The figures beneath each entry give reference numbers for the Bibliography
Resident at Mark's court, he was a cousin of Tristan on whom he spied, eventually betraying him and Iseult to Mark. He hailed originally from Lincoln. # 454: In some versions he is credited with the murder of Tristan, but is himself slain by Bellangere le Beuse, together with all those who had plotted Tristan's death.
# 156 - 418 - 454
The patron of Scotland. Brother of Simon Peter, and fisherman of Capernaum. He became an apostle and tradition says he was martyred in Achaia by being crucified on a decussated or saltire cross. He was said to have given the Pictish army a vision of this cross at the battle of Athelstoneford between King Angus of the Picts and King Athelstan of the Angles. However, it is fairly clear that Andrew was foisted upon Scotland as its patron when the old Celtic and Culdee centres of Dunkeld and Abernethy were superseded by the new bishopric of St Andrew's. His feast-day is 30 November.
# 454
The daughter of King Cador of Northumberland. On her father's death her uncle, Ayglin, tried to get rid of her by marrying her off to someone unsuitable, but she thwarted his designs by escaping and marrying Kay. With Arthur's support she was all set to overthrow her uncle but then the people of Northumberland forced him to surrender before any violence could occur.
# 156 - 712
(an OI rin).
See: AMFORTAS.
The mother, by Arthur, of Tom a' Lincoln.
# 156 - 668
The lover of Peredur (Perceval) in the MABINOGION. At first she refused to be his lover and he promised never to speak to any Christian until she changed her mind. Lady Guest, in her edition of the MABINOGION, suggests that her epithet indicated generosity. # 454: She may possibly be a much older Celtic deity, who like so many of her kind has dwindled to a minor role in Arthurian romance. See: PERCEVAL.
# 156 - 346 - 438 - 454
Mother of Alisander the Orphan. After her husband's murder by King Mark, Anglides raised her son secretly.
# 156 - 243
The daughter of Prester John, she eloped with Tom a' Lincoln. Their son was the Black Knight. She abandoned Tom and later murdered him, but he was avenged by the Black Knight.
# 156 - 668
# 676: The most widespread ideas among the British today about the Anglo-Saxons have become set in a fixed pattern which does not always re-flect the true reality. It has been suggested that we would come nearer the truth if we could think of them as Celtic-Saxons, and, as far as religious affinities go, that would be more accurate.
Many of the leading members of the Irish/Scottish Celtic Church in Iona and Lindisfarne bear Saxon names such as Cuthbert and Chad, and were probably descendants of those Saxons who were initially invited to the Northeast by the Romans in order to help them quell the invading hordes of Picts and Scots who were making the country untenable by the legions. By the time that the Roans had completely withdrawn, the Saxons had intermarried with the Britons and settled down to farm the new lands. The violent pirate invaders, forerunners of the Viking raiders were quite another matter. # 562: Wace's French translation of "Historia Regum Britani'" translated by Layamon into the Anglo-Saxon language.
# 562 - 676
King of Ireland and father of Iseult. His name seems to be genuinely Irish in origin, a form of Oengus. Surprisingly, at the time in question, a King Oengus is thought to have been reigning at Cashel, in the south of Ireland. There may be some confusion with the Scottish king Auguselus in Geoffrey; this name is also found in the form of Anguisel, Angwish, and Agwisance. See: ANGWISH.
# 156 - 243 - 418
(een us) 1. A Danaan deity. 2. Son of Aed Abrat; brother of Fann; a messenger sent to invite CuChulain to the Fairy World. See also: ANGUS OG.
# 166 - 562
# 562: Son of the Dagda, Irish god of love; wooes and wins Caer. Dermot of the Love Spot bred up with Angus Og, and is revived by him; father of Maga; Dermot and Grania rescued by magical devices of Angus; Dermot's body borne away by Angus. # 454: Angus mac Og / Aengus / Oengus. God of youth. His mother was Boann. He was called Mac Og (or the Young Son) after his mother's words, 'Young is the son who was begotten at break of day and born betwixt it and evening', referring to his magical conception and gestation. He was fostered by Midir. - An eight-century text, 'Aislinge Oenguso' (The Dream of Angus), tells how he was visited by an otherworldly maiden, Caer Ibormeith in his sleep and conceived such a love for her that he fell ill until he found her, with the help of Bodb. She was in the form of a swan one year and assumed human shape the next. He found her at Loch Bel Dracon at Samhain, together with 149 other girls all in swan-form, with silver chains between each pair. Angus also assumed the form of a swan, and together they circled the lake three times, singing sleep-music so profoundly moving, that everyone in the vicinity fell asleep three days and nights. They returned to his otherworldly palace, Bruig na Boinne (New Grange, Meath). W. B. Yeats' poem THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS is a retelling of this event. Because of his magical birth, he had power over time. When the mounds of the Sidhe were being distributed between the Tuatha De Danann, he arrived late and demanded to spend a day and night in the dwelling of the Dagda. This was granted, but on the following day when he was asked to leave, he said, 'It is clear that night and day are the whole world, and it is that which has been given to me.'
Variants state that Angus was given the sidi of Bruig na Boinne in place of his mother's husband, Elcmar. He was the foster-father of Diarmuid.
See also: OENGUS, THE DREAM OF.
# 96 - 166 - 416 - 454 - 562
(or Agwisance) King of Ireland and father of Iseult of Ireland. He seems to have fought against Arthur on the side of the rebel kings at the beginning of Arthur's reign. He later became a companion of the Round Table. Mark of Cornwall owed him allegiance and it was on account of Tristan's coming to dispute this, at which time he also killed Anguish's brother the Morholt, that Tristan first saw Iseult. See: ANGUISH.
# 418 - 454
A French province which was conquered by Vortigern and given to Hengist. Kay, Arthur's seneschal, was its first count. In Wolfram, Herzeloyde was its queen.
# 156
Found on Megalithic carvings. The symbol of vitality or resurrection.
# 562
(An'luan) Son of Maga; rallies to Maev's foray against Ulster.
Conall produces the head of Anluan to his brother Ket (Cet).
# 562
See: PERIGLOUR.
# 676
In Geoffrey, the full sister of Arthur. Geoffrey seems confused about whom she married; he says she wed Lot, but also that she married King Budic of Brittany. L. A. Paton quotes a source which says she was also called Ermine and that she married Budic while her sister married Lot (# 516). Miss Paton wonders if she is to be identified with Morgan. The possibility that she was derived from the Celtic goddess Anu cannot be ruled out (# 243)..
# 156 - 243 - 516
# 156: A sorceress who got Arthur into her power as she wished him to be her lover, but he would not comply. She was about to have him slain when Lancelot, tipped off by Nimue, rescued him and killed Annowre. # 454: A sorceress of the Perilous Forest who desired Arthur. She succeeded in enticing him into the forest, but when he refused her she plotted his death, inviting various knights to kill him. Nimue, hearing of this, brought Tristan to the place where Arthur was held captive, just in time to kill two knights who had beaten him. The King himself slew Annowre, who had tried to steal Excalibur. The whole story may well be a variant of Morgan le Fay's plot to entrap Arthur with the help of her lover Accalon of Gaul.
# 156 - 454
# 156: See also ANNWN. The Celtic Otherworld. An early Welsh poem, PREIDDEU ANNWFN, tells how Arthur led a raid there, apparently to carry off the cauldron to be found in that region. The narrator of the story is Taliesin, one of those who took part in the expedition. Those involved sailed overseas in the ship Prydwen to reach their goal. They reached the fort or city of the Otherworld, called by a number of names (Caer Rigor, Caer Siddi, etc.), but only seven returned. The language of the poem is obscure. The expedition of Arthur to Ireland in CULHWCH may be another version of this story, Ireland being substituted for the Otherworld. It is not impossible that the original story told how Arthur obtained Excalibur from the Otherworld.
# 562: (an noon) Corresponds with Abyss, or Chaos; the principle of destruction in Cymric cosmogony.
# 454: The British Underworld, ruled over by Arawn. Unlike the Classical or Christian Underworld or hell, Annwn is not considered to be a place of punishment or eternal lamentation; it is rather a place of ancestral power which mortals may visit, and from which the Wild Hunt rides out.
# 156 - 260 - 454 - 562
(an noon - or - ann oo in) See: ANNWFN.
(an OOV an)
Impossible tasks.
# 439
Mananan's magical sword.
# 562
Lover of Gawain and sister of King Vergulaht of Ascalun in Wolfram.
# 156 - 748
An Irish bishop, secretary to Merlin in Continental romance.
# 156 - 238
The mother of the gods in Ireland. The twin hills near Killarney in Munster are named the Paps of Anu after her. She is identical with Danu, in being the ancestress of the Tuatha de Danaan. Eleanor Hull (#328) suggests tentatively that Anu is the same person as Aine, the mother of Earl Fitzgerald, to whom fires were lit at Midsummer, and who was the guardian of cattle and a health-giver. Anu is known to be one of the Dea Matronae of Ireland and was a goddess of fertility. Hull regards her as a local goddess, and rejects the suggestion that she has any connection with Black Annis of the Dane Hills in Leicestershire, though she thinks its possible that Dana and Anu are the same.
# 166 - 328 - 454 - 548
The first wife of Lir. Mother of Fionuala, Aed, Conn and Fiachna.
# 454
(ay) See: AEDH.
A woman of the Sidhe at Craig Liath in Munster. She was the tutelary spirit of the O'Briens, though in later years she was considered to be more like a banshee since whoever hears the music of her magical harp does not long survive the experience. She was the mistress of Dubhlainn.
# 454
(EEF ay) Lir's second wife; she felt an extreme jealousy to her stepchildren and after her spells against them, she was punished by B"v the Red. # 454: 1. The woman-warrior who was Scathach's rival. CuChulain defeated her in combat and begot her with child. When she heard that he had married Emer, she planned her revenge. She raised his son, Conlaoch, in every skill and laid three geasa or prohibitions upon him: that he should never give way to anyone, that he should never refuse a challenge, and that he should never tell anyone his name. 2. The foster-daughter of Bodh Dearg. She married Lir becoming the step-mother of her sister's children, Fionuala, Aed, Conn and Fiachra. She turned them into swans, destined to roam the world for 900 years. She was turned into a witch of the air, destined to sweep the winds till doomsday by Bodh Dearg.
# 166 - 267 - 454 - 562
(ain-barr) # 562: Mananan's magical steed. - # 454: It could travel on either land or sea and was later ridden by the god Lugh during his quest for the Sword of Light.
# 454 - 562
# 562: Celtic equivalent, Lugh. Magical services in honour of Apollo, described by Hecat'us; regarded by Gauls as deity of medicine. See also: LIANES - # 454: Originally a Thracian god, Apollo was associated with the northern land of Hyperborea, where he was said to winter every year. Diodorus Siculus and others supposed that this northern region was analogous with Britain.
Apollo was originally god of music, archery and hunting, as well as being a herdsman. These are also the attributes of Mabon or Maponus. Apollo's temple was identified by Diodorus as Stonehenge. Apollo was also taken up by the Romans during their occupation of Britain. Archaeological evidence suggests that Apollo's cult was already well-established under the native form of Maponus. There is a dedication to Apollo Cunomaglus or Hound-Lord, stressing his early associations rather than the later classical attributes. Apollo was also patron of Troy - the mythical origin of the British.
# 258 - 454 - 562
(AA-KI-taen)
One of three peoples inhabiting Gaul when C'sar's conquest began.
# 562
Dolmens equal to those known from the Celtic countries found in Arabia.
# 562
The home of the giant Rience (Ritho), also called Mount Aravia, nowadays known as Snowdonia. # 156
# 562: (a ROWN) A king in Annwn; appeals to Pwyll for help against Hafgan, and exchanges kingdoms for a year with Pwyll. Annwn corresponds with Abyss or Chaos; the principle of destruction in Cymric cosmogony. # 156: The name Arawn is used to translate Auguselus, the brother of Urien, in a Welsh version of Geoffrey. THE TRIADS also makes mention of an Arawn, son of Kynvarch. In Welsh tradition Arawn was the name of the king of Annwfn, but it may also have been the name of Urien's brother in Welsh legend before Geoffrey wrote his HISTORIA. # 454: God of the Underworld, Annwn. He appears in PWYLL, PRINCE OF DYFED as a huntsman, pursuing a white stag with a pack of red-eared hounds. He is frequently challenged by other would-be claimants for his title, 'Pen Annwn' or Head of Annwn, two such stories involve Hafgan and Amatheon. He gave pigs - originally underworld animals - to Pwyll in return for having rid him of Hafgan. He seems to cede place, seasonally, to another in order to retain his position and so is closely related to the other South Welsh God of the Underworld, Gwynn ap Nudd, who engages in a similar seasonal contest.
# 104 - 156 - 272 - 439 - 454 - 562
The father of the two woman warriors who taught CuChulain, Scathach and Aoife. His name means 'High Power'.
# 454
Emain Macha now represented by grassy ramparts of a hill-fortress close to Ard Macha. It enshrines the memory of the Fairy Bride and her heroic sacrifice.
# 562
(ard ree) (High King) Dermot MacKerval, of Ireland.
# 562
An uncle of Arthur, mentioned in French romance. Brother of Naisi, who was the lover of Deirdriu.
# 156 - 562
CuChulain places withe round pillar-stone of Ardcullin. When the host of Maev came to Ardcullin, the withe upon the pillar-stone was found and brought to Fergus to decipher it (it was cut in Ogham). There was none amongst the host who could emulate the feat of CuChulain, and so they went into the wood and encamped for the night. A heavy snowfall took place, and they were all in much distress, but next day the sun rose gloriously, and over the white plain they marched away into Ulster, counting the prohibition as extending only for one night. In the Irish bardic literature, as in the Homeric epics, chastity formed no part of the masculine ideal either for gods or men.
# 562
Ath Fherdia, which is pronounced and now spelt 'Ardee'. It is in Co. Louth, at the southern border of the Plain of Murthemney, which was CuChulain's territory. The name of the little town of Ardee, as we have seen, commemorates the tragic death of Ferdia at the hand of his 'heart companion,' the noblest hero of the Gael.
# 562
See: ARTHURET.
# 156: The Queen of Avalon, an elf, to whom, according to Layamon, Arthur went after his last battle. It has been suggested that she was a form of the British goddess Arianhrod.
# 454: The name is possibly a corruption of Morgan le Fay (i.e. Morgante)
# 156 - 454 - 697
When Merlin was a boy (according to Italian romance), he prophesied that this man would be hanged, drowned and burned. Argistes set fire to Merlin's house. The fire spread to his own, so he rushed to the well, but the chain entwined itself about his neck. As he was in the well, people threw in burning rafters. Thus he died in the way Merlin had foretold.
# 156 - 238
In Y SAINT GREAL, the Welsh version of the Grail story, another son of Elaine, the mother of Galahad.
# 156 - 740
An ancestor of Lot.
# 156 - 344
# 628: (aree AN rod) Arianrhod appears in Welsh Celtic mythology as one of the major characters. The key to the nature of this goddess is that she is a weaver, in control of the interactions of human lives and of the matter of creation itself. In Irish tradition we find that the goddess of the Land of Erin may manifest as a weaver. # 562: Sister of Gwydion; proposed as virgin foot-holder to Math; Dylan and Llew sons of Arianrhod. See also: ARGANTE.
# 454: Mistress of the otherworld tower of initiation. Caer Sidi, where poets learn starry wisdom and where the dead go between incarnations. She appears in the story of MATH, SON OF MATHONWY as the daughter of Don and sister of Gwydion. When Math loses his footholder, she applies for the post. This involves a magical test of virginity by which she steps over Math's wand. On doing so, she gives birth to two infants: Dylan, and the premature Llew, whom Gwydion scoops up, incubates and raises as his protégé. - Having been so shamed before the whole court, Arianrhod lays a geise upon Llew: that he shall have no name, no arms and no human wife. All three prohibitions are overcome with the help of Gwydion's magic. The sub-text of the story and earlier references suggest that both her children were incestuously conceived with Gwydion her brother, or by Math, her uncle. The Corona Borealis is named Caer Arianrhod in Welsh - the self-same constellation which is associated with Ariadne, a Greek resonance of Arianrhod.
# 272 - 439 - 454 - 562 - 628 p 84 ff
# 156: In Malory, a cowherd who raised Tor, son of King Pellinore, whom he believed to be his own child. In French romance, he was a king and the real father of Tor. # 454: He went on to become an excellent knight of the Round Table. Aries is probably the only character in the entire Arthurian saga who was of humble origin.
# 156 - 243 - 454
Aristotle knew that the Celts dwelt 'beyond Spain', that they had captured Rome, and that they set great store by warlike power.
# 562
Invisible dwelling of Lir on Slieve Fuad in County.
# 562
According to FLORIANT ET FLORETE this country was ruled in King Arthur's time by King Turcans. Actually, in this period Armenia was ruled by Persian representatives or by leaders who were in revolt against Persia, such as Shapur of Ravy (AD 483-84)
See PARMENIE.
# 156
In Wolfram, Arthur's mother who was rescued by Gawain from the clutches of Klingsor.
# 156 - 748
One of the Twenty-four Knights of Arthur's Court. See also:
# 104 - 156
The sword of Lancelot.
# 454
Evidence of Celtic characteristics, regarding Arrian. If these ancient references to the Celts could be read aloud, without mentioning the name of the race to whom they referred, to any person acquainted with it through modern history alone, he would without hesitation, name the Celtic peoples as the subject of the description which he had heard.
# 562
# 156: In the Irish romance entitled CAITHREIM CONGHAIL CLAIRINGNIGH (edited by P. M. McSweeney and published by the Irish Texts Society), the son of Arthur. In other Irish material, this Art was the son of King Conn of the Hundred Battles, a legendary character, perhaps a god in origin, who was thought to have reigned in prehistoric times (also called Aoinfhear). # 454: The son of Conn Cetchathach. He was banished from Ireland at the request of his step-mother, Becuma, but returned to reign in his father's absence. Becuma desired him secretly, but challenged him to a game of fidchell (a chess-like game) in which the stake was to be the wand of Cu Roi. Art won and forced Becuma to obtain this. He won the second game and had to go on a perilous quest for Delbchaem, daughter of Coinchend. He overcame giants, hags and the warrior-woman, Coinchend herself, to win Delbchaem.
# 156 - 188 - 439 - 454
Art son of Conn of the Hundred Victories, referred in the ADVENTURES OF CONNLA THE FAIR, was one of the early traditional kings of Ireland, his reign extending from AD 220 to 254. As a usual thing the material regarding traditional kings is later in time of composition than the material of the Ulster cycle. This story, however, although it appears in a late manuscript, has all the appearance of belonging to the Old-Irish tradition. In this, as in several other stories dealing with the early kings, there is a rather strong emphasis on the legal and governmental system of ancient Ireland. Superstitions regarding the kingship, curious ideas about the influence of the moral and physical state of the monarch upon that of his people, the custom of human sacrifice for the good of the country - all these make the material of this selection especially interesting to the student of early Irish social history. Here, as in numerous other romantic tales included in the above mentioned work, we encounter the motif of a visit to the fairy world, the Land of Promise, the Land of Youth. Conn and Art are regarded as contemporaries of Finn mac Cumhal.
# 166
A god in Celtic mythology who occupies the place of Gwydion.
# 562
This personage occurs for the first time in Geoffrey where, as Artgualchar, he is described as an earl or count of Guarensis (Warwick). Richard Grafton, in his Cronicle at Large (1569), says he was a Knight of the Round Table and first Earl of Warwick. Spencer says he was the son of King Cador of Cornwall and bore the arms of Achilles. Spencer further tells us that he married Britomart, the warrior maiden, daughter of King Rience.
# 156
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