The figures beneath each entry give reference numbers for the Bibliography
In Spencer's FAERIE QUEENE, a warrior maiden who was the daughter of Arthur's foe, Rience. She married Artegall. Spencer took her name from that of the Cretan goddess Britomartis. The idea of a female knight may have been suggested to Spencer by Marfisa in Ariosto's ORLANDO FURIOSO. See: RADIGUND.
# 156 - 614
Geoffrey of Monmouth, like Nennius, affords a fantastic origin for the Britons.
# 562
# 562: Mané-er-H'oeck, remarkable tumulus in Brittany. Tumulus of Locmariaker in Brittany, markings on similar to those on tumulus at New Grange, Ireland. Symbol of the feet found in Brittany. Book brought from Brittany, by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, formed basis of Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'Historia Regum Britani'.' Arthurian Saga in Brittany.
# 156: A territory which, in the Arthurian period, was largely inhabited by an immigrant population from Britain. In Geoffrey, the Breton royal family was closely related to the British. He tells us that the Breton kingdom was founded when the Roman emperor Maximianus (properly called Maximus, reigned AD 383-88) bestowed the crown on Conan Meriadoc, a nephew of Octavius, elsewhere called Eudaf, King of Britain. When the British wanted a king, Conan's successor, Aldroenus, gave them Constantine, his brother. Constantine was Arthur's grandfather. In the Arthurian legend, King Hoel of Brittany was said to be Arthur's relation and ally. Traditionally, this Hoel reigned from about AD 510-45. See also: SOLOMON.
# 156 - 562
A forest which is the setting for a number of Arthurian adventures. Situated in Brittany, it is now called the Forest of Paimpont. See: BRAS-de-FER, and ESCLADOS.
# 156
A broch is a type of round, stone-walled farmhouse covered with turf to make a smooth hill which is to be found in the ancient Pictish areas of Scotland. The entrance to a broch is by a single door, and they have no shaft connecting them with the outer air such as are found in the howes. Inside are winding low passages leading to several chambers. They are defensive rather than offensive in design. R. W. Feachem considers that they were constructed not by the Picts but by the Proto-Picts, the heterogeneous tribes which were finally blended together to produce the Picts of history, that mysterious people who contribute their part to the theories of the fairy origins. These brochs, like other knolls and howes, were often called Fairy knowes and play their part in sustaining the theories of David Mac Ritchie.
# 100 - 409
The Ring of Brodgar, Orkney, is a large stone circle, originally comprising megaliths with a diameter of 103,7 m (125 megalithic yards), and surrounded by a rock-cut ditch. Thought to be contemporary with Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness and to date from approx 2400 BC. Close to Harray Loch.
No fewer than 10 stone circles remain on the island of Arran, Strathclyde, though it is clear that at one time there were many others which have not survived the ravages of men and time. Seven of the surviving circles are in the west, in the area around the Black and Machrie waters, and almost all of them have been linked with the legendary Fionn. Fionn, better known as Fingal, and linked with the music-making cave of Staffa, would have found the construction of circles from gigantic stones as relatively light work, for in earlier times he was credited with the building of Fingal's cave from basaltic blocks, as well as the construction of the entire island of Staffa and the Giant's Causeway on the northern coast of Ireland. Fionn of Celtic mythology was the son of a king who was apprenticed to a magician.
In the Celtic legends we learn how when this magician had caught the wily old salmon of knowledge and had cooked it on his stove, the young Fionn touched it with his thumb, burned it badly and held it to his mouth in order to suck it. In this way Fionn became possessed of all knowledge, and became conversant with the magical lore. According to the old stories of Atlantis (of which the Northern Islands are said to be remnants), the stone circles were built by means of magic, for the ancient priests were supposed to have the secret of anti-gravitational forces. Precisely why Fionn constructed the circles remains a mystery: two of the smaller Arran circles (one on Machrie Moor, the other at Aucheleffan) have their stones orientated to the cardinal points, which has suggested that these circles, like those at Stonehenge, were designed with calendrical purposes in mind. A convenient centre from which to explore the ancient circles and cairns is Brodick, from where roads lead to within easy walking distance of the main centres. Seven miles west of Brodick, on the west side of the island, is the Auchagallon stone circle of 15 standing stones around a circular cairn. Six miles south-south-west of Brodick is the chambered Cairn Ban, some 900 feet above sea level, and consisting of a mound of stones 100 feet by 60 feet, with the facade and forecourt at the east end. The chamber within is divided into three compartments each of 15 feet length, with a slab roof set on corbelling at a height of about eight feet. Three miles further SSW from Brodick is the chambered cairn of Torrylin, in which were preserved the skeletal remains of six adults and a child, along with the remains of otters, birds and fish. Nine miles SW of Brodick at East Bennan, is a chambered cairn roofed with large flat slabs over the 20foot gallery. Seven miles outside Brodick is the chambered cairn known locally as 'Giant's Grave'. A number of mysterious 'cup and ring' marks, consisting of double concentrics with gullies issuing downwards, as well as simple convex cups and triple concentrics, may be seen on the exposed rock face on the hill above the highest part of nearby Stronach Wood.
# 702
Saint Patrick's scribe.
# 562
One of the most feared spirits of the Highland, because it was shapeless. Tradition has it that it could only speak two phrases: 'Myself' and 'Thyself'. It took the shape of whatever it sat upon, but apart from that had only a mouth and eyes.
# 100 - 454
Also called Hebron, he was the husband of Enygeus, the sister of Joseph of Arimathea. They had twelve sons. He was given the Grail by Joseph. According to DIDOT PERCEVAL, Brons became the Rich Fisher. When he was cured, he was carried off by angels. This source also says he was Perceval's grandfather. He may be, in origin the god Bran. See: FISHER KING.
# 156 - 185 - 604
The Brown Bull of Cualgne (Cuailgne) captured at Slievegallion, Co. Armagh, by Medb (Maeve). White-Horned Bull of Ailill slain by Brown Bull of Cualgne. See: CUALGNE, THE CATTLERAID OF. The 'Táin Bó Cualgne' is the theme of the BROWN BULL.
# 166
A guardian spirit of wild beasts that inhabits the Border Country. Henderson quotes a story of an encounter with him sent by Mr Sutees to Sir Walter Scott. Two young men were out hunting on the moors near Elsdon in 1744, and stopped to eat and rest near a mountain burn. The youngest went down to the burn to drink, and as he was stooping down he saw the Brown Man of the Muirs on the opposite bank, a square, stout dwarf dressed in clothes the colour of withered bracken with a head of frizzled red hair and great glowing eyes like a bull. He fiercely rebuked the lad for trespassing on his land and killing the creatures that were in his care. For himself he ate only whortleberries, nuts and apples. 'Come home with me and see,' he said. The lad was just going to jump the burn when his friend called him and the Brown Man vanished. It was believed that if he had crossed the running stream he would have been torn to pieces. On the way home he defiantly shot some more game and it was thought that this had cost him his life, for soon after he was taken ill, and within a year he died.
# 100 - 302
# 454: Domestic spirits in the form of small men wearing brown attire. They do housework in return for a bowl of milk, but they must never be offered any reward else they are driven away.
# 100: One of the fairy types most easily described and most recognizable. His territory extends over the Lowlands of Scotland and up into the Highlands and Islands, all over the north and east of England and into the Midlands. With a natural linguistic variation he becomes the Bwca of Wales, The Highland Bodach and the Manx Fenodoree. In the West Country, Pixies or Pisgies occasionally perform the offices of a brownie and show some of the same characteristics, though they are essentially different. In various parts of the country, friendly Lobs and Hobs behave much like brownies. The Border brownies are the most characteristic. They are generally described as small men, about three feet in height, very raggedly dressed in brown clothes, with brown faces and shaggy heads, who come out at night and do the work that has been left undone by the servants. They make themselves responsible for the farm or house in which they live; reap, mow, thresh, herd the sheep, prevent the hens from laying away, run errands and give good counsel at need. A brownie will often become personally attached to one member of the family. In return he has a right to a bowl of cream or best milk and to a specially good bannock or cake. William Henderson in FOLK LORE OF THE NORTHERN COUNTIES describes a brownie's portion: He is allowed his little treats, however, and the chief of these are knuckled cakes made of meal warm from the mill, toasted over the embers and spread with honey. The housewife will prepare these, and lay them carefully where he may find them by chance. When a titbit is given to a child, parents will still say to him, 'There's a piece wad please a Brownie.'
# 100 - 302 - 454
(broo) According to J. F. Campbell, the word 'brugh' means the interior of a fairy mound or knowe and is the same word as 'borough'. It generally means a place where quite a number of fairies live together, and not just the home for a family. The outside of the brugh is the sithien.
# 100 - 131
(brooh' na bô'i ne) A famous fairy-mound; a group of pre-historic mounds and the surrounding district, on the River Boyne near Stackallen Bridge, in modern Leinster. It was pointed out to CuChulain.
# 166 - 562
(broo'yen) A banqueting hall, apparently provided with compartments.
# 166
(broo'yen dô yar'ga) A famous stronghold on the River Dodder near Dublin.
# 166
A nephew of King Claudas who sat on the siege Perilous and was destroyed for his temerity.
# 156
The wife of Jaufré.
# 156
Also dubbed 'La Cote Male-Taile' by Sir Kay because of his illfitting clothes. He came to Camelot as a poor man and was made a scullion. After many adventures he married the damsel Maledisant and became the Overlord of Pendragon Castle. He shares many of the attributes of Gareth and is probably a later shadow of the Orkney knight. See: BREUNOR.
# 454
One of the best knights of the Old Table.
# 156 - 238
The hero of an Italian romance, BRUTO DI BRETTAGNA, in which he obtains a hawk, a scroll and two brachets (small hounds) at Arthur's court to give to his lover.
# 156 - 238
The great-grandson of Aeneas. He accidently killed his father and fled from Italy to Greece, where he became the acknowledged leader of the enslaved Trojans. He led them away and, having been instructed by Diana while sleeping in her temple, sailed to Britain where he founded a second Troy - Troia Nova (Trinovantum) on the banks of the Thames. He defeated an army of giants and chained their leaders, Gog and Magog, to be his porters (See GOGMAGOG). Alternatively, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Corineus threw the giant Gogmagog into the sea. He is remembered as the ancestor of the Britons. See also: TROY.
# 243 - 454
Called the Faithless, he killed Estonne, who was Lord of the Scottish Wilderness and was killed in turn by Passaleon, Estonne's son, an ancestor of Merlin (# 103). (Estonne is a minor character in the romance of Perceforest).
# 156 - 198
An early legendary king, thought to be the father of a great many saints even as many as sixty-three. However many children there were, they are supposed to have had a reunion on the last day of each year. The truth behind all this is the fact of a Celtic tribal group, which had adopted the Christian faith, living in Powys and sending both monks and nuns on the journey south from Wales across the south-west and on to Brittany. His feast-day is 6 April. See: BRYNACH, and GWLADYS, SAINT and KYNVARCH.
# 156 - 216 - 678
The rocks of Carningli, the rock of the angels, surmounted by the remains of an Iron Age fort, stand at the western edge of Mynydd Preseli in Pembrokeshire. To the north, the Afon Nyfer joins the sea at Newport after flowing through the village of Nevern, where the sixth-century Brynach made his settlement. A tall Celtic cross still stands in the churchyard there. Brynach was an Irishman, who left his native country to become a colleague of David and soul friend of Brychan (q.v.), who was also to become his father-in-law - for although the Celtic church made no insistence on celibacy, Brychan is one of the few whose marriage is recorded. It was indeed one of his wife's kinsmen, Clether, who gave him the land around the banks of the Nyfer on which to make his settlement. This Clether may well have been related to the fifthcentury Clutar, who is named in both Irish and Latin ogham inscriptions on the stone preserved inside the church at Nevern, on a window sill at the eastern end of the nave. Legend has it that Carningli (the rock of the angels) got its name because it was the place where Brynach chose to spend time as a solitary hermit and was granted angelic visions. Perhaps he went there because you can sometimes see the Wicklow Hills from that height, and perhaps he chose to live in a deserted hill fort in order to follow the example of the first Christian hermit, Antony of Egypt, who lived for twenty years in the deserted hill fort of Pispir. His feast-day is 7 April.
# 678
In February 1952 the discovery was made at Brå, near Horsens in East Jutland, of well-preserved bronze animal figures, iron rings, and a quantity of crumpled bronze sheeting. This heap of metal had originally formed an immense bronze cauldron with an iron rim, rim handles and an ornamentation of high artistic merit. It had not been so thoroughly destroyed, however, as to make it impossible to reconstruct its shape, which recalls that of other Celtic cauldrons found in Denmark, at Rynkeby on Funen and at Sophienborg in Zealand. Like these it bears bulls' heads, looking outwards from below the rim; but the style of the decoration is different, fresher and more expressive.
As a summarise of the survey of early Celtic influence in the Brå Find, Ole Klindt-Jensen writes in THE BRONZE CAULDRON FROM BRÅ (# 373): 'A definite Celtic touch can first be noted towards the end of Early La Tène, Ic, the very period to which the Brå cauldron belongs. The Plastic style is imitated on massive Danish bronze fibulae and torques, types which in all other respects trace their ancestry to the earliest Iron Age or the latest periods of the Bronze Age.
The shield bosses of the Hjortspring hoard are influenced by the earliest Celtic iron-plated bosses from La Tène Ic. Together with a torque with signet-like terminals, the Brå cauldron (and probably also the Mellerup beakers) represent the Celtic imports from that period. It is therefore exeedindly probable that the Brå cauldron was imported towards the end of La Tène I, the period when we see clear evidence of influences from Celtic culture.
The Jastorf pottery, which in Sprockhoff's opinion imitates Celtic ware from the beginnings of La Tène, has parallels in Denmark. But, even if his working hypothesis is accepted in full, it is nevertheless probable that this influence first made itself felt in Denmark towards the end of La Tène I, for example via the HunsrückEiffel group. As we have seen, the Plastic Style (La Tène Ic) is found directly on objects of Halstatt tradition, without any influence of the Early Celtic Style or of the Waldalgesheim Style being discernible. In the course of La Tène II and III the contacts between Denmark and the Celts were strengthened, and even after the Celts lost their political independence they remained a source of cultural inspiration to the peoples of the north during the first two centuries AD.
A variety of imported articles such as torques and belt sections from Celtic and Celto-Germanic Middle La Tène can beseen in Denmark, as well as the results of contemporary influences on native torques, bronze belts and fibulae. It is possible, however, that the lastnamed are later, from Late La Tène, the period which par exellence reveals Celtic influence. The rich chariot-burial, Grave A 1 at Kraghede, stands out as a distinguished example of that period's work. It is perhaps the grave of a chieftain who had especially good opportunities to obtain the coveted foreign articles. In any case the grave furniture reveals a considerable Celtic manufacture to objects showing Celtic features, such as an iron fibula of Late La Tène type and the pottery drinking vessel with a Celtic hunting scene carried out in dotted lines. It is therefore remarkable that we do not see the beginnings of Celtic art more clearly reflected in the Danish discoveries, which otherwise have provided some of the most important specimens bearing witness to Celtic culture's distinction and originality. Now to the magnificent discoveries of a later period - the Gundestrup cauldron, the Dejbjerg carts and the Rynkeby cauldron - is added the Brå cauldron, the finest example known of Celtic Plastic art, and at the same time evidence of important early connections between the Celts and Denmark.
# 373
The name of two kings of Brittany, according to Geoffrey. One brought up the exiled Ambrosius and Uther. The other married Arthur's sister, Anna, and was the father of Arthur's supporter, Hoel. There may be a confused memory here of King Budic I of Corouaille (in Brittany) who traditionally reigned before AD 530.
# 156
His mother, Azenor, was thrown into the English Channel while pregnant, by her step-mother who believed her to be unfaithful to her husband. The unfortunate woman was sustained by visions of Saint Brigit and was brought ashore in Waterford, Ireland, where she became a washerwoman at the monastery. Here Budoc grew up, later becoming the Bishop of Dol in Brittany. He is the patron of Budock in Cornwall. His feast-day is 8 December.
# 454
Manx goblin which can change its shape, and which is vicious, delighting in undoing the work of human beings.
# 454
These are all generally treated as Nursery Bogies, set up to scare children into good behaviour. They are discussed in some detail by Gillian Edwards in HOBGOBLIN AND SWEET PUCK as an extension from the early Celtic 'bwg'. Most of these words are applied to imaginary fears along the lines of 'How easy is a bush supposed a bear'. This use of a bugbear is illustrated in a translation of an Italian play published c. 1565 called THE BUGBEAR. It is about mock conjurors.
# 100
(boo'ik) Son of Banblai, slain by CuChulain.
# 562
# 701: White sacrificial bulls embodied not only ancestral gods, even the Druidic oak god, killed at the moment when the sacred mistletoe was cut from the tree. A central shrine of this cult in Britain was Bury Saint Edmunds, where the 'burial' seems to have been the heads of the annually sacrificed bulls, and the taurine god himself was incongruously canonized as Saint Edmund. The monastery records show that the 'martyr' was incarnate every year in a white bull, his virile powers adored by women who 'visit the tomb of the glorious martyr St. Edmund to make oblation to the same white bull.' - The Presbytery of Dingwall recorded pagan-style bull sacrifices even as late as the seventeenth century on the holy day of Diana in August, together with adoration of wells and holed stones, and other local shrines listed as 'ruinous chapels' or 'superstitious monuments.'
# 161: Celtic and pre-Celtic cults gave great importance to the bull, which in its solar aspect, was associated with horses, stags and swans. Warriors needed to possess the qualities and characteristics of the bull, and bull-slaying and sacrifice appeared frequently in Celtic rites; the animal was also ritually killed for divination. There were the Three Bull Protectors of the Island of Britain mentioned in one of the WELSH TRIADS and there was a three-horned sacred bull. For the Druids the sacrificial white bull was the sun, with the Cow the earth.
# 454: A primal symbol of strength and potency, the bull is a frequent figure in British mythology. It is possible that the bull was a special totemic animal of kingly rule and that sacred herds of cattle played a prominent part in ancient rituals. The 'Tarbh-feis,' or bullfeast was perhaps a remnant of this understanding: among the Gaelic peoples, a white bull was slaughtered and a druid would drink of its blood and eat of its flesh in preparation for sleeping wrapped in the flayed hide. His subsequent dreams would determine the rightful king to be elected. The bull is the central cause of the 'Tain Bo Cuailgne' (Cattle Raid of Cooley). The Isle of Man is haunted by the Taroo-Ushtey or Water Bull, which, similar to the EACHUISGE is a beast to be avoided or treated with caution for it can drag mortals into the sea and drown them. The bull is also the shape into which a knight is enchanted in the folk-story, 'The Black Bull of Norroway.'
# 161 - 389 - 423 - 438 - 454 - 701 p 366 ff
Abductor of Pulzella Gaia, the daughter of Morgan. Lancelot rescued her from him.
# 156 - 238
Place in Shropshire where, according to local legend, Arthur held court.
# 156
Remarks of Professor Bury, regarding the Celtic world: 'For the purpose of prosecuting that most difficult of all inquiries, the ethnical problem, the part played by race in the development of peoples and the effects of race-blendings, it must be remembered that the Celtic world commands one of the chief portals of ingress into that mysterious pre-Aryan foreworld, from which it may well be that we modern Europeans have inherited far more than we dream.'
# 121 - 562
The Celts believed in fly-souls and butterfly-souls which, like birdsouls, flew about seeking a new mother. It was thought that women become pregnant by swallowing such creatures. In Irish myth, Etain took the form of a butterfly for seven years, then entered the drinking cup of Etar (Etarre), who swallowed her, and so brought her to rebirth. In her second incarnation, Etain married Eochy, the High King of Ireland. In Cornwall spirits still forms as white butterflies.
# 701 p 415
(boobachod) The Welsh equivalent of the Brownies, whom they very closely resemble both in their domestic helpfulness and their capacity for obstreperous and even dangerous behaviour when they are annoyed. According to Sikes in BRITISH GOBLINS, they have one outstanding characteristic, which is their dislike of teetotallers and of dissenting ministers. Sikes tells a story of a Cardiganshire bwbach who took a special spite against a Baptist preacher, jerking away the stool from under his elbows when he was kneeling, interrupting his prayers by clattering the fire-irons or grinning in at the window. Finally he frightened the preacher away by appearing as his double, which was considered to be ominous of death. This was a bogy or bogey-beast prank beyond the range of most brownies, otherwise the Bwbach differed only linguistically. See also: BWCA.
# 100 - 596
(booka) A story collected by John Rhys in CELTIC FOLK LORE shows how close the connection can be between the Brownie and Boggart, or the Bwca and Bugan. Long ago a Monmouthshire farm was haunted by a spirit of whom everyone was afraid until a young maid came, merry and strong and reputed to be of the stock of the Bendith y Mamau, and she struck up a great friendship with the creature, who turned out to be a bwca, who washed, ironed and spun for her and did all manner of household work in return for a nightly bowl of sweet milk and wheat bread or flummery. This was left at the bottom of the stairs every night and was gone in the morning; but she never saw him, for all his work was done at night. One evening for sheer wantonness she put some of the stale urine used for a mordant in his bowl instead of milk. She had reason to regret it, for when she got up next morning the bwca attacked her and kicked her all over the house, yelling: 'The idea that the thick-buttocked lass, should give barley-bread and piss, to the bogle!' After that she never saw him again, but after two years they heard of him at a farm near Hafod ys Ynys, where he soon made great friends with the servant girl, who fed him most delicately with constant snacks of bread and milk and played no unseemly pranks on him. She had one fault, however, and that was curiosity. She kept on asking to be allowed to see him and to be told his name - without succes. One night, however, she made him believe that she was going out after the men, and shut the door, but stayed inside herself. Bwca was spinning industriously at the wheel, and as he span he sang: 'How she would laugh, did she know that Gwarwyn-A-Throt is my name.''Aha!' cried the maid, at the bottom of the stairs, 'now I have your name, Gwarwyn-a-Throt!' At which he left the wheel standing, and she never saw him again.
He went to a neighbouring farm, where the farm-hand, Moses, became his great friend. All would have gone well with poor Gwarwyn-a-Throt but that his friend Moses was sent off to fight Richard Crookback and was killed at Bosworth Field. After the loss of this friend the poor bwca went completely to the bad and spent all his time in senseless pranks, drawing the ploughing oxen out of the straight and throwing everything in the house about at night-time. At length he became so destructive that the farmer called in a Dyn Cynnil (wise man) to lay him. He succeeded in getting the bwca to stick his long nose out of the hole where he was hiding, and at once transfixed it with an awl. Then he read an incantation sentencing the bwca to be transported to the Red Sea for fourteen generations. He raised a great whirlwind, and, as it began to blow, plucked out the awl so that the poor bwca had changed his shape with his nature, for brownies were generally noseless, and he was nicknamed in this farm 'Bwca'r Trwyn', 'the Bwca with the Nose'.
# 100 - 554
According to Welsh legend, Arthur was killed with arrows at this pass in Snowdonia whither he had pursued his enemies after a battle at Tregalen. When he fell, his men went to a cave called Ogof Lanciau Eryri where they had intended to wait until he came back. A shepherd was once thought to have gained entrance to the cave and seen them there. He found them armed with guns!
# 156 - 554
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