{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_54616/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_54616","id":"gutenberg_54616","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54616","summary":null,"tags":["Category: British Literature","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Celts -- Folklore","Mythology, Celtic"],"text":"THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE\n BRITISH ISLANDS\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n THE MYTHOLOGY\n OF THE BRITISH\n ISLANDS\n\n AN INTRODUCTION TO\n CELTIC MYTH, LEGEND\n POETRY, AND ROMANCE\n\n BY CHARLES SQUIRE\n\n LONDON: BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED\n 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C. GLASGOW AND\n DUBLIN MCMV\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE\n\n\nThis book is what its author believes to be the only attempt yet made to\nput the English reader into possession, in clear, compact, and what it\nis hoped may prove agreeable, form, of the mythical, legendary, and\npoetic traditions of the earliest inhabitants of our islands who have\nleft us written records\u2014the Gaelic and the British Celts. It is true\nthat admirable translations and paraphrases of much of Gaelic mythical\nsaga have been recently published, and that Lady Charlotte Guest\u2019s\ntranslation of the _Mabinogion_ has been placed within the reach of the\nleast wealthy reader. But these books not merely each cover a portion\nonly of the whole ground, but, in addition, contain little elucidatory\nmatter. Their characters stand isolated and unexplained; and the details\nthat would explain them must be sought for with considerable trouble in\nthe lectures and essays of scholars to learned societies. The reader to\nwhom this literature is entirely new is introduced, as it were, to\nnumerous people of whose antecedents he knows nothing; and the effect is\noften disconcerting enough to make him lay down the volume in despair.\n\nBut here he will at last make the formal acquaintance of all the chief\ncharacters of Celtic myth: of the Gaelic gods and the giants against\nwhom they struggled; of the \u201cChampions of the Red Branch\u201d of Ulster,\nheroes of a martial epopee almost worthy to be placed beside \u201cthe tale\nof Troy divine\u201d; and of Finn and his Fenians. He will meet also with the\ndivine and heroic personages of the ancient Britons: with their earliest\ngods, kin to the members of the Gaelic Pantheon; as well as with Arthur\nand his Knights, whom he will recognize as no mortal champions, but\nbelonging to the same mythic company. Of all these mighty figures the\nhistories will be briefly recorded, from the time of their unquestioned\ngodhood, through their various transformations, to the last doubtful,\ndying recognition of them in the present day, as \u201cfairies\u201d. Thus the\nvolume will form a kind of handbook to a subject of growing\nimportance\u2014the so-called \u201cCeltic Renaissance\u201d, which is, after all, no\nmore\u2014and, indeed, no less\u2014than an endeavour to refresh the vitality of\nEnglish poetry at its most ancient native fount.\n\nThe book does not, of course, profess to be for Celtic scholars, to\nwhom, indeed, its author himself owes all that is within it. It aims\nonly at interesting the reader familiar with the mythologies of Greece,\nRome, and Scandinavia in another, and a nearer, source of poetry. Its\nauthor\u2019s wish is to offer those who have fallen, or will fall, under the\nattraction of Celtic legend and romance, just such a volume as he\nhimself would once have welcomed, and for which he sought in vain. It is\nhis hope that, in choosing from the considerable, though scattered,\ntranslations and commentaries of students of Old Gaelic and Old Welsh,\nhe has chosen wisely, and that his readers will be able, should they\nwish, to use his book as a stepping-stone to the authorities themselves.\nTo that end it is wholly directed; and its marginal notes and short\nbibliographical appendix follow the same plan. They do not aspire to\nanything like completeness, but only to point out the chief sources from\nwhich he himself has drawn.\n\nTo acknowledge, as far as possible, such debts is now the author\u2019s\npleasing duty. First and foremost, he has relied upon the volumes of M.\nH. d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville\u2019s _Cours de Litt\u00e9rature celtique_, and the\nHibbert Lectures for 1886 of John Rhys, Professor of Celtic in the\nUniversity of Oxford, with their sequel entitled _Studies in the\nArthurian Legend_. From the writings of Mr. Alfred Nutt he has also\nobtained much help. With regard to direct translations, it seems almost\nsuperfluous to refer to Lady Charlotte Guest\u2019s _Mabinogion_ and Mr. W.\nF. Skene\u2019s _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, or to the work of such\nwell-known Gaelic scholars as Mr. Eugene O\u2019Curry, Dr. Kuno Meyer, Dr.\nWhitley Stokes, Dr. Ernest Windisch, Mr. Standish Hayes O\u2019Grady (to\nmention no others), as contained in such publications as the _Revue\nCeltique_, the _Atlantis_, and the _Transactions of the Ossianic\nSociety_, in Mr. O\u2019Grady\u2019s _Silva Gadelica_, Mr. Nutt\u2019s _Voyage of\nBran_, _Son of Febal_, and Miss Hull\u2019s _Cuchullin Saga_. But space is\nlacking to do justice to all. The reader is referred to the marginal\nnotes and the Appendix for the works of these and other authors, who\nwill no doubt pardon the use made of their researches to one whose sole\nobject has been to gain a larger audience for the studies they have most\nat heart.\n\nFinally, perhaps, a word should be said upon that vexed question, the\ntransliteration of Gaelic. As yet there is no universal or consistent\nmethod of spelling. The author has therefore chosen the forms which\nseemed most familiar to himself, hoping in that way to best serve the\nuses of others.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n CHAP. Page\n\n I. THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF CELTIC\n MYTHOLOGY 1\n\n II. THE SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE\n CELTIC MYTHOLOGY 8\n\n III. WHO WERE THE \u201cANCIENT BRITONS\u201d? 18\n\n IV. THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS AND\n DRUIDISM 31\n\n\n THE GAELIC GODS AND THEIR STORIES\n\n V. THE GODS OF THE GAELS 47\n\n VI. THE GODS ARRIVE 65\n\n VII. THE RISE OF THE SUN-GOD 78\n\n VIII. THE GAELIC ARGONAUTS 89\n\n IX. THE WAR WITH THE GIANTS 107\n\n X. THE CONQUEST OF THE GODS BY MORTALS 119\n\n XI. THE GODS IN EXILE 132\n\n XII. THE IRISH ILIAD 153\n\n XIII. SOME GAELIC LOVE-STORIES 184\n\n XIV. FINN AND THE FENIANS 201\n\n XV. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS 227\n\n\n THE BRITISH GODS AND THEIR STORIES\n\n XVI. THE GODS OF THE BRITONS 251\n\n XVII. THE ADVENTURES OF THE GODS OF HADES 278\n\n XVIII. THE WOOING OF BRANWEN AND THE BEHEADING\n OF BR\u00c2N 289\n\n XIX. THE WAR OF ENCHANTMENTS 298\n\n XX. THE VICTORIES OF LIGHT OVER DARKNESS 305\n\n XXI. THE MYTHOLOGICAL \u201cCOMING OF ARTHUR\u201d 312\n\n XXII. THE TREASURES OF BRITAIN 336\n\n XXIII. THE GODS AS KING ARTHUR\u2019S KNIGHTS 354\n\n XXIV. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS 371\n\n\n SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM\n\n XXV. SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM INTO\n MODERN TIMES 399\n\n APPENDIX 419\n\n INDEX 425\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE\n BRITISH ISLANDS\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF CELTIC\n MYTHOLOGY\n\n\nIt should hardly be necessary to remind the reader of what profound\ninterest and value to every nation are its earliest legendary and\npoetical records. The beautiful myths of Greece form a sufficing\nexample. In threefold manner, they have influenced the destiny of the\npeople that created them, and of the country of which they were the\nimagined theatre. First, in the ages in which they were still fresh,\nbelief and pride in them were powerful enough to bring scattered tribes\ninto confederation. Secondly, they gave the inspiration to sculptor and\npoet of an art and literature unsurpassed, if not unequalled, by any\nother age or race. Lastly, when \u201cthe glory that was Greece\u201d had faded,\nand her people had, by dint of successive invasions, perhaps even ceased\nto have any right to call themselves Hellenes, they have passed over\ninto the literatures of the modern world, and so given to Greece herself\na poetic interest that still makes a petty kingdom of greater account in\nthe eyes of its compeers than many others far superior to it in extent\nand resources.\n\nThis permeating influence of the Greek poetical mythology, apparent in\nall civilized countries, has acted especially upon our own. From almost\nthe very dawn of English literature, the Greek stories of gods and\nheroes have formed a large part of the stock-in-trade of English poets.\nThe inhabitants of Olympus occupy, under their better-known Latin names,\nalmost as great a space in English poetry as they did in that of the\ncountries to which they were native. From Chaucer downwards, they have\ncaptivated the imagination alike of the poets and their hearers. The\nmagic cauldron of classic myth fed, like the Celtic \u201cGrail\u201d, all who\ncame to it for sustenance.\n\nAt last, however, its potency became somewhat exhausted. Alien and\nexotic to English soil, it degenerated slowly into a convention. In the\nshallow hands of the poetasters of the eighteenth century, its figures\nbecame mere puppets. With every wood a \u201cgrove\u201d, and every rustic maid a\n\u201cnymph\u201d, one could only expect to find Venus armed with patch and\npowder-puff, Mars shouldering a musket, and Apollo inspiring the\nversifier\u2019s own trivial strains. The affectation killed\u2014and fortunately\nkilled\u2014a mode of expression which had become obsolete. Smothered by just\nridicule, and abandoned to the commonplace vocabulary of the inferior\nhack-writer, classic myth became a subject which only the greatest poets\ncould afford to handle.\n\nBut mythology is of such vital need to literature that, deprived of the\nstore of legend native to southern Europe, imaginative writers looked\nfor a fresh impulse. They turned their eyes to the North. Inspiration\nwas sought, not from Olympus, but from Asgard. Moreover, it was believed\nthat the fount of primeval poetry issuing from Scandinavian and Teutonic\nmyth was truly our own, and that we were rightful heirs of it by reason\nof the Anglo-Saxon in our blood. And so, indeed, we are; but it is not\nour sole heritage. There must also run much Celtic\u2014that is, truly\nBritish\u2014blood in our veins.[1] And Matthew Arnold was probably right in\nasserting that, while we owe to the Anglo-Saxon the more practical\nqualities that have built up the British Empire, we have inherited from\nthe Celtic side that poetic vision which has made English literature the\nmost brilliant since the Greek.[2]\n\nWe have the right, therefore, to enter upon a new spiritual possession.\nAnd a splendid one it is! The Celtic mythology has little of the heavy\ncrudeness that repels one in Teutonic and Scandinavian story. It is as\nbeautiful and graceful as the Greek; and, unlike the Greek, which is the\nreflection of a clime and soil which few of us will ever see, it is our\nown. Divinities should, surely, seem the inevitable outgrowth of the\nland they move in! How strange Apollo would appear, naked among\nicebergs, or fur-clad Thor striding under groves of palms! But the\nCeltic gods and heroes are the natural inhabitants of a British\nlandscape, not seeming foreign and out-of-place in a scene where there\nis no vine or olive, but \u201cshading in with\u201d our homely oak and bracken,\ngorse and heath.\n\nThus we gain an altogether fresh interest in the beautiful spots of our\nown islands, especially those of the wilder and more mountainous west,\nwhere the older inhabitants of the land lingered longest. Saxon conquest\nobliterated much in Eastern Britain, and changed more; but in the West\nof England, in Wales, in Scotland, and especially in legend-haunted\nIreland, the hills and dales still keep memories of the ancient gods of\nthe ancient race. Here and there in South Wales and the West of England\nare regions\u2014once mysterious and still romantic\u2014which the British Celts\nheld to be the homes of gods or outposts of the Other World. In Ireland,\nnot only is there scarcely a place that is not connected in some way\nwith the traditionary exploits of the \u201cRed Branch Champions\u201d, or of Finn\nand his mighty men, but the old deities are still remembered, dwarfed\ninto fairies, but keeping the same attributes and the same names as of\nyore. Wordsworth\u2019s complaint[3] that, while Pelion and Ossa, Olympus and\nParnassus are \u201cin immortal books enrolled\u201d, not one English mountain,\n\u201cthough round our sea-girt shore they rise in crowds\u201d, had been \u201cby the\nCelestial Muses glorified\u201d doubtless seemed true to his own generation.\nThanks to the scholars who have unveiled the ancient Gaelic and British\nmythologies, it need not be so for ours. On Ludgate Hill, as well as on\nmany less famous eminences, once stood the temple of the British Zeus. A\nmountain not far from Bettws-y-Coed was the British Olympus, the court\nand palace of our ancient gods.\n\nIt may well be doubted, however, whether Wordsworth\u2019s contemporaries\nwould have welcomed the mythology which was their own by right of birth\nas a substitute for that of Greece and Rome. The inspiration of classic\nculture, which Wordsworth was one of the first to break with, was still\npowerful. How some of its professors would have held their sides and\nroared at the very notion of a British mythology! Yet, all the time, it\nhad long been secretly leavening English ideas and ideals, none the less\npotently because disguised under forms which could be readily\nappreciated. Popular fancy had rehabilitated the old gods, long banned\nby the priests\u2019 bell, book, and candle, under various disguises. They\nstill lived on in legend as kings of ancient Britain reigning in a\nfabulous past anterior to Julius Caesar\u2014such were King Lud, founder of\nLondon; King Lear, whose legend was immortalized by Shakespeare; King\nBrennius, who conquered Rome; as well as many others who will be found\nfilling parts in old drama. They still lived on as long-dead saints of\nthe early churches of Ireland and Britain, whose wonderful attributes\nand adventures are, in many cases, only those of their original\nnamesakes, the old gods, told afresh. And they still lived on in\nanother, and a yet more potent, way. Myths of Arthur and his cycle of\ngods passed into the hands of the Norman story-tellers, to reappear as\nromances of King Arthur and his Knights of the Table Round. Thus spread\nover civilized Europe, their influence was immense. Their primal poetic\nimpulse is still resonant in our literature; we need only instance\nTennyson and Swinburne as minds that have come under its sway.\n\nThis diverse influence of Celtic mythology upon English poetry and\nromance has been eloquently set forth by Mr. Elton in his _Origins of\nEnglish History_. \u201cThe religion of the British tribes\u201d, he writes, \u201chas\nexercised an important influence upon literature. The medi\u00e6val romances\nand the legends which stood for history are full of the \u2018fair\nhumanities\u2019 and figures of its bright mythology. The elemental powers of\nearth and fire, and the spirits which haunted the waves and streams\nappear again as kings in the Irish Annals, or as saints and hermits in\nWales. The Knights of the Round Table, Sir Kay and Tristrem and the bold\nSir Bedivere, betray their mighty origin by the attributes they retained\nas heroes of romance. It was a goddess, \u2018_Dea quaedam phantastica_\u2019, who\nbore the wounded Arthur to the peaceful valley. \u2018There was little\nsunlight on its woods and streams, and the nights were dark and gloomy\nfor want of the moon and stars.\u2019 This is the country of Oberon and of\nSir Huon of Bordeaux. It is the dreamy forest of Arden. In an older\nmythology, it was the realm of a King of Shadows, the country of Gwyn ap\nNudd, who rode as Sir Guyon in the \u2018Fairie Queene\u2019\u2014\n\n \u2018And knighthood took of good Sir Huon\u2019s hand,\n When with King Oberon he came to Fairyland\u2019.\u201d[4]\n\nTo trace Welsh and Irish kings and saints and hermits back to \u201cthe\nelemental powers of earth and fire, and the spirits that haunted the\nwoods and streams\u201d of Celtic imagination, and to disclose primitive\npagan deities under the medi\u00e6val and Christian trappings of \u201cKing\nArthur\u2019s Knights\u201d will necessarily fall within the scope of this volume.\nBut meanwhile the reader will probably be asking what evidence there is\nthat apocryphal British kings like Lear and Lud, and questionable Irish\nsaints like Bridget are really disguised Celtic divinities, or that the\nMorte D\u2019Arthur, with its love of Launcelot and the queen, and its quest\nof the Holy Grail, was ever anything more than an invention of the\nNorman romance-writers. He will demand to know what facts we really\npossess about this supposed Celtic mythology alleged to have furnished\ntheir prototypes, and of what real antiquity and value are our\nauthorities upon it.\n\nThe answer to his question will be found in the next chapter.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n \u201cThere is good ground to believe\u201d, writes Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson,\n M.A., the librarian of the Bodleian Library, in the preface to his\n recently-published _Keltic Researches_, \u201cthat Lancashire, West\n Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire,\n Leicestershire, Rutland, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, and part\n of Sussex, are as Keltic as Perthshire and North Munster; that\n Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire,\n Devon, Dorset, Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, and Bedfordshire are\n more so\u2014and equal to North Wales and Leinster; while Buckinghamshire\n and Hertfordshire exceed even this degree and are on a level with\n South Wales and Ulster. Cornwall, of course, is more Keltic than any\n other English county, and as much so as Argyll, Inverness-shire, or\n Connaught.\u201d\n\nFootnote 2:\n\n _The Study of Celtic Literature._\n\nFootnote 3:\n\n In a sonnet written in 1801.\n\nFootnote 4:\n\n Elton: _Origins of English History_, chap. X.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n THE SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE\n CELTIC MYTHOLOGY\n\n\nWe may begin by asserting with confidence that Mr. Elton has touched\nupon a part only of the material on which we may draw, to reconstruct\nthe ancient British mythology. Luckily, we are not wholly dependent upon\nthe difficult tasks of resolving the fabled deeds of apocryphal Irish\nand British kings who reigned earlier than St. Patrick or before Julius\nCaesar into their original form of Celtic myths, of sifting the\nattributes and miracles of doubtfully historical saints, or of\nseparating the primitive pagan elements in the legends of Arthur and his\nKnights from the embellishments added by the romance-writers. We have,\nin addition to these\u2014which we may for the present put upon one side as\nsecondary\u2014sources, a mass of genuine early writings which, though\npost-Christian in the form in which they now exist, none the less\ndescend from the preceding pagan age. These are contained in vellum and\nparchment manuscripts long preserved from destruction in mansions and\nmonasteries in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and only during the last\ncentury brought to light, copied, and translated by the patient labours\nof scholars who have grappled with the long-obsolete dialects in which\nthey were transcribed.\n\nMany of these volumes are curious miscellanies. Usually the one book of\na great house or monastic community, everything was copied into it that\nthe scholar of the family or brotherhood thought to be best worth\npreserving. Hence they contain matter of the most diverse kind. There\nare translations of portions of the Bible and of the classics, and of\nsuch then popular books as Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s and Nennius\u2019 Histories\nof Britain; lives of famous saints, together with works attributed to\nthem; poems and romances of which, under a thin disguise, the old Gaelic\nand British gods are the heroes; together with treatises on all the\nsubjects then studied\u2014grammar, prosody, law, history, geography,\nchronology, and the genealogies of important chiefs.\n\nThe majority of these documents were put together during a period which,\nroughly speaking, lasted from the beginning of the twelfth century to\nthe end of the sixteenth. In Ireland, in Wales, and, apparently, also in\nScotland, it was a time of literary revival after the turmoils of the\nprevious epoch. In Ireland, the Norsemen, after long ravaging, had\nsettled peacefully down, while in Wales, the Norman Conquest had\nrendered the country for the first time comparatively quiet. The\nscattered remains of history, lay and ecclesiastical, of science, and of\nlegend were gathered together.\n\nOf the Irish manuscripts, the earliest, and, for our purposes, the most\nimportant, on account of the great store of ancient Gaelic mythology\nwhich, in spite of its dilapidated condition, it still contains, is in\nthe possession of the Royal Irish Academy. Unluckily, it is reduced to a\nfragment of one hundred and thirty-eight pages, but this remnant\npreserves a large number of romances relating to the old gods and heroes\nof Ireland. Among other things, it contains a complete account of the\nepical saga called the _T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgn\u00e9_, the \u201cRaiding of the Cattle\nof Cooley\u201d, in which the hero, Cuchulainn, performed his greatest feats.\nThis manuscript is called the Book of the Dun Cow, from the tradition\nthat it was copied from an earlier book written upon the skin of a\nfavourite animal belonging to Saint Ciaran, who lived in the seventh\ncentury. An entry upon one of its pages reveals the name of its scribe,\none Maelmuiri, whom we know to have been killed by robbers in the church\nof Clonmacnois in the year 1106.\n\nFar more voluminous, and but little less ancient, is the Book of\nLeinster, said to have been compiled in the early part of the twelfth\ncentury by Finn mac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare. This also contains an\naccount of Cuchulainn\u2019s mighty deeds which supplements the older version\nin the Book of the Dun Cow. Of somewhat less importance from the point\nof view of the student of Gaelic mythology come the Book of Ballymote\nand the Yellow Book of Lecan, belonging to the end of the fourteenth\ncentury, and the Books of Lecan and of Lismore, both attributed to the\nfifteenth. Besides these six great collections, there survive many other\nmanuscripts which also contain ancient mythical lore. In one of these,\ndating from the fifteenth century, is to be found the story of the\nBattle of Moytura, fought between the gods of Ireland and their enemies,\nthe Fomors, or demons of the deep sea.\n\nThe Scottish manuscripts, preserved in the Advocates\u2019 Library at\nEdinburgh, date back in some cases as far as the fourteenth century,\nthough the majority of them belong to the fifteenth and sixteenth. They\ncorroborate the Irish documents, add to the Cuchulainn saga, and make a\nmore special subject of the other heroic cycle, that which relates the\nnot less wonderful deeds of Finn, Ossian, and the Fenians. They also\ncontain stories of other characters, who, more ancient than either Finn\nor Cuchulainn, are the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, the god-tribe of the ancient\nGaels.\n\nThe Welsh documents cover about the same period as the Irish and the\nScottish. Four of these stand out from the rest, as most important. The\noldest is the Black Book of Caermarthen, which dates from the third\nquarter of the twelfth century; the Book of Aneurin, which was written\nlate in the thirteenth; the Book of Taliesin, assigned to the\nfourteenth; and the Red Book of Hergest, compiled by various persons\nduring that century and the one following it. The first three of these\n\u201cFour Ancient Books of Wales\u201d are small in size, and contain poems\nattributed to the great traditional bards of the sixth century, Myrddin,\nTaliesin, and Aneurin. The last\u2014the Red Book of Hergest\u2014is far larger.\nIn it are to be found Welsh translations of the British Chronicles; the\noft-mentioned Triads, verses celebrating famous traditionary persons or\nthings; ancient poems attributed to Llywarch H\u00ean; and, of priceless\nvalue to any study of our subject, the so-called Mabinogion, stories in\nwhich large portions of the old British mythology are worked up into\nromantic form.\n\nThe whole bulk, therefore, of the native literature bearing upon the\nmythology of the British Islands may be attributed to a period which\nlasted from the beginning of the twelfth century to the end of the\nsixteenth. But even the commencement of this era will no doubt seem far\ntoo late a day to allow authenticity to matter which ought to have\nvastly preceded it. The date, however, merely marks the final redaction\nof the contents of the manuscripts into the form in which they now\nexist, without bearing at all upon the time of their authorship.\nAvowedly copies of ancient poems and tales from much older manuscripts,\nthe present books no more fix the period of the original composition of\ntheir contents than the presence of a portion of the _Canterbury Tales_\nin a modern anthology of English poetry would assign Chaucer to the\npresent year of grace.\n\nThis may be proved both directly and inferentially.[5] In some\ninstances\u2014as in that of an elegy upon Saint Columba in the Book of the\nDun Cow\u2014the dates of authorship are actually given. In others, we may\ndepend upon evidence which, if not quite so absolute, is nearly as\nconvincing. Even where the writer does not state that he is copying from\nolder manuscripts, it is obvious that this must have been the case, from\nthe glosses in his version. The scribes of the earlier Gaelic\nmanuscripts very often found, in the documents from which they\nthemselves were copying, words so archaic as to be unintelligible to the\nreaders of their own period. To render them comprehensible, they were\nobliged to insert marginal notes which explained these obsolete words by\nreference to other manuscripts more ancient still. Often the medi\u00e6val\ncopyists have ignorantly moved these notes from the margin into the\ntext, where they remain, like philological fossils, to give evidence of\nprevious forms of life. The documents from which they were taken have\nperished, leaving the medi\u00e6val copies as their sole record. In the Welsh\nMabinogion the same process is apparent. Peculiarities in the existing\nmanuscripts show plainly enough that they must have been copied from\nsome more archaic text. Besides this, they are, as they at present\nstand, obviously made up of earlier tales pieced together. Almost as\nclearly as the Gaelic manuscripts, the Welsh point us back to older and\nmore primitive forms.\n\nThe ancient legends of the Gael and the Briton are thus shown to have\nbeen no mere inventions of scholarly monks in the Middle Ages. We have\nnow to trace, if possible, the date, not necessarily of their first\nappearance on men\u2019s lips, but of their first redaction into writing in\napproximately the form in which we have them now.\n\nCircumstantial evidence can be adduced to prove that the most important\nportions both of Gaelic and British early literature can be safely\nrelegated to a period of several centuries prior to their now-existing\nrecord. Our earliest version of the episode of the _T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgn\u00e9_,\nwhich is the nucleus and centre of the ancient Gaelic heroic cycle of\nwhich Cuchulainn, _fortissimus heros Scotorum_, is the principal figure,\nis found in the twelfth-century Book of the Dun Cow. But legend tells us\nthat at the beginning of the seventh century the Saga had not only been\ncomposed, but had actually become so obsolete as to have been forgotten\nby the bards. Their leader, one Senchan Torpeist, a historical\ncharacter, and chief bard of Ireland at that time, obtained permission\nfrom the Saints to call Fergus, Cuchulainn\u2019s contemporary, and a chief\nactor in the \u201cRaid\u201d, from the dead, and received from the resurrected\nhero a true and full version. This tradition, dealing with a real\npersonage, surely shows that the story of the _T\u00e1in_ was known before\nthe time of Senchan, and probably preserves the fact, either that his\nversion of Cuchulainn\u2019s famous deeds became the accepted one, or that he\nwas the first to reduce it to writing. An equally suggestive\nconsideration approximately fixes for us the earliest redaction of the\nWelsh mythological prose tales called the \u201cMabinogion\u201d, or, more\ncorrectly speaking, the \u201cFour Branches of the Mabinogi\u201d.[6] In none of\nthese is there the slightest mention, or apparently the least knowledge,\nof Arthur, around whom and whose supposed contemporaries centres the\nmass of British legend as it was transmitted by the Welsh to the\nNormans. These mysterious mythological records must in all probability,\ntherefore, antedate the Arthurian cycle of myth, which was already being\nput into form in the sixth century. On the other hand, the characters of\nthe \u201cFour Branches\u201d are mentioned without comment\u2014as though they were\npersonages with whom no one could fail to be familiar\u2014in the supposed\nsixth-century poems contained in those \u201cFour Ancient Books of Wales\u201d in\nwhich are found the first meagre references to the British hero.\n\nSuch considerations as these throw back, with reasonable certainty, the\nexistence of the Irish and Welsh poems and prose tales, in something\nlike their present shape, to a period antedating the seventh century.\n\nBut this, again, means only that the myths, traditions, and legends were\ncurrent at that to us early, but to them, in their actual substance,\nlate date, in literary form. A mythology must always be far older than\nthe oldest verses and stories that celebrate it. Elaborate poems and\nsagas are not made in a day, or in a year. The legends of the Gaelic and\nBritish gods and heroes could not have sprung, like Athena from the head\nof Zeus, full-born out of some poet\u2019s brain. The bard who first put them\ninto artistic shape was setting down the primitive traditions of his\nrace. We may therefore venture to describe them as not of the twelfth\ncentury or of the seventh, but as of a prehistoric and immemorial\nantiquity.\n\nInternal evidence bears this out. An examination of both the Gaelic and\nBritish legendary romances shows, under embellishing details added by\nlater hands, an inner core of primeval thought which brings them into\nline with the similar ideas of other races in the earliest stage of\nculture. Their \u201clocal colour\u201d may be that of their last \u201ceditor\u201d, but\ntheir \u201cplots\u201d are pre-medi\u00e6val, pre-Christian, pre-historic. The\ncharacters of early Gaelic legend belong to the same stamp of\nimagination that created Olympian and Titan, \u00c6sir and J\u00f6tun. We must go\nfar to the back of civilized thought to find parallels to such a story\nas that in which the British sun-god, struck by a rival in love with a\npoisoned spear, is turned into an eagle, from whose wound great pieces\nof carrion are continually failing.[7]\n\nThis aspect of the Celtic literary records was clearly seen, and\neloquently expressed, by Matthew Arnold in his _Study of Celtic\nLiterature_.[8] He was referring to the Welsh side, but his image holds\ngood equally for the Gaelic. \u201cThe first thing that strikes one\u201d, he\nsays, \u201cin reading the _Mabinogion_ is how evidently the medi\u00e6val\nstory-teller is pillaging an antiquity of which he does not fully\npossess the secret: he is like a peasant building his hut on the site of\nHalicarnassus or Ephesus; he builds, but what he builds is full of\nmaterials of which he knows not the history, or knows by a glimmering\ntradition merely: stones \u2018not of this building\u2019, but of an older\narchitecture, greater, cunninger, more majestical.\u201d His heroes \u201care no\nmedi\u00e6val personages: they belong to an older, pagan, mythological\nworld\u201d. So, too, with the figures, however euhemerized, of the three\ngreat Gaelic cycles: that of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, of the Heroes of\nUlster, of Finn and the Fenians. Their divinity outshines their\nhumanity; through their masks may be seen the faces of gods.\n\nYet, gods as they are, they had taken on the semblance of mortality by\nthe time their histories were fixed in the form in which we have them\nnow. Their earliest records, if those could be restored to us, would\ndoubtless show them eternal and undying, changing their shapes at will,\nbut not passing away. But the post-Christian copyists, whether Irish or\nWelsh, would not countenance this. Hence we have the singular paradox of\nthe deaths of Immortals. There is hardly one of the figures of either\nthe Gaelic or the British Pantheon whose demise is not somewhere\nrecorded. Usually they fell in the unceasing battles between the\ndivinities of darkness and of light. Their deaths in earlier cycles of\nmyth, however, do not preclude their appearance in later ones. Only,\nindeed, with the closing of the lips of the last mortal who preserved\nhis tradition can the life of a god be truly said to end.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 5:\n\n Satisfactory summaries of the evidence for the dates of both the\n Gaelic and Welsh legendary material will be found in pamphlets No. 8\n and 11 of Mr. Nutt\u2019s _Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and\n Folklore_.\n\nFootnote 6:\n\n Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, chap. I.\n\nFootnote 7:\n\n See chap. XVI of this book\u2014\u201cThe Gods of the Britons\u201d.\n\nFootnote 8:\n\n Lecture II.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n WHO WERE THE \u201cANCIENT BRITONS\u201d?\n\n\nBut, before proceeding to recount the myths of the \u201cAncient Britons\u201d, it\nwill be well to decide what people, exactly, we mean by that loose but\nconvenient phrase. We have, all of us, vague ideas of Ancient Britons,\nrecollected, doubtless, from our school-books. There we saw their\npictures as, painted with woad, they paddled coracles, or drove scythed\nchariots through legions of astonished Romans. Their Druids,\nwhite-bearded and wearing long, white robes, cut the mistletoe with a\ngolden sickle at the time of the full moon, or, less innocently\nemployed, made bonfires of human beings shut up in gigantic figures of\nwicker-work.\n\nSuch picturesque details were little short of the sum-total, not only of\nour own knowledge of the subject, but also of that of our teachers.\nPractically all their information concerning the ancient inhabitants of\nBritain was taken from the Commentaries of Julius Caesar. So far as it\nwent, it was no doubt correct; but it did not go far. Caesar\u2019s interest\nin our British ancestors was that of a general who was his own\nwar-correspondent rather than that of an exhaustive and painstaking\nscientist. It has been reserved for modern arch\u00e6ologists, philologists,\nand ethnologists to give us a fuller account of the Ancient Britons.\n\nThe inhabitants of our islands previous to the Roman invasion are\ngenerally described as \u201cCelts\u201d. But they must have been largely a mixed\nrace; and the people with whom they mingled must have modified to\nsome\u2014and perhaps to a large\u2014extent their physique, their customs, and\ntheir language.\n\nSpeculation has run somewhat wild over the question of the composition\nof the Early Britons. But out of the clash of rival theories there\nemerges one\u2014and one only\u2014which may be considered as scientifically\nestablished. We have certain proof of two distinct human stocks in the\nBritish Islands at the time of the Roman Conquest; and so great an\nauthority as Professor Huxley has given his opinion that there is no\nevidence of any others.[9]\n\nThe earliest of these two races would seem to have inhabited our islands\nfrom the most ancient times, and may, for our purpose, be described as\naboriginal. It was the people that built the \u201clong barrows\u201d; and which\nis variously called by ethnologists the Iberian, Mediterranean, Berber,\nBasque, Silurian, or Euskarian race. In physique it was short, swarthy,\ndark-haired, dark-eyed, and long-skulled; its language belonged to the\nclass called \u201cHamitic\u201d, the surviving types of which are found among the\nGallas, Abyssinians, Berbers, and other North African tribes; and it\nseems to have come originally from some part either of Eastern,\nNorthern, or Central Africa. Spreading thence, it was probably the first\npeople to inhabit the Valley of the Nile, and it sent offshoots into\nSyria and Asia Minor. The earliest Hellenes found it in Greece under the\nname of \u201cPelasgoi\u201d; the earliest Latins in Italy, as the \u201cEtruscans\u201d;\nand the Hebrews in Palestine, as the \u201cHittites\u201d. It spread northward\nthrough Europe as far as the Baltic, and westward, along the Atlas\nchain, to Spain, France, and our own islands.[10] In many countries it\nreached a comparatively high level of civilization, but in Britain its\ndevelopment must have been early checked. We can discern it as an\nagricultural rather than a pastoral people, still in the Stone Age,\ndwelling in totemistic tribes on hills whose summits it fortified\nelaborately, and whose slopes it cultivated on what is called the\n\u201cterrace system\u201d, and having a primitive culture which ethnologists\nthink to have much resembled that of the present hill-tribes of Southern\nIndia.[11] It held our islands till the coming of the Celts, who fought\nwith the aborigines, dispossessed them of the more fertile parts,\nsubjugated them, even amalgamated with them, but certainly never\nextirpated them. In the time of the Romans they were still practically\nindependent in South Wales. In Ireland they were long unconquered, and\nare found as allies rather than serfs of the Gaels, ruling their own\nprovinces, and preserving their own customs and religion. Nor, in spite\nof all the successive invasions of Great Britain and Ireland, are they\nyet extinct, or so merged as to have lost their type, which is still the\npredominant one in many parts of the west both of Britain and Ireland,\nand is believed by some ethnologists to be generally upon the increase\nall over England.\n\nThe second of the two races was the exact opposite to the first. It was\nthe tall, fair, light-haired, blue- or gray-eyed, broad-headed people\ncalled, popularly, the \u201cCelts\u201d, who belonged in speech to the \u201cAryan\u201d\nfamily, their language finding its affinities in Latin, Greek, Teutonic,\nSlavic, the Zend of Ancient Persia, and the Sanscrit of Ancient India.\nIts original home was probably somewhere in Central Europe, along the\ncourse of the upper Danube, or in the region of the Alps. The \u201cround\nbarrows\u201d in which it buried its dead, or deposited their burnt ashes,\ndiffer in shape from the \u201clong barrows\u201d of the earlier race. It was in a\nhigher stage of culture than the \u201cIberians\u201d, and introduced into Britain\nbronze and silver, and, perhaps, some of the more lately domesticated\nanimals.\n\nBoth Iberians and Celts were divided into numerous tribes, but there is\nnothing to show that there was any great diversity among the former. It\nis otherwise with the Celts, who were separated into two main branches\nwhich came over at different times. The earliest were the Goidels, or\nGaels; the second, the Brythons, or Britons. Between these two branches\nthere was not only a dialectical, but probably, also, a considerable\nphysical difference. Some anthropologists even postulate a different\nshape of skull. Without necessarily admitting this, there is reason to\nsuppose a difference of build and of colour of hair. With regard to\nthis, we have the evidence of Latin writers\u2014of Tacitus,[12] who tells us\nthat the \u201cCaledonians\u201d of the North differed from the Southern Britons\nin being larger-limbed and redder-haired, and of Strabo,[13] who\ndescribed the tribes in the interior of Britain as taller than the\nGaulish colonists on the coast, with hair less yellow and limbs more\nloosely knit. Equally do the classic authorities agree in recognizing\nthe \u201cSilures\u201d of South Wales as an entirely different race from any\nother in Britain. The dark complexions and curly hair of these Iberians\nseemed to Tacitus to prove them immigrants from Spain.[14]\n\nProfessor Rhys also puts forward evidence to show that the Goidels and\nthe Brythons had already separated before they first left Gaul for our\nislands.[15] He finds them as two distinct peoples there. We do not\nexpect so much nowadays from \u201cthe merest school-boy\u201d as we did in\nMacaulay\u2019s time, but even the modern descendant of that paragon could\nprobably tell us that all Gaul was divided into three parts, one of\nwhich was inhabited by the Belgae, another by the Aquitani, and the\nthird by those who called themselves Celtae, but were termed Galli by\nthe Romans; and that they all differed from one another in language,\ncustoms, and laws.[16] Of these, Professor Rhys identifies the Belgae\nwith the Brythons, and the Celtae with the Goidels, the third people,\nthe Aquitani, being non-Celtic and non-Aryan, part of the great\nHamitic-speaking Iberian stock.[17] The Celtae, with their Goidelic\ndialect of Celtic, which survives to-day in the Gaelic languages of\nIreland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, were the first to come over to\nBritain, pushed forward, probably, by the Belgae, who, Caesar tells us,\nwere the bravest of the Gauls.[18] Here they conquered the native\nIberians, driving them out of the fertile parts into the rugged\ndistricts of the north and west. Later came the Belgae themselves,\ncompelled by press of population; and they, bringing better weapons and\na higher civilization, treated the Goidels as those had treated the\nIberians. Thus harried, the Goidels probably combined with the Iberians\nagainst what was now the common foe, and became to a large degree\namalgamated with them. The result was that during the Roman domination\nthe British Islands were roughly divided with regard to race as follows:\nThe Brythons, or second Celtic race, held all Britain south of the\nTweed, with the exception of the extreme west, while the first Celtic\nrace, the Goidelic, had most of Ireland, as well as the Isle of Man,\nCumberland, the West Highlands, Cornwall, Devon, and North Wales. North\nof the Grampians lived the Picts, who were probably more or less\nGoidelicized Iberians, the aboriginal race also holding out, unmixed, in\nSouth Wales and parts of Ireland.\n\nIt is now time to decide what, for the purposes of this book, it will be\nbest to call the two different branches of the Celts, and their\nlanguages. With such familiar terms as \u201cGael\u201d and \u201cBriton\u201d, \u201cGaelic\u201d and\n\u201cBritish\u201d, ready to our hands, it seems pedantic to insist upon the more\ntechnical \u201cGoidel\u201d and \u201cBrython\u201d, \u201cGoidelic\u201d and \u201cBrythonic\u201d. The\ndifficulty is that the words \u201cGael\u201d and \u201cGaelic\u201d have been so long\npopularly used to designate only the modern \u201cGoidels\u201d of Scotland and\ntheir language, that they may create confusion when also applied to the\npeople and languages of Ireland and the Isle of Man. Similarly, the\nwords \u201cBriton\u201d and \u201cBritish\u201d have come to mean, at the present day, the\npeople of the whole of the British Islands, though they at first only\nsignified the inhabitants of England, Central Wales, the Lowlands of\nScotland, and the Brythonic colony in Brittany. However, the words\n\u201cGoidel\u201d and \u201cBrython\u201d, with their derivatives, are so clumsy that it\nwill probably prove best to use the neater terms. In this volume,\ntherefore, the \u201cGoidels\u201d of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man are\nour \u201cGaels\u201d and the \u201cBrythons\u201d of England and Wales are our \u201cBritons\u201d.\n\nWe get the earliest accounts of the life of the inhabitants of the\nBritish Islands from two sources. The first is a foreign one, that of\nthe Latin writers. But the Romans only really knew the Southern Britons,\nwhom they describe as similar in physique and customs to the Continental\nGauls, with whom, indeed, they considered them to be identical.[19] At\nthe time they wrote, colonies of Belgae were still settling upon the\ncoasts of Britain opposite to Gaul.[20] Roman information grew scantier\nas it approached the Wall, and of the Northern tribes they seem to have\nhad only such knowledge as they gathered through occasional warfare with\nthem. They describe them as entirely barbarous, naked and tattooed,\nliving by the chase alone, without towns, houses, or fields, without\ngovernment or family life, and regarding iron as an ornament of value,\nas other, more civilized peoples regarded gold.[21] As for Ireland, it\nnever came under their direct observation, and we are entirely dependent\nupon its native writers for information as to the manners and customs of\nthe Gaels. It may be considered convincing proof of the authenticity of\nthe descriptions of life contained in the ancient Gaelic manuscripts\nthat they corroborate so completely the observations of the Latin\nwriters upon the Britons and Gauls. Reading the two side by side, we may\nlargely reconstruct the common civilization of the Celts.\n\nRoughly speaking, one may compare it with the civilization of the\nGreeks, as described by Homer.[22] Both peoples were in the tribal and\npastoral stage of culture, in which the chiefs are the great\ncattle-owners round whom their less wealthy fellows gather. Both wear\nmuch the same attire, use the same kind of weapons, and fight in the\nsame manner\u2014from the war-chariot, a vehicle already obsolete even in\nIreland by the first century of the Christian era. Battles are fought\nsingle-handed between chiefs, the ill-armed common people contributing\nlittle to their result, and less to their history. Such chiefs are said\nto be divinely descended\u2014sons, even, of the immortal gods. Their\ntremendous feats are sung by the bards, who, like the Homeric poets,\nwere privileged persons, inferior only to the war-lord. Ancient Greek\nand Ancient Celt had very much the same conceptions of life, both as\nregards this world and the next.\n\nWe may gather much detailed information of the early inhabitants of the\nBritish Islands from our various authorities.[23] Their clothes, which\nconsisted, according to the Latin writers, of a blouse with sleeves,\ntrousers fitting closely round the ankles, and a shawl or cloak,\nfastened at the shoulder with a brooch, were made either of thick felt\nor of woven cloth dyed with various brilliant colours. The writer\nDiodorus tells us that they were crossed with little squares and lines,\n\u201cas though they had been sprinkled with flowers\u201d. They were, in fact,\nlike \u201ctartans\u201d, and we may believe Varro, who tells us that they \u201cmade a\ngaudy show\u201d. The men alone seem to have worn hats, which were of soft\nfelt, the women\u2019s hair being uncovered, and tied in a knot behind. In\ntime of battle, the men also dispensed with any head-covering, brushing\ntheir abundant hair forward into a thick mass, and dyeing it red with a\nsoap made of goat\u2019s fat and beech ashes, until they looked (says\nCicero\u2019s tutor Posidonius, who visited Britain about 110 B.C.) less like\nhuman beings than wild men of the woods. Both sexes were fond of\nornaments, which took the form of gold bracelets, rings, pins, and\nbrooches, and of beads of amber, glass, and jet. Their knives, daggers,\nspear-heads, axes, and swords were made of bronze or iron; their shields\nwere the same round target used by the Highlanders at the battle of\nCulloden; and they seem also to have had a kind of lasso to which a\nhammer-shaped ball was attached, and which they used as the Gauchos of\nSouth America use their _bola_. Their war-chariots were made of wicker,\nthe wooden wheels being armed with sickles of bronze. These were drawn\neither by two or four horses, and were large enough to hold several\npersons in each. Standing in these, they rushed along the enemy\u2019s lines,\nhurling darts, and driving the scythes against all who came within\nreach. The Romans were much impressed by the skill of the drivers, who\n\u201ccould check their horses at full speed on a steep incline, and turn\nthem in an instant, and could run along the pole, and stand on the yoke,\nand then get back into their chariots again without a moment\u2019s\ndelay\u201d.[24]\n\nWith these accounts of the Roman writers we may compare the picture of\nthe Gaelic hero, Cuchulainn, as the ancient Irish writers describe him\ndressed and armed for battle. Glorified by the bard, he yet wears\nessentially the same costume and equipment which the classic historians\nand geographers described more soberly. \u201cHis gorgeous raiment that he\nwore in great conventions\u201d consisted of \u201ca fair crimson tunic of five\nplies and fringed, with a long pin of white silver, gold-enchased and\npatterned, shining as if it had been a luminous torch which for its\nblazing property and brilliance men might not endure to see. Next his\nskin, a body-vest of silk, bordered and fringed all round with gold,\nwith silver, and with white bronze, which vest came as far as the upper\nedge of his russet-coloured kilt.... About his neck were a hundred\nlinklets of red gold that flashed again, with pendants hanging from\nthem. His head-gear was adorned with a hundred mixed carbuncle jewels,\nstrung.\u201d He carried \u201ca trusty special shield, in hue dark crimson, and\nin its circumference armed with a pure white silver rim. At his left\nside a long and golden-hilted sword. Beside him, in the chariot, a\nlengthy spear; together with a keen, aggression-boding javelin, fitted\nwith hurling thong, with rivets of white bronze.\u201d[25] Another passage of\nGaelic saga describes his chariot. It was made of fine wood, with\nwicker-work, moving on wheels of white bronze. It had a high rounded\nframe of creaking copper, a strong curved yoke of gold, and a pole of\nwhite silver, with mountings of white bronze. The yellow reins were\nplaited, and the shafts were as hard and straight as sword-blades.[26]\n\nIn like manner the ancient Irish writers have made glorious the halls\nand fortresses of their mythical kings. Like the palaces of Priam, of\nMenelaus, and of Odysseus, they gleam with gold and gems. Conchobar,[27]\nthe legendary King of Ulster in its golden age, had three such \u201chouses\u201d\nat Emain Macha. Of the one called the \u201cRed Branch\u201d, we are told that it\ncontained nine compartments of red yew, partitioned by walls of bronze,\nall grouped around the king\u2019s private chamber, which had a ceiling of\nsilver, and bronze pillars adorned with gold and carbuncles.[28] But the\nfar less magnificent accounts of the Latin writers have, no doubt, more\ntruth in them than such lavish pictures. They described the Britons they\nknew as living in villages of bee-hive huts, roofed with fern or thatch,\nfrom which, at the approach of an enemy, they retired to the local\n_d\u00fan_. This, so far from being elaborate, merely consisted of a round or\noval space fenced in with palisades and earthworks, and situated either\nupon the top of a hill or in the midst of a not easily traversable\nmorass.[29] We may see the remains of such strongholds in many parts of\nEngland\u2014notable ones are the \u201ccastles\u201d of Amesbury, Avebury, and Old\nSarum in Wiltshire, Saint Catherine\u2019s Hill, near Winchester, and Saint\nGeorge\u2019s Hill, in Surrey\u2014and it is probable that, in spite of the Celtic\npraisers of past days, the \u201cpalaces\u201d of Emain Macha and of Tara were\nvery like them.\n\nThe Celtic customs were, like the Homeric, those of the primitive world.\nAll land (though it may have theoretically belonged to the chief) was\ncultivated in common. This community of possessions is stated by\nCaesar[30] to have extended to their wives; but the imputation cannot be\nsaid to have been proved. On the contrary, in the stories of both\nbranches of the Celtic race, women seem to have taken a higher place in\nmen\u2019s estimation, and to have enjoyed far more personal liberty, than\namong the Homeric Greeks. The idea may have arisen from a\nmisunderstanding of some of the curious Celtic customs. Descent seems to\nhave been traced through the maternal rather than through the paternal\nline, a very un-Aryan procedure which some believe to have been borrowed\nfrom another race. The parental relation was still further lessened by\nthe custom of sending children to be brought up outside the family in\nwhich they were born, so that they had foster-parents to whom they were\nas much, or even more, attached than to their natural ones.\n\nTheir political state, mirroring their family life, was not less\nprimitive. There was no central tribunal. Disputes were settled within\nthe families in which they occurred, while, in the case of graver\ninjuries, the injured party or his nearest relation could kill the\nculprit or exact a fine from him. As families increased in number, they\nbecame petty tribes, often at war with one another. A defeated tribe had\nto recognize the sovereignty of the head man of the conquering tribe,\nand a succession of such victories exalted him into the position of a\nchief of his district. But even then, though his decision was the whole\nof the law, he was little more than the mouthpiece of public opinion.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 9:\n\n Huxley: _On Some Fixed Points in British Ethnology_. 1871.\n\nFootnote 10:\n\n Sergi: _The Mediterranean Race_.\n\nFootnote 11:\n\n Gomme: _The Village Community_. Chap. IV\u2014\u201cThe non-Aryan Elements in\n the English Village Community\u201d.\n\nFootnote 12:\n\n Tacitus: _Agricola_, chap. XI.\n\nFootnote 13:\n\n Strabo: _Geographica_, Book IV, chap. V.\n\nFootnote 14:\n\n Tacitus, _op. cit._\n\nFootnote 15:\n\n Rhys: _The Early Ethnology of the British Islands_. _Scottish Review._\n April, 1890.\n\nFootnote 16:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book I, chap. I.\n\nFootnote 17:\n\n Rhys: _Scottish Review_. April, 1890.\n\nFootnote 18:\n\n Op. Caesar, _op. cit._\n\nFootnote 19:\n\n Tacitus: _Agricola_, chap. XI.\n\nFootnote 20:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book V, chap. XII.\n\nFootnote 21:\n\n Elton: _Origins of English History_, chap. VII.\n\nFootnote 22:\n\n See \u201c_La Civilisation des Celtes et celle de l\u2019\u00c9pop\u00e9e Hom\u00e9rique_\u201d, by\n M. d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de Litt\u00e9rature Celtique_, Vol. VI.\n\nFootnote 23:\n\n See Elton: _Origins of English History_, chap. VII.\n\nFootnote 24:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book IV, chap. XXXIII.\n\nFootnote 25:\n\n From the _T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgn\u00e9_. The translator is Mr. Standish Hayes\n O\u2019Grady.\n\nFootnote 26:\n\n _Tochmarc Emire_\u2014the _Wooing of Emer_\u2014an old Irish romance.\n\nFootnote 27:\n\n Sometimes spelt \u201cConachar\u201d, and pronounced _Conhower_ or _Connor_.\n\nFootnote 28:\n\n The _Wooing of Emer_.\n\nFootnote 29:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book V, chap. XXI, and various passages in\n Book VII.\n\nFootnote 30:\n\n _Ibid._, chap. XIV.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS AND\n DRUIDISM\n\n\nThe ancient inhabitants of Britain\u2014the Gaelic and British Celts\u2014have\nbeen already described as forming a branch of what are roughly called\nthe \u201cAryans\u201d. This name has, however, little reference to race, and\nreally signifies the speakers of a group of languages which can be all\nshown to be connected, and to descend remotely from a single source\u2014a\nhypothetical mother-tongue spoken by a hypothetical people which we term\n\u201cAryan\u201d, or, more correctly, \u201cIndo-European\u201d. This primeval speech,\nevolved, probably, upon some part of the great plain which stretches\nfrom the mountains of Central Europe to the mountains of Central Asia,\nhas spread, superseding, or amalgamating with the tongues of other\nraces, until branches of it are spoken over almost the whole of Europe\nand a great portion of Asia. All the various Latin, Greek, Slavic,\nTeutonic, and Celtic languages are \u201cAryan\u201d, as well as Persian and other\nAsiatic dialects derived from the ancient \u201cZend\u201d, and the numerous\nIndian languages which trace their origin to Sanscrit.\n\nNot very long ago, it was supposed that this common descent of language\ninvolved a common descent of blood. A real brotherhood was\nenthusiastically claimed for all the principal European nations, who\nwere also invited to recognize Hindus and Persians as their long-lost\ncousins. Since then, it has been conceded that, while the Aryan speech\nsurvived, though greatly modified, the Aryan blood might well have\ndisappeared, diluted beyond recognition by crossing with the other races\nwhom the Aryans conquered, or among whom they more or less peacefully\nsettled. As a matter of fact, there are no European nations\u2014perhaps no\npeople at all except a few remote savage tribes\u2014which are not made up of\nthe most diverse elements. Aryan and non-Aryan long ago blended\ninextricably, to form by their fusion new peoples.\n\nBut, just as the Aryan speech influenced the new languages, and the\nAryan customs the new civilizations, so we can still discern in the\nreligions of the Aryan-speaking nations similar ideas and expressions\npointing to an original source of mythological conceptions. Hence,\nwhether we investigate the mythology of the Hindus, the Greeks, the\nTeutons, or the Celts, we find the same mythological groundwork. In\neach, we see the powers of nature personified, and endowed with human\nform and attributes, though bearing, with few exceptions, different\nnames. Like the Vedic brahmans, the Greek and Latin poets, and the Norse\nscalds, the Celtic bards\u2014whether Gaels or Britons\u2014imagined the sky, the\nsun, the moon, the earth, the sea, and the dark underworld, as well as\nthe mountains, the streams and the woods, to be ruled by beings like\ntheir own chiefs, but infinitely more powerful; every passion, as War\nand Love, and every art, as Poetry and Smithcraft, had its divine\nfounder, teacher, and exponent; and of all these deities and their\nimagined children, they wove the poetical and allegorical romances which\nform the subject of the present volume.\n\nLike other nations, too, whether Aryan or non-Aryan, the Celts had,\nbesides their mythology, a religion. It is not enough to tell tales of\nshadowy gods; they must be made visible by sculpture, housed in groves\nor temples, served with ritual, and propitiated with sacrifices, if one\nis to hope for their favours. Every cult must have its priests living by\nthe altar.\n\nThe priests of the Celts are well-known to us by name as the \u201cDruids\u201d\u2014a\nword derived from a root DR which signifies a tree, and especially the\noak, in several Aryan languages.[31] This is generally\u2014though not by all\nscholars\u2014taken as proving that they paid an especial veneration to the\nking of trees. It is true that the mistletoe\u2014that strange parasite upon\nthe oak\u2014was prominent among their \u201cherbs of power\u201d, and played a part in\ntheir ritual;[32] but this is equally true of other Aryan nations. By\nthe Norse it was held sacred to the god Balder, while the Romans\nbelieved it to be the \u201cgolden bough\u201d that gave access to Hades.[33]\n\nThe accounts both of the Latin and Gaelic writers give us a fairly\ncomplete idea of the nature of the Druids, and especially of the high\nestimation in which they were held. They were at once the priests, the\nphysicians, the wizards, the diviners, the theologians, the scientists,\nand the historians of their tribes. All spiritual power and all human\nknowledge were vested in them, and they ranked second only to the kings\nand chiefs. They were freed from all contribution to the State, whether\nby tribute or service in war, so that they might the better apply\nthemselves to their divine offices. Their decisions were absolutely\nfinal, and those who disobeyed them were laid under a terrible\nexcommunication or \u201cboycott\u201d.[34] Classic writers tell us how they\nlorded it in Gaul, where, no doubt, they borrowed splendour by imitating\ntheir more civilized neighbours. Men of the highest rank were proud to\ncast aside the insignia of mere mortal honour to join the company of\nthose who claimed to be the direct mediators with the sky-god and the\nthunder-god, and who must have resembled the ecclesiastics of medi\u00e6val\nEurope in the days of their greatest power, combining, like them,\nspiritual and temporal dignities, and possessing the highest culture of\ntheir age. Yet it was not among these Druids of Gaul, with their\nsplendid temples and vestments and their elaborate rituals, that the\nmetropolis of Druidism was to be sought. We learn from Caesar that the\nGallic Druids believed their religion to have come to them, originally,\nfrom Britain, and that it was their practice to send their \u201ctheological\nstudents\u201d across the Channel to learn its doctrines at their purest\nsource.[35] To trace a cult backwards is often to take a retrograde\ncourse in culture, and it was no doubt in Britain\u2014which Pliny the Elder\ntells us \u201cmight have taught magic to Persia\u201d[36]\u2014that the sufficiently\nprimitive and savage rites of the Druids of Gaul were preserved in their\nstill more savage and primitive forms. It is curious corroboration of\nthis alleged British origin of Druidism that the ancient Irish also\nbelieved their Druidism to have come from the sister island. Their\nheroes and seers are described as only gaining the highest knowledge by\ntravelling to Alba.[37] However this may be, we may take it as certain\nthat this Druidism was the accepted religion of the Celtic race.\n\nCertain scholars look deeper for its origin, holding its dark\nsuperstitions and savage rites to bear the stamp of lower minds than\nthose of the poetic and manly Celts. Professor Rhys inclines to see\nthree forms of religion in the British Islands at the time of the Roman\ninvasion: the \u201cDruidism\u201d of the Iberian aborigines; the pure polytheism\nof the Brythons, who, having come later into the country, had mixed but\nlittle with the natives; and the mingled Aryan and non-Aryan cults of\nthe Goidels, who were already largely amalgamated with them.[38] But\nmany authorities dissent from this view, and, indeed, we are not obliged\nto postulate borrowing from tribes in a lower state of culture, to\nexplain primitive and savage features underlying a higher religion. The\n\u201cAryan\u201d nations must have passed, equally with all others, through a\nstate of pure savagery; and we know that the religion of the Greeks, in\nmany respects so lofty, sheltered features and legends as barbarous as\nany that can be attributed to the Celts.[39]\n\nOf the famous teaching of the Druids we know little, owing to their\nhabit of never allowing their doctrines to be put into writing. Caesar,\nhowever, roughly records its scope. \u201cAs one of their leading dogmas\u201d, he\nsays, \u201cthey inculcate this: that souls are not annihilated, but pass\nafter death from one body to another, and they hold that by this\nteaching men are much encouraged to valour, through disregarding the\nfear of death. They also discuss and impart to the young many things\nconcerning the heavenly bodies and their movements, the size of the\nworld and of our earth, natural science, and of the influence and power\nof the immortal gods.\u201d[40] The Romans seem to have held their wisdom in\nsome awe, though it is not unlikely that the Druids themselves borrowed\nwhatever knowledge they may have had of science and philosophy from the\nclassical culture. That their creed of transmigration was not, however,\nmerely taken over from the Greeks seems certain from its appearance in\nthe ancient Gaelic myths. Not only the \u201cshape-shifting\u201d common to the\nmagic stories of all nations, but actual reincarnation was in the power\nof privileged beings. The hero Cuchulainn was urged by the men of Ulster\nto marry, because they knew \u201cthat his rebirth would be of himself\u201d,[41]\nand they did not wish so great a warrior to be lost to their tribe.\nAnother legend tells how the famous Finn mac Coul was reborn, after two\nhundred years, as an Ulster king called Mongan.[42]\n\nSuch ideas, however, belonged to the metaphysical side of Druidism. Far\nmore important to the practical primitive mind are ritual and sacrifice,\nby the due performance of which the gods are persuaded or compelled to\ngrant earth\u2019s increase and length of days to men. Among the Druids, this\nhumouring of the divinities took the shape of human sacrifice, and that\nupon a scale which would seem to have been unsurpassed in horror even by\nthe most savage tribes of West Africa or Polynesia. \u201cThe whole Gaulish\nnation\u201d, says Caesar, \u201cis to a great degree devoted to superstitious\nrites; and on this account those who are afflicted with severe diseases,\nor who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice human beings\nfor victims, or vow that they will immolate themselves, and these employ\nthe Druids as ministers for such sacrifices, because they think that,\nunless the life of man be repaid for the life of man, the will of the\nimmortal gods cannot be appeased. They also ordain national offerings of\nthe same kind. Others make wicker-work images of vast size, the limbs of\nwhich they fill with living men and set on fire.\u201d[43]\n\nWe find evidence of similarly awful customs in pagan Ireland. Among the\noldest Gaelic records are tracts called _Dinnsenchus_, in which famous\nplaces are enumerated, together with the legends relating to them. Such\ntopographies are found in several of the great Irish medi\u00e6val\nmanuscripts, and therefore, of course, received their final\ntranscription at the hands of Christian monks. But these ecclesiastics\nrarely tampered with compositions in elaborate verse. Nor can it be\nimagined that any monastic scribe could have invented such a legend as\nthis one which describes the practice of human sacrifice among the\nancient Irish. The poem (which is found in the Books of Leinster, of\nBallymote, of Lecan, and in a document called the Rennes MS.)[44]\nrecords the reason why a spot near the present village of Ballymagauran,\nin County Cavan, received the name of Mag Slecht, the \u201cPlain of\nAdoration\u201d.\n\n \u201cHere used to be\n A high idol with many fights,\n Which was named the Cromm Cruaich;\n It made every tribe to be without peace.\n\n \u201c\u2019Twas a sad evil!\n Brave Gaels used to worship it.\n From it they would not without tribute ask\n To be satisfied as to their portion of the hard world.\n\n \u201cHe was their god,\n The withered Cromm with many mists,\n The people whom he shook over every host,\n The everlasting kingdom they shall not have.\n\n \u201cTo him without glory\n They would kill their piteous, wretched offspring\n With much wailing and peril,\n To pour their blood around Cromm Cruaich.\n\n \u201cMilk and corn\n They would ask from him speedily\n In return for one-third of their healthy issue:\n Great was the horror and the scare of him.\n\n \u201cTo him\n Noble Gaels would prostrate themselves,\n From the worship of him, with many manslaughters,\n The plain is called \u201cMag Slecht\u201d.\n\n * * * * * * * * * *\n\n \u201cThey did evil,\n They beat their palms, they pounded their bodies,\n Wailing to the demon who enslaved them,\n They shed falling showers of tears.\n\n * * * * * * * * * *\n\n \u201cAround Cromm Cruaich\n There the hosts would prostrate themselves;\n Though he put them under deadly disgrace,\n Their name clings to the noble plain.\n\n \u201cIn their ranks (stood)\n Four times three stone idols;\n To bitterly beguile the hosts,\n The figure of the Cromm was made of gold.\n\n \u201cSince the rule\n Of Herimon[45], the noble man of grace,\n There was worshipping of stones\n Until the coming of good Patrick of Macha.\n\n \u201cA sledge-hammer to the Cromm\n He applied from crown to sole,\n He destroyed without lack of valour\n The feeble idol which was there.\u201d\n\nSuch, we gather from a tradition which we may deem authentic, was human\nsacrifice in early Ireland. According to the quoted verse, one third of\nthe healthy children were slaughtered, presumably every year, to wrest\nfrom the powers of nature the grain and grass upon which the tribes and\ntheir cattle subsisted. In a prose _dinnsenchus_ preserved in the Rennes\nMS.,[46] there is a slight variant. \u201c\u2019Tis there\u201d, (at Mag Slecht), it\nruns, \u201cwas the king idol of Erin, namely the Crom Croich, and around him\nwere twelve idols made of stones, but he was of gold. Until Patrick\u2019s\nadvent he was the god of every folk that colonized Ireland. To him they\nused to offer the firstlings of every issue and the chief scions of\nevery clan.\u201d The same authority also tells us that these sacrifices were\nmade at \u201cHallowe\u2019en\u201d, which took the place, in the Christian calendar,\nof the heathen _Samhain_\u2014\u201cSummer\u2019s End\u201d\u2014when the sun\u2019s power waned, and\nthe strength of the gods of darkness, winter, and the underworld grew\ngreat.\n\nWho, then, was this bloodthirsty deity? His name, _Cromm Cruaich_, means\nthe \u201cBowed One of the Mound\u201d, and was evidently applied to him only\nafter his fall from godhead. It relates to the tradition that, at the\napproach of the all-conquering Saint Patrick, the \u201cdemon\u201d fled from his\ngolden image, which thereupon sank forward in the earth in homage to the\npower that had come to supersede it.[47] But from another source we\nglean that the word _cromm_ was a kind of pun upon _cenn_, and that the\nreal title of the \u201cking idol of Erin\u201d was _Cenn Cruaich_, \u201cHead\u201d or\n\u201cLord\u201d of the Mound. Professor Rhys, in his _Celtic Heathendom_,[48]\nsuggests that he was probably the Gaelic heaven-god, worshipped, like\nthe Hellenic Zeus, upon \u201chigh places\u201d, natural or artificial. At any\nrate, we may see in him the god most revered by the Gaels, surrounded by\nthe other twelve chief members of their Pantheon.\n\nIt would appear probable that the Celtic State worship was what is\ncalled \u201csolar\u201d. All its chief festivals related to points in the sun\u2019s\nprogress, the equinoxes having been considered more important than the\nsolstices. It was at the spring equinox (called by the Celts\n\u201cBeltaine\u201d[49]) in every nineteenth year that, we learn from Diodorus\nthe Sicilian, a writer contemporary with Julius Caesar, Apollo himself\nappeared to his worshippers, and was seen harping and dancing in the sky\nuntil the rising of the Pleiades.[50] The other corresponding festival\nwas \u201cSamhain\u201d[51], the autumn equinox. As Beltaine marked the beginning\nof summer, so Samhain recorded its end. The summer solstice was also a\ngreat Celtic feast. It was held at the beginning of August in honour of\nthe god called Lugus by the Gauls, Lugh by the Gaels, and Lleu by the\nBritons\u2014the pan-Celtic Apollo, and, probably, when the cult of the\nwar-god had fallen from its early prominence, the chief figure of the\ncommon Pantheon.\n\nIt was doubtless at Stonehenge that the British Apollo was thus seen\nharping and dancing. That marvellous structure well corresponds to\nDiodorus\u2019s description of a \u201cmagnificent temple of Apollo\u201d which he\nlocates \u201cin the centre of Britain\u201d. \u201cIt is a circular enclosure,\u201d he\nsays, \u201cadorned with votive offerings and tablets with Greek inscriptions\nsuspended by travellers upon the walls. The rulers of the temple and\ncity are called \u2018Boread\u00e6\u2019[52], and they take up the government from each\nother according to the order of their tribes. The citizens are given up\nto music, harping and chanting in honour of the sun.\u201d[53] Stonehenge,\ntherefore, was a sacred religious centre, equally revered by and equally\nbelonging to all the British tribes\u2014a Rome or Jerusalem of our ancient\npaganism.\n\nThe same great gods were, no doubt, adored by all the Celts, not only of\nGreat Britain and Ireland, but of Continental Gaul as well. Sometimes\nthey can be traced by name right across the ancient Celtic world. In\nother cases, what is obviously the same personified power of nature is\nfound in various places with the same attributes, but with a different\ntitle. Besides these, there must have been a multitude of lesser gods,\nworshipped by certain tribes alone, to whom they stood as ancestors and\nguardians. \u201cI swear by the gods of my people\u201d, was the ordinary oath of\na hero in the ancient Gaelic sagas. The aboriginal tribes must also have\nhad their gods, whether it be true or not that their religion influenced\nthe Celtic Druidism. Professor Rhys inclines to see in the _genii\nlocorum_, the almost nameless spirits of well and river, mountain and\nwood\u2014shadowy remnants of whose cults survive to-day,\u2014members of a\nswarming Pantheon of the older Iberians.[54] These local beings would in\nno way conflict with the great Celtic nature-gods, and the two worships\ncould exist side by side, both even claiming the same votary. It needs\nthe stern faith of monotheism to deny the existence of the gods of\nothers. Polytheistic nations have seldom or never risen to such a\nheight. In their dealings with a conquered people, the conquerors\nnaturally held their own gods to be the stronger. Still, it could not be\ndenied that the gods of the conquered were upon their own ground; they\nknew, so to speak, the country, and might have unguessed powers of doing\nevil! What if, to avenge their worshippers and themselves, they were to\nmake the land barren and useless to the conquerors? So that conquering\npagan nations have usually been quite ready to stretch out the hand of\nwelcome to the deities of their new subjects, to propitiate them by\nsacrifice, and even to admit them within the pale of their own Pantheon.\n\nThis raises the question of the exact nationality of the gods whose\nstories we are about to tell. Were they all Aryan, or did any of the\ngreater aboriginal deities climb up to take their place among the Gaelic\ntribe of the goddess Danu, or the British children of the goddess D\u00f4n?\nSome of the Celtic gods have seemed to scholars to bear signs of a\nnon-Aryan origin.[55] The point, however, is at present very obscure.\nNeither does it much concern us. Just as the diverse deities of the\nGreeks\u2014some Aryan and Hellenic, some pre-Aryan and Pelasgian, some\nimported and Semitic\u2014were all gathered into one great divine family, so\nwe may consider as members of one national Olympus all these gods whose\nlegends make up \u201cThe Mythology of the British Islands\u201d.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 31:\n\n See Schrader: _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_, pp. 138,\n 272.\n\nFootnote 32:\n\n A description of the Druidical cult of the mistletoe is given by\n Pliny: _Natural History_, XVI, chap. XCV.\n\nFootnote 33:\n\n See Frazer: _The Golden Bough_, chap. IV.\n\nFootnote 34:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chaps. XIII, XIV. But for a full\n exposition of what is known of the Druids the reader is referred to M.\n d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville\u2019s _Introduction \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9tude de la Litt\u00e9rature\n Celtique_, Vol. I of his _Cours de Litt\u00e9rature Celtique_.\n\nFootnote 35:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chap. XIII.\n\nFootnote 36:\n\n Pliny: _Natural History_, XXX.\n\nFootnote 37:\n\n See chap. XII, _The Irish Iliad_.\n\nFootnote 38:\n\n Rhys: _Celtic Britain_, chap. II. See also Gomme: _Ethnology in\n Folk-lore_, pp. 58-62; _Village Community_, p. 104.\n\nFootnote 39:\n\n Abundant evidence of this is contained in Pausanias\u2019 _Description of\n Greece_.\n\nFootnote 40:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chap. XIV.\n\nFootnote 41:\n\n The _Wooing of Emer_.\n\nFootnote 42:\n\n It is contained in the Book of the Dun Cow, and has been translated or\n commented upon by Eugene O\u2019Curry (_Manners and Customs of the Ancient\n Irish_), De Jubainville (_Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_), and Nutt\n (_Voyage of Bran_).\n\nFootnote 43:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chap. XVI.\n\nFootnote 44:\n\n The following translation was made by Dr. Kuno Meyer, and appears as\n Appendix B to Nutt\u2019s _Voyage of Bran_. Three verses, here omitted,\n will be found later as a note to chap. XII\u2014\u201cThe Irish Iliad\u201d.\n\nFootnote 45:\n\n The first King of the Milesians. The name is more usually spelt\n Eremon.\n\nFootnote 46:\n\n The Rennes _Dinnsenchus_ has been translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes in\n Vol. XVI of the _Revue Celtique_.\n\nFootnote 47:\n\n Told in the Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick, a fifteenth-century\n combination of three very ancient Gaelic MSS.\n\nFootnote 48:\n\n The _Hibbert Lectures_ for 1886. Lecture II\u2014\u201cThe Zeus of the Insular\n Celts\u201d.\n\nFootnote 49:\n\n Pronounced _Baltinna_.\n\nFootnote 50:\n\n _Diodorus Siculus_: Book II, chap. III.\n\nFootnote 51:\n\n Pronounced _Sowin_.\n\nFootnote 52:\n\n It has been suggested that this title is an attempt to reproduce the\n ancient British word for \u201cbards\u201d.\n\nFootnote 53:\n\n _Diodorus Siculus_: Book II, chap. III.\n\nFootnote 54:\n\n _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886. Lecture I\u2014\u201cThe Gaulish Pantheon\u201d.\n\nFootnote 55:\n\n See Rhys: _Lectures on Welsh Philology_, pp. 426, 552, 653.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n THE GAELIC GODS AND THEIR\n STORIES\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n\n THE GODS OF THE GAELS\n\n\nOf the two Celtic races that settled in our islands, it is the earlier,\nthe Gaels, that has best preserved its old mythology. It is true that we\nhave in few cases such detailed account of the Gaelic gods as we gain of\nthe Hellenic deities from the Greek poets, of the Indian Devas from the\nRig Veda, or of the Norse \u00c6sir from the Eddas. Yet none the less may we\ndraw from the ancient Irish manuscripts quite enough information to\nenable us to set forth their figures with some clearness. We find them,\nas might have been anticipated, very much like the divine hierarchies of\nother Aryan peoples.\n\nWe also find them separated into two opposing camps, a division common\nto all the Aryan religions. Just as the Olympians struggled with the\nGiants, the \u00c6sir fought the J\u00f6tuns, and the Devas the Asuras, so there\nis warfare in the Gaelic spiritual world between two superhuman hosts.\nOn one side are ranged the gods of day, light, life, fertility, wisdom,\nand good; on the other, the demons of night, darkness, death,\nbarrenness, and evil. The first were the great spirits symbolizing the\nbeneficial aspects of nature and the arts and intelligence of man; the\nsecond were the hostile powers thought to be behind such baneful\nmanifestations as storm and fog, drought and disease. The first are\nranged as a divine family round a goddess called Danu, from whom they\ntook their well-known name of _Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann_,[56] \u201cTribe\u201d or \u201cFolk\nof the Goddess Danu\u201d. The second owned allegiance to a female divinity\ncalled Domnu; their king, Indech, is described as her son, and they are\nall called \u201cDomnu\u2019s gods\u201d. The word \u201cDomnu\u201d appears to have signified\nthe abyss or the deep sea,[57] and the same idea is also expressed in\ntheir better-known name of \u201cFomors\u201d, derived from two Gaelic words\nmeaning \u201cunder sea\u201d.[58] The waste of water seems to have always\nimpressed the Celts with the sense of primeval ancientness; it was\nconnected in their minds with vastness, darkness, and monstrous\nbirths\u2014the very antithesis of all that was symbolized by the earth, the\nsky, and the sun.\n\nTherefore the Fomors were held to be more ancient than the gods, before\nwhom they were, however, destined to fall in the end. Offspring of\n\u201cChaos and Old Night\u201d, they were, for the most part, huge and deformed.\nSome had but one arm and one leg apiece, while others had the heads of\ngoats, horses, or bulls.[59] The most famous, and perhaps the most\nterrible of them all was Balor, whose father is said to have been one\nBuarainech, that is, the \u201ccow-faced\u201d,[60] and who combined in himself\nthe two classical r\u00f4les of the Cyclops and the Medusa. Though he had two\neyes, one was always kept shut, for it was so venomous that it slew\nanyone on whom its look fell. This malignant quality of Balor\u2019s eye was\nnot natural to him, but was the result of an accident. Urged by\ncuriosity, he once looked in at the window of a house where his father\u2019s\nsorcerers were preparing a magic potion, and the poisonous smoke from\nthe cauldron reached his eye, infecting it with so much of its own\ndeadly nature as to make it disastrous to others. Neither god nor giant\nseems to have been exempt from its dangers; so that Balor was only\nallowed to live on condition that he kept his terrible eye shut. On days\nof battle he was placed opposite to the enemy, the lid of the destroying\neye was lifted up with a hook, and its gaze withered all who stood\nbefore it. The memory of Balor and his eye still lingers in Ireland: the\n\u201ceye of Balor\u201d is the name for what the peasantry of other countries\ncall the \u201cevil eye\u201d; stories are still told of _Balar Beimann_, or\n\u201cBalor of the Mighty Blows\u201d; and \u201cBalor\u2019s Castle\u201d is the name of a\ncurious cliff on Tory Island. This island, off the coast of Donegal, was\nthe Fomorian outpost upon earth, their real abode being in the cold\ndepths of the sea.\n\nThis rule, however, as to the hideousness of the Fomors had its\nexceptions. Elathan, one of their chiefs, is described in an old\nmanuscript as of magnificent presence\u2014a Miltonic prince of darkness. \u201cA\nman of fairest form,\u201d it says, \u201cwith golden hair down to his shoulders.\nHe wore a mantle of gold braid over a shirt interwoven with threads of\ngold. Five golden necklaces were round his neck, and a brooch of gold\nwith a shining precious stone thereon was on his breast. He carried two\nsilver spears with rivets of bronze, and his sword was golden-hilted and\ngolden-studded.\u201d[61] Nor was his son less handsome. His name was Bress,\nwhich means \u201cbeautiful\u201d, and we are told that every beautiful thing in\nIreland, \u201cwhether plain, or fortress, or ale, or torch, or woman, or\nman\u201d, was compared with him, so that men said of them, \u201cthat is a\nBress\u201d.[62]\n\nBalor, Bress, and Elathan are the three Fomorian personages whose\nfigures, seen through the mists of antiquity, show clearest to us. But\nthey are only a few out of many, nor are they the oldest. We can learn,\nhowever, nothing but a few names of any ancestors of the Gaelic giants.\nThis is equally true of the Gaelic gods. Those we know are evidently not\nwithout parentage, but the names of their fathers are no more than\nshadows following into oblivion the figures they designated. The most\nancient divinity of whom we have any knowledge is Danu herself, the\ngoddess from whom the whole hierarchy of gods received its name of\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann. She was also called Anu or Ana, and her name still\nclings to two well-known mountains near Killarney, which, though now\ncalled simply \u201cThe Paps\u201d, were known formerly as the \u201cPaps of Ana\u201d.[63]\nShe was the universal mother; \u201cwell she used to cherish the gods\u201d, says\nthe commentator of a ninth-century Irish glossary.[64] Her husband is\nnever mentioned by name, but one may assume him, from British analogies,\nto have been Bil\u00e9, known to Gaelic tradition as a god of Hades, a kind\nof Celtic Dis Pater from whom sprang the first men. Danu herself\nprobably represented the earth and its fruitfulness, and one might\ncompare her with the Greek Demeter. All the other gods are, at least by\ntitle, her children. The greatest of these would seem to have been\nNuada, called _Argetl\u00e1m_, or \u201cHe of the Silver Hand\u201d. He was at once the\nGaelic Zeus, or Jupiter, and their war-god; for among primitive nations,\nto whom success in war is all-important, the god of battles is the\nsupreme god.[65] Among the Gauls, Camulus, whose name meant\n\u201cHeaven\u201d,[66] was identified by the Romans with Mars; and other such\ninstances come readily to the mind. He was possessed of an invincible\nsword, one of the four chief treasures of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, over\nwhom he was twice king; and there is little doubt that he was one of the\nmost important gods of both the Gaels and the Britons, for his name is\nspread over the whole of the British Isles, which we may surmise the\nCelts conquered under his auspices. We may picture him as a more savage\nMars, delighting in battle and slaughter, and worshipped, like his\nGaulish affinities, Teutates and Hesus, of whom the Latin poet Lucan\ntells us, with human sacrifices, shared in by his female consorts, who,\nwe may imagine, were not more merciful than himself, or than that\nGaulish Taranis whose cult was \u201cno gentler than that of the Scythian\nDiana\u201d, and who completes Lucan\u2019s triad as a fit companion to the\n\u201cpitiless Teutates\u201d and the \u201chorrible Hesus\u201d.[67] Of these warlike\ngoddesses there were five\u2014Fea, the \u201cHateful\u201d, Nemon, the \u201cVenomous\u201d,\nBadb, the \u201cFury\u201d, Macha, a personification of \u201cbattle\u201d, and, over all of\nthem, the Morr\u00edg\u00fa, or \u201cGreat Queen\u201d. This supreme war-goddess of the\nGaels, who resembles a fiercer Her\u00ea, perhaps symbolized the moon, deemed\nby early races to have preceded the sun, and worshipped with magical and\ncruel rites. She is represented as going fully armed, and carrying two\nspears in her hand. As with Ar\u00eas[68] and Poseidon[69] in the \u201cIliad\u201d,\nher battle-cry was as loud as that of ten thousand men. Wherever there\nwas war, either among gods or men, she, the great queen, was present,\neither in her own shape or in her favourite disguise, that of a \u201choodie\u201d\nor carrion crow. An old poem shows her inciting a warrior:\n\n \u201cOver his head is shrieking\n A lean hag, quickly hopping\n Over the points of the weapons and shields;\n She is the gray-haired Morr\u00edg\u00fa\u201d.[70]\n\nWith her, Fea and Nemon, Badb and Macha also hovered over the fighters,\ninspiring them with the madness of battle. All of these were sometimes\ncalled by the name of \u201cBadb\u201d[71]. An account of the Battle of Clontarf,\nfought by Brian Boru, in 1014, against the Norsemen, gives a gruesome\npicture of what the Gaels believed to happen in the spiritual world when\nbattle lowered and men\u2019s blood was aflame. \u201cThere arose a wild,\nimpetuous, precipitate, mad, inexorable, furious, dark, lacerating,\nmerciless, combative, contentious _badb_, which was shrieking and\nfluttering over their heads. And there arose also the satyrs, and\nsprites, and the maniacs of the valleys, and the witches and goblins and\nowls, and destroying demons of the air and firmament, and the demoniac\nphantom host; and they were inciting and sustaining valour and battle\nwith them.\u201d When the fight was over, they revelled among the bodies of\nthe slain; the heads cut off as barbaric trophies were called \u201cMacha\u2019s\nacorn crop\u201d. These grim creations of the savage mind had immense\nvitality. While Nuada, the supreme war-god, vanished early out of the\nPantheon\u2014killed by the Fomors in the great battle fought between them\nand the gods\u2014Badb and the Morr\u00edg\u00fa lived on as late as any of the Gaelic\ndeities. Indeed, they may be said to still survive in the superstitious\ndislike and suspicion shown in all Celtic-speaking countries for their\n_avatar_, the hoodie-crow.[72]\n\nAfter Nuada, the greatest of the gods was the Dagda, whose name seems to\nhave meant the \u201cGood God\u201d.[73] The old Irish tract called \u201cThe Choice of\nNames\u201d tells us that he was a god of the earth; he had a cauldron called\n\u201cThe Undry\u201d, in which everyone found food in proportion to his merits,\nand from which none went away unsatisfied. He also had a living harp; as\nhe played upon it, the seasons came in their order\u2014spring following\nwinter, and summer succeeding spring, autumn coming after summer, and,\nin its turn, giving place to winter. He is represented as of venerable\naspect and of simple mind and tastes, very fond of porridge, and a\nvaliant consumer of it. In an ancient tale we have a description of his\ndress. He wore a brown, low-necked tunic which only reached down to his\nhips, and, over this, a hooded cape which barely covered his shoulders.\nOn his feet and legs were horse-hide boots, the hairy side outwards. He\ncarried, or, rather, drew after him on a wheel, an eight-pronged\nwar-club, so huge that eight men would have been needed to carry it; and\nthe wheel, as he towed the whole weapon along, made a track like a\nterritorial boundary.[74] Ancient and gray-headed as he was, and sturdy\nporridge-eater, it will be seen from this that he was a formidable\nfighter. He did great deeds in the battle between the gods and the\nFomors, and, on one occasion, is even said to have captured\nsingle-handed a hundred-legged and four-headed monster called Mata,\ndragged him to the \u201cStone of Benn\u201d, near the Boyne, and killed him\nthere.\n\nThe Dagda\u2019s wife was called Boann. She was connected in legend with the\nRiver Boyne, to which she gave its name, and, indeed, its very\nexistence.[75] Formerly there was only a well[76], shaded by nine magic\nhazel-trees. These trees bore crimson nuts, and it was the property of\nthe nuts that whoever ate of them immediately became possessed of the\nknowledge of everything that was in the world. The story is, in fact, a\nGaelic version of the Hebrew myth of \u201cthe Tree of the Knowledge of Good\nand Evil\u201d. One class of creatures alone had this privilege\u2014divine salmon\nwho lived in the well, and swallowed the nuts as they dropped from the\ntrees into the water, and thus knew all things, and appear in legend as\nthe \u201cSalmons of Knowledge\u201d. All others, even the highest gods, were\nforbidden to approach the place. Only Boann, with the proverbial woman\u2019s\ncuriosity, dared to disobey this fixed law. She came towards the sacred\nwell, but, as she did so, its waters rose up at her, and drove her away\nbefore them in a mighty, rushing flood. She escaped; but the waters\nnever returned. They made the Boyne; and as for the all-knowing\ninhabitants of the well, they wandered disconsolately through the depths\nof the river, looking in vain for their lost nuts. One of these salmon\nwas afterwards eaten by the famous Finn mac Coul, upon whom all its\nomniscience descended.[77] This way of accounting for the existence of a\nriver is a favourite one in Irish legend. It is told also of the\nShannon, which burst, like the Boyne, from an inviolable well, to pursue\nanother presumptuous nymph called Sinann, a granddaughter of the sea-god\nL\u00ear.[78]\n\nThe Dagda had several children, the most important of whom are Brigit,\nAngus, Mider, Ogma, and Bodb the Red. Of these, Brigit will be already\nfamiliar to English readers who know nothing of Celtic myth. Originally\nshe was a goddess of fire and the hearth, as well as of poetry, which\nthe Gaels deemed an immaterial, supersensual form of flame. But the\nearly Christianizers of Ireland adopted the pagan goddess into their\nroll of saintship, and, thus canonized, she obtained immense popularity\nas Saint Bridget, or Bride.[79]\n\nAngus was called _Mac Oc_, which means the \u201cSon of the Young\u201d, or,\nperhaps, the \u201cYoung God\u201d. This most charming of the creations of the\nCeltic mythology is represented as a Gaelic Eros, an eternally youthful\nexponent of love and beauty. Like his father, he had a harp, but it was\nof gold, not oak, as the Dagda\u2019s was, and so sweet was its music that no\none could hear and not follow it. His kisses became birds which hovered\ninvisibly over the young men and maidens of Erin, whispering thoughts of\nlove into their ears. He is chiefly connected with the banks of the\nBoyne, where he had a \u201cbrugh\u201d, or fairy palace; and many stories are\ntold of his exploits and adventures.\n\nMider, also the hero of legends, would seem to have been a god of the\nunderworld, a Gaelic Pluto. As such, he was connected with the Isle of\nFalga\u2014a name for what was otherwise, and still is, called the Isle of\nMan\u2014where he had a stronghold in which he kept three wonderful cows and\na magic cauldron. He was also the owner of the \u201cThree Cranes of Denial\nand Churlishness\u201d, which might be described flippantly as personified\n\u201cgentle hints\u201d. They stood beside his door, and when anyone approached\nto ask for hospitality, the first one said: \u201cDo not come! do not come!\u201d\nand the second added: \u201cGet away! get away!\u201d while the third chimed in\nwith: \u201cGo past the house! go past the house!\u201d[80] These three birds\nwere, however, stolen from Mider by Aitherne, an avaricious poet, to\nwhom they would seem to have been more appropriate than to their owner,\nwho does not otherwise appear as a churlish and illiberal deity.[81] On\nthe contrary, he is represented as the victim of others, who plundered\nhim freely. The god Angus took away his wife Etain,[82] while his cows,\nhis cauldron, and his beautiful daughter Blathnat were carried off as\nspoil by the heroes or demi-gods who surrounded King Conchobar in the\ngolden age of Ulster.\n\nOgma, who appears to have been also called Cermait, that is, the\n\u201choney-mouthed\u201d, was the god of literature and eloquence. He married\nEtan, the daughter of Diancecht, the god of medicine, and had several\nchildren, who play parts more or less prominent in the mythology of the\nGaelic Celts. One of them was called Tuirenn, whose three sons murdered\nthe father of the sun-god, and were compelled, as expiation, to pay the\ngreatest fine ever heard of\u2014nothing less than the chief treasures of the\nworld.[83] Another son, Cairpr\u00e9, became the professional bard of the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann, while three others reigned for a short time over the\ndivine race. As patron of literature, Ogma was naturally credited with\nhaving been the inventor of the famous _Ogam_ alphabet. This was an\nindigenous script of Ireland, which spread afterwards to Great Britain,\ninscriptions in ogmic characters having been found in Scotland, the Isle\nof Man, South Wales, Devonshire, and at Silchester in Hampshire, the\nRoman city of Calleva Attrebatum. It was originally intended for\ninscriptions upon upright pillar-stones or upon wands, the equivalents\nfor letters being notches cut across, or strokes made upon one of the\nfaces of the angle, the alphabet running as follows:\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWhen afterwards written in manuscript, the strokes were placed over,\nunder, or through a horizontal line, in the manner above; and the vowels\nwere represented by short lines instead of notches, as:\n\n[Illustration]\n\nA good example of an ogmic inscription is given in Professor Rhys\u2019s\n_Hibbert Lectures_. It comes from a pillar on a small promontory near\nDunmore Head, in the west of Kerry, and, read horizontally, reads:\n\n[Illustration: ERC, THE SON OF THE SON OF ERCA (DESCENDANT OF)\nMODOVINIA.[84]]\n\nThe origin of this alphabet is obscure. Some authorities consider it of\ngreat antiquity, while others believe it entirely post-Christian. It\nseems, at any rate, to have been based upon, and consequently to\npresuppose a knowledge of, the Roman alphabet.\n\nOgma, besides being the patron of literature, was the champion, or\nprofessional strong man of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. His epithet is\n_Grianainech_, that is, the \u201cSunny-faced\u201d, from his radiant and shining\ncountenance.\n\nThe last of the Dagda\u2019s more important children is Bodb[85] the Red, who\nplays a greater part in later than in earlier legend. He succeeded his\nfather as king of the gods. He is chiefly connected with the south of\nIreland, especially with the Galtee Mountains, and with Lough Dearg,\nwhere he had a famous _s\u00eddh_, or underground palace.\n\nThe Poseidon of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann Pantheon was called L\u00ear, but we\nhear little of him in comparison with his famous son, Manann\u00e1n, the\ngreatest and most popular of his many children. Manann\u00e1n mac Lir[86] was\nthe special patron of sailors, who invoked him as \u201cGod of Headlands\u201d,\nand of merchants, who claimed him as the first of their guild. His\nfavourite haunts were the Isle of Man, to which he gave his name, and\nthe Isle of Arran, in the Firth of Clyde, where he had a palace called\n\u201cEmhain of the Apple-Trees\u201d. He had many famous weapons\u2014two spears\ncalled \u201cYellow Shaft\u201d and \u201cRed Javelin\u201d, a sword called \u201cThe\nRetaliator\u201d, which never failed to slay, as well as two others known as\nthe \u201cGreat Fury\u201d and the \u201cLittle Fury\u201d. He had a boat called\n\u201cWave-sweeper\u201d, which propelled and guided itself wherever its owner\nwished, and a horse called \u201cSplendid Mane\u201d, which was swifter than the\nspring wind, and travelled equally fast on land or over the waves of the\nsea. No weapon could hurt him through his magic mail and breast-plate,\nand on his helmet there shone two magic jewels bright as the sun. He\nendowed the gods with the mantle which made them invisible at will, and\nhe fed them from his pigs, which, like the boar S\u00e6hrimnir, in the Norse\nValhalla, renewed themselves as soon as they had been eaten. Of these,\nno doubt, he made his \u201cFeast of Age\u201d, the banquet at which those who ate\nnever grew old. Thus the people of the goddess Danu preserved their\nimmortal youth, while the ale of Goibniu the Smith-God bestowed\ninvulnerability upon them. It is fitting that Manann\u00e1n himself should\nhave been blessed beyond all the other gods with inexhaustible life; up\nto the latest days of Irish heroic literature his luminous figure shines\nprominent, nor is it even yet wholly forgotten.\n\nGoibniu, the Gaelic Hephaestus, who made the people of the goddess Danu\ninvulnerable with his magic drink, was also the forger of their weapons.\nIt was he who, helped by Luchtain\u00e9, the divine carpenter, and Credn\u00e9,\nthe divine bronze-worker, made the armoury with which the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann conquered the Fomors. Equally useful to them was Diancecht, the\ngod of medicine.[87] It was he who once saved Ireland, and was\nindirectly the cause of the name of the River Barrow. The Morr\u00edg\u00fa, the\nheaven-god\u2019s fierce wife, had borne a son of such terrible aspect that\nthe physician of the gods, foreseeing danger, counselled that he should\nbe destroyed in his infancy. This was done; and Diancecht opened the\ninfant\u2019s heart, and found within it three serpents, capable, when they\ngrew to full size, of depopulating Ireland. He lost no time in\ndestroying these serpents also, and burning them into ashes, to avoid\nthe evil which even their dead bodies might do. More than this, he flung\nthe ashes into the nearest river, for he feared that there might be\ndanger even in them; and, indeed, so venomous were they that the river\nboiled up and slew every living creature in it, and therefore has been\ncalled \u201cBarrow\u201d (boiling) ever since.[88]\n\nDiancecht had several children, of whom two followed their father\u2019s\nprofession. These were Miach and his sister Airmid. There were also\nanother daughter, Etan, who married Cermait (or Ogma), and three other\nsons called Cian, Ceth\u00e9, and Cu. Cian married Ethniu, the daughter of\nBalor the Fomor, and they had a son who was the crowning glory of the\nGaelic Pantheon\u2014its Apollo, the Sun-God,\u2014Lugh[89], called\n_Lamhfada_[90], which means the \u201cLong-handed\u201d, or the \u201cFar-shooter\u201d. It\nwas not, however, with the bow, like the Apollo of the Greeks, but with\nthe rod-sling that Lugh performed his feats; his worshippers sometimes\nsaw the terrible weapon in the sky as a rainbow, and the Milky Way was\ncalled \u201cLugh\u2019s Chain\u201d. He also had a magic spear, which, unlike the\nrod-sling, he had no need to wield, himself; for it was alive, and\nthirsted so for blood that only by steeping its head in a\nsleeping-draught of pounded poppy leaves could it be kept at rest. When\nbattle was near, it was drawn out; then it roared, and struggled against\nits thongs; fire flashed from it; and, once slipped from the leash, it\ntore through and through the ranks of the enemy, never tired of slaying.\nAnother of his possessions was a magic hound which an ancient poem,[91]\nattributed to the Fenian hero, Caoilte, calls\u2014\n\n \u201cThat hound of mightiest deeds,\n Which was irresistible in hardness of combat,\n Was better than wealth ever known,\n A ball of fire every night.\n\n \u201cOther virtues had that beautiful hound\n (Better this property than any other property),\n Mead or wine would grow of it,\n Should it bathe in spring water.\u201d\n\nThis marvellous hound, as well as the marvellous spear, and the\nindestructible pigs of Manann\u00e1n were obtained for Lugh by the sons of\nTuirenn as part of the blood-fine he exacted from them for the murder of\nhis father Cian.[92] A hardly less curious story is that which tells how\nLugh got his name of the _Ioldanach_, or the \u201cMaster of All Arts\u201d.[93]\n\nThese are, of course, only the greater deities of the Gaelic Pantheon,\ntheir divinities which answered to such Hellenic figures as Demeter,\nZeus, Her\u00ea, Cronos, Athena, Eros, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus,\nAesculapius, and Apollo. All of them had many descendants, some of whom\nplay prominent parts in the heroic cycles of the \u201cRed Branch of Ulster\u201d\nand of the \u201cFenians\u201d. In addition to these, there must have been a\nmultitude of lesser gods who stood in much the same relation to the\ngreat gods as the rank and file of tribesmen did to their chiefs. Most\nof these were probably local deities of the various clans\u2014the gods their\nheroes swore by. But it is also possible that some may have been\ndivinities of the aboriginal race. Professor Rhys thinks that he can\nstill trace a few of such Iberian gods by name, as N\u00eat, Ri or Roi, Corb,\nand Beth.[94] But they play no recognizable part in the stories of the\nGaelic gods.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 56:\n\n Pronounced _Too\u0103ha dae donnann_.\n\nFootnote 57:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886. Lecture VI\u2014\u201cGods, Demons, and Heroes\u201d.\n\nFootnote 58:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nFootnote 59:\n\n De Jubainville: _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, chap. V.\n\nFootnote 60:\n\n De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, chap. IX.\n\nFootnote 61:\n\n From the fifteenth-century Harleian MS. in the British Museum,\n numbered 5280, and called the _Second Battle of Moytura_.\n\nFootnote 62:\n\n Harleian MS. 5280.\n\nFootnote 63:\n\n \u201cIn Munster was worshipped the goddess of prosperity, whose name was\n Ana, and from her are named the Two Paps of Ana over Luachair Degad.\u201d\n From _Coir Anmann_, the _Choice of Names_, a sixteenth-century tract,\n published by Dr. Whitley Stokes in _Irische Texte_.\n\nFootnote 64:\n\n Attributed to Cormac, King-Bishop of Cashel.\n\nFootnote 65:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886\u2014\u201cThe Zeus of the Insular Celts\u201d.\n\nFootnote 66:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886\u2014\u201cThe Gaulish Pantheon\u201d.\n\nFootnote 67:\n\n _Pharsalia_, Book I, l. 444, &c.:\n\n \u201cEt quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro\n Teutates, horrensque feris altaribus Hesus;\n Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae\u201d.\n\nFootnote 68:\n\n _Iliad_, Book V.\n\nFootnote 69:\n\n _Op. cit._, Book XIV.\n\nFootnote 70:\n\n It commemorates the battle of Magh Rath.\n\nFootnote 71:\n\n The word is approximately pronounced _Bive_ or _Bibe_.\n\nFootnote 72:\n\n For a full account of these beings see a paper by Mr. W. M. Hennessey\n in Vol. I of the _Revue Celtique_, entitled \u201cThe Ancient Irish Goddess\n of War\u201d.\n\nFootnote 73:\n\n De Jubainville: _Le Cycle Mythologique_. Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p.\n 154. The _Coir Anmann_, however, translates it \u201cFire of God\u201d.\n\nFootnote 74:\n\n _The Second Battle of Moytura._ Harleian MS. 5280.\n\nFootnote 75:\n\n The story is told in the Book of Leinster.\n\nFootnote 76:\n\n Now called \u201cTrinity Well\u201d.\n\nFootnote 77:\n\n See chap. XIV\u2014\u201cFinn and the Fenians\u201d.\n\nFootnote 78:\n\n Book of Leinster. A paraphrase of the story will be found in O\u2019Curry\u2019s\n _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, Vol. II, p. 143.\n\nFootnote 79:\n\n See chap. XV\u2014\u201cThe Decline and Fall of the Gods\u201d.\n\nFootnote 80:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 331.\n\nFootnote 81:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 331.\n\nFootnote 82:\n\n See chap. XI\u2014\u201cThe Gods in Exile\u201d.\n\nFootnote 83:\n\n See chap. VIII\u2014\u201cThe Gaelic Argonauts\u201d.\n\nFootnote 84:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 524.\n\nFootnote 85:\n\n Pronounced _Bove_.\n\nFootnote 86:\n\n L\u00ear\u2014genitive Lir.\n\nFootnote 87:\n\n Pronounced _Dianket_. His name is explained, both in the _Choice of\n Names_ and in Cormac\u2019s _Glossary_, as meaning \u201cGod of Health\u201d.\n\nFootnote 88:\n\n Standish O\u2019Grady: _The Story of Ireland_, p. 17.\n\nFootnote 89:\n\n Pronounced _Luga_ or _Loo_.\n\nFootnote 90:\n\n Pronounced _Lav\u0101da_.\n\nFootnote 91:\n\n Translated by O\u2019Curry in _Atlantis_, Vol. III, from the Book of\n Lismore.\n\nFootnote 92:\n\n Chap. VIII\u2014\u201cThe Gaelic Argonauts\u201d.\n\nFootnote 93:\n\n Chap. VII\u2014\u201cThe Rise of the Sun-God\u201d.\n\nFootnote 94:\n\n Rhys: _Celtic Britain_, chap. VII.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n\n THE GODS ARRIVE\n\n\nThe people of the goddess Danu were not the first divine inhabitants of\nIreland. Others had been before them, dwellers in \u201cthe dark backward and\nabysm of time\u201d. In this the Celtic mythology resembles those of other\nnations, in almost all of which we find an old, dim realm of gods\nstanding behind the reigning Pantheon. Such were Cronos and the Titans,\ndispossessed by the Zeus who seemed, even to Hesiod, something of a\n_parvenu_ deity. Gaelic tradition recognizes two divine dynasties\nanterior to the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. The first of these was called \u201cThe\nRace of Partholon\u201d. Its head and leader came\u2014as all gods and men came,\naccording to Celtic ideas\u2014from the Other World, and landed in Ireland\nwith a retinue of twenty-four males and twenty-four females upon the\nfirst of May, the day called \u201cBeltaine\u201d, sacred to Bil\u00e9, the god of\ndeath. At this remote time, Ireland consisted of only one treeless,\ngrassless plain, watered by three lakes and nine rivers. But, as the\nrace of Partholon increased, the land stretched, or widened, under\nthem\u2014some said miraculously, and others, by the labours of Partholon\u2019s\npeople. At any rate, during the three hundred years they dwelt there, it\ngrew from one plain to four, and acquired seven new lakes; which was\nfortunate, for the race of Partholon increased from forty-eight members\nto five thousand, in spite of battles with the Fomors.\n\nThese would seem to have been inevitable. Whatever gods ruled, they\nfound themselves in eternal opposition to the not-gods\u2014the powers of\ndarkness, winter, evil, and death. The race of Partholon warred against\nthem with success. At the Plain of Ith, Partholon defeated their leader,\na gigantic demon called Cichol the Footless, and dispersed his deformed\nand monstrous host. After this there was quiet for three hundred years.\nThen\u2014upon the same fatal first of May\u2014there began a mysterious epidemic,\nwhich lasted a week, and destroyed them all. In premonition of their\nend, they foregathered upon the original, first-created plain\u2014then\ncalled _Sen Mag_, or the \u201cOld Plain\u201d,\u2014so that those who survived might\nthe more easily bury those that died. Their funeral-place is still\nmarked by a mound near Dublin, called \u201cTallaght\u201d in the maps, but\nformerly known as _Tamlecht Muintre Partholain_, the \u201cPlague-grave of\nPartholon\u2019s People\u201d. This would seem to have been a development of the\nvery oldest form of the legend\u2014which knew nothing of a plague, but\nmerely represented the people of Partholon as having returned, after\ntheir sojourn in Ireland, to the other world, whence they came\u2014and is\nprobably due to the gradual euhemerization of the ancient gods into\nancient men.\n\nFollowing the race of Partholon, came the race of Nemed, which carried\non the work and traditions of its forerunner. During its time, Ireland\nagain enlarged herself, to the extent of twelve new plains and four more\nlakes. Like the people of Partholon, the race of Nemed struggled with\nthe Fomors, and defeated them in four consecutive battles. Then Nemed\ndied, with two thousand of his people, from an epidemic, and the\nremnant, left without their leader, were terribly oppressed by the\nFomors. Two Fomorian kings\u2014Morc, son of Dela, and Conann, son of\nFebar\u2014had built a tower of glass upon Tory Island, always their chief\nstronghold, and where stories of them still linger, and from this\nvantage-point they dictated a tax which recalls that paid, in Greek\nstory, to the Cretan Minotaur. Two-thirds of the children born to the\nrace of Nemed during the year were to be delivered up on each day of\nSamhain. Goaded by this to a last desperate effort, the survivors of\nNemed\u2019s people attacked the tower, and took it, Conann perishing in the\nstruggle. But their triumph was short. Morc, the other king, collected\nhis forces, and inflicted such a slaughter upon the people of Nemed\nthat, out of the sixteen thousand who had assembled for the storming of\nthe tower, only thirty survived. And these returned whence they came, or\ndied\u2014the two acts being, mythologically speaking, the same.[95]\n\nOne cannot help seeing a good deal of similarity between the stories of\nthese two mythical invasions of Ireland. Especially noticeable is the\naccount of the epidemic which destroyed all Partholon\u2019s people and\nnearly all of Nemed\u2019s. Hence it has been held that the two legends are\nduplicates, and that there was at first only one, which has been adapted\nsomewhat differently by two races, the Iberians and the Gaels. Professor\nRhys considers[96] the account of Nemed to have been the original Celtic\none, and the Partholon story, the version of it which the native races\nmade to please themselves. The name \u201cPartholon\u201d, with its initial _p_,\nis entirely foreign to the genius of Gaelic speech. Moreover, Partholon\nhimself is given, by the early chroniclers, ancestors whose decidedly\nnon-Aryan names reappear afterwards as the names of Fir Bolg chiefs.\nNemed was later than Partholon in Ireland, as the Gaels, or \u201cMilesians\u201d,\nwere later than the Iberians, or \u201cFir Bolgs\u201d.\n\nThese \u201cFir Bolgs\u201d are found in myth as the next colonizers of Ireland.\nVarying traditions say that they came from Greece, or from \u201cSpain\u201d\u2014which\nwas a post-Christian euphemism for the Celtic Hades.[97] They consisted\nof three tribes, called the \u201cFir Domnann\u201d or \u201cMen of Domnu\u201d, the \u201cFir\nGaillion\u201d or \u201cMen of Gaillion\u201d, and the \u201cFir Bolg\u201d or \u201cMen of Bolg\u201d;\nbut, in spite of the fact that the first-named tribe was the most\nimportant, they are usually called collectively after the last. Curious\nstories are told of their life in Greece, and how they came to Ireland;\nbut these are somewhat factitious, and obviously do not belong to the\nearliest tradition.\n\nIn the time of their domination they had, we are told, partitioned\nIreland among them: the Fir Bolg held Ulster; the Fir Domnann, divided\ninto three kingdoms, occupied North Munster, South Munster, and\nConnaught; while the Fir Gaillion owned Leinster. These five provinces\nmet at a hill then called \u201cBalor\u2019s Hill\u201d, but afterwards the \u201cHill of\nUisnech\u201d. It is near Rathconrath, in the county of West Meath, and was\nbelieved, in early times, to mark the exact centre of Ireland. They held\nthe country from the departure of the people of Nemed to the coming of\nthe people of the goddess Danu, and during this period they had nine\nsupreme kings. At the time of the arrival of the gods, their king\u2019s name\nwas Eochaid[98] son of Erc, surnamed \u201cThe Proud\u201d.\n\nWe have practically no other details regarding their life in Ireland. It\nis obvious, however, that they were not really gods, but the pre-Aryan\nrace which the Gaels, when they landed in Ireland, found already in\noccupation. There are many instances of peoples at a certain stage of\nculture regarding tribes in a somewhat lower one as semi-divine, or,\nrather, half-diabolical.[99] The suspicion and fear with which the early\nCelts must have regarded the savage aborigines made them seem \u201clarger\nthan human\u201d. They feared them for the weird magical rites which they\npractised in their inaccessible forts among the hills, amid storms and\nmountain mists. The Gaels, who held themselves to be the children of\nlight, deemed these \u201cdark Iberians\u201d children of the dark. Their tribal\nnames seem to have been, in several instances, founded upon this idea.\nThere were the _Corca-Oidce_ (\u201cPeople of Darkness\u201d) and the\n_Corca-Duibhne_ (\u201cPeople of the Night\u201d). The territory of the western\ntribe of the _Hi Dorchaide_ (\u201cSons of Dark\u201d) was called the \u201cNight\nCountry\u201d.[100] The Celts, who held their own gods to have preceded them\ninto Ireland, would not believe that even the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann could\nhave wrested the land from these magic-skilled Iberians without battle.\n\nThey seem also to have been considered as in some way connected with the\nFomors. Just as the largest Iberian tribe was called the \u201cMen of Domnu\u201d,\nso the Fomors were called the \u201cGods of Domnu\u201d, and Indech, one of their\nkings, is a \u201cson of Domnu\u201d. Thus eternal battle between the gods,\nchildren of Danu, and the giants, children of Domnu, would reflect, in\nthe supernatural world, the perpetual warfare between invading Celt and\nresisting Iberian. It is shadowed, too, in the later heroic cycle. The\nchampions of Ulster, Aryans and Gaels _par excellence_, have no such\nbitter enemies as the Fir Domnann of Munster and the Fir Gaillion of\nLeinster. A few scholars would even see in the later death-struggle\nbetween the High King of Ireland and his rebellious Fenians the last\nhistoric or mythological adumbration of racial war.[101]\n\nThe enemies alike of Fir Bolg and Fomor, the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, gods of\nthe Gaels, were the next to arrive. What is probably the earliest\naccount tells us that they came from the sky. Later versions, however,\ngive them a habitation upon earth\u2014some say in the north, others in the\n\u201csouthern isles of the world\u201d. They had dwelt in four mythical cities\ncalled Findias, Gorias, Murias, and Falias, where they had learned\npoetry and magic\u2014to the primitive mind two not very dissimilar\nthings\u2014and whence they had brought to Ireland their four chief\ntreasures. From Findias came Nuada\u2019s sword, from whose stroke no one\never escaped or recovered; from Gorias, Lugh\u2019s terrible lance; from\nMurias, the Dagda\u2019s cauldron; and from Falias, the Stone of F\u00e1l, better\nknown as the \u201cStone of Destiny\u201d, which afterwards fell into the hands of\nthe early kings of Ireland. According to legend, it had the magic\nproperty of uttering a human cry when touched by the rightful King of\nErin. Some have recognized in this marvellous stone the same rude block\nwhich Edward I brought from Scone in the year 1300, and placed in\nWestminster Abbey, where it now forms part of the Coronation Chair. It\nis a curious fact that, while Scottish legend asserts this stone to have\ncome to Scotland from Ireland, Irish legend should also declare that it\nwas taken from Ireland to Scotland. This would sound like conclusive\nevidence, but it is none the less held by leading modern\narch\u00e6ologists\u2014including Dr. W. F. Skene, who has published a monograph\non the subject[102]\u2014that the Stone of Scone and the Stone of Tara were\nnever the same. Dr. Petrie identifies the real _Lia F\u00e1il_ with a stone\nwhich has always remained in Ireland, and which was removed from its\noriginal position on Tara Hill, in 1798, to mark the tomb of the rebels\nburied close by under a mound now known as \u201cthe Croppies\u2019 grave\u201d.[103]\n\nWhether the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann came from earth or heaven, they landed in a\ndense cloud upon the coast of Ireland on the mystic first of May without\nhaving been opposed, or even noticed by the people whom it will be\nconvenient to follow the manuscript authorities in calling the \u201cFir\nBolgs\u201d.[104] That those might still be ignorant of their coming, the\nMorr\u00edg\u00fa, helped by Badb and Macha, made use of the magic they had\nlearned in Findias, Gorias, Murias, and Falias. They spread\n\u201cdruidically-formed showers and fog-sustaining shower-clouds\u201d over the\ncountry, and caused the air to pour down fire and blood upon the Fir\nBolgs, so that they were obliged to shelter themselves for three days\nand three nights. But the Fir Bolgs had druids of their own, and, in the\nend, they put a stop to these enchantments by counter-spells, and the\nair grew clear again.\n\nThe Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, advancing westward, had reached a place called the\n\u201cPlain of the Sea\u201d, in Leinster, when the two armies met. Each sent out\na warrior to parley. The two adversaries approached each other\ncautiously, their eyes peeping over the tops of their shields. Then,\ncoming gradually nearer, they spoke to one another, and the desire to\nexamine each other\u2019s weapons made them almost friends.\n\nThe envoy of the Fir Bolgs looked with wonder at the\n\u201cbeautifully-shaped, thin, slender, long, sharp-pointed spears\u201d of the\nwarrior of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, while the ambassador of the tribe of\nthe goddess Danu was not less impressed by the lances of the Fir Bolgs,\nwhich were \u201cheavy, thick, pointless, but sharply-rounded\u201d. They agreed\nto exchange weapons, so that each side might, by an examination of them,\nbe able to come to some opinion as to its opponent\u2019s strength. Before\nparting, the envoy of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann offered the Fir Bolgs,\nthrough their representative, peace, with a division of the country into\ntwo equal halves.\n\nThe Fir Bolg envoy advised his people to accept this offer. But their\nking, Eochaid, son of Erc, would not. \u201cIf we once give these people\nhalf,\u201d he said, \u201cthey will soon have the whole.\u201d\n\nThe people of the goddess Danu were, on the other hand, very much\nimpressed by the sight of the Fir Bolgs\u2019 weapons. They decided to secure\na more advantageous position, and, retreating farther west into\nConnaught, to a plain then called Nia, but now Moytura, near the present\nvillage of Cong, they drew up their line at its extreme end, in front of\nthe pass of Balgatan[105], which offered a retreat in case of defeat.\n\nThe Fir Bolgs followed them, and encamped on the nearer side of the\nplain. Then Nuada, King of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, sent an ambassador\noffering the same terms as before. Again the Fir Bolgs declined them.\n\n\u201cThen when\u201d, asked the envoy, \u201cdo you intend to give battle?\u201d\n\n\u201cWe must have a truce,\u201d they said, \u201cfor we want time to repair our\narmour, burnish our helmets, and sharpen our swords. Besides, we must\nhave spears like yours made for us, and you must have spears like ours\nmade for you.\u201d\n\nThe result of this chivalrous, but, to modern ideas, amazing, parley was\nthat a truce of one hundred and five days was agreed upon.\n\nIt was on Midsummer Day that the opposing armies at last met. The people\nof the goddess Danu appeared in \u201ca flaming line\u201d, wielding their\n\u201cred-bordered, speckled, and firm shields\u201d. Opposite to them were ranged\nthe Fir Bolgs, \u201csparkling, brilliant, and flaming, with their swords,\nspears, blades, and trowel-spears\u201d. The proceedings began with a kind of\ndeadly hurley-match, in which thrice nine of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann played\nthe same number of the Fir Bolgs, and were defeated and killed. Then\nfollowed another parley, to decide how the battle should be carried on,\nwhether there should be fighting every day or only on every second day.\nMoreover, Nuada obtained from Eochaid an assurance that the battles\nshould always be fought with equal numbers, although this was, we are\ntold, \u201cvery disagreeable to the Fir Bolg king, because he had largely\nthe advantage in the numbers of his army\u201d. Then warfare recommenced with\na series of single combats, like those of the Greeks and Trojans in the\n\u201cIliad\u201d. At the end of each day the conquerors on both sides went back\nto their camps, and were refreshed by being bathed in healing baths of\nmedicinal herbs.\n\nSo the fight went on for four days, with terrible slaughter upon each\nside. A Fir Bolg champion called Sreng fought in single combat with\nNuada, the King of the Gods, and shore off his hand and half his shield\nwith one terrific blow. Eochaid, the King of the Fir Bolgs, was even\nless fortunate than Nuada; for he lost his life. Suffering terribly from\nthirst, he went, with a hundred of his men, to look for water, and was\nfollowed, and pursued as far as the strand of Ballysadare, in Sligo.\nHere he turned to bay, but was killed, his grave being still marked by a\ntumulus. The Fir Bolgs, reduced at last to three hundred men, demanded\nsingle combat until all upon one side were slain. But, sooner than\nconsent to this, the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann offered them a fifth part of\nIreland, whichever province they might choose. They agreed, and chose\nConnaught, ever afterwards their especial home, and where, until the\nmiddle of the seventeenth century, men were still found tracing their\ndescent from Sreng.\n\nThe whole story has a singularly historical, curiously unmythological\nair about it, which contrasts strangely with the account of the other\nbattle of the same name which the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann waged afterwards with\nthe Fomors. The neighbourhood of Cong still preserves both relics and\ntraditions of the fight. Upon the plain of \u201cSouthern Moytura\u201d (as it is\ncalled, to distinguish it from the \u201cNorthern Moytura\u201d of the second\nbattle) are many circles and tumuli. These circles are especially\nnumerous near the village itself; and it is said that there were\nformerly others, which have been used for making walls and dykes. Large\ncairns of stones, too, are scattered over what was certainly once the\nscene of a great battle.[106] These various prehistoric monuments each\nhave their still-told story; and Sir William Wilde, as he relates in his\n_Lough Corrib_,[107] was so impressed by the unexpected agreement\nbetween the details of the legendary battle, as he read them in the\nancient manuscript, and the traditions still attaching to the mounds,\ncircles, and cairns, that he tells us he could not help coming to the\nconclusion that the account was absolutely historical. Certainly the\ncoincidences are curious. His opinion was that the \u201cFir Bolgs\u201d were a\ncolony of Belg\u00e6, and that the \u201cTuatha D\u00e9 Danann\u201d were Danes. But the\npeople of the goddess Danu are too obviously mythical to make it worth\nwhile to seek any standing-ground for them in the world of reality. In\ntheir superhuman attributes, they are quite different from the Fir\nBolgs. In the epical cycle it is made as clear that the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann\nare divine beings as it is that the Fir Bolg, the Fir Domnann, and the\nFir Gaillion stand on exactly the same footing as the men of Ulster.\nLater history records by what Milesian kings and on what terms of\nrack-rent the three tribes were allowed settlements in other parts of\nIreland than their native Connaught. They appear in ancient, medi\u00e6val,\nand almost modern chronicles as the old race of the land. The truth\nseems to be that the whole story of the war between the gods and the Fir\nBolgs is an invention of comparatively late times. In the earliest\ndocuments there is only one battle of Moytura, fought between the people\nof the goddess Danu and the Fomors. The idea of doubling it seems to\ndate from after the eleventh century;[108] and its inventor may very\nwell have used the legends concerning this battle-field, where two\nunknown armies had fought in days gone by, in compiling his story. It\nnever belonged to the same genuine mythological stratum as the legend of\nthe original battle fought by the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, the gods of the\nGaels, against the Fomors, the gods of the Iberians.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 95:\n\n De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique_, chap. V.\n\nFootnote 96:\n\n Rhys: \u201cThe Mythographical Treatment of Celtic Ethnology\u201d, _Scottish\n Review_, Oct. 1890.\n\nFootnote 97:\n\n De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique_, chap. V. Rhys: _Hibbert\n Lectures_, pp. 90, 91.\n\nFootnote 98:\n\n Pronounced _Ecca_ or _Eohee_.\n\nFootnote 99:\n\n Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, chap. III\u2014\u201cThe Mythic Influence of a\n Conquered Race\u201d.\n\nFootnote 100:\n\n Elton: _Origins of English History_, note to p. 136.\n\nFootnote 101:\n\n It has been contended that the Fenians were originally the gods or\n heroes of an aboriginal people in Ireland, the myths about them\n representing the pre-Celtic and pre-Aryan ideal, as the sagas of the\n Red Branch of Ulster embodied that of the Celtic Aryans. The question,\n however, is as yet far from being satisfactorily solved.\n\nFootnote 102:\n\n _The Coronation Stone_, by William Forbes Skene.\n\nFootnote 103:\n\n See _History and Antiquities of Tara Hill_.\n\nFootnote 104:\n\n Our authorities for the details of this war between the Tuatha D\u00e9\n Danann and the Fir Bolgs are the opening verses of the Harleian MS.\n 5280, as translated by Stokes and De Jubainville, and Eugene O\u2019Curry\u2019s\n translations, in his _MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_ and his\n _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, from a manuscript\n preserved at Trinity College, Dublin.\n\nFootnote 105:\n\n Now called Benlevi.\n\nFootnote 106:\n\n See Dr. James Fergusson: _Rude Stone Monuments_, pp. 177-180.\n\nFootnote 107:\n\n _Lough Corrib, Its Shores and Islands_, by Sir William R. Wilde, chap.\n VIII.\n\nFootnote 108:\n\n De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, p. 156.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n THE RISE OF THE SUN-GOD[109]\n\n\nIt was as a result of the loss of his hand in this battle with the Fir\nBolgs that Nuada got his name of _Argetl\u00e1m_, that is, the \u201cSilver\nHanded\u201d. For Diancecht, the physician of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, made him\nan artificial hand of silver, so skilfully that it moved in all its\njoints, and was as strong and supple as a real one. But, good as it was\nof its sort, it was a blemish; and, according to Celtic custom, no\nmaimed person could sit upon the throne. Nuada was deposed; and the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann went into council to appoint a new king.\n\nThey agreed that it would be a politic thing for them to conciliate the\nFomors, the giants of the sea, and make an alliance with them. So they\nsent a message to Bress, the son of the Fomorian king, Elathan, asking\nhim to come and rule over them. Bress accepted this offer; and they made\na marriage between him and Brigit, the daughter of the Dagda. At the\nsame time, Cian[110], the son of Diancecht, the physician of the Tuatha\nD\u00e9 Danann, married Ethniu, the daughter of the Fomor, Balor. Then Bress\nwas made king, and endowed with lands and a palace; and he, on his part,\ngave hostages that he would abdicate if his rule ever became unpleasing\nto those who had elected him.\n\nBut, in spite of all his fair promises, Bress, who belonged in heart to\nhis own fierce people, began to oppress his subjects with excessive\ntaxes. He put a tax upon every hearth, upon every kneading-trough, and\nupon every quern, as well as a poll-tax of an ounce of gold upon every\nmember of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. By a crafty trick, too, he obtained the\nmilk of all their cattle. He asked at first only for the produce of any\ncows which happened to be brown and hairless, and the people of the\ngoddess Danu granted him this cheerfully. But Bress passed all the\ncattle in Ireland between two fires, so that their hair was singed off,\nand thus obtained the monopoly of the main source of food. To earn a\nlivelihood, all the gods, even the greatest, were now forced to labour\nfor him. Ogma, their champion, was sent out to collect firewood, while\nthe Dagda was put to work building forts and castles.\n\nOne day, when the Dagda was at his task, his son, Angus, came to him.\n\u201cYou have nearly finished that castle,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat reward do you\nintend to ask from Bress when it is done?\u201d The Dagda replied that he had\nnot yet thought of it. \u201cLet me give you some advice,\u201d said Angus. \u201cAsk\nBress to have all the cattle in Ireland gathered together upon a plain,\nso that you can pick out one for yourself. He will consent to that. Then\nchoose the black-maned heifer called \u2018Ocean\u2019.\u201d\n\nThe Dagda finished building the fort, and then went to Bress for his\nreward. \u201cWhat will you have?\u201d asked Bress. \u201cI want all the cattle in\nIreland gathered together upon a plain, so that I may choose one of them\nfor myself.\u201d Bress did this; and the Dagda took the black-maned heifer\nAngus had told him of. The king, who had expected to be asked very much\nmore, laughed at what he thought was the Dagda\u2019s simplicity. But Angus\nhad been wise; as will be seen hereafter.\n\nMeanwhile Bress was infuriating the people of the goddess Danu by adding\navarice to tyranny. It was for kings to be liberal to all-comers, but at\nthe court of Bress no one ever greased his knife with fat, or made his\nbreath smell of ale. Nor were there ever any poets or musicians or\njugglers or jesters there to give pleasure to the people; for Bress\nwould distribute no largess. Next, he cut down the very subsistence of\nthe gods. So scanty was his allowance of food that they began to grow\nweak with famine. Ogma, through feebleness, could only carry one-third\nof the wood needed for fuel; so that they suffered from cold as well as\nfrom hunger.\n\nIt was at this crisis that two physicians, Miach, the son, and Airmid,\nthe daughter, of Diancecht, the god of medicine, came to the castle\nwhere the dispossessed King Nuada lived. Nuada\u2019s porter, blemished, like\nhimself (for he had lost an eye), was sitting at the gate, and on his\nlap was a cat curled up asleep. The porter asked the strangers who they\nwere. \u201cWe are good doctors,\u201d they said. \u201cIf that is so,\u201d he replied,\n\u201cperhaps you can give me a new eye.\u201d \u201cCertainly,\u201d they said, \u201cwe could\ntake one of the eyes of that cat, and put it in the place where your\nlost eye used to be.\u201d \u201cI should be very pleased if you would do that,\u201d\nanswered the porter, So Miach and Airmid removed one of the cat\u2019s eyes,\nand put it in the hollow where the man\u2019s eye had been.\n\nThe story goes on to say that this was not wholly a benefit to him; for\nthe eye retained its cat\u2019s nature, and, when the man wished to sleep at\nnights, the cat\u2019s eye was always looking out for mice, while it could\nhardly be kept awake during the day. Nevertheless, he was pleased at the\ntime, and went and told Nuada, who commanded that the doctors who had\nperformed this marvellous cure should be brought to him.\n\nAs they came in, they heard the king groaning, for Nuada\u2019s wrist had\nfestered where the silver hand joined the arm of flesh. Miach asked\nwhere Nuada\u2019s own hand was, and they told him that it had been buried\nlong ago. But he dug it up, and placed it to Nuada\u2019s stump; he uttered\nan incantation over it, saying: \u201cSinew to sinew, and nerve to nerve be\njoined!\u201d and in three days and nights the hand had renewed itself and\nfixed itself to the arm, so that Nuada was whole again.\n\nWhen Diancecht, Miach\u2019s father, heard of this, he was very angry to\nthink that his son should have excelled him in the art of medicine. He\nsent for him, and struck him upon the head with a sword, cutting the\nskin, but not wounding the flesh. Miach easily healed this. So Diancecht\nhit him again, this time to the bone. Again Miach cured himself. The\nthird time his father smote him, the sword went right through the skull\nto the membrane of the brain, but even this wound Miach was able to\nleech. At the fourth stroke, however, Diancecht cut the brain in two,\nand Miach could do nothing for that. He died, and Diancecht buried him.\nAnd upon his grave there grew up three hundred and sixty-five stalks of\ngrass, each one a cure for any illness of each of the three hundred and\nsixty-five nerves in a man\u2019s body. Airmid, Miach\u2019s sister, plucked all\nthese very carefully, and arranged them on her mantle according to their\nproperties. But her angry and jealous father overturned the cloak, and\nhopelessly confused them. If it had not been for that act, says the\nearly writer, men would know how to cure every illness, and would so be\nimmortal.\n\nThe healing of Nuada\u2019s blemish happened just at the time when all the\npeople of the goddess Danu had at last agreed that the exactions and\ntyranny of Bress could no longer be borne. It was the insult he put upon\nCairpr\u00e9, son of Ogma the god of literature, that caused things to come\nto this head. Poets were always held by the Celts in great honour; and\nwhen Cairpr\u00e9, the bard of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, went to visit Bress, he\nexpected to be treated with much consideration, and fed at the king\u2019s\nown table. But, instead of doing so, Bress lodged him in a small, dark\nroom where there was no fire, no bed, and no furniture except a mean\ntable on which small cakes of dry bread were put on a little dish for\nhis food. The next morning, Cairpr\u00e9 rose early and left the palace\nwithout having spoken to Bress. It was the custom of poets when they\nleft a king\u2019s court to utter a panegyric on their host, but Cairpr\u00e9\ntreated Bress instead to a magical satire. It was the first satire ever\nmade in Ireland, and seems to us to bear upon it all the marks of an\nearly effort. Roughly rendered, it said:\n\n \u201cNo meat on the plates,\n No milk of the cows;\n No shelter for the belated;\n No money for the minstrels:\n May Bress\u2019s cheer be what he gives to others!\u201d\n\nThis satire of Cairpr\u00e9\u2019s was, we are assured, so virulent that it caused\ngreat red blotches to break out all over Bress\u2019s face. This in itself\nconstituted a blemish such as should not be upon a king, and the Tuatha\nD\u00e9 Danann called upon Bress to abdicate and let Nuada take the throne\nagain.\n\nBress was obliged to do so. He went back to the country of the Fomors,\nunderneath the sea, and complained to his father Elathan, its king,\nasking him to gather an army to reconquer his throne. The Fomors\nassembled in council\u2014Elathan, Tethra, Balor, Indech, and all the other\nwarriors and chiefs\u2014and they decided to come with a great host, and take\nIreland away, and put it under the sea where the people of the goddess\nDanu would never be able to find it again.\n\nAt the same time, another assembly was also being held at Tara, the\ncapital of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. Nuada was celebrating his return to the\nthrone by a feast to his people. While it was at its height, a stranger\nclothed like a king came to the palace gate. The porter asked him his\nname and errand.\n\n\u201cI am called Lugh,\u201d he said. \u201cI am the grandson of Diancecht by Cian, my\nfather, and the grandson of Balor by Ethniu, my mother.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut what is your profession?\u201d asked the porter; \u201cfor no one is admitted\nhere unless he is a master of some craft.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a carpenter,\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cWe have no need of a carpenter. We already have a very good one; his\nname is Luchtain\u00e9.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am an excellent smith,\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cWe do not want a smith. We have a very good one; his name is Goibniu.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a professional warrior,\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cWe have no need of one. Ogma is our champion.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a harpist,\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cWe have an excellent harpist already.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a warrior renowned for skilfulness rather than for mere strength.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe already have a man like that.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a poet and tale-teller,\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cWe have no need of such. We have a most accomplished poet and\ntale-teller.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a sorcerer,\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cWe do not want one. We have numberless sorcerers and druids.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a physician,\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cDiancecht is our physician.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a cup-bearer,\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cWe already have nine of them.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a worker in bronze.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have no need of you. We already have a worker in bronze. His name is\nCredn\u00e9.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen ask the king,\u201d said Lugh, \u201cif he has with him a man who is master\nof all these crafts at once, for, if he has, there is no need for me to\ncome to Tara.\u201d\n\nSo the door-keeper went inside, and told the king that a man had come\nwho called himself Lugh the _Ioldanach_[111], or the \u201cMaster of all\nArts\u201d, and that he claimed to know everything.\n\nThe king sent out his best chess-player to play against the stranger.\nLugh won, inventing a new move called \u201cLugh\u2019s enclosure\u201d.\n\nThen Nuada invited him in. Lugh entered, and sat down upon the chair\ncalled the \u201csage\u2019s seat\u201d, kept for the wisest man.\n\nOgma, the champion, was showing off his strength. Upon the floor was a\nflagstone so large that fourscore yokes of oxen would have been needed\nto move it. Ogma pushed it before him along the hall, and out at the\ndoor. Then Lugh rose from his chair, and pushed it back again. But this\nstone, huge as it was, was only a portion broken from a still greater\nrock outside the palace. Lugh picked it up, and put it back into its\nplace.\n\nThe Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann asked him to play the harp to them. So he played\nthe \u201csleep-tune\u201d, and the king and all his court fell asleep, and did\nnot wake until the same hour of the following day. Next he played a\nplaintive air, and they all wept. Lastly, he played a measure which sent\nthem into transports of joy.\n\nWhen Nuada had seen all these numerous talents of Lugh, he began to\nwonder whether one so gifted would not be of great help against the\nFomors. He took counsel with the others, and, by their advice, lent his\nthrone to Lugh for thirteen days, taking the \u201csage\u2019s seat\u201d at his side.\n\nLugh summoned all the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann to a council.\n\n\u201cThe Fomors are certainly going to make war on us,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat can\neach of you do to help?\u201d\n\nDiancecht the Physician said: \u201cI will completely cure everyone who is\nwounded, provided his head is not cut off, or his brain or spinal marrow\nhurt.\u201d\n\n\u201cI,\u201d said Goibniu the Smith, \u201cwill replace every broken lance and sword\nwith a new one, even though the war last seven years. And I will make\nthe lances so well that they shall never miss their mark, or fail to\nkill. Dulb, the smith of the Fomors, cannot do as much as that. The fate\nof the fighting will be decided by my lances.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd I,\u201d said Credn\u00e9 the Bronze-worker, \u201cwill furnish all the rivets for\nthe lances, the hilts for the swords, and the rims and bosses for the\nshields.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd I,\u201d said Luchtain\u00e9 the Carpenter, \u201cwill provide all the shields and\nlance-shafts.\u201d\n\nOgma the Champion promised to kill the King of the Fomors, with thrice\nnine of his followers, and to capture one-third of his army.\n\n\u201cAnd you, O Dagda,\u201d said Lugh, \u201cwhat will you do?\u201d\n\n\u201cI will fight,\u201d said the Dagda, \u201cboth with force and craft. Wherever the\ntwo armies meet, I will crush the bones of the Fomors with my club, till\nthey are like hailstones under a horse\u2019s feet.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you, O Morr\u00edg\u00fa?\u201d said Lugh.\n\n\u201cI will pursue them when they flee,\u201d she replied. \u201cAnd I always catch\nwhat I chase.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you, O Cairpr\u00e9, son of Etan?\u201d said Lugh to the poet, \u201cwhat can you\ndo?\u201d\n\n\u201cI will pronounce an immediately-effective curse upon them; by one of my\nsatires I will take away all their honour, and, enchanted by me, they\nshall not be able to stand against our warriors.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd ye, O sorcerers, what will ye do?\u201d\n\n\u201cWe will hurl by our magic arts,\u201d replied Mathgan, the head sorcerer,\n\u201cthe twelve mountains of Ireland at the Fomors. These mountains will be\nSlieve League, Denna Ulad, the Mourne Mountains, Bri Ruri, Slieve Bloom,\nSlieve Snechta, Slemish, Blai-Sliab, Nephin, Sliab Maccu Belgodon,\nSegais[112], and Cruachan Aigle[113]\u201d.\n\nThen Lugh asked the cup-bearers what they would do.\n\n\u201cWe will hide away by magic,\u201d they said, \u201cthe twelve chief lakes and the\ntwelve chief rivers of Ireland from the Fomors, so that they shall not\nbe able to find any water, however thirsty they may be; those waters\nwill conceal themselves from the Fomors so that they shall not get a\ndrop, while they will give drink to the people of the goddess Danu as\nlong as the war lasts, even if it last seven years.\u201d And they told Lugh\nthat the twelve chief lakes were Lough Derg, Lough Luimnigh[114], Lough\nCorrib, Lough Ree, Lough Mask, Strangford Lough, Lough L\u00e6ig, Lough\nNeagh, Lough Foyle, Lough Gara, Lough Reagh, and M\u00e1rloch, and that the\ntwelve chief rivers were the Bush, the Boyne, the Bann, the Nem, the\nLee, the Shannon, the Moy, the Sligo, the Erne, the Finn, the Liffey,\nand the Suir.\n\nFinally, the Druid, Figol, son of Mamos, said: \u201cI will send three\nstreams of fire into the faces of the Fomors, and I will take away\ntwo-thirds of their valour and strength, but every breath drawn by the\npeople of the goddess Danu will only make them more valorous and strong,\nso that even if the fighting lasts seven years, they will not be weary\nof it.\u201d\n\nAll decided to make ready for a war, and to give the direction of it to\nLugh.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 109:\n\n The principal sources of information for this chapter are the Harleian\n MS. 5280 entitled _The Second Battle of Moytura_, of which\n translations have been made by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the _Revue\n Celtique_ and M. de Jubainville in his _L\u2019\u00c9pop\u00e9e Celtique en Irlande_,\n and Eugene O\u2019Curry\u2019s translation in Vol. IV. of _Atlantis_ of the\n _Fate of the Children of Tuirenn_.\n\nFootnote 110:\n\n Pronounced _Kian_.\n\nFootnote 111:\n\n Pronounced _Ild\u0101na_.\n\nFootnote 112:\n\n The Curlieu Hills, between Roscommon and Sligo.\n\nFootnote 113:\n\n Croagh Patrick.\n\nFootnote 114:\n\n The estuary of the Shannon.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n\n THE GAELIC ARGONAUTS\n\n\nThe preparations for this war are said to have lasted seven years. It\nwas during the interval that there befel an episode which might almost\nbe called the \u201cArgonautica\u201d of the Gaelic mythology.[115]\n\nIn spite of the dethronement of Bress, the Fomors still claimed their\nannual tribute from the tribe of the goddess Danu, and sent their\ntax-gatherers, nine times nine in number, to \u201cBalor\u2019s Hill\u201d to collect\nit. But, while they waited for the gods to come to tender their\nsubmission and their subsidy, they saw a young man approaching them. He\nwas riding upon \u201cSplendid Mane\u201d, the horse of Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear, and\nwas dressed in Manann\u00e1n\u2019s breastplate and helmet, through which no\nweapon could wound their wearer, and he was armed with sword and shield\nand poisoned darts. \u201cLike to the setting sun\u201d, says the story, \u201cwas the\nsplendour of his countenance and his forehead, and they were not able to\nlook in his face for the greatness of his splendour.\u201d And no wonder! for\nhe was Lugh the Far-shooter, the new-come sun-god of the Gaels. He fell\nupon the Fomorian tax-gatherers, killing all but nine of them, and these\nhe only spared that they might go back to their kinsmen and tell how the\ngods had received them.\n\nThere was consternation in the under-sea country. \u201cWho can this terrible\nwarrior be?\u201d asked Balor. \u201cI know,\u201d said Balor\u2019s wife; \u201che must be the\nson of our daughter Ethniu; and I foretell that, since he has cast in\nhis lot with his father\u2019s people, we shall never bear rule in Erin\nagain.\u201d\n\nThe chiefs of the Fomors saw that this slaughter of their tax-gatherers\nsignified that the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann meant fighting. They held a council\nto debate on it. There came to it Elathan and Tethra and Indech, kings\nof the Fomors; Bress himself, and Balor of the stout blows; Cethlenn the\ncrooked tooth, Balor\u2019s wife; Balor\u2019s twelve white-mouthed sons; and all\nthe chief Fomorian warriors and druids.\n\nMeanwhile, upon earth, Lugh was sending messengers all over Erin to\nassemble the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. Upon this errand went Lugh\u2019s father Cian,\nwho seems to have been a kind of lesser solar deity,[116] son of\nDiancecht, the god of medicine. As Cian was going over the plain of\nMuirthemne,[117] he saw three armed warriors approaching him, and, when\nthey got nearer, he recognized them as the three sons of Tuirenn, son of\nOgma, whose names were Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba. Between these three\nand Cian, with his brothers Ceth\u00e9 and Cu, there was, for some reason, a\nprivate enmity. Cian saw that he was now at a disadvantage. \u201cIf my\nbrothers were with me,\u201d he said to himself, \u201cwhat a fight we would make;\nbut, as I am alone, it will be best for me to conceal myself.\u201d Looking\nround, he saw a herd of pigs feeding on the plain. Like all the gods, he\nhad the faculty of shape-shifting; so, striking himself with a magic\nwand, he changed himself into a pig, joined the herd, and began feeding\nwith them.\n\nBut he had been seen by the sons of Tuirenn. \u201cWhat has become of the\nwarrior who was walking on the plain a moment ago?\u201d said Brian to his\nbrothers. \u201cWe saw him then,\u201d they replied, \u201cbut we do not know where he\nis now.\u201d \u201cThen you have not used the proper vigilance which is needed in\ntime of war,\u201d said the elder brother. \u201cHowever, I know what has become\nof him. He has struck himself with a druidical wand, and changed himself\ninto a pig, and there he is, in that herd, rooting up the ground, just\nlike all the other pigs. I can also tell you who he is. His name is\nCian, and you know that he is no friend of ours.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is a pity that he has taken refuge among the pigs,\u201d they replied,\n\u201cfor they belong to some one of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, and, even if we\nwere to kill them all, Cian might still escape us.\u201d\n\nAgain Brian reproached his brothers. \u201cYou are very ignorant,\u201d he said,\n\u201cif you cannot distinguish a magical beast from a natural beast.\nHowever, I will show you.\u201d And thereupon he struck his two brothers with\nhis own wand of shape-changing, and turned them into two swift, slender\nhounds, and set them upon the pigs.\n\nThe magic hounds soon found the magic pig, and drove it out of the herd\non to the open plain. Then Brian threw his spear, and hit it. The\nwounded pig came to a stop. \u201cIt was an evil deed of yours, casting that\nspear,\u201d it cried, in a human voice, \u201cfor I am not a pig, but Cian, son\nof Diancecht. So give me quarter.\u201d\n\nIuchar and Iucharba would have granted it, and let him go; but their\nfiercer brother swore that Cian should be put an end to, even if he came\nback to life seven times. So Cian tried a fresh ruse. \u201cGive me leave\u201d,\nhe asked, \u201conly to return to my own shape before you slay me.\u201d \u201cGladly,\u201d\nreplied Brian, \u201cfor I would much rather kill a man than a pig.\u201d\n\nSo Cian spoke the befitting spell, cast off his pig\u2019s disguise, and\nstood before them in his own shape. \u201cYou will be obliged to spare my\nlife now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will not,\u201d replied Brian. \u201cThen it will be the\nworst day\u2019s work for all of you that you ever did in your lives,\u201d he\nanswered; \u201cfor, if you had killed me in the shape of a pig, you would\nonly have had to pay the value of a pig, but if you kill me now, I tell\nyou that there never has been, and there never will be, anyone killed in\nthis world for whose death a greater blood-fine will be exacted than for\nmine.\u201d\n\nBut the sons of Tuirenn would not listen to him. They slew him, and\npounded his body with stones until it was a crushed mass. Six times they\ntried to bury him, and the earth cast him back in horror; but, the\nseventh time, the mould held him, and they put stones upon him to keep\nhim down. They left him buried there, and went to Tara.\n\nMeanwhile Lugh had been expecting his father\u2019s return. As he did not\ncome, he determined to go and look for him. He traced him to the Plain\nof Muirthemne, and there he was at fault. But the indignant earth\nitself, which had witnessed the murder, spoke to Lugh, and told him\neverything. So Lugh dug up his father\u2019s corpse, and made certain how he\nhad come to his death; then he mourned over him, and laid him back in\nthe earth, and heaped a barrow over him, and set up a pillar with his\nname on it in \u201cogam\u201d.[118]\n\nHe went back to Tara, and entered the great hall. It was filled with the\npeople of the goddess Danu, and among them Lugh saw the three sons of\nTuirenn. So he shook the \u201cchiefs\u2019 chain\u201d, with which the Gaels used to\nask for a hearing in an assembly, and when all were silent, he said:\n\n\u201cPeople of the goddess Danu, I ask you a question. What would be the\nvengeance that any of you would take upon one who had murdered his\nfather?\u201d\n\nA great astonishment fell upon them, and Nuada, their king, said:\n\u201cSurely it is not your father that has been murdered?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is,\u201d replied Lugh. \u201cAnd I am looking at those who murdered him; and\nthey know how they did it better than I do.\u201d\n\nThen Nuada declared that nothing short of hewing the murderer of his\nfather limb from limb would satisfy him, and all the others said the\nsame, including the sons of Tuirenn.\n\n\u201cThe very ones who did the deed say that,\u201d cried Lugh. \u201cThen let them\nnot leave the hall till they have settled with me about the blood-fine\nto be paid for it.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf it was I who had killed your father,\u201d said the king, \u201cI should think\nmyself lucky if you were willing to accept a fine instead of vengeance.\u201d\n\nThe sons of Tuirenn took counsel together in whispers. Iuchar and\nIucharba were in favour of admitting their guilt, but Brian was afraid\nthat, if they confessed, Lugh would withdraw his offer to accept a fine,\nand would demand their deaths. So he stood out, and said that, though it\nwas not they who had killed Cian, yet, sooner than remain under Lugh\u2019s\nanger, as he suspected them, they would pay the same fine as if they\nhad.\n\n\u201cCertainly you shall pay the fine,\u201d said Lugh, \u201cand I will tell you what\nit shall be. It is this: three apples; and a pig\u2019s-skin; and a spear;\nand two horses and a chariot; and seven pigs; and a hound-whelp; and a\ncooking-spit; and three shouts on a hill: that is the fine, and, if you\nthink it is too much, I will remit some of it, but, if you do not think\nit is too much, then pay it.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf it were a hundred times that,\u201d replied Brian, \u201cwe should not think\nit too much. Indeed, it seems so little that I fear there must be some\ntreachery concealed in it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI do not think it too little,\u201d replied Lugh. \u201cGive me your pledge\nbefore the people of the goddess Danu that you will pay it faithfully,\nand I will give you mine that I will ask no more.\u201d\n\nSo the sons of Tuirenn bound themselves before the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann to\npay the fine to Lugh.\n\nWhen they had sworn, and given sureties, Lugh turned to them again. \u201cI\nwill now\u201d, he said, \u201cexplain to you the nature of the fine you have\npledged yourselves to pay me, so that you may know whether it is too\nlittle or not.\u201d And, with foreboding hearts, the sons of Tuirenn set\nthemselves to listen.\n\n\u201cThe three apples that I have demanded,\u201d he began, \u201care three apples\nfrom the Garden of the Hesperides, in the east of the world. You will\nknow them by three signs. They are the size of the head of a month-old\nchild, they are of the colour of burnished gold, and they taste of\nhoney. Wounds are healed and diseases cured by eating them, and they do\nnot diminish in any way by being eaten. Whoever casts one of them hits\nanything he wishes, and then it comes back into his hand. I will accept\nno other apples instead of these. Their owners keep them perpetually\nguarded because of a prophecy that three young warriors from the west of\nthe world will come to take them by force, and, brave as you may be, I\ndo not think that you will ever get them.\n\n\u201cThe pig\u2019s-skin that I have demanded is the pig\u2019s-skin of Tuis, King of\nGreece. It has two virtues: its touch perfectly cures all wounded or\nsick persons if only there is any life still left in them; and every\nstream of water through which it passes is turned into wine for nine\ndays. I do not think that you will get it from the King of Greece,\neither with his consent or without it.\n\n\u201cAnd can you guess what spear it is that I have demanded?\u201d asked Lugh.\n\u201cWe cannot,\u201d they said. \u201cIt is the poisoned spear of Pisear[119], King\nof Persia; it is irresistible in battle; it is so fiery that its blade\nmust always be held under water, lest it destroy the city in which it is\nkept. You will find it very difficult to obtain.\n\n\u201cAnd the two horses and the chariot are the two wonderful horses of\nDobhar[120], King of Sicily, which run equally well over land and sea;\nthere are no other horses in the world like them, and no other vehicle\nequal to the chariot.\n\n\u201cAnd the seven pigs are the pigs of Easal[121], King of the Golden\nPillars; though they may be killed every night, they are found alive\nagain the next day, and every person that eats part of them can never be\nafflicted with any disease.\n\n\u201cAnd the hound-whelp I claim is the hound-whelp of the King of\nIoruaidhe[122]; her name is Failinis; every wild beast she sees she\ncatches at once. It will not be easy for you to secure her.\n\n\u201cThe cooking-spit which you must get for me is one of the cooking-spits\nof the women of the Island of Fianchuiv\u00e9[123], which is at the bottom of\nthe sea, between Erin and Alba.\n\n\u201cYou have also pledged yourselves to give three shouts upon a hill. The\nhill upon which they must be given is the hill called Cnoc\nMiodhchaoin[124], in the north of Lochlann[125]. Miodhchaoin and his\nsons do not allow shouts to be given on that hill; besides this, it was\nthey who gave my father his military education, and, even if I were to\nforgive you, they would not; so that, though you achieve all the other\nadventures, I think that you will fail in this one.\n\n\u201cNow you know what sort of a fine it is that you have bargained to pay\nme,\u201d said Lugh.\n\nAnd fear and astonishment fell upon the sons of Tuirenn.\n\nThis tale is evidently the work of some ancient Irish story-teller who\nwished to compile from various sources a more or less complete account\nof how the Gaelic gods obtained their legendary possessions. The spear\nof Pisear, King of Persia, is obviously the same weapon as the lance of\nLugh, which another tradition describes as having been brought by the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann from their original home in the city of Gorias;[126]\nFailinis, the whelp of the King of Ioruaidhe, is Lugh\u2019s \u201chound of\nmightiest deeds\u201d, which was irresistible in battle, and which turned any\nrunning water it bathed in into wine,[127] a property here transferred\nto the magic pig\u2019s-skin of King Tuis: the seven swine of the King of the\nGolden Pillars must be the same undying porkers from whose flesh\nManann\u00e1n mac Lir made the \u201cFeast of Age\u201d which preserved the eternal\nyouth of the gods;[128] it was with horses and chariot that ran along\nthe surface of the sea that Manann\u00e1n used to journey to and fro between\nErin and the Celtic Elysium in the West;[129] the apples that grew in\nthe Garden of the Hesperides were surely of the same celestial growth as\nthose that fed the inhabitants of that immortal country;[130] while the\ncooking-spit reminds us of three such implements at Tara, made by\nGoibniu and associated with the names of the Dagda and the Morr\u00edg\u00fa.[131]\n\nThe burden of collecting all these treasures was placed upon the\nshoulders of the three sons of Tuirenn.\n\nThey consulted together, and agreed that they could never hope to\nsucceed unless they had Manann\u00e1n\u2019s magic horse, \u201cSplendid Mane\u201d, and\nManann\u00e1n\u2019s magic coracle, \u201cWave-sweeper\u201d. But both these had been lent\nby Manann\u00e1n to Lugh himself. So the sons of Tuirenn were obliged to\nhumble themselves to beg them from Lugh. The sun-god would not lend them\nthe horse, for fear of making their task too easy, but he let them have\nthe boat, because he knew how much the spear of Pisear and the horses of\nDobhar would be needed in the coming war with the Fomors. They bade\nfarewell to their father, and went down to the shore and put out to sea,\ntaking their sister with them.\n\n\u201cWhich portion of the fine shall we seek first?\u201d said the others to\nBrian. \u201cWe will seek them in the order in which they were demanded,\u201d he\nreplied. So they directed the magic boat to sail to the Garden of the\nHesperides, and presently they arrived there.\n\nThey landed at a harbour, and held a council of war. It was decided that\ntheir best chance of obtaining three of the apples would be by taking\nthe shapes of hawks. Thus they would have strength enough in their claws\nto carry the apples away, together with sufficient quickness upon the\nwing to hope to escape the arrows, darts, and sling-stones which would\nbe shot and hurled at them by the warders of the garden.\n\nThey swooped down upon the orchard from above. It was done so swiftly\nthat they carried off the three apples, unhit either by shaft or stone.\nBut their difficulties were not yet over. The king of the country had\nthree daughters who were well skilled in witchcraft. By sorcery they\nchanged themselves into three ospreys, and pursued the three hawks. But\nthe sons of Tuirenn reached the shore first, and, changing themselves\ninto swans, dived into the sea. They came up close to their coracle, and\ngot into it, and sailed swiftly away with the spoil.\n\nThus their first quest was finished, and they voyaged on to Greece, to\nseek the pig\u2019s-skin of King Tuis. No one could go without some excuse\ninto a king\u2019s court, so they decided to disguise themselves as poets,\nand to tell the door-keeper that they were professional bards from Erin,\nseeking largess at the hands of kings. The porter let them into the\ngreat hall, where the poets of Greece were singing before the king.\n\nWhen those had all finished, Brian rose, and asked permission to show\nhis art. This was accorded; and he sang:\n\n \u201cO Tuis, we conceal not thy fame.\n We praise thee as the oak above the kings;\n The skin of a pig, bounty without hardness!\n This is the reward which I ask for it.\n\n \u201cA stormy host and raging sea\n Are a dangerous power, should one oppose it.\n The skin of a pig, bounty without hardness!\n This is the reward I ask, O Tuis.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is a good poem,\u201d said the king, \u201conly I do not understand it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will explain it,\u201d said Brian. \u201c\u2018_We praise thee as the oak above the\nkings_\u2019; this means that, as the oak excels all other trees, so do you\nexcel all other kings in nobility and generosity. \u2018_The skin of a pig,\nbounty without hardness_\u2019; that is a pig\u2019s-skin which you have, O Tuis,\nand which I should like to receive as the reward of my poem. \u2018_A stormy\nhost and raging sea are a dangerous power, should one oppose it_\u2019; this\nmeans to say, that we are not used to going without anything on which we\nhave set our hearts, O Tuis.\u201d\n\n\u201cI should have liked your poem better,\u201d replied the king, \u201cif my\npig\u2019s-skin had not been mentioned in it. It was not a wise thing for you\nto have done, O poet. But I will measure three fills of red gold out of\nthe skin, and you shall have those.\u201d\n\n\u201cMay all good be thine, O King!\u201d answered Brian. \u201cI knew that I should\nget a noble reward.\u201d\n\nSo the king sent for the pig\u2019s-skin to measure out the gold with. But,\nas soon as Brian saw it, he seized it with his left hand, and slew the\nman who was holding it, and Iuchar and Iucharba also hacked about them;\nand they cut their way down to the boat, leaving the King of Greece\namong the dead behind them.\n\n\u201cAnd now we will go and get King Pisear\u2019s spear,\u201d said Brian. So,\nleaving Greece, they sailed in their coracle to Persia.\n\nTheir plan of disguising themselves as poets had served them so well\nthat they decided to make use of it again. So they went into the King of\nPersia\u2019s hall in the same way as they had entered that of the King of\nGreece. Brian first listened to the poets of Persia singing; then he\nsang his own song:\n\n \u201cSmall the esteem of any spear with Pisear;\n The battles of foes are broken;\n No oppression to Pisear;\n Everyone whom he wounds.\n\n \u201cA yew-tree, the finest of the wood,\n It is called King without opposition.\n May that splendid shaft drive on\n Yon crowd into their wounds of death.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is a good poem, O man of Erin,\u201d said the king, \u201cbut why is my\nspear mentioned in it?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe meaning is this,\u201d replied Brian: \u201cI should like to receive that\nspear as a reward for my poem.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou make a rash request,\u201d said the king. \u201cIf I spare your life after\nhaving heard it, it will be a sufficient reward for your poem.\u201d\n\nBrian had one of the magic apples in his hand, and he remembered its\nboomerang-like quality. He hurled it full in the King of Persia\u2019s face,\ndashing out his brains. The Persians flew to arms, but the three sons of\nTuirenn conquered them, and made them yield up the spear.\n\nThey had now to travel to Sicily, to obtain the horses and chariot of\nKing Dobhar. But they were afraid to go as poets this time, for fear the\nfame of their deeds might have got abroad. They therefore decided to\npretend to be mercenary soldiers from Erin, and offer the King of Sicily\ntheir service. This, they thought, would be the easiest way of finding\nout where the horses and the chariot were kept. So they went and stood\non the green before the royal court.\n\nWhen the King of Sicily heard that there had come mercenaries from Erin,\nseeking wages from the kings of the world, he invited them to take\nservice with him. They agreed; but, though they stayed with him a\nfortnight and a month, they never saw the horses, or even found out\nwhere they were kept. So they went to the king, and announced that they\nwished to leave him.\n\n\u201cWhy?\u201d he asked, for he did not want them to go.\n\n\u201cWe will tell you, O King!\u201d replied Brian. \u201cIt is because we have not\nbeen honoured with your confidence, as we have been accustomed with\nother kings. You have two horses and a chariot, the best in the world,\nand we have not even been allowed to see them.\u201d\n\n\u201cI would have shown them to you on the first day if you had asked me,\u201d\nsaid the king; \u201cand you shall see them at once, for I have seldom had\nwarriors with me so good as you are, and I do not wish you to leave me.\u201d\n\nSo he sent for the steeds, and had them yoked to the chariot, and the\nsons of Tuirenn were witnesses of their marvellous speed, and how they\ncould run equally well over land or water.\n\nBrian made a sign to his brothers, and they watched their opportunity\ncarefully, and, as the chariot passed close beside them, Brian leaped\ninto it, hurling its driver over the side. Then, turning the horses, he\nstruck King Dobhar with Pisear\u2019s spear, and killed him. He took his two\nbrothers up into the chariot and they drove away.\n\nBy the time the sons of Tuirenn reached the country of Easal, King of\nthe Pillars of Gold, rumour had gone before them. The king came down to\nthe harbour to meet them, and asked them if it were really true that so\nmany kings had fallen at their hands. They replied that it was true, but\nthat they had no quarrel with any of them; only they must obtain at all\ncosts the fine demanded by Lugh. Then Easal asked them why they had come\nto his land, and they told him that they needed his seven pigs to add to\nthe tribute. So Easal thought it better to give them up, and to make\nfriends with the three sons of Tuirenn, than to fight with such\nwarriors. The sons of Tuirenn were very glad at this, for they were\ngrowing weary of battles.\n\nIt happened that the King of Ioruaidhe, who had the hound-whelp that\nLugh had demanded, was the husband of King Easal\u2019s daughter. Therefore\nKing Easal did not wish that there should be fighting between him and\nthe three sons of Tuirenn. He proposed to Brian and his brothers that he\nshould sail with them to Ioruaidhe, and try to persuade the king of the\ncountry to give up the hound-whelp peacefully. They consented, and all\nset foot safely on the \u201cdelightful, wonderful shores of Ioruaidhe\u201d,[132]\nas the manuscript calls them. But King Easal\u2019s son-in-law would not\nlisten to reason. He assembled his warriors, and fought; but the sons of\nTuirenn defeated them, and compelled their king to yield up the\nhound-whelp as the ransom for his life.\n\nAll these quests had been upon the earth, but the next was harder. No\ncoracle, not even Manann\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cWave-sweeper\u201d, could penetrate to the\nIsland of Fianchuiv\u00e9, in the depths of the sea that severs Erin from\nAlba. So Brian left his brothers, and put on his \u201cwater-dress, with his\ntransparency of glass upon his head\u201d\u2014evidently an ancient Irish\nanticipation of the modern diver\u2019s dress. Thus equipped, he explored the\nbottom of the sea for fourteen days before he found the island. But when\nat last he reached it, and entered the hall of its queen, she and her\nsea-maidens were so amazed at Brian\u2019s hardihood in having penetrated to\ntheir kingdom that they presented him with the cooking-spit, and sent\nhim back safe.\n\nBy this time, Lugh had found out by his magic arts that the sons of\nTuirenn had obtained all the treasures he had demanded as the\nblood-fine. He desired to get them safely into his own custody before\nhis victims went to give their three shouts upon Miodhchaoin\u2019s Hill. He\ntherefore wove a druidical spell round them, so that they forgot the\nrest of their task altogether, and sailed back to Erin. They searched\nfor Lugh, to give him the things, but he had gone away, leaving word\nthat they were to be handed over to Nuada, the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann king. As\nsoon as they were in safe-keeping, Lugh came back to Tara and found the\nsons of Tuirenn there. And he said to them:\n\n\u201cDo you not know that it is unlawful to keep back any part of a\nblood-fine? So have you given those three shouts upon Miodhchaoin\u2019s\nHill?\u201d\n\nThen the magic mist of forgetfulness fell from them, and they\nremembered. Sorrowfully they went back to complete their task.\n\nMiodhchaoin[133] himself was watching for them, and, when he saw them\nland, he came down to the beach. Brian attacked him, and they fought\nwith the swiftness of two bears and the ferocity of two lions until\nMiodhchaoin fell.\n\nThen Miodhchaoin\u2019s three sons\u2014Corc, Conn, and Aedh\u2014came out to avenge\ntheir father, and they drove their spears through the bodies of the\nthree sons of Tuirenn. But the three sons of Tuirenn also drove their\nspears through the bodies of the three sons of Miodhchaoin.\n\nThe three sons of Miodhchaoin were killed, and the three sons of Tuirenn\nwere so sorely wounded that birds might have flown through their bodies\nfrom one side to the other. Nevertheless Brian was still able to stand\nupright, and he held his two brothers, one in each hand, and kept them\non their feet, and, all together, they gave three faint, feeble shouts.\n\nTheir coracle bore them, still living, to Erin. They sent their father\nTuirenn as a suppliant to Lugh, begging him to lend them the magic\npig\u2019s-skin to heal their wounds.\n\nBut Lugh would not, for he had counted upon their fight with the sons of\nMiodhchaoin to avenge his father Cian\u2019s death. So the children of\nTuirenn resigned themselves to die, and their father made a farewell\nsong over them and over himself, and died with them.\n\nThus ends that famous tale\u2014\u201cThe Fate of the Sons of Tuirenn\u201d, known as\none of the \u201cThree Sorrowful Stories of Erin\u201d.[134]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 115:\n\n This story of the _Fate of the Children of Tuirenn_ is mentioned in\n the ninth-century \u201cCormac\u2019s Glossary\u201d. It is found in various Irish\n and Scottish MSS., including the Book of Lecan. The present re-telling\n is from Eugene O\u2019Curry\u2019s translation, published in _Atlantis_, Vol.\n IV.\n\nFootnote 116:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 390-396.\n\nFootnote 117:\n\n A part of County Louth, between the Boyne and Dundalk. The heroic\n cycle connects it especially with Cuchulainn. Pronounced _M\u016drthemna_\n or _M\u016drhevna_.\n\nFootnote 118:\n\n There is known to have been a hill called Ard Chein (Cian\u2019s Mound) in\n the district of Muirthemne, and O\u2019Curry identifies it tentatively with\n one now called Dromslian.\n\nFootnote 119:\n\n Pronounced _P\u0113zar_.\n\nFootnote 120:\n\n Pronounced _Dobar_.\n\nFootnote 121:\n\n Pronounced _Asal_.\n\nFootnote 122:\n\n Pronounced _Ir\u014dda_.\n\nFootnote 123:\n\n Pronounced _Finc\u0101ra_.\n\nFootnote 124:\n\n The _Hill_ (cnoc) _of Midk\u0113na_.\n\nFootnote 125:\n\n A mythical country inhabited by Fomors.\n\nFootnote 126:\n\n See chap. VI\u2014\u201cThe Gods Arrive\u201d.\n\nFootnote 127:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nFootnote 128:\n\n See chap. VI\u2014\u201cThe Gods Arrive\u201d.\n\nFootnote 129:\n\n See chap. XI\u2014\u201cThe Gods in Exile\u201d.\n\nFootnote 130:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nFootnote 131:\n\n Petrie: _Hist. and Antiq. of Tara Hill_.\n\nFootnote 132:\n\n The country seems to have been identified with Norway or Iceland.\n\nFootnote 133:\n\n Pronounced _Midk\u0113na_.\n\nFootnote 134:\n\n The other two are \u201cThe Fate of the Children of L\u00ear\u201d, told in chap. XI,\n and \u201cThe Fate of the Sons of Usnach\u201d, an episode of the Heroic Cycle,\n related in chap. XIII.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX\n\n THE WAR WITH THE GIANTS[135]\n\n\nBy this time the seven years of preparation had come to an end. A week\nbefore the Day of Samhain, the Morr\u00edg\u00fa discovered that the Fomors had\nlanded upon Erin. She at once sent a messenger to tell the Dagda, who\nordered his druids and sorcerers to go to the ford of the River Unius,\nin Sligo, and utter incantations against them.\n\nThe people of the goddess Danu, however, were not yet quite ready for\nbattle. So the Dagda decided to visit the Fomorian camp as an\nambassador, and, by parleying with them, to gain a little more time. The\nFomors received him with apparent courtesy, and, to celebrate his\ncoming, prepared him a feast of porridge; for it was well-known how fond\nhe was of such food. They poured into their king\u2019s cauldron, which was\nas deep as five giant\u2019s fists, fourscore gallons of new milk, with meal\nand bacon in proportion. To this they added the whole carcasses of\ngoats, sheep, and pigs; they boiled the mixture together, and poured it\ninto a hole in the ground. \u201cNow,\u201d said they, \u201cif you do not eat it all,\nwe shall put you to death, for we will not have you go back to your own\npeople and say that the Fomors are inhospitable.\u201d But they did not\nsucceed in frightening the Dagda. He took his spoon, which was so large\nthat two persons of our puny size might have reclined comfortably in the\nmiddle of it, dipped it into the porridge, and fished up halves of\nsalted pork and quarters of bacon.\n\n\u201cIf it tastes as good as it smells,\u201d he said, \u201cit is good fare.\u201d And so\nit proved; for he ate it all, and scraped up even what remained at the\nbottom of the hole. Then he went away to sleep it off, followed by the\nlaughter of the Fomors; for his stomach was so swollen with food that he\ncould hardly walk. It was larger than the biggest cauldron in a large\nhouse, and stood out like a sail before the wind.\n\nBut the Fomors\u2019 little practical joke upon the Dagda had given the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann time to collect their forces. It was on the eve of\nSamhain that the two armies came face to face. Even then the Fomors\ncould not believe that the people of the goddess Danu would offer them\nmuch resistance.\n\n\u201cDo you think they will really dare to give us battle?\u201d said Bress to\nIndech, the son of Domnu. \u201cIf they do not pay their tribute, we will\npound their bones for them,\u201d he replied.\n\nThe war of gods and giants naturally mirrored the warfare of the Gaels,\nin whose battles, as in those of most semi-barbarous people, single\ncombat figured largely. The main armies stood still, while, every day,\nduels took place between ambitious combatants. But no great warriors\neither of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann or of the Fomors took part in them.\n\nSometimes a god, sometimes a giant would be the victor; but there was a\ndifference in the net results that astonished the Fomors. If their own\nswords and lances were broken, they were of no more use, and if their\nown champions were killed, they never came back to life again; but it\nwas quite otherwise with the people of the goddess Danu. Weapons\nshattered on one day re-appeared upon the next in as good condition as\nthough they had never been used, and warriors slain on one day came back\nupon the morrow unhurt, and ready, if necessary, to be killed again.\n\nThe Fomors decided to send someone to discover the secret of these\nprodigies. The spy they chose was Ruadan, the son of Bress and of\nBrigit, daughter of the Dagda, and therefore half-giant and half-god. He\ndisguised himself as a Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann warrior, and went to look for\nGoibniu. He found him at his forge, together with Luchtain\u00e9, the\ncarpenter, and Credn\u00e9, the bronze-worker. He saw how Goibniu forged\nlance-heads with three blows of his hammer, while Luchtain\u00e9 cut shafts\nfor them with three blows of his axe, and Credn\u00e9 fixed the two parts\ntogether so adroitly that his bronze nails needed no hammering in. He\nwent back and told the Fomors, who sent him again, this time to try and\nkill Goibniu.\n\nHe reappeared at the forge, and asked for a javelin. Without suspicion,\nGoibniu gave him one, and, as soon as he got it into his hand, he thrust\nit through the smith\u2019s body. But Goibniu plucked it out, and, hurling it\nback at his assailant, mortally wounded him. Ruadan went home to die,\nand his father Bress and his mother Brigit mourned for him, inventing\nfor the purpose the Irish \u201ckeening\u201d. Goibniu, on the other hand, took no\nharm. He went to the physician Diancecht, who, with his daughter Airmid,\nwas always on duty at a miraculous well called the \u201cspring of health\u201d.\nWhenever one of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann was killed or wounded, he was\nbrought to the two doctors, who plunged him into the wonder-working\nwater, and brought him back to life and health again.\n\nThe mystic spring was not long, however, allowed to help the people of\nthe goddess. A young Fomorian chief, Octriallach son of Indech, found it\nout. He and a number of his companions went to it by night, each\ncarrying a large stone from the bed of the River Drowes. These they\ndropped into the spring, until they had filled it, dispersed the healing\nwater, and formed a cairn above it. Legend has identified this place by\nthe name of the \u201cCairn of Octriallach\u201d.\n\nThis success determined the Fomors to fight a pitched battle. They drew\nout their army in line. There was not a warrior in it who had not a coat\nof mail and a helmet, a stout spear, a strong buckler, and a heavy\nsword. \u201cFighting the Fomors on that day\u201d, says the old author, \u201ccould\nonly be compared to one of three things\u2014beating one\u2019s head against a\nrock, or plunging it into a fire, or putting one\u2019s hand into a serpent\u2019s\nnest.\u201d\n\nAll the great fighters of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann were drawn out opposite\nto them, except Lugh. A council of the gods had decided that his varied\naccomplishments made his life too valuable to be risked in battle. They\nhad, therefore, left him behind, guarded by nine warriors. But, at the\nlast moment, Lugh escaped from his warders, and appeared in his chariot\nbefore the army. He made them a patriotic speech. \u201cFight bravely,\u201d he\nsaid, \u201cthat your servitude may last no longer; it is better to face\ndeath than to live in vassalage and pay tribute.\u201d With these encouraging\nwords, he drove round the ranks, standing on tiptoe, so that all the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann might see him.\n\nThe Fomors saw him too, and marvelled. \u201cIt seems wonderful to me,\u201d[136]\nsaid Bress to his druids, \u201cthat the sun should rise in the west to-day\nand in the east every other day.\u201d \u201cIt would be better for us if it were\nso,\u201d replied the druids. \u201cWhat else can it be, then?\u201d asked Bress. \u201cIt\nis the radiance of the face of Lugh of the Long Arms,\u201d said they.\n\nThen the two armies charged each other with a great shout. Spears and\nlances smote against shields, and so great was the shouting of the\nfighters, the shattering of shields, the clattering of swords, the\nrattling of quivers, and the whistling of darts and javelins that it\nseemed as if thunder rolled everywhere.\n\nThey fought so closely that the heads, hands, and feet of those on one\nside were touching the heads, hands, and feet of those on the other\nside; they shed so much blood on to the ground that it became hard to\nstand on it without slipping; and the river of Unsenn was filled with\ndead bodies, so hard and swift and bloody and cruel was the battle.\n\nMany great chiefs fell on each side. Ogma, the champion of the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann, killed Indech, the son of the goddess Domnu. But, meanwhile,\nBalor of the Mighty Blows raged among the gods, slaying their king,\nNuada of the Silver Hand, as well as Macha, one of his warlike wives. At\nlast he met with Lugh. The sun-god shouted a challenge to his\ngrandfather in the Fomorian speech. Balor heard it, and prepared to use\nhis death-dealing eye.\n\n\u201cLift up my eyelid,\u201d he said to his henchmen, \u201cthat I may see this\nchatterer who talks to me.\u201d\n\nThe attendants lifted Balor\u2019s eye with a hook, and if the glance of the\neye beneath had rested upon Lugh, he would certainly have perished. But,\nwhen it was half opened, Lugh flung a magic stone which struck Balor\u2019s\neye out through the back of his head. The eye fell on the ground behind\nBalor, and destroyed a whole rank of thrice nine Fomors who were unlucky\nenough to be within sight of it.\n\nAn ancient poem has handed down the secret of this magic stone. It is\nthere called a _tathlum_, meaning a \u201cconcrete ball\u201d such as the ancient\nIrish warriors used sometimes to make out of the brains of dead enemies\nhardened with lime.\n\n \u201cA tathlum, heavy, fiery, firm,\n Which the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann had with them,\n It was that broke the fierce Balor\u2019s eye,\n Of old, in the battle of the great armies.\n\n \u201cThe blood of toads and furious bears,\n And the blood of the noble lion,\n The blood of vipers and of Osmuinn\u2019s trunks;\u2014\n It was of these the tathlum was composed.\n\n \u201cThe sand of the swift Armorian sea,\n And the sand of the teeming Red Sea;\u2014\n All these, being first purified, were used\n In the composition of the tathlum.\n\n \u201cBriun, the son of Bethar, no mean warrior,\n Who on the ocean\u2019s eastern border reigned;\u2014\n It was he that fused, and smoothly formed,\n It was he that fashioned the tathlum.\n\n \u201cTo the hero Lugh was given\n This concrete ball,\u2014no soft missile;\u2014\n In Mag Tuireadh of shrieking wails,\n From his hand he threw the tathlum.\u201d[137]\n\nThis blinding of the terrible Balor turned the fortunes of the fight;\nfor the Fomors wavered, and the Morr\u00edg\u00fa came and encouraged the people\nof the goddess Danu with a song, beginning \u201cKings arise to the battle\u201d,\nso that they took fresh heart, and drove the Fomors headlong back to\ntheir country underneath the sea.\n\nSuch was the battle which is called in Irish _Mag Tuireadh na\nb-Fomorach_, that is to say, the \u201cPlain of the Towers of the Fomors\u201d,\nand, more popularly, the \u201cBattle of Moytura the Northern\u201d, to\ndistinguish it from the other Battle of Moytura fought by the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann against the Fir Bolgs farther to the south. More of the Fomors\nwere killed in it, says the ancient manuscript, than there are stars in\nthe sky, grains of sand on the sea-shore, snow-flakes in winter, drops\nof dew upon the meadows in spring-time, hailstones during a storm,\nblades of grass trodden under horses\u2019 feet, or Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear\u2019s\nwhite horses, the waves of the sea, when a tempest breaks. The \u201ctowers\u201d\nor pillars said to mark the graves of the combatants still stand upon\nthe plain of Carrowmore, near Sligo, and form, in the opinion of Dr.\nPetrie, the finest collection of prehistoric monuments in the world,\nwith the sole exception of Carnac, in Brittany.[138] Megalithic\nstructures of almost every kind are found among them\u2014stone cairns with\ndolmens in their interiors, dolmens standing open and alone, dolmens\nsurrounded by one, two, or three circles of stones, and circles without\ndolmens\u2014to the number of over a hundred. Sixty-four of such prehistoric\nremains stand together upon an elevated plateau not more than a mile\nacross, and make the battle-field of Moytura, though the least known,\nperhaps the most impressive of all primeval ruins. What they really\ncommemorated we may never know, but, in all probability, the place was\nthe scene of some important and decisive early battle, the monuments\nmarking the graves of the chieftains who were interred as the result of\nit. Those which have been examined were found to contain burnt wood and\nthe half-burnt bones of men and horses, as well as implements of flint\nand bone. The actors, therefore, were still in the Neolithic Age.\nWhether the horses were domesticated ones buried with their riders, or\nwild ones eaten at the funeral feasts, it would be hard to decide. The\nhistory of the real event must have been long lost even at the early\ndate when its relics were pointed out as the records of a battle between\nthe gods and the giants of Gaelic myth.\n\nThe Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, following the routed Fomors, overtook and captured\nBress. He begged Lugh to spare his life.\n\n\u201cWhat ransom will you pay for it?\u201d asked Lugh.\n\n\u201cI will guarantee that the cows of Ireland shall always be in milk,\u201d\npromised Bress.\n\nBut, before accepting, Lugh took counsel with his druids.\n\n\u201cWhat good will that be,\u201d they decided, \u201cif Bress does not also lengthen\nthe lives of the cows?\u201d\n\nThis was beyond the power of Bress to do; so he made another offer.\n\n\u201cTell your people,\u201d he said to Lugh, \u201cthat, if they will spare my life,\nthey shall have a good wheat harvest every year.\u201d\n\nBut they said: \u201cWe already have the spring to plough and sow in, the\nsummer to ripen the crops, the autumn for reaping, and the winter in\nwhich to eat the bread; and that is all we want.\u201d\n\nLugh told this to Bress. But he also said: \u201cYou shall have your life in\nreturn for a much less service to us than that.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is it?\u201d asked Bress.\n\n\u201cTell us when we ought to plough, when we ought to sow, and when we\nought to harvest.\u201d\n\nBress replied: \u201cYou should plough on a Tuesday, sow on a Tuesday, and\nharvest on a Tuesday.\u201d\n\nAnd this lying maxim (says the story) saved Bress\u2019s life.\n\nLugh, the Dagda, and Ogma still pursued the Fomors, who had carried off\nin their flight the Dagda\u2019s harp. They followed them into the submarine\npalace where Bress and Elathan lived, and there they saw the harp\nhanging on the wall. This harp of the Dagda\u2019s would not play without its\nowner\u2019s leave. The Dagda sang to it:\n\n \u201cCome, oak of the two cries!\n Come, hand of fourfold music!\n Come, summer! Come, winter!\n Voice of harps, bellows[139], and flutes!\u201d\n\nFor the Dagda\u2019s harp had these two names; it was called \u201cOak of the two\ncries\u201d and \u201cHand of fourfold music\u201d.\n\nIt leaped down from the wall, killing nine of the Fomors as it passed,\nand came into the Dagda\u2019s hand. The Dagda played to the Fomors the three\ntunes known to all clever harpists\u2014the weeping-tune, the laughing-tune,\nand the sleeping-tune. While he played the weeping-tune, they were bowed\nwith weeping; while he played the laughing-tune, they rocked with\nlaughter; and when he played the sleeping-tune, they all fell asleep.\nAnd while they slept, Lugh, the Dagda, and Ogma got away safely.\n\nNext, the Dagda brought the black-maned heifer which he had, by the\nadvice of Angus son of the Young, obtained from Bress. The wisdom of\nAngus had been shown in this advice, for it was this very heifer that\nthe cattle of the people of the goddess Danu were accustomed to follow,\nwhenever it lowed. Now, when it lowed, all the cattle which the Fomors\nhad taken away from the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann came back again.\n\nYet the power of the Fomors was not wholly broken. Four of them still\ncarried on a desultory warfare by spoiling the corn, fruit, and milk of\ntheir conquerors. But the Morr\u00edg\u00fa and Badb and Mider and Angus pursued\nthem, and drove them out of Ireland for ever.[140]\n\nLast of all, the Morr\u00edg\u00fa and Badb went up on to the summits of all the\nhigh mountains of Ireland, and proclaimed the victory. All the lesser\ngods who had not been in the battle came round and heard the news. And\nBadb sang a song which began:\n\n \u201cPeace mounts to the heavens,\n The heavens descend to earth,\n Earth lies under the heavens,\n Everyone is strong ...\u201d,\n\nbut the rest of it has been lost and forgotten.\n\nThen she added a prophecy in which she foretold the approaching end of\nthe divine age, and the beginning of a new one in which summers would be\nflowerless and cows milkless and women shameless and men strengthless,\nin which there would be trees without fruit and seas without fish, when\nold men would give false judgments and legislators make unjust laws,\nwhen warriors would betray one another, and men would be thieves, and\nthere would be no more virtue left in the world.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 135:\n\n This chapter is, with slight interpolations, based upon the Harleian\n MS. in the British Museum numbered 5280, and called the _Second Battle\n of Moytura_, or rather from translations made of it by Dr. Whitley\n Stokes, published in the _Revue Celtique_, Vol. XII, and by M. de\n Jubainville in his _L\u2019\u00c9pop\u00e9e Celtique en Irlande_.\n\nFootnote 136:\n\n I have interpolated this picturesque passage from the account of a\n fight between the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann and the Fomors in the \u201cFate of the\n Children of Tuirenn\u201d. O\u2019Curry\u2019s translation in _Atlantis_, Vol. IV.\n\nFootnote 137:\n\n This translation was made by Eugene O\u2019Curry from an ancient vellum MS.\n formerly belonging to Mr. W. Monck Mason, but since sold by auction in\n London. See his _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, Lecture\n XII, p. 252.\n\nFootnote 138:\n\n See Fergusson: _Rude Stone Monuments_, pp. 180, &c.\n\nFootnote 139:\n\n ? Bagpipes.\n\nFootnote 140:\n\n _Book of Fermoy._ See _Revue Celtique_, Vol. I.\u2014\u201cThe Ancient Irish\n Goddess of War\u201d.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X\n\n THE CONQUEST OF THE GODS BY MORTALS\n\n\nOf what Badb had in mind when she uttered this prophecy we have no\nrecord. But it was true. The twilight of the Irish gods was at hand. A\nnew race was coming across the sea to dispute the ownership of Ireland\nwith the people of the goddess Danu. And these new-comers were not\ndivinities like themselves, but men like ourselves, ancestors of the\nGaels.\n\nThis story of the conquest of the gods by mortals\u2014which seems such a\nstrange one to us\u2014is typically Celtic. The Gaelic mythology is the only\none which has preserved it in any detail; but the doctrine would seem to\nhave been common at one time to all the Celts. It was, however, of less\nshame to the gods than would otherwise have been; for men were of as\ndivine descent as themselves. The dogma of the Celts was that men were\ndescended from the god of death, and first came from the Land of the\nDead to take possession of the present world.[141] Caesar tells us, in\nhis too short account of the Gauls, that they believed themselves to be\nsprung from Dis Pater, the god of the underworld.[142] In the Gaelic\nmythology Dis Pater was called Bil\u00e9, a name which has for root the\nsyllable _bel_, meaning \u201cto die\u201d. The god Beli in British mythology was\nno doubt the same person, while the same idea is expressed by the same\nroot in the name of Balor, the terrible Fomor whose glance was\ndeath.[143]\n\nThe post-Christian Irish chroniclers, seeking to reconcile Christian\nteachings with the still vital pagan mythology by changing the gods into\nancient kings and incorporating them into the annals of the country,\nwith appropriate dates, also disposed of the genuine early doctrine by\nsubstituting Spain for Hades, and giving a highly-fanciful account of\nthe origin and wanderings of their ancestors. To use a Hibernicism,\nappropriate in this connection, the first Irishman was a Scythian called\nFenius Farsa. Deprived of his own throne, he had settled in Egypt, where\nhis son Niul married a daughter of the reigning Pharaoh. Her name was\nSc\u00f4ta, and she had a son called Goidel, whose great-grandson was named\nEber Scot, the whole genealogy being probably invented to explain the\norigin of the three names by which the Gaels called themselves\u2014Finn,\nScot, and Goidel. Fenius and his family and clan were turned out of\nEgypt for refusing to join in the persecution of the children of Israel,\nand sojourned in Africa for forty-two years. Their wanderings took them\nto \u201cthe altars of the Philistines, by the Lake of Osiers\u201d; then, passing\nbetween Rusicada and the hilly country of Syria, they travelled through\nMauretania as far as the Pillars of Hercules; and thence landed in\nSpain, where they lived many years, greatly increasing and multiplying.\nThe same route is given by the twelfth-century British historian,\nGeoffrey of Monmouth, as that taken by Brutus and the Trojans when they\ncame to colonize Britain.[144] Its only connection with any kind of fact\nis that it corresponds fairly well with what ethnologists consider must\nhave been the westward line of migration taken, not, curiously enough,\nby the Aryan Celts, but by the pre-Aryan Iberians.\n\nIt is sufficient for us to find the first men in Spain, remembering that\n\u201cSpain\u201d stood for the Celtic Hades, or Elysium. In this country Bregon,\nthe father of two sons, Bil\u00e9 and Ith, had built a watch-tower, from\nwhich, one winter\u2019s evening, Ith saw, far off over the seas, a land he\nhad never noticed before. \u201cIt is on winter evenings, when the air is\npure, that man\u2019s eyesight reaches farthest\u201d, remarks the old tract\ncalled the \u201cBook of Invasions\u201d,[145] gravely accounting for the fact\nthat Ith saw Ireland from Spain.\n\nWishing to examine it nearer, he set sail with thrice thirty warriors,\nand landed without mishap at the mouth of the River Sc\u00ean\u00e9.[146] The\ncountry seemed to him to be uninhabited, and he marched with his men\ntowards the north. At last he reached Aileach, near the present town of\nLondonderry.\n\nHere he found the three reigning kings of the people of the goddess\nDanu, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, and Mac Grein\u00e9, the sons of Ogma, and\ngrandsons of the Dagda. These had succeeded Nuada the Silver-handed,\nkilled in the battle with the Fomors; and had met, after burying their\npredecessor in a tumulus called Grianan Aileach, which still stands on\nthe base of the Inishowen Peninsula, between Lough Swilly and Lough\nFoyle, to divide his kingdom among them. Unable to arrive at any\npartition satisfactory to all, they appealed to the new-comer to\narbitrate.\n\nThe advice of Ith was moral rather than practical. \u201cAct according to the\nlaws of justice\u201d was all that he would say to the claimants; and then he\nwas indiscreet enough to burst into enthusiastic praises of Ireland for\nits temperate climate and its richness in fruit, honey, wheat, and fish.\nSuch sentiments from a foreigner seemed to the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann\nsuggestive of a desire to take the country from them. They conspired\ntogether and treacherously killed Ith at a place since called \u201cIth\u2019s\nPlain\u201d. They, however, spared his followers, who returned to \u201cSpain\u201d,\ntaking their dead leader\u2019s body with them. The indignation there was\ngreat, and Mil\u00e9, Bil\u00e9\u2019s son and Ith\u2019s nephew, determined to go to\nIreland and get revenge.\n\nMil\u00e9 therefore sailed with his eight sons and their wives. Thirty-six\nchiefs, each with his shipful of warriors, accompanied him. By the magic\narts of their druid, Amergin of the Fair Knee, they discovered the exact\nplace at which Ith had landed before them, and put in to shore there.\nTwo alone failed to reach it alive. The wife of Amergin died during the\nvoyage, and Aranon, a son of Mil\u00e9, on approaching the land, climbed to\nthe top of the mast to obtain a better view, and, falling off, was\ndrowned. The rest disembarked safely upon the first of May.\n\nAmergin was the first to land. Planting his right foot on Irish soil, he\nburst into a poem preserved in both the Book of Lecan and the Book of\nBallymote.[147] It is a good example of the pantheistic philosophy of\nthe Celtic races, and a very close parallel to it is contained in an\nearly Welsh poem, called the \u201cBattle of the Trees\u201d, and attributed to\nthe famous bard Taliesin.[148] \u201cI am the wind that blows upon the sea,\u201d\nsang Amergin; \u201cI am the ocean wave; I am the murmur of the surges; I am\nseven battalions; I am a strong bull; I am an eagle on a rock; I am a\nray of the sun; I am the most beautiful of herbs; I am a courageous wild\nboar; I am a salmon in the water; I am a lake upon a plain; I am a\ncunning artist; I am a gigantic, sword-wielding champion; I can shift my\nshape like a god. In what direction shall we go? Shall we hold our\ncouncil in the valley or on the mountain-top? Where shall we make our\nhome? What land is better than this island of the setting sun? Where\nshall we walk to and fro in peace and safety? Who can find you clear\nsprings of water as I can? Who can tell you the age of the moon but I?\nWho can call the fish from the depths of the sea as I can? Who can cause\nthem to come near the shore as I can? Who can change the shapes of the\nhills and headlands as I can? I am a bard who is called upon by\nseafarers to prophesy. Javelins shall be wielded to avenge our wrongs. I\nprophesy victory. I end my song by prophesying all other good\nthings.\u201d[149]\n\nThe Welsh bard Taliesin sings in the same strain as the druid Amergin\nhis unity with, and therefore his power over, all nature, animate and\ninanimate. \u201cI have been in many shapes\u201d, he says, \u201cbefore I attained a\ncongenial form. I have been a narrow blade of a sword; I have been a\ndrop in the air; I have been a shining star; I have been a word in a\nbook; I have been a book in the beginning; I have been a light in a\nlantern a year and a half; I have been a bridge for passing over\nthreescore rivers; I have journeyed as an eagle; I have been a boat on\nthe sea; I have been a director in battle; I have been a sword in the\nhand; I have been a shield in fight; I have been the string of a harp; I\nhave been enchanted for a year in the foam of water. There is nothing in\nwhich I have not been.\u201d It is strange to find Gael and Briton combining\nto voice almost in the same words this doctrine of the mystical Celts,\nwho, while still in a state of semi-barbarism, saw, with some of the\ngreatest of ancient and modern philosophers, the One in the Many, and a\nsingle Essence in all the manifold forms of life.\n\nThe Milesians (for so, following the Irish annalists, it will be\nconvenient to call the first Gaelic settlers in Ireland) began their\nmarch on Tara, which was the capital of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, as it had\nbeen in earlier days the chief fortress of the Fir Bolgs, and would in\nlater days be the dwelling of the high kings of Ireland. On their way\nthey met with a goddess called Banba, the wife of Mac Cuill. She greeted\nAmergin. \u201cIf you have come to conquer Ireland,\u201d she said, \u201cyour cause is\nno just one.\u201d \u201cCertainly it is to conquer it we have come,\u201d replied\nAmergin, without condescending to argue upon the abstract morality of\nthe matter. \u201cThen at least grant me one thing,\u201d she asked. \u201cWhat is\nthat?\u201d replied Amergin. \u201cThat this island shall be called by my name.\u201d\n\u201cIt shall be,\u201d replied Amergin.\n\nA little farther on, they met a second goddess, Fotla, the wife of Mac\nCecht, who made the same request, and received the same answer from\nAmergin.\n\nLast of all, at Uisnech, the centre of Ireland, they came upon the third\nof the queens, Eriu, the wife of Mac Grein\u00e9. \u201cWelcome, warriors,\u201d she\ncried. \u201cTo you who have come from afar this island shall henceforth\nbelong, and from the setting to the rising sun there is no better land.\nAnd your race will be the most perfect the world has ever seen.\u201d \u201cThese\nare fair words and a good prophecy,\u201d said Amergin. \u201cIt will be no thanks\nto you,\u201d broke in Donn, Mil\u00e9\u2019s eldest son. \u201cWhatever success we have we\nshall owe to our own strength.\u201d \u201cThat which I prophesy has no concern\nwith you,\u201d retorted the goddess, \u201cand neither you nor your descendants\nwill live to enjoy this island.\u201d Then, turning to Amergin, she, too,\nasked that Ireland might be called after her. \u201cIt shall be its principal\nname,\u201d Amergin promised.\n\nAnd so it has happened. Of the three ancient names of Ireland\u2014Banba,\nFotla, and Eriu\u2014the last, in its genitive form of \u201cErinn\u201d, is the one\nthat has survived.\n\nThe invaders came to Tara, then called Drumcain, that is, the \u201cBeautiful\nHill\u201d. Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, and Mac Grein\u00e9 met them, with all the host\nof the Gaelic gods. As was usual, they held a parley. The people of the\ngoddess Danu complained that they had been taken by surprise, and the\nMilesians admitted that to invade a country without having first warned\nits inhabitants was not strictly according to the courtesies of\nchivalrous warfare. The Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann proposed to the invaders that\nthey should leave the island for three days, during which they\nthemselves would decide whether to fight for their kingdom or to\nsurrender it; but the Milesians did not care for this, for they knew\nthat, as soon as they were out of the island, the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann would\noppose them with druidical enchantments, so that they would not be able\nto make a fresh landing. In the end, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, and Mac\nGrein\u00e9 offered to submit the matter to the arbitration of Amergin, the\nMilesians\u2019 own lawgiver, with the express stipulation that, if he gave\nan obviously partial judgment, he was to suffer death at their hands.\nDonn asked his druid if he were prepared to accept this very delicate\nduty. Amergin replied that he was, and at once delivered the first\njudgment pronounced by the Milesians in Ireland.\n\n \u201cThe men whom we found dwelling in the land, to them is possession due\n by right.\n It is therefore your duty to set out to sea over nine green waves;\n And if you shall be able to effect a landing again in spite of them,\n You are to engage them in battle, and I adjudge to you the land in\n which you found them living.\n I adjudge to you the land wherein you found them dwelling, by the right\n of battle.\n But although you may desire the land which these people possess, yet\n yours is the duty to show them justice.\n I forbid you from injustice to those you have found in the land,\n however you may desire to obtain it.\u201d[150]\n\nThis judgment was considered fair by both parties. The Milesians retired\nto their ships, and waited at a distance of nine waves\u2019 length from the\nland until the signal was given to attack, while the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann,\ndrawn up upon the beach, were ready with their druidical spells to\noppose them.\n\nThe signal was given, and the Milesians bent to their oars. But they had\nhardly started before they discovered that a strong wind was blowing\nstraight towards them from the shore, so that they could make no\nprogress. At first they thought it might be a natural breeze, but Donn\nsmelt magic in it. He sent a man to climb the mast of his ship, and see\nif the wind blew as strong at that height as it did at the level of the\nsea. The man returned, reporting that the air was quite still \u201cup\naloft\u201d. Evidently it was a druidical wind. But Amergin soon coped with\nit. Lifting up his voice, he invoked the Land of Ireland itself, a power\nhigher than the gods it sheltered.\n\n \u201cI invoke the land of Eriu!\n The shining, shining sea!\n The fertile, fertile hill!\n The wooded vale!\n The river abundant, abundant in water!\n The fishful, fishful lake!\u201d\n\nIn such strain runs the original incantation, one of those magic\nformulas whose power was held by ancient, and still is held by savage,\nraces to reside in their exact consecrated wording rather than in their\nmeaning. To us it sounds nonsense, and so no doubt it did to those who\nput the old Irish mythical traditions into literary shape; for a later\nversion expands and explains it as follows:[151]\u2014\n\n \u201cI implore that we may regain the land of Erin,\n We who have come over the lofty waves,\n This land whose mountains are great and extensive,\n Whose streams are clear and numerous,\n Whose woods abound with various fruit,\n Its rivers and waterfalls are large and beautiful,\n Its lakes are broad and widely spread,\n It abounds with fountains on elevated grounds!\n May we gain power and dominion over its tribes!\n May we have kings of our own ruling at Tara!\n May Tara be the regal residence of our many succeeding kings!\n May the Milesians be the conquerors of its people!\n May our ships anchor in its harbours!\n May they trade along the coast of Erin!\n May Eremon be its first ruling monarch!\n May the descendants of Ir and Eber be mighty kings!\n I implore that we may regain the land of Erin,\n I implore!\u201d\n\nThe incantation proved effectual. The Land of Ireland was pleased to be\npropitious, and the druidical wind dropped down.\n\nBut success was not quite so easy as they had hoped. Manann\u00e1n, son of\nthe sea and lord of headlands, shook his magic mantle at them, and\nhurled a fresh tempest out over the deep. The galleys of the Milesians\nwere tossed helplessly on the waves; many sank with their crews. Donn\nwas among the lost, thus fulfilling Eriu\u2019s prophecy, and three other\nsons of Mil\u00e9 also perished. In the end, a broken remnant, after long\nbeating about the coasts, came to shore at the mouth of the River Boyne.\nThey landed; and Amergin, from the shore, invoked the aid of the sea as\nhe had already done that of the land.\n\n \u201cSea full of fish!\n Fertile land!\n Fish swarming up!\n Fish there!\n Under-wave bird!\n Great fish!\n Crab\u2019s hole!\n Fish swarming up!\n Sea full of fish!\u201d\n\nwhich, being interpreted like the preceding charm, seems to have meant:\n\n \u201cMay the fishes of the sea crowd in shoals to the land for our use!\n May the waves of the sea drive forth to the shore abundance of fish!\n May the salmon swim abundantly into our nets!\n May all kinds of fish come plentifully to us from the sea!\n May its flat-fishes also come in abundance!\n This poem I compose at the sea-shore that fishes may swim in shoals to\n our coast.\u201d\n\nThen, gathering their forces, they marched on the people of the goddess\nDanu.\n\nTwo battles were fought, the first in Glenn Faisi, a valley of the\nSlieve Mish Mountains, south of Tralee, and the second at Tailtiu, now\ncalled Telltown. In both, the gods were beaten. Their three kings were\nkilled by the three surviving sons of Mil\u00e9\u2014Mac Cuill by Eber, Mac Cecht\nby Eremon, and Mac Grein\u00e9 by the druid Amergin. Defeated and\ndisheartened, they gave in, and, retiring beneath the earth, left the\nsurface of the land to their conquerors.\n\nFrom this day begins the history of Ireland according to the annalists.\nMil\u00e9\u2019s eldest son, Donn, having perished, the kingdom fell by right to\nthe second, Eremon. But Eber, the third son, backed by his followers,\ninsisted upon a partition, and Ireland was divided into two equal parts.\nAt the end of a year, however, war broke out between the brothers; Eber\nwas killed in battle, and Eremon took the sole rule.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 141:\n\n It may be noted that, according to Welsh legend, the ancestors of the\n Cymri came from Gwl\u00e2d yr H\u00e2v, the \u201cLand of Summer\u201d, _i.e._ the Celtic\n Other World.\n\nFootnote 142:\n\n _De Bello Gallico_, Book VI, chap. XVIII.\n\nFootnote 143:\n\n De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique_, chap. X. Rhys: _Hibbert\n Lectures_\u2014\u201cThe Gaulish Pantheon\u201d.\n\nFootnote 144:\n\n Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s _Historia Britonum_, Book I, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 145:\n\n Contained in the _Book of Leinster_ and other ancient manuscripts.\n\nFootnote 146:\n\n Now called the Kenmare River.\n\nFootnote 147:\n\n This poem and the three following ones, all attributed to Amergin, are\n said to be the oldest Irish literary records.\n\nFootnote 148:\n\n _Book of Taliesin_, poem VIII, in Skene\u2019s Four Ancient Books of Wales,\n Vol. I, p. 276.\n\nFootnote 149:\n\n De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique_. See also the _Transactions of\n the Ossianic Society_, Vol. V.\n\nFootnote 150:\n\n Translated by Professor Owen Connellan in Vol. V of the _Transactions\n of the Ossianic Society_.\n\nFootnote 151:\n\n The original versions of this and the following charm are from De\n Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, the later from Professor\n Owen Connellan\u2019s translations in Vol. V of the _Transactions of the\n Ossianic Society_. \u201cSome of these poems\u201d, explains the Professor,\n \u201chave been glossed by writers or commentators of the Middle Ages,\n without which it would be almost impossible now for any Irish scholar\n to interpret them; and it is proper to remark that the translation\n accompanying them is more in accordance with this gloss than with the\n original text.\u201d\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI\n\n THE GODS IN EXILE\n\n\nBut though mortals had conquered gods upon a scale unparalleled in\nmythology, they had by no means entirely subdued them. Beaten in battle,\nthe people of the goddess Danu had yet not lost their divine attributes,\nand could use them either to help or hurt. \u201cGreat was the power of the\nDagda\u201d, says a tract preserved in the Book of Leinster, \u201cover the sons\nof Mil\u00e9, even after the conquest of Ireland; for his subjects destroyed\ntheir corn and milk, so that they must needs make a treaty of peace with\nthe Dagda. Not until then, and thanks to his good-will, were they able\nto harvest corn and drink the milk of their cows.\u201d[152] The basis of\nthis lost treaty seems to have been that the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, though\ndriven from the soil, should receive homage and offerings from their\nsuccessors. We are told in the verse _dinnsenchus_ of Mag Slecht, that\u2014\n\n \u201cSince the rule\n Of Eremon, the noble man of grace,\n There was worshipping of stones\n Until the coming of good Patrick of Macha\u201d.[153]\n\nDispossessed of upper earth, the gods had, however, to seek for new\nhomes. A council was convened, but its members were divided between two\nopinions. One section of them chose to shake the dust of Ireland off its\ndisinherited feet, and seek refuge in a paradise over-seas, situate in\nsome unknown, and, except for favoured mortals, unknowable island of the\nwest, the counterpart in Gaelic myth of the British\n\n ... \u201cisland-valley of Avilion;\n Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,\n Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies\n Deep-meadow\u2019d, happy, fair with orchard-lawns\n And bowery hollows crown\u2019d with summer sea\u201d[154]\n\n\u2014a land of perpetual pleasure and feasting, described variously as the\n\u201cLand of Promise\u201d (_Tir Tairngir\u00e9_), the \u201cPlain of Happiness\u201d (_Mag\nMell_), the \u201cLand of the Living\u201d (_Tir-nam-beo_), the \u201cLand of the\nYoung\u201d (_Tir-nan-\u014dg_), and \u201cBreasal\u2019s Island\u201d (_Hy-Breasail_). Celtic\nmythology is full of the beauties and wonders of this mystic country,\nand the tradition of it has never died out. Hy-Breasail has been set\ndown on old maps as a reality again and again;[155] some pioneers in the\nSpanish seas thought they had discovered it, and called the land they\nfound \u201cBrazil\u201d; and it is still said, by lovers of old lore, that a\npatient watcher, after long gazing westward from the westernmost shores\nof Ireland or Scotland, may sometimes be lucky enough to catch a glimpse\nagainst the sunset of its\u2014\n\n \u201csummer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea\u201d.\n\nOf these divine emigrants the principal was Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear. But,\nthough he had cast in his lot beyond the seas, he did not cease to visit\nIreland. An old Irish king, Bran, the son of Febal, met him, according\nto a seventh-century poem, as Bran journeyed to, and Manann\u00e1n from, the\nearthly paradise. Bran was in his boat, and Manann\u00e1n was driving a\nchariot over the tops of the waves, and he sang:[156]\n\n \u201cBran deems it a marvellous beauty\n In his coracle across the clear sea:\n While to me in my chariot from afar\n It is a flowery plain on which he rides about.\n\n \u201cWhat is a clear sea\n For the prowed skiff in which Bran is,\n That is a happy plain with profusion of flowers\n To me from the chariot of two wheels.\n\n \u201cBran sees\n The number of waves beating across the clear sea:\n I myself see in Mag Mon[157]\n Red-headed flowers without fault.\n\n \u201cSea-horses glisten in summer\n As far as Bran has stretched his glance:\n Rivers pour forth a stream of honey\n In the land of Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear.\n\n \u201cThe sheen of the main, on which thou art,\n The white hue of the sea, on which thou rowest about,\n Yellow and azure are spread out,\n It is land, and is not rough.\n\n \u201cSpeckled salmon leap from the womb\n Of the white sea, on which thou lookest:\n They are calves, they are coloured lambs\n With friendliness, without mutual slaughter.\n\n \u201cThough but one chariot-rider is seen\n In Mag Mell[158] of many flowers,\n There are many steeds on its surface,\n Though them thou seest not.\n\n * * * * * * * * * *\n\n \u201cAlong the top of a wood has swum\n Thy coracle across ridges,\n There is a wood of beautiful fruit\n Under the prow of thy little skiff.\n\n \u201cA wood with blossom and fruit,\n On which is the vine\u2019s veritable fragrance;\n A wood without decay, without defect,\n On which are leaves of a golden hue.\u201d\n\nAnd, after this singularly poetical enunciation of the philosophical and\nmystical doctrine that all things are, under their diverse forms,\nessentially the same, he goes on to describe to Bran the beauties and\npleasures of the Celtic Elysium.\n\nBut there were others\u2014indeed, the most part\u2014of the gods who refused to\nexpatriate themselves. For these residences had to be found, and the\nDagda, their new king, proceeded to assign to each of those who stayed\nin Ireland a _s\u00eddh_. These _s\u00eddhe_ were barrows, or hillocks, each being\nthe door to an underground realm of inexhaustible splendour and delight,\naccording to the somewhat primitive ideas of the Celts. A description is\ngiven of one which the Dagda kept for himself, and out of which his son\nAngus cheated him, which will serve as a fair example of all. There were\napple-trees there always in fruit, and one pig alive and another ready\nroasted, and the supply of ale never failed. One may still visit in\nIreland the _s\u00eddhe_ of many of the gods, for the spots are known, and\nthe traditions have not died out. To L\u00ear was given _S\u00eddh\nFionnachaidh_,[159] now known as the \u201cHill of the White Field\u201d, on the\ntop of Slieve Fuad, near Newtown Hamilton, in County Armagh. Bodb Derg\nreceived a _s\u00eddh_ called by his own name, _S\u00eddh Bodb_[160], just to the\nsouth of Portumna, in Galway. Mider was given the _s\u00eddh_ of _Bri Leith_,\nnow called Slieve Golry, near Ardagh, in County Longford. Ogma\u2019s _s\u00eddh_\nwas called _Airceltrai_; to Lugh was assigned _Rodrub\u00e2n_; Manann\u00e1n\u2019s\nson, Ilbhreach, received _S\u00eddh Eas Aedha Ruaidh_[161], now the Mound of\nMullachshee, near Ballyshannon, in Donegal; Fionnbharr[162] had _S\u00eddh\nMeadha_, now \u201cKnockma\u201d, about five miles west of Tuam, where, as present\nking of the fairies, he is said to live to-day; while the abodes of\nother gods of lesser fame are also recorded. For himself the Dagda\nretained two, both near the River Boyne, in Meath, the best of them\nbeing the famous Brugh-na-Boyne. None of the members of the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann were left unprovided for, save one.\n\nIt was from this time that the Gaelic gods received the name by which\nthe peasantry know them to-day\u2014_Aes S\u00eddhe_, the \u201cPeople of the Hills\u201d,\nor, more shortly, the _S\u00eddhe_. Every god, or fairy, is a\n_Fer-S\u00eddhe_[163], a \u201cMan of the Hill\u201d; and every goddess a _Bean-S\u00eddhe_,\na \u201cWoman of the Hill\u201d, the _banshee_ of popular legend.[164]\n\nThe most famous of such fairy hills are about five miles from\nDrogheda.[165] They are still connected with the names of the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann, though they are now not called their dwelling-places, but their\ntombs. On the northern bank of the Boyne stand seventeen barrows, three\nof which\u2014Knowth, Dowth, and New Grange\u2014are of great size. The last\nnamed, largest, and best preserved, is over 300 feet in diameter, and 70\nfeet high, while its top makes a platform 120 feet across. It has been\nexplored, and Roman coins, gold torques, copper pins, and iron rings and\nknives have been found in it; but what else it may have once contained\nwill never be known, for, like Knowth and Dowth, it was thoroughly\nransacked by Danish spoilers in the ninth century. It is entered by a\nsquare doorway, the rims of which are elaborately ornamented with a kind\nof spiral pattern. This entrance leads to a stone passage, more than 60\nfeet long, which gradually widens and rises, until it opens into a\nchamber with a conical dome 20 feet high. On each side of this central\nchamber is a recess, with a shallow oval stone basin in it. The huge\nslabs of which the whole is built are decorated upon both the outer and\nthe inner faces with the same spiral pattern as the doorway.\n\nThe origin of these astonishing prehistoric monuments is unknown, but\nthey are generally attributed to the race that inhabited Ireland before\nthe Celts. Gazing at marvellous New Grange, one might very well echo the\nwords of the old Irish poet Mac Nia, in the Book of Ballymote:\n\n \u201cBehold the _S\u00eddh_ before your eyes,\n It is manifest to you that it is a king\u2019s mansion,\n Which was built by the firm Dagda,\n It was a wonder, a court, an admirable hill.\u201d[166]\n\nIt is not, however, with New Grange, or even with Knowth or Dowth, that\nthe Dagda\u2019s name is now associated. It is a smaller barrow, nearer to\nthe Boyne, which is known as the \u201cTomb of the Dagda\u201d. It has never been\nopened, and Dr. James Fergusson, the author of _Rude Stone Monuments_,\nwho holds the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann to have been a real people, thinks that\n\u201cthe bones and armour of the great Dagda may still be found in his\nhonoured grave\u201d.[167] Other Celtic scholars might not be so sanguine,\nthough verses as old as the eleventh century assert that the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann used the brughs for burial. It was about this period that the\nmythology of Ireland was being rewoven into spurious history. The poem,\nwhich is called the \u201cChronicles of the Tombs\u201d, not only mentions the\n\u201cMonument of the Dagda\u201d and the \u201cMonument of the Morr\u00edg\u00fa\u201d, but also\nrecords the last resting-places of Ogma, Etain, Cairpr\u00e9, Lugh, Boann,\nand Angus.\n\nWe have for the present, however, to consider Angus in a far less\nsepulchral light. He is, indeed, very much alive in the story to be\nrelated. The \u201cSon of the Young\u201d was absent when the distribution of the\n_s\u00eddhe_ was made. When he returned, he came to his father, the Dagda,\nand demanded one. The Dagda pointed out to him that they had all been\ngiven away. Angus protested, but what could be done? By fair means,\nevidently nothing; but by craft, a great deal. The wily Angus appeared\nto reconcile himself to fate, and only begged his father to allow him to\nstay at the _s\u00eddh_ of Brugh-na-Boyne (New Grange) for a day and a night.\nThe Dagda agreed to this, no doubt congratulating himself on having got\nout of the difficulty so easily. But when he came to Angus to remind him\nthat the time was up, Angus refused to go. He had been granted, he\nclaimed, day and night, and it is of days and nights that time and\neternity are composed; therefore there was no limit to his tenure of the\n_s\u00eddh_. The logic does not seem very convincing to our modern minds, but\nthe Dagda is said to have been satisfied with it. He abandoned the best\nof his two palaces to his son, who took peaceable possession of it. Thus\nit got a second name, that of the _S\u00eddh_ or _Brugh_ of the \u201cSon of the\nYoung\u201d.[168]\n\nThe Dagda does not, after this, play much active part in the history of\nthe people of the goddess Danu. We next hear of a council of gods to\nelect a fresh ruler. There were five candidates for the vacant\nthrone\u2014Bodb the Red, Mider, Ilbhreach[169] son of Manann\u00e1n, L\u00ear, and\nAngus himself, though the last-named, we are told, had little real\ndesire to rule, as he preferred a life of freedom to the dignities of\nkingship. The Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann went into consultation, and the result of\ntheir deliberation was that their choice fell upon Bodb the Red, for\nthree reasons\u2014firstly, for his own sake; secondly, for his father, the\nDagda\u2019s sake; and thirdly, because he was the Dagda\u2019s eldest son. The\nother competitors approved this choice, except two. Mider refused to\ngive hostages, as was the custom, to Bodb Derg, and fled with his\nfollowers to \u201ca desert country round Mount Leinster\u201d, in County Carlow,\nwhile L\u00ear retired in great anger to S\u00eddh Fionnachaidh, declining to\nrecognize or obey the new king.\n\nWhy L\u00ear and Mider should have so taken the matter to heart is difficult\nto understand, unless it was because they were both among the oldest of\nthe gods. The indifference of Angus is easier to explain. He was the\nGaelic Eros, and was busy living up to his character. At this time, the\nobject of his love was a maiden who had visited him one night in a\ndream, only to vanish when he put out his arms to embrace her. All the\nnext day, we are told, Angus took no food. Upon the following night, the\nunsubstantial lady again appeared, and played and sang to him. That\nfollowing day, he also fasted. So things went on for a year, while Angus\npined and wasted for love. At last the physicians of the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann guessed his complaint, and told him how fatal it might be to him.\nAngus asked that his mother Boann might be sent for, and, when she came,\nhe told her his trouble, and implored her help. She went to the Dagda\nand begged him, if he did not wish to see his son die of unrequited\nlove, a disease that all Diancecht\u2019s medicine and Goibniu\u2019s magic could\nnot heal, to find the dream-maiden. The Dagda could do nothing himself,\nbut he sent to Bodb the Red, and the new king of the gods sent in turn\nto the lesser deities of Ireland, ordering all of them to search for\nher. For a year she could not be found, but at last the disconsolate\nlover received a message, charging him to come and see if he could\nrecognize the lady of his dreams. Angus came, and knew her at once, even\nthough she was surrounded by thrice fifty attendant nymphs. Her name was\nCaer, and she was the daughter of Etal Ambuel, who had a _s\u00eddh_ at\nUaman, in Connaught. Bodb the Red demanded her for Angus in marriage,\nbut her father declared that he had no control over her. She was a\nswan-maiden, he said; and every year, as soon as summer was over, she\nwent with her companions to a lake called \u201cDragon-Mouth\u201d, and there all\nof them became swans. But, refusing to be thus put off, Angus waited in\npatience until the day of the magical change, and then went down to the\nshore of the lake. There, surrounded by thrice fifty swans, he saw Caer,\nherself a swan surpassing all the rest in beauty and whiteness. He\ncalled to her, proclaiming his passion and his name, and she promised to\nbe his bride, if he too would become a swan. He agreed, and with a word\nshe changed him into swan-shape, and thus they flew side by side to\nAngus\u2019s _s\u00eddh_, where they retook the human form, and, no doubt, lived\nhappily as long as could be expected of such changeable immortals as\npagan deities.[170]\n\nMeanwhile, the people of the goddess Danu were justly incensed against\nboth L\u00ear and Mider. Bodb the Red made a yearly war upon Mider in his\n_s\u00eddh_, and many of the divine race were killed on either side. But\nagainst L\u00ear, the new king of the gods refused to move, for there had\nbeen a great affection between them. Many times Bodb Derg tried to\nregain L\u00ear\u2019s friendship by presents and compliments, but for a long time\nwithout success.\n\nAt last L\u00ear\u2019s wife died, to the sea-god\u2019s great sorrow. When Bodb the\nRed heard the news, he sent a messenger to L\u00ear, offering him one of his\nown foster-daughters, Aebh[171], Aeife[172], and Ailbhe[173], the\nchildren of Ailioll of Arran. L\u00ear, touched by this, came to visit Bodb\nthe Red at his _s\u00eddh_, and chose Aebh for his wife. \u201cShe is the eldest,\nso she must be the noblest of them,\u201d he said. They were married, and a\ngreat feast made; and L\u00ear took her back with him to S\u00eddh Fionnachaidh.\n\nAebh bore four children to L\u00ear. The eldest was a daughter called Finola,\nthe second was a son called Aed; the two others were twin boys called\nFiachra and Conn, but in giving birth to those Aebh died.\n\nBodb the Red then offered L\u00ear another of his foster-children, and he\nchose the second, Aeife. Every year L\u00ear and Aeife and the four children\nused to go to Manann\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cFeast of Age\u201d, which was held at each of the\n_s\u00eddhe_ in turn. The four children grew up to be great favourites among\nthe people of the goddess Danu.\n\nBut Aeife was childless, and she became jealous of L\u00ear\u2019s children; for\nshe feared that he would love them more than he did her. She brooded\nover this until she began, first to hope for, and then to plot their\ndeaths. She tried to persuade her servants to murder them, but they\nwould not. So she took the four children to Lake Darvra (now called\nLough Derravargh in West Meath), and sent them into the water to bathe.\nThen she made an incantation over them, and touched them, each in turn,\nwith a druidical wand, and changed them into swans.\n\nBut, though she had magic enough to alter their shapes, she had not the\npower to take away their human speech and minds. Finola turned, and\nthreatened her with the anger of L\u00ear and of Bodb the Red when they came\nto hear of it. She, however, hardened her heart, and refused to undo\nwhat she had done. The children of L\u00ear, finding their case a hopeless\none, asked her how long she intended to keep them in that condition.\n\n\u201cYou would be easier in mind,\u201d she said, \u201cif you had not asked the\nquestion; but I will tell you. You shall be three hundred years here, on\nLake Darvra; and three hundred years upon the Sea of Moyle[174], which\nis between Erin and Alba; and three hundred years more at Irros\nDomnann[175] and the Isle of Glora in Erris[176]. Yet you shall have two\nconsolations in your troubles; you shall keep your human minds, and yet\nsuffer no grief at knowing that you have been changed into swans, and\nyou shall be able to sing the softest and sweetest songs that were ever\nheard in the world.\u201d\n\nThen Aeife went away and left them. She returned to L\u00ear, and told him\nthat the children had fallen by accident into Lake Darvra, and were\ndrowned.\n\nBut L\u00ear was not satisfied that she spoke the truth, and went in haste to\nthe lake, to see if he could find traces of them. He saw four swans\nclose to the shore, and heard them talking to one another with human\nvoices. As he approached, they came out of the water to meet him. They\ntold him what Aeife had done, and begged him to change them back into\ntheir own shapes. But L\u00ear\u2019s magic was not so powerful as his wife\u2019s, and\nhe could not.\n\nNor even could Bodb the Red\u2014to whom L\u00ear went for help,\u2014for all that he\nwas king of the gods. What Aeife had done could not be undone. But she\ncould be punished for it! Bodb ordered his foster-daughter to appear\nbefore him, and, when she came, he put an oath on her to tell him truly\n\u201cwhat shape of all others, on the earth, or above the earth, or beneath\nthe earth, she most abhorred, and into which she most dreaded to be\ntransformed\u201d. Aeife was obliged to answer that she most feared to become\na demon of the air. So Bodb the Red struck her with his wand, and she\nfled from them, a shrieking demon.\n\nAll the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann went to Lake Darvra to visit the four swans.\nThe Milesians heard of it, and also went; for it was not till long after\nthis that gods and mortals ceased to associate. The visit became a\nyearly feast. But, at the end of three hundred years, the children of\nL\u00ear were compelled to leave Lake Darvra, and go to the Sea of Moyle, to\nfulfil the second period of their exile.\n\nThey bade farewell to gods and men, and went. And, for fear lest they\nmight be hurt by anyone, the Milesians made it law in Ireland that no\nman should harm a swan, from that time forth for ever.\n\nThe children of L\u00ear suffered much from tempest and cold on the stormy\nSea of Moyle, and they were very lonely. Once only during that long\nthree hundred years did they see any of their friends. An embassy of the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann, led by two sons of Bodb the Red, came to look for\nthem, and told them all that had happened in Erin during their exile.\n\nAt last that long penance came to an end, and they went to Irros Domnann\nand Innis Glora for their third stage. And while it was wearily dragging\nthrough, Saint Patrick came to Ireland, and put an end to the power of\nthe gods for ever. They had been banned and banished when the children\nof L\u00ear found themselves free to return to their old home. S\u00eddh\nFionnechaidh was empty and deserted, for L\u00ear had been killed by Caoilt\u00e9,\nthe cousin of Finn mac Coul.[177]\n\nSo, after long, vain searching for their lost relatives, they gave up\nhope, and returned to the Isle of Glora. They had a friend there, the\nLonely Crane of Inniskea[178], which has lived upon that island ever\nsince the beginning of the world, and will be still sitting there on the\nday of judgment. They saw no one else until, one day, a man came to the\nisland. He told them that he was Saint Caemhoc[179], and that he had\nheard their story. He brought them to his church, and preached the new\nfaith to them, and they believed on Christ, and consented to be\nbaptised. This broke the pagan spell, and, as soon as the holy water was\nsprinkled over them, they returned to human shape. But they were very\nold and bowed\u2014three aged men and an ancient woman. They did not live\nlong after this, and Saint Caemhoc, who had baptised them, buried them\nall together in one grave.[180]\n\nBut, in telling this story, we have leaped nine hundred years\u2014a great\nspace in the history even of gods. We must retrace our steps, if not\nquite to the days of Eremon and Eber, sons of Mil\u00e9, and first kings of\nIreland, at any rate to the beginning of the Christian era.\n\nAt this time Eochaid Airem was high king of Ireland, and reigned at\nTara; while, under him, as vassal monarchs, Conchobar mac Nessa ruled\nover the Red Branch Champions of Ulster; Curoi son of Daire[181], was\nking of Munster; Mesgegra was king of Leinster; and Ailell, with his\nfamous queen, Medb, governed Connaught.\n\nShortly before, among the gods, Angus Son of the Young, had stolen away\nEtain, the wife of Mider. He kept her imprisoned in a bower of glass,\nwhich he carried everywhere with him, never allowing her to leave it,\nfor fear Mider might recapture her. The Gaelic Pluto, however, found out\nwhere she was, and was laying plans to rescue her, when a rival of\nEtain\u2019s herself decoyed Angus away from before the pleasant\nprison-house, and set his captive free. But, instead of returning her to\nMider, she changed the luckless goddess into a fly, and threw her into\nthe air, where she was tossed about in great wretchedness at the mercy\nof every wind.\n\nAt the end of seven years, a gust blew her on to the roof of the house\nof Etair, one of the vassals of Conchobar, who was celebrating a feast.\nThe unhappy fly, who was Etain, was blown down the chimney into the room\nbelow, and fell, exhausted, into a golden cup full of beer, which the\nwife of the master of the house was just going to drink. And the woman\ndrank Etain with the beer.\n\nBut, of course, this was not the end of her\u2014for the gods cannot really\ndie,\u2014but only the beginning of a new life. Etain was reborn as the\ndaughter of Etair\u2019s wife, no one knowing that she was not of mortal\nlineage. She grew up to be the most beautiful woman in Ireland.\n\nWhen she was twenty years old, her fame reached the high king, who sent\nmessengers to see if she was as fair as men reported. They saw her, and\nreturned to the king full of her praises. So Eochaid himself went to pay\nher a visit. He chose her to be his queen, and gave her a splendid\ndowry.\n\nIt was not till then that Mider heard of her. He came to her in the\nshape of a young man, beautifully dressed, and told her who she really\nwas, and how she had been his wife among the people of the goddess Danu.\nHe begged her to leave the king, and come with him to his _s\u00eddh_ at Bri\nLeith. But Etain refused with scorn.\n\n\u201cDo you think,\u201d she said, \u201cthat I would give up the high king of Ireland\nfor a person whose name and kindred I do not know, except from his own\nlips?\u201d\n\nThe god retired, baffled for the time. But one day, as King Eochaid sat\nin his hall, a stranger entered. He was dressed in a purple tunic, his\nhair was like gold, and his eyes shone like candles.\n\nThe king welcomed him.\n\n\u201cBut who are you?\u201d he asked; \u201cfor I do not know you.\u201d\n\n\u201cYet I have known you a long time,\u201d returned the stranger.\n\n\u201cThen what is your name?\u201d\n\n\u201cNot a very famous one. I am Mider of Bri Leith.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy have you come here?\u201d\n\n\u201cTo challenge you to a game of chess.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am a good chess-player,\u201d replied the king, who was reputed to be the\nbest in Ireland.\n\n\u201cI think I can beat you,\u201d answered Mider.\n\n\u201cBut the chess-board is in the queen\u2019s room, and she is asleep,\u201d\nobjected Eochaid.\n\n\u201cIt does not matter,\u201d replied Mider. \u201cI have brought a board with me\nwhich can be in no way worse than yours.\u201d\n\nHe showed it to the king, who admitted that the boast was true. The\nchess-board was made of silver set in precious stones, and the pieces\nwere of gold.\n\n\u201cPlay!\u201d said Mider to the king.\n\n\u201cI never play without a wager,\u201d replied Eochaid.\n\n\u201cWhat shall be the stake?\u201d asked Mider.\n\n\u201cI do not care,\u201d replied Eochaid.\n\n\u201cGood!\u201d returned Mider. \u201cLet it be that the loser pays whatever the\nwinner demands.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is a wager fit for a king,\u201d said Eochaid.\n\nThey played, and Mider lost. The stake that Eochaid claimed from him was\nthat Mider and his subjects should make a road through Ireland. Eochaid\nwatched the road being made, and noticed how Mider\u2019s followers yoked\ntheir oxen, not by the horns, as the Gaels did, but at the shoulders,\nwhich was better. He adopted the practice, and thus got his nickname,\nAirem, that is, \u201cThe Ploughman\u201d.\n\nAfter a year, Mider returned and challenged the king again, the terms to\nbe the same as before. Eochaid agreed with joy; but, this time, he lost.\n\n\u201cI could have beaten you before, if I had wished,\u201d said Mider, \u201cand now\nthe stake I demand is Etain, your queen.\u201d\n\nThe astonished king, who could not for shame go back upon his word,\nasked for a year\u2019s delay. Mider agreed to return upon that day year to\nclaim Etain. Eochaid consulted with his warriors, and they decided to\nkeep watch through the whole of the day fixed by Mider, and let no one\npass in or out of the royal palace till sunset. For Eochaid held that if\nthe fairy king could not get Etain upon that one day, his promise would\nbe no longer binding on him.\n\nSo, when the day came, they barred the door and guarded it, but suddenly\nthey saw Mider among them in the hall. He stood beside Etain, and sang\nthis song to her, setting out the pleasures of the homes of the gods\nunder the enchanted hills.\n\n \u201cO fair lady! will you come with me\n To a wonderful country which is mine,\n Where the people\u2019s hair is of golden hue,\n And their bodies the colour of virgin snow?\n\n \u201cThere no grief or care is known;\n White are their teeth, black their eyelashes;\n Delight of the eye is the rank of our hosts,\n With the hue of the fox-glove on every cheek.\n\n \u201cCrimson are the flowers of every mead,\n Gracefully speckled as the blackbird\u2019s egg;\n Though beautiful to see be the plains of Inisfail[182]\n They are but commons compared to our great plains.\n\n \u201cThough intoxicating to you be the ale-drink of Inisfail,\n More intoxicating the ales of the great country;\n The only land to praise is the land of which I speak,\n Where no one ever dies of decrepit age.\n\n \u201cSoft sweet streams traverse the land;\n The choicest of mead and of wine;\n Beautiful people without any blemish;\n Love without sin, without wickedness.\n\n \u201cWe can see the people upon all sides,\n But by no one can we be seen;\n The cloud of Adam\u2019s transgression it is\n That prevents them from seeing us.\n\n \u201cO lady, should you come to my brave land,\n It is golden hair that will be on your head;\n Fresh pork, beer, new milk, and ale,\n You there with me shall have, O fair lady!\u201d[183]\n\nThen Mider greeted Eochaid, and told him that he had come to take away\nEtain, according to the king\u2019s wager. And, while the king and his\nwarriors looked on helplessly, he placed one arm round the now willing\nwoman, and they both vanished. This broke the spell that hung over\neveryone in the hall; they rushed to the door, but all they could see\nwere two swans flying away.\n\nThe king would not, however, yield to the god. He sent to every part of\nIreland for news of Etain, but his messengers all came back without\nhaving been able to find her. At last, a druid named Dal\u00e2n learned, by\nmeans of ogams carved upon wands of yew, that she was hidden under\nMider\u2019s _s\u00eddh_ of Bri Leith. So Eochaid marched there with an army, and\nbegan to dig deep into the abode of the gods of which the \u201cfairy hill\u201d\nwas the portal. Mider, as terrified as was the Greek god Hades when it\nseemed likely that the earth would be rent open,[184] and his domains\nlaid bare to the sight, sent out fifty fairy maidens to Eochaid, every\none of them having the appearance of Etain. But the king would only be\ncontent with the real Etain, so that Mider, to save his _s\u00eddh_, was at\nlast obliged to give her up. And she lived with the King of Ireland\nafter that until the death of both of them.\n\nBut Mider never forgave the insult. He bided his time for three\ngenerations, until Eochaid and Etain had a male descendant. For they had\nno son, but only a daughter called Etain, like her mother, and this\nsecond Etain had a daughter called Messbuachallo, who had a son called\nConair\u00e9, surnamed \u201cthe Great\u201d. Mider and the gods wove the web of fate\nround Conair\u00e9, so that he and all his men died violent deaths.[185]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 152:\n\n De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, p. 269.\n\nFootnote 153:\n\n See chap. IV\u2014\u201cThe Religion of the Ancient Britons and Druidism\u201d.\n\nFootnote 154:\n\n Tennyson: _Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur_.\n\nFootnote 155:\n\n See Wood-Martin: _Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland_, Vol I, pp.\n 213-215.\n\nFootnote 156:\n\n The following verses are taken from Dr. Kuno Meyer\u2019s translation of\n the romance entitled _The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal_, published in\n Mr. Nutt\u2019s Grimm Library, Vol. IV.\n\nFootnote 157:\n\n The Plain of Sports.\n\nFootnote 158:\n\n The Happy Plain.\n\nFootnote 159:\n\n Pronounced _Shee Finneha_.\n\nFootnote 160:\n\n Pronounced _Shee Bove_.\n\nFootnote 161:\n\n Pronounced _Shee Assaroe_.\n\nFootnote 162:\n\n Pronounced _Finnvar_.\n\nFootnote 163:\n\n Pronounced _Far-shee_.\n\nFootnote 164:\n\n O\u2019Curry: _Lectures on the MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History_,\n Appendix, p. 505.\n\nFootnote 165:\n\n See Fergusson: _Rude Stone Monuments_, pp. 200-213.\n\nFootnote 166:\n\n O\u2019Curry: _MS. Materials_, p. 505.\n\nFootnote 167:\n\n Fergusson: _Rude Stone Monuments_, p. 209.\n\nFootnote 168:\n\n This story is contained in the Book of Leinster.\n\nFootnote 169:\n\n Pronounced _Ilbrec_.\n\nFootnote 170:\n\n This story, called the _Dream of Angus_, will be found translated into\n English by Dr. Edward M\u00fcller in Vol. III. of the _Revue Celtique_,\n from an eighteenth-century MS. in the British Museum.\n\nFootnote 171:\n\n Pronounced _Aive_.\n\nFootnote 172:\n\n Pronounced _Aiva_.\n\nFootnote 173:\n\n Pronounced _Alva_.\n\nFootnote 174:\n\n Now called \u201cNorth Channel\u201d.\n\nFootnote 175:\n\n The Peninsula of Erris, in Mayo.\n\nFootnote 176:\n\n A small island off Benmullet.\n\nFootnote 177:\n\n See chap. XIV\u2014\u201cFinn and the Fenians\u201d.\n\nFootnote 178:\n\n An island off the coast of Mayo. Its lonely crane was one of the\n \u201cWonders of Ireland\u201d, and is still an object of folk-belief.\n\nFootnote 179:\n\n Pronounced _Kemoc_.\n\nFootnote 180:\n\n This famous story of the _Fate of the Children of L\u00ear_ is not found in\n any MS. earlier than the beginning of the seventeenth century. A\n translation of it has been published by Eugene O\u2019Curry in _Atlantis_,\n Vol. IV, from which the present abridgment is made.\n\nFootnote 181:\n\n Pronounced _Dara_.\n\nFootnote 182:\n\n A poetical name for Ireland.\n\nFootnote 183:\n\n Translated by O\u2019Curry, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_,\n Lecture IX, p. 192, 193.\n\nFootnote 184:\n\n _Iliad_, Book XX.\n\nFootnote 185:\n\n The story of Mider\u2019s revenge and Conair\u00e9\u2019s death is told in the\n romance _Bruidhen D\u00e1 Derga_, \u201cThe Destruction of Da Derga\u2019s Fort\u201d,\n translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes, Eugene O\u2019Curry, and Professor Zimmer\n from the original text.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XII\n\n THE IRISH ILIAD\n\n\nWith Eber and Eremon, sons of Mil\u00e9, and conquerors of the gods, begins a\nfresh series of characters in Gaelic tradition\u2014the early \u201cMilesian\u201d\nkings of Ireland. Though monkish chroniclers have striven to find\nhistory in the legends handed down concerning them, they are none the\nless almost as mythical as the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. The first of them who\nhas the least appearance of reality is Tigernmas, who is recorded to\nhave reigned a hundred years after the coming of the Milesians. He seems\nto have been what is sometimes called a \u201cCulture-king\u201d, bearing much the\nsame kind of relation to Ireland as Theseus bore to Athens or Minos to\nCrete. During his reign, nine new lakes and three new rivers broke forth\nfrom beneath the earth to give their waters to Erin. Under his auspices,\ngold was first smelted, ornaments of gold and silver were first made,\nand clothes first dyed. He is said to have perished mysteriously[186]\nwith three-fourths of the men of Erin while worshipping Cromm Cruaich on\nthe field of Mag Slecht. In him Mr. Nutt sees, no doubt rightly, the\ngreat mythical king who, in almost all national histories, closes the\nstrictly mythological age, and inaugurates a new era of less obviously\ndivine, if hardly less apocryphal characters.[187]\n\nIn spite, however, of the worship of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann instituted by\nEremon, we find the early kings and heroes of Ireland walking very\nfamiliarly with their gods. Eochaid Airem, high king of Ireland, was\napparently reckoned a perfectly fit suitor for the goddess Etain, and\nproved a far from unsuccessful rival of Mider, the Gaelic Pluto.[188]\nAnd adventures of love or war were carried quite as cheerfully among the\n_s\u00eddh_ dwellers by Eochaid\u2019s contemporaries\u2014Conchobar son of Nessa, King\nof Ulster, Curoi son of Daire, King of Munster, Mesgegra, King of\nLeinster, and Ailell and Medb[189], King and Queen of Connaught.\n\nAll these figures of the second Gaelic cycle (that of the heroes of\nUlster, and especially of their great champion, Cuchulainn) lived,\naccording to Irish tradition, at about the beginning of the Christian\nera. Conchobar, indeed, is said to have expired in a fit of rage on\nhearing of the death of Christ.[190]\n\nBut this is a very transparent monkish interpolation into the original\nstory. A quite different view is taken by most modern scholars, who\nwould see gods and not men in all the legendary characters of the Celtic\nheroic cycles. Upon such a subject, however, one may legitimately take\nsides. Were King Conchobar and his Ultonian champions, Finn and his\nFenians, Arthur and his Knights once living men round whom the\nattributes of gods have gathered, or were they ancient deities renamed\nand stripped of some of their divinity to make them more akin to their\nhuman worshippers? History or mythology? A mingling, perhaps, of both.\nCuchulainn[191] may have been the name of a real Gaelic warrior, however\nsuspiciously he may now resemble the sun-god, who is said to have been\nhis father. King Conchobar may have been the real chief of a tribe of\nIrish Celts before he became an adumbration of the Gaelic sky-god. It is\nthe same problem that confronts us in dealing with the heroic legends of\nGreece and Rome. Were Achilles, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Paris, \u00c6neas gods,\ndemi-gods, or men? Let us call them all alike\u2014whether they be Greek or\nTrojan heroes, Red Branch Champions, or followers of the Gaelic Finn or\nthe British Arthur\u2014demi-gods. Even so, they stand definitely apart from\nthe older gods who were greater than they were.\n\nWe are stretching no point in calling them demi-gods, for they were\ngod-descended.[192] Cuchulainn, the greatest hero of the Ulster cycle,\nwas doubly so; for on his mother\u2019s side he was the grandson of the\nDagda, while Lugh of the Long Hand is said to have been his father. His\nmother, Dechtir\u00e9, daughter of Maga, the daughter of Angus \u201cSon of the\nYoung\u201d, was half-sister to King Conchobar, and all the other principal\nheroes were of hardly less lofty descent. It is small wonder that they\nare described in ancient manuscripts[193] as terrestrial gods and\ngoddesses.\n\n\u201cTerrestrial\u201d they may have been in form, but their acts were\nsuperhuman. Indeed, compared with the more modest exploits of the heroes\nof the \u201cIliad\u201d, they were those of giants. Where Greek warriors slew\ntheir tens, these Ultonians despatched their hundreds. They came home\nafter such exploits so heated that their cold baths boiled over. When\nthey sat down to meat, they devoured whole oxen, and drank their mead\nfrom vats. With one stroke of their favourite swords they beheaded hills\nfor sport. The gods themselves hardly did more, and it is easy to\nunderstand that in those old days not only might the sons of gods look\nupon the daughters of men and find them fair, but immortal women also\nneed not be too proud to form passing alliances with mortal men.\n\nSome of the older deities seem to have already passed out of memory at\nthe time of the compilation of the Ulster cycle. At any rate, they make\nno appearance in it. Dead Nuada rests in the _grianan_ of Aileach; Ogma\nlies low in _s\u00eddh_ Airceltrai; while the Dagda, thrust into the\nbackground by his son Angus, mixes himself very little in the affairs of\nErin.[194] But the Morr\u00edg\u00fa is no less eager in encouraging human or\nsemi-divine heroes to war than she was when she revived the fainting\nspirits of the folk of the goddess Danu at the Battle of Moytura. The\ngods who appear most often in the cycle of the Red Branch of Ulster are\nthe same that have lived on throughout with the most persistent\nvitality. Lugh the Long-handed, Angus of the Brugh, Mider, Bodb the Red,\nand Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear, are the principal deities that move in the\nbackground of the stage where the chief parts are now played by mortals.\nBut, to make up for the loss of some of the greater divine figures, the\nranks of the gods are being recruited from below. All manner of inferior\ndivinities claim to be members of the tribe of the goddess Danu. The\ngoblins and sprites and demons of the air who shrieked around battles\nare described collectively as Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann.[195]\n\nAs for the Fomors, they have lost their distinctive names, though they\nare still recognized as dwellers beneath the deep, who at times raid\nupon the coast, and do battle with the heroes over whom Conchobar ruled\nat Emain Macha.\n\nThis seat of his government, the traditionary site of which is still\nmarked by an extensive prehistoric entrenchment called Navan Fort[196],\nnear Armagh, was the centre of an Ulster that stretched southwards as\nfar as the Boyne, and round its ruler gathered such a galaxy of warriors\nas Ireland had never seen before, or will again. They called themselves\nthe \u201cChampions of the Red Branch\u201d; there was not one of them who was not\na hero; but they are all dwarfed by one splendid figure\u2014Cuchulainn,\nwhose name means \u201cCulann\u2019s Hound\u201d. Mr. Alfred Nutt calls him \u201cthe Irish\nAchilles\u201d[197], while Professor Rhys would rather see in him a Heracles\nof the Gaels.[198] Like Achilles, he was the chosen hero of his people,\ninvincible in battle, and yet \u201cat once to early death and sorrows doomed\nbeyond the lot of man\u201d, while, like Heracles, his life was a series of\nwonderful exploits and labours. It matters little enough; for the lives\nof all such mythical heroes must be of necessity somewhat alike.\n\nIf Achilles and Heracles were, as some think, personifications of the\nsun, Cuchulainn is not less so. Most of his attributes, as the old\nstories record them, are obviously solar symbols. He seemed generally\nsmall and insignificant, yet, when he was at his full strength, no one\ncould look him in the face without blinking, while the heat of his\nconstitution melted snow for thirty feet all round him. He turned red\nand hissed as he dipped his body into its bath\u2014the sea. Terrible was his\ntransformation when sorely oppressed by his enemies, as the sun is by\nmist, storm, or eclipse. At such times \u201camong the a\u00ebrial clouds over his\nhead were visible the virulent pouring showers and sparks of ruddy fire\nwhich the seething of his savage wrath caused to mount up above him. His\nhair became tangled about his head, as it had been branches of a red\nthorn-bush stuffed into a strongly-fenced gap.... Taller, thicker, more\nrigid, longer than mast of a great ship was the perpendicular jet of\ndusky blood which out of his scalp\u2019s very central point shot upwards and\nthen was scattered to the four cardinal points; whereby was formed a\nmagic mist of gloom resembling the smoky pall that drapes a regal\ndwelling, what time a king at nightfall of a winter\u2019s day draws near to\nit.\u201d[199]\n\nSo marvellous a being[200] was, of course, of marvellous birth. His\nmother, Dechtir\u00e9, was on the point of being married to an Ulster\nchieftain called Sualtam, and was sitting at the wedding-feast, when a\nmay-fly flew into her cup of wine and was unwittingly swallowed by her.\nThat same afternoon she fell into a deep sleep, and in her dream the\nsun-god Lugh appeared to her, and told her that it was he whom she had\nswallowed, and bore within her. He ordered her and her fifty attendant\nmaidens to come with him at once, and he put upon them the shapes of\nbirds, so that they were not seen to go. Nothing was heard of them\nagain. But one day, months later, a flock of beautiful birds appeared\nbefore Emain Macha, and drew out its warriors in their chariots to hunt\nthem.\n\nThey followed the birds till nightfall, when they found themselves at\nthe Brugh on the Boyne, where the great gods had their homes. As they\nlooked everywhere for shelter, they suddenly saw a splendid palace. A\ntall and handsome man, richly dressed, came out and welcomed them and\nled them in. Within the hall were a beautiful and noble-faced woman and\nfifty maidens, and on the tables were the richest meats and wines, and\neverything fit for the needs of warriors. So they rested there the\nnight, and, during the night, they heard the cry of a new-born child.\nThe next morning, the man told them who he was, and that the woman was\nConchobar\u2019s half-sister Dechtir\u00e9, and he ordered them to take the child,\nand bring it up among the warriors of Ulster. So they brought him back,\ntogether with his mother and the maidens, and Dechtir\u00e9 married Sualtam,\nand all the chiefs, champions, druids, poets, and lawgivers of Ulster\nvied with one another in bringing up the mysterious infant.\n\nAt first they called him Setanta; and this is how he came to change his\nname. While still a child, he was the strongest of the boys of Emain\nMacha, and the champion in their sports. One day he was playing hurley\nsingle-handed against all the others, and beating them, when Conchobar\nthe King rode by with his nobles on the way to a banquet given by\nCulann, the chief smith of the Ultonians. Conchobar called to the boy,\ninviting him to go with them, and he replied that, when the game was\nfinished, he would follow. As soon as the Ulster champions were in\nCulann\u2019s hall, the smith asked the king\u2019s leave to unloose his terrible\nwatch-dog, which was as strong and fierce as a hundred hounds; and\nConchobar, forgetting that the boy was to follow them, gave his\npermission. Immediately the hound saw Setanta coming, it rushed at him,\nopen-mouthed. But the boy flung his playing-ball into its mouth, and\nthen, seizing it by the hind-legs, dashed it against a rock till he had\nkilled it.\n\nThe smith Culann was very angry at the death of his dog; for there was\nno other hound in the world like him for guarding a house and flocks. So\nSetanta promised to find and train up another one, not less good, for\nCulann, and, until it was trained, to guard the smith\u2019s house as though\nhe were a dog himself. This is why he was called Cuchulainn, that is,\n\u201cCulann\u2019s Hound\u201d; and Cathbad the Druid prophesied that the time would\ncome when the name would be in every man\u2019s mouth.\n\nNot long after this, Cuchulainn overheard Cathbad giving druidical\ninstruction, and one of his pupils asking him what that day would be\npropitious for. Cathbad replied that, if any young man first took arms\non that day, his name would be greater than that of any other hero\u2019s,\nbut his life would be short. At once, the boy went to King Conchobar,\nand demanded arms and a chariot. Conchobar asked him who had put such a\nthought into his head; and he answered that it was Cathbad the Druid. So\nConchobar gave him arms and armour, and sent him out with a charioteer.\nThat evening, Cuchulainn brought back the heads of three champions who\nhad killed many of the warriors of Ulster. He was then only seven years\nold.\n\nThe women of Ulster so loved Cuchulainn after this that the warriors\ngrew jealous, and insisted that a wife should be found for him. But\nCuchulainn was very hard to please. He would have only one, Emer[201],\nthe daughter of Forgall the Wily, the best maiden in Ireland for the six\ngifts\u2014the gift of beauty, the gift of voice, the gift of sweet speech,\nthe gift of needlework, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of chastity. So\nhe went to woo her, but she laughed at him for a boy. Then Cuchulainn\nswore by the gods of his people that he would make his name known\nwherever the deeds of heroes were spoken of, and Emer promised to marry\nhim if he could take her from her warlike kindred.\n\nWhen Forgall, her father, came to know of this betrothal, he devised a\nplan to put an end to it. He went to visit King Conchobar at Emain\nMacha. There he pretended to have heard of Cuchulainn for the first\ntime, and he saw him do all his feats. He said, loud enough to be\noverheard by all, that if so promising a youth dared to go to the Island\nof Scathach the Amazon, in the east of Alba,[202] and learn all her\nwarrior-craft, no living man would be able to stand before him. It was\nhard to reach Scathach\u2019s Isle, and still harder to return from it, and\nForgall felt certain that, if Cuchulainn went, he would get his death\nthere.\n\nOf course, nothing would now satisfy Cuchulainn but going. His two\nfriends, Laegaire the Battle-winner and Conall the Victorious, said that\nthey would go with him. But, before they had gone far, they lost heart\nand turned back. Cuchulainn went on alone, crossing the Plain of\nIll-Luck, where men\u2019s feet stuck fast, while sharp grasses sprang up and\ncut them, and through the Perilous Glens, full of devouring wild beasts,\nuntil he came to the Bridge of the Cliff, which rose on end, till it\nstood straight up like a ship\u2019s mast, as soon as anyone put foot on it.\nThree times Cuchulainn tried to cross it, and thrice he failed. Then\nanger came into his heart, and a magic halo shone round his head, and he\ndid his famous feat of the \u201chero\u2019s salmon leap\u201d, and landed, in one\njump, on the middle of the bridge, and then slid down it as it rose up\non end.\n\nScathach was in the _d\u00fan_, with her two sons. Cuchulainn went to her,\nand put his sword to her breast, and threatened to kill her if she would\nnot teach him all her own skill in arms. So he became her pupil, and she\ntaught him all her war-craft. In return, Cuchulainn helped her against a\nrival queen of the Amazons, called Aoife[203]. He conquered Aoife, and\ncompelled her to make peace with Scathach.\n\nThen he returned to Ireland, and went in a scythed chariot to Forgall\u2019s\npalace. He leaped over its triple walls, and slew everyone who came near\nhim. Forgall met his death in trying to escape Cuchulainn\u2019s rage. He\nfound Emer, and placed her in his chariot, and drove away; and, every\ntime that Forgall\u2019s warriors came up to them, he turned, and slew a\nhundred, and put the rest to flight. He reached Emain Macha in safety,\nand he and Emer were married there.\n\nAnd so great, after this, were the fame of Cuchulainn\u2019s prowess and\nEmer\u2019s beauty that the men and women of Ulster yielded them\nprecedence\u2014him among the warriors and her among the women\u2014in every feast\nand banquet at Emain Macha.\n\nBut all that Cuchulainn had done up to this time was as nothing to the\ndeeds he did in the great war which all the rest of Ireland, headed by\nAilill and Medb, King and Queen of Connaught, made upon Ulster, to get\nthe Brown Bull of Cualgne.[204] This Bull was one of two, of fairy\ndescent. They had originally been the swineherds of two of the gods,\nBodb, King of the S\u00eddhe of Munster, and Ochall Ochne, King of the S\u00eddhe\nof Connaught. As swineherds they were in perpetual rivalry; then, the\nbetter to carry on their quarrel, they changed themselves into two\nravens, and fought for a year; next they turned into water-monsters,\nwhich tore one another for a year in the Suir and a year in the Shannon;\nthen they became human again and fought as champions; and ended by\nchanging into eels. One of these eels went into the River Cruind, in\nCualgne[205], in Ulster, where it was swallowed by a cow belonging to\nDaire of Cualgne, and the other into the spring of Uaran Garad, in\nConnaught, where it passed into the belly of a cow of Queen Medb\u2019s. Thus\nwere born those two famous beasts, the Brown Bull of Ulster and the\nWhite-horned Bull of Connaught.\n\nNow the White-horned was of such proud mind that he scorned to belong to\na woman, and he went out of Medb\u2019s herds into those of her husband\nAilill. So that when Ailill and Medb one day, in their idleness, counted\nup their possessions, to set them off one against the other, although\nthey were equal in every other thing, in jewels and clothes and\nhousehold vessels, in sheep and horses and swine and cattle, Medb had no\none bull that was worthy to be set beside Ailill\u2019s White-horned.\nRefusing to be less in anything than her husband, the proud queen sent\nheralds, with gifts and compliments, to Daire, asking him to lend her\nthe Brown Bull for a year. Daire would have done so gladly had not one\nof Medb\u2019s messengers been heard boasting in his cups that, if Daire had\nnot lent the Brown Bull of his own free-will, Medb would have taken it.\nThis was reported to Daire, who at once swore that she should never have\nit. Medb\u2019s messenger returned; and the Queen of Connaught, furious at\nhis refusal, vowed that she would take it by force.\n\nShe assembled the armies of all the rest of Ireland to go against\nUlster, and made Fergus son of Roy, an Ulster champion who had\nquarrelled with King Conchobar, its leader. They expected to have an\neasy victory, for the warriors of Ulster were at that time lying under a\nmagic weakness which fell upon them for many days in each year, as the\nresult of a curse laid upon them, long before, by a goddess who had been\ninsulted by one of Conchobar\u2019s ancestors. Medb called up a prophetess of\nher people to foretell victory. \u201cHow do you see our hosts?\u201d asked the\nqueen of the seeress. \u201cI see crimson on them; I see red,\u201d she replied.\n\u201cBut the warriors of Ulster are lying in their sickness. Nay, how do you\nsee our men?\u201d \u201cI see them all crimson; I see them all red,\u201d she\nrepeated. And then she added to the astonished queen, who had expected a\nquite different foretelling: \u201cFor I see a small man doing deeds of arms,\nthough there are many wounds on his smooth skin; the hero-light shines\nround his head, and there is victory on his forehead; he is richly\nclothed, and young and beautiful and modest, but he is a dragon in\nbattle. His appearance and his valour are those of Cuchulainn of\nMuirthemne; who that \u2018Culann\u2019s hound\u2019 from Muirthemne may be, I do not\nknow; but I know this, that all our army will be reddened by him. He is\nsetting out for battle; he will hew down your hosts; the slaughter he\nshall make will be long remembered; there will be many women crying over\nthe bodies mangled by the Hound of the Forge whom I see before me\nnow.\u201d[206] For Cuchulainn was, for some reason unknown to us, the only\nman in Ulster who was not subject to the magic weakness, and therefore\nit fell upon him to defend Ulster single-handed against the whole of\nMedb\u2019s army.\n\nIn spite of the injury done him by King Conchobar, Fergus still kept a\nlove for his own country. He had not the heart to march upon the\nUltonians without first secretly sending a messenger to warn them. So\nthat, though all the other champions of the Red Branch were helpless,\nCuchulainn was watching the marches when the army came.\n\nNow begins the story of the _aristeia_ of the Gaelic hero. It is, after\nthe manner of epics, the record of a series of single combats, in each\nof which Cuchulainn slays his adversary. Man after man comes against\nhim, and not one goes back. In the intervals between these duels,\nCuchulainn harasses the army with his sling, slaying a hundred men a\nday. He kills Medb\u2019s pet dog, bird, and squirrel, and creates such\nterror that no one dares to stir out of the camp. Medb herself has a\nnarrow escape; for one of her serving-women, who puts on her mistress\u2019s\ngolden head-dress, is killed by a stone flung from Cuchulainn\u2019s sling.\n\nThe great queen determines to see with her own eyes this marvellous hero\nwho is holding all her warriors at bay. She sends an envoy, asking him\nto come and parley with her. Cuchulainn agrees, and, at the meeting,\nMedb is amazed at his boyish look. She finds it hard to believe that it\nis this beardless stripling of seventeen who is killing her champions,\nuntil the whole army seems as though it were melting away. She offers\nhim her own friendship and great honours and possessions in Connaught if\nhe will forsake Conchobar. He refuses; but she offers it again and\nagain. At last Cuchulainn indignantly declares that the next man who\ncomes with such a message will do so at his peril. One bargain, however,\nhe will make. He is willing to fight one of the men of Ireland every\nday, and, while the duel lasts, the main army may march on; but, as soon\nas Cuchulainn has killed his man, it must halt until the next day. Medb\nagrees to this, thinking it better to lose one man a day than a hundred.\n\nMedb makes the same offer to every famous warrior, to induce him to go\nagainst Cuchulainn. The reward for the head of the champion will be the\nhand of her daughter, Findabair[207]. In spite of this, not one of the\naspirants to the princess can stand before Cuchulainn. All perish; and\nFindabair, when she finds out how she is being promised to a fresh\nsuitor every day, dies of shame. But, while Cuchulainn is engaged in\nthese combats, Medb sends men who scour Ulster for the brown bull, and\nfind him, and drive him, with fifty heifers, into her camp.\n\nMeanwhile the \u00c6s S\u00eddhe, the fairy god-clan, are watching the\nhalf-divine, half-mortal hero, amazed at his achievements. His exploits\nkindle love in the fierce heart of the Morr\u00edg\u00fa, the great war-goddess.\nCuchulainn is awakened from sleep by a terrible shout from the north. He\norders his driver, Laeg, to yoke the horses to his chariot, so that he\nmay find out who raised it. They go in the direction from which the\nsound had come, and meet with a woman in a chariot drawn by a red horse.\nShe has red eyebrows, and a red dress, and a long, red cloak, and she\ncarries a great, gray spear. He asks her who she is, and she tells him\nthat she is a king\u2019s daughter, and that she has fallen in love with him\nthrough hearing of his exploits. Cuchulainn says that he has other\nthings to think of than love. She replies that she has been giving him\nher help in his battles, and will still do so; and Cuchulainn answers\nthat he does not need any woman\u2019s help. \u201cThen,\u201d says she, \u201cif you will\nnot have my love and help, you shall have my hatred and enmity. When you\nare fighting with a warrior as good as yourself, I will come against you\nin various shapes and hinder you, so that he shall have the advantage.\u201d\nCuchulainn draws his sword, but all he sees is a hoodie crow sitting on\na branch. He knows from this that the red woman in the chariot was the\ngreat queen of the gods.\n\nThe next day, a warrior named Loch went to meet Cuchulainn. At first he\nrefused to fight one who was beardless; so Cuchulainn smeared his chin\nwith blackberry juice, until it looked as though he had a beard. While\nCuchulainn was fighting Loch, the Morr\u00edg\u00fa came against him three\ntimes\u2014first as a heifer which tried to overthrow him, and next as an eel\nwhich got beneath his feet as he stood in running water, and then as a\nwolf which seized hold of his right arm. But Cuchulainn broke the\nheifer\u2019s leg, and trampled upon the eel, and put out one of the wolf\u2019s\neyes, though, every one of these three times, Loch wounded him. In the\nend, Cuchulainn slew Loch with his invincible spear, the _gae\nbolg_[208], made of a sea-monster\u2019s bones. The Morr\u00edg\u00fa came back to\nCuchulainn, disguised as an old woman, to have her wounds healed by him,\nfor no one could cure them but he who had made them. She became his\nfriend after this, and helped him.\n\nBut the fighting was so continuous that Cuchulainn got no sleep, except\njust for a while, from time to time, when he might rest a little, with\nhis head on his hand and his hand on his spear and his spear on his\nknee. So that his father, Lugh the Long-handed, took pity on him and\ncame to him in the semblance of a tall, handsome man in a green cloak\nand a gold-embroidered silk shirt, and carrying a black shield and a\nfive-pronged spear. He put him into a sleep of three days and three\nnights, and, while he rested, he laid druidical herbs on to all his\nwounds, so that, in the end, he rose up again completely healed and as\nstrong as at the very beginning of the war. While he was asleep, the\nboy-troop of Emain Macha, Cuchulainn\u2019s old companions, came and fought\ninstead of him, and slew three times their own number, but were all\nkilled.\n\nIt was at this time that Medb asked Fergus to go and fight with\nCuchulainn. Fergus answered that he would never fight against his own\nfoster-son. Medb asked him again and again, and at last he went, but\nwithout his famous sword. \u201cFergus, my guardian,\u201d said Cuchulainn, \u201cit is\nnot safe for you to come out against me without your sword.\u201d \u201cIf I had\nthe sword,\u201d replied Fergus, \u201cI would not use it on you.\u201d Then Fergus\nasked Cuchulainn, for the sake of all he had done for him in his\nboy-hood, to pretend to fight with him, and then give way before him and\nrun away. Cuchulainn answered that he was very loth to be seen running\nfrom any man. But Fergus promised Cuchulainn that, if Cuchulainn would\nrun away from Fergus then, Fergus would run away from Cuchulainn at some\nfuture time, whenever Cuchulainn wished. Cuchulainn agreed to this, for\nhe knew that it would be for the profit of Ulster. So they fought a\nlittle, and then Cuchulainn turned and fled in the sight of all Medb\u2019s\narmy. Fergus went back; and Medb could not reproach him any more.\n\nBut she cast about to find some other way of vanquishing Cuchulainn. The\nagreement made had been that only one man a day should be sent against\nhim. But now Medb sent the wizard Calatin with his twenty-seven sons and\nhis grandson all at once, for she said \u201cthey are really only one, for\nthey are all from Calatin\u2019s body\u201d. They never missed a throw with their\npoisoned spears, and every man they hit died, either on the spot or\nwithin the week. When Fergus heard of this, he was in great grief, and\nhe sent a man called Fiacha, an exile, like himself, from Ulster, to\nwatch the fight and report how it went. Now Fiacha did not mean to join\nin it, but when he saw Cuchulainn assailed by twenty-nine at a time, and\noverpowered, he could not restrain himself. So he drew his sword and\nhelped Cuchulainn, and, between them, they killed Calatin and his whole\nfamily.\n\nAs a last resource, now, Medb sent for Ferdiad, who was the great\nchampion of the Iberian \u201cMen of Domnu\u201d, who had thrown in their lot with\nMedb in the war for the Brown Bull. Ferdiad had been a companion and\nfellow-pupil of Cuchulainn with Scathach, and he did not wish to fight\nwith him. But Medb told him that, if he refused, her satirists should\nmake such lampoons on him that he would die of shame, and his name would\nbe a reproach for ever. She also offered him great rewards and honours,\nand bound herself in six sureties to keep her promises. At last,\nreluctantly, he went.\n\nCuchulainn saw him coming, and went out to welcome him; but Ferdiad said\nthat he had not come as a friend, but to fight. Now Cuchulainn had been\nFerdiad\u2019s junior and serving-boy in Scathach\u2019s Island, and he begged him\nby the memory of those old times to go back; but Ferdiad said he could\nnot. They fought all day, and neither had gained any advantage by\nsunset. So they kissed one another, and each went back to his camp.\nFerdiad sent half his food and drink to Cuchulainn, and Cuchulainn sent\nhalf his healing herbs and medicines to Ferdiad, and their horses were\nput in the same stable, and their charioteers slept by the same fire.\nAnd so it happened on the second day. But at the end of the third day\nthey parted gloomily, knowing that on the morrow one of them must fall;\nand their horses were not put in the same stall that night, neither did\ntheir charioteers sleep at the same fire. On the fourth day, Cuchulainn\nsucceeded in killing Ferdiad, by casting the _gae bolg_ at him from\nunderneath. But when he saw that he was dying, the battle-fury passed\naway, and he took his old companion up in his arms, and carried him\nacross the river on whose banks they had fought, so that he might be\nwith the men of Ulster in his death, and not with the men of Ireland.\nAnd he wept over him, and said: \u201cIt was all a game and a sport until\nFerdiad came; Oh, Ferdiad! your death will hang over me like a cloud for\never. Yesterday he was greater than a mountain; to-day he is less than a\nshadow.\u201d\n\nBy this time, Cuchulainn was so covered with wounds that he could not\nbear his clothes to touch his skin, but had to hold them off with\nhazel-sticks, and fill the spaces in between with grass. There was not a\nplace on him the size of a needle-point that had not a wound on it,\nexcept his left hand, which held the shield.\n\nBut Sualtam, Cuchulainn\u2019s reputed father, had learned what a sore plight\nhis son was in. \u201cDo I hear the heaven bursting, or the sea running away,\nor the earth breaking open,\u201d he cried, \u201cor is it my son\u2019s groaning that\nI hear?\u201d He came to look for him, and found him covered with wounds and\nblood. But Cuchulainn would not let his father either weep for him or\ntry to avenge him. \u201cGo, rather,\u201d he said to him, \u201cto Emain Macha, and\ntell Conchobar that I can no longer defend Ulster against all the four\nprovinces of Erin without help. Tell him that there is no part of my\nbody on which there is not a wound, and that, if he wishes to save his\nkingdom, he must make no delay.\u201d\n\nSualtam mounted Cuchulainn\u2019s war-horse, the \u201cGray of Battle\u201d, and\ngalloped to Emain Macha. Three times he shouted: \u201cMen are being killed,\nwomen carried off, and cattle lifted in Ulster\u201d. Twice he met with no\nresponse. The third time, Cathbad the Druid roused himself from his\nlethargy to denounce the man who was disturbing the king\u2019s sleep. In his\nindignation Sualtam turned away so sharply that the gray steed reared,\nand struck its rider\u2019s shield against his neck with such force that he\nwas decapitated. The startled horse then turned back into Conchobar\u2019s\nstronghold, and dashed through it, Sualtam\u2019s severed head continuing to\ncry out: \u201cMen are being killed, women carried off, and cattle lifted in\nUlster.\u201d Such a portent was enough to rouse the most drowsy. Conchobar,\nhimself again, swore a great oath. \u201cThe heavens are over us, the earth\nis beneath us, and the sea circles us round, and, unless the heavens\nfall, with all their stars, or the earth gives way beneath us, or the\nsea bursts over the land, I will restore every cow to her stable, and\nevery woman to her home.\u201d\n\nHe sent messengers to rally Ulster, and they gathered, and marched on\nthe men of Erin. And then was fought such a battle as had never been\nbefore in Ireland. First one side, then the other, gave way and rallied\nagain, until Cuchulainn heard the noise of the fight, and rose up, in\nspite of all his wounds, and came to it.\n\nHe called out to Fergus, reminding him how he had bound himself with an\noath to run from him when called upon to do so. So Fergus ran before\nCuchulainn, and when Medb\u2019s army saw their leader running they broke and\nfled like one man.\n\nBut the Brown Bull of Cualgne went with the army into Connaught, and\nthere he met Ailill\u2019s bull, the White-horned. And he fought the\nWhite-horned, and tore him limb from limb, and carried off pieces of him\non his horns, dropping the loins at Athlone and the liver at Trim. Then\nhe went back to Cualgne, and turned mad, killing all who crossed his\npath, until his heart burst with bellowing, and he fell dead.\n\nThis was the end of the great war called _T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgn\u00e9_, the\n\u201cDriving of the Cattle of Cooley\u201d.\n\nYet, wondrous as it was, it was not the most marvellous of Cuchulainn\u2019s\nexploits. Like all the solar gods and heroes of Celtic myth, he carried\nhis conquests into the dark region of Hades. On this occasion the\nmysterious realm is an island called _D\u00fan Scaith_, that is, the \u201cShadowy\nTown\u201d, and though its king is not mentioned by name, it seems likely\nthat he was Mider, and that D\u00fan Scaith is another name for the Isle of\nFalga, or Man. The story, as a poem[209] relates it, is curiously\nsuggestive of a raid which the powers of light, and especially the\nsun-gods, are represented as having made upon Hades in kindred British\nmyth.[210] The same loathsome combatants issue out of the underworld to\nrepel its assailants. There was a pit in the centre of D\u00fan Scaith, out\nof which swarmed a vast throng of serpents. No sooner had Cuchulainn and\nthe heroes of Ulster disposed of these than \u201ca house full of toads\u201d was\nloosed upon them\u2014\u201csharp, beaked monsters\u201d (says the poem), which caught\nthem by the noses, and these were in turn replaced by fierce dragons.\nYet the heroes prevailed and carried off the spoil\u2014three cows of magic\nqualities and a marvellous cauldron in which was always found an\ninexhaustible supply of meat, with treasure of silver and gold to boot.\nThey started back for Ireland in a coracle, the three cows being towed\nbehind, with the treasure in bags around their necks. But the gods of\nHades raised a storm which wrecked their ship, and they had to swim\nhome. Here Cuchulainn\u2019s more than mortal prowess came in useful. We are\ntold that he floated nine men to shore on each of his hands, and thirty\non his head, while eight more, clinging to his sides, used him as a kind\nof life-belt.\n\nAfter this, came the tragedy of Cuchulainn\u2019s career, the unhappy duel in\nwhich he killed his only son, not knowing who he was. The story is one\ncommon, apparently, to the Aryan nations, for it is found not only in\nthe Gaelic, but in the Teutonic and Persian mythic traditions. It will\nbe remembered that Cuchulainn defeated a rival of Scathach the Amazon,\nnamed Aoife, and compelled her to render submission. The hero had also a\nson by Aoife, and he asked that the boy should be called Conlaoch[211],\nand that, when he was of age to travel, he should be sent to Ireland to\nfind his father. Aoife promised this, but, a little later, news came to\nher that Cuchulainn had married Emer. Mad with jealousy, she determined\nto make the son avenge her slight upon the father. She taught him the\ncraft of arms until there was no more that he could learn, and sent him\nto Ireland. Before he started, she laid three _geasa_[212] upon him. The\nfirst was that he was not to turn back, the second that he was never to\nrefuse a challenge, and the third that he was never to tell his name.\n\nHe arrived at Dundealgan[213], Cuchulainn\u2019s home, and the warrior Conall\ncame down to meet him, and asked him his name and lineage. He refused to\ntell them, and this led to a duel, in which Conall was disarmed and\nhumiliated. Cuchulainn next approached him, asked the same question, and\nreceived the same answer. \u201cYet if I was not under a command,\u201d said\nConlaoch, who did not know he was speaking to his father, \u201cthere is no\nman in the world to whom I would sooner tell it than to yourself, for I\nlove your face.\u201d Even this compliment could not stave off the fight, for\nCuchulainn felt it his duty to punish the insolence of this stripling\nwho refused to declare who he was. The fight was a fierce one, and the\ninvincible Cuchulainn found himself so pressed that the \u201chero-light\u201d\nshone round him and transfigured his face. When Conlaoch saw this, he\nknew who his antagonist must be, and purposely flung his spear slantways\nthat it might not hit his father. But before Cuchulainn understood, he\nhad thrown the terrible _gae bolg_. Conlaoch, dying, declared his name;\nand so passionate was Cuchulainn\u2019s grief that the men of Ulster were\nafraid that in his madness he might wreak his wrath upon them. They,\ntherefore, called upon Cathbad the Druid to put him under a glamour.\nCathbad turned the waves of the sea into the appearance of armed men,\nand Cuchulainn smote them with his sword until he fell prone from\nweariness.\n\nIt would take too long to relate all the other adventures and exploits\nof Cuchulainn. Enough has been done if any reader of this chapter should\nbe persuaded by it to study the wonderful saga of ancient Ireland for\nhimself. We must pass on quickly to its tragical close\u2014the hero\u2019s death.\n\nMedb, Queen of Connaught, had never forgiven him for keeping back her\narmy from raiding Ulster, and for slaying so many of her friends and\nallies. So she went secretly to all those whose relations Cuchulainn had\nkilled (and they were many), and stirred them up to revenge.\n\nBesides this, she had sent the three daughters of Calatin the Wizard,\nborn after their father\u2019s death at the hands of Cuchulainn, to Alba and\nto Babylon to learn witchcraft. When they came back they were mistresses\nof every kind of sorcery, and could make the illusion of battle with an\nincantation.\n\nAnd, lest she might fail even then, she waited with patience until the\nUltonians were again in their magic weakness, and there was no one to\nhelp Cuchulainn but himself.\n\nLugaid[214], son of the Curoi, King of Munster whom Cuchulainn had\nkilled for the sake of Blathnat, Mider\u2019s daughter, gathered the Munster\nmen; Erc, whose father had also fallen at Cuchulainn\u2019s hands, called the\nmen of Meath; the King of Leinster brought out his army; and, with\nAilill and Medb and all Connaught, they marched into Ulster again, and\nbegan to ravage it.\n\nConchobar called his warriors and druids into council, to see if they\ncould find some means of putting off war until they were ready to meet\nit. He did not wish Cuchulainn to go out single-handed a second time\nagainst all the rest of Ireland, for he knew that, if the champion\nperished, the prosperity of Ulster would fall with him for ever. So,\nwhen Cuchulainn came to Emain Macha, the king set all the ladies,\nsingers, and poets of the court to keep his thoughts from war until the\nmen of Ulster had recovered from their weakness.\n\nBut while they sat feasting and talking in the \u201csunny house\u201d, the three\ndaughters of Calatin came fluttering down on to the lawn before it, and\nbegan gathering grass and thistles and puff-balls and withered leaves,\nand turning them into the semblance of armies. And, by the same magic,\nthey caused shouts and shrieks and trumpet-blasts and the clattering of\narms to be heard all round the house, as though a battle were being\nfought.\n\nCuchulainn leaped up, red with shame to think that fighting should be\ngoing on without his help, and seized his sword. But Cathbad\u2019s son\ncaught him by the arms. All the druids explained to him that what he saw\nwas only an enchantment raised by the children of Calatin to draw him\nout to his death. But it was as much as all of them could do to keep him\nquiet while he saw the phantom armies and heard the magic sounds.\n\nSo they decided that it would be well to remove Cuchulainn from Emain\nMacha to _Glean-na-Bodhar_[215], the \u201cDeaf Valley\u201d, until all the\nenchantments of the daughters of Calatin were spent. It was the quality\nof this valley that, if all the men of Ireland were to shout round it at\nonce, no one within it would hear a sound.\n\nBut the daughters of Calatin went there too, and again they took\nthistles and puff-balls and withered leaves, and put on them the\nappearance of armed men; so that there seemed to be no place outside the\nwhole valley that was not filled with shouting battalions. And they made\nthe illusion of fires all around and the sound of women shrieking.\nEveryone who heard that outcry was frightened at it, not only the men\nand women, but even the dogs.\n\nThough the women and the druids shouted back with all the strength of\ntheir voices, to drown it, they could not keep Cuchulainn from hearing.\n\u201cAlas!\u201d he cried, \u201cI hear the men of Ireland shouting as they ravage the\nprovince. My triumph is at an end; my fame is gone; Ulster lies low for\never.\u201d \u201cLet it pass,\u201d said Cathbad; \u201cit is only the idle magic noises\nmade by the children of Calatin, who want to draw you out, to put an end\nto you. Stay here with us, and take no heed of them.\u201d\n\nCuchulainn obeyed; and the daughters of Calatin went on for a long time\nfilling the air with noises of battle. But they grew tired of it at\nlast; for they saw that the druids and women had outwitted them.\n\nThey did not succeed until one of them took the form of a leman of\nCuchulainn\u2019s, and came to him, crying out that Dundealgan was burnt, and\nMuirthemne ruined, and the whole province of Ulster ravaged. Then, at\nlast, he was deceived, and took his arms and armour, and, in spite of\nall that was said to him, he ordered Laeg to yoke his chariot.\n\nSigns and portents now began to gather as thickly round the doomed hero\nas they did round the wooers in the hall of Odysseus. His famous\nwar-horse, the Gray of Macha, refused to be bridled, and shed large\ntears of blood. His mother, Dechtir\u00e9, brought him a goblet full of wine,\nand thrice the wine turned into blood as he put it to his lips. At the\nfirst ford he crossed, he saw a maiden of the _s\u00eddhe_ washing clothes\nand armour, and she told him that it was the clothes and arms of\nCuchulainn, who was soon to be dead. He met three ancient hags cooking a\nhound on spits of rowan, and they invited him to partake of it. He\nrefused, for it was taboo to him to eat the flesh of his namesake; but\nthey shamed him into doing so by telling him that he ate at rich men\u2019s\ntables and refused the hospitality of the poor. The forbidden meat\nparalysed half his body. Then he saw his enemies coming up against him\nin their chariots.\n\nCuchulainn had three spears, of which it was prophesied that each should\nkill a king. Three druids were charged in turn to ask for these spears;\nfor it was not thought lucky to refuse anything to a druid. The first\none came up to where Cuchulainn was making the plain red with slaughter.\n\u201cGive me one of those spears,\u201d he said, \u201cor I will lampoon you.\u201d \u201cTake\nit,\u201d replied Cuchulainn, \u201cI have never yet been lampooned for refusing\nanyone a gift.\u201d And he threw the spear at the druid, and killed him. But\nLugaid, son of Curoi, got the spear, and killed Laeg with it. Laeg was\nthe king of all chariot-drivers.\n\n\u201cGive me one of your spears, Cuchulainn,\u201d said the second druid. \u201cI need\nit myself,\u201d he replied. \u201cI will lampoon the province of Ulster because\nof you, if you refuse.\u201d \u201cI am not obliged to give more than one gift in\na day,\u201d said Cuchulainn, \u201cbut Ulster shall never be lampooned because of\nme.\u201d He threw the spear at the druid, and it went through his head. But\nErc, King of Leinster, got it, and mortally wounded the Gray of Macha,\nthe king of all horses.\n\n\u201cGive me your spear,\u201d said the third druid. \u201cI have paid all that is due\nfrom myself and Ulster,\u201d replied Cuchulainn. \u201cI will satirize your\nkindred if you do not,\u201d said the druid. \u201cI shall never go home, but I\nwill be the cause of no lampoons there,\u201d answered Cuchulainn, and he\nthrew the spear at the asker, and killed him. But Lugaid threw it back,\nand it went through Cuchulainn\u2019s body, and wounded him to the death.\n\nThen, in his agony, he greatly desired to drink. He asked his enemies to\nlet him go to a lake that lay close by, and quench his thirst, and then\ncome back again. \u201cIf I cannot come back to you, come to fetch me,\u201d he\nsaid; and they let him go.\n\nCuchulainn drank, and bathed, and came out of the water. But he found\nthat he could not walk; so he called to his enemies to come to him.\nThere was a pillar-stone near; and he bound himself to it with his belt,\nso that he might die standing up, and not lying down. His dying horse,\nthe Gray of Macha, came back to fight for him, and killed fifty men with\nhis teeth and thirty with each of his hoofs. But the \u201chero-light\u201d had\ndied out of Cuchulainn\u2019s face, leaving it as pale as \u201ca one-night\u2019s\nsnow\u201d, and a crow came and perched upon his shoulder.\n\n\u201cTruly it was not upon that pillar that birds used to sit,\u201d said Erc.\n\nNow that they were certain that Cuchulainn was dead, they all gathered\nround him, and Lugaid cut off his head to take it to Medb. But vengeance\ncame quickly, for Conall the Victorious was in pursuit, and he made a\nterrible slaughter of Cuchulainn\u2019s enemies.\n\nThus perished the great hero of the Gaels in the twenty-seventh year of\nhis age. And with him fell the prosperity of Emain Macha and of the Red\nBranch of Ulster.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 186:\n\n \u201cThere came\n Tigernmas, the prince of Tara yonder,\n On Hallowe\u2019en with many hosts,\n A cause of grief to them was the deed.\n\n \u201cDead were the men\n Of Banba\u2019s host, without happy strength,\n Around Tigernmas, the destructive man in the North,\n From the worship of Cromm Cruaich\u2014\u2019twas no luck for them.\n\n \u201cFor I have learnt,\n Except one-fourth of the keen Gaels\n Not a man alive\u2014lasting the snare!\n Escaped without death in his mouth.\u201d\n\n \u2014Dr. Kuno Meyer\u2019s translation of the _Dinnsenchus of Mag Slecht_.\n\nFootnote 187:\n\n Nutt: _Voyage of Bran_, p. 164.\n\nFootnote 188:\n\n See chap. XI\u2014\u201cThe Gods in Exile\u201d.\n\nFootnote 189:\n\n Pronounced _Maive_.\n\nFootnote 190:\n\n The story of the _Tragical Death of King Conchobar_, translated by\n Eugene O\u2019Curry from the Book of Leinster, will be found in the\n appendix to his _MS. Materials of Irish History_, and (more\n accessible) in Miss Hull\u2019s _Cuchullin Saga_.\n\nFootnote 191:\n\n The name is best pronounced _C\u016dhoolin_ or _Cuchullin_ (_ch_ as in\n German).\n\nFootnote 192:\n\n The descent of the principal Red Branch Heroes from the Tuatha D\u00e9\n Danann is given in a table in Miss Hull\u2019s Introduction to her\n _Cuchullin Saga_.\n\nFootnote 193:\n\n Conchobar is called a terrestrial god of the Ultonians in the Book of\n the Dun Cow, and Dechtir\u00e9 is termed a goddess in the Book of Leinster.\n\nFootnote 194:\n\n He is last heard of as chief cook to Conair\u00e9 the Great, a mythical\n king of Ireland.\n\nFootnote 195:\n\n In the Book of Leinster.\n\nFootnote 196:\n\n For a description of Navan Fort see a paper by M. de Jubainville in\n the _Revue Celtique_, Vol. XVI.\n\nFootnote 197:\n\n _Cuchulainn, the Irish Achilles._ By Alfred Nutt. Popular Studies in\n Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 8.\n\nFootnote 198:\n\n See a series of interesting parallels between Cuchulainn and Heracles\n in _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, chap. IX and X.\n\nFootnote 199:\n\n The _T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgn\u00e9_. Translated by Standish Hayes O\u2019Grady.\n\nFootnote 200:\n\n The Irish romances relating to Cuchulainn and his cycle, nearly a\n hundred in number, need hardly be referred to severally in this\n chapter. Of many of the tales, too, there exist several\n slightly-varying versions. Many of them have been translated by\n different scholars. The reader desiring a more complete survey of the\n Cuchulainn legend is referred to Miss Hull\u2019s _Cuchullin Saga_ or to\n Lady Gregory\u2019s _Cuchulain of Muirthemne_.\n\nFootnote 201:\n\n Pronounced _Avair_.\n\nFootnote 202:\n\n Usually identified, however, with the Isle of Skye.\n\nFootnote 203:\n\n Pronounced _Eefa_.\n\nFootnote 204:\n\n A literal translation by Miss Winifred Faraday of the _T\u00e1in Bo\n Chuailgn\u00e9_ from the Book of the Dun Cow and the Yellow Book of Lecan\n has been published by Mr. Nutt\u2014Grimm Library, No. 16.\n\nFootnote 205:\n\n Pronounced _Cooley_.\n\nFootnote 206:\n\n This prophecy (here much abridged) is, in the original, in verse.\n\nFootnote 207:\n\n Finnav\u00e1r.\n\nFootnote 208:\n\n \u201cBellows-dart\u201d, apparently a kind of harpoon. It had thirty barbs.\n\nFootnote 209:\n\n It is contained in the Book of the Dun Cow story called the \u201cPhantom\n Chariot\u201d.\n\nFootnote 210:\n\n See chap. XX\u2014\u201cThe Victories of Light over Darkness\u201d.\n\nFootnote 211:\n\n Pronounced _Conla_.\n\nFootnote 212:\n\n A kind of mystic prohibition or taboo; singular, _geis_.\n\nFootnote 213:\n\n Now called Dundalk.\n\nFootnote 214:\n\n Pronounced _Lewy_.\n\nFootnote 215:\n\n Pronounced _Glen na Mower_.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII\n\n SOME GAELIC LOVE-STORIES\n\n\nThe heroic age of Ireland was not, however, the mere orgy of battle\nwhich one might assume from the previous chapter. It had room for its\nHelen and its Andromache as well as for its Achilles and its Hector. Its\nchampions could find time to make love as well as war. More than this,\nthe legends of their courtships often have a romantic beauty found in no\nother early literature. The women have free scope of choice, and claim\nthe respect of their wooers. Indeed, it has been pointed out that the\nmythical stories of the Celts must have created the chivalrous romances\nof medi\u00e6val Europe. In them, and in no other previous literature, do we\nfind such knightly treatment of an enemy as we see in the story of\nCuchulainn and Ferdiad, or such poetic delicacy towards a woman as is\ndisplayed in the wooing of Emer.[216] The talk between man and maid when\nCuchulainn comes in his chariot to pay his suit to Emer at Forgall\u2019s\n_d\u00fan_ might, save for its strangeness, almost have come out of some\nquite modern romance.\n\n\u201cEmer lifted up her lovely face and recognised Cuchulainn, and she said,\n\u2018May God make smooth the path before you!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018And you,\u2019 he said, \u2018may you be safe from every harm.\u2019\u201d\n\nShe asks him whence he has come, and he tells her. Then he questions her\nabout herself.\n\n\u201cI am a Tara of women,\u201d she replies, \u201cthe whitest of maidens, one who is\ngazed at but who gazes not back, a rush too far to be reached, an\nuntrodden way.... I was brought up in ancient virtues, in lawful\nbehaviour, in the keeping of chastity, in rank equal to a queen, in\nstateliness of form, so that to me is attributed every noble grace among\nthe hosts of Erin\u2019s women.\u201d In more boastful strain Cuchulainn tells of\nhis own birth and deeds. Not like the son of a peasant had he been\nreared at Conchobar\u2019s court, but among heroes and champions, jesters and\ndruids. When he is weakest his strength is that of twenty; alone he will\nfight against forty; a hundred men would feel safe under his protection.\nOne can imagine Emer\u2019s smile as she listens to these braggings. \u201cTruly,\u201d\nshe says, \u201cthey are goodly feats for a tender boy, but they are not yet\nthose of chariot-chiefs.\u201d Very modern, too, is the way in which she\ncoyly reminds her wooer that she has an elder sister as yet unwed. But,\nwhen at last he drives her to the point, she answers him with gentle,\nbut proud decision. Not by words, but by deeds is she to be won. The man\nshe will marry must have his name mentioned wherever the exploits of\nheroes are spoken of.\n\n\u201cEven as thou hast commanded, so shall all by me be done,\u201d said\nCuchulainn.\n\n\u201cAnd by me your offer is accepted, it is taken, it is granted,\u201d replied\nEmer.\n\nIt seems a pity that, after so fine a wooing, Cuchulainn could not have\nkept faithful to the bride he won. Yet such is not the way of heroes\nwhom goddesses as well as mortal women conspire to tempt from their\nloyalty. Fand, the wife of Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear, deserted by the sea-god,\nsent her sister Liban to Cuchulainn as an ambassador of love. At first\nhe refused to visit her, but ordered Laeg, his charioteer, to go with\nLiban to the \u201cHappy Plain\u201d to spy out the land. Laeg returned\nenraptured. \u201cIf all Ireland were mine,\u201d he assured his master, \u201cwith\nsupreme rule over its fair inhabitants, I would give it up without\nregret to go and live in the place that I have seen.\u201d\n\nSo Cuchulainn himself went and stayed a month in the Celtic Paradise\nwith Fand, the fairest woman of the S\u00eddhe. Returning to the land of\nmortals, he made a tryst with the goddess to meet him again in his own\ncountry by the yew-tree at the head of Baile\u2019s strand.\n\nBut Emer came to hear of it, and went to the meeting-place herself, with\nfifty of her maidens, each armed with a knife to kill her rival. There\nshe found Cuchulainn, Laeg, and Fand.\n\n\u201cWhat has led you, Cuchulainn,\u201d said Emer, \u201cto shame me before the women\nof Erin and all honourable people? I came under your shelter, trusting\nin your faithfulness, and now you seek a cause of quarrel with me.\u201d\n\nBut Cuchulainn, hero-like, could not understand why his wife should not\nbe content to take her turn with this other woman\u2014surely no unworthy\nrival, for she was beautiful, and came of the lofty race of gods. We see\nEmer yield at last, with queenly pathos.\n\n\u201cI will not refuse this woman to you, if you long for her,\u201d she said,\n\u201cfor I know that everything that is new seems fair, and everything that\nis common seems bitter, and everything we have not seems desirable to\nus, and everything we have we think little of. And yet, Cuchulainn, I\nwas once pleasing to you, and I would wish to be so again.\u201d\n\nHer grief touched him. \u201cBy my word,\u201d he said, \u201cyou are pleasing to me,\nand will be as long as I live.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen let me be given up,\u201d said Fand. \u201cIt is better that I should be,\u201d\nreplied Emer. \u201cNo,\u201d said Fand; \u201cit is I who must be given up in the end.\n\n\u201cIt is I who will go, though I go with great sorrow. I would rather stay\nwith Cuchulainn than live in the sunny home of the gods.\n\n\u201cO Emer, he is yours, and you are worthy of him! What my hand cannot\nhave, my heart may yet wish well to.\n\n\u201cA sorrowful thing it is to love without return. Better to renounce than\nnot to receive a love equal to one\u2019s own.\n\n\u201cIt was not well of you, O fair-haired Emer, to come to kill Fand in her\nmisery.\u201d\n\nIt was while the goddess and the human woman were contending with one\nanother in self-sacrifice that Manann\u00e1n, Son of the Sea, heard of Fand\u2019s\ntrouble, and was sorry that he had forsaken her. So he came, invisible\nto all but her alone. He asked her pardon, and she herself could not\nforget that she had once been happy with the \u201chorseman of the crested\nwaves\u201d, and still might be happy with him again. The god asked her to\nmake her choice between them, and, when she went to him, he shook his\nmantle between her and Cuchulainn. It was one of the magic properties of\nManann\u00e1n\u2019s mantle that those between whom it was shaken could never meet\nagain. Then Fand returned with her divine husband to the country of the\nimmortals; and the druids of Emain Macha gave Cuchulainn and Emer each a\ndrink of oblivion, so that Cuchulainn forgot his love and Emer her\njealousy.[217]\n\nThe scene of this story takes its name from another, and hardly less\nbeautiful love-tale. The \u201cyew-tree at the head of Baile\u2019s strand\u201d had\ngrown out of the grave of Baile of the Honeyed Speech, and it bore the\nappearance of Baile\u2019s love, Ailinn. This Gaelic Romeo and Juliet were of\nroyal birth: Baile was heir to Ulster, and Ailinn was daughter of the\nKing of Leinster\u2019s son. Not by any feud of Montague and Capulet were\nthey parted, however, but by the craft of a ghostly enemy. They had\nappointed to meet one another at Dundealgan, and Baile, who arrived\nthere first, was greeted by a stranger. \u201cWhat news do you bring?\u201d asked\nBaile. \u201cNone,\u201d replied the stranger, \u201cexcept that Ailinn of Leinster was\nsetting out to meet her lover, but the men of Leinster kept her back,\nand her heart broke then and there from grief.\u201d When Baile heard this,\nhis own heart broke, and he fell dead on the strand, while the messenger\nwent on the wings of the wind to the home of Ailinn, who had not yet\nstarted. \u201cWhence come you?\u201d she asked him. \u201cFrom Ulster, by the shore of\nDundealgan, where I saw men raising a stone over one who had just died,\nand on the stone I read the name of Baile. He had come to meet some\nwoman he was in love with, but it was destined that they should never\nsee one another again in life.\u201d At this news Ailinn, too, fell dead, and\nwas buried; and we are told that an apple-tree grew out of her grave,\nthe apples of which bore the likeness of the face of Baile, while a\nyew-tree sprung from Baile\u2019s grave, and took the appearance of Ailinn.\nThis legend, which is probably a part of the common heritage of the\nAryans, is found in folk-lore over an area which stretches from Ireland\nto India. The Gaelic version has, however, an ending unknown to the\nothers. The two trees, it relates, were cut down, and made into wands\nupon which the poets of Ulster and of Leinster cut the songs of the\nlove-tragedies of their two provinces, in _ogam_. But even these mute\nmemorials of Baile and Ailinn were destined not to be divided. After two\nhundred years, Art the \u201cLonely\u201d, High-King of Ireland, ordered them to\nbe brought to the hall of Tara, and, as soon as the wands found\nthemselves under the same roof, they all sprang together, and no force\nor skill could part them again. So the king commanded them to be \u201ckept,\nlike any other jewel, in the treasury of Tara.\u201d[218]\n\nNeither of these stories, however, has as yet attained the fame of one\nnow to be retold.[219] To many, no doubt, Gaelic romance is summed up in\nthe one word Deirdre. It is the legend of this Gaelic Helen that the\npoets of the modern Celtic school most love to elaborate, while old men\nstill tell it round the peat-fires of Ireland and the Highlands. Scholar\nand peasant alike combine to preserve a tradition no one knows how many\nhundred years old, for it was written down in the twelfth-century Book\nof Leinster as one of the \u201cprime stories\u201d which every bard was bound to\nbe able to recite. It takes rank with the \u201cFate of the Sons of Tuirenn\u201d,\nand with the \u201cFate of the Children of L\u00ear\u201d, as one of the \u201cThree\nSorrowful Stories of Erin\u201d.\n\nSo favourite a tale has naturally been much altered and added to in its\npassage down the generations. But its essential story is as follows:\u2014\n\nKing Conchobar of Ulster was holding festival in the house of one of his\nbards, called Fedlimid, when Fedlimid\u2019s wife gave birth to a daughter,\nconcerning whom Cathbad the Druid uttered a prophecy. He foretold that\nthe new-born child would grow up to be the most lovely woman the world\nhad ever seen, but that her beauty would bring death to many heroes, and\nmuch peril and sorrow to Ulster. On hearing this, the Red Branch\nwarriors demanded that she should be killed, but Conchobar refused, and\ngave the infant to a trusted serving-woman, to be hidden in a secret\nplace in the solitude of the mountains, until she was of an age to be\nhis own wife.\n\nSo Deirdre (as Cathbad named her) was taken away to a hut so remote from\nthe paths of men that none knew of it save Conchobar. Here she was\nbrought up by a nurse, a fosterer, and a teacher, and saw no other\nliving creatures save the beasts and birds of the hills. Nevertheless,\nwoman-like, she aspired to be loved.\n\nOne day, her fosterer was killing a calf for their food, and its blood\nran out upon the snowy ground, which brought a black raven swooping to\nthe spot. \u201cIf there were a man,\u201d said Deirdre, \u201cwho had hair of the\nblackness of that raven, skin of the whiteness of the snow, and cheeks\nas red as the calf\u2019s blood, that is the man whom I would wish to marry\nme.\u201d\n\n\u201cIndeed there is such a man,\u201d replied her teacher thoughtlessly.\n\u201cNaoise[220], one of the sons of Usnach[221], heroes of the same race as\nConchobar the King.\u201d\n\nThe curious Deirdre prevailed upon her teacher to bring Naoise to speak\nwith her. When they met she made good use of her time, for she offered\nNaoise her love, and begged him to take her away from King Conchobar.\n\nNaoise, bewitched by her beauty, consented. Accompanied by his two\nbrothers, Ardan and Ainle, and their followers, he fled with Deirdre to\nAlba, where they made alliance with one of its kings, and wandered over\nthe land, living by following the deer, and by helping the king in his\nbattles.\n\nThe revengeful Conchobar bided his time. One day, as the heroes of the\nRed Branch feasted together at Emain Macha, he asked them if they had\never heard of a nobler company than their own. They replied that the\nworld could not hold such another. \u201cYet\u201d, said the king, \u201cwe lack our\nfull tale. The three sons of Usnach could defend the province of Ulster\nagainst any other province of Ireland by themselves, and it is a pity\nthat they should still be exiles, for the sake of any woman in the\nworld. Gladly would I welcome them back!\u201d\n\n\u201cWe ourselves,\u201d replied the Ultonians, \u201cwould have counselled this long\nago had we dared, O King!\u201d\n\n\u201cThen I will send one of my three best champions to fetch them,\u201d said\nConchobar. \u201cEither Conall the Victorious, or Cuchulainn, the son of\nSualtam, or Fergus, the son of Roy; and I will find out which of those\nthree loves me best.\u201d\n\nFirst he called Conall to him secretly.\n\n\u201cWhat would you do, O Conall,\u201d he asked, \u201cif you were sent to fetch the\nsons of Usnach, and they were killed here, in spite of your\nsafe-conduct?\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is not a man in Ulster,\u201d answered Conall, \u201cwho had hand in it\nthat would escape his own death from me.\u201d\n\n\u201cI see that I am not dearest of all men to you,\u201d replied Conchobar, and,\ndismissing Conall, he called Cuchulainn, and put the same question to\nhim.\n\n\u201cBy my sworn word,\u201d replied Cuchulainn, \u201cif such a thing happened with\nyour consent, no bribe or blood-fine would I accept in lieu of your own\nhead, O Conchobar.\u201d\n\n\u201cTruly,\u201d said the king, \u201cit is not you I will send.\u201d\n\nThe king then asked Fergus, and he replied that, if the sons of Usnach\nwere slain while under his protection, he would revenge the deed upon\nanyone who was party to it, save only the king himself.\n\n\u201cThen it is you who shall go,\u201d said Conchobar. \u201cSet forth to-morrow, and\nrest not by the way, and when you put foot again in Ireland at the _D\u00fan_\nof Borrach, whatever may happen to you yourself, send the sons of Usnach\nforward without delay.\u201d\n\nThe next morning, Fergus, with his two sons, Illann the Fair and Buinne\nthe Ruthless Red, set out for Alba in their galley, and reached Loch\nEtive, by whose shores the sons of Usnach were then living. Naoise,\nAinle, and Ardan were sitting at chess when they heard Fergus\u2019s shout.\n\n\u201cThat is the cry of a man of Erin,\u201d said Naoise.\n\n\u201cNay,\u201d replied Deirdre, who had forebodings of trouble. \u201cDo not heed it;\nit is only the shout of a man of Alba.\u201d But the sons of Usnach knew\nbetter, and sent Ardan down to the sea-shore, where he found Fergus and\nhis sons, and gave them greeting, and heard their message, and brought\nthem back with him.\n\nThat night Fergus persuaded the sons of Usnach to return with him to\nEmain Macha. Deirdre, with her \u201csecond sight\u201d, implored them to remain\nin Alba. But the exiles were weary for the sight of their own country,\nand did not share their companion\u2019s fears. As they put out to sea,\nDeirdre uttered her beautiful \u201cFarewell to Alba\u201d, that land she was\nnever to behold again.\n\n \u201cA lovable land is yon eastern land,\n Alba, with its marvels.\n I would not have come hither out of it,\n Had I not come with Naoise.\n\n \u201cLovable are D\u00fan-fidga and D\u00fan-finn,\n Lovable the fortress over them;\n Dear to the heart Inis Draigende,\n And very dear is D\u00fan Suibni.\n\n \u201cCaill Cuan!\n Unto which Ainle would wend, alas!\n Short the time seemed to me,\n With Naoise in the region of Alba.\n\n \u201cGlenn L\u00e1id!\n Often I slept there under the cliff;\n Fish and venison and the fat of the badger\n Was my portion in Glenn L\u00e1id.\n\n \u201cGlenn Mas\u00e1in!\n Its garlic was tall, its branches white;\n We slept a rocking sleep,\n Over the grassy estuary of Mas\u00e1in.\n\n \u201cGlenn Etive!\n Where my first house I raised;\n Beauteous its wood:\u2014upon rising\n A cattle-fold for the sun was Glenn Etive.\n\n * * * * * * * * * *\n\n \u201cGlenn D\u00e1-R\u00faad!\n My love to every man who hath it as an heritage!\n Sweet the cuckoos\u2019 note on bending bough,\n On the peak over Glenn D\u00e1-R\u00faad.\n\n \u201cBeloved is Draigen,\n Dear the white sand beneath its waves;\n I would not have come from it, from the East,\n Had I not come with my beloved.\u201d\n\nThey crossed the sea, and arrived at the _D\u00fan_ of Borrach, who bade them\nwelcome to Ireland. Now King Conchobar had sent Borrach a secret\ncommand, that he should offer a feast to Fergus on his landing. Strange\ntaboos called _geasa_ are laid upon the various heroes of ancient\nIreland in the stories; there are certain things that each one of them\nmay not do without forfeiting life or honour; and it was a _geis_ upon\nFergus to refuse a feast.\n\nFergus, we are told, \u201creddened with anger from crown to sole\u201d at the\ninvitation. Yet he could not avoid the feast. He asked Naoise what he\nshould do, and Deirdre broke in with: \u201cDo what is asked of you if you\nprefer to forsake the sons of Usnach for a feast. Yet forsaking them is\na good price to pay for it.\u201d\n\nFergus, however, perceived a possible compromise. Though he himself\ncould not refuse to stop to partake of Borrach\u2019s hospitality, he could\nsend Deirdre and the sons of Usnach on to Emain Macha at once, under the\nsafeguard of his two sons, Illann the Fair and Buinne the Ruthless Red.\nSo this was done, albeit to the annoyance of the sons of Usnach and the\nterror of Deirdre. Visions came to the sorrowful woman; she saw the\nthree sons of Usnach and Illann, the son of Fergus, without their heads;\nshe saw a cloud of blood always hanging over them. She begged them to\nwait in some safe place until Fergus had finished the feast. But Naoise,\nAinle, and Ardan laughed at her fears. They arrived at Emain Macha, and\nConchobar ordered the \u201cRed Branch\u201d palace to be placed at their\ndisposal.\n\nIn the evening Conchobar called Levarcham, Deirdre\u2019s old teacher, to\nhim. \u201cGo\u201d, he said, \u201cto the \u2018Red Branch\u2019, and see Deirdre, and bring me\nback news of her appearance, whether she still keeps her former beauty,\nor whether it has left her.\u201d\n\nSo Levarcham came to the \u201cRed Branch\u201d, and kissed Deirdre and the three\nsons of Usnach, and warned them that Conchobar was preparing treachery.\nThen she went back to the king, and reported to him that Deirdre\u2019s hard\nlife upon the mountains of Alba had ruined her form and face, so that\nshe was no longer worthy of his regard.\n\nAt this, Conchobar\u2019s jealousy was partly allayed, and he began to doubt\nwhether it would be wise to attack the sons of Usnach. But later on,\nwhen he had drunk well of wine, he sent a second messenger to see if\nwhat Levarcham had reported about Deirdre was truth.\n\nThe messenger, this time a man, went and looked in through a window.\nDeirdre saw him and pointed him out to Naoise, who flung a chessman at\nthe peering face, and put out one of its eyes. But the man went back to\nConchobar, and told him that, though one of his eyes had been struck\nout, he would gladly have stayed looking with the other, so great was\nDeirdre\u2019s loveliness.\n\nThen Conchobar, in his wrath, ordered the men of Ulster to set fire to\nthe Red Branch House and slay all within it except Deirdre. They flung\nfire-brands upon it, but Buinne the Ruthless Red came out and quenched\nthem, and drove the assailants back with slaughter. But Conchobar called\nto him to parley, and offered him a \u201chundred\u201d of land and his friendship\nto desert the sons of Usnach. Buinne was tempted, and fell; but the land\ngiven him turned barren that very night in indignation at being owned by\nsuch a traitor.\n\nThe other of Fergus\u2019s sons was of different make. He charged out, torch\nin hand, and cut down the Ultonians, so that they hesitated to come near\nthe house again. Conchobar dared not offer him a bribe. But he armed his\nown son, Fiacha, with his own magic weapons, including his shield, the\n\u201cMoaner\u201d, which roared when its owner was in danger, and sent him to\nfight Illann.\n\nThe duel was a fierce one, and Illann got the better of Fiacha, so that\nthe son of Conchobar had to crouch down beneath his shield, which roared\nfor help. Conall the Victorious heard the roar from far off, and thought\nthat his king must be in peril. He came to the place, and, without\nasking questions, thrust his spear \u201cBlue-green\u201d through Illann. The\ndying son of Fergus explained the situation to Conall, who, by way of\nmaking some amends, at once killed Fiacha as well.\n\nAfter this, the sons of Usnach held their fort till dawn against all\nConchobar\u2019s host. But, with day, they saw that they must either escape\nor resign themselves to perish. Putting Deirdre in their centre,\nprotected by their shields, they opened the door suddenly and fled out.\n\nThey would have broken through and escaped, had not Conchobar asked\nCathbad the Druid to put a spell upon them, promising to spare their\nlives. So Cathbad raised the illusion of a stormy sea before and all\naround the sons of Usnach. Naoise lifted Deirdre upon his shoulder, but\nthe magic waves rose higher, until they were all obliged to fling away\ntheir weapons and swim.\n\nThen was seen the strange sight of men swimming upon dry land. And,\nbefore the glamour passed away, the sons of Usnach were seized from\nbehind, and brought to Conchobar.\n\nIn spite of his promise to the druid, the king condemned them to death.\nNone of the men of Ulster would, however, deal the blow. In the end, a\nforeigner from Norway, whose father Naoise had slain, offered to behead\nthem. Each of the brothers begged to die first, that he might not\nwitness the deaths of the others. But Naoise ended this noble rivalry by\nlending their executioner the sword called \u201cThe Retaliator\u201d, which had\nbeen given him by Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear. They knelt down side by side, and\none blow of the sword of the god shore off all their heads.\n\nAs for Deirdre, there are varying stories of her death, but most of them\nagree that she did not survive the sons of Usnach many hours. But,\nbefore she died, she made an elegy over them. That it is of a singular\npathos and beauty the few verses which there is space to give will\nshow.[222]\n\n \u201cLong the day without Usnach\u2019s children!\n It was not mournful to be in their company!\n Sons of a king by whom sojourners were entertained,\n Three lions from the Hill of the Cave.\n\n * * * * * * * * * *\n\n \u201cThree darlings of the women of Britain,\n Three hawks of Slieve Gullion,\n Sons of a king whom valour served,\n To whom soldiers used to give homage!\n\n * * * * * * * * * *\n\n \u201cThat I should remain after Naoise\n Let no one in the world suppose:\n After Ardan and Ainle\n My time would not be long.\n\n \u201cUlster\u2019s over-king, my first husband,\n I forsook for Naoise\u2019s love.\n Short my life after them:\n I will perform their funeral game.\n\n \u201cAfter them I shall not be alive\u2014\n Three that would go into every conflict,\n Three who liked to endure hardships,\n Three heroes who refused not combats.\n\n * * * * * * * * * *\n\n \u201cO man, that diggest the tomb\n And puttest my darling from me,\n Make not the grave too narrow:\n I shall be beside the noble ones.\u201d\n\nIt was a poor triumph for Conchobar. Deirdre in all her beauty had\nescaped him by death. His own chief followers never forgave it. Fergus,\nwhen he returned from Borrach\u2019s feast, and found out what had been done,\ngathered his own people, slew Conchobar\u2019s son and many of his warriors,\nand fled to Ulster\u2019s bitterest enemies, Ailill and Medb of Connaught.\nAnd Cathbad the Druid cursed both king and kingdom, praying that none of\nConchobar\u2019s race might ever reign in Emain Macha again.\n\nSo it came to pass. The capital of Ulster was only kept from ruin by\nCuchulainn\u2019s prowess. When he perished, it also fell, and soon became\nwhat it is now\u2014a grassy hill.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 216:\n\n The romance of the _Wooing of Emer_, a fragment of which is contained\n in the Book of the Dun Cow, has been translated by Dr. Kuno Meyer, and\n published by him in the _Arch\u00e6ological Review_, Vol. I, 1888. Miss\n Hull has included this translation in her _Cuchullin Saga_. Another\n version of it from a Bodleian MS., translated by the same scholar,\n will be found in the _Revue Celtique_, Vol. XI.\n\nFootnote 217:\n\n This story, known as the _Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn_, translated into\n French by M. d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville, will be found in his _L\u2019\u00c9pop\u00e9e\n Celtique en Irlande_, the fifth volume of _Cour de Litt\u00e9rature\n Celtique_. Another translation, into English, by Eugene O\u2019Curry is in\n _Atlantis_, Vols. I and II.\n\nFootnote 218:\n\n For the full story of Baile and Ailinn see Dr. Kuno Meyer\u2019s\n translation in Vol. XIII of the _Revue Celtique_.\n\nFootnote 219:\n\n There are not only numerous translations of this romance, but also\n many Gaelic versions. The oldest of the latter is in the Book of\n Leinster, while the fullest are in two MSS. in the Advocates\u2019 Library\n at Edinburgh. The version followed here is from one of these, the\n so-called Glenn Mas\u00e1in MS., translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes, and\n contained in Miss Hull\u2019s _Cuchullin Saga_.\n\nFootnote 220:\n\n Pronounced _Naisi_.\n\nFootnote 221:\n\n Pronounced _Usna_.\n\nFootnote 222:\n\n It will be found in full in Miss Hull\u2019s _Cuchullin Saga_. The version\n there given was first translated into French by M. Ponsinet from the\n Book of Leinster.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV\n\n FINN AND THE FENIANS[223]\n\n\nThe epoch of Emain Macha is followed in the annals of ancient Ireland by\na succession of monarchs who, though doubtless as mythical as King\nConchobar and his court, seem to grow gradually more human. Their line\nlasts for about two centuries, culminating in a dynasty with which\nlegend has occupied itself more than with its immediate predecessors.\nThis is the one which began, according to the annalists, in A.D. 177,\nwith the famous Conn \u201cthe Hundred-Fighter\u201d, and, passing down to the\nreign of his even more famous grandson, Cormac \u201cthe Magnificent\u201d, is\nconnected with the third Gaelic cycle\u2014that which relates the exploits of\nFinn and the Fenians. All these kings had their dealings with the\nnational gods. A story contained in a fifteenth-century Irish\nmanuscript, and called \u201cThe Champion\u2019s Prophecy\u201d,[224] tells how Lugh\nappeared to Conn, enveloped him in a magic mist, led him away to an\nenchanted palace, and there prophesied to him the number of his\ndescendants, the length of their reigns, and the manner of their deaths.\nAnother tradition relates how Conn\u2019s son, Connla, was wooed by a goddess\nand borne away, like the British Arthur, in a boat of glass to the\nEarthly Paradise beyond the sea.[225] Yet another relates Conn\u2019s own\nmarriage with Becuma of the Fair Skin, wife of that same Labraid of the\nQuick Hand on Sword who, in another legend, married Liban, the sister of\nFand, Cuchulainn\u2019s fairy love. Becuma had been discovered in an intrigue\nwith Gaiar, a son of Manann\u00e1n, and, banished from the \u201cLand of Promise\u201d,\ncrossed the sea that sunders mortals and immortals to offer her hand to\nConn. The Irish king wedded her, but evil came of the marriage. She grew\njealous of Conn\u2019s other son, Art, and insisted upon his banishment; but\nthey agreed to play chess to decide which should go, and Art won. Art,\ncalled \u201cthe Lonely\u201d because he had lost his brother Connla, was king\nafter Conn, but he is chiefly known to legend as the father of Cormac.\n\nMany Irish stories occupy themselves with the fame of Cormac, who is\npictured as a great legislator\u2014a Gaelic Solomon. Certain traditions\ncredit him with having been the first to believe in a purer doctrine\nthan the Celtic polytheism, and even with having attempted to put down\ndruidism, in revenge for which a druid called Maelcen sent an evil\nspirit who placed a salmon-bone crossways in the king\u2019s throat, as he\nsat at meat, and so compassed his death. Another class of stories,\nhowever, make him an especial favourite with those same heathen deities.\nManann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear, was so anxious for his friendship that he decoyed\nhim into fairyland, and gave him a magic branch. It was of silver, and\nbore golden apples, and, when it was shaken, it made such sweet music\nthat the wounded, the sick, and the sorrowful forgot their pains, and\nwere lulled into deep sleep. Cormac kept this treasure all his life;\nbut, at his death, it returned into the hands of the gods.[226]\n\nKing Cormac was a contemporary of Finn mac Coul[227], whom he appointed\nhead of the _Fianna[228] Eirinn_, more generally known as the \u201cFenians\u201d.\nAround Finn and his men have gathered a cycle of legends which were\nequally popular with the Gaels of both Scotland and Ireland. We read of\ntheir exploits in stories and poems preserved in the earliest Irish\nmanuscripts, while among the peasantry both of Ireland and of the West\nHighlands their names and the stories connected with them are still\ncurrent lore. Upon some of these floating traditions, as preserved in\nfolk ballads, MacPherson founded his factitious _Ossian_, and the\ncollection of them from the lips of living men still affords plenty of\nemployment to Gaelic students.\n\nHow far Finn and his followers may have been historical personages it is\nimpossible to say. The Irish people themselves have always held that the\nFenians were a kind of native militia, and that Finn was their general.\nThe early historical writers of Ireland supported this view. The\nchronicler Tighernach, who died in 1088, believed in him, and the\n\u201cAnnals of the Four Masters\u201d, compiled between the years 1632 and 1636\nfrom older chronicles, while they ignore King Conchobar and his Red\nBranch Champions as unworthy of the serious consideration of historians,\ntreat Finn as a real person whose death took place in 283 A.D. Even so\ngreat a modern scholar as Eugene O\u2019Curry declared in the clearest\nlanguage that Finn, so far from being \u201ca merely imaginary or mythical\ncharacter\u201d, was \u201can undoubtedly historical personage; and that he\nexisted about the time at which his appearance is recorded in the Annals\nis as certain as that Julius Caesar lived and ruled at the time stated\non the authority of the Roman historians\u201d.[229]\n\nThe opinion of more recent Celtic scholars, however, is opposed to this\nview. Finn\u2019s pedigree, preserved in the Book of Leinster, may seem at\nfirst to give some support to the theory of his real existence, but, on\nmore careful examination of it, his own name and that of his father\nequally bewray him. Finn or Fionn, meaning \u201cfair\u201d, is the name of one of\nthe mythical ancestors of the Gaels, while his father\u2019s name,\nCumhal[230], signifies the \u201csky\u201d, and is the same word as _Camulus_, the\nGaulish heaven-god identified by the Romans with Mars. His followers are\nas doubtfully human as himself. One may compare them with Cuchulainn and\nthe rest of the heroes of Emain Macha. Their deeds are not less\nmarvellous. Like the Ultonian warriors, they move, too, on equal terms\nwith the gods. \u201cThe Fianna of Erin\u201d, says a tract called \u201cThe Dialogue\nof the Elders\u201d,[231] contained in thirteenth and fourteenth century\nmanuscripts, \u201chad not more frequent and free intercourse with the men of\nsettled habitation than with the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann\u201d.[232] Angus, Mider,\nL\u00ear, Manann\u00e1n, and Bodb the Red, with their countless sons and\ndaughters, loom as large in the Fenian, or so-called \u201cOssianic\u201d stories\nas do the Fenians themselves. They fight for them, or against them; they\nmarry them, and are given to them in marriage.\n\nA luminous suggestion of Professor Rhys also hints that the Fenians\ninherited the conduct of that ancient war formerly waged between the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann and the Fomors. The most common antagonists of Finn and\nhis heroes are tribes of invaders from oversea, called in the stories\nthe _Lochlannach_. These \u201cMen of Lochlann\u201d are usually identified, by\nthose who look for history in the stories of the Fenian cycle, with the\ninvading bands of Norsemen who harried the Irish coasts in the ninth\ncentury. But the nucleus of the Fenian tales antedates these\nScandinavian raids, and mortal foes have probably merely stepped into\nthe place of those immortal enemies of the gods whose \u201cLochlann\u201d was a\ncountry, not over the sea\u2014but under it.[233]\n\nThe earlier historians of Ireland were as ready with their dates and\nfacts regarding the Fenian band as an institution as with the\npersonality of Finn. It was said to have been first organized by a king\ncalled Fiachadh, in 300 B.C., and abolished, or rather, exterminated, by\nCairbr\u00e9, the son of Cormac mac Art, in 284 _A.D._ We are told that it\nconsisted of three regiments modelled on the Roman legion; each of these\nbodies contained, on a peace footing, three thousand men, but in time of\nwar could be indefinitely strengthened. Its object was to defend the\ncoasts of Ireland and the country generally, throwing its weight upon\nthe side of any prince who happened to be assailed by foreign foes.\nDuring the six months of winter, its members were quartered upon the\npopulation, but during the summer they had to forage for themselves,\nwhich they did by hunting and fishing. Thus they lived in the woods and\non the open moors, hardening themselves for battle by their adventurous\nlife. The sites of their enormous camp-fires were long pointed out under\nthe name of the \u201cFenians\u2019 cooking-places\u201d.\n\nIt was not easy to become a member of this famous band. A candidate had\nto be not only an expert warrior, but a poet and a man of culture as\nwell. He had practically to renounce his tribe; at any rate he made oath\nthat he would neither avenge any of his relatives nor be avenged by\nthem. He put himself under bonds never to refuse hospitality to anyone\nwho asked, never to turn his back in battle, never to insult any woman,\nand not to accept a dowry with his wife. In addition to all this, he had\nto pass successfully through the most stringent physical tests. Indeed,\nas these have come down to us, magnified by the perfervid Celtic\nimagination, they are of an altogether marvellous and impossible\ncharacter. An aspirant to the _Fianna Eirinn_, we are told, had first to\nstand up to his knees in a pit dug for him, his only arms being his\nshield and a hazel wand, while nine warriors, each with a spear,\nstanding within the distance of nine ridges of land, all hurled their\nweapons at him at once; if he failed to ward them all off, he was\nrejected. Should he succeed in this first test, he was given the\ndistance of one tree-length\u2019s start, and chased through a forest by\narmed men; if any of them came up to him and wounded him, he could not\nbelong to the Fenians. If he escaped unhurt, but had unloosed a single\nlock of his braided hair, or had broken a single branch in his flight,\nor if, at the end of the run, his weapons trembled in his hands, he was\nrefused. As, besides these tests, he was obliged to jump over a branch\nas high as his forehead, and stoop under one as low as his knee, while\nrunning at full speed, and to pluck a thorn out of his heel without\nhindrance to his flight, it is clear that even the rank and file of the\nFenians must have been quite exceptional athletes.[234]\n\nBut it is time to pass on to a more detailed description of these\nchampions.[235] They are a goodly company, not less heroic than the\nmighty men of Ulster. First comes Finn himself, not the strongest in\nbody of the Fenians, but the truest, wisest, and kindest, gentle to\nwomen, generous to men, and trusted by all. If he could help it, he\nwould never let anyone be in trouble or poverty. \u201cIf the dead leaves of\nthe forest had been gold, and the white foam of the water silver, Finn\nwould have given it all away.\u201d\n\nFinn had two sons, Fergus and his more famous brother Ossian[236].\nFergus of the sweet speech was the Fenian\u2019s bard, and, also, because of\nhis honeyed words, their diplomatist and ambassador. Yet, by the irony\nof fate, it is to Ossian, who is not mentioned as a poet in the earliest\ntexts, that the poems concerning the Fenians which are current in\nScotland under the name of \u201cOssianic Ballads\u201d are attributed. Ossian\u2019s\nmother was Sadb, a daughter of Bodb the Red. A rival goddess changed her\ninto a deer\u2014which explains how Ossian got his name, which means \u201cfawn\u201d.\nWith such advantages of birth, naturally he was speedy enough to run\ndown a red deer hind and catch her by the ear, though far less\nswift-footed than his cousin Caoilte[237], the \u201cThin Man\u201d. Neither was\nhe so strong as his own son Oscar, the mightiest of all the Fenians,\nyet, in his youth, so clumsy that the rest of the band refused to take\nhim with them on their warlike expeditions. They changed their minds,\nhowever, when, one day, he followed them unawares, found them giving way\nbefore an enemy, and, rushing to their help, armed only with a great log\nof wood which lay handy on the ground, turned the fortunes of the fight.\nAfter this, Oscar was hailed the best warrior of all the Fianna; he was\ngiven command of a battalion, and its banner, called the \u201cTerrible\nBroom\u201d, was regarded as the centre of every battle, for it was never\nknown to retreat a foot. Other prominent Fenians were Goll[238], son of\nMorna, at first Finn\u2019s enemy but afterwards his follower, a man skilled\nalike in war and learning. Even though he was one-eyed, we are told that\nhe was much loved by women, but not so much as Finn\u2019s cousin, Diarmait\nO\u2019Duibhne[239], whose fatal beauty ensnared even Finn\u2019s betrothed bride,\nGrainne[240]. Their comic character was Conan, who is represented as an\nold, bald, vain, irritable man, as great a braggart as ancient Pistol\nand as foul-mouthed as Thersites, and yet, after he had once been shamed\ninto activity, a true man of his hands. These are the prime Fenian\nheroes, the chief actors in its stories.\n\nThe Fenian epic begins, before the birth of its hero, with the struggle\nof two rival clans, each of whom claimed to be the real and only Fianna\nEirinn. They were called the Clann Morna, of which Goll mac Morna was\nhead, and the Clann Baoisgne[241], commanded by Finn\u2019s father, Cumhal. A\nbattle was fought at Cnucha[242], in which Goll killed Cumhal, and the\nClann Baoisgne was scattered. Cumhal\u2019s wife, however, bore a posthumous\nson, who was brought up among the Slieve Bloom Mountains secretly, for\nfear his father\u2019s enemies should find and kill him. The boy, who was at\nfirst called Deimne[243], grew up to be an expert hurler, swimmer,\nrunner, and hunter. Later, like Cuchulainn, and indeed many modern\nsavages, he took a second, more personal name. Those who saw him asked\nwho was the \u201cfair\u201d youth. He accepted the omen, and called himself\nDeimne Finn.\n\nAt length, he wandered to the banks of the Boyne, where he found a\nsoothsayer called Finn the Seer living beside a deep pool near Slane,\nnamed \u201cFec\u2019s Pool\u201d, in hope of catching one of the \u201csalmons of\nknowledge\u201d, and, by eating it, obtaining universal wisdom. He had been\nthere seven years without result, though success had been prophesied to\none named \u201cFinn\u201d. When the wandering son of Cumhal appeared, Finn the\nSeer engaged him as his servant. Shortly afterwards, he caught the\ncoveted fish, and handed it over to our Finn to cook, warning him to eat\nno portion of it. \u201cHave you eaten any of it?\u201d he asked the boy, as he\nbrought it up ready boiled. \u201cNo indeed,\u201d replied Finn; \u201cbut, while I was\ncooking it, a blister rose upon the skin, and, laying my thumb down upon\nthe blister, I scalded it, and so I put it into my mouth to ease the\npain.\u201d The man was perplexed. \u201cYou told me your name was Deimne,\u201d he\nsaid; \u201cbut have you any other name?\u201d \u201cYes, I am also called Finn.\u201d \u201cIt\nis enough,\u201d replied his disappointed master. \u201cEat the salmon yourself,\nfor you must be the one of whom the prophecy told.\u201d Finn ate the \u201csalmon\nof knowledge\u201d, and thereafter he had only to put his thumb under his\ntooth, as he had done when he scalded it, to receive fore-knowledge and\nmagic counsel.[244]\n\nThus armed, Finn was more than a match for the Clann Morna. Curious\nlegends tell how he discovered himself to his father\u2019s old followers,\nconfounded his enemies with his magic, and turned them into faithful\nservants.[245] Even Goll of the Blows had to submit to his sway.\nGradually he welded the two opposing clans into one Fianna, over which\nhe ruled, taking tribute from the kings of Ireland, warring against the\nFomorian \u201cLochlannach\u201d, destroying every kind of giant, serpent, or\nmonster that infested the land, and at last carrying his mythical\nconquests over all Europe.\n\nOut of the numberless stories of the Fenian exploits it is hard to\nchoose examples. All are heroic, romantic, wild, fantastic. In many of\nthem the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann play prominent parts. One such story connects\nitself with an earlier mythological episode already related. The reader\nwill remember[246] how, when the Dagda gave up the kingship of the\nimmortals, five aspirants appeared to claim it; how of these five\u2014Angus,\nMider, L\u00ear, Ilbhreach son of Manann\u00e1n, and Bodb the Red\u2014the latter was\nchosen; how L\u00ear refused to acknowledge him, but was reconciled later;\nhow Mider, equally rebellious, fled to \u201cdesert country round Mount\nLeinster\u201d in County Carlow; and how a yearly war was waged upon him and\nhis people by the rest of the gods to bring them to subjection. This war\nwas still raging in the time of Finn, and Mider was not too proud to\nseek his help. One day that Finn was hunting in Donegal, with Ossian,\nOscar, Caoilte, and Diarmait, their hounds roused a beautiful fawn,\nwhich, although at every moment apparently nearly overtaken, led them in\nfull chase as far as Mount Leinster. Here it suddenly disappeared into a\ncleft in the hillside. Heavy snow, \u201cmaking the forest\u2019s branches as it\nwere a withe-twist\u201d, now fell, forcing the Fenians to seek for some\nshelter, and they therefore explored the place into which the fawn had\nvanished. It led to a splendid _s\u00eddh_ in the hollow of the hill.\nEntering it, they were greeted by a beautiful goddess-maiden, who told\nthem that it was she, Mider\u2019s daughter, who had been the fawn, and that\nshe had taken that shape purposely to lead them there, in the hope of\ngetting their help against the army that was coming to attack the\n_s\u00eddh_. Finn asked who the assailants would be, and was told that they\nwere Bodb the Red with his seven sons, Angus \u201cSon of the Young\u201d with his\nseven sons, L\u00ear of S\u00eddh Fionnechaidh with his twenty-seven sons, and\nFionnbharr of S\u00eddh Meadha with his seventeen sons, as well as numberless\ngods of lesser fame drawn from _s\u00eddhe_ not only over all Ireland, but\nfrom Scotland and the islands as well. Finn promised his aid, and, with\nthe twilight of that same day, the attacking forces appeared, and made\ntheir annual assault. They were beaten off, after a battle that lasted\nall night, with the loss of \u201cten men, ten score, and ten hundred\u201d. Finn,\nOscar, and Diarmait, as well as most of Mider\u2019s many sons, were sorely\nwounded, but the leech Labhra healed all their wounds.[247]\n\nSooth to say, the Fenians did not always require the excuse of fairy\nalliance to start them making war on the race of the hills. One of the\nso-called \u201cOssianic ballads\u201d is entitled \u201cThe Chase of the Enchanted\nPigs of Angus of the Brugh[248]\u201d. This Angus is, of course, the \u201cSon of\nthe Young\u201d, and the Brugh that famous _s\u00eddh_ beside the Boyne out of\nwhich he cheated his father, the Dagda. After the friendly manner of\ngods towards heroes, he invited Finn and a picked thousand of his\nfollowers to a banquet at the Brugh. They came to it in their finest\nclothes, \u201cgoblets went from hand to hand, and waiters were kept in\nmotion\u201d. At last conversation fell upon the comparative merits of the\npleasures of the table and of the chase, Angus stoutly contending that\n\u201cthe gods\u2019 life of perpetual feasting\u201d was better than all the Fenian\nhuntings, and Finn as stoutly denying it. Finn boasted of his hounds,\nand Angus said that the best of them could not kill one of his pigs.\nFinn angrily replied that his two hounds, Bran[249] and Sgeolan[250],\nwould kill any pig that trod on dry land. Angus answered that he could\nshow Finn a pig that none of his hounds or huntsmen could catch or kill.\nHere were the makings of a pretty quarrel among such inflammable\ncreatures as gods and heroes, but the steward of the feast interposed\nand sent everyone to bed. The next morning, Finn left the Brugh, for he\ndid not want to fight all Angus\u2019s fairies with his handful of a thousand\nmen. A year passed before he heard more of it; then came a messenger\nfrom Angus, reminding Finn of his promise to pit his men and hounds\nagainst Angus\u2019s pigs. The Fenians seated themselves on the tops of the\nhills, each with his favourite hound in leash, and they had not been\nthere long before there appeared on the eastern plain a hundred and one\nsuch pigs as no Fenian had ever seen before. Each was as tall as a deer,\nand blacker than a smith\u2019s coals, having hair like a thicket and\nbristles like ships\u2019 masts. Yet such was the prowess of the Fenians that\nthey killed them all, though each of the pigs slew ten men and many\nhounds. Then Angus complained that the Fenians had murdered his son and\nmany others of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, who, indeed, were none other than\nthe pigs whose forms they had taken. There were mighty recriminations on\nboth sides, and, in the end, the enraged Fenians prepared to attack the\nBrugh on the Boyne. Then only did Angus begin to yield, and, by the\nadvice of Ossian, Finn made peace with him and his fairy folk.\n\nSuch are specimens of the tales which go to make up the Fenian cycle of\nsagas. Hunting is the most prominent feature of them, for the Fenians\nwere essentially a race of mighty hunters. But the creatures of their\nchase were not always flesh and blood. Enchanters who wished the Fenians\nill could always lure them into danger by taking the shape of boar or\ndeer, and many a story begins with an innocent chase and ends with a\nmurderous battle. But out of such struggles the Fenians always emerge\nsuccessfully, as Ossian is represented proudly boasting, \u201cthrough\ntruthfulness and the might of their hands\u201d.\n\nThe most famous chase of all is, however, not that of deer or boar, but\nof a woman and a man, Finn\u2019s betrothed wife and his nephew\nDiarmait.[251] Ever fortunate in war, the Fenian leader found disaster\nin his love. Wishing for a wife in his old age, he sent to seek Grainne,\nthe daughter of Cormac, the High-King of Ireland. Both King Cormac and\nhis daughter consented, and Finn\u2019s ambassadors returned with an\ninvitation to the suitor to come in a fortnight\u2019s time to claim his\nbride. He arrived with his picked band, and was received in state in the\ngreat banqueting-hall of Tara. There they feasted, and there Grainne,\nthe king\u2019s daughter, casting her eyes over the assembled Fenian heroes,\nsaw Diarmait O\u2019Duibhne.\n\nThis Fenian Adonis had a beauty-spot upon his cheek which no woman could\nsee without falling instantly in love with him. Grainne, for all her\nroyal birth, was no exception to this rule. She asked a druid to point\nher out the principal guests. The druid told her all their names and\nexploits. Then she called for a jewelled drinking-horn, and, filling it\nwith a drugged wine, sent it round to each in turn, except to Diarmait.\nNone could be so discourteous as to refuse wine from the hand of a\nprincess. All drank, and fell into deep sleep.\n\nThen, rising, she came to Diarmait, told him her passion for him, and\nasked for its return. \u201cI will not love the betrothed of my chief,\u201d he\nreplied, \u201cand, even if I wished, I dare not.\u201d And he praised Finn\u2019s\nvirtues, and decried his own fame. But Grainne merely answered that she\nput him under _geasa_ (bonds which no hero could refuse to redeem) to\nflee with her; and at once went back to her chair before the rest of the\ncompany awoke from their slumber.\n\nAfter the feast, Diarmait went round to his comrades, one by one, and\ntold them of Grainne\u2019s love for him, and of the _geasa_ she had placed\nupon him to take her from Tara. He asked each of them what he ought to\ndo. All answered that no hero could break a _geis_ put upon him by a\nwoman. He even asked Finn, concealing Grainne\u2019s name, and Finn gave him\nthe same counsel as the others. That night, the lovers fled from Tara to\nthe ford of the Shannon at Athlone, crossed it, and came to a place\ncalled the \u201cWood of the Two Tents\u201d, where Diarmait wove a hut of\nbranches for Grainne to shelter in.\n\nMeanwhile Finn had discovered their flight, and his rage knew no bounds.\nHe sent his trackers, the Clann Neamhuain[252], to follow them. They\ntracked them to the wood, and one of them climbed a tree, and, looking\ndown, saw the hut, with a strong seven-doored fence built round it, and\nDiarmait and Grainne inside. When the news came to the Fenians, they\nwere sorry, for their sympathies were with Diarmait and not with Finn.\nThey tried to warn him, but he took no heed; for he had determined to\nfight and not to flee. Indeed, when Finn himself came to the fence, and\ncalled over it to Diarmait, asking if he and Grainne were within, he\nreplied that they were, but that none should enter unless he gave\npermission.\n\nSo Diarmait, like Cuchulainn in the war of Ulster against Ireland, found\nhimself matched single-handed against a host. But, also like Cuchulainn,\nhe had a divine helper. The favourite of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, he had\nbeen the pupil of Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear in the \u201cLand of Promise\u201d, and had\nbeen fostered by Angus of the Brugh. Manann\u00e1n had given him his two\nspears, the \u201cRed Javelin\u201d and the \u201cYellow Javelin\u201d, and his two swords,\nthe \u201cGreat Fury\u201d and the \u201cLittle Fury\u201d. And now Angus came to look for\nhis foster-son, and brought with him the magic mantle of invisibility\nused by the gods. He advised Diarmait and Grainne to come out wrapped in\nthe cloak, and thus rendered invisible. Diarmait still refused to flee,\nbut asked Angus to protect Grainne. Wrapping the magic mantle round her,\nthe god led the princess away unseen by any of the Fenians.\n\nBy this time, Finn had posted men outside all the seven doors in the\nfence. Diarmait went to each of them in turn. At the first, were Ossian\nand Oscar with the Clann Baoisgne. They offered him their protection. At\nthe second, were Caoilte and the Clann Ronan, who said they would fight\nto the death for him. At the third, were Conan and the Clann Morna, also\nhis friends. At the fourth, stood Cuan with the Fenians of Munster,\nDiarmait\u2019s native province. At the fifth, were the Ulster Fenians, who\nalso promised him protection against Finn. But at the sixth, were the\nClann Neamhuain, who hated him; and at the seventh, was Finn himself.\n\n\u201cIt is by your door that I will pass out, O Finn,\u201d cried Diarmait. Finn\ncharged his men to surround Diarmait as he came out, and kill him. But\nhe leaped the fence, passing clean over their heads, and fled away so\nswiftly that they could not follow him. He never halted till he reached\nthe place to which he knew Angus had taken Grainne. The friendly god\nleft them with a little sage advice: never to hide in a tree with only\none trunk; never to rest in a cave with only one entrance; never to land\non an island with only one channel of approach; not to eat their supper\nwhere they had cooked it, nor to sleep where they had supped, and, where\nthey had slept once, never to sleep again. With these Red-Indian-like\ntactics, it was some time before Finn discovered them.\n\nHowever, he found out at last where they were, and sent champions with\nvenomous hounds to take or kill them. But Diarmait conquered all who\nwere sent against him.\n\nYet still Finn pursued, until Diarmait, as a last hope of escape, took\nrefuge under a magic quicken-tree[253], which bore scarlet fruit, the\nambrosia of the gods. It had grown from a single berry dropped by one of\nthe Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, who, when they found that they had carelessly\nendowed mortals with celestial and immortal food, had sent a huge,\none-eyed Fomor called Sharvan the Surly to guard it, so that no man\nmight eat of its fruit. All day, this Fomor sat at the foot of the tree,\nand, all night, he slept among its branches, and so terrible was his\nappearance that neither the Fenians nor any other people dared to come\nwithin several miles of him.\n\nBut Diarmait was willing to brave the Fomor in the hope of getting a\nsafe hiding-place for Grainne. He came boldly up to him, and asked leave\nto camp and hunt in his neighbourhood. The Fomor told him surlily that\nhe might camp and hunt where he pleased, so long as he refrained from\ntaking any of the scarlet berries. So Diarmait built a hut near a\nspring; and he and Grainne lived there, killing the wild animals for\nfood.\n\nBut, unhappily, Grainne conceived so strong a desire to eat the quicken\nberries that she felt that she must die unless her wish could be\ngratified. At first she tried to hide this longing, but in the end she\nwas forced to tell her companion. Diarmait had no desire to quarrel with\nthe Fomor; so he went to him and told the plight that Grainne was in,\nand asked for a handful of the berries as a gift.\n\nBut the Fomor merely answered: \u201cI swear to you that if nothing would\nsave the princess and her unborn child except my berries, and if she\nwere the last woman upon the earth, she should not have any of them.\u201d\nWhereupon Diarmait fought the Fomor, and, after much trouble, killed\nhim.\n\nIt was reported to Finn that the guardian of the magic quicken-tree\nlived no longer, and he guessed that Diarmait must have killed him; so\nhe came down to the place with seven battalions of the Fenians to look\nfor him. By this time, Diarmait had abandoned his own hut and taken\npossession of that built by the Fomor among the branches of the magic\nquicken. He was sitting in it with Grainne when Finn and his men came\nand camped at the foot of the tree, to wait till the heat of noon had\npassed before beginning their search.\n\nTo beguile the time, Finn called for his chess-board and challenged his\nson Ossian to a game. They played until Ossian had only one more move.\n\n\u201cOne move would make you a winner,\u201d said Finn to him, \u201cbut I challenge\nyou and all the Fenians to guess it.\u201d\n\nOnly Diarmait, who had been looking down through the branches upon the\nplayers, knew the move. He could not resist dropping a berry on to the\nboard, so deftly that it hit the very chess-man which Ossian ought to\nmove in order to win. Ossian took the hint, moved it, and won. A second\nand a third game were played; and in each case the same thing happened.\nThen Finn felt sure that the berries that had prompted Ossian must have\nbeen thrown by Diarmait.\n\nHe called out, asking Diarmait if he were there, and the Fenian hero,\nwho never spoke an untruth, answered that he was. So the quicken-tree\nwas surrounded by armed men, just as the fenced hut in the woods had\nbeen. But, again, things happened in the same way; for Angus of the\nBrugh took away Grainne wrapped in the invisible magic cloak, while\nDiarmait, walking to the end of a thick branch, cleared the circle of\nFenians at a bound, and escaped untouched.\n\nThis was the end of the famous \u201cPursuit\u201d; for Angus came as ambassador\nto Finn, urging him to become reconciled to the fugitives, and all the\nbest of the Fenians begged Finn to consent. So Diarmait and Grainne were\nallowed to return in peace.\n\nBut Finn never really forgave, and, soon after, he urged Diarmait to go\nout to the chase of the wild boar of Benn Gulban[254]. Diarmait killed\nthe boar without getting any hurt; for, like the Greek Achilles, he was\ninvulnerable, save in his heel alone. Finn, who knew this, told him to\nmeasure out the length of the skin with his bare feet. Diarmait did so.\nThen Finn, declaring that he had measured it wrongly, ordered him to\ntread it again in the opposite direction. This was against the lie of\nthe bristles; and one of them pierced Diarmait\u2019s heel, and inflicted a\npoisoned and mortal wound.\n\nThis \u201cPursuit of Diarmait and Grainne\u201d, which has been told at such\nlength, marks in some degree the climax of the Fenian power, after which\nit began to decline towards its end. The friends of Diarmait never\nforgave the treachery with which Finn had compassed his death. The\never-slumbering rivalry between Goll and his Clann Morna and Finn and\nhis Clann Baoisgne began to show itself as open enmity. Quarrels arose,\ntoo, between the Fenians and the High-Kings of Ireland, which culminated\nat last in the annihilation of the Fianna at the battle of Gabhra[255].\n\nThis is said to have been fought in A.D. 284. Finn himself had perished\na year before it, in a skirmish with rebellious Fenians at the Ford of\nBrea on the Boyne. King Cormac the Magnificent, Grainne\u2019s father, was\nalso dead. It was between Finn\u2019s grandson Oscar and Cormac\u2019s son Cairbr\u00e9\nthat war broke out. This mythical battle was as fiercely waged as that\nof Arthur\u2019s last fight at Camlan. Oscar slew Cairbr\u00e9, and was slain by\nhim. Almost all the Fenians fell, as well as all Cairbr\u00e9\u2019s forces.\n\nOnly two of the greater Fenian figures survived. One was Caoilte, whose\nswiftness of foot saved him at the end when all was lost. The famous\nstory, called the \u201cDialogue of the Elders\u201d, represents him discoursing\nto St. Patrick, centuries after, of the Fenians\u2019 wonderful deeds. Having\nlost his friends of the heroic age, he is said to have cast in his lot\nwith the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. He fought in a battle, with Ilbhreach son of\nManann\u00e1n, against L\u00ear himself, and killed the ancient sea-god with his\nown hand.[256] The tale represents him taking possession of L\u00ear\u2019s fairy\npalace of S\u00eddh Fionnechaidh, after which we know no more of him, except\nthat he has taken rank in the minds of the Irish peasantry as one of,\nand a ruler among, the S\u00eddhe.\n\nThe other was Ossian, who did not fight at Gabhra, for, long before, he\nhad taken the great journey which most heroes of mythology take, to that\nbourne from which no ordinary mortal ever returns. Like Cuchulainn, it\nwas upon the invitation of a goddess that he went. The Fenians were\nhunting near Lake Killarney when a lady of more than human beauty came\nto them, and told them that her name was Niamh[257], daughter of the Son\nof the Sea. The Gaelic poet, Michael Comyn, who, in the eighteenth\ncentury, rewove the ancient story into his own words,[258] describes her\nin just the same way as one of the old bards would have done:\n\n \u201cA royal crown was on her head;\n And a brown mantle of precious silk,\n Spangled with stars of red gold,\n Covering her shoes down to the grass.\n\n \u201cA gold ring was hanging down\n From each yellow curl of her golden hair;\n Her eyes, blue, clear, and cloudless,\n Like a dew-drop on the top of the grass.\n\n \u201cRedder were her cheeks than the rose,\n Fairer was her visage than the swan upon the wave,\n And more sweet was the taste of her balsam lips\n Than honey mingled thro\u2019 red wine.\n\n \u201cA garment, wide, long, and smooth\n Covered the white steed,\n There was a comely saddle of red gold,\n And her right hand held a bridle with a golden bit.\n\n \u201cFour shoes well-shaped were under him,\n Of the yellow gold of the purest quality;\n A silver wreath was on the back of his head,\n And there was not in the world a steed better.\u201d\n\nSuch was Niamh of the Golden Hair, Manann\u00e1n\u2019s daughter; and it is small\nwonder that, when she chose Ossian from among the sons of men to be her\nlover, all Finn\u2019s supplications could not keep him. He mounted behind\nher on her fairy horse, and they rode across the land to the sea-shore,\nand then over the tops of the waves. As they went, she described the\ncountry of the gods to him in just the same terms as Manann\u00e1n himself\nhad pictured it to Bran, son of Febal, as Mider had painted it to Etain,\nand as everyone that went there limned it to those that stayed at home\non earth.\n\n \u201cIt is the most delightful country to be found\n Of greatest repute under the sun;\n Trees drooping with fruit and blossom,\n And foliage growing on the tops of boughs.\n\n \u201cAbundant, there, are honey and wine,\n And everything that eye has beheld,\n There will not come decline on thee with lapse of time.\n Death or decay thou wilt not see.\u201d\n\nAs they went they saw wonders. Fairy palaces with bright sun-bowers and\nlime-white walls appeared on the surface of the sea. At one of these\nthey halted, and Ossian, at Niamh\u2019s request, attacked a fierce Fomor who\nlived there, and set free a damsel of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann whom he kept\nimprisoned. He saw a hornless fawn leap from wave to wave, chased by one\nof those strange hounds of Celtic myth which are pure white, with red\nears. At last they reached the \u201cLand of the Young\u201d, and there Ossian\ndwelt with Niamh for three hundred years before he remembered Erin and\nthe Fenians. Then a great wish came upon him to see his own country and\nhis own people again, and Niamh gave him leave to go, and mounted him\nupon a fairy steed for the journey. One thing alone she made him\nswear\u2014not to let his feet touch earthly soil. Ossian promised, and\nreached Ireland on the wings of the wind. But, like the children of L\u00ear\nat the end of their penance, he found all changed. He asked for Finn and\nthe Fenians, and was told that they were the names of people who had\nlived long ago, and whose deeds were written of in old books. The Battle\nof Gabhra had been fought, and St. Patrick had come to Ireland, and made\nall things new. The very forms of men had altered; they seemed dwarfs\ncompared with the giants of his day. Seeing three hundred of them trying\nin vain to raise a marble slab, he rode up to them in contemptuous\nkindness, and lifted it with one hand. But, as he did so, the golden\nsaddle-girth broke with the strain, and he touched the earth with his\nfeet. The fairy horse vanished, and Ossian rose from the ground, no\nlonger divinely young and fair and strong, but a blind, gray-haired,\nwithered old man.\n\nA number of spirited ballads[259] tell how Ossian, stranded in his old\nage upon earthly soil, unable to help himself or find his own food, is\ntaken by St. Patrick into his house to be converted. The saint paints to\nhim in the brightest colours the heaven which may be his own if he will\nbut repent, and in the darkest the hell in which he tells him his old\ncomrades now lie in anguish. Ossian replies to the saint\u2019s arguments,\nentreaties, and threats in language which is extraordinarily frank. He\nwill not believe that heaven could be closed to the Fenians if they\nwished to enter it, or that God himself would not be proud to claim\nfriendship with Finn. And if it be not so, what is the use to him of\neternal life where there is no hunting, or wooing fair women, or\nlistening to the songs and tales of bards? No, he will go to the\nFenians, whether they sit at the feast or in the fire; and so he dies as\nhe had lived.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 223:\n\n The translations of Fenian stories are numerous. The reader will find\n many of them popularly retold in Lady Gregory\u2019s _Gods and Fighting\n Men_. Thence he may pass on to Mr. Standish Hayes O\u2019Grady\u2019s _Silva\n Gadelica_; the _Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition_, especially Vol.\n IV; Mr. J. G. Campbell\u2019s _The Fians_; as well as the volumes of the\n _Revue Celtique_ and the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_.\n\nFootnote 224:\n\n See O\u2019Curry\u2019s translation in Appendix CXXVIII to his _MS. Materials_.\n\nFootnote 225:\n\n The story, found in the Book of the Dun Cow, appears in French in De\n Jubainville\u2019s _\u00c9pop\u00e9e Celtique_.\n\nFootnote 226:\n\n This famous story is told in several MSS. of the fourteenth and\n fifteenth centuries. For translations see Dr. Whitley Stokes, _Irische\n Texte_, and Standish Hayes O\u2019Grady, _Transactions of the Ossianic\n Society_, Vol. III.\n\nFootnote 227:\n\n In Gaelic spelling, Fionn mac Cumhail.\n\nFootnote 228:\n\n Pronounced _F\u0113na_.\n\nFootnote 229:\n\n O\u2019Curry: _MS. Materials_, Lecture XIV, p. 303.\n\nFootnote 230:\n\n Pronounced _Coul_ or _Cooal_.\n\nFootnote 231:\n\n _Agalamh na Sen\u00f3rach._ Under the title _The Colloquy of the Ancients_,\n there is an excellent translation of it, from the Book of Lismore, in\n Standish Hayes O\u2019Grady\u2019s _Silva Gadelica_.\n\nFootnote 232:\n\n O\u2019Grady: _Silva Gadelica_.\n\nFootnote 233:\n\n _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 355.\n\nFootnote 234:\n\n See _The Enumeration of Finn\u2019s Household_, translated by O\u2019Grady in\n _Silva Gadelica_.\n\nFootnote 235:\n\n For a good account, see J. G. Campbell\u2019s _The Fians_, pp. 10-80.\n\nFootnote 236:\n\n In more correct spelling, _Oisin_, and pronounced _Usheen_ or\n _Isheen_.\n\nFootnote 237:\n\n Pronounced _Kylta_ or _Cweeltia_.\n\nFootnote 238:\n\n Pronounced _Gaul_.\n\nFootnote 239:\n\n Pronounced _Dermat O\u2019Dyna_.\n\nFootnote 240:\n\n Pronounced _Grania_.\n\nFootnote 241:\n\n Pronounced _Baskin_.\n\nFootnote 242:\n\n Now Castleknock, near Dublin.\n\nFootnote 243:\n\n Pronounced _Demna_.\n\nFootnote 244:\n\n This and other \u201cboy-exploits\u201d of Finn mac Cumhail are contained in a\n little tract written upon a fragment of the ninth century Psalter of\n Cashel. It is translated in Vol. IV of the _Transactions of the\n Ossianic Society_.\n\nFootnote 245:\n\n Campbell\u2019s _Fians_, p. 22.\n\nFootnote 246:\n\n See chap. XI\u2014\u201cThe Gods in Exile\u201d.\n\nFootnote 247:\n\n From the _Colloquy of the Ancients_ in O\u2019Grady\u2019s _Silva Gadelica_.\n\nFootnote 248:\n\n It is translated in Vol. VI of the _Transactions of the Ossianic\n Society_.\n\nFootnote 249:\n\n Pronounced _Br\u0103n_, not _Br\u0101n_.\n\nFootnote 250:\n\n Pronounced _Sk\u014dlaun_ or _Scolaing_.\n\nFootnote 251:\n\n A fine translation of the _Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne_ has been\n published by S. H. O\u2019Grady in Vol. III of the _Transactions of the\n Ossianic Society_.\n\nFootnote 252:\n\n Pronounced _Navin_ or _Nowin_.\n\nFootnote 253:\n\n The mountain-ash, or rowan.\n\nFootnote 254:\n\n Now called Benbulben. It is near Sligo.\n\nFootnote 255:\n\n Pronounced _Gavra_.\n\nFootnote 256:\n\n See O\u2019Grady\u2019s _Silva Gadelica_.\n\nFootnote 257:\n\n Pronounced _Nee-av_.\n\nFootnote 258:\n\n _The Lay of Oisin in the Land of Youth_, translated by Brian O\u2019Looney\n for the Ossianic Society\u2014_Transactions_, Vol. IV. A fine modern poem\n on the same subject is W. B. Yeats\u2019 _Wanderings of Oisin_.\n\nFootnote 259:\n\n See the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_. They are generally\n called the _Dialogues of Oisin and Patrick_.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XV\n\n THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS\n\n\nIn spite, however, of the wide-spread popularity of the ballads that\ntook the form of dialogues between Ossian and Patrick, certain\ntraditions say that the saint succeeded in converting the hero. Caoilt\u00e9,\nthe other great surviving Fenian, was also represented as having gladly\nexchanged his pagan lore for the faith and salvation offered him. We may\nsee the same influence on foot in the later legends concerning the Red\nBranch Champions. It was the policy of the first Christianizers of\nIreland to describe the loved heroes of their still half-heathen flocks\nas having handed in their submission to the new creed. The tales about\nConchobar and Cuchulainn were amended, to prove that those very pagan\npersonages had been miraculously brought to accept the gospel at the\nlast. An entirely new story told how the latter hero was raised from the\ndead by Saint Patrick that he might bear witness of the truth of\nChristianity to Laogaire the Second, King of Ireland, which he did with\nsuch fervour and eloquence that the sceptical monarch was\nconvinced.[260]\n\nDaring attempts were also made to change the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann from pagan\ngods into Christian saints, but these were by no means so profitable as\nthe policy pursued towards the more human-seeming heroes. With one of\nthem alone, was success immediate and brilliant. Brigit, the goddess of\nfire, poetry, and the hearth, is famous to-day as Saint Bridget, or\nBride. Most popular of all the Irish saints, she can still be easily\nrecognized as the daughter of the Dagda. Her Christian attributes,\nalmost all connected with fire, attest her pagan origin.[261] She was\nborn at sunrise; a house in which she dwelt blazed into a flame which\nreached to heaven; a pillar of fire rose from her head when she took the\nveil; and her breath gave new life to the dead. As with the British\ngoddess Sul, worshipped at Bath, who\u2014the first century Latin writer\nSolinus[262] tells us\u2014\u201cruled over the boiling springs, and at her altar\nthere flamed a perpetual fire which never whitened into ashes, but\nhardened into a stony mass\u201d, the sacred flame on her shrine at Kildare\nwas never allowed to go out. It was extinguished once, in the thirteenth\ncentury, but was relighted, and burnt with undying glow until the\nsuppression of the monasteries by Henry the Eighth. This sacred fire\nmight not be breathed on by the impure human breath. For nineteen nights\nit was tended by her nuns, but on the twentieth night it was left\nuntouched, and kept itself alight miraculously. With so little of her\nessential character and ritual changed, it is small wonder that the\nhalf-pagan, half-Christian Irish gladly accepted the new saint in the\nstead of the old goddess.\n\nDoubtless a careful examination of Irish hagiology would result in the\ndiscovery of many other saints whose names and attributes might render\nthem suspect of previous careers as pagan gods. But their acceptation\nwas not sufficiently general to do away with the need of other means of\ncounteracting the still living influence of the Gaelic Pantheon.\nTherefore a fresh school of euhemerists arose to prove that the gods\nwere never even saints, but merely worldly men who had once lived and\nruled in Erin. Learned monks worked hard to construct a history of\nIreland from the Flood downwards. Mr. Eugene O\u2019Curry has compiled from\nthe various pedigrees they elaborated, and inserted into the books of\nBallymote, Lecan, and Leinster an amazing genealogy which shows how, not\nmerely the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, but also the Fir Bolgs, the Fomors, the\nMilesians, and the races of Partholon and Nemed were descended from\nNoah. Japhet, the patriarch\u2019s son, was the father of Magog, from whom\ncame two lines, the first being the Milesians, while the second branched\nout into all the other races.[263]\n\nHaving once worked the gods, first into universal history, and then into\nthe history of Ireland, it was an easy matter to supply them with dates\nof birth and death, local habitations, and places of burial. We are told\nwith precision exactly how long Nuada, the Dagda, Lugh, and the others\nreigned at Tara. The barrows by the Boyne provided them with comfortable\ntombs. Their enemies, the Fomors, became real invaders who were beaten\nin real battles. Thus it was thought to make plain prose of their\ndivinities.\n\nIt is only fair, however, to these early euhemerists to say that they\nhave their modern disciples. There are many writers, of recognized\nauthority upon their subjects, who, in dealing with the history of\nIreland or the composition of the British race, claim to find real\npeoples in the tribes mentioned in Gaelic myth. Unfortunately, the only\npoint they agree upon is the accepted one\u2014that the \u201cMilesians\u201d were\nAryan Celts. They are divided upon the question of the \u201cFir Bolgs\u201d, in\nwhom some see the pre-Aryan tribes, while others, led astray by the\nname, regard them as Belgic Gauls; and over the really mythological\nraces they run wild. In the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann are variously found Gaels,\nPicts, Danes, Scandinavians, Ligurians, and Finns, while the Fomors rest\nunder the suspicion of having been Iberians, Moors, Romans, Finns,\nGoths, or Teutons. As for the people of Partholon and Nemed, they have\neven been explained as men of the Pal\u00e6olithic Age. This chaos of opinion\nwas fortunately avoided by the native annalists, who had no particular\nviews upon the question of race, except that everybody came from\n\u201cSpain\u201d.\n\nOf course there were dissenters from this prevailing mania for\neuhemerization. As late as the tenth century, a poet called Eochaid\nO\u2019Flynn, writing of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, at first seems to hesitate\nwhether to ascribe humanity or divinity to them, and at last frankly\navows their godhead. In his poem, preserved in the Book of\nBallymote,[264] he says:\u2014\n\n \u201cThough they came to learned Erinn\n Without buoyant, adventurous ships,\n No man in creation knew\n Whether they were of the earth or of the sky.\n\n \u201cIf they were diabolical demons,\n They came from that woeful expulsion;[265]\n If they were of a race of tribes and nations,\n If they were human, they were of the race of Beothach.\u201d\n\nThen he enumerates them in due succession, and ends by declaring:\u2014\n\n \u201cThough I have treated of these deities in their order,\n Yet I have not adored them\u201d.\n\nOne may surmise with probability that the common people agreed rather\nwith the poet than with the monk. Pious men in monasteries might write\nwhat they liked, but mere laymen would not be easily persuaded that\ntheir cherished gods had never been anything more than men like\nthemselves. Probably they said little, but acted in secret according to\ntheir inherited ideas. Let it be granted, for the sake of peace, that\nGoibniu was only a man; none the less, his name was known to be\nuncommonly effective in an incantation. This applied equally to\nDiancecht, and invocations to both of them are contained in some verses\nwhich an eighth-century Irish monk wrote on the margin of a manuscript\nstill preserved at St. Gall, in Switzerland. Some prescriptions of\nDiancecht\u2019s have come down to us, but it must be admitted that they\nhardly differ from those current among ordinary medi\u00e6val physicians.\nPerhaps, after that unfortunate spilling of the herbs that grew out of\nMiach\u2019s body, he had to fall back upon empirical research. He invented a\nporridge for \u201cthe relief of ailments of the body, as cold, phlegm,\nthroat cats, and the presence of living things in the body, as worms\u201d;\nit was compounded of hazel buds, dandelion, chickweed, sorrel, and\noatmeal; and was to be taken every morning and evening. He also\nprescribed against the effects of witchcraft and the fourteen diseases\nof the stomach.\n\nGoibniu, in addition to his original character as the divine smith and\nsorcerer, gained a third reputation among the Irish as a great builder\nand bridge-maker. As such he is known as the Gobhan Saer, that is,\nGoibniu the Architect, and marvellous tales, current all over Ireland\nattest his prowess.\n\n \u201cMen call\u2019d him Gobhan Saer, and many a tale\n Yet lingers in the by-ways of the land\n Of how he cleft the rock, or down the vale\n Led the bright river, child-like, in his hand:\n Of how on giant ships he spread great sail,\n And many marvels else by him first plann\u2019d\u201d,\n\nwrites a poet of modern Ireland.[266] Especially were the \u201cround towers\u201d\nattributed to him, and the Christian clerics appropriated his popularity\nby describing him as having been the designer of their churches. He\nused, according to legend, to wander over the country, clad, like the\nGreek Hephaestus, whom he resembles, in working dress, seeking\ncommissions and adventures. His works remain in the cathedrals and\nchurches of Ireland; and, with regard to his adventures, many strange\nlegends are still, or were until very recently, current upon the lips of\nold people in remote parts of Ireland.\n\nSome of these are, as might have been expected, nothing more than\nhalf-understood recollections of the ancient mythology. In them appear\nas characters others of the old, yet not quite forgotten gods\u2014Lugh,\nManann\u00e1n, and Balor\u2014names still remembered as those of long-past druids,\nheroes, and kings of Ireland in the misty olden time.\n\nOne or two of them are worth re-telling. Mr. William Larminie,\ncollecting folk-tales in Achill Island, took one from the lips of an\naged peasant, which tells in its confused way what might almost be\ncalled the central incident of Gaelic mythology, the mysterious birth of\nthe sun-god from demoniac parentage, and his eventual slaying of his\ngrandfather when he came to full age.[267]\n\nGobhan the Architect and his son, young Gobhan, runs the tale, were sent\nfor by Balor of the Blows to build him a palace. They built it so well\nthat Balor decided never to let them leave his kingdom alive, for fear\nthey should build another one equally good for someone else. He\ntherefore had all the scaffolding removed from round the palace while\nthey were still on the top, with the intention of leaving them up there\nto die of hunger. But, when they discovered this, they began to destroy\nthe roof, so that Balor was obliged to let them come down.\n\nHe, none the less, refused to allow them to return to Ireland. The\ncrafty Gobhan, however, had his plan ready. He told Balor that the\ninjury that had been done to the palace roof could not be repaired\nwithout special tools, which he had left behind him at home. Balor\ndeclined to let either old Gobhan or young Gobhan go back to fetch them;\nbut he offered to send his own son. Gobhan gave Balor\u2019s son directions\nfor the journey. He was to travel until he came to a house with a stack\nof corn at the door. Entering it, he would find a woman with one hand\nand a child with one eye.\n\nBalor\u2019s son found the house, and asked the woman for the tools. She\nexpected him; for it had been arranged between Gobhan and his wife what\nshould be done, if Balor refused to let him return. She took Balor\u2019s son\nto a huge chest, and told him that the tools were at the bottom of it,\nso far down that she could not reach them, and that he must get into the\nchest, and pick them up himself. But, as soon as he was safely inside,\nshe shut the lid on him, telling him that he would have to stay there\nuntil his father allowed old Gobhan and young Gobhan to come home with\ntheir pay. And she sent the same message to Balor himself.\n\nThere was an exchange of prisoners, Balor giving the two Gobhans their\npay and a ship to take them home, and Gobhan\u2019s wife releasing Balor\u2019s\nson. But, before the two builders went, Balor asked them whom he should\nnow employ to repair his palace. Old Gobhan told him that, next to\nhimself, there was no workman in Ireland better than one Gavidjeen Go.\n\nWhen Gobhan got back to Ireland, he sent Gavidjeen Go to Balor. But he\ngave him a piece of advice\u2014to accept as pay only one thing: Balor\u2019s gray\ncow, which would fill twenty barrels at one milking. Balor agreed to\nthis, but, when he gave the cow to Gavidjeen Go to take back with him to\nIreland, he omitted to include her byre-rope, which was the only thing\nthat would keep her from returning to her original owner.\n\nThe gray cow gave so much trouble to Gavidjeen Go by her straying, that\nhe was obliged to hire military champions to watch her during the day\nand bring her safely home at night. The bargain made was that Gavidjeen\nGo should forge the champion a sword for his pay, but that, if he lost\nthe cow, his life was to be forfeited.\n\nAt last, a certain warrior called Cian was unlucky enough to let the cow\nescape. He followed her tracks down to the sea-shore and right to the\nedge of the waves, and there he lost them altogether. He was tearing his\nhair in his perplexity, when he saw a man rowing a coracle. The man, who\nwas no other than Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear, came in close to the shore, and\nasked what was the matter.\n\nCian told him.\n\n\u201cWhat would you give to anyone who would take you to the place where the\ngray cow is?\u201d asked Manann\u00e1n.\n\n\u201cI have nothing to give,\u201d replied Cian.\n\n\u201cAll I ask,\u201d said Manann\u00e1n, \u201cis half of whatever you gain before you\ncome back.\u201d\n\nCian agreed to that willingly enough, and Manann\u00e1n told him to get into\nthe coracle. In the wink of an eye, he had landed him in Balor\u2019s\nkingdom, the realm of the cold, where they roast no meat, but eat their\nfood raw. Cian was not used to this diet, so he lit himself a fire, and\nbegan to cook some food. Balor saw the fire, and came down to it, and he\nwas so pleased that he appointed Cian to be his fire-maker and cook.\n\nNow Balor had a daughter, of whom a druid had prophesied that she would,\nsome day, bear a son who would kill his grandfather. Therefore, like\nAcrisius, in Greek legend, he shut her up in a tower, guarded by women,\nand allowed her to see no man but himself. One day, Cian saw Balor go to\nthe tower. He waited until he had come back, and then went to explore.\nHe had the gift of opening locked doors and shutting them again after\nhim. When he got inside, he lit a fire, and this novelty so delighted\nBalor\u2019s daughter that she invited him to visit her again. After this\u2014in\nthe Achill islander\u2019s quaint phrase\u2014\u201che was ever coming there, until a\nchild happened to her.\u201d Balor\u2019s daughter gave the baby to Cian to take\naway. She also gave him the byre-rope which belonged to the gray cow.\n\nCian was in great danger now, for Balor had found out about the child.\nHe led the gray cow away with the rope to the sea-shore, and waited for\nManann\u00e1n. The Son of L\u00ear had told Cian that, when he was in any\ndifficulty, he was to think of him, and he would at once appear. Cian\nthought of him now, and, in a moment, Manann\u00e1n appeared with his\ncoracle. Cian got into the boat, with the baby and the gray cow, just as\nBalor, in hot pursuit, came down to the beach.\n\nBalor, by his incantations, raised a great storm to drown them; but\nManann\u00e1n, whose druidism was greater, stilled it. Then Balor turned the\nsea into fire, to burn them; but Manann\u00e1n put it out with a stone.\n\nWhen they were safe back in Ireland, Manann\u00e1n asked Cian for his\npromised reward.\n\n\u201cI have gained nothing but the boy, and I cannot cut him in two, so I\nwill give him to you whole,\u201d he replied.\n\n\u201cThat is what I was wanting all the time,\u201d said Manann\u00e1n; \u201cwhen he grows\nup, there will be no champion equal to him.\u201d\n\nSo Manann\u00e1n baptized the boy, calling him \u201cthe Dul-Dauna\u201d. This name,\nmeaning \u201cBlind-Stubborn\u201d, is certainly a curious corruption of the\noriginal _Ioldanach_[268] \u201cMaster of all Knowledge\u201d. When the boy had\ngrown up, he went one day to the sea-shore. A ship came past, in which\nwas a man. The traditions of Donnybrook Fair are evidently prehistoric,\nfor the boy, without troubling to ask who the stranger was, took a dart\n\u201cout of his pocket\u201d, hurled it, and hit him. The man in the boat\nhappened to be Balor. Thus, in accordance with the prophecy, he was\nslain by his grandson, who, though the folktale does not name him, was\nobviously Lugh.\n\nAnother version of the same legend, collected by the Irish scholar\nO\u2019Donovan on the coast of Donegal, opposite Balor s favourite haunt,\nTory Island, is interesting as completing the one just narrated.[269] In\nthis folk-tale, Goibniu is called Gavida, and is made one of three\nbrothers, the other two being called Mac Kineely and Mac Samthainn. They\nwere chiefs of Donegal, smiths and farmers, while Balor was a robber who\nharassed the mainland from his stronghold on Tory Island. The gray cow\nbelonged to Mac Kineely, and Balor stole it. Its owner determined to be\nrevenged, and, knowing the prediction concerning Balor\u2019s death at the\nhands of an as yet unborn grandson, he persuaded a kindly fairy to\nspirit him in female disguise to Tor Mor, where Balor\u2019s daughter, who\nwas called Ethnea, was kept imprisoned. The result of this expedition\nwas not merely the one son necessary to fulfil the prophecy, but three.\nThis apparent superfluity was fortunate; for Balor drowned two of them,\nthe other being picked out of the sea by the same fairy who had been\nincidentally responsible for his birth, and handed over to his father,\nMac Kineely, to be brought up. Shortly after this, Balor managed to\ncapture Mac Kineely, and, in retaliation for the wrong done him, chopped\noff his head upon a large white stone, still known locally as the \u201cStone\nof Kineely\u201d. Satisfied with this, and quite unaware that one of his\ndaughter\u2019s children had been saved from death, and was now being brought\nup as a smith by Gavida, Balor went on with his career of robbery,\nvarying it by visits to the forge to purchase arms. One day, being there\nduring Gavida\u2019s absence, he began boasting to the young assistant of how\nhe had compassed Mac Kineely\u2019s death. He never finished the story, for\nLugh\u2014which was the boy\u2019s name\u2014snatched a red-hot iron from the fire, and\nthrust it into Balor\u2019s eye, and through his head.\n\nThus, in these two folk-tales,[270] gathered in different parts of\nIreland, at different times, by different persons, survives quite a mass\nof mythological detail only to be found otherwise in ancient manuscripts\ncontaining still more ancient matter. Crystallized in them may be found\nthe names of six members of the old Gaelic Pantheon, each filling the\nsame part as of old. Goibniu has not lost his mastery of smithcraft;\nBalor is still the Fomorian king of the cold regions of the sea; his\ndaughter Ethniu becomes, by Cian, the mother of the sun-god; Lugh, who\nstill bears his old title of _Ioldanach_, though it is strangely\ncorrupted into a name meaning almost the exact opposite, is still\nfostered by Manann\u00e1n, Son of the Sea, and in the end grows up to destroy\nhis grandfather by a blow in the one vulnerable place, his death-dealing\neye. Perhaps, too, we may claim to see a genuine, though jumbled\ntradition, in the Fomor-like deformities of Gobhan\u2019s wife and child, and\nin the story of the gray cow and her byre-rope, which recalls that of\nthe Dagda\u2019s black-maned heifer, Ocean.\n\nThe memories of the peasantry still hold many stories of Lugh, as well\nas of Angus, and others of the old gods. But, next to the Gobhan Saer,\nthe one whose fame is still greatest is that ever-potent and\never-popular figure, the great Manann\u00e1n.\n\nThe last, perhaps, to receive open adoration, he is represented by\nkindly tradition as having been still content to help and watch over the\npeople who had rejected and ceased to worship him. Up to the time of St.\nColumba, he was the special guardian of Irishmen in foreign parts,\nassisting them in their dangers and bringing them home safe. For the\npeasantry, too, he caused favourable weather and good crops. His fairy\nsubjects tilled the ground while men slept. But this is said to have\ncome to an end at last. Saint Columba, having broken his golden chalice,\ngave it to a servant to get repaired. On his way, the servant was met by\na stranger, who asked him where he was going. The man told him, and\nshowed him the chalice. The stranger breathed upon it, and, at once, the\nbroken parts reunited. Then he begged him to return to his master, give\nhim the chalice, and tell him that Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear, who had mended\nit, desired to know in very truth whether he would ever attain paradise.\n\u201cAlas,\u201d said the ungrateful saint, \u201cthere is no forgiveness for a man\nwho does such works as this!\u201d The servant went back with the answer, and\nManann\u00e1n, when he heard it, broke out into indignant lament. \u201cWoe is me,\nManann\u00e1n mac L\u00ear! for years I\u2019ve helped the Catholics of Ireland, but\nI\u2019ll do it no more, till they\u2019re as weak as water. I\u2019ll go to the gray\nwaves in the Highlands of Scotland.\u201d[271]\n\nAnd there he remained. For, unless the charming stories of Miss Fiona\nMacleod are mere beautiful imaginings and nothing more, he is not\nunknown even to-day among the solitary shepherds and fishers of \u201cthe\nfarthest Hebrides\u201d. In the _Contemporary Review_ for October, 1902,[272]\nshe tells how an old man of fourscore years would often be visited in\nhis shieling by a tall, beautiful stranger, with a crest on his head,\n\u201clike white canna blowing in the wind, but with a blueness in it\u201d, and\n\u201ca bright, cold, curling flame under the soles of his feet\u201d. The man\ntold him many things, and prophesied to him the time of his death.\nGenerally, the stranger\u2019s hands were hidden in the folds of the white\ncloak he wore, but, once, he moved to touch the shepherd, who saw then\nthat his flesh was like water, with sea-weed floating among the bones.\nSo that Murdo MacIan knew that he could be speaking with none other than\nthe Son of the Sea.\n\nNor is he yet quite forgotten in his own Island of Man, of which local\ntradition says he was the first inhabitant. He is also described as its\nking, who kept it from invasion by his magic. He would cause mists to\nrise at any moment and conceal the island, and by the same glamour he\ncould make one man seem like a hundred, and little chips of wood which\nhe threw into the water to appear like ships of war. It is no wonder\nthat he held his kingdom against all-comers, until his sway was ended,\nlike that of the other Gaelic gods, by the arrival of Saint Patrick.\nAfter this, he seems to have declined into a traditionary giant who used\nto leap from Peel Castle to Contrary Head for exercise, or hurl huge\nrocks, upon which the mark of his hand can still be seen. It is said\nthat he took no tribute from his subjects, or worshippers except bundles\nof green rushes, which were placed every Midsummer Eve upon two mountain\npeaks, one called Warrefield in olden days, but now South Barrule, and\nthe other called Man, and not now to be identified. His grave, which is\nthirty yards long, is pointed out, close to Peel Castle. The most\ncurious legend connected with him, however, tells us that he had three\nlegs, on which he used to travel at a great pace. How this was done may\nbe seen from the arms of the island, on which are pictured his three\nlimbs, joined together, and spread out like the spokes of a wheel.[273]\n\nAn Irish tradition tells us that, when Manann\u00e1n left Ireland for\nScotland, the vacant kingship of the gods or fairies was taken by one\nMac Moineanta, to the great grief of those who had known Manann\u00e1n.[274]\nPerhaps this great grief led to Mac Moineanta\u2019s being deposed, for the\npresent king of the Irish fairies is Finvarra, the same Fionnbharr to\nwhom the Dagda allotted the _s\u00eddh_ of Meadha after the conquest of the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann by the Milesians, and who takes a prominent part in the\nFenian stories. So great is the persistence of tradition in Ireland that\nthis hill of Meadha, now spelt Knockma, is still considered to be the\nabode of him and his queen, Onagh. Numberless stories are told about\nFinvarra, including, of course, that very favourite Celtic tale of the\nstolen bride, and her recapture from the fairies by the siege and\ndigging up of the _s\u00eddh_ in which she was held prisoner. Finvarra, like\nMider of Bri Leith, carried away a human Etain\u2014the wife, not of a high\nking, but of an Irish lord. The modern Eochaid Airem, having heard an\ninvisible voice tell him where he was to look for his lost bride,\ngathered all his workmen and labourers and proceeded to demolish\nKnockma. Every day they almost dug it up, but every night the breach was\nfound to have been repaired by fairy workmen of Finvarra\u2019s. This went on\nfor three days, when the Irish lord thought of the well-known device of\nsanctifying the work of excavation by sprinkling the turned-up earth\nwith salt. Needless to say, it succeeded. Finvarra gave back the bride,\nstill in the trance into which he had thrown her; and the deep cut into\nthe fairy hill still remains to furnish proof to the incredulous.[275]\n\nFinvarra does not always appear, however, in such unfriendly guise. He\nwas popularly reputed to have under his special care the family of the\nKirwans of Castle Hacket, on the northern slope of Knockma. Owing to his\nbenevolent influence, the castle cellars never went dry, nor did the\nquality of the wine deteriorate. Besides the wine-cellar, Finvarra\nlooked after the stables, and it was owing to the exercise that he and\nhis fairy followers gave the horses by night that Mr. John Kirwan\u2019s\nracers were so often successful on the Curragh. That such stories could\nhave passed current as fact, which they undoubtedly did, is excellent\nproof of how late and how completely a mythology may survive among the\nuncultured.[276]\n\nFinvarra rules to-day over a wide realm of fairy folk. Many of these,\nagain, have their own vassal chieftains, forming a tribal hierarchy such\nas must have existed in the Celtic days of Ireland. Finvarra and Onagh\nare high king and queen, but, under them, Cliodna[277] is tributary\nqueen of Munster, and rules from a _s\u00eddh_ near Mallow in County Cork,\nwhile, under her again, are Aoibhinn[278], queen of the fairies of North\nMunster, and Ain\u00e9, queen of the fairies of South Munster. These names\nform but a single instance. A map of fairy Ireland could without much\ndifficulty be drawn, showing, with almost political exactness, the\nvarious kingdoms of the S\u00eddhe.\n\nFar less easy, however, would be the task of ascertaining the origin and\nlineage of these fabled beings. Some of them can still be traced as\nolder gods and goddesses. In the eastern parts of Ireland, Badb and her\nsisters have become \u201cbanshees\u201d who wail over deaths not necessarily\nfound in battle. Aynia, deemed the most powerful fairy in Ulster, and\nAin\u00e9, queen of South Munster, are perhaps the same person, the\nmysterious and awful goddess once adored as Anu, or Danu. Of the two, it\nis Ain\u00e9 who especially seems to carry on the traditions of the older\nAnu, worshipped, according to the \u201cChoice of Names\u201d, in Munster as a\ngoddess of prosperity and abundance. Within living memory, she was\npropitiated by a magical ritual upon every Saint John\u2019s Eve, to ensure\nfertility during the coming year. The villagers round her _s\u00eddh_ of Cnoc\nAin\u00e9 (Knockainy) carried burning bunches of hay or straw upon poles to\nthe top of the hill, and thence dispersed among the fields, waving these\ntorches over the crops and cattle. This fairy, or goddess was held to be\nfriendly, and, indeed, more than friendly, to men. Whether or not she\nwere the mother of the gods, she is claimed as first ancestress by half\na dozen famous Irish families.\n\nAmong her children was the famous Earl Gerald, offspring of her alliance\nwith the fourth Earl of Desmond, known as \u201cThe Magician\u201d. As in the\nwell-known story of the Swan-maidens, the magician-earl is said to have\nstolen Ain\u00e9\u2019s cloak while she was bathing, and refused to return it\nunless she became his bride. But, in the end, he lost her. Ain\u00e9 had\nwarned her husband never to show surprise at anything done by their son;\nbut a wonderful feat which he performed made the earl break this\ncondition, and Ain\u00e9 was obliged, by fairy law, to leave him. But, though\nshe had lost her husband, she was not separated from her son, who was\nreceived into the fairy world after his death, and now lives under the\nsurface of Lough Gur, in County Limerick, waiting, like the British\nArthur, for the hour to strike in which he shall lead forth his warriors\nto drive the foreigners from Ireland. But this will not be until, by\nriding round the lake once in every seventh year, he shall have worn his\nhorse\u2019s silver shoes as thin as a cat\u2019s ear.[279]\n\nNot only the tribe of Danu, but heroes of the other mythical cycles\nswell the fairy host to-day. Donn, son of Mil\u00e9, who was drowned before\never he set foot on Irish soil, lives at \u201cDonn\u2019s House\u201d, a line of\nsand-hills in the Dingle Peninsula of Kerry, and, as late as the\neighteenth century, we find him invoked by a local poet, half in jest,\nno doubt, but still, perhaps also a little in earnest.[280] The heroes\nof Ulster have no part in fairyland; but their enemy, Medb, is credited\nwith queenly rule among the S\u00eddhe, and is held by some to have been the\noriginal of \u201cQueen Mab\u201d. Caoilt\u00e9, last of the Fenians, was, in spite of\nhis leanings towards Christianity, enrolled among the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann,\nbut none of his kin are known there, neither Ossian, nor Oscar, nor even\nFinn himself. Yet not even to merely historical mortals are the gates of\nthe gods necessarily closed. The Barry, chief of the barony of\nBarrymore, is said to inhabit an enchanted palace in Knockthierna, one\nof the Nagles Hills. The not less traditionally famous O\u2019Donaghue, whose\ndomain was near Killarney, now dwells beneath the waters of that lake,\nand may still be seen, it is said, upon May Day.[281]\n\nBut besides these figures, which can be traced in mythology or history,\nand others who, though all written record of them has perished, are\nobviously of the same character, there are numerous beings who suggest a\ndifferent origin from that of the Aryan-seeming fairies. They correspond\nto the elves and trolls of Scandinavian, or the silenoi and satyrs of\nGreek myth. Such is the Leprechaun, who makes shoes for the fairies, and\nknows where hidden treasures are; the Gan Ceanach, or \u201clove-talker\u201d, who\nfills the ears of idle girls with pleasant fancies when, to merely\nmortal ideas, they should be busy with their work; the Pooka, who leads\ntravellers astray, or, taking the shape of an ass or mule, beguiles them\nto mount upon his back to their discomfiture; the Dulachan, who rides\nwithout a head; and other friendly or malicious sprites. Whence come\nthey? A possible answer suggests itself. Preceding the Aryans, and\nsurviving the Aryan conquest all over Europe, was a large non-Aryan\npopulation, which must have had its own gods, who would retain their\nworship, be revered by successive generations, and remain rooted to the\nsoil. May not these uncouth and half-developed Irish Leprechauns,\nPookas, and Dulachans, together with the Scotch Cluricanes, Brownies,\nand their kin, be no \u201ccreations of popular fancy\u201d, but the dwindling\nfigures of those darker gods of \u201cthe dark Iberians\u201d?\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 260:\n\n The story, contained in the Book of the Dun Cow, is called _The\n Phantom Chariot_. It has been translated by Mr. O\u2019Beirne Crowe, and is\n included in Miss Hull\u2019s _Cuchulinn Saga_.\n\nFootnote 261:\n\n See Elton, _Origins of English History_, pp. 269-271.\n\nFootnote 262:\n\n Caius Julius Solinus, known as Polyhistor, chap. XXIV.\n\nFootnote 263:\n\n It is appended to his translation of the tale of the _Exile of the\n Children of Usnach_ in _Atlantis_, Vol. III.\n\nFootnote 264:\n\n See Cusack\u2019s _History of Ireland_, pp. 160-162.\n\nFootnote 265:\n\n _I.e._ from Heaven.\n\nFootnote 266:\n\n Thomas D\u2019Arcy M\u2018Gee: _Poems_, p. 78, \u201cThe Gobhan Saer\u201d.\n\nFootnote 267:\n\n Larminie: _West Irish Folk-Tales_, pp. 1-9.\n\nFootnote 268:\n\n Pronounced _Ild\u0101na_.\n\nFootnote 269:\n\n It is told in Rhys\u2019s _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 314-317.\n\nFootnote 270:\n\n For still other folk-tale versions of this same myth see Curtin\u2019s\n _Hero Tales of Ireland_.\n\nFootnote 271:\n\n A Donegal story, collected by Mr. David Fitzgerald and published in\n the _Revue Celtique_, Vol. IV, p. 177.\n\nFootnote 272:\n\n The paper is called \u201cSea-Magic and Running Water\u201d.\n\nFootnote 273:\n\n Moore: _Folklore of the Isle of Man_.\n\nFootnote 274:\n\n See an article in the _Dublin University Magazine_ for June, 1864\n\nFootnote 275:\n\n The story is among those told by Lady Wilde in her _Ancient Legends of\n Ireland_, Vol. I, pp. 77-82.\n\nFootnote 276:\n\n _Dublin University Magazine_, June, 1864.\n\nFootnote 277:\n\n Pronounced _Cleena_.\n\nFootnote 278:\n\n Pronounced _Evin_.\n\nFootnote 279:\n\n See Fitzgerald, _Popular Tales of Ireland_, in Vol. IV of the _Revue\n Celtique_.\n\nFootnote 280:\n\n _Dublin University Magazine_, June, 1864.\n\nFootnote 281:\n\n For stories of these two Norman-Irish heroes, see Crofton Croker\u2019s\n _Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland_.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n THE BRITISH GODS AND THEIR\n STORIES\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI\n\n THE GODS OF THE BRITONS\n\n\nThe descriptions and the stories of the British gods have hardly come\ndown to us in so ample or so compact a form as those of the deities of\nthe Gaels, as they are preserved in the Irish and Scottish manuscripts.\nThey have also suffered far more from the sophistications of the\neuhemerist. Only in the \u201cFour Branches of the Mabinogi\u201d do the gods of\nthe Britons appear in anything like their real character of supernatural\nbeings, masters of magic, and untrammelled by the limitations which\nhedge in mortals. Apart from those four fragments of mythology, and from\na very few scattered references in the early Welsh poems, one must\nsearch for them under strange disguises. Some masquerade as kings in\nGeoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s more than apocryphal _Historia Britonum_. Others\nhave received an undeserved canonization, which must be stripped from\nthem before they can be seen in their true colours. Others, again, were\nadopted by the Norman-French romancers, and turned into the champions of\nchivalry now known as Arthur\u2019s Knights of the Round Table. But, however\ndisguised, their real nature can still be discerned. The Gaels and the\nBritons were but two branches of one race\u2014the Celtic. In many of the\ngods of the Britons we shall recognize, with names alike and attributes\nthe same, the familiar features of the Gaelic Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann.\n\nThe British gods are sometimes described as divided into three\nfamilies\u2014the \u201cChildren of D\u00f4n\u201d, the \u201cChildren of Nudd\u201d, and the\n\u201cChildren of Llyr\u201d. But these three families are really only two; for\nNudd, or Lludd, as he is variously called, is himself described as a son\nof Beli, who was the husband of the goddess D\u00f4n. There can be no doubt\nthat D\u00f4n herself is the same divine personage as Danu, the mother of the\nTuatha D\u00e9 Danann, and that Beli is the British equivalent of the Gaelic\nBil\u00e9, the universal Dis Pater who sent out the first Gaels from Hades to\ntake possession of Ireland. With the other family, the \u201cChildren of\nLlyr\u201d, we are equally on familiar ground; for the British Llyr can be\nnone other than the Gaelic sea-god L\u00ear. These two families or tribes are\nusually regarded as in opposition, and their struggles seem to symbolize\nin British myth that same conflict between the powers of heaven, light,\nand life and of the sea, darkness, and death which are shadowed in\nGaelic mythology in the battles between the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann and the\nFomors.\n\nFor the children of D\u00f4n were certainly gods of the sky. Their names are\nwrit large in heaven. The glittering W which we call \u201cCassiopeia\u2019s\nChair\u201d was to our British ancestors _Llys D\u00f4n_, or \u201cD\u00f4n\u2019s Court\u201d; our\n\u201cNorthern Crown\u201d was _Caer Arianrod_, the \u201cCastle of Arianrod\u201d, D\u00f4n\u2019s\ndaughter; while the \u201cMilky Way\u201d was the \u201cCastle of Gwydion\u201d, D\u00f4n\u2019s\nson.[282] More than this, the greatest of her children, the Nudd or\nLludd whom some make the head of a dynasty of his own, was the Zeus\nalike of the Britons and of the Gaels. His epithet of _Llaw Ereint_,\nthat is, \u201cof the Hand of Silver\u201d, proves him the same personage as Nuada\nthe \u201cSilver-Handed\u201d. The legend which must have existed to explain this\npeculiarity has been lost on British ground, but it was doubtless the\nsame as that told of the Irish god. With it, and, no doubt, much else,\nhas disappeared any direct account of battles fought by him as sky-god\nagainst Fomor-like enemies. But, under the faint disguise of a king of\nBritain, an ancient Welsh tale[283] records how he put an end to three\nsupernatural \u201cplagues\u201d which oppressed his country. In addition to this,\nwe find him under his name of Nudd described in a Welsh Triad as one of\n\u201cthe three generous heroes of the Isle of Britain\u201d, while another makes\nhim the owner of twenty-one thousand milch cows\u2014an expression which\nmust, to the primitive mind, have implied inexhaustible wealth. Both\nhelp us to the conception of a god of heaven and battle, triumphant, and\ntherefore rich and liberal.[284]\n\nMore tangible evidence is, however, not lacking to prove the wide-spread\nnature of his worship. A temple dedicated to him in Roman times under\nthe name of Nodens, or Nudens, has been discovered at Lydney, on the\nbanks of the Severn. The god is pictured on a plaque of bronze as a\nyouthful deity, haloed like the sun, and driving a four-horsed chariot.\nFlying spirits, typifying the winds, accompany him; while his power over\nthe sea is symbolized by attendant Tritons.[285] This was in the west of\nBritain, while, in the east, there is good reason to believe that he had\na shrine overlooking the Thames. Tradition declares that St. Paul\u2019s\nCathedral occupies the site of an ancient pagan temple; while the spot\non which it stands was called, we know from Geoffrey of Monmouth, \u201cParth\nLludd\u201d by the Britons, and \u201cLudes Geat\u201d by the Saxons.[286]\n\nGreat, however, as he probably was, Lludd, or Nudd occupies less space\nin Welsh story, as we have it now, than his son. Gwyn ap Nudd has\noutlived in tradition almost all his supernatural kin. Professor Rhys is\ntempted to see in him the British equivalent of the Gaelic Finn mac\nCumhail.[287] The name of both alike means \u201cwhite\u201d; both are sons of the\nheaven-god; both are famed as hunters. Gwyn, however, is more than that;\nfor his game is man. In the early Welsh poems, he is a god of battle and\nof the dead, and, as such, fills the part of a _psychopompos_,\nconducting the slain into Hades, and there ruling over them. In later,\nsemi-Christianized story he is described as \u201cGwyn, son of Nudd, whom God\nhas placed over the brood of devils in Annwn, lest they should destroy\nthe present race[288]\u201d. Later again, as paganism still further\ndegenerated, he came to be considered as king of the _Tylwyth Teg_, the\nWelsh fairies,[289] and his name as such has hardly yet died out of his\nlast haunt, the romantic vale of Neath. He is the wild huntsman of Wales\nand the West of England, and it is his pack which is sometimes heard at\nchase in waste places by night.\n\nIn his earliest guise, as a god of war and death, he is the subject of a\npoem in dialogue contained in the Black Book of Caermarthen.[290]\nObscure, like most of the ancient Welsh poems,[291] it is yet a spirited\nproduction, and may be quoted here as a favourable specimen of the\npoetry of the early Cymri. In it we shall see mirrored perhaps the\nclearest figure of the British Pantheon, the \u201cmighty hunter\u201d, not of\ndeer, but of men\u2019s souls, riding his demon horse, and cheering on his\ndemon hound to the fearful chase. He knows when and where all the great\nwarriors fell, for he gathered their souls upon the field of battle, and\nnow rules over them in Hades, or upon some \u201cmisty mountain-top\u201d.[292] It\ndescribes a mythical prince, named Gwyddneu Garanhir, known to Welsh\nlegend as the ruler of a lost country now covered by the waters of\nCardigan Bay, asking protection of the god, who accords it, and then\nrelates the story of his exploits:\n\n _Gwyddneu._\n\n A bull of conflict was he, active in dispersing an arrayed army,\n The ruler of hosts, indisposed to anger,\n Blameless and pure his conduct in protecting life.\n\n _Gwyn._\n\n Against a hero stout was his advance,\n The ruler of hosts, disposer of wrath,\n There will be protection for thee since thou askest it.\n\n _Gwyddneu._\n\n For thou hast given me protection\n How warmly wert thou welcomed!\n The hero of hosts, from what region thou comest?\n\n _Gwyn._\n\n I come from battle and conflict\n With a shield in my hand;\n Broken is the helmet by the pushing of spears.\n\n _Gwyddneu._\n\n I will address thee, exalted man,\n With his shield in distress.\n Brave man, what is thy descent?\n\n _Gwyn._\n\n Round-hoofed is my horse, the torment of battle,\n Fairy am I called, Gwyn the son of Nudd,[293]\n The lover of Creurdilad, the daughter of Lludd.\n\n _Gwyddneu._\n\n Since it is thou, Gwyn, an upright man,\n From thee there is no concealing:\n I am Gwyddneu Garanhir.\n\n _Gwyn._\n\n Hasten to my ridge, the Taw\u00eb abode;\n Not the nearest Taw\u00eb name I to thee,\n But that Taw\u00eb which is the farthest.[294]\n\n Polished is my ring, golden my saddle and bright:\n To my sadness\n I saw a conflict before Caer Vandwy.[295]\n\n Before Caer Vandwy a host I saw,\n Shields were shattered and ribs broken;\n Renowned and splendid was he who made the assault.\n\n _Gwyddneu._\n\n Gwyn, son of Nudd, the hope of armies,\n Quicker would legions fall before the hoofs\n Of thy horse than broken rushes to the ground.\n\n _Gwyn._\n\n Handsome my dog, and round-bodied,\n And truly the best of dogs;\n Dormarth[296] was he, which belonged to Maelgwyn.\n\n _Gwyddneu._\n\n Dormarth with the ruddy nose! what a gazer\n Thou art upon me because I notice\n Thy wanderings on Gwibir Vynyd.[297]\n\n _Gwyn._\n\n I have been in the place where was killed Gwendoleu,\n The son of Ceidaw, the pillar of songs,\n When the ravens screamed over blood.\n\n I have been in the place where Br\u00e2n was killed,\n The son of Iweridd, of far extending fame,\n When the ravens of the battle-field screamed.\n\n I have been where Llacheu was slain,\n The son of Arthur, extolled in songs,\n When the ravens screamed over blood.\n\n I have been where Meurig was killed,\n The son of Carreian, of honourable fame,\n When the ravens screamed over flesh.\n\n I have been where Gwallawg was killed,\n The son of Goholeth, the accomplished,\n The resister of Lloegyr, the son of Lleynawg.\n\n I have been where the soldiers of Britain were slain,\n From the east to the north:\n I am the escort of the grave.[298]\n\n I have been where the soldiers of Britain were slain,\n From the east to the south:\n I am alive, they in death!\n\nA line in this poem allows us to see Gwyn in another and less sinister\nr\u00f4le. \u201cThe lover of Creurdilad, the daughter of Lludd,\u201d he calls\nhimself; and an episode in the mythical romance of \u201cKulhwch and Olwen\u201d,\npreserved in the Red Book of Hergest, gives the details of his\ncourtship. Gwyn had as rival a deity called Gwyrthur ap Greidawl, that\nis \u201cVictor, son of Scorcher\u201d.[299] These two waged perpetual war for\nCreurdilad, or Creudylad, each in turn stealing her from the other,\nuntil the matter was referred to Arthur, who decided that Creudylad\nshould be sent back to her father, and that Gwyn and Gwyrthur \u201cshould\nfight for her every first of May, from henceforth until the day of doom,\nand that whichever of them should then be conqueror should have the\nmaiden\u201d. What satisfaction this would be to the survivor of what might\nbe somewhat flippantly described as, in two senses, the longest\nengagement on record, is not very clear; but its mythological\ninterpretation appears fairly obvious. In Gwyn, god of death and the\nunderworld, and in the solar deity, Gwyrthur, we may see the powers of\ndarkness and sunshine, of winter and summer, in contest,[300] each\nalternately winning and losing a bride who would seem to represent the\nspring with its grain and flowers. Creudylad, whom the story of \u201cKulhwch\nand Olwen\u201d calls \u201cthe most splendid maiden in the three islands of the\nmighty and in the three islands adjacent\u201d, is, in fact, the British\nPersephon\u00e9. As the daughter of Lludd, she is child of the shining sky.\nBut a different tradition must have made her a daughter of Llyr, the\nsea-god; for her name as such passed, through Geoffrey of Monmouth, to\nShakespeare, in whose hands she became that pathetic figure, Cordelia in\n\u201cKing Lear\u201d. It may not be altogether unworthy of notice, though perhaps\nit is only a coincidence, that in some myths the Greek Persephon\u00e9 is\nmade a daughter of Zeus and in others of Poseidon.[301]\n\nTurning from the sky-god and his son, we find others of D\u00f4n\u2019s children\nto have been the exponents of those arts of life which early races held\nto have been taught directly by the gods to men. D\u00f4n herself had a\nbrother, M\u00e2th, son of a mysterious M\u00e2thonwy, and recognizable as a\nbenevolent ruler of the underworld akin to Beli, or perhaps that god\nhimself under another title, for the name M\u00e2th, which means \u201ccoin,\nmoney, treasure\u201d,[302] recalls that of Plouton, the Greek god of Hades,\nin his guise of possessor and giver of metals. It was a belief common to\nthe Aryan races that wisdom, as well as wealth, came originally from the\nunderworld; and we find M\u00e2th represented, in the Mabinogi bearing his\nname, as handing on his magical lore to his nephew and pupil Gwydion,\nwho, there is good reason to believe, was the same divine personage whom\nthe Teutonic tribes worshipped as \u201cWoden\u201d and \u201cOdin\u201d. Thus equipped,\nGwydion son of D\u00f4n became the druid of the gods, the \u201cmaster of illusion\nand phantasy\u201d, and, not only that, but the teacher of all that is useful\nand good, the friend and helper of mankind, and the perpetual fighter\nagainst niggardly underworld powers for the good gifts which they\nrefused to allow out of their keeping. Shoulder to shoulder with him in\nthis \u201choly war\u201d of culture against ignorance, and light against\ndarkness, stood his brothers Amaethon, god of agriculture, and Govannan,\na god of smithcraft identical with the Gaelic Giobniu. He had also a\nsister called Arianrod, or \u201cSilver Circle\u201d, who, as is common in\nmythologies, was not only his sister, but also his wife. So Zeus wedded\nHer\u00e9; and, indeed, it is difficult to say where otherwise the partners\nof gods are to come from. Of this connection two sons were born at one\nbirth\u2014Dylan and Lleu, who are considered as representing the twin powers\nof darkness and light. With darkness the sea was inseparably connected\nby the Celts, and, as soon as the dark twin was born and named, he\nplunged headlong into his native element. \u201cAnd immediately when he was\nin the sea,\u201d says the Mabinogi of M\u00e2th, son of M\u00e2thonwy, \u201che took its\nnature, and swam as well as the best fish that was therein. And for that\nreason was he called Dylan, the Son of the Wave. Beneath him no wave\never broke.\u201d He was killed with a spear at last by his uncle, Govannan,\nand, according to the bard Taliesin, the waves of Britain, Ireland,\nScotland, and the Isle of Man wept for him.[303] Beautiful legends grew\nup around his death. The clamour of the waves dashing upon the beach is\nthe expression of their longing to avenge their son. The sound of the\nsea rushing up the mouth of the River Conway is still known as \u201cDylan\u2019s\ndeath-groan\u201d[304]. A small promontory on the Carnarvonshire side of the\nMenai Straits, called _Pwynt Maen Tylen_, or _Pwynt Maen Dulan_,\npreserves his name.[305]\n\nThe other child of Gwydion and Arianrod grew up to become the British\nsun-god, Lleu Llaw Gyffes, the exact counterpart of the Gaelic Lugh\nLamhfada, \u201cLight the Long-handed\u201d. Like all solar deities, his growth\nwas rapid. When he was a year old, he seemed to be two years; at the age\nof two, he travelled by himself; and when he was four years old, he was\nas tall as a boy of eight, and was his father\u2019s constant companion.\n\nOne day, Gwydion took him to the castle of Arianrod\u2014not her castle in\nthe sky, but her abode on earth, the still-remembered site of which is\nmarked by a patch of rocks in the Menai Straits, accessible without a\nboat only during the lowest spring and autumn tides. Arianrod had\ndisowned her son, and did not recognize him when she saw him with\nGwydion. She asked who he was, and was much displeased when told. She\ndemanded to know his name, and, when Gwydion replied that he had as yet\nreceived none, she \u201claid a destiny upon\u201d him, after the fashion of the\nCelts, that he should be without a name until she chose to bestow one on\nhim herself.\n\nTo be without a name was a very serious thing to the ancient Britons,\nwho seem to have held the primitive theory that the name and the soul\nare the same. So Gwydion cast about to think by what craft he might\nextort from Arianrod some remark from which he could name their son. The\nnext day, he went down to the sea-shore with the boy, both of them\ndisguised as cordwainers. He made a boat out of sea-weed by magic, and\nsome beautifully-coloured leather out of some dry sticks and sedges.\nThen they sailed the boat to the port of Arianrod\u2019s castle, and,\nanchoring it where it could be seen, began ostentatiously to stitch away\nat the leather. Naturally, they were soon noticed, and Arianrod sent\nsomeone out to see who they were and what they were doing. When she\nfound that they were shoemakers, she remembered that she wanted some\nshoes. Gwydion, though he had her measure, purposely made them, first\ntoo large, and then too small. This brought Arianrod herself down to the\nboat to be fitted.\n\nWhile Gwydion was measuring Arianrod\u2019s foot for the shoes, a wren came\nand stood upon the deck. The boy took his bow and arrow, and hit the\nwren in the leg\u2014a favourite shot of Celtic \u201ccrack\u201d archers, at any rate\nin romance. The goddess was pleased to be amiable and complimentary.\n\u201cTruly,\u201d said she, \u201cthe lion aimed at it with a steady hand.\u201d It is from\nsuch incidents that primitive people take their names, all the world\nover. The boy had got his. \u201cIt is no thanks to you,\u201d said Gwydion to\nArianrod, \u201cbut now he has a name. And a good name it is. He shall be\ncalled Llew Llaw Gyffes[306].\u201d\n\nThis name of the sun-god is a good example of how obsolete the ancient\npagan tradition had become before it was put into writing. The old word\n_Lleu_, meaning \u201clight\u201d, had passed out of use, and the scribe\nsubstituted for a name that was unintelligible to him one like it which\nhe knew, namely _Llew_, meaning \u201clion\u201d. The word _Gyffes_ seems also to\nhave suffered change, and to have meant originally not \u201csteady\u201d, but\n\u201clong\u201d[307].\n\nAt any rate, Arianrod was defeated in her design to keep her son\nnameless. Neither did she even get her shoes; for, as soon as he had\ngained his object, Gwydion allowed the boat to change back into\nsea-weed, and the leather to return to sedge and sticks. So, in her\nanger, she put a fresh destiny on the boy, that he should not take arms\ntill she herself gave them him.\n\nGwydion, however, took Lleu to Dinas Dinllev, his castle, which still\nstands at the edge of the Menai Straits, and brought him up as a\nwarrior. As soon as he thought him old enough to have arms, he took him\nwith him again to Caer Arianrod. This time, they were disguised as\nbards. Arianrod received them gladly, heard Gwydion\u2019s songs and tales,\nfeasted them, and prepared a room for them to sleep in.\n\nThe next morning, Gwydion got up very early, and prepared his most\npowerful incantations. By his druidical arts he made it seem as if the\nwhole country rang with the shouts and trumpets of an army, and he put a\nglamour over everyone, so that they saw the bay filled with ships.\nArianrod came to him in terror, asking what could be done to protect the\ncastle. \u201cGive us arms,\u201d he replied, \u201cand we will do the best we can.\u201d So\nArianrod\u2019s maidens armed Gwydion, while Arianrod herself put arms on\nLleu. By the time she had finished, all the noises had ceased, and the\nships had vanished. \u201cLet us take our arms off again,\u201d said Gwydion; \u201cwe\nshall not need them now.\u201d \u201cBut the army is all round the castle!\u201d cried\nArianrod. \u201cThere was no army,\u201d answered Gwydion; \u201cit was only an\nillusion of mine to cause you to break your prophecy and give our son\narms. And now he has got them, without thanks to you.\u201d \u201cThen I will lay\na worse destiny on him,\u201d cried the infuriated goddess. \u201cHe shall never\nhave a wife of the people of this earth.\u201d \u201cHe shall have a wife in spite\nof you,\u201d said Gwydion.\n\nSo Gwydion went to M\u00e2th, his uncle and tutor in magic, and between them\nthey made a woman out of flowers by charms and illusion. \u201cThey took the\nblossoms of the oak, and the blossoms of the broom, and the blossoms of\nthe meadow-sweet, and produced from them a maiden, the fairest and most\ngraceful that man ever saw.\u201d They called her Blodeuwedd (Flower-face),\nand gave her to Lleu as his wife. And they gave Lleu a palace called Mur\ny Castell, near Bala Lake.\n\nAll went well until, one day, Gronw Pebyr, one of the gods of darkness,\ncame by, hunting, and killed the stag at nightfall near Lleu\u2019s castle.\nThe sun-god was away upon a visit to M\u00e2th, but Blodeuwedd asked the\nstranger to take shelter with her. That night they fell in love with one\nanother, and conspired together how Lleu might be put away. When Lleu\ncame back from M\u00e2th\u2019s court, Blodeuwedd, like a Celtic Dalilah, wormed\nout of him the secret of how his life was preserved. He told her that he\ncould only die in one way; he could not be killed either inside or\noutside a house, either on horseback or on foot, but that if a spear\nthat had been a year in the making, and which was never worked upon\nexcept during the sacrifice on Sunday, were to be cast at him as he\nstood beneath a roof of thatch, after having just bathed, with one foot\nupon the edge of the bath and the other upon a buck goat\u2019s back, it\nwould cause his death. Blodeuwedd piously thanked Heaven that he was so\nwell protected, and sent a messenger to her paramour, telling him what\nshe had learned. Gronw set to work on the spear; and in a year it was\nready. When she knew this, Blodeuwedd asked Lleu to show her exactly how\nit was he could be killed.\n\nLleu agreed; and Blodeuwedd prepared the bath under the thatched roof,\nand tethered the goat by it. Lleu bathed, and then stood with one foot\nupon the edge of the bath, and the other upon the goat\u2019s back. At this\nmoment, Gronw, from an ambush, flung the spear, and hit Lleu, who, with\na terrible cry, changed into an eagle, and flew away. He never came\nback; and Gronw took possession of both his wife and his palace.\n\nBut Gwydion set out to search everywhere for his son. At last, one day,\nhe came to a house in North Wales where the man was in great anxiety\nabout his sow; for as soon as the sty was opened, every morning, she\nrushed out, and did not return again till late in the evening. Gwydion\noffered to follow her, and, at dawn, the man took him to the sty, and\nopened the door. The sow leaped forth, and ran, and Gwydion ran after\nher. He tracked her to a brook between Snowdon and the sea, still called\nNant y Llew, and saw her feeding underneath an oak. Upon the top of the\ntree there was an eagle, and, every time it shook itself, there fell off\nit lumps of putrid meat, which the sow ate greedily. Gwydion suspected\nthat the eagle must be Lleu. So he sang this verse:\n\n \u201cOak that grows between the two banks;\n Darkened is the sky and hill!\n Shall I not tell him by his wounds,\n That this is Lleu?\u201d\n\nThe eagle, on hearing this, came half-way down the tree. So Gwydion\nsang:\n\n \u201cOak that grows in upland ground,\n Is it not wetted by the rain? Has it not been drenched\n By nine score tempests?\n It bears in its branches Lleu Llaw Gyffes.\u201d\n\nThe eagle came slowly down until it was on the lowest branch. Gwydion\nsang:\n\n \u201cOak that grows beneath the steep;\n Stately and majestic is its aspect!\n Shall I not speak it?\n That Lleu will come to my lap?\u201d\n\nThen the eagle came down, and sat on Gwydion\u2019s knee. Gwydion struck it\nwith his magic wand, and it became Lleu again, wasted to skin and bone\nby the poison on the spear.\n\nGwydion took him to M\u00e2th to be healed, and left him there, while he went\nto Mur y Castell, where Blodeuwedd was. When she heard that he was\ncoming, she fled. But Gwydion overtook her, and changed her into an owl,\nthe bird that hates the day. A still older form of this probably\nextremely ancient myth of the sun-god\u2014the savage and repulsive details\nof which speak of a hoary antiquity\u2014makes the chase of Blodeuwedd by\nGwydion to have taken place in the sky, the stars scattered over the\nMilky Way being the traces of it.[308] As for her accomplice, Lleu would\naccept no satisfaction short of Gronw\u2019s submitting to stand exactly\nwhere Lleu had stood, to be shot at in his turn. To this he was obliged\nto agree; and Lleu killed him.[309]\n\nThere are two other sons of Beli and D\u00f4n of whom so little is recorded\nthat it would hardly be worth while mentioning them, were it not for the\nwild poetry of the legend connected with them. The tale, put into\nwriting at a time when all the gods were being transfigured into simple\nmortals, tells us that they were two kings of Britain, brothers. One\nstarlight night they were walking together. \u201cSee,\u201d said Nynniaw to\nPeibaw, \u201cwhat a fine, wide-spreading field I have.\u201d \u201cWhere is it?\u201d asked\nPeibaw. \u201cThere,\u201d replied Nynniaw; \u201cthe whole stretch of the sky, as far\nas the eye reaches.\u201d \u201cLook then,\u201d returned Peibaw, \u201cwhat a number of\ncattle I have grazing on your field.\u201d \u201cWhere are they?\u201d asked Nynniaw.\n\u201cAll the stars that you can see,\u201d replied Peibaw, \u201cevery one of them of\nfiery-coloured gold, with the moon for a shepherd over them.\u201d \u201cThey\nshall not feed on my field,\u201d cried Nynniaw. \u201cThey shall,\u201d exclaimed\nPeibaw. \u201cThey shall not,\u201d cried Nynniaw, \u201cThey shall,\u201d said Peibaw.\n\u201cThey shall not,\u201d Nynniaw answered; and so they went on, from\ncontradiction to quarrel, and from private quarrel to civil war, until\nthe armies of both of them were destroyed, and the two authors of the\nevil were turned by God into oxen for their sins.[310]\n\nLast of the children of D\u00f4n, we find a goddess called Penardun, of whom\nlittle is known except that she was married to the sea-god Llyr. This\nincident is curious, as forming a parallel to the Gaelic story which\ntells of intermarriage between the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann and the Fomors.[311]\nBrigit, the Dagda\u2019s daughter, was married to Bress, son of Elathan,\nwhile Cian, the son of Diancecht, wedded Ethniu, the daughter of Balor.\nSo, in this kindred mythology, a slender tie of relationship binds the\ngods of the sky to the gods of the sea.\n\nThe name _Llyr_ is supposed, like its Irish equivalent L\u00ear, to have\nmeant \u201cthe Sea\u201d.[312] The British sea-god is undoubtedly the same as the\nGaelic; indeed, the two facts that he is described in Welsh literature\nas Llyr Llediath, that is, \u201cLlyr of the Foreign Dialect\u201d, and is given a\nwife called Iweridd (Ireland)[313], suggest that he may have been\nborrowed by the Britons from the Gaels later than any mythology common\nto both. As a British god, he was the far-off original of Shakespeare\u2019s\n\u201cKing Lear\u201d. The chief city of his worship is still called after him,\nLeicester, that is, Llyr-cestre, in still earlier days, Caer Llyr.\n\nLlyr, we have noticed, married two wives, Penardun and Iweridd. By the\ndaughter of D\u00f4n he had a son called Manawyddan, who is identical with\nthe Gaelic Manann\u00e1n mac Lir.[314] We know less of his character and\nattributes than we do of the Irish god; but we find him equally a ruler\nin that Hades or Elysium which the Celtic mind ever connected with the\nsea. Like all the inhabitants of that other world, he is at once a\nmaster of magic and of the useful arts, which he taught willingly to his\nfriends. To his enemies, however, he could show a different side of his\ncharacter. A triad tells us that\u2014\n\n \u201cThe achievement of Manawyddan the Wise,\n After lamentation and fiery wrath,\n Was the constructing of the bone-fortress of Oeth and Anoeth\u201d,[315]\n\nwhich is described as a prison made, in the shape of a bee-hive,\nentirely of human bones mortared together, and divided into innumerable\ncells, forming a kind of labyrinth. In this ghastly place he immured\nthose whom he found trespassing in Hades; and among his captives was no\nless a person than the famous Arthur.[316]\n\n\u201cIreland\u201d bore two children to Llyr: a daughter called Branwen and a son\ncalled Br\u00e2n. The little we know of Branwen of the \u201cFair Bosom\u201d shows her\nas a goddess of love\u2014child, like the Greek Aphrodit\u00e9, of the sea. Br\u00e2n,\non the other hand, is, even more clearly than Manawyddan, a dark deity\nof Hades. He is represented as of colossal size, so huge, in fact, that\nno house or ship was big enough to hold him.[317] He delighted in battle\nand carnage, like the hoodie-crow or raven from which he probably took\nhis name,[318] but he was also the especial patron of bards, minstrels,\nand musicians, and we find him in one of the poems ascribed to Taliesin\nclaiming to be himself a bard, a harper, a player on the crowth, and\nseven-score other musicians all at once.[319] His son was called\nCaradawc the Strong-armed, who, as the British mythology crumbled,\nbecame confounded with the historical Caratacus, known popularly as\n\u201cCaractacus\u201d.\n\nBoth Br\u00e2n and Manawyddan were especially connected with the Swansea\npeninsula. The bone-fortress of Oeth and Anoeth was placed by tradition\nin Gower.[320] That Br\u00e2n was equally at home there may be proved from\nthe Morte Darthur, in which storehouse of forgotten and misunderstood\nmythology Br\u00e2n of Gower survives as \u201cKing Brandegore\u201d.[321]\n\nSuch identification of a mere mortal country with the other world seems\nstrange enough to us, but to our Celtic ancestors it was a quite natural\nthought. All islands\u2014and peninsulas, which, viewed from an opposite\ncoast, probably seemed to them islands\u2014were deemed to be pre-eminently\nhomes of the dark Powers of Hades. Difficult of access, protected by the\nturbulent and dangerous sea, sometimes rendered quite invisible by fogs\nand mists and, at other times, looming up ghostlily on the horizon,\noften held by the remnant of a hostile lower race, they gained a mystery\nand a sanctity from the law of the human mind which has always held the\nunknown to be the terrible. The Cornish Britons, gazing from the shore,\nsaw Gower and Lundy, and deemed them outposts of the over-sea Other\nWorld. To the Britons of Wales, Ireland was no human realm, a view\nreciprocated by the Gaels, who saw Hades in Britain, while the Isle of\nMan was a little Hades common to them both. Nor even was the sea always\nnecessary to sunder the world of ghosts from that of \u201cshadow-casting\nmen\u201d. Glastonbury Tor, surrounded by almost impassable swamps, was one\nof the especial haunts of Gwyn ap Nudd. The Britons of the north held\nthat beyond the Roman wall and the vast Caledonian wood lived ghosts and\nnot men. Even the Roman province of Demetia\u2014called by the Welsh Dyfed,\nand corresponding, roughly, to the modern County of Pembrokeshire\u2014was,\nas a last stronghold of the aborigines, identified with the mythic\nunderworld.\n\nAs such, Dyfed was ruled by a local tribe of gods, whose greatest\nfigures were Pwyll, \u201cHead of Annwn\u201d (the Welsh name for Hades), with his\nwife Rhiannon, and their son Pryderi. These beings are described as\nhostile to the children of D\u00f4n, but friendly to the race of Llyr. After\nPwyll\u2019s death or disappearance, his widow Rhiannon becomes the wife of\nManawyddan.[322] In a poem of Taliesin\u2019s we find Manawyddan and Pryderi\njoint-rulers of Hades, and warders of that magic cauldron of\ninspiration[323] which the gods of light attempted to steal or capture,\nand which became famous afterwards as the \u201cHoly Grail\u201d. Another of their\ntreasures were the \u201cThree Birds of Rhiannon\u201d, which, we are told in an\nancient book, could sing the dead to life and the living into the sleep\nof death. Fortunately they sang seldom. \u201cThere are three things,\u201d says a\nWelsh triad, \u201cwhich are not often heard: the song of the birds of\nRhiannon, a song of wisdom from the mouth of a Saxon, and an invitation\nto a feast from a miser.\u201d\n\nNor is the list of British gods complete without mention of Arthur,\nthough most readers will be surprised to find him in such company. The\ngenius of Tennyson, who drew his materials mostly from the Norman-French\nromances, has stereotyped the popular conception of Arthur as a king of\nearly Britain who fought for his fatherland and the Christian faith\nagainst invading Saxons. Possibly there may, indeed, have been a\npowerful British chieftain bearing that typically Celtic name, which is\nfound in Irish legend as Artur, one of the sons of Nemed who fought\nagainst the Fomors, and on the Continent as Artaius, a Gaulish deity\nwhom the Romans identified with Mercury, and who seems to have been a\npatron of agriculture.[324] But the original Arthur stands upon the same\nground as Cuchulainn and Finn. His deeds are mythical, because\nsuperhuman. His companions can be shown to have been divine. Some we\nknow were worshipped in Gaul. Others are children of D\u00f4n, of Llyr, and\nof Pwyll, dynasties of older gods to whose head Arthur seems to have\nrisen, as his cult waxed and theirs waned. Stripped of their godhead,\nand strangely transformed, they fill the pages of romance as Knights of\nthe Table Round.\n\nThese deities were the native gods of Britain. Many others are, however,\nmentioned upon inscriptions found in our island, but these were almost\nall exotic and imported. Imperial Rome brought men of diverse races\namong her legions, and these men brought their gods. Scattered over\nBritain, but especially in the north, near the Wall, we find evidence\nthat deities of many nations\u2014from Germany to Africa, and from Gaul to\nPersia\u2014were sporadically worshipped.[325] Most of these foreign gods\nwere Roman, but a temple at Eboracum (now York) was dedicated to\nSerapis, and Mithras, the Persian sun-god, was also adored there; while\nat Corbridge, in Northumberland (the ancient Corspitium), there have\nbeen found altars to the Tyrian Hercules and to Astarte. The war-god was\nalso invoked under many strange names\u2014as \u201cCocidius\u201d by a colony of\nDacians in Cumberland; as Toutates, Camulus, Coritiacus, Belatucador,\nAlator, Loucetius, Condates, and Rigisamos by men of different\ncountries. A goddess of war was worshipped at Bath under the name of\nNemetona. The hot springs of the same town were under the patronage of a\ndivinity called Sul, identified by the Romans with Minerva, and she was\nhelped by a god of medicine described on a dedicatory tablet as \u201cSol\nApollo Anicetus\u201d. Few of these \u201cstrange gods\u201d, however, seem to have\ntaken hold of the imagination of the native Britons. Their worshippers\ndid not proselytize, and their general influence was probably about\nequal to that of an Evangelical Church in a Turkish town. The sole\nexceptions to this rule are where the foreign gods are Gaulish; but in\nseveral instances it can be proved that they were not so much of Roman,\nas of original Celtic importation. The warlike heaven-god Camulus\nappears in Gaelic heroic myth as Cumhal, the father of Finn, and in\nBritish mythical history as Coel, a duke of Caer Coelvin (known earlier\nas Camulodunum, and now as Colchester), who seized the crown of Britain,\nand spent his short reign in a series of battles.[326] The name of the\nsun-god Maponos is found alike upon altars in Gaul and Britain, and in\nWelsh literature as Mabon, a follower of Arthur; while another Gaulish\nsun-god, Belinus, who had a splendid temple at Bajocassos (the modern\nBayeux), though not mentioned in the earliest British mythology, as its\nscattered records have come down to us, must have been connected with\nBr\u00e2n, for we find in Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s History \u201cKing Belinus\u201d as\nbrother of \u201cKing Brennius\u201d,[327] and in the Morte Darthur \u201cBalin\u201d as\nbrother of \u201cBalan\u201d.[328] A second-century Greek writer gives an account\nof a god of eloquence worshipped in Gaul under the name of Ogmios, and\nrepresented as equipped like Heracles, a description which exactly\ncorresponds to the conception of the Gaelic Ogma, at once patron of\nliterature and writing and professional strong man of the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann. Nemetona, the war-goddess worshipped at Bath, was probably the\nsame as Nemon, one of Nuada\u2019s Valkyr-wives, while a broken inscription\nto _athubodva_, which probably stood, when intact, for _Cathubodva_, may\nwell have been addressed to the Gaulish equivalent of Badb Catha, the\n\u201cWar-fury\u201d. Lugh, or Lleu, was also widely known on the Continent as\nLugus. Three important towns\u2014Laon, Leyden, and Lyons\u2014were all anciently\ncalled after him _Lugu-dunum_ (Lugus\u2019 town), and at the last and\ngreatest of these a festival was still held in Roman times upon the\nsun-god\u2019s day\u2014the first of August\u2014which corresponded to the _Lugnassad_\n(Lugh\u2019s commemoration) held in ancient Ireland. Brigit, the Gaelic\nMinerva, is also found in Britain as Brigantia, tutelary goddess of the\nBrigantes, a Northern tribe, and in Eastern France as Brigindo, to whom\nIccavos, son of Oppianos, made a dedicatory offering of which there is\nstill record.[329]\n\nOther, less striking agreements between the mythical divine names of the\nInsular and Continental Celts might be cited. These recorded should,\nhowever, prove sufficiently that Gaul, Gael, and Briton shared in a\ncommon heritage of mythological names and ideas, which they separately\ndeveloped into three superficially different, but essentially similar\ncults.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 282:\n\n Lady Guest\u2019s _Mabinogion_, a note to _Math, the Son of Mathonwy_.\n\nFootnote 283:\n\n _The Story of Lludd and Llevelys._ See chap. XXIV\u2014\u201cThe Decline and\n Fall of the Gods\u201d.\n\nFootnote 284:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 128.\n\nFootnote 285:\n\n See a monograph by the Right Hon. Charles Bathurst: _Roman Antiquities\n in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire_.\n\nFootnote 286:\n\n chap. XXIV\u2014\u201cThe Decline and Fall of the Gods\u201d.\n\nFootnote 287:\n\n _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 178, 179.\n\nFootnote 288:\n\n So translated by Lady Guest. Professor Rhys, however, renders it, \u201cin\n whom God has put the instinct of the demons of Annwn\u201d. _Arthurian\n Legend_, p. 341.\n\nFootnote 289:\n\n Lady Guest\u2019s _Mabinogion_. Note to \u201cKulhwch and Olwen\u201d.\n\nFootnote 290:\n\n Black Book of Caermarthen, poem XXXIII. Vol. I, p. 293, of Skene\u2019s\n _Four Ancient Books_.\n\nFootnote 291:\n\n I have taken the liberty of omitting a few lines whose connection with\n their context is not very apparent.\n\nFootnote 292:\n\n Gwyn was said to specially frequent the summits of hills.\n\nFootnote 293:\n\n This line is Professor Rhys\u2019s. Skene translates it: \u201cWhilst I am\n called Gwyn the son of Nudd\u201d.\n\nFootnote 294:\n\n I have here preferred Rhys\u2019s rendering: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 364.\n\nFootnote 295:\n\n A name for Hades, of unknown meaning.\n\nFootnote 296:\n\n Dormarth means \u201cDeath\u2019s Door\u201d. Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 156-158.\n\nFootnote 297:\n\n Rhys has it:\n\n \u201cDormarth, red-nosed, ground-grazing\u2014\n On him we perceived the speed\n Of thy wandering on Cloud Mount.\u201d\n\n \u2014_Arthurian Legend_, p. 156.\n\nFootnote 298:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 383. Skene translates: \u201cI am alive, they\n in their graves!\u201d\n\nFootnote 299:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 561.\n\nFootnote 300:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 561-563.\n\nFootnote 301:\n\n Dyer: _Studies of the Gods in Greece_, p. 48.\n\n Gwyn, son of Nudd, had a brother, Edeyrn, of whom so little has come\n down to us that he finds his most suitable place in a foot-note.\n Unmentioned in the earliest Welsh legends, he first appears as a\n knight of Arthur\u2019s court in the _Red Book_ stories of \u201cKulhwch and\n Olwen\u201d, the \u201cDream of Rhonabwy\u201d, and \u201cGeraint, the Son of Erbin\u201d. He\n accompanied Arthur on his expedition to Rome, and is said also to have\n slain \u201cthree most atrocious giants\u201d at Brentenol (Brent Knoll), near\n Glastonbury. His name occurs in a catalogue of Welsh saints, where he\n is described as a bard, and the chapel of Bodedyrn, near Holyhead,\n still stands to his honour. Modern readers will know him from\n Tennyson\u2019s Idyll of \u201cGeraint and Enid\u201d, which follows very closely the\n Welsh romance of \u201cGeraint, the Son of Erbin\u201d.\n\nFootnote 302:\n\n Rhys\u2014who calls him \u201ca Cambrian Pluto\u201d: _Lectures on Welsh Philology_,\n p. 414.\n\nFootnote 303:\n\n _Book of Taliesin_, XLIII. _The Death-song of Dylan, Son of the Wave_,\n Vol. I, p. 288 of Skene.\n\nFootnote 304:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 387.\n\nFootnote 305:\n\n Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, p. 210.\n\nFootnote 306:\n\n _i.e._ The Lion with the Steady Hand.\n\nFootnote 307:\n\n See Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, note to p. 237.\n\nFootnote 308:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 240.\n\nFootnote 309:\n\n Retold from the Mabinogi of _Math, Son of Mathonwy_, in Lady Guest\u2019s\n _Mabinogion_.\n\nFootnote 310:\n\n The Iolo Manuscripts: collected by Edward Williams, the bard, at about\n the beginning of the nineteenth century\u2014_The Tale of Rhitta Gawr_.\n\nFootnote 311:\n\n See Chapter VII\u2014\u201cThe Rise of the Sun-God\u201d.\n\nFootnote 312:\n\n Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, p. 130.\n\nFootnote 313:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 130.\n\nFootnote 314:\n\n The old Irish tract called _Coir Anmann_ (the _Choice of Names_) says:\n \u201cManannan mac Lir ... the Britons and the men of Erin deemed that he\n was the god of the sea\u201d.\n\nFootnote 315:\n\n _Iolo MSS._, stanza 18 of _The Stanzas of the Achievements_, composed\n by the Azure Bard of the Chair.\n\nFootnote 316:\n\n See note to chap. XXII\u2014\u201cThe Treasures of Britain\u201d.\n\nFootnote 317:\n\n Mabinogi of _Branwen, Daughter of Llyr_.\n\nFootnote 318:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 245.\n\nFootnote 319:\n\n _Book of Taliesin_, poem XLVIII, in Skene\u2019s _Four Ancient Books of\n Wales_, Vol. I, p. 297.\n\nFootnote 320:\n\n The _Verses of the Graves of the Warriors_, in the Black Book of\n Caermarthen. See also Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 347.\n\nFootnote 321:\n\n Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, p. 160.\n\nFootnote 322:\n\n Mabinogi of _Manawyddan, Son of Llyr_.\n\nFootnote 323:\n\n _Book of Taliesin_, poem xiv, Vol. I, p. 276, of Skene.\n\nFootnote 324:\n\n Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, p. 48 and note.\n\nFootnote 325:\n\n See a paper in the _Edinburgh Review_ for July, 1851\u2014\u201cThe Romans in\n Britain\u201d.\n\nFootnote 326:\n\n It is said that the \u201cOld King Cole\u201d of the popular ballad, who \u201cwas a\n merry old soul\u201d, represents the last faint tradition of the Celtic\n god.\n\nFootnote 327:\n\n _Geoffrey of Monmouth_, Book III, chap. I.\n\nFootnote 328:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book I, chap. XVI.\n\nFootnote 329:\n\n For full account of Gaulish gods, and their Gaelic and British\n affinities, see Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, I and II\u2014\u201cThe Gaulish\n Pantheon\u201d.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII\n\n THE ADVENTURES OF THE GODS OF HADES\n\n\nIt is with the family of Pwyll, deities connected with the south-west\ncorner of Wales, called by the Romans Demetia, and by the Britons Dyfed,\nand, roughly speaking, identical with the modern county of\nPembrokeshire, that the earliest consecutive accounts of the British\ngods begin. The first of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi tell us how\n\u201cPwyll, Prince of Dyfed\u201d, gained the right to be called _Pen Annwn_, the\n\u201cHead of Hades\u201d. Indeed, it almost seems as if it had been deliberately\nwritten to explain how the same person could be at once a mere mortal\nprince, however legendary, and a ruler in the mystic Other World, and so\nto reconcile two conflicting traditions.[330] But to an earlier age than\nthat in which the legend was put into a literary shape, such forced\nreconciliation would not have been needed; for the two legends would not\nhave been considered to conflict. When Pwyll, head of Annwn, was a\nmythic person whose tradition was still alive, the unexplored, rugged,\nand savage country of Dyfed, populated by the aboriginal Iberians whom\nthe Celt had driven into such remote districts, appeared to those who\ndwelt upon the eastern side of its dividing river, the Taw\u00eb, at least a\ndependency of Annwn, if not that weird realm itself. But, as men grew\nbolder, the frontier was crossed, and Dyfed entered and traversed, and\nfound to be not so unlike other countries. Its inhabitants, if not of\nCeltic race, were yet of flesh and blood. So that, though the province\nstill continued to bear to a late date the names of the \u201cLand of\nIllusion\u201d and the \u201cRealm of Glamour\u201d,[331] it was no longer deemed to be\nHades itself. That fitful and shadowy country had folded its tents, and\ndeparted over or under seas.\n\nThe story of \u201cPwyll, Prince of Dyfed\u201d,[332] tells us how there was war\nin Annwn between its two kings\u2014or between two, perhaps, of its many\nchieftains. Arawn (\u201cSilver-Tongue\u201d) and Havgan (\u201cSummer-White\u201d) each\ncoveted the dominions of the other. In the continual contests between\nthem, Arawn was worsted, and in despair he visited the upper earth to\nseek for a mortal ally.\n\nAt this time Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, held his court at Narberth. He had,\nhowever, left his capital upon a hunting expedition to Glyn C\u00fbch, known\nto-day as a valley upon the borders of the two counties of Pembroke and\nCarmarthen. Like so many kings of European and Oriental romance, when an\nadventure is at hand, he became separated from his party, and was, in\nmodern parlance, \u201cthrown out\u201d. He could, however, still hear the music\nof his hounds, and was listening to them, when he also distinguished the\ncry of another pack coming towards him. As he watched and listened, a\nstag came into view; and the strange hounds pulled it down almost at his\nfeet. At first Pwyll hardly looked at the stag, he was so taken up with\ngazing at the hounds, for \u201cof all the hounds that he had seen in the\nworld, he had never seen any that were like unto these. For their hair\nwas of a brilliant shining white, and their ears were red; and as the\nwhiteness of their bodies shone, so did the redness of their ears\nglisten.\u201d They were, indeed, though Pwyll does not seem to have known\nit, of the true Hades breed\u2014the snow-white, red-eared hounds we meet in\nGaelic legends, and which are still said to be sometimes heard and seen\nscouring the hills of Wales by night. Seeing no rider with the hounds,\nPwyll drove them away from the dead stag, and called up his own pack to\nit.\n\nWhile he was doing this, a man \u201cupon a large, light-gray steed, with a\nhunting-horn round his neck, and clad in garments of gray woollen in the\nfashion of a hunting garb\u201d appeared, and rated Pwyll for his\nunsportsmanlike conduct. \u201cGreater discourtesy,\u201d said he, \u201cI never saw\nthan your driving away my dogs after they had killed the stag, and\ncalling your own to it. And though I may not be revenged upon you for\nthis, I swear that I will do you more damage than the value of a hundred\nstags.\u201d\n\nPwyll expressed his contrition, and, asking the new-comer\u2019s name and\nrank, offered to atone for his fault. The stranger told his name\u2014Arawn,\na king of Annwn\u2014and said that Pwyll could gain his forgiveness only in\none way, by going to Annwn instead of him, and fighting for him with\nHavgan. Pwyll agreed to do this, and the King of Hades put his own\nsemblance upon the mortal prince, so that not a person in Annwn\u2014not even\nArawn\u2019s own wife\u2014would know that he was not that king. He led him by a\nsecret path into Annwn, and left him before his castle, charging him to\nreturn to the place where they had first met, at the end of a year from\nthat day. On the other hand, Arawn took on Pwyll\u2019s shape, and went to\nNarberth.\n\nNo one in Annwn suspected Pwyll of being anyone else than their king. He\nspent the year in ruling the realm, in hunting, minstrelsy, and\nfeasting. Both by day and night, he had the company of Arawn\u2019s wife, the\nmost beautiful woman he had ever yet seen, but he refrained from taking\nadvantage of the trust placed in him. At last the day came when he was\nto meet Havgan in single combat. One blow settled it; for Pwyll,\nHavgan\u2019s destined conqueror, thrust his antagonist an arm\u2019s and a\nspear\u2019s length over the crupper of his horse, breaking his shield and\narmour, and mortally wounding him. Havgan was carried away to die, and\nPwyll, in the guise of Arawn, received the submission of the dead king\u2019s\nsubjects, and annexed his realm. Then he went back to Glyn C\u00fbch, to keep\nhis tryst with Arawn.\n\nThey retook their own shapes, and each returned to his own kingdom.\nPwyll learned that Dyfed had never been ruled so well, or been so\nprosperous, as during the year just passed. As for the King of Hades, he\nfound his enemy gone, and his domains extended. And when he caressed his\nwife, she asked him why he did so now, after the lapse of a whole year.\nSo he told her the truth, and they both agreed that they had indeed got\na true friend in Pwyll.\n\nAfter this, the kings of Annwn and Dyfed made their friendship strong\nbetween them. From that time forward, says the story, Pwyll was no\nlonger called Prince of Dyfed, but _Pen Annwn_, \u201cthe Head of Hades\u201d.\n\nThe second mythological incident in the Mabinogi of Pwyll, Prince of\nDyfed, tells how the Head of Hades won his wife, Rhiannon, thought by\nProfessor Rhys to have been a goddess either of the dawn or of the\nmoon.[333] There was a mound outside Pwyll\u2019s palace at Narberth which\nhad a magical quality. To anyone who sat upon it there happened one of\ntwo things: either he received wounds and blows, or else he saw a\nwonder. One day, it occurred to Pwyll that he would like to try the\nexperience of the mound. So he went and sat upon it.\n\nNo unseen blows assailed Pwyll, but he had not been sitting long upon\nthe mound before he saw, coming towards him, \u201ca lady on a pure-white\nhorse of large size, with a garment of shining gold around her\u201d, riding\nvery quietly. He sent a man on foot to ask her who she was, but, though\nshe seemed to be moving so slowly, the man could not come up to her. He\nfailed utterly to overtake her, and she passed on out of sight.\n\nThe next day, Pwyll went again to the mound. The lady appeared, and,\nthis time, Pwyll sent a horseman. At first, the horseman only ambled\nalong at about the same pace at which the lady seemed to be going; then,\nfailing to get near her, he urged his horse into a gallop. But, whether\nhe rode slow or fast, he could come no closer to the lady than before,\nalthough she seemed to the eyes of those who watched to have been going\nonly at a foot\u2019s pace.\n\nThe day after that, Pwyll determined to accost the lady himself. She\ncame at the same gentle walk, and Pwyll at first rode easily, and then\nat his horse\u2019s topmost speed, but with the same result, or lack of it.\nAt last, in despair, he called to the mysterious damsel to stop. \u201cI will\nstop gladly,\u201d said she, \u201cand it would have been better for your horse if\nyou had asked me before.\u201d She told him that her name was Rhiannon,\ndaughter of Heveydd the Ancient. The nobles of her realm had determined\nto give her in marriage against her will, so she had come to seek out\nPwyll, who was the man of her choice. Pwyll was delighted to hear this,\nfor he thought that she was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen.\nBefore they parted, they had plighted troth, and Pwyll had promised to\nappear on that day twelvemonth at the palace of her father, Heveydd.\nThen she vanished, and Pwyll returned to Narberth.\n\nAt the appointed time, Pwyll went to visit Heveydd the Ancient, with a\nhundred followers. He was received with much welcome, and the\ndisposition of the feast put under his command, as the Celts seem to\nhave done to especially honoured guests. As they sat at meat, with Pwyll\nbetween Rhiannon and her father, a tall auburn-haired youth came into\nthe hall, greeted Pwyll, and asked a boon of him. \u201cWhatever boon you may\nask of me,\u201d said Pwyll thoughtlessly, \u201cif it is in my power, you shall\nhave it.\u201d Then the suitor threw off all disguise, called the guests to\nwitness Pwyll\u2019s promise, and claimed Rhiannon as his bride. Pwyll was\ndumb. \u201cBe silent as long as you will,\u201d said the masterful Rhiannon;\n\u201cnever did a man make worse use of his wits than you have done.\u201d \u201cLady,\u201d\nreplied the amazed Pwyll, \u201cI knew not who he was.\u201d \u201cHe is the man to\nwhom they would have given me against my will,\u201d she answered, \u201cGwawl,\nthe son of Cl\u00fbd. You must bestow me upon him now, lest shame befall\nyou.\u201d \u201cNever will I do that,\u201d said Pwyll. \u201cBestow me upon him,\u201d she\ninsisted, \u201cand I will cause that I shall never be his.\u201d So Pwyll\npromised Gwawl that he would make a feast that day year, at which he\nwould resign Rhiannon to him.\n\nThe next year, the feast was made, and Rhiannon sat by the side of her\nunwelcome bridegroom. But Pwyll was waiting outside the palace, with a\nhundred men in ambush. When the banquet was at its height, he came into\nthe hall, dressed in coarse, ragged garments, shod with clumsy old\nshoes, and carrying a leather bag. But the bag was a magic one, which\nRhiannon had given to her lover, with directions as to its use. Its\nquality was that, however much was put into it, it could never be\nfilled. \u201cI crave a boon,\u201d he said to Gwawl. \u201cWhat is it?\u201d Gwawl replied.\n\u201cI am a poor man, and all I ask is to have this bag filled with meat.\u201d\nGwawl granted what he said was \u201ca request within reason\u201d, and ordered\nhis followers to fill the bag. But the more they put into it, the more\nroom in it there seemed to be. Gwawl was astonished, and asked why this\nwas. Pwyll replied that it was a bag that could never be filled until\nsomeone possessed of lands and riches should tread the food down with\nboth his feet. \u201cDo this for the man,\u201d said Rhiannon to Gwawl. \u201cGladly I\nwill,\u201d replied he, and put both his feet into the bag. But no sooner had\nhe done so than Pwyll slipped the bag over Gwawl\u2019s head, and tied it up\nat the mouth. He blew his horn, and all his followers came in. \u201cWhat\nhave you got in the bag?\u201d asked each one in turn. \u201cA badger,\u201d replied\nPwyll. Then each, as he received Pwyll\u2019s answer, kicked the bag, or hit\nit with a stick. \u201cThen,\u201d says the story, \u201cwas the game of \u2018Badger in the\nBag\u2019 first played.\u201d\n\nGwawl, however, fared better than we suspect that the badger usually\ndid; for Heveydd the Ancient interceded for him. Pwyll willingly\nreleased him, on condition that he promised to give up all claim to\nRhiannon, and renounced all projects of revenge. Gwawl consented, and\ngave sureties, and went away to his own country to have his bruises\nhealed.\n\nThis country of Gwawl\u2019s was, no doubt, the sky; for he was evidently a\nsun-god. His name bewrays him; for the meaning of \u201cGwawl\u201d is\n\u201clight\u201d.[334] It was one of the hours of victory for the dark powers,\nsuch as were celebrated in the Celtic calendar by the Feast of Samhain,\nor Summer End.\n\nThere was no hindrance now to the marriage of Pwyll and Rhiannon. She\nbecame his bride, and returned with him to Dyfed.\n\nFor three years, they were without an heir, and the nobles of Dyfed\nbecame discontented. They petitioned Pwyll to take another wife instead\nof Rhiannon. He asked for a year\u2019s delay. This was granted, and, before\nthe end of the year, a son was born. But, on the night of his birth, the\nsix women set to keep watch over Rhiannon all fell asleep at once; and\nwhen they woke up, the boy had vanished. Fearful lest their lives should\nbe forfeited for their neglect, they agreed to swear that Rhiannon had\neaten her child. They killed a litter of puppies, and smeared some of\nthe blood on Rhiannon\u2019s face and hands, and put some of the bones by her\nside. Then they awoke her with a great outcry, and accused her. She\nswore that she knew nothing of the death of her son, but the women\npersisted that they had seen her devour him, and had been unable to\nprevent it. The druids of that day were not sufficiently practical\nanatomists to be able to tell the bones of a child from those of a dog,\nso they condemned Rhiannon upon the evidence of the women. But, even\nnow, Pwyll would not put her away; so she was assigned a penance. For\nseven years, she was to sit by a horse-block outside the gate, and offer\nto carry visitors into the palace upon her back. \u201cBut it rarely\nhappened,\u201d says the Mabinogi, \u201cthat any would permit her to do so.\u201d\n\nExactly what had become of Rhiannon\u2019s child seems to have been a mystery\neven to the writer of the Mabinogi. It was, at any rate, in some way\nconnected with the equally mysterious disappearance on every night of\nthe first of May\u2014Beltaine, the Celtic sun-festival\u2014of the colts foaled\nby a beautiful mare belonging to Teirnyon Twryv Vliant, one of Pwyll\u2019s\nvassals. Every May-day night, the mare foaled, but no one knew what\nbecame of the colt. Teirnyon decided to find out. He caused the mare to\nbe taken into a house, and there he watched it, fully armed. Early in\nthe night, the colt was born. Then there was a great noise, and an arm\nwith claws came through the window, and gripped the colt\u2019s mane.\nTeirnyon hacked at the arm with his sword, and cut it off. Then he heard\nwailing, and opened the door, and found a baby in swaddling clothes,\nwrapped in a satin mantle. He took it up and brought it to his wife, and\nthey decided to adopt it. They called the boy Gwri Wallt Euryn, that is\n\u201cGwri of the Golden Hair\u201d.\n\nThe older the boy grew, the more it seemed to Teirnyon that he became\nlike Pwyll. Then he remembered that he had found him upon the very night\nthat Rhiannon lost her child. So he consulted with his wife, and they\nboth agreed that the baby they had so mysteriously found must be the\nsame that Rhiannon had so mysteriously lost. And they decided that it\nwould not be right for them to keep the son of another, while so good a\nlady as Rhiannon was being punished wrongfully.\n\nSo, the very next day, Teirnyon set out for Narberth, taking the boy\nwith him. They found Rhiannon sitting, as usual, by the gate, but they\nwould not allow her to carry them into the palace on her back. Pwyll\nwelcomed them; and that evening, as they sat at supper, Teirnyon told\nhis hosts the story from beginning to end. And he presented her son to\nRhiannon.\n\nAs soon as everyone in the palace saw the boy, they admitted that he\nmust be Pwyll\u2019s son. So they adopted him with delight; and Pendaran\nDyfed, the head druid of the kingdom, gave him a new name. He called him\n\u201cPryderi[335]\u201d, meaning \u201ctrouble\u201d, from the first word that his mother\nhad uttered when he was restored to her. For she had said: \u201c_Trouble_\nis, indeed, at an end for me, if this be true\u201d.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 330:\n\n Rhys: _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_, p. 282.\n\nFootnote 331:\n\n It is constantly so-called by the fourteenth-century Welsh poet,\n Dafydd ab Gwilym, so much admired by George Borrow.\n\nFootnote 332:\n\n This chapter is retold from Lady Guest\u2019s translation of the Mabinogi\n of _Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed_.\n\nFootnote 333:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 678.\n\nFootnote 334:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 123 and note. Cl\u00fbd was probably the\n goddess of the River Clyde. See Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 294.\n\nFootnote 335:\n\n Pronounced _Prida\u00edry_.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII\n\n THE WOOING OF BRANWEN AND THE\n BEHEADING OF BR\u00c2N[336]\n\n\nIn the second of the \u201cFour Branches\u201d, Pryderi, come to man\u2019s estate, and\nmarried to a wife called Kicva, appears as a guest or vassal at the\ncourt of a greater god of Hades than himself\u2014Br\u00e2n, the son of the\nsea-god Llyr. The children of Llyr\u2014Br\u00e2n, with his sister Branwen of the\n\u201cFair Bosom\u201d and his half-brother Manawyddan, as well as two sons of\nManawyddan\u2019s mother, Penardun, by an earlier marriage, were holding\ncourt at _Twr Branwen_, \u201cBranwen\u2019s Tower\u201d, now called Harlech. As they\nsat on a cliff, looking over the sea, they saw thirteen ships coming\nfrom Ireland. The fleet sailed close under the land, and Br\u00e2n sent\nmessengers to ask who they were, and why they had come. It was replied\nthat they were the vessels of Matholwch, King of Ireland, and that he\nhad come to ask Br\u00e2n for his sister Branwen in marriage. Br\u00e2n consented,\nand they fixed upon Aberffraw, in Anglesey, as the place at which to\nhold the wedding feast. Matholwch and his fleet went there by sea, and\nBr\u00e2n and his host by land. When they arrived, and met, they set up\npavilions; for \u201cno house could ever hold the blessed Br\u00e2n\u201d. And there\nBranwen became the King of Ireland\u2019s bride.[337]\n\nThese relations were not long, however, allowed to be friendly. Of the\ntwo other sons of Llyr\u2019s wife, Penardun, the mother of Manawyddan, one\nwas called Nissyen, and the other, Evnissyen. Nissyen was a lover of\npeace, and would always \u201ccause his family to be friends when their wrath\nwas at the highest\u201d, but Evnissyen \u201cwould cause strife between his two\nbrothers when they were most at peace\u201d. Now Evnissyen was enraged\nbecause his consent had not been asked to Branwen\u2019s marriage. Out of\nspite at this, he cut off the lips, ears, eyebrows, and tails of all\nMatholwch\u2019s horses.\n\nWhen the King of Ireland found this out, he was very indignant at the\ninsult. But Br\u00e2n sent an embassy to him twice, explaining that it had\nnot been done by his consent or with his knowledge. He appeased\nMatholwch by giving him a sound horse in place of every one that\nEvnissyen had mutilated, as well as a staff of silver as large and tall\nas Matholwch himself, and a plate of gold as broad as Matholwch\u2019s face.\nTo these gifts he also added a magic cauldron brought from Ireland. Its\nproperty was that any slain man who was put into it was brought to life\nagain, except that he lost the use of speech. The King of Ireland\naccepted this recompense for the insult done him, renewed his friendship\nwith the children of Llyr, and sailed away with Branwen to Ireland.\n\nBefore a year was over, Branwen bore a son. They called him Gwern, and\nput him out to be foster-nursed among the best men of Ireland. But,\nduring the second year, news came to Ireland of the insult that\nMatholwch had received in Britain. The King of Ireland\u2019s foster-brothers\nand near relations insisted that he should revenge himself upon Branwen.\nSo the queen was compelled to serve in the kitchen, and, every day, the\nbutcher gave her a box upon the ear. That this should not become known\nto Br\u00e2n, all traffic was forbidden between Ireland and Britain. This\nwent on for three years.\n\nBut, in the meantime, Branwen had reared a tame starling, and she taught\nit to speak, and tied a letter of complaint to the root of its wing, and\nsent it off to Britain. At last it found Br\u00e2n, whom its mistress had\ndescribed to it, and settled upon his shoulder, ruffling its wings. This\nexposed the letter, and Br\u00e2n read it. He sent messengers to one hundred\nand forty-four countries, to raise an army to go to Ireland. Leaving his\nson Caradawc, with seven others, in charge of Britain, he\nstarted\u2014himself wading through the sea, while his men went by ship.\n\nNo one in Ireland knew that they were coming until the royal swineherds,\ntending their pigs near the sea-shore, beheld a marvel. They saw a\nforest on the surface of the sea\u2014a place where certainly no forest had\nbeen before\u2014and, near it, a mountain with a lofty ridge on its top, and\na lake on each side of the ridge. Both the forest and the mountain were\nswiftly moving towards Ireland. They informed Matholwch, who could not\nunderstand it, and sent messengers to ask Branwen what she thought it\nmight be. \u201cIt is the men of the Island of the Mighty[338],\u201d said she,\n\u201cwho are coming here because they have heard of my ill-treatment. The\nforest that is seen on the sea is made of the masts of ships. The\nmountain is my brother Br\u00e2n, wading into shoal water; the lofty ridge is\nhis nose, and the two lakes, one on each side of it, are his eyes.\u201d\n\nThe men of Ireland were terrified. They fled beyond the Shannon, and\nbroke down the bridge over it. But Br\u00e2n lay down across the river, and\nhis army walked over him to the opposite side.\n\nMatholwch now sent messengers suing for peace. He offered to resign the\nthrone of Ireland to Gwern, Branwen\u2019s son and Br\u00e2n\u2019s nephew. \u201cShall I\nnot have the kingdom myself?\u201d said Br\u00e2n, and would not hear of anything\nelse. So the counsellors of Matholwch advised him to conciliate Br\u00e2n by\nbuilding him a house so large that it would be the first house that had\never held him, and, in it, to hand over the kingdom to his will. Br\u00e2n\nconsented to accept this, and the vast house was built.\n\nIt concealed treachery. Upon each side of the hundred pillars of the\nhouse was hung a bag, and in the bag was an armed man, who was to cut\nhimself out at a given signal. But Evnissyen came into the house, and\nseeing the bags there, suspected the plot. \u201cWhat is in this bag?\u201d he\nsaid to one of the Irish, as he came up to the first one. \u201cMeal,\u201d\nreplied the Irishman. Then Evnissyen kneaded the bag in his hands, as\nthough it really contained meal, until he had killed the man inside; and\nhe treated all of them in turn in the same way.\n\nA little later, the two hosts met in the house. The men of Ireland came\nin on one side, and the men of Britain on the other, and met at the\nhearth in the middle, and sat down. The Irish court did homage to Br\u00e2n,\nand they crowned Gwern, Branwen\u2019s son, King of Ireland in place of\nMatholwch. When the ceremonies were over, the boy went from one to\nanother of his uncles, to make acquaintance with them. Br\u00e2n fondled and\ncaressed him, and so did Manawyddan, and Nissyen. But when he came to\nEvnissyen, the wicked son of Penardun seized the child by the feet, and\ndropped him head first into the great fire.\n\nWhen Branwen saw her son killed, she tried to leap into the flames after\nhim, but Br\u00e2n held her back. Then every man armed himself, and such a\ntumult was never heard in one house before. Day after day they fought;\nbut the Irish had the advantage, for they had only to plunge their dead\nmen into the magic cauldron to bring them back to life. When Evnissyen\nknew this, he saw a way of atoning for the misfortunes his evil nature\nhad brought upon Britain. He disguised himself as an Irishman, and lay\nupon the floor as if dead, until they put him into the cauldron. Then he\nstretched himself, and, with one desperate effort, burst both the\ncauldron and his own heart.\n\nThus things were made equal again, and in the next battle the men of\nBritain killed all the Irish. But of themselves there were only seven\nleft unhurt\u2014Pryderi; Manawyddan; Gluneu, the son of Taran[339]; Taliesin\nthe Bard; Ynawc; Grudyen, the son of Muryel; and Heilyn, the son of\nGwynn the Ancient.\n\nBr\u00e2n himself was wounded in the foot with a poisoned dart, and was in\nagony. So he ordered his seven surviving followers to cut off his head,\nand to take it to the White Mount in London[340], and bury it there,\nwith the face towards France. He prophesied how they would perform the\njourney. At Harlech they would be feasting seven years, the birds of\nRhiannon singing to them all the time, and Br\u00e2n\u2019s own head conversing\nwith them as agreeably as when it was on his body. Then they would be\nfourscore years at Gwales[341]. All this while, Br\u00e2n\u2019s head would remain\nuncorrupted, and would talk so pleasantly that they would forget the\nflight of time. But, at the destined hour, someone would open a door\nwhich looked towards Cornwall, and, after that, they could stay no\nlonger, but must hurry to London to bury the head.\n\nSo the seven beheaded Br\u00e2n, and set off, taking Branwen also with them.\nThey landed at the mouth of the River Alaw, in Anglesey. Branwen first\nlooked back towards Ireland, and then forward towards Britain. \u201cAlas,\u201d\nshe cried, \u201cthat I was ever born! two islands have been destroyed\nbecause of me.\u201d Her heart broke with sorrow, and she died. An old Welsh\npoem says, with a touch of real pathos:\n\n \u201cSoftened were the voices in the brakes\n Of the wondering birds\n On seeing the fair body.\n Will there not be relating again\n Of that which befel the paragon\n At the stream of Amlwch?\u201d[342]\n\n\u201cThey made her a four-sided grave,\u201d says the Mabinogi, \u201cand buried her\nupon the banks of the Alaw.\u201d The traditionary spot has always borne the\nname of _Ynys Branwen_, and, curiously enough, an urn was found there,\nin 1813, full of ashes and half-burnt bones, which certain enthusiastic\nlocal antiquaries saw \u201cevery reason to suppose\u201d were those of the fair\nBritish Aphrodit\u00e9 herself.[343]\n\nThe seven went on towards Harlech, and, as they journeyed, they met men\nand women who gave them the latest news. Caswallawn, a son of Beli, the\nhusband of D\u00f4n, had destroyed the ministers left behind by Br\u00e2n to take\ncare of Britain. He had made himself invisible by the help of a magic\nveil, and thus had killed all of them except Pendaran Dyfed,\nfoster-father of Pryderi, who had escaped into the woods, and Caradawc\nson of Br\u00e2n, whose heart had broken from grief. Thus he had made himself\nking of the whole island in place of Manawyddan, its rightful heir now\nthat Br\u00e2n was dead.\n\nHowever, the destiny was upon the seven that they should go on with\ntheir leader\u2019s head. They went to Harlech and feasted for seven years,\nthe three birds of Rhiannon singing them songs compared with which all\nother songs seemed unmelodious. Then they spent fourscore years in the\nIsle of Gwales, eating and drinking, and listening to the pleasant\nconversation of Br\u00e2n\u2019s head. The \u201cEntertaining of the Noble Head\u201d this\neighty years\u2019 feast was called. Br\u00e2n\u2019s head, indeed, is almost more\nnotable in British mythology than Br\u00e2n before he was decapitated.\nTaliesin and the other bards invoke it repeatedly as _Urddawl Ben_ (the\n\u201cVenerable Head\u201d) and _Uther Ben_ (the \u201cWonderful Head\u201d).\n\nBut all pleasure came to an end when Heilyn, the son of Gwynn, opened\nthe forbidden door, like Bluebeard\u2019s wife, \u201cto know if that was true\nwhich was said concerning it\u201d. As soon as they looked towards Cornwall,\nthe glamour that had kept them merry for eighty-seven years failed, and\nleft them as grieved about the death of their lord as though it had\nhappened that very day. They could not rest for sorrow, but went at once\nto London, and laid the now dumb and corrupting head in its grave on\nTower Hill, with its face turned towards France, to watch that no foe\ncame from foreign lands to Britain. There it reposed until, ages\nafterwards, Arthur, in his pride of heart, dug it up, \u201cas he thought it\nbeneath his dignity to hold the island otherwise than by valour\u201d.\nDisaster, in the shape of\n\n \u201cthe godless hosts\n Of heathen swarming o\u2019er the Northern sea\u201d,[344]\n\ncame of this disinterment; and therefore it is called, in a triad, one\nof the \u201cThree Wicked Uncoverings of Britain\u201d.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 336:\n\n Retold from Lady Guest\u2019s translation of the Mabinogi of _Branwen, the\n Daughter of Llyr_.\n\nFootnote 337:\n\n Rhys\u2014_Lectures on Welsh Philology_\u2014compares Matholwch with M\u00e2th, and\n the story, generally, with the Greek myth of Persephon\u00e9.\n\nFootnote 338:\n\n A bardic name for Britain.\n\nFootnote 339:\n\n This personage may have been the same as the Gaulish god Taranis.\n Mention, too, is made in an ancient Irish glossary of \u201cEtirun, an idol\n of the Britons\u201d.\n\nFootnote 340:\n\n This spot, called by a twelfth-century Welsh poet \u201cThe White Eminence\n of London, a place of splendid fame\u201d, was probably the hill on which\n the Tower of London now stands.\n\nFootnote 341:\n\n The island of Gresholm, off the coast of Pembrokeshire.\n\nFootnote 342:\n\n _The Gododin_ of Aneurin, as translated by T. Stephens. Branwen is\n there called \u201cthe lady Bradwen\u201d.\n\nFootnote 343:\n\n See note to _Branwen, the Daughter of Llyr_ in Lady Guest\u2019s\n _Mabinogion_.\n\nFootnote 344:\n\n Tennyson: _Idylls of the King_\u2014\u201cGuinevere\u201d.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX\n\n THE WAR OF ENCHANTMENTS[345]\n\n\nManawyddan was now the sole survivor of the family of Llyr. He was\nhomeless and landless. But Pryderi offered to give him a realm in Dyfed,\nand his mother, Rhiannon, for a wife. The lady, her son explained, was\nstill not uncomely, and her conversation was pleasing. Manawyddan seems\nto have found her attractive, while Rhiannon was not less taken with the\nson of Llyr. They were wedded, and so great became the friendship of\nPryderi and Kicva, Manawyddan and Rhiannon, that the four were seldom\napart.\n\nOne day, after holding a feast at Narberth, they went up to the same\nmagic mound where Rhiannon had first met Pwyll. As they sat there,\nthunder pealed, and immediately a thick mist sprang up, so that not one\nof them could see the other. When it cleared, they found themselves\nalone in an uninhabited country. Except for their own castle, the land\nwas desert and untilled, without sign of dwelling, man, or beast. One\ntouch of some unknown magic had utterly changed the face of Dyfed from a\nrich realm to a wilderness.\n\nManawyddan and Pryderi, Rhiannon and Kicva traversed the country on all\nsides, but found nothing except desolation and wild beasts. For two\nyears they lived in the open upon game and honey.\n\nDuring the third year, they grew weary of this wild life, and decided to\ngo into Lloegyr[346], and support themselves by some handicraft.\nManawyddan could make saddles, and he made them so well that soon no one\nin Hereford, where they had settled, would buy from any saddler but\nhimself. This aroused the enmity of all the other saddlers, and they\nconspired to kill the strangers. So the four went to another city.\n\nHere they made shields, and soon no one would purchase a shield unless\nit had been made by Manawyddan and Pryderi. The shield-makers became\njealous, and again a move had to be made.\n\nBut they fared no better at the next town, where they practised the\ncraft of cordwainers, Manawyddan shaping the shoes and Pryderi stitching\nthem. So they went back to Dyfed again, and occupied themselves in\nhunting.\n\nOne day, the hounds of Manawyddan and Pryderi roused a white wild boar.\nThey chased it till they came to a castle at a place where both the\nhuntsmen were certain that no castle had been before. Into this castle\nwent the boar, and the hounds after it. For some time, Manawyddan and\nPryderi waited in vain for their return. Pryderi then proposed that he\nshould go into the castle, and see what had become of them. Manawyddan\ntried to dissuade him, declaring that whoever their enemy was who had\nlaid Dyfed waste had also caused the appearance of this castle. But\nPryderi insisted upon entering.\n\nIn the castle, he found neither the boar nor his hounds, nor any trace\nof man or beast. There was nothing but a fountain in the centre of the\ncastle floor, and, on the brink of the fountain, a beautiful golden bowl\nfastened to a marble slab by chains.\n\nPryderi was so pleased with the beauty of the bowl that he put out his\nhands and took hold of it. Whereupon his hands stuck to the bowl, so\nthat he could not move from where he stood.\n\nManawyddan waited for him till the evening, and then returned to the\npalace, and told Rhiannon. She, more daring than her husband, rebuked\nhim for cowardice, and went straight to the magic castle. In the court\nshe found Pryderi, his hands still glued to the bowl and his feet to the\nslab. She tried to free him, but became fixed, herself, and, with a clap\nof thunder and a fall of mist, the castle vanished with its two\nprisoners.\n\nManawyddan was now left alone with Kicva, Pryderi\u2019s wife. He calmed her\nfears, and assured her of his protection. But they had lost their dogs,\nand could not hunt any more, so they set out together to Lloegyr, to\npractise again Manawyddan\u2019s old trade of cordwainer. A second time, the\nenvious cordwainers conspired to kill them, so they were obliged to\nreturn to Dyfed.\n\nBut Manawyddan took back a burden of wheat with him to Narberth, and\nsowed three crofts, all of which sprang up abundantly.\n\nWhen harvest time came, he went to look at his first croft, and found it\nripe. \u201cI will reap this to-morrow,\u201d he said. But in the morning he found\nnothing but the bare straw. Every ear had been taken away.\n\nSo he went to the next croft, which was also ripe. But, when he came to\ncut it, he found it had been stripped like the first. Then he knew that\nwhoever had wasted Dyfed, and carried off Rhiannon and Pryderi, was also\nat work upon his wheat.\n\nThe third croft was also ripe, and over this one he determined to keep\nwatch. In the evening he armed himself and waited. At midnight he heard\na great tumult, and, looking out, saw a host of mice coming. Each mouse\nbit off an ear of wheat and ran off with it. He rushed among them, but\ncould only catch one, which was more sluggish than the rest. This one he\nput into his glove, and took it back, and showed it to Kicva.\n\n\u201cTo-morrow I will hang it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is not a fit thing for a man of\nyour dignity to hang a mouse,\u201d she replied. \u201cNevertheless will I do so,\u201d\nsaid he. \u201cDo so then,\u201d said Kicva.\n\nThe next morning, Manawyddan went to the magic mound, and set up two\nforks on it, to make a gallows. He had just finished, when a man dressed\nlike a poor scholar came towards him, and greeted him.\n\n\u201cWhat are you doing, Lord?\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cI am going to hang a thief,\u201d replied Manawyddan.\n\n\u201cWhat sort of a thief? I see an animal like a mouse in your hand, but a\nman of rank like yours should not touch so mean a creature. Let it go\nfree.\u201d\n\n\u201cI caught it robbing me,\u201d replied Manawyddan, \u201cand it shall die a\nthief\u2019s death.\u201d\n\n\u201cI do not care to see a man like you doing such a thing,\u201d said the\nscholar. \u201cI will give you a pound to let it go.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will not let it go,\u201d replied Manawyddan, \u201cnor will I sell it.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs you will, Lord. It is nothing to me,\u201d returned the scholar. And he\nwent away.\n\nManawyddan laid a cross-bar along the forks. As he did so, another man\ncame by, a priest riding on a horse. He asked Manawyddan what he was\ndoing, and was told. \u201cMy lord,\u201d he said, \u201csuch a reptile is worth\nnothing to buy, but rather than see you degrade yourself by touching it,\nI will give you three pounds to let it go.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will take no money for it,\u201d replied Manawyddan. \u201cIt shall be hanged.\u201d\n\n\u201cLet it be hanged,\u201d said the priest, and went his way.\n\nManawyddan put the noose round the mouse\u2019s neck, and was just going to\ndraw it up, when he saw a bishop coming, with his whole retinue.\n\n\u201cThy blessing, Lord Bishop,\u201d he said.\n\n\u201cHeaven\u2019s blessing upon you,\u201d said the bishop. \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d\n\n\u201cI am hanging a thief,\u201d replied Manawyddan. \u201cThis mouse has robbed me.\u201d\n\n\u201cSince I happen to have come at its doom, I will ransom it,\u201d said the\nbishop. \u201cHere are seven pounds. Take them, and let it go.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will not let it go,\u201d replied Manawyddan.\n\n\u201cI will give you twenty-four pounds of ready money if you will let it\ngo,\u201d said the bishop.\n\n\u201cI would not, for as much again,\u201d replied Manawyddan.\n\n\u201cIf you will not free it for that,\u201d said the bishop, \u201cI will give you\nall my horses and their baggage to let it go.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will not,\u201d replied Manawyddan.\n\n\u201cThen name your own price,\u201d said the bishop.\n\n\u201cThat offer I accept,\u201d replied Manawyddan. \u201cMy price is that Rhiannon\nand Pryderi be set free.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey shall be set free,\u201d replied the bishop.\n\n\u201cStill I will not let the mouse go,\u201d said Manawyddan.\n\n\u201cWhat more do you ask?\u201d exclaimed the bishop.\n\n\u201cThat the charm be removed from Dyfed,\u201d replied Manawyddan.\n\n\u201cIt shall be removed,\u201d promised the bishop. \u201cSo set the mouse free.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will not,\u201d said Manawyddan, \u201ctill I know who the mouse is.\u201d\n\n\u201cShe is my wife,\u201d replied the bishop, \u201cand I am called Llwyd, the son of\nKilcoed, and I cast the charm over Dyfed, and upon Rhiannon and Pryderi,\nto avenge Gwawl son of Cl\u00fbd for the game of \u2018badger in the bag\u2019 which\nwas played on him by Pwyll, Head of Annwn. It was my household that came\nin the guise of mice and took away your corn. But since my wife has been\ncaught, I will restore Rhiannon and Pryderi and take the charm off Dyfed\nif you will let her go.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will not let her go,\u201d said Manawyddan, \u201cuntil you have promised that\nthere shall be no charm put upon Dyfed again.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will promise that also,\u201d replied Llwyd. \u201cSo let her go.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will not let her go,\u201d said Manawyddan, \u201cunless you swear to take no\nrevenge for this hereafter.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou have done wisely to claim that,\u201d replied Llwyd. \u201cMuch trouble would\nelse have come upon your head because of this. Now I swear it. So set my\nwife free.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will not,\u201d said Manawyddan, \u201cuntil I see Rhiannon and Pryderi.\u201d\n\nThen he saw them coming towards him; and they greeted one another.\n\n\u201cNow set my wife free,\u201d said the bishop.\n\n\u201cI will, gladly,\u201d replied Manawyddan. So he released the mouse, and\nLlwyd struck her with a wand, and turned her into \u201ca young woman, the\nfairest ever seen\u201d.\n\nAnd when Manawyddan looked round him, he saw Dyfed tilled and cultivated\nagain, as it had formerly been.\n\nThe powers of light had, this time, the victory. Little by little, they\nincreased their mastery over the dominion of darkness, until we find the\nsurvivors of the families of Llyr and Pwyll mere vassals of Arthur.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 345:\n\n Retold from Lady Guest\u2019s translation of the Mabinogi of _Manawyddan,\n the Son of Llyr_.\n\nFootnote 346:\n\n Saxon Britain\u2014England.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XX\n\n THE VICTORIES OF LIGHT OVER DARKNESS\n\n\nThe powers of light were, however, by no means invariably successful in\ntheir struggles with the powers of darkness. Even Gwydion son of D\u00f4n had\nto serve his apprenticeship to misfortune. Assailing Caer\nSidi\u2014Hades[347] under one of its many titles,\u2014he was caught by Pwyll and\nPryderi, and endured a long imprisonment.[348] The sufferings he\nunderwent made him a bard\u2014an ancient Celtic idea which one can still see\nsurviving in the popular tradition that whoever dares to spend a night\nalone either upon the chair of the Giant Idris (the summit of Cader\nIdris, in Merionethshire), or under the haunted Black Stone of Arddu,\nupon the Llanberis side of Snowdon, will be found in the morning either\ninspired or mad.[349] How he escaped we are not told; but the episode\ndoes not seem to have quenched his ardour against the natural enemies of\nhis kind.\n\nHelped by his brother, Amaethon, god of agriculture, and his son, Lleu,\nhe fought the Battle of Godeu, or \u201cthe Trees\u201d, an exploit which is not\nthe least curious of Celtic myths. It is known also as the Battle of\nAchren, or Ochren, a name for Hades of unknown meaning, but appearing\nagain in the remarkable Welsh poem which describes the \u201cSpoiling of\nAnnwn\u201d by Arthur. The King of Achren was Arawn; and he was helped by\nBr\u00e2n, who apparently had not then made his fatal journey to Ireland. The\nwar was made to secure three boons for man\u2014the dog, the deer, and the\nlapwing, all of them creatures for some reason sacred to the gods of the\nnether world.\n\nGwydion was this time not alone, as he apparently was when he made his\nfirst unfortunate reconnaissance of Hades. Besides his brother and his\nson, he had an army which he raised for the purpose. For a leader of\nGwydion\u2019s magical attainments there was no need of standing troops. He\ncould call battalions into being with a charm, and dismiss them when\nthey were no longer needed. The name of the battle shows what he did on\nthis occasion; and the bard Taliesin adds his testimony:\n\n \u201cI have been in the battle of Godeu, with Lleu and Gwydion,\n They changed the forms of the elementary trees and sedges\u201d.\n\nIn a poem devoted to it[350] he describes in detail what happened. The\ntrees and grasses, he tells us, hurried to the fight: the alders led the\nvan, but the willows and the quickens came late, and the birch, though\ncourageous, took long in arraying himself; the elm stood firm in the\ncentre of the battle, and would not yield a foot; heaven and earth\ntrembled before the advance of the oak-tree, that stout door-keeper\nagainst an enemy; the heroic holly and the hawthorn defended themselves\nwith their spikes; the heather kept off the enemy on every side, and the\nbroom was well to the front, but the fern was plundered, and the furze\ndid not do well; the stout, lofty pine, the intruding pear-tree, the\ngloomy ash, the bashful chestnut-tree, the prosperous beech, the\nlong-enduring poplar, the scarce plum-tree, the shelter-seeking privet\nand woodbine, the wild, foreign laburnum; \u201cthe bean, bearing in its\nshade an army of phantoms\u201d; rose-bush, raspberry, ivy, cherry-tree, and\nmedlar\u2014all took their parts.\n\nIn the ranks of Hades there were equally strange fighters. We are told\nof a hundred-headed beast, carrying a formidable battalion under the\nroot of its tongue and another in the back of its head; there was a\ngaping black toad with a hundred claws; and a crested snake of many\ncolours, within whose flesh a hundred souls were tormented for their\nsins\u2014in fact, it would need a Dor\u00e9 or a Dante to do justice to this\nweird battle between the arrayed magics of heaven and hell.\n\nIt was magic that decided its fate. There was a fighter in the ranks of\nHades who could not be overcome unless his antagonist guessed his name\u2014a\npeculiarity of the terrene gods, remarks Professor Rhys,[351] which has\nbeen preserved in our popular fairy tales. Gwydion guessed the name, and\nsang these two verses:\u2014\n\n \u201cSure-hoofed is my steed impelled by the spur;\n The high sprigs of alder are on thy shield;\n _Br\u00e2n_ art thou called, of the glittering branches!\n\n \u201cSure-hoofed is my steed in the day of battle:\n The high sprigs of alder are on thy hand:\n _Br\u00e2n_ ... by the branch thou bearest\n Has Amaethon the Good prevailed!\u201d[352]\n\nThus the power of the dark gods was broken, and the sons of D\u00f4n retained\nfor the use of men the deer, the dog, and the lapwing, stolen from that\nunderworld, whence all good gifts came.\n\nIt was always to obtain some practical benefit that the gods of light\nfought against the gods of darkness. The last and greatest of Gwydion\u2019s\nraids upon Hades was undertaken to procure\u2014pork![353]\n\nGwydion had heard that there had come to Dyfed some strange beasts, such\nas had never been seen before. They were called \u201cpigs\u201d or \u201cswine\u201d, and\nArawn, King of Annwn, had sent them as a gift to Pryderi son of Pwyll.\nThey were small animals, and their flesh was said to be better than the\nflesh of oxen. He thought it would be a good thing to get them, either\nby force or fraud, from the dark powers. M\u00e2th son of M\u00e2thonwy, who ruled\nthe children of D\u00f4n from his Olympus of Caer Dathyl[354], gave his\nconsent, and Gwydion set off, with eleven others, to Pryderi\u2019s\npalace[355]. They disguised themselves as bards, so as to be received by\nPryderi, and Gwydion, who was \u201cthe best teller of tales in the world\u201d,\nentertained the Prince of Dyfed and his court more than they had ever\nbeen entertained by any story-teller before. Then he asked Pryderi to\ngrant him a boon\u2014the animals which had come from Annwn. But Pryderi had\npledged his word to Arawn that he would neither sell nor give away any\nof the new creatures until they had increased to double their number,\nand he told the disguised Gwydion so.\n\n\u201cLord,\u201d said Gwydion, \u201cI can set you free from your promise. Neither\ngive me the swine at once, nor yet refuse them to me altogether, and\nto-morrow I will show you how.\u201d\n\nHe went to the lodging Pryderi had assigned him, and began to work his\ncharms and illusions. Out of fungus he made twelve gilded shields, and\ntwelve horses with gold harness, and twelve black greyhounds with white\nbreasts, each wearing a golden collar and leash. And these he showed to\nPryderi.\n\n\u201cLord,\u201d said he, \u201cthere is a release from the word you spoke last\nevening concerning the swine\u2014that you may neither give them nor sell\nthem. You may exchange them for something which is better. I will give\nyou these twelve horses with their gold harness, and these twelve\ngreyhounds with their gold collars and leashes, and these twelve gilded\nshields for them.\u201d\n\nPryderi took counsel with his men, and agreed to the bargain. So Gwydion\nand his followers took the swine and went away with them, hurrying as\nfast as they could, for Gwydion knew that the illusion would not last\nlonger than a day. The memory of their journey was long kept up; every\nplace where they rested between Dyfed and Caer Dathyl is remembered by a\nname connecting it with pigs. There is a Mochdrev (\u201cSwine\u2019s Town\u201d) in\neach of the three counties of Cardiganshire, Montgomeryshire, and\nDenbighshire, and a Castell y Moch (\u201cSwine\u2019s Castle\u201d) near Mochnant\n(\u201cSwine\u2019s Brook\u201d), which runs through part of the two latter counties.\nThey shut up the pigs in safety, and then assembled all M\u00e2th\u2019s army; for\nthe horses and hounds and shields had returned to fungus, and Pryderi,\nwho guessed Gwydion\u2019s part in it, was coming northward in hot haste.\n\nThere were two battles\u2014one at Maenor Penardd, near Conway, and the other\nat Maenor Alun, now called Coed Helen, near Caernarvon. Beaten in both,\nPryderi fell back upon Nant Call, about nine miles from Caernarvon. Here\nhe was again defeated with great slaughter, and sent hostages, asking\nfor peace and a safe retreat.\n\nThis was granted by M\u00e2th; but, none the less, the army of the sons of\nD\u00f4n insisted on following the retreating host, and harassing it. So\nPryderi sent a complaint to M\u00e2th, demanding that, if there must still be\nwar, Gwydion, who had caused all the trouble, should fight with him in\nsingle combat.\n\nGwydion agreed, and the champions of light and darkness met face to\nface. But Pryderi was the waning power, and he fell before the strength\nand magic of Gwydion. \u201cAnd at Maen Tyriawc, above Melenryd, was he\nburied, and there is his grave\u201d, says the Mabinogi, though the ancient\nWelsh poem, called the \u201cVerses of the Graves of the Warriors\u201d[356],\nassigns him a different resting-place.[357]\n\nThis decisive victory over Hades and its kings was the end of the\nstruggle, until it was renewed, with still more complete success, by one\ngreater than Gwydion\u2014the invincible Arthur.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 347:\n\n Or the Celtic Elysium, \u201ca mythical country beneath the waves of the\n sea\u201d.\n\nFootnote 348:\n\n See the _Spoiling of Annwn_, quoted in chap. XXI\u2014\u201cThe Mythological\n \u2018Coming of Arthur\u2019\u201d.\n\nFootnote 349:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 250-251.\n\nFootnote 350:\n\n _Book of Taliesin VIII_, Vol. I, p. 276, of Skene. I have followed\n Skene\u2019s translation, with the especial exception of the curious line\n referring to the bean, so translated in D. W. Nash\u2019s _Taliesin_. If a\n correct rendering of the Welsh original, it offers an interesting\n parallel to certain superstitions of the Greeks concerning this\n vegetable.\n\nFootnote 351:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, note to p. 245.\n\nFootnote 352:\n\n Lady Guest\u2019s translation in her notes to _Kulhwch and Olwen_.\n\nFootnote 353:\n\n The following episode is retold from Lady Guest\u2019s translation of the\n Mabinogi of _M\u00e2th, Son of Mathonwy_.\n\nFootnote 354:\n\n Now called Pen y Gaer. It is on the summit of a hill half-way between\n Llanrwst and Conway, and about a mile from the station of Llanbedr.\n\nFootnote 355:\n\n Said to have been at Rhuddlan Teivi, which is, perhaps, Glan Teivy,\n near Cardigan Bridge.\n\nFootnote 356:\n\n Poem XIX in the _Black Book of Caermarthen_, Vol. I, p. 309, of Skene.\n\nFootnote 357:\n\n \u201cIn Aber Gwenoli is the grave of Pryderi,\n Where the waves beat against the land.\u201d\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXI\n\n THE MYTHOLOGICAL \u201cCOMING OF ARTHUR\u201d\n\n\nThe \u201cComing of Arthur\u201d, his sudden rise into prominence, is one of the\nmany problems of the Celtic mythology. He is not mentioned in any of the\nFour Branches of the Mabinogi, which deal with the races of British gods\nequivalent to the Gaelic Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann. The earliest references to\nhim in Welsh literature seem to treat him as merely a warrior-chieftain,\nno better, if no worse, than several others, such as \u201cGeraint, a\ntributary prince of Devon\u201d, immortalized both by the bards[358] and by\nTennyson. Then, following upon this, we find him lifted to the\nextraordinary position of a king of gods, to whom the old divine\nfamilies of D\u00f4n, of Llyr, and of Pwyll pay unquestioned homage. Triads\ntell us that Lludd\u2014the Zeus of the older Pantheon\u2014was one of Arthur\u2019s\n\u201cThree Chief War-Knights\u201d, and Arawn, King of Hades, one of his \u201cThree\nChief Counselling Knights\u201d. In the story called the \u201cDream of Rhonabwy\u201d,\nin the Red Book of Hergest, he is shown as a leader to whom are subject\nthose we know to have been of divine race\u2014sons of Nudd, of Llyr, of\nBr\u00e2n, of Govannan, and of Arianrod. In another \u201cRed Book\u201d tale, that of\n\u201cKulhwch and Olwen\u201d, even greater gods are his vassals. Amaethon son of\nD\u00f4n, ploughs for him, and Govannan son of D\u00f4n, rids the iron, while two\nother sons of Beli, Nynniaw and Peibaw, \u201cturned into oxen on account of\ntheir sins\u201d, toil at the yoke, that a mountain may be cleared and tilled\nand the harvest reaped in one day. He assembles his champions to seek\nthe \u201ctreasures of Britain\u201d; and Manawyddan son of Llyr, Gwyn son of\nNudd, and Pryderi son of Pwyll rally round him at his call.\n\nThe most probable, and only adequate explanation, is given by Professor\nRhys, who considers that the fames of two separate Arthurs have been\naccidentally confused, to the exceeding renown of a composite,\nhalf-real, half-mythical personage into whom the two blended.[359] One\nof these was a divine Arthur, a god more or less widely worshipped in\nthe Celtic world\u2014the same, no doubt, whom an _ex voto_ inscription found\nin south-eastern France calls _Mercurius Artaius_.[360] The other was a\nhuman Arthur, who held among the Britons the post which, under Roman\ndomination, had been called _Comes Britanni\u00e6_. This \u201cCount of Britain\u201d\nwas the supreme military authority; he had a roving commission to defend\nthe country against foreign invasion; and under his orders were two\nslightly subordinate officers, the _Dux Britanniarum_ (Duke of the\nBritains), who had charge of the northern wall, and the _Comes Littoris\nSaxonici_ (Count of the Saxon Shore), who guarded the south-eastern\ncoasts. The Britons, after the departure of the Romans, long kept intact\nthe organization their conquerors had built up; and it seems reasonable\nto believe that this post of leader in war was the same which early\nWelsh literature describes as that of \u201cemperor\u201d, a title given to Arthur\nalone among the British heroes.[361] The fame of Arthur the Emperor\nblended with that of Arthur the God, so that it became conterminous with\nthe area over which we have traced Brythonic settlement in Great\nBritain.[362] Hence the many disputes, ably, if unprofitably, conducted,\nover \u201cArthurian localities\u201d and the sites of such cities as Camelot, and\nof Arthur\u2019s twelve great battles. Historical elements doubtless coloured\nthe tales of Arthur and his companions, but they are none the less as\nessentially mythic as those told of their Gaelic analogues\u2014the Red\nBranch Heroes of Ulster and the Fenians.\n\nOf those two cycles, it is with the latter that the Arthurian legend\nshows most affinity.[363] Arthur\u2019s position as supreme war-leader of\nBritain curiously parallels that of Finn\u2019s as general of a \u201cnative Irish\nmilitia\u201d. His \u201cRound Table\u201d of warriors also reminds one of Finn\u2019s\nFenians sworn to adventure. Both alike battle with human and superhuman\nfoes. Both alike harry Europe, even to the walls of Rome. The love-story\nof Arthur, his wife Gwynhwyvar (Guinevere), and his nephew Medrawt\n(Mordred), resembles in several ways that of Finn, his wife Grainne, and\nhis nephew Diarmait. In the stories of the last battles of Arthur and of\nthe Fenians, the essence of the kindred myth still subsists, though the\nactual exponents of it slightly differ. At the fight of Camlan, it was\nArthur and Medrawt themselves who fought the final duel. But in the last\nstand of the Fenians at Gabhra, the original protagonists have given\nplace to their descendants and representatives. Both Finn and Cormac\nwere already dead. It is Oscar, Finn\u2019s grandson, and Cairbr\u00e9, Cormac\u2019s\nson, who fight and slay each other. And again, just as Arthur was\nthought by many not to have really died, but to have passed to \u201cthe\nisland valley of Avilion\u201d, so a Scottish legend tells us how, ages after\nthe Fenians, a man, landing by chance upon a mysterious western island,\nmet and spoke with Finn mac Coul. Even the alternative legend, which\nmakes Arthur and his warriors wait under the earth in a magic sleep for\nthe return of their triumph, is also told of the Fenians.\n\nBut these parallels, though they illustrate Arthur\u2019s pre-eminence, do\nnot show his real place among the gods. To determine this, we must\nexamine the ranks of the older dynasties carefully, to see if any are\nmissing whose attributes this new-comer may have inherited. We find\nLludd and Gwyn, Arawn, Pryderi, and Manawyddan side by side with him\nunder their own names. Among the children of D\u00f4n are Amaethon and\nGovannan. But here the list stops, with a notable omission. There is no\nmention, in later myth, of Gwydion. That greatest of the sons of D\u00f4n has\nfallen out, and vanished without a sign.\n\nSingularly enough, too, the same stories that were once told of Gwydion\nare now attached to the name of Arthur. So that we may assume, with\nProfessor Rhys, that Arthur, the prominent god of a new Pantheon, has\ntaken the place of Gwydion in the old.[364] A comparison of\nGwydion-myths and Arthur-myths shows an almost exact correspondence in\neverything but name.\n\nLike Gwydion, Arthur is the exponent of culture and of arts. Therefore\nwe see him carrying on the same war against the underworld for wealth\nand wisdom that Gwydion and the sons of D\u00f4n waged against the sons of\nLlyr, the Sea, and of Pwyll, the Head of Hades.\n\nLike Gwydion, too, Arthur suffered early reverses. He failed, indeed,\neven where his prototype had succeeded. Gwydion, we know from the\nMabinogi of M\u00e2th, successfully stole Pryderi\u2019s pigs, but Arthur was\nutterly baffled in his attempt to capture the swine of a similar prince\nof the underworld, called March son of Meirchion.[365] Also as with\nGwydion, his earliest reconnaissance of Hades was disastrous, and led to\nhis capture and imprisonment. Manawyddan son of Llyr, confined him in\nthe mysterious and gruesome bone-fortress of Oeth and Anoeth, and there\nhe languished for three days and three nights before a rescuer came in\nthe person of Goreu, his cousin.[366] But, in the end, he triumphed. A\nWelsh poem, ascribed to the bard Taliesin, relates, under the title \u201cThe\nSpoiling of Annwn\u201d,[367] an expedition of Arthur and his followers into\nthe very heart of that country, from which he appears to have returned\n(for the verses are somewhat obscure) with the loss of almost all his\nmen, but in possession of the object of his quest\u2014the magic cauldron of\ninspiration and poetry.\n\nTaliesin tells the story as an eye-witness. He may well have done so;\nfor it was his boast that from the creation of the world he had allowed\nhimself to miss no event of importance. He was in Heaven, he tells\nus,[368] when Lucifer fell, and in the Court of D\u00f4n before Gwydion was\nborn; he had been among the constellations both with Mary Magdalene and\nwith the pagan goddess Arianrod; he carried a banner before Alexander,\nand was chief director of the building of the Tower of Babel; he saw the\nfall of Troy and the founding of Rome; he was with Noah in the Ark, and\nhe witnessed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and he was present\nboth at the Manger of Bethlehem and at the Cross of Calvary. But,\nunfortunately, Taliesin, as a credible personage, rests under exactly\nthe same disabilities as Arthur himself. It is not denied by scholars\nthat there was a real Taliesin, a sixth-century bard to whom were\nattributed, and who may have actually composed, some of the poems in the\nBook of Taliesin.[369] But there was also another Taliesin, whom, as a\nmythical poet of the British Celts, Professor Rhys is inclined to equate\nwith the Gaelic Ossian.[370] The traditions of the two mingled, endowing\nthe historic Taliesin with the god-like attributes of his predecessor,\nand clothing the mythical Taliesin with some of the actuality of his\nsuccessor.[371]\n\nIt is regrettable that our bard did not at times sing a little less\nincoherently, for his poem contains the fullest description that has\ncome down to us of the other world as the Britons conceived it.\nApparently the numerous names, all different and some now\nuntranslatable, refer to the same place, and they must be collated to\nform a right idea of what Annwn was like. With the exception of an\nobviously spurious last verse, here omitted, the poem is magnificently\npagan, and quite a storehouse of British mythology[372].\n\n \u201cI will praise the Sovereign, supreme Lord of the land,\n Who hath extended his dominion over the shore of the world.\n Stout was the prison of Gweir[373], in Caer Sidi,\n Through the spite of Pwyll and Pryderi:\n No one before him went into it.\n The heavy blue chain firmly held the youth,\n And before the spoils of Annwn woefully he sang,\n And thenceforth till doom he shall remain a bard.\n Thrice enough to fill Prydwen[374] we went into it;\n Except seven, none returned from Caer Sidi[375].\n\n \u201cAm I not a candidate for fame, to be heard in song\n In Caer Pedryvan[376], four times revolving?\n The first word from the cauldron, when was it spoken?\n By the breath of nine maidens it was gently warmed.\n Is it not the cauldron of the chief of Annwn? What is its fashion?\n A rim of pearls is round its edge.\n It will not cook the food of a coward or one forsworn.\n A sword flashing bright will be raised to him,\n And left in the hand of Lleminawg.\n And before the door of the gate of Uffern[377] the lamp was burning.\n When we went with Arthur\u2014a splendid labour!\u2014\n Except seven, none returned from Caer Vedwyd[378].\n\n \u201cAm I not a candidate for fame, to be heard in song\n In Caer Pedryvan, in the Isle of the Strong Door,\n Where twilight and pitchy darkness meet together,\n And bright wine is the drink of the host?\n Thrice enough to fill Prydwen we went on the sea.\n Except seven, none returned from Caer Rigor[379].\n\n \u201cI will not allow much praise to the leaders of literature.\n Beyond Caer Wydyr[380] they saw not the prowess of Arthur;\n Three-score hundreds stood on the walls;\n It was hard to converse with their watchman.\n Thrice enough to fill Prydwen we went with Arthur;\n Except seven, none returned from Caer Golud[381].\n\n \u201cI will not allow much praise to the spiritless.\n They know not on what day, or who caused it,\n Or in what hour of the serene day Cwy was born,\n Or who caused that he should not go to the dales of Devwy.\n They know not the brindled ox with the broad head-band,\n Whose yoke is seven-score handbreadths.\n When we went with Arthur, of mournful memory,\n Except seven, none returned from Caer Vandwy[382].\n\n \u201cI will not allow much praise to those of drooping courage.\n They know not on what day the chief arose,\n Nor in what hour of the serene day the owner was born,\n Nor what animal they keep, with its head of silver.\n When we went with Arthur, of anxious striving,\n Except seven, none returned from Caer Ochren[383]\u201d.\n\nMany of the allusions of this poem will perhaps never be explained. We\nknow no better than the \u201cleaders of literature\u201d whom the vainglorious\nTaliesin taunted with their ignorance and lack of spirit in what hour\nCwy was born, or even who he was, much less who prevented him from going\nto the dales of Devwy, wherever they may have been. We are in the dark\nas much as they were with regard to the significance of the brindled ox\nwith the broad head-band, and of the other animal with the silver\nhead.[384] But the earlier portion of the poem is, fortunately, clearer,\nand it gives glimpses of a grandeur of savage imagination. The\nstrong-doored, foursquare fortress of glass, manned by its dumb, ghostly\nsentinels, spun round in never-ceasing revolution, so that few could\nfind its entrance; it was pitch-dark save for the twilight made by the\nlamp burning before its circling gate; feasting went on there, and\nrevelry, and in its centre, choicest of its many riches, was the\npearl-rimmed cauldron of poetry and inspiration, kept bubbling by the\nbreaths of nine British pythonesses, so that it might give forth its\noracles. To this scanty information we may add a few lines, also by\nTaliesin, and contained in a poem called \u201cA Song Concerning the Sons of\nLlyr ab Brochwel Powys\u201d:\u2014\n\n \u201cPerfect is my chair in Caer Sidi:\n Plague and age hurt not him who\u2019s in it\u2014\n They know, Manawyddan and Pryderi.\n Three organs round a fire sing before it,\n And about its points are ocean\u2019s streams\n And the abundant well above it\u2014\n Sweeter than white wine the drink in it.\u201d[385]\n\nLittle is, however, added by it to our knowledge. It reminds us that\nAnnwn was surrounded by the sea\u2014\u201cthe heavy blue chain\u201d which held Gweir\nso firmly;\u2014it informs us that the \u201cbright wine\u201d which was \u201cthe drink of\nthe host\u201d was kept in a well; it adds to the revelry the singing of the\nthree organs; it makes a point that its inhabitants were freed from age\nand death; and, last of all, it shows us, as we might have expected, the\nubiquitous Taliesin as a privileged resident of this delightful region.\nWe have two clues as to where the country may have been situated. Lundy\nIsland, off the coast of Devonshire, was anciently called _Ynys Wair_,\nthe \u201cIsland of Gweir\u201d, or Gwydion. The Welsh translation of the _Seint\nGreal_, an Anglo-Norman romance embodying much of the old mythology,\nlocates its \u201cTurning Castle\u201d\u2014evidently the same as Caer Sidi\u2014in the\ndistrict around and comprising Puffin Island off the coast of\nAnglesey.[386] But these are slender threads by which to tether to firm\nground a realm of the imagination.\n\nWith Gwydion, too, have disappeared the whole of the characters\nconnected with him in that portion of the Mabinogi of M\u00e2th, Son of\nMathonwy, which recounts the myth of the birth of the sun-god. Neither\nM\u00e2th himself, nor Lleu Llaw Gyffes, nor Dylan, nor their mother,\nArianrod, play any more part; they have vanished as completely as\nGwydion. But the essence of the myth of which they were the figures\nremains intact. Gwydion was the father by his sister Arianrod, wife of a\nwaning heaven-god called Nwyvre (Space), of twin sons, Lleu, a god of\nlight, and Dylan, a god of darkness; and we find this same story woven\ninto the very innermost texture of the legend of Arthur.[387] The new\nArianrod, though called \u201cMorgawse\u201d by Sir Thomas Malory[388], and \u201cAnna\u201d\nby Geoffrey of Monmouth[389], is known to earlier Welsh myth as\n\u201cGwyar\u201d[390]. She was the sister of Arthur and the wife of the sky-god,\nLludd, and her name, which means \u201cshed blood\u201d or \u201cgore\u201d, reminds us of\nthe relationship of the Morr\u00edg\u00fa, the war-goddess of the Gaels, to the\nheaven-god Nuada[391]. The new Lleu Llaw Gyffes is called Gwalchmei,\nthat is, the \u201cFalcon of May\u201d[392], and the new Dylan is Medrawt, at once\nArthur\u2019s son and Gwalchmei\u2019s brother, and the bitterest enemy of\nboth[393].\n\nBesides these \u201cold friends with new faces\u201d, Arthur brings with him into\nprominence a fresh Pantheon, most of whom also replace the older gods of\nthe heavens and earth and the regions under the earth. The Zeus of\nArthur\u2019s cycle is called Myrddin, who passed into the Norman-French\nromances as \u201cMerlin\u201d. All the myths told of him bear witness to his high\nestate. The first name of Britain, before it was inhabited, was, we\nlearn from a triad, _Clas Myrddin_, that is, \u201cMyrddin\u2019s Enclosure\u201d.[394]\nHe is given a wife whose attributes recall those of the consorts of\nNuada and Lludd. She is described as the only daughter of Coel\u2014the\nBritish name of the Gaulish _Camulus_, a god of war and the sky\u2014and was\ncalled Elen Lwyddawg, that is, \u201cElen, Leader of Hosts\u201d. Her memory is\nstill preserved in Wales in connection with ancient roadways; such names\nas _Ffordd Elen_ (\u201cElen\u2019s Road\u201d) and _Sarn Elen_ (\u201cElen\u2019s Causeway\u201d)\nseem to show that the paths on which armies marched were ascribed or\ndedicated to her.[395] As Myrddin\u2019s wife, she is credited with having\nfounded the town of Carmarthen (_Caer Myrddin_), as well as the \u201chighest\nfortress in Arvon\u201d, which must have been the site near Beddgelert still\ncalled _Dinas Emrys_, the \u201cTown of Emrys\u201d, one of Myrddin\u2019s epithets or\nnames.[396]\n\nProfessor Rhys is inclined to credit Myrddin, or, rather, the British\nZeus under whatever name, with having been the god especially worshipped\nat Stonehenge.[397] Certainly this impressive temple, ever unroofed and\nopen to the sun and wind and rain of heaven, would seem peculiarly\nappropriate to a British supreme god of light and sky. Neither are we\nquite without documentary evidence which will allow us to connect it\nwith him. Geoffrey of Monmouth[398], whose historical fictions usually\nconceal mythological facts, relates that the stones which compose it\nwere erected by Merlin. Before that, they had stood in Ireland, upon a\nhill which Geoffrey calls \u201cMount Killaraus\u201d, and which can be identified\nas the same spot known to Irish legend as the \u201cHill of Uisnech\u201d, and,\nstill earlier, connected with Balor. According to British tradition, the\nprimeval giants who first colonized Ireland had brought them from their\noriginal home on \u201cthe farthest coast of Africa\u201d, on account of their\nmiraculous virtues; for any water in which they were bathed became a\nsovereign remedy either for sickness or for wounds. By the order of\nAurelius, a half-real, half-mythical king of Britain, Merlin brought\nthem thence to England, to be set up on Salisbury Plain as a monument to\nthe British chieftains treacherously slain by Hengist and his Saxons.\nWith this scrap of native information about Stonehenge we may compare\nthe only other piece we have\u2014the account of the classic Diodorus, who\ncalled it a temple of Apollo.[399] At first, these two statements seem\nto conflict. But it is far from unlikely that the earlier Celtic\nsettlers in Britain made little or no religious distinction between sky\nand sun. The sun-god, as a separate personage, seems to have been the\nconception of a comparatively late age. Celtic mythology allows us to be\npresent, as it were, at the births both of the Gaelic Lugh Lamhfada and\nthe British Lleu Llaw Gyffes.\n\nEven the well-known story of Myrddin\u2019s, or Merlin\u2019s final imprisonment\nin a tomb of airy enchantment\u2014\u201ca tour withouten walles, or withoute eny\nclosure\u201d\u2014reads marvellously like a myth of the sun \u201cwith all his fires\nand travelling glories round him\u201d.[400] Encircled, shielded, and made\nsplendid by his atmosphere of living light, the Lord of Heaven moves\nslowly towards the west, to disappear at last into the sea (as one local\nversion of the myth puts it), or on to a far-off island (as another\nsays), or into a dark forest (the choice of a third).[401] When the myth\nbecame finally fixed, it was Bardsey Island, off the extreme westernmost\npoint of Caernarvonshire, that was selected as his last abode. Into it\nhe went with nine attendant bards, taking with him the \u201cThirteen\nTreasures of Britain\u201d, thenceforth lost to men. Bardsey Island no doubt\nderives its name from this story; and what is probably an allusion to it\nis found in a first-century Greek writer called Plutarch, who describes\na grammarian called Demetrius as having visited Britain, and brought\nhome an account of his travels. He mentioned several uninhabited and\nsacred islands off our coasts which he said were named after gods and\nheroes, but there was one especially in which Cronos was imprisoned with\nhis attendant deities, and Briareus keeping watch over him as he slept;\n\u201cfor sleep was the bond forged for him\u201d.[402] Doubtless this\ndisinherited deity, whom the Greek, after his fashion, called \u201cCronos\u201d,\nwas the British heaven- and sun-god, after he had descended into the\nprison of the west.\n\nAmong other new-comers is Kai, who, as Sir Kay the Seneschal, fills so\nlarge a part in the later romances. Purged of his worst offences, and\nreduced to a surly butler to Arthur, he is but a shadow of the earlier\nKai who murdered Arthur\u2019s son Llacheu[403], and can only be acquitted,\nthrough the obscurity of the poem that relates the incident, of having\nalso carried off, or having tried to carry off, Arthur\u2019s wife,\nGwynhwyvar.[404] He is thought to have been a personification of\nfire,[405] upon the strength of a description given of him in the\nmythical romance of \u201cKulhwch and Olwen\u201d. \u201cVery subtle\u201d, it says, \u201cwas\nKai. When it pleased him he could render himself as tall as the highest\ntree in the forest. And he had another peculiarity\u2014so great was the heat\nof his nature, that, when it rained hardest, whatever he carried\nremained dry for a handbreadth above and a handbreadth below his hand;\nand when his companions were coldest, it was to them as fuel with which\nto light their fire.\u201d\n\nAnother personage who owes his prominence in the Arthurian story to his\nimportance in Celtic myth was March son of Meirchion, whose swine Arthur\nattempted to steal, as Gwydion had done those of Pryderi. In the\nromances, he has become the cowardly and treacherous Mark, king,\naccording to some stories, of Cornwall, but according to others, of the\nwhole of Britain, and known to all as the husband of the Fair Isoult,\nand the uncle of Sir Tristrem. But as a deformed deity of the\nunderworld[406] he can be found in Gaelic as well as in British myth. He\ncannot be considered as originally different from Morc, a king of the\nFomors at the time when from their Glass Castle they so fatally\noppressed the Children of Nemed.[407] The Fomors were distinguished by\ntheir animal features, and March had the same peculiarity.[408] When Sir\nThomas Malory relates how, to please Arthur and Sir Launcelot, Sir\nDinadan made a song about Mark, \u201cwhich was the worst lay that ever\nharper sang with harp or any other instruments,\u201d[409] he does not tell\nus wherein the sting of the lampoon lay. It no doubt reminded King Mark\nof the unpleasant fact that he had\u2014not like his Phrygian counterpart,\nass\u2019s but\u2014horse\u2019s ears. He was, in fact, a Celtic Midas, a distinction\nwhich he shared with one of the mythical kings of early Ireland.[410]\n\nNeither can we pass over Urien, a deity of the underworld akin to, or\nperhaps the same as, Br\u00e2n.[411] Like that son of Llyr, he was at once a\ngod of battle and of minstrelsy;[412] he was adored by the bards as\ntheir patron;[413] his badge was the raven (_bran_, in Welsh);[414]\nwhile, to make his identification complete, there is an extant poem\nwhich tells how Urien, wounded, ordered his own head to be cut off by\nhis attendants.[415] His wife was Modron,[416] known as the mother of\nMabon, the sun-god to whom inscriptions exist as _Maponos_. Another of\nthe children of Urien and Modron is Owain, which was perhaps only\nanother name for Mabon.[417] Taliesin calls him \u201cchief of the glittering\nwest\u201d,[418] and he is as certainly a sun-god as his father Urien, \u201clord\nof the evening\u201d,[419] was a ruler of the dark underworld.\n\nIt is by reason of the pre-eminence of Arthur that we find gathered\nround him so many gods, all probably various tribal personifications of\nthe same few mythological ideas. The Celts, both of the Gaelic and the\nBritish branches, were split up into numerous petty tribes, each with\nits own local deities embodying the same essential conceptions under\ndifferent names. There was the god of the underworld, gigantic in\nfigure, patron alike of warrior and minstrel, teacher of the arts of\neloquence and literature, and owner of boundless wealth, whom some of\nthe British tribes worshipped as Br\u00e2n, others as Urien, others as Pwyll,\nor March, or M\u00e2th, or Arawn, or Ogyrvran. There was the lord of an\nelysium\u2014Hades in its aspect of a paradise of the departed rather than of\nthe primeval subterranean realm where all thing\u2019s originated\u2014whom the\nBritons of Wales called Gwyn, or Gwynwas; the Britons of Cornwall,\nMelwas; and the Britons of Somerset, Avallon, or Avallach. Under this\nlast title, his realm is called _Ynys Avallon_, \u201cAvallon\u2019s Island\u201d, or,\nas we know the word, Avilion. It was said to be in the \u201cLand of Summer\u201d,\nwhich, in the earliest myth, signified Hades; and it was only in later\ndays that the mystic Isle of Avilion became fixed to earth as\nGlastonbury, and the Elysian \u201cLand of Summer\u201d as Somerset.[420] There\nwas a mighty ruler of heaven, a \u201cgod of battles\u201d, worshipped on high\nplaces, in whose hands was \u201cthe stern arbitrament of war\u201d; some knew him\nas Lludd, others as Myrddin, or as Emrys. There was a gentler deity,\nfriendly to man, to help whom he fought or cajoled the powers of the\nunderworld; Gwydion he was called, and Arthur. Last, perhaps, to be\nimagined in concrete shape, there was a long-armed, sharp-speared\nsun-god who aided the culture-god in his work, and was known as Lleu, or\nGwalchmei, or Mabon, or Owain, or Peredur, and no doubt by many another\nname; and with him is usually found a brother representing not light,\nbut darkness. This expression of a single idea by different names may be\nalso observed in Gaelic myth, though not quite so clearly. In the\nhurtling of clan against clan, many such divinities perished altogether\nout of memory, or survived only as names, to make up, in Ireland, the\nvast, shadowy population claiming to be Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, and, in\nBritain, the long list of Arthur\u2019s followers. Others\u2014gods of stronger\ncommunities\u2014would increase their fame as their worshippers increased\ntheir territory, until, as happened in Greece, the chief deities of many\ntribes came together to form a national Pantheon.\n\nWe have already tried to explain the \u201cComing of Arthur\u201d historically.\nMythologically, he came, as, according to Celtic ideas, all things came\noriginally, from the underworld. His father is called Uther\nPendragon.[421] But Uther Pendragon is (for the word \u201cdragon\u201d is not\npart of the name, but a title signifying \u201cwar-leader\u201d) _Uther Ben_, that\nis, Br\u00e2n, under his name of the \u201cWonderful Head\u201d,[422] so that, in spite\nof the legend which describes Arthur as having disinterred Br\u00e2n\u2019s head\non Tower Hill, where it watched against invasion, because he thought it\nbeneath his dignity to keep Britain in any other way than by\nvalour,[423] we must recognize the King of Hades as his father. This\nbeing so, it would only be natural that he should take a wife from the\nsame eternal country, and we need not be surprised to find in\nGwynhwyvar\u2019s father, Ogyrvran, a personage corresponding in all respects\nto the Celtic conception of the ruler of the underworld. He was of\ngigantic size;[424] he was the owner of a cauldron out of which three\nMuses had been born;[425] and he was the patron of the bards,[426] who\ndeemed him to have been the originator of their art. More than this, his\nvery name, analysed into its original _ocur vran_, means the evil\n_bran_, or raven, the bird of death.[427]\n\nBut Welsh tradition credits Arthur with three wives, each of them called\nGwynhwyvar. This peculiar arrangement is probably due to the Celtic love\nof triads; and one may compare them with the three Etains who pass\nthrough the mythico-heroic story of Eochaid Airem, Etain, and Mider. Of\nthese three Gwynhwyvars,[428] besides the Gwynhwyvar, daughter of\nOgyrvran, one was the daughter of Gwyrd Gwent, of whom we know nothing\nbut the name, and the other of Gwyrthur ap Greidawl, the same \u201cVictor\nson of Scorcher\u201d with whom Gwyn son of Nudd, fought, in earlier myth,\nperpetual battle for the possession of Creudylad, daughter of the\nsky-god Lludd. This same eternal strife between the powers of light and\ndarkness for the possession of a symbolical damsel is waged again in the\nArthurian cycle; but it is no longer for Creudylad that Gwyn contends,\nbut for Gwynhwyvar, and no longer with Gwyrthur, but with Arthur. It\nwould seem to have been a Cornish form of the myth; for the dark god is\ncalled \u201cMelwas\u201d, and not \u201cGwynwas\u201d, or \u201cGwyn\u201d, his name in Welsh.[429]\nMelwas lay in ambush for a whole year, and finally succeeded in carrying\noff Gwynhwyvar to his palace in Avilion. But Arthur pursued, and\nbesieged that stronghold, just as Eochaid Airem had, in the Gaelic\nversion of the universal story, mined and sapped at Mider\u2019s _s\u00eddh_ of\nBri Leith.[430] Mythology, as well as history, repeats itself; and\nMelwas was obliged to restore Gwynhwyvar to her rightful lord.\n\nIt is not Melwas, however, that in the best-known versions of the story\ncontends with Arthur for the love of Gwynhwyvar. The most widespread\nearly tradition makes Arthur\u2019s rival his nephew Medrawt. Here Professor\nRhys traces a striking parallel between the British legend of Arthur,\nGwynhwyvar, and Medrawt, and the Gaelic story of Airem, Etain, and\nMider.[431] The two myths are practically counterparts; for the names of\nall the three pairs agree in their essential meaning. \u201cAirem\u201d, like\n\u201cArthur\u201d, signifies the \u201cPloughman\u201d, the divine institutor of\nagriculture; \u201cEtain\u201d, the \u201cShining One\u201d, is a fit parallel to\n\u201cGwynhwyvar\u201d, the \u201cWhite Apparition\u201d; while \u201cMider\u201d and \u201cMedrawt\u201d both\ncome from the same root, a word meaning \u201cto hit\u201d, either literally, or\nelse metaphorically, with the mind, in the sense of coming to a\ndecision. To attempt to explain this myth is to raise the vexed question\nof the meaning of mythology. Is it day and dark that strive for dawn, or\nsummer and winter for the lovely spring, or does it shadow forth the\nrescue of the grain that makes man\u2019s life from the devouring underworld\nby the farmer\u2019s wit? When this can be finally resolved, a multitude of\nCeltic myths will be explained. Everywhere arise the same combatants for\nthe stolen bride; one has the attributes of light, the other is a\nchampion of darkness.\n\nEven in Sir Thomas Malory\u2019s version of the Arthurian story, taken by him\nfrom French romances far removed from the original tradition, we find\nthe myth subsisting. Medrawt\u2019s original place as the lover of Arthur\u2019s\nqueen had been taken in the romances by Sir Launcelot, who, if he was\nnot some now undiscoverable Celtic god,[432] must have been an invention\nof the Norman adapters. But the story which makes Medrawt Arthur\u2019s rival\nhas been preserved in the account of how Sir Mordred would have wedded\nGuinevere by force, as part of the rebellion which he made against his\nking and uncle.[433] This strife was Celtic myth long before it became\npart of the pseudo-history of early Britain. The triads[434] tell us how\nArthur and Medrawt raided each other\u2019s courts during the owner\u2019s\nabsence. Medrawt went to Kelli Wic, in Cornwall, ate and drank\neverything he could find there, and insulted Queen Gwynhwyvar, in\nrevenge for which Arthur went to Medrawt\u2019s court and killed man and\nbeast. Their struggle only ended with the Battle of Camlan; and that\nmythical combat, which chroniclers have striven to make historical, is\nfull of legendary detail. Tradition tells how Arthur and his antagonist\nshared their forces three times during the fight, which caused it to be\nknown as one of the \u201cThree Frivolous Battles of Britain\u201d, the idea of\ndoing so being one of \u201cBritain\u2019s Three Criminal Resolutions\u201d. Four alone\nsurvived the fray: one, because he was so ugly that all shrank from him,\nbelieving him to be a devil; another, whom no one touched because he was\nso beautiful that they took him for an angel; a third, whose great\nstrength no one could resist; and Arthur himself, who, after revenging\nthe death of Gwalchmei upon Medrawt, went to the island of Avilion to\nheal him of his grievous wounds.\n\nAnd thence\u2014from the Elysium of the Celts\u2014popular belief has always been\nthat he will some day return. But just as the gods of the Gaels are said\nto dwell sometimes in the \u201cLand of the Living\u201d, beyond the western wave,\nand sometimes in the palace of a hollow hill, so Arthur is sometimes\nthought to be in Avilion, and sometimes to be sitting with his champions\nin a charmed sleep in some secret place, waiting for the trumpet to be\nblown that shall call him forth to reconquer Britain. The legend is\nfound in the Eildon Hills; in the Snowdon district; at Cadbury, in\nSomerset, the best authenticated Camelot; in the Vale of Neath, in South\nWales; as well as in other places. He slumbers, but he has not died. The\nancient Welsh poem called \u201cThe Verses of the Graves of the\nWarriors\u201d[435] enumerates the last resting-places of most of the British\ngods and demi-gods. \u201cThe grave of Gwydion is in the marsh of Dinlleu\u201d,\nthe grave of Lieu Llaw Gyffes is \u201cunder the protection of the sea with\nwhich he was familiar\u201d, and \u201cwhere the wave makes a sullen sound is the\ngrave of Dylan\u201d; we know the graves of Pryderi, of Gwalchmei, of March,\nof Mabon, even of the great Beli, but\n\n \u201cNot wise the thought\u2014a grave for Arthur\u201d.[436]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 358:\n\n A poem in praise of Geraint, \u201cthe brave man from the region of\n Dyvnaint (Devon) ... the enemy of tyranny and oppression\u201d, is\n contained in both the Black Book of Caermarthen and the Red Book of\n Hergest. \u201cWhen Geraint was born, open were the gates of heaven\u201d,\n begins its last verse. It is translated in Vol. I of Skene, p. 267.\n\nFootnote 359:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 8.\n\nFootnote 360:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 40-41.\n\nFootnote 361:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 7.\n\nFootnote 362:\n\n \u201cIt is worthy of remark that the fame of Arthur is widely spread; he\n is claimed alike as a prince in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales,\n Cumberland, and the Lowlands of Scotland; that is to say, his fame\n is conterminous with the Brythonic race, and does not extend to the\n Gaels\u201d.\u2014_Chambers\u2019s Encyclop\u00e6dia._\n\nFootnote 363:\n\n For Arthurian and Fenian parallels see Campbell\u2019s _Popular Tales of\n the West Highlands_.\n\nFootnote 364:\n\n See chap. I of Rhys\u2019s _Arthurian Legend_\u2014\u201cArthur, Historical and\n Mythical\u201d.\n\nFootnote 365:\n\n A triad in the Hengwrt MS. 536, translated by Skene. It was Trystan\n who was watching the swine for his uncle, while the swineherd went\n with a message to Essylt (Iseult), \u201cand Arthur desired one pig by\n deceit or by theft, and could not get it.\u201d\n\nFootnote 366:\n\n See note to chap. XXII\u2014\u201cThe Treasures of Britain\u201d.\n\nFootnote 367:\n\n _Book of Taliesin_, poem XXX, Skene, Vol. I, p. 256.\n\nFootnote 368:\n\n In a probably very ancient poem embedded in the sixteenth-century\n Welsh romance called _Taliesin_, included by Lady Guest in her\n _Mabinogion_.\n\nFootnote 369:\n\n \u201cThe existence of a sixth-century bard of this name, a contemporary of\n the heroic stage of British resistance to the Germanic invaders, is\n well attested. A number of poems are found in medi\u00e6val Welsh MSS.,\n chief among them the so-called _Book of Taliesin_, ascribed to this\n sixth-century poet. Some of these are almost as old as any remains of\n Welsh poetry, and may go back to the early tenth or the ninth century;\n others are productions of the eleventh, twelfth, and even thirteenth\n centuries.\u201d\u2014Nutt: Notes to his (1902) edition of Lady Guest\u2019s\n _Mabinogion_.\n\nFootnote 370:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 551.\n\nFootnote 371:\n\n \u201cThere can be little doubt but that the sixth-century bard succeeded\n to the form and attributes of a far older, a prehistoric, a mythic\n singer.\u201d\u2014Nutt: Notes to _Mabinogion_.\n\nFootnote 372:\n\n I have been obliged to collate four different translators to obtain an\n acceptable version of what Mr. T. Stephens, in his _Literature of the\n Kymri_, calls \u201cone of the least intelligible of the mythological\n poems\u201d. My authorities have been Skene, Stephens, Nash, and Rhys.\n\nFootnote 373:\n\n A form of the name Gwydion.\n\nFootnote 374:\n\n The name of Arthur\u2019s ship.\n\nFootnote 375:\n\n Revolving Castle.\n\nFootnote 376:\n\n Four-cornered Castle.\n\nFootnote 377:\n\n The Cold Place.\n\nFootnote 378:\n\n Castle of Revelry.\n\nFootnote 379:\n\n Kingly Castle.\n\nFootnote 380:\n\n Glass Castle.\n\nFootnote 381:\n\n Castle of Riches.\n\nFootnote 382:\n\n Meaning is unknown. See chap. XVI\u2014\u201cThe Gods of the Britons\u201d.\n\nFootnote 383:\n\n Meaning is unknown. See chap. XX\u2014\u201cThe Victories of Light over\n Darkness\u201d.\n\nFootnote 384:\n\n Unless they should be \u201cthe yellow and the brindled bull\u201d mentioned in\n the story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_.\n\nFootnote 385:\n\n _Book of Taliesin_, poem XIV. The translation is by Rhys: _Arthurian\n Legend_, p. 301.\n\nFootnote 386:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 325.\n\nFootnote 387:\n\n Rhys: _ibid._, chap. I.\n\nFootnote 388:\n\n Malory\u2019s _Morte Darthur_, Book II, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 389:\n\n _Historia Britonum_, Book VIII, chap. XX.\n\nFootnote 390:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 169.\n\nFootnote 391:\n\n Rhys: _ibid._, p. 169.\n\nFootnote 392:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 13.\n\nFootnote 393:\n\n Rhys: _ibid._, pp. 19-23.\n\nFootnote 394:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 168.\n\nFootnote 395:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 167.\n\nFootnote 396:\n\n See Rhys\u2019s exposition of the mythological meaning of the _Red Book_\n romance of the _Dream of Maxen Wledig_, in his _Hibbert Lectures_, pp.\n 160-175.\n\nFootnote 397:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 192-195.\n\nFootnote 398:\n\n _Historia Britonum_, Book VIII, chaps. IX-XII.\n\nFootnote 399:\n\n See chap. IV and Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 194.\n\nFootnote 400:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 158, 159.\n\nFootnote 401:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 155.\n\nFootnote 402:\n\n Plutarch: _De Defectu Oraculorum_.\n\nFootnote 403:\n\n The _Seint Greal_, quoted by Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 61-62.\n\nFootnote 404:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 59.\n\nFootnote 405:\n\n Elton: _Origins of English History_, p. 269.\n\nFootnote 406:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 12.\n\nFootnote 407:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 70.\n\nFootnote 408:\n\n The name March means \u201chorse\u201d.\n\nFootnote 409:\n\n _Morte Darthur._ Book X, chap. XXVII.\n\nFootnote 410:\n\n Called Labraid Longsech.\n\nFootnote 411:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_. See chap. XI\u2014\u201cUrien and his Congeners\u201d.\n\nFootnote 412:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 260.\n\nFootnote 413:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 261.\n\nFootnote 414:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 256.\n\nFootnote 415:\n\n Red Book of Hergest, XII. Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 253-256.\n\nFootnote 416:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 247.\n\nFootnote 417:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nFootnote 418:\n\n _The Death-song of Owain._ Taliesin, XLIV, Skene, Vol. I, p. 366.\n\nFootnote 419:\n\n Book of Taliesin, XXXII. Skene, however, translates the word rendered\n \u201cevening\u201d by Rhys as \u201ccultivated plain\u201d.\n\nFootnote 420:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 345.\n\nFootnote 421:\n\n Both by Malory and Geoffrey of Monmouth.\n\nFootnote 422:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 256.\n\nFootnote 423:\n\n See chap. XVIII\u2014\u201cThe Wooing of Branwen and the Beheading of Br\u00e2n\u201d.\n\nFootnote 424:\n\n He is called Ogyrvran the Giant.\n\nFootnote 425:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 326.\n\nFootnote 426:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 268-269.\n\nFootnote 427:\n\n Rhys: _Lectures on Welsh Philology_, p. 306. But the derivation is\n only tentative, and an interesting alternative one is given, which\n equates him with the Persian Ahriman.\n\nFootnote 428:\n\n The enumeration of Arthur\u2019s three Gwynhwyvars forms one of the Welsh\n triads.\n\nFootnote 429:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 342.\n\nFootnote 430:\n\n See chap. XI\u2014\u201cThe Gods in Exile\u201d.\n\nFootnote 431:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, chap. II\u2014\u201cArthur and Airem\u201d.\n\nFootnote 432:\n\n In the mysterious Lancelot, not found in Arthurian story before the\n Norman adaptations of it, Professor Rhys is inclined to see a British\n sun-god, or solar hero. A number of interesting comparisons are drawn\n between him and the Peredur and Owain of the later \u201cMabinogion\u201d tales,\n as well as with the Gaelic Cuchulainn. See _Studies in the Arthurian\n Legend_.\n\nFootnote 433:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XXI, chap. I.\n\nFootnote 434:\n\n The fullest list of translated triads is contained in the appendix to\n Probert\u2019s _Ancient Laws of Cambria_, 1823. Many are also given as an\n appendix in Skene\u2019s _Four Ancient Books of Wales_.\n\nFootnote 435:\n\n _Black Book of Caermarthen XIX_, Vol. I, pp. 309-318 in Skene.\n\nFootnote 436:\n\n This is Professor Rhys\u2019s translation of the Welsh line, no doubt more\n strictly correct than the famous rendering: \u201cUnknown is the grave of\n Arthur\u201d.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXII\n\n THE TREASURES OF BRITAIN\n\n\nIt is in keeping with the mythological character of Arthur that the\nearly Welsh tales recorded of him are of a different nature from those\nwhich swell the pseudo-histories of Nennius[437] and of Geoffrey of\nMonmouth. We hear nothing of that subjugation of the countries of\nWestern Europe which fills so large a part in the two books of the\n_Historia Britonum_ which Geoffrey has devoted to him.[438] Conqueror he\nis, but his conquests are not in any land known to geographers. It is\nagainst Hades, and not against Rome, that he achieves his highest\ntriumphs. This is the true history of King Arthur, and we may read more\nfragments and snatches of it in two prose-tales preserved in the Red\nBook of Hergest. Both these tales date, in the actual form in which they\nhave come down to us, from the twelfth century. But, in each of them,\nthe writer seems to be stretching out his hands to gather in the dying\ntraditions of a very remote past.\n\nWhen a Welsh man-at-arms named Rhonabwy lay down, one night, to sleep\nupon a yellow calf-skin, the only furniture in a noisome hut, in which\nhe had taken shelter, that was comparatively free from vermin, he had\nthe vision which is related in the tale called \u201cThe Dream of\nRhonabwy\u201d.[439] He thought that he was travelling with his companions\ntowards the Severn, when they heard a rushing noise behind them, and,\nlooking back, saw a gigantic rider upon a monstrous horse. So terrible\nwas the horseman\u2019s appearance that they all started to run from him. But\ntheir running was of no avail, for every time the horse drew in its\nbreath, it sucked them back to its very chest, only, however, to fling\nthem forward as it breathed out again. In despair they fell down and\nbesought their pursuer\u2019s mercy. He granted it, asked their names, and\ntold them, in return, his own. He was known as Iddawc the Agitator of\nBritain; for it was he who, in his love of war, had purposely\nprecipitated the Battle of Camlan. Arthur had sent him to reason with\nMedrawt; but though Arthur had charged him with the fairest sayings he\ncould think of, Iddawc translated them into the harshest he could\ndevise. But he had done seven years\u2019 penance, and had been forgiven, and\nwas now riding to Arthur\u2019s camp. Thither he insisted upon taking\nRhonabwy and his companions.\n\nArthur\u2019s army was encamped for a mile around the ford of Rhyd y Groes,\nupon both sides of the road; and on a small flat island in the middle of\nthe river was the Emperor himself, in converse with Bedwini the Bishop\nand Gwarthegyd, the son of Kaw. Like Ossian, when he came back to\nIreland after his three hundred years\u2019 sojourn in the \u201cLand of\nPromise\u201d,[440] Arthur marvelled at the puny size of the people whom\nIddawc had brought for him to look at. \u201cAnd where, Iddawc, didst thou\nfind these little men?\u201d \u201cI found them, Lord, up yonder on the road.\u201d\nThen the Emperor smiled. \u201cLord,\u201d said Iddawc, \u201cwherefore dost thou\nlaugh?\u201d \u201cIddawc,\u201d replied Arthur, \u201cI laugh not; but it pitieth me that\nmen of such stature as these should have this island in their keeping,\nafter the men that guarded it of yore.\u201d Then he turned away, and Iddawc\ntold Rhonabwy and his companions to keep silent, and they would see what\nthey would see.\n\nThe scope of such a book as this allows no space to describe the persons\nand equipments of the warriors who came riding down with their companies\nto join Arthur, as he made his great march to fight the Battle of Badon,\nthought by some to be historical, and located at Bath. The reader who\nturns to the tale itself will see what Rhonabwy saw. Many of Arthur\u2019s\nwarriors he will know by name: Caradawc the Strong-armed, who is here\ncalled a son, not of Br\u00e2n, but of Llyr; March son of Meirchion, the\nunderworld king; Kai, described as \u201cthe fairest horseman in all Arthur\u2019s\ncourt\u201d; Gwalchmei, the son of Gwyar and of Arthur himself; Mabon, the\nson of Modron; Trystan son of Tallwch, the lover of \u201cThe Fair Isoult\u201d;\nGoreu, Arthur\u2019s cousin and his rescuer from Manawyddan\u2019s bone-prison;\nthese, and many more, will pass before him, as they passed before\nRhonabwy during the three days and three nights that he slept and\ndreamed upon the calf-skin.\n\nThis story of the \u201cDream of Rhonabwy\u201d, elaborate as it is in all its\ndetails, is yet, in substance, little more than a catalogue. The\nintention of its unknown author seems to have been to draw a series of\npictures of what he considered to be the principal among Arthur\u2019s\nfollowers. The other story\u2014that of \u201cKulhwch and Olwen\u201d\u2014also takes this\ncatalogue form, but the matters enumerated are of a different kind. It\nis not so much a record of men as of things. Not the heroes of Britain,\nbut the treasures of Britain are its subject. One might compare it with\nthe Gaelic story of the adventures of the three sons of Tuirenn.[441]\n\nThe \u201cThirteen Treasures of Britain\u201d were famous in early legend. They\nbelonged to gods and heroes, and were current in our island till the end\nof the divine age, when Merlin, fading out of the world, took them with\nhim into his airy tomb, never to be seen by mortal eyes again. According\nto tradition,[442] they consisted of a sword, a basket, a drinking-horn,\na chariot, a halter, a knife, a cauldron, a whetstone, a garment, a pan,\na platter, a chess-board, and a mantle, all possessed of not less\nmarvellous qualities than the apples, the pig-skin, the spear, the\nhorses and chariot, the pigs, the hound-whelp, and the cooking-spit\nwhich the sons of Tuirenn obtained for Lugh.[443] It is these same\nlegendary treasures that reappear, no doubt, in the story of \u201cKulhwch\nand Olwen\u201d. The number tallies, for there are thirteen of them. Some are\ncertainly, and others probably, identical with those of the other\ntradition. That there should be discrepancies need cause no surprise,\nfor it is not unlikely that there were several different versions of\ntheir legend. Everyone had heard of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain.\nMany, no doubt, disputed as to what they were. Others might ask whence\nthey came. The story of \u201cKulhwch and Olwen\u201d was composed to tell them.\nThey were won by Arthur and his mighty men.\n\nKulhwch[444] is the hero of the story and Olwen is its heroine, but\nonly, as it were, by courtesy. The pair provide a love-interest which,\nas in the tales of all primitive people, is kept in the background. The\nwoman, in such romances, takes the place of the gold and gems in a\nmodern \u201ctreasure-hunt\u201d story; she is won by overcoming external\nobstacles, and not by any difficulty in obtaining her own consent. In\nthis romance[445], Kulhwch was the son of a king who afterwards married\na widow with a grown-up daughter, whom his stepmother urged Kulhwch to\nmarry. On his modestly replying that he was not yet of an age to wed,\nshe laid the destiny on him that he should never have a wife at all,\nunless he could win Olwen, the daughter of a terrible father called\n\u201cHawthorn, Chief of Giants\u201d.[446]\n\nThe \u201cChief of Giants\u201d was as hostile to suitors as he was monstrous in\nshape; and no wonder! for he knew that on his daughter\u2019s marriage his\nown life would come to an end. Both in this peculiarity and in the\ndescription of his ponderous eyebrows, which fell so heavily over his\neyes that he could not see until they had been lifted up with forks, he\nreminds one of the Fomor, Balor. Of his daughter, on the other hand, the\nWelsh tale gives a description as beautiful as Olwen was, herself. \u201cMore\nyellow was her head than the flower of the broom, and her skin was\nwhiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and her\nfingers than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray of the\nmeadow-fountain. The eye of the trained hawk, the glance of the\nthree-mewed falcon was not brighter than hers. Her bosom was more snowy\nthan the breast of the white swan, her cheek was redder than the reddest\nroses. Whoso beheld her was filled with her love. Four white trefoils\nsprung up wherever she trod. And therefore was she called Olwen.\u201d[447]\n\nKulhwch had no need to see her to fall in love with her. He blushed at\nher very name, and asked his father how he could obtain her in marriage.\nHis father reminded him that he was Arthur\u2019s cousin, and advised him to\nclaim Olwen from him as a boon.\n\nSo Kulhwch \u201cpricked forth upon a steed with head dappled grey, of four\nwinters old, firm of limb, with shell-formed hoofs, having a bridle of\nlinked gold on his head, and upon him a saddle of costly gold. And in\nthe youth\u2019s hand were two spears of silver, sharp, well-tempered, headed\nwith steel, three ells in length, of an edge to wound the wind, and\ncause blood to flow, and swifter than the fall of the dewdrop from the\nblade of reed-grass upon the earth when the dew of June is at the\nheaviest. A gold-hilted sword was upon his thigh, the blade of which was\nof gold, bearing a cross of inlaid gold of the hue of the lightning of\nheaven; his war-horn was of ivory. Before him were two brindled\nwhite-breasted greyhounds, having strong collars of rubies about their\nnecks, reaching from the shoulder to the ear. And the one that was on\nthe left side bounded across to the right side, and the one on the right\nto the left, and like two sea-swallows sported around him. And his\ncourser cast up four sods with his four hoofs, like four swallows in the\nair, about his head, now above, now below. About him was a four-cornered\ncloth of purple, and an apple of gold was at each corner, and every one\nof the apples was of the value of an hundred kine. And there was\nprecious gold of the value of three hundred kine upon his shoes, and\nupon his stirrups, from his knee to the tip of his toe. And the blade of\ngrass bent not beneath him, so light was his courser\u2019s tread as he\njourneyed towards the gate of Arthur\u2019s palace.\u201d\n\nNor did this bold suitor stand greatly upon ceremony. He arrived after\nthe portal of the palace had been closed for the night, and, contrary to\nall precedent, sent to Arthur demanding instant entry. Although, too, it\nwas the custom for visitors to dismount at the horse-block at the gate,\nhe did not do so, but rode his charger into the hall. After greetings\nhad passed between him and Arthur, and he had announced his name, he\ndemanded Olwen for his bride at the hands of the Emperor and his\nwarriors.\n\nNeither Arthur nor any of his court had ever heard of Olwen. However, he\npromised his cousin either to find her for him, or to prove that there\nwas no such person. He ordered his most skilful warriors to accompany\nKulhwch; Kai, with his companion Bedwyr, the swiftest of men; Kynddelig,\nwho was as good a guide in a strange country as in his own; Gwrhyr, who\nknew all the languages of men, as well as of all other creatures;\nGwalchmei, who never left an adventure unachieved; and Menw, who could\nrender himself and his companions invisible at will.\n\nThey travelled until they came to a castle on an open plain. Feeding on\nthe plain was a countless herd of sheep, and, on a mound close by, a\nmonstrous shepherd with a monstrous dog. Menw cast a spell over the dog,\nand they approached the shepherd. He was called Custennin, a brother of\nHawthorn, while his wife was a sister of Kulhwch\u2019s own mother. The evil\nchief of giants had reduced his brother to servitude, and murdered all\nhis twenty-four sons save one, who was kept hidden in a stone chest.\nTherefore he welcomed Kulhwch and the embassy from Arthur, and promised\nto help them secretly, the more readily since Kai offered to take the\none surviving son under his protection. Custennin\u2019s wife procured\nKulhwch a secret meeting with Olwen, and the damsel did not altogether\ndiscourage her wooer\u2019s suit.\n\nThe party started for Hawthorn\u2019s castle. Without raising any alarm, they\nslew the nine porters and the nine watch-dogs, and came unhindered into\nthe hall. They greeted the ponderous giant, and announced the reason of\ntheir coming. \u201cWhere are my pages and my servants?\u201d he said. \u201cRaise up\nthe forks beneath my two eyebrows which have fallen over my eyes, so\nthat I may see the fashion of my son-in-law.\u201d He glared at them, and\ntold them to come again upon the next day.\n\nThey turned to go, and, as they did so, Hawthorn seized a poisoned dart,\nand threw it after them. But Bedwyr caught it, and cast it back,\nwounding the giant\u2019s knee. They left him grumbling, slept at the house\nof Custennin, and returned, the next morning.\n\nAgain they demanded Olwen from her father, threatening him with death if\nhe refused. \u201cHer four great-grandmothers, and her four great-grandsires\nare yet alive,\u201d replied Hawthorn; \u201cit is needful that I take counsel of\nthem.\u201d So they turned away, and, as they went, he flung a second dart,\nwhich Menw caught, and hurled back, piercing the giant\u2019s body.\n\nThe next time they came, Hawthorn warned them not to shoot at him again,\nunless they desired death. Then he ordered his eyebrows to be lifted up,\nand, as soon as he could see, he flung a poisoned dart straight at\nKulhwch. But the suitor himself caught it, and flung it back, so that it\npierced Hawthorn\u2019s eyeball and came out through the back of his head.\nHere again we are reminded of the myth of Lugh and Balor. Hawthorn,\nhowever, was not killed, though he was very much discomforted. \u201cA cursed\nungentle son-in-law, truly!\u201d he complained. \u201cAs long as I remain alive,\nmy eyesight will be the worse. Whenever I go against the wind, my eyes\nwill water; and peradventure my head will burn, and I shall have a\ngiddiness every new moon. Cursed be the fire in which it was forged!\nLike the bite of a mad dog is the stroke of this poisoned iron.\u201d\n\nIt was now the turn of Kulhwch and his party to warn the giant that\nthere must be no more dart-throwing. He appeared, indeed, more amenable\nto reason, and allowed himself to be placed opposite to Kulhwch, in a\nchair, to discuss the amount of his daughter\u2019s bride-price.\n\nIts terms, as he gradually unfolded them, were terrific. The blood-fine\npaid for Cian to Lugh seems, indeed, a trifle beside it. To obtain\ngrain, for food and liquor at his daughter\u2019s wedding, a vast hill which\nhe showed to Kulhwch must be rooted up, levelled, ploughed, sown, and\nharvested in one day. No one could do this except Amaethon son of D\u00f4n,\nthe divine husbandman, and Govannan son of D\u00f4n, the divine smith, and\nthey must have the service of three pairs of magic oxen. He must also\nhave returned to him the same nine bushels of flax which he had sown in\nhis youth, and which had never come up; for only out of this very flax\nshould be made the white wimple for Olwen\u2019s head. For mead, too, he must\nhave honey \u201cnine times sweeter than the honey of the virgin swarm\u201d.\n\nThen followed the enumeration of the thirteen treasures to be paid to\nhim as dowry. Such a list of wedding presents was surely never known! No\npot could hold such honey as he demanded but the magic vessel of Llwyr,\nthe son of Llwyryon. There would not be enough food for all the\nwedding-guests, unless he had the basket of Gwyddneu Garanhir, from\nwhich all the men in the world could be fed, thrice nine at a time. No\ncauldron could cook the meat, except that of Diwrnach the Gael. The\nmystic drinking-horn of Gwlgawd Gododin must be there, to give them\ndrink. The harp of Teirtu, which, like the Dagda\u2019s, played of itself,\nmust make music for them. The giant father-in-law\u2019s hair could only be\nshorn with one instrument\u2014the tusk of White-tooth, King of the Boars,\nand not even by that unless it was plucked alive out of its owner\u2019s\nmouth. Also, before the hair could be cut, it must be spread out, and\nthis could not be done until it had been first softened with the blood\nof the perfectly black sorceress, daughter of the perfectly white\nsorceress, from the Source of the Stream of Sorrow, on the borders of\nhell. Nor could the sorceress\u2019s blood be kept warm enough unless it was\nplaced in the bottles of Gwyddolwyn Gorr, which preserved the heat of\nany liquor put into them, though it was carried from the east of the\nworld to the west. Another set of bottles he must also have to keep milk\nfor his guests in\u2014those bottles of Rhinnon Rhin Barnawd in which no\ndrink ever turned sour. For himself, he required the sword of Gwrnach\nthe Giant, which that personage would never allow out of his own\nkeeping, because it was destined that he himself should fall by it. Last\nof all, he must be given the comb, the razor, and the scissors which lay\nbetween the ears of Twrch Trwyth, a king changed into the most terrible\nof wild boars.\n\nIt is the chase of this boar which gives the story of \u201cKulhwch and\nOlwen\u201d its alternative title\u2014\u201cThe Twrch Trwyth\u201d. The task was one worthy\nof gods and demi-gods. Its contemplation might well have appalled\nKulhwch, who, however, was not so easily frightened. To every fresh\ndemand, every new obstacle put in his way, he gave the same answer:\n\n\u201cIt will be easy for me to compass this, although thou mayest think that\nit will not be easy\u201d.\n\nWhether it was easy or not will be seen from the conditions under which\nalone the hunt could be brought to a successful end. No ordinary hounds\nor huntsmen would avail. The chief of the pack must be Drudwyn, the\nwhelp of Greid the son of Eri, led in the one leash that would hold him,\nfastened, by the one chain strong enough, to the one collar that would\ncontain his neck. No huntsman could hunt with this dog except Mabon son\nof Modron; and he had, ages before, been taken from between his mother\nand the wall when he was three nights old, and it was not known where he\nwas, or even whether he were living or dead. There was only one steed\nthat could carry Mabon, namely Gwynn Mygdwn, the horse of Gweddw. Two\nother marvellous hounds, the cubs of Gast Rhymhi, must also be obtained;\nthey must be held in the only leash they would not break, for it would\nbe made out of the beard of the giant Dissull, plucked from him while he\nwas still alive. Even with this, no huntsman could lead them except\nKynedyr Wyllt, who was himself nine times more wild than the wildest\nbeast upon the mountains. All Arthur\u2019s mighty men must come to help,\neven Gwyn son of Nudd, upon his black horse; and how could he be spared\nfrom his terrible duty of restraining the devils in hell from breaking\nloose and destroying the world?\n\nHere is material for romance indeed! But, unhappily, we shall never know\nthe full story of how all these magic treasures were obtained, all these\nmagic hounds captured and compelled to hunt, all these magic huntsmen\nbrought to help. The story\u2014which Mr. Nutt[448] considers to be, \u201csaving\nthe finest tales of the \u2018Arabian Nights\u2019, the greatest romantic fairy\ntale the world has ever known\u201d\u2014is not, as we have it now, complete. It\nreads fully enough; but, on casting backwards and forwards, between the\nlist of feats to be performed and the body of the tale which is supposed\nto relate them all, we find many of them wanting. \u201cThe host of Arthur\u201d,\nwe are told, \u201cdispersed themselves into parties of one and two\u201d, each\nparty intent upon some separate quest. The adventures of some of them\nhave come down, but those of others have not. We are told how Kai slew\nGwrnach the Giant with his own sword; how Gwyrthur son of Greidawl,\nGwyn\u2019s rival for the love of Creudylad, saved an anthill from fire, and\nhow the grateful ants searched for and found the very flax-seeds sown by\nHawthorn in his youth; how Arthur\u2019s host surrounded and took Gast\nRhymhi\u2019s cubs, and how Kai and Bedwyr overcame Dissull, and plucked out\nhis beard with wooden tweezers, to make a leash for them. We learn how\nArthur went to Ireland, and brought back the cauldron of Diwrnach the\nGael, full of Irish money; how White-tusk the Boar-king was chased and\nkilled; and how Arthur condescended to slay the perfectly black\nsorceress with his own hand. That others of the treasures were acquired\nis hinted rather than said. Most important of all (for so much depended\non him), we find out where the stolen Mabon was, and learn how he was\nrescued.\n\nSo many ages had elapsed since Mabon had disappeared that there seemed\nlittle hope of ever finding news of him. Nevertheless Gwrhyr, who spoke\nthe languages of all creatures, went to enquire of that ancient bird,\nthe Ousel of Cilgwri. But the Ousel, though in her time she had pecked a\nsmith\u2019s anvil down to the size of a nut, was yet too young to have heard\nof Mabon. She sent Gwrhyr to a creature formed before her, the Stag of\nRedynvre. But though the Stag had lived to see an oak-sapling slowly\ngrow to be a tree with a thousand branches, and as slowly decay again\ntill it was a withered stump, he had never heard of Mabon.\n\nTherefore he sent him on to a creature still older than himself\u2014the Owl\nof Cwm Cawlwyd. The wood she lived in had been thrice rooted up, and had\nthrice re-sown itself, and yet, in all that immense time, she had never\nheard of Mabon. There was but one who might have, she told Gwrhyr, and\nhe was the Eagle of Gwern Abwy.\n\nHere, at last, they struck Mabon\u2019s trail. \u201cThe Eagle said: \u2018I have been\nhere for a great space of time, and when I first came hither there was a\nrock here, from the top of which I pecked at the stars every evening;\nand now it is not so much as a span high. From that day to this I have\nbeen here, and I have never heard of the man for whom you inquire,\nexcept once when I went in search of food as far as Llyn Llyw. And when\nI came there, I struck my talons into a salmon, thinking he would serve\nme as food for a long time. But he drew me into the deep, and I was\nscarcely able to escape from him. After that I went with my whole\nkindred to attack him, and to try to destroy him, but he sent\nmessengers, and made peace with me; and came and besought me to take\nfifty fish spears out of his back. Unless he know something of him whom\nyou seek, I cannot tell who may. However, I will guide you to the place\nwhere he is.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt happened that the Salmon did know. With every tide he went up the\nSevern as far as the walls of Gloucester, and there, he said, he had\nfound such wrong as he had never found anywhere else. So he took Kai and\nGwrhyr upon his shoulders and carried them to the wall of the prison\nwhere a captive was heard lamenting. This was Mabon son of Modron, who\nwas suffering such imprisonment as not even Lludd of the Silver Hand or\nGreid, the son of Eri,[449] the other two of the \u201cThree Paramount\nPrisoners of Britain\u201d, had endured before him. But it came to an end\nnow; for Kai sent to Arthur, and he and his warriors stormed Gloucester,\nand brought Mabon away.\n\nAll was at last ready for the final achievement\u2014the hunting of Twrch\nTrwyth, who was now, with his seven young pigs, in Ireland. Before he\nwas roused, it was thought wise to send the wizard Menw to find out by\nocular inspection whether the comb, the scissors, and the razor were\nstill between his ears. Menw took the form of a bird, and settled upon\nthe Boar\u2019s head. He saw the coveted treasures, and tried to take one of\nthem, but Twrch Trwyth shook himself so violently that some of the venom\nfrom his bristles spurted over Menw, who was never quite well again from\nthat day.\n\nThen the hunt was up, the men surrounded him, and the dogs were loosed\nat him from every side. On the first day, the Irish attacked him. On the\nsecond day, Arthur\u2019s household encountered him and were worsted. Then\nArthur himself fought with him for nine days and nine nights without\neven killing one of the little pigs.\n\nA truce was now called, so that Gwrhyr, who spoke all languages, might\ngo and parley with him. Gwrhyr begged him to give up in peace the comb,\nthe scissors, and the razor, which were all that Arthur wanted. But the\nBoar Trwyth, indignant of having been so annoyed, would not. On the\ncontrary, he promised to go on the morrow into Arthur\u2019s country, and do\nall the harm he could there.\n\nSo Twrch Trwyth with his seven pigs crossed the sea into Wales, and\nArthur followed with his warriors in the ship \u201cPrydwen\u201d. Here the story\nbecomes wonderfully realistic and circumstantial. We are told of every\nplace they passed through on the long chase through South Wales, and can\ntrace the course of the hunt over the map.[450] We know of every check\nthe huntsmen had, and what happened every time the boars turned to bay.\nThe \u201ccasualty-list\u201d of Arthur\u2019s men is completely given; and we can also\nfollow the shrinking of Twrch Trwyth\u2019s herd, as his little pigs fell one\nby one. None were left but Trwyth himself by the time the Severn estuary\nwas reached, at the mouth of the Wye.\n\nHere the hunt came up with him, and drove him into the water, and in\nthis unfamiliar element he was outmatched. Osla Big-Knife[451],\nManawyddan son of Llyr, Kacmwri, the servant of Arthur, and Gwyngelli\ncaught him by his four feet and plunged his head under water, while the\ntwo chief huntsmen, Mabon son of Modron, and Kyledyr Willt, came, one on\neach side of him, and took the scissors and the razor. Before they could\nget the comb, however, he shook himself free, and struck out for\nCornwall, leaving Osla and Kacmwri half-drowned in the Severn.\n\nAnd all this trouble, we are told, was mere play compared with the\ntrouble they had with him in Cornwall before they could get the comb.\nBut, at last, they secured it, and drove the boar out over the deep sea.\nHe passed out of sight, with two of the magic hounds in pursuit of him,\nand none of them have ever been heard of since.\n\nThe sight of these treasures, paraded before Hawthorn, chief of giants,\nwas, of course, his death-warrant. All who wished him ill came to gloat\nover his downfall. But they should have been put to shame by the giant,\nwhose end had, at least, a certain dignity. \u201cMy daughter\u201d, he said to\nKulhwch, \u201cis yours, but you need not thank me for it, but Arthur, who\nhas accomplished all this. By my free will you should never have had\nher, for with her I lose my life.\u201d\n\nThereupon they cut off his head, and put it upon a pole; and that night\nthe undutiful Olwen became Kulhwch\u2019s bride.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 437:\n\n \u201cHistory of the Britons\u201d, \u00a7 50.\n\nFootnote 438:\n\n Geoffrey of Monmouth. Books IX and X, and chaps. I and II of XI.\n\nFootnote 439:\n\n Translated by Lady Guest in her _Mabinogion_.\n\nFootnote 440:\n\n See chap. XIV\u2014\u201cFinn and the Fenians\u201d.\n\nFootnote 441:\n\n Chap. VIII\u2014\u201cThe Gaelic Argonauts\u201d.\n\nFootnote 442:\n\n The list will be found, translated from an old Welsh MS., in the notes\n to _Kulhwch and Olwen_, in Lady Guest\u2019s _Mabinogion_.\n\nFootnote 443:\n\n Chap. VIII\u2014\u201cThe Gaelic Argonauts\u201d.\n\nFootnote 444:\n\n Pronounced _Keelhookh_.\n\nFootnote 445:\n\n The following pages sketch out the main incidents of the story as\n translated by Lady Guest in her _Mabinogion_.\n\nFootnote 446:\n\n In Welsh, _Yspaddaden Penkawr_.\n\nFootnote 447:\n\n _I.e._ She of the White Track. The beauty of Olwen was proverbial in\n medi\u00e6val Welsh poetry.\n\nFootnote 448:\n\n In his notes to his edition of Lady Guest\u2019s _Mabinogion_. Published\n 1902.\n\nFootnote 449:\n\n So says the text. But a triad quoted by Lady Guest in her notes gives\n the \u201cThree Paramount Prisoners of Britain\u201d differently. \u201cThe three\n supreme prisoners of the Island of Britain, Llyr Llediath in the\n prison of Euroswydd Wledig, and Madoc, or Mabon, and Gweir, son of\n Gweiryoth; and one more exalted than the three, and that was Arthur,\n who was for three nights in the Castle of Oeth and Anoeth, and three\n nights in the prison of Wen Pendragon, and three nights in the dark\n prison under the stone. And one youth released him from these three\n prisons; that youth was Goreu the son of Custennin, his cousin.\u201d\n\nFootnote 450:\n\n See Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, chap. X\u2014\u201cPlace-name Stories\u201d.\n\nFootnote 451:\n\n The \u201cbig knife\u201d was, we are told in the story, \u201ca short broad dagger.\n When Arthur and his hosts came before a torrent, they would seek for a\n narrow place where they might pass the water, and would lay the\n sheathed dagger across the torrent, and it would form a bridge\n sufficient for the armies of the three islands of Britain, and of the\n three islands adjacent, with their spoil.\u201d\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIII\n\n THE GODS AS KING ARTHUR\u2019S KNIGHTS\n\n\nIt is not, however, by such fragments of legend that Arthur is best\nknown to English readers. Not Arthur the god, but Arthur the \u201cblameless\nking\u201d, who founded the Table Round, from which he sent forth his knights\n\u201cto ride abroad redressing human wrongs\u201d,[452] is the figure which the\nname conjures up. Nor is it even from Sir Thomas Malory\u2019s Morte Darthur\nthat this conception comes to most of us, but from Tennyson\u2019s _Idylls of\nthe King_. But Tennyson has so modernized the ancient tradition that it\nretains little of the old Arthur but the name. He tells us himself that\nhis poem had but very slight relation to\u2014\n\n ... \u201cthat gray king, whose name, a ghost,\n Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain-peak,\n And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still; or him\n Of Geoffrey\u2019s book, or him of Malleor\u2019s ...\u201d;[453]\n\nbut that he merely used the legend to give a substantial form to his\nideal figure of the perfect English gentleman\u2014a title to which the\noriginal Arthur could scarcely have laid claim. Still less does there\nremain in it the least trace of anything that could suggest mythology.\n\nAs much as this, however, might be said of Malory\u2019s book. We may be\nfairly certain that the good Sir Thomas had no idea that the personages\nof whom he wrote had ever been anything different from the Christian\nknights which they had become in the late French romances from which he\ncompiled his own fifteenth-century work. The old gods had been, from\ntime to time, very completely euhemerized. The characters of the \u201cFour\nBranches of the Mabinogi\u201d are still recognizable as divine beings. In\nthe later Welsh stories, however, their divinity merely hangs about them\nin shreds and tatters, and the first Norman adapters of these stories\nmade them still more definitely human. By the time Malory came to build\nup his Morte Darthur from the foreign romances, they had altered so much\nthat the shapes and deeds of gods could only be recognized under their\nmedi\u00e6val knightly disguises by those who had known them in their ancient\nforms.\n\nWe have chosen Malory\u2019s Morte Darthur, as almost the sole representative\nof Arthurian literature later than the Welsh poems and prose stories,\nfor three reasons. Firstly, because it is the English Arthurian romance\n_par excellence_ from which all later English authors, including\nTennyson, have drawn their material. Secondly, because the mass of\nforeign literature dealing with the subject of Arthur is in itself a\nlife-study, and could not by any possibility be compressed within the\nlimits of a chapter. Thirdly, because Malory\u2019s fine judgment caused him\nto choose the best and most typical foreign tales to weave into his own\nromance; and hence it is that we find most of our old British gods\u2014both\nthose of the earlier cycle and those of the system connected with\nArthur\u2014striding disguised through his pages.\n\nCuriously enough, Sir Edward Strachey, in his preface to the \u201cGlobe\u201d\nedition of Caxton\u2019s Morte Darthur, uses almost the same image to\ndescribe Malory\u2019s prose-poem that Matthew Arnold handled with such\neffect, in his _Study of Celtic Literature_, to point out the real\nnature of the Mabinogion. \u201cMalory\u201d, he says, \u201chas built a great,\nrambling, medi\u00e6val castle, the walls of which enclose rude and even\nruinous work of earlier times.\u201d How rude and how ruinous these relics\nwere Malory doubtless had not the least idea, for he has completely\njumbled the ancient mythology. Not only do gods of the older and newer\norder appear together, but the same deities, under very often only\nslightly varying names, come up again and again as totally different\ncharacters.\n\nTake, for example, the ancient deity of death and Hades. As King\nBrandegore, or Brandegoris (Br\u00e2n of Gower), he brings five thousand\nmounted men to oppose King Arthur;[454] but, as Sir Brandel, or\nBrandiles (Br\u00e2n of Gwales[455]), he is a valiant Knight of the Round\nTable, who dies fighting in Arthur\u2019s service.[456] Again, under his name\nof Uther Pendragon (Uther Ben), he is Arthur\u2019s father;[457] though as\nKing Ban of Benwyk (the \u201cSquare Enclosure\u201d, doubtless the same as\nTaliesin\u2019s _Caer Pedryvan_ and Malory\u2019s _Carbonek_), he is a foreign\nmonarch, who is Arthur\u2019s ally.[458] Yet again, as the father of\nGuinevere, Ogyrvran has become Leodegrance.[459] As King Uriens, or\nUrience, of Gore (Gower), he marries one of Arthur\u2019s sisters,[460]\nfights against him, but finally tenders his submission, and is enrolled\namong his knights.[461] Urien may also be identified in the Morte\nDarthur as King Rience, or Ryons, of North Wales,[462] and as King\nNentres of Garloth;[463] while, to crown the varied disguises of this\nProteus of British gods, he appears in an isolated episode as Balan, who\nfights with his brother Balin until they kill one another.[464]\n\nOne may generally tell the divinities of the underworld in these\nromances by their connection, not with the settled and civilized parts\nof England, but with the wild and remote north and west, and the still\nwilder and remoter islands. Just as Br\u00e2n and Urien are kings of Gower,\nso Arawn, under the corruptions of his name into \u201cAnguish\u201d and\n\u201cAnguissance\u201d, is made King of Scotland or Ireland, both countries\nhaving been probably confounded, as the same land of the Scotti, or\nGaels.[465] Pwyll, Head of Annwn, we likewise discover under two\ndisguises. As Pelles, \u201cKing of the Foreign Country\u201d[466] and Keeper of\nthe Holy Grail, he is a personage of great mythological significance,\nalbeit the real nature of him and his surroundings has been overlaid\nwith a Christian veneer as foreign to the original of Pelles as his own\nkingdom was to Arthur\u2019s knights. The Chief of Hades figures as a \u201ccousin\nnigh unto Joseph of Arimathie\u201d,[467] who, \u201cwhile he might ride supported\nmuch Christendom, and holy church\u201d.[468] He is represented as the father\nof Elayne (Elen[469]), whom he gives in marriage to Sir Launcelot,\nbestowing upon the couple a residence called \u201cCastle Bliant\u201d,[470] the\nname of which, there is good evidence to show, is connected with that of\nPwyll\u2019s vassal called Teirnyon Twryf Vliant in the first of the\nMabinogi.[471] Under his other name of \u201cSir Pelleas\u201d\u2014the hero of\nTennyson\u2019s Idyll of _Pelleas and Ettarre_\u2014the primitive myth of Pwyll is\ntouched at a different point. After his unfortunate love-passage with\nEttarre (or Ettard, as Malory calls her), Pelleas is represented as\nmarrying Nimue,[472] whose original name, which was Rhiannon, reached\nthis form, as well as that of \u201cVivien\u201d, through a series of miscopyings\nof successive scribes.[473]\n\nWith Pelles, or Pelleas, is associated a King Pellean, or Pellam, his\nson, and, equally with him, the Keeper of the Grail, who can be no other\nthan Pryderi.[474] Like that deity in the Mabinogi of M\u00e2th, he is\ndefeated by one of the gods of light. The dealer of the blow, however,\nis not Arthur, as successor to Gwydion, but Balin, the Gallo-British\nsun-god Belinus.[475]\n\nAnother dark deity, Gwyn son of Nudd, we discover under all of his three\ntitles. Called variously \u201cSir Gwinas\u201d,[476] \u201cSir Guynas\u201d,[477] and \u201cSir\nGwenbaus\u201d[478] by Malory, the Welsh Gwynwas (or Gwyn) is altogether on\nArthur\u2019s side. The Cornish Melwas, split into two different knights,\ndivides his allegiance. As Sir Melias,[479] or Meleaus,[480] de Lile\n(\u201cof the Isle\u201d), he is a Knight of the Round Table, though, on the\nquarrel between Arthur and Launcelot, he sides with the knight against\nthe king. But as Sir Meliagraunce, or Meliagaunce, it is he who, as in\nthe older myth, captures Queen Guinevere and carries her off to his\ncastle.[481] Under his Somerset name of Avallon, or Avallach, he is\nconnected with the episode of the Grail. King Evelake[482] is a Saracen\nruler who was converted by Joseph of Arimathea, and brought by him to\nBritain. In his convert\u2019s enthusiasm, he attempted the quest of the holy\nvessel, but was not allowed to succeed.[483] As a consolation, however,\nit was divinely promised him that he should not die until he had seen a\nknight of his blood in the ninth degree who should achieve it. This was\ndone by Sir Percivale, King Evelake being then three hundred years\nold.[484]\n\nTurning from deities of darkness to deities of light, we find the\nsky-god figuring largely in the Morte Darthur. The Lludd of the earlier\nmythology is Malory\u2019s King Loth, or Lot, of Orkney,[485] through an\nintrigue with whose wife Arthur becomes the father of Sir Mordred. Lot\u2019s\nwife was the mother also of Sir Gawain, whose birth Malory does not,\nhowever, attribute to Arthur, though such must have been the original\nform of the myth.[486] Sir Gawain, of the Arthurian legend, is the\nGwalchmei of the Welsh stories, the successor of the still earlier Lleu\nLlaw Gyffes, just as Sir Mordred\u2014the Welsh Medrawt\u2014corresponds to Lleu\u2019s\nbrother Dylan. As Sir Mordred retains the dark character of Medrawt, so\nSir Gawain, even in Malory,[487] shows the attributes of a solar deity.\nWe are told that his strength increased gradually from dawn till high\nnoon, and then as gradually decreased again\u2014a piece of pagan symbolism\nwhich forms a good example of the appositeness of Sir Edward Strachey\u2019s\nfigure; for it stands out of the medi\u00e6val narrative like an ancient\nbrick in some more modern building.\n\nThe Zeus of the later cycle, Emrys or Myrddin, appears in the Morte\nDarthur under both his names. The word \u201cEmrys\u201d becomes \u201cBors\u201d, and King\nBors of Gaul is made a brother of King Ban of Benwyck[488]\u2014that is, Br\u00e2n\nof the Square Enclosure, the ubiquitous underworld god. Myrddin we meet\nunder no such disguise. The ever-popular Merlin still retains intact the\nattributes of the sky-god. He remains above, and apart from all the\nknights, higher even in some respects than King Arthur, to whom he\nstands in much the same position as M\u00e2th does to Gwydion in the\nMabinogi.[489] Like M\u00e2th, he is an enchanter, and, like M\u00e2th, too, who\ncould hear everything said in the world, in however low a tone, if only\nthe wind met it, he is practically omniscient. The account of his final\ndisappearance, as told in the Morte Darthur, is only a re-embellishment\nof the original story, the nature-myth giving place to what novelists\ncall \u201ca feminine interest\u201d. Everyone knows how the great magician fell\ninto a dotage upon the \u201clady of the lake\u201d whom Malory calls \u201cNimue\u201d, and\nTennyson \u201cVivien\u201d\u2014both names being that of \u201cRhiannon\u201d in disguise.\n\u201cMerlin would let her have no rest, but always he would be with her ...\nand she was ever passing weary of him, and fain would have been\ndelivered of him, for she was afeard of him because he was a devil\u2019s\nson, and she could not put him away by no means. And so on a time it\nhapped that Merlin showed to her in a rock whereas was a great wonder,\nand wrought by enchantment, that went under a great stone. So, by her\nsubtle working, she made Merlin to go under that stone to let her wit of\nthe marvels there, but she wrought so there for him that he never came\nout for all the craft that he could do. And so she departed and left\nMerlin.\u201d[490]\n\nMerlin\u2019s living grave is still to be seen at the end of the _Val des\nF\u00e9es_, in the forest of Br\u00e9cilien, in Brittany. The tomb of stone is\ncertainly but a prosaic equivalent for the tower of woven air in which\nthe heaven-god went to his rest. Still, it is not quite so unpoetic as\nthe leather sack in which Rhiannon, the original of Nimue, caught and\nimprisoned Gwawl, the earlier Merlin, like a badger in a bag.[491]\n\nElen, Myrddin\u2019s consort, appears in Malory as five different \u201cElaines\u201d.\nTwo of them are wives of the dark god, under his names of \u201cKing\nBan\u201d[492] and \u201cKing Nentres\u201d.[493] A third is called the daughter of\nKing Pellinore, a character of uncertain origin.[494] But the two most\nfamous are the ladies who loved Sir Launcelot\u2014\u201cElaine the Fair, Elaine\nthe lovable, Elaine the lily maid of Astolat\u201d,[495] and the luckier and\nless scrupulous Elaine, daughter of King Pelles, and mother of Sir\nLauncelot\u2019s son, Galahad.[496]\n\nBut it is time, now that the most important figures of British mythology\nhave been shown under their knightly disguises, and their place in\nArthurian legend indicated, to pass on to some account of the real\nsubject-matter of Sir Thomas Malory\u2019s romance. Externally, it is the\nhistory of an Arthur, King of Britain, whom most people of Malory\u2019s time\nconsidered as eminently a historical character. Around this central\nnarrative of Arthur\u2019s reign and deeds are grouped, in the form of\nepisodes, the personal exploits of the knights believed to have\nsupported him by forming a kind of household guard. But, with the\nexception of a little magnified and distorted legendary history, the\nwhole cycle of romance may be ultimately resolved into a few myths, not\nonly retold, but recombined in several forms by their various tellers.\nThe Norman adapters of the _Mati\u00e8re de Bretagne_ found the British\nmythology already in process of transformation, some of the gods having\ndwindled into human warriors, and others into hardly less human druids\nand magicians. Under their hands the British warriors became Norman\nknights, who did their deeds of prowess in the tilt-yard, and found\ntheir inspiration in the fantastic chivalry popularized by the\nTrouveres, while the druids put off their still somewhat barbaric\ndruidism for the more conventional magic of the Latin races. More than\nthis, as soon as the real sequence and _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ of the tales had\nbeen lost sight of, their adapters used a free hand in reweaving them.\nMost of the romancers had their favourite characters whom they made the\ncentral figure in their stories. Sir Gawain, Sir Percival, Sir Tristrem,\nand Sir Owain (all of them probably once local British sun-gods) appear\nas the most important personages of the romances called after their\nnames, stories of the doughty deeds of christened knights who had little\nleft about them either of Briton or of pagan.\n\nIt is only the labours of the modern scholar that can bring back to us,\nat this late date, things long forgotten when Malory\u2019s book was issued\nfrom Caxton\u2019s press. But oblivion is not annihilation, and Professor\nRhys points out to us the old myths lying embedded in their later\nsetting with almost the same certainty with which the geologist can show\nus the fossils in the rock.[497] Thus treated, they resolve themselves\ninto three principal _motifs_, prominent everywhere in Celtic mythology:\nthe birth of the sun-god; the struggle between light and darkness; and\nthe raiding of the underworld by friendly gods for the good of man.\n\nThe first has been already dealt with.[498] It is the retelling of the\nstory of the origin of the sun-god in the Mabinogi of M\u00e2th, son of\nM\u00e2thonwy. For Gwydion we now have Arthur; instead of Arianrod, the wife\nof the superannuated sky-god Nwyvre, we find the wife of King Lot, the\nsuperannuated sky-god Lludd; Lleu Llaw Gyffes rises again as Sir Gawain\n(Gwalchmei), and Dylan as Sir Mordred (Medrawt); while the wise Merlin,\nthe Jupiter of the new system, takes the place of his wise prototype,\nM\u00e2th. Connected with this first myth is the second\u2014the struggle between\nlight and darkness, of which there are several versions in the Morte\nDarthur. The leading one is the rebellion of the evilly-disposed Sir\nMordred against Arthur and Sir Gawain; while, on other stages, Balan\u2014the\ndark god Br\u00e2n\u2014fights with Balin\u2014the sun-god Belinus; and the same Balin,\nor Belinus, gives an almost mortal stroke to Pellam, the Pryderi of the\nolder mythology.\n\nThe same myth has also a wider form, in which the battle is waged for\npossession of a maiden. Thus (to seek no other instances) Gwynhwyvar was\ncontended for by Arthur and Medrawt, or, in an earlier form of the myth,\nby Arthur and Gwyn. In the Morte Darthur, Gwyn, under the corruption of\nhis Cornish name Melwas into \u201cSir Meliagraunce\u201d, still captures\nGuinevere, but it is no longer Arthur who rescues her. That task, or\nprivilege, has fallen to a new champion. It is Sir Launcelot who follows\nSir Meliagraunce, defeats and slays him, and rescues the fair\ncaptive.[499] But Sir Launcelot, it must be stated\u2014probably to the\nsurprise of those to whom the Arthurian story without Launcelot and\nQueen Guinevere must seem almost like the play of \u201cHamlet with Hamlet\nleft out\u201d,\u2014is unknown to the original tradition. Welsh song and story\nare silent with regard to him, and he is not improbably a creation of\nsome Norman romancer who calmly appropriated to his hero\u2019s credit deeds\nearlier told of other \u201cknights\u201d.\n\nBut the romantic treatment of these two myths by the adapters of the\n_Mati\u00e8re de Bretagne_ are of smaller interest to us at the present day\nthan that of the third. The attraction of the Arthurian story lies less\nin the battles of Arthur or the loves of Guinevere than in the legend\nthat has given it its lasting popularity\u2014the Christian romance of the\nQuest of the Holy Grail. So great and various has been the inspiration\nof this legend to noble works both of art and literature that it seems\nalmost a kind of sacrilege to trace it back, like all the rest of\nArthur\u2019s story, to a paganism which could not have even understood, much\nless created, its mystical beauty. None the less is the whole story\ndirectly evolved from primitive pagan myths concerning a miraculous\ncauldron of fertility and inspiration.\n\nIn the later romances, the Holy Grail is a Christian relic of marvellous\npotency. It had held the Paschal lamb eaten at the Last Supper;[500]\nand, after the death of Christ, Joseph of Arimathea had filled it with\nthe Saviour\u2019s blood.[501] But before it received this colouring, it had\nbeen the magic cauldron of all the Celtic mythologies\u2014the Dagda\u2019s\n\u201cUndry\u201d which fed all who came to it, and from which none went away\nunsatisfied;[502] Br\u00e2n\u2019s cauldron of Renovation, which brought the dead\nback to life;[503] the cauldron of Ogyrvran the Giant, from which the\nMuses ascended;[504] the cauldrons captured by Cuchulainn from the King\nof the Shadowy City,[505] and by Arthur from the chief of Hades;[506] as\nwell as several other mythic vessels of less note.\n\nIn its transition from pagan to Christian form, hardly one of the\nfeatures of the ancient myth has been really obscured. We may recount\nthe chief attributes, as Taliesin tells them in his \u201cSpoiling of Annwn\u201d,\nof the cauldron captured by Arthur. It was the property of Pwyll, and of\nhis son Pryderi, who lived in a kingdom of the other world called, among\nother titles, the \u201cRevolving Castle\u201d, the \u201cFour-cornered Castle\u201d, the\n\u201cCastle of Revelry\u201d, the \u201cKingly Castle\u201d, the \u201cGlass Castle\u201d, and the\n\u201cCastle of Riches\u201d. This place was surrounded by the sea, and in other\nways made difficult of access; there was no lack of wine there, and its\nhappy inhabitants spent with music and feasting an existence which\nneither disease nor old age could assail. As for the cauldron, it had a\nrim of pearls around its edge; the fire beneath it was kept fanned by\nthe breaths of nine maidens; it spoke, doubtless in words of prophetic\nwisdom; and it would not cook the food of a perjurer or coward.[507]\nHere we have considerable data on which to base a parallel between the\npagan cauldron and the Christian Grail.\n\nNor have we far to go in search of correspondences, for they are nearly\nall preserved in Malory\u2019s romance. The mystic vessel was kept by King\nPelles, who is Pwyll, in a castle called \u201cCarbonek\u201d, a name which\nresolves itself, in the hands of the philologist, into _Caer bannawg_,\nthe \u201csquare\u201d or \u201cfour-cornered castle\u201d\u2014in other words, the _Caer\nPedryvan_ of Taliesin\u2019s poem.[508] Of the character of the place as a\n\u201cCastle of Riches\u201d and a \u201cCastle of Revelry\u201d, where \u201cbright wine was the\ndrink of the host\u201d, we have more than a hint in the account, twice\ngiven,[509] of how, upon the appearance of the Grail\u2014borne, it should be\nnoticed, by a maiden or angel\u2014the hall was filled with good odours, and\nevery knight found on the table all the kinds of meat and drink he could\nimagine as most desirable. It could not be seen by sinners,[510] a\nChristian refinement of the savage idea of a pot that would not cook a\ncoward\u2019s food; but the sight of it alone would cure of wounds and\nsickness those who approached it faithfully and humbly,[511] and in its\npresence neither old age nor sickness could oppress them.[512] And,\nthough in Malory we find no reference either to the spot having been\nsurrounded by water, or to the castle as a \u201crevolving\u201d one, we have only\nto turn from the Morte Darthur to the romance entitled the _Seint Greal_\nto discover both. Gwalchmei, going to the castle of King Peleur\n(Pryderi), finds it encircled by a great water, while Peredur,\napproaching the same place, sees it turning with greater speed than the\nswiftest wind. Moreover, archers on the walls shoot so vigorously that\nno armour can resist their shafts, which explains how it happened that,\nof those that went with Arthur, \u201cexcept seven, none returned from Caer\nSidi\u201d.[513]\n\nIt is noticeable that Arthur himself never attempts the quest of the\nGrail, though it was he who had achieved its pagan original. We find in\nMalory four competitors for the mantle of Arthur\u2014Sir Pelleas,[514] Sir\nBors, Sir Percivale, and Sir Galahad.[515] The first of these may be put\nout of court at once, Sir Pelleas, who, being himself Pelles, or Pwyll,\nthe keeper of it, could have had no reason for such exertions. At the\nsecond we may look doubtfully; for Sir Bors is no other than Emrys, or\nMyrddin,[516] and, casting back to the earlier British mythology, we do\nnot find the sky-god personally active in securing boons by force or\ncraft from the underworld. The other two have better claims\u2014Sir\nPercivale and Sir Galahad. \u201cSir Percivale\u201d is the Norman-French name for\nPeredur,[517] the hero of a story in the Red Book of Hergest[518] which\ngives the oldest form of a Grail quest we have. It is anterior to the\nNorman romances, and forms almost a connecting-link between tales of\nmythology and of chivalry. Peredur, or Sir Percivale, therefore, is the\noldest, most primitive, of Grail seekers. On the other hand, Sir Galahad\nis the latest and youngest. But there is reason to believe that Galahad,\nin Welsh \u201cGwalchaved\u201d, the \u201cFalcon of Summer\u201d, is the same solar hero as\nGawain, in Welsh \u201cGwalchmei\u201d, the \u201cFalcon of May\u201d.[519] Both are made,\nin the story of \u201cKulhwch and Olwen\u201d, sons of the same mother, Gwyar. Sir\nGawain himself is, in one Arthurian romance, the achiever of the\nGrail.[520] It is needless to attempt to choose between these two. Both\nhave the attributes of sun-gods. Gwalchmei, the successor of Lleu Llaw\nGyffes, and Peredur Paladrhir, that is to say, the \u201cSpearman with the\nLong Shaft\u201d,[521] may be allowed to claim equal honours. What is\nimportant is that the quest of the Grail, once the chief treasure of\nHades, is still accomplished by one who takes in later legend the place\nof Lieu Llaw Gyffes and Lugh Lamhfada in the earlier British and Gaelic\nmyths as a long-armed solar deity victorious in his strife against the\nPowers of Darkness.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 452:\n\n Tennyson\u2019s _Idylls of the King_; _Guinevere_.\n\nFootnote 453:\n\n _Ibid._ To the Queen.\n\nFootnote 454:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book I, chap. X.\n\nFootnote 455:\n\n Gresholm Island, the scene of \u201cThe Entertaining of the Noble Head\u201d.\n\nFootnote 456:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XX, chap. VIII.\n\nFootnote 457:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. III.\n\nFootnote 458:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book I, chap. VIII.\n\nFootnote 459:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. XVI.\n\nFootnote 460:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 461:\n\n _Ibid._, Book IV, chap. IV.\n\nFootnote 462:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. XXIV.\n\nFootnote 463:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 464:\n\n _Ibid._, Book II, chap. XVIII.\n\nFootnote 465:\n\n _Ibid._, Book V, chap. II; Book VIII, chap. IV; Book XIX, chap. XI.\n\nFootnote 466:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XI, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 467:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XI, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 468:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XVII, chap. V.\n\nFootnote 469:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XI, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 470:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XII, chap. V.\n\nFootnote 471:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 283.\n\nFootnote 472:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. XXIII.\n\nFootnote 473:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 284 and note.\n\nFootnote 474:\n\n The subject is treated at length by Professor Rhys in his _Arthurian\n Legend_, chap. XII\u2014\u201cPwyll and Pelles\u201d.\n\nFootnote 475:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book II, chap. XV.\n\nFootnote 476:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book I, chap. XII.\n\nFootnote 477:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. XV.\n\nFootnote 478:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. IX.\n\nFootnote 479:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XIII, chap. XII.\n\nFootnote 480:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XIX, chap. XI.\n\nFootnote 481:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XIX, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 482:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XIII, chap. X.\n\nFootnote 483:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XIV, chap. IV.\n\nFootnote 484:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XIV, chap. IV.\n\nFootnote 485:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 11.\n\nFootnote 486:\n\n _Op. cit._, pp. 21-22.\n\nFootnote 487:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. XVIII.\n\nFootnote 488:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. VIII.\n\nFootnote 489:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 23.\n\nFootnote 490:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. I.\n\nFootnote 491:\n\n See chap. XVII\u2014\u201cThe Adventures of the Gods of Hades\u201d.\n\nFootnote 492:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. I.\n\nFootnote 493:\n\n _Ibid._, Book I, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 494:\n\n _Ibid._, Book III, chap. XV.\n\nFootnote 495:\n\n Whose story is told by Tennyson in the _Idylls_, and by Malory in Book\n XVIII of the _Morte Darthur_.\n\nFootnote 496:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XI, chaps. II and III.\n\nFootnote 497:\n\n See his _Studies in the Arthurian Legend_.\n\nFootnote 498:\n\n See chap. XXI\u2014\u201cThe Mythological \u2018Coming of Arthur\u2019\u201d.\n\nFootnote 499:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XIX, chaps. I-IX.\n\nFootnote 500:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XVII, chap. XX.\n\nFootnote 501:\n\n _Ibid._, Book II, chap. XVI; Book XI, chap. XIV.\n\nFootnote 502:\n\n See chap. V\u2014\u201cThe Gods of the Gaels\u201d.\n\nFootnote 503:\n\n See chap. XVIII\u2014\u201cThe Wooing of Branwen and the Beheading of Br\u00e2n\u201d.\n\nFootnote 504:\n\n See chap. XXI\u2014\u201cThe Mythological \u2018Coming of Arthur\u2019\u201d.\n\nFootnote 505:\n\n See chap. XII\u2014\u201cThe Irish Iliad\u201d.\n\nFootnote 506:\n\n Chap. XXI\u2014\u201cThe Mythological \u2018Coming of Arthur\u2019\u201d.\n\nFootnote 507:\n\n Chap. XXI\u2014\u201cThe Mythological \u2018Coming of Arthur\u2019\u201d.\n\nFootnote 508:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 305.\n\nFootnote 509:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XI, chaps. II and IV.\n\nFootnote 510:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XVI, chap. V.\n\nFootnote 511:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XI, chap. XIV; Book XII, chap. IV; Book XIII, chap.\n XVIII.\n\nFootnote 512:\n\n Not mentioned by Malory, but stated in the romance called _Seint\n Greal_.\n\nFootnote 513:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 276-277; 302.\n\nFootnote 514:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book IV, chap. XXIX.\n\nFootnote 515:\n\n _Ibid._, Book XVII, chap. XX, in which Sir Bors, Sir Percivale, and\n Sir Galahad are all fed from the Sangreal.\n\nFootnote 516:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 162.\n\nFootnote 517:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 133.\n\nFootnote 518:\n\n Translated by Lady Guest in her _Mabinogion_, under the title of\n _Peredur, the Son of Evrawc_.\n\nFootnote 519:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 169. But see whole of chap. VIII\u2014\u201cGalahad\n and Gwalchaved\u201d.\n\nFootnote 520:\n\n The German romance _Diu Kr\u00f4ne_, by Heinrich von dem T\u00fbrlin.\n\nFootnote 521:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, p. 71.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIV\n\n THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS\n\n\nIf there be love of fame in celestial minds, those gods might count\nthemselves fortunate who shared in the transformation of Arthur. Their\ndivinity had fallen from them, but in their new r\u00f4les, as heroes of\nromance, they entered upon vivid reincarnations. The names of Arthur\u2019s\nKnights might almost be described as \u201chousehold words\u201d, while the gods\nwho had no portion in the Table Round are known only to those who busy\nthemselves with antiquarian lore. It is true that a few folk-tales still\nsurvive in the remoter parts of Wales, in which the names of such\nancient British deities as Gwydion, Gwyn, Arianrod, and Dylan appear,\nbut it is in such a chaos of jumbled and distorted legend that one finds\nit hard to pick out even the slenderest thread of story. They have none\nof the definite coherence of the contemporary Gaelic folk-tales quoted\nin a previous chapter as still preserving the myths about Goibniu, Lugh,\nCian, Manann\u00e1n, Ethniu, and Balor. Indeed, they have reached such a\nstage of disintegration that they can hardly now survive another\ngeneration.[522]\n\nThere have been, however, other paths by which the fame of a god might\ndescend to a posterity which would no longer credit his divinity. The\nrolls of early British history were open to welcome any number of\nmythical personages, provided that their legends were attractive.\nGeoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s famous _Historia Britonum_ is, under its grave\npretence of exact history, as mythological as the Morte Darthur, or even\nthe Mabinogion. The annals of early British saintship were not less\naccommodating. A god whose tradition was too potent to be ignored or\nextinguished was canonized, as a matter of course, by clerics who held\nas an axiom that \u201cthe toleration of the cromlech facilitated the\nreception of the Gospel.[523]\u201d Only the most irreconcilable escaped\nthem\u2014such a one as Gwyn son of Nudd, who, found almost useless by\nGeoffrey and intractable by the monkish writers, remains the last\nsurvivor of the old gods\u2014dwindled to the proportions of a fairy, but\nunsubdued.\n\nThis part of resistance is perhaps the most dignified; for deities can\nbe sadly changed by the caprices of their euhemerizers. D\u00f4n, whom we\nknew as the mother of the heaven gods, seems strangely described as a\n_king_ of Lochlin and Dublin, who led the Irish into north Wales in A.D.\n267.[524] More recognizable is _his_ son Gwydion, who introduced the\nknowledge of letters into the country of his adoption. The dynasty of\n\u201cKing\u201d D\u00f4n, according to a manuscript in the collection of Mr. Edward\nWilliams\u2014better known under his bardic name of Iolo Morganwg\u2014held north\nWales for a hundred and twenty-nine years, when the North British king,\nCunedda, invaded the country, defeated the Irish in a great battle, and\ndrove them across sea to the Isle of Man. This battle is historical,\nand, putting D\u00f4n and Gwydion out of the question, probably represented\nthe last stand of the Gael, in the extreme west of Britain, against the\nsecond and stronger wave of Celtic invasion. In the same collection of\n_Iolo Manuscripts_ is found a curious, and even comic, euhemeristic\nversion of the strange myth of the Bone Prison of Oeth and Anoeth which\nManawyddan son of Llyr, built in Gower. The new reading makes that\nghastly abode a real building, constructed out of the bones of the\n\u201cCaesarians\u201d (Romans) killed in battle with the Cymri. It consisted of\nnumerous chambers, some of large bones and some of small, some above\nground and some under. Prisoners of war were placed in the more\ncomfortable cells, the underground dungeons being kept for traitors to\ntheir country. Several times the \u201cCaesarians\u201d demolished the prison,\nbut, each time, the Cymri rebuilt it stronger than before. At last,\nhowever, the bones decayed, and, being spread upon the ground, made an\nexcellent manure! \u201cFrom that time forth\u201d the people of the neighbourhood\n\u201chad astonishing crops of wheat and barley and of every other grain for\nmany years\u201d.[525]\n\nIt is not, however, in these, so to speak, unauthorized narratives that\nwe can best refind our British deities, but in the compact, coherent,\nand at times almost convincing _Historia Britonum_ of Geoffrey of\nMonmouth, published in the first half of the twelfth century, and for\nhundreds of years gravely quoted as the leading authority on the early\nhistory of our islands. The modern critical spirit has, of course,\nrelegated it to the region of fable. We can no longer accept the\npleasant tradition of the descent of the Britons from the survivors of\nTroy, led westward in search of a new home by Brutus, the great-grandson\nof the pious \u00c6neas. Nor indeed does any portion of the \u201cHistory\u201d, from\n\u00c6neas to Athelstan, quite persuade the latter-day reader. Its kings\nsucceed one another in plausible sequence, but they themselves are too\nobviously the heroes of popular legend.\n\nA large part of Geoffrey\u2019s chronicle\u2014two books[526] out of twelve\u2014is, of\ncourse, devoted to Arthur. In it he tells the story of that paladin\u2019s\nconquests, not only in his own country, against the Saxons, the Irish,\nthe Scots, and the Picts, but over all western Europe. We see the\nBritish champion, after annexing Ireland, Iceland, Gothland, and the\nOrkneys, following up these minor victories by subduing Norway, Dacia\n(by which Denmark seems to have been meant), Aquitaine, and Gaul. After\nsuch triumphs there was clearly nothing left for him but the overthrow\nof the Roman empire; and this he had practically achieved when the\nrebellion of Mordred brought him home to his death, or rather (for even\nGeoffrey does not quite lose hold of the belief in the undying Arthur)\nto be carried to the island of Avallon to be healed of his wounds, the\ncrown of Britain falling to \u201chis kinsman Constantine, the son of Cador,\nDuke of Cornwall, in the five hundred and forty-second year of our\nLord\u2019s incarnation\u201d.[527] Upon the more personal incidents connected\nwith Arthur, Geoffrey openly professes to keep silence, possibly\nregarding them as not falling within the province of his history, but we\nare told shortly how Mordred took advantage of Arthur\u2019s absence on the\nContinent to seize the throne, marry Guanhamara (Guinevere), and ally\nhimself with the Saxons, only to be defeated at that fatal battle called\nby Geoffrey \u201cCambula\u201d, in which Mordred, Arthur, and Walgan\u2014the \u201cSir\nGawain\u201d of Malory and the Gwalchmei of the earlier legends\u2014all met their\ndooms.\n\nWe find the gods of the older generation standing in the same position\nwith regard to Arthur in Geoffrey\u2019s \u201cHistory\u201d as they do in the later\nWelsh triads and tales. Though rulers, they are yet his vassals. In\n\u201cthree brothers of royal blood\u201d, called Lot, Urian, and Augusel, who are\nrepresented as having been chiefs in the north, we may discern Lludd,\nUrien, and Arawn. To these three Arthur restored \u201cthe rights of their\nancestors\u201d, handing over the semi-sovereignty of Scotland to Augusel,\ngiving Urian the government of Murief (Moray), and re-establishing Lot\n\u201cin the consulship of Loudonesia (Lothian), and the other provinces\nbelonging to him\u201d.[528] Two other rulers subject to him are Gunvasius,\nKing of the Orkneys, and Malvasius, King of Iceland,[529] in whom we\nrecognize Gwyn, under Latinized forms of his Welsh name Gwynwas and his\nCornish name Melwas. But it is characteristic of Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s\nloose hold upon his materials that, not content with having connected\nseveral of these gods with Arthur\u2019s period, he further endows them with\nreigns of their own. \u201cUrien\u201d was Arthur\u2019s vassal, but \u201cUrianus\u201d was\nhimself King of Britain centuries before Arthur was born.[530] Lud (that\nis, Lludd) succeeded his father Beli.[531] We hear nothing of his silver\nhand, but we learn that he was \u201cfamous for the building of cities, and\nfor rebuilding the walls of Trinovantum[532], which he also surrounded\nwith innumerable towers ... and though he had many other cities, yet he\nloved this above them all, and resided in it the greater part of the\nyear; for which reason it was afterwards called Kaerlud, and by the\ncorruption of the word, Caerlondon; and again by change of languages, in\nprocess of time, London; as also by foreigners who arrived here, and\nreduced this country under their subjection, it was called Londres. At\nlast, when he was dead, his body was buried by the gate which to this\ntime is called in the British tongue after his name Parthlud, and in the\nSaxon, Ludesgata.\u201d He was succeeded by his brother, Cassibellawn\n(Cassivelaunus), during whose reign Julius Caesar first invaded Britain.\n\nLludd, however, is not entirely dependent upon Geoffrey of Monmouth for\nhis reputation as a king of Britain. One of the old Welsh romances,[533]\ntranslated by Lady Charlotte Guest in her Mabinogion, relates the\nrebuilding of London by Lludd in almost the same words as Geoffrey. The\nstory which these pseudo-historical details introduce is, however, an\nobviously mythological one. It tells us how, in the days of Lludd,\nBritain was oppressed by three plagues. The first was the arrival of a\nstrange race of sorcerers called the \u201cCoranians\u201d,[534] who had three\nqualities which made them unpopular; they paid their way in \u201cfairy\nmoney\u201d, which, though apparently real, returned afterwards\u2014like the\nshields, horses, and hounds made by Gwydion son of D\u00f4n, to deceive\nPryderi\u2014into the fungus out of which it had been charmed by magic; they\ncould hear everything that was said over the whole of Britain, in\nhowever low a tone, provided only that the wind met it; and they could\nnot be injured by any weapon. The second was \u201ca shriek that came on\nevery May eve, over every hearth in the Island of Britain, and went\nthrough people\u2019s hearts and so scared them that the men lost their hue\nand their strength, and the women their children, and the young men and\nthe maidens their senses, and all the animals and trees and the earth\nand the waters were left barren\u201d. The third was a disappearance of the\nfood hoarded in the king\u2019s palace, which was so complete that a year\u2019s\nprovisions vanished in a single night, and so mysterious that no one\ncould ever find out its cause.\n\nBy the advice of his nobles, Lludd went to France to obtain the help of\nits king, his brother Llevelys, who was \u201ca man great of counsel and\nwisdom\u201d. In order to be able to consult with his brother without being\noverheard by the Coranians, Llevelys caused a long tube of brass to be\nmade, through which they talked to one another. The sorcerer tribe,\nhowever, got to know of it, and, though they could not hear what was\nbeing said inside the speaking-tube, they sent a demon into it, who\nwhispered insulting messages up and down it, as though from one brother\nto the other. But Lludd and Llevelys knew one another too well to be\ndeceived by this, and they drove the demon out of the tube by flooding\nit with wine. Then Llevelys told Lludd to take certain insects, which he\nwould give him, and pound them in water. When the water was sufficiently\npermeated with their essence, he was to call both his own people and the\nCoranians together, as though for a conference, and, in the midst of the\nmeeting, to cast it over all of them alike. The water, though harmless\nto his own people, would nevertheless prove a deadly poison to the\nCoranians.\n\nAs for the shriek, Llevelys explained it to be raised by a dragon. This\nmonster was the Red Dragon of Britain, and it raised the shriek because\nit was being attacked by the White Dragon of the Saxons, which was\ntrying to overcome and destroy it. The French king told his brother to\nmeasure the length and breadth of Britain, and, when he had found the\nexact centre of the island, to cause a pit to be dug there. In this pit\nwas to be placed a vessel containing the best mead that could be made,\nwith a covering of satin over it to hide it. Lludd was then to watch\nfrom some safe place. The dragons would appear and fight in the air\nuntil they were exhausted, then they would fall together on to the top\nof the satin cloth, and so draw it down with them into the vessel full\nof mead. Naturally they would drink the mead, and, equally naturally,\nthey would then sleep. As soon as Lludd was sure that they were\nhelpless, he was to go to the pit, wrap the satin cloth round both of\nthem, and bury them together in a stone coffin in the strongest place in\nBritain. If this were safely done, there would be no more heard of the\nshriek.\n\nAnd the disappearance of the food was caused by \u201ca mighty man of magic\u201d,\nwho put everyone to sleep by charms before he removed the king\u2019s\nprovisions. Lludd was to watch for him, sitting by the side of a\ncauldron full of cold water. As often as he felt the approach of\ndrowsiness, he was to plunge into the cauldron. Thus he would be able to\nkeep awake and frustrate the thief.\n\nSo Lludd came back to Britain. He pounded the insects in the water, and\nthen summoned both the men of Britain and the Coranians to a meeting. In\nthe midst of it, he sprinkled the water over everyone alike. The natives\ntook no harm from this mythological \u201cbeetle powder\u201d, but the Coranians\ndied.\n\nLludd was then ready to deal with the dragons. His careful measurements\nproved that the centre of the island of Britain was at Oxford, and there\nhe caused the pit to be dug, with the vessel of mead in it, hidden by\nthe satin covering. Having made everything ready, he watched, and soon\nsaw the dragons appear. For a long time they fought desperately in the\nair; then they fell down together on to the satin cloth, and, drawing it\nafter them, subsided into the mead. Lludd waited till they were quite\nsilent, and then pulled them out, folded them carefully in the wrapping,\nand took them to the district of Snowdon, where he buried them in the\nstrong fortress whose remains, near Beddgelert, are still called \u201cDinas\nEmrys\u201d. After this the terrible shriek was not heard again until Merlin\nhad them dug up, five hundred years later, when they recommenced\nfighting, and the red dragon drove the white one out of Britain.\n\nLast of all, Lludd prepared a great banquet in his hall, and watched\nover it, armed, with the cauldron of water near him. In the middle of\nthe night, he heard soft, drowsy music, such as nearly put him to sleep;\nbut he kept awake by repeatedly dipping himself in the cold water. Just\nbefore dawn a huge man, clad in armour, came into the hall, carrying a\nbasket, which he began to load with the viands on the table. Like the\nbag in which Pwyll captured Gwawl, its holding capacity seemed endless.\nHowever, the man filled it at last, and was carrying it out, when Lludd\nstopped him. They fought, and Lludd conquered the man of magic, and made\nhim his vassal. Thus the \u201cThree Plagues of Britain\u201d came to an end.\n\nLludd, in changing from god to king, seems to have lost most of his old\nmythological attributes. Even his daughter Creudylad is taken from him\nand given to another of the ancient British deities. Why Lludd, the\nsky-god, should have been confounded with Llyr, the sea-god, is not very\napparent, but it is certain that \u201cCreudylad\u201d of the early Welsh legends\nand poems is the same as Geoffrey\u2019s \u201cCordeilla\u201d and Shakespeare\u2019s\n\u201cCordelia\u201d. The great dramatist was ultimately indebted to the Celtic\nmythology for the groundwork of the legend which he wove into the tragic\nstory of _King Lear_. \u201cLeir\u201d, as Geoffrey calls him,[535] was the son of\nBladud, who built Caer Badus (Bath), and perished, like Icarus, as the\nresult of an accident with a flying-machine of his own invention. Having\nno sons, but three daughters, Gonorilla, Regan, and Cordeilla, he\nthought in his old age of dividing his kingdom among them. But, first of\nall, he decided to make trial of their affection for him, with the idea\nof giving the best portions of his realm to the most worthy. Gonorilla,\nthe eldest, replied to his question of how much she loved him, \u201cthat she\ncalled heaven to witness, she loved him more than her own soul\u201d. Regan\nanswered \u201cwith an oath, \u2018that she could not otherwise express her\nthoughts, but that she loved him above all creatures\u2019\u201d. But when it came\nto Cordeilla\u2019s turn, the youngest daughter, disgusted with her sisters\u2019\nhypocrisy, spoke after a quite different fashion. \u201c\u2018My father,\u2019 said\nshe, \u2018is there any daughter that can love her father more than duty\nrequires? In my opinion, whoever pretends to it, must disguise her real\nsentiments under the veil of flattery. I have always loved you as a\nfather, nor do I yet depart from my purposed duty; and if you insist to\nhave something more extorted from me, hear now the greatness of my\naffection, which I always bear you, and take this for a short answer to\nall your questions; look how much you have, so much is your value, and\nso much do I love you.\u2019\u201d Her enraged father immediately bestowed his\nkingdom upon his two other daughters, marrying them to the two highest\nof his nobility, Gonorilla to Maglaunus, Duke of Albania[536], and Regan\nto Henuinus, Duke of Cornwall. To Cordeilla he not only refused a share\nin his realm, but even a dowry. Aganippus, King of the Franks, married\nher, however, for her beauty alone.\n\nOnce in possession, Leir\u2019s two sons-in-law rebelled against him, and\ndeprived him of all regal authority. The sole recompense for his lost\npower was an agreement by Maglaunus to allow him maintenance, with a\nbody-guard of sixty soldiers. But, after two years, the Duke of Albania,\nat his wife Gonorilla\u2019s instigation, reduced them to thirty. Resenting\nthis, Leir left Maglaunus, and went to Henuinus, the husband of Regan.\nThe Duke of Cornwall at first received him honourably, but, before a\nyear was out, compelled him to discharge all his attendants except five.\nThis sent him back in a rage to his eldest daughter, who, this time,\nswore that he should not stay with her, unless he would be satisfied\nwith one serving-man only. In despair, Leir resolved to throw himself\nupon the mercy of Cordeilla, and, full of contrition for the way he had\ntreated her, and of misgivings as to how he might be received, took ship\nfor Gaul.\n\nArriving at Karitia[537], he sent a messenger to his daughter, telling\nher of his plight and asking for her help. Cordeilla sent him money,\nrobes, and a retinue of forty men, and, as soon as he was fully equipped\nwith the state suitable to a king, he was received in pomp by Aganippus\nand his ministers, who gave the government of Gaul into his hands until\nhis own kingdom could be restored to him. This the king of the Franks\ndid by raising an army and invading Britain. Maglaunus and Henuinus were\nrouted, and Leir replaced on the throne, after which he lived three\nyears. Cordeilla, succeeding to the government of Britain, \u201cburied her\nfather in a certain vault, which she ordered to be made for him under\nthe River Sore, in Leicester (\u201dLlyr-cestre\u201c), and which had been built\noriginally under the ground to the honour of the god Janus. And here all\nthe workmen of the city, upon the anniversary solemnity of that\nfestival, used to begin their yearly labours.\u201d\n\nExactly what myth is retold in this history of Leir and his three\ndaughters we are hardly likely ever to discover. But its mythological\nnature is clear enough in the light of the description of the\nunderground temple dedicated to Llyr, at once the god of the subaqueous,\nand therefore subterranean, world and a British Dis Pater, connected\nwith the origin of things, like the Roman god Janus, with whom he was\napparently identified.[538]\n\nTen kings or so after this (for any more exact way of measuring the\nflight of time is absent from Geoffrey\u2019s _History_) we recognize two\nother British gods upon the scene. Brennius (that is, Br\u00e2n) disputes the\nkingdom with his brother Belinus. Clearly this is a version of the\nancient myth of the twin brothers, Darkness and Light, which we have\nseen expressed in so many ways in Celtic mythology. Br\u00e2n, the god of\ndeath and the underworld, is opposed to Belinus, god of the sun and\nhealth. In the original, lost myth, probably they alternately conquered\nand were conquered\u2014a symbol of the alternation of night and day and of\nwinter and summer. In Geoffrey\u2019s _History_[539], they divided Britain,\nBelinus taking \u201cthe crown of the island with the dominions of Loegria,\nKambria, and Cornwall, because, according to the Trojan constitution,\nthe right of inheritance would come to him as the elder\u201d, while\nBrennius, as the younger, had \u201cNorthumberland, which extended from the\nRiver Humber to Caithness\u201d. But flatterers persuaded Brennius to ally\nhimself with the King of the Norwegians, and attack Belinus. A battle\nwas fought, in which Belinus was conqueror, and Brennius escaped to\nGaul, where he married the daughter of the Duke of the Allobroges, and\non that ruler\u2019s death was declared successor to the throne. Thus firmly\nestablished with an army, he invaded Britain again. Belinus marched with\nthe whole strength of the kingdom to meet him, and the armies were\nalready drawn out opposite to one another in battle array when Conwenna,\nthe mother of the two kings, succeeded in reconciling them. Not having\none another to fight with, the brothers now agreed upon a joint\nexpedition with their armies into Gaul. The Britons and the Allobroges\nconquered all the other kings of the Franks, and then entered Italy,\ndestroying villages and cities as they marched to Rome. Gabius and\nPorsena, the Roman consuls, bought them off with large presents of gold\nand silver and the promise of a yearly tribute, whereupon Brennius and\nBelinus withdrew their army into Germany and began to devastate it. But\nthe Romans, now no longer taken by surprise and unprepared, came to the\nhelp of the Germans. This brought Brennius and Belinus back to Rome,\nwhich, after a long siege, they succeeded in taking. Brennius remained\nin Italy, \u201cwhere he exercised unheard-of tyranny over the people\u201d; and\none may take the whole of this veracious history to be due to a\npatriotic desire to make out the Brennus of \u201cVae Victis\u201d fame\u2014who\nactually did sack Rome, in B.C. 390\u2014a Briton. Belinus, the other\nbrother, returned to England. \u201cHe made a gate of wonderful structure in\nTrinovantum, upon the bank of the Thames, which the citizens call after\nhis name Billingsgate to this day. Over it he built a prodigiously large\ntower, and under it a haven or quay for ships.... At last, when he had\nfinished his days, his body was burned, and the ashes put up in a golden\nurn, which they placed at Trinovantum, with wonderful art, on the top of\nthe tower above mentioned.\u201d He was succeeded by Gurgiunt Brabtruc,[540]\nwho, as he was returning by way of the Orkneys from a raid on the Danes,\nmet the ships of Partholon and his people as they came from Spain to\nsettle in Ireland.[541]\n\nLlyr and his children, large as they bulk in mythical history, were\nhardly less illustrious as saints. The family of Llyr Llediath is always\ndescribed by the early Welsh hagiologists as the first of the \u201cThree\nchief Holy Families of the Isle of Britain\u201d. The glory of Llyr himself,\nhowever, is but a reflected one; for it was his son Br\u00e2n \u201cthe Bless\u00e9d\u201d\nwho actually introduced Christianity into Britain. Legend tells us that\nhe was taken captive to Rome with his son Caradawc (who was identified\nfor the purpose with the historical Caratacus), and the rest of his\nfamily, and remained there seven years, during which time he became\nconverted to the Gospel, and spread it enthusiastically on his return.\nNeither his son Caradawc nor his half-brother Manawyddan exactly\nfollowed in his footsteps, but their descendants did. Caradawc\u2019s sons\nwere all saintly, while his daughter Eigen, who married a chief called\nSarrlog, lord of Caer Sarrlog (Old Sarum), was the first female saint in\nBritain. Manawyddan\u2019s side of the family was less adaptable. His son and\nhis grandson were both pagans, but his great-grandson obtained Christian\nfame as St. Dyfan, who was sent as a bishop to Wales by Pope\nEleutherius, and was martyred at Merthyr Dyvan. After this, the saintly\nline of Llyr increases and flourishes. Singularly inappropriate persons\nare found in it\u2014Mabon, the Gallo-British Apollo, as well as Geraint and\nothers of King Arthur\u2019s court.[542]\n\nIt is so quaint a conceit that Christianity should have been, like\nall other things, the gift of the Celtic Hades, that it seems almost\na pity to cast doubt on it. The witness of the classical historians\nsums up, however, dead in its disfavour. Tacitus carefully\nenumerates the family of Caratacus, and describes how he and his\nwife, daughter, and brother were separately interviewed by the\nEmperor Claudius, but makes no mention at all of the chieftain\u2019s\nsupposed father Br\u00e2n. Moreover, Dio Cassius gives the name of\nCaratacus\u2019s father as Cunobelinus\u2014Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cCymbeline\u201d\u2014who, he\nadds, had died before the Romans first invaded Britain. The evidence\nis wholly against Br\u00e2n as a Christian pioneer. He remains the grim\nold god of war and death, \u201cbless\u00e9d\u201d only to his pagan votaries, and\nespecially to the bards, who probably first called him _Bendigeid\nVran_, and whose stubborn adherence must have been the cause of the\nnot less stubborn efforts of their enemies, the Christian clerics,\nto bring him over to their own side by canonization.[543]\n\nThey had an easier task with Br\u00e2n\u2019s sister, Branwen of the \u201cFair Bosom\u201d.\nGoddesses, indeed, seem to have stood the process better than\ngods\u2014witness \u201cSaint\u201d Brigit, the \u201cMary of the Gael\u201d. The British\nAphrodit\u00e9 became, under the name of Brynwyn, or Dwynwen, a patron saint\nof lovers. As late as the fourteenth century, her shrine at Llandwynwyn,\nin Anglesey, was the favourite resort of the disappointed of both sexes,\nwho came to pray to her image for either success or forgetfulness. To\nmake the result the more certain, the monks of the church sold Lethean\ndraughts from her sacred well. The legend told of her is that, having\nvowed herself to perpetual celibacy, she fell in love with a young chief\ncalled Maelon. One night, as she was praying for guidance in her\ndifficulty, she had a vision in which she was offered a goblet of\ndelicious liquor as a draught of oblivion, and she also saw the same\nsweet medicine given to Maelon, whom it at once froze into a block of\nice. She was then, for her faith, offered the granting of three boons.\nThe first she chose was that Maelon might be allowed to resume his\nnatural form and temperature; the second, that she should no longer\ndesire to be married; and the third, that her intercessions might be\ngranted for all true-hearted lovers, so that they should either wed the\nobjects of their affection or be cured of their passion.[544] From this\ncause came the virtues of her shrine and fountain. But the modern\ngeneration no longer flocks there, and the efficacious well is choked\nwith sand. None the less, she whom the Welsh bards called the \u201cSaint of\nLove\u201d[545] still has her occasional votaries. Country girls of the\nneighbourhood seek her help when all else fails. The water nearest to\nthe church is thought to be the best substitute for the now dry and\nruined original well.[546]\n\nA striking contrast to this easy victory over paganism is the stubborn\nresistance to Christian adoption of Gwyn son of Nudd. It is true that he\nwas once enrolled by some monk in the train of the \u201cBless\u00e9d Br\u00e2n\u201d,[547]\nbut it was done in so half-hearted a way that, even now, one can discern\nthat the writer felt almost ashamed of himself. His fame as at least a\npowerful fairy was too vital to be thus tampered with. Even Spenser,\nthough, in his _Faerie Queene_, he calls him \u201cthe good Sir Guyon ... in\nwhom great rule of Temp\u2019raunce goodly doth appeare\u201d,[548] does not\nattempt to conceal his real nature. It is no man, but\n\n \u201can Elfin born, of noble state\n And mickle worship in his native land\u201d,[549]\n\nwho sets forth the beauties of that virtue for which the original Celtic\nparadise, with its unfailing ale and rivers of mead and wine, would\nhardly seem to have been the best possible school. Save for Spenser, all\nauthorities agree in making Gwyn the determined opponent of things\nChristian. A curious and picturesque legend[550] is told of him in\nconnection with St. Collen, who was himself the great-grandson of Br\u00e2n\u2019s\nson, Caradawc. The saint, desirous of still further retirement from the\nworld, had made himself a cell beneath a rock near Glastonbury Tor, in\nGwyn\u2019s own \u201cisland of Avilion\u201d. It was close to a road, and one day he\nheard two men pass by talking about Gwyn son of Nudd, and declaring him\nto be King of Annwn and the fairies. St. Collen put his head out of the\ncell, and told them to hold their tongues, and that Gwyn and his fairies\nwere only demons. The two men retorted by warning the saint that he\nwould soon have to meet the dark ruler face to face. They passed on, and\nnot long afterwards St. Collen heard someone knocking at his door. On\nasking who was there, he got the answer: \u201cI am here, the messenger of\nGwyn ap Nudd, King of Hades, to bid thee come by the middle of the day\nto speak with him on the top of the hill.\u201d The saint did not go; and the\nmessenger came a second time with the same message. On the third visit,\nhe added a threat that, if St. Collen did not come now, it would be the\nworse for him. So, a little disquieted, he went, but not unarmed. He\nconsecrated some water, and took it with him.\n\nOn other days the top of Glastonbury Tor had always been bare, but on\nthis occasion the saint found it crowned by a splendid castle. Men and\nmaidens, beautifully dressed, were going in and out. A page received him\nand told him that the king was waiting for him to be his guest at\ndinner. St. Collen found Gwyn sitting on a golden chair in front of a\ntable covered with the rarest dainties and wines. He invited him to\nshare them, adding that if there was anything he especially liked, it\nshould be brought to him with all honour. \u201cI do not eat the leaves of\ntrees,\u201d replied the saint, who knew what fairy meats and drinks were\nmade of. Not taken aback by this discourteous answer, the King of Annwn\ngenially asked the saint if he did not admire his servants\u2019 livery,\nwhich was a motley costume, red on one side and blue on the other.\n\u201cTheir dress is good enough for its kind,\u201d said St. Collen. \u201cWhat kind\nis that?\u201d asked Gwyn. \u201cThe red shows which side is being scorched, and\nthe blue shows which side is being frozen,\u201d replied the saint, and,\nsplashing his holy water all round him, he saw castle, serving-men, and\nking vanish, leaving him alone on the bare, windy hill-top.\n\nGwyn, last of the gods of Annwn, has evidently by this time taken over\nthe functions of all the others. He has the hounds which Arawn once\nhad\u2014the _Cwn Annwn_, \u201cdogs of hell\u201d, with the white bodies and the red\nears. We hear more of them in folklore than we do of their master,\nthough even their tradition is dying out with the spread of newspapers\nand railways. We are not likely to find another Reverend Edmund\nJones[551] to insist upon belief in them, lest, by closing our minds to\nsuch manifest witnesses of the supernatural world, we should become\ninfidels. Still, we may even now find peasants ready to swear that they\nhave heard them sweeping along the hill-sides upon stormy nights, as\nthey pursued the flying souls of unshriven men or unbaptized babes. The\ntales told of them agree curiously. Their cry is like that of a pack of\nfoxhounds, but softer in tone. The nearer they are to a man, the less\nloud their voices seem, and the farther off they are, the louder. But\nthey are less often seen than heard, and it has been suggested that the\nsounds were the cries of migrating bean-geese, which are not unlike\nthose of hounds in chase. The superstition is widely spread. The _Cwn\nAnnwn_ of Wales are called in North Devon the \u201cYeth\u201d (Heath or Heathen),\nor \u201cYell\u201d Hounds, and on Dartmoor, the \u201cWish\u201d Hounds. In Durham and\nYorkshire they are called \u201cGabriel\u201d Hounds, and they are known by\nvarious names in Norfolk, Gloucestershire, and Cornwall. In Scotland it\nis Arthur who leads the Wild Hunt, and the tradition is found over\nalmost the whole of western Europe.\n\nNot many folk-tales have been preserved in which Gwyn is mentioned by\nname. His memory has lingered longest and latest in the fairy-haunted\nVale of Neath, so close to his \u201cridge, the Taw\u00eb abode ... not the\nnearest Taw\u00eb ... but that Taw\u00eb which is the farthest\u201d. But it may be\nunderstood whenever the king of the fairies is mentioned. As the last of\nthe greater gods of the old mythology, he has been endowed by popular\nfancy with the rule of all the varied fairy population of Britain, so\nfar, at least, as it is of Celtic or pre-Celtic origin. For some of the\nfairies most famous in English literature are Teutonic. King Oberon\nderives his name, through the French _fabliaux_, from Elberich, the\ndwarf king of the _Niebelungenlied_,[552] though his queen, Titania, was\nprobably named out of Ovid\u2019s _Metamorphoses_.[553] Puck, another of\nShakespeare\u2019s fays, is merely the personification of his race, the\n\u201cpwccas\u201d of Wales, \u201cpookas\u201d of Ireland, \u201cpoakes\u201d of Worcestershire, and\n\u201cpixies\u201d of the West of England.[554] It is Wales that at the present\ntime preserves the most numerous and diverse collection of fairies. Some\nof them are beautiful, some hideous; some kindly, some malevolent. There\nare the gentle damsels of the lakes and streams called Gwragedd Annwn,\nand the fierce and cruel mountain fairies known as the Gwyllion. There\nare the household sprites called Bwbachod, like the Scotch and English\n\u201cbrownies\u201d; the Coblynau, or gnomes of the mines (called \u201cknockers\u201d in\nCornwall); and the Ellyllon, or elves, of whom the pwccas are a\nbranch.[555] In the North of England the spirits belong more wholly to\nthe lower type. The bogles, brownies, killmoulis, redcaps, and their\nlike seem little akin to the higher, Aryan-seeming fairies. The Welsh\nbwbach, too, is described as brown and hairy, and the coblynau as black\nor copper-faced. We shall hardly do wrong in regarding such spectres as\nthe degraded gods of a pre-Aryan race, like the Irish leprechauns and\npookas, who have nothing in common with the still beautiful, still noble\nfigures of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann.\n\nOf these numberless and nameless subjects of Gwyn, some dwell beneath\nthe earth or under the surface of lakes\u2014which seem to take, in Wales,\nthe place of the Gaelic \u201cfairy hills\u201d\u2014and others in Avilion, a\nmysterious western isle of all delights lying on or just beneath the\nsea. Pembrokeshire\u2014the ancient Dyfed\u2014has kept the tradition most\ncompletely. The story goes that there is a certain square yard in the\nhundred of Cemmes in that county which holds the secret of the fairy\nrealm. If a man happens to set his feet on it by chance, his eyes are\nopened, and he can see that which is hidden from other men\u2014the fairy\ncountry and commonwealth,\u2014but, the moment he moves from the enchanted\nspot, he loses the vision, and he can never find the same place\nagain.[556] That country is upon the sea, and not far from shore; like\nthe Irish paradise of which it is the counterpart, it may sometimes be\nsighted by sailors. The \u201cGreen Meadows of Enchantment\u201d are still an\narticle of faith among Pembrokeshire and Caermarthenshire sailors, and\nevidently not without some reason. In 1896 a correspondent of the\n_Pembroke County Guardian_ sent in a report made to him by a certain\nCaptain John Evans to the effect that, one summer morning, while\ntrending up the Channel, and passing Gresholm Island (the scene of the\nentertaining of Br\u00e2n\u2019s head), in what he had always known as deep water,\nhe was surprised to see to windward of him a large tract of land covered\nwith a beautiful green meadow. It was not, however, above water, but two\nor three feet below it, so that the grass waved or swam about as the\nripple floated over it, in a way that made one who watched it feel\ndrowsy. Captain Evans had often heard of the tradition of the fairy\nisland from old people, but admitted that he had never hoped to see it\nwith his own eyes.[557] As with the \u201cHounds of Annwn\u201d one may suspect a\nquite natural explanation. Mirage is at once common enough and rare\nenough on our coasts to give rise to such a legend, and it must have\nbeen some such phenomenon as the \u201cFata Morgana\u201d of Sicily which has made\nsober men swear so confidently to ocular evidence of the Celtic\nParadise, whether seen from the farthest western coasts of Gaelic\nIreland or Scotland, or of British Wales.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 522:\n\n See, for example, a folk-tale, pp. 117-123 in Rhys\u2019s _Celtic\n Folklore_.\n\nFootnote 523:\n\n Stephens\u2019s Preliminary Dissertation to his translation of Aneurin\u2019s\n _Gododin_.\n\nFootnote 524:\n\n _Iolo MSS._, p. 471.\n\nFootnote 525:\n\n _Iolo MSS._, pp. 597-600.\n\nFootnote 526:\n\n _Historia Britonum_, Books IX, X, and chaps. I and II of XI.\n\nFootnote 527:\n\n _Historia Britonum_, Book XI, chap. II.\n\nFootnote 528:\n\n _Ibid._, Book IX, chap. IX.\n\nFootnote 529:\n\n _Ibid._, Book IX, chap. _XII_. They appear also as Guanius, King of\n the Huns, and Melga, King of the Picts, in Book V, chap. XVI.\n\nFootnote 530:\n\n _Historia Britonum_, Book III, chap. XIX.\n\nFootnote 531:\n\n _Ibid._, Book III, chap. XX.\n\nFootnote 532:\n\n _I.e._ London, under its traditionary earlier name, Troja Nova, given\n it by Brutus.\n\nFootnote 533:\n\n _The Story of Lludd and Llevelys._\n\nFootnote 534:\n\n The name means \u201cdwarfs\u201d. Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 606.\n\nFootnote 535:\n\n _Historia Britonum_, Book II, chap, X-XIV.\n\nFootnote 536:\n\n Alba, or North Britain.\n\nFootnote 537:\n\n Now Calais.\n\nFootnote 538:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 131-132.\n\nFootnote 539:\n\n _Historia Britonum_, Book III, chaps. I-X.\n\nFootnote 540:\n\n The same fabulous personage, perhaps, as the original of Rabelais\u2019\n Gargantua, a popular Celtic god.\n\nFootnote 541:\n\n _Historia Britonum_, Book III, Chaps. XI-XII.\n\nFootnote 542:\n\n See the _Iolo MSS._ The genealogies and families of the saints of the\n island of Britain. Copied by Iolo Morganwg in 1783 from the _Long Book\n of Thomas Truman of Pantlliwydd_ in the parish of Llansanor in\n Glamorgan, p. 515, &c. Also see _An Essay on the Welsh Saints_ by the\n Rev. Rice Rees, Sections IV and V.\n\nFootnote 543:\n\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 261-262.\n\nFootnote 544:\n\n _Iolo MSS._, p. 474.\n\nFootnote 545:\n\n \u201cThe Welsh bards call Dwynwen the goddess, or saint of love and\n affection, as the poets designate Venus.\u201d _Iolo MSS._\n\nFootnote 546:\n\n Wirt Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 350.\n\nFootnote 547:\n\n _Iolo MSS._, p. 523.\n\nFootnote 548:\n\n _The Faerie Queene_, Prologue to Book II.\n\nFootnote 549:\n\n _Ibid._, Book II, canto I, verse 6.\n\nFootnote 550:\n\n Published in _Y Greal_ (London, 1805), and is to be found quoted in\n Rhys: _Arthurian Legend_, pp. 338, 339; also in Sikes: _British\n Goblins_, pp. 7-8.\n\nFootnote 551:\n\n _A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth and\n the Principality of Wales._ Published at Newport, 1813.\n\nFootnote 552:\n\n Thistleton Dyer: _Folklore of Shakespeare_, p. 3.\n\nFootnote 553:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 4.\n\nFootnote 554:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 5.\n\nFootnote 555:\n\n Wirt Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 12.\n\nFootnote 556:\n\n The _Brython_, Vol. I, p. 130.\n\nFootnote 557:\n\n Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, pp. 171-172.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC\n PAGANISM\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXV\n\n SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM INTO MODERN\n TIMES\n\n\nThe fall of the Celtic state worship began earlier in Britain than in\nher sister island. Neither was it Christianity that struck the first\nblow, but the rough humanity and stern justice of the Romans. That\npeople was more tolerant, perhaps, than any the world has ever known\ntowards the religions of others, and gladly welcomed the Celtic gods\u2014as\ngods\u2014into its own diverse Pantheon. A friendly Gaulish or British\ndivinity might at any time be granted the so-to-speak divine Roman\ncitizenship, and be assimilated to Jupiter, to Mars, to Apollo, or to\nany other properly accredited deity whom the Romans deemed him to\nresemble. It was not against the god, but against his worship at the\nhands of his priests, that Roman law struck. The colossal human\nsacrifices of the druids horrified even a people who were far from\nsqueamish about a little bloodshed. They themselves had abolished such\npractices by a decree of the senate before Caesar first invaded\nBritain,[558] and could not therefore permit within their empire a cult\nwhich slaughtered men in order to draw omens from their\ndeath-agonies.[559] Druidism was first required to be renounced by those\nwho claimed Roman citizenship; then it was vigorously put down among the\nless civilized tribes. Tacitus tells us how the Island of Mona\n(Anglesey)\u2014the great stronghold of druidism\u2014was attacked, its sacred\ngroves cut down, its altars laid level, and its priests put to the\nsword.[560] Pliny, recording how the Emperor Tiberius had \u201csuppressed\nthe druids\u201d, congratulates his fellow-countrymen on having put an end,\nwherever their dominion extended, to the monstrous customs inspired by\nthe doctrine that the gods could take pleasure in murder and\ncannibalism.[561] The practice of druidism, with its attendant\nbarbarities, abolished in Britain wherever the long Roman arm could\nreach to strike, took refuge beyond the Northern Wall, among the savage\nCaledonian tribes who had not yet submitted to the invader\u2019s yoke.\nNaturally, too, it remained untouched in Ireland. But before the Romans\nleft Britain, it had been extirpated everywhere, except among \u201cthe Picts\nand Scots\u201d.\n\nChristianity, following the Roman rule, completed the ruin of paganism\nin Britain, so far, at least, as its public manifestations were\nconcerned. In the sixth century of our era, the monkish writer, Gildas,\nis able to refer complacently to the ancient British religion as a dead\nfaith. \u201cI shall not\u201d, he says, \u201cenumerate those diabolical idols of my\ncountry, which almost surpassed in number those of Egypt, and of which\nwe still see some mouldering away within or without the deserted\ntemples, with stiff and deformed features as was customary. Nor will I\ncry out upon the mountains, fountains, or hills, or upon the rivers,\nwhich now are subservient to the use of men, but once were an\nabomination and destruction to them, and to which the blind people paid\ndivine honour.\u201d[562] And with the idols fell the priests. The very word\n\u201cdruid\u201d became obsolete, and is scarcely mentioned in the earliest\nBritish literature, though druids are prominent characters in the Irish\nwritings of the same period.\n\nThe secular arm had no power in Scotland and in Ireland, consequently\nthe battle between Paganism and Christianity was fought upon more equal\nterms, and lasted longer. In the first country, Saint Columba, and in\nthe second, Saint Patrick are the personages who, at any rate according\nto tradition, beat down the druids and their gods. Adamnan, Abbot of\nIona, who wrote his _Vita Columb\u00e6_ in the last decade of the seventh\ncentury, describes how, a century earlier, that saint had carried the\nGospel to the Picts. Their king, Brude, received him contemptuously, and\nthe royal druids left no heathen spell unuttered to thwart and annoy\nhim. But, as the power of Moses was greater than the power of the\nmagicians of Egypt, so Saint Columba\u2019s prayers caused miracles more\nwonderful and more convincing than any wrought by his adversaries. Such\nstories belong to the atmosphere of myth which has always enveloped\nheroic men; the essential fact is that the Picts abandoned the old\nreligion for the new.\n\nA similar legend sums up the life-work of Saint Patrick in Ireland.\nBefore he came, Cromm Cruaich had received from time immemorial his\nyearly toll of human lives. But Saint Patrick faced the gruesome idol;\nas he raised his crozier, we are told, the demon fell shrieking from his\nimage, which, deprived of its soul, bowed forward to the ground.\n\nIt is far easier, however, to overthrow the more public manifestations\nof a creed than to destroy its inner vital force. Cromm Cruaich\u2019s idol\nmight fall, but his spirit would survive\u2014a very Proteus. The sacred\nplaces of the ancient Celtic religion might be invaded, the idols and\naltars of the gods thrown down, the priests slain, scattered, or\nbanished, and the cult officially declared to be extinct; but, driven\nfrom the important centres, it would yet survive outside and around\nthem. The more civilized Gaels and Britons would no doubt accept the\npurer gospel, and abandon the gods they had once adored, but the\npeasantry\u2014the bulk of the population\u2014would still cling to the familiar\nrites and names. A nobler belief and a higher civilization come, after\nall, only as surface waves upon the great ocean of human life; beneath\ntheir agitations lies a vast slumbering abyss of half-conscious faith\nand thought to which culture penetrates with difficulty and in which\nchanges come very slowly.\n\nWe have already shown how long and how faithfully the Gaelic and Welsh\npeasants clung to their old gods, in spite of all the efforts of the\nclerics to explain them as ancient kings, to transform them into\nwonder-working saints, or to ban them as demons of hell. This\nconservative religious instinct of the agricultural populations is not\nconfined to the inhabitants of the British Islands. The modern Greeks\nstill believe in nereids, in lamias, in sirens, and in Charon, the dark\nferryman of Hades.[563] The descendants of the Romans and Etruscans hold\nthat the old Etruscan gods and the Roman deities of the woods and fields\nstill live in the world as spirits.[564] The high altars of the \u201cLord of\nthe Mound\u201d and his terrible kin were levelled, and their golden images\nand great temples left to moulder in abandonment; but the rude rustic\nshrine to the rude rustic god still received its offerings. It is this\nshifting of the care of the pagan cult from chief to peasant, from court\nto hovel, and, perhaps, to some extent from higher to lower race, that\nserves to explain how the more primitive and uncouth gods have tended so\nlargely to supplant those of higher, more graceful mien. Aboriginal\ndeities, thrust into obscurity by the invasion of higher foreign types,\ncame back to their own again.\n\nFor it seems plain that we must divide the spiritual population of the\nBritish Islands into two classes. There is little in common between the\n\u201cfairy\u201d, strictly so-called, and the unsightly elf who appears under\nvarious names and guises, as pooka, leprechaun, brownie, knocker, or\nbogle. The one belongs to such divine tribes as the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann of\nGaelic myth or their kin, the British gods of the Mabinogion. The other\nowes his origin to a quite different, and much lower, kind of\nimagination. One might fancy that neolithic man made him in his own\nimage.\n\nNone the less has immemorial tradition wonderfully preserved the\nessential features of the Celtic nature-gods. The fairy belief of the\npresent day hardly differs at all from the conception which the Celts\nhad of their deities. The description of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann in the\n\u201cDialogue of the Elders\u201d as \u201csprites or fairies with corporeal or\nmaterial forms but indued with immortality\u201d would stand as an account of\nprevailing ideas as to the \u201cgood people\u201d to-day. Nor do the Irish and\nWelsh fairies of popular belief differ from one another. Both alike live\namong the hills, though in Wales a lake often takes the place of the\n\u201cfairy mound\u201d; both, though they war and marry among themselves, are\nsemi-immortal; both covet the children of men, and will steal them from\nthe cradle, leaving one of their own uncanny brood in the mortal baby\u2019s\nstead; both can lay men and women under spells; both delight in music\nand the dance, and live lives of unreal and fantastic splendour and\nluxury. Another point in which they resemble one another is in their\ntiny size. But this would seem to be the result of the literary\nconvention originated by Shakespeare; in genuine folktales, both Gaelic\nand British, the fairies are pictured as of at least mortal\nstature.[565]\n\nBut, Aryan or Iberian, beautiful or hideous, they are fast vanishing\nfrom belief. Every year, the secluded valleys in which men and women\nmight still live in the old way, and dream the old dreams, tend more and\nmore to be thrown open to the modern world of rapid movement and rapid\nthought. The last ten years have perhaps done more in this direction\nthan the preceding ten generations. What lone shepherd or fisherman will\never see again the vision of the great Manann\u00e1n? Have the stable-boys of\nto-day still any faith left in Finvarra? Is Gwyn ap Nudd often thought\nof in his own valleys of the Taw\u00eb and the Nedd? It would be hard,\nperhaps, to find a whole-hearted believer even in his local pooka or\nparish bogle.\n\nIt is the ritual observances of the old Celtic faith which have better\nweathered, and will longer survive, the disintegrating influences of\ntime. There are no hard names to be remembered. Things may still be done\nfor \u201cluck\u201d which were once done for religion. Customary observances die\nvery slowly, held up by an only half acknowledged fear that, unless they\nare fulfilled, \u201csomething may happen\u201d. We shall get, therefore, more\nsatisfactory evidence of the nature of the Celtic paganism by examining\nsuch customs than in any other way.\n\nWe find three forms of the survival of the ancient religion into quite\nrecent times. The first is the celebration of the old solar or\nagricultural festivals of the spring and autumn equinoxes and of the\nsummer and winter solstices. The second is the practice of a symbolic\nhuman sacrifice by those who have forgotten its meaning, and only know\nthat they are keeping up an old custom, joined with late instances of\nthe actual sacrifices of animals to avert cattle-plagues or to change\nbad luck. The third consists of many still-living relics of the once\nuniversal worship of sacred waters, trees, stones, and animals.\n\nWhatever may have been the exact meaning of the Celtic state worship,\nthere seems to be no doubt that it centred around the four great days in\nthe year which chronicle the rise, progress, and decline of the sun,\nand, therefore, of the fruits of the earth. These were: Beltaine, which\nfell at the beginning of May; Midsummer Day, marking the triumph of\nsunshine and vegetation; the Feast of Lugh, when, in August, the\nturning-point of the sun\u2019s course had been reached; and the sad Samhain,\nwhen he bade farewell to power, and fell again for half a year under the\nsway of the evil forces of winter and darkness.\n\nOf these great solar periods, the first and the last were, naturally,\nthe most important. The whole Celtic mythology seems to revolve upon\nthem, as upon pivots. It was on the day of Beltaine that Partholon and\nhis people, the discoverers, and, indeed, the makers of Ireland, arrived\nthere from the other world, and it was on the same day, three hundred\nyears later, that they returned whence they came. It was on Beltaine-day\nthat the Gaelic gods, the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, and, after them, the Gaelic\nmen, first set foot on Irish soil. It was on the day of Samhain that the\nFomors oppressed the people of Nemed with their terrible tax; and it was\nagain at Samhain that a later race of gods of light and life finally\nconquered those demons at the Battle of Moytura. Only one important\nmythological incident\u2014and that was one added at a later time!\u2014happened\nupon any other than one of those two days; it was upon Midsummer Day,\none of the lesser solar points, that the people of the goddess Danu took\nIreland from its inhabitants, the Fir Bolgs.\n\nThe mythology of Britain preserves the same root-idea as that of\nIreland. If anything uncanny took place, it was sure to be on May-day.\nIt was on \u201cthe night of the first of May\u201d that Rhiannon lost, and\nTeirnyon Twryf Vliant found, the infant Pryderi, as told in the first of\nthe Mabinogion.[566] It was \u201con every May-eve\u201d that the two dragons\nfought and shrieked in the reign of \u201cKing\u201d Lludd.[567] It is on \u201cevery\nfirst of May\u201d till the day of doom that Gwyn son of Nudd, fights with\nGwyrthur son of Greidawl, for Lludd\u2019s fair daughter, Creudylad.[568] And\nit was when she was \u201ca-maying\u201d in the woods and fields near Westminster\nthat the same Gwyn, or Melwas, under his romance-name of Sir\nMeliagraunce, captured Arthur\u2019s queen, Guinevere.[569]\n\nThe nature of the rites performed upon these days can be surmised from\ntheir pale survivals. They are still celebrated by the descendants of\nthe Celts, though it is probable that few of them know\u2014or would even\ncare to know\u2014why May Day, St. John\u2019s Day, Lammas, and Hallowe\u2019en are\ntimes of ceremony. The first\u2014called \u201cBeltaine\u201d in Ireland, \u201cBealtiunn\u201d\nin Scotland, \u201cShenn da Boaldyn\u201d in the Isle of Man, and \u201cGalan-Mai\u201d (the\nCalends of May) in Wales\u2014celebrates the waking of the earth from her\nwinter sleep, and the renewal of warmth, life, and vegetation. This is\nthe meaning of the May-pole, now rarely seen in our streets, though\nShakespeare tells us that in his time the festival was so eagerly\nanticipated that no one could sleep upon its eve.[570] At midnight the\npeople rose, and, going to the nearest woods, tore down branches of\ntrees, with which the sun, when he rose, would find doors and windows\ndecked for him. They spent the day in dancing round the May-pole, with\nrude, rustic mirth, man joining with nature to celebrate the coming of\nsummer. The opposite to it was the day called \u201cSamhain\u201d in Ireland and\nScotland, \u201cSauin\u201d in Man, and \u201cNos Galan-gaeof\u201d (the Night of the Winter\nCalends) in Wales. This festival was a sad one: summer was over, and\nwinter, with its short, sunless days and long, dreary nights, was at\nhand. It was the beginning, too, of the ancient Celtic year,[571] and\nomens for the future might be extorted from dark powers by uncanny\nrites. It was the holiday of the dead and of all the more evil\nsupernatural beings. \u201cOn November-eve\u201d, says a North Cardiganshire\nproverb, \u201cthere is a bogy on every stile.\u201d The Scotch have even invented\na special bogy\u2014the _Samhanach_ or goblin which comes out at\nSamhain.[572]\n\nThe sun-god himself is said to have instituted the August festival\ncalled \u201cLugnassad\u201d (Lugh\u2019s commemoration) in Ireland, \u201cLla Lluanys\u201d in\nMan, and \u201cGwyl Awst\u201d (August Feast) in Wales; and it was once of hardly\nless importance than Beltaine or Samhain. It is noteworthy, too, that\nthe first of August was a great day at Lyons\u2014formerly called Lugudunum,\nthe _d\u00fan_ (town) of Lugus. The midsummer festival, on the other hand,\nhas largely merged its mythological significance in the Christian Feast\nof St. John.\n\nThe characteristic features of these festivals give certain proof of\nthe original nature of the great pagan ceremonials of which they are\nthe survivals and travesties.[573] In all of them, bonfires are\nlighted on the highest hills, and the hearth fires solemnly rekindled.\nThey form the excuse for much sport and jollity. But there is yet\nsomething sinister in the air; the \u201cfairies\u201d are active and abroad,\nand one must be careful to omit no prescribed rite, if one would avoid\nkindling their anger or falling into their power. To some of these\nstill-half-believed-in nature-gods offerings were made down to a\ncomparatively late period. When Pennant wrote, in the eighteenth\ncentury, it was the custom on Beltaine-day in many Highland villages\nto offer libations and cakes not only to the \u201cspirits\u201d who were\nbelieved to be beneficial to the flocks and herds, but also to\ncreatures like the fox, the eagle, and the hoodie-crow which so often\nmolested them.[574] At Hallowe\u2019en (the Celtic Samhain) the natives of\nthe Hebrides used to pour libations of ale to a marine god called\nShony, imploring him to send sea-weed to the shore.[575] In honour,\nalso, of such beings, curious rites were performed. Maidens washed\ntheir faces in morning dew, with prayers for beauty. They carried\nsprigs of the rowan, that mystic tree whose scarlet berries were the\nambrosial food of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann.\n\nIn their original form, these now harmless rural holidays were\nundoubtedly religious festivals of an orgiastic nature-worship such as\nbecame so popular in Greece in connection with the cult of Dionysus. The\ngreat \u201clords of life\u201d and of the powers of nature that made and ruled\nlife were propitiated by maddening invocations, by riotous dances, and\nby human sacrifice.\n\nThe bonfires which fill so large a part in the modern festivals have\nbeen casually mentioned. Originally they were no mere _feux de joie_,\nbut had a terrible meaning, which the customs connected with them\npreserve. At the Highland Beltaine, a cake was divided by lot, and\nwhoever drew the \u201cburnt piece\u201d was obliged to leap three times over the\nflames. At the midsummer bonfires in Ireland all passed through the\nfire; the men when the flames were highest, the women when they were\nlower, and the cattle when there was nothing left but smoke. In Wales,\nupon the last day of October, the old Samhain, there was a slightly\ndifferent, and still more suggestive rite. The hill-top bonfires were\nwatched until they were announced to be extinct. Then all would race\nheadlong down the hill, shouting a formula to the effect that the devil\nwould get the hindmost. The devil of a new belief is the god of the one\nit has supplanted; in all three instances, the custom was no mere\nmeaningless horse-play, but a symbolical human sacrifice.\n\nA similar observance, but of a more cruel kind, was kept up in France\nupon St. John\u2019s Day, until forbidden by law in the reign of Louis the\nFourteenth. Baskets containing living wolves, foxes, and cats were\nburned upon the bonfires, under the auspices and in the presence of the\nsheriffs or the mayor of the town.[576] Caesar noted the custom among\nthe druids of constructing huge wicker-work images, which they filled\nwith living men, and set on fire, and it can hardly be doubted that the\nwretched wolves, foxes, and cats were ceremonial substitutes for human\nbeings.\n\nAn ingenious theory was invented, after the introduction of\nChristianity, with the purpose of allowing such ancient rites to\ncontinue, with a changed meaning. The passing of persons and cattle\nthrough flame or smoke was explained as a practice which interposed a\nmagic protection between them and the powers of evil. This hom\u0153opathic\ndevice of using the evil power\u2019s own sacred fire as a means of\nprotection against himself somewhat suggests that seething of the kid in\nits mother\u2019s milk which was reprobated by the Levitical law; but, no\ndoubt, pagan \u201cdemons\u201d were considered fair game. The explanation, of\ncourse, is an obviously and clumsily forced one; it was the grim\ndruidical philosophy that\u2014to quote Caesar\u2014\u201cunless the life of man was\nrepaid for the life of man, the will of the immortal gods could not be\nappeased\u201d that dictated both the national and the private human\nsacrifices of the Celts, the shadows of which remain in the leaping\nthrough the bonfires, and in the numerous recorded sacrifices of cattle\nwithin quite recent times.\n\nMr. Laurence Gomme, in his _Ethnology in Folklore_, has collected many\nmodern instances of the sacrifices of cattle not only in Ireland and\nScotland, but also in Wales, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Cornwall, and\nthe Isle of Man.[577] \u201cWithin twenty miles of the metropolis of Scotland\na relative of Professor Simpson offered up a live cow as a sacrifice to\nthe spirit of the murrain.\u201d[578] In Wales, when cattle-sickness broke\nout, a bullock was immolated by being thrown down from the top of a high\nrock. Generally, however, the wretched victims were burned alive. In\n1859 an Isle of Man farmer offered a heifer as a burnt offering near\nTynwald Hill, to avert the anger of the ghostly occupant of a barrow\nwhich had been desecrated by opening. Sometimes, even, these burnt\noblations were offered to an alleged Christian saint. The registers of\nthe Presbytery of Dingwall for the years 1656 and 1678 contain records\nof the sacrifices of cattle upon the site of an ancient temple in honour\nof a being whom some called \u201cSt. Mourie\u201d, and others, perhaps knowing\nhis doubtful character, \u201cane god Mourie\u201d.[579] At Kirkcudbright, it was\nSt. Cuthbert, and at Clynnog, in Wales, it was St. Beuno, who was\nthought to delight in the blood of bulls.[580]\n\nSuch sacrifices of cattle appear mainly to have been offered to stay\nplague among cattle. Man for man and beast for beast, was, perhaps, the\nold rule. But among all nations, human sacrifices have been gradually\ncommuted for those of animals. The family of the O\u2019Herlebys in\nBallyvorney, County Cork, used in olden days to keep an idol, \u201can image\nof wood about two feet high, carved and painted like a woman\u201d.[581] She\nwas the goddess of smallpox, and to her a sheep was immolated on behalf\nof anyone seized with that disease.\n\nThe third form of Celtic pagan survival is found in numerous instances\nof the adoration of water, trees, stones, and animals. Like the other\n\u201cAryan\u201d nations, the Celts worshipped their rivers. The Dee received\ndivine honours as a war-goddess with the title of Aerfon, while the\nRibble, under its name of Belisama, was identified by the Romans with\nMinerva.[582] Myths were told of them, as of the sacred streams of\nGreece. The Dee gave oracles as to the results of the perpetual wars\nbetween the Welsh and the English; as its stream encroached either upon\nthe Welsh or the English side, so one nation or the other would be\nvictorious.[583] The Tweed, like many of the Greek rivers, was credited\nwith human descendants.[584] That the rivers of Great Britain received\nhuman sacrifices is clear from the folklore concerning many of them.\nDeprived of their expected offerings, they are believed to snatch by\nstealth the human lives for which they crave. \u201cRiver of Dart, River of\nDart, every year thou claimest a heart,\u201d runs the Devonshire folk-song.\nThe Spey, too, requires a life yearly,[585] but the Spirit of the Ribble\nis satisfied with one victim at the end of every seven years.[586]\n\nEvidence, however, of the worship of rivers is scanty compared with that\nof the adoration of wells. \u201cIn the case of well-worship,\u201d says Mr.\nGomme, \u201cit may be asserted with some confidence that it prevails in\nevery county of the three kingdoms.\u201d[587] He finds it most vital in the\nGaelic counties, somewhat less so in the British, and almost entirely\nwanting in the Teutonic south-east. So numerous, indeed, are \u201choly\nwells\u201d that several monographs have been written solely upon them.[588]\nIn some cases these wells were resorted to for the cure of diseases; in\nothers, to obtain change of weather, or \u201cgood luck\u201d. Offerings were made\nto them, to propitiate their guardian gods or nymphs. Pennant tells us\nthat in olden times the rich would sacrifice one of their horses at a\nwell near Abergeleu, to secure a blessing upon the rest.[589] Fowls were\noffered at St. Tegla\u2019s Well, near Wrexham, by epileptic patients.[590]\nBut of late years the well-spirits have had to be content with much\nsmaller tributes\u2014such trifles as pins, rags, coloured pebbles, and small\ncoins.\n\nWith sacred wells were often connected sacred trees, to whose branches\nrags and small pieces of garments were suspended by their humble\nvotaries. Sometimes, where the ground near the well was bare of\nvegetation, bushes were artificially placed beside the water. The same\npeople who venerated wells and trees would pay equal adoration to sacred\nstones. Lord Roden, describing, in 1851, the Island of Inniskea, off the\ncoast of Mayo, asserts that a sacred well called \u201cDerrivla\u201d and a sacred\nstone called \u201cNeevougi\u201d, which was kept carefully wrapped up in flannel\nand brought out at certain periods to be publicly adored, seemed to be\nthe only deities known to that lone Atlantic island\u2019s three hundred\ninhabitants.[591] It sounds incredible; but there is ample evidence of\nthe worship of fetish stones by quite modern inhabitants of our islands.\nThe Clan Chattan kept such a stone in the Isle of Arran; it was\nbelieved, like the stone of Inniskea, to be able to cure diseases, and\nwas kept carefully \u201cwrapped up in fair linen cloth, and about that there\nwas a piece of woollen cloth\u201d.[592] Similarly, too, the worship of wells\nwas connected with the worship of animals. At a well in the \u201cDevil\u2019s\nCauseway\u201d, between Ruckley and Acton, in Shropshire, lived, and perhaps\nstill live, four frogs who were, and perhaps still are, believed to be\n\u201cthe devil and his imps\u201d\u2014that is to say, gods or demons of a proscribed\nidolatry.[593] In Ireland such guardian spirits are usually fish\u2014trout,\neels, or salmon thought to be endowed with eternal life.[594] The genius\nof a well in Banffshire took the form of a fly, which was also said to\nbe undying, but to transmigrate from body to body. Its function was to\ndeliver oracles; according as it seemed active or lethargic, its\nvotaries drew their omens.[595] It is needless to multiply instances of\na still surviving cult of water, trees, stones, and animals. Enough to\nsay that it would be easy. What concerns us is that we are face to face\nin Britain with living forms of the oldest, lowest, most primitive\nreligion in the world\u2014one which would seem to have been once universal,\nand which, crouching close to the earth, lets other creeds blow over it\nwithout effacing it, and outlives one and all of them.\n\nIt underlies the three great world-religions, and still forms the real\nbelief of perhaps the majority of their titular adherents. It is\ncharacteristic of the wisdom of the Christian Church that, knowing its\npower, she sought rather to sanctify than to extirpate it. What once\nwere the Celtic equivalents of the Greek \u201cfountains of the nymphs\u201d were\nconsecrated as \u201choly wells\u201d. The process of so adopting them began\nearly. St. Columba, when he went in the sixth century to convert the\nPicts, found a spring which they worshipped as a god; he blessed it, and\n\u201cfrom that day the demon separated from the water\u201d.[596] Indeed, he so\nsanctified no less than three hundred such springs.[597] Sacred stones\nwere equally taken under the \u00e6gis of Christianity. Some were placed on\nthe altars of cathedrals, others built into consecrated walls. The\nanimal gods either found themselves the heroes of Christian legends, or\nwhere, for some reason, such adoption was hopeless, were proclaimed\n\u201cwitches\u2019 animals\u201d, and dealt with accordingly. Such happened to the\nhare, a creature sacred to the ancient Britons,[598] but now in bad\nodour among the superstitious. The wren, too, is hunted to death upon\nSt. Stephen\u2019s Day in Ireland. Its crime is said to be that it has \u201ca\ndrop of the de\u2019il\u2019s blood in it\u201d, but the real reason is probably to be\nfound in the fact that the Irish druids used to draw auguries from its\nchirpings.\n\n * * * * *\n\nWe have made in this volume some attempt to draw a picture of the\nancient religion of our earliest ancestors, the Gaelic and the British\nCelts. We have shown what can be gathered of the broken remnants of a\nmythology as splendid in conception and as brilliant in colour as that\nof the Greeks. We have tried to paint its divine figures, and to retell\ntheir heroic stories. We have seen them fall from their shrines, and\nyet, rising again, take on new lives as kings, or saints, or knights of\nromance, and we have caught fading glimpses of them surviving to-day as\nthe \u201cfairies\u201d, their rites still cherished by worshippers who hardly\nknow who or why they worship. Of necessity this survey has been brief\nand incomplete. Whether the great edifice of the Celtic mythology will\never be wholly restored one can at present only speculate. Its colossal\nfragments are perhaps too deeply buried and too widely scattered. But,\neven as it stands ruined, it is a mighty quarry from which poets yet\nunborn will hew spiritual marble for houses not made with hands.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 558:\n\n In the year 55 B.C.\n\nFootnote 559:\n\n _Strabo_, Book IV, chap. IV.\n\nFootnote 560:\n\n _Annals_, Book XIV, chap. XXX.\n\nFootnote 561:\n\n _Natural History_, Book XXX.\n\nFootnote 562:\n\n Gildas. See _Six Old English Chronicles_\u2014Bohn\u2019s Libraries.\n\nFootnote 563:\n\n Rennell Rodd: _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_. Stuart Glennie:\n _Greek Folk Songs_.\n\nFootnote 564:\n\n Charles Godfrey Leland: _Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition_.\n\nFootnote 565:\n\n Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, p. 670; Curtin: _Tales of the Fairies and of\n the Ghost World_; and Mr. Leland Duncan\u2019s _Fairy Beliefs from County\n Leitrim_ in _Folklore_, June, 1896.\n\nFootnote 566:\n\n The Mabinogi of _Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed_.\n\nFootnote 567:\n\n The story of Lludd and Llevelys.\n\nFootnote 568:\n\n _Kulhwch and Olwen._\n\nFootnote 569:\n\n _Morte Darthur_, Book XIX, chaps. I and II.\n\nFootnote 570:\n\n _Henry VIII_, act V, scene 3.\n\nFootnote 571:\n\n Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 514.\n\nFootnote 572:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 516.\n\nFootnote 573:\n\n A good account of the Irish festivals is given by Lady Wilde in her\n _Ancient Legends of Ireland_, pp. 193-221.\n\nFootnote 574:\n\n Pennant: _A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides_, 1772.\n\nFootnote 575:\n\n Martin: _Description of the Western Islands of Scotland_, 1695.\n\nFootnote 576:\n\n Gaidoz: _Esquisse de la R\u00e9ligion des Gaulois_, p. 21.\n\nFootnote 577:\n\n Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, pp. 136-139.\n\nFootnote 578:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 137.\n\nFootnote 579:\n\n Mitchell: _The Past in the Present_, pp. 271, 275.\n\nFootnote 580:\n\n Elton: _Origins of English History_, p. 284.\n\nFootnote 581:\n\n Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, p. 140.\n\nFootnote 582:\n\n The word Dee probably meant \u201cdivinity\u201d. The river was also called\n Dyfridwy, _i.e._ \u201cwater of the divinity\u201d. See Rhys: _Lectures on Welsh\n Philology_, p. 307.\n\nFootnote 583:\n\n Rhys: _Celtic Britain_, p. 68.\n\nFootnote 584:\n\n Rogers: _Social Life in Scotland_, chap. III, p. 336.\n\nFootnote 585:\n\n _Folklore_, chap. III, p. 72.\n\nFootnote 586:\n\n Henderson: _Folklore of Northern Counties_, p. 265.\n\nFootnote 587:\n\n Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, p. 78.\n\nFootnote 588:\n\n Hope: _Holy Wells of England_; Harvey: _Holy Wells of Ireland_.\n\nFootnote 589:\n\n Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 351.\n\nFootnote 590:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 329.\n\nFootnote 591:\n\n Roden: _Progress of the Reformation in Ireland_, pp. 51-54.\n\nFootnote 592:\n\n Martin: _Description of the Western Islands_, pp. 166-226.\n\nFootnote 593:\n\n Burne: _Shropshire Folklore_, p. 416.\n\nFootnote 594:\n\n Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, pp. 92-93.\n\nFootnote 595:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 102.\n\nFootnote 596:\n\n Adamnan\u2019s _Vita Columb\u00e6_.\n\nFootnote 597:\n\n Dr. Whitley Stokes: _Three Middle Irish Homilies_.\n\nFootnote 598:\n\n Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book V, chap. XII.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n APPENDIX\n\n\n A FEW BOOKS UPON CELTIC MYTHOLOGY\n AND LITERATURE\n\nThe object of this short list is merely to supplement the marginal notes\nby pointing out to a reader desirous of going deeper into the subject\nthe most recent and accessible works upon it. That they should be\naccessible is, in its intention, the most important thing; and therefore\nonly books easily and cheaply obtainable will be mentioned.\n\n\n INTRODUCTORY\n\nMatthew Arnold.\u2014THE STUDY OF CELTIC LITERATURE. Popular Edition.\n London, 1891.\n\nErnest Renan.\u2014THE POETRY OF THE CELTIC RACES (and other studies).\n Translated by William G. Hutchinson. London, 1896.\n\n _Two eloquent appreciations of Celtic literature._\n\nMagnus Maclean, M.A., D.C.L.\u2014THE LITERATURE OF THE CELTS. Its\n History and Romance. London, 1902.\n\n _A handy exposition of all the branches of Celtic literature._\n\nElizabeth A. Sharp (editor).\u2014LYRA CELTICA. An Anthology of\n Representative Celtic Poetry. Ancient Irish, Alban, Gaelic,\n Breton, Cymric, and Modern Scottish and Irish Celtic Poetry.\n With introduction and notes by William Sharp. Edinburgh, 1896.\n\nAlfred Nutt.\u2014CELTIC AND MEDI\u00c6VAL ROMANCE. No. 1 of Mr. Nutt\u2019s\n \u201cPopular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore\u201d. London,\n 1899.\n\n _A pamphlet briefly tracing the indebtedness of medi\u00e6val\n European literature to pre-medi\u00e6val Celtic sources._\n\n\n HISTORICAL\n\nH. d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville.\u2014LA CIVILISATION DES CELTES ET CELLE DE\n L\u2019\u00c9POP\u00c9E HOM\u00c9RIQUE. Paris, 1899.\n\n _Vol. VI of the author\u2019s monumental \u201cCours de Litt\u00e9rature\n celtique.\u201d_\n\nPatrick Weston Joyce.\u2014A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT IRELAND, treating\n of the Government, Military System, and Law; Religion, Learning,\n and Art; Trades, Industries, and Commerce; Manners, Customs, and\n Domestic Life of the Ancient Irish People. 2 vols. London, 1903.\n\nCharles I. Elton, F.S.A.\u2014ORIGINS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. Second edition,\n revised. London, 1890.\n\nJohn Rhys.\u2014CELTIC BRITAIN. \u201cEarly Britain\u201d Series. London, 1882.\n\nH. d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville.\u2014INTRODUCTION \u00c0 L\u2019\u00c9TUDE DE LA LITT\u00c9RATURE\n CELTIQUE. Vol. I of the \u201cCours de Litt\u00e9rature celtique\u201d. Paris,\n 1883.\n\n _Contains, among other information, the fullest and most\n authentic account of the druids and druidism._\n\n\n GAELIC MYTHOLOGY\n\nH. d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville.\u2014LE CYCLE MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS ET LA\n MYTHOLOGIE CELTIQUE. Vol. II of the \u201cCours de Litt\u00e9rature\n celtique\u201d. Paris, 1884. Translated into English as\n\n THE IRISH MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE AND CELTIC MYTHOLOGY. With notes by\n R. I. Best. Dublin, 1903.\n\n _An account of Irish mythical history and of some of the greater\n Gaelic gods. With chapters on some of the more striking phases\n of Celtic belief._\n\nAlfred Nutt.\u2014THE VOYAGE OF BRAN, SON OF FEBAL. An Irish Historic\n Legend of the eighth century. Edited by Kuno Meyer. With essays\n upon the Happy Otherworld in Irish Myth and upon the Celtic\n Doctrine of Rebirth. Vol. I\u2014The Happy Otherworld. Vol. II\u2014The\n Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth. Grimm Library, Vols. IV and VI.\n London, 1895-1897.\n\n _Contains, among other notable contributions to the study of\n Celtic mythology, an enquiry into the nature of the Tuatha D\u00e9\n Danann, a subject briefly treated in the same author\u2019s_\n\n THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY OF SHAKESPEARE. No. 6 of \u201cPopular Studies in\n Mythology, Romance, and Folklore\u201d. London, 1900.\n\nPatrick Weston Joyce.\u2014OLD CELTIC ROMANCES. Translated from the\n Gaelic. London, 1894.\n\n _A retelling in popular modern style of some of the more\n important mythological and Fenian stories._\n\nLady Gregory.\u2014GODS AND FIGHTING MEN. The story of the Tuatha D\u00e9\n Danann and of the Fianna of Erin. Arranged and put into English\n by Lady Gregory. With a Preface by W. B. Yeats. London, 1904.\n\n _Covers much the same ground as Mr. Joyce\u2019s book, but in more\n literary manner._\n\nAlfred Nutt.\u2014OSSIAN AND THE OSSIANIC LITERATURE. No. 3 of \u201cPopular\n Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore\u201d. London, 1899.\n\n _A short survey of the literature connected with the Fenians._\n\nJohn Gregorson Campbell, Minister of Tiree.\u2014THE FIANS. Stories,\n poems, and traditions of Fionn and his Warrior Band,\n collected entirely from oral sources. With introduction and\n bibliographical notes by Alfred Nutt. Vol. IV of \u201cWaifs and\n Strays of Celtic Tradition\u201d. London, 1891.\n\n _An account of the Fenians from the Scottish-Gaelic side._\n\nAlfred Nutt.\u2014CUCHULAINN THE IRISH ACHILLES. No. 8 of \u201cPopular\n Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore\u201d. London, 1900.\n\n _A brief but excellent introduction to the Cuchulainn cycle._\n\nLady Gregory.\u2014CUCHULAIN OF MUIRTHEMNE. The story of the Men of the\n Red Branch of Ulster. Arranged and put into English by Lady\n Gregory. With a Preface by W. B. Yeats. London, 1902.\n\n _A retelling in poetic prose of the tales connected with\n Cuchulainn._\n\nEleanor Hull.\u2014THE CUCHULLIN SAGA IN IRISH LITERATURE. Being a\n collection of stories relating to the Hero Cuchullin, translated\n from the Irish by various scholars. Compiled and edited with\n introduction and notes by Eleanor Hull. With Map of Ancient\n Ireland. Grimm Library, Vol. VIII. London, 1898.\n\n _A series of Cuchulainn stories from the ancient Irish\n manuscripts. More literal than Lady Gregory\u2019s adaptation._\n\nH. d\u2019Arbois de Jubainville.\u2014L\u2019\u00c9POP\u00c9E CELTIQUE EN IRLANDE. Vol. V of\n the \u201cCours de Litt\u00e9rature celtique\u201d. Paris, 1892.\n\n _A collection, translated into French, of some of the principal\n stories of the Cuchulainn cycle, with various appendices upon\n Gaelic mythological subjects._\n\nL. Winifred Faraday, M.A.\u2014THE CATTLE RAID OF CUALGNE (Tain Bo\n Cuailgne). An old Irish prose-epic translated for the first time\n from the Leabhar na h-Uidhri and the Yellow Book of Lecan. Grimm\n Library, Vol. XVI. London, 1904.\n\n _A strictly literal rendering of the central episode of the\n Cuchulainn cycle._\n\n\n BRITISH MYTHOLOGY\n\nIvor B. John.\u2014THE MABINOGION. No. 11 of \u201cPopular Studies in\n Mythology, Romance, and Folklore\u201d. London, 1901.\n\n _A pamphlet introduction to the Mabinogion literature._\n\nLady Charlotte Guest.\u2014THE MABINOGION. From the Welsh of the LLYFR\n COCH O HERGEST (the Red Book of Hergest) in the library of Jesus\n College, Oxford. Translated, with notes, by Lady Charlotte\n Guest.\n\n First edition. Text, translation, and notes, 3 vols., 1849.\n Translation and notes only, 1 vol., 1877.\n The Boys\u2019 Mabinogion, 1881.\n\n _Cheap editions of this classic have been lately issued. One may\n obtain it in Mr. Nutt\u2019s handsome little volume; as one of Dent\u2019s\n \u201cTemple Classics\u201d; or in the \u201cWelsh Library\u201d._\n\nJ. Loth.\u2014LES MABINOGION, traduits en entier pour la premi\u00e8re fois en\n fran\u00e7ais avec un commentaire explicatif et des notes critiques.\n 2 vols. Vols. III and IV of De Jubainville\u2019s \u201cCours de\n Litt\u00e9rature celtique\u201d. Paris, 1889.\n\n _A more exact translation than that of Lady Guest, with notes\n embodying more recent scholarship._\n\nJ. A. Giles, D.C.L.\u2014OLD ENGLISH CHRONICLES, including ... Geoffrey\n of Monmouth\u2019s British History, Gildas, Nennius ... Edited, with\n illustrative notes, by J. A. Giles, D.C.L. \u201cBohn\u2019s Antiquarian\n Library\u201d. London, 1901.\n\n _The most accessible edition of Geoffrey of Monmouth._\n\nSir Thomas Malory.\u2014THE MORTE DARTHUR. Edited by Dr. H. Oskar Sommer.\n Vol. I\u2014the Text. Vol. II\u2014Glossary, Index, &c. Vol. III\u2014Study on\n the Sources. London, 1889-1891.\n\n _Vol. I of this, the best text of the Morte Darthur, can be\n obtained separately._\n\nJessie L. Weston.\u2014KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS. A survey of Arthurian\n romance. No. 4 of \u201cPopular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and\n Folklore\u201d. London, 1899.\n\nAlfred Nutt.\u2014THE LEGENDS OF THE HOLY GRAIL. No. 14 of \u201cPopular\n Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore\u201d. London, 1902.\n\n _Useful introductions to a more special study of Arthurian\n literature._\n\n\n COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY\n\nJohn Rhys.\u2014LECTURES ON THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION AS\n ILLUSTRATED BY CELTIC HEATHENDOM. \u201cThe Hibbert Lectures for\n 1886.\u201d London, 1898.\n\nJohn Rhys.\u2014STUDIES IN THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND. Oxford, 1901.\n\n _These two volumes are the most important attempts yet made\n towards a scientific and comprehensive study of the Celtic\n mythology._\n\n\n CELTIC FAIRY AND FOLK LORE\n\n\n GAELIC\n\nT. Crofton Croker.\u2014FAIRY LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE SOUTH OF\n IRELAND.\n\n _This book is one of the earliest, and, if not the most\n scientific, perhaps the most attractive of the many collections\n of Irish fairy-lore. Later compilations are Mr. William\n Larminie\u2019s_\n\n _\u201cWest Irish Folktales and Romances\u201d, and Mr. Jeremiah Curtin\u2019s\n \u201cHero Tales of Ireland\u201d, \u201cMyths and Folklore of Ireland\u201d, and\n \u201cTales of the Fairies, collected in South Munster\u201d. On the\n Scotch side, notice should be particularly taken of Campbell\u2019s\n \u201cPopular Tales of the West Highlands\u201d and the volumes entitled\n \u201cWaifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition\u201d. All these books are\n either recent or recently republished, and are merely selected\n out of a large list of works, valuable and otherwise, upon this\n lighter side of Celtic mythology._\n\n\n BRITISH\n\nJohn Rhys.\u2014CELTIC FOLKLORE, WELSH AND MANX. 2 vols. Oxford, 1901.\n\nWirt Sikes.\u2014BRITISH GOBLINS: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology,\n Legends, and Traditions. By Wirt Sikes, United States Consul for\n Wales. London, 1880.\n\n\n FOLKLORE COMPARATIVELY TREATED\n\nGeorge Laurence Gomme.\u2014ETHNOLOGY IN FOLKLORE. \u201cModern Science\u201d\n Series. London, 1892.\n\n _An attempt to assign apparently non-Aryan beliefs and customs\n in the British islands to pre-Aryan inhabitants._\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n INDEX\n\n\n Aberffraw, marriage of Branwen at, 289.\n Abergeleu, sacred well at, 415.\n Achill Island, folk-tales preserved at, 233.\n Achilles, the Irish, 158.\n Achren, battle of, 305, 306;\n castle of, 320.\n Acrisius, 236.\n Adamnan\u2019s _Life of Saint Columba_, 401, 417.\n Advocates\u2019 Library at Edinburgh, 11, 190.\n Aebh, wife of L\u00ear, 142.\n Aed, son of L\u00ear, 143.\n Aedh, son of Miodhchaoin, 105.\n Aeife, wife of L\u00ear, 142, 143, 144.\n Aerfon, a title of the river Dee, 413.\n _\u00c6s S\u00eddhe_, the \u201cfolk of the mounds\u201d, the gods or fairies, 137, 168.\n Africa, 19, 120, 274, 324.\n Aganippus, king of the Franks, 382, 383.\n Agriculture god of, British, 261;\n a Gaulish, 274.\n Ailbhe, foster-daughter of Bodb the Red, 142.\n Aileach, grave of Nuada at, 122, 157.\n Ailill, king of Connaught, 147, 154, 164, 165, 175, 179, 200.\n Ailinn, love-story of, 188, 189.\n Ailioll of Arran, 142.\n Ain\u00e9, queen of the fairies of South Munster, 244-246.\n Ainle, one of the sons of Usnach, 192, 193, 196.\n Airceltrai, the _s\u00eddh_ of Ogma, 136, 157.\n Airem, Eochaid, high king of Ireland, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 331,\n 332.\n _Airem_, meaning of the word, 149, 333.\n Airmid, daughter of Diancecht, 80, 81, 82, 110.\n Alator, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.\n Alaw, river in Anglesey, 294, 295.\n Alba, 97, 104, 163, 178, 192, 193, 196, 382;\n Deirdre\u2019s farewell to, 194-195.\n Albania, a name for Alba, 382.\n Ale of Goibniu, 61.\n Allobroges, 384, 385.\n Amaethon, son of D\u00f4n, British god of Agriculture, 261, 305, 308, 313,\n 316, 345;\n fights against Br\u00e2n in the battle of Achren, 305-308;\n assists Kulhwch to win Olwen, 345.\n Amergin, druid of the Milesians, 123-130.\n Amesbury, \u201ccastle\u201d of, 29.\n Amlwch, stream of, 295.\n Ana, see Anu.\n Ancient Britons, who were the, 18-23.\n Aneurin, a sixth-century British bard, 11, 295, 372.\n Aneurin, the Book of, 11.\n Anglesey, island of, 289, 294, 322, 388, 400.\n Anglo-Saxon, our descent not entirely, 3.\n Anguish, Anguissance, king of Ireland, 357.\n Angus, Gaelic god of love and beauty, 56, 79, 80, 117, 136, 139-142,\n 147, 156, 157, 205, 211-214, 217, 218, 221, 240;\n his attributes, 56;\n his wooing of Caer, 140-142;\n cheats his father, the Dagda, 139;\n steals Etain from Mider, 147;\n helps Diarmait and Grainne, 217, 218, 221;\n matches his pigs against the Fenians, 213-214.\n Anicetus, Sol Apollo, a Romano-British god, 275.\n Animals, sacred, 406, 416, 417;\n sacrifices of, 406, 411, 412, 413.\n Anna, sister of Arthur, 323.\n _Annals of the Four Masters_, 204.\n Annwn, the British Otherworld, 254, 273, 278-282, 303, 308, 309, 318,\n 319, 321, 390, 391.\n _Annwn, the Spoiling of_, a poem by Taliesin, 305, 306, 317, 366.\n Anu, or Ana, a Gaelic goddess of prosperity and abundance, 50;\n the \u201cPaps of Ana\u201d, 50;\n still living in folklore as Aynia and Ain\u00e9, 245.\n Aoibhinn, queen of the fairies of North Munster, 244.\n Aoife, an Amazon defeated by Cuchulainn, 164, 176, 177.\n Aphrodit\u00e9, the British, 271, 388.\n Apollo, the Gaelic, 62;\n the British, 262;\n a temple of, in Britain, 42, 325.\n Apples, of the Garden of the Hesperides, 98, 99, 102;\n in the Celtic Elysium, 98, 136.\n Apple-tree of Ailenn, 189.\n Aquitani, 22.\n Aranon, son of Mil\u00e9, 123.\n Arawn, king of Annwn, 279, 280, 281, 306, 308, 309, 312, 315, 329, 357,\n 375.\n Ardan, a son of Usnach, 192, 193, 196.\n Ard Chein, 93.\n Arddu, Black Stone of, 305.\n Ar\u00eas, 52.\n _Argetl\u00e1m_, 49, 78.\n Arianrod, a British goddess, 261-265, 313, 317, 322, 364, 371;\n her place in later legend taken by Arthur\u2019s sister, 364.\n Armagh, 136, 158.\n Arnold, Matthew, 3, 16, 356.\n Arran, Isle of, 60, 142, 415.\n Art, the \u201cLonely\u201d, king of Tara, 189, 202.\n Artaius, Mercurius, a Gaulish god, 274.\n Arthur, 6, 8, 14, 155, 202, 222, 246, 258, 259, 271, 273, 274, 276, 296,\n 304, 306, 311, 312-320, 322, 323, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330-343, 348,\n 349, 351-360, 362, 364-366, 368, 371, 374-376, 392, 407;\n the mythical and the historical, 313, 314;\n assumes the attributes of Gwydion, 316;\n the Spoiling of Annwn by, 319-322;\n becomes head of the British Pantheon, 312-313;\n wins Olwen for Kulhwch, 343-353;\n in Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s _History_, 374, 375;\n leads the Wild Hunt, 392.\n _Arthurian Legend, Studies in the_, Professor Rhys\u2019s, 148, 158, 255,\n 257, 258, 269, 272, 274, 278, 285, 313, 314, 316, 321, 322, 323, 326,\n 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 358, 359, 360, 364, 367, 368, 369,\n 370, 383, 387, 389.\n Artur, son of Nemed, 274.\n Aryans, 21, 31, 32, 247;\n common traditions of the, 32, 176, 189;\n Aryan languages, 21.\n Astarte, worshipped at Corbridge, 275.\n Astolat, 362.\n Athens, 153.\n Athlone, 175, 216.\n Augusel, a king of Scotland, 375.\n Aurelius, a British king, 325.\n Avallach, see Avallon.\n Avallon, a British god of the Underworld, 329, 359;\n Isle of, 374, and see Avilion.\n Avebury, the \u201ccastle\u201d of, 29.\n Avilion, 133, 315, 329, 332, 334, 335, 390, 394.\n Aynia, a fairy queen of Ulster, 245.\n\n Babylon, 178.\n Badb, a Gaelic war-goddess, 52, 53, 72, 117, 119, 245;\n the name often used generically, 53;\n description of a, 53.\n \u201cBadger in the bag\u201d, the game of, 285, 303.\n Badon, battle of, 338.\n Baile, love-story of, 188-189.\n Baile\u2019s Strand, 186, 188.\n Bajocassus, Temple of the sun-god Belinus at, 276.\n Bala lake, 265.\n Balan, 276, 357, 364.\n Balder, 33.\n Balgatan, a mountain near Cong, 73.\n Balin, 276, 357, 358, 364.\n Ballymagauran, village of, 38.\n Ballymote, Book of, 10, 38, 123, 138, 229, 231.\n Ballysadare, 75.\n Balor, a king of the Fomors, 48-49, 50, 79, 83, 84, 90, 112, 113, 120,\n 233-239, 269, 324, 341, 345, 371;\n his evil eye, 49;\n kills Nuada and Macha, 112;\n is blinded by Lugh, 112;\n tales of, in modern folklore, 233-239.\n \u201cBalor\u2019s Hill\u201d, 69, 90.\n Ban, king of Benwyk, 356, 360, 362.\n Banba, a goddess representing Ireland, 125;\n an ancient name of Ireland, 126, 153.\n _Banshee_, meaning of the word, 137.\n Baoisgne, Clann, 209, 217.\n Bards, 32, 42.\n Bardsey Island, 326.\n Barrow, river, how it got its name, 62.\n Barrule, South, 242.\n Barry, the, 246.\n Basque race, 19.\n Bath, 228, 275, 276, 338, 381.\n Bathurst\u2019s _Roman Antiquities in Lydney Park_, 254.\n Battle of Achren, 305;\n of Badon, 338;\n of Camlan, 222, 315, 334, 337, 375, 376;\n of Clontarf, 53;\n of Gabhra, 222, 223, 225, 315;\n of Mag Rath, 52;\n of Moytura Northern, 107-117, 407;\n of Moytura Southern, 72-75;\n of the Trees, 123, 305-308.\n Bayeux, temple of Belinus at, 276.\n Bean, curious passage relating to the, 306, 307.\n Becuma of the Fair Skin, 202.\n Bedivere, Sir, 6.\n Bedwini, Arthur\u2019s bishop, 337.\n Bedwyr, a follower of Arthur, 343, 344, 349.\n Belacatudor, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.\n Belg\u00e6, 23, 76.\n Beli, a British god, 120, 252, 260, 268, 295, 313, 335-376.\n Belinus, a Celtic sun-god, 276, 358, 364;\n as a king of Britain, 276, 384, 385.\n Belisama, the Latin name of the Ribble, 413.\n Beltaine, the Gaelic May-day, 41, 65, 287, 406, 408, 409, 410.\n Berber race, 19.\n Beth, an Iberian god, 64.\n Bettws-y-coed, 7.\n Beuno, Saint, sacrifices of cattle to, 413.\n Big-Knife, Osla, 352, 353.\n Bil\u00e9, father of the Gaelic gods and men, 51, 65, 120, 121, 122, 252.\n Billingsgate, origin of name, 385.\n Birds, of Rhiannon, the, 273, 294, 296;\n Dechtir\u00e9 and her maidens changed into, 160.\n Black Book of Caermarthen, the, 11, 255, 311, 312, 335.\n Bladud, mythical founder of Bath, 381.\n Blathnat, daughter of Mider, 55, 179.\n Bliant, Castle, 358.\n Blodeuwedd, wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, 265, 266, 268.\n Blood-fines among the Celts, 30;\n blood-fine paid for Cian, 94-97.\n Boann, wife of the Dagda, 55, 139, 141.\n Boar, wild, of Bengulben, 221;\n the Boar Trwyth, 347-353.\n Bodb the Red, son of the Dagda, 60, 133, 140, 141-145, 157, 205, 208;\n is made king of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 140;\n his swineherd, 164;\n marries his daughter Sadb to Finn, 208.\n Bogles, 393, 403, 405.\n Bonfires in Celtic ritual, 409-412.\n Bordeaux, Sir Huon of, 7.\n _Boread\u00e6_, 42.\n Borrach, 193, 195, 200.\n Bors, king of Gaul, 360.\n Bors, Sir, 368, 369.\n Boyne, river, 55, 56, 129, 136, 137, 158, 210, 213, 230.\n Brahmans, 32.\n Bran, son of Febal, an Irish king, 134, 135, 224.\n Bran, Finn\u2019s favourite hound, 213.\n Br\u00e2n, British god of the Underworld, 258, 271-272, 276, 289-294, 296,\n 306, 308, 313, 328, 329, 331, 338, 356, 357, 360, 364, 366, 384, 386,\n 387, 389, 394;\n fights the battle of Achren, 306;\n becomes the \u201cWonderful Head\u201d, 296;\n in Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s _History_, 384, 385;\n in the Morte Darthur, 356, 357;\n introduces Christianity into Britain, 386.\n Brandegore, King, 272, 356.\n Brandegoris, King, 356.\n Brandel, Brandiles, Sir, 356.\n Branwen, British goddess of love, 271, 289-294, 387.\n Brazil, 133.\n Brea, ford of, Finn killed at the, 222.\n Breasal\u2019s Island, 133.\n Br\u00e9cilien, Forest of, 361.\n Bregon, 121.\n Brennius, a mythical British king, 5, 276, 384, 385.\n Brennus, 385.\n Bress, son of Elathan, a Fomor, 50, 78-80, 82, 83, 90, 108-111, 115-116,\n 269;\n his beauty, 50;\n marries Brigit, and is made king over the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 78;\n is forced to abdicate, 83;\n makes war on the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 83;\n is defeated and captured, 115-116.\n Brian, son of Tuirenn, 90, 91, 92, 94, 99-102, 103, 105, 106.\n Briareus, 326.\n \u201cBridge of the Cliff\u201d, the, 163.\n Bridget, Saint, 7, 56, 228.\n Brigantes, a North British tribe, 277.\n Brigantia, a British Minerva, 277.\n Brigindo, a Gaulish goddess, 277.\n Brigit, Gaelic goddess of fire, poetry, and the hearth, 56, 78, 109,\n 110, 228, 269, 277, 387;\n is married to Bress, 78;\n is canonized as Saint Bridget, 228, 387.\n Bri Leith, the _s\u00eddh_ of Mider, 136, 148, 152, 332.\n Brindled ox, the, 320.\n Britain, ancient names of, 292, 323.\n _British Goblins_, Mr. Wirt Sikes\u2019, 389, 393, 415.\n Britons, ancient, who were the, 18-23.\n BRITONUM, HISTORIA. See Historia, Geoffrey, Nennius.\n Brittany, 24.\n Briun, son of Bethar, 113.\n Brownies, 248, 393, 403.\n Brude, king of the Picts, 401.\n Brugh-na-boyne, 136, 139, 160, 213, 214.\n Brutus, 121, 374.\n Brythons, 21, 22, 23, 24, 35.\n Buarainech, father of Balor, 48.\n Buinne, the Ruthless Red, son of Fergus, 193, 196, 197.\n Bull, the Brown, of Cualgne, 164, 165, 168, 175;\n the White-horned, of Connaught, 165, 175.\n Bwbachod, 393.\n\n Cadbury, the supposed site of Camelot, 335.\n Cader Idris, 305.\n Caemhoc, Saint, 146.\n Caer, daughter of Etal Ambuel, 141.\n Caer Arianrod, 252, 264.\n Caer Badus, 381.\n Caer Bannawg, 367.\n Caer Colvin, 275.\n Caer Dathyl, 308, 310.\n Caer Golud, 320.\n Caer Llyr, 270.\n Caer London, 376.\n Caer Myrddin, 324.\n Caer Ochren, 320.\n Caer Pedryvan, 319, 356, 367.\n Caer Rigor, 319.\n Caer Sarrlog, 386.\n Caer Sidi, 319, 321, 322, 368.\n Caer Vandwy, 257, 320.\n Caer Vedwyd, 319.\n Caer Wydyr, 320.\n Caesar, Julius, 5, 8, 18, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30, 35, 38, 119, 204, 376,\n 399, 412, 417.\n Cairbr\u00e9, son of Cormac, 206, 222, 315.\n Cairn of Octriallach, 110.\n Cairpr\u00e9, son of Ogma, bard of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 58, 82, 83, 87, 139.\n Calais, 383.\n Calatin the wizard, 171, 172;\n daughters of Calatin, 178-181.\n Caledonians, 22.\n Camelot, 314, 335.\n Camlan, battle of, 222, 315, 334, 337, 375, 376.\n Camulodunum, the Roman name of Colchester, 276.\n Camulus, a Gaulish god of war and the sky, 51, 204, 275, 323.\n Caoilte, a Fenian hero, 63, 146, 208, 212, 217, 222, 227, 246.\n Caractacus, Caratacus, 271, 386, 387.\n Caradawc of the Strong Arms, son of Br\u00e2n, 271, 291, 295, 338, 386, 389.\n Carbonek, 357, 367.\n Carmarthen, 324.\n Carnac, 114.\n Carnarvon, 310.\n Carrowmore, 114.\n Cassibellawn, Cassivelaunus, 376.\n \u201cCassiopeia\u2019s Chair\u201d, 252.\n Castell y Moch, 310.\n Castle of Arianrod, 252, 264.\n Castle Bliant, 358.\n Castle of Gwydion, 253.\n Castle Hacket, 244.\n Castle of Revelry, 366, 367.\n Castle of Riches, 367.\n \u201cCastles\u201d, Celtic, 29.\n Caswallawn, son of Beli, 295.\n _Cath Godeu._ See the \u201cBattle of the Trees\u201d.\n Cathbad, druid of Emain Macha, 161, 162, 174, 178, 181, 190, 198, 200.\n Cathubodva, a Gaulish war-goddess, 276.\n Cauldrons in Celtic mythology; the Dagda\u2019s, 54, 71, 366;\n of Ogyrvran the Giant, 366;\n of Diwrnach the Gael, 346, 349;\n cauldron given by Br\u00e2n to Matholwch, 290, 293, 366;\n cauldron stolen from Mider by Cuchulainn, 176, 366;\n cauldron kept in Annwn by the chief of Hades, 273, 319, 366;\n the legend of the Holy Grail founded upon Celtic myths of a cauldron\n of fertility and inspiration, 365-370.\n Celt\u00e6, 22.\n Celtic mythical literature the forerunner of medi\u00e6val romance, 184.\n Celtic strain in modern Englishmen, 3.\n Celts, the, 19, 20, 21, 25-44, 70, 119, 121, 124, 136, 138, 261, 262,\n 278, 283, 329, 404, 407, 412.\n Cemmes, a parish in Pembrokeshire, 394.\n _Cenn Cruaich_, 41.\n _Cermait_, _i.e._ \u201cHoney-mouth\u201d, a title of Ogma, 57.\n Ceth\u00e9, son of Diancecht, 62, 90.\n Cethlenn, wife of Balor, 90.\n \u201cChain, Lugh\u2019s\u201d, 62;\n \u201cchief\u2019s\u201d, 93.\n Champion of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 59, 276;\n Champions of the Red Branch, see Red Branch;\n \u201cThe Champion\u2019s Prophecy\u201d, 201.\n Chariots, war, of the Celts, 25, 27, 28.\n Charon, 403.\n Chaucer, 2, 12.\n Chess, Mider\u2019s game with Eochaid Airem, 149;\n Ossian\u2019s game with Finn, 220.\n Children of D\u00f4n, Nudd, and Llyr, 252.\n Christianity, introduced into Britain by Br\u00e2n, 386, 387;\n conquers Druidism, 400, 401;\n adopts harmless heathen cults, 416, 417.\n Cian, son of Diancecht, 62, 63, 78, 84, 90-94, 106, 235-237, 239, 269,\n 345, 371.\n Ciaran, Saint, 10.\n Cichol the Footless, a Fomor, 66.\n Cilgwri, the Ousel of, 349.\n Clann Baoisgne, 209, 217, 222:\n Clan Chattan, 415.\n Clann Morna, 209, 211, 218, 232.\n Clann Neamhuinn, 216, 218.\n Clann Ronan, 218.\n _Clas Myrddin_, an old name for Britain, 323.\n Claudius, Roman emperor, 387.\n Cliodna, fairy queen of Munster, 244.\n Clontarf, battle of, 53.\n Cl\u00fbd, goddess of the river Clyde, 284, 285.\n Cluricanes, 248.\n _Cnoc Miodhchaoin_, 97.\n Cnucha, battle of, 209.\n Coblynau, 393.\n Cocidius, a war-god worshipped by a Dacian colony in Cumberland, 275.\n Coed Helen, 310.\n Coel, a mythical king of Britain, 275, 323.\n _Coir Anmann_, the \u201cChoice of Names\u201d, an old Irish tract, 50, 54, 61,\n 245, 270.\n Colchester, 276.\n \u201cCole, Old King\u201d, 276.\n Collen, Saint, 389, 390, 391.\n Columba, Saint, 12, 240, 401, 417.\n _Comes Britanni\u00e6_, 313.\n _Comes Littoris Saxonici_, 314.\n Comyn, Michael, a Gaelic poet, 223.\n Conair\u00e9 the Great, high king of Ireland, 152, 157.\n Conall the Victorious, 163, 177, 183, 192, 193, 197, 198.\n Conan, a Fenian hero, 209, 218.\n Conann, son of Febar, a king of the Fomors, 67.\n Conchobar, king of Ulster, 29, 147, 154-156, 158, 160-162, 166-168, 173,\n 174, 179, 185, 190-192, 193, 195-198, 200, 201, 204, 227;\n his treachery towards the sons of Usnach, 192-200;\n his tragical death, 155.\n Condates, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.\n Cong, village of, 73, 76.\n Conlaoch, son of Cuchulainn, 177, 178.\n Conn the Hundred Fighter, 201, 202.\n Conn, son of L\u00ear, 143.\n Conn, son of Miodhchaoin, 105.\n Connaught, 73, 75, 76, 165, 168.\n Connla, son of Conn the Hundred Fighter, 202.\n _Contemporary Review_, the, 241.\n Contrary Head, 242.\n Conway, river, 262.\n Cooking-places of the Fenians, 206.\n Cooking-spits of the women of Fianchuiv\u00e9, 96;\n at Tara, 98.\n Cooley, see Cualgne.\n Coranians, a mythical tribe of dwarfs, 377-379.\n Corb, an Iberian god, 64.\n Corbridge, 275.\n Corc, son of Miodhchaoin, 105.\n Corca-Duibhne, 70.\n Corca-Oidce, 70.\n Cordeilla, daughter of Leir, in Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s _History_,\n 381-383.\n Cordelia, daughter of Shakespeare\u2019s _King Lear_, 259, 381.\n Coritiacus, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.\n Cormac, \u201cthe Magnificent\u201d, 201, 202, 203, 206, 215, 222, 315.\n Cornwall, 3, 23, 294, 296, 327, 334, 353, 382, 384.\n Coronation Stone, the, 71.\n Corrib, see Lough Corrib.\n Corspitium, see Corbridge.\n Corwenna, mother of Brennius and Belinus, 385.\n Count of Britain, 313;\n of the Saxon Shore, 314.\n Court of D\u00f4n, the, 252, 317.\n Cow, Balor\u2019s Gray, 235, 236, 237, 240;\n Mider\u2019s three cows, 57, 176.\n Cow, Book of the Dun, 10, 12, 14, 37, 156, 164, 175, 184, 202, 227.\n Credn\u00e9, the bronze-worker of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 85, 86, 109.\n Crete, 153.\n Creudylad, daughter of the British sky-god Lludd, 256, 258, 259, 332,\n 348, 381, 407.\n Criminal Resolutions of Britain, the Three, 334.\n _Crom Croich_, 40.\n _Cromm Cruaich_, 38, 39, 41, 154, 402.\n Cronos, 63, 65, 326.\n \u201cCroppies\u2019 Grave\u201d, the, at Tara, 72.\n Cruind, the river, 165.\n Cu, son of Diancecht, 62, 90.\n Cualgne, a province of Ulster, 164, 165, 175.\n Cuan, head of the Munster Fenians, 218.\n Cuchulainn, chief hero of the Ultonians, 10, 11, 14, 27, 154, 155, 156,\n 158-188, 192, 193, 202, 204, 210, 217, 223, 227, 274, 366;\n is the son of Lugh, 159-160;\n obvious solar character of, 158-159;\n how he obtained his name, 160-161;\n fights in the T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgne, 164-175;\n his wooing of Emer, 184-186;\n his raid upon the Other World, 175-176;\n his death, 183;\n is raised from the dead by Saint Patrick, 227.\n Culann, chief smith of the Ultonians, 161;\n \u201cCulann\u2019s Hound\u201d, 161, 166.\n \u201cCulture-King\u201d, 153.\n Cumhal, father of Finn, 204, 209, 210, 275.\n Cunedda, a North British king, 373.\n Cunobelinus, king of Britain, 387.\n Curoi, king of Munster, 147, 154, 179.\n Custennin, 343, 344.\n Cuthbert, Saint, bulls sacrificed to, 413.\n Cwm Cawlwyd, the Owl of, 349.\n _Cwm Annwn_, the \u201cHounds of Hell\u201d, 391, 392.\n Cwy, 320.\n Cymbeline, Shakespeare\u2019s, 387.\n Cymri, 255, 373.\n\n Dagda, the, Gaelic god of the Earth, 54, 78, 79, 87, 98, 107-109, 116,\n 117, 122, 132, 135, 136, 138-141, 156, 157, 211, 213, 228, 230, 240,\n 243, 269, 346, 366;\n his dress, arms, and harp, 54;\n his porridge-feast, 108;\n is cheated by his son Angus, 139;\n resigns the kingship of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 140;\n his last appearance, 157.\n Daire of Cualgne, owner of the Brown Bull, 165.\n Dal\u00e2n, druid of Eochaid Airem, 392.\n Danes, the, 230.\n Danu, the mother of the Gaelic gods, the same as Anu, _q.v._, 44, 50,\n 51, 70, 245, 252, 407.\n Dart, river, 414.\n Dartmoor, 392.\n Darvha, Lake, 143-145.\n Deaf Valley, the, 180.\n Dechtir\u00e9, mother of Cuchulainn, 156, 159, 160, 181.\n D\u00e9 Danann, see Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann.\n Dee, river, 413.\n Deimne, the first name of Finn, 210.\n Deirdre, 190-200;\n Deirdre\u2019s Farewell to Alba, 194-195;\n Deirdre\u2019s Lament over the Sons of Usnach, 199-200.\n Demetia, Roman province of, 273, 278.\n Demetrius, an early traveller in Britain, 326.\n \u201cDemon of the air\u201d, Aeife changed into a, 145.\n Derivla, a sacred well in the island of Inniskea, 415.\n Desmond, fourth Earl of, nicknamed \u201cthe Magician\u201d, 245.\n \u201cDestiny, laying a\u201d, a Celtic custom, 262-265, 340.\n Devon, 312, 392.\n Devwy, the dales of, 320.\n _Dialogue of the Elders_, the, 205, 222, 404;\n Dialogues of Patrick and Ossian, 226-227.\n Diancecht, the Gaelic god of medicine, 61, 62, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85,\n 86, 90, 110, 141, 232, 269;\n makes a silver hand for Nuada, 78;\n kills his son Miach, 81-82;\n presides over the \u201cSpring of Health\u201d, 110;\n prescriptions of Diancecht, 232.\n Diarmait O\u2019Duibhne, the Fenian Adonis, 209, 212, 215-221, 315.\n Dinadan, Sir, 328.\n Dinas Dinllev, 264.\n Dinas Emrys, 324, 381.\n Dingwall, Registers of the Presbytery of, 412.\n _Dinnsenchus_, 38, 40, 132, 154.\n Dio Cassius, 387.\n Diodorus Siculus, 41, 42, 325.\n Dionysus, rites of, 410.\n Dis Pater, 51, 120, 252, 383.\n Dissull the Giant, 348-349.\n Diwrnach the Gael, the cauldron of, 346, 349.\n Dobhar, king of Sicily, 96, 98, 102, 103.\n Doctrine of the transmigration of souls, 36, 37.\n Domnann, Fir, _i.e._ men of Domnu. See Fir Domnann.\n Domnu, a goddess, mother of the Fomors, 48, 70, 112;\n meaning of the name, 48;\n gods of Domnu, 48, 70;\n men of Domnu, 70.\n D\u00f4n, the British equivalent of the Gaelic Danu, 44, 252, 260, 268, 269,\n 273, 295, 308, 310, 316;\n euhemerized into a king of Dublin, 372-373.\n Donn, son of Mil\u00e9, 126-131, 246.\n \u201cDonn\u2019s House\u201d, 246.\n Dormarth, the hound of Gwyn son of Nudd, 257.\n Dowth, 137-138.\n Dragon, Red, of Britain, 378;\n White, of the Saxons, 378.\n \u201cDragon-mouth\u201d, a lake called, 141.\n _Dream of Rhonabwy_, the, 260, 312, 337, 338.\n Drogheda, 137.\n Drowes, river, 110.\n Drudwyn, the whelp of Greid the son of Eri, 347.\n Druidism, the religion of the Celts, 35, 43;\n possibly non-Aryan in origin, 36;\n in Gaul, 34;\n derived from Britain, 35;\n suppressed by the Romans, 399, 400.\n Druids, 18, 33-37, 84, 111, 115, 151, 179, 180, 182, 188, 202, 399-401,\n 411, 412, 417;\n origin of the name, 33;\n in Gaul, 34;\n in Britain, 35;\n human sacrifices of the druids, 37, 412;\n the druids of Brude, king of the Picts, 401.\n Drumcain, an old name for Tara, 126.\n Dublin, 66, 372.\n Duke of the Britains, the, 313.\n Dulachan, 247, 248.\n _Dul-dauna_, the, 237.\n Dun Cow, Book of the. See Cow.\n Dundalk, 177.\n Dundealgan, 177, 181, 188, 189.\n D\u00fan Scaith, 175-176.\n _Dux Britanniarum._ See Duke of the Britains.\n Dwynwen, Saint, 388.\n Dyfan, Saint, 386.\n Dyfed, or Demetia, a province of South Wales, 273, 278, 279, 281, 282,\n 286, 298-301, 303, 304, 309, 310, 394.\n Dylan, a British god, 261, 262, 322, 335, 360, 364, 371.\n\n Eagle, of Gwern Abwy, 350;\n Lleu changed into an, 266-268.\n Earl Gerald, 245.\n Easal, king of the Golden Pillars, 96, 103.\n Eber, son of Mil\u00e9, 129-131, 146, 153.\n Eber Scot, 120.\n Eboracum, Roman name of York, 275.\n Edeyrn, son of Nudd, 260.\n Edinburgh, the Advocates\u2019 Library at, 11.\n Eel, the Morr\u00edg\u00fa takes the shape of an, 169;\n transformation of the rival swineherds into eels, 165.\n Egypt, 120.\n Eigen, the first female saint in Britain, 386.\n Eildon Hills, Arthur living beneath the, 335.\n Elaine, 362.\n Elathan, a king of the Fomors, 49, 50, 78, 83, 90, 116, 269.\n Elayne, 358.\n Elberich, 392.\n _Elders, Dialogue of the._ See _Dialogue_.\n Elen Lwyddawg, wife of Myrddin, 323, 362.\n Eleutherius, Pope, 386.\n Ellylion, the Welsh elves, 393.\n Elton\u2019s _Origins of English History_, 6, 8, 25, 26, 70, 228, 327, 413.\n Elves, 393.\n Elysium, Celtic. See Other World, Celtic.\n Emain Macha, the capital of ancient Ulster, 28, 29, 158, 160, 161, 162,\n 164, 173, 174, 179, 180, 183, 188, 192, 194, 196, 200, 201, 204.\n Emer, wife of Cuchulainn, 162, 164, 177, 184-188.\n _Emer, the Wooing of_, an old Irish saga, 28, 29, 37, 184.\n Emperor, a title given in Welsh legend to Arthur, 314, 338.\n Emrys, a title of Myrddin, 324, 329, 360, 369.\n Englishmen, Celtic strain in, 3.\n \u201cEntertaining of the Noble Head\u201d, the, 296.\n Eochaid, son of Erc, king of the Fir Bolgs, 69, 73, 74, 75.\n Eochaid Airem, see Airem.\n Eochaid O\u2019Flynn, an Irish poet, 231.\n Erc, king of Tara, 179, 182, 183.\n Eremon, son of Mil\u00e9, and first king of Ireland, 40, 129, 130, 131, 132,\n 146, 153, 154.\n Erin, 97, 98, 99, 102, 104, 126, 193, 225, 231;\n meaning of the word, 126.\n Eriu, a goddess representing Ireland, 125, 126, 128, 129.\n Eros, the Gaelic, 56, 140.\n See Angus.\n Essyllt, wife of March, or Mark. See Iseult.\n Etain, wife of Mider, 57, 139, 147-152, 154, 224, 331-333.\n Etair, a vassal of King Conchobar, 147.\n Etal Ambuel, father of Caer, 141.\n Etan, wife of Ogma, 62, 87, 239.\n Ethnea, a name of Ethniu in modern folklore, 238.\n Ethniu, daughter of Balor, 62, 79, 84, 90, 269, 371.\n _Ethnology in Folklore_, Mr. G. L. Gomme\u2019s, 35, 69, 412, 413, 414, 416.\n Etirun, \u201can idol of the Britons\u201d, 294.\n Etive, Loch, 193.\n Etruscans, the, 20; Etruscan mythology in modern Italian folklore, 403.\n Ettard, 358.\n _Ettarre, Pelleas and_, Tennyson\u2019s idyll of, 358.\n Euhemerism of Gaelic gods, 227-230;\n of British gods, 372-389.\n Euskarian race, 19.\n Evelake, King, 359.\n Evnissyen, son of Penardun, 290, 292, 293.\n\n Failinis, the hound of the king of Ioruaidh\u00e9, 96, 97, 104.\n _Fairie Queene_, Spenser\u2019s, 7, 389.\n Fairies, the, 4, 137, 242-248, 389-393, 403, 404, 409, 418;\n the old gods are remembered as \u201cfairies\u201d, 243-248, 389-393;\n two varieties of fairy in folklore, 403;\n Irish and Welsh fairies identical in nature, 404;\n king of the Irish fairies, 136;\n king of the Welsh fairies, 392;\n size of the fairies, 404;\n fairy money, 377;\n fairy food, 391;\n the \u201cfairy hills\u201d, 135-139, 394.\n Fal, the stone of. See Stone of Destiny.\n \u201cFalcon of May\u201d, 369;\n \u201cFalcon of Summer\u201d, 369.\n Falga, Isle of, 57, 175.\n Falias, a city of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 71, 72.\n Fand, wife of Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear, 186-188, 202.\n Faraday, Miss, her translation of the _T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgn\u00e9_, 164.\n Fata Morgana, 395.\n Fate of the Children of L\u00ear, 142-146;\n of the Sons of Tuirenn, 90-105;\n of the Sons of Usnach, 190-200.\n Fea, a war-goddess, wife of Nuada, 52.\n \u201cFeast of Age\u201d, Manann\u00e1n\u2019s, 61, 98, 143.\n Feast of Lugh, see Lugnassad.\n Feast of St. John, 409.\n Fec\u2019s Pool, on the Boyne, 210.\n Fedlimid, vassal to King Conchobar, 190.\n Fenians, the, 11, 17, 155, 201, 203-209, 211-215, 217-219, 220-223, 225,\n 226, 314, 315;\n real or mythical, 203-205;\n origin of, 206;\n duties of, 206;\n accomplishments of, 207;\n chief heroes of, 207-209;\n destruction of, at the battle of Gabhra, 222;\n stories of, 209-226;\n the Fenian sagas possibly non-Aryan, 70.\n Fenius Farsa, 120.\n Ferdiad, a warrior slain by Cuchulainn, 172, 173, 184.\n Fergus, son of Finn, 208.\n Fergus, son of Roy, an Ulster hero, 14, 166, 167, 170, 171, 175,\n 192-196, 198, 200.\n Fergusson, Dr. James, 76, 114, 137, 138.\n Festivals, Celtic solar or agricultural, 405-412.\n Ffordd Elen, 324.\n Fiacha, son of Conchobar, 197, 198.\n Fiachadh, king of Ireland, 206.\n Fiachra, son of L\u00ear, 143.\n Fianchuiv\u00e9, submarine island of, 97, 104.\n _Fianna Eirinn_, see Fenians.\n Figol, son of Mamos, druid of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 90.\n Findabair, daughter of Medb, 168.\n Findias, a city of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 71, 72.\n Finn mac Coul (Cumhail), 4, 11, 16, 37, 146, 155, 201, 203, 204, 206,\n 207, 208, 209, 210-218, 220-222, 224, 226, 246, 254, 274, 314, 315;\n his upbringing and boy-feats, 209-210;\n reorganizes the Fenians, 211;\n is killed at the Ford of Brea, 222;\n is reborn as Mongan, an Ulster chief, 37;\n is he historical or mythical, 204;\n parallels between Finn and Arthur, 314-315.\n Finn mac Gorman, compiler of the Book of Leinster, 10.\n Finn the Seer, 210.\n Finola, daughter of L\u00ear, 143.\n Finvarra, king of the Irish fairies, 243, 244, 405.\n Fiona Macleod, Miss, 241.\n Fionn, see Finn.\n Fionnbharr, the _s\u00eddh_ of Meadha assigned to, 136;\n his appearance in the Fenian sagas, 212;\n becomes fairy king of Ireland, 243.\n Fir Bolgs, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 72-78, 114, 125, 229, 230, 407.\n Fir Domnann, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 76, 172.\n Fir Gaillion, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 76.\n Fish, sacred, 416.\n Fly, Etain changed into a, 147;\n Lugh takes the form of a, 159;\n a sacred, 416.\n _Folklore, Ethnology in._ See _Ethnology_.\n Folk-tales, Irish, 233-240; Welsh, 371.\n Fomors, Gaelic deities of Death, Darkness, and the Sea, 11, 48-50, 67,\n 70, 76, 83, 86, 88, 89, 90, 98, 107-117, 120, 122, 157, 205, 225,\n 229, 230, 252, 269, 274, 327, 406;\n meaning of the name, 48;\n their war with the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 107-117;\n are the Lochlannach in the Fenian sagas, 205.\n Forgall the Wily, father of Emer, 162, 163, 164, 184.\n Fotla, a goddess representing Ireland, 125;\n an ancient name of Ireland, 126.\n \u201cFour Ancient Books of Wales\u201d, the, 11, 15.\n See also Skene.\n \u201cFour Branches of the Mabinogi\u201d, the, 14, 15, 251, 278, 289, 312, 355.\n \u201cFour-cornered castle\u201d, the, 366.\n Frazer\u2019s _Golden Bough_, 33.\n \u201cFrivolous Battles of Britain, The Three\u201d, 334.\n Frogs, sacred, 416.\n Fury, Great, and Little Fury, two swords of Manann\u00e1n, 60, 217.\n\n Gabhra, battle of, 222, 223, 225, 315.\n Gabius, a Roman consul, 385.\n Gabriel Hounds, the, 392.\n _Gae bolg_, Cuchulainn\u2019s spear, 170, 173, 178.\n Gaels, 68, 69, 70, 71, 76, 93, 108, 119, 124, 149, 183, 203, 204, 230,\n 357.\n Gaiar, son of Manann\u00e1n, 202.\n Gaillion, Fir. See Fir Gaillion.\n Galahad, Sir, 362, 368, 369.\n _Galan-mai_, Welsh spring festival, 408.\n _Gan Ceanach_, 247.\n Garden of the Hesperides, the, 95, 98, 99.\n Gargantua, Rabelais\u2019, 386.\n Gast Rhymri\u2019s cubs, 347, 349.\n Gaul, 22, 274, 276, 383, 384, 385.\n Gauls, the, 22, 23, 119, 230.\n Gavida, 238, 239.\n Gavidjeen Go, 235.\n Gawain, Sir, 360, 363, 364, 369, 375.\n _Geasa_, taboos among the Irish Celts, 177, 195, 216.\n _Genii locorum_, 43.\n Geoffrey of Monmouth, 9, 121, 251, 254, 259, 276, 323, 324, 330, 336,\n 372, 373-376, 381, 384.\n George\u2019s Hill, Saint, 29.\n Geraint, 312, 387.\n Gildas, a British writer, 400.\n \u201cGlamour, the Realm of\u201d, an old name for Dyfed, 279.\n Glamour put on Cuchulainn by Cathbad, 178;\n by the daughters of Calatin, 179, 180;\n put on the sons of Usnach, 198;\n on Arianrod, 264, 265;\n on Dyfed, 298.\n Glass Castle, of the Fomors, 67;\n a synonym for the other world, 320, 367.\n Glastonbury, 260, 329.\n Glastonbury Tor, 272, 390.\n Glenn Faisi, 130.\n Glora, Isle of, 144, 145, 146.\n Glyn C\u00fbch, 279, 281.\n Gobhan Saer, the, 232, 235, 240.\n Goibniu, Gaelic god of smithcraft, 61, 84, 86, 98, 109, 110, 141, 231,\n 232, 238, 239, 261, 371;\n forges the weapons of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 61, 109;\n kills Ruadan, 110;\n his ale, 61;\n survives in tradition as the Gobhan Saer, _q.v._;\n as a character in folk-tale, 232-240.\n See Gavida and Gavidjeen Go.\n Goidel, a mythical ancestor of the Irish, 120.\n Goidels, the, 21, 22, 23, 24, 35.\n Golden bough, the mistletoe the, 33.\n Golden Pillars, king of the. See Easal.\n Goll, 209, 211, 222.\n Gomme, Mr. G. L., 20, 35, 69, 412, 413, 414, 416.\n Gonorilla, daughter of Leir, 381, 382.\n Gore, 357. See Gower.\n Goreu, Arthur\u2019s cousin, 317, 338.\n Gorias, a city of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 71, 72, 97.\n Govannan son of D\u00f4n, British god of Smithcraft, 261, 313, 316, 345;\n kills his nephew Dylan, 261;\n assists Kulhwch, 345.\n Gower regarded as part of the other world, 272, 356, 357, 373.\n Grail, the Holy, 2, 7, 273, 357-359, 365-370.\n Grainne, 209, 215-221, 315.\n _Graves of the Warriors, the Verses of the_, 272, 311, 334.\n Gray of Macha, Cuchulainn\u2019s horse, 174, 181, 182, 183.\n Greece, 1, 20, 68, 99, 100, 101, 155.\n Greek mythology, ancient, 1, 2, 4;\n modern, 403.\n \u201cGreen Meadows of Enchantment\u201d, the, 394.\n Gregory, Lady, 159, 201.\n Greid, the son of Eri, 347, 350.\n Gresholm Island, 294, 356, 394.\n _Grianainech_, the \u201csunny-faced\u201d, an epithet of Ogma, 59.\n Grianan Aileach, grave of Nuada at. See Aileach.\n Gronw Pebyr, 265, 266, 268.\n Guanius, Gwyn as a mythical king of the Huns, 375.\n Guest, Lady Charlotte, 253, 255, 268, 278, 289, 295, 298, 308, 317, 337,\n 339, 340, 348, 350, 369, 377.\n Guinevere, Arthur\u2019s queen, 315, 334, 357, 359, 365, 375, 407.\n Gunvasius, king of the Orkneys, 376.\n Gurgiunt Brabtruc, king of Britain, 385.\n Guyon, Sir, in Spenser\u2019s _Fairie Queene_, 7, 389.\n Gwalchaved, 369.\n Gwalchmei, 323, 330, 334, 335, 338, 343, 360, 364, 368, 369, 375.\n Gwales, island of, 294, 296, 356.\n Gwarthegyd, son of Kaw, 337.\n Gwawl, son of Cl\u00fbd, Pwyll\u2019s rival for Rhiannon, 284, 285, 303, 362, 380.\n Gweddw, owner of a magic horse, 347.\n Gweir, a form of the name Gwydion, _q.v._, 319, 321, 322.\n Gwenbaus, Sir, 359.\n Gwern, son of Matholwch and Branwen, 291, 292, 293.\n Gwinas, Sir, 359.\n Gwlgawd Gododin, the drinking-horn of, 346.\n Gwragedd Annwn, 393.\n Gwrhyr, a companion of Arthur, 343, 349, 350, 351.\n Gwri of the Golden Hair, 287.\n Gwrnach the Giant, 346, 348.\n Gwyar, wife of Lludd, 323, 338, 369.\n Gwyddneu Garanhir, his dialogue with Gwyn, 255-258;\n his magic basket, 346.\n Gwyddolwyn Gorr, the magic bottles of, 346.\n Gwydion son of D\u00f4n, the British Mercury, 260-268, 305, 306, 308-311,\n 316, 317, 322, 327, 330, 335, 358, 360, 364, 371, 372, 373, 377;\n druid of the gods, 260;\n father of the sun-god, 261;\n fights the \u201cBattle of the Trees\u201d, 306;\n is the British equivalent of the Teutonic Woden, 260;\n his place taken in later myth by Arthur, 316.\n _Gwyl Awst_, the Welsh August festival, 409.\n Gwyllion, 393.\n Gwyn son of Nudd, British god of the Other World, 7, 254-259, 272, 313,\n 315, 329, 332, 348, 359, 365, 371, 372, 376, 389-393, 405, 407;\n attributes of, 255;\n his dialogue with Gwyddneu Garanhir, 255-258;\n contends with Gwyn for Lludd\u2019s daughter Creudylad, 259;\n is made warder of Hades, 254-255;\n prominent in the Arthur legend, 359;\n becomes king of the Welsh fairies, 392;\n his interview with Saint Collen, 389-391.\n Gwynas, Sir, 359.\n Gwyngelli, a companion of Arthur, 352.\n Gwynhwyvar, 315, 326, 331-333, 334, 364.\n See Guinevere.\n Gwynn Mygddwn, the horse of Gweddw, 347.\n Gwynwas, a form of the name Gwyn, _q.v._, 332, 359.\n Gwyrd Gwent, father of one of the three Gwynhwyvars, 331.\n Gwyrthur, son of Greidawl, contends with Gwyn for Creudylad, 258, 259,\n 348, 407;\n father of one of the three Gwynhwyvars, 331.\n\n Hacket, Castle, 244.\n Hades, the Celtic. See Other World, Celtic.\n Hades, the Greek god, 152, 260.\n \u201cHades, Head of\u201d, a name given to Pwyll, 278, 282.\n Hallowe\u2019en, 40, 153, 407, 410.\n Hamitic languages, 19.\n \u201cHappy Plain\u201d, the, 133, 135, 186.\n See Mag Mell.\n Hare held sacred by the Ancient Britons, 417.\n Harlech, 289, 294, 295, 296.\n Harp of the Dagda, 54, 346;\n of Angus, 56;\n of Teirtu, 346.\n Havgan, a king of Annwn, 279, 281.\n Hawthorn, chief of Giants, father of Olwen, 340, 341, 343-345, 349, 353.\n Heifer, a black-maned, called \u201cOcean\u201d, 80, 117, 240;\n the Morr\u00edg\u00fa takes the shape of a, 169-170.\n Hengist, 325.\n Henuinus, Duke of Cornwall, 382, 383.\n Heph\u00e6stus, the Gaelic, 61, 63, 233.\n Heracles, 158, 276.\n Her\u00e9, 263.\n Hereford, 299.\n Hergest, the Red Book of, 11, 258, 260, 312, 328, 336, 369.\n Herimon, 40.\n See Eremon.\n \u201cHero-light\u201d, Cuchulainn\u2019s, 177, 183.\n \u201cHero\u2019s salmon-leap\u201d, Cuchulainn\u2019s, 163.\n Hesiod, 65.\n Hesperides, garden of the. See Garden.\n Hesus, a Gaulish god, 52.\n Hevydd the Ancient, father of Rhiannon, 283, 285.\n Hi Dorchaide, 70.\n _Hibbert Lectures_ (for 1886) on _Celtic Heathendom_, Professor Rhys\u2019s,\n 41, 43, 48, 51, 54, 57, 59, 90, 120, 205, 238, 253, 254, 258, 262,\n 264, 268, 271, 277, 282, 284, 307, 313, 318, 324, 325, 331, 377, 408.\n Hill of Uisnech, 69, 324.\n _Historia Britonum_ of Nennius, 9, 336;\n of Geoffrey of Monmouth, 9, 251, 323, 324, 336, 372, 373, 374, 375,\n 376, 381, 384, 386.\n Hittites, the, 20.\n Holy Families of Britain, the Three Chief, 386.\n Holy Grail, the. See Grail.\n Holy wells, 414-415.\n Homeric and Celtic civilization compared, 25, 29.\n Hoodie-crow, 52, 53, 169, 271.\n Horse of Manann\u00e1n mac Lir, 60, 88, 98;\n of Gweddw, 347;\n of Gwyn son of Nudd, 255, 256, 348.\n \u201cHound of Culann\u201d, the, 161, 166;\n hound of Lugh, 63;\n of the king of Ioruaidh\u00e9, 104;\n hounds of Finn mac Coul, 213;\n hounds of Celtic myth, 225, 280, 391, 392.\n Hull, Miss Eleanor, her _Cuchullin Saga_, 155, 156, 159, 184, 190, 199,\n 227.\n Human sacrifices of the Druids, 37, 38;\n to Cromm Cruaich, 38, 39, 40, 400;\n symbolical, 405, 410, 411.\n Huon of Bordeaux, Sir, 7.\n Huxley, Professor, 19.\n Hy-Breasail, 133.\n\n Iberians, the, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 35, 68, 69, 70, 76, 230, 248, 278;\n their physique, 19;\n language, 19;\n original home, 19;\n state of culture, 20;\n gods, 43, 44, 64.\n Iddawc, the Agitator of Britain, 337, 338.\n Ilbhreach, son of Manann\u00e1n, 136, 140, 211, 222.\n Iliad, the, 75, 156.\n Illann the Fair, son of Fergus mac Roy, 193, 196-198.\n \u201cIllusion, the Land of\u201d, an old name for Dyfed, 279.\n Indech, son of Domnu, a king of the Fomors, 48, 70, 83, 90, 108, 112.\n Inniskea, the Lonely Crane of, 146;\n stone worship in, 415.\n _Invasions, the Book of_, 121.\n _Ioldanach_, the \u201cMaster of All Arts\u201d, a title of Lugh, 63, 85, 237,\n 239.\n Iolo Morganwg, bardic name of Mr. Edward Williams, 372.\n _Iolo MSS._, the, 269, 270, 372, 373, 387, 388, 389.\n Iona, Adamnan, Abbot of, 401.\n Ioruaidhe, 96, 97, 104.\n Ireland, old names of, 125, 126, 150.\n See also Iweridd.\n Iseult, wife of King Mark, 327, 338.\n Island, submarine, 97, 104.\n \u201cIsland of the Mighty\u201d, a bardic name for Britain, 292.\n Islands, sacred, 326.\n Ith, 121, 122;\n Ith\u2019s Plain, 66, 122.\n Iuchar, son of Tuirenn, 90-106.\n Iucharba, son of Tuirenn, 90-106.\n Iweridd, _i.e._ \u201cIreland\u201d, wife of the British sea-god Llyr, 258, 270,\n 271.\n\n Janus, 383.\n Javelin, Red, one of Manann\u00e1n\u2019s spears, 60, 217.\n John, Feast of Saint, 245, 407, 411.\n Jones, the Rev. Edward, on apparitions, 391.\n Joseph of Arimathea, 358, 359, 366.\n Jubainville, M. H. d\u2019Arbois de, 25, 34, 37, 48, 54, 67, 68, 72, 77, 78,\n 107, 120, 124, 128, 132, 158, 188, 202.\n Judgment of Amergin, the, 127.\n Julius Caesar, see Caesar.\n\n Kacmwri, the servant of Arthur, 352, 353.\n Kaerlud, 376.\n Kai, 326, 327, 338, 343, 348, 349, 350, 351.\n Karitia, see Calais.\n Kay, Sir, 6, 326.\n \u201cKeening\u201d invented, 110.\n Kelli Wic, 334.\n _Keltic Researches_, Mr. Nicholson\u2019s, 3.\n Kenmare, river, 121.\n Kicva, wife of Pryderi, 289-301.\n Kildare, shrine of St. Bridget at, 228.\n Killaraus, Mount, 324.\n Killarney, Lake, 223, 247.\n \u201cKingly Castle\u201d, see Caer Rigor.\n Kirwans of Castle Hacket, the, 244.\n Knights, King Arthur\u2019s, 6, 7, 8, 155, 251, 274, 358, 371.\n Knockainy, 245.\n Knockers, 393, 403.\n Knockma, fairy hill of, 136, 243, 244.\n Knockthierna, 247.\n Knowth, 137, 138.\n Kulhwch, 340, 341, 343, 344, 345, 347, 353.\n _Kulhwch and Olwen_, the tale of, 258, 259, 260, 313, 321, 327, 339,\n 340-353, 369, 407.\n Kyndellig, 343.\n Kynedyr Wyllt, 348, 352.\n\n Labhra, Mider\u2019s leech, 213.\n Labraid of the Quick Hand on Sword, 202.\n Lady of the Lake, 361.\n Laeg, Cuchulainn\u2019s charioteer, 169, 181, 182, 186.\n Laegaire the Battle-winner, 163.\n Lakes, twelve chief, of Ireland, 88.\n Lamias, 403.\n Lammas, 407.\n Land of Illusion, 279;\n of Happiness, 119, 133;\n of the Living, 133, 335;\n of Promise, 133, 217, 337;\n of Summer, 119, 329;\n of the Young, 133, 225.\n Laon, 277.\n Larminie, Mr. William, 233.\n Launcelot, Sir, 7, 328, 333, 358, 359, 362, 365.\n _Lear, King_, Shakespeare\u2019s, 5, 7, 259, 270, 381.\n Lecan, the Book of, 10, 38, 123, 229;\n the Yellow Book of, 10, 164.\n Leicester, 270, 383.\n Leinster, 179, 189.\n Leinster, Mount, 140, 211, 212.\n Leinster, the Book of, 10, 38, 55, 56, 121, 132, 139, 155, 156, 157,\n 190, 199, 204, 229.\n Leir, Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s King, 381-383.\n Leodogrance, father of Guinevere, 357.\n Leprechaun, 247, 248, 393, 403.\n L\u00ear, the Gaelic sea-god, 60, 140, 142-144, 146, 205, 211, 212, 222, 252,\n 269;\n his rebellion against Bodb the Red, 140;\n their reconciliation, 142;\n the fate of the children of, 142-146;\n is killed by the Fenian hero Caoilt\u00e9, 146, 222.\n Levarcham, 196.\n Leyden, 277.\n _Lia F\u00e1il_, see Stone of Destiny.\n Liban, 186, 202.\n Lismore, the Book of, 10.\n _Lla Lluanys_, the Manx August festival, 409.\n Llacheu, son of Arthur, 258, 326.\n Llandwynwyn, the church of Dwynwyn (Branwen), in Anglesey, 388.\n Lleminawg, 319.\n Lleu (Llew) Llaw Gyffes, the British sun-god, 261-268, 276, 305, 306,\n 322, 323, 325, 330, 335, 360, 364, 369, 370;\n his birth, 261;\n and naming, 263;\n takes part in the Battle of the Trees, 306;\n is changed into an eagle, 266;\n his place taken in later myth by Gwalchmei, 323;\n and in the Arthurian legend by Sir Gawain, 360.\n Llevelys, king of France, 378.\n Lloegyr (Loegria), Saxon Britain, 258, 299, 300, 384.\n Lludd Llaw Ereint, the British Zeus, 252, 253, 254, 259, 312, 315, 323,\n 329, 332, 350, 359, 364, 375-381, 407;\n his wife Gwyar, 323;\n puts an end to the \u201cThree Plagues of Britain\u201d, 377-380;\n founds London, 376;\n appears in the Morte Darthur as King Lot of Orkney, 359.\n Llwyd, son of Kilcoed, avenges Gwawl, son of Cl\u00fbd, 303, 304.\n Llwyr, son of Llwyrion, the magic vessel of, 346.\n Llyn Llyw, the salmon of, 350.\n Llyr, the British sea-god, 252, 259, 269, 270, 271, 273, 289, 290, 304,\n 313, 316, 338, 381, 383, 386;\n possibly borrowed from the Gaels, 270;\n becomes the \u201cKing Leir\u201d of Geoffrey of Monmouth, 381;\n and the \u201cKing Lear\u201d of Shakespeare, 270, 381;\n founds a family of saints, 386;\n his tomb or temple at Leicester, 383.\n Llyr-cestre, 270, 283.\n _Llys D\u00f4n_, 252, 317.\n Llywarch H\u00ean, a sixth-century British poet, 11.\n Loch, a warrior slain by Cuchulainn, 169-170.\n Lochlann (Lochlin), 97, 205, 372;\n Lochlannach, the, 205, 211.\n London, 294, 296, 376, 377.\n Londres, 376.\n Lot or Loth, king of Orkney, 359, 364, 375.\n Loucetius, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.\n _Lough Corrib, its Shores and Islands_, Sir William Wilde\u2019s, 76.\n Lough Gur, 246.\n Lucan, the Roman poet, 52.\n Luchtain\u00e9, the carpenter of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 61, 84, 86, 109.\n Lud, king of Britain, 5, 7, 376-381.\n Ludesgata, Ludgate, 5, 254, 376.\n Lugaid, son of Curoi, 179, 182, 183.\n Lugh Lamhfada, the Gaelic sun-god, 62-63, 84-90, 93-97, 103, 105, 106,\n 111-113, 115-117, 136, 139, 156, 157, 160, 170, 201, 230, 233,\n 238-240, 262, 276, 325, 339, 344, 345, 370, 371;\n his spear, 63, 71, 97;\n his hound, 63, 97;\n his rod-sling and chain, 62;\n his first appearance at Tara, 84;\n gains the title of _Ioldanach_, 85;\n avenges his father\u2019s murder upon the sons of Tuirenn, 94-106;\n leads the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann against the Fomors, 111;\n prophecies to Conn the Hundred Fighter, 201.\n _Lugnassad_, \u201cLugh\u2019s Commemoration\u201d, 277, 409.\n _Lugudunum_, \u201ctown of Lugus\u201d, 277, 409.\n Lugus, the Gaulish sun-god, 42, 276, 409.\n Lundy Island, 272, 322.\n Lydney, temple of Nodens at, 254;\n monograph upon it, 254.\n Lyons, 277, 409.\n\n Mab, Queen, 246.\n Mabinogi, the Four Branches of the, 14, 15, 355.\n Mabinogion, 12, 14, 16, 356, 372, 377, 403, 407.\n See also Guest, Lady Charlotte.\n Mabon, a British sun-god, 276, 328, 330, 335, 338, 347, 349-352, 387.\n Macaulay, 22.\n Mac Cecht, a king of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 122, 125, 126, 130.\n Mac Cuill, a king of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 122, 125, 126, 130.\n Mac Gee, Thomas D\u2019Arcy, 232.\n Mac Grein\u00e9, a king of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 122, 125, 126, 130.\n Mac Kineely, 238-239.\n Mac Moineanta, a king of the Irish fairies, 242.\n Mac Nia, an old Irish poet, 138.\n _Mac Oc_, \u201cSon of the Young\u201d, a title of Angus, 56, 139.\n MacPherson\u2019s _Ossian_, 203.\n Mac Samthainn, 238.\n Macha, a war-goddess of the Gaels, 52, 72, 112;\n meaning of her name, 52;\n \u201cMacha\u2019s acorn-crop\u201d, 53;\n is killed by Balor, 112.\n Macleod, Miss Fiona, 241.\n Maelmuiri, scribe of the Book of the Dun Cow, 10.\n Maelon, 388.\n Maenor Alun, 310;\n Maenor Penarth, 310.\n Maen Tyriawc, the grave of Pryderi, 311.\n Maglaunus, Duke of Albania, 382, 383.\n _Mag Mell_, the \u201cHappy Plain\u201d, a name for the Celtic Elysium, 133, 135.\n _Mag Mon_, the \u201cPlain of Sports\u201d, a name for the Celtic Elysium, 134.\n Mag Slecht, human sacrifices at, 38-40, 132, 154.\n Mag Tuireadh, see Moytura.\n Magog, 229.\n Malory, Sir Thomas, 323, 328, 330, 333, 354-357, 359-364, 367, 368.\n Malvasius, king of Iceland, 376.\n Man, Isle of, 23, 24, 57, 60, 175, 241, 261, 272, 273, 408, 409.\n Manann\u00e1n son of L\u00ear, a Gaelic god, 60-61, 89, 98, 129, 134, 136, 140,\n 143, 157, 186, 188, 199, 202, 203, 205, 217, 224, 233, 235-237, 239,\n 240-242, 270, 371, 405;\n his armour, 60, 88;\n weapons, 60, 217;\n horse, 60, 89, 98;\n mantle, 61, 129, 188, 217, 221;\n pigs, 61, 98;\n his \u201cFeast of Age\u201d, 61, 143;\n lord of the Celtic Paradise, 134;\n his wife Fand in love with Cuchulainn, 186-188;\n his friendship with Cormac, king of Ireland, 203;\n his message to Saint Columba, 240-241;\n his connection with the Isle of Man, 60, 241-242.\n Manawyddan son of Llyr, his British analogue, 270, 271, 273, 289, 290,\n 293, 294, 296, 298-304, 313, 315, 317, 321, 338, 352, 373;\n his attributes, 270-271;\n accompanies Br\u00e2n to Ireland, 289-294;\n marries Rhiannon, 298;\n defeats the magic of Llwyd, son of Kilcoed, 301-304;\n constructs the bone-prison of Oeth and Anoeth, 270;\n helps Arthur in the chase of Twrch Trwyth, 352.\n Maponos, a Gallo-British sun-god, 276, 328.\n March, a British god of the Under World, 316, 327, 329, 335, 338.\n Mark, King, 327, 328.\n Mars, 51, 204.\n \u201cMaster of All Arts\u201d, see _Ioldanach_.\n M\u00e2th, a British god, brother to D\u00f4n, 260, 265, 266, 268, 308, 310, 322,\n 329, 360, 361, 364;\n meaning of his name, 260;\n teaches magic to Gwydion, 260;\n rules from Caer Dathyl, 308;\n compared with Merlin, 360, 361, 362.\n Matholwch, king of Ireland, 289-293.\n M\u00e2thonwy, father of M\u00e2th, 260, 308.\n _Mati\u00e8re de Bretagne_, the, 363, 365.\n Matthew Arnold, 3, 16, 356.\n May Day, 123, 259, 287, 407.\n May Eve, 377, 407.\n Maypole, 408.\n Meadha, the _s\u00eddh_ of, 136, 212, 243.\n Meath, 179.\n Medb, queen of Connaught, 147, 154, 164-168, 170, 171, 172, 175, 178,\n 179, 183, 200, 246;\n makes war on Ulster to get the Brown Bull of Cualgne, 165-166;\n becomes a fairy queen, 246;\n is perhaps the original of \u201cQueen Mab\u201d, 246.\n Mediterranean race, 19;\n _Mediterranean Race, The_, Prof. Sergi\u2019s, 20.\n Medrawt, 315, 323, 332, 333, 334, 337, 360, 364.\n Meleaus, or Melias, de Lile, Sir, 359.\n Melga, king of the Picts, 375.\n Meliagaunce, or Meliagraunce, Sir, 359, 365, 407.\n Melwas, 329, 332, 359, 365, 407.\n Menai Straits, the, 262, 264.\n Menw, 343, 344, 351.\n Mercurius Artaius, a Gallo-Roman god, 274, 313.\n Mercury, 274, 313.\n Merlin, 324, 325, 339, 360, 361, 364.\n See Myrddin.\n Mesgegra, king of Leinster, 147, 154.\n Meyer, Dr. Kuno, 38, 134, 154, 184, 190.\n Miach, son of Diancecht, 62, 80-82, 232.\n Midas, the British, 328.\n Mider, Gaelic god of the Under World, 56, 57, 117, 136, 140, 142,\n 147-151, 154, 157, 175, 179, 205, 211-213, 224, 243, 331-333;\n rebels against Bodb the Red, 140;\n gambles with Eochaid Airem for possession of Etain, 149;\n is besieged in his _s\u00eddh_, and helped by the Fenians, 211-213.\n Midsummer Day, 75, 406, 407.\n Midsummer Eve, 242.\n Mil\u00e9, the ancestor of the Gaels, 122, 123, 126, 129, 130, 132, 146, 153.\n Milesians, the, 76, 125-127, 129, 145, 153, 229, 230, 243.\n \u201cMilky Way\u201d, the, 62, 253, 268.\n Minerva, 275, 277, 413.\n Minos, 153.\n Miodhchaoin, 97, 105, 106.\n Mistletoe, 18, 33.\n Mithras, a Persian sun-god worshipped at York, 275.\n Mochdrev, 310.\n Mochnant, 310.\n Modron, wife of Urien and mother of Mabon, 328, 338.\n Mona, see Anglesey.\n Mongan, an Ulster prince, a reincarnation of Finn mac Coul, 37.\n Monmouth, Geoffrey of. See Geoffrey.\n Morc, son of Dela, a king of the Fomors, 67, 327.\n Mordred, Sir, 315, 334, 360, 364, 374, 375.\n Morgawse, sister to Arthur, 323.\n Morr\u00edg\u00fa, the, Gaelic goddess of war, 52, 53, 72, 87, 98, 107, 113, 117,\n 139, 157, 168-170, 323;\n description of, 52;\n her dealings with Cuchulainn on the T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgne, 168-170.\n Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory\u2019s, 7, 272, 276, 323, 328, 334, 354,\n 362, 364-368, 372, 407.\n \u201cMound, Lord of the\u201d, 41, 403.\n Mountains of Ireland, the twelve chief, 87.\n Mourie, \u201cSaint\u201d, 413.\n Mouse, Manawyddan and the, 301-304.\n Moyle, Sea of, 144, 145.\n Moytura, Northern, Battle of, 11, 107-117, 157, 407;\n Southern, Battle of, 72-77, 114.\n Muirthemne, 90, 93, 166, 181.\n Munster, 69, 164, 218, 244, 245.\n Murias, a city of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 71, 72.\n Mur y Castell, Lleu\u2019s palace near Bala Lake, 265, 268.\n Myrddin, a British Zeus, 323-325, 329, 360, 362, 369;\n gave its first name to Britain, 323;\n his wife Elen, 323;\n his town Carmarthen, 324;\n appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth and in the Morte Darthur as Merlin,\n _q.v._\n Myrddin, a sixth-century British bard, 11.\n Mythology, importance of, 1;\n Greek, 1, 2, 4, 403;\n Scandinavian, 3;\n Celtic, its influence on English literature, 6, 7;\n on medi\u00e6val chivalric romance, 184.\n\n Name, ancient British superstitions with regard to, 263.\n _Names, Choice of_, The. See _Coir Anmann_.\n Names, early of Britain, 292, 323;\n of Ireland, 126, 150, 151.\n Nant Call, 310.\n Nant y Llew, 267.\n Naoise, son of Usnach, 191-193, 195-198.\n Narberth, 279, 281, 282, 283, 288, 298, 300.\n Navan Fort, 158.\n Neamhuainn, Clann, 216, 218.\n Neath, Vale of, 255, 335, 392.\n Nedd, river, 405.\n Neevougi, a stone worshipped at Inniskea, 415.\n Nemed, 67-69, 274;\n the race of, 229, 230, 327, 406.\n Nemetona, a war-goddess worshipped at Bath, 275, 276.\n Nemon, a Gaelic war-goddess, wife of Nuada, 52, 276.\n Nennius, his _History of the Britons_, 9, 336.\n Nentres, King, 357, 362.\n Nereids, 403.\n N\u00eat, an Iberian god, 64.\n New Grange, 137-139.\n Nia, the Plain of, 73.\n Niamh of the Golden Hair, daughter of Manann\u00e1n, 223-225.\n Nicholson\u2019s _Keltic Researches_, 3.\n _Niebelungenlied_, 393.\n Nimue, 358, 361, 362.\n Nissyen, son of Penardun, 290, 293.\n Niul, 120.\n Noah, descent of the Gaelic gods and men from, 329.\n Nodens, a temple to, at Lydney, 253.\n \u201cNorthern Crown\u201d, constellation of the, 252.\n _Nos galan-gaeof_, the Welsh winter festival, 408.\n Nuada of the Silver Hand, a Gaelic Zeus, 51, 52, 74, 75, 78, 80, 81,\n 83-86, 93, 94, 105, 122, 157, 230, 253, 276, 323;\n his sword, 51, 71;\n his wives, 52;\n his hand cut off in battle, 75;\n a silver hand made for him by Diancecht, 78;\n his own hand renewed by Miach and Airmid, 81;\n his death at the hands of Balor, 112;\n his tomb at Grianan Aileach, 122, 157.\n Nudd, British god, 252, 253, 254, 313;\n to be identified with Lludd, _q.v._\n Nutt, Mr. Alfred, 12, 37, 38, 134, 154, 158, 164, 318, 348.\n Nwyvre, 322, 364.\n Nynniaw, son of Beli, 268, 269, 313.\n\n Oak, held sacred by the Druids, 33.\n Oberon, 7, 392.\n \u201cOcean\u201d, a black-maned heifer called, 80, 240.\n Ochall Ochne, king of the S\u00eddhe of Connaught, 164.\n Ochren, battle of, 305;\n Caer, 320;\n see Achren.\n Octriallach, son of Indech, 110;\n the \u201cCairn of Octriallach\u201d, 110.\n O\u2019Curry, Eugene, 37, 56, 63, 72, 78, 89, 93, 111, 113, 137, 138, 146,\n 151, 152, 155, 188, 201, 204.\n Odin, 260.\n O\u2019Donaghue, the, 247.\n O\u2019Donovan, 238.\n Oeth and Anoeth, the Bone-prison of, 270, 271, 317, 373.\n O\u2019Flynn, Eochaid, an old Irish poet, 231.\n Ogam, writings in, 58, 93, 151, 189.\n Ogma, Gaelic god of Literature and Eloquence, 57-60, 79, 80, 82, 84, 85,\n 112, 116, 117, 122, 136, 139, 157, 276;\n his wife and children, 57;\n his epithets of \u201cCermait\u201d and \u201cGrianainech\u201d, 57, 59;\n his great strength, 59;\n kills Indech in the battle of Moytura, 112;\n inventor of the ogam alphabet, 58.\n Ogmios, a Gaulish god, 276.\n O\u2019Grady, Standish Hayes, Mr., 28, 159, 201, 203, 205, 207, 213, 215,\n 222.\n Ogyrvran, a British god of the Under World, father of Gwynhwyvar,\n 329-331, 357, 366.\n O\u2019Herlebys, wooden idol of the, 413.\n Old Plain, the, 66.\n Old Sarum, 29, 386.\n Olwen, 340, 341, 343, 345, 353.\n Onagh, queen of the Irish fairies, 243, 244.\n _Origins of English History_, Mr. Elton\u2019s, 6, 8, 25, 26, 70, 228, 327,\n 413.\n Orkneys, 386;\n King Lot of Orkney, 359.\n Oscar, son of Ossian, 208, 212, 217, 222, 246, 315.\n Osla Big-Knife, 352, 353.\n _Ossian_, MacPherson\u2019s, 203.\n Ossian, son of Finn mac Coul, 11, 208, 212, 214, 215, 217, 220, 223-227,\n 246, 318, 337.\n \u201cOssianic ballads\u201d, 205, 208, 213;\n Ossianic Society, see _Transactions_.\n Other World, the Celtic, 65, 68, 71, 98, 119, 121, 133-136, 150, 151,\n 175, 176, 201, 202, 203, 224, 252, 255, 270, 271, 272, 273, 278, 279,\n 281, 305, 307, 316, 317, 318-322, 329, 334, 336, 366, 387, 389, 395;\n different names of, 133, 318-320;\n descriptions of, 136, 150-151, 224;\n variously imagined as upon the sea, 202, 224, 272, 394;\n under the sea, 305;\n under the earth, 135-136;\n upon earth, 271, 272, 273, 278, 279;\n original abode of men, 119;\n visited by Cuchulainn, 175-176, 186;\n Conn, 201;\n Connla, 202;\n Ossian, 224;\n Pwyll, 281;\n Gwydion, 305;\n Arthur, 317-320.\n See also Annwn, Avilion, Happy Plain, Mag Mell, Mag Mon, Land of\n Happiness, of the Living, of Promise, of Summer, of the Young.\n Ousel of Cilgwri, 349.\n Ovid\u2019s _Metamorphoses_, 393.\n Owain, son of Urien, 328, 330;\n Sir Owain, 363.\n Owl, of Cwm Cawlwyd, 349;\n Blodeuwedd changed into an, 268.\n Ox, the brindled, 320, 321;\n oxen, magic, 345.\n Oxford, 379.\n\n Paradise, the Celtic.\n See Other World, Celtic.\n Parthludd, 254, 376.\n Partholon, 65-68, 386; race of, 229, 230, 406.\n Patrick, Saint, 8, 40, 41, 132, 145, 222, 225, 226, 227, 242, 401, 402.\n Paul\u2019s Cathedral, Saint, 254.\n Pausanias\u2019s _Description of Greece_, 36.\n Pedigree of the gods, 229;\n of Finn mac Coul, 204.\n Pedryvan, Caer, 319, 356, 367.\n Peel Castle, 242.\n Peibaw, son of Beli, 268, 269, 313.\n Pelasgoi, 20.\n Peleur, King, 368.\n Pellam, King, 358, 364.\n Pellean, King, 358.\n Pelleas, Sir, 358, 368;\n _Pelleas and Ettarre_, Tennyson\u2019s Idyll of, 358.\n Pelles, King, 357, 362, 367.\n Pellinore, King, 362.\n _Pembroke, County Guardian_, the, 394.\n Pembrokeshire, 273, 278, 394.\n _Pen Annwn_, the \u201cHead of Hades\u201d, a title of Pwyll, 278, 282.\n Penardun, daughter of Beli and wife of Llyr, 269, 270, 289, 290, 293.\n Pendaran Dyfed, 288, 295.\n Pendragon, meaning of the word, 330.\n Pennant, 409.\n Percivale, Sir, 359, 363, 368, 369.\n Peredur, 330, 368, 369.\n Perilous glens, the, 163.\n Persephon\u00e9, the British, 259, 260.\n Persia, 274;\n Pisear, king of, 96, 97, 101-103.\n Petrie, Dr., 72, 98, 114.\n Picts, 23, 230, 401, 417.\n Pigs, in the Celtic Other World, 136;\n of Manann\u00e1n, 61, 63;\n of Easal, king of the Golden Pillars, 96, 97, 103;\n of Pryderi, 308, 316, 327;\n of March, 316, 327;\n of Angus, 214;\n Cian changed into a pig, 91.\n Pigskin of King Tuis, the, 96, 99, 100.\n Pillars, king of the Golden. See Easal.\n Pisear, king of Persia, 96, 97, 101-103.\n Pixies, 393.\n Plain of Ill Luck, 163;\n of the Sea, 72;\n of Adoration, 38;\n the Old, 66.\n Pliny, 33, 35, 400.\n Plutarch, 326.\n Pluto, the Gaelic, 57;\n the Cambrian, 260.\n Poetry, the Gaelic goddess of, 56;\n cauldron of inspiration and, 365-370.\n Policy of the Christian Church towards objects of pagan worship, 417.\n Pookas, 247, 248, 393, 403, 405.\n Porsena, a Roman consul, 385.\n Poseidon, 52, 260;\n the Gaelic, 60;\n the British, 269.\n Posidonius, 26.\n Prophecy of Badb, 117-118;\n of Eriu, 125-126;\n of the seeress to Queen Medb, 166;\n of Lugh to Conn the Hundred-Fighter, 201-202;\n of Cathbad concerning Cuchulainn, 161;\n concerning Deirdre, 190-191.\n Pryderi, son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, 273, 286-288, 289, 294, 295,\n 298-301, 303-305, 308, 309-311, 313, 315, 316, 319, 321, 327, 335,\n 358, 364, 366, 368, 377, 407;\n is stolen at birth, 286;\n meaning of his name, 288;\n accompanies Br\u00e2n to Ireland, 289-294;\n is spirited away by Llwyd and recovered by Manawyddan, 300-304;\n receives a present of pigs from Annwn, 308;\n is killed by Gwydion, 311;\n appears in Arthurian legend, 358.\n Prydwen, Arthur\u2019s ship, 319, 320, 352.\n Puck, 393.\n Puffin Island, 322.\n _Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne, The_, 215-221.\n Pwccas, 393.\n Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed and \u201cHead of Annwn\u201d, 273, 274, 278-288, 298, 303,\n 304, 305, 308, 316, 319, 329, 357-358, 366, 367, 380;\n changes shapes with Arawn, king of Annwn, 281;\n his wooing of Rhiannon, 282-286;\n is owner of a magic cauldron in Hades, 321;\n and keeper of the Holy Grail in the Morte Darthur, 357-358.\n Pwynt Maen Dulan, 262.\n\n Queen Guinevere, 315, 334, 357, 359, 365, 375, 407.\n \u201cQueen Mab\u201d, 246.\n Queen of the Irish fairies, 243, 244;\n of the fairies of Munster, 244;\n of the fairies of North Munster, 244;\n of the fairies of South Munster, 244.\n _Queene, The Fairie_, Spenser\u2019s, 7.\n Quicken-tree, the magic, 219.\n\n Races of Britain, the, 19-21.\n Rathconrath, 69.\n \u201cRealm of Glamour, The\u201d, a name for Dyfed, 279.\n Re-birth of Cuchulainn, 37;\n of Finn mac Coul, 37.\n Red Book of Hergest, see Hergest.\n Red Branch Champions of Ulster, the, 4, 147, 157, 167, 183, 191, 192,\n 204, 227, 314.\n Red Branch House, the, 29, 196, 197.\n Red Dragon of Britain, the, 378.\n Redynvre, the stag of, 349.\n Regan, daughter of King Leir, 381, 382.\n Religion, Aryan, 32, 47.\n Retaliator, the, the sword of Manann\u00e1n mac Lir, 60, 198.\n Revelry, the Castle of, 319, 366.\n Revolving Castle, the, 319, 366.\n _Revue Celtique_, 40, 53, 78, 107, 117, 142, 158, 184, 190, 201, 241,\n 246.\n Rhiannon, a British goddess, 273, 282-288, 298, 300, 301, 303, 304, 358,\n 361, 362, 407;\n her three magic birds, 273, 294, 296;\n her name afterwards corrupted into Nimue and Vivien, 358, 361.\n Rhinnon Rhin Barnawd, the magic bottles of, 346.\n Rhonabwy, 336, 337, 338;\n The _Dream of Rhonabwy_, 312, 337, 338.\n Rhyd y Groes, a ford on the Severn, 337.\n Rhys, Professor, 22, 23, 35, 41, 44, 64, 68, 158, 205, 254, 256, 262,\n 282, 289, 307, 313, 316, 318, 319, 324, 331, 335, 352, 363, 370, 395,\n 404, 413, 414.\n See also _Arthurian Legend_ and _Hibbert Lectures_.\n Ri, Roi, an Iberian god, 64.\n Ribble, the river, 413, 414.\n Riches, the Castle of, 367.\n Rience, King, 357.\n Rigor, Caer, 319.\n Rigosamos, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.\n Ritual, remains of Celtic, 405-412.\n Rivers, the twelve chief, of Ireland, 88.\n Rivers, the worship of, 413, 414.\n Rodrub\u00e2n, the _s\u00eddh_ of Lugh, 136.\n Romans, the, 23, 24, 25, 373, 385, 386, 399, 413.\n Rome, 5, 155, 274, 315, 317.\n Ronan, Clann, 218.\n Round Table, King Arthur\u2019s, 6, 314.\n \u201cRound Towers\u201d, the, attributed to Goibniu, 233.\n Rowan-tree, 219, 410.\n Ruadan, son of Bress and Brigit, 109-110.\n _Rude Stone Monuments_, Fergusson\u2019s, 76, 114, 137, 138.\n Ryons, King, 357.\n\n Sacred animals, 406, 416, 417;\n islands, 326;\n fish, 416;\n frogs, 416;\n stones, 406, 415, 417;\n trees, 406, 415;\n wells, 414-416.\n Sacrifices of animals, 406, 412;\n human, 18, 37-40, 399;\n symbolical human sacrifices, 405, 410, 411.\n Sadb, daughter of Bodb the Red, and mother of Ossian, 208.\n \u201cSage\u2019s seat\u201d, the, 85, 86.\n St. Catherine\u2019s Hill, 29;\n St. George\u2019s Hill, 29.\n St. Gall MS., the, 232.\n Saints, transformation of Celtic gods into, 6, 228, 229, 372, 386, 389.\n Salisbury Plain, 325.\n Salmon of Knowledge, the, 55, 210;\n of Llyn Llyw, 350.\n Samhain, the Celtic winter festival, 40, 42, 67, 107, 108, 286, 406,\n 407, 408, 410, 411.\n _Samhanach_, 408.\n Sarn Elen, 324.\n Sarrlog, 386;\n Caer Sarrlog, 386.\n Satires, magical, 83, 87, 172, 182.\n Scathach the Amazon, 163, 164, 172, 173, 176.\n Sc\u00ean\u00e9, the river, 121.\n Scot, Eber, a mythical ancestor of the Gaels, 120.\n Scota, 120.\n Scotti, 357.\n Sea, Celtic ideas regarding the, 48, 261, 270.\n _Second Battle of Moytura, The_, the Harleian MS. called, 50, 54, 72,\n 78, 107.\n _Seint Greal_, the, 322, 326, 368.\n Senchan Torpeist, 14.\n _Sen Mag_, see Old Plain.\n Serapis worshipped at York, 275.\n Setanta, original name of Cuchulainn, 160, 161.\n Severn, the river, 254, 337, 350, 352, 353.\n Sgeolan, one of Finn\u2019s hounds, 213.\n \u201cShadowy Town, or City\u201d, 175, 366.\n Shakespeare, 5, 259, 270, 381, 393, 408.\n Shannon, the river, 88, 165, 292.\n \u201cShape-shifting\u201d, 37.\n Sharvan the Surly, 219.\n Shield, Conchobar\u2019s magic, 197.\n Shony, a Hebridean sea-god, 410.\n Shouts on a hill, the three, 94, 97, 105, 106.\n Sicily, 96, 102.\n _S\u00eddh_ Airceltrai, 136;\n Bodb, 136;\n Eas Aedha Ruaidh, 136;\n Fionnachaidh, 136, 140, 142, 146, 222;\n Meadha, 136, 243;\n Rodrub\u00e2n, 136.\n _S\u00eddhe_, \u201cfairy mounds\u201d, 135, 136, 139, 181.\n _S\u00eddhe, The_, the Gaelic gods, or fairies, 136, 223, 244, 246.\n Sidi, Caer, 319, 321, 322, 368.\n Silures, tribe of the, 22.\n Silurian race, the, 19.\n Silver Hand, Nuada\u2019s, 51, 78, 81, 253;\n Lludd\u2019s, 253.\n Sinann, goddess of the Shannon, 56.\n Skene, Dr. W. F., 71, 123, 256, 258, 311, 312, 316, 317, 319, 328, 334.\n Skye, Isle of, 163.\n Slecht, Mag. See Mag Slecht.\n Slieve Bloom, 209;\n Slieve Fuad, 136;\n Slieve Mish, 130.\n Smallpox, goddess of the, 413.\n Snowdon, 267, 305, 335, 380.\n Sol Apollo Anicetus, a sun-god worshipped at Bath, 275.\n Solar festivals of the Celts, 41, 405-412.\n Solinus, Caius Julius, 228.\n Somerset, 329.\n \u201cSon of the Young\u201d, see Mac Oc.\n Sore, the river, 383.\n _Sorrowful Stories of Erin, The Three_, 106.\n Spain, 22, 121;\n used as an euphemism for the Celtic Other World, 68, 120, 121, 230,\n 386.\n Spear of Lugh, 62, 97;\n of Pisear, king of Persia, 96, 97, 101, 103.\n \u201cSpearman with the Long Shaft\u201d, 369.\n Speech, Aryan, 21, 31.\n Spenser, 7, 389.\n Spey, the river, 414.\n \u201cSplendid Mane\u201d, the horse of Manann\u00e1n mac Lir, 60, 88, 98.\n _Spoiling of Annwn, The_, a poem of Taliesin, 306, 317-321, 366.\n \u201cSpring of Health\u201d, the, 110.\n Sreng, a warrior of the Fir Bolgs, 75.\n Stag of Redynvre, the, 349.\n Stokes, Dr. Whitley, 40, 50, 72, 78, 107, 152, 190, 203, 417.\n Stone, Black, of Arddhu, 305;\n Coronation, 71;\n of Destiny, 72;\n of Kineely, 239.\n Stones, worship of, 406, 415.\n Stonehenge, 42, 324, 325.\n Strabo, 22, 399.\n Strachey, Sir Edward, 356.\n _Study of Celtic Literature_, Matthew Arnold\u2019s, 3, 16, 356.\n Sualtam, the mortal father of Cuchulainn, 159, 160, 173, 174.\n Suir, the river, 165.\n Sul, a goddess worshipped at Bath, 228, 275.\n \u201cSummer, the Land of\u201d, _i.e._ the Celtic Other World, 119, 329.\n Sun, worship of the, 41, 42;\n Cuchulainn a personification of the, 158-159.\n Swans, Caer and Angus take the forms of, 141-142;\n the children of L\u00ear changed into, 143;\n Mider and Etain become, 151.\n Sword, of Manann\u00e1n, 60, 198;\n of Nuada, 51;\n of Gwrnach the Giant, 346, 348.\n Swinburne, 6.\n Swineherds, the rival, 164-165.\n\n Table Round, the, 6, 354, 371.\n Taboos, Celtic. See Destiny, _Geasa_.\n Tacitus, 22, 24, 387, 400.\n Tailtiu, the Gaelic gods defeated by the Milesians at, 130.\n _T\u00e1in B\u00f3 Chuailgn\u00e9_, 10, 14, 28, 159, 164, 175.\n Taliesin, 11, 123, 124, 261, 271, 273, 294, 296, 306, 317, 318, 320,\n 321, 328, 356, 366, 367.\n Taliesin, the Book of, 11, 123, 261, 271, 273, 306, 317, 318, 321, 328.\n Tallacht, burial-place of Partholon\u2019s people, 66.\n Tara, 29, 72, 84, 93, 98, 105, 125, 126, 129, 147, 153, 189, 190, 216,\n 230.\n Taran, 294.\n Taranis, 294.\n _Tathlum_, a sling-stone, 112, 113.\n Taw\u00eb, a river in South Wales, sacred to Gwyn ap Nudd, 257, 279, 392,\n 405.\n Tegla\u2019s well, Saint, 415.\n Teirnyon Twryf Vliant, 287, 288, 358, 407.\n Teirtu, the harp of, 346.\n Telltown, see Tailtiu.\n Temple of Nodens at Lydney, 253-254;\n St. Paul\u2019s cathedral occupying the site of a, 254;\n sacrifices of cattle on the site of a, 413;\n ancient British temples still standing in the sixth century, 400.\n Tennyson, 6, 133, 260, 274, 297, 312, 354, 355, 358, 361, 362.\n \u201cTerrace cultivation\u201d, 20.\n \u201cTerrestrial gods and goddesses\u201d, 156.\n \u201cTerrible Broom, The\u201d, name of the banner of Oscar\u2019s battalion, 209.\n Tethra, a king of the Fomors, 83, 90.\n Teutates, a god of the Gauls, 51, 52.\n Thames, the river, 254.\n Theseus, 153.\n Thirteen Treasures of Britain, the, 313, 326, 339, 340.\n Three Birds of Rhiannon, the, 273, 94, 296.\n Three Chief Holy Families of Britain, 386.\n Three Counselling Knights of Arthur, 312.\n Three Cows of Mider, 57, 176.\n Three Cranes of Denial and Churlishness, 57.\n Three Criminal Resolutions of Britain, 334.\n Three Etains, 331.\n Three Frivolous Battles of Britain, 334.\n Three Generous Heroes of Britain, 253.\n Three Gwynhwyvars, 333.\n Three Paramount Prisoners of Britain, 350-351.\n Three Plagues of Britain, 253, 377-380.\n Three shouts on a hill, 94, 97, 105, 106.\n Three Sorrowful Stories of Erin, 106.\n Three War-knights of Arthur, 312.\n Three Wicked Uncoverings of Britain, 297.\n Tiberius, the Emperor, 400.\n Tigernmas, a mythical Irish king, 153-154.\n Tighernach, an old Irish chronicler, 204.\n _Tir nam beo_, see Land of the Living.\n _Tir nan og_, see Land of the Young.\n _Tir Tairngir\u00e9_, see Land of Promise.\n Titania, 393.\n Tomb of the Dagda, 138.\n Tombs of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, 138-139.\n Torpeist, Senchan. See Senchan.\n Tory Island, 49, 67, 238.\n Toutates, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.\n Tower Hill, Br\u00e2n\u2019s head buried at, 294, 296, 331.\n _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_, 124, 127, 128, 201, 203, 211,\n 213, 215, 223, 226.\n Transmigration of souls, 36;\n of the swineherds, 164-165.\n Treasures of Britain, the Thirteen, 313, 326, 339, 340.\n Trees, the Battle of the, 123, 305-308.\n Trees, worship of, 406.\n Triads, 11, 253, 273, 331, 334, 350, 351.\n Trim, 175.\n Trinity Well, the source of the Boyne, 55.\n Trinovantum, _i.e._ New Troy, a mythic name of London, 376, 385.\n Tristrem, Sir, 6, 327, 363.\n Trouveres, the, 363.\n Troy, 374.\n Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, the gods of the ancient Gaels, 11, 17, 48, 50, 51, 58,\n 59, 60, 65, 70-79, 82-86, 91, 95, 97, 104, 108-112, 114, 115, 117,\n 123, 125, 126, 129, 132, 136-138, 140, 141, 145, 153, 154, 156, 157,\n 205, 211, 214, 217, 219, 222, 225, 228, 229-231, 243, 246, 252, 269,\n 276, 312, 330, 393, 403, 404, 406, 410;\n their arrival in Ireland, 71, 72;\n their battle with the Fomors, 108-117;\n are conquered by the Milesians, 130;\n retire into underground palaces, 135, 136;\n and become the fairies of Irish belief, 137.\n Tuirenn, son of Ogma, 57, 90, 106.\n \u201cTuirenn, the Fate of the Sons of\u201d, 90-106.\n Tuis, king of Greece, 96, 98, 102.\n \u201cTurning Castle\u201d, 322.\n Tweed, the river, 23, 414.\n Twr Branwen, 289.\n Twrch Trwyth, the hunting of, 347-353.\n _Tylwyth Teg_, the Welsh fairies, 255.\n Tynwald Hill, 412.\n Tyrian Hercules worshipped at Corbridge, 275.\n\n Uaman, _s\u00eddh_ of, 141.\n Uaran Garad, spring of, 165.\n Uffern, the \u201cCold Place\u201d, a name for Annwn, 319.\n Uisnech, the hill of, 69, 324.\n Ulster, 29, 57, 64, 69, 76, 158, 164, 165, 166, 171, 174, 175, 180, 183,\n 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 217, 245.\n \u201cUndry\u201d, the name of the Dagda\u2019s cauldron, 54, 366.\n Unius, the river, 107.\n Unsenn, the river, 112.\n _Urddawl Ben_, see Venerable Head.\n Urien, an Under World king, 328, 329, 357, 376;\n Uriens, Urience, King, in the Morte Darthur, 357;\n Urianus, King, in Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s _History_, 376.\n Usnach, the sons of, 191-200.\n _Uther Ben_, the \u201cWonderful Head\u201d, a name for Br\u00e2n, 296, 330, 356.\n Uther Pendragon, Arthur\u2019s father, 330, 356.\n\n Val des F\u00e9es, in the forest of Br\u00e9cilien, 361.\n Vandwy, Caer, 257, 320.\n Varro, 26.\n Vedwyd, Caer, 319.\n \u201cVenerable Head, The\u201d, 296.\n _Verses of the Graves of the Warriors, The_, 272, 311, 334.\n \u201cVictor, son of Scorcher\u201d. See Gwyrthur, son of Greidawl.\n _Vita Columb\u00e6_, Adamnan\u2019s, 401, 417.\n Vivien, 358, 361.\n\n Wales, the Four Ancient Books of, 11, 15.\n See Skene.\n Walgan, 375.\n Wall, Roman, 25, 273, 274, 400.\n War-chariots, 27;\n Cuchulainn\u2019s, 28.\n Warrefield, 242.\n \u201cWater-dress\u201d, Brian\u2019s, 104.\n Waves, the Four, of Britain, 261.\n \u201cWave-sweeper\u201d, Manann\u00e1n\u2019s boat, 60, 98, 104.\n Weapons of the Celts, 27.\n Wells, worship of, 414, 415;\n holy, 414.\n Welsh fairies, 255, 392-394.\n Westminster, 407;\n Westminster Abbey, 71.\n White Dragon of the Saxons, 378.\n White-horned Bull of Connaught, 165, 175.\n White Mount in London, see Tower Hill.\n White-tusk, king of the Boars, 346, 349.\n Wild Huntsman, the, 255.\n Wilde, Sir William, his _Lough Corrib_, 76;\n Lady Wilde\u2019s _Ancient Legends of Ireland_, 243, 409.\n Williams, Mr. Edward. See Iolo Morganwg.\n Wish Hounds, the, 392.\n Woden, 260.\n Wolf, the Morr\u00edg\u00fa takes the shape of a, 170.\n Women, position of, among the Celts, 30.\n \u201cWonderful Head\u201d, the, 296, 330.\n \u201cWood of the Two Tents\u201d, the, 216.\n Wordsworth, 4, 5.\n Wren, Lleu and the, 263;\n a bird of augury among the druids, 417.\n Wydyr, Caer, 320.\n Wye, the river, 352.\n\n Yeats\u2019, Mr., The _Wanderings of Oisin_, 223.\n Yell, or Yeth, Hounds, the, 392.\n Yellow Book of Lecan, the, 10, 164.\n \u201cYellow Shaft\u201d, one of Manann\u00e1n\u2019s spears, 60, 217.\n Ynys Avallon, 329.\n See Avilion, Glastonbury.\n Ynys Branwen, 295.\n Ynys Wair, 322.\n See Lundy Island.\n York, 275.\n Young, Land of the, 133, 225;\n Son of the, see Mac Oc.\n Yspaddaden Penkawr, see Hawthorn, Chief of Giants.\n\n Zeus, 65, 260, 261;\n the Gaelic, 41, 51, 253;\n the British, 5, 324.\n Zimmer, Professor, 152.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n Transcriber\u2019s note:\n\nVariations in accented characters have been retained.\n\nFormat of the index has been regularised.\n\nPage 25, \u2018Bellico\u2019 changed to \u2018Bello,\u2019 \u201cCaesar: De Bello Gallico\u201d\n\nPage 34, \u2018l\u2019\u00e9tude\u2019 changed to \u2018l\u2019\u00c9tude,\u2019 \u201cIntroduction \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9tude de la\u201d\n\nPage 43, full stop inserted after \u2018Pantheon\u201d,\u2019 \u201c\u201cThe Gaulish Pantheon\u201d.\u201d\n\nPage 76, full stop inserted after \u2018VIII,\u2019 \u201cWilliam R. Wilde, chap.\nVIII.\u201d\n\nPage 84, double quote inserted after \u2018Luchtain\u00e9,\u2019 \u201chis name is\nLuchtain\u00e9.\u201d\u201d\n\nPage 88, double quote inserted after \u2018it,\u2019 \u201cnot be weary of it.\u201d\u201d\n\nPage 90, \u2018daugher\u2019 changed to \u2018daughter,\u2019 \u201cthe son of our daughter\nEthniu\u201d\n\nPage 90, comma changed to full stop after \u2018Dundalk,\u2019 \u201cBoyne and Dundalk.\nThe heroic\u201d\n\nPage 94, double quote struck before \u2018Then,\u2019 \u201cThen Nuada declared that\u201d\n\nPage 146, \u2018XIV\u2019 changed to \u2018XIV,\u2019 \u201cSee chap. XIV\u201d\n\nPage 187, double quote inserted before \u2018for,\u2019 \u201cshe said, \u201cfor I know\u201d\n\nPage 192, double quote inserted after \u2018King,\u2019 \u201crace as Conchobar the\nKing.\u201d\u201d\n\nPage 192, \u2018\u201d,\u2019 changed to \u2018,\u201d,\u2019 \u201c\u201cWe ourselves,\u201d replied\u201d\n\nPage 206, \u2018happend\u2019 changed to \u2018happened,\u2019 \u201cwho happened to be assailed\u201d\n\nPage 208, full stop inserted after \u2018Cweeltia,\u2019 \u201cPronounced Kylta or\nCweeltia.\u201d\n\nPage 211, \u2018Mannan\u00e1n\u2019 changed to \u2018Manann\u00e1n,\u2019 \u201cIlbhreach son of Manann\u00e1n,\nand\u201d\n\nPage 215, full stop inserted after \u2018Society,\u2019 \u201cTransactions of the\nOssianic Society.\u201d\n\nPage 238, \u2018capure\u2019 changed to \u2018capture,\u2019 \u201cmanaged to capture Mac\nKineely\u201d\n\nPage 241, \u2018four-score\u2019 changed to \u2018fourscore,\u2019 \u201cman of fourscore years\nwould\u201d\n\nPage 262, \u2018Lamh-fada\u2019 changed to \u2018Lamhfada,\u2019 \u201cof the Gaelic Lugh\nLamhfada\u201d\n\nPage 271, full stop inserted after \u2018Vol,\u2019 \u201cof Wales, Vol. I\u201d\n\nPage 292, full stop inserted after \u2018Britain,\u2019 \u201cA bardic name for\nBritain.\u201d\n\nPage 304, double quote inserted after \u2018Pryderi,\u2019 \u201cI see Rhiannon and\nPryderi.\u201d\u201d\n\nPage 316, full stop inserted after \u2018it,\u2019 \u201cand could not get it.\u201d\n\nPage 323, full stop inserted after \u2018p,\u2019 \u201cRhys: ibid., p. 169.\u201d\n\nPage 366, full stop inserted after \u2018Br\u00e2n,\u2019 \u201cand the Beheading of Br\u00e2n\u201d.\u201d\n\nPage 366, full stop inserted after \u2018Chap,\u2019 \u201cChap. XXI\u2014\u201cThe Mythological\u201d\n\nPage 375, full stop changed to comma after \u2018Britonum,\u2019 \u201cHistoria\nBritonum, Books IX\u201d\n\nPage 388, full stop inserted after \u2018MSS,\u2019 \u201cIolo MSS., p. 474.\u201d\n\nPage 389, full stop inserted after \u2018MSS,\u2019 \u201cIolo MSS., p. 523.\u201d\n\nPage 415, full stop inserted after \u2018St,\u2019 \u201cwere offered at St. Tegla\u2019s\nWell\u201d\n\nPage 420, \u2018hom\u00e9rique\u2019 changed to \u2018Hom\u00e9rique,\u2019 \u201cet celle de l\u2019\u00c9pop\u00e9e\nHom\u00e9rique\u201d\n\nPage 420, \u2018a\u2019 changed to \u2018\u00e0,\u2019 \u201cIntroduction \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9tude de la\u201d\n\nPage 421, \u2018Danaan\u2019 changed to \u2018Danann,\u2019 \u201cThe story of the Tuatha D\u00e9\nDanann\u201d\n\nPage 428, \u2018Danaan\u2019 changed to \u2018Danann,\u2019 \u201con the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann\u201d\n\nPage 430, \u2018Dair\u00e9\u2019 changed to \u2018Daire,\u2019 \u201cDaire of Cualgne, owner of the\nBrown Bull\u201d\n\nPage 431, \u2018Aeif\u00e9\u2019 changed to \u2018Aeife,\u2019 \u201c\u201cDemon of the air\u201d, Aeife changed\ninto a\u201d\n\nPage 435, \u2018226\u2019 changed to \u2018326,\u2019 \u201cGwynhwyvar, 315, 326, 331-333, 334,\n364.\u201d\n\nPage 438, \u2018Lochlannoch\u2019 changed to \u2018Lochlannach,\u2019 \u201cLochlannach, the,\n205, 211.\u201d\n\nPage 442, \u2018Porsenna\u2019 changed to \u2018Porsena,\u2019 \u201cPorsena, a Roman consul,\n385.\u201d","title":"The Mythology of the British Islands: An Introduction to Celtic Myth, Legend, Poetry, and Romance","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":122948}