Rodney Castleden - The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts

Bridei, King of the pagan Pictsin the years after Arthur’s death, had a chief magiciancalled Broichan, who also functioned as a foster father and tutor to the king in true Celtic tradition. The relationship between these two real, documented, and truly historical figures is very similar to that described as existing between Arthur and Merlin in the fully developed medieval romances.

Arthur’s “Merlin” may have even been based on a priest-companion. The Dark Age saints were a law unto themselves—wayward, volatile, intensely committed to their mission, fiercely jealous and competitive, and ever on the alert for the voice of God telling them to pack up and move on. This eccentric and unpredictable behavior is very much what we see in Merlin’s character, even to the disappearing and reappearing. One tradition is that St. Piran was Arthur’s chaplain. Another possibility is that Merlin might be loosely based on St. Dubricius: the bishop credited with crowning Arthur.

Whether Arthurhad a saint or a wizard at his side is hard to tell. Perhaps one of the things that made him extraordinary in his day was that he kept a wizard even though he was at least a nominal Christian. He may have had a wizard in his entourage to get the other point of view.

A king of Gwent, the son of Dyfrig (also known by his Latin name, St. Dubricius).

Meurig married Onbrawst, daughter of Gwrgant Mawr, son of Cynfyn, son of Pebaw, son of Erb, King of Erging. His son was Arthrwys.

See Arthur .

See Urien .

An Iron Age tribein Gaul with its main center at Boulogne.

High King of Ireland from 503. Muirchetach mac Erca held the High Kingship very conspicuously for 30 years, dominating political and military affairs in much the same way that Arthuris thought to have dominated in southern Britain.

“The sound of song and of the harp filled Tara’s halls.” Music had a place at every feast ( See Food and Feasting ), and probably in the musicians’ homes as well. Flutes were made out of bones; pan pipes were made out of bone or wood. There were also horns. The large, curved bronze trumpet found at Lough-na-Shade in County Armagh dates from about 100 BC.

The most remarkable Irish hoard, found at Downs in County Offaly, was a collection of nearly 200 bronze objects that had been deposited in a lake or bog, probably over a long period. Among the objects were 26 great, curving, bronze horns. They would have made a noise somewhere between a bull-horn and a didgeridoo, and they appear to be distinctively Irish in character.

See The Gododdin , Urien.

The bardof Gwenddolau, and the model for the legendary Merlin. Myrddin took no part in the Battle of Arderydd, but he watched it. When he saw his lord killed, he lost his reason and retreated to the Wood of Celidon. By the eleventh century, this had become:

The Battle of Arderydd between the sons of Elifer and Gwenddolau the son of Ceidio; in which battle Gwenddolau fell; Merlin became mad.

According to legend, in the time before Albion (Britain) was peopled, it was known as Clas Myrddin—Merlin’s Grove ( see Symbols: Treasure ).

An Iron Age Celtic tribeliving in southern Brittany, along the lower Loire, with its main center at Nantes.

In 56 BC the Namnetes formed an alliance with the Venetito fight against Julius Caesar’s fleet. The ensuing sea battle was won by the Roman fleet commanded by Decimus Brutus.

An island close to the mouth of the Loire, perhaps the Ile de Noirmoutier, was known as the Women’s Island. No man was allowed to land there. The women living on the island had to sail to the mainland for sex. They had a custom of replacing their temple roof on the same day every year: each woman on the island bringing her own load of materials for the work. If any woman dropped her load, she was torn to pieces by the others, who then carried her limbs around the temple, crying, “Ev-ah!” in a frenzy. If the temple roof was made of reeds, it probably would have needed replacing every year, as described. The Celts were also noted for believing that it was unlucky to drop new materials. Circumambulation, the ritual of walking round a building, was also a common Celtic practice.

The Celtic king of an inland part of Hampshire at the end of the sixth century. He was killed by Cerdic, the leader and later king of the West Saxons.

A High King of Ireland who died while crossing the Alps in 428. He was struck by lightning. It was believed to be divine retribution for his destruction of a tower built by a hermit called Fermenus.

A Cornish saint, the eldest son of King Brychan of Wales. Nectan was killed by robbers who stole his cows.

A fourth-century British saint whose father was King of Alcluith. Ninian studied for several years in Rome. On his way home he visited St. Martin of Tours, who lent him the masons who built the stone church at Whithorn, a holy place with a high reputation in the fifth and sixth centuries. Martin died in 397.

Ninian cured the blindness of King Tuduvallus, the local king, also known as Tuduael or Tutaguel of Alcluith.

When Ninian died, he was buried at Whithorn.

Some of the ancient Celts used a strange alphabet that was developed specifically for making short inscriptions on standing stones. One edge of the standing slab was used as the writingline and short horizontal linear marks were made from this, to right or left or both. They were carved singly or in groups of up to five. In this way 20 different characters could be created.

The resulting alphabet was sometimes known as Beth Luis Nuin, after the (original) first three letters, just as with ABC for our modern Western alphabet. The surviving layout of the alphabet means that the system should logically be called Beth Luis Fearn (one, two, and three horizontal strokes to the right, respectively). The fact that the alphabet is known as Beth Luis Nuin shows that there was a still older Gaelic system, of which only the nickname has survived.

Because the basis of the alphabet was a vertical line and the characters were lines branching to left and right from it, the system was like a tree, and it is sometimes called the Ogham Tree. This idea led on to giving the characters the names of trees. Beth means “birch,” Luis means “ rowan,” and Nuin means “ ash.” The system is a tree; the alphabet itself is a forest. Individual trees held high symbolic significance, so the forest alphabet was deemed to be a repository of wisdom. The word for “knowledge” also means “wood.”

Inscriptions are read from the bottom up, the way a tree grows.