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, there may not be as many traditional storytellers as there were a century ago, and fewer people may speak the old Celtic languages, but the tales have a way of reinventing themselves or adapting for a new generation. Many Celtic authors, poets, and illustrators have reinterpreted the old tales in new ways, whether directly (as in the retelling of myths by Lady Gregory) or obliquely (as in the way James Joyce wove Fionn mac Cumhaill into his dark and puzzling masterpiece Finnegans Wake). Meanwhile, the explosion of interest in Celtic spirituality among the neopagan community has ensured that the old stories will continue to be told, perhaps with more feeling than has been the case for 1500 years. What’s important to remember is that the stories do not have to conform to a canon or critical edition of any sort. They are tales that live and breathe, and every storyteller who recounts these old adventures, whether aloud or in print, will put his or her own spin on how the tale is told. Details will change, plotlines will evolve, and characters will mature. It’s a mistake to worry about getting myth “right.” Far more useful is to continually ask, “What can this story tell me about myself, and my world?” For that is the mark of a true myth, even when the details are fuzzy.
A side from the druids and bards, the third kind of Celtic wisdomkeepers according to ancient tradition consisted of the seers, or ovates. Classical writers referring to the Celts of mainland Europe indicate that seers, bards and druids were three distinct communities; while in other areas these categories may have been more integrated. For example, in Ireland we find the tradition of the filidh, or visionary-poets—a kind of wisdomkeeper who combines the qualities of bards and seers.
What makes a seer? Begin with the word itself: one who sees. So the seers were the visionaries, the mystics and psychics who were able to receive information from the otherworldly realms. The seers were gifted at interpreting the signs of nature—the omens that could be discerned in the patterns of birds in flight or of clouds overhead. As diviners, the seers were gifted at scrying—the ability to tease meaning and wisdom out of the patterns of a burning flame or a convulsing sacrifice. Whatever the medium, the seer was responsible for receiving raw data, interpreting it, and communicating its meaning to others as messages from the spirit world.
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One gifted seer from Irish myth, the druid Cathbad, uttered a prophecy concerning the birth of a girl who would be named Deirdre. His gloomy prediction foretold of great suffering that would ensue thanks to her (or rather, thanks to stupid things the king would do in regard to her). Need I say that the Ulster Cycle tale known as “Deirdre of the Sorrows” is little more than a detailed recounting of how the seer’s prophecy came to be fulfilled?
Any competent seer possessed the ability to get out of the way of a message coming through from the spirit world. In other words, an essential part of the seer’s role in society entailed his or her ability to prophesy. Among the seers of old, such inspired information may have come from a variety of otherworldly sources—from ancestral or natural spirits as well as from any of a variety of gods or goddesses.
Prophecy is often understood as predicting the future, but that is only a small part of the prophetic function. The best prophecy is not about understanding the future so much as about living well in the present. Master the present, and the future takes care of itself. So even if a seer could predict the future, his primary value would still have been his ability to speak spiritual knowledge and wisdom, as it had more of an immediate use.
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Like Cathbad, at least some seers did enjoy a reputation for prophecy in the popular understanding of revealing the future. Two of the best-known prophetic seers, both from Scotland, were Thomas of Erceldoune (also known as True Thomas or Thomas the Rhymer) and Coinneach Odhar, better known as the Brahan Seer. Thomas lived in the thirteenth century, and according to legend was a bard whose skill with the harp caught the attention of the fairy queen. She approached the harper, beguiled him into being her lover, and whisked him away to the otherworld for seven years—and in return for his being a good sport, gave him the “gift” of an ever-true tongue (in other words, of being forever unable to tell a lie). Four centuries later, the Brahan Seer made a series of predictions about everything from technology to politics; but after telling a local noblewoman about her husband’s infidelity, he was