St. Ninian's Chapel, Whithorn
I've always known there was something very strange going on with Merlin/Myrddin. So strange, in fact, that anyone who seeks to discover who he might really be ends up having to be satisfied with a composite figure. Part man, part ghost, part god. And mostly conjured by medieval imagination.
In recent weeks, while exploring how to approach Myrddin in my projected fiction title A SCATTERING OF SONG, I've followed the various strands of the tradition to several mythical landscapes. None have proven to be exceptionally productive adventures. I realized, ultimately, that I had to look much harder at the Myrddin who peers out at us through his dark wood through the lens of medieval Christianity.
One of the things I've written a lot about is Myrddin's apparent association with or replacement by St. Martin. Admittedly, this may have occurred partly because of a presumed similarity of names. I've suggested some other possible connections (see, most recently, https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/03/myrddin-mars-condatis-and-st-martin.html).
Years ago I wondered about a connection with St. Ninian's Whithorn or 'White-house.' The fact that Gwenddydd (whose name contains gwen, 'white', 'holy') is said to have built a house for her brother made me think, quite naturally, of the saint's establishment in Galloway. I had come to consider this because Merlin as Lailocen in a Kentigern Vita fragment is placed at the Molendinar Burn in Glasgow, the site of an early St. Ninian's cemetery. In addition, there is a St. Ninian's Chapel at Wiston, South Lanarkshire (https://saintsplaces.gla.ac.uk/saint.php?id=530). Wiston was Abercarf and that is the name given to Myrddin's mountain ( = Tinto) in the Welsh tradition. A Martingill Cleuch is just a little ways west of the summit of Tinto.
I was also aware of Thomas Clancy's proposal (now generally accepted) that Ninian was a corruption for a name which must originally have been spelled *Uinniau (see 'The real St Ninian', The Innes Review 52/1 (Spring 2001) 1-28). Since Clancy wrote this, several scholars have expanded on his research. I would cite, in particular, https://api.research-repository.uwa.edu.au/portalfiles/portal/14262963/O_Neill._Six_Degrees_of_Whiteness_Finbarr_Finnian_Finnian_Ninian_Candida_Casa_and_Hwiterne.pdf and https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/files/11940481/Northumbrian_Whithorn_and_the_Making_of_St_Ninian.pdf. The author of that study plausibly suggests that the White House was not named for the color of its stone, for for *Uinniau himself. The root of *Uinniau is Celtic *vindo-, 'white', which we find in both Gwenddolau, Myrddin's lord, and Gwenddydd, his sister.
I took things a bit further, as I often do. To me, it seemed fairly obvious that if we are to allow Whithorn the 'Candida Casa' to have been named originally for a personage bearing a Celtic name meaning 'white', then in all likelihood St. Martin's association with it was bogus, being based on a misinterpretation of Martin's Candes (from Condate, 'confluence) as meaning 'white'. In other words, the White House had not really been dedicated to St. Martin at all. As far as I'm concerned, this was fantasy on the part of St. Ninian's hagiographer. Instead, we should probably to see Myrddin at Whithorn.
The question has always been "Who was *Uinniau? Current opinion is that he was St. Finnian of Moville. But we must always remember that Christian sites were situated atop pagan sites. This was not only common practice, but a prevalent one. We might suppose, then, that a god underlies any saint found at Whithorn. And the most logical candidate for that god is Myrddin, whose name conceivably could have contributed to the fraudulent dedication of the White House to St. Martin of Candes.
Myrddin is closely associated with the spirits of the dead (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/03/myrddin-llallawgllallogan-gwyllon.html). His own name, according to Graham Isaac, means 'Elf-man.' If *Uinniau, the later Ninian, preserves a *vindo- element of a pre-Christian god of the dead, then we have one ready to hand: Gwyn son of Nudd, who is placed in the North in the MABINOGION tale "Culhwch and Olwen."
Gwyn is cognate with the Irish hero Fionn; both are related to the god Nodens/Nuada. In Welsh tradition, Gwyn is the king of the Otherworld (Annwn, Annwfn). From the OXFORD DICTIONARY OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY:
GWYN AP NUDD
[W gwyn, white, fair, holy].
Mythological king of Welsh tradition whose stature diminishes over the centuries with the advance of Christianity. In the oldest literature he is a ruler of Annwfn or the Otherworld and has within him the ferocity of demons or fiends. Despite the meaning of his name, Gwyn bears a blackened face while leading the pack of fairy dogs known as cwn annwfn. Culhwch must enlist his support in the hunt for the great boar Twrch Trwyth in Culhwch ac Olwen. In the same poem Arthur condemns Gwyn to a continual combat with Gwythyr fab Greidawl for the love of Creiddylad each Calan Mai [May Day] until the end of time. Gwyn has abducted Creiddylad, the daughter or Lludd Llaw Ereint, a double for Gwyn's father, Nudd, a point unheeded in the story. After the 16th century Gwyn becomes the king of the tylwyth teg [fair folk], i.e. fairies. As commonly noted, the name Gwyn ap Nudd is philologically related to that of Fionn mac Cumhaill, who is descended from Nuadu (Airgetlám or Necht).
Vindonnus
[clear light, white]. Gaulish aspect of Apollo, worshipped at a site coextensive with Essarois in Burgundy, eastern France. Bronze plaques found nearby depicting eyes suggest he was attributed curative powers for eye diseases. Linguistically Vindonnus is linked with Fionn mac Cumhaill.
From http://theses.univ-lyon2.fr/documents/lyon2/2009/beck_n#p=172&q=vindonnus&o=0&a=highlight:
"... the god Albius, who is known by this single inscription: his character and functions are thus undetermined. Albius’s name is derived from a Celtic root alb- signifying ‘white’, ‘celestial’.2053 The significance of his name relates him to the indigenous healing god Vindonnus - associated with Apollo in various inscriptions from Essarois (Côte d’Or) - whose name comes from the Gaulish vindo, ‘white’ and vindonos, ‘fair’.2054 Another healing god with a Latin name, Candidus, mentioned with Borvo in an inscription from Entrains-sur-Nohain (Nièvre),2055 also has a name denoting brightness. As Vindonnus and Candidus are gods related to brightness and curative springs, it is probable that Albius’s worship was attached to healing waters."
From Miranda J. Green's DICTIONARY OF CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND:
Apollo Vindonnus
"The Celtic Apollo had a temple at ESSARIOS near Chatillon-sur-Seine in Burgundy. The sanctuary was based on a curative spring, presided over by Apollo Vindonnus, meaning 'clear light.' Part of he temple pediment survives, bearing an inscription to the god and the spirit of the springs and, above it, the head of a radiate sun-deity. Pilgrims brought many votive objects to the shrine of Vindonnus, some made of oak, some of stone. Some offerings take the form of images of hands holding fruit or a cake as a gift; others represent parts of the body requiring a cure by the god. Most of all, the devotees of Apollo Vindonnus appear to have suffered from eye afflictions, which are represented by bronze plaques depicting eyes. It is appropriate that such unfortunates should venerate and propitiate a god of light, who could restore to them the clear vision reflected by his character and his name."
From http://bibnum.enc.sorbonne.fr/tires-a-part/099455919:
P.C. Bartram's entry for Gwyn has these interesting passages:
Ysbaddaden Pencawr told Culhwch that the boar Trwyth could not be hunted without first
obtaining Gwyn ap Nudd ‘in whom God has set the spirit of the demons of Annwn, lest this world be
destroyed. He will not be spared thence.’
In the Black Book of Carmarthen (BBC 97) there is a poem in the form of a dialogue between
Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir, which gives some further information concerning the attributes of Gwyn.
[The following is a better, more modern translation than that which Bartram offers:
http://gwynad.blogspot.com/2005/05/dialogue-between-me-and-gwyddno.html?m=0
Note especially Gwyn being present at Arderydd when Gwenddolau was slain:
I have been in the place where was killed Gwendoleu,
The son of Ceidaw, the pillar of songs,
When the ravens screamed over blood.]
...he has a dog with a red nose, called Dormarch, ‘which formerly belonged to Maelgwn’ (stanzas 13, 14). This dog is represented by a drawing in the Black Book, which shows that it had two forelegs, but instead of hind legs it had a tail with fan-like ends. This explains the statement of Gwyn, who (stanza 14) speaks to his dog of:
Thy wanderings in the mountain mist.
Gwyn ap Nudd appears in a curious legend contained in the Life of St.Collen [Buchedd Collen]. The saint withdrew to a mountain and made himself a cell in a secluded spot. He heard two men talking about Gwyn ap Nudd, describing him as King of Annwn and of the Fairies. He told them not to speak about those devils. Later he received a summons from Gwyn ap Nudd to meet him on the top of the hill at noon. But Collen did not go. After two more summonses he decided to go, taking a flask of holy water with him. He found a fair castle with every kind of magnificence becoming the court of a powerful sovereign. He was invited into the castle and found the king sitting in a golden chair, who welcomed him and desired him to eat. Collen refused, and after scorning the apparent affluence, he threw the holy water on the heads of the people, whereat everything vanished from sight.
According to the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym the owl was regarded as the bird of Gwyn ap Nudd.
The poet, having ridden one night into a turf bog on a mountain, calls it the ‘Fishpond of Gwyn ap
Nudd, a palace for goblins and their tribe.’ He evidently gave credit to Gwyn for having decoyed him
into the mire.
The following entry by Lewys ab Edward (fl.c.1560) occurs in Peniarth MS.132 p.129:
Gwyn ap nydd gryddyei ap lludd. y vaeth yr llen ap llininawc a[n]gel. rwng wybyr ac awyr ydd
aeth. brawd oedd ef [i] Garadawc vreichvras ac y wallawc ap llennawc. vn vam oedd ef ac hwynt.
Gwyn ap Nudd gryddyei(?) ap Lludd. He went to Llew ap Llyminod Angel. He went between
sky and air. He was brother to Caradog Freichfras and to Gwallog ap Lleenog. He and they had the
same mother.
A modified copy of this occurs in Peniarth MS.136 pp.354-5. Lludd ap Llew ap Llyminod Angel was a supposed ancestor of Gollwyn ap Tangno, patriarch of a tribe in Eifionydd and Ardudwy (PP §22). We may question how he could be an ancestor of Gwyn ap Nudd. However the statement that Gwyn ‘went between sky and air’ tallies with the picture of the dog, Dormarch, in the Black Book.
Gwyn is associated with Annwn [the Otherworld], Tylwyth Teg [the Fair People, Fairies] and
Cŵn Annwn (pp.284-5). The Cŵn Annwn are also called Cŵn Bendith y Mamau [Hounds of the
Fairies], and the Tylwyth Teg are also called Plant Annwn [Children of the Otherworld] (p.286).
For yet more on Gwyn's relationship with the Irish Fionn, see https://books.google.com/books?id=MoKvGA2McVYC&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q&f=false.
I would tentatively propose, therefore, that the *Uinniau who originally belonged at Whithorn, and who was called Myrddyn 'the elf-man', was none other than the Otherworld god Gwyn son of Nudd. He went by the nickname Myrddin Wyllt, 'the Wild/Mad' or Llallawg/Llallogan, 'the Other' (in the sense of being from the Otherworld). As a result, he came to replaced by the Christian St. Martin for two reasons: 1) the names resembled each other (although they are not even remotely related on a strictly linguistic basis) and 2) St. Martin had died on November 8, a day the Romans opened up the underworld to release the Manes or divine spirits of the dead.
Myrddin is closely associated with the spirits of the dead (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/03/myrddin-llallawgllallogan-gwyllon.html). His own name, according to Graham Isaac, means 'Elf-man.' If *Uinniau, the later Ninian, preserves a *vindo- element of a pre-Christian god of the dead, then we have one ready to hand: Gwyn son of Nudd, who is placed in the North in the MABINOGION tale "Culhwch and Olwen."
Gwyn is cognate with the Irish hero Fionn; both are related to the god Nodens/Nuada. In Welsh tradition, Gwyn is the king of the Otherworld (Annwn, Annwfn). From the OXFORD DICTIONARY OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY:
GWYN AP NUDD
[W gwyn, white, fair, holy].
Mythological king of Welsh tradition whose stature diminishes over the centuries with the advance of Christianity. In the oldest literature he is a ruler of Annwfn or the Otherworld and has within him the ferocity of demons or fiends. Despite the meaning of his name, Gwyn bears a blackened face while leading the pack of fairy dogs known as cwn annwfn. Culhwch must enlist his support in the hunt for the great boar Twrch Trwyth in Culhwch ac Olwen. In the same poem Arthur condemns Gwyn to a continual combat with Gwythyr fab Greidawl for the love of Creiddylad each Calan Mai [May Day] until the end of time. Gwyn has abducted Creiddylad, the daughter or Lludd Llaw Ereint, a double for Gwyn's father, Nudd, a point unheeded in the story. After the 16th century Gwyn becomes the king of the tylwyth teg [fair folk], i.e. fairies. As commonly noted, the name Gwyn ap Nudd is philologically related to that of Fionn mac Cumhaill, who is descended from Nuadu (Airgetlám or Necht).
Vindonnus
[clear light, white]. Gaulish aspect of Apollo, worshipped at a site coextensive with Essarois in Burgundy, eastern France. Bronze plaques found nearby depicting eyes suggest he was attributed curative powers for eye diseases. Linguistically Vindonnus is linked with Fionn mac Cumhaill.
From http://theses.univ-lyon2.fr/documents/lyon2/2009/beck_n#p=172&q=vindonnus&o=0&a=highlight:
"... the god Albius, who is known by this single inscription: his character and functions are thus undetermined. Albius’s name is derived from a Celtic root alb- signifying ‘white’, ‘celestial’.2053 The significance of his name relates him to the indigenous healing god Vindonnus - associated with Apollo in various inscriptions from Essarois (Côte d’Or) - whose name comes from the Gaulish vindo, ‘white’ and vindonos, ‘fair’.2054 Another healing god with a Latin name, Candidus, mentioned with Borvo in an inscription from Entrains-sur-Nohain (Nièvre),2055 also has a name denoting brightness. As Vindonnus and Candidus are gods related to brightness and curative springs, it is probable that Albius’s worship was attached to healing waters."
From Miranda J. Green's DICTIONARY OF CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND:
Apollo Vindonnus
"The Celtic Apollo had a temple at ESSARIOS near Chatillon-sur-Seine in Burgundy. The sanctuary was based on a curative spring, presided over by Apollo Vindonnus, meaning 'clear light.' Part of he temple pediment survives, bearing an inscription to the god and the spirit of the springs and, above it, the head of a radiate sun-deity. Pilgrims brought many votive objects to the shrine of Vindonnus, some made of oak, some of stone. Some offerings take the form of images of hands holding fruit or a cake as a gift; others represent parts of the body requiring a cure by the god. Most of all, the devotees of Apollo Vindonnus appear to have suffered from eye afflictions, which are represented by bronze plaques depicting eyes. It is appropriate that such unfortunates should venerate and propitiate a god of light, who could restore to them the clear vision reflected by his character and his name."
From http://bibnum.enc.sorbonne.fr/tires-a-part/099455919:
Apollo Vindonnus Inscription from Essarois Temple
Solar Head of Apollo Vindonnus
Ysbaddaden Pencawr told Culhwch that the boar Trwyth could not be hunted without first
obtaining Gwyn ap Nudd ‘in whom God has set the spirit of the demons of Annwn, lest this world be
destroyed. He will not be spared thence.’
In the Black Book of Carmarthen (BBC 97) there is a poem in the form of a dialogue between
Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir, which gives some further information concerning the attributes of Gwyn.
[The following is a better, more modern translation than that which Bartram offers:
http://gwynad.blogspot.com/2005/05/dialogue-between-me-and-gwyddno.html?m=0
Note especially Gwyn being present at Arderydd when Gwenddolau was slain:
I have been in the place where was killed Gwendoleu,
The son of Ceidaw, the pillar of songs,
When the ravens screamed over blood.]
...he has a dog with a red nose, called Dormarch, ‘which formerly belonged to Maelgwn’ (stanzas 13, 14). This dog is represented by a drawing in the Black Book, which shows that it had two forelegs, but instead of hind legs it had a tail with fan-like ends. This explains the statement of Gwyn, who (stanza 14) speaks to his dog of:
Thy wanderings in the mountain mist.
Gwyn ap Nudd appears in a curious legend contained in the Life of St.Collen [Buchedd Collen]. The saint withdrew to a mountain and made himself a cell in a secluded spot. He heard two men talking about Gwyn ap Nudd, describing him as King of Annwn and of the Fairies. He told them not to speak about those devils. Later he received a summons from Gwyn ap Nudd to meet him on the top of the hill at noon. But Collen did not go. After two more summonses he decided to go, taking a flask of holy water with him. He found a fair castle with every kind of magnificence becoming the court of a powerful sovereign. He was invited into the castle and found the king sitting in a golden chair, who welcomed him and desired him to eat. Collen refused, and after scorning the apparent affluence, he threw the holy water on the heads of the people, whereat everything vanished from sight.
According to the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym the owl was regarded as the bird of Gwyn ap Nudd.
The poet, having ridden one night into a turf bog on a mountain, calls it the ‘Fishpond of Gwyn ap
Nudd, a palace for goblins and their tribe.’ He evidently gave credit to Gwyn for having decoyed him
into the mire.
The following entry by Lewys ab Edward (fl.c.1560) occurs in Peniarth MS.132 p.129:
Gwyn ap nydd gryddyei ap lludd. y vaeth yr llen ap llininawc a[n]gel. rwng wybyr ac awyr ydd
aeth. brawd oedd ef [i] Garadawc vreichvras ac y wallawc ap llennawc. vn vam oedd ef ac hwynt.
Gwyn ap Nudd gryddyei(?) ap Lludd. He went to Llew ap Llyminod Angel. He went between
sky and air. He was brother to Caradog Freichfras and to Gwallog ap Lleenog. He and they had the
same mother.
A modified copy of this occurs in Peniarth MS.136 pp.354-5. Lludd ap Llew ap Llyminod Angel was a supposed ancestor of Gollwyn ap Tangno, patriarch of a tribe in Eifionydd and Ardudwy (PP §22). We may question how he could be an ancestor of Gwyn ap Nudd. However the statement that Gwyn ‘went between sky and air’ tallies with the picture of the dog, Dormarch, in the Black Book.
In Welsh folklore Gwyn ap Nudd is regarded as the king of the Fairies and of the ‘otherworld’
generally (John Rhys, Hib. Lect., p.179). He fetches the fallen to his own realm (ibid., p.537). He is thus sometimes represented as the leader of the Cŵn Annwn, ‘the Hounds of Annwn’ of Welsh superstition (John Rhys, Celtic Folklore, p.203, Arthurian Legend, p.158). “But the references to Gwyn ap Nudd do not corroborate Rhys's conception of him as a dark god who comes to earth with his hounds to hunt disembodied souls.” (Idris Foster in Duanaire Finn, III.199, Irish Texts Society, Vol.43, 1953). In spite of the different roles that Gwyn ap Nudd came to play, “there was one basic conception that was decidedly old - that of Gwyn the magic huntsman”. (Idris Foster, ibid., III.204).
Gwyn is associated with Annwn [the Otherworld], Tylwyth Teg [the Fair People, Fairies] and
Cŵn Annwn (pp.284-5). The Cŵn Annwn are also called Cŵn Bendith y Mamau [Hounds of the
Fairies], and the Tylwyth Teg are also called Plant Annwn [Children of the Otherworld] (p.286).
For yet more on Gwyn's relationship with the Irish Fionn, see https://books.google.com/books?id=MoKvGA2McVYC&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q&f=false.
A LIST OF PRIMARY CORRESPONDENCES FOR MYRDDIN/MERLIN AND GWYN
Myrddin and sacred mountains Gwyn at the "mountain" (Tor)
of Glastonbury and at Mynydd
Y Drum in Wales
Myrddin and the sacred springs Apollo Vindonnus presiding
over healing springs; Fionn
frequently associated with water
Myrddin and prophecy Fionn with prophecy, either from
the Salmon of Wisdom or the
fairy mound door; Apollo was
the god of prophecy par excellence
Myrddin and the dead Gwyn is lord of he dead or of the
Otherworld; Fionn often
encounters the Otherworld or
Otherworld beings
Otherworld; Fionn often
encounters the Otherworld or
Otherworld beings
Myrddin and stags/deer Fionn's wife is part-deer; her son
Oisin 'Little Deer' has an affinity
with deer; Fionn is led to the
Otherworld variously by a fairy
woman in deer form or by the
god of the dead, Donn, in stag
form; Fionn hunts deer, kills a
stag-god and kills enchanted hinds;
Gwyn lead the Wild Hunt
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