CHAPTER X.

RELIGION.

Religion of the British tribes-Its influence on the literature of romance-Theories about Druidism-The Welsh Triads-Their date and authority-Legend of Hugh the Mighty-Mythological poems of the Bards-Taliesin-Nature of the poems written under his name-Religion of the Gauls-Its nature-The greater gods— Dis Pater-The mode of reckoning by nights-The Gaulish Mercury and Minerva -The worship of Belenus — Adoration of plants-Esus-Teutates—Camulus— Taranis-Goddesses and helpmates of gods-Local deities-The Mothers-Giants -Inferior gods—Origin of Druidism—Druidism in Britain --Scottish and Irish Druids-The nature of their ceremonies-Their magic-Position of the Druids in Gaul-Their philosophy-Human sacrifices-Relics of the practice-Its traces in Britain and Ireland-Slaughter of hostages-Sacrifices for stability of buildings -Doctrines of the Druids-Their astronomy-Metempsychosis-Disappearance of Druidism-From the Roman provinces-From Ireland and Scotland-Other remains of British religions—How preserved-In legends of saints—In romance— General character of the religion-Nature of the idols-Superstitions about natural phenomena-Mirage-Sunset-Mineral springs-Laughing wells-Worship of elements-The Irish gods-The Dagda-Moon-worship-Degradation of British gods-Their appearance as kings and chiefs-In the fabulous history-In the heroic songs-Principal families of gods-Children of Don-of Nudd-of Lir-Legends of Cordelia-Bran the Blessed-Manannan Mac Lir-Ritual-Relics of Sunworship-of fire-worship-Rustic sacrifices-Offerings of animals to saints-Sacred animals-Prohibition of certain kinds of food-Connected with claims of descent from animals-Origin of these superstitions.

THE

HE religion of the British tribes has exercised an important influence upon literature. The mediæval romances and the legends which stood for history are full of the "fair humanities" and figures of its bright mythology. The elemental powers of earth and fire, and the spirits which haunted the waves and streams, appear again as kings in the Irish Annals or as saints and hermits in Wales. The Knights of the Round Table, Sir Kay and Tristram and the bold Sir Bedivere, betray their divine origin by the attributes which they retained as heroes of romance. was a goddess, "Dea quædam phantastica," who bore the

It

wounded Arthur to the peaceful valley.1 "There was little sunlight on its woods and streams, and the nights were dark and gloomy for want of the moon and stars." This is the country of Oberon and of Sir Huon de Bourdeaux. It is the dreamy forest of Arden. In an older mythology it was the realm of a King of Shadows, the country of "Gwyn ab Nudd," who rode as Sir Guyon in the Faerie Queene

"And knighthood took of good Sir Huon's hand

When with King Oberon he came to Fairyland."

The history of the Celtic religions has been obscured by many false theories which need not be discussed in detail. The traces of revealed religion were discovered by the Benedictine historians in the doctrines attributed to the Druids if the Gauls adored the oak-tree it could only be a remembrance of the plains of Mamre; if they slew a prisoner on a block of unhewn stone, it must have been in deference to a precept of Moses. A school pretending to a deeper philosophy invented for the Druids the mission of preserving monotheism in the West. In the teaching of another school the Druids are credited with the learning of Phoenicia and Egypt. The mysteries of the "Thrice

3

1 Girald. Cambr. Spec. Eccles. c. 9; Itin. Cambr. i. c. 8. 24 'Gwyn ab Nudd" was the Welsh fairy-king. See Guest's Mabinogion, 263. In the curious story of "Kilhwch and Olwen" we find him described as "Gwynn the son of Nudd whom God has placed over the brood of devils in Annwn, lest they should destroy the present race." (Ibid. 241.) He is represented as a warlike spirit or battle-god in a dialogue cited (ibid. 263) from the Myvyrian Archæology, i. 165. "Gwyn, son of Nudd, the hope of armies, legions fall before thy conquering arm, swifter than broken rushes to the ground."

3 "Les Druides ne nous apparaissent que dans la splendeur de Dieu.” Reynaud, L'Esprit de la Gaule, 5; Leflocq. Mythol. Celt. 49.

great Hermes" were transported to the northern oakforests, and every difficulty was solved as it rose by a reference to Baal or Moloch. The lines and circles of

standing-stones" became the signs of a worship of snakes and dragons. The ruined cromlech was mistaken for an altar of sacrifice with the rock-bason to catch the victim's blood and a holed-stone for the rope to bind his limbs.

The Welsh Triads became the foundation of another theory. They profess to record the exploits of a being called Hugh the Mighty, who led the Cymry from the Land of Summer to the islands of the Northern Ocean. If the legend had not been accepted by M. Martin and other French historians as containing the echo of a real tradition, we might disregard it as completely as the adventures of the Irish in Egypt or the prophecies of the dreamer Merlin. We may expect that the mythical history will soon fall back into oblivion; but meanwhile it seems necessary to give some short account of the story itself and of the controversy respecting its origin.

The date of the historical Triads has been approximately fixed by the form of their language and by other internal evidence.1 Although some few are found in poems of the twelfth century it is clear that they mostly belong to the period between the Conquest of Wales and the rebellion of Owen Glendower, whose bard "Iolo the Red" was the chief compiler of the history of Hugh the Mighty, whom the Welsh call "Hu Gadarn." "Hu Gadarn." The principal collection is preserved in the Red Book of Hergest in the library of Jesus College at Oxford, and the pre

1 Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, 169, 429, 493; Turner, Hist. Anglo-Saxon, i. c. 2; Skene, "Four Ancient Books of Wales," and "Celtic Scotland," i. 172; Valroger, Les Celtes, 395.

ceding contents of the book show that this collection was made after the commencement of the fourteenth century. The Triads failed to attract much attention in England until their publication in the Myvyrian Archæology in the early part of this century. They were soon afterwards translated into English, and were published by Probert as an appendix to his "Ancient Laws of Cambria." They became famous for a time when Sharon Turner in England and Michelet in France vindicated the historical character of the ancient British poems; but in our own. country they have relapsed into neglect, though a few speculations are hazarded from time to time as to the origin of the word "Lloegria" or the position of "the Hazy Sea."1

The legend of Hugh the Mighty certainly contains direct allusions to the Welsh mythology, but in the main it is a travesty of the life of the Patriarch Noah, tricked out with such scraps of learning as a bard might have gathered in a library. It is confused by an intermixture of the exploits of Hugh of Constantinople, a paladin of romance who took part in the adventures of the legendary armies of Charlemagne. There are further allusions which imply that all this mystical doctrine was nothing but orthodoxy in disguise; and the change may have become necessary when the legend was accepted as the plot of a popular miracle-play.

The language of some of the poems would suggest that Hugh the Mighty was a solar god. His chariot is de

1 "Môr Tawch" may mean the "Hazy" or the "Dacian" Sea, the latter word being taken in the sense of Danish. If the last interpretation is correct, the date of the Triad in which the phrase occurs will be fixed about the twelfth century. Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, 428.

scribed as "an atom of glowing heat": he is said to be greater than all the worlds, "light his course and active, great on the land and on the seas"; and his two great oxen are bright constellations in the firmament.1

In the first age of the world he instructed the Cymry in the arts of agriculture poetry and government. When the earth was destroyed by fire and water he saved a remnant of men and animals in his ark. The monster which caused the deluge was dragged from the waters by the sacred oxen the enchanter "Gwydion" sets a rainbow in the sky as the sign of a covenant with mankind. The Cymry are settled at first in "Deffrobani," which can only be intended for "Taprobane," the classical name of Ceylon; but the scribe has added in a note, "this is where Constantinople stands." The Cymry are followed by the Lloegrians from Gascony, whose name is probably derived from that of the River Loire, and by the "Brythons" from the shore of Armorica. Three "refuge-seeking tribes" take shelter in the Highlands and the Isle of Wight; and there are allusions to the Caledonian Forest and to the ancient floods which overwhelmed the Cimbri. We then read of the invading tribes, the Picts, the Coranians of the eastern coast and the Saxons, in whose arrival the secular tragedy culminates. "The crown of monarchy" is wrested from the Cymry the Lloegrians unite with the German invaders, "and of the Lloegrians who did not become Saxon there remain none but those who inhabit Cornwall and the Commote of Carnoban."

The Welsh bards retained a stock of tropes and allu

1 Nash, Taliesin, 307; Guest's Mabinogion, 284.

2 This district is described in the Triads as being "in the Kingdom of Deira and Bernicia."