Magic in Celtic and Welsh Mythology

Bryan McGuire

Religion 375

Professor Astrid Beck

term paper

November 16, 2000

he ancient Celtic and Welsh tales were full of magic. From the heroic epics to the early medieval stories told in the oral tradition, almost every account contains instances of magic potions, shape-shifting, otherworld travels and animals, supernatural beings, or mists and super-powerful swords. These are some of the fundamental elements of the tales of ancient lore, combining fact and fantasy, and myth and legend. Most of the writings we have from medieval Ireland, Britain, and the surrounding lands come from the early Christian monasteries, who put many of the oral legends into writing. It is possible that they have changed the stories somewhat to display more of a Christian morality, but a lot of stories relate references to pagan and Celtic beliefs. The adaptation of classic folklore in early Christian Ireland was a way for the people to somewhat preserve their pagan traditions (Chadwick 172). The use of magic and journeys to the otherworld are abundant and obvious throughout these tales, and could be interpreted to be the direct result of religious influences, and the basis for further expansion of Christian and other religions.

To the ancient Celt, the world was a magical and unpredictable place ruled by unseen elements and supernatural forces. Each body of water, rock, and tree contained a spirit. Living in communal tribal groups, the Celts conducted their daily lives spiritually connected to the presence of elemental forces and to nature itself. The people had an unwavering preoccupation with the supernatural, leaving their existence dominated by religious beliefs, with deities and otherworld beings constantly in the background of their daily life. Otherworld beings lived all around them in the most earthly of objects like springs, rivers, lakes, caves, and mountaintops. The Druids were the most profoundly influential of the Celts. These priestly people were held in high regard and were consulted in secular, political, and religious matters. There is a theory that fairies are the souls of the ancient Druids (Sikes 129). Gaius Julius Caesar said, “The whole of the Gallic people is passionately devoted to matters of religion.” (Raftery 178-79) With such a profound interest in nature and religion, combined with a long oral tradition of storytelling, it seems no strange fact that there are many instances of the combination of nature and religion in the tales of the Irish and Welsh regions. This is where they insert the ideas of magic in supernatural forms and the ideas of the magical otherworld. The stories of these ancient mythologies were first and foremost, meant to entertain, and there is little doubt that they started in oral forms. Wise, old storytellers probably told ancient folklore to large groups around a fire, or in a dramatic, somewhat theatrical setting. Young men had to go through many years of learning the oral traditions on their way to becoming Druids. Because these stories were meant to entertain, they contain great exaggerations, grand descriptions, and larger than life characters (Raftery 15). While the tales were put into writing in early Christian monasteries, the stories remain very much pagan, and full of magic and wonder.

One way magic was used to convey the characters of these tales was by using superhuman beings or supernatural foes which were thought to be aligned with magic. The early pagan epic Beowulf has such a being as its main character. Beowulf kills the horrendous monster, Grendel, an abysmal creature, which no warrior before Beowulf could even harm. Grendel is a magical foe, one that is hideous and unnaturally huge. Beowulf then performs his most amazing feat, by diving down to the bottom of the mere-lake, a place where a stag would rather be eaten by wolves than fall into. The mere-lake addresses another issue of magic in its connections through water to the otherworld, which will be addressed later. The hero dives down for an inhumanly amount of time to the bottom where he fights Grendel's mother, another supernatural foe. There is constant reference to Beowulf's incredible strength and the repeated mentioning of his great handgrip is truly super-human. This is evident by him being able to tear off the entire arm of Grendel (Chickering). Another example of a superhuman character is in the Nibelungenlied in Siegfried. Siegfried also has an inhuman super strength and tremendous fighting prowess. He is even more magical than Beowulf, however, as he has impenetrable skin as the result of bathing in the blood of a slain dragon (Hatto). Tristan makes a leap from the church to the sea, which is superhuman and conjures up images of the salmon leap, which is otherworldly in Irish mythology (Spector 48). The Morholt that Tristan fights is definitely a larger than life, magical foe (Spector 10). It was said that no house nor ship could contain Bendigeidfran son of Llyr. He could also crush warriors' heads with his fingers (Ford 67-68). Almost every feature of Arthur is greatly beyond the realm of mortal humans. This use of magic to portray the main characters is not inherently religious except that they are portrayed as god-like. However, there is a good comparison for other cultures. The way these heroes are portrayed in literature is much the same way that other individuals of high regard are displayed in the artwork of other cultures. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, among others represented well-respected or highly important men in artwork in a greater scale, or higher up in the piece of art. Two examples are the Stela of Naramsin, and an amphora with lid from ancient Greece, which contains a scene of Herakles fighting with the Amazons. Each piece shows Naramsin and Herakles, respectively, larger than the other figures and closer to the top.

A common use of magic throughout the Celtic and Welsh tales is through shape shifting. The use of changing the appearance of ones self or of objects is often done in deception as a means of allowing the character to get what they want. It is sometimes performed as punishment as when Gwydion and Gilfaethwy were turned into several different beasts and forced to mate with each other (Ford 96). The use of treachery and deception in the shape shifting create some of the most underlying evil parts of the mythology of these cultures. This is perhaps the beginning of fear of black magic and wicked sorcery. They are not altogether the most evil parts of the tales, but this use of magic was perhaps the most threatening to the early beginnings of Christianity, and probably lead to distrust of the pagans. This fear and ignorance gave way to persecutions and the severe attempts at conversion of Celts to Christianity. Gwydion turned himself and eleven men into poets and then conjured up rich and elaborate horses, saddles, and dogs just to get some swine from Pryderi (Ford 94). He later changed himself and Lleu Llaw Gyffes into shoemakers and conjured up the shoes and a ship, and created an entire army to trick Lleu Llaw's mother, Aranrhod into naming and arming her son (Ford 101-102). Arawn and Pwyll trade shapes, but this shape shifting turns into a great cooperative bond (Ford 37). The idea of shape shifting is connected to the theory of rebirth. The belief of rebirth is a cornerstone of many philosophical systems including those of Buddha, Plato and the Druids. Christianity also uses this theme today, in that Jesus Christ lived in this world and after his mortal death, he was granted a rebirth to the Christian otherworld of Heaven. The most famous of all Welsh heroes, Arthur, is regarded as a reincarnated hero (Evans-Wentz 358-379). Gwion Bach was helping a magician woman make a magic potion when the potion was used on him and she began to chase him. They went into a great chase of shape shifting turning into numerous creatures until Gwion turned into a grain and the woman into a hen. After eating him, she carried him for nine months until he was reborn as Taliesin. He later used shape shifting and trickery to free Elphin, the man that raised him (Ford).

The greatest use of magic in Celtic and Welsh mythology are the references to the otherworld. These are the most deeply spiritual connections to the text. The beliefs of the people of the stories are best expressed in the context of the supernatural otherworld. The best examples of both religious influence in the tales, and the influence of the tales on religion are found in the passages concerning the otherworld. The nature-based character of Celtic religion is at all times evident (Raftery 179). While the Christian otherworld of today is located in a distant, unknown region, the Celtic otherworld is located here on earth. Sometimes regions of the otherworld can be found through caverns, hills, and mountains. It is sometimes said to be in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean, where fairy women come in magic boats to charm away mortal men, or to take great Arthur unto death (Evans-Wentz 332). In every case nature played an enormous role in the otherworld due to the spiritual beliefs of the Celts and others. Birds and animals played a prominent role in ritual activities of the Druids. Rivers were extremely important in Celtic mythology, as they were bound up with the fertility of the soil, a major motif of the pagan folklore (Raftery 179-182). Springs and wells had supernatural, healing powers and many times contained fairies. In these places, magic is much more prevalent and sometimes even time passes differently there. Hagen saw two water spirits who told him of impending doom (Hatto 194). The religious implications here are great as they are described as swan-like, and death angels are often disguised in swan feathers. There are magic fountains at the castle where Tristan and Isolt hide out. There is a great deal of otherworldly influences here as no one can see them while in the castle(Spector 50). The mere-lake from Beowulf, which was mentioned earlier is a great example of the otherworld through water. This has religious overtones as Chickering compares the description of the mere to a vision of Hell by St. Paul (334). Rhiannon's birds were said to sing beautifully for seven years while Bendigeidfran's men feasted at Harlech with his decapitated head as company (Ford 70). The birds sang the dead back to life and the living into death, and the birds hovered out above the waves (Evans-Wentz 332). This relates in another way spiritually, as the Celts believed that the head was the seat of the soul, so in preserving his head, they were preserving his soul (Raftery182). Part of the story of Math son of Mathonwy is very spiritual and otherworldly. A pig leads Gwydion up a brook to an old oak tree, a very sacred symbol. There he finds Lleu, who has shape shifted into an eagle (Ford 107). The whole episode involves a great deal of nature and magic. The Irish ceremony known as the Tarb-feis (bull-feast) is described in the Tain. Animals were used for a greater purpose than a passing mention in the passages about the otherworld. The otherworld was often found through adventure, and often times during the hunt, but always out in the natural environment. Classic animal symbols often lead the passengers to the land of magic, these include boars, stags, and dogs. They are usually a bright white, and sometimes an equally bright red. A wild white boar led Pryderi and Manawydan to the otherworld where they found a fort where none had been there before (Ford 80). While pursuing a large, white deer, King Arthur arrives at Sir Pellinore's well, a magical site, without his hunting party or his horse. White hunting dogs with red ears lead Pwyll to the otherworld during a hunt (Ford 37). Rhiannon arrives from the otherworld on her white horse which they can not catch (Ford 42). In the story of Manawydan, a mysterious mist wipes out all the people and animals except the four main characters (Ford 77). There was an uncommon naturalness in Celtic and Welsh mythology in the ways in which people traveled back and forth between the natural and unnatural worlds. Entering the otherworld and returning is thought to be echoing the initiation rites of the Druids (Evans-Wentz 332).

Most of the magical motifs found in these tales are of Celtic background; the magic of poison and of love potions, the healing of herbs, and dreams and omens all appear in the Romance of Tristan and Isolt (Spector). There is also magic attached to swords. Beowulf uses a magic sword to kill Grendel's mother, Siegfried's sword is said to have killed over seven hundred men, and Arthur pulled the sword out of the stone because it knew he was the rightful king. Cauldrons are also frequently used sources of magic. Matholwch has one that can bring back the dead, there was the magical potion from the story of Gwion Bach which yields three drops of wisdom, with the rest poison, is made in a cauldron (Ford). Cauldrons are symbols of rebirth among other things, and may be references to ancient druidic rituals.

The importance of the role of magic in the Celtic and Welsh tales of mythological lore can be viewed in many ways. One of the roles is obviously to convey that views, practices, and beliefs of the people that make up the stories. The Celts are probably the most spiritually conscious people ever on this earth. The mysteries of life and death are the keynote of all things really Celtic (Evans-Wentz 441). These legends are interesting because there is no recognizable dividing line between the natural and supernatural worlds (Raftery 178). The all-encompassing otherworld included good and bad alike; gods, fairies, demons, and everything else. Just as the magic of the otherworld of these texts is created because of spiritual beliefs, so are there spiritual beliefs created because of the magic of the otherworld. The otherworld of these stories is directly comparable to the heaven world of all religions. Christian texts written around the late ninth century describe heaven as if it were the pagan otherworld. The Celtic otherworld gradually changed into a Christian heaven or hell. Basically all mythologies and religions revolve around an idea of a universal realm of spirit, meaning that Christian practices have a relation more or less direct to paganism and the ideas used to create their mythologies (Evans-Wentz 332). Even Beowulf shows some Christian virtues as he brings the sword back to the king and generously rewards all his men with swords and armor, even though it is an extremely pagan work (Chickering). There is even an Irish version of the old Celtic myth most of us know as the Arthurian cycle-the quest for the Holy Grail, written in the time of transition between paganism and Christianity (Greeley). It is called The Magic Cup, which summarizes the entire thought of this paper; the Celtic and Welsh mythologies contain many elements of magic which are derived from the spirituality of those people. The spirituality is a result of ancient pagan and druidic beliefs, which are comparable to all other religions.

2

---