Culhwch ac Olwen, A Cinderella Story Part 2: The Heroine

‘O Chieftain, I have never heard about the maiden of whom you speak…’ ⁃ Parker, Culhwch ac Olwen

Culhwch ac Olwen, A Cinderella Story: Part One, The Problem and The Hero

The tale of Culhwch ac Olwen commands high placement in the pantheon of Arthurian titles. Little else of the broad, surviving corpus of literature can claim to rival the text in magnitude or in antique character. The text’s significance as a source of information concerning Brythonic Arthurian tradition has been described as ‘a fascinating and

The Exalted Prisoner

“Mabon… is the immemorial prisoner whom the world has forgotten…,” ⁃ W. J. Gruffyth, Rhiannon, (1) In his immense work Rhiannon, W.J. Gruffyth labored to piece out the ancient myth of the Brythonic Mother goddess and her son. He believed that the nucleus of the myth concerned the birth and abduction of the divine child

Myth in Folktale: The Ensorcelling Stone

In Episode 64 of the House of Legends podcast Scottish oral storyteller and author Daniel Allison bemoans to his guest Clare Murphy the dearth of indigenous Scottish mythological texts.* At around the 14:30 minute mark Allison suggests that the ancient lore of Scotland can be found reverberating through its rich oral and ballad tradition. “I

Scotland’s Merlin Part Two: A Savage Cult

This is the second installment in a review of the book Scotland’s Merlin: A Medieval Legend and Its Dark Age Origins by Dr. Tim Clarkson. Part One can be accessed here: https://theburntthumb.wordpress.com/2020/12/18/scotlands-merlin-a-medieval-legend-and-its-dark-age-origins-book-review/ Dr. Clarkson’s blog can be accessed here: https://senchus.wordpress.com

Water Horses Ride Again

Sea-horses glisten in summer As far as Bran has stretched his glance: Rivers pour forth a stream of honey In the land of Manannan son of Ler. ⁃ The Voyage of Bran, 7th/8th c

Scotland’s Merlin: A Medieval Legend and Its Dark Age Origins – Book Review

The author of the book Scotland’s Merlin: A Medieval Legend and Its Dark Age Origins, Tim Clarkson, is a PhD in medieval history, and holds an MPhil in archeology. I have had some correspondence with him regarding another of his books, The Men of the North: the Britons of Southern Scotland, and had a discussion