Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

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miners. They were private creatures who did not

appreciate being spied upon. One man who did

so, by the name of Barker, managed to learn

their fairy language sufficiently to hear them

express their annoyance at his presence, and

their plan to leave their fairy tools on his knee.

Thereafter, the man suffered immense pain and

stiffness in his knees, hence the Cornish

proverb, “stiff as Barker’s knee.”

Source: Courtney, M. A. Cornish Feasts and Folklore.

Penzance: Beare and Son, 1890, p. 138.

Knockfierna (Cnoc Fírinne, Knockfeerina)

Irish mythological site. The “hill of truth” forms

a twin to KNOCKAINY, the sacred hill only seven

miles away; it offered an opening to the OTHER-

WORLD and was the traditional site of LUGHNASA

gatherings. Near several other important hills in

Co. Limerick connected with the FAIRIES,

Knockfierna was said to be the residence of an

important fairy king, DONN FÍRINNE, whom

some connect with the king of the Otherworld,

also named DONN.

Knockgrafton Irish mythological site. On

this mountain, in the Glen of Aherlow at the

base of the Galtee Mountains, a hunchback

overheard

FAIRIES singing a monotonous song

that went, “MONDAY, TUESDAY.” His quick-

witted ability to extend the fairy song thrilled

them, and they cured his deformity. The story is

a common one in Celtic lands.

Knockgraney (Cnoc Gréine) Irish mytholog-

ical site. A hill near KNOCKAINY, not far from the

small town of Pallas Green, is dedicated to the sis-

ter, TWIN, or double of ÁINE named GRIAN, “sun.”

Knockma (Cnoc Meadha, Cnoc Mheadha)

Irish mythological site. A hill near Tuam in Co.

Galway, Knockma bears the name of MEDB but is

better known as the mound of FINNBHEARA, FAIRY

king of the western province of CONNACHT, who

lived there with his fairy bride ÚNA (also called

NUALA). The site is now called Castle Hackett.

Knocknarea (Cnoc na Ria) Irish mythologi-

cal site. Above the small northwestern town of

Sligo rises a high mountain that was topped,

some 6,000 years ago, with a mound and a rock

CAIRN. According to legend, the cairn (Miosgán

Méabha, or “Mebh’s lump”) covers the grave of

the most famous of Ireland’s queens,

MEDB of

CRUACHAN. But medieval texts say the cairn was

erected by Eógan Bél, Connacht’s last pre-

Christian king, and Medb is said to have been

killed many miles away, on the shores of Lough

Ree on the River Shannon. Local tradition in

Sligo holds that those ascending the mountain

should carry with them a small stone or pebble

to add to the cairn; conversely, it is very bad luck

to take any stones away.

Knockshegowna (Cnoc Sídhe Úna) Irish

mythological site. Over the rolling countryside

of north Co. Tipperary, in an area replete with

stories of magical FAIRY MOUNDS, rises this

impressive hill, said to be the SÍDHE or palace of

ÚNA, an Irish FAIRY QUEEN. She was said to have

appeared there in the form of a calf one evening

when a piper, Laurence Hoolahan, would not

stop annoying her with his ceaseless drunken

tweetings. When she spoke to him in human

language, he was most surprised and was easily

convinced to mount on her back. Within a sec-

ond, the pair was at the River Shannon, 10 miles

away, having flown through the air to get there.

Úna was surprised that the piper was not terri-

fied, but perhaps he was too intoxicated to show

it. Because of his apparent courage, she leaped

back and agreed to let him continue playing on

the hillside as long as he wished. The story may

be a fanciful one deriving from the misunder-

standing of the hill’s name as Fairy Calf Hill.

Knowth Irish mythological site. Near the

better-known ancient site of Newgrange are two

274 Knockfierna

other mounds, Knowth and Dowth, all on hills

overlooking a bend in the River Boyne and

together called the BRÚ NA BÓINNE, the palaces of

BÓAND, the river goddess. The great mound of

Knowth and its companions were built some 6,000

years ago by an unknown people of great engi-

neering skill and astronomical sophistication; the

huge CAIRN of Knowth was oriented toward the

point of sunrise on the spring and fall EQUINOXES,

the times when day and night are equal. Knowth,

which was under excavation for almost three

decades, was opened to the public in early 2002, so

it is now possible to view the impressive rock carv-

ings, considered to be the most beautiful and

expressive of all megalithic art in Europe.

Source: Eogan, George. Knowth and the Passage-

Tombs of Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson,

1986.

korrigan (corrigan, ozeganned) Breton folk-

loric figures. In Brittany the sea, RIVERS, and

SPRINGS were said to be inhabited by lovely lust-

ful golden-haired women who tried to lure men

into their beds—and to a watery death. Such

water sirens are common folkloric figures, found

in almost every land. What distinguishes the

Breton version is their association, in oral folk-

lore, with ancient worshipers of earth goddesses

or with women DRUIDS, from whom the korrigans

are said to be descended. The persecution of ear-

lier faiths by Christianity resulted in a fierce folk-

loric enmity between the korrigans and celibate

priests, who were subject to endless lascivious

temptation by the spirits. The korrigans play an

important part in the story of the pagan princess

DAHUT, for they built her beautiful city of YS.

Korrigans were small FAIRIES, less than two feet

tall, and had translucent wasp-like wings. Lovely

woodland grottoes with running streams (in

French, grotte aux fées, or in Breton, feunteun ar

corrigan) were especially attractive to korrigans,

who made their homes in such places. If con-

tacted there, they could sometimes tell the future.

Seeking them out could bring danger, however,

for korrigans like other fairies were immoral and

might as readily steal a person or child as tell a

fortune. Some Breton legends speak of the korri-

gans as doomed human souls, unhappily trapped

through tragic death to wander the earth, but

more typically they are seen as nonhuman. In

Breton folklore the term korrigan is often used as

a synonym for the entire fairy race.

Korrigans are said to be less visible in even-

numbered than odd-numbered centuries (the

2000s will see rather less activity than the 1900s,

for instance). They are more likely to be seen at

twilight than in the daytime, as is typical of such

liminal beings. Some korrigans spent their time

guarding buried treasure, while others made

mischief for humans, tickling horses and causing

nightmares. They derived most pleasure from

circle dances within or near the pre-Celtic

STONE CIRCLES and megalithic shrines still

found in Brittany, singing “MONDAY, TUESDAY,

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday” (Di Lun, Di

Merh, Di Merhier…) but never mentioning the

days of the weekend, for to do so caused magical

deformation such as a lump on the back.

Kulhwch (Culhwch, Kilhwch) Welsh hero.

The hero of an important literary tale from

Wales, Kulhwch was a cousin of the legendary

king ARTHUR and may have descended from an

ancient Welsh divinity.

See also KULHWCH AND OLWEN.

Kulhwch and Olwen Arthurian tale. The late

12th-century Welsh tale Kulhwch and Olwen

reaches back into Celtic myth and forward into

the legends of the quasi-mythological king of

Britain, ARTHUR. The hero Kulhwch was born of

a princely man, CILYDD, whose wife GOLEUD-

DYDD went mad after becoming pregnant. While

passing a PIG shed, she went into labor, whence

the child was named Kulhwch or “pig-run.”

When Goleuddydd died, the boy’s ambitious

father gained a new wife through murder, killing

the king of a neighboring land and carrying off

the queen to become stepmother to the

Kulhwch and Olwen 275

orphaned Kulhwch. The new queen hoped that

Kulhwch would marry her own daughter, but

when he failed to show interest, she cursed her

stepson: that he would never marry until he won

the daughter of the fearsome GIANT YSPAD-

DADEN PENKAWR. Other versions say that the

mother, Gilydd, survived her trauma and,

remarried to a new husband, encouraged her son

to seek the woman of his dreams,

OLWEN.

When he grew up, Kulhwch hoped to win

Olwen, the giant’s daughter, and sought the help

of his cousin Arthur to win her hand. He entered

the court of CAMELOT and recited his distin-

guished heritage right back to the goddess DÔN

and thus won Arthur’s aid. They set out with a

team of warriors and traveled until they met

Kulhwch’s aunt, sister of his long-dead mother,

who warned them that no one ever left the

giant’s castle alive. Undeterred, Kulhwch and

Arthur approached the castle. There Kulhwch

met Olwen, and the two fell instantly in love.

The maiden refused to leave without her father’s

blessing. That blessing could only be won if the

hero performed 40 impossible tasks, one of

which involved the capture of a scissors, razor,

and COMB from a terrifying pig named TWRCH

TRWYTH. Kulhwch completed the tasks—the

tale grows very lengthy at this point—and thus

won his beloved Olwen.

The text has been interesting to Celtic schol-

ars because it occupies a middle ground between

myth and legend, being composed of mytholog-

ical motifs familiar from other Celtic lands as

well as heroic names and personalities. Many

magical and OTHERWORLD characters and

objects are woven into the tale.

Kundry See CUNRIE.

Kyteler, Alice Irish heroine. Unlike Europe,

including England and Scotland, Ireland did not

experience a WITCH-burning hysteria. Only one

woman was ever executed for WITCHCRAFT, and

that was Petronilla, maid to the wealthy mer-

chant Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny. Accused,

together with 11 friends and members of her

family, of witchcraft and heresy in 1324 by

Bishop Richard Ledrede of Ossory, Alice

escaped to England, where she lived out her life

without history making note of her again. The

accusations against her represented the first time

that witchcraft was described as a heresy based in

non-Christian beliefs.

Source: Davidson, L. S., and J. O. Ward. The Sorcery

Trial of Alice Kyteler. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval

and Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1993.

276 Kundry

La Belle Dame sans Merci See FAIRY LOVER.

Labhraidh Luathlam ar Cleb (Labriad)

Irish hero or god. Ruler of MAG MELL, the “plain

of honey” where the trees were always loaded

down with magical fruit and vats of mead could

never be emptied, Labhraidh arranged for the

hero CÚCHULAINN to spend time with

Labhraidh’s wife’s sister, the lovely FAIRY QUEEN

FAND. In return for this dalliance, Cúchulainn

had to fight and defeat three warriors who were

troubling Labhraidh. This bargain set in motion

a love triangle, because Fand was the only com-

panion who tempted Cúchulainn to break faith

with his wife, the peerless EMER. The story is

told in an ancient text called Cúchulainn’s

Sickness, which formed the basis for the play by

William Butler Yeats, The Only Jealousy of Emer.

Labhraigh (Labraid) Irish hero. Mythical

and possibly historical ancestor of the people of

the eastern province of LEINSTER, Labhraigh was

said to have invaded Ireland in the second cen-

tury B.C.E. besting an opponent named

Cobhthach to gain his territory. A longer version

of his legend reveals two kings, both called

Labhraigh. The first, Labhraigh Lorc, had an

evil brother (or uncle) named COBHTHACH, who

yearned to be king over Leinster in the place of

AILILL Áine, the true king. Cobhthach pretended

to be near death, and when Labhraigh leaned

over in grief, stabbed him to death; then

Cobhthach poisoned Ailill. Ailill left a son, one

who was called Moen (“speechless”) because he

never spoke. At least, he did not until struck by

a ball when playing football one day, whereupon

his playmates gave him the name of Labhraigh

Moen (“the speechless one speaks”).

Labhraigh Moen grew to be a kindly and

generous nobleman, so much so that he

attracted the attention of the evil usurper

Cobhthach—who promptly banished him to the

wilds of MUNSTER, far to the southwest, where

the people were called the Fir Morca. There the

king’s daughter, the lovely MORIATH, fell in love

with the exile. Stealing into court with his

harper, the magnificent CRAIPHTINE, Labhraigh

Moen waited until the magical music put the

court to sleep, then seduced Moriath. When, the

next morning, her mother heard Moriath sigh in

a knowing satisfied way, she instantly guessed

the truth, but the parents did not attempt to

stand in the lovers’ way. Labhraigh was wel-

comed by the king, and together the couple went

east to win back Labhraigh Moen’s kingdom.

First they captured the fort at Dinn Ríg, once

again using Craiphtine’s magical music—this

time to put the defenders to sleep, while the

attackers kept their ears carefully covered

against the sleep-inducing music. Then

277

Labhraigh Moen set about making a trap for the

usurper. He built a great hall, all of IRON, and

once Cobhthach had entered, locked the door

and heated the building up with bellows until

the evil king and his entire army died.

In another version of the story, Moen became

speechless when Cobhthach forced him to eat

the hearts of his father and grandfather.

Banished to Brittany, he heard the music of

Craiphtine and, immensely moved, broke his

silence to praise the harper. Thereafter, he raised

an army and defeated the usurper Cobhthach at

Dinn Ríg, the fort of kings.

Various interpretations have tried to discern

the historical truth behind these fanciful narra-

tives. The speechlessness of the king has been

understood as an indication that he did not speak

the language of the country or that he was in

some way blemished (see BLEMISHED KING). In a

variant of the legend, it was not Labhraigh who

was dumb but anyone who saw him without hair

covering his ears—for the king had the ears of an

ass. (Anyone who did not keep silent was killed.)

Then a young barber whispered the dreadful

secret to a TREE, which was cut down and used to

make a HARP for Craiphtine, and which then sang

out the secret entrusted to it. Shamed, Labhraigh

revealed his unsightly ears for all to see.

Ladra (Adra) Irish hero. In the BOOK OF INVA-

SIONS, we read of the earliest arrivals in Ireland:

the lady

CESAIR, with her 50 handmaidens and a

scant three men. Ladra, the ship’s pilot and

Cesair’s brother, was one of the three. Once he

had brought them safely to land, Ladra

demanded more territory than Cesair was willing

to give. He set off to found his own kingdom, but

he died trying to satisfy the many women who

had accompanied him there, or perhaps from an

oar that penetrated his buttocks. It is unclear

from the multiple texts whether this figure is the

same as ADRA or a separate character.

Lady of the Fountain (Laudine) Arthurian

heroine. The mysterious Laudine, the Lady of

the Fountain, may descend from an ancient

Celtic goddess of SPRINGS, for she ruled a splen-

did pool called BARENTON in the center of

Brittany’s magical forest of BROCÉLIANDE.

Because Barenton’s waters had the power to stir

great storms, it was fiercely guarded by

Laudine’s husband, the Black Knight named

Esclados le Roux. CYMON, a knight from king

ARTHUR’s court, tried to slay the guardian, only

to be driven away. Returning to CAMELOT,

Cymon related his story and inspired the young

knight OWEIN to seek out the place and take on

the Black Knight in single combat.

This time, the young adventurer had assis-

tance, in the person of a maiden named LUNED,

who told him the secret way to slay the Knight.

Once that task had been accomplished, Luned

helped Owein win the heart and hand of

Laudine, who was quite willing to be wooed and

won by such a brave knight. For a year the cou-

ple lived happily and contentedly together, but

then Arthur and his knights happened by.

Owein’s lady entertained them splendidly, then

was heartbroken when her husband begged to be

allowed to accompany them on their adventures.

Laudine agreed, only to be abandoned by her

thoughtless knight.

War and adventure held so much appeal that

Owein forgot to return to the Lady of the

Fountain as the seasons passed and a new year

began. When the maid Luned arrived at the

king’s company, Owein was shamed in front of

the ROUND TABLE knights by her revelation of

his betrayal. He went mad, roving the forest like

a wild beast. Befriended by a lion and later by

Luned, Owein followed the maidservant’s sug-

gestion and slipped up to Laudine’s fountain in

the dark of night. There he began sprinkling its

water on the steps around it, causing great

storms to ravish Laudine’s land. Her maid told

her of the Knight of the Lion—Owein in dis-

guise—who could save her, so long as she would

help him reconcile with his beloved lady.

Desperate to save her land, Laudine agreed, and

when Owein was revealed to be the savior

knight, she kept her promise as he had not.

278 Ladra

Source: Markale, Jean. Courtly Love: The Path of

Sexual Initiation. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions,

2000, p. 112.

Lady of the Lake Arthurian heroine. The

mysterious Lady, sometimes called NIMUE or

MORGAUSE although also differentiated from

those characters, gave the king-to-be

ARTHUR the

magical sword EXCALIBUR. In early texts she is a

FAIRY, a semidivine being who exists in a world

parallel to ours, the Celtic OTHERWORLD, called

in her case the Land of Women (see TIR NA

MBAN). The Lady lived on a magical LAKE sur-

rounded by her maiden servants; she captured

LANCELOT and raised him to be her protector, for

which he was called Lancelot of the Lake. In

some sources, Lancelot was the Lady’s lover and,

by her, the father of the pure knight GALAHAD.

Later texts demoted the FAIRY QUEEN to a

mere sorceress, who created an illusory lake to

keep people away from her land. Her power in

the Arthurian legends remained firm, however,

for she protected Arthur throughout his life, and

it is to her that Arthur returned at the end of his

life. Giving back Excalibur to the lake’s depths,

the wounded king was then conveyed away—to

where, no one knew—by the Lady. Her connec-

tion with Arthur has been described as parallel

to that of the Irish goddess MÓRRÍGAN and the

hero CÚCHULAINN.

Source: Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-Faith in

Celtic Countries. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe

Humanities Press, 1911, p. 327.

Láeg (Laeg, Lóeg) Irish hero. Charioteer to

the greatest of ULSTER’s heroes, CÚCHULAINN,

Láeg saved his master by taking a spear intended

for him.

Lair Derg Irish goddess. This name or title,

which means “red mare,” was used of ÁINE, god-

dess or FAIRY QUEEN of southeastern Co.

Limerick. RED is generally an OTHERWORLD

color, and HORSES had associations with death;

the title thus seems to point to Áine as a goddess

of death who takes us on a ride to the afterlife.

lake (lough) Symbolic site. Celtic religion

saw WATER as sacred, so it is not surprising that

lakes were seen as potent symbols of the OTHER-

WORLD. Tales of cities beneath lake waters are

found in many Celtic lands (see INCHIOUIN,

LOUGH REE), as are stories of magical beings who

dwell either under the lake’s waves (see LÍ BAN)

or on magical ISLANDS (see LADY OF THE LAKE).

The religious meaning of the lake as a pas-

sageway to the Otherworld seems to reflect

ancient Celtic rituals in which treasures were

offered to lakes; the great horde of objects found

in the shallows (LA TÈNE) of Switzerland’s Lake

Neuchâtel were probably deposited ritually, per-

haps to drive away plague or with an equally

serious intention. Similar offerings were made at

holy WELLS, which were commonly used for sea-

sonal festivals, while lakes seem to have been

more commonly visited ritually in times of great

need. Records show that offerings to a lake near

Toulouse in southern France preceded the end

of a pestilence; the unreliable warrior Caepion

then stole the treasures. When he was killed in

battle soon after, this was taken as a sign that he

had been punished for his greed. Such legends

did much to protect lake deposits from thieves,

and recent excavations at LOUGH GUR revealed

significant and valuable artifacts.

lake maidens Celtic folkloric characters.

Throughout the Celtic lands, LAKES were seen as

entrances to the OTHERWORLD. In those lakes

lived FAIRY women whose enchanted palaces under

the waves could sometimes be seen from shore.

These lake maidens—who sometimes appeared as

SWAN MAIDENS—made wonderful wives for

human men, but they were hard to capture. One

had to steal something from the lake maidens;

when she appeared as a SWAN, it must be her robe

of feathers; at other times it could be her COMB or

another personal object. Then she would come

lake maidens 279

meekly to shore and become as industrious and

pleasant a wife as a man could wish.

However, such maidens invariably placed

taboos around their husband’s behavior; the hus-

band of ÁINE of LOUGH GUR could express no

surprise at anything their son did, while MELU-

SINE’s husband could not see her on Sundays.

The Welsh lake maiden Nelferch extracted from

her husband the agreement that he should not

strike her without reason; she set a limit of THREE

mistakes. They lived happily except for his ten-

dency to tap her when he wanted to get her

attention. Despite the good intentions behind his

actions, she still considered it breaking her rule,

and upon the third incident she disappeared.

Whenever a lake maiden’s rule was broken, she

instantly disappeared, returning to her watery

home, sometimes taking her children with her

but just as often leaving them orphaned.

Source: Rhys, John. Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941, pp. 2, 23.

Lambton Worm British folkloric figure. The

word WORM may seem to indicate an insignifi-

cant being, but in fact it was the Norse and

Saxon word for DRAGON. One of the most

famous British dragon stories concerns the

worm that haunted the northern region around

Lambton Castle. Its presence among humans

began with an unruly 14th-century lord who

went fishing on Sunday morning instead of

going to church—and in full view of the chapel

at that. His luck was bad until, just as the church

bells stopped, something bit at his line. He

hauled in a strange creature, a sort of EEL with

nine mouths. Appalled and frightened, he threw

it down a WELL—still locally called Worm’s

Well—and set about to reform his life. He even

went to the Crusades. Meanwhile, in the well,

the worm was growing larger and larger, until it

emerged a true monster to ravage the country-

side and kill all the knights sent to combat it.

When the lord returned from the Holy

Land, he found his lands in disarray and his peo-

ple in fear. Realizing his guilt, he pledged to kill

the worm. A wise woman advised him that he

must have a SMITH make spiky armor and that he

must fight the worm from the rock in the mid-

dle of the River Wear. In addition, she warned,

he must kill the first creature he met upon his

victorious arrival home. Planning ahead, the

lord arranged to have a DOG let out the moment

he approached his castle, then set off to do bat-

tle with the monster. It was a fierce struggle, but

the worm finally impaled itself upon the spikes

of the lord’s armor and died. Alas, in the excite-

ment of the lord’s return home, his aged father

ran to congratulate him. The lord immediately

killed the dog that had, indeed, been let out as

the designated victim, but it was not sufficient to

meet the conditions set out by the old woman,

and as a result no lord of Lambton died in his

bed for nine generations.

Lammas See LUGHNASA.

Lamorack de Galles Arthurian hero. King

PELLINORE’s son, he was a famous warrior of the

ROUND TABLE. He killed the husband of king

ARTHUR’s half-sister MORGAUSE, and her sons,

who included GAWAIN, killed him in retaliation.

Lancelot (Lancelot of the Lake, Lancelot du

lac, Lanceloz, Lanzelot von Arlac) Arthurian

hero. The handsomest and bravest knight of the

ROUND TABLE, he became the lover of ARTHUR’s

queen GUINEVERE, thus creating a fatal triangle

that serves as the central dramatic conflict in the

Arthurian cycle. The connection of Celtic

mythology with the MATTER OF BRITAIN—the

tales relating to king ARTHUR and his knights of

the Round Table—has been widely argued, with

general agreement that there is a connection but

less agreement on specifics. Thus in the charac-

ter and actions of the heroic knight Lancelot we

may find Celtic themes and motifs, as we do in

the other primary characters of the narrative,

Arthur and Guinevere.

280 Lambton Worm

Lancelot’s background is not clear from the

texts; the fact that he is called “of the lake” sug-

gests a relationship to the mysterious LADY OF

THE LAKE, which in turn has led some to specu-

late that Lancelot was of the FAIRY people,

although many texts claim that the Lady was

only his foster mother and that his father was the

French king Ban of Benoic, of whom little more

is known. Other tales say he was the son of king

Pant of Genewis and his wife, Clarine, from

whom the infant Lancelot was stolen by the

Lady of the Lake while Clarine was nursing her

husband’s battle wounds. The Lady then raised

him in ignorance of his true family, which

Lancelot learned as a young man.

He came to CAMELOT then, drawn by the

fame of the great king and his beautiful queen.

From the first he and Guinevere were drawn to

each other. In the interests of her virtue and the

court’s harmony, however, both resisted their

attraction. When Guinevere finally spent a night

in the forest alone with Lancelot, the upstanding

knight put a sword between them, to assure that

he would not yield to fleshly temptation. Arthur,

finding them sleeping virtuously beside each

other and separated by the sword, took the

sword with him, thus ensuring that the couple

would realize they had been observed. Lancelot

departed the court, intent upon seeking glory in

the field of battle, and left a heartbroken

Guinevere behind. (A similar incident occurs in

the parallel Irish tale of

GRÁINNE and DIARMAIT,

but Gráinne was a more forthright and sexually

demanding partner.)

One story, told by Chrétien de Troyes as Le

Chevalier de la charrette or The Knight of the Cart,

says their affair began when Guinevere was

stolen away from Camelot by the giant or king

MELEAGANT. Lancelot set out in pursuit of the

kidnapped queen, but he soon lost the track and

had to rely upon a strange DWARF who was drag-

ging a cart full of condemned prisoners. When

the dwarf told Lancelot that the only way he

would ever see his beloved again was to join the

criminals in the cart, Lancelot did so willingly.

Approaching Meleagant’s castle, Lancelot was

confronted by two bridges: one that went

beneath the moat, smooth and straight; the

other, made of a sword blade, that went above

the water. Desperate to find Guinevere,

Lancelot took the shorter route, wounding him-

self dreadfully in the process. Locating the

queen in a bedroom where the seneschal KAY

slept, himself wounded, the bleeding Lancelot

joined his beloved in her bed. The next day,

when bloodstains were found on Guinevere’s

sheets, Kay was accused of seducing her, and

Lancelot had to fight for his friend’s honor.

When Guinevere returned to Camelot, it was

as Lancelot’s mistress as well as the land’s queen.

His fall from perfection meant that when he

went on the quest for the sacred

GRAIL, he was

unable to attain his goal. Their affair was kept

secret in the court, and Lancelot performed

many noble deeds in Guinevere’s honor. He

freed the many knights held captive in the PER-

ILOUS VALLEY, part of the forest of BROCÉLIANDE

that king Arthur’s half-sister, the sorceress MOR-

GAN, had enchanted. Because she had been

betrayed, she made sure that any knight who had

ever wronged a woman would become trapped

by her magic, seeing the trees as great battle-

ments guarded by fire-breathing dragons. Many

knights were trapped there, including the seem-

ingly pure GAWAIN, until Lancelot—ever true to

his queen and lover—freed them all.

The beginning of their affair was also the

beginning of Camelot’s downfall. Lancelot was

not to blame, nor the hopelessly smitten queen,

for Arthur’s own past rose up to destroy his ideal

kingdom. Guinevere was convicted of treason

and sentenced to death by burning, but Lancelot

arrived just in time to save her, and in the com-

motion killed his own best friend, the upright

knight GARETH. Arthur’s own illegitimate son

MORDRED, conceived upon MORGAUSE, began a

war on Camelot that ended with the deaths of all

the heroes except Arthur, who was taken away by

the mysterious Lady of the Lake—perhaps to rise

again as Britain’s “once and future king.”

According to some sources, Lancelot died in that

final battle, although others say that he survived

Lancelot 281

to become a saintly hermit in his castle, while his

beloved Guinevere retired to a convent.

The Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot love trian-

gle echoes two more clearly Celtic romances:

one from Ireland, that of the heroic leader

FIONN MAC CUMHAILL, his young follower

Diarmait, and the lady Gráinne; the other from

Cornwall, that of the aging king MARK, the fair

knight TRISTAN, and his fated lover ISEULT. In

spite of some similarities, the stories have signif-

icant differences. The assertive Gráinne put a

GEIS or sacred vow upon Diarmait that he must

carry her off and later taunted him into sleeping

with her, while Guinevere was less forthright in

expressing her desire for Lancelot; some have

seen the influence of Christianity in her hesita-

tion. The Arthurian material lacks the magical

motifs of that of Tristan and Iseult, who fell

hopelessly in love after drinking a MAGIC potion

intended for the bride to share with king Mark

on her wedding night. Thus magically entan-

gled, the couple fought unsuccessfully against

their love; the trials of Iseult parallel those with

which Guinevere’s virtue was tested.

The similarity of these three stories, all from

different Celtic lands, has led scholars to suggest

that all derive originally from a myth in which

the goddess of SOVEREIGNTY transfers her love to

a new and younger king and thus authorizes his

kingship. Lancelot, like Tristan and Diarmait, is

selected by the goddess-queen as her next lover.

If this were indeed a story of dynastic change, the

goddess’s choice would have indicated that a new

king was to be installed. From this mythological

outline, three Celtic cultures elaborated their

own intensely evocative human tales.

In some texts Lancelot is the lover of the Lady

of the Lake and, by her, the father of the pure

knight

GALAHAD. In other tales he was the acci-

dental lover of ELAINE of Corbenic, by whom he

conceived Galahad when, intoxicated, he believed

he was sleeping with his beloved Guinevere.

Some Arthurian tales do not show Lancelot as

Guinevere’s lover but as a faithful servant of the

king; this has suggested to scholars that the love

triangle was a late development of the myth.

Source: Markale, Jean. Courtly Love: The Path of

Sexual Initiation. Rochester, Vt.: Inner

Traditions, 2000, pp. 69, 116.

Land of Promise See TÍR TAIRNIGIRI.

Land of Women See TIR NA MBAN.

Land of Youth See TIR NA NOG.

Land Under Wave See TIR FO THUINN.

Laoghaire (Loegaire, Leary) Irish hero. This

name is common among Irish heroes, including:

• Laoghaire, son of NIALL of the Nine Hostages.

Quasi-historical high king of Ireland, during

whose reign St. Patrick lit the BELTANE fire on

SLANE hill; upon hearing the preaching of

Patrick, Laoghaire was instantly converted.

• Laoghaire Buadhach, “Laoghaire the victo-

rious,” a hero of the ULSTER CYCLE who died

rather than let a poet, Aodh, be killed by the

angry king CONCOBAR MAC NESSA.

• Laoghaire mac Crimthann, consort of the

heroine or sun goddess DÉR GRÉINE, whom he

won by killing a fearsome GIANT named GOLL

MAC MORNA. He was lured to the OTHER-

WORLD by a young FAIRY king, Fiachna, who

came to beg his aid against an invader.

Laoghaire was willing to help, but he found

himself trapped, for once in FAIRYLAND he was

unable to return to home, and he remained

there forever.

Lasair Irish heroine or goddess. In the

province of ULSTER, this obscure figure is con-

nected with a holy WELL called Tobar Lasair

(Tobar Lastra) in Co. Monaghan, where she was

celebrated with a festival on April 18. She is more

significantly associated with MUNSTER, where she

similarly is associated with a well that she shared

with her sister, the otherwise unknown Ciar. As

282 Land of Promise

Lasair’s name means “flame,” while Ciar’s means

“extreme darkness,” the two may be TWINS that

represent the important cosmological concept of

balance or complementarity.

Lasair’s name appears in several groupings of

heroines or goddesses. She is said to have been

the sister of LATIARAN and INGHEAN BHUIDHE,

with whom she lived in a monastic cell at the lit-

tle town of Cullen in Co. Cork. She later moved

to nearby Killasseraugh (Cill Lasaire, “church of

Lasair”), where she remains the patron

SAINT of

the parish. She was said to have had a holy well

near Cullen, but its location has been lost, as has

the date of her festival.

La Tène Period of Celtic culture. At the

region called La Tène (“the shallows”) in Lake

Neuchâtel in Switzerland, one of the greatest of

archaeological finds was made by amateur

explorers in 1858: a huge deposit of thousands of

objects, apparently thrown into the LAKE as part

of a ritual, that ranged from golden TORCS to

iron CAULDRONS, from elaborate silver brooches

to sacrificed DOGS, PIGS, and CATTLE. The horde

gave its name to the third period of the develop-

ing Celtic culture, the earlier ones being the

URNFIELD and HALLSTATT; the La Tène period is

now divided into three phases, I, II, and II.

Full of SPIRALS and whorling designs, the

metal decorations on the art found in the horde,

apparently created by a colony of artists on the

lakeshore, represent masterpieces of ancient art.

Old European or pre-Indo-European designs

have been traced in the art of La Tène, as have

Greek, Etruscan, Scythian, and even Persian

designs, suggesting that the La Tène people

were part of a wide network of cultural exchange

in the Mediterranean world. Although the artists

of La Tène only worked from ca. 500 B.C.E. until

ca. 100 C.E., the style lasted until the Norman

conquest of Ireland in 1169.

Latiaran (Lateerin, Lateeran) Irish goddess

or heroine. In the tiny town of Cullen in north-

ern Co. Cork, a strange monument is dedicated

to Latiaran: a STANDING STONE in the rough

shape of a heart, which stands near a diminutive

holy WELL dedicated now to St. Latiaran, a holy

woman unknown elsewhere. Local legend has it

that she was a woman of such modesty that, when

she was carrying some boulders (or hot coals) in

her apron and a SMITH commented approvingly

on the shapeliness of her ankles, Latiaran

dropped her apron. The standing stone fell out

of it, wedging itself upright in the ground,

whereupon she disappeared beneath it. The

stone, called Latiaran’s heart, can still be seen in

a patch of grass near the graveyard in Cullen.

Two aspects of this curious tale suggest an

ancient goddess converted into a

SAINT with the

coming of CHRISTIANITY. The smith is elsewhere

known as a magical being whose exemplar is the

god GOIBNIU. The motif of rocks falling from

the apron is otherwise found in tales of the

world-creating HAG, the CAILLEACH. That

Latiaran (whose name is untranslatable) was a

fire goddess is suggested by the hot coals she

carried, as well as the names of her two sisters:

LASAIR (“flame”) and INGHEAN BHUIDHE (“yellow-

haired girl”). Or they may have been seasonal

divinities, for they each ruled a different part of

the growing seasons: Lasair, the first of spring;

Inghean Bhuidhe, the beginning of summer; and

Latiaran, the harvesttime, connected with that

season by the local tradition that women should

curtsy to Latiarin’s heart as they passed during

harvest and by the marking of Latiarin’s feast day

on the last Sunday in July, the old Celtic festival

of LUGHNASA.

Even today the PATTERN or ritual to Latiaran

brings rural people from around the region to

celebrate the harvest. Latiaran Sunday is held on

or just before July 25, her feast day. It was the

first day for eating potatoes in that region, and

the weather was reputed always to be fine.

Latiaran, whose name is found nowhere else

but in Cullen, has been interpreted as corrupted

diminutive form (from a hypothesized Laisrian)

of the better-known Lasair. Both may be variants

of the great figure of BRIGIT, who like Latiaran

was said to have carried hot coals, in Brigit’s case

Latiaran 283