CHAPTER XXV_The Mythology of the British Islands An Introduction to Celtic Myth, Legend, Poetry, and Romance

SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM INTO MODERN

TIMES

The fall of the Celtic state worship began earlier in Britain than in

her sister island. Neither was it Christianity that struck the first

blow, but the rough humanity and stern justice of the Romans. That

people was more tolerant, perhaps, than any the world has ever known

towards the religions of others, and gladly welcomed the Celtic gods—as

gods—into its own diverse Pantheon. A friendly Gaulish or British

divinity might at any time be granted the so-to-speak divine Roman

citizenship, and be assimilated to Jupiter, to Mars, to Apollo, or to

any other properly accredited deity whom the Romans deemed him to

resemble. It was not against the god, but against his worship at the

hands of his priests, that Roman law struck. The colossal human

sacrifices of the druids horrified even a people who were far from

squeamish about a little bloodshed. They themselves had abolished such

practices by a decree of the senate before Caesar first invaded

Britain,[558] and could not therefore permit within their empire a cult

which slaughtered men in order to draw omens from their

death-agonies.[559] Druidism was first required to be renounced by those

who claimed Roman citizenship; then it was vigorously put down among the

less civilized tribes. Tacitus tells us how the Island of Mona

(Anglesey)—the great stronghold of druidism—was attacked, its sacred

groves cut down, its altars laid level, and its priests put to the

sword.[560] Pliny, recording how the Emperor Tiberius had “suppressed

the druids”, congratulates his fellow-countrymen on having put an end,

wherever their dominion extended, to the monstrous customs inspired by

the doctrine that the gods could take pleasure in murder and

cannibalism.[561] The practice of druidism, with its attendant

barbarities, abolished in Britain wherever the long Roman arm could

reach to strike, took refuge beyond the Northern Wall, among the savage

Caledonian tribes who had not yet submitted to the invader’s yoke.

Naturally, too, it remained untouched in Ireland. But before the Romans

left Britain, it had been extirpated everywhere, except among “the Picts

and Scots”.

Christianity, following the Roman rule, completed the ruin of paganism

in Britain, so far, at least, as its public manifestations were

concerned. In the sixth century of our era, the monkish writer, Gildas,

is able to refer complacently to the ancient British religion as a dead

faith. “I shall not”, he says, “enumerate those diabolical idols of my

country, which almost surpassed in number those of Egypt, and of which

we still see some mouldering away within or without the deserted

temples, with stiff and deformed features as was customary. Nor will I

cry out upon the mountains, fountains, or hills, or upon the rivers,

which now are subservient to the use of men, but once were an

abomination and destruction to them, and to which the blind people paid

divine honour.”[562] And with the idols fell the priests. The very word

“druid” became obsolete, and is scarcely mentioned in the earliest

British literature, though druids are prominent characters in the Irish

writings of the same period.

The secular arm had no power in Scotland and in Ireland, consequently

the battle between Paganism and Christianity was fought upon more equal

terms, and lasted longer. In the first country, Saint Columba, and in

the second, Saint Patrick are the personages who, at any rate according

to tradition, beat down the druids and their gods. Adamnan, Abbot of

Iona, who wrote his _Vita Columbæ_ in the last decade of the seventh

century, describes how, a century earlier, that saint had carried the

Gospel to the Picts. Their king, Brude, received him contemptuously, and

the royal druids left no heathen spell unuttered to thwart and annoy

him. But, as the power of Moses was greater than the power of the

magicians of Egypt, so Saint Columba’s prayers caused miracles more

wonderful and more convincing than any wrought by his adversaries. Such

stories belong to the atmosphere of myth which has always enveloped

heroic men; the essential fact is that the Picts abandoned the old

religion for the new.

A similar legend sums up the life-work of Saint Patrick in Ireland.

Before he came, Cromm Cruaich had received from time immemorial his

yearly toll of human lives. But Saint Patrick faced the gruesome idol;

as he raised his crozier, we are told, the demon fell shrieking from his

image, which, deprived of its soul, bowed forward to the ground.

It is far easier, however, to overthrow the more public manifestations

of a creed than to destroy its inner vital force. Cromm Cruaich’s idol

might fall, but his spirit would survive—a very Proteus. The sacred

places of the ancient Celtic religion might be invaded, the idols and

altars of the gods thrown down, the priests slain, scattered, or

banished, and the cult officially declared to be extinct; but, driven

from the important centres, it would yet survive outside and around

them. The more civilized Gaels and Britons would no doubt accept the

purer gospel, and abandon the gods they had once adored, but the

peasantry—the bulk of the population—would still cling to the familiar

rites and names. A nobler belief and a higher civilization come, after

all, only as surface waves upon the great ocean of human life; beneath

their agitations lies a vast slumbering abyss of half-conscious faith

and thought to which culture penetrates with difficulty and in which

changes come very slowly.

We have already shown how long and how faithfully the Gaelic and Welsh

peasants clung to their old gods, in spite of all the efforts of the

clerics to explain them as ancient kings, to transform them into

wonder-working saints, or to ban them as demons of hell. This

conservative religious instinct of the agricultural populations is not

confined to the inhabitants of the British Islands. The modern Greeks

still believe in nereids, in lamias, in sirens, and in Charon, the dark

ferryman of Hades.[563] The descendants of the Romans and Etruscans hold

that the old Etruscan gods and the Roman deities of the woods and fields

still live in the world as spirits.[564] The high altars of the “Lord of

the Mound” and his terrible kin were levelled, and their golden images

and great temples left to moulder in abandonment; but the rude rustic

shrine to the rude rustic god still received its offerings. It is this

shifting of the care of the pagan cult from chief to peasant, from court

to hovel, and, perhaps, to some extent from higher to lower race, that

serves to explain how the more primitive and uncouth gods have tended so

largely to supplant those of higher, more graceful mien. Aboriginal

deities, thrust into obscurity by the invasion of higher foreign types,

came back to their own again.

For it seems plain that we must divide the spiritual population of the

British Islands into two classes. There is little in common between the

“fairy”, strictly so-called, and the unsightly elf who appears under

various names and guises, as pooka, leprechaun, brownie, knocker, or

bogle. The one belongs to such divine tribes as the Tuatha Dé Danann of

Gaelic myth or their kin, the British gods of the Mabinogion. The other

owes his origin to a quite different, and much lower, kind of

imagination. One might fancy that neolithic man made him in his own

image.

None the less has immemorial tradition wonderfully preserved the

essential features of the Celtic nature-gods. The fairy belief of the

present day hardly differs at all from the conception which the Celts

had of their deities. The description of the Tuatha Dé Danann in the

“Dialogue of the Elders” as “sprites or fairies with corporeal or

material forms but indued with immortality” would stand as an account of

prevailing ideas as to the “good people” to-day. Nor do the Irish and

Welsh fairies of popular belief differ from one another. Both alike live

among the hills, though in Wales a lake often takes the place of the

“fairy mound”; both, though they war and marry among themselves, are

semi-immortal; both covet the children of men, and will steal them from

the cradle, leaving one of their own uncanny brood in the mortal baby’s

stead; both can lay men and women under spells; both delight in music

and the dance, and live lives of unreal and fantastic splendour and

luxury. Another point in which they resemble one another is in their

tiny size. But this would seem to be the result of the literary

convention originated by Shakespeare; in genuine folktales, both Gaelic

and British, the fairies are pictured as of at least mortal

stature.[565]

But, Aryan or Iberian, beautiful or hideous, they are fast vanishing

from belief. Every year, the secluded valleys in which men and women

might still live in the old way, and dream the old dreams, tend more and

more to be thrown open to the modern world of rapid movement and rapid

thought. The last ten years have perhaps done more in this direction

than the preceding ten generations. What lone shepherd or fisherman will

ever see again the vision of the great Manannán? Have the stable-boys of

to-day still any faith left in Finvarra? Is Gwyn ap Nudd often thought

of in his own valleys of the Tawë and the Nedd? It would be hard,

perhaps, to find a whole-hearted believer even in his local pooka or

parish bogle.

It is the ritual observances of the old Celtic faith which have better

weathered, and will longer survive, the disintegrating influences of

time. There are no hard names to be remembered. Things may still be done

for “luck” which were once done for religion. Customary observances die

very slowly, held up by an only half acknowledged fear that, unless they

are fulfilled, “something may happen”. We shall get, therefore, more

satisfactory evidence of the nature of the Celtic paganism by examining

such customs than in any other way.

We find three forms of the survival of the ancient religion into quite

recent times. The first is the celebration of the old solar or

agricultural festivals of the spring and autumn equinoxes and of the

summer and winter solstices. The second is the practice of a symbolic

human sacrifice by those who have forgotten its meaning, and only know

that they are keeping up an old custom, joined with late instances of

the actual sacrifices of animals to avert cattle-plagues or to change

bad luck. The third consists of many still-living relics of the once

universal worship of sacred waters, trees, stones, and animals.

Whatever may have been the exact meaning of the Celtic state worship,

there seems to be no doubt that it centred around the four great days in

the year which chronicle the rise, progress, and decline of the sun,

and, therefore, of the fruits of the earth. These were: Beltaine, which

fell at the beginning of May; Midsummer Day, marking the triumph of

sunshine and vegetation; the Feast of Lugh, when, in August, the

turning-point of the sun’s course had been reached; and the sad Samhain,

when he bade farewell to power, and fell again for half a year under the

sway of the evil forces of winter and darkness.

Of these great solar periods, the first and the last were, naturally,

the most important. The whole Celtic mythology seems to revolve upon

them, as upon pivots. It was on the day of Beltaine that Partholon and

his people, the discoverers, and, indeed, the makers of Ireland, arrived

there from the other world, and it was on the same day, three hundred

years later, that they returned whence they came. It was on Beltaine-day

that the Gaelic gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and, after them, the Gaelic

men, first set foot on Irish soil. It was on the day of Samhain that the

Fomors oppressed the people of Nemed with their terrible tax; and it was

again at Samhain that a later race of gods of light and life finally

conquered those demons at the Battle of Moytura. Only one important

mythological incident—and that was one added at a later time!—happened

upon any other than one of those two days; it was upon Midsummer Day,

one of the lesser solar points, that the people of the goddess Danu took

Ireland from its inhabitants, the Fir Bolgs.

The mythology of Britain preserves the same root-idea as that of

Ireland. If anything uncanny took place, it was sure to be on May-day.

It was on “the night of the first of May” that Rhiannon lost, and

Teirnyon Twryf Vliant found, the infant Pryderi, as told in the first of

the Mabinogion.[566] It was “on every May-eve” that the two dragons

fought and shrieked in the reign of “King” Lludd.[567] It is on “every

first of May” till the day of doom that Gwyn son of Nudd, fights with

Gwyrthur son of Greidawl, for Lludd’s fair daughter, Creudylad.[568] And

it was when she was “a-maying” in the woods and fields near Westminster

that the same Gwyn, or Melwas, under his romance-name of Sir

Meliagraunce, captured Arthur’s queen, Guinevere.[569]

The nature of the rites performed upon these days can be surmised from

their pale survivals. They are still celebrated by the descendants of

the Celts, though it is probable that few of them know—or would even

care to know—why May Day, St. John’s Day, Lammas, and Hallowe’en are

times of ceremony. The first—called “Beltaine” in Ireland, “Bealtiunn”

in Scotland, “Shenn da Boaldyn” in the Isle of Man, and “Galan-Mai” (the

Calends of May) in Wales—celebrates the waking of the earth from her

winter sleep, and the renewal of warmth, life, and vegetation. This is

the meaning of the May-pole, now rarely seen in our streets, though

Shakespeare tells us that in his time the festival was so eagerly

anticipated that no one could sleep upon its eve.[570] At midnight the

people rose, and, going to the nearest woods, tore down branches of

trees, with which the sun, when he rose, would find doors and windows

decked for him. They spent the day in dancing round the May-pole, with

rude, rustic mirth, man joining with nature to celebrate the coming of

summer. The opposite to it was the day called “Samhain” in Ireland and

Scotland, “Sauin” in Man, and “Nos Galan-gaeof” (the Night of the Winter

Calends) in Wales. This festival was a sad one: summer was over, and

winter, with its short, sunless days and long, dreary nights, was at

hand. It was the beginning, too, of the ancient Celtic year,[571] and

omens for the future might be extorted from dark powers by uncanny

rites. It was the holiday of the dead and of all the more evil

supernatural beings. “On November-eve”, says a North Cardiganshire

proverb, “there is a bogy on every stile.” The Scotch have even invented

a special bogy—the _Samhanach_ or goblin which comes out at

Samhain.[572]

The sun-god himself is said to have instituted the August festival

called “Lugnassad” (Lugh’s commemoration) in Ireland, “Lla Lluanys” in

Man, and “Gwyl Awst” (August Feast) in Wales; and it was once of hardly

less importance than Beltaine or Samhain. It is noteworthy, too, that

the first of August was a great day at Lyons—formerly called Lugudunum,

the _dún_ (town) of Lugus. The midsummer festival, on the other hand,

has largely merged its mythological significance in the Christian Feast

of St. John.

The characteristic features of these festivals give certain proof of

the original nature of the great pagan ceremonials of which they are

the survivals and travesties.[573] In all of them, bonfires are

lighted on the highest hills, and the hearth fires solemnly rekindled.

They form the excuse for much sport and jollity. But there is yet

something sinister in the air; the “fairies” are active and abroad,

and one must be careful to omit no prescribed rite, if one would avoid

kindling their anger or falling into their power. To some of these

still-half-believed-in nature-gods offerings were made down to a

comparatively late period. When Pennant wrote, in the eighteenth

century, it was the custom on Beltaine-day in many Highland villages

to offer libations and cakes not only to the “spirits” who were

believed to be beneficial to the flocks and herds, but also to

creatures like the fox, the eagle, and the hoodie-crow which so often

molested them.[574] At Hallowe’en (the Celtic Samhain) the natives of

the Hebrides used to pour libations of ale to a marine god called

Shony, imploring him to send sea-weed to the shore.[575] In honour,

also, of such beings, curious rites were performed. Maidens washed

their faces in morning dew, with prayers for beauty. They carried

sprigs of the rowan, that mystic tree whose scarlet berries were the

ambrosial food of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

In their original form, these now harmless rural holidays were

undoubtedly religious festivals of an orgiastic nature-worship such as

became so popular in Greece in connection with the cult of Dionysus. The

great “lords of life” and of the powers of nature that made and ruled

life were propitiated by maddening invocations, by riotous dances, and

by human sacrifice.

The bonfires which fill so large a part in the modern festivals have

been casually mentioned. Originally they were no mere _feux de joie_,

but had a terrible meaning, which the customs connected with them

preserve. At the Highland Beltaine, a cake was divided by lot, and

whoever drew the “burnt piece” was obliged to leap three times over the

flames. At the midsummer bonfires in Ireland all passed through the

fire; the men when the flames were highest, the women when they were

lower, and the cattle when there was nothing left but smoke. In Wales,

upon the last day of October, the old Samhain, there was a slightly

different, and still more suggestive rite. The hill-top bonfires were

watched until they were announced to be extinct. Then all would race

headlong down the hill, shouting a formula to the effect that the devil

would get the hindmost. The devil of a new belief is the god of the one

it has supplanted; in all three instances, the custom was no mere

meaningless horse-play, but a symbolical human sacrifice.

A similar observance, but of a more cruel kind, was kept up in France

upon St. John’s Day, until forbidden by law in the reign of Louis the

Fourteenth. Baskets containing living wolves, foxes, and cats were

burned upon the bonfires, under the auspices and in the presence of the

sheriffs or the mayor of the town.[576] Caesar noted the custom among

the druids of constructing huge wicker-work images, which they filled

with living men, and set on fire, and it can hardly be doubted that the

wretched wolves, foxes, and cats were ceremonial substitutes for human

beings.

An ingenious theory was invented, after the introduction of

Christianity, with the purpose of allowing such ancient rites to

continue, with a changed meaning. The passing of persons and cattle

through flame or smoke was explained as a practice which interposed a

magic protection between them and the powers of evil. This homœopathic

device of using the evil power’s own sacred fire as a means of

protection against himself somewhat suggests that seething of the kid in

its mother’s milk which was reprobated by the Levitical law; but, no

doubt, pagan “demons” were considered fair game. The explanation, of

course, is an obviously and clumsily forced one; it was the grim

druidical philosophy that—to quote Caesar—“unless the life of man was

repaid for the life of man, the will of the immortal gods could not be

appeased” that dictated both the national and the private human

sacrifices of the Celts, the shadows of which remain in the leaping

through the bonfires, and in the numerous recorded sacrifices of cattle

within quite recent times.

Mr. Laurence Gomme, in his _Ethnology in Folklore_, has collected many

modern instances of the sacrifices of cattle not only in Ireland and

Scotland, but also in Wales, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Cornwall, and

the Isle of Man.[577] “Within twenty miles of the metropolis of Scotland

a relative of Professor Simpson offered up a live cow as a sacrifice to

the spirit of the murrain.”[578] In Wales, when cattle-sickness broke

out, a bullock was immolated by being thrown down from the top of a high

rock. Generally, however, the wretched victims were burned alive. In

1859 an Isle of Man farmer offered a heifer as a burnt offering near

Tynwald Hill, to avert the anger of the ghostly occupant of a barrow

which had been desecrated by opening. Sometimes, even, these burnt

oblations were offered to an alleged Christian saint. The registers of

the Presbytery of Dingwall for the years 1656 and 1678 contain records

of the sacrifices of cattle upon the site of an ancient temple in honour

of a being whom some called “St. Mourie”, and others, perhaps knowing

his doubtful character, “ane god Mourie”.[579] At Kirkcudbright, it was

St. Cuthbert, and at Clynnog, in Wales, it was St. Beuno, who was

thought to delight in the blood of bulls.[580]

Such sacrifices of cattle appear mainly to have been offered to stay

plague among cattle. Man for man and beast for beast, was, perhaps, the

old rule. But among all nations, human sacrifices have been gradually

commuted for those of animals. The family of the O’Herlebys in

Ballyvorney, County Cork, used in olden days to keep an idol, “an image

of wood about two feet high, carved and painted like a woman”.[581] She

was the goddess of smallpox, and to her a sheep was immolated on behalf

of anyone seized with that disease.

The third form of Celtic pagan survival is found in numerous instances

of the adoration of water, trees, stones, and animals. Like the other

“Aryan” nations, the Celts worshipped their rivers. The Dee received

divine honours as a war-goddess with the title of Aerfon, while the

Ribble, under its name of Belisama, was identified by the Romans with

Minerva.[582] Myths were told of them, as of the sacred streams of

Greece. The Dee gave oracles as to the results of the perpetual wars

between the Welsh and the English; as its stream encroached either upon

the Welsh or the English side, so one nation or the other would be

victorious.[583] The Tweed, like many of the Greek rivers, was credited

with human descendants.[584] That the rivers of Great Britain received

human sacrifices is clear from the folklore concerning many of them.

Deprived of their expected offerings, they are believed to snatch by

stealth the human lives for which they crave. “River of Dart, River of

Dart, every year thou claimest a heart,” runs the Devonshire folk-song.

The Spey, too, requires a life yearly,[585] but the Spirit of the Ribble

is satisfied with one victim at the end of every seven years.[586]

Evidence, however, of the worship of rivers is scanty compared with that

of the adoration of wells. “In the case of well-worship,” says Mr.

Gomme, “it may be asserted with some confidence that it prevails in

every county of the three kingdoms.”[587] He finds it most vital in the

Gaelic counties, somewhat less so in the British, and almost entirely

wanting in the Teutonic south-east. So numerous, indeed, are “holy

wells” that several monographs have been written solely upon them.[588]

In some cases these wells were resorted to for the cure of diseases; in

others, to obtain change of weather, or “good luck”. Offerings were made

to them, to propitiate their guardian gods or nymphs. Pennant tells us

that in olden times the rich would sacrifice one of their horses at a

well near Abergeleu, to secure a blessing upon the rest.[589] Fowls were

offered at St. Tegla’s Well, near Wrexham, by epileptic patients.[590]

But of late years the well-spirits have had to be content with much

smaller tributes—such trifles as pins, rags, coloured pebbles, and small

coins.

With sacred wells were often connected sacred trees, to whose branches

rags and small pieces of garments were suspended by their humble

votaries. Sometimes, where the ground near the well was bare of

vegetation, bushes were artificially placed beside the water. The same

people who venerated wells and trees would pay equal adoration to sacred

stones. Lord Roden, describing, in 1851, the Island of Inniskea, off the

coast of Mayo, asserts that a sacred well called “Derrivla” and a sacred

stone called “Neevougi”, which was kept carefully wrapped up in flannel

and brought out at certain periods to be publicly adored, seemed to be

the only deities known to that lone Atlantic island’s three hundred

inhabitants.[591] It sounds incredible; but there is ample evidence of

the worship of fetish stones by quite modern inhabitants of our islands.

The Clan Chattan kept such a stone in the Isle of Arran; it was

believed, like the stone of Inniskea, to be able to cure diseases, and

was kept carefully “wrapped up in fair linen cloth, and about that there

was a piece of woollen cloth”.[592] Similarly, too, the worship of wells

was connected with the worship of animals. At a well in the “Devil’s

Causeway”, between Ruckley and Acton, in Shropshire, lived, and perhaps

still live, four frogs who were, and perhaps still are, believed to be

“the devil and his imps”—that is to say, gods or demons of a proscribed

idolatry.[593] In Ireland such guardian spirits are usually fish—trout,

eels, or salmon thought to be endowed with eternal life.[594] The genius

of a well in Banffshire took the form of a fly, which was also said to

be undying, but to transmigrate from body to body. Its function was to

deliver oracles; according as it seemed active or lethargic, its

votaries drew their omens.[595] It is needless to multiply instances of

a still surviving cult of water, trees, stones, and animals. Enough to

say that it would be easy. What concerns us is that we are face to face

in Britain with living forms of the oldest, lowest, most primitive

religion in the world—one which would seem to have been once universal,

and which, crouching close to the earth, lets other creeds blow over it

without effacing it, and outlives one and all of them.

It underlies the three great world-religions, and still forms the real

belief of perhaps the majority of their titular adherents. It is

characteristic of the wisdom of the Christian Church that, knowing its

power, she sought rather to sanctify than to extirpate it. What once

were the Celtic equivalents of the Greek “fountains of the nymphs” were

consecrated as “holy wells”. The process of so adopting them began

early. St. Columba, when he went in the sixth century to convert the

Picts, found a spring which they worshipped as a god; he blessed it, and

“from that day the demon separated from the water”.[596] Indeed, he so

sanctified no less than three hundred such springs.[597] Sacred stones

were equally taken under the ægis of Christianity. Some were placed on

the altars of cathedrals, others built into consecrated walls. The

animal gods either found themselves the heroes of Christian legends, or

where, for some reason, such adoption was hopeless, were proclaimed

“witches’ animals”, and dealt with accordingly. Such happened to the

hare, a creature sacred to the ancient Britons,[598] but now in bad

odour among the superstitious. The wren, too, is hunted to death upon

St. Stephen’s Day in Ireland. Its crime is said to be that it has “a

drop of the de’il’s blood in it”, but the real reason is probably to be

found in the fact that the Irish druids used to draw auguries from its

chirpings.

* * * * *

We have made in this volume some attempt to draw a picture of the

ancient religion of our earliest ancestors, the Gaelic and the British

Celts. We have shown what can be gathered of the broken remnants of a

mythology as splendid in conception and as brilliant in colour as that

of the Greeks. We have tried to paint its divine figures, and to retell

their heroic stories. We have seen them fall from their shrines, and

yet, rising again, take on new lives as kings, or saints, or knights of

romance, and we have caught fading glimpses of them surviving to-day as

the “fairies”, their rites still cherished by worshippers who hardly

know who or why they worship. Of necessity this survey has been brief

and incomplete. Whether the great edifice of the Celtic mythology will

ever be wholly restored one can at present only speculate. Its colossal

fragments are perhaps too deeply buried and too widely scattered. But,

even as it stands ruined, it is a mighty quarry from which poets yet

unborn will hew spiritual marble for houses not made with hands.

-----

Footnote 558:

In the year 55 B.C.

Footnote 559:

_Strabo_, Book IV, chap. IV.

Footnote 560:

_Annals_, Book XIV, chap. XXX.

Footnote 561:

_Natural History_, Book XXX.

Footnote 562:

Gildas. See _Six Old English Chronicles_—Bohn’s Libraries.

Footnote 563:

Rennell Rodd: _Customs and Lore of Modern Greece_. Stuart Glennie:

_Greek Folk Songs_.

Footnote 564:

Charles Godfrey Leland: _Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition_.

Footnote 565:

Rhys: _Celtic Folklore_, p. 670; Curtin: _Tales of the Fairies and of

the Ghost World_; and Mr. Leland Duncan’s _Fairy Beliefs from County

Leitrim_ in _Folklore_, June, 1896.

Footnote 566:

The Mabinogi of _Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed_.

Footnote 567:

The story of Lludd and Llevelys.

Footnote 568:

_Kulhwch and Olwen._

Footnote 569:

_Morte Darthur_, Book XIX, chaps. I and II.

Footnote 570:

_Henry VIII_, act V, scene 3.

Footnote 571:

Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 514.

Footnote 572:

_Ibid._, p. 516.

Footnote 573:

A good account of the Irish festivals is given by Lady Wilde in her

_Ancient Legends of Ireland_, pp. 193-221.

Footnote 574:

Pennant: _A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides_, 1772.

Footnote 575:

Martin: _Description of the Western Islands of Scotland_, 1695.

Footnote 576:

Gaidoz: _Esquisse de la Réligion des Gaulois_, p. 21.

Footnote 577:

Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, pp. 136-139.

Footnote 578:

_Ibid._, p. 137.

Footnote 579:

Mitchell: _The Past in the Present_, pp. 271, 275.

Footnote 580:

Elton: _Origins of English History_, p. 284.

Footnote 581:

Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, p. 140.

Footnote 582:

The word Dee probably meant “divinity”. The river was also called

Dyfridwy, _i.e._ “water of the divinity”. See Rhys: _Lectures on Welsh

Philology_, p. 307.

Footnote 583:

Rhys: _Celtic Britain_, p. 68.

Footnote 584:

Rogers: _Social Life in Scotland_, chap. III, p. 336.

Footnote 585:

_Folklore_, chap. III, p. 72.

Footnote 586:

Henderson: _Folklore of Northern Counties_, p. 265.

Footnote 587:

Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, p. 78.

Footnote 588:

Hope: _Holy Wells of England_; Harvey: _Holy Wells of Ireland_.

Footnote 589:

Sikes: _British Goblins_, p. 351.

Footnote 590:

_Ibid._, p. 329.

Footnote 591:

Roden: _Progress of the Reformation in Ireland_, pp. 51-54.

Footnote 592:

Martin: _Description of the Western Islands_, pp. 166-226.

Footnote 593:

Burne: _Shropshire Folklore_, p. 416.

Footnote 594:

Gomme: _Ethnology in Folklore_, pp. 92-93.

Footnote 595:

_Ibid._, p. 102.

Footnote 596:

Adamnan’s _Vita Columbæ_.

Footnote 597:

Dr. Whitley Stokes: _Three Middle Irish Homilies_.

Footnote 598:

Caesar: _De Bello Gallico_, Book V, chap. XII.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

APPENDIX

A FEW BOOKS UPON CELTIC MYTHOLOGY

AND LITERATURE

The object of this short list is merely to supplement the marginal notes

by pointing out to a reader desirous of going deeper into the subject

the most recent and accessible works upon it. That they should be

accessible is, in its intention, the most important thing; and therefore

only books easily and cheaply obtainable will be mentioned.

INTRODUCTORY

Matthew Arnold.—THE STUDY OF CELTIC LITERATURE. Popular Edition.

London, 1891.

Ernest Renan.—THE POETRY OF THE CELTIC RACES (and other studies).

Translated by William G. Hutchinson. London, 1896.

_Two eloquent appreciations of Celtic literature._

Magnus Maclean, M.A., D.C.L.—THE LITERATURE OF THE CELTS. Its

History and Romance. London, 1902.

_A handy exposition of all the branches of Celtic literature._

Elizabeth A. Sharp (editor).—LYRA CELTICA. An Anthology of

Representative Celtic Poetry. Ancient Irish, Alban, Gaelic,

Breton, Cymric, and Modern Scottish and Irish Celtic Poetry.

With introduction and notes by William Sharp. Edinburgh, 1896.

Alfred Nutt.—CELTIC AND MEDIÆVAL ROMANCE. No. 1 of Mr. Nutt’s

“Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London,

1899.

_A pamphlet briefly tracing the indebtedness of mediæval

European literature to pre-mediæval Celtic sources._

HISTORICAL

H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—LA CIVILISATION DES CELTES ET CELLE DE

L’ÉPOPÉE HOMÉRIQUE. Paris, 1899.

_Vol. VI of the author’s monumental “Cours de Littérature

celtique.”_

Patrick Weston Joyce.—A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT IRELAND, treating

of the Government, Military System, and Law; Religion, Learning,

and Art; Trades, Industries, and Commerce; Manners, Customs, and

Domestic Life of the Ancient Irish People. 2 vols. London, 1903.

Charles I. Elton, F.S.A.—ORIGINS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. Second edition,

revised. London, 1890.

John Rhys.—CELTIC BRITAIN. “Early Britain” Series. London, 1882.

H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—INTRODUCTION À L’ÉTUDE DE LA LITTÉRATURE

CELTIQUE. Vol. I of the “Cours de Littérature celtique”. Paris,

1883.

_Contains, among other information, the fullest and most

authentic account of the druids and druidism._

GAELIC MYTHOLOGY

H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—LE CYCLE MYTHOLOGIQUE IRLANDAIS ET LA

MYTHOLOGIE CELTIQUE. Vol. II of the “Cours de Littérature

celtique”. Paris, 1884. Translated into English as

THE IRISH MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE AND CELTIC MYTHOLOGY. With notes by

R. I. Best. Dublin, 1903.

_An account of Irish mythical history and of some of the greater

Gaelic gods. With chapters on some of the more striking phases

of Celtic belief._

Alfred Nutt.—THE VOYAGE OF BRAN, SON OF FEBAL. An Irish Historic

Legend of the eighth century. Edited by Kuno Meyer. With essays

upon the Happy Otherworld in Irish Myth and upon the Celtic

Doctrine of Rebirth. Vol. I—The Happy Otherworld. Vol. II—The

Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth. Grimm Library, Vols. IV and VI.

London, 1895-1897.

_Contains, among other notable contributions to the study of

Celtic mythology, an enquiry into the nature of the Tuatha Dé

Danann, a subject briefly treated in the same author’s_

THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY OF SHAKESPEARE. No. 6 of “Popular Studies in

Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1900.

Patrick Weston Joyce.—OLD CELTIC ROMANCES. Translated from the

Gaelic. London, 1894.

_A retelling in popular modern style of some of the more

important mythological and Fenian stories._

Lady Gregory.—GODS AND FIGHTING MEN. The story of the Tuatha Dé

Danann and of the Fianna of Erin. Arranged and put into English

by Lady Gregory. With a Preface by W. B. Yeats. London, 1904.

_Covers much the same ground as Mr. Joyce’s book, but in more

literary manner._

Alfred Nutt.—OSSIAN AND THE OSSIANIC LITERATURE. No. 3 of “Popular

Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1899.

_A short survey of the literature connected with the Fenians._

John Gregorson Campbell, Minister of Tiree.—THE FIANS. Stories,

poems, and traditions of Fionn and his Warrior Band,

collected entirely from oral sources. With introduction and

bibliographical notes by Alfred Nutt. Vol. IV of “Waifs and

Strays of Celtic Tradition”. London, 1891.

_An account of the Fenians from the Scottish-Gaelic side._

Alfred Nutt.—CUCHULAINN THE IRISH ACHILLES. No. 8 of “Popular

Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1900.

_A brief but excellent introduction to the Cuchulainn cycle._

Lady Gregory.—CUCHULAIN OF MUIRTHEMNE. The story of the Men of the

Red Branch of Ulster. Arranged and put into English by Lady

Gregory. With a Preface by W. B. Yeats. London, 1902.

_A retelling in poetic prose of the tales connected with

Cuchulainn._

Eleanor Hull.—THE CUCHULLIN SAGA IN IRISH LITERATURE. Being a

collection of stories relating to the Hero Cuchullin, translated

from the Irish by various scholars. Compiled and edited with

introduction and notes by Eleanor Hull. With Map of Ancient

Ireland. Grimm Library, Vol. VIII. London, 1898.

_A series of Cuchulainn stories from the ancient Irish

manuscripts. More literal than Lady Gregory’s adaptation._

H. d’Arbois de Jubainville.—L’ÉPOPÉE CELTIQUE EN IRLANDE. Vol. V of

the “Cours de Littérature celtique”. Paris, 1892.

_A collection, translated into French, of some of the principal

stories of the Cuchulainn cycle, with various appendices upon

Gaelic mythological subjects._

L. Winifred Faraday, M.A.—THE CATTLE RAID OF CUALGNE (Tain Bo

Cuailgne). An old Irish prose-epic translated for the first time

from the Leabhar na h-Uidhri and the Yellow Book of Lecan. Grimm

Library, Vol. XVI. London, 1904.

_A strictly literal rendering of the central episode of the

Cuchulainn cycle._

BRITISH MYTHOLOGY

Ivor B. John.—THE MABINOGION. No. 11 of “Popular Studies in

Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1901.

_A pamphlet introduction to the Mabinogion literature._

Lady Charlotte Guest.—THE MABINOGION. From the Welsh of the LLYFR

COCH O HERGEST (the Red Book of Hergest) in the library of Jesus

College, Oxford. Translated, with notes, by Lady Charlotte

Guest.

First edition. Text, translation, and notes, 3 vols., 1849.

Translation and notes only, 1 vol., 1877.

The Boys’ Mabinogion, 1881.

_Cheap editions of this classic have been lately issued. One may

obtain it in Mr. Nutt’s handsome little volume; as one of Dent’s

“Temple Classics”; or in the “Welsh Library”._

J. Loth.—LES MABINOGION, traduits en entier pour la première fois en

français avec un commentaire explicatif et des notes critiques.

2 vols. Vols. III and IV of De Jubainville’s “Cours de

Littérature celtique”. Paris, 1889.

_A more exact translation than that of Lady Guest, with notes

embodying more recent scholarship._

J. A. Giles, D.C.L.—OLD ENGLISH CHRONICLES, including ... Geoffrey

of Monmouth’s British History, Gildas, Nennius ... Edited, with

illustrative notes, by J. A. Giles, D.C.L. “Bohn’s Antiquarian

Library”. London, 1901.

_The most accessible edition of Geoffrey of Monmouth._

Sir Thomas Malory.—THE MORTE DARTHUR. Edited by Dr. H. Oskar Sommer.

Vol. I—the Text. Vol. II—Glossary, Index, &c. Vol. III—Study on

the Sources. London, 1889-1891.

_Vol. I of this, the best text of the Morte Darthur, can be

obtained separately._

Jessie L. Weston.—KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS. A survey of Arthurian

romance. No. 4 of “Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and

Folklore”. London, 1899.

Alfred Nutt.—THE LEGENDS OF THE HOLY GRAIL. No. 14 of “Popular

Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore”. London, 1902.

_Useful introductions to a more special study of Arthurian

literature._

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY

John Rhys.—LECTURES ON THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION AS

ILLUSTRATED BY CELTIC HEATHENDOM. “The Hibbert Lectures for

1886.” London, 1898.

John Rhys.—STUDIES IN THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND. Oxford, 1901.

_These two volumes are the most important attempts yet made

towards a scientific and comprehensive study of the Celtic

mythology._

CELTIC FAIRY AND FOLK LORE

GAELIC

T. Crofton Croker.—FAIRY LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE SOUTH OF

IRELAND.

_This book is one of the earliest, and, if not the most

scientific, perhaps the most attractive of the many collections

of Irish fairy-lore. Later compilations are Mr. William

Larminie’s_

_“West Irish Folktales and Romances”, and Mr. Jeremiah Curtin’s

“Hero Tales of Ireland”, “Myths and Folklore of Ireland”, and

“Tales of the Fairies, collected in South Munster”. On the

Scotch side, notice should be particularly taken of Campbell’s

“Popular Tales of the West Highlands” and the volumes entitled

“Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition”. All these books are

either recent or recently republished, and are merely selected

out of a large list of works, valuable and otherwise, upon this

lighter side of Celtic mythology._

BRITISH

John Rhys.—CELTIC FOLKLORE, WELSH AND MANX. 2 vols. Oxford, 1901.

Wirt Sikes.—BRITISH GOBLINS: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology,

Legends, and Traditions. By Wirt Sikes, United States Consul for

Wales. London, 1880.

FOLKLORE COMPARATIVELY TREATED

George Laurence Gomme.—ETHNOLOGY IN FOLKLORE. “Modern Science”

Series. London, 1892.

_An attempt to assign apparently non-Aryan beliefs and customs

in the British islands to pre-Aryan inhabitants._

------------------------------------------------------------------------

INDEX

Aberffraw, marriage of Branwen at, 289.

Abergeleu, sacred well at, 415.

Achill Island, folk-tales preserved at, 233.

Achilles, the Irish, 158.

Achren, battle of, 305, 306;

castle of, 320.

Acrisius, 236.

Adamnan’s _Life of Saint Columba_, 401, 417.

Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh, 11, 190.

Aebh, wife of Lêr, 142.

Aed, son of Lêr, 143.

Aedh, son of Miodhchaoin, 105.

Aeife, wife of Lêr, 142, 143, 144.

Aerfon, a title of the river Dee, 413.

_Æs Sídhe_, the “folk of the mounds”, the gods or fairies, 137, 168.

Africa, 19, 120, 274, 324.

Aganippus, king of the Franks, 382, 383.

Agriculture god of, British, 261;

a Gaulish, 274.

Ailbhe, foster-daughter of Bodb the Red, 142.

Aileach, grave of Nuada at, 122, 157.

Ailill, king of Connaught, 147, 154, 164, 165, 175, 179, 200.

Ailinn, love-story of, 188, 189.

Ailioll of Arran, 142.

Ainé, queen of the fairies of South Munster, 244-246.

Ainle, one of the sons of Usnach, 192, 193, 196.

Airceltrai, the _sídh_ of Ogma, 136, 157.

Airem, Eochaid, high king of Ireland, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 331,

332.

_Airem_, meaning of the word, 149, 333.

Airmid, daughter of Diancecht, 80, 81, 82, 110.

Alator, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.

Alaw, river in Anglesey, 294, 295.

Alba, 97, 104, 163, 178, 192, 193, 196, 382;

Deirdre’s farewell to, 194-195.

Albania, a name for Alba, 382.

Ale of Goibniu, 61.

Allobroges, 384, 385.

Amaethon, son of Dôn, British god of Agriculture, 261, 305, 308, 313,

316, 345;

fights against Brân in the battle of Achren, 305-308;

assists Kulhwch to win Olwen, 345.

Amergin, druid of the Milesians, 123-130.

Amesbury, “castle” of, 29.

Amlwch, stream of, 295.

Ana, see Anu.

Ancient Britons, who were the, 18-23.

Aneurin, a sixth-century British bard, 11, 295, 372.

Aneurin, the Book of, 11.

Anglesey, island of, 289, 294, 322, 388, 400.

Anglo-Saxon, our descent not entirely, 3.

Anguish, Anguissance, king of Ireland, 357.

Angus, Gaelic god of love and beauty, 56, 79, 80, 117, 136, 139-142,

147, 156, 157, 205, 211-214, 217, 218, 221, 240;

his attributes, 56;

his wooing of Caer, 140-142;

cheats his father, the Dagda, 139;

steals Etain from Mider, 147;

helps Diarmait and Grainne, 217, 218, 221;

matches his pigs against the Fenians, 213-214.

Anicetus, Sol Apollo, a Romano-British god, 275.

Animals, sacred, 406, 416, 417;

sacrifices of, 406, 411, 412, 413.

Anna, sister of Arthur, 323.

_Annals of the Four Masters_, 204.

Annwn, the British Otherworld, 254, 273, 278-282, 303, 308, 309, 318,

319, 321, 390, 391.

_Annwn, the Spoiling of_, a poem by Taliesin, 305, 306, 317, 366.

Anu, or Ana, a Gaelic goddess of prosperity and abundance, 50;

the “Paps of Ana”, 50;

still living in folklore as Aynia and Ainé, 245.

Aoibhinn, queen of the fairies of North Munster, 244.

Aoife, an Amazon defeated by Cuchulainn, 164, 176, 177.

Aphrodité, the British, 271, 388.

Apollo, the Gaelic, 62;

the British, 262;

a temple of, in Britain, 42, 325.

Apples, of the Garden of the Hesperides, 98, 99, 102;

in the Celtic Elysium, 98, 136.

Apple-tree of Ailenn, 189.

Aquitani, 22.

Aranon, son of Milé, 123.

Arawn, king of Annwn, 279, 280, 281, 306, 308, 309, 312, 315, 329, 357,

375.

Ardan, a son of Usnach, 192, 193, 196.

Ard Chein, 93.

Arddu, Black Stone of, 305.

Arês, 52.

_Argetlám_, 49, 78.

Arianrod, a British goddess, 261-265, 313, 317, 322, 364, 371;

her place in later legend taken by Arthur’s sister, 364.

Armagh, 136, 158.

Arnold, Matthew, 3, 16, 356.

Arran, Isle of, 60, 142, 415.

Art, the “Lonely”, king of Tara, 189, 202.

Artaius, Mercurius, a Gaulish god, 274.

Arthur, 6, 8, 14, 155, 202, 222, 246, 258, 259, 271, 273, 274, 276, 296,

304, 306, 311, 312-320, 322, 323, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330-343, 348,

349, 351-360, 362, 364-366, 368, 371, 374-376, 392, 407;

the mythical and the historical, 313, 314;

assumes the attributes of Gwydion, 316;

the Spoiling of Annwn by, 319-322;

becomes head of the British Pantheon, 312-313;

wins Olwen for Kulhwch, 343-353;

in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _History_, 374, 375;

leads the Wild Hunt, 392.

_Arthurian Legend, Studies in the_, Professor Rhys’s, 148, 158, 255,

257, 258, 269, 272, 274, 278, 285, 313, 314, 316, 321, 322, 323, 326,

327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 358, 359, 360, 364, 367, 368, 369,

370, 383, 387, 389.

Artur, son of Nemed, 274.

Aryans, 21, 31, 32, 247;

common traditions of the, 32, 176, 189;

Aryan languages, 21.

Astarte, worshipped at Corbridge, 275.

Astolat, 362.

Athens, 153.

Athlone, 175, 216.

Augusel, a king of Scotland, 375.

Aurelius, a British king, 325.

Avallach, see Avallon.

Avallon, a British god of the Underworld, 329, 359;

Isle of, 374, and see Avilion.

Avebury, the “castle” of, 29.

Avilion, 133, 315, 329, 332, 334, 335, 390, 394.

Aynia, a fairy queen of Ulster, 245.

Babylon, 178.

Badb, a Gaelic war-goddess, 52, 53, 72, 117, 119, 245;

the name often used generically, 53;

description of a, 53.

“Badger in the bag”, the game of, 285, 303.

Badon, battle of, 338.

Baile, love-story of, 188-189.

Baile’s Strand, 186, 188.

Bajocassus, Temple of the sun-god Belinus at, 276.

Bala lake, 265.

Balan, 276, 357, 364.

Balder, 33.

Balgatan, a mountain near Cong, 73.

Balin, 276, 357, 358, 364.

Ballymagauran, village of, 38.

Ballymote, Book of, 10, 38, 123, 138, 229, 231.

Ballysadare, 75.

Balor, a king of the Fomors, 48-49, 50, 79, 83, 84, 90, 112, 113, 120,

233-239, 269, 324, 341, 345, 371;

his evil eye, 49;

kills Nuada and Macha, 112;

is blinded by Lugh, 112;

tales of, in modern folklore, 233-239.

“Balor’s Hill”, 69, 90.

Ban, king of Benwyk, 356, 360, 362.

Banba, a goddess representing Ireland, 125;

an ancient name of Ireland, 126, 153.

_Banshee_, meaning of the word, 137.

Baoisgne, Clann, 209, 217.

Bards, 32, 42.

Bardsey Island, 326.

Barrow, river, how it got its name, 62.

Barrule, South, 242.

Barry, the, 246.

Basque race, 19.

Bath, 228, 275, 276, 338, 381.

Bathurst’s _Roman Antiquities in Lydney Park_, 254.

Battle of Achren, 305;

of Badon, 338;

of Camlan, 222, 315, 334, 337, 375, 376;

of Clontarf, 53;

of Gabhra, 222, 223, 225, 315;

of Mag Rath, 52;

of Moytura Northern, 107-117, 407;

of Moytura Southern, 72-75;

of the Trees, 123, 305-308.

Bayeux, temple of Belinus at, 276.

Bean, curious passage relating to the, 306, 307.

Becuma of the Fair Skin, 202.

Bedivere, Sir, 6.

Bedwini, Arthur’s bishop, 337.

Bedwyr, a follower of Arthur, 343, 344, 349.

Belacatudor, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.

Belgæ, 23, 76.

Beli, a British god, 120, 252, 260, 268, 295, 313, 335-376.

Belinus, a Celtic sun-god, 276, 358, 364;

as a king of Britain, 276, 384, 385.

Belisama, the Latin name of the Ribble, 413.

Beltaine, the Gaelic May-day, 41, 65, 287, 406, 408, 409, 410.

Berber race, 19.

Beth, an Iberian god, 64.

Bettws-y-coed, 7.

Beuno, Saint, sacrifices of cattle to, 413.

Big-Knife, Osla, 352, 353.

Bilé, father of the Gaelic gods and men, 51, 65, 120, 121, 122, 252.

Billingsgate, origin of name, 385.

Birds, of Rhiannon, the, 273, 294, 296;

Dechtiré and her maidens changed into, 160.

Black Book of Caermarthen, the, 11, 255, 311, 312, 335.

Bladud, mythical founder of Bath, 381.

Blathnat, daughter of Mider, 55, 179.

Bliant, Castle, 358.

Blodeuwedd, wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, 265, 266, 268.

Blood-fines among the Celts, 30;

blood-fine paid for Cian, 94-97.

Boann, wife of the Dagda, 55, 139, 141.

Boar, wild, of Bengulben, 221;

the Boar Trwyth, 347-353.

Bodb the Red, son of the Dagda, 60, 133, 140, 141-145, 157, 205, 208;

is made king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 140;

his swineherd, 164;

marries his daughter Sadb to Finn, 208.

Bogles, 393, 403, 405.

Bonfires in Celtic ritual, 409-412.

Bordeaux, Sir Huon of, 7.

_Boreadæ_, 42.

Borrach, 193, 195, 200.

Bors, king of Gaul, 360.

Bors, Sir, 368, 369.

Boyne, river, 55, 56, 129, 136, 137, 158, 210, 213, 230.

Brahmans, 32.

Bran, son of Febal, an Irish king, 134, 135, 224.

Bran, Finn’s favourite hound, 213.

Brân, British god of the Underworld, 258, 271-272, 276, 289-294, 296,

306, 308, 313, 328, 329, 331, 338, 356, 357, 360, 364, 366, 384, 386,

387, 389, 394;

fights the battle of Achren, 306;

becomes the “Wonderful Head”, 296;

in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _History_, 384, 385;

in the Morte Darthur, 356, 357;

introduces Christianity into Britain, 386.

Brandegore, King, 272, 356.

Brandegoris, King, 356.

Brandel, Brandiles, Sir, 356.

Branwen, British goddess of love, 271, 289-294, 387.

Brazil, 133.

Brea, ford of, Finn killed at the, 222.

Breasal’s Island, 133.

Brécilien, Forest of, 361.

Bregon, 121.

Brennius, a mythical British king, 5, 276, 384, 385.

Brennus, 385.

Bress, son of Elathan, a Fomor, 50, 78-80, 82, 83, 90, 108-111, 115-116,

269;

his beauty, 50;

marries Brigit, and is made king over the Tuatha Dé Danann, 78;

is forced to abdicate, 83;

makes war on the Tuatha Dé Danann, 83;

is defeated and captured, 115-116.

Brian, son of Tuirenn, 90, 91, 92, 94, 99-102, 103, 105, 106.

Briareus, 326.

“Bridge of the Cliff”, the, 163.

Bridget, Saint, 7, 56, 228.

Brigantes, a North British tribe, 277.

Brigantia, a British Minerva, 277.

Brigindo, a Gaulish goddess, 277.

Brigit, Gaelic goddess of fire, poetry, and the hearth, 56, 78, 109,

110, 228, 269, 277, 387;

is married to Bress, 78;

is canonized as Saint Bridget, 228, 387.

Bri Leith, the _sídh_ of Mider, 136, 148, 152, 332.

Brindled ox, the, 320.

Britain, ancient names of, 292, 323.

_British Goblins_, Mr. Wirt Sikes’, 389, 393, 415.

Britons, ancient, who were the, 18-23.

BRITONUM, HISTORIA. See Historia, Geoffrey, Nennius.

Brittany, 24.

Briun, son of Bethar, 113.

Brownies, 248, 393, 403.

Brude, king of the Picts, 401.

Brugh-na-boyne, 136, 139, 160, 213, 214.

Brutus, 121, 374.

Brythons, 21, 22, 23, 24, 35.

Buarainech, father of Balor, 48.

Buinne, the Ruthless Red, son of Fergus, 193, 196, 197.

Bull, the Brown, of Cualgne, 164, 165, 168, 175;

the White-horned, of Connaught, 165, 175.

Bwbachod, 393.

Cadbury, the supposed site of Camelot, 335.

Cader Idris, 305.

Caemhoc, Saint, 146.

Caer, daughter of Etal Ambuel, 141.

Caer Arianrod, 252, 264.

Caer Badus, 381.

Caer Bannawg, 367.

Caer Colvin, 275.

Caer Dathyl, 308, 310.

Caer Golud, 320.

Caer Llyr, 270.

Caer London, 376.

Caer Myrddin, 324.

Caer Ochren, 320.

Caer Pedryvan, 319, 356, 367.

Caer Rigor, 319.

Caer Sarrlog, 386.

Caer Sidi, 319, 321, 322, 368.

Caer Vandwy, 257, 320.

Caer Vedwyd, 319.

Caer Wydyr, 320.

Caesar, Julius, 5, 8, 18, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30, 35, 38, 119, 204, 376,

399, 412, 417.

Cairbré, son of Cormac, 206, 222, 315.

Cairn of Octriallach, 110.

Cairpré, son of Ogma, bard of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 58, 82, 83, 87, 139.

Calais, 383.

Calatin the wizard, 171, 172;

daughters of Calatin, 178-181.

Caledonians, 22.

Camelot, 314, 335.

Camlan, battle of, 222, 315, 334, 337, 375, 376.

Camulodunum, the Roman name of Colchester, 276.

Camulus, a Gaulish god of war and the sky, 51, 204, 275, 323.

Caoilte, a Fenian hero, 63, 146, 208, 212, 217, 222, 227, 246.

Caractacus, Caratacus, 271, 386, 387.

Caradawc of the Strong Arms, son of Brân, 271, 291, 295, 338, 386, 389.

Carbonek, 357, 367.

Carmarthen, 324.

Carnac, 114.

Carnarvon, 310.

Carrowmore, 114.

Cassibellawn, Cassivelaunus, 376.

“Cassiopeia’s Chair”, 252.

Castell y Moch, 310.

Castle of Arianrod, 252, 264.

Castle Bliant, 358.

Castle of Gwydion, 253.

Castle Hacket, 244.

Castle of Revelry, 366, 367.

Castle of Riches, 367.

“Castles”, Celtic, 29.

Caswallawn, son of Beli, 295.

_Cath Godeu._ See the “Battle of the Trees”.

Cathbad, druid of Emain Macha, 161, 162, 174, 178, 181, 190, 198, 200.

Cathubodva, a Gaulish war-goddess, 276.

Cauldrons in Celtic mythology; the Dagda’s, 54, 71, 366;

of Ogyrvran the Giant, 366;

of Diwrnach the Gael, 346, 349;

cauldron given by Brân to Matholwch, 290, 293, 366;

cauldron stolen from Mider by Cuchulainn, 176, 366;

cauldron kept in Annwn by the chief of Hades, 273, 319, 366;

the legend of the Holy Grail founded upon Celtic myths of a cauldron

of fertility and inspiration, 365-370.

Celtæ, 22.

Celtic mythical literature the forerunner of mediæval romance, 184.

Celtic strain in modern Englishmen, 3.

Celts, the, 19, 20, 21, 25-44, 70, 119, 121, 124, 136, 138, 261, 262,

278, 283, 329, 404, 407, 412.

Cemmes, a parish in Pembrokeshire, 394.

_Cenn Cruaich_, 41.

_Cermait_, _i.e._ “Honey-mouth”, a title of Ogma, 57.

Cethé, son of Diancecht, 62, 90.

Cethlenn, wife of Balor, 90.

“Chain, Lugh’s”, 62;

“chief’s”, 93.

Champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 59, 276;

Champions of the Red Branch, see Red Branch;

“The Champion’s Prophecy”, 201.

Chariots, war, of the Celts, 25, 27, 28.

Charon, 403.

Chaucer, 2, 12.

Chess, Mider’s game with Eochaid Airem, 149;

Ossian’s game with Finn, 220.

Children of Dôn, Nudd, and Llyr, 252.

Christianity, introduced into Britain by Brân, 386, 387;

conquers Druidism, 400, 401;

adopts harmless heathen cults, 416, 417.

Cian, son of Diancecht, 62, 63, 78, 84, 90-94, 106, 235-237, 239, 269,

345, 371.

Ciaran, Saint, 10.

Cichol the Footless, a Fomor, 66.

Cilgwri, the Ousel of, 349.

Clann Baoisgne, 209, 217, 222:

Clan Chattan, 415.

Clann Morna, 209, 211, 218, 232.

Clann Neamhuinn, 216, 218.

Clann Ronan, 218.

_Clas Myrddin_, an old name for Britain, 323.

Claudius, Roman emperor, 387.

Cliodna, fairy queen of Munster, 244.

Clontarf, battle of, 53.

Clûd, goddess of the river Clyde, 284, 285.

Cluricanes, 248.

_Cnoc Miodhchaoin_, 97.

Cnucha, battle of, 209.

Coblynau, 393.

Cocidius, a war-god worshipped by a Dacian colony in Cumberland, 275.

Coed Helen, 310.

Coel, a mythical king of Britain, 275, 323.

_Coir Anmann_, the “Choice of Names”, an old Irish tract, 50, 54, 61,

245, 270.

Colchester, 276.

“Cole, Old King”, 276.

Collen, Saint, 389, 390, 391.

Columba, Saint, 12, 240, 401, 417.

_Comes Britanniæ_, 313.

_Comes Littoris Saxonici_, 314.

Comyn, Michael, a Gaelic poet, 223.

Conairé the Great, high king of Ireland, 152, 157.

Conall the Victorious, 163, 177, 183, 192, 193, 197, 198.

Conan, a Fenian hero, 209, 218.

Conann, son of Febar, a king of the Fomors, 67.

Conchobar, king of Ulster, 29, 147, 154-156, 158, 160-162, 166-168, 173,

174, 179, 185, 190-192, 193, 195-198, 200, 201, 204, 227;

his treachery towards the sons of Usnach, 192-200;

his tragical death, 155.

Condates, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.

Cong, village of, 73, 76.

Conlaoch, son of Cuchulainn, 177, 178.

Conn the Hundred Fighter, 201, 202.

Conn, son of Lêr, 143.

Conn, son of Miodhchaoin, 105.

Connaught, 73, 75, 76, 165, 168.

Connla, son of Conn the Hundred Fighter, 202.

_Contemporary Review_, the, 241.

Contrary Head, 242.

Conway, river, 262.

Cooking-places of the Fenians, 206.

Cooking-spits of the women of Fianchuivé, 96;

at Tara, 98.

Cooley, see Cualgne.

Coranians, a mythical tribe of dwarfs, 377-379.

Corb, an Iberian god, 64.

Corbridge, 275.

Corc, son of Miodhchaoin, 105.

Corca-Duibhne, 70.

Corca-Oidce, 70.

Cordeilla, daughter of Leir, in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s _History_,

381-383.

Cordelia, daughter of Shakespeare’s _King Lear_, 259, 381.

Coritiacus, a war-god worshipped in Britain, 275.

Cormac, “the Magnificent”, 201, 202, 203, 206, 215, 222, 315.

Cornwall, 3, 23, 294, 296, 327, 334, 353, 382, 384.

Coronation Stone, the, 71.

Corrib, see Lough Corrib.

Corspitium, see Corbridge.

Corwenna, mother of Brennius and Belinus, 385.

Count of Britain, 313;

of the Saxon Shore, 314.

Court of Dôn, the, 252, 317.

Cow, Balor’s Gray, 235, 236, 237, 240;

Mider’s three cows, 57, 176.

Cow, Book of the Dun, 10, 12, 14, 37, 156, 164, 175, 184, 202, 227.

Credné, the bronze-worker of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 85, 86, 109.

Crete, 153.

Creudylad, daughter of the British sky-god Lludd, 256, 258, 259, 332,

348, 381, 407.

Criminal Resolutions of Britain, the Three, 334.

_Crom Croich_, 40.

_Cromm Cruaich_, 38, 39, 41, 154, 402.

Cronos, 63, 65, 326.

“Croppies’ Grave”, the, at Tara, 72.

Cruind, the river, 165.

Cu, son of Diancecht, 62, 90.

Cualgne, a province of Ulster, 164, 165, 175.

Cuan, head of the Munster Fenians, 218.

Cuchulainn, chief hero of the Ultonians, 10, 11, 14, 27, 154, 155, 156,

158-188, 192, 193, 202, 204, 210, 217, 223, 227, 274, 366;

is the son of Lugh, 159-160;

obvious solar character of, 158-159;

how he obtained his name, 160-161;

fights in the Táin Bó Chuailgne, 164-175;

his wooing of Emer, 184-186;

his raid upon the Other World, 175-176;

his death, 183;

is raised from the dead by Saint Patrick, 227.

Culann, chief smith of the Ultonians, 161;

“Culann’s Hound”, 161, 166.

“Culture-King”, 153.

Cumhal, father of Finn, 204, 209, 210, 275.

Cunedda, a North British king, 373.

Cunobelinus, king of Britain, 387.

Curoi, king of Munster, 147, 154, 179.

Custennin, 343, 344.

Cuthbert, Saint, bulls sacrificed to, 413.

Cwm Cawlwyd, the Owl of, 349.

_Cwm Annwn_, the “Hounds of Hell”, 391, 392.

Cwy, 320.

Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s, 387.

Cymri, 255, 373.

Dagda, the, Gaelic god of the Earth, 54, 78, 79, 87, 98, 107-109, 116,

117, 122, 132, 135, 136, 138-141, 156, 157, 211, 213, 228, 230, 240,

243, 269, 346, 366;

his dress, arms, and harp, 54;

his porridge-feast, 108;

is cheated by his son Angus, 139;

resigns the kingship of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 140;

his last appearance, 157.

Daire of Cualgne, owner of the Brown Bull, 165.

Dalân, druid of Eochaid Airem, 392.

Danes, the, 230.

Danu, the mother of the Gaelic gods, the same as Anu, _q.v._, 44, 50,

51, 70, 245, 252, 407.

Dart, river, 414.

Dartmoor, 392.

Darvha, Lake, 143-145.

Deaf Valley, the, 180.

Dechtiré, mother of Cuchulainn, 156, 159, 160, 181.

Dé Danann, see Tuatha Dé Danann.

Dee, river, 413.

Deimne, the first name of Finn, 210.

Deirdre, 190-200;

Deirdre’s Farewell to Alba, 194-195;

Deirdre’s Lament over the Sons of Usnach, 199-200.

Demetia, Roman province of, 273, 278.

Demetrius, an early traveller in Britain, 326.

“Demon of the air”, Aeife changed into a, 145.

Derivla, a sacred well in the island of Inniskea, 415.

Desmond, fourth Earl of, nicknamed “the Magician”, 245.

“Destiny, laying a”, a Celtic custom, 262-265, 340.

Devon, 312, 392.

Devwy, the dales of, 320.

_Dialogue of the Elders_, the, 205, 222, 404;

Dialogues of Patrick and Ossian, 226-227.

Diancecht, the Gaelic god of medicine, 61, 62, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85,

86, 90, 110, 141, 232, 269;

makes a silver hand for Nuada, 78;

kills his son Miach, 81-82;

presides over the “Spring of Health”, 110;

prescriptions of Diancecht, 232.

Diarmait O’Duibhne, the Fenian Adonis, 209, 212, 215-221, 315.

Dinadan, Sir, 328.

Dinas Dinllev, 264.

Dinas Emrys, 324, 381.

Dingwall, Registers of the Presbytery of, 412.

_Dinnsenchus_, 38, 40, 132, 154.

Dio Cassius, 387.

Diodorus Siculus, 41, 42, 325.

Dionysus, rites of, 410.

Dis Pater, 51, 120, 252, 383.

Dissull the Giant, 348-349.

Diwrnach the Gael, the cauldron of, 346, 349.

Dobhar, king of Sicily, 96, 98, 102, 103.

Doctrine of the transmigration of souls, 36, 37.

Domnann, Fir, _i.e._ men of Domnu. See Fir Domnann.

Domnu, a goddess, mother of the Fomors, 48, 70, 112;

meaning of the name, 48;

gods of Domnu, 48, 70;

men of Domnu, 70.

Dôn, the British equivalent of the Gaelic Danu, 44, 252, 260, 268, 269,

273, 295, 308, 310, 316;

euhemerized into a king of Dublin, 372-373.

Donn, son of Milé, 126-131, 246.

“Donn’s House”, 246.

Dormarth, the hound of Gwyn son of Nudd, 257.

Dowth, 137-138.

Dragon, Red, of Britain, 378;

White, of the Saxons, 378.

“Dragon-mouth”, a lake called, 141.

_Dream of Rhonabwy_, the, 260, 312, 337, 338.

Drogheda, 137.

Drowes, river, 110.

Drudwyn, the whelp of Greid the son of Eri, 347.

Druidism, the religion of the Celts, 35, 43;

possibly non-Aryan in origin, 36;

in Gaul, 34;

derived from Britain, 35;

suppressed by the Romans, 399, 400.

Druids, 18, 33-37, 84, 111, 115, 151, 179, 180, 182, 188, 202, 399-401,

411, 412, 417;

origin of the name, 33;

in Gaul, 34;

in Britain, 35;

human sacrifices of the druids, 37, 412;

the druids of Brude, king of the Picts, 401.

Drumcain, an old name for Tara, 126.

Dublin, 66, 372.

Duke of the Britains, the, 313.

Dulachan, 247, 248.

_Dul-dauna_, the, 237.

Dun Cow, Book of the. See Cow.

Dundalk, 177.

Dundealgan, 177, 181, 188, 189.

Dún Scaith, 175-176.

_Dux Britanniarum._ See Duke of the Britains.

Dwynwen, Saint, 388.

Dyfan, Saint, 386.

Dyfed, or Demetia, a province of South Wales, 273, 278, 279, 281, 282,

286, 298-301, 303, 304, 309, 310, 394.

Dylan, a British god, 261, 262, 322, 335, 360, 364, 371.

Eagle, of Gwern Abwy, 350;

Lleu changed into an, 266-268.

Earl Gerald, 245.

Easal, king of the Golden Pillars, 96, 103.

Eber, son of Milé, 129-131, 146, 153.

Eber Scot, 120.

Eboracum, Roman name of York, 275.

Edeyrn, son of Nudd, 260.

Edinburgh, the Advocates’ Library at, 11.

Eel, the Morrígú takes the shape of an, 169;

transformation of the rival swineherds into eels, 165.

Egypt, 120.

Eigen, the first female saint in Britain, 386.

Eildon Hills, Arthur living beneath the, 335.

Elaine, 362.

Elathan, a king of the Fomors, 49, 50, 78, 83, 90, 116, 269.

Elayne, 358.

Elberich, 392.

_Elders, Dialogue of the._ See _Dialogue_.

Elen Lwyddawg, wife of Myrddin, 323, 362.

Eleutherius, Pope, 386.

Ellylion, the Welsh elves, 393.

Elton’s _Origins of English History_, 6, 8, 25, 26, 70, 228, 327, 413.

Elves, 393.

Elysium, Celtic. See Other World, Celtic.

Emain Macha, the capital of ancient Ulster, 28, 29, 158, 160, 161, 162,

164, 173, 174, 179, 180, 183, 188, 192, 194, 196, 200, 201, 204.

Emer, wife of Cuchulainn, 162, 164, 177, 184-188.

_Emer, the Wooing of_, an old Irish saga, 28, 29, 37, 184.

Emperor, a title given in Welsh legend to Arthur, 314, 338.

Emrys, a title of Myrddin, 324, 329, 360, 369.

Englishmen, Celtic strain in, 3.

“Entertaining of the Noble Head”, the, 296.

Eochaid, son of Erc, king of the Fir Bolgs, 69, 73, 74, 75.

Eochaid Airem, see Airem.

Eochaid O’Flynn, an Irish poet, 231.

Erc, king of Tara, 179, 182, 183.

Eremon, son of Milé, and first king of Ireland, 40, 129, 130, 131, 132,

146, 153, 154.

Erin, 97, 98, 99, 102, 104, 126, 193, 225, 231;

meaning of the word, 126.

Eriu, a goddess representing Ireland, 125, 126, 128, 129.

Eros, the Gaelic, 56, 140.

See Angus.

Essyllt, wife of March, or Mark. See Iseult.

Etain, wife of Mider, 57, 139, 147-152, 154, 224, 331-333.

Etair, a vassal of King Conchobar, 147.

Etal Ambuel, father of Caer, 141.

Etan, wife of Ogma, 62, 87, 239.

Ethnea, a name of Ethniu in modern folklore, 238.

Ethniu, daughter of Balor, 62, 79, 84, 90, 269, 371.

_Ethnology in Folklore_, Mr. G. L. Gomme’s, 35, 69, 412, 413, 414, 416.

Etirun, “an idol of the Britons”, 294.

Etive, Loch, 193.

Etruscans, the, 20; Etruscan mythology in modern Italian folklore, 403.

Ettard, 358.

_Ettarre, Pelleas and_, Tennyson’s idyll of, 358.

Euhemerism of Gaelic gods, 227-230;

of British gods, 372-389.

Euskarian race, 19.

Evelake, King, 359.

Evnissyen, son of Penardun, 290, 292, 293.

Failinis, the hound of the king of Ioruaidhé, 96, 97, 104.

_Fairie Queene_, Spenser’s, 7, 389.

Fairies, the, 4, 137, 242-248, 389-393, 403, 404, 409, 418;

the old gods are remembered as “fairies”, 243-248, 389-393;

two varieties of fairy in folklore, 403;

Irish and Welsh fairies identical in nature, 404;

king of the Irish fairies, 136;

king of the Welsh fairies, 392;

size of the fairies, 404;

fairy money, 377;

fairy food, 391;

the “fairy hills”, 135-139, 394.

Fal, the stone of. See Stone of Destiny.

“Falcon of May”, 369;

“Falcon of Summer”, 369.

Falga, Isle of, 57, 175.

Falias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 71, 72.

Fand, wife of Manannán son of Lêr, 186-188, 202.

Faraday, Miss, her translation of the _Táin Bó Chuailgné_, 164.

Fata Morgana, 395.

Fate of the Children of Lêr, 142-146;

of the Sons of Tuirenn, 90-105;

of the Sons of Usnach, 190-200.

Fea, a war-goddess, wife of Nuada, 52.

“Feast of Age”, Manannán’s, 61, 98, 143.

Feast of Lugh, see Lugnassad.

Feast of St. John, 409.

Fec’s Pool, on the Boyne, 210.

Fedlimid, vassal to King Conchobar, 190.

Fenians, the, 11, 17, 155, 201, 203-209, 211-215, 217-219, 220-223, 225,

226, 314, 315;

real or mythical, 203-205;

origin of, 206;

duties of, 206;

accomplishments of, 207;

chief heroes of, 207-209;

destruction of, at the battle of Gabhra, 222;

stories of, 209-226;

the Fenian sagas possibly non-Aryan, 70.

Fenius Farsa, 120.

Ferdiad, a warrior slain by Cuchulainn, 172, 173, 184.

Fergus, son of Finn, 208.

Fergus, son of Roy, an Ulster hero, 14, 166, 167, 170, 171, 175,

192-196, 198, 200.

Fergusson, Dr. James, 76, 114, 137, 138.

Festivals, Celtic solar or agricultural, 405-412.

Ffordd Elen, 324.

Fiacha, son of Conchobar, 197, 198.

Fiachadh, king of Ireland, 206.

Fiachra, son of Lêr, 143.

Fianchuivé, submarine island of, 97, 104.

_Fianna Eirinn_, see Fenians.

Figol, son of Mamos, druid of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 90.

Findabair, daughter of Medb, 168.

Findias, a city of the Tuatha Dé Danann, 71, 72.

Finn mac Coul (Cumhail), 4, 11, 16, 37, 146, 155, 201, 203, 204, 206,

207, 208, 209, 210-218, 220-222, 224, 226, 246, 254, 274, 314, 315;

his upbringing and boy-feats, 209-210;

reorganizes the Fenians, 211;

is killed at the Ford of Brea, 222;

is reborn as Mongan, an Ulster chief, 37;

is he historical or mythical, 204;

parallels between Finn and Arthur, 314-315.

Finn mac Gorman, compiler of the Book of Leinster, 10.

Finn the Seer, 210.

Finola, daughter of Lêr, 143.

Finvarra, king of the Irish fairies, 243, 244, 405.

Fiona Macleod, Miss, 241.

Fionn, see Finn.

Fionnbharr, the _sídh_ of Meadha assigned to, 136;

his appearance in the Fenian sagas, 212;

becomes fairy king of Ireland, 243.

Fir Bolgs, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 72-78, 114, 125, 229, 230, 407.

Fir Domnann, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 76, 172.

Fir Gaillion, an Iberian tribe, 68-70, 76.

Fish, sacred, 416.

Fly, Etain changed into a, 147;

Lugh takes the form of a, 159;

a sacred, 416.

_Folklore, Ethnology in._ See _Ethnology_.

Folk-tales, Irish, 233-240; Welsh, 371.

Fomors, Gaelic deities of Death, Darkness, and the Sea, 11, 48-50, 67,

70, 76, 83, 86, 88, 89, 90, 98, 107-117, 120, 122, 157, 205, 225,

229, 230, 252, 269, 274, 327, 406;

meaning of the name, 48;

their war with the Tuatha Dé Danann, 107-117;

are the Lochlannach in the Fenian sagas, 205.

Forgall the Wily, father of Emer, 162, 163, 164, 184.

Fotla, a goddess representing Ireland, 125;

an ancient name of Ireland, 126.

“Four Ancient Books of Wales”, the, 11, 15.