MYRDDIN: THE CULT OF THE DEAD VS. THE CULT OF THE SAINTS

["To the] Divine Shades"

Now in this island of Britain the men of ancient times built a long wall, cutting off a large part of it; and the climate and the soil and everything else is not alike on the two sides of it.  For to the south of the wall there is a salubrious air, changing with the seasons, being moderately warm in summer and cool in winter. But on the north side everything is the reverse of this, so that it is actually impossible for a man to survive there even a half-hour, but countless snakes and serpents and every other kind of wild creature occupy this area as their own.  And, strangest of all, the inhabitants say that if a man crosses this wall and goes to the other side, he dies straightway. They say, then, that the souls of men who die are always conveyed to this place. 

Procopius, HISTORY OF THE WARS, 8.20.42-8

Seven score men of rank became Wild Ones,

In the forest of Celyddon they perished…

From “The Dialogue of Merlin and Taliesin”, BLACK BOOK OF CARMARTHEN

Many years ago, I realized that Myrddin's madness at the Battle of Arderydd was a metaphor for a spectral state of existence following the death of the body.  This led me to believe that Myrddin was a sort of revered ghost, something akin to the manes of Roman religion.  About the closest thing we in the modern world can compare this to is the Cult of the Saints.  We understand how a dead holy man could be worshiped, and how one could communicate with him.  

The primary difference between the two is that while a saint became divine after his death due to his religious works in life, a pagan became a species of god simply because ghosts were inherently divine.

The problem with Myrddin has always been whether to simply view him as a mortal who has gone mad (or died), or as a demoted god.  The triple death meted out to him has led scholars to associated him with the god Lugh (or Mars Condate; see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/03/myrddin-mars-condatis-and-st-martin.html) or a trio of Continental divinities (see Anne Ross and Don Robins' THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A DRUID PRINCE). Of course, a man sacrificed to a god, in a very strange way, becomes the god - at least symbolically.  Whether it was believed he actually became "one" with the god is not known.  We may compare the sacrifice of a Viking to the Norse Odin, who hung like the god from a tree.  If any god is involved with Myrddin, it would appear (due to his constant association in place-names with Ninian/Finnian) to be Gwyn, the god of the dead in Welsh tradition (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/myrddin-st-ninian-st-martin-and-white.html). But as Gwyn had in his train the legion of the dead, Myrddin may simply have been one of these spirits.  He was replaced by St. Martin due not only to a superficial resemblance of their names, but because St. Martin died on the date of a Roman festival to the Manes and his feast/funeral day became known as Old Halloween or Old Allhallows Eve. 

Geoffrey of Monmouth muddied the waters even more.  He has Ganieda/Gwenddydd (who would seem to be a Welsh form of Diana) build Merlin/Myrddin a "observatory" which is plainly a megalithic structure similar to the Stonehenge he later has Merlin build.  The implication is that he should be seen as a manifestation of Apollo or, at the very least, a priest of the sun god. He identifies Merlin with Ambrosius, so Merlin becomes the character in the famous story of the red and white dragons.  Ambrosius's origin at Campus Elleti is changed to Carmarthen, and his Guoloph becomes Galabes. And he incorporates other themes, such as having Merlin transform Uther into Gorlois (when in the Welsh Uther elegy poem the chieftain calls himself gorlassar and is transformed by God).  He has Merlin lead an army of stags (which I thought might be Carvetii warriors, a people who worshiped a god called Mars Belatucadros). The contestants at Arderydd are assigned to the wrong kingdoms. The triple death is prophesied by Merlin, but belongs to another character. Merlin goes in and out of madness and we are left wondering whether this is supposed to imply a seasonal rebirth-death cycle or is nothing more than imaginative storytelling.  Finally, he brings into Merlin's story all kinds of Classically derived names and motifs, and even nuggets of Irish mythology (all the names of the goddesses of Avalon cited by Merlin are Irish in origin).  So what we end up with, essentially, is an eclectic mess, well nigh immune to dissection and forensics.  It is, admittedly, a work of creative genius.  But it does not follow that Merlin was originally anything like how he is portrayed in the LIFE OF MERLIN and THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN - sources that utterly contradict each other.

In my opinion, as is true when we are searching for a historical Arthur, we must dispense with Geoffrey of Monmouth's works entirely if we hope to uncover anything of real value in terms of a Myrddin prototype.   

The fragments concerning Lailocen (Welsh Llallogan; cf. Llalog) in the Life of St. Kentigern are of an entirely different order. In one, the 'wild man' is placed at an early St. Ninian/Finnian site in Glasgow (Molendinar Burn). [As the Welsh poetry situates Myrddin on the mountain of Abercarf/Tinto/Wiston with its chapel of St. Ninian and Martingill Cleuch.] In the other, the triple death is relocated from the Willow Pool confluence of the Liddel (with its tributary the Tweed/Tweeden) and Esk to the confluence of the Powsail ('Willow Pool') and the Tweed.  Close to the former is the St. Martin's Church at Canonbie.  

The easiest way for us to understand Myrddin is to take a good look at a recent study of the Roman cult of the dead by Dr. Charles King.  After offering a definition of the manes, the author challenges "the widespread assumption that the term 'manes' always refers to collective groups of the dead" and demonstrates "that the Romans worshipped dead individuals as manes."

From "The Ancient Roman Afterlife: Di Manes, Belief, and the Cult of the Dead":  (https://books.google.com/books?id=bErUDwAAQBAJ&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false):

For Chapter Two of Dr. King's book (which he was kind enough to send me in its pre-published form), see https://www.facebook.com/download/283328186028439/di%20manes%20chapter%20two%20charles%20king.pdf?av=100006043414438&eav=AfYYn5GtUl6U7dJwCiSn19bOI7atIPOlzzE0iyk53MOKVCvSGq4ksMjnQRufUKTDJBE&hash=Acr5x4ggnHALXa9q.

The strictly pagan worship of the dead - as it, obviously, involved the worship of dead pagans - would have been seen as highly objectionable by the Christian Church.  It was, though, of a different magnitude than trying to grapple with the problem posed by a more powerful pagan god.  In some cases, pagan deities were "converted" into saints.  The best example of this in the Celtic world is probably Brigid of Ireland. But what to do with a deified pagan mortal?

Well, perhaps he was made into the King of the Fairies!  When we take a look at the three saints (who may all be the same; see 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) said to form the basis of St. Ninian/Finnian, we notice right away that neither of them has a death day or feast day on or around the November dates of St. Martin:

http://omniumsanctorumhiberniae.blogspot.com/2013/09/saint-finnian-of-moville-september-10.html 

 http://omniumsanctorumhiberniae.blogspot.com/2014/12/saint-finnian-of-clonard-december-12.html

http://omniumsanctorumhiberniae.blogspot.com/2013/09/saint-finbarr-of-cork-september-25.html

However, Finnbar of Cork (who, like Myrddin, is associated with a sacred apple tree; Moville designates a sacred tree) bears a name which is reminiscent of that belonging to the Connacht King of the Fairies, Finnbheara/Fionnbharr (and other variants).  From the Oxford DICTIONARY OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY:

King of the Connacht fairies with residence at Cnoc Mheada [Knockmagha], west of Tuam, Co. Galway. Although fond of mortal women, he is usually cited with his wife Úna (sometimes Nuala). Originally one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, he settles at Cnoc Mheadha when his kind are driven underground by the Milesians. The popularity of his stories in oral tradition led storytellers to think of Finnbheara as the king of all Irish fairies, not just of Connacht, and also as king of the dead. In one of the best-known stories, Finnbheara steals the most beautiful woman in Ireland, Eithne (4) or Eithne the Bride, and keeps her with him, Persephone-like, for a year. He brings good crops to people in his region but his absence brings poor crops. He rewards a smith who is not afraid to shoe his three-legged horse. On one occasion he cures a sick woman, accepts food from her in recompense, but refuses salt. Lady Wilde collected many stories of Finnbheara in her Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland (London, 1887). T. H. Nally's verse pantomime Finn Varra Maa (Dublin, 1917) conflates Finnbheara with Fionn mac Cumhaill (here ‘Finn MacCool’) and makes him the Irish Santa Claus. W. B. Yeats cites him often, usually as Finvara, notably in the dramas, The Land of Heart's Desire (1894) and The Dreaming of the Bones (1919). Although his name is occasionally anglicized as Finbar, he should be distinguished from Finnbarr. Folk motifs: F109; F160.0.2; F167.12; F184; F252.1

I've elsewhere discussed the Welsh Gwyn as God of the Dead, and his probable identification with the Irish Fionn and Apollo Vindonnus (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2020/05/myrddin-st-ninian-st-martin-and-white.html).

Myrddin, then, as 'Elf-man', was a sort of British King of the Fairies who came to be identified with his Irish counterpart.  The Christian Martin replaced him in the landscape, but not in the minds of those who believed in him.  I would add that St. Finnbar of Cork resided at Templemartin (https://www.logainm.ie/en/685).  While I've not been able to determine how old the Templemartin name is, it would not be strange if a foundation of a Finnbar in Galloway may have been designated a St. Martin chapel in memory of the Irish place-name.

A final note on Myrddin's triple death... The original story may have had Myrddin die (possibly of panic; Irish war goddesses could kill with that alone) at Arderydd.  But because his spectral state was misunderstood, it was thought necessary to "tag on" a proper death to his story.  On the other hand, I have proposed that the triple death was a human sacrifice meant to ensure victory in the upcoming battle.  Such a sacrifice would have gone beyond deifying Myrddin as a simple ancestral ghost.  As I've alluded to above, sacrifice victims symbolized the god himself and, in a way that is hard to understand, became that god.  So the very act of dying in a sacrificial rite may have, essentially, "enthroned" Myrddin as King of the Fairies.  In essence, once he passed over to the Otherworld, he was the God of the Dead.

As the Irish King of the Fairies ruled from  the hill of Knockmagha, Myrddin seems to have had his "court" at Tinto, atop of which is one of the largest Bronze Age burial cairns in all of Scotland (https://canmore.org.uk/site/47525/tinto-cairn).  It was there that he communed with the 'wild men' (ghosts).   Graham Isaac has, undoubtedly, corrected rendered Myrddin's father's name Morfryn as 'Elf-hill', and this may well be a designation for Tinto.