Read Online Myths and Legends of the Celts (Penguin Reference) by James MacKillop - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: James MacKillop
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Castle in Dorset. Figures of bulls are carved in stone near Burghead, northeastern Scotland.
Bulls were used in divination ceremonies in both Ireland and Scotland. The best-known of these was the
tarbfheis
[bull-feast or bull-sleep] at Tara, in which a new king was chosen by having a man, not the candidate for kingship, feast upon a slaughtered bull, lie under an incantation from druids, and then know the identity of the new king in a dream. Further discussion of early kingship appears in Chapter 3 . A comparable ritual in Gaelic Scotland was the
taghairm
, which required a person seeking the answer to an important question about the future to wrap himself in the steaming hide of a newly slain bull in a remote place, preferably near a waterfall. The supplicant would then learn the answer to his question while in a trance.
The most celebrated bulls in all of Celtic literature are Donn Cuailnge, the Brown Bull of Ulster, and Finnbennach, the White-horned Bull of Connacht, in the great epic of early Ireland,
Táin Βó Cuailnge
[The Cattle Raid of Cooley]. Although never anthropomorphized, the two bulls carry with them the fortunes of their respective provinces. The conflict between them is a constant theme in the narrative, and their final battle, won by Donn Cuailnge, is the climax of the action. Many commentators have observed that the bulls appear to be of divine origin. And in later oral tradition, threatening supernatural bulls are thought to inhabit certain waterways, such as the Scottish Gaelic
tarbh uisge
and the Manx
taroo ushtey
. A distant echo of the
Táin
narrative may be indicated by carvings on the stone known as Cloch nan Tarbh near Loch Lomond, in which a Scottish bull is depicted as defeating an English one.
Not being maritime peoples, the ancient Celts made relatively slight iconographic use of marine creatures. The dolphin appears widely in religious art, and a prominent dolphin on the Gundestrup Cauldron is ridden by a small male figure, perhaps a godling. Unidentifiable fish, possibly salmon, are portrayed on certain Gallo-Roman altars. Nodons, ancient god of the Severn in western England, is shown hooking a salmon. But it is not until we approach the vernacular tradition that we find extensive references to marine life, especially that living in fresh waters, the eel, the trout and, most conspicuously, the salmon.
In early Irish and Welsh traditions salmon are the repositories of otherworldly wisdom, esoteric knowledge that they have gained by eating hazelnuts fallen into pools at the headwaters of important rivers. As salmon swim from salt to fresh water, they may have been seen as travellers between worlds. Their ability to swim against the current and up cataracts easily excites human imagination, and their pink flesh may have evoked human flesh. Two salmon of wisdom are cited in Fenian stories, both touched by the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, one at the pool of Linn Féic along the Boyne River and the second at the Falls of Assaroe on the Erne waterway. In the former, better known story, the bard Finnéces (whose name can be confused with Fionn’s, often Finn in Old Irish) has been fishing for the salmon for seven years when the youthful hero happens along. Finnéces thinks his patience has been rewarded when he finally catches the fish and begins cooking it over a fire. But Fionn touches the cooking salmon with his thumb, burning it, and thrusts it into his mouth, thus giving himself the otherworldly wisdom Finnéces had sought. A comparable Welsh salmon swims under the name Llyn Llyw in the Severn and is the ‘wisest of forty animals’ and ‘the oldest of living creatures’; it tells the hero Culhwch where the youthful Mabon is being held prisoner.
Human interactions with salmon take many forms. Like the Norse god Loki who took the form of a salmon to escape detection, several personages are wholly or partly transformed into salmon, such as the poet Amairgin of the Milesians, Fintan mac Bóchra
Bulls were used in divination ceremonies in both Ireland and Scotland. The best-known of these was the
tarbfheis
[bull-feast or bull-sleep] at Tara, in which a new king was chosen by having a man, not the candidate for kingship, feast upon a slaughtered bull, lie under an incantation from druids, and then know the identity of the new king in a dream. Further discussion of early kingship appears in Chapter 3 . A comparable ritual in Gaelic Scotland was the
taghairm
, which required a person seeking the answer to an important question about the future to wrap himself in the steaming hide of a newly slain bull in a remote place, preferably near a waterfall. The supplicant would then learn the answer to his question while in a trance.
The most celebrated bulls in all of Celtic literature are Donn Cuailnge, the Brown Bull of Ulster, and Finnbennach, the White-horned Bull of Connacht, in the great epic of early Ireland,
Táin Βó Cuailnge
[The Cattle Raid of Cooley]. Although never anthropomorphized, the two bulls carry with them the fortunes of their respective provinces. The conflict between them is a constant theme in the narrative, and their final battle, won by Donn Cuailnge, is the climax of the action. Many commentators have observed that the bulls appear to be of divine origin. And in later oral tradition, threatening supernatural bulls are thought to inhabit certain waterways, such as the Scottish Gaelic
tarbh uisge
and the Manx
taroo ushtey
. A distant echo of the
Táin
narrative may be indicated by carvings on the stone known as Cloch nan Tarbh near Loch Lomond, in which a Scottish bull is depicted as defeating an English one.
Not being maritime peoples, the ancient Celts made relatively slight iconographic use of marine creatures. The dolphin appears widely in religious art, and a prominent dolphin on the Gundestrup Cauldron is ridden by a small male figure, perhaps a godling. Unidentifiable fish, possibly salmon, are portrayed on certain Gallo-Roman altars. Nodons, ancient god of the Severn in western England, is shown hooking a salmon. But it is not until we approach the vernacular tradition that we find extensive references to marine life, especially that living in fresh waters, the eel, the trout and, most conspicuously, the salmon.
In early Irish and Welsh traditions salmon are the repositories of otherworldly wisdom, esoteric knowledge that they have gained by eating hazelnuts fallen into pools at the headwaters of important rivers. As salmon swim from salt to fresh water, they may have been seen as travellers between worlds. Their ability to swim against the current and up cataracts easily excites human imagination, and their pink flesh may have evoked human flesh. Two salmon of wisdom are cited in Fenian stories, both touched by the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, one at the pool of Linn Féic along the Boyne River and the second at the Falls of Assaroe on the Erne waterway. In the former, better known story, the bard Finnéces (whose name can be confused with Fionn’s, often Finn in Old Irish) has been fishing for the salmon for seven years when the youthful hero happens along. Finnéces thinks his patience has been rewarded when he finally catches the fish and begins cooking it over a fire. But Fionn touches the cooking salmon with his thumb, burning it, and thrusts it into his mouth, thus giving himself the otherworldly wisdom Finnéces had sought. A comparable Welsh salmon swims under the name Llyn Llyw in the Severn and is the ‘wisest of forty animals’ and ‘the oldest of living creatures’; it tells the hero Culhwch where the youthful Mabon is being held prisoner.
Human interactions with salmon take many forms. Like the Norse god Loki who took the form of a salmon to escape detection, several personages are wholly or partly transformed into salmon, such as the poet Amairgin of the Milesians, Fintan mac Bóchra
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