Appendix : p. 425 INDEX Aberffraw, marriage of Branwen at, 289. Abergeleu, sacred well at, 415. Achill Island, folk-tales preserved at, 233. Achilles, the Irish, 158. Achren, battle of, 305, 306; castle of, 320. Acrisius, 236. Adamnan's "Life of Saint Columba", 401, 417. Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, 11...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Viii. The Gaelic : p. 89 CHAPTER VIII THE GAELIC ARGONAUTS The preparations for this war are said to have lasted seven years. It was during the interval that there befel an episode which might almost be called the "Argonautica" of the Gaelic mythology. 1 In spite of the dethronement of Bress, the Fomors still...
Appendix. A Few Books Upon Celtic Mythology : p. 419 APPENDIX A FEW BOOKS UPON CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND LITERATURE The object of this short list is merely to supplement the marginal notes by pointing out to a reader desirous of going deeper into the subject the most recent and accessible works upon it. That they should be accessible is, in its...
The British Gods. Chapter Xxi. The Mythological : p. 312 CHAPTER XXI THE MYTHOLOGICAL "COMING OF ARTHUR" The "Coming of Arthur", his sudden rise into prominence, is one of the many problems of the Celtic mythology. He is not mentioned in any of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, which deal with the races of British gods equivalent to the Gaelic...
The British Gods. Chapter Xviii. The Wooing : p. 289 CHAPTER XVIII THE WOOING OF BRANWEN AND THE BEHEADING OF BRN 1 In the second of the "Four Branches", Pryderi, come to man's estate, and married to a wife called Kicva, appears as a guest or vassal at the court of a greater god of Hades than himself--Brn, the son of the sea-god Llyr...
The British Gods. Chapter Xx. The Victories : p. 305 CHAPTER XX THE VICTORIES OF LIGHT OVER DARKNESS The powers of light were, however, by no means invariably successful in their struggles with the powers of darkness. Even Gwydion son of Dn had to serve his apprenticeship to misfortune. As-sailing Caer Sidi--Hades 1 under one of its many...
The British Gods. Chapter Xxii. The Treasures : p. 336 CHAPTER XXII THE TREASURES OF BRITAIN It is in keeping with the mythological character of Arthur that the early Welsh tales recorded of him are of a different nature from those which swell the pseudo-histories of Nennius 1 and of Gfrey of Monmouth. We hear nothing of that subjugati...
Survivals Of Celtic Paganism. Chapter Xxv : p. 397 SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM p. 399 CHAPTER XXV SURVIVALS OF THE CELTIC PAGANISM INTO MODERN TIMES The fall of the Celtic state worship began earlier in Britain than in her sister island. Neither was it Christianity that struck the first blow, but the rough humanity and stern justice...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Xi. The Gods In Exile : p. 132 CHAPTER XI THE GODS IN EXILE But though mortals had conquered gods upon a scale unparalleled in mythology, they had by no means entirely subdued them. Beaten in battle, the people of the goddess Danu had yet not lost their divine attributes, and could use them either to help or hurt. "Gre...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Vi. The Gods Arrive : p. 65 CHAPTER VI THE GODS ARRIVE The people of the goddess Danu were not the first divine inhabitants of Ireland. Others had been before them, dwellers in "the dark backward and abysm of time". In this the Celtic mythology resembles those of other nations, in almost all of which we find an old...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Ix. The War With : p. 107 CHAPTER IX THE WAR WITH THE GIANTS 1 By this time the seven years of preparation had come to an end. A week before the Day of Samhain, the Morrg discovered that the Fomors had landed upon Erin. She at once sent a messenger to tell the Dagda, who ordered his druids and sorcerers to go...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter X. The Conquest : p. 119 CHAPTER X THE CONQUEST OF THE GODS BY MORTALS Of what Badb had in mind when she uttered this prophecy we have no record. But it was true. The twilight of the Irish gods was at hand. A new race was coming across the sea to dispute the ownership of Ireland with the people of the goddess Danu...
Plates In Monochrome : p. xiii PLATES IN MONOCHROME Page CELTIC WORSHIP "facing" "From the drawing by E. Wallcousins" 32 PORTION OF THE CIRCLES, STONEHENGE 42 LUGH'S MAGIC SPEAR "From a drawing by H. R. Millar" 62 BRIAN SEIZES THE PIG-SKIN "From the painting by J. H. F. Bacon, A.R.A." 100 "THE KISSING STONE", CARROWMORE...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Xiii. Some Gaelic : p. 184 CHAPTER XIII SOME GAELIC LOVE-STORIES The heroic age of Ireland was not, however, the mere orgy of battle which one might assume from the previous chapter. It had room for its Helen and its Andromache as well as for its Achilles and its Hector. Its champions could find time to make love...
Chapter Iii. Who Were The 'ancient Britons : p. 18 CHAPTER III WHO WERE THE "ANCIENT BRITONS"? But, before proceeding to recount the myths of the "Ancient Britons", it will be well to decide what people, exactly, we mean by that loose but convenient phrase. We have, all of us, vague ideas of Ancient Britons, recollected, doubtless, from our...
The British Gods. Chapter Xxiv. The Decline : p. 371 CHAPTER XXIV THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS If there be love of fame in celestial minds, those gods might count themselves fortunate who shared in the transformation of Arthur. Their divinity had fallen from them, but in their new rles, as heroes of romance, they entered upon vivid...
Chapter Ii. The Sources Of Our Knowledge : p. 8 CHAPTER II THE SOURCES OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE CELTIC MYTHOLOGY We may begin by asserting with confidence that Mr. Elton has touched upon a part only of the material on which we may draw, to reconstruct the ancient British mythology. Luckily, we are not wholly dependent upon the difficult...
Title Page : CELTIC MYTH & LEGEND POETRY & ROMANCE BY CHARLES SQUIRE With Illustrations In Colour And Monochrome After Paintings By J.H.F. Bacon, A.R.A. And Introduction To Celtic Myth, Legend, Poetry And Romance, Published London, Blackie And Son Limited] [1905] LUGH'S ENCLOSURE Title Page Cover Scanned...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Vii. The Rise : p. 78 CHAPTER VII THE RISE OF THE SUN-GOD 1 It was as a result of the loss of his hand in this battle with the Fir Bolgs that Nuada got his name of "Argetlm", that is, the "Silver Handed". For Diancecht, the physician of the Tuatha D Danann, made him an artificial hand of silver, so skilfully th...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Xii. The Irish Iliad : p. 153 CHAPTER XII THE IRISH ILIAD With Eber and Eremon, sons of Mil, and conquerors of the gods, begins a fresh series of characters in Gaelic tradition--the early "Milesian" kings of Ireland. Though monkish chroniclers have striven to find history in the legends handed down concerning them, they...
The British Gods. Chapter Xix. The War : p. 298 CHAPTER XIX THE WAR OF ENCHANTMENTS 1 Manawyddan was now the sole survivor of the family of Llyr. He was homeless and landless. But Pryderi offered to give him a realm in Dyfed, and his mother, Rhiannon, for a wife. The lady, her son explained, was still not uncomely, and her conversati...
The British Gods. Chapter Xxiii. The Gods : p. 354 CHAPTER XXIII THE GODS AS KING ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS It is not, however, by such fragments of legend that Arthur is best known to English readers. Not Arthur the god, but Arthur the "blameless king", who founded the Table Round, from which he sent forth his knights "to ride abroad redressing...
Preface : p. v PREFACE This book is what its author believes to be the only attempt yet made to put the English reader into possession, in clear, compact, and what it is hoped may prove agreeable, form, of the mythical, legendary, and poetic traditions of the earliest inhabitants of our islands who have...
Appendix. Table Of Pronunciati : p. 447 TABLE OF PRONUNCIATION FOR THE MORE DIFFICULT WORDS A. Stress is of four kinds, and marked here: (1) - (weak stress). (2) : (medium). (3) ' (strong). (4) ; (emphatic). B. Cymric words of more than one syllable have the stress regularly on the antepenult (although there are some words with...
Plates In Colour : p. xi PLATES IN COLOUR Page LUGH'S ENCLOSURE "From the drawing by E. Wallcousins" "Frontispiece THE DREAM-MAIDEN VISITS ANGUS "facing" "From a painting by E. Wallcousins" 140 CUCHULAINN CARRIES FERDIAD ACROSS THE RIVER "From a painting by E. Wallcousins" 172 BLODEUWEDD'S INVITATION TO GROWN PEBYR...
Chapter I. The Interest And Importance : p. 1 THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS CHAPTER I THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY It should hardly be necessary to remind the reader of what profound interest and value to every nation are its earliest legendary and poetical records. The beautiful myths of Greece form a sufficing...
The British Gods. Chapter Xvi. The Gods : p. 249 THE BRITISH GODS AND THEIR STORIES p. 251 CHAPTER XVI THE GODS OF THE BRITONS The descriptions and the stories of the British gods have hardly come down to us in so ample or so compact a form as those of the deities of the Gaels, as they are preserved in the Irish and Scottish manuscripts...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter V. The Gods Of The Gaels : p. 45 THE GAELIC GODS AND THEIR STORIES p. 47 CHAPTER V THE GODS OF THE GAELS Of the two Celtic races that settled in our islands, it is the earlier, the Gaels, that has best preserved its old mythology. It is true that we have in few cases such detailed account of the Gaelic gods as we g...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Xv. The Decline : p. 227 CHAPTER XV THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS In spite, however, of the wide-spread popularity of the ballads that took the form of dialogues between Ossian and Patrick, certain traditions say that the saint succeeded in converting the hero. Caoilt, the other great surviving Fenian, was also...
The Gaelic Gods. Chapter Xiv. Finn And The Fenians : p. 201 CHAPTER XIV FINN AND THE FENIANS 1 The epoch of Emain Macha is followed in the annals of ancient Ireland by a succession of monarchs who, though doubtless as mythical as King Conchobar and his court, seem to grow gradually more human. Their line lasts for about two centuries, culminating...
The British Gods. Chapter Xvii. The Adventures : p. 278 CHAPTER XVII THE ADVENTURES OF THE GODS OF HADES It is with the family of Pwyll, deities connected with the south-west corner of Wales, called by the Romans Demetia, and by the Britons Dyfed, and, roughly speaking, identical with the modern county of Pembrokeshire, that the earliest...
Chapter Iv. The Religion Of The Ancient Britons : p. 31 CHAPTER IV THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS AND DRUIDISM The ancient inhabitants of Britain--the Gaelic and British Celts--have been already described as forming a branch of what are roughly called the "Aryans". This name has, however, little reference to race, and really signifies...
Untitled : Part of the 'Myths and Legends' series published by Gresham in the early 20th century, 'Celtic Myth and Legend' is actually a reissue of a 1905 work, 'The Mythology of the British Islands'. It differs from the rest of the Gresham series because it is a bit more scholarly (it actually h...