Llew Llaw Gyffes

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Llew Llaw Gyffes ( kymrische pronunciation [ɬəɨ ɬau ɡəfes]) ( "The Lion [?] With the skilful hand"), even Lleu Llaw Gyffes is, in Celtic mythology the Welsh equivalent to the Irish Lugh or Lugus . He is the son of Arianrhod , the father remains in the dark.

Etymology of the name

According to Jackson, the Cymrian Lleu emerged from the Irish Lugus via an assumed intermediate level * Logus . According to Birkhan , from this older form Lleu , which seems to be secured with a rhyme, Llew emerged through folk etymology . There is a contextual connection between the Cymrian Llaw Gyffes (“with the skillful / nimble hand”) and the Irish nickname of Lugh, who in the Second Battle of Mag Tuired (sam) ildánách (“knowledgeable in many arts”) and lámfhada (“with the long hand ”).

mythology

In the “Fourth Branch of Mabinogi” ( Math fab Mathonwy , “Math, the son of Mathonwys”) the beautiful virgin Goewin is the foot holder of King Math of Gwynedd . She is raped by one of the king's nephews, Gwydyon or Gilfaethwy , who can then no longer hold a foot. Math transforms his two nephews into different animals for three years as a punishment and only lets them become humans again when they promise to provide him with another virgin. The sister of the two, Arianrhod, whom they propose, is already pregnant. One child, Dylan Eil Ton , is a sea creature while the other at birth is just a lump that Gwydion hides in a box. When he has "hatched" it after some time, a boy emerges from the box, whom Gwydyon recognizes as a son.

One day while Gwydion was lying awake in his bed, he heard a scream in the chest at his feet. Though not loud, it was loud enough to be heard. Then he got up quickly and opened the chest. And as he opened it, he saw a little boy who stretched his arms through the folds of the cloth and pushed it aside.

His mother Arianrhod angered this child with three gessi (" taboos "), namely that only they give him a name and weapons and that he may never have a human wife. But they manage to outsmart them. The disguised boy shoots a bird with an arrow in front of her eyes, whereupon she names him Llew Llaw Gyffes . In a different disguise, he makes her give him weapons.

Only the third geis remains . So Gwydion turns to Math and together they create a woman named Blodeuwedd from oak, gorse, daisies and lilies (or meadowsweet) , who Llew also marries. However, she does not remain loyal to him, but gets involved with a host named Goronwy . Together they decide to murder Llew, which was complicated because he could only die under certain conditions. Goronwy therefore has to spend a whole year building a stone spear.

Llew as an eagle on the run
"You would have to spend a year manufacturing the spear you wanted to meet me with, and you should only work on it when people are at mass on Sunday."

When that was done, Blodeuwedd asks her husband how he could be murdered. The naive Llew demonstrates it to his wife. He takes a bath and ties a goat next to it to help him get out of the tub. When Llew gets up and stands with one foot on the edge of the bathtub and the other on the goat, he can be killed. Goronwy comes out and hurls his poisoned spear at him. However, it only hits his side, and so Llew escapes in the form of an eagle. Llew's uncle Gwydyon begins his search for him and finally finds the eagle sitting in a treetop in the Nantlle Valley . The eagle loses rotting meat from its body that is eaten by a pig (pigs are otherworldly animals). He then transforms Llew back into a human. After about a year of recovery, Llew kills his rival Goronwy with the same spear, and Blodeuwedd is turned into an owl by Gwydyon as punishment for her infidelity and intrigue.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 523.
  2. ^ KH Jackson: A Celtic Miscellany. Translations from the Celtic Literatures. London 1971.
  3. ↑ Bernhard Maier: The legend book of the Welsh Celts. P. 145, note 85.15.
  4. ↑ Bernhard Maier: The legend book of the Welsh Celts. P. 82.
  5. ↑ Bernhard Maier: The legend book of the Welsh Celts. P. 90. (An anachronism, since before the introduction of Christianity one could of course not know either the seven-day week or the Christian mass. Ibid., P. 164, note 90, 23f.)
  6. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. P. 268.