Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

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the lover of a friend of TRYSTAN’s. When the

story evolves into that of Tristan and ISEULT, the

maid’s name is given as BRANGIEN.

Good God, The See DAGDA.

goose Symbolic bird. Both the tame and the

wild goose (see BARNACLE GOOSE) had mytho-

logical and symbolic significance to the Celts.

The barnyard goose, a notoriously aggressive

being, was seen as an image of the warrior

divinities, both male and feamle. Stone geese

lined the temples of Gaul, while Brittany pro-

duced bronzes of war goddesses with goose-head

helmets. Given this symbolism, it is ironic that

the Celtic siege of Rome was ended when the

geese of the goddess Juno Moneta’s temple set

up such a commotion that the defenders were

roused and the invading Celts defeated. So

strong was the identification of Celtic people

with the goose that the animal was a taboo food

among the Britons, used for DIVINATION and

eaten only on ritual occasions. Some FAIRY

beings could change by SHAPE-SHIFTING into

geese, as could the waterbird-hero Geroid Iarla.

Goreu (Goreu fab Custennin) Welsh hero. A

relatively obscure character, Goreu appears as a

hidden child in the story of

KUHLWCH AND

OLWEN—hidden because a GIANT, OLWEN’s father

YSPADDADEN PENKAWR, had eaten his 22 earlier-

born siblings. Freed by king ARTHUR, Goreu

became a member of the court of CAMELOT and

ultimately slew his family’s gigantic enemy.

Gorgon Greek goddess. A familiar icon to the

Romans was the decapitated HEAD of the

Gorgon Medusa, whose image from Greek

mythology was taken over by them and used as

an apotropaic or warning sign. When the

Roman legions arrived in Celtic lands, they

found a well-established cult of the head; the

Gorgon seemed a familiar emblem and was

adopted into some Romano-Celtic temples,

most notably that of SUL at the famous thermal

springs or AQUAE SULIS at Bath in southwestern

Britain. While Medusa was a goddess, the Celtic

sacred head was typically a male one; thus the

“male Gorgon” found in the temple of Sulis is a

unique melding of Greek, Roman, and Celtic

meanings in one image.

Gorias Irish mythological site. Somewhere in

the OTHERWORLD was the magical city of Gorias,

from which the TUATHA DÉ DANANN received

one of their great treasures, the spear of LUGH.

Gorlois Arthurian hero. IGRAINE, one of the

most beautiful women in Wales, was married to

the duke of Cornwall, Gorlois, and was the

mother of several daughters, including the mag-

ical MORGAN and the doomed MORGAUSE.

Although she was happy with her husband,

Igraine caught the attention of the heroic UTHER

PENDRAGON, who wished to take her to bed.

Igraine was a faithful wife, however, and so

Uther conspired with the magician MERLIN to

appear to Igraine in the body of her husband.

Igraine did not know that Gorlois was already

dead by Uther’s hand when she conceived

ARTHUR, the once and future king of Britain.

Gorm (Gorm the Grim) British mythologi-

cal site. The image of a GIANT of this name is

carved into the side of the gorge of the River

Avon. Gorm probably descended from a local

divinity made monstrous by the interpretations

of Celtic (possibly Viking) religion by Christian

priests. The image was said to represent a canni-

bal; vestiges of belief in a figure with this name

are also found in Orkney.

gorse Symbolic plant. A hardy plant found

throughout Ireland and Britain, gorse grows in

harsh as well as fertile conditions. In spring the

tough prickly bushes burst out with velvety fra-

grant yellow flowers, some of which remain

through the summer. It had two major uses: as a

224 Good God, The

fuel, for it is plentiful and burns at an intense

heat; and as the mainstay of hedges, for CATTLE

hesitate to approach its spiny, dense growth. In

Wales, a sprig of gorse was worn as protection

against WITCHCRAFT. (See also FURZE.)

Govannon (Gofannon, Gafannon) Welsh

god. The Welsh SMITH god, a parallel deity to

the Irish GOIBNIU, was a great artificer linked

with the magician king MATH. Smithcraft was

considered almost magical in early times, when

the refining of metal was still a new and rare

process. The divine smith had agricultural pow-

ers as well, for it was he who cleaned the plows

at the end of planting, to ensure that the tools of

abundance would serve another year.

Govannon appears in the collection of myths

called the MABINOGION as the accidental mur-

derer of the goddess ARIANRHOD’s magical son

DYLAN, who was mourned by the very waves of

the sea. In folklore Govannon was renamed

GOBAN SAOR and described as the builder of early

churches. In addition to his role as god of crafts-

manship, Govannon had power over the ele-

ments and the weather; some have found in him

an ancient thunder divinity like TARANIS.

Gradlon (Gradlon Muer, Grallon, Garallon,

Gralon) Breton hero. In one of the most dra-

matic stories from the Celtic region of France—

Cornuoille or Brittany—we learn of the king

Gradlon and his beautiful pagan daughter,

DAHUT. He was a loving father who indulged his

daughter’s every wish, including attending her

nightly balls and other diversions within the

walls that protected the low-lying city from the

surging sea. A monk, GUÉNOLÉ, warned him

about his daughter’s allegedly evil proclivities,

but Gradlon would hear nothing against Dahut.

Yet the beautiful city of YS was doomed, for

Dahut attracted the attention of CADO, a sea god

or sea monster who wanted to drag the princess

down to the undersea world with him. The

monk saved Gradlon, for the king had accepted

Christianity despite his daughter’s more tradi-

tional beliefs; in some variants, Guénolé forces

Gradlon to sacrifice Dahut to the sea in order to

save himself, while in others the two simply

escape as the deluge pours into the magnificent

city of Ys.

Gradlon appears in several other tales from

Brittany, which show him as a model of the

Celtic regional king who made his land wealthy

and who protected it by defeating the Vikings on

the Loire river. In some texts, his name is said to

have been borne by later kings of the region.

Grail (Holy Grail) Symbolic object. Gen-

erally pictured as the sacred cup from which the

Christian savior Jesus drank at his Last Supper

in Jerusalem, the Grail is also sometimes said to

be the platter on which he was served his bread

or paschal lamb at the Passover dinner he shared

with his disciples on the night before he died. A

third alternative holds that the Grail was a cup

that caught the blood of Jesus as he lay dying.

After his crucifixion and resurrection, JOSEPH OF

ARIMATHEA, a merchant at whose house the Last

Supper was held, transported the Grail to

Britain. Thus the Christian emblem of the mys-

tery of transubstantiation—the change of com-

mon bread and wine into the body and blood of

Jesus—became grafted onto a series of legends

and myths of Celtic origin to become a complex

yet compelling tale that continues to inspire

poets and thinkers.

The Grail quest was set in motion by a young

knight of the ROUND TABLE, PERCIVAL, who

found himself in a dead kingdom ruled over by a

king who had been wounded in his groin, the

symbol of his FERTILITY, and so could do noth-

ing but fish in the land’s increasingly empty

LAKES, for which reason he was called the FISHER

KING. The king welcomed Percival to his castle,

where a banquet was prepared.

There the young knight was presented with

strange visions: Before his eyes appeared a float-

ing chalice and a bleeding lance that hovered in

midair while the court sat in silence. Percival

chose to remain silent in the face of these marvels,

Grail 225

never asking what they signified. The vision

then evaporated, as did the palace and the king

and all his court.

And so the quest began. The Grail quest took

a different form for each knight who embarked

upon it, for each was granted the quest appropri-

ate to his character. Various endings are proposed

in various texts: The thinly disguised Christian

hero GALAHAD receives the Grail and is transfig-

ured into sanctity; LANCELOT finds the Grail

Castle but falls into a trance and does not enter;

Percival returns to the Grail Castle, asks the rel-

evant questions—whose is the cup, why does the

lance bleed, and what does it all mean?—and thus

heals the king and restores the land, after which

he himself is elevated to the KINGSHIP.

The story of the quest for the Grail includes

several Celtic motifs. The Fisher King is the

BLEMISHED KING of Celtic tradition, which held

that any king with a physical blemish could not

rule. The Grail itself is the CAULDRON that

appears in many forms in Celtic myth: It is the

Welsh goddess CERIDWEN’s cauldron wherein

WISDOM was brewed, the cauldron of rebirth of

the Welsh hero EFNISIEN, and the great ever-

abundant cauldron of the Irish god DAGDA. The

symbolic meaning of the Grail fluctuates, but it

is connected generally to fertility, although in

some Christian tellings it appears to represent

the opposite, being linked with the refusal to

accept sexuality and thus with sterility.

Sources: Cowan, Tom. Fire in the Head: Shamanism

and the Celtic Spirit. San Francisco:

HarperSanFrancisco, 1993, p. 164; Evans-

Wentz, W. Y. The Fair

y-Faith in Celtic Countries.

Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe Humanities

Press, 1911, pp. 311–325.

Gráinne (Grania, Grainne, Grace) Irish hero-

ine or goddess. The story of this fiery woman and

her lover DIARMAIT Ua Duibne is one of the most

famous of the entire FENIAN CYCLE, told and

retold in many variants. It begins with a race up

the sides of the MUNSTER mountain called SLIEVE-

NAMON, “the mountain of the women.” When the

aging hero FIONN MAC CUMHAILL announced that

he would wed the fastest woman in Ireland, the

self-possessed princess Gráinne decided that the

honor should be hers. Fionn sat on the CAIRN

atop the mountain, and at a signal all the women

raced toward him. Fleet of foot and fierce of

heart, Gráinne reached the prize first. And so the

wedding was set.

Various texts claim that Gráinne was a

princess of

ULSTER, of Munster, or of TARA.

Most agree that the wedding feast was held on

the royal hill of Tara, where a monument called

Rath Gráinne still stands. But before the wed-

ding festivities had ended, Gráinne had noticed

that her new husband was considerably older

than she was. Restlessly, she looked around.

Among the gathered heroes of Fionn’s band,

the FIANNA, was Diarmait Ua Duibne, a young

man who had many clearly visible attractions but

whose most irresistible was under cover. Either a

cap or bangs always covered Diarmait’s fore-

head, for there was a dimple or birthmark called

a BALL SEIRC—a beauty mark that caused any

woman who saw it to grow crazy with love. At

the festival, Diarmait was playing with Fionn’s

dogs, and as he did so he happened to toss his

hair from his forehead, and the ball seirc was

revealed. Instantly Gráinne fell hopelessly in

love with him. (This theme of fated love occurs

as well in the Celtic-inspired story of TRISTAN

and ISEULT, but there the fated affair is launched

through mistaken sharing of a love elixir.)

Diarmait had no desire to run off with the

new wife of his leader, one of Ireland’s fiercest

warriors. But he did not reckon on Gráinne’s

willfulness. Gráinne learned that Diarmait was

under a GEIS, a sacred vow, never to refuse a

woman who came to him neither clothed nor

unclothed, neither afoot nor on horseback, in

neither daylight or dark. And so Gráinne arrived

veiled in mountain mist or catkin down, mounted

on a GOAT, just at sunset, and thus found a way to

force him to run away from Fionn with her.

In some versions of the tale, Gráinne drugged

the entire Fianna—including her intended hus-

226 Gráinne

band, but sparing the man she desired—and con-

vinced Diarmait to elope with her. The couple

ran toward the Shannon River that cuts Ireland

in half, sleeping there in what became known as

the Wood of the Two Tents, for Diarmait feared

to sleep in the same tent with Gráinne, knowing

that Fionn was on their trail. Once again Gráinne

prevailed, mildly mentioning to Diarmait—after

a narrow escape from a monster—how nice it was

to know something, at least, found her desirable.

Shamed, Diarmait joined Gráinne in her tent.

Fionn was indeed behind them, together with

the entire Fianna. The couple kept a step ahead of

their pursuers, Gráinne wrapped in a cloak of

invisibility while Diarmait leaped stupendous

lengths to stay out of danger’s reach. Each night

they slept on a different stone bed, so that the

DOLMENS that mark the Irish countryside are now

known as the “beds of Diarmait and Gráinne.”

They ran so far and so fast that they never slept

two nights in one place nor ate a cooked supper—

but they ran far and fast together.

Finally, however, they grew exhausted by their

constant travel and took refuge with a giant named

SEARBHAN, who let the couple hide in his magical

ROWAN tree, warning them however to leave the

berries strictly alone. But hungry Gráinne could

not resist, and Diarmait killed Searbhan so that

the two could eat the magical fruit. Unfortunately,

Searbhan’s dying screams revealed the couple’s

location to the pursuing Fionn.

Climbing quickly up the tree, Diarmait and

Gráinne hid from her former suitor, his former

leader, but Fionn suspected where they were. He

sat beneath the tree and began to play

FIDCHELL, a

cribbage-like board game that had been

Diarmait’s passion, against his friend OISÍN the

BARD. Unable to resist indicating the best move to

his chum, Diarmait dropped berries onto the

board from above, thus revealing his location to

Fionn. And so the pursuit began again, until the

god AONGHUS óg pleaded the lovers’ cause to the

pursuing Fionn, and the pair was restored to

favor. They did not return to Fionn’s abode at the

fort of Almu, rather, they retired to Gráinne’s rath

near the magical cave of Keshcorran in Co. Sligo.

Fionn finally had his revenge: He lured

Diarmait into a wild BOAR hunt atop the leg-

endary peak of BEN BULBEN, knowing that the

young man was under a geis never to hunt boar

and realizing that Diarmait would have a hard

fight against the boar, Gulben, who was a man

whom his father had killed, enchanted into that

fierce form. When the magical boar lay dead

with no injury to Diarmait, Fionn again taunted

his rival, forcing him to pace out the length of

the corpse. A sharp bristle stabbed him and

Diarmait fell down, near death from unquench-

able bleeding. He begged Fionn to bring him

water, and the old man did so, but then let it

trickle away as the dying Diarmait watched,

remarking that Gráinne should see his beautiful

body like that, all covered with gore and blood.

Because of her name, which hides the word

for SUN within it, Gráinne has been often inter-

preted as a diminished goddess of SOVEREIGNTY,

whose selection of Diarmait over the failing

Fionn meant the passage of her power to the

younger man. Similarly, the circuit of Ireland by

the loving couple recalls the king’s circuit of his

lands with the goddess as well as the daily move-

ment of the sun across the landscape.

Sources: Campbell, J. F. Popular Tales of the West

Highlands. Edinburgh: Edmonston and

Douglas, 1862, pp. 39 ff; Dillon, Myles, ed.

Irish Sagas. Cork: The Mercier Press, 1968, p.

135; Gregory, Lady Augusta. Gods and Fighting

Men: The Story of the T

uatha De Danaan and of

the Fianna of Ireland. New York: Oxford

University Pr

ess, 1970, pp. 269 ff; MacCullogh,

J. A. Celtic Mythology. Chicago: Academy

Publishers, 1996, pp. 150, 254.

Grana Irish heroine. In Co. Limerick, at

Carrigogunnel (“rock of the candle”), a light

shone every night, killing whoever cast eyes

upon it. Grana was the name of the WITCH or

FAIRY who lit the smiting candle; she may be a

diminished form of GRÁINNE or GRIAN, god-

desses associated with that area. One of the

Grana 227

valiant FIANNA, Regan, donned a cap of invisibil-

ity and snuffed Grana’s candle, thereby destroy-

ing her power.

Grannos (Grannus) See APOLLO.

Gray Man (Far Liath, Liath Mhor) Scottish

folkloric figure. A

GIANT specter who haunted

the Scottish shores as well as those of Ireland,

the Gray Man is thought to personify the sea

mist in which travelers can be lost and, there-

after, drowned. He looked especially for boats

carrying RED-haired people and women but

would attack any other boats at whim.

Sources: Curran, Bob. Complete Guide to Celtic

Mythology. Belfast: Appletree, 2000, pp.

126–127; Douglas, George. Scottish Fairy and

Folk Tales. West Yorkshire: EP Publishing,

1977, pp. 94 ff.

green Symbolic color. Together with RED, this

was the color most favored by the FAIRY races who

inhabit the ancient Celtic lands. Many humans,

especially in Scotland, traditionally refused to

wear this color so as not to offend their fairy

neighbors; indeed, some Scottish families consid-

ered it fatal to don the color. Common associa-

tions between the color green and flourishing

vegetation point to the fairies’ earlier incarnation

as spirits of FERTILITY and abundance.

Green Children British folkloric figures.

Mythology and history collide in the tale of the

Green Children, a girl and boy with GREEN skin

and hair who abruptly appeared in Suffolk in the

12th century. They spoke no known language

and, although clearly ravenous, refused to eat

the meat they were offered. Although the boy

died shortly after the pair crawled out of a hole

under a downed tree, the girl lived to learn

enough human speech to tell her rescuers that

she and her brother came from a race that lived

beneath the earth. She called her home St.

Martin’s Land, which she described as a land of

constant rain that otherwise closely resembled

the upper world. The girl explained that she and

her brother had become lost while tending their

flocks and had accidentally come up to the sur-

face world. The girl later married, but she kept

frequenting the place of her emergence and one

day disappeared, presumably to find her way

home. Recent theories hold that the children

were not

FAIRIES at all—as their coloring sug-

gested—but that their green hue was the effect

of malnutrition, and that they were simply lost

children from a war-torn area of England who

had reached the unfamiliar “surface” by travel-

ing through abandoned mineshafts.

Source: Keightley, Thomas. The Fairy Mythology.

London: H. G. Bohn, 1870, pp. 381 ff.

Green Isle Scottish mythological site. One of

the FORTUNATE ISLES, the Green Isle was a part

of FAIRYLAND filled with orchards of magical

fruit, especially APPLES. The Green Isle was

sometimes called the Isle of Apples and imag-

ined to be inhabited only by women.

Green Ladies British folkloric figures. Like

the identically named DAMES VERTES in France,

these FAIRY maidens were thought to haunt fresh

water—WELLS and LAKES and pools—in Britain.

They were sometimes destructive, luring people

to their death like MERMAIDS, but could be jovial

and pleasant as well.

Green Man British folkloric figure. Found

carved in stone and wood in English medieval

art, this figure of a man’s face peering out from

leaves and branches—or perhaps composed of

those leaves and branches—is one of the most

evocative and mysterious evidences of folk

belief in Celtic lands. Although known by no

other name than the Green Man, he has been

interpreted as representing a guardian spirit of

the corn, a masculine force of abundance. Most

228 Grannos

faces have a mild or even benevolent look,

although a few look angry or threatening; some

seem intoxicated.

A similar figure is found outside England as

early as Roman times, when a male Medusa was

sometimes used as an ornament; whether the

head had religious significance is unknown,

although he may have represented the woodland

god SILVANUS. But the male mask in Britain is

distinct in that the leaves are not a decoration

but part of the face, which either emerges from

them or dissolves into them.

If there was a myth or legend that defined the

meaning of the Green Man, it has been lost. It is

possible, however, that vestiges remain in litera-

ture and folk tradition. The Knight that GAWAIN

meets in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green

Knight is often interpreted as a literary reflection

of this figure. The dancer called JACK-IN-THE-

GREEN, who wears a leaf-covered mask in some

British festivals on BELTANE (May 1), may be a

living representative of the Green Man.

Sources: Basford, Kathleen. The Green Man.

Ipswitch: D. S. Brew, Ltd., 1978; Bord, Janet,

and Colin Bord. The Secr

et Country: An interpre-

tation of the folklore of ancient sites in the British

Isles. New York: W

alker and Co., 1976, p. 76;

Ross, Anne, and Michael Cyprien. A Traveller’s

Guide to Celtic Britain. Harrisburg, Pa.:

Historical Times, 1985, p. 121; Spence, Lewis.

The Minor Traditions of British Mythology. New

York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1972.

Grian Irish goddess. Although many com-

mentators find evidence of SUN gods among the

Celts, there is equal or stronger evidence that

the sun was seen as a goddess, at least in Ireland

where a goddess with the clearly solar name of

Grian (“sun”) is found. As her name is pro-

nounced like “green,” some places that include

this syllable, like Pallas Green near the FAIRY hill

of KNOCKAINY, may refer to Grian; some have

posited the derivation of that word from the

solar power to bring forth plants.

Although no myths remain of Grian in

Ireland, she is found in place-names like

Tuamgraney and Lough Graney, which are also

described as locations important to the obscure

figure GILLAGRÉINE. Grian is described as the

sister or twin of another goddess with solar

attributes, ÁINE, the goddess or FAIRY QUEEN of

the magical lake LOUGH GUR. As Áine was asso-

ciated with summer rituals, it has been proposed

that Grian ruled the winter sun. Whether there

is any connection between Grian and the vibrant

heroine GRÁINNE is not established. Many god-

desses were called Grian as a kind of title; thus

Macha is called “sun of womanfolk.”

Sources: Condren, Mary. The Serpent and the

Goddess: Women, Religion and Power in Ancient

Ireland. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989, p.

35; O’Rahilly, Thomas. Early Irish History and

Mythology. Dublin: The Dublin Institute for

Advanced Studies, 1946, p. 289.

Grianán Aileach (Greenan Elly, Aileach,

Oileach; Ailech Néit; Aleach Ned) Irish

mythological site. An impressive, huge stone

triple-walled HILLFORT in Co. Donegal goes by

this name, which means the “sunroom” (grianán)

of the otherwise unknown Aileach, said to be a

woman or a goddess buried under the structure.

But the vast circle of stone is no sunroom, and

Aileach has also been defined as the name of the

land or the tribe of its builders. Thus while the

structure itself speaks eloquently of past impor-

tance, the name is more puzzling than explana-

tory. Occasionally it is said to have been named

after GRIAN, the hypothesized SUN goddess, but

that is true only insofar as the word grianán

derives from that of the sun.

Aileach is listed in early texts as the capital of

the PROVINCE of ULSTER after the fall of EMAIN

MACHA, thus putting it on the same level of such

important sites as TARA and CRUACHAN. Legend

has it that the TUATHA DÉ DANANN, the mytho-

logical tribe of the goddess DANU, built Grianán

Aileach and held it against the MILESIAN

Grianán Aileach 229

invaders; their king, NUADA of the Silver Arm, is

said to be buried beneath its walls. The site was

also the special home of the beneficent god

DAGDA, who buried his son ÁED Minbhrec there.

Grianán Aileach was one of the last forts to be

held by the historical rulers who descended from

the Celts, for it remained the seat of the Ui Néill

dynasty, descendants of NIALL of the Nine

Hostages, until the 13th century.

Griflet (Jaufre) Arthurian hero. This young

man, one of the first knights of the ROUND

TABLE was the lover of BRUNISSEN.

Grimes Grave Goddess British goddess.

Because it is difficult if not impossible to date rock,

the cultural origin of the tiny figure that goes by

this name cannot be unquestionably established.

The goddess was found in Norfolk, England, in

the area of prehistoric (4000 B.C.E.) flint mines

called Grimes Graves, where pit-mines as deep as

50 feet were dug with only deer antlers as shovels.

Roughly shaped from white chalk, the goddess fig-

ure is squat and smirking, possibly pregnant; she

reminds many observers of the SHEELA NA GIG,

controversially labeled a goddess figure. That the

Grimes Goddess was deliberately deposited in the

mine is argued by the offerings found with it: a

chalk phallus and several small chalk balls, a chalk

lamp, flint blocks, and antlers. The original name

of the goddess has been lost, and her meaning can

only be a subject of conjecture.

Grisandole See AVENABLE.

groa’ch Breton folkloric figure. In Brittany we

find a folkloric figure that may be related to the

Scottish and Irish GRUAGACH, but which had an

evil disposition in contrast to the gruagach’s

helpful one. Once, it was said, there was a boy

and a girl, promised as spouses to each other at

birth but orphaned and left to grow up as best

they could. When he came of age the boy,

Huarn, went off to seek his fortune. His

intended, Bellah, gave him three TALISMANS: a

bell that would ring when he was in danger; a

knife that would free him from any bonds; and a

staff that would take him wherever he wanted to

go. Off Huara set, walking until he reached the

Isle of Lok, where a FAIRY woman lived sur-

rounded by the waters of the LAKE. She took him

beneath the water and showed him a palace, all

built of seashells with crystal and coral decora-

tions that made soft music as he passed. A garden

of water plants grew around it, and within it

people were celebrating merrily.

Inside the palace the groa’ch lay down upon a

golden bed, her

GREEN dress clinging to her

voluptuous body and coral ornaments winking

from her silky black hair. She urged the boy to

stay with her, promising him the riches of the

sea, for her lake opened into it through a secret

passage, and all her treasure was gathered from

ships that sank in the ocean. Huach almost for-

got himself in the splendor of this FAIRYLAND,

but back home Bellah heard the bell ring and,

disguised as a boy, came rushing to save her

promised lover. As they escaped together, the sea

drowned the palace of the tempting but destruc-

tive water-WITCH.

Source: Breton Folktales. London: G. Bell & Sons,

1971, pp. 117 ff.

Gromer Somer Joure Arthurian hero. The

beautiful maiden RAGNELL was turned into a

HAG by this evil magician.

Gronw Pebyr Welsh hero. After the Welsh

poet-hero GWYDION had created a woman of

flowers for his son/nephew LLEU LLAW GYFFES,

the flower-wife BLODEUWEDD grew tired of her

husband and fell in love with the hunter Gronw

Pebyr. The two conspired to kill Lleu, with

Blodeuwedd providing the secret information

about her husband’s vulnerability and Gronw

Pebyr striking the fatal blows.

grove See NEMETON.

230 Griflet

gruagach (grogan, grógach) Scottish and

Irish folkloric figure. This figure may descend

from Celtic guardian divinities who watched

over specific families and may originally have

been divine ancestors. In Scotland the gruagach

was a FAIRY woman who watched the CATTLE

like a barnyard BROWNIE; she required fre-

quent libations of MILK, preferably poured into

special hollowed-out stones (see BULLAUN)

called leacna gruagach. She dressed in GREEN,

as was the fairies’ habit, and had long golden

HAIR, another indication of her OTHERWORLD

nature. Even on sunny days, she was often

drenched, as though she had been out in a

downpour, and quietly asked humans who

encountered her if she could stand beside the

fire and dry herself.

The gruagach could also be male; in Co.

Donegal, an immigrant Scottish family reported

seeing a small man hanging about the farm-

stead, dressed only in his long RED hair (a sure

sign of fairy blood). When the farmer was later

injured while threshing oats, the little naked fel-

low took over and kept a steady pace of work

despite his lack of appropriate attire. The

woman of the place, apparently suspecting her

laborer was a fairy, avoided speaking to him or

thanking him for his work (see LAYING THE

FAIRIES). But after several days of work by the

gruagach, the woman took pity upon his naked-

ness and knit him a tiny sweater. That was all it

took; the little guy disappeared the next day.

The gruagach’s name has been connected with

ter

ms for “hair,” with which they were believed

to be spectacularly endowed.

Sources: Kennedy, Patrick. Legendary Fictions of

the Irish Celts. New York: Benjamin Blom,

1969, p. 136; MacCullogh, J. A. Celtic

Mythology. Chicago: Academy Publishers,

1996, p. 245; MacDougall, James. Folk Tales

and Fairy Lore in Gaelic and English.

Edinburgh: John Grant, 1910, pp. 217–221; O

hEochaidh, Séan. Fair

y Legends of Donegal.

Trans. Máire MacNeill. Dublin: Comhairle

Bhéaloideas Éireann, 1977, p. 89.

Guaire Irish hero. The father of the mountain

goddess ÉBHLINNE of MUNSTER, Guaire lived in

the great BRÚ NA BÓINNE, the prehistoric stone

complex on the banks of the River Boyne, far to

the north of his daughter’s land. Another Guaire

was an historical king of CONNACHT, renowned

for his GENEROSITY; he even provided meals to

anchorites in the nearby mountains by having the

food whisked through the air. Guaire’s castle at

Kinvarra in Co. Galway, which can still be visited

today, was the site of the challenge to the BARD

Senchán, which resulted in the return of the lost

epic, TÁIN BÓ CUAILNGE, from the OTHERWORLD.

Source: MacNeill, Máire. The Festival of Lughnasa,

Parts I and II. Dublin: Comhairle Bhéaloideas

Éireann, 1982, pp. 327–328.

guee Manx curse or prayer. On the Isle of

Man, it was traditional to both pray and CURSE

while kneeling; cursing was called “wishing upon

the knees.” One strong traditional curse was

called the Skeab Lome or “naked broom,” in

which a broom was invoked as a power to sweep

away evil (or one’s enemies).

Guénolé (Guénole, Gwénnolé, Winwaloe)

Breton hero. This Breton SAINT was the abbot of

YS, the beautiful doomed city of the pagan princess

DAHUT. It was Guénolé who saved GRADLON,

Dahut’s father, while sentencing Dahut to die

beneath the waves of the sea. Such figures, inter-

polated into Celtic myth with the coming of

Christianity, sometimes have at their root an

ancient elemental divinity, transformed and

humanized. As Guenole is connected with the sea,

he may have taken on some aspects of an ancient

sea god; conversely, he may simply represent the

intrusion of Christian morality into Celtic culture.

Guid Folk See NAMES FOR THE FAIRIES.

Guinevere (Guenièvre, Gwenhwyvar, Gwen-

hwyfar, Ganore) Arthurian heroine or goddess.

Guinevere 231

The theory that the stories of the quasi-historical

king of Britain, ARTHUR, derive from Celtic

mythology is strongly supported by the central

position of Guinevere in the tales. If, as many

agree, Arthur’s “wife” is a thinly disguised Welsh

goddess, the sad tale of her betrayal of the aging

king for the noble younger man becomes a vari-

ant of the common story of the king’s marriage to

the goddess of

SOVEREIGNTY—a goddess who

married one king after another, for she was the

land itself. In offering herself to the manly knight

LANCELOT, by this interpretation, Guinevere

enacted the traditional role of the goddess.

Variants in which Arthur married three

women, each named Guinevere, further

strengthen the identification of this queen with

the THREE-fold goddess, as does the derivation

of her name (gwen, white; hwyvvar, FAIRY or

spirit) from words that link her to the OTHER-

WORLD and to the Irish goddess/heroine

FINNABAIR. Similarly, her marriage to Arthur on

the festival of summer’s beginning, BELTANE,

points to a ritual drama rather than merely a

dynastic alliance.

The story of Guinevere’s marriage to an

aging king and her later love for a handsome

knight almost exactly parallels the Irish story of

fair GRÁINNE and her young lover DIARMAIT,

who ran away from the aging FIONN MAC

CUMHAILL; there are also parallels in the forced

marriage of the the young heroine ISEULT to

king MARK of Cornwall despite her love for the

younger TRISTAN. Like Diarmait, Lancelot at

first attempted to maintain his loyalty to his king

while sleeping next to the woman he loved, plac-

ing a sword between them to deter intimacy, just

as Diarmait pitched two separate tents.

Ultimately, however, love conquered caution,

and the resulting affair between Lancelot and

Guinevere split the loyalties of Arthur’s knights

of the ROUND TABLE. Many of them went off on

hopeless quests, including that for the GRAIL.

Guinevere finally determined that she could no

longer live with Arthur and arranged an abduc-

tion, instructing her maidens to dress in

GREEN—the color of FAIRYLAND—on the morn-

ing of Beltane, further support for the idea that

she was herself from the Otherworld. Some ver-

sions of the story describe a decision by Arthur

to execute Guinevere for her unfaithfulness,

with Lancelot rescuing her at the last minute

from the flames.

Her escape, however, was followed by an

eventual return to Arthur. By then the court of

CAMELOT was in ruins and its king was in com-

bat with his mortal enemy and bastard son, MOR-

DRED. Although in many tellings Guinevere is

blamed for the shambles that Camelot became,

it was Arthur who had planted the seed of its

downfall. Arguments for interpretation of

Guinevere as the goddess of Sovereignty point

to early legends that Mordred carried off and

married Guinevere in an attempt to solidify his

claim to Camelot’s throne, suggesting that she,

rather than Arthur, held the keys to the king-

dom. Contemporary renderings of the tale,

including Marion Zimmer Bradley’s wildly pop-

ular Mists of Avalon, attempt to redeem centuries

of disdain for Guinevere.

Sources: MacCullogh, J. A. Celtic Mythology.

Chicago: Academy Publishers, 1996, p. 123;

Markale, Jean. Courtly Love: The Path of Sexual

Initiation. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions,

2000, p. 116.

Guinglain Arthurian hero. A minor figure in

the tales of CAMELOT, Guinglain was the son of

the transformed HAG, RAGNELL, and the exem-

plary knight of the ROUND TABLE, GAWAIN.

Gundestrup Cauldron Archaeological treas-

ure. In 1891 a great silver CAULDRON was found

in a Danish peat BOG, where it may have been

either ritually deposited or hidden in a time of

crisis. Bas-reliefs across the face of the vessel,

which is believed to date from the 2nd or 1st cen-

tury B.C.E. show enigmatic scenes that appear to

be rituals, and figures that appear to be divine.

Because the site where the treasure was found is

of ambiguous history, it has sometimes been

232 Guinglain

argued that the cauldron represents Germanic

rather than Celtic material, but most scholars

agree that the cauldron either was of Celtic man-

ufacture or was influenced by Celtic belief. A

goddess being conveyed on a cart and a horned

god resembling the one known elsewhere as CER-

NUNNOS are among the most important figures

on the vessel.

gunna Scottish folkloric figure. A CATTLE-

herding BROWNIE of the Scottish islands, the

gunna hung about small farms making sure the

cows did not trample the garden. As with many

such helpful sprites, he went naked despite the

weather. Any attempt to provide clothes drove

the gunna away (see LAYING THE FAIRIES).

Gutuatros (pl., Gutuatri) Continental Celtic

social role. This name was born by certain con-

tinental Celtic DRUIDS who served at specific

temples. As the name appears to mean “speak-

ers,” they may have practiced DIVINATION.

Guy Fawkes British folkloric belief. The

1605 failure by Roman Catholics to destroy the

English Houses of Parliament, led by a man

named Guy Fawkes, led to an annual festival,

supposedly in honor of the conspirators’ execu-

tion. The date of the festival, November 5, is

suspiciously close to the old Celtic feast of win-

ter’s beginning, SAMHAIN, on November 1. In

addition, the typical celebration involves bon-

fires, which may have replaced the festival fires

traditional to Samhain.

Guyomard Arthurian hero. The lover of king

ARTHUR’s half sister, the sorceress MORGAN,

Guyomard was an untrustworthy knight who so

angered Morgan that she cursed a valley in the

magical forest of BROCÉLIANDE. Any knight who

wandered into that PERILOUS VALLEY after being

unfaithful to his mistress would be trapped there

forever, surrounded by imagined demons and

insurmountable obstacles. LANCELOT, who was

ever true in his heart to his beloved Guinevere,

finally broke the enchantment.

guytrash See TRASH.

Gwalchmei (Gwalchmei fab Gwyar) Welsh

hero. In Arthurian legend, Gwalchmei appears

as the world’s speediest runner and as one of the

advisers to the mythological king ARTHUR.

gwartheg y llyn Welsh folkloric figures. Most

Celtic lands have tales of FAIRY COWS that recall

the supreme importance of their herds to the

ancient Celts. In both Scotland and Ireland

these cattle of the OTHERWORLD were imagined

as having the typical coloring of fairy beings:

RED body and white ears. In Wales the pattern

changed slightly, for the gwartheg were com-

pletely white like GHOSTS. They could inter-

breed with the stock of earthly farmers, much to

the advantage of the mortal COWS visited by a

stray white fairy BULL. Alternatively, a fairy cow

might decide to settle down on this side of the

veil, producing prodigious amounts of MILK

until, like the mythical cow of abundance called

the GLAS GHAIBHLEANN, she was driven away by

greed. One farmer who attempted to slaughter

his fairy cow found her and all her progeny

called AWAY by a LAKE-maiden.

Gwawl Welsh hero. A minor character in the

Welsh MABINOGION, he was a suitor for the hand

of the goddess/queen RHIANNON against the

heroic king PWYLL. Through trickery, Gwawl

forced Pwyll to step back from his suit, but Pwyll

returned the favor by tricking Gwawl into crawl-

ing into a bag, which he then used like a football

with his warriors.

Gwendydd (Gwendolyn, Gwendolena, Gwend-

dydd, Gwyneth, Ganieda, Venotia) Welsh

heroine. This Welsh woman was the sister of the

renowned magician MERLIN—perhaps his TWIN,

Gwendydd 233