Cad Goddeu

Cad Goddeu or Kat Godeu (“The Battle of Goddeu”, also called “Battle of the Trees”) is a Welsh poem that is recorded in the 14th century Llyfr Taliesin (“Book of Taliesin”). The poem of 74 verses, in dark, almost incomprehensible verses, tells the story of a dispute between Gwydyon and Arawn .

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The fight is started when Gwydyon's brother Amaethon steals a dog, a roebuck and a kibitz from Arawn . During this battle, both sides fight each other with magical means (Arawn animates a forest), whereby each side is subject to different Geis (taboo) ideas. Gwydyon's powers could only be thwarted if the name of his companion, Lady Achren, was guessed; their name is supposed to mean trees . Arawn's powers, on the other hand, could only be thwarted if the name of his fighter Bran was guessed. Gwydyon manages to uncover Bran's name and so he wins the fight.

Esoteric

In Robert Graves' book The White Goddess , each of the 34 plant names that fought in battle represents one of the letters of the Druid Ogam alphabet. According to Graves 'controversial hypothesis, Gwydyon was able to win the fight by guessing the name of Bran because he had an alder branch - the alder was one of the main symbols of Bran in Celtic mythology, according to Graves' interpretation. In fact, fern ("alder") is the Irish symbolic name of the Ogam sign in question, bran means "raven" in Welsh and mainland Celtic . Graves' hypothesis is resolutely rejected by most Celtologists (see Birkhan ).

literature

Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Pp. 473, 910 f.

[1] Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Pp. 473, 910 f.