THE PATH OF MYTHOLOGY
As the stories, particularly in the Irish tradition, have come down to us, they are organized neither by chronology nor by key characters, but by theme. The myths include battles, invasions, wooings, visions, cattle-raids, adventures, voyages, feasts, deaths, and so forth. Modern storytellers, however, have tended to try to put the tales into some semblance of order, and so have developed a series of cycles that cover the sweep of Irish mythic history, from the first inhabitants of the land up to the semi-legendary tales of early historical kings. As might be expected, the myths begin with the exploits of gods and godlike beings; eventually such supernatural figures are reduced to fairies. But even the mortal heroes have a larger-than-life quality about them, a theme that plays out in several tales that involve time-travel: someone from the mythic era, upon encountering mortals from a later age, always finds them as small and weak compared to the robust heroes of old.
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We have no Celtic creation myth. That may be because the Christians who preserved the myths felt it improper to recount a story that contradicted the book of Genesis. But it may also say something about the Celtic understanding of the universe—not as a stage that at some original moment was fashioned ex nihilo, but as an endlessly woven knot or spiral of existence, without beginning, without end. Irish myth begins with a series of “invasions”—stories about the first inhabitants of Ireland, who came in wave after mythic wave of settlers, invaders and conquerors. The drama mounts with each new tribe or family, culminating in three climactic battles, in which gods, heroes, demons, and finally, mortals, fight for sovereignty and ascendancy. The last of these battles sets the stage for the ongoing relationship between mortals and spirits—we humans live above the surface, while the gods/fairies/ancestors dwell in the underworld.
That first sequence of stories is called the Mythological Cycle. Next comes the Ulster Cycle, so called because most of the action takes place in Ireland’s northern province. The Ulster Cycle tells the story of Cúchulainn, the greatest of Celtic warriors, and his mighty exploits, particularly during the cattle raid of Cooley when Queen Meadbh attempts to steal a great brown bull—and Cúchulainn single-handedly opposes her.
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In the Heroic Cycle of Irish myth we meet Fionn mac Cumhaill, who is not a god, or the son of one, but rather an ordinary boy who gains his supernatural skills by eating a magical fish. Fionn becomes the leader of a legendary band of hunter-warriors called the Fenians, whose job it is to serve as guardians of the land. Such guardianship could have spiritual as well as military implications—indeed, Fionn proves himself to the high king by successfully defeating a fairy monster that had taken to burning the great hall at Tara to the ground every year at Samhain. The tales of Fionn and the members of his war band, however, have as much to do with their own interpersonal dynamics as with enemies they must vanquish.
Then comes the Historic Cycle, fourth and final of the Irish mythic cycles. These tales are the least otherworldly of the myths, although enough interaction between the human and fairy realms takes place in these adventures to make them worthy of the best storyteller. Actual historical figures begin to show up, although often with mythic elements interwoven into their stories—like George Washington throwing the coin across the river, these tales represent the rubbing places where myth and history meet. A favorite theme in the Historic Cycle involves human encounters with otherworld beings—setting the stage, naturally enough, for the rich legacy to follow in the centuries-old fairy tradition of the common Celtic people.
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Welsh mythology, unfortunately, is neither as comprehensive nor as coherent as its Irish counterpart. Although the oldest manuscripts are about the same age as those preserved in Ireland, the stories they contain seem either younger, or more thoroughly tampered with. Post-Celtic religious and social ideas permeate the Welsh tradition, making these tales an interesting bridge between the more purely pagan myths of Ireland, and the high chivalry of the Arthurian legends—which grew out of Welsh myth but found their fullest expression in the courts of medieval France.
The key story cycle in the Welsh tradition is the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, often misspelled as Mabinogion, thanks to an error on the part of one of the first translators to render these tales into modern English. In this collection of myths we meet goddesses like Rhiannon, gods like Bran, heroes like Pwyll, and druids like Gwydion. The tales of the Mabinogi repeatedly explore mother—son relationships, leading many to feel that it represents an initiation into a cult of the mother goddess and her beloved son—god. Often included in modern translations of the Mabinogi are several other stories and romances, including one of the earliest tales of the Holy Grail, several heroic quests, and the moving, shamanistic tale of the birth of the great bard Taliesin.
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It’s great fun to explore history with an eye to discovering the fate of the “real” Arthur. Probably a tribal chieftain in the chaos of Britain after fifth-century Roman troops suddenly withdrew, he may have been a leader in fighting against the encroaching Saxon presence on the island. Our knowledge of the historical figure—assuming he ever existed—can only be speculative, but the development of the mythic King Arthur is far easier to trace. He began as a shadowy figure in Welsh poetry and Romance, only to become something of a literary sensation after being exported to Brittany and France. The marriage of Celtic myth and medieval courtly literature proved powerful enough to still arouse our hearts and imaginations a thousand years later. The Arthurian cycle grew in the telling, combining shadowy figures like Merlin and Morgan LeFay, whose origins clearly lie in Celtic myth, with more purely literary creations like Lancelot. Ironically, the tales of King Arthur have long eclipsed all other forms of Celtic mythology as the image of Celtic romance that most people would first think of—ironic because the Arthurian saga is the least authentically Celtic of any myths associated with this heritage.
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In our modern efforts to understand the wisdom and lore of the ancient Celts, we have other resources besides just the stories of myth. A wonderful collection of “triads”—a literary form used as a tool for memorizing key information—provides glimpses into the lore of the ancients, as does a charming Irish anthology called the Dindshenchas (“the lore of prominent places”), which collects legends and poems that explain the names of natural features in the landscape. Many such names have mythical origins, and so the stories in the Dindshenchas provide as much of an insight into myth as into the history of names.
Finally, there is the vast body of folklore: oral (and more recently, written) traditions of tales, poems, and ballads, some of which have fascinating similarities to the old myths, all of which provide insights into how the Celtic mind works and how Celts, from ancient times to the present, have made sense out of the world in which they live.
Both Irish and Welsh myth come to us in fragmentary form, a frustrating matter for the modern seeker of wisdom. But remember what was said of the druids: “they speak in riddles … hinting of things and leaving a great deal to be understood.” In a way, the mythic tradition is the greatest riddle of all.
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Mythology lives. Sure,
