Waverley Books - Celtic Mythology: Famous legends from Celtic mythology retold and explained for the modern reader

Celtic Worship, from a drawing by E. Wallcousins

Portion of the circles, Stonehenge

Lughs Magic Spear, from a drawing by H. R. Millar

Lughs Enclosure, from a painting by E. Wallcousins

Brian seizes the Pigs Skin, from a painting by J. H. F. Bacon ARA

The Kissing Stone, Carrowmore, Sligo

Entrance to the Great Cairn of Newgrange, on the Boyne, near Drogheda

The Dream Maiden visits Oenghus, from a painting by E. Wallcousins

Lir and the Swans, from a painting by J. H. F. Bacon ARA

Cchulainn carries Ferdia across the river, from a painting by E. Wallcousins

Queen Medbs Cairn, Knocknarra, Sligo

Cchulainn rebuked by Emer, from a drawing by H. R. Millar

Deirdres Lament, from a painting by J. H. F. Bacon ARA

Fionn finds the Salmon of Knowledge, from a drawing by H. R. Millar

Oisns Cave, Glencoe

Cian finds Ethlinn, Balors daughter, from a drawing by H. R. Millar

Blodeuwedds invitation to Gronwy Pebyr, from a painting by E. Wallcousins

Gwydion conquers Pryderi, from a drawing by E. Wallcousins

King Arthurs Castle, Tintagel

The Treasures of Britain, from a drawing by E. W. Wallcousins

The beguiling of Merlin

Sir Galahad, from a painting by G. F. Watts RA

The Cauldron of Inspiration, from a drawing by E. Wallcousins

Lear and Cordelia, from a painting by Ford Madox Brown

A major problem for those who seek to know more about the Celts is the lack of contemporary written history or literature. It is known that they had the ability to write, but they appear not to have done so. It has been suggested that, perhaps, this was part of their social and religious culture and that the druids, or priests, had put them under some kind of taboo not to write things down.

Because of this, theirs was very much an oral tradition. Their culture is rich in marvellous legends, but these were handed down by word of mouth and so tend to have several variations, as do many of the Celtic names. It was not until comparatively recently that our knowledge of the Celts has been extended, thanks to archaeology. We have learnt far more about the lifestyle of the Celts from what has been dug up than from that which has been written down.

Because they believed that a dead person simply travelled to the Other-world, Celtic graves contained not only corpses but many of the appurtenances that were needed in the mortal world and were thought to be needed in the Otherworld. These appurtenances, which include carts, wagons, even horses, as well as dishes, tools and jewellery, have led us to have a greater understanding of the Celts and to appreciate that they were not so primitive as many of us might have believed.

This book, by describing some of the customs as well as some of the legends of the Celts, seeks to add to the readers knowledge of a people who are still, to a great extent, enveloped in mystery.

Part One

T HE M YTHOLOGY
OF THE
B RITISH I SLANDS

Chapter 1

T HE I NTEREST AND I MPORTANCE
OF C ELTIC M YTHOLOGY

The earliest legendary and poetic records of any country are of great interest and value, not only to its inhabitants but to the wider world. The classical myths of Greece form a sufficient example. In three ways they influenced the destiny of the people that created them and the country of which they were the imagined theatre. First, in the period in which they were still fresh, belief and pride in them were powerful enough to bring scattered tribes together into confederation. Secondly, they gave inspiration to sculptors and poets to produce an art and literature unsurpassed, if not unequalled, by any other age or race. Lastly, when the glory that was Greece had faded and her people had, by dint of successive invasions, perhaps even ceased to have any right to call themselves Greeks, they passed over into the literatures of the modern world and so gave Greece a poetic interest that still makes a small country of greater account in the eyes of the world than many other countries far superior to it in extent and resources.

This permeating influence of Greek classical mythology, apparent in all civilised countries, has acted especially on the countries of the British Isles. From almost the very dawn of English literature, Greek stories of gods and heroes formed a large part of the stock in trade of British poets. The inhabitants of Olympus, the dwelling place of the Greek gods, occupy under their better-known Latin names almost as great a space in English poetry as they did in that of the countries to which they were native. From Chaucer onwards, they have captivated the imagination of poets and their listeners alike. The magic cauldron of classical myth fed, like the Celtic Grail, all who came to it for sustenance.

At last, however, its potency became somewhat exhausted. Alien and exotic to English soil, it degenerated slowly into a convention. In the shallow hands of minor poets of the eighteenth century its figures became mere puppets. When every wood had become a grove and every country girl a nymph, one could only expect to find Venus in the ballroom armed with patch and powder puff, Mars shouldering a musket and Apollo inspiring the poets own trivial strains. The affectation killed and fortunately a mode of expression that had become obsolete. Smothered by ridicule and abandoned to the trite vocabulary of inferior writers, classical mythology became a subject that only the greatest poets could afford to handle.

But mythology is so vital to literature that, deprived of the store of legends native to southern Europe, imaginative writers looked for a fresh impulse. They turned their eyes to the north. Inspiration was sought not from Olympus but from Asgard, the dwelling place of the Norse gods. Moreover, it was believed that the fount of primeval poetry issuing from Scandinavian and Germanic mythology was truly that of the British Isles and that we were rightful heirs of it by reason of the Anglo-Saxon in our blood. So, indeed, we are, but it is not our sole heritage. There must also run much Celtic that is, truly British blood in our veins. Matthew Arnold was probably right in asserting in his book