CELTIC BELIEFS

The Arthurian legends are unique because they take place during delicate transition period between Druidism and Christianity. Christianity was well entrenched as the religion of the nobility, yet Druidism remained in the form of folk-practices. Arthurian mythology contains many distinctly ancient Celtic concepts but is a new and unique mythology as well. Misty islands and otherworldly hunting expeditions, which comprise much of Arthurian legend, clearly originate from the older Celtic mythologies where such encounters are common ways to enter the Otherworld. The Irish Druid Uath Mac Immoman challenged a warrior to a mutual beheading in much the same way The Green Knight (who can be interpreted as Cernunnos The Green Man) challenged Sir Gawain. The Perilous Bridge that Lancelot has to cross is similar to the bridge at Scatha's School for Heroes that Cu/ Chullain must cross. And perhaps all those "wise hermits", that the Knights are always running into, are Druids in hiding. Merlin himself is now thought to have been a Druid by some modern fiction authors, since he too was an advisor to a king, a prophet, and made his home in the wilderness. To stretch it a bit, perhaps the Grail legends follow those magical cauldrons like the one possessed by Dagda, which could feed armies and raise the dead, and by Cerridwen, which was a font of wisdom.

It is worth noting that the sword called Excaliber may have come from legends surrounding a real sword. The Celts were iron-workers, ahead of most other contemporary cultures. Iron-age technology helped the Celts defeat the Dannans (who worked bronze). Around Arthurian times, it was discovered that nickel-iron from meteorites could be used to create stainless steel, and swords layered with this metal would never bend, scratch, break, nor rust. Weapons like that would have been seen as magical, and would have developed names and reputations independently.

An important concept in Arthurian Druidism is the concept of the sacred king. Arthur is a sacred king because he was chosen by God to rule, by virtue of his birth and the wisdom he developed. The story of the Fischer King is another that demonstrates the connection between kings and God, who is the Earth Mother, for he is suffering from the unhealable wound while at the same time his territory is barren and infertile, as if wounded just like him. The Grail is a symbol of divinity, of feminine divinity in particular, and though it is said to be the cup of Christ most Arthurian druids agree that it is the Earth Goddess, which is why its wine can be drunk by only those who are connected to her, like the sacred king, and the chaste knight who reserves his love only for her. Perhaps these concepts are a remnant of the old ritual of the marriage of kings to the land.

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