Celtic Heathendom/Errata
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.
Pages 46, 74: the dative Βελησαμι is also given as Βηλησαμι: which is right I know not.
Page 117: for Dubr-duin read Dubr-duiu.
Page 153: y Wenwas means the abode of felicity in the sense of Heaven in the Black Book: see Skene, ij. 46.
Page 167: the allusion to the abbreviation of Maxim in the Nennian genealogies is misleading, as the name occurs also fully written Maxim in them: see the MS. Harl. 3859, fol. 193b.
Page 232: the statement that the sacrifice of human victims to the Gaulish Mercury was unknown is too absolute: see M. P. Monceau on the Great Temple on the Puy de Dôme, in the Revue Hist. 1887, Vol. xxxv. 255, where he quotes Tertullian.
Page 250: for Idrys read Idris.
Page 262: Iarbhoinel is Iarboncoil in the Bk. of Leinster, 8b, and Iardanel, for which see p. 581 above, in the Bk. of the Dun, 16b: both are genitives, and the latter looks as if the nominative might have been Iar-domnal.
Page 415: as to Tailltin, also Taillne at p. 519, one learns from the MS. Harl. 5280, fol. 65a (54a), that Taillne was in the first instance another name of Lug's foster-mother Tailltiu.
Pages 500-1: Pendaran Dyved's rôle is here like that of an Irish druid, and his position answers to the meaning of his name, which probably signifies 'Head-druid of Dyved,' Pendaran being partly derived from dâr, 'an oak.' Compare the etymology of the term Druidae itself, p. 221 above.
Page 511: for Sigfried read Siegfried.
Page 516: I find that the Hwch ᵭu gwta is also remembered in Anglesey.
Page 521. As to the ancient year common to Celts and Greeks, I have now the authority of Dr. Vigfusson for adding the old Norsemen. Their great feast occupied three days called the Winter Nights, and began on the Saturday falling on or between the 11th and the 18th of October. One feature of the feast was the sacrifice to Frey, the god of good seasons; and besides the toasts drunk to the Anses, as alluded to at p. 653 above, a formal commemoration was made of all deceased friends who had gone into the barrows during the year: compare the Welsh Feast of the Dead, p. 515. It was the time when the sibyl, seated on an elevated seat, chanted the fortunes of the coming year: she was consulted on all kinds of questions, but especially as to the seasons, and above all as to the winter then commencing. On the first night the spirits were abroad, and one instance is recorded of a man being slain by them on his going out then; but this was the night when wizards sat out of doors, who wished to consult the demons of the invisible world. Compare the Welsh and Irish beliefs and practices alluded to at pp. 514-7. Dr. Vigfusson thinks that the feast of the Winter Nights was the original Yule, and that it marked the beginning of the ancient year. The whole question is to be the subject of an excursus in Vigfusson and Powell's forthcoming work on Icelandic Origins. It is to be noticed that the Old Norse year approached the astronomical year more nearly than the Celtic one (p. 419), for the reason,probably,that winter—and therefore the year—commences earlier in Scandinavia than in the continental centre from which the Celts dispersed themselves. Vice versa, the Aryan year may, if the Aryan home was at first in the far North, have been originally astronomical, the calendars of the Celts and other Aryan nations having subsequently deviated from it more and more as those nations acquired new homes in more southern latitudes; nor is the fact to be overlooked, that, according to the Syro-Macedonian calendar and others of kindred origin, the year opened with the beginning of October, however that is to be accounted for.
Page 552: Lugaid Corr (Windisch, Ir. Gram. p. 122) should, mythologically speaking, be identified with the slayer of Cúchulainn. Corr, which probably meant a crane, recalls the cranes at pp. 331, 333-4. He should, perhaps, be farther identified with the Lugaid son of Ith who gave his name to the Kerry lake called Loch Lugdech, and better known as Lough Corrane, near Waterville. For a remarkable story about him and Fial his wife, see M. d'A. de J.'s Cycle, p. 253, and the Bk. ofBallymote, 39b, 40a.
Page 554: with the Eo Feasa compare stories of the type of Siegfried eating of the heart of the dragon Fáfnir.
Page 579: for Ollathar read Ollathair.
Page 588: move the accent on Ἰούερνιοι towards the end of the word, or else cancel it, as its place is not known.
Page 619: I see now that the correspondence between the great conflicts entered on by Zeus in Greek mythology, and by the gods holding the same rank in the other Aryan mythologies, admits of being expressed more clearly than I have done. Thus the Titans conquered by Zeus correspond to the Coranians disposed of by Llûᵭ (p. 606), and the Giants quelled by the gods of Olympus with the aid of Heracles to the scourge of the First of May to which Llûᵭ put an end, while Typho, eventually destroyed by Zeus, has his counterpart in the Wizard Knight overcome by Llûᵭ: it is to be noted that in the story of both Typho and the Wizard Knight music plays a most important part, Irish and Norse literature agree, however, in giving us another, and presumably a more original, sequence of the conflicts. Thus the Fir Bolg begin a battle with the Tuatha Dé Danann at Midsummer: they are beaten in it, and they correspond to the Wanes at war with the Anses. In the next place, Nuada's right hand and arm were cut off in a duel with Sreng, which is usually made a part of the Fir Bolg war; but as this is represented extending over a long time, the encounter of Nuada with Sreng is probably to be treated as a separate struggle. The latter, whose name Sreng challenges comparison in point of origin and meaning with the English word strong, is to be set over against the Fenri Wolf biting off one of Týr's hands, and Typho disabling Zeus in his hands and his feet. The third contest was that of the Tuatha Dé Danann with the Fomori, who succeed in slaying many of the former's leaders, and are only beaten by the arrival of Lug the Sun-god, who slays Balor of the Evil Eye and begins his reign of prosperity. The corresponding Norse war is that in which Swart and the Evil Brood attack and slay the Anses, who, however, re-appear with the advent of Balder. The seasons implied by this more ancient sequence of the events are the middle of summer, the beginning of the winter half of the year, and the beginning of the summer half. So mid-winter is left without any great event, and this falls in, as will have been seen, with the season when Zeus languishes helplessly in a cave, and Nuada, deprived of his right hand, vacates his throne for Bres, his Fomorian supplanter. As represented in the Ultonian cycle, it would be Conchobar and the nobles of his court en couvade. Here also should probably be fixed the grievous incarceration of Llûᵭ referred to in the Welsh Triads (p. 577), and here perhaps we are to look for the reason why the Celts had no great feast in the middle of winter. Such may have likewise been the case with the Teutons before their Yule was shifted to that season. Lastly, the death of Nuada and other chiefs of the Tuatha Dé Danann in the battle with the Fomori is to be regarded as a piece of euhemerism. Treated as historical persons the Tuatha Dé must die some time or other; but, mythologically speaking, they should have survived, like the gods of Olympus when Heracles despatched the Giants for them.
Page 643: before Loeg, on his way with Liban to the other world, comes to the two serpents (p. 641), he is said, in the account in verse (Windisch, p. 219), to have seen Bili Buada or Bile of Victory, whose name possibly meant victorious Death, the same Bile, in fact, that was mentioned at pp. 90-1 above as king of Hades under the name of Spain. But the prose paraphrase (Windisch, p. 217), which is probably later, treats Bili as the Irish word bile, which appears to have signified 'any ancient tree growing over a holy well or in a fort.' This raises a question as to the relation between bile and Bile, and suggests another treatment of the chief tree mentioned at p. 188. According to the R. B. Mab. p. 93, it is doubtful whether one should say in Welsh Beli (pp. 90, 644), or the Beli.\
With regard to Rhiannon, I am now inclined to identify her with the moon rather than with the dawn, and similarly in the case of several others whom I have loosely treated as goddesses of dawn or dusk.