CELTIC MYTHOLOGY (Illustrated Edition). T. W. Rolleston
HL 125 f.; Loth, i. 265; MacBain, CM ix. 66.
358. See Loth, i. 269; and Skene, i. 293.
359. Loth, i. 173 f.
360. Loth, ii. 256, 274.
361. Rh^ys, HL 606. Cf. the Breton fairies, the Korr and Korrigan.
362. Geoffrey, iii. 20.
363. Loth, i. 253-254; Skene, i. 293.
364. Guest, iii. 323.
365. Ibid. 325.
366. Loth, i. 253, ii. 297.
367. See p. 353, infra.; Skene, i. 532.
368. Anwyl, ZCP i. 293.
369. Guest, iii. 356 f.
370. Skene, i. 275, 296.
371. Ibid. i. 498, 500.
372. See p. 382, infra.
373. Mon. Hist. Brit. i. 698, ii.; Thomas, Revue de l'hist. des Religions, xxxviii. 339.
374. Skene, i. 263, 274-276, 278, 281-282, 286-287. His "chair" bestows immortal youth and freedom from sickness.
375. Skene, i. 264, 376 f., 309, 532. See p. 356, infra.
376. See pp. 350-1, infra. Fionn and Taliesin are examples of the Märchen formula of a hero expelled and brought back to honour, Nutt-Meyer, ii. 88.
377. Loth, i. 209, ii. 238; Skene, ii. 459.
378. Nennius, ch. 50, 79.
379. Anwyl, ZCP i. 293.
380. Geoffrey, viii. 9-xi. 3.
381. Nutt-Meyer, ii. 22 f.
382. See p. 381, infra.
383. Loth, ii. 232, 245.
384. Rh^ys, AL, 39 f. Others derive the name from arto-s, "bear." MacBain, 357.
385. Loth. ii. 247; Skene, ii. 459.
386. Geoffrey, vi. 17-19, vii. viii. 1, 10-12, 19. In a poem (Skene, i. 478), Myrddin is called "the man who speaks from the grave"—a conception familiar to the Celts, who thought of the dead as living on in the grave. See p. 340, infra.
387. Rh^ys, HL, 154 f., 158-159, 194.
388. Geoffrey, ix. 12, etc.
389. Skene, ii. 51.
390. Loth. i. 225; cf. p. 131, infra. From this description Elton supposes Kei to have been a god of fire.
391. Myv. Arch. i. 175; Loth, i. 269. Rh^ys, AL 59, thinks Merlin may have been Guinevere's ravisher.
392. Holder, i. 414.
393. Loth i. 250, 260 f., 280, ii. 215, 244.
394. Skene, i. 363, ii. 406; Myv. Arch. i. 78.
395. Hu Gadarn is mentioned in the Triads as a leader of the Cymry from the east and their teacher in ploughing. He divided them into clans, and invented music and song. The monster avanc was drawn by him from the lake which had burst and caused the flood (see p. 231, infra). Perhaps Hu is an old culture-god of some tribes, but the Triads referring to him are of late date (Loth, ii. 271, 289, 290-291, 298-299). For the ridiculous Neo-Druidic speculations based on Hu, see Davies, Celtic Researches and Mythology and Rites of the Druids.
Gurgiunt, son of Belinus, in Geoffrey, iii. 11, may be the French legendary Gargantua, perhaps an old god. See the works of Sébillot and Gaidoz on Gargantua.
396. Loth, i. 270.
397. Dio Cassius, lxii. 6.
398. Solinus, xxii. 10. See p. 2, supra.
399. Ptol. ii. 3. 2.
400. For all these see Holder, s.v.
The Cúchulainn Cycle
The events of the Cúchulainn cycle are supposed to date from the beginning of the Christian era—King Conchobar's death synchronising with the crucifixion. But