The Great Lunar Cycle: The Horse Twins and the Grail: Part 8 of 12
Myth Grouping 3: Samvarana = Pwyll
Thus far we have demonstrated how two sets of myths have parallels across the Celtic, Norse and Vedic branches, and how these two sets of myths, the myths of the Moon God and the myths of his son or foster son(s) the Horse Twin(s), intertwine and essentially form a connected set of tales that follow one another in a greater Lunar Cycle, as we see, for example, in the way Freyr's wooing of Gerðr follows his father Njorðr's marriage to Skaði.
To fully complete the puzzle of the greater cycle, and in particular its relationship to the Welsh branch and from there its later form in the Grail legend, however, we must bring in a third grouping of mythic parallels, this time stretching uncannily from Wales to India. One reason this third set must be brought into the equation is that, for the Welsh Horse Twin (Pryderi), for whatever reason, this portion of the cycle has become the more central myth, and we must ask why this is and how it connects to the Horse Twin myths from the other branches. What we uncover as we proceed is the fact that the Indian version of this tale, though it doesn't feature the Horse Twins, does indirectly connect back to them: the main princess of the myth, Tapati (paralleling Welsh Rhiannon), is a daughter of the Sun god, just as the princesses of the previous sets of parallels were also theoretically sun princesses (Sukanya/Skaði/Etain and possibly Gerðr/Caer). Hence the princess of this new set of parallels may have originally been seen as a sort of sister of the previously analyzed princesses, and their myths may have been seen as connected or parallel.
The final connection we find, as we proceed, is the fact that the protagonist of the Indian version of this new set of parallels (Samvarana) may be, in disguise, a chief of the heavenly beings known as gandharvas, who were the court singers of the gods. Because of this, we may be able to draw a connection between this myth set and the court poet of the Norse gods, Bragi, who narrates the myth of his wife Iðunn in Skaldskaparmal which has been key to the sequence of myths discussed up to this point. The main figures of this third set, then, seem intimately connected to the previous sets of parallels, and it may be that originally this third myth was seen as one more chapter of the Lunar Cycle, perhaps an early chapter, just as Bragi's wife Iðunn sets in motion the events leading to Njorðr and Skaði's marriage in the Norse version, and Pwyll and Rhiannon begin the cycle in the Welsh version.
In the Welsh version, then, it may be that a reduction (or at least a shift) of the overall cycle has occurred, combining the Horse Twin myth with the myth of the chief "Gandharva" or court singer, as if we combined the myth of Freyr and Njorðr with that of Bragi and compressed them into one continuous story. There has to be a reason why the Horse Twin Pryderi appears in this myth (though only in the second half of it), a myth in which he does not appear in any other branch, and a myth in which a different figure takes his role in the Indian version. There are as many mysteries as revelations that attend this line of questioning, but the many connections and parallels force us to address this enigmatic link in the cycle. In any case, due to the fact that it is the central Horse Twin myth in the Welsh literature, it must thus essentially stand as the Welsh Lunar Cycle, and ultimately, among other things, evidences at least one of the key features of the Grail myth: the "wasteland."
The basic plot of this third grouping of mythic parallels is as follows: a king who visits a divine mountain or mound sees an otherworldly maiden, subsequently marrying her, leading to the improper occupation of the sacred mountain or mound, which causes a wasteland that has to be put right by a return to society. This parallel seems to equate Welsh Pwyll (as found in The Mabinogion: Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed) with Indian Samvarana (as found in The Mahabharata) but the issue is complicated by the fact that in the Welsh version, though the events seem to be the same, the myth is divided down the middle between the father and son pair of Pwyll and Pryderi (the Welsh Horse Twin, found in The Mabinogion: Manawydan, Son of Llyr).
Samvarana = Pwyll/Pryderi
1.Sees Princess From Sacred Mound After Hunting
- Samvarana sees Tapati when he goes hunting on the mountain frequented by celestials. (Mahabharata)
- Pwyll sees Rhiannon after sitting on the sacred mound Gorsedd Arberth, immediately following a hunting episode. (Mabinogion: Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed)
2.Otherworldly Princess Magically Evades Being Caught At First but Then Stops for her Pursuer
- Tapati vanishes into thin air, then reappears to him after Samvarana has searched the forest for her. (M)
- Rhiannon's ambling horse cannot be caught up to no matter how fast she is pursued. Finally she stops for Pwyll when he asks her a question. (M:PPoD)
3.Princess Says Her Father is in Charge of Marrying Her But That She Is Already In Love With The Wooer and Then They Go Their Separate Ways for 12 Days or Months
- Tapati says she is not her own master but only her father Vivasvat-Surya (the Sun god) can give her to a husband, but that she already is in love with Samvarana, then disappears. Samvarana worships Surya for 12 days unbroken. (M)
- Rhiannon says her father has been trying to marry her to another, but that she already is in love with Pwyll, then they go their separate ways and agree to meet in 12 months for their wedding feast. (M:PPoD)
4.Occupying the Sacred Mountain Improperly Triggers a Wasteland
- Samvarana and Tapati stay on the sacred mountain frequented by celestials and gandharvas, their absence causing drought and famine and for the kingdom to become a wasteland. They remain on the mountain, sporting and playing. The wasteland is described thus:
"...that season of drought broke out, the people of that kingdom, as also the trees and lower animals began to die fast. And during the continuance of that dreadful drought, not even a drop of dew fell from the skies and no corn grew. And the inhabitants in despair, and afflicted with the fear of hunger, left their homes and fled away in all directions. And the famished people of the capital and the country began to abandon their wives and children and grew reckless of one another. The people being afflicted with hunger, without a morsel of food and reduced to skeletons, the capital looked very much like the city of the king of the dead, full of only ghostly beings." (M)
- Pwyll's son Pryderi sits on the sacred mound Gorsedd Arberth, and suddenly the people and animals of the kingdom vanish, the crops which are sowed get repeatedly eaten. The wasteland is described thus:
“they looked where before they would have once seen flocks and herds and dwellings, they could see nothing at all: neither house, nor animal, nor smoke, nor fire, nor man, nor dwellings – [nothing] except the empty buildings of the court, deserted, uninhabited, without man or beast within them, their own companions lost, without them knowing anything about them; [no-one left] except the four of them.”
It has ben argued that this is one possible origin of the "wasteland" motif found in the later Grail legend. Pryderi and Rhiannon then get trapped in a mystical fort which vanishes, presumably imprisoning them in the otherworld. (Mabinogion: Manawydan, Son of Llyr)
5.The King's Magico-Priestly Companion Must Retrieve Him in Order to Revive the Land
- Samvarana's advisor, the rishi Vasistha, must bring Samvarana and Tapati back from the holy mountain, which causes the rain to return and the kingdom to return to normal.
- Pryderi's step-father Manawydan (whose Irish cognate Manannan is a much clearer magician god) must find the secret to the enchantment, eventually rescuing Pryderi and Rhiannon from the otherworld, simultaneously, though with unclear causality, returning the kingdom to normal. (M: MSoL)
Beyond these three primary groupings, there are numerous “remainder” parallels that do not in themselves contribute to any one strong identification. They are generally singular parallels without other support which may indicate that they are simply the evidence of small changes made to the tales over time, rather than telling us much about who the figures are in themselves. However, if we look closely, some of them add supporting parallels to the identification of both Oengus and Freyr with the Asvins. In general, such stray parallels only strengthen the sense that this set of tales was treated by the poets as strongly interlinked, a body of myths whose proximity led to partial overlapping, and over time, a degree of confusion.
Test of Choosing (Oengus/Caer, Njörðr/Skaði and Eochu/Etain)
- Oengus must pick Caer out in her swan form from among a group of swans. He chooses correctly and they live happily. (Dream of Oengus)
- As Arcady discusses: Skaði must choose her husband by looking solely at the feet of her suitors. She mistakes Njörðr for Baldr. (Skaldskaparmal)
- These of course also parallel the previously mentioned test of choosing Midir submits Eochu to, which he fails. (Wooing of Etain)
Magic Spell of Madness or Transformation (Chyavana, Fuamnach and Skirnir)
- Chyavana makes the king's men unable to respond to the “call of nature.” (M)
- Fuamnach puts a spell on Etain, transforming her shape and causing her to forget who she is. (WoE)
- Skirnir threatens to put a spell on Gerðr causing madness and suffering. (S)
A Female Goes Through a Triple Transformation and Rebirth as a New Version of Herself (Fuamnach, Gullveig)
- The sorceress Fuamnach, who is also burned, transforms the other wife of her husband, Etain, into three successive forms: water, a worm, and a kind of purple fly. After the final transformation she is swallowed in a cup and reborn as a lady, but she does not remember her old life or her old self. (WoE)
- The sorceress Gullveig, who is also burned, is killed and reborn three times, the final time gaining the new name, Heiðr. (Voluspa)
A Sorceress Associated With the Soma God is Burned to Death (Fuamnach, Gullveig)
- Fuamnach, wife of Midir, is burned to death by Manannan (whose parallel to Oðinn we describe later). (WoE)
- Gullveig, associated with the Vanir, is speared and burned to death three times by the Aesir in Oðin's Hall. (Voluspa)
Attaining the Drink of Immortality (Asvins, Oengus and Freyr)
- After renewing Chyavana's youth, the Asvins are helped by Chyavana to attain access to the soma, becoming priests of the rite and gaining immortality. (M)
- In a 12th Century tale, Oengus is said to drink a drink of immortality at Goibniu's Feast. (Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne)
- Freyr and the Vanir join the society of the Aesir and gain access to their tribute/sacrifice, becoming priests of their rite. (V; Heimskringla)
Tricked Out of Kingdom (Hengist and Aengus)
In a separate story from The History of the Britons and the History of the Kings of Britain we find further parallels to the more obvious reflexes of the Horse Twins (pseudo-historical versions of these gods), Hengist and Horsa:
- Hengist tricks Vortigern out of a kingdom, Kent. (The History of the Britains)
- This parallels the aforementioned Irish tale in which Aengus tricks Elcmar or the Dagda out of their lands. (WoE, Taking of the Sid)
Tricked Into Sleeping With and Having a Child by His Own Daughter (Vortigern and Eochu)
- In the same tale in The History of the Britons and the History of the Kings of Britain, Vortigern is shamed for taking his own daughter as wife and having a son by her. (THotB)
- Midir tricks Eochu into sleeping with and having a daughter by his own daughter. (WoE)
Initial Rejections (Sukanya/Asvins, Etain/Midir, Gerðr/Freyr)
- Sukanya says she would not give up what she has with Chyavana for the Asvins. (M)
- Etain says she would never give up what she has with Ailil to be with Midir who has unknown ancestry. (WoE)
- Gerðr says she and Freyr will never be together as long as they live. (S)
A few observations can be made to further elucidate the relationships of all of the groupings to one another.
The Oengus/Freyr/Asvins grouping stands in a mysterious relationship to the Midir/Njorðr/Chyavana grouping, due to the fact that in the Chyavana tale, the Horse Twins (Asvins) are central to the narrative, trying to woo the wife of the Moon god, but failing in their wooing. A follow-up myth of the Asvins successfully wooing another daughter of the sun is indeed known. As one commentator puts it, “They are said to have a wife in common, the daughter of another Sun divinity (SAVITRI); they won her in a race contest” (Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Jones and Ryan). It is also suggested in the “Surya’s Bridal” hymn that the Ghandarva (and possibly the Asvins are implied as well) should leave Surya to Soma and “seek in her father's home another fair one" (Rig Veda, 10.85), that is, seek another daughter of the sun. The Oengus and Freyr myth may simply be a sequel to the myth of the Moon god’s marriage, then, where they seek such a sun princess for themselves. This would make sense in astrological terms at least, with the union of the moon and ray of sun being succeeded by the rising of the morning star to be united in turn with another of the sun's rays.
The two sets of tales do show certain overlaps, emphasizing the fact that they are interconnected myths. Oengus, for one, undergoes a test of choosing in his pursuit of Caer, in which his beloved appears in an unrecognizable shape, just as Sukanya and Chyavana undergo a similar choosing at the end of their tale, as also does Eochu in Wooing of Etain. Oengus turns himself into a swan and flies away with Caer at the end of "The Dream of Oengus," as if in imitation of the end of Etain, when his foster father Midir changes himself and Etain into swans to make their own escape. The intermediary wooer theme, however, is a bit different in each branch. Indeed, the final parallel mentioned in the lists above demonstrates how the Moon god's wooing and the Horse Twins' wooing motifs became somewhat confused with one another across the branches: a similar formulaic rejection is given to the Indian Horse Twins by the Moon god's wife, to the Scandinavian Horse Twin by his own future wife, and to the Irish Moon god by his own previous and future wife. This emphasizes how complex of a puzzle we have before us, but also how certainly these are interlinked tales.
Something quite remarkable might be going on here with the role of the Horse Twins, which could explain some of the ambiguity surrounding the relationship between their wooing myth and the wooing myth of the Moon god. There remains a controversy to this day in interpreting the role of the Vedic Horse Twins, the Asvins, in the wedding of Soma and Surya, as found in the "Surya's Bridal" hymn of the Rig Veda. The controversy centers around the issue of whether descriptions of the Asvins as wooers in this hymn are intended to imply that they are fulfilling the traditional role of intermediary wooers for the god Soma, or whether they are being described as rival wooers competing against Soma for the hand of the daughter of the Sun. In even the latest translations of the Rig Veda by the most prominent of Vedic scholars we see division on this issue, with Wendy Doniger saying confidently, "The Asvins are elsewhere said to be the brothers and/or the husbands of Surya, but here there are the unsuccessful suitors," and asserting that the hymn depicts "The Asvins, who choose Surya for themselves instead of acting as intermediaries" (Doniger, 2005). Joel Brereton and Stephanie Jamison, however, heavily favoring an argument from general cultural practice which may or may not be applicable to this specific line of this hymn, just as confidently state that, "Judging from later practice, the bridegroom’s party sends several males to the potential bride’s home, to ask her father and other male members of the family for her as bride for the man they represent. This part of the ceremony begins with the wooers identifying themselves by name and lineage—the “pointing out” of verse 15. In this hymn the Aśvins are the wooers" (Brereton and Jamison, 2014).
Considering this apparent deep ambiguity, is it possible that the various branches themselves told their myths slightly differently precisely along these lines? Is this why the Indian Asvins appear at first as rival wooers of Chyavana, but then concede and help Chyavana regain his youth and perfect his marriage with Sukanya, while Irish Aengus woos Etain for Midir, but then becomes a temporary caretaker (a pseudo-husband) of Etain once she is transformed by Fuamnach, and in another tale is rival wooer of Midir, while Norse Freyr does not compete for the hand of Skaði at all and seeks "another fair one" for himself as the Vedic hymn commands in another myth, but himself uses the same kind of intermediary wooer mentioned in the hymn and modeled elsewhere by his own cognate Aengus? Enigmatic is the fact that the man who marries Etain after Midir, and who Midir ultimately steals Etain back from, is himself given the title Eochu, meaning “horseman.” Indeed, a separate and eerily similar tale involving Aengus and Midir is known, in which Midir abducts the princess Engelc, daughter of Elcmar, with whom Aengus was in love, Midir thus causing distress to this rival, failed wooer, Aengus. If we have analyzed correctly thus far, then we can essentially see before our eyes the slightly different permutations to which the Horse Twins' ambiguous role of wooer may have given rise in the analogous myths of the various branches.
It has been argued by the scholar Matthias Egeler (Celtic Influences in Germanic Religion) that, despite their close similarities, the Oengus and Freyr stories are not to be identified with one another because Freyr first sees Gerðr from the High Seat of the gods, while Oengus sees Caer only in a dream. However, it also seems possible that the High Seat and Dream motifs have grown out of the same original, or are modifications, one of the other, in some way. In the Indian Samvarana-Tapati tale, Samvarana first sees Tapati on the sacred mountain frequented by celestials, and his experience of seeing her is akin to a dream. He sees her, but before he can stay her she vanishes like lightning, and he wanders in the wood lost and forlorn until she magically appears again. Similarly, in the parallel story, Welsh Pwyll sees Rhiannon riding her horse when he sits on the sacred mound Gorsedd Arberth. She rides as though she is a being in a dream, at an ambling pace, yet no matter how fast Pwyll's riders chase her, they can never overtake her. If indeed these various closely connected sets of tales increasingly overlapped as time went on, then it would not be hard to imagine visitation of the sacred mound becoming confused or equated with seeing the maiden in a dream or dreamlike state, considering that that is what happens on the mound. We see that the proposed Welsh Horse Twin, Pryderi, also sneaks onto the earthly stand-in for the divine High Seat, Gorsedd Arberth, when he is not supposed to, just as Freyr does with Hliðskjalf. Hence we can postulate that the same High Seat theme existed in connection to one case of the Celtic Horse Twins, despite the fact that the analogous Irish Horse Twin, Oengus, only sees the maiden in his dream. There is thus less need to explain this small difference as long as we are confident in identifying Pryderi and Oengus as the same deity by other evidences. Ultimately, whether this explanation is satisfying or not, a difference between dream and high seat should not be enough to throw out an entire series of other parallels between analogous gods, and could easily be explained by normal and expected changes to the tales. On its own the comparison of Skirnismal and Dream of Oengus would not at all be definitive. However, with all of the other parallels pointing to the identification of Freyr with Oengus and Njorðr with Midir, it would be irrational to leave out the comparison of these similar wooing tales, and it merely adds supporting evidence to the larger picture.
Indeed, seeing the maiden from the sacred mountain which he has snuck onto out of turn, or in a dreamlike state, in addition to the motif of morbid lovesickness, as well as the sending of an intermediary to woo, shows that the Freyr and Oengus myths also themselves have a good deal of overlap with the Samvarana/Pwyll tales and the Pryderi tale in certain details. You can almost track the motifs being shuffled around, shifted slightly, between the various figures. This overlapping perhaps prepares the way for the combination of these myths into the reduced composite form we find in the Welsh version. With this overlapping, it seems like a line is repeatedly being drawn connecting Aengus, Freyr, and Pryderi, who within these tales are the young sons of the powerful father figures who incite the action of the plot: the Dagda, Njörðr, and Pwyll.
Bragi and the Gandharva Archetype
Now, the whole of the Norse Lunar Cycle matter that ends in the marriage of Njorðr and Skaði begins, perhaps surprisingly, with Bragi, the god of Skaldship, and his wife Iðunn. This brings us back to the sequence of husbands found in the “Surya's Bridal” hymn: Soma, the Gandharva, Agni. As we will detail later, a strong parallel between Agni and the Celtic Manawydan/Manannan leads to the conclusion that Pwyll/Samvarana may then be the Gandharva mentioned in this sequence of husbands, since Rhiannon marries Manawydan directly after Pwyll (who parallels Samvarana), just as Surya marries Agni directly after the Gandharva. To restate this complex equation another way: if Manawydan = Agni, then Pwyll = Gandharva, because Rhiannon (who is in the place of Surya) marries Pwyll then Manawydan, as Surya also is said to marry the Gandharva then Agni. This cryptic portion of the Vedic hymn will prove a key to speculatively interpreting portions of our puzzle, and in the following sections we will test the hypothetical equation we have laid out here, for which a surprising amount of supports can be found.
Supporting the notion that Samvarana, and so Pwyll, are the Gandharva, are details from the story of Samvarana found in the Mahabharata. Firstly, he hunts and woos on the mountainside frequented by “celestials and Gandharvas.” Secondly, he asks Tapati to marry him “in the manner of the Gandharvas,” and it is clear that Tapati herself is a celestial goddess rather than a Gandharva, being daughter of the Sun. It is true that this is merely one form of possible marriage, but it is a detail to be noted nonetheless. Thirdly, there is one named Gandharva in the “Surya's Bridal” hymn, addressed there as “Visvavasu.” Visvavasu is known for one tale in which he sees the beautiful maiden Devahuti from his “airplane” as she plays on her father's roof. He is so struck that he falls from the sky. If we consider the “airplane” as just one more poetic convention for the very High Seat, similar to Pwyll's Gorsedd Arberth or Samvarana's celestial mountain breast, then it is possible we have here only another version of this same myth, but this time with the central figure identified as a Gandharva explicitly. Lastly, and perhaps most illustratively, it is said of Samvarana that “king Samvarana excelled Soma in soothing the hearts of friends and Surya in scorching the hearts of foes,” which, while definitively differentiating him from Soma, sounds just like the description of a skilled poet or singer, such as the Gandharvas preeminently were, having the power both to soothe and scorch hearts with their beautiful, skilled songs and cutting, satirical verses. All of these points can be challenged individually and inconclusive, but together they begin to paint a picture that can be supported by further comparative evidence.
The Gandharva of the Vedic hymn was one important husband of the sun princess and so was likely an important link in the chain of the lunar cycle myth, and there is enough here to suggest that Samvarana and Pwyll may fit this role. Now, Gandharvas are celestial singers, the court singers of the gods. However, they have also an additional role, that of guardians of the soma drink. This fact provides another link between these sets of tales, with Samvarana, Pwyll, and lastly Bragi as possible agents of the “Soma” god. Soma is also said to have taught the aforementioned Gandharva Visvavasu his art of seeing and discerning everything in the three worlds, making the Ghandarva a successor to and almost stand-in for Soma as a result. For these reasons it would be perfectly fitting for the chief Ghandarva to play a key role in the Soma myth cycle.
As we have said, the sequence leading to the marriage of Njorðr and Skaði, one portion of the events of the Vanir cycle of myths, a cycle that also include the wooing of Gerðr and the Aesir-Vanir War, is begun by an incident involving the goddess Iðunn, the wife of Bragi. Hence, at a key inflection point of the Lunar Cycle we have the singer of the gods (skalds were specifically known as poets, but it has been suggested they may have used instrumental accompaniment as well. Regardless, the comparison, within Germanic culture, of the Gandharvas as court musician of the gods, to the court poet and possible musician Bragi, seems apt). Bragi narrates Iðunn's tale just as "the proud king of the Gandharvas" narrates the tale of Samvarana (within the frame narrative in which it is found). The marriage tale of Bragi and Iðunn is not preserved, yet neither is there a different clear parallel of the Samvarana/Pwyll tale to be found in Norse myth. Hence, considering the possible identity of Bragi with the Gandharva of the Rig Veda, we must entertain the idea that the root myth of Bragi's marriage may have fit the model of the Samvarana/Pwyll tale, if such a narrative once existed, Iðunn's golden apples possibly relating her to a solar symbolism as Tapati is daughter of the Sun god. Hrafnagaldr Odins 6 states that she is descended from the alfar, a race of beings with solar qualities, the Sun goddess or her chariot being called ‘splendor of an Alfr’ (álfröðull), and a portion of the alfar being known as Ljósálfar, light-elves, ljós being reltated to sunlight and firelight. Bragi is indeed seen acting in the role of guardian as well, not specifically of the soma, but of the court of the gods when Loki comes to it. This role of guardian thus seems to have been a stable and important role of the Gandharva, just as he and his wife consistently form a key link in the Soma cycle.
Etain and the Triple Transformation
Regarding the curious triple transformation of Etain by Fuamnach a few things must be said. Just as a sorceress associated with the Vanir, Gullveig, is burned in relation to the Norse Lunar Cycle, so the sorceress Fuamnach, wife of Midir and foster mother of Aengus, is said to be burned in relation to the parallel Irish Cycle. While Gullveig is stabbed along with being burned, Fuamnach in one account is said to be burned, but in another is said to be beheaded. Instead of herself undergoing three deaths and rebirths, however, Fuamnach instead causes Etain, the other wife of her husband, to undergo three successive transformations: a pool of water, a worm, and a large purple or crimson fly, perhaps a dragonfly or butterfly. In the form of this fly Etain is then drunk in a lady's golden cup and reborn as a girl, seemingly without a recollection of her old life. If this triple transformation is a parallel to the triple rebirth of Gullveig, it is a strange variation indeed and can be said to be exceedingly different. It would be understandable if one denied the parallel at this point. Yet the various other connections pulling these two myth cycles together force us to investigate whether the meaning of the Irish triple transformation connected to the wicked sorceress can have anything in common with that of the Norse.
While we have argued that Gullveig's triple rebirth may have a meaning connected to the moon and indeed to the production of the mead itself (as if Gullveig is the malefic lunar influence that must be purified to process and perfect the mead that comes from the moon or the lunar waters, or as if she is even the catalyst of the mead production in some way), so also Etain's transformations clearly can be read in terms of lunar significance. An in-depth comparison of Etain's changes and journeys with the cycles of the moon has been done by Ronald Hicks in his “Cosmography of Tochmarc Etain.” We will point simply to the fact that Etain's three forms can have clear lunar meanings. The pool of water relates her to the element that the moon rules: “The moon is in the waters” says Rig Veda 1.105; while Eliade says “All the lunar divinities preserve more or less obvious water attributes or functions” (Patterns, 159). The moon itself is considered a great pool of sacred liquid in the Vedic conception. The worm is lunar in a similar manner as the snake is, and especially in its capacity for transformation, which Etain's worm has indeed. The worm that transforms itself into a fly or butterfly is one of many possible perfect lunar symbols. As Eliade explains, everything that goes through a cycle of rebirth, transformation, or periodic regeneration has the potential to be seen as a lunar symbol, whether they be snails, bears, serpents, spirals, etc. He states that the lunar influence has in particular the “magic power of 'change,'” and summarizes the lunar cycle of symbols by saying: “the whole pattern is moon-rain-fertility-woman-serpent-death-periodic-regeneration,” a sequence that is not far at all from what we see in the case of Etain. The fact that this fly is a purplish color could also relate it to the nocturnal sky, and it is noteworthy that later in the tale both Midir and Etain are said to wear purple, possibly making it a lunar color. Etain seeming to forget who she is and to go and live a new life after her last transformation could parallel Gullveig becoming “Heithr” after her final rebirth and seemingly being made into a new and placid form under this new name. Finally, while we have argued that Gullveig-Heithr may be related as well to the sacred mead, it is interesting indeed that Etain is at last swallowed in a golden cup when in her final transformation. Etain is in fact connected to drinks at three points: she herself is drunk in the golden cup, she is serving drinks when Midir comes to take her from Eochu, and finally Eochu says that the thing that will most distinguish her when she is among the other identical women is her skill and grace in pouring drinks. Among many other things, Etain is a goddess of drinks.
The fly that Etain transforms into deserves yet further examination. This is a wondrous and enchanted fly with rare qualities. We read that:
“It was as big as a man's head, the comeliest in the land. Sweeter than pipes and harps and horns was the sound of her voice and the hum of her wings. Her eyes would shine like precious stones in the dark. The fragrance and the bloom of her would turn away hunger and thirst from any one around whom she would go. The spray of the drops she shed from her wings would cure all sickness and disease and plague in any one round whom she would go. She used to attend Midir and go round about his land with him, as he went. To listen to her and gaze upon her would nourish hosts in gatherings and assemblies in camps. Midir knew that it was Etain that was in that shape, and so long as that fly was attended upon him, he never took to himself a wife, and the sight of her would nourish him.”
This fly spreads a liquid spray that cures all illnesses and simply looking upon it removes hunger and gives nourishment. Though the water-worm-fly sequence is strange to our modern sensibilities, and quite different in form from what we find in the case of Gullveig, it seems far from outlandish to suggest that this fly can be read as an esoteric symbol related to the moon and especially to the sacred lunar liquid derived therefrom, which gives immortality and a transcendent kind of nourishment. Indeed, soma is “The food to which all Deities and mortals, calling it meath, gather themselves together” (RV 8.48.2). Not only this, but the soma also is said to preserve from diesase and to heal sickness and other debilities: “These glorious drops that give me freedom have I drunk. Let the drops I drink preserve me from disease. Make me shine bright like fire produced by friction, give us clearer sight and make us better” (RV 8.48.5-6). “This Soma flows like gladdening oil for him who wears the braided locks. It covers the naked and heals all who are sick. The blind man sees, the lame man steps forth” (RV 8.68.2).
Hicks goes so far as to claim that Etain is a moon goddess and not a sun goddess. He points to the fact that she is depicted with a silver basin, and that she is called Be Find, or “white (or bright) lady” in the later portion of the tale. We agree that Etain becomes a part of the moon and can be said to be a moon goddess from the point of her union with Midir. But we believe, as we have shown, that she does originate as a sun goddess, whose light then unites with the moon in a great union of the solar and the lunar (this being a prototype of human marriage in the Vedic case, the marriage of Soma and the goddess Surya), and triggering as a result of this union the transformations of the sacred liquid, which may themselves correspond to lunar cycles, as well as to the steps with which the sacred liquid is processed for sacrifice and consumption. She becomes the goddess of the moonlight and source of the immortalizing drink. We note that in the Vedic story of the churning of the sea of milk to extract the amrita, nectar of immortality (an analog of the soma), Shiva has to imbibe a great poisonous gas that is emitted from the serpent that the gods churn the sea with, in order to protect the gods and other beings from it. Shiva does so, is saved from the torture of the poison by Parvati, his throat turns a bluish bruised color, and eventually the amrita is successfully gathered. This myth has onces again a liquid (milk) which has to be processed (churned) and a destructive element (poison gas) that has to be neutralized at the same time to finally produce the purified drink of immortality. The snake divinity that emits the poison, as we have argued for Gullveig/Fuamnach, is both a necessary tool and catalyst for the processing of the liquid and the source of a destructive power which must be purified and protected against.
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