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TABLE MAN See: SEVEN KINGS OF CORNWALL. A recent term in English, first introduced into the language by Captain
Cook in his VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC (1777). It is to be found in various forms
and spellings through the South Sea Islands, but always as an adjective, with
the meaning of 'sacred' or forbidden. The verbal use of 'under a taboo' was
introduced by Tylor in his EARLY HISTORY OF MAN. In that sense it is virtually
the same as the Irish Geasa, a mysterious prohibition which was magically laid
upon an individual, and once laid was irremovable. Some unfortunate people had
conflicting geasas laid upon them, like CuChulain, who might refuse no
invitation to meat and might not eat the flesh of a dog. Other taboos that are
not called geasas are like those laid on the men wedding fairy brides who
might not reproach them with their inhuman origin or might not give them
causeless blows. Some fairies impose a taboo that they may not be thanked, and
a taboo of secrecy is imposed by many, The UTTER NOT WE YOU IMPLORE of the
fairies by Ben Jonson. # 100 - 349 TAILTIU Foster-mother of Lugh. She was the daughter of the King of Spain who
married Eochaid of the Tuatha de Danaan. She cleared a plain on the site of
Coill Chuan, and that place was named Tailtiu after her. She was remembered
ever after by mourning the games which were performed by Lugh and other kings
after him. They were held for a month and became known as the Assembly of Lugh
or Lughnasadh - after which the month of August is now called in Ireland. #
454 - 548 TAIN BO CUALGNE (thawn-bo-coo-alg'ny - or - tahn bo cooley) See also: CUALGNE, THE
CATTLERAID OF. An ancient piece of Aryan mythology is embedded in it. The
Brown Bull is the counterpart of the Hindu sky-deity, Indra, represented in
Hindu myth as a mighty bull, whose roaring is the thunder and who lets loose
the rains 'like cows streaming forth to pasture.' The two animals in the
Celtic legend probably typify the sky in different aspects. They are described
with a pomp and circumstance which shows that they are no common beasts. The
Brown Bull is described as having a back broad enough for fifty children to
play on; when he is angry with his keeper he stamps the man thirty feet into
the ground; he is likened to a sea wave, to a bear, to a dragon. We are
therefore concerned with no ordinary cattle-raid, but with a myth, the
features of which are discernible under the dressing given it by the fervid
imagination of the unknown Celtic bard who composed the TAIN although the
exact meaning of every detail may be difficult to ascertain. # 166 -
562 TAITHCHWANT It was through a taithchwant, a wanderlust intense and strong that Beli the
Great King of the Otherworld, created or added the dark into his realm of pure
light and happiness. To obey the taithchwant he had to choose which of his two
sons Llud and Nudd, who were equal in goodness, should be king and ruler over
his realm during his travel. It was indeed a very difficult decision, but at
last he chose Llud, which finally turned Nudd into his opponent and savage
enemy. # 383 p 266 ff TALIESIN (tal-YESS-in) The figure of the bard was among the most important at the
court of the Celtic princes. Their task was to remember the songs and stories
which told of every man's ancestors. Thus the Celts buried their dead in
unmarked graves since they knew that while the bards survived so would the
memory of the mighty dead. Undoubtedly the most famous of these men was
Taliesin, an actual historic personage who lived towards the middle of the
sixth century and left a substantial body of material behind, though in a form
much muddled and misunderstood. His fame as a semi-mythical character in the
HANES TALIESIN (Story of Taliesin) wrought a curious circumstance whereby a
vast amount of mythical and mystical teaching constellated around the figure
of the historical bard. An entire system of Celtic magical teaching lies
buried within the poems and stories about Taliesin and many attempts have been
made to decipher it. Among the first to attempt a serious and reasonably
accurate translation was the nineteenth-century scholar W. F. Skene, who
published the text and translation of THE FOUR ANCIENT BOOKS OF WALES
(including 'The Book of Taliesin') in 1868. His work was shortly followed by a
lengthy commentary with further translations by D. W. Nash, whose vituperative
attack on his predecessors is often, in retrospect, amusing. The extract,
gives the best of his commentary, which is exhaustive and lively. His book
remains the most reliable until now on the subject. Taliesin was the greatest
poet of the Island of Britain: he saw and foretold many of the events of
Arthur's reign and the ages to follow. According to a seventeenth-century text
(of admittedly earlier provenance) attached to the MABINOGION collection, he
was once named Gwion Bach and was set to watch over the cauldron of Ceridwen
in which was brewed a drink of knowledge and inspiration intended for her son,
Morfran or Afagddu. Some drops splashed out onto his fingers which he then
thrust into his mouth, in order to cool them. So did he have access to all
knowledge. He subsequently underwent a series of transformations (analogous to
his poetic initiation) and was finally reborn of Ceridwen as Taliesin (Radiant
Brow). - She set the baby poet in a coracle and he was found on May-Eve at the
Salmon Weir by Elphin who became his patron. Taliesin subsequently rescued his
master from prison and silenced the bards of Maelgwn. He sailed with Arthur on Prydwen when the king led the raid on Annwn in
order to recover the Hallows of Britain. He has been identified with a
sixthcentury poet of the same name and is associated with both Merlin and
Aneurin. A similar gaining of knowledge scenario is told of Fionn. In
Taliesin, the mantic and magical powers of the ancient poet-kind are revealed.
His famous 'I have beens' boast, in which he lists the places and people he
has been and met throughout time reveal the nature of his poetic initiation in
which all knowledge is recapitulated. His pursuit by Ceridwen in her hag-aspect is a remnant of a once widespread
myth in which the Cailleach Bheare/Bheur pursues her son, the God of Youth or
Mabon, through countless transformations until he is possessed of all
knowledge. Taliesin became famed for his poetry. He is said to have adressed
Urien of Rheged poetically, but he may have been a visitor to Urien's realm
rather than a resident and have been of south Welsh provenance. Taliesin was
regarded as both poet and prophet. In both Welsh tradition and the VITA
MERLINI he is represented as discoursing with Merlin. The verse ascribed to
him is difficult to understand. Tolstoy contends that it may originally have
been regarded as the work of Merlin and only later attributed to Taliesin.
TALIESIN, BEDD Bedd Taliesin, north-east of Talybont, on the slopes of Moel y Garn, Dyfed.
From Talybont a lane leads N. E. climbing on to moor and in 2 miles on a
lonely hillside reaching Bedd Taliesin. The barrow is reputed to contain the
remains of of the sixth-century bard Taliesin, once the chief bard of Britain.
His birth was suppose to be quite miraculous. He was found as a baby in a
coracle caught in a fish weir near Borth, by Elphin, a local prince. Years
later Taliesin returned the favour by managing to rescue Prince Elphin from
the dungeon of Deganwy Castle. Many of the legends associated with this
ancient poet are to be found in the MABINOGION. The barrow consists of a large
stone slab and a cairn. The other stones have been removed over the years,
probably by farmers looking for suitable stones for erecting gate-posts, and
in 1991 there were but fragments left from what we can see in the photo taken
by Chris Barber and to be found in his book from 1982 MYSTERIOUS WALES. In the
nineteenth century an attempt was made to discover the bones of Taliesin and
remove them to a more holy place. But while the wellmeaning persons were
digging, they were suddenly startled by a terrible thunderstorm. Lightning
flashed and struck the ground with a loud crack. The men fled for their lives,
leaving their tools behind, and they never returned to try again. #
49 TALKENN Means Adze-head. Name given to Saint Patrick by the Irish. #
562 TALLAS The King of Denmark in CLARIS ET LARIS. He made Laris a prisoner but Claris
rescued him. # 156 TALTIU TELTA Daugther of the King of the 'Great Plain' (The Land of the Dead), wedded by
Eochy mac Erc. # 562 TAM LIN The guardian of Carterhaugh Wood who exacted the maidenhead of any maiden
who went there. His true love, Janet, rescued him from his bondage to the
Queen of Fairy. At Hallowe'en Janet dragged him off his horse and held on to
him resolutely while he shape-shifted in her arms into various wild beasts. At
last he was his own self and free of the Queen's spell. Here we have the
summoning of a spirit by breaking the branch of a tree sacred to him, the
Fairy Rade with its jingling bells at Hallowe'en, the time most sacred to the
fairies, the Fairy Knowe, the Teind to Hell - so characteristic of Scottish
Fairyland - the rescue from Fairyland by holding fast, the shape-shifting of
the captive, and the essential illwill of the Fairy Queen. Tamlin, Tamlane,
Tam Lin, Tam-a-Lin were names often given to a fairy, sometimes a page and
sometimes to a knight. # 100 - 150 - 454 - 762 TANABURS A wizard who lived before Uther, second in sorcery only to Merlin. He laid
a spell on Carbonek so that this castle could be found only by certain knights
whom chance would lead to it. # 30 - 156 TARA # 562: Seat of the High Kings of Ireland. The Stone of Scone sent from Tara
to Scotland. It was at Tara that Lugh accused the sons of Tuirenn, of the
murder of his father, Cian. Bull feast at Tara to decide by divination who
should be king in Eterskel's stead. CuChulain's head and hand buried at Tara.
# 548: In discussing the feminine nature of kingship, we observed that the
kings of Ireland were men who showed favour to, or were accepted by, the lady
who personified the realm. Installation was a 'king-marriage'. In the ritual
of Tara, on the other hand, the king must be acknowledged by an embodiment of
the masculine principle. Ireland, in addition to bearing the names of various
goddesses, is called the 'Plain of Fál', or the 'Island of Fál', the Irish are
'the men of Fál', the king 'the ruler of Fál'. Fál is the name of a stone on
the Hill of Tara. It is characterized as 'the stone penis', and in later
tradition as 'the member of Fergus'. This is the 'Stone of Knowledge' which
cries out under the destined king. One story speaks of a more elaborate ritual
in which the cry of Fál is preceded by a symbolical rebirth. There were two
flagstones at Tara, called Blocc and Bluigne, which stood so close together
that one's hand could only pass sideways between them. When they accepted a
man, they would open before him until his chariot went through. 'And Fál was
there, the "stone penis" at the head of the chariot-course (?); when a man
should have the kingship, it screeched against his chariot axle, so that all
might hear.' The court of Tara, the centre of the Plain of Fál, was the
quintessence of the state. A medieval source tells how King Domnall son of Aed
established his seat at Dún na nGéd, on the banks of Boyne, because Tara had
been cursed by all the saints of Ireland. 'And he drew seven great ramparts
about that fort after the manner of Tara of the kings, and he designed even
the houses of the fort after the manner of the houses of Tara: namely, the
great Central Hall, where the king himself used to abide with kings and queens
and ollams and all that were best in every art; and the Hall of Munster and
the Hall of Leinster and the Banquet-Hall of Connacht and the Assembly-Hall of
Ulster.' In addition to the Central Hall and the Halls of the four Great
Provinces there were 'the Prison of the Hostages and the Star of the Poets and
the Palace (Grianan) of the Single Pillar (which Cormach son of Art first made
for his daughter) and all the other houses. It seems likely that the four
provincial halls at Tara were arranged around the Central Hall, and the plan
of the whole state was further reproduced within the Central Hall itself. 'And
he (Domnall) summoned the men of Ireland to this feast at Tara. A couch was
prepared for Domnall in the midst of the royal palace at Tara and afterwards
the host were seated. The men of Munster in the southern quarter of the house.
The men of Connaught in the western part of the house. The men of Ulster in
the northern. The men of Leinster in the eastern side of it.' And in the
middle of the hall sat the five kings. 'The CENTRE OF IRELAND around Domnall
in that house. Thus was the court made. The king of Leinster on the couch
opposite in the east, the king of Munster on his right hand, the king of
Connacht at his back, the king of Ulster on his left hand. It is noted in A NEW VERSION OF THE BATTLE OF MAG RATH, ed. and transl. by
C. Marstrander in ERIU, V, that if the high-king had been of the Southern Ui
Néill the arrangement would have been slightly different. In THE BANQUET OF
DUN NA NGED' this diffrence seems to be greater: 'The custom was that when a
king of the Southern Ui Néill was High King the king of Connacht should be at
his right hand, and when a king of the Northern Ui Néill was High King, the
king of Ulster on his right and the king of Connacht on his left.' One wonders
whether a high-king of the Southern Ui Néill faced southwards and a high-king
of the Northern Ui Néill faced northwards. With the alternation of the kings
of Connacht and Ulster as the high-king's right hand, cf. 'There was a
covenant between Lugaid and Ailill Aulum and between their offspring after
them that whenever Aulum's offspring held the kingship, Lugaid's offspring
should hold the judgeship, but when Lugaid's offspring held the kingship,
Aulum's sons were to hold the judgeship. Lugaid and Ailill made this
arrangement in the presence of Connall of the Hundred Victories over one half
of Ireland. Thus the men of Leinster and Munster held kingship and judgeship.
And thus the orientation of the group accords with the dual meaning of the
usual Gaelic terms for the four directions, north, south, east, and west,
meaning also left, right, before, and behind, respectively. These kings may
not have had the political power of a Louis XIV, but in the realm of symbolism
they could legitimately proclaim: l'état cést nous. The division of a city, a
land, or the world, into four quarters with a central fifth is anything but
unique. We can find resemblance of this in both ancient China and India. And
again, the Grail Castle as pictured in SONE DE NAUSSAY is a complete cosmic
symbol. It is built on an island, with four towers (elsewhere given as a
square), which 'is the palace'. Evidence of this kind which could be quoted
from many other parts of the world leaves us in no doubt as to the
cosmological significance of the four and central fifth in Ireland. The view
of the diversion of Tara's Banqueting Hall, allegorical speaking, is deeply
expounded in A. Rees, and B. Rees: Celtic Heritage, chapter seven. # 70 - 106
- 273 - 312 - 467 - 548 - 562 - 605 - 764 TARAN TAFOD The Dark Tongue. A request or prayer for help to slay an enemy to the Taran
Tafod may sound like this: 'CWMWL DYFOD! GWYNT DYRNOD!' and 'DYRNOD! DYFOD!
TYMESTL RHUO! - TERFESGU!' where the chief-bards outcry for help brought a
terrible thunderstorm with heavy rain and hail to fall exclusively over the
enemy. # 384 p 81 TARANIS The Lord of Thunder. Taranis, god of the wheel. One of the powerful Father
Gods, associated with forces of change. The Romans associated him with their
Jupiter, and with the shadowy Dis Pater, the primal god of the Underworld. His
connection to the oak tree and to thunder, both of which were important
symbols and entities in Druidism, suggests that he may have been a
specifically Druidic father god. # 628 p 70 TARANS In the north-east of Scotland the spirits of babies who have died without
baptism are called 'Tarans'. McPherson, in PRIMITIVE BELIEFS IN THE NORTH EAST
OF SCOTLAND, quotes from Pennant's TOUR OF SCOTLAND, the Banff section: The
little spectres, called Tarans, or the souls of unbaptized infants, were often
seen flitting among the woods and secret places, bewailing in soft voices
their hard fate. In the Lowlands and in Somerset these would be called
Spunkies. Little Short Hoggers of Whittinghame was one of the Spunkies. # 100
- 465 TARBFEIS (TAR-vaysh) TAROT See: ARTHURIAN TAROT, THE, - and HALLOWQUEST, and MERLIN'S TAROT, and
CELTIC TAROT, THE. TARSENESYDE See: ENID. TAULAT A villain who came to Arthur's court and slew a knight in front of the
queen, promising to return each year to do the same. He was eventually
defeated by Jaufré. # 30 - 156 TEGAU EURFON The wife of Caradoc Briefbras in Welsh tradition. She had three treasures:
a mantle, a cup and a carving knife. See: THIRTEEN TREASURES. #
156 TEGID FOEL Husband of Ceridwen. A man of Penllyn, his home is said to have been in
Lake Tegid. He appears in many Welsh genealogies. # 272 - 454 -
562 TEIND The old Lowland term for the tithe. It was the tribute due to be paid by
the fairies to the Devil every seven years. The mention of it is to be found
in the ballad of 'True Thomas and the Queen of Elfland'. #
100 TEIRNYON TWYRVLIANT (tair-NON turv-LEE-ant) A man of Gwent ys Coed, who finds and restore
Pryderi. # 562 TELLTOWN TELTIN Palace at Telltown (Teltin) of Telta, Eochy mac Erc's wife. There was a
great battle at Teltin between Danaans and Milesians. After Conary's death,
Conall of the Victories makes his way to Teltin. # 562 TEMPLEISE In Wolfram, the knights who guarded the Grail. # 156 -
748 TERRE FORAINE A country ruled by King Kalafes who was converted to Christianity by Alan.
Alan's brother, Joshua, succeeded Kalafes. La Terre Foraine was possibly
identical with Listenois and was said to have been under the rule of King
Pellehan in Arthurian times. Perceval's aunt was once its queen and it may
have been identical with the Waste Land. # 153 - 156 TERRESTIAL PARADISE In the Middle Ages, it was conjectured that the Garden of Eden was still in
existence and its whereabouts could be discovered. In LE CHANSON d'ESCLARMONDE
(an obscure medieval work), the heroine Esclarmonde was taken by Morgan to the
Terrestrial Paradise where she bathed in the Fountain of Youth. #
156 TERRIBLE, THE A demon who by strange test decides the Championship of Ireland. #
562 TEYRNON TURF LIANT His epithet means 'Lord of the raging Wave', but is generally believed to
be drawn from the Celtic form 'Tigernonos' or Great Lord. He was the rescuer
and foster-father of Pryderi. His part within the story of Rhiannon may once
have been greater if the Celtic derivation of his name is any clue. Rhiannon
marries Manawyddan who is closely associated with the sea and who might well
share Teyrnon's title. Rhiannon is derived from the Celtic form, 'Rigantona'
or Great Queen a suitable title for the wife of Tigernonos. The father of
Pryderi is also uncertain, since Rhiannon was probably the wife of Arawn or a
Lord of Annwn prior to Pwyll. # 272 - 439 - 454 THANEY The mother of Saint Kentigern in the LIFE of that Saint. She is described
as the daughter of Lot. # 156 THANOR Tristan had to fight Marhaus over the tribute which Cornwall paid to
Ireland, this having been instituted at the time of King Thanor of Cornwall as
payment for Irish help against King Pellas of Leonois. #
156 THEFTS FROM THE FAIRIES Considering the awe in which the fairies were held, is it surprising how
many attempts, some of them successful, were made to take gold and silver
plate out of their mounds. Gervase of Tilbury tells a story of a fairy
cup-bearer who appeared from a mound near Gloucester and offered drink to any
huntsman who asked for it. One was so ungrateful as to carry off the cup and
present it to the Earl of Gloucester, who, however, executed him as a robber
and gave the cup to Henry I. In his SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS
OF SCOTLAND several versions of 'Luran' stories is given. In one version the
fairies steal from Luran and he tries to make up his losses by stealing from
the fairies. He is not finally successful. A feature of the story is the
friendly adviser among the fairies. He is generally called 'The Red-headed
Man' and is supposed to be a captured human who retains his sympathy with his
fellow men. # 100 - 131 - 246 THEMSELVES or They, or Them that's in it. Manx euphemistic names for the fairies,
'fairy' being generally considered an unlucky word to use. It is sometimes
said that 'Themselves' are the souls of those drowned in Noah's Flood.#
100 THEORIES OF FAIRY ORIGINS The people who believe in the existence of fairies has different notions
about their origin. Folklorists are more concerned in the origin of fairy
beliefs; what is important to them is not so much whether the fairies really
exist as whether their existence is actually believed in by the people who
tell about them. When that has been discovered, the folklorist's next object
is to find out the grounds on which the belief was founded. Various
suggestions have been put forward, either as full or partial solutions of the
problem. One of the most well-supported is that which equates the fairies with
the dead. Lewis Spence in BRITISH FAIRY ORIGINS makes a very plausible case
for this theory. He can bring forward plenty of evidence from tradition, as,
for instance, Lady Wilde's accounts of Finvarra's court, and Botrell's story
'The Fairy Dwelling on Selena Moor'. According to Kirk, the fairy Knowes by
the churchyard were supposed to be places were the souls of the dead lodged,
waiting to rejoin their bodies on the Day of Judgement. The small size of the fairies might be plausibly accounted for by the
primitive idea of the soul as a miniature replica of the man himself, which
emerged from the owner's mouth in sleep or unconsciousness. If its return was
prevented, the man died. David Mac Ritchie in THE TESTIMONY OF TRADITION and
other writings was the chief exponent of the theory that the fairy beliefs
were founded on the memory of a more primitive race driven into hiding by the
invaders, lurking in caves or fens, some of them halfdomesticated and doing
chores about the houses like the shaggy and unkempt Brownie. Such tales as
'The Isle of Sanntraigh' give verisimilitude to the theory, but it does not
cover all forms of fairy belief. A third suggestion which attempts to cover
only part of the ground is that the fairies are dwindled gods or nature
spirits. This was undoubtedly true of the Daoine Sidh and possibly of the
Tylwyth Teg, and of a few of the more primitive spirits such as the Cailleach
Bheur, the Hag of Winter, Black Annis and so on. Tree and water spirits might
also be traced to this source. The psychological foundation of folk-tales,
explored at some depth by C. G. Jung, may afford some valuable hints to
folklorists probing into the foundation of fairy beliefs, and their curious
plausibility as if the mind leapt to receive them. On the whole we may say
that it is unwise to commit oneself blindfold to any solitary theory of the
origins of fairy belief, but that it is most probable that these are all
strands in a tightly twisted cord. # 100 - 409 - 611 THEY See: THEMSELVES. THIRTEEN TREASURES OF THE ISLAND OF BRITAIN
Sometimes two more tresures were added to the originally number of
thirteen: the mantle of Tegau Eurvron, and the stone and ring of Eluned. But
from the following list (a late medieval version) we can still discern their
earlier prototypes, which is the sovereigntybestowing objects, similar to the
Hallows, which Arthur is said to have journeyed to Annwn in his ship Prydwen
to fetch. # 104 - 272 - 438 - 439 - 454 THOLOMER The King of Babylon who first gave land to Evelake but, when the latter
became King of Sarras, the two were drawn into a war against each other.
Helped by Joseph of Arimathea, Evelake defeated Tholomer. #
156 THOMAS OF CANTERBURY (1118-70) Archbishop and Chancellor of England under Henry II. His close
friendship with the King did not survive his appointing Thomas Archbishop, for
Thomas refused to prejudice the position of the Church by bringing its
malefactors under secular law as Henry wished. He was exiled in France for six
years but later returned to an uneasy peace. When the King had his son, Prince
Henry, crowned as his successor by bishops who had no right to this
prerogative of Canterbury's, Thomas excommunicated the erring clerics. Henry
then, enraged asked his men to 'rid him of this turbulent priest'. For barons
readily despatched themselves for Canterbury, where they slew Thomas in his
own cathedral. Henry did extravagant penance and Thomas became the centre of a
great pilgrimage cult. Thomas was not particular saintly, though his defence
of the Church's rights was impressive; as usual the success of his cult was
dependent on his popularity with the people who like to ally themselves with a
sinner turned saint against a choleric king. Canterbury was one of the richest
pilgrim-centres in Europe until the Reformation. His feast-day is 29 December.
# 454 THOMAS THE RHYMER - TRUE THOMAS Thomas of Ercledoune lived in the thirteenth century. He met with the Queen
of Elfland and visited that country in her company. He begins his Journey
under a hawthorn, the Eildon Tree of physical manifestation, but leading to
the Otherworld. He encounters the tree a second time within the UnderWorld, as
the Tree of Initiation. At first it is the Forbidden Tree, and the Queen of
Elfland warns him that its fruit 'bears all the plagues of Hell'. Yet this
same tree described as a golden or silver apple tree, or of mixed fruits and
nuts in Celtic lore, is the very source of the gift 'the tongue that cannot
lie' the Gift of Prophesy, (these prophesies were passed down and many were
proven true. That Gift is only transformed or purified through the meditation
of the female power: the Queen of Elfland. When Thomas left the mortal world
for the last time, he was led back to the Otherworld by a hind and a doe. He
had been seen from time to time by those who have made visits to Fairyland. #
100 - 150 - 454 - 633 - 76 THOMPSON The name of a potter in an English legend who happened on Arthur and his
men sleeping beneath Richmond Castle (Yorkshire). On a table lay a horn and a
sword. He started to draw the latter, but grew frightened and dropped it when
the knights began to stir. See: POTTER THOMPSON. # 156 THRUMPIN In FOLK LORE OF THE NORTHERN COUNTIES, William Henderson cites the
authority of the Wilkie manuscript for an instrument of fate called 'the
thrumpin' who attented on every man like a dark guardian angel with the power
to take away his life. This belief is found on the Scottish Border. # 100 -
302 TIBERIUS Emperor of Rome, who supressed Druids, prophets and medicine-men. #
562 TIERNA (Teer'na) Abbot of Clonmacnois, eleventh-century historian. #
562 TIGERNMAS TIERNMAS (teern'mas) He was an ancient, legendary king, the fifth Irish king who
succeeded Eremon and instituted the worship of Cromm Cruach, which used human
sacrifice in its rites. Tigernmas means 'Lord of Death'. He is credited with
the introduction of gold-mining, silversmithing and the weaving of tartans. #
208 - 454 - 562 TIGERNONOS A Celtic title meaning 'Great King or Lord'. It is the male equivalent
title to Rigantona, a title ascribed to Rhiannon. # 454 TIME IN FAIRYLAND The early fairy specialists had a vivid sense of the relativity of time,
founded, perhaps, on experiences of dream or trance, when a dream that covers
several years may be experienced between rolling out of bed and landing on the
floor. Occasionally the dimension is in this direction. Hartland, in his
exhaustive study of 'The Supernatural Lapse of Time in Fairyland', contained
in THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES, is given a Pembrokeshire example of a visit to
Fairyland. A young shepherd joined a fairy dance and found himself in a
glittering palace surrounded by most beautiful gardens, where he passed many
years in happiness among the fairy people. There was only one prohibition: in
the middle of the garden there was a fountain, filled with gold and silver
fish, and he was told he must on no account drink out of it. He desired
increasingly to do so, and at last he plunged his hands into the pool. At once
the whole place vanished, and he found himself on the cold hillside among his
sheep. Only minutes had passed since he joined the fairy dance. More often
this trance-like experience is told in a more theological setting, the journey
of Mahomet to Paradise, for instance, or the experience of Brahmins or
hermits. As a rule, however, time moves in the other direction, both in visits
to Fairyland and to other supernatural worlds. A dance of a few minutes takes
a year and a day of common time, as in the tale of 'Rhys and Llewellyn', a few
days of feasting and merriment have consumed 200 years in the mortal world
(see KING HERLA). This is not always so, for nothing in folk tradition can be contained in an
exact and logical system. Elidurus could go backwards and forwards between
Fairyland and his home with no alteration of time, human midwives to the
fairies can visit fairy homes and return the same night, the man who borrowed
Fairy Oinment from the fairy hill was taken into it with impunity, and Isobel
Gowdie visited the fairy hills in the same way to obtain Elf-Shot. Yet, on the
whole, it may be said that the man who visits Fairyland does so at a grave
risk of not returning until long after his span of mortal life has been
consumed. Sometimes, as in the Rip Van Winkle tale, a broken taboo, the
partaking of fairy food or drink in Fairyland, is followed by an enchanted
sleep during which time passes at a supernatural rate, but it is not always
so. Certainly King Herla and his companions feasted in Fairyland, but there
seems no suggestion that the passage of time was caused by this communion. The
effect of the visit was disastrous, but the intention does not seem to have
been unfriendly. The Ossian story, in which the hero goes to live with a fairy
bride and returns after some hundreds of years, is widespread and is even to
be found among the best-known of the Japanese fairy-tales, 'Urashima Taro'.
Here, as in many other versions, his bride is a seamaiden. Fairyland is often
under or across the sea, and Mermaids are amorous of mortals. When Urashima
tries to return home, his bride gives him a casket in which his years are
locked, and old age and death come on him when he opens it. Hartland in THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES noted an interesting Italian variant
of the Ossian tale. In this, which begins as a Swan Maiden tale, the hero's
bride is Fortune, and after once losing her, he follows her to the Isle of
Happiness, where he stays, as he thinks, for two months, but it is really 200
years. When he insists on returning to visit his mother, Fortune gives him a
magnificent black horse to carry him over the sea, and warns him not to
dismount from it, but she is more prudent than Niam of the Golden Locks, for
she goes with him. They ride over the sea together, and find a changed
country. As they go towards his mother's house they meet an old hag with a
carriage-load of old shoes behind her, which she has worn out looking for him.
She slips and falls to the ground, and he is bending down to lift her when
Fortune calls out: 'Beware! That is Death!' So they ride on. Next they meet a
great lord on a leg-weary horse, which founders at their side, but before the
hero can come to his aid, Fortune cries out again: 'Be careful! That is the
Devil!' And they ride on. But when the hero finds that his mother is dead and
long since forgotten, he turns back with his bride to the Isle of Happiness,
and has lived there with her ever since. This is one of the few stories of
fairy brides and visits to Fairyland which ends happily. One of the same
motifs occurs in a Tyrolean story, also told by Hartland. A peasant followed
his herd under a stone and into a cave, where a lady met him, gave him food
and offered him a post as a gardener. He worked in the country for some weeks,
and then began to be homesick. They let him go home, but when he got back
everything was strange, and no one recognized him except one old crone, who
came up to him and said, 'Where have you been? I have been looking for you for
200 years.' She took him by the hand, and he fell dead, for she was the Death.
When people return in this way after long absence they often fall to dust
as soon as they eat human food. This is especially so in the Welsh stories. In
a Highland version two men who had returned from Fairyland on a Sunday went to
church, and as soon as the scriptures were read they crumbled into dust. The
suggestion behind all these stories is that Fairyland is a world of the dead,
and that those who entered it had long been dead, and carried back with them
an illusory body which crumbled into dust when they met reality. In Ruth
Tongue's moving story 'The Noontide Ghost' in FORGOTTEN FOLKTALES OF THE
ENGLISH COUNTIES, this transformation has already occurred. The old man who
long ago met the 'queer sort of chap' who delayed him with wagering-games and
old merriment, returned as a ghost to look for his long-dead wife, and was
called by her up to Heaven after he had told his story to a mortal listener.
As in this tale, the fairy condition, or indeed the entry into eternity, often
needs no entry into a geographical fairyland, underground or underwater. A
fairy ring, the encounter with a Fairy Rade, the singing of a supernatural
bird, is enough to surround the mortal with the supernatural condition, so
that he stands invisible and rapt away from the mortal world which continues
all around him until the mysterious time-pattern ceases to have potency. For
it is to be noticed that, whatever the differences in pace, human time and
fairy time somehow interlock. The dancer in the fairy circle is nearly always
to be rescued after a year and a day, sometimes after an exact year; two
months equal 200 years; an hour may be a day and a night; there is some
relationship. And if times are somehow interconnected, seasons are even more
important. May Day, Midsummer Eve, Hallowe'en are all times when the doors
open between the worlds. James Stephen's IN THE LAND OF YOUTH, a translation
of one of the early Irish fairy legends, is a good example of this. Certain
times of day are important too. The four hinges of the day, noontide, dusk,
midnight and early dawn, are cardinal to the fairies. Certain days of the week
are also important, days of danger and days of escape. In fact, however free
and wild the course of fairy time appears to be, we find here as elsewhere
traces of the dependence of fairies upon mortals. # 100 - 288 - 619 -
674 TIME TABLE OF KEY EVENTS IN BRITAIN
(AD) 43-47 Britain is conquered by Emperor Claudius and becomes an island
province of the Roman Empire. 78 Western command of Britain is transferred to the city of Chester and
Viroconium becomes a thriving civilian town. 122 Emperor Hadrian orders the building of Hadrian's Wall between Newcastle
and the Solway Firth. 200 The Antonine Wall is abandoned and Hadrian's Wall become the empire's
northern frontier. 380 Pelagius leaves Britain for Rome and comes into conflict with the
Church. 383 Magnus Maximus is proclaimed emperor by the British legions, invades
Gaul and Italy and is defeated by Theodosius I. 401 Alaric, king of the Visigoths, invades northern Italy. 407 Constantine III is proclaimed emperor by the British legions and inva
des Gaul. 408 Alaric lays siege to Rome and Emperor Honorius is forced to withdraw
troops rom Britain. 409 Picts and Irish tribes invade North-East Britain and West Wales. 410 Alaric sacks Rome. Honorius is unable to respond to the British plea
for rein forcements. The last of the Roman legions leave Britain. 411 Constantine III is defeated at Arles and is later executed by Honorius.
412 Honorius sends the COMES BRITANNIARUM to Britain, together with an
auxiliary legion. 416 The Roman Church proclaims that the teachings of Pelagius constitute a
here sy. 418 The COMES BRITANNIARUM is withdrawn from Britain, together with any
military precence that remains. 420 The kingdom of Powys is founded. A major rebuilding of Viroconium takes
place. 425 Vortigern ('overlord') assumes control of central and southern Britain.
429 Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, visits Britain as an envoy of the Catholic
Church. 445 A plague epidemic reaches Britain, severely weakening Vortigern's
control. 446 Pictish raids recommence in northern Britain. Further Irish invasions
of West Wales take place. 447 Germanus visits Britain for a second time. Vortigern dies and is
succeeded by his son, Vortigern II (probably Britu). 448 The British make an unsuccessful request for military aid to the Roman
consul, Aetius, in Gaul. 449 Vortigern II invites Anglo-Saxon mercenaries into Britain to fight the
Picts and Irish. 451 Attila the Hun is defeated at Châlons-sur-Marne. 455 A Saxon revolt led by Hengist and Horsa. The Battle of Egelesprep
(Aylesford) takes place, in which Horsa and Cateyrn die. Hengist establishes
the kingdom of Kent. British forces are defeated. 455-60 The Anglo-Saxons take control of eastern Britain. Vortigern II is
deposed. 459 The battle of Guoloph is fought, at which Ambrosius fights Vitalinus
(probably for controls of Powys). 460 Ambrosius becomes leader of the British forces. British defences are
reorga nised. Cunedda and the Votadini are invited into North Wales to expel
the Irish. There is an Imperialist revival in Britain. 470 A British contingent fights for Emperor Anthemius in northern France.
476 Odovacer defeats Emperor Romulus Augustulus and proclaims himself king
of Italy. The final collapse of the Western Roman Empire occurs. 477 The Saxon leader Aelle lands in Sussex. 480 There is a military stalemate between the Britons and the Saxons in the
South of England. The Angles suffer defeat in the North. Cunorix is buried in
Viroconium. 485 Aelle defeats the British at Mearcredesburna. 485-88 Arthur fights for Ambrosius against the Angles. 488 Hengist dies and is succeeded by Ochta. Arthur succeeds Ambrosius. 488-93 The Arthurian campaigns. 491 Aelle besieges the fort at Anderida (Pevensey) and establishes the
kingdom of Sussex. 493 Arthur defeats Aelle and Ochta at the battle of Badon. The Anglo-Saxons
retreat into South-East England. 495 Cerdic lands in Hampshire, possibly as a mercenary. 508 Cerdic achieves victory over a British king named Natanleod, and
establishes control over an area roughly the size of modern Hampshire. An
alliance is made between Cerdic and Cunomorus. 512 Oisc is king of Kent. 519 The battle of Certicesford. The battle of Camlan. THE DEATH OF ARTHUR.
Maglocunus becomes king of Gwynedd. Cuneglasus becomes king of Powys. 520 Viroconium is abandoned. 522 Oisc dies. 530 The Byzantine emperor, Justinian I, fails to recapture the Western
Empire. 534 Cynric becomes king of Wessex. 540-45 Gildas writes the DE EXCIDIO CONQUESTU BRITANNIAE. 549 Maglocunus dies. 550 The Drustanus stone is erected. 552 Cynric defeats the Britons at Old Sarum. 555 Buckinghamshire is overwhelmed by the Saxons. 556 The battle of Beranburh (near Swindon). 560 The death of Cynric. 571 Cuthwulf routs the Midland British in Bedfordshire. 575 The battle of Arfderydd, after which Myrddin (Merlin) goes insane
(according to the Annales Cambriae). 577 The British are defeated at the battle of Dyrham; Bath, Cirencester and
Glou cester are lost to the Saxons. 598 The Angle kings Aethelfrid and Aelle defeat the British at Catraeth
(Catterick in Yorkshire). 603 The Irish king Aedan is defeated by Aethelfrid in northern England.
604 Aethelfrid moves against Aelle, occupies York and founds the kingdom of
Nort humbria. 610 The poem GODODDIN is composed. 613 Aethelfrid defeats a joint Gwynedd/Powys army at Chester, where the
Powys king is killed. 614 Wessex Saxons move into Devon. 617 The death of Aethelfrid. Edwin becomes king of Northumbria. 626 Penda breaks with Northumbria and founds the kingdom of Mercia in the
East Midlands. 629 Cadwallon of Gwynedd is besieged by Edwin in North Wales. 633 Edwin is defeated by Cadwallon and Penda. 634 The IRISH ANNALES record the burning of Bangor. 635 Cadwallon is defeated by Oswald of Northumbria. 638 Gododdin is overrun by the Angles. 644 Penda of Mercia, in alliance with Cynddylan of Powys, defeats Oswald of
Nort humbria at the battle of Maes Cogwy (Oswestry). 645 The 'hammering of Dyfed' (perhaps by the Irish) took place, according
to the ANNALES CAMBRIAE. 649 The 'slaughter of Gwent' (perhaps by the Saxons) takes place according
to the ANNALES CAMBRIAE. 655 Penda, together with Aethelhere of East Anglia, is defeated by Oswy.
Peada is king of Mercia. Anna is king of East Anglia. Mercia and East Anglia
become subservient to Northumbria. 656 In this year Penda was killed, and Wulfhere, son of Penda new ruler of
Mercia. Cynddylan defeats the Mercians at Luitcoet. 658 Oswy sacks Powys. The death of Cynddylan. The British lose
Staffordshire and Shropshire. Mercians occupy western Powys. 661 The 'Tribal Hidage' is compiled. 682 The Wessex Saxons consolidate their hold on the entire South-West
peninsular, apart from Cornwall. 731 Bede writes the HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM. 800 The Pope crowns Charlemagne of the Franks as Holy Roman Emperor. 830 Nennius writes the Historia Brittonum. 850 The GODODDIN is committed to writing. CANU LLYWARCH HEN and CANU HELEDD
are composed. Cyngen, king of Powys, erects the Pillar of Eliseg. 854 Cyngen dies while on a pilgrimage to Rome. Rhodri Mawr of Gwynedd
becomes king of Powys. 871-99 The ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE is compiled from early monastic records
under the supervision of Alfred the Great. 926 Cornwall is conceded to the English. 927 Athelstan effectively unites the Anglo-Saxon people and becomes first
king of all England. 955 The ANNALES CAMBRIAE are compiled. 990 CULHWCH AND OLWEN is composed. 1100 Lifris writes the LIFE OF ST CADOC, in which Arthur is briefly
mentioned. 1110 The CHRONICLE OF MONT SAINT MICHEL is compiled, in which
Arthur is mentioned as king of Britain. 1120 A surviving manuscript containing the HISTORIA BRITTONUM and the
ANNALES CAMBRIAE is compiled. 1125 William of Malmesbury writes the GESTA REGUM ANGLORUM, in which he
refers to King Arthur. 1120-40 The Modena Archivolt, on the north portal of Modena Cathedral, is
decorated with an Arthurian scene. 1130 William of Malmesbury writes DE ANTIQUITATE GLASTONIENSIS ECCLESIAE.
1130 Geoffrey of Monmouth composes the PROPHETIAE MERLINI while working on
the HISTORIA. 1135 The HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE is completed by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
1135 Henry of Huntingdon writes the HISTORIA ANGLORUM, in which he includes
Nennius' list of Arthur's battles. 1130-40 Hermann of Tournai records the visit of the Laon Cathedral
officials to England, when they were told of Arthurian legends in Cornwall.
1140 Caradoc of Llancarfan, in his LIFE OF GILDAS, includes Arthur in the
life of the monk. 1150 Geoffrey of Monmouth's VITA MERLINI is composed. 1155 Wace completes his poem, ROMAN DE BRUT, based on Geoffrey's work, and
introduces the Round Table to the Arthurian story. 1160 The DREAM OF RHONABWY is composed. 1160-80 Chrétien de Troyes writes his five Arthurian poems, which are
chiefly responsible for establishing King Arthur as a fashionable subject of
Romantic literature. He introduces many of Arthur's knights and the name
Camelot. 1190 The monks of Glastonbury Abbey claim to have discovered the grave of
King Arthur and Guinevere. 1195-1200 Robert de Boron composes a trilogy of Arthurian verses. He
introduces the notion of the Holy Grail as the vessel used at the Last Supper
by Christ, along with the sword and stone motif. 1200 The English priest Layamon is the first to relate the Arthurian saga
in native English. His work, BRUT, is an adaptation of Wace's ROMAN DE BRUT.
1200 The Arthurian story enters Germany in the form of two poems, EREC and
IWEIN, by the poet Hartmann von Aue. 1205 Wolfram von Eschenbach writes his epic Arthurian story PARZIVAL, in
which he depicts the Grail as a magical stone. 1215-35 A large number of rambling Arthurian stories, known collectively as
the VULGA TE CYCLE, are compiled. Anonymously composed, this Cycle is chiefly
responsi ble for many of the story's embellishments. 1247 Glastonbury Abbey produces a revised edition of William of
Malmesbury's DE ANTIQUITATE GLASTONIENSIS ECCLASIAE. 1250 The BLACK BOOK OF CARMARTHEN, the oldest surviving manuscript to
contain Welsh poems that include Arthur, is compiled. 1265 The BOOK OF ANEIRIN, containing the surviving copy of the GODODDIN, is
compiled. 1275 The BOOK OF TALIESIN, containing the SPOILS OF ANNWN, is compiled.
1325 The WHITE BOOK OF RHYDDERCH, containing the earliest section from
CULHWCH AND OLWEN, is compiled. 1400 SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT is composed by an anonymous writer
from the North-West Midlands. 1400 The RED BOOK OF HERGEST is compiled. It contains the DREAM OF
RHONABWY, the tale of CULHWCH AND OLWEN, and the surviving copy of CANU HELEDD
and the CANU LLYWARCH HEN. 1470 Sir Thomas Malory completes LE MORTE DARTHUR, the most famous of all
Arthurian Romances. # 239 - 262 - 524 TIMIAS In Spenser's FAERIE QUEENE, Arthur's squire; he probably represents Sir
Walter Raleigh. # 156 - 614 TINTAGEL TINTAGIL The site of the castle in Cornwall where Arthur was conceived. The present
castle, a Norman structure, does not date back to the Arthurian period, but
the site of a Celtic monastery lies adjacent on an island connected by a
causeway to the mainland. This may well have been extant in Arthur's time. In
earlier sources it is the castle of Gorlois of Cornwall, but later legends
associate it with King Mark of Cornwall, although his real residence was
probably Castle Dore. See: BRASTIAS. # 156 - 418 - 454 -
717 TIR NA MBAN The Land of Women. The place of beautiful otherworld women, who welcome
pilgrims and voyagers on the great voyages (immrama). Ruled over by its queen,
the island provided a consort for every man, the best of entertainment, food
and music. Both Bran mac Febal and Maelduin visited it. Time stood still, but
both men found its timeless beauty too much for mortals and, though warned
about its gifts of immortality, chose to sail away home. # 416 -
454 TIR NA MBEO Land of the Living q.v. The place of everlasting life. #
166 TIR NA N'OG (Teer nahn Ock). TIR NAN OG TIR NA N'OG (teer na nogue) (The Land of The Young). This, which lay west across the
sea, was one of the lands into which the Tuatha De Danann retreated when they
had been conquered by the Milesians. They had other habitations, under the
Sidh, the green mounds or tumuli of prehistoric Ireland, or the Land under the
Waves, Tirfo Thuinn, but Tir Nan Og was the earthly paradise where time, like
time in Fairyland, was no longer reckoned by mortal measures, a land of
beauty, where the grass was always green and fruit and flowers could be picked
together, where feasting, music, love, hunting and joyous fighting went on all
day and death made no entry, for if in the fights men were wounded and killed
one day they came to life again none the worse the next. Occasionally mortal
men were invited to Tir Nan Og, as Oisin was, and if they wanted to revisit
earth they were put under a gease (taboo). When this was violated the weight
of their mortal years came upon them and they were unable to return. In Wales
a comparable story is that of King Herla. If Tir Nan Og was the Celtic heaven,
there are glimpses of a Celtic hell. In Ireland it was Scathach, visited by
CuChulain, the hero of the Ulster Cycle, and in Wales Ysbaddaden, the Land of
the Giants visited by Culhwch in the MABINOGION. # 100 TITANIA Corresponds to the goddesses Diana and Mab. The latter was a name not
commonly used for the Fairy Queen, though in one of the magical manuscripts in
the British Museum (Sloane 1727) 'Tyton, Florella and Mabb' are mentioned as
'the treasures of the earth'. # 100 TOLKIEN, J. R. R. (1892-1973) The whole area of fairy fiction arose to new heights and
dimensions, when Tolkien supplied our literature with his works THE HOBBIT and
its sequels THE LORD OF THE RINGS. These books were felt at once by a
surprising number of people to have something significant to say about our
modern problems and to hold an implicit message for young people all over the
English-speaking world (at present time, 1993, his works are translated into
many more than just the main languages and read throughout the world; in 1977,
Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark, supplied the trilogy LORD OF THE RINGS with
her magnificent illustrations). People used the elven script and learnt the
elven tongue. One got the feeling that the whole of life was embraced in this
archaic-seeming tale. It was about danger and endurance against heavy odds,
about championship and simple pleasures of food and song, about landscape,
about the dreadful weight of a corrupting responsibility, the dangers of
science and the terrible pressure of an evil will. There was no explicit
preaching, but the will was braced by reading. The whole was not decorated but
deepened by the use of traditional folklore which gave it that sense of being
rooted in the earth which is the gift of folklore to literature. The folklore
used was in the main Scandinavian in tone. The Dragons, the Gnomes, the
Goblins, the Elves fit into the world of Scandinavian mythology. It was not of
supreme importance what type of folklore was used so long as it was authentic
and came like native air to the mind of the writer. # 100 - 670 -
671 TOLLEME The ruler of Sarras, who was defeated by Evelake; he had accepted
Christianity from Joseph of Arimathea. J. W. Taylor in his book THE COMING OF
THE SAINTS (1906), is of the opinion that the Saracens Tolleme ruled may have
been a race of Jewish descent living in Cornwall. According to Gerbert,
Tolleme was King of Syria. # 153 - 156 TOM A LINCOLN The illegitimate son of Arthur, known as the Red Rose Knight. His mother
was called Angelica. He was raised by a shepherd and Arthur made him a
commander in the army, in which capacity he defeated the Portuguese. He had a
natural son (called the Faerie Knight) by Caelia, the Fairy Queen. Tom went to
the realm of Prester John and eloped with Anglitora, the daughter of that
monarch, and they had a son called the Black Knight. When Anglitora discovered
Tom was illegitimate, she left him and became the mistress of the lord of a
castle and, when Tom arrived, she murdered him. His ghost told the Black
Knight all and the latter killed Anglitora. He met the Faerie Knight and they
travelled together, eventually coming to England. The romance of TOM a'
LINCOLN was written by Richard Johnston (born 1573; date of death uncertain).
# 156 - 668 TOM THUMB He was the son of Thomas of the Mountain who sent his wife to consult
Merlin in order to find out why she had no children. Merlin said she would
have a child no bigger than her husband's thumb. This was Tom, who became a
man in four minutes, but never grew any bigger than he had been at first. He
was often present with King Arthur and the Round Table. Tom's godmother was
the Queen of the Fairies, who gave him a hat of knowledge, a ring of
invisibility, a girdle of transformation and shoes which would carry him
easily over long distances. Tom was said to have been killed fighting an
adder. In the foreword of the earliest surviving version of 'Tom Thumb',
written by a pamphleteer, Richard Johnson, and printed in 1621, the author
claims that it is an ancient tale, and there is little reason to doubt his
word, for the name was already proverbial. This pamphlet is reproduced in its
entirety in Iona and Peter Opie's THE CLASSIC FAIRY TALES without the
modifications which the gentility of subsequent ages imposed on it. The story
is left incomplete, with Tom happily returned to the court of King Arthur
after his adventures with the pigmy king Twaddle. A metrical version which
appeared in 1630 carried the story on to the death of Tom Thumb, but as
mentioned above, in later versions he was killed in a fight with either a
spider or a snake. # 100 - 156 - 511 TONN CLIDNA See: PLACE NAME STORIES. TONN CLIODHNA (thown cleena) Otherwise 'Wave of Cleena'. One of the most notable
landmarks of Ireland was the Tonn Cliodhna on the seashore at Glandore
Bay, in Co. Cork. The story about Cleena exists in several versions, which do
not agree with each other exept in so far as she seems to have been a Danaan
maiden once living in Mananan's country, the Land of Youth beyond the sea.
Escaping thence with a mortal lover, as one of the versions tells, she
landed on the southern coast of Ireland, and her lover, Keevan of the Curling
Locks, went off to hunt in the woods. Cleena, who remained on the beach, was
lulled to sleep by fairy music played by a minstrel of Mananan, when a great
wave of the sea swept up and carried her back to Fairyland, leaving her lover
desolate. Hence the place was called the Strand of Cleena's Wave. #
562 TONSURE Celtic Christianity retained many of its pagan features, including druidic
methods of tonsure. This involved shaving the head from ear to ear, thus
leaving the forehead bare of hair. # 437 p 9 ff TOR The son of Pellinore or maybe of Aries the cowherd. He slew Abelleus and
later became a Knight of the Round Table - a rare enough desire in the breast
of any humble born man in Arthur's time. He had many adventures but was
eventually killed in the battle to free Guinevere from the stake. # 156 - 418
- 454 - 712 - 713 TOR MOR Precipitous headland in Tory Island. Ethlinn imprisoned by Balor in tower
built on Tor Mor. # 562 TORC TRIATH See: TWRCH TRWYTH. TOREC The son of King Ydor. When he grew up, he tried to retrieve his
grandmother's circlet from Miraude who said she would marry Torec if he could
overcome all the Knights of the Round Table. Gawain arranged with the Knights
to allow Torec to do so and he was therefore able to marry Miraude. #
156 TORQUE TORC Celtic collar. The torc was one of the most important ornaments worn by the
Celts. It was a neck ring made of a rod of metal (sometimes twisted), of
bronze or gold according to the wealth and status of the wearer. The two ends
of the torc almost met, but the metal was pliant, for it had to open
sufficiently to let it on or off. The torc of the Gallic chief slain by Titus
Manlius was rich and attractive enough for him to take as the only trophy of
the combat, and thus he gained the name Torquatus. Torcs formed part of the
booty paraded in triumphs by Roman generals. They are listed along with the
military standards taken, and they must have been considered a very precious
and important object, because the Gauls gave one to Augustus, 'a golden
necklet a hundred pounds in weight'. # 556 TORTOISE Early Celtic art portrayed the cock and tortoise together, as an attribute
of the Celtic Mercury. # 161 TORY ISLAND Stronghold of Fomorian power, which was invaded by Nemedians. #
562 TRADABAN, THE WELL OF Keelta praise the Well of Trabadan. # 562 TRADITIONS, BRANCHES OF THE The traditional Irish Tales which appears in medieval manuscripts comprise
four groups or cycles, usually referred to as: In the so-called Mythological Cycle, the chief characters belong to Tuatha
De Danann, 'The Peoples of the Goddess Danann' (or Danu), who are said to have
occupied Ireland before the coming of the Sons of Mil, the ancestors of the
present inhabitants. The stories of the Ulster Cycle are mainly about the
warriors of King Conchobar of Ulster, and especially about the exploits of the
foremost among them, CuChulain. The Fenian stories are about Finn mac Cumaill
and his roving warbands (Fiana). This cycle is sometimes described as
the Ossianic Cycle because most of the poems which belong to it are attributed
to Finn's son Oisin, or Ossian as he is known through the work of Macpherson.
The so-called Historical Cycle is a more miscellaneous group of stories
centred on various high-kings of Ireland and on a number of provincial or
lesser kings. Each of these four cycles contains material which appears to
belong to a common Indo-European heritage and which presumably was part of the
tradition of the Celtic peoples before they ever came to these islands. But in
the works of early Irish historians, the personages about whom the tales are
told are arranged in a chronological sequence extending from the time of the
Deluge to the time of the Viking raids in Ireland. The events of the
Mythological Cycle of traditions are synchronized with the main events in
ancient world history; King Conchobar is said to have reigned in Ulster at the
beginning of the Christian era; Finn and his Fiana served Cormac mac
Art who is believed to have been King of Ireland in the third century AD,
while the tales of the Historical Cycle are centred on kings who are ascribed
dates ranging from the third century BC to the eight century AD. A certain
amount of supplementary information concerning the characters and events in
these four groups of stories is supplied by various learned works compiled in
the early Middle Ages, in particular LEBOR GABALA ERENN (The Book of the
Taking of Ireland), a 'history' of the Irish and of the peoples who occupied
Ireland before them, with its accompanying List of Kings, the Glossary
attributed to Cormac mac Cuilennain, the king bishop of Cashel who was killed
in the year 908, the DINDSENCHAS, lore associated with hills and other
features in the Irish landscape, COIR ANMANN (The Fitness of Names), which
gives brief stories in explanation of the origin of the names of traditional
personages, and finally poems, triads, and genealogies, which record famous
names. Early Welsh traditions are found in the 'Four Branches of the Mabinogi'
('story of youth' or 'story'), comparable in some ways with the Irish
Mythological Cycle, in the poems and stories of the Arthurian Cycle, which is
also represented by extensive texts in many other languages, in some
miscellaneous stories, and in poems which probably once formed parts of sagas.
Most of the latter poems are attributed to Llywarch Hen, Taliesin, and
Myrddin, poets who are said to have been associated with kings of those
regions of north Britain which, in the sixth century, were still Welsh. Wales
too has her genealogies, triads, and stanzas of the graves of heroes,
compilations that bear witness to traditions which perhaps were never embodied
in extensive narratives and to these may again be added two important Latin
texts, both of them landmarks in the history of the Arthurian tradition: the
HISTORIA BRITTONUM of Nennius (early ninth century) and the more elaborate and
presumably more fictional HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
In Wales and in Ireland, the lives of native saints, written either in Latin
or in the vernacular, may perhaps be regarded as an extra cycle of stories.
Like the saints lives of other countries, they have many motifs in common with
the 'secular' tales and they are by no means irrelevant to a study of the
pre-Christian tradition. # 136 - 548 - 651 - 766 - 783 TRAFFIC WITH THE FAIRIES Among the Puritans in Britain, by whom the fairies were generally thought
of as minor devils, intercourse with the fairies was looked on with the
gravest suspicion, though the country people looked on it more leniently and
the Irish regarded a certain amount of homage paid to the fairies as a very
justifiable piece of protection payment, though some of them at least took a
darker view of the transaction. It was widely said that the witches, the
fairies and the dead danced together on Hallowe'en. In the North of England,
people accused of witchcraft sometimes claimed to work through the fairies
rather than the Devil. Durant Hotham and Webster described how a man brought
into court as a witch offered to lead the judge to see the fairy hill from
which he received the medicine he used. The judge treated his plea harshly,
but the jury refused to convict him. Durant Hotham in the introduction to his
LIFE OF JACOB BEHMEN is the first to mention the case in 1654: There was (as I have heard the story credibly reputed in this Country) a
man apprehended of suspicion of Witchcraft, he was of that sort we call
white-witches, which are such as do Cures beyond the Ordinary reasons and
deducing of our usual Practitioners, and are supposed (and most part of them
truly) to do the same by the ministrations of Spirits (from whence, under
their noble favour, most Sciences first grew) and therefore are upon good
reason provided against by our Civil Laws as being waies full of danger and
deceit, and scarce ever otherwise obtain'd than by a devilish Compact of the
Exchange of ones Soul to that assistant Spirit for the honour of its
Mountebanjery. What this man did was with a white powder, which he said, he
receiv'd from the Fayries, and that going to a hill he knockned three times,
and the hill opened, and he had access to, and converse with, a visible
people; and offer'd, that if any Gentleman present would either go himself in
person, or send his servant, he would conduct them thither, and show them the
place and persons from whence he had his skill. Twenty-three years later
Webster published DISPLAYING OF SUPPOSED WITCHCRAFT, perhaps the most
influential book of its time in removing the practice of witchcraft from the
Criminal Statute Book. Webster comments on Hotham's mention of the case, and
brings fuller knowledge to bear on it, for he was himself present at the
examination of the man: To this I shall only add thus much, that the man was
accused for invoking and calling upon evil spirits, and was a very simple and
illiterate person to any mans judgement, and had been formerly very poor, but
had gotten some pretty little meanes to maintain himself, his Wife and diverse
small children, by his cures done with this white powder, of which there were
sufficient proofs, and the Judge asking him how he came by the powder, he told
a story to this effect. 'That one night before the day was gone, as he was going home from his
labour, being very sad and full of heavy thoughts, not knowing how to get meat
and drink for his Wife and Children, he met a fair Woman in fine cloaths, who
asked him why he was so sad, and he told her that it was by reason of his
poverty, to which she said, that if he would follow her counsel she would help
him to that which would serve to get him a good living; to which he said he
would consent with all his heart, so it were not by unlawful ways: she told
him that it should not be by any such ways, but by doing of good and curing of
sick people; and so warning him strictly to meet her there the next night at
the same time, she departed from him, and he went home. And the next night at
the time appointed he duly waited, and she (according to promise) came and
told him that it was well he came so duly, otherwise he had missed of that
benefit, that she intended to do unto him, and so bade him follow her and not
be afraid. Thereupon she led him to a little Hill and she knocked three times, and the
Hill opened, and they went in, and came to a fair hall, wherein was a Queen
sitting in great state, and many people about her, and the Gentlewoman that
brought him, presented him to the Queen, and she said he was welcom, and bid
the Gentlewoman give him some of the white powder, and teach him how to use
it; which she did, and gave him a little wood box full of the white powder,
and bad him give 2 or 3 grains of it to any that were sick, and it would heal
them, and so she brought him forth of the Hill, and so they parted. And being
asked by the Judge whether the place within the Hill, which he called a Hall,
were light or dark, he said indifferent, as it is with us in the twilight; and
being asked how he got more powder, he said when he wanted he went to that
Hill, and knocked three times, and said every time I am coming, I am coming,
whereupon it opened, and he going in was conducted by the aforesaid Woman to
the Queen, and so had more powder given him.' This was the plain and simple
story (however it may be judged of) that he told before the Judge, the whole
Court and the Jury, and there being no proof, but what cures he had done to
very many, the Jury did acquit him: and I remember the Judge said, when all
the evidence was heard, that if he were to assign his punishment, he should be
whipped thence to Fairyhall, and did seem to judge it to be a delusion or
Imposture. # 100 TRANSMIGRATION Allegation that Celtic idea of immortality embodied Oriental conception of
the doctrine of transmigration, but evidence shows that the doctrine of
transmigration was not held by Celts in same way as by Pythagoras and the
Orientals. Welsh Taliesin who became an eagle also points to the same
doctrine. See: TUAN MAC CARELL. # 562 TREASURES, BURIED WELSH There are numerous Welsh legends relating to hidden treasures, buried under
cromlechs or tumuli or concealed in caves. Sometimes the legends stress that
whoever goes seeking for the treasure will be frightened away by torrents of
rain, blinding lightning or deafening thunder. Sometimes the treasure is said
to be in a cavern guarded by a dragon waiting to belch forth fire onto the
intruder. About one hundred years ago there was a hollow in the road near
Caerau in old Cardiganshire which 'rang when any wheeled vehicle went over
it'. Two local men were told by a gypsy that there was a treasure hidden there
so one day they decided to dig for it. After a few hours of steady digging
they came to the oak frame of an underground doorway. They took a break at
this point and went home for lunch. No sooner had they gone than a terrible
storm arose; the rain fell in torrents, the thunder crashed and the lightning
flashed. When they went back to their work, the hole they had been digging was
covered over and they both agreed that supernatural powers must surely be
working against them. # 49 TREBUCHET In the Grail story, he fashioned the Grail Sword and later made it whole. A
connection has been suggested with Turbe, father of the Irish smith god,
Gobniu. # 153 - 156 TREE ALPHABET Like the runic alphabet, the alphabet of the trees was used by European
pagans for divination and for transmitting secret messages that would have
been incomprehensible to anyone who did not know the system. Each letter was
named for a tree or shrub, so messages could be spelled out by stringing the
right sorts of leaves in the right order on a cord or a wand, with 'blank'
leaves not included in the alphabet to divide one word from the next. It has
been suggested that nonletter leaves were sometimes inserted at random just to
render the message more cryptic. It has been claimed that the following
version of the tree alphabet is 'a genuine relic of Druidism orally
transmitted down the centuries.' The Vowels: A: Silver Fir (Ailm) O: Furze (Onn) U: Heather (Ur) E: White Poplar (Eahha) I: Yew (Idho) The Consonants: The consonantal letters have also been related B: Birch (Beth) to the lunar calendar, the pagan feast days and L: Rowan (Luis) agricultural seasons, and various tutelary N: Ash (Nion) deities. Robert Graves points out that the F: Alder (Fearn) letters of the modern Irish alphabet are S: Willow (Saille) similarly named after trees. H: Hawthorn (Uath) D: Oak (Duir) T: Holly (Tinne) C: Hazel (Coll) M: Vine (Muin) G: Ivy (Gort) P: Dwarf Elder (Pethboc) R: Elder (Ruis) As a supplement from Colin Murray's The Celtic Tree Oracle: Q: Apple (Quert) Ng: Reed (NgEtal) Ss: Blackthorn (Straif) CH: Grove (Koad) TH: Spindle (Oir) PE: Honeysuckle (Uilleand) PH: Beech (Phagos) XI: The Sea (Mór) which complete the Ogham alphabet. # 489 - 701 p 471 TREES Nearly all trees have some sacred association from very early times, but
some are more sacred than others. There is the magical trilogy of Oak and Ash and Thorn. There are the
fruit-bearing trees, especially Apple and Hazel; there are Rowan, Holly and
Willow, Elder and Alder. Some trees seem to be regarded as having a
personality of their own, and some are more specifically a haunt of fairies or
spirits. Most people would probably think first of an oak as a sacred tree,
worshipped by the Druids, and it is strong enough certainly to stand in its
own right, though everyone knows the couplet,"Fairy folks Are in old oaks,
and many oak coppices are said to be haunted by the sinister Oakmen.
Hawthorn has certain qualities of its own, but it is primarily thought of as a
sacred to or haunted by the fairies. This is especially so of solitary thorns
growing near fairy hills, or of a ring of three or more hawthorns. White may
in blossom was supposed to bring death into the house, and although it was
brought round on May Morning it was hung up outside. Ruth Tongue collected a
folk-song in Somerset whose chorus illustrates the popular belief about three
very different trees: Ellum do grieve, Oak he do hate, Willow do walk If you travels late. Possibly because of the vulnerability of elms to disease, it was thought
that if one elm was cut down a neighbouring elm would pine and die in
sympathy. Oaks, however, as fitted their ancient, god-like status, bitterly
resented being cut, and an oak coppice which sprang from the roots of a felled
oakwood was malevolent and dangerous to travel through by night, more
especially if it was a blue-bell wood. Willows were even more sinister, for they had a habit of uprooting
themselves on a dark night and following a solitary traveller, muttering.
Tolkien is faithful to folk tradition in the ogreish behaviour of Old Man
Willow. Wood-Martin, in his TRACES OF THE ELDER FAITHS OF IRELAND, devotes
some attention to tree beliefs. For instance, speaking of the sacred ash, he
mentions one in the parish of Clenor in County Cork, whose branches were never
cut, though firewood was scarce all round, and another in Borrisokane, the old
Bell Tree, sacred to May Day rites, of which it was believed that if any man
burnt even a chip of it on his hearth his whole house would be burned down. A
similar fate was brought down on himself by a cottager who tried to cut a
branch from a sacred elder overhanging a saint's well. He tried three times;
twice he stopped because his house seemed to be on fire, but found it a false
alarm. The third time he determined not to be put off by appearances and
carried the branch home, only to find his cottage burnt to the ground. He had
had his warning. There are two views of the elder. It has been a sacred tree,
as we may see from Hans Christian Andersen's ELDERFLOWER MOTHER. In
Lincolnshire, too, it used to be thought neccessary to ask the tree's
permission before cutting a branch. The formula was 'Owd Gal, give me of thy
wood, an Oi will give some of moine, when I graws inter a tree'. The flowers
and fruit were much esteemed for wine, the tree was a shelter against flies,
and it was said also that the good fairies found protection under it from
witches and evil spirits. On the other hand, in Oxfordshire and the Midlands,
many elders were strongly suspected of being transformed witches, and they
were supposed to bleed if they were cut. The witch of the Rollright Stones
took the form of an elder tree according to the popular legend. D. A. Mac
Manus in THE MIDDLE KINGDOM, an explanation of comparatively modern fairy
beliefs in Ireland, devotes a chapter to fairy trees, and gives many examples
of the judgements falling on people who have destroyed sacred thorn trees. He
believes some trees to be haunted by fairies and others by demons, and gives
one example of a close group of three trees, two thorns and an elder, which
was haunted by three evil spirits. He says that when an oak and ash and thorn
grew close together, a twig taken from each, bound with red thread, was
thought to be a protection against spirits of the night. In England, ash was a
protection against mischievous spirits, but in Scotland the mountain ash,
rowan, was even more potent, probably because of its red berries: Rowan,
lammer (amber) and red threid - Pits witches to their speed, as the old saying
went. Red was always a vital and conquering colour. A berried holly was potent
for good. On the other hand, a barren one that is, one that bore only male
flowers - was thought to be malevolent and dangerous. Two fruit-bearing trees,
apple and hazel, had specially magical qualities. Hazel-nuts were the source
of wisdom and also of fertility, and apples of power and youth. There was some
danger attached to each of them. An 'ymp-tree' - that is, a grafted apple -
was under fairy influence, and a man who slept under it was liable, as Sir
Lancelot found, to be carried away by fairy ladies. A somewhat similar fate
befell Queen Meroudys in the medieval poem of KING ORFEO. The fertility powers
of nut-trees could be overdone, and the Devil was said to be abroad in the
woods at the time of nutgathering; 'so many cratches, so many cradles', goes
the Somerset saying quoted by Ruth Tongue in COUNTY FOLKLORE, VOL.VIII. On the
other hand, the hazel-nuts eaten by trout or salmon gave their flesh a power
of imparting wisdom at the first taste of it. It was to this that Finn owed
his tooth of wisdom. And finally, through all our sources, the beech is by any
means a holy tree. # 100 - 276 - 407 - 670 - 671 - 674 -
751 TREES, (MAGIC TREES IN WALES) In many parts of Wales one can come across some very interesting legends
associated with trees. Sometimes they are reputed to have supernatural powers
or it is claimed that some famous person once hid from his enemies among the
foliage. The best-known tree story in Wales concerns the stump of Merlin's Oak
in Carmarthen - the removal of which was supposed to bring about the downfall
of the town. Early in 1978 the Local Authority after many years of
soul-searching finally broke with tradition and removed the stump which had
become a traffic obstruction in a middle of a junction. By this time it
consisted mainly of concrete and iron supports but the event was important
enough to be mentioned on the national Welsh news. There is good reason to
believe that trees were planted in ancient times as sighting points. Clumps of
trees on top of hills really stand out on the landscape and it is thought by
some writers, including the late Alfred Watkins who wrote THE OLD STRAIGHT
TRACK, that these trees were once part of the ancient ley system. Generally
the trees at such points are Scots firs which much have reseeded naturally and
today they stand out in certain prominent locations as the only trees of that
type for miles around. Watkins referred to them as 'mark trees'. The planting
of yew trees in churchyards is a custom as old as the churchyards themselves.
It is probable that originally the trees were intended to act as a windbreak
for the churches by virtue of their thick foliage, as well as providing
shelter for the congregation assembling before the church door was opened. The
first churches were only wooden structures and needed such screening much more
than the sturdy stone buildings that exist today. It has been suggested that
the yews were planted to provide ready materials for constructing bows, as
these were at one time the national weapons of defence. The churchyards were
the places where they were most likely to be preserved and perhaps the English
word 'yeoman' was derived from 'yewman', that is, the man who used the yew
bow. Throughout Wales in medieval times the yew bow was very common and skill
in archery was an important part of a young man's education. In the memorable
Battle of Crécy 3500 Welsh archers followed the Black Prince in the attack on
France during the year 1346 and it was said that the success of this war was
largely due to the skill of the Welsh archers. At the end of the battle the
Prince adopted the motto 'Ich Dien' which has been the motto of the Prince of
Wales ever since. Possibly a large number of yew trees were planted in churchyards as symbols
of immortality - the tree being so lasting and always green. In churchyards
throughout Wales there are some fine specimens of these trees and some of them
are hundreds if not thousands of years old. In former times the yew was
consecrated and held sacred. During funeral processions its branches were
carried over the dead by mourners and thrown under the coffin in the grave.
The branches were also used for church decorations. In Wales, the yew was the
most valuable of all trees, and the consecrated yew of the priests had risen
in value over the reputed sacred mistletoe of the Druids. The Bleeding Yew
Tree, Nevern Church, Dyfed: In the churchyard at Nevern is an avenue of yew
trees. The second on the right is the mysterious 'bleeding tree'. Examine it
and you will find a blood-red resin dripping continuously from a place where a
branch was once removed. The tree is estimated to be seven hundred years old and apparently it will
continue to bleed until the castle on the hill is occupied by a Welshman
again. He will have to be a man of wealth, for all that remain of Nevern
Castle is a very overgrown mound just north of the church. - The Newcastle
Oak, Newcastle, Gwent. - A huge oak tree used to stand near the old post
office at this village. It was known locally as Glyndwr's Oak and it was
reputed to have been planted by Owain himself. The villagers claimed that it
was possessed by an evil spirit which affected all who dared to harm the tree.
Over the centuries the great oak gradually decayed and when the last branches
finally fell off one night in a furious gale, the villagers who took the wood
home all mysteriously set fire to their cottages! - The Demon Oak, Nannau
Park, Dolgellau, Gwynedd: A hollow oak tree known as the Ceubren yr Elbyl once
stood at Nannau Park. It is said that Owain Glyndwr once killed his cousin
Hywel and concealed the body inside the trunk of this tree. Hywel was sought
in vain by his family and friends throughout the estate and the forest nearby.
His wife shut herself up in her gloomy castle and the fate of Hywel remained
unknown to anyone except Glyndwr and his companion Madog. However, in later
years Glyndwr relented and instructed Madog to go to Hywel's widow and tell
her the truth. And so Madog led the family to the oak tree which was hastly
split open to reveal a white skeleton. - Even though the burial rites were
read and many masses said for the dead man, his spirit did not rest. For many
years afterwards local people feared to pass the shattered oak tree at night
and called the spot 'the hollow of the demons'. It was said that frightening
sounds came out of the tree and fire hovered above it. Eventually the oak fell
to the ground and was destroyed on 13 July 1813. # 49 - 82 - 705 -
706 TREFUILNGID TRE-EOCHAIR An ancient being who predated creation. He appeared to the assembly of Tara
to tell it the history of Ireland. He was of gigantic height and he controlled
the rising and setting of the sun. He carried a stone tablet in one hand and a
branch on which grew fruit, flowers and nuts concurrently. He inaugurated the
office of historian for the first time. He was master of all wisdom. See: TUAN
MAC CARILL. # 454 - 548 TREGALEN In Welsh tradition, it was the site of Arthur's final battle. Arthur was
victorious and pursued his enemies but was killed with arrows at Bwlch y
Saethu in Snowdonia. See: CAMLANN. # 156 - 554 TRENDORN Conor's servant who spies on Deirdre, and was blinded in one eye by Naisi.
He declares Deirdre's beauty to Conor. # 562 TREON (tray'on) Father of Vivionn. # 562 TREPHINA Daughter of Warok, chief of the Venetii, and a wife of Cunomorus, she was
murdered by her husband but restored to life by Gildas. After her restoration,
she carried her severed head about with her. See: MARK. #
156 TRIADS, THE WELSH The following 96 TRIADS are quoted from THE WELSH TRIADS second edition,
edited and translated by Rachel Bromwich, where the reader will find her
appropiate notes inserted. The abbreviations used here is: C: Cardiff. PEN: National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS. R: The version of Trioedd Ynys Prydein contained in the LLYFR COCH HERGEST
is dated CIRCA 1400. W: The version of Trioedd Ynys Prydein contained in the LLYFR GWYN
RHYDDERCH is dated CIRCA 1325. WR: The version of Trioedd Ynys Prydein contained in the LLYFR GWYN and the
LLYFR COCH. TRIAD 1 Three Tribal Thrones of the island of Britain: TRIAD 2 Three Generous men of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 3 Three Fair Princes of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 4 Three Well-Endowed Men of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 5 Three Pillars of Battle of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 6 Three Bull-Protectors (?) of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 7 Three Bull-Chieftains of the Island of Britain: The three of them were sons of bards. TRIAD 8 Three Prostrate Chieftains of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 9 Three Chieftains of Arthur's Court: TRIAD 10 Three Chieftains of Deira and Bernicia: TRIAD 11 Three Red-Speared Bards of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 12 Three Frivolous Bards of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 13 Three Chief Officers of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 14 Three Seafarers of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 15 Three Roving Fleets of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 16 Three Powerful Shepherds of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 17 Three Fettered Men of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 18 Three Battle-Horsemen of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 18 WR. Three Favourites of Arthur's Court, and Three Battle-Horsemen: they would
never endure a PENTEULU over them. And Arthur sang an ENGLYN: TRIAD 19 Three Enemy-Subduers of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 20 Three Red Ravagers of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 20 WR. Three Red Ravagers of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 21 Three Battle-Diademed Men of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 22 Three Brave Men of the Island of Britain, three sons of Haearnwedd the
Wily: TRIAD 22 WR. Three Brave Men of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 23 Three Arrogant Men of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 24 Three Slaughter-Blocks of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 25 Three Battle-Leaders of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 26 TRIAD 26 W Three Powerful Swineherds of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 27 Three Enchanters of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 28 Three Great Enchantments of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 29 Three Faithful War-Bands of the Island of Britain: The number of the War-Band of each of those men was twenty-one hundred
men. TRIAD 29 WR: Three Faithful War-Bands of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 30 Three Faithless War-Bands of the Islands of Britain: (W: The number of each of the War-Bands was twenty-one hundred men.) TRIAD 31 Three Noble(?) Retinues of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 31 WR Three Noble Retinues of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 32 Three Men who performed the Three Fortunate Assassinations: TRIAD 33 Three Unfortunate Assassinations of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 33 W Three Savage Men of the Island of Britain, who performed the Three
Unfortunate Assassinations: TRIAD 34 Three Unfortunate Hatchet-Blows of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 35 Three Levies that departed from this Island, and not one of them came
back: TRIAD 35 R When a Host went to Llychlyn. TRIAD 36 Three oppressions that came to this Island, and not one of them went
back: TRIAD 37 Three Concealments and Three Disclosures of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 37 R: Three Fortunate Concealments of the Island of Britain: (On this section, triads 38 -46, see TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN introduction, pp.
xcviii-cvii) TRIAD 38 (These are the Triads of the Horses:) TRIAD 39 Three Chief Steeds of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 40 Three Plundered Horses of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 41 Three Lovers' Horses of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 42 Three Lively Steeds of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 43 Three Pack-Horses of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 44 Three Horses who carried the Three Horse-Burdens: TRIAD 45 Three Prominent Oxen of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 46 Three Prominent Cows of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 46 a Three Bestowed Horses of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 46 b Three Coursing Horses of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 46 c Three Steeds of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 47 Three Men who received the Might of Adam: TRIAD 47 b (Pen. 216) Here are the names of the nine bravest and most noble warriors of the whole
world; of whom there are Three Pagans, Three Jews, and Three
Christians: TRIAD 48 Three Men who received the Beauty of Adam: They were, all three, as comely as Adam himself. TRIAD 49 Three Men who received the Wisdom of Adam: TRIAD 50 Three Women who received the Beauty of Eve in three third-shares: Diadema (= Dido?), mistress of Aenas White-Shield, and Elen the Magnificent, the woman on whose account was the destruction of
Troy, and Polixena, daughter of Priam the Old, king of Troy. (Eve was as fair as all of the three.) TRIAD 51 Three Dishonoured Men who were in the Island of Britain: TRIAD 52 Three Exalted Prisoners of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 53 Three Harmful Blows of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 54 Three Unrestrained Ravagings of the Island of Britain: The first of them (occurred) when Medrawd came to Arthur's Court at
Celliwig in Cornwall; he left neither food nor drink in the court that he did
not consume. And he dragged Gwenhwyfar from her royal chair, and then he
struck a blow upon her; The second Unrestrained Ravaging (occurred) when Arthur came to Medrawd's
court. He left neither food nor drink in the court; (And the third Unrestrained Ravaging (occurred) when Aeddan the Wily came
to the court of Rhydderch the Generous at Alclud (= Dumbarton); he left
neither food nor drink nor beast alive.) TRIAD 55 Three Quests that were obtained from Powys: TRIAD 56 Arthur's Three Great Queens: TRIAD 57 And the Three Mistresses were these: TRIAD 58 Three Amazons of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 59 Three Unfortunate Counsels of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 60 Three Gate-Keepers at the Action of Bangor Orchard: And three others on the side of Lloegr: TRIAD 61 Three Golden Corpses of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 62 Three Fettered War-Bands of the Islands of Britain: TRIAD 63 Three Bull-Spectres of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 64 Three Wild Spectres of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 65 Three Unrestricted Guests of Arthur's Court, and Three
Wanderers: TRIAD 66 Three Faithful (Women) of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 66 Pen. 47 Three Faithful Wives of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 67 Three Golden Shoemakers of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 68 Three Kings who were (sprung) from Villeins: TRIAD 69 Three Defilements of the Severn: TRIAD 70 Three Fair Womb-Burdens of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 70 PEN. 50. Three Fair Womb-Burdens of the Island of Britain:B Urien and Efrddyl,
children of Cynfarch the Old, who were carried together in the womb of Nefyn
daughter of Brychan their mother; TRIAD 71 Three Lovers of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 71 PEN. 267: Three Surpassing Bonds of Enduring Love which Three Men formerly in the
time of Arthur cast upon the Three Fairest, most Lovable, and most Talked-of
Maidens who were in the Island of Britain at that time; TRIAD 72 Three Stubborn Men: TRIAD 73 Three Peers of Arthur's Court: TRIAD 74 Three who could not be expelled(?) from Arthur's Court:B Uchei son of
Gwryon, TRIAD 75 Three Men of the Island of Britain who were most courteous to Guests and
Strangers: TRIAD 76 Three Violent(?) Ones of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 77 Three Wanderers of Arthur's Court: TRIAD 78 Three Fair Maidens of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 79 Three Lively Maidens of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 80 Three Faithless Wives of the Island of Britain. Three daughters of
Culfanawyd of Britain:b Essyllt Fair-Hair (Trystan's mistress), TRIAD 81 Three Saintly Lineages of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 81 C 18. Three Kindreds of Saints of the Island of Britain, by a Welsh
mother: TRIAD 82 Three Blessed Visitors of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 83 Three Bodies which God created for Teilo: TRIAD 84 Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 85 Arthur's Three Principal Courts: Three Principal Festivals at the Three Principal Courts: TRIAD 86 Three Knights of Arthur's Court who won the Graal, and it brought them to
Heaven: TRIAD 87 Three Skilful Bards were at Arthur's Court: TRIAD 88 Three Splendid Maidens of Arthur's Court: TRIAD 89 Three Things which conquered Lloegr: TRIAD 90 Three Perpetual Harmonies of the Island of Britain: In each of these three places there were 2,400 religious men; and of these
100 in turn continued each hour of the twenty-four hours of the day and night
in prayer and service to God, ceaselessly and without rest for ever. TRIAD 91 Three Fearless Men of the Island of Britain: TRIAD 92 Three Elders of the World: TRIAD 93 Three Men who specified their sufficiency from Arthur as their
Gift: TRIAD 94 Three Immense Feasts that were in the Island of Britain: Was Arthur's Feast in Caerleon-on-Usk the second, and what Feast was the
third? TRIAD 95 Three People who broke their hearts from Bewilderment: TRIAD 96 Three Wives whom Brychan Brycheiniog had. Their names
were: And his Offspring are one of the Three Kindreds of Saints of the Island of
Britain. The second is the Offspring of Cunedda Wledig, and the third is the
Offspring of Caw of Pictland. # 104 TRIBUIT An unidentified river, site of one of Arthur's battles. # 156 -
494 TáN N'RIGH Kingmaking by fire. A new king is chosen by the authority of the Tán
n'Righ, which means that the selected person must be approved by holding
burning branches in his hands, and while the branches are being consumed, the
fire would not touch the flesh. # 384 p 28 TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN The second edition of TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN is based upon a full collation
of the manuscripts. The text reproduced is in the first instance that of
Peniarth MS. 16, which represents the oldest version of TYP that has come down
to us, with the exception of a fragment of four TRIOEDD Y MEIRCH preserved in
the BLACK BOOK OF CARMARTHEN. This Rachel Bromwich call the 'Early Version'.
The text of Pen. 16 ends with triad 46, so that this manuscript includes less
than half of the total of ninety-six triads contained in this volume. The
remaining triads are those not found in Pen. 16, but which appear in the later
collections, as follows: Triads 47-69 are from the White Book, LLYFR GWYN
RHYDDERCH; and where the fragmentary text of TYP contained in this manuscript
is defective, from the complete version of the same series preserved in the
Red Book, LLYFR COCH HERGEST. This version is designated WR. Triads 70-80 are
from Pen. 47, and triads 81-6 from Pen. 50, while triads 87-96 consist of
miscellaneous additions to TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN which appear for the first
time in one or other of the late manuscript collections. Rachel Bromwich has
given precedence to preserving the order of the triads as these appear in Pen.
16, although to do so has involved subordinating to this order, the order in
which the triads are given in the much more extensive collection of WR. The
reason for this choice is that she believe Pen. 16 to preserve a much older
arrangement and grouping of TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN. The construction of a
satisfactory STEMMA of TYP is not possible because of the nature of the
material: all manuscripts omit triads which are represented in other
manuscripts, and numerous intermediary texts have undoubtedly been lost. But
the distinction between the two main versions, the Early Version and that of WR, remains a
valid one for the texts of TYP as a whole; in following the grouping of one or
other version the later manuscripts also present a text whose affinities are
with this version. But Rachel Bromwich had the hope that to show in the second
edition each of the manuscripts employed for the basic texts of triads 1-86
draws on written sources other than those that have come down to us, some of
which are of at least equal antiquity with those which have survived. There is evidence that some at least of the triads which are represented in
both of the main versions go back ultimately to a common WRITTEN source.
Triads 1-90 include all the triads contained in the first and second series of
TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDAIN in the MYVYRIAN ARCHAIOLOGY OF WALES. The first series
represents the collection of TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDAIN made by Robert Vaughan of
Hengwrt (1592-1666) from older manuscript sources. An account of the formation
of the Myvyrian text will be found in this edition. The Myvyrian second series
reproduces the triads from the RED BOOK OF HERGEST. The third series is the
work of Iolo Morganwg, who in the late eighteenth century rewrote many of the
older triads in an expanded form, with the introduction of some fresh
material. The investigation of these triads belongs properly to the study of
Iolo's sources and methods; and as such, it falls outside the scope of Rachel
Bromwich's second edition of TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN. See all the 96 triads in
the english translation, (without any notes) as: TRIADS, THE
WELSH. TRIPLE GODDESSES Celtic goddesses frequently are shown or described in triple form. The
Celts used a triple cycle for the seasons and for many magical patterns within
religion. The Triple Goddess, and The Fourfold Cycle: I=Maiden, II=Mother, III=Crone and 1. East/Spring/Air/Dawn/Beginning 2. South/Summer/Fire/Noon Increasing 3. West/Autumn/Water/Evening/Maturing 4. North/ Winter/Earth/Night/Destroying. The Triad of the Goddess rotates around the Fourfold Cycle. # 628 p 60
ff TRISTAN A contemporary of Arthur and a Knight of the Round Table, nephew and
champion of Mark, King of Cornwall. In one story he was the son of King
Meliodas and Queen Elizabeth of Lyonesse. He was called Tristan (Sorrow)
because of the grief caused at his birth, since it killed his mother. After
Lyonesse sank beneath the sea, he became attached first to the court of King
Mark, where one of his first tasks was to kill the giant Marhalt. Cornwall
refused to pay its customary tribute to Ireland, so the Irish sent over their
champion, Marhalt (Marhaus), (one may wonder if names such as Marhalt and
Marhaus might preserve some genuine memory of the fifth-century King of Tara,
Muircheartach I), the queen's brother, whom Tristan slew. Tristan was wounded
and had to seek a cure in Ireland whither he went under the false name of Pro
of Iernsetir or Tantris. Later, a marriage was arranged between Mark and
Iseult, daughter of King Anguish of Ireland. Tristan went to Ireland to fetch
his uncle's bride and when there he killed a dragon, though a rascally
senechal (steward) tried to seize credit for the act. On the way back, he and
Iseult unwittingly partook of a love potion which made them enamoured of each
other and they became lovers. On the night of Iseult's marriage to Mark, her
maid Brangien stood in for her under cover of darkness. There followed an
affair between Tristan and Iseult and on one occasion, Tristan's blood was
spilled in Iseult's bed, giving rise to suspicion. To quell this, Iseult said
she would swear on hot iron that she was no adulteress. When it came to this,
Iseult fell into the arms of Tristan who was disguised as a beggar; she was
thus able to swear that none but the king and the beggar had held her. Tristan, seeing that his love for the queen was hopeless, hied himself to
Brittany where he married Iseult of the Fair Hands, the daughter of Hoel, the
ruler. (Tristan's father-in-law is called Havelin by Eilhart, Jovelin by
Gottfried and Gilierchins in the TAVOLA RITONDA). Tristan did not sleep with
his wife.. He became fast friends with her brother, Kahedrin. He received a
poisoned wound and believed Iseult of Ireland could heal him so he sent her a
message, entreating her to come. The captain of the ship which was to
transport her agreed to use white sails if she were aboard, but black if not.
When the ship approached, Iseult of the White Hands lied to him, saying the
sails were black, and Tristan died. Hearing of this, Iseult of Ireland died of
a broken heart and Mark had them buried side by side. From the grave of
Tristan grew a vine, from that of Iseult a rose. They met and became
inseparably entwined. In another version (Malory), Tristan was playing his
harp for Iseult of Ireland when Mark slew him by driving a sword or lance into
his back. The story seems to be Pictish in origin. Tristan's name is Pictish
and, in Welsh tradition, his father is called Tallwch, perhaps a form of the
Pictish name Talorc. It is interesting to note that the Pictish King Talorc
III (perhaps legendary) was succeeded by Drust V (c. AD 550-51); were these
protagonists of the original story? Another version, perhaps derived from it,
appears in the Irish CuChulain story, THE WOOING OF EMER. The tragic tale of
DIARMUID AND GRáINNE also may have contributed to the tale. Welsh tradition
transported the story from Pictland to Cornwall and the final version seems to
be Breton. The development of the story is thought to have been as follows:
Irish tale DIARMUID AND GRAINNE and the Pictish tale DRUST SON OF TALORCAN
derivate the Irish episode in WOOING OF EMER which combined led to the Pictish
combination DRUST SAGA, followed by the Breton folktale THE DRAGON and the
Welsh version localized in Cornwall, and the Breton folktale MAN WITH TWO
WIVES, which formed the Breton final version. The medieval romance of Tristan
underwent the following developments: The Fowey Stone in Cornwall is thought to bear an inscription about a
Tristan, son of Cunomorus (see MARK), to whom the tale may have been
transferred. Eilhart said Tristan was the first person to train dogs. Malory
calls him Tristram. According to Italian romance, he and Iseult had two
children, bearing their names, while French romance gave them a son, Ysaie,
and a grandson, Marc. In the Icelandic TRISTRAMS SAGA Tristan had a son by
Iseult of the White Hands named Kalegras. See: PETICRIEU, SEGWARIDES,
TWENTY-FOUR KNIGHTS. # 156 - 204 - 217 - 418 - 454 - 658 TRISTRAM The form of Tristan used by Malory. Tristram was the usual English form of
Tristan, instances of it having been noted in England from the twelfth
century. # 156 TROAS As his name indicates, he was of Trojan origin. He was the King of Thessaly
and his son, Troiano, figured in an unpublished Italian romance of the Old
Table. # 156 - 238 TROIANO The son of King Troas of Thessaly and a descendant of Hector. An
unpublished romance of the Old Table tells how he, King Remus of Rome and
Uther Pendragon combined to make the Trojan race once again the rulers of
Troy. # 156 - 238 TROJAN OUTPOST Just as there are Celtic myths, so there is a kind of protomythology which
deals with the distant origins of the Celtic peoples themselves. Archaeology
has taught us to believe in the Indo-European culture which spread from the
Indus valley across most of present-day Europe, seeding various tribal groups
which remained behind to found the La Tène and Hallstatt cultures which
provided a foundation for the Celtic peoples as we know them today. # 455 p 101 ff TRONC See: OBERON. TROUT In Europe the trout is a symbol of health and fertility. The Celts
celebrated the return of the sun after the winter months with fertility-rite
dancing of 'the springing of the trout': the dancers imitated the rising of
the fish, associating it with the rising of the sun. #
161 TROY # 454: The enslaved inhabitants of Troy were rescued and led by Brutus,
great-grandson of Aeneas, to Britain. Troy's legendary status as the origin of
the British people has always figured importantly in the island's history.
Apollo, one of the protectors of Troy, is found, in native form, in the guise
of Maponus/Mabon. Taliesin may be considered to be a prophet of Troy's
descendants since his poetic works tell of their likely fate in his inspired
utterances before Maelgwn. # 730: Iman Wilkens' fascination with the Iliad and the Odyssey goes back
to his schooldays, and research into Homer has been an obsessive hobby of his
ever since. Like generations of scholars, he was intrigued by the origins of
Homer's great epic poems about the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus -
and now believes that he has finally tracked down their source. Arguing,
convincingly, that the poems do not fit the topography, geology, climate and
oceanic disturbances of the eastern Mediterranean, Wilkens relocates the
Homeric scene in western Europe and the north Atlantic, revealing the precise
site of Troy itself (little east of Cambridge) and the plain on which the
Trojan War was fought. By examining the texts in detail, Wilkens has
identified over 400 place names in western Europe and concludes that the
original oral version was composed by Homer several hundred years before they
were written down. He reveals that the Trojan War was fought on a far larger scale than
previously thought, by Celts from regions as far apart as Scandinavia and
Spain, and that the Odyssey describes routes and places in the Channel and the
Atlantic Ocean, and provided an oral map for illiterate Celtic seafarers. His
book WHERE TROY ONCE STOOD identifies Homer's external world and uncovers the
epics' inner meanings. The symbolic importance of Troy and its association
with the spiral labyrinth and the mysteries of the Gnostic religion is
described, and the esoteric meaning of the Odyssey brought out. The result is
an extraordinary and enlightening journey into prehistory that is exciting as
the voyages of Odyssey itself. One may conclude that Wilkens' patient
detective work, many of the most puzzling aspects of Homer's epic poems now
fall into place, enabling the reader - perhaps for the first time - to
understand fully the meaning and significance of Europe's oldest literary
masterpieces. There is not only a symbolic relationship between the spiral
labyrinths called Troy towns and the city of Troy, but also a linguistic one.
The origin of the name Troy is found, according to K. Kerényi, in the root of
the word Truare which means 'a circular movement around a stable
centre'. In the figurative sense, turning around a problem, while finding more
answers to our questions leads to solving the mystery. While the word Troy
means a circular hillfort in the concrete sense, it designates a spiral
labyrinth in the figurative sense. It appears that the symbolism of the
circular labyrinth is much older than Homer's time as it goes back as early as
the Stone Age. Western Europe is rich in rock engravings of that era which
show a close resemblance between the circular labyrinth and the womb, symbol
of return to the origin and (re-)birth, whence the presence of umbilical cords
is equated with Ariadne's threads. # 243 - 272 - 365 - 418 - 454 - 462 -
730 TROYNT See: TWRCH TRWYTH. TRUE THOMAS The 'Ballad of True Thomas', which Child included in his collections as No.
37A, tells part of the story of Thomas Rymour of Erceldoune, most commonly
called Thomas The Rhymer. Whether or not such a character as Merlin ever
existed as a real man, it is certain that Thomas Rymour of Erceldoune was an
historic personage living in the thirteenth century. But much more important
than his existence is his reputation as a prophet, which endured until the
nineteenth century. The ballad, which tells of his meeting with the Queen of
Elfland and his visit to that country, is founded on a fourteenth-century
romance which can be read in Carew Hazlitt's FAIRY TALES LEGENDS AND ROMANCES
ILLUSTRATING SHAKESPEARE. See also: THOMAS THE RHYMER. # 100 - 150 -
298 TUAN MAC CARILL (toon mac CAR-il) The sole survivor of Partholon's party. He turned
successively into a deer, a boar, an eagle and a salmon, in which form he was
eaten by the wife of King Carill. He recalled the whole history of Ireland
when the elders of Tara were attempting to chronicle its lands. He brought
Trefuilngid Tre-Eochair to verify his story. See: FINTAN. # 454 -
469 TUATHA DE DANAAN (OR DANANN) (thoo'a-haw day DAH-nawn') The people of Dana. They ruled Ireland after
Nemed, according to the Book of Invasions, and were descended from one of his
great-grandsons. They were supposed to come from the northern isles of Greece
where they had learned all the arts of magic. They brought four treasures with
them from these parts: the Stone of Fal from Falias, which screamed under the
foot of every rightful king; the Spear of Lugh, which came from Gorias; the
Sword of Nuada, from Findias; and the Cauldron of the Dagda from Murias. (See
HALLOWS.) They fought long against the Fomorians and the Firbolgs, but were
eventually vanguished by the Milesians, after which they retired to the
Otherworld, Tir na n'og or the Sidhe or the Hollow Hills, as they are
variously called. Perhaps they were originally Earth-gods. The dominating
peoples of Ireland's remotest past are traditionally represented as the
Partholonians, the Nemedians, the Fir Bolg, The Tuatha De Danann, and the
Milesians. The accounts of their doings, although ostensibly depicting the
very earliest periods of the Irish history, were composed, for the most part,
later than the oldest sagas of the Ulster group. The Tuatha De Danann (Peoples
of the Goddess Anu, or Danu) are said to have come to Ireland from the north
of Europe, where they had spent many years in learning arts and magic. They
are represented as large, strong, and beautiful beings who mingled with
mortals and yet remained superior to them. Their principal residences were
Brug na Boinne, a district along the river Boyne near Stackallen Bridge in
Leinster, and the fairy-mound (sidhe = shee) of Femin in Tipperary. Certain
personages in this group, without being definitely labelled as gods, have
characteristics that elevate them above the rank of ordinary mortals. # 166 -
454 - 469 - 548 - 562 TUDWAL TUDGLYD The wetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd was one of the Thirteen Treasures of the
Island of Britain. # 104 - 156 TUIREN Muirne's sister, Fionn's aunt. She married Iollan, one of the Fianna but he
had a mistress in the Sidhe. Jealous of Tuiren, the woman turned her into a
hound. While in this shape she bore twin cubs, Bran and Sceolan who became the
hounds of Fionn; since they had human natures they could divine things which
other dogs could not. She was changed back into a woman after Iollan promised
the sidhe woman that he would love her alone. # 267 -
454 TUIRENN (TEER-enn) Father of Brian, Iuchar and Iuacharba who slew Cian, father of
Lugh. He went to ask mercy for his sons and heal their wounds, but Lugh had
hardened his heart, and according to Lady Gregory, Tuirenn fell dead upon
their bodies and they were buried together. # 267 - 454 TUIS The oil of the pig belonging to Tuis was sought by Melora, Arthur's warrior
daughter. After imprisonment by the King of Asia, she escaped with the oil.
Tuis himself was a King of Greece in Irish legend. The sons of Tuirenn went to
Greece to obtain his pig's skin which had healing properties. # 156 - 157 -
406 TULMAN A Gaelic name for the house inside a fairy knowe. It seems to be a single
dwelling. J. F. Campbell in POPULAR TALES OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS VOL. II gives
a brief anecdote of a tulman which illustrates the use of good manners in
dealing with the fairies, and shows them in a benevolent light. # 100 -
130 TUMULI See: DOLMENS and MOUNDS. TURBE In Irish mythology, the father of Gobniu, the smith god. He is possibly the
original of Trebuchet, the smith who fashioned the Grail Sword. See:
TREBUCHET. # 156 TURMWR MORFAWR A paternal ancestor of Arthur in a number of Welsh pedigrees. #
156 TURNING ISLAND An island on which the first Nascien was placed after his rescue by a
miracle from prison; from this island he saw the ship of Solomon. #
156 TURQUINE A knight who overcame and captured Ector de Maris. Lancelot fought him and
killed him, occasioning the release of Ector and other prisoners. He was the
brother of Sir Carados of the Dolorous Tower and greatly hated Lancelot. # 156
- 418 TWADDELL The King of the Pygmies, a race of individuals only two feet tall; he
provided his chief physician to attend Tom Thumb during the latter's sickness.
Tom Thumb overcame King Twaddell in jousting. # 156 -
511 TWELVE SAINTS AND THE ENCHANTMENTS OF BRITAIN
A zodiacal circle, formed by 12 knights, saints, hermits or missionaries,
is a recurrent image in old British legends. Like the Grail, it is associated
with periods of regeneration and sacred order, when the countryside is
prosperous and life is experienced on a high level of spiritual intensity. At
such a time King Arthur set up his Round Table, a model of the divine cosmos,
as the central symbol in his court of 12 knights, each representing a zodiacal
constellation. This event belongs to no single age or locality, for relics of
an Arthurian myth cycle occur in local traditions and place names in Celtic
landscapes from Scotland to Brittany. Many different towns and hill-tops have
claims to have been Camelot, Arthur's citadel, and no doubt many of these
claims are justified, for the 12part story of Arthur and his companions
appears to have been established and celebrated throughout the year by the
various Celtic tribes or tribal unions within their own territories. Medieval
chroniclers told of the enchantments of Britain, and behind their tales of
adventurous or culture-bearing heroes can be detected a theme of revival
through missionary groups, often twelve in number, who aspired to re-create
that former state of enchantment, when initiated bards by their musical arts
held earthly life in tune with the harmony of the heavens. One of
Glastonbury's legends tells of a foundation by 12 holy men. During the second
century, in the reign of King Lucius, a missionary party, led by two priests,
Deruvian and Phagan, came to Britain from Rome and found at Glastonbury the
remains of St Joseph of Arimathea's original settlement. They also found a
written account of its history. This caused them to restore the ancient church
and to appoint twelve of their number as its ministers. The twelve lived as
hermits in secluded places around Glastonbury, and whenever one of them died a
new hermit was elected in his place, so the number was always maintained. This
went on until 433, the traditional date of St Patrick's arrival in
Glastonbury. The names of the 12 hermits at that time are given in the
thirteenth-century St Patrick's Charter as: Brumban, Hyregaan, Brenwal, Wencreth, Bantommeweng, Adelwalred, Lothor,
Wellias, Breden, Swelwes, Hinloernus and Hin. These strangely named individuals were organized into a religious community
by St Patrick, who thus became the first abbot at Glastonbury. After his death
in 472, his relics attracted many Irish pilgrims to Glastonbury. Scotland,
Wales, Cornwall and Gaul were also evangelized during the sixth century by
groups of 12 holy men. St Columba had 12 companions when he left Ireland to
found the monastery at Iona at the start of his Scottish mission. His
near-namesake and fellow Irishman, St Columban, brought Celtic Christianity to
Gaul with the assistance of 12 monks. They settled as hermits in the Vosges
mountains and were responsible for the renewal of culture and prosperity which
followed. St Gall, Columban's successor, led 12 disciples to a new settlement
in Switzerland. The most important group of 12 Celtic saints were the Twelve
Apostles of Ireland who, early in the sixth century, formed a college for the
administration of religious affairs under the great St Finnian of Clonard in
Meath. Following the missionary work of St Patrick and his contemporaries, St
Finnian reorganized the Church in Ireland on more formal lines. He founded or
reformed the monastery at Clonard to be a centre of education and law. Each of
the followers were heads of similar establishments in different parts of the
country, and together they made up an authoritative body which in some ways
corresponded to the amphictyonic council of Delphi some thousand years
earlier. In both cases the main responsibility of the twelve was to manage and
protect the priestly estates and to uphold the rights of sanctuary. The names
of the Apostles and their principal foundations were: The pattern of the sacred geography of Ireland and its government by 12
tribal rulers under a high king was perpetuated by the early Church. It was
customary, when a local king converted to Christianity, for the missionary
saint to build a church and monastery on the site of the main tribal
sanctuary, where formerly the Druid priests had officiated. From the people of
the tribe came the first monks and priests, many of whom were evidently former
Druids or pupils from their colleges. It seems therefore that Christianity
brought little change to the social order, and even the forms of religion were
not radically altered. So much of the native tradition was preserved and
incorporated by the early Church that one may reasonably view the Twelve
Apostles of Ireland as ecclesiastical representatives of Ireland's traditional
12 tribes. St Finnian in that case would have taken on the authority of a
former Chief Druid of Ireland, attached to the court of the high king and
guiding the 12 chief priests of the provinces. There is another hint of a circle of 12 sacred places in the life of St
David, who is credited with having founded 12 monasteries across southern
England and Wales. The list of these places includes Glastonbury where
Chrisianity was established before David's time. There and probably elsewhere
he reformed and enlarged an existing sanctuary. This implies that the legend
of his 12 foundations has a symbolic meaning, its underlying reference being
the traditional 12spoked wheel of sanctity, the ancient model for a heavenly
order on earth. - This 12-fold pattern is deeply rooted in Celtic mythology
and the Grail legend. King Arthur fought 12 battles, conquered 12 kingdoms and
slew the 12 kings of Orkney, whom Merlin then commemorated by a monument with
12 effigies. In the Grail romances, Sir Galahad is said to have founded the
order of the Holy Grail, appointing 12 knights as guardians of the Round Table
which St Joseph first established in Britain. St Joseph's sister bore 12
children to the Celtic hero, Bran, and another group of 12 saints, including
St David's mother St Non, were the offspring of Brychan, a fifth-century king
of Brecon. In the HIGH HISTORY OF THE HOLY GRAIL are named 12 brother knights,
one of whom, Alain, was Percival's ancestor. They possessed 12 castles
corresponding to the zodiacal signs. Read more about the fascinating number of
twelve in: TWELVE-TRIBE NATIONS by John Michell and Christine Rhone (1991). #
471 TWENTY FOUR KNIGHTS OF ARTHUR'S COURT A list of knights found in the Welsh work PEDWAR MARCHOG AR HUGAIN LLYS
ARTHUR, which dates from about the fifteenth century or earlier. The knights
figuring in the list were: Gwalchmai (Gawain), - Drudwas, Eliwlod, - Bors, -
Perceval, - Galahad, - Lancelot, - Owain, - Menw, - Tristan, - Eiddilig, -
Nasiens, - Mordred, - Hoel, - Blaes, - Cadog,- Petroc, - Morfran, - Sanddef, -
Glewlwyd, - Cyon, - Aron, - and Llywarch. # 104 - 156 TWRCH TRWYTH (tuurkh TROO'ith) This was a fierce boar, a king who was enchanted into a
boar for his wickedness. He corresponds to Torc Triath, the king of the boars
in Irish mythology. He was originally almost certainly some kind of boar
deity. The boar was a cult animal amongst the Celts. One of the tasks set
Culhwch was to obtain the comb and shears from between the ears of Twrch
Trwyth. The boar had slain many of Arthur's men and, when Arthur's band caught
up with it, Mabon obtained the razor and Cyledyr the Wild the shears. These
items were ciphers for the more important quest for the hallows of Britain, on
which Arthur was engaged. However, the boar escaped, but Arthur and his
followers came upon it once more and procured the comb. It was then forced
into the sea and swam off, no man knew whither. # 156 - 346 - 454 -
562 TY GWYDR Literally, a glass house. The dwelling of Merlin was thought to be one and
it was said to be on the Isle of Bardsey (Gwyned). # 156 TY NEWYDD STANDING STONES These stones in Dyfed are also called Cerrig Meibion Arthur, 'Stones of
Arthur's Sons'. Traditionally the stones are a monument to Arthur's sons who
were killed whilst hunting. # 156 - 717 TYLWYTH TEG (terlooeth teig) The Fair Family. The most usual name for the Welsh
fairies, though they are sometimes called Bendith y Mamau, the Mother's
Blessing, in an attempt to avert their kidnapping activities by invoking a
euphemistic name for the fairies. # 100 TYOLET In French romances, a knight who had grown up in the woods and spoke the
language of the animals. He obtained the white foot of a stag by killing the
lions which guarded it. By so doing he earned the hand in marriage of a lady
who had come to Arthur's court and offered herself, together with her kingdom,
to whomsoever could bring her the foot. But, as Tyolet was greatly fatigued,
he gave the foot to another knight. The other knight, thinking Tyolet dead,
pretended that he had accomplished the quest himself, but he was later
exposed. See: DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF LOGRES. # 30 - 156 -
713
Arthur as Chief Prince in
Mynyw (= St David's), and Dewi as Chief Bishop, and Maelgwn Gwynedd as Chief
Elder;
Arthur as Chief Prince in Celliwig in Cornwall, and Bishop Bytwini
as Chief Bishop, and Caradawg Strong-Arm as Chief Elder;
Arthur as Chief
Prince in Pen Rhionydd in the North, and Gerthmwl Wledig as Chief Elder, and
Cyndeyrn Garthwys as Chief Bishop.
Nudd the Generous, son of
Senyllt,
Mordaf the Generous, son of Serwan,
Rhydderch the Generous, son
of Tudwal Tudglyd.
(And Arthur himself was more generous than the
three.)
>Owain son of
Urien,
>Rhun son of Maelgwn,
Rhufawn the Radiant son of Dewrarth
Wledig.
Gwalchmai son of Gwyar,
and Llachau son of Arthur,
and Rhiwallawn Broom-Hair.
Dunawd son of Pabo
Pillar of Britain,
and Gwallawg son of Lleenawg,
and Cynfelyn the
Leprous (?).
Cynfawr
Host-Protector, son of Cynwyd Cynwydion,
and Gwenddolau son of
Ceidiaw,
and Urien son of Cynfarch.
Elinwy son of
Cadegr,
and Cynhafal son of Argad,
and Afaon son of Taliesin.
Llywarch the Old
son of Elidir Llydanwyn,
and Manawydan son of Llyr Half-Speech,
and
Gwgon Gwron son of Peredur son of Eliffer of the Great Retinue.
(And this
is why those were called 'Prostrate Chieftains': because they would not seek a
dominion, which nobody could deny to them.)
Gobrwy son of Echel
Mighty-Thigh,
Cadr(i)eith ('Fine-Speech') son of Porthawr Gadw,
and
Fleudur Fflam ('Flame').
Gall son of Disgyfdawd,
and
Ysgafnell son of Disgyfdawd,
and Diffydell son of Disgyfdawd.
The three
of them were sons of bards.
Tristfardd, bard of
Urien,
and Dygynnelw, bard of Owain son of Urien,
and Afan Ferddig, bard
of Cadwallawn son of Cadfan.
Arthur,
and
Cadwallawn son of Cadfan,
and Rahawd son of Morgant.
Caradawg son of
Brân,
and Cawrdaf son of Caradawg,
and Owain son of Maxen Wledig.
Geraint son of Erbin,
and
Gwenwynwyn son of Naf,
and March son of Meirchiawn.
The Fleet of Llawr son of
Eiryf,
and the Fleet of Divwng son of Alan,
and the Fleet of Solor son
of Murthach.
Riueri son of
Tangwn.
and D(u)nawd the Shepherd,
and Pryder (= Care) son of Dolor (=
Grief) of Deira and Bernicia.
Cadwaladr the
Blessed,
and Rhun son of Maelgwn,>
and Rhiwallawn Broom-Hair.
(And
this is why those men were called Fettered: because horses could not be
obtained that were suited to them, owing to their size; so they put fetters of
gold around the small of their legs, on the cruppers of their horses, behind
their backs; and two golden plates under their knees, and because of this the
knee is called 'knee-pan'.)
Caradawg
Strong-Arm,
and Me(n)waedd of Arllechwedd,
and Llyr of the Hosts.
These are my
Three Battle-Horsemen:
and Lludd of the Breastplate,
and the Pillar of
the Cymry, Caradawg.
Greidiawl Enemy-Subduer
son of E(n)vael Adrann,
and Gweir of Great Valour,
and Drystan son of
Tallwch.
Arthur,
and Rhun son of
Beli,
and Morgant the Wealthy.
Rhun son of Beli,
and
Lle(u) Skilful Hand,
and Morgan(t) the Wealthy.
But there was one who
was a Red Ravager greater than all three: Arthur was his name. For a year
neither grass nor plants used to spring up where one of the three would walk;
but where Arthur went, not for seven years.
Drystan son of
Tallwch,
and Hueil son of Caw,
and Cai son of Cenyr of the Fine
Beard.
And one was diademed above the three of them: that was Bedwyr son of
Bedrawc.
Gruddnei,
and Henben,
>and Edenawg.
Gruddnei,
and
Henben,
and Edenawg.
They would not return from battle except on their
biers. And those were three sons of Gleissiar of the North, by Haearnwedd the
Wily their mother.
Sawyl High-Head,
and
Pasgen son of Urien,
and Rhun son of Einiawn.
Gilbert son of
Cadgyffro,
and Morfran son of Tegid,
and Gwgawn Red-Sword.
Selyf son of Cynan
Garrwyn,
and Urien son of Cynfarch,
and Afaon son of Taliesin.
(This
is why they were called AERUEDOGEON: because they avenged their wrongs from
their graves.)
And Pryderi son of
Pwyll, Lord of Annwfn, who guarded the swine of Pendaran Dyfed in Glyn Cuch in
Emlyn;
And Coll son of Collfrewy, who guarded Henwen, the sow of Dallwyr
Dallben, who went (when) about to bring forth (?), to Penrhyn Awstin in
Cornwall, (and there she went into the sea). And at Aber Tarogi in Gwent Is
Coed she came to land. And Coll son of Collfrewy with his hand on her bristles
wherever she went, whether by sea or by land. And in the Wheat Field in Gwent
she brought forth a grain of wheat and a bee; and therefore that place is the
best for wheat and bees. And from there she went to Llonion in Pembroke, and
there she brought forth a grain of barley and a bee. From thence she made for
the Hill of Cyferthwch in Eryri; there she brought forth a wolf-cub and a
young eagle. And Coll son of Collfrewy gave the eagle to Bre(R)nnach the
Irishman of the North, and the wolf he gave to Me(n)waedd son of ... of
Arllechwedd; and these were (the Wolf of) Me(n)waedd and the Eagle of
Brennach. And from thence she went to the Black Stone in Llanfair in Arfon,
and there she brought forth a kitten; and Coll son of Collfrewy threw that
kitten into the Menai. And she was afterwards Palug's Cat.
Pryderi son of
Pwyll, Lord of Annwfn, tending the swine of Penndaran Dyfed his foster-father.
These swine were the seven animals which Pwyll Lord of Annwfn brought, and
gave them to Penndaran Dyfed his foster-father. And the place where he used to
keep them was in Glyn Cuch in Emlyn. And this is why he was called a Powerful
Swineherd: because no one was able either to deceive or to force him;
And
the second, Drystan son of Tallwch, tending the swine of March son of
Meirchyawn, while the swineherd went with a message to Essyllt. Arthur and
March and Cai and Bedwyr were (there) all four, but they did not succeed in
getting so much as one pigling - neither by force, nor by deception, nor by
stealth;
And the third, Coll son of C(o)llfrewy, tending the swine of
Dallwyr Dallben in Glyn Dallwyr in Cornwall. And one of the swine was
pregnant, Henwen was her name. And it was prophecied that the Island of
Britain would be the worse for the womb-burden. Then Arthur assembled the army
of the Island of Britain, and set out to seek to destroy her. And then she set
off, about to bring forth (?), and at Penrhyn Awstin in Cornwall she entered
the sea, and the Powerful Swineherd after her. And in the Wheat Field in Gwent
she brought forth a grain of wheat and a bee. And therefore from that day to
this the Wheat Field in Gwent is the best place for wheat and for bees. And at
Llonion in Pembroke she brought forth a grain of barley and a grain of wheat.
Therefore, the barley of Llonion is proverbial. At the Hill of Cyferthwch in
Arfon she brought forth a (wolf-cub) and a young eagle. The wolf was given to
(M)ergaed and the eagle to Breat, a prince of the North: and they were both
the worse for them. And at Llanfair in Arfon under the Black Rock she brought
forth a kitten, and the Powerful Swineherd threw it from the Rock into the
sea. And the sons of Palug fostered it in Môn, to their own harm: and that was
Palug's Cat, and it was one of the Three Great Oppressions of Môn, nurtured
therein. The second was Daronwy, and the third was Edwin, king of Lloegr.
Coll son of Collfrewy,
and
Menw son of Teirgwaedd,
and Drych son of Kibddar.
The Enchantment of
Math son of Mathonwy (which he taught to Gw(y)dion son of Dôn),
and the
Enchantment of Uthyr Pendragon (which he taught to Menw son of
Teirgwaedd),
and the Enchantment of Gwythelyn the Dwarf (WR: Rudlwm the
Dwarf) (which he taught to Coll son of Collfrewy his nephew).
The War-Band of
Cadwallawn son of Cadfan, who were with him seven years in Ireland; and in all
that time they did not ask him for anything, lest they should be compelled to
leave him;
And the second, the War-Band of Gafran son of Aeddan, who went
to sea for their lord;
And the third, the War-Band of Gwenddolau son of
Ceid(i)aw at Ar(f)derydd, who continued the battle for a fortnight and a month
after their lord was slain.
The War-Band of
Cadwallawn, when they were fettered;
and the War-Band of Gafran son of
Aeddan, at the time of his complete disappearance;
and the War-Band of
Gwenddolau son of Ceidiaw at Ar(f)derydd, who continued the battle for a
fortnight and a month after their lord was slain;
The number of each one of
the War-Bands was twenty-one hundred men.
The War-Band of
Goronwy the Radiant of (Penllyn), who refused to receive the poisoned spear
from Lleu Skilful-Hand on behalf of their lord, at the Stone of Goronwy at the
head of the Cynfal;
and the War-Band of Gwrgi and Peredur, who abandoned
their lord at Caer Greu, when they had an appointment to fight the next day
with Eda Great-Knee; and there they were both slain;
And the War-Band of
Alan Fyrgan, who turned away from him by night, and let him go with his
servants to Camlan. And there he was slain.
The Retinue of
Mynyddawg of Eiddyn,
and the Retinue of Melyn son of Cynfelyn,
and the
Retinue of Dryon son of Nudd.
The Retinue of Mynyddawg
at Catraeth,
and the Retinue of Dreon the Brave at the Dyke of
Ar(f)dery(dd),
and the third, the Retinue of Belyn of Llyn (in) Erethlyn in
Rhos.
Gall son of
Dysgyfdawd who slew the Two Birds of Gwenddolau. And they had a yoke of gold
on them. Two corpses of the Cymry they ate for their dinner, and two for their
supper;
And Ysgafnell son of Dysgyfdawd, who slew Edelfled king of
Lloegr;
And Diffydell son of Dysgyfdawd who slew Gwrgi Garwlwyd ('Rough
Grey'). That Gwrgi used to make a corpse of one of the Cymry every day, and
two on each Saturday so as not to slay on Sunday.
Heidyn son of
Enygan, who slew Aneirin of Flowing Verse, Prince of Poets;
and Llawgad
Trwm Bargod Eidyn ('Heavy Battle-Hand of the Border of Eidyn') who slew Afaon
son of Taliesin,
and Llofan Llaw Ddifo ('Ll. Severing Hand') who slew Urien
son of Cynfarch.
Llofan Llaw Ddifro ('Ll. Exiled Hand') who slew
Urien son of Cynfarch,
Llongad Grwm Fargod Eidyn ('Ll. the Bent of the
Border of Eidyn') who slew Afaon son of Taliesin,
and Heiden son of Efengad
who slew Aneirin of Flowing Verse, daughter of Teyrnbeirdd - the man who used
to give a hundred kine every Saturday in a bath-tub to Talhaearn. And he
struck her with a woodhatchet on the head.
And that was one of the Three
Hatchet-Blows.
The second (was) a woodcutter of Aberffraw who struck
Golydan with a hatchet, on the head. And the third, one of his own men struck
upon Iago, son of Beli, with a hatchet, on the head.
The Blow of
Eidyn on the Head of Aneirin,
and the Blow on the Head of Golydan the
Poet,
and the Blow on the Head of Iago son of Beli.
The first went with Elen of the Hosts and Cynan her brother,
The
second went with Yrp of the Hosts, who came here to ask for assistance in the
time of Cadial son of Eryn. And all he asked of each Chief Fortress was twice
as many (men) as would come with him to it; and to the first Fortress there
came only himself and his servant. (And it proved grievous to have given him
that.) Nevertheless that was the most complete levy that ever went from this
Island, and no (man) of them ever came back. The place where those men
remained was on two islands close to the Greek sea: those islands are Gals and
Avena.
The third levy went with Caswallawn son of Beli, and Gwenwynwyn and
Gwanar, sons of Lliaws son of Nwyfre, and Arianrhod daughter of Beli their
mother. And those men came from Arllechwedd. They went with Caswallawn their
uncle across the sea in pursuit of the men of Caesar. The place where those
men are is in Gascony. And the number that went in each of those Hosts was
twenty-one thousand men. And those were the Three Silver Hosts: they were so
called because the gold and silver of the Island went with them. And they were
picked men.
And the second
(army) went with Elen of the Hosts and Maxen Wledig to Llychlyn: and they
never returned to this Island.
And the third (army) went with Caswallawn
son of Beli, and Gwennwynwyn and Gwanar, sons of Lliaw son of Nwyfre, and
Arianrhod daughter of Beli their mother. And (it was) from Erch and Heledd
that those men came. And they went with Caswallawn their uncle in pursuit of
the men of Caesar from this Island. The place where those men are is in
Gascony.
The number that went with each of (those armies) was twenty-one
thousand men. And those were the Three Silver Hosts of the Island of Britain.
One of them (was) the people of the Coraniaid, who came here in the
time of Caswallawn (= Lludd?) son of Beli: and not one of them went back. And
they came from Arabia.
The second Oppression: the Gwyddyl Ffichti. And not
one of them went back.
The third Oppression: the Saxons, with Horsa and
Hengist as their leaders.
The
Head of Bran the Blessed, son of Llyr, which was buried in the White Hill in
London. And as long as the Head was there in that position, no Oppression
would ever come to this Island;
The second: the Bones of Gwerthefyr the
Blessed, which were buried in the Chief Ports of this Island;
The third:
the Dragons which Lludd son of Beli buried in Dinas Emrys in Eryri.
The
second Fortunate Concealment: the Dragons in Dinas Emrys, which Lludd son of
Beli concealed;
And the third: the Bones of Gwerthefyr the Blessed, in the
Chief Ports of this Island. And as long as they remained in that concealment,
no Saxon Oppression would ever come to this Island.
And they were the Three Unfortunate Disclosures when these were
disclosed. And Gwrtheyrn the Thin disclosed the bones of Gwerthefyr the
Blessed for the love of a woman: that was Ronnwen the pagan woman; And it was
he who disclosed the Dragons;
b And Arthur disclosed the Head of Bran the
Blessed from the White Hill, because it did not seem right to him that this
Island should be defended by the strength of anyone, but by his own.
Slender Grey, horse of Caswallawn
son of Beli,
Pale Yellow of the Stud, horse of Lleu Skilful-Hand,
and
Host-Splitter, horse of Caradawg Strong-Arm.
Tall Black-Tinted, horse of
Cynan Garrwyn,
and Eager Long Fore-Legs, horse of Cyhored son of
Cynan,
and Red... Wolf-Tread, horse of Gilbert son of Cadgyffro.
Cloven-Hoof, horse of
Owain son of Urien,
and Long Tongue, horse of Cadwallawn son of
Cadfan,
and Bucheslom, horse of Gwgawn of the Red Sword.
Grey Fetlock, horse of
Dalldaf son of Cunin Cof,
and Spotted Dun, horse of Rahawd son of
Morgant,
and Pale White Lively-Back, horse of Morfran son of Tegid.
Grey, horse of Alser son
of Maelgwn,
and Chestnut Long-Neck, horse of Cai,
and Roan Cloven-Hoof,
horse of Iddon son of Ynyr Gwent.
Black, horse of Brwyn son of
Cunedda,
and Huge Yellow, horse of Pasgen son of Urien,
and Dun-Grey,
horse of Rhydderch Hael.
Black Moro, horse of
Elidir Mwynfawr, who carried on his back seven and a half people from Penllech
in the North to Penllech in Môn. These were the seven people: Elidir Mwynfawr,
and Eurgain his wife, daughter of Maelgwn Gwynedd, and Gwyn Good Companion,
and Gwyn Good Distributor, and Mynach Naomon his counsellor, and Prydelaw the
Cupbearer, his butler, and Silver Staff his servant, and Gelbeinevin his cook,
who swam with his two hands to the horse's crupper - and that was the
half-person.
Corvan, horse of the sons of Eliffer, bore the second
Horse-Burden: he carried on his back Gwrgi and Peredur and Dunawd the Stout
and Cynfelyn the Leprous(?), to look upon the battle-fog of (the host of)
Gwenddolau (in) Ar(f)derydd. (And no one overtook him but Dinogad son of Cynan
Garwyn, (riding) upon Swift Roan, and he won censure (?) and dishonour from
then till this day.)
Heith, horse of the sons of Gwerthmwl Wledig, bore the
third Horse-Burden: he carried Gweir and Gleis and Archanad up the hill of
Maelawr in Ceredigion to avenge their father.
Yellow Pale-White,
and
Chestnut, Ox of Gwylwylyd,
and the Speckled Ox.
Speckled, cow of Maelgwn
Gwynedd,
and Grey-Skin, cow of the sons of Eliffer of the Great
Warband,
and Cornillo, cow of Llawfrodedd the Bearded.
Slender-Hard, horse of
Gwalchmai,
and Thick-Mane, horse of Gweddw,
... horse of Drudwas son
of Tryffin,
and Chestnut Long-Neck, horse of Cai.
Broad-Belly and Coal,
the two horses of Collawn son of Teichi,
and Swift-Roan, horse of Dinoga(d)
son of Cynan (Garwyn).
Gwirian Groddros, horse of
Ga(rw)y the Tall,
Gwegar, horse of Elinwy,
... horse of Ellwyd,
...
horse of the son of Matheu.
Hercules the Strong,
and
Hector the Strong,
and Samson the Strong.
They were, all three, as
strong as Adam himself.
The Three Pagans: Ector of Troy, Alexander the Great, Julius
Caesar.
The Three Jews: David the Prophet, Judas Maccabeus, Duke
Joshua.
The Three Christians: Arthur, Charles (Charlemagne), Godfrey of
Boulogne.
Absalom son of David,
and
Jason son of Aeson,
and Paris son of Priam.
Cato the Old,
and
Bede,
and Sibli the Wise.
They were, all three, as wise as Adam
himself.
One of them:
Afarwy son of Lludd son of Beli. He first summoned Julius Caesar and the men
of Rome to this Island, and he caused the paymant of three thousand pounds in
money as tribute from this Island every year, because of a quarrel with
Caswallawn his uncle.
And the second id Gwrtheyrn the Thin, who first gave
land to the Saxons in this Island, and was the first to enter into an alliance
with them. He caused the death of Custennin the Younger, son of Custennin the
Blessed, by his treachery, and exiled the two brothers Emrys Wledig and Uthur
Penndragon from this Island to Armorica, and deceitfully took the crown and
the kingdom into his own possession. And in the end Uthur and Emrys burned
Gwrtheyrn in Castell Gwerthrynyawn beside the Wye, in a single conflagration
to avenge their brother.
The third and worst was Medrawd, when Arthur left
with him the government of the Island of Britain, at the same time when he
himself went across the sea to oppose Lles, emperor of Rome, who had
dispatched messengers to Arthur in Caerleon to demand (payment of) tribute to
him and to the men of Rome, from this Island, in the measure that it had been
paid (from the time of) Caswallawn son of Beli until the time of Custennin the
Blessed, Arthur's grandfather. This is the answer that Arthur gave to the
emperor's messengers: that the men of Rome had no greater claim to tribute
from the men of this Island, than the men of the Island of Britain had from
them. For Bran son of Dyfnwal and Custennin son of Elen had been emperors in
Rome, and they were two men of this Island. And they Arthur mustered the most
select warriors of his kingdom (and led them) across the sea against the
emperor. And they met beyond the mountain of Mynneu (= the Alps), and an
untold number was slain on each side that day. And in the end Arthur
encountered the emperor, and Arthur slew him. And Arthur's best men were slain
there. When Medrawd heard that Arthur's host was dispersed, he turned against
Arthur, and the Saxons and the Picts and the Scots united with him to hold
this Island against Arthur. And when Arthur heard that, he turned back with
all that had survived of his army, and succeeded by violence in landing on
this Island in opposition to Medrawd. And then there took place the Battle of
Camlan between Arthur and Medrawd, and was himself wounded to death. And from
that (wound) he died, and was buried in a hall on the Island of Afallach.
Llyr Half-Speech, who
was imprisoned by Euroswydd,
and the second, Mabon son of Modron,
and
third, Gwair son of Geirioedd.
And one (Prisoner), who was more exalted
than the three of them, was three nights in prison in Caer Oeth and Anoeth,
and three nights imprisoned by Gwen Pendragon, and three nights in an
enchanted prison under the Stone of Echymeint. This Exalted Prisoner was
Arthur. And it was the same lad who released him from each of these three
prisons- Goreu, son of Custennin, his cousin.
The first of them
Matholwch the Irishman struck upon Branwen daughter of Llyr;
The second
Gwenhwyfach struck upon Gwenhwyfar: and for that cause there took place
afterwards the Action of the Battle of Camlan;
And the third Golydan the
Poet struck upon Cadwaladr the Blessed.
The first of them is the
fetching of Myngan from Meigen to Llansilin, by nine the next morning, to
receive privileges from Cadwallawn the Blessed, after the slaying of Ieuaf and
Griffri;
The second is the fetching of Griffri to Bryn Griffri before the
following morning, to attack Edwin;
The third is the fetching of Hywel son
of Ieuaf to Ceredigiawn from the Rock of Gwynedd to fight with (= on the side
of?) Ieuaf and Iago in that battle.
Gwennhwyfar daughter of (Cywryd)
Gwent,
and Gwenhwyfar daughter of (Gwythyr) son of Greidiawl,
>and
Gwenhwyfar daughter of (G)ogfran the Giant.
Indeg daughter of Garwy the
Tall,
and Garwen ('Fair Leg') daughter of Henin the Old,
and Gwyl
('Modest') daughter of Gendawd ('Big Chin'?).
The first of them, Llewei
daughter of Seitwed,
and Rore(i) daughter of Usber,
and Mederei
Badellfawr ('Big Knee'?).
To give place for
their horses' fore-feet on the land to Julius Caesar and the men of Rome, in
requital for Meinlas;
and the second: to allow Horsa and Hengist and
Rhonwen into this Island;
and the third: the three-fold dividing by Arthur
of his men with Medrawd at Camlan.
Gwgon Red
Sword,
and Madawg son of Rhun,
and Gwiawn son of Cyndrwyn.
Hawystyl the Arrogant,
and
Gwaetcym Herwuden,
and Gwiner.
Madawg son of
Brwyn,
and Cengan Peilliawg,
and Rhu(f)awn the Radiant son of
Gwyddno.
The War-Band of
Cadwallawn Long-Arm, who each one put the fetters of their horses on their
(own) feet, when fighting with Serygei the Irishman at the Irishmens' Rocks in
Môn;
And the second, the War-Band of Rhiwallawn son of Urien when fighting
with the Saxons;
And the third, the War-Band of Belyn of Llyn when fighting
with Edwin at Bryn Edwin in Rhos.
Three Spectre of
Gwidawl,
and the Spectre of Llyr Marini,
and the Spectre of Gyrthmwl
Wledig.
The Spectre of Banawg,
and the Spectre of Ednyfedawg the Sprightly,
and the Spectre of
Melen.
Llywarch the Old,
and Llemenig,
and Heledd.
Ardd(u)n wife of Cadgor
son of Gorolwyn,
and Efeilian wife of Gwydyr the Heavy,
and Emerchred
wife of Mabon son of Dewengan.
Treul the Blameless
daughter of Llynghessawc Generous Hand,
and Gwenfedon daughter of Tud(w)al
Tudglud, and Tegau Gold-Breast.
And one more faithful than the three:
Hemythryd daughter of Mabon son of Dyfynwyn.
Caswallawn son of
Beli, when he went to Rome to seek Fflur;
and Manawydan son of Llyr, when
the Enchantment was on Dyfed;
and Lleu Skilful-Hand, when he and Gwydion
were seeking a name and arms from his mother Ar(i)anrhod.
Gwriad son of Gwrian in the
North,
and Cadafel son of Cynfeddw in Gwynedd,
and Hyfaidd son of
Bleiddig in Deheubarth.
Cadwallawn when he went to the Action
of Digoll, and the forces of Cymry with him; and Edwin on the other side, and
the forces of Lloegr with him. And then the Severn was defiled from its source
to its mouth;
The second, the gift of Golydan from Einiawn son of Bedd,
king of Cornwall;
And the third, Calam the horse of Iddon son of Ner from
Maelgwn(?).
Urien son of Cynfarch
and Arawn son of Cynfarch and Lleu son of Cynfarch, by Nefyn daughter of
Brychan Brycheiniog their mother;
The second, Owain and Morfudd daughter of
Urien and Anarun archbishop of Llydaw, by Modron daughter of Afallach their
mother;
The third was Gwrgi and Peredur sons of (E)liffer of the Great
Warband, and Arddun their sister, and ... (by Efrddyl?), and Cornan their
horse and Grey-Skin their cow.
The second, Owain son of Urien and
Mor(fudd) his sister who were carried together in the womb of Modron daughter
of Afallach;
The third, Gwrgi and Peredur and Ceindrech Pen Asgell ('Wing
Head'), children of Eliffer and the Great Warband, who were carried together
in the womb of Efrddyl daughter of Cynfarch their mother.
Cynon son of Clydno (for Morfudd
daughter of Urien);
and Caswallawn son of Beli (for Fflur daughter of
Ugnach(?) the Dwarf);
and Drystan (son of Tallwch, for Essyllt, the wife of
his uncle March).
that is (the bond)
which Tristan son of Tallwch cast upon Essyllt daughter of (Culfanawyd) Pillar
of Britain;
and (the bond) which Cynon son of Clydno Eiddyn cast upon
Morfudd daughter of Urien Rheged;
and (the bond) which Caradawg Strong-Arm
son of Llyr M(a)rini cast upon Tegau Gold-Breast daughter of Nudd
Generous-Hand, king of the North.
And those were the Three Fairest, most
Lovable, and most Talked-of Maidens who were in the Island of Britain at that
time.
E(i)ddilig the Dwarf,
and Gwair of Great
Valour,
and Drystan.
R(a)hawd son of Morgant,
and Dalldaf
son of Cunyn Cof,
and Drystan son of March.
and Coledawg son of (Gwynn),
and (C)erenhyr son of Gereinyawn
the Old.
Gwalchmai son of Gwyar,
and Cadwy son of Gereint,
and
Cadrieith (Fine Speech) (son of) Saidi.
Heledd,
and
Llywarch,
and Llemenig.
Heledd,
and LLywarch,
and
Llemenig.
Creirwy, daughter of
Ceridwen,
and Ar(i)anrhod daughter of Don,
and Gwen daughter of Cywryd
son of Crydon.
Angharat Tawny Wave (?),
daughter of Rhydderch Hael,
and Afan, daughter of Maig Thick-Hair,
and
Perwyr, daughter of Rhun of Great Wealth.
and
Penarwan (wife of Owain son of Urien),
and Bun, wife of Fflamddwyn.
The Lineage of Joseph
of Ar(i)mathea,
and the Lineage of Cunedda Wledig,
and the Lineage of
Brychan Brycheiniog.
The Offspring of Brychan Brycheiniog,
and the Offspring of
Cunedda Wledig,
and the Offspring of Caw of Pictland.
Dewi,
and Padarn,
and Teilo.
The first is at Llandaff in
Morgannwg,
the second at Llandeilo Fawr,
and the third at Penalun in
Dyfed, as the History tells us.
One of them was the
Battle of Goddeu: it was brought about by the cause of the bitch, together
with the roebuck and the plover;
The second was the Action of Ar(f)derydd,
which was brought by the cause of the lark's nest;
And the third was the
worst: that was Camlan, which was brought about because of a quarrel between
Gwenhwyfar and Gwennhwy(f)ach.
This is why those (Battles) were called
Futile: because they were brought about by such a barren cause as that.
Caerleon-on-Usk in Wales,
and
Celliwig in Cornwall,
and Penrhyn Rhionydd in the North.
Easter, and
Christmas, and Whitsun.
Galaad son of Lawnslot of the Lake,
and Peredur son of Earl
Efrawg,
and Bort son of King Bort.
And the two first were virgin of
body. And the third was chaste, for only once had he committed bodily sin; and
that, through temptation, at the time when he won ... daughter of King
Brangor, who was Empress in Constantinople, and from whom was descended the
greatest race in the world. All three were sprung of the race of Joseph of
Arimathea, and of the lineage of the Prophet David, as the History of the
Graal testifies.
Myrddin son of Morfryn,
Myrddin Emrys,
and Taliesin.
Dyfyr Golden-Hair,
Enid
daughter of Earl (Y)niwl,
and Tegau Gold-Breast.
Receiving Strangers,
Freeing
Prisoners,
and the Gift of the Bald Man.
One was at the
Island of Afallach,
and the second at Caer Garadawg,
and the third at
Bangor.
The first was Gwalchmai son
of Gwyar,
the second was Llachau son of Arthur,
and the third was
(Peredur) son of Earl Efrog.
The Owl of Cwm Cowlwyd,
the Eagle of
Gwernabwy,
and the Blackbird of Celli Gadarn.
Culhwch son of Cilydd son of Celyddon Wledig,
and Huarwor son of
Aflawn,
and Gordibla of Cornwall.
One of them was
the Feast which Caswallawn son of Beli made in London, where twenty thousand
cattle were slain, and a hundred thousand sheep, and fifty thousand geese and
capons, and of wild and domesticated birds more than anyone might number.
(G. Owain).
Branwen daughter
of Llyr,
and Caradog son of Bran,
and Ffaraon Dandde.
Eurbrawst,
and Rybrawst,
and Peresgri.Archetype: