The figures beneath each entry give reference numbers for the Bibliography
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King of the Catuvellani who, in the first century, made himself ruler of a considerable part of south Britain. He is the king called Cymbeline by Shakespeare. In Welsh tradition he is a relation of Arthur.
# 156
# 701: Symbolism of the cup is complex, beginning with matriarchal images of the womb vessel and passing on to its patriarchal replacement, another kind of blood-filled chalice of resurrection. To medieval pagans, witches, and alchemical mystics the cup was a universal symbol of the mother element, water - especially the waters of the sea womb that was supposed to have given birth to the earth and all that lived on it. In Celtic tradition the magic cup from the sea meant Truth. It would break in three pieces if three lies were spoken over it, but if three truths were spoken over it, it would recover.
# 399 - 701 p 132
Identical with the Grail. Equivalent, the Magic Cauldron.
# 562
# 562: No light on the meaning of Cup-and Ring-Markings in connection with Megalithic monuments; Example in Dupaix' 'Monuments of New Spain;' reproduction in Lord Kingsborough's 'Antiquities of Mexico.'
# 82: Strange carved stones, globe- or drum-shaped, have been found at various sites in Britain, and have remained one of the mysteries of archaeology, but these artefacts could well be earlier forms of cursing stones or psychic generators.
This idea could also be extended to include such enigmas as cup and ring marks and other prehistoric rock carvings. Pavlita* has found that his generators can release their energy and cause small wheels to turn, or are able to charge a rod which can then be used to pick up non-ferrous metals and minerals. They have also been used to increase plant growth and slightly alter the molecular structure of water. Such experiments, and others being conducted today, indicate the feasibility of a belief in the ability of one mind to influence another at a distance. If we relate this knowledge to the cursing stones, it seems possible that wishes, prayers, and curses were able to be placed into stones and the beneficent or maleficent energy released later to have its effect upon the intended recipient.
Alternatively, the effect on concentrating on the 'staring pattern' on the cursing stones, bringing the full force of the sender's malice into play, could have resulted in the malice being transmitted telepathically and instantaneously to the unfortunate recipient. If we extend this idea and suggest that cup and ring marks and other prehistoric rock carvings were also intended to work as 'staring patterns', perhaps they could have been used to help produce or distribute the earth current, by concentration as already described.
The widespread distribution of such enigmatic carvings throughout the British Isles, as described by Evan Hadingham in his ANCIENT CARVINGS IN BRITAIN, gives strength to this possibility.
* (from Ostrander and Schroeder's: PSYCHIC DISCOVERIES BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN).
# 47 - 82 - 462 - 562
The sword of Holger. See: OGIER.
# 156
(cur REE) Father of Lewy, husband of Blanid; slain by CuChulain.
# 562
(coos'cri) The 'Stammerer'. Son of Conor mac Nessa (Conchobar); wounded through the throat by Cet mac Matach; under Debility curse.
# 166 - 562
# 562: Brother of Yspaddaden; assists Culhwch (Kilhwch) in his quest for Olwen. # 454: The giant herdsman who guards the flocks of Yspaddaden Pencawr, who deprived him of his living and inhabited his lands. His twenty-four sons were all destroyed by the giant, except Goreu, whom his mother hid in a cupboard. He aids Culhwch and his companions to defeat Yspaddaden, although it is Goreu who eventually avenges his father.
# 272 - 439 - 454 - 562
(634-87) He became a monk of the Celtic Church after receiving a vision of Saint Aidan's spirit ascending to heaven. After the synod of Whitby (see Saint Hilda), when Celtic customs were brought into line with the universal church of Rome, he accepted the reformations and became Prior of Lindisfarne. He was a life-long misogynist. A legend tells that he had been falsely accused of fathering a child and he swore never to allow a woman to approach him again. There is still in Durham Cathedral, where he is buried, a line supposedly demarking the portion of the church forbidden to women. His love of animals offsets this attitude. His long hours of prayer standing upright in the sea were relieved by the breath of seals who dried him after his labours. His feast-day is 20 March.
# 454
(koon anoon) The Welsh hell hounds, something of the same kind as the Gabriel Ratchets, the Wish Hounds and the Seven Whistlers. Like these they are death portents, but they do not, like the Devil's Dandy Dogs, do actual destruction. Sikes in BRITISH GOBLINS describes their howl, which grows softer as they draw closer. Near at hand they sound like a cry of small beagles, but in the distance their voice is full of lamentation. Sometimes a voice sounds among the pack like the cry of an enormous bloodhound, deep and hollow. To hear them is taken as a certain prognostication of death. They are usually white with redtipped ears. Pwyll encountered them when he met Arawn's hunt.
# 100 - 596
The third of the great cycles of Irish heroic literature is known as the Finn, or Ossianic cycle. According to the Irish annals, Finn flourished during the third century after Christ, but the earliest references to him in literature do not appear until several hundred years later, and the vast majority of the tales about him are found in manuscripts dating from the twelfth and later centuries. These accounts, composed at various times from the Middle Ages down to the nineteenth century, differ greatly in their conceptions of Finn. Though all regard him as the chief of a Fi n, or warrior band, among whom the most distinguished heroes are his son Oisin (Ossian) and his grandson Oscar, one group of tales represents him as the head of a sort of national militia in the employ of one of the high-kings of Ireland, usually Conn the Hundred-Fighter; another, as powerful enough to oppose the high-king; while a third, perhaps the latest, elevates him to a position superior to all opponents, portraying him as a slayer of monsters, a general benefactor of his country, and above all, a national defender of Ireland against foreign invaders, especially the dreaded Vikings. The Finn cycle differs markedly from that of Ulster. The tales are much more numerous and were in general written down at a much later date than those of Ulster. Moreover, few of them furnish linguistic evidence of having been composed before the twelfth century, nor do they as a rule contain references to ancient manners and customs such as those that give the Ulster epics their value as pictures of preChristian culture. Whereas the Ulster tales, as we have seen, are usually written in prose interspersed with semi-lyric passages in verse, the Finn material contains not only narratives in prose but also many poems of the ballad type. Though few tales of the Ulster cycle have been preserved in modern Irish folk-lore, the exploits of Finn and his companions have formed a part of the popular literature of Gaelic-speaking Ireland and Scotland from the Middle Ages to the present day. In other words, the Ulster epic appears to have been from the eighth or ninth century the literary property of the aristocracy, while the Finn material was perhaps from the beginning the literature of the folk and consequently was more or less modernized by each succeeding generation of folk poets and popular story-tellers. As to the origin of the Finn epic, much remains yet to be learned. It appears from early references in the annals and other sources that Finn's company was only one of many Fi na, or bands of warriors which existed in ancient Ireland and were a recognized feature of the social system. Since the oldest traditions represent Finn as having his chief stronghold on the hill of Almu, the modern Allen, near Kildare, it has been inferred that his Fi n belonged to Leinster. Opposed to Finn are other Fi na, especially the Fi n of Goll mac Morna, which is identified with Connacht. According to one view, the Fi na of Finn and his opponents were bands of soldiers levied by the ruling Milesian high-kings upon the older subject peoples of Ireland. These bands were forced to be ready to take up arms at any time and consequently were prevented from earning a livelihood by continuous application to the occupations of peace. Hence they lived in war times by depredation and in peace by hunting. Professor Eoin MacNeill calls the Finn epic the 'epic of a subject race' and thus explains the scarcity of Finn material in the earliest Irish manuscripts as well as the continued popularity of the Finn ballads and stories among the folk.
# 166
The Mythological; the Ultonian; Ossianic; Certain stories of Ultonian, not centred on Cuchulain; the Ossianic and Ultonian contrasted. The Mythological Cycle comprises the following:
# 562
(Ki-Varud-jion) The traditional story-teller in Wales. They preserved genres of story, each with its own magical spell. The oral memory of the Celts was impressive even by the standards of non-literate societies. The memorization of 250 prime stories and 100 secondary stories was part of the curriculum of a Celtic poet in her twelveyear training period. After the conquest of the Celtic realms, these stories were zealously retained and passed down to worthy recipients. See also: SEANACHIES.
# 437 p 12 ff
(kerher'righth) The Welsh form of the Highland Caoineag (the Weeper). Unlike the Gwrach Rhibyn, it is seldom seen, but is heard groaning before a death, particularly multiple deaths caused by an epidemic or disaster. Sikes in BRITISH GOBLINS gives several oral accounts of the Cyhyraeth. Prophet Jones describes the noise it made as 'a doleful, dreadful noise in the night, before a burying'. Joseph Coslet of Carmarthenshire was more explicit. He said that the sound was common in the neighbourhood of the river Towy, 'a doleful, disagreeable sound heard before the deaths of many, and most apt to be heard before foul weather. The voice resembles the groaning of sick persons who are to die; heard at first at a distance, then comes nearer, and the last near at hand; so that it is a threefold warning of death. It begins strong, and louder than a sick man can make; the second cry is lower, but not less doleful, but rather more so; the third yet lower, and soft, like the groaning of a sick man almost spent and dying'.
This reminds one of the three approaching cries of the Cwn Annwn. Like the Irish Banshee, the Cyhyraeth wailed for the death of natives who died away from home. On the Glamorganshire coast, Cyhyraeth passes along the sea before a wreck, and here it is accompanied by a kind of corpse-light. Like corpse candles (see under WILL O' THE WISP), this foretells the path a corpse is to take on the way to the churchyard. In a story about St Mellon's churchyard a ghost is reported as having been seen, but, as a rule, Cyhyraeth is an invisible and bodiless voice.
# 100 - 596
One of the followers of Arthur in CULHWCH, he obtained the shears from between the ears of the boar Twrch Trwyth.
# 100 - 346
(See also: CUNOBELINUS) King of Britain, trained in the household of Augustus Caesar. He handed over his kingdom to his son, Guidarius, who refused to pay tribute to the Romans. Behind the legend stands the historical Cunobeline, a minor British king. Shakespea re, drawing upon Holinshed's 'Cronicles', wrote a play, 'Cymbeline', in which many minor traditions of British mythology are incorporated.
# 243 - 454
A son of Aelle, he accompanied his father when he defeated the Britons.
# 156
The father of Urien.
# 104 - 156
In Wales there has existed for a considerable time a body of teaching purporting to contain a portion, at any rate, of that ancient Druidic thought which, as Caesar tells us, was communicated only to the initiated, and never written down.
This teaching is principally to be found in two volumes entitled 'Barddas' (q.v.), a compilation made from materials in his possession by a Welsh bard and scholar named Llewellyn Sion of Glamorgan, towards the end of the sixteenth century, and edited with a translation, by J. A. Williams ap Ithel for the Welsh MS. Society. Modern Celtic scholars pour contempt on the pretensions of works like this to enshrine any really antique thought. Thus Mr. Ivor B. John: 'All idea of a bardic esoteric doctrine involving pre-Christian mythic philosophy must be utterly discarded.' And again: 'The nonsense talked upon the subject is largely due to the uncritical invention of pseydo-antiquaries of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.'
Still the bardic Order was certainly at one time in possession of such a doctrine, and had a fairly continuous existence in Wales. Comparison between Gaelic and Cymric myths. The Welsh material is nothing like as full as the Gaelic, nor so early. The tales of the MABINOGION are mainly drawn from the fourteenth-century manuscript entitled THE RED BOOK OF HERGEST. One of them, the romance of TALIESIN, came from another source, a manuscript of the seventeenth century.
The four oldest tales in the MABINOGION are supposed by scolars to have taken their present shape in the tenth or eleventh century, while several Irish tales go back to the seventh or eight. The influence of the Continental romances of chivalry is clearly perceptible in the Welsh tales; and, in fact, comes eventually to govern them completely.
# 562
(ku non) The lover of Morfudd, Owain's twin sister, in Welsh tradition.
# 156
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