Guinevere - Gwen

The figures beneath each entry give reference numbers for the Bibliography

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GUINEVERE

(In Welsh: Gwenhwyvar) The wife of Arthur, daughter of King Leodegrance of Cameliard in Malory. Welsh tradition calls her father Gogrvan or Ocvran, while in DIU CRONE he is called King Garlin of Galore. A late literary source, Thelwalls play THE FAIRY OF THE LAKE (1801), suggests that she is the daughter of Vortigern. Wace makes her Mordred's sister. In Geoffrey, she is of Roman stock, and while Arthur was fighting the Roman war, Mordred abducted her and made himself king. In the later version of the arthurian story she was the lover of Lancelot. Their intrigue discovered, Lancelot fled and Guinevere was duly sentenced to burning. Lancelot rescued her and war followed between him and Arthur. While Arthur was away, Mordred rebelled. Arthur returned to do battle with him and received his final wound. Guinevere took the veil. However, there are a different tales of her end. According to PERLESVAUS, she died in Arthur's lifetime, while Boece averred she ended her days as a prisoner of the Picts. She and Arthur had a son called Loholt, though he was also said to be the son of Arthur and Lionors. The ALLITERATIVE MORTE ARTHURE says that she and Mordred were the parents of two sons. B. Saklatvala has suggested she was really a Saxon named Winifred, and J. Markale has opined that Kay and Gawain were originally amongst her lovers. Welsh tradition stated that Arthur was married, not to one, but to three Guineveres. Some have argued that Guinevere is a mythical figure, representing the sovereignty of Britain, over which contenders fight; in this respect she is a parallel figure to Eriu, the goddess of the sovereignty of Ireland. C. Matthew's contends that this interpretation is supported by the legend of three Guineveres married to Arthur, saying these are not three separate persons but a single triune goddess. J. Matthews contends that Guinevere and Morgan are like two sides of a coin, the beneficent and maleficent aspects of sovereignty.

Efforts to connect Guinevere with Findabair, daughter of the Irish goddess Maeve, have not proven successful. Guinevere was very susceptible to being abducted and it has been suggested that her story is a parallel of the Irish story of Midir and Etain. In this, Etain was once an otherworldly bride of Midir but she retains no memory of this fact and is now married to an Irish king. Midir turns up to lure her back to the Otherworld. Similarly, it is said, Guinevere's abductor, be he Meleagaunce or Lancelot, Gasozein or Valerin is merely taking her back to the Otherworld whence she came.

We are told in the MABINOGION that Guinevere had a sister named Gwenhwyvach; in French romance that she had an identical half-sister who, for a while, took her place; and in the German DIU CRONE that she had a brother, Gotegrin.

# 156 - 438 - 710

GUINEVERE, THE FALSE

Guinevere's identical half-sister, whom Leodegrance fathered on the same night as he fathered Guinevere. She claimed she was the true Guinevere and enticed Arthur into giving up her half-sister who took refuge in Sorelois. The False Guinevere and her champion Bertholai admitted in the end that they were deceivers and after two and a half years the real Guinevere was restored to Arthur.

# 156 - 604

GUINGLAIN

The son of Gawain and Ragnell. He appeared at Arthur's court ignorant of his name, so he was called Le Bel Inconnu ('The Fair Unknown'). A damsel turned up with a dwarf and asked for a knight to rescue her mistress, a princess, with 'the daring kiss'. Arthur sent Le Bel Inconnu. After a couple of adventures they came to the Golden Island where a fairy, Pucelle aux Blanche Mains, offered him love, but they went on to the palace of the princess. There, Guinglain defeated a knight with a horned and fire-breathing horse, and darkness fell everywhere. A snake appeared and kissed him and he heard a voice tell him his name and that he was Gawain's son. He fell asleep and when he awoke a princess called Blonde Esmerée was there. She told him she had been the snake, whom he had released from enchantment by receiving her kiss. After a sojourn with Pucelle on the Golden Island, Guinglain married the princess.

# 156

GUNDESTRUP CAULDRON, THE

The richly ornamented silver cauldron from the Raeve Bog at Gundestrup, Jutland.

It was probably placed there in the fourth or third century BC.

In the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen is the celebrated silver cauldron found in Gundestrup, Jutland. It shows a curious blend of oriental imagery and techniques with apparently Celtic motifs, and preserves one of the best surviving records of Celtic warriors and their accoutrements (c.100 BC) There are helmets with bird or animal crests, the typical long shields, trousers-the idea of which the Celts probably borrowed from the East- and the long, animal-headed war trumpets. One relief depicts the sacrifice of a bull, which has a ritual significance all over the Celtic areas. The bowl itself had a ritualistic fate. Professor P. V. Glob considers it to be booty brought home by the Cimbri. And he suggests the cauldron was sunk in the Raeve Fen as an offering to turn the fortunes of war. In the magazine AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC, the English archaeologist Timothy Taylor stress that the motifs of the Gundestrup Cauldron intimately connect it to India and Hinduism. This notion isn't new at all, but Taylor suggests some new argumentation which underlines this connection. - Other scholars have another view, like Iman Wilkens in his survey of Troy (#730), where he says:...'It seems fairly safe to say that "wide Cnosusô (Iliad, XVIII, 591) was none other than the ""cap"" of Jutland, the extreme north of Denmark, where there is a region and a hill with a name unique in Europe, Knøsen. It is well established that the Celts lived in this area long before our own era, for archaeologists found there one of the most celebrated of all Celtic works of art, the Gundestrup silver cauldron (called after the village where it was found). This cauldron is decorated with a frieze showing what seems to be a human sacrifice to a god and it is precisely to human sacrifice that Knossos owed its notoriety throughout the ages. However, it was notsituated in the Mediterranean. It thus appears that the Celts had conquered Jutland already, before Homer's time, from more ancient peoples who had erected the many megalithic monuments found in the region. This may explain why Homer mentions various different peoples living in "Crete": There dwell Acheans, there great-hearted native Cretans, there Cydonians and Dorians of waving plumes and goodly Pelasgians. Among their cities is the great city Cnosus, where Minos reigned. (Od.XIX, 175-178)'

(Please find the pictures mentioned in the following chapter, marked A-G attached. They are all saved in the TIF-format. You'll even find one picture showing the whole cauldron marked with # 1).

# 354: Extracts from SE GUNDESTRUP KARRET (SEEING THE GUNDESTRUP CAULDRON). In every respect is this a beautiful book with its handmade looking hardcover and its extraordinary size (A3) and inside at the pages the author takes a fresh look at the scenes on the plates of the Gundestrup Cauldron. Starting off with the ornamental leaves - which others have seen just as ornamental - he notes that they in fact are a kind of pointing arrows showing the direction of movements. This leads to another observation: there seems to be two complementary types of movements, horizontal and vertical, as seen in figs. A and B.

Fig.A Inner Plate

"God Father"

In fig. A we see a male deity placed in an upper layer of running beasts with dotted furcoats. Their feet are pushing backwards thereby supporting the right-to-left movement of the winged creatures in the lower layer. The whole scene can be interpreted this way: a supreme male "God Father" is situated amongst the figures of the zodiac (heaven's equator) making the spheres turn. The lower layer is the winds - notice by the way the humorous detail of the helping deity supporting the winds in his own way! Below him we see a ram-headedsnake placed as symbol of this deity. The same symbolizing way a beast is placed below the female god in fig. B, telling that HER power is as strong as that of the zodiac, or of "God Father". This "God Mother" has turned her attention inwards, as seen by the positions of her arms almost crossed. She is counterbalancing the male side of the universal powers by turning the horizontal movements inwards, creating a vertical up-going stream of psychic energy (the kind of which is shown on the plates by leaves having small-dot pattern background).

Fig. B Inner Plate "God Mother"

Probably the God Mother was situated in the northern sky. Thus the circumpolar stars would come from both right and left, and elephants would be an exellent choice of figures to indicate the lower speed compared to the stars of the zodiac.

fig. C Inner plate: "The ever-running thoughts"

The male-female complementaries of the gods form a wholeness that in small scale can be found in every man or woman. One of the three last inner plates (fig. C) shows a man who three times tries to stop a bull or unicorn. This plate contains clearly three layers of running animals pushing each other with the feet just like the animals on the plate of God Father. Here it shows the part of the human mind that concerns the "male" expressive energies: the ever-running thoughts so difficult to stop. The top layer dotted animals probably represent divine powers uncontrollable to most people and the bottom layer probably lower animal (sexual?) instincts.

fig. D Inner plate:"Inner quietness"

The "female" way of dealing with the powers is shown in the plate(fig. D) where a person is sitting in a meditative-like position. Here the normal horizontal movements has been stopped, and all kinds of animals go to and fro in no apparent order. The person has reach the first goal - to stop the thoughts.

fig. E. Inner plate "Indian belief"

From here everything can happen. The last of the inner plates shows a lying plant as the central object. Seven soldiers stand below it, out of which six are touching the plant with the points of their spears. The last at the top of the plant wears a wild boar on his helmet.

If the plate is turned to make the plant stand up it becomes obvious that this is a "life-tree". Note the small-dot background connecting it to the psychic movements. In India this is known in the form of a system of Chakras - a flow of psychic energy flowing upwards in the body from the root (the genitals) along the spine to the top of the head.

fig. F. Outer plate "Life-energy"

At the root of the plant a small person is held upside-down by a larger figure above what is usually thought to be a vessel into which the small person is either baptized or made to offer his blood. The vessel, however, can also be seen as the female sex out of which the small person is born. This is very probable because it is placed right next to the root of the life-tree. Besides, even today when you begin working with your psychic energies it is often accompanied by dreams of death and re-birth.

According to Indian belief not just one but three streams of energy flow upwards, crossing each other in seven psychic centres - the chakras. To the right of the lying plant three men are blowing Celtic carnyxes. Above them a ram-headed snake tells us that what comes through the three tubes is the same sort of energy that symbolized the helper of God Father - and the same sort as the meditating person of the last plate held in his hand.

Following Indian thoughts the middle stream is the most important. It can only flow upwards when the two other streams, male and female, are balanced. This must be the reason why on the outer side of the cauldron the originally eight plates (only seven are found) are telling us in details how the powers of each level - chakra - should be balanced. The one extra plate shows the human's mind before starting his work of balancing his male and female sides.

As an example of the outer plates take a look at fig. F. It differs from the others found because its arms are in both active and passive positions at a time: one arm is streched upwards whilst the other is bent inwards. Thus it can be suggested that this plate symbolizes a function balanced in itself. It seems logical to presume that here we are at the level of solar plexus - at the solar chakra, concerning the reception and use of life energy through breathing.

Obviously the life energy came into the body with the air. On the left receptive side of the central figure a heraldic bird shows that something airy passes down here and is re-formed by a small figurine to create nourishment for the small human lying at the big figure's breast. On the active side a four-legged animal is changed to a bird showing that something is changed to air anew before it is returned to the same kind of heraldic bird that brought the life energy in the first place.

The right shoulder peculiarly continues beyond the raised right arm and a small figurine sits on it. Above her a creature flees upwards. This must be picturizing a very special kind of breathing out, namely the last, the terminal breath. The spirit or soul flees to heaven whereas the body as pointed by the figurine's right arm goes to the ground. Her left arm is held over solar plexus to show the seat of the life energy.

For accuracy it should be noted that according to Indian belief the life energy is connected to the fire-element, not to air. On the other hand, why should this not have been the same to the Celts and Thracians? Fire is clearly growing when blown at, and the other way round flames seem to change into smoke, or air, again...

The interpretation made by the Danish writer Bjerre Jørgensen of the GUNDESTRUP CAULDRON is in many ways unique and may give rise to new views from scholars in Celtic religious idiosyncrasy or ways in the Celtic initiation process.

plate G

Details from the basic plate, showing head of bull. Among other symbols, the plate contains one human, three dogs and a bull.

The interpretation from # 354 of this plate suggests that it may symbolize a moment of transformation, with the death of the old personality and the birth of a new, more beautiful, happier and a more vigorous one.

# 220 -253 - 354 - 372 - 730 - 769 - 781

GUNPHAR

The king of Denmark, slain by Arthur for refusing to pay him tribute.

# 156 - 243

GURGURANT

A cannibal king whose son was slain by a giant who was, in turn, slain by Gawain. The son's corpse was cooked and eaten by Gurgurant's followers. When Gurgurant became a Christian his name was changed to Archier. He became a hermit near the Grail Castle.

# 112 - 156

GURMUN

In Gottfried, the King of Ireland and father of Iseult. He was the son of an African king. The name probably comes from Gormund who, in Geoffrey, was an African king who conquered and established himself in Ireland.

# 156

GUY OF WARWICK

A tenth-century legendary hero, said to have married the Earl of Warwick's daughter. He slew a monstrous boar and cow as well as a dragon who was about to devour a lion, which afterwards became his champion. He returned from the Holy Land to help King Ethelstan fight against the Danes and finally became a hermit.

# 454

GWAIR GWEIR

The mysterious prisoner of the poem, PRIDDEU ANNWN: 'Perfect was the captivity in Caer Sidi/According to the tale of PWYLL AND PRYDERI.' Gweir seems not to have been a personal name, but an alias or title which can be applied to the experiences of many characters within the MABINOGION, especially Mabon. He was said to have been released by Goreu.

# 104 - 272 - 439 - 454

GWALCHMAI

(goo-ALKH-meh) Nephew of King Arthur. See also: GAWAIN.

# 562

GWALHAFED

In CULHWCH, the son of Gwyar and brother of Gwalchmai (Gawain), perhaps the original of Galahad.

# 156

GWARTHEG Y LLYN

(gwarrtheg er thlin) These, the fairy cattle of Wales, were among fairy animals very closely akin to the Crodh Mara of the Highlands, except that they are generally said to be milk-white, though in one story at least the cow is described as speckled or parti-coloured. These cattle in Wales were often given as part of the dowry of a Gwragedd Annwn, a Lake Maiden, but a water-bull would sometimes visit earthly herds with most fortunate results for the farmer. On one occasion at least a stray fairy cow attached herself to an earthly bull, and the farmer succeeded in catching her. From that moment his future was made. The number and quality of the calves born to the stray cow were unsurpassable. Never was such milk or butter or cheese. The farmer became the richest man in the countryside. But as years passed the rich farmer became prouder and more grasping. He began to think that the stray cow's heyday had passed and that it was time to fatten her for the market. She was as industrious at fattening as she has been at breeding or giving milk. Soon she was a prodigy of fatness. The butcher was called, the neighbours assembled to see the death of the far-famed cow. The butcher raised his sharp knife; but before the blow could be struck his arm was paralysed and the knife dropped from his hand. A piercing scream rang out, and the crowd saw a tall figure in green standing on the crag above Llyn Barfog. She chanted out in a great voice

'Come thou, Einion's Yellow One,
Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow
And the hornless Dodin;
Arise, come home.'

# 100

GWARWYN A THROT

(gwarrwin-a-throt) The hidden name of a Monmouthshire BWCA.

# 100

GWAWL

# 562: (GOO-awl)

1. Rival of Pwyll's for Rhiannon's hand.
2. Daughter of Coel and, possibly, wife of Cunedda.

# 272 - 439 - 454 - 562

GWEN

1. In DREAM OF RHONABWY a mantle of invisibility belonging to Arthur.
2. Arthur's maternal grandmother, the daughter of Cunedda, in Welsh tradition.

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