A Brief History of the Celts (26 page)

The
Táin
is the longest and most powerful of all the Irish myths. It is a separate story from the
Táin Bó Fraoch
, which tells how the handsome warrior
Fraoch sets out to woo Findbhair, the beautiful daughter of Medb of Connacht. The other stories of the cycle are enlargements on themes occurring in the
Táin
, preparatory tales
leading up to the epic, romances that were added later to fulfil people’s desire to know the subsequent fortunes of the main characters, and, of course, a group of entirely independent tales
but with related characters.

The third group of tales is ‘The Cycle of the Kings’, and these might usefully be called legends, although there are many supernatural motifs in the stories. The stories relate to
semi-legendary kings, kings who undoubtedly had a real existence in remote Irish history but who had become the subject for romanticising so that we no longer know where reality ends and the
story-telling begins. For example, Niall Noíghiallach, Niall of the Nine Hostages, who is recorded as being high king from
AD
379 to 405, is regarded as the
progenitor of the Uí Néill dynasty, the kings of Ulaidh (Ulster). He is recorded as raiding Britain and Gaul during the time of Theodosius the Great and encountering the Roman general
Stilicho. The story of Niall is a typical case in which history and myth are combined in the minds of the storytellers. Symbolism is used to mark his birth; signs are given to point the way to his
being the lawful king; he survives attempts to destroy him by those seeking to evade the prophecy given by Flaithius (Royalty), obviously a goddess of sovereignty, that he will be the greatest high
king. Flaithius has appeared as an ugly hag, with black skin and green teeth, demanding that Niall and his companions have intercourse
with her. Only Niall does so whereupon
she turns into the beautiful goddess.

The fourth, and last, group of stories is ‘The Fenian Cycle’. These are the adventures of Fionn Mac Cumhail and the warriors of the Fianna, the élite bodyguard to the high
kings of Tara. The Fianna are said to have been founded in 300
BC
by Fiachadh and consisted of twenty-five battalions raised from Clan Bascna and Clan Morna. Fionn Mac
Cumhail (who has subsequently often appeared in Anglicised form as Finn mac Cool), son of Cumal, the ruler of Clan Bascna, becomes the leader of the Fianna during the time of the high king Cormac
Mac Art. The stories of Fionn and his Fianna are innumerable, covering his birth to his death. These stories were highly popular in late medieval Ireland and although the Irish had produced their
own native Arthurian saga, many tales of which are not translated into English, nor even acknowledged by ‘Arthurian scholars’, the stories of Fionn and the Fianna were not displaced as
the great hero tales of Ireland.

The Fenian Cycle is sometimes known as the Ossianic Cycle. The first bold synthesis of the eight major parts of the cycle into a cohesive whole appeared in the twelfth-century work
Acallamh
na Senórach
(
Colloquy of the Ancients
). Next to the
Táin Bó Cuailgne
it is one of the longest medieval compositions.

The oldest surviving sources of Irish mythology are the
Leabhar na hUidre
(
Book of the Dun Cow
), the
Leabhar Laignech
(
Book of Leinster
) and a book known only
by its Bodleian Library reference number – Rawlinson Manuscript B 502. The
Leabhar na hUidre
was compiled under the supervision of Mael Muire Mac Céilechair, who was killed by
marauders at the monastery of Clonmacnoise in 1106. The
Leabhar Laignech
(originally called the
Leabhar na Nuachongbála
, named after Noughaval in Co. Leix), was compiled by
Aed Mac Crimthainn, abbot of the monastery at
Tír-dá-Ghlas (Terryglass in Co. Tipperary). The Rawlinson Manuscript appears to have been compiled at
Clonmacnoise.

Professor Kuno Meyer, in his introduction to
Liadain and Curithir: A Love Story
(1900), listed 400 tales in manuscript, adding another hundred which had come to light since he compiled
his list. He thought a further fifty to one hundred tales could lie in libraries still undiscovered. He estimated that scholastic knowledge of Irish myth and legend was based on only 150 tales that
had been edited and annotated out of a total of 500–600. Eleanor Hull, in her introduction to
The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature
(1898), had made a similar estimation. Professor
Gearóid Mac Eoin more recently confirmed that the situation had not changed during this last century. It is incredible to think that what we know of this vibrant mythology is based on 150
stories while a further 450 remain unedited and untranslated.

The world of Irish mythology is remote from the classical world of Greek and Latin myth. Yet one is constantly surprised by the fact that Irish mythology seems to share a curious Mediterranean
warmth with its fellow Indo-European cultures. The brooding blackness that permeates Nordic myth is not there and, at times, it is difficult to realise that we are looking at a north-western
European culture. A happy spirit pervades the majority of tales, even the tragedies such as ‘The Fate of the Sons of Usna’ or ‘The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne’.
There is an eternal spirit of optimism. Death is never the conqueror and we are reminded, of course, that the Celts were one of the first cultures in Europe to evolve a doctrine of the immortality
of the soul.

The real parallels to Irish mythology, as Professor Myles Dillon has so clearly demonstrated in his lecture ‘Celt and Hindu’ and in more detail in
Celts and Aryans
(1975),
lie in Hindu mythology. And to say that a happy spirit pervades the Irish myths is not to say that evil is never encountered. Indeed, as in the real world, good and evil constantly rub shoulders
and the malevolent forms of the Fomorii, the gods and goddesses of darkness and death, are constantly hovering on the edge of the northern ocean.

In these stories both the deities and the humans (immortals and mortals) are no mere physical beauties with empty heads. Their intellectual attributes are equal to their physical capabilities.
They are subject to all the natural virtues and vices, and practise all seven deadly sins. Their world, both this one and the Otherworld, is one of rural happiness, a world in which they indulge in
all the pleasures of life in an idealised form: love of nature, art, games, feasting and heroic single combat.

The myths and legends of Ireland are also to be found in the Manx and Scottish Gaelic traditions for these languages did not begin to separate from their old Irish parent until the fifth and
sixth centuries, just as the British Celtic language diverged at the same time into Welsh, Cornish and Breton. In Welsh mythology, we can see themes that demonstrate that the Irish and Welsh have a
common source; we find echoes of a common Celtic mythological, religious and, perhaps, historical experience. Lugh Lamhfhada of Irish myth appears in the guise of Lleu Llaw Gyffes, Danu is
Dôn, Bíle is Beli, Nuada is Nudd and Fionn Mac Cumhail has a Welsh equivalent in Gwyn ap Nudd. The Brythonic forms of Celtic are thought to have diverged from the Goidelic form in
about the seventh century
BC
so it is fascinating to see the parallels. Nevertheless, the Welsh material is nowhere near as extensive or as old as the Irish tales and
sagas.

The earliest surviving Welsh mythological texts are from the fourteenth century
AD
. The tales are collectively known as
Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi
(
The Four
Branches of the Mabinogi
). The term ‘Mabinogi’ originally meant ‘a tale of youth’ and has since become simply ‘a tale’. The tales come from three major
textual sources: the
Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch
(
White Book of Rhydderch
, compiled
c
. 1300–1325); the
Llyfr
Coch Hergest
(
Red Book of Hergest
, compiled 1375–1425) and the Peniarth Manuscript (
c
. 1225–35). Scholars believe that the texts were copies from earlier manuscript sources.

There are twelve tales which comprise the Mabinogi: the stories of Pwyll, Branwen, Manawydan, Math, Culhwch and Olwen, The Dream of Macsen Wledig, Lludd and Lleufelys, The Dream of Rhonabwy,
Peredur, Owain, Geraint and Enid, and the story of Taliesin.

The story of Pwyll, lord of Dyfed, echoes the ‘Holy Grail’ theme for Pwyll adventures in Annwn, the Otherworld, and searches for a magic vessel. Bran and Branwen is a tale of love,
epic battles interwoven with a supernatural background. Bran is the son of Llyr, the Welsh equivalent of Lir, ruler of the Island of the Mighty, and brother of Manawydan, the equivalent of
Manannán. Bran’s sister Branwen marries Matholwch of Ireland and is ill treated by him. The Britons then go to war to punish Matholwch, a war in which only seven, if we include Bran,
Britons survive; these are Pryderi, Manawydan, Taliesin, Gluneu son of Taran (Taranis was the old Celtic god of thunder), Grudye and Heilyn. Bran himself is mortally wounded and asks his companions
to cut off his head, which remains alive until it is taken back to Britain.

Culhwch’s search for Olwen is thought to be one of the earliest surviving native Arthurian sagas while The Dream of Rhonabwy is regarded as a close second.

One of the most interesting stories is
Hanes Taliesin
. Taliesin was a poet who flourished in the Celtic north of Britain in the sixth century
AD
. He is mentioned
in the
Historia Britonum
and the fourteenth-century
Book of Taliesin
, a group of twelve poems which some believe to represent his authentic work.
Hanes Taliesin
is a
highly mythologically oriented tale which represents Taliesin as the child of a goddess, Ceridwen, who goes through a number of transmigrations (or reincarnations) before he reaches the state of
being Taliesin. One of his songs resembles the invocation of
Amairgen, the first Druid, on landing in Ireland and also bears a more than passing resemblance to a passage
from the Hindu
Bhagavadgita
. Sir Ifor Williams believed that
Hanes Taliesin
was developed in North Wales sometime during the ninth or tenth centuries but had its roots in Welsh
culture long before then. Certainly if Taliesin did live in the sixth century this would be so. Other poets identify him as the court poet to King Urien of Rheged (the north-western British Celtic
kingdom covering what is now Cumbria) and to his successor King Owain ab Urien. He certainly appears in other Welsh myths, such as the story of Bran and Branwen. His name is frequently coupled with
that of Merlin and given as an authority on prophecies.

Since the only complete Celtic mythological texts to survive are from the insular Celts, we do not know nearly as much about Continental or Gaulish Celtic mythology. Dr Miranda J. Green’s
Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legends
relies heavily on archaeology to develop her themes, including the names of gods and goddesses, albeit often in their Latin forms, which are found on
inscriptions throughout the Continent. Some fragments do seem identifiable with their insular counterparts. Mainly, however, the gods of Gaul can only be glimpsed through Roman eyes. Caesar, as we
have seen in our section on Celtic religion, was content simply to give Roman names to the gods – Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Minerva, Apollo and Dis Pater (Pluto). This unfortunate
interpretatio Romana
has merely confused their identification and functions.

No Greek or Latin writer has made clear the origin myths of the Celts on the Continent, though we may deduce these from a compendium of evidence and a comparison with Hindu mythology; we have
already discussed the similarity of themes based on the ‘divine waters’ of Danu.

In the fabulous and epic histories of Livy we can see some similarities with the insular Celtic stories. We must bear in mind that Livy was born in Patavium (Padua), between the
territories of the Veneti and the Cenomani Celts. He was therefore raised in Cisalpine Gaul, soon after the Roman conquest and settlement. It is entirely possible that his family were
among the early Romanised Celts. Camille Jullian has suggested, in his
Histoire de la Gaule
, that Livy’s histories, which are unlike the usual straightforward Roman accounts, were
influenced by Celtic oral epics he heard in his youth. We can point to a fascinating example.

In 348
BC
the Celts, apparently encouraged by the Latin cities which were trying to break free of Roman dominance, were threatening Rome again. The consul, Lucius Furius
Camillus, marched his legions 60 kilometres south of Rome into the modern area of Pontine. He was worried about meeting the Celts in open battle as the Romans were still smarting under previous
Celtic defeats.

We are told by Livy that during this campaign a Celt approached the Roman picket lines and announced himself by striking his spear on his shield. He was a champion of outstanding size and wore
armour. The Celt, according to Livy, employed an interpreter to issue a challenge for any Roman champion to come forth and meet him in single combat. A tribune named Marcus Valerius, then
twenty-three years old, sought permission from Camillus to answer the challenge. Livy then recounts a combat which has remarkable resonances with insular Celtic mythology.