Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/333

Rh CELTIC LITERATURE 321 whatever may be their real age, are also the subjects of prose tales. In the poems, as a rule, if there be any definite picture of the actors, they appear as men, and there is very little necromancy surrounding them ; the prose tales, on the other hand, are full of marvels and magical trans formations. In the older prose tales there is a certain unity in the personages and events ; gradually two or more -streams of romance mingle, as in MacPherson s Ossian. The Welsh prose tales all belong to South Wales ; the poems, on the other hand, belong to a large extent to North Wales. The prose tales which still exist are few in number, and are evidently only a small part of those which were once current. The reason of the small number of prose tales preserved, as compared with the very large number of poems, is doubtless to be explained by the fact that the poets were a privileged class, who formed part of the households of the lords; while the prose tales were chiefly told by the strolling minstrels, against whom, and not against the bards properly so called, so many severe enactments were made. The privileged bards despised the tales of the story-teller, and hence, unfortunately for the history of romance and of comparative mythology, so few have been preserved. In the Red Book there are eleven prose tales, which have been published by Lady Charlotte Guest, together with the Hanes Taliessin, of which we have spoken above, under the name of Mabinogion, though that name is applied iu the Red Book to four only. We may classify them thus according to their origin. I. Roman-British (1) The Contention of LI add and Llevelys; (2) The Dream of Maxen Wledic. II. Irish Romances (3) The Tale of Pwyll, Prince of Dijved ; (4) Branu en, daughter of Llyr ; (5) Manawyddan, the son of Llyr ; (G) Math, son of Mathonwy. III. Arthurian Romances (7) The Lady of the Fountain ; (S) Peredur, son of Evrawc ; (9) Geraint, son of Erbin. IV. Mixed Romances (10) The Story of Kilhwch and 01 wen ; (11) The Dream of Rhonabivy. To the category of mixed romances may also be added, as a third kind, the story of the St Graal contained in a Hengwrt manuscript. The first story relates to Lludd, son of Bell the great, son of Manogan, who became king after his father s death, while his brother Llevelys becomes king of France, and shows his brother how to get rid of the three plagues which devastated Britain : first a strange race, the Coranians, whose knowledge was so great that they heard everything, no matter how low soever it might be spoken; second, a shriek which came into every house on May eve, caused by the fighting of two dragons ; and third, a great giant, who earned off all the provisions in the king s palace every day. The second relates how Maxen or Maximus, emperor of Rome, has a dream while hunting, in which he imagines that he visits Britain, and sees a beautiful damsel, Helen, whom he ultimately succeeds in finding and marrying. The personages of this tale are mentioned in the earliest form of the Brut Gruff yd ab Arthur, but the account is different. Both tales seem to be British, and to be trace able to Roman times. We have called the second group Irish romances, not only because the action in some of them is placed occa sionally in Ireland, and some of the actors are distinctly stated to have been Irishmen, but because they are un mistakably relics of the period of the occupation of the coast of Wales by the Gwyddd or Irish. The group of four romances form a cycle of legends, and are the only ones called Mabinogion in the manuscript from which they have been taken. In the first tale the principal characters are Pwyll. prince of Dyfed, and Arawn, king of Annwn or Annwyvn; in the second Bran and Manawyddan the sons, and Bran- wen the daughter, of Llyr, and Matholwch, king of Ireland ; in the third Manaivyddan, son of Llyr, and Pryderi, sou of Pwijll ; and in the fourth, Math, son of Mathonwy, king of Arvoii and Mona, Givydyon ap Don and Arianrod his sister, and Lleio Llaw Gyffes and Dylan eil Ton, the sons of Arianrod. These personages are mentioned in several of the poems attributed to Taliessin, in whose reputed works curiously enough the relics of the ancient mythology are chiefly found. Among these poems we may mention the following, some of which are in the Book of Taliessin, while others arenot : Kadcir Kerrit2ten,or:the Chair of Ceridwen, the Spoils of Annwn; the Kat Godeu, the Battle of Godeu; Murwnat eil Ton, the Death Song of Dylan, son of the wave; J)aronwy; Angar Cyfindaivd; the story of Llyr ab Broclticel Pou ys ; in other words, all the so-called mythological poems. In these tales and poems we have undoubtedly the relics of the ancient Irish mythology of the Tuatha l)e Danann, sometimes mixed with later Arthurian myths. The Caer Sidi is the Sid of Irish mythology, the residence of the gods of the Acs Side. The seven other Caers or resid ences mentioned in the poem on the Spoils of Anmvn are the various Side of the immortals. Llyr is the Irish sea- god Le r, and was called Llyr Llediaith, or the half-tongued, implying that he spoke a language only partially intelligible to the people of the country. Bran, the son of Llyr, is the Irish Bran Mac Allait, Allat being one of the names of Ler. This Bran is probably the same as Brian, son of Tuirenn, though according to the Irish genealogies, Brian would be the nephew of Ler. Manawyddan ap Llyr is clearly the Manandan or Manannan Mac Lir of Irish mythology. In one derivation of his name, if correct, we have a most im portant link in these romances. According to this etymology, Manannan comes from Man, lord, and Annan, of the foamy sea, Ler, his father s name, meaning also the sea. In Annan we would have the Annwn of the poems, and of the story of Pv;yll, and commonly identified with hell, but really corre sponding to the Tir Tairngire or Elysium of the Irish. PJd- annon, the wife of Pwyll, who possessed marvellous birds which held warriors spell-bound for eighty years by their singing, comes from Annwn, and her son Pryderi gives her, on the death of Pwyll, as a wife to Manawyddan. With Anmvn or Annivryn we naturally connect the Irish Ana, the mother of the gods, or Mor liigu, and wife of the Dagda. She was the mother of Aed, the Welsh Aed Maur, and was probably the same as Ceridicen. In a previous part of this article we have made the Dagda the same as Delbaith Dana or Tuirenn, the father of Ler ; if we are right in our conjecture, Ana would be the mother of Ler, the sea, as well as of Aed, fire, Jihiannon, daughter of Heveydd Hen, and wife of Pwyll, and afterwards of Manawyddan, is perhaps also to be connected with Ana and Annu-n. Again, the Caer Sidi above mentioned, where neither disease nor old age affects any one, is called the prison of Giceir in one of the poems. This Giveir, we have no doubt, represents G aiar, son of Manandan Mac Lir, the Atropos who cut the thread of life of Irish mythology. In one legend G aiar is made the son of Uisle and of Deirdriu, celebrated iu the story of the sons of Uisnech, and the foster son of Manandan, who aids him in banishing Conchobar Mac Nessa to Alba on account of his killing the sons of Uisnech, and becoming king of Ulster in his place. Afterwards, G aiar relinquishes the kingship by the advice of Man- andan, who takes him to Emhain Abhlach, or Emain of the Apple-trees, where he dies. Gaiar s sister Aeb-greine, the Sunlike, married Einn, son of Echaid luil of Tir Tairngire, or the Land of Promise. This Einn takes part in the contests between the swineherds of Ochidl Ochne and Badb, chiefs of the rival Side, who after a series of metamorphoses become the Finnuenduch, or bull of Con- naught, and the Donn Cualngiu, the celebrated hull of the Tain Bo Cuailnge. Math, son of Mathonwy, may be connected with Mat, the great Druid of the Tuatha De V - - &amp;lt; T