Magic (2): The Magic of Plants in Medieval Times.

2.

The Magic of Plants in Medieval Times.

On plants and their magical properties. 

From: ”The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus; of the Virtues of Herbs, Stones and certain Beasts, also a book of the Marvels of the World.” (Printed in the late 13^th century, this text is from an early 16^th century English translation with notes from present day scholars) 

lbertus Magnus was a famous scholar in his time, but there is no certainty he wrote this book.  There has been serious discussion as to whether the whole book is in fact by him.  It should be clear that the intellectual tenor of The Book of Secrets is very different from the known works of Albertus Magnus, and yet it is also clear that it was written at a time either contemporary with Albertus, or very soon after his death; the earliest manuscripts surviving are from the late thirteenth century, and Albertus died in 1279. It may be that The Book of Secrets was written by a follower of Albertus.

arigold.

The first herb is called with the men of Chaldea, Elias, with the Greeks, Matuchiol, with the Latins, Heliotropium, with Englishmen, Marigold, whose interpretation is of helios, that is the Sun, and tropos, that is alteration, or change, because it is turned according to the Sun. The virtue of this herb is marvelous: for if it be gathered, the Sun being in the sign Leo, In August, and be wrapped in the leaf of a Laurel, or Bay tree, and a Wolf's tooth be added thereto, no man shall be able to have a word to speak against the bearer thereof, but words of peace. And if anything be stolen, if the bearer of the things before named lay them under his head in the night, he shall see the thief, and all his conditions. And moreover, if the aforesaid be put in any church where women be which have broken matrimony on their part, they shall never be able to go forth of the church, except it be put away. And this last point hath been proved, and is very true.

(The supposed Aramaic and Greek names of these plants seem to be entirely fictitious. Heliatropium eurapaeum was held by herbalists to be under the dominion of the sun; Leo is the sign of the zodiac associated with the sun.  The bay tree is Laurus nobilis a culinary rather than a medicinal herb. Perhaps Prunus laurocerasus, the cherry laurel, whose leaves yield prussic acid on bruising, is meant here, and wolf’ s tooth might refer to Aconitum lapellum, a poisonous herb sometimes called “wolfs bane", as both these plants were associated with the witch cult in medieval times. )

ettle.

The second herb is called of the men of Chaldea Roybra, of the Greeks Olieribus, of the Latins or Frenchmen Urtica, of Englishmen a Nettle. He that holdeth this herb in his hand, with an herb called Milfoil, or Yarrow, or Nosebleed, is sure from all fear and fantasy, or vision. And if it be put with the juice of Houseleek, and the bearer's hand be anointed with it, and the residue be put in water; if he enter in the water where fishes be, they will gather together to his hands, and also ad piscellum, And if his hand be drawn forth, they will leap again to their own places, where they were before.

(Urtica dioica is the common stinging nettle, but probably U. pilulifera, the so-called Roman nettle, a vigorous annual plant formerly widely cultivated in herb gardens, is intended here. Achillea millefalium, most commonly called yarrow, is still officinal in Central Europe as a tonic and stimulant. 'Nosebleed' is a local name in several parts of England. paralleled by the French saigne-nez. The magic of the houseleek, Sempervivum tectorum, is correlated with its manner of growth on roofs without any soil, and its evergreen habit. There is no reason to believe that any of these plants is attractive to fish, and why fish should come ad piscellum ('to the little fish') is obscure, though it may be a reference to the phallus.)

ild Teasel ('shepherd' s rod').

The third herb is named of the Chaldees Lorumboror, of the Greeks Allamor, of the Latins Virga pastoris, of Englishmen Wild Teasel. Take this herb, and temper it with the juice of mandrake, and give it to a Bitch, or to another beast, and it shall be great with a young one in the own kind, and shall bring forth the birth in the own kind; of the which young one, if the gum tooth be taken and dipped in meat or drink, every one that shall drink there of shall begin anon battle. And when thou would put it away give to him the juice of Valerian and peace shall be anon among them, as before.

( The heads (teasels) of Dipsacus fullonum, the plant called here virga pastoris ('shepherd' s rod'), are used for raising the nap on some kinds of woollen cloth. Mandragora officinalis (mandrake) was valued for its bizarrely branching rootstocks which frequently resemble manikins, and were thought to scream when taken from the ground. Together with many other properties, mandrake was thought to increase fertility. and to be an aphrodisiac; taken with the hint in the Latin name for teasel (virga.literally'3 twig', acquired the meaning in late Latin of ‘phallus'), this may explain the belief in the potency of the mixture. 'In the own kind' means 'in the same species'. Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) was said by Culpeper ( 1669) to be used as a mild narcotic.)

elandine

The fourth herb is named Aquilaris, of Chaldees, because it springeth in the time in which the Eagles build their nests. It is named of Greeks Valis, of Latins Chelidonium, and of Englishmen Celandine. This herb springeth in the time in which the Swallows, and also the Eagles, make their nests. If any man shall have this herb, with the heart of a Mole, he shall overcome all his enemies, and all matters In suit, and shall put away all debate. And if the before named herb be put upon the head of a sick man, if he should die, he shall sing anon with a loud voice, if not, he shall weep.

(Chelidonium majus is the celandine or swallow-wort; Pliny (xxv. 50. 90) says it 'blossoms when the swallow arrives and withers when it departs’ .)

eriwinkle

The fifth herb is named of the Chaldees lterisi, of the Greeks Vorax, of the Latins Proventalis, or Pervinca, of Englishmen Periwinkle. When it is beaten unto powder with worms of the earth wrapped about it, and with an herb called Semperviva, in English Houseleek, it induceth love between man and wife, if it be used in their meats. And if it shall be put to the mouth of the beast, called the Bugle, he shall break anon in the middle. And this was proved of late time. If the said confection be put in the fire, it shall be turned anon unto blue colour.

(Culpeper mentions two kinds of periwinkle; he is ~referring to the two most commonly cultivated species, Vinca minor and V. major. They are, he says, owned by Venus, and 'the leaves eaten by man and wife together cause love between them'; like the houseleek they are evergreen. In the north of England houseleek is sometimes called 'bullock's eye'; the 'beast called the Bugle' is a wild ox. The statement in the last sentence may have been suggested by the bright blue colour of the Rowers of periwinkle.)

alamint (pennyroyal)

The sixth herb is named of the Chaldees Bieith, of the Greeks Retus, of the Latins Nepeta, of Englishmen Calamint, otherwise Pennyroyal. Take this herb and mix it with the stone found in the nest of the bird called a Lapwing, or Black Plover, and rub the belly of any beast, and it shall be with birth, and it shall have a young one, very black in the own kind. And If It be put to their nostrils, they shall fall to the ground anon as dead, but a little space after they shall be healed. Also If the aforesaid confection be put in a vessel of Bees, the Bees wIll never flee away, but they shall gather together there. And if the Bees be drowned and like as they were dead, If they be put In the afore, said confection, they shall recover their life after a little time, as by the space of one hour, for it is proportioned to the quality lost. And for a sure proof, if drowned Flies be put In warm ashes, they will recover their life after a little space.  

(Nepeta cataria, catmint, and Mentha pulegium, pennyroyal are both according to Culpeper, 'under the dominion of Venus', Turner regards them as kinds of calamint, but Culpeper says Calamint is 'under the dominion of Mercury', Probably Mentha pulegium, which was regarded virtually as a panacea until long after the end of the Middle Ages and was officinal in the British Pharmacopoeia as late as 1867, is the plant intended. )

ound's-tongue

The seventh herb is named of the Chaldees Algeil, of the Greeks Orum, of the Latins Lingua canis, of Englishmen Hound's-tongue. Put thou this herb with the heart of a young Frog and her matrix, and put them where thou wIll, and after a little time all the dogs of the whole town shall be gathered together. And if thou shalt have the a forenamed herb under thy foremost toe, all the dogs shall keep silence, and shall not have power to bark. And if thou shalt put the aforesaid thing in the neck of any Dog, so that he may not touch it with his mouth, he shall be turned always around about like a turning wheel, until he fall unto the ground as dead. And this hath been proved in our time.

 (The leaves of Cynoglossum officinale. hound's tongue. contain acetamide giving the plant a strong smell of mice. or as Gerard (1597) thought of dog’ s urine. The 'matrix' is the uterus; here It probably means belly . Culpeper quotes Mizaldus (Antoine Mizauld. Alexikepus. seu auxiliaris hortus",1565): 'The leaves laid under the feet, will keep 'he dogs from barking a' you.

enbane

The eighth herb is named of Chaldees Mansesa, of the Greeks Ventosin, of the Latins Jusquiamus, of Englishmen Henbane. Take thou this herb, and mix it with Realgar and Hermadatalis, and put them in the meat of a mad Dog, and he will die anon. And if thou shalt put the juice of it with the aforesaid things in a silver cup, it shall be broken very small. And if thou shalt mix the aforesaid thing with the blood of a young Hare and keep it in the skin of an Hare, all the Hares will be gathered there until it be removed.

(Hyoscyamus niger (henbane) was according to Turner 'named of the apothecaries Jusquiamus.The plant yields the narcotic hyoscine (used by Crippen to bring about the death of his wife). Realgar is arsenic disulphide,  a poisonous red mineral of widespread occurrence. Hermodactylus  tuberosus (snake's head iris- referring to the curious purple and green Rowers) is a Mediterranean plant closely related to the iris. The name Hermodactylus has also been applied to Colchicum, the ‘autumn crocuses', although they are much more closely related to lilies than to crocuses. C. autumnale (meadow saffron. Naked ladies) yields the drug colchicine. of value in the treatment of gout, and is highly poisonous. The Stockholm Medical MS. (c. 1400) gives a recipe for bringing about a miraculous assembly of hares,  involving 'jaws of henbane in a hare's skin'; the fruit of henbane was thought to resemble a jaw with molar teeth, and by the 'doctrine of signatures' to be a cure for toothache.)

ily

The ninth herb is named of the Chaldees Ango, of the Greeks Amala, of the Latins Lilium, of the Englishmen a Lily. If thou wilt gather this herb, the Sun being in the sign of the Lion, and wilt mix it with the juice of the Laurel, or Bay tree, and after, ward thou shalt put that juice under the dung of cattle a certain time, it shall be turned into worms, of the which, if powder be made, and be put about the neck of any man, or in his clothes, he shall never sleep, nor shall not be able to sleep until it be put away. And if thou shalt put the aforesaid thing under the dung of cattle, and wilt anoint any man with the worms breeding thereof, he shall be brought anon unto a fever. And if the aforesaid thing be put in any vessel where there is Cow's milk, and be covered with the skin of any Cow of one colour, all the Kine shall lose their milk.

( Lilium candidum, the madonna lily, has been in cultivation since Roman times, but has never been regarded as officinal. Possibly Convallaria majalis, lily of the valley, is intended here; extracts of the Rowers of this plant have long been used as heart stimulants.  The frequent references in this work to the breeding of worms under the dung of cattle appear to be a magical extension of the belief that worms were spontaneously generated from corrupting matter (belief in some form of spontaneous generation was not finally abandoned until the time of Pasteur). The qualities of the herb, mineral, or beast thus 'converted' to worms are taken to be intensified by the process. The heat of dung was certainly used in alchemy; Charles Estienne (The Countrie Forme, I6I6, p. 457) gives one example as pan of the technique for distilling the blood of a goat: 'Take the blood of a young male goat let it stand and settle for some time, and then cast out the water that shall swim above: after, with a tenth or twelfth part of salt, stir it well a long time, and work them together very thoroughly; this done, put it up into a vessel well stopped and luted [sealed], and bury it in a dunghill of horse dung for the space of forty days. Afterward distil it oftentimes .. . and yet it will be better if it be set in horse dung forty days more after that it is distilled.')

istletoe

The tenth herb is called of the Chaldees Luperax, of the Greeks Esifena, .of the Latins Viscum querci, of Englishmen Mistletoe. And It growerh in trees, being holed through. This  herb with a certain other herb, which is named Martagon, that is Silphium, or Laserpitium as It is written in the Almain language, openeth all locks. And if the aforesaid things, being put together, be put in the mouth of any man, if he think of anything, if it should happen, it is set on his heart, if not, it leapeth back from his heart. If the aforesaid thing be hanged up to a tree with the wing of a swallow, there the birds shall be gathered together within the space of five miles. And this last was proved in my time.

(The magic of Viscum album, mistletoe, is correlated with its evergreen and parasitic habit, in wInter it is seen to flourish when its host is leafless and dormant, as though dead. Turner called the orchid Listera ovata (twayblade ) Martagon; Linnaeus applied the name to Lilium martagon. Turk's cap lily. Laserpitium according to Turner, was masterwort (Peucedanum Ostruthium) He says the leaves are unto parsley, the plant was thought to be an antidote to poisons, and has laxative properties; as Gerard says it is a great opener,  which may explain the reference to locks.

entaury

The eleventh herb is named of the Chaldees Isiphilon, of the Greeks Orgelon, of the Latins Centaurea, of Englishmen Centaury. Witches say that this herb hath a marvellous virtue, for if it bejoined with the blood of a female Lapwing, or Black Plover, and be put with oil in a lamp, all they that compass it about shall believe themselves to be witches, so that one shall believe of another that his head is in heaven and his feet in the earth. And if the aforesaid thing be put in the fire when the stars shine it shall appear that the stars run one against another, and fight. And if the aforesaid plaster be put to the nostrils of any man, he shall flee away sharply, through fear that he shall have. And this hath been proved.

(Century is centaurium erythrea. a pink rower of pastures named by Hippocrates for Chiron the Centaur, who had wide knowledge of herbs; it is a bitter-tasting plant. thought to have tonic properties and to be good against bleeding and fevers. Centaurea cyanus is a blue-flowered weed of cultivation (cornflower). Here the smoke of the burning herb is apparently thought to have hallucinogenic properties.)

age

The twelfth herb is named of the Chaldees Colorio, or Coloticon, of the Greeks Clamor, of the Latins commonly Salvia, of Englishmen Sage. This herb, being putrefied under dung of cattle in a glassen vessel, bringeth forth a certain worm, or bird having a tail after the fashion of that bird called a Black Mack or Ousel, with whose blood, if any man be touched on the breast, he shall lose his sense or feeling the space of fifteen days and more. And if the aforesaid Serpent be burned, and the ashes of it put in the fire, anon shall there be a rainbow, with an horrible thunder. And if the aforesaid ashes be put in a lamp, and be kindled, it shall appear that all the house is full of Serpents, and this hath been proved of men of late time.

(Sage (Salvia officinalit) is thought of now a, a culinary herb, but the Elizabethans, taking a hint from the name, found medicinal uses for it:“In Latin, Salvia, rakes the name of safety, In English, Sage, is rather wise than crafty: Sith then the name betokens wise and saving. We count it nature's friend, and worth the having”. (from The English Doctor, 1609. sig. B.6, a translation by Sir John Harington of the Regimen Sanitatis Salerni). Culpeper thought that it was 'of excellent use, help the memory, warming and quickening the senses'. It was said by Pliny to cure snakebite. 

ervain

The thirteenth herb is named of the Chaldees Olphanas, of  the  Greeks Hiliorion, of the Latins Verbena, of the Englishmen Vervain. This herb (as Witches say) gathered, the Sun being in the sign of the Ram, and put with grain or corn of Peony of one year old, healeth them that be sick of the falling sickness. And if it be put in a fat ground, after eight weeks worms shall be engendered, which, if they shall touch any man, he shall die anon. And if the aforesaid thing be put in a Dove house or a Culver house, all the Doves or Culvers shall be gathered together there. And if the powder of them be put in the sun , it shall appear that the sun is blue. If the powder be put in a place where men dwell, or lie between two lovers, anon there is made strife or malice between them.

(Vervain is Verbena officinaIis. Its Welsh name is llysiau'r budol (herb of enchantement and according to the Stockholm Medical MS (AD 1400)  ‘is powerful against the devil of hell; the 'falling sickness' (epilepsy) was often thought to be the result of possession by devils. Peony is Paeonia officinalis. a name derived from Paeon, physician to the gods of Olympus. A 'fat ground’ is fertile soil.)

alm

The fourteenth herb is named of the Chaldees Celayos, of the Greeks Casini, of the Latins Melissophyllum, of Englishmen Smallage; of the which herb Macer Floridus maketh mention. This herb, gathered green, and casten with the juice of the Cypress tree of one year, put in gruel, maketh the gruel to appear full of worms, and maketh the bearer to be gentle and gracious, and to vanquish his adversaries. And if the aforesaid herb be bounden to an Ox's neck, he will follow thee whithersoever thou wilt go.

(Melissophyllum is a name used by Pliny and Virgil, meaning 'bee plant' ;it was applied by Linnaeus to Melittis melissophyllum , an aromatic herb known as 'bastard balm 'to distinguish it from the related plant Melissa officinalis (balm), which maybe the herb intended here. Aemilius Macer wrote on plants in the first century B.C. , and a herbalist whose real name was probably Odo took the pseudonym 'Macer Floridus' in about the tenth century; the writer referred to here is probably the medieval herbalist, though he does not in fact report these properties of melissophyIIum. 'Smallage', according to Turner, is Apium graveolens (wild celery). A more plausible way of making food appear full of worms is suggested by Jean Baptista Porta: ' If you cut Harp-strings small, and strew them on hot flesh, the heat will twist them, and they will move like worms' (Natural Magic, trans. 1658, reprinted New York, 1957; p. 327).)

ose

The fifteenth herb is named of the Chaldees Glerisa, of the Greeks lsaphinus, of the Latins Rosa, of Englishmen a Rose. And it is an herb whose flower is very well known. Take the grain or corn of it, and the corn of Mustard seed and the foot of a Weasel; hang up these in a tree, and it will not bear fruit after. And if the aforesaid thing be put about a net, fishes will gather together there. And if Magaris shall be dead and be put the aforesaid commixion half a day, it shall recover the life, allthough it be not forthwith yet gotten. And if the aforesaid powder be put in a lamp, and after be kindled, all men shall appear black as the devil. And if the aforesaid powder be mixed with oil of the olive tree and with quick Brimstone, and the house anointed with it, the sun shining, it shall appear inflamed.

(The rose has been in cultivation since Roman times, but has never been regarded as officinal. The properties attributed to it are not consistent, as it is credited with the power both of inducing sterility and of restoring life. Magaris has not been identified, though it may be a reference to pearls (margaritae), which can lose 'life' or lustre. Olive oil and powdered sulphur ('quick brimstone') are inflammable; this recipe, and the one following, are clearly from the Book of Fires as are those recipes in the Marvels of the World (see p. 97) which deal with supposed hallucinogens absorbed through their smoke (' put in a lamp') .

erpentina

The sixteenth herb is called of the Chaldees Carturlin, of the  Greeks Pentaphyllon, of the Latins Serpentina, in English Snake's-grass. This herb is well enough known with us. This herb put in the ground, with the leaf of the Three-leaved Grass, engendereth red and green Serpents, of which if powder be made, and be put in a burning lamp, there shall appear abundance of Serpents. And if it be put under the head of any man, from thenceforth he shall not dream of himself

(Fritillaria meleagris, chequered lily, is called snake's head and five leaved grass. Snake's grass is another name for Achillea milllifolium and pentaphyllon is properly Potentilia reptans,. Cinquefoil. Three-leaved grass is clover (Trifolium sp.); Pliny (XXl . 88. 1j2) says that serpents will not venture into clover.)   

  ”The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus; of the Virtues of Herbs, Stones and certain Beasts, also a book of the Marvels of the World.” (Printed in the late 13th century, this text is from an early 16th century English translation with notes from present day scholars.)          

Nico

                                               

Gaelic Folklore (14): Voyages to and from the Celtic Otherworld

14.

The Celtic Otherworld

Heroes and kings visited the otherworld, realm of the death, while they were still alive. They were taken there by the gods or the fairies, or they went there themselves. Time spent in the otherworld is not the same as the time that passes in our world, the realm of the living. Often a magic wand was involved to make the entrance to the otherworld possible.

What follows are descriptions and tales of the Celtic Otherworld, and those who went there, from an old source.

‘In Ireland this world and the world we go to after death are not far apart.'--W. B. Yeats.

'Many go to the Tir-na-nog in sleep, and some are said to have remained there, and only a vacant form is left behind without the light in the eyes which marks the presence of a soul.'--A. E.

General Description

he Heaven-World of the ancient Celts, unlike that of the Christians, was not situated in some distant, unknown region of planetary space, but here on our own earth. As it was necessarily a subjective world, poets could only describe it in terms more or less vague; and its exact geographical location, accordingly, differed widely in the minds of scribes from century to century. Sometimes, as is usual to-day in fairy-lore, it was a subterranean world entered through caverns, or hills, or mountains, and inhabited by many races and orders of invisible beings, such as demons, shades, fairies, or even gods. And the underground world of the Sidhe-folk, which cannot be separated from it, was divided into districts or kingdoms under different fairy kings and queens, just as the upper world of mortals. We know how the Tuatha De Danann or Sidhe-folk, after their defeat by the Sons of Mil at the Battle of Tailte, retired to this underground world and took possession of its palaces beneath the green hills and vales of Ireland; and how from there, as gods of the harvest, they still continued to exercise authority over their conquerors, or marshalled their own invisible spirit-hosts in fairy warfare, and sometimes interfered in the wars of men.

More frequently, in the old Irish manuscripts, the Celtic Otherworld was located in the midst of the Western Ocean, as though it were the 'double' of the lost Atlantis; and Manannan Mac Lir, the Son of the Sea--perhaps himself the 'double' of an ancient Atlantean king--was one of the divine rulers of its fairy inhabitants, and his palace, for he was one of the Tuatha De Danann, was there rather than in Ireland; and when he travelled between the two countries it was in a magic chariot drawn by horses who moved over the sea-waves as on land. And fairy women came from that mid-Atlantic world in magic boats like spirit boats, to charm away such mortal men as in their love they chose, or else to take great Arthur wounded unto death. And in that island world there was neither death nor pain nor scandal, nought save immortal and unfading youth, and endless joy and feasting.

Even yet at rare intervals, like a phantom, Hy Brasil appears far out on the Atlantic. No later than the summer of 1908 it is said to have been seen from West Ireland, just as that strange invisible island near Innish murray, inhabited by the invisible 'gentry', is seen--once in seven years. And too many men of intelligence testify to having seen Hy Brasil at the same moment, when they have been together, or separated, as during the summer of 1908, for it to be explained away as an ordinary illusion of the senses. Nor can it be due to a mirage such as we know, because neither its shape nor position seems to conform to any known island or land mass. One of the commonest legends among all Celtic peoples is about some lost city like the Breton Is, or some lost land or island and we can be quite sure that if, as some scientists now begin to think Atlantis once existed, its disappearance must have left from a prehistoric epoch a deep impress on folk-memory. But the Other-world idea being in essence animistic is not to be regarded, save from a superficial point of view, as conceivably having had its origin in a lost Atlantis. The real evolutionary process, granting the disappearance of this island continent, would seem rather to have been one of localizing and anthropomorphizing very primitive Aryan and pre-Aryan beliefs about a heaven-world, such as have been current among almost all races of mankind in all stages of culture, throughout the two Americas and Polynesia as well as throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Celtic Otherworld is like that hidden realm of subjectivity lying just beyond the horizon of mortal existence, which we cannot behold when we would, save with the mystic vision of the Irish seer. Thus in the legend of Bran's friends, who sat over dinner at Harlech with the Head of Bran for seven years, three curious birds acted as musicians, the Three Birds of Rhiannon, which were said to sing the dead back to life and the living into death;--but the birds were not in Harlech, they were out over the sea in the atmosphere of Rhiannon's realm in the bosom of Cardigan Bay.  And though we might say of that Otherworld, as we learn from these Three Birds of Rhiannon, and as Socrates would say, that its inhabitants are come from the living and the living in our world from the dead there, we ought not to think of the Sidhe-folk, nor of such great heroes and gods as Arthur and Cuchulainn and Finn, who are also of its invisible company, as in any sense half-conscious shades; for they are always represented as being in the full enjoyment of an existence and consciousness greater than our own.

n Irish manuscripts, the Otherworld beyond the Ocean bears many names. It is Tír-na-nog, 'The Land of Youth'; Tír-Innambéo, 'The Land of the Living'; Tír Tairngire, 'The Land of Promise'; Tír N-aill, 'The Other Land (or World)'; Mag Már, 'The Great Plain'; and also Mag Mell, 'The Plain Agreeable (or Happy).'

But this western Otherworld, if it is what we believe it to be--a poetical picture of the great subjective world--cannot be the realm of any one race of invisible beings to the exclusion of another. In it all alike--gods, Tuatha De Danann, fairies, demons, shades, and every sort of disembodied spirits--find their appropriate abode; for though it seems to surround and interpenetrate this planet even as the X-rays interpenetrate matter, it can have no other limits than those of the Universe itself. And that it is not an exclusive realm is certain from what our old Irish manuscripts record concerning the Fomorian races. These, when they met defeat on the battle-field of Moytura at the hands of the Tuatha De Danann, retired altogether from Ireland, their overthrow being final, and returned to their own invisible country--a mysterious land beyond the Ocean, where the dead find a new existence, and where their god-king Tethra ruled, as he formerly ruled in this world. And the fairy women of Tethra's kingdom, even like those who came from the Tuatha De Danann of Erin, or those of Manannan's ocean-world, enticed mortals to go with them to be heroes under their king, and to behold there the assemblies of ancestors. It was one of them who came to Connla, son of Conn, supreme king of Ireland; and this was her message to him:--'The immortals invite you. You are going to be one of the heroes of the people of Tethra. You will always be seen there, in the assemblies of your ancestors, in the midst of those who know and love you.' And with the fairy spell upon him the young prince entered the glass boat of the fairy woman, and his father the king, in great tribulation and wonder, beheld them disappear across the waters never to return.

The Silver Branch and the Golden Bough.

o enter the Otherworld before the appointed hour marked by death, a passport was often necessary, and this was usually a silver branch of the sacred apple-tree bearing blossoms, or fruit, which the queen of the Land of the Ever-Living and Ever-Young gives to those mortals whom she wishes for as companions; though sometimes, it was a single apple without its branch. The queen's gifts serve not only as passports, but also as food and drink for mortals who go with her. Often the apple-branch produces music so soothing that mortals who hear it forget all troubles and even cease to grieve for those whom the fairy women take. For us there are no episodes more important than those in the ancient epics concerning these apple-tree talismans, because in them we find a certain key which unlocks the secret of that world from which such talismans are brought, and proves it to be the same sort of a place as the Otherworld of the Greeks and Romans. Let us then use the key and make a few comparisons between the Silver Branch of the Celts and the Golden Bough of the Ancients, expecting the two symbols naturally to differ in their functions, though not fundamentally.

It is evident at the outset that the Golden Bough was as much the property of the queen of that underworld called Hades as the Silver Branch was the gift of the Celtic fairy queen, and like the Silver Bough it seems to have been the symbolic bond between that world and this, offered as a tribute to Proserpine by all initiates, who made the mystic voyage in full human consciousness. And, as we suspect, there may be even in the ancient Celtic legends of mortals who make that strange voyage to the Western Otherworld and return to this world again, an echo of initiatory rites--perhaps druidic--similar to those of Proserpine as shown in the journey of Aeneas, which, as Virgil records it, is undoubtedly a poetical rendering of an actual psychic experience of a great initiate.

In Virgil's classic poem the Sibyl commanded the plucking of the sacred bough to be carried by Aeneas when he entered the underworld; for without such a bough plucked near the entrance to Avernus from the wondrous tree sacred to Infernal Juno (i. e. Proserpine) none could enter Pluto's realm.  And when Charon refused to ferry Aeneas across the Stygian lake until the Sibyl-woman drew forth the Golden Bough from her bosom, where she had hidden it, it becomes clearly enough a passport to Hades, just as the Silver Branch borne by the fairy woman is a passport to Tír N-aill; and the Sibyl-woman who guided Aeneas to the Greek and Roman Otherworld takes the place of the fairy woman who leads mortals like Bran to the Celtic Other-world. Classical parallels to the Celtic Otherworld journeys exist in the descent of Dionysus to bring back Semele, of Orpheus to recover his beloved Eurydike, of Herakles at the command of his master Eurystheus to fetch up the three-headed Kerberos--as mentioned first in Homers Iliad; and chiefly in the voyage of Odysseus across the deep-flowing Ocean to the land of the departed.

The Otherworld Idea Literally Interpreted

ith this parallel between the Otherworld of the Celts and that of the Ancients seemingly established, we may leave poetical images and seek a literal interpretation for the animistic idea about those realms. The Rites of Proserpine as conducted in the Mysteries of Antiquity furnish us with the means; and in what Servius has written we have the material ready.  Taking the letter Υ, which Pythagoras said is like life with its dividing ways of good and evil, as the mystic symbol of the branch which all initiates like Aeneas offered to Proserpine in the subjective world while there out of the physical body, he says of the initiatory rites:--'He (the poet) could not join the Rites of Proserpine without having the branch to hold up. And by "going to the shades" he (the poet) means celebrating the Rites of Proserpine.' This passage is certainly capable of but one meaning; and we may perhaps assume that the invisible realm of the Ancients, which is called Hades, is like the Celtic Other-world located in the Western Ocean, and is also like, or has its mythological counterpart in, the Elysian Fields to the West, reserved by the Greeks and Romans for their gods and heroes, and in the Happy Otherworld of Scandinavian, Iranian, and Indian mythologies. It must then follow that all these realms--though placed in different localities by various nations, epochs, traditions, scribes, and poets (even as the under-ground world of the Tuatha De Danann in Ireland differs from that ruled over by one of their own race, Manannan the Son of the Sea)--are simply various ways which different Aryan peoples have had of looking at that one great invisible realm of which we have just spoken, and which forms the Heavenworld of every religion, Aryan and non-Aryan, known to man. And if this conclusion is accepted, and it seems that it must be, merely on the evidence of the literary or recorded Celtic Fairy-Faith, our Psychological Theory stands proven.

The Rites of Proserpine had many counterparts. Thus, to pass on to another parallel, in the Mysteries of Eleusis the disappearance of the Maiden into the under-world, into Hades, the land of the dead, was continually re-enacted in a sacred drama, and it no doubt was one of the principal rites attending initiation. In our study of the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth, we shall return to this subject of Celtic Initiation.

The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal.

he tale is based on seven manuscripts ranging in age from the Leabhar na h-Uidhre of about A.D. 1100 to six others belonging to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries We are well prepared now to enjoy the best known voyages which men, heroes, and god-men, are said to have made to Avalon, or the Land of the Living, through the invitation of a fairy woman or else of the god Manannan himself; and probably the most famous is that of the Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal. Perhaps in all Celtic literature no poem surpasses this in natural and simple beauty.

One day Bran heard strange music behind him as he was alone in the neighbourhood of his stronghold; and as he listened, so sweet was the sound that it lulled him to sleep. When he awoke, there lay beside him a branch of silver so white with blossoms that it was not easy to distinguish the blossoms from the branch. Bran took up the branch and carried it to the royal house, and, when the hosts were assembled therein, they saw a woman in strange raiment standing on the floor. Whence she came and how, no one could tell. And as they all beheld her, she sang fifty quatrains to Bran:--

A branch of the apple-tree from Emain

I bring, like those one knows;

Twigs of white silver are on it,

Crystal brows with blossoms.

There is a distant isle,

Around which sea-horses glisten:

A fair course against the white-swelling surge,--

Four feet uphold it.

When the song was finished, 'the woman went from them while they knew not whither she went. And she took her branch with her. The branch sprang from Bran's hand into the hand of the woman, nor was there strength in Bran's hand to hold the branch.' The next day, with the fairy spell upon him, Bran begins the voyage towards the setting sun. On the ocean he meets Manannan riding in his magic chariot over the sea-waves; and the king tells Bran that he is returning to Ireland after long ages. Parting from the Son of the Sea, Bran goes on, and the first island he and his companions reach is the 'Island of Joy', where one of the party is set ashore; the second isle is the 'Land of Women', where the queen draws Bran and his followers to her realm with a magic clew, and then entertains them for what seems no more than a year, though 'it chanced to be many years'. After a while, home-sickness seizes the adventurers and they come to a unanimous decision to return to Ireland; but they depart under a taboo not to set foot on earth, or at least not till holy water has been sprinkled on them. In their coracle they arrive before a gathering at Srub Brain, probably in West Kerry, and Bran (who may now possibly be regarded as an apparition temporarily returned from the Otherworld to bid his people farewell) announces himself, and this reply is made to him:--'We do not know such a one, though the Voyage of Bran is in our ancient stories.' Then one of Bran's party, in his eagerness to land, broke the taboo; he 'leaps from them out of the coracle. As soon as he touched the earth of Ireland, forthwith he was a heap of ashes, as though he had been in the earth for many hundred years. . . .” Thereupon, to the people of the gathering, Bran told all his wanderings from the beginning until that time. And he wrote these quatrains in Ogam, and then bade them farewell. And from that hour his wanderings are not known.'

Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise.

anuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; i. e. Book of Ballymote, and Yellow Book of Lecan mention this tale. In Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise, there is again a magic silver branch with three golden apples on it:--'One day, at dawn in May-time, Cormac, grandson of Conn, was alone on Múr Tea in Tara. He saw coming towards him a sedate (?), grey-headed warrior. . .  A branch of silver with three golden apples on his shoulder. Delight and amusement to the full was it to listen to the music of that branch, for men sore wounded, or women in child-bed, or folk in sickness, would fall asleep at the melody when that branch was shaken.' And the warrior tells Cormac that he has come from a land where only truth is known, where there is 'neither age nor decay nor gloom nor sadness nor envy nor jealousy nor hatred nor haughtiness'. On his promising the unknown warrior any three boons that he shall ask, Cormac is given the magic branch. The grey-headed warrior disappears suddenly; 'and Cormac knew not whither he had gone.'

'Cormac turned into the palace. The household marvelled at the branch. Cormac shook it at them, and cast them into slumber from that hour to the same time on the following day. At the end of a year the warrior comes into his meeting and asked of Cormac the consideration for his branch. "It shall be given," says Cormac. "I will take [thy daughter] Ailbe to-day," says the warrior. So he took the girl with him. The women of Tara utter three loud cries after the daughter of the king of Erin. But Cormac shook the branch at them, so that he banished grief from them all and cast them into sleep. That day month comes the warrior and takes with him Carpre Lifechair (the son of Cormac). Weeping and sorrow ceased not in Tara after the boy, and on that night no one therein ate or slept, and they were in grief and in exceeding gloom. But Cormac shook the branch at them, and they parted from [their] sorrow. The same warrior comes again. "What askest thou to-day?" says Cormac. "Thy wife," saith he, "even Ethne the Longsided, daughter of Dunlang king of Leinster." Then he takes away the woman with him.' Thereupon Cormac follows the messenger, and all his people go with him. But 'a great mist was brought upon them in the midst of the plain of the wall. Cormac found himself on a great plain alone'. It is the 'Land of Promise'. Palaces of bronze, and houses of white silver thatched with white birds' wings are there. 'Then he sees in the garth a shining fountain, with five streams flowing out of it, and the hosts in turn a-drinking its water. Nine hazels of Buan grow over the well. The purple hazels drop their nuts into the fountain, and the five salmon which are in the fountain sever them, and send their husks floating down the streams. Now the sound of the falling of those streams is more melodious than any music that [men] sing.' The fountain is a sacred fountain containing the sacred salmon; and the nine hazels are the sacred hazels of inspiration and poetry. These passages are among the most mystical in Irish literature.

Cormac having entered the fairy palace at the fountain beholds 'the loveliest of the world's women'. After she has been magically bathed, he bathes, and this, apparently, is symbolical of his purification in the Otherworld. Finally, at a feast, the warrior-messenger sings Cormac to sleep; and when Cormac awakes he sees beside him his wife and children, who had preceded him thither to the Land of Promise. The warrior-messenger who took them all is none other than the great god Manannan Mac Lir of the Tuatha De Danann.

There in the Otherworld, Cormac gains a magic cup of gold richly and wondrously wrought, which would break into three pieces if 'three words of falsehood be spoken under it', and the magic silver branch; and Manannan, as the god-initiator, says to Ireland's high king:--'Take thy family then, and take the Cup that thou mayest have it for discerning between truth and falsehood. And thou shalt have the Branch for music and delight. And on the day that thou shalt die they all will be taken from thee. I am Manannan, son of Ler, king of the Land of Promise; and to see the Land of Promise was the reason I brought [thee] hither. . .  The fountain which thou sawest, with the five streams out of it, is the Fountain of Knowledge, and the streams are the five senses through which knowledge is obtained (?). And no one will have knowledge who drinketh not a draught out of the fountain itself and out of the streams. The folk of many arts are those who drink of them both.'

'Now on the morrow morning, when Cormac arose, he found himself on the green of Tara, with his wife and his son and daughter, and having his Branch and his Cup. Now that was afterwards [called] "Cormac's Cup", and it used to distinguish between truth and falsehood with the Gael. Howbeit, as had been promised him [by Manannan], it remained not after Cormac's death.'

This beautiful tale evidently echoes in an extremely poetical and symbolical manner a very ancient Celtic initiation of a king and his family into the mystic cult of the mighty god Manannan, Son of the Sea. They enter the Otherworld in a trance state, and on waking are in Erin again, spiritually enriched. The Cup of Truth is probably the symbol of having gained knowledge of the Mystery of Life and Death, and the Branch, that of the Peace and Joy which comes to all who are truly Initiated; for to have passed from the realm of mortal existence to the Realm of the Dead, of the Fairy-Folk, of the Gods, and back again, with full human consciousness all the while, was equivalent to having gained the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life, the Cup of Truth, and to having bathed in the Fountain of Eternal Youth which confers triumph over Death and unending happiness. Thus we may have here a Celtic poetical parallel to the initiatory journey of Aeneas to the Land of the Dead or Hades.

The Magic Wand of Gods, Fairies, and Druids.

s a god-messenger, Manannan of the Tuatha De Danann,  from the invisible realm bearing the apple-branch of silver, is in externals, though not in other ways, like Hermes, the god-messenger from the realm of the gods bearing his wand of two intertwined serpents. The Greeks saw in Hermes the symbol of the Logos. Like Manannan, he conducted the souls of men to the Otherworld of the gods, and then brought them back to the human world. Hermes holds a rod in his hands, beautiful, golden, wherewith he spellbinds the eyes of men whomsoever he would, and wakes them again from sleep '--in initiations; while Manannan and the fairy beings lure mortals to the fairy world through sleep produced by the music of the Silver Branch.--Hippolytus on the Naasenes (from the Hebrew Nachash, meaning a 'Serpent'.) Or again, 'the Caduceus, or Rod of Mercury (Hermes), and the Thyrsus in the Greek Mysteries, which conducted the soul from life to death, and from death to life, figured forth the serpentine power in man, and the path whereby it would carry the "man" aloft to the height, if he would but cause the "Waters of the Jordan" to "flow upwards". In modern fairy-lore this divine branch or wand is the magic wand of fairies; or where messengers like old men guide mortals to an underworld it is a staff or cane with which they strike the rock hiding the secret entrance.

The Irish Druids made their wands of divination from the yew-tree; and, like the ancient priests of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, are believed to have controlled spirits, fairies, daemons, elementals, and ghosts while making such divinations. It will help us to understand how closely the ancient symbols have affected our own life and age--though we have forgotten their relation with the Otherworld--by offering a few examples, beginning with the ancient Irish bards who were associated with the Druids. A wand in the form of a symbolic branch, like a little spike or crescent with gently tinkling bells upon it, was borne by them; and in the piece called Mesca Ulad or 'Inebriety of the Ultonians'  it is said of the chief bard of Ulster, Sencha, that in the midst of a bloody fray he 'waved the peaceful branch of Sencha, and all the men of Ulster were silent, quiet'. In Agallamh an dá Shuadh or the 'Dialogue of the two Sages',  the mystic symbol used by gods, fairies, magicians, and by all initiates who know the mystery of life and death, is thus described as a Druid symbol:--'Neidhe' (a young bard who aspired to succeed his father as chief poet of Ulster), 'made his journey with a silver branch over him. The Anradhs, or poets of the second order, carried a silver branch, but the Ollamhs, or chief poets, carried a branch of gold; all other poets bore a branch of bronze.'  Modern and ancient parallels are world-wide, among the most civilized as among the least civilized peoples, and in civil or religious life among ourselves. Thus, it was with a magic rod that Moses struck the rock and pure water gushed forth, and he raised the same rod and the Red Sea opened; kings hold their sceptres no less than Neptune his trident; popes and bishops have their croziers; in the Roman Church there are little wandlike objects used to perform benedictions; high civil officials have their mace of office; and all the world over there are the wands of magicians and of medicine-men.

The Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn

e turn now to the story of the Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn.  And this is how the great hero of Ulster was fairy-struck. Manannan Mac Lir, tiring of his wife Fand, had deserted her, and so she, wishing to marry Cuchulainn, went to Ireland with her sister Liban. Taking the form of two birds bound together by a chain of red gold, Fand and Liban rested on a lake in Ulster where Cuchulainn should see them as he was hunting. To capture the two birds, Cuchulainn cast a javelin at them, but they escaped, though injured. Disappointed at a failure like this, which for him was most unusual, Cuchulainn went away to a menhir where he sat down and fell asleep. Then he saw two women, one in a green and one in a crimson cloak; and the woman in green coming up to him laughed and struck him with a whip-like object. The woman in crimson did likewise, and alternately the two women kept striking him till they left him almost dead. And straightway the mighty hero of the Red Branch Knights took to his bed with a strange malady, which no Druid or doctor in all Ireland could cure.

Till the end of a year Cuchulainn lay on his sick-bed at Emain-Macha without speaking to any one. Then--the day before Samain (November Eve)--there came to him an unknown messenger who sang to him a wonderful song, promising to cure him of his malady if he would only accept the invitation of the daughters of Aed Abrat to visit them in the Otherworld. When the song was ended, the messenger departed, 'and they knew not whence he came nor whither he went.' Thereupon Cuchulainn went to the place where the malady had been put on him, and there appeared to him again the woman in the green cloak. She let it be known to Cuchulainn that she was Liban, and that she was longing for him to go with her to the Plain of Delight to fight against Labraid's enemies. And she promised Cuchulainn as a reward that he would get Fand to wife. But Cuchulainn would not accept the invitation without knowing to what country he was called. So he sent his charioteer Laeg to bring back from there a report. Laeg went with the fairy woman in a boat of bronze, and returned; and when Cuchulainn heard from him the wonderful glories of that Otherworld of the Sidhe he willingly set out for it.

After Cuchulainn had overthrown Labraid's enemies and had been in the Otherworld a month with the fairy woman Fand, he returned to Ireland alone; though afterwards in a place agreed upon, Fand joined him. Emer, the wife of Cuchulainn, was overcome with jealousy and schemed to kill Fand, so that Fand returned to her husband the god Manannan and he received her back again. When she was gone Cuchulainn could not be consoled; but Emer obtained from the Druids a magic drink for Cuchulainn, which made him forget all about the Otherworld and the fairy woman Fand. And another drink the Druids gave to Emer so that she forgot all her jealousy; and then Manannan Mac Lir himself came and shook his mantle between Cuchulainn and Fand to prevent the two ever meeting again. And thus it was that the Sidhe-women failed to steal away the great Cuchulainn. The magic of the Druids and the power of the Tuatha De Danann king triumphed; and the Champion of Ulster did not go to the Otherworld until he met a natural death in that last great fight.

Ossian's Return from Fairyland

ssian too, like Cuchulainn, was enticed into Fairyland by a fairy woman:--She carries him away on a white horse, across the Western Ocean; and as they are moving over the sea-waves they behold a fair maid on a brown horse, and she holding in her right hand a golden apple. After the hero had married his fairy abductress and lived in the Otherworld for three hundred years, an overpowering desire to return to Ireland and join again in the councils of his dearly beloved Fenian Brotherhood took possession of him, and he set out on the same white horse on which he travelled thence with the fairy princess, for such was his wife. And she, as he went, thrice warned him not to lay his 'foot on level ground', and he heard from her the startling announcement that the Fenians were all gone and Ireland quite changed.

Safe in Ireland, Ossian seeks the Brotherhood, and though he goes from one place to another where his old companions were wont to meet, not one of them can he find. And how changed is all the land! He realizes at last how long he must have been away. The words of his fairy wife are too sadly true.

While Ossian wanders disconsolately over Ireland, he comes to a multitude of men trying to move an enormous slab of marble, under which some other men are lying. 'Ossian's assistance is asked, and he generously gives it. But in leaning over his horse, to take up the stone with one hand, the girth breaks, and he falls. Straightway the white horse fled away on his way home, and Ossian became aged, decrepit, and blind.' Laeghaire, who also came back from Fairyland on a fairy horse, and fifty warriors with him each likewise mounted, to say good-bye forever to the king and people of Connaught, were warned as they set out for this world not to dismount if they wished to return to their fairy wives. The warning was strictly observed, and thus they were able to go back to the Sidhe-world.

The Going of Lanval to Avalon

airy romances which were recorded during the mediaeval period in continental Europe report a surprisingly large number of heroes who, like Cuchulainn and Ossian, fell under the power of fairy women or fées, and followed one of them to the Apple-Land or Avalon. Besides Arthur, they include Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawayne, Ogier, Guingemor and Lanval. Lanval was a mediaeval knight who lived during the time of King Arthur in Brittany. He was young and very beautiful, so that one of the fairy damsels fell in love with him; and in the true Irish fashion--himself and his fairy sweetheart mounted on the same fairy horse--the two went riding off to Fairyland:

On the horse behind her

With full rush Lanval jumped.

With her he goes away into Avalon,

According to what the Briton tells us,

Into an isle, which is very beautiful.

The Voyage of Teigue, Son of Cian

here is another type of tale in which through adventure rather than through invitation from one of the fairy beings, men enter the Otherworld; as illustrated by the Voyage of Mael-Duin, and by the still more beautiful Voyage of Teigue, Son of Cian. This last old Irish story summarizes many of the Otherworld elements we have so far considered, and (though it shows Christian influences) gives us a very clear picture of the Land of Youth amid the Western Ocean--a land such as Ponce De Leon and so many brave navigators sought in America: Teigue, son of Cian, and heir to the kingship of West Munster, with his followers set out from Ireland to recover his wife and brethren who had been stolen by Cathmann and his band of sea-rovers from Fresen, a land near Spain. It was the time of the spring tide, when the sea was rough, and storms coming on the voyagers they lost their way. After about nine weeks they came to a land fairer than any land they had ever beheld--it was the Happy Otherworld. In it were many 'red-laden apple-trees, with leafy oaks too in it, and hazels yellow with nuts in their clusters'; and a wide smooth plain clad in flowering clover all bedewed with honey'. In the midst of this plain Teigue and his companions descried three hills, and on each of them an impregnable place of strength. At the first stronghold, which had a rampart of white marble, Teigue was welcomed by 'a white-bodied lady, fairest of the whole world's women'; and she told him that the stronghold is the abode 'of Ireland's kings: ‘from Heremon son of Milesius to Conn of the Hundred Battles, who was the last to pass into it'. Teigue with his people moved on till they gained the middle dún, the dún with a rampart of gold. There also 'they found a queen of gracious form, and she draped in vesture of a golden fabric', who tells them that they are in the Earth's fourth paradise.

At the third dún, the dún with a silver rampart, Teigue and his party met Connla, the son of Conn of the Hundred Battles. 'In his hand he held a fragrant apple having the hue of gold; a third part of it he would eat, and still, for all he consumed, never a whit would it be diminished.' And at his side sat a young woman of many charms, who spake thus to Teigue:--'I had bestowed on him (i.e. felt for him) true affection's love, and therefore wrought to have him come to me in this land; where our delight, both of us, is to continue in looking at and in perpetual contemplation of one another: above and beyond which we pass not, to commit impurity or fleshly sin whatsoever.' Both Connla and his friend were clad investments of green--like the fairy-folk; and their step was so light that hardly did the beautiful clover-heads bend beneath it. And the apple 'it was that supported the pair of them and, when once they had partaken of it, nor age nor dimness could affect them'. When Teigue asked who occupied the dún with the silver rampart the maiden with Connla made this reply:--'In that one there is not any one. For behoof of the righteous kings that after acceptance of the Faith shall rule Ireland it is that yonder dún stands ready; and we are they who, until such those virtuous princes shall enter into it, keep the same: in the which, Teigue my soul, thou too shalt have an appointed place.' 'Obliquely across the most capacious palace Teigue looked away' (as he was observing the beauty of the yet uninhabited dun), 'and marked a thickly furnished wide-spreading apple-tree that bare blossoms and ripe fruit both. "What is that apple-tree beyond?" he asked [of the maiden], and she made answer:--"That apple-tree's fruit it is that for meat shall serve the congregation which is to be in this mansion, and a single apple of the same it was that brought (coaxed away) Connla to me."'

Then the party rested, and there came towards them a whole array of feminine beauty, among which was a lovely damsel of refined form who foretold to Teigue the manner and time of his death, and as a token she gave him 'a fair cup of emerald hue, in which are inherent many virtues: for [among other things] though it were but water poured into it, incontinently it would be wine'. And this was her farewell message to Teigue:--'From that (the cup), let not thine hand part; but have it for a token: when it shall escape from thee, then in a short time after shalt thou die; and where thou shalt meet thy death is in the glen that is on Boyne's side: there the earth shall grow into a great hill, and the name that it shall bear will be croidhe eisse; there too (when thou shalt first have been wounded by a roving wild hart, after which Allmarachs will slay thee) I will bury thy body; but thy soul shall come with me hither, where till the Judgement's Day thou shalt assume a body light and ethereal.'

As the party led by Teigue were going down to the seashore to depart, the girl who had been escorting them asked 'how long they had been in the country'. 'In our estimation,' they replied, 'we are in it but one single day.' She, however, said: 'For an entire twelvemonth ye are in it; during which time ye have had neither meat nor drink, nor, how long soever ye should be here, would cold or thirst or hunger assail you.' And when Teigue and his party had entered their currach they looked astern, but 'they saw not the land from which they came, for incontinently an obscuring magic veil was drawn over it'.

The Adventures of Art, Son of Conn

his interesting tale combines, in a way, the type of tale wherein a fairy woman comes from the Otherworld to our world--though in this tale she is banished from there--and the type of tale wherein the Otherworld is found through adventure:--

Bécuma Cneisgel, a woman of the Tuatha De Danann, because of a transgression she had committed in the Other-world with Gaidiar, Manannan's son, was banished thence. She came to Conn, high king of Ireland, and she bound him to do her will; and her judgement was that Art, the son of Conn, should not come to Tara until a year was past. During the year, Conn and Bécuma were together in Tara, 'and there was neither corn nor milk in Ireland during that time.' The Tuatha De Danann sent this dreadful famine; for they, as agricultural gods, thus showed their displeasure at the unholy life of Ireland's high king with the evil woman whom they had banished. The Druids of all Ireland being called together, declared that to appease the Tuatha De Danann 'the son of a sinless couple should be brought to Ireland and slain before Tara, and his blood mingled with the soil of Tara'. It was Conn himself who set out for the Otherworld and found there the sinless boy, the son of the queen of that world, and he brought him back to Tara. A strange event saves the youth:--'Just then they (the assembly of people and Druids, with Conn, Art, and Finn) heard the lowing of a cow, and a woman wailing continually behind it. And they saw the cow and the woman making for the assembly.' The woman had come from the Otherworld to save Segda; and the cow was accepted as a sacrifice in place of Segda, owing to the wonders it disclosed; for its two bags when opened contained two birds--one with one leg and one with twelve legs, and 'the one-legged bird prevailed over the bird with twelve legs'. Then rising up and calling Conn aside, the woman declared to him that until he put aside the evil woman Bécuma 'a third of its corn, and its milk, and its mast' should be lacking to Ireland. 'And she took leave of them then and went off with her son, even Segda. And jewels and treasures were offered to them, but they refused them.'

In the second part of this complex tale, Bécuma and Art are together playing a game. Art finally loses, because' the men of the sidh (like invisible spirits) began to steal the pieces 'with which he and the woman play; and, as a result, Bécuma put on him this taboo:--'Thou shalt not eat food in Ireland until thou bring with thee Delbchaem, the daughter of Morgan.' 'Where is she?' asked Art. 'In an isle amid the sea, and that is all the information that thou wilt get.' 'And he put forth the coracle, and travelled the sea from one isle to another until he came to a fair, strange island,' the Otherworld. The blooming women of that land entertain the prince of Ireland during six weeks, and instruct him in all the dangers he must face and the conquests he must make.

Having successfully met all the ordeals, Art secures Delbchaem, daughter of Morgan the king of the 'Land of Wonders', and returns to Ireland. 'She had a green cloak of one hue about her, with a gold pin in it over her breast, and long, fair, very golden hair. She had dark-black eyebrows, and flashing grey eyes in her head, and a snowy-white body.' And upon seeing the chaste and noble Delbchaem with Art, Bécuma, the banished woman of the Tuatha Dc Danann, lamenting, departs from Tara forever.

Otherworld Quests of Cuchulainn and of Arthur.

here is yet the distinct class of tales about journeys to a fairy world which is a Hades world beneath the earth, or in some land of death, rather than amid the waves of the Western Ocean. Thus there is a curious poem in the Book of the Dun Cow describing an expedition led by Cuchulainn to the stronghold of Scáth in the land of Scáth, or, as the name means, land of Shades, where the hero gains the king's cauldron.  And the poem suggests why so few who invaded that Hades world ever returned--perhaps why, mystically speaking, so few men could escape either through Initiation or re-birth the natural confusion and forgetfulness arising out of death.

In the Book of Taliessin a weird poem, Preiddeu Annwfn, or the 'Spoils of Annwn', describes, in language not always clear, how the Brythonic Arthur made a similar journey to the Welsh Hades world named Annwn, where he, like Cuchulainn in Scáth, gained possession of a magic cauldron--a pagan Celtic type of the Holy Grail--which furnishes inexhaustible food though 'it will not boil the food of a coward'. But in stanzas iii and iv of Preiddeu Annwfn, Annwn, or Uffern as it is otherwise called, is not an underground realm, but some world to be reached like the Gaelic Land of Promise by sea. Annwn is also called Caer Sidi, which in another poem of the Book of Taliessin (No. XIV) is thought of as an island of immortal youth amid 'the streams of the ocean' where there is a food-giving fountain.

Literary Evolution of the Happy Otherworld Idea

e have now noticed two chief classes of Otherworld legends. In one there is the beautiful and peaceful Tír Innambéo or' Land of the Living' under Manannan's rule across the seas, and its fairy inhabitants are principally women who lure away noble men and youths through love for them; in the other there is a Hades world--often confused with the former--in which great heroes go on some mysterious quest. Sometimes this Hades world is inseparable from the underground palaces or world of the Tuatha De Danann. Again, it may be an underlake fairy-realm like that entered by Laeghaire and his fifty companions; or, as in Gilla Decair,  of late composition, it is an under-well land wherein Dermot has adventures. And, in a similar tale, Murough, on the invitation of a mysterious stranger who comes out of a lake and then disappears 'like the mist of a winter fog or the whiff of a March wind', dives beneath the lake's waters, and is escorted to the palace of King Under-Wave, wherein he sees the stranger as the water-king himself sitting on a golden throne . In continual feasting there Murough passes a day and a year, thinking the time only a few days.

As a rule the Hades world, or underground and under-wave world, is unlike Manannan's peaceful ocean realm, being often described as a place of much strife; and mortals are usually induced to enter it to aid in settling the troubles of its fairy inhabitants.

All the numerous variations of Otherworld tales now extant in Celtic literature show a common pre-Christian origin, though almost all of them have been coloured by Christian ideas about heaven, hell, and purgatory. From the earliest tales of the over-sea Otherworld type, like those of Bran, Maelduin, and Connla, all of which may go back to the early eighth century as compositions, the christianizing influence is already clearly begun; and in the Voyage of Snedgus and of Mac Riagla, of the late ninth century, this influence predominates.  Purely Christian texts of about the same period or later describe the Christian heaven as though it were the pagan Otherworld. Some of these, like the Latin version of the tale of St. Brandan's Voyage, greatly influenced European literature, and probably contributed to the discovery of the New World.

The combination of Christian and pagan Celtic ideas is well shown in the Voyage of the Húi Corra:--'Thereafter a wondrous island was shown to them. A psalm-singing venerable old man, with fair, builded churches and beautiful bright altars. Beautiful green grass therein. A dew of honey on its grass. Little ever-lovely bees and fair, purple-headed birds a-chanting music therein, so that [merely] to listen to them was enough of delight.' But in another passage the Christian scribe describes Otherworld birds as souls, some of them in hell:--'"Of the land of Erin am I," quoth the bird, "and I am the soul of a woman, and I am a monkess unto thee," she saith to the elder. ... "Come ye to another place," saith the bird, "to hearken to yon birds. The birds that ye see are the souls that come on Sunday out of hell."' Still other islands are definitely made into Christian hells full of fire, wherein wailing and shrieking men are being mangled by the beaks and talons of birds.

But sometimes, like the legends about the Tuatha De Danann, the legends about the Otherworld were taken literally and most seriously by some early Irish-Christian saints. Professor J. Loth records a very interesting episode, how St. Malo and his teacher Brandan actually set out on an ocean voyage to find the Heaven-world of the pagan Celts:--'Saint Malo, when a youth, embarks with his teacher Brandan in a boat, in search of that mysterious country; after some days, the waves drive him back rebuffed and discouraged upon the seashore. An angel opens his eyes: the land of eternal peace and of eternal youth is that which Christianity promises to its elect.'

Not only was the Celtic Otherworld gradually changed into a Christian Heaven, or Hell, from the eighth century onward, but its divine inhabitants soon came to suffer the rationalization commonly applied to their race; and the transcribers began to set them down as actual personages of Irish history. As we have already observed, the Tuatha De Danann were shorn of their immortality, and were given in exchange all the passions and shortcomings of men, and made subject to disease and death. This perhaps was a

natural anthropomorphic process such as is met with in all mythologies. Celtic myth and mysticism, wherein may yet be read the deepest secrets of life and death, supplied names and legends to fill out a christianized scheme of Irish chronology, which was made to begin some six thousand years ago with Adam.

A few of the pagan legends, however, met very fair treatment at the hands of poetical and patriotic Christian transcribers. Thus in Adamnan's Vision,  though the Celtic Otherworld has become 'the Land of the Saints', its primal character is clearly discernible: to reach it a sea voyage is necessary; and it is a land where there is no pride, falsehood, envy, disease or death, 'wherein is delight of every goodness.' In it there are singing birds, and for sustenance while there the voyagers need only to hear its music and 'sate themselves with the odour which is in the Land'.

Again, in the Book of Leinster, and in later MSS., there is a dinnshenchas of almost primal pagan purity. It alludes to Clidna's Wave, that of Tuag Inbir:--To Tuag, daughter of Conall, Manannan the sea-god sent a messenger, a Druid of the Tuatha De Danann in the shape of a woman. The Druid chanted a sleep spell over the girl, and while he left her on the seashore to look for a boat in which to embark for the 'Land of Everliving Women', a wave of the flood tide came and drowned her. But the Oxford version of the same tale doubts whether the maiden was drowned, for it suggests, 'Or maybe it (the wave) was Manannan himself that was carrying her off.'  Thus the scribe understood that to go to Manannan's world literally meant entering a sleep or trance state, or, what is equivalent in the case of the maiden whom Manannan summoned, the passage through death from the physical body. And still, to-day, the Irish peasant believes that the 'good people' take to their invisible world all young men or maidens who meet death; or that one under a fairy spell may go to their world for a short-time, and come back to our world again.

We have frequently emphasized how truly the modern Celtic peasant in certain non-commercialized localities has kept to the faith of his pagan ancestors, while the learned Christian scribes have often departed widely from it. The story of the voyage of Fionn to the Otherworld,  which Campbell found living among Scotch peasants as late as the last century, adds a striking proof of this assertion. So does Michael Comyn's peasant version of Ossian in the 'Land of Youth' which, though dating from about 1749, has all the natural character of the best ancient tales, like those about Bran and Cormac. We are inclined, therefore, to attach a value even higher than we have already done to the testimony of the living Fairy-Faith which confirms in so many parallel ways, as has been shown, the Fairy-Faith of the remote past. Mr. W. B. Yeats, the Irish poet, adequately sums up this matter by saying, 'But the Irish peasant believes that the utmost he can dream was once or still is a reality by his own door. He will point to some mountain and tell you that some famous hero or beauty lived and sorrowed there, or he will tell you that Tir-na-nog, the Country of the Young, the old Celtic paradise--the Land of the Living Heart, as it used to be called--is all about him.'

The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, by W.Y. Evans-Wentz, 1911 

Nico