Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/334

Rh 322 CELTIC LITERATURE Da.na.un. The necromancer Mathene or Londn, the com panion of Art, of whom we shall have something to say presently, maybe a relic of the older mythology. Nor should we forget to mention in connection with this name that the mother of Queen Medb or Mab was Mata Muirisc. The Llew Llavj Gy/es of the tale of Math, son of Mathonwy, is Lug Lam Fada, king of the Tuatha De Danann, whose mother was Ethlenn or Cethlenn, daughter of Balor of the Evil Eye, a Fomorian chief This Lug was known by several names, among which was that of the Sab Ilda- uach, or Skilful Pillar, because he knew or supported all arts, a name which connects him with Illanach or Ildanach (Skilful), son of Manandan. Lug, according to Irish legends, was the first who introduced fighting on horseback into Ireland, and who established funeral games. Gwydyon, son of Don, who fills so important a part in the early Welsh poems and tales, was the brother of Arianrod, the mother of Llew Llaiv Gyffes and of Dylan, Son of the Wave, and the grandson of Daronwy, the son of Brynach or Urnach Wyddel by Corth, daughter of Brychan, by which another line of legend, originating also in Ireland, is brought intc connection. Givydyon is an enchanter of wonderful power, his master being Math. He produces a woman Ivom blos soms, and the forms of horses from springing plants. The tale of Math, son of Mathomvy, is full of such transformations as those of the swine-herds in the preface to the Tain Bo C uailnge. Thereare alsosimilar transformations in the poem of the Kat Godeu, or Battle of Godeu. The Milky Way is called Caer Givydyon; the constellation Cassiopeia is Llys Don, the court of Don; and the Corona Borealis is Caer Arianrod, the residence of Arianrod, daughter of Don, and mother of Llew Thus Arianrod is the same as Ethlenn. There are several Dons or Donns in Irish romance : the chief of the Munster fairies, or people of the Side, Avas Donn Firinne of Cnoc Firinne, now Knockfierna, in the west of the county of Limerick ; Donn Dumhach, or Donn of the sandbank at the mouth of the Eidhneach near Ennistymon, in the county of Clare, and Donn Chnuic na n-Oss, now Knockanoss, in the county of Cork, were also chiefs of Side. These examples show that Don, the father of Gwydyon, may be connected with the Acs Side. Manandan Mac Lir had a son who was Ech-Don M6r, or the great Ech-Don, who is probably the Donn mentioned in the Fennian Agallamh na Senorach, or Dialogue of the Sages, as having been slain by a certain Derg Dianscothach in a war between Ilbhreach of the Sid of Eos Ruadh and Ler of Sid Finnachaidh. It may be remarked here that whenever the Aes Side are brought into the Fennian romances there is generally some confusion. Thus in the romance just mentioned Ler is re presented as at war with Ilbhreach, who in the genealogies is made the son of Manandan. Before leaving those curious Mixed tales, it will be better to discuss one of the mixed romances, romance? The Story of Kilhwch and Olwen. By mixed romance we mean one in which two distinct streams of legends have mingled. The one just mentioned belonged originally to the same class of legends as the four Mabinogion we have been discussing, but it got mixed up with the Arthu rian romance Kilhwch asks for wife Olwen, the daughter of Yspaddaden Penkawr, who imposes upon him a number of tasks before he would give him his daughter, the final one being to fetch the comb and scissors which were between the ears of the Twrch Trwyth. All these he effects through the aid of his cousin Arthur. Among the personages men tioned are Amaethon, son of Don, who is represented as a great husbandman, and Govannon, son of Don, a smith. Among the actors are Gwyther, the son of Greidawl, who is betrothed to Creiddylad, daughter of Lludd Llaw Ereint, that is Cordelia, daughter of Lear. Gwen Ap Nudd, however, carries off Creiddylad, but Arthur makes peace between them, the condition being that the maiden should be restored to her father s house, and Gwen and Gwyther should fight for the yellow-haired maiden on the first of May each year. This very curious tale is altogether based on Irish mythology. Govannon is Goibniu, the Irish Vulcan, the brother of Diancecht or Dia na-cecht, the god of the powers (of healing). Creiddylad is the Irish Creide of Tir Tairngire. The Tivrch Trwyth is the Irish Tore Triath, the King Boar. Indeed the story puts him in Ireland, and says that he cannot be hunted without Garselit the Gwyddelian, the chief huntsman of Ireland. This king boar belonged to Brigit, the poetess daughter of the Dagda, the Minerva of the Irish. JVud.d, the father of Gwen, is apparently Neit (battle), the god of war, and Kilhwch himself seems to represent Coin Ceallach son of Delbaith, son of Neit, the god of war who received the name Eladan (art, skill) in consequence of the skill he displayed in pre paring ropes for capturing Masau, king of Britain. By an Arthurian romance we mean a tale in which Arthurian Arthur is a chief hero, and the scene of which is laid in roinaBc es. Wales or South England. The legends of Arthur in this sense belong chiefly to South Wales, and must have orig/ nated there in great part, though they were afterwards mud? modified by new elements introduced from Armorica oy Rhys ab Tewdivr and his followers at the end of the llth century. At this period South Wales was more civilized Condition than North Wales, because less mountainous and more fer- of s - Wales tile, and also because it had considerable intercourse with ^, e ,| France. These very circumstances led to its conquest by t, u .y the Normans earlier than North Wales, which maintained its independence nearly a centuiy longer. Before the advent of the Normans in South Wales, stone-built castles and churches existed, but they erected much stronger and more splendid castleSj and the clergy whom they introduced built fine churches and great abbeys. The Norman castles and walled towns and trained men at arms, always ready for war, must have afforded more protection to commerce and agriculture than it could enjoy under the Welsh tribal system. The wants of the new nobility, too, were greater, their courts were more splendid, their dresses and arms more costly than those of Welsh princes; and corresponding splendour was introduced into the ceremonies of the church. The Norman baron was not prouder, but he was graver and more courtly than the Welsh lord. All these things acted on the popular stories and gradually transformed them, as manners improved, into elegaut ro mances of chivalry. The abundant materials of romance which existed in Wales were the property, so to say, of the strolling minstrels and peasantry, and were despised by the lettered bard with whose poems the popular tales competed. Carried into Armorica, they became, as it were, ennobled, and assumed a more polished and courtly form; and when brought back by Rhys ab Teivdwr, almost entirely dis placed the conventional poems of the bards, which were chiefly eulogies of the living, and elegies of their dead patrons. This is the reason why South Wales produced so few poems from the 12th to the 15th century. These romances were soon translated, or rather new ones con structed upon the same themes, by the Norman Jongleurs, who soon spread them among the Norman nobility every where. The heroes of y Gogled were well adapted to serve as actors in the courtly romances. They appear in the poems which we have discussed above as so many lay figures upon which to put the rich dresses and armour of the Normans, and who might be put into a fine castle anywhere without incongruity. The necromancy seems to have been largely borrowed from the Irish legends, a great many of which, of the same character as the Mabinogion, must have still existed in the 12th and 13th centuries. The position assigned to Arthur in romance is due to th^Arthur accident. No one of the name occupied so prominent a romance.