of the Celts 2 страница

The warriors of Ulster, led by their king Conchobar (Connor), were just at this time disabled for nine days by the curse of Macha (the pregnant Macha, apparently a former horse goddess, had been forced by the king on behalf of an unseemly boasting of her husband to run a race against the horses of the court, which she won, giving birth to twins. After that she died, cursing the men of Ulster to suffer in times of danger nine days the pains of a woman in labor).
So the great hero Cúchulainn, who was not born in Ulster, had to defend the country alone at a ford against the advancing warriors of Connacht. This Cúchulainn is a remarkable character and still serves as a role model in Ireland. His modern statue in the Post Office of Dublin commemorates the 1916 Easter Rising, in which the Irish Republic was declared.
Dechtire, the king's sister, gave birth to him after a mythical conception by the god Lugh. So he has a divine origin and amazed as a child by his actions. When he killed the dangerous watchdog of the smith Culann, he offered to repair the damage by taking over its function for a year. Since that time, he, originally named Setanta, was called Cúchulainn, the dog of Culann. As he grew up, he learned the martial arts with the warrior-women Scathach and Aife, who lived on island fortresses. From Aife he had a son, Conle, but he unintentionally killed him in a duel, not knowing, who he was, because Conle was told by his mother never to reveal his origin and his name. Typical of Cúchulainn was his martial ecstasy, in which his face contorted, his body glowed and his three colored hair (black, red and gold) rose like a fiery mountain. His battle at the ford against the heroes of Connacht includes the tragic episode in which he must fight against his friend and foster-brother Ferdiad, who happens to be on the other side. They fight three days, in the evenings they send each other the best doctors and the best food, but eventually Ferdiad is mortally wounded, and Cúchulainn falls into deep mourning. As the warriors of Ulster at last woke up from their curse, they gave a victorious battle against the enemies. The army of Connacht retreated, but was able to take the prey, the mythical bull, with them. When the two bulls, the white one from Connacht and the brown one from Ulster, met, there ensued a murderous battle, during which both were killed.

In the Táin bó Cuailnge there are many interesting side stories. Most of them naturally refer to Cúchulainn, like "The wooing of Emer", in which he eventually wins her for his wife after many difficulties, or his love story with Fand, a woman from the Otherworld. But there are many others, and of those I would like to mention two of the most well-known. One is "The Feast of Briccriu". Briccriu is a kind of vicious tongue and troublemaker and provokes a competition among the heroes of Ulster to prove which of them is the greatest and was entitled to get the heroes-portion at his feast. He even incites the women of the heroes against each other, which one of them has a right to the best place at the table. Finally, the top three heroes, Cúchulainn, Conall Cernach and Loegaire, accept the award of the mysterious Cúroí Mac Dáire of Munster, whose name means royal dog, son of oak. He seems to be a sort of king of the Otherworld and subjugates them to a trial. He appears as a huge, hulking figure and asks the heroes to cut off his head with an ax, in turn he should have the same right towards them. All three do it, after which he takes his decapitated head under his arm and disappears. When it comes to revenge, the other two heroes shirk, only Cúchulainn offers his neck to the ax. Cúroí of course does not hit him and declares Cúchulainn the greatest hero of Ulster.

The other story, which should be mentioned, has almost the dimension of a Greek tragedy and is called "The Exile of the Sons of Uisneach". For the beautiful Deirdre was predicted that she would bring much misfortune upon her people. Therefore she is brought up in seclusion with the wise woman Leborcham to become the wife of King Conchobar, who believes he can cope with this prophecy. However, she fell in love with the beautiful young Naoise and instigates him by magical spells and the threat to bring shame on him to abandon his loyalty to the king and to flee with her to Scotland, accompanied by his two brothers. The King lures them back to Ireland with the promise, to forgive them and to renounce revenge. But he breaks his promise and murders Naoise and his brothers, which causes Deirdre to take her own life. The great hero of the royal court of Ulster, Fergus is so outraged by this betrayal that he is leaving Ulster and joins the court of Queen Medhbh of Connacht, whose lover he becomes.

Another prequel of the Táin bó Cuailnge is about the adventures of Nera. Nera, a warrior of Connacht, is induced to a test of courage at Samhain, November first, the day on which the Celtic New Year begins and the gates to the Otherworld are open. He should attach a ring on the corpse of a hanged man. As Nera tries to fulfil the task, the dead one starts to talk to him, advises him, how he should proceed, and asks Nera eventually to bring him to a house where he can drink, for he was hanged thirsty. Nera loads the ghost on his back and discovers after a long search such a possibility. As a reward the ghost leads him into a fairy mound, where Nera learns, that the court of Ailill and Medhbh is about to be attacked and burned down by its inhabitants. He stays three days and three nights, marries a woman from the fairy world, and then returns to warn Ailill and Medhbh, where he finds out, that he was only gone for a few moments. They are able to avert the danger of a raid on behalf of the fairy-people, just after Nera could bring his wife into safety. Later on they return back into the fairymound which has already become his home.

Situated between the Táin bó Cuailnge and the Historical Cycle is the story from "Mac Da Thó's Pig" from the Book of Leinster. Mac Da Thó was a legendary king of Leinster, who looks more like a king of the Otherworld. He has a dangerous fighting dog, somehow reminiscent of Pluto, the Greek guardian of the underworld, which both Medhbh, the Queen of Connacht, and Conchobar, the king of Ulster, seek to acquire. He avoides the offers in order not to make an enemy of any of the parties, which he eventually invites both on the advice of his wife to a great feast in his hall, at which he serves a very special, huge, seven years with the milk of sixty cows nourished roasted pig. Naturally the competition for the heroes-portion, the best piece of the roast which is due to the greatest hero, incites a dispute between the warriors of Ulster and Connacht, which developes into a fight. At the height of turmoil Mac Da Thó lets his dog free, which disappears at a rapid pace, both parties in eager pursuit after him, making Mac Da Thó's problem disappear. In the ensuing turmoil of the hunt the dog threatens the chariot of King Ailill, whereupon the charioteer chops off his head. This story is actually a prequel to the history of Briccrius feast, which has already been told. Here the topic of the contest to find out, who is the greatest hero, is developed further.

Now the great southern Irish cycle should be presented, the legends about the King Fionn Mac Cumhaill and his Fianna, a band of knights who may have served as a model for King Arthur and his Round Table. The Fianna were a standing army of great warriors and heroes, in which one was accepted only after difficult trials. They fought for justice and the protection of the weak and were engaged in this sense by the other kings and noble courts. Descending from the line of the kings of Leinster, Fionn's youth is overshadowed by a feud against the Clan Mac Morna. He is reared in secrecy and seclusion by wise women. After that he is educated by the poet and seer Fionneices, who has caught the magic salmon of wisdom, fed by the hazelnuts in the sources of the River Boyne, and now wants to incorporate this wisdom. Fionn is instructed to cook the salmon, but in no case to eat of it. As the squirting fat scorched the thumb of the boy, he automatically puts it in his mouth and the whole wisdom of the fish passes over to him, and he becomes a seer and a sage himself. According to another version, he wanted to intrude with his companions into a fairy mound, whose door was closed quickly by magic and squeezed his thumb. As he put it in his mouth, all of a sudden he was clear-sighted and wise. Both versions could rely on ancient shamanic traditions, which were used in divination and fortune telling. Later he protected the royal court of Tara, which was in danger each Samhain, the feast at the beginning of the First November, to be burned down by Allen Mac Midna, a kind of fire demon, whom he killed. With this he won back the leadership of the Fianna, to which his family originally was entitled, but which in the meantime was transferred to Goll Mac Morna. He then served the high kings of Tara, particularly Cormac Mac Airt, and was often more powerful than they. Fionn had a very strong mythical connection with the stag. His original name, Demne, means "small deer", the name of his son, Oisín, "fawn", and his grandson Oscar is the "deer- loving". This Oisín, who could be found later in the works of the Scottish poet Mac Pherson as “Ossian”, who also inspired Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, has an interesting history. His mother was Sadhbh, who was, when she was already pregnant, kidnapped by a magician and transformed into a doe. Fionn cannot save her, but in the search for her he finds his newly born son Oisín, whom he takes with him and educates him to the heroic, righteous fighter of the Fianna. Later, Oisín is taken by his beloved Niamh, a fairy, to the Otherworld. When he returns through longing for home, already three hundred years have passed. He must not touch the ground in Ireland, but in trying to help men to lift a heavy stone, he slips off his horse, touches the earth and becomes rapidly a very old man. St. Patrick takes him up, christens him and writes down all the stories he tells him about the Fianna.
Another very well-known legend from the Fionn cycle is the story of the escape of Diarmuid and Gráinne. Gráinne, daughter of the High King, is to be married to the already aged Fionn. But at the wedding party she serves a sleeping-draught and induces by her magically formulated threats - like Deirdre - the young beautiful Diarmuid, to throw his loyalty to Fionn and the Fianna overboard and to flee with her. Fionn is chasing them through the whole of Ireland, and even today many dolmens are referred to as "the beds of Diarmuid and Gráinne". Finally, the love-god Aengus is able to dissuade the king form his vengeance after a game of chess with Fionn for Diarmuid's life, during which the two lovers hide in the treetop above them. Diarmuid and Gráinne get married, spend their life on Diarmuid's properties and have many children.
When, after many years, Diarmuid gets mortally wounded in the hunt for a magical boar, actually his totem animal that he should not hunt, he might only be saved by Fionn through the draught of a particular spring of his own hands. Fionn spills the water twice, the third time it is already too late, and Diarmuid dies.

Now I would like to mention briefly some of the main stories of the early kings. One of great importance was Conn Cetchathach - Conn of the hundred battles - said to have lived 122-157 AD. From him is reported that the stone of destiny at Tara screamed when he touched it with his foot. In the now spreading magical mist he is led to a palace next to a golden tree, in which a beautiful young woman with a golden crown sits on a crystal throne. She represents the country of Ireland and thus the royalty. Next to her on another throne is seated the golden radiant god Lugh. The goddess offers him the "drink of sovereignty" in a golden cup and Lugh recites his fifty successors on the throne. In another story, he enters the otherworld to free Tara from the curse of an unlawful queen, which he is able to bring about with the help of the innocent son of a king and a queen from the Otherworld, whose sacrifice is replaced by his parents through a cow.

A more tragic fate has Conaire Mór, Conaire the Great, who was said to be the son of Conn. He is the main character in the saga of the "Destruction of Da Dergas hostel", which is a kind of house of the god of the dead. Destiny forces Conaire to break his protective taboos - in Irish geis, majority gessa -, for example, that he should not kill birds, because one of his ancestors was a god in the shape of a bird. On the way to the hostel he encounters various ominous figures like three red knights dressed in red garments on red horses - red is the colour of death among the Celts - who ride ahead of him. An incredibly ugly woman and a man with a pig on the back urge themselves into the hostel besides him, and the war-witch Badhbh prophesies harm to him. The hostel is attacked by Conaires stepbrothers who have allied themselves with pirates. He is able to defend the house alone all night against them, but a hostile druid caused such an enormous thirst in him, that he eventually dies from it.

Cormac Mac Airt, for whom a lifetime of 227-266 AD is handed down to us, is supposed to have been Conn's grandson. He is definitely designated as high king of Tara and led an outstandingly fair and wise regime, under which the tribes of Ireland lived together peacefully. He is said to have introduced a very just system of laws for Ireland, designed by him, and to have founded the first university. To him is also attributed the authorship of the “Manual for princes”, many good and wise advices, that he should have collected for his son. Despite the quite strong historical references he has also gathered many mythical attributes around him. After his birth, which took place during a storm in the open air, he was nourished by a she-wolf, whose family accompanied him during his entire life. Quite early he showed his remarkable awareness of justice. He also is said to have founded the first water-powered mill. A warrior from the Otherworld offers him a magical golden apple-branch in exchange for three wishes. When it comes to the fulfillment of these wishes he kidnaps Cormac's wife, his son and his daughter and takes them with him to the Otherworld. But Cormac follows them through the magical mist, he finds the source of truth and meets in a palace Manannan Mac Lir, god of the sea, who not only returns his family back to him, but also gives to him a golden cup, which will break in four parts if four lies are said and will be whole again by four truths. King Cormac is said to have had a very positive attitude towards Christianity and to have been buried in a Christian cemetery after he suffocated after a druidic curse on a fishbone.

One king I would still like to mention, namely Niall Noigiallach, Niall of the Nine Hostages, who is regarded as the father of the dynasty of the Ó Neill, which provided for the High Kings of Tara up to the 10th century. He was said to be the son of King Eochaid Mugmedon and a beautiful slave-girl. When he was traveling with his four stepbrothers, they wanted to fetch water from a source. But this was guarded by an old, extremely ugly woman who was willing only to grant access to the water after her demands for love had been fulfilled by the thirsty young men. The step-brothers refused solely, only Niall was willing to respond to this demands. When he hugs her, she turns into a beautiful young woman who embodies the country Ireland, and confers the royal dignity to him.

There would be much more worth mentioning, but here should only be offered a short and concise survey.
For more information, please refer to the reference list.

MYTHOLOGY OF THE CELTS
PART TWO
The Britannic-Welsh-Breton myths

The myths of Wales, the former Celtic Britain and Brittany, which now belongs to France, are characterised by a large, well-known main theme: The cycle of legends of King Arthur (Arthur), the Round Table and the Grail. But there are also many other interesting stories, that should be mentioned.

But to understand the relationships a bit, the historical preconditions have to be explained. These myths probably originated from a single source, namely the imagination of the Celtic peoples, who inhabited the major part of the British Isles way up to Scotland and Ireland, as well as Brittany and the adjacent areas. In these regions, the Romanization was not as effective as in Gaul, so that a stronger cohesion remained.

The great crisis came with the invasion of the Germanic Angles and Saxons in South and East-Britain and the simultaneous disintegration and retreat of the Roman military power, which could now offer no longer protection to the flourishing civilization there. In this defensive struggle of the Romanized Celts against the barbarians there emerges now the partly historical partly mythical figure of Arthur or Artus, the royal leader of a number of a company of specially chosen courtiers and knights, who in the fifth or sixth century was able to push back the conquest of the Angles and Saxons with his army for almost a hundred years. That was sufficient to save a large part of this Celtic culture from destruction despite of the war-torn, terrible situation and the threat of extinction of their civilization. Many Celts retreated to the mountains of Wales and were able to successfully defend themselves there against the enemies. They formed the basis for the emergence of the nation and the culture of the Welsh during the next few centuries.

Another part of the people sought their safety in fleeing to their relatives and members of their kin in Brittany. There they enhanced and enriched enormously the native tradition with their own, yet very lively traditions and the tales of the exploits of King Arthur and his heroic struggle against the usurpers and eventually promoted the development of the Breton nation. The Celts, who remained in the country, retreated to the peripheral regions, such as Cornwall, and still retained much of their autonomy. In the rest of the country eventually a certain mingling with the invaders took place, so a lot of the local culture was transferred to them.

To the historical Arthur or Artus were now attributed a lot of myths, stories and features of other mythical heroes and gods. He served as a focal point for the development of myths and gained through this an almost divine position and supernatural aura. For the origin of the name itself - Arthur in the older works, Artus in the later - there are two theories. One says that it is derived from the name of a Roman family, Artorius, which would coincide with the remarks in some of the older sources, that his family had worn the purple, which means, they were related to one of the families of the Roman emperors. The second theory believes, the origin of the name lies in a Celtic word, art, which means bear.

But before I now turn to the myths themselves, I would like to give a brief overview about the ancient material, which had been handed down to us.

First of all I want to mention the great Welsh collection of myths, known as the Mabinogi, which translates as "deeds of the youths". The actual title of the manuscript collection, in which it is contained, is "The White Book of Rhydderch," which was collected about 1300-1325 AD., but its content is likely to be for the most part several centuries older, concerning the spelling and the character of writing. Unfortunately, in transcribing many errors and inaccuracies happened, which is not always conducive to the understanding and the clarity of the plot. Many of these stories are also included in the second collection of myths, the "Red Book of Hergest", which was compiled in 1375-1425. In both collections is also a large part of the manuscripts of the Welsh Triads included, in which special events, personalities and locations were combined in groups of three, which was used for the training of the bards, but a lot of older material we find as well in the "Black Book of Carmarthen", which was written down in 1180-1220, and in the "Book of Taliesin", which is dated to approximately 1275.

The four main stories are called the "Four Branches of the Mabinogi". They have a connection and a consistent style and seem to have been written by the same author. The first tells about King Pwyll of Dyfed and his contacts with Arawn, king of Annwn, the Otherworld, from where he later on wins his wife Rhiannon, and of the dangers, which occur at the birth of his son Pryderi. The second, Branwen, depicts a war between Wales and Ireland, where a magical cauldron, that brings the dead warriors back to life, plays a major role, the death of the great, divine king Bran and the suffering of his sister Branwen. The main theme of the third branch are the adventures of Bran's brother Manawyddan and Pwyll's son Pryderi, who is taken prisoner of the Otherworld together with his mother, Rhiannon, and the fourth branch deals with the family of Don, which has probably once been a goddess, including her brother, the magician-king Math, and her son Gwydion and daughter Aranrhod, who are entangled in a bitter competition concerning their magic. The remaining seven stories of the Mabinogi seem to be very distinct in style and also of different age: "The Dream of Macsen" is pseudo-historical and inspired by the Roman era, "Llydd and Llevelys" describes the removal of demonic plagues by magic. In "Kulhwch and Olwen", which is very archaic, the hero Kulhwch wins the beautiful daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Penkawr with the help of the knights of King Arthur, in the "dream of Rhonabwy" we also find King Arthur taking part in a game of chess against Owain and his ravens. "Peredur" also seems very archaic and is a version of the Perceval story, which may have developed from an early original. The two stories "The Lady of the Fountain" or "Owain" and "Gereint and Enid" also belong to the circle of the Arthurian myths.

About Arthur and especially the wise Merlin and his predecessor Myrddhin we can find more in the “Black Book of Carmarthen”, a Welsh manuscript-collection dating from the 13th century. It contains the poems, which are attributed to Myrrdhin about the unfortunate outcome of the battle of Arderydd, and the "Book of Aneirin" with the "Gododdin", the report on the terrible battle of Cathraeth, in which the Britannic armies were defeated by the Saxons. Another important source is the "Book of Taliesin", in which the famous "Battle of the trees," the "Cat Goddeu", and the myth of the miraculous birth of Taliesin, the historical bard at the 6^th century court of King Urien of Rheged and his son Owain, can be found. The historian Nennius from the 9th century tells in his "Historia Brittonum" the story of Merlin's life, but calls him Ambrosius. He also mentions Arthur of Britain as "dux bellorum", leader of battles, who won great victories in the defensive struggle against the Saxons in the 6th century. Incorporated into the myth of Merlin is also the story of the Scottish bard Lailoken, part of the Vita of St. Kentigern, who went mad from grief over the terrible consequences of the Battle of Arderydd and fled into the woods.

The resulting works in England and France about King Arthur, Merlin, Perceval and the Grail overlap in many cases, and that has a historical reason: When the Normans in the 11th century AD conquered England a part of the army they led consisted of Breton knights and foot soldiers. They were still very much aware of the escape of their ancestors from Britain a little more than 400 years ago, and they brought the old myths and stories about the exploits of King Arthur and Perceval back into the country from which they originally came. When they met there the descendants of their Celtic predecessors and found the same tradition with very similar stories, it led to a kind of feedback and intensification of this tradition, which triggered a boom in literary works, which not only affected England and Wales, but also the troubadour poetry of France, and from there it influenced all the courts of Europe. The consequences were numerous successive literary works, even in German language, and quite unusual works of art such as the relief above the portal of the cathedral at Modena, which shows Arthur and Gawain before the castle of Mardoc.

One of the first, who combined the various versions of the tradition into a single compilation, was Geoffrey of Monmouth with his "Vita Merlini" (Life of Merlin) and his "Historia regnum Britanniae" (History of the Kings of Britain) in 1136. Though he represents it as a serious historical work, facts, myths, ancient spiritual texts and poetry are woven together into a picturesque unit. He is also the first to offer a coherent description of the life of Merlin and Arthur, and thus creates a foundation for the plots of the following literary creations. The Norman poet Wace uses in his "Brut" (Brutus) Geoffrey's idea of a classical origin of the Britannic kings of the early days from the heroes of Troy. In the 12th century a lot of literary works emerged in France, inspired by the troubadour poetry. Chretien de Troyes in his by Gerbert de Montreuil and Manessier completed "Perceval" presents a detailed and symbolic image of the Grail quest, based primarily on the experiences of Perceval and Gawain, and in his "Chevalier de la Charette" a touching portrayal of Lancelot's love to Guinevere and his adventures, which made him a candidate for the Grail quest as well. After that emerge the prose poetry of the "Didot Perceval", the novel "Perlesvaus" from northern France, translated into English by Sebastian Evans in "The high history of the Holy Grail" and the Vulgate cycle in four parts, namely the "Estoire de Saint Graal, "" Merlin, "" Lancelot "and the" Queste de Saint Graal”. In the13th century followed “Mort Artu ", "The Death of King Arthur", and several others, even in England, such as the 14th century poetry "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". The Vulgate Cycle was the model for the great work "The Book of King Arthur" by Thomas Malory in the 15th century.

All these poems deal with the issue - in spite of the Christian religious framework - from a rather Celtic point of view. The mythological background, such as the four sacred objects, the cauldron of rebirth and inspiration, which became the grail, the burning lance, the sword of light and the stone of destiny, as well as remnants of the myths around the goddess of the land and the two kings or knights, competing for her, originally the winter and the summer king, are still clearly recognizable. Even in the most famous German paraphrase by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the 13th century they can still be discerned, albeit very mixed with the current events of the time, the trips of the crusaders to the Holy Land and the political development in the Middle-Ages.

A different trait exhibits the mainly Christian motivated successive literature, the "Joseph of Arimathea" and "Merlin" by Robert de Boron at the beginning of the 13th century and the first part of the Vulgate Cycle, the "Estoire de Saint Graal", which transfers the origin of two of the sacred objects, namely the Grail and the lance, to Palestine and connect them to Jesus Christ, from where they should have been brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, who is said to have introduced Christianity there. There are still many works, that would deserve to be mentioned, but now I should proceed to the contents of these myths.

First I would like to deal with the Mabinogi.
In the story of the first branch Pwyll, king of Dyfed in South Wales, meets during a hunting party for a stag Arawn, the king of the otherworld. Pwyll claimes a deer, to which Arawn actually would have been entitled to. As compensation he promises a service. He changes shape with him and defeats for him his adversary Hafgan, after he has steadfastly withstood the seductive forces of the beautiful wife of the Otherworld king. After that he encounters on the mountain of Arberth, which is said to be in connection with the Otherworld, a beautiful, golden-clad woman on a white horse, with whom he cannot catch up. Only when he addresses the Otherworldly beauty, Rhiannon stops and confesses her love for him. Pwyll asks her to be his wife, but she is kidnapped by Gwawl, her fiancé from the Otherworld. Pwyll succeeds only by a ruse in which he disguises as a beggar and induces Gwawl to tread into a magic bag borrowed by Rhiannon, in which he is caught. Rhiannon becomes his queen. When she gives birth to a son, the baby is kidnapped by the powers of the Otherworld. The nurses, who are afraid to be punished, accuse Rhiannon of having killed her child. The judges want to condemn her to death, which Pwyll can prevent, because she is a queen and of special origin. So she is sentenced to the atonement to carry all visitors to the royal castle like a horse on her back from the front gate to the audience hall. This shows a very archaic background, namely the relationship of Rhiannon to the old Celtic horse goddess Epona, already mentioned by the Romans. Her name could also be derived from the Celtic goddess Rigantona, which means "Great Queen". The further development of the story corroborates the close relationship with horses. Each time the newborn foal of the mare of Teyrnon, the kings vassal, is stolen. One night he lies in wait with his sword, and as a giant hand reaches through the stable-window, he strikes. The hand disappears and leaves behind a baby, clad in precious cloths. He brings up the extremely talented boy, but soon realizes that it must be the son of the queen. He takes him back to the court and Rhiannon is rehabilitated.

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