by Irish women—and Welsh ones also[1]—in the Middle Ages. The statement that this was the first time the 'keen' was heard, together with the probable allusion in the name Ruadán to weeping and mourning,[2] admits of our supposing that the death of Ruadán came to be compared with that of Abel—a comparison, which, applied in like manner to that of Dylan, would serve to explain why the Welsh story took a turn unfavourable to the reputation of Govannon. In any case, the Irish version proves that the Welsh one is very incomplete, and makes it highly probable that Dylan was originally represented acting as a spy or assailant on behalf of the enemies of Govannon, when the latter slew him. He is never associated with Mâth, Gwydion, Llew or Arianrhod, after the day of his strange birth, and at the last his mourners are the Waves of the British waters, which might pass for a happy expression of the poet's own inspiration: in reality it is older and probably an integral part of the myth, as is proved by the fact that the Waves in the Welsh story take up the place occupied in the Irish one by Ruadán's friends, the Fomori or the mythic dwellers of the deep. One of the chief points of interest of the story consists for us in the ever-recurring conquest of darkness by the Culture Hero and friend of man, in
- ↑ See R. B. Mab. p. 174; Guest, i. 57.
- ↑ At first sight Ruadán might be thought derived from Ir. ruad, 'red,' a colour here not more out of place than the yellowness of Dylan's complexion; but the name is probably of the same origin as Sanskrit rud, 'jammern, heulen, weinen; bejammern, beweinen;' rodana, neut. 'the act of weeping, tears;' also the name of the god Rudra, together with Rodasî sometimes given as the fem. of Rudra. The European cognates include among them Latin rudo, 'I roar,' Lith. raúdmi, O. Bulg. rydaja̧, 'I weep,' A.-Sax. reótan, 'to weep.'
