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In English mythology, Acrasia was an enchantress who lived in the Bower of Bliss on the Wandering Island. She transformed her lovers into monstrous shapes and kept them captive. Sir Guyon having crept up on her, threw a net over her and bounder her in chains of adamant; then broke down her bower and burnt it to ashes.
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In Celtic mythology, Amaethon was a son of Don and god of agriculture.
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In druidry an tigh geatha refers to the outer order.
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In British mythology, Andraste is a warrior goddess. She was invoked by Queen Boadicea when she revolted against the Roman invaders.
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In Irish mythology, Angus Og is the god of love and beauty.
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In British mythology, Annwn is the other world.
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In Celtic mythology Arduina is the goddess of woodlands, wild life, the hunt and the moon; Guardian and Eponym of the Ardennes Forest.
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In Welsh Celtic mythology, Arianrhod or Arianrod (Silver-Wheel or Silver- Circle) was the virgin white goddess of birth, initiation, death and rebirth. She Who turns the circle of heaven. She was a sister and wife of Gwydion.
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In English mythology, Ascapart was a thirty-feet tall giant, with a space of twelve inches between his eyes. He was defeated by Sir Bevis (Bevois) of Southampton.
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Avalon is the place where King Arthur is said to have gone after disappearing. It is a sort of fairy land.
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In Celtic mythology, Aywell was the protector of the independent peoples of Northern England. He was the husband of Mm.
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In Irish mythology, Badb was one of the giantess forms of Morrigan. She was sufficiently tall to place a foot on either side of a river.
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In Celtic mythology, Balor was the demon king, god of death. He ruled the Fomori, demons who lived in the impenetrable darkness of the sea's depths and in lakes and dark pools in the upper world. He was killed by his son, Lug, who shot him with a sling-shot.
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In Gaelic folklore, a banshee is a female spirit whose wailing outside a house foretells the death of one of its inhabitants.
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A bard was an order of druid. The bard's office was to supervise, regulate and to lead. His robe was sky blue, symbolising justice and truth.
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Bealtainn was an annual Celtic ceremony for the purification of cattle by passing them through sacred fire or smoke.
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In Celtic mythology, Bebhionn was a giantess from the Maiden's Land far off the West coast of Ireland known for her beauty and seduction.
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Bel (Belenos) was the Celtic god of light.
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Beltane is the Celtic festival of the god of light. It is held on May the 1st, and is the spring equivalent of Halloween. Formerly in England dancing took place to may poles in village greens to celebrate the festival, but this practice subsided during the 1970s and is now almost extinct.
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In English mythology, Bladud was the father of King Lear, and was said to have founded Bath having been cured by its waters.
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In Celtic mythology, Blodeuwedd was the wife of Lleu. She was created by Gwydion and Math from the blossoms of the oak, broom and meadow-sweet and presented to Lleu as a bride.
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In Irish mythology, Boann is the goddess of rivers.
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In Celtic mythology, Borr was the son of Ymer and the father of Odin, Ville, Ve and Hertha.
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In Celtic mythology Bran was a giant who delighted in battle and carnage. He was the son of Lir (or Llyr) and a mortal woman. He led the giants from Wales on their invasion of Ireland, being killed by a poisoned arrow in the battle with Evnissyen which followed the deposition of the Irish king.
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In Celtic mythology, Branwen is a goddess of love. She was a daughter of Llyr.
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In Gaelic mythology, Brighid (Brigit) was the goddess of metalwork, smiths, poetic inspiration and therapy. With Christianity she evolved into Saint Brigit.
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The brownie is a spirit popular in Scottish folk-lore. Brownies haunt houses, and if treated well will help with the drudgery of the housework while the occupants sleep.
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In English mythology, Brute (Brutus) was the first king of the Britons. He was the son of Sylvius. Having inadvertently killed his father, he first took refuge in Greece and then in Britain. In memory of Troy, he called the capital of his kingdom Troy-novant (New Troy), now London.
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In Cornish mythology, the Bucca was a goblin of the wind, supposed to foretell shipwrecks.
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In English mythology, Caleb was an enchantress who carried off St George when he was a baby.
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In English Celtic mythology, Camulus (heaven) was a god of war identified by the Romans with Mars. He gave his name to the town of Camulodunum, now called Colchester.
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In the Arthurian legends, Castle Terabil or Castle Terrible (sometimes called Dunheved Castle) was a castle in Launceston within ten miles of Tintagel. The castle had a steep keep environed with a triple wall.
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In Celtic mythology, Cernunnos was the god of the underworld and of animals. He was a principal god depicted as a man with the antlers of a stag. He was the model for the later Christian icon of the Devil.
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In Welsh mythology, Cerridwen is the goddess of dark prophetic powers. She is the keeper of the cauldron of the underworld, in which inspiration and divine knowledge are brewed. She was the Triple-Goddess, a white, corpse-eating sow representing the moon.
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In Celtic mythology, Cian is the god of medicine. He mated with Ethlin who gave birth to Lug.
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In Irish mythology, Cluricaune is an evil elf who appears as a wrinkled old man, and has knowledge of hidden treasures.
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In Celtic mythology, Conchobar was the King of Ulster whose intended bride, Deirdre, eloped with Noisi.
Conchobar killed Deidre's husband and his brothers and she died of sorrow.
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In Welsh Celtic mythology, Cordelia was the daughter of Llyr. She has two lovers, Gwynn and Gwythr, who fight for her on the 1st of May each year and will continue to do so until the day of doom when one shall be victorious and marry her.
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In English mythology, Cormoran was a Cornish giant who fell into a pit twenty feet deep, dug by Jack the Giant-killer, and covered over with grass and gravel. For killing the giant Jack was awarded a belt from King Arthur.
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In Celtic mythology, Creidhne was the god of metal working.
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In Celtic mythology, Creurdilad was the daughter of Lludd and lover of Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyrthur ap Greidawl. Her mythology developed into that of Cordelia, with the names of her lovers also amending with time.
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Cromeruach was the chief idol of the Irish before their conversion to Christianity by St Patrick. It was a gold or silver image surrounded by twelve small brazen ones.
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Cu Chulainn (Cuchulain) was a Celtic hero, the chief figure in a cycle of Irish legends. He is associated with his uncle Conchobar, King of Ulster; his most famous exploits are described in The Cattle Raid of Cuchulain. Cu Chulainn was said to have been born of a virgin, died and been reincarnated as both father and son. He died bound to a sacred pillar, pierced by arrows, his blood fertilizing the earth.
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In Celtic mythology, Cuchulinn is a hero-king of Ulster and son of Lugh. He is a warlike figure and tales tell of his warlike deeds.
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In Celtic mythology, Cuculain was the nickname of Setanta, the warrior son of Dechtire and Lug. He won his nickname when he killed the fairy watchdog of the smith Culain, and agreed to guard Culain's fields himself for a year while a replacement was trained for the job.
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Dagda was the Celtic equivalent of Cronus. Also called Cian.
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In Irish mythology, Daghdha is the great god. He had a secret affair with Boann which resulted in the birth of Oenghus.
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In Celtic mythology, Deirdre was the beautiful intended bride of Conchobar. She eloped with Noisi, and died of sorrow when Conchobar killed him and his brothers.
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In Irish mythology, Diancecht is the god of healing. He destroyed the giant serpent that threatened and destroyed cattle throughout the land.
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In Gaulish mythology, Dis was the god of death from whom the Gauls were descended.
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In English folklore, a dobby was a house-elf similar to a brownie. Dobbies were thin and shaggy, very kind to servants and children, and did many a small service in the household when people were too busy.
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In British mythology, Druantia was the druid goddess of birth, wisdom, death and metempsychosis. The mother of the Irish tree-calendar alphabet.
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The ancient druids were divided into three functional orders: primitive druid, bard and ovate. Druidism originated amongst the megalithic ancient British. They taught it to the immigrant Celts, and later trained Celts from the continent.
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Dus or Deuce was the chief god of the Brigantes.
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In Gaulish mythology, dusiens are demons that produce nightmares in the sleeping.
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In Celtic mythology Dylan was a god of darkness, a twin son of Gwydion and Arianrhod. He was a sea god, and swam like a fish. Upon his death at the hands of a spear thrown by his uncle Govannan, the sea for ever more wept for him in the form of waves crashing on the shore.
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In Celtic mythology, Elaine (Lily-Maid) was a virgin goddess of beauty and the moon. She was the matron of road-building and a loveable leader of hosts.
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In Welsh mythology, the Ellyllon are the souls of ancient Druids, too good to be banished to hell, they are not good enough to enter heaven and roam the earth awaiting the judgement when they will be admitted to a higher state of being.
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In Celtic mythology, Epona was the goddess of horses.
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In Irish Celtic mythology, Eriu was a shape shifting goddess of fate. The bestower of sovereignty.
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In Celtic mythology, Etain (Shining-One) was the triple goddess of the sun, water, horses, fragrance, beauty, music and the transmigration of souls.
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In Celtic mythology, Ethlin was the daughter of Balor. Balor, terrified by a prophecy that his own grandson would kill him, locked Ethlin in a glass tower and set guards to watch her so that no man might mate with her. However, Cian disguised himself as a woman and entered the tower and mated with Ethlin.
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In Scottish folklore a fane is an elf or fairy-like creature.
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In Irish Celtic mythology, Fata-Morgana is the goddess of the sea, visual illusions, enchantment, fate and death. She is the Queen of the Fortunate Isles.
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In Celtic mythology, Finn MacCool was an Irish prophet, warrior and healer. He learned his skills either from touching the flesh of Fintan as he cooked him, or by sipping the gods' wine as he served them at table.
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In Celtic mythology, Fintan (the salmon of wisdom) was a shape-changer. He was the only Irish survivor of Noah' s flood, changing into a hawk to soar above the waters and into a salmon to live in them. He ate the gods' magic hazelnuts and received all knowledge, but was netted in a salmon- trap and cooked for the gods' banquet by Finn MacCool who in doing touched Fintan's flesh and absorbed the knowledge from Fintan turning him into a seer and healer on the spot.
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In Celtic mythology, the Fomori are demons that live in the impenetrable darkness of the sea's depths and in lakes and dark pools in the upper world. They were once ruled by Balor, who provided them with victims, but after his death they returned to their waters and prey on people, taking the form of sea-monsters, lake spirits and the boggarts who lurk in the fens.
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In Celtic mythology, Gawain was the son of King Lot of Orkney or the sun-god Lug.
Gawain was one of Arthur's most loyal and noble followers. One New Year's Eve a green giant rode into the hall at Camelot and challenged the bravest warrior there to cut off his head, and then one year later, to visit the giant's castle to have his own head chopped off. Gawain accepted the challenge and decapitated the giant, who picked up his head and galloped away. One year later Gawain went in search off the giant and came to the castle of Lord Bertilak and was entertained there for three days and three nights. Each night Bertilak's wife came to Gawain and tried to seduce him, and each time Gawain resisted her. On the fourth day, alone in the castle grounds Gawain came upon the giant and bent down to have his head cut off. Three times the giant swung the axe, and each time he stopped short, before disappearing and Bertilak stood in his place. Bertilak told Gawain that the entire thing had been a test set by Morgan le Fay to find the bravest of Arthur' s followers, and that each swing of the axe was for a night when he had resisted the attentions of Bertilak's wife. Had he given in to temptation he would have died.
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In British mythology, Geofon was the ocean goddess.
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In Celtic mythology, Goibhniu was the smith god.
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In Celtic mythology, Govannan was a son of Don and god of smithcraft.
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In Celtic mythology, Gronw Pebyr is a god of darkness.
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In Celtic mythology, Guinevere or Guinevere, is the French spelling of the Celtic name Gwynhwfar (' white cloud') . Gwynhwfar was a cloud-goddess who often, for mischief, took mortal form and entered the world of humans to cause havoc. Soon after Arthur became king of Camelot, she entered the womb of a Roman princess whose husband ruled in Britain, and was born, as a beautiful mortal: Guinevere. In due course Arthur married her, against the advice of Merlin. Guinevere was the most beautiful woman in the world, and all Arthur's knights would have had sex with her if they hadn't been bound by their oaths of chivalry. Only Lancelot succumbed, and his and Guinevere's adultery broke Arthur's heart and led to the end of Camelot. When the company of the Round Table was broken up and its heroes disappeared into legend, Guinevere resumed her identity as Gwynhwfar, returned to the sky and has ever since been planning her next earthly manifestation.
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In Celtic mythology, Gwydion was a son of Don, a master of fantasy and illusion, and the teacher of humans of all that is good and useful. He is a friend of mankind and perpetually fights the underworld powers for the good gifts they refuse to give to mankind.
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In Celtic mythology, Gwyn ap Nudd (Gwyn) is the lord of the underworld and master of the wild hunt. He lives at Glastonbury Tor.
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In Celtic mythology, Gwyrthur ap Greidawl (Gwyrthur) is a rival to Gwyn ap Nudd for the affections of Creurdilad. He is a solar god, representing day.
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Halloween (All Hallow Even) was the last night of the British Celtic year (equivalent to the modern new year's eve) - October the 31st, later adopted as the Eve of All Saints by the Christian church in Britain when the Pope of Rome in 610 ordered that the heathen Pantheon should be converted into a Christian church and dedicated to the honour of all martyrs.
Halloween was a Celtic fire festival and a day on which the spirits of the dead revisited their old homes and evil spirits roamed the land. Superstition, based in part upon the reality that November the 1st (Samhain) ushered in the cold, dark months of winter, encouraged the Celts to placate the spirits of nature at Halloween, lest the next year's crops should fail, and because of the presence of so many spirits at large at this time, and the strong supernatural forces at work, it was a time for divination. Later, games were held throughout Britain for teenagers, including apple and sixpence bobbing, success at these games being thought to guarantee good fortune for the coming year and to enable divination with regard to forthcoming marriages. In early Ireland, it is reported that children were sacrificed to placate the evil spirits at Halloween, but this is more probably propaganda than a reality. During the 19th century Irish immigrants introduced to America the concept of mischief on Halloween, with young men playing tricks on residents and demanding a treat lest they should play a trick on them - an echo of sacrifices of foods to the spirits so as to placate them. This practise having originated in the North of England, while elsewhere young people demanded of their elders to be shown a magic trick or receive a treat by way of a forfeit by the elder.
Welsh tradition had it that on Halloween, an evil spirit sat on every stile. While in Scotland the notion of the goblin was invented, which only came out on Halloween. Modern Halloween is not, as is popularly thought, an American invention, but a survival of an old British festival. Sacrifices are still made to placate the witches, goblins, ghosts and other supernatural spirits, though these now generally take the form of sweets given to costumed children dressed as representations of the spirits, that call from house to house demanding of those devoid of supernatural powers (proven by performing a trick) tribute (a treat) so as to ensure good fortune the following year.
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In English folklore, Herne The Hunter is the spirit of a hunter which guards travellers through Windsor Great Park. He wears the antlers of a stag upon his head. Herne was prominent in the tales of Robin Hood, although Windsor Great Park is nowhere near Sherwood Forest.
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In British Celtic mythology, Hu was a solar culture-god, skilled in agriculture and a law-giver. He was represented as a bull dwelling in Ceugant.
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In Celtic and medieval legend, Isolde was the wife of King Mark of Cornwall who was brought from Ireland by his nephew Tristan. She and Tristan accidentally drank the aphrodisiac given to her by her mother for her marriage, were separated as lovers, and finally died together.
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In Celtic mythology Lir (or Lleyr or Llyr) was the Old Man of the Sea. He had four beautiful children which he doted on. After his wife died he married her sister who hated him and turned his children into swans, mute and aloof from him. By the time Lir had discovered what had happened to his children and reversed the spell they had aged into withered old people.
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In Celtic mythology, Lleu was a god of light, a twin son of Gwydion and Arianrhod.
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In Welsh Celtic mythology, Llyr is the god of the sea, he relates to the Irish Lir.
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In Celtic mythology, Luchtaine was the god of wheel making.
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In Celtic mythology, Lug was the sun god and the master of all skills and crafts. He was the grandson of the demon king Balor.
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In Irish mythology, Lugh (Lug) was the god of light. He killed his grandfather, Balor, during the great battle in which a new order of gods and goddesses took over from the primal beings of chaotic energy. He was the god of skill and ability.
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In Celtic mythology, Mabon was the Son of Light, equated with the Roman Apollo. He was the god of liberation, harmony, music and unity.
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In Irish mythology, Macha is a goddess of athletic games, festivals and fertility.
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In Celtic mythology, Manannan mac Lir (Barinthus) was the god of the ocean. He ferried the wounded King Arthur to the otherworld so that he could be cured.
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In Celtic legend, Mark was king of Cornwall, uncle of Tristan, and suitor and husband of Isolde.
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In Celtic mythology, Mm was the goddess of thought of the independent peoples of Northern England. She never appeared alone, but always followed after her impetuous husband Aywell providing caution to his flashes of uncontrolled energy.
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Morrigan was the Celtic goddess of war and death who could take the shape of a crow and other forms.
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In Irish mythology, Naoise was the husband of Deirdre. He was killed by his uncle Conchobar.
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In Celtic mythology, Nemetona was a goddess of war.
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In Celtic mythology, Nimue was a shape changer who loved Merlin. After a contest of magic she captured him forever by turning herself into a drop of amber and engulfing him.
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In Celtic mythology, Nuada (Argetlam meaning He of the Silver Hand) was a war god of the Gaels equivalent roughly to the Greek Zeus, in that he was the supreme god.
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In Celtic mythology, Nudd or Lludd is a son of Beli. He was a sky-god and is attributed with stopping three supernatural plagues.
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In English folklore, Oberon is the king of the elves.
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In Irish mythology, Oenghus is the son of Daghdha and Boann. He is the god of fatal love.
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In Celtic mythology, Ogmios was the eloquent god of the strength of poetry, charm and incantation. He is depicted as an old man with wrinkles, but carrying a club and a bow.
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An ovate was a type of druid. His purpose was to observe and invent. His robe was green symbolising budding life.
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In Celtic mythology, Penardum was a sea-goddess married to Llyr.
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In Irish mythology, a Pooka or Phooka is a malignant spirit that hurries people to their destruction, sometime appearing in the form of an eagle and at other times in the form of a horse.
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The primitive druid was an order of druid involved with teaching science and religion. His robe was white symbolising light, purity and knowledge.
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In Gaulish Celtic mythology, Rosmerta was the goddess of fire, warmth, wealth and abundance. A flower Queen and hater of marriage. She was the beldame of death.
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Samhain was the Celtic new year, November the 1st.
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In Celtic mythology, sidhe or fairies, were the spirits of the dead. It is thought that the British Celts may have believed butterflies to be the souls of the dead, though not sidhe which were normal human-sized.
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In Celtic mythology, Sulis was a goddess of prophesy, inspiration, wisdom and death. She who is bountiful, as is a sow of piglets.
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Taisch was the Gaelic name given to 'second sight', the involuntary ability of seeing the future or distant events. It originated in the Scottish highlands.
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In Druid mythology, Taranis is the god of the wheel, associated with forces of change.
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Yuletide was the Celtic twelve-days of feasting celebrating the winter solstice practised around November/December time. The celebration was adopted and absorbed into Christian culture to form a part of the Christmas celebrations.
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Abbreviations
Mythology
