The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts. Rodney Castleden

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СКАЧАТЬ surviving Celtic place-names. For a long time after the Anglo-Saxon colonization period (about AD 400–700), Celtic and Anglo-Saxon names existed side by side. Sometimes it is the Celtic name rather than the English name that we know today. The Cotswold Windrush River had an English name, Dikler, which died out as late as the sixteenth century; we now call the river by its older Celtic name, even though it has (or had) an Anglo-Saxon name. The Cotswold Hills take their name from a Celtic word and an Anglo-Saxon word. Cuda was a goddess of the Dobunni tribe; wold was the Anglo-Saxon word for a wooded upland.

      In the Roman occupation and the post-Roman period, Celtic kings and princes thought it smart to use Latin. Grave markers from the fifth and sixth centuries are often inscribed in Latin. A gravestone at Penmacho in North Wales reads CARAVSIVS HIC IACIT IN HOC CONGERIES LAPIDVM, “Here lies Carausius in this heap of stones.”

LEARNING

      Celtic society was highly structured and it allowed for the cultivation of learning and literature. There were professional classes who were responsible for their maintenance: the Druids, the bards, and a third order between them, known in Ireland as “the poets.”

      In Ireland by the seventh century AD the Druids had disappeared, as they bore the brunt of the Church’s opposition, and the intermediate group, known as the filidh, were the sole inheritors of the druidic tradition. The filidh managed to establish a remarkable modus vivendi with the Church that enabled the two authorities to continue running side by side and were therefore able to maintain many of their ancient functions. The Irish bards suffered an eclipse too, as they limped on with a reputation as inferior rhymers.

      In Wales, it was again the poets, or filidh, who emerged from the clash with Christianity in a position of strength, or at least with an enhanced and dignified reputation. Confusingly, the Welsh equivalents of the filidh were called bards.

      According to Julius Caesar’s description, the Druids in Gaul were teachers and disciples of learning. They distrusted the written word, committing vast amounts of poetry to memory. Caesar said the period of study necessary to become a Druid lasted 20 years. Similarly in Ireland, it took at least seven years to qualify for the filidh.

      We know the Druids had views about the size and nature of the universe, but unfortunately we do not know what those views were.

LEONORUS

      Leonorus (510–61) was a pupil at Illtud’s school and confirmed by Dubricius at the age of 15. He emigrated to Brittany with 72 disciples and many servants, landing near Dinard.

      They cleared a wooded site of trees, but the seed corn they had brought from Britain had been lost on the voyage. Fortunately, they were miraculously helped by a robin and Leonorus also dug up a golden ram.

      The king of the Breton territory, Rigaldus, died and the land was annexed by Conomorus. To escape persecution by Conomorus, Leonorus and others escaped to Paris. There, Leonorus presented the golden ram he had found to Childebert, in exchange for confirmation of his rights to land in Brittany.

      Conomorus was defeated in 560, and Leonorus died soon afterward.

LEUDONUS

      Leudonus, or Llew mac Cynvarch, was a brother of Urien, King of Rheged. He was ruler of Lodoneis and the father of Gwalchmai (Gawain).

      LINDOW MAN

      See Places: Lindow Moss.

      LLEW MAC CYNVARCH

      See Leudonus.

      LLYWARCH HEN

      See Rhun, Son of Maelgwn.

      LOEGAIRE

      See Ciaran of Saigar, Fiacc of Sletty, Patrick.

      LUERNIOS

      See Arverni, Bards.

      LUGID

      See Aillel Molt.

      MACLOVIUS

      See Malo.

      MAELGWN

      The great king of Gwynedd, who ruled in North Wales from about 517 until his death in 547. His father was Caswallon Lawhir, son of Einion Urdd, son of Cunedda Gwledig, son of Edeyrn. He is mentioned in an inscription made in about 540 at Penmachno; there he appears as MAGLO MAGISTRATUS—“King Maelgwn.” He appears in Gildas’s Ruin of Britain as Maglocunus and of the five kings Gildas singled out for condemnation, it was Maelgwn he dealt with most harshly:

       What of you, dragon of the island [Anglesey, where Maelgwn’s home was], you who have removed many of these tyrants from their country and even this life? You are last in my list, but first in evil, mightier than many both in power and malice, more profuse in giving, more extravagant in sin, strong in arms but stronger still in what destroys a soul, Maglocunus. Why wallow like a fool in the ancient ink of your crimes like a man drunk on wine pressed from the vine of the Sodomites? The king of all kings has made you higher than almost all the generals of Britain.

      Maelgwn died in the Yellow Plague of Rhos in 547, and was succeeded by his son Rhun by his concubine Gwalltwen (See Arthur; Myths: The History of Taliesin).

MAGICIANS

      The Druids, ovates, and bards were in some ways part of the public religious cult, because they formed colleges or fraternities. But there were others who were on the fringes: the magicians СКАЧАТЬ