Trinity Well, Hill of Carbury, Co. Kildare, Ireland
In the last year or so, I wrote several pieces trying to get at the underlying meaning of the Creiddylad story in the Welsh Arthurian tale, CULHWCH AND OLWEN. I did make some progress, clearly identifying Cyledyr son of Nwython ( = Nechtain) as a Welsh personification of the Irish spelling for Kildare. I also hinted at the possibility that Gwythyr, the Welsh form of Roman Victor, was originally from an Irish Buadach, 'the victorious one', a known early epithet for St. Brigid of Kildare (and for other figures in Irish tradition, including males). For some of the details for these arguments, please see the following link:
https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-new-identification-for-victor-of.html
However, I was not at the time able to adequately account for either Creiddylad or the reason why Gwyn son of Nudd played such a significant part in the story.
I now believe I can put these last two questions to rest in a satisfactory fashion.
The problem with the story of the Pictish Necton and his founding of a Brigid church in Scotland has to do with both his supposed exile to Kildare in Ireland and the presence in Ireland of the Well of Nechtain at the Hill of Carbury in Co. Kildare. Carbury Hill was once known as Sidh Nechtain, the Fairy Hill of Nechtain.
The Well of Nechtain (or Well of Segais) is now called Trinity Well. But in ancient days, it was considered the divine source of the Boyne River, itself a goddess named Boand (and variants). As the story has it, Boand comes to the well, which is forbidden to her (!) and it bursts forth, creating the river. The irony is, of course, that the water that bursts forth from the well due to her trespass is Boand herself.[1]
It has been proposed that the second element of Creiddylad is W. dylad, 'flood, tide, deluge; river-bed' (GPC, from the 13th century on). This is actually quite good, for no other acceptable terminal can be found. Old Irish has diliu, dile, 'flood', with forms dílend, dílinde, dílind (see eDIL).
The eDIL has under its entry for diliu, dile, 'flood':
"Of the names of the Boyne at different stages of her course: Banna ó Loch Echach cen ail, | Drumchla Dílenn co hAlbain, 28 . ardanfud dond dílinne . . . décsiu Cerbaill, RC xxix 211 . dar lebarthonnaib na dileann, Snedg. u. Mac R 33 . da druim ndilinne (: firinne), Rawl. 86b42 . co ti in diliu tar in domun, Aen. 2966 . tar dromchla ndíleann, TD 20 § 33 . fa tholchuibh dílionn, 20 § 35 . siar tar dromchladh na díleann, Keat. Poems 31 ."
Creid(d) can only be for W. craidd, not only 'heart', but center, middle. The same meanings apply to Irish cride, the cognate word. I have found Ir. cride used as a poetic description for Mide or Meath, whose chief river is the Boyne:
cride na Banba bricce = Mide
(see the eDIL under the entry for cride and https://books.google.com/books?id=E-dFAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA174&lpg=RA1-PA174&dq=cride+of+banba+%3D+meath&source=bl&ots=6rnowOc83t&sig=ACfU3U3UOOyltxleKxdS1baB23YFsNf55Q&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXooyjssfnAhXAHjQIHcimCh4Q6AEwFHoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=cride%20of%20banba%20%3D%20meath&f=false)
'[the] heart/center/middle of freckled Banba' (Banba being a goddess manifestation of Ireland itself)
I would, therefore, propose that Creiddylad is 'middle flood' or, more precisely, 'the flood of Meath', a reference to the Boyne River.
Given the craidd/'heart' word in the name Creiddylad, the storyteller conjured the bit about Cyledyr/'Kildare' being forced to eat the heart of his father, Nwython.[2] We must remember that Nechtain of Carbury is the god of that name, and Celtic Nechtain is cognate with Latin Neptune. So whatever the original myth was, it dealt with Brigid ( = Buadach/Gwythyr) the Sun Goddess, Boand the River Goddess and Nechtain, who is himself a River God (see the River Nethan, for example, in North Lanarkshire, and Cambusnethan in the same region). The St. Necton of Hartland in Devon follows suit, as his decapitated head is a symbol for the source of a spring. In the case of the Irish Nechtain, he may have been a God of the Underground Waters from which the River Boyne arose.
Gwyn son of Nudd features prominently in the story because the seat of Fionn Mac Cumhaill at the Hill of Allen was in Co. Kildare directly between Carbury and Kildare (see map below). Fionn is cognate with Gwyn, and Fionn descended from Nuadu on his mother's side. Nudd, Gwyn's father, is the Welsh form of Irish Nuadu. Creiddylad's father Lludd is a variant spelling for Nudd. Nechtain may be the same as the god Nuadu or the two at some point became identified (see
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100241126). Thus we have one Nuadu Necht, founder of the Hill of Allen.
Gwyn and Fionn may be Welsh and Irish versions of the Gaulish Apollo Vindonnus ('white god'). If so, Gwyn the Sun God competes with Brigid Buadach the Sun Goddess over Creiddylad/Boand the River Goddess on every Beltine. My guess is that this has to do the a sun deity of the winter half year vs. a sun deity of the summer half year each having control of the river during their respective reigns. This seasonal contest would result in varying levels of water in the Boyne during the course of the year.
Thus a story which reputedly took place in Abernethy in Scotland is actually a transferred, garbled legend from Ireland.
NOTE ON UTHER PENDRAGON AND GWYTHUR
Given my identification of Gwythyr in CULHWCH AND OLWEN as Brigid Buadach, I'm fairly confident that I can now account for the reference in the Uther Pendragon elegy to the hero fighting alongside Gwythur.
The Irish Brigid as saint derives from the pagan goddess Brigantia, known in Britain as the eponym of the Brigantes tribe, whose territory spanned the Pennines. We have two Roman period inscriptions from Britain in which the goddess is identified with Victoria:
To the goddess Victoria Brigantia Aurelius Senopianus dedicated this altar.
To the goddess Victoria Brigantia and to the Divinities of the two Emperors, Titus Aurelius Aurelianus gave and dedicated (this altar) for himself and his family, while he himself was master of sacred rites, in the third consulship of Antoninus and the [second] of Geta.
Thus when we are told Uther was fighting alongside Gwythur/'Victor', we are being told he was fighting alongside the goddess of the Brigantes, i.e. alongside the Brigantes themselves.
[1]
Boand I
Sid Nechtain is the name that is on the mountain here,
the grave of the full-keen son of Labraid,
from which flows the stainless river
whose name is Boand ever-full.
5] Fifteen names, certainty of disputes,
given to this stream we enumerate,
from Sid Nechtain away
till it reaches the paradise of Adam.
Segais was her name in the Sid
10] to be sung by thee in every land:
River of Segais is her name from that point
to the pool of Mochua the cleric.
From the well of righteous Mochua
to the bounds of Meath's wide plain,
15] the Arm of Nuadu's Wife and her Leg are
the two noble and exalted names.
From the bounds of goodly Meath
till she reaches the sea's green floor
she is called the Great Silver Yoke
20] and the White Marrow of Fedlimid.
Stormy Wave from thence onward
unto branchy Cualnge;
River of the White Hazel from stern Cualnge
to the lough of Eochu Red-Brows.
p.29
25] Banna is her name from faultless Lough Neagh:
Roof of the Ocean as far as Scotland:
Lunnand she is in blameless Scotland —
or its name is Torrand according to its meaning.
Severn is she called through the land of the sound Saxons,
30] Tiber in the Romans' keep:
River Jordan thereafter in the east
and vast River Euphrates.
River Tigris in enduring paradise,
long is she in the east, a time of wandering
35] from paradise back again hither
to the streams of this Sid.
Boand is her general pleasant name
from the Sid to the sea-wall;
I remember the cause whence is named
40] the water of the wife of Labraid's son.
Nechtain son of bold Labraid
whose wife was Boand, I aver;
a secret well there was in his stead,
from which gushed forth every kind of mysterious evil.
45] There was none that would look to its bottom
but his two bright eyes would burst:
if he should move to left or right,
he would not come from it without blemish.
p.31
Therefore none of them dared approach it
50] save Nechtain and his cup-bearers:
— these are their names, famed for brilliant deed,
Flesc and Lam and Luam.
Hither came on a day white Boand
(her noble pride uplifted her),
55] to the well, without being thirsty
to make trial of its power.
As thrice she walked round
about the well heedlessly,
three waves burst from it,
60] whence came the death of Boand.
They came each wave of them against a limb,
they disfigured the soft-blooming woman;
a wave against her foot, a wave against her perfect eye,
the third wave shatters one hand.
65] She rushed to the sea (it was better for her)
to escape her blemish,
so that none might see her mutilation;
on herself fell her reproach.
Every way the woman went
70] the cold white water followed
from the Sid to the sea (not weak it was),
so that thence it is called Boand.
Boand from the bosom of our mighty river-bank,
was mother of great and goodly Oengus,
75] the son she bore to the Dagda — bright honour!
in spite of the man of this Sid.
p.33
Or, Boand is Bo and Find
from the meeting of the two royal streams,
the water from bright Sliab Guaire
80] and the river of the Sids here.
Dabilla, the name of the faithful dog
who belonged to the wife of Nechtain, great and noble,
the lap-dog of Boand the famous,
which went after her when she perished.
85] The sea-current swept it away,
as far as the stony crags;
and they made two portions of it,
so that they were named therefrom.
They stand to the east of broad Breg,
90] the two stones in the blue waters of the lough:
Cnoc Dabilla is so called from that day to this
from the little dog of the Sid.
Boand I
Síd Nechtain sund forsin t-shléib,
lecht mic Labrada lán-géir,
assa silenn in sruth slán
dianid ainm Bóand bith-lán.
5] Cóic anmand déc, demne drend,
forsin t-shruth-sin adrímem,
otá Síd Nechtain asmaig
co roshaig pardus Adaim.
Segais a hainm issin t-shíd
10] ria cantain duit in cach thír:
Sruth Segsa a hainm otá-sin
co Lind Mochúi in chlérig.2
Otá Topur Mochúi chóir
co cocrích Midi mag-móir
15] Rig mná Nuadat 's a Colptha
a dá ainm ána imarda.3
Otá cocrích Midi maiss
corrici in fairgi fondglaiss
Mór-Chuing Argait gairther di,
20] ocus Smir Find Fedlimthi.
Trethnach-Tond ósin immach
connici Cúalnge cráibach.
Sruth Findchuill ó Chúalnge chrúaid
co Loch n-Echach Abrat-rúaid.
p.28
25] Banna ó Loch Echach cen ail,
Drumchla Dílenn co h-Albain;
Lunnand hí i n-Albain cen ail
nó is Turrann iarna tucsain.
Sabrann dar tír Saxan slán,
30] Tibir i ráith na Román,
Sruth n-Iordanen iarsain sair,
ocus Sruth n-Eufrait adbail.
Sruth Tigir i pardus búan,
35] fota sair síst fri himlúad:
ó phardus darís ille
co srothaib na síde-se.
Bóand a h-ainm coitchend cain
otá in síd co fairge fraig:
mebur lim aní diatá
40] usce mná mic Labrada.
Nechtain mac Labrada laind,
diarbo ben Bóand, bágaimm,
topur diamair bói 'na dún,
assa maided cech mí-rún.
45] Ní fhail nodécced dia lár
nach maided a dá rosc rán:
dia ngluased do chlí nó deis,
ní thargad úad cen athis.
p.30
Aire níslaimed nech de
50] acht Nechtain 's a deogbaire:
it é a n-anmand, fri gním nglan,
Flesc is Lam ocus Luäm.
Fecht and dolluid Bóand bán —
dosfuargaib a dímus n-án —
55] cosin topur cen tarta
d' airigud a chumachta.
Immar rothimchill fo thrí
in topur co n-étuachli,
maidit teora tonna de
60] dia tánic aided Bóinne.
Rosiacht cach tond díb ria chuit,
romillset in mnái mbláth-buic:
tond ria cois, tond ria súil sláin,
tres tond brisid a leth-láim.
65] Rethis co fairgi, ferr de,
d' imgabáil a hathise,
ar nách acced nech a cned:
furri féin a himathber.
Cach conair dolluid in ben
70] moslúi in t-usce úar imgel:
ón t-shíd co fairgi nách fand,
conid di gairthir Bóand.
Bóand do bruinni ar mbrúich braiss
máthair Oengussa oll-maiss,
75] mac ruc don Dagda, miad nglé,
dar cend fir na síde-se. S.
p.32
Nó Bóand bó ocus find
do chomrac in dá ríg-lind,
in t-usce a sléib Guaire glé
80] ocus sruth na síde-se. S.
Dabilla ainm in chon chóir
robói oc mnái Nechtain nár-móir,
messán Bóinne co mblaid
luid ina diaid dia torchair.
85] Rosróen sruth in mara immach
corrici na cairge clach,
co ndernsat dá gabait de,
conid úad rohainmnigthe.
Atát i n-airthiur Breg mbrass
90] in dí chloich 'sin loch lind-glass;
Cnoc Dabilla ósin ille
di choin bic na síde-se. S.
[2]
The heart extraction from Nwython/Nechtain by Gwyn does remind us of the story of the Salmon of Wisdom in the Well of Segais at Sidh Nechtain. It is this fish which imparts wisdom to Fionn Mac Cumhaill.
The Meath section of the Boyne was known as Smior Fionn Feidhlimthe, the 'white marrow of Feidlimid.' See
