Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/399



PART I.

allusions have already been made to Llew Llawgyffes, and, in fact, most of his story has been reproduced: it has also been hinted that in him we have a nature myth about light. It is, however, of capital importance in dealing with the solar mythology of the Celts, and especially of the Welsh, to bear in mind that the nature myth did not prevent the Solar Hero from being regarded as partly of human descent; a different account is sometimes implied in Welsh stories, but this is far the most fertile, and it takes us back to a pre-Celtic and Aryan stage of culture, when it was possible for the magician and medicine-man of the tribe to claim the sun as his offspring. So we might here call him the Sun-man, were it not more in harmony with custom to speak of the Sun-god or Solar Hero. In order to establish these views, we have now to examine more closely the literature relating to Llew, and we may begin with the strange story of his birth (p. 306), which need not be repeated. One of the first things in it to strike one is young Llew's rapid growth; and the vigour with which he scattered