The figures beneath each entry give reference numbers for the Bibliography
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In 1831 a high tide on the coast near Uig in the Isle of Lewis washed away a sand-bank and exposed a cave in which there was a small beehive-shaped building rather like the little domestic grinding querns to be found in the Highlands. A labourer working near found it, and, thinking it might contain some treasure, broke into it. He found a cache of eighty-four carved chessmen ranged together. They had an uncanny look, and he flung down his spade and ran, convinced that he had come on a sleeping company of fairies. His wife was of sterner stuff and made him go back and fetch them. The greater part of them are now in the British Museum. Replicas have been made of them, but the originals, all mustered together, are much more impressive. A tradition has arisen about them. It is said that the guards who take the guard-dogs round at night cannot get them to pass the Celtic chessmen. They bristle and drag back on their haunches. So perhaps the Highlander's superstition can be excused.
# 100
This city was named Deva in classical times but it was also known as the City of the Legion, as was Caerleon-upon-Usk. R. B. Stoker, in his THE LEGACY OF ARTHUR'S CHESTER (1965), argues that Chester, rather than Caerleon, was Arthur's chief city. Geoffrey Ashe (#75) suggests that Arthur's battle at the City of the Legion was fought there.
# 33 - 100
He rescued his sister, Burd Ellen, who was trapped in the Underworld by its king, with the help of Merlin.
# 68 - 76 - 454
Lir and his son Manannan were gods of the sea. The story of The Children of Lir is not as old as the story of the Children of Tuirenn but its theme connects it with the earliest stories of Irish mythology. It is set in the time after the conquest of the Gaels, when Tuatha De Danaan had taken to the Sidh mounds of their underground kingdom. Lir, is the same character used by Shakespeare in his play 'King Lear'. Once, at an election for kingship where Lir was disregarded, he left his sidh at Fionnachaidh in northern Ireland, and retired to the north in a rage. The two of Lir's wives died, and the third, Aoife, was so jealous of Lir's children, that she turned them into swans by her druidic wand. Sadly, the swan maiden Fionnguala called out to Aoife, accusing her and prophesying her destruction. Aoife replied triumphantly, 'that for at least three times three hundred years, and until a man from Connacht in the north shall be united with a woman from Munster in the south, will you were bound by the spell'. A lot of events occurred to the four gifted and enchanted swans during these nine hundred years, but eventually the prophesy was fulfilled: violence broke the long enchantment and instead of singing swans, the king of Connacht and his new-wedded wife, the daughter of the king of Munster, whose name was Deoca, saw before them, not, indeed, the radiant forms of the Danaan divinities, but four withered, snow-haired, and miserable human beings, shrunken in the decrepitude of their vast old age. Lairken, the King, flies from the place in horror, but the friend of the swans, the hermit prepares to administer baptism at once, as death is rapily approaching them. And so it was done, and they went to heaven; but the hermit, it is said, sorrowed for them to the end of his earthly days.
# 565 p 29 ff
The British equivalents of the Irish Children of Lir.
# 562
'The Fate of the Children of Tuirenn' is one of a group of narratives known in Irish tradition as 'The Three Sorrows of Story-Telling,' the others being 'The Exile of the Sons of Usnech', and 'The Fate of the Children of Lir.' The first part of the story, telling how Nuada got his silver arm and how the Fomorians came to invade Ireland, merely serves as an introduction and has only a superficial connection with the main plot, which is concerned with the tragically desperate attempts of the sons of Tuirenn to carry out the impossible tasks imposed upon them by Lugh as the blood-price for his father, Cian, who, like the other major personages, is of the Tuatha De Danann. The narrative contains numerous references to the BOOK OF INVASIONS, and 'The Second Battle of Mag Tured'. The tale, although it deals with events of the remote past, is comparatively late in date. Contrasted with the earlier and sterner pieces that compose the Ulster cycle, it may appear somewhat overwrought and unduly burdened with romantic incident; yet it builds up to a conclusion full of tragic pathos.
# 166
According to the eccentric R. W. Morgan (HISTORY OF BRITAIN), this King of Orleans (reigned AD 511-24) died fighting against Arthur. Actually, he perished in battle fighting against the Burgundians.
# 156
The Cornish chough is believed to be the form in which Arthur exists, prior to his coming again.
# 454
According to J. Morris (# 484), he led a rebellion against Clothair, King of the Francs, who was aided by Cunomorus (see MARK). Morris claims both fell in the battle.
# 156 - 484
French poet, influential in bringing the Arthurian saga into the poetic literature of Europe; Gautier de Denain the earliest continuator of him. Variation of his 'Le Chevalier au lion' seen in 'The Lady of the Fountain'. - The 'Tale of Enid and Geraint' based on Erec of Chrétien de Troyes. - Peredur corresponds to the Perceval of Troyes; his 'Conte del Graal' or 'Perceval le Gallois'. Manessier a continuator of Chrétien de Troyes (sometimes called Chréstien de Troyes).
# 562
Symbolism, the hand as emblem of power in Christian faith, which is heard of by King Cormac and ere preached by St Patrick. Christian influences in Ireland and the Milesian myth; Christian ideas, gathered around CuChulain and his lord King Conor of Ulster; pagan ideals contrasted with Christian in Oisin dialogues. Myrddin dwindles under influences.
# 562
The popular images of Wales between the Roman occupation and the arrival of the Normans are of heroic warrior kingdoms and travelling saints, of Celtic revival and of tradition of mythical history. The period has been referred to by many terms, some accompanied by a confusion of definitions, such as the Dark Ages, the Early Medieval period, the Early Middle Ages, the Early Christian period, the Age of Saints, the Age of Arthur and the Later Celtic period. While recent surveys have usefully employed terms equivalent to those for Saxon England, such as 'Sub-Roman' (AD 350-450), Early Christian (AD 450-650), 'Middle Phase' (AD 650-850) and 'Cambro-Norse' (AD 850-1066).
Over the last 40 years, considerable progress has been made in historical and archaeological research into the period, with studies of charters and with excavations at fortified sites such as Dinas Emrys (Gwynedd), Dinas Powys (South Glamorgan) and Llangorse crannog (Powys), and at Early Christian cemeteries such as Caer Bayvil (Dyfed), Caerwent (Gwent) and Capel Maelog (Powys). The inscribed stones of various kinds are the most numerous visible relics of the Christian Celts in Wales, and they form the backbone of the book THE CHRISTIAN CELTS as National Museum of Wales published in 1991. They span a period from the 5th to the 12th centuries, illustrate the Christianity and artistic styles of Wales and provide evidence of its early society.
Until the end of the 4th century AD Wales was part of a Roman Empire united to a varying degree by language, law and a sophisticated system of government. From the 5th century a number of small independent tribal kingdoms or territories developed in Wales, with root in Celtic Iron Age and Roman traditions. The pattern of political developments is complex, with few continuously dominant kingdoms and little sense of 'Celtic' unity. Some early kingdoms may have maintained a semblance of late Roman authority but the evidence for the 5th century is sparse. Latin terms are used to describe official positions as if to suggest the inheritance of Roman power (for example, St Patrick's father was a Decurio) and some personal and place names derive from Roman antecedents. Gwent, for example, preserves the name of the Civitas capital Venta Silurum (now Caerwent), where the post-Roman use of an extra-mural cemetery outside the East Gate suggests that it may have continued as the focus of a small successor state. However, there was considerable political dislocation and change in the 5th and 6th centuries, and the precise circumstances of the decline and abandonment of late Roman sites are unclear. Irish raids and inter-regional hostilities resulted in the refortification of some hillforts. Gradually smaller territories were absorbed into the larger kingdoms. Dynastic change in Dyfed and Gwynedd led eventually to political change. Following the death in AD 854 of Cyngen, last king of Powys (named as patron in the inscription on the 'Pillar of Eliseg'), the kingdom was absorbed into the larger kingdom of Gwynedd. The growing ambition of Gwynedd in the late 9th century resulted in the southern Welsh kings seeking protection from the Saxon king Alfred of Wessex. Viking raids on the Welsh coast began in the mid 9th century, and the 10th century was characterised by dynastic instability. New ruling families established themselves in the south-east by c. AD 950, and by the 11th century further intrusive dynasties had moved into the south-west of Wales. A long period of wide-ranging conflict between rulers ended with the arrival of the Normans and the development of new conflicts. Christian communities existed in parts of Wales under the later Roman Empire. While there may still have been unconverted Britons in the 5th century, the history attributed to Nennius (HISTORIA BRITTONUM) suggests that Christianity survived in some form into the Early Middle Ages. It is significant that the earliest carved stones with Christian associations are particularly numerous in Wales. The artistic, religious and political development of the Principality during this period is reflected in its Early Christian monuments and distinctive artefacts.
# 547
Conversion of Ireland to Christianity. People of Dana in their fall, and attitude of Christendom. CucCulain summoned from Hel by St Patrick to prove truths of Christianity to High King Laery. - The effect of Christianity on Irish literature, are but for the early manuscripts in which the tales are fortunately enshrined such a work as the TAIN BO CUAILGN, the greatest thing undoubtedly which the Celtic genius ever produced in literature - would now be lost.
# 562
In the so-called Dark Ages a religion flourished in the islands of Britain which had more in common with Buddhism than with the institutional Christianity of the West. It was based on a church founded without martyrs, and one that neither inflicted suffering nor encouraged bitter theological disputes. It was marked by compassion and moderation in all its dealings. Above all, it was a religion of country people, for after the legions withdrew from the Roman garrisons there were no towns in Britain, and it was practised in tribal groups, by people who had previously worshipped their own local deities through the rituals prescribed by the druids, who formed their priestly caste. When news of Christianity first came to Ireland and mainland Britain, the new faith was smoothly grafted onto the old. But the Roman Church never accepted the Celtic belief, that man was born free of original sin, and the final confrontation occured at Whitby (Streaneshalch) AD 664.
'That which is called the Christian religion existed among the Ancients, and never did not exist, from the beginning of the Human Race until Christ came in the flesh, at which time true religion, which already existed began to be called Christianity.' St Augustine.
'Without going back to the 'beginning of the Human Race', I would like to introduce this celebration of the Celtic Christian year by looking at its distant origins in the Bronze Age, among the peoples who inhabited there islands before the coming of the iron-forging Celts.' With these words leads the author Shirley Toulson up to her introduction in her latest book THE CELTIC YEAR, and she continues: 'They were the people who left the great stone monuments and ritual henges all along the Atlantic seaboard; and who buried their honoured dead in complex, majestic barrows, now mostly grassed over. These barrows, and the artefacts found in the excavated graves within them, are almost all we know of these early farmers whose ritual monuments make it clear that they had a highly organized society and were capable of astounding feats of technology. It is our loss that they seem to have had no written language; and that although their stone and wooden circles, so carefully aligned on aspects of sunrise and sunset, were obviously of great religious significance, we can only guess at the ritual they enshrined.' Shirley Toulson ends her inspiring introduction by saying that 'in the Celtic blessings and prayers, we find a constant echo of the Essene advocacy of constant worship formulated by the Egyptian Therapeutae, who affirmed 'At the beginning of each of my daily tasks, when I leave or enter the house, when I rise, when I stretch out on my couch, Him do I wish to celebrate'. The Therapeutae were an Egyptian sect, described by the first-century Jewish scholar Philo, and believed to have been formed from the remnants of the Essene community who headed west from the Dead Sea after their dispersal following the fall of Jerusalem. Their attitude of constant prayerful attention is familiar to us today through the teaching of an even older tradition, Buddhism, and the practice of constant mindfulness that is at the root of Buddhist practice. It is this attitude which infused the saints of the Celtic church, who were teaching six hundred years after the Incarnation, and whose way of life, if not their doctrines, so closely resemble the precepts formulated by the Buddha six hundred years before the birth at Bethlehem. I am not suggesting that there was any direct historical link between Buddhism and the beliefs of the Celtic saints, but I am sure that if we want to understand the depths of Celtic spirituality we shall find the nearest parallels in the Buddhist teaching of today as well as in the creation spirituality of such Christian teachers as Matthew Fox*. Above all we will come close to Celtic thinking as, inspired by the obvious threats to the survival of our planet, we learn to be constantly mindful of the part we have to play in the divinity of the universe.'
Beautiful was the appearance of Cormac in that assembly, flowing and slightly curling was his golden hair. A red buckler with stars and animals of gold and fastenings of silver upon him. A crimson cloak in wide descending folds around him, fastened at his neck with precious stones. A torque of gold around his neck. A white shirt with a full collar, and intertwined with red gold thread upon him. A girdle of gold, inlaid with precious stones, was around him. Two wonderful shoes of gold, with golden loops upon his feet. Two spears with golden sockets in his hands, with many rivets of red bronze. And he was himself, besides, symmetrical and beautiful of form, without blemish or reproach. Version - Douglas Hyde.
*See also: Martinus: THE THIRD TESTAMENT (# 431).
# 676 - 678
Testimony of Dion Chrysostom, to power of the Druids.
# 562
There is a widespread tradition that the churchyards were guarded from the Devil and witches by a spirit that usually took the form of a Black Dog. Those who saw it generally took it as a death warning. Mrs Gutch mentions it in COUNTY FOLK LORE II, and William Henderson discusses it in FolkLore of the Northern Counties. He attributes it to a foundation sacrifice and points out that the Kyrkogrim of Sweden appears in the form of a lamb because, in the early days of Christianity in Sweden, a lamb was buried under the altar, while in Denmark the Kirkegrim took the form of a 'grave-sow'. Thomas Wright in his ESSAYS says that the Yorkshire church grim can be seen about the churc in dark stormy weather by day and night. It sometimes took the bell at midnight before a death, and at a funeral the clergyman would see it looking out from the tower, and could tell by its aspect whether the soul of the corpse was destined for Heaven or Hell. In her COUNTY FOLK LORE collection VIII, Ruth Tongue says that when a new churchyard was opened it was believed that the first man buried there had to guard it against the Devil. To save a human soul from such a duty a pure black dog was buried in the north part of the churchyard as a substitute. In the Highlands, according to J. G. Campbell in his SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND a similar belief was held. It was the duty of the lastburied corpse to guard the graveyard till the next funeral.
# 100 - 131 - 274 - 302 - 674 - 754
Mould which came from an ancient churchyard, where all the soil consisted of mouldering bodies, was valuable in spells, but was also considered protective as a counter-charm against fairies or spirits. See also: PROTECTION AGAINST FAIRIES.
# 100
The unripe nut thickets in West Yorkshire are guarded by Churnmilk Peg. According to Mrs Wright, who mentions her among the cautionary goblins in RUSTIC SPEECH AND FOLK LORE, she beguiles her leisure by smoking a pipe. In the North Country generally, Melch Dick performs the same function.
# 100 - 752
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