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RADIGUND Queen of the Amazons, slain by Britomart. # 156 - 614 RAGALLACH He was a king of Connacut to whom it was prophesied that he would die at
his daughter's hands. He ordered his wife to cast her into a bag and gave her
to a swineherd to destroy. However, she was left at the door of a woman who
raised her to become her own father's concubine. # 454 RAGNELL A loathsome-looking lady, the sister of Gromer Somer Joure, who enchanted
her into that shape. She helped Gawain find the answer to the riddle which
Gromer set Arthur: 'What is it women desire most?' on the understanding that
if the answer was correct, she would marry Gawain. They were married and on
the wedding night Gawain discovered the true answer for, on kissing her, she
became a beautiful woman. She said he could have her fair by night and ugly
during the day, or ugly at night and fair by day. He could not decide and bade
her choose, thus realizing the answer to the question: 'women desire to have
sovereignty or their own way.' The story also occur as the wife of Bath's tale
in CANTERBURY TALES. The story is perhaps related to Celtic tales in which the
hag stands for sovereignty. Thus Niall of the Nine Hostages, King of Tara,
kissed an old crone who became beautiful and turned out to be the Sovereignty
of Ireland. # 148 - 156 - 401 - 454 - 507 RAGUIDEL A knight slain by Guengasoain. Raguidel's dead body appeared near Arthur's
court on an apparently unmanned ship. With him was a letter asking that he be
avenged and stating that he who did so would be the only one able to draw
rings from the fingers of the corpse. Gawain was the only one able to do this.
# 30 - 156 RAM Contrary to its Egyptian and Indo-English symbolism the ram appears as
chthonic in Celtic tradition. It accompanies Horned Gods but has both
fertilizing and death associations; it is also an attribute of war gods. There
are ram-headed serpents and geese, and rams with human heads. Supernatural
rams and sheep are found in Celtic lore and later in the stories of Christian
saints. Rams were connected with the sacred hearth, the entrance to the
underworld, and among Celtic remains there were found near the hearth andirons
of clay decorated with a ram's head. Fire-dogs were also made in ram effigy,
rams were depicted on Gaulish tombs, and heads of rams appeared on monuments
to Gallic gods of the underworld. The Great God of the Gauls was Belin, the
ram, and his material and earthly manifestation was Bélisama, his consort,
wife and sister. The ram was a Celtic and Gaulish sacrificial animal. # 161 -
787 RAT There was an Irish belief that rats could be killed by reciting rhyming
spells. # 161 RATH (raa or raath) A fortified place surrounded by a wall or ditch or by both.
# 166 RATH CRUACHAN See: CRUACHAN AI. RATH GRANIA King Cormac and Finn feasted at Rath Grania. # 562 RATH LUACHAR Lia keeps the Treasure Bag at Rath Luachar. # 562 RATHCROGHAN Maeve's (Medb) palace in Roscommon. # 562 RATHLEAN Mother of the Otherworldly woman, Ailleann, she was therefore, for a time,
Arthur's mother-in-law. # 156 RAVEN # 701: Among the Celts, ravens were sacred to the Otherworld Birdgoddess
Rhiannon, and also incarnations of the death-dealing Morrigan. Ravens brought
omens of death. It was often said that ravens could foretell outbreaks of the
plague. Because of their association with the Otherworld, ravens were viewed
as oracles and teachers of magic. Ravens gave magical instructions to the
Celtic god Lugh and to his Norse counterpart Odin. # 161: In Celtic lore the raven is associated with deities of war and
features as a helper and protector of warriors and heroes. It is an important
Celtic figure but is ambivalent as helper on the one hand and connected with
death and the Raven-Crow goddess, 'The Blessed Raven', had a three-fold
function as war, procreator and prophecy. The raven is also associated with the wren in prophecy and divination,
appears with the swan in solar symbolism, and is connected with the dove-cote
as a house-symbol, this probably being pre-Celtic. The Raven of Battle, the
Goddess Badb, symbolizes war, bloodshed, and malevolence. Morrigan as a raven
goddess watched over battles. Bran has a raven, and Lugh or Lugos, who had two
magic ravens, is an all-purpose and wise raven-god like the
Teutonic/Scandinavian Woden/Odin. The Welsh hero Owain had an army of ravens
which had magic powers and while he and King Arthur are playing a game of
gwyddbwyll, a boardgame similar to the Irish brandubh (black-raven), they
defeats Arthur's men, as Owain defeats Arthur in the game until the tables are
turned. # 156: After his death Arthur's soul went into a raven's body in
Cornish folklore. The raven is one of the primal totems of the British Isles.
If they saw a flock where all black ravens were malefic, with a white feather
it became to be beneficient. # 454: In Ireland, it is the bird in whose shape
Morrigan appears over battle-fields with her sisters, Badb and Nemainn.
Throughout Celtic and Arthurian literature, raven-women appear, performing
much the same function as the Goddess. In one story, the DIDOT PERCEVAL,
Morgan herself appears as a raven. In Britain the raven is primarily the bird
of Bran the Blessed, for 'bran' means raven. In that story he asks for his
head to be cut off and buried at the White Mount, (modern Tower of London), to
act as a palladium against invasion. This was done, but when Arthur became
king, he dug up the head, not wishing any other to defend Britain but himself.
This act of hubris is perhaps represented in the tradition about the Tower's
ravens who are supposed to similarly keep Britain free of invasion, and it is
said that if they leave the Tower, Britain is doomed. It is for this reason
that their wings are always kept well clipped. # 725: The Raven, Corvus or Corax, takes its name from the sound of its
gutteral throat, because its voice croaks. It is said to be a bird which
refuses to feed its children properly until it recognizes in them the
appearance of the real black colour in the wings. But after it sees them to be
sable feathered, it feeds those which it recognizes, generously. When eating corpses, the bird goes for the eye first. # 52 - 156 - 161 -
389 - 438 - 454 - 701 p 408 - # 717 - 725 RAWHEAD AND BLOODY BONES This was the full name, but it is sometimes shortened to 'Bloody Bones' or
'Old Bloody Bones', and sometimes to 'Tommy Rawhead'. Samuel Johnson in his
dictionary defines it as 'the name of a spectre, mentioned to fright
children', and quotes instances from Dryden and Locke. In Lancashire and
Yorkshire, 'Tommy Rawhead' or 'Rawhead and Bloody Bones' is a water demon
haunting old marl-pits or deep ponds to drag children down into their depths,
like the other Nursery Bogies, Peg Powler and Nelly Longarms. Mrs Wright, in
RUSTIC SPEECH AND FOLK LORE, quotes a typical warning: 'Keep away from the
marl-pit or rawhead and bloody bones will have you.'
#100-752 RAYNBROWN A Knight, the son of Sir Ironside. # 2 - 156 RECESSE The kingdom ruled by Carras, brother of King Claudas. #
156 RED BRANCH Order of chivalry which had its seat in Emain Macha. Heroes of the Red
Branch and CuChulain strive for the Championship of Ireland. With CuChulain
and Conor passes away the glory of the Red Branch. The Craeb Ruad (crâv'
roo'ah), the great assembly hall at Emain Macha; now Creevroe, a townland near
the River Callan not far from Navan, the ancient site of Emain Macha. # 166 -
562 RED HUGH Ulster prince, father of Macha, brother of Dithorba and Kimbay. #
562 RED KNIGHT 1. A knight who stole a cup from Arthur's court. He was pursued and killed
by Perceval. 2. A knight named Sir Perimones, defeated by Gareth. 3. The Red
Knight of the Red Lands, called Sir Ironside, who besieged Lyonesse until he
was defeated by Gareth. 4. A title which was given to Gawain in PERLESVAUS. 5.
A knight defeated by the Great Fool. # 112-153-156-418 RED RIDERS Conary's journey with the Red Riders, who were from the fairyworld and
became one of several of Conary's geise which seized him in one night.
# 562 RED ROSE KNIGHT See: TOM A' LINCOLN. REDSHANKS See: DANES. REGAMNA, THE CATTLE RAID OF or 'CuChulain and the Morrigu' is one of a number of early Irish romances
called REMSCÊLA, or foretales, designed to explain the central epic. It also
belongs to a group of sagas called 'cattleraids' (tânâ bô), of which
the most important is THE CATTLE RAID OF COOLEY. But in the present instance
the title has little appropriateness, as only one cow instead of a herd is
stolen and no person called Regamna (or, perhaps, Regaman) appears in the
story. Besides THE CATTLE RAID OF REGAMNA there are several other ancient
Irish episodic narratives dealing with one or both of the two famous bulls
that figure in THE CATTLE RAID OF COOLEY - the Donn of Cooley and the
White-Horned of Connacht. According to one account the two animals were
originally fairy swine-herds who were at enmity with each other and who
assumed a series of transformations until they finally appeared as the two
bulls. See also: THE ADVENTURES OF NERA. # 166 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT CELTS The records of the ancient Celtic religion are scanty: from the Irish Celts
there is some written material found mainly in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries; from Wales there is the classic document MABINOGION. Valuable hints
are supplied by early classical documents but more important are the existing
folk customs which preserve so much of the old cults. Celtic burial mounds
yield their testimony to ancient beliefs and customs: the cult of the dead;
river and well worship; tree and plant worship; Druidic rites of rebirth and
transmigration. How far the Celts cultivated religion in our sense of the term
or had a vision of monotheism must remain unknown. But a people whose
spiritual influence has been so great must have glimpses of these things. But
even how scanty, from these fragments we see the Celt as the seeker after God,
linking himself by strong ties to the unseen, and eager to conquer the unknown
by religious rite or magic art. For the things of the spirit have never
appealed in vain to the Celtic soul, and long ago classical observers were
struck with the religiosity of the Celts. # 776 RELIGION, CYMRY The religion of the Britons, like that of other heathens, grew up in the
dark... In the first place, it may be inferred from the tone of the evidence
already produced that the primitive religion of the Cymry (long before the age
of the oldest bard who is now extant) was a kind of apostasy from the
patriarchal religion, or a mere corruption of it... and that the Cerridwen of
the Druids was as much the genius of the Ark, as the Ceres and Isis of
our great mythologist. # 455 p 57 ff RENOART He was a warrior in the Guillaume d'Orange cycle. In the romance BATAILLE
LOQUIFER (see CORBON), he was brought to Avalon by Morgan and other fays. Here
he met Arthur. He became the lover of Morgan, but soon left. Morgan persuaded
Kapalu to sink Renoart's ship, but he was rescued by sirens. He and Morgan had
a son named Corbon. # 156 RESTOR DE TRISTRAM The name given to a hero of a lost romance by a disgruntled fairy. The name
signifies 'New Tristram' and the fairy intended that he should undergo a
sorrowful life like his namesake. He went to Morgan's castle, but we do not
know what befell him there. # 156 RHEGED A kingdom in the Cumbria region, ruled by Urien later than the traditional
Arthurian period. T. Clare, County Archaeologist of Cumbria, however,
maintains that Urien and Arthur were identical; in this case Rheged would have
been Arthur's kingdom. Certainly, Arthur is associated with Carlisle in
Rheged. # 156 - 484 RHEUMATISM The twisting and deformities which follow on rheumatism used to be suspect
as a sign that the sufferer was a witch, especially if it came on suddenly.
Severe lumbago was a dangerous affliction to have in the 16th and 17th
centuries, for a witch was often supposed to be bent like a hoop; but it was
also, in more minor forms, as a result of having displeased the fairies in
some way, and particularly when it took the form of lameness, as of the lazy
dairymaid who refused to get up and put out water for the fairies and was
afflicted with a seven-years' lameness. An account of this is to be found in
Mrs Bray's THE BORDER OF THE TAMAR AND THE TAVY. See also: BLIGHTS AND
ILLNESSES ATTRIBUTED TO THE FAIRIES. # 92 - 100 RHIANNON (hree-AH-non) Daughter of Hefaidd Hen, Lord of the Underworld. Pwyll saw
her riding on a white mare and attempted to follow her, but she rode so fast
that he was unable to catch her. He went to Hefaidd's hall to beg her hand in
marriage and was tricked into giving her away to her former suitor, Gwawl.
Rhiannon showed Pwyll how to outwit Gwawl and they were married. Their only
son, Pryderi, was snatched from the cradle by otherworld forces. While
Rhiannon slept, the nurses and midwives killed some puppies and smeared her
face with the blood, making believe she had killed and eaten her son, lest the
blame should fall on them. Rhiannon was set a penance: to stand at the
mounting block and offer to take all visitors to the court upon her back,
telling them her story of shame. She was relieved from this necessity on
Pryderi's return. On Pwyll's death, she married Manawyddan. She followed
Pryderi into an otherworldly castle where he stuck to a golden bowl. She
likewise became stuck and suffered a long sojourn in the Otherworld with her
son. She was released by the guile of Manawyddan. The Birds of Rhiannon were said to be harbingers of otherworldly bliss:
Bran and his company listened to them after his beheading, so that they were
unaware of the passing of time. Rhiannon's attributes can be taced from the
Celtic goddess Epona and the Greek goddess Despoina, daughter of Demeter
Erynnes, but she is most closely modelled on the archetype of Modron, whose
mythos she embodies. # 104 - 272 - 439 - 454 RHITTA, RICCA, RITH See: RIENCE. RHONABWY (HRON-ahv-wy) He fell asleep and dreamed he was brought before Arthur. The
story of his dream forms a piece of Arthuriana in the MABINOGION.
#156-346 RHONGOMYNIAD See: RON. RHUN Sent from King Arthur's court to Elphin's wife. # 562 RHY AWDD (hri'owth) RHYDDERCH A historical king of Strathclyde called Hael (generous). He may be
identical with Rhydderch ap Tudwal, who was king of Dumbarton in the sixth
century. One of the kings involved at Arthuret, Welsh tradition claims he was
on the side opposed to Merlin but, in the VITA MERLINI, Geoffrey has Merlin on
his side and Rhydderch married to Merlin's sister, Ganieda. He defeats
Merlin's Lord, Gwenddolau at the Battle of Arfderydd. See: LAILOKEN, and
THIRTEEN TREASURES. # 156 - 242 - 454 - 632 RHYGENYDD The crock of Rhygenydd was one of the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of
Britain. # 104 - 156 RHYS AP TEWDWR South Welsh prince; brought knowledge of the Round Table to Wales. #
562 RHYVERYS Arthur's master of hounds. # 156 - 346 RIACH (ree-ah) RIANGABAR (re'an gôv'ar) An Ulsterman whose sons Iubar, Loeg, Sedland, and Id, were
the charioteers of Conchobar, CuChulain, Loegaire, and Conall, respectively. #
166 RICH FISHER See: FISHER KING. RICHARD In the PROPHÉCIES DE MERLIN, the son of the King of Jerusalem; he was sent
by the Pope on a diplomatic mission to Arthur's court to obtain aid for
Jerusalem which was menaced by the King of Baudec. A force under Henry the
Courtly was sent to help Jerusalem. When Richard became King of Jerusalem
himself, he attacked Sarras but, as no Crusader was able to defeat its
gigantic ruler, a truce ensued. # 156 RICULF On the death of King Sichelm of Norway, the people chose Riculf as king
although Sichelm had willed his domains to Lot. Arthur enforced Lot's claim by
invading Norway and Riculf was killed. # 156 - 243 RIDGE OF THE DEAD WOMAN Vivionn buried at the Ridge of the Dead Woman. # 562 RIEINGULID In Welsh lore, the mother of Saint Illtyd. She was Arthur's aunt, the
sister of his mother, Igraine. # 156 RIENCE A king which is variously made the ruler of Northgalis, Ireland, Denmark
and the Land of Pastures and Giants. At the time of Arthur's war with the
eleven rebel rulers at the outset of his reign, Rience was at war with
Leodegrance. He had a cloak made from the beards of eleven kings and sent to
Arthur demanding his for the twelfth. War ensued, and Balin and Balan captured
Rience and brought him captive to Arthur. Modern Welsh tradition describes
Rience as a robber whom Arthur slew and buried in the vicinity of
Llannwchllyn. He is presumably identical with Rhitta, Ricca or Ritho, a giant
associated in Welsh folklore with Snowdonia. The LIVRE D'ARTUS describes him
as a Saxon. Spencer made him the father of Britomart. See: ARAVIUS, and
MARMYADOSE. # 156 - 243 - 418 RIGANTONA Great Queen - a title not a personal name. It is properly applied to
Rhiannon, whose name may derive from this Celtic epithet. # 454 -
563 RIGDONNA (re'doon a) Kingship. # 166 RIGRU ROISCLETHAN Queen of Benn Edair - an otherworldly place. She was the mother of Segda
Saerlabraid whom Conn Cetchathach sought to slay. She appeared just as her son
was about to be killed at Tara in the guise of a wailing woman with a lowing
cow. She is a clear form of Sovereignty. She warned Conn to put away Becuma or
else Ireland would remain a wasteland. # 188 - 454 RING Rings were traditional symbols of the bond between chieftains and their
warriors in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Overlords in the BEOWULF are referred to as
"givers of rings". Among the Celts, a ring given by a woman to a man
represented her sexual availability; putting the finger through the ring was a
sign of sexual intercourse. # 701 p 12 RIOTHAMUS A British king who brought a large army by ship to the Continent to assist
the Emperor Anthemius (ruled AD 467-72) against Euric the Visigoth (AD
466-84). He was defeated and disappeared in Burgundy. Geoffrey Ashe argued
that Riothamus is the original of Arthur, claiming that it is a title meaning
'great king'. That eccentric R. Morgan (HISTORY OF BRITAIN) seems to identify
Riothamus with Uther. See: CERDIC. # 31 - 156 RIVALIN 1. In Gottfried, the father of Tristan, ruler of Parmenie. He married
Blanchefleur, sister of King Mark of Cornwall. His name may be taken from
Rivalen, lord of Vitré, who flourished in the eleventh century. 2. A ruler of
Nantes who attacked Hoel but was defeated in monomachy (single combat) by
Tristan. # 156 - 256 RIWALLAWN A son of Urien of Rheged. # 156 ROARING BULL OF BAGBURY, THE An example of a ghost who has taken over the character and functions of a
Bogie, or even of a devil. His story is told in Burne and Jackson's SHROPSHIRE
FOLK LORE. He had been a very wicked man who lived at Bagbury Farm. He had
only done two good deeds in his life, given a waistcoat to an old man and a
piece of bread and cheese to a poor boy, but those deeds were not enough to
save his soul, and after he died he came back in the shape of a monstrous bull
which haunted the farm and the outbuildings, roaring and bellowing so loud
that tiles and shutters would fly off. At last the people could stand it no
longer, so they called together twelve parsons to lay him. They got him under,
but they could not lay him, so they drove him before them to Hyssington
Church. All the twelve of them had lighted candles, and eleven held them in
their hands, but one old blind parson knew the bull's tricks, and when they
got him into church he tucked his candle into his top-boot. Sure enough, the
bull made a great rush, and he blew out all the eleven candles. But the old
parson said, 'Light all your candles from mine.' They did so, and the bull
raged round till he cracked one wall of the church. But they conjured him
down, smaller and smaller, till they got him into a snuff-box, and he asked to
be laid under Bagbury Bridge, so that every mare that passed over should lose
her foal, and every woman her child. They would not consent to that, but sent
him off to the Red Sea for thousand years. For all that, the people of
Hyssington crossed Bagbury Bridge very cautiously for a good few years to
come. Here the procedure of laying is the same as that used in laying a demon
or devil. The method is even more clearly shown in the story of the Great
Giant of Henllys. These are undoubtedly ghost stories, but here we see the
balance trembling towards those fairy stories in which the fairies are
regarded as the dead. # 100 - 119 ROBERT THE BRUCE (1274 - 1329) Although he first swore fealty to Edward I of England, the
Bruce soon followed in the footsteps of William Wallace in his defence of
Scottish independence. After Wallace's execution, he was crowned Robert I at
Scone. He was then temporarily defeated, and while exiled in Ireland he is
said to have had his encounter with the spider, where he watched it try six
times to fix its web to a beam. It was successful on the seventh attempt. The
Bruce had also attempted to so secure his position six times and took heart.
He finally won the treaty of independence as Scotland's sovereign in 1327, but
died of leprosy two years later. # 454 ROBIN The nursery rhyme says 'Cock Robin' was slain by arrows, a common mode of
sacrificial death for pagan heroes such as CuChulain, for example. Robin
Hood's death scene also featured an arrow. The rebirth of Robin - or return of
the robin to the greenwood - was and still is the classic harbinger of spring.
# 701 p 409 ROBIN GOODFELLOW The best known and most often referred to of all the Hobgoblins of England
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The son of Oberon and an earthly
woman. Indeed, in a sense he seemed to swallow all others and their names were
made nick-names of his. Even in Shakespeare, Robin Goodfellow and Puck are
identified. In the very informative conversation between Puck and the
wandering fairy in a MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, she begins by calling him 'Robin
Goodfellow', but seems to consider that he prefers the name of 'Puck': Those that Hob-goblin call you and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they
shall have good luck. # 100 ROBIN HOOD The legend began about 1261-62. The man, if he existed at all, lived even
earlier. He has survived as a hero in ballad, book poem and play ever since. -
He cannot be identified. There is a quiverful of possible Robin Hoods. Even
the likeliest is little better than a shot in the gloaming. To substantiate an
identity, the earliest tales of Robin's doings have to be matched with
information from other sources. This is scanty, and even in the earliest
stories there is no sure way of sifting fact from fiction. Hence who he might
have been is inseparable from what he was thought to have been: any search for
a man involves an analysis of the legend. - What the original story was really
like, how the plant took root and grew and in what sort of soil, are matters
for patient reconstruction, but still the fancy saturate the tales of Robin
Hood. It made heroes of outlaws. It confused violence and crime with justice
and charity. In this it achieved an enduring confidence trick, which we now
all can enjoy. The school of witchcraft theory initiated by Dr Margaret Murray puts
forward the proposition that the medieval witches and their successors were a
Stone Age fertility cult with a dying god who was bled to death on May Day to
give new life to the land and who from the Middle Ages onward was Robin Hood.
Later Dr Murray explored the theory of a rather more long-lived god, the
actual king of the realm or his substitute, and suggested William Rufus,
Thomas à Becket, Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais as victims. Presumably, if
that was so, Robin Hood would merely become part of the May Day celebrations.
It has also been suggested that the outlaw Robin Hood took the name of a
woodland spirit. Recent investigations, however, seem to point to a solid
historical foundation for the legends, and to an aristocratic rather than a
popular cult. # 100 - 319 ROC Angus' steward; his son crushed to death by Donn; then changed into a boar
and charged to bring Dermot to death at length. # 562 ROCKS In addition to standing stones, stone circles and cromlechs, which have all
without question been erected by man, there are many interesting boulders and
rocks in Wales (as well as in the rest of Britain and Ireland) whose existence
is either attributed to the Druids, the Devil, King Arthur, local giants,
witches, fairies or merely freaks of nature. One can come across heaps of
stones that have mysteriously been carried there by a witch or a giantess in
her apron. Sometimes the apron strings broke and the stones fell out, or they
dropped into her shoe and in anger she tossed them out to land several miles
distant. The legendary figures who carried and threw stones appear continually
in Welsh folklore. Arthur was the greatest of them all but others were Huw
Gadarn, Cadwaladr, Rhitta Gawr, Brutus and Idris who were all members of a
mythical race of giants whose pebbles and stones are scattered all over Wales.
However, the champion pebble-tosser of Wales seems to have been the Giant of
Trichrug (a fairy haunt in Dyfed). He invited neighbouring giants to try their
strength with him in throwing stones and won the contest by hurling a huge
rock across the sea to Ireland. # 49 ROGES In the Middle Dutch romance WALAWEIN, a prince who was turned into a fox by
sorcery. He aided Gawain in one of his adventures and was eventually turned
back into his normal shape. # 156 ROMAN BRITAIN # 232: At the end of april in AD 43 the conquest of Britain was begun with
the invasion of more than 40.000 men in the Roman legions, led by general
Aulus Plautius under the Roman Emperor Claudius, and it came to an end in AD
476. The civilisation of Roman Britain was a synthesis of things Roman and
Celtic. Though it owed an incalculable debt to introductions from abroad and
its preponderating element was imported from the civilisation of the
Mediterranean, this civilisation took root in a Celtic land and enjoyed a
native contribution: 'Romano-British' is a term not wholly synonymous with
'Roman'. Britain formed part of the Roman Empire for close on 400 years, a not
inconsiderable slice of her total recorded history; and during this time there
was ample opportunity for interaction and development; there were the powerful
influences of geographical environment, as well as previous regional
differences in the inheritance of the inhabitants to modify and colour the
history of the province. Romano-British culture arose from the impact of the
civilisation of Rome upon the Celtic people of Britain; the result, however,
was not a replacement of cultures, but rather what can broadly be described as
a synthesis. A convinient illustration of this is provided at the small town
of Brough on Humber (Petuaria), which may have been the caput of
the civitas of the Parisi. By the middle of the second century military
occupation of the area had ceased, and a civilian town was arising over the
site of the fort. It possessed a theatre whose stage-building was presented by
a Roman citizen, M. Ulpius Ianuaris, aedile of the vicus of Petuaria, who set
up a tablet in honour of the Domus Divina of Antoninus Pius and the
deified emperors. It would be hard to find a more Roman scene. But about the
same time as this dedication was made there was buried in the cemetery just
outside the town a local priest. The burial rite was inhumation accompanied by
a native iron-bound wooden bucket and two sceptres. This was a native
burial-rite; and as if to emphasise the non-Roamn character of the ritual the
two sceptres had been intentionally bent and broken to devitalise them for the
journey to the Otherworld. Nothing could illustrate better the dual character
of Romano-Brtish civilisation. Outwardly it was Roman, inwardly it remained
Celtic; yet it would be wrong to suppose an inner conflict between the two
aspects. The result was a synthesis, intended by Rome, and welcomed by the
British people as they came to realise the advantages of peace and wealth
conferred by membership of the empire. At any one time, indeed, there was a wide range of variability within the
synthesis, owing to the social stratification of Romano-British society on the
one hand, and, on the other, to the widely varying conditions of life and
opportunity existing in different regions of the province. At one end of the
spectrum lay considerable approximation to the classical way of life and at
the other a substantial survival of native characteristics. Moreover, the
culture of Roman Britain should not be treated as if it were a static
historical phenomenon. Through the four centuries of its existence it had its
periods of development and decline, of maturity and decay, despite the
comparative slowness of such processes of change in the ancient world when
compared with our own. It should be studied, therefore, as far as the evidence
allows, against the background not only of historical growth but also of
varied social achievement. In this quotation from Sheppard Frere's latest
edition (1986) of his work BRITANNIA, the author adds, We can measure the
Romanisation of Britain only with imprecision, for we have to depend so
largely upon the much more revealing evidence of contemporary testimony. Not
that the evidence of material things is of little account. Haverfield long ago
made the point that when the provincial adopted the use of Roman things he
could be declared civilised enough to realise their value and, further, could
be seen to have abandoned any inherited hostility towards them. Nevertheless,
the evidence of the written word is invaluable in such an enquiry, and
Romano-British writings are denied us until the fifth century. The Romanising
agents responsible for the new culture were the soldiers of the occupying
army, service by Britons themselves in the Roman forces, the colonies of Roman
citizens, the merchants from the Continent and, at a higher level, the policy
of governors like Agricola or of client kings like Cogidubnus. The
civilisation thus introduced was not really the metropolitan culture of Rome
or even of Italy: it was the provincial version of this, diluted but none the
less real, and sufficiently vigorous to unify an empire whose boundaries
touched Scotland, the Black Sea, the Euphrates and the Sahara. # 32 - 293 -
294 ROMAN LONDON We here quote from Gordon Home's splendid work ROMAN LONDON (1926), where
he opens with:' Those who would write the history of London from its
beginnings are confronted with the greatest difficulties imaginable, owing to
the fact that the whole of the original site has been built upon from an early
date, and that since then successive ages have rebuilt with ever deepening
foundations so that the ancient deposits have been removed or so much
disturbed that the archaeologist of to-day is too often unable to obtain any
reliable information from builders' excavations, which so frequently appear to
offer chances of elucidating the problem. It is also a melancholy task to
record the fact that, as a rule, the digging operations of the building
contractor are seldom closely watched, and very few sectional drawings of the
deposits revealed have been made'. The fact that London is a Celtic name, and the references of early
historians to its consequence as a port long before the Claudian conquest in
AD 43, is it very satisfying that there was a thriving settlement on the spot
before Britain became a Roman province. From the sack of London by Boudicca to
about the year 286 there are no direct references to London. Evidently history
was not being made at the prosperous capital of Britannia. We can take this
period as being one of uninterrupted growth during which the place grew into a
city of great importance in the second rank of the cities of the Empire.
Considering such evidence, historical and archaeological, which exists and,
witout prejudices in any direction, one may come to the conclusion that Roman
London had continuous existence through the period of the English or
Anglo-Saxon invasions. # 321 RONAN SLEW HIS SON, HOW This tale is older than the twelfth-century manuscript in which it first
appears; yet it is clearly not as ancient as the historical period in which
the scene is laid. The Ronan of this story is evidently identical with Ronan
mac Colmain, king of Leinster, who, according to the annals, died about AD
610. According to the same authority, Eochaid king of Dunseverick, who figures
in the story as the father-in-law of Ronan, did not die until half a century
later. The suspicion that we are dealing here with romantic fiction rather
than with historical facts is confirmed by the obvious similarity between our
story and the Greek myth of Phaedra and Hyppolitus. Both the Irish tale and
the Greek myth not only contain the theme of the young step-mother's love for
her handsome step-son and the father's jealousy and revenge, but also
correspond in matters of detail; Mael Fothartaig resembles Hyppolitus in being
a mighty hunter who roams the forest and regards his hounds as his most
precious possessions. It is by no means improbable that the Greek story found
its way into Ireland and became attached to the royal family of Leinster. #
166 ROSMERTA Her name means 'Good Purveyor'. She is a native goddess who was adopted
into the Romano-British cult of Mercury, where she appears as his consort,
adopting his caduceus and purse as well as retaining her own basket of fruit
or cauldron/bucket of plenty. # 264 - 454 - 563 ROSS THE RED King of Ulster, husband of Maga, a daughter of Angus Og. The name of his
second wife was Roy. Ross was the originator of the Red Branch. #
562 ROUGEMONT The castle belonging to Talac. # 156 ROUND TABLE # 156: The table at which Arthur seated his knights to avoid wrangling over
precedence. It had originally been Uther's then it became the property of King
Leodegrance of Cameliard and, when Leodegrance's daughter married Arthur, it
fell to him. The table is variously represented as a disc, a ring, a
semicircle or a broken ring with an opening for servants. Arthur would have
sat at a separate table from the knights. The Round Table is first mentioned
by Wace who claimed the knights sat inside the circle which it formed. Robert
de Boron has it seating fifty knights, the VULGATE VERSION 250 and Layamon
1600. Round Tables were not the sole property of the Arthurian saga. Aurelius
Cassiodorus says Theodoric the Ostrogoth had one and, in the SAGA OF DIETRICH,
one belongs to Czar Cartäus. The Round Table at Winchester, which survives to
this day, was thought by Caxton, when he wrote his preface to Malory's MORTE
D'ARTHUR, to be the original table, but such an opinion cannot be sustained,
(it has been scientifically dated to the reign of Edward III, about 1344). In
the Middle Ages, round tables were sometimes made in imitation of Arthur's.
Roger de Mortimer had one at Kenilworth and Edward III had one at Windsor, 200
feet in diameter. # 454: The Round Table esoterically symbolizes the coming together of
peers, human and otherworldly, to watch over the fortunes of humanity. It is
an encapsulation of the ancient concept of Clas Myrddyn. # 26 - 98 - 156 - 418
- 524 - 697 ROWAN # 701: Also called quickbeam or mountain ash, the rowan tree represented
the second letter of the druidic tree alphabet, Luis (L). The tree
stood for magic and was sacred to the Goddess Brigit. In Irish legends, 'the rowan tree in the north' bore the berries of
immortality. The tree was guarded by a Fomorian giant with one fiery eye in
the middle of his forehead. # 100: The tree which above all others offered the best protection against
fairy enchantments and witchcraft. It will be noticed that all rowan are
reddish, and the red berries of the rowan-tree make it specially effective. A
staff of rowan, a cross made of rowan, a bunch of rowan berries, all these
were effective, and it was customary in the Highlands to plant a rowan-tree
outside every house. Where rowans were scarce, ash-trees took their place. An
ashen gad was supposed to be protective of cattle. See also: PROTECTION
AGAINST FAIRIES. # 489: Along with other trees, Rowan played a central role in Druid
ceremonies. Even in more recent times, these beliefs have been upheld in
practices from different parts of Britain. In the North, for example, sprays
of Rowan were fixed to cattle sheds to protect the animals from harm, and in
Strathspey farmers drove their goats through hoops framed from branches of
Rowan. Sprigs were placed over the main door of the house and also worn on the
person to ward off false enchantment - the 'evil eye'. In Wales, or Cymru,
Rowans used to be planted in churchyards to watch over the spirits of the
dead, as Yew is elsewhere. # 100 - 489 - 701 p 470 ROWENA In Geoffrey, the name of the daughter of Hengist who married Vortigern. The
name does not occur before Geoffrey and is probably Welsh rather than
Anglo-Saxon. In Thelwall's melodrama THE FAIRY OF THE LAKE (1801), Rowena was
in love with Arthur, even though married to Vortigern. #156 - 243 -
697 ROWLAND A son of Arthur according to a Scottish ballad. When his sister, Ellen,
disappeared, Merlin claimed the fairies had taken her. The eldest of her
brothers went to search for her, but he vanished for he had not followed
Merlin's instructions. The same happened to the next brother. Rowland,
however, did all that Merlin had bidden him which entailed the slaughter of
each person he met after he entered the fairy realm. He then went inside a
hill where there was a hall in which he found Ellen together with his two
entranced brothers. Rowland defeated the King of Elfland and secured the
release of the prisoners. In the ballad CHILDE ROWLAND, Rowland is called
childe, signifying an upper-class young man. A quotation from a ballad about
Rowland occurs in KING LEAR. # 156 RUADAN 1. Tara cursed by Saint Ruadan of Lorrha due to the arrest by the High King
of a murderer which this clergy had found a hiding-place. 2. The son of Bres and Brigit. He fought on Fomorian side in the second
Battle of Mag Tuired and was sent to spy on the dispositions of the Tuatha de
Danaan, particularly on their provision of arms and the nature of the healing
well Slane with which Diancecht healed their men. He managed to wound Goibniu
but the smith pierced him with the spear which he had been making. The
similarities between this story and the accidental slaying of Dylan by
Gofannon are striking. # 188 - 454 - 562 RUNALEN Son of Hoel of Brittany and brother to Iseult of the White Hands #
156 RUNNING WATER This, particularly southward-running water, is holy, and cannot be passed
by evil spirits. See also: PROTECTION AGAINST FAIRIES. #
100