Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/299

Rh another, while, on the other, the acquisition by him of several names would tend to split him up into as many individuals. Some reasons have already been given for looking at the Welsh names referred to from the latter point of view rather than from the former; but there is a more comprehensive one, and that is the argument to be derived from a comparison with the mythology of other branches of the Aryan family, that Gwydion, or whatever name you choose to give him, was a complete and complex character familiar to our remote ancestors, before they could as yet be called Celts, or before those of the English could be called Teutons, that is to say, at a time when the Aryans had not passed out of their pro-ethnic period. For our immediate purposes the question reduces itself to that of the identification of Gwydion with the Woden of Teutonic peoples. The name Woden is referred to the same origin as the Latin word vates by Fick, Vigfusson and others; further, it is impossible to sever the Irish fáith, 'a prophet or poet,' from vates on the one hand, and from the Welsh gwawd, 'poetry, poem, satire,' on the other; and with all three the name of the Welsh Gwydion is probably closely connected. It remains, then, to be seen how far the legends about Gwydion and Woden coincide on particular points, such as the following:

i. Their family relations.

1. Gwydion's mother was Dôn, of whom very little is