Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

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Padfoot English folkloric figure. In Yorkshire,

this strange donkey-sized creature appeared as an

OMEN of death; it looked like an amorphous

shaggy ball with eyes or a woolly white DOG. It

could become invisible at will and often roared or

rattled to terrify unsuspecting travelers who

passed its lair. It was very important never to

strike out at Padfoot, for touching it gave the

monster power over you.

See also BARGUEST.

Padstow Obby Oss Cornish ritual. In the

small Cornish port of Padstow on BELTANE

morning (May 1), a HOBBYHORSE ceremony is

still held to mark the arrival of spring according

to the old Celtic calendar. The celebration has

been linked to old Celtic HORSE rituals.

paganism Cosmological concept. All Celtic

religion is pagan, for the word defines the poly-

theistic world as distinguished from the monothe-

istic. Celtic religion arose before the historical

Christ was born and thus before his followers had

articulated their message. As Christians made

theirs the dominant worldview of Europe, they

employed derogatory words to describe anyone

who continued to hold to the traditional beliefs of

their ancestors. They were “pagans,” from the

Latin pagani, which means “hick” although it is

more formally translated as “a country dweller.”

Similarly, the word heathen was used to describe

someone who lived on the heath or moor, poor

agricultural land where impoverished people eked

out a living and clung to ancestral beliefs. The use

of these words betrays the urban background of

Christianity’s rise and the religious conservatism

typical, even today, of the country dweller.

Today the word pagan is used in America to

describe people, most often urban or suburban,

who search for non-Christian spiritual traditions

articulating a worldview that seems less dualist,

less sexist, or more nature-embracing than they

believe Christianity has become. Some scholars

argue that the term should not be applied to

people who adopt paganism, referring to such

seekers as NEO-PAGANS (“new pagans”), to dis-

tinguish them from those who practice an

unbroken tradition. Such distinctions have given

rise to several cults that declare themselves

descendants of some religion, often Celtic, that

existed in ancient times and was conveyed in

secret through the ages. Most such claims are

without substance, although there is strong evi-

dence that folklore and place-lore (see DIND-

SHENCHAS) conveyed ancient beliefs forward to

contemporary times.

Palomides Arthurian hero. Not British but a

Saracen, an Islamic fighter, Palomides was one

374

of the greatest knights of the ROUND TABLE,

who served king ARTHUR in the quest for the

sacred GRAIL.

Pamp (Pam) Irish hero. The BOOK OF INVA-

SIONS gives this as the name of NEMED’s father,

thus making him an ancestor of the race of

Nemedians who were among the early invaders

of Ireland. His name is believed to be a late

invention, derived from the Latin Pompeius.

Paps of Danu (Paps of Anu, Dá Chich Anann)

Irish mythological site. On the road between the

scenic Lakes of Killarney and the city of Cork in

the southwestern Irish province of MUNSTER,

two almost identical rounded hills rise from the

Derrynasaggart Mountains. The top of each is

crowned with an ancient CAIRN, a rock construc-

tion built some 6,000 years ago by unknown

people who preceded Celtic settlement in the

area. The west Pap has not only a mound sur-

mounted by a cairn but a stone chamber as well.

Between the two hills is a stand of ragged rocks

called The Teeth.

The Paps are often cloud-hung, but when

the mist clears, the cairns create an earth sculp-

ture of nipples atop the rounded breasts of the

paired hills. The mountains are called the Paps

(breasts) of DANU (sometimes ANU), after a god-

dess who appears as an ancestral figure but to

whom little myth accrues. The monument has

been interpreted as indicating that Danu was a

goddess of the earth.

Danu is not the only female figure connected

with the Paps. The poet CRÉD was said to have

built her palace on the side of the hills; a holy

WELL on the Paps was dedicated to the strange

figure of CROBH DEARG (“red claw”), honored at

BELTANE with visits to the well. The only male

figures associated with the twin mountains are

the BARD CÁEL and the hero FIONN MAC

CUMHAILL, both lovers of Créd.

Paradise Cosmological concept. The Celts

had no concept that exactly parallels the eastern

Mediterranean vision of Paradise as a beautiful,

unearthly world that existed before this one, that

was lost to us through the human sin, and to

which the elect will go after death. Instead, the

Celts believed in an OTHERWORLD that could be

reached during one’s lifetime if one happened to

be in the right place at the right time. The

Otherworld was not necessarily a desirable des-

tination, for the

FAIRIES and minor divinities that

occupied it could hold a person against his will

and refuse to let him return. Not that the captive

would necessarily wish to run, for the Celtic

Otherworld was beautiful and satisfying, if

somewhat sterile.

Their familiarity with this pleasant Other-

world may have made it easy for the Celts to

accept the apparently similar Christian vision of

Paradise. Although Christians might be given a

visionary glimpse of the world to come, they can-

not enter while in their earthly bodies, nor can

they readily return from Paradise once they

arrive there. As the home of God, Paradise is

entirely unshadowed with the ambiguity of the

Celtic Otherworld. Thus the differences between

Paradise and the Otherworld are profound

despite their slight and superficial similarities.

Paris Continental Celtic hero. In the Welsh

mythological tale of KULHWCH AND OLWEN, a

king of this name appears as ruler over the

region where the French capital now stands.

Most scholars dismiss the assumption that this

offers proof of an historical Celtic king named

Paris; rather, they say, the city’s name probably

derives from a local Celtic tribe, the Parisi; the

same tribe, or a branch of it, settled in Britain’s

Yorkshire region. Another legend offers a differ-

ent idea of how Paris got its name: Because the

city was so beautiful, it was named par-Ys—“like-

YS”—after the lost magical city of Brittany.

Partholón (Partholon, Parthalán, Parthanán)

Irish hero. In the mythological history of

Ireland, the BOOK OF INVASIONS, Partholón was

the least significant of the invaders, coming after

Partholón 375

CESAIR and before NEMED and his followers.

Unlike some of the other races that disguise a

history of early settlement, Partholón is believed

to have been invented by medieval historians

who based his name on Bartholomaeus, a figure

from early Christian pseudo-history.

Partholón, it was said, came to Ireland from

Greece, where he had killed both his parents and

had been blinded in his left eye as punishment.

(The theme of the one-eyed leader, which also

appears in the stories of BALOR of the Evil Eye and

the warrior GOLL MAC MORNA, may be Celtic in

origin.) Thirty years after the biblical great flood,

Partholón arrived in Ireland with his people, the

Partholonians, who settled in after fighting off the

monstrous FOMORIANS. Their battle was a strange

one: No blood was shed because the fighting took

place entirely in the realm of MAGIC.

Life in Ireland was not happy for Partholón,

who discovered that his wife DEALGNAID, whom

he left alone while he surveyed the land, took

advantage of his absence to sleep with their ser-

vant Togda; Partholón blamed not his wife but

himself, saying that women should never thus be

abandoned with their needs for love unsatisfied.

Partholón and Dealgnaid had four sons;

together they cleared the forests and established

farms. After several hundred years a plague

struck, and the descendants of Partholón were

all killed off, all between one Monday and the

next in May. Only

TUAN MAC CAIRILL, a SHAPE-

SHIFTING BARD, survived. A folkloric remnant of

Partholón was an Irish harvest spirit named

Parthanán who stole any grain left unthreshed.

Source: MacAlister, R. A. Stewart. Lebor Gabála

Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland, Parts

1–4. Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1941, Pt. 2, pp.

253–271; Pt. 3, pp. 2–102.

Partholonians Irish mythological race. See

PARTHOLÓN.

passage graves (Passage tombs) Mythological

sites. Archaeological evidence of an ancient people

who preceded the Celts in Ireland, Britain, and

Brittany, these stone structures are built of huge

boulders, arranged standing upright to form a cor-

ridor leading to an inner chamber. The entire

structure was usually covered with earth, forming

a mound (see FAIRY MOUND), but in many cases

this outer covering has worn away, leaving the

stone skeleton clearly visible. As was the case

with many ancient monuments of the

MEGALITHIC

CIVILIZATION, these impressive ruins were believed

haunted by the Celts, and their superstitious

beliefs concerning the tombs make up some of the

lasting folklore of the Celtic lands.

patera Cosmological symbol. The continental

Celtic goddess EPONA is frequently shown carry-

ing a flat object upright in her hands. This patera,

or offering plate, also appears in other contexts:

held by a deity, offered up by a human worshiper,

filled with fruit or other produce, or entirely

empty. Some have interpreted the object not as a

plate but as a small frame drum.

Patrick See ST. PATRICK.

pattern (patron) Ritual. A series of ritual

activities performed on a specific day and usually

at a specific site, the pattern (Irish usage) or

patron (in Brittany) is apparently Christian but

descends from a Celtic, or sometimes pre-Celtic,

original. Examples are numerous: visiting holy

WELLS at ancient ritual times, climbing MOUN-

TAINS on Celtic holidays, traveling along a cer-

tain road or path while performing specified

actions. The pattern often included walking in

circles, leaving specified offerings, reciting spe-

cific prayers, or drinking well water. In some

cases the actions could be effective at any time,

while at other locations the pattern had to be

done on a certain day and at a certain time.

These rituals, which still continue today, are

described as Christian by their practitioners,

who may be aware of pagan antecedents but who

are rarely bothered by them.

376 Partholonians

pech (peht, pict) Scottish folkloric figure. In

Lowland Scotland, this name used of the

OTH-

ERWORLD creatures otherwise known as FAIRIES

apparently derives from an ancient historical

people called the

PICTS. As is common with fairy

races, the pech was fair-skinned and red-haired

(see

RED) and might be mistaken for a human

except that they were extraordinarily short.

Despite their dwarfish height, they were strong

and agile; they formed great lines in order to

haul stones from quarries to construct their cas-

tles. Like many Otherworldly peoples, the pechs

could not bear sunlight and fled to their resi-

dences each dawn.

Peg O’Nell British folkloric figure. Figures

of legend are often earlier deities in degraded

form. This seems to be the case with Peg

O’Nell, connected with the River Ribble in

Lancashire; the Ribble once bore the name of

the RIVER goddess BELISAMA, who was worshiped

at its source and on its shores. That her worship

may have involved HUMAN SACRIFICE is sug-

gested by some scholars who have found in the

figure of Peg O’Nell a vestige of that dreadful

rite. Peg was said to have been a servant girl who

drowned in the Ribble and, to punish those who

failed to rescue her, came back every seven years

to steal another victim. (In Ireland, we find a

similar seven-year cycle of drowning connected

with

ÁINE, a fairy queen and ancient goddess of

the haunted

LOUGH GUR.) On Peg’s Night, when

the Ribble rises to snare a new victim, it was

considered appropriate to make propitiatory sac-

rifices of small birds or animals to the river

spirit. A headless stone statue at Waddow Hall

on the river’s banks is believed to represent Peg

or, in alternative theories, the goddess Belisama.

Peg Powler British folkloric figure. A haunt-

ing GREEN-haired spirit of the River Tees

between the counties of Durham and Yorkshire,

Peg Powler may be a degraded descendant of the

ancient Celtic RIVER goddess of the area. She

was said to wander about, especially on Sundays,

luring young and old folks to a watery death;

those who drowned in the Tees were said to have

been eaten by Peg Powler. When foam gathers

on the waves of the river, it is called “Peg

Powler’s suds” and is said to be “Peg doing her

laundry,” while a white slick means she is milk-

ing her cow and is called “Peg Powler’s cream.”

péist (bruckee) Irish folkloric figure. A mon-

strous SERPENT or reptile, the péist appears in a

number of legends, including many in which it is

overcome by ST. PATRICK. Typically the péist is

associated with WATER, usually fresh rather than

oceanic: it lives in a LAKE and can only be suc-

cessfully killed when submerged. It is also called

the OLLIPHEIST.

These beasts are especially common in the

area of west Co. Clare called the Burren, where

place-names like Poulnapeasta (“water dragon’s

lair” or “péist-hole”) are found. Near Corofin a

pool that changed color and was marked with

several funnel holes was believed to harbor a

brown, hairy, big-eyed MONSTER.

Pelagianism (Pelagius) Cosmological con-

cept. The fifth-century Christian philosopher

Pelagius is believed to have been a Celt, British

or Irish (his opponent, St. Jerome, claimed

Pelagius was “stuffed with Irish porridge”), who

gained many followers in the early church with

his “happy heresy.” Pelagius believed that all of

creation was good and that the human enterprise

was to learn to love all that exists. Opposing this

vision was that of the North African cleric

Augustine, who had been greatly influenced by

the dualistic philosophy of the Persian sage

Mani in his youth, an influence that he never

entirely shed (see DUALITY). St. Augustine’s

combat with Pelagianism was one of the defin-

ing moments for the emerging Christian church.

A brilliant and charismatic leader, Augustine

argued fiercely against the Pelagian vision,

which reflected a typical Celtic view of NATURE.

Pelleas (Pelles) See FISHER KING.

Pelleas 377

Pellinore Arthurian hero. Brother of the

FISHER KING Pelles, Pellinore was a great knight

of the ROUND TABLE and, in some texts, father of

the pure PERCIVAL.

Penarddun (Penardun) Welsh heroine. The

daughter of the important goddess DÔN and the

sea or death god

BELI, Penarddun was one of the

consorts of king LLYR. She is sometimes called

the mother of Llyr’s daughter BRANWEN as well

as his sons BRÂN THE BLESSED and MANAWYDAN

(some sources give another woman, Iweriadd, as

mother of the first two). With another man,

Eurosswyd, she had two sons of opposite tem-

perament: the gentle NISIEN and the evil

EFNISIEN. All of Penarddun’s children figure

prominently in the mythological Welsh tales

collected in the MABINOGION; she herself has lit-

tle legend and appears to be an ancestral figure.

Penn Cruc Welsh god or hero. The Welsh

equivalent of the Irish harvest god of similar

name, CROM CRUACH, Penn Cruc was worshiped

at ancient mounds and STONES.

Percival (Perceval, Parsival, Parsifal, Parzifal)

Arthurian hero. The son of the Welsh princess

HERZELOYDE and the warrior GAHMURET,

Percival was brought up in a cottage without

knowledge of his illustrious parentage, and he

became a knight noted for his simplicity and

purity. The quest for the GRAIL—the cup that

Jesus of Nazareth used at his Last Supper, later

brought to Celtic lands by the mysterious

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA—makes up a major part

of the Arthurian legends. The story of the Grail

quest begins with the knight Percival wandering

in a barren land. Its ruler had been wounded (see

FISHER KING) and could do nothing other than

fish from a boat, although nothing ever came to

his line. Dining with the king, Percival suddenly

had a vision of a chalice and a bleeding lance.

Trying to be polite, he said nothing about the

curious experience. The vision ended, and the

castle suddenly disappeared, leaving Percival

alone in the woodland, wondering how the

Fisher King and his lands could be saved.

The quest for the Grail was thus launched.

Percival returned to ARTHUR’s court, and the

knights of the ROUND TABLE set off, each of

them experiencing a different quest that

matched the needs of his soul. Percival finally

was able to rediscover the Grail Castle and this

time asked the necessary questions: Whose is the

cup, why does the lance bleed? His questions

restored the king to health, and thus the land

bloomed again, and Percival succeeded the

Fisher King on the throne of the reborn land.

The great Breton writer Chrétien de Troyes

first wrote of Percival in 1175

C.F. (Perceval, ou

Le Conte du Graal); he appears in Thomas

Malory’s Morte d’Arthur as Sir Percival; and he is

Parzifal in the Germanic versions of the story

that became part of German composer Richard

Wagner’s operatic cycle.

Source: Loomis, Roger Sherman. The Grail from

Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol. New York:

Columbia University Press, 1963; pp. 196–222.

Peredur Welsh and Arthurian hero. In one of

the great romances of Wales, we learn of this

callow young man who, enduring many trials

and succeeding at many quests, became a noble

and admired knight. His character, somewhat

altered, became the basis for the Arthurian

knightly hero PERCIVAL. Some have found in his

name an echo of the GRAIL itself, for per means

“bowl” in Brythonic Celtic; any connection to

the Grail, however, does not appear in most ver-

sions of Peredur’s tale.

Perilous Bed Arthurian site. Unknown in the

physical world, the Perilous Bed magically

appeared before knights who quested for the

sacred GRAIL. It looked soft and inviting, but

anyone who lay down upon it was punctured by

invisible knives, until GAWAIN destroyed the

threatening object.

378 Pellinore

Perilous Seat (Siege Perilous) Arthurian

site. Like Celtic INAUGURATION STONES, the

Perilous Seat recognized true heroism; only the

finder of the GRAIL could sit in it without disap-

pearing. In some texts, PERCIVAL sat on the

Perilous Seat after his first and failed encounter

with the FISHER KING; the stone cracked apart to

indicate his unworthiness, but he later repaired

it, sitting upon it after successfully finding the

Grail and knitting the stone back together.

Perilous Valley Breton mythological site.

Within the legendary forest of BROCÉLIANDE in

Brittany, there was a haunted valley that had

been cursed by MORGAN, half sister of King

ARTHUR and lover of the unfaithful GUYOMARD.

To assuage her wounded feelings, Morgan

enchanted the valley so that any man who had

ever betrayed a woman would find himself lost

in the Perilous Valley, wandering as though PIXY-

LED, unable to find the way out. The green val-

ley would seem, to a faithless knight like

Guyomard, to be filled with monsters—all of his

own imagining. In the heart of the valley was a

lake called the FAIRY’s Mirror, from which night-

mares rose like mist. No matter how many

knights happened into the valley, each would

think himself alone. Finally one of the knights of

Arthur’s own court, the young GAWAIN, found

himself snared in Morgan’s trap, and

LANCELOT

went to save him. As Lancelot has never been

untrue to his beloved

GUINEVERE (his adultery

with ELAINE of Corbenic, whereby the hero

GALAHAD was conceived, did not count because

he was inebriated and believed himself to be

making love to Guinevere), he was able to dispel

the enchantment and free the captives.

phantom islands Mythic symbol. ISLANDS

that appeared and disappeared in cloudy mist

were believed to be entrances to the OTHER-

WORLD where FAIRIES, divinities, and the dead

dwelt in endless sunny pleasure. These phantom

islands could be seen out in the ocean or on

lakes; some appeared regularly, usually on a

seven-year cycle, but others appeared once in

the mist and were never seen again.

Pict (pl., Picts, Pictii; in Irish, Cruithin,

Cruithne; in Welsh, Prydyn, Priteni) There is

some evidence that what we know as Celtic reli-

gion and mythology includes vestiges of the

beliefs of the apparently non-Celtic ancient peo-

ple called the Picts, or “painted ones,” a name that

may derive from a tradition of tattooing their

bodies. Some argue that the Picts were Celts from

such tribes as the Caledonii and the Maecatae, for

some Pictish rules had names that seem to have

been in the Brythonic (P-Celtic) language.

Others claim that the Picts were a distinct ethnic

group, speaking a non-Indo-European language.

In either case, the Picts may have been matrilin-

eal (see

MATRILINY) basing descent on the

mother’s line rather than the father’s, as we find

many of the most ancient and presumably Pictish

figures named in that way (like the Welsh

GWYDION son of DÔN and MOBON son of MOD-

RON), while later heroes and heroines bear

patronymics, based on the names of their fathers.

The Picts lived in what is now Scotland,

where they left traces in the form of stone carv-

ings of symbolic animals and objects such as

BULLS and HORSES, SERPENTS and RAVENS, HAM-

MERS and COMBS; these carvings may have repre-

sented religious beliefs or tribal totems. They

were allies with Celtic tribes in fighting the

invading Romans; it was against these fierce

northern warriors that the great Hadrian’s Wall

was erected. They continued to be an historical

force until the ninth century C.E., when they

united with the Scots in a joint kingdom, after

which all traces of their language died out.

pig Symbolic animal. The pig is important in

Celtic religious symbolism, as might be expected

among people for whom it provided a vital meat

source, second only to the CATTLE that also fig-

ure so significantly in myth and folklore. Early

pigs were smaller and fiercer than today’s

domestic variety; they lived half-wild in the

pig 379

forests, rather than confined to sties, and grew

fat on the “mast” or acorns found under OAKS

that were themselves sacred to the Celts. In early

Celtic culture the pig was a funeral animal; a

connection with the warrior class is also sug-

gested by the occasional depiction of a BOAR on

a helmet, although this may have been an evoca-

tion of the animal’s fierceness when cornered.

Mythical and folkloric pigs include, most

notably, the ever-regenerating pigs belonging to

the DAGDA in the Irish OTHERWORLD; any num-

ber of people could slice pork off the creature,

which would be found whole and hearty the next

day. Also in Ireland, the great boar—a trans-

formed man—that killed the hero DIARMAIT Ua

Duibne is found, as is the enchanted sow

Caelchéis, who was brought to her doom by a

harper’s music. In Celtic Gaul there is evidence

of a god named MOCCUS (“porker”), whom the

Romans assimilated to their Mercury. On the

Isle of Man the Arkan Sonney or “lucky piggy”

is an Otherworldly creature that, like others of

its fairy kind, could be distinguished by its RED

ears and white skin; it brought good luck if you

could catch it, but few ever did.

Sources: MacKenzie, Donald A. Scottish Folk-Lore

and Folk Life: Studies in Race, Culture and

Tradition. Glasgow: Blackie & Sons, Ltd., 1935,

pp. 56–71; MacNeill, Máire. The Festival of

Lughnasa, Parts I and II. Dublin: Comhairle

Bhéaloideas Éireann, 1982, p. 185.

pilgrimage Cosmological concept. The sym-

bolism of the pilgrimage—a journey to a sacred

place—is that of the journey of life, tending

inevitably to its conclusion in death and the

afterlife. The conception, familiar to both

Christian and Islamic religions, had little place

in Celtic thought. Not that the Celts did not

travel to holy sites; there is strong evidence that

they did, evidence that continues in the PAT-

TERNS or rituals held at such sites even today.

However, travel and pilgrimage are not the

same. There was no holy center for Celtic reli-

gion, no place where anyone could come at any

time and expect to find an unchanging sanctity.

The center was more a cosmological concept

(see MIDE) than a geographical one; in addition,

sites were connected to specific days and even

hours. Thus pilgrimage did not exist in the con-

ventional sense among the Celts; rather, people

traveled for various purposes to many sites, usu-

ally near home rather than far away.

pin Symbolic object. Small pointed bits of

metal or bone—pins and needles—were com-

mon offerings at Celtic holy sites, especially

those related to water, such as WELLS and RIVER

sources. Because pins were used to fasten cloth

together, they may have been symbolic prayers

for healing or “sewing up” of broken bones and

even broken hearts.

In FAIRY lore, tiny pins were secreted in the

clothing of those who were victims of FAIRY KID-

NAPPING. Upon returning to this world from the

OTHERWORLD, the erstwhile captive would

remain in a comatose state until the vestiges of

fairyland were located and removed.

pishogue (piséog, pistrog) Irish folkloric

concept. The term “pishogue” or “pishoguery”

is still used in Ireland to dismiss old ways (“it’s

just a pishogue”) and occasionally to describe

false tales got up to seem like folklore. Originally

the word meant an Otherworldly bewitchment

that caused the world to seem quite different

than it really is (see GLAMOUR).

pixy (pigsie, piskie) British folkloric figure.

One of the most commonly recognized names

for the Otherworldly beings of FAIRYLAND, this

word was used in the West Country of England

and in Cornwall. Like other such beings, pixies

typically wore GREEN or RED, had red hair and

pointed ears, and were shorter than humans.

Often they squinted as though they could not

bear the light of day; indeed, they preferred the

nighttime. (In Cornwall the piskie was some-

380 pilgrimage

what shorter, older, and more wizened than the

British pixy.) Also typical was their mischievous

manner; they enjoyed leading people astray (see

PIXY-LED) and rousing the animals in the dead of

night. They could be friendly and helpful as

well, like BROWNIES and other household spirits,

offering aid with housekeeping and farmyard

chores. As with other such races, it was impor-

tant to ignore the pixy’s contribution to the

household economy, because praise or gifts

would cause the pixy to be “laid” or driven away

(see LAYING THE FAIRIES).

Source: Crossing, William. Tales of the Dartmoor

Pixies: Glimpses of Elfin Haunts and Antics.

Newcastle upon Tyne: Frank Graham, 1890.

pixy-led (pixy leading, pouk-ledden) Folkloric

motif. Wherever we find belief in FAIRIES—in

other words, in the ancient Celtic lands—we

find the tale that they entertained themselves by

leading humans astray. They cast a GLAMOUR or

PISHOGUE over a scene so that everything

seemed strange. A path disappeared, a gate went

missing, a road dissolved: they remained real in

the physical world, but the pixy-led traveler

simply could not find them. Round and round

the traveler turned, looking desperately for a

familiar landmark, but until the pixy decided to

lift the spell, it was to no avail. Being pixy-led

was most common at liminal times and places

(at dusk, in BOGS, at lakeshores) and on the

ancient Celtic feasts, especially SAMHAIN on

November 1. That Shakespeare knew of the

superstitions about being pixy-led is clear from

his description of Puck’s doings in A Midsummer

Night’s Dream: “to mislead night-wanderers,

laughing at their harm.”

Several antidotes to being pixy-led have been

recorded: carrying IRON, wearing clothing back-

ward or inside out, wearing hobnailed boots,

carrying SALT in the pocket, whistling or singing

while walking. Although none offered a guaran-

tee, such actions offered some protection against

fairy mischief. See also STRAY SOD.

place-lore Many European place-names are of

Celtic origin, especially those ending in variants

of -dunum (“fort,” or “town”) such as Lyon and

Verdun in France (originally Lugdunum and

Virodunum) and those including nemeton (“sacred

grove”) such as Nanterre (Nemetodurum). In

addition to names, we find Celtic influence in the

stories told of landscape features. As Celtic reli-

gion was radically polytheistic, envisioning divini-

ties as related to specific places and the people

who live there, place-lore was an important part

of religion.

The naming of places oriented speakers and

listeners spiritually as well as geographically. In

ancient Ireland the remembering of place-names

and the stories connected with them was an

important duty of the poetic class (see BARD);

even today, Irish poetry often includes the nam-

ing of specific places, although contemporary

work gives less information about the mytholog-

ical lore connected with them. A specific form of

poem told the tales of important places; these

place-lore poems are collectively known as the

DINDSHENCHAS. Some of the stories were

invented by medieval poets to fill in gaps in what

was known of locations, but in many cases the

poems, compiled in the 12th century, provide

lore that dates back far into the Celtic past. A

century later, another collection expanded the

poetic place-lore and added interpretations in

prose; together the volumes make up one of the

most comprehensive, although difficult to inter-

pret, works on Irish place-names.

Other Irish place-lore was never recorded in

writing but remained in local oral tradition. Such

material presents specific challenges to the

scholar, who must determine whether the tale was

an invention, a misinterpretation or misunder-

standing, or a true myth. The study of place-lore

is less developed in Celtic lands outside Ireland.

Plant Annwn (Plant Annwyn, Plant Rhys

Dwfen) Welsh folkloric figures. The “tribe of

the OTHERWORLD” and the “tribe of Rhys the

Deep” were names for Welsh FAIRY people. The

Plant Annwn 381

Plant Annwn lived below the surface of LAKES,

where they kept their red-eared CATTLE (the

Gwartheg y Llyn) and teams of white DOGS (C’WN

ANNWN). Like other such beings, the Plant

Annwn could intermarry with humans, but

should the restrictions they put on their mates

be broken, they would instantly disappear. The

Plant Rhys Dwfen were a subspecies of fairy who

were extremely facile at marketing and thus

grew very wealthy.

planxty Folkloric motif. The music of the

OTHERWORLD was, according to all who heard it,

more beautiful by far than anything in our

world. The great Irish harper Turlough

O’Carolan, who fell asleep one day on a FAIRY

MOUND and awoke a musical genius, coined the

word planxty to describe the special qualities of

fairy music. It was not as regular as our music,

nor as rhythmic, but its odd dissonance and

erratic rhythm produced a hypnotic and melan-

cholic trance that ordinary music could not.

Musicians who heard music in strange lonely

places could be certain that what they heard was

no earthly melody, but beautiful as the melodies

were, they were also difficult to remember. Even

if a fiddler played it over and over, by the time he

reached home the melody had disappeared from

memory.

Following FAIRY MUSIC was a certain way to

adventure, but there was no easy way to return to

human life once you had heard it. On the Isle of

Man, a farmer named Lonagher Lowey went

into a hill in search of the melodious sounds;

there he found a complete town where a magnif-

icent banquet was underway. Having some pres-

ence of mind, Lowey poured off the wine he was

offered, rather than drinking it, because eating or

drinking anything in the Otherworld makes it

impossible to leave. He was one of the rare peo-

ple who returned unharmed from FAIRYLAND.

Source: Killip, Margaret. The Folklore of the Isle of

Man. London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd., 1975, pp.

37–38.

pledge to the elements Continental Celtic

ritual. In Gaul the following words were used

when speaking an oath: “If I break faith, may the

skies fall on me, may the seas drown me, may the

earth swallow me up whole.” The pledge calls

upon the air, sea, and earth to bear witness to the

speaker’s truth. The words show something of

the Celtic sense of ANIMISM, of the world being

alive and in this case, watchful.

Source: Cowan, Tom. “The Pledge to the

Elements.” In Patricia Monaghan, ed. Irish

Spirit: Pagan, Celtic, Christian, Global. Dublin:

Wolfhound Press, 2001.

plowing Ritual activity. The plowing of a

field, necessary in spring to prepare the land for

seed, is also an archetypal activity that appears in

myth and legend. Often it represents the first

arrival of a people in a new land; thus the various

races of invaders to Ireland are described as

clearing and plowing different regions of the

land. Typically gods or heroes do the plowing,

although goddesses are sometimes involved

when they inspire the work. An alternative name

for the harvest god CROM DUBH, Soicin, means

“little plow,” suggesting a double god of spring

and fall; the name of MAC CÉCHT, husband of the

land goddess FÓDLA (“unplowed land”) means

simply “plowman,” as does the name Airem,

borne by one of the mythological kings of Tara.

Plur na mBan Irish heroine. This minor

heroine, whose name means “flower of woman-

hood,” was the daughter of the fairy queen

NIAMH of the Golden Hair and her favored love,

the human poet OISÍN.

poet See BARD.

poetry Cosmological concept. Today poetry is

typically understood as an art form, of little reli-

gious consequence. To the Celts, matters were

different. Words were powerful; indeed, they

382 planxty

had such power that they could alter our physi-

cal world. Thus a poet’s word in ancient Ireland

was feared, for a SATIRE could be so stinging that

it could raise welts on a person’s face; in the most

dire situation, appropriately aimed words (con-

nected with matching rituals) could bring about

a person’s death.

The Celtic BARD was as much a diviner or

seer as a maker of lovely words. It seems clear

from ancient sources that

DRUIDS and poets

were, if not identical, at least nearly so; they

were similarly trained and may have been seen as

different stages of the same career. Both were

adept at SHAPE-SHIFTING: a druid literally so,

being able to change into various bodies or to

become an invisible fog; the poet through

metaphoric words that find likenesses between

apparently unlike objects and ideas and thus

transform one thing into another.

In addition to being seers, poets were also

historians. Invention was not prized above accu-

racy of knowledge; indeed, invention needed to

be rooted in tradition. Thus the poet’s training

included memorization of long passages as well

as extemporaneous composition. Such rote

learning may have created a light trance or med-

itative state in which visions of the OTHER-

WORLD were more readily seen; thus the long

and arduous training in traditional forms may

have opened the door to, rather than sealing it

against, invention and illumination.

poet’s circuit Irish mythological motif. Once

an ancient BARD had been fully trained, he or she

often traveled through Ireland, meeting other

poets, exchanging tales and poems, and engag-

ing in poetic debate. It was while on a poet’s cir-

cuit that the fair LIADAN met her fated lover,

Cuirithir, she refused to interrupt her travels

when he proposed to her.

Poisoned Glen Irish mythological site.

When the heroic god LUGH killed the monstrous

king of the FOMORIANS, BALOR, the victim’s evil

EYE split the rocks of a small valley, which

remains dangerous to this day. The Poisoned

Glen is near Dunlewey, in Co. Donegal.

polytheism Cosmological concept. Scholars

of religion separate the monotheistic from the

polytheistic worldview, the former seeing divin-

ity as singular, the latter as plural. But the sub-

ject is more complex than might appear from

that division. Implicit in monotheism is dualism,

in that whatever is not “god” becomes “not-

god”; thus monotheistic religion is inclined to

develop a theology that includes evil. Similarly,

monotheism typically has associated the divine

with something outside or above this world; thus

NATURE becomes less holy in monotheistic reli-

gion because it is created by god rather than

being god itself. Finally, all monotheisms are

based on the concept of a masculine divinity;

there is no monotheistic religion that excludes a

male god, while all exclude a female image of the

divine. All three of today’s most powerful

monotheistic religions (in order of development:

Judaism, Christianity, Islam) arose in a relatively

small region in the eastern Mediterranean; they

are desert religions with an emphasis on imagery

appropriate to that geographical region.

Polytheism, the belief in multiple divinities, is

more widespread and has been the predominant

religious system for most of the world over most

of the world’s history. Polytheism is typically far

less dualistic than monotheism, although such

dualistic cults as the Persian Manichaeism are

known. More typically, evil is seen not as a cos-

mic force at war with god/good but as part of the

natural cycle that is less comfortable, more

frightening, less understood. Thus death is not

the opposite of life, but a natural part of it. This

does not mean that polytheistic peoples view

death with less fear or that they mourn their lost

loved ones less; it does mean that death is not

typically defined as unnatural.

The Celts appear to have been polytheistic

to the extreme; this is assumed because,

although the names of more than 200 Celtic

gods and goddesses are recorded, few are

polytheism 383