The figures beneath each entry give reference numbers for the Bibliography
A tribe of Britons. See: CARATACUS.
# 156
A North Welsh ruler who is said to have driven the Irish (led by Serigi) out of Anglesey about the year AD 500. He may be identical with Cadwallon who, according to Geoffrey, ruled Gwynedd in Arthur's time.
# 156
One of the domestic spirits which is half brownie, half ghost.
It was supposed to be the spirit of a Northumbrian stable boy
killed by one of the past Lords of Hilton in a fit of passion.
He was heard working about the kitchen at nights, but he was a
perverse spirit, for he would toss about and disarrange whatever
had been left tidy, but clean and tidy whatever had been left
dirty or in disorder. He used to be heard singing sadly at night.
He was unnecessarily pessimistic, however, for the servants put
their heads together and laid out a green cloak and hood for him.
At midnight he put them on and frisked about til cock-crow singing,
'Here's a cloak and here's a hood,
The Cauld Lad of Hilton will do nae mair good!'
And with the dawn he vanished for ever.
# 100
# 701: The cauldron was the prime female symbol of the pre-Christian world. Among the Celts, the Three Matriarchs kept the Magic Cauldron of Regeneration at the bottom of a lake, until it was brought up by Bran the Blessed to resuscitate men slain in battle. This Celt god moved on into the Grail cycle of myths, as Bron the Fisher King, and his cauldron became confused with the Christian version of the lifegiving, blood-filled vessel. - There can be no doubt that the cauldron represented the womb of the Great Goddess, who was often a trinity. It is certain also that men used to believe their reincarnation and rebirth depended upon entering such a uterine vessel to be reconstituted by its magic. Celtic cauldrons of regeneration came from the Land Beneath the Waves because the Sea Goddess was held to be the universal birth-giver. The god Cernunnos was dismembered and boiled in a cauldron in order to rise again from the dead. A boiling cauldron gave rebirth and/or magic power to Taliesin.
Cauldrons continued to be worshiped as symbols of the universal womb even into Christian times, as long as pagans met together to carry on their religion.
# 454: In ancient Celtic myth there were several cauldrons dispensing variously the properties of life, death, inspiration and wisdom. It is generally understood that these gave way in time to the image of the Holy Grail and became incorporated into the Hallows of Britain. Arthur went in search of such a cauldron to the very gates of Annwn. Bran possessed a cauldron which re-animated dead men. In the story of Taliesin, Ceridwen owned a cauldron which gave inspiration.
# 287 - 439 - 451 - 454 - 461 - 563 - 701 pp 124-5
See: BRÅ, THE BRONZE CAULDRON FROM.
See equivalent, STONE OF ABUNDANCE. See also: GRAIL.
In their rites the Welsh bards made a decoction of berries and herbs and sea foam in a vessel, which is the cauldron of the goddess Ceridwen of Celtic mythology. In the Greek mysteries of the goddess Ceres a decoction of flowers, barley, salt and sea water was used. In both rites, after a little of this had been taken by the initiates, the residue was regarded as poisonous and accursed having symbolically taken the sins and pollutions which had been cast out of the candidates. The cauldron was prepared by a ritual in which nine maidens warmed it with their breath. In the Greek mysteries nine maidens representing the nine muses (connected with Orpheus) were thought to be imbued with similar special powers. Strabo connects the Druidesses with the priestesses of Bacchus (Dionysos).
# 455: W. B. Crow: The Mistletoe Sacrement, p 54 ff
See: GUNDESTRUP CAULDRON, THE.
Caves were the great natural womb symbols and Mother Earth images worshiped by primitive peoples. A cave sacred to the Triple Goddess in the guise of 'three fairy sisters,' was revered up to the eighteenth century AD in Denbighshire (Clwyd, Cymru), by folk who claimed to see the sister's footprints around the magic spring. Another sacred cave and spring in
Scotland near Dunskey was still used for healing magic in 1791, when people came to bathe at change of moon.
# 701 p 335 ff
A castle in Staffordshire where, according to local legend, Arthur held court and succoured a lady. The existing castle dates from the thirteenth century.
# 156
People have throughout the ages held a fascination for caves. A wide variety of traditions associated with caves occurs in Welsh folklore and the stories may concern smuggling, secret places where heroes are sleeping or fugitives have hidden, treasure has been concealed or mythical beasts have had their lairs. There are many caves in Wales where King Arthur and his knights are said to be sleeping, waiting to be called on when their country has need of their services. Such caves are supposed to exist on Lliwedd near Snowdon or at Craig y Dinas in the Neath Valley. We are also informed that King Arthur's treasure is buried in a cave at Llangwyfan on Anglesey and his magical adviser is imprisoned in a cave yet to be discovered on Myrddin's Hill near Carmarthen.
Another Welsh hero sleeping in a cave is supposed to be Owain Llawgoch (Owain of the Red Hand). Some stories tell us that he sleeps in a cave in the cliff face below the romantic ruins of Carreg Cennen Castle and that he awaits the time when he will return to the outer world to become king of Britain. This hero's real name was Owain ap Thomas ap Rhodri (Owain son of Thomas, grandson of Rhodri), and he lived some six hundred years ago. It is believed that he was a direct descendant of Llewelyn, the last true Prince of Wales. "Owain Lawgoch, one of the last chieftains who fought against the English, lies with his men asleep. And here they will lie until wakened by the sound of a trumpet and a clang of arms on Rhywgoch, when they will arise and conquer their Saxon foes driving them from the land". Twm Shon Catti was another Welsh folk hero who made use of a cave in a wild and remote corner of Wales. It is situated on a rocky hillside overlooking some waterfalls on the River Tywi about 12 miles north of Llandovery. His real name was Thomas Jones and during the sixteenth century he seemed to achieve a reputation as a sort of Robin Hood robbing the rich and giving to the poor. He used this small rock shelter as a hiding place when escaping from the local sheriff. Such caves as Porth yr Ogof near Ystradfellte in the Brecon Beacons National Park were visited in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by travellers who made amazing claims with regard to their lengths. Some even believed that caves led down to the very depths of Hell and wrote such descriptions as: 'We found this cave very hollow, and so dark... we thought certainly we had come to the confines of the Infernal Regions, or some such dismal place, and we began to be afraid to visit it for although we entered in frolicksome and merry, yet we might return out of it sad and pensive and never more to be seen to laugh whilst we lived in the world, such dreadful apprehension seized upon some of us.' Exaggerated descriptions of the lengths of the caves were often coupled with accounts of adventurous dogs who disappeared down dark holes in the ground eventually to emerge many miles away. Other stories may concern a musician who enters a cave and is never seen again, though for years after his disappearance people claim to hear his music still playing. Such an example concerns a cave near Llanymynech in North Wales. A harpist apparently discovered that a local cave led beneath Llanymynech Church. He subsequently laid a wager with his mates that his harp would be heard in church one Sunday but he would not be there. According to the story, one Sunday as he foretold, his harp was heard from beneath the church floor but the underground harpist was never seen again although his music could still be heard on certain occasions.
# 49
According to Welsh tradition, the father of Gildas, Hueil and Cywyllog. Caw himself was regarded as a saint.
# 156 - 320
(keeask) The Highland mermaid, also known as Maighdean na Tuinne or 'maiden of the wave'. Her body was that of a maiden while her tail was that of a young salmon. She was able to grant three wishes, if captured and could only be overcome by the destruction of her soul, which was normally kept elsewhere, in an object or land-feature. See: MERROW.
# 100 - 454
(ky) Key.
(ceh'lin) Wife of Balor; fought in the Battle of Moytura, in which she mortally wounded the Dagda.
# 166
Son of the first Nascien who came to Britain and became king of Scotland. He was an ancestor of Galahad. His name seems to have been derived from Caledonia, the Latin term for Scotland.
# 156 - 434 - 604
The name of the great forest of Arthurian Britain, site of one of Arthur's battles. Merlin was said to have wandered there in his madness.
# 242 - 454 - 630
One of three peoples inhabiting Gaul when Caesar's conquest began.
# 562
# 562: (kelt-yar) The huge grey warrior, son of Uthecar Hornskin, lay moaning on his bed under the Debility curse, laid on him and others by Macha.
# 454: Celtchair was a Red Branch warrior who, in the act of slaying his adulterous wife's lover, let fall a drop of blood upon the fidchell (chess) board which Conchobar mac Nessa and CuChulain were playing at. This was a breach of hospitality for which Celtchair was ordered to perform three separate feats to rid Ireland of three plagues. He had to kill Cu Roi mac Daire's brother, Conganchas, who was devastating the land but who was invulnerable to ordinary weapons. He learned from Conganchas' wife, Niamh, that her husband could be slain only by having spear-tips thrust into the soles of his feet. The second plague was an otherworldly dog which he slew. The last plague was another dog who he dispatched but whose venomous blood trickled from Conganchas' spear on to him, by which he died.
# 166 - 454 - 562
As astronomers have discerned the existence of an unknown planet by the perturbations which it has caused in the courses of those already under direct observation, so we can discern in the fifth and fourth centuries BC the presence of a great power and of mighty movements going on behind a veil which will never be lifted now. This was the Golden Age of Celtdom in Continental Europe.
# 562
Diffusion of Celtic power in Mid-Europe. The battle of Rome took place on july 18 AD 390, that ill-omened Dies Alliensis which long perpetuated in the Roman calendar the memory of the deepest shame the republic had ever known. For nearly a year the Celts remained masters of the city. A treaty was concluded and for almost a century there was peace between the Celts and the Romans. Contributing to upbreaking of the Celtic Empire was evidently, that certain Celtic tribes allied themselves with their old enemy, the Etruscans, in the third Samnite war.
2. Celtic place names found throughout Europe and in the British Isles. Among several other examples take the word dunum, so often traceable in Gaelic place names in the present day (Dundalk, Dunrobin, etc.), and meaning fortress or castle. It occurred very frequently in France Lug-dunum (Lyon), Viro-dunum (Verdun), and in the Netherlands where the city of Leyden goes back to Celtic Lug-dunum.
3. Early Celtic Art. Relics of ancient Celtic art-work dating back to 750 to 400 Bc were discovered in Hallstatt, Austria. These relics betoken in some cases a high standard of civilisation and considerable commerce.
4. The etymological history of Celtic words are very interesting , but far too voluminous for this column, and for interested readers we refer to the ancient work: Jubainville's PREMIERS HABITANTS, ii 355-356. -
5. Weakness of Celtic policy made space for Teutonic predominance and which became the main political factor in the development of the European nations.
6. Celtic religion was based entirely on Druidism as the priesthood, but with a huge amounts of local gods, goddesses and heroes. See also CATHOLIC CHURCH.
7. The Tumulus at New Grange in Ireland are traditionally, besides the dwelling place of fairies, the burialplace of High Kings of pagan Ireland.
8. The origins of the 'Celtic' immortality occurred first in Gaul under Roman influence, and derive certainly from Egypt. The carvings in question are pre-Celtic. They are found where no Celts ever penetrated.
9. Names of Celtic Deities. The Megalithic People did not imagine their deities under concrete personal form. Stones, rivers, wells, trees, and other natural objects were to them the adequate symbols. But the imaginative mind of the Aryan Celt was not content with this. And from there they were mixed up with the gods from the antiquity and classical world.
10. The Celtic conception of Death, See: OTHERWORLD.
11. Five factors of ancient Celtic culture. The popular superstitions and magical observances. Secondly, a thoughtful and philosophic creed having its central object of worship the Sun. Thirdly, a worship of personified deities as Aesus, Teutates, Lugh and others as guardians of social laws. Fourthly, the Romans were deeply impressed with the existence among the Druids of a body of teaching of a quasi-scientific nature about natural phenomena and the constitution of the universe. Lastly, the sacerdotal organisation and the atmosphere of religious awe with which it was surrounded, became the sovereign power, social, political, and religious, in every Celtic country.
12. It is verified by many scolars that the descendants of the Megalithic People at the present day are, on the psysical side, deeply impregnated with Celtic blood, and on the spiritual side with Celtic traditions and ideals.
13. The Celtic Cosmogony. In the early Irish accounts of the beginnings of things, we find that it is not with the World that the narrators make their start - it is simply with their own country, with Ireland; but what took the place of the Biblical narrative in pre-Christian days we do not know, and unfortunately, are now never likely to know.
14. 'Barddas'(i.e) is a work of certain current of sixteenthcentury Cymric thoughts.
What Europe owes to the Celt.
His contribution to the culture of the Western world was a very notable one. For some four centuries-about AD 500 to 900-Ireland was the refuge of learning and the source of literature and philosophic culture for half Europe. The myths and legends of the Gaelic and Cymric peoples kindled the imagination of a host of Continental poets. True, the Celt did not himself create any great architectural work of literature, just as he did not create a stable or imposing national polity. His thinking and feeling were essentially lyrical and concrete. Each object or aspect of life impressed him vividly and stirred him profoundly; he was sensitive, impressionable to the last degree, but did not see things in their larger and more far-reaching relations. He had little gift for the establishment of institutions, for the service of principles; but he was, and is, an indispensable and never-failing assertor of humanity as against the tyranny of principles, the coldness and barrenness of institutions.The institutions of royalty and of civic patriotism are both very capable of being fossilised into barren formulae, and thus of fettering instead of inspiring the soul. But the Celt has always been a rebel against anything that has not in it the breath of life, against any unspiritual and purely external form of domination. It is too true that he has been overeager to enjoy the fine fruits of life without the long and patient preparation for the harvest, but he has done and will still do infinite service to the modern world in insisting that the true fruit of life is a spiritual reality, never witout pain and loss to be obscured or forgotten amid the vast mechanism of a material civilisation.
# 562
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