Celtic Lore & Legend

by Bob Curran

  “Go now,” she said, “and bring a load of firing to the king, for I went in myself every day for the last year with the load on my back, and I said there was sickness on you.” So he did that.

  Then the men of Connaught and the black host of the exiles of Ulster went into the Hill and robbed it and brought away the crown of Briun, son of Smetra, that was made by the smith of Angus, son of Umor, and that was kept in the well at Cruachan, to save it from the Morrigu. And Nera was left with his people in the hill, and he has not come out till now, and he will not come out till the end of life and time.

  Now one time the Morrigu brought away a cow from the Hill of the Cruachan to the Brown Bull of Cuailgne, and after she brought it back its calf was born. And one day it went out of the Hill and bellowed three times. At that time Ailell and Fergus were playing draughts, for it was after Fergus had come as an exile from Ulster because of the death of the sons of Usnach, and they heard the bellowing of the bull-calf in the plain. Then Fergus said:

  “I do not like the sound of that calf bellowing. There will be calves without cows,” he said, “when the king goes on his march.”

  But now Ailell’s bull, Finbanach, the White-Horned met the calf on the plain of Cruachan, and they fought together, and the calf was beaten and it bellowed.

  “What did the calf bellow?” Maeve asked her cow-herd Buaigle.

  “I know that, my master Fergus,” said Bricriu. “It is the song that you were singing a while ago.” On that Fergus turned and struck with his fist at his head, so that five of the chessmen that were in his hand went into Bricriu’s head and it was a lasting hurt to him.

  “Tell me now Buaigle, what did the calf bellow?” said Maeve.

  “It said indeed,” said Buaigle, “that if its father, the Brown Bull of Cuailgne would come to fight with the White-Horned, he would not been seen any more in Ai, he would be beaten through the whole plain of Ai on every side.” And it is what Maeve said:

  “I swear by the gods my people swear by, I will not lie down on feathers or drink red or white ale, till I see those two bulls fighting before my face.”

  Magical Stones

  No picture of the early Celtic landscape would be complete without its stone rings or individual upright-standing stones. In fact, they have come to characterize all that is Celtic about the countryside and have become so entwined with Celtic mythology that it would be neglectful to omit references to them from this selection.

  For the early Celts also, these stones were symbolic. Many of them had been left over from the great Ice Age. To the Celtic mind, they spoke of ancient giants who had inhabited the lands before them. The great stones were the dwelling places of fierce spirits who coexisted with the Celtic peoples themselves. They were to be treated with reverence.

  It is not clear whether the stone circles that once predominated the Celtic lands are directly attributable to the Celts themselves or to an earlier people. In many instances, they are referred to as “druid circles,” but it is not certain that this is strictly accurate. They were thought to be places of ritual, not only for the Celts but also for the peoples that came before them. Therefore, they were places of great supernatural power. Certainly the druids, the Celtic holy men, may well have used them for their own purposes, thus adding to the occult significance of these sites.

  Possibly the most famous of all these stone circles today is Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in England, which attracts tourists and visitors from all over the world. It is certainly currently the most impressive of all the great megaliths. But in times more ancient, it must have been only one of a number of such menhirs scattered all through the Celtic world. Stonehenge, of course, was believed to have been magically brought from Ireland (where it was known as the Dance of the Giants) in the days of Vortigern, an early Celtic king. There were other great rings in Scotland, the most famous being the Ring of Kingussie in the Upper Spey Valley at the foot of the Cairngorms, which was supposedly used as a courthouse by the infamous Wolf of Badenoch in the 14th century.

  Cornwall, too, was full of stone circles and isolated standing stones. Some of these can still be seen today on the moors and remote hills of the country. The following extract is taken from Robert Hunt’s (1807–1887) essay “Romances of the Rocks,” written around 1880. It is a clear attempt to provide some sort of “scientific” explanation for the ancient rocks and for the myths and legends (many of great antiquity) that surround them by linking them with extremely ancient and mythological traditions and histories.

  Excerpt From “Romances of the Rocks”

  by Robert Hunt

  It is a common belief among the peasantry over every part of Cornwall, that no human power can remove any of those stones, which have been rendered sacred to them by traditionary romance. Many a time have I been told that certain stones had been removed by day, but that they always returned by night to their original positions and that the parties who had dared to tamper with these sacred stones were punished in some way. When the rash commander of a revenue cutter landed with a party of his men and overturned the Logan Rock, to prove the folly of the prevalent superstition, he did but little service in dispelling an old belief, but proved himself to be a fool for his pains.

  I could desire, for the preservation of many of our Celtic remains, that we could impress the educated classes with a similar reverence for the few relics which are left to us of an ancient and a peculiar people of whose history we know so little, and from whose remains we might, by careful study, learn so much. Those poised stones and perforated rocks must be of high antiquity, for we find the Anglo-Saxons making laws to prevent the British people from pursuing their old pagan practices.

  The geologist, looking upon the Logan stones and other curiously formed rock masses dismisses at once from his mind, the idea of their having been formed by the hand of man and hastily sets aside the tradition that the Druids ever employed them, or that the old Celt ever regarded them with reverence. There cannot be any doubt but that many large masses of granite are, by atmospheric causes, now passing into the condition required for the formation of the Logan Rock. It is possible that in some cases, the “weathering” may have gone on so uniformly around the stone as to poise it so exactly that the thrust of a child will shake a mass many tons in weight.

  The result, however, of my own observations, made with much curiosity and considerable care, has been to convince me, that in by far the greatest number of instances the disintegration, though general around the line of a “bed way,” or horizontal joint, has gone on rapidly on the side exposed to the beat of the weather, while the opposite extremity has been but slightly worn; consequently the stones have a tendency to be depressed on the sheltered side. With a little labour, man could correct this natural defect, and with a little skill make a poised stone. We have incontrovertible evidence that certain poised stones have been regarded, through long periods of time, as of a sacred character. Whether these stones were used by the Druids, or merely that the ignorant people supposed them to have some particular virtue, I care not. The earliest inhabitants of Cornwall, probably Celts, were possessed with some idea that these stones were connected with the mysteries of existence; and from father to son, for centuries, notwithstanding the introduction of Christianity, these stones have maintained their sacred character. Therefore, may we not infer that the leaders of the people availed themselves of this feeling; and finding many rocks of gigantic size, upon which nature had begun the work, completed them and used the mighty moving masses to impress with terror—the principle by which they ruled—the untaught, but poetically constituted minds of the people. Dr. Borlase has been laughed at for finding rock-basins, the works of the Druids in every granitic mass. At the same time those who laugh have failed to examine these rock masses with unprejudiced care and hence they have erred as wildly as did the Cornish antiquary; but in a contrary direction. Hundreds of depressions are being formed by the winds and rains upon the faces of the granite rocks. With these no Druid ever
perplexed himself or his people. But there are numerous hollows to be found in large flat rocks which have unmistakeably been formed, if not entirely, partly by the hands of men. The Sacrificing Rock or Carn Brea, is a remarkable example. The longer hollows on the Men-rock in Constantine, several basins in the Logan Rock group and at Carn Boscawen, may be referred to as other examples. With these remarks, I proceed to notice a few of the most remarkable rock-masses with which tradition has associated some tale.

  The Logan or Loging Rock

  [Editor’s Note: Hunt states that much study has been given to the name of this rock mass at Trereen Dinas. The poised central stone—the Logan Rock—appears to be unsteady, and Hunt suggests that the name derives from a local Cornish word “to log,” meaning to move unsteadily or “roll like a drunk man.”]

  Modred, in Mason’s “Caractacus,” addressing Vellinus and Ellidurus says:

  Thither youths,

  Turn your astonished eyes; behold you huge

  And unhewn sphere of living adamant,

  Which, poised by magic, rests its central weight,

  On yonder pointed rock—from as it seems,

  Such is the strange and virtuous property,

  It moves obsequious to the gentle touch,

  Of him whose breath is pure, but to a traitor,

  Though even a giant’s prowess, served his arm,

  It stands as fixed as Snowdon.

  This faithfully preserves the traditionary idea of the purpose to which this very remarkable rock is devoted.

  Up to the time when Lieutenant Goldsmith, on the 8th April 1824, slid the rock from its support, to prove the falsehood of Dr. Borlaise’s statement, that “it is morally impossible that any lever, or indeed force, however applied in a mechanical way, can remove it from its present position,” the Logan rock was believed to cure children who were rocked upon it at certain seasons; but the charm is broken, although the rock is restored.

  [Editor’s Note: The stone was restored to its former site once again by Lieutenant Goldsmith, following a “great excitement” in the locality. A Mr. Davies Gilbert persuaded the Lord of the Admiralty to lend the Lieutenant the required mechanical apparatus in order to return it to its former position.]

  Mincamber, Main-Amber, or Ambrose’s Stone

  A mighty Logan Stone was poised and blessed by Ambrose Merlin not far from Penzance. [Editor’s Note: In some parts of Cornwall, the great Arthurian magician Merlin is sometimes given the Christian name Ambrose, presumably to fit in with Christian legend. Certain Cornish “conjurers,” or local wise men, also adopted this name. It is not clear from Hunt’s account whom he is specifically referring to.] “So great,” says Drayton in his “Polyalbion,” “that many men’s united strength cannot remove it though with one finger may wag it.”

  Merlin proclaimed that this stone should stand until England had no king; and Scawen tells us:

  Here, too, we may add what wrong another sort of strangers have done to us, especially in the civil wars, and in particular by the destroying of the Mincamber, a famous monument, being a rock of infinite weight, which as a burden was laid upon other great stones, and yet, so equally thereon poised up by nature only. That a little child could instantly move it, but no one man or many, remove it. This natural monument all travellers that came that way desired to behold; but in the time of Oliver’s usurpation [Editor’s Note: The rise of the English Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell after the execution of King Charles I in 1649], when all monumental things became despicable, one Sherubsall, one of Oliver’s heroes, then Governor of Pendennes, by labour and much ado, caused to be undermined and thrown down, to the great grief of the country, but to his own great glory, as he thought; doing it, as he said, with a small cane in his hand. I myself have heard him to boast of this act, being a prisoner under him.

  So was Merlin’s prophesy fulfilled.

  [Editor’s Note: Hunt takes this as the fulfillment of an ancient prophesy—the execution of the King and the establishment of a Republic under Cromwell as Lord Protector. The above quotation is taken from C. S. Gilbert’s “Historical Survey.” He also cites Scawen’s “Description of the Cornish Language” and Stukley’s “Stonehenge.”]

  Zennor Coits

  C. Taylor Stephens, lately deceased, who was for some time the rural postman of Zennor sought. In his poem, “The Chief of Barat-Anac”, to embody in a story some description of the Zennor coits and other rock curiosities.

  I employed this man for some weeks to gather up for me all that remained of the legendary lore of Zennor and Morva. He did his work well; and from his knowledge of the people, he learned more from them than any other man could have done. The results of his labours are scattered through these volumes. [Editor’s Note: Hunt refers to the “Drolls, Traditions and Superstitions of Old Cornwall.”]

  C. Taylor Stephens wrote me on the subject of the cromlechs as follows:

  Superstitious Belief respecting the Quoits

  “I was in the neighbourhood of Zennor in 1859, and by accident came across the Zennor cromlech, and was struck with the mode of its construction (not having heard of its existence before), and thinking it bore some resemblance to the Druidical altars I had read of, I inquired of a group of persons who were gathered about the village smithery, whether any one could tell me anything concerning the heap of stones on the top of the hill. One said, ‘Tes caal’d the giant’s kite, thas all I know. At last, one more thoughtful, and one who, I found out, was considered the wiseacre and oracle of the village, looked up and gave me this important piece of information—‘Them ere rocks were put there afore you and me was boren or thoft ov; but who done it is a puzler to everybody in Sunnur (Zennor). I de bleve there put up there wen thes ere world was maade; but wether they was up or no don’t very much mattur by hal akounts. Thes I’d knaw, that nobody caant take car em awa’; if anybody was too, they’d be brot there agin. [Editor’s Note: If the stones were removed from their site, they’d be mysteriously returned before long.] Hees an’ ef they was tuked awa wone nite, theys shur to be had rite up top o’ th’ hill first thing in mornin’. But I can’t tell ‘ee as much as Passon (Parson) can; if you see he, he’d tel he hal about it”

  In one of the notes received from the poet and postman, he gives a curious instance of the many parts a man played in these remote districts but a few years since:

  “My venerable grandpapa was well known by all the old people for he was not only a local preacher, but a character, a botanist, a veterinary surgeon, a secretary to a burial and sick benefit society and, moreover, the blacksmith of the neighbourhood”.

  The Men-an-Tol

  Not more than two miles from Penzance stands the celebrated cromlech of Lanyon—often pronounced Lanine. This, like all other cromlechs, marks, no doubt, the resting place of a British chieftain, many of whose followers repose within a short distance of this, the principal monument.

  Beyond the village of Lanyon, on a “furry down”, stands the Men-an-Tol or the “holed stone”. For some purpose—it is vain to speculate on it now—the bardic priesthood employed this stone, and probably the superstition which attaches itself to it may indicate its ancient uses.

  If scrofulous children are passed naked through the Men-an-Tol three times and then drawn on the grass three times against the sun, it is felt by the faithful that much has been done towards insuring a speedy cure. Even men and women who have been afflicted with spinal diseases, or who have suffered from scrofulous taint, have been drawn through the magic stone, which all declare still retains its ancient virtues.

  If two brass pins are carefully laid across each other on the top edge of this stone, any questions put to the rock will be answered by the pins acquiring through some unknown agency, a peculiar motion.

  The Crick Stone in Morva

  If any one suffering from a “crick in the back” can pass through this forked rock, on the borders of Zennor and Morva, without touching the stone, he is certain of being cured. This is but a substitute
for the holed stone, which, it is admitted, has much more virtue than the forked stone.

  In various parts of the country there are, amongst the granite masses, rocks which have fallen across each other, leaving small openings, or there are holes, low and narrow, extending under a pile of rocks. In nearly every case of this kind, we find it is popularly stated, that any one suffering from rheumatism or lumbago would be cured if he crawled through the openings. In some cases, nine times are insisted on “to make this charm complete”.

  Mrs. Bray in her “Traditions of Devonshire”, gives several examples of the prevalence of this superstition over the granite district of Dartmoor.

  The Dancing Stones, the Hurlers, etc.

  In many parts of Cornwall we find, more or less perfect, circles of stones, which the learned ascribe to the Druids. Tradition and the common people, who have faith in all that their fathers have taught them, tell us another tale. These stones are the everlasting marks of the Divine displeasure, being maidens or men, who were changed into stone for some wicked profanation of the Sabbath-day. These monuments of impiety are scattered over the country; they are to be found, indeed, to the extremity of Old Cornwall, many of these circles being upon Dartmoor. It is not necessary to name them all. Every purpose will be served if the tourist is directed to those which lie more directly in the route which is usually prescribed. In the parish of Borlan, are the “Dawns Myin” or Men—the standing stones—commonly called “The Merry Maidens”, and near them are two granite pillars named the “Pipers.” One Sabbath evening, some of the thoughtless maidens of the neighbouring village. Instead of attending vespers, strayed into the fields, and two evil spirits, assuming the guise of pipers, began to play some dance tunes. The young people yielded to the temptation; and, forgetting the holy day, commenced dancing. The excitement increased with the exercise, and soon the music and the dance became extremely wild; when lo!, a flash of lightning from the clear sky transfixed them all, the tempters and the tempted, and there in stone they stand.