Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/162

106 with Brennus, leader of the Gauis in the sack of Rome, 390 , and was transformed into a conqueror of Gaul and Rome.$33$ He also figures as a saint, Bran the Blessed, if that was not already a pagan epithet; and remaining at Rome seven years as hostage with his son Caradawc, he brought Christianity thence to the Cymry. Caradawc is here the historic Caratacus, who was carried prisoner to Rome, but there is confusion with a Caradawc ("Great Arms," or "Prince of Combat"), son of Llyr Marini, about whom a saga may have existed. In any case Bran was regarded as head of one of the three saintly families of Britain.$24$

In the Mabinogi of Branwen, Caswallawn, clothed in a mantle of invisibility, destroyed the heroes of Britain and usurped the kingdom, leaving Manawyddan landless; and though his sister was married to Llyr, he was hostile to Llyr's descendants. Caswallawn, Lludd, Llevelys, and Nynnyaw were sons of Beli, although Geoffrey makes his Lear long precede Beli or Heli as king, while he also introduces a Belinus and confuses Caswallawn with Cassivellaunus, Caesar's foe.$35$ Beli and Belinus may represent the god Belenos, who was equated with Apollo; and Beli is victorious champion of the land and the preserver of its qualities in a Taliesin poem, in which the singer implores him$36$—perhaps a reminiscence of earlier divine traits. A Triad calls Beli father of Arianrhod, and Rhŷs, assuming that this is Arianrhod, the daughter of Dôn, makes Don consort of Beli, equates Dôn with Danu, and, without the slightest evidence, assigns to Danu as consort the shadowy figure Bile, father of Mile, invented by Irish annalists. Beli and Bile are then equated with the Celtic Dispater, the divine ancestor of the Celtic race, whom he assumes to have been a "dark" god, ruling a "dark" underworld."$37$ All this is modern mythologizing.

Caswallawn is confused in the Triads with Cassivellaunus, a warrior who may have been named after him; and he is called "war-king," an epithet which may recall his divine functions,