The figures beneath each entry give reference numbers for the Bibliography
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Greek wars in alliance with Celts; Greeks breaks monopoly of Carthaginian trade with Britain and Spain; secure overland route across France to Britain; type of civilisation, Greeks Celtica preserved.
# 562
In the Medieval Chronicles, Ralph of Coggeshall tells of how a boy and a girl with green skin were found near a pit in Saint Mary of the Wolf-Pit. They would eat nothing but green food and spoke a foreign language. The boy died quite soon but the girl learned to talk and eat ordinary food, so that she became as an ordinary person and spoke of a land very like that described by ELIDOR in his adventures in Faery.
# 100 - 424 - 454
# 156 - 418 - 454 - 672
(The Hidden One - The Cylenchar) The next stage of the ecological revolution begins with the reawakening of the male counterpart of the Goddess, the Green Man, an archetype found in folklore and religious art from the earliest times, and especially linked with the Christian origins of modern science. Long suppressed, the archetype emerges now to challenge us to heal our relationship with nature. - It is likely that Green Man pillars were erected originally on the sites of sacred trees. The Green Man signifies irrepressible life. He is an image from the depths of prehistory: he appears and seems to die and then comes again after long forgettings at many periods in the past two thousand years. In his origins he is much older than our Christian era. In all his appearances he is an image of renewal and rebirth. See also: JACK IN THE GREEN.
# 20
The story of Green Sleeves, published in Peter Buchan's ANCIENT SCOTTISH TALES, is an exellent example of the supernatural wizard such as we find in the tales of Nicht Naught Nothing and the Battle of the Birds. These are all Celtic tales which have survived in Full, but of which fragments are to be found in England. 'Green Sleeves' is a story of the 'supernatural bride' type and is rich in motifs which seem peculiar to the Celtic genius, though it also contains many universal motifs.
To begin with, Green Sleeves procures the presence of the prince-hero by winning a game of skill against him. In most of the Celtic tales the game is chess, but in this it is skittles. Then we have the travels in search of the challenger, where the hero is helped successively by three very aged, almost immortal brothers. Then we come to the Swan Maiden theme with the three daughters of the wizard. The help of one of them is secured by taking her swan garment and returning it to her. We next move on to the miraculous tasks demanded by the wizard and performed for the hero by his daughter, the selection of the bride among a number of maidens who appear identical with her, the marriage and escape by means of an object which magically answers for the lovers. The flight and the pursuer delayed by magical objects, the separable soul and the death of the wizard are all a common sequence of motifs in this type of story. It is almost inevitably followed by the separation of the lovers because of the violation of a taboo, the theme of the bartered bed, the awakening of the husband's memory, and the final reunion of the lovers.
The theme of the would-be lovers magically delayed is treated as a complete story in 'The Three Feathers' included by Jacobs in his ENGLISH FAIRY TALES. The Aarne-Thompson Types 400, 'The Search for the Lost Bride' and 425, 'The Search for the Lost Husband' are combined in this tale. Its subject is plainly a journey into a supernatural world and the winning of a supernatural bride. The wizard enjoys a conditional and magical immortality which is paralleled by many of the Tuatha De Danann. Age and disease cannot kill them, but they can be killed by violence, as Aed the son of Dagda was killed by a blow from a jealous husband. Green Sleeves is typical of many supernatural wizards whose life is butressed by magic.
The summary which follows is taken from A DICTIONARY OF BRITISH FOLK TALES, PART A VOL. I.: A King of Scotland had a son who was devoted to gambling and excelled at the game of skittles, so that no one dared compete with him in that game. A strange old man suddenly appeared and challenged him to play, on condition that the winner might ask of the loser whatever he wished, and the loser must comply on pain of death. The old man won, and charged the prince to tell him his name and place of abode before that day twelve months. The prince took to his bed in despair, but was at last persuaded by his father, first to tell him the cause of his distress, and then to go and seek the answers to the old man's questions. After a long days travel an old man, sitting outside his cottage, told him the rogue was named Green Sleeves. He was 200 years old, and sent the Prince 200 miles on to his brother, 400 years older, with the aid of magic slippers and a ball to guide him. The slippers and ball would return of themselves on being kicked. Eight hundred miles on, the third brother, thousand years older, sent him to the river Ugie to intercept the three daughters of Green Sleeves, who would come to bathe, disguised as swans. He stole the swan-skin of the youngest, which had one blue wing, and so induced her to tell him the way to Green Sleeves' castle. Being unwillingly admitted by Green Sleeves, the prince found endless difficulties - a bed of broken glass fragments, fish-skins and mouldy bread to eat - and three impossible tasks were imposed on him by Green Sleeves, but Blue Wing secretly helped him through all, with the aid of a magic box containing thousands of fairies. The tasks were, first, to build a castle 1,000 miles in length, breadth and height, including a stone from every quarry in the world, and covered with feathers of every kind of bird. The next task was to sow, reap and replace in the cask from which it came, a quantity of lint seed, as before in the space of a single day.
Third and last was to clear a stable where 200 horses had stood for 200 years, and recover from it a golden needle lost by Green Sleeves' grandmother 1,000 years before. Green Sleeves now offered the prince one of his daughters in marriage. They would have murdered him, but Blue Wing, by a trick, again saved him and they fled. Magic cakes hung on their bed delayed the pursuit, but finally Green Sleeves in seven-leagued boots followed them. Magic obstacles, a forest, a great rock, and a rushing river, enabled the prince, directed by Blue Wing, to procure an egg from a certain bird's nest on top of a high hill. With this egg, aimed at a special point of his breast, Green Sleeves was slain, and the prince rode home to procure a fitting escort for his bride before making her known to his parents. Blue Wing warned him against being kissed, but a lap-dog sprang up and licked him, and he forgot her. Blue Wing hid in a tree above a pool, and two servants of a neighbouring goldsmith, mistaking her reflection for their own, refused, through pride in their supposed beauty, to serve him any more. Blue Wing took their place, and served the goldsmith, until two of his customers, a prince's groom first, and then the Duke of Marlborough himself, fell in love with her. She tricked them both, by magic, having promised to sleep with each of them for one night, and then kept them spell-bound to some menial task, and so made her way, as the duke's partner, to a ball at court. Here, when the dancing was over, and tales were told and songs sung. Blue Wing produced a golden cock and hen, which talked, and reminded the prince of all that had happened. The new bride to whom he had been promised was dismissed, and Blue Wing and the prince were married, with all honour and joy, and lived to see their large family grow up to take their place in due time.
# 100 - 115 - 338
Situated about three miles from Ayr, this castle is built on the site of an Iron Age hill fort. N. L. Goodrich argues that this was the site of the original Camelot, though she also states that 'Camelot' was the name given to whatever stronghold Arthur was occupying at the time. She further identifies the site of Greenan Castle with Badon.
# 156 - 255
This island, called Kalaallit Nunaat in Greenlandic, was conquered by Arthur, according to William Lambard in his ARCHAIONOMIA (1568). Hakluyt, the travel writer of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is of the opinion that Grocland was Greenland. Greenland may be meant by Granland, the territory ruled by Amangons in LE CHEVALIER AS DEUS ESPÉES (Old French).
# 156
A ghost said to haunt Moel Arthur in Llanwist, Clwyd. R. Holland in his book, SUPERNATURAL CLWYD, Llanwist (1989), suggests she was thought to be the protectress of Arthur's treasure which is said to be buried there.
# 156
CuChulain's horse, ridden by Sualtam to rouse men of Ulster; resists being harnessed by Laeg; mortally wounded by Erc; defends CuChulain.
# 562
A king of Wales who gained his throne by murder, but was ousted by Meriadoc, the true heir to the throne.
# 30 - 156
An Arthurian knight, the son of Do. His name is also rendered GIRFLET. He may be identical with Jaufré, the hero of a Provencal romance. In one version he, not Bedivere, was given the task of flinging Excalibur into the waters after Arthur's last battle. When he saw Arthur's tomb he became a hermit but he died shortly afterwards. Griflet's origins are Celtic: he is derived from Gilfaethwy, son of Don, in the MABINOGION story of MATH, SON OF MATHONWY, where he is the brother of Gwydion. As Gwydion seems to have been a British smith-god, Gilfaethwy was presumeably also a deity. Griflet's father, Don, seems to come from Don, the goddess who was Gilfaethwy's mother in British tradition. See: ESCANOR, and LORETE.
# 156 - 418
(In Welsh: Kincaled) Gawain's horse. Accounts vary as to how it came into Gawain's possession. He was thought either to have won it in a duel with Escanor Le Grand, though it was Escanor's nephew's possession, given him by the fairy, Esclarimonde; or else to have taken it from the Saxon King Clarion.
# 156 - 398 - 604
See: AVENABLE.
A knight who, by magic, was made to resemble a Turk. He and Gawain went to the Isle of Man where, after some adventures, they slew the king and Gromer, restored to his original shape by decapitation, became king in his place. Gromer's story is told in the poem of THE TURK AND GAWAIN (c.1500). Another bearer of this name was Gromer Somer Joure (q.v.) who once captured Arthur.
# 156
Powerful, magical shape-shifter who captured Arthur in the story of GAWAIN AND DAME RAGNELL. He demanded that Arthur discovered what it was that women most desired. Arthur was told by the Loathly Lady, Ragnell, who demanded marriage with Gawain as her reward. Gromer's name means 'Lord of the Summer's Day'. He is analogous to Hafgan in the story of Pwyll, and bears many similarities with Gawain's other adversary, the Green Knight. Gromer was under enchantment by Morgan.
# 439 - 454 - 507
(gron'oo payber). Loved by Blodeuwedd; slain by Llew. When Llew was resuscitated by Gwydion, he begged mercy and was allowed to hold a large stone between himself and Llew's spear, but the weapon passed through both the stone and man.
# 272 - 439 - 454 - 562
# 701: The sacred grove was the characteristic shrine of the Great Goddess Diana throughout the Roman empire. In Ireland her oak groves were called NEMED. Her consorts among the Celtic gods were known to the Romans as Silvanus, King of the Grove.
# 769: Whilst the Celts sometimes worshipped in built temples, their cult foci were frequently natural features in the landscape, like trees, forests or groves. The term 'nemeton' refers to a sacred place and, in particular, a sacred grove. In addition to the evidence for sacred groves themselves, goddesses with 'grovenames' were venerated. Thus we know of Arnemetia of Buxton and Nemetona, who was worshipped, for example, at Altripp near Speyer and at Bath. The Celto-German tribe of the Nemetes (in whose territory Nemetona was venerated) suggests that the tribe adopted this sacred name. At Grenoble, a group of female divinities was known as the Nemetiales (goddesses of the grove). See also: TREES.
# 563 - 701 p 464 - #769
In the Highlands there is the fairy lady dressed in green with long golden hair, sometimes beautiful and sometimes wan and haggard, who is the guardian of the cattle. Mackenzie is inclined to think that she is truly 'the hairy one' which might be an epithet attached to a Glaistig, a fairy lady. The Gruagach appears in Scottish folklore as a kind of brownie or sometimes as a clever, green- or red-dressed male or female. They appears to be otherworldly beings of great magical power, able to enchant the unwary but also to aid mortals. They sometimes appears as the challenger and teacher of the boy-hero of folk-story, whom they provoke and are eventually outwitted by. In southern Ireland they occasionally appears as giants.
# 100 - 415 - 454
# 562
# 562
Daughter of Corineus. She was deserted by her husband, Locrinus, in favour of his mistress, Estrildis. Guendolena drowned her and killed Locrinus in battle. She ruled briefly before giving her realm to the hands of her son
# 243 - 454
The wife of Merlin in VITA MERLINI. She may be identical with Chwimleian, mentioned in AFOLLONAU, one of the Welsh Myrddin (Merlin) poems. She married Rhydderch Hael after Merlin ran mad
# 156 - 242 - 632
Her collections of tales. See: MABINOGION.
A king of Britain who, according to Geoffrey, was killed during the Claudian invasion and was succeeded by his brother, Arviragus.
# 156 - 243
The chaste wife of Caradoc Briefbras whose fidelity was shown by the mantle test. A boy brought a mantle to Arthur's court and asserted that it would fit only faithful wives. Various ladies tried it on but it fitted only Guignier. Guignier lost one of her breasts in dealing with a serpent magically wrapped around Caradoc's arm, but this was replaced by one made of gold with the aid of the knight Aarlardin who had once been enamoured of her. See: TEGAU.
# 156
The brother of Ban and the elder Bors. Something of a wizard, he made a magic chessboard and caused a dance to continue perpetually.
# 156
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