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JACK IN THE GREEN

(The Hidden One - The Cylenchar) The Woodland spirit who, like the Wood-Wose or Wild Herdsman, guards the greenwood. He appears in many kinds of folk art, as a multi-foliate head peering through the keaves. Like the Sheela na Gig, he was especially portrayed in church decoration, usually as a roof-boss, where he was a constant reminder of earlier beliefs.

See also: GREEN MAN. # 441 - 454

JACK THE GIANT KILLER

A hero of nursery tales, who was thought to have flourished in Arthur's time. He commenced his career by killing a giant whom he trapped in a pit. He was then captured by the giant Blunderboar, but he killed him and his brothers. He also tricked a Welsh giant into killing himself. He became a servant of King Arthur's son and in the course of his service, obtained a cap of knowledge, a wonderful sword, shoes of swiftness and a cap of invisibility. He continued to kill giants and eventually married a duke's daughter. He was given a noble dwelling by Arthur. There is no evidence that Jack was a genuine hero of early tales, but he may be a composite of several such, invented around 1700. # 156 - 511

JAPAN

Like in India, Dolmens are found as far as in Japan. # 562

JAUFRÉ

This character, possibly identical with Griflet, is the hero of a romance bearing his name which tells how Taulat came to Arthur's court, killed a knight in front of the queen and said he would return each year to do the same. Jaufré was sent after him and, following various adventures, defeated him. Jaufré married Brunissen, whom Taulat had made to suffer. See also: GRIFLET. # 30 - 156

JEANNIE OF BIGGERSDALE

An evil spirit of the North Riding of Yorkshire who lived at the head of the Mulgrave Woods in Biggersdale. She was much dreaded, but one night a bold young farmer, rather flown with wine, betted that he would rouse her from her haunt. He rode up to Mulgrave Wood and called to her to come out. She answered angrily: 'I'm coming.' He made for the stream with her hard on his heels. Just as he got to the water she smote at his horse and cut it clean in two. He shot over the horse's head and landed safe on the far side, but the hindquarters of the poor beast fell on Jeannie's side of the stream. # 100

JEFFERIES, ANNE

The affair of Anne Jefferies of St Teath in Cornwall and the fairies caused a great stir, even in the troubled times of the English Civil War. It is better documented than many other cases, which appeared only in pamphlets. There was even a letter about her in the Clarendon Manuscripts as early as March 1647, and in 1696, while Anne was still alive, Moses Pitt, the son of Anne's old master and mistress, wrote a printed letter to the Bishop of Gloucester in which he gives an account of Anne Jefferies' later life and of his early memories. Moses Pitt was only a boy when Anne, at the age of nineteen, came into service to his parents. In 1645 she fell into a fit, and was ill after it for some time, but when she recovered she declared that she had been carried away by the fairies, and in proof of this she showed strange powers of clairvoyance and could heal by touch. The first she healed was her mistress. Anne told of some of her fairy experiences, and these are retold by Hunt in POPULAR ROMANCES OF THE WEST ENGLAND. # 100 - 331

JEROME, SAINT

Attestation of Saint Jerome on Celtic State of Galatia. # 562

JESCHUTÉ

In the story of Perceval we learn that his mother had told him to demand a kiss or a jewel from any lady he met. Chrétien tells us that, coming on a girl in a tent, Perceval demanded both. Wolfram gives us further information about the girl: her name was Jeschuté and she was the daughter of King Lac and therefore a sister of Erec. Her husband was Orilus, Duke of Lalander. # 156 - 748

JESUS CHRIST

Legend credits Joseph of Arimathea with bringing his young nephew, Jesus, to Britain in the course of one of his many trade-visits to these shores in search of Cornish tin. This is the source for William Blake's JERUSALEM: 'And did those feet in ancient time/Walk upon England's mountains green?' It is remarkable that all legends concerning Christ's connections with Britain should revolve around his youth and his death. The main relics of the Crucifixion were said to have been brought to Glastonbury by Joseph of Arimathea, thus establishing the Christian tradition and associations with the native Grail cult. # 454

JOAN GO-TO-'T

The mother of Merlin in the Elisabethan play THE BIRTH OF MERLIN (published 1662, but written earlier), in whose composition Shakespeare may have had a hand. If so, it is possible that he was helped by W. Rowley (died 1626), although Rowley may well have written the entire play. # 156

JOHFRIT DE LIEZ

The trainer of Lancelot as a warrior during his sojourn in Maidenland. # 156 - 686

JOHN'S WORT, SAINT

This (Hypericum) is one of the most beneficent of the magic herbs, protecting equally against fairies and the Devil. Sir Walter Scott gives a rhyme spoken by a demon lover who could not approach a girl because she was carrying Saint John's wort and verbena:

'If you would be true love mine,
Throw away John's Wort and Verbein.'

See also: PROTECTION AGAINST FAIRIES. # 100 - 585

JOHN, IVOR, B.

His opinion of Celtic mystical writings: 'All idea of a bardic esoteric doctrine involving pre-Christian mythic philosophy must be utterly discarded... The nonsense talked upon the subject is largely due to the uncritical invention of pseudo-antiquaries of the sixteenth to seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'. # 562

JOINT-EATER

The name given by Kirk to what the Irish call 'Alp-Luachra'; but, according to Kirk, this Joint-eater is a kind of fairy who sits invisibly beside his victim and shares his food with him. In THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH he says: They avouch that a Heluo, or Great-eater, hath a voracious Elve to be his attender, called a Joint-eater or Just-halver, feeding on the Pith or Quintessence of what the Man eats; and that therefoir he continues Lean like a Hawke or Heron, notwithstanding his devouring Appetite.

In Ireland this phenomenon is accounted for by the man having swallowed a newt when sleeping outside by a running stream. In Douglas Hyde's BESIDE THE FIRE, there is a detailed account of a man infested by a pregnant Alp-Luachra, and the method by which he was cleared of the thirteen Alp-Luachra by Mac Dermott the Prince of Coolavin. In all the stories the method is the same: the patient is forced to eat a great quantity of salt beef without drinking anything, and is made to lie down with his mouth open above a stream, and after a long wait the Alp-Luachra will come out and jump into the stream to quench their thirst. But this is folk-medicine, not fairylore; it is Kirk who attributes the unnatural hunger to an Elf.

See: ELVES. # 100 - 333 - 370

JONAANS

An ancestor of Lancelot, noted for his virtue, he left Britain and went to Gaul where he married the daughter of King Maronex, from whom he obtained his kingdom. # 156 - 434 - 604

JONAS

See: CUNOMORUS, and MARK.

JONES, BRYNMOR

Findings of Brynmor Jones on origin of populations of Great Britain and Ireland. Approaching the subject from the linguistic side, Rhys and Brynmor Jones find that the African origin - at least proximately - of the primitive population of Great Britain and Ireland is strongly suggested. It is here shown that the Celtic languages preserve in their syntax the Hamitic, and especially the Egyptian type. From THE WELSH PEOPLE pp 616-664, where the subject is fully discussed, in an appendix by Professor J. Morris Jones: 'The pre-Aryan idioms which still live in Welsh and Irish were derived from a language allied to Egyptian and the Berber tongues.' # 562

JORAM

In Wirnt von Grafenberg's WIGALOIS (a medieval manuscript), a king who left Guinevere a magic girdle, saying she could regard it as a present or else, if she preferred, he would come and fight for it. She asked him to do the latter. Joram came and defeated several champions, but to one of them, Gawain, he presented it. Gawain married Joram's niece Florie. # 156 - 746

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA

To the biblical data about him romance adds the following: He was a soldier of Pilate who gave him the cup from the Last Supper. After the Resurrection, he was thrown into a dungeon where Jesus appeared to him and gave him the cup which had fallen out of his possession. After the fall of Jerusalem to Vespasian's army, he was set free and, with his sister Enygeus and her husband, Hebron or Bron, went into exile with a group of fellow travellers. They began to suffer from a lack of food owing to sin, so they held a banquet. Those amongst the company who were not sinners were filled with the sweetness of the cup of Jesus, the Grail. Bron and Enygeus had twelve sons, eleven of whom married. The twelfth, Alan, did not, so he was put in charge of his siblings, and they went out and preached Christianity. Bron was told to become a fisherman and was called the Rich Fisher. In Robert's version, Joseph entrusted the Grail to Bron, but did not accompany him to Britain.

Elsewhere, we are told that Joseph crossed to Britain on a miraculous shirt. We are also informed that he and his followers converted the city of Sarras, ruled by King Evelake who, having become a Christian, was able to defeat his enemy, King Tholomer. According to the various sources, the city of Sarras is located either in the East (Asia), or else in Britain. It may have been thought of as the place from which the Saracens derived their name. (It is not known outside romance.) John of Glastonbury claims that Joseph brought two cruets containing the blood and sweat of Jesus to Britain, but he does not mention the Grail. The romance SONE DE NAUSAY says that Joseph drove the Saracens out of Norway, married the pagan king's daughter and became king himself. God made him powerless and the land became blighted. Fishing was his only pleasure and men came to call him the Fisher King. At last he was cured by a knight. He provided for the foundation of the Grail Castle-cum-Monastery with thirteen monks, typifying Christ and his twelve apostles.

The interpolations of William of Malmesbury's HISTORY OF GLASTONBURY say Joseph was sent to Britain by Saint Philip who was preaching in Gaul. With regard to Gaul, there is a tradition which says that, with Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, Martha and others, Joseph was placed in an oarless boat which was divinely guided to Marseilles. J. W. Taylor says there is an Aquitanian legend that says Joseph was one of a party which landed at Limoges in the first century and that there is a Spanish tale relating how Joseph, with Mary Magdalene, Lazarus and others, went to Aquitaine. Taylor also cites a Breton tradition that Drennalus, first bishop of Treguier, was a disciple of Joseph. Taylor adduces these traditions as part of an attempt to show that Joseph came first to Gaul, then to Britain. It is worth noting, however, that the tradition of Mary Magdalene and Lazarus coming to Marseilles is not now regarded seriously by most hagiologists. - Joseph was said, not only to have come to Britain, but to have settled at Glastonbury where he was given land by King Arviragus. A local tradition, perhaps not older than the nineteenth century says he buried the cup of the Last Supper above the spring in Glastonbury and hence the water had a red tinge. A tradition amongst certain metalworkers was that, sometime before the Crucifixion, Joseph actually brought Jesus and Mary to Cornwall. Benjamin suggests that Joseph may be identical with Joachim, the father of the Virgin Mary in the PROTEVANGELIUM OF JAMES, an apocryphal work; but the two names are quite distinct in origin. In the ESTOIRE Joseph is given a son, Josephe. In SONE DE NAUSAY he had a son named Adam, while Coptic tradition claims he had a daughter, Saint Josa.

To conclude this chapter we will observe that the very first page of Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum contains an account which assumes the truth of the legend of the arrival in Britain of Joseph of Arimathea, as well as of several other statements in John of Glastonbury. It is there fore worth while to quote it in connection with the present subject. # 779: Dugdale's account commences as follows: "About sixty-three years after the Incarnation of our Lord, St Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by eleven other disciples of St Philip, was despatched by that Apostle into Britain, to introduce in the place of barbarous and bloody rites, long exercised by the bigotted and besotted druids, the meak and gentle system of Christianity. They succeeded in obtaining from Arviragus, the British king, permission to settle in a small island, then rude and uncultivated, and to each of the twelve was assigned for his subsistence, a certain portion of land called a hide, comprising a district, denominated to this day THE TWELVE HIDES OF GLASTON. Their boundaries, as well as the names of the principal places contained in them, will be found in the Appendix (i.e. the Appendix to the Monasticon). They enjoyed all the immunities of regal dignity, from ancient times and the first establishment of christianity in this land. One peculiar privilege which this church possessed by the grant of king Canute, was that no subject could enter this district without the permission of the abbot and convent. It now includes the following parishes; Glastonbury St Benedict, Glastonbury St John, Baltonsbury, Bradley, Mere, WestPennard, and North-Wotton. "The name by which the island was distinguished by the Britons was Ynswytryn, or the Glassy Island, from the colour of the stream which surrounded it. Afterwards it obtained the name of Avallon, either from Aval, an apple, in which fruit it abounded; or from Avallon, a British chief, to whom it formerly belonged. The Saxons finally called it Glæsting-byrig. Here St Joseph, who is considered by the monkish historians as the first abbot, erected, to the honour of the Virgin Mary, of wreathed twigs, the first Christian oratory in England." # 24 - 156 - 261 - 320 - 392 - 418 - 604 - 779

JOSEPHE

The son of Joseph of Arimathea, first mentioned in the ESTOIRE. When Joseph and his followers crossed the sea to Britain the pure ones did so on Josephe's outspread shirt. He consecrated Alan his successor as Grail Keeper and was buried in Scotland. The QUESTE, however, has him living long enough to give Communion to Galahad. # 156 - 604

JOSHUA

1. The son of Brons and nephew of Joseph of Arimathea. He married the daughter of King Kalafes of the Terre Foraine, of which he later became king. He succeeded his brother Alan as guardian of the Grail. 2. The son of Helaius he is recorded as an ancestor of Arthur according to the pedigree of John of Glastonbury. # 156 - 344 - 604

JOVELIN

In Gottfried, the Duke of Arundel and father of Iseult of the White Hands. # 156 - 256

JOYCE, DR. P. W.

Reference in Rolleston's CELTIC MYTH AND LEGENDS to Dr. P. W. Joyce's 'Old Celtic Romances'. To a tale like that of Deirdre and Grania the modern taste demands a romantic and sentimental ending; and such has actually been given to it in the retelling by Dr P. W. Joyce in his OLD CELTIC ROMANCES, as it has to this tale by almost every modern writer who has handled it. According to Rolleston, Dr John Todhunter, in his THREE IRISH BARDIC TALES, of modern writers alone, has kept the antique ending of the tale of Deirdre. # 562

JOYOUS GARD

Lancelot's castle in the north of England, which he captured. After he had rescued her, he took Guinevere there. It was originally called Dolorous Gard and later reverted to that name. # 156 - 418

JUBAINVILLE, M.

Many references in Rolleston's CELTIC MYTH AND LEGENDS to M. Jubainville as interpreter and translator regarding Celtic traditions. # 562

JUDWAL

See: MARK.

JULAIN

In PERLESVAUS, the husband of Yglais and mother of Perceval. # 112 - 156