QUEST FOR MEANING
by Aubrey Cole Odhner|

 Lecture II
The Making of the Myth

by Aubrey Cole Odhner

    Sir Winston Churchill once said about the Arthur legend: "If we could see exactly what happened we should find ourselves in the presence of a theme as well founded, as inspired, and as inalienable from the inheritance of mankind as the Odyssey, or the Old Testament. It is all true,or it ought to be; and more and better besides.1

        "-And more and better besides"-. What does Churchill see that could be more and better than the historical truth of the Arthur legend? What is this theme so intimately related to the inheritance of mankind? What is the difference between inheritance and history? - between myth and history?.  What gives myth the meaning that, defying the necessary written requirements of recorded history, the folk tradition can persist and follow certain prescribed patterns? Are the histories of mental and spiritual traditions any less real than the histories of wars and world events?

Mental and Spiritual Traditions:

        Early in the 19th Century, one of the members of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic school, Otto Rank, began to analyze and compare the structure of a number of hero myths, theorizing that just as people from all parts of the world have more physical characteristics in common than they have differences (two eyes, five fingers, etc.) so may they have more mental characteristics in common than disparate. His classic work, The Myth of the Birth of a Hero2, was published in 1914. Rank had discovered that the stories of the births of mythical heroes follow certain typical patterns. His listing of the patterns is as follows:

1          The hero is the child of most distinguished parents, usually the son of a king.

2          His origin is preceded by difficulties, such as continence, prolonged barrenness, or secret intercourse of the parents due to external prohibition or obstacles.

3          During or before the pregnancy there is a prophecy, in the form of a dream or oracle, cautioning against his birth, and usually threatening danger to the father (or his representative.[1] [2])

4          As a rule, he is surrendered to the water in a box.

5          He is then saved by animals, or lowly people (a shepherd or fisherman, or woodsman) and is suckled by a female animal or humble woman.

6          After he grows up he finds his distinguished parents, in a highly diversified fashion.

7          He takes his revenge on his father, on the one hand, and is acknowledged on the other. Finally he achieves honor. Rank's general explanation of this is, of course Freudian, that, for example, in our desperate struggle to attain individuality we have to at once convince ourselves that we have noble origins, that these lowly people caring for us are merely our foster parents, and that our siblings are really only step brothers and sisters, not distinguished at best, and evil and base at the worst. Here we have a possible source of many familiar fairy tales and myths.

        Rank concluded that there was a deep need within the individual psyche to mythologize, a creative impulse dedicated to the task of character formation, and that man's every urge, particularly in the production of art, centered around the main, overpowering wish to put death to rout, to attain immortality and to perpetuate himself physically, as well as spiritually.

        Twenty years later, Fitsroy Richard Somerset, Lord Raglan, made some similar studies about the typical hero; his is an attempt to discredit our common tendency to try to make everything we wish to be true into historical truth. His studies involved some fascinating and humorous thoughts about the relationship of history and myth. His thesis stated simply, is that "that which we wish to be true we tend to call history, in the literal sense, but that at least with most ancient legends their truth is not historical. Doubting the historicity of the Trojan War, he says, "It is at least possible that Homer, though he meant all he said, may have intended it to be understood in a religious and not a historic sense.3" This reminds us of the descriptions in the Writings of the style of the first chapters of Genesis, that of: "made-up history"

        In the face of increasing historical evidence of a 6th century warrior named Arthur, how do we account for Arthur's high score on Rank's and Raglan's patterns of the typical or mythical hero? Could it be that they are both true "and more and better besides?" Could it be that in the presence of an ordinary human, historical hero, a few ultimate acts of heroism key into a corresponding archetypal pattern in the unconscious mind, causing it to rise up and envelope our earthly hero with the cloak of the Typical Hero?

        Raglan refines the Typical hero's course into 22 distinct steps. Some heroes, like Oedipus score on all 22 points. Others like Moses and Theseu [3] s rate 20 points each. Then again, others, like Robin Hood rate as few points as 13. Raglan feels that it defies all reason and strains the laws of probability, that real historical heroes would have lived their life stories so much in common. Arthur scores 19 points out of 22 as a typical hero. These are Raglan's 22 stages in the life of a hero:

1     The hero's mother is a royal virgin.
2     His father is a king.
3     Often a near relative of his mother, but [4]
4     The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5     He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
6     At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grandfather, to kill him, but
7     He is spirited away, and
8     Reared by foster-parents in a far country
9     We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10     On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future kingdom
11     After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
12     He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and
13     Becomes king
14     For a time he reigns uneventfully, and
15     Prescribes laws, but
16     Later he loses favor with the gods, and/or his subjects, and
17     Is driven from the throne and city, after which
18     He meets with a mysterious death
19     Often at the top of a mountain or hill
20     His children, if any, do not succeed him
21     His body is not buried, but nevertheless
22     He has one or more holy sepulchers.

        Matching Arthur's life story with this we find that (1)Arthur's mother, Igraine, is a royal princess, (2) and his father is at first thought  to be the Duke of Cornwall. He is however (5) reputed to be the son of the High King, Uther Pendragon, who (4) visits Igraine in the Duke's likeness. At birth he is apparently in no danger, even though he is spirited away (7).(This is an interesting point here, confirming the mythical sequence because no other reason is given for Merlin's strange request that the babe who would be born must be delivered to him at the postern gate!) To continue, Arthur is reared in a distant part of the country by foster parents (Sir Ector). (8) We hear nothing of his childhood (9), but on reaching manhood he travels to London (10), wins a magical victory, and (13) is chosen king. After other victories he (l2) marries Guinevere, heiress of the Round Table. After this he (14) reigns uneventfully and prescribes the laws of chivalry, but later there is (16) a successful conspiracy against him while(17) he is abroad. He meets with a mysterious death (18), and his children, if any, do not succeed him. His body is (21) not buried, but nevertheless he has (22) a holy sepulcher at Glastonbury.

            Arthur, according to Raglan, then, is a very typical hero, only missing on three points: (3) father and mother related, (6) danger at birth, and (19) death on the top of a hill. These present no problem; as we said before, the danger at birth can be assumed because of the spiriting away which followed; his greatest battle was that of Mt. Badon, and we don't know that Cammlan was not a hill or, since he was taken away to the island of Avalon, associated with his mysterious death, we don't really know where he died. Again, the matter of his parents being kin, we don't know that they were not. Even though Arthur does not rate quite as high on the scale as two or three other heroes. Raglan, interestingly enough, has more page references in his book for Arthur than for any other of his almost one thousand select entries,

        Raglan ruthlessly attacks the historicity of Arthur, quoting the monk, Gildas’ own disclaimer as historian:

        "If there were any records of my country they were buried in the fires of the conquest or carried away on the ships of the exiles, so that l can only follow the dark and fragmentary tale that was told me beyond the sea.4" And Raglan laughs at Chambers saying, "It is odd, but we must admit that there is no echo of Arthur in Gildas." It is only odd", says Raglan, "on the assumption, which I shall show is unwarranted, that Arthur was a real man, Gildas' contemporary." He continues, saying it is not surprising that Bede doesn't mention him because the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and Bede are quite unreliable before 600. As for Nennius, Raglan dispatches him immediately; quoting a Dr. Wheeler: "The absolute, basic value of Nennius to the history of the 5th century is precisely nothing Yet this barrage of myths and absurdities, written some three hundred years after the alleged event, is the sole evidence for Arthur's historicity!". "Nennius credits Arthur with twelve glorious victories, the least of which was at Mt. Badon 'where fell nine hundred sixty, and in all the battles he came out victorious." As to wild speculations on Arthur sites, claimed all over England and Scotland and Wales-"in fact", says Raglan, "any one who can find a hill with a name beginning with B-d has as much right as anyone else to claim it as the site of a battle about which nothing is known.5"

        That Arthur was mythologized no one can doubt; consider some of the ancient Welsh triads: "There were three red-tracked ones of Britain, but a greater was Arthur; for a year no grass or herb grew where one of the three trod, but for seven years where Arthur trod." "There were three eminent prisoners, but a greater was Arthur, who was thrice for three nights in magic prisons. He perused with his whole army a magic sow from Wales to Cornwall; he fought with giants and monsters, the latter including a huge cat; and on and on the wild legends go. 6

        One of Raglan's cruel clinchers is his observation about mythical time which, unlike real time, seems to stand still. By his calculations since Guinivere had been married for quite some time before Lancelot was born, and then Lancelot proceeded to run away with Guinivere after his son Galahad had died; she couldn't have been a day under sixty!

        Reason would tell us that there are probably many ways that legends come about. Raglan cites Professor W. J. Gruffydd's  four stages: the first is Mythology, the second in which Mythology becomes History. In the third stage mythological history becomes folklore, and in the fourth stage folk lore is utilized to form literary tales.7 Raglan summarizes his conviction that the origins of such legends and romances as those of Arthur and his entourage were in the religious rites of ancient times: "the folk tale is never of popular origin, but is merely one form of the traditional narrative; that the traditional narrative has no basis either in history or in philosophical speculations but is derived from the myth; and that the myth is a narrative connected with a rite." 8.

        Dr. C. B. Lewis, after making a study of the nursery rhyme, ''Where Are You Going to, My Pretty Maid?" and then of the folk customs connected with May Day, summarizes the question as follows:

        "The conclusion, then, is the same as the one we reached with regard to our nursery rhyme: the folk has neither part nor lot in the making of folklore. The source of our folksong and folk customs is religion: on /the one hand Christian, on the other pagan. At what date in history these elements of religion turned, the one into folksong, the other into folklore, it is difficult to affirm, and indeed it is a different date in each case; but one may assume, venture to say that it was when the religious origin of the themes in question was finally forgotten.9"

        Reminiscences of rituals can be seen not only in myths but also in fairy tales and romances. Picture first the shaman, witchdoctor, druid or rainmaker striking a rock in order to give a sign for the rain to come, then recall the fairy godmother with her wand striking a pumpkin and reciting her necessary hocus pocus; she is not expected to make something out of nothing but must go through a ritual in order to work her magic. In the same way the hero of the saga must have his magic weapon in order to kill the dragon, but nobody else could use his weapon to do it because he is the ritual personage using ritual weapons to deliver a ritual blow.

The Merlin Archetype:

        In searching for mythical origins let us consider one of the most intriguing characters of all legend, Merlin, the Enchanter. In Tennyson's Idyll, Merlin and Vivien, the poet has transported us in mythic mood to the woods of Celtic Brittany, but in those very mythic realms of ancient Brittany  we find  different characterizations of Merlin and Vivien than the aged, weary and sinister characters of the Idylls. :

"A storm was coming, but the winds were still
And in the wild woods of Broceliande
Before an oak, so hollow, huge, and old
It look'd a tower of ivied mason work,
At Merlin's feet the wily Vivien lay."

 (Tennyson, Alfred Lord. Idylls of the King. Penguin Classics. London, 1983.Merlin and Vivien, lines 1-5, p.42.)

        The Breton forest of fountain and fern, Brocèliande.

             “The sound is like a bell, a far away fairy chime in a twilight forest.”10 In the very name, Brocèliande there seems to be gathered all the tender charm, the rich and haunting mystery, the remote magic of Brittany and Breton lore. Although it is well known from ancient tradition that the native sprites, the fairy folk of Brittany are "not the most friendly or humane of the wee folk, in fact they are classified as irritable, malignant, soulless and not the friends of man. But the characterization of Vivien, or Nimue of Brecon lore is not the hideous enchantress of Tennyson, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Malory, -and the Merlin of the Idyll seems to be more a tired, disillusioned old man than the powerful wizard of Breton myth; the Merlin of tradition, though described as suffering in childhood, could never be broken in later life; and the fey Nimue, although haunting and cold as an icy lake at times, seldom kind, was varied, charming and tender, then alternately enraged, but not so consistently loathsome as in the Idyll.

            In the Idyll Vivien was extremely cast as Arthur's opposite,' snake within the grass', playing about with 'slight and sprightly talk," and "vivid smiles" and "faintly venom'd points of slander," 'there lay she all her length and kiss'd his feet", "a twist of gold, her lissome limbs and while she kiss'd them, crying 'trample me, dear feet, that I have follow'd thro the world, and I will pay you worship; tread me down and I will kiss you for it". With all the esses and vees and hissing sounds she is clearly the original snake in the Garden. Three times she asked Merlin," do you love me "(A strange twisted allusion there.) "And lissome Vivien, holding by his heel writhed toward him, slided up his knee and sat, Behind his ankle twined her hollow feet together, curved an arm about his neck, clung like a snake. Later she lept from his lap and stood "stiff as a viper frozen," "loathsome sight," and "the snake of gold slid from her null hair, the braid slipt and uncoiled itself" (Ibid. Merlin and Vivien, lines 217-240, p.148.)

        But traced back to the bardic poems, Vivien was a lovely nymph of the woods, lady of the fountain, Lady of the Lake, who could render herself invisible, deeply versed in magic art and companion of Merlin's solitude. In some romances she is Nimue, in others, the daughter of Dyonas, perhaps Dylan, a British sea god. As Lady of the Lake she is foster mother to Lancelot. She is certainly a water deity or spirit like the Korrrigan. Prof. Rhys identified her with Morgan la Fay. Villemarque', who gathered the stories from the lips of the folk of Broceliande themselves, in the middle of the 19th [5] century, tells it something: like this:

        "Evening was shrouding the forest in soft shadows when Merlin sank to rest, Vivien, waiting until his deep and regular breathing told her that he was asleep, walked nine times around him, waving her cloak over his head, and muttering the mysterious words he had taught her. When the sage awoke he found himself in the Joyous Garden with Vivien by his side. "You are mine for ever," she murmured, "You can never leave me, I pray you, for I am bespelled so as to love you throughout eternity" "Never shall I leave you," she replied; and in such manner the wise Merlin withdrew from the world of men to remain ever in the Joyous Garden with Vivien. Love had triumphed over wisdom." 11

        A wood cut of 1498 shows Nimue locking him in a cave.12

        Tennyson's description of the wily old wizard suits well the grey bearded old magician from an engraving of Spenser's Fairie Queen: "the bard who knew the starry heavens, ( M&V, Line 167) the seer who in melancholy aloofness watched Vivien's advances on the innocent Arthur. In spite of the "dark forethoughts " that rolled about his grain the old man allowed himself the fateful fling, to be charmed by Vivien: "You seemed that wave about to break upon me and sweep me from my hold upon the world, my use and name and fame."(line 968) "He let his wisdom go for ease of heart and half believed her true; called her to shelter in the hollowed oak"(892) and later "overhead bellowed the tempest and the rotten branch snapt in the rush of the river-ran"(955) "And shrieking out "Oh Fool, the harlot leapt down the forest and the thicket closed behind her and the forest echoed "Fool" (970)13

             Poor human old fool, but the mythic Merlin was never that kind of fool. Indeed some think this story of Merlin's love for Vivien was composed at a late date for the purpose of rounding off his fate in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey Ashe says Merlin was a totally mythical character invented by Geoffrey of Monmouth.14   Invented as a historic character/, not even that; but Geoffrey could certainly not have "made up" a mythical character. This archetype is known from ancient times as the "Trickster" and perhaps the "Shaman"; back beyond the Greek Hermes and the Norse Loki, he can possibly be seen as the Serpent in the Garden of Eden!

            Be that as it may, Geoffrey of Monmouth first introduces Ambrosius Merlin, later plain Merlin, at Arthur's court, a sage revered for his poetic qualities. But before romance, and even before chronicles in legendary Welsh history, Merlin appears under almost as many guises as he does in the pages of Malory:15 Merddin Emrys (Ambrosius), Merddin Sylvester (Merlin the Wild), Merddin ab Morvryn (or Merlin Caledoniensis) He was known as Caledonius because the Kymry of the 6th cent.lived in the far north close to the Caledonian Forest. It seems that after the terrible battle of Arderydd, Merlin, having seen his kinsmen all killed, was seized with a frenzy, and thereafter his bardic utterances assumed a more and more mystical and oracular form. This added to his mysterious and magnetic personality and wildly impressive personal appearance? by gradual legendary accretions to the magician Merlin.

        In the Black Book of Carmarthen there is a rhymed dialogue between Merlin and Taliesin. Touching in its simplicity, it is attributed to Merlin the Bard:

    "How sad is Merlin now. How sad!
    Kedisuf and Kadvan-are they dead?
    The furious slaughter filled the field,
    And pierced was the Trywyd shield."

Taliesin replies:
    "Hiss house folk did not falter in the fight!"
Final lines:
    "Seven score chieftains
    Were turned into spirits;
    In the wood of celyddon
        Were they transformed.16

Taliesin

        Two other poems are ascribed to Merlin, Avallenan, Apple Garth, and the Hoianau, the Listeners. Taliesin is just as mysterious as Merlin. Usually recognized as a Welsh bard of the 6th century, he was thought to be attached to the court of Urien at Rheged in North Britain; he praises Coel, Owain and especially Urien in the Battle of Argoed Ilwyfain; he is also accredited with a Death Song for Owain ab Urien, praising the valor of Owain.17

        Merlin and Taliesin seem mysteriously rooted in the remote bardic tradition. Of Taliesin,18 Patrick K. Ford, in his new edition of the Mabinogi, says: "Against the background was projected the image of the archetypal poet, seer, divine, prophet." and again:" Emerging from these poems, then, and the transformation poems in the Book of Taliesin, is the figure of the eternal, divine poet and prophet, essentially amorphous yet paradoxically having many shapes." Independently, about Merlin, we find similar conclusions. In the Religion of the Ancient Celts, Canon MacColough says "if he belongs to the pagan period of Celtic  lore at all, he was probably an ideal magician or god of magicians."19 Gurteen says:

       “ So far the research of the subject seems to show that the legend of Merlin is a thing of complex growth, composed of traditions of independent and widely differing origins, most of which were told about Celtic bards and soothsayers. Merlin is, in fact, the typical Druid or wise man of Celtic tradition."20

        Looking back into British myth it is as if we can see the ancient form of the priest-king in the single person of the Druid; endower of life and death, affairs of this world and the next, the past  and the future the stars and the storm, he it is , of all Celtic society the most revered; he is the poet, the Bard, who must commit all treasures of the Celtic religion to memory lest sacred things should be profaned, soothsayer, shaman, director of ritual, he is in complete control of fertility and sacred arts of healing.21

        Later, as the Arthur legend develops, there seems to be a separation of priest and king: Arthur is the good and kindly king; Merlin is the personification of wisdom, seldom kind but knowing all. Perhaps this is the point, in Celtic Mythology where the separation of the Understanding and the Will were recorded.22

Joseph Campbell's "Helper"

        When Joseph Campbell, in his Hero with a Thousand Faces,23 traces the progress of the typical hero, he defines the first encounter of the adventuring hero with a supernatural being, an aiding protecting figure who gives the hero some kind of magic weapon or magic formula by which, and only by means of which, the hero can achieve his goal; sometimes in the form of a weazoned old crone, or fairy godmother with magic wand or chant; in Christian legend this part is commonly played by the Virgin; it is Ariadne who supplies Theses us with the thread by means of which he can find his way out of the Labyrinth; in folk tale it may be a little man of the woods who has the only secret that will help the heroine; a hermit, smith, or wizard who has the magic amulet or charmed  code. In the Egyptian mythology it is Thoth who invented the hieroglyphs and knows every kind of science; it is the Greek Hermes who was master of ancient mysteries of initiation and carried the healing caduceas; his tradition was perpetuated by the Alchemist of the Middle Ages hermetically sealing the secrets of “the way24"

            In the Black forest of Germany it was Rumpelstiltskin alone who could spin straw into gold. In the far North it was Odhin alone, with his grey cloak pulled over his empty eye socket, who had sacrificed his eye for a draught of Mimir's well for wisdom; he it was who invented the Runes, knew the future and forsaw the Twilight of the Gods. Surely the Runes, like the Hieroglyphics, contained a secret code which told of the lost Science of Correspondences, the key to all wisdom. The eye is the understanding, the well is the truth; the whole Hermetic tradition from Thoth, with his feather pen, through Hermes with his feather cap, shoes and caduceus; Odhin with feathers on his cap and feathered birds, Hugin and Munin, Thought and Memory, the medieval alchemist searching for the Philosophers stone, are readily identifiable as guardian's of the truth, often the gnomelike hoarders of the gold, encoders of the sacred Name. Separated from the Will - the Understanding has sole responsibility to interpret the Word. The Druidic, the Merlin tradition is clearly one side of the Great Duality. of the Will And Understanding, the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom.

        To the Merlin of Romance, Arthur owes his birth, his crown, the order of the Round Table, his knights and his victories, and  is the wise father figure in the background, the scholarly intellectual guide for the willful hero. It would seem that ever since the faraway  time when the priest-king qualities were embodied in one person we have tended to separate the two qualities, indeed to polarize them. Undoubtedly arising out of the separation of the Will and Understanding mankind has mythologized about the scholarly intellectual type and the physically active heroic type; the cognitive and affective, the crafty and the loving. Let's test Merlin and see if the fits the part: Do you recall anywhere a Merlin described as kind and loving? Never, always a shrewd and wily old wizard, talented, yet unfit for the rugged, heroic life.

Arthur

        On the other hand we have Arthur who slays nine hundred and sixty single handed; Arthur alone can pull the sword from the stone. He defeats and slays the Roman Emperor, kills the giant on Mt. San Michel. Gurteen concurs: "As we read, the thought continually arises in the mind that there are grand and generalized ideas underlying the simple story. Arthur seems to represent the human or physical force, Merlin seems to represent the intellect"25." Although each chronicler and romancer and poet paints his own version of Arthur, sometimes a rugged warrior covered with blood, sometimes a remote constellation in the sky, he is always outstanding within his frame of reference, the ideal man.  Even in 20th Century sophisticated verse he is long suffering and magnanimous. Even to Tennyson, although the "blameless King and, the selfless man and stainless gentleman" ( Idylls, The Coming of Arthur, line 267,), the human quality is assumed, "He is all no fault at all." Although world weary Arthur is still outstanding in his dignity and human yet kingly qualities; Tennyson has him speak with "simple words of great authority, and "large, divine and comfortable words," "The highest and most humane too26* Arthur is the human hero who rises up and gives us the hope that if he rise up then we can too; the mortal hero with whom we can identify; we die and by his resurrection we live. There is no dramatic death and resurrection for Merlin. In fact he implies although at best he is the clever guide, at the worst he ends up entangled by his own enchantments, perhaps he is defeated by the use of his knowledge of correspondences for personal power; locked in a cave, or fading back into the Celtic twilight.

The Celtic Underworld

        The mythic Arthur, too, is closely associated with the eerie Celtic Otherworld, a very important feature of Celtic mythology. Although sometimes a misty island and sometimes a "fortress of glass", there is always the belief that the hero can pierce the veil, and indeed go in and out, even enjoying the love of the Fairy Beings beyond the pale. But Anwwyn is not the dreary land of the shades that Hades was to the Greeks; in fact, it is described as a region where sickness and old age are unknown, and where there is enchanting music, fountains flowing with liquids sweeter than wine, undreamed of varieties of color, an altogether exquisite land of delight. MacCana in his Celtic Mythology27 says: "-in other words, it is "The Land of the Living". An Old Welsh poem, the Spoils of Annwn, or in Welsh Preiddeu  Annwen,2829 tells of a heroic but disastrous voyage by Arthur and his men to Annwn in order to capture the magic cauldron.

        Perhaps more than any other theme the presence of the "Other World" is the Celts greatest gift to us. Alwyn Rees in his Celtic Heritage says: Far from being mutually exclusive entities, the natural and super natural worlds thus intrude upon one another in a variety of ways." "Between the two worlds is an interaction which is similar in many ways to the interaction between the 'conscious' and the 'unconscious' minds as described by modern psychologists." He goes on to say that, "strange as it is, the appeal for the aid of a mortal to settle differences in the supernatural world is not uncommon in Celtic story." 29

        It is a land of beautiful women, sweet music, and magic cups. An Irish tale begins this way:

        "This is how Cormac's cup of gold was found. early one May morning. Cormac was alone on the rampart of Tara when a splendidly-clad warrior approached, bearing on his shoulder a silver branch with three golden apples on it. So delightful was the music of the branch that the sick, the wounded, and women in childbed would   fall asleep when they heard it. The warrior hailed from a land where there was nothing but truth, a land where there was neither age nor decay nor gloorn nor sadness nor envy nor jealousy nor hatred nor arrogance.30"

The supernatural origin of Cormac's Cup of Truth is the abiding theme of many a Celtic legend. Another story tells how "Conn with his druids and poets loses his way in a mist and in a house near a golden tree he sees Lug and with him Sovereignty seated in a chair of crystal, with a silver vat, a vessel of gold, and a golden cup before her. The girl serves Conn with meat, and with red ale in the cup, and Lug foretells the names of every prince from the time of Conn onwards. A druid records the names on staves of yew. Then the vision vanishes, but the vat, the vessels, and the staves are left with Conn."31

 The Hero, the Otherworld, the Cup or Cauldron are the outstanding themes of Celtic myth. It is really the regeneration myth, where the hero is restored when submerged in the cauldron, the eternal return of spring and summer, ("the land of the summer stars") which ties together the themes of Celtic myth.

Branwen

        The tale of Branwen, Daughter of Llyr, appears in Lady Guests translation of the Mabinogion.32 The story seems to take place in mid-Wales. Llyr is the Welsh word for “sea” and scholars agree that Bronwen's father, sometimes a God of the Sea, is the prototype of Shakespeare's King Lear. The descriptions centering as they do around the wild seacoasts, war weary kings, the mutilations of horses, are strangely reminiscent of the Greek God Poseidon driving his teams of horses through the waves and his symbolic associations with the Understanding of Truth. Branwen has been sent to marry the King of Ireland as a pawn to cement relations between Ireland and the "Isle of the Mighty". Bronwen is grossly mistreated in Ireland so her brothers, Bendigeidfren (Bron the Blessed ) and Manawvdean invade and destroy Ireland losing all but seven of their own men. Bron has been slain but the seven return accompanied by the head of Bron; they spend seven years feasting at Harlech and eighty years at Gwales, always in the presence of the head of Bron, enjoying endless food and drink, heavenly music, completely immune from pain and sorrow. Bronwen was the eighth who accompanied the returning soldiers; looking from Ireland to Wales as she died of a broken heart, because of the devastation brought through her. They buried her in a foursquare grave and proceeded to London where they buried Bron's head, the third goodly concealment; this head, ever after, protected England from invasion; when it was disinterred later, some say by Arthur, it was called the third ill fated disclosure. Presumably this laid England open for attack.

Cup, Cauldron and Sacred Symbols:

        The magic cauldron had come originally from the lake of the Cauldron in Ireland into Bron's possession, and he in turn had given it back to the King of Ireland when he came courting Bronwen; this was a gesture of appeasement for the insult the King of Ireland had received in the matter of the mutilation of his horses by the half-brother of Bron and Bronwen. The magic properties of the cauldron were described thus: "And I will enhance the atonement," said Bendigeid Vran, "for I will give unto thee a cauldron, the property of which is, that if one of thy men be slain today, and cast therein, tomorrow he will be as ever he was at the best, except that he will not regain his speech33."

        A number of other wonderful vessels appear in Celtic legend; there is the 'undry' cauldron of the Dagda, from which no company ever went unthankful, the cup which Tagg obtained in the land of the Immortals and which turned water into wine; the cauldron of Ceridwen, which after boiling for a year and a day produced three drops of grace and inspiration; and finally that cauldron referred to in connection with Arthur's voyage to Annwyn, the cauldron which would not boil food for a coward.

        It is important to note not only the magic food producing nature and the cauldrons and cups but spiritual nature of the elixir producing grace and inspiration and immortality itself, and this always in connection with heroic achievement, the objects of the hero's otherworld quests.

Quoting Rees; "As symbols in myth, and probably as insignia and utensils in pre-Christian rites, such sacred relics enshrined eternity in the world of mortal existence. They also enhanced the meaning of their counterparts in ordinary life. In some measure, the cauldron and cup of every generous host partook of the nature of the archetypal vessels of plenty, every crown and every sword reflected a little of the brilliance of the eternal diadem and of the 'Sword of Light'.34"

Guinevere

        Even the pale and stately Queen Guinivere of Tennyson can be traced back from her flight to Almesbury  " by glimmering waste and weald” (Guinivere line 128.) past the spirits of the waste and weald into the mythic Celtic mist. Geoffrey Ashe says Guinivere was “abduction prone!”37 This is a persistent clue to her connection to Celtic Mythology where abductions are a favorite theme. In one story she is abducted while 'Maying" (suggestive of the rape of Persephone, and perhaps the abduction of Helen of Troy), by a certain king, Melwas, to Glastonbury, whence she was restored to her husband, only to be abducted again; A similar story was told by Chretien de Troyes. Some scholars associate Melwas with the French Meleuant and Glastonbury with Avalon, City of Glass. This is one more connection with the idea of Guinivere's abduction by a god from the other world. Tristram saves Iseult from abduction by an Irish warrior from beyond the Western sea. This is probably a British variant of the story in the Irish Book of the Dun Cow telling of the Abduction of Etain, wife of the mortal king Airem by the fairy king Midir. An ancient Greek version of this myth is the unsuccessful effort of Orpheus to bring Eurydice back from the Under World.

Celtic Tales: Geraint:

        One of the oldest tales used by Tennyson in his Idylls is the story of Geraint and Enid. Although archaic in literary form, the character of Garaint seems most firmly rooted historically. Llwarc Hen, 6th century bard sings the high praises of Geraint in his elegy on the Death of Geraint. In several Welsh Triads Geraint appears as one of three naval commanders. He enters several times into The Lives of Welsh Saints. In a history of 18th century Herefored there is an account of a church dedicated to Geraint. Two of Geraint’s sons are listed in a list of Welsh Saints. The Cambrian bards of the Middle Ages tell about Geraint the husband of Enid, daughter of Ynywail, who is in turn honored as one of three fairest of Arthur's Court, as gentle as Guinivere  was haughty. The first connected account of the courtship of Geraint and Enid is in the Llyrfr Coch 0 Hergest (Red Book of Hergest.)-"Geraint  ab Erbin35." an 11th cent. Mss, apparently proceeded to Brittany by minstrel and was translated into French by Chretien. It is interesting to note some of the differences between the Welsh or Cymric form and that of Chretien: Geraint the son of Erbin is Chretien's “Erec son of Lac.” The Cymric story is crude and earthy in which the bloody head of a stag is presented to the lady love, the other is softened and refined substituting a kiss for the fair lady. In the picturesque and weird Welsh version the reason given for Geraint's leaving his life of luxury was primitive jealousy, the conviction that Enid was false to him; Chretien’s version is much more refined and delicate; Christianized and moralized, he leaves his languid life of luxury from a pious sense of duty.

        Although Geraint and Arthur's loyal Cei the Seneschal and Bedwyr the Butler (Sirs Kay and Bedevere) seem to have definite historical origins, they too are also closely associated with the whole Welsh Mythological tradition.

Triads

        Most of the Welsh stories are lost, with a few precious exceptions in the Mabinogion. Most of what we have is a jumbled mass of Triads. Story tellers grouped their favorite stories in linked sets of threes: Hence Arthur is sometimes one of Three Red Ravagers or one of Three Frivolous Bards. One strange Triad is called: “Three Powerful Swineherds” Tristan is included as one of these. One would almost suppose that this were a case of mistranslation were it not for the fact that wild boars and swine play a prominent part in primitive Welsh life; perhaps there is some deep coding involved here. The spirit of these early Welsh Triads is savage, with rich color, exuberant humor, rugged and crude.

                                                                        ****************

                         The later legends of the forests of Caledonia and Brittany have the eerie quality of other world mystery. French and German romancers introduce knights, castles, and new spices and talismans from the Crusader's Near East. Courtly ladies charm minstrels and inspire endless variations of the story of love. Clashing armor and the spirit of duty and dedication, bring us through Malory - and then to quiet eddies, the reflecting Tennyson with exquisite grace and deft and piercing allusion, guides all these circling moods as they cluster around the grand theme, the hero's quest for the Grail.  Tennyson’s allusions are so quick and subtle we hardly know they have passed.:His consciousness of unconscious mood testifies to his conviction of a Celtic mythological base to his Idylls:

Ships sailing in the sky on a sea of glass:
"-so high upon the dreary deeps
It seem'd in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof
A dragon wing'd and all froms stem to stern
Bright with a shining people on the decks,
And gone as soon as seen." (The Coming of Arthur, lines 372-376.)

            There is the time that Bleys  saw the naked babe Arthur washed up from the sea. Another fairy ship carried Arthur to Avalon. Several references to the great white horse carved into the chalk cliffs at Uffington allude to the prehistoric Celtic cult of the Horse, sacred to the Horse Goddess Epona. 

        Indeed the Arthur legends and Tennyson Idylls seem deeply rooted in Celtic Mythology.

                                         ***********     **********      

                 In our first lecture we spoke of the difficulty of sorting out the strands of this immense and tangled rope of romance and legend; a thousand strands could each have a thousand sources. Perhaps the characters and episodes were once what we call historical and later became mythologies. Perhaps, as some writers conclude, the deepest roots are to be found in religious rites and practices, later turned into history. We know that Christian priests were some of the earliest chroniclers, with obvious biases and duty to moralize and teach, and otherwise defend Christianity. We cannot discount the political needs of powerful monarchs to use the tools of national legends to shape events; nor the social needs of highborn ladies and the economic needs of imaginative troubadours to create and fabricate. Finally there is no accounting for the creative variety of individual bards, chroniclers romancers, embellishing the old and turning up the new.

            We have seen that one writer says flatly that Merlin was an invention of Geoffrey of Monmouth to help account for the mystery of Arthur's birth. Others see a historical origin in the 6th century bard, Myrddhin. Some see him as the typical Druid going back to the beginning of ancient religion. A possible Christian origin can be seen in  Merlin as the Medieval  Antichrist, one who knows all evil, born of the Devil and a Virgin.

            Tristram was surely an historical character, complete with an engraved stone; a typical Celtic prince of the West Country, sportsman and knowledgeable in woods craft, he never did fit into the French court tradition. But if he was so definitely a creature of Cornwall's 6th century, why was he never mentioned in chronicle or romance with Arthur and his knights until Malory's 15th Century? Even more peculiar, why is it that he can be established so surely as a historical person and yet he can  be more surely related to Celtic mythology than any other character of the Arthur story? There is a close parallel  in the story of the abduction of Queen Etain by the fairy Mider, and in the story of the elopement of Grainne, the betrothed of the hero god Fionn. with Diarmaid of the magic love spot, the master and charmer of women. In the conversion of this myth to the later romance, the magic enchantment which rendered the lovers helpless, became the slightly more credible love potion of the Tristram story.

        Lancelot, on the other hand, seems to have no origin in myth, other than his involvement in the abduction triangle just mentioned and the possible association with the changeling kidnapped by a water fairy; nor is there any hint of him in history or popular tradition. He seems the most likely candidate for a character invented to suit a purpose. First mentioned by Chretien de Troyes, the author tells us that the materia1 for the Lancelot story was furnished to him by his patroness, Marie de Champagne. And considering the fact that the Lancelot is one of Chretien's worst poems we might even conclude that the writer introduced Lancelot reluctantly. Although Lancelot's popularity as a knight of Arthur's court soared instantly to undisputed supremacy as that of Arthur's first knight, he was always much more popular in France than he was in England; he was only hero of two English romances, Le Morte Arthur (not Malory's) and Lancelot of the Lake.

Gawain

        By Far the character most bandied about and most used and abused, was Gawain. And even more extraordinary than the changes we see in his character from writer to writer, are the reason's advanced by the theorists for these changes. Some say Sir Gawain originated as a Sun God of Celtic myth because of the way his strength is described as waxing and waning at different hours of the day. He is first mentioned by William of Malmesbury in 1125 when he records the finding of a tomb of one Walwen, who was the “not degenerate nephew of Arthur by his sister.” After saying that the tomb of Arthur is nowhere to behold he goes on to say, "the tomb of that other however, as I have said, was found in the time of King William upon the seashore, 14 ft. in length, and here some say he was wounded by his foes and cast out in a shipwreck, but according to others he was killed by his fellow citizens at a public banquet, knowledge of the truth therefore remains doubtful although neither story would be inconsistent with the defense of his fame." This strange need to defend him seems completely at odds with other early descriptions, yet  prophetic of his degradation at the hands of later writers. In the legend of Kulhwch and Olwen he is lauded as the best of knights and Cei is rebuked for discourtesy. In the early French romances and the chronicles of Wace he is the model of courtesy and chivalry. In the prose Merlin Gawain is "one of the best knights and wisest of the world, the least mis-speaker and no- boaster, and best taught of all things that belong to worship and courtesy."

        After this pinnacle of perfection we see Gawain's gradual demise from Arthur's first knight in Chretien's Erec, then supplanted by Lancelot in the poem of the same name: he becomes wanton in Boron's Merlin, the prose Lancelot and Tristram and in the Grail section of the Vulgate cycle he becomes the supreme type of fickle and licentious love.

        Where did Gawain come from and what accounts for his undoing at the hands of the late French romances- and his final ruin at the hands of Malory and Tennyson- all ominously reflected in the strange prophetic remark of William of Malmesbury about the “not degenerate nephew of Arthur” and William's conscious defense of his fame.
         It is theorized that Gawain's very purity and chastity became a threat to those sponsoring the French romances of courtly
love. Not that chastity was a threat in itself, but the whole French theme of the very human struggle between the devotion of a knight to his 1iege lord, his duty, and his consuming passion for an unobtainable lover. This conflict was the very essence of the romances, all this could be destroyed by the purity of one who does not seem to be tempted; worse still, the medieval idea of the extreme of chastity being celibacy, would destroy the whole court of love. So apparently Gawain not only had to be ousted, he had to be degraded. He might have made it, some think, when the Grail legend came along, but other heroes had appeared on the scene, and in order not to contrast too sharply and thereby degrading Lancelot, the favorite, the pure hero of the Grail had to at least be Lancelot's son.

        In spite of Gawain's fate at the French court, his chastity appealed to the Anglo-Saxons. In English romances, Gawain was the hero of  ten romances, while Lancelot was hero of only the two before mentioned, and Tristram only one. In the beautiful story of Gawain and the Green  Knight he is completely courageous, courteous, and chaste; so much so, that it seemed to be the English writer's pleasure to put him to chastity tests and watch him win every time.

        Oddly, Malory and Tennyson, ignore the early French and late English tradition and go back to the late French tradition where they degrade him royally. In fact, Tennyson seems to tell the whole history of Gawain's fate in a few verses, as he draws us into a belief in his nobility only to use the poor Gawain to typify the worm in the rose at Arthur's court.

        Recall the cruel taunting of Pelleas by the proud Etarre:

"She spake, and at her will they coudn{ld] their spears,
Three against one; and Gawain passing by,
Bound upon solitary adventure, saw
Low down beneath the shadow of those towers
A villainy, three to one; and thro his heart
The fire of honor and all noble deeds
Flashed, and he call'd "I strike upon thy side-
The caitiffs!" "Nay." said Pelleas, "but forbear;
He needs no aid who doth his lady's wurk."

So Gawain, lookin at the viallainy done,
Forbore, but in his heat and eagerness
Trembled and quiver'd as the dog, whthrld
A moment from the vermin that he sees
Before him, shivers ore he springs and kills."

and later when he promises to go into the castle and plead Pelleas' case for him:-

"I pledge my troth,
Yea, by the honor of the Table Round
I will be leal to thee and work thy work"

And then Tennyson gives us just a hint wnen Pelleas says:

Betray me not but help-
Art thou not he whom men call light of love?"
"Ay," said Gawain, "for women e so light,"
Then bounded forward to the castle walls.

Finally Tennyson concludes Gawain's story with the line:

"Alas that ever a knight should be so false!" (Pelleas and Ettare, lines 265-273)

        Here is surely a case where the character is twisted, with justifiable precedent, to suit the author's purpose, historical,
 mythological, literary sources, great purpose and sometimes whim; it is impossible to trace the thousand sources of a thousand themes. But as we said before, the main question is not whence, but why? Why have the Arthur legends persisted through the ages, when similar stories, like that of the glorious Charlemagne blossomed and then died?

        It is said that even in Brittany today, if one dared say that Arthur is dead he might risk being stoned out of town. Could it be that whereas Charlemagne is buried at Aix-la- Chapelle, and

-"A grave for March, and a grave for Gwythur."
"Not wise (the thought) a grave for Arthur 36.."-? 


////////////CONFUSING FOOTNOTE LINKS //////////////////////////////////////////////////

2 Otto Rank. The Myth of the Birth of the Hero (New York, Random House, 1914.)

[2]

3 Lord Raglan, The Hero (London: Pitman Publishing, 1936.) p.vii.

[4]

4 Raglan, p.71

5 Ibid, pps.  73-75.

6 Ibid .p.77.

7 Ibid .p. 148.

8. Ibid. p.145.

9 Ibid..p.149

10 Lewis Spence;Legends and Romance of Brittany. (New York: Frederick P. Stokes and Co.) pps 54-73.

[5]

11 Spence, p.69.

12 Hibbert  p.40

13 Tennyson, Alfred. Idylls of the King. Penguin, London, 1983, lines 167-970.

14 Ashe

15 Goodrich, Norma. Merlin.( New York, Toronto, Franklin:  Watts, 1987, p. 17ff.

16 Black Book of Carmarthen.  (Warner World Book of Literature, p.3437, vol.6..) 

17 Taliesin, p. 495, Mabinogion.

18 Ibid.p.161

19 MacColough, Canon, Religion of the Ancient Celts.

20 Gurteen, S. Humphreys:  The Arthurian Epic (New York , London:Putnam's  Sons, 1895) pps 161-204.

21 Ibid.

22. DLW. Will and Understanding.

23 Joseph Campbell. Hero With a thousand Faces. Bollingen Series XVII. Princeton Univ. Press. 1949.

24 Ibid. pps71-73

25 Gurteen

26 Tennyson, Idylls,  p. 28.

27 MacCana, Celtic Mythology,

28 Ibid. P.313.

29 Ibid. p.308,309.

30. Ibid. 310

31 Ibid. 312.

32 Guest, Charlotte: The Mabinogion. London,  Bernard Quaritch, 1877.

33  Ibid. p.2B.

34 Reese, Celtic Heritage. Great Britain, Alwyn and Brinley Reese, 1961, p. 313.

 

35 Guest, Charlotte. The Mabinogion,  p.19.

36. Chambers, E.K :Arthur of Britain. New York, October House Inc. 1967, p. 63.