth and how, overcoming
the beings who destroyed a dun, he thus regained his heritage . 52
Merlin’s
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


194


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


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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195


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


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


196

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


THE HEROIC MYTHS


197


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


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


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


THE HEROIC MYTHS


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


200


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-


THE HEROIC MYTHS


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


202

father was doubtless a god, but as “the son without a
father” he recalls “the son of a sinless couple” in the story of
Becuma, as well as Oengus, who was taunted with having no
known father . 53 The incident of his disappearance of his own
will suggests the legends of heroes sleeping in hills, just as his
imprisonment by his mistress recalls that of Kronos in the
British myth cited by Plutarch and the stories of mortals
bound by the love of immortals to the other-world. While
Merlin is connected with Arthur in Geoffrey and the Romances,
he is not one of the throng around the hero in Kulhwch.

[Prometheus]

The debatable ground of the Grail romances cannot be
discussed here in detail, especially as the episode did not
enter into the earliest Perceval romances, of Welsh origin,
and is lacking in the Welsh Peredur , written in full knowledge
of the Perceval-Grail stories, and in the English Syr Percy-
velle. Perceval probably succeeded Gawain as the hero of the
Grail, to be superseded himself by Galahad. In Wauchier’s
continuation of Chrestien’s Perceval Gawain rode beyond Ar-
thur’s kingdom through a waste land to a castle by the sea,
where he saw a knight on a bier with a sword on his breast.
A procession of clergy, singing the Vespers of the Dead, entered;
and then followed a feast at which “a rich Grail” provided
the food and served the guests, “upheld by none.” Later
Gawain saw a lance with a stream of blood flowing from it
into a silver cup, and finally the King of the castle entered
and bade Gawain fix the two halves of a broken sword together.
Unable to do this, he failed in the Quest, but having asked


THE HEROIC MYTHS


203


about lance and sword, he learned that the lance was that by
which Christ’s side was pierced, while the sword was that of
the Dolorous Stroke by which Logres and all the country
was destroyed. Here Gawain fell asleep and next morning
found himself on the shore, while the castle had vanished.
Nevertheless the land was now fertile, because he had asked
about the lance; had he asked about the Grail, it would have
been fully restored.

In Chrestien’s Perceval there is a procession with a sword,
a lance from which a drop of blood runs down, the Grail, shining
so as to put out the candles’ light, and finally a maiden with
a silver plate. The Grail is of gold and precious stones; but
in other versions it is the dish or cup of the Last Supper, or
a vessel in which Joseph received the Saviour’s Blood, or a
chalice, or a reliquary, or even something of no material sub-
stance, or a magic stone (Wolfram’s Parzival). It provides
food magically, with the taste which each one would desire,
though sometimes it feeds those only who are not in sin. It
gives perfume and light, heals the wounded, and, after the
successful quest, removes barrenness from the land and cures
its guardian or raises him from death. It prevents those who
see it from being deceived or made to sin by devils, or it gives
the seeker spiritual insight. In Peredur there is no Grail,
but the hero sees a procession with a spear from which come
three drops of blood, and a salver containing a head.

The Grail and its accompanying objects have a twofold
aspect and source, pagan and Christian. The Grail and lance
are associated with events of Christian history, but they have
pagan Celtic parallels — the divine cauldron from which none
goes unsatisfied and which restores the dead, the enchanted
cup in tales of Fionn which heals or gives whatever taste is
desired to him who drinks from it, and which is sometimes the
object of a quest. The head in Peredur recalls Bran’s head,
the lance and sword the spear which slew him and the sword
by which he was decapitated, as well as Lug’s unconquerable


204


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


spear, Nuada’s irresistible sword, Manannan’s magic sword,
Tethra’s talking sword. The Stone of Fal suggests the Grail
as a stone, and it, like Dagda’s cauldron and the spear and
swords of Lug, Nuada, and Manannan, belonged to the
Tuatha De Danann. The Grail, sword, and spear have affinity
with these as much as with the Christian symbols. Yet no
theory quite accounts for the assimilation of the two groups,
and while the Grail has magic properties, we should remember
that miraculous food-producing and healing of the sick were
works of our Lord, which might easily be associated with
objects connected with Him, as a result of the belief in relics.
Failing the discovery of an early manuscript in which the
actual sources of the Grail story may be found, much is open
to conjecture.

A theory connected with the prevailing study of vegetation
rituals sees in the objects and their effects survivals of Celtic
ritual resembling that of Adonis or Tammuz, its aim being
the preservation of the fertility of the land . 54 There is no
evidence, however, that at such rituals a miraculous food-
supplying vessel had any part; such vessels belong to the
domain of myth, and the story of the Grail has more the
appearance of being derived from a myth which was possibly
based on such rituals. It is in myth that magico-miraculous
powers flourish, not in ritual; and such a myth could be
Christianized. When, moreover, the theory makes the further
assumption that the ritual was of the nature of a “mystery,”
there is again no evidence for this, for vegetation rituals are
open to all in the fields, even where Christianity has been
adopted. The theory, however, postulates a mystery-cult,
with a plain and evident meaning for the folk — associated
with powers of life and generation — and with other significa-
tions for the initiate — phallic, philosophic, spiritual. The
story of this pagan mystery, which expressed three planes or
worlds — “the triple mysteries of a life-cult” — was gradually
Christianized by those ignorant of its meaning and was finally


PLATE XXV

Horned God


The deity, wearing a torque and pressing a bag
from which escapes grain on which a bull and a
stag feed, is supported by figures of Apollo and Mer-
cury (cf. pp. 8-9). He may possibly be identical
with Cernunnos, a deity of the underworld (Plate
XVI). His attitude suggests the squatting god of
Plates III, 3, VIII, IX, and his cornucopia corre-
sponds to the purse of the divinity of Plate IX, B,
as well as to the cup held by Dispater (Plate XIV).
For other gods of the underworld see Plates V, VII,
XII, XIII, XXVI. From a Gallo-Roman altar
found at Rheims.






THE HEROIC MYTHS


205


worked up by Robert de Borron (twelfth century) in terms of
a corresponding traditional esoteric Christian mystery. The
procession with Grail, etc., was the presentation of the mystery,
its meaning being divulged according to the degree of initiation;
but though the quester is the initiate, yet he fails in his
Quest . 55 The present writer is wholly unable to believe that
such mysteries and initiations existed among the barbarous
Celts or that they survived until the early middle ages, or
that lance and cup have a phallic significance — “life symbols
of the lowest plane” — or that there was a traditional esoteric
Christianity, save in the minds of cranks of all ages. Why,
again, should a mystery known only to initiates have been the
subject of a story? Were initiates likely to reveal it? To
regard the Grail story from a phallic, occult point of view and
to interpret it by means of a mystic jargon is to degrade it.
If the modern occultist possesses a divine secret, the world
does not seem to be much the better for it; and such secrets are
apt to be mere “gas and gaiters.” The truth is that occultism
renders squalid whatever it touches, be that Christianity,
or Buddhism, or the romantic stories of the Grail.

In spite of the numerous and important characters who
enter into the saga, Arthur is the central figure, the ideal hero
of Brythonic tribes in the past, to whom leadership at home
and abroad might be assigned, and whose presence in all battles
might be asserted. Originating as a champion, real or mythical,
of northern Brythons in southern Scotland, his legend passed
with emigrants to Wales, where it became popular. Like Fionn
among the Goidels, so Arthur among the Brythons was located
in every district, as numerous place-names show; and if Fionn
was at first a non-Celtic hero adopted by Goidels, so Arthur
was a Brythonic hero adopted by Anglo-Normans as their
truest romantic figure . 56


CHAPTER XV

PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY


PART from the occasional Christianizing of myths or


the interpolation of Christian passages in order to make
the legends less objectionable, the Irish scribes frequently
created new situations or invented tales in which mythical
personages were brought into contact with saints and mission-
aries, as many examples have shown. In doing this they not
only accepted the pagan stories or utilized their conceptions,
but sometimes almost contrasted Christianity unfavorably
with the older religion.

The idea of the immortality or rebirth of the gods survived
with the tales in which it was embodied and was sometimes
utilized for a definite purpose. The fable of the coming of
Cessair, Noah’s granddaughter, to Ireland before the flood
was the invention of a Christian writer and contradicted
those passages which said that no one had ever been in Ireland
previous to the deluge. All her company perished save Finn-
tain, and he was said to have survived until the sixth century of
our era . 1 The reason for imagining such a long-lived personage
is obvious; in no other way could Cessair’s coming, or that
of Partholan and of the other folk who reached Ireland, have
been known. Poems were ascribed to Finntain in which he
recounted the events seen in his long life until at last he
accepted the new faith . 2

Even at this early period, however, there was a story of
another long-lived personage with incidents derived from
pagan myths. Long life, excessive as Finntain’s was, might
have been suggested from Genesis, but the successive trans-



PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY


207


formations of Tuan MacCairill could have their origin only
in myth; and the wonder is that such a doctrine was accepted
by Christian scribes. Tuan was Partholan’s nephew and
through centuries was the sole survivor of his race, which was
tragically swept away by pestilence in one week for the sins of
Partholan. Obtaining entrance to the fortress of a great war-
rior by the curious but infallible process of “fasting against”
him, St. Finnen was told by his involuntary host that he was
Tuan MacCairill and that he had been a witness of all events
in Ireland since the days of Partholan. When he was old and
decrepit, he found on awaking one morning that he had become
a stag, full of youth and vigour; this was in the time of Nemed,
and he described the coming of the Nemedians. He himself,
as a stag, had been followed by innumerable stags which
recognized him as their chief; but again he became old, and
now after a night’s sleep he awoke as a boar in youthful
strength and became King of the boars. Similarly he became
a vulture, then a salmon, in which form he was caught by
fishers and taken to the house of King Caraill, whose wife ate
him, so that from her he was reborn as a child. While in her
womb he heard the conversations which went on, and knowing
what was happening, he was a prophet when he grew up,
and in St. Patrick’s time was baptized, although he had pro-
fessed knowledge of God while yet paganism alone existed in
Ireland . 3

The mythical donnees of this story are sufficiently obvious.
Metamorphosis and rebirth have frequently been found in
the myths already cited, and these were used by the inventors
of Tuan MacCairill, the closest parallels to him being the two
Swineherds and Gwion . 4

The conversion of pagan heroes or euhemerized divinities
to Christianity is sometimes related. When Oengus took
Elcmar’s sid , 6 the latter’s steward continued in his office; and
his wife became the mother of a daughter Ethne, afterward
attendant to Manannan’s daughter Curcog, who was born


208


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


at the same time as she. Ethne was found to be eating none
of the divine pigs nor drinking Goibniu’s beer, yet she re-
mained in health; a grave insult had been offered to her by a
god, and now she could not eat, but an angel sent from God
kept her alive. Meanwhile Oengus and Manannan brought
cows from India, and as their milk had none of the demoniac
nature of the gods’ immortal food, Ethne drank it and was
nourished for fifteen hundred years until St. Patrick came
to Ireland. One day she went bathing with Curcog and her
companions, but she returned no more to the sid with them,
for through the power of Christianity in the land she had
laid aside with her garments the charm of invisibility, the
Feth Fiada. She could now be seen by men and could no longer
perceive her divine companions or the road to the invisible
sid. Wandering in search of them, she found a monk seated
by a church and to him she narrated her story, whereupon he
took her to St. Patrick, who baptized her. One day, as she
sat by the door of the church, she heard the cries of the in-
visible sid - folk searching for her and bewailing her; she fainted
and now fell into a decline, dying with her head on the Saint’s
breast . 6 In this tale the general Christian attitude to the gods
obtrudes itself — although the conception of their immortality
and invisibility is accepted, they are demons or attended by
these; Ethne had a demon guardian who left her when the
angel arrived and as a result of her chastity. Not unlike this
story is that of Liban, daughter of Eochaid, whose family
were drowned by the bursting of a well. Liban and her lap-
dog were preserved for a year in the water, but then she was
changed into a salmon, save her head, and her dog into an
otter. After three hundred years she was caught by her own
wish and was baptized by St. Comgall, dying thereafter . 7

In the Cuchulainn saga Conchobar was born at the hour
of Christ’s Nativity, and Cathbad sang beforehand a prophecy
of the two births, telling also how Conchobar would “find his
death in avenging the suffering God,” though the hero did not



PLATE XXVI

SUCELLOS

The hammer-god, also shown on Plate XIII, here
has five small mallets projecting from his great
hammer. Found at Vienne, France.




PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY


209


pass away until he had believed in God, before the faith had
yet reached Erin. He is said to have been the first pagan who
went thence to heaven, though not till after his soul had jour-
neyed to hell, whence it was carried with other souls by Christ at
the Harrowing of Hades, he having died just after the Cruci-
fixion . 8 Cuchulainn was a pagan to the last, but coincidentally
with his passing thrice fifty queens who loved him saw his
soul floating in his spirit-chariot over Emain Macha, singing a
song of Christ’s coming, the arrival of Patrick and the shaven
monks, and the Day of Doom . 9 Loegaire, King of Erin, refused
to accept the faith unless Patrick called up Cuchulainn in
all his dignity, and next day Loegaire told how, after a pierc-
ing wind from hell preceding the hero’s coming, while the air
was full of birds — the sods thrown up by Cuchulainn’s
chariot-horses — he had appeared as of old. He was in bodily
form, more than a phantom, agreeably to the Celtic con-
ception of immortality; and he was clad as a warrior, while
his chariot was driven by Loeg and drawn by his famous
steeds. Loegaire now desired that Cuchulainn should return
and converse longer with him, whereupon he again appeared,
performing in mid-air his supernatural feats and telling of
his deeds. He besought Patrick to bring him with his faithful
ones to Paradise and advised Loegaire to accept the faith.
The king now asked Cuchulainn to tell of his adventures, and
he did so, finishing by describing the pains of hell, still urging
Loegaire to become a Christian, and again begging the saint
to bring him and his to Paradise. Then heaven was declared
for Cuchulainn, and Loegaire believed . 10

Some of the Feinn stories also show this kindly attitude
toward the old paganism, especially The Colloquy with the
Ancients , which dates from the thirteenth century . 11 When
Oisin had gone to the sid, Caoilte with eighteen others sur-
vived long enough to meet St. Patrick and his clerics. These
were astonished at “the tall men with their huge wolf-dogs,”
but the saint sprinkled holy water upon them and dispersed


210


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


into the hills the legions of demons who floated above them.
At Patrick’s desire Caoilte showed him a spring and told him
stories of the Feinn, the saint interjecting the words, “Success
and benediction, Caoilte, this is to me a lightening of spirit
and mind,” although he feared that it might be a destruction
of devotion and prayer. During the night, however, his
guardian angels bade him write down all the stories which
Caoilte told; and next morning Caoilte and his friends were
baptized. The hero gave Patrick a mass of gold — Fionn’s
last gift to him — as a fee for the rite and “for my soul’s and
my commander’s soul’s weal”; and the saint promised him
eternal happiness and the benefit of his prayers . 12 The Colloquy
describes journeys taken by Patrick and his followers with
the Feinn, while Caoilte tells stories of occurrences at various
spots. He also relates how Fionn, through his thumb of
knowledge, understood the truth about God, asserted his
belief in Him, and foretold the coming of Christian mission-
aries to Ireland and the celebration of Mass there, adding that
for this God would not suffer him to fall into eternal woe.
The Feinn likewise understood of God’s existence and of
His rule over all because of certain dire events which befell
many revellers in one night , 13 a parallel to this being found
in The Children of Ler , where, through their sorrows, these
children are led to believe in God and in the solace which
would come from Him; so that in the sequel they received
baptism after they had resumed human form . 14

Akin to these meetings of saint and heroes is one which is
referred to in some verses from a fourteenth century manu-
script and which concerns St. Columba and Mongan, either the
pagan king of that name or his mythic prototype. Like Ma-
nannan, whose son he was, he was associated with Elysium
— “the Land with Living Heart” — and from that “flock-
abounding Land of Promise” he came to converse with the
saint. Another poem gives Mongan’s greeting to Columba on
that occasion, and nothing could exceed the gracious terms


PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY


21 1


in which he praises him; while a third poem tells how Mongan
went to Heaven under the protection of the saint — “his
head — great the profit! under Columcille’s cowl.” 15

Not the least interesting aspect of the reverence with which
Christian scribes and editors regarded old mythic heroes is
found in the prophecies of Christianity put into their mouths.
Some instances of this have been referred to, but a notable
example occurs in The Voyage of Bran , where the goddess who
visits Bran tells how “a great birth will come in after ages —

“The son of a woman whose mate will not be known,

He will seize the rule of many thousands.

’Tis He that made the Heavens,

Happy he that has a white heart,

He will purify hosts under pure water,

’Tis He that will heal your sicknesses.”

So, too, Manannan speaks of the Fall and prophesies how

“A noble salvation will come
From the King who has created us,

A white law will come over the seas,

Besides being God, He will be man.” 16

[Prometheus]

By such means, which recall the noble teaching of St. Clement
and Origen, did Christian Celts make gods and heroes do
homage to the new faith, while yet they recounted the mythic
stories about them and preserved all “the tender grace of a
day that is dead.” Even more remarkable is one version of a
story telling how the narrative of the Tain was recovered.
It existed only in fragments until Fergus mac Roich, a hero of
the Cuchulainn group, rose from his grave and recited it,
appearing not only to the poets, but to saints of Erin who had
met near his tomb, while no less a person than St. Ciaran wrote
the story to his dictation. Among these saints were Columba,
Brendan, and Caillin, and in company with Senchan and
other poets they were fasting at the grave of Fergus so that
he might appear, after which the tale was written down in
Ciaran’s book of cow-hide . 17


212


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


The same charitable point of view is seen in the fact that
the gods and heroes still have their own mystic world in the
std and are seldom placed in hell. Yet there are exceptions,
for Cuchulainn came from hell, as we saw, but St. Patrick
transferred him to heaven. Even in hell, however, he had
still been the triumphant hero, and when the demons carried
off his soul to “the red charcoal,” he played his sword and
his gai bolga on them, as Oscar did his flail , 18 so that the devils
suffered, even while they crushed him into the fire . 19 Caoilte
craved that his sister might be brought out of hell, and Patrick
said that if this were good in God’s sight, she and also his
father, mother, and Fionn himself would be released . 20 In
other poems, however, the Feinn are and remain in hell, as
has already been seen.

Thus, while the Church set its face against the old cults,
so that only slight traces of these remain, or gave a Christian
aspect to popular customs by connecting them with saints’
days or sacred places, it was on the whole rather proud than
otherwise of the heroes of the past and preserved their memory,
together with much of the gracious aspect of the ancient gods.
Exceptions to this exist and were bound to exist, e. g. in many
Irish and Scots Ossianic ballads; and there was, too, a tendency
to confuse Elysium with hell, more especially in Welsh legend,
this being inevitable where myths of Elysium were still con-
nected with a local cult. Gwyn was lord of Annwfn, which was
located on Glastonbury Tor, or king of fairy-land, and here
St. Collen was invited to meet him. Seeing a wonderful castle
and a host of beautiful folk, he regarded them as devils, their
splendid robes as flames of fire, their food as withered leaves;
and when he threw holy water over them, everything van-
ished . 21 Probably a cult of Gwyn existed on the hill. Gwyn
was also thought to be a hunter of wicked souls, yet it is also
said of him that God placed in him the force of the demons
of Annwfn (here the equivalent of hell) in order to hinder
them from destroying the people of this world . 22


PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY


213


We owe much to the Christian scribes and poets of early
mediaeval Ireland and Wales, who wrote down or re-edited
the mythic tales, romantic legends, and poems of the pagan
period, thus preserving them to us. These had still existed
among the folk or were current in the literary class, and
that they were saved from destruction is probably due to the
fact that Ireland and Wales were never Romanized. Causes
were at work in Gaul which killed the myths and tales so long
transmitted in oral forms; and since they were never written
down, they perished. Elsewhere these causes did not exist,
or a type of Christianity flourished which was not altogether
hostile to the stories of olden time, as when Irish paganism
itself was described symbolically as desiring the dawn of a new
day. The birds of Elysium were “the bird-flock of the Land
of Promise,” and in one story were brought into contact with
St. Patrick, welcoming him, churning the water into milky
whiteness, and calling, “O help of the Gaels, come, come,
come, and come hither !” 23

That is an exquisite fancy, more moving even than that
which told how

“The lonely mountains o’er
And the resounding shore,

A voice of weeping heard and loud lament”

— the mournful cry, “Great Pan is dead,” at the moment of
Christ’s Nativity. Celtic paganism, Goidelic and Brythonic,
surely bestowed on Christianity much of its old glamour, for
nowhere is the history of the Church more romantic than in
those regions where Ninian and Columba and Kentigern and
Patrick lived and laboured long ago.