Celtic Bardic Tales Discovered

Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest (May 19, 1812 – January 15, 1895), later Lady Charlotte Schreiber, was an English linguist who is best known as the first publisher in modern print format of the Mabinogion, the earliest prose literature of Britain.
She was the wife of Welsh ironmaster John Josiah Guest and became a leading figure in the study of literature and the wider Welsh Renaissance of the 19th century. With her second husband, Charles Schreiber, she became a well known Victorian collector of porcelain; their collection is held in the Victoria and Albert Museum. She also created major collections of fans, games, and playing cards, which she gave to the British Museum. She was noted as an international industrialist, pioneering liberal educator, philanthropist and elite society hostess. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Charlotte_Guest)
Photo is an enhanced version of one found at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Lady_Charlotte_Guest_(4674585).jpg

Scan of the page from the Red Book of Hergest showing the word "Mabinogi" in red at the top. written over some other text. This word was adopted as the name of the whole collection. This vellum manuscript is dated to between 1382 and 1410. Still at Jesus College at Oxford.
Photo online at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jesus-College-MS-111_00349_175r_(cropped).jpg

The Welsh Source Texts (Mabinogion) Translated by Lady Charlotte Guest

(June 30, 2023, updated October 2, 2024) Charlotte Guest writes this about the early European texts deriving from royal courts:

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there arose into general notoriety in Europe, a body of “Romance,” which in various forms retained its popularity till the Reformation. In it the plot, the incidents, the characters, were almost wholly those of Chivalry, that bond which united the warriors of France, Spain, and Italy, with those of pure Teutonic descent, and embraced more or less firmly all the nations of Europe, excepting only the Slavonic races, not yet risen to power, and the Celts, who had fallen from it. ...
These romances were found in England, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and even Iceland, as early as the beginning of the thirteenth and end of the twelfth century. The Germans, who propagated them through the nations of the North, derived them certainly from France. Robert Wace published his Anglo-Norman Romance of the Brut d’Angleterre about 1155. Sir Tristan was written in French prose in 1170; and The Chevalier au Lion, Chevalier de l’Epée, and Sir Lancelot du Lac, in metrical French, by Chrestien de Troyes, before 1200.
From these facts it is to be argued that the further back these romances are traced, the more clearly does it appear that they spread over the Continent from the North-west of France. The older versions, it may be remarked, are far more simple than the later corruptions. In them there is less allusion to the habits and usages of Chivalry, and the Welsh names and elements stand out in stronger relief....
That Wales possessed an ancient literature, containing various lyric compositions, and certain triads, in which are arranged historical facts or moral aphorisms, has been shown by Sharon Turner, who has established the high antiquity of many of these compositions.
The more strictly Romantic Literature of Wales has been less fortunate, though not less deserving of critical attention. Small portions only of it have hitherto appeared in print, the remainder being still hidden in the obscurity of ancient Manuscripts: of these the chief is supposed to be the Red Book of Hergest, now in the Library of Jesus College, Oxford, and of the fourteenth century. This contains, besides poems, the prose romances known as Mabinogion. The Black Book of Caermarthen, preserved at Hengwrt, and considered not to be of later date than the twelfth century, is said to contain poems only....
There is one argument in favour of the high antiquity in Wales of many of the Mabinogion, which deserves to be mentioned here. This argument is founded on the topography of the country. It is found that Saxon names of places are very frequently definitions of the nature of the locality to which they are attached, as Clifton, Deepden, Bridge-ford, Thorpe, Ham, Wick, and the like; whereas those of Wales are more frequently commemorative of some event, real or supposed, said to have happened on or near the spot, or bearing allusion to some person renowned in the story of the country or district. Such are “Llyn y Morwynion,” the Lake of the Maidens; “Rhyd y Bedd,” the Ford of the Grave; “Bryn Cyfergyr,” the Hill of Assault; and so on. But as these names could not have preceded the events to which they refer, the events themselves must be not unfrequently as old as the early settlement in the country. And as some of these events and fictions are the subjects of, and are explained by, existing Welsh legends, it follows that the legends must be, in some shape or other, of very remote antiquity. It will be observed that this argument supports remote antiquity only for such legends as are connected with the greater topographical features, as mountains, lakes, rivers, seas, which must have been named at an early period in the inhabitation of the country by man.

The Mabinogion is the title Charlotte Guest gave to her book in which she collected and translated these middle Welsh romance tales. This book was published in 1848.

But, the book of Taliesin was not a part of the oldest set of texts. The manuscript from which that story comes is quite late in date, possibly from the 1500's or 1600's. It is comprised of two parts--the Story of Gwion Bach, and the Story of Taliesin, both of which are sometimes found without the other. Lady Guest's version was derived from Iolo Morgannwg's copy.

Story Contents

The Lady of the Fountain
Peredur the Son of Evrawc
Geraint the son of Erbin
Kilhwch and Olwen
The dream of Rhonabwy
Pwyll Prince of Dyved
Branwen the daughter of Llyr
Manawyddan the son of Llyr
Math the son of Mathonwy
The dream of Maxen Wledig
The story of Lludd and Llevelys
Taliesin

References

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5160/5160-h/5160-h.htm

http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/jce/mabinogion.html

Book of Taliesin:

Cerridwen

https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/jce/cerridwen.html

Province of Connaught, Ireland is along the wild and hilly west coast.

Bardic Tale "Tain Bo Fraich" Used For Dating the Group

The oldest manuscript authority for the Tain bo Fraich is the Book of Leinster, written before 1150. There are at least two other manuscripts, one in Egerton, 1782 (published by Professor Kuno Meyer in the Zeitschrift fur Celt Philologie, 1902); the other is in MS. XL., Advocates' Library, Edinburgh (published in the Revue Celtique, Vol. XXIV.).
The tale consists of two parts. The first and longer portion, gives the adventures of Fraech at the court of Ailill and Maev of Connaught, his courtship of their daughter, Finnabar, and closes with a promised betrothal. The second part is an account of an expedition undertaken by Fraech to the Alps " in the north of the land of the Long-Beards," to recover stolen cattle, as well as "his wife." In later bardic tales Fraech was one of the first of the Connaught champions to be killed by Cuchulain in the war of Cualnge.
Except for one short reference at the end of the 2nd part no connection exists between the two parts. The small reference in the 2nd part is that Fraech did, as he had promised in the first part, join Ailill and Maev upon the War of Cualnge. Their style is also much different. The first part has one of the most complicated plot of any Irish romance. It abounds in brilliant descriptions and while being in prose feels highly poetic. The second part is a straight-forward, rapid action adventure story.
Because the second part of the story contain so many references to nations outside Ireland it can be dated. Fraech and his companions go over the sea from Ulster, i.e. to Scotland; then through "north Saxon-land " to the sea of Icht (i.e. the sea of Wight or the Enghsh Channel) ; then to the Alps in the north of the land of the Long-Beards or Lombards. The Long -Beards do not appear in Italy until the end of the sixth century. The mention of North Saxon-Land reaching down to the sea of Wight suggests that there was then a South Saxon-Land also. This dates the story to before the end of the 700's, when both Saxons and Long-Beards were overcome by Charlemagne.

MORTAL CHARACTORS IN STORY

Ailill -King of Connaught. (an actual historical figure as confirmed in other records who ruled Connaught from 445–482) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_Connacht
Medb or Maev - Queen of Connaught.
Findabar or Finnabar - their daughter.
Froech or Fraecli - pronounced "Fraych," son of a Connaught "man and a fairy mother.
Conall Cernach- meaning "Conall the Victorious," champion of Ulster.
Two Irish Women - in captivity in the Alps, north of Lombardy.
Lothar or Lothnr - a follower of Fraech.
Bicne - a follower of Conall.

SPIRITS IN STORY

Befind, -Fraech's fairy mother.
Boand - pronounced like "owned," sister to Befind; Queen of the Fairies.
Three Fairy Harpers.

Earliest Irish Bardic Tales Involving Morrigan - 800 CE But Involving Earlier Information

(October 7, 2023) "Morrigan" is an Akkadian epithet from Ireland for the Druid Goddess Kate/Hekate. The epithet is the Akkadian phrase M.RaG.N meaning "The Fertility-fluid's.False.Empowerment." Fertility-fluids were the transmission medium for the spiritual life powers. Consequently, this epithet emphasizes Kate/Hekate's association with death.

The earliest set of surviving Irish Bardic Tales involve the movement or flow (Irish word "tain") of cattle which was the main indicator of a chiefdom's wealth. The "Great Tain," (Táin Bó Cúailnge) is the central story of the Irish Heroic Age. This was accompanied by 14 "Lesser Tains," 3 of which are lost. The surviving ones are: the Tain bo Aingen, Dartada, Flidais, Fraich, Munad, Regamon, Regamna, Ros, Ruanadh, Sailin, and Ere. Dating is provided by the Tain Bó Fraich while the goddess Morrigan is mention in the Táin Bó Regamna and the Táin Bó Cúailnge, both which involve the ancient Irish province of Connaught (Connacht) raiding Ulster who fights back with their hero Cúchulainn. Connaught (Connacht) was a hilly, wild and economically poor western province of Ireland.

Táin Bó Regamna

In the Táin Bó Regamna, Cúchulainn encounters Morrígan but does not recognize her as she drives a magical heifer from what he thinks is his territory.

This story is found in the same two manuscripts that also record the Tain bo Dartada and the Tain bo Regamon ; namely the Yellow Book of Lecan, and Egerton 1782. According to traditional scholarship its title of Tain bo Regamna is not connected with anything in the story. Yet "Regamna" is the Akkadian phrase RaG.M.N meaning "The falseness of.fertility-fluid.powers." so it does actually refer to Morrigan.

Here is the core of the story (starting at page 132 of Leahy, 1902):

They went out thereupon till they came to Ath da Ferta. When they were there, straightway they heard the rattle of a chariot from the quarter of the loamy district of Culgaire. Then they saw the chariot come before them, and one chestnut (lit. red) horse in it. The horse was one- footed, and the pole of the chariot passed through the body of the horse, till a wedge went through it, to make it fast on its forehead. A red ^ woman was in the chariot, and a red mantle about her, she had two red eye-brows, and the mantle fell between the two ferta'^ of her chariot behind till it struck upon the ground behind her. A great man was beside her chariot, a red ^ cloak was upon him, and a forked staff of hazel at his back, he drove a cow in front of him.
"That cow is not joyful at being driven by you!" said Cuchulain.
"The cow does not belong to you," said the woman, "she is not the cow of any friend or acquaintance of yours."
" The cows of Ulster," said Cuchulain, " are my proper (care)." ......
I am a female satirist in truth," she said, " and he is Daire mac Fiachna from Cualnge : I have brought the cow as fee for a master-poem."
" Let me hear the poem then," said Cuchulain.
"Only remove thyself from me," said the woman ; " it is none the better for thee that thou shakest it over my head."
Thereon he left her until he was between the two poles of her chariot, and she sang to him. And the song was a song of insult. Again at the car he sprang, But nothing he found before him. As soon as the car he had neared, The woman, the horse, and the chariot, the cow, and the man disappeared.
Then he saw that she had become a black bird upon a branch near to him. "A dangerous ^ (or magical) woman thou art," said Cuchulain. " Henceforward," said the woman, " this clay-land shall be called dollnid (of evil,)" and it has been the Grellach Dolluid ever since.
''If only I had known it was you," said Cuchulain, " not thus should we have separated."
" What thou hast done," said she, " shall be evil to thee from it."
" Thou hast no power against me," said Cuchulain."
I have power indeed," said the woman ; " it is at the guarding of thy death that I am and I shall be," said she. "I brought this cow out of the fairy-mound of Cruachan, that she might breed by the Black Bull of Cualnge, that is the Bull of Daire macFiachna. It is up to that time that thou have to live, so long as the calf which is in this cow's body is a yearling. And it is this that shall lead to the Tain bo Cualnge.

Táin Bó Cúailnge

In the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge. Morrígan appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee. Cúchulainn then defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions. In between combats, the Morrígan appears to him as a young woman and offers him her love and her aid in the battle, but he rejects her offer. In response, she intervenes in his next combat, first in the form of an eel who trips him, then as a wolf who stampedes cattle across the ford, and finally as a white, red-eared heifer leading the stampede, just as she had warned in their previous encounter. However, Cúchulainn wounds her in each form and defeats his opponent despite her interference. Later, she appears to him as an old woman bearing the same three wounds that her animal forms had sustained, milking a cow. She gives Cúchulainn three drinks of milk. He blesses her with each drink, and her wounds are healed. He regrets blessing her for the three drinks of milk, which is apparent in the exchange between the Morrígan and Cúchulainn: "She gave him milk from the third teat, and her leg was healed. 'You told me once,' she said,'that you would never heal me.' 'Had I known it was you,' said Cúchulainn, 'I never would have.'"As the armies gather for the final battle, she prophesies the bloodshed to come.

Reference

A. H. Leahy, translator (1902) HEROIC ROMANCES OF IRELAND VOL. II Late Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. With Preface, Notes, and Literal Translations. Illustrations by Caroline Watts. Ballantyne Press. Online at: https://archive.org/stream/heroicromancesof02leah/heroicromancesof02leah_djvu.txt

Remarks (Remscela) On the Tain Bo Fraich Found With Various Later Copies.

These are expressly stated in the text to be "remscela" to the Great Tain (Indo-European "Great Flow" with "flow" being an epithet for anything the flows such as cattle, sheep, river water). The word "remscela" is indo-European meaning "remarks on the scheme."

When to an Irish court of old,
Came men who flocked from near and far
To hear the ancient tale that told of
Cuchulain's deeds in Cualgnes War
Often to hear that famous tale for fun
Before their chief bard they would hail.
Amid the throng some lesser man
Arose to tell a lighter tale;
Had to tell how Maev and Ailill planned
Their mighty hosts might best be fed
When they towards the Cualgne land
All Ireland's swarming armies led;
How Maev the youthful princes sent
To harry warlike Regamon,
How they, who trembling from her went,
His daughters and his cattle won;

How Ailill's guile gained Dartas' cattle,
How vengeful fairies marked that deed;
How Fergus won his royal spouse
Whose cattle all Ireland's hosts could be fed;
How in a form grotesque and weird,
Cuchulain found a Power Divine;
On how shapes of beasts appeared
The Magic Men, who kept the Swine;
Or how the rowan's (a tree) guardian snake
Was roused by order of the king;
Or how, from out the water, Fraech
To Finnabar restored her ring.
And though, in greater tales, they chose
Speech mixed with song, men's hearts to sway,
Such themes as these they told in prose,
Like speakers at the festivals to-day.
To men who spoke the Irish tongue
That form of prose was pleasing well.
While other lands in ballads sung
Such tales as these have loved to tell:

So we, who now in English dress
These Irish tales would fain rehearse.
And seek their spirit to express,
Have set them down in ballad verse;
And, though to Celts the form be strange.
Seek not too much the change to blame;
' Tts but the form alone we change ;
The sense, the spirit rest the same.

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