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WACE, ROBERT Author of Le ROMAN DE BRUT and Le ROMAN DE ROU. # 562 WADE See: WITEGE. WAFF The Yorkshire name for a wraith or double; in other words, it is a kind of
co-walker. It is believed to be a death token and may be seen either by the
doomed man or by a friend. William Henderson gives several instances in FOLK
LORE OF THE NORTHERN COUNTIES. If a man sees his own waff, he can avert his
fate by speaking to it severely. Henderson gives an example of a native of
Guisborough who, on going into a shop at Whitby, saw his own waff. He adressed
it boldly: 'What's thou doin' here? What's thou doin' here? Thou's after no
good, I'll go bail! Get thy ways yom with thee! Get thy ways yom!' The waff
slunk off, quite ashamed of itself, and he had no further trouble with it. #
100 - 302 WALES In the traditional Arthurian period this land was a patchwork of minor
kingdoms, including Gwynedd, Dyfed and Powys, although some Arthurian tales
picture it as a single kingdom. It is variously described as the realm of
Valyant, a relation of Lancelot, or of Herzeloyde, Perceval's mother.
According to the HISTORIA MERIADOCI (medieval Latin Arthurian romance),
Caradoc was its king, then Arthur and Urien placed Meriadoc, Caradoc's son, on
the throne, but Meriadoc resigned it to Urien. In the ESTOIRE this was
identified with the Waste Land. But according to Rolleston, Arthur in the
traditional Arthurian saga is wholly different from the Arthur in Welsh
literature. # 156 - 562 WALWAIN According to Layamon's Brut, a relative to Arthur, who was 'slain, and
deprived life-day, through a Saxish earl - sorry be his soul!' in the
preparing for Arthur's last battle against Mordred at Camlann. #
697 WALWEITHA The territory ruled by Gawain whence, according to William of Malmesbury,
he was driven by the brother and nephew of Hengist. It may be identical with
Galloway. # 156 WANDERING DROLL TELLER, THE In Bottrell's TRADITIONS AND HEARTHSIDE STORIES OF WEST CORNWALL (VOL.I),
there is an account of one of the wandering droll-tellers whom he had known in
his youth, which gives us a useful insight into the way in which folk-tales
were presented and propagated in Cornwall. Uncle Anthony James of Cury was an
entertainer rather than a bard, and there is no indication of the careful
accuracy of transmission which was so important to the Irish, Highland and
Welsh bards, where every deviation from strict tradition was frowned upon.
Here, on the contrary, a spontaneous and happy innovation was apparently
welcomed. It yet remains for someone to make an exhaustive study of different
methods in which tales were orally transmitted. This story of Uncle Anthony
James of Cury was an introduction to the story of Lutely and the Mermaid: From
a period more remote than is now remembered, to the present time, some members
of the family called Lutely, who for the most part, resided in the parish of
Cury, or its vicinity, have been noted conjurors or white witches. They have
long been known, all over the west, as the 'Pellar family'. The word Pellar is
probably an abridgement of repeller, derived from their reputed power in
counteracting the malign influences of sorcery and witchcraft. According to an
oft-told story, the wonderful gifts of this family were aquired by a fortunate
ancestor, who had the luck to find a mermaid (here by us pronounced meremaid),
left high and dry on a rock by the ebbing tide. Some forty years ago, uncle Anthony James - an old blind man, belonging to
the neighbourhood of the gifted family with his dog, and a boy who led him,
used to make their yearly tour of the country as regularly as the seasons came
round. This venerable wanderer, in his youth, had been a soldier, and had then
visited many foreign lands, about which he had much to tell; but his
descriptions of outlandish people and places were just as much fashioned after
his own imagination, as were the embellishments of the legends he related, and
the airs he composed for many old ballads which he and his boy sang to the
melody of the old droll-teller's crowd (fiddle). However, in all the farm
houses, where this old wanderer rested on his journey, he and his companions
received a hearty welcome, for the sake of his music and above all for his
stories, the substance of most of which every one knew by heart, yet they
liked to hear these old legends again and again, because he, or some of his
audience, had always something new to add, by way of fashioning out the droll,
or to display their inventive powers. # 84 - 100 WASHER AT THE FORD OR WASHER BY THE FORD
In both Irish and Scottish legend she is the otherworldly woman who
represents the dark aspect of the Goddess. The warrior who encounters her
washing bloody linen, may rightly suppose that his death on the battle-field
is not far off. Morgan as Modron appears in this connection in a
sixteenth-century folk-tale. CuChulain saw two maidens washing his bloody
garments on his way to his last battle. The Washer is also one of the guises
of the Morrigan. # 454 - 548 - 563 WASTE LAND According to Celtic tradition, the Waste Land was caused by brutal men who
violated the priestesses of the wells and springs, and stole their golden
cups. 'As a result the Land became barren; the trees withered and the waters
dried up.' The imagery of the Waste Land has been described as a landscape of
spiritual death, were myths are rigidly patterned by dogma instead of evolving
from the real needs and feelings of the people. 'And this blight of the soul
extends today from the cathedral close to the university campus.' Even though
the earth may retain her fertility and the waters may continue to flow,
something vital is lost when patriarchy becomes dominant and domineering. The Wasteland is often represented in the Grail cycle in the person of the
Loathly Lady, Cundrie or Sovereignty in her hag-aspect - the ravaged face of
the land before it shows again its fair face. In the Grail story, it was the
land laid waste by the Dolorous Blow at the Grail King. This sapped his
generative powers and severed the marriage bond which the king had with the
land, represented by Sovereignty. At the end of the Grail quest, when the
quester asked the right question, the Wounded King was healed and the Waste
Land flowered once again. In the ESTOIRE it is identified with Wales, while in
the DIDOT PERCEVAL it comprises the whole of Britain. According to LESTOIRE DE
MERLIN, it was ruled by Pellinore. See: GASTE FOREST. # 156 - 451 - 454 - 461
- 701 p 356 WATER Water sources were very important in Celtic religion. In some areas the
local Goddess of springs was named Coventina, (She of the Covens), appearing
in the typically Celtic trinitarian form of three persons in one. Especially
revered in Britain were the waters of the Goddess Sulis at Bath, and the
spring and grove of the Goddess Arnemetia at Buxton, which used to be named
Aquae Arnemetia, (Waters of the Goddess of the Holy Grove). # 701 p 356
ff WATER-HORSE The Manx Water-horse Glashtin or Cobbyl Ushtey can take the form of a real
horse, except for its back-to-front hooves; it tempts people to mount it and
then careers off to the nearest water to drown its rider. The Gaelic Kelpie is
also a shape-shifter horse of the waters. # 161 WATKINS, ALFRED John Michell who have written several books, including some concerning the
Earth energies, gives a note about Alfred Watkins in the latters 1987 edition
of THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK, which we here bring in full: Anyone living in
Hereford during the early part of this century would have recognized Mr.
Alfred Watkins, the distinguished local merchant, amateur archaeologist,
inventor, photographer and naturalist, notorious in academic circles as the
author of a heretical work, THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK. Alfred Watkins was born in
Hereford in 1855. For several generations his family had farmed land in the
southern part of the county until about 1820, when his father moved to the
city and started up in business as a miller, corn dealer and brewer. On
leaving school, Alfred Watkins was employed by his father as outrider or
brewer's representative, a position which brought him into close contact with
the surrounding coutryside and its inhabitants. In this way he gained an
intimate knowledge of local topography and of the legends and customs embedded
in a way of life which had undergone little change in the course of centuries.
Watkins was an enthusiastic early photographer, the inventor of much
apparatus, including the pinhole camera and the Watkins exposure meter, which
he manufactured through his own company in Hereford. Examples are preserved in
the city's museum, together with a large collection of his photographic
plates, illustrating many aspects of the Herefordshire landscape and the
social order of the time. There also are kept the records of the Old Straight
Track Club, a society, now moribound, founded to promote interest in Watkin's
great archaeological discovery, the prehistoric 'ley' system of aligned
sites. In his Preface to THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK, Watkins wrote, "some four years
ago there stood revealed the original sighting pegs used by the earliest track
makers in marking out their travel ways." The revelation took place when
Watkins was 65 years old. Riding across the hills near Bredwardine in his
native county, he pulled up his horse to look out over the landscape below. At
that moment he became aware of a network of lines, standing out like glowing
wires all over the surface of the country, intersecting at the sites of
churches, old stones and other spots of traditional sanctity. The vision is
not recorded in THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK, but throughout his life Watkins
privately maintained that he had perceived the existence of the ley system in
a single flash ("Intuition then presents itself in fleeting glimpses or
snatches of absolute knowledge and these glimpses are thus the commencement of
'cosmic sight'. Martinus THE THIRD TESTAMENT, LIVETS BOG I, p 199 [edit.note])
and, for all his subsequent study, he added nothing to his conviction, save
only the realization of the particular significance of beacon hills as
terminal points in the alignments. Since Watkin's day our knowledge of
prehistoric life and civilization has expanded to an extent which may be
considered revolutionary. The implications of the work of Sir Norman Lockyer
and, recently, of Professor Thom, relating to the mathematical and
astronomical skill of the builders of Stonehenge and other stone circles, are
so fundamental, that our whole concept of society in Britain 4000 years ago
should now be altogether different from that which obtained at the time when
Watkins announced his discovery of leys. Fifty years ago the possibility of
accurately surveyed alignments set out across the landscape was considered
utterly remote, far beyond the capacity of the handful of painted savages who
peopled the imaginary prehistoric Britain of orthodox archaeology. Today we
know that stone and mound alignments were indeed set out over considerable
distances, often directed towards mountain peaks, cairns, and notches, just as
Watkins described. The expansion in antiquarian thought, now taking place, is due in no small
measure to the insight, scholarship and determination of a provincial
visionary, a true gnostic in that he preferred the evidence of his own senses
and the voice of his own intuition to the unsopported assertions of authority.
The publication in 1922 of Watkin's address to the Woolhope Club of Hereford,
EARLY BRITISH TRACKWAYS, followed in 1925 by THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK, provoked
a violent controversy, characterised on the part of Watkin's opponents by much
ill natured abuse. Yet for many others THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK awoke as it were
the memory of a half familiar truth. Watkins invites his readers to prove the
ley system for themselves both with map and ruler and through investigation in
the field. Few who take him at his word fail to benefit from the experiment.
Even those with no particular interest in antiquities and ancient history have
enjoyed THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK for the delightful account of a quest, which
led Watkins through many curious byways both in his native landscape and in
the realm of scholarship. The clear, modest style of THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK
has reminded some of Watkin's fellow countryman of the Welsh border, Parson
Kilvert, for both invoked the same GENIUS TERRAE BRITANNICAE from the red
Herefordshire earth that inspired their mystic predecessors, Traherne and
Henry Vaughan. There would be no poetry without heretics. John Michell, London
1970. See also LEY LINES. # 431 - 505 - 506 WAVE OF CLEENA See: TONN CLIODHNA. WAYLAND See: WITEGE. WEE FOLK, THE One of the Scottish and Irish euphemistic names for the fairies. We find it
in Allingham's poem THE FAIRIES: 'Wee folk, good folk, trooping all together'.
The Manx equivalent is THE LIL' FELLAS. # 100 WELL Wells throughout the British Isles were formerly sacred to the underground
Goddess Hel, and her Celtic counterparts Morgan and Brigit. Today we find
their names connected with wells throughout Britain. # 701 p
163 WELL OF KNOWLEDGE Equivalent is Connla's Well. The goddess Sinend, it was said, daughter of
Lodan son of Lir, went to a certain well named Connla's Well, which is under
the sea - i.e. in the Land of Youth in Fairyland. 'That is a well,' says the
bardic narrative, 'at which are the hazels of wisdom and inspirations, that
is, the hazels of the science of poetry, and in the same hour their fruit and
their blossom and their foliage break forth, and then fall upon the well in
the same shower, which raises upon the water a royal surge of purple.' #
562 WELLS, HOLY (IN WALES) In every corner of Wales one can find a holy well which according to local
belief is said to possess strange powers. Some of them are classed as healing
wells, others as cursing wells, and some even combine the powers of cursing
and healing. There are also wells that can make the poor rich, the unhappy
happy and the unlucky lucky. Parishes dedicated to the Virgin Mary generally
have a Ffynnon Fair (well of St Mary), the waters of which are supposed to be
purer than those of other wells. It has been suggested that the waters of the
Ffynnon Fair wells flow southwards and that this is the secret of their
purity. In order to obtain a successful cure at some of these healing wells it
was sometimes necessary to follow very elaborate instructions. For example at
one particular well, 'the patient must repair to the well after sunset and
wash himself in it; then having made an offering into it of fourpence he must
walk around it three times and thrice recite the Lord's prayer. If he is of
male sex he offers a cock, if a woman, a hen. The bird is conveyed in a
basket, first round the well, then round the church, when the rite of
repeating the Pater Noster is again performed. It is necessary that the
patient should afterwards enter the church, creep under the altar and, making
the Bible his pillow and the communion cloth his coverlet, there remain until
the break of day. Then having made a further offering of sixpence and leaving
the cock or hen as the case may be, he is at liberty to depart. Should the
bird die it is supposed that the disease has been transferred to it and the
man or woman consequently cured.' A well near Penrhos in North Wales was said
to cure cancer by cursing it. The sufferer was washed in the water, uttering
curses on the disease and also dropping pins around the well. This particalar
well was later drained by an unsympathetic farmer who had become fed up with
people trespassing and causing damage to his crops. Springs and wells in some areas were once believed to be guarded by dragons
and serpents, eels and strange fish and the killing or removal of these
guardians was followed by dire consequences, frequently taking the form of a
mysterious epidemic which swept away whole families. For the itch, and the stich, WELSH FAIRIES See: TYLWYTH TEG. WELSH MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE Both Tuatha De Danaan and the Fomoire have their counterparts in 'The Four
Branches of the Mabinogi'(# 738), which may be said to constitute a Welsh
'mythological cycle'. These tales are full of marvellous happenings and feats
of magic, but such is the storyteller's artistry that what is mysterious and
wonderful is accepted as naturally and immediately as the realistic dialogue
and the familiar setting. See: MABINOGION. # 548 - 738 WELSH, ORIGIN OF THE The origin of the Welsh were fugitives from a city named Troy. It began
with tribes living in ancient Persia who tamed some giant-birds called 'Rohs'
which were very destructive to human beings. Now they trained the wild birds
to attack only the kings warriors, so they no more would have to pay tribute.
The King of Persia was wroth beyond expression and called his magician for
help. The magician laid an enchantment on the 'Rohs', so that they turned into
fairies, which were doomed to live in mounds and cages and only surface once a
year. Now that the birds was no longer a danger to the Persian army, they made
such fearful havoc amongst the tribes, that these decided to leave the
country. They travelled and lived by robbery, until they built a city and
called it Troy, where they were besieged for a long time. Eventually the town
was taken after a great slaughter; but a number escaped with their wives and
children, and fled on to the Crimea, whence they were driven by the Russians,
so they marched away along the sea to Spain, and bearing up through France,
they stopped. Some wanted to go across the sea, and some stayed in the heart
of France: they were the Bretoons (Bretons). The others came on over in boats,
and landed in England, and they were the first people settled in Great
Britain: they were the Welsh. # 170 p 93 ff (P. H. Emerson,
Wales) WEREWOLF Certain Irish tribes claimed that their ancestors were wolves, and prayed
to wolves as their tribal totems for help and healing. # 701 p
282 WESTMER According to Lambeth Palace Library MS 84, this was the name of the
successor of Arviragus. In his reign Joseph of Arimathea died. #
156 WHEEL Celtic gods exhibited wheels in their hands. Altars and tomb stones were
decorated with wheels. One of the Celtic names for the Goddess, Arianrhod,
designated her the Goddess of the Silver Wheel (the stars), whose hub Castle,
Caer Sidi, hidden in the underground spiritland Annwn. # 701 p
16 WHITBY ABBEY It is said that at a particular time in summer, between ten and eleven in
the morning, sunbeams fall into the northern part of the choir of Whitby Abbey
in North Yorkshire - falling in such a way that those who stand on the western
side of the churchyard see, in one of the highest windows, the resemblance of
a woman dressed in a shroud. This sun-made spectre is said to be a
reappearrance of the Abbess Hilda in her shroud. One local historian, George
Franks, confirmed that he had in his possession a photograph taken by a Mr
Stonehouse 'of the exterior portion of the east end of the chancel, in which,
through the southern lancet of the top tier, the "ghost" is seen'. When the
photograph is examined under a lens, this object gives the exact appearance of
a human face peering out of the window. # 702 WHITE LADIES The use of 'White Ladies' for both ghosts and fairies is an indication of
close connection between fairies and the dead. Evans Wentz in THE FAIRY FAITH
IN CELTIC COUNTRIES, tracing the supernatural elements in the early Arthurian
MATTER OF BRITAIN legends, points out that 'Gwenhwyvar' or Guinevere
originally meant 'white phantom', which has the same meaning as the Irish
'Bean Fhionn', or White Lady of Lough Gur, who claims a human life every seven
years. Douglas Hyde, in his introduction to the Irish section of the same
book, speaks in passing of the White Ladies of raths and moats as direct
descendants of the Tuatha De Danann. # 100 - 711 WHITE MAY 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. #
100 WHITE STAG White stags feature in a number of Arthurian tales. It was said that
whoever hunted one down could kiss the loveliest girl in Arthur's court. One was chased by Sagremor in RIGOMER, while another was hunted in the
Forest of Adventure in EREC. Floriant pursued one which brought him to the
castle of his foster-mother, Morgan Le Fay and, in the DIDOT PERCEVAL,
Perceval cut off the head of a white stag. The white stag may originally have
featured in stories of a pagan, mythical nature and these tales may have some
connection with the Celtic stag cult. See: STAG. # 156 WIDIA See: WITEGE. WIFE OF BATH'S TALE, THE Chaucer's THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE is worthy of comment for two reasons.
First, it is an early and excellent example of the complaint of the departure
of the fairies after the manner of Corbet's 'Farewell, Rewards and Fairies'.
It seems that from the earliest times the fairies have always been leaving us,
and yet sometimes they never quite go. # 100 - 164 WIGALOIS A son of Gawain by his wife Florie, niece of King Joram. When Wigalois was
grown to manhood, he set off to look for his father who had left many years
before and had not been able to find his way back to Joram's realm. Wigalois
came to Arthur's castle at Cardueil. He was admitted to Arthur's court and
sent by Arthur to aid Queen Amene whose country - except for one castle - had
been taken over by an evil knight, Roaz. Wigalois accompanied the damsel
Nereja, Amene's emissary, and was guided by the spectral King Lar, Amene's
murdered husband. Wigalois fought Roaz in a nightlong combat. He then married
Larie, daughter of Lar and Amene. # 156 - 746 WIGHT A general Germanic word meaning 'being' or 'creature', but increasingly
applied to either good or bad spirits, until it came to have a supernatural
connotation. In late Saxon, 'unsele wiht' is 'uncanny creature', and in THE
CANTERBURY TALES Chaucer uses the word for dangerous spirits in 'I crouche
thee from elves and fro wightes' in 'The Miller's Tale'. Kirk talks of seeing
the fairies crowding in from all quarters 'like furious hardie wights'. It was
not a word objected to by the fairies, for in the fairy rhyme given by
Chambers we have: Gin ye ca' me seelie wicht I'll be your friend baith day and
nicht. Of course, they would not welcome the title of 'wicked wight' by which
the evil fairies of the Unseelie Court were designated. # 100 - 149 -
370 WILD HERDSMAN This archetypal character appears in the person of Custennin, in the story
of CULHWCH AND OLWEN, but he is best seen in THE LADY OF THE FOUNTAIN, where
he appears as the guardian of the beasts of the forest. He is a black giant
with a club, who beats upon the belly of a stag in order to call the beasts
together. Traces of this archetype are perceivable in the earlier texts about
Merlin, who is shown in the VITA MERLINI as riding on a stag. His function is
the guardian of the totemic forces inhabiting the land; as genius of the
primal forest and instructor in wisdom he presents a threatening but
enlightening challenge to the questor. #
242-272-439-454-632 WILD HUNT There are many Wild Hunts, for instance the Irish Hounds of Hell, the
Celtic Annwr, the Dogs of Hell who hunt the souls of the damned, the Dartmoor
pack of Hounds and the North of England Wisht Hounds who hunt high in the air
on wild nights; they presage death and are said to incarnate the souls of
unbaptized children. King Arthur was also said to ride with a pack, and one
tradition in England was that a small black dog could be left behind; it
covered and whined on a hearth and had to be kept and fed for a year unless
exorcized. It was sometimes led by Arthur at midday or on nights when the moon
was full. In England, the Wild Hunt was thought to have been seen in Devon and
Somerset. But everywhere the concept of the Wild Hunt was a spectral leader
and his men, usually accompanied by baying hounds, who ride through the air or
over the far hills. In Glamorganshire the hunt is led by Gwynn ap Nudd. In
southern England by Herne the hunter. The Aes Sidhe have a similar connotation
in Ireland. # 156 - 161 - 441 - 454 WILLOW The willow was sacred to the Goddess Arianrhod in Celtic tradition and was
called the letter S, SAILLE, in the tree alphabet. # 701 p
475 WINCHESTER This city was identified with Camelot. This may have been due to the
Winchester Round Table. q.v. # 156 WINEFRIDE GWENFREWI, SAINT Winefride was a niece of Beuno who lived in the sixth century and became
his disciple when he visited her family, and set up a church in the area of
north-east Wales where she lived. While he was there, a local chieftain, who
had long wanted to marry the girl, became so furious at her constant refusal
that one June day he slashed at her with his sword and cut off her head as she
sought refuge in the church that Beuno had built. In the middle of the twelfth
century, Robert of Shrewsbury wrote a life of Winefride in which he tells us
that immediately the evil deed was done the ground opened up to swallow her
murderer, while from the place where the girl's head fell a stream burst out
of the rock. Furthermore, Beuno restored her to life, setting her head back on
her shoulders, so that only a tiny scar remained. She lived for a further
fifteen years, having entered a nunnery at Gwytherin. She was the abess when
she died. # 678 WINLOGEE In the Arthurian bas-relief in Modena Cathedral, a woman seated on the
battlements with Mardoc. She may be identical with Guinevere. # 156 -
238 WISH HOUNDS Sometimes called Yell Hounds or Yeth Hounds. The spectral, headless hounds
of Dartmoor which sometimes meet also in the valley of Dewerstone. They also
run into Cornwall, hunting the demon Tregeagle. Their huntsman is presumably
the Devil, though the ghost of Sir Francis Drake was sometimes said to drive a
hearse into Plymouth, followed by a pack of headless hounds. Hunt also
suggests that Cheney's Hounds are Wish Hounds. Hunt, who gives a short account
of the Wish Hounds in POPULAR ROMANCES OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, suggests that
they are the same as the Devil's Dandy Dogs, but the Dandy Dogs have horns and
fiery saucer eyes, while the Wish Hounds are headless. # 100 -
331 WITCH HUNT Ireland never experienced the witch hunts that plagued England and the
continent, and there was never a witchfinder to equal the status of Matthew
Hopkins who carried on his reign of terror through the length and breadth of
England during the 1640's. There were however, certain people, mainly clerics
or those wise in the ways of the country people and the country lore, who took
it upon themselves to seek out those who practised the darker side of
witchcraft, and foremost amongst them was the priest men called Father Morand,
the Witchfinder. 'But what is witchcraft other than fallen and debased occult
methods of what were once great spiritual accomplishments.' John Foster Forbes
# 582 Vol. 3 p 167 WITCHES, WIZARDS AND CONJURERS IN WALES
Over the years there have been many characters in Wales who have been
accredited with having powers to do strange and amazing things. They could
apparently reveal the future, command spirits and compel thieves to restore
items they had stolen. Wizards and others who practised magical arts were
supposed to be able to summon spirits at will. But it would seem that some of
these magicians could not control the demons after summoning them. One old
witch at Cilycwm, named Peggy, found it most difficult to control the spirits
in her house and she apparently had to go out into a field and stand within a
circle of protection with a whip in her hand. Conjurers were generally
believed to possess books dealing with the black arts, which they studied most
carefully in order to control the spirits they raised. It was considered very
dangerous for anyone ignorant of the occult science to open such books as
demons or evil spirits could 'pop out of them'. Once they had escaped from the
book it was not always easy to get rid of such unearthly beings. Dr. Harries,
who lived at Cwrt y Cadno near Pumpsaint, was said to possess a particular
book which he kept chained and padlocked. They said that he was even afraid of
it himself for he only ventured to open it once every twelve months and always
in the presence of another wizard: a schoolmaster from Pencader who
occasionally visited him. On a certain day once a year they went out into the
woods near Cwrt y Cadno and, after drawing a circle around them, they opened
the chained book. Whenever this ceremony was performed it caused thunder and
lightning throughout the Vale of Cothi. Wizards were also believed to have the power to travel through the air.
With the aid of his magic book a wizard could summon a demon in the shape of a
horse and travel through the sky on its back. In Eastern countries there are
similar tales of magicians riding through the air, for example the tale of the
enchanted horse in the ARABIAN NIGHTS. Henry Harries, son of the doctor
mentioned above, was also a remarkable wizard. He was a medical man and an
astrologer to whom people came to seek advice, from all parts of Wales and the
English borders, particularly Herefordshire. He had a special way of dealing
with lunatics and could cure diseases, charm away pain, protect people from
witches and foretell future events. He claimed that if anyone told him the
hour that they were born, he could tell them the hour that they would die! He
also claimed to have a magic glass into which a man could look and see the
woman he was to marry. He could also identify thieves and persons who had an
'evil eye' by causing a horn to grow out of their foreheads! A woman from
Cardiganshire, whose daughter was ill and thought to have been bewitched, came
to Cwrt y Cadno to consult him. The wise man wrote some mystic words on a
piece of paper which he gave to her saying that if her daughter was not better
when she arrived home, to come and see him again. The woman went home with the
paper and to her amazement and relief she found the girl fully recovered.
Harries used to collect debts from his patients by sending them a standard
letter which contained the following warning: 'Unless the above amount is paid
before the...day of...next, adverse means will be resorted to for the
recovery.' In view of his reputation this must have had quite a frightening
effect on his debitors! Witches were once believed to have entered into a pact
with the Devil in order to obtain the power to do evil. It was thought that
they possessed some uncanny knowledge which they used to injure people,
especially those whom they hated. It was also believed that they could cause
thunder and lightning, travel on broomsticks through the air and even
transform themselves and others into animals, especially into horses. A story
was once told in Cardiganshire of two old women who sold themselves by giving
to Satan the bread of the Communion. They attended morning service at
Llanddewi Brefi Church and partook of the Holy Communion, but instead of
eating the sacred bread like other communicants they kept it in their mouths
and went out. Then they walked round the church nine times and at the ninth
circuit, the Devil came out of the church in the form of a frog, to whom they
gave the bread from their mouths. By doing this they sold themselves to Satan
and became witches. Apparently after this incident they were sometimes seen
swimming in the River Teifi in the form of hares! Giraldus Cambrensis in the
twelfth century wrote: 'It has also been a frequent complaint from old times
as well as in the present that certain hags in Wales as well as in Ireland and
Scotland changed themselves into the shape of hares, that sucking teats under
this counterfeit form they might stealthily rob other people's milk.' The superstitious people of those times thought up many ways of protecting
themselves from the evil magic of the local witches. Horseshoes nailed to the
door were believed to have the desired effect. It was also believed that
witches had a fear of mountain ash, so that a person who carried a branch of
PEN CERDIN was safe from their spells. In south Pembrokeshire people used to
carry a twig of mountain ash when going on a journey late at night. It would
be carried in the hand or held over the horse's head to protect both the
animal and rider against all evil. # 49 WITEGE WAYLAND WIELAND VOELUND # 156: Witege may be the name in Layamon of the maker of Arthur's hauberk,
Wygar or 'wizard'. If a personal name is intended, however, we may be dealing
here with a form of Widia, the son of the legendary smith, Wayland. Wayland,
together with his father Wade and his son Widia, was brought to Britain by the
Anglo-Saxons. Witege may be mentioned in Geoffrey's VITA MERLINI. # 454: What Wayland concern we know that he was the god of the smiths and
smith of the gods. He was credited with making many of the great magical
weapons and armour of the gods, including Excalibur. Like his prototype in
Greek and Roman mythology, he was always depicted as a lame man, having been
hamstrung by King Nidud, who stole one of his swords. Wayland exacted a
terrible revenge on this mortal, luring his children to an island, killing the
boy and raping the girl. Little now remains of his story, but he has assumed a
role of great importance in British mythology as something of a tutelary
spirit - not unlike Herne the hunter, another Anglo-Saxon deity. He is to be
found associated with a number of ancient sites, including Way land's Smithy
in Wiltshire. # 91 - 156 - 168 - 242 - 272 - 454 WIZARDS All wizards were not neccessarily bad, though they were exposed to the
temptations of power and tended rather to make use of it. Merlin is an example
of a good wizard, though he was admittedly unscrupulous in the affair of Uther
and Igraine, when he disguised Uther as the Duke of Tintagel, so that he begot
Arthur on Igraine in the very hour in which the real duke was killed in
battle. Merlin might almost count as a supernatural wizard, for he was the
child of an Incubus, who lay with a princess, and was therefore described as
'a child without a father'. He studied magic, however, under the famous
Magician Blaise of Brittany. Michael Scot, the famous Scottish wizard, owed
his introduction to magic, much as Finn had done, to having the first taste of
a magical fish of knowledge, in his case a 'White Snake' which he had been set
to watch as it cooked. He had burnt his fingers on it, and had put them to his
mouth, so having the first potent taste. Many widespread stories are attached
to Michael Scot. Some of them are to be found in WAIFS AND STRAYS OF CELTIC
TRADITION. Shape shifting, which was a native power to all the more
distinguised fairies, could be aquired by wizards, as several stories of boys
trained by wizards to transformation show. One is to be found in McKay's MORE
WEST HIGHLAND TALES VOL. I, 'The Wizard's Gillie', in which a boy is hired
from his father by a wizard and finally acquired as a permanent slave by
trickery. His father manages to find him. Every day he transforms himself into
a saleable form and is bought by the wizard, but so long as his father retains
the strap that led him he can return in his own shape. When the father, elated
by the large price paid, forgets to remove it, he is a prisoner. But he
manages to make his escape and is pursued. A transformation conflict ensues in
which the gillie finally outwits the wizard and destroys him. Powers of
indestructibility and of externalizing their souls, making them Separable
Souls, can also be acquired by mortal wizards. Thomas the Rhymer is an example
of the acquisition of supernatural knowledge by means of the fairies. He was
more fortunate than Merlin, for when he left Middle Earth he went into
Fairyland, while Merlin was spell-bound under a rock. Some wizards acquired
power over fairies, like the 'Master-Man' reported by Katherine Carey at her
trial in 1610. But whether this was a magician or a wizard may be left to
conjecture, since it was probably an illusion in any case. # 100 - 464 -
691 WODEN The chief god of the Anglo-Saxons who invaded Britain in Arthurian times.
As Anglo-Saxon dynasties claimed descent from him, it has been suggested he
was a leader who was later deified. Most commentators, however, echo J. Grimm
in saying that he was always mythical. The Norse called him Odin. See also:
ODIN. # 156 - 268 WOLF The wolf appears in a generally favourable light in Celtic and Irish myth.
An Irish tribe claimed descent from a wolf and Cormac, King of Ireland, was,
like Romulus and Remus, suckled by wolves and was always accompanied by them.
They frequently appear as helpful animals and have much in common with the dog
in Irish legend; both have affinities with Celtic deities, and heroes and
deities could manifest as wolves as well as horses, bulls or salmon. In Celtic
art Cernunnos, as Lord of Animals, is depicted as accompanied by a wolf, bear
and otter. # 161 WOMB A Druidic shrine still stands in Pembrokeshire, the Pentre Evan Cromlech,
called the finest in Britain. Once it formed a dark chamber where initiates
were placed for a number of days before ritual rebirth from 'Cerridwen's
Womb.' The holiest symbols of Paleolithic and Neolithic humanity were symbols
of the womb, source of life, primary fountainhead of every creative process.
The pre-Christian womb-shrine of Glastonbury was formerly called Caer Wydyr.
Its sacred well, running red with iron oxides, was thought to be the blood
flow from the Goddess' life-giving womb. Christian legend appropriated the
Glastonbury temple and called it the home for a while - of the Holy Grail. #
701 p 330 WOODWOSE The Wild Man of the Wood, sometimes also called Wooser or Ooser. In
medieval times they were thought to inhabit the wild woods which then covered
the land. They make frequent appearances in many forms of artwork from
medieval times onwards, and were often used in masques to portray rustic or
primitive folk. They were naked, clothed only in their hair. See: GREEN
KNIGHT, and WILD HERDSMAN, and JACK IN THE GREEN. # 100 -
454 WOODY ISLE, THE The ancient Ireland was covered with great forests and was called Inis na
bhFodhhhuidhe - the Woody Isle. # 582 Vol. 3 p 155 WORM The worms of Great Britain, and particularly the Celtic worms, seem to show
some influence from the Scandinavian worms or dragons, though these were
sometimes winged and fire-breathing. In general symbolism the worm represents
the earth, death, dissolution, cringing, cowardice and misery, but in earlier
times the term was also applied to the Serpent 'that great worm' or to
Dragons. In England there was the great Lambton Worm of Durham which ravaged
the country and could join together if cut in two, but the worms (dragons)
abound in British folklore from Scotland down to the South, and from East
Anglia to Ireland; many heroes have done battle with them. Kempe Owen rescued
his sister from being enchanted into the shape of a dragon. In Scotland the
worms are usually of the seas' depths, living in deep lochs and swallowing
victims. White Horse Hill in Wiltshire has a companion hill which is called
Dragon's Hill - it is a good example of a land feature supposedly caused by
the worm's frenzied writhing. # 100 - 161 - 454 - 717 WOUNDED KING The title sometimes given to the Grail King or Fisher King who received the
Dolorous Stroke through both thighs, robbing him of his kingly and generative
powers. This tradition stems from early Celtic custom which forbade the rule
of a blemished king, since this would reflect itself in the fertility of the
land, causing it to become a Waste Land. The king was believed to have a
contract with the land and was mystically married to Sovereignty. # 451 - 454
- 461 WREN Druids considered the wren 'supreme among all birds.' It was the sacred
bird of the Isle of Man, which used to be a shrine of the dead and the
dwelling-place of the Moon Goddess who cared for pagan souls. It was the Druid King of the Birds and auguries were drawn from its
chirping; in Celtic lore the wren is prophetic and the direction from which it
calls is highly significant. The bird was sacred to Taliesin. In Scotland it
was the Lady of Heaven's Hen and killing it was considered extremely unlucky;
but in England and France there was a Hunting of the Wren on St Stephen's Day,
26 December, a ceremony which rose from an ancient pre-Christian rite. Hunters
dressed ritually, killed a wren, hung it on a pole and took it in procession,
demanding money; they then buried it in the churchyard. It was associated with the underworld and these hunting rituals were
connected with the winter solstice and the death of vegetation. In Ireland it
was known as 'Fionn's doctor' and was hunted by the Wren Boys in much the same
ritual as in Britain and France on St Stephens Day. The bird was representing
the Sleeping Lord who, whether Cronos, Bran or Arthur must cede place, however
great his reign. # 161 - 225 - 454 - 701 p 412 WRNACH Culhwch had to obtain the sword of this giant as one of his tasks to earn
the hand of Olwen. Kay procured it by trickery and slew Wrnach. # 156 -
346 WYGAR In Layamon, the name of Arthur's hauberk (armoured tunic). The poet says
that it was made either by a wizard or by someone called Witege. If the latter
is the case, Witege may be identical with Widia, son of Wayland Smith in
Anglo-Saxon legend. See: WITEGE. # 156 -
697
Rheumatic and the gout,
If the devil
isn't in you
The Well will take it out!